Recap of the last few days

We've had a lot of people visiting the grad program lately as prospective students. I took one for a walk down by my apartment and had another one stay with me. They both liked the ferrets. It was pretty fun to have a "sleepover". It's really a pity that all of my friends who might otherwise be inclined to come through and visit are either married with children or live with significant others.

Fuzzball has been rather friendly lately. :)

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, so I a blanket, a book, a dish of water and the ferrets outside on the green behind the apartment building. I laid out on the grass and tried to read while the ferrets ran as far as their leashes would allow. There was a little boy and his aunt walking by. She was Asian and spoke very little English and probably between 20 and 30 years old. He was Hispanic and spoke perfect English, probably about 5 years old. (I had no solid evidence of him being a Spanish speaker in the beginning, but I had a hunch.) Anyway, I told him that he could touch Chaos, but not Fuzzball. So he came over and pet Chaos. Then he told his aunt that she could "touch this one, but not that one!" over and over again. They went away and came back a few times. All the while, he kept saying how cute Chaos was. He even started picking Chaos up, which kinda irked me because he hadn't asked, but I let it go because Chaos tolerates it. After about the 5 return, I decided that it was time to put an end to it so that I could read in peace. I turned to the boy as he started to pick Chaos up again and said, "¡Déjalo! ¡Él quiere dormir ahora!" (Leave him! He wants to sleep now!) The kid responded, "¿Usted habla español?" (You speak Spanish?) "Hablo un poco español." (I speak a bit of Spanish) "¡Yo mucho!" (I [speak] a lot!) Anyway he finally went away and left me to read in peace. Another Hispanic group came out to sit on the grass. They had a toddler, who toddled over within a few feet of Chaos, but didn't come close enough to touch him, even though I let them know that he didn't bite and it was OK to touch him. Fuzzball was asleep in my purse most of the time.

There was a potluck for the Department linguists at Julie's on Monday. That was nice. There were even a couple of professors there for the first couple of hours. Of course, the boys waited until after they left to get drunk!

Yesterday in the afternoon, there was a going-away-party for Professor M, who is returning to Germany. It's too bad he has to go. He's a real sweetheart (and the extra $36/week in tutoring pay wasn't bad either!).

Today is relatively leisure. I have to go "teach" in a few minutes, but I have a guest speaker coming today, so I didn't have to lesson-plan.