"another one of your little lists"*

On the Sunday night before my last week of work I wrote a 30+ item list of things I wanted to get done before we had our baby. Thankfully, I left work 2 hours early on my last day and ran a few of the most important errands. Because the next day Abe & I decided to give ourselves a vacation from household work, and the day after, Genghis entered the world.

For the last 7 weeks, I've been slowly tackling the list. I think I have about 7 items checked off. On Monday Genghis took one of his hero naps (any daytime sleeping that lasts longer than 45 minutes) so I crossed 2 items off.

First, I hung this pachyderm tryptic in the nursery (painted several weeks ago and waiting patiently for me to get out a hammer and nails). When I put Genghis down in his crib, he was staring at that spot on the wall with an intensely curious look on his face. Coincidence?



Second, I figured out how to add a "subscribe by email" widget to my blog. It's done through Feedburner and is fairly straightforward following these directions. So if you don't use an RSS reader but do like email, then try it out.

*The title for this post is an oft-quoted line in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody detective series. Peabody is a turn-of-the-century Egyptologist who solves crimes in part by constantly making organized lists of things "to do" such as cross-examine the local antiquities dealer or comb the murder scene for missing clues.

ways to get smarter without really trying

For the past week or so, Abe & I have been trading off watching DVD lectures of Art History and Game Theory by the Teaching Company. The Teaching Company puts out DVDs of professors lecturing on any and all topics.

We've watched several series including Egyptology (inspired by my love of Elizabeth Peters novels) and Italian History. Our success rate has been about 70% for really engaging, interesting series. And, unlike college courses, if you realize half-way through that you don't want to take the class, it's pretty easy to drop out. Or, in my case, just fall asleep on the couch.

The bonus is that our public library has tons of these DVDs, so if we keep this up we could be extremely intelligent in just a few months. Of course, we do temper the effects with old episodes of Superman.

Last night, we learned about Donatello. The professor showed Donatello's statue of Mary Magdalene and I was quite taken with it. The figure portrays an older Mary wasted by fasting and age. I think I like this sculpture because it captures the moments when our spiritual tenacity feels like it's at a breaking point - and yet, I have all assurance from her look that she hasn't and won't give up.



Also, I love the fact that I did a google image search on "Italian statue Mary Magdelene old" and instantly found what I was looking for.