what every Badger must do

The WI Alumni Association recently posted the top 14 things that you need to do as an undergraduate to be a real Badger. I've bolded the things I did, and italicized the ones that half-way apply:

14. Go "traying" on a snowy day. (Returning the tray is optional.) [[Don't know why I never got around to doing this.]]
13. Walk the Lakeshore Path. [[Many times!]]
12. Celebrate your birthday at the Nitty Gritty. [[Given that I was never old enough to enter bars while an undergrad, this one was pretty much impossible to do legally.]]
11. Have a bratwurst at State Street Brats (formerly the Brathaus). [[At the right time of day, State Street Brats was one of the few places in walking distance of the library where you could get something hot to eat during a 15 minute break. Yum!]]
10. Take in a concert at the Rathskeller. [[Yup, Granian.]]
9. Hike in the UW Arboretum. [[It wasn't exactly hiking, but I did have a couple of picnics there, and when the limo came to pick us up after our wedding, Joel and I asked the driver to drive us "someplace nice" and he took us through the arboretum at twilight.]]
8. Celebrate Halloween on State Street. (Getting pepper-sprayed is optional.) [[I unfortunately can't remember many/any of my costumes. But the standout year was the one where I wrapped Joel in a sheet, made a circle out cardboard, coated it with gold foil, which we affixed to the back of his head. With his hair down, everyone recognized him as Jesus!
7. Sit in Abe’s lap (and hope your date’s not a virgin — otherwise he’ll stand and dump you on the ground). [[I think I may have when I was 5 or so one time visiting Madison as a kid.]]
6. Dance (especially a polka) at Fifth Quarter after a football game. [[Never went to a football game while a student...]]
5. Go to an ice hockey game and yell “Sieve!” at the appropriate time — or an inappropriate time. [[I did go to a hockey game, but I never yelled "sieve", and I have no idea what is the appropriate or inappropriate time.]]
4. Walk out to picnic point with the love of your life — or at least your love of the moment. [[Never went out to picnic point with Joel -- but he did propose to me at Tenney Park, which is essentially the same thing, just in the other direction.]]
3. Cheer the Badgers at a football game. [[See #6]]
2. Eat a scoop of Babcock Hall ice cream. [[Many, many scoops.]]
1. Have a beer on the Union Terrace and watch the sun set. [[Never as an undergraduate (see #12), but once or twice as a graduate.]]

Not too bad.

whee!!!

There I was, sitting at my desk out at the office, minding my own business, listening to music on my headphones, when I hear a noise. A noise which occurs so seldomly that at first I couldn't place it. Then I saw a light flashing. And then I realized, yes, in fact that was indeed my phone ringing. (Quite possibly the first time it has done so in my presence since we moved. One of the advantages of the previous office was that there was one phone for the four of us, and it was about as far away from me as possible, so I never had to answer it. Here, everyone has their own phone.) I stared at it dumbly for a moment, commented to Nina and Fengkui, "Who on earth is calling me?"

Turned out to be the guys from the delivery office downstairs, wanting to know exactly where I was located 'cause a shipment had arrived for me and he'd bring it to me, if he knew where I was. I was pretty sure I knew what it had to be, but even so nothing quite prepared me for the sight of a pallet being towed down the hall way, stacked three by three and two high with boxes (17 total) of my dissertation! 250 copies suddenly looked like a huge overestimate. But they look wonderful! Like real books! Way thicker than I expected, too. And the covers are so gorgeous, no one is even going to bother reading the inside, they'll just want to admire the cover. (A number of people assumed that ursule's art was in fact from a real medieval manuscript -- until they looked closer and saw the logical symbols on the book!)

So I went round the department and distributed copies to those who were around, stuffed more in some of the mail slots, and then spent the rest of the afternoon addressing envelopes to send copies to various people. I've now got only 11 boxes left, and still have some that I need to set aside to give to people in person, e.g., at next week's International Medieval Congress in Leeds. I'm going to violate my usual "no leaving books in the unprotected, unsealed office" policy and not worry about toting the boxes home. After all, if someone wanders in to the office and decides he wants to steal a copy of my dissertation, I'm not going to complain. (Though I'd be pretty peeved if he made off with all of them, though lacking a cart of some type, that would take some doing.)

So, wheee!!!! I'll take some pictures and post them when I get home.

here it is!

When I joined Facebook a few months back, and got in touch with some of my high school friends, I commented to my mom, a bit depressed, that in the last 10 years most of my high school friends have gone off, gotten married, and had 2-3 kids, whereas it's taken my 7 years to give birth to my dissertation. She pointed out to me that at least the dissertation won't be dependent upon me for the next 18 years!

Anyway, proud "mom" that I am, I have to share pictures.


The front


The back


See how nice it looks on a shelf with other books


The back with Slinky, since it's a picture of her on the back. Note the grumpy look on her face. (She doesn't like being photographed)


The front with the bookmark/invitation