In actuality, the blog is known as the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, which I've been following for a while. The IBKC takes kittens from its local Humane Society and cares for them until they're old enough to be moved to permanent homes. While waiting for the kittens to reach that point, the IBKC puts pictures of them on the blog, which is enormously effective for attracting potential parents. Now that we're determined to move me back to Seattle in May, the possibility of actually getting a little ball of fluff from this foster family is quite real -- they're located in Tacoma. The latest batch of babies will be gone before I return, but I'll be watching and waiting come spring for new ones.
There's something very delightful and relaxing about soft, furry things -- even inanimate ones. In an effort to encourage more spontaneous discussion among my students, I made my own Koosh ball out of some leftover yarn from a scarf I knit for D several years ago:
I took it to class on Monday, where we wrapped up our study of Hamlet by talking about our own questions about the play. The only rules were that whoever had the yarn ball had to contribute something to the discussion and that once you were done speaking, you had to toss the ball to someone else to keep the discussion moving. It worked amazingly well -- having something soft and fluffy flying around loosened up the atmosphere such that some of the shyer students were willing to participate more than usual, even asking for the ball voluntarily! Whoever thought of this teaching tool first was a genius (it's been around for a long time, but this was my first chance to try it out).
No other major news. D and I had a great weekend, and he'll be back in just under two weeks. My own classes are going smoothly, and I got lots of great suggestions on the piece that I workshopped last Thursday, which may be something that could become part of my thesis. I do wish I could get more motivated to write, but lesson planning conveniently fills any time I have if I let it. Must do something about that ...
Speaking of distractions, I finally finished Wendy Werris's An Alphabetical Life on Friday -- I had picked it up before moving from Texas (which seems a lifetime ago) and hadn't gotten around to cracking the cover until last week. It's a quick read. I can't say it makes the top of my list of must-read memoirs, but there's a great quote in there by Fran Lebowitz that Werris uses at the beginning of a chapter: "If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass."
This is absolutely true. Time to stop noshing on those Hershey's Nuggets after dinner! The ones with toffee bits in them are my favorite. If you look closely at all the planning debris in the picture above, you can see an incriminating wrapper hiding there ...
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