misc.

my mom called me yesterday to have the following conversation:

mom: lara! does your brother smoke?
me: yup
mom: how long have you known?
me: at least a year... he told me back then that you knew too... did you forget?
mom: i must have... last night as he was falling asleep he had a horrible smokers cough, and today i found cigarettes in his truck when i borrowed it. it worries me... what should i do?
me: um, you're the parent, and you're the one who used to be a smoker. if it bothers, you actually relate to him and have a chat. i just tell him it's yucky and not to do it around me, so certainly you'd be better at that game than i am.

in other news.... teaching tip # 13513412

if you're pretty sure your students don't like you much and want to seal the deal, plan a review session for a few days before their final exam, and then forget you scheduled the review and go to a christmas concert instead....

(one of my fellow grad students inadvertently did this today, and i happened to be working in the math building when all the students showed up confused, and shortly later annoyed... said grad student felt extremely horrible about it... it wasn't intentional... but dude, that is one way to make a sizeable group of college students angry fairly quickly.)

in other other news...

i bought cherry and orange flavored craisins tonight... we'll see which of the 3 flavors (these two and original) is best. :) seriously, i'm hooked... i can't stop eating dried cranberries.

the end.