home with a sick child today, but i'm actually lucky in this regard, because this is his second day (he's nine) and my wife is covering the vast majority of it. i'm only home for a few hours this morning, but even that sets me on edge, away from my office computer, away from the piles of work i have to do. it snows sideways outside. i said that to my wife this morning, "it's snowing sideways," and she said, is that something you learned up in iowa? as if it's a crazy thing people say about the snow. but no, i was actually just describing what i saw, and, it's been like that for a while. it doesn't seem to land unless you have a vertical windshield. it's all over the neighborhood but not all over the ground.

i missed the super bowl, entirely consumed by huge stacks of papers and exams that were of very low quality. finally the impossibility of my teaching situation overwhelmed me and i wrote a long and careful e-mail about how my students can't do the task in front of them. the son was sick at the super bowl also so i let him watch what he wanted to watch, and skipped it. i wondered if i could watch only the commercials, which, actually, i think i can, but i'll probably skip that too. just too busy. the fun of watching grown men pummel themselves to death from repeated concussion has kind of worn away. if i could convince myself that it was a sport with occasional injury, like baseball, that would be different. it's a blood sport, people die. they die, and they die with muddled brains full of commas (i swear, that's what it looks like)...and, i can't be part of watching it. commercials are good, and sometimes interesting. but cartoons are good too.

my wife is home; my day will start. a lot going on on my class weblogs as i try to get them organized. do not let them slip into obscurity...