Stick 'em up, Saturday

I did nothing but cut my hair, buy some shoes, and grade quizzes today. And guess which one took about six or seven hours?

That’s right—the quiz! For some reason I struggled with deciding if something deserved points or not, and each problem took me about an hour to grade. That was the first three or four hours, I think. Then, I realized how I could grade faster, and the rest went by much more quickly and less painfully. Then I had to alphabetize the quizzes so that the scores could be entered easily into the online system and so that I can pass them back without going insane. Basically, my Saturday was shot by a quiz.

The day a meteorite just about blew up everything

I got a 90% on the stats quiz today instead of my regular 100%...which is where it all began. Here's a conversation I had with an employee at the Olive Garden about five hours after the quiz.

ME: Hi, I called in about an hour ago, but I just got in a car accident, so I don’t know if the food’s cold or anything—

MAN: Are you okay?

ME: Oh yeah, I’m fine. They rear-ended me and my back bumper’s screwed up, but I’m fine. It looks bad, but it’s okay.

MAN: Is everyone okay?

ME: Yeah, everyone’s okay. I just didn’t know if the food was still any good or...

MAN: Oh, definitely! We’ve been keeping it warm for you. I was actually about to call you.

That's right, a fender bender. Completely not my fault, so thank goodness.

The upside is that McKay and McKenna found a place to live today! I'm afraid that if they experience any more joy in their lives the universe will somehow send a meteorite to destroy our home or something. Though, I'd like to think of these recent unfortunate events as a testing ground for some amazing future for our family.

Note: For my wife's version of these events, go here.

Probably the most unconventional yet time sensitive classroom instruction

Even though I’m struggling with some of the principles in my stats class, I do have a great TA. Her name is Xi (pronounced “she”), and she offers help during quiz time and clarifies problems as needed. Her English is wonderful, but she does have a heavy Chinese accent, which doesn’t affect my ability to understand her as much as her vocabulary affects her ability to explain concepts.

During our most recent quiz, I approached her twice to get some clarification on what was being asked in the problems, and she helped me see things much more clearly. I’m pretty sure the end result was a perfect score on the quiz (two problems, but not multiple choice, so...), but I’ll know for sure on Wednesday next week.