Vroom. Vroom.

Anyone that knows me, really knows me, knows how much I love cars, trucks and motorcycles.  Heck, I turned down a really good university appointment one summer so I could pursue my childhood dream of driving trucks.  It started out with a bus, then transformed into a semi-truck gig a year later.  I have never regretted it.

Lately with how busy I am it has been impossible to keep up on all the repairs for the old stuff I buy.  Some of it ends up being a good deal, more of it not.  I'm coming to believe the philosophy of just saving up and buying something good that will last and not leave you stranded.  If that takes a bit of busing and walking to save up for it, so be it.

So all my vehicles are being sold or have been sold.  I've had a few.  Right now I'm getting rid of a neat 1980 Honda CM400T, a street bike that hasn't ever let me down.  It's good enough to ride on the freeway and better on the city streets, and it has even handled some very brief encounters with dirt roads.  Successfully.  It just broke down again, but like any other time it was able to limp back home and then to the shop.

The Harley is the piece of work though.  It looks great, and rides great.  When it works.  Which is rarely.  It is so close to being fixed but I just don't have the time or patience to deal with it anymore.  It definitely looks like one of my kind of vehicles.  Medium-high handle bars, big engine.  Just redneck enough for me to love it.



Trisha told me that if we didn't compromise careers but went wherever she wanted that she would buy me a motorcycle.  A new motorcycle.  So my dreams of gardening and housekeeping came back to mind....  Just for fun, I have been looking around at different bikes though.  Here's what I've come up with.

And I don't know anything about picture copyright laws, so if I'm doing something wrong could someone please let me know before I get in trouble?  At the least, it's free advertising for them.

Ducati Monster.  It's weird at first blush, but it grows on you.  The oddest thing for me is that it's a sport bike.  Here's how I justify it.  It's Italian.  It's a sport bike with class.  This isn't your college student Ninja or anything.  It's a real bike.  It might also be uncomfortable for long rides.  I doubt I'll be driving to Canada on it though.

Buell Lightening.  Again, do not be deceived.  It looks like some kid's dirt bike but it's made by Eric Buell who was a sport bike engineer attached to Harley-Davidson.  Who knew HD made sport bikes??  They're well put together from what I've seen and heard.

This is another Sportster 883.  The picture is directly off HD's website.  I like the carbon look, but the gas tank is too small for me.

Honda Shadow.  It's hard to go wrong with Japanese.  I've had a couple Hondas now and they've been great.  This is the only one that Trisha didn't refer to as being "dippy-looking".  Well, those are my words but that's what she meant.

Kawasaki Ninja.  I really can't see myself driving a piece of plastic.  Of course, I guess that's what everything is these days.

Tron LightCycle.  I'm an 80s sort of a guy.  I could really see myself in one of these.  The best part is that I could block erratic traffic from passing me and cutting me off.  Parking would be a breeze too.  Now that I think about I really do want one of these.

2010 Tron LightCycle.  Now we're talking.  Same perks as the 80s edition but with a little more zing to it.  Plus, I might be able to get the sales rep to thrown in one of those rockin leather suits.





This is still the research phase so I haven't quite set my mind (or heart) on any of these yet.  I'm curious what others would recommend to me.

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing"

That's a cinnamon roll.  An 8 dollar cinnamon roll.  We went to San Antonio Saturday and stopped at Lulu's Bakery & Cafe on our way back home. We almost only go to restaurants by recommendation out here and we're almost never disappointed.  There is so much good food in Austin (and near it) and this place was no exception.

In fact, the menu offered jumbo burgers, which I got and which actually tasted like real beef, as well as "over-sized chicken fried steak."  Good grief!!  The thing was bigger than a dinner plate!  We actually sat at the bar/counter and watched the short-order cooks and waitresses work their magic.  As much as Trisha doesn't eat meat, she was impressed at the oddity and size of everything there.  I guess everything is bigger in Texas, including the traffic jams on the way back to Austin on I-35.

Speaking of food (which I do a lot and am quite happy about), I cooked my usual tomato thing so we could have lunches this week.  I call it spaghetti but nobody agrees with the name.  I pretty much never use spaghetti noodles, only sometimes use noodles of any kind usually replacing them with couscous grains and every once in a while rice, and don't even make it into a legitimate sauce.

However, my "spaghetti" is so good and so fresh a Frenchman would even eat it and not consider it a wasted dish.  It's never exactly the same thing, but this time around it consisted of: 1/2 a large garlic (meaning 1/2 the bulb itself, not just a clove), 1 onion, olive oil, 5 or 6 tomatoes sort of cut and boiled down for a while, about twice the basil you see in the picture there (note that the small leaves are the size of baby spinach leaves, the large ones the size of small, mature spinach leaves, for comparison), mature spinach, spices (fennel seed, oregano, black pepper) and Better than Bouillon.

The main variations are spinach or not, yellow squash, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, lavender, bay leaves and the type of tomato.  It all just depends on what I feel like putting in and what I remember to use.  Also, if I could use homegrown tomatoes, that's what I'd do every time.  Since Trisha doesn't eat cheese, that's the only other thing I usually consider.

Speaking of speaking of food, I looked over my selections of yogurt for the last couple weeks and discovered they all have "natural flavor": that stuff that nobody really knows where it comes from including the guy who squashed the bug and extracted its juices for Red #whichever.  Even my favorite one, Liberté, that I thought was natural has it.  The only one of the lot that didn't have it was Greek Gods, the one I made fun of for looking silly.  So this week I bought all the Greek Gods flavors at HEB Central Market to try out.

Central Market is the local competitor to Whole Foods down here.  It sports a line of main-stream hippy and fresh products that attracts most everyone from Billy-Bob the beef-braising, brisquette-barbequeing Texan to June-Flower the hippy with the home-made-looking sun dress with the tag from the local wanna-be store, and a lot of people in between.  Not too many people from the country (I just wanted to write that name) and not a ton of legit hippies, but a really good range of food options for people like me who want to improve their diet and not trash the Earth, but want to take a moderate approach about it.

And no, I don't fit into any of those persona types.  I wear the same, standard Eric-uniform I've been wearing since probably after high school that 90% of the time repels stereotypes and leaves you with this aura of mystique as I walk by.  Or something like that.  Yep, not only is it the same uniform, but possibly even the very same non-hip, non-trendy jeans and tee-shirts that I was wearing at that time.  I wouldn't know.

At last! But not really: A report on my report

     I was able to meet with my supervisor this last week and start getting some new direction for my master's report.  This is the first time we've met this semester, which would almost be scary except that we're using a term paper from last semester as the basis for the report.
     It's actually kind of exciting to be working on it.  It's a subject I rather enjoy and I am finally starting to understand how researching works.  I've picked up bits and pieces of how to research from various classes and tips from fellow grad students (mainly my wife).  So while many papers have been awful to try to write, this one is actually fun.  Mostly.  I think that doing it on a subject and question that I'm curious about is the other biggest factor.  If indeed I go on to a PhD, it's something I can develop.
     The rough part is that I have to flesh out a good draft in about 3 weeks.  That's not a long time.  Considering I read the average textbook at about 10 pages an hour and also how many articles I need to use for my paper and it's a little daunting.  Fortunately I've just started learning how to read like a grad student this semester.  And also fortunately, it's a field that I've read about off and on for a few years.
     All in all, I'm kind of excited that I should be able to graduate.  And not only that, I should contribute new information that will actually benefit my field, even if only a little bit.
     The working name of the paper is "Teaching Arabic Vocabulary within a Diglossic Situation."  Meaning: how can we present Arabic vocabulary to students and help them actually learn it and not be totally overwhelmed when they feel like they're learning two languages at the same time.  There's not a ton of literature out there about this exact question, which makes it easier and harder.  Easier because I can stay somewhat general, and also still get something worthwhile out there.  Harder because I can continue other people's studies as easily or directly, and because I generally have less to drawn on.
     Oh well, until May it's just living the dream: changing the world, one comma at a time.