Being Semi-tall

I am tall, but not super tall, just a touch under 5'11''. My legs are long, but I think my real height comes from my long Native-esque torso. I have always had trouble finding clothes that fit properly, as tall clothes are often too long in the inseam. But over the past year I have started ordering clothes online from OldNavy.com. They have medium-long as well as tall, and they fit me PERFECTLY! I just got an order, which was a mix of OldNavy and Athleta (since you can order from both stores from one website and combine shipping) in tall and long sizes and everything fits GREAT. If you have had as much trouble as I have finding clothes that fit, you won't be surprised at all to learn I was dancing around my room with excitement over my purple velvet pants!

I wish that I had more options than these two online stores for clothes that are guaranteed to fit a semi-tall like me, since I am not sure what kinds of conditions my well-fitting new clothes were manufactured under, but I just don't...unless I get rich enough to get everything custom made or altered. Which just isn't gonna happen! So in the mean time I will enjoy these tank tops that reach the top of my jeans, the aforementioned purple velvet pants, the swimsuit that FITS on top, my ruffled hooded sweatshirt, and everything else that doesn't make me feel freakish just because I don't have a typical body type.

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying a Christmas Eve morning with Jeremy's Dad. Jeremy is going to make me an "egg in the hole" which is by far my favorite breakfast food.

Our Christmas tree is past its prime - we are considering taking it down before Christmas dinner tomorrow since at least half of the needles have dropped. We put it up only a day after Thanksgiving, so I guess we were pushing it little.

Tonight we go to my mom's for Christmas Eve dinner, and presents. My family traditionally opens presents on Christmas Eve and Jeremy's opens theirs on Christmas morning, so we have had to come up with a compromise for how we will do it. So my side's presents we open tonight, and our nuclear family and the ones from Jeremy's side of the family we will open tomorrow morning.

Although I have plenty of work and schoolwork to do over the next week I am taking a few days off to focus on the family. I think we all need it.

Nunaniqsaakici ARusistuami!

Radio Show Tonight

Be sure to listen to KMXT 100.1 FM tonight, 7-9 pm for my "somewhat holiday" Spruce Tip Brew show...also available streaming live at KMXT.org if you live elsewhere...or if you no longer do the real radio thing.

PolitiFact Lies of the Year

The top voted political lie of the year was...

PolitiFact readers overwhelming chose Sarah Palin's claim that the health care bill contains "death panels" as Lie of the Year. A resounding 61 percent of our 4,864 voters picked death panels as the top lie. No other finalist in the field of eight statements came close.

Here are the runners-up:

PolitiFact | And the runners-up ...

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Holidays

It was bone-chilling cold last week, but this weekend it has switched to slush and rain, which is much more traditional for Christmas weather in Kodiak.

Mondo has been over helping Jeremy do projects outside, and Melissa was over yesterday helping me get the house cleaned up. Jeremy's Dad is coming on Tuesday to spend the holidays with us and we are so excited. Emmy s really in the Holiday spirit this year, now that she knows what's going on. She keeps trying to be nice, because we've explained "Santa's list." After she gets in trouble she says "I'll be nice to you Mama."

I know I haven't been keeping up on the blog much, but there's no time for a long post. It's raining, so that means laundry. The cistern is brimming full and who knows when things will freeze up again!

Dissertation goal: Analytical Framework done before Christmas! Then on to Analysis...

The Perfect Holiday Gift

This holiday season, join me in supporting this wonderful organization, Heifer International. Someone in my family has had a donation made in their honor to help a family purchase a llama, goat or sheep. Is it you?

Progress

As much as I find it hard to believe, I AM making progress in school. I never get as much done each day as I hope to, but I guess that shows I have high expectations of myself. What counts is that each day I am a little bit closer to my goal of finishing my dissertation, and it WILL happen.

I am now in Fairbanks doing an intensive week of writing and data analysis. Hopefully I will have a chapter on my analytical framework done by Friday, in addition to field notes on New Words Council meetings for my analysis. And then on to finishing the other chapters!

The bad thing in this whole travel arrangement is that Emmy is sick, possibly with giardia (though we don't get the test results back for a few days), and Jeremy is taking care of her alone. I just spoke to her on the phone and she said she wanted Mommy to take her to bed. Since she is such a Daddy's girl, having her ask for me to bring her to bed pretty much melts my heart.

This is going to be a long week.