Packed and Ready to Go

I spent the weekend packing for home. There was more to do than put my clothes in the suitcase. There will be some renovations to the condo while I am gone, so I had to pack up anything I want to have available when I return and store it. I need to be sure that I take all the appropriate documents with me on a jump drive so I can continue my project in my spare time at home. It was a good warm-up for next week when I finish packing my office for the move to the new building on December 4th. I also spent Sunday editing a 60+ page manuscript. That was pretty time consuming.

It was a beautiful and quiet weekend. I have been very lucky with the weather over the last three months. Other than a few rainy weekends, the weather has been very mild. I went out to walk both days to enjoy the crisp fall air and pick up some supplies. I am out of food and don't want to buy more than I need for a meal or two. As long as I have coffee and diet soda, I can survive.

It was a good sports weekend too. The Buckeyes won easily in the biggest game of the season. Kentucky basketball was not a worry but the football game was a pleasant surprise. I felt that Georgia had all the bad luck I have seen the Wildcats suffer many times. It was good to be on the other side for a change. With a win over Tennessee next weekend, the Cats could get a really good bowl game.

This will probably be my last entry until Februrary when I come back to Virginia for the last three months of my sabbatical. My life at home is too boring to write about. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with John and Chris and their significant others. It will be hectic with only Wednesday to get ready. Happy holidays to all!

Last weekend

This will be my last weekend in Virginia until February. I have started thinking about packing my bags for home. It might be necessary to leave some things in the condo since I am going home by plane. There will be some renovations done while I am gone, so I need to pack up anything I leave here and store it in the little laundry closet. I will probably try to get that done over the weekend while I watch some college football and basketball. It will be a veritable smorgasbord of games--Ohio State-Michigan, Kentucky-Georgia and, of course, Kentucky basketball.

Today is the Thanksgiving potluck at the office. It reminds me of the luncheon we usually have at the COP. The primary difference will be in the number of people and the amount of food. It is going to be a beautiful fall day and a good weekend. I will try to get out and enjoy Old Alexandria for the last time this year.

On the work side, I need to start sending reminders to department chairs to send me their P&T documents. I have a little over 60 sets right now--hoping for close to 100. I'd better get to work.

5 days and counting

It is hard to believe that the first half of my sabbatical is coming to a close. In 5 days I will get on a plane for my old Kentucky home. I have always been fascinated by the way days go by slowly but weeks fly by. Maybe a physicist or philosopher can explain it to me.

Hopefully all my belongings will fit in the suitcases. (Thank God for medallion status so I don'thave to pay for my luggage) I'm trying to get to a good stopping point on my project, pack my stuff to leave in Virginia in a safe place during condo renovation, and use up all the perishable groceries before I leave. Unfortunately, I think I will run out of food a few days early.

Tomorrow we have a Thanksgiving potluck at the office. I wanted to contribute a little bit of Kentucky flavor to the meal, so I signed up to bring sweet potato casserole. The recipe originally came from "mama" Chandler, Happy's wife. It includes a bourbon flavored brown sugar topping. I love the casserole, probably because it tastes as much like a dessert as a vegetable. It was also a good practice exercise for the family Thanksgiving dinner. It will be fun to have John, Brit, Chris and Carrie with us. Brit's mother, Vickie, may also join us. I hope I can get everything done in time for dinner on Thursday. I'm still looking for football tickets for Chris and Carrie (hint, hint).

I'd better get to work. Only 4 work days left in Virginia.

PS. Thanks to G-ma for reminding me that there is an NFL game tonight and I need to make my pick.

Recovering from a heart attack

Boy, did the Cats dodge a bullet last night. Fortunately, we won't play too many teams that make 15 three's. I guess we need to realize that no matter how much talent they have, they are new to each other and the system. I'm curious to hear from those who were in attendance. What was the atmosphere like?

The trip back to Virginia was uneventful as was the work day. I left a little early to get into DC for the Leadership Fellows' reception. (blue line, Largo Town Center, doors open on the right -- that was for John). I got there in time to hear some of the comments by the pharmacy organization leaders. There are two former students in this group of fellows - Donnie Woodward at Rutgers and David Burgess at Texas. I see Donnie a lot at national meetings, but I haven't seen David in many years. He was in one of my first classes. He has a full head of silver hair. I didn't want to tell anyone that I was his teacher. It makes me look very old. Please resist the urge to make the obvious comment that I am very old.

Nothing else is new around AACP headquarters. It should be a quiet week trying to get a lot finished before returning to Kentucky.

That small world thing again

I had a great weekend at home in Lexington. This was the first visit home when we stayed home the whole time and didn't have any agenda to complete. It was relaxing and the weather was beautiful. I was glad to be in town for the visitation for Patti Rutledge's daughter-in-law so that I could provide some small measure of friendship and support for her. How sad for both families to lose Lauren and so soon after the wedding.

I did not make time to go to the office and pack. I am hoping to get there over the Thanksgiving holiday. It sure was a good thing I threw away half of the paper in my office before I left in August. Otherwise, I would be on the Ryan plan - light a match and start over. I see that the server will be down for 4 days. I only wish that it included email. Wouldn't that be nice!

In the waiting area for the DC flight at the airport this morning, I met up with Sheila Botts who is here for a one day meeting in DC. I am going in to DC at 5 for a reception for the AACP Fellows group. So we are going to meet afterwards for dinner. What a coincidence. I love to have people to go out to dinner with. Most nights I eat something very boring by myself in the condo. So if any of my followers are coming to DC or know of someone else who will be in town, let me know (except maybe TSF--just kidding--not).

Still looking for two football tickets for the Tennessee game. If you know of any, let me know.

So now it is back to my project for 7 work days. Then home for two months. Can't wait to see everyone and move to the taj.

Glad to be done visiting

I just finished a new school visit for ACPE. It was very interesting. It constantly amazes me that 100 schools can be doing the same basic job using the same set of criteria and yet we are all so different. It is energizing to see a group of people dedicated to starting a school from the ground up and trying hard to do it the right way.

I enjoyed visiting Milwaukee too. The weather was very mild for November. The school is on the lakefront of Lake Michigan. I forgot how big the Great Lakes are. They are definitely appropriately named. We were told that some athletes who came to town looked at Lake Michigan and asked which ocean it is. Despite all of the good things, I am glad to be finished. Yesterday was about a 16 hour work day. We started at 6:45 and got back to the hotel around 10:30PM. There was a lunch and dinner in there but they were both working meals.

I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. I just got settled and got the laptop out when a guy sat down across the aisle. He took out his phone, dialed a number, turned to face away from his work carrel and aimed his very loud converation directly at me. After about 10 minutes, I had enough and got up to move across the room. There were other phone conversations but none as loud as the first guy . Suddenly, I became aware of a loud crunching noise nearby. Another gentleman was chomping away on some nuts. I didn't know they could crunch that loud. Fortunately, it only lasted 5-10 minutes. It makes me wonder if they were inconsiderately loud or if I am just a little testy from the schedule of the last few days.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend and then back to work at AACP for another 10 days before I head home for two months.

Oh no. The chomper just got a refill on his nuts. Gotta go!!!

I'm gonna buy a lottery ticket

I just landed in Detroit - 30 minutes early - at gate A18. My connecting flight to Milwaukee goes out of gate A19. I got an upgrade to first class on both segments. And the escalator up to the Delta Sky Club is right by my gate! This has got to be a sign that it is my lucky day.

I had another "it's a small world experience." The guy sitting next to me on the plane looked pretty unfriendly. He also had two Vodka and cranberry cocktails at 9:30 in the morning. I did not "engage" him in conversation until about 10 minutes before landing. He mentioned that he grew up in northeast Ohio around Akron. When I said I grew up in Alliance, he laughed and said he grew up in Minerva, a town even smaller than my hometown. He always says Akron because nobody has ever heard of Minerva. He is an ecologist from Harvard on a two year assignment with the NSF to chair a committee or something related to energy and climate change. I asked him if all this stuff is real. He said yes but the real problem is the big stuff like airliners. The irony is his job requires him to fly about 150,000 miles a year. I think I will still recycle.

This is my third posting today. I'm trying to get ahead in case I don't have internet access again until the weekend.

PS Veteran's Day

I forgot to send wishes for a relaxing Veteran's Day to Chris, Carrie, Fav, Jeremy and other military personnel. I am proudly wearing my pin that Chris and Carrie gave me. Chris, did you know that Outback is giving away one of your favorites--a blooming onion-- to military members today? I hope you have a good day without any classes.

I finally made it to Terminal A at Reagan. The rain wasn't bad and a train came relatively quickly. I even got a seat. When I got to the airport, I realized that my flight is a Northwest route that leaves out of Terminal A. It was close to a mile walk from the Metro stop to this terminal. The good thing is that no one else is here so the security line was easy.

It's 35 degrees in Milwaukee

I'm just about ready to hike over to the Metro to catch my flight to Milwaukee this morning. Of course, it is raining lightly so I need to try to get myself and my rollerboard there without getting too wet. I just checked the weather in Milwaukee to be sure that I packed the right clothes. It is only 35 degree there this morning! The daytime highs will be in the 50s though.

I only remember going to Wisconsin once before--when Mike interviewed for a job there many many years ago. The campus of Concordia is on Lake Michigan so it will probably be a beautiful campus. On Friday when the visit is over, I am going home for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to that.

The news has been very interesting in DC this week. Last night they executed the DC sniper. The news coverage was somewhat unnerving. They reviewed the killings that occurred here and had interviews with family members on both sides. It was interesting to talk to people who lived here at the time and hear how afraid people were--just to go to the gas station was a major traumatic experience.

The Army psychiatrist who did the killings at Fort Hood was born and raised here in Northern Virginia so there has been more than the normal national coverage at that story also. Needless to say, the news has been depressing.

It is time to log off and get over to the Metro. I may not have another entry until Friday if I don't have internet at the hotel in Milwaukee.

Monday morning

It's going to be a warm day in Virginia -- 70 degrees. That means it will be warm in the office today. I only have two days in the office this week. Wednesday morning I leave for an accreditation visit to Concordia University in Milwaukee. I hope the weather is unseasonably warm there too. It is interesting to go to new schools and see how they organize themselves and their curriculum. They have a unique advantage over existing schools that are now scrambling to revise curricula to meet the new standards for experiential learning. They can plan the new requirements into the schedule from the beginning.

My document collection is going pretty well. I have documents from 56 schools so far--trying to get to 100.

It was a quiet but beautiful weekend. I spent most of it reading the documents I need to complete before Wednesday. The binder is about 2 inches thick so it takes a while. I also watched lots of football. Both of my teams won. The Buckeyes looked surprisingly strong. Kentucky seems to have lots of injuries. I hope they can make it 7 wins to ensure a bowl game. Four in a row would be awesome.

I guess I'd better get to work. The next two days will go by in a hurry.

Happy Saturday morning

I got another message yesterday--this time from my mother-- that she also reads my blog every day, so now the pressure is really on to post regularly. So, Mother (GG and G-ma), this one is for you.

I got an early start today when the garbage truck came by closely followed by the sound of an emergency vehicle probably over on Duke Street. I have already straightened up the condo and started a load of wash. Living here has made me think more positively about downsizing at some time in the future. It is so quick and easy to do the housework here. There isn't much that needs to be done in such a small space.

It will be a beautiful weekend here. The weatherman just said this will be the first sunny weekend since the first weekend of October. I should be able to get some exercise and enjoy the great weather.

Of course one of my regular tasks on Saturday is watching college football. I will be watching College Gameday this morning at 10. They are broadcasting from Colorado Springs for the Army-Air Force game. I saw some promos for the show already. It is sad to see the flag flying at half-mast in honor of those killed at Fort Hood. I don't know if Chris, Carrie, Fav and the others will be in the crowd, but I will be watching for them. Go Falcons!

I will also be keeping tabs on the Wildcats via the web audio broadcast. They play Eastern Kentucky today so it should be an easy victory. Go Wildcats! Finally, Ohio State plays Penn State at 3:30. That game is important in the Big 10. I hope OSU can find some offense. Go Buckeyes!

While all that is happening, I will be on the laptop finishing slides for a talk in December and reading the materials I need to evaluate before my trip to Wisconsin next week. So it will be a busy day.

I hope all my readers have a wonderful weekend.

A request from my son

This afternoon I got a text message from Chris asking that I get back to posting to my blog. I was flattered to know that he reads it and cares to keep up with what I am doing, so I will take the hint and try to return to regular blogging. John has also told me that he regularly reads my blog while he has his morning coffee. I hope he has been able to drink his coffee even though he hasn't had regular reading material.

I forgot to mention last week that it was American Pharmacy Educators' Week. For all of you non-pharmacists, it would have been a good time to honor me with gifts and notes of appreciation.

It has been a pretty busy week. I have been collecting promotion and tenure documents from schools of pharmacy for my project. I currently have 57 sets of documents. It will not be fun to read them. They are pretty boring. I hope to have close to 100 sets of documents when I am finished. So I will have to curb my partying ways (at least that is what Brittany thinks I am doing) and get to work.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the AACP Board of Directors met here in Alexandria and I was able to sit in on the meeting. It is interesting to get updated on what is going on in pharmacy education on a national level. Oftentimes, we are so focused on the issues in our own school, we lose sight of the big picture. The meeting was at the Hotel Monaco on King Street. It is part of the Kimpton group of hotels and is quite nicely decorated. I thought of Melody when I saw the decor. It seemed like the kind of place she would choose to stay. I overheard the board members talking about the robes they had in their rooms--either tiger or zebra-striped. Sounds pretty interesting.

Part of attending the meeting is having meals with the group. I really enjoyed that because I didn't need to worry about shopping or cooking for two days. On Wednesday night there was a retirement reception for Sam Tart, who left AACP after more than 20 years. Even though I didn't work with him for very long, he is a wonderful man who will be missed by all at AACP. He likes horse racing so we had some interesting conversations about handicapping the horses.

One of the board members stayed overnight last night because it made several hundred dollars difference in plane fare. So I hiked back down to the Hotel Monaco last night and she and I went out to dinner--back to one of my old favorites, Il Porto. I will have leftover veal parmesan for dinner tonight. Yum.

It should be a quiet weekend on my own in Virginia. I have lots of work to do reading for an accreditation visit next week and finishing slides for a presentation in December. I hope to watch UK and OSU football tomorrow if I can find them on the TV here. If the weather is good, I will get in some walking time too. I have noticed that it gets dark quite a bit earlier here than in Lexington. By 5:30 it is really dark. Unfortunately, that means winter is coming soon.

I hope this meets Chris's expectation for some blogging. I promise to do better.

Back to Virginia

It has been a while since my last post. Things have been busy. On Tuesday night, I flew home to participate in the Kentucky accreditation site visit. It was an interesting experience since I have been on three accreditation teams since the last time we had a visit at our school. It was helpful to me in preparing for the sessions and took away any nervousness about the process. I thought I talked too much in the curriculum and assessment meetings. But both committees had new chairs, and I didn't want them to be put in a bad position trying to answer questions about what the committee did before they even attended a meeting. Anyway, I had to get my money's worth for the plane ticket I bought! The outcome was good with only a small amount of monitoring requested. The team liked the new building and dubbed it the Taj Mahal or "taj" for short.

It was good to see all my co-workers at Kentucky. Everything seems to be on track for the move to the new building. My suite moves on December 4th. I had hoped to finish packing but that didn't work out too well. I still have four days when I get back to campus in December, so it should be okay. I guess I spent too much time visiting while I was there. Actually, I made some progress on my project while I was home thanks to the rotation students. They helped me clean up the department chair lists and we started sending out the emails requesting promotion and tenure documents. I will send out the last hundred emails today and start collecting replies.

For the weekend, Mike and I went to Louisville and stayed at the Horseshoe Resort. John and Brittany came and spent time with us. We had a nice dinner and tried something new for us. We were offered free tickets to the Roger Daltrey concert so we went to check it out. For those of you below the age of 35, Roger Daltrey was the lead singer for The Who. If that doesn't help, think of Tommy, the Rock Opera. I posted a picture that Mike took during the concert. I guess Daltrey is about 65. He looks to be in pretty good shape for an aging rocker. At least he looked better than most of the audience. It was quite funny to watch a bunch of 50-60 somethings acting like teenagers. They started out standing but couldn't make it through the whole concert, so eventually everybody sat down. Sometimes they sang along or waved their hands. It was pretty funny. I enjoyed parts of the concert but wouldn't have paid money for the tickets.

Now it is back to Virginia for three weeks and get my project to a good stopping point before Thanksgiving.

A visit home

The weekend started wet but ended up beautiful. I have been feeling like Jabba the Hut from too many restaurant dinners and too little exercise, so I hiked down to the Safeway store--a little over a mile--bought a few groceries, then made a few more stops to shop. I hauled it all home on foot. Things got pretty heavy before I arrived back at the condo, but it was worth it. I spent the rest of the weekend working on the computer and watching football.

My project is finally picking up steam. I have finished the pilot testing of my process and I am starting to send out requests to the remaining 108 schools for the documents I need. Hopefully, it won't be too hard to get responses. Then I just have to analyze all of the documents!

Tomorrow I am going with Lucinda Maine to visit a new school of pharmacy in Baltimore. It is a Catholic school in their first year of operation. It's always interesting to see other schools and how their programs operate. On the way back to Virginia, Lucinda will drop me off at the airport so I can catch the direct flight home.

I haven't been to work at the UKCOP since August. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my co-workers. The college accreditation visit is Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully, all will go smoothly. I will spend the rest of my time at home finishing packing up my office for the move to the new building in December. My office moving date is December 4th--four days after I come home from Virginia. I'm glad to be in the first wave of moves but I don't have much time to get ready. Fortunately, I spent a lot of time cleaning and throwing away old files during the summer.

It's time to finish packing my carry-on bag for home and get a good night's sleep.

More Company

I have become very popular since I came to Virginia. This week my sister-in-law Joan and her husband Joe came to visit. They arrived Tuesday night and are leaving today. While I went to work during the day, they came over from their hotel and parked at the condo. Then they jumped on the Metro to go into DC. In two days, they got to see most of the things on the National Mall and Arlington Cemetery. Joe has a reputation for taking lots of pictures (emphasize the word LOTS), so it was slow going for them. As of last night, he had 400 pictures.

They came over every evening and we went out to dinner. I took them to some of my usual places. Last night, thanks to Brad at AACP, we ventured off the tourist path and went to Arlington to eat at the Capitol City Brewing Company. I was glad to find a new area to explore and find a number of new restaurants. Our most interesting dinner was Wednesday night at Joe Theismann's. We had a new server who was very enthusiastic but very slow. Tables all around us turned over and we were still waiting for our check. When the check came, Joe gave the server his credit card and, after a wait, the bill came back. Joe signed it and we were about to get up when Joan noticed that it was not our bill. We figured up what our bill should have been. It was about the same total, so Joe said, "he brought me a bill and I paid it." We left. I think he figured if we told him about the mixup it would have taken another half-hour to straighten it out.

On the work front, this week was a little frustrating. I had software problems for two days that disrupted working on my pilot project. The outcome was good though. I got my computer back yesterday and I had Adobe Acrobat added. That will facilitate some of my work. I think I have finished working with the 5 pilot schools. Now I need to start collecting documents from other schools. That will probably be the most frustrating part of my project.

I have the weekend here in Alexandria on my own. Of course, there is rain coming in today. That will be OK since I have some housework and lots of reading to do. I have to reread parts of the Kentucky self-study document for my trip home next week to participate in the ACPE visit. I also have documents from the accreditation visit I am participating in next month in Wisconsin. Finally, I have the board book from AACP to read for the board meeting right after I get back from home. So I guess rain might be a good thing.

I will make time to watch some college football tomorrow if I can find Kentucky on TV. I will also watch OSU, but with some trepidation. They have not been impressive in recent weeks.

I hope this catches everyone up on the latest news from Alexandria.

Rainy weekend

The rain continued Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mike arrived on Friday to spend the weekend with me and wisely rented a car. I had looked into getting a zip car. Those are short term rentals that are parked around the DC area. When you sign up for an account, you get a card that unlocks any of the cars. You just look on-line to see where the nearest one is parked and go get it. It seems like a good idea but the sign-up process costs $75. So it is just cheaper for me to get a rental car at Reagan airport.

We went to the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. It was awesome. There are many more planes than they can house at the museum on the mall. I posted pictures of my favorites--the Enola Gay and an SR 71 Blackbird. It was amazing to see the actual plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I liked the Blackbird because it travelled from California to Washington in 1 hour, 4 minutes. I wish it was a commercial airliner. I could get home in 15-20 minutes. They also have a space shuttle and a plane developed by Orville and Wilbur Wright. It was airplane sensory overload. I can hardly wait for Chris to come visit. He will love the place. We also went over to the Air Force Memorial so Mike could see it, but it was raining too hard to stay.

It was good to have a car for the weekend since it would have been hard to travel on foot in the rain. I did some grocery shopping and cooking. Otherwise, we just tried to stay out of the rain and watched football. Unfortunately, all of my teams lost this weekend except the Wildcats who had an unexpected victory at Auburn. Perhaps there is still hope for a bowl game?

Just nine days until I go home for the accreditation site visit. I will also need to finish packing my office for the move to the new building since I will be moving about one week after I get back home in December. Thanks Jeff for putting our suite in the first wave of moving so we can get it finished. I can hardly wait.

Now it is back to work on my project. I am expecting more company tomorrow--my sister-in-law and her husband, Joe and Joan. I am more popular now than I was at home. I guess it isn't me--it is the location.

rain, rain go away

This was the first morning since I arrived in late August that I had to walk to work in bad weather. I guess I am spoiled. It was a good thing that Mike got a really good umbrella as a gift when he played in the ASHP golf tournament while he was here. It really came in handy this morning.

Today, I am going to talk about my project, so those of you who think I am just partying in DC can log out now. I have had a lot of frustration trying to get the methodology worked out for my project. I have designed four parts to it--more than I can accomplish while I am here. Of course, I think I can do parts 1-3 even though all of the people I have consulted here tell me that I can't. Yesterday, while I was rereading many of the articles I collected as background, I think if finally started to gel. Hopefully, I can get things off the ground soon. Part one is a review of promotion and tenure documents at schools of pharmacy to see whether there is evidence of the scholarship of teaching. There are a few confounding factors with this. Can I get the documents from all the schools who have them? (some of the new schools may not have documents yet) Do some schools have different criteria in different departments? Are the documents too general to provide the information I am seeking? Finally, is there sufficient consensus about what constitutes scholarship of teaching vs. teaching excellence to have a clear definition of what I am looking for in the documents? And that is just part 1! Parts two and three are surveys of department chairs and faculty to determine their perceptions of what teaching-related activities are valued toward tenure. Hopefully, the only difficult part of the surveys will be getting an adequate return rate. I should be able to use the same list of activities that I use in Part 1 for the surveys. I can ask these two groups of people to rate the activities related to their importance toward promotion and tenure. Then I can compare the three sets of information. Easy--ha!

I guess that is enought for this morning. Mike is coming to visit for the weekend. I am really looking forward to his visit.

I need a nap

For someone who was wondering how to spend three days alone in Virginia, I sure had a busy weekend. I have already described my visit on Saturday to Lorton to visit my nephew and his family. On Sunday morning, my son John called to say that he and his wife, Brittany "aka" Bridget (it is a long story for another day), decided to leave Kentucky that afternoon and drive straight through to Alexandria. They arrived about 11PM. We went out for a little while so they could unwind and got to bed about 1AM.

On Monday (Columbus Day - no one in this area works) we had a full day. We went to the Air Force Memorial close to Arlington Cemetery. It is small but very moving. You can see John's artistic pic of me and Brittany. He wanted to get the top of the spires and still have us in the picture. I think a more interesting picture might have been John laying on the ground shooting the picture. The second picture of John and Brittany in front of the honor guard is interesting. This picture makes John and Brittany look like miniaturized versions of themselves standing next to life size soldiers.

I didn't realize how much I have learned from Chris about the Air Force. There are panels with the core values and others with all of the Air Force Medal of Honor winners. I recognized Frank Luke, the class of 2010 exemplar, and Lance Sijan, for whom Sijan Hall is named. I think he was the first USAFA graduate to receive the Medal of Honor. I think Chris will enjoy visiting there next time he comes to Washington.

We spent the rest of the day shopping at the Pentagon City mall and we strolled King Street. We had happy hour and dinner at the Fish Market (Mike will be jealous of the 2 lb lobster that John ate). We rode the trolley back home and got to bed early. This morning John and Brittany left for New Jersey where John will be in a wedding. It was lots of fun to have them visit, but now I need a nap.

Unfortunately, it is a work day and I have many things to do. The nap will have to wait until tonight.

A visit to Lorton

Yesterday morning I was thinking about how to spend the three day weekend. I went over to King Street to do some errands about 9AM and while I was out, my niece Heather called. Heather, Jeremy and their children live in Lorton. They invited me to come spend the day with them. Heather picked me up and we headed to Fort Belvoir to pick up Joel, Lacy and Jeremy after Joels's tae kwon do (sp?) class. Our second stop was the grocery store on the base. Lucky me! I needed groceries and I got to shop where the prices were really good. Now I am stocked up on soup and turkey--the staples of my current diet.

Next we went to their house. I got a piano concert from Lacy, we played some games, and watched the Buckeyes beat the Badgers. I won my bet with Ken Miller, a Wisconian (Wisconsonite?), so I get lunch at Table Talk. We had tacos for dinner and I got to bring home some leftovers.

It was a great day. I forgot how much energy a 6 year old and 9 year old have. I was pretty tired when I got home so I fell asleep early. Today I need to clean up around the condo. John and Brittany have decided to leave on their vacay this afternoon so we will have the whole day tomorrow to be tourists. They should be here about midnight. I will probably need a nap today!

Anniversary

Today was my wedding anniversary. Mike and I have spent a few of our 32 anniversaries apart, but not many. Since I couldn't spend the day with Mike, Ken Miller and Buzz Kerr took me out to lunch at Table Talk. It was nice to celebrate with two dates, but I sure do miss my house husband.

It is hard to be a student

Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon I participated in an on-line conference about on-line teaching and learning. The sessions ran for 5-6 hours each day. The sessions were very interesting and I learned a lot about theory as well as on-line tools I didn't know about and practical tips to use them. I need to see if Jeff Cain knows about all of these things. I will be disappointed if he doesn't since he is a Web 2.0 guru.

The picture to the right shows my work area and the sign I printed out from the site to show that I was "attending" a conference. Whitney, my cubicle mate, took the picture during one of the 10 minute breaks because she thought it was funny. The sign says, "it may look like I am here but.......". As you can see, I am NOT here. I was taking a bathroom break.

My students are in big trouble now because I have lots of ideas about new things to try.

Yes, it is October 6th and I haven't posted in almost a week. Things have been hectic as my family hit the height of the celebration season. Last week Mike and I celebrated our birthdays (celebrated is probably not accurate--bemoaned is likely to be more accurate). On Friday I flew home for the weekend, Chris flew in from Colorado Springs and John and Brittany came over from L'ville.

Friday we went out after dinner and checked out the new hotspot in our neighborhood, Drakes. It didn't seem like we were out late but when we got home it was after 1AM. That would have been OK if we weren't planning on getting up at 7AM to head to Commonwealth Stadium to tailgate before the UK-Alabama game that kicked off at 12:20. John and Brittany had four lower stadium seats on the 30 yard line with a parking pass in the blue lot right next to the stadium. So Saturday morning, John, Brittany and I packed up the car, made a quick stop at Krogers, and headed to the tailgate spot. We found a great spot and started to set up our tailgate.

Unfortunately, something went wrong with our power source, and after troubleshooting and a trip to the store by Mike and Chris to get a replacement power source, we had to give up on cooking breakfast. The family next to us let us use their grill when they finished cooking, so we did eventually get to cook burgers. Things didn't get better when the game started and UK lost to Alabama. But it is always great to be at the stadium in October. Fall weather in Lexington is great especially when the leaves change. We continued to gorge ourselves in football the rest of the weekend and enjoyed being together.

I headed back to Virginia Sunday night for my first full week by myself. I am trying to finish my literature searching, background writing and develop the methods for my project. I will write more about my project this week to satisfy those of you who think I am only on sabbatical to have fun!

A busy day

Yesterday was probably the busiest day I have had since arriving in Virginia. I started the day at work trying to figure out my sampling strategy. Whitney was very helpful in thinking through what groups I needed to survey and I mapped out a draft of the sample I will use. It will need more work but I feel like I am making progress. It's hard to be patient in the early stages but I know it is important to get it right before I start the survey process or the end result won't be good.

At noon, Ken Miller drove me over to Bolling Air Force Base. My nephew Jeremy was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and I was invited to the ceremony. I have never attended this type of event and it was quite interesting. I think it was somewhat like a wedding because the ceremonial aspects were quite similar. There were greeters to get us to the right location. The family had reserved seats in the front with our names on the chairs. Before the ceremony started, the family met in a conference room with T-JAG, the "big cheese" in the JAG. I have heard a lot about him from my sister who has attended some of their conferences and seen T-JAG in action. When the ceremony started, the family came in first and then Jeremy and T-JAG. There was a narrator who walked us through the steps of the ceremony. Lacy, who is 6, played the Star Spangled Banner on the piano (no mistakes at all!) and Joel, who is 9, recited the Pledge of Allegiance. T-JAG spoke about Jeremy. It was impressive that he could talk about Jeremy's whole life history from growing up in North Canton, Ohio, his education, and his full military career. He also knew a lot about Heather, the children and Jeremy's parents, Lynn and Dick. After the promotion order was read and the pinning of insignia was finished, Jeremy said a few words (not as many as T-JAG). There was also a receiving line. There were more than 50 people in attendance including lots of people Jeremy works with, friends and neighbors, and the family. Then there was a reception. It was a very impressive ceremony. There were tears from the wife and mother, a cake and lots of pictures were taken. Very much like a wedding except no wedding dress and everything happened on time with military precision.

After the promotion ceremony, my brother-in-law Dick, drove me back to Alexandria where my niece Joyce from Cleveland was waiting for me. I quickly changed into spectator clothes and we took off on the Metro to see the Washington Nationals final home game of the season. I was a little concerned about the game because Joyce bought the tickets from a guy who advertised on Craig's list. They were really good seats in the lower deck between third base and home plate and he was selling them for half price. We were supposed to meet him before the game, but he was late, so we missed the first inning. They were giving away Nationals blankets at the gate, so we both got a souvenir from our visit. It sprinkled a little during the first few innings but the weather cleared up and the game was moving along quickly. Since the Nationals and Mets are two of the worst teams in the NL this season, there wasn't much action--until we got to the ninth inning. The Mets were leading 4-2 going into the bottom of the inning. A small group of loyal fans remained in the stands (including us). The Nationals managed to load the bases, thanks to a couple of walks. It was 4-3 with two outs and Justin Maxwell hit a walk-off grand slam to end the game and the Nationals home season. The crowd went wild as if they had just won the World Series. It was an exciting way to end the game.

Joyce and I rode home on the Metro and stopped at Joe Theismann's restaurant for a salad and to watch some more baseball. When we got home, we were both exhausted. Joyce is sightseeing today while I work. I'm hoping for a quieter day.

You can't please all of the people all of the time

I have been consciously writing about the non-work related aspects of my sabbatical experience because I received a few comments that my blog was too boring. Now I am getting comments that I must not be doing any work since all I write about is going out to dinner, sports, etc. So I vow to include enough work-related stuff to convince all of you that I really am doing something of socially redeeming value. This morning I read in the Chronical of Higher Education about a researcher who thinks he is closing in on the search for a universal flu vaccine that began with a sabbatical project 20 years ago. However, I doubt that my sabbatical project on the scholarship of teaching will save the world from infectious disease or bring about world peace.

Today I am thinking about my husband who is celebrating his birthday without me. Since we have both reached the age when birthdays cease to be fun and are mainly reminders that another year has gone by, I think he won't mind having a low-key birthday. I do need to remind him, however, that he is older than me--even if it is only 2 days.

Yesterday I made my first trip to Whole Foods. I have avoided going there since my arrival because it is likely to be an expensive experience--both in dollars and calories. I managed to escape with a small container of white chicken chili for dinner and a loaf of bread.

Well, it is time to get to work. Who knows? The scholarship of teaching may one day save the world.

Rain, rain go away

I awoke this morning to the sounds of thunder and pounding rain at about 5:45AM. It was raining hard when I went to bed last night also. I'm beginning to think it was fortunate that I did not get a ticket to the UK-UF football game today. It might be very unpleasant at game time. But I was planning on catching up on some errands that couldn't be so easily accomplished in Virginia including a badly needed haircut. The rain will make erranding much less fun.

The trip home was much more pleasant and easier than I expected. We made excellent time through the DC traffic thanks to Ken Miller's expert directions. As we drove through western Maryland, the trees were already changing and the scenery was beautiful. I wish I had taken some pictures to post. We stopped in Morgantown for breakfast, gas and a driving break. As always, the food at IHOP is good--apparently too good. It seemed that there were an unusually high proportion of very large people eating there. By large I mean 300+ pounds. That was a good reminder that the IHOP menu contains many pitfalls for someone attempting to eat healthy, so I ordered from the healthy selections page of the menu. That didn't stop me from admiring the stacks of pancakes topped with fruit pie filling and whipped cream as they passed by.

We listened to a book-on-tape (actually the 21st century version, a book-on-Ipod with attached speakers) as we drove. It was Brimstone by Robert Parker. We previously listened to Appaloosa and Resolution so it was a continuing story of some characters in the old West. If the stories are historically accurate, I am quite happy to be living in 2009. Times were tough for women in the old West.

Things look good at home thanks to our housesitter and the guys who take care of the yard. I am enjoying those comforts that I miss in the condo in Alexandria--my own bed and, to a surprising degree, my Cuisinart coffee maker. The tomatoes I forgot to throw out before we left would make a good science experiment, but Mike made me throw them away.

Last night we met John and Brittany at Sal's for dinner. I appreciate that they made the trip to Lexington to see us especially since they have both had a hard work week. I really enjoyed hearing John's story of the theft of the picker (a device that looks kind of like a tractor and picks up the golf balls on the range) and a golf cart including a member's golf clubs from the Cardinal Club. This is a chronic problem due to the proximity of a Job Corps training center across a corn field that unfortunately provides great cover for the teenagers who sneak on the golf course. I am encouraging John to put the story on paper while it is fresh in his mind. It would make a really funny published essay at some point in the future.

I'd better get to work enjoying my morning coffee and get those errands done before it's time to watch the football game. As always, GO CATS!

Another Visitor, then Going Home

I'm up early, having some coffee before we get on the road. We need to be through DC before the morning rush hours start. Being caught in the morning traffic here on the Capital Beltway is not a place for a girl from Kentucky.

Last night Mike and I had dinner with Jeff Hughes, another friend from Kentucky. He was in town for the same NIH study section as Mike Jay. Jeff was a student of mine quite a few years ago and was a faculty member at Florida (yes, the dreaded Gators) for a long time. He recently took a job with Roche in New Jersey. It was fun to see him and hear about what it is like to work in the drug industry these days. We went to LaPorta's, had some excellent food, a few drinks and listened to music.

This morning we are heading home. Mike has to begin his teaching block for medical students next week. He worked hard during his month as a house husband (not just taking care of me) but also updating his lectures and handouts for the semester. He is taking the car home since I won't need it, and I am riding along so he doesn't have to travel the 540 miles alone. I will fly back on Sunday . I am not looking forward to the drive. I have decided that West Virginia, particularly along I-79, is the most God-forsaken road I have ever travelled. But we have some books on tape to help pass the time.

I am looking forward to dinner with John and Brittany this evening at one of our favorite Lexington restaurants and seeing how everything looks at home.

It's great to have company

Mike and I have been looking forward to a visit from North Carolinians, Mike and Susan Jay. To me they are still Kentuckians. I understand that during basketball season, they fly their UK flag--Wildcats Forever!

We ate at The Wharf and had some great seafood. Mike is in town for an NIH study section meeting at the Hilton--just two blocks from us. Once again, it is a small world. That seems to be a theme of my sabbatical experience.

We got to catch up on what is happening in their family. Steven has started a post-doc at Harvard. This follows a PhD at Yale. Pretty strong credentials for the job market. He knew both the graduate student who was killed at Yale as well as the guy accused of the killing. Okay, I've got to say it again--it's a small world.......

Susan spent the summer at the Finger Lakes in New York and is considering giving up the life of leisure for a part-time job. I'm hoping she will return for a weekend visit later during my time in Alexandria so we can do some sightseeing together. We are going to meet for a cup of coffee in the morning so I can wish her happy birthday.

Who is out there?

If you are following my blog, I would appreciate an occasional comment. We all need positive reinforcement! Thanks to Melody who has posted a few comments. I think you have to have a gmail account to post something. Look at it this way. You will have a throwaway email account to use when you sign up for stuff but don't want to clog up your real email with lots of junk mail.

A sliver of hope

I have spent the day reading literature and working on a short project proposal to share with my colleagues at AACP headquarters tomorrow. I was beginning to feel like my head would explode from all of the thoughts I had stuffed inside, so I took a break to see what was going on in the world of the internet. Much to my delight, I see a report that the flu is rampant on the UF campus and a few players were affected during the UF-UT game over the weekend (maybe an explanation for the closer than expected outcome). Is it possible that Tim Tebow could be at less than full strength on Saturday? Probably not. He is superhuman. If all the receivers are ill, could Tim throw the ball and then run down the field to catch it also? I know tht is illegal for other players, but surely the referees would let Tim do it.

I will follow the kentuckysportsradio. com closely this week. Hope springs eternal.

The world keeps getting smaller

Yesterday we wanted to watch the UK-UL game so we headed down King Street in Old Alexandria where all of the restaurants are located. We wandered into Bugsy's Sports Bar, owned by a former professinal hockey player. They had the game on one of their many screens. We sat down, ordered a beer, and immediately noticed a family of four right next to us--wearing Louisville Cardinals T-shirts!!! They were very nice (although misguided sports fans). After a few minutes of talking (Frank, both Mike and I engaged them in conversation), we found out that the wife is from Frankfort and they are living in Alexandria because the husband is stationed at the Pentagon. He is an Air Force pilot who flies the C17. So we talked not only about UK, U of L and Kentucky, but also about Air Force stuff. He told us that he flew a flyover at an Academy football game a few years ago.

The family left at half-time because the two small children were getting restless and we settled down to watch the second half. Of course, the third quarter was a disaster. We were getting upset and making some distressed noises. A guy who kept looking over at us finally asked if we were from Kentucky. When we said yes, he told us he was a graduate of the UK law school and asked if I knew Will Vincent (for those who don't know, he just finished a UK pharmacy residency). Before long, another couple sitting a few tables over said they were from Somerset and the husband was a UK graduate.

When the game was over and we recovered from the near heart attack, we mosied down the street to The Fish Market so Mike could have some oysters (yuck!). We watched part of the Tennessee-Florida game among others on the 8 screens. But since it was not possible for both teams to lose (my preferred outcome), we went home at half-time.

It was a great day. Not only did we have a good time and great weather, but UK and Ohio State both had victories.

Sunday was a quiet day for me. Mike played in a golf scramble with Ken Miller and Buzz Kerr. He had a great time and they unexpectedly finished second. He came home with lots of "stuff".

It was my first day alone at the condo, so I got a taste of what it will be like when Mike goes home on Friday.

Boo hoo It's UK-UL football and I'm not there

I am glued to my laptop reading the morning game coverage - John Clay et al - and thinking about my friends and students already at the stadium tailgating. And if I know Frank, he is already packing everything up and heading for his seat. According to the paper, UK has a chance to do something they have never done in football (again)--beat UL for the Governor's Cup three straight times.
There are lots of sports bars around here but I don't know if anyone will be showing the game. If all else fails, I will watch on ESPN 360 on the laptop.

When UK-UL is over, I definitely want to watch UT-Florida. Normally, in this game, I don't want either team to win and try to figure out a scenario where both teams will be unhappy when the game is over. (Sorry Mikael and Mandy) But this year I am rooting for Florida. Lane Kiffen can't be too smart to have made the comments he made about the mighty Gators and give them so much time to think about it.

In any case, it is September and that means football in the SEC. What could be better? GO CATS!!!

P.S. Please note that I avoided any mention of Ohio State.

What a great deal

I have only been in residence at AACP for three weeks. Today, I got to attend the annual celebration to show appreciation to the staff for all of the hard work preparing for and executing the annual meeting. I felt a little guilty (not too much) about participating since I didn't do any of the work. Then I remembered that I attended the meeting and I worked hard too! So I enjoyed myself thoroughly without any guilt. We went to the National Harbor in Maryland and had a clambake. I'm still learning my way around so it was interesting to see things on the other side of the river. The bottom line is that I only worked half-a-day today. What a great deal!

I saw the notice on my UK email today that Mikael Jones has been named the ACCP New Educator for 2010. Congratulations Mikael for the well-deserved recognition.

Nothing else to report--only one more day in the work week. It has certainly gone by quickly.

A meeting is a meeting

Today there was an all staff meeting. As I listened to the discussion, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities in the meetings here with our faculty meetings at UK. There is an agenda that looks quite reasonable and it is assumed that the meeting will end on time. However, somewhere along the way, the discussion gets out of hand and the meeting goes on longer than planned.

Interestingly, the majority of the conversation was the annual meeting debriefing. I noted that faculty evaluations of meetings have a lot of similarities to our own student course evaluations. Those who have something good to say are usually quiet and those who have complaints, often about a single incident, are quite vocal. In many cases, half of the respondents complain about something that the other half of those surveyed really liked--living proof that you cannot please "all of the people all of the time." It is hard to focus on the bigger picture and the overall themes that come through in the evaluations without getting bogged down in detail. And it is even more difficult not to take the comments personally.

I remember that my favorite critical comment from a student evaluation went something like this - "I don't know what Dr P does for this class. She has her rotation students do all her work." This comment referred to an audience response exercise that I had the students prepare and use in class. We probably worked 4-6 hours on the exercise (about twice the time I would have spent if I did it by myself). Something went wrong during the hour because the students changed a question and forgot to rekey the answer. Out of approximately 45 class meetings, 90% of the comments referred to this day.

When the staff explained why some of the decisions were made in planning the meeting in Boston, it was easy to see that there are a lot of factors involved in planning the meeting that attendees do not see. As always, lack of communication leads to complaints and conflict. We experience the same thing in the classroom. It all looks so easy to the students who don't understand what went in to the preparation for just one class session. I guess we all need to be a little more tolerant when dealing with issues outside of our own expertise--or at least ask why before complaining.

It's a small world

It has been suggested that I am a bad blogger and should post more often. It isn't easy for me to blog because it seems somewhat self-absorbed to think that other people have nothing better to do than read about my life. But I will try to make more frequent posts from now on.

Today's topic is my latest reminder about how small the world can seem at times. On Saturday, I decided to get an earlier flight out of Phoenix and get back to DC a few hours earlier. As I was waiting for the 7AM shuttle to the airport, I started talking to another traveller waiting for the same shuttle. (Yes, Frank, I did engage.) As it turned out, he was a former UK resident. I think he said R89. We talked a bit about what is going on at the COP. When we got in the van, the third traveller turned out to be Trudy Banta, the assessment guru from IUPUI. She asked where we were from and when I said Lexington, KY, she told me that she grew up in Lexington and went to Henry Clay High School. So the three of us spent the rest of the trip discussing Lexington.

Of course, my plane was late and as we taxied out, they discovered a mechanical problem. I missed my connection in Detroit and had more than 2 hours to wait for another flight. I was sitting in the SkyClub watching the Michigan-Notre Dame game and saw a man watching from a distance. I invited him to sit down and watch the game (another engagement!). We started talking and I found out he is a retired history professor from the US Military Academy at West Point. We talked about the military academies for a while and he asked if my family had seen the series, Band of Brothers. Certain members of my family have seen it multiple times and we own the DVD too. Winters (I can't remember his first name), one of the main characters in the story, is a good friend of his and they wrote a book together about Winters called Beyond Band of Brothers. Another coincidence!

The evening ended badly as I arrived back at the condo in DC just in time to see Ohio State embarrassed once again on national TV.

Back to Work

After my travels to Colorado, I attended the Curriculum Summit in HOT Phoenix with a team from UK. It was 104 degrees during the day although it wasn't much of a problem since we were in air-conditioned meeting rooms from 8:30 to 6 each day. As usual at this type of meeting, we found that we are at the norm or ahead of the curve in many areas. But there are always thought provoking ideas on how to improve. Since our college is currently involved in preparing to move into a new building, welcoming ACPE for an accreditation visit in October and searching for a new dean, I think curriculum revision will be waiting for a little longer.

This is my first day back in the office in Alexandria. I'm glad I started here a few days early. Otherwise, it would feel like starting over again. So, it is back to my literature searching and getting my research project underway. I think my next post will talk about the differences between working at an association and a college of pharmacy.

Greetings from Colorado

After only 4 days in the office, I headed to Colorado Springs for Parents' Weekend. I'm glad I started early at AACP so that I could get settled and be ready to accomplish something on my return. It was kind of like the first day of school. I had to learn my way around--where is the bathroom, the copy machine, how to login to my computer, meet the staff, etc. I spent the majority of my time doing literature searching to date. Hopefully, this will help me focus my project. However, the more I read, the more ideas I have floating around in my head.

Yesterday, we went to class with Chris. I was disappointed that he only had one class--Law for Commanders. I really enjoy going to class at USAFA. They have a lot of advantages over UK. There are usually 15-20 students per class. Everything is electronic. Students have access to all their assignments and exams (called GRs) on the first day of classes. Students are expected to read (horrors!) and held accountable by being called on in class. The session we attended was definitely an active learning class. The instructors reviewed what constitutes a lawful order (it was actually quite interesting). Then each family had a different situation. We had to compose a lawful order, or so we thought, and give it to our cadet. Each cadet analyzed the order according to the critieria they discussed and decided if it was truly lawful. We could have filmed the class and shown it as an example of appropriate active learning. Today is the opening season football game for the Falcons. Imagine our students going to the game in uniform, and no alcohol. They also have the most awesome flyovers I have ever seen.

Getting started

For someone who has lived in the same house and worked at the same job for 25 years, packing your bags and heading to Alexandria,VA is a daunting proposition. But it is also an exciting chance to broaden horizons and develop new skills--not to mention sampling what the greater DC area has to offer.



The first challenge was getting here. Mike and I left on Wednesday evening with a plan to travel about 3 hours and spend the night in W Va. This would get us to the DC area before rush hour on Thursday. What we didn't anticipate is the "No Vacancy" situation we encountered starting just west of Charleston. We ended up driving to Morgantown where we got the last room at a Hampton Inn at 3AM. On a positive note, the remaining trip on Thursday got us to Alexandria about 2PM.



The AACP condo is comfortable and having living quarters so close to the office that are provided at no expense to the scholar-in-residence is quite a benefit. We have solved the most pressing problems of getting the right set of keys, access to the mailbox and locating local grocery stores and restaurants. I am, however, in withdrawal from TV because the cable will not be connected until September 3rd. This presents an opportunity for extra reading in the evening (or exploring the Alexandria nightlife). I'm sure you can guess which option I have chosen.

In the next post, I will describe how I spent the first weekend and what I have been doing during my first days in the office.