I have thirty-two messages on my machine. Messages from good, friendly people whose calls I really need to return. But the honest truth is that I've been so crazy busy lately, there just isn't enough time. I've been meaning to call my brother back for, oh, about a week now. Yeah, in fact, tomorrow will be a week from the time I said, "I'm running out the door-- can I call you back?". All of which is to say that if I haven't called, it's not because I don't want to talk to you. It's because I'm buried under lectures about Progressivism and grant applications that really ought to say "please give me your cash."

Me: "Do you realize that someday one of us will be able to say to the other, 'remember when we used to live in Gainesville?'"

John: "Yeah, and then the other will say, 'oh, god, don't remind me!'"

I've never been a good shopper. Scratch that. I love shopping for other people. But when it comes to shopping for myself, I completely suck. I see loads of things I want, but I convince myself they're too expensive, or that I don't really need them, and on and on. And when I get a coupon or-- heaven forbid-- a gift certificate, I'm lucky to use it before it expires. I keep looking for that one thing that I want more than all others. Case in point: in August, I received a $5 promotional certificate from Amazon for pre-ordering Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And I was so excited, because there are lots of things I want from Amazon, right? Except I wanted to find the one thing that would really make the most out of that that $5 certificate. So the other day, I checked the certificate because I was going to start thinking about spending it. (Not spending it right then, certainly! That would be madness! But thinking about spending it.) And guess what? It had expired. It was good only for the month of August.

I make no secret of the fact that I adore a good cinnamon roll. Since I left Manhattan, though, I haven't been able to find one that was halfway decent. Last weekend, I decided it was time to try my own hand at it. The problem, though, is that most are made with yeast and, thus, take longer to make. I wanted a recipe that could be pulled together quickly. Fortunately, I was able to find such a recipe in a back issue of Cook's Illustrated. I started around 8:30 on Sunday morning and about an hour later, they were ready to eat. Fabulous!

Quick Cinnamon Buns

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, for pan

Cinnamon-Sugar Filling
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 cup raisins (optional)

Biscuit Dough
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for surface
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Icing
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Pour 1 tablespoon melted butter in 9-inch nonstick cake pan; brush to coat pan. Spray wire rack with nonstick cooking spray and place a sheet of parchment underneath the rack; set aside
2. To make cinnamon-sugar filling: Combine sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with fork or fingers until mixture resembles wet sand; set filling mixture aside.
3. To make biscuit dough: Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk and 2 tablespoons melted butter in measuring cup or small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until liquid is absorbed (dough will look very shaggy), about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy.
4. Pat dough with hands into 12 by 9-inch rectangle. Brush dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2-inch border of plain dough around edges. Sprinkle raisins on top, if desired. Press filling firmly into dough. Using bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen dough from work surface. Starting at long side, roll dough, pressing lightly to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal. Roll log seam-side down and cut evenly into eight pieces. With hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal open edges and keep filling in place. Place one roll in center of prepared nonstick pan, then place remaining seven rolls around perimeter of pan. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter.
5. Bake until edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Use spatula to loosen buns from pan; without separating, slide buns out of pan onto greased cooling rack. Cool about 5 minutes before icing.
6. To make icing and finish buns: While buns are cooling, whisk cream cheese and buttermilk in large nonreactive bowl until thick and smooth (mixture will look like cottage cheese at first). Sift confectioners' sugar over; whisk until smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds. Spoon glaze evenly over buns; serve immediately.

Note: I actually have an averse reaction to buttermilk (who knew?!?), so the next time I make these, I'll try skim. Also note that since you use 8 tablespoons of melted butter for the entire recipe, it's easiest just to melt it all in advance and measure it out as you go.

After a few other history bloggers did this career test, I thought I'd give it a whirl myself. Here, for your enjoyment, are my top twenty most suitable careers:

1. Historian
2. Political Aide
3. Professor
4. Archivist
5. Corporate Trainer
6. ESL Teacher
7. Writer
8. Researcher
9. Critic
10. Activist
11. Public Policy Analyst
12. Artist
13. Communications Specialist
14. Stenographer
15. Music Teacher / Instructor
16. Announcer
17. Anthropologist
18. Library Technician
19. Librarian
20. Lobbyist

(I personally liked how "ESL Teacher" made the list, even though I know no other foreign language.) If you'd like to take the test yourself, go to Career Cruising, then enter username "nycareers" and password "landmark."

Etsy and Emily. Emily and Etsy. Could there be a more beautiful love story? I think not. I first got acquainted with Etsy in July, when I bought these t-shirts, from CircularAccessories:

and this necklace, from Curly Girl Glass:

More recently, I bought this print, from joom:

and another pair of earrings, from Lunasa Designs (though I can't find a photo-- you'll just have to trust me when I tell you they're lovely).

Most recently, I purchased this necklace, again from Curly Girl Glass:

And I'm completely in love with it! I've long been looking for an initial necklace, but everything I found was waaaaay too fussy for me. This is perfect! My love affair with Etsy continues.

Along with the How to Get to Heaven from Kansas brochure, my friend Amy sent this:

I personally like how the small child on the right is feeding blueberries to a bear, while the small child on the left in the distance pets a lion while geese hang out nearby.

Courtesy of Amy:

First sentence: "More important than living in KANSAS is where you will live forever." Damn, and I thought it was a retirement plan!

Jon Stewart doesn't come on until 11:00. How can I be expected to teach the next day (let alone make it to an early meeting) when I have to stay up until midnight every night watching the Stewart/Colbert hour? Clearly I need to move to the west coast, where you can drink a beer at 4:00 and watch Monday Night Football. If football is on at 4, then surely The Daily Show is on at 8. Right? Right?

Right. Portland, here I come!

On the first day of class, I told my students that I'm deaf in one ear. I figured that was better than winding up with a repeat of this situation. And I told them that if I ever heard them incorrectly, or didn't hear them at all, they should simply repeat themselves louder. So yesterday in class, a girl raised her hand and asked a question, which I had to ask her to repeat because she had mumbled. And then she said, "OH! I'M SORRY, I FORGOT ABOUT YOUR HEARING!" Which made me feel like I was about ninety years old.

When I was living at home, my mom would come home from teaching and collapse on the couch. She'd take a nap for a couple of hours, then get up and go on with the day. She'd go to bed early-ish, then get up in the middle of the night to grade. And I never understood why she didn't just grade when she got home from teaching. I mean, wouldn't that spare her the pain of grading in the wee hours of the morning? And now, now that I am teaching my own class, I understand. Your brain is freaking fried when you get done teaching. I've been done for a couple of hours now and all I've been able to do is eat a fudgesicle and write a blog post. I have zero brain activity.

I'm happy to report that the Labor Day weekend painting extravaganza went very well! I'm thrilled with the results. The office isn't quite finished yet, as I've still got a few things to hang (like my clock) and things to buy (curtains for the closets), but the bulk of the work is done. Let's remember back to the way it used to be, shall we?

Wait, wait. That was before we bought the house. How about this:

Much better. Still with the ugly paint color (it looks beige here, but trust me: it was a pale pastel yellow), but at least sans the Disney! Theme!

Now, after this weekend's hustle and bustle, it looks like this:

And this:

(Yes, I have a lot of books. And lots of office supplies. Picture white curtains in front of the closets. Then the red-- which I love-- in the closets will be tucked behind the white, but the red clock will give a hint of what's behind! Martha would be proud!)

And this:

The first two pictures make the color look a bit more baby blue than it really is, but the last shows it more true. It's Marlboro Blue, from Benjamin Moore. How did I find such a kick-ass color, you might ask? Well, I found it on The Internet, of course! I went to flickr, then to the Pretty Organized group, then found THIS glorious photo, from shutterbean. And I knew it was love at first sight. What do you think of the results?

I was an early reader and a voracious reader. I think I read Jane Eyre before I could walk. (No, not really.) The upside of being such a young, book-devouring person is that you develop a lifelong love affair with reading. The downside (other than this one) is that when you're that young, some words don't get imprinted on your brain with the correct pronunciation. You catch the meaning of the word, in context, but the pronunciation escapes you. Witness: bedraggled. Bedraggled, of course, means disheveled or unkempt. And it's pronounced... well, look it up yourselves! I don't have the ability to reproduce that funky upside-down "e" that I'd need to type the pronunciation. But, as a youngster, I thought that it certainly was pronounced like "bed raggled." As in, "I look a mess this morning-- my bed really raggled me!" (Which, if you've seen me in the mornings, you'd know that it looks like my bed really did raggle me-- whatever "to raggle" means.)