I'm a recipe tester!

I'm so psyched. I finally was able to register to be a recipe tester for Leite's Culinaria; previous attempts resulted in the message, "Sorry, we have all the testers we need." The current evaluation period actually ends this Monday, but I still found two recipes (meatloaf and a salad) that I could probably squeeze in this weekend. And if I maintain this pace of 2 recipes per month, in 6 months, I can put being a tester on my resume!

This partially makes up for the crazy week I've been having. Last Monday, I cancelled the evening class because it seemed that so many people couldn't make it or prepare a draft of their paper for peer review. Then I got an email from a student who thanked me for cancelling class, but wish she knew that before she stayed up all night writing her draft! Then yesterday, my schedule was completely thrown off by a student who is so anxious about her performance in class that she would consider dropping the course if she knew she would get a B.

As usual, literature has help keep me afloat. Last Sunday, I had a wonderful bookclub meeting about Runaway, even though I wasn't crazy about the book. Then yesterday, I talked with a faculty member about poetry because I want to develop the skills to read and appreciate poetry. Given how obsessed I am with the structure of students' papers, poetry should be a natural for me. Finally, I'm actually almost done with the first part of Don Quixote. Am seriously thinking of taking a break from it and picking up another classic I have never read, Madame Bovary.

Meanwhile, Nikita's vocabulary is expanding exponentially. Of course, by now, he supposed to have 2-word combinations, but he has to start somewhere. Here are his latest words (some may be repeats).

bubbe: bubble
babri: bubliki (Russian bagel)
caca: #2
kipki: key
kupka: cover
kupki: key (note the transposition in letters!)
kari kari: sharik (Russian for balloon)
papki: pomodor (Russian for tomato); could possibly be Pamper (diaper) as well
pee pee: #1
tik tik: clock

And lots of animal sounds:
oooo: owl
woao woao: dog
miao miao: cat
kak kak: frog (in Russian, "kwark, kwark")
moo: cow

And new signs for bird, and possibly elephant. Igor and I have recently woke up talking about the letters he can't pronounce: f, l, v, and a bunch of Russian letters.