chicago '08

for some reason when we rented this place, we didn't pay attention to the fact that it's heated by oil. I have only had gas and electric heat in past rentals, and the giant pig-shaped oil barrel in the basement is daunting. it is going to cost, if Abe can get the deal squared away for us, $2.25 a gallon. the woman at the oil company told me to anticipate using about 600 gallons this winter. good lord, I am going to start looking for faculty positions in the caribbean for next year.

don't be too jealous, but our pizza tasting party is this weekend. some of the other fellows and I have been getting very dorky about it. I am in charge of developing the assessment measure. after a quick review of the research literature, it appears that no standard instrument exists. there was, however, a consumer reports evaluation of fast food-type pizza, and I plan to steal their definitions. we are even going so far as to have a blinded rating system and a measure of test-retest reliability. I proposed an alternate forms assessment, such as a calzone, but I was shot down. it's fun to work with other geeks. I'll be sure to post the graphs after we finish combing through our data.