Another work at home Thursday

It's another work-at-home Thursday and I have a list of service tasks to get through today (reviewing promotion and tenure files, reading a thesis from another U, writing a letter of recommendation), plus some minor class prep, and hopefully a little research time. D had school on time today (they had a 2-hour delay on Tuesday), so I have my whole day this time. I have a few random things I want to write about, so I guess I better whip out the bullets:

• I am so frustrated with hearing how people "don't trust" President Obama. What has he lied about that makes people draw the conclusion that he can't be trusted? I am not blindly in favor of everything he does or says (especially his comment last night about building more nuclear power plants), but I don't get this whole lack-of-trust thing. I am just tired of people shooting down every idea he has and everything he says just because he's the one who said it- I really didn't hear anything that controversial in last night's speech. I don't see how anyone can deny that he inherited a real mess and it will take time to make changes and for the economy to improve- he's only been in office for one year.
• The situation in Haiti is so horrible and depressing. It's only been 16 days since the earthquake and it's practically fallen out of the news already. It will take years for the country and people to recover and rebuild and I hope that all this generosity doesn't drop off too soon. And this is another issue I've been hearing criticized by some people- comments to the effect of "why should we help those people"? Because they are people? And they were already living in desperate poverty BEFORE the earthquake? Are they less important because they aren't Americans? If you want to help people here in the U.S., by all means, do so! But why criticize helping people in other parts of the world?
• In more local news, I have been trying to make my big non-majors intro class more interactive this semester. I think it's been going pretty well, but now I have the issue of annoying people being in class (since they do in-class work they can't skip as easily). Yesterday, I had to tell some giggling, talking girls to be quiet and another guy to stop texting. I'm feeling more comfortable calling people out in class and almost feel like I would feel OK kicking someone out if they are being disruptive (which I've never done). We'll see how they are tomorrow.
• I don't think I blogged about this, but when we were in Warm State over Xmas, I had a bad experience with a pet-sitting service. My cat's water bowl was bone dry when we got home and they had been there that morning. They also didn't stay as long as they promised (a neighbor told me) and didn't refill the cat litter to the level that we keep it. I wrote a letter with my payment and asked for the key back. They finally sent it back on Tuesday with a letter saying that I'm the first person to ever complain and explaining how I was wrong and they were right. What kind of customer service is that? No real apology. No admission of wrong-doing. Wow. I was livid, but didn't write back since I don't want to deal with them any more.

So that's what's been going on around here. D has been having her frequent stomach aches again, so we are going to take her to a specialist in early March. She's on a healthy part of the cycle right now, so I hope it lasts. I hate when she doesn't feel well. OK- off to work (but maybe some sudoku first!)