Under the Stairs

Ouch- No really ouch!

2010-06-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

So let’s be honest- I will be 35 in July- so the thought that after a good two years of sitting on my ass I could just get right back into working was obviously a misjudgement. But I didn’t think I would be this sore! As you know my fitness plan was derailed by a nasty cold for a week- but this past week- oh I have been so very good. I did cardio four days, Pilates three times and swimming with the bug four days this week- including her first swim lesson. Now I can barely move. It’s not like I really over did it- I mean I walked on the treadmill and rode a stationary bike for an hour (30 minutes of each) and I didn’t take it too fast because let’s face it I have not really done much besides some yoga for the last couple of years- and I stretched before and after- but oh dear god am I feeling my age this morning. This exercise thing is really making me face my age- and the fact that the bug is getting older as well. Let me explain.

The Y has childcare for members as they work out for $2 an hour- which is awesome because the excuse I have been using for the last two years is- when I have the time to work out I do not have childcare. This totally solved my problem, but I was worried about leaving the bug in a room with some other kids and strangers. I mean the kid has hardly even had babysitters that are not related to her. And she spends her days with her dad and me- so I wondered how she would take being dropped off for an hour. Of course I also hoped this would be good for her, because while I suffer through kindermusic so that she can get some social time in, I thought maybe she was at a point where she needed some more interaction with other kids. But I worried she would cry- or worse be an absolute brat- all while I was walking briskly and trying not to sing Glee songs outloud. But to my surprise she was a perfect angel- seriously the child care ladies loved her and went on and on about what a good girl she was- I thought maybe they should come home and see this kid in action when she refuses to take a nap and then throws her dinner on the dog- not to the dog- on the dog. I warned them when we dropped her off for the first time that she didn’t go to daycare or anything- so if she started to get cranky then they could get me and I would just take her home. But when I came back an hour later with two grubby dollars in my hand the bug was lining up plastic dinosaurs. They went on and on about how good she was, they couldn’t believe that she didn’t go to some sort of outside care because she played with the other kids and totally entertained herself with toys. I was a bit shocked and actually so were they. One nice lady was telling me how most stay at home moms (dude I am not explaining our very complicated situation-) have a very hard time working out because their kids don’t do well in this setting. But not my kid- and the second day she ran into the room without a backward glance at me. Thanks kiddo. Between that and the overwhelming cries of “I do” that I hear all day I think she will be leaving for college soon.

And me- well I am having to face my age as well. As I have laid on the couch and whined to whomever will listen about how sore I am I couldn’t help but think back to a time when I did more than walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and never had a problem- of course I was 16. I know it is probably hard for you to image me as an athlete- I know. I mean I was never the best but I was fine for high school. I played volleyball and softball- I also did dance and baton twirling ( and yep I twirled fire- it is awesome). And I was in good shape- now 15 years later I have post baby abs and a real reluctance to take the stairs anywhere. In the last few years I have done some yoga and Pilates- but not consistently or hard, so now I am paying the price- even my fingertips hurt. I was reading somewhere (don’t ask me where- I read a lot of stuff I can’t remember it all) that you should think of a goal so that you don’t slack off from working out. Now something I have always wanted to do is learn to run- like really run. I have always wanted to be one of those people who were all “I’m going for a run” but I never have been. Even when I was in good shape I dreaded the Presidential fitness test where I had to run a mile- like seriously dreaded it- because I could never run the full mile. But my secret wish has always been to be a runner. Maybe that could be a goal for me- I am not sure how to actually do this- but I’m an academic, I’ll read some books!

It's all so quiet

2010-06-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am in love with this video- have you seen it? It's like Bjork but less crazy. Now I want to go to Iceland because how could it not be awesome?

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Heather

2010-05-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

It all started with some heather.

This spindly purple plant that just sat on a makeshift end-cap in the garden section of Lowes. We had gone there for some hanging plants for the front porch- but the heather came home with us too. I know nothing about gardening, or flowers and I have successfully killed every green thing that I have brought into my house, but for some reason I wanted that heather to come home with me. We had some planters in the garage that were left by the previous owners, still occupied by dead and brittle plants and I envisioned sitting on the front porch with Lilly and replanting that Heather, recycling what might have been trash, pushing my hands into the dirt and feeling it ooze between my fingers. Maybe taking a break from intellectualizing, get back to some basics. But a question kept lingering in my mind- is this me? Am I person who gardens? I guess the answer is yep.

Anyone who knows me knows that when I set my mind to something I do it; some people call this trait stubborn- I like to call it persistence- I mean I am the person who taught herself to knit from a book. And I never do anything half-way, so I also bought a little package of gardening tools-

which matching pink Dora ones of course so that I could appease my small helper. Add an appropriate sized watering can for us each and we were on our way. First of course, Lilly had to skip around the yard-

hopefully wearing herself out for a nap. And then we had to play with the plotting soil for a while before we actually used it to plant anything. It was messy, but fun.

We didn’t forget the hanging plants- I think they looked great on the front porch (yes I said looked, here’s a hint- don’t get attached to them).

And that heather-which I thought I would put on the porch on either side of the steps to the house actually went down into the yard where it would get a bit more sun.

And then it was time to give them a little drink of water-, which included Lilly watering some dandelions, over and over again.

She really enjoyed the watering of the dandelions, which gave us a small flood near the porch. But hey we had puddles without the rain, so I call it a win!

The heather, which I though would be thorny, is actually very soft and tough it seems, especially with the way my assistant handled the potting.

I am convinced now, of course that I need to tackle the flower beds in the front yard which haven’t been touched in, I would guess, years. But the front yard is pretty shady- so we will have to pick something that can grow without a lot of direct sunlight. I have also decided to dry a raised bed garden in the backyard, maybe grow some veggies and the next project which is going to be the back deck with some container gardening. I don’t know I guess I am still trying to figure out what I want to do to fill up my time this summer- you know besides the two year old.

Snow Day in 70 Degrees

2010-03-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

For the last week we have had the most beautiful weather, in the 60's and 70's, gorgeous spring weather. This is strange because two weeks ago we were playing in snow. So in celebration of the final arrival of spring, I wanted to share the memories of our last day of snow. And for all my midwestern friends, sorry to bring this up and also don't worry- it will get colder before it gets warmer around here. And late May early June is always cold and wet, so probably don't come visit then.

Lilly of course loved the snow, and she looked fabulous in her awesome pink snowsuit that I found for $25 at Marshalls!

Of course she could barely walk in all of the layer of clothes we had her wrapped in. Of course it did not stop her from rolling around in the white stuff.

But I did manage to get some other pictures of something other than Lilly in between telling her to stop eating the snow already!

But all bets were off when the sled came out. Jeff is particularly proud of the sled which he found at the 217th place we looked for one after we got the first of lots of snow back in December. I think he was just excited to have a yard that we could sled in.

And she made her dad drag her up the very small hill more times than I could count- and then demanded that she be pushed down the hill on her sled while she yelled "weee!!" and the held up the rope as soon as she got to the bottom saying "again!!"

Eventually, pink cheeks and soaking wet socks took us inside for some hot chocolate for adults and chocolate milk for Lilly.

It was a great day, and I got to wear my new pink wellies.

Temptation

2010-02-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

We are busy painting and arranging and arranging again at the new house we have found that some of our things that were so perfect at the old house are not working so well at the new house. Specifically our dining room table. Now as I have fallen in love with this ranch, you know the house style I said that I did not want, I have also fallen in love with just going with the style and not trying to make everything look like I am decorating an old Victorian. This is our dining space,

right off of the kitchen and leading to the family room (although you have the backwards view here). Our large heavy and dark dining room table is taking up the whole space and frankly looks a bit out of place. I have been trying to make it work and honestly we could set up a more formal dining space in the large front room, but honestly I like the dining space so close to the kicthen, it makes feeding Lilly so much easier. And my design philosophy is pretty, but a pretty were you can spill.

I am not a big fan of really pretty houses that look perfect but don't look like children live there and I wonder where they play. I want a place where Lilly can run free and nothing is really off limits and if it is then it is high up. My house needs to absorb spilled sippy cups and goldfish cracker crumbs, so a formal dining room would just not be practical. But we totally happened upon a solution, and what a modern mid-century solution it is.

As we were walking through Target there it sat in all of it's shiny glory. It is perfect, a perfect size, perfect design and perfect price. We left without it so we could discuss what we already knew, should it come home with us? My resistance was only that we just bought our old dining room tables about a year and a half ago, wouldn't it be a waste. Then Jeff convinced me with the perfect argument. If we get the new table then the old one can become my craft table in the basement. Sold!

So it looks like we will be given into temptation, and it feels so good!

The 2nd Bithday arrives with a wimper and a bang....

2010-02-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

And I mean that literally. Today’s birthday was a bit anti-climatic after spending her birthday eve in urgent care with what is called “nursemaid’s elbow,” which is basically a dislocation of the elbow joint. This she accomplished when she tried to yank her arm away to go find something much more interesting than paint samples at Lowes. Fortunately there was an urgent care like right across the street and with very few tears the doctor popped it back into place. Which of course meant that today, Lilly’s second birthday was a little less dramatic. She had a fabulous Ariel dress to wear but decided that it needed some color in the form of a crayon. No troubles though for her intrepid mother who just threw another dress on her and out the door we went to school where daddy had a meeting. Ever the thoughtful girl Lilly insisted that we stop to bring all her friends at school some cupcakes, which of course we did and Lilly only ate three herself. Well she ate one whole cuppycake and then the frosting off of two others. After a very quick nap she was up and at ‘em but required another clothing change as she insisted “tutu momma.” The tutu did not exactly go with her pretty dress and the fact that she was trying to rip it from her body meant that we got an entire new outfit constructed around the tutu. Next on the agenda was a good amount of time spent down in the basement with her birthday gift, a giant train table. I mean really it is huge, and really we were going to the get the smaller one, but then the bigger one was on sale for the same price, so yeah you know, she got the big one. Choo-Choo play was followed by a dinner of spaghetti, Lilly’s favorite and of course some cake and ice cream, which we all enjoyed, and Lilly even blew out her own candles!

Now last year I made a slide show of her last year and I wrote her a letter, something I would like to do again this year but I have to admit that the time got away from me, so that will have to come this weekend. But for now some pictures of a happy two year old with a fully functioning elbow and chocolate cake!

The begining.....

2010-02-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

So this is my new house, a rambling ranch that now needs to be decorated. I may have started my new project. Right now I am thinking mid century modern by way of shabby chic (do they call it that anymore?). I am not sure where to start- but the still packed boxes need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. This should be quite the journey.

Baby it's cold outside....again

2010-02-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

I so did not move to West Virginia to brave a snowstorm, if I wanted that I would have stayed in Illinois. But here we are again waiting for a storm that is supposed to keep us all indoors for awhile. And we have nothing in the house. Also my baby girl will be two in two weeks, how is that even possible? How did she get so big so fast? I don’t know and I am not sure that I like it. I mean she is supposed to stay my baby, not start telling me “I do.” And yet here she is all wanting to do stuff herself and all that. Again I am not happy. Also she is talking like crazy this past month, with that adorable little lisp that toddlers have saying “pease mommy” when she wants something and I am a sucker for it every damn time! But for now she is sleeping and I am thinking about Spring and some warm weather, so I will leave you with one of the pictures from Florida that encapsulates how cute that kid has been this week. Enjoy.

Not so scary...

2009-11-06T19:23:00.000-08:00

At least our halloween wasen't, I think that's because we do not get trick or treaters. But that will soon change, well next year, because we are moving at the end of the month, yes after the Disney trip, the weekend after Thanksgiving. Why? Because we are crazy people obviously!So in the next 11 days, if you are keeping track, we need to get ready for our Florida trip to Disney and pack up the house so that everything is good to go when we get back. Yeah this should be fun.

But Halloween 2009 was fun, since Lilly is to small to go house to house we took her to the mall, who awesome people that they are, every year open the doors to trick or treaters and all of the stores stand outside and give away candy, which is awesome. This year they had a picture booth set up, so we took full advantage to get some great pictures of alice before she went down the rabbit hole. The costume was easy of course, we bought the Alice dress on our last trip to see Mickey, along with a Snow White and Cinderella dress, so I laid out all three and let the bug pick, Alice it was.

It's magic

2009-09-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

In celebration of the fact that we just booked out Walt Disney World vacation, and that fact that I neglected to share this pictures back in March when we got home from the last vacation, I am going to spend the countdown to Disney posting the pictures from last March. Enjoy!

Day one, we actually got into Orlando after a very long drive late the night before, but just crashed. The next morning we checked into the Polynesian, got a pimp daddy location (hey it pays to go there a lot) and headed out for some shopping at Downtown Disney. Lilly found the fountains and didn't want to leave. Jeff took these pictures. Oh and Lilly looks so small because, well she is, also she was 13 months.

A Ticket to Ride

2009-08-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago while we were in Illinois my dad convinced us that we should all head over to the County Fair, have some funnel cake, ride the Ferris Wheel and (as it turns out) marvel at some of the home grown fashion. Now as a younger kid I used to love the fair because I loved the rides, now as a grown up and a parent I love watching the kids love the rides. But I will not lie, I also love the funnel cakes.

Dad and Ethan in line for the big slide.

Ethan at the end of his ride.

Lilly coming down the big slide with Uncle Paul, she had a huge smile on her face and demanded more.

Waving bye bye as the Merry go round takes off

Lilly gets a ride from Grandpa

As my brothers family (minus baby Alexis) take a ride on the Ferris Wheel.

Dad and Paul take their lives in their hands as they ride something called a Tomahawk

While the rest of us enjoy the sites

And Lilly passed out

One more spin with my step mother and Ethan had had enough

In the end a fun time was had by all, we all went home with very full bellies and dreams of twinkling lights.

Pool Party

2009-08-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

So if you did not notice I redid the blog again, it is not that different, but it will allow me to post bigger pictures, which will be nice. But I did create a cool new header in Photoshop with the help of my husband, isn’t it cool? Anyway, enjoy the new layout.
A lot has been going on lately, namely a trip back to Illinois to visit with the family, and I have lots of awesome pictures from our trip. But first I thought I would first share Lilly’s first time with her new splash pad. Instead of a pool you attach the hose to this thing and it sprays water everywhere, she seemed to have a very good time. Enjoy!

Not Me Monday

2009-07-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

This is my first foray into Not Me Monday, but it sounded like fun. I have been reading the blog My Charming Kids for awhile, she is super fun and started this carnival, so head over there and check out what other people are saying.

I did not google information about hair growth in toddlers because I am not, as my husband insists, obsessed with the fact that my daughter has such little hair. Who would be that vain and shallow, definitely not me.
I have not been bribing my daughter with Oreo cookies to get down off of things she has climbed onto because I still am not allowed to lift her after my surgery, which would not be healthy and speak to my inability to ask for help, nope, not me.
I did not stay up too late last night watching the two part reunion of the Real Housewives of New Jersey and googling the “big secret” because I am so not too overly involved in reality shows just because I am on summer break. Those are the sort of things that English professor do not do, so I totally did not do that.
I did not let out a loud string of profanities when I dropped something heavy and pointy on my foot. Nope, not me. I totally did not do thing in front of Lilly and she totally did not find it hysterically funny. And I do not have nightmares in which Lilly yells out her first swear word in the middle of church, which is not one of the reasons we totally sit in the cry room. Nope that never happened.
I don’t love these two people more than anything in this world and I am totally not one lucky girl.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

2009-07-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

First that everyone for their thoughts and wishes as I recover from gallbladder surgery. The first few days were not fun, but I am totally on the mend now, only occasionally getting sore. But I am still not allowed to pick up Lilly for another three weeks and I think that more than anything may kill me.

So anyway last week before the whole getting stabbed in the gut four times, Jeff and I decided to take Lilly on her first trip of the summer to Columbus Zoo. Now that may sound far away cause it's in another state and stuff, but it's actually only about 2 hours and totally worth it. Jack Hanna took over the zoo a while ago and has done some amazing stuff with it and it is the closest zoo to us. We took Lilly twice last year when she was 4 and 5 months old. She seemed to enjoy it, but we knew that she would love it this year.

Our first stop was the petting zoo, which was funny because while Lilly loves to pet and love on our animals, she was not so sure about the goats. She liked them behind the fence,

but was not so sure when they were right there.

Jeff and I watched her closely because she tends to get grabby with animals, meaning she will grab a handful of fur and laugh and while our animals will let her, I was not sure how the goats would react, of course we had to get her close enough to the goats for anything to happen and Miss Lilly was not so sure about that.

but soon she decided to venture closer, which is when she dropped her paci in some unidentifable goat liquid, then she picked it up and tried to put it back in her mouth. I swear you have never seen two people move so fast.

Finally after skipping the pony rides (cause well she is only 16 months old and I think a bit young for pony's)we stood in line for about 20 minutes to see the new baby elephant. The line snaked around the outside enclosures of the other elephants and we had a good time looking at the elephants who were not all fancy and inside because they had a baby. Lilly was having fun riding on her daddy's shoulders, but then got a bit cranky.

I figured she was thirsty so set her down for a sec to grab her sippy. She took a long drink and then an elephant meandered over our way. She points and babbled something in baby and held up her sippy like she was offering Mr. Elephant a drink. Everyone thought it was very cute, so thinking she could impress the crowd further Lilly tried to throw the sippy into the enclosure. Fortunately being a small child the thing bounced off of the fence, unfortunately it then rolled under the fence and fell into that big precipice that separates us from the dangerous animals that could go rouge at any time. She was not so cute to the rest of the crowd anymore (well of course she was, but they were all trying very hard not to laugh because you should not encourage that type of behavior). Finally we got to the baby elephant who was very cute.

We then headed to the aquarium because Lilly loves to yell fish whenever she sees one. She was in love with the huge tank filled with all kinds of colorful sea life

and was very cranky when we had to leave, but it was time for lunch. After lunch we killed some time on a very nice playground that actually had a separate areas for the wee ones. Lilly figured out how to slide down and slide and also how much fun those tunnel things could be.

We had a great time and will be heading back as soon as I am healed up and can actually lift her again. Finally I will leave you with one of my favorite shots of the day. technically the thing is so not perfect, but there is something about it that I really like.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

2009-06-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday. I will admit that this is probably not his best birthday since I am still hobbling around after surgury so besides ordering his iphone and picking up an ice cream cake his birthday has been a little low key. But I promise I will make it up to him when we go on our Vegas vacation! But Lilly and I are happy to have such an awesome dad and husband. We love you baby! Happy Birthday!!

Christmas 2008

Is this a good thing?

2009-06-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

So I had my gallbladder taken out yesterday and let me tell you my abs hurt!!! But after sleeping for like 12 hours I feel a bit better, oh that and the drugs** that they gave me. Jeff keeps laughing at me because apparently I can not hide being all hopped up on drugs. I guess it's good to know that if i ever develop a crack addition that someone will notice. But Frank if now gone forever (Frank is my gallbladder, you know from Scrubs when Turk says "““I am going to yank that gallbladder out of you so fast that your spleen is gonna say to your kidney, “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO FRANK!?” That’s right, your kidney named your gallbladder Frank.”) and I am somewhat curious about what they have done with him (and why I have gendered my gallbladder a boy). not that I want him or anything, I'm just curious what is to be done with him. Anyway, I am waiting patiently for a few weeks before I can finally eat like a normal person, oh and pick up Lilly who seems to be a bit miffed at me. I have to admit that my feeling were a bit hurt this afternoon when I cam e downstaors to see her after not seeing her in 24 hours and she gave me a look that said "And where have you been?" Then she took a book to my mom, I guess she will be good at the whole teen silent treatment thing later.

Oh well, I am off to take a nice drug induced nap and will update later will pics of our trip to the Columbus Zoo ealier this week.

*** This post has been brought to you by the drug Percocet

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

So Jeff celebrated his second official father's day today. Between Lilly and I we made sure that he had lots of fun and lots of love. Now Lilly is far too young for me to ask her about her daddy but since dada was her first word, I think she's smitten. Obviously we know that since the day she was born,

she has been a daddy's girl.

But as she has grown daddy has become her very favorite playmate.

I do not know if I even have the words to describe the amazing father that my husband is. He is the rock of our little family, the one you can always count on. From charming a baby smile to rocking that same baby to sleep,

he is always there for Lilly and for me. And I know that if Lilly could tell you she would go on and on about how much she loves her daddy,

who is the favorite in her castle and will always be her Prince Charming.

Thank you Jeff for all that you do and for being the most amazing father ever. We love you very much!
Love Jess and Lilly

Some Vintage Lilly

2009-06-19T04:50:00.001-07:00

In honor of Lilly turning 16 months yesterday I wanted to give you some vintage Lilly. Here she is playing at the park one year ago. At four months she was rolling over and attempting to sit up, with some help of course.

One year later she is hell on wheels. This is Miss Lilly just the other day after she pulled every last wipe out of the box. Where does all the time go?

The Spenser Chronicles

2009-06-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

A Shutter Sisters Assignment:

This, in case you have no idea who I am, is Spenser, our 7 year old boxer.

He looks a little sad in this pictures, but this is, in fact, his tired face. Actually it is his tired and leave me alone face. I took this picture on Mothers Day 2008, the day my husband got me my DSLR camera and I went crazy playing with it. The dog was a prime target as the baby was asleep. At this point he had escaped to the window seat to take a nap and a break from all the snapping, as you can see it did not work.

Spenser, named after Edmund Spenser of the Faire Queen, was the first thing my husband and I co-owned (this was actually before we were married). He really wanted a dog and my suggestions that we go to the pound were met with withering looks as he wanted a specific dog (hey do not judge us for not adopting a dog, both cats were percured from the pound, so I am rescuing some animals, just not dogs it seems). After weeks of seaching we found a litter in Indiana and out of the pile of squirming tongues and feet Jeff picked out Spenser. He is the best dog, always sweet and loving, in seven years I have never heard the dog growl or show his teeth. If a burgler broke into the house Spenser would bring him a toy. He is trying at times as are all Boxers, but we wouldn'trade him for the world, he is after all Lilly's favorite playmate.

Tori Spelling is totally copying me!

2009-05-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to watching the season premiere of Tori and Dean tonight (hey I have a small child who really eats into my TV watching time!) (oh and I will defend watching this show in a sec). Anyhow, she called her little girl buggie and I totally shouted at the TV, “Copy Cat!!!” Because of course that is what I call Lilly. Now I have gotten a few strange looks from that one in public, but as they usually do, the nickname just developed. When we first brought bug home from the hospital all crinkly and new Jeff called her bug a boo. It stuck, at least for me, and that got shortened to bug and now buggie. Hey she even answers to it. So from me it is buggie or buggie bear and for some reason Jeff calls her boom-boom. Whatever, I think that we definitely need another kid soon who can take some of our focus off of buggie. I mean the girl is probably blinded from photos and videos and would like a break. Sometimes she will even take her toy and walk away from us to play by herself. Of course it will eventually send me into therapy, but I guess if she is going to be Miss Independent like I was I should get used to it now.

So anyhow, back to Tori and Dean. I started to watch this show like I started a lot of others in the past year and a half, in the middle of the night feeding and rocking a newborn. Or even in the middle of the day when my 2-4 month old would sleep contented in my arms for two hours, but wake right back up when you tried to lay her down. This had me stuck to the couch for hours on end. And at that time lifetime would run marathons of Tori and Dean because they were starting a new season. I was leery at first because all I knew of Tori Spelling was that she was on 90201. And I won’t lie I totally watched that show, to the end, even when they were in college. And she was never my favorite character. But surprisingly she was really funny, and she was real. Look I am not a sentimental touchy feely person, but when you are all sleep deprived and hormonal you tend to connect with other women in the same state. Tori’s little boy, at the time they filmed the show, was about the same age as bug (in reality he is a year older). So I was draw to someone going through the same issues. So what, I like her now. I even read her book, I am even going to go out and get the new one. I like her, even if she is trying to copy me, because who could blame her, I am cool. At least she is not like that J. Lo who got married the same day I did, and then got knocked up the same time, we even had the same due dates. Let’s face it J.Lo was just trying to steal my thunder.

*** I do not actually believe that Tori Spelling is copying me or J. Lo is trying to steal my thunder, these people do not know who I am. I am not crazy, just trying to be funny.

What's New?

2009-05-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

So what do you think of my new layout? I really like it, I just decided that I wanted something new and les scrap-booky. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I enjoyed it for awhile but as anyone who knows me would tell you I tend to change styles and hobbies fairly regularly. Since it is my one creative outlet I usually go with whatever I am feeling. Soccer mom today? Preppy? Bohemian? Just go with what works for me that day. I really started wanting to redo this layout when I realized that Lilly is now 15 months old and all the header pics were from last fall when she was 6-8 months old. Now I did not do much for this layout except to download some code from Simply Fabulous blogs. Check this site out seriously because this lady is awesomely talented. THe picture in the header is also not mine, I do plan to replace it with one of my pics, but I have not found anything that I really think will fit, so for now I am keeping it, I do really like it. I am still working on the pics from Disney (I know it has been like 2 months) but I am running into some trouble with photoshop. So instead enjoy these pics that I took of Lilly last week on campus while we waited for Jeff to finish a meeting

Birthday Party Part 2

2009-05-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Still trying to catch up here, so yes these are still from the party in Febuary. The pictures were all taken by our friend Brent who agreed to be the photog for us, but I did all the post processing.

First some more cake pictures. Lilly enjoyed the frosting, but was a little too prissy to really get messy. Maybe she is my daughter.

After cake it was onto a very fun Polish tradition for babies on their first birthday. So this is how it works, you take a shot glass, a rosery and a coin and put them all in front of the baby and see which one they go for first. The rosery means that they will lead a rleigious life, the coin they will be financially successful and the shot glass, well you get the picture. Of course being Polish and Irish I really thought that Lilly would go for the shot glass right away, but she went for the coin.
Actually she went for the coin just slightly before she went for the rosery. She completely ignored the shotglass, which shocked us all.

And then it was present time. After a quick costume change (Minnie Mouse was full of cake) we opened all the awesome presents that people brought sweet Lilly.

She really wanted to get into her bath toys.

And she liked Thomas the Tank as well.

She was not too interested in unwrapping the paper until she saw that there were toys.

And of course she wanted every present open right away.

"Forget the clothes mom, it's Abby!"

And this about sums it all up. Baby dolls, books and shoes and Lilly wanted to play with them all at the same time.
We had such a good time and Lilly slept well that night.

Birthday Party Part 1

2009-05-11T10:47:00.001-07:00

I can not decide if the fact that I have waited until Lilly is almost 15 months old before I posted her First birthday picture was because I am lazy, or if it was just I had not finished post processing the pictures. I am going with the whole I am a pefectionist and needed to work on the pictures some more, not that I just got too busy. But the good news is that I have a lot of pictures of the awesome party.

We went with a Mickey Mouse ClubHouse Theme since, well who are we kidding we are Disney Freaks and Miss Lilly was concieved at Disney World. As you can see we went all out with Mickey Mouse decorations and ordered this awesome cake from Spring Hills Bakery.

We even got Lilly her own smash cake.

And we dressed her up like Minnie Mouse.

We had ears for everyone.

After some yummy hotdogs came the big cake moment. Miss Lilly had a decorated high chair and a princess crown that she was not too sure of. Now these next photos are courtesy of our friend Brent, but I did the post processing.

Then came her very own cake that she could smash all she wanted.

She wasen't sure at first, but soon found the frosting.

Enough for now, the rest of the party pictures coming soon. Oh yeah and pics from Disney World.

Smash Cake

2009-04-20T19:36:00.001-07:00

Yes I know that it has been a long time since I posted, but I do have some good excuses. Right after Lilly's birthday party we all spent about a month in various statges of illness. First Lilly got the flu, then Jeff, then me. Then a cold made the rounds and just as we all got better it was off to Florida to meet The Mouse )don't worry I have a lot of pictures). We got back and I went into full on dissertation mode and I am glad to say it is all finally done and I will defend my dissertation Monday April 27th at 11am, yeah me. So we will be playing catch up for awhile, but don't worry it will be worth it.

We will start with the traditional give a baby a cake and laugh at the mess they make pictures. Miss Lilly's birthday actually fell on a Wednesday this year and we had her party on the following Saturday. But Jeff and I felt that we should still mark this celebration so we bought Lilly a "big cupcake" and let her out it after her dinner. She was a bit leery at first, but got the hang of the frosting thing pretty quickly.

And some fancy post processing.

And this as as messy as she got, you could have knocked me down with a feather, I though she would go hog wild, but no she was very dainty. At least she had fun.

Coming soon...First Birthday Pictures!

Happy First Birthday Lillian Grace

2009-02-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

My sweet Lilly,
I have no idea where the year has gone. All of a sudden you are a year old and I feel like we just brought you home from the hospital. I cannot put into words how much I love you and how much you have changed my life. I used to get very annoyed with people who told me “you will understand when you have kids”, but they were right. There was no way I could know the kind of love and happiness that comes with being a mother. It is the most rewarding, most fulfilling and most difficult thing I have ever done and I have never regretted it for a second. Every day you remind me to cherish innocence and absolute love. You remind me what it is to be truly blessed by God.
I have a hard time writing you this first birthday letter because the words escape me, I want to write pages and yet I cannot. I feel the need to get this all down for you to know how much I will always love you even when you are 16 and start calling me by my first name. But it’s more than I could ever express.
I love you because of the joy that you bring to me every day, even when you are working my last nerve.
I love that sense of wonderment that you have as a small child that reminds me to take the day slow and enjoy it all.
I love that I can see so much of your daddy in you.
I love the way you smell after a bath and the way that you raise up your arms to sit in my lap and cuddle.
I love your stubbornness that is my legacy to you.
I love how your first words after dada and mama were Spenser and Ella.
I love how you smile at me and that beautiful laugh when something strikes your fancy.
I love how you bring me books and plop on my lap to listen to me read them.
I love that in one short year you have changed me forever.
My sweet buggie, I wish that I could keep you young forever, but I know that the job of the parent is to eventually let go. But since that will not happen for a long time, I promise you that I will cherish you always, that I will try to let you do it yourself and I will forgive you someday for the stretch marks.
My love always,
Mommy
And now, for your enjoyment the first year of Lillian Grace in pictures.

Any excuse for a picture

2009-02-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have really good excuses for not posting for awhile, which includes: a sick husband, a sick baby with a double ear infection, a sick husband again, the start of school, insane snow and ice, and a power outage. I think those are good reasons, but I do have pictures. These first ones are what happens when the power goes out for 3 hours and it's cold outside. Basically this means mommy dresses you up in several layers with no concern about your fashion sense.

I am especially proud of this one as I was able to photoshop out the runny nose and all you can see is Miss Lilly's pretty baby blues.

Of course we are getting excited around here for our trip to Disney World in March, which prompted another photo shoot with Lilly in her Disney outfits. Now Jeff and I do have one bone to pick with Disney, they do not make many outfits small enough to fit Lilly, but we do have a Minnie Mouse we bought on super sale after Halloween and a Tinkerbell from Auntie Shell.

And of course we watched the Inaguration here, very happy with our new President. Lilly drew up her chair to pay close attention, I am so excited that we now have a White house featuring complete and grammatically correct sentences. Yes We Can!

Christmas Part 3: The Quad Cities

2009-01-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Here we are, the middle of January and I am finally finishing off the Christmas pictures! Oh well, not much else has been going on around here besides getting ready for the semester to start. First a few last pictures from Chicago. Lilly had her first experience with fairy wings and seems to have fun with them, until they got in her way. But I was able to get a great picture of her and Missy in some awesome light.
But all too soon it was time to pack the car, and Lilly was unhappy that she was not allowed to help. But to make it up to her we stopped to meet with some friends from grad school who are back in the Chicago area. It was awesome to see Jen and Brad again and this was the first time that they were able to meet Lilly. Finally we arrived in the Quad Cities and started Christmas take 3! Unfortunately I neglected to take as many pictures as I should have because I had to recharge the battery. But I did get a few of Lilly joining the fun of guitar hero. She wasn't very good, but then again, neither are we (on a side note we are getting better).

We also got to visit Derek and Tina, friends we had not seen in a long time. They also had never met Lilly and I had not yet met their new son Dagen, who they have had the joy of being parents to for the last 6 months. We had too much junk food and watched the kids play and vowed to do it all again really soon

Before we knew it, it was time once again to get in the car and head back to good old WV. In all the Christmas vacation was fun and we enjoyed seeing the family and friends, but we were glad to get back home. This was especially true for Lilly who decided to join some her toys in a large box, which seemed to be one of her favorite Christmas toys.

Christmas Part 2: Chicago

2009-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

After we had our small family Christmas we were off to Chicago to spend Christmas eve and day. The trip started out fine, although when we stopped about half way through Miss Lilly decided that she did not want to sleep at all that night. It was not fun. Then we hit a snowstorm as we drove into Illinois which slowed us a down a bit. But we finally arrived at the P's and Christmas could begin. Grandma and Grandpa P had the coolest tree. And Lilly really enjoyed her counsins, (except when they got in her way) and this cool wand that she found. She also tried to get very up close and personal with the tree itself, which required us to spend a lot of time playing tree guard. She did like the neat tatoos that daddy found for her and her first candy cane. But she did not like the big guy who gave it to her. We also got a cute family picture. Of course Christmas eve also means one think...peirogies! my favorite and I look forward to it every year, and this was Lilly's first try so I had the camera ready, she was not a fan. I was excited to try out some new photos as I played with light, but it was not always easy as again I can not hold still and as it turns out kids also do not like standing still when they are young and full of sugar! Oh well, lesson learned and next year I will utalize the cool gorilla pod that my hubby got me for Christmas. After a long evening on Christmas eve we finally got the kids in their pj's and got them, somewhat, settled for a picture before one by one they took off.

Lilly slept pretty well that night, of course as she is only 10 months old she really has no clue about Christmas, so I will remember what that was like next year. She once again enjoyed ripping open presents, often more than the presents themselves. She really liked the dog's Christmas presents, not so much for herself, but to let the dog chase her around. The rest of the day was fun, but tiring and so we all went to bed early. Then we took a little break before Christmas Part 3 and had fun relaxing with the P's. But all too soon we were off again to the QCA for the last leg of the journey, which I will discuss in the next update. Until then I will be hanging out and enjoying the remainder of my vacation.

Lilly's first Christmas Take 1

2009-01-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

Wow has it been a crazy, crazy few weeks as we finished up the semester and set off on a whirlwind tour of Chicago and the Quad Cities. Ok, maybe it wasen't so much whirlwind, but we did see our familes and Lilly got to enjoy her cousins and doting grandparents, aunts and uncles. We started our Christmas early as we had a fun family Christmas before we left for Chicago, where we would spend our actual Christmas. It was fun and since Lilly does not know what Christmas is or even what day of the week it is, she didn't mind. I can not wait until next year when she has more awareness about all things Christmas and can enjoy more of her mommy and daddy's favorite holiday. Next year we will stay at home for Christmas and then tour the midwest. Lilly has actually been entralled with the decorations for awhile. She loves the tree and all of the lights and especially her pink stocking from Grandma P that hangs near her highchair. With this in mind I thought I would try to take some cool pictures of her playing with the lights using no flash. This did not work out very well as I can not seem to steady my hand and Lilly could not sit still, but I did get a few good ones. The rest are just blurred lights, like some weird holiday ghost. We got the family party off to a good start with this which is what Jeff and I gave eachother. Fun pictures of that to follow. Lilly did not seem interested in the presents at all until she realized she could rip them open, then she was all smiles. Jeff and I decided that since we buy her toys whenever the fancy strikes and she would be showered with gifts from the family, that we would each get her one thing and hopefully save some tiny space in the house for us to live in. Jeff opted for this awesome Mickey Mouse Airplane that she can ride. And boy does she love it, especially the light up propeller. Let's just say that Jeff and I will have some very strong arms from pushing her around the living room until she gets tall enough for her feet to touch the ground. I got her a purple plush tinkerbell chair that she also loves. She sits down in it with her bottle and chills, but as soon as I get the camera the little stinker refuses to sit still. So no pictures of that yet. I will update in the next few days with Christmas 2008 Part 2: Chicago and then of course Part 3: Quad Cities. But now I must try to get some of these toys put away so I can walk through the living room!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

Actually it has looked liked Christmas for awhile for now, but since I have been paying attention to my real job (you know the one that actually pays my bills) and since finals came upon us life has been hectic. But now all the grades have been turned in and I am ready to catch up with my blogging. I will start at the begining though, since that is where the story always starts. We spent some time with our families over Thanksgiving and got into the Christmas mood right away by attending the Festival of Trees.

I always loved this event when I was young, and I have not been in ages, so I thought it would be fun. While it was fun and we got to see some very cool and weird trees,

I remember it being a lot bigger, of course I was probably a lot smaller.

We returned home and as any academic knows those few weeks between Thankgiving and Finals in insane. You have last minute grading and finals to write and then grade and in between that all you need to do all of the holiday stuff: decorate, shop, send out cards, clean, cook and do laundary. But we did get around to decorating. We of course had to buy our tree from the Lilly Farm, we didn't even look anywhere else. And Lilly took to decorating like a champ. She was especially taken with this one Snowman on a sled that sings. She helped as much as she could while I let jeff do most of it and just took pictures. She was mostly unimpressed until it was time for the treetopper. That she really enjoyed.

A few days later i thought that I would try some of thos neat pictures I have been seeing everywhere of children and lights without a flash. This did not go well. It seems as though to do this correctly you need a combination of a cooperating child and a steady hand. I had neither. I am still trying to save some of these in PP, so I will post more soon.

A Christmas Tradition

2008-12-13T20:32:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the great holiday tradition of making small children sit on the lap of a total stranger dressed very strangely and then taking pictures, we took Lilly to the mall. We dressed her up in a cute little coat/dress combo that I call her Jackie-O outfit and set out to stand in line with other cute children and their parents. I stood there watching one after another child scream when they were set in Santa's lap, but I was confident that my little bug would be just fine. So I walked right up to Santa and set Lilly down, adjusting her cute little outfit and tried to walk away. Miss Lilly looked up at the nice Santa and started to scream. I was a very bad mommie and laughed my ass off. I know I should have been more feeling, but it was funny. I got her to stop crying for one shot, so that is the one we went with. This is scanned in, so please ignore the smootz. Finals start on Monday, and I will grade 1.2 million exams in four days, but once that is over I will get back to taking my own pictures. I am so looking forward to Christmas break- one glorious month off!

My Play

2008-12-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

I crawled out from under all my grading today to play with an adorable picture for my play this week. Normal blogging will resume soon, if I am not crushed under research papers.

I did a bit of cropping, made it black and white and then did some cool oil painting. Oh i have so much fun with this stuff!

On the Road....Again

2008-11-24T18:44:00.000-08:00

As you can see I found some intereting things to do to occupy my time while I let my finger recover. The blog overhaul was the biggest project, it was actually not that difficult thanks to the awesome ladies at Cutest Blog on the Block. The only trouble I had was putting my pictures on in the header, but with photoshop and a patient husband I was finally able to accomplish the feat. We are on the road right now, in Chicago for a few days and then off to the QCA for a few more all to celebrate Thanksgiving. Of course we will be doing this all again in a few weeks for Christmas! Oh well, we are having fun and my awesome husband got us tickets to see Wicked before it closes her in Chicago! I am also taking more pictures as I am almost completly back to normal! Here is the first pic I was able to take without almost crying from finger pain. This is one of my new favorites because I think Lilly looks so much like Jeff here. And this is SOOC, no post processing. Enjoy and look for an update when I get back to WV!

Out of Comission

2008-11-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

Many (ok like 2) people may be wondering where the hell I have been. I mean I make a promise to update my blog more and to take pictures and the like, so where have I been. Well I have been taken out of comission for a few weeks due to this.

That is a badly sprained finger. This had made it somewhat difficult to type (though I have adapted) and really difficult to take pictures. It seems my fancy camera needs two hands, even this pic I took with my phone because I could minimize shake. I would like to tell you some heroic story of how I did this, but the truth is much more boring. I fell. I stepped off of the porch to untangle the dogs leash and then I tried to step back on the porch and missed. I was holding the handle of the retractable leash and when I fell it snapped my fingers back. Only the middle one was really hurt, although the other ones are bruised. I also have some wonderful bruises on my knee. Yes I am a clutz. Although I would love a different story, especially considering what finger it is one would think I could have a great story. But neither my student or I could come up with one that makes me look good. Any takers? A prize to the best story on how I hurt my finger...what do you say?

My Play Again

2008-11-06T17:24:00.001-08:00

This is a little late, but better late than never. I actually paid attention to what I was doing this time with picnick. I cropped this a bit to focus on the hands and then made the color brighter. I also sharpened the lines and raised the temperature a bit. I actually just got Photoshop (thanks hubby) but realized I have no idea what to do with it, so I will maybe try playing with it next week.

Yes We Can

2008-11-05T18:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday at around 11pm eastern standard time I felt the world change. It stopped, took a deep breath and then continued to turn, bringing the dawn of a new day, a new hope and I for one am glad. But now is the time that we as a people need to come together to work on making our world a better place. Now everyone who knows me will agree that I am one big ‘ol bleeding heart liberal and that is fine I will own that mantle. But I wonder at the things that classify me as such because this is what I believe. I believe that we as a country must remember out history even as we move beyond it. I believe that our founders thought that they were doing something very special and we should always keep that spirit alive. This means embracing people of all ethnicities, religions, classes and ideologies. This means welcoming debate and discussion and remembering that We the People means every last one of us: poor, rich, black, white, purple and blue. I believe we should always strive to be the land of opportunity that was envisioned. This means that everyone has the right to education and healthcare. Now I know that many of these systems are broken and I don’t know how to fix them all, but I know that we have people in this country who do. I believe that no one should die of a preventable disease, and no one should die because they could not afford a doctor and no one should graduate high school without being able to read, or be denied a college education because they cannot pay their tuition and feed themselves at the same time. I believe that we should cultivate relationships with other countries because we truly do live in a global world. I believe that men and women should be paid the say money for the same job. I believe in leaving adult women to make their own choices concerning birth control. I believe that any two adults should be able to fall in love and get married if they so choose regardless of their sex. I believe that I am my brother’s keeper and while you cannot help everyone we can offer a hand up when people need it.
And finally I believe that democracy works, no one can deny that now. But now is the time for us to come together. We have a lot of work to do as citizens and now is not the time for division. We are not all that different and we can celebrate our differences at the same time that we work together. So I ask everyone, even if you did not vote for Obama, let’s give this a try together and maybe we can make this world, this country, a better place when we leave it.

Here's mine

2008-11-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

I have been following the Shutter Sisters blog for awhile and decided to give the challenge a try. So here is my self portrait.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

It is Miss Lilly's first halloween and I searched for the perfect costume. I wanted her to be a lady bug, mostly because I call her bug. But we had a hard time finding it, so we bought a poodle costume all pink and fuzzy. The poodle did not go over well. I wish I had pics but Lilly threw such a fit we had to take it off and hide it because if she even saw some pink fluff she would start to cry. So then I found the perfect ladybug outfit, but Lilly was not too thrilled with this one either. She would not cooperate for pictures, so I had to work with what I had in post processing with picnick.

First we have crawling bug. She is not too happy with that hood and the original picture was, well not great. So I cropped it a bit and did some highlighting.

Next we have my attempt to show off the wings on the costume, which Lilly refused to show on her own, this you will see some of me behind her. This one was cropped to get the cat and me out of the frame. I sharpened and brightened the color and then applyed some cool effect called vignette, which I really just used to try to block me out of the background.

And finally we have my favorite Halloween picture, which is funny since you cannot even see the costume, but I find it adorable non-the less. Miss Lilly finally grabbed the strap to the camera, so instead of trying to take it away, I snapped a few pics. This one is SOOC, no post processing because I did not think it needed it.

Figuring I fought the good fight I broke down and while at the Mall trick or treat party we stopped into the picture place and had them give it a try. Miss Lilly was actually a good girl and we got some good pictures, which I will post once I scan them in.

In all I think that Miss Lilly's first Halloween wasa success! Now on to Thanksgiving!

My Play

2008-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

So for those who read this blog and do not know what the heck I am doing, I have started to frequent a blog, dolcepics, by an awesome photographer names Laura. Anyway, she has a thing each week where she posts a picture and people can play with it in post processing. This is my first time and here is my play! I used picnik for the first time which I found much easier than photoshop online (free version). i would love to say what I did, but I honestly have no idea, I just started playing.

Show me the teeth!

2008-10-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Lilly has two bottom teeth? I didn't think so. You see she gives real big smiles to everyone in person (she is a big flirt), but every time I get out the camera to try to capture those teeth she all of the sudden becomes shy. Since I am new at this photography thing I took a few tips from some of my books and blogs and just starting shooting. I enlisted Jeff's help to make her smile and laugh and just started snapping away. The bad news, I did not get the teeth. Yeah 20 pictures and no teeth! But I did get this:

Almost all of the pictures were not worth much, although who knows maybe I will get them into photoshop and be able to do something with them, but at first glance they are super boring. But this one is SOOTC (straight off of the camera...I'm learning the lingo!) and I think it's pretty good. The only thing I would change may be the slobber coming off of the mouth. I am going to play with the others this weekend, so I will post anything good I come up with!

Look ma...

2008-10-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Last May on mothers day I mentioned an overwhelming urge to own a really good digital camera to take pics of Lilly and start a new hobby. Those who know me know that I try out new hobbies occasionally looking for some creative endeaver that I am good at. Some annoy me so much I throw glue sticks (hello scrapbooking), some stick. I have picked up some books on photography and have now started to frequent some phtotography websites and am really getting into it. I will now indugle my new hobbie on this blog, which I am sure most people will like because my favorite photo subject is sweet Miss Lilly. I have been taking 10 million pictures just practicing and all the advice tells me and I finally tried some post processing with the free version of photoshop online. In this picture I was trying to work with natural light and shadows and a just woke up from a nap baby. In post process I was able to fill in some back light and do some cropping. Yeah me. Let me know what you think!

Seriously...

2008-10-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

Seriously kid, I love you more than anything, but would it kill you to grow some hair? We have two bottom teeth and some coming in om the top, but no hair to speak of....what I would give for some hair....I blame the P's side for this, I had a ton of hair! Oh well, enjoy Lilly's first professional pics, notice the distinct lack of hair....

Love Thursday

2008-10-09T11:17:00.001-07:00

Tagged

2008-10-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I was tagged a few weeks ago, but I got busy and there you have it. Jen and Swanny over at My Life with Dogs hit me again with a list of 6 more quirky thinks about myself. Mostly I have spent the last few weeks trying to come up with a list of quirky things because I think that everything I do is perfectly normal. When I mentioned this to Jeff he laughed and said something to the effect that I am about 80% quirky and 20% normal, and he was skewing a bit because he loved me. So without further ado:
1. I firmly believe in the Curse of the Goat at Wrigley Field. I mean come on, statistically how can you logically explain 100 years since a world series win? Or even half that since we went to the world series? I also believe that if you sing Go Cubs Go before the end of the game, even if the Cubs are up by like 10, they will lose the game. I have been known to threaten with bodily harm anyone who even contemplates breaking this rule.
2. Jumping off of that, I also believe that what I wear, where I sit and what I eat affects the Cubs and the Bears. My Bears sweats have been relegated to the closet on game days because every time I wore them the Bears lost. I always have a Coke when I watch the Cubs because they play better when I do this. I also will not listen to anyone who attempts to tell me that my sweat pants have nothing to do with the outcome of the game.
3. I NEVER pass a Starbucks without getting some coffee. Jeff has stopped arguing with me about this. Now if there was a Starbucks easily accessible (ours is in the mall) I would probably not feel the need to stop every time I see one on the road, but I probably still would. I would happily live in Starbucks if I could and on bad days contemplate throwing it all away to become a Barista.
4. I think anything is better if it is pink. I have pink golf clubs and towels and plates ect. Recently I saw a pink Kitchen aid mixer (but since I already have one Jeff vetoed it) that I thought was awesome and a pink dyson vacuum cleaner!! How awesome would that be? But the thing I crave the most? The new pink Mac Book Pro. I would give my eye teeth and maybe my first born (calm down I would still her back) for one of those.
5. I love really bad TV, I mean really bad, shallow turn your brain to mush TV. I love grey’s Anatomy and have recently gotten into Gossip Girl. It is so good it is bad. I figure that in my job I do nothing but read good books, so shouldn’t I be able to come home and watch so bad TV? Well who cares what you think, if loving Gossip Girl is wrong I don’t want to be right!
6. I like things to be in their proper place, I have threatened Jeff with divorce if he does not learn to put his dirty clothes in the laundry hamper instead of next to it. I mean really how hard is that???
And who shall I tag? I think all of my peeps over at killarney’s irish blog…

My New Favorite Picture

2008-09-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

Catching Up Part I

2008-08-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Wow where in the heck did the summer go? School started this week and I realized that so much has happened since I last posted that I may need more than one catch up post. So where did I leave off? Oh yeah, July. Well July was a very busy month with a lot of traveling and much fun to be had by all. Fist at the end of June Jeff had a birthday in which he turned the big ol’ 34. This did not seem to bother him at all, but I think that is because the x-box 360 soften the blow. Lilly finally got to try out her excersaucer and to no one’s surprise she loves it!

Soon after the 4th we were off to Columbus for the weekend. MomP came down for 5 days for a visit and she flew into Columbus so instead of just making a day trip, we got a hotel room and made a weekend of it. Miss Lilly enjoyed the zoo, especially the aquarium and although we did not get a lot of pics because it was rainy off and on, we did see some kitties, just like Ella and Louie. MomP got in with no problems and before I knew it it was my birthday and I got exactly what I wanted, a big cookie. I was a bit more upset about turning 33, and I am still dealing with that but I am trying to move on! MomP’s visit was too short and soon we all piled in the car to head for Chicago and a family reunion. It was great fun and Miss Lilly had lots of fun out with Grandma and Grandpa and meeting s few of her cousins for the first time.

She also really enjoyed her bouncy seat at grandma’s.

The week came to an end and we were off once again to visit my parents in the QC. There was more hanging out with the grandparents and aunts and uncles as well as a cool party at Aunt La’s, but there are too many pics to post from that leg of the trip, so I will save it for catching up part two.

Hair Envy

2008-07-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

Miss Lilly is getting so big that I can hardly believe that she is almost 5 months old! She is eating some solids like and what can I say this girl loves her food! She is still refusing to grow some hair. It doesn’t bother me when people think she’s a boy, but there are lots of super cute hair bows that go with some of her outfits and she can’t wear them. And I am curious what color her hair will come out to be. I agree with my sister-in-law who thinks that it would be funny if we had a blond blue eyed baby. But at this rate I will never find out, although her eyes are still blue. Lilly had her first trip to the park last week, and she seems to enjoy the swings, but did not like the grass touching her feet or hands. What can I say she is her mother’s daughter. She also enjoyed her first Charleston Festivall especially the street fair. Look at the cool catfish they paint here to celebrate local artists. I would like one but you would be surprised how expensive they are! We met up with some friends there and their little one who is about four weeks older than Lilly, and yes I have some hair envy! Miss Lilly is also tiring of her car seat stroller combo because she can’t see everything from that position she we end up carrying her around a lot. I think we may have to go straight to the stroller, but she maybe a bit small yet, for now the Bjorn will have to suffice. We have an eventful few weeks coming up here, GrandmaP is coming for a visit next week and Jeff and I are taking Lilly to the Columbus zoo since she loves animals so much. We are lucky to have a dog and cat that have no problem with being grabbed and pulled. Then we are off to Chicago for a family reunion and then off to the QC for a visit. Should be fun and I will post lots of pics when we get back!

Too long

2008-05-21T06:56:00.001-07:00

It has been far too long, but we have been super busy here. The semester has ended, so we are officially on summer break which will hopefully allow me some time to update a bit more often, but I am not promising anything. We had a good mothers day here and Jeff and Lilly got me a new fancy digital camera, a Cannon Rebel XIT. It is an SLR and much too expensive, but I think Jeff really wants that X-box for his b-day! I would take a pic for you but I would have to use the old camera to take pics of the new one, and that sort of complex irony might just split the space and time continuum, and so you will just have to be happy with some awesome new pictures of Lilly taken with the new camera. So I went a bit nuts with it, but isn’t that what we bought it for? We also bought a Baby Bjorn to help save our backs when Lilly wants to be held and walked around, I think it has backfired because she loves the dam thing and usually wants daddy to carry her around in it. We also got out to the mall where Miss Lilly saw a giraffe that she just had to have (she then preceded to chew on its nose). Oh yeah and we also had a primary, and while it was a landslide, can you guess who Lilly voted for?

I wish I had time to write....

2008-04-01T19:49:00.001-07:00

more than grades on some student papers. but alas I do not, so here are some pictures of Lilly. She was six weeks on Monday and while we are tired we could not imagine life without her.

Lilly with grandparents and uncle Paul:

And some other shots of the sweet girls just being her, first walking like an Egyptian...

Loving on Spenser....

And the photo shoot with daddy and all her Disney plushies....

This last week was crazy with a trip to both grandparents and a conference and once I have the pics downloaded i will post them...but don't get too excited I don't know how long that will be....it is a crazy house right now since I went back to work on Monday. But summer is just around the corner and maybe with it, more sleep.

Finally introducing...

2008-03-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Miss Lillian Grace. She arrived in this world in a hurry that made mommy a little crazy and unable to get proper pain meds, but she is perfect and came out into the world raring to go. I will someday forgive jeff for taking pics right after when I look like a zombie, but in my defense I was just put on some lovely drugs. Besides which, with the lighting in some of these pictures Lilly and I I both look like extras in Dawn of the Dead.
But I am sure that you want a good story, so here goes. I awoke at 6am on Feb. 17 to find that I lost my mucus plug (I know it’s gross to hear but it is actually the least gross thing in this story, so you may want to skip down a little if you are queasy). By 10 am I was having contractions that were not horribly painful, but not fun and were about 20 minutes apart. Over the course of the day they got progressively closer and by 4pm they were seven minutes apart. By 7:30 they had moved to 5 minutes apart and had been that way for an hour, so off we went to the hospital. I had been having contractions all day, so you can imagine my disappointment when after 2 hours of monitoring me, I was not dilated at all. But since I was having contractions they decided to give me some cervidil and induce me in the morning with pic. Well as it turns out the cervidil was all I needed and within an hour and a half I was dilated to 4. Which meant it was time for the epidural, but in the 30 minutes it took to get the anesthesiologist down to my room, I had dilated to 7! I guess Lilly was more like mom then I had thought because once she made up her mind to come she was coming. The epi was not bad and thus followed the best two hours of my life. I say two hours because as it turned out the epi was misplaced, or moved, and soon I was back in very active labor. The best part of this (sense the sarcastic tone) was that the only way to fix the problem was to redo the epidural, but because Miss Lilly was coming so fast there was no time. So I had a pain med free birth, not what I had planned on at all. Afterwards I told Jeff I would do this again only if they promised me a scheduled C-section because natural childbirth with no meds was simply too painful. And you can call me a wussy right now and that is fine. I know that women have done it without meds for hundreds of thousands of years and I do not care, God invented narcotics for a reason and that is because he loves us! I will not go into the details, but let’s just say that I told everyone there I was leaving at some point, which I know was crazy, but there it was. I did not curse or yell at anyone, but let’s just say after I felt bad anyway. But the end result was worth it as Lilly came out just perfect (apgar 9 and 10). And while she was a bit bruised up her first day she soon began to fill out nicely.

She came home to a very happy mommy and daddy and while sleep is at a premium here, we are plodding along just fine. So without further ado, so pics of Lilly’s first weeks of life, more will follow!

Soon to come....more Lilly pics, with grandparents and walking like an Egyptian!

Coming Home

2008-02-06T16:21:00.001-08:00

Now anyone who knows me know that even in huge pregnancy I am a bit of a clothes horse. I like to shop and I enjoy having a large selection of outfits in the hopes that one will fit the mood that I am in when I am ready to get dressed. This process is sometimes easy as I think about what I want to wear before I get upstairs to actually put on clothes. But other times it is not so easy, I put on an outfit and it just does not work. I just do not feel it. This means that I will try on about 7 different outfits before I am happy with what I finally put on (or run out of time and just go with the last thing). And if the weather is iffy it can throw off my whole tempo and thus that is what has made it almost impossible to pick out a going home outfit for Lilly. First I could not find anything that spoke to me, and try as I might nothing seemed right. Jeff thought this made me a bit crazy as he was loath to admit that this was an important decision. Then I found the cutest little dress that would go perfect with her cute little pooh hoodie, and I just so happened to have a hat ad booties that would work perfectly. See? How cute and perfect is this? Adorable, right? Then came the news, Lilly may be a bit bigger than a normal baby, so the newborn size dress? Well that may be a no go, which meant that I needed a back up plan. So I have this outfit, in a wee bit larger size. It is cute, not as cute as the dress, but such is life. And I will still use the pooh hoodie and the same hat and booties. There, finally I could pack the outfits and be done, one more thing that I could cross off the list. Just then a cold wind blew through, and I mean that literally. A cold wind followed by a drastic drop in temperature and a dusting of snow and it hit me, how in the hell did I know what the weather would be like when Miss Lilly decided to come into this world? I mean this is West Virginia, way worse than the Midwest with the whole, you don’t like the weather? Wait until tomorrow. And this means that even if it was snowy the day I go to have the baby, the weather could be completely different on the day I leave. I needed a new back up plan. I figured that the outfits I had, with blankets and the bundle me could work with mild winter weather, but I needed something for really cold weather that could come anytime (like tomorrow for instance). So we have a really warm sleeper/bunting that could be used along or with one of the other outfits. But how cute is this? Very, I know, but I also know that this could end up never being used, I am at the mercy of the weather gods of West Virginia. I could think of better places to be. And the great saga of Lilly’s coming out outfit has come to an end, but I think she has more space in my hospital bag than I do, but I suppose I should get used to that- the countdown has started, two weeks to my due date.

Double Post

2008-01-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

So I wrote this post for my friends at Killarney's, so I thought I would share with you!

Hello all! I know people have been waiting for an update, but I was waiting in the hopes I would have some news for you all, alas, you must wait longer. We are less than a month from Lilly’s estimated due date and are running around trying to get things ready. On Thursday I will be 37 weeks, which is considered full term and thus safe, so they will expect her anytime after that. We have had a few issues, nothing major though. She is measuring big, I know imagine that will the two of us as parents! So we are going next week for an ultrasounds so that they can see just how big she is and if they want to taker her c-section or induce early so she does not get so big she has trouble coming out. My OB does say that nothing good happens after 39 weeks, so he will not let me go past my due date (thank god! I do not want a baby born on Feb. 29th!).

Her nursery is almost done, even with all the drama we had this week. First, we ordered her crib about 6 weeks ago from a local baby boutique, it was tad more expensive, but I figured we were doing our part by using a local merchant rather than a big corporation. Well they called on Tuesday to tell me the crib has been discontinued! Now this happens, I understand that, but come on 6 weeks to let me know? So we go in and they can order another one, it will just take 6 weeks, hello I am due in four! Now she will not sleep in her crib for about a month, but still, I want stuff done! Long story short we got a refund and picked up the exact same crib from Sears for half the price. Oh well, I am a corporate whore! Of course that same day our glider came with some damage to the ottoman. And of course they wanted us to bring the whole thing back, not just the ottoman! I got pissy and Jeff fixed it, so that is that. We are waiting to pick up the last little think Monday, and then we will have nursery pics for you all to marvel at. I think we have done an awesome job, and mostly with stuff we already had!

But I thought you might need some pics to be entertained and hold you over. So here is my fat-ass standing next to the new crib. I have not put on too much weight, only 23 pounds, but at this point it feels like it is all up front! Here is the bassinet in our bedroom that Lilly will for at least a month. We still have not found it a permanent space, so it is in the corner, but I promise it will not stay there. I like this one because it has a small light and plays music. Last but not least is the downstairs. Since I am not spending my days running up and down stairs we had to have some place for diaper changes and sleeping on the main floor of the house. We moved stuff around and here we are with her Pack and Play, which is huge but also has a diaper changing station which will be super helpful. Here is also her swing and her bouncy seat which I here is a godsend! You will have to forgive the tin foil. Ella and Louie really seemed to enjoy this stuff when we first set it up, so we have had to deter them and the tin foil works, although I feel like one of those crazy people who are trying to keep the CIA from reading my mind!

That is all for now, I will update soon with nursery pics and news about my huge baby!!! Wish me luck!

Getting ready for Lilly...

2008-01-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this crib bedding from Pottery Barn kids, it is brand new and I just got the catalogue in the mail. I opened it up and there was the perfect bedding to go in the shabby chic garden nursery that we have envisioned. The downside of course is that pottery barn bedding is expensive, I do not mean designer Gucci expensive, but more money than I have planned for or can see myself paying. I mean my bedding came from Target, on clearance and there is very little chance of either Jeff or I spitting up or pooping on it. The point here is that while the bedding is not prohibitatively expensive, I am having a hard time finding the justification for spending the money when there are lots of places to buy bedding that is not as expensive. But on the other hand your first baby only comes along once, so maybe the splurge is worth it and shouldn’t my sweet little girl have the option of peeing on bedding that costs more than the rent in my first apartment? I mean it is not like I am contemplating buying the really expensive rockers from Pottery Barn kids, which I also really want. I mean I would probably give my eye teeth for this one, but I do have some self restraint and I know I can probably find something just as good for half off. So it’s not like I am being extravagant, I just really like this bedding and am looking for some good justification for ordering it. This is where you my loyal audience comes in, help me out. Give me some good reasons to convince myself and my husband (ok, really just my husband) that this is the perfect bedding and we should just order it.

In which we were showered...

2007-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, I am a bad blogger. I think I have finally figured out my problem. I want to wait until I have something super interesting to say and when I finally do I spend days planning out how clever I will be. This seems to be unnecessary as I am always super clever, right? Anyhow, I thought I would share what I have been doing over the last month.
First was trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving with the P’s. This is always a fun event, but more so because I had my first baby shower. My pics here are limited because, well first I let my mother take pictures and that is never a good idea as she is one of the worst picture takers in the world (and I still love her). Second, we had an awesome helper in Genevieve, who helped pull stuff out of bags and unwrap presents. But this also means that she is smack dab in most of the pictures, which is good for me because I love her, but bad for the blog because I do not think it is a good idea to put pictures of a child who is not mine up in cyberspace. So you get some of the ones where Evie decided to take a break.

While there were a lot of people who could not make it, we had a great time. And at the end of the day there was so much stuff that Jeff and I had to leave some when we went home! We received a lot of clothes, the swing and bouncy seat, exersaucer, stuffed toys, rattles, monitors, a beautiful moses basket and more clothes. We also received the car seat from my awesome Sister in law. I think that every outfit with pooh on it has been given to Lilly, which of course I think is awesome since pooh is my favorite. And we had the best cake in the world!

Then just last week the lovely people at work threw me a shower in WV. It was a super good time and since there were no children there, lots of pics. I think everyone was excited because the last time someone in the department had a child was ten years ago. It has been demanded that we bring Lilly in for many visits. The food was awesome and once again we were given many lovely things: more clothes, books, blankets, toys, the changing pad, diaper genie and the bathtub. It was a bit easier to get this stuff home as we had no suitcases or dog.

I have one more shower to go, at my Aunt La’s house over Christmas break when we get back to the Quad Cities this weekend. I am sure that will be as fun as the others have been and people will be more than generous. As it goes now I wonder if Lilly will need us to buy any clothes during her first year, I doubt it. My mother has given us the bassinet, and I think we will have the crib well in hand by the time we get back into WV after the first of the year. We will have some baby gear to buy, but not a lot. We will need the stroller (which we figured we would purchase as it is expensive), bottles, slings (to carry Lilly around), boppy, bumboseat, sheets and most importantly the pack ‘n play. I think these might be the first thing we buy because we live in a house with two floors, and I am not walking my ass up and down those stairs constantly!

More updates will come soon as we travel around Illinois for Christmas and New years, but the good news is that MLA is in Chicago, which means we will not have to go on a another trip!!!

I think we have a mouse..

2007-11-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that correctly. And it seems to be a pretty smart mousie as well, he has found a way to the food without having to play chicken with the cats. Unfortuantely mousie has worn out his welcome and there is an electric trap waiting for him, and that is a human death for him, I was just going to open the door and let Ella and Louie go after him, so he should be grateful.

So this all started with Louie. I had noticed that Louie, for the past few weeks had taken up sentry right in front of the cabinets under the sink. He just sat there and stared for hours in the evening, occasionally scratching at the door. At first I thought that maybe a bug had gotten in there. We have a lot of camel crickets try to come in when the weather starts getting cold. Now Louie really does not like the crickets and tends to leave cricket corpses scattered across the basement, probably as a warning to others. So I thought that maybe a cricket had gotten into to the cabinet, but I was wrong. Just this week we started to hear the unmistakable sounds of mousie scratching coming from the cabinet. I, of course being a wussy when faced with the thought of rodents, made Jeff go look. He did not see a mouse, but did find a hole that came up right into that cabinet. Now this is below the sink, where we keep the garbage. So this mouse had found a way into the house and right to the garbage without having to face any cats. Now this is a smart mousie, because if he ever came outside of that cabinet Louie or Ella would have him. But an intelligent mouse is still a mouse and so must die. Last night a spoke to the cabinet, telling the mousie not to come back, and if he did he would not be happy. Then today I bought and electric trap, one that will kill mousie inside a nice box and I will never have to see him. I do not feel bad. He was warned and if he comes back he is responsible for his own death.

On a different note, I will be trying to cook a small t-day dinner for Jeff and I on Sat. Yes I said that I would cook it, and I think I will do very well. (And Jeff will be there the entire time, so calm down!)

Even Hal knows...

2007-10-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

I have to agree with Jeff whose argument is that in my past life I must have been good at drinking the blood of kittens, that is the only explanation for the karma that follows me around. And I must be still being punished, which is the only explanation for how even my own computer likes to screw with me. Honestly I wonder what the hell I can do to change my luck, but nothing seems to work. As far as my computer goes I have had the cable people out to check the modem, I have had the computer itself checked and I have run every virus checker and nothing works. What is the problem you may ask? Well it seems like my computer likes to decide that random websites are off limits to me. They will no download, and I can not get to them for days on end. There is no rhyme or reason to what sites are down at any given time, except of course that it is usually a site that I need or what to get to. Do I want to check my email? That will be down. Do I want to add stuff to the baby registry? Go to a message board or blog that I read regularly? Down. Do I want to look at new jobs offered in my field, research some 19th century publication from the London Library? Down. Now these sites are not always down, they are down when I need them. There is no reasonable explanation for this other than even my computer hates me. Honestly I am starting to feel persecuted here and I can not get work done that I need to get done. I guess I should just give up and watch more TV, give up the chase for a good job with a decent wage and maybe move into a trailer. For right now I am blaming my pregnancy hormones, but if this keeps up I am not sure what can be done, does the internet carry a grudge?

Dance of the Sugar Plum Strollers

2007-10-08T17:23:00.000-07:00

Now I knew when I got pregnant that our materialistic why make it simple when it could be complex society would make buying baby gear an exercise in frustration, but no where in my imagination did I see the dance of the strollers coming. There are literally thousands of strollers out there and they all do different things, are made by different people and have different safety standards and accessories. Now I am a smart girl who does her research and makes mostly good decisions, but this stroller thing might just be the end of me. It is driving me so crazy that I am having dreams that I am being attacked by strollers, like a scene from Hitchcock’s The Birds. Jeff thinks I am stressing too much about this, but I would like to put my baby in a safe mode of transportation that is stylish and practical, is that too much to ask for? Apparently so, so let us go over some of the top contenders, well for funnsies.

First there is the ultimate of baby strollers, the Bugaboo. If all things were equal, and I was rich, I would buy this thing in a heartbeat, it has everything that I want, it has a bassinet for an infant and then a regular stroller for an older kid. It comes in a variety of colors and looks good. And if I had a grand to blow I would certainly own this (maybe, I still don’t know if I would spend that much on a stroller).

I thought about travel systems, but every review I have read urges not to buy one. I guess the cons outweigh the pros. The pros are of course that you can take the infant seat right out of the car and click it into the stroller without waking the baby or moving them. Of all the travel systems I have found I like these two the best, the Baby Trend (green and gray) and Chicco Cortina. I like the Chicco a bit more, but of course it is more expensive. But I guess the cons of travels systems happen after the baby is out of the infant seat. I guess it turns out that the strollers are kind of crappy. And of course since the baby outgrows the infant seat I do not want to be stuck with a stroller that falls apart.

Besides I have decided that I like the pram kind of stroller that can convert into a regular stroller, and with most regular strollers you can also snap in an infant seat. Or I could go this way, and skip the stroller altogether for the first few months. This is a snap and go system that is just a stroller frame into which an infant seat snaps in. This is good for keeping the infant seat going and forgoing the stroller altogether. But I don’t know if I like this system, I am not sure why.

So let’s move on to the strollers I do really like, the ones that convert from a pram to a regular stroller. First there is the Combi Thru.

Now this is the perfect stroller, and the price is just right so of course that means that it is too good to be true. This stroller is not made anymore. Bastards. Now I also really like these two, the Britax (black and tan) and Fischer Price (green), both of which convert, but neither of which can also support an infant seat, where most of the other convertible strollers can. So with these I would get the aesthetic, but not the practicality that I would need.

So now the last of them, the ones I have narrowed my search down to. First is the Peg Perego Pramette (gray right). This stroller is perfect, it goes from a pram to a stroller, has a high safety rating and looks good, it also comes with a price tag to match, around $450. This is still a bit expensive for a stroller. There is the Everbright (below), which is in my price range and comes with all of the things that I want, but of course there is a downside, the reviews for this product are only so-so and there is no ability to snap in an infant seat. This is also a really new product, so there is not a lot that we know about it yet. And so at the end of the day the one I really like is the Peg Perego Centro Completo (hey it’s Italian). This converts from a pram to a stroller, has a high safety rating and is pleasing to look at. Also important, it has an adjustable handle that will come in handy seeing as both Jeff and I are taller than average. So this stroller is almost perfect, it would be more perfect if it was a wee bit cheaper than $300. I mean it is not crazy expensive, but I do wish it were just a little less cash. The upside is that this allows an infant seat to be snapped in, most easily the Peg Perego, but also the Snugride. But for all of that I am still not sure. I mean I like this stroller, but can I justify the cash?

I can not answer all of this yet, I am hoping with enough time I will eventually stumble onto something or make up my mind, but I am not promising anything. And until then I guess the dance with just continue.

Sunshine go away today...

2007-09-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t feel much like dancin’. I love that new Jeep commercial, it makes me happy for reasons I am not quite clear on, one I am sure is because I love my Jeep. Now some people know that buying a Jeep is a lot like joining a cult. All of a sudden you get magazines and jamboree invitations, other Jeep owners wave at you, it’s like a club. And I love my Jeep. Normally it looks much like this, except that it is navy blue and has a sunroof. It is not too big, it’s not too small, it is just right, yes I am Goldilocks. And when I drive it I do feel like dancing. But in the last few weeks my beautiful Jeep has become a wounded soldier. Almost three weeks ago I was rear ended by, and I am not kidding here, a delivery truck working for the school board. I was actually impressed with the beating my Jeep took. I was hit by a truck for the love of God, I thought the whole back end was going to be squished. But it wasn’t, instead I have a broken tail light and bashed in gate, all told almost $3000 of damage. And the kicker? I can’t get it into the body shop until Oct 1rst! So I have been driving a car around with a broken tail light, can anyone guess how long it took before that became a problem? So I called in for a rental car until my car can be fixed, of course at the insurance company’s expense. My mistake was asking for a car that was comparable to my own car, and what I meant was I did not want a compact car, let’s be honest Jeff can’t fit into a compact car. I thought they would give me a sedan, boy was I wrong, because this is what they gave me, oh yes a big honkin’ trailblazer. The thing is HUGE!! I sit so high up and the dashboard is so wide, I never know if I am staying in the lines! I also feel a bit wasteful, me along driving this huge car around. Of course we have already had a problem with the rental car. The first day we had it it came up with a flat tire, this was Tuesday. I would not have though much about it except that we had just changed a flat tire on the Jeep on Saturday, I am sensing a trend here. Fortunately because it was a rental car I did not have to change the tire myself (or rather Jeff didn’t have to change the tire, you really didn’t think I was ever changing attire did you?). But now I am a bit afraid to take any of the cars out, I think the car gods are angry with us I am not sure how to appease them, what does one sacrifice to the car gods? Some fuzzy dice? Well let’s hope next week is better, I had hopes for this one, but that did not work out, so I am looking forward to next week. Wish us luck!

The Joys of West VIrgina

2007-09-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made one of the inevitable mistakes that happens when you live in West Virginia and no where else. Jeff and I were on our way home from Target (how did it happen that I have become so suburbanized that I am at Target at least once a week?) and this little beat up hatchback of indiscernible origin was going super slow. Of course I took great offense to this and yelled (within my car not outside of it, geez, I am not a crazy person) “get out of the way you freaky hippie!” Jeff noticed my mistake right away, this bushy haired and bearded slow moving pile of rusted car was not hippie, it was mountain man. Now this is a mistake that happens often here in WV, but I think it is an ironic one none the less.

Now first we must say shame on me for seeing a great mass of hair and a crappy car at least 15 years old and jumping to conclusions, but when I am behind the wheel of a car people should really leave me alone (or I should not be allowed to drive) but seriously, if you get on the road, drive correctly! Anyway, I am sorry (not really) and let’s move on. So normally when you confuse stereotypes of people they are not so diametrically opposed, I mean rarely does one yell “punk” when they mean “young Republican.” But in WV it is quite easy to mistake mountain man for hippie, it actually happens all the time because unless said mountain man is wearing his buckskins, it is difficult to differentiate one from the other from 10 feet away. Now you will find these people at the same place occasionally, say a mountain top removal protest, but that is about it. When seeing a hippie up close the mountain man might mumble under his breath “dirty secular liberal” and the hippie might shake his head and wish to Buddha that the mountain man come to his sense and vote Democrat, which is why I think the all too common mistaken identity is just one of the fun things about living in WV!

New topic, here are a few pics of the sweater I am trying to complete for my new neice or newphew who will be here at the end of Nov. Now I know I have time, but I may not make it! Why? Because I can not get this $#^#@^$ neckband to knit up right! I have tried with DPN and circs, but it juts won't work. DO you think the new baby will really need a neckband? But I have yet to start anything for my own little ski on the way. I am hoping that the weather will turn soon because I do not feel much like knitting when it is 102 outside! But I know that will not happen until Oct. so I should just bite the bullet and start something new! ENough for now, coming soon, though pics of the damage to the new jeep!

I've been tagged!

2007-09-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

So I have been tagged, which actually makes me happy, I have never been tagged before, by my cousin in-law over at mylifewithdogs. Of course if you asked anyone they would swear he is actually related to us by more than marriage (which would really freak out his wife to whom I am actually related). But since I have been tagged here we go with six weird things about me. Of course most readers will not be surprised by this list because I am never one to hide the weirdness, I am right up front with it.

But never the less, here goes……

I am a sucker for any movie that is big and pretty. Titanic? Moulin Rogue? I loved ‘em, I don’t care about plot or character or pacing, is it big and pretty? Then I will watch it twenty times, I will also always pick the action flick over the romantic comedy every time. Right now I can not wait for Shoot ‘em Up to come out because it looks awesome! Especially the helicopter stunts.
I really, really want to like sushi, but I don’t. I am not sure why I really want to like it except that it seems so sophisticated and chic to say things like, well we went for sushi. I have tried really hard, I have eaten a lot of different kinds of sushi, but they all feel like rubber and make me want to spit it out in a napkin (which, on occasion, I have done). I am also so stubborn I will probably never give up trying to like sushi.
I have a very strange love/hate relationship with coffee. I love it, but after two cups it hates me. If I had my druthers I would drink coffee all day everyday, but my stomach disagrees. And of course now that I am pregnant I don’t drink it at all because it seems the baby does not like coffee the way I do, which makes me wonder if this kid is really mine. I also wish that there were a Starbuck’s on every corner for my own convenience.
I continuously find it amazing that students write down stuff that I say. Now I know consciously that I am the professor and that I make up the tests and quizzes and grade the papers, so what I say should be written down and studied. But I still find it disconcerting that students take my knowledge and apply it to stuff, I am half afraid at some point one of them will accuse me of being a fake and not knowing what the hell I am talking about and I will freeze and agree with them.
I enjoy some hard core rap, like Emiem and Kanye West. People will look at me and say, uh..excuse me but don’t you write and study feminist theory? Yes, and yes I am a feminist, but I believe that some of these artists rise above the bitches and hoes crap and actually create art. I do not believe that everything is art, but I do believe that anything can be art which is why I enjoy these guys.
I tend to get obsessive about stuff. I will find a TV show that I enjoy in syndication and then watch every one until I have seen them all. After that I usually lose interest. I will also start new hobbies a lot. I will see something that looks interesting and usually teach myself how to do it. Once I have mastered it, it usually goes away. There are some exceptions, I still knit.

Now I though about writing about how I am not a spur of the moment kind of person and research everything thoroughly before I make any decision, but most people know that about me anyway, it is part of my A type personality.
I will take this opportunity to tag everyone over at Killarneysirishblog, because they all need something more to do now that school has started! HAHAHA I would also like to thanks the Swansons for this opportunity to write about something, I think Greg will be my inspirtation to keep up more on this blog! Coming in the next few days, the damage to the new jeep because some guy in a delivery truck hit me!

Disney and Visits and Babies...Oh My!

2007-08-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes I know it has been over two months, I am a bad, bad person and should be shot. But as most people know now, I am pregnant and no one is allowed to shoot the mama to be!

There has been a lot going on this summer, but nothing so pressing that I did not have time to update this damn thing. It all started with the Disney trip at the beginning of June which was super fun, but as we soon discovered, early June weather in Florida does not suit us all that well, we will stick to March from now on. While it is always warm in Florida, March is much better than the “I can’t breathe humidity” of June. But we did have a good time, and came home with a little souvenir of our own.

We were there for our anniversary and decided that for our presents to each other we would go to a nice dinner, I mean a super fancy dinner at Victoria and Albert’s. For those not in the Disney know..V &A’s is the fanciest dinner in town. It was seven course and we got the wine pairing which meant we were actually quite drunk by the time we left. The people were very nice, although I think our waitress was judging us, especially when I whipped out the camera to take a pic of the individualized menu, which also said Happy Anniversary. I was more impressed though with the letter from the Queen that they had in the women’s bathroom! When I can back to the table to gush to Jeff, another waitress promised to take me in another room with a painting of V&A, and there she took a few pics for us. It was super fun, but as it turns out I am not fancy, and I always though that I was. I believed that deep down I was switched at birth and I belonged more with the Kennedy’s, but as it turns out, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, seven course dinners are great every three years for an anniversary, but as a common thing I think I would be bored.

So I didn’t take lots of pics at Disney mostly because I have a ton of pics from previous trips and I don’t need another pic of the castle. But we did catch the end of the Flower Expo at Epcot, which was a good time. See the super cool Captain Hook and Peter below and well as some other statues made all of flowers and plants.

We got back home in time to start making the homestead ready for the P’s, who came to visit for a week. We had a really good time as we took off for the Ripley Craft Fair on the fourth, but my illness kicked in just about the same time, and it has not left yet. But a good time was had by all and after they left along came by B-day, where I turned the big 32, but I think I look much too young, so I am comfortable saying I am 28 or 30 at the oldest. But I did get this cool speaker for my ipod if I should ever get an office of my own. Oh and I got Disney Scene It, which is fun, but if you play make sure to use the adult questions and not the kids, because then you will just get pissed at the hubby because he wins so easily.

We actually have just returned from another trip that took us from Chicago to the QC and then to the UP in Michigan, but I should leave something to discuss later. more pics will come I swear!

The Semester is Over!

2007-05-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

And we all dance! I dropped off all of my administrative paperwork, and am officially done with the semester. Jeff and I went out for a celebratory lunch and now I am left sitting on my couch looking at the disaster of a house that I haven’t had time to clean in three weeks. But I think I will do that tomorrow, today I will sit like a slug on my couch and enjoy doing nothing. Tomorrow I will clean, run some errands and basically get stuff done that I haven’t had time to do lately, namely get a hair appointment and start getting ready for Florida. Yes we leave next Friday to Chicago for a b-day party and from there we are flying to Orlando for one sun soaked week of Mickey and his friends. I can not wait. I will swim and drink and basically act like a hokey tourist for awhile before I get back home and have to face summer. Of course the only pressing matter for summer is finishing my last chapter, defending and hopefully preparing for a job next year.

I do have lots of pics and updates for you. I am working on a cute little sweater for the newest addition to the family and I still have not shared the pictures from the Boston trip, and I will get to all of that I promise, but for now I am a lazy slob on the couch, tomorrow I will be productive.

For Today, We are all Hokies

2007-04-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Monday our world was made a much sadder place. I have not really been able to write about it yet, I will probably only muddle my way through this now, but I will try.

I have had to quit watching much news, my morning routine because I am filled with unimaginable sadness. The pictures of the students, the faculty, and the campus is all too familiar to me. What I see is my students, my colleagues, my campus. I think all of us that spend our days on a campus feel like this right now. In the middle of class I have to stop and catch my breath as I look over my students, I know I would be devastated to lose any of them. Worse I have sat in class thinking about how I would barricade the door, where the safest place to stand was, and how we could get out of a window. The good news is that none of this has stopped me from going to class; it has just made me more wary. I wonder if that is a good or bad thing. I don’t want to have to work on conjecture about what student might just lose it. Unfortunately the stories from VT are not that surprising. I have worked and attended more that a few colleges, from community to large Universities and the protocols are all pretty much the same. There are never enough police or security employed by the school. And to be fair, a college campus is one of the safest places that you could be on a day to day basis, so it is not strange that one of the places that are cut in a budget crisis is security. And problems on campus are usually not advertised because colleges fear that parents will yank students, so the administration of VT is was not abnormal in their decisions, they were actually very normal. I can hope that one of the good things to come out of this tragedy is that we can rethink the kinds of security that we need on campus. Right now there is no way to lockdown a campus, it’s actually impossible because campuses are made to be accessible to students and if they are public schools, the land is public property which means the campus is open to anyone. Schools actually look at ways to make the campus more accessible to students, not less. Buildings are often old, used for aesthetics or efficiency, not safety. Doors to classrooms open out, not in, which often could be a fire hazard. And classrooms are set up logistically for the best way to educate, not safety. Much of this can change and much of this should not change. Campuses need to be open and accessible for students, but they also need to be patrolled more. We have to understand that when you have a lot of people congregated in one place there may be fights or problems and they should be handled, but they should also be reported. If there is an incident with a weapon, we as faculty need to know about it. We can be notified much more easily then students can and if the situation is taken care of we can stall rumors, but if it is not we can make decisions about what we expect from our students and ourselves. I can’t pretend to know all that goes into logistic and security decisions fro a university, after all I am just an English professor, but I do know that I love my job and all of my students are precious to all of us, even if we sometimes complain about them. So I do know that we need to discuss these problems and make some changes and that needs to be done soon.

Under Pressure

2007-04-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

That if, of course the song pinging through my head as of late. And fortunately I am old enough to think David Bowie, not Vanilla Ice, but that doesn’t mean that this is any less frustrating. It is of course not that far away from the end of the semester, I have mountainous piles of grading and students coming out of the woodwork. I of course do not know if I have a job next year, but I need to finish that last chapter of the dissertation. The house is a mess and I have laundry to do, but I have carved out a space on my couch because work always takes priority. Last weekend I was supposed to play some catch up and get ahead. But instead I was made a last minute trip to Illinois. Thankfully it was all for naught and everything is back to normal, but I didn’t get any work done. How could I when there were babies to play with. We got back on Monday night, just enough time for me to teach a few classes because we are off again Thursday for Boston and a conference. Why is it I ask that all cheap flights leave at some god forsaken time that I rarely see unless I stay up all night? So my this time tomorrow I will be in Boston, will maybe get some sightseeing in around the conference by the time I leave on Sunday. And the back to the grind and trying to finish the semester without jumping out my office window. Of course I am only on the second floor, so I would just break a leg and they would still be expecting me to grade finals. But I will post pictures when I get back, at least you have that to look forward to!

I Got an Ipod! I Got an Ipod!! I Got an Ipod!!!

2007-03-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yes it is true, after a couple of months of whining, my husband took me to Target and ordered me to purchase my new ipod!!! I almost thought of waiting until this summer and getting the new iphone, but honestly what the hell would I do with it? I probably wouldn’t even know what the hell to do with something like that and I figure the first few years will be filled with problems that will need worked through and I am not a good beta tester, I am far too impatient. Through research I finally narrowed now what I wanted to the video ipod. I thought the nano colors were cool, but to get one that held at least 500 songs I would spend $50 less then getting the video ipod, and with the video one you can, you know, watch videos and load photos (which of course I have already done). And so the last choice I had to make was color and really it was 50/50. Did I want white or did I want black? I spent some time checking them out and debated the merits of color with Jeff until he decided that he had enough of that and left me to go look at games. In the end I got the black one, and I am happy. I was leaning toward the white one, but everyone has the white one, so to be just a bit different (I mean come on, you really can’t pull of disaffected with an ipod, but the black one? Maybe) I bought the black one. I am not putting it out of the realm of possibility that Johnny Depp called to me from the packaging. I mean he is a pirate and all, somehow at once all dirty and sexy, but hey it’s Johnny Depp, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.

So the nice thing about the new ipods, they come charged. When I bought Jeff his ipod just over three years ago it came in a huge box and had to be charged for like three days (maybe that is an over-exaggeration) so I was happy to start playing right away, except….that when my computer crashed three weeks ago and I had to reset the entire thing it hadn’t wiped out my itunes. I installed the new one, but I don’t have the music that I purchased previously. It turns out that they expect that it is all backed up on your ipod, but when your ipod is already dead, there is no back up. (I know, I know but I worried about backing up the diss, not my music). I have emailed itunes and I hope that they will take pity on me, especially since I just spent an inordinate amount of money on this damn thing. But the new ipod is awesome. It has a huge screen that is also color. I downloaded some pics already and it is awesome! I set it up so that it plays a slideshow when I am listening to music, and of course I bought some new music. Jeff taught me how to listen to Sirius radio online (hey I pay for it) so every time I heard a song I liked I wrote it down (there are a lot of post its on my desk) and I downloaded some today. Once I get my already purchased music and put is some CD’s I will be like 1% on my way to filling up the damn thing!

But the thing to remember is I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new purchase and that means that it may just be a good spring break. Of course from here on out I will be neck deep in my dissertation (the goal being to finish) so don’t expect to hear from me for awhile.

My Mid-Week Vent

2007-03-13T21:10:00.001-07:00

Ok, so most of the time I use my blog to write about knitting and what I did over the weekend, but today I am irritated at many things and so I vent. I should warn the faint of heart, but I won’t because if you are reading this then you already know my political slant.

I find it all kinds of frightening that outing a CIA spy is not considered treasonous. I mean really, are you f&^^Y& kidding me? How is that not some how treason? She was a SPY. I repeat, a SPY!!!! But no, I guess that if you are the VP you can do whatever the hell you want. You can also, it seems hire a guy who doesn’t remember what he said when and to who. I mean who in the world actually believes that Scooter Libby, who was the chief of staff for the Vice President of the United States, has such a bad memory that he can’t remember what he had been told and when? I mean really? Isn’t one of the main sticking points for holding a position like Chief of staff in the WHITE HOUSE is knowing a lot of people and remembering those people and the information they have given you?
It also scares the sh*! Out of me that the Attorney General can break the law in every imaginable way and still not resign or be booted. I mean how bad does what you did have to be that it doesn’t even fall under the purview of the Patriot Act? I mean this is an act that allows the suspension of habeas corpus, secret wiretapping and secret trials to get secret warrants with little to no evidence. So it is really telling when what you have done isn’t even legal by Patriot Act standards. And on top of that you also intimidate federal prosecutors to hold off on arresting certain people and push to arrest other before the big election. Of yes and fire those people who disagree with you. All of this and no resignation, oh and no word from the White House. WOW.
When children perish tragically in a fire, it makes no difference whatsoever if they were illegal aliens or not. No one bit of difference. Did you hear me Mr. O’Reilly? Oh yeah and 10 year old kidnapping victims most likely assaulted by the pedophile who stole him are not to blame for what has happened to them. Blame the victim is an old game, but blame the victim who is a child? Come on. I have no doubt that you are a culture warrior, but I do doubt is you have a human heart.
I would like every single hatemongering person who makes incendiary statements about homosexuals to think for just one second about how history will judge them. You know those horrible people who justified lynching and fought segregation with their ignorant and racist speech? That is you in 10 years; students will see those comments and wonder at how people could actually treat other human beings that way. Discrimination is discrimination; it is not justified because you say so. You don’t like someone lifestyle? Deal with it because no one should be discriminated against because some small faction of people can’t read the Bible correctly.
I think that is enough for now, I will probably have an FBI file by morning, so if you don’t here from me again, try me at Gitmo.

The good, the bad, and...well you know

2007-02-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, yes it has been a crazy week that has vacillated between being super cool and fun and driving me to drink copious amount of alcohol and toying with the idea of chucking it all and running away with the circus. And the best part is, it’s only Wednesday. So what’s a girl to do? Bitch on her blog it seems. But let’s start with the good.

On Saturday we went to a dinner party (which is turns out adults do a lot and, depending on the people you eat with, much more fun they I ever thought there would be) and we met some new super cool people. And we all drunkenly decided that we needed to have a karaoke party, since I, for some reason have two karaoke machines. How does a girl with absolutely no musical skills have two karaoke machines? Well because I like to sing, even though I am awful at it, Jeff bought me a stand alone machine last year, which I plug in and play when Jeff’s not home. And then in Philli over Christmas break Jennie told me about this cool game you can play on the X-Box, Karaoke Revolution which comes with its own mic and you get points and stuff for singing on key, and you can go head to head with someone else in competition. This is the best because you just have to hit the right note, it doesn’t matter what it sounds like. And Jeff is happy with it because it is the only X-Box game I will play. But I digress. The decision was that I would bring the machines, Jeff would make perogies and we would have a fun party.

Then on Tuesday we had a speaker at school for the Black history month convocation. It was Alfre Woodard, an actress that you may recognize from Scrooged or her new gig Desperate Housewives. Now I will admit that I was not too excited about rearranging my syllabus to take my class to a speech by some actress. I mean if it had been academic or something no problem, but an actress? But I did it and I actually really enjoyed her speech. I think that she really surprised people who thought she was just going to give a nice little speech. Instead she railed against the war in Iraq and the way in which this administration is ignoring the poor and disenfranchised in this country to make a train wreck out of another. And she appealed to the students to make their mark, to stand up for those who can not because they are the future. She ended by reciting a Langston Hughes poem which she did beautifully (duh she us an actress). It was great fun, but I think she surprised people with such an overtly political speech. And the students enjoyed it, which was really the point.

And the bad side? Well I won’t get into it now, and I wouldn’t discuss some of it on this blog. Let’s just say that it starts with the pile of stuff on my desk at work that needs to be graded and end with me banging my head against a door because people are driving me crazy, but again I won’t name names, that would be a bit dangerous. But let’s suffice it say that I will just sit here with my cocktail and try to forget today every happened with a couple of mindless hours of American Idol.

Moving on...

2007-02-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

And that is what I am doing, the Bears lost the Super Bowl, but we have next year and only a few more months before Cubbie spring training. So we will move on…..

I thought that it has been over a month since our trip to Philli and I never posted pics! I would like to point out before the viewing that the night before we left J and I fell sick with the babyflu. Truly I do not know who got me sick, but there were three babies and no students so someone needed to take the blame. This means that we had a 14 hour drive with two sick people downing strange blue cold-buster. Actually the drive wasn’t that bad, but I did have a scary day when I realized that my voice was going, going gone. I blame the flu, but it also might have had something to do with the late night of drinking the first night we got there! But I gave my paper, it was well received, met up with some friends that I have not seen in a while, had some drinks and saw some stuff.

When we got to Philli I had luncheon to go to, but after that we walked around the city a bit. One of the first things I decided we need to see what Betsy Ross’s house, and I made Jeff take the audio tour, yes he was happy with that. I liked this kitty fountain that was in the courtyard, but I honestly don’t know how Betsey would feel about the Starbuck’s across the street. That night we went to dinner with L. We walked around until we found someplace that looked good, but once inside Fork we realized that this was one of those hippier than cool, everyone wearing black place. I bet that they served little food too, and everyone knows how I feel about little food. So we went one block over and eat at this great Italian place. There was wine and fun had by all, and after dinner we went back to the hotel bar and more friends.

The next day we had another round of things to see, but before that we had to get our picture taken with this guy. Turns out we were too late to see Independence Hall, so we headed over to the Constitution museum, which is very cool. It’s fun for kids, or people like me who really just like taking pictures with bronzed statues. My favorite part of the museum was the screens through history to tell you who could vote, J says he could vote from the get go if he counted the car as property.

The next day I gave my presentation and then we saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I have to say that after the long line and the security the Liberty Bell looked, well how should I say this, kind of fake. I mean it looked like the bronze was sprayed on or dipped in plastic. Independence hall though was more fun. We saw the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed, which was pretty cool. And then we walked around to point out all the places that Nicholas Cage stood in National Treasure. And we were not the only ones doing so, which makes me wonder exactly what kind of dork we are! But in all the drink was fun and if you make the trip here is an interesting tip, every road stop on the PA turnpike has a Starbucks, enjoy.

SuperBowl Bound.....

2007-01-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

So there is definitely a lot to catch up on in my life, or really not so much but I am sure people would like to see some pics of the trip to Philly. But the big news ‘round here is, of course, that my bears are going to the SUPERBOWL!!!! Yes, I said the Chicago Bears. Are. Going. To. The. Superbowl. To put this in perspective, the last time that the Chicago Bears went to the Superbowl I was 10 years old. It was so long ago, as a matter of fact, that I distinctly remember my brother and I taping the superbowl shuffle on a blank audio tape off of the radio. We knew every word because my mom would play the radio in the morning when we were eating breakfast and getting ready for school. And after 21 long years of suffering as a Bears fan, we are back. This has been one hell of a season, we couldn’t have it be easy could we? Of course not, that is not the Chicago way. We had to backtrack and flounder, try to give it away and then take it back. This season the Bears took a page from the Cardiac Cubs. But Sunday’s game against the Saints was awesome. There was no wishy-washy performance, we wanted it more. It was a perfect Chicago game, snow flurrying down to coat the field and players and Soldier Field shaking like a snow globe. It was beautiful and if you don’t think football can be beautiful, you’re a philistine and I don’t know if I want to talk with you anymore.

This of course means a few things will happen over the course of the next two weeks. There will be much smack talk between my father and me. He, a long time Colts fan has much to be happy about. The last time the Colts were in the Superbowl they were still in Baltimore and I hadn’t been born yet. So his long suffering has been very long indeed. People often ask him why the hell he is a Colts fan and the answer is simple, when he was a boy he loved Johny U (if you don’t know who that is I am surprised you’ve read this entry this long). And there will be smack talk. I called him Sunday night to say one thing, we’re coming for you. I also felt the need to warn him that he should really take down the big Colts flag he has flying in the front yard as he does live in northern Illinois, only a few scant hours from Soldier Field. And in the next few weeks I will want to throw things at the new TV more times than I can count because the same talking heads that said the Saints would win will be talking about how the Bears will never bring down Payton. All of this is in the future, but for now I am just happy because instead of waiting patiently for the baseball season to start I am planning a Superbowl party, Chicago night at our house.

Wolverines!

2006-12-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

For some inexplicable reason I found myself watching Red Dawn this week. I am not quite sure what made me set the remote down at that station, but I think that people of a certain age, whose formative years were spent hating “pinkco commies” are drawn to watch widely fantastic action adventure movies where red blooded Americans fight the dirty socialists. At first I was just going to leave the TV on while I did other things around the house, but soon I found myself drawn into the same damn movie I have seen five hundred times. I am not sure why I have seen Red Dawn so many times when my husband is still stumped that I have not seen other movies that have become cultural touchstones. For example, I have never seen Top Gun, something that sends people wandering off from me shaking their heads when I tell them. But Red Dawn I have seen a lot, and after watching it yet again I found realized some interesting anthropological points.

First, when watching Red Dawn one is prompted, at random times, to shout out “Wolverines!” This is usually accompanied by raising both arms up, or sometimes one arm in a power to the people fist. This continues to happen throughout the movie, no matter if no one else is in the house with you, or how much it tends to scare the cats and make the dog move from the couch to the window to get away from you. Next, one will always be filled with a hatred of any and all communists, but usually focused on the USSR. It does not seem to matter that the armies that flood Calumet City in the movie are also Cuban and Nicaraguan. It also does not seem to matter that the USSR long ago broke apart, for some reason one feels the need to find Reagan and tell him to hurry up with Star Wars because the end could come soon.

Red Dawn is a silly movie, who can buy that Howell kid as a bad ass, but I think it is also a powerful cultural artifact. It paints a picture of a cultural milieu that was so prevalent that people who were immersed in the Cold War can be brought right back in time. And yet it struck me and how quickly those ideologies were gone. My students don’t remember a cold war; they laugh at old movies that blame communism for a myriad of things. But somehow that hasn’t stopped me from randomly yelling out “Wolverines” all week long. The cats scatter, the dog leaves and my husband shakes his head.

Finally some knitting........

2006-11-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

So I know that I have not updated in a while, it seems to be a common occurrence around these parts. I have been working very hard and writing my brains out. I want this damn dissertation finished soon. And because of this and the working thing I have not had much time to knit. Although I did find time to cut off all of my hair! Pics will soon follow. I did start a new scarf. As the weather has gotten cooler and I needed a coat, I realized that the cool brocade coat I bought last year did not have scarf to go with it. So I went through my pattern books and found one I liked, and a pretty blue yarn that I thought would go nice. This also gave me an excuse to use the wooden needles I bought in Sept. at the art fair. They are hand whittled and were like $5, so that made me happy as well. I decided on a lace pattern that is delicate enough to look good with the coat, but also warm enough for the WV winter (although probably not the IL one). I am progressing nicely; I tend to knit when I need a break and have a few minutes from writing or working. I am also including some pics of the new furniture. I love it, it is microfiber, so anything on it comes right off with a little water. And since this is the first furniture that we have that was not handed down to us, I have exiled the animals from it. They don’t love it but they will get used to it. I will update on the scarf and some thought I have for Christmas gifts. I think everyone should get a homemade gift at least once, so when I have them that is what they will get. I am also open for suggestions from anyone. That is all for now, I am must get back to work!

And now for something different...

2006-10-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

So usually I stay away from political commentary, at least on my blog, but since I have no knitting updates (but I did get a chapter out), I would just like to make a few comments.

If you have the chance catch the documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Currently this one HBO, and anyone with on demand can order it and I would highly recommend it. Spike Lee directs this film about Katrina and New Orleans. It is beautiful and sad and compelling. And they have some awesome interviews, I especially liked the one with Soladad O’Brien (who I used to watch the Today show for). If you weren’t still pissed of at the Bush administration (and if you aren’t, well that’s a problem for another day), then you will be when you see the failure of Bush and the Louisiana state government to work together and get people the hell out. For some reason we can air drop water to Taiwan within twenty-four hours, but we can’t get to the Superdome? And what the hell does Homeland Security do? Even if you think that people should have gotten out, that the failure was at the local level you have to admit that you too are a bit worried. Worried that the lesson from Katrina is that the federal government can not evacuate a major urban city in less than a week, in the face of disaster. What if a bomb went off in Chicago or Atlanta or Dallas? What we saw if that no one will get out, you will sit in some shelter in place in hopes that you can survive long enough for someone, anyone to come get you. But I digress, just watch the movie.

On the knitting front, I wish that I could show you what I have been up to, but what I have been up to is writing and no knitting. But I am close to finishing the blanket that I am crocheting for my new niece and I will post pics when I am done. On that notes I also would like to retract the comment I made about my mother in law. She is a wonderful and witty woman who would never kill me for something as like crocheting. Especially since she knows she would get Jeff back. Of course I hope she will forgive me for my comments, but I know she will because she has a big heart and she is so, so pretty.

I promise to post some pics of the new bath and kitchen soon, I have to get Jeff to clean up again because I am just too busy trying to write a damn book!

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

2006-09-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

So I should have written sooner. I should have done a lot of things in the last few weeks that I have not, but that is neither here nor there and we should just suck it up and move on. The truth is that I have been waiting to find the cord that will connect the camera to my computer, and that has not happened. I wanted to post some pics, but that is not going to happen right now either. Oh well, life has gone on. I am enjoying the whole full time job thing. I have an office that is all mine, not one I have to share with one or more grad students. I also have two windows, so be very jealous. Of course with that comes students who find me and department meetings and more grading. I’m confused of course because I have taught four classes lots of times, most of the time through grad school, but now it seems more real. I think maybe I just need another month to get used to it. But I am having fun and getting a lot of work done in said office which is leaving my evenings free to paints some of the house and work on my dissertation, which I will complete by Dec. if it kills me, and it may just.

On the knitting front I have finished Steph’s blanket and need to get it out to her with a few things for the new baby, due any day now, and something for G-Lo. I will post pics later when I find that damn cord. I will also post pics of the awesome job that we did painting the bathroom and the sideboard. For those that remember our nice, but dated sideboard circa 1985, we painted it black and changed the pulls and now it looks like something cool you might purchase at pottery barn (which I would probably never buy from because it is tres’ expensive!), but painting something I already have? Very cool. So I will post pictures when I finish because both look very cool.

I will not, however, post pics of the baby sweater that I have been working on. Let’s review for a moment shall we? First I made the back of the little pink sweater, which was pretty. Then I started the side. Now I obviously lost my mind in between because I made the back for a newborn, but then made the side for a 1 year old. So, you guessed it, I had to frog it back, which I suck at so I just undid the whole damn thing and now I have to re-knit. Oh well, it’s small, so it is not that bad. What I am proud of is the cool blanket that took me much too long to finish, but with the leftover yarn I have crocheted G-Lo a small blanket that is just her size. I also crocheted a blanket for the new baby, but don’t anyone tell my mother-in-law because she may kill me!

I promise to update soon with pics of the new bath and sideboard soon, it has been a long week dealing with students, but we don’t talk about that here!

Is it 1993?

2006-08-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is the thought I had last week when I was driving to school at 7:15 am for my 8 am class and all of a sudden Depeche Mode came on the radio. For a moment I thought I was warped back in time to senior year of high school. I almost panicked, but then reality set back in and I was a bit irritated that Depeche Mode would be a “flashback song,” I am not that old!

School started last week and so far so good. I like my classes and I LOVE my office. It is my own office, I have to share with no one and it is right across the hall from Jeff. We are at the very end of the hall and are awaiting a hanging sign that says “The Pietruszynskis’” with two arrows. I am decorating my office, but a little at a time because I would like it to be just right and I am still trying to figure out how. Of course the thing that I really want I can not have! I want a white desk caddy that is wood and has those three little places for pictures in the front. I remember that I saw them everywhere a few years back, but now the only place I can find them is Pottery Barn! I swear that I have looked online and in every store within the city limits of Charleston, and some outside of it! I mean all I want is a silly desk caddy that I won’t pay an arm and a leg for (hello pottery barn, I know you’re snooty, but come on!) but no, I am thwarted at every attempt!!!! But other then that, love the new office.

One other thing that has taken me back in time is the undeniable fact that Friday, I got bangs. Now they are not across the forehead bangs, they are layered in the rest of my hair, and they look very cute. But the last time I had bangs I curled them up and hairsprayed the hell out of them while I ratted. Yes, mall hair. All of these things have set me a bit on edge, am I in 2006? Did I wormhole it back to ’93? Or maybe I need more coffee!

I have some knitting to update later, but still haven’t charged the camera!

Things you can no longer do after 30...

2006-08-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

These would include, but are not limited to: splitting a bottle of vodka with a friend while getting drunkity drunk drunk, smoking far too many cigarettes while doing so, thinking I can still do three pirouettes in a row and eating too many pizza rolls both in the above mentioned drunkity drunk drunk state. There are others to add, but my mother reads this blog. But it has been a fun few days visiting with an old friend. I had forgotten how much the mountains freaked me out when I first moved here, now I whip around windy roads without a care for the shear drop or the signs for falling rocks. Frankly I don’t hold much with those signs, I have not seen one rock fall since I have been here! I had also not thought too much about my house sitting on the downside of the mountain where my second story sits eye level with the street, but seeing it through new eyes has brought a freshness to WV that I have not had since I moved.

I am some what unpacked here, the kitchen and the bath are set up, but in the other rooms boxes are stacked neatly with the things that go in that room, waiting patiently for me (and yes it is me, my hubby would just put everything in the wrong place) to put them away. But tonight I am wiped and so it will be an evening of Firefly DVDs and lounging, I will start on my study tomorrow because I need to get that damn diss finished. But there is also laundry to do, a dog in desperate need of bathing and yesterday I finally got cable!!! So what the hell is a girl to do? Waste time, it seems updating her blog.

That is an insult to Monkeys!

2006-08-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Ok so yesterday Jeff and I took like the millionth trip to Target because when you move you some how need crap that you don’t already have, and because your house is a mess and you have boxes everywhere you can never remember everything so you have to go back a lot. Anyway, so there we were turning into the Shops at Trace Fork, because stores along the street just will not work, suburban America needs multiple stores in one area with parking lots that mean you will spend longer in line to get out then actually in the store. But back to my story, so there we are trying to turn when we notice that there are two men standing in the grassy knoll, if you will, by the opening and they are, ready for this? Holding two large, almost as big as them, blow up monkeys who are wearing mortarboards and holding diplomas that say PhD (the monkeys that is, not the men). They men are waving the hands of the monkeys at passerby’s and holding signs that read “Evolution is a lie.”

Well. I didn’t quite know what to do but my first reaction was to laugh my ass off. And by the time I had stopped we were at Target and I had not thought to take a picture or yell something clever yet snappy, something like “Nice Monkey!” The best part if as we walked to the car and put away our booty I was asking Jeff what exactly he thought I should yell out the window when the van next to us opened up and out came the men. I don’t know if they heard me or not, but I hope they did since they ran away before I could get a picture!

On another note I did a lot of unpacking today because my sweet Rho is coming for a visit on the spur of the moment. We have a whole day planned and I will take pics if I can find the box with the charger in it! As I was unpacking today I came across some photo albums I haven’t looked through in awhile, although I can tell you when I got a digital camera because the photos in the album stop there! There were some great ones from year one and two of ISU, and I had a great time laughing through them. A few things struck me, one I look good in long hair, and two my memory is either completely gone or photographic, there is no in between. Nothing is hazy, I either remember a time or I don’t. And I obviously have no concept of time. When looking at pics from year one I kept thinking, where the hell is Nikki? It didn’t occur to me at first that she is not there because she literally was not there, I guess I always think of her around because she is so much fun that I have transported her in time. Hope you don’t mind sweetie!

The best and worst of the walk down memory lane was when I came across pictures of a friend who was recently called away way, way, too soon. I laughed as I cried because I could just imagine the comments he was making as I was taking the pictures, in his dulcet tones and complete southern charm. Berto you were truly a southern gentleman and the kindest spirit I have ever known. I can only imagine that you were taken too soon because you were too good for this world. We miss you.

Mission Moving Completed

2006-08-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

So we are all moved into the new house, and as soon as I unpack some more boxes I will take some pics and post them. I would actually take some pics now, but the camera battery is dead and I have no idea which box the charger is in. We were done moving on Sat. and by Sunday at noon we had completely cleaned the old place. I did lose a toenail in the process, but since our landlord was so impressed with the cleaning job that he has already given us back our deposit I think it might have been worth it. Of course it was painful and looks awful, I think I will live. At least it is summer and I can get away with sandals, and hopefully by the time I need closed toed shoes I will have a new toenail. But I must say that one should never be allowed to google their medical malaise because I am now convinced that I will get a horrible infection and then they will have to take the toe. Or that I have damaged the root so badly that the nail will never grow back. I can think of nothing more horrible, I love strappy shoes; I can not go my life without them!

In the time since I last wrote I turned 31, which was a bit depressing, but I have decided that once I turn 32 that is it and I am done, I will stay 32 until the lie is not convincing anymore. My birthday was fun, we saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Jeff made me dinner with my favorite wine. And then I spent all my time divided evenly between packing, writing and summer school. Now I am enjoying my vacation by writing and watching the four channels that I have right now because cable can not be hooked up until next week. One would think it wouldn’t take that long, but I think that we are being punished. You see we decided to get direct tv, and cancelled our cable service. But then we could not get a satellite signal, damn mountain! So I had to slink back to cable, and I think the long wait is punishment for leaving in the first place. I would like to say that without TV we have been doing much more intellectual stuff, but that would be untrue. Instead we signed up for Netflix and have been watching the complete Firefly series. Now this was recommended to me, but by the time I started to watch it, it was cancelled. So I have decided to catch up through the DVD set, it has been fun, but not so much for you because that means I have not been doing much to keep you all entertained. I will take some pics as I unpack and let you all se the new house.

The Supermen I love

2006-07-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

So it has been an extremely very long time since I have updates this blog, and I could blame the dissertation, or summer school or any number of things, but the truth is I have not had the inkling to write and that is my only excuse, but to make amends I will spend this time updating everyone on what we have been up to.
On the 30th my wonderful hubby turned 32! Yes I know that he is old, and he is lucky to have a young chicky like me, but since he’s hot we will leave him alone. We had a good time on his b-day. I was supposed to make him breakfast, but he took over and made it himself. Then we were off to see a matinee of Superman Returns. It was awesome except for this very strange man who fell asleep not once, not twice, but three times during the movie and was snoring VERY loudly! The first time I found a manager to wake him up, the second time I woke his snoring ass up myself and the third time some loud special effect did it. Now I can understand falling asleep once, but eventually since you have missed the majority of the movie one would think that you would leave! All I can say is WOW! Anyway, after the movie we had dinner and this wings place Jeff likes and that was all she wrote.
Our 4th was low key, we headed back to the Mountain State Arts and Craft fair which was way cool and we picked ourselves up a witch ball and some kettle korn. I think I ate my body weight in crap, but it was fun. In the mean time we have been looking for a new place with little luck. Some places we like, so suck and some people never call you back. I bet for every 10 ads I call about one person will give me a call back. I think that is so rude! I mean if you don’t like pets then put it in your ad or call back and say so! But no, somehow this landlord relationship has become like dating. I call, leave a message and then wait for them to call back, if they don’t the message is clear, ‘we don’t want you or you crazy dog!” But renting a house is not like dating, it is supposed to be a cordial relationship! Common courtesy should reign, but right now all I can say is that I am so glad I am married and don’t have to date anymore. Now I just can’t wait until I can get rid of this other relationship that is bad for me!
I have to admit that I have not been doing much knitting, I just have not had time, but I will leave you with some pics of the felted bag I made last month!

What a Long Strange Trip....

2006-06-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

So I am sorry that I have neglected this blog for so long, but I have reasonable if not good excuses. First, right after the last post I took ill. It was not consumption or anything, but it was a fun filled four days of feeling icky. It was very strange because I did not have cold symptoms or stomach flue symptoms; I simply felt crappy and tired and ran a low grade fever. I got over it, just in time because I was really working Jeff’s last good nerve with my whining. Of course I often reminded him that when he is sick he, as do all men as far as I can tell, whine like they are dying of the plague. So I spent four days in bed watching bad movies (Alexander? Honestly I don’t know what I was thinking but I would give anything to have those three hours of my life back!) and reading fun books with little to no literary value at all. Everyone worth knowing was only alright, though much too predictable and less entertaining then the Devil Wears Prada, which I am excited to see at the end of the month. That book will always hold a special place in my memories because I read it in the beach in Jamaica! Speaking of which, on the 5th Jeff and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary so yeah for us! We had a good time with a lobster gram from MomP, although killing the lobsters was a drama!

Of course I did not get much knitting done while I was sick, but I did manage to felt the accessories bag, and I will post those pics tomorrow in between finishing up the syllabus for summer school which starts next week and working on my Hardy chapter. Of course the working on the Hardy chapter is testing my will to find every Hardy scholar and beat him/her soundly about the head and the neck. Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t see the point of arguing with a reviewer from 1892. And I don’t means discuss the social and cultural discursive connection between reviewer and author and scholar, I mean literally arguing with a review who has been dead for like a hundred years. Oh well, this too will pass, but I do want to give a shout out to my girl Lori who is defending her diss at the end of the month! Yeah to her, and I will say that I always knew that she would rock it out and look forward to telling people “Yeah, I know her, we went to grad school together, we’re friends.”

And I leave with the good news that I have been offered and accepted a job!!! Email me or call and I will give you details! I will be back soon, but to tide you over I leave you with a project that I would like to start for Genevieve, I am open for suggestions on color ect.

My So Called Life

2006-05-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

So I have started three knitting projects, which some might believe to be some sort of self flagellation, but in actuality is simply me on my first week of vacation. As most of you know I am not a person who can have lots of free time, I am just not used to it and need projects to give me something to do. And before everyone and their brother emails me, yes I am writing, the diss is coming along. I have partitioned off the day to work on that, but I now have the evenings to fill up and there is crappola on TV because all the seasons are over. Of course I could watch all the stuff I have on DVR that I didn’t have time to watch before, particularly a half season of Lost. I will of course get to that all, but right now I have chosen to use my time to knit.

As many of you know I have been toiling away at Steph’s blanket, what I have named the blanket that will not end. I decided that I needed a break from it because every time I picked it up I was reminded of the deer saga because I had been working on it about an hour before we hit the deer and put it away when Jeff remarked that if the airbags went off that I might lose an eye. So needing a beak from the blanket that would not end, I whipped up some booties for baby girl p, who better not come out baby boy p because I am also working on a sweater in pink. I am done with the back and have made some progress on one front side.
I have also picked out a blanket to knit the new edition; it is from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies and can be personalized with a letter in the center and I have wanted to knit it since I saw it. But I haven’t started. Why? Not because I don’t have enough yarn, when I mentioned needing more Jeff asked me to walk downstairs to revisit the stash that is over flowing the huge basket that can not contain it. It is simply because blankets take so much time, even when it is for a baby I almost don’t want to commit, but I must because new babies always need blankets and since I am under an edict straight from MomP that I may not crochet the blankets they must be knit. And if baby girl p does not have one, but her sister does I will pay for it some day. I can not be that aunt, I must be the favorite one!

The other project is one that I have wanted to do for awhile, but it required work, which means I had to rifle through the stash to find the left over yarn I wanted to use from the felted diaper bag. But I desperately need a notions bag, have needed one since last year when I lost mine. I quickly replaced my notions, not so much with the bag, so I have decided on this.
It is knitted in the round and called for circular needles, but I started it on DPN’s because I felt like it. I have since gotten over my rebellious streak and moved to the correct needles,
accepting that the author of Weekend Knitting might know a bit more than I do. I will update when I finish and felt. I am not too keen on that right now because of the broken dryer, I don’t want to use towels because then I would not have a way to dry them, I may, however use something else. I will have to think on this and suggestion will be accepted (but not ones that point out that someone who is almost a PhD, married to another PhD should use their brain to find some way to felt a damn bag).

That’s it! I’m cursed: Or the ontological implications of spiritual karmic belief systems

2006-05-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

This is of course directed to everyone who has repeatedly assured me, constantly I might add, through the last year that in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that I am not cursed. And while all that chatter about life’s ups and downs is blah blah blahing in my head, I would like to list the myriad of things that I have been through in the past few weeks. Jeff’s brakes that had to be fixed twice while we were 500 miles away from home, the deer that decided to jump in front of us on I-70 outside of Dayton Ohio while we were driving MomP’s brand new car, Jeff’s robes not making it to grad, instead landing at home were we were not, a graduation card and check mysteriously disappearing from my purse (in all fairness I probably lost it) and last but not least, this morning the breaking down of my dryer while I was in the middle of five loads of laundry. I can honestly say that right now I feel like Charlie Brown who keeps falling down flat every time Lucy pulls the football away. I know that other people have it worse, and I can appreciate that, but this is my blog and so I can complain about anything I damn well please. I just wish that life could be a little easier, at least for awhile. All I ask for is a month, just one month where everything goes right, basically I just want to catch a break.

This latest football (see Lucy reference above) just really pisses me off. The warranty on that damn dryer just ran out six months ago, and Sears wants money just to get someone out here to look at it. Jeff and I spent the afternoon at the skanky Laundromat, which I should get used to because it will be at least a month before we can afford to get someone here to look at the damn thing. I thought, just for awhile, that I had gotten pasted the whole I am young, broke and need to go somewhere to wash my clothes. Having my own washer and dryer really made me feel good, like he grown up that I am supposed to be and it rankled to have to feed quarters into a machine to just dry my damn clothes. I guess that is what hurts the most (MomP might interject here that she misses her car more, this is true, but to point that out interrupts my narrative thrust). So am I cursed or is this just life? And if so whose life did I inherit? Do I have bad luck or am I having just a bad year? I have no idea, and I really don’t care at this point, but I will cease my ranting and self-pity, for no other reason then I can hear Jeff downstairs making me a snack, so all can’t be bad if someone is feeding me. And I have my health, but I won’t say that too loud because my insurance just ran out and I will now probably come down with some debilitating illness.

I will write some more later when I have pics of the pink booties I made when I needed a break from the blanket that would not end.

Knitting Again!

2006-05-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

I know, I have been very lax about keeping everyone up to date on my knitting projects, but give a girl a break, it’s almost finals and I have students crawling out of the woodwork! Yes, that and I am very lazy about taking some pictures. But I am here now and promise to be much better about updating my knitting. Of course the problem is that I blog about what I am doing at the time and unfortunately knitting is something that too often gets pushed to the side when school and life become too hectic. I started knitting because I thought it would be relaxing, and it is, when I get to do it. Sometimes I look at the work piled on my desk and all I want to do is knit. I usually make deals with myself, I set goals that motivate me, if I get through so many papers, or write so many pages I get some uninterrupted knitting time. It is sad that I have to partition out my time like this, but such is the life of the academic. I am looking forward to the end of the semester, between spring and summer classes I will have four and a half weeks off. Now most of that time must be spent working on the diss, but no classes means no papers and no prep. I can work during the day and then knit at night. I also have a stack of books and movies waiting for me to have some free time. Believe me I will make the most of that time!

But enough about that, what you really want, what I have promised is that there will be pics of the newest works in progress. Now back in December I told Steph that I could knit her a blanket that she say at Linens N’ Things for way cheaper then what they were selling it for. Let’s just say that I overestimated my talents. I am almost done, but it has taken me way to long to get through a project with chunky yarn on 17 needles.
I am about 3/4th of the way through it, and I hope to be done by this weekend when I will see Steph, she will probably enjoy getting the blanket that she has been waiting for. I worked with Homespun, and I think that it is coming out really well. Jeff really likes it; he says that he wants me to get to work on one for us, of course in different colors to match our bedroom. Maybe I will become a knitter for hire, touring the country and selling hand knit blankets. Of course that would not be such a great use of the PhD. But I am excited that I can get Jeff to the cool yarn store in Kanawha City where I will go on a yarn extravaganza!

My second project I am super excited about, a pretty sweater for my new niece. I think it will be great because she is due in September and will be able to wear my pretty sweater right away. I have the great book Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, and it has some of the most beautiful designs.
I chose this one because I could rim it if I wanted, but it looks awesome without it. I am using a Lion’s Brand mohair mix. It is so soft and pink, like a cloud. I love, love, love it! Right now I only have the back done, but as soon as the blanket is done I will finish it. It is on tiny 3 needles, but it is for a newborn, so it goes pretty quickly. I wanted to make a blanket too, but they take so super long that I don’t know it I can do it. I could crochet it, I have started a pretty pink one, but I think MomP might disown me. But I will finish a few blankets for the Church baby shower drive for area charities.

Well I am off for now. We are headed to Chicago and Rock Island this weekend for Jeff and my Mom’s graduations, so I will not be able to update for awhile. Of course I will see you all anyway!

PhD Ski

2006-05-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, be jealous, I am married to a Dr! Jeff defended his dissertation on Friday and now all those years of hard work are over, well except for the job, research, teaching and administration work. Wow, so it never really ends? Such is the life we have chosen, and what the hell we can get summers off!

We had a good time at the hotel and at the party after, actually Friday was one long hang with the peeps in normal, after the defense we went to the Irish pub and then to Luddy’s for more fun. It was awesome to see everyone again, I miss them so much! But I guess that is the way it goes, eventually everyone has to move on, and while it is sad you know that academia is not that large and you will see these people again, usually at a conference and for those who have ever bee, the good times at the conference happen in the hotel bar. Actually most intellectual work happens in the bar!

Of course on the way to Illinois, Jeff’s back passenger brake went out, fortunately we were stopped at a gas station with a mechanic across the street. Two hours and $340 later we were back on the road, of course this meant that missed dropping off Spenser at the kennel, and he stayed with us in the hotel. But the fun did not stop there, brake fluid kept leaking and we ended up in Chicago, leaving the car with my in-laws and taking their Nissan for the trip back. This car is stylin’! It still smells like a new car! I tried to trade and Momp said that it would cost me my first born; I am tempted to take it. All of this set us back a day, but that was OK, we got to hang with Michele. On the down side we had to leave the Spenser, but we will be back in a week for Jeff’s grad, so all in all not too bad. Now I know that you all want pics and updates on knitting, but give a girl a break! I have been busy, but I promise updates and pics soon!

The Future of Academic Study

2006-04-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

So in writing my fourth chapter I am eyes deep in Hardy, and yesterday while reading through some of Hardy’s letters exhaustion gave way to strange thoughts. Now I am footnotes junkies, whenever that little number appears I scan the bottem of the page to find out what the brouhaha is, and then I began to think about the last time that I actually wrote a letter and let me tell you it has been a long time. Yet I keep in touch with more people around the country now then I ever did when I wrote letters. How? The wonder of email. Which leads me to this question: in 100 years will literary research mean rooting around through someone’s hard drive instead of dusty attics and libraries for communication from long dead authors? More frightening, will the emails get lost in technology or will they be saved? Will emoticons be the subject of textual analysis? It’s a scary thought indeed, and I will be happy that I will not be there to see it, but since communication has become increasingly virtual, where will primary text come from if not online? Now don’t get me wrong I adore places that the Victorian Research web, the Victorian women’s writing project and project Bartleby, they allow me to access information that I couldn’t find anywhere else but London. And for someone with horrible allergies from dust and mold, the seduction of staying out of special collection if hard to resist. But I have always loved the feel of books, I like to hold them in my hand, to leaf through the pages, to examine the cracked spine and the margin notes that I wrote years ago, or were left by someone else. And so I am vacillating between the love of the material and the ease and accessibility of the virtual, but I will not linger here long, I have my own work to do.

A Helluva Week

2006-04-08T09:08:00.001-07:00

So I know that I have not blogged in a week, and I swore that when I did I would have pics of the blanket that I am making for Steph and the little pink sweater I started for someone else, but am finishing for the new baby girl Pietruszynski, but I have not taken the pics or loaded them into my computer. Why? Because I have had one helluva week. And no that is not a mis-spelling, if you have had the week I have you would spell it that way too! Since last weekend I have: finished and sent off chap. 3 of the diss, and started chap 4, graded 40 position papers while explaining that making a point clear is not somehow aesthetically incorrect and how I do not choose page length for my own amusement, I have graded 35 finals paper for my online class, which has made the notion that I need a stronger prescription a fact and not an abstract idea, I have peer reviewed an article for the online journal that I work with, I have scheduled three (count ‘em baby) more campus interviews, taken over a 101 for the rest of the semester, and registered for summer, written a mid-term for my independent study and finally prepared a lecture for my large group gen-ed class for Mon. Wow. I am tired just looking at that list, but it is done now, and tonight I get to have dinner with an awesome colleague who is making Mexican! Amazingly in all of this I have found time to work on Steph’s blanket because I found that knitting for at least 30 minutes helps me sleep. And so now here I am on a rainy Sat. thinking about all that next week holds and already longing for summer. But I have way too much to do before that, and more to do this summer to finish that damn PhD. Before I had thought about my degree as something that would come eventually, I guess I was waiting for the right time, the place where I felt like I was deserving. Yeah we know how well that has worked. But I am on a schedule now, and will work diligently to finish before I am too old to use the damn thing! And I swear some updated pics soon, I know how much everyone loves the projects in progress section of this blog. But I just wanted to let everyone know that I have not fallen off of the face of the earth, I have just been busy!

Random Midweek Musings

2006-03-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

They are fixing the roof of our place, again. Now I know that roofs occasionally need to be fixed because they occasionally leak, but this has been days and days of pounding right above my bed, punctuated only by a few days of quiet. Between the pounding and the dog barking like crazy it is has become a bit difficult to get some work done. I know that many people, none of them reading this blog, but many people would argue that I can not possibly do work in my fuzzy slippers, but the fact of the matter, and the bane of my existence, is that I do in fact do my best work in the aforementioned slippers.

Anyone who is in fact an educator (much of my family and my in-family) understand that the scant time spendt in the classroom is but a third of the work that actually goes into my work. Not only do I teach class, but someone must prep that class, and then grade the work that comes in. This means that my evenings and weekend are most often filled with Jeff and I slouched around the house with green pens and a plethora of paperclips and staples. This is what many people don’t understand, that in fact I must work at home, if I did not I would hardly get any work done. Add to this mix my online class, where all of my time is spent in fuzzy slippers and the work for my diss and you will find me a busy girl indeed. Yes I just had a week off for break, yes I have a month off in Dec/Jan. and yes there are weeks off before and after summer classes (usually). But often these breaks are filled with grading and syllabus preparation and trying to live any part of my life I could not squeeze in during the semester.

I know this, the people I know and love know this, so why do I actually feel guilty when people show up to fix my roof that I look like a lazy bum? Maybe this is my blue-collar guilt coming to the surface. I grew up with everyone I knew working very hard for a living, often in very physical jobs. I, on the other hand, dress up (or not ) for work. My job is mentally taxing, but not physically (unless I have to carry a lot of papers from the classroom to my car, and then my back hurts). And the only outward sign I have is a rather crusty and painful writer’s bump on the middle finger of my right hand. But when the revolution comes that will not help me. Actually when I think of this sad bump the picture in my mind is the scene from The Killing Fields when the Khmer Rouge checks the hands of the peasants to see if they have been working hard enough. I am actually terrified that someone will take me away when they see I have no calluses. And I am almost ashamed to mention the fact that for most of my life I observed this hard physical labor with distaste, I knew that I never wanted to do that, I wanted to do something else, something that would allow me some freedom, change often because I get bored, and let me do something to change the world. I believe that I found that job, but I carry with me a work ethic that does sometimes make me guilty that simply working all the time is not necessarily working hard. But this is my own problem to deal with, and right at this moment the pounding has stopped, so I will try to get in some work before it starts again.

Ella's Guest Blog

2006-03-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

I truly believe that the click of opening my laptop is like a siren call to Ella. As soon as she hears it she is next to me, even if she had been lounging somewhere downstairs. She rubs on my legs, and then jumps up next to me, rubs on the computer and then makes her move. She will try to walk across the keyboard, lay her head on it, and bat at the cursor on the screen. At first I thought that she was just being annoying. As a cat she has an uncanny ability to know when her attentions are least welcome. But I have now come to another conclusion, are you ready for it? I think that she wants her own blog, or maybe she just wants to be a guest columnist on mine. Unfortunately she lacks a few things necessary to accomplish her will, namely opposable thumbs and higher thinking skills.
Of course she would probably argue the latter, she will concede the former. And so, today, as my brain begs for spring break to hurry up and get here, I will attempt to channel Ella and allow her to post some of her thoughts. Hopefully she can shed some light on some of her strange behavior, I think that after falling off of the banister she had an epiphany and would like to communicate with us as a means of improving human and cat relations. Hence I present to you Ella’s post, where I will scribe for her dictation.

First and foremost I would like to discuss my food. This is not because I am simply an animal driven by basic instinct, but because I am a foodie, I take great enjoyment from relishing and experimenting with my sustenance, consider me French. I believe that the cat food industry, vets and Hollywood are creating false images and impossible standards of body images that are having a terrible effect on normal cats like me. I may carry a few extra pounds, but I am beautiful just the way I am, I am big and gorgeous and I should have a choice about the diets that I am put on. I really dislike that crappy diet food. The humans mix it with real food, and they should know that I pick out the good stuff and leave the diet food for Louie, or I feed it to that damn Dog. He’ll eat anything. And contrary to what the nice and pretty people who live with me think, it is a big deal when my food is low. It is absolutely unacceptable that I should ever have to worry about the food running out. I hear them mock me, saying that day without food might do me some good. You know if I had a thumb I would call the kitty police, hell if I had a thumb I would feed myself, and rule the world. How would the humans feel if someone told them they could go a few days without food? I mean really!

Now onto my perceived laziness. I firmly contend that the humans are simply jealous. They wish that they could sleep all day, lounging about and occasionally batting at the Dog, just to rile him up. It is not my fault that the good Kitty in the sky decreed that we were to be waited upon by the people on two legs. They drew the genetic short straw, so let them deal with it. I need vast amounts of sleep to conserve energy that is needed for eating, chasing Louie, the Dog and bugs. It is of no use for humans to complain, and it is not necessary to get upset at the times in which I choose to be active. I sleep all day so that I might play at night, some of this may occur on or around your head as you sleep. It would much easier if you accepted it and moved on. And this brings me to my next point, that huge bed that the people on two legs resist sharing. Look, they should really be thankful that we allow them to sleep there, so please stop rolling over on my tail or trying to shoo me away. One would think that they would be happy to share with a higher being such as myself, but no, they are very selfish with that bed!

I am getting sleepy now, so I will finish this post with a final thought. When I have decided that you may pet me, pet me and shut up, you should be happy. Pets lower blood pressure and reduce depression. So really I am doing a lot for you guys, and I must say that I am much underappreciated. That is all for now, I may come back for another post someday, I know that you people desperately need entertainment, but for now I must get a snack and take a nap, preferably in that sunny spot downstairs.
Love and kisses,
Ella

You are so Lucky....

2006-03-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

Or more aptly, I guess I am a bad wife because I do not cook. If one more well meaning, but utterly clueless person tells me I am so lucky because my husband cooks I reserve the right to initiate a smack down. I know that I am raging against the machine here but come on, it is 2006 so why is it so amazing that my husband cooks and I don’t? People who know me of course know that while I make a mean cake I can not cook, well not well. I forget things are in or on the oven, and when I lived by myself I lived on Spaghettios and microwave popcorn, and, more often then not, baked potatoes from Wendy’s. People, including my rents, would ask often if I needed money because the only staples I kept in the house were coffee, milk and sugar (for the coffee) and copious amounts of Coke. But I didn’t need money for food, I just needed a chef. Enter Jeff. When he and I started dating I think everyone that I knew let out a collective sigh of relief, finally here was someone who would make sure that I ate something more then popcorn for dinner (which hey, don’t knock it until you try it). But as our nuptials approached I began to hear a calling in the breeze, not from anyone who really knew us, but from those people who exist on the fringes of our existence, the acquaintance. It began like this, so the wedding is coming soon huh? Wow now you will have to learn to cook. I had trouble following this line of thinking, so after knowing someone for four years, and having them feed me daily, now that I am promising before God and the state of Illinois to spend my life with someone, I am expected to be Julia Childs. What my ability to cook had to do with a pretty new piece of jewelry is beyond me, and for the record those people were wrong. I have actually started learning some new recipes, but only because I think it’s mean to make Jeff cook everyday, but most of the time he does anyway. I have found that I can not cook while he is home because he begins to take over and sooner rather than later tell me to “get out of his kitchen.” But more importantly, my hubby is a great cook, any one who knows him will testify to that, so why shouldn’t he cook?

So why in the world do people I barely know continue to tell me how lucky I am that my husband cooks? They do not say this because they know that he makes yummy food, they say this because they assume that because I have a uterus, I should be the one behind the stove. It doesn’t matter that I do other stuff (yes Stephanie I do other stuff), the laundry fairy does not clean our clothes and put them away. Nor do said fairies clean the house, pay bills, keep a budget or keep track of important papers in their color coded and cross referenced files. Jeff and I figured out long ago that we should be in charge of the things we are good out, and leave the gender roles at the door, and it has worked out very well. I eat well, and Jeff never has to worry about where that document is, he knows that I know. So I can only hope that eventually the rest of the world will catch up with us, and if they don’t do it soon I may be in trouble for taking down the next person who tells me I am lucky with that look in their eye that I am somehow a bad wife. Until then, everyone meet at my place for lasagna, Jeff’s specialty, and I will make the cake.

You're blogging? You're fired!

2006-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Is blogging a fire able offense? It seems to be an epidemic in the academic world right now, one I had heard about but not particularly taken an interest in until I came upon an article about the Phantom Professor, an adjunct fired from Southern Methodist University for her no-holds barred diatribes about and against her over privileged students and the frustrating feudal system that is the Ivory Tower of academia. More searching found even more professors and even administrators fired for what they said on their blogs, written and published outside of class.

Now what do I think of this? Am I worried about my blog? To answer the second question, which is much less complicated, no. I write about my musing and knitting to friends and family back home to keep them up to date on my life so far away. I have yet to write about school or students or administrators, so I doubt anyone would take offense at my knitting trials and tribulations. But that is really not the point. My blog, is in no way connected to my job, they neither pay for the space I use, the time in which I write nor the computer that I use to write with. And yet is my reluctance to write about my students that will ultimately save me from any problems. Because I never write about my classes, my students or the administration I am not likely to see any trouble. But what if one day I get all riled up, which is a fair worry, and set out my frustration in my blog? It is quite possible, when I get all kinds of irritated I usually find an outward expression, and with the lack of the grad student support group, which always convened at the pub, my need at expression could take a dangerous route. And it is dangerous because while I could contest anything that would happen to me, my adjunct status does not hold any type of job security.

But this is not a problem that I foresee. Why? Because I would not partake in the kind of blogging that gets people fire. The Phantom professor described her students most intimate secrets and problems, getting her information from office hours and emails which she cut and pasted with relish. I would be hard pressed to do this. As teacher we are in a very strange position of counselor and therapist. Students tell me and email me things that even I don’t want to know. They show me medical printouts, bring me Mass cards and tell me about their emotional breakdowns and learning disabilities. I know way too much about my students, who, I would argue, tell me these things with an understanding that they are private. I respect that privacy too much to send it off into cyber space. Have I ever gotten together with collogues and over a few pints vented about students? Yes. But using the internet as your far back booth of the pub is something altogether different.

Now I will admit that I went to the Phantom Professors blog and read it, and laughed and enjoyed her barbed comments on the Ivory tower. What she discusses is relevant and real. But the way in which she delights in deconstructing her students and their behavior seems, well, mean. It smacks of a vindictiveness that is not the clever observation of one adjunct, over worked and underpaid. Somehow it seems like she is bitterly jealous of her students, their opportunities and their youth. I have had students who were given all and never appreciated it, and occasionally I wish that I had a daddy who paid for my education so that I wasn’t looking at 30 years of student loans, but who wouldn’t. The fact of the matter is that while I think Phantom Prof is someone who I would like to kibitz with over a cocktail, she might not be someone that I would like to send email to. Did I think that she should have been fired for her musing? No, what someone does on their own time can not be controlled by their place of employment. Do I think that what she did sometimes was ethically questionable? You betcha. As an academic the world is filled with gray areas that aren’t necessarily forbidden, but, I would argue, ethical landmines. This is the same way I feel about professors dating their students, while it is not usually outlawed, it shows some questionable judgment, even when that students is no your student anymore. That power relationship is sticky, and should no be exploited. This is the same way that I feel about the Phantom Prof. While I don’t think that she should have been fired, I do think that some of her decisions were questionable, and they make me uncomfortable in the same way that a prof standing at the buffet table of a party with their undergrad girlfriend would.

A step back...

2006-02-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Let me rephrase that, a giant step back. South Dakota’s state legislator, in all its brilliant legal fortitude, has passed a bill that will ban abortion in all forms except when a woman’s life is in jeopardy. Frankly I am surprised that they made that exception; of course there is no loophole for rape or incest. I am sure that this mostly white, mostly male legislature has the best interest of every woman in South Dakota in mind, after all they have decided that those women can not make their own decisions, they will make them for her. If the Governor (another white guy) signs this law, it will go into effect July 1rst, unless Planned Parenthood and other groups can suspend the ban while they fight this battle in the courts. I am so overwhelmed by the problems of this ban that I hardly know where to begin. Of course the problems with South Dakota are a manifestation of all the problems that plague the abortion controversy.
First and foremost both sides of this issue are fighting for a legal decision that doesn’t really work to solve the problem of unwanted pregnancy. Making abortion legal or illegal is like putting a band-aid on a gaping head wound. For me the issue is altogether different. I don’t think abortion should be illegal, we can not forget the deaths of women in back alley clinics and at the hands of unlicensed doctors. But we can strive to make abortion obsolete. To start, make sex education mandatory and forget that abstinence crap, I mean real sex education. And then make gynecological services and birth control available and easy to get. This plan, of course, will not stop all unwanted pregnancy, but it will stop a lot and that is the point isn’t it?
Of course the righteous right, the same white men in South Dakota who think that they should decided what women do with their bodies, have a major problem not only with abortion, but with both sex education and the availability of birth control. Why? Because they believe that both will teach and encourage teens to have sex and while we’re at it, birth control is just abortion in a shiny package. I will say this once and only once, the idea that sex education teaches kids how to have sex is the most fallacious argument I have ever heard. Humans do not have to learn to have sex, they will always figure it out for the simple fact that we are, at our most primordial, really just animals that are driven to have sex. It is hardwired into our DNA, mother natures little tricky way of ensuring the propagation of the species. Of course that may be too close to Darwin and evolution to convince the great state senators and congressman of South Dakota.
The problem of easy access to birth control is altogether a different issue for those that believe birth control itself is a sin. And that would be fine if they kept that notion in the privacy of their own lives and churches, but they don’t. What is my problem here? Simply put, no matter what direction our country has been headed in the last 6 years, we still have a little something called the separation of church and state. This means that to avoid becoming a theocracy, you know like the Taliban, no religious ideology can be the foundation upon which laws can be based. Would this argument convince the anonymous donor of $1 million to fight and uphold the ban in South Dakota to instead take that money and invest in education and birth control? Probably not. Would this also convince those that think that because God says something, (spurious because no one I know has God’s cell number and the Bible is first only inspired by God, who had to rely on fallible humans to write down what he said correctly, and second currently what King James thought we should read), that the rest of the country should follow along whether or not they worship the Christian God or another or any for that matter. And while we’re at it, how do these people plan on helping women when they choose to actually give birth? Well by cutting welfare benefits, and helpful things like affordable and subsidized daycare. So they care that women have babies, but not so much about them when they leave the hospital. Then that same woman and child are drains on the welfare system and lazy, bad citizenry.
Like many who to often take their rights for granted, I think that this legal battle will be a wake-up call for us, that in the eyes of the law and lawmakers our Civil Rights mean about as much as those of the prisoners in Gitmo. And if we are not advocates for men, women and children, no one else will take up the cause.

I have a girl crush

2006-02-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

It is official, I have a girl crush on Tanith Belbin. Now first of all everyone reading this get your mind out of the gutter, I know they are there because I know all of you! A girl crush is simply when one girl admires another girl for her good hair, or nails, and/or because she is hip, stylish, cool, someone with great self-confidence or brains.
I have had girl crushes before, when I was at ISU I always saw this girl who knew how to put together an outfit, and she always had great shoes, and anyone who knows me knows how I worship at the alter of shoes. And of course I am always fascinated by those girls who walk around with their head high because they know they are it, even if not everyone else knows it. A girl crush may influence your own style or attitude about yourself or fashion ect. So basically a girl crush lets one admire someone sometimes for purely material reasons or for quality you would like to possess.

As to my new girl crush, Tanith is the American ice dancer who just won the first silver medal for the US in this sport. First of all, I love this woman’s hair. It is just cool and funky and has that great texture that I have always wanted but never been able to achieve because my hair is just too curly. She also has great makeup. Okay maybe she has someone to do it for her, but either way I admire anyone who can wield eye shadow like that. I have never been able to do eye shadow very well, I never pick the right colors nor do I know how to layer them. Yes I almost have a PhD, but Cosmo’s detailed instructions about painting your eyes by numbers go right over my head. Tanith also seems to exude the kind of grace I can never seem to achieve. I will leave the physical part of that alone because I was born a klutz and try as I might I will always trip over my own feet in my fabulous boots. I have always wished that I could almost glide around with an elegant lift to my head, but my chin is usually down so I can see where I am stepping. but more than that I am more loud and goofy then I am elegant, something I will just have to live with.

Girl crushes are always great because they could give you a fashion boost, but more importantly because that admiration is usually more about attitude than anything else, and let’s face it us girls have to stick together. If we can get a self-esteem boost by channeling our girl crush, more power to us. And for every girl crush we have, we can rest safe in the knowledge that there is someone out there crushing on us.

No one mourns the wicked……

2006-02-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

So I have found my new obsession. Now anyone who know me knows that I get obsessed fairly often and while some things stick (knitting) others don’t and eventually I get bored and move on. But I think this one will stick, most likely because I love musical theatre already.

I had heard of the musical Wicked before, from like minded theatre loving friends, and to be quite frank I’m an English professor, which means that a vast majority of my friends are like minded. But it wasn’t until MomP let me download her copy of the original cast recording that I really got into it. And now, my love has grown to near epic Rent-like proportions. I downloaded the soundtrack into my ipod (well Jeff’s ipod that is now my ipod) and have been happily singing along since, especially while I work. Of course I knew I would like the music, especially when I found out that Idina Menzel, the original Maureen in Rent, was the original Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west). My favorite right now is “This Feeling”, which is funny because I know people that I would like to sing this song to! MomP had seen and loved it and my Jennie saw it in DC over Christmas and gave a glowing review. Of course now I would like to see it on stage, but as you know I live in West Virginia, which is not too much a Mecca for musical theatre (although Jane Monheit is coming this weekend and we have plans to go see her).

So I went online to find the tour schedule and lo and behold Wicked will be in Cincinnati the weekend we will be there in March for a friends wedding. This is also the weekend before Spring break, so there will be no rush to get back. This has initiated the search for two tickets that don’t have me stuck behind some pole, but so far no luck. Well I shouldn’t say that because Jeff did find tickets for $145 a person, but I felt that at that price I would be the one in the theatre and Jeff would have to wait outside. We are still looking, so wish us luck! On a happier note Amazon has the release date for the Rent DVD as Feb. 21rst. Who knew the damn thing would come out so soon, but I for one am not complaining, I already have plans to be at the store that Tuesday morning, and no one better be in line in front of me!

That is all from West Virginia tonight; I must go and cheer on the US pairs figure skating team!

New years Resolutions

2006-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

So I know that I abandoned my blog for over a month, and for that I should be summarily executed, but on the bright side I did so because I saw and spent time with most of the people who read this blog to keep up with my life! And so it is with bowed head that I ask you all to forgive and forget. Not much has been going on for me to write about. The spring semester has started and is looking good. I am teaching two classes I taught last semester, which means that I actually have all the prep worked out. My gender and race class has gotten off to a rousing start; the geniuses that run the school put me and 26 students in a tiny room with only enough space to fit 20 students. Seriously, I had students sitting on the floor before I stole chairs from the room next store! I have fully recovered from all the food I ate over break (really mom and momp, we do have food and we do eat said food, so there is no need to keep feeding us!!!). Jeff has finally gotten everyone on board and as soon as we can get everyone’s schedule together we will be heading to Illinois for him to defend (hopefully in the next couple of weeks)!!!! It is an exciting and happy time!!! And the big news, I will be an auntie again in Sept. YEAH!!!!

So now that you are all caught up I will move on to the new years resolutions (yes I am late, get over it and move on, I have) that I have made this year:

1. Finish that #@%$#@#@#@ dissertation. Yes that sword of Damocles hanging over my head must be finished before it falls and kills me, or I kill someone else. I have made a schedule and I will follow it! I must be my own taskmaster because we all know that Jeff is not very good at such things, he is too laid back and lets me get away with too much procrastination!
2. Finally lose some weight. I was doing pretty well on my “don’t eat McDonalds three times a week” diet before Christmas, but I think I gained it all back over break! The trick, I think, is to work out (says the PhD). I lose weight pretty well when I actually work out, but let’s be honest, I am LAZY when it come to exercising! But again I have made a schedule, and we all know how I live and die by my planner/calendar. If I write it down, I must do it! But I am proud to announce that as I sit here typing I am in pain because I have already worked out three times this week! Yeah me. And I will keep this up so I look good for the Disney Trip, which brings us to….
3. Save, Save. Save. And save some more for a Disney trip in May (yes May, March was not going to work this year). Every time I want to buy something I break out one of my Disney books and it motivates me to not spend and to save the cash! I want to go and be able to do whatever I want when we are there (well within reason, I am still very cheap; I get it from my dad). This means not spending cash because I have it!
4. Getting off caffeine and taking my vitamins. A couple of weeks ago I had so much caffeine I went on a flurry of cleaning where nothing got done because I’d start one project and then move on. It was like I had ADD, I was Louie for a short time. I also do not get the nutrients that I need because I do not eat veggies. This has become the bane of my husband’s existence. Today he said “Will you make our kids eats their veggies” and I said “hell yeah” and he said, “but then they will say mommy doesn’t eat hers” and I said “but I had to when I was a kid”. It was a fun conversation. So what does this mean? That I need to take vitamins! Or actually eat veggies, but I doubt that will happen. I have a warped sense of taste; I’m blaming my mom for not letting me have sugared cereal when I was a kid!

That’s it for now; wow I am exhausted just thinking about all I want to accomplish this year! But hey come back and see how I progress! And of course the one I didn’t number but will do, update my blog more often!
Lova ya all!

Holiday Knitting

2005-12-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yes I am back with Holiday Knitting! I know that it has been twelve days, and while I was not stuck under a mountain of student papers, I did have end of the semester finals to grade and grades to calculate, so I think I deserve a break. But now I am off for about a month and can recoup from a VERY long semester! Usually at this time I am running around like the proverbial chicken finishing shopping and knitting, but as I sit here I am proud to announce that I am done with both. Surprising I know, and Jeff can’t believe that I am not knitting my fingers to the bone to finish some project, but I am currently worried about not having a project. I am thinking about knitting up some swatches in different colors to make blocks for the awesome wee people in my life. This would take care of some of the stash and give me something to do; it just doesn’t seem like Christmas without a time crunch to get something done. But this project will be casual, as in if I get it done great, if not it’s okay. But enough whining about having nothing to do, what you all want to see is the Holiday knitting, so alright already look below. But be warned that if you see something and it is you or your child/grandchild’s present you must act surprised and ooh and ahh over it later. The first up is the fluffy cuffed mittens from the first Stitch and Bitch book. I made one in a blue wool ease, but I felt that it wasn’t the greatest effort and, well, let’s just say that I learned a lot about knitting in the round and we will never discuss the blue mitten again.
But with all that knowledge I was able to fly on the second pair in white with dream cloud cuffs and wool ease body. These are currently wrapped and under the tree to be opened by my Aunt Tick. Actually once I got the hang of it, knitting in the round was fairly easy. Of course I am not Hil yet who knits in the round without even looking down. But I am getting pretty good. So good in fact that when I saw a pattern for stockings in the Holiday edition of Knit It I decided that I would give it the good ole college try. Strangely the hardest part of this project was finding the yarn. I thought that Lion’s Brand Wool Ease Chunky would be easy to find. Well three days and a grumpy husband later that turned out to not be the case. Who would have thought that Christmas red yarn would not be the in color in Dec? In the end I used craft yarn which turned out well because these are stockings and not wearable garments.
The actually knitting of the stocking was fun and quick, but the decorative stitches were a pain in my, well you know. The pattern called for duplicate stitches for the names (which is another story….note to people who want me to knit for their children, don’t give them long names, or do so, but give me a short knick name!!!) but I a) couldn’t figure the damn thing out and b) didn’t like the way it looked so
I just used x’s, which I believe turned out fine. Then there was the chain stitch for the designs. Well the pattern told me to use a chain stitch, and to find said stitch turn to page 106. But guess what? The instructions for that stitch were no where to be found. Bastards! But Jeff found it online, so he can say that he helped. Of course we are always like this.
He gets the idea; it’s up to me to do the crafting. He calls himself the idea man; I call him devious and lazy. So once I figured out the chain stitch, which is simple embroidery for decoration, I had to actually do it, which wasn’t the problem. I tried to follow the picture exactly, which is what my crazy anal retentive ass does. Finally Jeff says “just do your own design!”
So I did, and should feel bad that I need my husband to make the obvious clear to me, but I don’t it’s why I married him. So that is it for Holiday knitting, unless I make the blocks, and if I do there will be pics. I will also welcome any ideas about a new project. I don’t know if I will update before Christmas, so in case I do not….MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Holiday Knitting

2005-12-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

So I have been very naughty and not written in awhile, I hope Santa will still come. Well I would have written sooner, but I was stuck under a mountain of student papers, and by the time rescuers found me, it was time to leave for Thanksgiving break. But now the papers have been returned, as have I, safely to West Virginia. Thanksgiving break was a BLAST. We especially had fun with the karaoke machine. I have also been busy catching up on my knitting. I finally finished Jason’s Windy City hat,
which he has been waiting for, oh about two years. But it is finally finished and Jason is happy, at least I think he is because he also requested gloves, but he will have to wait a few for that one, I have holiday knitting to finish. I have started a blanket for my brother and Amy to decorate their new place.
I am crocheting it course because it is quicker to crochet then to knit blankets. I did it is a cream colored pound of love and I have made some more progress on it since this pic was taken, and I will post more pics. I started out trying to make it really wide, but then realized that the width was more like how the length should be, so I am working it that way, which should make it easier to finish. I think I will also make one for my dad and Helen for Christmas; I just have to decide on a color. My next holiday project is fluffy cuffed mittens from Stitch and Bitch.
Actually I just want to try the pattern and knitting in the round, but I will then turn my fun into holiday surprise. I have started a blue one, and pics will be forthcoming. I have also made progress on a sweater from The Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits that I started a long time ago. Of course once I started again on it I ran out of yarn, so I need to get to the store to stock up! I have finished the back and almost finished the front, now I just need sleeves.

Of course I think that I over estimated the size and it looks like it will be huge, but it is getting cold, so I will use it to bundle up especially when I am writing! I am excited today because we are heading out to get our tree!!! My poor Christmas decorations have been sitting here is their sad colored rubber maids waiting to be unpacked. I can’t wait to see how the house will look at decorates and happy! And of course I will send pictures! I am also trying to figure out how to edit my links so I can put my own stuff in, but I think I need Jeff for that, yes people he is more then a pretty face! That is all for now, although I will probably write more soon as I plan on seeing Rent this weekend! Oh I am very excited and hope that the other people in the theatre don’t mind my singing!

Harry Potter and Bears foorball

2005-11-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

At first glance this may seem like a strange combination, but for me, the sixth Harry Potter book and the Bears in the background is the perfect Sunday. After my weekly cleaning (which is ultimately necessary because with all hard wood floors the cat hair has nowhere to go,) I am happy to chill out Indian Style (yes I said it! Some things will not be given over to the PC thought police!) on my bed with all of the pillows (yes I stole Jeff’s) and read Harry Potter in-between listening to the Bears. Unfortunately I did say listen because living in West Virginia means that the Bears are not usually on the TV, and sauntering into a sports bar with Harry Potter under my arm causes some strange stares. The fans around here all seem to be Steelers fans, and I have to admit that after only three months living here, I have begun to really dislike the Steelers. Why? A few reasons, the fans here are obnoxious, and this is coming from me, so you know it’s bad. The second reason? I can’t stand teams who feel the need to run up the score while keeping in their first string in, risking injury. It’s un-sportsmanlike and a just plain stupid strategy. Of course I was a bit smug when their QB Roth-something got hurt, it really serves them right for keeping him in when they are up 30 points in the fourth quarter. Do you know how happy the Bears would be to sit our QB? Believe me, we would like the opportunity to put a QB on the bench because we are up and not because he is hurt! But back to my point.

A nice Sunday when my house is clean and the Bears are on a winning streak is only made better by having some down time to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince. I got this last installment last week after burning through books 4 and 5 pretty quickly, but I am savoring this last one, because there is not, as of yet, a book seven to run out and get. Jeff is afraid that I am turning into one of those people, but until I dress up like Hermione and begin to curse him, he will have to live with my new found love. And for all the times that I resent West Virginia for not having the Bears on television, I do have to say that not teaching as much has given me some more free time to read fun books that have nothing to do with my dissertation. (which is coming along…don’t rush me, a scholar needs some space!). And so I sit here on a nice cool autumn Sunday, waiting for the Bears to start with Harry Potter by my side, and I am happy!!!! What makes this better? The Bears and WINNING!!! A four game streak and yes I am aware that my writing this I may in fact be jinxing us, but I have to say it, football is good when the Bears are winning and the Packers are losing!!!!!! And while I say this I am throwing salt over my shoulder that we don’t have any horrible injuries and can at least get into the playoffs, but even if we don’t? A winning season is better then nothing!! GO BEARS!!!!!!

House pics!

2005-10-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

When I started his blog I did so under the impression that I could keep my friends and family informed of all that was going on in our lives while we were so far away. But I think that I underestimated the interesting things that happen to me on a day to day basis. There was, I suppose, a reason that I didn’t call all the people that I know everyday, because they probably wouldn’t want to know the minutia of everyday. And this is, of course, my mea culpa for not writing for almost two weeks, nothing really exciting has happened. Although I finally finished reading the fourth Harry Potter, which meant of course that I had to run right out and get the fifth one. Jeff is afraid that I will now become one of the Harry Potter fanatics. I don’t think I will, but I do like the books, they are fun and I have to admit that I for one would like a few magic powers, it would be cool and I would only use my powers for good (well most of the time). So I don’t have powers, at least I have funny friends. If you look at the comments from the last entry you will see that one of my friends has taken on the persona of Zippy to have a little fun. I wish I could say that I knew who it was, but unfortunately I have more then one friend with a dry sense of humor and the willingness to slack off and write something like that. I appreciate it though, for what it is worth and would like to know who the funny one is! But to keep you all interested with this blog, even though I have said nothing new, I am leaving you all with some pics of the house.
The first pics are of the bedroom, which is the only room (besides the mater bath) upstairs. It is HUGE! I am sure that by the time that we get our own house I will miss all the space in this room. To give you some perspective, know that we have a king sized bed and a couch and chair all up here and there is still space. As you come up the stairs from the living room is a small space that we have dubbed Martini Corner, although the cats are the ones who enjoy it the most. So enjoy the pics! Coming soon, pics of the living room and outside and hopefully some of the socks that I am making with my new sock yarn. Actually the yarn is not new, I used a gift certificate to purchase it a couple of months ago, but have not had the chance to get to it, now I am attempting socks, but who know how that will o. Hopefully well, but I am having problems finding a good pattern. If I can get the socks into any sort of shape I will take some pictures!

Enjoying the pics so far?

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It's just too much fun!

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A wide pic of the room as you first walk in

2005-10-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Our sitting area. We will be adding a small trunk as coffee table