The Move, Part I
Yesterday I drove to UniTown and spent eight hours helping my dad build a frame for my truck, then loading Son's furniture and books in it. It was 90 bazillion degrees. I got sunburned. I got a headache from the heat and sun. But the truck is loaded, mostly, and tucked away safely in Dad's garage. There's just Son's clothes and computer equipment left to pack, plus all those little things that make moving so utterly enjoyable. Not!
Son and I stopped at the store on the way home from the parental units' house and got some milk, cereal, bread, and stuff to eat for Saturday and Sunday. I was anxious to get back to the condo to take a shower--oh man, did that feel good. But no sooner was I comfortably esconced in my favorite (only) chair, catching up on e-mail and news and blogs, then Dad called asking me to make a run to the store for Benadryl. I got dressed, combed my wet hair, and set out for the supermarket. This particular store is closer to the condo but lacks the wide variety of items that Big Regional Superstore carries, so I was hoping that they had the 100-tab bottle he wanted. Score! I found it (inexplicably on a different shelf from the 48-tab packs). Of course, as soon as I got back to the condo it started to absolutely pour--and lightning all over the place. Sigh. Oh well, my hair was already wet anyway.
I drove the parental units to the airport at 4:30 a.m. Good thing I woke up at 2:30 anticipating the alarm clock, because I had set it for PM, not AM. That would have been interesting...
Kitty Son was wandering in and out of my room all night, happily eating my hair and generally not allowing me to turn over. He finally settled in about 15 minutes before I had to get up. Figures! After I got back from the airport I put my jammies back on and crawled back into bed, hoping to sleep until noon. Kitty Son was having none of that; he decided 9:30 was long enough. I tried getting him to kill the big fly that got in while we were loading the truck, but he lost interest pretty quickly (his crossed eyes make tracking flies a bit difficult, I think).
As long as I was up, I figured I'd do the dishes, pick up the kitty furballs all over the place, and do some general cleaning. We've got three loads of towels to wash and all Son's clothing. He is taking the television and we packed it in the truck yesterday, so I can't watch a movie or anything.
Kitty Mama has just sat on my lap. Her puffiness extends over the keyboard which makes typing a bit of a challenge.
We leave Monday morning, so Part II won't post until we get back from this trek.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Random stuff:
Neat things:
The condo association has hired a new landscape designer. All the existing shrubs were torn out and replaced with different types. It looks a bit bare, as everything is young and small. The worst part, though, is that it STINKS from the manure they spread all over the place. Peeeee-eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww.
Tuesday I saw the little chipmunk who gets such pleasure out of tormenting Kitty Mama; he runs back and forth in the patio while she snarls and growls from behind the patio door glass. He was sitting at the front door, just sunning himself, when I came around the corner. He looked at me and quickly ran off. He should be really happy that Kitty Mama is not allowed outside, because he'd be toast.
A couple good things about this trip--I get to miss all the goofy stuff scheduled for the beginning of the academic year, like the freshman welcome walk (we are supposed to line the walk from the student union to the field house and cheer the new students and their families) and the Look At Us We Are Girls Being Schmaltzy walk (stroll along at night swinging lanterns). I thought it was hilarious when a female prof told me that some of the guys wanted to take part in the lantern walk too. Yeah, right. The guys I knew wanted to dress up like the monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, chanting and whacking themselves with boards. That would have been worth the silliness of this event. It seems to me that girls attending a mostly-male school would do well to stop pointing out how supposedly underrepresented they are and start acting like they belong there.
Goodness, new reports from Norway claim that mooses are causing global warning! Maybe we should lace their habitat with Beano...
*Popcorn catastrophe: Spouse hates waste, even the "old maids" left over in microwave popcorn. He doesn't believe the warning not to attempt re-popping the kernels really applies to him. So, he put the bag back in the microwave on top of the lid to a CorningWare casserole dish, set the timer to one minute, turned on the oven, and walked outside to referee a spat between Youngest Daughter and a neighbor kid. I was baking cookies at the time, so I had oven mitts on my hands (fortunately). The cookie timer went off, and I walked into the kitchen to take the cookies out of the oven. Something caught my eye--the microwave was on fire! I yelled for Eldest Daughter to come help, opened the door, and grabbed the burning bag to throw it into the sink. Of course, it broke in two. I now had TWO fires, one in the microwave and one in the sink. ED had picked up the spray bottle I use when ironing, and was spritzing the fire in the microwave. She got it contained to the point where I could reach in and remove the rest of the bag. I threw the bag in the sink and ran the water to douse the fire. The casserole lid had cracked and the microwave was black inside. The sink was covered in soot. The cookie timer was, by now, shrieking.
Spouse walked in as I was removing the cookies from the oven (they were fine), looked at ED and me, and asked what happened.
We made him clean up.
Neat things:
- I saw a DeLorean yesterday. Very timely, considering that the DeLorean Motor Company is now producing cars in Humble, Texas.
- DrudgeReport says that a researcher in Germany may have found evidence of a H2O2-based lifeform in Viking spacecraft data.
- Son got me the coolest pen--it pulls out to open, like a telescoping pointer. So neat!
- Spouse and I got a rebate on property taxes. Looks like it will be about $180. Yay!
- My computer is really acting squirrelly now, giving me the BSOD and not recognizing any sort of mouse at all. I've updated the BIOS, re-installed the mouse software, and run several virus scans with different programs, all to no avail.
- Our microwave is kaput. It doesn't heat any more, and it counts down not in seconds but in milliseconds. This oven has lasted a long time, and survived Spouse's popcorn catastrophe*. May it rest in peace.
- Son's car and Eldest Daughter's car both needed repairs this week. Total is about $385.
- Only a few more days before we move Son down to grad school. :-(
The condo association has hired a new landscape designer. All the existing shrubs were torn out and replaced with different types. It looks a bit bare, as everything is young and small. The worst part, though, is that it STINKS from the manure they spread all over the place. Peeeee-eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww.
Tuesday I saw the little chipmunk who gets such pleasure out of tormenting Kitty Mama; he runs back and forth in the patio while she snarls and growls from behind the patio door glass. He was sitting at the front door, just sunning himself, when I came around the corner. He looked at me and quickly ran off. He should be really happy that Kitty Mama is not allowed outside, because he'd be toast.
A couple good things about this trip--I get to miss all the goofy stuff scheduled for the beginning of the academic year, like the freshman welcome walk (we are supposed to line the walk from the student union to the field house and cheer the new students and their families) and the Look At Us We Are Girls Being Schmaltzy walk (stroll along at night swinging lanterns). I thought it was hilarious when a female prof told me that some of the guys wanted to take part in the lantern walk too. Yeah, right. The guys I knew wanted to dress up like the monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, chanting and whacking themselves with boards. That would have been worth the silliness of this event. It seems to me that girls attending a mostly-male school would do well to stop pointing out how supposedly underrepresented they are and start acting like they belong there.
Goodness, new reports from Norway claim that mooses are causing global warning! Maybe we should lace their habitat with Beano...
*Popcorn catastrophe: Spouse hates waste, even the "old maids" left over in microwave popcorn. He doesn't believe the warning not to attempt re-popping the kernels really applies to him. So, he put the bag back in the microwave on top of the lid to a CorningWare casserole dish, set the timer to one minute, turned on the oven, and walked outside to referee a spat between Youngest Daughter and a neighbor kid. I was baking cookies at the time, so I had oven mitts on my hands (fortunately). The cookie timer went off, and I walked into the kitchen to take the cookies out of the oven. Something caught my eye--the microwave was on fire! I yelled for Eldest Daughter to come help, opened the door, and grabbed the burning bag to throw it into the sink. Of course, it broke in two. I now had TWO fires, one in the microwave and one in the sink. ED had picked up the spray bottle I use when ironing, and was spritzing the fire in the microwave. She got it contained to the point where I could reach in and remove the rest of the bag. I threw the bag in the sink and ran the water to douse the fire. The casserole lid had cracked and the microwave was black inside. The sink was covered in soot. The cookie timer was, by now, shrieking.
Spouse walked in as I was removing the cookies from the oven (they were fine), looked at ED and me, and asked what happened.
We made him clean up.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
R.I.P. Bette Hagman
When Eldest Daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease five years ago, we were frantic to find a way to provide her with food that she would like and could eat. She had lost so much weight that when I hugged her, it felt like she was vanishing. Knowing what was wrong with her was a relief, but we were daunted by the magnitude of the changes she and all of us needed to make in our eating habits in order to return her to health, and keep her healthy.
Celiac sufferers cannot tolerate gluten at all. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats--and therefore, everything that contains any of those grains. It's everywhere--in self-basting turkeys, in most prepared foods and cereals--even in envelope glue. There is no amount of gluten that is safe to ingest; even flour dust that lands on counters and plates during baking can cause a reaction and send a CD patient to the ER with incredible, untreatable abdominal pain. We had two toasters, one ED-safe and one not; we had to make sure every utensil and measuring cup was clean and free from flour. We had to learn to read labels to see if gluten was lurking in an otherwise innocuous-seeming prepared food.
ED, like every other college kid, wanted to be able to eat fast food and go out for pizza with her friends--but that was now out of the question. No more Christmas cookies, birthday cakes, Babci's pierogies? It was too much to take in.
Enter Bette Hagman, and her Gluten-Free Gourmet series of cookbooks. Bette covered everything, from different flour mixes for different uses to dealing with eating out--something that was terrifying and incredibly frustrating in those early days. Thanks to Bette, ED has had Christmas cookies, birthday cake, a beautiful graduation cake, rye bread, crepes, pizza, and even pierogies.
We were fortunate to meet Bette when the local celiac group invited her to come to their year-end banquet. We told her how helpful her books were, and how they changed our outlook on life with this disease. She was an incredibly gracious woman.
Thank you, Bette, for the work you did to help other celiac sufferers. We are forever grateful. Rest in peace, and may God bless your daughter, Karole, and comfort her at this sad time.
When Eldest Daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease five years ago, we were frantic to find a way to provide her with food that she would like and could eat. She had lost so much weight that when I hugged her, it felt like she was vanishing. Knowing what was wrong with her was a relief, but we were daunted by the magnitude of the changes she and all of us needed to make in our eating habits in order to return her to health, and keep her healthy.
Celiac sufferers cannot tolerate gluten at all. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats--and therefore, everything that contains any of those grains. It's everywhere--in self-basting turkeys, in most prepared foods and cereals--even in envelope glue. There is no amount of gluten that is safe to ingest; even flour dust that lands on counters and plates during baking can cause a reaction and send a CD patient to the ER with incredible, untreatable abdominal pain. We had two toasters, one ED-safe and one not; we had to make sure every utensil and measuring cup was clean and free from flour. We had to learn to read labels to see if gluten was lurking in an otherwise innocuous-seeming prepared food.
ED, like every other college kid, wanted to be able to eat fast food and go out for pizza with her friends--but that was now out of the question. No more Christmas cookies, birthday cakes, Babci's pierogies? It was too much to take in.
Enter Bette Hagman, and her Gluten-Free Gourmet series of cookbooks. Bette covered everything, from different flour mixes for different uses to dealing with eating out--something that was terrifying and incredibly frustrating in those early days. Thanks to Bette, ED has had Christmas cookies, birthday cake, a beautiful graduation cake, rye bread, crepes, pizza, and even pierogies.
We were fortunate to meet Bette when the local celiac group invited her to come to their year-end banquet. We told her how helpful her books were, and how they changed our outlook on life with this disease. She was an incredibly gracious woman.
Thank you, Bette, for the work you did to help other celiac sufferers. We are forever grateful. Rest in peace, and may God bless your daughter, Karole, and comfort her at this sad time.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
It works!
The program runs and runs successfully, which means the results are correct and make sense. Now to try another "flavor" of the initialization sequence...
Speaking of computer programs, an automated dialer is calling us each morning around 8:30. When I hang up on them, they tie up my line so I have to disconnect the phone for 15-20 minutes to get the dial tone back. I swear, one of these days I'm going to buy an air horn and blast it into the phone.
The program runs and runs successfully, which means the results are correct and make sense. Now to try another "flavor" of the initialization sequence...
Speaking of computer programs, an automated dialer is calling us each morning around 8:30. When I hang up on them, they tie up my line so I have to disconnect the phone for 15-20 minutes to get the dial tone back. I swear, one of these days I'm going to buy an air horn and blast it into the phone.
On Tony Snow, and the climate of the blogosphere
Tony Snow has announced he will be leaving his job as press secretary because of financial pressures, no doubt related to his treatment for recurring colon cancer. Some prominent political websites have commented most unkindly (that's an understatement) about this situation, which is really awful and, unfortunately, not unusual. At some point, someone has to stand up at those sites and denounce this evil--for evil it is. If we don't start policing ourselves online, don't start holding posters and bloggers to a basic standard of civility, this pus--for pus it is--is going to infect our offline lives as well. We are already seeing that happen.
Shortly after he announced that his cancer had returned, the White House set up a link on the WH website to send messages of encouragement to Tony (one hopes someone was moderating these messages to filter out the hate-filled messages sure to come from crazies). I sent one, assuring Tony that he was in my prayers and wishing him the best.
A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from Tony Snow thanking me for my message and prayers. He said that the support and encouragement he has received has made his burden easier to bear. He also said this:
We're blessed to live in a land where people just want an excuse to do something good for someone else. Thanks for taking advantage of that opportunity with me. Please encourage others to do it closer to home for other friends in need. Kind words, notes, emails, and small gestures have a way of lightening the load, while making our own lives richer and more rewarding.
What a wonderful attitude, and what a great reminder that even the smallest of efforts can be a blessing to someone in need. God bless Tony Snow, and grant him many more years of health and happiness.
Tony Snow has announced he will be leaving his job as press secretary because of financial pressures, no doubt related to his treatment for recurring colon cancer. Some prominent political websites have commented most unkindly (that's an understatement) about this situation, which is really awful and, unfortunately, not unusual. At some point, someone has to stand up at those sites and denounce this evil--for evil it is. If we don't start policing ourselves online, don't start holding posters and bloggers to a basic standard of civility, this pus--for pus it is--is going to infect our offline lives as well. We are already seeing that happen.
Shortly after he announced that his cancer had returned, the White House set up a link on the WH website to send messages of encouragement to Tony (one hopes someone was moderating these messages to filter out the hate-filled messages sure to come from crazies). I sent one, assuring Tony that he was in my prayers and wishing him the best.
A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from Tony Snow thanking me for my message and prayers. He said that the support and encouragement he has received has made his burden easier to bear. He also said this:
We're blessed to live in a land where people just want an excuse to do something good for someone else. Thanks for taking advantage of that opportunity with me. Please encourage others to do it closer to home for other friends in need. Kind words, notes, emails, and small gestures have a way of lightening the load, while making our own lives richer and more rewarding.
What a wonderful attitude, and what a great reminder that even the smallest of efforts can be a blessing to someone in need. God bless Tony Snow, and grant him many more years of health and happiness.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Coding, coding
Okay, my program runs, but the logic is a bit off. I still miss my mouse.
Son goes to The Big City today to visit a friend for the weekend, so I have to drive to UniTown to take him to the airport. Youngest Daughter will come with me, so she can find her MP3 player that she thinks she left there.
I got a really nice message from a former student saying he is referring to his notes from my class and finding them to be really thorough. He says that it's difficult to know, when one is learning new material, how completely the topic is being taught, and that he appreciates that all the information he needs is right there. :-) I am printing the e-mail out and putting it in my tenure file.
Okay, my program runs, but the logic is a bit off. I still miss my mouse.
Son goes to The Big City today to visit a friend for the weekend, so I have to drive to UniTown to take him to the airport. Youngest Daughter will come with me, so she can find her MP3 player that she thinks she left there.
I got a really nice message from a former student saying he is referring to his notes from my class and finding them to be really thorough. He says that it's difficult to know, when one is learning new material, how completely the topic is being taught, and that he appreciates that all the information he needs is right there. :-) I am printing the e-mail out and putting it in my tenure file.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Mouse frustration
My wireless mouse has stopped working. It works initially, when the computer starts up, but soon after just doesn't respond any more. This drives me nuts. I teach a lot of online classes, and I use Powerpoint for the lecture modules, and Powerpoint with a touch pad, considering all the graphs and things I stick in the file, is a pain in the patoot.
I am worried that the wired mouse on my docking station at the office will do the same. Maybe it's time for a new computer; this one belongs to the uni, it wasn't new when I got it, and it's started to overheat. I bought a Targus chill pad for it, which works marvelously--but I can't hook the chill pad to the docking station. Hmmmm...good thing I back things up pretty regularly.
I'm working on a graph program and am thoroughly confusing myself. This weekend I need to finalize the accepted chapter and send the hard copy off to the editor; then it's time to get lectures ready for the first few weeks of classes. I won't be able to do anything the whole last week of August while we move Son to grad school Very Very Far Away (sob!), so I need to be ultra-disciplined this coming week. Ugh.
My wireless mouse has stopped working. It works initially, when the computer starts up, but soon after just doesn't respond any more. This drives me nuts. I teach a lot of online classes, and I use Powerpoint for the lecture modules, and Powerpoint with a touch pad, considering all the graphs and things I stick in the file, is a pain in the patoot.
I am worried that the wired mouse on my docking station at the office will do the same. Maybe it's time for a new computer; this one belongs to the uni, it wasn't new when I got it, and it's started to overheat. I bought a Targus chill pad for it, which works marvelously--but I can't hook the chill pad to the docking station. Hmmmm...good thing I back things up pretty regularly.
I'm working on a graph program and am thoroughly confusing myself. This weekend I need to finalize the accepted chapter and send the hard copy off to the editor; then it's time to get lectures ready for the first few weeks of classes. I won't be able to do anything the whole last week of August while we move Son to grad school Very Very Far Away (sob!), so I need to be ultra-disciplined this coming week. Ugh.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Things that have me scratching my head
There's way more, but my blood pressure is rising already.
- Virginia Tech is sponsoring a concert for students with a rapper whose "songs" include a lot of stuff about killing, murder, and violence.
- A Catholic bishop in The Netherlands says we should all call God "Allah."
- The national health service in Scotland is telling non-Muslim doctors not to have "working lunches" at their desks during Ramadan, to avoid "offending" Muslims.
- Palestinian children are watching a supposedly children's show that encourages them to become suicide bombers.
- A clerk in a Maryland food co-op refused to serve a University of Maryland student because she was wearing a shirt with a statement supporting Israel.
There's way more, but my blood pressure is rising already.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Ballet moms, and what on earth is going on with Reuters?
I'm back from visiting Eldest Daughter for her birthday in the City Too Very Far Away. We had a marvelous time--spent the day together on Friday at her workplace, then went to dinner with her boyfriend at a restaurant on top of the highest building in the city. Saturday we walked around a couple national historical sites and had lunch downtown, then came back to her apartment and watched Galaxy Quest with big bowls of popcorn. Yum!
She dropped me off at the airport around 7:20. I won't see her again until next month, sob. I miss her already!
Three women who were on Friday's flight were also on this one, unfortunately. Apparently their daughters are all in the same dance classes or something, so I call them the Ballet Moms. They must have huge networks of friends and relatives, because their phones were busy constantly except during the flight. One had that loud, husky sort of voice that penetrates headphones, and she talked incessantly. She sat next to me on Friday's flight, and behind me this morning. The three of them dissected acquaintances, recounted petty little fights among their daughters and their daughters' friends, and generally were annoying as all get-out. I couldn't even drown them out with my MP3 player. The poor woman sitting next to me had no headphones; she said to me after the flight that she wanted to tell them to just shut up, they drove her nuts. All I could think of, listening to their silly prattle, was how many serious and worthwhile things they could spend their time on instead of this adolescent gossiping. Grrrrr.
One of the more ridiculous stories from last week was the Russian claim to the North Pole. Reuters provided footage of what it said were two Russian submersibles at the Pole--except that the footage was taken from the movie Titanic (read more here). After incidents like the Stephen Glass and Scott Beauchamps fiascos at The New Republic, one wonders if journalists and editors are not taught to check facts and vet information before they publish. Certainly, the harm done from incorrect or falsified reports is far from undone by retractions and corrections (these usually end up on the back page or buried somewhere in the fine print). It's hard to keep giving news outlets the benefit of the doubt when such spectacular failings occur so frequently.
I'm back from visiting Eldest Daughter for her birthday in the City Too Very Far Away. We had a marvelous time--spent the day together on Friday at her workplace, then went to dinner with her boyfriend at a restaurant on top of the highest building in the city. Saturday we walked around a couple national historical sites and had lunch downtown, then came back to her apartment and watched Galaxy Quest with big bowls of popcorn. Yum!
She dropped me off at the airport around 7:20. I won't see her again until next month, sob. I miss her already!
Three women who were on Friday's flight were also on this one, unfortunately. Apparently their daughters are all in the same dance classes or something, so I call them the Ballet Moms. They must have huge networks of friends and relatives, because their phones were busy constantly except during the flight. One had that loud, husky sort of voice that penetrates headphones, and she talked incessantly. She sat next to me on Friday's flight, and behind me this morning. The three of them dissected acquaintances, recounted petty little fights among their daughters and their daughters' friends, and generally were annoying as all get-out. I couldn't even drown them out with my MP3 player. The poor woman sitting next to me had no headphones; she said to me after the flight that she wanted to tell them to just shut up, they drove her nuts. All I could think of, listening to their silly prattle, was how many serious and worthwhile things they could spend their time on instead of this adolescent gossiping. Grrrrr.
One of the more ridiculous stories from last week was the Russian claim to the North Pole. Reuters provided footage of what it said were two Russian submersibles at the Pole--except that the footage was taken from the movie Titanic (read more here). After incidents like the Stephen Glass and Scott Beauchamps fiascos at The New Republic, one wonders if journalists and editors are not taught to check facts and vet information before they publish. Certainly, the harm done from incorrect or falsified reports is far from undone by retractions and corrections (these usually end up on the back page or buried somewhere in the fine print). It's hard to keep giving news outlets the benefit of the doubt when such spectacular failings occur so frequently.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
School starts in less than a month!
Sigh. Not as much accomplished this summer as I wanted. Now it's time to start working on lectures for the fall quarter. I've got my usual awful fall schedule of teaching four evenings a week, unless I can persuade my M-W class to either go to one night or blended format. Wednesdays in particular are going to be tough, as Youngest Daughter's voice lessons are at 3 p.m. that day.
Today is YD's shot day, and she's left her MP3 player in the condo in UniTown. She uses that to divert her attention from the needle. I've got my player, but she doesn't like my music. I can't add more because I left the transfer cable, of course, in UniTown. Gotta figure out an alternate.
Tomorrow I go see Eldest Daughter for her birthday! Can't wait!
Time for LUNCH. YUM.
Sigh. Not as much accomplished this summer as I wanted. Now it's time to start working on lectures for the fall quarter. I've got my usual awful fall schedule of teaching four evenings a week, unless I can persuade my M-W class to either go to one night or blended format. Wednesdays in particular are going to be tough, as Youngest Daughter's voice lessons are at 3 p.m. that day.
Today is YD's shot day, and she's left her MP3 player in the condo in UniTown. She uses that to divert her attention from the needle. I've got my player, but she doesn't like my music. I can't add more because I left the transfer cable, of course, in UniTown. Gotta figure out an alternate.
Tomorrow I go see Eldest Daughter for her birthday! Can't wait!
Time for LUNCH. YUM.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
I WANT MY BREAKFAST!
I am fasting for a routine medical test, and I am not a happy camper. I'm super hungry and hate missing breakfast, my absolute favorite meal.
My friend Pat is visiting Eldest Daughter today. I hope they have a nice time. Two more days until I fly to see ED for her birthday!
Spouse has found a new dryer which we will probably buy in the next couple of days. He tried figuring out what's wrong with the old one, but couldn't. That machine is probably as old as Youngest Daughter, so it's time for a new one anyway.
I am fasting for a routine medical test, and I am not a happy camper. I'm super hungry and hate missing breakfast, my absolute favorite meal.
My friend Pat is visiting Eldest Daughter today. I hope they have a nice time. Two more days until I fly to see ED for her birthday!
Spouse has found a new dryer which we will probably buy in the next couple of days. He tried figuring out what's wrong with the old one, but couldn't. That machine is probably as old as Youngest Daughter, so it's time for a new one anyway.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Back home, temporarily
Shakespeare Camp is over, our visit to see King Tut in Philadelphia is over, and now we are back in HomeCity--at least for a few days. Youngest Daughter is off to work today at her uncle's insurance office, and I need to drive back to UniTown because the new president of our university is visiting my department today. Then Friday I fly off to the City Too Very Far Away, to visit Eldest Daughter for her 24th birthday. I'll come back home Sunday morning. The BIG trip, down South for Son's grad school move, is at the end of this month. Whew. My truck and I have logged a lot of miles in the past few weeks.
The latest frustration is the broken dryer at HomeCity house. I'm taking a bunch of laundry with me to UniTown; after the meeting I'll scoot over to the condo and do a couple loads. We had stopped there last night and washed the stuff we had with us, but there are a few more items that need to be done. Kitty Mama and Kitty Son were glad to see us and got underfoot as much as possible while we did laundry.
The Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute was amazing but they let WAY too many people in, and they could have organized the various rooms better. We kind of wandered around the opposite direction of the general flow so we could actually get close enough to the display cases to see the items. All my kids want the gold dagger, hahaha. The animation of the five coffins was really neat, and they also had a bust of what they think Tut may have looked like. Cool.
Afterwards we shuffled over to Ron's Ribs for some tasty treats. Yummy, even though I had a spazz moment and dropped a perfectly good rib on the ground. Dang.
Time to get moving to UniTown. Did I mention that my chapter got accepted? :-)
Shakespeare Camp is over, our visit to see King Tut in Philadelphia is over, and now we are back in HomeCity--at least for a few days. Youngest Daughter is off to work today at her uncle's insurance office, and I need to drive back to UniTown because the new president of our university is visiting my department today. Then Friday I fly off to the City Too Very Far Away, to visit Eldest Daughter for her 24th birthday. I'll come back home Sunday morning. The BIG trip, down South for Son's grad school move, is at the end of this month. Whew. My truck and I have logged a lot of miles in the past few weeks.
The latest frustration is the broken dryer at HomeCity house. I'm taking a bunch of laundry with me to UniTown; after the meeting I'll scoot over to the condo and do a couple loads. We had stopped there last night and washed the stuff we had with us, but there are a few more items that need to be done. Kitty Mama and Kitty Son were glad to see us and got underfoot as much as possible while we did laundry.
The Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute was amazing but they let WAY too many people in, and they could have organized the various rooms better. We kind of wandered around the opposite direction of the general flow so we could actually get close enough to the display cases to see the items. All my kids want the gold dagger, hahaha. The animation of the five coffins was really neat, and they also had a bust of what they think Tut may have looked like. Cool.
Afterwards we shuffled over to Ron's Ribs for some tasty treats. Yummy, even though I had a spazz moment and dropped a perfectly good rib on the ground. Dang.
Time to get moving to UniTown. Did I mention that my chapter got accepted? :-)
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