Wow....I Disappeared!

I knew I hadn't posted any updates in a while, but I didn't realize that it had been quite so long. I guess I'll try to provide a flurry of updates regarding the ongoings in my little corner of the world since I returned from Thanksgiving break....

House Searching: Jimmy and I have been searching for houses once again. We looked at a couple dozen houses and put in a very reasonable bid on what initially appeared to be the perfect house. It was a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a partial basement, and the house had recently been redone (new roof, cabinets, fixtures, paint, floors, etc.). Our bid was accepted, and we had our inspector come out...only to find out that the house needed new wiring, plumbing, a new hot water heater, and a whole bunch of other things. We very quickly put in a cancellation of the contract and ran away. We now think we have a lead on a house, but we're waiting to work out the details; if everything goes as we think it should, we'll probably be moving in late January or early February.

School: The semester's officially over. Classes ended the first week of December, and I turned in final grades a week or so ago. We had our department Christmas party, and our vacation has officially begun. I've been working on a few things for next semester already, and I'm really excited about the coming term since I won't actually be 'teaching.' (I'll essentially be tutoring all semester instead of teaching. Thus, I'll probably be doing just as much work, just without the prep time, office hours, or grading.)

Weather: As many of you know, or may have guessed, our area of Oklahoma was hit by the terrible ice storms last weekend. The storm itself didn't really seem too bad and the ice all melted quickly, but that 'little' storm certainly left its mark on our part of the country. Our house lost power...and is still without power. (This is Day 7 without power.) PSO, our power provider, estimates that all of the homes in our part of town will have power by Dec. 18, but the news last night said that PSO hopes to have power restored to all customers by Christmas; I don't quite know what to believe. The huge tree in our (or, to be technically correct, our neighbor's) front yard isn't nearly as huge as it used to be. The ice brought down about a dozen branches, narrowly missing the cars that were parked in our driveway. Anyway, the storm has been quite an adventure. Jimmy are currently camping out at a friend's place on campus where there is power and heat and light. YAY for friends!!

Disclaimer: Though I'm certainly going to try not to let my blog (and its readers, that is, if there are any remaining after my long absence) go unattended for so long again, I'm not going to make any promises until I have power in my home office again. I miss my office....