Happy Frog Day!!

If it's Leap Year, then I guess that makes today Frog Day!! YAY Frogs!

More House Stuff

Wow, where do the days go? It seems like the last week has completely flown by, and this week is going just as quidkly. We're finally just about completely moved. All of the house stuff is moved; only a bit of garage and outside stuff remains to be moved. The house that we moved into is larger than the previous residence, but there isn't as much storage space inside. There is, however, a shed, so we're storing quite a bit of stuff there. Though the storage situation isn't wonderful, I certainly will admit that is very nice to have a dishwasher again.

Albuquerque...and Valentine's Day

I spent a few days in Albuquerque, NM this past week for a conference. Overall, it was a nice trip. The conference was both educational and enjoyable, so that was an overall good experience. I gave a presentation, and that that went well too. (The presentation was over a paper that I had written a few years ago, but hadn't done anything with yet. It was nice to be able to share it and to get feedback on my work.) In addition to the academic work, I did have part of a day to do touristy stuff; I went to the American International Rattlesnake Museum, the San Felipe de Neri Church, and just wandered around the University of New Mexico campus for a while.

While the trip was generally enjoyable, there were two not-so-plesant things: Valentine's Day and the flights home. Valentine's Day wasn't necessarily bad, it was just a bit odd to spend it by myself. Since this was my first "married" Valentine's Day, spending it alone was strange. In contrast to the not-so-wonderful Valentine's Day, the flights home were absolutely dreadful. When I arrived at the airport on Saturday, I learned that all flights going from Albuquerque to Dallas for that day had been cancelled due to bad weather in Dallas and that the earliest flight that I could possibly get out on was a 7am flight the following morning. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. After several hours of being frustrated and checking with other airlines, I managed to get my flights switched: I would now be flying through Denver (which I had intentionally avoided when I booked my flights because of the general likihood of bad weather in Denver this time of year) and would be arriving home about 6 hours later than originally planned (but hey, at least I'm arriving on the same day). While the whole experience was frustrating, things didn't get much better when I got on the planes. Both flights were extremely bumpy, and I ended up feeling sick for much of the trip. Not plesant at all. But anyway, I did manage to get home safely and I felt much better when I ended the day curled up in my own bed after a nice bubble bath.

Apostrophes

I read a news article (follow the link) that made me think of a poem I once heard entitled "The Death of the Apostrophe." I wish I had a copy of the poem to share, but the article's certainly worth reading....

Kansas

I received this in an e-mail forward from one of my sisters. And even though I don't live in Kansas any more, I still find it funny (and largely true)....

Jeff Foxworthy remarks on being from or living in Kansas:

**If you're proud that your region makes the national news at least 96 times each year because it's the hottest or the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Kansas.

**If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Kansas.

**If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Manhattan, Kansas.

**If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Kansas.

**If you measure distance in hours, you might live in Kansas.

**If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you might live in Kansas.

**If you often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again, you might live in Kansas.

**If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching, you might live in Kansas

**If you see people wearing camouflage at social events, (including weddings), you might live in Kansas.

**If you install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked, you might live in Kansas.

**If you carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them, you might live in Kansas.

**If you were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.., you might live in Kansas.

**If "Going down South" means Oklahoma, you might live in Kansas.

**If a brat is something you eat, you might live in Kansas.

**If your idea of going out to eat is a tail gate party every Friday, you might live in Kansas.

Cleaning and Painting

Cleaning and painting, painting and cleaning....that's what I did all weekend. I managed to get a lot accomplished, but there's still a lot of painting and work to do. Tucker went with me to the new place, and I think he also found the whole experience exhausting. He wasn't too fond of the nearly hour-long car rides there and back, and he seemed somewhat traumatized by the amount of people who seemed to be coming in and out of the house and by being in a new environment. He did manage to find a few 'safe places' though: behind the toilet in the bathroom and beside the tea in the kitchen cupboard that's just above the dishwasher.

Deadlines....

Ahhhh!! It seems like all of my deadlines are here!! I have an grant application packet that's due Friday, and that's nearly ready to be submitted; I only have to track down one more signature on my forms. (I've been working on that one for a while.) I also just learned that, in order to apply for a summer position, I need to have my portfolio updated and submitted by Friday. The problem here is that my supervisor has had my portfolio in his possession for an entire year, and I haven't been able to update it regularly. Thus, I frantically retrieved my portfolio this afternoon, and now I have a mere 2 days to update it...only to be resubmitting it to the same supervisor who will probably keep it another year before returning it to me. I also have a few other forms to fill out for the summer position, but those should be relatively painless in comparison to the portfolio updating. Okay, I've vented; now back to work....

Painting and School and Stuff...

Still busy.... I was hoping that things would settle into some sort of schedule once the school semester started, but not so. (And how's that for alliteration!) I had a long weekend this past weekend, and I spent most of it just relaxing with the kitty and doing house-related stuff. We didn't buy a house, but we do have a new place to live (the church has a house); we're now in the processes of packing the current residence and preparing (painting, cleaning, etc.) the new residence as well. Being that I'm not a particular fan of either packing or painting, I'm not enjoying the whole process. Thus, at the given moment, both places are in slight states of disarray (to say the least)....

I'll quit on my little blog for today; I feel as though I'm rambling....

Cows With Guns

One of my friends showed this to me. The song brought back some memories, and the video is great.... Just follow the link....

Time Flies By....

Wow, how time flies.... Things have been crazy lately and the days have somehow gotten away from me. School started today, and Jimmy and I are just beginning to get started on our big move (which is turning out to be bigger than anticipated in some ways). We cancelled our internet at the house, so I've been doing only mimimal computer stuff for about the last week. Hopefully I'll be returning to the world of technology relatively soon....

Happy New Year!!

Well, Happy New Year!! (In terms of hours, I'm a little late; but, in terms of days, the greeting is right on time.)

Anyway, I just got home after a trip to visit Mom and Dad back at the (wonderfully) technologically deprived farm. (Thus, my several-day absence is explained.) Anyway, I've spent most of the evening just sitting around with the kitty, who seems very happy to be home after experiencing his first sleep-over at a house with other kittys.

Feeling Better?

Well, I felt wonderful yesterday, and that was nice. As I mentioned in the last post, I had a nasty little stomach something rather, but that went away. (YAY! I don't think I could have tolerated that much longer.) Anyway, I got one day of feeling wonderful before the nasty nose stuff started. I'm currently congested and can't breath decent. Orange juice and cheese have sounded absolutely wonderful all day (not together, of course), but I know those are on the list of things to avoid when you're congested or have a soar throat. So I guess I'm having another 'feeling yucky' day and just trying to wait patiently until my nose is happy again.

We Have Power!!

YAY!! We have power at our house again!! It's been 9 days since the ice storm and the power went out, so we're a little excited. We actually got power late yesterday, but we decided to wait until today to move back into our house because we were all a little under-the-weather yesterday. Jimmy said he felt queasy all day, I was just plain sick (stomach flu or food poisoning, not really sure which), and Tucker was sluggish and a little sick following Monday's 'boy-kitty surgery.' We're all feeling better now. (Or at least I know Jimmy and I are feeling better; Tucker is acting like he feels better, but who knows.) Anyway, I'm very excited to be able to go home tonight. (We still don't have cable or internet and that's probably a few days away, but I'm happy with heat and light.)

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....

Hello Folks, I'm Back!!

Jimmy and I just got back from our Thanksgiving trip out to visit my parents. The trip was very nice, but it's good to be back home (and it will be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight). Tucker stayed with friends, but I think he's happy to be home too....