Cleverness in a Hurry

 

I have 5 minutes before I go pick up Conor from daycare, so I must be brilliantly speedy.  Or speedily brilliant.  Whatever.  It is likely I will fail.

 

We spent the weekend tearing down trees and painting bathrooms.  The bathroom still needs one more coat of paint and I am too damn tired after working all day to finish the job.  So, it may have to wait until this weekend or until Friday night.  The color is much, much better, and we’ll have the before and after show ready on flickr pronto.

 

TTC with a head full of snot

 

In much more exciting news, my wonderful OB has given me the go-ahead to start TTC this month, despite my ENT’s desire for me to wait.  I have worked through the ENT’s main concerns by rescheduling my C/T scan before ovulation.  And the antibiotics I’m on are just fine for pregnancy, so unless the ENT insists on surgery immediately, we’re a go-ahead for starting again this month. 

 

Ironically, I’m taking some cough syrup, Robitussin G, which will help both with fertility and my sinus infection.  Ain’t life grand?

 

Basa

 

More adorableness than you can stand:  Basa is how Conor says Simba.  Simba was the first cat whose name Conor could say and he called her Ba.  Now, he’s trying to add the “s” sound but is apparently confused on where it should go.  He’s put it at the end.  So her name is now Basa (at least to him).  At one point, while also trying to work in the “m” sound, he started calling her M’basa, which I thought was some sort of famous politician, but I clearly am not spelling it right. 

 

Late for picking up my son….late for everything.

4:40:13 PM     trackback [] Comments? []

Spring Break

 

About damn time.  It’s 2:00 on the Friday of our university’s Spring Break and I’m getting ready to Go Enjoy It!!!  Yeah, babbbeeeee!!!

 

You’d think that we professors would get to enjoy a little break from school.  But you’d think wrong!  I have worked my booty off this week.  And finally, at 2:00, although I have more work I can do, I’m going to take the afternoon off and do some chores. 

 

It is an absolutely gorgeous day in the mid 70’s and we’re going to do some plantin’ and some paintin’ this weekend and I need to go get prepped for this.  We will be updating the master bathroom and you can check here for our progress.  Right now, you can only see the hideous colors from yesteryear.  That is, unfortunately, not going to be changed, because we cannot afford it!  But we’re going to try to make the rest of it work with a new coat of paint and some kicky accessories. 

 

We’re also going to finish putting in our pink Lenten roses in the shade garden (that now I’m worried is not shady enough) and plant three (or more!) blueberry bushes!!  The asparagus continues to grow, and I’m documenting this year’s landscaping and gardening, here.  Why?  Well, because I can.  And it’s nice to see how everything changes.  The strawberry plants have flowers on them, too, so we may get berries this year.  Yippee!!!  Can I just say, once again, God Bless Perennials.  It is a buttload easier to plant once and then reap for years than to plant and plant and plant and plant and freakin’ plant again. 

 

OK. Off to be free to be me before I go pick up the little guy and smooch him on the head. 

1:49:46 PM     trackback [] Comments? []

Home Repair

 

Thank God(dess) I took a shower this morning because this place is filthy with people crawling around doing home repair.  Well, OK, not really filthy.  People are “here” and there are multiple types of “people”.  And it just seemed like it would be a nice visual contrast of me all clean and other people all filthy.  Kind of a play on words with “filthy” if you were paying attention. 

 

Of course, now that I’ve beaten all cleverness out of the horse of that paragraph…

 

Stuff’s going on around here!  We’re getting our rotten siding replaced!  It’s just a little bit of siding, but I feel like the house is house is getting its teeth flossed.  And Tommy the bug man stopped by this morning to lay pesticides down to kill the evil cockroaches trying to enter our house.  Yes, I’m supposed to be all natural mama and whatever.  But when you live in old houses in old neighborhoods and bugs are the size of mice, you call in the professionals.  In any case, the organic vegetables will be arriving soon, so the pesticides goodness/badness will cancel each other out.  (Like the calories when you eat a salad and French fries in the same meal!)

 

We’ve also improved the home on our own.  Dave put insulation in the “attic” over the home office and we’re both stunned with how well it holds heat now.  I’ve also figured out how to set the thermostat in the portable heater, so funny how that helps too. 

 

And you will note if you go here, that Dave has again been handily working around the house, building a new cabinet in which to store my collection of (artsy) coffee mugs.  A few gift occasions ago, Dave got a router (some sort of important and useful power tool thing).  It’s one of the most selfish gifts for me that he’s ever received.  It’s sort of along the lines of me getting a stove for my birthday, that’s how useful it’s become around the house. 

 

Back to work.  But I did get up at 5:30 and go running this morning.  Yay for me. 

12:27:25 PM     trackback [] Comments? []

Money

 

Ha!  Should this be called “Money” or “Money and the lack thereof?”  It doesn’t matter.  If it’s called “Oxygen” or “I can’t breathe,” we’re talking about the same thing.

 

This, however, is related to our remodeling efforts and how we’re having to let things go.  We definitely are not letting maintenance things go.  We have a contractor scheduled to come over next week (during the predicted ice storm!!!) to fix the rotten spots in the siding.  But we’ve decided to skip repairing the bathtub.  Instead, we’re just going to paint the room, fix the water spots in the ceiling, buy a new mirror, and put up a very heavy shower curtain so that people cannot see that hideously ugly bathtub.  We will also issue a warning to anyone foolish enough to pull back the curtain to see just how ugly it is. 

 

You would think that “fixing the bathtub” would fall under maintenance.  But it doesn’t.  Unless you mean maintaining my ability not to gouge out my eyes when I look at it.  The problem is that the white paint on the bathtub and the tiles are peeling away.  Hmmmm?  Paint?  On a bathtub and tiles?  Yes. 

 

The remodel folks argue that it’s better to just replace the tiles and tub than refinish and/or paint them and I agree.  However, the previous owner did not have enough money to do that so he painted them white.  Fair enough.  I understand.  But the reason he had to paint them white is because the owner before him bought and installed a PINK bathtub underneath green SEA FOAM tile. 

 

Holy Fucking Shit I am NOT KIDDING YOU!!!!!  Not only did this man have a PINK bathtub and SEA FOAM green tile, he used the SAME COLORS in the “master” bedroom at some point.  I know this from when I was scraping away at the layers of eye-popping paint in the bedroom two years ago.  I just had no idea at the time that these colors had co-existed.  I thought they had been options one after another.  But now that I see the fashion choices in the bathroom, I know these colors existed on purpose side by side in large amounts and in close proximity. 

 

It makes me anxious.

 

So why don’t we do something about this?  Well, we planned on it.  But it would cost over $1500 for us to strip the current bad bath-tub and tile paint job and have it repainted.  And it would be even more if we had everything replaced.  And we know for sure that when we remodel this part of the house is going to go, go, go!  So yes, if we remodel in 10 years, it would be worth it to invest that money now.  But if we remodel in 3 years?  No!  What about 5 years?  Is it worth $300 a year to have a pretty bathtub?  Well, no.  Not to us. We don’t have $300 a year to blow just on a pretty bathtub when a fancy $50 shower curtain can keep us from seeing that hideousness.  Or at least keep me from seeing it.  Dave uses this shower primarily, so I can avoid large splotches of PINK and SEA FOAM most days.  (It does make me wonder about the man two owners ago.  Who on earth would think those colors were a good choice?  Even if they were free, they are so ugly a combination in large quantities that they could be used in jails to get people to confess)

 

So, yay!  We save money by not spending it.  We risk gouging our eyes out by leaving it there.  But Dave claims not to mind.  Fine.  He may shower there.  I will use the other painted over tub which appears to only have an off-white tub beneath it.  Definitely, it’s not as bad.

 

BFF

 

What would you do if you found out that it was highly likely that your best friend was going to be moving from across the country to live in your neighborhood?  Yes, you would worry about the culture shock of moving from the big liberal California city to middle-sized moderate southern Charlotte.  You would recall your own angst at moving across country and how it takes a while to settle back in.  But then you would dance the toddler dance of joy around your house not believing in your own good luck. 

 

That would describe our household right now.  More news as it becomes more certain.  But we are absolutely thrilled at our good fortune. 

9:05:53 AM     trackback [] Comments? []

Detritus

 

I’m not in a coherent state this morning.  Although Conor slept through the night, my body decided to honor our ritualistic waking by sending my diaphragm into a spasm from 3 am until 4 am.  Usually, I only get that after a really hard run, but last night, well, last night my body decided to just keep me in that less-than-full-sleep mode.  It hurts, but it’s clear there’s nothing seriously wrong.  So, ahem, there’s no need for anyone close to me to worry about it.  (You have to feel for the folks close to me; it’s hard for them to read this blog and not get freaked out occasionally, what with the twitching, red, spasmy bits I share)

 

So here are things on my mind:

 

Bad Mommy

 

Conor’s daycare is beside a YMCA in Charlotte.  Dave and I joined it before Christmas so I could start working off my booty.  I feel guilty going to the gym when I could be picking up Conor early.  But I figure the 30 year old Conor would forgive me for picking him up a little late if the Mommy he has then was still healthy and vibrant. 

 

Nonetheless, I wasn’t expecting the 18 month old Conor to see me drive into the parking lot yesterday.  (When I say his daycare is beside the Y, I mean his daycare is almost touching the Y—they share a plot of land and a parking lot)  So he sees the car drive in, he sees me get out of the car and he proceeds to run around the playground squealing in anticipation of me picking him up.  Imagine my guilt when I walk into the Y.  And then let me tell you that it was worse that you imagine.  I did a quick workout and then picked him up. 

 

I’ve got to keep working out and get a healthy body back, but the guilt is pretty overwhelming.

 

Cooking

 

Thanks to some very kind gifts, I received two good cookbooks over the holidays which I have been using quite a bit.  I think it’s part of the healing process and also part of being on vacation, but I’ve made chicken meatball soup, braised pork roast, Indian spicy cauliflower, Spanish fish and fried cheese, “real” macaroni and cheese, and even more considering the holiday parties we hosted, again as part of the therapy.

 

I do love cooking and I’m lucky to have a husband and a toddler who are pretty willing to try about anything.  Conor isn’t always a fan, but if we can sneak it in his mouth, he’ll eat it. 

 

Of course, in my head, when I blogged about my recent cooking, the details were mouth watering and inspiring.  <insert witty, inspiring, mouth watering comments here>

 

Remodel

 

Here’s this year’s lesson:  we’re ending out third year in this house and finally, FINALLY, the To Do less is getting shorter.  We took the advice from Saturday’s Charlotte Observer to write down all our plans for the year and to create a budget (Yikes!  Some items immediately went to next year).  We also incorporated Nancy Brachy’s To Do list for the garden.  (I love her, by the way.  I’ve written her so many times I feel like a stalker)  It’s a lot:  we have two more landscaping beds to do as well as decide on some trees and blueberry bushes; Dave has more work on the garage; we need to repair some rotted out wood, etc. etc.  I have even decided to keep the vegetable garden this year despite the fact that I hated it last summer.  We’re planting less and we’re using a boat load of mulch to keep the weeds out. 

 

Nonetheless, I turned to our To Do list in April for 2 years ago, and the To Do list for APRIL was as long as our to do list for this WHOLE YEAR! 

 

Holy crap!!  We were stupidly ambitious. 

 

And Dave, being unused to the whole point of making a To Do list and then To Put It Off has already started on three of his items and is nearly complete:  screens for office windows, change heating filters and MAKE A CUPBOARD FOR OUR COFFEE CUP COLLECTION!!  Since Saturday, he’s done all this. 

 

If I had-a known that, we’d have lists stuck up all over the place.  I, of course, have done squat on my list.  Oh well.  I think that’s pretty much my life.

 

OK.  The conference paper is in and I think it doesn’t suck.  Now, I need to write an essay and then review a research proposal from Canada.  I don’t know how Canada found me, but it’s a pretty big deal and I’m happy to help.  I’m not sure when I’ll be back here.  Tomorrow I’m teaching and Thursday I’m going to Clemson for a NSF conference. 

 

Did I mention that I woke up Sunday night and found that my shoulders were attached to my ears?  In my SLEEP!!!!  I’m unconscious, yet nonetheless, my shoulders are up around my ears.  I kept pulling them down, going back to sleep and then waking up to them at my ears.  That is pathetic.  Pa-thetic.   

9:07:44 AM     trackback [] Comments? []

I’m on a Tear

 

We’ve decided not to remodel the house.

 

I really want to fix the problems in our house’s design, but we don’t have the money.  We could become “house poor” and suck it up for a few years and trust that financially things will be better when we’re not paying for (hopefully) two children’s daycare. 

 

Or we could take the financially conservative route and just wait.  Wait until the kids are in school.  Wait until I get tenure.  Wait until we have a bit more money in the coffers.  And although I don’t like waiting, it is part of our financial philosophy to live below our means so that we can retire at our means.  ((Although, to be perfectly honest, we are not currently “living below our means.”  We’re still spending way too much money when in actuality we’re poorer than a church mouse.  We should cut back on everything if we want to live below our means.  No groceries, no electricity, no clothes from anywhere besides Marshalls and Target.  Actually, the latter is true.))

 

So I’ve decided since we are not going to remodel, I’m going to stop ignoring some of the fixable flaws in our house.  I’m on a tear.  I’m a whirling Tasmanian devil whipping through crap, tossing crap out, and reorganizing the crap we can still use.

 

So far, I’ve thrown out a great deal of my wardrobe including all those cute, skinny clothes I had when I was cute and skinny in LA.  Newsflash:  even though I’ve lost all my pg weight, I’m still not as skinny as I was in LA, and my body has changed so that I can’t wear most of my clothes from before.  And even if I could ever get my fat ass in my skinny clothes, what looked good as a single skinny girl in LA is not so much in fashion for a mother professor in the South.  Result:  a nearly empty closet. 

 

I’ve also started on the counters and cabinets in the kitchen AND the infamous junk drawers.  I’ve put all those extra appliance cords and birthday candles and matches and whatnot in plastic baggies.  (And BTW, we had well over a 100 birthday candles, so Sorry Mom!  We could have had candles on your cake for your birthday this year instead of that sparkler which seemed like a good idea at the time but left burnt silver shit all over the white icing of your birthday cake.)   Result:  I can see the counters for the first time in months.  Additionally, there’s a trashbag of shit we’ve never used and will never miss. 

 

There’s more we’re going to do:  move furniture around, buy a few pieces of cheap furniture for the living room, hang more pictures on the wall, throw out more and more and more and more and more accumulated shit that we don’t ever use. 

 

One thing that has really stuck in my craw from what the architect said.  She pointed out that if we did the remodel, we’d still only end up with 2200 sq. feet “and that’s a really small house.  That’s not big at all.”  (And that wasn’t even counting the additional 400 sq feet out in the office) 

 

You know what folks?  The vast majority of this world lives in a smaller space with more people than we currently live in now.  We can manage.  No.  Really and truthfully.  It’s OK.  We can do just fine in the house we’re in right now.

 

We are, however, seriously considering using their plans to revamp the butt ugly bathroom.  Their suggestions would fix the one major design flaw in the house that does make our bathroom difficult to use.  (Dave can’t use this bathroom because the toilet is so close to the shower that either his butt or his knees are hanging in the shower if he’s at the toilet.  I simply sit sidesaddle and bypass the issue).  But that’s only about $6-8K.  That we can afford. 

8:40:40 PM     trackback [] Comments? []