Finished - this time

The semester is over! Grades submitted last Friday! Bring on the whining - not to mention the weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth - I have cheese and quarters. Christmas break starts on Thursday. I can probably get one or two syllabi for next semester done before then (knock on wood).

No more laundromat

Liz is so happy to finally have her washer and dryer. They arrived this afternoon and are all hooked up and ready to go. She's like a little kid - oooooh - new toys.

And we got some more money off the already discounted price due to some minor (almost unnoticeable) scratches on the dryer in transit.

And the local energy company is offering rebates on all new energy efficient appliances - refrigerator, washer, and dryer. That's another small chunk of change to get us through to payday.

I love getting free money!

God grant me the patience to endure to the end...

of the semester.

I'm pretty sure I wrote my syllabi in English, yet none of my students seem to be able to comprehend them.
I know I speak in English, yet none of my students seem to be able to understand me.

I wonder if this is how it was after God confounded the people after the building of the Tower of Babel....

Unplanned Hiatus

We closed on the house on Aug 26th and moved in on Aug 27th. Our new refrigerator/freezer arrived on the afternoon of the 26th, but it took a few days to get water piped to it. Now we have ice and water on demand at the door (it's the little things that make life worth living).

It was three or four more days before I got the computer set up. Arranged with Qwest before we moved to have the service switched over. What neither they nor I knew was that the service line to the house was missing. I plugged in my modem and saw that nothing was happening, so I started poking around the basement and found the wire from the outside hanging down, not connected to anything. Then I went outside and found the wire to the junction box in a coil laying on top of the box.

Why is it that people at customer service assume the customer doesn't know what they're talking about? I told them that 1) there are phone jacks all over the house and 2) the house wasn't connected to the grid. So what do they put on the service ticket? That I need a phone jack installed in the house! And this was a native speaker of English in Salt Lake City, not a farmed out phone jockey in India!

If I knew anything (more than enough to be dangerous) about the wiring of data lines, I would have had it done before today (the earliest Qwest CenturyLink could make it out).

Our washer and dryer were scheduled to be delivered on Sept 1st, but the washer is on back order until the 8th 15th (maybe). I don't want to cancel the order because we're saving over $700 on the pair over retail pricing (and still getting brand new factory fresh machines).

Got garage cleaned out yesterday and have room for the car. Now to get a garage door opener (other than my arms).

Next project for Liz - find a place to put our clothes. One of our dressers absorbed moisture and grew mold in storage. Once particle board is infiltrated with mold, there's nothing to do with it except throw it away. The trash man carted it off this morning.

Honey-do list:

1. Dresser for our clothes.
2. Shelves for food storage.
3. Shelves for books
4. Get stuff stored in MT shipped to IA.
5. Doggy door for the pooch.

Me-wanna-do list

1. Solar hot water for house
2. Solar heating for garage
3. Build basement workshop
4. Organize tools in basement workshop
5. Garage door opener
6. Backyard grill
7. Extend front porch
8. Build back yard deck
9. Invisible fence for not-so invisible Bassett Hound.

Two down, two to go, three days, six days...

Syllabi for two classes, done. Two more to go, and three days in which to do them. Lesson plans - that's another story... You'd think I would have more done, considering I've been preparing for classes for two months. I doesn't seem to matter how much (or little) time I have in which to do something, I'm always doing it at the last minute.

On a happier note - six days and counting until we have our OWN HOME!!!!! Already have some experiments improvements in the planning stages.

Last week of 'freedom'....

I have one more week of vacation to enjoy, followed by new employee orientation (4 days) and faculty retreat (1 day - but we don't actually 'retreat' - it's on campus). Classes start on August 23rd. I have an office AND furniture. Just need a few more touches (decorating a la Liz) and a few file cabinets for all my paper files. House closing still scheduled for 26th. Keep fingers crossed.

The light at the end of the tunnel...

Fire Marshall walked through the building yesterday and blessed it for human occupation. Learned that my office furniture is being delivered tomorrow. Talked to the facilities manager and he's scheduled his guys to pick up my boxes upon boxes of books, etc. and haul them up to my office.

Just got an email from my department chair - he's unloading MORE advisees onto my lap, including some he classified as "pieces of work."

Classes start in three weeks!

So that light . . . appears to be the oncoming train!

Closure...

We're scheduled to close on the gingerbread house four weeks from today. That's four days after the semester starts. Looks like my first weekend is going to be action packed, between moving and grading papers (yes, I'm giving homework assignments that are due the first week - I'm such an ogre). Hope I live through it.

A new variation on an old theme...

The rain in Iowa
Falls mainly on the corn


I know - it doesn't rhyme, it doesn't "flow", it's lame....

blah, blah, blah

Brandy is holed up in her "safe" place behind the toilet. Poor baby. Gave her a doggie valium a little bit ago. She's really melllllllllllllloooooooowwwwww now.

More photos of the "new" place

It's 20 years older than I am, but three years younger than my mom!

 great fireplace - I think I'm going to put in a gas log, though.

I hauled enough ashes as a kid to fill a few dump trucks!

 Our flat screen isn't nearly this big, but it will work.

 Office or guest room

front room looking into office/guest room

 Kitchen (duh).

 dining area

dining area

view from dining area through living room to hallway

Master BR

3rd BR

We really love this room.

There's also a good sized basement for me to play in (woodworking, etc) and for the laundry. We hope to have a housewarming party this fall (sorry, Cynthia, but you're welcome when you come back from S. Africa!).



Momma always said that miracles happen every day...

Our financing came through - we're going to be homeowners!

Here's some photos of the house that will be ours (and the bank's) on August 26th:

Much ado about nothing...

Southern Iowa State Fair - not much to see. Nice to get out of the house, but even nicer to get back into the air conditioning after being in the heat for 2 hours.

Can't swing a dead cat...

Yesterday, we drove to Slater to attend a Tesdell family reunion. Met some folks that are related by blood, others that are only related by a long ago marriage between two (unrelated) Tesdell's. Nice group of folks - I've been "talking" to several of them on Facebook for a few years now, and it was nice to put faces with names.

On the way up, we drove through Ankeny - where I've got another "crop" of cousins - 2nd & 3rd, mostly.

There's a few 2nd cousins down here in Oskaloosa, another group in Norwalk (met some of them on July 4th - Spanky and the Meat Mafia is one killer BBQ!)

Some of my mom's ancestors are from just over the state line in Missouri - visited Kahoka a few weeks ago and took some headstone photos of ancestors.

I'm also discovering that, not only can we not swing a dead cat in Iowa without hitting a relation, the same holds true in Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, California, Utah, Maine, ... - the list goes on - this family (in old times) bred like rabbits!