Scordatos

An evening last spring

2011-02-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Okay folks, I promise that I'll let up on the cat blogging, but I couldn't resist posting this picture as I watch wet snow blanket the yard. It's been a long hard week with the weather, so here's a treat.

I took this last spring, May, in the evening during one of those perfect times where the hard spring thunderstorm had passed and the setting sun shone from the west. This was a night that there was a rainbow, and looking out the back door revealed that bruised blue black on the storm wending it's way towards Columbus.

Huh, apparently falling wet snow brings out the bad poet in me as well.

Anyway, I was running around the newly planted herb garden trying to get nice pictures of some flowers, none of which turned out. the ones of Maxwell and Molly watching my antics however, turned out nicely. That gerber daisy was in a pot, and is not actually growing out of Maxwell's head.

maybe a non cat pic next time, J

the infamous mo mo

2011-01-11T16:41:00.001-08:00

As I was flipping through many a spring-taunting photo for this week's blog, I came across this shot of a still kitten-ish Molly. Since I haven't posted about her specifically yet, I figured I would post about her tonight.

Molly is the third cat Andrew and I have shared since we have been married. We got her June 2nd, 2007 after realizing that Tweeker was desperately lonely. Andrew wanted a tortoiseshell. I don't know why, he's never had one before and he kept saying "I want a tortie kitten and I want to name her Molly." So we trundled to the Union County Humane Society and they only had two kittens, a tiger and a tortie. So Andrew asked for them to bring the tortie out and here came this tiny 8 week old kitten who had been thrown out of a passing truck.

The lady said her name was Molly (coincidence right?) And as soon as she was placed in Andrew's hand she snuggled up against his shirt, like her back to the wall, warily eying the world.

So we brought her home crying all the way and introduced her to Tweek. We put her on the ground, and she immediately shot, tail shaking like a skinny flag, under the entertainment center. This induced completely unfounded panic, and not trusting that she would come out on her own, we enticed her with canned food.

For about two weeks we kept her in the guest room. She was only 8 weeks old when we got her, and brought her out morning and night for play dates with Tweeker on our bed. Molly immediately laid out who was boss, swatting at Tweek, and demanding to be groomed.

Molly has grown more affectionate with age, partially I think because after Tweek passed away she became the dominant cat and partially because she just became more loving. She sleeps with us most every night, and demands loves to be cuddled on a sleep in morning. She is the most predatory of our cats so far, the most entranced by bugs in the house, the most alert to birds outside. She likes toys, but seems to be a bit bored by them, like she knows they aren't the real thing. And has always retained some wild spirit.

She greets me at the door now, and stands up on her hind legs, stretching her body long to be petted. She loves to run around the house with or without Maxwell and she chirps more than meows.

A favorite spot is over the cabinets above the refrigerator where she will cry for Andrew to reach up and pet her, letting out a little meow as she yawns.

When she's really cranked up she likes to run halfway up the stairs, point her butt towards the front door, and put her head on the stair, peeking at us like she's about to do a headstand.

They say torties have their own personality and that's true of our little mo mo. She's not affectionate the strangers and she's no dope. But she's our little treasure.

2011-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve I decided to clean the floors because they had gotten to the point where every time I looked down I couldn't live with myself.

I hate doing floors.

I hate going floors because with two cats, one being long-haired, and having laminate floor in most of the downstairs, every fur tumbleweed, every piece of dust, litter and detritus just leaps out and screams at me.

The house I grew up in was almost all carpet so laminate, even after 5 years continues to drive me crazy.

The stairs though, the stairs are the bane of the bane of my existence.

You can't tell from this picture, but let me assure you, these stairs look as the carpet was put down yesterday.

How did I do it? A new three step process. First I used these wonderful things by pledge that Andrew saw on tv and bought for me...probably because of all bitching I do about the cat hair.

http://www.pledge.com/fabric-sweeper/

When we got home and tried them out on the couch, the half we fabric swept looked brighter, almost a different color than the control side of the couch. It's that incredible.

So I used this first on the stairs. It did two things. One, it got a lot of cat hair up. And two, it loosened up all the crap that had been trapped by the cat hair.

Then I used the two gallon shop vac with just the hose no attachments to pick up the loose crud.

Then I used the little attachment you see pictured on the stair. Mom got it from LTD.

http://www.ltdcommodities.com/

I don't know if you know about LTD, but like a lot of mail order/paper advertisements, the products are hit and miss. Mom loves LTD and this little attachment, with it's neon green bristles and manic spinning when attached to the hose pulled everything else up.

When I was done, the stairs practically glowed and sang angelically, like in a commercial.

And then the cats came to investigate.

I predict that by Martin Luther King Day, the stairs will look just as they did on December 30th.

But that's not the point.

The point is, for me house cleaning is like, a metaphor for larger things in life.

I hate that I have to do it. I come home from work or get up in the morning and notice a dirty/dusty x, y, z and sigh to myself as I envision time in the future, spent on cleaning something that will just get dirty again.

But there is something to be said for the satisfaction from focusing on a single task. I listen to audiobooks a lot when I clean, and to engage in the low level physical activity and let one's mind wander isn't a bad thing. The satisfaction of seeing the steps SO clean...only comes from letting them get SO dirty in the first place. I've never been a spot cleaner, more of a, let-it-accumulate then clean it really good, kind of gal, so I guess for me, housework is about picking the flavor of drudgery.

So much of our lives is about the balance of maintenance (mowing the lawn, cleaning out the car, getting milk for the 5 millionth time) and doing the fun stuff we all enjoy. How does one appreciate the satisfaction in the drudgery, and remind oneself to appreciate the time they get for doing things they enjoy? That is one of my goals for the new year, to be less cranky about the house cleaning, and to appreciate when I am doing the things I enjoy.

And, one last work about cat hair and carpets. A clean carpet can't snuggle with me on the couch or greet me at the door, or do playful antics with toys or for canned food. The cats can, and I am reminding myself of that now as Maxwell stretches from his spot on the dining room rug and walks off, leaving a light coating of white hair on the rug...

So I am going to enter a contest...

2010-02-12T10:06:00.001-08:00

You can read more about it here

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/

And scroll through the entries to the one dated February 7th.

Wish me

L
U
C
K

Jules

A Note about the Advocacy Column

2010-01-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

Hello, if you have ideas for advocacy topics, have an advocacy question or want to nominate yourself for a future interview, drop a line at juliethelibrarian@gmail.com

All submissions will be considered.

Jules

2010-01-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

Maxwell and Molly are finally mixing and I think we're making progress. Maxwell still stays largely in his room. We had to move the boxspring and mattress away because he kept hiding under the bed. Sunday night I returned from an author visit and found him on the family room couch to which he made a slight eeep sound and ran down the dining room and hallway and up the stairs back into his room so he must know his way around.

I was worried about Molly. Up until Tuesday night, Maxwell had her buffaloed, charging out of his room to the landing, kicking his hind legs out and chasing her off. Molly always came up to investigate though and she's figured out his bluff.

Last night I watched them get very close to each other. It was very interesting to watch. There was no chasing or spitting, just some low growling. Maxwell has the look on his face of being resigned that this other cat is going to do what she wants, but I hope he is understanding she isn't going to hurt him. He tolerated her approach until she touched his tail with her nose, then he lashed out but even then it seemed half hearted.

He was on the landing this morning but raced back into his room. I can only hope someday he'll be racing around the whole house with Molly, fast friends and happy.

I'll post some pictures of Molly soon.

Meet Maxwell

2010-01-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well, the Monday after Christmas Andrew and I stopped by Petsmart before going to see Sherlock Holmes. I did not expect to see a cat I would be interested in but there was a little fluffy cat named Maxwell laying in his litter pan. He looked kinda like Kitten, and is fluffier than Tweek, with both layers of coat instead of one.

He loved to be petted and went on his hind legs to meet our hands for pets on his head. He has a sweet little cry, kinda like "eow" and it's the most pitiful cry you've ever heard. One of the adoption folks had a little dog on a leash they use to see how cats react. Maxwell left us in the play room to trot down the hall to his cage, and waited for the adoption person to open the door then he jumped right in. We loved him and he's been home since the day before New Year's Eve. He was one of 19 cats rescued from a good intentioned hoarder, who lives near a junk yard and just got overwhelmed.

He's still in the guest room, but is often in the room to greet us now instead of hiding under the bed. He already plays hard to get, refusing to jump on the bed (even though tell tale tumbleweeds of fur indicate he's been on it when we aren't around.) So we have to come to him to pet him but he's so darn cute and lets us rub his belly.

He needs fattened up, and his ears cleaned out and he is slowly meeting Molly. He took a swipe at her through the door they other day and I hope he won't dominate her, but as long as tehy get along and play together I guess it doesn't matter.

I'll keep you posted. jules

Um, Journals

2009-10-28T07:17:00.000-07:00

Journals

If we don’t count the paperback teddy bear journal I bought in the third grade where my entries were, borderline incoherent sentences written in bulbous cursive then abandoned after a couple entries, I started keeping a journal in 1993. I can’t remember why I did. Just that I had gotten a journal as a birthday gift…from whom I couldn’t tell you. One of those thin hardcover blank books with lines, and an oil painting of a girl holding a cat on the cover…the kinds of blank books that were popular before the stores took notice of the market and cranked out wider varieties of blank books with lots more expensive options.

This summer I dug all of my journals out of my trunk (another blog entry on it later) and stacked them up on the dining room table. A coworker had mentioned that her daughter had begun her first journal so I wanted to see what they looked like all together.

I needed a couple journals a year during my junior and senior years of high school (which sounds just about right) but since have averaged about one a year. My entries these days are further apart but longer.

My journals are not going to help any aliens in the future decipher what it was like to be living in this time period, in this area. It’s the most mundane of things. The journals are not for an audience of hypothetical great grand children, or for a university library after I’ve won the Nobel in literature. It’s not to help me think things through either…usually when I am stressed or working on a problem, I wait until it’s resolved before I commit it to paper.

As I look at the journals I can see how my tastes have changed over the years. I started out using only journals given as gifts…getting 3 or 4 more after the first gifted journal from various relatives like clockwork around the holidays. The gifts weren’t given with the knowledge that I’d actually use them, and I find that interesting that several friends and family thought of a journal as a gift for a teenaged girl.

After a while I’d buy them, and went through a spiral bound phase. But I always waited to buy one until I was near the end of the current one. This worked well enough until graduate school when I got to the end and couldn’t find anything I liked in the stores. I went to every book store in the city and had to settle. I’ve had a policy ever since to buy a journal I like on the spot, and now have enough squirreled away until…oh, 45. But it’s nice to finish one journal and browse my collection of them, weighing them in my hands, looking at the lines (although I do ones without lines too) deciding about the color. I like all of them, but I choose each one at the time based on my mood.

I wrote at my desk in high school, college, graduate school, and got away from that once I was in the real world. I started writing in bed before reading but lately have switched back to writing on my table in the guest room, where I do all my fiction writing.

Pens? Pencils? Some of my early ones were in pencil, some were done in with pens that had some significance to me, a gift, a souvenir from a trip, etc. I’ve done black, but mostly stick to shades of blue. Very often the color and feel of the journal from covers to paper will influence the choice of pen and color. I’m so obsessive that when my pilot precise v5 ran out, and I tried to make do with the uniball blue roller (that I’m using in one of my writing projects.) I had to break down after a couple of entries and buy some more pilots at the store. That’s how weird I am…in case the huge collection of blank books I’ve already bought wasn’t a tip off for you.

Pens and pencils will have to be another blog. Prepare to be riveted.

I don’t know why I do it, it may be the simple reason that when I’m not working on something, I can always write in my journal and the movement of pen against paper, the ordering of the daily life things and sometimes what I think about them, feels calming. Like tidying up the kitchen or crawling into clean sheets. Since all my old journals are in the trunk, I rarely back track through them—and didn’t even do that when I drug them out for this picture. Every now and then when I do, some entries make me grimace, not so much at the language of my recordings but the priorities of what I recorded and my thoughts on them. Some make me smile to myself or laugh out loud and others bring a flood of things I had forgotten.

As I write this blog, I picture something I’ve never imagined before, me an old woman, tottering around the house, or bed-ridden in a nursing home, surrounded not bylarge print word finds, or tabloid magazines, but three score of these journals, reading them slowly from the beginning to the end, a review of my life as I told it in the narrowest of lenses before moving onto my great perhaps.*

*Directly stolen from my Teen Read Week experience from John Green, the last words of Simon Rabelay and I'm sure I am not spelling Rabelay right but am too lazy to look it up.

Here and Back Again

2009-10-19T08:07:00.001-07:00

Well, it’s back to blogging. I haven’t in a year not for lack of topics. I could have been blogging about our trip to Los Angeles in the spring or our vacation to Wisconsin this past summer. I could have blogged about the lavender I planted in the backyard, or the black lab puppies my Dad raised this summer. I could have blogged about how Governor Strickland’s off the cuff decision to gut public library funding kept me at some level of internal turmoil during the cool weeks of summer. I could have blogged about making chocolate chip cookies or the few photos I took this summer.

But I didn’t.

And I didn’t blog from lack of inspiration. I’ve been following www.madeinatreehouse.com and www.alainnotebook.com and more recently www.herlandnotebook.com

I didn’t blog because I didn’t feel like it. The idea of blogging and posting a picture was too much effort.

And now I blog not so much from inspiration, guilt or any internal drive. I’m blogging because eventually, if I am very, very lucky (or unlucky time will tell how I feel about publishing) I may have a book to promote.

I read on a blog in the publishing ring of the web, that writers often reflect the culture of their times and the JD Salinger couldn’t get away with being the “secluded writer types” in this decade like he could 40, 50 years ago…because at that time the secluded writer type was what was expected…take the drunken writers of the 20s and 30s as another example.

And these days the name of the game is promotion. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, blah blah blah.

Part of deciding to share my writing with the world, means making peace with the fact that art becomes product. Passion becomes business. Revisions, promotion, all of it.

So I figure I might as well get in the habit of blogging, and start reviving and building my following from friends and colleagues.

I will try to post once a week. I’ll be talking about all the things I didn’t talk about this summer, don’t expect the blog to be blah blah blah my book etc. Not for a while and never entirely.

So what should I rattle off today? I suppose the recent sad news. My heart is still cracked over it, and I try not to think about it much.

As you have read in an earlier post, orange cats are magic and I have a history of them. The latest chapter, I am sad to report, is that we had to put our precious little tweek to sleep October 2nd.

It was unexpected and I’m still shocked really. I’m used to being philosophical about a pet’s death, chalking it up to old age like Chubby, or prolonged illness like Kitten. This past spring Tweek had developed, a sniffle, or a snuffle. No snot or anything, just snorting, snoring sounds. Antibiotics didn’t work but prednisone did and Tweek happily ate his ground up pill in a treat of canned food. The sniffling/snuffling went away.

Around Labor Day it started up again. I called in for some prednisone but it did not go away. The substitute vet at our place, gave him a high powered shot of prednisone and extended the prescription. He suggested Tweeker may have feline asthma as Tweek was the perfect age and it was the perfect time of year to show these asthmatic symptoms. By the last week of September though, Tweek was showing no improvement and the snorting snuffling was growing worse. Another trip to the vet, another medication. Our vet, a good country vet, I’ve known since a child told us if it didn’t work we’d need to do an x ray.

Two days later Tweek wasn’t eating, only getting in three doses of the new medication. His manner began to change. He was lethargic. We could not let him in the bedroom as we could not sleep from his snorting breathing.

I took him in Friday morning, dropped him off and gave the vet my Dad’s number as I was on the way to work but before I could get halfway to work Dad called me. The news was bad. Andrew had just gotten off work and Dad called him. Andrew met me at the house to go back to the vet together to say good-bye.

Tweeker did not have asthma, but a tumor, in the cruelest of places. The x-ray showed a mass in his trachea, that had probably been growing since spring, repressed by the prednisone and quietly growing all summer. Because of it’s placement in Tweeker’s throat, it would be impossible to remove without cutting into his major arteries, and nerves. He could no longer eat. His breathing would only grow more and more labored through a passageway slowly being choked off.

Our vet is a good country vet, which does not mean the suggestion is always “put ‘em down.” He looked at us and said, “there is a lot that I can do, and a lot that I have done, but I can’t do this.”

The brought him in and I held him so Andrew and I could pet him and say good bye. He kept trying to scramble out of my arms, stressed and scared by being at the vet’s his snorting breathing, a cause for worry sounded like a death knell. His eyes wide and bright and all I wanted was to fix him. But sometimes fixing means letting go. It takes two shots, one that’s used like before an animal surgery, then the final one, the vet gives behind closed doors.

I stroked his long soft fur, trying so desperately to memorize the feel of it beneath my fingers. The transition from him breathing that horrible rasping to silence. One last look at his little face, frozen in an open stare, and back to the reception desk to make small talk, about library funding no less, until the vet came back with a cardboard box and said he was sorry. And I know that he was. What kind of job is that to have? Saving and ending lives…ending suffering either way. How many creatures does a veterinarian put to sleep in their career on average? And how lucky are we to have someone to do it?

Dad and Andrew made a box and now Tweek rests in the orchard with Kitten. How can we be in this house less than 4 years and have buried two cats? I know Tweek had a great life, and every day he had two people who loved him, cuddled him, and gave him anything he could need. But at four years old, the consolation rings hollow, as I suppose it does for anyone losing a loved one too early. But it’s always too early isn’t it?

Of all the pets I’ve had, Tweek had the most habits, quirks, and little things he did around the house. I see his little ghost all around the house, in every room. All the little things he’ll never do again. I wrote over twenty things in my journal.

Molly’s behavior has changed drastically. From the first night she’s slept with me, not as close as Tweeker did, but close all the same. She’s taken to stealing bran flakes off my cereal bowl when my back is turned…something Tweeker did. She greets me at the door now, and this afternoon, she laid on my lap and we took a nap in the recliner. She cries more and wants more attention.

An internet site said that sometimes one cat is repressed by the older one, or the cat that was in the house first. It makes sense but it’s still eerie.

We’ll probably get another cat, a little boy kitten most likely in the spring if Molly continues to act lonely. And odds are, we’ll get an orange one.

But my story isn’t over yet, because less than 24 hours after putting Tweek to sleep I found myself in a hotel near OSU campus for a children’s writing conference. I could not have wanted to be there any less. I won’t prop any illusion that I’m less needy or neurotic than the next writer…I’m not. But being surrounded by 103 people needy and desperate for that love for their work as writers are was too much, it really was.

I overheard things that made me groan inwardly. I got so bored at one session I began to write a short story in my main character’s voice about the things I overheard and saw.
I had paid extra to have my query letter critiqued by a reputable and well known agent and the first ten pages of the book critiqued by an author. I had taken the first 19 pages of the book to our Wisconsin vacation, desperate to cut enough to bring the second main character in under the ten pages. I did, I drafted the query using advice from Query Shark and a book a colleague gave me.

So I was marking time until I could get my material back.

At the query workshop, the agent passed out our letters. My heart did race a little as she handed mine back to me, but it was heavy even as it raced. I read it. I flipped it face down on the table and leaned back in my chair. I read it again.

The agent would like to see a couple of chapters. She said other positive things, and some constructive things.

At the end of the workshop I approached her. My voice was not my own. I can speak in front of people no problem, American Library Association, a public library staff day, meetings at the library. Whatever. It’s easy I can do it on the fly. But talking to this agent. About my book. Five years of work. Characters I love so much. I felt so ashamed of my meekness but there it was. This was something that really counted in my heart.

The agents said send it anytime. No expiration date. Do a major revision. Try to bring the word count out of the sky. Take it seriously and don’t send it too soon in a rush of excitement.

So okay then.

I had to stay through the very end, to get the 10 pages back. A couple of dozen people crowded around the conference organizer with the ten pages, little bombs of hope, I thought.

I got mine and moved through the mob of people rooted on the spot to read their critique. I managed to turn two corners and go towards the lobby before reading mine. My heart sank at first as the critique started out saying they were just one reader. “Well, one out of two isn’t too bad.” I said to myself. But then I kept reading. This author who has written several books and one a nice selection of awards had lots of good things to say. Things that made my heavy heart life high enough to survey possibility. Comments written in the margin of the pages made me smile. I might be able to get these kids’ story out afterall.

I saw other writers comparing notes on their critiques, many with low voices and subdued faces. I wondered to myself what kind of world I live in where I can lose Tweek and get such substantial positive feedback on my book in the same 24 hour period. Was that the trade-off in the universe? Would it had happened even if Tweek was well and trotting around our house?

So how is that for my first blog entry in months and months?
I need your help. I need the motivation to blog, and I need to build a following for future possibilities of promotion.

Will you become a follower instead of just checking in occasionally?

Will you forward my blog to one person you think might like it?

I would like to have twenty five followers by the end of October. I will post two more blogs between now and the first weekend of November.

Thanks, Jules

Nothing like Lactose Intolerance to Keep You Humble

2009-03-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we all know that by and large, this blog is not geared towards my professional work, that's a personal choice more than anything else. That said, I am thrilled, thrilled to share with you dear readers my selection as a 2009 Library Journal Mover and Shaker. You can read about it and see my ultra suave picture here

http://www.libraryjournal.com/MS2009Inductee/2140336012.html

I have my cousin Cherie to thank for the fabulous hair. The photo shoot was in Denver and she took me to her fabulous hair guy Wayne and he made me look, well, great.

In an alternate universe, I'm sure my hair looks like this all the time. It's the same universe where I've published my book and can eat macaroni and cheese.

But in this universe, I'm still lactose intolerant, and there's nothing like not being able to eat 8o% of the items on a restaurant menu to keep you humble.

As evidenced here by my very attentive server last night:...

well blogger says there's an internal error so picture a restaurant receipt here:

Atlantic Salmon 11.99
NO BUTTER OR DAIRY PLEASE OR SHE WILL DIE

Here's to decades without mac and cheese

your 2009 Library Mover and Shaker
jules

The Yellow Cats in My Life

2008-12-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Day, a yellow kitten, about 12 weeks old trotted up my parents lane towards their house as if on a mission. Their 11 year old tuxedo cat was not amused and began beating up on the poor thing immediately. We separated them. The yellow kitten with a white tip tail and an upside triangle of white on its chest cried and purred and let me pick it up immediately.

We already have two cats, Molly and Tweeker. They get a long great. I really didn't want another cat. But, you can't turn away a yellow cat on Christmas Day so I popped it in a rabbit cage with plastic tray, with a can of food, dry food and a litter tray. I put straw in the corner and schlepped the poor bastard to our garage. Andrew named the cat BOLO, an acronym for Be On the Look Out for...

Bolo was very sweet, I let it out to run around the garage while I cleaned out its cage and gave it fresh victuals. I think I wouldn't have had to press Andrew to keep it, but two cats are enough. I put a night light in the garage so BOLO wouldn't be in pitch blackness.

Yesterday morning I called 9 count 'em NINE humane societies. There was no room at the inn, anywhere. At 3:30 though, the good folks at Union County called saying they would take one kitten, but I would have to pay a surrender fee. Fine.

I had a late lunch at Mom and Dad's and in the fog, the rain and the cold, trundled Bolo into a carrier and took off for Marysville.

I have to admit, the little sucker was so cute I almost turned back. I kept one hand with fingers laced through the bars of the carrier. Bolo laid its chin on my fingers and purred to sleep. Occasionally opening soulful yellow eyes.

Bolo is really cute.

But I don't want a third cat.

I took Bolo into the Union County humane society. They don't euthanize unless animals are diseased or aggressive. They pronounced Bolo a girl, among the slight 3% of yellow/orange cats that are female. They were impressed by how lovey she was and assured me that she would adopt out quick and they would call me when she did.

I paid the surrender fee and donated a little something extra. If you live near Marysville, stop by and ask for Bolo, or the little yellow cat that came in the day after Christmas. I would love to see her go to a good home.

Yellow cats though, have been a large part of my life, and by telling you about them, you'll get a further peek into the life that is Jules.

IN the begining there was...

The first cat I ever encountered was my parents cat, Kitty. Kitty was a tiger striped and my Mom really loved her. There are pictures of me as a baby with her nearby. Kitty had to have a surgery and didn’t make it.

When I was three, four-ish a gray tom began to live with us. I named him Lucky (man who hasn’t had a pet named Lucky). Lucky used up a good third of his nine lives during his tenure with us, from tomcat fights and once, Dad accidentally ran over Lucky with a truck and he survived, so was he really lucky?

After Lucky disappeared, there was a succession of strays that passed through. I was obsessed with the name Jeff for a while and when I was in the third grade, fall of the third grade we got a barn cat, a gray kitten that I inevitable named Smoky.

Smoky had a cold. Dad took him to the vet. Smoky didn’t have a cold, he had feline leukemia and died at the vets.

Not so good with the cats so far.

Then there was Squeakers. My Uncle cat us this cat, he kept a tuxedo kitten for himself and I got the adorable orange and white Squeakers. Squeakers was a terror. His favorite game was the “hide behind something and wait until family member walks by. Jump out, latch yourself to their leg with you claws and hang on.”

I felt guilty for hating this cat. Everyone was wary of him. One summer day, Dad was taking the round up with the spray wand and the handheld tank around the farmyard killing weeds. Squeakers decided to play his favorite game and before Dad knew it, and airborne Squeakers sailed through the air and through a stream of round up. Dad did not intentionally spray Squeakers, my Dad isn’t like that. It was all just a horrible intersection of circumstance.

Dad hoped for the best. But the next morning I found the worst when I went to feed him, Oh Squeakers the bell tolled for thee.

Even though I didn’t really like the little bastard, it’s still traumatic to be like, 8 and find your pet kitten um, prone and not breathing.

So Dad took me to a buddy’s house, you know the inevitable country farm with 50 cats.

I saw two yellow cats and I couldn’t make up my mind. Dad reminded me I could only have one. I reminded him that just the other day I found my kitten laid flat on the barn floor with flies buzzing around him…it would be years before I found out about the round up bit. I got two cats.

The one I wanted the most, the fat orange one, I named Chubby. He was a darker yellow to orange, short hair, with green eyes. I can see him in my minds eye, looking pissy and adorable. I also picked out his lighter yellow, blue eyed litter mate, Jeff. Yes, I named yet another cat Jeff, don’t ask me why.

So the Perdue family left Cecil’s farm with Chubby and Jeff in tow.

We have lots of pictures of Chubby and Jeff sleeping and playing together. Since they were litter mates, I was like the third wheel. Chubby liked to be petted on the head and could tolerate being picked up but he wouldn’t let you rub his tummy. Jeff would not let you pick him up or pet his head but he would stretch out in front of my Dad’s wood stove and let you rub his tummy.

We got these kittens when they were a little too old I think, to be really groomed to be affectionate. They were in at cats, meaning they didn’t have a litter box in the house and weren’t declawed but Mom trained both of them to go to the door when they wanted out.

In March of my fourth grade year, when the cats were one year old, I came home from school to find Chubby by the back porch crying. I could hear crying underneath the porch…it was Jeff. We was in the corner but too far back for me to reach. Dad got home shortly after I did and took Jeff to the vet. He wouldn’t let me see Jeff, whose back legs had been crushed by a car.

Jeff was buried by a large tree near one of our barns.

For months afterward Chubby did not like to be alone. If he was in the house and he felt like he couldn’t find us, he would stand in the middle of our hallway and cry. He did not however, greatly increase in affection. This is not to say he didn’t like to be petted or have his chin rubbed or brushed. This is to say he wouldn’t let me dress him up in a cabbage patch doll bonnet and dandle him on my knee like a baby. God knows I tried.

Chubby began to spend more time in the house as time passed. When we were leaving the house for several hours, we would have to put him outside.

Like a sixth sense, Chubby could tell we would be getting ready and make a break for going behind the couch. I was the obvious choice to fish him out. Chubby would wait until I had just reached him before releasing a potent cat fart. I managed to get him out every time though and he never scratched me up in the process.

Now by now you are thinking this cat is a real piece of work, but let me assure you that while Andrew refers to Chubby, even posthumously as the “viscious viscious creature.” Chubby was in fact my Beloved Childhood Companion.

When I was done with my evening chores, or later when I came home from my high school job at night and Chubby was in the barnyard, he would race me to the house. In my later college years, there were nights when I could beat him.

When I was little we would play a game where I would hide in the pine trees on the northern side of our yard and Chubby would follow me.

Chubby would sleep with me when I was sick. He was never one you could wrap your arm around and cuddle, but he would sleep by my feet or curl up behind my knees.

I used to make him catnip socks from my old socks and he developed a taste for syrup and butter left on my plate after eating eggos or cream cheese from a bagel and he loved pepperoni from Grandma's pizza.

As he grew older he spent more time in the house. Laying against Dad's legs on the recliner---more for body heat than affection I'd think. Mom would patiently let him out at 3 in the morning for him to go to the bathroom and then let the old man back in.

Chubby liked to be brushed, but even that was a little game. You could brush him and brush him and he would purr and roll around but brush him one second to long and BAM, he's whip around and try to scratch you.

Even though Chubby was a medium sized cat, he would scrap with any cat that came on the property, he was very territorial. And he had a couple close calls. He was struck by a car but only his back leg was stressed, not even broken. Another time he got a bad bite on his paw in a cat fight and had to go to the vet. When he was abotu 14 he ate something bad and nearly died, the vet saved him though.

By the end of my college years Chubby began to look different, grizzled. His head started to look larger than his body even though he weighed the same. It took him longer to jump down from beds and chairs. He moved slower. By the end of graduate school he'd let me hold him for longer periods of time, mostly because he was too tired I think.

After Andrew and I left our wedding reception, we went back to Mom and Dad's house to change out of the wedding clothes. I left my dress on the guest bed, in my old bedroom. When Mom came home, Chubby was laying on my dress, sunning himself through the west facing window. Mom took a picture of it for me. Despite having claws, Chubby didn't hurt the dress at all and Mom let him sleep, waiting for him to get up before packing my dress away.

By the winter of 2005 Mom and Dad were telling me everytime we visited how Chubby was on his last leg. I think they worried how upset I would be. Sadly, pets rarely die peacefully in their sleep. I told them they would know when it was time and that was okay by me. I still have in a little box, a bit of Chubby's fur, taken from the brush we used at our own risk to brush him.

One day in March, Chubby walked into the kitchen while my Dad was eating breakfast. He sat down and lifted a front paw to lick it as cats often do, but he lost his balance and fell down. He looked up at my Dad, and did not attempt to get up so Dad took him to our good country vet.

Chubby was very close to or just at 18 years old. Not bad, not bad indeed.

And I suppose it is with Chubby in mind that I was determined, no matter what to find little Bolo a place at a humane society. I was calling as far away as Licking County. If we had to keep Bolo a week until there was a place, or even adopted Bolo ourselves, I think we would have. But I am pleased with Union County and sure she will get adopted, who knows, maybe by a little girl who wants a yellow cat.

There are a bazillion stray cats out there, many will live and die without any notice of humans. We can't save them all. But like everything else in life, we do what we can. If you are thinking about getting a pet, or maybe you have lost a pet recently and are hesitant to get another, I would say this to you:

You love them while they are here, and give them the best life you can and then you let them go when it is time...they count on you for all of that. And, when you are ready, you save another pet's life...for yourself, for them and for the honor of those you have loved before.

Bolo and many other worthy animals are waiting for you... PS, I will post a picture of Chubby on the wedding dress when I can.

Ten More Random Things, real time

2008-12-16T09:47:00.001-08:00

1) I've not been sleeping well lately. I usually read till I get sleepy but I keep reading andnot getting sleepy. Then the cats wake me up on and off and I don't have the heart to kick them out. Last night I actually woke up and reminded myself to do something at work and I know that's not healthy...I'm worried.

2) I had a horrible migraine Saturday. First one in two months. Sucky

3) We didn't put up a Christmas tree because I knew sweet little Molly would destroy it. I tried putting a fiberoptic tree up but she chewed it and knocked it down. So now all we have is snow men figures on the tv and presents in the corner. UGH.

4) Typing longhand writing takes a really long time.

5) I'm tired of cleaning our house and I'm only 30.

6) I'm bringing Clementines to our staff pot luck.

7) Thinking about sharing on the blog, the things I am doing in my life to go green and the struggle between, want, need and green. There are five billion sites like that but the difference with this one is you know me. Comment if you would like to see an occasional blog post on that.

8) Worried that I am running out of stem on the book. Seems like every scene I start bores me to write. If it's boring to write then God help the reader.

9) Rediscovered how much I love working quietly in my little room, and how much I love solitude.

10) My purple hat with the tassles is warm and whimsical.

Ten Random Things and a Reader Contest

2008-11-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

1) I am addicted to sugar, and just fine with that, thanks.

2) Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Grover are my favorite Sesame Street characters. When I was little, Mom would buy me these Sesame Street picture books at the grocery store, they were a series, and each one was like a print version of an episode, with counting pages, stories, and focus on a letter and number. I still have them.

3) I hate to vaccuum.

4) My first car was a 1982 Berlinetta Camaro with brown metallic paint...I was supposed to get a station wagon but Dad wanted it to drive to work...

5) I am the 1992 Champaign County Rabbit Queen...yes I have a tiara.

6) I am the 1997 Champaign County 4-H Girl of the year, yes I have a silver pitcher and yes I polish it once a year.

7) I am roughly 100,000 words into my first book for teens. It's almost done...theoretically.

8) I am afraid of toads and frogs. Yep.

9) If I was going to be a boy, my parent's were going to name me Andrew. My first high school boyfriend's name was Andy, and I am married to an Andrew.

10) Lately, my cat Tweeker has been sleeping with me, on my pillow every night. Boy can that little booger generate heat!

11) Bonus: The first person who can name what food group I can no longer eat in the comments section gets a *new* lip balm.

Lip Balmers Anonymous?

2008-11-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Okay so not this past Saturday but the Saturday before that, before Halloween, Andrew and I were at Whole Foods. I needed some of the fabulous rice cheese that has provided a ray of hope in my dairyless world.

As Andrew was perusing ales, I went to the bath and body section and lo and behold there was...

A new Burt Bees Lip Balm...I have regular and pomegranate and now there was...Honey.

Dum da dum!

I snatched it and bought it and put it in my purse.

When we got into the car I wanted to try my new lip balm but couldn't find it in any of my pockets as I had already forgot that I had put it in my purse.

So as I was driving to the gas station I asked Andrew to look for my lip balm in my purse because I wanted to try it RIGHT NOW. Only to realize too late my dreadful mistake.

"Is this it?"

"No, that's Kiss My Face Vanilla Honey."

"Is this it?"

"No, that's Naked Bee honey."

"Wait a minute...Julie how many lip balms do you have in here?"

"uh..."

"Four...Five!"

"I could collect coach purses instead honey."

"Seven! Julie you have 7 lip things in here."

"Their average cost is about 3 bucks...less than a pack of cigarettes."

"Average cost? Average cost? What's the most lip balm you have ever bought...oh God I don't want to know."

"The most expensive lip balm my sweet, is the one I bought at Traverse City, it is excpetional a 10.00--which is just the cost of three lip balms...on average."

After we left the gas station Andrew said.

"Hey...I know you have lip balms in the bathroom door...like five right."

I wisely don't say anything.

"And you have a bunch in that little longaberger basket on the kitchen counter."

Silence seems safest.

"And what about all your coat pockets. Jesus Julie, you've got like what 25 lip balms."

"I don't have that many."

But Andrew got me thinking and one day before we left for Chicago I did a sweep for all my lip balms. And here they are.

There are 24...but I couldn't find my old almond oil one from CO Bigelow...and I'm not sure the two Burt's bees lip shimmers should count, or the tinted CO Bigelow...but Tweek is showing off what I currently can find/use.

So if you average the cost of each lip balm at 3 bucks a pop you are looking at 75 dollars worth of lip balm.

I think it's appropriate that Sarah Palin is in the background on CNN. That chick spend more than 150K on clothes on the RNC's dime...so I like to think she lends some perspective to the shot.

What do you think? Do I have a lip balm problem or a harmless and quaint collection of girly items? I expect comments...and now you all know what to get me for Christmas...

A Charming Tale in Which Julie Sticks Her Foot in Her Mouth...with the Amish

2008-10-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Okay so yesterday morning Andrew and I were at the chiropractor's office, sharing the waiting room with a young Amish women and her adorable infant. The baby was dressed in baby boy blue, complete with knit cap, and wrapped in a black wool coat folded like a snug carrier. I said to the young lady how adorable her little baby boy was...only to be told thank you, and it's a girl.

Oh, I said, I'm sorry I took her for a boy just because she was all dressed in blue. The Amish lady just smiled at me and Andrew was giving me this weird look.

A second Amish woman came back into the waiting room, with another baby girl...dressed in blue...and it slowly dawned on me, the gray dressed the women wore, the blue baby outfits.

After the Amish family left I looked to Andrew and said. The Amish wouldn't dress their baby girls up in pink would they? Because pink is not a neutral color.

Well Duh.

Oh well, I can only hope the Amish mother took my compliment with the good intention behind it and not the handsmack ingnorance of her culture.

Sigh

Fall Continues

2008-10-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

The picture posted here was taken in September. Do not be deceived. The picture is doctored in the sense that it was full sunlight and I was watering my Mom's roses. So it's not like I was in the right place at the right time after a rain shower. But, it's not a bad shot.

Speaking of great shots, I was driving home from my ahem, fitness class on Monday night and on the drive home I counted 10, count 'em 10 combines in a mile stretch of fields on 29 at the route 38 intersection. I had never seen that many combines at once. It was a little crazy. There was so much dust in the air that in a quarter mile stretch felt like driving through the fog.

You may have noticed more deer hit on the roads and ditches lately. That's because we are right in the middle of the white tail rut (translation: boys chasing girls). I saw a doe, a yearling and a fawn off of 270 the other day, and a doe in the corn just outside of Marysville today on my drive up to bowling green. I also saw two red tail hawks and some white heron like bird in a pond while taking 75 north.

I may post a picture of a red tail in flight, I have a couple that are just okay.

I'm not crazy...

2008-10-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

Last night, after producing 4 pages, I decided to swith gears and actually take a look at a book I've had out forever, "The Forest for the Trees" by Betsy Lerner. After a brief perusal I decided I would want to pull some things out to record so I opened up my lilac rubbermaid tub full of blank books...I will talk about this another time. And I selected s smallish one, magnetic flap, light blue with a white vine/floral pattern.

I selected a pen to use and began to record a few things from the book. Andrew had just gotten back from the gym.

Molly, the cat who chews like a dog, was under the guest bed chewing on something. I found this so irritating that I got up and began to slap my hand against the mattress to distract her--nothing doing.

I yelled, I cajoled, but she continued to make the chewy tuggy noise from somewhere under the bed.

I've been a little short tempered lately so I kicked the boxspring without realizing that even though box springs are relatively light, they are framed with wood.

So I hurt my big toe. It hurt so bad. I flung my pen in anguish, yelled at Molly and collapsed on the bed...and Molly continued to make the chewy tuggy noises.

Andrew assured me that even though I had cracked the toenail and there was a little blood, it was not broken. I recovered, and when I got out of the shower, decided to look for my pen. I could not find it.

"So just use a different pen." Andrew suggested.

"But I don't have a second pen in that color."

"So just use a different pen."

"I can't, I already started writing with this one."

"You are crazy."

"I am not, I just need that pen."

I found it this morning...while Molly was chewing on something.

Tis Fall

2008-10-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

The picture attached with this blog was taken from a treestand, about twenty feet up in an undisclosed location.

Generally I don't like height, I don't like being on the third floor of the library and looking down to circulation...but the treestand I don't mind a bit. I have this special vest that attaches to a safety belt on the tree so if I were to fall, I'd just dangle until Dad came to get me.

The evening I took this picture, there was a trail of corn cobs and husks leading to the tree and about a half dozen cobs on the foot platform of the stand...racoons.

I sat for two hours watching the colors of the field and trees change with the setting sun and clouds of birds fluctuating from ground to tree to sky.

I did not see any mammals to take any pictures of...unless you count a huge white cat. I heard some turkeys. Just as Dad was coming to unhook me, we heard two raccoons squabbling behind me in a tall tree. They had spent the day sleeping in a hole and were just getting ready to come down for more corn. By then it was too dark to take a picture.

I like fall. I like not having to water trees after four months of solicitude. I like the commute...seeing deer in the evenings at the edge of woods and in the corn fields. Watching clouds of dust around the combines and grain wagons in the morning and evening. The moon is always so cool in the fall, larger, richer, and better colored than any other time of the year.

I love turning the air conditioner off and not turning the heater on and I love wearing hoody sweatshirts on my way to work and casual days off. My current favorite is the Nightmare before Christmas hoodie I got at Disneyland when I went to ALA.

Last night, as I was driving home from class, I passed three combines in the fields. Seeing their lights in the dark was a comforting feeling. About a mile from my house I passed a corn field and at the base of a hill, between two sections of corn in a wide flattened aisle was a combine and grain wagon side by side. The lights of the combine illuminated the grain dust and it was just a really romantic scene--I'm serious. I wish I could have a picture of it...even if I had a camera it would have been too dark. Aw well.

The other great thing about fall is the Brach's candy pumpkins. Candy corn is for wimps. Each pumpkin equals five candy corns. They are even made with honey...and high fructose corn syrup. I eat them at work and Katheryn is very good at taking them away from me before I get sick...but they are so delicious...(homer simpson salivating sound...)

Contradictory items

2008-10-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Later this week I will post a new picture taken from a surprising spot and wax poetic about the fall season.

Im the past 24 hours I have seen:

A customer in line to purchase generic immodium i-d and two regular size reese's cups packages--so technically 4 regular size reese's cups I mean, isn't that a little weird.

And I saw a guy on 670 this morning driving an ice cream supply truck with a cigarrete in his mouth.

I thought they were contradictory but maybe I am just being weird.

One flash drive found and another freakin' lost

2008-10-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Um, last night I discovered that the photos my Mom took during my parent's vacation to CO are really hard to import into my photo program from the cd made at the photo place in Colorado and by really hard I mean it's probably simple and I couldn't figure out how to do it.

So I am emailing all of the cd pictures to myself so I can put them on a flash drive to put in my photo program.

But, my Mom had a bunch of photos on her memory card so two nights ago I painstakingly (har har) uploaded them, did some cropping and some tonal adjustments. And saving them on a flashdrive.

I *thought* I brought my flashdrive with these memory card pics to work to work on my dinner and when I put the flashdrive in guess what.

None of the Colorado pictures from the memory card were there...but my Michigan Vacation pictures were!

I do not know how to explain this...

It just goes to show, if you can't find your flash drive with your precious vacation pictures then just order a replacement cd from shutterfly, spend 15 bucks, what a week and then...

find the lost flash drive.

bang head
on key board

now...

Whatever, here's a vacation picture, mine, not my parents.

Best Picture of the Season

2008-09-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Okay so here is the joy of photography. I didn't realize how good a picture this was going to be until I brought it up on the laptop. The little bug to the right, I think really makes the picture...it gives it energy and perspective and makes the whole image alive.

What to talk about today...other than the fact that I keep getting horrible horrible headaches alternating with horrible stomach roiling illness, I'm just fine. I don't know if it's stress or my immune system has let any beg stroll into the ole Jules Saloon or if my body is just sensing the oncoming winter and flaking out on me...or quite possibly I could just be doing too much.

In keeping with the theme of doing too much but not inlcluding watering trees, I'll tell you how I spent Saturday, my last full day of vacation.

I went to the farmer's market in Urbana where I got eggs, maple syrup, bacon, soaps, trail mix and Cortland apples. Cortlands are my favorite. Sweet, juicy and just a little grainy, they seem to me like the most "just picked off the tree" kind of apple.

Then I got some gas for the mower. Then I spent 7 hours in the yard. Don't worry I wore lots of sunscreen.

What did I do?

I mowed the front yard, back yard and "back forty" which is the part of the yard that wasn't seeded with grass but retains its pasture grass from when our lot was, well a lot.

This always needs mowed twice as it grows with a vengeance. So I mow it with the deck up and then all the way down.

Then I ate lunch.

Then I hooked the mower to this little red wagon and hauled mulch, lots and lots of cypress mulch and garden soil to 8 of our pine trees...think of the little guy enjoying a shower in an earlier post.

I had done earlier in the week all the trees on the south side of the property--and now it is time to work on the north side. I also mulched two crabapple trees and a maple.

Mulching is like putting little scarves around your trees for the winter. For the trees that were planted in 2007, less work was involved...pulling up weeds that had taken advantage of the shade, water, and fertilizer stakes then adding mulch.

The 7 pine trees Andrew and I planted this spring though, require a little more love.

Because of being recently planted, the dirt in the hole is loose and the soil we added had settled, leaving the base of the tree not filled in with dirt even to the ground. In some cases there are cracks in the dirt that can lead right down to the base of the tree in the hole to its roots and this is very bad.

Because when water settles in and gets down there and it gets cold (like it tends to do in winter) the water freezes and wreaks havoc in the space where the tree is sleeping for the winter.

So I have to scrap all the mulch that I had placed over the summer and fill in with nice rich garden soil to fill in cracks, make up for the settling of dirt and just give the tree a nice layer. Then I put the mulch back and then add mulch to it. I haven't spent all this time watering these little darlings all summer just to loose them in winter.

I'm still not done. I ran out of top soil and still have 4 more trees to do plus three lilacs...if I don't decide to just rip them out and plant pine trees because the little jerks seem to not want to live very much.

Jules you ask, why are you killing yourself on the yard you still have the whole month of October.

Um, not really, because after I get the mulching done each tree still needs.

A fertilizer stake for food.

And I'd like to spread a boatload of grass seed in an attempt to have a nice lawn someday.

Plus, I have some professional things I need to get done in October including one trip and a large author visit and some other things and besides that.

IT COULD RAIN EVERY FREAKIN" DAY IN OCTOBER.

And while that would free me up for the myriad of indoor endeavors, like writing...it's not helpful to get these last crucial things done my friends.

Gotta make hay...
Or Mow Grass
Or Mulch Trees
Or something

Okay well, see ya, Jules

Almost Lost

2008-09-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've been dragging my feet posting a new blog because I've been in a bit of a panic. I have misplaced, but at this point can say I have officially lost all of my vacation pictures that were on my flash drive. At least I thought I did. In a rare instance of rearranging my routine, I saved the pics onto a flash drive, uploaded them on shutterfly, without saving them on my laptop. Luckily, I can create a dvd disc from shutterfly and regain the pictures. So as soon as I get the dvd I'll post some more pictures.

I took a nice picture this weekend so maybe I will post that later.

Almost Lost is a good title for my little quirk of misplacing important things. I tend to take things I should really not lose and putting them in some weird place where it couldn't possibly be thrown out...and then promptlt forget where I put it. This happens abnd home and at work. Finally I bought a "safe box" to keep at work.

Almost Lost is a good title too, for this past week, a sorta vacation week.

I always like to take the third week of September off because it's our anniversary week and we may or may not take a trip so I just take it off just in case. Andrew doesn't have any vacation time built up and between teh July michigan vacation and our upcoming trip to Chicago in November, staying home seemed like a good idea.

But I didn't stay home. I went to 8 hours with or work obligations. They were worth it and I really needed to be there...but that's 8 hours that I could have been doing something else. As it was this is what I did on my sorta vacation:

Kitchen: Cleaned, really really cleaned.
DVDs watched:2
Trees re-mulched for fall: 20
Lawns mowed: 2
Big breakfasts made: 2
Writing: 0
Pictures taken: About 20, 3 are good.
Long Baths: 2
Nice suppers made:1
Loads of Laundry:12
Fitness Classes taken:3

Fitness? Fitness? What's that all about. Eh, I'll tell you eventually.

More later J

Love Joe

2008-09-06T09:29:00.001-07:00

Movies on TV

2008-09-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Okay so last night I was waiting for Andrew to get done working out in the basement so we could retire for the evening. I was in the family room flipping channels and taking notes out of a non-fiction book when I found lo and behold, Star Wars A New Hope on the spike channel.

It had just started, you know where the droids are running around the ship before Darth Vader comes on.

Now here is the thing, I have like 4 versions, the original on tape, the original on DVD, the remastered versions...but it was on tv. And, like a favorite song on the radio I was delighted by the wonderful randomness of cable television.

So I watched. Andrew came upstairs and got some dinner and sat beside me.

"Do you want to watch something else?"

"No, why?"

"Well, it's not like we haven't seen this five thousand times and could watch it whenever we wanted."

"Yeah, but it's on tv."

"What is it about favorite movies on tv that compells you to watch? Which movies are like that for you?"

"I'd say every movie I own."

"Andrew, you own like dozens of movies, you'd watch every one if it popped up on tv?"

"Yep?"

We watched Star Wars until Han Solo shot Guido in the cantina and Andrew complained about the remastered version where it shows Guido missing Han. I suggested naming a hypothetical child "Han Solo Scordato" and Andrew made a number of ways kids could tease a kid named Han Solo.

So, what movie would you watch when your flipping channels, even if you own it and/or have seen it 5,000 times.

I expect comments.

swish crack!

Watering...the Cows? A Quaint Country Yarn

2008-08-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

Meet this year's feeder calves, or two of the 9 that are next door. My Dad used to raise beef cows that would calf every year but now he buys calves (around 500 pounds) lets them graze all summer and then takes them in late fall. You can't get much more local than that. Mom and Dad give us a half a beef, so we're pretty lucky. This year, one of the calves (the white-faced one) looked at me longingly one night as I watered...eyeing the water wand with such yearning.

I called my Dad.

"You giving these cows any water?"

"What to you mean?"

By this time I had slung the wand over the fence and turned the water flow down a bit just to see what would happen.

"They're looking at my hose like they haven't water in days."

"Their tank is full in the barn."

White faced had taken the mouth of the wand in like a straw and was gulping it down but it looked like as much water was sloshing out from the sides of his mouth as was going down his throat.

"Then why is one of them sucking water out of my wand?"

Others came to investigate and then began to lick at the water fall. Kids around a fire hydrant came to mind.

"He is not."

I positioned the cell phone in a way that would pick up the slurping.

"Huh, I guess he is. They're just goofing around."

And from that night in early June, whenever the cows are in the pasture near my trees, and they see me watering, they come up, white faced in the lead. If it's late and I'm pressed for time, I don't bother but more often than not I do. They jostle to get teh wand, and others are content to just snag the excess. On hot nights I spray the tops of their backs to cool them off but, they're indifferent to the shower.

One night, as the sun was setting, three of the black faced steers were huddled around the wand, each head looking forming a three leaf clover around the stem of the water wand. I didn't have my camera...it would have made a really good picture. I've tried to replicate the situation a couple of times but no luck. This image isn't bad though.

But Jules! You say, how can you eat these charismatic fellows! Some of you might be asking, but Jules how can you eat meat at all!

Don't be offended, or I hope not to offend. But yes, I do love beef. Especially grass feed beef in my own backyard...so maybe that will be my next post or not. Maybe the comments will tip me off. Jules

Legos are Cool Scroll Down for new Blog Posts

2008-08-26T09:33:00.001-07:00

What is it with you and watering trees?

2008-08-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well, some of you folks might have noticed that I mention, in my summer blogs, and in conversation, the compelling urgency to water trees. What is it with this obsession?

Well, you plant trees in the fall or Spring (the adage about planting them in months with the letter "r" in them is a pretty good rule.) Whether you plant in the fall or the spring, you can't (well, you can I suppose if you are okay with ripping out some of the trees you plant and putting new ones in because they didn't survive).

If you can get a tree through the first year of their life in your ground, their first summer, they have a good shot at living longer than you and growing as high as their species tends to do.

For our property, trees are very important, and not just for the aesthetic. Our houses faces West and is on a hill on our road and the Northern Winds can really whip across our place. Pine trees, planted in two rows, or three if we get really ambitious, can grow to make natural wind breaks. They are green year around, providing havens for birds and like some of my parents pines, grow past 40 feet.

The first fall we planted 7 pine trees from pots...potted pines generally do better than bagged ones as they keep more moisture. The trees, were 2 1/2 feet tall. A couple were close to three. We planted them and mulched them and gave a them a little fertilizer. The summer of 2007 we watered them almost every night--crucial when July and August of last year had very high temps and high humidity.

Neighborhood folks passed by and waved at me as I tended my charges. One on hand, it's a pain in the butt to get home at 6:30, change into grungy clothes, empty the cat boxes, fix a quick dinner and spend the next hour and a half watering trees, but on the other hand, it's a nice way to unwind, listening to the birds, watching the cows grave in the pasture and the sunsets.

But no, it doesn't take an hour and a half to water 7 pine trees. We also had a maple, a sycamore, four crabapples and some orchard trees.

The hard woods we water a little differently. Some folks in the neighborhood asked me what our watering system was.

Our watering system, for hardwoods, is basically, washing out and drilling holes in the bottom of empty cat litter buckets (why buy 'em?) and filling up the buckets with water. The small holes drilled at the bottom allow for slow draining of water so more soaks into the roots instead of getting lost on the surface to evaporate.

But the attention pays off. Passers by who wouldn't know better would think our house has been established longer than it has because of the number and size of the trees. The potted pines, now in their second summer have grown a freakish amount, a few are even over my 5'1'' head. The maple, that I could reach the top of it's leaves with the water wand last summer, is well beyond its reach.

This summer has been kinder, more rain and less humidity. The trees struggling through last summer are doing well, and get only one water a week if there has been no rain as I expect their roots to go further down rather than depending on regular watering like houseplants.

But watering still takes an hour and a half. We planted another seven pine trees in a staggered row in front of the crop last year to really fill in for the wind break. We planted another 8 trees last fall on the south side of the property and a small grove of three lilac trees, all of which wilt when they get too much rain and too little, plus more orchard trees, and Andrew's fledgling vineyard plants.

Last night was a real blessing, breezy, cool and fall like with a darkening sky to the south not quite able to reach the sun, setting earlier by the day.

It was enjoyable to water in comfort, no bugs, no sweat, and I gave every tree a good long drink. Hence the picture above.

It's satisfying to give these trees a good boost. Why bother to use the considerable energy to plant a tree if you aren't going to help it survive. I like the idea of planting trees that, some at least, can easily out live me. The trees on my parent's property really make it cool, restful, and natural. I hope someday, trees will be one of the dominate features of our land.

Picture of the Week

2008-08-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

Okay so in the past, I've created a whole album of photos, sent a link to the photos over email, and then added "check out the blog at:" etc etc

Well, I'm taking a lot of photos and I'm really busy and I am going to try something new as I learn and play at CML.

So, I am going to try try try to update my blog once a week, and post a picture, a new picture from the ever growing number of pictures I am taking.

Hope you like the new system, Jules

photo: the shores of Peterson Park, in Leelanau County Michigan, our summer vacation.

Tweeker and Molly

2008-08-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is a fairly recent picture of our cat babies (Andrew would call them Cats) Tweeker (orange) and Molly (tortie)

They are great fun and company. Molly is definitely the more classic cat-like, slinky, aloof sometimes and cuddly at others. She runs the schemes, chases, and exploring adventures. When ever they are caught doing something naughty, Molly looks at you with a cool, narrowed face. She's not going to talk. Tweeker, wide-eyed, plays the sweet but dopey sidekick to a tee.

Tweeker will allow you to shove him into the carrier for the vet, and take medicine before he has even known what happens. Molly has to be tricked, cornered, wrapped in a towel and boy can she glare.

Tweek cries sometimes but mostly opens his mouth and makes an almost muted (me--uh) sound. Molly has a one note, lingering cry that wavers in a high pitch.

Both cats love to cuddle, but only Tweeker can be picked up. Molly always must come to us. She will cuddle with me in bed as I read, propped up in the crook of my arm, a paw outstreteched to touch my chin, her face flat against my arm. As soon I shut off the light, she is gone, scampering away to chase Tweek or jump on the kitchen cabinets.

Tweeker is the one who I always find curled up on my pillow in the middle of the note, ultra soft and warm.

Good companions, these cats, they really make our house a home.

But Hey...Aren't You Big on Gaming at the Library???

2008-08-19T14:50:00.001-07:00

Well, yes, I've written an article and spoken on the topic, and I'm on ALA's national expert panel. But here's the thing. I'm a big advocate for gaming because I appreciate the everyday results of the program in our library and I see the potential gaming can have...but no, I'm not a gamer. I remember we had an atari and I played Frogger and I would play Combat (the tank game with my Dad) and I was really good on the invisibility setting, I would get like right up next to my Dad's tank and blow him clear across to the other side of the screen but...I digress.

I never played super mario brothers, or even asked for one. I think, even at the tender age of 5th grade, that I knew if I got one I would:

a) play it all the time.

b) get frustrated and play it for a while and not play it

I lean towards option b. I am not known for my patience. I think video games do reward persistence and patience and problem solving but back then, I was interested in not getting frustrated. Maybe I'd be more patient today if I played more video games.

Even now, I bought the latest Simpsons game for PS2 because you know, I love the Simpsons, and I played it for like 45 minutes, got challenged, frustrated and then I haven't played it since.

I played Kingdom of Loathing on line for about a year. I got to the very last challenge, and even when I found the cheat it sounded too hard so I quit.

Yes, there is a pattern here, at least with videogames.

So no, beyond the odd game of bejeweled, I am not a big gamer. But like I said, I don't have to be to appreciate the variety of skills, opportunties and experiences gaming can offer.

So, I hope that reduces some of the contradiction...or maybe I'm just a little contrary.

Learn and Play at CML Or, my Ambivalence for "Hey, you really got to try..."

2008-08-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family, yes it's time for Julie's random blog post. But, coincidentally, I am blogging now as part of a learn and play initiative for the Columbus Metropolitan Library System where I work and the good folks there want us to all learn and play with new technology. So, I already had the blog so posting was just like half the task for this week.

But, I think this is an ideal time to air out my ambivalence, hesitance and, okay let's face it downright indifference at times to all these new things to do on the web. I hope my honesty will be at best refreshing, and at worst (I'm trying to avoid at worst) revealing me as a sham of a young librarian who should be as gee whiz gadgety as they get.

Okay, let me back up. It's a bit of a running joke between me and my friend Beth Gallaway about my so-so attitude about every new little whatchamacallit that comes down the pike. Beth will send me some link to some thing, link ning or twitter or you name it and invite me to join. Sometimes I do, I create an account and then I never go back to it again, or I just never create an account. Beth's aware of this, so I don't feel so bad admitting it to God and everyone else on the web.

It's the same ambivalence I feel when I go to a conference and the inevitable technology session listing the things I should be doing right now and something inside me just kind of sighs.

I'll use this blog as an example.

Just as I was posting a picture, recently taken at the beloved Champaign County Fair, I scrolled down the rest of the screen to find that I have failed to fill out most of the profile thingys like favorites/interests etc. I looked at the boxes and something inside of me sighed (hey, I'm a writer I do a lot of internal sighing). I mean, I have already filled this stuff out on facebook and myspace and here it is on blogger.

And maybe that's what my internal sighing is really all about. There's just so much. MySpace? Facebook? Or some other new great thing everyone is on. Shutterfly? Flickr? Photobucket? Photobuquette? (that last one is a joke).

I have like, four email addresses, not counting the gmail I use to get into this blog, which, I never look at. One for ebay, one for work, personal and work-personal.

Geesh.

And see here is the thing, when I go home, I don't go on the computer. It's not that I have like some deeply held principle to not be on it...technically I am when I am writing (technically it's not writing so much as inputting my longhand writing) and working on my photographs.

But when I come home, I just want to do other stuff that I enjoy. Ideally I suppose, to fit the mold of the young librarian gizmo wonder gal, I would enjoy doing all these techno things at home. But I'd rather not. I'd rather:

Be outside, working on our yard (read mowing, watering trees, general upkeep)
Be outside at my parents house, eating dinner on their deck or playing with the dog or hanging out by the pond or
Be outside at the really cool place my Dad works, climbing up in treestands taking pictures of nature and wildlife.

I'd also rather be:
writing,
reading,
refinishing furniture (although I don't do this one so much anymore)
working on stamp art (newer hobby)
working on fabric painting (so new I haven't started it yet)
watching stargate atlantis with andrew
putting something in the bread machine
making cookies

or

going to a wood turning class

or

running the 5,000 errands one needs to do when working full time, like

taking the recycling in becasue your rural county, God love it, doesn't have curbside pick up

paying bills (yes, I know I can pay them online...)

getting groceries

getting tires rotated (try doing that online)

picking up presecriptions, drycleaning, taking cats to the vet
dropping off goodwill stuff

etc
etc
etc

Look, I'm not trying to argue that my life is some full vessel of excitement and glamor, or that the activities that I enjoy doing are superior to posting on a blog every 6 hours or twittering or playing an online game--not at all!!!

What I am saying is everyone has a limited amount of time in the day. We all have to make choices. I generally choose to minimize my tech use compared to some folks I know to do other things.

But then I feel a little guilty, not keeping up with all the gee whiz stuff.

And the really sick thing is, I've really enjoyed typing up this post so why don't I do it more often?

Anyone want to comment, I'll put this post on the psychologist's couch.

Next Blog: But what about gaming? Aren't you like, really big into that.

So that's why I didn't hear from you

2008-04-12T10:31:00.001-07:00

It's not like I expect you know, a bunch of people to write me about the exciting going on at the scordato grotto like making pot roasts and onion rolls etc. But I talked to a friend yesterday who said I didn't send the reminder link which explains why I heard nary a peep.

Yesterday as I was driving around running errands, I thought of all kinds of interesting things to say in the blog and now, unfortunately, none come to mind. I've put some grass seed down and will put some more down tommorrow before we might get a little snow, in the bare patches or little ravines that didn't quite take. I finally took the Christmas garland off the mailbox and spring is around the corner I think.

No great photos recently but soon I think. I was in a blind Wednesday night by a little shallow pond hoping to catch a heron before the sun went down, filling up on Peepers but know luck.

That night Mom called to warn that Dad had already found a tick on his pants. Second week of April and the ticks are out already...great. I saw hardly any wildlife but did find an owl pellet.

Currently I am listening to Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (in the car) and relistening to Mistress of theArt of Death (in the kitchen) and reading Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe...it's very readable and interesting.

Later, J

Maybe My Blog Isn't Unreadable Drivel Afterall

2008-03-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I looked up my blog to see, you know, if it was still up there after six months of inactivity and low and behold it was. So I goofed around gmail and actually managed to guess my username and create a password that I swear to God I won't forget. So I'll do a little update here. Hopefully by the end of April I will have some new pictures to share through Shutterfly. I have been doing a lot of holing up and writing this winter so the photography has fallen largely to the wayside. Despite some breathtaking winter scenes, they were never on a day I had off and while I had beautiful commutes, it wasn't like I could stop and take pictures.

I still use the bread machine with some regularity. Andrew is actually heartbroken if I make a pot roast and don't make onion rolls to go with them. He got me this awesome Hamilton Beach nesting crock pot set with three sizes of crocks that are fairly easy to clean. I've been making lots of pot roasts on Sundays and my secret is two cans of beef gravy, a can of tomato sauce and when I put in the vegetables I also put in a can of whole tomatoes...delicious.

I've been making small changes to the guest bedroom which is my writing room. It's coming together nicely.

And...NO BABIES!

Tweeker and Molly are doing great. Molly is smaller than Tweek but is heavier and loves to chew things, jump on top of the kitchen cabinets and cuddle at night. Tweeker's latest thing is sitting in between the shower liner and curtain when there is a shower going on.

So this weekend is Easter. We have Easter at our house. It's nice because I have more easter decorations than Halloween and Mom is still busy with tax season. She's bringing a honey baked ham and cheddar scalloped potatoes---are all scalloped potatoes cheesy? I wouldn't know anymore being ragingly lactose intolerant. She's also trying out a new green bean casserole recipe. I am doing baked potatoes, creamed corn casserole, a raspberry cobbler and...you guessed it...onion rolls.

So Saturday I'll spend cleaning cleaning cleaning.

Andrew is in fire school. He's like one of the oldest students but he didn't go before because he's more interested in the medic side of things. He is however, interested in a full time job.

We are ready for weather to be over. Our lawn could use some serious fertilizer and patching. I'll have 8 new pine trees to water this summer and who knows how many orchard trees.

Okay Reader's Advisory Corner:

I got to meet Anne Lamott two weeks ago. She signed my print, audio and video documentary of her Bird by Bird and I cried. Like a flake. She was very gracious and held my hands.

There is a sequel to mistress in the art of death. It's read by Kate Reading instead of Rosalyn Landor but it is still very good and got me through a hellish 48 hours of that mutated cold that was going around in February.

A Dog's Breakfast it's a movie directed by my latest obsession by three degrees, Daid Hewlett, who is on Stargate Atlantis. Andrew prefers Stargate SG1 but I love atlantis. A Dog's Breakfast is a really cute movie. It's kind of hard to find but worth it.

David Attenborough. Oh isn't he adorable when he's like 76 years old and in the middle of a jungle with a critter of some kind. I'm watching all the documentaries of his I can get my hands on. I read his memoir Life on Air and it was interesting, humourous and just a great read. I sent him a fan letter and asked for an autograph. I am still waiting. I'm not giving up. He's very busy and just finished a documentary on cold blooded animals. Besides I got a an autograph from THE Doris Day so why not?

Looking forward to:

From Dead to Worse by Charlain Harris. I'm starting to twitch I want it so badly. If you have not started the Sookie Stackhouse series. DO. Start with Dead until Dark. I have half a dozen colleagues at the library hooked on it.

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir--her second foray into historical fiction. Innocent Traitor (about the Lady Jane Grey) was fab. So I am looking forward to this.

Bill Bryson's got another dictionary coming out. His Shakespeare Biography was cute enough but I'm more than ready for another travel book from him. Hope to it Bill!

Okay well, there you go, maybe I'll blog next month.

Jules

I have no clever title.

2007-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I decided to revive the blogging only to find out that I now needed a gmail account and afer much circling around with google password assistant, can now get into this again, honestly how does one end up with so many ridiculous accounts on the web? I should nix some of my emails and consolidate but general laziness prevents me. Let me say gentle readers...and not so gentle readers, that I miss you all and in quiet moments at home wish for your visits but the idea of actually scheduling a visit in advance that works for both or several parties gets to be as daunting as consolidating emails and instead I quietly water the trees, take care of the cats, hang out with Andrew and work on my various hobbies, most occupying, photography.

I hope you like the most recent round. I spent like 100 bucks at Cord Camera this week because they were having dirt cheap 8X10s and 5X7s so I tried to catch up with prints of my pictures. I still have some wonderful fledgling robin pictures from this spring to put up so bear with me.

Another recent interest is my continued obsession with our bread machine and now our food saver. I have been making soft onion sandwich rolls, cinammon rolls, and even biscuits (which I don't use the bread machine for but am lumping together anyway.

It's now gotten to the point where Thursday night, while we had the daily show and colbert report on, that I bustled about the kitchen making the dry mixes to several receipes and then food saving them (www.foodsaver.com) shut in ball jars. Seriously. I try to do one new recipe a week. If andrew and i both like it, or if I like it, the recipe goes in the book or not, gets trashed.

I've also been using my foodsaver on sweet corn. Even though raccoons came by to "test" our ears on two different evenings, we managed to evade the raiders and supplemented by Mom and Dad's excess of corn have a couple dozen neat servings food saved away in the freezer.

I know what you are thinking. And I have an answer for you. NO BABIES!!!

Except of course, for our cat babies, Tweeker and Molly who get along very well. Molly still refuses to be picked up but takes to cuddling at night and most of it. One of her favorite activities is to jump on the edge of our oak dining room chairs, the one closest to the kitchen counter specifically, and after a few seconds of balanceing and stretching out one leg then another, she leaps onto the kitchen counter, trotting as far as she can before we catch her. It's hopeless. Rest assured friends that if you eat anything I make the counter has been disenfected and I bake on wax/parchment paper to be sure.

Andrew has nearly finished laying his own hardwood floor in his room. It took him a couple days to get into a groove I think, but using an air compressed power nail gun helped and it's now a bad job at all. He didn't have quite enough boards stained but can stain them now that they are laid. The next project, I will participate more in, we are getting some cabinets for our laundray room wtih counters etc. To stain and place. We will probably go tommorrow and pick them up as Lowe's is having there buy so much no interest deals.

Lately I have been obsessed with Doris Day. Seriously. You may remember one of my earliest blog postsrecommending the book the Thing About Jane Spring. Well I've recommended it to folks at the library so much that I thought I should meet Doris myself. I've watched Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back. I am watching Send Me No Flowers but don't like it as much.

Other books I have listened to and loved:

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
AustenLand by Shannon Hale
Con Ed by...oh I forget and am, too lazy too look it up.

I haven't had a satisfying print read in a while. I read Connie Willis' Passage but found the ending deeply unsatisfying. I read Stray by Rachel Vincent, but it was just okay. I've been spending most of my evening reading learning about North American mammals, trying to become quite the naturalist I suppose and white tails are my preoccupation right now. Dad is letting me go up in treestands with my camera and last night I saw a doe and two fawns, the doe caught my fidgeting though and they did not stay long.

I hope this give you a feeling of being caught up. No more pictures for a while, except for maybe the robins. I have high hopes for some decent deer pics between now and hunting season.

See ya, Jules

So Jules, what the crap have you been doing?

2007-06-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well working, and working and working. And other stuff too.

Basically Summer Reading is in Full swing at the library and I've had a crazy schedule there. Plus since we have had very little rain in the past two months I spend a lot of time watering our trees. Our sycamore totally didn't leaf out on the limbs and is starting new limbs around the trunk so basically we are just trying to keep him alive. The pine trees are growing like gang busters and so are the crab apples. I find taking care of the trees very satisfying. It's a real stress reliever to quietly water them after 8 o clock whenit has cooled down a little. I like being able to see them physically grow and they don't have the temporary aspect of flowers. Most likely these trees will outlive me or at least some of them and I find that very cool.

Our garden is doing well. It's just watermelons and sweet corn this year and I am growing two onions in a pot. Andrew's orchard is up to six trees now and they are doing well.

We adopted a kitten from the Union County Humane Society about a month ago. She's a little tortie and very fiesty. We are keeping her in the guest bedroom until she gets a little bigger and take her out to play at night. If Tweek doesn't think we are getting her out soon enough he cries at the door.

We got a grill a couple of weeks ago and use it pretty often. After 4 years I've broken out the bread machine and am quickly becoming obsessed with it. It just smells so good when it's baking and I can control the ingredients. So I've made Italian Herb Bread and Cinammon Raisin and I have like 6 cinammon roll dough recipes that require little or no butter. We have an electric knife too which is like essential otherwise (or at least in my case) the sliced bread looks hacked off. Actually an electric knife is kind of like a chainsaw, only for bread.

I've been taking some pictures and doing lots of laundry. Andrew is well. He got a punching bag and stand for his birthday so is building up quite the home gym.

That's really all the news that's fit to blog, and maybe not even then.

Jules

Vacation that is sort of a Vacation

2007-02-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

So I took this week off from work to help Mom at the Tax Office, today (Tuesday) is a lot less hectic than yesterday with the calls but I'd like to think I am still helping Mom quite a bit. Because I just took five days off with the sore throat and infected tonsils from Hell, I am still trying to keep up with the most critical things at work through email and I think doing okay.

There really isn't any interesting or earth shattering news but in an effort to blog remotely regularly I am now typing. It is really really cold here but like 90% of my readers--yes all 6 of you, probably already know that. It's snowing now. Dad picked me up with Mom this morning so I will mostly stay through the late evening with them. We shouldn't get asm uch as Cincinnati at least. Tweeker continues to get fat and the other night slept with me when I had the mattress pad turned up enough.

I have most of our old pictures in antique frames hung up in the family room. I think it will look pretty cool when it is done, I have as few as three and as many as four left to hang. Last week we got a picture of Andrew's grandparents scordato wedding picture and it is really, really cool so I am going to put it in an antique frame that matches our wedding frame.

I moved great grandma perdue's trunk underneath the pictures and put on of our older quilts on top so I think it will look quite nice when it is done.

Not much else to post really, I hope to have some pictures to post once it gets a little warmer. Jules

um you know that Sore Throat...

2007-01-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, that sore throat turned out to be

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tonsillitis/DS00273

And it sucked.

Last week I took a whole week off work.

And my tonsils were really really gross.

I couldn't even swallow a tylenol.

Andrew took really good care of me, I ate jello, scrambled eggs, soup and drank a lot of gatorade. I watched 5,000 movies, read 4 books and generally felt sorry for myself.

that is all

jules

With the Ice Cream Maker we are Unstoppable

2007-01-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well it's nothing but appliance joy at the Scordato household. We finally busted out the bread machine (yes that one we got at the wedding) and made some bread last week but are going to what on major production until we get an electric knife. So far we have made like 10 quarts of ice cream and sherbert. So far the strawberry I have made with lactose free whole milk is my favorite. I've ussed my kitchen aid mixer twice and have started experimenting with my digital camera. I can take pictures in black and white and sepia tones.

Not much else going on--oh wait yeah, I was really sick last week. What started as a sore throat...

Santa Clause came to the country

2006-12-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

Wow is Christmas over for another year? On Christmas Eve mom and dad came to the house to see our tree and how well Tweek can climb up it. They brought a venison roast with them and we had an early dinner before Andrew went to work. I watched a movie with the cat and stayed up late reading. Andrew came home about 8:30 and after a quick breakfast and shower it was off for presents. I took out booty to Mom and Dad's.

Andrew liked all his presents I think. I went to Urbana University a few weeks ago and they were having a book sale and had just weeded the roman history section so I got him a half dozen books on Rome and Italy history etc. He also liked this gadget Mom and Dad got him that opens wine bottles. He was also careful not to leave his candy keg* when he went to work in the late afternoon.

I got an ice cream maker so I can try to make ice cream with my lactaid milk and various frozen treats. Breyers has a lactose free ice cream but I am suspicious I picked up some and will try it later.

I also got the latest homestead longaberger basket and mom picked out the cutest liner for it. It's on my nightstand now, another Christmas present from Andrew, matching nightstands for our bedroom. He put them up in no time and they make the bedroom so much nicer.

The big surprise though was hidden in the back of the tree (because Dad told mom to hide it from me)

Inside the big box was a classic kitchenaid mixer!!! The stand kind!! The "now I can make any baked good on the planet kind!" It is so cool. I'll be breaking it out this week.

And last Friday I finally got my camera out of the box and it is just about, but not quite completely beyond me. I hope to take it outside on Thursday--the weather is supposed to be fairly nice. I've taken a lot of pictures of the cat so far. There is a lot to learn on it so I will be spending a lot of time experimenting. There is the ability to change a lot of things on my own when I am ready. For now though it's about mastering all the basic settings.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

* A Candy Keg is a Perdue family tradition. When my Dad and his four brothers were little my Grandma Perdue would keep and empty quaker oats canister for each of them, wrap it in wrapping paper and fill it with their favorite candies. So each keg had the same candy with favorites mixed in. I imagine there are few unbreakable rules in a house with five boys but one was never touch another's candy keg.

Grandma doesn't do the candy kegs anymore, Mom does and Andrew gets one too and guards it ferociously around Dad and Uncle Barry.

Since I put out blog address on the Christmas Cards

2006-12-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

I figured I better but something up here during the mont of December. I managed to take a somewhat wintry picture for the cards and even though we haven't had much snow it has been very cold all week. I have been working at the bookstore 5 to 10 hours a week. It's fun to help people find gifts for the chilren and teens in their lives and I get a bit of Christmas shopping done myself.

Andrew and I have spent some time working on things around the house. Glamorous thinks like changing light bulbs, water and furnace filters, and general housework. Even with a new house there is always something to do.

Tweeker who hasn't been a vigorous eater--he has never been one to hound us in the morning to get up and feed him, has been cleaning his dish and crying for more. Part of the winter chill I guess. He is starting to get too fat to jump through the stair banister spokes.

Last weekend we went to winterfair and saw many neat booths. Wildlife photograpy, pottery and wood turned items were my favorite spots.

All for now, J

Christmas at the Scordato Grotto

2006-11-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well last night I put up the tree, an artificial one Mom and Dad used to use that we inherited. I am pleases because I actually know how to put it together. I put on 300 clear lights and to my pleasure, found a box of ornaments I hadn't been able to find in years lik ecookie monster, strawberry shortcake and snoopy. I got an ornament every year so the tree looks okay. We got some blue and silver bulbs at Target, some wiht snowflakes and there are a few presents under the tree.

When I put the tree up and turned my back on it, Tweek promptly climbed 3/4 of the way up. I don't know how since he doesn't have any claws, but he was so scared that when I plucked him out he didn't seem to have any interest in doing it again. He likes to bat at the ornaments of course.

Tonight I will hang a light up wreath on our cleaned off front porch, put out a new welcome mat, and do some other house-y things.

The good news is that Andrew has accpeted a job offer with Doctors West. He starts January 8th in their ER and we will actually be able to commut together during the week.

The Amazing Adventures of Tweek Or, How Our Cat Nearly Caught Fire

2006-11-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

I love candles in the wintertime. I love how they add a cozy touch to a room and their subtle fragrance that fills the area. I know that candles cause all kinds of house fires but I am very, very careful or at least I was until Tweeker.

By the time we got Tweeker I was pretty much done with candles for the season. Last night I had one burning on my new old dresser (maybe you've seen a picture?) I left Andrew reading in bed, asking him to keep an eye on Tweek (who has been known to jump up an said new old dresser).

Apparently while I was in the bathroom, a fly (did you know Tweeker is the number one stalker of flies in Champaign county? Known to jump 6 feet off the ground in pursuit of one) caught Tweek's attention. The fly landed on the wall above the dresser. So Tweek jumped on the dresser.

This is where the recollection of events gets murky. I don't know if Andrew noticed immediately that Tweek was on the dresser or if it was only the bitter smell of burning hair that pulled him away from his Clive Cussler book. The long and the short of it is that the candle singed about a a baseball size area of Tweek's fluffy hair.

Now, do not be alarmed. We are pretty sure Tweek has no idea it even happened. Andrew yelled at Tweek so loudly that the cat immediately jumped down from the dresser. It's not that Tweek has no hair it's just that it is flat and short where the rest is fluffy and now our bedroom smells like burnt hair. So no more candles. I killed the fly.

Okay so make it November

2006-11-13T09:55:00.002-08:00

Friends and Family,

Most likely you have seen the online photo albums first and that pretty much sums up my excuses for not posting or writing in ages. Andrew has his paramedic card and is in the process of following up on a couple of job prospects and in the meantime putting in lots of part-time hours. I love, love, love, my job as teen services specialist and have enjoyed some early challenges and successes. That keeps me pretty occupied but so far I have been pretty good about not bringing a lot of work home. We have our lawn in and trees; We now have four prairie fire crabapples lining the lane. I guess in the spring they are a jaw-droppingly bright pink so we will see. We also have a sycamore, a green mountain maple. We have 7, count em 7 adorable blue spruce pine trees and Andrew has quite the little orchard in the back.

I spent most to the late summer out at the club taking pictures. I am immensely proud of the deer shots but that was about as good as I was going to get with my trusty easy share and just a couple weeks ago I got a Canon Powershot 3. I can't make any promisies when I will get out into the field with it because of weather and other um, pursuits. In the meantime I have been trying to keep up with house and reading loads, I mean loads of outdoor photography books. I come home from the library and Andrew says, "Did you leave them anything?" Of course I did.

That's really all the news fit to print. Tweek is pretty much done growing I think. He will always be a small cat. He is starting to really snuggle with us at night now that it is getting colder.

Hope you liked the photos, will try to post before say, April :0 Jules

okay so make it October

2006-10-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Pics and update coming soon, really.

Seriously

Jules

yeah yeah I know

2006-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's been forever. And, it will be a little while longer. Look for blog updates and photos in the album in September...

Time ticks by

2006-07-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Tweek grows fat and sassy, I finish up laundry from ALA, Andrew works, and it rains.

Started new job this week. A lot to do and getting settled but I think I'll like it fine.

We repotted our pine trees waiting till fall to plant and my dresser project falls to the wayside as I work on other things.

I am listening to "In the Company of the Courtesan" and am absolutely fascinated. It is a really good audio book. I read Janet Evanovich's number 12 and was pleasantly surprised. It seems like she is going back to the earlier novels and while I am fed up with the whole morellir or ranger bit, I liked how it ended, I think Stephanie is deciding despite herself.

In the YA world I read Whatever HAppened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles and liked it very much. Gail's writing is so taut--not one word is wasteful.

I have loads of books in the too read bin of course and I have started doing Yoga again and even worked out this morning. As thirty barrels down upon me I realize I better start getting in shape...

Back from New Orleans

2006-06-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I got back on Monday and I've spent the past couple of days wrapping up things at the branch and doing laundry. Poor Tweek, he has separation anxiety and cries away when I am out of sight. Mom and Dad fed him up I think he gained a pound over the weekend.

Before we left for New Orleans, Dad and Andrew got the tiles all trenched in and a larger turnaround in the driveway cut out. Also Dad hauled in some dirt and graded our front yard out nicely. The front yard clover is rounded up and turning brown and we'll wait to plant grass seed in August.

New Orleans was okay. It was nice to enjoy quiet dinners with Andrew in the evening after a day of running around and getting professionally developed. Many restaurants and shops are still closed and one thing that struck us was the eerie absence of people. We saw the floodline where the water settled on the freeway sound barrier. We also saw a couple dozen abandoned cars below the overpasses.

Andrew went to Cafe Du Monde, the Audubon Aquarium, Jackson and LaFayette square and a few other places. One night we ate at the buffet at Harrah's and I lost five bucks to the slots. It was hot. Our hotel was pretty darn comfortable and it was nice to be back in the room by 9 each night.

ALA was satisfying in terms of contacts and development but I won't go into it here as it would bore some readers.

That's it for now, more soon--probably, Jules

I got the job! I got the job!

2006-06-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

I start July 3rd, as the Teen Services Specialist at main library across from grant hospital. In this position I will be responsible for teen services at Main but also be looking at several system wide initiatives and projects. I am really excited and will post more soon, with pictures in the album.

I found out thursday the 8th which was the same day Andrew graduated from paramedic school so a big day for us both!

Good bye, Kitten

2006-05-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today I write this with a heavy heart. The past few weeks Kitten had been very ill, losing weight, continuing to get sick once or twice a day, not grooming herself and crying at times in what I can only assume was pain when we picked her up. Last Sunday, the 21st Andrew and Dad planted a nice golden delicious apple tree and dug the hole. Andrew made a poplar box and on Thursday Kitten visited the vet for the final time. I am very sad and miss her terribly. Tweek is lively as ever and while he does not sleep with us all night, he pops up to visit and likes to cuddle in the morning. There really isn't anymore to say I suppose.

Moving on to things less sad, Andrew is less than two weeks away from graduating paramedic school. At the end of June we will be going to New Orleans for the America Library Association Conference. This weekend Andrew worked on his term paper while I got serious about refinishing and oak dresser Dad picked up for me last summer. The drawers inside are disgusting, mildew-y and dirty. I wanted to completely redo those drawers saving only the solid oak fronts but because the drawers are dovetailed, Andrew worries about damaging the joints. He’ll be sanding those. The dresser still needs a lot of cleaning on the inside (grooves of wood hold abandoned wads of spider webs) and the dresser top needs quite a bit of sanding. I will send pictures out soon.

For not “blogging” in a while I guess I don’t have that much news. We’ve hung more pictures and things and the house is really starting to come together. Once Andrew is out of school we’ll begin working on the yard in earnest. I’ve been doing more non-professional writing this past month and in April but now outdoor pursuits will be calling.

As for Reader’s Advisory I am listening to Wendy Wasserstein’s Elements of Style, which would be just another Upper East Side elite love fest if of course, it was written by someone other than the late and very talented Wasserstein. The characters will rarely likable except for a couple, are much more real than the usual New York Society books so popular right now. I read a really great YA book last week called Dead Connection by Charlie Price. It’s kind of a murder mystery set told through the eyes of several characters with a sixth sense like twist. I am also listening to the captivating yet very dark “Geek Love” told by a 38 year old albino dwarf about her childhood in a traveling carnival. Her parents intentionally experimented with all kinds of harmful substances to produce natural geeks like Siamese twins who play the piano and a boy with flippers instead of limbs. I have Ladies in Lavender in the DVD player—it’s pretty cute but also a little sad.

Lawn and Garden

2006-05-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

I write with a very heavy heart. Kitten has been ill all weekend and especially ill this morning. I think very soon we will have to make a decision about her, you know, THE decision. While a blood test last week revealed nothing amiss, the vet agrees she is a sick cat and told me we could spend $1,000 looking for the source and never find it. Kitten walks with a hunched back and rarely relaxes into a little ball anymore. Sometimes when I pick her up she cries in discomfort. Yet other times she acts like herself. But cleaning up after her is exhausting and being gone 50 hours a week and Andrew even more, it is getting hard to care for her. If I didn’t brush her, her coat would be tacky. She is only 6 years old but eats without gaining any weight. She is down to 7 pounds. It is hard to see her compared to Tweek, who is eating like a horse and playing like one too. He wants nothing but to play and be loved and Kitten is just not Kitten. I am very sad.

What I was planning on writing about came from our activities yesterday. If you take a look at the phrase Lawn and Garden and the phrase Julie and Andrew, well, I would be the lawn and Andrew would be the garden.

I spent the morning picking up ancient half buried trash from the front yard. Pepsi cans circa 1985 that my mower has revealed, bits of chip bags and even a light switch plate I am sure fell out of our electrician’s pocket last fall.

I also marked with flags a half dozen rocks missed last summer. Then picked them up or had Andrew shovel a couple up. I also weeded the south end of the house, where I plan to transplant some poppies, plants that were once Grandpa Perdue’s this fall. Andrew meanwhile planted tomatoes, herbs and more herbs in the raised bed. He retiled his garden and planted our sweet corn, sunflowers, and watermelons. I think cucumbers are the only thing at this point. Other than picking and cleaning, I am not that interested in gardening. I think I could get into container gardening but even then, I have a feeling plants may feel like they are on death row. So far though the pansies, violas and phlox I bought nearly a month ago are surviving so I must not be that bad.

A lawn though, I want a nice lawn. Might take a few years to get it, but walking on Mom and Dad’s lawn is like walking on carpet. Walking in our yard is like walking in a mown field, field being the operative world. Or, in a baked wasteland full of rocks. But this will change I just have to be patient.

Andrew is basically indifferent about the lawn. He looks forward to having grass, but I will be the one mowing in a zen like state with the roar of the blades in my ears and the gas fumes in my nose while Andrew is in his garden.

I started scraping paint off the oak dresser, refinishing project number one. The first layer flips right off and I figure why waste the stripper? If it is warm enough this weekend I will start stripping the dresser drawers in earnest.

Andrew is exactly 4 weeks away from his Paramedic final. He still has 60 hours of ride time to do and has already done 60 hours. We are on the home stretch.

What a busy Sunday

2006-04-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Andrew had the Sunday off and boy were we busy bees. We went out to breakfast with Mom and Dad and then stopped by the Penney's sale and picked up a dining room rug. We moved that into the kitchen. Dad helped Andrew get started tilling the garden and I mowed the lot...well the part of the lot that isn't mud and rocks. It was a beautiful day and fun to be out and about. Our strawberries in the raised bed that Andrew made are already blooming. In the afternoon I ran errands in town while Andrew finished the back bedroom for the cats. They now have a bed and more space to spat. I picked up some black mulch. We are going to mulch some grass bald patches at the end of the drive-way to put our rocks on...that won't happen for a while though. Let's see, did some laundry and sundry cleaning. We watched our last sunday night of free Sopranos and now into the week ahead.

For those of you not in the immediate vicinity, the spring here has been really beautiful. We didn't have a late or killer frost so the flowering trees are especially full, crabapples, cherries and magnolias are really showing their stuff.

reader's Advisory, I am still working on Fareed Zakaria's Future of Freedom, what a clever guy. I am also listening to A Perfect Union, and interesting biogrpahy of Dolley Madison. I am also listening to nickeld and dimed that is a few years old but still very relevant about the working poor.

I am also reading the second in the enjoyable Djinn series by scholastic starring John and Phillippa Gaunt. I am also super pleased that Brian K Vaughan has decided to extend his teenage runaways stories and plan to read volumes 5 and 6 tonight.

I have already gotten the much anticipated Charlaine Harris book, Defintely Dead on audio even though the print version doesn't come out for another week. It was wonderful with lots of twists and bombshells so now I have to wait another year for the next installment...sigh.

I'll try to post pictures of our landscaping endeavors soon...

Meeting Chris Moore

2006-04-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well I managed to leave work early yesterday and go down to the wonderful book store, Books and Company in Kettering to meet Chris Moore. I was so excited he was coming to Ohio after all this time because he rarely rarely appears this far East. I got there and hour early thinking I would have time to work on the laptop but there were so many people already waiting, I was lucky to get a seat in the very last row. By line number was 40 but by the time it was all said and done one of the latest to arrive got a line number of 98. Chris Moore was really funny and down to earth and with the kind of fans he has, there was a bit of improvisation and banter. It was a lot of fun, especially when he held up a Las Vegas newspaper article about him and his latest book and on the back of the page, was ads for escorts. Chris is now on the bestseller list for the first time and about time I say. He's one of my favorite authors and if you start reading him I suggest reading them in order of publication even though they are not a series.

I saw a buddy from Columbus, got my picture taken with Chris and AND won a cool little t-shirt. Got home at 11 exhausted and the cats fought for about an hour over the bed and neither ended up sleeping in the bed. I think Tweek just wants to cuddle with Kitten. He is perfectly happy sleeping at the foot of the bed until she jumps on the bed and then he is all over her. She hates it of course. Tweek is gaining weight now.

In other news, I will be meeting Laurie Halse (pronounced Haltz) Anderson this afternoon to get Prom signed and maybe get a picture. Later, Jules

Tweek Spends the Night

2006-04-07T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was trying to work through the 3rd Season of Allo Allo last night before Andrew came home. I dropped off and Andrew woke me up and I had tweek in between my feet and Kitten cuddled in the crook of my arm. Tweek was so cute and Kitten didn't seem to mind so instead of putting him to bed in the study we let him stay with us and they handled it just fine. Had a thunderstorm this morning but the sun is out now. Won't be long now before we get that airconditioner cable hooked up...

A quick post to show I am truly reformed

2006-04-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sort of.

Well Tweek is no longer jumping on the counter because I put this tape called sticky paws up and he hates it. I have never seen a cat scrunch up its face before and I have to say it is pretty darn funny. Andrew caught them sharing the bed together yesterday, not curled up into each other put at least sharing the same space so that's a good sign.

Kitten continues to be on again off again sick. Vet says it is hairball season.

Mom bought me some Johnny Jump Ups AKA Violas this weekend. I haven't killed them yet and have actually brought them in on nights it got down to frost levels. THe spring is young though and I have plenty of time to kill them later.

Reader's Advisory:
I just got done reading the bully of Bentonville by Bianco interesting and depressing as was the documentary "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices."

I also watched Walking with Monsters last week, yet another in the addictive BBC series narrated by Kenneth Branagh where amazing computer graphics allow you to time travel. My favorite is still Walking with (Prehistoric) Beasts.

On audio I am listening to Freakonomics. It's kind of hard to explain here but I thought it was very, very cool. I am also listening to the redux of Chronicles of Narnia featuring Jeremy Northam, Lynn Redgrave, Branagh and Patrick Stewart so that's a lot of fun.

I am reading The Future of Democracy by Fareed Zakaria--he writes for Newsweek and is on the Daily Show a lot and has his own show on PBS now. Google him, he's a smart guy.

I have Chris Moore's latest "It's a Dirty Job" it isn't my favorite but there are some real laugh out loud moments. I'll be meeting him next week and posting pictures. (yeah right, I know)

I have the 4 and 5th season of Allo Allo that cute British Comedey set in WW II France--it works really. I had no idea they did 9 seasons and am looking forward to them all.

I also watched derailed this week. I really didn't like the movie but I love clive owen who acts like a major wuss for the first 3/4 of the movie and then KICKS ASS.

I have the new Jennifer Crusie book Don't Look Down in the too read pile.

Okay that's it. jules

Oh there's really no excuse

2006-03-29T10:38:00.000-08:00

Accept maybe that we had no Internet at the house because out line was dead in the study but Dad fixed it. Right now though even though the line works we are being cheap and not getting the Internet quite yet. This puts quite a dent in activity. I will post pictures of Tweeker (also known as Baby Tweek, Get-off-that-counter-right-now and Grrrrrrrr that would be Kitten's name for him)

Yes and it turned out Tweek is a boy after all. He is all recovered from getting neutered and declawed. We still keep him in the study and night and when we aren't home. Kitten is growing gradually more used to him. She basically has three modes: ignore him, growl at him, and casting looks of murder at him and despondency to us. Tweek doesn't understand what she is upset about and can't see that running up to her full bore or swatting at her tail are not interepreted as overtures of friendship.

We have the guest bedroom almost done. I got a second coat of paint on and Andrew had to pry off the trim for us to lay laminate. Andrew just has to put the last row in, that needs to be cut lengthwise to fit against the wall. Then we'll rehang the trim, out the guest bedroom together and increase both cat's territory a little bit.

Dad has been using the skid loader in the backyard so spring must be here. He's trying to get us a better grade off the back for our curtain drain. We now have enough dirt to fill in around the septic in the back and grade the front out a bit. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I am not sure how we will do it with Andrew's hectic 4th quarter schedule. We gotta trench the tiles in the yard. Rock hound about half of our yard and do the grass thing. Plus we are going to expand the driveway a little bit and of course Andrew is planning the beginnings of his garden. He wants strawberry beds, a handful of vegetables to start and of course get his orchard going.

I hope he will be allowed to do 24 hour ride time shifts. For this last quarter he has to ride at one department for 120 hours opposed to the 60 of previous quarters. If he isn't allowed to do 24 hour chunks, I expect it will be more difficult to get all that we want done, well done. We'll see.

Not much else really we are all healthy and busy etc. I will try to post pictures soon and blog more often. I know, promises promises.

A Second Cat

2006-02-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Well, we find ourselves preparing to adopt a second kitty. You know when Chubby died last year Andrew promised me that when we got the house we could get a second cat and it would be orange. With all the hustle and bustle and with kitten getting sick on and off we shelved the idea. But a cat has presented itself to us and we are both in love. The family friend that lives behind us has this very young barn cat. She used to sleep in the kennel with the old family boxer, sharing both body heat and dog food. But the boxer died before Christmas and since then the little cat has been living in the barn. Dad has been messing with it for about a month now, feeding it pounces to gain its trust and then handling it. This little cat lets Dad and me flip her on her back and rub her tummy and feet. The neighbor remembers seeing her around since summer but she is very small, tiny at less than 5 pounds but she is gaining swiftly. We have her in the tack room only, she has her own bed and litterbox which she uses regularly. She loves to be brushed and cuddled. She loves Dad best since he has spent the most time with her but she is very affectionate with me and Andrew too.

In a couple of weeks we will take her to the vet and then home. We are finishing the larger small bedroom. It is already painted and Andrew will be laying laminate so we can keep the kitties seperated. I am reading all kinds of books and online info about how to introduce them in the least stressful way. Plus I will be on vacation when we do this to supervise everything. I am excited about having another cat. I think kitten will adjust fine. She is curious more than territorial and she has so much affection. It will be a while before I can post pictures of the cat though, sounds still frighten her.

There really isn't any other news. I am preparing for my first SUS training outside of the system. I am back on as a VOYA reviewer and just finished being an audies judge. Andrew is doing okay. Third quarter is nearly finished. He pulled his back Sunday messing around in the basement but is on the mend.

Reading:

I have just rediscovered Octavia Butler, God rest her ingenius soul. I read her latest and last, Fledgling back when we were in the apartment. I just finished listening to Parable of The Talents and have Bloodchild in my bedside stack. What an amazing writer, the world is less without her.

I just finished reading the long awaited sequel to The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. This makes a trilogy of the political intrigue/fantasty series that is a blend of middle age government and ancient Greek like culture. I highly recommend them.

I am also reading the Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria--I first encountered him on the daily show but now he has his own show on PBS. Speaking of PBS, the frontline they did in January of Country Boys was absolutely amazing, and I watched David Sutherland's earlier work, the Farmer's Wife, earlier this month. Get them.

Other things I am reading are the Bully of Bentonville (read Wal-mart as evil corporate entity).

I also just finished reading a Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl. If you are a YA person, get it. NOW!

I'm really excited about titles coming up. Christopher Moore's latest, A Dirty Job comes out at the end of March and I will get a chance to meet him at a bookstore in April. A short story collection featuring Kim Harrison, Dates from Hell, comes out in April along with the new Mary Janice Davidson, Dead and Loving It. May, May can't come soon enough, the 6th installment of my beloved Sookie Stackhouse series, Definitely Dead comes out--a galley on EBAY went for over 75 bucks yesterday!!!

Okay, that's it, Jules

Library Time

2006-02-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I think time moves faster for librarians and staff. Last week I was helping someone check out their books and the receipt read March and I thought to myself "March alread?" Well not really, not for another few weeks but working at a library reminds me how fast time is going be regularly showing where time is going. It's a bit depressing. But March means warmer weather around the corner. Soon we gotta start planning how we are going to tackle the myriad of projects around the house.

We are pretty much settling in. Can fit one car in the garage and hopefully both once Andrew gets the home weight set moved to the basement. We had, oddly enough, a bad mosquito problem a couple of weeks ago. They were living in the sump pump and floating throughout the house but a good does of plant based raid seems to be taking care of the problem.

There really isn't any other news or anything special. We managed to get some time outside on Sunday and that was a real boost.

I am listening to Parable of the Talents, and extremely interesting sci-fi novel set in an America no one would want to live in, set in the early 2030's, many themes are eeriely similar to some of the things going on now. Very thoughtful, and by the immensely talented Octavia Butler.

More later, Jules

the shortest blog entry in history

2006-02-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

I have the computer hooked up and internet possibly next week, enjoy the pictures. Not much else exciting really. jules

No, sigh, I haven't hooked the computer up yet

2006-01-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

But we are getting there. We may, dream of all dreams, actually be able to put our vehicles in the garage this weekend. We just have to move some things down to the basement and move in the rest of the books and get rid of our cardboard etc. The house this week is just starting to feel like a real home to me, more than the potential to feel like home feeling I had earlier. There are of course lots of projects of various sizes ahead of us. I have my area of the study pretty much the way I want it and may hook up the computer this weekend. I have taken a few pictures in the house. We had a bit of a hailstorm last night and boy does the wind blow on top of that hill. Trees, lots and lots of trees will be a priority this summer. Kitten seems to be adjusting better, eating like a horse and getting back to her fat and cuddly self.

Last night I played two hours of Simpsons hit and run on the new playstation, I can't believe you shell out 150 bucks and only get one controller and no memory card. It took me a full hour to realize that I will crash into less things if I deccelerate around the curves. I tended to fall apart under the pressure of time trials and timed missions and at one point gave up, and decided to run around springfiedl gathering money to amass a fleet of vehicles (plow king plow, duff truck, electrosaurus etc) kill wasps and find collector's cards. The wind was howling and Kitten was curled up beside me and it was quite pleasant.

I am glad that I didn't go to mid-winter, even though we moved in the week before, being home for three days to unpack and nest was a real boost to the ole mental health. The weather has gotten downright wintry and all day I have felt a bit off. I hope it really is just the weather, I don't have much of a window to get sick. I have given two presentations this week and one more tommorrow, so I can't run out of gas yet.

I've been listening to some adult fiction titles as my post of 2006 Audies judge..
http://www.audiopub.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3282

I've also been reading Breakfast with Tiffany which is pretty good.

Andrew is doing okay, back in the old school/work routine.

Thanks for checking the blog occassionally, I'll try to email soon. Jules

Unpack that box!

2006-01-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we’ve been in the house 5 nights now and I am slowly starting to feel a) much calmer as each box gets unpacked and b) seeing the vision of what our home will look like once it is all put together. The first couple of nights it was almost too bizarre for words, not in a bad way just weird. We picked up our Mission oak table from the antique shop this weekend. It has a little mildew on the back side of the drawer and at some point, I’ll want to clean the varnish off of it but it is basically immediately usable. Andrew started unpacking some stuff in the study and tonight we will put together the dining room table together and I’m hoping Andrew will have gotten the chance to put the entertainment center together in terms of wiring all our stuff up so I can start unpacking audio stuff.

I don’t know when I will be able to post pictures. The problem is even when we get the computer hooked up, we can’t even begin to get the internet until we get our phone line put in (Verizon has sent two notices confirming to set up service but won’t give us a date and calling them is a joke.) Mom’s computer doesn’t have a cd burner and the cd burner on my laptop won’t burn easy share files. I may burn a cd at cord camera.

Not much else to report really. The mission doors look really great and maybe by this weekend we will be able to put the cars in the garage. Later, Jules

We're In!

2006-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

Well we picked Kitten up from the Kennel Sunday night and kept her in the family room. We moved a couple of the leather recliners in for her to sleep on and she did fine. Those mission doors have been really helpful in keeping Kitten separated from people walking through and getting into trouble. She has been eating like a pig ever since we got home and her coat is glossing up again.

Our final inspection was on Wednesday afternoon and it passes. Andrew had the afternoon off between work and school and he moved all of the essentials that we were keeping at Mom and Dad’s so we spent our first night in the house on Wednesday. I didn’t get much sleep though, without any furniture but the bed and some boxes the bedroom felt kind of creepy that first night. On Thursday Andrew’s day clinicals got canceled so he was able to help Dad and his buddies move all the rest of our stuff. It was great to come home last night and have plenty of unpacking to do. All the furniture is in the house and what boxes aren’t in the house are in the garage. I made some headway in the kitchen and bedroom last night and have all weekend to get us further settled. I’ll pick up our mission table for the study this weekend too. I will show pictures once we get the computer hooked up which could be as early as next week—but don’t get your hopes up. Hooking up the computer is a lower priority right now. Talk to you later, Jules

let me into my house!!!!

2005-12-28T15:07:00.000-08:00

Countertops and cabinets?
Check
Vinyl, laminate and carpet?
Check, check, check
Doors hung?
Check
Trim up?
Check?
All livable rooms painted?
Check
Appliances?
Tommorrow, Check
Back stoop and stairs to from garage to laundry room?
Check and Check.
Stairs finished
Well, sorta of check, I am staining it this weekend.
Electricity?
(gameshow buzzer sound)
Running water?
(gameshow buzzing sound)

Christmas?
Lovely, thank you.
Kiiten?
Doing okay but I miss her hideously.
Andrew?
Installed almost all the laminate floor in the study by himself and finished today. What a guy!
Me?
I'll get back to you on that.
j

All I want for Christmas is the plumber and the electrician

2005-12-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

Well, we have things like toilets, sinks and a water heater in the house but they aren't installed and noooooooo sign of the electrician. All the vinyl is down, the kitchen cabinets and counters are done. All the upstairs doors and trim is done. Stairs are supposed to be finished by wednesday when carpet folks come to lay carpet in family room, stairs, second floor hall and master bedroom and closet. We'll see. Yesterday Andrew and I pumped the sump uh, hole empty of water in the basement where I got to meet Fred. Fred is the wolf spider that lives in one of the three tiles in our, ah, holde in the basement. Andrew named him Fred. He is larger than a quarter and smaller than a fifty cent piece and it doesn't matter what time of day you go down there. Fred is always sitting on his little tile. Andrew warns as we drop the pump in "don't agitate him" but, I think he is kind of cute. We also moved all the downstairs doors and trim to the house for our general carpenter to start on Monday. So Mom and Dad get most of their garage back. The big pole barn still looks like our apartment inside out. today we had adventures is laying laminate floor. We got a late start but didn't do too bad in the having to recut pieces department. Andrew used his table saw. We went slow and still have 2/3rds of the room to do but we don't feel frustrated and it is the last room in the house to get trimmed out. Because the room is pretty square from being new the sides are pretty even so that is helpful. Had a nice Christmas Eve steak and will hit the shower as soon as this is done. Andrew hasn't gotten his diploma in the mail and we are quite worried that with address change and all it won't get here. The dublin post office has once again hopelessly screwed up our mail...ah the joys of moving.

Anyway happy holidays and if you see Santa, put in a good word for our house...jules

Our Kitchen is beautiful.

2005-12-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

The cabinets, floor and countertops are in. All that’s missing is the appliances. As the most completed room in the house, it gave me a lot of hope as to what the move-in version of the whole house will be. I will be posting pictures after Christmas.

So far we have the laminate in the dining, kitchen, hallway and foyer. Vinyl is down and all the vanities are in some procession of installation. The master bathroom is looking good too I must say. I spent yesterday adding a second coat to the master bedroom, the dark blue and creamy white trim and door go together well. The light we picked to hang in the foyer goes perfectly—and the window in the center of the house makes that whole area light and airy. This week I want to put a second coat of paint in the study (wow is it red!) and the family room. I’d also like to get the kitchen cabinets dust bustered. And at some point soon Andrew and I are going to attempt laying the laminate floor in the study. Staining the windows is just going to have to wait until we are in the house.

We have a long way to go yet, no light fixtures, no plumber and our garage door is messed up. Downstairs trim won’t go up till next week, the stairs aren’t finished out. I think by January 2 when Kitten must leave the kennel, I will be taking her to a friend’s house. Our mail is getting forwarded so I am going to stop by the apartment complex and see if they will open the mailbox for me. I am not going to the Dublin post office until after Christmas, I am not standing in line for an hour over their crossed wires.

We roll on...

2005-12-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well things seem to be happening all at once and not at all. Good news is that despite some shedding and losing a little bit of weight. Kitten seems to be doing okay in the kennel. Andre visited her this morning and cuddled her for a while and has assured me to stop worrying.

The house is going along okay. We have gotten a lot painted and will paint the study tonight. I am also going to attempt to do a second coat on the master bedroom and family room this week. We have all of the kitchen cabinets in and man do we have a lot! Laminate is in the dining room and hallway. Andrew and I are going to attempt to lay the study laminate on Friday so wish us luck with that. We will have everything pretty much painted except for the two extra rooms and I am not going to worry about those until spring.

I am pretty happy with our color choice, especially the cloth, the master bedroom and the bathroom. It’s been very helpful that Andrew has had a lot of time off to coincide with his Christmas break. Today doors and trim start going upstairs and hopefully the electrician will come soon and start putting in light fixtures. Carpet won’t get installed until after the first of the year, and we still don’t have toilets, or the master bath tub tiled so we got a way to go.

Brinks installs the security keypad tomorrow, and Sears delivers appliances on Thursday. I have a couple more things to pick up for Christmas and have a light work week so we are (for the moment) rolling right along.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

Well friends I haven’t written in well over a month for a mix of reasons. First, our drywaller was weeks late getting to the house and I was too demoralized towards the end of November to write about how God only knew when we were going to move into the house. Talk about bad attitude, I had one. Then I have been busy. At the last minute I was invited by the system to attend a Gaming Symposium in Chicago which focused on gamer culture and what libraries can learn from it in terms of service, programming, and appeal. It was extremely interesting. I had a great roommate with me and we enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner and gawked at an 8 floor Saks.

When I returned (I was supposed to be on vacation that week but waived the first two days for the trip) I immediately set to work packing packing and preparing to move—not into the house, but Mom and Dad’s. It was a four day process and on Monday past Andrew vaccummed and turned in our keys. I have little hope of retaining much of our deposit as a result of some unfortunate incidents with drywall but hope to get reimbursed the rent money we paid in advance for days we weren’t living there.

So we packed up to Mom and Dad’s. Dad Andrew and Andrew’s friend Kevin did the moving. The white pole barn is chock full of boxes and furniture. I am very afraid for my audiobooks and dvds in the little red barn with these horribly low temperatures but there is nothing for it. They will either warm up and be okay or they will be ruined. The most stressful aspect came from the least considered corner—Kitten! We think that even though Chubby was long gone from the house, she could still smell him and tracked through the house sniffing the carpet and the furniture and she just went, well, she went crazed. Absolutely crazed. She would not settle down and would not stop yowling as if she were gearing up for a fight. She kept Andrew and I up all night and ate a whole in Mom and Dad’s garbage bag, ate some left over Salisbury steak and then promptly threw it up.

By Monday evening there was no other recourse we could take, we had to board her. It breaks my heart but she is better off there and goodness knows we are too. She’ll be there total, probably two weeks.

As I write this Andrew is spending his third day off in a row painting the house. The drywall was officially done on Sunday and Dad, my Uncle, and Andrew have been painting and primering away. Since I have had to work all week my contribution has been getting supplies. We will have most of the house painted except for the two second bedrooms but since we are waiting to floor those too we aren’t going to worry about it. I’m very happy with the colors we have chosen so far. We are still split on the family room color which will most likely be me and a friend’s project tomorrow. The downstairs kitchen cabinets have been installed and boy do the look nice. We aren’t going to be hurting for space that’s for sure. The vinyl will be put down today and tomorrow and our laminate has been delivered to acclimate for flooring this weekend. By this time next week all the floor should be in with the exception of the study which Andrew and I are going to try to do ourselves. Our garage door is in but the opener isn’t installed. Things are moving along.

In other news, Andrew passed his second quarter of paramedic school with flying colors and should be receiving his diploma in the mail sometime next week. His Christmas break hasn’t been much of a break but it’s nice to not worry while I am at work, knowing that he and Dad are there getting things done. I think my biggest pre-move projects will be painting the family room and touching up the other rooms, plus I want to stain all the wooden window sills, oak for upstairs and cherry for downstairs. Plus those will need two coats of poly.

The only other news I can think of is that I resigned from my Linworth job at the end of November. The new house is going to take a lot of time and it was just time to reprioritize. We aren’t sending out Christmas cards this year but maybe I will send something out once we are settled in.

Depending on how well I can get my act together I may post pictures of the inside of the house around Christmas.

Thanks for being so patient and all of your kind thoughts, Jules

Drywall Despair

2005-11-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Well, as I have said before the drywall has been hung but we are waiting for the guy to come and tape then mud. Waiting, waiting and oh yeah, waiting. Everyone says he is the best in the area and a nice guy to boot but he's finishing up a job...then he has to finishe up another job, then he'll work on ours and who knows, maybe he will be done by Thanksgiving...or maybe not.

I have heard that drywall is often a stumbling block. I have also been assured that everyone else is ready and that there *shouldn't* be any other hold-ups. This gives us a weekend to primer, either Thanksgiving weekend or the weekend after that. My dreams of painting any rooms have been hopelessly crushed. Let's talk about something more pleasant shall we?

The antique doors are back just as we were finishing up the very last of the other doors. I am not posting any pictures of the mission doors until they are done and hanging in the house. Let's just say I am pleased. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the last bits of white paint from the cracks and corners with some help from Dad. Today he is giving them one last sand and I will be staining tommorrow and next week.

Kitten has been changed back to her old food and so far so good. She is acting different lately, quiet and not as lovey--we think she is pouting from all the pills we shot down her throat because she isn't used to us handling her like that. Speaking of Kitten, we went to this craft house north of Plain City last night called Hunter's House and it was pretty cool. I picked up a grapevine star to hand on the front door and I found Andrew's Christmas present for me this year. Luckily, he was there too :) It's a painting of a cat that looks exactly like Kitten sleeping on a white bed in a country house with the window open showing a road and garden beyond. It is too sweet for words. So Andrew's Christmas shopping is basically done.

That's about all. I will post when, say the drywaller actually gets in the house! jules

A Cat on Valium is pretty darn funny.

2005-11-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

Okay so Friday night it proved slightly more difficult to give kitten her pills. I managed in the morning because Kitten had no idea what was going on. The only medicine Andrew and I have ever had to administer was ear drops. We managed though to give her the flagyl and then—because she hadn’t eaten anything, a quarter of a little yellow valium pill. The vet said what 20 minutes and right on the nose our sweet, cuddly cat began to act like an angry drunk. I have never in my life heard Andrew laugh so hysterically for so long. I think we both felt guilty for laughing at her but we couldn’t help it. Not only did she want to be active but also the relaxant of the pill made her list, fall of, and generally careen wildly.

And, she cried for food. I put down her bowl and she ate a whole serving. So that was good. Saturday we were completely unsuccessful in giving her any pills but Sunday and this morning we did better. I think I have now perfected using the pill shooter.

Unfortunately we haven’t gotten her to eat more than a couple of tablespoons of food since then valium or no valium. She is hungry but she hates the kibble—but this seems to be the only thing on the planet that won’t make her sick so she is stuck. I sympathize but it is no excuse for her attempts to knock over the trash can in a drunkenly like binge.

But at least she isn’t getting sick and she is eating some so that is an improvement. Not much to report on the house.

Hey Look Two Posts in One Week

2005-11-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Wow what a stressful week it has been. Drywallers have hung all celings and drywall this week, (good) mudding and stomping may take 2 to 3 (bad) So painting may get pushed back to the week beofre or after Thanksgiving (bad.)

In the meantime I will finish painting the last of the upstairs doors and hopefully finish the antique doors. I am bringing more and more boxes to Mom and Dad's and the apartment is slowly transitioning to disaster are to desolate.

Andrew took his exams in Muncie today. Now Paramedic school to go.

The biggest news, really, is that kitten has been quite sick. The Doritos seemed to have kicked off a downward spiral of not eating, eating very little and then getting sick. I have been a stressed out mess all week over her. We now have her on this stuff called flagyl that is supposed to restore the balance of bacteria in her digestive system and I gave her the first dose this morning with a handy plastic pill shooter. She swallowed it like magic. I have helped Dad give the now departed Chubby pills and he was awful about it. We'd have to wrap him in a towel like a little cat burrito and then we found out that sometimes when he could, he would hide a pill under his tongue and sput it out outside. Andrew says Chubby was evil but that isn't true--Chubby was just clever and a little cantankerous. I miss him.

Anyway we also have little valium tablets to give to her to increase her appetite--a side effect of valium, for cats at least, is a raging case of the munchies.

So while her personality has remained unchanged, it's been quite disconcerting to see her lose weight (vet assures me that now she is at a healthy weight) and not eat. So we'll see how the weekend goes.

Not much else to report really. Everyone keeps telling us how this is an exciting time and so much is going on blah blah blah but for Andrew and me I think, it feels right now like we are hamsters in the wheel, running in place.

Maybe I will take pictures of the house this weekend but really, how exciting can a bunch of white walls be? Jules

Drywall started today!

2005-10-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

Mom emailed me earlier today and the drywallers are in. I still hope that we can be in by December 1st and it looks like I'll be painting next weekend or the week after next. We have all downstairs doors done and over half of the upstairs doors painted. I will finish the upstairs doors tommorrow and while Andrew is at work Dad and i are going to get drywall and insulation for the third, south wall of the garage. The drywallers are taking care of the other two sides and will hang the other side for us if we get the material and put the insulation in. I am hoping the rooms we paint will have enough time to air out at least a little before we move in.

Speaking of moving I am slowly bringing more and more boxes out to Mom and Dad's house now that the doors are slowly moving out. In another week I will start a more aggressive phase of packing.

Kitten has been very naughty. She is mad her food has changed and eats only a little, lets it get stale and then expects more fresh. This is expensive kibble so she has to eat it stale or not. The other morning I woke up to find the cat food bag knocked off the counter and her eating a pile of it not 12 inches from her bowl with food in it. Thursday night she jumped on the counter and knocked over a bag of Doritos, ate some and then got violently day glo orange sick everywhere. Yuck.

Mom and I have taken up the family tree research again. Mom is doing the bulk of it right now and I am lending support. She even took a road trip with a cousin this week and we have been making a lot of progress. We are 8 generations back on this branch the farthest of all of them so it's been fun.

Not much else to report really. I'm tired and feeling behind. So many things that need to get done. Cell phones, land line, propane forwarding mail changing checks. I know it will all get done but sometimes the weight of it is wearing. At least we are somewhat packed and have nearly everything for the house--still need one more set of blinds, shower door and of course lots of primer and paint. Oh, and a ceiling fan.

Andrew is fine, plugging away studying and working. Last night we went to Macaroni Grill and saw a movie--Wallace and Grommit--funny but weird. Anyway it has been months and months since we did anything like that and it reminded me of a time when we did that two or three times a month. The funny thing about the movie was a father brought his daughter and three of her friends to the movie, they were about 9 and he kept falling asleep during the movie and snoring and then she would have to wake him up. It was funnier than the movie really.

As far as reading listening I am reading Undead and Unreturnable, a wholly fluffy romantic comedy mystery featuring a ditzy lead vampire. I am listening to nightmares and dreamscpes by Stephen King. I picked it up because it features Tim Curry, Stephen King and some other celebrities. My favorite has been the House on Maple Street, a very "sweet" horror story. I also like "Head Down" a piece King wrote for the New Yorker the year his son't little league team one the state championship. I'll never think about baseball the same and have a new appreciation for it.

I will post pictures when there is something interesting to post. Julie

Another post in one week--it's the guilt from not posting regularly---

2005-10-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

I didn’t go outside for my lunch today because the beautiful weather and having to stay in nine hours would just depress me. I am still looking forward to tomorrow because even though it will be cooler the sun will still be out and Andrew has the whole day off. We have a lot planned. After getting groceries in the morning we will head out for the house were many projects await. We had the septic put in this week and the guy graded it out a bit but there are some really big dirt clods and he said we would come back and do more if we broke them down. So tomorrow I want to mow the lot and then Dad will disc up the clods and then Andrew will follow along with a (I have no idea how to spell this or what it is or does really, ) col-packer? And while they are doing that I will be running around picking up rocks to put in the gator because it will be a good time to get those rocks up. There still feels like two dozen rocks in the field outside the house site so I may try to get some of those up too.

Thank God for Dad helping us with the doors. He has been polyurethane-ing the doors we did Monday all week so last night we spent doing two more doors and a jamb. So if we can finishe those up tomorrow, next weekend we’ll just have the double closet downstairs doors left and then a bunch of upstairs doors to paint.

And, speaking of painting, I’ll be begging for help with painting around the end of the month. The shipments of drywall arrived this week and they should be starting this week or next. We are going to try to rent and indoor paint sprayer to do the primer and then I have a list of rooms to be painted in order of important so if we can’t get it done at least the top priority ones will be. Four hours of help on a weekend day will be much, much appreciated. I will be emailing select folks who live nearby, who have painted before, who are feeling healthy and who have already voiced they are willing to help. If you meet that criteria but we haven’t discussed painting help—email me.

Andrew is done with his last two Ball State classes and luckily enough, he doesn’t have to write a paper for either and has scheduled his finals for the first of November. Another great thing about being in the house in December is (drumroll please) Andrew will be halfway through with paramedic school! The CRV is working out well. We are saving a lot more in gas and Andrew is changing the oil in it tomorrow and at some point he needs to replace the front breaks—come to think of it, he has to do it to the Corrolla too. Poor guy, I never give him a break! 

I will be posting new pictures week of October 17th including some of the doors we have been doing. They have turned out as lovely as the trim and I think will look quite nice. The house essentially hasn’t changed from the outside but I will post some new pictures.

Kitchen Advisory:

Okay, so I’m not the greatest cook in the world. I am impatient, don’t’ read instructions well and am paranoid about making sure meat is well done. But I do make the best chocolate chip cookies ever. Now that I have found milk free chocolate chips (thank you, Trader Joe’s) and I have my lactose free milk, I am unstoppable and have probably made 6 batches since Labor Day. When Andrew and I go to Sam’s Club next, I am sure we are going to buy the giant bottle/bags of vanilla and brown sugar. Anyway this is my chocolate chip cookie secret:

Use the Crisco Butter Flavored sticks in the baking aisle near the regular tub o’ Crisco—it’s butter flavored but made from vegetable oil. I am going to experiment with brownies calling for butter but using these instead. The second secret is to use airbake cookie sheets and to let the oven preheat so it’s at full heat—that’s important to make the first batch come out well.

Another cool little thing Mom found is these little Crystal Light on the Go packs—have you tried these little suckers? I’m mildly put off that they contain aspartame but, considering I don’t drink any soda, it probably evens out. Their just little packets of crystal light just write for a bottle of water, pour it in, shake it up and your set to go! Pretty tasty.

Oh yes and in the last little bit of minutiae I feel compelled to share, Kitten has only thrown up 3 times (in one day, yikes) since we have but her on low allergen, ultra-high dollar kibble. Man we were talking about getting a second cat but now I am thinking this one is enough God love her.

12 gallons per minute at 57 feet!

2005-10-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well, even though I don’t have that many new pictures to show because most of the action is going on inside but is basically boring to show, I thought I would try to write an extra long blog to catch up. As of Monday October 10th we have had our first inspection and the house is wired an plumbed pre-drywall. We also have insulation and on Thursday we dug the well. We knew odds were good it wouldn’t be too deep. Mom and Dad are at 63 feet and the nearest neighbor is at 67. But another neighbor is over 150 and someone down the road was over 200 feet, which just goes to show that you never know. For those of you who know about wells, you know that it is a very unpredictable expense and the drillers charge per foot! So we are very happy. I wish my grandfather who used to spot wells was around to spot ours but who knows, he may gave still had a hand in it from upstairs!

In other progress news, we now have the doors, all of them. I feel sick with being behind now when in September I thought I was doing so well. Drywall starts next week so primer-ing and painting is going to run into working on the doors. I feel my confidence is much less with the doors because there are so many grooves and so many different directions the wood grain is going in. Oh well, we will do the best we can I suppose. It is much more time consuming than the trim because there are two sides that need stained, polyed, then sanded, then polyed again. Plus the door jambs. At this rate, we may have to hang the upstairs doors and I’ll just paint them later.

Andrew had yesterday and today off though and both days we have run errands and worked on doors together. It was really nice to work on some things together and just spend some time that wasn’t evening or morning. Kitten had another trip to the vet as she has been throwing up a lot lately. Food allergy is the verdict and now she is on super high dollar kibble, but no throwing up so it is worth it.

I spent a good deal of last week in Pittsburgh for a conference. Coming in from the west, you can’t see any city at all then go into a tunnel carved in a big hill then when you pop out the other end, BAM! You’re in Pittsburgh. Despite the weather and the fact that all I could think about were all the doors waiting for me back home, I thought it was an interesting city but wouldn’t want to drive all the one way streets and triangular intersections. Pittsburgh seemed to be an interesting blend of nature (the three rivers) architecture (a lot of bridges and few interesting buildings) and art. It was really good to be home. In a couple of months I will be off to San Antonio for ALA Mid-winter but by then I will be in the house.

I have packed more boxes but am running out of room to put them. I feel as if there is so much more to do. I had a whole week off but feel like I got hardly anything done. I will post again when drywall is in. I think this week we are doing the septic. Bye, J

Um, I meant to post earlier...

2005-09-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I really, really did.

Okay so the house is going on absolutely smashingly (in a good way). Yesterday was the two month anniversary of the groundbreaking and we have it framed, walled, roofed and three quarters sided. We have the tubs, showers and bulk of the wiring in. Windows and doors are in. It looks like a real house. It is exciting--well, when we have the time to be excited. The past few weekends I have been devoting most of my time to staining the downstairs trim. With Dad's help we have nearly all of it done. It was a little touch and go there when we used some minwax cherry stain on the hard yellow pine--it was awful--even when the pine was pre treated. Then we got this stuff from our contractor called Wood Kote Gel Stain and it ROCKS. This trim is beautiful, rich, warm and some pieces I swear they look like art. You will see when you come to visit. Doors will come in next week and I will try to get them donw by the middle of the month so I can finish October painting the upstairs doors. November will be spent painting drywall and then moving.

Once the weather cools down I will do round two of packing, winter clothes and other things I couldn't pack away earlier. Andrew has started his second quarter of paramedic school. I think our gas conservation efforst are paying off, we fill our tanks 3 times a week, maybe four and that is pretty good, really it is for the driving we do. Speaking of driving (no I did not wreck yet again--knock on wood) I applied for a job at the Hilliard branch earlier this month (another reason why I have been too busy to post, preparing for the interview) while I didn't get it, I hope I made a good impression with all interviews in light of future opportunities. Some folks are moving around the system and I am hopeful. As the reality of the move draws nearer I worry the drive will not be do able for long. What this means for my career path, I'm not sure. There isn't a big market for librarians who like teens in Mechanicsburg :) and I like working for CML. We'll see. Not much else really, I will try to be better about posting. I don't have many pictures to post because everything is going on inside and I think a picture of a bunch of wires would not be that interesting to you. Yes, we plan to take pictures and measurements of all the walls before the dry wall goes in and we may even videotape a walk through. All for now. Julie

It's hard to know where to start...

2005-09-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

I guess obviously, with our beautiful, fabulous house. This morning I stopped by after getting my teeth cleaned. It's roofed (plywood etc) and so when looking at it--I can really envision what our home is going to be. I took a picture but got the wrong angle with the sunshine so will try again this weekend. I had a long five day weekend (long story) and spent both Saturday and Sunday night at Mom and Dad's since Andy had to work nights. We are making a concentrated effort to save money on gas. Dad helped me paint the upstairs trim for the house. We did it in two hour installments and mowed the lot. The trim looks pretty good. I still have to do all the doors for the upstairs. This sunday Dad and I will start the trim for the downstairs, staining pine cherry to match the laminate and the mission french doors. Where is Andrew you ask? Working of course because some of his time during the week he is at school but he works a lot during the week too. He has his quarter exam tonight and will spend a lot of time next week trying to finish up his other class for his bachelor's. He continues to be at the top of his class. Hey I have to brag about him because he certainly won't!!!

In other news, Dad's friend invited him along to these folks who were cleaning out this barn that had a bunch of stuff in it. And Dad God bless em brought home some serious booty like a solid oak dresser--three drawers, mission style. I stripped just enough to find out it is all oak woohoo! And now it will go in a corner of the barn until...oh Lord spring probably. Dad also brought a two shelf bookcase that may or may not be salvagable, and two really sweet wooden medicine cabinets with mirrors.

Weather was gorgeous all labor day weekend. I tried to soak in as much sunshine and fresh air as I could. On Saturday Andrew and I made another strategic move to save on gas by trading in the blazer for an CRV, same year, about 20,000 less miles and we are going to try to just fill up the tank for the crv and corrolla once a week. I am very comfortable handling the crv and Andrew feels like he has enough leg room. The crv gets like 250 miles per tank so I think we will be set. We will swap out cars on a daily basis. Whoever has the longest commute of the day gets the corrolla and on weekends where andrew works at mechanicsburg I will ride over with him (6:30 am!) argh.

A reminder that I will be putting out a desperate plea for help with primering and painting in about--5 weeks? I will ask that those who can and able to to please email me around the first of October. Then I will email you folks with weekend days I have off and then if you could give me like four hours, morning or afternoon you would be pure gold! Morning folks get lunch Afternoon dinner and my eternal gratitude. Andrew and I would like to get 4 rooms painted before move in. As usual, thank you for all your love and good thoughts. Not to get all new-age-y or anything but we can definitely feel it. I will post more pictures this weekend.

Our house is getting wet! sniff, sniff

2005-08-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina will be delivering 3 to 5 inches of rain and high winds. Oh, our poor house. I know I know, it will dry out in the sunshine we get later this week and at least it's not snowing but I want to just throw a giant tent over it to keep it dry. The framers tried to put the floor joists in yesterday but gave up when it began to rain. The pictures you saw earlier was work done in one day and about two hours in the morning before it rained isn't it amazing! This folks our contractor has been getting don't laze about. The pictures I took don't adequately show the kitchen/dining/family room area but once the walls are in it will be easier to see. We are really happy with it.

In other exciting news I picked up trader joe's milk free chocolate chips and crisco butter flavored (but no butter or dairy of any kind) sticks and made cookies. I hadn't had a chocolate chip cookie since last fall so that was very, very cool. Not much else to report, I get my car back tonight and Andrew continues his work and school schedule. We had a nest of ground hornets in our hedge by the apartment door and I got stung a few weeks ago. The complex supposedly had a guy to spray it but for the past three weeks 10 to 15 of em have been flying around the sidewalk. I got stung in July and this weekend had one get in my hair and another in my sandal so you know, enough is enough. Last night I flashed a light on the nest, and sprayed it with a pencil stream of wasp spray for like 5 minutes. Boy did those suckers come out of that nest! But they were groggy and hit the ground. Andrew helped and felt a little bad for them last night but he wasn't the one who got stung. I did get a certain staisfaction out of it, a kind of "See you in Hell you little bastards!" mentality which I am ashamed to admit. This morning though I did feel a pang of guilt, many more came out to die in the night and it looks like a miniature massacure on our sidewalk. But then again, my sting took two weeks and soaks in epsom salt to go away so I don't feel too bad. Plus, with all the boxes and stuff I am hauling out of the apartment, it is less to worry about. Okay, well, if the rain stops by Thursday and the guys can work on it this weekend I will post new pictures next week. Later, jules

Reader's Advisory

2005-08-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, well I haven't done this in a while so here is what I am reading/listening too. I am listening to Snobs, by Julian Fellowes and it is quite interesting. Fellowes wrote the screenplay to Gosford Park and stars in my beloved Bristish series Monarch of the Glen. Snobs details a middle class woman's roller coaster experiences with the british aristocracy. Fellowes goes back and forth between third person POV and that of an actor observing the others in a very Nick Caraway like fashion. The lead female, Edith, is barely likable but Fellowes pulls it off. I am also listening to the Goddess Rules by Clare Naylor. Very entertaining and another British title. I also tried the Ivy Chronicles but couldn't get past the first cd--not because of the narrator but because of the flat, vapid story. Sometimes I like vapid stories, the Goddess Rules is a bit Vapid, but the character had to be likable or it's a no-go. I am reading Marne David Kellogg's latest, Perfect, featuring the James-Bond-for-girls character Kick Keswick. This one is a bit more tedious than the first two, Priceless, and Brilliant but I am still enjoying it. If you like both Bridget Jones movies, make sure to get The edge of reason on DVD. One of the special features is Renee Z staying in character as Bridget Jones interviewing Colin Firth as well, Colin Firth. Music wise I am listening to Beekeeper by Tori Amos and it's pretty good as well as the farscape soundtrack which of course only confirms how geeky I am :)

Nice and Cool

2005-08-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, next week I should have some really interesting pictures to show regardign the house. I thought you would enjoy the pictures of Kitten though, always in the thick of things as I have been packing nonessentials these past couple of weeks. Summer reading is over at the library and while the branch hasn't slowed down that much, it is a bit better. Andrew has been working a lot lately and as I write I have all the windows open letting in some nice cool air. I had yesterday off and it was fabulous. Perfect, beautiful weather. I managed to read by the pond for a bit and loot at thehouse site but spent most of the day in teh barn working on the mission doors and listening to an audiobook. We found out thatone of the doors had six planes of plexiglass not real glass when some stripper ate a hole through the glass so I have put in an order to get that replaced. Dad has been putting wood filler in and sanding and I could get them stained this weekend. The canada door is very nearly done. Not much else to report really, hang on until next week. Julie

Just call me Crash* sigh

2005-08-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well I don’t really have any new pictures to post. They finished the garage and basement floor last week but that’s not really too exciting to the casual observer. I may post pictures of Kitten *helping* me pack and they should start on the deck (?) or flooring this week so framing up shouldn’t be too far behind. The big news is that I got into a car wreck last Monday on 270. With all the traffic and crazy people it is inevitable I suppose. The kicker is I was being cautious and still got in a mess. I was past 71 and not quite to Westerville going a mere 50 mph because it was raining and we were getting close to the bottleneck near Minerva Park. Anyway I was about two cars behind this Volvo that hit its breaks. I hit my breaks but didn’t slam them because you know, sometimes people tap their brakes and then go right on. When I saw the left hand turn signal I though, uh-oh this must be bad. The Volvo tried to get into another lane but as I had observed, we were boxed in. As the car swerved though I did see a car in front of her at a dead stop and I found this baffling because all the lanes of traffic were going smoothly. I am long in the habit of watching the flow of traffic beside me as well as in front of me and I always am looking out for strings of brake lights ahead of me. So at this point I am punching down on the brakes and start to skid. My butt end of the car starts going to toward the lane to the right and I thought…oh this is bad! In a detached kind of way. I don’t remember consciously steering into the skid but the car straightened itself out just in time to ram the Volvo in front of me. The original standstill vehicle was at this point of course, long gone.

Yes I am okay, yes the other lady is okay and her car, is fine, trust me. My car, got crunched pretty badly. New hood, new bumper and ironically enough a new air conditioner which I had fixed I kid you not, not two weeks before said accident. I got cited but not for recklessness the lady ahead of me told the officer what happened (and mom thinks there is a chance maybe she wasn’t paying attention to the first car and that is why she slammed on her brakes so suddenly.) Anyway it was agreed that I wasn’t going some unreasonable crazy speed like so many folks do on 270—I still got cited of course, so had to pay a fine and of course I got points on my license which I have never had before and am quite appalled about but I know I know, I am fine and that’s all that is important. Just the day after a poor lady got killed not 6 miles from where I was at and the police suspected a third party involvement so I am lucky. We’ve been sitting tight all week, worried they were going to total it but they aren’t woohoo! No I can keep my ridiculously low car payment a while longer. I would like to resale it next summer and try to get a pre-owned hybrid if the price goes down. With all the driving we do gas is going to kill us as it is with Andrew’s blazer. He looks forward to a hybrid SUV. I know that he likes being able to stretch out in the truck after being used to driving such smaller cars and getting jobs closer to home may not be a reality for some time.

There really isn’t any other news. Work, school, sleep, house. We did go to the Champaign County fair last week and I found out I can eat sugar waffles (hurray) and I got to go down memory lane with Andrew. God bless him, he didn’t appear the slightest bit bored as I explained to him the inner workings of 4-H life. I do miss it.

Well two weeks since my last post isn't that bad is it?

2005-08-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well on July 25th we broke ground on the house. It was a little later than we wanted but because of beautiful dry weather, we have had no delays in butting in the basement and foundation and we have every reason to expect the framing to start by the time school starts. We have signed our lives away for the next 30 years and despite the low interest rates it is pretty depressing still. We will be paying less than rent of course and this is something we can build and share together. Andrew and I have picked out appliances and about half the lighting for the house. We have been quite busy running errands, woring and working on the doors. Andrew painted the inside of the Canada door window black and found some nice molding at lowe's to frame the window so it should loo pretty sharp. Mom talked me into stripping the french doors compltely down including the muntins. Dad is going to help sand to catch us up. One door is in rough shape with split muntins on both sides but Dad assures is it is not beyond repair. We think it is a good bet that these french doors were at one time used as a transition into a backporch or veranda. There's some water damage and they are going to have a lot of character. I have decided to (after they are sanded to the true color and grain) to stain them cherry and then rub tung oil (I only love Formsby's refinisher more than tung oil) for a nice clean, muted tone.

In other news Mom has grown mutant elephant ears that are giant. Like the circumference of a trash can lid. Andrew got a 98 % on his first paramedic exam. I am not surprised that he is once again at the head of his class. Between class, work, lab, ride time, and clinicals Andrew's freetime is taken up with homeowrk, sleep and working on the door and not in any particular order.

The other night, Kitten, the little scamp, was sitting on the floor while I ate french fries sitting in the recliner. She showed absolutely no interest in my plat but it was all a ruse and while I was distracted talking to Andrew on the phone, she popped up on her hind legs (she can balance on her butt she is so chubby) and without an investigatory sniff she grabbed a four inch fry off the plate and ran. I was worried she would get sick but she ran under the dining room table and this fry disappeared in like 10 seconds. She didnt' get sick though.

I am expanding my professional development in YA Services on a National level. I am on the YALSA publication committee and the Editorial Advisory Task force. For those of you not in library land, I am basically working on the kinds of profeesional writing (books or articles in YALSA journals). It sounds boring but it fits my interests.

I have not been reading much at all since I last posted. I listened to Fell by M.E. Kerr and was floored by it. This is one of the classic YA novels that I have just not read and I listened to the wonderful Jeff Woodman read it. I am now obsessed with Fell and have the other two in the series. I just wish that Kerr would re-issue it with some editing to bring it up to date. Too many fo the references are 1985.
I am now listening to a fun chick lit book, whatever happened to Jane Spring by--oh Lord I don't know, it's in the car. There are so many chick lit books now and so many on audio that you have to be a bit picky and I am pleased to report that it is original and the narrator is top rate.

I am savoring the last few farscapes on dvd it is soooooo good.

I think I have brought you up to speed. Now that the house site will be changing nearly every week I will be more motivated to post. Hope all is well with you! Julie

Reader's Advisory

2005-07-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to borrow a theme from a friend’s blog and pepper my posts with what I am reading/watching/listening too. I suppose as a librarian I should be doing more informal advisory and so I will try. I just finished up watching the third series of Monarch of the Glen on DVD. For those of you who like BBC shows I highly recommend this—it’s set in Scotland and one you can’t catch on PBS. It’s about a young man’s wacky family on a degenerating 35,000 estate. Lots of beautiful scenery and quirky storylines. I’ve also recently become absolutely to Farscape, a space opera from the FX channel that aired from 1999 to—2003? My supervisor got me started on this and now I am a junkie. I never really was a big Star Trek fan, but this series by Henson Production (Muppets) is witty and funny. I am working through the first season.

As for books I am halfway through Every Which Way But Dead (start with Dead Witch Walking) by Kim Harrison. Set in Cincinnati, it’s a mix of mystery, light romance and supernatural intrigue. Not too violent or sexual. Another wonderful read along those lines is the Sookie Stackhouse series, start with Dead Until Dark. I adore these books and am a regular poster geek on the fan site message board.

As for listening, nothing much of interest I think—I’m quite worried Recorded Books didn’t pick up the rights to Eleven on Top, the latest in the Stephanie Plum series—or maybe my library just hasn’t gotten it yet.

And finally YA fiction—I have just started “Finding Lubchenko” the second novel by Michael Simmons (Pool Boy) and I have to say, two chapters into it I am pretty darn impressed.

Found my future writing desk..er, a piece of it anyway.

2005-07-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months I have been thinking about what kind of writing desk I wanted in our study. I thought I had settled on what I wanted, a mission style desk with a single drawer in good to okay condition. The ones I have seen on ebay and antique stores were going for a couple hundred dollars (who knew mission style was so popular) and I thought I was content to just keep looking. This weekend however was Mutual Days, were the two antique stores bring out lots of items them have been storing through out the year. I'm ashamed to say I walked past this piece but Andrew, wtih the slower and more patient eye pointed it out to me.

It's a solid walnut slanted writing desk--not a roll top but it does have two large drawers as deep as the desk itself with key holes and some decorative lines. It has a flat top at the edge of the slant to place inkwells. It has a nice patina and for some reason reminds me of my Grandfather--and it is huge like it came from a courthouse--it's going to take up quite a bit of the study I', afraid but Andrew thinks it will be all right. We got it for 30 dollars because well, the poor little guy has no legs. The previous owner had two legs on it and attached to a wall. Andrew has a couple of different ideas of how to build a walnut frame underneath it and then four walnut pillar legs. While the stain and poly looks pretty good, it has some scratches and white paint so when I am ready I will use the gentler formsby's stripper on it--but don't hold your breath for pictures, we are keeping it in the barn well until this winter or next spring because we have too many other projects. I am very pleased with it and think when it is done it will be wonderful piece...

How well can I type

2005-07-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

with Kitten on my lap. She has been super snuggly all day. Her little bald patch is all grown in now and she is her sweet self. ALA was all right, I was fighting the tail end of a cold the whole time but my hjotel was comfortable and I had an easy enough time getting around. I reconnected with friends and made some new ones and picked up some advanced reading galleys of titles by some of my favorite authors so that is always a treat. I am balancing the keyboard on the very edge of my lap as kitten rests across both arms. I know, I should make her get down, but she is warm and purring and even when she is in the way she is comforting company. Dad has cut the driveway for the lot and we applied for our loan last week with fingers crossed. Luckily all of our permits are in place so once we get the green light from the bank we will be able to break ground immediately so I hope to be posting more exciting house pictures soon. As for teh doors, Andrew is nearly finished with the Canada door and it looks great. The second mission door is proving to be a challenge. The consistency of the paint is different and came up so gummy with the stripepr that I decided to chisel off the first layer of paint--it's more time consuming but it saves on stripper it less frustrating because then when I put the stripper on it, it comes up much easier and evenly. The mission doors needs more work thatn the canada door, new doorknobs ( I want to get tiger eye) and the floor sweeps on the bottom have like 50 nails in it. One of the doors has a bunch of tiny staples that almost look like carpet tacks. They will be lovely in the house though and I am glad I have Andrew to help. My goal is to get both doors to the point where Andrew can finish them by the time our trim and doors come in because I will be staining that.

We had a lvoely cool day yesterday but now we are back to summer weather. I have been tying up loose ends from the conference, spending time with family and packing more books up--boy andrew and I have a lot of books already...

Oh I can't think of anything creative

2005-06-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while—a combination of being busy as always and of being a bit down in the dumps. Before I talk about what has been going on lately, let me speak in more general terms.

I cannot wait until Andrew and I are out in the country. Because of relatives visiting and our side refinishing projects I have been going out to Mom and Dad’s more often—both weekend days and maybe a weeknight or two. I felt as I got off 70 onto 29, wrapping up a pilot test of my commute as if I could finally let the breath I had been holding out of my lungs and with each mile taking me deeper into the country, I felt like an onion, mentally peeling layers to get back to feeling good about life and it’s possibilities. Passing a herd of beef cows in their smooth red and black summer coats, smelling the hayfields and forests through the open window as I whizzed by. I felt like myself again once I reached home. More an more it feels like I treasure every moment outside and working or visiting family and friends and I am using it to inoculate myself the coming week’s stresses and inconveniences—the noise and pollution, the waiting and the feeling of confinement in our around a patch because a ground chickadee had a nest there) working in the doors and hanging out by the pond. All I can think of is that this time next year we will have a clothesline up and lots of windows to air out the house and Kitten can watch all the birds.

Enough poetics. A couple of weeks ago I got into a fender bender in Urbana. No one was hurt. It was my fault and I feel very stupid as it will most likely raise our insurance rate a bit but considering that ten times a week I drive the busiest loop of outerbelt in the city and have seen pile-ups and flipped over cars, I’ll take my mini-crunch going less than five miles an hour in good ole’ Urbana. My rental rides very smooth but takes more gas of course. I’ve been very tired lately—summer reading program and people taking vacations have taken their toll on all of us. I am not really looking forward to going to Chicago this weekend although my schedule is more spacious than the past two times. I will not take any time off before I go back to work and I have decided to take two carry-ons, one for clothes and bath stuff and one for snacks so I don’t starve like I did in Boston. I can pack my suitcase in my carry-on. I am worried about transportation because the convention center is on the other side of the river from all the hotels and most of the evening events. I know some more people though and hope I can meet up with more people to share cabs. Andrew is trying to enjoy his last week of freedom before paramedic school. He is going to try to finish the Canada door. I will try to post pictures before I go to ALA and will email you all if I do so.

Andrew had a good birthday I think. He got some toys to help us lay the laminate floor and some other home improvement things. On father’s day Mom Dad and Andrew and I went out to Buca Di Beppo’s for dinner and I managed to avoid dairy—can’t believe I pulled it off. After running some errands we went out to the house to work on the doors a bit and spent the evening fishing out some of the bass that Dad has been feeding these past few years. They are eating the goldfish and so we are taking them over to the neighbor’s pond. It’s pretty fun to catch 4 pound bass and these are just the small mouth—there are bigger ones yet in there and a friend got a large catfish. It was beautiful weather, cool and dry for June and we hated to go back to the apartment. We are aiming to break ground in July so I will keep you posted. I will be posting more pictures soon and will email. Later, jules

Moving Right Along

2005-06-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hi, we now have the zoning permit and the floor plans. By then end of next week we should have the contract and the health department test. We may go for the loan as early as next week but most likely the week after before I leave for ALA. The county will sit on the plans for a couple of weeks but in the meantime we can get the driveway put in. We still will break ground in July I think. In othernews Andrew and I have completely taken over mom and Dad's pole barn with out projects so it is a good thing they have the garage built. Andrew and I make a good team because we like doing different things. He is good with the details that normall drive me nuts. I managed to mow half the lot yesterday and then just gave up wtih the heat. We even bought some rubbermaid tubs to start packing. It's a mental thing for me and we are going to be so busy by the time we actually move that I want all the little stuff and books alredy in storage in the barn.

that's it I guess, I gotta get ready for work. jules

A good weekend’s work

2005-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Even though I had to work Saturday I still got a three day weekend (Friday, Sunday, Monday.) I spent most of Friday running errands (grocery, bank etc) and I did get the lot mowed before the rains rolled in and spotted another dozen rocks that Andrew and I picked up on Sunday. Andrew only had Sunday off so we just kind of relaxed. Yesterday I spent the morning picking up Andrew’s birthday presents and then went on to Mom and Dad’s to start working on the door from Canada seriously because this Saturday we are picking up two mission style French doors for the family room. I have to get the Canada door ready for Andrew to (sand and stain) while I start stripping the French doors. I put on an audio book and stripped both sides completely and one side cleaned with one round of Formsby’s condition/refinisher. Mom swears by the stuff and she’s right to do so. Not only does it pick up left over stripper, but continues to lift up dirt, shellac and gunk and moisturizes the wood to get it ready for whatever you want to do with it. It’s a good bet this door is a heavy yellow pine door that’s been stained (before the coat of shellac, and three kinds paint.) Andrew wants to stain it Cherry and I think that will look good. It was so satisfying to not be on a computer all day and to just plug in an audio book, get some Gatorade and just work on it. Mom and Dad came in occasionally to advise and do a little scraping. There may be a chance that Andrew will be off both Saturday and Sunday and that never happens. If so we are going to go to Oakridge and get some trees to plant along the back and side of the lot. We’ll also spend a lot of time working on the doors. Tomorrow I will go to pick up our preliminary floor plans to show to the contractor. I will be posting pictures soon of the door from Canada as it is refinished and the French Door find. Bye, Julie

We have a house number!

2005-05-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have put off blogging because I have been depressed, busy and stressed. Andrew is back from his trip out of town. We had a family member pass away and the past couple of weeks have a decidedly blue tinge to them. Andrew has to work most of this weekend but on Sunday we hope to finish stripping the door we got at Canada—we have to wrap that project up in a couple of weeks because this Saturday I am going to pick up some old French doors with a mission style look. Quite a find I think. Anyway we got our approval/suggestions for putting in a driveway and got our house number-2321 South Parkview Rd. Our application for a zoning permit can now go through. We meet with the floor plan drafter again this Wednesday so things are moving a long. I mowed the lot yesterday two hours before it rained. It’s amazing how quickly the sky can go from beautiful to “Hang on Toto” but there you have it. I found another dozen rocks for Andrew and I to pick up tomorrow and only ran over a couple of pieces of plastic tile so we must be getting most of that. I have been invited to join my first American Library Association Young Adult Library Services division committee. It’s a two year appointment and should be a lot of fun. I am preparing for my trip to Chicago—trying to figure out how big a suitcase I should bring. I am not staying as long as I did last time so I may try to get away with a smaller case. I’m also going to dress a lot more casual for comfort since it will be so hot. Not much else to write. I imagine we will have the driveway in by the time I leave for Chicago.

Canada and stuff

2005-05-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well I think I am just starting to dig myself out of the hole from vacation. You know, laundry, groceries, running errands for the house, mowing the lot, trying to cram in a little socializing if I can. Andrew and I had a lovely vacation in Canada and had just a really good time. The rest of May will be rough for Andrew. He is working nearly every day this month. On Thursday we go to his paramedic school orientation. Also on Thursday I will give a 2 hour presentation or mini-workshop based on that special training I went to in Boston in January.

Canada was great, a little cold, but the B&B we stayed at was absolutely beautiful.
www.gatheringbb.com

We did see three moose and a black bear at Algonquin National Park.
www.algonquinpark.on.ca

Mom and I went to the local (40 miles away) mall and they had a lot of nice clothes shops. Even their Wal-Mart felt like the equivalent to Target down here. Andrew spotted a neat antique door at one of the craft stores and we have no idea what wood it is except it’s heavy and we hope to use it in the house somehow. I didn’t get sick once (woo-hoo!) and when we got home Kitten wailed at us like she was auditioning for the role of little matchstick girl. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we have a relative that is very ill and we are quite worried and sad. I will be emailing out our online vacation album shortly. Julie

an even shorter report

2005-05-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

Back from Canada. It was great. Playing a ridiculous amount of catch up and will email photos and post to the blog--oh let's be honest here, like a week from now. love jules

Short Report

2005-04-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

Well I’ve tried several times to post this week but kept losing it so we will try again here. Andrew was one of the 24 entrants (out of 90 that tested) selected for Paramedic school at Columbus State. He will start in June. Because classes are 5 to 9—he will be able to work around the school schedule easily. I am so proud of him. Kitten is on the mend and will get her stitches out on Saturday. Not much else to report. Julie

aack

2005-04-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Stupid thing did not publish my first draft and I didn't copy the text like we usually do so:

Kitten is fine, she gets her stitches out Monday.

We got our deed straightened around finally.

Andrew got accepted into paramedic school.

julie

So the Monday update is on Wednesday

2005-04-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

Kitten continues to recover--her surgery went fine and she is looking less like frankenkitty by the day. She will get her stitches out Saturday. Our deed finally got fixed but has yet to be rerecorded on the auditor's website. Even though it will take 90 days to get the deed we can still go with the construction loan when we are ready. I think we are like 90% sure we are going to go with the contractor. In other news Andrew got accepted to Paramedic School at Columbus State and will start in June. Because the classes are evenings 5 to 9 he will be able to work around school a lot easier. Not much else--we are paying for the gorgeous weather we had earlier this month with snow and temps in the 40s. I may post while we are in Canada and definitely will post a vacation album and ophoto and invite you when I have figured it out. Julie

Kitten is okay

2005-04-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Andrew picked her up yesterday morning. It was just a fatty tumor but she still looks a bit frankenstein-ish with a pam sized area of hair shaved off and about five stitches. Of course she keeps rolling around on the carpet on that side freaking me out. When Andy picked her up he forgot our carrier so the vet gave us a cardboard one. Andy didn't completely close it in the truck because he wanted to give her some air and of course while he was driving she popped out of the carrier and started cllimbing on his lap and the backseat and everywhere else crying in fear so he had to pull over and then when he tried to pop her back in she splayed out all of her legs like in a cartoon. Oh well, she is home safe and sound following us around the house, demanding to be petted and generally making us feel guilty for abandoning her. We will get her stitches out next week before we leave for Canada. That's all the news for now, no new deed yet. Julie

Deed? Not yet.

2005-04-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, the title company has managed to screw up our land once again. We haven’t gotten the deed in the mail yet, but the transfer in the paper and the property listing on the auditor’s website lists our property being on the wrong road! Every single thing the company could get wrong, they have gotten wrong. It’s unbelievable. We can’t of course go for a construction loan (not that we are quite ready) until we have an accurate and clear deed. It’s a mess, just an utter mess. This didn’t stop us of course from meeting with the local contractor we are considering and I mowed the lot once again. We picked up some big rocks but no monsters like last weekend. I think we will reach a decision about who to go with by the end of the week. Andrew got a part time job at Morrow county and I have my big author visit at the high school this week. I’ve been planning it for months and am just to the point where I want to get it over with. I take Kitten into the vet tomorrow night to get her little cyst removed. I hope she will be okay. She cuddled with me all night last night.

Finding Treasure on the Lot (hey Treasure is in the eye of the beholder)

2005-04-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful weekend!

I took Kitten in on Friday and the lump on her side is most likely not serious, but we are getting it removed in a couple of weeks. The vet went ahead and clipped the area around it so it would be easy to find and Kitten seems to have a peevish look about her, as if her dignity has been affronted with a bald spot the size of a silver dollar. It was beautiful on Friday and Sunday so I didn’t feel so bad about working Saturday. It will never stop baffling me how many people choose to stay in a building (even if it is the library) for hours at a time on such beautiful days after the long winter but not everyone is such an outside person like me I guess.

Anyway on Sunday I picked up rocks in our lot while Mom and Dad mowed then I took Mom’s mower and Dad and I mowed the lot down. We had the blades set pretty high so we wouldn’t hit any rocks sticking up and that made all the difference in the world. I am going to try to mow it once every two weeks. Dad says it will help what grass is there get a firmer grip, cut down on the weeds and long grasses and make it easier for us when we disc it up. Andy came out after his paramedic entrance exam and started digging up rocks now that we had most of the field mown. We noticed (me and Dad) that after a while he was staying in one place and more and more shovelfuls of dirt kept appearing. We finished mowing and rode over to see and what Andrew thought was maybe a 3 or 5 pound rock turned out to be a giant landscaping stone about 400 lbs! Dad went and got the bobcat and it took us a while to get it out because he had the bucket on it, not the teeth and the stone was in lengthways but we got it and loaded it up in the gator. I didn’t want to leave it on the lot because I didn’t want anyone to steal it which Dad thought was crazy but we loaded it up and took it to Mom and Dad’s. Who knows what we will find!

The jury is still out about the house. We are looking at either going with American Heritage or with a local lumber company (family run) who builds houses on the side. He uses subcontractors that have very good reputations in the area—some of which Dad has worked with and knows they do good work. With the local guy we are looking at being in around September. With American Heritage it would be December. We still have some research to do but I will keep you posted. Thank you for all of your good thoughts. Julie

We have our homestead--hurray!

2005-04-06T09:22:00.001-07:00

We closed Monday. It took some patience and some flexibility but we should have the property recorded under our name within ten days or so. Since Andy has to study for his paramedic entrance exam on Sunday we are taking a break from house talk for the week and will hopefully have made a decision and gotten a construction loan at the end of the month. Kitten has a rather alarming lump on her side and I am taking her to the vet on Friday and hoping it's just a little fatty lump. We are also counting down the days until our Canada vacation. I imagine I will post pictures at Ophoto.

Bye for now, wish Andrew luck on his test! jules

We have our homestead--hurray!

2005-04-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

We closed Monday. It took some patience and some flexibility but we should have the property recorded under our name within ten days or so. Since Andy has to study for his paramedic entrance exam on Sunday we are taking a break from house talk for the week and will hopefully have made a decision and gotten a construction loan at the end of the month. Kitten has a rather alarming lump on her side and I am taking her to the vet on Friday and hoping it's just a little fatty lump. We are also counting down the days until our Canada vacation. I imagine I will pot pictures at Ophoto.

Bye for now, wish Andrew luck on his test! jules

Spring!

2005-03-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today is beautiful. I am not to resentful about having to work late because I took an hour walk this morning along the nature trail by the complex. It was a little windy but man, I'll take it. Despite the roadblocks to closing (we are now looking at next week) I reminded myself today that by this time next year we will be in the house and planning our lawn and landscaping. I am not exciting about moving again but it's for the last time. I can't believe my address will be south parkview road again. We are supposed to get rain the rest of the week but not dip below the forties. Not much else to report. Just that we aren't close to closing (sigh) and the weather makes me wish I was a construction worker rather than librarian.

Not closed yet

2005-03-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Of course we ran into some snags on closing on the land. We are hoping to do it this week but we will see. The land has yet to be surveyed so we will see. Easter was quiet and cloudy. We had a nice dinner at Mom and Dad's and cozied up in the living room watching tv and reading. Andrew took a civil service test for a fire department in the city. They aren't hiring just testing for future hires and without and positions being open now, Andrew said there were still about 200 people there. In a little over a month we will be in Canada. I cannot wait. The first week of May will be my first full week off since we got married. More later, Julie

You can now comment on the blog, if you want.

2005-03-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize that you couldn't comment until a relative mentioned it. I dug around in blogger help and changed my setting so, if you would rather comment or ask a question here rather than email me that's cool or whatever. I did figure out (kind of) how I can post pictures here but now that I have set up that ophoto account I'm just going to keep that (there's that techological laziness again). Bye, j

Choosing a House

2005-03-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I think we have pretty much settled on a house from American Heritage and once everything is set in stone I will put up a link to the model we are choosing. We talked to the folks yesterday and are going to work on finalizing the different options we want to settle on a price to go for the construction loan. We are going to spend the summer staining all the trim and five of the doors, then the construction folks will install it. We are also painting the house ourselves and will be grateful for any and all help our friends and family can offer. We have to primer too. It will be around the holidays I fear and I know that isn't a good time for anything like this. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of painting someone else's house, you can certainly help with putting the primer on cause we gotta do that too. We have already started a little journal of ideas and things we think we might want to do with the house and I have even opened up an online account at home depot where we can save project directions, tips, and even have a wish list of items we want to get later. I hate the idea of seeing something we really like but then forgetting about it in the thick of things so this helps with that. ANother cool thing about American Heritage is we buy light fixtures with some of the money from the loan, pick em out ourselves and then the construction folks pick them out so that is pretty cool. The good news is I have posted pictures on the web--not here though :( but the bad news is I will not be able to post a link here. I will be emailing you all directly with an invitation to view the album, so we are getting there. That's all for now I think. Later, Julie