Lengthy Updating (Kinda Random)
I've been rather slow on the updates lately, n'est-ce pas? Sorry 'bout that, but despite it being insanely busy, I've not had too much to report. Or have I?
I'm getting started (finally) on pricing my comic collection again. I've only reached the D's, so it's too early to say much, other than Amazing Spider-Man remains one of my most fruitful collections.
Work is moving along as it always is. Final drafts next weekend, the end of another term in two weeks, then we start another the week after that.
Curtain update: We're really only missing them now in one room, and then we'd like to replace the blinds on our doors. We decided to leave curtains off the stairs, since we'll really not need them there, but last night I was standing at the bottom of the stairs when the new neighbor, in her nightclothes, was standing in an upper window and turning off the lamp. She glared at me, and I thought, hmm, maybe curtains...
Amy's been really tired lately, and neither of us seem to know why. She's also had more trouble with Zoey lately than I have, partly for that reason but partly because Zoey seems to test her more than she's testing me. Of course, Zoey's wearing her out, so that's part of it.
When I was at the library a few days ago, I searched for "poetry slam" and came up with a book (only one) with an interesting title: Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Road Trip. It was a young adult book, so I lowered my expectations, but not low enough. It was, first of all, written entirely in free verse with ridiculous (and far from regular) rhyme structures. Second, it was the most unrealistic story I've read in ages: girl, with best friend, goes from high school graduation podunk town to big city to compete in a slam, loses, goes to New York, gets in car wreck (other car driven by soul mate), stays briefly with soul mate and his parents in expensive part of NYC (soul mate is, oddly enough, wealthy and connected), reads poetry at Tavern on the Green and gets a front-page story in the Times, gets a personal invite to the Nuyo, takes over the city as star poet, rushes home to care for ailing father, then all brought back to city for big finale: she reads her poetry at big show, then soul mate performs her poetry as music. Oh, and MTV will be there. Riiiiiiight... At least, since it was bad free verse, it didn't take long to read, but I encourage you all to skip it. Besides, I just spoiled it for you.
Many of the people on my friends' lists will be busy with Nationals next week, so I suspect it'll be slow blog reading. And yes, I'm curious how Nats will go, especially for the two Columbus teams, so I'll be watching for any news I can get about the whole thing. Another side effect of Nats, though, is the delay of my book, but when it's over, I think that'll pick up. I just know not to expect anything in the next week or so. The next step is another read through for typos and the like. I also should (and will) make a short statement on the passing of another Southern Fried poet I knew, Julia Delbridge, who seems to have died of brain damage after an accident that most would never think was so dangerous (she was ice skating last winter, and yes, she just passed away, but was in rehab ever since the accident). I didn't know her really well, but we had talked a few times. I even have one of her books (big shock, huh?).
We're almost finished with putting things away and starting to hang pictures. We're low on money, but still have lots of big plans for things to do around here, including a grill and some outdoor furniture. And a shoe holder. And some other stuff I can't think of right now, but I'm sure I'll remember later.
Amy's birthday in a week, along with final draft grading and the Miami County Fair. We'll catch the fair, as we did last year, partly because Zoey has such a great time there. If we have the time and money, we're doing a birthday date day to see Stardust. If not, it'll have to wait a week.
Zoey quit napping recently, even though she sometimes still needs them. It may help that Amy moved her bookshelf away from her crib. Either way, I suspect naps are becoming things of the past, but that still seems premature.
Zoey's cast comes off tomorrow, which we (especially Amy) are so ready for. We can't go anywhere without strangers going, "Awww...what happened?" Zoey's got her reply down now: "Fall down. Bwoke wist. Wrap arm. Strong arm." I think there's more of it, but I'll have to wait for Amy to correct me. Anyway, Zoey's not thrilled about the cast coming off, but we're trying to excite her about the idea of being able to do things in water again. We can set up the water table again, stuff like that. We think Zoey expects her wrist to hurt again without the cast.
Years ago, I won a Slam in Knoxville and got the Acme Big Box O' Mystery. Among other things, I won a Kermit the Frog plate and an echo microphone. Zoey has taken these over, and I'm glad she has, but it's funny to think where they come from every now and then.
We've changed Zoey's vitamins (starting tomorrow) to some that have iron in them. We hope this'll cut down on her eating inappropriate things like dirt, since that's one of the reasons for dirt eating. We'll see what happens.
Yes, the new Harry Potter book is a great read. Since then, I've read a book called Stacked, which is about breasts (reductions, augmentations, cross-dressers, and just about everything non-erotic about the topic), and which was a pretty interesting read. I've also been reading My So-Called Punk, which is about punk in more recent years, including Green Day, Rancid, and the Offspring (and lots more). It's not a page-turner, but it's interesting, though I may put it down for a few days so I can read Outrage by Dick Morris.
The new next-door neighbors are the landlord's oldest daughter and her boyfriend. They moved from Cinci because their landlord kicked them out for having gotten a dog that was part Pit Bull, so now we have it next door. There are small gaps in our chain-link fence, too, and the dog just nipped at Zoey a couple of days ago. She wasn't hurt, but we're feeling the need to do something about it. We asked the landlord about us putting up chicken wire along the fence, and he volunteered the chicken wire. Other than the dog, we've had no real problem with the new neighbors, though our contact has been pretty limited.
We've got a bug problem here. Not that we've seen much inside yet, excepting some smaller spiders here and there, but we've seen lots of water bugs (i.e., roaches) outside in the yard. As soon as we can afford it, we're going to find an exterminator service and set up monthly service like we had in Chattanooga.
Zoey has been wearing sandals all summer, and because of them, she has diamond-shaped tan lines on her feet. We thought they were dirt at first, but no...
When we moved in, we thought the water heater was electric, since it was working. Turns out it's gas, but the previous tenants had never shut off their service. Last week, a guy showed up and turned it off, and when we put in for service, it took two days for them to come back out and turn it back on. Two days of no hot water. They also had pretty big attitude toward Amy on the phone. I swear, Vectren needs some competition so they'll treat customers better (and so they'll have competitively fair prices).
I think, after the move a few weeks ago, I did something to my right knee. It hurt for a LONG time after that, and it still doesn't feel right, especially if I walk for any length of time. Getting up is more difficult, too, depending on how low I'm sitting (from the floor is awful), and it's all from that knee. Yeah, I'm old and falling apart. What about it?
That's it for now, true believers. I'll try to update more often, but you just never know.
I'm getting started (finally) on pricing my comic collection again. I've only reached the D's, so it's too early to say much, other than Amazing Spider-Man remains one of my most fruitful collections.
Work is moving along as it always is. Final drafts next weekend, the end of another term in two weeks, then we start another the week after that.
Curtain update: We're really only missing them now in one room, and then we'd like to replace the blinds on our doors. We decided to leave curtains off the stairs, since we'll really not need them there, but last night I was standing at the bottom of the stairs when the new neighbor, in her nightclothes, was standing in an upper window and turning off the lamp. She glared at me, and I thought, hmm, maybe curtains...
Amy's been really tired lately, and neither of us seem to know why. She's also had more trouble with Zoey lately than I have, partly for that reason but partly because Zoey seems to test her more than she's testing me. Of course, Zoey's wearing her out, so that's part of it.
When I was at the library a few days ago, I searched for "poetry slam" and came up with a book (only one) with an interesting title: Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Road Trip. It was a young adult book, so I lowered my expectations, but not low enough. It was, first of all, written entirely in free verse with ridiculous (and far from regular) rhyme structures. Second, it was the most unrealistic story I've read in ages: girl, with best friend, goes from high school graduation podunk town to big city to compete in a slam, loses, goes to New York, gets in car wreck (other car driven by soul mate), stays briefly with soul mate and his parents in expensive part of NYC (soul mate is, oddly enough, wealthy and connected), reads poetry at Tavern on the Green and gets a front-page story in the Times, gets a personal invite to the Nuyo, takes over the city as star poet, rushes home to care for ailing father, then all brought back to city for big finale: she reads her poetry at big show, then soul mate performs her poetry as music. Oh, and MTV will be there. Riiiiiiight... At least, since it was bad free verse, it didn't take long to read, but I encourage you all to skip it. Besides, I just spoiled it for you.
Many of the people on my friends' lists will be busy with Nationals next week, so I suspect it'll be slow blog reading. And yes, I'm curious how Nats will go, especially for the two Columbus teams, so I'll be watching for any news I can get about the whole thing. Another side effect of Nats, though, is the delay of my book, but when it's over, I think that'll pick up. I just know not to expect anything in the next week or so. The next step is another read through for typos and the like. I also should (and will) make a short statement on the passing of another Southern Fried poet I knew, Julia Delbridge, who seems to have died of brain damage after an accident that most would never think was so dangerous (she was ice skating last winter, and yes, she just passed away, but was in rehab ever since the accident). I didn't know her really well, but we had talked a few times. I even have one of her books (big shock, huh?).
We're almost finished with putting things away and starting to hang pictures. We're low on money, but still have lots of big plans for things to do around here, including a grill and some outdoor furniture. And a shoe holder. And some other stuff I can't think of right now, but I'm sure I'll remember later.
Amy's birthday in a week, along with final draft grading and the Miami County Fair. We'll catch the fair, as we did last year, partly because Zoey has such a great time there. If we have the time and money, we're doing a birthday date day to see Stardust. If not, it'll have to wait a week.
Zoey quit napping recently, even though she sometimes still needs them. It may help that Amy moved her bookshelf away from her crib. Either way, I suspect naps are becoming things of the past, but that still seems premature.
Zoey's cast comes off tomorrow, which we (especially Amy) are so ready for. We can't go anywhere without strangers going, "Awww...what happened?" Zoey's got her reply down now: "Fall down. Bwoke wist. Wrap arm. Strong arm." I think there's more of it, but I'll have to wait for Amy to correct me. Anyway, Zoey's not thrilled about the cast coming off, but we're trying to excite her about the idea of being able to do things in water again. We can set up the water table again, stuff like that. We think Zoey expects her wrist to hurt again without the cast.
Years ago, I won a Slam in Knoxville and got the Acme Big Box O' Mystery. Among other things, I won a Kermit the Frog plate and an echo microphone. Zoey has taken these over, and I'm glad she has, but it's funny to think where they come from every now and then.
We've changed Zoey's vitamins (starting tomorrow) to some that have iron in them. We hope this'll cut down on her eating inappropriate things like dirt, since that's one of the reasons for dirt eating. We'll see what happens.
Yes, the new Harry Potter book is a great read. Since then, I've read a book called Stacked, which is about breasts (reductions, augmentations, cross-dressers, and just about everything non-erotic about the topic), and which was a pretty interesting read. I've also been reading My So-Called Punk, which is about punk in more recent years, including Green Day, Rancid, and the Offspring (and lots more). It's not a page-turner, but it's interesting, though I may put it down for a few days so I can read Outrage by Dick Morris.
The new next-door neighbors are the landlord's oldest daughter and her boyfriend. They moved from Cinci because their landlord kicked them out for having gotten a dog that was part Pit Bull, so now we have it next door. There are small gaps in our chain-link fence, too, and the dog just nipped at Zoey a couple of days ago. She wasn't hurt, but we're feeling the need to do something about it. We asked the landlord about us putting up chicken wire along the fence, and he volunteered the chicken wire. Other than the dog, we've had no real problem with the new neighbors, though our contact has been pretty limited.
We've got a bug problem here. Not that we've seen much inside yet, excepting some smaller spiders here and there, but we've seen lots of water bugs (i.e., roaches) outside in the yard. As soon as we can afford it, we're going to find an exterminator service and set up monthly service like we had in Chattanooga.
Zoey has been wearing sandals all summer, and because of them, she has diamond-shaped tan lines on her feet. We thought they were dirt at first, but no...
When we moved in, we thought the water heater was electric, since it was working. Turns out it's gas, but the previous tenants had never shut off their service. Last week, a guy showed up and turned it off, and when we put in for service, it took two days for them to come back out and turn it back on. Two days of no hot water. They also had pretty big attitude toward Amy on the phone. I swear, Vectren needs some competition so they'll treat customers better (and so they'll have competitively fair prices).
I think, after the move a few weeks ago, I did something to my right knee. It hurt for a LONG time after that, and it still doesn't feel right, especially if I walk for any length of time. Getting up is more difficult, too, depending on how low I'm sitting (from the floor is awful), and it's all from that knee. Yeah, I'm old and falling apart. What about it?
That's it for now, true believers. I'll try to update more often, but you just never know.