House pics!

When I started his blog I did so under the impression that I could keep my friends and family informed of all that was going on in our lives while we were so far away. But I think that I underestimated the interesting things that happen to me on a day to day basis. There was, I suppose, a reason that I didn’t call all the people that I know everyday, because they probably wouldn’t want to know the minutia of everyday. And this is, of course, my mea culpa for not writing for almost two weeks, nothing really exciting has happened. Although I finally finished reading the fourth Harry Potter, which meant of course that I had to run right out and get the fifth one. Jeff is afraid that I will now become one of the Harry Potter fanatics. I don’t think I will, but I do like the books, they are fun and I have to admit that I for one would like a few magic powers, it would be cool and I would only use my powers for good (well most of the time). So I don’t have powers, at least I have funny friends. If you look at the comments from the last entry you will see that one of my friends has taken on the persona of Zippy to have a little fun. I wish I could say that I knew who it was, but unfortunately I have more then one friend with a dry sense of humor and the willingness to slack off and write something like that. I appreciate it though, for what it is worth and would like to know who the funny one is! But to keep you all interested with this blog, even though I have said nothing new, I am leaving you all with some pics of the house.
The first pics are of the bedroom, which is the only room (besides the mater bath) upstairs. It is HUGE! I am sure that by the time that we get our own house I will miss all the space in this room. To give you some perspective, know that we have a king sized bed and a couch and chair all up here and there is still space. As you come up the stairs from the living room is a small space that we have dubbed Martini Corner, although the cats are the ones who enjoy it the most. So enjoy the pics! Coming soon, pics of the living room and outside and hopefully some of the socks that I am making with my new sock yarn. Actually the yarn is not new, I used a gift certificate to purchase it a couple of months ago, but have not had the chance to get to it, now I am attempting socks, but who know how that will o. Hopefully well, but I am having problems finding a good pattern. If I can get the socks into any sort of shape I will take some pictures!

Enjoying the pics so far?

It's just too much fun!

A wide pic of the room as you first walk in

Our sitting area. We will be adding a small trunk as coffee table

The other side of the room where the bath is and the door to the small deck right outside of the bedroom. The dresser we are in the middle of finishing

The entrance into the bedroom

A close up of the setee and chair from Pier 1

A wider shot of the bed/computer corner

Another view of the mater bath. I hate the wallpaper and the black commode, but it's not my house!

The all glass shower. It's nice but hard to shave your legs!

The vanity of the master bath upstairs

All hail Zippy

Having moved from Illinois to West Virginia, Jeff and I decided to cash out of the small (very small) amount that we had in our Illinois Teachers Retirement fund, built up by our need to teach at the local community colleges to supplement our meager grad school income (although I am remembering that income fondly right now!). And so we requested the paperwork and sent it off to SURS and knowing government bureaucracy, expected it to take about 30-40 days. But of course we underestimated both the effectiveness of government and the ability of our right honorable governor of Illinois, Ron B, who will heretofore be renamed Zippy the pinhead. It all began earlier this week when I phoned said government office to check on our process, and was told that because of Zippy’s new law, all of the member benefits would have to be calculated by hand. I said BY HAND!!!! Maybe it’s me that finds in our world of technology and computers that calculating anything by hand is asinine. I mean what the hell did Bill Gates do for us if not make our life a bit easier with the advent of the computer. I don’t even calculate grades by hand, I have a computer program that does that!! I know that there are people who constantly complain about computers taking over and the inability of people to do even the simplest task without computers and this will lead to the downfall of society…blahblahblah…those people are communists. I am sure that there is someone (not me) who can hand calculate the distance to the moon (I repeat again, not me) but a computer can do it in.25 seconds! So why, in the name of God and all that’s holy, would Zippy require every retirement fund to be calculated by hand? Way to go Zippy! Way to alienate once again the people who put you in office!!!!!

Of course I should not be surprised at Zippy, this is the same man who ran on an education platform and then turned around and ignored any and all campaign promises that he made. Zippy was so concerned with teacher shortages that he cut funding to the public colleges and universities, effectively cutting funding to the places that turn out new teachers… is this logical? Then he makes the best announcement ever, that the state will stop matching retirement funds for professors for three…no five…no seven years!!!! All of this to the people who campaigned and voted him into office!!! Every time that I think about voting for this guy I must raise a first in the air in C-like defiance. But I won’t make that mistake again, believe me if the Illinois Democratic party is stupid enough to run this guy again I might vote republican, wait, I won’t go that far, maybe I’ll just abstain. Although on second thought I won’t be a resident of Illinois anymore, so I will just encourage others not to vote for him. It won’t be much work for my teacher mother, and I won’t even count my republican in-laws. But I will continue my crusade against Zippy until the bitter end!

New Knitting and New Computer

I know, I know, I have not blogged in over a week. I am sorry. I wish that I had a better excuse then I had a lot of papers to grade and was lazy, but I do not! So I will now use this time to catch up on all that has been going on. Last Friday we were surprised by the arrival of our new Dell computer more than a week early. I think that maybe there is a special flag by our name because I complained about our last purchase. So the new desktop is up and running. It came with a flat screen, which Jeff is loving! It is also a cool modern silver box that probably looks more at home under a steel table then our antique looking pier 1 desk. And Jeff says don’t worry MomP, he will clean up the cords. So now that we are back to two computers what is my excuse for not blogging? Well I discovered the public library and have been catching up on a bunch of chic lit. This means that I have been reading books with little literary value and absolutely no reference to my dissertation. And today I will procrastinate some more because it is the first time that I will be able to see the BEARS in my own house. I am very excited by this! I hope that Orton can shake off the last loss, and his wild partying ways and lead us to a somewhat decent showing. What I would not give for a winning season!!!!

With all this football, for the last few weeks I have been longing for fall. I want multi-colored leaves that I can stomp and cool winds. My sweaters have been mocking me from my closet for weeks now, they are as desperate as I am to get out after a LONG summer. Finally, in WV at least, fall has come, it has come with rain, but at least it’s here. This has also renewed my knitting urge, knowing that what I knit will soon get worn. Right now I am working on a huge comfy sweater on 17 needles that will keep me warm in the cold library this winter. I am also working on some blankets that I plan on using for x-mas presents, although I will be crocheting them! Speaking of knitting, see the pic below that I just received (thanks Abbie!!!!). These are a few of the knitted items that I made for my sweet nephew Leo. The bear’s arms and legs move and he has a musical button. The lion is a child’s pattern that I cam across in Zen and the art of Knitting. I thought it would be cute. My favorite though is the pillow, although I had to be careful when I was cross stitching not to get my blood on the white yarn! When I get Jeff working he will link them in the completed projects links.
I promise that I will write more this week and finally get some pics of the house up, it is getting together slowly but surely.

Leo's shower presents

The New Computer all set up with the new desk from Pier 1

The New Dell Computer! It's silver!