WaterBear on MySpace

Dragon Mood? -- glad it's not me

My sweetheart, S, admits that she is not the most computer-literate person in the world. But we're SURROUNDED by computers, software, the internet and internet apps. Like MySpace!

There is a pretty funny video that S's son, Tim, took while up north for her side of the family, for their reunion. And of course, Tim has posted this on his MySpace. Which S cannot see unless SHE joins MySpace. Doesn't this sound all rather sinister, suck-them-in-before-they-notice, kind of????

She came home from Madison's birthday party at Caesarland (I HATE those places!) and was pooped. But she wants to see this video. So I offered to sign her up for MySpace. Which she agreed to. Somewhat reluctantly. With lots of caveats. And name spelling. Which S NEVER specifies name spelling. Egad! Yikes!

So here's S's new MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/waterbear56

My honey, a new MySpace rockstar!

This whole $700 billion thing

Dragon Mood? -- mad, angry, pissed off

Yes, this whole $700 billion bailout has got me pretty steamed! When individuals lose their homes, conservatives are quick to blame and to judge, "Loser! They should have made better choices. Poor decision-making. What were they thinking?" When Wall Street fat cats greedily drive their companies into bankruptcy, conservatives, quickly resort to fear and yell, "We must DO something or the economy will FAIL!"

Here's what Robert Kuttner opines in the Huffington Post (clearly not a non-partisan source):

[Secretary of Treasury Henry] Paulson's bill would give him carte blanche to spend up to $700 billion over the next 24 months to buy toxic securities from financial firms. This presumably would "unclog" capital markets, the financial economy would begin functioning normally again, and then the government would recoup what it could.

The plan is outrageous on several levels. It demands nothing from these firms in return. It holds the Treasury Secretary accountable to no one. And it extends the most generous terms to Wall Street while offering nothing to Main Street.

I hope Nancy Pelosi and company up on the Hill really hold Palson's feet to the fire on this one. I am PISSED!

Month-long hiatus

Dragon Mood? -- remembering in a travel-weary, but pleasant haze

Wow, it's been a whole month since I last posted. When I tell you what S and I have been up to, you won't be surprised! We have been scootin' around the Great Lakes area for the past three weekends. And I mean SCOOTIN'!

For Labor Day, S and I trekked to Madison to hang out with Carolina and the man in her life, Ron. We drove out late Thursday night, encountering construction, traffic delays (even at midnight) and the requisite Hi-we're-here-at-two-a.m. arrival.

Ron started off our Friday with delicious, tradition-creating omelettes. We poked around in a dusty, ramshackle place that could barely be called a store, filled with vintage record albums (remember those?). S found one after another that caught her eye, eliciting the comment, "Oh, put this one in the pile." I think she ended up with at least ten albums! It was fun to watch her excitement. We had other ambitious plans, but got 'sidetracked' and ended up in some bar called WTF (I thought it was you-know-what) but it actually stands for Weary Traveller F--- I can't remember what the F stands for. The rest of Friday afternoon is a bit hazy for me; I think we sort of drank our way through the afternoon.

Josh arrived Friday night. We celebrated by busting out the bar; Josh drank Manhattans, Ron, Lina and I sipped on dirty martoonis and Steph toasted with her favorite, Warsteiner beer. Friday was ANOTHER late night!

Saturday morning, Ron and Caroline toddled off to a tailgate party (beer, anyone?) before the first Badger game (cough-cough, ack-ack). Josh, S and I had a scrumptious breakfast at Marigold Kitchen in downtown Madison. Mmmm-mmm-good!

We managed to catch about half of the Farmers' Market and emerged with arms full and backpack loaded with veggies and fresh flowers and green things(!). I hit the Soap Opera (absolutely LOVE that place!) and then joined everyone else at the 'tree' bar where Corinne bartends -- honest to God, I don't know anymore about the place then that! [With the amazing power of the internet and Google, it's called Paul's Club ... and here's a review that captures what I noticed about it, as well:]

When you walk in it's super dark inside, carpeted (unusual for a bar), loungy couches, and a HUGE FREAKIN TREE in the middle of the place. Christmas lights round out the cozy vibe along with a killer jukebox.

Paul's Club most definitely serves up tasty drinks, nice variety of beers, and the BEST Bloody Mary I have ever had. Try it! Seriously.

Well, there is SOMETHING I would add: CORINNE, the very nice and very cool bartender from Seattle MAKES those BEST bloody Marys. They are truly the best bloodys I've ever drank. And believe me, I've drunk more than a few! All right, I'll quit mooning over the drinks; don't wanna sound like some LUSH or something! (chuckling)

Saturday evening we watched Michigan State get spanked by Cal. Darn!

Sunday was ALL about beer-brewing, watching little Abbey from next door and just hanging out with one another, relaxing. Oh yeah, and we all kicked in and fixed a killer dinner with marinated chicken breasts, S's Famous Celery Root dish, green beans roasted in olive oil and garlic, and Lina's oft-requested Cucumber Salad. It was a feast fit for kings and queens. Oh yeah, and we watched Cary Grant movies. Don't remember which ones ...?

Monday morning, Josh took off pretty early. S and I left by 2 p.m. for our journey back to Michigan. Thankfully, it was a pretty easy drive and with several stops, we were home by 11 p.m. We had Tuesday off which allowed us to sleep in, wake up slowly and do some errands in that neck of the woods.

While I had had some trepidations about Caroline having a man living with her now and how that would feel, it was a wonderful weekend. I felt like Caroline and Ron went out of their way to make both S and I feel welcome, comfortable and at home. Ron hit a home-run with S, with his recommending that old record shack. I was happy to see him be so attentive to my precious daughter and how happy she felt to me. 'Nuff said.

NEXT ... S's Family Reunion

AND EVEN LATER ... Dad's 80th Birthday celebration

Quote for the week

Dragon Mood? -- totally in agreement

Quote for the week:

Being a parent is like walking around the rest of your life with your heart outside your body.

Jejune in August, not June

Dragon Mood? -- curious

Do you know the meaning of the word, jejune?

I heard it Friday evening in Woody Allen's 1975 movie, Love and Death. He and Diane Keaton 'riffed' on the word. I looked at S, she looked at me. Do you know what that means? No, do you?

Jejune means "empty of food, hungry, meager." Here's Merriam-Webster's definition.

Saturday

Dragon Mood? -- rested and relaxed

It's another Saturday morning and I'm LOVIN' being at home (read, and NOT AT WORK!), relaxin', surfin' the Web and chillin'. All that activity without any ending 'G's.'

My high-energy, highly-focused boss was on vacation this week, so work was definitely a little more low-key for me -- not a moment too soon. The Olympic game coverage on late-night TV is killing me. I'm having a very hard time tearing myself away from the tube and getting myself into bed before 11! AaarghH! That's too late! This week I'll have to do MUCH better!

But this past week also felt like the dog days of summer. Not that it was so hot; it wasn't. It was just a slightly slower pace, a more languid pace that felt good. And there were a number of folks at work who were gone on vacations so the rest of us worker bees just buzzed along, doing our thing.

My most significant accomplishment this week was at the pied-a-terre. I single-handedly moved the treadmill from one side of the dining room to the other. Still not an ideal place for a treadmill, but now it's not shouting, "Hey, look at me!" when you first walk into the house. The larger question is, "Am I gonna use this thing again or should I just pay someone to haul it away for good?" I wish I could assure you, O Wise Web, what the answer is to that question. *sigh*

S and I are sitting here at the dining room table (now in the pine tree house), trying to figure out what we want to do today? It looks like an absolutely gorgeous day to go kayaking!

Keep you posted.

Whoo-hoo

Dragon Mood? -- elated to have the source of my embarrassment at NOT remembering GO AWAY!

Whoo-hoo! Yippee-ki-YAY!

S found our long, lost box of checks for the pokerdog account.

It's his BIRTHDAY!

Dragon Mood? -- not surprised he's a Leo!

To our next president? ...

Happy Birthday, Barack Obama!

He was born August 4th, 1961 and today is 47 years old. And here's the least surprising thing about learning that today is his birthday: he's a Leo!

New & scary word

Dragon Mood? -- curious

The last time I met with my doctor, Dr. Wendy, we talked about environmental factors in peoples' various illnesses. She mentioned a word that was unfamiliar to me: phthalates. I asked her to spell it, which she did, but I still don't know what she was talking about.

This morning phthalates was in the headlines: "Are phthalates in toys truly dangerous?"" But before reading the article, I decided I need to know how to pronounce this darn word. "Thal-ates" with the 'ph' silent. Actually, "THAL-ates," with the emphasis on the first syllable.

I Googled it and here's an excerpt from one source:

The chemicals are used to make plastics soft -- but what are they? ... There are dozens of types of phthalates, which are oily, colorless liquids that "have been used for about 50 years to make hard plastics softer and more flexible in such products as vinyl flooring and seat coverings, raincoats, shower curtains, garden hoses and even sex toys," as the L.A. Times put it, as well as in hospital equipment, nail polish and "new car smell."

Here's more from a non-U.S. source:

What are they used for?

Phthalates are primarily used as ‘plasticisers’ to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC or ‘vinyl’) plastic flexible. Ninety percent of global phthalates use is for this. Phthalates are a principle component in flexible PVC products such as toys, clothing, flooring, wallpaper and medical products.

They are used in cosmetics to add flexibility, to give an oily ‘moisturising’ film and help dissolve and fix other ingredients. They are also used as solvents in fragrances and to ‘denature’ the alcohol content of cosmetics (make it unpalatable so people won’t drink it). Alternatives to this potentially harmful phthalate addition, such as lavender oil, exist.

What is the problem with them?

Phthalates are the most abundant industrial pollutants in the environment, and are widely present in air, water, soils and sediments. Some have been measured in virtually all fresh water and marine environments including Antarctic pack ice and deep-sea jellyfish. Phthalates are released into the atmosphere during manufacture, can leach from products that contain them, can contaminate food and can be ingested, breathed or absorbed into the body.

Now that I've learned a little bit about this chemical, I'm going to pay more attention.

Maybe we should all pay more attention, huh?

More bad economic news ...

From CNN Money:

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The July jobs report is due out Friday, the same day that automakers report their U.S. sales for the month.

It's not a coincidence both are expected to show continued weakness for the U.S. economy.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that employers reduced payrolls by 75,000 jobs during the month. That would be the seventh straight month of job losses. So far this year, 438,000 jobs have been lost [my emphasis].

The unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to a four-year high of 5.6%, up from 5.5% the previous two months and 4.7% a year ago.

Meanwhile, auto sales tracker Edmunds.com is forecasting a 3.3% drop in auto sales compared to a year ago. That would mark the ninth straight month that sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis.

It's not surprising that $4 gas and concerns about their jobs have led consumers to slam the breaks on car purchases.

What might be less obvious, given the attention given to how much the economy has been hurt by problems in the housing and financial markets, is how important a healthy auto industry is to the overall jobs market.

Even after years of job cuts and plant closings by U.S. automakers, the automakers, along with their suppliers and dealership networks, are responsible for nearly 3 million jobs according to government figures for June.

But the auto sector has lost 67,000 jobs since the end of 2007, accounting for more than one in seven jobs lost overall during the current jobs slump.

Most of the layoffs have yet to be implemented. Many will come this fall when plants that normally would be gearing up for production of new trucks will be idled due to lack of demand. ...

 

Being a good listener

Dragon Mood? -- adjusting

Because of job demands, my partner, S, and I are embarking on another stretch of time where we will be living in separate houses; her here in the piney woods, me in the Detroit pied-a-terre. We're not exactly clear on how long this will be; it could be three months, six months or longer.

As we're only one week into the separation, I'm still adjusting. I notice how quiet the pied-a-terre is without her. I miss her presence, her spirit, simply her. I went the entire week without making a pot of coffee (I'm trying caffeinated tea in the morning instead). Being without coffee just wouldn't happen if S were there.

On Friday afternoon, we were reunited early. We went to a newly-opened Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. Sitting out on the patio, S talked and I listened. I mean she talked ... REALLY. It felt like she stored up all her half of the conversations from Monday through Thursday that we had not had and poured them out that Friday evening. And continued pouring Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. Endless talk about work. Less but still lots of conversation about the new baby, about extended family, about the yard. She was sharing, she was decompressing, she was downloading. Initially impatient, I finally realized that. And I'm here to be a good listener. A patient listener, a good listener.

He's gotta go

Dragon Mood? -- embarrassed to associate myself with Detroit

Who's gotta go? Why, Kwame Kilpatrick! The mayor of Detroit is under criminal investigation for perjury, obstruction of justice and other serious felony charges. Residents of metro Detroit have become accustomed to one 'Breaking News' story after another about the mayor.

Here's what Nolan Findley of the Detroit News has to say in a Sunday front page editorial:

Enough, already. The escalating disaster that is the Kwame Kilpatrick administration must end now. One more day is one too many.

The Detroit mayor placed what should be the final stamp on his ruinous tenure when he got himself involved in a physical dust-up with a Wayne County Sheriff's detective trying to serve paper on Kilpatrick's favorite city contractor, Bobby Ferguson.

It doesn't matter whether the mayor's belly bumping rises to criminal assault. He had no business interfering with an officer of the law, and his city-paid bodyguards certainly had no justification for screening a county process server.

Kilpatrick acts like a thug, hangs out with convicted thugs like Ferguson and has projected an image of thuggery on the city of Detroit.

Amen to all that! I just fear that Detroit residents don't have the fortitude to throw the thug outta office.

Welcome to the world, Conner

Dragon Mood? -- amazed and happy

Baby Watch has now turned into Baby Announcement: Conner Matthew, born Tuesday, July 22, 2008, around 4:30 p.m. in Lansing. He weighs 6 lbs. 8 oz., is 20-1/2 inches long and already knows how to make smacking sounds with his mouth and insert his index finger, certainly a curious appendage, into his mouth. Mama and Daddy are doing fine, if a bit sleep-deprived. Conner is healthy, beautiful and like all newborn babies, a miracle!

Oh yes, Conner is a magnificent king-of-the-jungle lion, an astrological Leo. The planets turned, the stars twirled and he missed being a Cancer baby by less than 10 hours. His moon is in Pisces and his ascendant is Scorpio! Here is a description of a Scorpio ascendant:

Scorpio Rising gives you a strong physique and tremendous physical stamina. Far more stubborn than you seem on the surface, you assiduously stick to your goals as long as there is a chance they will be achieved. It is difficult to convince you to change your mind once a decision has been made.

Your emotional vulnerability remains concealed unless your natal sun or moon happens to be in Cancer or Pisces. You are are friendly and while you can be rather quiet, you have quite a gregarious personality and don't mind being in the spotlight. It is highly unlikely that you, as a Scorpio rising, have that sinister or mysterious personality which popular literature tends to associate with the sign of Scorpio, but you are a keen observer and a shrewd speculator.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the transformer, and Mars, the warrior. Both planetary influences may be seen in your personality. Ambitious, energetic, you seek activities that are economically rewarding, as well as mentally or physically challenging. The jealousy associated with Mars and Pluto is minimal unless other factors in the chart support such a trait (say Scorpio, Aries or Capricorn Sun). You possess the cleverness and mechanical ability associated with Mars, as well as the innate resourcefulness associated with Pluto.

Attracted to others with strong, magnetic personalities, you are oriented toward gathering resources of all kinds. For example, you consciously or subconsciously tend to establish relationships with strong or powerful people in the belief such contacts may prove useful in some way. You can be quite secretive about personal affairs, a trait that often escapes the attention of most people you meet. You are so accommodating and pleasant that, unless others make serious attempts to probe beneath the surface, your real personality and activities may stay hidden indefinitely.

You have remarkable recuperative powers that allow you to recover from physical, mental or economic adversities that would destroy many others. When properly focused, your energy is formidable and you quietly keep going long after everyone else runs out of steam. A Scorpio Ascendant indicates potential for afflictions to the head and face as well as illnesses affecting the reproductive organs.

Interestingly enough, this Scorpio ascendant could be describing his daddy, Matthew. Oh my, what will happen in his lifetime?

Mamma Mia

Dragon Mood? -- dancing to the music of ABBA

We saw Mamma Mia Saturday night. It was ABBA's music that drew of us, of course, but the movie was filled with tremendous energy, quixotic plot shifts and lots of fun. I would definitely recommend it. And as a woman who appreciates womanly beauty, Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried are simply gorgeous. Beautiful, luscious women!

Greens

Dragon Mood? -- excited at trying new things

Saturday morning, I took myself to the Meridian Township Farmers' Market for fresh veggies. I bought kale, collard greens and Swiss chard, among other things. S and I sauteed garlic, onions and carrots before adding the greens. For my first time cooking as well as eating them, they were GOOD -- a bit mushy perhaps, but GOOD!

The second attempt, the next morning, came out even better: scrambled eggs with slightly steamed greens. Mmmm, yum!

Global, economic, ecological, cataclysmic

Dragon Mood? -- I am growing to LOVE Al Gore!

I read about this on Thursday or Friday and wanted to blog about it then. I hope people read about it, think about it and embrace it. It could make ALL the difference in our lives and the lives of future generations:

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm. ...

He said the United States and the rest of the world were facing unprecedented problems, including growing demand for electricity, dangerous changes in the climate driven largely by emissions of carbon dioxide and political instability in regions that produce much of the world’s oil.

“When we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges at the same time, we can see the common thread running through them, deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr. Gore said. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.”

His solution was to do away with all carbon-emitting forms of electricity production in the United States within 10 years, replacing them with alternatives like solar, wind and geothermal power, conservation and so-called clean-coal technology in which all carbon emissions from the burning of coal are captured and stored. It is a bold, and some say, unrealistic goal given the tremendous cost and the nation’s fractious politics. ...

Don't let Detroit die ...

Dragon Mood? -- nodding my head in agreement

Good Sunday morning to you all! A misty, rainy, VERY HUMID Sunday morning here! I'm in the weekend house, on S's laptop and I read an editorial from the Detroit News that I think has a lot of merit. It also has a lot of anger. And invective! Take a read:

A city must be awfully hard to kill. How else do you explain that Detroit is still breathing?

Detroit is down with a fatal case of chaos. The structure of government has dissolved, with every public institution in dysfunction and disarray. Last week's shouting match between City Council members and mayoral appointees looked a lot like anarchy.

And it was brought on by public officials who are all about serving themselves, rather than their people.

Kwame Kilpatrick once promised to leave a legacy as the boy wonder who gave Detroit back its dream. Now, his stubborn refusal to step aside despite facing perjury and corruption charges has assured he will be remembered as the man who strangled a city.

In other places, the City Council might be counted on to offer stability when a mayor stumbles. But this is Detroit, and the Detroit City Council on its best day barely rises above inept.

Instead of putting out the fire, the council poured on fuel by getting itself entangled in a federal bribery probe. The council can't very well yank the mayor for corruption when some of its members may be heading to the courthouse with him.

While City Hall is burning, no one seems to notice that the Detroit school board is at war with its newly hired superintendent. The school district has mismanaged its finances so thoroughly that it is just a bounced check or two away from insolvency. ...

Nolan Findley goes on to say that Detroiters need to get angry, rise up and take back their city. Gee, Nolan, here's where you lose me. I think Detroiters are so busy trying to keep their jobs (if they have them), not lose their homes to foreclosure (if they still have a home), keep food on the table (milk for $3.29 a gallon?) and oh yeah, put $4-plus a gallon gas in their aging, gas-guzzling SUVs, do they really have the energy, the fire in their collective bellies to clean up Detroit's messes?

I wonder?

the color of oh-so-kissable LIPS

Dragon Mood? -- a bit schizoid?

Lina and Yosh, my two chicks, my progeny, dearest to my heart, are at the farm in Texas this weekend. ~sigh~ Sadly, I chose not to go, so I'm experiencing these weird here/there feelings about it all. I've called them, hmm, let's see ... uh, five times in the past 24 hours? Yeah, I'm sort of a combination stalker and wistful, empty-nest mother.

SO-o-ooo, what can I do? What's with this photo over here?

This is the front door of the farmhouse. This is the door painted the color of some classy, sexy dame's LIPS. This is the door with a paint color selected by a MALE(!). This is the door that Paul and Aaron sanded, oh so lovingly, propped up against a tree trunk. This is the door I painted, oh so pleasurably, under a tree in the backyard. This is the door with the cool, soaring-swallows screen on it that Aunt Doris bought for her mama and daddy back in the day when money was tight, mama longed for nice things and daddy was too practical to spring for it. This is the door NEXT to the post that brought out the cursing, yelling part of me, all aimed at Aaron (another story that you'll never read here).

Isn't it pretty? Don't you wanna just KISS IT?

just a few shy of infinity

Dragon Mood? -- frustrated!

Ihave so MANY pictures to download off of our digital camera, it's not even funny. Like a zillion? Which as everyone knows is just shy of the cosmic, the unending, the infinite.

Are you familiar with the word, "ginormous?" Ginormous as in gi-gantic and e-normous? Curious word, isn't it? It feels like its been thrown together, a badly-made last-minute Halloween costume, you know, and then you wonder why people look at you oddly?

Well, given how little time (or is it inclination?) I have to spend time downloading digital pix off the camera, if I continue to procrastinate, these pictures will balloon into one ginormous beast of a task! Oh, save me from THAT beast!

[UPDATE]: So, now I have a ginormous number MINUS five (or is it six?) photos to download. This goofy one of me is one I downloaded and sepia-ized. Is that a word?

Twin day

Dragon Mood? -- happy for them and whooped for me

Today is THE DAY, twenty-six years ago, that S gave birth to the twins, the identical peas-in-a-pod twins, Mark and Tim. Mark Wilhelm and Timothy Louis, to be more exact.

And on a far less important and non-personal note, the news is full of headlines today about the Brangelina twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marchelina. Wow, what do you think of those names? And I thought Sunday Rose (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's just-born baby) was an unusual name!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Mark and Tim!

More about our celebration of their birthdays in a yet-to-be post.

slaying giants, one at a time ...

Dragon Mood? -- proud of us

My partner, S, and I struggle constantly to balance between work and leisure time, between being productive and having time to recharge our batteries. Sometimes, it feels like we are more successful than others.

In the past three weeks, we've accomplished several BIG tasks, akin to knocking several 500-lb. gorillas off of our backs.

First, we FINALLY settled things with our roofing contractor from the remodeling we started eight months ago! He had one dollar figure in mind; we had a lesser one in mind (surprise!). We negotiated and settled on splitting the difference ... hopefully with everyone satisfied and feeling okay about the resolution. With that agreement, we got several pesky, lingering issues resolved and promptly wrote him a check.

During our week of vacation over the Fourth of July, we FINALLY met with a financial planner, something we've been talking about for some time now. Olivia is an energetic and enthusiastic young woman, whose father I know from 30 years ago (hello, Cherry Lane apartments, Rich and Mickey, in labor with Josh at Sparrow!). More recently, S has made some investments through him. Olivia now works in concert with her dad, which gave S and I some added peace of mind. Through Olivia, we are going to consolidate our investments and 401(k)s, making it easier to track them and to make future decisions. We are hoping as are most boomers, that we are not at the edge of a precipice, preparing to watch our retirement savings be washed away in a tide of Wall Street pessimism and nosediving funds. Let's be hopeful.

And, our third giant was cut down just this past week, in the front yard of our pied-a-terre. It was the tree that was split in half by the OTHER falling tree. S cut all its branches off last fall, rendering it the quintessential Halloween tree: completely leafless, stark and scary-looking. While intentions were good, the follow-through was not and our Halloween tree was threatening to close in on its first birthday in such a state. This past week, S and I and our neighbor, Jan, felled the thing, FINALLY! S wedge-cut and sawed and shaved it down as Jan and I gamely pulled on two ends of a rope, trying to steer it away from the house and cars and anything else we didn't want damaged. Thankfully, S notched it and cut it just right. Then while she removed its limbs, Jan and I yanked and pulled and finally rolled all the pieces into one, lumpish-looking pile. Hurray for the three Amazons!

Stay tuned! More giant-slaying to come ...

Happy Fourth

Dragon Mood? -- feeling happy maybe?

H-A-P-P-Y, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY ..................

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

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..........=*=*=*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*=..........
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..........=*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*=*=*=..........
..........*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*=*=*=*..........
..........=*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*=*=*=..........
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..........=*=*=*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*=..........
..........*=*=*=*=*=h a p p y 4 t h o f j u l y=*=*..........

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

Not jaded

Dragon Mood? -- still quivering with momentary patriotism

Here in Motown, there is a curious tradition where we celebrate the Fourth of July BEFORE the Fourth of July. Like last night, on June 23rd, a whole ELEVEN days before the real deal!

Anyway, dear readers, I wanted to give you the good news: I am not jaded. Towards the end of the spectacular fireworks display over the Detroit River, with hundreds of thousands of Windsor and Detroit spectators watching (S and I comfortably ensconced in our plastic Adirondack chairs watching on the boob tube), the fireworks zooming and bursting and whizzing to patriotic music, I cried. My tears probably were due more to the music than the fireworks, but I thought, "This is a great country. I LOVE America. These fireworks represent all that is great about America and her people. I'm glad we didn't move to Canada when Bush became president!"

Life with its funny twists and turns

Dragon Mood? -- surprised at my surprise!

Between doing laundry, steaming straight creases on some incredibly rumpled new work pants and waiting for the televised fireworks, I had a realization.

Not just any realization, mind you, but a "Wow" realization: Today, June 23rd, WOULD HAVE BEEN my thirty-fifth wedding anniversary ... if I were still married. But that's not the "Wow" moment.

I had turned to S and told her that I was really glad that I was with her and that we are sharing our lives. She smiled and asked with that I'm-so-glad-you-said-that look, "Really?"

"Yeah," I replied. But if you had told me thirty-five years ago (when I was all of TWENTY!), that in 2008, I would be sitting with my PARTNER, a woman, whom I've been with ... uh, going on 22 years, I NEVER would have believed you. Thank God we don't really know what life brings us! We might find it unbelievable!

That was when my "Wow" moment hit.

Sore throat to cough

Dragon Mood? -- sick of being sick

Yes, I'm a bit chagrined to admit that I stayed home yet another day feeling ill. Tuesday night, my extremely sore throat segued into a very annoying persistent cough that kept me up too much of last night. Chest feels tight. Massive headache. I felt extremely crummy this morning.

I finished a book today: Jayber Crow, a novel by Wendell Berry. I bought it last week at a used bookstore right here in our little Motown village. It was one of three that I bought as part of my summer plan to read, read, read and NOT watch TV. I got this hardback for a whole $6. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Which is why I sort of consumed it. And now I have TWO books for the rest of the summer. NNNNOT!

Actually, Ruth brought me (at my request) the John Adams' biography that we gave Paul about six or seven Christmases ago. I'm looking forward to reading that too.

Bleccchy

Dragon Mood? -- not so good

Home again this afternoon and feeling bleccchy. If you're not sure what I mean by that, take a really sore throat, add an annoying phlegmy-sounding cough, spin your inner ear like on a merry-go-round (or a Mary-go-round, hee-hee) and you're getting close! Or just use your imagination!

Home feeling sick and crummy

Dragon Mood? -- at home, ill, feeling crummy with a summer cold

But all was not lost ... I DID DOWNLOAD FIREFOX 3.0!

Professional networking

Dragon Mood? -- feeling positive about my professional connections

One of the things that I learned from my recent eighteen month stint being regularly and securely employed is that it is highly important to network with people. (Pause while Caroline, Josh and Aaron all yell, "I TOLD YOU SO!")

Now that I have LEARNED MY LESSON, I am attempting to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Curiously enough, a guy I met at a metro Detroit career center (we were in a four-hour 'mature worker' seminar together) later sent me an email inviting me to join LinkedIn, a professional networking website. I joined with a bit of trepidation, but now I'm glad that I did. I have about 15 connections and hope to grow my network of resources.

To that end, I have placed a link on the left-hand side of this blog that looks like this:




I'll keep you posted.

...which I have not done ....

Dragon Mood? -- ???

Happy Saturday morning, everybody! A couple of years back, Saturday morning was one of my favorite times to post here. Two houses, moving the computer to the pied-a-terre and just-plain WORKING forty hours a week on not one, but TWO computers has definitely cut into my blogging time.

So I am doing something which I have not done in a darn long time! It feels good.

I'm sitting here in the 'weekend' house, the house in the pine trees, looking out the window at a wealth of green-ness. We've gotten several nice rains this past week so all the plants and the trees and the grass are perked up and looking happy.

S and I are watching our second grandbaby this evening, 21 month-old Madison. She is a pleasure to be with and she makes us both laugh. (Babies that make you laugh -- as opposed to cry -- are always a good thing.) Madison does quite a bit of baby talking, most of which I have a hard time catching the meaning. She is an escape artist -- she loves escaping from her clothes. At night, we have to put a onesie on over her diaper and underneath her jammies, in order to make sure the diaper stays on. She's also a water baby and LOVES to splash and play in the liquid stuff.

I'm also hoping to do a bit of painting this weekend. Given that painting is 90% preparation and 10% painting, that may be a bit ambitious. I've done virtually none of the prep. (Sigh!) Baby steps, remember?

wailing "... Ju-u-ulia JUNE ..."

Dragon Mood? -- feeling like I could use a little bluegrass energy, a la Alison Krauss

Hokey SMOKES, Bullwinkle, it's June the first and I've decided to write in my blog. It's been a curious couple of months: work consuming all my Monday-to-Friday energy with the weekends busting in for serious rest and relaxation.

As for the resumption of blogging, it's all Caroline's fault. She's writing in her blog ... AGAIN. While talking on the phone (as I was driving back to the house-of-the-pine-trees), she revealed (somewhat fearfully? trepidatiously? sheepishly?) that she had begun blogging again. I was surprised at her demeanor. Blogging, like bathroom time, is your OWN business.

But, I was glad to hear that she's writing again. She is, as the proud and TOTALLY OBJECTIVE mother that I am, a writer deserving of superlatives. Wonderful! Awesome! Articulate! Engaging! Conversational! Informative! Passionate! I love reading what she writes!

That's all I gots to say.

Oh, except that this post's title is a reference to some lyrics on the outstanding CD, Alison Krauss + Union Station LIVE

Dragon Mood? -- slightly smug at my discovery and slightly chagrined at my duh-ness

Because I'm a regular reader (along with 10 million other lucky people) of Dooce, I recently learned about her winning four (wasn't it four?) Bloggies, an annual award given to best of the best blogs amidst all the things World Wide Web-bish.

It suddenly dawned on this oh-so-quick Dragon, gee, maybe I should look over what other blogs won awards? They might be interesting or well-designed or fun to read?

While my Bloggie-award-winning tour was by no means exhaustive, I did find this gem of a blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. What little I've learned about her, I find interesting and fun and it makes me want to check back on her writing again soon. Plus, she's got some awesome photos of western skies, horses and cowboys.

And ... not to sound stalker-like, but I'm really curious where the heck she is? Wyoming? Eastern Washington state? Montana? Possibly even somewhere in California? What piques my curiosity is there appear to be no mountains or mountain ranges anywhere in her photos. Hmmm.

Check it out.

Funny excerpts

Dragon Mood? -- amused

Here are some funny excerpts from the political blog, Daily Kos. They tickled my funny bone so I thought you might find them funny too.

• An Obama surrogate unfairly savaged Hillary Clinton and resigned after apologizing profusely. A Clinton surrogate unfairly savaged Barack Obama and resigned only after vowing to unleash a plague of locusts and Gonorrhea---and gonorrhea-infested locusts---across the United States, while personally supervising the onslaught from her lair. A McCain surrogate had a mild case of constipation which he resolved with All-Bran.


• The traditional media kept shouting at me that it's all Howard Dean's fault that a small group of idiots in Florida and Michigan screwed primary voters by breaking party rules, that Howard Dean should pay for do-overs with his own MasterCard, and that Howard Dean single-handedly caused global warming and AIDS in Africa. I won't believe it until Wikipedia confirms it.


• A phone rang in the White House at 3am. Bush handed it to Laura and told her to take a message.


• Condi Rice fucked up peace talks in the Middle East. Again.


• Ninety six percent of the world's seas became either overfished or polluted. Dolphins began plotting with sea horses to eradicate the human parasites once and for all.


• Iran's president was greeted with sweets and flowers in Iraq.



• Southwest Airlines and managers in the FAA were busted for blowing off safety inspections of their aircraft. (Naturally, no one has actually been fired yet even though 44 planes have since been grounded). Whistleblowers said their first clue was when the airline purchased a hundred thousand rolls of duct tape.



• George W. Bush sang a song containing jokey lyrics about Katrina, Scooter Libby and Iraq at the Gridiron Club dinner. The D.C. press corps found it so funny that cocktail weenies shot out their noses.



• Doctors admitted that all those colonoscopies they've given people over the years have been worthless because they didn't know about the "flat" lesions that actually cause colon cancer. Congress unanimously approved a measure forcing those doctors to drink a quart of that pre-colonoscopy goopshit every day for a year as punishment.



• The price of oil rose to the point where it's now sold exclusively through the Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog.



• Bush vetoed a bill outlawing torture in America, paving the way for Dick Cheney to keep making public statements through the end of his term.


• China announced that it now has enough long-range, nuclear-powered hovercraft to transport its entire one-billion-man army across the Pacific Ocean. In response, the Pentagon immediately requested another trillion dollars for the war in Iraq.


• Cracker Jack announced that the new "toy surprise" they're putting in each box is a home mortgage certificate.


• New York governor Eliot Spitzer resigned for spending up to $5,500 an hour ($92 per minute!) screwing hookers with gold-plated vaginas and diamond-encrusted nipples. Republican Senator David Vitter was taken to the hospital with a life-threatening bout of convulsive laughter.


• One in four teenage girls developed a sexually-transmitted disease. Gay guys issued a brief statement: "Don’t look at us!"


• And Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island was busted when cops found pot in her ride.

A rose is a rose is a rose

Dragon Mood? -- ???

Or 'What's in a name?' I couldn't resist this meme, from LutheranChik's "L" Word Diary:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Heidi Protege

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Vanilla Birkenstock. I definitely gotta work on gangsta name and my street cred.

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Dog.

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Elizabeth LaGrange. My birth town is in the heart of redneck Texas, where the 'a' is long and drawn out with a twang. But Elizabeth LaGrahngzhe sounds so ooh-la-la opera-ish.

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name): Sob-ma. Doesn't exactly have the cachet of Obi-Wan Kenobi, does it?

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Orange Bloody Mary. Ennnnnh ... sound of rejection

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Albert John.

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Cashmere Mist Peppermint Bark

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your fifth grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Putz Paris. Now this one I like!

10. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Autumn Iris

11. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Honey Crisp (Sauguatuck) Hoodie ... now that doesn't sound so bad, does it?

12. HIPPIE NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Kashi White Pine. Very granola-y, tree-hugging name

The color white ... as in snow?

White, the color of ...

• Traditionally, a sign of purity, virginity and peace
• Vestal Virgins of Rome were dressed in white
• The flag of surrender
• Represented by the metal silver
• In heraldic terminology, argent
• Chinese color of the West and the Earth
• A Hindu color of mourning
• The Japanese color of death
• The color of feather used to denote cowardice
• The color of Jesus' clothing after the Resurrection
• The Moon
• The Roman color of national mourning after the death of a Caesar
• A Persian symbol of divinity
• In socioeconomics and collars, it symbolizes the managerial class
• In magic, it implies the Devil is not involved
• Astrological number 1
• Birth sign Leo
• The opening move in chess
• The color of an insignificant taradiddle (little white lie)
• The Pueblo Indian color of the East
• Snow and of course, the interminable winter we're having.

Bad time on [his] dime

Dragon Mood? -- another reason to love Izzo: his plain-spoken-ness

Coach Izzo on the Big Ten Network:

"I think it has been a PR nightmare," Izzo said Monday. "And, I think it has hurt all of us."

...

Those who don't [have the Big Ten Network] are fed up, and Izzo has empathy for them.

"We have so many things right now that we're trying to fight -- the price of tickets, the economy of our state -- and then we throw this at them," he said.

"Five years from now, if cable companies pick it up, does it end up better than it was and we're just going through a bad time? I just don't like the bad time being on my dime."

This interminable winter in lovely shades of pink and blue

Dragon Mood? -- the quietness of this photo calms me

From the talented Michigan photographer, Capt Piper, I am reprinting one of her photos from Flickr. Gosh, can this woman capture nature's beauty?

hiccups

Dragon Mood? -- amused

Our bedroom door cracked open Saturday morning and Preston shyly peeked his head in. "Grandma!" he exclaimed as he charged towards our bed, "I got the hiccups!" S replied, "You do? Lemme see." At which point, Preston leaned in and opened his mouth wide for S to catch a glimpse of those pesky hiccups.

realization

Dragon Mood? -- relaxing

Driving home from work, listening to NPR, I realized there's several things going on in our world this week that are once in a lifetime events. Consider this:

• Fidel Castro resigning after 50 years in power in Cuba.
  
  
• Barack Obama securing wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii, reinforcing the perception that he is the peoples' choice and unstoppable in his pursuit of the presidency.
  
  
• A lunar eclipse tonight, predicted to be blood red and possibly visible here in Motown? Be hopeful that we have a clear night, cloudless night.
  

Silly Grandma!

Dragon Mood? -- remembering with amusement

Early Saturday morning, S and I had the pleasure of waking up to hear our grandson, Preston, exclaim, "Daddy, we got to whisper!  Grandmas are SLEEPING!"   S and I looked at each other and chuckled.

Later, up and out of bed, making coffee in the kitchen, I told Preston, now almost three, that today is Grandma's birthday. 

"Grandma's BIRTHDAY!"  he echoed.  He jumped up and down in excitement and patted his own head.

"Tresents, tresents, Grandma's gonna get tresents!"  he predicted.

S corrected him, "Preston, YOU're my present!"   He looked puzzled.

I interjected, "Preston, is Grandma being silly?  Tell her you're not a present, you're a boy!"

He got a big smile on his face, immediately turned  to S and exclaimed, "Silly Grandma!  I'm not a tresent, I'm a BOY!"

a cold Monday night

Dragon Mood? -- sipping hot raspberry tea, relaxing

Monday night, relaxing inside while it's frigidly cold outside. The high today was 14 degrees. The low is below zero. Brrrr! To keep warm, I'm watching PBS Antiques Roadshow and surfing the internet. S is playing a high-stakes game of Spider (you know, solitaire).

It's all OFFICIAL now!

Dragon Mood? -- eating licorice and still waking up

Yup, it's still sinking in but I'm all OFFICIAL now: a honest-to-goodness, bona fide employee of The Company. (big sigh) WOW!

Mondays and Fridays tend to be the busiest days of the week for me at work. Yesterday was no exception. Work was flying in faster than I could process it or send it back out. And ... Murphy's Law was making an unwelcome appearance in my work universe; anything that could go wrong, did. Suffice to say that by 3:30 p.m., my scheduled time to head home, I was still up to my ears in alligators, beating back the chaos. At 3:45, my phone rings. It's an HR person asking if we can meet in 15 minutes for me to SIGN THE PAPERS? Are you kidding? YOU BET! So-o-ooo, I guess there was a good reason that my workday was chaotic and I was delayed leaving. I filled out forms, printed and signed my name several times over, including the all-important W-4 form. Uncle Sam must have his share.

And, while I haven't blogged about this, another aspect of this, subtle-yet-pretty-darn-important transition is that I AM NO LONGER A CONTRACT WORKER. I am a salaried employee. What does that mean? Well, a very concrete example is that I was ill with the flu on Monday and Tuesday of this week. That would be my second and third day on the payroll with The Company. As a salaried employee, I GOT PAID while at home, laying in my bed with that sledgehammer headache and my roiling, nauseated stomach. Imagine that! In my work universe, that's an UNKNOWN thing! You work, you get paid. You don't work, you don't get paid. That's what I've known for the past eighteen years. Forgive me, dear diary, if this ol' brain still hasn't quite got its figurative arms wrapped around that NEW CONCEPT!

And my apologies for all the CAPS in this post, but this feels BIG, ya know? I've got to express all these feelings somehow!

New-to-me website

Dragon Mood? -- sleepy, waking-up mood

Here's a new-to-me website that I've visited several times in the past week: Unclutterer. It's a blog about living and working in a simpler, uncluttered environment. It's a group blog. Check it out.

Opportunities AND Patience

Dragon Mood? -- positive, hopeful

For a little weekend, astrologically-oriented diversion, here are some short-term forecasts for me, myself and I. You know, the three faces of Mary? Forecast to begin this month ... Oh! .... and these are compliments of Astrodienst.

Jupiter trine Jupiter: An opportunity

Beginning of February 2008 until end of September 2008: This influence usually represents a time of optimism and positive thinking in your life. You seem to be at a quiet point of balance that enables you to look over the affairs of your life and get a good perspective on them. Therefore, it is a good time to make long-range plans and to reorganize. You should use this time to gain new perspectives through education or travel or by participating in one of the consciousness raising activities or groups that exist now.

This is a time of psychological and physical equilibrium. If you have recently been ill in either body or mind, this influence will help tremendously with the healing process.

This is also a good time to examine your ideals and your goals, for it may be possible to actualize them in various ways now. At other times there is too much tension in your life or too much resistance from others. If you are involved in any movement for reform, now is a good time to take some positive action. Or you might become more involved in religion or philosophy, because you need to know much that is beyond the apparent order of things.

It is quite possible that you will do nothing during this time, because it gives you a feeling of balance but no drive to do anything in particular. You have an unusual sense of ease and relaxation now. This is also a good time to travel, both for relaxation and for educational reasons.

The important point to remember with this influence is that it is fundamentally an opportunity. You will not feel driven by any energies, nor will you feel any resistance to your efforts to do something. You can make great use of this time, but you have to take the initiative.

Neptune opposition Pluto: Please wait

End of February 2008 until mid December 2009: This influence signifies encounters that cause various aspects of your life to be transformed. Most commonly, this transformation will take the form of disappearances of persons, circumstances or even possessions that you have become used to. You will also encounter forces that try to reveal aspects of your life that you have long kept hidden from yourself. Initially you will probably resist these revelations, believing that they cannot teach you anything very constructive. An influence like this often reveals aspects of ourselves that we have been taught to consider evil or at least negative. These aspects are often a source of positive energy, but because we refuse to acknowledge them, that energy is wasted and is usually out of our control. There will be much psychological compulsiveness at this time, but the less you resist facing yourself, the less difficulty you will have.

On another level you will be shown a spiritual dimension of your existence that can immensely broaden your life and experience, if you are willing to look at it. This dimension may seem so far beyond your ordinary life that you will consider it impossible to accept, but this knowledge is necessary for your growth.

On a practical level, avoid taking at face value any new encounters with persons or circumstances. Even when persons are not trying to deceive you, they may do so unintentionally, because you won't immediately understand what they are really showing you. Until you have arrived at this level of understanding, simply adopt a waiting attitude and commit yourself to as little as possible.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Doris!

Dragon Mood? -- cozy & warm on the internet

Saturday morning, once again home amongst the pine trees, now covered in soft, fluffy snow. We had a storm blow through all of lower Michigan yesterday that dumped various amounts of snow: Detroit less, mid-Michigan more. Thankfully, we didn't get hit with the worst of it and I was able to go to work yesterday and drive back here last night.

Today is my Aunt Doris's 84th birthday. So here's a BIG internet-ish, cyber-ific HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her! On a more 'grounded' level, I called her on my cell phone, sang "Happy Birthday" to her and we chatted for 30 minutes or so. It was a good conversation. What a woman! At 84, I'd love to have her spunk, her get-up-and-go, her optimism!

Hoping metamorphosed

Dragon Mood? -- excited, pleased, happy

What I've been hoping for has finally happened? Bush out of office? Nope, we've still got to endure another 11 months 24 days 1 hours 47 minutes 9 seconds of his leadership (see this site). Spartans clinching the Big Ten championship? Nope, but they're definitely on track to do so. My big news is that I got an o-fficial job offer from The Company I've been working for the past seven months -- a bonafide, slightly-more-money offer of direct employment! Whoo-hoo!!

Friday post

Halleleujah, it's Friday!   This has felt like a lo-o-oooong week and I'm ready for a three-day weekend.

I still have heard nothing from The Company's HR Department regarding being offered a direct position.   Everyone I have spoken to forewarned me to expect a long, unpredictable wait.  Looks like their predictions may be accurate.

S and I met with our builder on Tuesday night.  Other than a few odds and ends, he's pretty well wrapped up the remodeling of the front of our pied-a-terre.  It looks fabulous!  It really does ... better than I could have imagined or anticipated.  The building inspector came by yesterday (Thursday) and put his stamp of approval on it, as well.  We'll probably need to pay Paul his last draw here within the week.

Wednesday afternoon, Paul's best buddy, Tim, came by and picked up all the scrap metal left from the remodeling.  He was going to take it to a recycling place and hopefully get $100-200 for the lot of it.  Tim is unemployed, struggling to make ends meet and we appreciated all his help on the project.  I was happy he was willing to haul it all off and also happy to see our driveway, clear and open again.

I'm going to post this now and hopefully I can post again before the day is done!

Welcome email

Ireceived a welcome email the other day; it was entitled "Company Opportunity" and was an invitation to fill out an application for direct employment with The Company that I've been working with for the past seven months.

I went in to my boss's boss's office and thanked him for the opportunity to apply.  He encouraged me to fill it out that evening and get it turned in the next morning -- all of which I did.

This morning, I heard from an account executive for the contract house with whom I've been working.  He informed that The Company wanted to know what they (the contract house) were paying me.  Eek!

I'm feeling excited and yet scared that The Company may extend me an offer that will include a low-ball salary.  I'm not quite sure how to handle that.  My income has either declined or been flat (and flat with inflation, to my way of thinking, is equivalent to declining) for the past eight years.  Talk about the eroding middle-class income!  I could be the poster child for that!

I asked for an annual salary that is 20% above what I currently make ... and currently I'm paid strictly as an hourly worker. 

I need to talk to some people.  Some of my peeps, you know?  Get a feel as to what to expect.  What's reasonable.  What's not.  Stay tuned.

Hoping it's not too late to say ...

Dragon Mood? -- rusty and uncertain

Happy New Year to everyone! ....... I have been SO OUT OF IT with regard to blogging, I hardly know where to start. Curious, isn't it, how rusty and unfamiliar my blogging skills have become?

S and I returned from a brief vacation to Washington D.C. early New Year's Eve. We had time to order some Chinese take-out, pick up a couple of videos and settle in for a quiet celebration before 12 inches of snow began to fall. Whew, that was close! We both felt immensely grateful that we didn't have to drive the 570+ miles through snow and slippery roads to get home.

Other updates: I am currently in my seventh month of the new job, in which I am feeling much more confidence, as well as comfortableness with my coworkers. My boss wrote a letter of recommendation that I be hired direct about a month ago. The wheels of the Human Resources Department grind slowly so I've heard nothing yet, but I'm hopeful.

Update on our pied-a-terre: The remodeling that was supposed to take a couple of weeks is now approaching two months. Our builder, Paul, sadly had to layoff his crew for lack of work, so the work is being done by Paul and his friend, Tim. A crew of two builds more slowly than a crew of five or six. Also, Mother Nature has blessed us with several good snowstorms as well as some unusually frigid temperatures that would chase even the hardiest outdoors person inside to a warm room.

Here are a couple of pictures of the latest and greatest on the house:





Suffice to say that we're pleased with the results and dealing with the slowed pace of progress on the house. We're both looking forward to sitting on our new porch when spring arrives!

There's lots more to tell, but I'll call this good for now and hit the "Publish Post" button. It feels good to return to blogging.