Yes we can!

For the first time in my life, I feel really connected to my country. I'm so proud of the people of America, and most specifically, the people of my generation. For years, we've been labeled apathetic at best, unpatriotic and uncaring at worst. But not anymore! This time, we cared, we acted, we fought and we voted. I'm certainly ecstatic at the election outcome (keeps me from having to move to Canada), but I'm also incredibly proud of all of those who got out to support other views and other parties. That's America, baby! God bless her!

I can only hope that this excitement and action didn't end yesterday with the conclusion of the election season. I hope my generation doesn't go back to the status quo, back to apathy and emptiness. Apathy will not fix this nation, our economy, our planet. We need action. Perhaps, like me, politics is not your favorite arena - then plant a tree, build a park, read to a child, help your neighbor, heck, even meet your neighbor - whatever you can do to improve this place, do it. Do something. Because now we know, we can do what we set our minds to. Yes we can!

"This is our moment. This is our time. To those who tell us we won't, or we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: 'Yes, we can'."
~President Elect Barack Obama

Since it is an election year... VOTE!

So let me say right off the bat, no I did not get another dog (so don't worry mom!). But a friend of mine is trying to get her dog on the cover of the next yellow pages down here. First off, I think this would be sweet, because then I'd know someone famous (even if he's a dog). And secondly, because he has the funniest ears EVER! So take a look at the photo, and if you agree with me about his photogenic-ness, go to http://www.windstreamcoverdognewark.com/Dog_Detail.aspx?ID=507 and vote for Beau!

Beau the Wonder Visla! Vote for Beau!

Thanks guys!

C25K

So, once again, I have neglected blogging - but this time I have an excuse!  I'm officially an old person now, and old people forget things like where they put their keys or kids or when they last blogged.  Truth be told, I don't feel terribly old, but according to my students, married = old, and I am indeed married now, so I must be old.

Now, since I'm old, I think it's time for me to try something new - like a midlife crisis, if you will.  So I've decided to try a program called C25k(http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml).  It's a training program that's meant to take old farts like me off the couch and get them running a 5K in two months.  I've never considered myself a runner by any means.  Really, I've always thought runners were a little nuts.  But I've always envied their get-up-and-go-ness, and I'd like a bit of it for myself (plus, I'm tired of getting beat to the ball in soccer).  Something else I found, that I think will be helpful is some music that was recorded to help people on the C25K plan time themselves without looking at a watch (http://www.djsteveboy.com/intervals.html), since looking at a watch totally psychs me into thinking time has stopped.

Anyhow, I'm starting this plan next Tuesday (9/16).  Would anyone like to do it with me?

So much to do, so little time to blog about it...

I should begin by apologizing to my faithful readers (the fact that I have any still amazes me, but I love you guys!). I know it's been a super long time since I've blogged, but with teaching and wedding planning and everything else, I've been too busy doing things to write about them. So here is a list of the blogs that are stuck in my head - you're all welcome to wait for them to be written, or just ask me about them if you are afraid it'll be another few months before I write again.

Top 10 Things I Should Blog About
1. The adventures of Maria's plywood.
2. Why Steve and Megan don't have a future as cat burglers.
3. How you spell burglers so that my computer doesn't suggest beefburgers (incidentally, I hope Steve and I don't have a future as beefburgers either).
4. The continuing adventures of Maria's plywood.
5. Why Megan is getting a little better at being a cat burgler, but still may break her neck trying.
6. Why Megan and Steve need a deadbolt they have keys to, so they can stop trying to break into their own darn house.
7. Bruce Springsteen + Bruce Lee = Megan's new persona.
8. Forget water-boarding... the supreme court now needs to decide if bringing in brownies for my students mitigates the torture of giving them algebra exams.
9. Larry Flint was born in Kentucky, and why I know this (this blog may not be suitable for young viewers... parental discretion is advised).
10. Pre-marital counseling... should go to the supreme court along with the algebra exams (but we didn't get brownies with the counseling).

So now you all have something to look forward to... assuming I get back this century to blog about this stuff. For now though, I'm looking forward to falling face first into my pillow and immediately beginning to snore. G'night y'all!

A Forward I Actually Appreciated...

This has to be one of the best singles ads ever printed. It was listed in the Atlanta Journal.

SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work; wearing only what nature gave me.

Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Daisy, I'll be waiting....

Please scroll down.....

Over 15,000 men found themselves talking to the Atlanta Humane Society...

If you don't pass this along, a dog
Will come out and pee on your computer!

I guess you didn't

A Note From Gator...

Hi everyone! It's Gator here.

I just wanted to say hello to you all, now that I'm moved in and getting to know my new house and family. I've already made friends with my sister, Katie...

...though we still argue a bit over who should have the better spot on the couch. But don't worry, we're just having fun.So I really like my new house, and my mom said I should show you all around a bit. Here's the front of the house where dad put up his new flag today. He's really proud of it (even though mom helped him put it up crooked).

This is where we sleep. It's pretty crowded right now, since mom still makes me sleep in a crate. She says it's so I won't mark the walls, but I don't really understand why she wouldn't want me to help them smell good...
This here is mine and Katie's room. Yep, it is the biggest room in the whole house, and it's gone to the dogs.

Here's mom's office...

... and dad's "man cave." Katie and I don't hang out in there very often since there's nothing fun for dogs to do in there (I wonder why humans have such boring rooms?).
Here's the bathroom, the one that has the tiled ceiling.

Here's the kitchen. There's really good crumbs on the floor sometimes. If you want, I'll share when you visit. Lucky Charms are my favorite!Here's the back yard. The fence will be here in a couple of weeks. Then Katie and I will be able to run all over the place (and visit the dogs in the back corner... woof!).
This is the garage. It's another boring human place...
Here's mom and dad's new mailbox. They said Robertson will be my new last name in August. I don't understand why I'll be changing my name, but I think Gator Robertson has a nice ring to it, don't you?
So until you all come visit, Katie and I will be waiting...

Love,

Gator

Adventures in Relocation

So the good news: we've got a house!!!

The better news: I've got lots of funny moving stories!

I'd never given it much thought before, because I'd never had the luxury of moving in stages, but if one packs stuff from the top down, one ends up with nowhere to put the stuff from the top, and no room to move the stuff from the bottom into the house. We discovered this when we packed and moved all of the books and desk contents from our apartment to the new house (for those who don't know, I have a rather ridiculously sized book collection that I refuse to part with). I did pack the book shelves, but once we'd packed these things, there wasn't room in the truck to pack the desks. So we get to the new house and unload... and realize I also had forgotten to pack the shelves part of the bookshelves, and just packed the frame! Thus the house quickly filled with boxes of books and desk stuff, and nowhere to empty these boxes to. The easy solution would seem to be go get the desks and reassemble them at the new house, right? Except the new house was filled with boxes, so there wasn't much room for assembling desks... oops. Needless to say, after some creative rearranging, we managed to get the desks and the bookshelves up...

... in the dark. Why was it dark, you ask? Because the same brilliant me who forgot the bookshelf shelves also packed the lamps... and no light bulbs! Our new house is kind of an older style that doesn't have a whole lot of overhead lighting (only in the bathrooms, kitchen, and hallway). So those lamps were pretty important for seeing what was going on in the bedroom, office, mancave, etc. - or would have been, if I'd packed the bulbs.

And now, just when you thought I couldn't be any more ridiculous... I managed to get myself stuck in the shower this morning! Yep... stuck... inside the shower... See, the new tub has solid sliding doors instead of a normal shower curtain. Being in a hurry this morning, I got into the shower and closed the door a little too vigorously, I guess, because it jumped off it's designated track and got jammed in the path of the door on the other side, so neither one could move. Once I finished my shower and realized I couldn't exit the tub (and didn't have my glasses, so I couldn't see to attempt to fix the door) I start yelling for Steve - except Steve is in the mancave with his music up all the way, and he can't hear me. So now I'm very stuck... Needless to say, since I'm at work writing this blog, I eventually managed to free myself in a feat of nearsighted engineering that I'll leave to those with vivid imaginations (just remember, I'm the one who walks into walls at night without my glasses). Thankfully, I'm no longer stuck - and I'll definitely be more gentle with the shower door from now on.

So now a couple of questions I would like to pose, to those of you who've read this far:
#1 How does one put tile on the ceiling of a bathroom (actually 2 bathrooms in our house) and get it to dry before it falls off? And why would one want to tile a ceiling? In case you're curious, our bathrooms are basically tiled cubes, hee hee. I'll post pictures once I unpack the camera.

#2 Who ever thought to put a window in a shower? Were they expecting people like me to break the shower doors and get stuck? I did actually consider climbing out the window and into the back yard naked this morning (it was dark, but unfortunately the front door was still locked, so I nixed that plan).

#3 So when are y'all going to come visit me???

Okay, so I guess I've babbled enough for now (it's time for class at any rate). In spite of all my misadventures in moving, I'm super excited about having a place of our own! I still can't really believe it - it seems too grown up to be my life. It kind of feels like I'm house-sitting for someone again, and they're going to come home and take the house back, hee hee. But it's really our stuff there, and our name on the mailbox (at least it will be once I stick the letters on)... it's really our house!


P.S. Our house has plenty of space for visitors... hint, hint. =)

Exciting Stuff

So I found out yesterday afternoon that Steve and I are going to be homeowners... TOMORROW! Yikes! It's almost surreal. I mean, buying houses is something that grownups do, and I still spend a lot of time feeling like an overgrown teenager. But I am really excited about the house - especially because it means we can finally bring Gator home! We close on the house tomorrow at 2:00. I'll write more then (actually, probably on Saturday, once they come and turn our internet on at the new place).

One more thing...

It appears as though I haven't updated the house situation in awhile. Steve and I have made it through the housing inspection on this one, and we're hoping to close on or before the 27th of this month. This house is significantly smaller than the last one, but it's in WAY better shape and there isn't much that needs to be fixed. I really like it alot! Last time it seemed that the whole house buying process was just zooming along, and I wanted it to slow down, but this time, I just want to move in...

... like, yesterday...

=)

Anyhow, here's the house:

Meet Gator...

This is Gator, Katie's soon-to-be big brother (actually, he's quite a bit smaller than her). I found him on petfinder.com, and Steve, Katie and I went to meet him today. He's super sweet and he and Katie got along famously! The nice folks at Sadie's Animal Rescue and Adoption have agreed to keep him for us for a couple of weeks - just until we get into the new house. I really wanted to take him home today, but we were afraid it would be pretty traumatic to move into one house and then move again right away. So I guess until then it's "see you later, Gator."

Blogging Intervention?

This one's for you, Maria... =)

Hee hee hee....

Window shopping for houses...

So Steve and I decided not to continue pursuing the house we'd been trying to buy. We got the inspection done, and there were just too many things that would need to be fixed very soon (and we aren't going to have a whole lot of cash on hand after the closing costs). The furnace and air conditioner were both about 30 years old, the water heater was all messed up (and moderately hazardous), there was a small gas leak in the crawl space, a thin spot in the roof, and the radon levels were something like 7 times what is normally called safe. But it was mostly all stuff we couldn't see on our own (thank goodness we have a good housing inspector!). I was a bit bummed out by it all, but it definitely was better to know now than to find out the day after we bought it, because all told, we may have been looking at an extra $10k or so in repairs in the first year.

So we're on to a new house now... one with brand new heating and cooling, a recent water heater and a newer roof. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the possibilities for repairs. It's quite a bit smaller than the first house, but the first house was probably a lot more space than we needed. I'm pretty antsy about getting out of our teensy apartment, so keep your fingers crossed. =)

Other than that... this semester is shaping up to be pretty ridiculous. I'm taking the hardest 3 classes I've ever had (plus tennis... but I'm just auditing that for fun) and then teaching Calc III recitation. YIKES! I'm actually just blogging to kill time until some of my profs come in to give me some hints on the homework that is due tomorrow. But I suppose it's still more fun than having a real grownup job... I mean, I do get a month off for Christmas and three for summer break! =)

I guess that's about it for me, but Steve is liking his job a whole lot better now. He got transferred to a group working on a new construction crane, so he actually gets to design stuff now instead of just fixing old helicopter drawings. He also decided (rather wisely, I think) not to pursue his MBA right now. He was just far too busy, and not interested in the material at all, to keep it up for the next 3-4 years.

As for Katie, she still nuts, but we love her. People and their pets... enough said... hee hee.

So I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to go try and find some profs, and keep hiding from the weather (it SNOWED here last night... my plans of moving south seem to have been foiled! Drat!). Stay warm out there.

It's been awhile...

So, it's been pointed out to me that I'm pretty delinquent in my blogging. I didn't realize, but it has been awhile. It's strange that when there's so much going on that I could be writing about, there's so much going on that I don't have time to write. So excuses aside, here is the much anticipated update:

I successfully finished my first semester of grad school (with a lot less freaking out than I usually do). I managed to get all A's, but before you all start with the "see, I told you so" business, you should know that these were not your average A's. First off, I worked my tail off for them. Those of you who know me, know that I'm the queen of procrastination, and not a big fan of spending lots of time on homework. Here, neither of those things will fly. The second thing you should know is that grading here is freaking voodoo. As an undergrad, I used to figure out exactly what I would need on the final to get each grade... here, as an example, I didn't get more than a 50% on the first 3/4 of the assignments in my algebra class, but I still got an A in the class. CRAZY!

Kate and I made it up to Muskegon for Christmas. Katie actually did really well on the car ride, and she had a blast in the snow. I also took her to DogStar Ranch. She LOVED it!


It was really great to get to see my friends and family - and I had a great Christmas. But I had to come home a bit early, because:

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!

We've been working on it for a little while now. We found a house that we like:

And we even agreed to terms with the sellers. But since it's a pre-forclosure sale, we need to have their lenders agree to the terms too. And they agreed to all the terms except they want us to close on the house in 14 days! We tried to to get them to agree to at least 3 weeks, but they wouldn't. So now, we're going to try to close on the house, beginning to end, in 2 weeks! Hang on to your hats, everyone!!! Hopefully it'll work, because I REALLY like this house, and it's got a great backyard for Katie (once we fence it).

And that brings us to today... the first day of the new semester. I think my classes are going to be even tougher this semester than they were the last time around, but I'm sure I'll get through them just the same. And it helps that I'm not worried about getting B's anymore, because I know that even if I get a B, I'll have kicked butt to earn it! And there's no shame in that... I am a little nervous about teaching this semester, because I'm TA-ing Calc III, which I don't remember all that well. But on the bright side, we're using the Stewart Calculus book, which is the same book (although about 100 editions later) that I used when I learned Calc. I'm sure it will work out fine, and it'll look darn good on a resume someday.

So that's what's been going on. I hope you've all enjoyed the update. =)