Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Don't worry I won't tell anyone how young you are ;-)

Hope you had a great day, and that this year is just as wonderful for you.

hard to remember

I'm finding it hard to remember what it was like before work got so busy.  I guess I used to have time not only to write on the blog, but also to actually think of interesting things to write about.  now, I've been reduced to writing about work, the weather, etc.  That kind of stuff is no fun.  And yet I feel compelled to write something. 

So, I'll write about mac and cheese.  Ooey gooey macaroni and cheese.  My Boss brought some in that was leftover from an event she had catered.  The caterers are known for their authentic "southern" food.  And this mac and cheese is good!  I'm sure it has like 500 calories or more in a cup of it, but it is so hard to resist.  I'm a comfort food person.  I like that sort of stuff, and I'm willing to pay for it at a restaurant. I know other people who think it is a waste of money to order 'comfort food' at a restaurant.  I say pshaw!  When someone can make mac and cheese this good, they deserve to be paid for their efforts!

maggie update

Just wanted to let you all know that we got the results back from maggie's lump pathology and it shows all signs of being benign.  The only thing is that there were no normal healthy cells around the margins of the mass they removed, which means some melanoma is still  on her.  We have two options for right now.  We can take her toe off which would "cure" her of the melanoma, or we can watch the toe and see if it comes back, and then take the toe off if necessary.  I think we've decided to take the second option.

Her surgery wound also got infected, so we are dealing with that for her (antibiotics and creams).  They gave us a bigger "cone" for her, in the hopes that she wouldn't be able to get to the toe to lick, but somehow she has figured out how to get to it.  I'm not sure how big they make those cones, but we may need to see if they have an even longer one. 

We take her to the vet again today, so, hopefully we can get some of this figured out.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Here's to a wonderful birthday!

May your days be sunny and your nights full of stars.
I hope you have a great birthday today.
I love you!

Busy with the in-laws

They arrived last night, and today David and his dad already started to add some more outlets to the garage so that David can hook up all the tools his dad is giving to him. You should have seen David yesterday when he picked me up from work, you couldn't have wiped the smile off of his face for anything. He is so happy to be getting those tools, and I think he is also probably really happy and proud to show his dad our house.

My only question is whether I will ever see my husband again once he gets his woodshop up and running. He may be spending all his time in the garage. Good for him. I know he loves to do that stuff.

return the favor--pay it forward

When I was an RA here where I work, I was able to work on papers with some of the professional staff members which were subsequently presented at national meetings and published in proceedings.  I was allowed to be the first author on all of them.  Now that I am professional staff, I am so happy that I can do the same thing for the RA's who work for me.  There is a conference next summer in Hawaii (!!!) that we are submitting some abstracts to in the next week or so and I've told the RA's that they will be the first author.  I hope that makes them as happy as it made me.  I'm glad I can help them out this way. And, just maybe we'll all get to go to Hawaii next summer!

surgery went well

Got a call from the vet--the surgery went well, and we are going to pick her up in about 45 minutes. We won't find out about the malignancy for 10-14 days.  But for now, Maggie made it through! 

surgery today

Maggie goes in for her surgery today.  We dropped her off this morning, and we should get her back sometime after 3pm.  It is a little bit scary.  Actually, what has me scared now is the anesthesia and putting her under.  I guess when animals (and people) get older, general anesthesia becomes a trickier process.  Anyway,  we'll have to wait and see.  I'm carrying my cell phone everywhere with me in case they need to get a hold of me.

rocks

This weekend we went to a place where they sell lots of rocks.  Tons of different kinds, and shapes, and all sorts of stuff.  And let me tell you, rock is expensive!  I mean, some of the stuff we are talking about is the same stuff that you just find out in nature.  And they charge a boatload for it.  We are looking into doing some 'hardscaping' with rocks in the backyard, and putting down a flagstone patio instead of the cracked concrete we currently have.  And some of the flagstone we looked at was $500 per ton.  Now, I know a ton sounds like alot, but if it is heavy rock, it doesn't really get you very far.  For example, on one kind of rock we looked it, we calculated that we could get about 7 rocks and that would weigh a ton (2000 lbs). 

This isn't something we'll be doing right away.  Our bathroom definitely takes priority, but it was good to get a sense of how much it might cost us to re-do the backyard.  The trees that we bought (raywood ash) will be planted in early october so as to minimize the trauma/wilting that might occur.

maggie needs surgery

We took maggie to the vet on tuesday for her annual check-up, but also to have the vet look at a growth on her paw that had gotten bigger over the course of a year.  They aspirated the mass to get some cells for cytology analysis.  We found out yesterday that the mass is melanoma, but they had too few cells to tell whether it is malignant or benign.  So, next week, maggie will have surgery to get the mass removed.  Then they can send it somewhere to get a histo-pathology (whatever that means exactly).  And I guess at that point, we'll find out whether she needs more treatment or not. 

I'm trying to be positive about the whole thing.  The doc said that about 85% of masses that originate on the skin end up being benign, so I figure I have the odds on my side, at least.  But when I found out yesterday I couldn't help but reflect on maggie's mortality.  She is a living animal and will die eventually. I know that in my head.  I just don't want it to ever happen.  It really made me sad to imagine life without Maggie.  But like I said, I'm trying to be positive, so I keep telling myself that it will all be okay, and maggie will be fine, and will heal up normally, and the only thing that might hurt will be our checkbook.

so that's that.  Just wanted to share the news.  I'm sure it will be fine.  I'm sure it will be fine.  I'm sure it will be fine.  (If you say it three times, it will come true, right?)

Happy Birthday to Emily!

yesterday was Emily's birthday.  I was in the middle of composing a post yesterday when I realized that if I didn't leave right away, I would not make it to the post office before it closed to mail her birthday package.  So, I apologize for the day-late posting.  But I'm sure she'll still be celebrating her birthday today, as long as her new studio doesn't suck up too much of her time. 

Happy Birthday Emily!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary.  Unlike in previous years, we decided not to travel somewhere to celebrate.  We'll probably go to a local Italian restaurant tonight that we've been meaning to try.  Should bring back some good memories from our honeymoon in Italy.  I feel pretty lucky to have such a great guy as David.  And I'd say we've had a good 3 years of marriage so far.  Cheers to many more happy years!

BBQ wrap-up

The BBQ last night went well. The food went over well, although we have some leftovers. David cooked up a storm on the new grill, and the utility tub in the basement became a temporary home to the beers. Everyone was gone by about 9:30 which gave us plenty of time to clean up. I got to bed around 11, and vacuumed this morning. Everything looks almost like it did before the party. The fridge is packed with food, and we have plenty of leftover soda, sparkling water, wine, and beer. Looks like we over-bought. I figured better safe than sorry. Oh well.

Here are the only 4 pictures I was able to take last night. I was sort of running around with my head cut off. There were so many people I hadn't seen in awhile that I wanted to chat with, but I had so much stuff to take care of that I ended up feeling like I talked to even fewer people than I did at my wedding.

The pictures are a bit dark, as that was the first time I could get a free minute to snap a few. We hung up our party lights--they worked wonderfully and helped set the fun mood.

David the Grill King

David set up a "table" in the yard made of 2 sawhorses, and a door (doorknob still intact)
Festive?

Here is maggie--waiting patiently for someone to pick up her ball and throw it for her. She was a bit rambunctious in the beginning, but once people went outside, she calmed down and didn't come inside the whole night.

color possibilities

Here is a little idea of some possible color choices we are considering for the house. The color in the middle would be the doors and door jambs (sp?). It looks a lot more black in the picture than it does in real life--it has a nice deep blue tint to it. The yellows are for the living /dining / hall, the blues for the bedroom, the greens for the guest bedroom, and the greys for the bathroom. We are thinking about doing some two-tone painting jobs /using accent walls. David can explain better what it would look like. We are definitely trying to be more courageous with color than we were with the condo.

I'm excited about the possibilities. We may even decide to do some painting over the long weekend coming up. Then I'll have some great new photos!

jury duty

I'm sitting in the jury waiting room...waiting to be called....I have wireless access, but for some reason I can't get to certain websites, including my work email.  So annoying --I feel like I could get so much more done if I could check my work email.  oh well. 

shop and clean

Those are really the only two things I have planned for this weekend.  Shop for supplies for the party,and clean up the house.  I have the same feeling this weekend as I did last weekend...it was a feeling of 'gosh, isn't there something else I should be doing?'  I think it is because we have things we want to do to the house, but are sort of in a holding pattern for a bit.  We've got to find some low cost cool tile to re-do the shower enclosure, but we don't want to start that project until David's family has come to visit in September.  Then we can figure out how we are going to go for a week or two without a shower.  (good thing we still have that gym membership!)

union mess

Let me say first, that in general, I think unions are a good thing. When the U was forming a TA/RA union, I supported it, and even went out to do some picketing. Once the union was in place, I never really thought about it, nor did I ever try and learn the rules or anything.

However, now that I am a supervisor, I have to know the rules (and I'm just learning some of them). And let me tell you, there are so many grey areas in the contract that I 'd just as much prefer not to have it. I was trying to learn a little about it today, but it is so confusing. The expectations are not clear at all. And we are pretty lackadaisical around here at work, so we don't always make the expectations crystal clear either. I don't keep track of my RA's hours to make sure they are putting in the right amount of hours. As long as I know when they are going to be here and when they aren't that is really all I need. I trust that they are keeping track and will let me know when they have gone over their maximum union dictated # of hours per quarter.

I am having a hard time reconciling the two sides. The supervisor side that is supposed to know the rules and the regular person side that trusts the people she works with to be ethical. I guess they don't have to be totally separate, but I really don't want to be that person who checks in on things, but I also feel like my role as a supervisor is to do just that. Arghh..I'm definitely learning some new skill in trying to figure this mess out.

meeting with Dean

My office met with the new Dean today.  I think it went well overall, but I really wish we could have heard more feedback from him.  We talked for way too long, in my opinion.  It only was for an hour- and we barely finished in that time.  I even wore my "fancy pants" and straightened my hair for the occasion. That means something!

Otherwise, news is slow.  However, I did hear that Exxon is again reporting record profits for this past quarter.  Hmmm...How do they explain themselves out of this one?  I think it would be pretty hard to do.

We're Closed!!!

They just got word of the recording numbers from the Court, so we are officially closed on the condo!  I'm excited, but also sad about it.  When we went over there last night to do some final touch ups to some holes we filled, the condo felt like us and not like us at the same time.  When you take all the furniture out, it really changes things.  I certainly do miss the nice-ness of the bathroom and even the slightly remodeled kitchen.  There were some good times there--and we have plenty of pictures of our home improvement projects to help us remember both the dirt and mess and the glory of getting a project complete.

inspection etc.

Our house inspection went better than I thought it might. Not too much that is of immediate concern (other than the bathroom).

and we sign the closing documents for the condo sale tonight ---it is supposed to close tomorrow! Finally!

and, Mom-have a great time in Greece, do some serious RELAXING.