Blue Boat Home

When we put a thick layer of leaves on the front yard (sheet mulch for next year's gardens), we knew there was a risk that kids might play in them.  When we got a big pile of dirt in our back yard, the neighbor kids delighted in walking up and down on it.  But it wasn't until we got a 5-foot-deep trench in the side yard for days on end (and an equivalent amount of dirt piled 2 feet high all over the back yard) that we started to have problems.

So the first semester is quickly winding down. Graduate classes are over in just over 4 weeks and I will spend almost all of next week at a conference (with the company of Ben--I am so glad your work is flexible my love!). So I have spent much of my time grading the last two weeks and I find that I feel I am either being too hard or too soft--have not yet figured out the balance!

[Note: this article was written in 2008, and we have different appliances now. See the comments for updates.]

When the previous owners of our house moved out, they took more stuff with them than we expected.  Our contract specified that window treatments were included in the sale, but they took all the curtains and curtain rods with them, leaving only tacky roller blinds.  They also took the face plates from many of the outlets and lightswitches, for reasons we cannot fathom.  We asked our Realtor about the curtains, and he passed the message to theirs, who passed it to them, and the word came back that they had put the curtains into storage along with the rest of their stuff while t

Lest I forget, here's how we celebrated my 33rd birthday...

October 26 fell on a Sunday this year.  On Saturday, Jessie put herself "at my pleasure" for yardwork.  We did a number of things we'd been meaning to do for some time, including cleaning the garage so we could put the car in, checking out the attic and getting the plants put to bed for the winter.

Jessie and I watched the election results come in at our local Democratic headquarters, and we were extra glad for the national victory because we had none on the local level. We were both a little homesick for our former homes. But we couldn't be happier. I did a little volunteering for the Obama campaign and made a half dozen donations, but I'm very glad I don't have to kick myself for not doing more!

Well, actually everybody who entered won a prize, because there were extra prizes left over because no teenagers entered.  And when I saw the competitors, I was pretty sure we were going to win th

Yesterday afternoon when I couldn't sit at the computer any longer, I went out and resumed collecting leaves for the sheet mulch in the front yard.  This is not a small mulch bed...

I can't believe we have lived in our house in Emporia for more than two months now! Work is going well. I am already being challenged to plan for next semester when I am still trying to stay on top of this one! I had to pick out textbooks for the two classes I will be teaching in the Spring and will soon have to learn to be an academic adviser for Freshman and Sophomores campus wide (meaning I have to know every program on campus and their requirements...that'll be exciting!).

Towards the end of August, Jessie and I decided to make our first strike against the lawn.  I had already mowed the grass twice, and found that the back fence was nearly impossible to trim without a weed eater, and I didn't want to buy a weed eater.  The fence also didn't serve any purpose -- it had been part of a dog pen, but the front part was long since taken down, so it didn't actually enclose anything; and also it was several feet outside the property line.