As of 15 seconds ago, we have a working toilet in our upstairs bathroom!
Today promises to be a big day on the bathroom front. Stay tuned.
Archive for April, 2005
Your Linguistic Profile:
80% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
5% Midwestern
0% Dixie
0% Yankee
Why yes, he is.
And I’m getting a bit (just a bit) irritated at all of the whining that’s going on in the media about the new Pope’s positions on “the issues”. What? He’s against birth control? What? He’s against abortion?
Surprise!! He’s CATHOLIC!! He holds standard Catholic positions! How shocking!!
And about his membership in the Hitler Youth: if the news sources were covering this responsibly they would also mention that membership in the Hitler Youth was compulsory. So, in the sense that he in fact was alive and living in Germany before and during WWII, he was a “member” of the Hitler Youth.
Here’s an idea: if you don’t agree with the Pope, rather than defaming his character and and criticizing his positions, just don’t be a Catholic. It seems pretty straightforward, really.
Well, it’s the end of either Week 1 or Week 3 of Benton Bathroom Remodel 2005, depending on how you’re counting. If you started counting when they began working on the downstairs toilet/shower area, it’s the end of Week 3. If you started counting when they began ripping apart the upstairs bathroom, it’s the end of Week 1. Either way, here are some developments (pictures to follow):
1. We now have a working shower and toilet in the basement, though at the moment when I want to go to the bathroom I have to ask Will to stand at the top of the stairs and run interference for me so the guys (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc.) don’t come downstairs and see me. Currently, the shower and toilet are just out in the middle of nowhere in the basement; constructing some sort of rudimentary enclosure is on our list of things to do this weekend.
2. We now do NOT have a working shower, toilet, or sink in the upstairs bathroom. They put the new tub in early this week, and today they were working on the electricity . But there are lots of holes in the wall, no sink/vanity and no toilet. FYI: that nasty yellow floor was the original flooring; there was nothing below it. Which means it’s been there for 50 years. !!
3. We now have an updated circuit-breaker box rather than the old screw-in fuses, which I must say is a relief. Also, we have safe, grounded outlets in the basement that are up to code and won’t kill us in our sleep by starting a fire.
4. Otto has had a difficult three weeks of imprisonment in the kennel in our bedroom. He has spent his days whimpering, barking, and/or sleeping dejectedly.
5. We have had 3 weeks of having to be awake and presentable before 7:30 every morning. Ugh. Our contractor has made a couple of comments about our sleeping habits, but we recently found out that he goes to sleep at 8:00 every night. No wonder we sleep a few hours later than he does!
That’s about it, I guess. All in all, it’s been a positive experience. It will be much more positive when it’s done, however. Check back here for pictures later tonight or tomorrow.
HEY, LOON!! DON’T YOU KNOW I’M WORKING??
Published by April 12th, 2005 in Nerdly and Pleasing. 4 CommentsThe loon is here (at the terrace) again!!
It’s fun to see him, of course, but he’s distracting me from my paper grading.
Oh well. When push comes to shove, I guess that I’ll take distracting loon over no loon at all.
Yesterday, I did two things that I’ve never done before:
1. I graded 9 essays, which I only received last Wednesday and which I don’t need to return until this coming Wednesday. (Normally, I say I’m going to do a lot of grading right away when I receive the essays, but then I put it off and put it off until I have to pull an all-nighter to get them done.)
2. I ran for 45 minutes without stopping, shattering my previous longest run (25 minutes, a little over a week ago) by almost twice as much. (Sadly, I am feeling the pain today. Oh well.) This run was particularly excellent because Tiff and I ran along the lakeshore path from the English Dept. out to the end of picnic point and much of the way back, and it was a beautiful day! Also, on the run, we saw a great blue heron flying just above us.
Also, I knit a baby bootie. All in all a very good day.
Ann Althouse linked to this very strange blog. I read through much of it and couldn’t stop laughing. (I was in a public area of the library, so this was mildly embarassing.)
Despite the fact that it made me nearly hysterical, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what this blog IS. It seems to have some sort of narrative to it, but it is made up of some sort of secret special language that is not immediately intuitive. I would love to hear what all of you think: is this gibberish or is it something more interesting?
Also: my favorite post is the one about the “rabbit” playing the “horn.” You’ll have to scroll down until you find it.
In other news, I have not settled on a name for the vacuum just yet, but I think it will definitely have a title like Duchess or Countess, as per Stephanie’s suggestion.
1. A thunderstorm!
2. University buildings too hot rather than too cold.
3. Otto overheating on his walks.
4. A loon swimming around in front of Memorial Union (hooray!!).
5. Undergraduate women wearing hideously too-short skirts.
6. Lilacs beginning to bud.
Hooray for summer!!!
Today Ryan Seacrest revealed that 32.8 million people voted for American Idol last night. Will remarked that that’s about how many people voted for president.
My guess is that there isn’t a lot of overlap between those two sets of voters.
And while on the subject of American Idol, I must say that I think America SUCKS for keeping Scott and Anthony while dumping Nikko tonight. Boo.
