Don’t have terribly much to say today.  I voted yesterday morning
and then ran to the church to help out Mandy by copying CD’s for her to
hand out to the choir at tonight’s rehearsal.  The church owns a
6-cd burner, so you put the master in, put in 6 blank cd’s and then
press ok.  Four minutes later…you have 6 complete copies. 
Pretty nifty.  Actually the fun part was putting the labels on
them once they were done.  Put the label on the little machine
(sticky side up), put the cd on the little button (top down) and press
down.  It sticks the label on and then pops the cd back off. 
Trying to catch them when they popped off amused me!

I graded in between copying sets.  Then I went home for lunch and
crashed a bit for the afternoon.  I was going to go out again and
get gas and cash a check (I decided not to worry about changing my oil
until Thursday), but I never did.  I finished grading, played a
game, played the piano for a while, read a screenplay for a friend and
emailed him comments/concerns, and talked to Karen briefly on the
phone.  Then Eric came home and we watched some tv, had supper,
then ran to Home Depot for a few things.

OH!  Do you guys remember those crazy night lights that Glenda got
us all years ago?  They had a wooden base with a light inside and
a long cord to plug in.  Then on top we each got a different glass
animal with bubbles inside to reflect the light.  Anyway, mine was
a round, solid frog, so it never broke.  I found it a while back
and put it out (I’d lost or broken the cord and light and never
replaced them, but never got rid of the frog and base).  And then
last night at Home Depot, I found another cord!  So I also bought
lightbulbs and VOILA!  My little frog lit up again…how fun is
that!

You’ll all be glad to know that I slept much better last night…and Eric even slept in a bit, so it was a slightly longer night!  Yesterday was busy.  After classes and the normal routine, I rushed home to clean my house and get dinner on. My friend (and camera-person), Mandy, came over for supper and then we filmed the video for one of the Christmas program clips that we need.  So the first lady came at 6:00, the second at 6:30, and then we roped Eric into doing the third segment.  He was also our key grip (the electrician) and our lighting guy…which means he moved all the halogen lamps around and turned on/dimmed the lights until we got a good shot!  But it was a productive night, for that anyway. 

Today, I’m going to vote and then run to the church to help Mandy do some preparations for Christmas program. We have a LOT of work to do and less than a month to do it!  But it all gets done eventually.  I also have papers to read, but I can do that while I help Mandy.  I may also try to get my oil changed today…I’m WAY overdue! 

And finally…here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

Here is Eric and I in Connecticut.  A guy from Minnesota took the pic for us!

Here is a couple from our small group trying out Eric’s unicycle on Sunday.  He is our OSU football player (go Joel Penton #98!)

A couple of pictures from my directing debut last night!

And finally…my new glasses!

Happy Monday!  It was a very busy weekend, but I did manage to relax some…though I slept horribly!

Friday night, Eric and I had sloppy joes and watched a movie (a bad one
that he Netflixed…blow-em-up movies shouldn’t have “girlie” plots!)
and went to bed early, but I had a very bad night’s sleep.  
Saturday, I read the newspaper, exercised and then ran some
errands.  I got new glasses which look really cute, so I picked
them up. Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning and making food for
Eric’s birthday party.  I watched the first half of the OSU game,
but missed most of the second half because of party preparations. 
Apparently, though, I didn’t miss much since they basically fell apart
in the second half…oh well.  They did win, but I’m glad I won’t
be at their practices this week! 

The party was fun.  The nieces were highly entertaining. 
Holly was scared of me until I took my glasses off so she could see it
was just me.  Then we played with them, opened gifts and had
supper.  Everyone headed home about 8:30 (the leaving process
started about 8:00, but both girls had “putting-on-their-coat” fits
that elongated it!).  Then we watched some Blue Collar comedy
stuff on tv before going to bed.

Sunday morning was church (I slept a little better Saturday
night).  Our new music minister is a VERY good addition.  I
think I’ll like working with him.  We had an organizational
meeting after church, but I got home about 12:45 (which is very early
for those meetings! ). 
We had leftovers for supper and then I relaxed a bit, worked on some
Christmas stuff, and then got into preparations for Small Group, which
was meeting at our house last night. Thankfully, everything was still
mostly clean from Saturday night, but I made a couple of snacks (which
was a good thing since the other couple who was supposed to bring
stuff…forgot completely!).  But it was a good bible study on
God’s sovereignty and it was great fun to talk to everyone again. 
We are crazy loud when we’re together!  Anyway, we were in bed
about 10:30, but I didn’t fall asleep until over an hour later. 
Hopefully tonight I’ll sleep better!

So yesterday was one of those busy, but not necessarily productive,
days.  I did go to CU (I don’t normally schedule appointments on
days I don’t teach, but I figured since I’d be there to watch the
girls…there was no reason not to have the meeting.), but I got a few
“housekeeping” details done, but not much else.  The meeting went
well, and my advisee is moving towards a major, which is good. 
But I didn’t get any grading done which would’ve been helpful. 

The girls were quite amusing.  Holly had apparently gotten her
temper tantrum out of the way before/during bath time in the morning,
but Kelly managed one, despite her “horror” at Holly’s tantrum earlier,
because Holly picked up a doll that Kelly hadn’t touched for 10 or more
minutes.  She went from perfectly content to immediate breakdown
(complete with real tears and wailing) in about 15 seconds.  Of
couse, Holly didn’t really care about the doll and let me have it after
less than a minute, at which point I gave it to Kelly.  Kelly,
then, stopped the waterworks and put the doll down on the couch and
forgot about her, too.  Other than that little episode, we watched
a VeggieTales DVD (for Kelly) and a Baby Einstein DVD (for Holly)
before Deb got home.  They are quite cute…even with the
occasional outbursts!

We had beef stew in the crockpot for dinner last night and biscuits,
which were yummy!  I didn’t have any baking powder, but found an
equivalency recipe using soda and cream of tartar…they actually
turned out well.  Then I went grocery shopping.  I figured a
Thursday evening should be a good time, but there was one family with a
8-10 year old who really needed more control…but hey, I guess you
can’t have everything you want. 

Today is the norm…classes, lunch, class.  My dad will probably
be home for lunch today, and I have a dept. meeting in a minute or two,
so I need to get to that!  Other than that, though…I’ll just be
attempting to stay warm!

So my “day off” has turned out to be a crazy busy one. I’m heading back to CU to do some work and have an advising meeting.  I’m also watching the girls for Deb while she teaches today.  That should be fun, even if Holly has a runny nose!

So far this morning, I’ve exercised, put supper in the crockpot (beef stew in honor of the FREEZING cold weather), and have been doing some emailing/paperwork I need to get done.  Now if I can only remember to put the garbage out before I go, I’ll be in good shape!

Yesterday was very productive.  I taught my classes, (prepping them in between other things!) and did a lot of catching up and paperwork before coming  home.  My parents are at a registrar’s meeting this week, so I was on my own for lunch, but that gave me time to be ready for class and get there on time for once!  Then, since I was going back down today, I didn’t bring anything home with me.  We ordered a pizza from Dominos for supper (they make a surprisingly good pizza!) and then Eric played on his computer and I cleaned up my house.  I put away a bunch of stuff, rearranged furniture, cleaned the kitchen (even washed by hand the dishes that couldn’t go in the dishwasher), and caught up the budget stuff/shredded old receipts.  Then we watched Mythbusters and I collapsed into bed.  That was the best part of all!

Random things from my life…

• Cleaning carpets sounds like an easy job, but it really takes a long time and a lot of effort…especially getting the living room to dry in time to watch the OSU game!
• My husband carved our pumpkin to have a “smiley” face.  It’s the punctuation marks that turn into a . He’s so funny!  (Eric, not the pumpkin)
• A former student who joined the army this summer dropped by to say hello on his way through Ohio yesterday.  The Army seems to be just what he needed.  It’s always good to see a student find his way in life.
• Why is it that I can clean my kitchen 2-3 times a day and STILL not have clean counters?
• You know it was a good idea to make the appointment when it takes the chiropracter a couple of tries to get your back to pop into its proper alignment.  
• October has been one continuous month.  I mean non-stop, one-thing-after-another from 31 days.  Boy am I glad tomorrow is November!
• I can’t believe that tomorrow is November already!  It’s almost Christmas!

Catching up is hard to do!

Yesterday was a LONG day!  Not bad, just long.

I made it to CU early to get stuff done. Got my classes done, spent an hour preparing the Powerpoint for a presentation I do for the Writing Center which went from 4-5.  Then I closed up my office, went to the library for a few minutes, and finally headed home.  I arrived at about 6:40.  Eric and I made dinner together.  The rest of the evening was spent working and watching MythBusters.  I was beat by 10:00 when we wen to bed.

This morning, I slept in a bit today.  Yeah for me!  I have a lot of writing to get done today.  The pieces have to be emailed tomorrow, and since I work all day tomorrow, I need to get them done today.   I also really need to run some errands, pick up some groceries and other items.  It wouldn’t hurt to do a quick load of laundry or two and clean the bathrooms.  But we’ll see…we’ll see.

Today is crazy busy for me, and I won’t be on much, but I figured I could spare a few seconds to post. 

Yesterday, I didn’t go anywhere.  I sat in front of the computer
and worked on a piece that I’m writing that has to be sent out on
Friday.  Okay, two pieces, but I only got one “done.”  I have
tomorrow, though, so that’s good!

I graded in the evening.  I made it to CU early this morning, and
I’ve been doing class prep and grading since I got here.  Now I
need to run to class since it starts in about 8 minutes!  Such fun!

This afternoon, I have to give a presentation on how to craft a
reasoned/logical argument.  I really need to revise my powerpoint
before then…wonder when that will happen!?!

Here are some pictures from our road trip!  We begin with a rainy drive through Pennsylvania…

Next came a stop in New Jersey (a scenic overlook to stretch our legs) and a traffic jam in Connecticut.

Finally we arrived at our hotel and got up on Saturday morning to see the sights of New England…

The castle is Gillette Castle, built in the early 1900’s by William Gillette, the original Sherlock Holmes.  The last pic is looking out from the castle.

So I’m back in Ohio and back at work.  A friend needed a ride to
CU this morning, so I got up at 5:50 and left the house at 7:20 so she
could be here by 8:00 (or close to it!).  That actually is a good
thing because I needed to do some class prep before I actually get to
class today!

The weekend…I will get to pictures tomorrow.  The road trip was
certainly that (a road trip), but it was a good time away with
Eric.  We left at 4:30 on Thursday and drove into PA, stopping in
Dubois (as you probably saw on Friday).  On Friday, we drove the
rest of the way across PA (rain), into NJ (rain/clouds), around NYC
into NY (clouds) state and then onto I95 which is the New England
Turnpike.  Things were moving along just fine all that way, until
we got into CT on I95. Then we hit a traffic jam.  We went 10
miles in 2 hours!  
So we should’ve gotten to our hotel at 4:30 and instead didnt’ get
there until after 7:30.  YUCK!  So we went and got some
dinner and tried to unwind a bit at the hotel.  The one nice thing
was that the wind blew all the clouds away while we were sitting on 95,
so there were blue skies in CT for us to see!

Saturday was a leisurely day for us.  We drove around the
coastline on a scenic highway, stopped at a beach/state park for
pictures and to walk around.  Then we headed to our only
“official” activity: a ride on a steam train.  We were supposed to
also go on a riverboat on this ride, but the boat wasn’t running that
day because of the wind.  It was sunny, but very windy!  So
after the ride, which was very cool, we did some more driving
around.  We went up and saw the Gillette Castle (originally the
home of William Gillette, who was the original Sherlock Holmes) and
walked around there for a bit.  Then we stopped at an outlet mall
to wander around and get some supper.  Then we headed back to the
hotel and watched tv and relaxed.

Sunday we left the hotel at 7:30 to come home.  We did NOT drive
on 95 back towards NJ.  Instead, we headed up 84 into NY state and
then down into PA near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton on I81.  We got
back on 80 to come home (and then it clouded over and rained again) and
drove it all the way into Ohio (cloudy/no rain) where we picked up 76
in Youngstown, then back to 71, then back to Columbus (about
6:30)!  It was lovely to get home.  My butt hurt so bad from
sitting for so long that I decided to lay on my stomach on the floor to
watch TV and veg out.  But it was just nice to be home and sleep
in my own bed!

Overall…the views in CT were no better than the ones in PA and NY
(actually they were probably better overall). The train ride was fun
(we bought Kelly and Holly engineer hats and train whistles…won’t
Chris & Deb love that!). We got some good pictures and had a good
time together.  And we won’t be taking another road trip for a
while!