Thursday, 08 November 2012
My class this semester is now two-thirds done.
As happens in nearly every class at Hamline, the syllabus schedule has gotten messed up, and the professor is now, as they say, “playing cath-up. I have five arrows on my syllabus showing where certain essays and books are to be relocated to other dates, and it’s quite confusing.
Today, everyone showed up for class not having read the two essays were we supposedly to have read. Only one student read the essays (not me), and when the professor asked for an explanation, I pointed out my arrows, which I drew at her direction about three weeks ago. She acquiesced after that, rearranged the next couple of days, and then moved ahead with class.
This is the point in the semester – and it happens every semester – when I begin to count down the days until it’s over.
In other news: We may have a 51st state soon.
In still other news: Isla is twenty-seven months old.
Friday, 09 November 2012
After picking up Owen from school this afternoon, we first went to the corner drug store. We do this every Friday after school. There’s a parking lot on the opposite side of the street from the store, and I pull right in there and get a spot everytime.
The first time I took him to that store after school (in early 2011), I had no idea where to park. I turned left to be by the store’s front door, but there is only on-street parking there, and all three spots were taken. So then I drove around the block, first by trying to cut down an alley (which was blocked), then by going all the way around the block and trying to find a spot. Again, I couldn’t. So then I went around two blocks, and tried to find a spot. That time, I succeeded, but I had to wedge in to a tight spot and then, since it was winter, I had to help Owen get out on a busy street and up over a snow mound.
But now I know right where to go.
After going to the drug store, we drove to Ace Hardware. This is another place on a busy street with limited parking. The way it’s set up, I first drive past the store. About fifty feet beyond the store, I can almost always find on-street parking. If not, I go around the block, cut down an alley, and use Ace’s tiny parking lot, which usually has one or two spaces available.
Anyway, I just want to say that I think it’s great that, after over four years in this city, I am finally able to secure good parking at my frequent haunts with little difficulty.
Don’t ask me about Grand Ol’ Day, though. I’m not going there.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Today we began, in ernest, to get Isla’s room ready for her to live in. Her crib has been in the room for months, but her room is still more of a closet than a room, and we hardly ever go in there except to lay her down to sleep at night.
Today we moved almost everythign out of the room. My clothes, which hang on the closet unit in the room, we covered with a blanket. Then we started sanding all the wood on the window frames. I removed all the molding and sanded that, too.
Thankfully, it was an unseasonably warm day (over 65 degrees), so we had the windows open and a box fan pointing out, blowing out all the dust from sanding.
In fact, it was such a nice day that I took the kids to the park – sans jakcets! – while Jennifer completed the sanding work. Our plan is to paint the trim and molding tomorrow.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
…But, unfortunately, it’s too cold to paint today. There’s about a 30 degree temperature drop today. Jennifer painted approximately 5% of one window fixture and then called it quits. The air was too cold with the windows open, and we can’t paint with them closed.
Of course, we try to get low-VOC paint, but that wasn’t an option for the windows. A look at the forecast shows the weather will warm up a bit again in the last half of this upcoming week, so we’re gonna try our darnest to get the VOC stuff on the wood by then.
I did make some progress on Isla’s room today (besides the tiny bit of painting): I installed an electrical outlet. Until today, there was just a box with wires sitting inside it. The previous owner had palstered that entire wall with closets and drawers, so it made sense for him to remove the outlet. But we sold that section of closet and, yesterday, I bought a new outlet cover.
I ran into the basement, shut off the two fuses labeled “Bedrooms,” then set to work installing the new outlet. It really was no trouble, and everything proceeded quite smoothly. As I was finishing up and screwing the outlet to the wall, Jennifer came in and flipped on the light switch. I stopped what I was doing and said, “Hm… it’s a little disconcerting that I shut off the power in this room and you just turned on the light.” She asked if I had checked to see if the power was dead before proceeding. I said no (or something like that). I then reached over and grabbed the box fan’s cord, and plugged it into the new outlet. It worked! Yay! And I didn’t electrocute myself in the process! I’m so proud of me!