I used to watch Jeopardy

to see if I knew any of the answers. Now I watch it to see if Ken Jennings is still winning. Have you seen this? It's like a freak show every time he's on. Literally by Final Jeopardy, he either has more than three or four times the amount of the other contestants, or they can't even play because they're in negative numbers. It's insane. But the craziest thing is how nice he seems. He just seems like a really NICE, normal guy. Today he made it to almost $1,200,000.

Nathan says he hopes Ken makes it to 2 million. Stacy says she hopes he loses because it's time for him to lose. I just feel sorry for the other contestants who come week after week to face him.

On this day four years ago

Nathan married me and I married him. We celebrated this morning with delicious eggs florentine with Hollandaise sauce (100% fat free, of course) and frozen mimosas. What a perfect way to begin a lovely day.

Happy Marriage to us!

Updates in brief

seem to be everywhere, on many people's blogs, and I like the idea of this and think it's OK. So here is my abbreviated news:

1. Go see Napoleon Dynamite, as it may be the best movie I've seen all year. Definitely all summer. OK, if you're going to be pigheaded about it, at least watch the trailer on the left, for which I have made a link to make it easy on you.

2. I thought it might be funny to start watching a soap opera this summer because I seem to be home around lunch time every day, what with my summer free. I have decided the grand-prize winner is the Bold and the Beautiful because it is only 30 minutes, and they don't have as many storylines running at once. But All My Children was a close second. Also Susan Luchi (sp?) is still on from when my parents watched it in 1984.

3. I've picked up a few of the most recent winners of the Newbery Award for juvenile fiction, just to see what they're looking for these days. To my surprise and delight, I've found that the quality of writing is equal to (and not leaps and bounds better than) what I am currently writing. At the risk of sounding incredibly egotistical, I feel like I've seen (and written) enough to know the difference between crap and non-crap. Hallelujah, Amen! I am writing non-crap. At this time next year I hope to be seeking publication.

4. I am really not that good at updates in brief, because none of them turns out to be brief.

Barbie's on the rebound

with a new Aussie surfer named Blaine. Supposedly she and Ken are still friends, but I find that hard to believe after 43 years.

After five chapters and thirty pages,

I finally broke the block. Welcome to chapter six and page 31.

THIS JUST IN: New Apt. Bulletin:

1. Apt. found! It's a great location. Exactly 3.4 mi. from Nathan's work, and would you believe 3.4 mi. from mine as well?
2. Has a washer/dryer connection. Which means: we won't have that tearful reunion with the washateria.
3. At Nathan's request: 1st floor so as not to inflame back from lugging heavy musical devices.
4. At Amy's request: Has a deck so as to continue her container gardening ventures.
5. At Nathan's request: Has a kitchen that is actually larger than a closet.
6. At Amy's request: Two bathrooms so she gets her own.
7. Other good things: Complex has 2 pools plus a hot tub! Small storage room off deck so we can get what we have OUT of storage unit and stop paying to own STUFF. Large walk-in closet, which will feel like its own room after what we have now.
8. And last but not least...after looking at the actual unit we'll be in, I saw a small tree on the deck and thought, Oh the current tenet must still be there, because he/she/they have a tree. Turns out, it's growing out of the ground, so we actually have a small tree ON our deck. Add twinkle lights and some nice wine. Ahhhh.

Now I can really relax and enjoy my summer....

Or start packing.

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies

makes me think of POLLYANNA. What a great childhood favorite of mine, except I think it might have been just as beautiful of a story if she had never fallen out of the tree and been paralyzed trying to sneak out with Jimmy Bean to the bazaar....
My personal favorite scene has always been the shopping in town scene. All those clothes, the shoes with all the buttons, the hats, the stockings, ahhh. And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

Back in Austin. It was nice to be gone for awhile. Nice, in a strange way, to miss everyone. Now on to the task at hand...where to live in a month's time?

I just returned home

(to my parents' house) with mom after a much-needed trip to see my Illinois family.

At the train station, I ran across an article about a grad. student from Univ. of Illinois who is living in Chicago and making art, and one interesting thing about him is this: since 2001, he has been making different T-shirts with all kinds of phrases on them and wearing a different shirt EVERY DAY.

We rode the train to Illinois

and it is so lovely and cold here! Last night it got down to 49 and today it's in the low 70s. (It was actually warmer in Alaska yesterday than it was here.) My mom and I picked the perfect time to come visit my grandma...

Yesterday we went to Galesburg, the birthplace of Carl Sandburg, one of my favorite poets. We went to a little museum, and saw his childhood home. I picked up a book of poems for children that I may use next year with my students.
Tomorrow we'll see some more family: aunt, uncle, cousins, and I'm hoping to put my newly found recipes on grilling to work.

I'm having a restful vacation, and feeling a little guilty that Nathan still has to work and doesn't get any time off. But maybe next year we can both get away. In the meantime, I'm relaxing for both of us.

My parents' house

will always be a wonderful, warm place to come home to. I hope they never move. They live in this huge old farm house that was built in 1905 in a little town in East Texas, where the trees are so tall think you must be in another state. The house and land are so alive with the history of people who lived there before that even though my mom complains about the wall paper in the kitchen, it kind-of belongs with the rest of the house.

I've been here since Friday night and so far, I've gotten to surprise my little sister when we went to pick her up from camp, see my brother play an incredible soccer game in town, go to my parents' church where the special music was "Father's Eyes," and watch two movies with my family--The Terminal, not bad at all, and Trekkies, one of the funniest, most brilliant documentaries to date if you ask me.

I like being here.

Today we are viewing the house

I was dreaming about yesterday. It may be important to say that the real estate guy quoted the rent they were asking, I got him to say that they'd take a bit less, and then yesterday he called back and said they would be willing to take a lot less. AMAZING. Now to get my head out of the clouds just in case it doesn't work out.

One of the drawbacks is that it's not as central as where we are now. And Lora made a point that I agree with her, which is that it's pretty cookie-cutter. Then again, there is an amazing front porch AND smaller but cute back porch--both covered. We do love our porch.

Stay posted for more details at six.

UPDATE: the house is a no-go. But, as always, something else is just around the corner...

The only kind of hunting I like

is house-hunting. Well, actually I like it the same as watching a Ewan McGregor film. It's gorgeous, dynamic and enticing, and then, it's OVER. End credits. No real Ewan in real life to drink coffee with and/or gaze lovingly at.

Lora and I took a tour of this absolutely BEAUTIFUL NEW HOUSE that is a 2-story, 5 bedroom - 3 1/2 bath, with a study, fenced-in yard, 2-car garage, w/d hook-up, huge kitchen, and great location. Not to mention the master bathroom with the sunken tub, not to mention the huge closet space, carpeted upstairs, tiled downstairs and study with hard-wood. I wish, I wish, I wish.

OK. That felt good. I'm done wishing.

Contrary to what most people think

I love summer. I LOVE it. And honestly, if you were in my place, you'd love it too.
It's a shame that everyone doesn't get a three-month hiatus from work.

The entire household is playing the lottery tonight to try to win the hundred-million dollar jackpot. I don't think Nathan would mind, if we win, inviting everyone to take a much-deserved three month vacation in our yacht off the coast of Italy. Let me know ASAP if you're in. (The caterer will need to know a head-count.)

still here

i have decided not to give up on blogger and through the generous offer of my husband and his ever-growing knowledge of html, hope to have a working blog soon that is just as nice looking as it once was. basically it needs html botox. Hopefully all will end well. cross your fingers.

html must die.

I can't get blogger to do what I want.... this sucks.

Thoughts of redemption, rebirth and renewal!

Happy Easter to all dear friends and family.

May I just say...

I am both shocked and appalled that my own husband, Nathan, is siding with the computer and accusing me of cheating on his quiz, thus omitting my score of 70 from the scoreboard? OK, yes, cheating isn't too much a stretch of the imagination given my past gaming experiences between the ages of 6-20, however, I thought he believed I was making a real change. Also, any points that the computer might have subtracted because I was "accidently" watching over his shoulder should be added back in full because of the lively questions/answers I thought up and contributed as he was writing the very quiz in question. I think Abigail will be on my side.

Life is ironic.

(Rest assured: not a reference to the oh-so deep thoughts of Alanis. A Talent, with a capital T.) The last six months of my life have been centered around a test known as TAKS (formerly TAAS). My school is a part of the BluePrint Plan here in Austin, which basically is trying to take junior high schools and elementary schools and turn their scores around by intense study, higher academic standards, experienced teachers, etc. etc. I wish the goal was to help increase the perspective of kids and make learning experiencial. But it's not. The main goal is to bring up test scores. It just is. As much as I personally disagree with this kind of higher-scores,-oh-it-must-mean-the-kids-are-finally-learning! mentality, I have committed to my job, so it's what I do.

Anyway, the big test we've all been getting ready for all year WAS scheduled for Tuesday, the 25th. If you live here in this fabulous little city you know that we had a detrimental ice storm Monday night and every single school for miles and miles had to be closed Tuesday, and into Wednesday. AISD probably hasn't taken a bad weather day in 5 years or more, and the day we are forced to stay home is the big day. For us teachers at Dobie, it felt like a pleasant reminder that the TAKS test is remarkably far away from the center of the universe.

HA HA HA. So there. We all got a day and a half off work and the kids had so much fun in this bizarre-for-Texas weather that they weren't scared witless on the day of the test. I like happy endings.

Wow.

I just realized it has been a month, yes a month!, since my last blog... which is entirely too long. A month isn't too long when it comes to dying your hair. But blogging? Different story.

I partly blame my job, which if you're someone I talk to on any sort of regular, or even semi-regular basis, you already know. It's basically shaving years off my life. Now, I know it is a very noble thing to teach middle-school kids who live in the ghetto. Just maybe not my very noble thing? Actually, what's killing me is the politics and test-driven agenda, not the sweet lil gangstas, as I affectionately call them.

Today I got a contract agreement to sign on for next year, which I plan to sign and return, even though I know in my heart that I may not be there in the fall. I was meant to be an interior designer, I know it! That sounds like someone who drops out of medical school to become a Mary Kay Representative, I know. I can hear myself. But, if I don't start doing something creative soon, I may forget how to be creative altogether. Like a language you don't speak for a long time. It feels that serious to me.

Just got home

from my friends' home (the other Nathan and Amy.....don't ask), and had a conversation with my good friend Stacy. We were just talking mostly about how easy it is to get very attached to the things we surround ourselves with. As an example, Nathan and I are looking at new couches because our old one has a huge, gaping tear from where Abigail accidently chewed a hole in it when she was chewing on her foot (again, don't ask). The small, accidental chew-hole grew more and more gaping and now, whole pieces of stuffing fly out on a regular basis. All that to say that I found a couch I like at IKEA that is very versatile and functional, and of course, very cute. I keep thinking about getting that couch, how I can't wait to get it, I can't stop showing the website to my friends, etc. So this evening, I just began to realize how couch-crazy I was getting. Our culture is saturated with materialism. Yet there are children who sleep on rice sacks! Something is wrong with that. How can I get so "American" that I want to puke?

In some ways it reminds me of a movie (Far from Heaven) that Nathan and I just saw the other night at the Drafthouse. The setting was this perfect, 1950s, Norman-Rockwell painting-type family, and just under the surface, everything was broken, and falling apart. It made me so sad, and yet I think we still behave like that today. We are broken people, with problems, and our couches have holes with the stuffing coming out! Why can't we look just below the surface, and embrace each other, flaws and all? I may be one of those people who is worried that if the outside isn't pretty enough, what will that say about underneath?

OK, it's not wrong for me to want a new sofa, just wrong for me to be obsessed with it. As a side note, when you blog after 1:30 in the morning, you may get a little confessional.