boo

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 18:44:23 GMT

okay, so some of you perhaps didn't even know i was pregnant, and now, well, i'm not! if you're curious to see what i've been up to since monday night, go to www.joezoo.com. bye for now!

i should make some new user pics--or i could just wait 'til after the next baby

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:30:41 GMT

while jabbering herself to sleep tonight, tori started spelling:
t.
o.
r.
i.
i was fairly impressed. she's so grown up!

congratulations to my dear elizabeth--don't get married in jamaica now! ("a double wedding!")

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 09:27:31 GMT

alright, i admit it--i'm in tokyo.

joey and i will be here until monday (which, for most readers of this will be sunday), and then we'll be in beijing. would anyone who has not already requested one like to receive a postcard??

we're resting our feet from tokyo disneysea and watching crazy japanese television--joey was channel-surfing and i thought he had stumbled across a sara brightman concert, but it's a japanese singer singing one of her songs and it's actually much less crazy than a sara brightman concert would be.

still haven't seen mt. fuji....

milestones in spousal consumerism

Tue, 30 May 2006 03:44:39 GMT

joey and i bought our first house on april 14, 2006.

we bought our first car on may 27, 2006.

we haven't had to make a payment yet on the house, and since we put our downpayment for the element on my credit card, we haven't paid anything for it yet, and our first payment isn't due until july (although, of course, we will pay off the credit card in full before then, so that does count for something). the car-buying experience really surprised me--during negotiations over financing, they never really wanted to talk about interest rates or total cost (no matter how many times we asked!), just about monthly payments, and if one monthly payment was too high, we were more than welcome to pay a little bit less per month for many more months. unlike with the house-buying experience, there was no review to see whether or not we were really capable of handling one monthly payment or another--it was our responsibility to know our budget's limitations. it's easy to see how people can get into trouble with credit.

on a lighter note, we'll be having a housewarming party on saturday, june 3rd, from 4pm-until. if you are going to be within a hundred mile radius of pensacola, we'll be expecting you!

also, plans are in the works for a drive up to north carolina (gastonia) the weekend of june 10th for my cousin's wedding. we hope to swing through sylva to pick up some things from storage--if you live around our driving path and have any desire to see either our new car or our slightly-less-new daughter, drop me a line!

happy valentine's eve!

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:34:01 GMT

let's see, what have i done today...
i felted my first hat! it's made out of alpaca and it's for my mom. it's awesome! and furry! i've also got a few other projects in the works, one being to make more fine crocheted things, perhaps snowflakes or doilies, and another to complete a baby blanket. i'm crocheting it around and around with lacey-looking stitches worked in... if i actually finish it (aka, complete something at least sixteen inches across--right now it's about four, and ideally, it'll be at least three feet across), i'll post some pics.
joey and i went to the bank to give them some more recent pay stubs and w2s and such, since the last time we were there to get certified for our mortgage was about, oh, maybe a year ago. when the house was three weeks away from being finished... just like it is now. still, i've allowed myself to get more excited about the house, and its location: we are in a prime downtown area that is seeing a lot of new development, and we can walk right around the corner (literally!) to a bar featured on UZTV! love it like you should.
now tori is here, back from eating some broccoli with yaya, and perhaps is going to start typing. her favorite keys are the caps lock, the shift, the function and control keys, and the space bar if a dvd is playing and she can make it play and pause over and over again. and she's such a good walker! she's gone from walking three steps between welcoming arms to walking the length of the house unassisted in about a week! she seems a little tired, though--she's stumbling a bit. perhaps it's time for bath and bed.

"dwell in possibility"

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 03:34:38 GMT

mmm, mulled mead. the reason for the season! you know who probably drinks mulled mead? rosemary. (wink wink)

i should really be working on one of the TWO LOOMING TERM PROJECTS i have to do while my mom is watching tori tonight, since i'd like to sleep sometime later this week and next, but claire got me started listening to pandora (i'm trampin' by patti smith) and joey decided it might be yummy to finish off this bottle, so now i'm just chilling (cozily). i'll do my homework. just gimme a minute. (it doesn't help that i finished the thing that's due thursday yesterday--i feel like i don't need to do anything until after that due date passes, which doesn't make any sense at all!)

i saw the new pride and prejudice. lizzy, if you haven't seen it yet, take this bit of advice--don't waste too much time comparing it to the mini-series. it's different. but it's pretty good, and it'll fly by, and before you know it, you'll have missed most of a good movie because you were thinking too much about a totally different good movie. as it is, i'm going to have to see it again.

tori said "bye-bye" three different times today, to joey, me, and granma. progress! she also knows a whole bunch of songs--one of the many toy pianos she has plays demo songs and she sings along with at least a third of them (7 or 8) as well as with various baby einstein tunes (mozart, beethoven, etc). her two most recognizable are still twinkle twinkle (abc's) and blue danube. she stands up all the time, sometimes pushing up just from the floor, but still no unassisted steps. soon! and soon she'll have more than four teeth!!! very soon!!!

joey's working too hard. he takes all these freelance jobs--and they all seem to be interesting/good jobs--and they just take up a lot of what might otherwise have been free time. free time is nice. free time is what i'm enjoying right now! with my mead! i'm looking forward to christmas break, though--mac will be back in town again, and maggie will be around, and i'll have less school stuff to worry about, and maybe we can even convince kirk to finally make good on his promises to visit! and we'll go and see king kong and the chronicles of narnia and maybe it'll snow. (ha!) by snow, i mean, maybe we'll have a hurricane like in the day after tomorrow (hurricane zeta??) and we'll have to outrun the freeze!!! or, maybe not. maybe it'll be so warm, we can take tori to the beach--sand is a good surface to learn to walk on.

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 05:46:28 GMT

happy belated (by 28 minutes) birthday, claire! perhaps i'll send you that winter scarf i made for you ages ago before the next winter comes...

in pensacola news, joey and i are singing stabat mater with the choral society and it is KICKING MY BUTT. usually we just leave our music in the car between rehearsals, but i had to bring it in because i'll be needing to work this one out at the piano. he's downloading/buying a version for us to listen to as i type (and it sounds lovely, but i hope it doesn't wake tori)! i'm also wondering about the pronunciation we're using--we're singing latin like it's italian (which, i know, i know, is true: italian=latin...ia...)--it just doesn't seem right to me.

our house is perhaps moving along. they have almost finished putting up the vinyl siding--meredith told me today that it was back-ordered and that was why it was taking so long, but joey and i know the truth: they only just figured out that they would need a ladder for that second floor. the drywall hangers will supposedly be coming tomorrow, and we're hoping it's all downhill from there!

elizabeth will be coming to town for my birthday--hurrah! but what she doesn't know is, if we have to evacuate when rita takes a crazy ivan to the starboard, we're going to her house!

sugar thinks that joey and i should not spend money on traveling to friends' weddings. i think she's wrong, but she may have a point. she also wanted to know what i wanted for my birthday--perhaps i should tell her that i want a trip to colorado! except that what i really want is a trip to japan, or new zealand, or maybe merry old england. i don't think i'm going to get any of those. perhaps i'll just ask for a trip to portland, which is where sugar will probably be moving permanently now that new orleans is possibly under hurricane attack again.

tori is now eleven months old!!! she doesn't talk yet, but she sings, which is even better!

an update

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 04:41:31 GMT

for those of you who don't know about joezoo, you'd better check it out RIGHT NOW!

from pittsburgh...

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 02:52:28 GMT

here we are in pittsburgh! thank you, greg, for the apartment--i promise we'll leave it like we left it. ;-)

i'm done with classes for the week, and while i still have a few assignments before grades are due, i feel like the semester's almost over! i'm well on my way to graduating someday! and i really like pittsburgh, even if i can't find my way around these crazy up and down streets.

my mom, tori and i went to falling water today, which was really awesome. tori, however, has been pretty fussy today--she is definitely cutting her second tooth (I expect it to break gum tomorrow) and practically learning to crawl as i type! in fact, she's made her way to the diaper bag and is chewing on it... i should go.

i will update again, someday.

a retraction

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 03:31:32 GMT

alas, i spoke too soon in my last post. my mom and i will not be driving to pittsburgh--the only supporter we had for the driving plan was joey, and all other family members spoke out against it. so we hunted and found a good deal on airfare, so now we will be flying in to pittsburgh very late thursday night (the 7th) and leaving very early tuesday morning (the 19th). we are still looking forward to the trip!!! but i'm sorry--in general and particularly to lizzy--that we won't be driving through the mountains.

different area codes

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 07:19:22 GMT

i often update when i'm about to go to new orleans. or do i just go to new orleans often?? no, no, because i don't update often, and i would if i went to new orleans often and updated when i was about to go to new orleans. joey's first official father's day might include a visit to the french quarter... or maybe breakfast at denny's with some of my extended family... or something. we'll think of something. :-)

the first tropical storm of the season came right over us on saturday, and we slept through it--in the middle of the afternoon.

school is going well, but i should really be working on homework right now, seeing as how i'm awake and i have an internet connection. last night, we may have had a loose cable that i never bothered checking, and this weekend, if i have anything it'll be dial-up on a slow computer--if i'm going to get any work done, now's the time to do it. but in other school news, my mom and i have decided to drive up for my on-campus session in pittsburgh! calling all friends: if your house is anywhere near the route from pensacola to pittsburgh that goes through sylva, submit your detour requests here! mapquest gives a route that goes up through nashville and columbus--we're considering taking that route on the way up, seeing as how it might be quicker. we'll take the sylva route on the way back. if you have any suggestions for us, i welcome them!

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 07:11:07 GMT

that's ma baby.

earl-igh in the morning

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:45:32 GMT

so, here i am, trying to do my homework, and i'm not sure of what's keeping me from it, exactly. is it the slightly outdated version of internet explorer having trouble with command line searches in oclc??? or is it oclc and the late hour of the night??? is there something wrong with my computer??? it was working just two weeks ago when we had to do that dewey assignment... i've been trying, though, which is better than i did earlier today, when i was:

a) crocheting a hat for tori--it's cute and russian-looking! (but not fur.)
b) eating cheese wontons and kiwi at china star buffet while skipping class
c) kicking the asses of mac, clark, and andrew in tetris
d) playing that star wars game and occasionally winning
e) playing burnout 3
f) sleeping in, having a weird dream about walking uphill behind a lorry, then seeing it stall out and start rolling backwards towards me, then stepping out of the way and watching it roll slowly down
g) reading about making mosaics, planning bathroom floor
h) making yakisoba for lunch
i) writing long overdue thank you notes for silver ice cream scoops and food coupons
or j) ALL OF THE ABOVE

my choices go through j, which is one letter better than the fourth alphabet repetition in one of mac's sixty-some email addresses, if i remember correctly.

while waiting for the others to meet us at the chinese buffet, joey and i talked a bit about the schiavo situation. he and i have slightly different opinions, and i'd like to make a record here (that he is welcome to dispute if i misheard) of the fact that joey wants his feeding tube taken out. i, on the other hand, would rather keep my feeding tube if possible, on the off-chance of a miracle occurring. however, if i remain in a vegetative state for more than seven years, joey should feel free to marry some non-vegetative chick if he's so inclined. now that i'm dwelling on it some more (and probably thanks to the particular hour of the morning), i'm thinking, "okay, if i went to sleep tonight and didn't wake up for fifteen years or so.... why not make it a thousand so i can live in new new york with fry and leela and the gang! yeah! that's the ticket!"

the party will be in new orleans this weekend--to grandmother's house we go!

when i have more time, i'll post the books i've read so far this year. i'm at least halfway through the 2005 fifty book challenge, thanks to my young adult resources class! maybe when the semester's over... and speaking of the semester's looming end, i need to purchase my plane ticket to pittsburgh. i've been waffling over whether i should buy one or two--they're somewhat expensive, and the main reason for joey to go originally was to look at potential places to live if we were considering moving up there, but that seems to be out of the question, so now it might be prudent for me to go alone, but then i think about how hard it's going to be to leave tori, and i think, well, if i buy two tickets, at least joey will have a ticket in case i decide to take tori after all and i need him there to watch her while i'm in class, or, joey and i will have a fun little weekend together if she stays here (which really would be better for her, i think--no gross airports and no schedule flip-flops)... i think i'll just let joey decide (but we do have to buy the ticket(s) before we go to new orleans!).

anyway. goodnight!!! sweet dreams--of the future!!!!!

de absentia?

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 01:59:11 GMT

it's been quite a while since i posted, and i don't suppose this post will have too much exciting information in it...

i'm still in graduate school--the online program through the university of pittsburgh--but i'm toying with the idea of fsu's online program; it would be great to save the money that i don't have!

joey and i are still planning on buying the house on guillemard street--i just wish they would finish it already. i mentioned to joey that i would like the contractor to subcontract the job to me, since there's no one else interested in doing it and i would be motivated to get it done, but he pointed out that i'm not licensed. it's true, i'm not! all this waiting could mean a transitional move back to strong st., but i'm determined that that wouldn't be a bad thing.

the library wants me back, but i'm not so sure they can have me. their employees are dropping like flies, so when i went in today to volunteer they offered to start paying me, but only if i work 25 hrs/wk, and i'm not so sure i can work that many hours and still nurse tori as much as i would like.

and tori is so wonderful! if you haven't been checking periodically, go to joey's website for the latest pictures--the pictures in the tori gallery are in chronological order, so go to the later pages for the most recent pictures.

and this will be the weekend for bad movies: i sneaked (snuck?) harold and kumar go to white castle into our blockbuster queue, and my mom and i have plans to see hitch tomorrow.

last but not least (and not that he'll be reading this, i guess, but), happy birthday to patrick!

alright, an excuse to put song lyrics in my journal

Wed, 10 Nov 2004 16:23:13 GMT

stolen from smithra -- these are lyrics from the first 25 songs played on random from my library (well, from my top-rated list, so actually out of only 322 songs instead of 7244... and, well, that's just on my computer, so not including the stuff on the external...)--guess the songs and artists!!!

1) he was showing his love and that's how he hurt his hands
2) pack bags, call cabs, and hurry home to me
3) he said, it's all in your head, and i said, so's everything--but he didn't get it
4) somewhere between the soul and soft machine is where i find myself again
5) and i wait for the wailing when the wind is coming and my pain is blowing through another town
6) he loves children and of course they love him back
7) and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night
8) don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me
9) i'm a little bit shy, you're easy on the eye, and at the slightest touch we're in love
10) why only yesterday i saw somebody on the street that was really shook
11) 'cause i'm feeling for her what she's feeling for me
12) you, to me, are sweet as roses in the morning
13) i've got no sense of direction, and i guess i've got no sense at all
14) you won't believe me, but i love you only
15) i held her close, but she faded in the night like a poem i meant to write
16) i've got a secret i've been hiding under my skin
17) stand in awe and watch him draw
18) god knows what all these new drugs do
19) if you don't like what i'm saying then won't you slap my face
20) and yes, i must react to claims of those who say that you are not all that
21) i've never been afraid of any deviation
22) i can't hear the echo of my footsteps or remember the sound of my own name
23) you walk along like a baby unborn, like a father unknown, like a pocket penniless
24) i know that you got a job, mrs. cheney, but your husband's heart problem's complicating
25) no matter how strong, i'm gonna take you down with one little stone

skipped listing "i always wanted to be a tenenbaum", "sparkplug minuet", "piranhas are a very tricky species", and "highway reprised" for lack of lyrics. ;-) i should really go through more of my library--too many songs from the same albums/artists!

motherhood hasn't changed me much

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 21:55:12 GMT

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

this catnap has gone on long enough--i know that diaper is dirty and if it wakes her up to change it, so be it! she won't have trouble falling asleep again, i'm sure, and maybe we can go for a walk in our new sling!!!

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 19:53:25 GMT

yes, well, the off-spring has indeed ... off-sprung... pictures are at joey's website!!! she's two weeks old today and either really gassy or really hungry--so i could try to nurse her (which she would gladly do, if only for comfort) and possibly make the gassiness worse, or i could not nurse her and let my mom continue to carry her around and encourage her to kick her legs, ensuring that any extra energy she has will go into futile efforts to eliminate gas that isn't there when she actually needs more energy to GROW HER BRAIN.

she's a very smart girl.

i need to catch up in my classes! it's very difficult when you're either nursing or sleeping or wishing you could take a shower, but it must be done. or else they'll kick me out or something! still no word on departmental financial aid--i should know within a couple of weeks, at which point relocation planning can begin accordingly.

she's being so quiet... i think i'll get to work on my readings (or make sure she isn't smothering herself in a pillow or something...) so i can write this paper (it shouldn't be difficult! but then i'll have other assignments to catch up on, too...)

Sat, 16 Oct 2004 22:17:45 GMT

26) the amber spyglass, by philip pullman
27) fahrenheit 451, by ray bradbury

not sure what to read next! working on jon stewart's lovely little textbook, but i don't think that one will count on my list.

still no baby! we're past a week overdue! and still no cable! we're only a day overdue there... but still!

Tue, 05 Oct 2004 02:48:30 GMT

22) Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
23) American Fuji by Sara Backer
24) The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
25) The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

and there were probably some others, too... i just can't remember anymore! so, clearly not worth reporting. i'm very much enjoying the trilogy by philip pullman (the third book is The Amber Spyglass and I started it today), called "his dark materials"---my transcription work is starting to interfere with my normal typing habits! are you seeing all these capital letters?? yeah! i don't like it! i can't help it!

and joey brought me ice cream! (we still don't have cable at home, so we're at work, eating his coworker's ice cream).

pensacola is recovering from ivan, quickly in some areas, not so quickly in others. but, we can pretend life is almost normal again here. next week will be busy at the library, though, when the new tenants of our meeting room (the housing department) start taking applications...

updates with more content, if i should post such things, might be found in the future at joey's website, since he made me an account and all... i might as well use it, right? and all our photos are there... and so on. or, sometimes i might still post here! we'll see. when we get cable back.

my first hurricane was a good one

Sat, 18 Sep 2004 02:39:15 GMT

for those of you who were wondering, we're fine. hurricane ivan destroyed pensacola, but we will recover... in about two months (for utilities) and two years (for bridges and such). we weathered the storm in joey's parents' house (a "concrete fortress" by sugar's estimation) and there was very little damage to it--a few skylights broken over the pool and many shingles blown all over the yard. the water was over the boat dock, but all they lost was the weathervane! however, there were many trees--many beautiful old oak trees, a magnolia, a hickory across the street--down. the yard is buried under tree corpses and other debris. joey and i made it to our house over on bill(s) place the next day and were relieved to find that that house also fared well--all windows intact, very few shingles lost, and, surprisingly, no flooding (although the storm surge from bayou chico had water up to the first floor windows of houses only half a block away). the most debilitating thing for us will be the loss of utilities. no water, no power, no sewage, no gas in many places, no phone in many places, no cable in many places. conservative estimates for return of these important things: six weeks-two months. joey pointed out, however, that we are lucky in that we have two houses to go to--we'll just see who gets power and water (by far the more important of the two, really) back first! bridges were washed away! believe it! it's going to make getting around inconvenient, and it takes us off the interstate map for a bit (at least three weeks to get just one side of the bridge passable).

and i didn't have the baby!

we have a few pictures of the yard that joey will post ... someday, when we have power and such back. we haven't taken pictures at our house yet, but we will definitely show off a picture of the workshed behind our house--it's a perfect example of what i expected the house to look like when we drove up, and when the house was fine, all i could do was laugh at the disaster in the back yard!

we are in tallahassee mooching guxum water and power until we have to go back to work, basically, which will be no earlier than tuesday (based on when we'll have utilities at our various workplaces).

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:00:39 GMT

21) the confessions of max tivoli, by andrew sean greer
22) a clockwork orange, by anthony burgess

i'm not going to talk about reading projects in the works anymore--in all likelihood, i won't finish three-quarters of what i start, and there's no point in typing about things i probably won't get around to.

and in other news! i'll be in pittsburgh next week with sugar from wednesday night through sunday. that's a long time! my midwife's take on it: "well, if you have the baby in pittsburgh, you have the baby in pittsburgh." sugar's take on it: "i have scissors in my bag to cut the cord and we can use the hotel towels. you can have your water birth! ...have you read gap... river? [me: "gap creek?"] gap creek! that woman didn't have anything to cut the cord so she just bit through it--describes the taste and everything... salty... you know, like blood." the (soon-to-be-former) graduate student liaison's take on it: "are you sure you want to come to pittsburgh now?"

i'd really rather not have the baby in pittsburgh, though, 'cause joey won't be there. what will i do without my joey? (besides call him every day and then languish over how far apart we are and toss and turn and steal the sheets from myself?)

it sure is hot in here. or, i'm hot. last night i was really hot standing in front of the air conditioner with my preggers dress on (one of the coolest--temperature-wise--garments in my possession that still fits) and joey was cozy under a quilt. how the tables have turned!!!

Wed, 11 Aug 2004 03:27:56 GMT

19) the pleasure of my company, steve martin
20) middlesex, jeffrey eugenides

both enjoyable! pleasure of my company kind of reminded me of curious incident of the dog in the night-time, but i enjoyed that one, too... so it was pleasant. i highly recommend middlesex to those of you about to have a baby, as you will end up thinking about what you would do if your child was an intersexual (something joey and i have talked about, and of course we agreed that surgery or "fixing it" would be out of the question... but what do you do when your child starts asking questions about gender and where they fit in and how do you find environments that would be welcoming to such a child, i.e. daycares, schools, other social environments?)... and for those of you not about to have a baby, it's still a good read.

in other news, i have been accepted to the fast track/mlis program at the university of pittsburgh!!! classes start on august 30th!

Sat, 17 Jul 2004 22:38:10 GMT

18) reefer madness, by eric schlosser

i checked out the pleasure of my company by steve martin--we'll see if i actually start it soon. i'd rather be crocheting and watching ~~bad~~ great movies on tv.

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 16:51:07 GMT

17) get your war on ii -- i know it's a book of comic strips, but... i'm counting it.

we need to clean up this place! (i wanna go out instead!)

Fri, 09 Jul 2004 06:21:29 GMT

hey! i'm on ebay!!! who* knew??!?

*she did.