martinimade

I fear I've built the story up too much. However, we press on.

The house that we are currently in, while lovely (and growing even lovelier by the day as we get ready to put it on the market), is too small. Which is a very First World problem to have -- but there it is.

Once Cory arrived, our talks about moving grew more serious. And, last fall, we decided that summer 2009** would be the ripe time.

We started looking for a new place before officially listing this one. The reason for this is now lost in the recesses of my brain. Still, we fell in love with the third house we looked at*, made an offer, which was accepted. Now we're in the wrangling-details-with-the-sellers stage, which may drive us both around the bend. Should it all work out to everyone's satisfaction, we'll close at the end of May.

The loose plan is that we'll move shortly after closing. A lot of the timing will depend on selling the house we're in. ***

So if you know anyone who wants a cute, mostly renovated 3 bedroom in Oneonta that would be perfect for a young couple or empty nesters, send 'em along. I'll post a link to a Realtor site when there is one.

-------------------------------------------------

* I've waffled on posting a link but went ahead and did it anyway. It's not like I'm hard to find now.

** Yeah, we have awesome timing, what with the economic armageddon and all. Ah, well.

*** It was a shocker to both of us that several banks were willing to lend us money without making it contingent on selling our current house first. I'm stunned as well. Isn't that part of what got them in trouble in the first place? I'm not going to point that out until later.

Tomorrow I'll give you the scoop on the new house, the old house and moving but, first, from my campus mailbox, a memo:

Here's the thing - I am sure they mean well. St. Patrick's Day in the northeast is like Mardi Gras in Louisiana. There is all day drinking, partying, etc. It is a going concern.

However, am I the only one who thinks that rewarding students for something they should do any -- i.e. go to class -- is, to put it politely, misguided? You see that, too, yes?

Maybe I should just go lie down before I start a sentence with "Back in my day, we could get hammered on St. Pat's and still get our work done..."

Additionally, hey, you, kid. Get off of my lawn.

I had gotten this far into the winter without slipping on the ice and falling on my arse. Today was my lucky day. While I'll have a lovely bruise, the only thing really injured was my pride. I am now ready for spring.

* I have now stumbled upon this odd factoid three times in unrelated places during the last ten days. Clearly, it wants to be shared: The Boston Molasses Disaster. You're welcome.

* Maud Newton writes about Kitty Burns Florey's book about handwriting. Which is interesting and all - but what I really want is a book of exercises designed to help me improve my handwriting. Anyone?

* Giant Gummy Bear -- On a Stick.

* This piece about "green" birth control is of no use to me - the baby ship has sailed - but I got hung up on the idea of a vegan condom. Really? Really.

* Make your own beef jerky.

* This story about construction workers and a childrens' hospital warms the cockles of my frozen heart.

In the computer age, sending a book to your editor has less finality to it. Yesterday, at 4:30ish, I hit "send" on an email. I would have taken a picture of the event but, really, it looked like you'd imagine. I gave a small whoop, then went back to keeping my children from killing each other. Like one does.

Is the book done? Nope, not by a long shot. This part of the process is done, however. It was time for someone else to look at it for a while. It'll be back. More work will be done. It will, I hope, get better.

More details as they are warranted.

Now I need to figure out what happened to my relatively tidy house while my brain was away. There are fur tumbleweeds and Diva droppings -- seriously, is it that hard to pick up your socks? -- littering most of the flat surfaces. Must clean.

I now realize how my brain can get so focused on one thing for a few weeks that everything else in my life took a distant second place. This morning in the shower it started to catch up with me, so much so that I found myself really ticked off with something the sellers of the house we are buying* did on Friday. It's amazing how much irritation one can build up in 72 hours.

Anyhoo, to the cleaning. And the paper grading.

On the weather watch front - it seems that we've escaped the most recent snowmaggedon that is blanketing the northeast. It's snowing here, yes, but not in stunning amounts. The usually twitchy school superintendent didn't even threaten to cancel today. We shall see how the afternoon goes.

-----------------------------------------------

* or, at least, their lawyer.