I'm Back

I wanted to let everyone know I’m back. I was in Pittsburgh a few days attending a conference. After the conference, our friends Jean, Debbie, and Pat flew down to Columbia to have Thanksgiving with us. It was nice not to be alone. I will be hard at work this week as 2 of my 3 classes ends this week. That means projects due in each class. Wednesday I have two projects due which I’m 90% finished. Thursday I have a 20 minute presentation on my findings from the food court, and Friday I have to turn in a rough draft of my research project and self-evaluation of my grades. I have those!!!

Interrobangs

Does anyone know what an interrobang is? I do? What do you think it might be?

O'Reilly loves San Francisco

Everyone's best friend Bill O'Reilly doesn't like San Francisco for passing a measure which urges public high schools and colleges to prohibit on campus military recruiting.

O'Reilly to San Francisco: "[I]f Al Qaeda comes ... [Media Matters]

Do it right, or just don't do it!

I guess it was almost two years ago that Scott and I enlisted in Adam's help in painting our bedroom. We spent a long time properly painting that room, so that when it was done, the result was marvelous. Or at least we thought so. Then again when it was time to do the nursery before Emily's coming, we enlisted in Adam's help again. Scott and Adam spent the entire Christmas break in that room, and the time that Scott spent on the touch-ups was extreme. The room was more perfect than I could have ever imagined. Well, now we are in this house, and I guess maybe it will be Adam again who will feel my pain, since he is the one who taught me to be so meticulous like him. (Just as his blog implies.)

The previous owners did such a crappy job it is unbelievable. There is nothing worse than sitting on the toilet and looking up at the wall and noticing that the wallpaper (not my choice of course of paper) doesn't go all the way up to the top of the wall. It is as if the roll was up and rather than finishing it up nicely with a new roll, they said, "oh the hell with it."

Now if this was the only place where one would notice an imperfection, that would be one thing. But this is merely an example of what is to be found throughout the entire house. They didn't cut in around door frames, fireplaces, or light fixtures very well, and in rooms with darker colors, like Emily's lavender, they didn't use two coats so there is minimal coverage. There are many places in that room where the white wall is seen through the wall texture.

You may think, "oh... well maybe they ran out of money, and paint is expensive, so they just used what they had." NOPE. There are still multiple rolls of the yucky wallpaper in the garage, along with the unused paint. Much of the paint is full, or had never been opened. Why spend the money if that is they type of job you are going to do?

There are many things that I would do differently if I was purchasing a house again. The biggest thing that I think that I would do is pay more close attention to the details of paint and wallpaper. We love the colors in the home of paint, and I guess that is all we saw. Now it doesn't really matter if we like the color or not, because we are going to end up painting the entire house again, one room at a time. A boring white house would have served us better... at least we wouldn't have to paint over some other color. Oh well. Live and learn. I guess that is a small price to pay when finding a house in a couple of days. :) That doesn't mean that in the meantime I don't go crazy looking at the unmatched, crappy looking wallpaper and paint.

-Malisa

By-accident

When I came across this I didn't know if it was real or not. It's a website that will pre-arrange and accident for you in order to feel like a survivor. You decide.

By Accident

JFJ (Just for Justin)

I will accept your challenge and talk about nothing as well. I'm taking a break in between homework. I finished reading an exciting chapter about interviewing those who I research, then I wrote a poetic analysis, and I am drafting questions for an interview I have to do for my Qualitative Research class. I'm trying to finish these little things so I can work on my 10 page paper due Thursday. It's not a hard write - just time consuming. What chaps my hide is the two books that need to be finished by this weekend. The two books total about 600 pages. Why do instructors do that? What these instructors do is make you put together what's called reading logs. As you come across a quote, type it out with page number, make a comment about it and tie it to other researchers. I like the reading. The reading can often be sort of enjoyable when it's a writer who can write well. But that many books in one week hurt a bit. Looks like I'll have to do major skimming.

This week I'll be collecting data for my first piece of research. I'm studying how teachers use language to build or maintain classroom community. It deals somewhat with my dissertation since I have to start thinking about that. Once I collect my data I'm actually going to try to get it published. Not in some big refereed journal but some little state magazine. You have to start somewhere.

Homecoming

Homecoming
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

At USC, we don't just have homecoming! We have:

The Johnsons in South Carolina

This is for you Justin -
Here are some pictures of the house that were taken back in April(?) when we first visited South Carolina.

Front of the House

Front of the House
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

Another Backyard Pict

Another Backyard Pict
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

Still Another Backyard Pict

Still Another Backyard Pict
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

Porch

Porch
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

Full Frontal

Full Frontal
Originally uploaded by puzzleco.

Housework

With the wife gone, I have taken the initiative to get some the outside work finished. I trimmed a lot of bushes (see Steve, Blogs can get the ladies), mowed the lawn, and use the new weed eater. But I experienced two things which are new to me. First, I climb a ladder three stories so I can replace the dryer screen so the squirrels and birds don’t make a house in the our dryer duct. I realized I don’t like ladders especially at that hight. And obviously the item I purchased didn’t exactly fit so I had to get back down, cut a few things off, and climb back up. Next, as I was moving a bag of dog food when I discovered a large pile of mouse droppings. When I looked behind a refrigerator (this is in the garage), the mouse scurried away. Now I’ve never experienced “mouse-dom” so I was new to me. I found several hole s/he made so I drove down to Home Depot to buy mouse poison. But I’ve been told to buy glue strips so that’s what I’ll probably do. Tomorrow I will have to spend some time patching holes because on top of the mouse in our garage, we have frogs and we had a snake.

Fashionable Wear

I don't go looking for these website but they seem to find me. Just in case you're looking for a new style in fashion, this is the place to buy.

Sell the Ranch! : CafePress.com

Lonely

Malisa and Emily are gone till Sunday. They are in Bakersfield. Malisa's grandfather passed away so she traveled back West to be with her family. That leaves me all by myself. Normally I would relish these moments of being on my own. Back in Fresno I was surrounded by tons of distractions like friends, work, and other crap. Well, beside housework and yardwork, all there is to do is homework. My homework isn't necessarily the most entertaining stuff. The highlight of the day is drinking Coke with Lime and eating Rocky Road ice cream.

I did have several visitors today. First, there was the may from the auto glass company who came to repair some cracks in the front window of the truck and Honda. In one week, we both got hit by wood falling off the back of a big rig. Anyway, when he went to repair my window, CRACK! A nine inch crack down the front - his second break like this in 15 years. When looking at the Honda, the crack is deeper than he thought and since its above the defroster, the Honda gets a new front window. So my new friend the auto glass man is coming to visit me twice - to fix the truck than on Monday to fix the Honda. Thankfully there is no deductible on glass through State Farm (at least in SC).

The bug man also came to visit. We chatted as he sprayed the 10 or so fire ant hills that seemed to pop up in the last week. Those little buggers hurt like hell and they make me blister.

Tomorrow I wonder who else will visit. Will you? I will be looking out my window!?!

Pumpkin Carving

I now how I'm going to carve my pumpkin.

Squackle! The Funniest Site on the Net - Pictures

Putfile

Putfile - This Weeks Top 50 Videos

These are funny videos. I especially like the guy who won $110, 000 on the whammy show because he figured out the pattern for missing whammies.

Tampon Angels

I had to post this. This was too good to be true - another Christmas idea for a classroom.

Tampon Angel Pattern

Harriet Miers

If you would like to find out my about Harriet Miers, you may want to visit her blog.

Harriet Miers's Blog!!!