Working on the House

 

So, the demolition and mold remediation in the basement is basically done. This photo was taken as we were tearing down drywall, which is surprisingly easy and fun to do. Mark had bought himself a new tool called a FuBar just for this task. We had to wear masks, gloves, and goggles the whole time in the basement because of the mold and dust in the air (see lovely photo below!).


We also have been working on paint colors for the main floor rooms (living room, kitchen, and dining room). We're trying to pick colors that will look nice for resale (down the road). We've picked a very nice red color for the accent wall in the kitchen:


Because the red really needed two coats, I didn't get to cover much of the wall, and I ended up with (what I call) a red sun. It makes the wall (in my opinion) look like it has abstract art on it, which is pretty cool. I kind of don't want to fix it so the whole wall is red--but no one else agrees with me! My dad, in particular (who is a perfectionist!), really hated how the paint looked because it was so uneven.

A New Job

 

So, I started at a new job within the University just a few weeks ago. This is my new space, with the pretty flowers that my coworkers (or supervisor?) got for me. So far my space is a lot neater than my old office, but I'm working on that! My new department has a much bigger student body than my old department, and the grad students are housed on the same floor as me, so there is a lot of traffic around here so far.

As you can see from the picture, I've got the important stuff within reach--picture of my husband, water bottle, tea pot, recycling bin, and computer. :)

Take Action Against Anti-Choice Rally Today in Omaha

"Trust women. Stand against anti-choice extremism."

I Thought No One Had Any Money

And yet, universities are spending money to lobby Congress! That just seems really ridiculous. Shouldn't everyone be trying to find ways to cut costs? For instance, the University of Mississippi is looking to eliminate their Economics department. I mean, economics isn't important right now, is it?

Motorcyclist hit by car

This is an article about the car accident Jessica and Mark were in. The article is lacking a lot of detail (although my perspective may be skewed, since I know the whole story), and doesn't even identify the type of car Mark and Jessica were in. Fortunately, Mark, Jessica, and the motorcyclist are all ok (although the motorcyclist had to stay at the hospital overnight); Mark and Jessica are just really sore from whiplash (although, Jessica did have a very minor concussion). They think the car that hit them had to be going around 40 mph or more, because the speed limit on the road was 55 mph, and they were stopped for a long time before the Sable slammed into them (obviously the driver totally was not paying attention).

Our New House

 

We closed on our house last week and have spent almost every day working on it. We've had to do demolition in the basement to get out the moldy (and damp) drywall. We still have some mold remediation to do (involving washing the studs and then spraying bleach on everything). Then it will be on to priming and painting the first floor, and reroofing.


As you can see, the porch needs a little work. We have to put up a railing, so I had the idea of making a built-in bench along the side of the porch instead.


And these are the huge bushes that I still need to trim on the side of the garage. There is also a line of dead bushes in the backyard along the fence that need to be removed.


We've met some of the neighbors. To the left is a 90-ish year old man and his wife. His three children all live within six miles of him. The next day when Mark got to the house, the neighbor was shooting off his shotgun to scare away the geese on his lawn. (He was actually shooting the geese, just shooting above their heads to scare them away.)

Mark also met the mayor's husband, who apparently lives down the street from us.

A Little Light Reading

And now, to round out the night, here are some interesting articles about current events that are trying to push us even further back from the 50s era that the Bush years brought us to:

Are Pregnant Women Losing Their Rights?
and
A Man's Right to Choose

Good night.

Women Bosses

So, this is the second time recently I've heard this discussion about who makes better bosses--men or women. I recently discovered BlogHer (a blogging community of women), and in catching up on some recent posts, found this article on the topic. I liked what the blogger said about having had both male and female good (and bad) bosses, because that is the experience I've had as well. And, I have to say, I don't think it is a coincidence, when she says:

The whole debate to me is more about leadership qualities than gender but because leadership roles are male dominated the conversation it gets a little skewed.

There has just been more men in managerial roles more than women. It's like what I heard after Obama was elected President--an African-American boy thought he could do just about anything, and after Obama became President he knew that he could aim for that as well. To get good female managers, we need to have good female manager role models. That may be a catch-22, but there has to be that first wave, and then the rest of us can learn and become better at being managers.

Of course, I did just recently have a female supervisor whose managerial style left much to be desired, but I think that is more a product of working in academia, where the focus is on good teaching and good faculty-student mentoring relationships, and staff are left to their own devices. No one has ever asked me to comment on a supervisor's management, yet student feedback can break a faculty's tenure bid. Doesn't quite seem right.

For another viewpoint on women in the workplace, read "Women Behaving Badly."

Our New (Almost) House

 

It looks like we'll be closing on Tuesday on our new house. We have a lot of work to do before winter. Order of business:

1. Demolition in the basement to remove all of the moldy drywall and carpet. We've seen houses in worse condition, but the inspector suggested that since the house has been vacant for two years, and all the drywall is pretty damp in the basement, it'd be better to just remove the drywall.
2. Re-shingle the roof. The house is about 20 years old, and looks to have the original shingles, which are starting to fall apart, and off the house.
3. Re-side the house. Apparently the siding that was used was defective (besides being really ugly), so it has started to also break apart and come off the walls.

Hopefully, after we replace the windows and fix the roof and siding, our house will have some very nice curb appeal. Mark has put a lot of effort into designing a replica of our house in Google SketchUp, so we've had a chance to play with what our house could look like. This is our first idea:

Backpacker Cat

Ohmygod! If you are a cat lover, you NEED to see this video! A couple took their cat with them backpacking around the world. It is SO cute!