The Bridge design won the state quarter contest!

This morning on the radio I heard Governor Wise quoted as saying that he was surprised by the number of people who voted for the quarter.

Well of course we voted! Once we saw there was a possibility we’d end up with the awful “quilt” design, we knew something had to be done, and fast.

The Dominion Post article

Pictures of our travels.

Pictures of the work we did to be guest bedroom.

Pictures of replacing the hood over the stove.

… is the best.

Dr. Minger’s office sent us flowers in momory of Slate.

That’s really above and beyond the call of duty.

I have a vague memory of Tiddly Tiddly being something from Winnie the Pooh, but it is entirely possible that this is something my brain made up entirely.

Regardless, I think it’s a Tiddly Tuesday.

I almost forgot to post today, as I spent a great deal of time writing and editing other stuff (work stuff, school stuff, some of it fun stuff, but most of it not.)

I saw the cover of today’s DA and realized that I completely missed last night’s Festival of Ideas speaker. It was Leon Wynter, who spoke on race. I’d wanted to see that one, so I’m rather irked I totally forgot. Except for the fact that this cold is still bothering me, so it’s probably for the best that I stayed home.

All day I’ve been on the verge of losing my voice, which means that when I talk I’ve got that lower, raspy voice that men like oh so well. It’s actually slightly deeper than the phone voice that makes Gina’s husband happy when I answer the phone at work. I actually don’t mind the way my voice sounds in my head, but then I am easily amused.

I have, however, NOT lost my voice, despite the fact that I refuse to keep quiet. This should not really come as a big surprise to anyone who knows me well–the inability to shut-up is one of my better known traits. We’ll see how things are tomorrow.

Other than that, I’ve been paying attention to the news with only half an ear. The whole situation in Israel is completely depressing, the upheaval over elections in Taiwan is insane, and the only good news seems to be that the death toll from the train bombings in Spain is going to be lower than first estimated. Although this is a good thing, the idea that hundreds of people lost their loved ones is still extremely depressing.

The other good news on the horizon is that West Virginia is supposed to be a battle ground state in the upcoming election. So perhaps we will have some attention paid to the state of things here. Plus if all those politicos and their associated reporters want to come here and spend money, that’s a good thing.

Just make sure we make ’em spend the money.

And that’s enough for now. I’m off to bed to see if I can sleep this cold into submission.

Slate died this morning. I’d been expecting it, as she’d barely been eating all week, and last night she wasn’t even interested in eating treats.

When we got up this morning she was barely moving and was having trouble breathing. We took her to the vet, because I was worried that the breathing was causing her to suffer, but she died before the vet even looked at her, so at least her death was quick.

When we brought her home last fall, I knew that it wouldn’t be for very long, since she was very old, but it was still hard. But she spent the last months of her life very happy as an inside cat, getting all kinds of attention, so her life was good.

I’ll just miss her.

THIS is the big winter storm that drove us home early?

Sheesh.

On other fronts, the cats definitely want my dad to feed them on a regular basis.

Guess my mom has fed them previous times we’ve been gone, because my dad was apparently unable to find the bins of cat food, and instead fed them the entire jar of cat treats.

It’s Monday night and we’re heading back from Baltimore. We had planned on staying until Tuesday, but the weathermen have been calling for gloom, doom, and snowstorms.

I should have expected it. This is, after all, WVU’s spring break.
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Blogging will be erratic, until it is no longer so.

It’s spring break, and we’re doing work on the house and travelling.

(Be jealous, our time away will involve going to Baltimore, which means we’ll be eating seafood! Yippee!)

Here’s hoping that we get plenty of rest and relaxation.

Two new pictures of Slate for your amusement (or not).

You must, if you have not already, read Erin’s latest post. I’m trying to come up with a way to describe it, but can’t really, except to say that Sean is definitely a sound sleeper.

Oh, and my favorite sentence was this:
“And how can they get him for burglary when he wasn’t stealing?
Let’s review!”

And if you want to find out about the cats, then you have to read the comments.

Went to see the panel discussion last night on “The Passion of the Christ” and have a lot to say, but it’s not going to be right now that I say say it unfortunately, so you’ll just have to wait.

Yup. It’s Monday.

Spent an eternity at the helpdesk this morning. We bought a USB key drive, and lo and behold, it doesn’t work on my work laptop.

Why does this really not surprise me?

This means that I have not yet managed to read Chapter 12 for my Health Policy class: SHaring the Burden Containing the Cost.

Gee, don’t know why I didn’t manage to get that read over the weekend.

I did get to see Erin on Friday–of course we had to go to the comic book show where she was working to do so, but if that’s what it takes…

And that’s about it. I’m sure that in the past you’ve been jealous of my fun-filled action packed weekends, but this one takes the cake.

Happy Monday.

It doesn’t matter how skinny you are, low cut jeans make your butt look wide.

I had a particulary unpleasant dream the other night, and I’ve been trying to forget it, so here’s another attempt at exorcising this particular demon.

“The woman” wasn’t anyone I recognized, although the other two people were both once very important to me.
And it is rather unpleasant, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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I’m feeling better than I was earlier in the week. I figure it’s due either to getting plenty of sleep, or the fact that at lunch I went and bought doughnuts, and the resulting sugar high is making everything better. (So far I’ve eaten a raspberry jelly filled. Very delicious.)

Yesterday, since Michael left work at 5, we went to Lowe’s to order the replacement doors for the kitchen. One regular door, one storm door. If all goes well, they’ll be installed sometime over spring break—except of course that now that we have made plans, we’ll now have a snowstorm, or it will rain the entire time.

Sorry about that.

I also picked up Dif and paint, and either that week or some time later, will redo the guest bedroom, which at this point has shiny wallpaper on the lower half of the wall. Although I really enjoy painting, I am not looking forward to stripping the wallpaper from the walls, nor do I particularly want to box up all the books in that room and find somewhere to keep them. (Because the room is quite full, despite the fact it contains only: 1 bed, 1 sewing machine, 7 houseplants, and books.(Okay, there are some sewing supplies there, but not a lot))

No, getting rid of books is NOT an option.

We’ve also discussed plans for redoing the kitchen, since we’re replacing the door, and need to repair water damage to the ceiling (I don’t even want to discuss it) so we’re looking into replacing the tiles. Why? First off, they’re mauve. Yes, mauve. And the rest of the kitchen is green. Secondly, at some point tiles fell out and were replaced. Badly. So at some point I’m going to start pulling tiles off the wall in the kitchen. Any suggestions as to what works best will be welcome.

And speaking of house stuff, my friend Del has started his own business, K & D Ltd, for doing odds and ends and whatever needs done. He’s in the Martinsburg/Charles Town/Shepherdstown area. He says he’s doing a lot of cleaning right now, so if cleaning isn’t your thing, and you’re in that area… his e-mail is k_dltd@frontiernet.net.

I’d meant to say something about that earlier, but Michael ended up with his business card, and didn’t give it back to me until last night. (Of course I’d barely seen Michael much until last night, so there is that.)

I also received a letter from my cousin Ben yesterday. He has, I think, a little under a year left to spend in Kyrgyzstan and the Peace Corps. I’m not sure what he’s going to be doing next, but I can’t wait until he comes home and I can talk to him about it. He took a brief tour of the Middle East over his Christmas break, and I am really interested in hearing in more detail what he saw and what he thinks about what he saw.

And that’s about it. Unless of course anyone is interested in coming over and helping my box up books and remove wallpaper. All volunteers are welcome for that!