Valdemort has had a VERY interesting day today - in terms of Geological Sciences and the shore. Basically, 3 interesting finds, the least interesting of which was finding an agate. The other 2 are up to Valdemort to elaborate upon…

And I would much prefer to be a U.P. Hermit. As my tagline states. Most definitively.

I have to laugh! Two days ago, I wasn’t even AWARE that this weekend was a holiday weekend, mostly because I had OTHER stuff on my mind (see yesterday’s post for some of it). So, I’m now seeing all these wonderful photos from KayakWoman and Mainlife and other folks I follow and I’m getting homesick for the UP. [Hey, I’ll be up there SOON, just not SOON ENOUGH!]

Anyway, it’s just as well I didn’t make any plans. Today Valdemort & I grabbed an early breakfast at Bob Evans, then stopped back at home to grab The Dogz (with leashes, plastic bags, water dish & water) and she & I followed each other over to EL to load the balance of her stuff from the storage unit into DGSLD; then I walked The Guyz along the Red Cedar (dodging goose poo, bikers, and runners) while she got a start on the final steps of producing her presentation poster for the AGU Conference in Toronto starting tomorrow. We said our good-byes when Ern, Alf, & I returned to DGSLD; me for home, she back to the lab for some micrographs and final edits before going to the Print Shop to get her poster printed (something like 48 x 96 in size?).

Discovered that those McDonald’s “sweet teas” are NASTY (well, if you really like SWEET to the point of syrupy, then they’d qualify as “ok”, but I prefer lemon, myself).

Kept busy, but not with studying (yet). Took the weed whacker to the local lawn equipment place, discovered that fuel was pouring out of the gas cap NOT because the gas cap was cracked, but the TANK (between the threads in the neck - which is why it didn’t LOOK cracked at first glance). So, it’s in the lawn equipment hospital for plastic surgery (new tank). A little grocery shopping at BOTH Kroger & Colony. Cooked up a light supper. Washed the Miata (still needs waxing), then took it out to “dry the brakes” (yes, channeling The Engineer), throw $26 worth of Premium Gas (ugh - thanks, Engineer, for NOT putting the original airbox back on and re-setting the timing, which you’d been talking about doing since - what - 2003? I *could* probably put the OE airbox back on, but haven’t a clue about resetting the timing), put 14 miles on it, then home to take The Boyz on their evening walk. Finally, watered the plants (outdoors, still have to do indoors).

It’s 8:15PM now, and I still need to study. So. Enough yammering from me, and I’m off to study. Bye (for now).

To explain the lack of blog-age… been kinda busy, what with end-of-school year goings-on with 2 college kids, attempting to spiff up the house, fulfilling obligations re unemployment, getting started with my Anatomy class, etc., yadda-yadda, and so on.

Anyhoo.

• Got Nookley moved home on Friday 5/8… also met Valdemort’s advisor (who was leaving for Africa that afternoon for Geology research)
• Went *back* to EL the next day for Valdemort’s Geology Dept Reception (got to meet several of her professors and departmental staff)
• Also got Valdemort GRADUATED (5/9 - Happy Birthday, Ol’ Coot! Hopefully, you & The Engineer got to see her do The Walk in her funny board-hat-with-gold tassel and green muu-muu!) - By the way, EVERYONE shook hands as diplomas were handed out, even though there was a letter suggesting *otherwise*
• Valdemort moved herself to combination of storage unit & home by late Sunday evening (”Mother’s Day”)
• Nook painted her bedroom “POMEGRANATE” (as well as my utility sink and parts of my stacked washer & dryer next to afore-mentioned sink…but the brushes & rollers are clean!)
• Nook & Heather loaded a university van with stuff for Field School, drove it here, then next day they loaded their *stuff* into it and headed off to Middle-of-Nowhere, Illinois (where Field School is located), where “Someone misplaced the Illinois River… it’s everywhere it shouldn’t be ”. [Probably the best quote I’ve heardread yet!] Anyway, the School is temporarily at a field station, since the grounds around lodge they are SUPPOSED to be in are still quite flooded…
• Valdemort’s been commuting between EL and here, finishing research in preparation for AGU conference (Toronto) AND wrapping up her US Forest Service internship (today being her last day as an intern)
• I attended my first Anatomy class on Tuesday (amidst all this). Discovered that the Camtasia recordings of lecture slides are NOT supplementary, but are supposed to be completely viewed before each lecture, but otherwise am currently holding a 4.0 in the class (first quiz & homework). Whew!
• Have sort of come to the conclusion that maybe I don’t want/need to try to sell this place quite yet – the thought of uprooting/moving to a whole ‘nother city just to go to school doesn’t quite make sense… when I’d have to move yet again when I land a job someplace… hell, I can commute for the time needed to get a degree. First of all, I have to get IN to the program…Next problem, though, is how to manage The Dogz??? (Will cross that bridge when I have to, no brain power left to hash that one out)
• Valdemort leaves for the AGU Conference in Toronto tomorrow… back mid-week. Yes, she IS presenting

… to one of Nook’s favorite Profs: click here for the State News article!

Yay! The fellow I hired to “spiff up” (aka “provide Curb Appeal” to) the front of my house completed the job over the course of 3 full days (including trips to get materials). He worked with my existing plants (eliminating the weeds that I so successfully cultivate ), added 3 boxwoods, 1 tall-skinny juniper, several boulders, a gorgeous brick edging AND brick step, and a thick covering of mulch. Below are photos of the results:

In other news, ran the lawn mower for the first time this season… got everything (so I thought) done on Saturday (when it was fairly dry)… then after putting mower away, figured out I MISSED the area *inside* my fence *grr*. ‘Course, it had to rain Saturday afternoon/evening. Sunday, got the mower out, wished I had hip waders, pontoons (for the mower) & waterwings, and slogged through most of the backyard (avoiding the obvious lakes). I swear I have NEVER seen this much WATER since the year the golf course was created just east of here, which massively screwed up the rainwater/thaw drainage. The City had to create overflow/drainage “ponds” to prevent future floods like that one - heck, my next-door neighbor’s house looked like an island that episode! [Wonder if the City got the developer to chip in on the cost of that? Hmmmm.] Wonder what is really going on that our ground has been SO thoroughly saturated for the past year or two, though?? This has been bizarre!

All this was contained in ONE (count it, ONE) 5-shelf bookcase:

• Photo albums (several complete with dog pee on spines) - 8 total
• Car Spotter’s Guides: American 1940 - 1965; American 1966 - 1980; Imported (everything imported from the 1940’s thru 1979 model year)
• Several books and a folder related to the Mazda MX-5 Miata
• Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow owner’s manual (via The Ol’ Coot)
• VW Beetle
• Cars that Never Were
• Peanuts Treasury
• Michigan Tech Centennial
• Incredible Cross-Sections
• Classical Guitar making books
• Violin making book
• Piano Servicing, Tuning, & Rebuilding
• History books - Michigan, including Bay City, Essexville, Sault Ste. Marie; Tennessee
• Lake Freighters & Lake Superior (Singing of the Songs that Sunk the Fitz; Know Your Ships; Lake Boats; Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals; Ladies of the Lakes; Life on the Great Lakes; Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast; Namesakes of the Lakes; The New Namesakes of the Lakes; Namesakes II; The Northern Lights; Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park)
• The Lower St. Lawrence
• The Cully Gage series of Northwoods Readers
• M.C. Escher
• The Aucorn Finlaysons book
• The Anatomy of the Dog
• Northern Michigan’s Best Cross Country Ski Trails
• Field guides for birds, wildflowers, butterflies, trees, seashells.
• Four of “The Hitchiker’s Guide” series
• Two Foxtrot collections
• Air Power
• The Universe and Beyond
• Novels out the wazoo
• Books related to work (The Machine that Changed the World; The Goal; Lean Thinking; Suzaki)
• Jenga
• Carry box of scissors, pens, pencils, etc
• Unabridged Dictionary
• Abraham Lincoln
• Several National Geographic magazines (including the one with the holographic cover) that The Engineer HAD to keep
• The Girls’ high school art class projects (various clay/ceramic penguins & polar bears, a thunderbolt-wielding god, plus a few containers of sorts)
• A Green & White hollow wax hand showing the PEACE sign
• Perched bird and dalmations carved from wood by my Dad
• Stuffed penguin
• Polar bears statue given to Valdemort by a friend
• Clay bear and submarine made by The Engineer when he was a little kid
• A stuffed cube that was given to Nook commemorating her birth
• (I know I missed a LOT)

And… last but not least:

• a book entitled “Clutter Be Gone!”

LOL… I think?

Today AGAIN could not get the wherewithal to screw around with paint, so I attacked the set of bookshelves (cluttershelves???) upstairs. The set that noone can see from the stairs, ‘cuz it’s situated in such a way that it’s invisible until you reach The Girlz’ rooms and turn to go into the bathroom kind of invisible. Got the dog pee off the albums on the bottom shelf (and the shelf, too). Succeeded in getting everything else off. Ran outta steam before I could dust/clean the remaining shelves, so I changed horses mid-stream

…and…

went after the newly-discovered (by me!…SOMEONE has to have known it was cracked…) busted hand-held shower bracket. Which meant replacing the entire unit, as I figured trying to find a possibly-14-year old bracket might be a waste of time. Not to mention that spawned the idea of fixing the tub drain which would not hold water ever since I replaced the drain lever a couple years ago. So, off to Ace Hardware for a new handheld shower kit & a new drain lever/faceplate. Of course, the handheld shower is the EASY part, so that is done first. Then to the drain assembly. Figure out new faceplate is identical (where it counts) to the one I considered replacing, so the new one will be going back to Ace (never used it, just out of packaging long enough to see the engineering on the business side was identical - the fronts only *looked* different).

So…

BACK to Ace to check on replacement “plunger” assemblies (since the one not working has corroded threads and probably can’t adjust the length). Get replacement, figure out there’s no way in Hell that it’s gonna work.

…try Home Depot & Gill-Roy’s Got It - nope, neither had any different configuration. Although Gill-Roy’s did plant the seed of a *different* approach to the drain-plug issue. Tried to get the old [drain] ring out - NO GO.

Get out “Liquid Wrench”, spray threads on old plunger assembly, wait… and straighten out all kinks in existing components of said device while waiting, to gain critical millimeters “just in case”. Try adjusting length along eyebolt… and the screws all turn! YAY! Couple of ins & outs to fine-tune the adjustments and VOILA! the tub drain works AS ADVERTISED! (Sorry, Nook, for not having the gazinta to investigate sooner. .)

Anyway, I *do* have to say that I am relieved that all the *big* stuff has been maintained all along. What I’m dealing with are the *cosmetic* things (like painting and scrubbing hardwater stains off sinks and replacing the doggy-destroyed carpet* in the Solar), and making sure that the little niggly things (tub drains, handheld showers) are working properly. Thank goodness the furnace, air conditioning and water heater are all (knock on wood) OK (and good brands). Roof recent, curbside appeal is almost “there” (uh, I need to spiff up the front gardens), 2 new trees in the front yard, no issues that ring the bells of “OMG! I have to FIX that before we can even THINK of moving in!”. Upstairs carpeting is OK enough that it should “show” OK, but won’t be brand new, thereby discouraging the buyer(s) from replacing it with their OWN choices. Yeah, there’s rooms that have needed paint since WE moved in and just never got to…. in fact I have never done the “living room” because of that insane 20-ft wall on the stairs that I have no idea how to do on my own (safely)!! (and I’m too cheap to hire an interior painter…)

Oh, yeah, and in the midst of it all, I had to go over to Central Offices to record the outgoing message on the NEW GB Ed Foundation’s phone number! Yes! The District actually gave us our own phone number & voice mail! At least that way, we aren’t adding to the workload of the District’s secretaries…. Between getting the new phone number and waiting for one more photo, (plus having put in a request for a GBEF email address), the brochure I’d been working on for AGES is almost ready to go on the site.

To add to today’s excitement, my last two textbooks for my two Summer Semester classes just arrived this afternoon! Yum! “Human Anatomy” and an Anatomy “coloring book”.

* Doggy destroyed carpeting goes back to “not long after the carpet was installed” during the Young Sam Era. We had accidentally left his “pinch collar” on after a walk and he decided to do an Enthusiastic Face Rub on that carpet… and snagged one of the collar prongs on a carpet loop… and “ZIIIIIIPPPPPPP!” there went a good long string of what used to be Berber Loops… It has since been the involuntary recipient of additional “tug of war” wounds plus mud/dirt tracked in from the backyard. It’s had a very good life.

Nook came home from State yesterday (the dorm/cafeteria schedules get too weird for her liking on holiday weekends like this one). We picked up G’ma Joyce and went out for a very enjoyable supper together!

I was going to paint over the weekend, regardless. Well, Nook contacts 2 of her long-time friends, invites them over to help! *grin* So while sharing supper and convo with G’ma, we also throw out a few plans for Saturday:

• Time? Uh, after 10? I want to sleep in, can we make it after noon? OK - 1PM.
• Hm. Guess we need spaghetti makings. G’ma? You want to go to Colony with us? Cool!

We all get home, then:

• O_o We have one roller, one trim brush. *sigh* OK, trip out to get enough so 4 people can be kept busy!
• Nook & I start masking… and masking… and masking… until something like 10PM and we’re too sleepy to continue

Next morning, I get up, cook breakfast, start spaghetti sauce, then MORE masking, then… WAIT! um, oh man! I can’t find the OLD roller tray that I thought I’d had! Crud! OK - change BACK into street clothes, grab the can of Cerulean Blue (that I’d had for … a WHILE …) and head to Ace Hardware, where they kindly put it on the paint-shaker for me; then over to Kroger for cherry pie, bread (for gah-lic bread, of course!), and some snackables. Back to the house.

• Back into paintin’ clothes and back to masking
• The boys arrive and they help with the final parts of masking along the ceiling
• FINALLY we get to open the paint and between us, one finished ceiling masking, one started on the “blue room” with roller and brushes, Nook “monkeyed around” on the kitchen cabinets painting the walls (”Smiley Face” yellow) *behind* the tops of the cupboards (the downside of unsoffited cupboards is that awkward stretch-reach-bend-and-try-to-avoid-halogen recessed lights), and I went to work with said yellow and trim brush, working around mug racks and down corners and along ceiling/wall, then loading up roller and working on the few areas large enough that the roller could actually be USED in the kitchen!

Finished kitchen, Nook & Kevin joined Pat in the Blue Room to finish that while I cleaned up the yellow stuff and finished supper prep to feed a hungry & rather tired painting crew! Yes, they cleaned up the blue stuff while I got supper ready.

After eating, we surveyed the work, took down most of the masking, and figured out what needs to be touched up - tomorrow. And get out a razor blade for a few drips and smudges here & there…

Whew! I’m-a tired! Guess it’s early bedtime. In a little while…