A Wee Too Much

The past two weeks I have been very busy with my job.  I know that I can be a bit of a workaholic, but I enjoy being good at my job.  Plus, I want to make sure that my students are learning the information they need to be good nurses.  I have been grading papers that take me about 2 hours a piece to finish.  In addition, I have been prepping for 5 different classes, grading assignments, and grading midterm examinations.  I spent a couple of night pulling all-nighters (as if I was working in the hospital again).  Well, my body finally gave in and quit.  Today I have a headache, sore throat, gunk in my throat, and exhaustion.  I am staying home from church, one my couch.  I am hoping that this is going to help me overcome this little illness sooner.  I don't have time to get really sick.  Sometimes I think that I need to slow down, but in reality I know that I am much happier when I am busy and productive.

He Can Bark!

I heard his bark for the first time yesterday night.  There are railroad tracks next to the dog park that I take him to practically every day.  A couple times a week a train comes by and he runs directly to my side.  The other night the train came by and I decided to walk toward the train.  Harley followed me and as we got close to the fence, about 50 feet away from the train, he barked.  He barked four times and then stopped.  His bark was surprisingly deep.  I suppose it is an adult male dog, but he is missing part of his man parts, so I would have thought with less testosterone in his body that his voice my be a little higher.  Not a bark since then, even tonight when he ran head first into the glass screen door.  He was really excited to get back into the house because it was really windy outside.  He is not exactly the bravest dog, but he is extremely sweet.  I haven't met a person, or dog he didn't like.

Aaaahhh!

Today was gutter cleaning day.  I have heard a rumor that it might snow on Tuesday night. Today was the day to prepare.  I borrowed a 16 ft ladder from my home teacher.  I was tall enough to be able to reach my hand over the gutter and pull stuff out, yet feel uncomfortable up there.  I don't have a fear of heights, but I definitely have fear of falling and becoming a human vegetable.  I got them cleaned out and new flood lights put in outside the back door.  Yay for seeing outside at night when you need to go outside.  As a girl living alone I love knowing if something is lurking in the backyard when I am headed out.

Next year I am going to find a 20 ft ladder....I think it will be much safer. 

He was a Good Boy.

I left him alone in my house for the first time today for 4 hours while I went to church.  He was so good.  He didn't touch anything.  Yay for finding an excellent dog!

Meet Harley

 Anyone who really knows me, knows that I have wanted a dog for a long time.  When my family got a dog (after I had moved out), I would go home just to visit the dog.  Sometimes I get lonely and many times I have thought about getting a dog.  Typically, I realized that I was too busy, lived somewhere that would not allow pets, or just overall needed to take care of myself and not a dog.  I have been looking at dogs online of the past few weeks.  I felt like I really wanted to get one.  I was looking at rescue website and the animal human society website.  There are so many dogs out there who are older that need homes and many more people who want puppies, so I decided to go with an older dog.
Last night, since I didn't have any big plans that evening (I rarely do), I headed out to do errands and thought I would run over to the Animal Human Society here in Golden Valley (a neighboring city).  I walked in and was in love with so many of the dogs.  There was the cutest American Bulldog there.  She reminded me of "Return to Me".  I love that movie, but the dog had so much energy and was chewing like crazy on my hand.  I thought, this dog will chew up my house.  I kept coming back to this sweet black lab.  Who would gently come up to the front of his kennel and sit patients will you scratched behind his ears.  I took him into a visitation room and he just wanted to cuddle or play fetch with a tennis ball.  He was so sweet.  I knew that he just needed to come home with me.  So, I came out the Animal Human Society the owner or a sweet boy.
His name is Harley.  All that I really know about him is that he is a lab mix.  He came here to MN on a puppy train.  That means that another shelter in Alabama had too many animals, so they brought many of them up here to MN.  I was told he came with a group of 59 other dogs.  I guess that means he might be a University of Alabama fan, "Roll Tide," right Will?  I was a little worried about how he would handle all of the construction and things without homes in my house, but he has been a champion.  He only plays with the toys that I bought for him.  I got him a crate, which he refuses to get into.  He slept the night on my couch.  He can't go up my stairs, they are too slippery and steep.  This means that he will be living on the main floor.  The picture above shows a line where is gentle guide leash rubbed against the hair under his eyes.

 The following is the list of stuff I have figured out (I decided that if parents can do this for their kids, I can do it for my dog):

• He doesn't bark at anything (I don't even know if he can bark)
• He only eats and drinks if I am not in the kitchen where the bowls are at
• He only sleeps on the couch
• He is social, he loves other dogs and children
• He is overweight.  He needs to lose about 15 pounds
• He knows sit, stay, go, up
• He loves his walks...although they end up more like runs
• He loves, loves, loves to be scratched and petted
• He loves to fetch tennis balls.  He brings them back, but he gets so excited that sometimes it is difficult to get it out of his mouth
• He has one little twinkle toe (it is golden)
• He has an ear infection that I am treating with antibiotics
• He is very calm.  He does not jump up on people or counters.
• So far no accidents in the house, although I don't know how he tells me that he needs to go outside.
• He enjoys watching people out the windows, but mostly just follows me around.

•  He has lovely brown eyes

And here is a photo of his extra weight.  I guess I don't get to sit on the couch anymore. 

Oh Yeah And...

The shower doesn't drain properly.  I have showered in it once and had to turn the water off four times so that it wouldn't overflow.  Hope I can get that fixed soon. Plus, the inside of the shower never dries.  How do I fix that problem?  I left the bathroom fan on for hours.  Days later the base of the shower is still wet. I would love suggestions.

Um, What?

Remember the freezer that would not open?  Well, I carefully removed the molding so that I had full access to the freezer.  It stayed that way for about a week.  I brought some questions to the service HD about the measurements that were done and why the freezer didn't have enough room.  The builders came out and replaced some cabinet doors that were painted a little funky.  They were supposed to be checking out my options for the molding around the door.  When I came home from work I saw that the molding had been placed back around the door frame.  I just started to laugh.  Once again...I have no access to the freezer.  This was last week.  I have to admit, I haven't taken the molding off again.  The idea is just exhausting.  So, once again I look at the freezer and think....hhhmmm.  I will put that off for another day.

This week was not a great weight week.  On Saturday I had spent 10.5 hours in the yard.  That is equivalent to 3000 kcalories in one day.  It didn't help.  I gained 1 pound.  Oh well, I didn't really eat junk, but I know that with big workouts I tend to gain weight (weird).

Shower Power

 For all of the impatient readers...here is the shower.  If I post everything now, there won't be anything to talk about for the next few weeks.  A girl can only get so many things completed.  Here is the shower from standing in my bedroom.  The lettuce green walls are not so overpowering without the overhead light on, but they are still going to be going soon.  I was going to do it this weekend and then I decided that I should do outside work.  Winter is on its way and when it is here I will have plenty of time inside to complete painting projects, and other little indoor tasks.

This is a look from inside the bathroom.  There is not a ton of room in the room to get a decent pic.  Yep, once again it has a yellow tint.  It is a mixture of the light in the bathroom and my camera.  You get the gist though....clear glass (cheaper), but quality glass and frame.  It was much better than what I had in there and couldn't get lined up.  I have lived and "maybe" I have learned not to attempt showers.  I make no promises though.  I still have this idea that I could do it.  It was the money that I would have to put into it before I got it right that was actually holding me back.

Another Body

 Today I got overzealous about yard work.  I had originally planning to rake up the remainder of the leaves in the backyard.  As I was raking I began to notice all of the little "baby trees" that I have been dying to remove for a while.  So, off I went on a major tree and lead removal activity.  The first picture I love because there used to be about 30 little trees knee to hip height.  I got them all removed, but then I found another little squirrel who met his demise.

 Here lying on the ground are a bunch of leaves, and elm trees twice my height, and some other tree the same height that I didn't want in my yard anymore.

BEFORE- You can see the large weeds/little trees hanging out back there by the garage

 This is a picture of where the trees were removed.  Treeless ground is lovely....it means less leaves to clean up in the fall next year.  Yay!

AFTER-All cleared

 This a picture next to the garage where i removed about 15-20 trees,  It looks better than it has the entire time I have lived here.  There is satisfaction in the little things.

These are several of my piles of trees and leaves.  It took me a total of 10.5 hours to get it all cleaned up.  I can positively say that I am sore today.

"Hawt Dish"

I am catching up on some blogging.  This week I went from teaching two classes three days a week to teaching three classes four days a week.  I was pretty excited to took in my new oven.  I decided to try something new (or at least semi-new).  I made lasagna with zucchini as the noodles.  I was very excited!  I tasted great.  Noodles don't have a whole lot of flavor and neither does zucchini, so it takes just like regular lasagna.  I am not sure if lasagna is a form of casserole, but around here I think it would be called a hot dish.  Are hot dishes cooked in a casserole dish or a hot dish dish?

Fall Raking

 It is currently 9 pm here in MN and this part of the family is finally coming inside.  I have spent many hours raking the yard.  I know that the evening pictures are not the clearest for viewing, but I felt a need to display the work I have done and what is still coming in the future.  My very large trees have not dropped very many leaves.  I look up and almost feel a little depression kicking in as I realize how much more raking is in my future.

 Here is what I did not get to today.  I imagine that it is slightly less than what I did today (perhaps 14 bags).  You can see that I have raked the right side of the picture.  I don't want a huge flair up of wrist pain and numbness, so more will have to occur next week.

 The picture is for comparison.  This is what I raked today.  Yes I did not get every leave....plus they are still falling.

Here are the 19 bags of leaves sitting in my back yard.  We have to put them in the compostable paper bags for the city to pick them up.  I ran out so I put the leaves into 8 temporary bags, so that the piles I raked would not end up all over the yard again.  I actually enjoyed listening to music, breathing the outside air, and intermittently dancing and hoping my neighbors were not watching.  Although, I am not sure that I am prepared for this every weekend until it snows.  Then I get to shovel snow.  The joys of home ownership!

I did not get to spend all day outside.  I was required to read the latest book I am reading, for at least a couple of hours.  I also had to attend my first graduation for Rasmussen College.  I had not taught anyone graduating, but it is one of the requirements of teaching at a college.  At least only three of the schools were there and it took just 1 hour.  Yay for short graduations!  It made me look forward to my doctorate graduation.  Oh, the joys of a University of South Alabama Graduation!  Ann can attest that it was the greatest graduation ever!

Kitchen Knobs and Pulls

This one is for Lee, who pointed out that I have not displayed my pulls and knobs up close.  They do match the faucet coloring.  Here they are for a closer viewing.

Various Home Updates

 Here is the shower again.  The colors look much better today, not so yellow.  There are three gray walls.  Today the shower faucet and handle were put in.  One step closer to a finished shower.  Ignore the dirt in the bottom of the shower from the worker.

 They were not supposed to put the toilet back in.  I was planning on putting it in myself for way less money.  I came home and the toilet was back in.  I had plans to repaint the room before putting the toilet back in.  Luckily it won't cost me a cent.

 The is the sink, now in working order.   The water in the bathroom is lovely.

 This is the distance between the wall and the toilet.  It is going to be difficult to paint behind the toilet, but I am not taking it back off.

 Another view from of the toilet.

The kitchen faucet that was just put in on Monday.  Yay! Of course there had to be another problem here.  I put the hand sprayer up for the photo, but it leaks.  I have to order another one now.

The North Shore Fall

 This weekend I went with Carrie and a couple of her friends from school.  We had a great time!  We stopped for Cinnamon Rolls at Tobie's (a must tradition), on the way up to the Duluth area.  When we got to Duluth we stopped in a small town just north.  We discovered that where we stopped was not especially picturesque, but I managed to get a photo of a little boat hanging out anyway.

 There was also a random train hanging out in the area.  I didn't really get a chance to read anything around the area, but I licked the train anyway.

 I got little view of Lake Superior.  The day was not bright and blue, but fairly overcast so the pictures were not as lovely as I had hoped.

 Carrie's friends had not been up to Duluth or the surrounding area, so we headed to Gooseberry Falls.  I was happy that this time the water was not as brown.  It makes for better pictures when it is white.

 This picture is a little dark, but I sure loved the sky for some reason.

 The same view without the lens I was playing with.

 We were happily surprised to find some leaves still on the trees.

Above, I was just testing out my four star lens.  Carrie's house lights did turn into little stars.  And the final pic is out of order, but it was a lighthouse we stopped at.

Cute Boy Alert

Um.  Okay I found a reason that I need to lose 40 pounds by next week.  There is a cute single guy that showed up in my ward today. At least he didn't have a ring on. He may have been there before, but he bore his testimony today.  Can I just say....he is in law school.  It is destiny.  Now if only I could convince him of that (ESP?).  I bet he was up there on the stand thinking who is that hot girl with the bows in her hair.  This kind of thing happens to me all the time.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, the fellow who was released from the state penitentiary for a crime he should have had life for and the other one who was just happy that he wasn't locked up right now (I believe he mumbled something about a mental institution) are not on the interest peaking radar.

Alright, yeah I know I just posted this ridiculous post, but this has never happened in my ward before.  Someone without a history of drug use (or at least looks like he has no history of drug use), is bettering himself for a career, is at church, and is single (?). Plus, I actually thought, "hmmmm is he single?"  I must be feeling better after two years of therapy.

I hear the angels right now, "AAAAHHHHHH."

I don't have a phone, so hence this post. Now if anyone in my ward is reading this (throat clearing occurring), keep your mouths shut.  Just let me live in my little fantasy world.  I don't really need to be set up.  I really just need a piece of "eye candy" to keep me coming to church happily.

Thanks. Have a nice day.

Love,

Claire

Why No Shower Yet?

 Well, you are going to have to be creative and pretend that these pictures are not all tinted yellow.  It is going to be fixed today before I can get more pictures of what was wrong.  The base of the shower has been in for weeks.  I had ordered a white gray color.  Then they came to put in the walls and it turned out that the company who made them finished the wrong sides.  No problem...a solution was created.

Well, then the caddy box was opened....oh look it is a lighter white gray.  Suddenly, a realization was made by me that the walls and the base were not the color I ordered, they are gray white (darker).  They looked good (I promise they do even if the pictures look terrible).  All of the boxes stated that they were the same color.  Well, this means that the extra wall piece to fix the prior solution was probably going to be the wrong color.  Whoops!  I am going to keep the base and the wall and just have them order the same gray color to fix the problem.

What are those bars you say.  Well, they are to adhere the walls (which are a stone) to the walls behind it.  The walls are not completely straight.  The whole old house has special little crooked areas all over.  Don't worry it is not the foundation...just age.  I find myself getting more crooked daily as well.

Trials, Trials Everywhere

I have been blessed...the fridge arrived safely, but with it came another trial.  Trials, trials everywhere.  They are in my feet and in my hair.  Is there anyway I will be able to get food in there?  Uh nope.  It looks good in my opinion, but the drawer for the freezer does not open.  It was such a tight fit that it hits the trim on the wall.

 If you look closely it was so tight to get it in that I had to removed the smaller trim on the left edge of the door to get the fridge into place.  The smaller trim is hanging schewampus.  I have left the plastic on the fridge until I do whatever I am going to do about it.

 This is a picture of the drawer being pulled out until it hits the trim.  The trim is the straight piece on the right.

 This is looking down at the fridge from standing position.  Look how far my drawer will pull out.  I don't think I can get any food in there.  Could you?

So I am left with the question of what to do with the trim.  If I could find some extremely narrow wood I could create some sort of trim,  Or no trim?  You can see that every other doorway in the house has trim.  What to do, what to do?

Guess who gets a Fridge Tomorrow

Yep...me!  I haven't been so excited about anything in my house yet.

Counters and Sink

 Yesterday I got my counters placed.  I really like them so far, but it is true I haven't used them yet.  Plus, I like the look of my sink.  The only problem is that it isn't usable yet.  In the next day of so I should have the sink hooked up. Yay!

My stove here will also be hooked up at the same time as the sink.  I was told that the plumber does the gas link.  I am really excited to have a working stove.  Not having one since May I have become very appreciate of the abilities of a stove.  The microwave in the picture is hooked up which is a plus.  Slowly but surely the kitchen is coming together.  I have paint for the room, but I am afraid that the tiling if going to wait until I have the money to do the project.