Resignation

I keep waiting for my kitchen to be done, really really done, to post pictures. But after my 361st trip to Lowes last night for try #3 at getting the right cabinent trim...I give up. I've ordered the trim 3 times - at last!, I got the call - it had finally arrived. I drove the 30 mins to Lowes, happily opened the box and discovered, to my great horror, that the trim was STILL wrong. I won't lie, I had a breakdown - right there at the customer service desk. I was "that customer". When it was all said and done, they re-ordered the trim and gave me a much-deserved discount. I looked at the service manager and said, "well, at least I discovered the mistake here. If I had gone all the way home and found out it was the wrong trim, I might have come back with a gun." She just sort of looked at me. Not the most politically correct thing to say, but I really think I meant it. So, without further ago: my kitchen (before and after) - minus the trim...

Before:














After:



















And my favorite part (my mom's idea), the streak behind the sink:

Thanksgiving

Yesterday's Thanksgiving found me on the road, driving from DC to KY with Anna to help Mom with some fix-it work around the old house. Lots of driving time = lots of thinking time and, this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for...

1. running water as of yesterday, something that my kitchen has been without for 7 weeks
2. Kristi’s baked beans, revelations and the new Willie Wonka movie
3. weather so warm that the pilgrimage to KY started with the sun roof open
4. peanut M&Ms that lasted from Cumberland, MD to Cumberland Hills, KY
5. Anna's MP3 player. And when the MP3 adapter tape broke, my Winter 1995 mix tape (Pet Shop Boys, Garth Brooks, the Cure, Enigma – no idea what was going on there), and when we couldn't listen to "Go West" one more time, Charleston, WV's Mix 102.7 station which tided us over to a Pilot gas station which provided a new adapter (and $2.99/gallon gas)
6. the Holiday Inn, who opened their bathroom to use when McDonalds, Wendy’s, Taco Bell and a gas station all failed us and we were beginning to scope bushes
7. a newfound love for “Modest Mouse”
8. good conversations: solving all problems and making all decisions with a sister spanning a drive across 5 interstates, sandwiched between talks with a dearest friend and my mom, and a well-timed email from across the Atlantic
9. the Chewbacca call...
10. a dad who provided remote technical assistance on the proper tire air pressure for a 1993 Lexus
11. a new speed limit in KY: 70 mph

Does "burka" bring out the blue in my eyes?

I got an offer from work today to go to Abu Dhabi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi. They need someone "after Thanksgiving" - do they realize that Thanksgiving is in 3 days and "after" is in 4 days?? Through March 9, and that's everything I know. Will post as more details emerge...

To learn more about Abu Dhabi, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16324089

Safety First

According to Prairie Home Companion, it's deer hunting season, which got me thinking... I hear increasing numbers of reports of wild animals wandering into civilization and clashing with man. Since I often work from home - near a window - I wonder, what if a wild animal, like a deer, DID enter my neighborhood and what if a hunter DID try to catch one of those deer, and what if a hunter's aberrant bullet meant for the deer found me instead?

Luckily, my family sent me and my sister a care package earlier this fall of "things representing Idaho" and in it they included a Hunter's Specialties', www.hunterspec.com/, vinyl vest (among other treasures including an elk caller, crappie jigs (huh?), and potato hand cream). Wearing it makes me feel much safer, and I think that it is also helping me acclimate to this new place I call home: Idaho. OH, and, don't worry family - I'll be easy to spot at the airport this Christmas...I'll be the one in orange.

PS - the problem with the table is that you can't sit at it and put your legs under the table at the same time because of the leaves (regarding below post)!

There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

Fall 1995. Econ 110. SKWT. Professor Wimmer. I think that nearly everything I learned in that class, I learned the first day when Professor Wimmer wrote on the board, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch". He then had us repeat it outloud - all 200+ of us - in unison after him. I spent the rest of the semester sitting in the back reading the "Daily Universe" for the first 20 mins of class and doing the assigned econ homework for the next lecture for the last 30 mins of class. But I digress...I recently acquired a free table off a hippie listserv I'm a member of (freecycle) with no small amount opportunity cost (the 2nd and last piece of economics theory that I learned in Econ 110).

Once I had it in place, with my chairs around the table, I noticed a serious flaw. Please see if you can identify the problem with my table and why it will probably end up annoying me so much that I'll need to get a different table.

So much for a "free lunch" and, as Cousin Dave would say, "sometimes an elephant for a quarter isn't a deal" (or something like that).

Maybe I'll sell it on craigslist...

Testing Testing... 1 2 3... Testing...

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