Sweet Baby Grey

This is my nephew, Greysen.  He came to visit us this weekend.

I miss him terribly now.

Blogging Is Not So Hard

Since I should be writing every day anyway, why not squeeze in some short blog posts as well?  

Here's Dave painting the office.  I was in charge of pictures, so I couldn't help him.  Obviously.

 It's hard to tell here, but we switched the color of the room during day two of this project.  The first blue was just too blue for us.

Once the room was painted, we were ready to start assembling furniture.  Here I am getting ready for the project by flexing.

 I actually did help with the crib.  I like tools.

The office is now a nursery!  We LOVE this rocker.

I also really, really love this rug.  So calming.

That's the Complete Works of William Shakespeare on the middle shelf.  Dave got to keep Stan the medical skeleton in the room so I added this to balance things out.

Starting to Nest

Our goal over the weekend was to begin work on the nursery.  There were more steps to this process than we had anticipated.  Here's the run down:

1. Clean the entire house.  My God, it was a mess.  How could we focus on just one room while the rest of the house looked like this?  We filled the Dyson twice.

2. Pare down the books.  This was a difficult and emotional task, but I managed to load up three boxes to sell or donate.  Dave made the process sound simple: "Just get rid of any books you don't need."  Need?  Do I need all of Jane Austen's novels?  Why, yes.  I do.  Incidentally, Dave assured me he had already pared down his books and did indeed need all of them.  Including Kate Chopin's The Awakening.  Since I have three times the number of books, I didn't explore this further.

3. Organize the basement.  With the new baby furniture coming in, everything already in the office needs a new home.

You can see some of Dave's books in the corner of this photo below.  The red one is Michael Jordan's autobiography.  He needs that.

4. Move the furniture out.  Except for this guy.  We think the baby might like him. And his politics.

The basement actually has a quaint little office space now.  I'm tempted to use it.  

5.  Paint.  We didn't actually get to this step.  It took us 14 hours to complete tasks 1 through 4.  I'll be sure to document the painting though (because you can't take pictures and work at the same time).

Target Field

We had a great night at the ballpark.  Dave was so excited about our field passes and the close proximity of Tony Oliva that he didn't know he had his phone in video instead of camera. Our guide seemed a little confused as she took this "picture," but we managed to convert the file and it all worked out.

Blog Therapy

I'm working on an article today.  It feels surprisingly good to be writing.  I'm not all that pleased with the draft in front of me, but it's there.  That counts for something in this summer where I've managed to achieve far less on the dissertation than I planned.  It's just really a big project, you know.  And getting started has been somewhat daunting.

Admitting that I've been a slacker is the first step.  Right?

I Should Have Been Grading Papers Anyway

Dave and I had no plans whatsoever yesterday and this was an exciting prospect.  We considered several options.  Garlic festival in Hutchinson, MN.  Irish Festival in St. Paul.  Lunch on the town.  An overdue visit to Dave's uncle's new house.  A movie.  Shopping for baby furniture. 

We discussed each of these as we enjoyed a beautiful morning and a cup of coffee on the deck.

Shortly thereafter, Dave discovered a leaky pipe under the sink.  And a puddle in the basement.  All of which explained the smell we couldn't identify two days earlier.  

So, the day took on a mind of it's own.  I soaked up water in the basement.  Dave tackled the pipe.  We did make it out for lunch around 3:00 and squeezed in some online shopping in the evening while watching the Twins game.  So all was not lost.

I'm looking at the calendar now, and it looks like we might have another lazy Saturday sometime in October.  

Friday the 13th

One whopper of a headache has had me on the couch all day.  Two naps couldn't even shake it.  I think some tight muscles in my right shoulder are to blame.  I need a massage.  That's all there is to it.

P.S.  This is my sad attempt to get back into blogging.  It's a start, people.

Otis

We were in charge of this guy over the weekend.  He ate two snails and a frog and fell off the dock into the lake.

I think we'll be great parents.