We're having a little work done. I'm sick of the bathroom being undone and I'm tired of waiting for contractors to give us a quote, so it's back to Artur. We love Artur, although he consistently underbids his work. We've asked him to come in and redo our bathroom floor and have a plumber fix the broken drain pipe and move the pipes for the bathtub. Once the floor is level and has a concrete board subfloor, Gerd says he wants to do the tile himself.
I'm not going to argue with my husband. I'm sure he can figure out how to rent a wetsaw, and once he has one, he can figure out how to make the most precise cuts. I'm just hoping I'm not going to be around when he does it.
In any case, by the end of the week (ish) we should have a somewhat functional bathroom that will still need a lot of work, but at least we'll be able to use the commode without a) black water seeping into the basement and b) the toilet rocking itself off of the pipe.
But the title of this post is Wet Cats for a reason. While Artur was tearing out our subfloor the cats, freaked out, took cover. Unfortunately, the best cover was in the form of the exposed walls. It was fairly easy to find Kiwi, the smallest (and least intelligent of the cats). She's the bravest, and came out as soon as I got home from work. Usually she has a white belly. Not so much anymore, really pretty gray when you look at it.
Aristotle was hidden between the heating ducts in the basement. He came out when I opened a can of wet cat food. He's all gray anyway, but the dust kind of poofed off of him when he shook his booty.
Confucius is the smartest of the cats, and also the mastermind of all sneaky hiding places. We figured he'd found some clever spot in the basement so we closed the bathroom door and went to Home Depot to look at tile. When we came back he was crying to be let out of the bathroom. Keep in mind that we'd searched the bathroom before leaving. He's usually part white too.
I left on a heavy fleece, because I've washed cats before, and I know they have a tendency to crawl up your body. The fleece was a pretty good claw guard. The cats are now drenched, but their whites are now white, or at least closer to white than before a bath. The kitchen is covered in cat hair and water, and we went through a few towels, but the cats have forgiven me.
They're locked up for the night. We don't know how they managed to get into the walls, but we're not risking it again. For now they're stuck in the spare bedroom with food, water, and a litter box. I have a feeling the next week won't the best week for the feline members of this family.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Homebody
I know there are people out there who like cleaning. My step-father, for one, is someone who, when given free time, willingly and joyfully finds something to tidy.
I am not so lucky. Years ago my mother told me I need to learn to like cleaning and I scoffed. I clean because I'd rather clean than live in a pigsty...but LIKE IT? !
But I have to admit it, I'm beginning to develop a sense of satisfaction when I manage to clean something. Now, that might not be huge for anyone else, but considering my long, deep-seated whacked emotional connection to cleaning, it's a start.
ALL of my clothes have been put away! The kitchen is clean. The bathroom is clean. I'm not so energetic that I'm willing to start cleaning the rest of the house, but I did manage to think of food too. I've cooked dinner and a cake, and some custard. I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
So where did the change come about? For once I'm not exhausted. I've been a homebody all weekend, and because I was sick all last week I've been making sure I've been getting enough sleep. It turns out I like 10 hours of sleep a night, at least while I'm getting over a chest cold.
So maybe the ticket to a happy home is spending more time in it. Well, that and put away the computer. Or perhaps all this energy has come from my body's gratitude to still be alive after nearly hacking up a lung. Whatever it is, I think I like being a homebody once in a while.
I am not so lucky. Years ago my mother told me I need to learn to like cleaning and I scoffed. I clean because I'd rather clean than live in a pigsty...but LIKE IT? !
But I have to admit it, I'm beginning to develop a sense of satisfaction when I manage to clean something. Now, that might not be huge for anyone else, but considering my long, deep-seated whacked emotional connection to cleaning, it's a start.
ALL of my clothes have been put away! The kitchen is clean. The bathroom is clean. I'm not so energetic that I'm willing to start cleaning the rest of the house, but I did manage to think of food too. I've cooked dinner and a cake, and some custard. I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
So where did the change come about? For once I'm not exhausted. I've been a homebody all weekend, and because I was sick all last week I've been making sure I've been getting enough sleep. It turns out I like 10 hours of sleep a night, at least while I'm getting over a chest cold.
So maybe the ticket to a happy home is spending more time in it. Well, that and put away the computer. Or perhaps all this energy has come from my body's gratitude to still be alive after nearly hacking up a lung. Whatever it is, I think I like being a homebody once in a while.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Edumacated...
The only good thing about being sick this past week has been February vacation. Thank goodness I didn't have any students. Other than progress reports, a cleaned out closet, and a vacuumed floor, I don't have much to show for the time without students, but it's way, WAY better than if I were trying to teach, collect papers, record grades, etc.
So it's fitting that on the last day of vacation I'm starting to feel better. I was so much better in fact that I joined in the book discussion with the teachers of the OTHER teaching program in our building. We've been reading "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" by Diane Ravitch. It's a policy intense book, which makes it hard to get through, but brings up some very important points about education reform in the states and our focus on testing as a teaching method.
An hour into our discussion and I started to wonder, as a nation, are we completely screwed? We definitely didn't stick with the Socratic method of discussion and the topics veered from Ravitch's assessment of education to the reasons that all of the problems with education were allowed to continue. We're a non-profit group dedicated to educating the traditionally undereducated population of the states.
So here are a few of our discussion points:
- There is no longer a job for everyone who wants to work, regardless of education level. The country doesn't actually *need* to educate everyone because some people will not get jobs. If people don't get jobs they will either live off of welfare or go to prison.
- Prisons are big business, and number of beds are calculated based on reading levels in 3rd grade. Prisons get an average of $35,000 a year for each prisoner. While that amount of money could have been spent in prevention and on education, the prison system is too profitable to get cut back. Investors make fortunes off of prison speculation.
- Without a manufacturing and agricultural base we are only concerned with college bound education. Not all students are destined to go to college and we are consistently loosing more middle class, lower class jobs. The divide between the educated and the non-educated is growing despite efforts to reform schools.
- We've shifted the focus of reform from student accountability to teacher accountability. Teachers are now being held responsible for how well a student is able to learn without taking into effect the student's home life, or current emotional state. The incentive for a student to learn, when that student is looking at a lack of jobs, is less than the incentive for teachers to teach. There has been an increase in teachers cheating for their students because of the pressure put on teachers to bring up test scores.
- We wondered where the missing money was. There are all kinds of cuts to programs, classroom sizes aren't getting smaller, schools are closing. Students aren't getting everything that they could at an expensive private school. However, the FTE (funding for each student) is something like $7,000 per student per year. While that's not quite the price of a private school, it's a significant amount of money. For a classroom of 25 (the limit in MA) the school should get 175,000. Seriously, we can't make a classroom work for less?
So basically, it was a pretty bleak discussion. And once again I say, wanna fix schools? Fix society first.
So it's fitting that on the last day of vacation I'm starting to feel better. I was so much better in fact that I joined in the book discussion with the teachers of the OTHER teaching program in our building. We've been reading "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" by Diane Ravitch. It's a policy intense book, which makes it hard to get through, but brings up some very important points about education reform in the states and our focus on testing as a teaching method.
An hour into our discussion and I started to wonder, as a nation, are we completely screwed? We definitely didn't stick with the Socratic method of discussion and the topics veered from Ravitch's assessment of education to the reasons that all of the problems with education were allowed to continue. We're a non-profit group dedicated to educating the traditionally undereducated population of the states.
So here are a few of our discussion points:
- There is no longer a job for everyone who wants to work, regardless of education level. The country doesn't actually *need* to educate everyone because some people will not get jobs. If people don't get jobs they will either live off of welfare or go to prison.
- Prisons are big business, and number of beds are calculated based on reading levels in 3rd grade. Prisons get an average of $35,000 a year for each prisoner. While that amount of money could have been spent in prevention and on education, the prison system is too profitable to get cut back. Investors make fortunes off of prison speculation.
- Without a manufacturing and agricultural base we are only concerned with college bound education. Not all students are destined to go to college and we are consistently loosing more middle class, lower class jobs. The divide between the educated and the non-educated is growing despite efforts to reform schools.
- We've shifted the focus of reform from student accountability to teacher accountability. Teachers are now being held responsible for how well a student is able to learn without taking into effect the student's home life, or current emotional state. The incentive for a student to learn, when that student is looking at a lack of jobs, is less than the incentive for teachers to teach. There has been an increase in teachers cheating for their students because of the pressure put on teachers to bring up test scores.
- We wondered where the missing money was. There are all kinds of cuts to programs, classroom sizes aren't getting smaller, schools are closing. Students aren't getting everything that they could at an expensive private school. However, the FTE (funding for each student) is something like $7,000 per student per year. While that's not quite the price of a private school, it's a significant amount of money. For a classroom of 25 (the limit in MA) the school should get 175,000. Seriously, we can't make a classroom work for less?
So basically, it was a pretty bleak discussion. And once again I say, wanna fix schools? Fix society first.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Can We Have a Do-Over?
One of my "resolutions", if I can call it that, is to try to stay more cheerful. My mother and husband keep telling me I'm negative, and even though I don't think I am, I figured I should try to change their impression of me. I personally think I just have a twisted sense of humor.
In any case, 2011 hasn't exactly been an easy year to keep that resolution. If you have Facebook you've already seen that one of my friends was diagnosed with terminal cancer and that Gerd's job is about to evaporate. I didn't get a job I'd hoped to get, and we still haven't made much progress on our house. My cousin is welcoming his first child next month, and after 2 years of infertility we've got our first real IVF appointment next week. I really hope I'm feeling better by then, I have a nasty chest cold. Right, and lets add a little highway ice drama to the mix. I'm fine, but a 360 in front of oncoming traffic is a bit much for the PTSD laden self that I am. And on that note, it seems rare that I manage to sleep through the night anymore.
Now, I don't think I'm being negative in mentioning this at all, it's all factual. There is certainly good new mixed in there as well, and I don't feel obligated to balance the scale, but it is worth mentioning a few things. My friend has been seeking treatment at an Issels treatment center and says they're hoping to cure her. I still have a job, Gerd thinks he's got a while to find a job. I survived another potential car crash (seriously, what life am I on anyway?).
But honestly, is it really any wonder that I'm sick? Despite all the acupuncture, it's clear that I'm stressed. Now that the sun is out again, perhaps I can get myself to start exercising again. Have I mentioned yet how miserable the weather has been this winter? I basically hibernated. I suppose everyone has stressful times in their lives, but it just feels so overwhelming.
So right now school is out for February Vacation (whoever heard of February Vacation?) and I'm grateful. I might not be healthy yet, but I'm hoping that a few days without students and I get hit the reset button. It's not that I want to be "negative" it's just that life has felt a little harder than normal lately. But after this week I'm calling a do-over. I don't want to jinx it, but next month is going to be better, right?
In any case, 2011 hasn't exactly been an easy year to keep that resolution. If you have Facebook you've already seen that one of my friends was diagnosed with terminal cancer and that Gerd's job is about to evaporate. I didn't get a job I'd hoped to get, and we still haven't made much progress on our house. My cousin is welcoming his first child next month, and after 2 years of infertility we've got our first real IVF appointment next week. I really hope I'm feeling better by then, I have a nasty chest cold. Right, and lets add a little highway ice drama to the mix. I'm fine, but a 360 in front of oncoming traffic is a bit much for the PTSD laden self that I am. And on that note, it seems rare that I manage to sleep through the night anymore.
Now, I don't think I'm being negative in mentioning this at all, it's all factual. There is certainly good new mixed in there as well, and I don't feel obligated to balance the scale, but it is worth mentioning a few things. My friend has been seeking treatment at an Issels treatment center and says they're hoping to cure her. I still have a job, Gerd thinks he's got a while to find a job. I survived another potential car crash (seriously, what life am I on anyway?).
But honestly, is it really any wonder that I'm sick? Despite all the acupuncture, it's clear that I'm stressed. Now that the sun is out again, perhaps I can get myself to start exercising again. Have I mentioned yet how miserable the weather has been this winter? I basically hibernated. I suppose everyone has stressful times in their lives, but it just feels so overwhelming.
So right now school is out for February Vacation (whoever heard of February Vacation?) and I'm grateful. I might not be healthy yet, but I'm hoping that a few days without students and I get hit the reset button. It's not that I want to be "negative" it's just that life has felt a little harder than normal lately. But after this week I'm calling a do-over. I don't want to jinx it, but next month is going to be better, right?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Winter
I was going to post pictures, but since I need to charge my iPhone (that has all of my pictures on it) it'll need to wait for later. I'm up and insomniatic for the night (day 2 no sleep!) so I might as well post something.
We've had 4 snow days so far, although only one of those days meant I didn't have to go to work. Non-profits don't have snow days, students have snow days. I did a miraculous job cleaning out my pantry on the day I had off. Really, it looked (and continues to look) amazing. I've added another Ikea kitchen item to make the kitchen more user friendly, a long counter with storage space underneath. Now I can move all of my kitchen doo dads and pots and pans out of the food storage area and actually put food in the pantry! It's great. I have pictures and everything, maybe I'll actually put them up sometime.
Parking during winter has been better than any other time in Southie. Funny that I thought the cone space savers would be an irritation. Nope, only once did someone move our cone, and that was after enough spots had cleared out that we could still find a place to park. They were allowed, it was after 48 hours (but only by something like 5 hours), but it's pretty much not done here. I've seen people put space savers out since the first snow storm, nobody bothers them. That means I know I'm coming home to a parking spot! Of course I don't drive sometimes because I want to make sure I've got a spot before the next storm. We're supposed to get 21 inches tomorrow and there's no way I'm moving my car before it's over. Driving in Boston in snow is terrible anyway, I'd rather take the hour bus commute. I can read a book.
My iPhone is working again! I dropped it in the toilet and wasn't sure it would ever function again. I'm so happy I don't have to shell out more money for a new phone. I might slightly covet the new iPhone 4g, but I'm soooo close to being done with a contract with AT&T, I don't want to end up with another 2 years with them. I've debated an android, but I'm not sure how that would work with mobile me or how I could sync my calendars.
In order of usefulness, the functions my phone has that I've come to rely on are
1) GPS, I can figure out where I am, and what bus to take, beautiful,
2) Calendar, I know when I'm supposed to do what, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I get alarms, messages on my computer, and can see my calendar from anywhere,
3) Camera, it might be a crummy camera, but I find myself taking all kinds of pictures, because I just happen to have a camera on me, and I can email it straight to my computer, totally phenomenal, and
4) Internet access so I can look up phone numbers, addresses, and anything else that I need or want, right then!
5) Phone, oh right, that's it's main function, right? I could almost go to an iTouch, get a mini microphone and be done with phone plans, but I'm not too sure about that, besides which an iTouch is just as expensive as an iPhone, and I'd still want a data plan.
6) Kindle. I don't need to carry around a book on the bus, I already have one. People ask if it's too small to read, and I say truthfully, no. It's fine, same sized letters you'd find on a book, you just have to change pages more often. It's a flip of the finger, and I don't need to carry anything extra with me. Never thought I'd like electronic books, but I love it.
That being said, after my phone crashing I re-remembered (this is not a new concern) how completely addicted I am to technology. Seriously, I probably should just get rid of the phone and the computer so I spend more time doing things I really want to do, like bake or sew or work on the house. The thing is, even when I do turn off the tec, I come home not really feeling like doing a whole lot other than relaxing. Relaxing? Perhaps I mean vegetating.
This weekend was the first productive weekend I've had in a while. I did laundry, and more laundry, and more laundry. I still have 2 more loads to go (more towels and a load of sheets). I feel like I've washed every article of clothing I own, and my husbands. I cleaned out the refrigerator (wow did it need it). I pulled the carpet off of the stairs (it was hideous). I sorted and filed 6 months of bills and other mail. And I started picking out new colors for the entryway (gray. I want a nice gray color, and I need to strip the knoll post and railing, and stair treads).
Okay, I've bored even myself with this post, but there you have it. That's pretty much why I haven't been posting, because life is pretty boring right now. Every time I think of going to choir, it snows and choir is canceled. I'm caught up with school work for the first time because we haven't had a full week of school since we got back from Christmas break. There's just not much to say, everything is dormant. I can't wait for spring, even if it means rain. I think it's time for a trip to somewhere warm.
We've had 4 snow days so far, although only one of those days meant I didn't have to go to work. Non-profits don't have snow days, students have snow days. I did a miraculous job cleaning out my pantry on the day I had off. Really, it looked (and continues to look) amazing. I've added another Ikea kitchen item to make the kitchen more user friendly, a long counter with storage space underneath. Now I can move all of my kitchen doo dads and pots and pans out of the food storage area and actually put food in the pantry! It's great. I have pictures and everything, maybe I'll actually put them up sometime.
Parking during winter has been better than any other time in Southie. Funny that I thought the cone space savers would be an irritation. Nope, only once did someone move our cone, and that was after enough spots had cleared out that we could still find a place to park. They were allowed, it was after 48 hours (but only by something like 5 hours), but it's pretty much not done here. I've seen people put space savers out since the first snow storm, nobody bothers them. That means I know I'm coming home to a parking spot! Of course I don't drive sometimes because I want to make sure I've got a spot before the next storm. We're supposed to get 21 inches tomorrow and there's no way I'm moving my car before it's over. Driving in Boston in snow is terrible anyway, I'd rather take the hour bus commute. I can read a book.
My iPhone is working again! I dropped it in the toilet and wasn't sure it would ever function again. I'm so happy I don't have to shell out more money for a new phone. I might slightly covet the new iPhone 4g, but I'm soooo close to being done with a contract with AT&T, I don't want to end up with another 2 years with them. I've debated an android, but I'm not sure how that would work with mobile me or how I could sync my calendars.
In order of usefulness, the functions my phone has that I've come to rely on are
1) GPS, I can figure out where I am, and what bus to take, beautiful,
2) Calendar, I know when I'm supposed to do what, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I get alarms, messages on my computer, and can see my calendar from anywhere,
3) Camera, it might be a crummy camera, but I find myself taking all kinds of pictures, because I just happen to have a camera on me, and I can email it straight to my computer, totally phenomenal, and
4) Internet access so I can look up phone numbers, addresses, and anything else that I need or want, right then!
5) Phone, oh right, that's it's main function, right? I could almost go to an iTouch, get a mini microphone and be done with phone plans, but I'm not too sure about that, besides which an iTouch is just as expensive as an iPhone, and I'd still want a data plan.
6) Kindle. I don't need to carry around a book on the bus, I already have one. People ask if it's too small to read, and I say truthfully, no. It's fine, same sized letters you'd find on a book, you just have to change pages more often. It's a flip of the finger, and I don't need to carry anything extra with me. Never thought I'd like electronic books, but I love it.
That being said, after my phone crashing I re-remembered (this is not a new concern) how completely addicted I am to technology. Seriously, I probably should just get rid of the phone and the computer so I spend more time doing things I really want to do, like bake or sew or work on the house. The thing is, even when I do turn off the tec, I come home not really feeling like doing a whole lot other than relaxing. Relaxing? Perhaps I mean vegetating.
This weekend was the first productive weekend I've had in a while. I did laundry, and more laundry, and more laundry. I still have 2 more loads to go (more towels and a load of sheets). I feel like I've washed every article of clothing I own, and my husbands. I cleaned out the refrigerator (wow did it need it). I pulled the carpet off of the stairs (it was hideous). I sorted and filed 6 months of bills and other mail. And I started picking out new colors for the entryway (gray. I want a nice gray color, and I need to strip the knoll post and railing, and stair treads).
Okay, I've bored even myself with this post, but there you have it. That's pretty much why I haven't been posting, because life is pretty boring right now. Every time I think of going to choir, it snows and choir is canceled. I'm caught up with school work for the first time because we haven't had a full week of school since we got back from Christmas break. There's just not much to say, everything is dormant. I can't wait for spring, even if it means rain. I think it's time for a trip to somewhere warm.
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