Fat Kitty?

Last night, Ken and I were sitting on the couch in the living room. It was such a nice evening that we had the patio door open. I was just moving Tuck over to the window to see a bunny when a woman and her mangy little dog walked by. She saw me at the window and said to her dog, "Look at the fat kitty!" I was insulted. Ken laughed. Yes, Tuck is big boned. Yes, Tuck was pooh-poohed at the vet the last time he went for being a little heavier than he was the last time he was there. I think I should have opened the door and let "fat kitty" eat her little dog.

Settling In

We're finally starting to really settle in and the apartment is starting feel like home. Ken's been working on little (though I dare not call them "little") projects around the apartment. One of his more recent ones, as of last weekend, was installing a new shelf above the washer and dryer in our laundry room. There was one shelf already there, but it was pretty high which made it hard to reach the detergent, etc. We went to Menards and picked out one almost identical. Ken installed and it looks, and functions, great. We are still adjusting to having our own washer and dryer. After so many years of carting numerous loads to Iowa and making due with apt washers, it still seems like such a luxury to be able to do our laundry whenever we want. I'm sure that excitement will wear off at some point.

Today is "bye bye cable" day. Yes, we had it for our month and it was wonderful. We'll miss it dearly, but we're trying to be economical and we really don't need it. It causes us to watch too much of it and not get work done. The cable person is supposed to be here between 8-10 this morning to get rid of it. Haven't seen him/her yet, so I don't know what's happening.

In other news, last weekend we drove around town and stopped for ice cream at a little shop close to Joliet. I can't remember what it's called, but I'm calling it "Jake and Elwood's" for reasons which should appear obvious when you look at the picture. It was great, and the ice cream tasted exactly like Dairy Queen's. There's a little mini-golf place across the street which I had to promise Ken that we would play the following weekend. Thankfully, the weather should be nice. We'll probably take Matt & Lisa there too when they come to visit this weekend.

Tucker's been doing well. He's particularly happy sitting in front of the sliding glass door or sitting on the table or desk when I'm trying to work on my dissertation. He's adjusted just fine. It's hard to imagine how he would act otherwise. He has a feud going on right now with a local chipmunk that's been tormenting him from the outside. It's pretty funny to watch them. Tuck can't do much, obviously, from behind the glass, and "Chip" as he's known knows it. Notice how Tuck's ears are turned all the way back and he's croutched in an attack mode while Chip scampers away, laughing I're sure.

That's all that's been happening here. Hope all is well with you. Thanks for reading, and have a great Labor Day weekend!

Always Travel with a Man in Uniform

We're back from a weekend conference in Kansas City. It was a good trip overall. The flight there was fine, but we did get delayed 4 hours on the return trip to Chicago. As usual, rain caused several planes to be cancelled or delayed into the windy city. We were among the lucky and at least were home by 9 pm on Sunday.

The biggest lesson I learned this weekend: always travel with a man in uniform. Do you know how many perks and priviledges you can get?! Seriously! Ken wore his uniform on the to and from trip and we were treated pretty good I tell you. Wearing what were formerly called BDUs (I'm not exactly sure what they're called now), Ken and I were able to cut everyone in line when going through security and we were upgraded to first class BOTH TIMES! Can you believe it? I've never sat in first class in my life, and here I am getting it on two flights! Did you know they give you real glass glasses to drink out of in first class? The seats are awfully luxurious and there's more room and no screaming children. We got all the refills of soda and snack bags we could want. It was shameless, I tell you. We were a little disappointed, however, that there were no hot towels or slippers. :)

Of course, Ken was greeted by many kind people throughout the airport, many who shook his hand, thanked him, and welcomed him home. I guess just because he was wearing a uniform they assumed he was either on his way there or home. I was still touched by how many strangers took the time to stop, shake his hand, and thank him. Ken doesn't like all the attention, but I thought it was nice.

Here's a picture of us at the banquet on Saturday night. Neither one of us cared for the meal though. The chicken was ok, but they served a side of artichoke hearts. Really now, who gives a bunch of meat and potatoes soldiers a side of artichoke hearts? There was one Captain at the table who liked them, so we all piled our artichoke hearts on his place and it became a challenge whether or not he could eat all of them. He did. We all thought he'd be sick the next day: artichoke hearts and jaggerbombs are, I believe, a lethal combination. But I spoke to his wife and she said he made it through the night just fine.

We're back to work and then looking forward to a week at home with nothing major planned. It'll be good to finally have a weekend at home.

Home and Away

We're home from a very nice weekend in Iowa. I have to tell you how unbelievably spoiled I am when I go home. Mom was wonderful. Friday morning and early afternoon we went shopping (looking for bargains, of course), and we found some. Mom and I found some nice shirts that we both liked, so ... dare I say it... my mother and I got matching shirts. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Of course, with one in Iowa and one in Illinois, I doubt we'll have to worry about wearing the same shirt -- unlike the way Suzie and I used to have to call the other if one of us was wearing pinkie or blackie (we had 2 matching shirts from a joint shopping trip, and, yes, we named them.).

Back to the weekend: Mom also spoiled us rotten with fresh Iowa Sweet corn and peaches. She made a peach pie and peach jam. The pie was gone after we shared it with Grandma and Art, but I made I back to IL with a jar of delicious peach jam. There's nothing like it in the world! And of course, Sunday night we had a nice dinner of roast beef, potatoes and more sweet corn. Needless to say, my clothes don't fit so great after the weekend (but did they really before?). Ok. Enough about the food.

It was good to come home last night from work and have a night "at home." Perhaps because it's early in our cohabitating life, but making dinner together was fun. Afterwards, we enjoyed some of my new fav show "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe. Again, what am I going to do once we get rid of cable? I need to do some work tonight, but I'm excited about watching Ghosthunters again!

We're home for a few days and then off we go to Kansas City, MO on Thursday for a military conference (my first one!). Tonight will be packing and trying to decide what to wear to such a thing. I started this last night, and at the time Ken couldn't understand why I found this task so challenging (NOTE: he only has to wear his uniform all weekend). Sigh.

Back in the 'Loo

This weekend finds us back in Waterloo, aka "The 'Loo." Ken has 4 dys of Army duty and I have a dentist appt on Monday, so here we are. I'm currently sitting at the Panera in Waterloo trying to get some editing work done. I've managed to review 2 authors' articles so far and am now stalling on working on some of the other, more complicated, ones. It's hard to do get work done when visiting home because so much of my work needs Internet. This is my first time going to the Panera, but so far, so good. I tried the Barnes & Noble first, but they charge you for their wireless. Panera was free, so I stayed here.

It's been a good weekend so far. Friday, Mom and I went shopping and I found an interviewing suit (will have to start looking for real jobs this fall/early spring) and a possible dress for the Army formal in Oct. What a pain it is to find a dressy dress! Shopping for that is just not my thing. I'm still not totally happy with the one I bought, but it will work if I don't find another and at least it was on sale. Friday night I hung out with my friend Kristin and her family. I finally got to meet her two little twin girls!! What a treat! I waited far too long to get to see them. I also had a lot of fun hanging out with her and her parents - some of my favorite people in this world! Today (Sat.), I had lunch with Holly, Jim and Jonathon which was very nice. Once I decide I've done about all the "work" I can do here at Panera, I'll head home and see Mom. She is supposed to be making peach jam and possibly a peach pie. We may go see Grandma later today. Gotta love being home, eh?

That's about all that's happening here. Got some good news from one of my diss chapter readers who said that my latest revision to the Lit Review is good. When I get home, I'll start working on that Methodology chapter again or dig back into the Results chapter. His good comments have given me a boost!

Romeoville Celebration

Last night, we went to the little town festival -- Romeofest is what it was called. Before going, Ken and I decided how much we would actually pay for an entrance fee (now that we are on a budget). We decided that $2-3 would be all we'd pay to get in (yes, we're just that cheap). Parking was a bit of a hassle, but we found a spot on the street and walked on down. When we got to the entrance, we discovered that it was free to enter! Good enough for us!

Like any small town event, there were food vendors, rides, and tents set up by local businesses. We ate before we went, but were hoping for some dessert by the way of cotton candy (Ken) and mini-donuts (Marcy). After wandering around, we found some cotton candy, but struck out on the donuts. I settled for a DQ Brownie Blizzard instead. The rides and people operating them were a might bit scary, so we didn't partake. Instead, being the old people that we are, we tried our luck at a game of Bingo; we didn't win. But we did get hassled by some of the carnies. When we stopped to watch a kid play the balloon-popping game, we were heckled by a female carnie saying, "Stop looking and start cooking." I guess she wanted up to play. We just kept walking.

On our way back to the car, we heard some announcment coming from the staging area and heard the words "Liverpool" and "Paul McCartney." My interest peaked, we walked over and discovered a Beatles-like band called American English. They were all Beatles impersonators and, I have to confess, pretty good. We stayed for a while and had a good time. It was a nice night and would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the mosquitos and the woman smoking next to us. I wish I had a camera so I could share pics of the Beatles, but you can view the link if you want to see what they look like.

The Move In Continues

This weekend finds us continuing to unpack and make ourselves at home. Ken is working steadily on his boxes and his latest project is making good use of our exterior storage closet which is located on our little patio area. Here he is giving me the "all good" sign (though there is still a lot of work to be done).





My project has been cleaning off the bed in the guest bedroom/office. I seriously need to start working on various school projects (and eventually get back to that diss), but I'm kind of a freak who needs things organized before I can get into writing or working. Yesterday, I spent some time working on cleaning out the office area and making it seem cleaner.



This morning, we tried out our apt complex's workout facility and found it more than adequate. There are 2 treadmills, 2 elliptical machines, 2 bikes, 1 stairmaster, and various weight machines and freeweights. We can see the pool from the weight room and it looks very inviting when one is all sweaty and gross.

I did have to deal with some maintenance issues yesterday as well. We seem to have some very persistent wasps out on our patio. We've knocked down their nest and sprayed, but they keep rebuilding. Yesterday, the maintenance man, Joshua (who informed me he is allergic to stinging insects), did an excellent job of sealing the wasp hangout and spraying. There are 1-2 confused wasps still wandering around, but it seems like we may have turned the others away. Good news - our ice maker is also now working. What a luxury, I tell you!



Ok - I need to get some real work done this morning.