Galena 2007

We made it back safely from a wonderful birthday weekend in Galena. The weather couldn't have been more perfect as we wound our way through the Illinois countryside. We started our trip Friday night by heading to Matt & Lisa's. There we relaxed and slept in --something that doesn't happen very often for either of us. Ken spent some of Sat. morning working while I enjoyed cable TV, always a treat. As a note, I'd like you all to know that I actually refused to take any work with me this weekend! Here we are on Sat. morning as we left Matt & Lisa's to head out even further into the country.

We headed east toward Galena and took our time stopping in the town of Scales Mound, IL, a little place I've always wanted to visit. You see, when I was a kid, there was a book I always read that talked about the life of a real family that lived in Scales Mound. Ever since then, I've wanted to visit and see some of the sights mentioned in the book. Ken, bless his heart, indulged me in that this weekend, even though the book is over 30-some years old and many of the sights aren't as recognizable as they were before. Still, we were able to play detective and discover some of the sights shown and discussed in the books. Very cool for me!


We then made our way to our B&B which was actually in Hazel Green, WI, just 8 miles outside of Galena. Apparently, it's nearly impossible to get a B&B reservation inside of Galena in October (turning leaves, fall festivals, etc.). But we stayed in a really cool old Stagecoach building converted to a B&B in Hazel Green. We highly recommend it! This is a picture.


That night, we ate at Vinny Vanucci's Italian restaurant in Galena and then took part in 2 historical/ghost walking tours of Galena. This is something we like to do, and while waiting for our first tour to begin, we calculated that we've only done 2 such tours so far (St. Augustine, FL and Plymouth, MA). The second tour of Galena was much cooler than the first, taking us to some old houses, buildings, and a cemetery. Like all good ghost tour people, we took tons of pictures trying to capture spirits and orbs on our digital camera (something the tour guides swear can happen). I'm not sure if you can see all of the little white balls of light in the picture below. These are supposedly spirit orbs. This picture was taken next to an old abandoned Poor House/Mental Asylum in Galena. Click on the picture and maybe you'll see them better.


On Sunday, we enjoyed the second B (Breakfast) of our B&B weekend and then headed out to see a few more Galena attractions follolwed by getting back on the road headed west. We stopped at Apple Canyon Fort in Elizabeth, IL because there was some sort of re-enactment of the frontier days at the fort. It wasn't super exciting, let me tell you.


In all, a great weekend, one that went far too quickly. It's back to work today at home for me and at work for Ken. I'm heading to Pittsburg, PA for a conference with the CTLT people from Thursday-Sunday of this week. We're driving the 8+ hours. Though I'm lookig forward to seeing what this conference is like, that's one drive I'll be happy to have done with.

Thanks, again, everyone for the birthday wishes!

The Big 3-0 approaches!

Thank goodness it's Friday. That's the only thing on my mind right now. Well, that and all the work I have to get done today alone. It's been one busy week. Things at work are very busy right now. We're all about planning the annual Teaching & Learning Symposium in January, so I'm in many meetings to discuss correspondence, signage, presenters' gifts, and other details. I'm also getting a lot of "must do" emails coming through everyday, from symposium proposals to log or University Award portfolios to deal with. Yesterday alone I spent my first 6 hours at work just dealing with meetings and sending/responding to emails. I have other projects that have been sitting on my desk needing to be attended to--the monthly newsletter for one thing. So much work coupled with the fact that I'm leaving next Thursday-Sunday for a conference in Pittsburg has me a little worried about how I'll get that newsletter done on time.

Today is supposed to be a big work at home day for me. I have IS editing to finish and get out to the authors for review. I also need to respond to emails pertaining to a workshop I'm doing the first Wed in Nov. All that to do (maybe even think about the Diss at some point...) and Ken and I are leaving tonight for a birthday weekend in the country. Yes, it's October, which means its time for me to turn the big 3-0 at last. I really don't feel any different. The only thing I wish I had accomplished by this time in my life is school. I really wish I had finshed my PhD before turning 30. It would be so nice to be done and have a job (and money) about now. All in good time, I suppose. At least I'll get it while I'm 30, if all goes according to plan.

We're headed to Matt & Lisa's tonight to break our stay on our way to Galena for a fine time at a B&B, eating at my fav Galena restaurant, Vinni Vanucci's, and then two walking ghost tours of Galena on Sat night. Matt & Lisa will be in NYC this weekend so unfortunately we won't get to see them as we use their house for rest. They are off enjoying Lisa's anniversary gift to Matt: tickets to a Giants game at Giant's Stadium in NYC. If you know anything about M&L, you know this is HUGE! You should have seen Matt's face when she surprised him with those tickets. There may have been tears, I can't remember.

That's all I have for now. Will return with fun Galena pics, I hope!

Military Formal

Hello again. We've returned from a super fast, lightening-speed Iowa weekend. On Friday, we drove to Peoria where I presented at the Illinois Associsation of Teachers of English (IATE) conference. After much technological difficulty at the conference (no computer projector as requested and troubles getting the laptop to connect to the hotel's wireless), I am pleased to say that the session went about as well as it could have. I only had about 6 ISU English Ed majors attend my session, but that was perfectly fine. They were a good group--very talkative and friendly. Jan N. was my session chair/recorder, and she also helped keep the session lively. That's my only major conference presentation this year. After last year's trips to San Francisco and NYC for CPTSC and ATTW, not only am I strapped for traveling cash, but I'm also completely worn out. I thought presenting at a regional conference would be a good plan for this year.

While in Iowa, we attended Ken's military "Dining Out" formal. I was not super excited about the prospect of buying (and wearing) a formal dress again given that I'm experiences less-than-happy body image time right now, but I managed to find a good one a month or so ago that was relatively inexpensive and that fit (comfortably). It was fun night, overall. Because of Ken's promotion, we had to sit at the head table (insert here any and every possible bad memory of having to sit at a head table for numerous weddings, etc.). I was not super excited about this prospect either as I don't like the attention to be focused on me (and especially not during an event where people are eating). But it went fine. The entertainment was lively and had us laughing; the entertainment included a roast of one of the long-time soldiers and even a couple of plastic sword and laser nerfgun duels. The evening ran a bit long, however, and we were not able to partake of the DJ as we'd hoped. By 10 pm, we were beat. Most of Ken and my time was spent talking to people and helping everyone feel welcome.


In other news, we're now considering Iowa as a possible future residence. If job situations and the timing work out as we'd like, we may once again be heading back that way -- this time for good. Nothing major yet though. There's still so much up in the air. I hate not knowing what's going on. We'll keep you posted if anything happens.

Expanding Family

It's been a while since I've written, and with good reason. Things are just too busy! The diss is coming along, but I've reached a point in my Results chapter where I'm just sick of writing. My advisor still hasn't given me comments on my Methodology chapter revision, which has me believing what I wrote was crap and has affected my ability to write my Results chapter.

Anyway, work at the CTLT, doing presentations, diss writing, editing for IS, and taking part in writing some lessons for ReadWriteThink are keeping me busy. I'm also in the midst of looking for jobs which has me completely stressed. But I won't go into that here.

In other news of being busy, we've expanded our family by one cat. A person at the Tutoring Center was about to send her cat up the river (i.e., Humane Society) due to some family troubles. Not wanting a cat to suffer, Ken and I agreed to take on Artemas for a trial period to see if he and Tucker would get along. After a hellish week of Artie hiding under the bed, hissing and swatting at the three of us, and then the relentless hours of cat fighting in the evenings, we've finally reached a point where we all seem to tolerate each other. There were numerous days/nights when we were ready to send him up the river ourselves (even after we were greatly assured that he was a very affectionate cat). Artie is now doing much better. He's almost completely out from under the bed and is letting us pet him without the incessant swatting and hissing. We think this may actually work out. Ken took this picture today of Tucker and Artie enjoying some Sunday morning lounging. You'd never know it was WW3 only a few hours before. Artie is the one at the top of the picture.

The evenings are still the worst times, however. If we let Tucker and Artie stay together, we are always awaken by the sounds of cat fighting. We have to lock one in a bedroom for the evening if we are to get any sleep. Ken and I have decided that we don't like being awoken in the night, and thus the idea of having children in the future is unappealing. Once I'm awake, it takes me 1-2 hours to get back to sleep, and you don't want to know me in the morning. (Seriously. Ask Ken.)

So that's what's been going on here.

Fun with Family

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the past two weekends. Two weeks ago, Ken was in WI for Army-related matters, so I was left home alone. I was slightly nervous about being alone in the new town and new apt, but all turned out well. I was able to get some much-needed work done on my diss and other projects and even enjoyed some downtime watching some of my beloved Northern Exposure DVDs.

Matt & Lisa came up that weekend as well and we made our way to a wine tasting in Naperville where M & L enjoyed sampling many wines. As their DD, I found my way around the many vendor booths and sampled a few Starbucks pumpkin lattes, honey-roasted peanuts, pepper steak samples, and even an ultra dark chocolate candy bar. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself just fine, with or without the wine itself. The weather was beautiful and it felt just like fall. After the wine tasting, we ate at a wonderful Cajun restuarant in downtown Naperville, something we could only try because Ken was in WI. (We knew he wouldn't have liked it.) Here is a picture of Matt & Lisa enjoying one of their wines (perhaps a little too much!)

Just last weekend Ken and I were on the road once again, this time together, as we traveled to Cedar Rapids for one of his Army conferences. I stayed with him Thursday night and then I headed up to Waterloo for some family time with Mom, my sister Melissa, and my niece Audra. I was able to take care of a few around-the-house projects for Mom, do some shoe shopping to get ready for Ken's Military Dining Out in Oct., and buy some shoes to match my new interview suit. Audra and I had fun playing together outside on Friday and Saturday. Here's a picture of her swinging with her "Tiger." She wanted him to swing with her, so I did my best to make that happen. Note that the loop is not around Tiger's neck, but under his front paws instead. The picture is a little misleading.

Though we love being with family and traveling, we are both looking forward to staying home next weekend and relaxing.

Apartment Pictures

I thought it was time to share some of the pictures of the rooms in our new place. A virtual tour, if you will. This is our living room taken from the entry way. It's a little dark in this picture. When I was taking it, I forgot that the open blinds would make the room look darker. Sorry about that. The large item in the upper left corner is our TV cabinet - the one Keely gave us. We love it! It was a royal pain in the you-know-what to move, but it holds and hides so much stuff. This morning I finally got the stereo hooked up. That's a project I've been putting off for quite some time. I'm proud to say I accomplished it by myself (sans Ken).

This is the view from the living room into the dining room. We're still working on hanging pictures in the dining room so the walls look pretty bare. To the left is the kitchen and to the right is the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

A few weekends ago we spent some time finally hanging pictures on the walls. To the right you can see the picture Ken sent me from Iraq. It's a drawing of a picture of us that was taken shortly before he was shipped over. While he was there, he had an Iraqi man make the drawing from the picture of us he had.

The next picture is our kitchen, cow decor included. Those of you who know me know that I like Holstein cows. You can't really see in this picture, but I have more cow items above the cupboards. The door from the kitchen leads to our laundry room/Tucker's "bathroom" and eatery.

This picture isn't one on the major tour, but it was funny. As some of you know, Tucker has a this thing about sleeping in sinks. Every place we've been, he's found a sink to curl up in. At first I thought it was a security thing, then a it's cool and comfortable thing, now I just don't have a clue why he does it. But it always makes us laugh and usually surprises a few houseguests when they go to the kitchen or bathroom only to find a cat has joined them. Really, for the size of cat he is, it's amazing how he can make himself fit inside small sinks. Here he is in the guest bathroom.

Sumo Kitty and Me

Well, it's my first weekend hanging at the place by myself. Ken's off to play Army in Wisconsin so it's just Sumo Kitty and me. (Sumo Kitty is Ken's new name for Tucker thanks in part to the "Fat Kitty" blog posting). Last night I was watching reruns of The Office on TV and it was the episode where they go to the Beach and Michael wants to figure out who'll replace him. Of course Dwight and what's-his-name were in the Sumo outfits. I just kept thinking of Sumo Kitty. If only they made little Sumo Halloween coustumes for pets!

So far, so good for the weekend. Today I've spent the whole day in front of the computer working on various projects (the diss mostly) even though it's an amazing fall day outside -- cool and breezy. I've had the wondows open all day and actually got chilly! I love that!

A bad thing about working on the diss is that I can't check it off my list. Each weekend, I make a list of all the things I want/need to get accomplished by Sunday night. This was something I started when I came to the Ph.D. program (maybe I even did it in my MA program, but I can't remember). It seems like I always have so many little things to do, so I started writing them down and checking them off as the weekend goes by. It makes me feel good to be able to check something off. I was able to check off one item this morning: my lesson plan for the ReadWriteThink website. Every weekend, I put "Work on Diss" on the list, but I never feel that I can check that off. There's just never a feeling of being "done" even though I worked on it.

Not much on the radar for the weekend. Matt & Lisa may be coming out on Saturday for a wine tasting in Naperville. I hope the weather is just like today. I'll be happy to wear fall clothes again.