will there still be corn mazes? 

I am thinking it is unlikely.  What will the world be like in the year 5028?  Here is the beginning of the new sci-fi mini-book that my son is writing.

In the year, 5028 there began a war. The war began as a mystery and no one really knew how.  It takes place when a deadly Empire comes to invade the Milky Way Galaxy.

When reading this sentence, my son said, “In the year five thousand twenty- eight”, and I said the same.  My husband, on the other hand, said, “In the year fifty twenty- eight.”  He constantly refers to the 2000 years in this manner by saying “twenty” and whatever follows.  He says twenty- o- nine for our current year, and  I say two thousand nine.  Should we say “twenty” and the year that follows?  We have always said and heard the years using the teens… fifteen hundred, sixteen hundred, seventeen hundred and so on.

How do you say the year?  Do you say twenty-o- nine or do you say two thousand nine? 

Does it even matter?

My son made napkin ghosts and hung them everywhere.

He drew faces on all of them.

 He carved out the eyes and nose and his dad helped with the mouth.

His jack-o-lantern was inspired by one of the faces he drew.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

For the record, I do have a life other than dealing with on going home repairs.  A few weeks ago, I went to see someone play at a local club.  His name is Mitch Easter and he had a band many years ago called Let’s Active.  I have always liked Let’s Active…I should say loved Let’s Active.  I grew up listening to them and now Mitch plays cover songs from his old band as well as material from his 2007 solo release, “Dynamico”. 

It was a great show, and I took several photos from his performance. Here’s one of them.

I use to go to a lot of concerts back in the day.  The last band I saw was Dinosaur Jr. back in 1994.  I suppose married life and being a mom has settled me down quite a bit.

Now, I want to see another band perform, but the closest they will come to me is Athens, Georgia.  They are called Camera Obscura and they are from Scotland.  Athens is about a 5 hour drive from me, a little closer than Scotland, but still a bit far to drive there and back in one evening, I think.  Maybe they will pick up a venue in North Carolina. 

I like their song “French Navy”.  I heard it in Lowe’s (of all places) during one of my many trips there.

It has been a dreary rainy day here and I have found myself wishful thinking.   

How far have you driven to see a performer or a concert?

We are approaching one full month of living in our new home and the project box is almost empty.  After moving in, we bought so many things that we needed to repair or replace and we put everything in one big box.  The only problem was that there were not enough hours in a day or week to do many of them.  There is still a list of 20 items or more of various things to do.  We can live in our home comfortably, but in the meantime, we will have to tolerate things like doors that stick and gutters full of leaves. 

I don’t quite feel settled in yet.  That feeling comes on and lasts about 20 minutes, but then it is forgotten.  I do not know when I will feel like this is home.  I think I am just overwhelmed with our dog, Bodie, and caring for him.  He has stopped taking his antibiotics and pain medicine.  Mainly because he hates taking it.  We first gave his medicine to him in his food, then he stopped eating his food.  Next, we opened his mouth to put the pills down his throat then gave him a treat for taking it.  He then would growl and nip at our hands when we tried to give him his pills and he wouldn’t take a treat from us.  It is probably because he associated the treats with the pills.  I am sure he feels crummy and that is another reason why he isn’t eating.  He has lost some weight through this whole ordeal.  This concerns me, but the flip side to this is that he is a little lighter to carry when I take him outside.   Tonight, Bodie ate our leftover salmon without hesitating so I plan to buy a few cans of salmon tomorrow for him to eat.

Here is Bodie outside.  He pulls himself along with his front legs and slowly tries to use his back good leg (which is underneath him).  He can go fairly far across the yard, but it wears him out.

Bodie with his broken left leg. 

My husband and I made a special purchase, a piece of art work.  It is a watercolor painted by an old college friend of mine.  He has an exhibit going on through October and when I saw this painting there, I knew I had to have it.  This painting has some significance and meaning to me and I told my friend that I could not bear the thought of anyone else owning it.  Back in the spring, my friend came over for dinner and he brought with him three avocados for me to use for guacamole.  Before I made the guacamole, he sliced them and carried them out to our sidewalk and took several photographs.  He then spent the next few months creating the painting “Avocados.”

It is very nice having this piece of art in our new home.  It is a little bit of the old home in with our new home. 

“Avocados” by Robert Stanfield

“Avocados” in our dining room.

*Warning: This post contains gross content*

Yes, that is the word guano in the title of this post.  As in bat excrement…as in what is in our attic!  Now, you might be asking, how do I know about the guano in the attic?  What seemed to only be a simple DIY project of replacing a light fixture, turned into 4 hours of laborious work in a cramped area in the attic that only I could fit in.  My husband guided me along the way with everything as he couldn’t crouch down to fit in the small area.  I replaced the bathroom light/ fan unit!  Hey, at least now I know how to wire a bathroom light.  Once I was in the attic to remove the old unit, I saw that it was never attached to the ductwork leading to the vent outside.  When I located the old ductwork laying under the insulation, it had multiple tears and holes and was full of insulation and nut hulls.  Squirrels?  I then had to go out to buy new ductwork to install. 

I will not take a picture of the guano, but if you are curious you can view this photo.  Thank goodness our attic doesn’t look near as bad.  Here are photos of the old bathroom light/fan unit. 

The light/fan unit covered in stucco spray.

A close up of the motor which appears to be a fire hazard.

Back to the guano. While I was in the attic, I checked out the vent on the side of the house at the gable to make sure it was intact before I went to Lowe’s.  I didn’t want to buy ductwork and then come back to find that the vent needed replacing as well.  It all looked fine, but then I smelled something and I shined my light over to what appeared to be black pellets on the insulation in an area of about 2 feet by 4 feet.  Somehow the inspector missed seeing this in the corner of the attic.  After talking with my husband and remembering the bats that were removed from the attic, we realized it was guano.  Fortunately, I had the receipt from the pest control company in our closing documents, and I called to inquire about the bat exclusion from back in August.  I was told that the agent representing the shyster investors said they only wanted to pay for the bats to be removed, not for the removal of guano, insulation or to replace the screen over the gable.  How disgusting!  Now it is out of our pocket to get all of this removed and repaired.  

On top of all the house repairs we are coming across from a negligent previous owner and shyster investors who wanted to cut costs, our dog was hit and suffered a broken leg, displaced hip, and pelvic fractures.  Last Saturday morning, I was on my way to an amusement park with my son.  It was raining and I was reluctant to continue the trip.  I changed my mind about going, and I called my husband to tell him we were going to come back home.  My husband had been out that morning already.  Then, I got a call from him saying he had hit our dog, Bodie, when he pulled in the driveway.  Bodie just came out of nowhere and went under his back truck wheel.  He rushed Bodie to the Vet and he remained there over the weekend.  His surgery was Monday, and I picked him up today.  He will have a couple of months of recovery.  We will have to carrying him until he can learn to use his back good leg to walk on.  He is in a lot of pain, but is still his sweet old self until I try to move him or he takes his Tramadol.  Then he growls at me.

We are praying our money pit woes will soon come to an end and that our dog will heal quickly. Picking up a growling 30 pound beagle (even with a muzzle on) really stinks.

Here are some photos of Bodie after I brought him home.

On a pad of an old towel, rug, trash bag and carpet remnant in our breakfast room.

The surgical sight. 

Eating one of his favorite treats, popcorn.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day.  I have been busy with anything involving this new house since the last weekend of September.  One week later, I have unpacked about 70% of our belongings, but we are not completely settled in.  BUT we are getting there.  Unfortunatley, we have discovered we have bought into a money pit.  We knew there would be some repairs and things to replace, but the list keeps getting longer and longer with more work than we have time to do.  I’ve made countless trips to Lowe’s Home Improvement for things like receptacles, deadbolt locks, parts for toilets and dripping faucets, dryer vent parts, garage door parts, and many other things.  Our next big obstacle is getting all the duct work replaced.  These are things for just the inside on the main living area.  Our basement is a disaster with everything piled in one big heap in the center.  Then, there is the outside that we haven’t even approached.  I guess it will all get done in time, but I wanted it done yesterday!

Moving day was hectic, but I was able to take a picture of the truck.

Despite all of the repairs and problems, this is a wonderful house. It is my dream home, and I can’t believe I am living here. I have always adored a cape cod style home.  My son wanted a second story so he could go upstairs to his room, my husband wanted a basement for his workshop, and I wanted a front formal room so I could turn it into an art studio. We all three were blessed!

Here are some other things this home has that I really like. 

A very mature river birch and dogwood in the front yard.

A gigantic poplar tree (my favorite tree)  in the backyard.

A wood burning fireplace.

Vinyl flooring in the kitchen and breakfast area that looks like stone tile.  I actually like it better than if it were real stone.

A staircase.

A wooded backyard, thought it doesn’t compare to our old backyard.

Pathetic rock hounds are we!  Our rocks from the other house.

Here is a quick post to acknowledge the first day of fall, my favorite season.

Happy Fall!

Moving update: I am continuing to pack and prepare for our move this weekend.  We have lots of help lined up,  I just hope it doesn’t rain.  The high is expected to be in the mid 70’s, perfect temperature for moving.  If it isn’t chaotic, I might take some photos.  Are the words choatic and moving synonymous?  Does organized moving exist?  We will see.

I also finished all of my painting projects, furniture I wanted to paint but never got around to doing.  Now, I have some freshly painted items for our new place.  

In the meantime, I have been getting some temporary stress relief.  Yum!

Photo from here.

Happy blogoversary to the tesserae!  It has been one whole year and much has happened since September 2008.  Never would I have thought we would be packing to move a year ago.  My house is full of boxes and I am completely overwhelmed with packing.  It seems to never stop!  I pack, pack and pack and there are still more things to pack.  We just have too much stuff!

Although I came back to blog, I haven’t had any free time to post anything.   My days have been filled with homeschooling, packing, going to this place and that, signing dozens of papers, printing dozens of papers, making dozens of phone calls, and MORE PACKING.  I do try to sleep and eat.  Carrying on with everyday life is a challenge.  I don’t remember it being like this 10 years ago when we moved into this house. 

I haven’t had time to take a photo of my packing ordeal, but I doubt we will look like this couple on our moving day.

Photo from here.

Instead, I think I will buy this t-shirt and wear it from now until moving day.

We should be in our new place the end of the month, and I hope it doesn’t take as long to unpack and settle as it did to prepare to move.  I will try to post an update of our transition out of the old house and into the new one.  I have no choice but to go on another hiatus until I can return for good. 

Whenever that will be.

Ok, I already came back…twice.  When the blogging fever hits, there is no stopping it.  I just had to post the one about Jimmy Fallon cooking chili with Martha Stewart.  Then, my Homeschooling Q&A post was a bit unusual for me.  I don’t normally vent on my blog, but I thought it could serve to help some other frustrated homeschooling mom in bloggersville.  

A brief update…our house is under contract and we have a contract on the house we want.  For some reason, we could only find one house we liked out of hundreds to choose from in four different counties.  The sellers of our “new” house are being rather unethical, but that is another story.  In return, we are being extra nice to our buyer.  We are thinking of leaving our gigantic TV  if he wants it.  Two reasons, one – it is too heavy to move.  It was taken apart into three pieces just to move it here. Reason two – it uses a lot of energy.  Husband wants an LCD TV in it’s place at the new home, but they use even more energy!  Regardless, it is too big for our den in the other house.  We are also leaving our buyer our refrigerator. 

If all goes as planned, we will move the end of the month.  Meanwhile, I am packing, homeschooling, getting rid of unwanted items, and using my fax machine a little more than usual.  Funny how so much in the loan process can get accomplished through emails, telephone and faxes.  I haven’t even set foot in our loan officer’s office.  This is not the home buying experience from 10 years ago.

Here are some things I did during my so called break from blogging.

Went hiking.

Watched son climb a tree.

Had another encounter with a squirrel.

Played mini-golf.

Made a U.S. history display for son’s first day of school.