Hmph. A Tofu Master, I am not.

Tried a recipe from veganyumyum.com, which looks absolutely gorgeous and not very difficult to make. Smoky miso tofu sandwiches-- I mean, how easy could this be, right?

Der.

I forgot the-- apparently-- most essential ingredient necessary to the success of the wonderful marinade for the tofu slices. Sugar. Add a bunch of salty Asian ingredients together and what do you have? Well, without the sweet contrast of the sugar, an MSG-fest.

So, I should read more carefully next time. Tomorrow: blueberry grunts, from the same website.

Wish me luck.

Iron Man with a Purpose

Coolest. Idea. Ever.
Exo Suit

What a fantastic use of intellect and ability, and what a horrible joke on the man who invented it not to be able to use this himself.

I hope people worldwide are able to use this suit, and that rehabilitation centers and medical insurance companies will cover the use of this.

Wow.

How the time flies

A brief apology: sorry I have not kept up like I wanted to with house renovations and the like; once we actually got moved in, the whirlwind did not-- and hasn't, yet-- slow itself. It seems rather to have gathered strength. I went to FL briefly to pick Maddie up from my parents' house, and came back to prepare for the new school year. This week, I'm in inservice all day without access to a computer or laptop, so there you go. Please forgive my sloppy contact. Soon, I will post some more pictures of the house, some of the Florida trip, and maybe even some of my new school and classrooms.

I have to go to the doctor tomorrow morning to have my left hand checked out; I have been having lots of pain and it's hard for me to grip anything tightly, to lift Madeline, and even to write (as I am left-handed). I'm thinking carpal-tunnel, but there's a slight chance of some sort of hairline fracture. Carpal-tunnel is more likely, and I will update all my readers (all five or so of you!) on that once I've heard from the doctor what the deal is.

Wishing you all well! Enjoy this un-summer-like weather for a few more days, as I'm sure the heat will return in full force very soon!

Renovations Day Two

So tired today, but we got a lot more done. My awesome friends Tiffany and Christine came to help, and that was really the thing that got us over the hump today. All the rooms are painted and the carpet is up in two rooms and the hallway. It's easy to get up, but the tack strips are a hooker to get out. Luckily, Patrick doesn't mind doing those!

Tomorrow's agenda includes: touching up paint in our room, pulling up the rest of the carpet, pulling up the tack strips, and sanding the kitchen cabinets. So we're still a little behind where I wanted to be, but perhaps I was a bit ambitious to begin with. Madeline was going to go to school this week one day, but perhaps we'll make it two so I can get a few more things done-- and besides, she misses her friends and wants to play outside all day anyway!

No pictures tonight but I'll have some, if not here, on my other pages, by Monday or Tuesday.

I am so sore but feel so great about what we've done without having to hire anyone to do it. That doesn't mean that I wont get someone to come in at a later date and finish the job--- but I think what we've done so far is something to really be proud of.

New Home Renovations Day One, or Why I Will Hire Someone to Do This Next Time

Oh, my back. Oh, my neck. My neck and my back. A day (plus a few hours) into the cosmetic surgery on our new house and I find I have seriously misjudged the amount of time needed to do the painting and carpet pulling. For starters, I hate pulling down wallpaper. Scratch that. The actual paper came off the walls like buttah. It was the backing, which did NOT come down like buttah, that I hate. We spent most of today taking turns scraping the walls, getting wallpaper glue all over our hands and piling up what looks like wet toilet paper on the floor in what is going to be Madeline's room. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

We did get two other rooms painted, and the colors, as you can tell from the photos, are really, um, brighter than we thought. We're hoping that they will dry darker, and of course, once furniture gets set up in the rooms, that will make a difference. Tomorrow's work includes cleaning the gross walls, pulling down a wallpaper border that didn't want to come off today, and hopefully starting on the carpeting.

So if any of my friends here in Memphis want to come help, please call me! I could use some extra hands:)

Reflections on Faith

Been thinking a lot lately about faith vs. religion. I am not, for many pragmatic reasons, particularly religious, though I was raised Catholic. Ultimately, I married a Catholic man whose family happens to run in the same religious circles as mine, but we are not really regular attenders of any type of religious establishment, Catholic or otherwise. We get a lot of flak about it from his parents, my parents, and silent flak from others.

For awhile, I thought that my lack of attendance might be working against me. After all, I didn't get an assistantship for the 2nd year of my Master's, I didn't get into any of the schools to which I applied for doctoral work, and I didn't get the first (or 2nd, or 3rd) job for which I applied and interviewed. Could someone be telling me something? Could it be that I am not, in fact, a decent enough person, despite my religious shortcomings, to have good things happen for me?

When I really sat and thought about it, I realized something that has probably been lurking for years, and which, though I've voiced before, I'm not sure how much I really believed in. That realization was that you *can* be a good person, have good things happen to and for you, without going to church every week, kneeling, standing, praying, singing, kneeling again (remember I was raised Catholic), standing, taking Communion, and lighting many, many candles in the hopes that one saint or another will intervene on your behalf and answer your prayers (or as it seems to be in so many cases, grant wishes). I have long thought-- and usually have my suspicions confirmed-- that there are a shitload of hypocritical "Christians" out there. Front row on Sunday, scrubbed and smiling, but last out of the bar on Saturday, scowling and drunk.

I have never really made apologies for who I am and what I do: yes, I smoke on occasion. Hell yes, I drink. But I have never, ever, tried to hide that. I believe in doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because I'm trying to save my sinner's soul from eternal damnnation and hellfire. I have given money to beggars, fed stray animals, volunteered. I do those things, again, not because I want brownie points, but because it feels good to do them. To make another person smile, to help someone not so fortunate in their lives as I am in mine, is just the right thing to do. For me, going to church when I don't get anything out of it, or praying to God/Jesus/various and sundry saints when I need something is hypocritical, and I just don't think it's right. I'd rather be a sinner than a hypocrite, because I've never felt wrong admitting my shortcomings. I know I'm impatient, anal-retentive, overly annoyed by small things and a drill sargeant. I KNOW. I love myself anyway.

So for me, believing that something good would happen after so much negativity was faith in the universe, faith that the good deeds I'd done would recycle themselves back to me (the word is karma, folks. Learn it. Use it.) Faith in karma, in the cycles of good and bad, eventually brought those good things to us.

I'm going to keep on believing. But you aren't going to see me in church anytime soon, so don't ask.

Playing Catch-up

So much can happen in a week! We made the offer on the house, it was countered, we accepted the counter, had the inspection, and things are on track for us to close on July 17th!!! So now I'm packing, cleaning out, reminiscing while I clean (which considerably slows down the process!!), and then coming back to the den to work on lesson plans for one or more of the 4 different courses I'll be teaching this fall. I have a better idea now of the strengths and weaknesses of the students I will be teaching, so I'm making adjustments to my syllabi (I love that word!) and am doing a LOT of reading of new things for my classes, which means, of course, the end of "reading for fun" for a good while.

I'm also in organizational mode, and have at least three to do lists at any given time. Madeline will not be in school during July so I'll have to utilize my time at home with her to pack and sort without neglecting the longings of a 3 1/2 year old. I have BIG plans for her: the zoo, the Children's Museum, the park... and then of course, she will get to help me go through her old clothes and toys and decide what to donate to Goodwill. If I have to get rid of stuff, so does she. Granted, she doesn't have as many pairs of shoes as I do, but she beats me hands-down in the stuffed animal/doll department. And she's quickly developing her own library of children's books to rival mine.

Finally, I'm going to be shifting to Handy Jane mode in about 3 weeks. We are going to paint 3 bedrooms and a den and living room before moving in, as well as rip up the carpeting throughout the entire house. I've painted and ripped up carpet before, but not really on this scale. I just hope Patrick and I can handle it on our own in a 3 day weekend. There's also the removal of wallpaper to consider, and Patrick recently got me on camera promising to pull down all the wallpaper in the house (both bathrooms, the kitchen, one bedroom, the dining area, and a border in our room) but he'll have to do all the painting in those rooms. I've heard it can be a pain in the tukkus (which, one of the teachers at my new school tells me, is "Butt" in Yiddish!!), but am confident in my ability to channel all my aggressions into pulling that paper off the walls:) However, anyone with expertise in this area is welcome to give me advice or come help me out. I will not be renting a steamer-- the walls are drywall, and I don't want to damage them.

So I'm going from sitting around all summer to overdrive, but I'm not complaining. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished house!

A rambling missive

I went in to discuss my new job requirements today, and I have to say, I am so genuinely happy to be working at this place. First of all, I will have 4 different courses to teach, but each section will have maybe 8-10 students in it. This will give me much more time to work with each student individually, to really understand them and nurture them on their way to becoming lovers of literature. I brought home a pile of books about 2 feet high to go through and choose the works I want to include in my syllabi for each course, and I am so excited about getting to do that! I'm not stuck in one type of literature or stuck teaching only grammar, and I will get a chance to watch these young people grow and learn. I guess I'm meant to be a teacher after all!

Tomorrow morning, we are making an offer on a home. I really, really hope we get our first choice, and I really, really hope the woman who owns the home will agree to the things we ask for. Because I really like her house and want to make it ours, but there are some things we're not so handy with so we need her to fix them before we can agree to buy the home. I look forward to painting, pulling up carpet, clipping back shrubs, enclosing the yard, and all the things people do to make a house their own. I watch HGTV religiously to get ideas, and have lots for this new place. (I also will need lots of help and will be soliciting for supplies and labor in a couple of weeks!!!) I've chosen paint colors and found several kitchen sets that I like, flooring, appliances.... I should probably stay out of Home Depot:)

Mainly, I am thankful for the way things are going lately. I've had such a tough year so far and am really glad that things seem to be going in a positive direction now. My mom is going to come to town in July for a few days, then take Madeline back to Florida with her while we move. I'll go down to Florida shortly before I start work to get Maddie and bring her to her new home, and we will start a new chapter of our lives. Thanks to everyone who's been thinking of us and keeping us in their prayers as far as my job goes.

Now, who wants to help us paint? Remember, free beer!!!

NOW I can sleep well again!!!

Finally got a job and am going Friday morning to hammer out the details in my contract, get my textbooks, and set my schedule for the fall. I will be teaching at Margolin Hebrew Academy in East Memphis, and despite the fact that I'm not particularly religious myself, I'm really excited about the job-- small classes, essentially two sections of each course, with what seem to be some really great kids!

I am very excited about this job, not solely because I was at the end of the proverbial rope but because I really felt comfortable from the moment that I walked in for my interview. The atmosphere of community was heavy in the air and everyone I met was polite and welcoming. The Headmaster Rabbi is young, enthusiastic and friendly and I felt an immediate repoire with him as well as with the principal who interviewed me. Madeline goes to a Montessori school where community is vital and central to the philosophy and the experiences we've had there are almost all positive; for me to work in a place so much like that can only be nurturing to me.

So now, as you saw in my previous post, we get to move forward on the house front. Once the ink is dry on my job contract, we're going to try to move forward with the new house. Wish me luck!!!

An Appeal to All You Home Fixer-Uppers Out There!!!

Although I still need to get a job, once that time comes we plan to buy. We have narrowed our home choices down to two, and we want to make some decisions before we commit to one home or the other. One house is really pretty much updated-- I'm not a fan of the kitchen, so I'm going to paint the walls and cabinets when we move in and then eventually replace the countertops. Not too expensive. See this house at this site.

The other house, for some reason, I just have a soft spot for. It's very "vanilla" and there are mostly cosmetic changes that need to be made: painting every room, tearing down some wallpaper and pulling up the carpet throughout the house. We would paint, pull down paper/up carpet on our own and don't really need (professional, but friendly will be welcome and appreciated!) help with that, but there are some other considerations to be made. So, I'm asking y'all if you know of approximate costs for the following work, things you might recommend, or handypeople you might know that could help a sistah out (I don't know any contractors and don't want to call one just yet):

**outlets need to be grounded, approx. 6-8 outlets. The house was built in '59 so the capability should be there.

**curb appeal: we'd like to add some sort of front porch or overhang, as the house really needs it. Nothing fancy. Just go visit here. The whole front doesn't need "porching," just the half from driveway to front door.

**a teeny bit of fencing. Most of the property is fenced but we need to have the ability to put the dog out w/o worrying that he'll run off. So maybe 20 linear feet of fencing, at least some wooden. I'd be open to a cute iron fence on the sides, but no chain-link.

**ideas for a kitchen re-do that doesn't cost a billion bucks. Eventually I want to re-do the whole thing, floor to ceiling, including appliances, but does anyone have an idea how much just a good Mexican tile costs right now?

Also, if you have friends that aren't on Facebook that might be helpful or could point us in a good direction, please please pass this along. The first house I mentioned, the non-fix up, is $10K more than the 2nd, so I'm obviously wanting to keep the budget down to make it worth buying a house that needs work. Also, do I need an electrician to do the outlets? If so, I thought of asking the owners to do it since it's ultimately a safety issue in the home.

Thanks again, and please everyone keep your fingers crossed that I will get a job soon so we can move forward. Anyone who helps us move or paint when the time comes also gets free food and beer:)