It's been a month since our last post, and it's due to one part procrastination and the other part post-wedding-reorganization. We've put away all of the gifts and written all of the thank-you notes (whew!), opened a joint checking account (wheeee!), I've changed my name everywhere except the Social Security office and on my passport (our honey-moon tickets are under Bork, so I wanted to make sure I'd be let back into the country after our trip...although, Spain wouldn't be a bad place to be stranded, really...), which is just weird. I'm not so keen on my new signature, but I've already signed it at the DMV and the bank, so I think it's fairly stuck. Some of my students are calling me "Bork-Power" because they think I sound cool. Don't they realize I'm pretty cool already? Guess not.

I've also been sort of a cooking fool, using all of our new kitchen-related wedding gifts. So far I've been baking mini-bundt cakes (brownies and banana cakes), hummus using our Cuisinart, casseroles using all of our new bakers, and our mixing bowls have seen everything from eggs for quiche (it's in the oven right now...we'll see how it turns out) to cream-cheese frosting dyed black for Halloween (and when we enjoyed the black-frosted pumpkin cupcakes during scary-movie-Monday with our friend Suzanne, it turned all of our lips and tongues black. Not the best look, though they tasted good, and we were too busy laughing at "I, Madman," and getting scared at "The Ring" to notice.). And I really don't know what I did before I got my wooden spoon with the little point at the end for scraping things. I didn't know that I had all of this cooking-excitement in me, but it's been pretty fun. Last night I baked a pumpkin pie (from mid-scratch--the shell was pre-made and the filling was canned, but I added eggs and milk!) and cut out "Eat Me!" and a ghost to bake into the top. It made me giggle. Trevor just thought I was a nerd. Like he's one to talk.

Also, we finally picked up the fabulous bookshelf Mr. John Power crafted for us months ago. He built it according to measurments we took and a design we came up with, and then we put off renting a truck to come bring the mammoth 300 lb. piece of furniture home. It's just purrrrfect and fits 85% of our books (we're going to enlist him to build a much smaller one to go under the window, though we'll probably wait a while before we spring the request on him...although he might read this, so that plan has failed.). I find myself just sitting and staring at it, smiling in a dazed sort of way. It makes the apartment look a lot bigger, too, because it's not as deep as the other shelves we had, and it goes nearly all the way to the ceiling (T.'s Vonnegut hardcovers, my Wodehouses, and my Salinger first editions are on the top). It's the greatest thing.

Martin Lawrence, our feisty jerk of a cat, has found a new home. Well, we found it for him, he really had nothing to do with the selection process. He really couldn't stand Henry (who constantly batted him around every time he was on the floor, the couch, the bed) and he took his angst out on us (our books, pictures, shoelaces, specifically). So a former co-worker of mine who was interested in getting a cat adopted him from us, and he's now the only pet again, and happily enjoying lounging around on the floor without fear of harassment. And we can leave our books on the table without fear they'll get gnawed to pieces. We can also have plants (Martin had developed a taste for my houseplants after Henry came along...he never liked them before.), so I'm growing a bean of some sort that I got as a "Thank-You" gift for pledging to Chicago Public Radio last year. The bean itself has "Chicago Public Radio" branded onto it, so the plant now has the logo, too, which is neat.

School is going really well for me. I'm applying for some adjunct positions at a couple of City Colleges of Chicago for the Spring, which, if I got some classes at the two Southside locations, would cut my commute by about 200-300 miles a week, depending on the schedule. I'm trying not to think about how nice it would be, though, in case it doesn't work out. (Ahhhh, the gas money we'd save...I'm picturing new shoes [for Trevor, too! And maybe even Henry!!]).

And Trevor is kicking some butt at the Gallery. He recently got a new computer and is using it for both home and work. He's getting a lot done at home (don't worry, we watch soccer games while he inputs artists' inventories) and is more organized for work. They've been selling a lot, which is great for everyone, and I helped him out at an event he worked a few weeks ago. It was a fundraiser for a youth organization, and after the night was through, I was completely astounded at the amount of work Trevor does. He'd worked a 7 hour workday, then a 6 hour event. The time on his feet alone must have been exhausting, not to mention the thinking, organizing, over-seeing, and managing he'd had to do. So, he's kind of my hero.

He's off to SOFA Chicago (a showcase of functional art at the Merchandise Mart) with his friend Dan (not Dan Segar, but another Dan. He calls him "tall Dan," or "double-D" so I don't get confused) and I've opted to stay here and grade the many, many papers I have to grade, and organize my lesson plans for the week. Don't worry, I'll also be listening to music, watching t.v., or eating leftover quiche.

We'll have more to come soon, and hope everyone has had a happy Halloweeeeeeen!

POWER (formerly bork-power)

p.s.
Here's Henry after a long day of doing nothing. What a life.