The Last Meal

Six months of Bank of America yanking our chain for an absurdly small refinance finally resulted in T. and me getting our money last month. And those six months of paperwork lost and redundantly sent, dozens of e-mails shooting between us and one unbearably inefficient loan processor, Jesus "Jesse" Velasquez (if I had his home phone number, I'd certainly publish it here), and one accusation of forgery later, we're able to finally start thinking about remodeling the kitchen, which was the biggest reason for the refinance in the first place.

We spent a couple of afternoons at Abt Electronics, trying to figure out the best appliances for us, and we settled on a lovely group from KitchenAid. We decided to take advantage of some of the deals Abt was offering and arranged to get them delivered sooner rather than later. So even though we won't do the full remodel until May, once I'm finished with school for the semester, we'll be able to use our brand spanking new appliances, starting tomorrow! Tonight I "cooked" our last meal (a set of frozen dinners because we figured that doing any major grocery shopping right before a new fridge is delivered was kind of silly) in our old oven. The oven and fridge have served us well, and the dishwasher has served us, well...loudly. Very loudly.

Henry says goodbye to the stove

We checked out kitchen cabinets and counter-tops at Home Depot last weekend, and wanted to head to IKEA this afternoon to compare variety and price, but the weather didn't cooperate. We'll probably head out there on Friday night when the traffic is a bit lighter--if not on the roads, at least in the store.

Greg, Paula, and Bosco were in Arizona this week/week-end, so T. and I dog sat. Tequila and the girls say, "hellooooooo!"

And G. and P. have gone a little nutso (or have they gone "bosco"?) over the Bosco website they've recently discovered.

The chocolate bar is actually pretty tasty; once they open the syrups, I'll do a taste test and give a full report.

And here's some other big news: after Thursday night, I'll be a fully tenured faculty member at McHenry County College. The MCC Board of Trustees votes at the monthly meeting on whether or not I and four of my new faculty "classmates" get tenure, but it's a no-contest vote and according to our union president, it's a very underwhelming event. So she's taking us to dinner first at the local Mexican restaurant, Pablo's, and then we'll have a tenure "tea" in a few weeks (where we'll get tiaras and light sabers!) to make the event a little more memorable. So, that's going to be nice, although after almost three years of working towards this, and after finishing the portfolio project and submitting it in November, I feel a little underwhelmed, myself. Or maybe it's just the fifth week blahs. One of my colleagues in the art department gave the explanation, after I'd been complaining about a particularly lackluster class last Tuesday, "Oh, it's week five." According to her, it's the time in the semester when the students top trying to impress you. The bloom is off the rose, and you start to see who they actually are, as students and as people. And the picture isn't always pretty. I think she's right, but the Thursday classes were back on track, so hopefully not all of the students will turn out to be toads.

And before heading off to bed, I've got to read some creative writing essays by some students (and some toads...), so goodnight, all, and if the weather is going to be as crummy as promised, please drive safely!