One More Saturday Report

One more Saturday in Shute-ho. This AM I read an on-line guide to installing tile and with more than a bit of fear and trembling, I jumped into the project using tile I had bought a few days ago. Will had put cement board all around the tub for me yesterday. So, it was ready to go. And here it is at 3:30 PM. Tada! The pictures are without grout. That must wait 24 hours. After that comes the trim.... so.... bear all that in mind. The other pic is of the closet I "built" this week. Actually I requisitioned half of an old closet that Ben and Brett removed from the living room corner last Saturday. I re-sized it and re-located it just outside the bathroom. It will house the vacuum, broom and supplies.

Yellow Wall Day

It took 7 hours, but the 2 new pine walls are now sanded, primed and painted. It is light yellow, like most of our living room walls (except the fireplace wall which is 2 tone green). This is the corner where there used to be a closet (under the loft section of the room). The window is one of the 7 new ones. It looks out to the yard and gardens. As you see, my supervising cat fell asleep on the job.

Karen & Tim

Here is a shot of my niece Karen and her husband Tim. Everyone says she looks a lot like me. This is their first baby and it is a boy :-)

House & Shower

Today was a fun and busy day. It stated early with Baird and I finishing what we had begun last night - moving all the living room furniture to one side of the room and covering it all with plastic. That is because Ben and Brett came today and put pickwick pine on the 2 walls that were just old sheetrock. Yup, so the boards are up (except the last 16 inches b/c I did not order quite enough boards..oops). Anyway.... it looks awesome! Tomorrow I will prime and paint them to match the rest of the room.

Then, while they were doing that, Jess and I went to NH to my niece Karen's baby shower. It was great to see a lot of the family there and to see her before the baby arrives. I hope we will be able to go up this spring and see the little guy. He's due to arrive in about 5 or 6 weeks. My sister and her daughter and granddaughter came to the shower via Dalton and picked up my mom. It was great that my mom (age 82) could be there. All 3 of her children, 5 of her 7 grandchildren and all 4 of her great grandchildren were there. I took several shots but the wriggling kids caused a number of them to be blurry. I got a few good ones tho.

Other thoughts going thru my mind.....

Alright.. down to the deeper things. I promised the other day I would find some time to blog about something other than house projects. Seriously, I have not turned into an HGTV clone...throwing myself 100% into home improvement projects while the rest of my mind turns to jello. I am reading about 4 books, grading papers (well, I should be) prepping for the Spring Dean's Book Course on Poverty/Homelessness and getting ready for the Dead Sea Cafe this Saturday where I will attempt to present an overview of the Politics and Spirituality Conference I attended 2 weeks ago in DC.

So, let's have at it...... here are a few of the thots running thru my mind tonight.... (besides thots about the painting and trim work I have to do in the AM)

Ok... the latest thing first.....

Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) was just on CNN, as the voice of the evangelical community, to repsond to the State of the Union adress last night. He was singing Bush's praises for a program to fight AIDS in Rawanda. Seems Rick has just returned from a tour of 3 African countries. He also said he has families in his congregation who want to adopt African babies with AIDS but that US immigration doens't allow it. So, Rick has spoken to people in our government. He expects the policy to change within the year. After all, the only other country to have such a ban on AIDS immigration is Lybia! He also announced that there has been a shift in evangelical churches in that they are now ackowledging the societal values issues more broadly... things like poverty and justice. Golly Gee, I am really glad to hear that.

Meanwhile, I had just been doing research about the U.S.'s rankings in foreign aid... we're right up there with the world's best. HA! gotcha! No...we are... not... we are on the bottom of the heap. But... a bit more about that Sat. PM as the DSC.

Then there is the book I am reading for the second half of my Spring Dean's Book Course: Ordinary Ressurections (Kozol). It is a fairly up close and personal look at children from the South Bronx. The kids are participants in an after school program at an Episcopal Church. The book is actually very hopeful in an odd sort of way. BUT....here's one of the things that got me: here within our own country, the inequalities are so brutal. Kozol says that in So Bronx the per child expenditure for education is $5,200 per year. In NYC itself it is $8,000, in the burbs it is $12,000 and in the elite Long Island communities...around $18,000 (mid1990's figures). This is unimaginable to me. I could see such disparities if one was comparing a developing or third world country to the U.S., but such disparities between communties within the U.S. and all within 45 minutes of one another? Something is terribly wrong. Terribly, terribly, terribly wrong. Education is absolutely critical to one's future... most every aspect of one's future. This disparity is just another form of slavery I think.

Last thing running thru my mind worth reporting on: President Carter was on Larry King tonight. He mentioned a number of interesting things but here is one: When he became Pres. the U.S. was using 8B barrels of oil per year. He initiated strict useage restrictions and by the time he left office we were using only 4B. We presently use 12B. Augh!! I think our whole freakin' nation has ADHD. Well, anyway, relief from this insanity is evidently on the way! I am so glad to see in the headlines that Bush spoke up against the U.S.'s addiction to oil in his speech last night. Wow........... what a progressive and insightful, and revolutionary leader we have. Now I can sleep in peace... to the warmth of my woodstove. Go Bush!

The Chairs & more...

Ok...for the sake of "Jet" who is dying to see and can't get up here right way.... here are the chairs. There are two of the beige , "aztec" color and two of the basil print. The living room is totally askew with items from various other rooms crowded in so, don't look at the backdrop. The pics give a general idea, but it is hard to capture the scale, etc. Once we get this place cleaned back up, we'll have some sort of a bash and everyone can get a look-see & sit and relax. Also included is a current pic of the bathroom in progress. The toilet is installed and right now the new vanity is sitting on top of the toilet! Quite funny. The next couple of days should see marked progress there. Boy will I be glad to have that bathroom back!