Still not in Kansas anymore

After nearly two years, we are still adjusting to life as relative strangers in a strange land. Only 3.5 hours by car from my hometown, it's still nothing like home. We try to find the amusement in it all as much as possible.

Today, I received a catalog in the mail. In the first pages are hunting clothes. Then you find gun holsters. After that are $2000 pairs of binoculars (for hunting??). And then I saw something that I was sure was a wine refrigerator, but it was a food dehydrator. A few pages later, I finally found my wine refrigerator. But wait, no, it's a "smoker with window."

Proselytizing
Everyone we meet asks us what religion we are. They all want us to join their church. And there's nothing subtle about it. One neighbor announced the first time we met her that she was sending her pastor to our house to "call on us." Apparently, all British people must be Episcopalian. It told Sweetie that we're about to become Quaker by default because it's the only way to fend off the proselytizers.

Hydrangea

I love hydrangea. And all the tons of rain we've had lately has been very good to the ones in our front yard. Please enjoy them with me.

Drowning in Reading Material

(Another pic from springtime in Borrego Springs) Whoever says that newspapers and magazines are going to die out is just plain wrong. That is, if our house is any indication. This year, I was enticed to subscribe to three additional magazines (all three for a grand sum of about $10 -- Oprah, Smart Money, and Good Housekeeping). On top of that, Sweetie renewed my coveted Practical Photography (a British mag). And, we get the New York Times 5 days a week, plus the local "rag" 7 days a week. And then there's the weekly student newspapers at the college where we work.

If you ever need kindling for a fire, just pay us a visit.

Anyway, this is largely just my way of making excuses for neglecting the blog.

The House
We continue to plow forward with home improvements. The painting continues. Today, a gutter company came by to give us an estimate to add a downspout that was clearly forgotten about when the house was built (there are 3 turns in the gutter before the next downspout AND we found a length of downspout disposed of under the wooden stairs on the side of our house...). We've had a landscaper by, since I was proven wrong about the "ornamental grass" in the backyard. There ain't nothin' ornamental about it. It's pure weed. And once the sun came out, the whole backyard became a jurassic weed park.

But I'm really looking forward to moving out of this rental and getting settled into a house with two sinks in the master bathroom. The house could not have a kitchen, a living room, nor any bedrooms, but as long as there are two sinks in the master bathroom, I will be happy.

The Sun, the Sand, the Jumping Chollas

The Blog has really been taking the backseat lately, and I do apologize for that. On our recent visit to California to visit my mom, there were a few references to my lack of updates.

Things have been busy. Sweetie and I resigned ourselves to living in this town, after my job search in more "civilized" areas (ie: cities where we aren't among a minority of people who don't drive a pickup truck -- though nothing against pickup trucks) turned up dry.

So, we bought a house.

And now we must tend to yard of said house. And hire painter for interior of said house (we have -- and he's busy at work -- using no-VOC paint so the place does not smell whatsoever). And choose colors for rooms of the house. And trim the liriope in the front yard (after figuring out that it's liriope and not some other random ornamental grass). And raking approximately three years of leaves from the back yard (ornamental grass in the back remains unidentified). And hire someone to clean and stain the deck. And exterminate the wasps.

But, it's all good. We're looking forward to settling into our new digs. I need to get some custom tea ceremony cabinets made this summer, so there will be numerous boxes left in the garage, but otherwise, we hope it's a smooth move. Certainly better than an international move!!

Hooray for Healthcare

Praise the Lord. I am so pleased that the healthcare bill passed. I don't really care what might be wrong with it. There will always be something wrong with such a bill. But what's right is so much more important. That we will no longer be a country that thinks it is acceptable to leave 32 million people (my mom and a colleague among them) uninsured.

It's quite possible that my taxes or premiums could go up. Even on my pathetic salary. But, maybe I will no longer have to make career or life decisions based on healthcare coverage. And if I have to pay a little bit more so that others can have health insurance, then so be it.

Thank you, President Obama.

Punch Brothers and other fun

On Friday night, Sweetie and I dragged ourselves back to the college after a long day in order to see a group called Punch Brothers with Chris Thile.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I had the impression that I SHOULD be impressed that they were playing at our dinky little college.  

Well, they are hard to define.  A bit of bluegrass.  A bit of alternative.  And a ton of technical musical supremacy and creativity.  

There were some rather serious bluegrass fans in the audience and I couldn't help to think that Sweetie and I and many of our colleagues were watching the band as if they were some sort of alien life form.  Studying them, if you will.  But also thoroughly enjoying them.

Good eatin'

As remarkable as it may sound, Sweetie and I have actually found some good eatin' in our neck of the woods.  There's a privately-owned historic mansion in town and they are now hosting dinners twice a week.  So, Sweetie treated me to a Valentine's dinner there.  The chef is a caterer/personal chef (I can't imagine anyone in this town actually HAS a personal chef), and she even caters to my vegetarian needs.  She's a genius.  It was a wonderful evening and we sipped on a wonderful Bordeaux that we managed to smuggle over the Ohio border with the help of various friends and family (we are unable to get wine shipped to Indiana, so we had to have it shipped to Ohio).  Really, really wonderful and we book one of these special dinners about once every two months.  We never eat out in this town otherwise, so it seems worth it to indulge in a really wonderful dinner now and then.

And the owner of the mansion loves Sweetie's accent:-)

And just when we've shoveled the driveway

 There is apparently yet another major winter storm headed our way.  Our weather alert went off today and nearly gave me a heartattack (usually it only goes off during thunderstorm/tornado season).  Just as Sweetie was finishing off our last-ditch effort to clear enough space for two cars in our driveway, I was informed by the National Weather Service that we are going to get hit by massive amounts of snow YET AGAIN.   Please, tell me it's not true.  

Where Am I?

Nothing like a trip to the local mall to remind me where I am living.

I avoid the local mall at all costs, and I don't think Sweetie has even been there once.

But, I needed to get a tiny little battery at Radio Shack. There was quite a line when I got there, but there's always a line, so I decided to just suck it up and wait.

And wait.

And listen to the man in front of me fighting very loudly with his S.O. on his cell phone.

And listen some more.

And more.

And then make a desperate face at a normalish-looking man who was wheeling around a baby in a stroller and debating whether he could handle waiting in line as well. He bailed.

And I listened some more. And of course the two people at the two cash registers were BOTH buying cell phones that needed to be activated. Which means I listened to the guy in front of me fighting on the phone with his S.O. (may I remind you --- LOUDLY) for a very long time.

These are the moments that really make me wonder, How the heck did I end up living here? It must be even more mind-boggling for Sweetie, because this isn't even his country.

After living in places as cosmopolitan as Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Washington DC..... Most of the time I try to look on the bright side. No traffic. A 10-minute commute. Ummmm.....I'm thinking......I'm sure there are other things. Cheap food. No decent restaurants or stores to tempt us into spending money (of course there's the flipside that we're not actually making much money either).

But sometimes, I do wonder how we ended up here.