Nope, the previous romanticized house is in escrow with someone else.

Back to looking . . . . .

Where are you in the Dogpile?

I’m trying to find brief articles on a few scientists whose work was controversial so that my Honors students can defend them as we read Frankenstein. It’s much harder than it looks - the internet doesn’t have everything!

However, in my wild goose chase for pertinent and accurate information (bad Wiki!), I found this gem. Hang around here and keep clicking “Random Entry”. I promise you joy and a sincere gladness that this is not your field of study. However, for the minority who understand what a Dedekind Ring is (and no, it’s not Tolkein, although it and its friend the Noetherian Ring really sound like something Bilbo and Frodo would have taken an interest in), I hope you derive understanding and joy. All this glooberydook just makes me glad I dabble with literature - at least the words make sense.

I watched the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and had I been betting, I would have placed a bet on Eight Belles. She just caught my eye. I watched Big Brown cross the line with the filly right behind him. It was all the magic that horse racing is for me and I turned the t.v. off as soon as the race was over.

So, yes, I was deeply saddened when I read the next day that she collapsed after crossing the finish line with both her front ankles broken. Of course this type of injury required that she be euthanized. But it doesn’t make it less sad.

She was as old as my filly. And I can’t ride her until this summer. I agree with PETA on increasing the age of the horses racing. But, as I understand it, the racing industry needs to change since the more races a horse competes in, the more its stats are known, and weight is then added to the saddle in order to level the playing field. {I could be very very wrong with this last statement and since I have admitted it, I would prefer that anyone who is going correct me does so politely.}

Back to my filly, I respect that her body is still growing and as much I want to feel her move beneath me (oh, that sounds dirty), I’ll wait until she’s physically ready. In the meantime, I’ll hope that things change so that horses like Eight Belles can live and run for years and that those of us who love watching them will be able to do so without feeling so damn guilty.

Faced the chickens in order to bring home three fresh eggs.

Talked about Peter and my grieving with my mom in a public place.

{I wrote these two statements last Tuesday and thought I would make a post out of them, but a week later I think they both stand well on their own.}

We looked at three houses on Thursday. Only one has struck our fancy for its possibility to be our home. So we are spending the weekend completing our homework - driving and walking the neighborhood at various times during the day.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about looking for a home, it’s a lot like dating in high school. And that was an experience I have never wanted to repeat. See you start looking for a date and are limited to the people that you or your friends knew, so there was no way to know everyone who was available. And it was also extremely difficult to know who would become available in the next week and who would no longer be available, so you had to pick from what you knew was available and hope that you had made the “right” choice.

Well, we’re off to do our homework and see how well our dating instincts are still intact.

The management company decided to paint the green trim, doors, steps, and railings brown. It looks good on the doors that have paneling, but horrid on flat doors like ours. And with the pale creamsicle orange stucco I am depressingly reminded that we live in a not-so pretty desert. M. and I are both hoping that the stucco will be painted something more soothing . . .  then again, should we really care?

I want to participate in a writing program this summer. A former advisor has been pushing me to apply since last year. The application and 4 page piece of writing is due on two days and I am procrastinating. Part of me wonders if I really want to take this professional leap or if I am going to let it slip by through the fine art of procrastination.

In other news, I don’t normally side with the conservatives (in fact I just reamed a conservative blogger for being hypocritical), but this makes sense in a 1984 and Jennifer Government way. And I can’t disagree. I think it is a good thing for a nation to have an accurate base information on its citizens since the ability to be found often encourages law-abiding and generally better behavior. (Just ask students who have to wear i.d. at school.) And if you don’t like it, then don’t vote, and better yet get the hell out of the country. I sometimes admire European nations who are able to promote a nationalism by having all the citizens only have citizenship in that country. Since the United States allows dual citizenship and doesn’t have a cohesive cultural binding, all that can bind us together is the democratic republic that really is our basic national nature. And if requiring government i.d. helps people to partake in the process (by encouraging those who don’t want to be identified to “get out of Dodge”) then I don’t see how I can be opposed. Now, if states make it more difficult to obtain a government i.d. then it turns into the same machine that made it impossible for blacks to vote even though they had followed all the procedures. And that would be bad.

That’s what the amount of the state tax relief and refund check.

If we overpaid, they should have saved paper and gas and energy and applied it as a deduction to next year’s taxes.

If this is meant to stimulate the economy, they might want to hire economists who actually graduated from kindergarten!

Watch out local homes! If you are between $224,000 (hey, any lower and we might pay as much as we do for rent!) and $280,00 then we’re looking at you!

So we’ve figured out a budget based on very useful comments from friendly homeowners and have come up with a range of what we would be comfortable paying for a house payment. Tomorrow M. will call the loan officer and we’ll proceed from there.