Freakonomics blog often provides me with smart funny and informative pieces on a whole variety of things. Today I saw this article on Barter village, which may be of interest to those people interested in urban homesteading/ simple living.
[there are two link the first is to freakonomics blog, the second to the barter village "about us" page]

glow in the dark puppies

Last night I was taking Winnie out for the last time and I was wearing a sweatshirt despite the heat/humidity. Whenever I wear sweatshirts in the summer, I think of camping as a kid. I think it is because of all the mosquito bites I would get, but I took to wearing long sleeves no matter how warm it might have been at night. (i would also wear jeans, socks and hats - anything to keep those bugs from biting me).
When I was very young and we would go camping I had a kids sized sleeping bag. This sleeping bag I thought was soo cool because it had glow-in-the-dark puppies on it. Of course a year or two after I got the sleeping bag I became incredibly embarrassed by it. And some how, that was my thought progression last night. I fell asleep to the happy memories of family camping trips.

3 days

After today, I have three days left at my current job. I don't know how I feel about it. sometimes I am incredibility sad, other times excited, nervous, and then sad again. Whatever I might complain about in my day to day routine, I love the people I work with. They are like family. They went to my wedding. They share my books. We celebrate all of our birthdays and every Friday we order in lunch and eat as a group. I know that when I leave I am not just leaving my first real job, or even just an era of my life. I am giving up a group of people that have shaped and influenced me, and I know that whereever I end up after school is done I will never have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group of people again.

When I applied to school, I was so excited for the change, for the opportunity to go back and study and learn. But change is scary. And I sometimes wonder why I am pushing myself so far away from my comfort zone. All the mixing and mingling, the networking and leadership work, none of that is me. It would have been a lot easier (and less expensive) to have stayed where I was. I guess I am wondering if this will all be worth it in the end. I love UChicago, and I am looking forward to school, but when you are spending a ton of your own money on an education that includes pushing you into situations you don't feel comfortable you start to wonder why you are leaving your second family at work to go pursue something else.

Anyway thanks for being my journal today. I promise to be more upbeat and interesting tomorrow.

good book

Just finished The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I really enjoyed this book, though it has been so long since I read the Poisonwood Bible that i really cannot compare them. The book made me interested in learning more about Frieda Kahlo, Mexico City, Trotsky, and McCarthyism. I like books that are a jumping off point for learning more.

Anyway... that is my book review of the day.

Today is gray and cool out, but the weekend is supposed to be nice. No plans for tonight... maybe try running again? Tomorrow we have a Booth event for Bill, but overall this will be a quite one.

Have a nice weekend


Oh and Mimi, if you read this, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Home ownership year 4

so this post on Emily's blog (check her out, she is a great writer) got me thinking about the i want, i need, and the home makeovers.

When we first moved into our house, we knew there were some upgrades that we would need to do. The water heater was 20 years old and not functioning properly (it isn't good when the home owners freely admit something like that). there were holes of various sizes including one big one) on the plaster walls. there was a 4 foot drop out the family room door (they had torn off most of the deck). The wood siding on the garage was rotting and falling off. the original upstairs bathroom sink seemed to jump out and attack your toes every morning. These along with a need for insanely organized closets and a dislike of many of the paint colors drove a mad dash of need and want purchases in the first two years.

Now that we have entered year four the changes and upgrades are far fewer. Last year when we were told our ac was leaking freon and the possible fix could buy us most of a new ac, we ended up replacing the heat and ac. Did we need it? Maybe... our house is hold and the furnace and ac were underpowered... which meant, even functioning it was either freezing in the winter or sweltering in the summer, but we could have just fixed the ac and moved on. (Bill and I are super happy we had the money to just get new ones).

This year, my one goal is to spruce up our down stairs bathroom. and maybe finally get pictures in all the empty picture frames around the house.

I think, though, had Bill and I bought a bigger house, or if we had two cars, we might not have been able to afford all the fixes and upgrades to our house. With our income drastically changing soon, we will have to be much more careful about where we spend our money, and our definition of "need" will probably change. I think that Bill and I will have to tell ourselves "it will be out of public view in the basement" more often and the spend-y life of DINKs will be coming to a close.