Life has become so busy, that I am only able to muster a few blogs from my cell phone...

Since my head is pounding from congestion, and I have 30 min before I administer my first exam, I though I'd take a break from work and update the blog.

Life as a professor is good- incredibly busy, but good.  I knew that there would be a lot to juggle at once, but am surprised by how quickly it has come to be that way.  Yesterday, things came to a head when I was trying to finish a grant (that I wrote in 1 days time) by 5pm, only realizing that I had promised office hours from 3-5pm to allow students to ask me questions on an exam that I had yet to write (the one I am giving in 30 min).  In the midst of all this, accounting is bitching me out for having booked airline flights on the University Credit Card without have submitted an approved travel request.  And of course, randomly met with a Masters student whose committee I am now on!

Mainly, I have learned that I just need to do things at about 80% quality.  Much past that requires an exponential amount of more time.  Take email for example.  As a graduate student, I would mire over "important" email to make sure that my grammer was correct, statements couldn't be misread, etc.  Now, I literally have forgotten the email I wrote about 30 seconds after sending it.  I just don't have time to spend on it.  A three page grant would have  taken me 2 weeks at least to get into top shape.  But when you only have a day, you only have a day...  I think that my experience in doing these things has obviously shortened the amount of time it takes, but my key to survival has just been to stop dwelling on every detail and just get it off my desk.  

Today marks the end of my teaching for a month's time.  One would think that would leave me with lots of extra time.  I suppose- lots of extra time to write two grants, resubmit 4 papers, write a 5th one, select a textbook for next semester's course, actually get next semester's course scheduled and in the catalog... oh dear- I am going to stop blogging and get back to work!

Strangely though, I am loving this!

I have conquered the random drywall opening! It is now the nicest bulletin board ever!
-Jake

this ain't no frog in the window!
-Jake

Mowing the lawn... part 1

So we moved into our new place and the lawn was beautiful. I spent 6 days and nights in the basement and neglected any yardwork. We then left for over 2 weeks and returned to a jungle. Having a thousand other things to do, I neglected it further for a few days until today. I filled up the lawnmower full of gas and started mowing. By the time I finished the front little patch on the one side of our house, I realized that was already more than what I had previously mowed at our Pullman home. I know this because the bag was full. So, rather than collect 50 bags of clippings, I tossed the bag and decided to mulch. I began to move to the side yard where I started to take on some of the bigger weeds. The first one I ran over and the mower just died. Umm... That is nuts. So I start it back up and go for the next one... dead again. So I start it again and this time prop the mower so the front end is about 6 inches of the ground. This worked by chopping off the top of the weed and then progressively cut it up as I pushed over it. And so I went with this strategy for the rest of the job. Rachel took the boys downstairs for a bath, I was still mowing. She got them dressed and brought them upstairs, I was still mowing. She let them play outside for an hour, I was still mowing. She put Ben to bed, I was still mowing. Lucas had a cup of milk, then came inside then crapped his pants, I had no idea because I was still mowing. The sprinklers in the front yard came on and they run for about 15 min so I began to pick up the pace so I could beat then before the ones on the other side of the house came on. Nope, still mowing. I was going to try and do the last little stretch that wasn't wet yet and then... I ran out of gas! I am going to say that the amount of mowing that I did today was likely equal to the TOTAL amount of mowing that I did in Pullman. Hopefully, it won't take nearly as long without the 3 foot high weeds to plow through, but it does put a bright point on the fact that the growing season isn't all year long! Fun fun fun!

14 beds in 31 nights...

We have returned to our new house! You should have seen how happy Ben and Lucas were to be home. They were totally crazy on the whole trip back and when we got here- there were like the best behaved and happy kids on the Earth. So, I started thinking "How much hell have we been through recently?" Since my back hurts like hell at the moment I decided to count the number of beds that I have slept in the past 30 days as a picture into the madness. So here is the recap:

1) 7/18 Pullman, WA: Last night in my comfy bed for awhile- seems like a year ago.
2) 7/19 Pullman, WA: Still at home, but on an inflatable mattress.
3) 7/20-21 Gardiner, MT: Shared a queen bed with Lucas- I think I still have a broken rib from his kicking.
4) 7/22 Rapid City, SD: My anniversary. See previous blog for that rant.
5) 7/23 Vermillion, SD: Nope not my new house, but another hotel room. I did have a queen bed to myself at least. (Cheapest hotel on the trip, and easily the largest rooms- I love Vermillion!)
6) 7/24-7/31 Vermillion, SD: Back in my own bed but in my new home!
7) 8/1-3 Woodland, CA: This was our HQ for our Northern CA trip. The Fosters rule for putting up with us! Queen bed with Ben in the room.
8) 8/4 Chico, CA: Visiting our good friends and sleeping in their 3 year old daughters room... all 4 of us!
9) 8/5-8 Woodland, CA: Not sure if this counts as "another bed" but since it plays into the madness of our schedule, I am counting it again.
10 and 11) 8/9-12 Redondo Beach, CA: My parents house. Here the kids sleep in the bedroom and Rachel and I sleep in the living room. 2 beds here because Rachel and I switched off between the couch and the pullout couch.
12) 8/13-15 Simi Valley, CA: Rachel's parents house. We slept in a queen bed in Rachel's old room.
13) 8/16-17 Simi Valley, CA: Same house, we gave up the bed for Grandma Krueger. So again all four of us sleeping in the bonus room. The bed was a KING, although amusingly only a few inches off the ground. It originally broke about 2 years ago...
14) 8/18 Vermillion, SD: Back home! Oh I am going to enjoy tonight's sleep! Well, what I will get anyway. Lucas starts preschool at 8:30am, which is the equivalent of 6:30am CA time- ouch!

Rachel has posted a ton of photos here- Even the dreaded 135 degree outside angles! I have beaten you with my mighty miter saw!

The basement is done! I am going to seal up some small gaps in the corners and then it is ready for carpet! It was a brutal week for sure, but we are glad that it is done. Well sort of. I still need to finish the windows, build a door for the electrical box, and cover two other random holes in the wall that access plumbing. Oh yeah, and hang the closet doors and window treatments... seems like it might never end! Rachel wants us to paint the kitchen (and guaranteed we will by putting up a big green brush stroke on the wall). Then, I am sure our bedroom will follow, then the office... perhaps renting wasn't that bad after all?? ;)

Tomorrow we leave for CA! Won't be back to South Dakota until the 19th! So the madness continues, just when we are starting to get settled here- off to Davis, then Redondo, then Simi... A break from the basement though will make it a pleasant vacation!

One other note- we are regularly catching frogs in our egress windows. They are really like the coolest terrariums ever. You walk by, find the frog, grab it and play with it, then set it free. So far I have found all three groups of frogs! A ranid, a hylid, and a bufonid! Now if a tiger salamander would just drop in... I assume Rachel will be posting loads of pictures on her blog- but I'll try to put a couple here as well...

Oh man, I am so tired. I have been literally going non-stop the past 4 days. My "breaks" consist of trying to actually get things set up at my job- oh yeah guess I had better do something there. I literally do not even have a desk in my office... I'll worry about that later! HA! I am about halfway done with the baseboards- basically the closets are left and some wicked outside 135 degree corners that are bewildering me. I finally figured out the angle to miter cut- (22.5 if you are wondering) but cutting at that weird angle is a bit confusing. Do I take the outside measure, or inside? Which way do I turn that board to get it right? Did I just cut a 13ft board the wrong way? Sweet... Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow, but we'll see. The limitation of working while kids are not sleeping is a bit frustrating. I get in a groove and then have to just stop. I am going be so glad when Friday comes- I am over this mad rush work! But then I just have to turn to working non-stop on lectures! It never ends...

Sorry no photos - you have to look at Rachel's blog for those. We are making great progress though. All the doors are hung, the jambs are up in the closets and entryways, and just about all the trim is up (waiting for Ben's room to be finished painted). Lucas' room is nearly done- Rachel is fixing the stripe with a modelers brush. Looks great! She is finishing a second coat on Ben's room now, and I am trying to put Lucas to bed. We are going to put a second coat on the baseboards tonight and then I'll start putting them up. The only thing left will be painting the doors and jambs! I can see the home stretch!

Hey all! I have so much to say, but not a lot of time to say it! Where to begin?
So on Friday, we went to buy a washer and dryer. I figure with the drive time it should be at most a 2 hour job. Well, it ended up taking me 8... Why you ask? Well... our Penske truck was due back by 1:30pm and we should have just tried to beat the clock to transport the washer and dryer to our house. But... I thought let's not worry about it and have it delivered. Well they couldn't deliver it until Tuesday and that was just way too long to wait. So we decided to just rent a UHaul for $30 and we'd be fine. Well long story short, it took us forever to get the truck, pick up the washer dryer, drive it home, haul it up the stairs, and drive the truck back. I just got an invoice today- and that $30 bill went to $120 (mind you even more than the $100 fee for just keeping the Penske truck one more day)- plus $45 in gas. Due to the mileage, and me not getting the truck back before closing, we were charged $.99 a mile! Sweet!
Yesterday was quite an adventure as well. I had to wake up at 4:45am to bring my mom to the airport in Omaha, NE (2 hours away). Wasn't I surprised when Rachel woke me up at 5:45am! I rushed in and woke my mom- then quickly loaded the car. We were on the road, me only have been awake for 10 min, when I see birds on the highway. Literally my mind went, "I think those are Morning Dov...THUNK! Oops! I think that was a Morning Dove I just killed. Even the bird was not awake enough to fly out of the way- or perhaps it was used to cars going 55 on the country road and not 85... And so I flew down to Omaha, trying to keep it between 80-85 regardless of the fluctuating speed limit (55-75). What was reassuring was that I am pretty sure all the traffic was traveling at 75-80 so it didn't seem like I was a madman on the road. I pulled into the airport giving my mom 45 min to board her plane. No problem! I impressed even myself on that one! So, upon returning- I thought I'd stop by home depot and pick up more stuff. I find the door knobs Rachel wants and head back. So, I do this, return home and find that Rachel doesn't like the color. We have two sets of knobs Rachel doesn't like at this point... ha. Regardless, I am feeling good and want to start putting the doors in. So I measure the "rough opening" and then go measure one of the 5 doors. Umm... apparently the 32" on the prehung doors refers to the actual door and not the entire unit... So, I load up the doors in the Explorer (which to do I need to slide the drivers seat all the way forward) and drive cramped all the way back to Home Depot. They, of course, do not have the smaller doors I need so I am off to Lowes. After returning both sets of door knobs and loading up the Explorer, it's back to Vermillion! I get home around 4pm... Another day of complete busyness with little being achieved! So FINALLY I head down to install the door. Strangely, that was the easiest part of my day! Took a little bit of tweaking to get it just right, but the bathroom and utility doors are successfully in place. I am holding off on the bedroom doors until Rachel paints the rooms.
There were a thousand small stories that I normally would tell and animate colorfully, but there is just no time for witty blogging these days. I have two manuscripts to revise, and a ton of cutting to do today! My hope is to trim out the doors I have installed. Trying to decide if it is better to paint them first then install and just touch up, or cut them to fit and then paint them and install them. Decisions, decisions. I am just excited to use my new nail gun and miter saw!!! I'll take some photos of my handiwork on the cell and post them later (I hope).