Cold Spaghetti

Will wrote a letter to Santa this year: his first. It started off like this:

I especially like how he added the “L” to the end of “DEAR”. I also like that he decided SANTA should replace the “N” with an “L”. I thought this meant that he would be writing “DEAR SALTA” (“salta” the Spanish word for “Jump,” which is a word Will knows very well, so I was amused at this particular choice). But when I suggested he add the last “A” to the end (for he had just written out “SALT” at that point), he said he wanted to put both letter “As” together. So be it. “DEARL SAALT” is how Will’s first letter to Santa begins.

I took the rest on dictation:

Because he didn’t know how to write words for things (he is still learning his letters, as demonstrated above), I suggested he cut out some pictures. This worked out well, as I had collected fliers from the paper and could encourage him towards things (i.e.: things we knew he was getting). Paul and I got him the Black-n-Decker tool bench (below) and my parents got him a talking Lightening McQueen car (hence the picture of Lightening McQueen). He signed his and Kate’s name to end the letter. (“K” is a hard one to write and he did a really, really good job!)
Then, today, our mailbox had a letter back from Santa! It worked out well — I happened to be coming from the backyard when our mailman (Chris) was on the porch dropping off our mail and picking up the gift we’d left for him there. I told him about the letter from Santa and ran in to get it out of the freezer. Chris said he’d make a huge deal about how COLD it was next time he saw Will. So Chris dropped in the letter with all the rest of the mail and Will found the letter a minute later — freezing cold from the North Pole! Once we opened the package and unrolled the parchment, this is what the letter looked like:
Merry Christmas 2007! Ho Ho Ho!

These are from over a week ago, but are interesting enough to catch up on. My apologizes if I hose up exact details; Paul will fill in the details and post more when he can move his arms off of the floor again.

So, all by himself, while I was off with the kids, Paul took off the back of the house. He then discovered that the termite damage that was found when we had the house inspected (and got $7000 back at closing to fix) was a bit more extensive. The picture above — see the door to the right (the doors to the backyard are interior doors, and no we didn’t install them, hence why they look that way) — anyway, that corner of the house had heavy termite damage. It was fixed before closing. But it wasn’t until the wall was off that one could see how high it went. With the changes going to the back and the importance of the load on that back wall, Paul wanted to get it right. He ended up jacking the house up on that side, splicing out the termite-eaten areas (actually, he said part was completely gone, so it was just evening out the eaten edge) and putting in new pieces. You can see if from inside — stay tuned and I’ll see if we can move some stuff around and get a few pictures. It’s pretty interesting.

Thank goodness our friend Robert answered his cell and had a jack that Paul could use — Robert was a real lifesaver at that moment. I still can’t believe all that Paul did completely by himself. (With me calling every few hours to make sure he was still alive.)

Other interesting pieces… see that foundation pier? Yikes. You can see some of the termite damage in the supporting beam sitting on the pier. See that spigot? Paul installed that after we moved in. This past Saturday morning, he drained the house again and took it off… the last step before starting to frame out the floor!
More dtail to the back. See the hole? Those wood slats are our floors. One has a decent hole in the space between the siding and wallboard. See all the years of debris and bug carcasses? Yikes! We are working very hard not to think about what is in the rest of our 100+ year old walls. (Being perfectionists, this makes us want to re-side the whole house… which would give the bonus step of adding insulation… but the $10,000 or so price tag is a bit unreasonable. Granted, we’ll know better what the real cost is once we’ve bought the hardi for the back of the house. As we begin to buy more materials, we have learned that labor and overhead is SERIOUSLY high.)

Above — evidence of a pipe that once ran out of the back of the house.
And an outlet.
Above: bug shell carcasses. Eewww.
More detail around the right side door (facing house from back yard). Wild!
Above: the nails above were what held the siding on — pounded directly onto the house. (It was aluminum siding.)

Some rough costs and details so far (that I can remember):
— Foundation with piers and flashing: $4000 (This we subbed out — want to have a level foundation! cement had to be wheelbarrowed into the backyard from the street since the space between houses is so narrow.)
— Floorboard lumber: just over $1100. (We used black edge versus pressure treated. At first, Paul was interested in pressure treated (tongue and groove) because of the short distance from the ground. But it came into the yard damaged. The excellent gentleman helping us (Wayne at Kellett Lumber) suggested the black edge. It saved us about a $100 and I was thrilled (no out gassing to worry about).
— Lumber for walls, headers, and ceiling (basically, all the remaining lumber): roughly $2012. All the lumber was delivered Friday morning. Paul missed the school party that morning to carry it all in the backyard (worried it would get lifted off the street). While at the party, friend and fellow parent David heard about Paul’s difficult morning chore, left the party and showed up at our house to help carry wood. Which he happily did all morning, making the job much easier on Paul and bringing on the important elements of fun and friendship to the task. Thanks, Dave!
— Windows, Simonton (4 windows). We looked at Pella (stay away, particularly if in a high-humidity area); cheap aluminum (only because we went to the wrong place); and even Home Depot (don’t bother); to end up with Simonton. I’ll let Paul sing the praises of why we went with them, but if you are in the NOLA area (or another high-humidity, high-wind possible, area… we highly recommend them based on what we’ve learned). More on this once they are actually here and installed. I think they were about $1200 total? Maybe not… I can’t quite remember.
— But the double french exterior door, that was $1400. It wasn’t Simonton, I don’t think. (Sorry, we ordered them two or so weeks ago and I am forgetting some details.)
— Skylights (2): Velux. Can’t remember the price, but like everything else, it was cheaper than we had estimated. Skylights were tricky since the pitch on the roof is going to be slight. Paul and Dad are still hashing out some details on how they are going to frame it out.

I took these pictures at the start of the month to document the kids’ head-wounds. Kate was pushed down and run over by big kids at the park while I photographed Valerie & family (Paul was there and ran the appropriate parenting past said kids):
And this is Will, about a week post-op from his short attempt at flight. Neither one got it in the center of their foreheads, so I can only think that they are trying for a Drew Bree’s look?

I am officially a Candidate for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Public Health.

And hot damn and hallelujah for that. I don’t ever have to go through it again! (The candidacy part, that is.)

It wasn’t that bad, the ‘deliberation’ took maybe a minute (one of the shortest I’ve seen) and the only revision I have to make is to construct the full field guide (usually done collaboratively, but they want me to produce my own full copy before hiring anyone). With some of the questions and discussion that occurred, I was pretty surprised that I wouldn’t be doing more. The discussion was extremely supportive and most of the talk was literally about what choices would make things easier on me — which, in retrospect, was really wise. My committee had a lot of different views and comments and them all hashing over my prospectus was a great lesson in why diverse teams can be strong: it is great to have many viewpoints.

So, my “prospectus results” form was completed with the “approved” box checked. Once I do the changes they want, I turn in the full prospectus to the Dean. Then, I actually have to start doing all the things my committee agreed I was qualified to do. Honestly, it’s hard to celebrate this milestone mostly because the work isn’t over… it’s sort of like it’s just started. The celebration part is that I don’t have to pass any more qualifying milestones… I just have to complete the research I proposed.

But that can happen later. Right now, I want to focus on some holiday fun — and maybe treat myself to a massage or something tomorrow…?

At risk of sounding uncharacteristically sappy, I want it documented that my husband is the real hero behind all of this degree stuff. The reasons are too numerous to count, but include things like… coming to my practice defense on Tuesday; letting me sleep in this morning while he got the kids fed; going out to buy the goodies for my committee (presenters tends to bring snacks and beverages to defenses); driving me to my defense because it was pouring rain (and I was in my fancy clothes, with a ton of stuff to carry — all of which would have been destroyed in the walk from parking to building); cleaning the house and doing a load of laundry while I defended; thinking about dinner… then agreeing to a last minute babysitter to take me out to a Very Nice dinner instead (and yes, JoAnn came by and said congratulations).

This is all while working so hard to plan for our renovations, which Paul has been single-handedly completing with the kind of skill and detail that most professionals would envy. Did I mention that last weekend, while I took the kids to Mobile for Will to attend the Holiday concert with my parents, Paul *JACKED UP THE HOUSE,* repaired several old termite-eaten feet, and took off (and replaced) the entire back of our house? And he did all of it alone? Not to mention all of the reading, asking questions, and legwork for lumber. So far, we are incredibly under-budget. Some of that is a group effort on finding windows and doors (more on that… I keep thinking Paul is going to write about it) but really, the bottom line is because of Paul. He is really working so hard on making this renovation spectacular, pouring every bit of love and detail into it as he gives to us… which (trust me) is boundless. Thank you, Pancho!

A surprise email came in this morning from Nairobi. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! Committee member number 4 is back to Nairobi from far west Kenya, got my last draft (sent last night), says it looks great, has no concerns or comments, and will be available this afternoon for the defense! (Although it will be 11pm her time; she’s 9 hours ahead.) Yesterday, we thought we were just going to go with the requisite 3 members and press on. So today will be a great test of Kenyan mobile phone service (very pertinent since this is a main research interest of said committee member). I cannot believe that this is working out.

One issue remains.

I realized that the one Very Important Detail I had completely looked over was my outfit. I’m a bit of a clothes horse (what can I say? I’ve got a theatre background… it’s all about the costume). Having forgotten about the outfit was a new one for me. Maybe it wasn’t so much forgetting as not having time to think about it.

Once upon a time, in a world without children, I possessed a fabulous wardrobe comprised of gorgeous hand-me downs from my Mother’s exquisite professional collection (my Mom is the Queen of classy dressing) and beautiful suits that said Mommy bought for me to use for the various wedding-related things that happened the summer Paul and I got married (thanks, Mom!) I used these outfits for Every Single Special Event I attended over several years… until I got pregnant. I finally gave up the ghost this summer (let’s face it, I’ll never be able to button a size 8 blouse again) and donated or consigned the bulk of my professional collection (worn when I worked for the Government). I kept those wedding-summer outfits because they are just too good to part with. Maybe Kate will wear them someday. (Don’t laugh: a major portion of that professional collection were clothes that my Mom saved from when I was as young as Kate is now. And those who know me from high school know that I wore outfits from my Mom’s high school days — straight outta Grandma Betty’s closet — all the time.)

But today, in the here and now, I am woefully lacking in the wardrobe apartment. I’ve been a grad student or working in contexts where fancy dress is not appropriate for so long that I have nothing respectable to call on.

For the Bat Mitzvah last October, I bought a pair of dress shoes (the only ones I own… bright red patent leather flats that are awesome*), a beautiful pair of part-silk brown pants from Talbots (hugely on sale) and a fancy orange v-neck sweater (also on sale). I dressed it up with a scarf I bought years ago in India and pulled it all together to be just fancy enough for the party. The one issue… I didn’t have time to go to the Bead Store and make jewelry to accent the ensemble.

It isn’t the best outfit for a defense, but this morning I thought I could wear it, if I could finish the jewelry. I made a necklace weeks ago (the nicest one I’ve made yet) with wooden beads of different shapes and colors. But I wasn’t sure about doing the crimps on the ends and didn’t think I had the right materials to finish it off. My intent was to visit Georgia on the way downtown to finish it. But this morning, I had to play with it… so I took it out, decided to add a little length, took off the tape securing the edge… and dropped it. Beads went everywhere. No more necklace. *sigh*

What else do I have? I’m not even sure. The brown pants are the only nice pants I have. I do have a white blouse (really cool, ties in the center) also from that Talbots sale. But it needs ironing (it’s washable, but requires ironing afterward). This is a problem as we do not own an iron or an ironing board. Maybe I can go to a neighbor’s and iron it there? But will it even work with the pants? (It would be best with a more fitted black pant.)

Oh, and then, there is the issue of my hair. Which has not been cut, highlighted, styled, or otherwise by anyone qualified in almost 9 months. Do I even own makeup? I’m fairly certain that there is no lipstick of any variety within my entire house. I did give myself a little manicure last week, so at least my nails aren’t offensive. In my defense, I at least was thinking about my hair… I asked Paul a few weeks back if I should cut it, or color it (I’ve done highlights about once a year for about 10 years), or something different? I think he’s exact words were “hair? what hair? you’ve got hair?”

Bright side: I’m no longer worried about the defense. I’m worried that I’ll look like myself: a woman who has not spent an ounce of time or effort on her appearance in over 7 years.

*I have not tried on the shoes since I broke the foot. I still cannot wear the majority of my shoes and am terrified of the reality that these will kill my right foot. My back-up plan is to wear a slipper or something to the room and then just ignore the binding pain for the defense. I just have to stand in one place, so it shouldn’t be too bad…

Crazy girl and her awesome hat. Courtesy of Emmy and her amazing find. My kids in hats: something that always makes me smile.

It’s midnight. I’m fighting off a cold. Kate has a terrible rash covering her legs and is having trouble sleeping.

Tomorrow, I’m defending the work I’ve been doing for 2 or so years to reach PhD candidacy. Tomorrow is a big friggin’ day.

And Paul is on his way next door, to ask our neighbor to turn down the microphone and amp’ed sound (despite some work by a sound technician to sound-proof the house; it’s not over or it’s a damn awful job) so that we can get some sleep.

“Will, what are you going to ask Santa to bring you for Christmas?”

“A Robot.”

My kid has his heart set on some “robot” that I worry he’s invented (“it talks and changes into a car”). Anyone know of a robot like that?

…is out to committee.

Practice defense (with requisite invitation having been sent to all doctoral students) is tomorrow morning. The actual formal defense to the full committee is Thursday.

I cannot wait for this to be done and am on pins and needles. I don’t know how I am going sleep over the next few days.

One more important question remains (maybe the most important): Where is the party Thursday/Friday night???