Random Musings

Hey y'all!

After flying out of the gates with blog, after blog, after blog - I seem to have lost momentum. I need to try and get back into a good routine or I am going to start "losing fans" as Cara has warned me! So, here are a few musings - my lack of blogging certainly has not been due to a lack of material! I like putting my blogs into some sort of theme - so today I'm organizing my musings according to the annoyingly catchy camp/kids song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

Head. I'm in a really good place right now. The semester is winding down - I have my last class next Monday when we return from Thanksgiving break and the final is one week after that on December 8th. It's been a good semester of teaching - not without its stressful and draining times, but energizing and exciting above all. I met with the doctoral program coordinator (Terry - yeah, we're on a 1st name basis here in our program) yesterday about my dissertation and he was really optimistic and positive about my idea. So, I set to work now on circulating my idea document with my intended committee members and with luck I will have my committee formed before I fly home to the NW for the holidays. I suppose at that point I will officially be in the "dissertation stage" of this crazy journey that is the Ph.D. program. I was feeling very exhilirated about it yesterday. This combined with a long Thanksgiving weekend ("our first Thanksgiving" for Cara and I!!) and I'm a happy camper. Very happy. This head has visions of dissertation completion running through it...and that puts a smile on my face. A big smile.

Shoulders. Cara and I have sore shoulders and it's probably from all the painting we've been doing lately. We painted the upstairs hallway and staircase a bright, cheery yellow and are very happy with the result. Our upstairs looks awesome and is officially complete until we decide to do the bathroom which probably won't come until sometime next year. This weekend, we plan on turning our attention to the kitchen/dining room/downstairs hallway in order to have our painting wrapped up by Christmas break. Wish us luck!

Knees. Or more specifically, knee. My right one. In my last blog, I gave an update about my knee. I went to the doctor last Tuesday and had some x-rays done. The doctor, who's the primary sports doctor for all of the UT athletes, diagnosed my symptoms as a deep knee bruise that is starting to "go fibrous." She noted that I had full range of motion (limited somewhat as I am the least flexible person alive) and little pain so she was not particularly concerned. X-rays confirmed that there was nothing terribly wrong with my knee and she was confident she could see the fairly substantial hematoma (bruise) that I'm battling. She prescribed anti-inflammatories (Aleve), stretching, and ice and asked that I schedule an appointment in three weeks so she can see how I've progressed. So, I would say this is good news -- it definitely made me feel better about everything. The only problem is that I have been positively awful about stretching, icing, and consuming Aleve. I'm sure that I'm headed towards a stern lecture from the doctor if I don't get my act together!

Toes. Cold toes, to be exact. It has been positively chilly in Knoxville, which had me in the doghouse initially. I had Cara convinced that it would not be so cold in Knoxville that she would need a winter coat until after the Christmas holiday. So, she left her cold weather attire back at home in the NW and is not too pleased with me for providing the poor information. In reality, we are just having unusually cold weather, but that doesn't help Cara stay any warmer. This last weekend she picked up a fancy purple wool coat at the mall. I must say, it is pretty sharp. I am sure she will be posting pictures of it at some point, but she is a must happier camper now that she is warm and snuggly in her new coat. On top of the cold weather, our furnace has been acting unusual. It will come on for some period of time (could be hours, could be days) and then it will randomly shut off. I've done my homework and I can't figure out if I've got something wrong with the pilot light (or ignitor), the thermostat, or the supply of gas to the house. We just had our best span of 2+ days of functioning furnace and warm house, but last night it shut off again. I hope it's just some early season "kinks" that the furnace and I can work out between ourselves. I am not digging the idea of paying to have someone come out and take a look at it. Ahh...the joys of home ownership.

Knees and Toes (read "odds and ends"):

Cara and I have thoroughly enjoyed our Wii. We highly recommend the Wii to anyone who doesn't own it. Our goal is to find a Wii Fit for the holiday weekend, but they are not easy to come by. So, we'll see if we can scrounge one up or not. Whatever the case, we're looking forward to a weekend of basketball (Go Zags!), movies (we're off to see "Four Christmases" on Thursday), good food (cooking up our 1st Thanksgiving meal together!), games and puzzles (you know, old boring couple-y kinda stuff), and some painting, cleaning and chores. It should be an awesome weekend.

I clinched a spot in the playoffs with my Fantasy Football team...the 1st step on my road to the Championship and the $300+ 1st prize.

Holiday travel plans are set. We travel home to the Northwest the evening of December 19th and return to Knoxville on a red-eye flight on January 1st. We'll make good use of our two weeks home celebrating the holidays with family and friends (Cara's parents and my parents are going to meet for the 1st time!). We've also got plans to attend the Battle in Seattle (the anniversary of when Cara and I first met!) and to spend New Year's Eve celebrating the arrival of 2009 with friends in Seattle!

Look forward to a post this weekend sharing the fun and excitement of our relaxing 1st Thanksgiving weekend together in Knoxville!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! Love from Knoxville!

Phone the Doctor...something's wrong with my knee

Last Friday after my 8am A200 class, I noticed a weird bump just above my right kneecap. (Note: the picture at the left doesn't do it justice, but it gives you some idea of where this is all going down.) I didn't feel any pain, had no trouble walking, and I climbed the stair to my office without any soreness. I did feel a bit of a twinge of pain when I was bending my knee to pull up a document on my laptop during my Forum presentation. But, I iced my knee that evening and everything seemed fine. No pain, no soreness all weekend. But, the strange bump did not go away. So, yesterday I called the Student Health Center to set up an appointment with the on-campus sports medicine doctor. She didn't have an opening until next Tuesday, so I wait...hoping my knee will get better before then. Yesterday evening and now again this evening, it's clear that it isn't getting better. It is definitely sore...not painfully so, but tender sore. Kind of an aching pain. Most distinctly, I can tell something is "off." Although it hasn't slowed me down at all at this point, I fear that there is something out of sorts that ain't getting better. I hope it's not anything too serious. It seems my collision with the "rock that rocked me" a few weeks ago may have done more damage than I thought. I'll keep y'all posted.

The fun news is that I can phone the doctor on my brand, spanking new cell phone. No sooner did my contract with AT&T Wireless end, and I jumped ship to join Cara with Verizon. I got a Samsung Alias, which came with some decent recommendations. I've been extremely happy with it so far. It feels solid and durable. The menus, interfacing, and functionality is intuitive. And, it's got the "wow" factor in that it opens both vertically for calls and horizontally for texting. Pretty cool. So far, 26 hours into my contract with Verizon...I've been impressed. Change is fun. Now, if my George Strait ringtone would just arrive already!! Here are a few pics to document the exciting new change in my life -- a new cell phone AND a new cell phone provider!! The next time I call you, it'll be from my new phone!!

Flips open vertically for phone calls - puts a smile on my face!!

Flips open horizontally for texting - easy on the fingers!!

Home is where the heart is...

Cara and I have had our share of exciting times as we settle into our home together. Not all of these exciting times have been "good" per se, but you've got to take the good with the bad I guess. At the end of the day, it's been so much fun turning this house into a home with Cara!

At the end of last week, I was working from home on Thursday afternoon (10/30) and I was taking a quick work break so that I could get some wedding "to dos" checked off the list. I was on the phone with a potential DJ and the Photographer called (whom I was trying to connect with so I could get our deposit squared away). Just as I was getting ready to call the photographer back, I heard a dripping sound. Turns out, the dripping sound was water falling from our kitchen ceiling and cabinets and into our sink (see the photo to the left). Ugh! I guess water dripping from your toilet is a bit of a problem. Because, water will tackle anything in its path on its way to the sea. Next thing you know you've got a blown out ceiling in your kitchen, a nice plumbing bill, and some contracting work waiting to happen (new sheet rock in the kitchen ceiling). Yahoo.

Crazy plumbing mess aside, Cara and I decided we are going to get the condo painted to make it look a little bit more cozy inside. So, we picked out some paint colors - a good dark tan, crimson red, and a bright and cheery yellow. Picking out the colors was the easy part. First, we prepped -- no small task. Paint prepping involves sticking blue tape EVERYWHERE. I guess the rule of thumb is: 'tis better to paint blue tape than to paint things you don't want to paint. Next step, remove outlet and light switch covers. Cara took care of this - she's pretty handy with a flathead screwdriver! And finally, you've got to move furniture. We both took care of this task. With all the prep work done -- it was time to do some painting. Finally! All this work took some serious energy. So, we made sure we were appropriately caffeinated! We got energy drinks on the way home from a Lowe's run. Cara didn't like her Monster, so I took it (being the wonderful fiance that I am). Between the energy drinks and a little 80's music (gotta love Comcast music channels), we had plenty of energy to spare.
We started painting our living room/family room. It turns out, it's a SLOOOOWWWW process. In fact, we spent the entire last weekend painting two, count 'em, TWO rooms. We haven't even painted the closets yet - so, we still have our work cut out for us! The bad news...I don't do well with painting. I was an absolute brat for a good chunk of the weekend. Painting takes time. It's a mess. And it's exhausting. I just could not handle it. I don't know how Cara put up with me, but she did. The good news... the two rooms look absolutely awesome for our efforts! And we did manage to have some fun too! Below is a montage of photos of us prepping, painting, and our finished efforts. Oh, and I've got some video footage of Cara dancing as well...heh heh. You can't hear it...but it's 80's music..."Straight Up Now Tell Me," in fact. Love it!

Next up...we're painting a coffee table blue to round out the family room. Well...not totally rounding it out I guess. We still have the closet and then we'll have a finished room! We'll plan on wrapping up the closets and the upstairs hallway shortly and then turn our attention to downstairs. If we're lucky, we'll wrap up sometime before Christmas. Hard work...but well worth it. We'll make this house a Hoag home afterall!