As most of you know, I've left Cleveland and, thus, Case. So I'm moving my blogging to http://trishwah.blogspot.com/index.html

But the Ben & Jerry's made a satisfying thud when it hit my stomach.

Y'all (or should I say yinz?) should know that apparently, the Bill of Rights doesn't apply in airport security zones. Go ahead. Click over and read it. I think witty criticism is unnecessary. I simply say: WTF?!

And as long as I've be roused to blog...

We made a bid on a house a week or so ago and got outbid. So we're having another go-round tomorrow. If all goes well, we'll make another bid on Monday. Once we have a closing date, we can start making firm moving plans. It'll be wonderful when the whole family (me, JE and the kitties) can be living together again.

I've actually started to do something about my weight. I've been Fast Tracking for about a week and today is my juice fast day (don't let the book title fool you--it's a 10-day plan). Radically cutting all the crap out of my diet--well, I wouldn't call it fun--but it probably was necessary.

Despite the fact that I've gone caffeine-free, my energy is pretty good. I'm sleeping more, still less than 8 hours, but closer. Mostly I notice that I just have to be more honest with myself about when I need rest.

I really miss chocolate. A couple of times, I've thought that I ought to go to a health food store for sugar-free carob snacks, but I haven't gotten around to it.

During my fast "prequel," I felt like a was force-feeding myself vegetables. I actually got sick of eating. It's funny. I'm usually ravenous in the evening, but, in the past week, my evening thought was, "God! I have to each what, now? Aren't I done yet?"

If I had more time to cook, I might be able to make it more enjoyable. But I'm just trying to stick to the diet. Ridiculous organization was the only way to keep me on track, so twice a week, I organized crucifers and leafy greens in plastic containers, supplements in baggies, checklist on the Treo. Crazy. Organized.

I had a couple days of achy detox symptoms. Hot baths and saunas did wonders. Overall, it's been a good experience, so I think I'm going to jump right into another cycle. Then I'm going to have some Ben and Jerry's Half Baked.

BTW, I haven't been entirely silent lately, I blogged twice on the UGA blog.

And it's 9/11. Since everyone else is reflecting on where they were, etc., on that day five years ago... I can't help but think of what I had planned to do that day: talk to my former boss about working remotely so that I could move to Ohio to be with Jon Erik. And here we are five years later and I'm doing it again in reverse. Oh, the irony! Oh, the urge to sigh once again.

On top of everything, I was rear-ended into another car last week. The driver didn't have a legal and up-to-date licence and has been sentenced to pay out of pocket. Pay my insurance company that is. Insurance is good. Again, sigh.

The stress of the last week has started to really get to me. I'm simply a nervous wreck during my commute, and, throughout the rest of the day, I've been experiencing a lot of random hickups. What can I say--I have my father's nose and my mother's esophagus.

But at least I have kitties to keep me company. They are both very needy (especially when I've returned from weekends in Pittsburgh) and unusually inactive. They always have been more active when both Jon Erik and I are around. With Jon Erik now in Pittsburgh (except for the odd weekend) the kitties aren't finding much inspiration to perform. I plan to take them with me this coming weekend. They aren't themselves when they travel, but at least Jon Erik will get to see them.

Amen.

For inspiring this statement, we'd like to thank whoever did the 2006-2007 Parent Handbook. Their extravagant and inconsistent use of completely unnecessary quotation marks on pgs 38-39 was truly moving.

Jon Erik was been offered his dream job at Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside! He's thrilled to have this opportunity and we are both delighted to be returning to our families and old friends in our old hometown.

Winchester Thurston is a terrific private PreK-12 school with a very strong performing arts focus. He'll be teaching chorus, general music and drama, plus he'll be on the directing team for the middle and high school musicals. The HS musical regularly wins local Gene Kelly Awards (no pressure).

Although Jon Erik will start work in the 'Burgh in September, I'll be hanging out a bit longer in Cleveland at Case. We're looking to buy a house, and it will take us a while to get our act together. I'm thinking I'll be here until October, which will give me the chance to look for a job and (mostly) finish Case's new recruiting campaign. The new viewbook, published in July, has been getting rave reviews and I'm sure will be a kickin' portfolio piece.

Now if I could just stop daydreaming long enough to finish the updates to my resume.

Around July 4th, Jon Erik and I took a long weekend trip to Boston. Great place to be for the fourth. We got in on Saturday. Sunday, we did the freedom trail walking tour. See photos and captions here. Monday we headed out to Cape May to hang out by the ocean.

The fourth had more cool things going on than we really had the time or energy to do. In the morning, we went to hear the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old State House and then walked down to the harbor to watch the Constitution go on its annual cruise (photos here). In the afternoon I napped because we were out late listening to Jazz the night before. Then we headed to over to the Esplenade for the big July 4 Fireworks shin-dig. The Fireworks were awesome -- the best I've every seen. TONS of people there. We got there about 2 hrs before the symphony started and the concert area was already so full that they weren't letting any more people into that part of the park. So we just found a good place to watch the fireworks. If we had been any later, we'd have found trouble finding a spot -- and that was four hours before the fireworks! Joe Perry and Steve Tyler were there with the Boston Pops and Dr & Mrs Phil were the MCs. The Pops brass section doing the guitar riff for Walk this Way was especially entertaining.

Wednesday we headed back.

While we were in Boston, the kitties were vacationing at Elena's. A few interesting photos of them in one of their favorite hiding places here. When we got back to our place, Meeko decided to go on another adventure.
We were hanging out and unpacking when Jon Erik found the front door open. After we got ourselves and the cats home, he had gone to the gym and must have not shut the door the whole way when he came in. Electra was in the window, but Meeko was nowhere to be found. So we each took a stairway and worked our way down through the building. I found him under the back stairs on the ground floor, crouching in the corner. He must have gone exploring and got too scared to find his way back. He was totally freaked out. Silly kitty!

Of the two of them, I never thought Meeko would be the one to go exploring. Usually Electra is our little trailblazer.

I have found a way to keep Meeko out of the drawers under our bed. Two words: coat hangers. The aftermath of locking him out of the drawers hasn't been pretty. He took it out on on Electra pretty good for a few days.

Since then, we've just been hanging in the heat.

I was struck by this article in the NYT is about the cost insurance companies stalling when it comes to paying heath care providers.

Tardiness or refusal to pay what doctors consider legitimate medical claims may add as much as 15 to 20 percent in overhead costs for physicians, forcing them to pursue those claims or pass along the costs to other patients, according to Jack Lewin, a family doctor who is chief executive of the California Medical Association, a professional group of 35,000 physicians.

While I think this questionaire was probably a bit too edgy for high school, it would seem the people kicking up a fuss SOooo missed the point.

So now Jeb Bush wants ninth graders declare majors. Oy! I was barely prepared to declare one at twenty.

Move over lava lamp. Now there's a laser pod. Pretty cool! Even more cool is the puzzle floor.

How is it news that the Sci-Fi channel did a black hole movie. Aren't cheesy, outrageous TV movies part of Sci-Fi's raison d'être?

By now you may have heard about the lawsuit against MySpace over a girl that was sexually assaulted by a guy she met on the site. Since when do parents let their 14-year-olds go out with guys they don't know? While the assault was terrible, there was a lot of communication taking place between the girl and the perp outside MySpace, lots of opportunities for the parents to be asking their daughter questions.

Apparently, MySpace related crime swings both ways. Witness this story about a man who was misled by two girls and then robbed at gun point.

I feel like I did a very guy thing. I got him clothes that he'll have to exchange. I wasn't exactly mailing it in-he's been talking about needing to get some new clothes. But it wasn't the perfect thing either, because nothing was the right size. He lost some weight not too long ago, so HE doesn't even know what the right size is anymore.

He, on the otherhand, got me a just-right, thoughtful thing: 1,000 thread count sheets. Yes, they exist. And they feel fabulous!

And then we had a yummy champagne dinner at Sawyer House, topped off with a chocolate raspberry souffle.

Ah, the joy of camera phones!

In feline news, our boy kitty is working out with weights. A while back, he started to crawling in the space behind the drawers under the bed. He'd work a drawer open with his paws, get in the drawer and then squeeze over the back of the drawer into the space behind it. There were two problems with this. One, it left the drawer open for us to trip over and two, he often dug out the contents of the drawer. Clothing and claws really aren't a good combination.

So in an attempt to keep him out of the drawers, we tried using free weight plates, first in front of the drawers (more tripping ensued), and then in them. The weights in the drawers worked for a week or two, but now he's occassionally working them open again. My boy is getting so strong.

Even more disturbing is that I once interrupted him AND Electra playing with a drawer. It's just bad when your cats start teaming up on projects of destruction together.