Cold Spaghetti

The old laundry area, as seen from the kids’ bedroom (that’s the door in their room on the left) — as it was last weekend. The window is the current “Beetlejuice” window now hanging without a wall around it.
No floor left… just the old 25-foot cypress floor joists. Paul cut them out and is saving them. We’re hoping to expose part of our outbuilding and use these in an exposed ceiling. They are really phenomenal.
The corner of the house before renovations started. Remember when Paul had to jack up the corner of the house? You can see the sill he put in and the block on the left where he raised the house. This also shows how the walls are not sitting on anything. At this point, you could shake them and get significant horizontal movement… sort of alarming.
Floors and walls are gone. This is where we were as of the end of last weekend.

Paul starts to put in the new floor joists.




He’s got all the floor joists done now and several of the floor boards in. With everything going on, we haven’t taken pictures of it yet.

IRB responded!!

My research went through full board approval — and no big changes required! NO changes to protocol, questionnaire, or outreach materials. I have to make 6 minor changes to my consent form and turn in the final consent for final approval. The changes include changing “subject” to “participant” on one line and adding a running title to the header on each page. The other changes involve phrasing/wording, which is a little funny to me since, most likely, the consent will rarely (if ever) be given in English. But this is NOT a complaint… I’m very excited!

… and a bit freaked out because now I actually have to officially hire staff and start doing summa’ that primary investigator stuff!

Kate has conjunctivitis. She is getting drops in her eyes regularly. They are really, really, really goopy. She just woke up crying because she couldn’t open her left eye; it was glued shut. Otherwise, she is totally fine (read: a complete maniac.)

Will has been switched from one pink stuff to another pink stuff. The pediatrician I spoke to this morning about Kate switched him on her suggestion that amoxicillin isn’t as effective. The issue came up because, while asking about Kate’s eye, I also had to ask for a refill on Will’s antibiotic because we’d used half of the bottle putting the medicine in a thousand concoctions to try and get him to take it painlessly. In the end, we put him in time out until he took his medicine. It took about 2 hours this morning. Tonight, it only took about an hour. We’re hopeful for continued improvement in this regard.

I stopped by the house this afternoon — the heat was set to 60 degrees and the heater didn’t turn off the whole time I was there. We’re in the toasty apartment again tonight but unfortunately have to leave tomorrow.

Paul has not showered in two days, is beat, and complaining of sore throat. That annoying scratch in the back of my throat has not gone away… it’s gotten worse. I didn’t sing the kids to bed tonight. It’s time to admit that one or both of us may need a swab in the back of the throat… which means we need a doctor, something we haven’t had locally since the storm (yup, we’ve not had a primary doctor for over 2 years).

Anyone local reading this have any suggestions?

The threat of not having indoor plumbing during Paul’s renovation work this weekend drove me to Mobile to stay with the parents Saturday night. It was a desperate situation; my Dad was on death’s door (literally, he didn’t go to work Thursday or Friday — we called in a priest to perform last rites) but I felt that we had no choice. Plus, I had to retrieve the kids’ old summer clothes from the attic if I were going to sell them back to the CCEX this week.

Right before we left, Will complained of being cold. Then sneezed. Uh-ho.

Then we got to Mobile, where my Mom was getting sick, too. I spent the weekend caring for my parents and Will… with a perfectly healthy Kate driving us all crazy. Sunday night, we sped home… I was terrified that the kids would bring the end to my dear parents, who were both sick and exhausted or that both Kate and I would succumb.

Monday morning, Will seemed better. We had assumed he would be home from school, but Will insisted he was okay and was running around with enough energy that we decided to try it out.

It was a mistake. He did fine all day, but when we had him home that night, my Mommy instinct kicked in. No real reason in particular, but Ana’s strep, combined with the fact that he seemed to have stalled in the getting better department made me think he needed to be seen. He stayed home today (despite being incredibly annoying before school this morning — he clogged the front toilet, which started overflowing and didn’t tell anyone until Paul noticed two inches of pee water pouring out of the bathroom door — annoying and bad behavior was another clue that he was probably less healthy than he was appearing). We traded childcare all day between meetings until his doctor’s appointment late this afternoon.

He’s got strep. Now Paul is saying his throat hurts. Kate came home with goopy eyes and has sneezed a few times. The jury is out on those two, but Will is definitely home one more day.

It took a ginger ale tonic and 30 minute of intense work, but we managed to get Will to get the classic pink stuff down. 19 more doses over the next 10 days to go. I’m dreading each and every one.

My Dad’s company does a lot of business in New Orleans and rents an apartment here for business use — thankfully, it’s not being used for the next few days, so the kids and I are using it. It’s letting us do laundry (still no washer and dryer) which is a great thing considering we had three huge bags of wet stinky towels from the morning’s exploding toilet. Tonight and tomorrow night are going to be in the 30s, so the kids and I staying here will hopefully help keep them warm and healthy — when the wind blows, the back rooms are freezing. Paul is home, using every minute of in-house-with-no-kids to put in extra hours at work and on the house. He’s closed off the back rooms and is sleeping in a sleeping bag in the front of the house.

Paul is hoping to work nonstop on the house this weekend, so we need a healthy house. Germs, be gone!

Our neighbor Weezie was interested in the original nails — handmade — from the original house construction. So Paul has been careful to preserve a few. Apparently, they can break easily so keeping them intact takes a little bit of care. Here are what some look like:
That 50 coin? We have no idea what it is. We’re hoping someone might know? It was inside the original wall. It’s not quite wood, but it’s not plastic either. I’m hoping that it’s identity is more interesting than that of a poker chip. (We’re still waiting to find the vault of confederate money.) It has sort of a purple color to it and the lettering it sort of golden. Anyone have any ideas?

The right is the back wall of our bedrooms. The left wall is the new room Paul recently built on the back of the house. The middle…? Once upon a time it was kitchens, then bathrooms, then laundry rooms and bathrooms. In the future, we hope it is one nice bathroom and one nice laundry room. Although Paul is suggesting we just put up walls and make an indoor racquetball court.

The Beetlejuice Window. (It’s an original window, we think it used to be in our Master bedroom. It’s safe in it’s current hanging spot as we decide what to do with it.)Exterior view.

More details on the step-by-step flooring removal and new floor joists. Too tired and overwhelmed at the moment to contemplate it.

All those rumors about Obama plagiarizing are true. He has most certainly been plagiarizing. His catchy phrase, “Yes We Can,” is lifted directly from Bob the Builder. No word on whether Bob is pressing charges, although Lofty threated a suit if Obama used, “Uh… yeah, I think so!”

I just got home from a board meeting and apparently, I’ve missed all there was to see — the cloud cover is too thick to see anything! Paul reports he and Will were able to see a little through the clouds earlier (from Will’s bed, you can look through the transom on his back door and out the new skylight in the gutted section).

Last night it was clear and gorgeous, with full and open access to viewing the moon. We know, because we went out 4 times to watch for the eclipse (we’d miss-remembered the date).

We’ve got about 40 more minutes left… maybe we’ll keep trying and hope some clouds clear for a sec… until then, I’ve been told that this site has a link to a live webcast of it, although I’m still looking to confirm…

Apparently, for women to do anything in government, from voting, running for office, becoming president… maybe even for going to school or walking on the sidewalk?… there must be a specific clause referring specifically to sex that says it’s legal for them to participate in such action. Or, at least, this yutzball thinks so. I agree with her; it’s pretty hilarious.