Officially official

The Board of Trustees of my new college met and approved my hire, so things are moving along. We meet with our realtor tomorrow. She's the same one we used to buy this house a year ago. Of course, we all hear terrible things about the housing market every day, so we'll just hope it moves quickly. I have a theory that big national trends don't have that much bearing on one particular house trying to sell at one particular time. We'll see if I'm right!

The babyman did a somersault a couple days ago. It was totally by accident. He's been putting his head on the floor and looking out through his legs upside down for a while now, so he just overdid it and went all the way over. He seemed to think it was pretty funny. He also thinks it's funny to fill his mouth with milk, make a blank expression and let it all drool down his front. It's a good bit, and it always gets a big laugh from me.

It snowed last night. This was so ridiculous I had to take a picture of it.

More running

I did a faster thirty minutes today with no hamstring issues. I use a 3/4 mile track not far from home. Marci and I are still working our way through our punch list to ready the house. Today included more mulching and pulling out last year's dead brush. I can't wait to move, live in the city, and not have a yard. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed doing yard stuff today, but I think only because I know that we're getting rid of the place this summer.

Ouch!

After a hiatus (well, just being a slacker, really) for about two months, I'm running again. I kicked the season off last week by running a 10 mile race. Three miles of it or so was a trail run (in about 6 inches of mud). Damage report: upper right hamstring (ongoing annoyance), back of left knee (at mile 8). This week all feels fine. The mud and slop proved to be the end of the Asics Gel-Oberons. A couple days ago our local running store outfitted me in some Brooks' Adrenaline GTS 8s, which seem to be working great. I'm a bit of a heel-striker and weigh 210, so these are supposed to be ideal for a bigger runner. After reading some articles, I've decided to become more of a forefoot runner, but I'm trying to make the transition slowly.

The temp is in the mid 50s now, so I'm heading out!

Moving!

We are putting our house up for sale in the next few weeks. I just took a new professor job in a new city--within minutes of my parents, Marci's parents, and her sister's family. The Peanut (soon to have a fake blog name) will finally have cousins to play with (Marci's sister has 3 kids). My job starts mid August, so we have to get painting, landscape fine-tuning, and--yet again--packing. We are likely going to rent a place for a year or so; that way, we can check out various neighborhoods before we settle on one.

Our 17-month old Peanut is amazing. Every parent says that but it's true. He says: Mom, Dada, clown, balloon, fan, hi, bye, more, milk, cat, shoe, sock, , nose, Aw Oh! (when he drops or throws something) moo, baa, "buh" (for button--Grandma and Grandpa's clock plays music when you press a button), "da" when he wants to see a cartoon on BabyFirstTV (another cartoon he used to like was called "Dougie in Disguise--thus the "da"), car, and does a great monkey impersonation. Also, "No no no no no!" and some thing that sounds close to "I did it." He recently said "No, I don't want that," which was a complete sentence that freaked us out and he hasn't said it since.

He: runs, plays peek-a-boo, dances (he's really into Amy Winehouse lately), throws and kicks a ball, looks at books, plays with his wooden Anamalz and his cars, works on jumping, makes great spit bubbles (saying Mmmwwaaa....), pushes (real) grocery carts around, and blows kisses.

He: likes lox on sesame bagels, peanut butter, Green Plant juice from Trader Joe's, chocolate (soy pudding, fondue), soy breakfast sausage and pancakes, scrambled eggs and cheese (sometimes), lots of fruit (banana, melon, grapes, pineapple, and mango).

Classes have ended for the term. Other than an online course I'm teaching for my current University late summer, I'm done with the place. This August, I will have been working there ten years, so it's a bit strange knowing I won't be teaching in any of those rooms again. We celebrated the birthday of an author we're reading in my final graduate seminar, so that felt like a bit of a farewell, though none of my students and virtually none of the faculty know I'm leaving.

Other than the stress of waiting, the job search went smoothly over the last few months (I may post a more detailed version of the process). I essentially applied to one place and got it.

We're looking forward to a big change!