Sunday Morning This and That

My level of posting has been down considerably over the last three days since we have been basically crazy busy in various activities. The slow down is definitely not due to any lack of desire to write on my part. Thursday evening we were with a group of people - academics and community representatives - who are working to help establish a post-graduate position at Old Dominion University in LGBT studies which would also work on an interdisciplinary basis with other departments at the university. Following a lecture by Hollis Griffin from Northwestern University, we had dinner and I had the pleasure of getting to know Lisa Turner, one of the authors of the Dallas Principles, who is also a committee member. By the time we arrived home, it was getting too late to write.

*

Friday evening we had dinner with a new local TV reporter who found me via this blog and wanted guidance as to how to get involved in the local LGBT community. He is a nice guy and joining us was one of the weekend anchors and another reporter. Having made these acquaintances perhaps we will be able to get improved media coverage on local community activites. Typically, the local media acts as if gays did not exist outside of stories that touch on DADT or the latest outrage by Ken Kookinelli and/or Taliban Bob McDonnell. Once again, by the time we got home, I was to exhausted to blog coherently.

*

Yesterday, at long last we moved all of the furniture back into the house and unpacked the kitchen and pantry and finally have the semblance of a normal home once again - for the first time since the photo above was taken on November 12, 2009, before the house flooded. It was an all day ordeal followed by a birthday party for three of our friends. By the time we got home, we were both ready to collapse (I still feel half crippled). This morning has been consumed by cleaning the second floor - much of which was so full of furniture and boxes that it was impossible to dust or vacuum until now. Needless to say, living like we did for so many months drove the boyfriend (a/k/a Martha Stewart) crazy.

*

The new and improved house is beautiful and better yet, everything up to 3 feet above the floor level is water proof and cannot absorb water: Styrofoam sheet insulation in place of spun fiberglass; Duroc concrete board instead of sheet rock; a PVC wainscoting layer over the Duroc finished with a non-wood trim to give an appearance of wood paneling; marble for all of the first floor flooring. While we hope and pray never to be flooded again, if we are, no tear out will be needed and we can literally hose out the first floor.