House Update, older pics

The house is coming along. The schedule calls for the plumbers, electrician, and HVAC guys to finish up by Wednesday of next week, with carpet install soon after. Then, shortly after, we'll have the keys in our grubby little hands and begin the multi-stage exit from Muncie.

These photos show some of the stages between my last post and where it currently is. The cabinets are installed, the doors are up, and the wood trim is looking swell. These pics show a little of the "before it was looking exactlly like a livable house" stage. Isn't Cami cute playing with insulation?

Pics Include: the master bath tub before drywall, and after drywall (but before paint), the master bed room taken from the living room,the kitchen area taken from the family room, and the exterior right before brick was done.

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month will be upon us shortly. The object of NaNoWriMo is to write. A lot. In one month. No editing. Just write. Quantity over Quality. One month, one novel-length document that MIGHT qualify as a manuscript, in the hopes of having some scrap of redeeming material left to actually cultivate a more refined piece from.

I started last year, but didn't get far before a series of events made carving time to write impossible. I hope to succeed this year. I have two possible story ideas, with a third now forming, and I'm not sure which one to focus on. I hope to do some planning (but no writing! yet) this week.

Check out NaNoWriMo.

Coalition of the Chillin'

The reaction of the Conservative base regarding the Miers appointment to the Supreme Court has been stunning. Perhaps not un-predictable, but stunning all the same.

It is hard to know what any man or woman will do once they are appointed (for life) to sit on the highest court in the land. Recent history shows that several "highly qualified and well-respected jurists" who were of a presumably conservative bent have taken to the court and immediatly turned on their left blinker. On the flip side, some liberals have turned out to be more conservative once on the bench.

The frothing-at-the-mouth that is going on seems premature to me. Sure, my opposition to unfettered abortion on demand is pretty obvious. I've never shied away from that stance, and I do believe it is THE BIG MORAL SIN hanging over our society's head, but where in the world do we get off trying to hold the President accountable to OUR LIST of ACCEPTABLE nominees. The President said in campaigning that he would not "litmus test" from the right, just like he wouldn't let the left corner him into litmus testing from the other direction. That he received "lists of qualified candidates (at least as we see it)" from both sides on this probably played into this decision. The President is a stubborn man.

Yes, I'm a bit disappointed that it isn't a more clear-cut conservative jurist upon whom all sorts of degrading things can be heaped by the Mainstream Media (TM) and the Liberal Bobblehead Dolls on the Senate Judiciary committee. We've been deprived of some of that spectacle that some call a "confirmation process". And, while I do take a certain perverse comfort in the fact that a LOT of Democrat senator's aides have done a LOT of background homework on a whole HOST of people who weren't even nominated, and that left their bosses caught flat-footed with little or nothing BAD to say about Miers, it is just a small comfort; a guilty pleasure really.

And I'm even more disappointed to be put in this position again: defending an administration which I have never been that comfortable with.

But, I mean, come on! We are imploding upon ourselves like crazy, and no one even knows if it's a valid REASON for implosion. Now, I'm not giving her a free pass. And, if something comes up that shows she's going to be a disappointment before her confirmation, I might join the chorus. And if she turns out to be another Souter, I'll be happy to judge the Bush Administration and W's legacy in a negative light. But this initial rush of the sheep over the cliff is a bit much...