I *HATE* Fire Ants

I've always been allergic to the little buggies, tracing back to my days at Texas A&M.

Being from Lubbock, I had wondered why no one ever walked through the lush grass on campus. Not the grass at the MSC -- I knew that was a memorial -- but the grass around the dorms and academic buildings. I soon found out why, when I got two fire ant bites on my ankle, which quickly swelled to the size of a cantaloupe.

After a trip to the affectionately named Quack Shack and a few Benadryl, my ankle was back to normal size within a day or two. I've rarely had such a violent reaction to fire ants since.

Until yesterday.

Sing with me: One of these feet is not like the other... one of these feet just doesn't belong!

(And the toenails need to be repainted, but that's an entirely different song...)

We went to dinner at the home of some friends last night. I was blowing bubbles just off their back porch, standing in the grass, when I felt that dreaded bite between my third and fourth toes. I killed the ant responsible for my misery, but the damage was done.

I took two Benadryl before bed last night, but it's even more swollen this morning. I joked that my doctor would have to amputate, but it was no joke how alarmed her staff was at the appearance of my foot. More than one of them commented with alarm in her voice, "That's an ant bite, really?" Um, yeah. Really. Apparently I have a small allergy problem.

My doc is also allergic to the little beasties -- even more than I am -- and was bitten badly enough once for an anaphalactic reaction. Pretty alarming. She gave me a steroid shot in the hip, told me to pick up some Zyrtec rather than Benadryl, and sent me on my merry little way.

She did check for streaks along my legs, since everything hurts all the way up to my hip today, and she asked if I had a headache, which I do.

So if anyone knows of the magical bomb to kill all fire ants worldwide, I'm on board. Lemme have it!

The Lowdown on a Mother's Best and Worst Day

I am a bad blogger, for I forgot to take my camera to take Son the Older (hereafter referred to as StO) to college. You will have to rely on my words.

His dorm is the ONE right in the middle of campus, the campus being Texas A&M (WHOOP!). There are many dorms on northside; there are many dorms on southside. There is one in the middle. When we went to unload his things, we found out just how very wise he was to have chosen Hart Hall. Or more correctly, as we walked and drove around later in the day and saw the utter chaos in the other dorm areas, we thanked God (and our son) for his dorm location far from the crowds.

When hubby and I attended A&M, lo these many years ago, Hart was a non-air-conditioned dorm. Yes, you read that correctly. When we were there, the non-AC dorms cost $332 a semester, ladies and gents. Quite the bargain, if you don't mind sleeping in a sauna for portions of the school year.

Two of those dorms were torn down, and the two that remain now have window AC units. I wondered how efficient that would be -- until I walked into StO's room yesterday. Wow -- seriously cold! When I looked at the AC unit, I found it was on the medium setting, and it was also on energy saving. It wasn't even working hard! We were pretty sure we could make it grow icicles on the ceiling if we wanted.

The joys of the 80-year-old dorm are many. I will list them here:

• There have been so many coats of paint that where it is chipped, the thickness is measurable.
• There is a RADIATOR. You folks in the north are used to this; in Texas, it's almost unheard of.
• Because the bunk beds are up against the radiator, the closet door doesn't close.
• They put in electricity after the fact. The wiring is attached to the walls. That's one of the big reasons I wish I'd had my camera.
• There are multiple sets of wiring: the first set of electricity, the set for the AC, and the wiring for the CAT-5 (internet) cable.
• The floors are cement. Not stained concrete, just plain old cement. That's a great way to wake up in the morning, when your feet hit the icy cement. (Remember the super-cold AC? That's some cold cement, boys 'n' girls!) We bought the boy a broom for this floor. Any bets on how soon (if ever) it gets used?

The true joys, of course, are that there is a hundred-year-old (or at least reallyreally old) oak tree right outside his window, and it's a minute-long walk to the MSC (the Memorial Student Center, or the student union building on most campuses). It's less than five minutes by foot to virtually any classroom building where he will have to go. And it was the cheapest dorm on campus.

His roommate -- not a freshman -- is a Fish Camp counselor. You Aggies and/or Texans know what that is, but I'll try to explain for the benefit of anyone else who might not know. Aggie freshmen are known as fish and are given the option to attend Fish Camp, which is an indoctrination into Aggie life and traditions. Hubby and I didn't go (he by choice, since he'd lived in College Station for a couple of years; and me because of financial reasons, being the daughter of a single mom), but it's a great way to be introduced to A&M and what it's all about. StO declined the opportunity, but I'm quite sure his roomie will take care of his lack of knowledge. Son is an introvert; roomie is an extrovert. I hope they will get along.

This is the day that, as a mom, you look forward to and dread in equal measure. Your child has grown up, is flying the coop. So why does it feel like a hole in the middle of my chest, like someone has taken part of me away, removed it? I look forward to the independence and the discovery that college means for him. His life has been pretty sheltered up to now, and I know in many ways he'll discover who he is. I look forward to that for him. But he's my boy, even though he's so much taller than me, and I miss seeing him, even just today. I'm sure that will get worse before it gets better.

And, since someone will ask, I did not cry when I left him. Crowd of guys hanging around and all that. I miss him, though. How long until he runs out of laundry a couple of times and wants to come home to do it here?

I Knew It Would Come to This

But just because you know something is coming doesn't make it any easier.

Today has been spent sorting, packing, cleaning, organizing, shopping, and trying not to think about tomorrow.

This is what's in my kitchen:

It's the last box, with the last few things, and the backpack with Son the Older's shiny new college computer in it.

Who knew that 18 years of existence could be packed into four boxes and a backpack? I sure don't think my mom got off that light. I know she didn't, in fact.

Tomorrow we'll get up and drive to College Station, where we'll move our son into a dorm that wasn't air conditioned when hubby and I went to Texas A&M. Yes, that's barbaric in central Texas. Now there are window units. Hallelujah!

I'm not a crier, but even I might well up a little when it comes time to leave my former baby boy at his new home away from home.

He's such a serious student, my boy. Did I mention he'll be majoring in engineering? You can see here the SERIOUSNESS of the lad leaping off the screen at you, can't you?

That's my boy. I'm so proud.

To Satisfy the Masses

Or at least for the one or two of you who have asked... and because I've been a very bad blogger.

To be fair, I spent two weeks painting and another week cleaning and organizing for Son the Older's graduation party (graduation pics will follow). I've had a little downtime, which admittedly I should have spent blogging, but now I'm back with a vengeance. Or at least a whole lotta pictures.

In general, I let my interior designer friend Heather have her say in the paint colors. Because A) she's fabulous that way; and B) I'm not. Turns out Heather's dad, who is the adorable Tom, used to work for Benjamin Moore (the paint company), and he and Heather used to name paints together. So all of my paint colors were Benjamin Moore. Great stuff.

The first thing I tackled in the painting insanity was our downstairs half bath. It's a tiny room, and I'd always wanted a sort of wine color in there. You can get away with a bold color in a small space. Heather chose Pottery Red. Here's what it looked like before painting. It was one of only two rooms in the house with any wallpaper at all -- yay!


And here's the same shot, more or less, after the Pottery Red. The lighting is funny, but the color is a true Aggie maroon. Now understand, I'm an Aggie. I'm picky about my maroon. It can't be too red or too brown. This color is just perfect.

It shows up a little better in this picture -- more like the color actually is. We called our neighbor Eric over to show it to him. Eric is surrounded by females -- lives with his wife and two daughters. He told them he was taking over the garage since their house was all "girly" -- then he proceeded to stain the concrete maroon with a big aTm in the middle of the floor. He's a true Aggie. Anyway, he came over, took one look at this paint, and said very calmly and clearly, "I need the brand, the color, and the number of coats you put on." He was very excited; he's been looking for a "real" maroon paint for a long time, apparently. It sure doesn't look maroon when it's wet, but after two coats, it dried that way. WHOOP!

Next up was the kitchen. I should probably state somewhere in here that every wall in my house was the same off-white color when I started. I did do a few test patches with the kitchen color, which is called Concord Ivory, although it's clearly yellow.

It clearly looks much better painted. This is Heather's all-time favorite color; it goes with pretty much everything. It's hard to tell here, but my tile backsplash is cobalt, which looks fantastic against the yellow.

Here's the bay windown in the breakfast area prior to painting. One of our next expenditures will be plantation shutters in these windows and the windows in the next set of pictures. The sun sets through these windows, and it's just brutal -- I can't imagine why the original homeowners chose to install shutters that left so much of the window uncovered.

Again, the difference with the Concord Ivory is stunning. Love the color. Still hate the shutters, but love the color.

This wall is just to the left of the bay window and reaches into the living room where our entertainment center used to be (it was a casualty of this project -- keep scrolling for those pictures). Again with the yucky cheap shutters that I want to replace with some lovely real wood ones. Ah well, baby steps.

The same area with Concord Ivory. It almost makes the cheap shutters presentable. Almost.

We have reached the end of the "before pictures, so from now on, you'll just have to use your imagination and remember that all walls were the same off-white color. This is my kitchen island, which I painted Gunmetal. Yes, I could have taken a better picture, but that would have necessitated a great deal more cleaning. Tough noogies, people.

And this was the last leg of the project: the master bedroom. I did two of the four walls in another of Heather's favorite colors, Blue Danube. Ironically, I had spent forever finding something to hang over my bed, and it had been there less than a year, but it doesn't work with the blue paint (it's antiqued brass). So Heather the Wonder Designer is trying to figure out what to do with the large space over my bed now. Yes, it's very large and very empty.

I wasn't sure if the last picture really conveyed how awesome the reddish wood looks next to the paint, so I took a close-up. I really love the paint color with the color of the wood in my furniture.

This is the opposite wall, which holds my dresser and a bunch of family
pictures. The cross-stitched towel over the mirror was made by my mom, and the rectangular doily on the dresser was made by my great-grandmother. The round doily off to the right was made by my mom. Two of the pictures are five-generation pictures, with my great-grandmother, my grandmother, mother, me and my kids. Having lost two of the five (I still have my grandmother), it's great to have those pictures.

This is my master bathroom. There is a 6' x 6' glass block window in it, which is great for natural light. The color I painted in here is African Violet. Again, nothing on the wall... I know. Pathetic.

This shot is standing more or less in the same spot but turning left ninety degrees (i.e., with the glass block window behind me).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it for the painting. Now aren't you sorry you asked for pictures? Ask and ye shall receive!

So once I was done with painting, I was ready to tackle another pretty major project (and I really wish I had the "before" pic for this one!): organizing the completely overflowing bookshelf in our front (formal) living room!

We started by buying two additional shelves -- one in place of our entertainment center, and one to replace an old dresser that sat outside our bedroom door and held office supplies.

Since we mounted the TV above the fireplace, it left a lot of space in the bookshelf for actual books (along with a few DVDs and video games). Here's how it turned out.

The upstairs shelf gave us a place to put all of the comic strip books we've collected over the years (Calvin and Hobbes, Baby Blues, For Better or For Worse, Zits, Get Fuzzy, Fox Trot, Dilbert, etc.), along with some other books. This is where the chick lit resides, as well as all the Oprah book club books I've ever bought. But there are three solid shelves of comic strip books. I don't know if that's cool or completely appalling.

And this is the poor, overloaded shelf that used to hold everything. It looked like a book volcano. Well, truth be told, the comic stip books were really stacked on the floor, but everything else was in here. Sad. This is why I have joined Bookins (and if you want to join, please let me send you an invitation so I can get extra points!).

If you're wondering, yes, I know there are still a large number of books in this shelf. Books in front of books. Books on top of the shelf unit. But it was SO much worse; you have no idea.

And while we're on the book topic, here's what's currently on my reading list. For those who know me reallyreallyreally well, that means those are the books that are on the floor between my two nightstands. Yes, there are a lot of them. I'm currently reading The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn and Bird by Bird.

That's all I have for right now, although I still owe you guys a post or three. But now I'm plumb tuckered out. Whew!

Aggieland Lives On... At Least in My Memory

Apparently you can't ever go home. Or back to college 20 years after you were there.

Ouch. That number really hurts. It's not quiiiiiiiiiiiite that long since graduation, but still.

We took Son the Older to College Station, home of the Fightin' Texas Aggies, today. And I forgot my camera. Bad blogger! So my only pics are from Son's camera phone, and for some reason they have an odd frame around them. Don't know why, and can't get rid of it. Bear with me in my inadequacy, please.

Shortly after arriving, we decided we were hungry. Rather than getting a yummy off-campus lunch (original Freebird's, anyone?), we elected, at Son's request, to show him what he was in for in the finest dining hall anywhere. Yep, we ate at Sbisa. Here's my lunch:

Mmmmm, can't you just feel that starchy goodness clogging up your arteries? Fortunately, we proceeded to walk 18.3 miles, so I feel no guilt about my chicken fried steak and mashed taters. With cream gravy. And there's not even a picture of the ice cream bar I had for dessert.

We wandered around, visited the engineering building, talked to my hubby's old advisor, saw all our fine dormitory choices, visited the financial aid office, where we found out that to get a good scholarship you must apply before you're actually born, and then before we left, we had to go and see the bonfire monument for ourselves.

Now, hubby and I were out of the country when this catastrophe occurred. I've been out of the country precisely once since my birth (which occurred out of the country owing to the draft), and the news of the bonfire disaster was big enough that we heard about it in Spain. I don't go back to campus frequently (or pretty much ever), so I hadn't seen the monument. And they held bonfire in a different field back in the day when I was there. But still, that place is powerful.

This is a picture of the very center of the memorial, where the center pole would have gone. There are coins all over it, which I'm not sure I understand -- is it because there is no fountain to make good wishes into? Anyway.

And here is a pic of hubby and son, with part of the memorial behind them. No, you can't tell they're related. Not at all.

Most bloggable thing from today? Overheard snippet of cell coversation from college student walking the other way on the sidewalk in front of the Academic Building: "So now you think you can read God's mind?" Great one-liner... cracked us all up. But who among us has not been there?

Shortly before we left, we went to the MSC (that's Memorial Student Center, or the student union building for you non-Aggies). I just had to buy a roll from the cafe -- they're pretty much the best in the universe, in my memory. While they didn't have the buttery sheen I remembered, the roll I bought today was still quite yummy. My men agreed. It was at this point that my ever-observant son pointed out, after having listened to the reminiscing of his parents all the livelong day, "This trip was really just so you guys could take a trip down memory lane, wasn't it?"

Maybe, son. Maybe. You got a problem with that?

Just to Clarify

Apparently the entire world doesn't live in Texas.

This is news to most Texans, but I try not to let it be news to me. However, in my last post, apparently my description of my son's college decision process was a little too abbreviated. So, in the interest of being clear for my readers, and in the interest of having something to post about, I'll clarify.

Son the Older had originally considered some pretty hefty schools -- MIT, CalTech, Tufts, and Rice, all of which were places he sent his SAT scores. When it comes time to actually apply to schools though, one only wants to fill out so many applications. He must take after me that way; I think I only applied to one school. He applied to two: Rice and Texas A&M. Rice was his first choice, with A&M being an easy backup.

For those not in Texas, I'll explain: if a high school student is in the top 10% of his or her class, they are automagically admitted to any Texas state school (A&M, University of Texas, Texas Tech, etc.). This is great for the top 10% but is a bit of a pain for the other 90%, and the point has been made that it's unfairly skewed toward small school districts. I think it's unfairly skewed toward dumb schools (my class was pretty seriously dumb, as evidenced by the fact that I came in 3rd in a class of over 400), but whatever. Make the class rank and you're in, is the point. My boy is easily in the top 10%, so he knew he was automatic for A&M.

Both Rice and A&M have great engineering programs -- this is the son's intended field of study -- so either school is great for him. Unfortunately, Rice did not choose to admit him, for reasons which of course they don't disclose to you. You just get the "we get a lot of qualified applicants, and we're sorry, but we're not going to admit you" letter. He apparently wasn't surprised, but I was, and several people that I talked to were as well. I did hear after the fact that Rice has gotten considerably more difficult to get into in recent years.

Financially, I'm a little relieved: Rice is a private school, and A&M has a great scholarship that I had when I went there that I hope he can get as well. But Rice's marching band, the MOB (Marching Owl Band) is a ton of fun, and he would have enjoyed it. A&M's band is military, and my boy is in no way military, so that's the end of his marching band career. A little sad, but oh well.

Hubby and I both went to A&M, although hubby has always been what's called a "two percenter" (you're either a two percenter or a real Aggie -- someone who bleeds maroon). Son the Older is almost a carbon copy of his dad, so I see two percentedness in his future. Sad, because the traditions are much of the fun at A&M, in my opinion. Still, he'll have a great time there.

Now we just have to find him a nice geekchick like dear old Mom, right? ;-)

You Would Think I Would Have Something To Say

After all this time away. But you would be wrong. Or maybe not.

I had a crazy busy week getting ready for Easter, between the church stuff and the art exhibit stuff, and then I pretty much just took last week off. Of everything. I didn't even read blogs last week. That's bad.

I did have a job interview last week, which theoretically, if anyone is still reading, you might be interested in. I had a face to face interview with the company I talked to before. Hmmm, I thought I had said more about this, but apparently not. So here's a little bit of the story:

Tech company, based in Taiwan, wants an interface to American company (really two companies, but mainly one). My friend who works at the main American company recommends me for the job. The Taiwanese company interviews me via phone and discovers that I am not a terrifically technical engineer (no surprise to anyone who knows me or who has read my resume).

Fast forward a few weeks, when I get to meet one of the guys from Taiwan, who is in town on business. That occurs last Wednesday. My first thought, because I'm oh-so-observant, is, "my, you're tall!" Because somehow I wasn't expecting the very lovely Taiwanese gentleman to top six feet. Maybe that's just me. But then, I look up at everyone -- I'm really short.

So we have a nice long visit, which is blessedly devoid of technical content. He is delightfully honest about the interview process, my place in it, and all that, and since he would be my manager, I am quite favorably impressed.

Their decision process is going to take longer than I would like (unless I end up with another offer that forces them to decide faster), but that's not so bad.

And in other news, it would appear I have bred not a Rice Owl, but a Texas Aggie. Whoooooop! Er, um, I mean, I'm very sorry my older son wasn't admitted to Rice. But FOOTBALL!

38-30

Man, what a great day... I launch my web site AND we beat t.u. 38-30 in a nail-biter of a game.

Not as much of a nail-biter as the LSU-Arkansas game -- wow, what a game! -- but still.

Two more things to be thankful for.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!