Today is Tyrone’s first day of school. When I was young, my mother made us pose for first day of school pictures. Sometimes she’d have the teacher pose in the picture with us. Now I get electronic pictures from relatives on their first day of school.

This tradition has carried over to my family. For the past 3 years that I have known Tyrone, I take a picture of him on his first day of teaching. After working the same job without breaks for years and years, I am somewhat jealous of the clear boundaries of the academic year.

I’ve been trying to piece this website back together and get it all updated. While waiting for some databases to update, I made a pie.

This is a peach and nectarine pie, based on the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Tyrone’s mother swears by the oil-based crust, but I couldn’t get it to roll out properly without crumbling or sticking. The bottom crust is just pushed into place, and the top crust was formed into small circles that I could cover the pie with. The recipe also calls for the pie to be topped with brown sugar, butter, and pecans, but I’ve got more work to get done now.

I know this is a craft blog, but for the most part it hasn’t been crafty this month. I’ll have some more finished pictures if the rain stops today, but right now I have a special message.

Two years ago, Ty and I got married. Above is a picture of us in Belize on our honeymoon.

Yesterday was one of the last full days off he’ll have before school starts, so we went out and took some mask pictures. It may turn into a larger project, so I won’t post any of them here now.

Last night we had a nice shrimp pasta primavera on our rooftop deck. After that we fired up the youtube.com jukebox, much like we sometimes play many different records and scatter the jackets all over the floor.

Sitting two wide on my large Rubbermaid tote computer chair, we looked for the earliest live version of so many songs. We’d find one super rare performance, or a wedding connected one, and dance and sing to it.

My mother’s job is bringing her on a whirlwind tour of the central states. She ventured over into Arkansas yesterday and we took her around town and Hendrix Campus, where Ty will be the vising writer in residence.

This is the Murphy Building, where his office is located. The building also has the offices for the Murphy Foundation, study rooms for students featuring overstuffed furniture, slate floors and fireplaces, as well as apartment housing for shorter term artists in residence.

Here is the view from the back.

This is the view from out of his window. That’s not mulch in the brown area, those are pecan shells. Some have argued this is the best view on campus.

Last Friday, Tyrone graduated from UNL with a Ph.D. in Creative Writing.  Friends and family got together to celebrate Ty’s last day as a student at the race track.  My camera wasn’t at 100%, but my friend Sarah Skean’s camera was revving to go.  Here is a link to her flickr photostream.

The race was only 4.5 furlongs (a sprint), but the favorite horse was named “Miss You Already”.  Our families and friends bet on the favorite, and it came in first.  After the race, the owner/trainer gave the trophy blanket back to Tyrone.  He was so happy, and he is proudly showing it off to everyone who couldn’t make it.  It holds a place of honor on the blue couch (for now).

Tyrone’s parents, Arnold and Diana Jaeger, were here for a week, and just took off this afternoon.  They took us out to eat, helped us do dome maintenance, and helped set up for the garage sale.  I don’t know what we would have done without them.  I’ll post pictures of that later.

Our house is in a state of flux.  Right now we’re working out a lease-to-own agreement on the dome, an I’ve had to do a ton of spreadsheeting (which I found I really like doing).  We’re also investigating Arkansas.  Did you know my car will only cost $19 to register there? Wow.  Looks like temporary health insurance is cheaper there too.  What else is going to be cheaper?  Probably car and renter’s insurance, and hopefully internet access!

Conway seems to be a special town, it takes care of all of the electric/water/cable/internet as a corporation.  Looks like we pay  $.0564 perKWH here with $8.20 in fees, but in Conway, they charge $.067, but in the winter it goes down to Lincoln’s rates.  Interesting.

Still working on organizing for the garage sale.  This week I have found over 10 different make up bags, which after washing are still in pretty good condition.  I also boxed up quite a few cotton sweaters.  Sometimes people give me sweaters, but I can’t felt the cotton ones.

We’re also taking Tyrone’s parents around Lincoln.  Yesterday we had lunch at the columns at Pioneers Park, and last night we had dinner at The Blue Orchid.  Ty likes getting a bunch of appetizers, and then splitting a few entrees.  I like it because then everyone is trying the same thing, and you get to talk about the food more.  The hits were the mussels in the garlic ginger dipping sauce, the ginger mojitos, the prawn cakes, the meung wraps, the massaman curry, and the panang curry with salmon.

There is a sound of celebration that sometimes passes my fingers, but I hardly ever utter.  That sound is “w00t!” in a moderately high-pitched yell.

Here are two reasons to “w00t!” today:

Free bone marrow transplant registration:

http://www.healemru.com/2008/05/thanks-mom-event-free-us-registration.php

I signed up in January, and it cost some money to do it.  My friend Sarah was cured by a bone marrow transplant.   Since her sister was a match, she didn’t have to go through multiple rounds of chemotherapy to keep the cancerous marrow at bay until the good stem cells take over.

The second “w00t!” is for packing.  I found $80 in traveller’s cheques from 2003!  I’m going to spend it at the horse races on Friday night.  After Ty’s graduation, we’re sponsoring the 5th race on the opening night of racing.  Look for us near the finish line!

FYI, Tyrone’s got a piece in the Winter 2008 issue of The Literary Review!

Click through and his story is the 3rd one, it will bring up a PDF.

Some pictures!
Tyrone was a zombie hipster:

We shared makeup.





I was Laura Palmer from Twin peaks:





Inside the black lodge, haha:

These are creepy outdoor pictures. Why? Green grass at the end of October in Nebraska.

Aran skirt update: row 118/244!

Birthday pictures!

Ty sampling the icing:

The cake & I:

Birthday present from the Jaegers:

Aran Skirt update: row 91 of 244 on the second piece!

My mother always took a picture of us kids on the first day of school. I don’t go to school anymore, but my husband does. Here he is on his first day of his last year ever as a student!