Home Improvement?

When we first moved into our house in August, we did our best to keep the place cool. Our landlord had installed air conditioners about, I'd say, 50 years ago and never updated them. The beast in the dining room, I believe, was the first air conditioner ever put on the market.

As the air has turned cooler and fall is quickly leading us to winter, we decided that this weekend we'd remove the air conditioners and try to seal off the windows from leaking heat outside. Liam and I successfully removed the first in the guest bedroom and he carried it to the basement to store it. Then we moved to our bedroom. I don't think there has been a tenant who removed these suckers before because it was molded into the window. Liam gave the window a push and it went nowhere. So I stepped in and said, "Let me give it a try." I jammed the window upward, to no avail. Then I gave another heave. The window went flying open and the last thing I saw was the power cord sailing out the window, followed by a loud thud below.

Yes, I've invented a new Olympic sport: air conditioning shotput. Two stories down, the 40 year old piece of junk was now officially dead. Thankfully, it took a bounce away from our cars - and no little children happened to be walking under our window at that precise moment. I felt like a complete idiot. But like the time I hit a horse with our car in Kazakhstan, I'm sure this will get funnier with a little more time and distance :)

New Bed Arrives!

I don't know why I've been so excited about this, but today two very nice men delivered my new bed from Pottery Barn and set it up. Perhaps it is because it is my first real piece of adult furniture I've purchased with my own money (read: not from Ikea). And it also means Liam and I won't be sharing a double mattress that's been set up on the floor of our bedroom for the past 3 months.

For some reason the bed looks a bit more elegant in the picture, but that could be because we're still working on getting the rest of our furniture in the house (moving from Kazakhstan just isn't quick -- latest update is our household goods have cleared customs in Baltimore and at some point this month will be released to the moving compnay). We've done fine with very little, but I'm looking forward to having our stuff -- sharing the one plate we have in the pantry is getting a bit old :)

New Travel Writing Newsletter

The folks at BootsnAll have come out with a new travel writing newsletter, called Wordsmith. They'll feature some BootsnAll contributers and update you on writing opportunties. Always nice to have someone else finding the jobs!

They also have a host of other newsletters for intrepid travelers - everything from destination specific newsletters to cheap ticket deals.

Now only if I had some time to plan a trip...

Speedy Weekends...

I know weekends are only 48 hours ... but they've been speeding by lately.

The last few have been spent trying to get work done for school. My students turned in their papers last week and I spent hours commenting on large scale organization and legal analysis...quite a way to rock the weekend. So this weekend, with all of my comments returned, I made a vow to forgo any school work. And I almost kept my vow save a bit of Con Law reading this morning.

We had plans to head out to an orchard somewhere in the Virginia country side on Saturday. But the rain gods were having none of it, so Sarah and I headed to the orchard of poorly made sassy clothing: H&M. Had fun catching up with her and shopping. Saturday evening Liam and I headed out to Vienna to see some friends from Kazakhstan who are now living here (was nice to talk about things like "Sniper Ally," which was how we described the road leading to our house in Almaty, and have people understand). Plus, Donna & Bart are great hosts!

Spent Sunday footballing it at the in-laws (Go Steelers!) and now I'm going to get a few hours of work in -- but only because technically, Sunday night isn't the weekend anymore and if I don't, this week will be a little less fun.

Pottery Barn v. Yurt Travel

Columbus day came and went and I found myself running around trying to get errands accomplished. Liam and I went furniture shopping, did some bills and caught up with some friends. On Sunday, I got a call from my friend Maureen in Kazakhstan. She had just come back from a hike up in the Mountains and I thought about how quickly our lives have changed: up until 11:00 every night teaching, reading, studying ... no more quick holidays to Turkey or Thailand, no more weekend excursions into yurt villages.

That said, Maureen seemed quite jealous that I was in Pottery Barn over the weekend. It's always greener...

And my new bed gets here Friday. Yee-haw!

Transitions Abroad Writing Contest

Transitions Abroad is running a narrative travel writing contest -- the deadline is November 15.

Professionals, freelancers and aspiring travel writers are invited to write articles which describe a life-changing travel experience abroad. Editors at Transitions Abroad will be looking for articles which meet the following criteria:

* Literary quality
* Sensitivity to the people and culture being described
* Ability to engage the reader

Get those pencils sharpened! The winner takes home $250 and of course publication in Transitions Abroad. There are also runner-up prizes.

Legal Affairs Student Writing Contest

This semester I'm teaching a legal writing workshop at Georgetown. I have 12 students and each Wednesday we talk about the process of legal research and writing: how to write a clear and concise brief answer; how to do case comparisons; how to use that "damned little blue bible" as one of my students has referred to the Bluebook.

Legal writing can be incredibly tough for first year law students - and many get lost in the overly formal legal writing styles of case opinions and texts. That's why I was thrilled to see that Legal Affairs is once again holding their student writing contest. If you are a law student who has been tempted to throw that Bluebook out your window once or twice, maybe this is the writing venue you've been looking for.

Foreign Service Journal Article Now Online

My story, "Imams on the Edge" is now available online. You can find it here.

HerStory now available on Amazon

I love Fridays. I have no class and I can watch Liam leave for work at 7:30, roll back over and fall asleep until 9:00 (okay, I admit it, 10:00 today...) And today is just one of those perfect days to stay in bed. It is pouring out and I feel just so snuggly still in my p.j.'s with a cup of coffee, watching the rain come down outside.

Although, I had been praying to the non-rain gods all week because my parent's huge Columbus Day soccer tourament is most likely going to be rained out. Which means they put in hundreds of hundreds of hours over a four month period (in which it did not rain once) only to have all that accumulated rain decide to drop at once.

Good news on the book front - HerStory is now available on Amazon. I'm really looking forward to reading the whole thing - a bunch of great short stories followed by interviews with the authors. My story is 8,000 Miles off the Map and is about making the decision to leave law school, get married and follow Liam to Kazakhstan - and suggesting we vacation in what I now know is a nuclear disaster region. You live and learn :)

You're my daughter...

Today, my friend Donna published an amazing article in the Style section of the Washington Post, titled "Parent-Child Bond Knows No Borders." While working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Donna was in charge of processing visas for recently adopted Russian babies. She did so while she was three months pregnant - contemplating a life with her own child while watching the joy of other families bringing home their own children.

It's an amazing piece and you can find it here.

Deux Goals for Powley

Went up to Maryland yesterday to see my little sister's first game since returning from Chile, where she was playing in the Junior World Cup (the team finished 7th, which was the highest finish for the U.S. ever). She scored two goals within the first 10 minutes of the game, against UVA, and it was amazing to watch. This was probably her best game this year - and it was fun to watch her at the top of her game.

Hard to believe the girl is a senior these days. I remember when she was a 3 year old little brat pulling out my hair at the top of our stairs in Mountaintop. She's much better behaved these days (well, at least most of the time...)