In the here-you-see-it-now-you-don’t post I published a few hours ago, I lamented the heat and its ability to force me to try to have the blog meet at another time, like in the fall.

If you’re up for the original date possibilities (August 21 and 28), let me know.

If you’d prefer a later date, when it’ll likely be cooler, let me know.

The change will be that, instead of meeting here at my house, where there is limited space indoors for guests to get out of the heat, we will convene at Cluck’n'Neigh, where we will still have potluck, there’s plenty of air-conditioned space for camp chairs and whatnot (if you’d like to bring one for yourself).  The rational limit of people is 8.  I never said I was rational, however, so we’ll try to accommodate everyone, within reason.

There is a gun range on the property, so you’re free to bring your rifles and practice, or have a little bit of friendly competition.

There is a pond for fishing.

There are also chickens all over the place, which just makes it fun.

Okay…so let me know what you think!

There’s a new link that will take you directly to the B, B, & Guns Blog Talk Radio page, where you can tune in every Thursday night at 7pm EST to hear Breda and myself (and our callers, of course).

Thanks to everyone who made last night’s show a success!  I had fun, and I’m looking forward to next week, when we have Michael calling in to talk to us all about Zombie Squad, which features disaster preparedness as one of its top priorities.

See you then!

We’re nearly completely moved in (if not settled in…that will take another week or so), and it’s just hitting me that I am in my own house, with a hubby.  I don’t have to compete for space.  We have an office/guest room that’s separate from our bedroom, so if I want to work all night on things, JB can get rest.

We’ve also thought about and done a few things we hadn’t really thought about until moving into this rental.

Usually, when you rent a house, you’re responsible for ensuring that all of the required appliances for comfortable living are there.  In some cases, this doesn’t work, but by the time you find out, you’re stuck in a lease.  That usually happens in shadier parts of town.

Here, in uptown Covington, that behavior is frowned upon, so imagine our surprise upon looking at the house that it had no oven/range, and no dishwasher.  The reason we took it on, anyway, is because the rent price is amazing (the house next door belongs to my MiL’s best friend’s mom, and she just wants to cover mortgage and taxes on it throughout the year).  This will allow us to save even more quickly for buying a new home.  There’s one we’ve had our eye on, and the price is going way down, but that’s another story.

We got a fridge, washer, and dryer from my mom and grandma.  We’ve acquired a range, thanks to Michael and Claire, and with a strict budget in place, we’ve obtained a joint credit card account to buy a portable dishwasher, which we’ll also use to fill up our cars with gas and buy groceries.  There’s a plan on our card that has no APR for 12 months, and by that time, we’ll be out of this house, and shouldn’t have many expenses that JB’s salary can’t cover.  We’ll continue to use the card for groceries and gas, to keep a rotating line of credit, and make our credit scores a little stronger.

So the appliance/credit thing is new for us as a couple…that’s why I bring it up.

Another luxury of living in a house of your own, with one member of the household having a very steady paycheck (with a job that’s not likely to be going anywhere any time soon), is that you can order things like DirecTV.  It’s bundled with our cell phones and our house phone, which gives us a ridiculously low monthly payment for the next year, and after it jumps up to the regular price, it’ll still be manageable.  We’re having it installed today.  I’m ridiculously excited about having the Discovery channel and A&E and FX.  We didn’t get the DVR, but instead opted to have two non-DVR boxes so that we can have one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

It also has an enormous tub, which makes it easier for me to take therapeutic baths for my muscle pain.

One more thing:  I’m actually a housewife.  It’s not entirely by choice…my blood pressure problems have necessitated medication, but that causes swelling of the hands and feet, which causes my skin to hurt even more, and I’m also not reliable behind the wheel of a car.  I’d like to work and have my own money coming in, but I’m limited in what I can do right now.  I’m working when I can as a ChaCha guide, but moving has kind of kicked me out of the loop again.  I’m going to try to write more articles for Examiner.com, and that’ll help a bit.  I mean, it’s what I can do right now.  I’ve even been having trouble typing because my fingers are so swollen.  I don’t mean any offense to anyone who meets this description, but I don’t know how morbidly obese people type properly.

Also, the swelling from the heart pills gives me cankles.  You’re welcome.

As soon as we get things settled more to where we like them, I’ll take photos and share them here.  So far, the living room is the only room that’s really finished, because we didn’t have any missing appliances there…heh.

I hope everyone’s doing well.  Please continue to let me know (in the previous post) if you’d be interested in a blog meet next month.  It will likely be on a Saturday, toward the end of the month.  Supper/Potluck at my place in Covington, TN.

Upgraded to WordPress 3.0.  Let me know if you see any screw-ups with either my site or your feedreader.

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Got my diploma in the mail today.  So it’s official – I’m a college graduate.

The diploma paper kind of makes me laugh.  It’s like tissue paper that’s been made into cardstock, with the texture of a rough plastic panel.

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I start my classes for my online Masters of Science in Counseling degree on July 12th.  I ordered my books yesterday, they shipped already, and they’ll be here Saturday.  I’m not quite nervous…just a little anxious.  I’m only allowed to take one class this term, though (it’s a “sink or swim” course designed to help students make sure they *really* want to do this program), so that’s good.

I also internet-stalked my professor, and found out that she’s a really well-respected member of the counseling community overall, and exceedingly good at her job (as the head of a major counseling center in the Minneapolis area), so that makes me feel a lot better about this whole thing.

When I started out looking at grad schools, and figured out that the only way I was going to get a graduate degree any time soon was to take online classes, I was kind of disappointed.  But I managed to do some research, and with these new developments, I’m really looking forward to it.

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IT’S FREAKIN’ HOT OUTSIDE.

I’m at Cluck-n-Neigh right now, with JB, staying in the “guest cabin” so that we can help out for a week while one half of the farm’s usual staff is out of town.  I just went out to put frozen water bottles in the water containers, and to turn on the misters for the animals, and in the 15 minutes I was down there, I think I sweated (?) all of the fluid I’d already drunk earlier today.  I’ve had probably 32 oz so far, and I haven’t had to pee at all.

This weather isn’t something to fuck with, y’all.

JB is obviously insane, so he’s down on the dock fishing.  I think I’ll stay in the air conditioning, looking out the window every so often to make sure my husband hasn’t keeled over.

Have you ever heard a house settling all day long?  That’s how hot it is outside – the air conditioning being on is causing this cabin’s roof to adjust constantly as the temperature keeps rising and the sun beats down on the roof.

I’m off to make myself useful by sweeping up all of the dead ladybugs in here.

READ THIS.

Go on.

Follow the links, too.  Read all that.

Done?

Okay:

It’s all well and good to tell people that college is their way into the high life, but unless you instill a sense of pride in your kids, it’s not going to matter where they go or what they do – they’re going to be unsuccessful because they’ve never received “payment” for all of the work you told them to do while growing up.

No, seriously.

You can’t ever learn the value of hard work unless you get some kind of reward.

When you’re told that the reason for college is to get a great job and make lots of money (and that’s what we ALL were told, make no mistake…even those of us in non-traditional majors, like my foray into instrumental music), and you work and work and work to make that college graduation happen, the next expected step is…a job.

We had a special class at my college for psychology majors just to describe how they will probably have a hard time finding a job…this was before the recession, even.

That class was the biggest part of my education at CBU.  I wouldn’t say that it took away my ability to give a crap about not having a job (because I do give a crap, and it bothers me), but it brought the reality of post-graduate life to the forefront.

When you DON’T have that sort of confrontation with reality, and are instead of the mindset that graduating from college is an open door full of unicorns and rainbows and hug paychecks, you have a tendency to fall even harder when you try to spread your wings.

That’s how you end up living back at home.

There’s no shame in it.  Lots of people do it, and it’s not that long ago in history where multiple generations of the same family lived under one roof.

But you’ve got to understand something:  when you teach us, and tell us that education is the most important thing in the world, we’re going to soak up what’s recited to us like little money-grubbing sponges.  Unless you include information that’s relevant to how the world works, we’re not going to go seek that information out for ourselves…we’ve been told that YOU have all the answers.  YOU are the one we have to pay attention to.

By demanding absolute authority, you’ve created a generation of financial, emotional, and social leeches.

You want to complain about my generation now?

Just wait.  It will get worse.

Our government is turning us all into expectant teenagers.  When teenagers don’t get what they want, they sulk.  With a country full of sulking teenagers, we’ll pretty much have a zombie apocalypse on our hands.

LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES.  Just because there’s a trend of some sort that shows life being a black hole of fail for so many people, that’s not an excuse to rail on an entire generation of people who were just doing what they were told.  It is, however, a great excuse to give a whole lot of folks a reality check.

Don’t take away childhood, but make sure your child knows that they have a future ahead of them.  Teach them PRACTICAL skills, instead of just being proud of their A’s in school.  Teach them to keep up with money.  Teach them to cook simple meals.  Teach them to care for themselves.

Teach us.  If we fail after having all of our bases covered, then you can call us failures.  Until then, the blame rests on everyone.