Luck o' the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I haven't had any problems with getting pinched today--since my entire uniform is various shades of green. I did, however, take a great risk by wearing my green "Luck of the Irish" socks (not NPS standard wear) today. But, that luck must have been with me, as I did not get in trouble. I recently got in trouble for using the word "yes" too much at work. I was told that the only time I can say "yes" is when answering a question. Would they rather that I say "no" to everything? I guess so. 'Tis a strange, strange place, this Lincoln Home. The Lincolns had two Irish girls who worked at their home as "hired girls," so that's kind of St. Patrick's Day-ish, and the Irish Brigade played an important role in the Civil War. I am feeling very Irish today. Soon I will post pictures from the fun trip that my ranger friends Crystal, Melissa, and I took to Nauvoo on Monday--it was awesome!

Twilight Zone

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my gallbladder surgery. Greg said, "That's been a year already?" I said, "It's only been a year?" :-) Life without a gallbladder is good, except sometimes I don't digest fatty foods very well--but I guess that's a good reason to not eat a lot of fatty foods!

Last night and this morning turned into a "twilight zone" experience for me. I was getting ready for bed last night, and then I noticed that Tiger Lily's kitty bed (which looks like a kitty--it has a head and tail) was not in its usual spot in front of our closet. I figured that Greg had put it somewhere, so I asked him where it was. He said he didn't know, but I thought he was kidding. He said that he really didn't know where it was. So we started looking all over the house for it, and at one point I wondered if it had sprouted legs (to go along with its head and tail) and walked off! Finally Greg found it way under out bed--and the tail was wet. We figured out that Big Spike had dragged Lily's bed under our bed and had been chewing on the tail. Silly Spike! One mystery solved, but there was more to come. This morning the alarm went off at 6:30. Greg got up and took the dogs outside, but then realized that it was still dark. He also realized that all of the other clocks in the house said 5:30. Switching on and off daylight savings time is weird enough anyway, but when your clock does it automatically A DAY EARLY, that really messes with your brain! At least we're not switching to daylight savings--because then the clock would have gone back an hour and made me late for work. So that was weird, but then when I went downstairs for breakfast, Lily was sitting by the back door, looking outside, and CLUCKING! She seriously sounded like a chicken. I thought, "What is going on here?!" She was watching a bird outside, and Greg and I think that maybe clucking is her way of hunting prey. She also twitches her tail when she clucks--it's really quite funny. She could become the Cadbury Cat, like the Cadbury Bunny!

Cabin Fever

For some reason this Travelocity commercial CRACKS ME UP! I love it. I think it is because winter gives me cabin fever. I often find myself singing the gnome's song to myself when I'm at the Lincoln Home.

More Progress

Here is our living room with fireplace and dining room area (notice you can see the pink wall in the kitchen!) when we first bought the condo. It felt pretty dark and enclosed with the brown walls, and when we added the lighter paint, it really opened up the rooms. The "after" pictures below give you a better idea of how the living/dining room area is laid out.

In the first picture you can't really see the tile work Greg did around the base of the fireplace, but it is awesome (I'll take a close-up when it's finished)! The clutter on the fireplace includes the materials we will use to finish the fireplace tile (we just need to do edges and grout) and the main floor bathroom tile, so that will all be cleaned up soon. You can also see our wonderful new couch--thank you for the great Christmas present, Mom and Dad Taylor! It is so comfy, and it makes the condo feel a lot more like home.

Then we have our nice dining area. The red walls in the kitchen are much more pleasant to look at than the pink ones. (Pictures of the kitchen will be coming soon). The animal children (especially Lily) also love our new couch, and we've had fun watching TV and movies in our new living room. We had boxes piled high on the dining room table for a while, but now we can actually eat there, which is good. Things are really coming together. Now we just need to get some doors for the laundry area, finish the downstairs bathroom, clean up a little more, and we'll be done!

A Visit from Abe Lincoln

Lindy, Nate, Camden, Riley, and Sidney sent us the nicest Valentine's Day/President's Day present--a mini Abraham Lincoln! This morning Mr. Lincoln said he wanted to come to work with me, since I work at his house. We had a very fun day, and Mr. Lincoln was happy to see his house looking so nice. He was also surprised at how many people come to visit his home each day. I told him it's because of all the important things he did while he was President. The real Abraham Lincoln didn't get to visit his house in Springfield while he was President, so it was fun that Mini-Abe could be there today. Here are some of our adventures:

It was a really beautiful day today--still a little cold, but nice and sunny. We started out in the neighborhood, and Mr. Lincoln was happy to see so many of his neighbors' homes still there. He was kind of scared of the large pigeon-eating hawk flying around, but I told him I would keep him safe. The hawk was indeed spotted again today eating another pigeon. Hopefully all remaining pigeons will vacate the area.

Mini-Abe was really stylin', or pimpin' as the kids would say, with his purple vest and white cravat. He was happy to pose for some pictures in front of his house and couldn't believe that his name is still on the door. When he asked if we could go in the front door, I told him that he was getting some new wallpaper in the entryway, so we'd have to use the back door.


We went inside so Mr. Lincoln could take a break. He said it was great to be back in his old bedroom with the awesome wallpaper that he missed while he was at the White House. Greg was a little shocked when he saw that Mini-Abe was actually on the real bed in the Lincolns' bedroom, but when you're friends with the curator, life is good. Besides, look how happy Mini-Abe is.

Mr. Lincoln wondered if his horse, Ol' Bob was still in the backyard and was happy to learn that Ol' Bob lived a good, long life in Springfield. He was also slightly shocked to learn that visitors take pictures by his outhouse, but when I explained the differences between plumbing then and now, he understood why an outhouse would draw attention. All-in-all Mr. Lincoln and I had a great day. He was really happy to be back at his house and thinks that the National Park Service is doing a good job of taking care of it. He said to tell the Barretts thank you for sending him home!