N says that all that matters to him in a house is that it should have a wood-burning fireplace. And this one does:

There is also a formal living room and a formal dining room you can see below. I’m not into formal dining rooms, though, so I’m thinking this could be a study/work-related library.

And here is its face:

So here are the views from the house:

Nothing is yet in bloom but imagine how all this looks with leaves and flowers. And you can actually hear the water in the creek.

So we are still looking at houses, and there is one I really love. There is a creek behind it and a lot of real, wild greenery. I’m not into fenced-off, rectangular lawns that face 4 other similar lawns. Real nature is so much better.

Today I went to look at the house again and brought a colleague who has been living in the area forever and who knows a lot about houses. My colleague pored over every inch of this big house and helped me understand the nature of the dilemma facing me.

We could buy a house twice as small as this one without the creek and the greenery but it would be absolutely 100% new and in need of no updating. Or we could buy this one and do some updating (one of the steps in the deck staircase needs to be changed, for instance.)

The problem is that, when I think about it, I know I would be perfectly happy to die in this house (sixty years from now, I mean). And I haven’t felt like this about any other houses. I can seriously see myself there now, in a year and at the age of 80.

Please share because I’m very curious as to how people discovered my blog.

It’s very sad to see formerly good blogs suddenly become really horrible. Professor Is In was a really great blog that suddenly veered off course and started publishing very silly articles by very unintelligent and obnoxious people. See a short quote from the most recent post on that blog which was written by some preachy and weird dude:

I actually think that it might not be so bad and lead to better initial offers if universities could hire as do sports teams – a locked in 5-7 year contract whereby the candidate cannot leave their position for another academic position unless they are released from their contract. Although this would disadvantage some people, it really might increase the quality of offers, plus it would make candidates give pause about committing to a position that they really don’t intend to stay in for the long haul.

Yes, let’s also consider bringing in indentured servitude for academics. And if an academic tries to escape for a different job, she should be publicly flogged, or something.

OK, so have you heard this joke about a Jew in the Maidan? (I’m Jewish, so it’s OK.)

A Jew comes to the Maidan and says, “I’m also for the independence of Ukraine. Give me something to do because I want to help.”

So he’s given a stack of leaflets about the importance of unity and national pride to distribute.

The Jew leaves and doesn’t come back. A day, two days, three days go by, but there is no sign of the Jew.

Finally, he appears on the Maidan and smacks a stack of euros on the podium.

“Here!” he says. “And let me tell you, this was one hard product to move.”

When we realize that our kids are so much better, so much freer, so much more accomplished that we could ever hope to be, that’s terrifying. It’s the happiest moment of our lives, but it’s also the scariest.

When my sister told me she was going to reject a really fantastic job offer and start her own business, I thought she was deranged. An immigrant, with a newborn child and a fiancé about to be laid off, how could she avoid feeling terrified and out of her depth?

“Just choose whatever feels right to you,” I said, confident she would choose the job security, the salary, and the guaranteed benefits that I would have chosen.

“Seriously?” she asked. “You really mean that? OK then.”

And she chose to follow her dream and the uncertain joys of starting her own business.

“I’m thinking of this new venture,” she’d say. ” It’s high risk but it sounds like fun. Should I try it?”

“Just do whatever makes you happy,” I said, knowing that I always chose the safest path possible.

“You really mean it? OK, I will then,” she’d say and follow her dream.

“I’m thinking of organizing this conference,” she’d say. “And every major business would attend, and we’d become super famous.”

“God,” I thought. “She’s insane. I’d never take such an enormous risk.”

“You totally need to do this,” I said. “You will absolutely triumph.”

And then she absolutely did.

I agonize over every small decision, while she makes really huge ones easily and playfully.

And I can’t begin to tell you how happy and proud this makes me feel.

On the only day in my life when I need to access Twitter (because my sister is trending), I can’t access stupid thing. How obnoxious is that?

Kuzka, you’ll have to trend again when I manage to get Twitter to work!

So I decided to come out of hiding and start commenting more on people’s blog. This plan didn’t work out, though, because Blogger refuses to let me comment with my WordPress ID, and signing out of my work gmail in order to sign into my private gmail every time I want to comment is too much trouble.

Blogger hates WordPress because so many of its bloggers migrate to WordPress. I’m guessing this is  Blogger’s little revenge.