Okay, I guess I should finally write something since it's been 5 months since our last posting.
Where to begin...my first class at USM sucked ass. The class was boring, I didn't learn anything, and the professor was so disorganized. He had us email our final papers to him and he ended up not printing out my entire paper and deducting points since he thought I didn't complete it. That issue still has not been resolved. Needless to say, I am not taking a class this semester, but plan to during the summer.
Victoria Mansion was pretty insane for the last part of the year. Most people don't believe me when I say this, but October is the biggest cruise ship month in Portland, and it's because of the foliage. So the whole month we were bombarded with insane amounts of people wanting to see the house. I was only there one day a week and I was pretty much dead tired by the end of the day. The holiday season was fun and the decorators did a great job as usual.
Erik quit the landscaping job back in November so he could concentrate on school. Since then he's been working at the Coast Guard doing all of his reserve weekends at once. In typical government fashion, he hasn't been getting paid on time, so things have been very tight. He's applied to a bunch of jobs but hasn't heard a peep. His classes are going well and he's on campus everyday.
We just got back from our first vacation in 3 years. We went to Quebec City for 3 1/2 days last week. The last time we were up there was 5 years ago, and it's been at least 3 years since we've even been across the border. It was cold, but a lot of fun. We both got to see parts of Maine that we probably wouldn't see otherwise (blink and you'd probably miss Jackman if there wasn't a border crossing there).
The "children" are doing well. I still want a dog, but that's not going to happen unless we move which will probably be years from now.
Things are very busy at Maine Preservation. Between planning for a huge two day conference, grant proposals, and the new Steeples project, Roxanne and I are like chickens with their heads cut off.
That's the scoop for now.
