I have muscles that ache I didn't even know that I had! Moving literally hurts! Monday I was up at 7:00 cleaning, packing and waiting for the movers who didn't show up until after 10:00 when they were supposed to be there at 8:00. I went up and down the stairs more times than I want to think about hauling stuff down to the car. My final trip down was around 4 p.m. with Sophie in her kennel and we hit the road. Driving through the mountains of West Virginia at night was interesting to say the least. Sophie was wonderful until about an hour and 1/2 out of Lexington when she had enough. She started out quietly fussing but by the time we pulled into the driveway at 12:30 she was caterwauling. I think I was happier to see her out of her kennel than she was! Was back up early Tuesday unpacking the car and putting away what we had already brought over along with putting down shelf liner in the kitchen. Only break was to go out to eat - yummy bison burger at Ted's. We stopped for more shelf liner at Walmart and a quick trip into Lowe's where I drooled over red bud and Japanese pear trees. Can't wait to start working on the yard. Yesterday was spent totally on my feet with the movers arriving at 8:30 along with the very cold weather. I was numb by the time they left as the door was open the whole time. Didn't sit down until Steve got home from work and moved a couple of big boxes so I could get to my recliner and put my feet up. It was trying to get out of the recliner after I relaxed a bit that was difficult. But, nothing like how sore I was this a.m. I am staying off my feet and catching up on email and grading today. The unpacking is going to have to wait for a day or I won't be able to walk!

I finished listening to Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi. I am glad I stuck it out even though it was hardly one of my favorite books, but I learned a great deal about the Muslim culture and how women are treated. The analysis of novels by Henry James, Nabokov, Fitzgerald, Austin and others didn't do a thing for me other than when she related the characters to the young women who took her "class", which she held in her home after she quit teaching at the university. There were times I felt like I was back in my English literature classes in undergraduate school years ago and found myself losing interest, but it was worth mentally pinching myself to stay with it, waiting for the "good stuff" when she talked about her life and that of her students and others in her life.

I had found a CD audiobook of Mary Higgins Clark's Mount Vernon Love Story for next to nothing on the sale rack at Barnes and Noble and it kept me entertained through the mountains while I drove. Changing CDs was an experience though! As I listened to the introduction to the novel by Mary Higgins Clark, I realized I had stumbled onto the first book she wrote in 1968 then titled Aspire to the Heaven: A Portrait of George Washington. It had long been out of print but her fans brought it back into popularity and it is available again. Her research base for this novel is clearly evident as is her respect and love for the characters. She brought Martha, who her family and loved ones knew as Patsy, to life as well as Washington himself, who had been in love with his best friend's wife for years. A delightful non-threatening way to learn about the man who was our first president. The teenage girls who like her mysteries will be surprised by this one. It will be the historical romance readers who will enjoy it most.

Back to grading!