Debi just returned to Florida from a weekend visit to Utah for a baby shower. She very much enjoyed the trip and the shower and loved seeing everyone.
Lucky her, she returned when I was about half way through redoing our spare bathroom. We redid our master bathroom over our winter break. The spare bathroom has been on our to-do list ever since we bought the house. The previous owner did about the most superficial cosmetic make-over ever. She removed the old medicine cabinet, but couldn’t find one to fit the hole that was left as a result, so she put a mirror in the hole and left it that way. She also painted over a spot that had water damage from a leaky roof (which is probably what led to the roof being replaced a few years ago). So, a large chunk of one wall had paint that had bubbled up from the water damage. Saturday, I tore the crappy mirror out, reframed the hole in the wall to fit a modern medicine cabinet, and scraped off all the crappy paint. I then patched everything up on Monday and put a first coat of paint on Tuesday. We painted for a couple of hours last night after she got back (“Welcome home. Now paint!”) She’s finishing most of the painting today. Hopefully this evening I can put the bathroom back together. Once that’s done, all that will be left is some caulking and touch up work. Hooray – we’ll have fixed that bathroom. Only four more rooms to go… 🙁 (We’re only going to do one more before the baby comes; too much other stuff going on.)
On a completely unrelated note, while doing a Google vanity search (i.e., I was searching for me) after reading this Slashdot story I came across a book being published with my name on it. As an academic sociologist, publishing a book is important for tenure and promotion criteria, but I actually didn’t publish THIS book. Here’s what I can gather… I am the primary author of a Wikibook and it looks like some unknown publisher – Seven Treasures Publications – has taken my work (and the work of a number of other people who have contributed to the book), put it in print, and is now making money off of it. I was never contacted about this, but the book is being marketed as though I am the primary author. I guess, in a sense, I am, but I never gave permission for anyone to sell it on Amazon.com or publish it in print. Now I’m not sure what I should do. I’m not sure if this is legal given the GNU Free Documentation License of Wikibooks. But I’m also concerned that someone is making money off my reputation as a scholar. Thoughts?
