OMG, I'm not even retired yet but have already begun thinking like my dad behaved when he was forced to retire early several years ago! I was in the throes of grad school, and my time was occupied with research, reading, writing papers, and presenting papers at conferences. As a result, I didn't have a lot of free time for housework and our home quickly became cluttered. A few days after he retired, my poor dad, who really didn't know what to do with himself, showed up, with cleaning supplies in hand, at my home very early one morning and informed me that he had come to help me clean house. I still have a few weeks to go until I retire, but I feel the same way -- it's time to clean house!

As much as I liked the original template that I was using for this blog, I really wanted something that worked better with its name. Inspired by Sherlock's recent template update, I took on the task of scouting around for a new look and, voila, here you have it! I love the coffee cup in the header and the notes at the top. The diary / planner look that I like so much from the original template is continued in this one, with the addition of a gorgeous looking pen for the search bar. Overall, my daughter and I agree that this template just works.

In addition to changing the overall look, I've added some nifty new widgets to the sidebar. I am a passionate advocate against the censorship of books in our school system and once I retire in a few weeks, I will really need an outlet to vent my frustrations over the narrow-mindedness of the would-be censors. What better place to do that than here on my own blog? So to that end, I've added a bookshelf filled with challenged books and a news feed for the topics of challenged books, banned books, and censorship. I will soon add a list of links on the topic as well.

I was recently invited to write for a political blog, although I haven't yet determined if I will have the time necessary to devote to it. Politics is an important part of my life, and I hope to begin blogging a bit more about that, too. My life, after all, is more than just my invisible illness!

So, what do you think of the