Monthly Archives: November 2010

Today I am attempting to change my name and update my address & residency on all my bank accounts as well as my social security card, drivers license, and insurances. It’s not so much of a giant hassle as it is a lot of phone calls, verifications, and busy work. Of course I say this now as I am sitting at home in my pj’s and NOT waiting in line at the social security office. I may change my tune after 5 hours at there and at the DMV. After about 20 minutes on the phone being transferred from department to department, my bank was able to update my name and address on all savings and checking accounts, CDs and credit cards and mail our new copies of my cards. I suppose this means I’ll have to order all new checks too. What do I do with the packs upon packs of old, unused ones (other than feel bad for wasting money and trees)? Do I just shred them?

I’m not-so-patiently awaiting the arrival by mail of our Marriage Certificates. Until those arrive I can’t go to the aforementioned offices and change my name on my social security card, driver’s license, car registration, passport, or voter registration. There’s just so many things to change! I ordered the certificates in early November. The status tracker shows that they shipped on November 5….well, it’s November 17 and as of this morning they are still not here yet. I’m antsy to get this stuff taken care of while I’m at home, not at a full-time job, and have the time, but for now it’s the waiting game.

I intend the spend the rest of the day researching companies who are hiring or who I might be interested in working for, cleaning the window sills and windows since I didn’t get to that yesterday, touch-up detail painting the scratches and dings on the walls, trim, doors and hinges in the house, and if the marriage certificates haven’t arrived by this afternoon, I plan to start the Thanksgiving recipe binder, shopping list and list of things we want to do with my parents when they visit. Tonight we’ll probably do a little more organizing in the office and watch Hell’s Kitchen. Feels like there’s so much to do and just not enough time.

Ted is at an equipment rental house in Kentucky this morning getting a quick training crash course on a lighting console they use for their house and work lights at UC. Tomorrow they open Evita so today should be the last full day of last minute tweaks and such.

The weather has gotten colder lately. Last week we enjoyed awesome weather in the 60s and low 70s, but it looks like we’re getting back into the 30s and 40s now with rain. Soon we’ll need to buy some Ice Melt for our long and descending driveway so our vehicles don’t ice skate down the drive and smack into the kitchen porch. They are forecasting snow for Black Friday. I’m praying the snow and ice will hold off indefinitely because the arrival of winter weather entails shoveling our long driveway (did I mention that it is long?), applying salt and Ice Melt to our long driveway (did I mention it is long and that stuff is expensive?), digging vehicles out from under layers of ice and snow before you can drive them (which sucks a lot, as I learned from living in Michigan and doing it 3x a day), and, most alarming, me having to not be a pansy and drive in it.

For today I’d like to leave you with a few classics that make the holidays (all of them – Thanksgiving included) a little warmer.

Garfield’s Collection includes his Halloween Adventure, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Charlie Brown’s Collection includes It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Also of interest after December 1 is The Pink Panther:  A Pink Panther Christmas and Charlie Brown Christmas Tales. I loved these characters growing up as a kid and I think both collections are great for kids and adults to own around the holiday season. More good news? They’re pretty cheap at Target. The Garfield Holiday Celebrations collection, Charlie Brown Christmas Tales, and Pink Panther’s Christmas are only $7.99 each at Target and the Charlie Brown Holiday Collection is about $25. I also love that they include Halloween and Thanksgiving as special holidays. Enjoy :-)

Dear Previous Tenants With Two Offspring,

I spent the past hour-and-a-half scrubbing glued-on Batman and Disney Princess stickers off the two windows upstairs. Your welcome.

Lara

P.S. And thanks for cleaning the grimy paw print smudges and crayon marks off the banister as well. Cleaning that up was positively the most fun I’ve had all year! I intend to reference you in my future book “How To Be An Awful Tenant and Lose Your Security Deposit – Part 1”

On an unrelated topic, why are laptop bags so ugly? And when you finally do stumble upon a stylish yet functional one it’s pink. And that just ruins everything. As I am no longer 8 years old, a pink laptop bag is not only disgusting, but may as well be monogrammed with my initials in a swirly white polka-dotted script and house my Polly Pocket collection. Sometimes they come in black, but then it all blends together and you miss the neat details. In that case you might as well carry a trash bag. I’m considering adding “laptop purse designer for normal, yet stylish people” to my list of potential jobs. There’s one I am thinking about – the color is called “merlot” which to me is a nice deep burgundy wine color. In some pictures online it is shown as this color:

And in other photos, it looks like this:

Now, I’m sure you can see why this is completely unacceptable. There’s a pretty big difference in color and I really don’t think I can risk owning a pink bag. Back to the drawing board until this mystery can be resolved.

In other Dunn Daily News, I’d like to introduce you to Solo, the gray squirrel who lives in our yard. I have decided his name will be Solo because he is the only squirrel I see frequenting the property and I’ve never seen him chumming around with any other squirrel buddies. In his spare time (in between clamoring round the inside of the shed out back and leaping from fence post to fence post) he likes to scurry up the trees in the front yard and shake the leaves off of them into our freshly raked yard. He usually does this intentionally right after I have raked. He’s adorable, but he has earned the middle name of “Trouble.” I have a feeling he is also the bugger setting off our motion detector lights on the sides and front of the house on a hourly basis. I’ll try to get a picture of him in the near future.

We attacked the office tonight and Ted got about 8 boxes unpacked and into the office closets. We’re getting there – slowly still, but we want to unpack together. And after he works a long day at UC we’d rather relax than unpack and run boxes up and down stairs. So we’re off to throw in a movie and have a glass of wine until we crash for the night.

Mondays aren’t all that awful. Sometimes. I mean, yesterday’s Monday didn’t suck. Between officially starting my job search with application #1, researching and comparing UC’s medical insurance options for us, doing our weekly dinner menu planning so I could create a shopping list (here’s another one of those activities I was convinced I would never do because I am not old, boring, or housewife of the year…yet I find myself doing it and actually finding it helpful), and doing a pretty decent job with a low grocery bill – I would say it was a successful day. I made beef and veggie stir-fry over a bed of rice (I’m trying my hand at home cooked meals. No major failures so far Ted is happy to report) and then Ted & I went to Graeter’s on Beechmont to try their ice cream. It was delicious. They’re are a Cincinnati based ice cream, candy and bakery shop. They’ve been in business for 140 years and they have the most delectable pastries and rich, creamy ice cream. Mmm! Their chocolate mint chip is paralyzing. I think it’s one of those “must visit” places when we have company. We need company more often. Our guest room is lonely. Um, with the exception of the wasp Ted found inhabiting it, that is. But now it’s empty.

Somewhere in the mess of all that we are trying to accomplish together, I have been doing some thinking about what I would like to accomplish (eventually of course). Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

– I want to go back to school for my master’s degree. I’ve always liked school. Even as a kid I enjoyed reading, writing and doing homework, which pretty much branded me as a freak in elementary and middle school. There’s still a lot out there I want to learn. Plus, there is no shortage of interesting courses at college campuses these days:  Religions of the World, Anthropology, Beginner’s Canoeing, Creative Writing…and of course all those fantastic artsy classes and Shakespeare courses I’m desperate to dig my brain into. Perfect world, I’d love a Shakespeare MFA – a combination of Shakespearean acting, literature, research and history. But that option is a) hideously expensive, b) extremely hard to find. I know of two universities in the state’s with a program like that, and c) takes about 3-4 years to complete. I’d settle for an arts administration or dramaturgy masters.

– I want to travel the world. My “must see” list is enormous. It’s completely unaffordable, unabashedly selfish, highly fantastical, ridiculously entertaining, seeping in culture shock, and would require at least a year of free time. I checked my bank account and my calendar and it appears that I don’t have quite enough of either saved up. Nonetheless, I continue to drool over travel magazines oozing with adventurous expeditions, breathtaking sights, and mouthwatering foods praying for the day a winning Ohio Lottery ticket purchases itself, leaps into our mailbox and releases tiny luggage-shaped confetti as I scratch off the metallic coating to reveal some very lucky travel-enabling numbers. Ha.

– I want to dance again and I want to perform again. It’s been almost two years since I’ve been in a show. In college I was in a dance company at Texas State called Orchesis Modern Dance Co. We danced mostly modern, but also some jazz. I adored it. I never really expected to get in when I auditioned since I didn’t begin dancing in my crib like most little girls and I certainly don’t have the body of a dancer. But I guess I worked hard enough because I got in. And I loved it. I loved the rehearsals, the choreography and I loved performing dance. I’m not super great at dance, but being an actress I can either actually pick it up for real, or I can fake it really darn well. I was best at tap and jazz and musical theatre type dances, but I made it through intermediate ballet without causing myself (or anyone else) bodily harm. And I loved that too. I know I’ll never be a professional dancer, but I really do miss dancing for fun. Dream job? Chorus/Ensemble girl in professional productions – you get the good intensive dance numbers, lots of singing, and no-pressure acting bits. I’m all in.

– I want to spend more time volunteering. You know, between housework, job hunting, and all that other crap. I’d love to join a ministry or two at the church (our church’s ministry list is huge. I’m impressed), help out at an animal shelter (and hug kitties all day long), be a big sister to a “big brother/big sister” kids organization, and work with seasonal Christmas and Thanksgiving charities. I’d love to do hands-on mission work overseas or even start up my own non-profit organization. I think the best way to start is to start small. Choose one or two things that I can make a time commitment to and go from there. There’s so many worthy causes, so many people, places and things that need time and attention and the world would be a much better place for everyone. And I want to be a part of that.

– Sometimes, just sometimes I want a social life, like a real one – with friends and happy hours and shopping trips and road trips and stuff like that. Soooo college round 2 for a weekend? Yes. Mostly I just miss my friends and the occasional night out with the girls and guys. I’d take spending time with Ted any day, but living in a new place sure makes you miss your friends.

So after that excessive rant in which I’ve exhausted my wish list, I think I can safely declare myself the Veruca Salt of Cincy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTkCHE1sS4]

Today I’m hoping to get a lot of detailed “moving in” cleaning done around here – like umm, vacuuming the dead bugs off the windowsills, scraping the Batman and Disney Princess stickers off the upstairs windows, cleaning the vents and boring stuff like that. Planning to keep up the daily job application process for as long as I can. Hopefully something good will come along. When Ted comes home from work at night we have a list of things we’d like to get done together – like unpacking and organizing the office, cleaning out the garage and finishing setting up the living room. But now that he’s into the swing of his job he has more work to do once he gets home to stay caught up. Last night he was up late reading light board manuals for a unit he’ll be teaching the UC students how to work with. And eventually when I get a job, I’m sure I’ll have some stuff to do at home as well, along with the combined housework and upkeep we’ll be doing – I can see our nightly free evenings of movies and ice cream and shopping and bonfires dwindling to maybe once or twice a week. Oh well, you gotta make the time for things you enjoy as well, right?

Yesterday evening we went to Crate & Barrel and bought a great set of wine racks to hold our leftover wedding wine. It’ll be nice to get those mounted on the wall and get the wine off our kitchen floor. Then we drove to Ikea and ate dinner at their restaurant – Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingionberries. It reminded us of being at Al Johnson’s (“Goats on the Roof”) in Door County. We purchased an area rug for our living room, an entrance rug for the kitchen door, a lazy Susan, splatter screen, potato masher, 2 table lamps, 2 wall mount kitchen rails, utensil hooks, herb pots, two cork trivet sets, and 6 “damaged” (read: super on-sale) bright yellow doors that we are going to use as lumber to build basement shelves out of. The shopping trip was a complete success. To top it off the price of our last two meals at the Ikea restaurant (one from this evening and the other from our trip a few weeks ago) were completely deducted from our checkout totals. What a great policy! We essentially ate for free both times or we got a great discount. Either way, it worked well for us!

But you know what I realized on the drive home? None of it matters. We don’t need any of it. Sure, we wanted it and had been looking forward to getting it with our wedding gift money. Yes, it will all look great and be useful in our home. And I am very very grateful to have everything we have. But it isn’t what makes us happy. In fact, it made me feel a little guilty. Is having so much stuff, new stuff, wants kind of stuff, when others literally have nothing, is that really fair or even okay? I don’t really think so. I think it feels like so much right now because we are getting a lot of new things lately since we’ve moved into our new house. I’m sure almost all newlyweds or new home renters/owners go through this as well, but it makes me feel bad. I need to step up the volunteering and giving efforts. For all we’ve been given, there’s a lot we can give back to others with our time, our talents and our treasures.

We unloaded the truck and kindled our first fire in our backyard fire pit. Ted built it up with twigs and brown paper bags and kept it going. I took pictures and brought out the marshmallows and roaster sticks. And for the next hour and a half we just sat in front of it, chatted, we enjoyed each other’s company by the light of warm glowing fire. It was cozy and quiet and personal. And I was much happier with a marshmallow, the heat from the fire, and my husband home and by my side than I was with any lusted-after wine rack.

I thought about how lucky I am, how lucky we both are to have each other and to have our families. I thought how I couldn’t wait to see my mom and dad over Thanksgiving, and how wonderful, loving and helpful our families and friends are – and how much I know we both miss spending time with them. Be thankful for who you have – spend time with who you have – treasure the people and experiences over the material things, always. Then we let the fire die out until it was only burning coals. This marbling effect of smoldering embers is Ted’s favorite part of the fire. After our showers we settled on the sofa for a little while before bed. Ted pulled up the a truly wonderful video on his computer. I think everyone can use a little inspiration. I’d like to share it with you all. Have a lovely rest of your day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciYk-UwqFKA]

Have you ever seen the Random Acts of Culture videos on You Tube? I really like them. I think everyone could use a little more culture in their lives so the concept isn’t a bad idea. It’s kind of the same thing as a “happening” in theatre. You know how in musicals people just burst into song & dance and, magically, everyone around them seems to know the words and dance steps too and they all join in? Have you ever thought “Man! I wish that would really happen in the real world!” Well, that’s a Random Act of Culture or a happening or a flash dance/opera/whatever it is. A group of people meet somewhere at a specific time, they do something completely random, and then disperse like nothing ever happened. Here’s a few examples

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHiHG_tMYL4&feature=player_embedded#!]

Awesome, right? I mean you know they are rehearsed but to the people just going about their daily lives in a train station or airport or Macy’s or on a college campus (I think UT Austin had one a few years back) and all the sudden one person or a small group of people appears and begins doing something unusual and then suddenly everyone around them joins in and knows all the steps – how cool! In a very modern, busy world I think it’s a creative way to bring culture back into society and remind people about the transformative power of the arts in a non-preachy way.

Last night’s Newlyweds Dinner at Immaculate Heart of Mary was a success. There were about 20-30 couples there (more than I expected!) and our guest speaker was Roy Petitfils, author of the book “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About the First Five Years of Marriage.” He was a great speaker – very real and straightforward and honest with a fresh approach to the Catholic church’s role in meeting people where they are at right now in their lives and helping people understand and apply these lofty Catholic teachings to what we really deal with in everyday life and how the Catholic church needs to work harder to relate to its people. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the first five years of marriage as well. He was incredibly good-humored and really bold and very funny. Everyone received a free copy of his book. I’m looking forward to reading it as soon as I get the chance. And the food was delicious! There were appetizers, wine and beer, a delicious meal (blue cheese and candied pecan salad, herb-encrusted & stuffed pork loin, french onion bread pudding, and lemon dill broccoli) and a dessert bar. Definitely some of the most delicious church food I’ve ever had! Overall it was a really enjoyable evening and we met several other nice couples in our age range. It’s refreshing to find a church with so much involvement in so many different ministries. And the evening raised a good point, if marriage is such a sacred sacrament and so important, then why isn’t the church doing more to support it? Why are Engaged Encounter weekends vaguely  lackluster and why aren’t there more active marriage support ministries to help build up couples no matter what stage of marriage they are at if married couples truly build the backbone of the church? I like that Roy and this church specifically are really trying to build this up.

Today after Ted gets done working at UC (he has worked everyday for 14 days straight so far) we will hopefully head to Ikea and Crate & Barrel and pick up some things we’ve been meaning to get for the house, get a few things done around here in terms of unpacking and organizing together, and then enjoy our first fire in our new firepit and watch a movie this evening. We’ll see where the day takes us.

After working every day last week (including 9am-midnight on Saturday & Sunday as well) Ted got some time off yesterday and was able to come home around 2pm. I manage to get a lot of little things done around the house during the day – and those little things add up. But having an extra set of hands around (strong, knowledgeable ones!) sure makes things faster and more efficient. Yesterday we tackled a meeting with our insurance agent to hammer out auto, renters & life insurance information as a married couple and we ran some errands to Home Depot – again (surprise surprise – today is Thursday and I have been to Home Depot 3 times this week). This time we came out with yard trash bags to bag up our ridiculous pile of leaves and a fire extinguisher (um yes, this should have been one of our very first purchases. Oops.), and we priced out landscaping rocks to make a fire pit in our backyard (yes! can’t wait to do a s’more and hot dog roast!). We finished installing the weather stripping on the front door of the house, swept and power hosed off the side porch that I made a mess of raking dirt and leaves, finished cutting out and laying the carpet in the rest of the basement and we still had time to enjoy dinner and Hell’s Kitchen and do picks for football this week.

However, amidst all the productivity we did manage to forget one thing. This morning as I emptied our kitchen trash I realized that today is Thursday. Thursday is trash day. And our trash was not at the curb by 4am. Oops again. Getting used to a new schedule takes time I guess. There may be some very appreciative raccoons at our house this week. I suppose it should have been a clue when we saw a neighbor driving down his driveway towing a garbage can to the curb. Nope – didn’t ring a bell then. Looking back, that should have definitely sparked something in the brain…

And since I know how much everyone loves hearing about the random rumblings in my head, here is today’s tidbits:

1) Apparently there is a fairly large and active coyote population in Anderson Township where we live. Huh. Who knew? It was on  the news last night. Lots of pets have gone missing and there’s been plenty of coyote sightings. Our house is set back on the road and we have a deep backyard that eventually backs up to a lake. Sounds like prime coyote spotting territory to me!

2) My pedicure from our wedding three weeks ago still looks fresh. Three weeks! I’m dumbfounded. Not that I’m a big mani/pedi know-it-all (I’ve had two pedicures and maybe 5 manicures in my life), but even I know most polish chips after 3.7 seconds. My pedicure still looks like it was done this morning. The lady who did the manicures and pedicures was raving about how excellent this top coat stuff was as she was applying it, but since I was getting married in like 30 hours, I pretty much promptly disregarded the top coat nonsense to be honest. Dear Santa, I think I need a bottle of that top coat.I would only have to do my nails like 3 times a year! And that, folks, is how the cheap and lazy operate.

3) I am having such a hard time finding the motivation do start the job application process. I would love a job. I love researching things. I love writing. I love all that stuff that goes hand-in-hand with applying for positions, but just gussying up the motivation to actually get started is killer. I know once I’m started I’ll have great drive and energy to keep going, but pushing for the initial motivation makes me suddenly want to do things like clean the bathroom instead.

4) Just ate a carton of golden raspberries. They are supposedly sweeter than red raspberries, but I can’t tell a difference. And, like normal raspberries, they are delicious.

5) Our first grown-up people big-item purchase as newlyweds arrived today:  Our new LG2101 washer & dryer. I enjoyed watching the huge Sears truck attempt to turn around on the street and back down our driveway (now that’s entertainment people) and Ted enjoyed whipping out his wrench and level and going to town making it perfectly level. It does all kinds of neat things like sensor washing where it auto balances and weighs the loads. For the insane amount of research I did on the sucker to make sure it has excellent reviews (it does) and to know all its pros and cons, I sure hope it works! The test cycle without clothing when it was hooked up went well. And most importantly it has a bazillion controls & options, it lights up in a rainbow of LED-goodness, and plays little tunes when it powers on and finishes a load – umm, love it! But in all seriousness we’re thrilled to have it!

Now that Ted is home early for the day we’re on to bagging leaves. Maybe I’ll eventually get around to posting pictures of our wedding and the house for everyone to see.

P.S. – A heartfelt THANK YOU to all our soldiers, military and veterans. You are the heroes of this nation. Happy Veterans Day!

It’s only 10 a.m. and already this morning has made me want to crawl right back into bed. We’re trying to order some of the remaining items off of our amazon registry using amazon gift cards, a visa gift card and then the remaining balance will be put on my credit card. Amazon split the one order into four separate ones, split up the gift cards among those four orders, and charged the remaining balance to a limited-funds debit gift card instead of my credit card, which has resulted in partial cancellations or orders because of lack of funds (yeah that’s what happens when you charge a large amount to a debit card with a specific amount on it) and nobody – me or the people at Amazon – seem to have any idea what was charged to what card and what actually went through and what didn’t. FAIL. So now a better part of my day will be spent figuring out this nightmare (excellent, because I was looking for a time-sucking activity today), continuing to rake the yard (noticing a trend yet?), making phone calls, and unpacking the guest bedroom/storage in our house. Tonight we’ll be finishing carpeting the basement for our washer/dryer’s arrival tomorrow. Other than the Great Amazon Fail of 2010, sounds like it could be a decent day. Yesterday we got the shelves assembled in the china cabinet so now we can display our toasting flutes, unity candle set and cake service set from the wedding. We also got the office furniture arranged upstairs and started to unpack all our office stuff – it’ll be nice to have a work space again. It kind of sucks knowing that in two weeks all my stuff will be arriving from Texas so even if we are completely unpacked by the time my parents pull into the driveway with my little mini-moving-truck…we still have to unpack all my stuff. Sometimes it just feels like life won’t ever get back to normal. Maybe this is our new normal?

Here’s some things on my mind today:

1) Now that we have approximately 87,000 (give or take a few) mini-pumpkins and gourds left over from the wedding…what do we do with them all!? I can’t trash them, and while I think a few would look nice decorating the house, I don’t think we need a pumpkin patch in our dining room.

2) Also wondering what to plant in our flower beds. We need something inexpensive, easy to maintain, will stay alive year-round, and decently pretty. Don’t know if we should bother planting now since it’s already mid-autumn and gets into the low 30s at night, or if we should wait until the spring. Having a house will do strange things to you. I have never in my whole life cared about flowers or gardens or planting or landscaping. That was an old boring person hobby. It’s not so much that I like doing it, but more that we want to keep our place looking spiffy, so it needs to get done.

3) Croissants are delicious. I’d also love another bubble tea and green tea cupcake from a place I checked out this week closer to downtown Cincy. If you’ve never had bubble tea it’s flavored tea with these plum-colored, gooey & chewy, edible tapioca beads at the bottom that you suck up through the straw. I know this description probably sounds extremely alarming and slightly off-putting, but it’s really yummy. And the moist green tea cupcake with rich, flavorful, velvety cream cheese frosting? To. Die. For. Ted also mentioned that Chicago Gyro near campus has a fabulous gyro. I’m drooling already.

4) I want an herb garden in the kitchen so I can grow cilantro, basil, parsley and mint. Mmmm. I adore the way lemon grass smells, but I’m not exactly sure if it is useful in cooking or not. Anyone know? Ikea has these great wall-mount rails we are going to pick up with hooks to hang stuff on. Well, they also have these awesome little pots that can hang from said hooks. I’m thinking they might be perfect for a mini herb garden.

5) How soon can we start planning our honeymoon? We don’t know next years vacation schedule or work schedules yet, so I don’t know how soon we can start planning. For what we want to do, airline tickets, accommodations, and excursions really need to be purchased well in advance.

I love traveling. I love tropical places, great architecture, snowy places, and gloomy rainy places – I love it all. So I don’t necessarily care where we go. My list of places to visit is huge. Among the top contenders are Italy, Russia, Poland, Egypt, Greece, Iceland (again), and about 27 other fabulous locations. I’ve been lucky enough to go to China, Japan, Iceland, Germany, France, England (2x), Switzerland, Hungary, Jamaica, Mexico, Canada, and a fair share of states in the U.S. Ted has done some traveling as well. But we did some brief discussions early on in our wedding planning and our top choices at the time were Alaska and Iceland/Finland/Norway/Sweden. We’d probably go in the winter so we can do the blue lagoon, see the aurora borealis, check out the ice hotel, go husky racing, glacier climbing, snow shoeing and all that adventurous stuff in addition to sight seeing in the towns and loading up on fantastic foods. I think for all we would want to do, including travel time, we’d need two weeks (still working on that unlimited bank account too). I think we’ll make it happen somehow ;-)