I’m fairly certain that someone is working hard to frame my coworker as a crazy person. At our sleepy museum in Monmouth, the burglar alarm was set off once - supposedly by the wind. Another time my coworker found a set of keys (from a Ford) in the center console of her Chevrolet Impala. Just this summer two concrete pavers were stolen from the side yard and the gardener asked why two daisy plants were now planted in their place. The most recent incident of Tom-Foolery is the exchange of mum plants. Two maroon mum plants were purchased and planted in the urns on the front porch. Two days later they were each replaced with a yellow and orange mum plant. Apparently there was no time to actually re-plant the yellow one; it was simply balanced on top of the soil in the urn. I myself have never been witness to these odd occurrences, but that doesn’t stop me from firmly placing my suitcase in front of the haunted door of my bedroom while visiting in Monmouth.

During this most recent trip we celebrated the 157th birthday of Founder Minnie Stewart, shot the breeze with locals at the American Legion spaghetti supper, and traveled close enough for a quick drive by Norma Jean’s (the ill-fated circus elephant) grave.

Thankfully the packing plant wasn’t in full odor-producing mode, but I did feel the burn in my lungs and eyes from the Tuesday leaf-burning smoke. Apparently it’s only legal to burn on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I’m pretty sure the burning sensation in my lungs was from the leaves and not the asbestos tape or mold in the basement – where I spent much of my time working to move all the computer and office equipment upstairs.

I always enjoy my time in Monmouth and especially appreciate the self-reflection that the 7.5 hour drive affords. It doesn’t get much better than satellite radio and the open road…

In early September, fall arrived in Ohio. We had a few hot days sprinkled in, which I guess we deserved on account of this whole global warming thing, but all in all we’ve had a very cool month. Indian summer is for the Indians and I’m thankful for the opportunity to finally layer. Madge doesn’t sleep on the bed when it’s hot out and the air conditioner is pumping, but in September she began bunking with me once again.

Perhaps the greatest arrival of September was Jeff. Within 3 weeks he was officially offered a job at OPERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System), found an apartment, gave his southern California short-haired dachs-huahua Seymour a pep talk and hit the road for Ohio. He starts work on Monday and I think he’s ready to get back into a routine. He had two weeks off to settle in and get things unpacked which was a nice opportunity to ease into things back here in Ohio. Yesterday he purchased a new wardrobe for Seymour to help him battle the cold and last night he wore a wool coat when we went out for Rodney’s birthday. Oh those California boys.

I suppose I shouldn’t totally write the summer off. It was a great summer at work with excellent interns and lots of fun projects. Sissy and Ren moved two hours closer to Columbus, which I’m pretty sure will work in my favor since Erie is kind of a hole compared to Columbus (no offense Sissy.) Brayden turned two and says my name clearly – as long as you preface it with the inscription I wrote in one of his books he has memorized: “Happy 2^nd Birthday Brayden, Love Aunt Kylie.” And my baby niece Clare told me she thinks I’m one of the coolest Aunties.

All in all, despite my penchant for autumn, the summer was pretty good. But I just know the fall is going to be even better!

1. I have a niece! Clare Rose Towers was born on April 14th at 3:59 p.m. and weighed 6lbs. 4 oz. She's gorgeous with a lovely personality - I should know, we've spent a few late nights together! I saw her when she was just a few weeks old when I dragged my entourage to D.C. for a long weekend. Farrah, Hattie and I drove to Maryland on a Thursday night and then we picked Jeff up at Dulles on Friday. We watched a friend's dog and enjoyed fabulous accomodations in Falls Church - close enough to the city for plenty of sight seeing! On Saturday night, Jeff and I saw "The Civil War" at Ford's Theater and had front row seats. Awesome seats in a jinxy old theater - box seats? No thank you! I was slightly annoyed by changes since I was last in town - everything now requires some sort of timed ticket for a tour and my grand plan was interrupted several times. Ah well, we had a good time. We then spent Sunday and Monday with Clare and her entourage - my parents came to town as well, so Kevin and Jess had a full house! I was lucky enough to make a return visit over Memorial Day weekend with Sissy and loved spending the time with K, J and C.

2. Summer finally arrived in Columbus. I of course hate it. It makes my hair frizzy and I sweat in the most uncomfortable and disconcerting places. To make matters worse, the air conditioning went out in my car. Not one to fret for too long, I quickly gathered up some headscarves and decided to reinterpret the Winnie Cooper as a zippy little convertible. I've also become obsessed with looking at other cars with their windows down on the hottest days and imagining why they're not running the AC. I work hard to look comfortable and pretend that I'm simply driving with the windows down to save on freon and improve my gas mileage. That's me, just doing my part! With summer comes the summer internship at the Museum. It's a great help to have an extra set of hands around the office, but it makes it nearly impossible to travel - which is why I gallavant across the country from August to May. In a way, it's nice to have June and July to recharge a bit.

3. Jeff zoomed into town two weeks ago and we agreed that he needs to work on his airline karma a bit. I think since we began dating back in September every single one of his airline flights - either to see me, his family or for work - has been delayed significantly. He was a trooper and took a red-eye through Vegas so that we could spend all of Friday together before going to visit his family on Saturday and Sunday. His nephew's graduation party in Massillon on Saturday was a lot of fun and his parents and siblings were fantastic! We headed back to Columbus on Sunday and took it easy before I had to head to work on Monday. I introduced he and his parents to BlackCreek Bistro over lunch and then just barely got him to the airport ontime for his flight. Next trip - LA in July!!

4. This holiday weekend is gearing up to be pretty fabulous. We got out of work early yesterday and I caught up on some Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a new fan. Today I'm headed to Hoover for some kayaking and might check out Red White and Boom with every other hillbilly in the state. Tomorrow I work at Barnes and then will head to see Sissy, Ren and Brayden! I'm in B withdrawl a bit - I haven't seen him since Easter and it's far too long. I'm afraid he won't remember me and all of the amazing things I've taught him in the last two years. We're going to have to cram a bit tomorrow and Sunday to bring him back up to speed. Our favorite song "Poker Face" is so April 2009, so I need to quickly find a new song for us to sing together.

That's all the news that's worth knowing from KHaus. Sorry (or perhaps you're welcome) for the extended silence!

I get frustrated with discussions like this because they simply turn a moot point over and over and over. Let’s follow the timeline of modern achievements and the everyman’s reaction:

1775 – Franklin establishes the United States Postal Service. Reaction: “Why in the world would I write a letter to someone on the other side of town when I can simply see them in church on Sunday?”

1828 – Harrison Dyar invents the first telegraph in the US. Reaction: “Who needs dots and dashes when I can write a letter?”

1876 – Though occasionally argued by historians and competing inventors, Bell invents the telephone. Reaction: “Calling is creepy, I’ll just send a telegram.”

1965 – MIT starts using MAILBOX to send electronic messages via computer, and by the 1990s it catches on in the mainstream. Reaction: “E-mailing is hard and confusing, I’ll just call.”

2003 & 2004 – In 2003 Brad Greenspan and some pals at eUniverse started the MySpace as a competitor for the newly launched Friendster website. In 2004 Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook with several friends on campus. Reaction: “MyFace and SpaceBook are a waste of time, why wouldn’t you just e-mail people?”

2004 & 2006 – Twitter is developed at Cornell to transfer files and by 2006 is publicly marketed as a text transfer program with the limit set at 140 characters. It is used in the same manner as the status updates made popular by MySpace and Facebook. Reaction: “Who cares? Who has time to check multiple websites for an update on hundreds of friends?”

2009 – My 62 year old mother is on Facebook and I’m pretty sure that my toddler nephew will soon have an account.

My coworker’s exasperated response is nothing new. I’m sure she’ll sign up for Facebook the minute she realizes that her Granddaughter would rather “Twitter” than write Grandma a letter or e-mail. On that note, the organization I work for has eventually embraced all of this technology – but not without some pushback. We could argue that it’s entirely unnecessary to send letters, e-mail blasts, offer Twitter updates and keep our website current since we have a quarterly magazine that mails to every single living member (who gives us an address update J) But that’s the lazy way out. And who reads magazines anyway? I was recently called an elitist for reading a magazine that had a higher ratio of text to pictures than the average celebrity magazine. Imagine, an article with no pictures…*GASP*

I find that I’m often conflicted in my professional job and education and my personal interests. I love electronic social networking, e-mail, texting and really anything that allows for faceless and voiceless communication. But I also wish that instead of an e-mail folder filled with newsy correspondence from my Mom, I had a packet of letters tied with a ribbon in my letter box. Sometimes I miss her handwriting and the homey feeling that I remember from the typed letters on carbon paper that my parents received from my Grandparents while I was growing up. As an archivist I crave hard copies. Pouring through a messy box of photographs is far more nostalgic than scrolling through a messy digital file of photographs. But nostalgia only gets you so far. Nostalgia also makes us think that WWII would have been a better time to live than now. Victory Gardens are fun, but rationing and worldwide terror is not.

In 2009 I have decided to take up calligraphy and am teaching myself to illuminate things. I’m not sure what I’m going to illuminate with my little paint set, but whatever it is, I’m sure it will be lovely and give me a feeling of old-world values; values that seem to be born of nostalgia, personal connection and untimely updates. Nevermind the awful plagues and poverty that was rampant during the heyday of illuminated manuscripts. The only trouble is that it’s hard to find time for such activities when I have so many updates to check on my social networking accounts.

All of my travel strated when I visited Monmouth and Galesburg, Illinois the third weekend in February. I drove out and picked up my volunteer counterpart for the trip in Indianapolis. It was nice to have a companion on the drive and I made the necessary stop at the Warm Glow Candle Outlet on Interstate 70. While in Galesburg we were on the Knox College campus where Lincoln and Douglass held one of their famous debates and I was able to see the Carl Sandburg birthplace - the poet and Lincoln biographer. Illinois is a lot like Scotland. Every single place in Scotland claims to have been visited by Mary Queen of Scots. Lincoln is like Illinois' Mary Queen of Scots.

The last weekend of February I traveled to Boston and Cape Cod and spent some time in Boston before my actual work commitments started. It was a beautiful and sunny (albeit windy) day in Boston and I was able to see the Kennedy Library and Museum - which makes 5 Presidential Libraries and/or Museums in 3 years! It only seems logical that I should make this a new life goal to visit all of them - especially since McKinley's is right here in Ohio! I also had a chance to check out the Harvard campus in Cambridge. It's gorgeous!

The first weekend of March I headed to San Diego and extended my stay to see Jeff for a couple of days. He drove down from Long Beach and did an awesome job researching San Diego for us. We had no trouble using the trolley and bus systems and easily took in the sights! We were able to see Old Town San Diego where the original San Diego settlement was built; the zoo; Coronado and the famed Hotel Del Coronado where my embarassingly favorite book Somewhere in Time took place :)

I have three more big trips before settling in for the summer - hopefully a quiet summer! The first weekend in April I'll head back to Iowa and Nebraska for work and an extended visit with college pals. The third weekend in April I'll head back to Monmouth for the dedication of two historic markers and the Museums Committee meeting - of which I am the primary staff support. Then in May I'm meeting Jeff in D.C. to do some sight-seeting and hopefully some niece-seeing. Sissy Jessie is due on May 3rd with my new favorite niece. I arrive on the 1st and depart on the 5th or 6th so here's hoping new baby Towers cooperates with my travel-plans :)

Kind of reminds me of the book we used to love to order for coworkers at Barnes. Go to the website and look up this ISBN - 9781890159023 - yet another Presidential title.

Nearly five years ago I was living in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington. This idyllic little town is a R.I.T.A. community, of which I was not aware. Regional Income Tax Agency communities collect even more taxes on top of your Federal, State and school district taxes and you have to file a separate form when you're in a R.I.T.A. community. Just a month after filing and receiving my refund check, I received a gentle reminder from R.I.T.A. with the warning that failure to pay the $97 owed to them would result in arrest. Point taken, I wrote them a check minutes later.

Four years ago I was paid $125 for my pivotal role in a Valu-City/Schottenstein's commercial, which included Pan and I bringing up the rear in a dramatic cart stampede. The W2 for that arrived almost two months after I had filed my taxes and I never filed an amendment. This time the reminder was a very curt and serious letter from the IRS warning that my failure to pay $22.37 would result in them issuing a warrant for my arrest. I think I complained to my friends a bit and eventually paid the taxes the next day.

And just three years ago I was short on cash and noticed that if I didn't enter the W2 from Barnes and Noble, my refund was nearly $500 more. Sweet! I have an obviously short memory in some arenas and I convinced myself that "I'm just a little guy, they'll never notice if I pretend that 1200 bucks from Barnes was under the table." Imagine my surprise when a year later I received a notice that I owed the IRS $427 for unreported income on the previous year's return.

I mean, sure, I'm a pretty important person - important and rich enough to catch the attention of the Internal Revenue Service for money owed reaching a total of $546.37. So it only makes sense that nobody would have caught on to Senator Daschle's (a nobody) seemingly innocent oversight while filing his taxes.

And besides, how can Senator Daschle remember that he has a car and driver when he likely still has his old 1972 Pontiac on the brain...

Both of us love to plan trips and vacations, but oddly enough we sort of played this one by ear. On Thursday we checked out the Getty Villa - one of my favorite places in California - because Jeff had never visited before. You can see pictures from a previous visit here. Jeff suggested we take the Pacific Coast Highway from Long Beach up to Malibu and it was an awesome drive! We had an ipod, one of my favorite mix cd's and plenty of time to kill. We saw lots of coastal vistas, homes of the rich, and funky little beach towns along the way. I of course neglected to bring car pills, so am even more excited to report that I didn't get sick on all of the winding, hilly portions of the PCH! As evening drew closer we headed south again and found a theater playing Slumdog Millionaire. I had already seen it but loved it so much I would still see it a third time! Jeff seemed to like it and the bathroom door had a great sign to add to my collection.

Friday was Jeff's actual birthday and he had planned for us to go to Disneyland since the 2009 promotion for all Disney parks is free admission on your birthday. I'm not a giant Disney fan so I wasn't sure how fun the day would be, but it turned out to be really great - even in the rain! It rained off and on for most of the day, but there were few lines and we enjoyed the homey comforts of Disney. A rainy amusement park isn't so bad when there are employees all over the place "sweeping" the puddles into storm drains. A place without puddles in the rain really is the happiest place on earth! We both laughed at our neglect to take a camera anywhere, so we stood in line to have our picture taken with Mickey so we could at least have proof of our activities! Our picture was with Steamboat Willie - perfect for me the historian! For the rest of my visit we were both grateful for cell phone cameras!

Jeff indulged me on Saturday and we went to Santee Alley to pick up a few bargains. While I bartered throughout the little stalls and alleys, Jeff patiently followed along in the rain. Afterwards we checked out the most bizarre museum I have ever visited - the Museum of Jurassic Technology. A tiny little museum with a primary collection focusing on earlier beliefs and scientific theories. We presumed we would be the first to enter the almost invisible entrance in Culver City at noon on Saturday - right when it opened. We parked the car a few minutes before 12 and arrived to find 6 or 8 more people standing in line, waiting to visit the museum!

The museum was devoid of natural lighting and all windows and skylights were blacked out. The only lighting was from inside some of the display cases and a few tiny pendant lights hanging here and there. I was a little creeped out immediately by the noises you could hear inside the galleries while we were waiting to "donate" the suggested $5 per person. As we entered, there was a glass case with the head of a fox bolted to the wall of the glass case and the sound of high-pitched barking. Two lenses were affixed to the front of the case and when you looked through them, there was a holograph of a man sitting in a chair and barking, projected onto the fox. No explanatory label was provided!

Moving into the next room I heard rhythmic chimes, like windchimes that a kid keeps playing with at regular intervals. Inside this space were photographs and pieces of manuscript from the writiings of Athanasius Kircher. Hanging from the ceiling was a brass wheel covered in bells that was rotating intermittently - thus the chimes I heard from the other room.

One of their current temporary exhibits discusses the evolution of trailer parks in California - starting after WWI and the household collection of a woman. Two other rooms had Mosaics made from the scales of butterfly wings viewed through microscopes and microminiature sculptures in the eyes of needles or on the cross sections of a human hair.

The weirdest and creepiest display comes from their permanent collection that interprets the beliefts that people once held that pertain to natural history. The a hand wrapped in hair demonstrates the belief that if bitten by a dog, the wound will heal faster if wrapped in the hair of the biting dog. I want to know whose job it is to collect the hair and if the dog is still living when said hair is harvested! Human teeth perched on top of fabricated plexi explains the belief that when a child's tooth falls out it should be burned to avoid being eaten by scavenging animals. Should a scavenging animal find the child's tooth and eat it, the hole in the child's mouth will be filled by a tooth not unlike that of the animal. Two dead mice on a piece of toast and a mouse pie next to that are explained by the writings of Pliny (a Roman who wrote in the time of Christ). To paraphrase, "Two dead mice, fur and all, served on toast will cure bedwetting, and mice served in pie will cure the stammer of a child." Across from that was a clay vessel and bristle brush used by women around the 16th Century. On New Year's Day it was considered good luck for the oldest woman of the household to sprinkle both the animals and the family members with her urine using the small brush.

After such an enlightening afternoon at the Museum of Jurassic Technology we headed to Santa Monica to pick up Jeff's birthday cake at Carvel Ice Cream. The tradition began when I visited Jeff and Pan for my birthday in 2007 and they arranged to get a "Fudgie The Whale" from a Carvel store nearby. They celebrated Pan's birthday in 2008 that way and now we celebrated Jeff's birthday that way! Not a bad tradition considering Fudgie The Whale is perhaps the most delicious ice cream cake you will ever try!!!

My plane took off bright and early on Sunday and I was disappointed to leave the pleasant temps of California - but so glad I parked in the covered lot at the airport since I would arrive home to several inches of snow and a pending snow and ice storm later in the week! I was glad to celebrate Jeff's birthday with him - it's a pain to live thousands of miles away but planes sure make the commute a bit easier. Especially when you fly Air Korea and have Direct TV available in every seat!!

Siobhan arrived on Friday and we drove down to the cabin. It was snowing lightly and traffic wasn't too bad. We got to the cabin in good time and were impressed by the large pond on the property and the numerous outbuildings and other cabins in the woods. Once Linda and Kelly arrived we set about to making dinner and cocktails. With a fireplace, our pajamas and plenty of food we could have stayed in all winter. On Saturday we headed out to take in Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave. I've seen both during the summer but never in the winter. They were gorgeous and had a prehistoric feel with the bright green moss, overhanging trees and eerie mists created from the humid air, above freezing temperatures and icy ravine floor. Some of the paths and stairs were downright treacherous but we managed without breaking any bones along the way. I made the mistake of not bringing my car pills, so was more than relieved when we stopped and found a little restaurant in the town of Logan.

We picked up some more firewood and headed back to the cabin. The hot tub was the perfect solution after a cold and wet day in the woods!

We returned on Saturday evening and did our best to finish off the food and alcohol we brought. Kelly made an awesome cake to celebrate Linda's recent MBA and we begrudgingly went to bed knowing we would leave in the morning. A perfect little get away with awesome friends!

Inside Ash Cave

 Inside Old Man's Cave

 Linda's dog Sable couldn't have cared less about the deer outside the cabin

 Kelly, Linda, Siobhan, Moi