Olivae

Living Room Updates

2010-09-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

The world's slowest decorating project, which happens to be taking place in our very own home,
took a giant leap forward over the weekend. After officially living in our first home for over a year, we finally invested in some reasonably priced lamps for the side tables in our living room. Prior to last Saturday, the only light in the room came from a small floor lamp. The second picture has a better view of the lamp base.

Those of you who are familiar with our living room will also notice the addition of the green and gold suitcase on the shelf beneath the coffee table. It belonged to my grandmother (it has her initials on it!). I relocated it from the basement in August after we had our water problems. I kind of like it in this spot, though, so it will probably stay in this location for quite some time. The colors match and it adds a little more personality to the space.

Here's a close up of one of the lamps:

The base and post are antique bronze. At either end of the beaded post are glass balls that have gold flecks on them. The lamp shade is gold. This picture doesn't do it much justice. You'll just have to trust me when I say it looks good.

I also found (thanks to the 30 boxes of "memories" from my closet at my parents' house that recently made their way to our house) three brass animal figurines that I used to play with at my grandparents' house. When my grandpa moved from that house, I requested the trio and they must have sat in one of those boxes for the past twenty years. We now have a small owl (in the above picture), an elephant and a snail. I love having them in our living room.

All for now, and probably the next few weeks. Life is busy. Life is good. :)

An update.

2010-09-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

One-and-a-half weeks into the school year and there is much to report:

1. I am so blessed to work with such an amazing team of energetic, driven people. The classroom teachers I get to work with this year are fabulous, and I know from my short term subbing last spring that the sped coordinator is going to be an excellent mentor. We've spent the last 8 days in training and have our open house tomorrow night. I am really excited for next Tuesday!

2. Tomorrow also marks the first day that I get to dress up for my new job. G had absolutely no problem with me revamping my wardrobe (yes, MV, you read that correctly) and I am excited to cut the tags off of one of my new outfits:

[source]

I have some cute black flats with little ruffles on the toes that I'm planning to wear with the dress.

3. G and I are currently obsessed with Häagen-Dazs new ice cream Five. It is incredible.

[source]

We've only tried mint, but I have every intention of trying every flavor I can find. It's hard for us to admit, but it might surpass our love of Ben and Jerry's.

3. I finished another chapter of my dissertation. *Insert major sigh of relief here.* Two down, five to go. Keep sending me pictures of your smiling babies and small children. Excellent motivation.

4. Speaking of babies, the major highlight of the time that's passed since my last post was definitely meeting one of my nearest and dearest friend's baby girl, Harper. So tiny. So cute. I (rudely) arrived at my friend's in-laws' house earlier than I probably should have, but I really wanted to squeeze in some time with the baby. And my friend, of course. I couldn't focus all morning, so I finally just jumped in the car and headed south for Cleveland, MN. I managed to get in some quality QT with my girls before other people arrived so even though I had to leave earlier than I wanted (dissertation chapter deadline), I left with a happy heart. What a honey.

5. We've scheduled visits with G's grandparents for the next two Saturdays. I am looking forward to seeing them!

6. My dad has started working security for sporting events. The man just cannot retire. He loves being active. He emailed me tonight and casually mentioned that he's taking a bus to Kansas City to work security for a pro football game. I think he's serious. That's crazy.

7. G has been practicing his trumpet for a wedding in September. Rachael, you should know that he sounds amazing. Also, since Mary has given him permission to play whatever he wants as prelude, you should probably know that he's selected the following pieces (performed at the same or slightly better level as the featured performer): First, second, and third. No need to stress out about the accompaniments and rhythms. R has volunteered to run both the cd player and the metronome so V can focus on her dancing.

My parents' new place...

2010-08-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

G and I went to check out my parents' new digs last night. They don't officially close on the house until tomorrow, but their realtor is pretty awesome and unlocks the house for them whenever they want to show it to someone. My parents described the house as "retro" and reminded us - several times - to "look for its potential."

The house was built by a physician in the 1950s. He and his sister were the its only occupants. He died a while ago and willed the house to his church, but stipulated that his sister had the right to live in it for as long as she wished. She relocated to a nursing home and the church put the house up for sale over the summer. While I can't be certain, I don't think anything has changed - linoleum, light fixtures, counter tops, wood floors - since the physician built the house. I took a whole bunch of pictures but I haven't had time to download them yet. Maybe tonight. The coolest, most retro part of the house?

The vintage counter tops:

[source]

Yup. This is it, only the background is yellow and the boomerangs are blue and green (I think). Hanging above the peninsula in the kitchen is this amazing saucer-like light fixture that is brass colored and has a ring of small holes around the edge.

Some people travel and golf in their retirement. My parents? They take on remodeling projects. To each their own. Between their new home and our unexpected basement renovations, we'll have plenty of projects to keep us busy.

I'll try to post more pictures tonight or tomorrow!

2010-08-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

1. This is disgusting.

2. The look on my husband's face this morning after I reminded him that starting next Monday, when I go back to work full time, household chores go back to 50/50? Priceless.

3. I have so much laundry to finish before next Monday. And cleaning. Going to see how much I can tackle today...

The Basement

2010-08-17T06:06:00.001-07:00

Now that the basement has unexpectedly risen to the top of our "to-do" list, we need to start thinking about how we're going to tackle this project. We need to invest some time and resources into exploring the source of the problem, but once those tasks have been finished the fun can start.

The insurance estimate? Nonexistent. Apparently insurance doesn't cover water seeping up through the foundation.

While the basement will require some major time and and investment, the renovations don't have to happen within a particular time frame, so that's a big plus. That means we can take our time and do things right. I'm a little afraid, though, when I think back to how long it took us to finish the comparatively simple task of painting and installing new outlets and switches in our living room. Hopefully this won't take as long...

We have two big questions to think about as we contemplate the renovation phase for the basement:

1. Do we tackle the fourth bedroom since we're already finishing the main living space in the basement? This would involve installing two new small windows (the current windows are the only remaining "old" windows and need to be replaced sometime soon), installing new ceiling panels (as a temporary fix), ripping down the fake wood paneling and installing new flooring.

2. What kind of flooring do we go with? My parents installed tile when they remodeled their home's basement, and it looks really nice. Carpet, linoleum and vinyl are not options for me despite the cost benefits of the latter two. I just can't do it. That leaves tile and Pergo, which is the engineered wood-like flooring we have upstairs. Thoughts?

2010-08-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday evening, we journeyed up to Park Rapids for my aunt's seventy-fifth birthday party. She and her husband planned a seventy-five mile bike trip for that Friday. They are both part of a cycling club in the area and in addition to the 10+ family members who made the trip to Park Rapids, there were about fifty other riders who biked at least part of the trip and even more joined us for a celebratory cookout after the ride was finished.

My aunt, a Red Rider, is a biking machine. She easily finished 80+ miles while G and I didn't quite reach the finish line. G wisely stopped at the halfway mark (my parents worked the food stop, so they gave him a ride back) and I suffered through a few more miles. I stopped seventeen miles short of the goal. There was no way I was going to make it too much farther. Despite the fact neither of us made the full route (note: the majority of the riders were 65+, and 21 of them all made it to the end), we were pleased, especially since it was the first time we'd cycled all summer. We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday nursing our sore butts and thigh muscles. I'm still a little tender, but G seems to have made a full recovery.

When we returned home on Saturday night, I went across the street to chat with our neighbor and ask if anything exciting had happened while we were away. He mentioned that he had heard we had over 5 inches of rain on Thursday night and that the sump pump in his house had been running ever since. I went back to our house and told G about the rain. He decided to go downstairs to see if our sump pump had been running, and soon discovered it hadn't done its job. We were welcomed home to a partially flooded basement.

[That box? Most of it was filled with my pictures from college. Oy.]

It could have been a lot worse. A whole lot worse. Fortunately, the water was restricted to a space covering about 1/4 of our basement. Unfortunately, our big storage closet was included in that space so several boxes, a few appliances and some other things - including most of my horn music (which is expensive when you add it all up!) - did receive some water damage. Some of our good friends immediately volunteered to come over and help us assess the situation. The boys ripped out the carpet and padding from the area that was damaged, sucked up the water that had pooled under the padding with the wet/dry vac, and carried the ruined materials to the garage to dry out. Now we're waiting for our insurance guy to assess the damage (we took pictures of everything as it existed when we first found it) so we can figure out the next step in the cleaning process.

So much for renovating our bathroom before the basement! Oh well, like I said, it could have been so much worse.

2010-07-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

The electrician called.

He canceled, mentioning that "he'd try to reschedule sometime next week."

It is now 87 degrees in our house.

Dislike.

Melting.

2010-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

When our home inspector checked out our home, he mentioned that one of our priorities should be replacing the circuit break for our air conditioning unit. He said something about it being "over fused" and needing a "properly sized circuit breaker." Since we bought our home at the end of August, we weren't too concerned about following up on that recommendation and opted to tough out the remaining warm days of summer and early fall.

We did just fine. Spring came around, and with it some super hot days. We debated turning on the AC without having the circuit breaker replaced. Finally, G did some serious research and decided it would probably be okay to run it in the evenings. He's no electrician, but something seemed goofy when he compared the information we received from the inspector to our AC unit to the information he was finding on the interweb.

Over the weekend, my FIL asked about the AC and G was persuaded to turn it off until it could be checked. Last night, he called an electrician, explained the problem, and was not surprised to learn that the electrician confirmed his suspicions that the home inspector likely made a mistake (meaning everything is probably okay). He said he'd stop over the next day to check it out and make sure everything was working properly. Better safe than sorry, right?

So here I sit, waiting for Mr. Electrician to make good on his promise and show up. It's frickin' hot in our house, man. I usually prefer to be warm (note the jacket I'm wearing in the picture from yesterday's post), but this is ridiculous. Friends, it's 85 degrees in our house. I know it could be worse, but I am sweating from every crevice in my body and I cannot focus on my work. I'm too lazy to even take a decent picture of the thermostat, so you're stuck with an image I captured with my MacBook. It's reversed. 85 degrees. It's gone up 2 degrees in the last 1.5 hours.

All I can think about is how not awesome my run outside is going to be if I have to come home to a house that's 85 degrees inside. Blah.

I am Dissertator, here me ROAR!

2010-07-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been delinquent with my posting. Actually, I'm not really that sorry because I've been super productive with the dissertating process. I am no longer not so secretly wishing that my computer would blow up and destroy all of my dissertation-related materials so I could hang up my grad student hat (for the second time, ahem) and am feeling sooooooo motivated to finish this project. It's gone from being something I ran from to something I protect like my own child. It's amazing how things can change so quickly.

Fueled by two large glasses of freshly brewed iced tea, countless glasses of water, and a bowl of whatever soup is on the day's menu, I have managed to be über productive over the past few weeks. I'm hoping that the $7 I spend at Dunn Bros each day means I won't get kicked out any time soon. I'm so productive here - infinitely more productive than I am at Casa K - and $7/day is a nominal fee to pay for the use of "office" space that provides food. At least that's how I rationalize my spending.

Gift cards to Dunn Bros. in any domination are a great gift, my friends. Just a hint. A not so subtle hint.

The Kettlebell, my new enemy.

2010-06-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after running 5K at the gym, I finished my circuit of weight machines and then ventured over to the stretching area. I was using a stability ball to do some sit-ups when I noticed a trainer assisting a client with an exercise involving one of these:

[source]

I didn’t know what it was, but it looked pretty small and manageable. Easy, in fact. Squat, lift, hold. Squat, lift, hold. The woman doing the exercise was older than I am so I figured if she could handle it, it couldn’t possibly be a problem for me.

So, today after finishing a bike ride and my regular weight machine circuit, I made my way over to the area where all of the stability balls, medicine balls and what I now know are kettlebells. I spotted the smallest one, debated whether or not I could handle a slightly larger one, and ultimately decided to go with the smaller one since it was my first time.

It turns out it was probably also my last time.

I leaned over the metal bars to pick up the weight and almost pulled myself into the equipment corral. Seriously. I must have made a noise because the personal trainers hovering around the area all looked in my direction. I'm sure I looked like an idiot. I was embarrassed, but having already made a fool of myself, I decided to just get the kettlebell and take it over to the stretching area. It wasn’t until I had dragged it out of the corral that I realized it weighed 55 pounds. That sucker was heavy. I couldn’t carry it in one arm without looking severely lopsided so I had to cradle it in both of them. I managed to do the squat, lift, hold exercise 10 times before calling it quits. It was super intense.

In other news, this morning I found a cute little independent coffee shop in the “downtown” area of our city. I was there from 8 this morning until 3 in the afternoon. I was one of maybe 20 - 25 customers during that time period and honestly I’m not sure how the place has stayed afloat for 2.5 years, but I hope it stays open until I finish my dissertation. I was so productive. They have excellent chai and sandwiches and it’s warm and inviting. I just love it. It will be the official site of Dissertation Boot Camp 2010 at the end of July.

I’ve spent the last three days in coffee shops and at the local library during the day (ending with a trip to the gym). It’s a great schedule and it’s really working well for me. I’ll probably put on 20 pounds in liquid calories (the grilled cheese sandwiches probably don’t help, either), but at least I’ve been good about going to the gym. Maybe I will have to spend some more time with the kettlebell…

Things I Like: Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade

2010-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

The local organic market has an excellent sale this month. I've been stocking up on super reasonably priced Annie's Bunny Graham Friends (definitely not meant for our age group, but such a good snack) and Santa Cruz organic lemonade:

It's currently priced at 2/$3, which is an amazing price for this stuff. We currently have mango lemonade, strawberry lemonade and limeade in our refrigerator, and I have big plans to go back this week and stock up before the sale ends later this month. It's that amazing.

Weekend Recap

2010-06-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

As I type this, I have a pan of sliced cherry tomatoes, garlic, olives and capers tossed with olive oil and pepper roasting in the oven. It smells heavenly. I'm planning to serve it over pasta, but honestly, I'd probably eat it straight out of the oven sans pasta.

We had a busy weekend here at Casa K. I hung out with my dad on Friday and then headed up to a town north of the Cities for dinner and a film showing with my parents. The film, Pretty Much 100% Scandinavian, was right up my alley.

Saturday morning we were up early to get started on yard projects. G mowed the lawn while I ran errands. We had lunch and then I hit the gym for a while. Later that afternoon I bought a bag of mulch. We should have known it would make a drastic improvement in our yard, but I think we were both a little shocked at just how much of an improvement it made:

Seven bags later and the landscaping in the backyard was finished, including the areas around the trees and utility poles. G took the above picture because we were both so surprised at the difference. Pretty impressive, eh? Also impressive is that muscular pasty white calf on the left side of the image. Just kidding, although it is impressively white and there is more definition to my muscles than last year at this time. I have my new running routine to thank for that!

The vegetable garden is looking great. I've thinned the carrots two times and it looks like I might need to do it a third. The lettuce is ready to pick, there are small pods on the sweet pea plants, the beans are getting taller and the corn looks great. I put bird netting on the raspberry bush yesterday afternoon (this, by the way, was a huge pain in the butt). It appears as though we'll have an excellent crop of berries and I want to harvest as much as I can!

We went to our new favorite restaurant in our suburb last night for dinner and then played some tennis.

Our Sunday was pretty laid back. We worked on projects in the house, bought more mulch for the front yard, and are about to have dinner and go play tennis.

Not a bad weekend, my friends.

Friday Catch-Up

2010-06-11T13:05:00.001-07:00

Dissertating + working full time = minimal free time and consequently few blog entries and fewer pictures. Sorry.

School ended on Wednesday. I cried. For many of those kids, school is their safe zone and teachers are their protectors. When classes end for the summer, many of them fall victim to the lure of the streets and irresponsible teenagers and adults. Some of the elementary school-aged kids I work with will assume the role of parent and take care of their younger siblings while their guardians work their minimum wage jobs. Unstable situations at home make it difficult for most of the kids to progress intellectually and socially. Man, I get worked up just thinking about them. I woke up before 4:00 AM on Thursday morning because I was so worried about a few kids in particular. This, of course, is not the story for all of the kids at the school. Unfortunately, it is the story for the kids who gave the longest hugs and shed the biggest tears before they got on the bus. For once in my life, I hope summer break flies by so they can be back in the classroom.

I arranged to see the child, E., I work one-on-one with a few times each month. I don't want to weaken the relationship we've built, and I want to make sure he's surviving the summer. I'm spending next Friday morning with him, and while I'm not sure what we'll be doing it has to be educational, inexpensive, and something that gently pushes his communication skills. Any recommendations? I contacted a local animal shelter to see if we could come in and "volunteer" for an hour. E. loves cats, so I figure it might be a good place to spend some time - provided I can get the shelter to wave the age minimum for volunteers (16).

In other news, yesterday I saw one of my best friends from college. We had coffee and talked for almost three hours. He decided to give me access to his match.com profile so I could help spruce it up and filter through some of the women seeking his attention. I made him remove all of his professional training and occupational goals (because, lets face it, most women will only see $$$$), changed bits of his profile and updated his picture. Here's to hoping he lands a fun, intelligent and classy lady. He totally deserves it.

I'm co-hosting a garage sale tomorrow with a friend of mine. Excellent prices and a decent selection of stuff. We're open rain or shine, so stop by starting at 7. We most definitely have at least one thing that you'll need. I promise.

Bits and Pieces

2010-06-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

1. Our poppies bloomed the day before Memorial Day. How fitting, right?

2. Yesterday we caught a bunny in our new live animal trap. We released it into the wild and are hoping to catch the mama bunny next. My husband looks forward to checking the trap with the same anticipation a small child has when s/he wakes up on Christmas morning and is eager to see if Santa visited. You can only imagine his excitement when he returned home from work yesterday and discovered a bunny in the metal cage. Joy. Elation.

3. Around this time next week, I'll have a contract signed to work full time for the upcoming next school year. Happy much? Totally. I feel so blessed to get to work with the kids at my school.

4. I started staining our "new" dinner table. The right side is the stripped side of the table. The left side has one coat of "cherry mahogany." I added a second coat on Sunday and will apply a third coat before I coat it with poly. The table has a lot of character (read: it is a little beat up), but that's one of the things I love about it. It's likely over 100 years old. I'd love to know who owned it, what kinds of meals they served, and what kinds of conversations took place while people sat around it.

5. I assembled the side tables and bookshelf. They work well in our living room. We need to drill some holes in the back paneling of the bookshelf so we can run wire through to the outlet, but first we need to figure out what kind of tool will make a large enough hole. Advice?

6. I worked on my dissertation for a while last night, and I'm taking tonight off. I went to the gym for a much needed bike ride and am about to respond to some letters I received from students in the language arts class I help out with. The students could write to any teacher and nine of my little friends decided to pen letters to me. They are incredibly cute. "You help people to do good. You are nice and awesome. You are a frenily teacher." "Think you for helping me spell words. You are the best teacher I had talk to. I loved learning wite you." How can you not love that stuff? My own student, of course, wrote me a lengthy letter explaining that he had let his cat in our house and that it not only drank all of our diet coke, but also made a "mees every wear" and "scach youre TV." Gotta love a good imagination.

Garden Update

2010-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Between work, my dissertation, playing tennis and working in the gardens, I haven't had much time to update my blog. Maybe posting will improve after the school year wraps up...

Here are the pictures I took of the garden early this week. The patio landscaping looks great, with the exception of the columbine. It looks find in this picture, unfortunately the rabbits that live under our shed have taken a liking to it and it's not looking nearly as healthy.

The round garden looks fabulous. The deep red peonies opened up last week and the white ones look ready to pop any day now. We also had some giant white irises open up (pictures later this weekend) over the past few days. The tall purple flowers, allium, are no longer purple. They might be one of my new favorite flowers. They were so pretty when they were blooming.

The circle garden also has a healthy crop of creeping Charley. I pulled a significant amount of it last night, but it was exhausting work. I'll have to go back out later this weekend and finish the job. I thought about using borax or another chemical to eliminate the problem, but I really don't want to kill anything else in the garden. The means my only option is to use my hands...

The front yard is looking pretty good, too. The hastas are unfolding their leaves and the poppy looks like it will bloom any day. Have I mentioned it's exciting to watch the perennials open? It is. You can also, just barely, see the hanging basket I put together. It's a wire basket filled with a layer of moss. My family has a tradition of planting red geraniums outside the front door of the house, so that's what I put in the basket. I also put in a delicate little purple flower, but I'm not sure what it's called. It looks better every day.

Lots of change in the vegetable garden. The raspberry bushes are very full. The corn is sprouting (up to 8 inches already). I added a tomato plant that appears to be thriving and plan to add two more later this weekend. The carrots and peas look great, but I think the beans and onions might need to be replanted. I'll give them a few more days before I do anything. I'm really enjoying watching the garden grow. I go out almost daily to check its progress. I can't wait until the plants bear fruit later this summer.

I put up a makeshift fence to keep the rabbits out. It appears to be doing the trick, although I might do something more permanent next spring.

The bricks alongside the fence are to help deter the rabbits. They are so stinkin' annoying. Earlier this week I saw a bunny hop through the open gate in our neighbor's backyard. I checked to make sure no one was looking and then I shut the door. I thought I had locked it in there, but this morning G saw a bunny crawl under the fence that separates our yards. Bummer. Our home's previous owner randomly showed up last Sunday to check things out and when we asked him about the bunnies, he said he shot them and buried them under the garden. Actually, his words were "there are a lot of bunnies under that garden," which just grossed me out. The consensus amongst our neighbors that the only way to get rid of them is to shoot them, but we're hesitant to do so because it's illegal to fire a gun in our city. We like to play by the rules. We've decided to buy a live trap. I'll let you know how that goes...

Quick Catch-Up

2010-05-19T06:12:00.001-07:00

One of my closest girlfriends and her husband had their first baby yesterday. She texted me just before 2:00 AM to let me know she was en route to the hospital. I happened to have a coughing fit around 2:10 AM that resulted in my husband forcing me to leave the bedroom so he could keep sleeping. I grabbed my phone (alarm clock) on the way out and saw her message. It was hard to go back to sleep. Is it normal to get so excited about your best friends having kids? Anyway, Harper entered the world yesterday and I am trying to figure out how to get to Denver this summer so I can meet her and hangout with her mom.

In other news, the school I work at apparently doesn't believe in air conditioning and since most of my work clothes are for cooler temps, I had to go out and buy some new clothes yesterday afternoon. Today I'm wearing a shirt dress from Target with some ankle length leggings (it might be hot, but no one is going to be blinded by my white legs):

My husband calls this my "suburban camo" dress. I think that's hilarious!

Remember when I posted about needing to find coconut M&Ms? My MIL found them at Sam's Club. I now have 30 bags of them sitting on my counter top. They are good. So, so good.

I called my dad to complain about our rabbit problem (another post for another day), and after listening to my rant he asked if I'd rather have the creature that visited my parents' backyard over the weekend:

He thinks it was a bear. There was some other evidence not shown in this picture, but whatever it was toppled thick steel poles at their base and knocked several bird feeders around.

Last week I actually had to convince a kid that he had wet his pants. He didn't believe me. It was the weirdest conversation I've had in a long time.

Off to school. Have a great Tuesday!

Things I Like: Address Stamps

2010-05-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was awarded a research grant from my university's department. While not huge, the extra funds are much appreciated and will allow me to distribute a mass survey to my research site. In an attempt to get more people to open the surveys when they arrive in the mail, I'm hand addressing all 150+ envelopes. This morning I used some of my grant money to buy a return address stamp, which I think will come in very handy while working on this part of my research.

I looked at several options on Etsy over the past week or so and finally decided to go with SugarLetter. There were lots of other stamp designs I liked (check out the options here, here and here), but it turns out my husband has strong preferences when it comes to return address stamps. Who knew? Good thing I checked with him before buying the stamp. Actually he probably wouldn't have ever noticed since he doesn't do much with our mail...

Oh well! Still a good choice!

Garden Progress

2010-05-06T10:31:00.001-07:00

I'm at home sick today. My throat felt funny when I woke up yesterday morning, but I just thought it was the result of drainage. Yesterday afternoon I had a meeting in the big city and whatever bug I have hit me hard. I drove home with the heat on full blast and I was still shivering. I went to bed dressed as though I was going outside for a walk on a brisk fall day. This morning I had to get up by 6:00 to decide if I was going to call the company I work for and tell them I couldn't sub today. I wasn't shivery and achy anymore, but my throat, ears and head told me to stay home. The kids at school may have generously shared their germs with me, but I decided to keep mine to myself. I made the phone call and then crashed for the next 5.5 hours.

Now I'm up. My left ear has popped, and I'm hoping for more progress. I want to go back to work tomorrow!

I took some pictures of our circular garden last weekend, but have neglected to post the pictures. I suppose this afternoon is a good time to take care of that task. Remember when our garden looked like death? I was so scared of the garden at that time. I really didn't think anything was going to come back.

...but it did. Last week I posted this picture of our garden:

...and during the past week this is what has happened:

I'm no expert, but it looks like we have quite a few bloom that should open up sometime soon. I am totally amazed by how quickly this garden has developed. I can't wait to see what it looks like next week.

This weekend my dad is delivering a hole digger and some chicken wire so I can fence in the vegetable garden. The beans, peas and lettuce are up and I want to protect them from the next of bunnies that have taken shelter under our shed.

Good Things: Lands' End Canvas

2010-05-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

[source]

I drop by the Lands' End Canvas website every few weeks to see what's new. Earlier this winter, when I first learned of Canvas, I went from feeling rather "eh" about Lands' End to loving the store. I'm having trouble uploading more images to this post, but I'm currently drooling over this, this, these (I haven't worn shorts in years, it's about time I buy a pair), and this. I wish there was a store closer to MSP.

Weekend Recap

2010-05-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

I just logged into blogger and noticed that my post from last Friday has a Thursday post date. Slightly confusing.

We had a nice, relaxing weekend so this post won't be very exciting.

1. My Friday morning started off with another early morning trip to the gym. While jogging on the treadmill I witnessed a 70+ year old man jump off an elliptical machine and rock out on the air guitar to celebrate what looked like a grueling workout. That was an excellent way to start a Friday.

2. Every day I with special needs kids I realize it's my true calling. I love the fact that I get up every morning knowing I get to spend the day with some awesome, severely disadvantaged kids. It is so incredibly rewarding. Meaningful work. I like meaningful work.

3. Every Friday I take my student to Burger King for lunch. He loves it. Last Friday we went to Burger King for the third time. As we entered the restaurant he looked at me and said "this is going to be so exciting!" I'd take him to Burger King everyday if I could. I can't imagine being born into his place in this world. He has a tough home life and some serious neurological issues. If taking him to Burger King for a kid's meal is a special outing for him, you better believe I'm going to make it happen. Anyone want to sponsor a meal for him? Or maybe buy him some Legos (he's so anxious to get some "colored Legos")?

4. I hit the gym early on Saturday morning, dropped off my car at the repair shop, had lunch with my husband and BIL, and spent the afternoon at Panera working on my dissertation. My evening was spent running errands and relaxing at home. Boring? Maybe to some, but it really nice. I made so much progress.

5. We spent Sunday afternoon at the state historical society. My dear husband was kind enough to come with me. He did his own thing for a few hours and after my motion sickness was unbearable (I get it from reading microfilm, but not riding in cars), he relieved me of my research duties and followed my directions to a "T." Husband of the Year? I think so. Especially considering the reward he gets if I don't finish my writing this year...

6. I really do have the most amazing husband on the face of this good earth.

7. I spent Sunday night weeding, planting a hanging basket (pictures soon), and working on a crafting project. I have a little less than half of that project left to finish, so I can't post pictures yet. Soon, soon!

It reallyw as a good weekend...

Friday Ramblings...

2010-04-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

Guess who went to the gym both yesterday and today at 6:00 AM? Me! I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it part of my daily routine, but its gone pretty well the last few days. I'll try it again Monday morning and see what happens.

I'm loving the green goodness that's popping up in our gardens. Most of my excitement probably stems from the relief I experience each time I see some green poking through the perennials I cut back last fall/early this spring. We can take care of a yard!

The front walkway is nice, but the real excitement is in the backyard. The pear, apple and crab apple trees have all started blooming. Our crab apple tree (below) makes me incredibly happy, and I'm looking forward to more pink blossoms on our apple tree. There are lots of plants waiting to pop in our circular garden. This is the garden that really had me scared and now that I know I didn't kill anything I'm really looking forward to seeing how it evolves over the summer. I checked the vegetable garden last night and there were a few green shoots poking through the soil. The raspberry bushes are growing quickly and the rhubarb is looking very healthy.

Isn't the crab apple tree beautiful? If you look very closely you can see our patio furniture in the picture above. It's white, so it kind of blends in with the house. It's pretty small for the size of our patio, but it will do for at least this summer. Plus, I absolutely love it (I'll love it even more when it gets a fresh coat of paint).

I've never been into grilling, but for some reason - probably our lovely landscaped patio area - I really want to this spring and summer. I came across this grill at Menard's earlier this week and I think it might be a good fit for our needs:

[source]

It's small, portable and inexpensive. Now to convince the husband that we really need one...

Turf Wars

2010-04-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of pulling up weeds with my hands, I finally bought one of these on Sunday afternoon:

It's been a blessing.

I may have used it last night to pull up some dandelions in our neighbor's yard. I was surveying our patch of mini trees, the seeds for which were deposited by a tree in the same neighbor's yard, when I realized there was a GIGANTIC dandelion on their property. All I could think about was hundreds and hundreds of dandelion parachute seeds blowing into our yard, landing in our fertile soil, and sinking their deep roots in our yard.

So I got my tool and I yanked it up.

And then I saw another dandelion in their yard, so I pulled that one, too. Seven dandelions later, I found myself almost in the center of their front yard. At that point I was a little embarrassed - there is a very large picture window looking out over their front yard - so I retreated to our garage and deposited my armful of dandelions into our refuse bag. G was embarrassed, but they had to go. I've tried to justify my effort to eliminate the dandelions by telling myself that they would probably be happy to have someone walk through their yard and pull up the weeds, but maybe G is right and they really do like dandelions. Was this a bad move?

...because there are three more plants I've noticed and I'd like to remove them tonight.

Weekend in Review

2010-04-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Friday night I met my mom for dinner at the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis. Omg, it was amazing. I will gladly go back anytime, so let me know if you want to go with me. So, so yummy.

Saturday was filled with errands and a potluck dinner for the PEO chapter I was initiated into on Tuesday night.

Yesterday, one of my husband's aunts carpooled with us to G's grandpa's birthday in Harmony, Minnesota. I love Harmony for a few reasons. Not only do G's maternal grandparents (who are fabulous) live there, the town is also home to a sizable Amish population. I love going to Harmony. I love G's grandparents, I love southeastern Minnesota landscapes, and I love looking for Amish. Seriously, when I see a horse and buggy rolling down the road or an Amish farm, I get more than a little excited. My reaction is probably similar to the level of enthusiasm a small child expresses when s/he opens the coolest Christmas present imaginable.

When I was 8 I wanted to go to Amish camp, and that's no joke. (No such camp exists, if you're wondering.)

So, yesterday afternoon when we drove by three buggies parked in the grocery store's parking lot, I was very excited. I made my husband go right instead of left and then drive down a back alley so I could get a closer look. Both he and our aunt were laughing at my enthusiasm. Then I made him stop so I could take a picture of the horses because they were tied to a hitching post. How often do you see that? It was so exciting.

Unfortunately, as I was taking the picture, G saw his parents drive by and I think he got a little embarrassed so I ended up getting a partial image and part of his car in the picture. Honestly, I just don't understand how people can't share my level of interest in the Amish. They're fascinating. Right, Mags?

Happy Monday!

How does your garden grow?

2010-04-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

There are hundreds of seeds hiding under this soil:

I over-seeded with the hope that it would increase the chances that a good number of them would actually germinate. I planted 10 rows of vegetables (lettuce, peas, beans, carrots, two types of onions), a patch of chives, and some violas along the north edge of the garden. The back section of the garden was actually still partially frozen when my dad tilled it, so he suggested turning the soil every other day for a few weeks and then planting. I'm planning to plant some brussel sprouts and broccoli in that section, but don't mention that to my husband. I'm afraid he'd take some weed killer to the entire garden if he knows I'm planning to harvest a healthy crop of brussel sprouts.

Here's what I put in the north section of the garden:

In other garden-related news, our raspberry bushes appear to still be alive (yeah!) and are sprouting new leaves:

The rhubarb is coming up like gangbusters (if that's possible):

And the cactus I'm eager to remove from the garden is doing something interesting, so I've decided to let it grow for another summer. It's hard to see in this picture, but there are little sprouty things along the edges of the cactus. Yesterday I noticed that one of them had developed into a relatively large red bud (just a bit smaller than my pinky finger), so we'll see what happens...

And that's the news from our gardens. Hoping for lots of new growth this week!

Off to work. I was just assigned an EBD kid yesterday, so my job just got even more interesting.

Weekend In Review

2010-04-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce you to my youngest niece, P:

We had the opportunity to spend Saturday with two of my favorite nieces (and their parents and my parents) at the Minnesota Zoo. P enjoyed the rest of her sister's bomb pop after eating a healthy sized portion of cotton candy. She just melts my heart. Such a sweetie. Her big sister, M, is also a little dear, but she's a little camera shy.

After the zoo, my dad spent some time tilling our vegetable garden and I finished clearing out the dead stuff from the flower garden. It feels so good to have finished that project! They stuck around for dinner and then G and I hit the local nursery to find some seeds for the vegetable garden.

G's parents took us out to brunch on Sunday morning. Our big brunch left us feeling pretty lethargic, so we spent the first part of the afternoon just sitting around and being lazy. Eventually, I ran some errands and then we spent a few hours outside taking care of more yard work. G mowed the lawn, and I did some more weeding in the flower beds and planted our first vegetable garden. We ended the day hitting some tennis balls at the courts near our house.

Decorating Our Nest: Living Room

2010-04-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

[Note: This somehow posted without me knowing it...sorry for the missing pictures - I've added them!]

Last week G and I went to HomeGoods in search of lighting options for our living room. We ended up purchasing a rug that had been marked down to $100. It's not exactly what I had imagined for our living room, but the colors couldn't be better and the price was unbeatable, so we stuffed into our little Neon and brought it home. I still think it looks like something my grandparents would have owned, but it's growing on me more and more.

Now that we have the rug, we're excited to finish furnishing the room. I've mentioned before that I've been searching Craig's List for furniture deals, but we've finally decided to just go with a coffee table and matching side tables from Target.

[source]

They are from the same line of furniture as the console table in our entryway, so that will help to create a sense of cohesion between the two spaces. Additionally, they're currently 15% off and qualify for free shipping, so we like them even more.

Catching Up

2010-04-16T04:45:00.000-07:00

I feel as though I owe my faithful readers some updates, so here goes:

1. I love my subbing assignment. If money were no issue, I didn't have my existing education loans to pay off and/or I had full funding for another degree, I would apply for admittance into a special education licensure program. I've only felt this certain about something one other time in my life (knowing that G was supposed to be my life partner), and I honestly think that special education is my vocational calling. I love the challenges I encounter with each new student I work with, I truly enjoy building relationships with my students, and I leave the school feeling a sense of fulfillment and joy.

2. Our gardens are starting to look more and more beautiful. In the past 5 days, our front garden has gone from looking like this:

to this - look closely, you'll see some change:

...and just yesterday these blossoms appeared on one of the bushes:

The light in the picture isn't great, but those flowers are a dark purple and they are lovely. I love coming home to them! I'm hoping to make good progress with gardening projects this weekend.

3. I'm not sure what's going on, but I have more pimples on my face right now than I ever did as a teenager. Earlier this week I bought a Burt's Bees' herbal blemish stick and I've been surprised by how effective its been. Definitely recommended.

[source]

4. I had my stitches removed on Wednesday morning, which meant I was back on the treadmill that night. After 8 days of no exercise running 5K wasn't as easy as it once was. I'm so glad I can exercise again - I feel so much better when I spend some time at the gym.

5. I've been working on a number of sewing projects, including some more booties. I'll try to post about them sometime next week. No promises.

Prepping the Garden

2010-04-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

This is how I spent my Thursday night:

The mountain of leaves that covered our garden has been reduced to a small hill. I'm hoping my dad's tiller will take care of the rest of the stuff this weekend. At this point most of what is left is blackened, heavy organic matter. One pitchfork of that stuff must be around three pounds. Twenty pitchforks full of organic matter into one bag yields an extremely heavy bag. Eleven full bags (ten are in the picture, and one is in the garbage bin at the end of the driveway) carried just under 1/2 acre from the garden to the mailbox equals one very tired, very fatigued me.

My husband is in for quite the surprise when he returns from tennis. When he left at 8:00, I had filled two bags and moved them to the patio. I managed to fill the remaining 9 bags by 9:00 and get them all moved to the mailbox. From this point forward, all lawn clippings and leaves will be removed fro our yard in the fall, and not just relocated until the spring. That was a dumb thing to do. Lesson learned!

Here's to hoping the rest of the crap on the garden can be mixed in with the soil. I want to get our garden started this Sunday!

2010-04-08T05:55:00.001-07:00

I got nothin' for you today, except for this video. It's apparently been viral for a while, but - as usual - I just heard about it.

G took a picture of me this morning, mostly so I could see just how distracting my bandage really is. Yup, pretty bad. Maybe I'll post it later, because I'm also wearing a really cute Nick & Mo top I got on super-sale at Nordstrom Rack earlier this week. Until then, have a great Thursday!

New look

2010-04-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Check out the look I'll be rockin' for the next 24 hours:

This is what happens when you have a cyst removed from your eyebrow area. I didn't dare take the picture straight on - having the entire upper right quarter of your face sterilized for a medical procedure doesn't exactly do awesome things for one's appearance. The kids at school (who, by the way, have big attitudes and no manners) are going to have so much fun with my temporary look. Fortunately, I didn't have to go to school this afternoon. It's a half-day, and since I'm a sub I don't have to go to any training sessions. Nice. Tomorrow will be interesting, though...

After my appointment I went to Target to pick up some Tylenol and the woman at the checkout counter asked me if anyone had ever told me I look like Julia Stiles. I told her that I'd heard that a few times before, but that it had been a while. That got me thinking that I should look at some pictures of Julia Stiles online while researching hairstyles for my haircut tomorrow evening. For those of you who know me, do you think I can pull this one off (sans highlights)?

[source]

I'm still not convinced I look like her, but it's a nice complement. Feedback on the hairstyle, please!

Recipe: Whipped Marscarpone Topping

2010-04-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

My parents used to own an avocado green waffle iron. I remember thinking it was ancient back in the 1980s, and they didn't replace it until I was in college. When I was a kid, my dad would pull it out from the cupboard every Saturday morning and make a huge batch of waffles. We'd eat waffles until we were stuffed and then he'd freeze the rest for the upcoming week (Eggo ain't got nothin' on my dad's frozen waffles). Over the weekend I reminisced about those Saturday mornings. Not sure why those memories popped into my head, but I'm glad they did! G and I ended up having breakfast for dinner both Saturday and Sunday. We used our heart-shaped waffler, which my parents gifted me with for Christmas a few years ago:

The batch we made on Sunday were amazing. We topped them with the leftover whipped filling I made for our Easter dinner and drizzled a little pure maple syrup on top for good measure. So, so yummy. To make the filling/topping I combined 8 ounces of marscarpone, 1/2-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Slather a little bit (or a lot) of that on your waffles and you will be in heaven. I'm so hungry for it right now.

Instead, I'm eating a toasted leftover waffle with peanut butter, bananas and pure maple syrup. Probably a better option, but I don't think anything could beat that whipped filling I made on Sunday.

Vera Bradley Sale

2010-04-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I am loving this school's late start time. I just received an email from Vera Bradley about a one-day sale for this purse:

[source]

I really like this purse, and I'd totally get it in cupcake green or raspberry fizz. Springy colors.

Healthy Nest: Keeping Accountable Week 4

2010-04-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

I hit the 60 mile mark last night! No big goals this week. I'd like to squeeze in two spin classes and another four days of running.

Monday, March 29: 4.1 miles, upper body strength training.
Tuesday, March 30: Day off.
Wednesday, March 31: 3.1 miles, lower body strength training.
Thursday, April 1: Spin class
Friday, April 2: Day off.
Saturday, April 3: Run 5 miles, sit ups. (I missed spin class.)
Sunday, April 4: Run 4.1 miles outside.

The case of runner's toe I mentioned last Monday continues to cause me some pain. Unfortunately, I developed a second case of runner's toe on Wednesday. Same foot. Two little piggies right next to each other. (I'll spare you pictures of my own toes, but if you want to see what runner's toe looks like, click here. Thank god for nail polish!) I really don't think there's much I can do about it, so I'll just have to tough it out until the pain starts to subside. I had a case of this last June and although my toenail stayed black for a long time, the pain eventually went away. No pain, no gain, right? ;)

By the way, my 6:00 AM phone call was positive! I go in for the week and then the company I work for will check in to see if I want to continue for the remaining nine weeks. Yeah! I'll try to keep this updated, but it might not be everyday. You'll just have to check back and see... And leave comments, people. They're my candy!

Friday Ramblings

2010-04-02T06:10:00.002-07:00

Update: You must also check out this blog: male pattern boldness. It makes me extremely happy.

1. Are back massages worth the money? I loved mine this morning, but I'm not sure I'm ready to fork over $40 for 30 minutes of muscle rubbing more than once every few months, even if it was heavenly.

2. Someone sent me the link to this video this morning, and I thought it was hilarious. Watch it. I signed up for Twitter back in the fall of 2008, but used it like 5 times. I don't think I could log back into my account if my life depended on it.

3. We're hosting Easter dinner at Casa K this year. Both of our families are coming, and I am very excited! On the menu? Radish crostini for after church, maple-glazed roasted ham, warm herbed potato salad, asparagus with garlicky butter and a tortellini salad (as the optional protein for those not eating ham, ahem) for lunch, and a strawberry custard pastry for dessert. Wanna come over? My mom dropped off a 12 pound ham, so we'll probably have some to share.

4. I'm so paranoid about leaving the roaster on during church that I'm going on Saturday night and sending all of my family to the Sunday morning service so I can make sure the house doesn't burn down.

5. Our radon test was been submitted yesterday, so I have no excuses for not starting to paint the basement. I'm excited!

6. Last night my husband used "your legs" and "cottage cheesey" in the same sentence. This was not an April Fools joke. The only thing that saved him from a slap on the butt was the look on his face immediately after he spoke the words. Priceless. To his credit, he did describe my legs in the past tense, which hopefully means they're not so cottage cheesey anymore.

7. We made good progress on the landscaping last night. I tackled the big garden in the backyard:

Looks a little better than this, right? Please say yes, because it took me forever. There are still a few things that could probably be pruned, but I want my dad to look at them before I attack them with my clippers.

G and I took on the landscaping in the front yard as a team. In the amount of time it took me to carefully finish pruning two bushes (you can see them in the distance), he did this:

Yesterday morning that area was COVERED with dead growth. It look infinitely better, but I'm afraid it might never look the same as it did when we moved in. I hope I acquire a green thumb quickly. We have the landscaping along the backside of the house to take care of, the removal of the massive pile of leaves on the vegetable garden, and some touch-ups on the circular garden...and then I think we should be set. I hope. I really, really hope.

8. Costly car repairs are one of the most unpleasant surprises ever. This is closely followed by riding in a tow truck at night with a racist mechanic.

9. I was offered an extended sub job that starts next Monday, but the school wanted to review my resume and they never got back to the placement company. They just called to let me know they'll let me know early Monday morning. If they call me at 6:00 AM on Monday to tell me the school ended up hiring someone else, I'll be mighty unhappy!

10. I made so much progress on the second chapter of my dissertation yesterday that I surprised even myself. Unfortunately, I really need access to a copy of Adobe Acrobat so I can convert a survey I developed earlier in the week into a writable pdf document. This one of the major challenges of living 280 miles away from my university. Speaking of writing, I should get back to my chapter...

Happy Friday, and Happy Easter!

Spinning = Sweatfest

2010-04-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

In college one of my friends found a lump in her breast. Scary, huh? Going through that experience with her and knowing that my friend, who happens to be a crazy smart physician, now only wears natural deodorant means that I follow suit. On rare occasions, like our wedding or fancy events, I'll break out the Dove, but on a day-to-day basis I use Tom's of Maine. To be completely honest, if I'm at home all day and I don't have anything going on, I skip it altogether. TMI? Maybe, but I know I'm not the only one.

[source]

On Thursday night, Tom met his real match: the spin bike. After a four month hiatus from attempting a spin class (I tried it for the first time in November and walked out after twenty minutes - spinning is an insane class), I decided to give it a second chance. I've been running pretty regularly and doing some strength training, so I thought I could probably handle an hour of intense cycling. I was also motivated by the fact that my 70+ year-old aunt and uncle go to spinning class THREE TIMES A WEEK.

I survived the class, and I also learned that it's a total sweatfest. I am so glad I chose the bike in the back corner, away from the other people in the class. I was literally dripping sweat off of my arms and face. By the end of the 60 minute work out, I was pretty stinky. And by pretty stinky, I mean really stinky. Despite the stink factor, I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning's class!

Spring has Sprung!

2010-04-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

Do you spy what I spy (besides a shed in need of a coat of fresh paint)?

While surveying the gardening challenges that await us this spring, I noticed there were some green shoots popping up in one of our gardens. I am hoping some of them are my favorite flower, tulips, but I am thrilled to have any spring blooms in our gardens, including these miniature daffodils:

I'm looking forward to seeing what other surprises that will pop up this this spring! This is definitely one of the big perks of moving into a home whose previous owners were gardeners.

My task last night? Removing the brown stuff. Err, starting to remove the brown stuff. There's a lot of dead material that needs to be removed. The giant pile of leaves located behind the circular garden in the above picture? Yeah, they're covering our vegetable garden. In addition to clearing out the veggie patch and the circular garden, I have to take care of the other landscaping that surrounds the entirety of our house. It's going to be a lot of work.

Any green thumbs want to join me for an evening of fun? Pretty please?

An Email Conversation

2010-04-01T06:25:00.001-07:00

I'm posting this email conversation with G that we had yesterday afternoon for those of you who know him. He's recovering from foot surgery and is at the point where he can do more physical activity, so I offered to bring him to the gym with me last night so he could try some different machines. As soon as he started using the apostrophes to shorten his words I knew he was in one of his goofy moods, so I ran with it. The "Kuhl" he refers to is a home building company. We went to one of their homes last weekend on the home tour and they had installed a distressed wood floor in its kitchen. They actually drop heavy rocks on the floor to give it is distressed look, which is the process he's referring to. Maybe I think this conversation is funnier than it actually is, and if that's the case, I apologize for posting it. :) I think Mom V will at least appreciate it.

Here goes:

A: I just remembered that I can bring a guest to LA Fitness tonight for free. You wanna go, or do you want to play some tennis? If we play tennis, I need to leave by 6:20 in order to make it to the gym in time for class.

G: So, if I go to the gym, does it count towards that other 1 free week thing?

A: I don't think so. We'll go to the gym and they'll probably try to sell you a membership. You can just tell them you're trying it out but that you might need more time to check things out. Dawdle like I did. They'll probably offer you a 7-day trial pass (you can tell them I was offered one for a friend or family member).

G: Do they have a track in there?

A: Nope, but they do have elliptical machines and a number of different kinds of bikes you could try. There's also the pool and hot tub if that sounds interesting.

G: Maybe I’ll start with the ellipticals, then switch over to the ‘mills when I got a good sweat goin’. Once I go about 4-5k I’ll probably jump into the pool and do a few laps. Then I’ll probably run around the perimeter of the building a few times and then finish with some weights. They have weights right?

A: Sounds like a plan - they have a boulder-throwing pit, a log-dragging course, and a bus-pulling zone. Will that be enough for your weight lifting needs?

G: I was hoping to hone my lumberjacking skills, so the log dragging will help, but I was hoping they’d maybe have a chainsaw or something I could use.

A: They don't allow chainsaws in the workout area, but they do give you the option of trying to crush the logs with the boulders. I'm not sure if that will help you in your effort to hone your lumberjack skills, but maybe it will help?

G: Hmm.. sounds like a money making plan. I’ll smash the boulders into the logs, then sell the logs as ‘pre-stressed’ to Kuhl. They can then use the wood in fancy houses.

A: You are so brilliant! Now come home to me so we can have dinner and go to the gym.

Things I Like: Sew Liberated Patterns

2010-03-31T04:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Crafty Planet with a specific mission: find 1.5 yards of fabric for a gift that I'm working on. While perusing the amazing fabric selection, books, supplies and patterns, I came across this beauty:

[source]

I am in love with this tunic. I must have stared at the picture for several minutes. It's so me! I even opened the packaging and took out the pattern and instructions to see if it was a manageable project. I decided it was something I could handle, but I couldn't bring myself to buy the pattern. You better believe I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since...

Anyone up for a trip to Crafty Planet?

The Food Revolution!

2010-03-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of downtime when I lived in Norway. A lot of downtime. The apartment I lived in had a small TV that picked up one channel with its antenna. That channel occasionally aired three English-speaking shows: Full House reruns, a BBC documentary on Downs Syndrome (always, never anything else), and Jamie Oliver's cooking show.

I love Jamie Oliver. I love his accent, I love the food he cooks, I love his shows. You know how excited some people get about 24, Lost and The Office? Yeah, that was me with Jamie Oliver in the summer of 2003. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned about his new show on ABC. Anyone else watched it? How about those chicken nuggets? Yummy.

[source]

I'm number 15 in line in our library system for his latest and greatest contribution to healthy eating and I am so excited for the day it becomes available. So is G, because he cannot wait for the proportion of vegetables he consumes to keep climbing. I kid, but it's happening whether he likes it or not.

Anyone else a big Jamie Oliver fan?

My Monday Evening

2010-03-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I drove to the far north side of the Cities to pick up some furniture I found on Craig's List. I just couldn't pass up two cute side tables and a coffee table for $15. Don't worry, I was going to meet the woman outside in a highly populated area. I would have been completely safe.

Would have, but I never made it to my destination. You see, I stopped at a Target to break my $20 so I had exact change and when I returned to the car it refused to start. It pretended to, but the engine wouldn't turn over. I tried it several times. I called G. I called my dad. I called our insurance company. I learned that my car but not my husband's car had roadside assistance (?) and since I was driving his car, I decided to try other options before resorting to a tow truck. I found a group of nice looking people walking near the entrance of the store and asked if they wouldn't mind jumping my car. I bought new cables. The friendly people tried. It didn't work. I called our insurance company again. The woman I spoke with arranged for a truck to meet me in the parking lot, and when I asked her about payment for the service she said it was covered. I was a little perplexed, but decided not to challenge her. The tow truck driver arrived, asked me to start the car so he could get an idea of what might be wrong. . .

. . . and it started.

We decided that he should take the car since the insurance company was covering the tow (you better believe I triple checked to make sure that was actually the case) and we didn't really know what was wrong with the car. The last thing I wanted was for the car to breakdown while I was cruising south on 35W. I spent the next half hour learning about the ins and outs of the towing business and being surprised that people actually pronounce Arab with a long "A" at the beginning. I arrived home sans furniture, but safe, and now I'm looking forward to a nice morning at the repair center.

Weekend Recap

2010-03-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

I had a fabulous weekend!

I've had a fairly persistent problem with my upper back muscles since last summer. It comes and goes and last Thursday it really started to bother me. I'm not sure what brought it on, but I'm guessing it had something to do with standing on my feet for most of the week and chasing hyperactive first graders. By Friday, one of the teachers I was assisting convinced me that I needed to see a chiropractor and gave me the name of a guy she thinks is "incredibly amazing." I'd never been to a chiropractor, but the pain was so stinking intense I decided I would stop by his clinic on my way home. That ended up being a brilliant decision. The doctor was out for the weekend, but his message therapist was working. Despite the fact she was booked for the remainder of the afternoon, after listening to my description of my problems she graciously offered me a free ten minute chair massage. It was heavenly. Why have I never done that before? She confirmed that all of my upper back muscles are extremely tight and she located the "string of knots" that are the source of my discomfort. She worked on them until her client arrived. I made an appointment for a full session later this week. I'm totally jazzed about it. In the mean time, I've been instructed to drink 70 ounces of water a day, ice my upper back for three fifteen minute periods each evening, and take Epsom salt baths. I think I can handle this kind of therapy.

On Saturday one of my girlfriends came up for a day of shopping. We started off at an estate sale in Golden Valley. It turned out to be a bit of a bust. Despite our early arrival, everything that was remotely interesting to us had a sold tag on it. We probably wouldn't have bought anything anyway as it all reeked of cigarette smoke. The hunt for a coffee table and side tables continues. I am determined to find something second hand.

We had lunch at the Punch Pizza in NE Minneapolis. Man, I love that place. I almost always order the Siciliana, but I was a little adventurous that day and tried the Adriatica. Heaven. I could eat that stuff every single day.

After devoring our lunch, we went to Crafty Planet. I wished I lived closer to that store. Despite its small size, I could have spent hours looking at fabric and felting supplies. It was wonderful. I picked up some fun fabric that I'll (try to) share later in the week.

[source]

Our afternoon ended with trips to TJ Maxx (I am determined to find my seagrass baskets!) and IKEA. No big purchases, but I did find some new juice glasses. Is it odd to be so excited about cheap glasses? They're simple, inexpensive and look nice. Just how I like 'em. The husband gave them his seal of approval, so I'll be making a return trip to the store later this week to pick up some more.

On Sunday we slept in and then visited a few of the remodeled homes that were part of the Parade of Homes tour. It's so much fun to visit remodeled homes and imagine the potential for our little abode...

Healthy Nest: Keeping Accountable Week 3

2010-03-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

I missed my mark, but I was much closer to reaching it than I was the previous week! I'm not going to set a goal for next week so I don't feel quite so guilty. Despite not meeting my goals, I think I've been making good progress...

Monday, March 22: Run 3 miles/arms, back and core strength building.
Tuesday, March 23: Run 2.5 miles/legs and core.
Wednesday, March 24: Day off.
Thursday, March 25: 3.5 miles/back and upper arms.
Friday, March 26: I corralled children at a bowling alley all afternoon - that must count for something, right?
Saturday, March 27: Day off.
Sunday, March 28: 3.1 miles/legs.

Weekend recap later today!

I have a secret...

2010-03-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

I love working in elementary schools.

I spent last Friday bowling and making craft projects with the first graders at the school where I was subbing. I had a fabulous week, but helping the kiddos make coffee filter butterflies and craft bugs out of egg shell cartons and pipe cleaners was the highlight of my week. Such creative little minds. The teacher and I made butterflies, too. I brought mine home and we hung it on the refrigerator. I can't wait until our refrigerator is plastered with our own kids' art. Joy!

There's a certain innocence about first graders that I just love. My main charge and I used the word "secret" as a reminder to him to stay focused on one of his personal objectives (I won't go into any details). We always whispered it, but apparently we weren't quiet enough. On Wednesday, a different student approached me and told me that she had a secret she wanted to share. She must have overheard us whispering our code word and decided I needed to know her secret.

It turns out she's a real princess. Only her parents and I know.

I was obviously very surprised at her confession and totally thrilled and honored to be in the presence of royalty. I vowed never to divulge her secret to her classmates. For the rest of the week she would randomly approach me and whisper "secret."

On Friday afternoon, a little boy in the class decided that he needed to share a secret with me, too. Again, I had to vow not to share his secret with anyone in the class.

He informed me that his dad is the Vice President. Of the United States.

I asked him what it was like to be Joe Biden's son and he looked at me like I was crazy. When I told him that the VP's name is Joe Biden, he said "Oops. I meant he's the vice president of something else that's really big." He then lowered his head and whispered a reminder to me that this was our secret.

First graders. I love them and their creative little minds.

Felt Baby Booties

2010-03-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Remember the shower I mentioned yesterday? I also gave Jenny and Joe this little pair of booties that I made:

I used a Simplicity pattern for the basic form of the shoe, but ended up changing the measurements so that I could have finished edges on the upper part of the shoe. I also hand stitched some satiny ribbon around the seems on the base of the shoe to give it a more finished look and to keep the baby's feet more comfortable. I made the flowers by hand and added clear beads to their centers for a little extra embellishment. The outer shoe and flowers are felt and the inner shoe is a brightly colored funky tie dye fabric. I wish I had more friends having babies - they were fun to make!

The Green Demon

2010-03-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I unlocked my car, dumped my bags onto the back seat, and opened the front door. Suddenly its hazard lights started flashing and the alarm was blaring. Having experienced this before, I slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. Starting the engine should have caused the alarm to stop blaring, but it didn't. I turned the car off. The alarm kept going.

I opened the garage door and reversed.

The alarm kept going.

I turned off the car.

It kept going.

I opened the car doors and shut them.

It kept going.

I started the car again.

It kept going.

My neighbors started to emerge from their houses to see what was happening.

I waved at them as my car's horn beeped and lights flashed.

I called my dad, foolishly thinking he would be able to help me from afar. No luck.

It just kept going and going and going.

It felt like forever, but it probably only lasted a few minutes. When I realized I couldn't control the problem I started to get really nervous because I had to be at my subbing job in less than 20 minutes. My dad suggested that I just drive to work with the alarm on, but there was absolutely no way I was going to drive down any road with my car's lights madly flashing and the alarm blaring. I probably would have caused everyone to clear out of my way allowing me to get to work in time, but can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been?

There's a reason we call it The Green Demon.

Weekend in Review

2010-03-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

My weekend started a little early with trip to my hometown to visit my parents and my favorite aunt, who was visiting from Chicago. We attended an impressive production of Once Upon a Mattress on Thursday night and spent the next morning wandering around town looking for good deals. Unfortunately, there were none to be found. I left after lunch in order to avoid rush hour traffic and made it home just in time to greet my husband as he returned from work. We had an impromptu date night that involved dinner at Chipotle (I'm a cheap date), a trip to REI to purchase new shoes for the boy, and a stop at Babies-R-Us to find some gifts for a shower I attended on Saturday.

Let me just say that Babies-R-Us is one of the most overwhelming places I have ever visited. My friend, Jenny, wrote me an after they registered in which she exclaimed that she had no idea there were so many different kinds of butt paste. I laughed, but when I got lost in the butt paste aisle I realized that she wasn't kidding. There's an impressive selection of different butt pastes. I can't imagine there's that much demand for such a product, but I guess it must be a fairly competitive market.

After I navigated my way out of the butt paste aisle, I decided to just find the book section. Books are always safe gift ideas, especially when the baby's mama studied English in college. On my way to the book section I had to pass through a sea of pink and blue clothing. As I was about to emerge from the infant boys' section I stumbled upon the cutest little pink Minnesota Twins baseball hat. The baby's parents might not be into the color pink, but the dad is a fan of the Twins so I knew it was a perfect gift. I picked out the book based exclusively on the cover's picture, which turned out to be a stupid idea. It turns out the book was meant to help kids feel comfortable with the idea that parents can love all of their children equally. I know the baby won't understand the words of the book for quite some time, but I still felt pretty dumb for buying her a book that is meant for a child with one or more siblings. Did I mention she'll be an only child (at least for a while)? For as overwhelming as Babies-R-Us was, I also had fun. I can't wait for the day when we can visit the store to prepare for our own baby's arrival - keep calm, it won't be for a while!

Saturday morning I picked up the guests of honor at the airport and we headed up north for the shower. We arrived early, which was good as my friends got to spend time with their immediate families. It was a casual open house, which was perfect. Jen's mom is an amazing baker and had prepared some fabulous food for the buffet table. I need to raid her recipe box.

One of Jen's sisters decorated the letters in the picture above. Aren't they cute?

There were two diaper cakes at the shower, but this one was my favorite. I really love those little pink sunglasses on the top tier.

We had a very lazy Sunday morning. I ran errands while G hung out at home and rode his bike. I went to TJ Maxx to pick up some baskets to finish my decluttering project, but they had sold all of the baskets I had hoped to purchase. Drats! I'll have to track them down elsewhere...

That afternoon we met my parents and my little brother in Minneapolis for dinner at The Melting Pot to celebrate my parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary (!). We had two different cheese fondues, three different entree fondues (two veggie, one surf and turf, and one seafood), and two chocolate fondues for dessert. I wasn't a big fan of the cheese course, but I enjoyed the main course and I loved the chocolate.

I will gladly eat this passion fruit-infused chocolate fondue any day of the week. Now I'm inspired to break out the fondue pot we received as a wedding present. Fondue and games anyone?

After dinner, G suggested we take the train up to Target Stadium to check out the new ballpark. I'm not a big baseball fan, but after seeing the stadium I'm kind of excited about going to a night game. It really is a beautiful structure.

After taking the train back to our park and ride, we went home and prepared for the busy week ahead. I'm going to start the week off on the right foot and attempt a four mile run tonight. We'll see how it goes...

Healthy Nest: Keeping Accountable Week 2

2010-03-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't meet my goal for the week. I failed. Miserably. I was feeling icky last Monday, I subbed on Wednesday and had a band concert that evening, and I spent Friday and Saturday trying to nurse my most recent case of runner's toe. Someday I should go to Running Room and find out what kind of shoes I should really be wearing.

Here's the breakdown for last week:

Monday, March 15: Day off (sick).
Tuesday, March 16: Run 3 miles, strength training for arms and core.
Wednesday, March 17: Off.
Thursday, March 18: Run 2.5 miles, upper back and leg strength training.
Friday, March 19: Off.
Saturday, March 20: Off.
Sunday, March 21: Off.

That is embarrassing. This week I'm going to try and recover the 4.5 miles I missed the previous week and finish the 10 I originally hoped to add to my total mileage. We'll see how my toe holds up!

Things I Like: Rogue Chocolatier

2010-03-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

Another good reason to visit home?

So I can eat my mother's chocolate.

[source]

If you ever come across Rogue Chocolatier Hispaniola or Sambirano, do not hesitate to purchase multiple bars. Do not look at the price tag. Just pick up one bar of each, proceed to the checkout counter, and hand over your check card. It's amazing. AMAZING.

And if you ever need a small gift for my husband, this is it. He has suddenly become a connoisseur of dark chocolate. Earlier this week - out of nowhere - he even talked about the finishing flavors of one of the bars I recently purchased. If I brought this home he would squirrel it away and I'd never see it. Ever. It's that good.

Home Projects: Dining Room I

2010-03-18T14:56:00.001-07:00

I'm at my parents' home for the night. My mom is performing in the pit orchestra for the local high school's production of Once Upon a Mattress, and being the good daughter that I am, I decided to attend the opening night performance. I'm sure that for every 1 concert of hers that I've attended she's probably been to 100 of mine, so I owe her. Big time.

Going home also meant that I could check out some furniture that my dad offered to us when we moved into our house last August. I initially told him "no," but in February I started rethinking my plans for the kitchen and decided his old dining room table might be a good fit. You see, I was originally very committed to placing a Parsons table in our dining room...

[source]

...and while I still love the look of the table (and the room above), after shifting course with the style of our living room, I decided we needed something with a little more character. With that said, I would like to introduce you to our newest piece of furniture, our dining room table:

It's been sitting in the basement of my parents' house for as long as I can remember, which makes sense since my dad bought it before I was born. It never really served its intended purpose, but it definitely worked well for art projects, folding laundry, and keeping things away from our dogs. No one is really sure how old the table is, but we do know it's solid oak. When it's fully collapsed it's a square that can probably seat around 6, but you can add two table leaves that will increase seating to 10 (at least it looks like it will).

Here's a close up of one of its five legs. I'm in love. So simple, yet so much character.

Unfortunately, the top of the table is going to require a little TLC. One of the slats is warped and needs to be repositioned and secured. The good news is that my dad thinks we can tackle that project this summer. It also (obviously) needs a bath, some linseed oil, and a few coats of fresh varnish. I am really excited to see what it looks like in our home!

Home Projects: Minimzing Kitchen Clutter

2010-03-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our house last August, we knew the kitchen would pose the most difficult challenge for us because it was significantly smaller than our apartment's kitchen. We managed to find spots for all of our essential items, but had to store many of our small appliances and tools elsewhere. It's a bit of a pain when I want to bake and have to scrounge around for certain pieces of equipment, but it's not a huge problem. Even though our kitchen is ugly and cramped it's fully functional and we're not ready to invest in a big renovation project at this point. If it's not broken, why fix it, right?

The fact that I spend a lot of time in our tiny kitchen means that the counters and the tops of the refrigerator and microwave collect clutter. Lots and lots of clutter. It drives both of us crazy, but we just don't have a lot of free space so keeping the kitchen tidy is challenging. It just collects. Rapidly. One day it's spotless and the next it's a disaster zone. My mission this week is to tame the kitchen's clutter causing trouble spots.

Last Saturday, while surveying the stock at TJMaxx HomeGoods, I found a large, shallow seagrass basket. I immediately knew that it would be perfect for holding the boxes of saran wrap, tin foil, wax paper, plastic baggies and hot pads that have lived on top of our microwave since last August.

Take note of that other clutter to the left of the microwave. Included in that pile are four candle holders, a spool of thread, my grocery list, a thermostat, two boxes of pewter serving pieces, a set of cheese knives, and my copy of Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. Oh, the irony.

On Sunday, I cleared off the top of the microwave and put everything in the basket. I also tidied up the pile of stuff to the left of the microwave. The basket really makes a difference, I think.

But now I want to tackle all of the messy areas of our kitchen, including this disaster zone (the clean dishes aren't usually there, but everything else is)...

...and this mess of stuff (I'm betting at least half of the boxes contain 1/4 cup or less of whatever is in them - my husband very kindly saves me the last bits just in case I might want them - so they should be easy to clean up)...

Tidying up these spaces will make a big difference, I think. I hope. Any tips for managing kitchen clutter?

Target Loveliness

2010-03-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

I have a longer post that will go up tonight, but I just don't have time to finish it this morning. It involves a lot of pictures, and while I would love to finish it up right now I really need to focus on my dissertation research. In the mean time, check out this shower curtain I found at Target:

[source]

I love it, but I am 110% sure that my husband would gasp in horror if I suggested putting it in our bathroom.

I discovered it last night after checking out the new Liberty of London products at Target. One of my best friends is having a baby girl in a few months and her shower is this weekend. Wouldn't one of these dresses make a cute gift?

I'm not sure how I ended up looking at shower curtains after looking at infant girls' clothing, but that kind of thing will happen at target.com. It's like a black hole. I just get sucked in and one search leads to another.

Healthy Nest: Keeping Accountable Week 1

2010-03-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

I woke up early, made an egg, cheese and sausage omelet for G., and started to get to work on CHAPTER TWO of my dissertation when I was overcome with a very sudden urge to purge. Not to be too gross, but I haven't vomited since I was 15, so I was probably a little overdue for a date with the garbage can. What a way to start the week!

Every Monday morning, I'm going to update my blog with the previous week's exercise stats. I call my dad almost daily to keep him informed about my progress with my running goal, but I figured it would be good to document it elsewhere - why not here? I didn't give too much thought to exactly how I would record the information, but here goes:

Monday, March 8: Run 3 miles of intervals*, followed by brisk walk; core strength training.
Tuesday, March 9: Bike 20 minutes; 20 minutes strength training for arms and legs
Wednesday, March 10: Run 2.5 miles, brisk walk for 20 minutes.
Thursday, March 11: Day of rest.
Friday, March 12: Run 4 miles; 20 minutes strength training (legs and arms)
Saturday, March 13: Run 4.5 miles (4 straight, .5 at pace of 8 mph following brief brisk walk); strength training for 20 minutes (legs and core)
Sunday, March 14: Day of rest (unintentional, daylight savings must have hit me hard because I was exhausted)

* I run my intervals based on distance, not time, so I can keep track of how many miles I'm actually running. For example, I might run .50 miles at a pace of 7 mph and then walk .20 miles at a pace of 4.0 mph before running .25 miles. I always run quarter-mile increments as it's easier to keep track of in my head.

I'm up to 25 miles for the first 2 weeks of tracking, which I think is reasonable. Given the events of this morning, I'm not sure I'll be adding on to that mileage today but I think 10 miles is a reasonable goal for this week.

Ramblings

2010-03-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

I cannot find the words to adequately describe how very badly I want to see this movie:

Ellen Page and Kristen Wiig in a movie about roller derby girls? I hope it's available through Redbox soon...

In other news, I've nearly finished the first complete draft of one of my dissertation chapters, I had an interview for a temp job with an interesting company this morning, we're meeting with our new tax guy later this afternoon, I'm seriously contemplating having real bangs for the first time in 17 years, and we have what appears to be a rapidly growing pond in our backyard.

Exciting times.

Home Projects: Living Room Window Coverings

2010-03-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

I hate our office. Our office chair doesn't fit under my super cool desk, I don't care for the color on the walls, and the lighting is horrible. I realize these are all fixable things, but I can't tackle renovating the office until I've painted the basement. That's just how I work. Anyway, my dislike of our office means that I often spend my days working in the dining room, which feels less dungeon-like.

A week ago, I was typing away and something moving past the living room window caught my eye. I looked up and saw "Pete," the self-proclaimed neighborhood watch dog, walking down the middle of the street holding his can of beer. I watched him stop in front of our house and stare at it for what felt like a long time. When I realized he was staring at the house, I slowly backed my chair up so I was hidden behind the wall that divides the living from the kitchen and prayed he hadn't seen me watching him. Pete can talk forever and I didn't want him to see me and feel the need to explain why he was staring at our house. Hiding was necessary. After a few moments had passed, I poked my head around the corner and saw that he had turned around and was staring at the house across the street. It was at that moment that I decided I needed to expedite our search for some curtain rods so we could increase our level of privacy. Neighbor or not, I don't really like people staring into our house. It's a little creepy.

I've been searching for curtain rods since January 28, when we finally finished mounting the hardware for the rods my aunt gave us last fall. Having never mounted curtain hardware, we approached the project with great caution – or what we thought was great caution. We measured the length of the panels, we positioned the brackets so the curtains would hang just right, we brought out the tape measure and level to make sure the spacing between the brackets was perfect and that each individual bracket was positioned straight up and down. Unfortunately, despite our attempt to be perfect, we screwed up. Big Time. How we managed to measure the length and width of the curtain panels but not the length of the actual curtain rod is beyond me. My dad came up to help with the last bit of the installation process and we decided we’d surprise G and have the curtains hung by the time he got home from work. We slipped the sheer curtain onto the rod and I climbed up to slide it into mount. My dad held the middle piece and slid the other end through the openings…only to discover that the parts didn’t meet. There was a foot gap between one of the rod and the middle joining section.

Because the hardware was an absolute pain in the butt to firmly secure on the wall (G insists they are a permanent fixture and will be sold with the house), and because I had just finished painting the room and didn't want to spackle and paint again, we opted to leave them up and search for new rods that had a matching finish. Unfortunately, the PB rods that extend to 120" are pretty pricey, so I offered to look for a less expensive alternative. It took forever. On Monday of this week, I found some on sale at Jo-Ann’s (of all places). They're not great quality, but I couldn’t pass up the price. I only installed one because I wanted to see what other people think of them. The color of the rod matches the scrolled hardware pretty well, but I need help with the finials. I'm going to wait to install the second rod until I know what finials I'm going to use.

Here's the scrolled finial that came with the rod:

And here's the ball from the original PB rods (just to give you an idea as to the difference in quality, this little ball finial weighs about as much as half of the curtain rod from JoAnn's):

Here are my options:

1) All ball finials

2) All scrolled finials

3) Scrolled finials in front and ball finials in the back

I'm so excited to have some privacy back!

Meatballs and Marinara

2010-03-10T07:04:00.000-08:00

Marriage is about compromising, right? One of - if not the - biggest compromises we make is in the kitchen. My diet is mostly vegetarian, with eggs and a little chicken (and maybe the occasional piece (err, pieces) of bacon) thrown in for extra protein. G is a carnivore who likes his hamburgers medium rare and never misses an opportunity to offer me a chunk of pink animal flesh. Since G and I have been married, I've had to be creative in the kitchen. I've also had to be increasingly flexible with what I consider vegetarian. A classic example of this is the recipe below, which is for meatballs and marinara sauce. I don't eat the meatballs, but I do eat the sauce they float around in. Three years ago, I would have prepared, served and stored the sauce and meatballs separately. This no longer happens. It's too time consuming, and frankly, while I don't see myself biting into a meatball anytime in the immediate future, I don't notice any of the juices they release into the sauce. Marriage is teaching me how to be more flexible, and that is a good thing.

You might be wondering what kind of compromises G makes. Suffice it to say his reaction to our freezer full of organic vegetables - especially the peas, they're his kryptonite - often involves loud sighs and occasionally swearing. Just last week, I watched him open the freezer door, survey the recently stocked shelves of Trader Joe's organic foursome, and then release an audible sigh followed by him saying "oh my god" under his breath.

But really, if one of the biggest compromises we have to make for each other comes down to vegetables and red meat juice/bits, that's awesome, right? I think so.

On to the recipe! I intended to take pictures, but the diced tomatoes I used for this batch of sauce made it look rather industrial and not pretty. To be totally honest with you, they actually didn't taste very good, either. Alas, I promised a friend I'd post the recipe, so here it is:

Marinara (my own recipe)

2 large cans diced tomatoes and juices*
1 small yellow onion, chopped**
1 cup kalamata olives
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine

*I almost always use Nature's Harvest canned tomatoes w/ basil (available at Cub), but opted to use Muir Glen last night because they were on super sale. Bad move. If your grocery sells Nature's Harvest, use it, it is perfect for this recipe.

**Depending on what's in our refrigerator, I also add spinach and/or carrots.

I make our marinara using both our slow cooker and the stove top. If I'm making meatballs, I will usually put the tomatoes in the slow cooker right away and then move on to prepping the meatballs.

Meatballs (Adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe)

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 1% milk
1/2 lb. ground sausage
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup minced onion
1 minced clove garlic

Mix the bread crumbs and milk until very moist. Add both meats, the egg, both cheeses, the onion and garlic, and a few twists of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the bowl.

Form the mixture into 3/4 inch balls. Cook in EVO over medium heat, turning until all sides are brown. Place the meatballs on a paper towel to drain the excess oil, and cook the remaining meatballs.

When all of the meatballs are cooked, I put the entire plate directly into the refrigerator so they don't sit around collecting bacteria until the sauce is ready (it will be a while).

Drain liquids from the pan used to make the meatballs into a container and return the pan to the stove top over medium-low heat. Add two tablespoons (or more depending on whether or not you use extra vegetables) of EVO, heat, and then add the vegetables (with the exception of the spinach) you want to include in your sauce. Saute until the onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the wine, scrapping the bits off the bottom of the pan, and heat for a few minutes. Add the mixture to the slow cooker. Let the mixture cook for at least three hours over low heat. If you add spinach to the mix, do so when you have one hour of cook time remaining.

I add the meatballs when there's about 30-45 minutes of time remaining. I put half of the cooked meatballs in the sauce, and half in the freezer for a later date.

It might seem like a lot of work up front, but the leftovers last for many days. Let me know if you try it...

Recipe: Creamy Toasted Ravioli

2010-03-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

Last October, I was gifted with a subscription to Cook's Country. While paging through the most recent issue, the recipe for cheesy toasted ravioli with pesto caught my eye, but I didn't have all of the ingredients - including the very important pesto, which I don't think G would even like - so I improvised and came up with a variation I'll call creamy toasted ravioli.

Before the recipe, some advice:

1. After finishing two small helpings, G declared: "My taste buds are full, but my stomach is not." This is rich, people. If you ever make this, you might consider adding some chicken for a little extra protein.

2. Do not eat this meal less than two hours before running 2.5 miles at the gym. It was probably the combination of the gym feeling like a sauna, the significant amount of dairy product being jostled around in my belly, and my less-than-graceful gait that made me feel ill, but it was not pleasant and I do not intend to make that mistake twice.

I bet you're hungry now. ;) Let me introduce you to last night's dinner:

Here's the "formula," as my grandpa would call it:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 package fresh ravioli (I used Trader Joe's 4 cheese and it was perfect for this dish)
1/2 cup cream
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
1-2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Pepper

Formula:

Melt butter in frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ravioli, tossing to coat in butter. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken broth and cream, cover, and cook an additional 4-5 minutes (the ravioli should feel almost tender when touched with a fork). Remove lid and cook until sauce is thickened and ravioli are completely tender, approximately 3-4 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to second highest position. Set broiler to high and warm up the oven.

Pour ravioli and sauce mixture into a broiler-safe dish. Season with pepper and add 3/4 of cheese cubes. Mix. Place tomatoes on top of the ravioli in a single layer. Put remaining cheese on top of the tomatoes. Broil for approximately 3 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Mags, I promise to post the crock pot marinara later this week!

dailyrun

2010-03-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Until July of 2009, I did a decent job maintaining a running schedule. Then I got caught up in a mess of schoolwork and we bought our house and I just never got back into a running routine. A week and a half ago, I started again. I'd really like to stick with it this time, although I'll be the first to admit that it probably won't happen.

Just bein' honest.

In an attempt to log some serious miles (for me) this year, I set a goal of running a minimum of 250 miles before December 31. I signed up with dailymile, a website that allows you to keep track of your runs and post information in the public sphere.

So far I've been fairly good about keeping my log up-to-date, but to help keep me accountable I opted to link my blog to the website. Every time I update my account, it automatically updates the counter on my blog. You'll find it at the bottom of the column on the right of this page. Not that I expect anyone to keep tabs on my mileage - other than my papa, because he is definitely keeping an eye on the number - but if you ever see the number stay steady for more than a few days feel free to get on my case.

17 down, 233 to go.

Yikes.

Home Projects: Closet Organization

2010-03-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

I didn't finish organizing our front closet this weekend, which is a little embarrassing to admit because it's really not that big of a project. I did, however, pick up these baskets to put our hats, tennis balls, and other summer things in:

The green in the leaves matches the paint I'm going to use on the walls in the hallway and spare bedrooms, and they were half off. A perfect purchase.

Mondays are always busy for us, so this post is short. Maybe I'll find some time to finish the closet organization tonight. Maybe...

Embroidery Project Update

2010-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Know what I love? Lazy Friday nights. This afternoon I went to the gym and did some interval running and strength training. Then I ate a giant burrito for dinner. Oops.

As promised, here's an up-to-date picture of my project:

As you can see, I didn't make substantial progress over the last week, but I did finish what was left of the horn, the entire globe and part of the bike. I'm hoping to make some more progress tonight while we watch The Informant.

Tomorrow morning I have a brunch date, and then we're hanging out with our brother T in Rochester for the afternoon. I fully intend to bring both G and T to the TJ Maxx HomeGoods in Rochester to search for another throw pillow, but I'm not going to tell them we're going there until we're actually in Rochester. :)

I think we're going to the Como conservatory on Sunday to see what's in bloom. I'm excited!

My other plans for the weekend aren't very exciting. The change in weather and this post have motivated me to clean out our front closest and pack away our thickest winter jackets and a few other things that make it quite cluttered. In addition to clutter control, I'll probably dust the floor trim. Exciting, I know!

Home Projects: Basement Bathroom Inspriration

2010-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Remember earlier this week when I professed my love for TJ Maxx HomeGoods? While I was hunting for throw pillows, I also found some accessories for the basement bathroom. Two events over the past month made me realize that for as much as we dislike the bathroom, we needed to invest in some essential items to make it a more welcoming space. It can no longer be ignored.

#1: We had out of town guests take over our basement for a weekend, and I realized that we had nothing for them to use in that bathroom. We made do, but I had to spend a lot of time scrounging around for a makeshift bathmat, extra hand soap, and toiletries for the shower.

#2: Shortly after our friends left, I overheard my BIL yell at G: "G-d, G, you don't even have a hand towel in this bathroom" (this was also the moment I learned that you can hear just about everything taking place in the basement bathroom while you are in the upstairs bathroom).

Needless to say, I felt a little guilty. We might hate the basement bathroom and we might be two of the cheapest people you'll ever meet, but we also like to be hospitable. Something had to be done.

The bathroom accessories section at TJ Maxx was impressive, and included some high end brands like Ralph Lauren. I found two small bathmats in a really pretty shade of green-blue that were only $10, so I added them to my cart. We'll use on in front of the shower and one in front of the sink.

Having found the bathmats, I decided I should probably look for some towels to match the color. I found these:

I love the print and the colors. And by love, I mean I'm totally inspired to rip out every last tile and shred of wallpaper in an effort to make the bathroom functional and pretty. As a reminder, here are a few pictures of what our bathroom currently looks like:

You actually have to pass through this short hallway to get to the bathroom. In order to to turn on the bathroom light, you have to walk all the way into the bathroom and reach around in the dark until you find the switches. Very convenient, especially for guests who don't know the layout of the bathroom.

I'll be the first to admit this room is ugly, so don't pretend it has good qualities. There's only one...

...and that's the extra storage space we have due to the awkward placement of the water heater. A real door would be nice in that corner, don't you agree?

The duck shelf and organizer thing above the toilet were both "gifts" from the previous owners. We're selling them a our garage sale this June, so if you want them let me know and I'll put a hold sticker on them for you. Just kidding. I'm not even going to show you what's behind that skinny sliding door or what the shower looks like.

Here's a close up of our lovely new towels right next to the super awesome wallpaper border that features deer prancing through the wilderness:

I'm sure you're jealous and wishing you had a country woodlands hunting themed bathroom with a dingy dropped ceiling in your house. I bet you're even more jealous that you don't have towels and bathmats that look quite as awesome as part of the decor. Aren't the towels inspiring, though? The colors and prints are just lovely. They give me hope for this room - I can't wait until we renovate it!

Update on my embroidery project later today!

Ms. O-yee

2010-03-04T06:51:00.001-08:00

I spent the last two days herding preschoolers, reminding them to keep their fingers out of their noses (and to wipe those boogers off their cheeks), gently encouraging them to reconsider whether or not the color brown is really called "pink," asking kids to keep their hands out of their pants and their shirts pulled down over their bellies, and praying their glitter and glue filled hands didn't touch my denim trousers.

Not only did my pants have glitter and glue on them, I also had really stink homemade play dough on my butt and probably every shade of marker imaginable on my legs. Preschoolers are cute, but they have no sense of boundaries and they frequently become distracted by almost anything and forget they need to maintain control of their arms. Ms. O-yee! Ms. O-yee! Jordan has a booger on face! Look, it's right there by his eyeball! This - and many other distracting statements - will invariably involve not only the child making the observation, but every other child within earshot, running over to examine said booger, arms flailing around, knocking things over, transferring glitter and glue to anything within arm's reach, as they struggle to get their face as close to the booger as possible. I also had a little girl come up to me, say Ms. O-yee, I think you're earrings are beautiful, only to discover she wasn't really complementing my earrings, she was just distracting my attention so she could wipe her dirty little hands on my pants. I know this because I asked her to stop using my pants as a towel, she gave me a little smirk that said "I fooled you."

Preschoolers.

And yes, the did call me Ms. O-yee. It probably didn't help that after introducing myself to the kids after I first arrived, the preschool teacher responded with (to the entire classroom): "Boy, that certainly is a strange, excuse me, different, last name, isn't it?" I told them they could call me Ms. K, but the teacher refused to allow that to happen, and so Ms. O-yee I was. It worked, and they were so cute when they said it. So cute.

Decorating Deal: Paisley Throw Pillow

2010-03-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday morning, I mentioned that I still needed to find some throw pillows for our couch. On Saturday afternoon, I went to TJ Maxx HomeGoods with my MIL. I'm in love. The prices were amazing, and I definitely plan on visiting the store again. The sooner the better.

I found this paisley pillow that is comprised of the perfect colors for our living room:

It was half-off. It was meant to be.

The problem is that I only found one. I need two. I called another HomeGoods location on Saturday night to see if they had any in stock. I thought I could just give the woman the style number on the price tag and she'd be able to look it up in the store's computer system, but they apparently don't operate that way. She put me on hold for five minutes and searched their pillow stock. No luck. I felt pretty badly about making her search through the pillows, so I decided not to call any other stores. I didn't want to put anyone else through the same process.

I can't find them online, either, but I just know there has to be another sitting on a store shelf somewhere. If you find a Newport Layton Calista throw pillow, snatch it up and send it my way.

House Projects: Painting the Basement, Part 1

2010-03-01T13:04:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: These pictures are horrendous. We have one window in our basement and it is really challenging to get adequate light that creates pictures that are decent. Keep this in mind as you scroll down - they range from okay to horrible.

These are the paint swatches my MIL and I picked up over the weekend:

Bluish-grays are impossible to work with. Impossible. I know I constantly complain about paint, but I just cannot find a color that looks good in our basement.

The paint chip in the lower right hand corner of the picture - "Yarmouth Blue" - had so much potential. When I put it on the walls of our basement, however, it looked horrible. On the white walls it was way too dark (clockwise from upper right: sunset wheat - what was I thinking?!, Yarmouth, Mt. Rainier gray, and oatmeal):

We need a much lighter paint color. The room is rather big and while we want to make the room feel a little warmer, this particular bluish-gray was just way too dark to cover all of the basement walls. We did, however, think it might work on one section that is covered with wood paneling. The paneling is painted a really, really light mauve (at least I think it's mauve). It's ugly. When I added the Yarmouth blue, it turned into a horrendous shade of light blue. I added primer to the wall with the hope that it might change the color of the paint. THANK GOD FOR PRIMER.

Unfortunately, this is one of the horrible pictures, but it should give you an idea of the contrast:

This picture shows five things:

1. The wall on the north side of the basement was anything but white. Check out the difference between the primer and the original paint color. Anyone who doubted this wall wasn't white should now be convinced of that fact.
2. Our wall has obvious scuff marks that demand some TLC in the form of some wood caulk, a little sanding, and a fresh coat of paint. Those brown splotches at the top of the picture? Yeah, they're all over that wall.
3. Wet paint definitely reflects light.
4. Primer = Good.
5. I need to work on my photography skills.

Here's a closeup of the paint with primer - the Yarmouth in this picture is actually fairly accurate. The paint looked pretty much the same when it was fully dry.

G came home and agreed it will work for the paneled wall. Now we just have a find a lighter hue that we can use on the other three walls. I'm going to Hirshfield's before I go to the gym tonight and I'm hoping my favorite color consultant is working. It would make things much easier for me if she could just recommend a few options so I don't end up coming home with umpteen paint chips again.

Projects: The K Family's Coat of Arms

2010-02-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

This is our couch and the lovely new pillows we picked up at PB:

I love the pillows, but I think the couch needs a few smaller throw pillows to give the space a more cohesive look. I'm really not sure that's the best word. What I mean is that I think it needs patterned pillows that contain the colors of the couch, the wall and a little bit of gold to tie it all together. Make sense?

Initially, all I could think about was this pillow (it doesn't exactly meet the aforementioned criteria, but is colorful and lovely)...

[source]

...which I have been in love with since I first saw it several years ago. Cat Studio's geography line is awesome, but it's also a little pricey for a decorative pillow. So, a few weeks ago I decided to attempt my own embroidered pillow. I'm that dumb.* I went to our local library and checked out the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Embroidery Stitches, made a run to JoAnn's to buy floss, fabric and one of those round things you use to keep the working surface tight, and then got to work. Notice that I didn't buy a pattern. Oh no, I decided to make things even more complicated by designing my own. Keep in mind that when I started drawing my pattern I had not even practiced a single stitch.

You know what, though? I'm really enjoying it. I've only been stitching while watching the Olympics at night, so it's been a slow process, but I finally finished outlining the shapes and I've even filled in a couple of the objects (alright, most of one and all of another). Instead of doing a geography theme, I picked symbols that represent each of us: the letter K, a bicycle, a calculator (G's request because it "represents both math and computer science"), French horn, trumpet, tennis racket, globe and a book. Yes, we are nerds.

Here's the template I labored on for three hours two Saturdays ago:

The template itself was no small project. I searched Google for images of the items I wanted to include, printed them, simplified them, and then traced them with pencil onto a sheet of tissue paper. After tracing them with pencil, I went over them again with a thin Sharpie. I think the pattern turned out okay.

And here's the work in progress as of this morning:

I'm not going to lie. It took a long time to trace all of those shapes with black floss. I was a little too eager early on and spent a long time outlining the shapes, only to develop a minor case of wry neck. Since then, I've been good about spending only an hour on it most nights.

My fill stitches are far from exceptional, but they work. Unfortunately, they're loose enough that I'm not going to use the finished piece as a pillow, though. I fear it would unravel quickly, and that would be embarrassing. Instead I'm going to frame it and hang it somewhere. It's not perfect, but it's fun and I've been working hard on it. Plus, it's unique. If anything, it's unique.

This, of course, means I'm back at square one and I need to find throw pillows.

Have you ever taken on a big crafty project with no background experience? Tell me all about it. I can't be the only one!

*I should note that I have a problem with taking on large crafty projects that take on a life of their own and then sit in dark closets for long periods of time. And yet I keep finding more opportunities to start new projects.

Musical Goodness

2010-02-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

This awesomeness is courtesy of my friend, Laura, who always finds the best YouTube videos:

This will be G and me in 60 years, except I'll trade my horn for his trumpet. Oh, wait, he doesn't let me touch his trumpet - and with good reason, his trumpet still looks brand new, and my horn looks like I used it for juggling practice and took a sander to its finish. Wishful thinking.

Three posts in one day must be a record for me.

Home Projects: Picking the the Perfect Gray-Blue

2010-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

It's official: blue-gray paint is a pain in the butt to work with. Once again, I have multiple paint swatches decorating the walls of our basement. And once again, I'm not totally committed to any of the options we've chosen.

We started with this:

[Glidden: Polished Limestone]

The polished limestone doesn't look very bluish-gray on my screen, but it does on the wall. There's too much gray in it, though, and while it looks okay covering small sections of the wall, I'm afraid it wouldn't look good covering all of the walls - it's a big room.

Last weekend I picked up a pint of this:

[Benjamin Moore: Mt. Rainier]

It looked awesome in the store. So, so awesome. I was really excited about it until the clerk handed me the sample can of paint she had just mixed and the color swatch taped to its lid looked totally different than the paint chip. It turns out that Mt. Rainier is actually a baby blue. I'm going to put some on the wall tomorrow and see how it turns out. Maybe I'll be surprised and it will look like the paint chip. Maybe, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

P.S. I'll post about my embroidery project tomorrow morning.

Things I Like: Røros-Tweed

2010-02-26T06:21:00.000-08:00

The summer after I finished college, I lived in Hamar, Norway and worked at a history center. One weekend midsummer I took the train up to Røros, a UNESCO site. The town is neat to visit, but I cut my trip short because I couldn't handle the "affordable" accommodations in the area (log cabins with incredibly old mattresses, one sheet (the top sheet) and no pillow PLUS the possibility of random strangers being assigned to share my cabin with me = not good for this woman). Anyway, while I was there I fell in love with these blankets:

[source]

They were initially very attractive because I had just spent the night wearing multiple layers and wrapped like a sausage in my one sheet (with a shirt wrapped around my head turban style in an attempt to keep my hair from touching the mattress), but I also loved the way they felt on my skin. I had no idea that wool could feel that amazing. Unfortunately, I was living on an extremely tight budget so I couldn't justify buying one. Like everything else in Norway, they're a little pricey.

My mom, who has an incredible ability to retain bits of random knowledge, remembered that I loved them and surprised us* with one after her trip to Norway last fall. It hasn't left our bed since. It has an amazing ability to keep me at a perfect temperature. It feels incredibly soft. It's beautiful. I had to wait six years for mine, but I know I'll have it forever. The quality is amazing. Buy one. You'll initially feel a little guilty when you fork over the money for it, but you certainly won't regret it. This, my friends, is a good investment.

*Who am I kidding? I don't share it with anyone, including my husband.

My New Alarm Clock

2010-02-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

[source]

I've been making good progress with my dissertation writing (awesome, I know!), so I feel like I can spend a little more time updating the blog (which is why there are two posts today!). I'm sure my 2 readers will be thrilled. ;)

I've had a really hard time waking up recently. Our morning routine usually involves me getting up to turn off our alarm clocks (which we keep on the dresser in an attempt to get us up and moving - doesn't work so well), crawling back into bed and promptly falling back asleep until I hear G start the shower. For the past few weeks, I've been falling asleep again and not waking up until just before G leaves for the day. It's been rough.

Last Monday, however, we came up with an awesome plan to get me moving. Now, when G gets up every morning he goes into the kitchen, fills our tea kettle, puts it on the stove, puts out one of my two teapots (thanks G&G B!) and then starts his regular morning routine. Five minutes later, the kettle obnoxiously starts whistling and I have to get out of bed to turn it off. It's a brilliant plan. It also means I get my morning green tea asap as the water is ready to go.

We're so clever.

Politics

2010-02-25T06:00:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I went to one of our local high schools for my political party's precinct caucuses. I arrived hoping to cast my ballot for the straw poll and then bug out before they started talking about the party's platform and policy issues. Let's face it folks, I hate unorganized meetings and listening to people ramble about pointless topics for long periods of time. I decided to vote and then go to yoga.

As I walked into my room of 7 people (so, so much different than 2008), I was approached by my precinct's chair who asked me if I could assist a deaf woman in the room by typing the conversation that took place. I couldn't say no, so I sat down and got comfortable for the meeting.

Note: It turns out the woman I was helping was also legally blind and very invested in Minnesota's political scene. She asked me to nominate her as a delegate for the upcoming convention, and to find out whether or not there would be someone there could assist her for the meeting. I asked about accommodations, and was surprised when the precinct chair said they didn't think that was possible due to budget cuts (he even pondered out loud as to whether they would have someone there if there weren't budget issues AND asked the entire event's organizer who agreed with his response). I typed his response to the woman, and she just laughed it off, saying she would be okay. I was not okay. I then nominated (with her permission) her to the accommodations committee for the upcoming meeting. I figured it was the best volunteer position for her to make her needs known. Jerks.

Sorry about the rant, but it still bothers me.

After the meeting started and we had cast our ballots, the chair asked who wanted to be nominated as a delegate for the next convention. The woman I was helping eagerly raised her hand, but no one else did. In fact, I made it clear that I did not wish to attend the meeting. Somehow my name was added to the list and I have been inundated with phone calls from various candidates and volunteers ever since. I am not attending the meeting and I am so annoyed that I was nominated. They call at all hours of the day. It's gotten to the point where I just don't answer my phone if I have an incoming unidentified number from a metro area code.

I'm annoyed with my party. I hate saying it, but I'm just annoyed. I'm totally committed to most aspects of its platform, but I hate how disorganized it is at this level. I'm most annoyed by the fact that they didn't think they'd be able to offer assistance for the blind-deaf woman. In fact, I'm going to email the SoS right now and voice a complaint.

Apologies again for the rant. Also sorry if I've ignored your phone calls. :)

Weekend Goodness

2010-02-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce you to my new favorite brand of wine, Öko:

[source]

I picked up a bottle of pinot grigio last night, and thought it was absolutely heavenly. Try it. You should also feel more than welcome to bring a bottle (any varietal is fine) with you the next time you come over for dinner or game night. I won't turn it away. I might even let you have some.

We've had a quiet Saturday. G spent his afternoon at the library, and I ran errands. We're about to sit down to a dinner of turbot, roasted fingerling potatoes with garlic, and mixed veggies. I'm looking forward to more Olympic events tonight, watching The Invention of Lying, and working on my embroidery project (a topic for another post).

I promise to post again later this week...

Happy weekend, Friends!

Cosemetic Safety Database

2010-02-04T07:48:00.001-08:00

I have a million and fifteen things I need to accomplish today, but I feel as though this blog is due for a posting.

I can count on my mother for almost anything. One of her favorite things to do is send me articles about maternal health (no worries, not pregnant, she just is always thinking ahead). Today PHN mother just sent me a link to an article that discusses the relationship between mothers who use products that contain phthalates (I had to quadruple check that spelling) and children with behavioral disorders. Scary business.

The article included a link to The Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database. Have a blast looking up all of your skincare products - few things are more insulting than looking up your "all natural," sulfate free, paraban free products and discovering they still don't have exceptional ratings. Good, but not what I was expecting.

Time to tackle my to-do list, which includes finishing and submitting some writing to my adviser, introducing myself to a group of 17 Czech musicians (it's going to be a long weekend!), and organizing and reorganizing 6 full scores of music.

Basement Remodel Part 3

2010-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

A final few details for the basement project:

[Check out how dusty those doors are! Ick!]

In addition to switching out the baseboard (which I really hope happens!), I want to paint the closet doors white. I'm not going to worry about the other doors in the basement, because they'll eventually be replaced.

I'm also going to paint the inside of the closet, which I'm not sure has ever been painted. It's a gigantic storage space and I'm not looking forward to removing all of our neatly packed belongings, but it will look so much better with a coat of paint. Everything looks better with a new coat of paint!

Speaking of paint, I recently discovered that the Glidden website has an online tool to help you visualize color. Check it out, and let me know if you see colors you'd recommend for our basement. I'm still leaning towards "whispering wheat," but I think most neutral colors would work well in our basement.

Basement Remodel Part 2

2010-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

When you reach the bottom of the steps leading to the basement, you end up in this area (note: all of the furniture in these pictures is from the previous owner):

To be honest with you, it's a very awkward space. I'm not even sure how we should make this a functional space. Maybe I'll be more inspired when it's painted a shade similar to Whispering Wheat (click the second box down in the fourth column, and then the second box down in the third column). A new coat of paint will totally change the feel of the basement. I cannot wait.

Our couch sits in the same spot, right beneath that awesome egress window. It lets so much light into the basement. I love it. I'm going to love it even more when it's surrounded by a honey wheat color. :)

Basement Remodel Part 1

2010-01-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

We're saving our pennies for our bigger remodeling projects [in this order, we think: spare bedroom in basement, upstairs bathroom, kitchen, downstairs bathroom], but that's not going to stop us from making progress on the less involved, less expensive projects that can breathe new life into our little home.

We're going to start with the basement. As a whole, the basement needs a lot of work. There's an entire unfinished room that we want to convert into a guestroom/office and the bathroom needs a makeover. A big one. The family room is a manageable project that shouldn't involve considerable time or investment, so we'll get that project taken care first. I'm going to breakdown our renovation projects into multiple posts so I have something to write about later in the week...

Here's what we have in mind the stairwell:

Looks kind of blah, eh?

The upper part of the stairwell leading to our basement is currently a very scuffed up grayish white. I think we're going to paint it something similar to "toasted oatmeal" (click on the upper right box and then choose the fourth one down in the second column; if you click on the paint chip it will expand to cover your entire screen). It looks a bit darker on the screen than it does on the walls, but it works nicely with the color I think we'll use in the rest of the basement.

G really likes white woodwork, and I think we're going to replace the painted baseboards in the basement (at least we've talked about it) with something like this. Doing so will probably mean that we'll need to replace or paint the handrail leading to the basement. Either way, it needs updated hardware.

I'm not sure what to do about the moulding that separates the wood paneling from the upper part of the wall. We can either paint over it, or remove it and use new primed moulding. Opinions?

How do you paint stairwells? I'm looking at the edge between the ceiling and the wall and wondering if it's paint a clean line (if you look closely at the picture it should be apparent this was an issue for the previous homeowners). Tips? Pretty please?

*G has agreed to most of these changes, but some of them (the handrail) didn't occur to me until I was writing this post. I'm sure he'll agree as long as it's within budget. :)

Things I Like: Chocolate Brown Bedding

2010-01-23T13:21:00.001-08:00

Our heating bill doubled last month. I'll be the first to admit I'm probably at fault for the spike. I could be wearing thermal underwear and a snowmobile suit and I'd still feel cold when the temp is set at 70. I'd rather suffer and be cold than open high utility bills, though, so I'm trying to make some modifications to our daily routines.

The last few nights have been especially cold - especially by the window in our bedroom, which is exactly where I sleep. When we moved into our new home, I packed away the duvet cover we'd used at the apartment because it was too warm to use the duvet and the cover looked horrendous with the room's paint color (which we liked). We've been using a thinner blanket from P*ttery B*rn because it's white and looks good with the egg shell blue walls.

Last night, as the winds ripped against the south side of our house (where our bedroom is), I decided I need to bring out the duvet for the remainder of the winter.

I think I need this to cover it:

[Source]

Don't you?

Chocolate brown and egg shell blue go nicely together. And frankly, I think the price of the bedding is pretty attractive. Now if I could just convince my husband that we need it (some help on this front would be appreciated, VK).

Living Room Updates

2010-01-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

My life right now.

Last October I tested three paint colors on the walls of our living room. You might remember this, because I wrote about it here. After three months (!) of contemplating goldish-tinted hues, I marched through the doors at our local Hirshfield's armed with fabric swatches from our furniture and demanded that one of their color consultants pick the color for us. I'm not sure why I didn't try that approach earlier. I left the store with giant paint cards in "abbey stone" and some shade of blue that looked okay in the store, but horrendous in our living room. "Abbey stone," however, appeared to be a good match.

I purchased paint and supplies, prepped the room and walls, and got to work. Wanna know what really sucks about painting? The touch-up work on the walls that takes place before you even open the paint can. I spent a couple of hours spackling, trying to remove hardware and nails from the walls, sanding paint drips and taping. Trust me when I say there are few things more frustrating than rolling your paint brush down the wall and noticing paint drips that you missed.

I found lots of them.

C'est la vie.

I finished my painting job late Thursday afternoon. The husband and I then decided we should update all of the electrical switches and outlets since the original, almond-colored switches and plates were decorated with several colors of paint from many, many years ago. We spent Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday disconnecting and reconnecting wires and screwing in new plate covers. As part of that process, we learned that three-way switches function much differently than regular switches. I'm glad G had the smarts to navigate our way through that process, because I don't think I could have ever figured it out. In addition to requiring a completely different switch, our wires weren't marked correctly so it took some serious thinking combined with a bit of trial and error problem solving to get the switches to work. It's amazing what that update did for that room.

We also removed the paint covered, dated heat registers and installed new ones. One of the covers was an irregular size and replacing it turned out to be a bit of a headache, but as of last night our new one was in place and looked okay. We'll see what our parents think about that particular piece of handy work...

Next up, we need to install the hardware for our curtains. I tried last night, but I don't have the muscle to get the screw into the wall. G is going to try tonight. I'm anxious to attach the hardware so we can clean up the mess/drop cloths, wash the floor, and move our furniture back into the room.

In related news, I just submitted an application for a kitchen renovation television show. Who knows what will come out of it, but I think our kitchen is a good candidate for a full renovation. We'll see what happens!

Four Things:

2009-11-13T05:54:00.000-08:00

1. I'm joining the gym today. This makes me incredibly happy.

2. I'm volunteering this afternoon for five hours. This also makes me happy. The husband was concerned the particular group I've volunteering for was going to take over my life, so he (and this never happens, btw) insisted I choose one day every few weeks to work for them.

3. The two inches of leaves that covered our half-acre lot have been relocated to the garden, where they will rot and turn into compost. I hope. There must be 2-3 feet of leaves covering the entire garden plot. Is it possible for such a big pile of leaves to decompose over winter? I guess we'll find out.

4. After a month of searching, three trips and two phone calls to the PB, we bought our couch:

Isn't it beautiful? The only big piece of furniture that G and I have bought is our mattress and box spring, so this was a big deal for us. We didn't want to buy new furniture when we lived in our apartment because I didn't want to invest a lot of money into decorating a temporary living space. It's taking us a while to put together the living room, but it's kind of fun. For me. Now that we have fabric swatches for the armchair and the couch, we're going to start looking for a rug. That might not be so much fun...

The only bad news about the couch is that its estimated arrival date is January 7.

Have a good weekend! We're spending tomorrow morning cleaning our apartment, and then I'm helping my very pregnant friend with Christmas shopping. Saturday night we're going to game night at our church - hopefully we'll meet some more people our age that live in our area. Good times!

The Gym

2009-11-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the gym near our house. We received a “free pass” in the mail last week inviting us to try it out, and since I’ve wanted to join a gym since leaving our apartment (and it’s free mini gym) I figured I’d make use of the pass.

I knew that using the free pass probably meant that I would get the whole membership spiel and club tour. And I did. Unfortunately for Justin, the guy who tried to sell me a membership, as an intern during college I’d sat through over fifty similar sales attempts and club tours for another major health club chain. In fact, I had also gone through an intensive sales course in which I learned the ins and outs of selling club memberships (just as an aside, this is funny for several reasons: 1) I took the class with people who were certified personal trainers and devoted their life to the gym – I am clearly not that person, and 2) this training included several days devoted to learning how certain pieces of gym equipment exercise certain muscles and required a final “exam” in which each person would walk the other personal trainers through the gym and have to explain/demonstrate how the equipment worked (not my cup of tea) – you can only imagine my relief when the instructor of the course informed me that I didn’t have to lead a tour)). As a result of my experience, I have a pretty good idea of what kinds of questions to ask, and I think I have a decent idea of what contract no-nos are. While I cannot be entirely certain, I’m sure my salesman was bending a few rules when he offered me a higher priced membership for a lower enrollment fee, and then told me that my husband could join the club in February (two months later than I would be joining) for no registration fee. “No worries,” he said, “just tell ‘em Justin said it was okay.”

Right.

Anyway, I met my friend R at the gym. She’s great. R thought we should start our workout on the stair stepper machine. I hadn’t been on one since college, and after about 6 minutes of thigh burning pain I remembered why it had been that long: stair machines are brutal. You feel great when you’re done, but getting to that point is challenging. Then we hit the elliptical machines for a while, which provided us with an opportunity to talk normally (meaning I wasn’t panting or randomly interjecting the conversation with “this is so painful,” “how much time do we have left,” or “this really stinks.”). We ended our trip to the gym with a trip to the mat pilates class.

Mat pilates was 100 times worse than the stair stepper.

The instructor led us through a series of what I would consider super intense yoga poses. The music was faster, she was louder, and the poses were at least twice as fast as they were in my old yoga class. I made it through the first 15 minutes of class with minor complaining. It wasn’t until we started a particular sequence of motions (on back, neck up, calves 90 degrees to the floor, hands next to knees and then you stretch your legs out straight just above the floor and move your arms straight back behind your head) that I really started to feel uncomfortable. She kept going and going. Every time we finished a set I though to myself “thank god,” and then she would start counting again. And again. And again. We must have done 10 long sets. I was ready to bail out, but every time I looked in front of me I saw R pushing right through the motions like a pro, so I kept going (but I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t keep my neck elevated – painful, painful). Our ab workout was followed by some thigh exercises that involved this metal ring that you put between your lower thighs. Then we “pulsed” (pushed the ring in and out) for what felt like forever. R had to leave 30 minutes into the class, and I had to go with her since the husband was hanging out with her husband at her house. We left, laughing about how much our legs hurt and how poorly prepared we were for the class. It turns out that we had both been watching each other during the class – after I told R she kept me motivated, she said the same thing. I guess that’s why they say you should go to the gym with a friend.

Despite how horrible it sometimes feels when you're working out, the euphoric feeling that immediately follows a workout session is incredible. I love it! The husband and I are looking into our health care plan's contributions to gym memberships - hopefully I'll have one sometime this month!

In other news, I think we’re finally going to buy a couch tonight. Yes!

Baby Kimono Tops

2009-11-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon, I decided I wanted to start a new sewing project. Since two of my closest friends are both having babies in the next few months, I opted to try sewing baby clothes - baby kimono tops, to be specific. I think they're a lot cuter in real life, but these pictures should give you an idea as to what they look like.

My first attempt (Cotton. Chocolate brown w/ cream polka dots. Pink edging.):

The kimono top I made tonight (flannel):

I'm going to consider these trial runs. The armpits need some work and I think the edging needs to be thinner. I should also add a snap under the ties to make the closures little more secure. I should probably also make something a little more gender neutral since I have no idea what the sex of either baby is...

Weekend Review

2009-11-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

We spent part of Friday night at Home Depot comparing specs on wet/dry vacs. I know, I know, you're probably jealous that you couldn't spend your Friday night doing the same thing... We needed one after the disastrous event that took place in the garage that morning.

We spent Saturday with the husband's parents. We had lunch at our new favorite Chinese restaurant in the TC area (which, unfortunately, is way across town) and then continued our hunt for the perfect couch. Turns out we like the same three couches we saw the last few times we went out. Now we just have to pick one...

Halloween was a bust at Casa K. We had no more than 15 kids stop by. Now we have over 200 pixie sticks we don't want. What happened to trick-or-treating?! I remember my parents doling out candy for hours. There were periods of time where we just stood next to the door because the stream of kids was so steady. Later that night we went to our neighbor's house for a Halloween party. It was nice to meet some more of our neighbors.

Sunday was pretty quiet. Church at 8:30 followed by errands and projects. I managed to pick up some fun projects for the week:

Lots of good stuff in this picture:

1. Please note the glass sitting on top of our console table. The friendly folks at ACE cut it for me yesterday afternoon. I added the vinyl protector thingies and put it on the table. Looks good!

2. My trip to the library this weekend yielded three "fun" books for the week: two cookbooks and a sewing book.

3. After picking up the sewing book, I went to a craft store and picked up some fabric and thread for a new project. The colors are pink and brown. Any guesses as to what I'm making?

Help!

2009-11-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

I need these:

[image & more information]

We went to a Halloween party last night and someone was raving about them. I must have them. I looked for them while running errands today, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I'm a little nervous about the disclaimer under the image, so I'm making an urgent request to friends and family: If you see coconut M&Ms, PLEASE buy me a bag. Or more. I will obviously reimburse you.

Rotting Lawn Refuse vs. Me. I win. Barely.

2009-10-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

You might recall my post about cleaning up our garden that I wrote a few weeks ago. Well, the lawn refuse I collected filled three gigantic paper bags (the kind you buy especially for yard waste). We hauled them into the garage, propped them up against a wall, and waited for the next trash pick up. Unfortunately, last Friday, when the bags of waste should have been moved curbside, it rained. I wasn't about to bring the paper bags to the curb and let them soak up water all morning. We left them in the garage.

And boy, did we pay for it.

Interesting things happen to yard waste after it has been in your garage for several weeks:

It produces a stench so powerful that when the door from the garage to the house is opened, the smell wafts through the entire house and lingers for several minutes.

It melts into chocolate colored goopy liquid.

It creates a fuzzy white mold. On the rotting vines and on the outside of the bag.

It oozes. Slowly. Out of the bag and all over the floor.

Now, I should note that only one bag was really responsible for all of the ickiness. I swear that the material in the bag had lost about 75% of its total volume over the last two weeks. It just collapsed into a rotting pile of slimy brown stuff.

Unfortunately for me, while I was very aware of the smell I didn't realize just how bad the problem was until this morning when I brought the garbage out to the curb. This was, of course, after G left for work so I was left to fend for myself.

Freshly showered and dressed for the day, I assessed the situation and realized very quickly that the leaking bag wasn't going make it to the curb in one piece. I also realized that I really didn't want to touch the slimy, moldy mess. I had no choice, though, it absolutely had to be thrown out today. I somehow managed to pick up the oozing blob while using two plastic garbage bags as giant mitts to try to contain everything that was trying to escape from it.

Wrestling with rotting waste is not a great way to start your Friday.

You know what's really bad, though? I managed to stuff another giant bag into our trash bin, but I couldn't fit the third one in. I left it in the garage. I just can't justify paying our waste company extra money to remove it. I think this is a good example of a time when my mom would tell me that I'm too cheap.

Have a happy Friday!

Things I Like: Bananagrams!

2009-10-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

G and I have played several games of Bananagrams this week. It's awesome.
It's been interesting because we both have very interesting strategies. Can you guess who is who?

1. One player works very slowly. Very slowly. S/he could be nearly finished with the game, but realize that s/he has all of the letters necessary to spell a ridiculously long word, undo the entire game in order to make that one word (thereby needing to use the other 40 or so pieces to make all new words), and then lose the game because s/he played so slowly and needed to have the longest, weirdest word. At the end of the game, this person's game pieces are relatively compactly organized (taking up a small portion of the table and perfectly in line with each other).

2. This player could care less about the quality or length of words used. S/he spells to win. By the end of the game, this person's game pieces are sprawled out across the table.

Sorry mom and Aunt S., but this game might be more fun than Scrabble. ;)

Chili Fries

2009-10-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Last summer, during our Big Bog camping trip, my mom made campfire packets filled with french fries, canned chili (sans beef for me), and highly processed liquid cheese. They were amazing for several reasons:

1. My husband ate them, despite the fact the fries had been sitting in a cooler for well over 40 hours and were no longer frozen. If you know him, I'm sure you'll understand why this is a big deal.

2. I ate them, despite the fact they were covered in canned meatless chili, which just sounds revolting.

The fact of the matter is that they tasted awesome. The husband has occasionally requested them over the past few months, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy canned meat. (You can love canned meat all you want, I just can't do it. Sorry.) At the grocery store on Sunday, it occurred to me that I could improvise and make homemade TVP chili, pile it on some baked french fries and cover it with shredded cheese. I knew it was risky for several reasons, but mostly because G claims to be repulsed by TVP.

Tonight I made it. I lied to my husband (we can't lie to each other, so this was really tough, but I knew I would reveal the truth after he finished, so that helped me make it through dinner - well, almost through dinner, I ended up telling him before he finished because I felt badly) and told him I used canned Hormel chili for his and TVP for mine. He ate his in record time. The entire time he made comments about how good it tasted. "This is so good." " This is awesome." When I couldn't hold it in any longer, I told him it was TVP chili and his eyes grew really big. He then claimed that it "tasted a little goofy," but was still edible.

I should have taped him talking about how good it was while he was eating it. I will never get him to admit that he liked TVP.

Here's the recipe (using the ingredients I used):

1 Bag of Alexia crinkle cut fries (I think crinkle cut holds toppings better)
1 package of McCormick chili seasoning (reduced sodium)*
1 bag (14 ouces) Morningstar TVP crumbles
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 can mixed chili beans (or just kidney beans), rinsed and drained
A couple of handfuls of shredded cheese

Heat the oven to 350. Bake fries for 15 minutes, turn bake 10 additional minutes. Meanwhile, coat a frying pan with olive oil and heat the TVP crumbles. Add seasoning (*I used 3/4 of the pouch), tomatoes w/ juice and beans. Cook for 10 minutes. Take fries out. I divided the fries into two parts and put each pile on a piece of tinfoil to make transferring them to plates easier. Cover with chili and generously top with cheese. Put back into the oven for 4 - 5 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Trust me, they are good - and pretty healthy (all things considered).

Hyland Park

2009-10-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Hyland Lake Park Reserve with some of our friends. Their son, Leif, is like a nephew to me. He is so much fun to be around! He let me take a few pictures of him - isn't he cute?

Front Entry

2009-10-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Here's the console table we added to our front entry over the weekend. It has a dark "tobacco" stain that looks great with the striped wallpaper (gold/cream). It looks rather lonely in this picture, doesn't it?

...and here's the table with our cheery front door. We were foolish and didn't measure the distance from the door's edge to the corner of the wall before we bought the table (or even assembled it, for that matter). Fortunately for us, we had about 18 inches to spare between the table and the hallway entrance.

Mags, you'll be happy to see that the wreath hanger is in its permanent home.

Here's the mirror I mentioned that I want to put above the console table. The stain is listed as espresso and I think it looks quite different from the table, but several of the online reviewers said they bought them together and they look great. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Weekend in Review

2009-10-19T05:40:00.001-07:00

A quick weekend in review:

1. Saturday morning, I prepared the garden for winter. During the process I discovered an entire crop of onions I didn't know existed. I also learned that you should probably remove squash plants from the soil just after the first freeze. Removing large, rotting, slimy, dirt-covered plants isn't exactly a good time. I also used some really old shears to thin/trim our raspberry bushes. Cutting back the feral vines of the raspberry bushes must have worked, because yesterday the neighbors that live behind us actually came over to introduce themselves.

2. Saturday night we attended the evening service at the Lutheran church just up the road from us. We ended up really liking the pastor, and plan to go back next Saturday.

3. After church, we met three of our favorite people for dinner at Fat Lorenzo's in Minneapolis. After pizza and gelato we went to their house where we played an awesome game called Carcassonne and I kept their almost two year old son up running around, dancing and laughing until 10:15 PM. I'm sure his parents can't wait to pay us back some day.

4. Sunday we went to REI. G bought a new fleece and I tried on some hats that I loved, but didn't buy (G's favorite, my favorite). I think I liked the second hat best because the S/M fit me much better than the L, which was a first.

5. On our way home we stopped at Target and bought a console table for our front entryway. It fits perfectly. Now I need to buy the matching mirror and some picture frames for either side of the mirror, and the entry way will be finished. At least we'll have one room done!

6. Sunday afternoon I made my MIL's receipe for wild rice and chicken soup. Something went wrong, though, because the husband and I agreed it just wasn't right. We'll try it again sometime.

7. Sunday night we practiced, ironed shirts, and got ready for the new week.

We had a very good weekend! Busy Monday ahead, more later!

New Homeowner Lessons 1

2009-10-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

We learned a lesson about lawn maintenance last night.

Long grass + large yard = mower spews smoke and shuts down = perturbed husband.

Fortunately, he figured out what the problem was. Long, moisture filled blades of grass were collecting between the blades. Not fun. He fixed the problem (several times). Lesson learned. We'll never let our grass grow that long again.

While G mowed, I picked up debris in our yard. I thought were would be sticks, but all I found were rotten apples. Many, many rotten apples. I started the cleanup process by kicking them into the garden, but then one apple exploded on my shoe.

Here's a cell phone image of just a few of the apples that I transferred to the garden. That giant feral plant is our raspberry bush. It's totally out of control. My dad is coming to help us tame our garden and prepare it for the winter. That should make our neighbors happy.

I'm working at a new school today. Exciting!

The Paint is on the Wall!

2009-10-08T08:04:00.001-07:00

I managed to prime and paint yesterday. Here's one of my Rothko-esque (but not really) looking sample spots [I apologize for the lighting. There's not much I can do about it.]:

In order from top to bottom: Pearl Harbor, Barley, Malton. We've pretty much eliminated the barley. It's even more yellow than it looks in this picture. Pearl Harbor is much richer than Malton. We're going to paint bigger pieces of the walls with those colors and see what we think.
Preferences?

Paint

2009-10-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

Choosing paint colors has to be one of the most difficult tasks known to mankind. With the help of G's mom and a friend of ours, we've narrowed down our possible selections to a few colors:

Pearl Harbor
[Can anyone explain this name to me? I'm just not getting it.]

Oklahoma Wheat

Mom K recommended Pearl Harbor, and a friend of ours also suggested a very similar color.
While we think it's our best option, we want to compare it to at least one other paint swatch. We want a color that brings some warmth into the room, but isn't so dark that it makes the space feel smaller. Beigeish colors with a touch of gold might be our best bet.

Both of the paints are available in Benjamin Moore's Natura line (actually, it looks like you can get almost any of their colors added to a Natura base), which is perfect for us. We had been looking at another line of low-VOC paints, but the color palette was very limited and both G and I weren't thrilled with our options. Later today I'll make a trip back to ACE to pick up sample cans of both the colors we think might work.

After our trip to ACE we went to Home Depot. I have spent way too much time at Home Depot lately. We bought the ladder that our home inspector recommended (we have some leaves to remove from our gutters...), a low-VOC primer, several rolls of blue painter's tape, and a paint kit (trays, a small brush, and a couple of rollers). We're hoping to get some primer on the walls today (just a few spots on different walls) and then tomorrow we'll test out the colors. I'm excited to see how they look!

Home Project: Decorating our Living Room

2009-10-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Two days in a row! What's different? I'm not subbing and researching for the first time in six weeks. Hallelujah! I made more progress on my research in four hours yesterday morning than I did during those six weeks. Crazy.

This is the "new" chair (new to us, old to my aunt) I mentioned in the previous post. And to our families: yes, those are the boxes we moved into the house several weeks ago. They were all relocated to the basement during the Vikings/Packers game last night (would you believe I watched the first half of the game?). Our basement is now a true disaster zone.

I really, really love this chair. It's incredibly comfortable. It looks great. I'm sitting in it right now, in fact, and I have no plans to move to a different location anytime soon.

While not the focal point (its size limits where it can be positioned, especially when we get a couch), it is our inspiration piece for the color palette we'll use for our living room. The lighting isn't the best in this picture, but the fabric is striped. It alternates between a gold and a light green, but from a distance of even just a few feet looks mostly gold. Aunt S. had it positioned next to a chocolate brown leather couch and they looked fabulous together. I think we'll try to stick with a similarly colored upholstery or leather for our couch. Accent pieces will probably be a light blue. Maybe.

Here's my question for you:

Knowing that we're working with a palette that is primarily defined by chocolate brown, a soft gold (and green when you're up close), and blue, what color would you paint the walls of the living room? Would you go lighter or darker? Is there a particular color you think would work well in this space?

Weekend Recap

2009-10-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

We're back from the Windy City, where we had an excellent time hanging out with my aunt. We arrived around 7ish on Friday night and feasted on deep dish pizza from Gino's East. Saturday morning we were up early. We spent the day in the city at the Museum of Science and Industry. My aunt and I mostly followed G around so he could see all of the exhibits he thought looked interesting. His favorite?

[727 exhibit with model railroad exhibit beneath]

The 727 (you can actually walk around in it) and all of the plane-related exhibits surrounding it. He was also a big fan of the LEGO Architecture exhibit (much cooler than the link) and the space exhibit. It was a very exciting day for G. Late that afternoon we headed back to Aunt S's, stopping en route at Portillo's for supper. Highly recommended for the simple fact that it's a Chicago legend. Food's not bad either.

Sunday morning we were up early again. Our mission for the trip was to drop off a load of furniture at my aunt's and pick up a chair she gave to us as our housewarming gift. We hauled all of her new furniture in to her house and the chair out to the truck, and then hit the road. We spent a good part of the afternoon in Madison, visiting Sister M, who recently relocated there for work. She showed us her condo and took us to the very impressive campus where she works. We also made a stop at one of our favorite old restaurants - The Nitty Gritty - for lunch. I love being back in that city!

Dancing Machine!

2009-10-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

Two of the days I subbed this week I was forced to participate in a traditional dance course. The student I was assisting required "special coaching" (according to the instructor) and for some reason she thought I would be able to handle that job.

Let me let you in on a little secret: I am a horrible dancer and I am incredibly self-conscious when I am doing any sort of movement other than walking. It usually takes more than two glasses of wine for me to even touch parquet dance floor. Even then, I do little more than gyrate my hips, march in place, and pump my fists in the air.

We spent 50 minutes learning something very similar to this, but with more intricate hand movements. Almost everyone in the class knew the dance. My student and I danced in the back row, which I remember from my ballerina days as the safest zone for the uncoordinated and confused. Or so I thought. The teacher of this course was all over the place. My poor student had her undivided attention for most of the class, and since I was her "other teacher," I had to work just as hard as she did. I think the teacher was impressed - in a not so good kind of way - at my inability to follow her movements. I stuck out like a sore thumb. In addition to being about two heads taller than anyone else in the room, I had zero skills. I was the uncoordinated buffoon in the back row. I'm pretty sure I was the worst dancer in the room. That's no joke.

The experience was made even more awesome by the impressive audience we attracted, which was comprised of: five bus drivers who gawked at us from outside the cafeteria windows, a handful of parents of preschoolers, and an entire forth grade class. I spent the first four weeks of school working with the fourth graders and I know them fairly well. Well enough that a few of them felt more than comfortable calling out encouraging phrases that either started or ended with my name, and for the most daring of the bunch to loudly announce: "Ms. K! I didn't know you got moves like that!"

It was a really, really embarrassing experience. Probably had to be there to really appreciate the story.

We're off to Chicago for the weekend. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to report upon our return. The last few weeks have hectic. I'll try to find time to do more blogging next week. I don't know how I used to do it every day!

Things I have learned in the past 10 days

2009-09-22T18:19:00.001-07:00

1. Expect unexpected hidden costs of home ownership. In the past 10 days, we have been visited by three neighborhood children who requested our hard-earned money in exchange for decorative holiday wreaths, wrapping paper and candies, and magazine subscriptions. We managed to avoid new subscriptions and holiday paper, but I just couldn't say no to the Boy Scout selling wreaths. His mother (who was with him) happens to be our neighborhood block captain and I felt guilty for not returning our contact information to her (which she requested just one day after we moved into our new place). Come November, our cheery red door will be festooned with a merry wreath.

2. Children are incredibly observant. This isn't shocking, but was made very apparent to me last week. I had over 5 inches of my hair chopped off and the only people to say something were three fourth graders, one of whom tried to engage with me an absurd argument (and she really tried to argue) as to whether or not my hair had been too long.

3. Words become much more powerful in the fourth grade. So many tears this year.

4. Working with middle school children is so tiring. I was ready for bed at 7:00 tonight. I'm glad I have a three-day week.

5. Putting the television in the basement was a very good idea. I bet we haven't watched more than 3 hours (not including the US Open) of TV since we moved.

6. The paint company Glidden sells small containers of sample paint that have brushes built into the caps. I bought one on a whim last weekend thinking it might help cover up some of the large splotches of wall paint that somehow ended up on the ceiling (from the previous owners). It worked! We love cheap fixes.

7. "Hava Nagila" has to be the catchiest tune on Earth. Not familiar with it? Call my husband and he'll sing it to you from memory, tempo changes and all.

8. Never order even the South Seas Grog - not even the feeble version. G is convinced its "tart island flavors" are the result of soaking a package of SweetTarts in vodka. I think that's probably an accurate assessment.

9. After 5+ years of practicing with Silent Brass mutes, we can't get enough of playing our horns whenever we want to, at whatever volume we desire, sans mutes. I'm even practicing.

10. It's awesome to come home to your own house. We have much to do as far as decorating is concerned, but we're fairly content to put that off until later this fall. We'd rather spend our weekends with friends and family.

Posts will be sporadic, but check back!

Update

2009-09-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Guess who has an Internet connection again?

I ended up working all of last week, which means our house is very much still a mess. A giant mess. The good news is that it's slowly coming together. I don't work today or tomorrow and I'm hoping to finish some organizing and cleaning (and maybe some studying...maybe). I'd post some pictures of our new abode, but I can't find the device that reads our camera's memory card. I'll try to post some soon.

In the mean time, I'd like all of you to know that we have a very healthy insect population both outside and inside of our house. Last week, after mowing almost all of our 1/2 acre of yard, I encountered a very territorial wasp. He not only managed to sting me in my left armpit (impressive, I know), but also attacked my right buttock. By the time I made it back to the house, I had three stings. I know it could have been worse, but those three stings were so, so painful.

Although we didn't see any during any of our pre-sale visits to the house, it turns out that we also have a nice crop of millipedes. Millipedes are infinitely better than centipedes, but they're still disgusting. I've also killed four grass spiders since last Wednesday. Grass spiders, for your information, are ugly, big and fast. I'm going to remain hopeful that only four grass spiders made their way into our house while we were moving (the doors were open all the time) and that I won't find anymore.

Laundry Awesomeness

2009-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our new casa comes with this lovely stacked washer/dryer combo. While not original to the house, it's pretty old. And small. And probably not very energy efficient. We're guessing it's the first appliance that will need to be replaced, preferably by something that has a larger load capacity and is more energy efficient.

Good news for us! The government is implementing yet another stimulus program later this fall that will offer tax credits to people who buy new appliances for their homes. Yes!

Packing, Packing, Packing

2009-08-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe all of the stuff we've collected since we moved into our apartment over three years ago. It was great to rediscover our Waterford candlesticks, Orrefors crystal pieces, and other miscellaneous wedding gifts we haven't seen for almost two years. The 20 + yellow highlighters, 15 cans of tennis balls, and forty million batteries? What were we thinking when we tucked them away into corners of our closets and drawers? We are by no means compulsive hoarders, but one might wonder if they attemtped to help us pack our belongings.

I'm glad we don't have to pay for garbage removal. We'd be broke.

Although it seems there's no end in sight, it's nice to know that every box we tape shut means we're a little closer to packing up our apartment.

Homemade Pizza Recipe

2009-08-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

G and I used to frequently make homemade pizza. We were craving it over the weekend, so I made one last night. I wish I had taken pictures, because it looked pretty and it was really, really good.

For the dough, I used a super simple recipe for pizza dough on Epicurious.com. I modified it slightly by adding a few hearty shakes of Tuscan Sunset seasoning (a blend of herbs sold by Penzey's, my favorite place to find spices).

I hand stretched and pressed the dough into a round pizza pan and brushed the entire surface with extra virgin olive oil. Next, I cut up three cloves of garlic and sprinkled them on the dough. I covered the olive oil base with Muir Glen pizza sauce. [Note: G and I are always surprised at the variation between pizza sauces. Muir Glen is definitely our new favorite - not too salty or sugary, just right.] I used leftovers from last week to top the pizza, including red onion, Canadian bacon*, and spinach. Two cups of mozzeralla on the top, and it was read for the oven.

The dough recipe didn't include recommendations for oven temperature or how much time to bake the pizza. I set the oven to 450 and checked the pizza after 10 minutes. It wasn't done, so I gave it another four minutes, which was a little too long. Our pizza was a little brown in some places, but it was still good ("the best yet," according to G). When I make it again, I'll probably check it after 12 minutes. I'm guessing that might be about the right about of baking time.

Say what?

2009-08-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

I just scheduled our annual dermatology appointments. First available date? My birthday, which is several months from today.

After 15 minutes of trying to find a date with two back-to-back times available, the poor scheduler couldn't find my husband's name in the system. I suggested she try flipping two letters in our last name (a very, very common error). She found an entry, but the individual's first name was my husband's middle name. She asked what his birth date was, and I told her. Her response? "There's no way this can be him, this person's birthday is [same month, two days earlier, same year]."

Clerical error(s) or just a weird coincidence? Seriously, what are the chances that someone has a name and birthday so close to my husband and is a patient at our small clinic?

Pandemic Preparedness Kits?

2009-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I read an article in which the reporter claimed that Americans needed to stock up on supplies (food, water, over-the-counter drugs) in preparation for the expected explosion of H1N1 this fall. I mentioned it to a friend of mine, who happens to be a physician, and asked her if she thought the reporter might have been over-reacting. "No," she said, "it might actually be a good idea."

Over the weekend, I mentioned the same article to my mom, who until last fall consulted on public health-centered emergency preparedness plans at the county and state levels. I expected she might downplay the advice of the reporter - she is extremely levelheaded - but she, too, agreed that it would be a good idea.

At the advice of my friend and my mom, two of the women I trust most (who also happen to be very educated on this issue!), I'm seriously creating a pandemic planning kit. I never thought I'd actually do something like this. To be honest with you, I've made fun of people for doing it. And yet here I am, trying to determine if we need to have a kit in place...

Do any of you have supplies stashed away? Do you think I'm crazy for doing this?