Guilt Trip

My (Lauren's) presents are hidden under the blanket. Sadly, these warnings are necessary...

And safer too!

We now have radiator covers in all our rooms - they still need to be painted or stained (depends on room) but they are already a huge improvement over the metal we think. Plus, now we don't have to worry about Jack burning himself!

More artwork..

This time it is a real vintage poster, not just a print/reproduction. Yikes we are old!

Steve and I bought it for ourselves as an anniversary gift yesterday. It is from 1955 and we went to Iguazu on our honeymoon to Brazil. I also visited Iguazu in college when studying in Argentina - the falls are on the border of Argentina & Brazil. I would say it is the most amazing natural site I have seen so far... You just can't get its scale (or even all the falls) in pictures. The main drop isn't even in any of these photos!

Luckily now they don't have steamboats spewing black smoke, though they do still have boats that bring you as close as is safe to the falls.

In one of the modern rubber rafts in '98 during my FSP to Buenos Aires...



Steve and I in '05...



Rainbow in '98


View in '05

Spicy Lamb with Tomato and Cilantro

Ok we made this recipe with beef, but it was still very tasty and pretty easy..

Finally, a new post!

We finally hung our Mucha prints from Prague. No matter what, the wall colors still come off a little odd but you get the idea! The buffet isn't "styled" or anything, just some random stuff still. Unfortunately, though I love the prints, they seem to just draw attention to that outlet on the wall!

We still need things to hang on the other walls...



So now our front porch trim/stairs is boring "deck grey" which honestly makes the house look much crisper than the red that preceded it. I am so impressed that a small change makes a big difference... This is what it looked like when we moved in.

We are still in serious need of a new screen door- hopefully one of these weekends we can figure that out!

New Updates

We framed and hung 4 8 by 10s from our travels and hung them on the stairwell...

We bought a random Chicago travel poster already framed at a discount store and hung it in the front hall...


We have a coat of deck grey paint on our "new" front stairs - It replaces the barn red..(We haven't started the risers yet, thus the sloppiness..)

Pretty!

Let's hope we can keep it alive for awhile;)

Dining room...

Ok, so it isn't done being decorated, but this is a somewhat better pic of the colors...We have some nice prints from Prague at the framers - should be back in a week or so.

Dining Room Preview

We finally had a weekend totally free. It is a little brighter than I expected, but I like it. I am excited to see once all the tape is removed. "Painter's Tape Blue" adds nothing to the color palette.

For those interested the Freshaire choice paint (available at Home Depot) no-VOC paint experiment - it did a great job. It covered well and was just as easy to work with as other brands. It is also has almost no smell which is fantastic. And as it has no VOCs it is even healthier for the air (and the baby).

Finally taking root

(and then some)

We planted this the fall of '06 and last summer it was a dud...

Our Esteemed State Senator

Has checked into a psychiatric facility after a series of "lewdness" claim against him...

My favorite part(s) of thestory...

"The state senator made the woman uneasy by asking her questions about her body, so the woman went into a nearby building and informed the staff what had happened, the prosecutor said. Police arrived and spoke to Marzilli, who allegedly gave them the name of Martin Walsh, which happens to be the name of another state legislator, and said he lived in Medford.

As police dispatch checked out the false name for warrants and an officer went to speak to the victim, Marzilli bolted, running the wrong way up a one-way street, while locals, including a bank teller using a loudspeaker, alerted police to his whereabouts, Mucci said. Two men outside a city parking garage flagged down police, where the officers found the state senator, Mucci said.

While speaking to police, Marzilli began to cry and told the officers they were destroying his life and that his life was over, according to the police report.

As police attempted to handcuff him, Marzilli allegedly tensed up until officers convinced him to relax his arms by threatening to use pepper spray on him, Mucci said.

Once cuffed, Marzilli admitted he had given the officers the wrong name and lamented that he was a state senator and his life was over, the police report said.

In the backseat of a cruiser, Marzilli said, “I can’t believe this is happening … She was flirting with me … I was flirting with her … I can’t believe this is happening,” before an officer told him to stop and informed him of his right to remain silent, the report said.

“I really screwed up,” Marzilli said after that, according to the report."

On the other hand, I have to say I am impressed with the Lowell locals who apparently take their crime seriously!

Also - the comments on the story are fascinating - apparently Arlington has some bizarre (and new to me) dynamics. I didn't know that there was vast "socialist" group trying to ruin Arlington.

Long time no blog..

We have been super busy doing everything but home stuff! Actually that isn't quite true someone rebuilt much of our front stairs about 2 weeks ago - hopefully we finally (and by we, I mean Steve) will get them primed and painted this weekend. We also still haven't yet painted the dining room and living room, but I did manage to buy something for the dining room walls in Prague. Two matching size Moet et Chandon posters by Mucha (bought at the Mucha museum)... They should complement the paint colors well - I actually had my paint chips with me!

One

two

Spring Flower

Update: Dining Room & Yard

My mom picked the exact colors as I did out of a pile of paint chips without prompting, so I think that is a sign. The space under the chair rail in the dining room and the living room will be blue, and the area above the chair rail will be the beigey color. It isn't so bright in person as it appears in these pictures. We are going to give this brand new paint a try, especially since Jack and I spend so much time in these rooms: FreshAire I will let you know if it is any good. It just started being sold April 1.

We have some daffodils about to bloom and some tulips on the way. One lonely hyacinth is already blooming.

Our new dining room curtains - they are semi-sheer and have super subtle stripe effect.

We now have lilacs, that eventually will hide our neighbor's cars. Right now they just look like sticks poking out of the ground though.

We have a trellis which makes our garage look much nicer from the kitchen table. I had just watered them which is why the garage looks like it is of varying colors. It is hard to see as the ground is black but the pots are black at the bottom. We thought having a black/white combination would extend the kitchen colors.

Dining Room & Yard

We have been very busy in house land. Our new dining room table, chairs and buffet arrived. It looks great and fits the space perfectly. We also got curtains for the room though they haven't been hung quite yet.

Now we just have to finalize paint colors and get to painting!



Steve has also put in some serious time in the backyard raking some icky dead stuff out and putting down some new seed. I also finally put together a trellis we bought last year to go against the part of the garage that faces our kitchen sliding doors. We will plant some sort of climbing plant.

Wednesday we are having some generous visitors (my mom and stepdad) visiting and they will plant some lilacs so as to block our view of our neighbors garage.

For posterity, we are hoping this is the worst the yard will ever look!

Almost 2 years

from when we signed our Purchase & Sales agreement, we have figured out what to do with our Bedroom and Dining Rooms.

Our new bedroom dressers came on Friday and we finally have our clothes hidden from the world.




We also bought dining room furniture that fits the space and it will be delivered in a about 2 weeks.

We have the table, 4 chairs and buffet pictured below. We also have 2 chairs that are made of the same wood as the table and are upholstered just on the seat. The table also has 2 leaves not pictured. Hopefully now we can have people over to dinner and seat them without being totally squished.

"Bug"s Bunny

Apparently I have a knack for finding funny vehicles.

I SO wish I could have taken a picture, but yesterday I saw, I swear, a VW Bug with a bunny costume!

It was a white bug, with big - appropriate scale - bunny ears attached to where the roof/side windows meet. It also had a white tail above the license plate. I wouldn't be surprised if I missed whiskers up front while I was trying to figure out the ears!

I really laughed out loud as it was really well done and unexpected.

The "Dye" is cast...

Ok, it is really paint...but you get the idea.

We have painted test squares on our dining room wall and we have painter's tape up to do tests on the living room. After 1.5 years we are finally getting our act in gear to get some more decorating done.

We aren't thrilled with the DR colors, so I think I will be hitting Benjamin Moore again soon for more samples.I have a nifty Benjamim Moore program that lets you paint pictures of your own home with all their colors. It doesn't work perfectly, for example, light colors are always too bright. Then again, colors and lighting are always hard on computers and this is easier (and cheaper) to fool around with than photo shop plus it gives you paint color names. One of the myriad of combinations I have been playing with...

Who you gonna call?

Ghost Pros!

We followed this van over the causeway to Sanibel. I had no idea such a thing existed.

Check out their What we do page.

Finally...

We soon will have our clothes hidden from visitors. Until now our master bedroom has been seriously in need of 'proper' storage. By proper I mean something that is neither a bookshelf bought at a used bookstore nor not an ancient dresser that used to live in my aunt's garage. We have some wall space issues since we have 2 windows, a radiator and 3 doors in a not huge room. Well, we finally went ahead and ordered a dresser a "sweater chest" and a nightstand. Neither of us are passionately in love with it, but the size was right, the price was right and it came in a cherry finish that approximates our bed color. I am contemplating getting different pulls, they aren't bad but I think we could do better. For some reason the pics from the website won't upload right, so you will have to wait until it is delivered for pictures.

Sunsets

Some were taken from the car window - so clarity isn't amazing.

30th Birthday Gift

I haven't decided if Steve should get me this...




or this...




HAHA

They are ridiculous houses being put up on tiny lots on a very main street in FL. There are lots of other big houses on this road, but these will take the cake for sheer size and over-the-top everything (at least in public view).

I actually found the builder's site and you can see what they are meant to look like done.


House 1
House 2

Going Postal

I have gone to the post office two times in the last two weeks and boy do I regret it.

Trip #1 - Background: day after a decent-size snow storm - 2 packages to mail - drive downtown to get out of the house and some errands off my list - no parking in front of the post office so I have to walk 1 1/2 blocks from a paid public lot - Jack is in his stroller

I get to the front of the building and the ramp (which I had intended to use) was blocked off at both ends with yellow caution tape. I had no way to get in the front door as there were about 10 steep steps and I had a baby, stroller and 2 mid-size boxes. Somebody helped me carry the stroller up the stairs but I was totally shocked the federal post office wasn't, at this time, handicapped accessible. What on earth was someone on crutches or in a wheelchair supposed to do? I waited about 10 minutes in line and after mailing my packages I asked how I was supposed to get out of there. The clerk said there were icicles near the ramp and so it was closed, I pushed and spoke my mind about how bad it was it wasn't accessible. She brought me to the "superintendent's office." He basically said "well you aren't handicapped" so it isn't an issue. Also, I kid you not, he said "handicapped people do not go out on days like this." WHAT? It was 35 and sunny. He also informed be that the ramp is closed due to the potential of sheets of snow from the roof sliding down and hitting the ramp. Umm, ok, but the stairs are right next to the ramp, does it not effect those people? Is there a way to get the snow off so that isn't a danger? Handicapped people can't go to the post office unless it hasn't snowed recently? He also told me in the future that this wasn't an issue at the other 2 Arlington POs. A lot of good that does me this time. I wrote a letter to my congressperson and the USPS.

Trip #2 - Background: Jack needs a passport - you must appear in person for new passports and both parents need to be there (or have a notarized form saying it is ok from one) - Steve and I head to the Lexington PO that starts doing passports at 9 (rather than 10:30 like Arlington). We have all the forms pre-filled out and our check made out and ready to go.

We get there at about 9:15 - the two women in front of us both also have passport issues. They both need to renew expedited. It took at least 25 minutes to get through the first woman!! WHAT? This is not an unusual procedure. She had to, no joke, address the envelope to the state dept and then insisted and putting in their return address for them on her return envelope. Couldn't they have a stamp for this? Pre-filled forms? She also, after it was all closed, realized that the express mail by which she wanted her passport returned required a signature, and she wouldn't be home. So they had to reopen the whole package and write a note.

The next woman was equally inane but luckily (saved us another 20 minutes) another clerk decided he too could do passports. Well turns out, that even though it says a new passport is $82 on the sign and on the website, it is actually $52 to the state dept and $30 to the PO so you can't have one check. Ugh... Admittedly if you read the medium (ok, not quite fine) print on the website this is made clear, but it isn't at the PO where there was a big sign saying "$82" and nothing else. Once we got to a person, we were done in about 5 minutes, for what is a more complex procedure than a renewal as the clerk actually verifies documents and our identities.

There are SO many ways to increase the speed on these transactions it is ridiculous. I guess all my quality improvement exposure at my last job (including on flow) did indeed rub off on me. Of course part of the problem is people can't read and don't do the easy thing. Both women could have renewed their passports with a regular clerk had they just read instructions and paid for 2 express mail envelopes.

Another easy recipe

Italian Meatloaf

I use whatever bread we have on hand (usually whole wheat) and only use 1-1/2 slices.