Southern Snow

Took these the other day of our "snow," aka, the petals that fall off the pear trees as the leaves come out.





Not a whole lot going on. Working on travel plans, trying to avoid painting, trying to make it through the week! We made some hotel reservations last night for Portland and Seattle. We decided that, since the trip is going to be our anniversary present to each other, we'd splurge and stay in the city, vs. staying outside and commuting in. With only 3 days in each, it just wasn't going to be worth the lost time.

And trying to make sure Dusty gets the attention she demands. Someone will certainly be happy when the painting is over with.


A coworker today recommended going to see a chiropractor for my mysterious stomach pain. I'm certainly intrigued, though I have to admit that they scare me a little bit. Anyone have any experience, good or bad?

Triathlon

We got up this morning, and ran four miles in the cold and wind. Now, Greg has never run four miles before (well, since I've known him), but he was kicking my butt this morning, dragging me kicking and screaming (ok, and a lot of cursing...) the whole way.

Then we came home. Greg mowed the lawn, and I went to the grocery store.

Then the 6 hours of painting fun started. It took two hours longer than yesterday with the primer. This is the first time we've painted without masking, and I am wondering if it is truly faster... I swear, I spent 3 hours just in the entry way. Part of my slowness can be attributed to the fact that I HATE ladders. Any more than 2 steps off the ground, and I feel out of control. It's not a fear of heights, just a fear of my own (terrible) balance. Apparently Dusty and Lefty's sensibilities were offended by the white walls, because when I locked them in the guest room today, they didn't protest nearly as much. I think they will also be much happier once we get the tarps up, as Dusty in particular has been high-stepping around downstairs. And the noisiness certainly detracts from their stealth attacks.

My whole body hurts, and I'm headed for bed.

In my Randy from "A Christmas Story" voice: "I can't lift my arms up."

Welcome to Our Hell...

Painting hell, that is.

Last summer, before the new kitchen cabinets went in, we painted the kitchen a light yellow, to replace the "builder's beige." Well, there isn't really a dividing wall between the kitchen and the rest of downstairs, except sort of the dining room. We were in a rush to paint, though, so we just did the kitchen, and have been living with splotchy walls since. In an effort to get the ghetto floor (vinyl that has been pulled up and set back in place, so there are waves in it, and it's pulling back from all of the edges) replaced in UNDER 1 YEAR from when we ripped it up, painting downstairs became a priority. So we moved all the furniture Thursday night, and prepped on Friday night. Today we primed. (We are big believers in primer... and the walls were a mess.) I did the rolling today, and can already see the blisters on my hands, so I'll be on brush duty tomorrow. The goal is to have this project done before we go to Boston in 2 weeks for a wedding. We actually bought a whole bunch of this paint, and are planning on painting upstairs with it, too. But that'll come later.

In preparation, we had to move this dresser that was downstairs (because we had moved it out of the guest room and couldn't decide what to do with it). Greg was taking out the drawers, and it automatically became a cat jungle gym. We had to lock the cats up in the guest room today while we painted, and for as easy as it was to trick them to go in there, they whined a good bit. On and off all afternoon, we heard "mew?" "mew?" "MAO!"


But they're just a big pile of kitty love. :) (from last weekend)


Our week was fairly uneventful. I can't believe that Easter has come and gone already (though I did have a strange craving for a hard boiled egg this week... and I don't usually care for them. Hm, now that I mention that, I'm *still* hungry for one...) The daffodils are, sadly, on their way out, and the blistering heat and humidity aren't long off now. We're taking advantage of the mild(ish) temperatures these days, and opening windows and doors as often as possible. The tulip magnolia (photos below) bloomed before I even realized it. I love these blooms -- they are the reason I made Greg buy one of these. When they bloom, the branches are bare, except for these bright pink/purple buds. It literally looks like a herd of butterflies have landed on the branches.




We are still working on planning our Washington/Oregon vacation, and I'm really starting to get excited! I think I've got our general route mapped out now, so we can start trying to lock in hotel locations. I'm too neurotic to get there without reservations every night. :) Plus, I think we're going to try to stay here one night. Doesn't that look cool?

Oh, and for those interested... A few weeks ago, when we went to Atlanta, we stopped at Archivers, and they had this Clip It Up system for organization/storage of scrapbook stuff (some of you will stop reading ... here...), but darn if they didn't want $50 for the thing. So we went to IKEA and brainstormed. We spent $2 on the lamp parts in "as is," and $7 on the lazy susan that Greg dissected. So here's the finished product... it stores my alphabets, and it spins. And, the best part, is that Greg made it for me. :) The clips are from IKEA, too, and probably cost more than the rest of it.


Did I mention that Greg's the best?

I went to get my hair cut (yes, dad... all of them) this morning. My hair has been getting long, and was starting to get to be too much, plus the heat is coming. I had her cut about 4 inches off. It still feels like a total treat to get my hair cut. I need to do it more often. Of course, I had her straighten my hair (because I am WAY too lazy to do it myself), and darn if it didn't start raining as soon as I left. Then I had to run a few errands, trudging through parking lots where people refuse to yield to pedestrians, even in the rain. And then at Costco, I had to dig stuff out of the trunk to return. When I came out, I forgot where I had parked, and walked all over before I found the car. (Normally I won't troll for a parking spot, but it was raining, and I had no umbrella.... Anyhow, this totally confused me when I came out.) By the time I got home, my hair was curlier than ever. All that wasted effort, Allison - I'm sorry!

Does that make it better or worse?

For the longest time, I thought Dusty was still chasing her tail around in circles. And, as funny as it was, I kinda felt bad for her.

But then Greg corrected me, and based on some evidence I observed earlier, I think he's right: She's not chasing her tail. She's chasing the shadow of her tail.

Poor thing must always feel like someone's following her whenever it's light out...

Happy Easter!

I took these photos of the pear tree out front the other day, and didn't upload them immediately. I wasn't sure how they were coming out, but when I finally got around to looking at them, I love them! I thought they looked sufficiently spring-y to count for Easter. They're not at altered -- as I still haven't gotten around to that Photoshop class (now I claim I'm waiting for the new version of Photoshop Elements that Greg got me for my birthday ... should be released and ship this week) -- but I love how blue the sky turned out.


For us, Easter weekend meant I did the grocery shopping on Saturday this week. Not too much else eventful. We decided to try something new for dinner last night, and went to a place downtown call The Cazbah. It was great - good food, good wine. It was totally empty though - I think it's more of a late night place, and we were there at 6:00 (the true senior citizens would be proud). So, we got there, and there was literally no one else there. Two other parties came in while we were there, but it was a little weird.

Today, we slept in, and then went for our Sunday jog together. We came home, cleaned up, ate ... and promptly went back to bed for a nap. I'm still nursing my stomach a bit -- if I wait until I am really hungry to eat, I get nauseous after I eat. It's weird, but if I can keep a little bit on my stomach, and not be starving by the time I eat something, I seem to be doing ok. I've also been eating breakfast during the week, which I had kind of gotten out of. We'll see.

We broke down and bought plane tickets last week out to Seattle for the end of May - so excited! And, perhaps more exciting, Google Earth has the sites from the Goonies movie marked out in Astoria, OR! Now, initially I may have been just kidding when I mentioned sightseeing Goonies locations, but that was when I thought we'd be driving around aimlessly. But now we know exactly where Mikey's house is, as well as the pizza place where Chunk watches the police chase and smashes the pizza in the window. Now we're trying to start planning the trip, and booking hotels. The general plan is Portland, Oregon coast, Washington coast and islands, Seattle. Again, any recommendations (particularly lodging) would be appreciated! I think we're going to go on a food tour in Portland, that I read about in Cooking Light.

My Cat is Smarter Than Your Cat: She Makes Her Own Necklaces

My alternate title was: Please Don't Call the ASPCA... She Does This to Herself, I Swear


Lefty has been obsessing (don't know where she could get THAT from) over this CVS bag all week, on occasion wearing it as a hat. But mostly just fighting with it all week, until she finally bit and clawed a hole through the end. Today she decided it was time to try it on.

Lefty just loves bags, sometimes just sitting on them, but usually putting holes in them.

Dusty's obsession of the week has been a pen cap.

What Would You Choose?

I got a prescription filled at Target today.

I was a little surprised by the "Sex" line:

I asked ... I had to ... No, they don't carry flea medicine. But they get a number of prescriptions for pets that take Prozac. Gotcha. Now it all makes sense...

PS - Greg's home. :) Lefty is almost as happy as I am. She has woke me up the past two mornings, sometime between 5 and 6. I'm guessing she was expressing her concern that Greg hadn't come to bed yet. Here's to a more restful night!

Recent Projects

"I can never quite tell what Dusty is thinking, but I think she prefers it that way. She could be angry, hungry, or about to pounce."

"We spent a few days in Vermont in October 2007 with Greg's parents. We saw lots, including the Snowflake Bentley museum, a drive through Smuggler's Notch, walking around downtown Burlington with my parents, apple cider doughnuts, a walk down to the beach, gorgeous fall scenery, and a trip to Ben & Jerry's."


I don't think I ever posted these pictures of the Valentine's album I made for Greg (maybe because it didn't get finished until 2 weeks after Valentine's Day?). It's made of 5 cards from Hallmark (the silver envelopes came from Hallmark, too), kind of stitched together. The cards in each envelope pull out with the little ribbon tabs.

No need to worry

I called the doctor yesterday, but wasn't able to get an appointment until Thursday (he's been on vacation... I normally never have to wait this long). I hesitate to say that I'm feeling a little bit better today... We'll see. I'm trying to decide if I still need to go.

Greg is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. :( I miss him lots. So does Lefty. She's lost without him.

I am cheering myself up with ... monkey socks (complete with bananas to look more authentic, as if the cute hats don't lend enough authenticity)...


and the monkey birthday card my brother sent me. (I ALWAYS get a monkey card from Dan. And I love it.)

Baddy Four Shoes...

...because we certainly don't have any Goody Two Shoes around here.

I bought these from LLBean last night

A kick in the stomach

What a week. By Thursday, I felt sick to my stomach. Not the sort of "I have a virus" sick to the stomach - more of a "I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach." Just achy and sore, so I stayed home from work on Friday. It seems to come from a combination of stress, anxiety, and depression that I somehow bring on myself. Based on my past experiences, it could go on for months. They've never been able to find anything physically wrong with me, but antidepressants helped a lot last time. I'll probably be back at the doctor this week. It's been a banner year (and not in a good way) for me at the doctor this year so far. Not a good trend. (Oh, and sorry if that's more personal information than you wanted. I didn't give much warning.)

Not a whole heck of a lot going on here the last few days. We were under a tornado watch for most of today, but mostly just saw lots of much-needed rain. Greg and I went out to lunch, and were going to run a few errands, but decided we'd be better off at home with the weather and crazies on the roads.

We went back out again later and did some shopping before dinner. Both of us bought pants one size smaller, so we're still making progress with Weight Watchers. I've been getting fed up with it lately, just because I'm still hungry, and it seems like I can't actually eat three meals without going over my points total for the day -- which is even harder (and makes me crankier) on weekends.

Oh the vacation front, from the reading I've been doing, it sounds like the road around Crater Lake is closed from mid-October until mid-July; if that's the case, we're going to have to skip it this year. Which is a total bummer, because I was all excited to go. We may have to tack that on to another trip to see the Redwoods in California. It helps a little, as I think we were starting to get some scope-creep on this trip.

I've got some cute cat pictures, but I think that will wait until tomorrow.

Cyst, Cyst, Go Away

Just an update. I went back to the doctor today, and, while the cyst has gotten a little bit smaller, it's not small enough. So, more medicine. And more waiting. And more hoping that it gets smaller and I don't need surgery.

And more moping.

Oh, and 30? Yeah, today it totally sucks.

IKEA, and an Urgent Need for Pants

We went to Atlanta on Saturday to do some shopping, with a stop at Archivers (for me) and Fry's (electronics, for Greg) before heading to IKEA. We actually didn't end up getting a whole lot, just some organizational type stuff, as well as some parts from the scratch and dent department for a top secret project inspired in part by the IKEA Hacker blog, but also by my unwillingness to pay $50 for something at Archivers. Stay tuned.

Oh, but there was one other stop along the way -- we went into an Old Navy, because we were both looking for pants. So I'm bending down, sifting through jeans, when my need for new pants took on a new urgency, as I hear my pants rip! I knew they were getting worn, and that's part of the reason why I was looking for new ones. They didn't rip down the seam or anything; it was kind of across the inside of my thigh. Not super classy, but it could have been worse. So I ran and found Greg and made him sift through the jeans, because I was afraid that if I bent over again, the rip was just going to get bigger. :) So I came out of there with a new pair of jeans; borrowed scissors from the cash register and cut all the tags off. Then we went to a deserted corner of the parking lot so I could change my pants. Sigh. I think it's been said that, if it can happen, it will happen to me. :)

Sunday felt like it was spent in preparation for the rest of the week. It's not really a day of its own anymore, so much as a catch-up day. We got groceries, froze chicken that was on sale, cut up a cantaloupe, did lots of laundry.

In happy news, the daffodils did bloom this week. They make me happy every time I see them.