Ugh, had a bad day at work today. Sometimes it's just not your day, right? I cannot WAIT to take my 2 1/2 weeks off from work this summer (for the wedding) and see how much I am appreciated when I return!
Signed up for an all-day Photoshop conference tomorrow so I'll be off learning the ins and outs of this program and expanding my skill set. I know the basics now but it's difficult to advance by reading a manual - I need that hands-on experience.
D approved my design for our wedding invitations/rsvp cards and those will be printed shortly. Last night I spent a couple hours organizing and stamping the return address on our outer envelopes. Hands hurt today.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
South to Cali
If a person lives in San Diego, is he/she a San Diegan or San Diegoan? Regardless, D and I will be visiting my family in San Diego from May 6-10. Yay! It'll be a short trip -- I had such a hard time planning this one because of scheduling conflicts and work events. It's a little later than we wanted originally but hey, you work with what you have. So California here we come!
My weekend, part 2
The birds are starting to appear en masse again -- especially these crazy birds in blue (below). They are really loud, love harassing the pets and seem to be picking out all of the sunflower seeds from our cabin birdfeeder! I took 5 photos of this guy and in each one he faced away from the camera.
Everybody wants to be outside in the nice weather.
Drift and I went for a walk on Sunday. The weather was pretty enjoyable -- no bright blue skies or anything, but it was somewhere in the high 30's. The snow has cleard out of the roadways and most sidewalks. I'm holding my breath that spring has sprung!
This stretch of sidewalk was a bit icy, but I wore my sister's XtraTuff boots and the traction kept me from slipping a couple times.
Ubiquitous trashy Alaska yard in the next neighborhood over from ours. See the blue tarp? Gotta have one of those somewhere in your yard or garage or you're not a real Alaskan.
The home stretch. This portion is crazy muddy in fall and spring so I usually take the long way to avoid it.
Monday, March 22, 2010
My weekend, part 1
It was hot...
(I know that is a relative term, but believe me, 47 degrees right now is balmy)
The sunsets bathe the mountains in pink...just gorgeous.
I made popovers for the second time...
(they turned out much better than my first go-around)
The recipe is from this cookbook...
I am addicted to cheese so I loaded these babies up...
YUM!
Friday, March 19, 2010
The weekend arrives
Busy week and glad it's Friday! I helped to babysit those triplets again and wow, babies really change drastically in 4 months. The kiddos are about 9 months old now and crawling all over the place -- the girls are even pulling themselves up and standing. They were so much fun and I came home with a touch of baby fever. :-)
Ladies' craft night this month fell on St. Patrick's Day, so my friend Cindy offered up potato/bacon soup, minty green milkshakes and "Irish" guacamole, which isn't Irish at all but we had to justify it's place on the buffet table. Other girls brought along cookies and beer bread. So very tasty. For my craft I worked on those damn tissue-paper poufs -- they're never ending! I need to make at least 90 and the count is currently at 44.
And aren't these little bowls great!?!? My sister's boyfriend is a very talented ceramics artist/professor and he offered to create these as a wedding favor for our guests. BEST FAVOR EVER! Gabe's website is here: http://www.gabetociart.com/ It's difficult to gauge the size in these photos but all of the bowls can fit in the palm of your hand.
Ladies' craft night this month fell on St. Patrick's Day, so my friend Cindy offered up potato/bacon soup, minty green milkshakes and "Irish" guacamole, which isn't Irish at all but we had to justify it's place on the buffet table. Other girls brought along cookies and beer bread. So very tasty. For my craft I worked on those damn tissue-paper poufs -- they're never ending! I need to make at least 90 and the count is currently at 44.
And aren't these little bowls great!?!? My sister's boyfriend is a very talented ceramics artist/professor and he offered to create these as a wedding favor for our guests. BEST FAVOR EVER! Gabe's website is here: http://www.gabetociart.com/ It's difficult to gauge the size in these photos but all of the bowls can fit in the palm of your hand.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
More laundry room
We bought a new sink base from Lowes (matches the hickory cabinets upstairs in the kitchen) and D made a countertop from SCRATCH. He did the same thing in our kitchen. Awesome, no? My parents will recognize the black laminate on top -- we originally purchased it for the kitchen remodel of my condo when my dad made a countertop from scratch too! I had a good amount of that laminate sheeting and couldn't bear to leave it when I sold the condo, so along it came to the new house. Glad we had a chance to use it.
The stainless steel sink is one I found on Craigslist - good price and perfect size. D needs something deep for cleaning his tools after home projects and I love having a sink nearby when I do laundry. Another plus was that the sink came with a pull-out sprayer -- all for $38! I'm pretty sure the paving bricks are there to weigh everything down before D caulks and seals the edges.
The sink is on the left as you enter the room and the washer/dryer are on the right...
D very sweetly switched the location of the washer and dryer since the washer door opens the wrong way. I would have to hoist wet clothes over the door and then shuffle over to the dryer. It was an ergonomic nightmare.
I also asked for a continuous workspace that would span the tops of both the washer and dryer. Since we are still kicking it old-school with the dryer (another Craigslist find: $200 in 2007 and it works great!) D had to cut the plywood to fit around the console. He's going to sand it down a bit and paint it white to blend in with the appliances. The awesome front-loading/high-efficiency washer was my Valentine's Day present in 2008. I love it.
The stainless steel sink is one I found on Craigslist - good price and perfect size. D needs something deep for cleaning his tools after home projects and I love having a sink nearby when I do laundry. Another plus was that the sink came with a pull-out sprayer -- all for $38! I'm pretty sure the paving bricks are there to weigh everything down before D caulks and seals the edges.
The sink is on the left as you enter the room and the washer/dryer are on the right...
D very sweetly switched the location of the washer and dryer since the washer door opens the wrong way. I would have to hoist wet clothes over the door and then shuffle over to the dryer. It was an ergonomic nightmare.
I also asked for a continuous workspace that would span the tops of both the washer and dryer. Since we are still kicking it old-school with the dryer (another Craigslist find: $200 in 2007 and it works great!) D had to cut the plywood to fit around the console. He's going to sand it down a bit and paint it white to blend in with the appliances. The awesome front-loading/high-efficiency washer was my Valentine's Day present in 2008. I love it.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Laundry room reno
We had a busy weekend -- a trip to Home Depot, home projects and a wedding reception for my friend Sandra and her new husband Drew.
D worked nonstop on the laundry room and I'm happy to report that the space is 90% complete! He let me help out with the new flooring on Saturday night. It's peel-and-stick vinyl from Home Depot that looks and feels a lot like bamboo wood. I love real bamboo flooring but after seeing it installed in friends' homes and realizing that it dents like crazy, we went with the peel-and-stick option. This area is pretty high-traffic so we can't afford any dents and scratches. Each box was about $42 for 25 square feet and we used 3 boxes.
Standing on the stairs looking down on the little hallway. Laundry room on left, D's office door in front and garage door to the right. This area is tight on space so D is installing a pocket door in the laundry room. The original door opened into the room and blocked the washing machine.
It went down pretty easily. Each piece sticks to the others, so it floats above the sub-floor. D cut the pieces with a razor blade, we placed them down and then used a mini-roller to ensure the planks stuck to each other securely. D does all the cutting because I cannot be trusted with precise measurements!
I know the yellow looks a little crazy here but trust me, we toned down the bright hue by putting up shelving and getting the new sink and base cabinet in there.
Almost done:
During demo:
Room view before we moved in:
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Snow snow snow
Third day of snow flurries. It's like our own watered-down version of snowpocalypse! Temp is around 10 degrees, which is not unbearable by any means but something in the low 20's would be perfect.
For your viewing pleasure -- a photo of a small-ish moose helping itself to a branch snack a few blocks from our house...
For your viewing pleasure -- a photo of a small-ish moose helping itself to a branch snack a few blocks from our house...
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Hazards of winter
Is it spring yet where you live? If so, lucky you...because it sure ain't anything close to spring here in the AK. Blizzards, avalanches, power outages -- we've got it all!
Storm dumps more than foot of snow in parts of Anchorage - Anchorage Daily News
I woke up yesterday and discovered that the clock was blinking "12:42", which meant that the power had gone out exactly 42 minutes prior. Snow was blowing every which way and my car was covered, but one nice surprise was that D had shoveled a perfect little walkway to my car door. What a guy!
It's still snowing lightly today but we can at least see the mountains. The temperature has dropped though -- it was 10 degrees on my way to work.
Storm dumps more than foot of snow in parts of Anchorage - Anchorage Daily News
I woke up yesterday and discovered that the clock was blinking "12:42", which meant that the power had gone out exactly 42 minutes prior. Snow was blowing every which way and my car was covered, but one nice surprise was that D had shoveled a perfect little walkway to my car door. What a guy!
It's still snowing lightly today but we can at least see the mountains. The temperature has dropped though -- it was 10 degrees on my way to work.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday already
Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? I didn't, but was very happy to hear that "The Hurt Locker" won a couple awards. D and I watched that movie on Saturday night (thanks Netflix!) and thought it was really good. I can't speak to the level of realism because, uh, I've never been part of an EOD unit that responds to bomb threats in Iraq, but it was a powerful movie.
I realized this weekend that our wedding invites need to go out sometime this month. They are halfway finished (I'm designing them myself) but there are a couple things that I can't decide on -- the font being one of them. I go back and forth between a coupled different options.
D worked all weekend on the laundry room. Walls are painted, shelving is up, new electical outlets are in. I picked this bright yellow color for the walls and it's so bright and cheery. D is not convinced, but I think once everything is placed in the room the color will be toned down.
And here is what happens when I get bored and the dog is too tired to run away...
I realized this weekend that our wedding invites need to go out sometime this month. They are halfway finished (I'm designing them myself) but there are a couple things that I can't decide on -- the font being one of them. I go back and forth between a coupled different options.
D worked all weekend on the laundry room. Walls are painted, shelving is up, new electical outlets are in. I picked this bright yellow color for the walls and it's so bright and cheery. D is not convinced, but I think once everything is placed in the room the color will be toned down.
And here is what happens when I get bored and the dog is too tired to run away...
Friday, March 5, 2010
Housekeeping
Please bear with me as I make some upgrades to the blog. I found a great template that will allow for publishing of photos in a larger format, but it always takes a while to ensure all of my widgets make the conversion.
Made it to Friday
Still here, still alive -- just trying to keep my head above water. I thought that once Heart Month concluded my time would free up a bit, but I forgot that my boss had a 10 day vacation planned. So here we are at the start of March and it's busy once again.
D and I visited Home Depot last night and picked out a happy yellow color for the laundry room walls. It's looking great down there -- new drywall is up and D laid down a coat of primer. We'll also have new flooring and storage options on the two opposing walls. Can't wait!
Oh and after sitting through two days of jury selection, I managed to not get picked for a criminal case. The attorneys found a pool of 15 potentials and the rest of us were sent off to thank our lucky stars. It was a rape case and would have gone on for about 2 weeks, according to the judge. Not pleasant.
D and I visited Home Depot last night and picked out a happy yellow color for the laundry room walls. It's looking great down there -- new drywall is up and D laid down a coat of primer. We'll also have new flooring and storage options on the two opposing walls. Can't wait!
Oh and after sitting through two days of jury selection, I managed to not get picked for a criminal case. The attorneys found a pool of 15 potentials and the rest of us were sent off to thank our lucky stars. It was a rape case and would have gone on for about 2 weeks, according to the judge. Not pleasant.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Best buddies
I wasn't able to save this and post it to my blog, but if you click on the link below it will take you to a page where you can view the short video. Trust me, it's way cute and super sweet.
The Orangutan and the Hound
--From the National Geographic Channel
"When Surya, the orangutan, meets a hound dog by the river, the two carry on like long lost friends. We humans often cannot get along with other humans because the tone of their skin differs from ours. How much can we learn from these two species, whose love for each other spans across species lines?"
The Orangutan and the Hound
--From the National Geographic Channel
"When Surya, the orangutan, meets a hound dog by the river, the two carry on like long lost friends. We humans often cannot get along with other humans because the tone of their skin differs from ours. How much can we learn from these two species, whose love for each other spans across species lines?"
Monday, March 1, 2010
Jury duty
My petit jury duty stint began this morning. I got up early, drove downtown and made my way to one of the courthouses. Security only took a few minutes and then I waited in the jury room with over 100 other people. Roll call was called a couple different times and then after an hour or so we were all ushered into a very small courtroom. After 4 hours they had only decided on about 8 jurors, which means the majority of us have to return tomorrow morning and continue the process.
I brought my Kindle along to read before and after our time in the courtroom. It was nice to not have a heavy book weighing down my purse! We were all released at 1:30 today so I was able to come into work and get some things done. My boss is going on vacation starting Wednesday and I really hope I'm not selected for the case or else we have no coverage here at the office.
I brought my Kindle along to read before and after our time in the courtroom. It was nice to not have a heavy book weighing down my purse! We were all released at 1:30 today so I was able to come into work and get some things done. My boss is going on vacation starting Wednesday and I really hope I'm not selected for the case or else we have no coverage here at the office.
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