Long overdue pics

Here are some photos of the ice storm that happened back in December. Ya know - the BIG one - the one where I had to cancel my house warming party (I SWEAR that's still going to happen one of these days!) and most of the area had no power for at least a week?

Yeah - THAT ice storm.

Unfortunately, I only got a few pictures out before my camera battery died, and not having power, I had no way to charge it. (obviously)

So here are a few of the pictures of the crazy ice storm damage in our backyard, which we're still trying to pick up.

spring is losing its battle

I know the pic is pretty small - it was taken with my cell phone - I'll try to get a better pic. If you can't see it, they're crocus sprouts that are coming up from the bulbs I planted in the fall. Now the snow is just going to cover them up! ugh...

American Idol

So far, we have Michael, Danny and Alexis.

HOW THE !@$@# did Michael get through?!?
He shouldn't have even gotten this far. Anoop and Ricky were far better - even that really obnoxious Tatiana was better than Michael.

argh

stupid snow

GO AWAY!

I'm sick of slipping and sliding! I saw flower shoots coming through the snow today and I want them to stay.

blueberries beware...

I want to plant blueberry bushes in the side yard come spring, but the boy is worried that blueberries will roll down the small hill and get caught up in the lawnmower. This is how we know that he doesn't eat much fruit - how big does he think these blueberries are?! He's seriously afraid that the berries will mess up the mower!!

silly boy...

valentine's dinner

We went to the Gondola Restaurant in Leominster - it wasn't too bad. The service was somewhat slow, but the food was pretty good. I had eggplant gondola - it was eggplant wrapped around cheese, kind of like manicotti. The boy obviously had ravioli, what else?

Tonight I made cajun catfish, homemade french fries, and garlic bread. yum!

how did I get that?

Big bruise on the back of my knee. No idea how it got there.

I am a lucky woman

The boy went out at 9:45 tonight and looked for a half hour to find Cool Whip for me. He wasn't successful, but he did it.

Wow.

random "Buffy" info

Did anyone else know that Alyson Hannigan (Willow) married Alexis Denisof (Wesley)? Is this common knowledge, or am I just missing things here?

wow. cool. :-)

A day in the life of a teacher...

TEACHER: George, go to the map and find North America.
STUDENT: Here it is!
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: George!


HAROLD: Teacher, would you punish me for something I didn't do?
TEACHER: Of course not.
HAROLD: Good, because I didn't do my homework.


TEACHER: I hope I didn't see you looking at Don's paper.
JOHN: I hope you didn't either.


TEACHER: In this box, I have a 10-foot snake.
SAMMY: You can't fool me, teacher....snakes don't have feet!


TEACHER: Ellen, give me a sentence starting with "I".
ELLEN: I is....
TEACHER: No, Ellen, Always say "I am."
ELLEN: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet".


TEACHER: Max, use "defeat", "defense", and "detail" in a sentence.
MAX: The rabbit cut across the field, and defeat went over defense before detail.

Speaking of Zombies

We watched "Wicked Little Things" this evening On Demand. It was one of the freebies, but it wasn't too bad. I don't like gorey, and this wasn't too gorey. Creepy little zombie children though...

drip drip drip

A few drips still here and there

argh...

Watch out!

Mother Nature hates us...

I am SO SICK of snow! This was the kind of snow that hurts to shovel. It was thick, heavy, wet, and sloppy. It was NOT an easy clean-up!!

Then there was the whole ice dam situation. I come downstairs this afternoon (I spent most of the day upstairs playing on my computer and grading) and I hear a strange noise. Turns out, it is a practical DELUGE of dripping water in the bowed window in the living room. I move everything out of the way and get towels. LOTS of towels-the dripping went right through most of them. I call husband-no answer. I call mom-no answer. I call stepdad-no answer. I call in-laws-no answer. I call aunt-she tells me to call uncle. I call uncle, and FINALLY get ahold of someone!! He says it's most likely an ice dam, and to wait till the boy gets home because he doesn't want me on a ladder or on the roof when no one else is home (he doesn't want me there even when someone IS home). I look out onto the porch roof from the second story window, and I thought I saw the problem - there's an overhang from the main roof over the porch roof.

The boy finally gets home and gets stuck in the driveway. I hadn't had the chance to shovel since I found out about the leak. I had been trying to find ways to stop the flood. No luck.
I go out to help the boy, he heads to Home Depot to find a roof rake. Again, no luck.

I shovel the driveway, he shovels the roof. It doesn't seem to stop the waterfall in our living room, because all of a sudden the fire alarms are going off. Turns out the water started flowing through the living room smoke detector and caused it to go off. I unplug it from the ceiling, only to be soaked when the water pours out on my head. Luckily, most of the water came out on my head, and it was just dripping after that.

I finally get ahold of my stepdad, and he thought to have me check the crawlspace to see if there was water up there. BOY was there water up there! The rug in the crawlspace was soaked - we left handprints in the rug as the water seeped up. We cut the rug in half and rolled it up. The boy ran his section through the house because it was so completely soaked that it was dripping. We mopped up the crawlspace to see where the water was coming in from. We pulled a piece of insulation out of the way to discover the ice dam was actually on the main roof.

Back out onto the porch roof again....

The boy tries shoveling off the main roof on the side of the front dormer. Success! The water slows down and eventually stops.

We go back to shoveling the driveway, which was interrupted when the fire alarms started going off.

We have a quick dinner of mac n' cheese - organic, no less! (ann would be proud)

Then we start getting ready for bed. I went into the basement to get the towels out of the dryer to lay out by the window just in case, and I step in a puddle.

ARGH!

There's water on the basement floor. We don't know WHERE it came from. It was in the middle of the floor - not near a door or window. There wasn't any dripping through the ceiling or down the walls we could see. We mopped that up, and will have to check on it tomorrow morning. It's kind of strange that with all of the rain we got this summer, we didn't get ANY water inside of our house.

I replaced the towels in the living room, and noticed that we'll probably have to repair part of the ceiling around the fire alarm. There is a significant bubble in the ceiling plaster. It's empty - there's nothing in it, but it's only going to dry, crack and crumble off. I did manage to pop the bubble on the wall - I removed the water and it seems to have shrunk back up to the wall again. We'll see if it holds.

Oh - and did I mention that a stupid plow nailed our mailbox??

I have great friends

'Nuff said.

I'm happy


:-)

After all...I am my grandfather's granddaughter

In my self-defense, I didn't order the Power Juicer off of the actual infomercial. But I did get it. (from Macy's).

I made my first glass of juice this evening after dinner. It was REALLY good too! Even the boy liked it! I combined 2 oranges, 1 carrot, and a starfruit. (I only added the starfruit because I needed to do something with it before it went bad)

I'm excited - fresh juice!! Yum!

so much snow...

Is it just me, or have there been more snow storms this year than in most recent years? Global warming my butt...

New computer!

I have my new laptop! Yay!

It's a new Dell Inspiron 1318, and it's blue. :-)

It has Windows Vista on it; I'm still trying to figure out how I like it.

Bill told me it sucks...
My tech guy at school told me it sucks...

....my decision hasn't been made yet.

Here we go again!

It's musical time again!! At least this time around I'm not doing it for the first time ever.

This year I am putting on "Willy Wonka Jr". The show is March 27, 28, and 29. Mark your calendars!

Today were the call-backs...I HATE this part. I like it much better when one person comes in and blows away the competition, it makes my job much easier. This year I had a hard time deciding between a BUNCH of characters. I had to call back students for Charlie, Willy Wonka, Veruca, and 3 of the mothers. It's so difficult to decide, but I think I made the right decisions. (I hope).

At least when I announced my decision to the students who had stuck around, they were all happy for each other, and were congratulating each other. It was great to see. No one seemed to go home upset at least. However, we'll see what tomorrow brings when the entire cast finds out.

Super Mario Drummer

This is quite cool.

I suppose you'll have to settle for the link...since I had problems embedding it.

Click here

Dead computer

It is no longer close to dead.

It's dead.

Thank GOD the boy got me that external hard drive and I could back it all up!

Death of a computer

Say goodbye to the Inspiron 6000. It has gotten me pretty far, but is dying. On its way out. Kaputskie.

In a week or two, I will have my new laptop. It's smaller, lighter, has more memory, and is way cheaper than this one. And it's blue!

I am stuck using this piece of junk for a few more days - then you shall see the pics and blogs that I used to make, but haven't been able to for fear of computer explosion...

Christmas Gifts

I almost forgot!

I got some WAY cool Christmas gifts this year!

My 2 faves are my 320 gig external hard drive (I could store everything from my work, home, and the boy's computer and not even make a dent) and my bread machine.

We will never have to buy bread again! I have already made 3 loaves since Christmas. It was fantastic! White, wheat, oatmeal...the combinations are endless! Muwahahahaha (evil laugh, I thought it was called for)


Pictures to come if I ever get this laptop up to speed (that's another story for another day)

Happy vacation!

Woohoo!

It's vacation time!

So far - I have cleaned. Fun, huh?

Random thought - why are Goya juice cans so thick? They're really strong aluminum!!

I know, it's random.

Next, it's time to figure out New Year's Eve plans.

Big scary ice storm!

Wow...craziness...

Let me recap the last few days for you.

Thursday:
The power goes out around 8:30 or so. We sit in the dark, and decide to sleep on the futon in the living room to be closert to the wood stove. Little did we realize, this would be the first night of many.

Friday:
I awoke with a start at 7:45, realizing my alarm never went off. I have to be at school in 15 minutes. My cell died, and we still have no power. I don't even know if I have school. I go out to the car and plug in my phone and listen to my voicemail - luckily, no school
We wake up to a pretty scene - ice covered tree branches glistening in the sun. No wait - the beauty is suddenly drowned out by the realization that these tree branches are covering the ground and marking their destruction all over the county. Branches down in the front yard, branches hanging on the wires to our house (doesn't matter since there's still no power), a giant tree-sized branch standing straight up and down in front of the shed - it was buried 2 feet deep into the ground!, a tree split in half that hangs into the pond and broke one of the balustrades to the footbridge, a tree down in the middle of the backyard, and many more branches all over the yard. Branches on top of the fence between us and the neighbors, branches covering the lawn, that 3 foot diameter branch buried in the ground leaning against the shed, narrowly missing the pool filter...
We spent a number of hours sawing and clipping back, pulling and knocking over that giant tree-sized branch away from the shed. The boy tried to find a chain saw - ha - not much open around, and the only chainsaws he could find were electric - fat lot of good those would do us.
The rest of the day we were still cleaning the house in hopes that the house-warming party would still happen tomorrow night, and keeping the wood stove manned for warmth. Have I mentioned it's REALLY ccccold outside??
We spent the night in the living room again - it's kind of like camping! As a matter-of-fact, we pulled out camping gear and used it inside. We found our rechargable lantern and our coffee percolator. We could boil small amounts of water on the top of the stove, and we cooked food in foil packets placed inside of the wood stove. We're pretty resourceful like that.

Saturday:
Obviously, the party cannot go on as planned. Friends and family are calling the cell all day asking about the party. An email is sent out via a friend letting as many people as possible know the party is cancelled.
I had to move the food into a cooler and place it outside to keep cool. The freezer food was ok for the most part, but the fridge stuff was getting warm. I also had to move the bucket o' peppermentini outdoors to keep it cold - it never did create ice crystals.
Again, I spend most of the day loading wood into the stove to keep warm. I also wrap a lot of Christmas presents.
My college roomie and her hubby come down from NH and bring us warm food. We spent the evening by the fire with some drinks and some food. It was a lot smaller than I planned, but it was a lot of fun.
After they left, we again hunkered down in the living room for the night. It is COLD, but the fire is roaring, and we are keeping pretty warm.

Sunday:
About 1:30 am we awoke to the lights flickering a few times, then the ROAR of the smoke alarms going off. The alarms are all hard-wired, and I guess the flickering on and off of the electricity spazzed them out. We couldn't figure out how to turn them off. The two of us were running around the house trying to get them to shut up. I don't know what we did, but we eventually got them to stop.
Finally! Heat! Hot water! Electricity! Happiness!
We spend the day cleaning the house and the yard, answering emails and voice messages from friends and family asking how we are doing. I'm hoping that school is cancelled for tomorrow, since I see that all of the area schools have cancelled for tomorrow.
At least tonight we can sleep in our own bed tonight!!

Monday:
Of course we have school - every other school district in the area has cancelled, but why would we? On my way to school I am rerouted twice, and dodge branches and trees all the way to school. When I show up, half of the staff for the building aren't there, and most of the students from the town next door aren't there since their town has cancelled school. However, since the town next door doesn't have its own high school, half of them go to our high school. The buses, however, couldn't pick them up, even though they were required to be there.
Argh-ridiculous.
I was supposed to go Christmas caroling with some of my students at the local mall after school. The mall wasn't expecting us, and a lot of the kids had to bail; I decided to cancel. I must have ESP, since I learned later that the mall lost power again. Good thing I decided to cancel before school let out!
Finally...I'm home.
I'm exhausted.
I learn that the town next door has once again cancelled school for tomorrow...
We'll see what tomorrow has in store - will I be going through this all over again? Only time will tell...

Currently...

I am at the rents' house cuddling with the dog on the couch watching Dave Letterman.

Shhh...

don't tell mom.

Ironically,

John Phillips Sousa's least favorite month...

March.


HA - thanks Dave Letterman!

Chex mix

My house smells lovely.

It smells like Chex Mix.

yum.

Wow-I need to post more often

Ugh - I need to post more often, I keep forgetting.

I am busy!

However, I have found this piece of amusing information.

I am currently cooking dinner with a LOT of garlic! I am making garlic chicken, stuffed peppers (garlic in those too), and sour cream and onion mashed potatoes (ok, so no garlic there). Earlier, I made banana cookies to freeze for my party next month.

I like having Tuesday off. We should do it every week.

Looking forward to next season

The Boston Red Sox today received righthanded pitcher Virgil Vasquez on a waiver claim from the Detroit Tigers.

What do we know about him?

Well:

Last year for Detroit, he pitched for 16.2 innings total. In those 16.2 innings, he allowed 27 hits, 16 runs (all of which were earned), allowed 7 home runs, walked 5 and struck out 7. His ERA was 8.64.

We'll see how he works out, but pitchers are always a good thing to have, right?

Right?

I KNEW I recognized her!!

I've been watching "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", because I am obsessed...

I saw the creepy, red-haired, Irish, creepy, robot-woman (did I mention creepy?) and I thought I recognized her -

She's Shirley Manson, frontwoman to the band "Garbage". Remember them from the 90s??

I think she's great, creepy, but great!

Edit to the last post

Well gee, they thought it was time to put the tarp down.

I don't care what they said - they would not have put out the tarp if it wasn't a tied game.

A suspended game to be picked up in the bottom of the 6th, or will the rain delay end sometime tonight? We'll have to wait and see...

Is anyone watching the Series?

I tune in here and there, just enough to know I'm not all that interested.

I did tune in for a bit tonight to see the DELUGE of rain coming down. What are they thinking? The field is puddling up, and everyone's going to drop the ball.

Argh - stupidity at its finest.

Glad this didn't happen to me!

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

mini-Thanksgiving

Tonight I had my in-laws for dinner. Mom, dad, and brother.

I made them Orange Spiced Chicken, Peapod & Orange Salad, Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Sweet Potato Salad, and a Black & White Angel Food Cake.

Mom brought some pasta with vodka sauce, Dad brought an apple pie, and brother-in-law brought some wine.

We had to pull the leaf out in the table, and I used a tablecloth and cloth napkins with napkin rings. I even bought a small bouquet of flowers for the center.

It was a feast!! We even watched football! It truly was a mini-Thanksgiving.

Massachusetts connections

Erik Per Sullivan -- Dewey from "Malcolm in the Middle" is from Worcester!

His father owns the Alamo mexican restaurant in Milford.

He's all grown-up looking now! He's also attending Phillips Exeter.

This is why I love IMDB.com

Cambodian couple saw house in half in divorce - Yahoo! News

Cambodian couple saw house in half in divorce - Yahoo! News

Perhaps if all divorces were solved this way, there wouldn't be so many.

King Solomon makes a comeback

NVCB

Nashoba Valley Concert Band rocks! Check it out!

There is and always has been a link - look in the column on the right hand side. There will ALWAYS be a link! ;-) How could I not?

So there Rich! :-P

LOOK ---------------->

You might have to scroll down a bit to see it.

In case you can't find it .... I'll even put another one right...

HERE!

Wicked good shows!

Just got back from NYC - annual Girl's Weekend - we go every Columbus Day weekend to shop and see shows on Broadway. This year we saw Wicked and Little Mermaid.

Wicked was just that. It was awesome. I've had the soundtrack in my head for the entire weekend.

The Little Mermaid was good too - although I think we would have enjoyed it more if not for all of the little kiddos. We did go to a Sunday matinee, however...

There were two days of street fairs to walk through, and I bought a few Christmas presents. I also bought some stuff for myself - new rainboots, and a dress for my December concert.

We had a ton of fun - ate some good food (unlike last year's Irish pub experience), shopped our brains out (don't worry - I didn't spend too much $$), and saw some great shows.

The Milford Plaza was a step down from last year - apparently the breakfast that we ate last year was NOT included in our price - we aren't club members, so we shouldn't have been eating there - who knew??

We made our traditional stop at Rein's Deli in Vernon, CT and ate the sour pickles. I also had my very first Bialy - a cross between a bagel and english muffin - yummy.

I am finally home, and am planning on taking a nap while catching up on my DVR'd shows.

:-D

PHOTOS

Yay!

The photos are finally up! I have started printing some out, and will be ordering some for our house. We can finally be the kind of vain people who have their phtos everywhere in their own house. Yup, that's us.

People who want their photos everywhere.

Hehe

If you care to look at them:

rmfletcherwedding.shutterfly.com

Check out our super cool photos!

friends, football, fire, and beerdogs

Had some friends up today. We made beerdogs and burned stuff in the chiminea. We watched football, where I definitely felt left out being the only one not involved in a fantasy football league. (not that I would know what I was doing even if I were).

They got the grand tour and we showed them all of our wedding photos - including a great one of them.

We watched the games on tv while the three of them were absolutely freaking out over their fantasy football scores. I laughed.

The boy made his famous beerdogs. Giant beer-soaked Fenway Franks. Yummy.

We had a lot of fun - haven't sat down with these friends since before the wedding.

Now it's back to the real world - work tomorrow - ewwww.

New favorite show

It's a great show - based in Boston!

Can't tell if it is the intriguing sci-fi-geekiness of the plot that makes me watch or the fact that I was obsessed with Josh Jackson on Dawson's Creek...

Doesn't really matter-I'll watch it either way.

I was Joey'd

While grocery shopping today a random stranger came up to me and asked

"How YOU doin?"

I was Joey'd.

Spaghetti Sauce

I made homemade spaghetti sauce today!

Really homemade - the tomatoes were from our garden!!

Yummy.

You're jealous, I know.

The boy is NOT happy...

His star QB of his fantasy team is down and out.

He has left the house to drive around and cool down.

This is not good.

Gmail update

Alright - so I had to download Mozilla Firefox to check my email.

That is somewhat annoying. Does ANYONE know what's going on?!

ugh.

Random tidbit of info

Do you remember the show "Dinosaurs"?

And the baby - "not the mama!"

Kevin Clash was his voice.

You may not recognize his name, but I bet you'd recognize his other voice -

Yup - sweet little Elmo has the same voice as the little devilish dinosaur baby

Funny Blog

I found this blog today while I was searching around on the internet today.

I thought it was hilarious - check it out!

Gmail trouble?

Is anyone else having problems signing into Gmail? My browser just says "redirecting" forever and ever as it loads, then it finally comes to a page that says,




"Bad Request"

"Your client has issued a malformed or illegal request. "



Does anyone out there know why this is happening??

bad blogger

Ok - I officially stink as a blogger. I will try harder.

Random Thoughts on a New House:

- I can have packages delivered without worrying about being there to sign for them (or that they'll be stolen if they are left without a signature)

- No more barking dog or crazy lady living across the hall

- I can sit outside without thinking that everyone else in the building is staring at me

- No more rearranging BBQ plans because someone else is using the picnic table area

- No more noisy upstairs neighbors

- I have a freaking pool! I can lounge by it, swim in it, and float in it. But that also means I have to figure out the delicate balance of cleaning it. So far, I have fixed a gasket, and figured out just HOW high the water level needs to be.

- Wallpaper sucks.

- The boy really does like mowing the lawn, which I have to say is most excellent, since I don't believe I would...at least not as much as him...he asks me if the angle he mowed it at looks good! (good thing I don't mow the lawn, if I remember correctly I meandered as opposed to making straight lines)

- Doing laundry whenever I want and without saving $3 worth of quarters actually makes laundry more enjoyable (a little anyways, laundry still blows)

- Surround sound in an enclosed room that can be turned up as loud as we please is REALLY REALLY COOL!

- I can find paint somewhere on me a week after I have painted a room.

- "Tawny Port" paint needs at LEAST 2 coats to cover ugly tan paint

- Paint colors look less bright once you add the furniture (but can still be described as "liquid Smurf blue" - don't worry, I like it!)

- The second layer of wallpaper found underneath the first always sticks more

- A/C in the bedroom is MUCH better than A/C in the living room with 2 fans blowing it around corners into the bedroom

- Boxborough really DID have HARD water! It is so nice to be able to actually DRINK the tap water!

- The third layer of wallpaper is just plain EVIL!!!!!

Escalator Temporarily Stairs.

This is hilarious...

Things you never knew you knew

Apparently, I know how to fix pool filters. Who knew?

I opened up the 5 way valve converter and put a rubber ring back in place.

Wow...

I'm a plumber! :-D

Updates on house

We've been busy!!

We've painted the kitchen "grape leaf green" and the cabinets and trim "tawny port" which is a deep mahogany type color.

The above curtain is in the kitchen - I made it! I saw the fabric, and knew that was what I wanted in the kitchen.

I also made curtains in the living room. Those were more difficult, since they were bigger, and the fabric was also a pain the tookus to work with - it was silky, which meant that it slid everywhere while trying to work on it!

Don't worry - those aren't stains in the above photos - just a weird lighting phenomenon.

We've also done some decorating in the living room. It has a somewhat asian-inspired feel to it. The MIL helped us out there-she had tons of scrolls to hang on the walls. She had previously done her living room in a similar style, but has recently redecorated.

Looking a gift horse in the mouth...

When I first read the headline, I felt really bad for this family.
Then I read the story.

Are these people nuts? You win the chance of a lifetime - you get a house built for you - a DREAM house no less, and you SQUANDER it all away? You live in a decrepit house with a faulty septic system, and hundreds of volunteers raze it to the ground to build you the most gorgeous house within miles, and you use it as collateral for a $450,000 loan for some business venture? What is wrong with these people?! That wasn't enough? It's not like they were paying a mortgage, I am sure of that. (that would kind of stink if ABC built you a house and stuck you with the bill LOL)

Wow - some people just don't know when to quit.

killer squash

This is the zucchini that I found in the garden. It is HUGE. I made a quiche with 6 cups of slices, and also set aside 2 cups of shredded to make muffins tomorrow. That's after I cut out a lot of the middle section with the seeds that were the size of pumpkin seeds!

Wallpaper Saga

There is wallpaper in the upstairs hallway that we wanted to take down. Easier said than done.

We pulled on the paper, and it came down pretty easily! Yay, this will be easier than we thought!

But wait -

There's more...

Ok...ugly brown paper is a little more difficult to take down, but still do-able.

awww....nooooo.....

there's a THIRD layer...

from the 1950s! (I think...maybe the 60s?)

And BOY is that stuff hard to get off the wall! We're vinegar and watering this bad boy (which does not make the hallway smell very good).

This wallpaper is right on top of the drywall-which is not cool.

I'll let you know how it goes.

pics from the house

Here are some over-due pics from the work on the house:

Our supercool wetbar area in the basement (it has some more stuff on it now):

Old colors of the kitchen cabinets:

Cabinet doors on the garage floor waiting to be painted-the drawer has been painted the new color:





Old yucky countertop in the basement:

Tiles that we will be putting over the yucky countertop:

Futon I picked up down the street for $45. We have gotten a new slipcover for it, and it's in our living room.

New paint for the alcove in the bedroom:

Does anyone else think potatoes?

This is one of the headlines from the Boston Channel.com (channel 5).

Missing Tubers Rescued from River

I honest-to-God thought they were talking about potatoes before I read the article.

house update

We're in!
Sorta...

Most of our stuff (there's a few random things left at the apartment-and boy do I mean random) is in the house. It's not put anywhere in particular, mind you, but at least it's here. Most of the things are in the correct room, or the general area. We're sleeping on a mattress on the floor, seeing as how we haven't put the bed back together.

We also have cable/internet/and a phone. Well that's a lie, we have a phone line but not an actual phone. So I suppose it's perfectly pointless. I guess I have to add phone to the list of things I have to get tomorrow - along with shelf paper, since 3 rolls of the sticky crap aren't enough for all of the shelves to be lined - who knew?

Also of note - we couldn't figure out how to get mattress and boxspring up the stairs - didn't seem like it would fit, until the little bro realized there was a piece of loose molding, which came off easily in his hands, and was obviously how the previous owners had gotten their mattress out of the house. (good thing we didn't opt for the king-sized bed)

A special thanks will definitely have to go out to my little bro, my aunt, my parent- in-laws, and our good friend from up in the Lowell area (you know who you are) for helping us with the long and tedious task of moving.

Just when I thought it was done - oh yeah - we have to unpack these #@($&#*@ boxes too!

She will be loved - Buena vista social club

Another fun song to share with you.

Clocks Buena vista social club

I heard this several times in Aruba - I thought it was pretty cool, and thought you might like to listen too! :-)

House Update

I'm too tired to post pictures, so maybe there will be some in tomorrow's post.

I painted one wall in the bedroom alcove green - the gallon of paint only cost $5, it was in the mistake bin at Home Depot - it looks great! I have to finish a couple more walls, but needed a step stool to get the tape up.

I bought a futon from a guy down the street, and he drove it to my house and even helped me move it into the basement! Too bad it's WAY too big for the room, and the boy and I are just going to have to move it again, but it was very nice of him!

I have put two coats on the fronts of most of the kitchen cabinets. Hopefully I can finish the backs tomorrow. One of the cabinets is a slatted door (I think I might have just made up a word there, but you get the idea) - it's a PAIN to paint in between all the slats.

I measured the living room and the family room to make little graph paper diagrams to figure out where to put the furniture.

Oh yeah...and my streak is still alive...everytime I move, I get pulled over. without fail. I am proud to say I have never received a ticket though.

Now it's time for bed.

Happy Birthday to me!

What did I get for my birthday you ask?

Why...

I got a...

HOUSE!

:-D

We spent the day signing papers, cleaning, and cleaning, and moving some stuff, and cleaning some more.

Here are some before shots of the downstairs of the house. I took these pics before we did anything to the house. I was going to take some after pics, but it was dark, so you couldn't really see anything.

I'll take more photos tomorrow during the daylight, and you'll be able to see more.

Den:

Dining Room:

Den:

Kitchen:

I took the most photos of the kitchen, because that's where I will be doing the most work in the next couple of days (mostly paint).

Stay tuned for more! :-)

packing and packing and packing

Everytime I pack a box or two or theree, I think I'm getting somewhere...then I look around...and there's MORE to pack....

The living room is almost completely full of boxes - floor to ceiling, wall to wall to wall to wall.

Today I visited with my grandmother in the rehab hospital in Andover - it's nicer than most hotels I have stayed in! How do I get in?? (just kidding!) She seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and was happy to see the honeymoon photos I brought by with the boy's portable DVD player.

Then I went home to get some boxes to pack up my place. We ordered some pizza while I was home - mmm...veggie deep dish from Mandee's - I forgot how good that is! Mom gave me (hopefully) more boxes than I need, there's a lot.

Home again home again, jiggity jig, and I started using some of those boxes. I also made the boy dinner (he wanted - pizza, of course) so I mostly ate salad.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first day of summer work. It shouldn't be too bad - Mon-Wed 8:15-11:45. Then I have to go back home to Groveland to get copies of the marriage license.

wedding pics

our cake - isn't it pretty? The bride - that's me!
Cutting the cake - do you see the Alfred Hitchcock - like shadow behind the boy? :-)

For more pics check out my Shutterfly site.

JFK is scary

Not the president - the airport.

This is why I don't like flying in/out of there.

I have had to do it now four times in my lifetime - and that is four times too many. It's crowded, too busy, and just plain bad.

On the way back from the HONEYMOON, we were taxiing for an hour waiting while 25 planes went in front of us.

Just as a restatement from earlier - I do not have a problem with our 35th president.

sunburn

Yesterday was spent in York fishing with my uncle - we didn't catch much - he caught a 20" striper, a crab, a skate, and a lobster! We didn't keep any of it - we thought about keeping the lobster, but the poor thing only had one arm. The boy caught a crab, and I caught - NOTHING. Well, I did catch a sunburn. A small one, only where it seems we missed the sunscreen. The boy used spray sunscreen on my back, and it is obvious where it missed! It's not too bad - I've had worse.
Last night we went to my aunt's church for a roast beef dinner. It was delicious.

Today's plans - clean and pack some more of the apartment. Hopefully I will get to grading some of the papers I have stacked up as well.

David vs. David

Who will be the Goliath that is slain?

Cook sounded great. Did Archuleta sound better?

Was anyone actually listening to Rueben as he sang, or were they just watching the video clips?

Did anyone else notice that the song that David A. sang (the new one that no one knows) had a line that sounded A LOT like the song "Don't Cry Out Loud"? It was driving me nuts!!

We'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out.

And now...it's time for Hell's Kitchen!

first post in May

Wow...I can't believe it took me almost two weeks into the month to post!

I've been a very busy girl!

I'm buying a house, I'm planning a wedding, I'm cleaning my house, I'm crocheting, I'm grading papers, I'm planning a field trip, I'm planning a concert, I'm FINALLY hearing from my photographer for the first time!!, I'm conducting band rehearsals, I'm playing in band rehearsals, I'm playing in concerts, I'm attending bridal showers, I'm painting ceramics, I'm getting into fender-benders (don't even ask me about that one! stupid screw scratches in my bumper!), I'm getting my hair cut, I'm attending meeting after meeting after meeting, I'm babysitting (adults no less...grrr....), I'm figuring out how to arrange furniture at the reception, I'm rewiring the auditorium lights and mapping them, I'm making phone calls trying to organize all these things, I'm volunteering time to help at the snack shack at track meets, I'm attending first communion celebrations, I'm logging RSVP's for the wedding, I'm...

BUSY!!

'nuff said.

I'm also reading the blogs of people who actually take the time to blog...and I found this. I think I have students who would like to hire this guy to help them play the flute!!

Tomorrow is meetings with the Reverend and the organist. I think I am supposed to have a NVCB band rehearsal and the HS coffee house somewhere in there as well...

BUSY!!

my one day of vacation

Today was the one and only day I had this week where I didn't do ANYTHING. I think my couch has a permanent butt print. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of things I could have done, and many things I should have done...but I did none of them.

and it was great.

American Idol

I am shocked. Carly is gone. How is Brooke there over Carly? Or John Michaels (or Michael Johns - whatever his name was).

And how cool was Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber??

wow...

Ok...so I haven't written in a while.

I've been very busy.

We've been doing wedding stuff...house stuff...life stuff.

Lotsa stuff.

We signed our purchase and sales agreement today. Lots of signing and initialing.

This is vacation week. It's half over. :-( ::sniff sniff::

I promise I will write more.

I swear.

Well, I'll try...

I think I will...

Maybe...

offer accepted

WOOT WOOT WOOT

they've countered the counter-counter offer

We're back in the counter offering.

They've countered.

We're offering a final offer.

Wow...

Craziness!!

counter offer....counter-counter offer

We offered.

They countered.

We countered the counter.

Boy is this confusing.

But we've talked them down by $7 thousand so far.

House Hunting

Ok,
So we've been looking at houses for a long time now. We've seen over 20 in person. Out of those, we've seen some nice ones, and some not so nice ones.

But today we saw THE one.

So we put in an offer.

:-O

death of a who

ok...so I killed the Who from my earlier post, since the music was driving me crazy.