Things I learned this weekend:

1. Even when you are standing in the shade, you can still get a nasty sunburn. For proof, look at my lobster red shoulders.

2. Husbands can be quite shocked to learn that their wives have apparently never realized the validity of #1. (Matt was in disbelief that I didn't know that and my excuse of "But I was in the shade" didn't help my case)

3. Old glass breaks pretty easily. Especially when you're chipping away old window glazing. So now I have two more windows to replace. Oh well.

4. Free musical concerts bring a crowd. On Saturday we went to a free big-band concert and it was fabulous!!!!!!! Really enjoyed it but unfortunately there was no dance floor. Not that we can dance but we really like to give it a shot.

5. I'm in a minority of women whose husbands FORCE them to buy clothes. Matt made me buy more teaching clothes this weekend. We were looking through the store and I had one item to try on; Matt had 6 for me to try on. He's very good at shopping for women's clothes because of all the time he spent with his mother and sister shopping for clothes when he was a little boy.

6. We need a backwards dictionary or one that lists the definition of the word and then gives the word. I need it because I usually can think of the definition of the word but not the word I am looking for. Here's my quandary: Last week as I was driving into a neighboring town, I ended up following an Amish buggy. This town has been trying to crack down on people speeding into it and has set up those "Here's your speed" digital read-outs on the edge of town. As the buggy passed by, it was going a whopping 8 miles an hour. But just the sight of the buggy passing the speed-monitor was .....and here's where I need my dictionary. The word I want is not: ironic, oxymoronic, but more like "out of sync, out of place, seemingly backwards from the norm" Can anyone help me with this??

Happy Father's Day, a day late...

Happy Father's Day to all the dads in the world!!!! Thanks for being our Dad!!!!

I know that most people think that their father is the best in the world, which is perfectly acceptable, but I know that mine is the best!!!

Top ten reasons why my Dad is the best:

10. Willingly taught me to drive a manual car and didn't get upset when I "killed" the car numerous times or ran stop lights because I didn't want to face 1st gear again!

9. Understood that math and I are not friends even though he is friends with math.

8. Accepted that sometimes I brought home stray cats and dogs because they either a. needed a home or b. our pet was "lonely" and clearly needed a friend.

7. Helped me refurnish a corner cabinet that had been through a fire and had had blue paint spilled on it even though others said we should just get rid of it. It is a family heirloom and turned out to be solid cherry. A true diamond in the rough!!

6. Is always willing to answer my home improvement questions.

5. Is patience exemplified.

4. Even when I was out of college and technically grown up, he would wait for me to come home after being out with friends before going to bed. He wasn't upset that I was out late, he just wanted to be certain that I got home safely.

3. Drives 14 hours to see Matt and I whenever he can (Mom comes too, but this list is about Dad, sorry, Mom) And with driving, a Dad wisdom nugget: When traveling, if you put it (casserole, paint can, milk jug, etc.) on the floor, it can't fall off.

2. Continually shows how to be a good person and how to use the correct tool for the proper job. As he says, "If you have to force it, you're probably doing it wrong."

1. While he will always be my dad, he is now and forever more my friend.

I'm smarter than a tub of window glazing!

This weekend we had beautiful weather, so I decided it was time to tackle the windows. Well, not literally "tackle" because that could be very painful and/or destructive. On Friday, I started on a window that no one will ever see because it is at a very odd angle and location. Scraping and scraping old window glazing, old paint off the windows, and the flaking paint off the window sills is a great, yet productive way to spend your weekend!!

I figured out the glazing process and now have two windows scraped and reglazed. Only 22 more plus 5 basement windows. I love all the windows in our house but now I'm starting to wish we lived in a cave...

We also went to a one-year old's birthday party this weekend. Matt's cousin Eric and his wife Katrina threw a party for their son who turned the big "1." It was so much fun. He is a very happy baby but he really didn't like playing with his cake very much. I don't think he liked the icing on his fingers. It was supposed to be a Curious George cake but it looked more like the losing monkey from a monkey knife fight, missing an ear and his tail. It was the joke of the party. Luckily Katrina didn't make the cake so we could just make fun of it without hurting anyone's feelings.

Also, just to continually proof that Gus the cat is special: On Sunday night, Gus was sitting in the window. Having just discovered the "open" window means that he can sit in the window AND be inside at the same time, he was enjoying the evening breeze when he suddenly became hungry. Looking up he saw a paint chip from one of the 22 windows not yet tackled. Before any human could stop him, he reached up, grabbed the paint chip, and ate it. Yes, the cat ate paint. Now, I know that children can eat paint chips but no one ever mentioned that cats might do the same thing. Luckily, we don't have to worry about developmental disorders with Gus because he is already disordered.


So that was our weekend: scraping windows, smushing cake, and a paint-eating cat.
A very destructive weekend!!!!

*HELP* This Old House, the window edition

My next goal for our house is to work on the windows on the first floor. The second floor windows were replaced before we purchased the home and the original owner had intended to replace the windows on the first floor as well. Luckily they didn't. The windows are the original and to this history nerd, are super cool!!! But they do need some work. They need to be: recaulked, repainted, and in some places, the glass needs to be replaced. I also need to repainted the stuccoed foundation, which is currently off-white and will stay off-white.

Faithful blog readers, all 4 of you, I need your advice. Here are my window options:

A. Start with the first floor windows and work down, painting the foundation and basement windows last so any drips from the 1st floor windows can be covered up

OR

B. Work my way up starting with the basement windows and foundation moving to the first floor

ALSO:

1. Do those handy-dandy caulk pointer things that you can buy to get a smooth line actually work or am I better off using my fingers?

2. Should I scrape all the old caulk off the windows or just the sections that are crumbling? When scraping caulk, should I use a special tool so that I don't scrape/break/shatter the glass?


A non-home improvement question: I heard somewhere that if you are craving a food item, you should eat it. The craving is your body's attempt to get you to eat that item and regulate your body. So if you are craving veggies, your body needs the vitamins found in veggies.

My question is: Does this apply to donuts? I had a dream last night about a chocolate donut and now I really want one. Is my body telling me that I have a donut deficiency? I'll stay away from the donuts but I'm still curious about donut deficiencies....

This Old House, the gardening edition

Sorry for the lack of posts. After school ended, I came down with some sort of bug. It wasn't the porky flu but Matt said that I had the Monkey Virus or M1K1 as he called it. It took me a couple of weeks to feel better but now I'm myself again, except for my insatiable appetite for bananas....

Matt and I have been very busy around our house. We decided not to plant any vegetables this year and instead focus on our flowers and pretty gardening. So we laid a brick border around our flower beds and planted new plants to help pretty-fy the place.

Look at our pretty home. I must say, and I'm not biased, that this is the prettiest home I've ever owned (of course, it's the only home I've ever owned...)

I forgot to turn this one, so it's sideways, but this is the brick we laid along side the house and some of the flowers we planted.

Our front flower bed. I just planted 53 annuals, most of them in the front but it's going to take them a while to take root. Also planted: lily bulbs, dahlia bulbs, and a rose bush. The flowers on the front step are pansies. My Grandma Ethel loved pansies and I searched for them last year to plant in her memory. I couldn't find them anywhere but this year we have a lovely memory garden for Grandma. Every time I look at them I think of her. (She would be embarrassed by all this attention in my blog but it's my blog and I'll type what I want!)

This is our dwarf burning bush. It was very hard to plant since it is ON FIRE!!! Hahaha, what a bad joke!!! To dig a small hole, we called JULIE. I don't remember what all the letters stand for but basically it is a free utility-marking service. All our utilities came and marked their locations in our yard, which now looks like a clown exploded because of all the different colors of spray paint on the yard!! Anyhow, where we wanted our fire bush was just fine. Yay!

So I think we're good on the yard improvements for a time. Actually, I think we're running out of yard to fiddle with!

And while all these pictures have been uploading, I've been cleaning out a closet. I really don't need training notes from CP anymore or notes from college. If I haven't looked at them in five years, they're gone!!

Mac is trying to help me clean the closet, investigating all the new smells and climbing into the boxes I'm cleaning. What a helpful kitty.......