Restyled Bathroom

Check it out! I spent the weekend working on the house (I feel like a real Minnesotan). I cleaned out the guest room in preparation for my house guest (Lisa - she's arriving tonight. More on her later). And most excitingly, I decorated my bathroom. I painted and installed stuff and reorganized. So much fun (in a swearing like a sailor kind of way) and I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I might move into my bathroom now. I learned a bunch of stuff along the way and I suspect I'll want to repaint in the near future (edges are more tricky than I expected).

Ta da!

April Fools snow

Just wanted to post a few shots of the 6 inches we got on April 1st. It's all pretty much melted away by now. But it was sure pretty while it lasted.

Portland in words and other

Portland was amazing. Lovely place, good folks in the workshop.

Here are some photos of mine. The flikr ones were taken by another attendee (I'm actually in some of those!) It was a wonderful time and we got a lot of work done, too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/karen.pollard/Portland

http://www.flickr.com/photos/octoberdandy/sets/72157604115082349/


And I wanted to share this short video of my boss, Paul, describing Sun Ra (after a very long day). There are practically no words. It's just lovely.

Limbo

This has been a weird week. I felt like I was swimming through molasses. My sole event was seeing I am Legend with Ethan and Joe (we're the Cool Kids Book Club) last night to round out our exploration of the short story (sounds all smart when you say it like that, but really we like to sit around and talk about zombies and things).

Anyway - Ethan canceled (with a stupid good reason so you can't even be mad). He's got a gallery showing of some of his photos and he wanted to hit some other galleries and establish a baseline worth for his prints. We haven't managed to reschedule - since I'll be in Portland Sun through Thurs. Ah well, we'll figure something out.

I posted photos of Nook burgers and Pagoda dinner on Chowhound (links below). And I'm off to the Russian Tea House (featured on Alton's River Run - Though I liked it before that) for lunch with Rebecca.

Nook
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/493556#3462529

Pagoda
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/496141

Snowtubing ROCKS!!!

Saturday was my annual "Coerce my coworkers to snowtubing with me" event. It's in it's third year (though last year was canceled on account of extreme cold (-17 before wind chill is no time to go zipping downhill)).

This year we went to a new place, Badlands. Super cool. Very rules free and four hills to choose from. Here's a link to their site http://www.badlands-snopark.com/snotube.htm.

The most terrifying (and therefore best) hill was the Big Hill. So steep that when you stood at the top and looked down, you couldn't see the people who were ahead of you (as in - you saw then start to slide down, then they disappeared on the steep slope and then they reappear at the bottom.) I ran it twice.

The bruise is actually from the medium hill which has some awesome moguls. The first time I went down, I wasn't holding on tight enough and my tube slipped in front of me. My leg slapped the slope pretty hard.

Was it worth it? Of course.

Who knows

Who knows what this week will bring...

Maybe a sandwich night on Wednesday (cubans)? Or will Project Runway keep the other sandwich nighters away? Will I manage to watch Song of the Thin Man before it's due back? Will I make it to The Witch on Tuesday? (http://www.hardcovertheater.org/2008/witch_main.php)

And most importantly - Will I get a group together for snowtubing at Badlands on Saturday? http://www.badlands-snopark.com/snotube.htm

The seeds have been sown. Now to see if they bear fruit.

It's a sunshine day

Cold yes, but so wonderfully sunny. The sky is this really intense shade of blue. It's wonderful.

Did everyone catch the eclipse last night? I watched most of it from the big window in my upstairs hall. Magical.

Recent food writing

The first is a recap of the New Years visit. This should bring some good memories to those who came to visit.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/481910

This one is a response to the lone troll on the Midwest board. But it has very pretty pictures I took of some lovely sandwiches.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/485348#3363556

Art Shanty photos coming soon.

Cheers!

New year

Thanks again to my friends that visited. It was wonderful to have you here and to get to share my home with you.

An observation: The frost on the outside of the car is nowhere near as annoying as the frost on the inside of the car. Thankfully it is not yet cold enough that the inside frost builds up while driving. I only have to deal with it in the morning.

One year draws to an end...

Well I have my car back and my emergency fund has served its purpose. No I need to build it back up.

I had a lovely Christmas with my family in VA. We went to see the lights at the National Zoo. I also got a wonderful Sunday dinner at Dixie Bones Barbecue. Yummm.

I'm looking forward to the new year, which will start with a bang as friends come to visit.

car broke

It's official. It's more than a small repair. I need a new transmission. But the rest of the car is fine, so I'll pay for a new transmission before I seek out another used car. I won't have access to my car until middle of next week, so I'm caging rides for Tamale Day tomorrow and Sandwich night on Sunday. Can't miss those events. Need to find a way to Xmas shop, though. That's more than creeping up on me, it's hanging out in the living room waiting for me to come down the stairs.

Too much to do and not enough time

I need an extra couple of weeks before Christmas. One weekend is not enough time. I still need to buy a tree, for goodness sake. I've got several work and home projects that are all clamoring for attention and waving their deadlines around. And to make everything more fun, my car is acting up (probably the transmission). She's at the shop right now and I'm just hoping the repairs don't take too big a bite out of me.

Still having fun, though.

Thai, soon

Man, is it good to be home. I'm really enjoying the travel, but the last three weeks were pretty much non-stop. I miss my co-workers. In fact, we are just about to go pick up some Thai food for lunch. Yum!

I'm itching to get back to work on the house, too. New Years will be here before I know it and it would be nice to have the closet hardware installed before that. Can't wait to have guests. We'll have a blast.

A very warm house

I had my housewarming on Saturday. It's not like the house is all that ready, but it was now or not until after the New Year. So I tidied up (which was actually a boon to me as I dislike having my living space be disorganized. Makes me all cranky.)

I had grand plans of cooking up a storm, but ran out of time, so Trader Joe's 'catered' the event. I had butternut apple soup (served warm out of mugs), mulled cider (also served warm out of mugs), crackers, smoked trout spread (actually-that's from a local provider - Prairie Star, sooo good), three kinds of cheese (gouda, brie, and sharp cheddar), and chocolate-covered peanut-butter-filled pretzles. Add to that beer, rum for the cider, and an assortment of sodas and juices. It turned out to be a nice spread.

Just having people over made the house feel cozy. It was so nice to have friends in. I just wish my far away friends could have been there, too.

Post-move rundown

The move went surprisingly smoothly. I packed some stuff, and then I paid the movers to come in and finish the job. Really took the pressure off. They got everything packed and moved to the new place. Then I had to clean the old place which took a night and a morning. As of Saturday, I was completely out of the old place.

Everything fit into the new space (which is bigger than the old one) except for my box springs. Those are still in my dining room. I need to split the box spring or buy a divided set in order to get them up the stairs. I did find out something interesting - There are no springs in my box spring! Guess I can't complain because I've been sleeping well on this bed for many years. But I may need to replace it, rather than hack it apart to get it upstairs, because I've confirmed that it's the source of my bed's loud 'voice'. It was squeaking pretty loudly by the end. The matress, however, is ready to go for several more years.

I've even made a big dent in the unpacking (greater than I thought). With the exception of books and pictures (not an unsizable group), everything is out of its box. Now I just need to start figuring out where things will wind up. I'm taking the more organic approach and trying to see where my hand falls when I look for something and then moving the something there. Its a long and messy project, but the end result is much better.

I did have trick or treaters this Halloween! I was so happy. I had a goodly number and gave out all but a handful of my candy. And according to my neighbors, this was a slow year. I loved having a door, and a porch and a doorbell (not that anyone had to ring it. I was outside as soon as they opened the gate). I'm looking forward to next year and putting real time and energy into my decorations. I've also got really good neighbors. Seems like everyone has stopped by to say hi and folks seem really willing to help out and keep an eye on each other. My left side (as you look at the house) neighbors are extra nice. They tend to sit on their deck and chat. They've also got a cute dog (Nana-mini doberman) and cute kids (Lily is three and Leila is 9 months). Lily's already come for a visit and then dragged me back to her house. Feels so nice to have friendly neighbors.

Moved!

I'm in! The movers came this morning and, with a few exceptions, my stuff is now located in the new house. I left a very curious cat sniffing everything and came into work for a few hours.

Now to clean the old place.

I'm a HOMEOWNER!

Closing went pretty smoothly (completely smoothly from my end, the seller caused a few hiccups, but my folks got tough on them and it's all straightened out.) As of noon on Friday, I own my home.

I'm not sure it's sinking in yet that I own the house. It's so much bigger than the apartments I've been living in. It's got a whole extra story for crissakes! And a yard!

My folks were in town this weekend to see the house (and me). We got lots of good stuff done. We blew insulation into the attic, changed the locks and all of the smoke detectors, amongst other things. My dad is so happy to have a house to putter in for his little girl.

The weather was nice, so I did some work outside. I met a bunch of my neighbors. It's a very close and friendly neighborhood.

More later.

New closing date

New closing date was approved. I'll be a homeowner on the 19th! Yay!!!

Inspection passed

So the house passed inspection. YAY! There are, of course, a few things to take care of but nothing that puts the kybosh on the purchase. So now we head in to the final weeks of stuff before closing. Whew.

Bid accepted!

Yay! The owner/bank accepted my first bid (finally - took them an excruciatingly long five days). I'm on my way to homeownership.

Want to see pictures? http://picasaweb.google.com/karen.pollard/GoodrichHouse