A slow weekend

It was pretty quiet around here last weekend! Sidney found a cozy spot--in the middle of a pile of clean towels in a laundry basket.

We bought an attachment for the vacuum that cleans ceiling fans. Greatest purchase ever! However...

Bela *hates* the vacuum. And he loves to nap.

Mr. Squirrel didn't seem to notice the vacuum.

We also added to the money pit Wii by purchasing a Wii Fit. This is Dale's avatar hanging out with virtual versions of Monty and Sidney. They're going to exercise now!

We don't want to take down the Christmas tree...

Nobody wanted to take down the Christmas tree. Could you take the tree down with a kitty this sad about it? Of course not!

So we left the house yesterday and didn't get home until about 9:30 with one final, epic distraction:Needless to say? Tree is still up!

New Year's Long Weekend

We had a lovely New Year's! Since we didn't have a lot of time before or during Christmas, we opened our presents after Christmas once we got home. The carnage was still evident on New Year's Eve.

Dale was a cooking fool on NYE. (I made the enchiladas the day before and they were very, very good). Dale made chocolate espresso mousse from scratch. Delish!

He also made a batch of his grandmother's homemade chocolate syrup. In this picture he's also showing off what was probably his favorite Christmas present of the ones I gave him. He has used the infrared laser thermometer for all his home-style cooking this year.

However, dinner was the real prize. He made crab cakes. very, tasty little brown puffs from heaven!

We served them with a lemon wasabi sauce we bought ages ago back when we first went to Lake Geneva!

We started the new year with fresh homemade hash browns. My mom would be happy to know that Dale is putting the Kitchen Aid she bought for him (seriously, she gave it to him, not me).

And it wouldn't be a post from me without the cats. I went to make the bed and Monty was sitting on the edge of the bed, transfixed. Two squirrels were feasting on the seeds I left out for them. Monty is deeply fascinated by woodland creatures. Particularly when they show up on the porch of our third floor apartment!

A Blue Moon

Hey look! It's a blue moon. The moon is full and crazy bright tonight--as is the moon over my tiny village! Ha! Happy New Year, people!

2009 Christmas Decorations

It's a double update, people! I have scads of Christmas decorations, 99% of which were my moms. I'm thankful to have her decorations because she LOVED Christmas. Anyway, my favorite not-hand-painted decorations are these little Home Interiors Angels. The blond disappeared a few years ago and I scored a replacement on ebay last year. She's a cutie! I adored them when I was a kid and still think they are super adorable. They're in my dining room on a shelf.

On the opposite end of the long shelf are the Home Interiors elves that correspond to the angels. I always thought of them as belonging to the little angels as a kid. The yellow and red one went missing years ago and I just bought the replacement piece of ebay this year! I LOVE ebay!

The bulk of my Christmas decorations are knickknacks hand-painted by my mom! These two little scenes light up. They each feature a brunette girl hanging in a cozy living room--of course, girls were always painted with brunette hair because they all represented me. I come by my narcissism honestly.

Our fabulous Christmas tree! I love this tree to bits. I have a hilarious video of Dale cutting it down and he was embarrassed because the video pretty much consists of Dale shaking his butt as he cuts the tree down and then the tree tips over. It's like Dale's butt and the tree had a dance contest and Dale's butt won!

An aerial view of my little Christmas village. My mom did an awesome job painting these! They are very cute and very detailed.

Our stockings are hung (not pictured) by our big speaker stands with care so that we could put some real swag on our mantle--and tape up all of our Christmas cards. Can you spot your kids? You probably can if you sent us a photo card.

Mr. Squirrel is exhausted.

He had a lot of seeds! Ha! I love this little dude. I forgot to post this in September but had to share. More pics of our anniversary weekend will be coming...someday.

New Birds!

Since adding a plant to our back porch we've been overtaken by birds! And this large Cardinal has made quite a roost for himself. He sits on the candle holder and nibbles at the sunflower seeds. The other birds keep their distance when this big guy is around.

New Lights on the back porch!

We went to Ikea this weekend and picked up some new candleholders for the back porch. I really like how they worked out. We bought six and positioned them around the perimeter.

We've had the white twinkle lights up for some time--as well as two globe candle holders. Dale and I relaxed on the porch for a spell after putting them up. We were pretty pleased.

Dale went to see KISS...

Dale and his brother went to Canada to see KISS last weekend. He didn't take any pictures, if you can believe it! He said the show rocked, however.

He also brought home a specialized rack made at his dad's house! It fits inside the behemoth cabinet we bought a few weeks back and it hosts both our huge printer and our huge scanner. It's kind of awesome. Of course, both components are on casters that slip easily in and out for use.

New Cabinet

Dale and I are always on the lookout for new and better way to store our crap. And we have a LOT of crap. Enter Craigslist! We were going to buy some new shelves and some new storage containers for our new shelves at Ikea. We figured it would be a better solution than the innumerable small plastic tubs that make up our office. Then Dale found a set of drawers on craigslist that just might fit our weird needs.

And there she is in all her 1970s glory! We plan on giving her a paint job someday--probably when we buy a house or have a specific and exciting plan for our office. Anyway, I have a TON of craft supplies and paper and these very large flat drawers were just the trick--and our printer fits in the bottom and the scanner fits on top! So exciting (you have no idea).

Have a peak inside our drawers...this is the embroidery drawer. See the pretty floss!

A drawer filled with scissors and hole punches. That's right--I have that many scissors. Don't judge me!

Jewelry making supplies, beeding and wire. No, I don't make that much jewelry. Why would that keep me from having supplies? I'm too embarrassed to show you my other drawers--needless to say all the ones that Dale didn't stake out immediately as off limits were filled to the brim!

Even Dale gets some drawers! So far he's filled one with paper and one with drafting supplies. Heh. He's got a few empty drawers to fill.

Happy 4th of July--fireworks pics to come--as well as a bunch more photos from our camping weekend.

A New Cock!

So Dale saw this huge rooster--he calls it his cock--and had to have it. Needless to say many inappropriate jokes have filled my day today!

It's flippin' huge and sort of hideous but he loved it so much he decided he couldn't live without it. So now it sits proudly on top of the refrigerator! In fact, Dale went on and on about how he loves how "proud" it is! Hee!

New Curtains!

This has been our dining room window view since we moved into our apartment nearly three years ago! We're happy we don't look in on our neighbor's dining room (though their place must feel like a cave).

So we picked up these sheer curtains at Target. Light still gets in but blight isn't quite so visible!

I love it! Also? We got new placemats!

Here's Dale, enjoying both the curtains and the mats! And some dinner and wine!

Lots of random updates to come because Dale's brother (Hi, Wayne!!) demands updates!!

Morbid but heartwarming!

The holidays were a little rough on me this year--I was keenly missing my mother--and Dale's mom knew it so she checked with Dale and then gave me quite a Christmas present: an urn that I'd been eying to put my mom's ashes in.

Previously, mom's ashes were in a temporary home designed to dissolve in water for what was supposed to be a memorial service that laid her ashes in Lake Superior or Lake Huron. At any rate, I had a falling out with my stepdad and realized I was not so interested in parting with mom's ashes!

Needless to say I was deeply moved by Dale's mom's gift and it was very touching to me that she recognized how difficult the holiday season was. She's the best! Dale's family is exceptional to me--and to us! We love you guys!

My mom's wedding photo to my dad is in the frame in the picture! And I have to say thanks to Rebecca P. for helping Dale transfer the ashes to their permanent home.

Wall-e the Seedling

I bought the movie Wall-E on DVD when it came out a few weeks back and they were offering a free seedling by mail for free. So, of course, I filled out the form online and my seedling arrived the week before Christmas.

A quick trip to Home Depot's chilly garden section yielded a pot and soil for little Wall-e.

He's planted and hanging out in front of our living room window. Wish him luck. I'm bad with plants! He's a tree so perhaps that will help?

Gingerbread House!

Dale bought me a gingerbread house kit waaaay back in January because we'd seen one of those gingerbread house competitions on the Food Network. Fast forward 10+ months to a lazy Sunday in November. It's time to get ready for the holidays, right? I pull out the kit. I put up the walls. Dale put on the roof. Then Dale did the piping and I added the candy...

We decorated the walls first and then the roof. The wreath above the door? Was a NIGHTMARE! But it looks pretty cool.

The final product! Dale did an awesome job on the roof piping and the "icicles" along the roof! I am proud of my work on the roofline and the front yard! Ha!

Non-Obama Interlude

I've kept Dale real busy the last few quiet weekends. We took a trip to Ikea and bought some random household stuff and I talked him into putting up shelves and doing some tedious home maintenance. Here he is putting up shelves!

Bedroom shelves up! (I just slapped this stuff up there--I'll report when something exciting happens on those shelves)

Here he is giving our solid wood counter top a quick sanding before applying some mineral oil.

As you may recall (unlikely) we got this new shelf for our bathroom a few weeks back. I realized that I forgot about losing our hand towel bar only when we got home and we didn't have one. So Dale picked up a set of drawer pulls from Ikea and fashioned a towel bar by attaching the drawer pulls to the new wood shelf. Looks awesome!

Dale also picked up a shoe rack for our entryway at Ikea. He put it together and was not impressed with the no-glue, self-locking pieces. He took it apart and added nails and glue and that little sucker is sturdy as anything now! We've decided that Ikea purchases are only as well constructed as you want them to be. Sometimes you gotta throw away the easy directions and pull out the wood glue, according to Dale!

What? We can't go to a rally downtown every night!