hiatus

As you may have guessed, nothing much is happening around here, house-wise. Don is in the final throes of a semester of taking three graduate courses at once (he's nuts), which leaves little time for renovation when combined with his recent promotion to team lead at work.

We had hoped to get the banister finished by Thanksgiving - it is, in fact, dismantled and parts strewn all over the guest room. But it is clearly not to be. Happily, we realized that since we hung the office doors, we finally have a space for overnight guests. And just in time, too. Both of my parents will be visiting (separately) around Thanksgiving, and finally they'll be able to stay with us, which makes a visit much more, shall we say, economically feasible. We'll set up the trusty aerobed in the office, shut the doors, and show them where the towels are kept.

In the meantime, we're taking a bit of a hiatus from working on the house. The pressure to have things done before the holidays has been lifted, giving us a chance to actually enjoy the holidays - we're finally going to have a Christmas tree this year! We're going to relax, enjoy our friends and family (and maybe the new Warcraft expansion) and pick back up in 2011. Don will be taking three classes again - ouch - but we have some relatively practical plans and we think we'll be able to get the last few glaring omissions in the house finished (bathrooms, anyone?).

So, you won't see me much in this space until January. I hope all of my readers have a great holiday season, and please - take some time out to enjoy your home!

childhood memories, and making more of them

A couple of weeks ago, we finally got what Don has been waiting for: a piano.

Specifically, the piano of his childhood. It's been sitting in his parents' dining room, unused except for whenever one of the grandchildren comes over and plunks around on it noisily. We knew from the start that when we finished the house it would come to live with us - and his parents were eager to have more space in their dining room.

Don and his dad made one futile effort to move it themselves - it didn't work. At all. So we hired piano movers, and for a very reasonable price they hup-hup-hup'd it out of Don's parents' house and into their truck, drove it ten blocks over and brought it right in our front door and over to its new home tucked next to the stairs.


Don says he'll have learned how to play it by Christmas. He has visions of himself playing while we all sing carols. I have a deep suspicion that in his vision, he's wearing a sweater. With red knitted reindeer on it.

briefly

Don got in touch with the new HVAC guy over the weekend. He said he'd come out late today and do the work. He called this morning and said he wouldn't be able to make it until tomorrow. Whatever.

I've scheduled the insulators to come on Friday. Assuming the HVAC guy actually shows up, and Don can get the data rings installed for the speaker wire relatively quickly, all should be on track for drywall next week.

Surgery recovery is going very slowly - I'm not good for much these days. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I'll be at Darkover selling jewelry over the weekend - hopefully I'll be pain-free by then.

tis the season, or something

The holiday season is in full swing here. All work on the house has, predictably, halted, because we're far too busy cooking and wrapping and socializing and (occasionally) working. I'm about to run out to the post office to ship off the last of the far-away gifts. The living room is Holiday Central; wrapping paper, shipping boxes, cards, envelopes, tags, and three different kinds of tape are scattered over the big tables in the middle of the room, and wrapped presents are stacked up along the far wall (along with some holiday-themed beer somebody brought over, but we won't go into that). Every time I go through a roll of wrapping paper, Don claims the empty cardboard tube -- he's got three of them leaning up against the wall already and I predict a grand swordfight next time our friends are over. Because, you know, we're grownups.

In any case, that's what's going on here; no pictures, as a) my camera battery's not charged anyway and b) you never know who's reading this thing and there are still a few unwrapped presents scattered around. Don and I are both lucky enough to be able to take off of work for the holidays; I anticipate lots of relaxing and a great deal of hot chocolate being consumed.

We're kicking off our relaxation by attending the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Holiday Spectacular on Friday night -- it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun and we're both looking forward to it. If you're local, you should consider going. If you're going to be there, let us know! I'm thinking dinner at Sascha's beforehand.

pictures to follow

Demolition day has officially come and gone. A HUGE thank you to those who showed up (even though certain people couldn't be bothered). Unfortunately, even though everyone there worked like maniacs, we didn't get done. I was so busy actually helping for once that I didn't get any action pictures -- but by now you all know what demolition looks like. I'll get some pictures of the final scene of devastation and rubble tonight when I get home from work and try to get them posted this week.

Highlights of Saturday included Alex (aka Don's new best friend) showing up promptly at 8 with a big bag full of tools. Danielle was a demolition whirlwind, completely clearing every wall she touched -- up to four and a half feet. She also proved to be the consummate party guest, bringing along both a crowbar and cookies. Zenchick made friends with the cat, who loved the attention, and also managed to save me from being the person to step on the first nail, while Angie and Donna seriously went to town on the nursery closet and cleared that mofo completely out.

After we were done for the day, Alex and Danielle and Don and I all went out for dinner (after taking a break to go to various places and clean up) at Rub, which Don and I had never heard of or been to before. Very good barbeque that even sauce-phobic little me could eat, plus great drinks and a gigantic projection screen where we caught the crucial twelve minutes of that disastrous Redskins game. And wedge salad! I'm a dork for wedge salads. It's also just minutes from the house, which gives it about a million points in its favor. We're always looking for restaurants close by. Turns out if you just go over the Hanover Street Bridge there's all kinds of options. Who knew? I mean, other than Danielle.

Anyway, after that we came back home and collapsed. Sunday we slept in prodigiously, then watched TV and played video games until it was time to head out so I could take Don for his Christmas present: the deep-tissue massage I booked for him for the day after demolition day. When he got out he said it was the best forty-five minutes of his life, which means I continue to maintain my reputation as the best present-giver. After that, back home for more relaxation and a little web fun starting up my latest project.

As for the upstairs, I suppose now we'll just be hacking away at it ourselves until it's done. Don went to work about three hours early today so that he could leave early and get home while there was still enough daylight to work on it. We'll keep you posted.

all too brief

We had a free weekend for once this past weekend, right before Christmas, so we took the opportunity to sneak off for a brief visit to New Jersey, where we played with the cutest baby ever and enjoyed the luxury of my cousin's finished, luxurious house. Ahhh, comfort.



Now it's back to the grind, of course. Don and his dad are at Home Depot as I type, getting the supplies to build a chute from the upstairs window to the dumpster in preparation for Demolition Day (January 5th! You're still invited!).

merry christmas to me

Don got me both the Dremel 400 XPR and the workstation to turn it into a drill press. I put it together today, and it's awesome. (Yes, I got it early because I had to show him which one I wanted. :) )

My christmas present to myself? A new card reader for my camera, because mine's busted. Which is one of the reasons I haven't blogged recently -- plugging the camera directly into the computer is a pain in the ass. I finally did it, so expect many pictures soon.

normal day

Don said this morning that today is our only normal day in quite a while. He's right, and it made it REALLY hard not to stay home and enjoy it! For the last several weeks, and for several in the future, either we've had company or he's been gone or we've had social engagements to be at. It's not that I don't love that feeling, mind you -- the holidays are one of my favorite times of the year, because I love always being busy with friends and family, and having company, and being able to entertain people -- but the sheer volume of it this year is a little daunting when you add Don's recent and planned business trips.

Today we're in between a business trip and a family visit -- Don got back from California this weekend and my sister arrives for a weeklong visit tomorrow (about which we are SO PUMPED, because we never get to see her). So today is our only normal day in quite a while. Which, of course, we're using to frantically clean, grocery shop, etc. But that's no different from our usual pace of life. ;)

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to go with some friends to the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra's performance of Beethoven's 9th. It was quite good, although I'm afraid that large parts of it went totally unnoticed while we tried to control our hysterical giggling over the young man in front of us who was consistently falling asleep -- on Don's knee. Don was not amused, but the rest of us were. It was a nice break from our usual house-related flailing.

Speaking of the flailing, Don is attempting to curtail it by coming up with a schedule for house stuff for the next couple of months. We all know how well THOSE work around here. Nevertheless, he's come up with a fairly definite date for the upstairs demolition (again) -- so if you're free January 5th and want to pick up a sledgehammer, let us know. I'll post further information as we figure it out.

not a bloggy time of year for me

The holidays are a serious danger to my blogging. This is always the time of year when things start to lapse around here, internet-wise. Last year it was a surgery -- this year it's work, work, work! We've been slammed at the office, churning out proposals as fast as we can and working a lot of overtime.

And the holiday weekend, unfortunately, was NOT a break for me!


We were vendors at Darkover 2007 all weekend -- setup started Friday at 11 AM and the show ended Sunday at about 4 PM. The picture above is of me taking down our booth on Sunday (I'm sorting rocks!). Lindley's full set is here. It was fun -- our first real convention, and successful enough to merit going back next year -- but it's definitely work to be a seller at these sorts of things, and more work after three weeks of full-tilt proposal writing plus a long Thanksgiving day over at Chez Brinkley was pretty wearing. (It didn't help that I had to be up at five AM Sunday morning to take Don to the airport in the middle of all of this!) By the end of the weekend I was ready to sleep sleep sleep. But of course I didn't get to, because my mom and I had arranged to spend Monday Christmas shopping together. Most of my list is crossed off after a successful day (and a few online orders in the evening), but I woke up on Tuesday running a fever, aching, and exhausted. My body just wanted to finally shut down. I called in and said I was staying home to rest, but not more than an hour later I got an emergency assignment from work that HAD to be done, and had to be done fast. By me. Sigh. No rest accomplished.

Then it was back to work yesterday, for another extra-long day, and more of the same for the rest of the week. I'm hoping that this weekend I can FINALLY relax a little bit -- and maybe clean up the disaster area that is my house after three weeks of coming home late with no time to clean, plus Anapurna displays and inventory strewn wherever we put them after unloading the car Sunday night, plus the detritus of family visits (in addition to my mom this past weekend, my dad and grandparents were here the weekend before that -- and my sister is coming to visit on Tuesday! Augh!) -- restaurant leftovers, empty boxes, souvenirs from Dad's trip to Greece, a box of Grandma's cookies (Don LOVES them), bags and bits from shopping trips and crafty discussions with Mom, and all the other things that build up when people come over.

So, uh, maybe not so much relaxation. Just cleaning. Lots of cleaning.

no halloween here

We don't really do anything for Halloween. Once the house is done, we might put out a pumpkin or two and a harvest-y wreath on the door or anything, but we certainly don't do it now. The kids in our neighborhood are very good about abiding by the "if the lights aren't on there's no trick-or-treating" rule, so we just don't turn on our front porch light. Actually, even if we wanted to we couldn't, since the electricity to the outside lights is still turned off (they're wired to the same fuses we had to turn off when we gutted the first floor). Not to mention our front stairs are pretty unsafe-looking, what with the overgrown weeds and wobbly-looking railings. So we don't buy any candy and we don't do costumes or anything. We weren't invited to any Halloween parties (although my office is having a "Halloween potluck" in about half an hour, for which I made a greek salad).

I may try to convince Don that we ought to go out to dinner, just to avoid the neighborhood Halloween crowd (plus I forgot to take anything out of the freezer this morning). I'm glad, though, that we don't live in the city -- where our friends are dealing with "Ghettoween" tonight.

But happy Halloween to everybody anyway. Maybe by this time next year we'll be able to accomodate trick or treaters.

news of note

Don got a job; he starts work on October 15th in a development position with one of the Big Two -- a major defense contractor. It's full time, so it puts our original plan into total disarray. But we're used to that sort of thing by now. So the money situation will be mostly resolved in about a month, when he starts getting his paychecks.

The Anapurna Girls will be at the Darkover convention over Thanksgiving weekend; if you haven't made plans and are interested in fantasy and science fiction, consider going. And, you know, buying stuff from us.

The HVAC is still not done. The guy came on Friday and spent some time downstairs doing SOMETHING, although I'm not sure what, since nothing appears to have changed. We thought he was supposed to come back Monday; needless to say, he didn't. We finally got hold of him yesterday and he said he'd call us back today. Sure thing. [For those counting, we started this whole nonsense on JULY NINTH. This has been THREE WHOLE MONTHS of nonsense for a job that should have taken a week.]

The holidays are coming up, and with them a slew of family visits. Don's whole family lives relatively nearby -- the furthest away is his brother in Norfolk -- but mine is strewn about all over the country. So getting to see them is often a treat. My father and grandparents will be coming down from New Jersey the weekend before Thanksgiving; my mother will be flying out from Washington for Thanksgiving proper; and my sister is coming to visit for a whole week in December. Very exciting!

easter weekend

It sounds like lots of you had pretty fabulous Easter weekends, which is awesome. Go you. Here on Louisiana Avenue, on the other hand, we were cold. Very, very cold. I'm not sure who ordered this April cold snap but I really think it ought to be sent back to the kitchen.

We did finally borrow some space heaters from Chez Brinkley, and since we put them in the bedroom the cat has not moved from her little curled-up ball on the bed as close to the nearest heater as possible (although last week we found her curled up asleep on a towel on the floor with one paw delicately resting on the o-ring she found in the basement, which she's been carrying around with her for days).

In order to avoid the cold (mostly unsuccessfully), we did an assortment of things -- we went out for Mexican food on Friday night, and I did the laundry (finally!) on Saturday morning while Don and his dad started work on the subfloors (more about that tomorrow, I think -- I don't have time today to do it justice). Then I shivered hopelessly in bed (we didn't get the heaters until Saturday night, and I think you can guess on whose shoulders that particular bit of poor planning falls) while they continued to curse and hammer things downstairs. Then another night out to eat.

On Sunday we bought Don new shoes at the only store in the entire city that remained open (don't even get me started about how we utterly failed to find me a dress for the formal in two weeks), and then went to his parents' house and ate Easter dinner and played Cranium. Then we scuttled back into the modest warmth of our space-heatered bed and collapsed.

Someday, weekends will be restful again. Someday.