Week in Review: 2/26

I didn't really take any pictures this week so enjoy this one from Valentine's Day. Wine and crayons are always a good time!


The Sartorialist teaches us  how to knot our scarves! Now if only he could teach me how to take great pictures and dress awesome all the time. Maybe next week!

Some things are so exciting they deserve all caps, like CUPCAKE TOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so making some Mediterranean white bean salad next week from Budget Bytes.

I'm adding "turn mason jars into soap dispensers" to my already long list of things to do once we buy a house.


chookooloonks made a life list and is already off to a great start. This sounds like a great idea. I'll add it to the list of things to do as soon as possible.

Have a wonderful weekend! Lee and I will be going to my parents' for the weekend where I will get to visit my oldest friend's new baby! (Not that my friend is old, but we have been friends the longest. Since kindergarten!)

Five Years Ago

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I spent a semester in London (with Caitlin!) and those were some of the best three months of my life. I told someone this recently and realized that it's been exactly five years.

To celebrate the trip and mourn the five years of separation between my dearest London and I (I mean, I lived across the street from Charles Dickens' childhood home and within a five-minute walk from original Jane Austen manuscripts! That's just not something you get to do in Louisville.), let's read old journal entries! I don't journal much, but I do when I'm in Europe. This might be a recurring theme for the next month or two so you have been warned!

Sunday, February 27, 2005 at 12:16 a.m.


Friday [exactly 5 years ago today!] we went to the Tower and saw where everyone died. I saw the tower were Thomas More was held which Brent [friend] was excited about.
 
Today was awesome! We went to Alton -- a 15 minute walk to Chawton [Jane Austen's home] -- which turned into a 30 minute walk when we decided to follow the signs instead of the directions we were given. [The directions were to take a right at the roundabout but there were two rights!] The signs took us along the highway -- not the safest place to walk. But I thought it was a fun adventure and reminded me of Elizabeth's muddy walk to Netherfield when Jane was sick -- perhaps my eyes were also brightened by the exercise. ;) [Caitlin didn't think this was quite as cool as I did but at least I walked closest to the road so if we were hit I would've been hit first. I think that was very nice of me.]
 
Chawton had lots of neato things: the topaz crosses Jane and Cassandra wore, a quilt she made with her mom and Cassandra, a handkerchief she embroidered, her writing desk -- even her donkey cart.
 
We were going to go to Salisbury but Stonehenge doesn't open until March. So went to Winchester -- saw the cathedral where Austen was buried and did some shopping and wandering.

It was a lovely Jane Austen day!

And the House Hunt Continues

Lee and I doodled our "dream house" while waiting for dinner at Macaroni Grill. If you draw it, it will come?


I hate to disappoint but the housing update is that there is no update. In fact, we have not (and will not) stepped into a potential house for the whole month of February because THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE.

*bangs head on anything I can find* (Actually, not really. I've been banging my head on things all month that it just doesn't matter anymore.)

On January 31 we saw a house that Lee loved and I was "shmeh" about. After further reflection, I came to see Lee's point that it has more than any house we had seen yet. How much more? It's painful to reflect, but basically: 2-car garage, pantry, walk-in-closets IN EVERY SPACIOUS BEDROOM, finished basement, deck, nice appliances, a master suite, on a dead-end street, most square footage we've seen (about 2900).

So who cares that it's at the top of the price range with all kinds of carpet I want to replace?! Plus had a kitchen that could use about $5,000 to really maximize the space but DIDN'T ACTUALLY NEED ANY ADUJUSTMENTS?! Apparently I do. Apparently that bothered me so much I had to stew on it and then it was sold about 3 days before we were going to see it again. Right as Lee and I were having daily conversations along the lines of, "You want to buy this house?" "I think I want to buy this house!" it disappeared from our lives forever. (And no, the financing hasn't fallen through yet. We've been hoping watching.)

I was expecting this. Everyone I know who has bought a house has had "the house that got away". But in the end they usually always find something better. So I'm sure at any minute now we'll find something better. It's just been a slow month. There have been some biggish snows that I'm sure have been slowing people down from listing my dream house. And rumor has it that March is the hot month to put your house on the market. And March starts in four days!!

I'm also consoling myself with the reminder that when we started looking at houses, I was more afraid that we would find something too soon than have to extend our lease (which ends April 27). I'm sure I said that I would rather extend the lease a month than move out three months early. And the longer we look the more money we save!

But oh! The anticipation is driving me crazy!

Yeah I'm a Shadowboxer Baby

Did I tell you all the story of my ridiculous holiday iPod indecisiveness? I wanted an iPod for Christmas so I got the 16gb nano. After loading all my songs onto it, I realized that my precious new little nano was already full. I didn't want to delete songs every time I added one, and while I loved the nano size, I loved more the idea of having all my songs with me all the time. Because you never know when you're going to need the Aladdin soundtrack right now! (True story. And the answer is late night drives when Lee needs you to help him stay awake so you resort to singing Disney duets. There might have been also been an Elton John medley except all I could think of was "BBBBBenny and the Jets. Benny! Benny and the Jets." on a loop.)

So the Apple store was so kind as to let me exchange my nano for a gigantic 160 gb classic. (There was a restocking fee but since I got a discount when I turned in my old iPod for recycling, I was totally cool with all this.)

Now I have all my music, all the time. The perk of this being that I have been reconnecting with some old musical favorites. On today's re-bonding list has been Alanis Morissette, Alicia Keys (her first (I think) CD), and I'm currently listening to some Fiona Apple.

Fiona's really the one who started all this. Driving around with my nano, remembering how Shadowboxer is probably one of my all time favorites, and knowing that I could never take her off my iPod for future Glee soundtracks. I must have them all.


image: Gonzalo Baeza Hernández

The Definition of a "Crap Ton"

I say a lot of random things. I've recently realized that my response to things is often "sparkles". Something happy? Sparkles! Something not happy? Sparkes with sarcasm! Yeah, I don't know why I do this either. I also sometimes declare "Christmas!" when good things happen. Go figure.

But when discussing large amounts, I like the expression "crap ton". What is a crap ton exactly? Well here is a crap ton of goat cheese polenta:

Giada and I had a disagreement this weekend over exactly how much is "6 side dish servings", because after dishing out 5 side dish servings of polenta there was still all of the above left! That is like 13 servings Giada!! (But it's okay, Giada, I still love you. And apparently you can freeze polenta!)

In other amusing kitchen anecdotes, Danielle and I baked cookies this weekend before making dinner (with a crap ton of polenta) and while we baked cookies, I needed a sink to de-thaw the pork tenderloin in, so I put it in the bathroom sink. I thought it was pretty entertaining.

This might be the picture ID that appears when I call my sister-in-law now. Cool.

Week in Review: 2/19

We often refer to Kevin as our best pet. Because the other two are crazy. And high maintenance.

Monkey bread is one of my mom's signature dishes, but I really want to try out the smitten kitchen version because it has cream cheese glaze. Mmm....yes please.

Few things are as inspirational as a kitchen renovation for under $1000. (Of course, the home owner did a lot of the work himself and Lee doesn't know how to use a wet saw...yet!)

Several cute nightstand ideas from Apartment Therapy here and here.

If you're into college basketball, I recommend the College Basketball Road Trip.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I get Shady Lane Cafe cheese grits tomorrow morning so with that alone it's guaranteed to be a good one! Plus I'm hanging out with Danielle this weekend and we will hopefully make it to a very important scene in Pride and Prejudice!

Chore Chart-ing

"cleanliness may not be next
to godliness but it sure feels
good"
- Nikki Giovanni

I have got to clean the apartment tonight. After lots of postponing and telling myself I'd do a little here and there, I'm back in my usual situation: I've gotten nothing done and everything needs to be done. Even mopping. (Bad snow. Bad.)

When I reach this point every 3-4 weeks, I reflect on how if I broke things down and did a little every night the apartment could be really clean, all the time, without entire panicked evenings devoted to the situation.

So to prevent future nights like tonight, I've made a chore chart. (You can actually view it here.)


I feel very dorky about it and like I need to pick up some gold stars on my way home from work. Maybe some poster board too. But I feel dorky about a lot of things (the magnitude of my love for Jane, romantic comedies and Glee) and scheduling things out is a generally effective way for getting me to do stuff.

The chore chart, in addition to being delightfully alliterative, runs Monday through Thursday on a four-week cycle. I still need to do a big cleaning tonight, but if I start the schedule on Monday, hopefully I won't have to do any big cleanings in the future and I can easily transition into cleaning twice the square footage once we buy a house. 

(And yes, Lee often helps around the house, but since he's generally pretty busy with working and schooling full-time, I do must of this and he helps with the dish drying, dishwasher unloading, trash disposal, kitty litter emptying and Zoey's evening potty trip.)


Is anyone else this crazy about cleanliness? Am I the only childless chore-charter (ooh...alliterations!)?


image: unusualimage