flickr friday

How sad is this?  It’s flickr friday and I don’t have a picture for this post.  I do have a pretty decent excuse, though.  It’s been a week of total insanity at work, to be quite honest, and I don’t think it will let up anytime soon.  Meh, it keeps me busy and out of trouble.  Mostly. 

Even though I’m too much of a slacker to have a picture today, we can still appreciate and enjoy other people’s pictures, right?  Yes, we can.  Let’s.

guirlande

into each life some rain must fall

sf lovebug

lost in fog

untitled

morning mist

Oookaaaaay, apparently I’m on a bit of a fog / mist kick these days…  How about something a little more colorful to perk things up in preparation for le weekend?!

morning has broken

untitled

Did I mention le weekend?  Yeah, I’m pretty happy about that.  Although I’m not quite sure why I’m so happy about it considering that I’ll probably spend a fairly sizeable chunk of said weekend sanding my kitchen walls…  It is a glamorous and exciting life I lead, let me tell you.  At least the weather is going to be coldcoldcold and blustery — good time to stay inside and sand.  And I keep reminding myself of how great the kitchen is going to look when it’s done — that helps.

Have a great weekend, friends — see you next week!

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flickr friday

sunny

Yay!  I’m very pleased to post this sunny golden yellow flower in celebration of the sun coming out today!!  Oh, dear Sun, how I missed you so.

So it’s Friday, my little chickens!!  How happy does this make me?  Quite happy, I must say.  It’s the weekend, it finally feels like fall, the sun is shining…good stuff.  This weekend, I’m hoping to do a bit of sanding in the laundry room — one final push to get the trim painted so I can call that room done — and maybe a bit of cooking.  Maybe a pot of chili or corn chowder?  I think I’m jonesing a little bit for cool weather food.  Of course now that I’ve said it out loud, I won’t do it.  Just forget I said that, ok?  And finally, I also hope to get out and pick up some fall decorations — pumpkins, gourds, chrysanthemums, they’re all calling out to me.  What are you planning to do on this fine fall weekend?  Please leave me a comment and tell me about it, ok?

And now, on to the flickr friday favorites for this week:

september’s ending – It was lovely, but I’m happy to see October, too.

mobil 1

time goes by

the tire swing [that] eats you – This swing is in Grand Rapids, Michigan where my Mom grew up.  We used to visit my grandparents there in the summer and they would always take us to see “the Calder” and to swing on this tire swing.  Good memories.

mémoire – Speaking of memories…

open shelving – Someone crawled into my head and stole this picture.  Oh, those beautiful shelves gloriously crammed with all those beautiful dishes… (swoon)  Wow.  Gorgeous.

foggy morning in Belfast – Most people dream of white sand beaches and 80-degree weather.  Me?  This looks like paradise to me.

And a final one:

do not seek the because…

That’s it for me, folks.  But don’t go away without telling me what you’re up to, ok?  Have a great weekend!

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miscellany monday

single tulip, Lewiston

~ In case you haven’t already read it on his blog, I thought I’d let you know that Joel’s car was recently vandalized (albeit in a pretty minor way).  Presumably by some nutjob who considers himself a member of “the party of tolerance” or some garbage like that.

~ I heard a good joke the other day.  At least, *I* thought it was a good joke, but I like puns and I’m a bit of a word nerd.  There’s no accounting for taste, is there?  Anyway, here it is:

A font went into a bar.  The bartender took one look at him and said, “Hey, we don’t serve your type here.”  And then he called the Serif.

Hee, hee, hee!  See?  I still think it’s funny – even re-telling it made me laugh right out loud.  And now my officemate thinks I’ve cracked…  Ah, well, she’s probably right.

~ Good news: Joel re-installed the kitchen cabinet on Saturday morning (not the sink cabinet, but the one to the right of it) and…wait for it…installed the dishwasher!  The dishwasher!!  Perhaps you didn’t hear me.  I said, he installed the DISHWASHER!!!!!!!  My very first dishwasher, ever.  I’m pretty excited, as you can tell.

~ Joy visited over the weekend.  For lunch on Saturday, we all went to Silly’s in Portland and it was so good!  They have tons of vegan options on the menu.  Oh, and the french fries were super yummy.  Hey, It’s all about the french fries for me – if they’re good, I’m a happy girl.  Joy and I shared a tofu appetizer and then we each ordered meals with tofu as well.  Joel had pulled pork.  You know, just to make waves. Then we spent the afternoon shopping – some outlets in Freeport and then the antique place at Fort Andross in Brunswick – it was a blast!  Although I didn’t buy anything.  Not a single thing.  I must be off my game…  We ended the day with dinner at El Camino in Brunswick (also really good, but hello? no website?) followed by a showing of Sweeney Todd at home.  I’ve been wanting to see it since I first saw the preview and it totally lived up to the hype.  Stephen Sondheim just kicks a whole lot of a$s in general.  And on this particular movie, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter killed it.  It was awesome.  It also brought back a bunch of good memories – Sweeney was the mainstage show during my first semester at the Conservatory – so that was a nice added bonus.

Joy left on Sunday morning and Joel and I went back to…you guessed it…working on the kitchen.  Such is life during renovation, I guess.  I will try my darnedest to have some pictures for you very soon.  Which brings me to my next topic:

~ That lovely tulip above?  I took that picture on May 2nd.  Today is the first day of autumn.  (Happy Autumn, little chickens!)  This is how behind on I am on uploading pictures – both here and on my Flickr page.  It’s gone way beyond sad, sailed past slackerly, and is quickly approaching utterly ridiculous.  I am going to make a concerted effort to catch up over the next couple weeks, which is why you might see many more pictures and much less text for the next week or two.  Please bear with me while I try to dig out of this horrible hole of my own making…  Don’t feel sorry for me – I don’t deserve it.  (I’m being facetious.  Of course I want you to feel sorry for me.) 

Have a great day!  Later…

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flickr friday

Update:  I started this post very early this morning before I got sucked into the daily fray of work.  Now it’s 4:11 p.m. and I still haven’t finished it and I’m giving up the dream.  It’s just not going to happen.  But, hey, at least I got through the flickr friday favorites — as I’ve said on many an occasion, they just will not be contained. 

*******************************

Oh, my.  It has been a looooooong week.  Per usual, I think the renovation chaos that has consumed my house these days is weighing on me.  It’s just exhausting, you know?  Not the work.  Although the work is exhausting.  But the mess — the mess and chaos just takes it right out of me.  Joel did a little bit of work on the kitchen this week, but we won’t get to work on it much this weekend because his sister, Joy, is coming to visit.  There’s talk of kayaking, eating out at any establishment that has a prayer of offering vegan food, and perhaps a visit to the Cumberland Fair.  However in my experience, visits from out-of-town guests tend to take on a life of their own, so who knows what we’ll actually end up doing…

grandmas quilt – This is quite a treasure.  I love the look of the well-loved quilt with the well-worn chair.

crayons – I miss coloring.  It was by far one of my favorite activities as a child.  Not drawing, just coloring.  As you can probably guess, I was an inside-the-lines kind of girl.

chevy sunset – Anyone know what model this is?  I’m dying to know…

dreams – There’s just something magical about a piano keyboard, isn’t there?

steps to nowhere – Love this shot. (Don’t even get me started on the photographer’s misuse of the apostrophe in the title of the photograph.  I omitted the mistake when I re-typed it here — I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.)  This looks like a really cool place to explore.  Reminds me of Madame Sherri’s Castle in Chesterfield, NH.

moon rising – Whoa.  That is a big moon.

evidence of autumn’s approach – Just the other day, I was wandering around my yard picking up stray acorns for a bowl in my house.  I love that feeling — finding a little seasonal collection of something to bring the outside inside.

who needs orange? – Another seasonal collection.  Can you tell I’m pretty psyched for fall?  Yay, fall!

img_7299 – Lousy title (or lack thereof), but a lovely, serene photo.

That’s a nice way to close, isn’t it?  I hope you have a lovely, serene weekend, my friends — see you next week!

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david and heather

It’s official.  I am incredibly, extremely, hopelessly and in all ways totally behind on managing my photographs these days.  The couple above – Joel’s very good friend David and his lovely bride Heather – got married at the end of April and I’m just now getting around to mentioning them on the blog.  Just call me Susie Slackerson.  No, don’t, it will hurt my feelings.

Anyhoo, here’s a little bit of background before I launch into the wedding:  Dave is a friend from back in our Boston days – he and Joel spent quite a bit of time together.  He almost got Joel killed on a number of occasions (hiking during a blizzard, running out of water while camping nine miles into the NH woods, and kayaking off the coast of Maine during November).  He is also dangerously perceptive and isn’t afraid to tell you exactly what he thinks.  (I love that about him.  I also hate that about him.)  Back in in the day, we were also good friends with Dave’s brother Jason and his wife Karen.  We also had a number of other friends in common including Misti and Sean.  In 2004, Jason and Karen had a baby and moved Washington (the state, not the district).  In the spring of 2005, Dave moved back to his hometown of Pittsburgh to go to grad school.  Misti moved to New York sometime shortly thereafter.  Sean stayed in Boston and started a Ph.D. program.  Joel and I moved to Maine in October 2005.  In the space of a year, we were scattered around the country.  Dave and Heather’s wedding was the first time we were all reunited since parting ways in 2004-2005.  It was great to be back together again.

So, Dave and Heather got married on a beautiful April day in New Holland, Pennsylvania – right in Amish country.  It was the height of spring – tulips were in bloom, trees were leafing out and flowering, everything had that shiny, vibrant, new greeness about it that typifies springtime – my absolute favorite time of year.  There was a sweet ceremony at Heather’s father’s church (he’s a minister) followed by a fun and lively reception at a restaurant in a neighboring town.  Dave and Heather requested the participation of many family and friends:  Jason was the best man, his daughter (Dave’s neice) was the flower girl, Joel was the master of ceremonies, Sean was the dj, and his wife Kelly was the photographer.  (Yes, in the intervening time, Sean got married to a sweet, very fun, exceptionally talented photographer named Kelly. You can see her amazing work here.)  Without assigned roles, Misti and I decided that we were the decorations – we added that little bit of je ne sais quoi.  If je ne sais quoi translates to: raving about how cute the other looks and comparing adorable shoes in the parking lot of the church.

It was a fun weekend, it was a beautiful wedding of a great couple, and it was fantastic to see all our friends again.  Full set of pictures here.

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top ten tuesday: tools

This picture gives you a good idea of how confident I’m feeling lately about our ability to renovate:

Seriously.  This is what we should be doing with tools — playing.  Not renovating actual rooms in an actual home.  A home that we expect to live in.  What the hell were we thinking?!

Needless to say, the kitchen renovation project is kicking our butts.  We spent last Saturday and Sunday ripping out the old sink, cabinets and counter top, and then repairing the wall behind them in order to install the “new” sink, cabinets and (eventually) counter top.  Because the plumber was due to arrive first thing Monday morning, we had to finish the job before the end of the weekend — we worked until after 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night and until almost midnight on Sunday night.

Here is some of what the work entailed:

• removal of rotted floorboards and replacement with pressure treated plywood (it won’t show — it’ll be under the cabinets)
• removal of two layers of paneling from the walls
• scraping old paint/plaster in preparation for four or five more hours of spackling and repair with tape and joint compound (I don’t care what anyone says — I am now officially and without question the Queen of Spackle.  It’s a dubious distinction, I know, but one I will defend to the death.  I’ve earned it.)
• several unsuccessful holes in the wall for outlets and more than two hours of trying to run wire through the walls for said outlets
• a few gauges in our custom-made, newly-painted sink cabinet
• a long period of shimming to achieve levelness (I’m sure that’s not a word…  What is the word for the state of being level?  Levelity?  I have no idea.) of the new sink cabinet
• and the long haul from the garage to the house (the sink is a two-well, enamel-over-cast-iron deal which weighs at least 150 pounds)

After all that, we tried to put the sink into the new cabinet and it didn’t fit.  The sink — for which the cabinet was custom-made — did not fit into the cabinet.  No, I’m not kidding.  There’s a lot more to this story (shrieking, tears, etc.), but I’ll spare you the ugly details.  Let’s just say that Joel managed to find a workable solution and the sink is now installed.  The plumber didn’t show up on Monday like he was supposed to, but he should be at the house right now attaching the water/drain to the sink, installing the faucet, and installing the dishwasher.

I want to get excited about these new developments (new sink! my first dishwasher ever!), but I’ve been burned, so instead I’m just cautiously optimistic.  In the interest of maintaining some positive feelings about this whole freakin’ project, I’m bringing back top ten tuesday!  And so I give you:

Top Ten Renovation Tools — tools we’ve used throughout the project, that were indispensable, that were never far from our hands (in no particular order):

10.  framing square and carpenter’s square

and 

9.  tape measure – Duh.

8.  jigsaw – Being about 100 years old (not really 100, but it was my Dad’s so it’s old), ours doesn’t look like the one pictured below…but it still kicks a$s.

7.  dimpler a.k.a. drywall screw setter – Considering Joel used an entire five-pound box of drywall screws for this project (so far), this tool was an absolute must.

6.  power drill – Did I mention the five-pound box of drywall screws?

5.  1-inch chisel – You wouldn’t think such a basic, old-fashioned tool would be so critical, but we’ve used it quite a bit…you know, in a pinch.

4.  circular saw – Our neighbors are probably so sick of the sound of this saw coming from our garage…

3.  torpedo level – If you have even a slight propensity for OCD-ish behavior, like me, you need one of these.  I don’t know about you, but it drives me absolutely bonkers when things (pictures, towel bars, shelves, etc.) are crooked.

2.  multi-tool scraper – I’ve used this tool so much over the past two months, it feels like it’s an extension of my arm.

1.  drywall lift – Simply put, the best $50 (rental for $25/day) we ever spent.

Ok, so there you have it — our “by experience” list of necessary tools for home renovation.  Although, I must warn you to take our advice at your own risk — we’re obviously not experts.  We may not even make it out of this project alive… 

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tuesday suffocation

Note: The title of this post refers to this song.  Kind of blasphemous, but a good song nevertheless.

silos, reading, pennsylvania

Actual conversation yesterday:

Joel: I can’t decide what’s better about a Monday holiday — the three-day weekend or the four-day work week.

Me: Um…hello?  The three-day weekend.

Joel:  Really?

Me:  Well, a four-day work week *is* nice, but there’s still work involved…

Joel:  Mm.  Good point.

And today gives me another supporting argument for my opinion:  the Tuesday of the four-day work week is like Monday times a hundred in its suck-factor.  Seriously.  This day feels like it will never end…

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flickr friday

green scrim, new holland, pennsylvania

Oh my holy hallelujah, people — it’s Friday.  How happy does that make me?  Pretty darn happy, let me tell you.  Even better than that ?  It’s a three-day weekend!  Hooray for Labor Day.  (Ha, it rhymes!  Sheesh, I’m easily amused…)

We have dinner plans tonight and then no other plans for the rest of the weekend.  How amazing is that?  I’m sure we’ll end up doing some work on the house — laundry room trim is still waiting to be sanded and primed/painted and kitchen work has stalled completely — but I’m hoping we’ll also take some time to just relax.  What about you?  Anything exciting going on for the long weekend?  (C’mon, I’m trying to live vicariously, ok?)

So, how about some favorites for flickr friday?

untitled – Did someone say relax?  Beer is good for relaxing.

cupcake envy

we gonna rock down to… – Man, I used to love this song.  In college, I even used it as my background music for my voice mail greeting…I’m dorky like that.

chairs – Again with the chairs.

valises oubliees

espresso machine

land’s end

Ok, that’s it for me.  I’m out.  Have a lovely weekend!

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flickr friday

Here’s what I’m probably doing this weekend:

And here’s what I wish I was doing this weekend:

martini, Steve Forney

That gives you a pretty good idea of where I stand on this whole never-ending renovation project.

So how about some nice photos to cheer ourselves up, eh?

balloon group 2 – Lewiston just hosted this year’s Great Falls Balloon Festival.  I have to say, all those balloons were a pretty amazing sight on my morning commute!

dogtags – I don’t really know why I like this picture.  But I do.

it took me a long time… – **swoon**  One of my favorite stories as the title for a fabulously beautiful photograph.

mid-century kids brunswick – More chairs.  Apparently I have a bit of a thing for chairs.  Joel told me that recently.  I had no idea.

sunlight on the waves…

untitled – Pretty.  And gentle.  Can a picture be gentle?  I think so.  Anyway, reminds me that Fall is on its way…

cupcake – Um, yeah.  I’m going to need about three of these to go with my weekend martinis. 

Hope you have a sweet and yummy weekend, too — see you next week!

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monday miscellany

wise, Hope Cemetery, Kennebunk

Life has been a little crazy lately…so crazy, in fact, that I’m forced to resort to bullet points:

• I’m having quite a bit of trouble with Leo the laptop these days. (What? You don’t name your computer?) He is slower than cold molasses in January works at his own pace and doesn’t seem to think it’s important for me to access the internet. Fortunately, my friend Matthew is a computer genius and is very graciously and generously helping me clean up Leo’s act. (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Matt!) He’s also planning to install some new memory soon — with any luck, that should take care of the most pressing problems.
• Last week, I attended a work-related event at which the granddaughter of my all-time favorite painter, Andrew Wyeth, gave a slide presentation on her grandfather’s work and told some of the stories behind the paintings. It was amazing. At one point, she talked about his final painting of a dear life-long friend — the painter’s response to the friend’s death and the painting that resulted from it — and it made me cry, right there, during the presentation. It was a great evening.
• The next night, Joel and I had dinner with Kim and Tim (Kim is a.k.a. The Recovering Protestant). They were vacationing in Wells with Tim’s family and took an afternoon detour to Portland to meet us at The Great Lost Bear. Um, of course. Because get-togethers with Kim and Tim always involve good beer. I think between the four of us, we sampled six different brews. Good stuff. (Thanks again, you two!) This is the first time we’ve seen them since their wedding back in January, so it was great to catch up and visit with them!
• After I blogged last week about Joy’s big win in the Hendrick’s Gin Beantown Bartender Battle, LUPEC Boston did an even better write-up. I’m still so excited for her — yay, Joy!
• Not much going on in the way of renovation lately. I think we may be a bit burned out… But. BUT. Joel moved the dryer into the laundry room last week and I got to use it over the weekend. Woo, hoo! (Oy. I’m excited about using the dryer. How sad is that?) The washer is still in the kitchen, but I got a little taste of what it’s going to be like to have a laundry room and, let me tell you, it was pretty frickin’ amazing. We’re hoping to get the washer moved next weekend and then we should be able to continue work on the kitchen.
• Holy crap, the sun actually came out over the weekend. Seriously folks, it’s been, like, three weeks straight since we’ve had sun for any appreciable amount of time. It was really nice.
• We took Saturday off (off? what’s that?) and continued the Wyeth extravaganza with a trip to the Farnsworth in Rockland. The aforementioned Wyeth granddaughter gives three tours there daily. We took a stroll around the museum and then headed out to the Olson House (site of the famed Christina’s World) for her last tour of the day. Just like her slide presentation earlier in the week, the tour was amazing. Seriously, you can’t do much better for insight (and inside information) than the painter’s beloved only granddaughter. We even took a walk down to the Olson family cemetery after the tour — it was such a gloriously beautiful day.
• And then after the loveliness of Saturday, I spent Sunday doing, like, a zillion (okay, just seven) loads of laundry. But, hey, now I have a linen closet full of clean sheets and towels and tons and tons of clean clothes. It’s a beautiful thing.

Ok, when I start talking about laundry, it’s time to go…

P.S. Has anyone seen last week’s flickr friday? She’s usually very reliable and punctual… I can’t imagine why she didn’t show up. Well, we’ll see what happens this week — I’m sure she’ll be back on schedule.

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