It's definitely getting colder outside... I shouldn't be surprised, seeing as how November starts in a week. I just don't know where this summer went! It seems like we still have so many projects on our list of things to do, and now the focus is shifting to those projects that will just keep us warm and safe in the coming winter months.
Our 1 car garage is still too full of stuff to actually park a car inside, but I think this weekend we'll tackle that project, if for no other reason than I don't enjoy getting into a frosty cold car in the mornings! We also are planning on installing the other new garage door we bought, finish installing the door knobs and locks on the exterior doors, and putting up the fun garage organizer system Joe bought a few weeks ago. Definitely doesn't make for the most fun weekend ever, but it'll be nice to actually use the garage for the first time ever!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Cookie Decorating
I've always loved to bake, and last night I thought I was going to take my baking skills to a new level. I signed up for a cookie decorating class through the Junior League (which I joined this year to get more involved in the community and to meet people). The instructor showed us some great tips, most of which involved hints like "just walk through the aisles of your local Home Depot or Lowe's... you can find great unexpected things there!" Boo. I already spend too much time in those stores!
Regardless, after about half an hour of tips and instruction, she gave us each a half dozen cookies to start trying various techniques on. I have a newfound appreciation for real bakers! We were working with glacee icing, which is the kind that goes on rather runny and sticky but dries shiny and hard. It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked to trace an outline in icing and then "flood" the cookie with the runny icing ... and keep it all in place! I think I started getting the technique down towards cookie #3, when we learned techniques to add additional colors, make polka dots, hearts, tie-died designs, monograms, etc. My cookies definitely aren't going to win any awards, but I definitely had a good time and learned some great techniques that I'm sure I'll use in the future :)
Regardless, after about half an hour of tips and instruction, she gave us each a half dozen cookies to start trying various techniques on. I have a newfound appreciation for real bakers! We were working with glacee icing, which is the kind that goes on rather runny and sticky but dries shiny and hard. It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked to trace an outline in icing and then "flood" the cookie with the runny icing ... and keep it all in place! I think I started getting the technique down towards cookie #3, when we learned techniques to add additional colors, make polka dots, hearts, tie-died designs, monograms, etc. My cookies definitely aren't going to win any awards, but I definitely had a good time and learned some great techniques that I'm sure I'll use in the future :)
Monday, October 8, 2007
weekend fun
Joe's firm takes turns working Saturdays, and this past weekend was his turn to work. I decided to make the most of my full day of decent weather and tackle another section of the very overgrown back yard. Some of the bushes/trees have died but are still in the ground, so I was trying to cut them back so we can eventually dig them up. Lucy and Molly had a blast chasing each other and trying to attack any squirrels that were dumb enough to venture into the yard. After about two hours of work, I had filled all of our yard waste bags (8) - and only covered a section of the propertly line approximately 10 feet long. It's simply amazing to me how much overgrowth there is!
As a reminder, to date, we've gone through 30 yard bags and only attacked about 1/4 of the yard....
I also managed to finish touching up the paint in our bedroom, hang the bedroom and closet doors I had taken down to paint last week, unpack some more boxes and get some laundry done. Doing laundry in our new machines is considerably more fun - the controls are electronic and remind me to have a great day at the end of the drying cycle. :)
Joe got home from work a little early and we managed to get the rest of the fence put back together. So we now have two new fences gates, one on either side of the yard, and some new fencing. We're almost done installing the door from the kitchen into the garage - just need to finish the trim and add the door knob/lock.
I took some pictures this weekend, and once I find my cord that connects my camera to the computer, I'll be sure to add them here.
As a reminder, to date, we've gone through 30 yard bags and only attacked about 1/4 of the yard....
I also managed to finish touching up the paint in our bedroom, hang the bedroom and closet doors I had taken down to paint last week, unpack some more boxes and get some laundry done. Doing laundry in our new machines is considerably more fun - the controls are electronic and remind me to have a great day at the end of the drying cycle. :)
Joe got home from work a little early and we managed to get the rest of the fence put back together. So we now have two new fences gates, one on either side of the yard, and some new fencing. We're almost done installing the door from the kitchen into the garage - just need to finish the trim and add the door knob/lock.
I took some pictures this weekend, and once I find my cord that connects my camera to the computer, I'll be sure to add them here.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Jello in the basement??
The seller had advised us that she had experienced water issues in one part of the basement. She also advised that she had fixed these problems by regrading and pouring a new concrete patio (sloping away from the house, of course) and waterproofing the stone walls in the problem area in the basement. We took her word. Shame on us.
Every time it rains, regardless of how much, the basement gets wet in this one particular corner. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, and suspected an old pipe or cracks in the floor we couldn't see. Well, Sunday I was in the basement, admiring our new washer and dryer, when it started to rain. Figuring I had nothing better to do, I decided to sit and wait and see if I could watch where the water came from. A few minutes went by and nothing. I was about to tell myself this was a silly idea when a heard a faint pop, and with that, water starts running from underneath a wooden shelf in said problem corner! I call for Joe to come downstairs, and with that, I begin to notice there are tiny, nailhead sized holes in the waterproofing, and water is now literally spouting out of these holes! Not a slow trickle, mind you - shooting out of these holes. Think small fountain. I figure this is the best time to try and document the problem and run upstairs to grab a sharpee marker and start noting all of the active holes that are leaking, so when the walls dry, we'll be able to see the problems.
Joe decided to take the idea one step further.
Why just mark the hole, when you can mark the stream of water? With that, he goes upstairs, returns moments later with a box of strawberry jello powder, and starts throwing the powder at the wet walls. Sure enough, we start to have red streaks of water now running down our walls. After using the entire box, we realized what a mess we created, although it's quite obvious where the walls leaked! Now we have a sweet, strawberry smelling basement corner... and are hoping the dogs don't go down and lick up all of our evidence!
Every time it rains, regardless of how much, the basement gets wet in this one particular corner. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, and suspected an old pipe or cracks in the floor we couldn't see. Well, Sunday I was in the basement, admiring our new washer and dryer, when it started to rain. Figuring I had nothing better to do, I decided to sit and wait and see if I could watch where the water came from. A few minutes went by and nothing. I was about to tell myself this was a silly idea when a heard a faint pop, and with that, water starts running from underneath a wooden shelf in said problem corner! I call for Joe to come downstairs, and with that, I begin to notice there are tiny, nailhead sized holes in the waterproofing, and water is now literally spouting out of these holes! Not a slow trickle, mind you - shooting out of these holes. Think small fountain. I figure this is the best time to try and document the problem and run upstairs to grab a sharpee marker and start noting all of the active holes that are leaking, so when the walls dry, we'll be able to see the problems.
Joe decided to take the idea one step further.
Why just mark the hole, when you can mark the stream of water? With that, he goes upstairs, returns moments later with a box of strawberry jello powder, and starts throwing the powder at the wet walls. Sure enough, we start to have red streaks of water now running down our walls. After using the entire box, we realized what a mess we created, although it's quite obvious where the walls leaked! Now we have a sweet, strawberry smelling basement corner... and are hoping the dogs don't go down and lick up all of our evidence!
First Real Dinner
I decided it was time to actually try out the kitchen in our new house, now that we're finally starting to get settled. Joe was working late last night, so after I got home and walked the dogs, I ran up to the grocery store to get everything I would need. I decided to try a couple of new recipes, Provolone and Sundried Tomato Bread, and Tomato Sausage Penne. It took longer than I had expected, as I'm trying to get used to the range and oven (it cooks very differently than the one at our last apartment!). Everything turned out great though.... and the recipe that said it fed 6-8 people easily could have fed a small army! We had enough left over for at least 2-3 more meals for both of us!
By the time we finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen, it was almost 10, but Joe had started hanging the new faux wood blinds we purchased for our bedroom. So he finished hanging those (we've had naked windows now for 2 weeks!) by about 11pm, and we finally went to bed. There's still a ton left to do on our immediate project list - more work for me tonight!
By the time we finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen, it was almost 10, but Joe had started hanging the new faux wood blinds we purchased for our bedroom. So he finished hanging those (we've had naked windows now for 2 weeks!) by about 11pm, and we finally went to bed. There's still a ton left to do on our immediate project list - more work for me tonight!
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