april 26

@ 11p | 2 cents...

I started stripping wallpaper last night and got about half the backing paper off tonight. Here are a few shots of what the bathroom looked like twenty-four hours ago. The stripes are gone! I'll be posting more pics soon.

Remember when I said the Carolina wrens were acting like they owned our backyard? Well, looks like it's official... this nest was not there last weekend.

april 25

@ 2p | 2 cents...

The first thing we did upon arriving at the furniture place on Friday night (well, right after dinner) was visit the sectional couch we were planning to buy. It was then that we discovered our impossible-to-reach design consultant had given us the pricing and dimensions for the wrong couch. We were holding a printout for the couch next to the one we wanted. So we go back downstairs to get ourselves another design consultant and start all over. Because this visit occured on a Friday evening, instead of a Saturday afternoon, the place was practically deserted and we had the full range of fabrics to choose from. On our last visit, the best red we found was more of a auburn/chocolate color, while this time we found a nice bright primary red. Eric located a great ocean blue fabric with primary-colored squares on it for the contrasting pillows. I've tried to approximate the colors below... We should expect our new custom couch in 8-12 weeks!

On Saturday morning we ventured into Raleigh for the gigantic farmer's market. We came home with astilbe, marigolds, snapdragons, hanging ferns, a burpless cucumber and heirloom tomato plants ('Sungold' and 'Cherokee Chocolate'). We spent most of the day planting even though the weather was pretty touch and go (light rain, cloudy, sunny, light rain, sunny, etc.). Afterwards, we relaxed with some cheese fondue and Arsenic and Old Lace (the movie).

april 22

@ 3p | 2 cents...

Phooey. I have been trying to reach our "design consultant" (how uppercrust of me!) for our trip back to Furnitureland South this evening but so far two voicemails and one page have gone unanswered. In reality, it might be better for her to not call me back at this point, as I am more than a little annoyed. But the operator person said we would be assigned someone from her team when we showed up if she wasn't available. Let's hope so. Considering that she was assigned to us in that fashion the last time, I guess I can live with that. All I'm saying is, don't claim to be my furniture liason if you are never going to call me back when I have a follow-up question! Geez!

I have to admit something—I am absolutely itching to paint some walls. Eric keeps reminding me to focus (not on the striped wallpaper in ALL the bathrooms, thankfully, or I'd go blind), but I'm still anxious. We have several projects to accomplish, plus, we need to finalize the placement of our furniture and in the case of the living room, buy a couch, before we can determine a paint color. The first project I really want to tackle is the hall bathroom. I think I can handle a 6 by 6 foot room as my first home-ownership project. Gulp.

@ 10a | 2 cents...

Tonight we are planning to trek back to High Point and revisit the couch we will probably buy for our currently mostly empty living room.

In camera news, we decided on an upgrade of the Olympus model we currently own. This baby has almost three times the amount of megapixels and costs approximately the same as our old camera did when we bought it 4 years ago!

april 20

@ 9a | 2 cents...

Yesterday morning one of the workmen at my job was looking behind a loose sign near the stair entrance to our building. I asked him what he was looking for and he showed me. I tried to get a photo later in the day, but they were gone... Fortunately, the little guys were back this morning.

One of our poppy plants also bloomed yesterday, so I got a shot of it this morning before heading to work.

I am happy to report that it only took the neighborhood birds 2 days to find our feeder. We also have two Carolina wrens who think they own our backyard. They perch on everything: the fence, our lawn chairs, the deck bench, and our garden statue (the favorite). And hopefully the robins are eating more grubs than earthworms!

april 19

@ 12p | 2 cents...

We had a wonderful visit with Eric's parents last weekend, but they left too soon. We did a lot of shopping and managed to complete some household stuff, lawn chores, and eat lots of yummy food! We tried two new restaurants, Shiki Sushi and City Beverage, both were great. And of course, Ted's Montana Grill and their bison burgers were a big hit. Too bad Guglhupf Bakery (supposedly famous country-wide) had a subpar brunch menu and product to go along with it. My lunch there on a previous visit was good, but Eric was definitely not impressed.

Last week, I reorganized some of our garden photos to make way for our upcoming yard/garden photo section. All the deck photos from 2002 are now here. I plan to get the first few photos up this week, although our veggie garden is mostly dirt at this point. :)

And if you are wondering why we haven't posted many photos lately, it's because our beloved C-3000 has officially died. Eric has been intensely researching new camera possibilities. Until then, it's going to be snapshots with my D-230.

april 13

@ 12p | 2 cents...

People that have lived here their entire lives are now saying they have never seen the pollen this bad. I'll have photos of my—now yellow—car up this evening.

I mailed our tax forms to the three respective offices and we are expecting a nice refund check that Eric tells me will be funneled right back into our retirement accounts for this year.

Also, the weekend before we moved (while I was furiously packing), Eric took a trip to Atlanta for a higher education conference which he managed to escape from just long enough to take some great photos at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I am finally now posting the photos. You're welcome. :)

april 11

@ 9p | 2 cents...

Allergies have completely taken over my life, so it must be spring... Here's a recent shot of Eric mowing the lawn with our new push-mower.

@ 2p | 2 cents...

We finally watched Napoleon Dynamite on Saturday night and I was thoroughly amused. The best part (by far) was the skit after Pedro's speech. :) I've been told I need to see it again to appreciate all the subtle things, but I have work to do, people!

Eric and I picked up a bunch more plants at Lowes, Home Depot and a local garden center called Niche. In between mowing the front and back lawns, we took a bike ride and got our veggie/cut-flower garden prepared—weeded, pine needle removal and adding new soil to fill in low spots (lots of earthworms, yeah!). We planted 36 gladiolus bulbs along with a tomato plant and a sweet pepper plant. We'll eventually be adding freesia, cosmos, dianthus and a bunch of herbs to that area and another planting bed this week.

I also selected paint and flooring for my bring-the-hall-bath-up-to-date project. Right now the floor is pinkish-brown/cream tile linoleum with little flowers on it and the walls have pink and cream striped wallpaper with a pink flower border. Seriously.

april 8

@ 3p | 2 cents...

I've added a few things to the new to us section on the left (on the front page). We were planning to spend "X" amount of dollars on a new mattress and I realized that we didn't need the box spring... so we are using that substantial savings to get something else we need—new lawn furniture! I suppose we should purchase a bed frame for our old mattress so my in-laws have something else to sleep on (not to mention some privacy) besides the futon in the living room. :)

Some more NC license plates:

XQUUUZME
NY-CT-NC
JSTRITE
ECOTOY (on a Prius)

I'm hoping it stops raining soon so we can see the partial solar eclipse tonight.

april 5

@ 1p | 2 cents...

april 4

@ 11a | 2 cents...

We were offered an interesting site upon leaving for work this morning... we aren't sure who was to blame, but the front half of a little white sedan was underneath the back of our city garbage truck. The poor car's hood was completely crushed. Since the street we live on is really one big circle, we were able to get out of the subdivision just fine. I wonder how they are going to separate the vehicles?

Our furniture shopping went fairly well, and I am apparently oblivious to the actual cost of furniture, not to mention deeply discounted furniture. We are expanding our mattress testing tonight at a local place because that is the most important thing for the moment. Next is a new couch and possibly a garage door opener for our detached garage. We bought some garden tools for Eric at Sears and Lowe's, so on Sunday he was out raking and generally making the yard look much better.

Plus, we enjoyed grilled chicken tonight on our little Patio Caddie grill for the first time in years!

Of course we watched some basketball and now I am officially torn as several members of my family attended University of Illinois (and I grew up in Chicago) while we both currently work at UNC.

We are considering a camping trip with some waterfall hiking this weekend (if it doesn't rain). And Eric's parents are coming to visit us in two weeks!