I love paint colors that remind me of food.

Welcome back, me! I've been absent from the blogosphere these past couple of weeks, mostly because I've lacked the time that it will take to do these posts I have planned justice. Plus, after the marathon post of my Memorial Day Weekend adventures with my family, I was a little tired of blogging. Let's hope this post is a little shorter, but there's a lot of ground to cover...

As some of you may already know, last weekend my mother and brother came up to visit. My mom arrived Friday afternoon and the sweet woman cooked Doug and me a wonderful dinner of roast beef, sweet potatoes and green beans. Anytime she wants to come back to cook for us we'll welcome her with open arms, because there's still something very comforting about a mother's home-cooked meal. But my mother didn't come up just to cook us dinner... no, we had other plans. After dinner we started to clear out the cat/sun room and also the kitchen to prepare for our transformation weekend. While we painted the cat/sun room last year during our painting week right before we moved into the house, I've never felt totally satisfied with it. Same with the kitchen, though we didn't actually paint that last year. I've just never felt satisfied with the yellow color; wasn't a shade I'd have picked myself. So, in an effort to get more of my life in order, I solicited my mother's help to get these two rooms painted (and we wanted to paint the kitchen wall, too, because thanks to the federal government we bought a new, fully-functioning refrigerator, microwave, and washing machine and wanted a fresh start with our new appliances). Here are some before photos of the two rooms in question; you'll note that my mom and I seem a little tired already... we're well aware of the work we have ahead of us:

My mother and I woke up early on Saturday morning to get started on our painting. Not only did we have to paint the sun room and the kitchen, but we had to wait around for all the appliance to show up. Our table for the cat/sun room was slated to show up first, so we wanted to get as much of that room done before the table was delivered. Luckily we had an extra pair of hands to help with the painting:

Once we got the first coat of the latte-like brown (called Shabby Chic) on that room we moved into the kitchen. This color was not so easy to paint - why again do I gravitate towards the deep, rich colors that require tinted primers and multiple coats? Thank god we were only painting one wall and the little entryway area. The color is called Raspberry Blush, and I thought it was going to be a lot more orange than it actually is - it is definitely in the raspberry family - but it works very well in the kitchen. Here's me painting with the tinted primer: We had to work faster in this room because the microwave was scheduled to be delivered and installed between 1 and 3 and refrigerator between 4 and 6, but we didn't start in the kitchen until about noon. No matter - my mom and I can be efficient when we have to be, and the microwave guy was late. This meant that the whole coat of primer was on the entryway, and I was able to get most of the kitchen wall done before the guy came with the microwave. That was a perfect time for some lunch, so here's a view of what we got to look at while eating:

Once the microwave and refrigerator were installed (and the new washer, which deserves a section all to itself), my mother went back into the cat/sun room to finish the second coat and I stayed in the kitchen to finish the primer. Here are photos of my mom doing a bang-up job with the paint brush, the refrigerator and the wall with the primer on itThe refrigerator is a bit blinding - and none of our magnets stick to the front of it! You can also see the new microwave in the photo of the primered wall... also very shiny.

The next morning my mom and I put the first coat of paint on the entryway and the kitchen wall, but because it was a beautiful day and because my bother had arrived, we decided to head over to the Blue Hills for a hike and then take in the new Star Trek movie. Both were great fun. My mother and brother love to hike, and I think they liked the trail we chose to go on, but I will say that Doug and I are terribly out of shape and were eager to stay on the easier trails. All trails are good, though - there are great views from this reservation.I don't know why we don't go there more often. Oh wait, yes I do. We try to cram too much stuff into our weekends, but never exercise and nature.

When we got home from the movie (loved the Spock character, and thought the Kirk character wasn't bad, either) I put the last coat of paint on the kitchen wall, and while that was drying and while my family was eating I started to put the house back together. It's amazing how disordered it got that weekend. We put the new table into the sun/cat room, so now we can sit there on the weekends and enjoy the windows.I also did an inaugural load of laundry in the new washer. This was really my favorite part of the weekend. Here's the old washer:Here's the new one:Yes, I do love my new washing machine. It's so much bigger than the old one, and it actually spins the clothes around and gets them clean! Miraculous!

Even though I have much more to write about and so many more pictures to show, especially of the finished rooms and the curtains I made for the kitchen and the pictures I hung on the walls in the sun/cat room, I'll end today's post with this video of my mom, Doug, and me watching the first load of wash in the new washer (can't use up all my content in one post!). We stood there for a good half-hour watching the clothes wash, even after the lid fogged up. It really doesn't take much to amuse us down here, and I will say that even after my 4th or 5th load of wash in this thing I am still a captive audience. (Warning - for those with young ears there is a perhaps age-inappropriate word at the very end of the video...)

I'm blogging from bed because I can.

I really should be sleeping. My eyes hurt from looking at a computer screen all day, and I am getting a headache, but I can't bring myself to go to bed because I feel like I haven't done enough yet today, enough of what I want to do. Tomorrow night I want to come home and play around on the computer, getting to know the laptop while watching some Cash in the Attic and eating some more frozen food... but I won't be home until 8:30pm again. Hopefully I won't have to work from home, though, and the playing around on the computer that I do can be for fun and from the couch. We'll see. I can make no promises.

I was going through my Flickr account because I am thinking of upgrading to a pay account (but my blog essentially functions as Flickr, so not sure why I would, really) and found a cool photo from the Chris's wedding. Here, I'll attach it, even though it's probably giant-sized. They had such a fun wedding. So laid-back, yet classy at the same time. I really liked that wedding. Liked helping to set up, liked watching it, liked taking photos, liked dancing, liked the atmosphere, the company, the season, the warmth, the food, the music, the everything. I like weddings. This photoshoot down memory lane reminded me that I really like weddings. Not all weddings are as fun or as comfortable as that of Chris and Chris, but all are likable in some way. I enjoyed my own wedding, too, and thought it went by WAY too fast. Way too fast. In some ways I'm still recovering from the fact that it's over. For those 7 months of planning I had a purpose, a drive, a vision, a dream, a goal, and once we got back from Belgium my life has been sort-of going into the toilet. I exaggerate, of course, because I now live in a great house in a nice town right outside of Boston (though I think that I am allergic to the trees that surround the property) with a husband who is really too good to me, and with three cats who are on the whole very, very well-behaved (not to mention darned cute). We do do fun things on the weekends (when I'm not working) and we have very quickly created a very clean and organized domestic environment, but since the wedding I've allowed my life to be taken over by work such that I don't know how to focus on the non-work parts of my life. I neglect friends and family, including Doug and the cats. I neglect my personal interests, my physical health, and probably most importantly my mental well-being hangs by a very thin thread. On this I don't exaggerate.

Today I thought about volunteering. About how I would like to volunteer either at some kind of senior center or assisted living facility, because I actually like old people (they are the human equivalent of the storied wares on the Antiques Roadshow and/or Cash in the Attic), or at the Animal Rescue League in Dedham. I don't have a whole lot of time to volunteer, though. As it was I was working tonight until 11:15. I suppose I could volunteer on the weekends, but by the time the weekend comes I'm zapped of energy. Zonked. A regular zombie. Ask Doug. He gets so annoyed with me on the weekends because I just can't function quickly enough for him. It takes me at least a day to get back to being "me," by which time my weekend's virtually over.

I don't want to complain. And actually, I'm not really complaining. Just stating the facts. But please know that I realize that I am neglecting friends and friendships that do not deserve to be neglected, and that I've gotten so far outside of myself over these past months/last year that I pretty much have forgotten how to be friends with people. The phone? Dread it. Email? Don't mind it, but feel I don't have much to say so don't really utilize it. I work. That's what I do. When Doug tells me that I can't talk about work, that I have to find something else to talk about, I get angry because to me that means I can't talk. I am work and work is me. Again, not really complaining; just stating the hard, cold, depressing facts of my early married life.

It's time to go to bed. The later it gets the darker my mood becomes and trust me, that's not a good thing. I'll pet the cat and pet Doug and shut my eyes and hope to wake up tomorrow a little brighter.

Have you ever been to the Bunker Hill Monument?

As you may already know from my few previous posts, my sister, brother-in-law, the kids, and my mother came up to visit this weekend. I knew that we had a full weekend planned, but man - did all the activity tire me out! I'm so not used to entertaining. It was a fun weekend, and of course my camera was there to capture all of the memories, so of course this will be a long post with plenty of visuals.

When my mom arrived on Saturday morning I was finishing up a bit of work so that I could have the rest of the weekend free to hang out with the gang. That was wise, because no sooner did everyone finally arrive and get filled with donuts and snacks than we packed up Maria (no Maddy... she opted to stay home and TV shop and Wii with Mike, Doug, and Frankie) and headed to the American Girl store. I don't know who was more excited about this trip, Maria or Grandma, but Maria's the one who got stuff and my mother was the one who had fun paying for it. This place was huge. Huge! And amazingly calm for a Saturday I heard. I thought it was crazy enough, with a slew of pre-adolescent girls wandering around with either their friends or their mothers and grandmothers. We actually were able to get a table in the Bistro without needing reservations, which apparently is unheard of. Here's a photo of my mom and Maria waiting for their lunch, and then after lunch we finally made some purchases. Most of what is in the below bags belongs to Maria, but we did get a couple of things for Maddy - a book and a softball outfit for her doll (and yes, Maddy has one of the dolls, which she rather likes).
The day was overwhelming enough for little Maria, but after the American Girl experience we went into the rest of the mall to seek out a store that would pierce Maria's ears. Yes! Maria is now the proud owner of holes in her ears, home to lovely, sparkly pink flower earrings. Aunt Rosanne was the only one with a camera on this trip (reason # 42 why carrying a large bag is a necessity), which was good because I was able to document the whole of this most momentous occasion. First we have the ladies who were doing the piercing drawing the little dots on Maria's ears so that they would know where to shoot the holes: Maria looks a little apprehensive... she was a little unsure of how much pain to expect; if it would really just pinch like everyone was telling her or if it would hurt much, much more... You'll see in this next photo that she's thinking it's going to hurt much, much more as she braces herself for the guns: And here's the actual moment when the earrings are being shot into her ears... note the look of pain on her face, but there were no tears!The end result was definitely worth it, though, and Maria could not stop touching her ears, looking at them, talking about them, pointing at them... She made sure to point out to everyone she saw that day that she had just had her ears pierced. Think about it, though - this is a big change. A minute before she had no earrings and now she does and will for the rest of her life, unless she lets the holes close. She'll have to swab her ears each day for the next 6 weeks to avoid infection, and from then on she'll always have to wonder if she's wearing the right earrings with her outfit. Big stuff! But the earring fun doesn't end there... once Maria had her ears pierced she needed to have her American Girl doll's ears pierced, too, and yes, you can have your doll's ears pierced at the doll salon in the store (but not for free, of course). So we went back to the store and had the doll's ears pierced, too. Maria couldn't have been happier.
Once Maria and her doll were properly pierced, we left the mall and headed back to the homestead to show the gang Maria's stuff and to collect them for dinner. We headed out to Vello's, which was a great choice for the kids, and then came home to wind down. Winding down consisted of turning the basement into a slumber party zone, complete with a 5 piece family band. After the air mattresses for Grandma and the kids were pumped up, someone started banging on the drums (maybe Maddy?). That led to Frankie grabbing the mike and Maria grabbing the tambourine, and Laura leading them in song. Instruments were eventually switched, though, and Doug ended up on drums, Maddy on lead vocals, Frankie on guitar, and Maria kept the tambourine, until it was her turn to do the singing. Grandma and Laura were excited fans in the audience, and I took photos and videos galore. You can find more videos at the Semantic Mather, Doug's oft-forgotten blog, or you can see the previous post for a snapshot of the talent we assembled in the basement that night. I do think that the Perrino Family Band could refine their gig and take it on the road - each of the members is a big enough ham to make the act work no matter what instrument s/he plays at the time. And they have good tunes - I had never heard the Tutitata song before, but the chorus is now in my head for most of the day and I have my nieces and nephew to thank for that.

The next day we all got up early, or at least Doug and I did, and after breakfast (and more donuts) decided to head into Boston to go to a couple attractions of Boston's National Park. We took two cars into the city and were planning on parking in the garage at Boston Common, but the road was blocked off so we split up after that. I decided to park in the garage at the Prudential Center because a) it was close to where we were at that point, b) I knew how to get to it, and c) it was convenient to the Prudential T stop. An added bonus for parking there was that we got to see the anime conference that comes to Boston each year. What a treat to see masses of people in wings, ears, paws, and tails, poofy dresses with giant lollipops... these people really get into their anime characters. Not an added bonus was the money that we had to dish out to park there for about 5 hours... $35! But we all eventually met at North Station and headed over to the Charlestown Navy Yard so that the kids could get their National Park stamps at the USS Constitution, and then the plan was to walk over to the Bunker Hill Monument to get more stamps and to see a panoramic view of the city. The kids did get their stamps at the Navy Yard's visitor center, but we didn't tour the USS Constitution. The line was enormous and the air was too hot and heavy. We made a command decision to head over to the USS Cassin Young instead, a WWII Navy destroyer docked across from the Constitution. It was a large, gray, oily-smelling ship that reminded me why I am not in the Navy. I am sure that conditions have improved a little, but probably not to where I would prefer them to be. Nothing is soft on that ship, not even the beds. I doubt I'd be able to get used to being surrounded by tons and tons of cold metal. But the tour was fun, and after scoping out the torpedoes, the laundry room, the control room, the kitchen, and the sick bay, we headed over to the Shipyard Galley for a light lunch.Ice cream for everyone! My mother had a yogurt and fruit, though, and Doug and I had giant pretzels (and we've decided that giant pretzels are a must with yellow mustard), to fortify us for the trek over to and up the Bunker Hill Monument. This is the first time that I had ever been to the monument, and it was my first real walk through Charlestown. Wow, it's a nice neighborhood! I can't imagine parking in it, though, and I do wonder where one would buy groceries and other necessities. I've never lacked for a store more than 5 minutes away, so that made me wonder whether or not I could ever live in Charlestown.

To visit, though, is fun, and the monument was very cool. It's just this giant obelisk-like structure in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It reminded me of that monument in Washington D.C... right, the Washington Monument. Don't know how many stairs are in that monument, but in this one there were something like 294 and we all climbed up to the top, even Maria and Grandma. Of course, there were rumbles of thunder as we started our climb, and the park ranger did tell us that if there were lighting strikes while we were at the top she'd have to come and tell us all to leave immediately. And wouldn't you know that as soon as my mother and Doug got to the top the park ranger made the call for everyone to come down! We were able to get a few shots in before leaving (my mother was adamant about staying for a bit, seeing how she risked a heart attack to climb to the top):I bet on a crisp and clear winter day the views would be even more spectacular, but they were still pretty impressive on this day with air thick with heat, humidity, and summer smut. Still, though, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon by heading across the street to the Bunker Hill Museum and learning more about the battle that occurred on Breeds Hill. There's only so much museum that you can take before you begin to tire of the experience, so we eventually left and made our way back to the cars and back to the house for dinner. After dinner everyone packed up the cars and headed back to CT leaving Doug and I to flop onto the couch and decide that having family over is certainly fun, but definitely tiring! Come back soon, though! There are many more parks waiting for us to explore.

They're going to be famous

Doug joined a new band and they're pretty good. He already posted all the videos on his blog, but I thought I'd post one as it's particularly good. This is the Perrino Family Band making their Dedham debut, but it won't be long before they go to Hollywood! Here they are singing a song called the Tutitata...? I don't know this one, but it's catchy. I'll be singing all night.

I love nice weather (though it became a tad hot...)

I've come to the conclusion that as much as I love New England and the change of seasons, the two seasons that are my favorite are spring and fall. Well, I don't even love all of spring and fall, but we're in the part of spring right now that I really like. I like spring from about the end of April to the middle of June, when summer usually comes on with a vengeance. And I like fall throughout October, when the days are still a little warm but the leaves are turning colors and starting to fall off the trees. Temperatures for these two season-parts are usually in the 60s, with occasional 70-degree weather or 50-degree weather - perfect! This past week we had a few days of just beautiful days, and I actually got to enjoy a little of a couple of them.

So what did I do in the nice weather this past week? Well, on Thursday I was determined to ride my bike in the daylight, so I left work a little early and got home at about 7:30. Doug and I got on our biking gear and headed out for a leisurely ride around the town. We crossed Route 1 and went over into Dedham Square and into Precinct One, the beautifully historic part of Dedham. I took a few photos along the way of some of my favorite parts of that part of town. The first here is the Dedham Bike Shop. It's actually called the Dedham Bike & Leather Shop, but I didn't see too many leather goods for sale in there. Maybe it's a throw-back to services provided in yesteryear?

We also rode by the main branch of the Dedham Public Library.I've been in there once or twice and I like it, but after having been spoiled by the wealth of resources at the Boston Public Library and the Newton Free Library, the Dedham Public Library seems very sleepy. But nice, so I really can't complain. Across from the library are a couple of court buildings and also the registry of deeds (where we signed our closing on the house). Doug took a break from biking behind this municipal complex. Don't you love the trees? That's another great part of this time of year - everything is still green and lustrous, not brown and dried-up from weeks and weeks of scorching heat and no rain.
On our way back to our house we rode by the Dedham Community Theatre, home of two movie screens and the Museum of Bad Art, and also host to occasional comedy shows. We saw one movie there, but I forget what it was. Uhhh... right, Slumdog Millionaire. Moving on from there we crossed back over Route 1 and then took a detour (gotta get my blog content) past the Endicott Estate: This place is pretty impressive, and while I've never been inside I think that I would have liked to have had our wedding here. Of course, it probably costs an arm and a leg to rent out and we wouldn't have had the casual feel of the UConn Alumni Center to welcome all of our wedding guests (and we didn't really know too much about Dedham back then...), but still. Maybe we can have our 50th anniversary there or something. What's cool about the Endicott Estate is that on the grounds is the little branch of the Dedham Public Library that I am more apt to frequent, since it's on my walk to and from the commuter rail each day.It's small, but they pack a lot in there, and since most of the stuff that I get from the library has to be shipped from other libraries in the network, I don't need a big library. It's just very nice to have it so close by. But, anyway, that was our bike ride. The more we drive and bike around Dedham the more we learn about it, which will be my response to my mother the next time she asks me how we know our way around the area so well. Just takes time to explore, that's all.

Friday was another beautiful day, though it bordered on hot. Because it was the day before a long weekend, Pain let everyone out at 3pm. This means that I got home at 5pm, but wow! It felt nice. To celebrate the weather and the early evening, we went to a PawSox game. It really takes us no time at all to get down there... maybe 40 minutes? Not too bad! And the games are a good time. They're casual, go by faster than major league games, and you can get really great seats for only $10 each. Doug and I always say that we should get season tickets, but there are so many games each season, and I can't usually get out of work early enough to make the games on weeknights. But here are a couple of shots of us at the game: Doug likes to watch the game, and while I do, too, I also like to watch the people (who love to eat. I mean, really love to eat. First hot dogs, then french fries drenched in orange cheese sauce, then fried dough, washed down with soda and ice cream). Your average baseball fan is much more interesting to watch than your average soccer fan (note I said average, so not the people in the Fort at the Revs games), so I wish I could go to more games. I'd get a degree in sociology sitting there each night!

The weather doesn't seem to be continuing on its beautiful course this weekend, but I'm sure we'll manage to enjoy the rest of it anyway. My sister, brother-in-law, mother and all the kids are coming up soon to stay over night. I'll have some adventures to share, I'm sure.

Brimfield, Part Deux

Greetings from Brimfield! We took another trip to Brimfield on Saturday and spent the afternoon sifting through tables and tables and tables and tables and fields and fields and fields and fields of junk. It was quite packed that day (it always is on Saturdays) and when we got there at 11:30 it was hot with the sun out, but by noon or so the sun was blocked by dark gray clouds that only briefly let down a soaking shower. Sifting through the antique junk at Brimfield is hit or miss in terms of finding something interesting. You see a lot of things that you can't believe anyone is actually trying to sell (an old, deteriorating toilet? A giant Blues Brother?) and things that you wish that you could buy (complete sets of vintage Pyrex bowls without a chip or scratch to be seen... but for $229? No way!). Doug enjoyed looking at... what else but vinyl, though I will say that he didn't really look at a lot of it. There were too many other things catching our eyes. We didn't go to Brimfield looking for anything in particular this time (you'll recall that last fall we went in search of a dresser for Doug, which we got and we are still very happy with), but we did hope to find a small drop-leaf table for two that we could put in the sun/cat room. We were also looking out for a small table that we could put where the Poang chair is currently. The Poang chair will move to the basement so that we can Wii in that chair (since the basement will ultimately be the Wii space), and in the place of the Poang Doug wants to put a small table with a lamp. We could use more lighting in the living room, but we didn't find either a lamp or a table that suited our fancy. We determined that most of the furniture at Brimfield is either colonial, country, or gothic in style (we saw more than our fair share of thrones that day - as in the gigantic wooden kind). We aren't really into any of those styles at this point and would prefer something either a little arts & crafts or mission style, or something a little more mid-century. These orange vinyl chairs caught my eye for the simple fact that they weren't dark wood and ornate, but none of them came home with us. What did come home with us was the rock medley album that Doug was checking out, a decoy named Tilly, and a mirror for the art wall idea that I have for the sun/cat room. Check them out: While this is all that we have to show for our four hours at Brimfield, we were satisfied with our antiquing experience, and we're thinking of going again in September if anyone wants to join us.

After Brimfield, Doug and I stopped in Natick for dinner at this place called the British Beer Company. We went there last weekend with Jipty and Chris, and it was there that I had a beer that I actually like. Like, honestly like and can drink without making any kind of beer face at all. Of course, this is because it is basically strawberry juice. Look at it: (It's the beer on the right, of course, the one with the distinctive pink tint.) It's called Fruli Strawberry, and we went out searching for this beer last weekend to buy for home consumption, but apparently it's not really sold in package stores, much to my displeasure. I'm really not a beer drinker, much to Doug's displeasure, but I'd drink this stuff. It's really very tasty in a very girly kind of way. But hey, I'm fine being girly if I get to drink a tasty beer like this.

Anyway, after dinner we came home to see our little kitties waiting for us. Ever since Wyatt got his hair cut Meg and Sasha have done more bonding, probably because they don't want to be associated with their ridiculous brother. We came home to see Meg and Sasha sharing a window: Not too sure what they were looking at out there, but they were happy. Wyatt, on the other hand, wasn't all that thrilled that we had left him for the day. I felt his menacing stare on me while I was over at the refrigerator putting away the dinner left-overs. What do you think is going on behind those eyes? Is he thinking, "I hate you, you terrible person, for leaving me home all day long with those two dopes in the window," or do you think he's undressing me with his eyes, getting ready for his requisite humping? Probably a little of both!

Now it's time to finish the last half of Wall-E (fell asleep right as Wall-E gets onto the space cruise and sees all the humans... must finish this very enjoyable movie!), but not before I wish Chris and Chris many more congratulations on their little chris in the oven! How fun and exciting (but scary at the same time)! We can't wait to give proper congratulations in person, but we just want them to know that there is a big smile over Dedham now that we know the good news.

Cotton, Cotton, Who's Got the Cotton?

I know I just posted, but Meg and Wyatt are having a stand off in the corner of the office. Wyatt wants to hump her and Meg wants him to back off. And I want Cotton to blog again. Don't be such a tease, Cotton! You and Meg leave me and Wyatt very, very frustrated. We both have needs!