Just a few (!) things.

A few things. A few things! Since when have I ever had "just a few things" to say. But in the interest of time, I'll keep to my rule of three.

First up - the change in my employment, which really is more of a career re-set and not just a change in jobs. I haven't spent too much time on this blog talking about my job (hardly any, actually, at least not directly), and that's because I couldn't really speak of it. Bound to secrecy in a way (or more like signed away my life in a confidentiality agreement). Anyway, for the past five years I have worked at Bain Capital. I started as an information intern, working in the research library, worked my way into a full-time job as a research analyst in the research library, and spent my last two years as director of the research library. I could go on for days about that job, but let me be brief and say that it wasn't the best fit for me. I knew that the moment I walked in and saw the lobby on the top floor of the building, and heard Pat, the receptionist, answer the phone in that movie-star kind of way. But I plodded through, quite successfully, actually, probably because I thought it was easier to go through with it all then to stop and try to find something different. And now I have found something different. Something more suited to me - my personality, my interests, my goals (there will be another post on that soon, I'm sure), and I have left behind all of this: My name on glass, a corner office, and my little library. It's okay, though. It really is. I couldn't be more sure that it's my time to leave corporate libraries, and I happily wave goodbye to the past and hello to the future.

Okay, next up - Doug's mustache. Yes, Doug has a mustache. He's had it for a couple of weeks now. I'd like to think he changed things up in honor of my new job and all of our exciting adventures yet to come, or that he shaved the beard in honor of Movember and a good cause. While the push for the mustache - which came from me, by the way, and was met with every bit of resistance Doug could muster - was originally in honor of Movember, it turned into something else. It turned into a challenge. I wanted to see if Doug would alter his facial hair just because I was asking him to. And to my surprise he did. And to his surprise he actually likes his mustache and will keep it until he grows tired of having to shave around it on a bi-weekly/weekly basis. That works for me, since I was getting a little tired of the beard and actually like being able to see more of Doug's face. Plus, it's like waking up next to someone different - I still barely recognize him.

And lastly, at least for today - redecorating! One of the very first things that I did (after our trip to Sturbridge, which was the first thing) after leaving my job was redecorate the house. Definitely trying to start afresh. The first thing I did was move the cookbooks into the kitchen. I did that because I moved the bookcase from the living room into the sun room, and it didn't make sense for the cookbooks to be all the way out there. Along with the bookcase went the armchair, and now the sun room is its own little library, complete with guitars, cat, and man with mustache.

But you might be asking yourself about the table that was out there in the sun room. Where's that? Well, it's now where the bookcase was in the living room, behind the couch in the back corner. Like so: Now we can craft there, work on the computer there, or even eat at that table and watch TV instead of breaking our backs by trying to eat at the coffee table. The room is a great space for doing all the things we most love to do - all while watching TV.

And, we made a change to the dining room, too. New dining table! We ordered this table from the Darn Good Barn Wood guys in late September and didn't get it until the Monday before Thanksgiving. I almost forgot we had it coming. We saw the DGBW guys at Brimfield back on this trip and contacted them this past May to see if they were going to be at Brimfield again. The answer was no, so we thought all summer long about going to see them at the South End market that they were participating in to pick out a table. We took until the end of September to decide that indeed we did want one of their handmade-out-of-old-barn-wood tables for our dining room, in the spirit of saying goodbye to college and our youth and hello to more "adult" furniture, and so just called them up, gave them the dimensions we were looking for and the color stain we'd like, and here it is. And we can't wait to save up money for DGBW to start making us some more stuff out of barn wood. Benches for the table, maybe? Or maybe some chairs? A coffee table? A console table? A bookcase? We've got a lot more IKEA furniture to replace; our list is almost endless.

So. Those were my three things. There is so much more to write about, to tell you about, but I have to go and get the car inspected (Whoops! I noticed that our inspection sticker expired in November when I saw the ticket sitting on the window of the car this morning (can you believe that someone patrols the parking lot at Target looking for violations? That's where I got the ticket! In a parking spot at the Watertown Target while I was inside getting my niece Maria her birthday gift!)) and then pick Doug up from work, so I can't. I have to exercise restraint, and also save some of my stories for another time. Bet you can't wait! :)