The Boy has infected me.
I’m snotty, achy, annoyed, and not long for the office. Going to finish up a few things then head back to bed for a bit. No gym for this walking ball of phlegm today.
Will share more (but not my germs!) at a later date.
Holla!
The G-man has a cold. Only his second one ever. I’m not complaining, that’s pretty darn good. BUT STILL. Every half hour last night, we were awoken by a moan, a cough, and a cry due to his inability to breathe. I’d check in the monitor to see him roll around, stick his butt up in the air (those ancient yogis really named “Child’s Pose” correctly), and fall back to sleep. I’m TIRED today.
Deep Thoughts. Of Mama's poor hair cutting skills.
The fun part of a cold? Listening to the boy fake sneeze our entire ride home of an evening, “AhChoo! AhChoo! AhChoo!” Then fake snore. Then fake nose blow, “Hooonnnkkk!” And repeat ad nauseum.
This is my sexy pose, ladies!
His vocabulary is still, as yet, limited. His vocabulary of sounds? Endless. Name an object and he will tell you what it sounds like. Car? Vroom Vroom! Train? Choo Choo! Dog? Woof Woof! Drink? Ahhh! Food? Yum! Dirt? Yuck! Cow? Woof Woof! Horse? Woof Woof!
OK, we don’t quite have ALL the animals down yet.
This is my sexy pensive pose, ladies.
Also? No. Why is NO the first word humans learn? I’m sure entire doctoral theses have been written on lesser questions.
I mentioned yesterday that Ryan replaced the ugly, ancient, underscaled, poorly installed crown molding in our living room.
This.
It was only 2″ wide – it was baseboard really – and included lots of small, poorly seamed pieces. The ugliness of it only drew attention to the popcorn ceiling that we’d really like to replace but are pretty sure it’s up there for a reason we do not want to discover so we’re just leaving it as it is.
Over the course of a few days, Ryan demo’d, measured, mitered, and coped his way to something more in scale with our space:
To This.
It is a minor tweak, but one we ADORE. Kind of the icing on the cake. The polish on the shoes. The perfect pair of earrings. We went with a simple profile, pre-primed 3 5/8″ crown molding that was $1.11 per linear foot at the Home Crappy Depot. A thicker molding would not fit over the stairway arch. We already owned the miter saw and the semi-gloss trim paint, but Ryan did have to buy a coping saw. He was crushed. Total project cost? About $150 and some Ryan knuckle skin.
Pay no attention to the sideways valence. I haven't made it out to the fabric store to get more birdy fabric to do it properly.
You may also notice in the shot above all the old alarm and doorbell boxes have been removed from the wall, leaving a nice clean space for the clock. Ryan is more than a little obsessed with patching and sanding these days.
Now there is just ONE LONG PIECE of thick, seamless, luscious molding now as opposed to the little chunks above. Sexy, huh?
Civilized.
See up there on the stairway? That collage of photos is something I’ve been meaning to do for, oh, about five years. It is still in progress so I don’t have any pictures as yet, but as always, I will be sure to overshare when I have anything photo-worthy!
Oh – the wallpaper came yesterday, and it’s GORGEOUS (Oprah voice) if I do say so myself! We ordered online from Graham and Brown, and will hopefully begin the process of hanging it in the alcove behind the piano this weekend.
SUPER EXCITED.
SUCH A NERD.
I may as well be straight up with y’all. I couldn’t do it. Life without alcohol is no sort of life for me.
It is not possible to eat a delicious Italian meal without a glass of red wine. Football just is not the same without a beer. So yes, I’ve had two alcoholic beverages since proclaiming a personal prohibition.
Okay, Okay, I MAY have also had a tiny glass of bourbon on the rocks after that horrific Ravens loss to the disgusting Patriots. But who didn’t?
You know you want these glasses. From Etsy, the shop name is Vital.
I forgot who I was for a while. I’m all better now. I can still have the occasional glass of wine, I just can’t have it often.
Have I mentioned how much diets suck?
To prevent this post from beginning to look like the gargantuan To Do List I’ve got brewing elsewhere, lemme just say BUSY. LOTS. STUFF. WORK. LIFE. MUSIC. GYM. BUSY. HOUSE. BUSY. BUSY.
There. Now you know.
Work has picked up. Way up. You know, because my weekdays weren’t enough of a race. Race to be at work by 7:00. Race through the day. Leave by 3:30. Race to Gym. Race through workout. Race to pick up my buddy. SIT IN TRAFFIC (no race there). Home around 6:00 to begin the evening race of dinner, cleanup, bath, cuddling, shower, sleep, do it all again.
As a result, I’ve become a weekend warrior of SITTING ON THE COUCH.
Okay, not really. But I do value my weekends more than I ever thought possible.
On Saturday we took advantage of the snow and ice to skip the gym and take it easy. But not so easy as to deter our monthly pilgrimage to the mecca Ikea. Nope, the projects keep a-comin’ at the Compound. At some point I’ll have photos to share, but we are still knee deep in the morass.
Ryan has completed the crown molding in the living and dining room, and it just looks right. Like it’s been that way all along. I can’t even remember what that short ugly stuff looked like before or how we lived with it for seven years. Especially since the entire project cost just over $100. We have wallpaper coming today – hooray! – for the wall behind the piano, and when we have that little project completed I’ll show you the whole shebang.
I have also been focusing on the master bedroom, finally getting this West Elm bedding (on sale, natch) to go with my quilt (seen in use here), and accessorizing; both with a few new items and re-purposing some items we already had. You guys, it’s starting to look like an actual ADULT BEDROOM. I just need to decide on curtain fabric, make a trip to Hobby Lobby for some cute and whimsical drawer knobs to personalize the dresser, and pull the trigger on an area rug. Do y’all know how much rugs cost? I can’t stand it. My cheap self cringes when I see the prices for these things. I’ve narrowed my choices down to a few, but I still comb the internet daily for the bargain of the century. It ain’t happening, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to have drop at least three benjamins for a decent 7′X10′ area rug. I hate that.
Again, I’ll show you pictures of the final product. You know, when I can stand AND afford to get a non-embarrassing rug. You are NOT seeing the one we’ve got on the floor now.
Do you have Showtime? If not, I suggest you get it. We just did – well, Comcast called us and told us it was now a free add-on to our current price of your mortgage plan – and WOW. Homeland. Just. Wow.
It’s good. It’s WIRE good. I know people like to throw that around, I’ve probably done it myself; however, this is the first show I’ve seen since that captures the nuance, compromise, and reality of human life, politics, and war (because the Wire was certainly about war, just not the military kind). Angela Chase, er, Claire Danes – can’t keep those outdated 90′s references at bay! – just won a much deserved Golden Globe for her role as an deeply flawed CIA agent obsessed with an equally flawed POW from the Iraq war, played miraculously by Damian Lewis, who is single-handedly restoring my faith in red-headed men.
In the past week Ryan and I have worked our way through the first nine episodes, watching after Gabe goes to bed and at lunch – me on my work computer, Ryan at home, instant messaging our exclamations of “Holy SHIT” and “I CANNOT believe what just happened!” back and forth.
Now we only have three left. We’re mourning. What are we going to do when they are over? How long will we have to wait for season two???
Television truly is better than film these days because the medium allows for a much more leisurely, in-depth, and nuanced take on the subject matter; I would much rather see my favorite book adapted into an HBO, AMC, or SHO series than any Hollywood blockbuster. Premier actors, writers, and directors see it that same way – the cable networks are giving the artistic talent room to grow, create, and breathe new life into the screen.
But. But. Homeland. It’s almost over. What are we going to do then??? Oh well, I guess we DO have a few episodes of Shameless to catch up on. And then maybe I’ll try to find the last season of Breaking Bad that I missed when, you know, I had this kid-thing. Ooh! And Mad Men is back in March! YES!
It’s not TV. It’s Obsession.
Better late than never, right? Plus, what better way to lighten a dreary mid-January day than by revisiting the glowing wonder of Christmas?
Here are a few items that now reside in our home:
Santa was good to the Finns this year!
Come on, doesn’t everyone have a favorite megalomaniacal philandering architect? You know you do!
My brother and his wife, Dave and Suzanne, saw this in Barnes & Noble one day and knew they needed look no further for my Christmas gift. They were right. I may have teared up a bit when I opened it. Problem is, I’m afraid to open the box for fear of losing any pieces! A piece of art like that needs a clean sanitary KID FREE space to create. It may have to come to the office so I can build it here one day.
And look, now I’m excited about Christmas all over again! What did Santa bring you? Have you thought about it lately?
The Fitness Quest is reaching a new level of insanity.
Goodbye, frosty friend
I’m going alcohol-free for a while. Not that I’ve been drinking much anyway, since every drink is a MINIMUM of three Weight Watchers points, but I’ve decided to eliminate even my once or twice weekly glass of wine or football-watching frosty beer to eliminate those extra calories.
My friend Amy told me about a seven day cleanse she is doing, and it peaked my curiosity. But I’m not ready to go balls out caffeine-free, sugar-free, carb-free, alcohol-free, everything-free. Not yet anyway. I AM curious, but I’m also a wimp. A wimp who does not like vegetables.
Instead I’m going all temperance on myself. Nothing till the Super Bowl. I mean, come ON, a gal has to have a beer during the Super Bowl, doesn’t she? Especially if she’s watching the game at a house with a keg-er-ator full of craft beer and lots of yummy food.
But until then, I’m keeping clean. My body is a temple and all that crap.
I don’t even know who I am anymore!
I bought this for Ryan for Christmas.
Brilliant. Every home should have one. Our only question is why did it take us seven years to install this glorious $4 appliance on our wall?
I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. It’s too fun. Silly pictures with silly filters. Documenting the minutiae of my weekends and Instagramming them. Like today’s edition, featuring The Compound’s residents:
Bruce!
He’s won trophies for his game face alone.
Cat!
I'm a fighter not a lover. So don't get any ideas.
Gabe!
His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man's body.
Slackers! (While I sweat away at the gym)
Both sides of his pillow are cool.
Mama’s Future OCD organizer!
He owns 4 sports cars, and rents 5.
Deep Thinker!
He is the life of parties he has never attended.
