Gillian & Jimmy

The Latest On Ghosty

2010-12-08T21:37:00.004-05:00

So let's start with last night shall we? I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth pretty quietly when i heard what sounded like something metallic move as if it was dropped or knocked over in the bathroom. I quickly stopped what i was doing, toothbrush in mouth, and looked around the bathroom. My initial thought was that the shower head had fallen out of the wall, nope. A light fixture came out of the holes in the mirrors? Nah. The toilet paper holder magically came out of the wall? The metal and glass free-standing shelf get knocked into? No that would have been shaking. The towel racks moving? The stand up towel bar move? The hooks on the closet door? I was quickly running out of metal hinge to look at as I glanced around the room. I shrugged it off and chalked it up to our friend.

Then this morning while getting ready for work i just felt uneasy all morning. I went downstairs when i was all done and since it was downright frigid out I decided i needed to make hot chocolate for my drive in. While waiting for my water to boil i began to hear what sounded like some serious movement coming from upstairs in our bedroom and the hallway stopping right above the guest bathroom. Like running around and not just the normal footsteps. I finished up my hot chocolate and rushed out the door and while locking up the door in the house to the mud room i still heard the noises from stairs.

I think at this point it really doesn't scare either of us any more, it just annoys us and is a bit frustrating that it comes and goes and you never know when you'll hear it. I'm still waiting for the one time when we both hear it talk at the same time, i will just about die when that happens!!!!!

I Think Our Ghosty Is Back!

2010-11-10T10:12:00.004-05:00

Don't know what caused it's hiatus but I think it's back. I believe it was Sunday but Jimmy and I were sitting in the living room and something was walking around in our bedroom. I looked up and made enough eye contact with Jimmy to make him aware of what I was looking at and he looked up too. We just looked at each other, acknowledged what was going on and moved on.

The last week or two I'll have been sitting at my seat in at our kitchen table where I have a view of our living room. Jimmy will go upstairs and I'll hear him walk around and I'll hear what I think is him come down the stairs. I'll be doing my nails or something at the table and think he should be walking into the kitchen and call out to him by saying "hello?" and won't hear a response back. Then I'll look up and realize it wasn't him walking down the steps. I'd say this has happened about three times in the last two weeks.

The latest time this has happened was last night. Except when I was saying hello I was looking up into the hallway from our kitchen into our living room and saw what I thought looked like a dark figure walk from the bottom of our steps across the living room and toward the doorway to our dining room. Surprisingly, it didn't freek me out. It sort of solidified things for me. The shadow or figure, I'm not sure which you'd call it, because it wasn't very shadowy, it was more like a form, was about the height of an adult, I'd say probably around 5 in a half feet tall, and very loose in shape, not very distinct in detail, just dark, almost black, and I couldn't see through it, it was solid. And it moved quickly, for a second or two, just through the little sliver of hallway I had a view of.

What I don't understand is why it wasn't happening at all from May up until October when activity seemed to pick back up. Maybe it comes and goes as the seasons change. Maybe it adds to its mystery and allure. Maybe it only comes out when I start to bring out all of my Halloween decorations which seems to be what started it all this year.

Also, a few days ago, Jimmy thought he heard me call him. But what was different about this time from all of the other times, was that I was in the same room as him. So for him to hear what sounded like me, talk to him, while I was there, and I didn't hear him, is really weird. So maybe we are just hearing things afterall.

I'm going to try and keep a better record of things that happen. In fact maybe I'll redo the blog and make it all about the ghost since things with redoing the house have settled down since we've settled in.

Where's The Flood? Oh, It's In The Basement

2010-08-17T19:09:00.005-04:00

Yep that's right, the basement flooded. When? I wanna say Sunday night into Monday morning. We were having a lazy Sunday while all it did outside all day was rain so it could have happened at any time since neither of us bothered to go downstairs. The thought of laundry was enough to cause a headache and since Jimmy was planning on being home Monday I figured I'd pawn it off to him.

Monday morning between 8-9 I was to call the local alarm inspector to see when our window of time was for him to come out and inspect our alarm. It was between 9:30 and 10. He showed up at 9:30 and took about 15 minutes. At about 9:45 Jimmy decided to do laundry. That's when he noticed the carpet in the basement was wet. That's when the snowball started.

He got towels and got as much water up as possible, I got on the phone with the insurance company and that turned out to make that snowball bigger and bigger. Jimmy drove up to my mom's house to pick up her carpet shampooer which sucks out water from carpet and he spent most of the day doing that. I spent most of the day yelling and wanting to cry. I got ahold of my mom and she and my dad later drove out to my house with a dehumidifyer to help draw out some of the moisture. My dad tried to help Jimmy unclog the drain that's in the cement on the other side of the basement door leading to the steps outside. No luck there. That's when it was time to call a plumber.

By the time I got home the plumber was about a half hour behind me. He showed up and got to work. To no avail. The snake wasn't reaching the sump pump. No good. Turns out there's no pipe going from the drain to the pump which is why with all the rain we've had it's just been clogged with mud and no where to drain. So when we get constant rain like we did all day Sunday, the concrete pad just filled with rain and it ran into the house, over the tile, and soaked up into the carpet.

Enter a huge nightmare.

The plumber was so super nice about it. I guess if you're the bearer of bad news you get to be really good at it and bring it in a nice way.

So his recommendation was to have a new pipe installed, dig a trench and run it to the sump pump and that wouldn't be cheap and it would dig up our foundation, our door frame and threshold, our flooring and probably a wall and door frame inside the house as well. And BTW you'd have to call a mason and a carpenter to have those things fixed. Good times. Snowball is now pretty fricking huge, if you're keeping track. In fact, it's probably so big it could knock you over.

Keep in mind, I still haven't heard from my insurance company, why, well because they thought I was in an apartment. Right. I own a house. We own a house. They had me down as having a car policy (yep, I do) and a home owners policy (which we do, and we just renewed and repaid through the MORTGAGE company/Escrow) and a renter's policy (which we terminated a year ago). Snowball. So more on this later.

So last night the plumber left at around 9:30 I believe. Then I had to make dinner and it was my turn to start sucking up water with the shampooer. Good times. And have I mentioned that it is super hot in the basement and muggy and smells like wet nasty carpet? GROSS.

So this morning Jimmy was staying home. The plumbing company was sending someone to give an estimate on the work between 9-10, they showed at like 10:30. Turns out we're going to install a 2nd sump pump instead of digging a 20 foot drench but we'll still have them dig up flooring and bust thru the foundation and threshold so we can save about $500 and they can save some labor and time. Snowball in theory, in theory mind you, just got a bit smaller.

I then called around about the carpet. I really didn't want to replace carpet the is less than a year old. I called Stanley Steamer, the company where the dog Toby drags it's ass across the carpet like Peanut does. Good times. Makes me laugh. They don't in person on the phone. They put me on hold and gave me the number to a new company to call because when they asked me if it started to smell I said yes. So I called the new company and they said they'd charge me $150 to come do an estimate to see if I needed to have the carpet, padding and dry wall ripped out, but oh yeah, they don't repair or replace any of that. What kind of crap is that? So I said yes. At this point, $150 to tell me if my carpet is jacked up is fine with me.

Ok so Jimmy's finishing up with the plumbing people and I'm about to have an aneurysm with all this crap going on. I finally couldn't take it anymore and called my mom and asked if she could call in the insurance company and see what was up. Turns out our claim guy was preparing to go on vacation but he was just about to call me with the name and number of a company to come look at the carpet. RIGHT. The bullshit snowball is now forming. It's stinky. So within minutes of getting off the phone with my mom this company calls me and are going to be on their way to my house late afternoon early evening. Great.

I then call the other company who wanted to rip out my drywall and cancel. Saved $150. Snowball slightly smaller. So at about 1 or so I get a call from another guy from this company about the carpet and he says he'll be there between 2 and 2:30, even better. At this point I tell Jimmy to stop using the shampooer and not to worry about it. What I am worried about is the looming threat of rain for tonight.

The carpet people showed up at 3 and ended up ripping up a corner of the carpet, shoving a fan up underneath of it and are blowing air onto the padding to allow it to dry. They've left a gigantic heater of some sort down there to dry it out and suck out moisture. Our basement's at about 50% humidity and should be less than 30%. They don't think we'll need to replace the carpet or padding which is good news but we won't know for certain until they come back tomorrow and check it and even then they might not know until Thursday when they come back again once it's 100% dry under there. Snowball melted a tiny bit.

Oh and then there's a random spot on the carpet by the wall that's all rust colored. The guy from the carpet company said it could be a leak from the foundation causing it and suggested we get a foundation inspection and then have the foundation sealed. Great. Snowball bigger now. Another problem for another day.

So in the meantime my carpet looks like its a huge bubble.

The plumbers will be here tomorrow to dig up my basement.

And about that threat of rain tonight. It's just "passing thunderstorms" according to the forecast but if you look at the front page of www.weather.com they also tell you that there's a severe threat of flooding for drought ravaged DC. Snowball is now like an avalanche because rain is what caused all this damn drama in the first place.

So we went to the store and bought 3 60 pound bags of sand and a tarp and then to Target and got 12 2.5 gallon sized bags and sat on our deck and made sand bags. 12 total. And we are going to line the inside of the door in the basement with towels and just keep an eye on the sky. If it starts to rain we'll go check it out. Hopefully it won't.

So pray that we don't get any rain tonight and tomorrow while they're working, pray that the plumbers will move all the sandbags tomorrow and that I don't have to, pray that this won't cost us too much money and the insurance will cover most of it and pay us back quickly for what we're paying for up front ourselves and pray for us that this doesn't happen ever again.

AMEN.

Death, Doom & Destruction

2010-08-13T08:28:00.003-04:00

We've been hit pretty hard in the DC & Baltimore areas over the last few weeks with severe weather - specifically thunderstorms, hail, tornado warnings all followed by power outages lasting days. Luckily for us in Howard County we have yet to lose power once. Not to say that we haven't been hit hard with the storms, we have, but our power lines are mostly underground since our community was built in the 60s and 70s as they wised up. The surrounding counties have been having ridiculous numbers of outages lasting days causing tens of thousands of customers to be stranded and unhappy. I'll take sitting in traffic for 2.5 hours in the morning on the way to work over heading home to a hot and sweaty house without power any day.

And that's another thing, as soon as I hit the county line and cross into Montgomery County and come to my first light it's like I've come into a war zone. Yesterday I swear one light was flashing red and yellow and then it all went to solid green - everyone had a green light at the same time. How awful is that? I've never seen lights out in Howard County due to storms with the exception of two years ago during an ice storm.

What's in today's forecast? More storms, let's hope not as severe as yesterday.

We're #2

2010-07-12T22:01:00.003-04:00

Columbia ranked #2 in Money Magazine's Best Places to Live in the US poll. That means we're pretty high up there.

It's kind of a no brainer really, Columbia is a planned community so it was destined for greatness. Really, who am I kidding. It's not all that it's cracked up to be. We have security guards at our grocery stores. I hate going to them so much that I drive farther to go to the nicer stores where I pay more for the same thing.

We also live in a cul de sac of 5 houses, our street is is off of a street that is a big loop. Our half of the loop is the nice, more wealthy side of the loop. You go to the other side of the loop and it's ghetto.

And part of that charm is how the whole area was set up as a planned community. People of all incomes living in the same area was a big part of their master plan. Great. Now it's still in place but there are areas in town where it's very scary if you're out late or by yourself.

Anyway, congrats to Columbia.

Oh and we can sort of forget about Ellicot City maybe. I've never really spent much time up there. It's technically just up the road but when everything you need is in Columbia why leave?

Where do you rank?

New Alarm System & Mud and Straw

2010-07-11T16:23:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we had a new alarm system installed in the house and it's seemingly very simple to use. So far so good. I'm a bit weary of what will happen when I leave for work in the morning but I should be good to go. We had a motion sensor installed with it that detects body heat but my big question wasn't allowed to be asked to the technician. What will happen if Ghosty decides to go down to the living room where the sensor is? From what I know about ghosts they sometimes can create a heat signature and this should be detected by our sensor, right? I need to find out. For now I'm totally fine not knowing or finding out and just keeping the motion sensor off at night.

And with the heat wave we've had over the last week and half we've had some luck with our grass but no luck with the sod. I think the sod is about dead. We'll most likely have to tear it out and put down grass seed. Some of the grass seed seems to be growing, mostly in the back yard especially where there's some shade covering up the area. The section to the side in the front yard seems to be doing well. I think the section in the front that's both sod and seed has been over-watered, there seems to be tiny mushrooms growing which if I remember correctly is a sign of over-watering. We'll have to see what happens and then in late August when things hopefully cool down we'll put some more seed down and start over.

In the mean time we have lovely mud and straw.

Yard Work: Before & Afters!

2010-07-01T09:28:00.011-04:00

So you take a look at these before and afters and tell me what you think, was it not worth it? I came home last night to the most nicely landscaped house in the cul de sac and I love it! I was so upset when the sun went down and I couldn't look out the window and take a peak at our yard. I backed out of the garage quickly and took my time getting out of the driveway this morning just so I could soak it all up and see what had been done. I love it!
Front walk way before:

After:

Side yard with bird bath before:

and after:

Side of the house before:

And after:

Back steps before (you couldn't even walk down them):

after:

Gardens dividing the yard before:

After:

Two befores of our deck:

And after:

Island jungle in our yard before:

After:

And our sunroom before:
And two afters:

Coming Soon: Video of Landscaping Makeover

2010-06-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

We're having our landscaping redone tomorrow so tonight I'm hoping to take you on a video tour of the yard and get that edited and posted. Keep your fingers crossed!

Jimmy's Parents: Coming Soon

2010-06-15T09:17:00.003-04:00

Jimmy's parents will be coming to visit next week so we're busy getting the house in tip top shape. The art is up on the walls and I hope to have pictures tomorrow although I was a bit unhappy with the print for the dining room. I'm going to end up returning it and we bought a new print at Michaels and I'm still unhappy with the way the frame is hanging and the expensive mat I bought won't work with the frame. Oh well.

And then we tried to get the garage organized with the bikes hanging up on the wall and the half assed previous owners really did an excellent job installing a wall when they built the mud room. The damn wall doesn't have any studs. It's all drywall. So there's no way to hang any hooks or anything into it.

We got the basement cleaned last night. Tonight we'll do the kitty cat room and the dining room and the living rooms. Tomorrow we'll move onto our bedroom and start laundry. Then we'll have to do the kitchen this weekend and then the guest bath and bedroom. Then vacuum and steam the floors. And that should be it. I also have to clean out the pantry and throw anything old away.

We're getting there!

And we've been playing phone tag with the landscaper for a few days now, I hope to get a hold of him today and book him!

One Less Bush In The Yard

2010-06-05T22:00:00.007-04:00

Earlier this morning we had an appointment with a landscaper to go over what we'd like done in the yard so he could give us a price quote. So about two hours before he was due to arrive I told Jimmy I wanted to hang up the flag. We screwed the holder onto the column. We got the flag put up on the pole. The flag touched the bush in the garden. Jimmy got out the clippers from the garage to trim away the bush branches so the flag wasn't being touched. Then the bush had a big hole.

The bush had to go. And this is really just the base of it. The stump. It took about 6 lawn bags to take this sucker down. It had to have been about 6 to 7 feet across in diameter and maybe 5 feet high.

Then we had a big hole.

And then we had a nice place for our flag to hang freely.

And so in the big hole we're going to plant a white azalea that matches the one we planted a few weeks ago but we'll just have to keep them pruned back once they both get bigger. We're going to plant it in the morning and then possibly dig out one more bush and then run back to Lowes and pick up a replacement.

So back to the landscaping. I think we found our guy. He gave us a great quote. I can't wait to call him on Monday and go ahead and book him!

And we got a package in the mail on Friday. The frame came in for our wedding portrait. We've had this for about a year, the print, but I finally got around to ordering a frame and mat. Check it out.

It's a silver wooden frame that almost looks pewter. I really like it, we hung it in the family room not too far from the wall of wedding crap but whatever.

Art Explosion

2010-06-04T08:38:00.007-04:00

Last night I went a bit crazy. I remembered I had several large poster sized picture frames in our kitty cat room closet that would look amazing with new prints displayed in them. So I took out a measuring tape and got to work on figuring out what size art and what size mats I would need for each frame. I ended up buying the following.
This is a picture of Union Station in DC. It's technically a photo, I got it in 18x24and it will go in a plain black metal frame and hang in our guest bedroom.

These cute prints are for our kitchen since our kitchen is a mix of yellows and beiges. I have two wooden 16x12 frames that are currently white but we'll buy a can of white spray paint to spruce them up a bit and put these guys in them. They'll go nicely in the kitchen and add a pop of color.

This was one of my favorite finds. We have a really large 24x36 silver metal frame that currently houses a photo of the base where Jimmy was stationed at while in Iraq that all his buddies signed just before he came home from his first deployment however the frame is really too tall for the photo and it really needs a custom sized frame for it. So in the meantime we'll put the photo in the back of a closet until we can save up for a custom frame and we'll use that expensive frame for this bad boy which we'll hang in our dining room.

I think it will flow nicely with the abstract work we already have in our living room especially since the floor plan is nice and open room to room. I had to buy a mat for it which was super expensive but I think it was worth it. Let's hope it all comes together nicely.

We also ordered a couple of our wedding photos printed in larger sizes to hang in our bedroom. I ordered one in 18x12 I think to hang in an 24x18 frame which also required the purchase of a mat. I don't remember. Jimmy told me not to go overboard. I don't think I did. I think I spent under $300.

While shopping at www.art.com I found several more pieces I really want to buy. I will have to wait a long time for them, buying art is an investment, our walls aren't going anywhere and we'll have forever to fill them up. Here's a look at what I want to get eventually.

I want to call him Boots. I don't know where he'd go but he'd be a good addition to the family.

And I want to call him Beethoven, obviously. He'd make a nice addition to Zebra and Albert in our living room, especially since Zebra is also a Warhol.

And I contemplated getting this for the guestroom since it has that nautical feel but I really didn't want it to become too themey and too Patriotic.

Jimmy really likes it but I just had to go with Union Station. I really love it. And if we ever turn that room into something other than a guestroom I'd love to hang it elsewhere.

BBQ Tomorrow

2010-05-28T09:09:00.002-04:00

We're having a BBQ tomorrow at the house, shoudl be fun.

Random house fact: our house used to be light green with red shutters.

Gutter Work & Landscaping

2010-05-26T21:12:00.003-04:00

Gutter work, blah. The gutter above the garage is coming down. It was drooping before we moved in. That was in August. Then in December we got hit with the first blizzard and it looked bad. Then in February we got hit again, in one week, with 2 storms, dropping a ton of snow, literally, on our room right above the gutter. And now the gutter needs to be replaced.

I remembered that the previous owners replaced that gutter and left me paperwork. They had that gutter replaced on 5.18.08. Just over 2 years ago. Something doesn't sound right. So I called the same guy up. Guy and I finally connected today after having played phone tag since last Thursday. Yep, a week. He wants to charge us $175 MORE than he charged the previous owners 2 years ago to replace the gutter. I feel like he's making a ton of money due to the snow.

I should have been honest with him and said that actually the gutter was falling down in August and I never got around to calling about it and that it somehow survived thru the snow and now with the rain we've had it's finally called it quits.

In the meantime I'm trying to get a few other estimates. Why should I let the same guy put a new gutter back on the house when the last one he installed only lasted less than 2 years? My money needs to last longer than that.

And we're waiting to get back the estimates and landscaping plans from our landscaper but we got a ballpark which I think is reasonable. The range starts at $1500 to just weed and mulch which to me is worth it. That means I don't have to do it, I'm sold.

Ghosty Update: 5/25/10

2010-05-25T07:33:00.002-04:00

So Ghosty is totally back. He/She/It was heard three times over the weekend. Jimmy heard it twice and I heard it once which I told you about yesterday. Jimmy first heard it Saturday afternoon while we were folding laundry. He was on his side of the folding away and I was putting towels away in the linen closet about 25 feet away. He walked over towards me asking what I wanted but stopped short mid sentence because he felt like it wasn't me actually talking to him. He realized it wasn't but thought it was the TV. It wasn't the TV. The hockey game was on and there weren't any female voices on at that time. Totally weird right. I didn't hear a single thing.

Then Sunday night before I heard Ghosty he heard Ghosty. I was already upstairs in bed and Jimmy was downstairs watching TV. He thought I called down to him. He wasn't sure if it was me or not so before calling back to me he paused to see if it was really me or not. It wasn't so he didn't worry about it.

Weird.

Ghosty's back.

Ghosty Update: 5/24/10

2010-05-24T09:07:00.003-04:00

This is what I call the one, two punch. Last night I went to bed fairly early. Jimmy stayed up watching tv and then came to bed while I was half asleep. As I was falling back to sleep I heard what sounded like a two music notes. I thought nothing of it but about two minutes later I thought I heard what sounded like MY voice saying "WHAT?"

It sounded like me. I know what my voice sounds like. It also sounded like it was something mocking ME. I wanted to ask Jimmy if he heard it but I was afraid it would only make it act up even more. I left it alone and fell asleep.

This & That

2010-05-20T20:19:00.007-04:00

I've been meaning to type this post up for a few days now but my body and my mind haven't been on the same team due to some medicine changes for my migraines.

And let me just tell you how unhappy I am with Gmail right now, I swear it must have taken about 15 minutes to download all of these photos I'm about to show you. Let's start with my new wall art in our guest bathroom.

It's a sepia toned printed canvas of poppy blossoms. I believe it was about $24 from Target. Not bad. One of our new favorites is to browse the art section at Target. Mind you, we'd been on a rather long Target hiatus and then we picked this up and went back about 2 weeks later and they didn't have anything new. Seeing this lovely ditty up on our walls (with a color that almost matches the painting) makes me want to buy so much more art but it's so expensive and I haven't found those MUST have pieces just yet.

Now onto the jungle. First off, disclaimer: I took pictures with my camera phone as that's what I had available, I couldn't stop my dad and say "wait let me go get my camera upstairs and stop you and take pictures for the blog." And secondly I thought I had more pictures than this but I don't think I mailed them to myself and after fighting with Gmail once already tonight I'm not even going to see what else I have.

This is the base of the hibiscus that we thought was dead. My dad clipped the dead branches back and we spotted fresh, new, live branches coming out of the ground.

This makes me happy since it's one of the two plants that I actually like in our yard. I just love the flowers when they bloom. Next up we have a view of the side of our yard. This before picture would have been nice to have but imagine it coming out about 6 feet and overgrown about 3-4 feet high. No joke. You can see where the wood is where the grass is all dead from where plants were overgrown on top of the grass.

We discovered a cement pad at the base of the door there which we covered with pebbles and then those two patio blocks were somewhere in the mess. Those bricks were also in there and we've just thrown them back down to have around if we need them. We found a rose bush on a trellis. We found 3 ceramic potted plants and each pot was probably about 2-3 gallons. It was mostly all overgrown with mint and oregano so when they cut it all down it smelled pretty nice. Then towards the back of the photo beyond the chimney are our 3 fig trees, my other favorites. One of them got completely cut back and my dad trimmed up the other two. That bed is all overgrown with mostly wild strawberries and weeds. There's also some big pieces of wood hiding in there that my dad left, he took one home but not all of them.

But this is one of my favorite transformations and again, no before. We had this super ugly, dying, evergreen shrub that died during the blizzards. All of the snow sort of just sunk into the middle and killed it. It got this awful brown spot and then in the spring daffodils sprouted up thru it. It took my dad about two minutes to dig it up and cut it up into pieces. And then we planted our $2.50 azalea from Lowes.

I know it doesn't look centered in the photo but that's just the bad angle of the photo. I love the mulch, I did it by myself, not like it's hard but I like to mulch. I really wish all of my flower beds and gardens could look this neat and clean.

Speaking of neat and clean garden beds, my dad called an old neighbor of ours and asked for some help with our jungles. He has a landscaping company and stopped by the house yesterday while no one was around to walk around and check out our gardens. He's going to email my dad some price quotes and some landscaping plans and see what we can do. At the least I want them to spray and weed. Ideally I'd also like them to thin out some of the gardens that are severely over grown even after they've been weeded. He had suggested digging up and tearing out a few gardens and turning them over to grass and that's fine but I need to keep the costs to as affordable as possible. And there's no rush, we can always do more next year. This year I'd like to control it, then maybe next year we give it a makeover and then maintain it.

So I'm thinking the next entry in the blog will be a fun aerial view of the house with a diagram of all of the jungles. It's scary. I looked out the window upstairs in our bathroom that overlooks the bathroom and it's a mess. There's a garden that pretty much divides our property with the neighbors and it's a mess. Then there's a garden that goes from my little pathway in the front yard next to the driveway, well that guy stretches all the way around the side of the house to the back yard and stop at the deck.

Enough jungle talk. Let's talk gutters. The gutter above the garage has always hung a bit odd. During the blizzards I thought it was going down. It didn't. It just about came down in the rain we've been having during this week. I dug up the receipts from the previous owners and sure enough as I remembered there was one for gutters. More specifically there was one dated 5/12/08 for a gutter replaced above the garage. I called the company today and left a message. I'll give you an update. If I don't get a call back tomorrow, 24 hours later, I'm calling again.

Ghosty Update: 5/19/10

2010-05-18T08:59:00.003-04:00

Ghosty's back.

5:15AM this morning I was tossing and turning not looking forward to my alarm going off soon and I looked at the window in our bedroom to see if there was any light coming thru just yet to get an idea of the time. Well. In the real window it was still dark but directly next to the window was a big light source glowing as if a second window was there. I turned both eyes back to the real window and it was gone, then back again and it was brighter. Then gone. It was so weird. Then I looked at the clock and saw that my alarm was going off in 5 minutes and say screw it, I'm sleeping in.

Ghosty's back. Or something's playing with light in our bedroom.

Bad Blogger

2010-05-10T21:06:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a bit busy around here although not very busy in the home improvements department. I'll give you some updates followed by some more detailed, well details, down below.

Ghosty has been quiet for about 2 1/2 weeks now. YES!!! Maybe he's gone for good.

We bought wall art for our guest bathroom. But I haven't hung it up yet. Instead it's sitting on a towel bar against the wall. It's a black and white painting on a canvas of a poppy flower. I'll hang it at some point and take pics.

The hot tub is empty. It needs to be cleaned and filled but this passed weekend it was way too cold to do it.

The garden. We tackled the side garden. I think jungle is more appropriate of a term. My parents came over on Saturday morning and we weeded the side garden. More on that below. We ended up with 10 of those large brown paper lawn bags sitting on the curb waiting for the truck this morning.

We have had 2 mice in the mud room, again, boo.

We got the siding in the back of the house by the sunroom cleaned and didn't end up using the pressure washer. We used it but found that warm, soapy water and Magic Eraser sponges worked so much easier. More on that below.

So are you ready for the details of our jungle? Well we started out with the bush in the front yard that had been killed during the blizzards. My dad dug that sucker up in about 5 minutes and was ready to plant our very tiny $2.50 azalea from Lowes. I'll have pics tomorrow maybe. Jimmy dug a big hole and my dad filled part of it with compost from his bin and popped in our new plant. I finished the bed off with a nice layer of mulch and the azalea now has a nice new home. (I need to remind Jimmy to water it tomorrow.)

Then we went on to the side yard. Looking at the house to the right of the garage, a garden basically went the whole depth of the house to the very end of the sunroom and stuck out about 7 or 8 feet at the deepest part of it. It was all way over grown with weeds and all sorts of crap. They cut down so much stuff. We discovered 3 really nice large clay pots, 2 large round patio pavers like the ones in the front yard but red, a cement pad about 2 feet square at the base of the side door in the garage, 3 wood posts about 4 inches square and about 6 feet long (I think that has some sort of fancy technical term) and that doesn't include all of the plants we had growing which included mint, oregano, a rose bush, lillies, and a ton of others. My dad cut back one of the three fig trees that wasn't making it and trimmed up the other two. He also got rid of as much as he could with all of the other crap growing back there. Then Jimmy took his weed wacker to the rest of the weeds and it looks so much nicer. We ended up going to Lowes and bought some pebbles to fill in the cement area back there with the round patio pavers we discovered. It looks really nice.

My mom also helped me clean out the garden in the front of the yard where my patio blocks are. She raked all of the leaves out and weeded and I put down mulch after my dad cut back the hibiscus which he told me hadn't actually died. YAY. We bought 10 bags of mulch to do the rest of the beds, yes there's a ton more to do. There's one small bed on the right side of the house a few feet off the driveway that separates our side yard and the neighbor's back yard. That thing is nasty and a jungle complete with watering hole, I mean bird bath. Then in our main portion of front yard there's about 2 small garden beds, one has mostly weeds in it and the other is some tall grass to hide a utility box. The one with the weeds needs to be weeded, no surprise.

Then there's the rest of the house. Basically the bed that has my tulips in it, wraps around the whole side of the house all the way to the back and around the deck to the back stairs and the deck stairs. It's really too much. It's all overgrown with weeds and crap. The shrubs are growing too big and into the basement steps and the AC unit and up into the deck. That's a big mess for another day.

Wait, we're not done, there's still three more flower beds, I think.

There's a large, roundish bed directly behind our deck in the back yard. It has the large ugly bird feeder which is stuck into a tree stump. It's all overgrown and disgusting, just like all of the other ones. Then there are at least two beds diving our yard on the side with our next door neighbor's yard. And guess what, overgrown with weeds and crap as well. No surprise there.

So as you can imagine, there's a lot of back breaking work to be done. But not by us. We're going to try and hire my old neighbor who has his own landscaping company and see if they can come weed and mulch everything. It needs it.

Then as if that wasn't enough Jimmy and I tackled pressure washing the back of the house where algae was growing up along the siding. The pressure washer kind of sucked, no offense Dad. It turned out that just scrubbing it with a Magic Eraser and some soapy water worked much better, faster and easier. Then we looked at the deck and that needed to be scrubbed as well. So we were like pirates and scrubbed the deck. It looks so good. Now we just need to do the rest of the deck so it all looks shiny and new.

And just thinking about all that weeding is making my back hurt. I'll try and upload photos tomorrow.

Zebra, Finally

2010-05-01T14:40:00.002-04:00

There he is. What do you think?

Weekend Recap

2010-04-25T19:23:00.003-04:00

What a weekend. Caps lost Friday night, they gotta pull it together tomorrow night or else! Saturday morning we woke up early to hit the outlets so we could buy all new socks and undershirts for Jimmy but ended up doing a huge shopping spree while there. Sunday was spent doing laundry and making Chinese food for dinner and hanging up Zebra whom we'll show you tomorrow.

First I must tell you about the great find at Crate and Barrel at the outlets. Remember when we were kids we had those unbreakable place settings of our favorite characters? I had one several Disney sets and they never broke and had the little dividers so your peas were separate from the carrots. Well that company is called Zak and nowadays they make place settings for those same kids who are now all grown up! Behold:

That is a confetti plate. It's that melamine material that never breaks but this is made from old, recycled pieces of melamine to look like confetti. It comes in several colors but we stuck with white. We got 4 large dinner plates and 4 side plates and 2 plain white round serving platters. I didn't know that they come in black, I'll have to go look for them at C&B in person I suppose. It appears that they don't have it online, just white and other fun colors.

I can't wait till we have another cook out and eat outside!!! It will be so nice to use our new plates. I bought the larger platters for when we grill and need something nonbreakable to go from in to out so clumsy hubby doesn't break one of our nice dishes.

I'll take a pic of Zebra tomorrow but he compliments Albert nicely. I'm shopping for a piece for our living room. I need to make a decision soon since they sent me a coupon for 20% off that's only good until Tuesday.

Ghosty Update: 4/20/10

2010-04-20T07:16:00.002-04:00

The best way to recap this whole long weekend is to break it down day by day.

Friday

Friday night we had some company over, 2 couples, to have a BBQ and then watch movies and then see if Ghosty would come out and play. The BBQ almost got rained out. We watched Paranormal Activity and then followed it up with something a little less scary - The Hangover. One of the couples was staying the night in our guestroom. It was a quiet night, we didn't hear anything in our room all night and they didn't hear anything either. It was a bit of a bust.

Saturday

Early in the day Saturday I was in the family room and Jimmy was in the living room. All morning I'd been hearing noises coming from up stairs, in our bedroom, directly above where I was sitting. At one point I called for Jimmy expecting him not to answer but he did. I thought he had walked up the steps and into our bathroom. He was still on the couch in the living room.

Saturday evening we watched the Caps game. We started watching the beginning in the family room and then watched the last period upstairs. After the game I decided to go to bed. At some point in the night I heard what sounded like footsteps in the bedroom. I almost don't think that much of this when it happens these days. Jimmy heard an all new noise, footsteps coming from the attic directly above us.

Sunday

We weren't home very much Sunday and Sunday night was a rough night for me. I was just uneasy most of the night and didn't sleep well. I don't think anything out of the ordinary occurred on Sunday.

Monday

Last night was interesting. Caps game started out downstairs, ended up watching the end up stairs and during the third period at around 9:30 we heard a new noise come from down the hallway. At least that's where I thought it came from. I whispered to Jimmy to see if he heard it and he said that's what he'd been hearing on Saturday. A few minutes later while Jimmy was in the bathroom taking out his contacts I heard footsteps coming from up in the attic. At one point I heard what sounded like a whisper of a "heeeeeey". At one point last night I heard what sounded like something on my night stand wobbling, something heavy. I almost thought of looking over to see what it was but I was a bit shaken. I think it could have been the slate coaster since it sounded heavy and that's the only thing heavy on it. Then this morning I noticed something odd on my nightstand, my ring holder where I leave my wedding band and engagement ring was odd. My engagement ring wasn't on the holder, it was just sitting in the dish. I always put them on the holder. Also all night I heard what sounded like footsteps from the attic and the hallway.

I just want it to stop. It's time to figure out how to get rid of it all.

Coming Soon: Zebra

2010-04-16T14:01:00.003-04:00

My sister pointed out to me something very obvious last Sunday when we had our dinner party. The walls in our house are empty, especially in our dining room. So what did I do this week? I bought art. For the living room, not the dining room.

You may recall Albert, he lives in the living room.

Now he's getting a roomie, Zebra.

I'm having Zebra fenced in, well, more like framed and he should be arriving very soon, probably early next week. I can't wait to hang him up above the little sofa and opposite Albert.

I've been perusing lots of options for the living room but I'm not sure what I want. Actually, I know a lot of things that I don't want and a few things that I do want. I do want to incorporate grey into the room somehow to make the living room and dining room flow. I do know that I want something either abstract to continue with the Zebra/Albert style, or something very modern and clean. And BIG.

I'm excited for Zebra and can't wait to introduce him to you.

Friday Night

2010-04-13T09:26:00.003-04:00

Looks like Friday night we're having a few of our friends over who are interested in the ghost situation and want to spend the night to see if they experience anything. So the house is pretty much clean already. So pretty much the prep work of getting the house ready is done. I need to wash the sheets on the guestbed, I'll try and get to that tonight. We need to fold a few baskets of laundry. We'll do that tonight.

The biggest problem is trying to figure out what we're going to eat. I just did hamburgers but I still have 2 leftover and 3 or 4 turkey burgers leftover. I really want to use them up. I also want to use up the potato salad I made, it should still be good by then. I really just don't want to spend days cooking, especially since it's Friday night and I usually don't leave work on Fridays until 5:30 or 6. So do we just do store bought hamburgers and hot dogs? UGH. And store bought everything? Apps and snacks and sides? That gets expensive. And I really don't want to do another trip to the grocery store. We do have to go to BJs tomororw night but I really don't want to get stuck buying a ton of stuff that's just too much in quantity.

What to do, what to do. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Dinner Party Wrap Up

2010-04-12T08:30:00.004-04:00

Last night's dinner was a great success, at least in my opinion. My parents and sister came over along with my dad's sister and her husband. The plan was to make burgers and grill but eat inside at my dining room table. Saturday night I got the salad all made, potato salad made and the peanut butter mousse made. Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 and got started. I made hamburgers and turkey burgers. I made Jimmy's banana dessert. I got as much done as possible so I didn't have to work while my "guests" were over. We cleaned the house, did laundry and even finished mulching the flower bed out from. We even finished up in time to watch the Caps game at 12n.

I got everything done in time for everyone to walk thru the door and only had to finish blanching the asparagus and steam the broccoli. I decided we'd use our "formal" china, and by formal I just mean the set of dishes I have that serves 12. My everyday dishes serve 8 but I'd used some of those plates for the burgers and just decided to roll with the "formal" stuff. I set out dinner and salad plates and then decided we had to use our "formal" flatware. I just set out a knife and a fork, no salad fork needed, I wanted to keep it casual. And I used my every day glassware instead of my nice glasses. I took a few pictures of the table setting but I'll probably upload them tomorrow.

I think the best part of the night was right after dinner I loaded the dishwasher with our dirty dishes and set it to run on a "fast wash" and that load was done by the time we ended dessert. I got all of the dishes put away after my guests left and loaded it back up with the remaining dishes. I even cleaned out BOTH of the fridges and had plenty of room leftover. You couldn't tell we had even had a dinner party except for the 2 serving bowls on the dining room table.

I thought I was in good shape in terms of having gone to bed fairly early last night but I'm mad tired today. Boo.

Ghosty Update: 4/10/10

2010-04-10T16:34:00.002-04:00

2 quick updates on Ghosty.

Wednesday night I was laying in bed waiting for Jimmy to come to bed. All the lights and the fan were on in the bathroom so it could have been just static noise from the fan but it sounded like a piano was being played pretty fast like almost like a classical Mozart piece getting played but to me the sound came from Jimmy's side of the room which is totally opposite of the bathroom. Like I said, could have been static noise from the fan and the sound bouncing off the walls. I fell asleep so I don't know if it was the fan or not.

Last night, or I should say early this morning, I heard what could possibly be the most disturbing "Ghosty" sound ever. I woke up at about 4:45 to what sounded like my dog crying. My dog lives with my parents so I woke up in a fog and looked over at Jimmy and saw that we weren't at my parent's house, we were in our bed (their guest bed is a full, so we'd be closer together, we were in our bed, a queen, so weren't all that close) and realized I wasn't dreaming, that I was in fact hearing a dog crying. It sounded like it was coming from the hallway. I woke Jimmy up and we both laid there trying to hear it but it was gone. I waited for a while to wake him up but I couldn't take hearing it go on for about 5 minutes. I think maybe our whispers scared it away.

It's time to get the voice recorder going all night long.

And I will have a great update on Monday possibly, if my last minute dinner party with my parents and my dad's sister, my aunt, and her husband goes well tomorrow night. Got lots of grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking and yard work to finish. Gonna be a busy night and early morning tomorrow to get it all done.

Photos From Weekend Projects

2010-04-06T07:26:00.003-04:00

Here's a pic of the finished walkway project.

And here's the backyard.

This is our old hot tub cover, it's sunken in and needs to go.

Cute deck box hiding chair cushions and spa chemicals.

Oh look, here's our pretty cute little sunroom.

And here's our squirrel buddy sneaking around in the garden.

And the tulip that was the victim of Bunny.

And a surprise.

That's all we got right now. More projects this weekend maybe.

Completed Weekend Projects: 4/5

2010-04-05T08:13:00.003-04:00

What a successful weekend! We got a lot of things done. Let's start out with the backyard.

Saturday we got the grill set up and chained to the deck. That sucker's not going anywhere. And we set up the table and chairs. We were unable to get the pressure washer going since the hose is a bit too big for the connector on the unit. We'll see if my dad can get it going this coming weekend. So no clean deck just yet. We did however get the water off of the hot tub cover and decided to suck it up and shell out $425 to get a new one. The hot tub place guys are coming today to measure and it takes about 2 weeks for the new one to come in. They'll also come out and install and take the old one away. So we're not going to drain it and refill it until we get the new cover because when we did remove the water this weekend some of it ended up in the tub and we don't want that.

We also bought a wicker deck box for the sunroom to store the chair cushions and hot tub chemicals. We got that set up and put away and I'm so happy with it.

Out front we managed to get the brick landscaping done as well. Instead of pebbles we went with mulch. We got really dark, almost black, mulch. First we dug up the big, round stepping stones and then dug up all of the dead plants. Jimmy decided to take out 3 small bushes that were still alive but hideous. They came out too. Then we raked and leveled it all out and poured out chemicals to get rid of the grubs and poured more ground kill down so all of the plants that might pop up die. Then we put down the stepping stones and made sure they were level. Then we did the mulch. I may decide to pick up some more bags this weekend and do the rest of the beds. It does look really nice. And the animals like it. Last night I opened the front door and saw a squirrel digging in the mulch. Then I realized there was a bunny right next to him eating a tulip, hopefully not a black one.

I'll have pictures uploaded later tonight!

And we got the garage cleaned up! I think that's my favorite part.

We grilled out Saturday night and it was so nice. We drank pina coladas and margaritas and had steak and fish that Jimmy steamed on the grill. We also had grilled portebelas. It was so nice!

Weekend Projects: 4/3 Version

2010-04-02T10:03:00.003-04:00

This weekend I have a bunch of projects I want to accomplish. A big list. And it's totally gorgeous and I think we'll want to relax and not work too much but we'll see.

First we must move the grill from the garage to the backyard up on the deck and chain and lock it to the deck. That we can do tonight.

Then I want to set up the patio furniture.

Then I want to go to Lowes and buy the faux wicker basket bench to store our hot tub chemicals and chair cushions.

Then I want to drain, clean and fill and treat the hot tub. (That will be tomorrow)

Then I want to dig up the patio blocks in the front yard and dig up all of the dead plants, level the dirt and replace the blocks down and fill in with pebbles from Lowes.

Then I want to pressure wash the deck and the side of the house.

I don't think Jimmy knows what he's in store for!

Ghosty Update: 4/1/10

2010-04-01T07:28:00.002-04:00

I forgot to tell you about something that happened on Tuesday night. I plugged in my blackberry just like every other night and put it in "bedside mode." Then a few hours later in the middle of the night I woke up and noticed my phone was glowing as if I had just hit a button on it. I thought it was weird and I reached over to pick it up and saw that it was on my messages menu. It was no longer in the alarm clock screen. That's the second time that in the middle of the night I've woken up and the phone wasn't how I left it.

Then last night possibly the creepiest thing happened. I was in the bathroom getting ready to go to bed - I was brushing my teeth, flossing and getting ready to wash my face. As I was either flossing or brushing I heard the tissue paper in a shoe box that was on the floor in the corner of the bathroom moving. I paused, looked over and thought it was odd. I had Jimmy turn the heat off earlier so it couldn't have been air coming out of the vent nearby. I didn't know what would cause the movement. I chalked it up to the normal weirdness and moved on to washing my face. As I straightened up from being bent over at the sink rinsing my face I looked in the mirror as I patted my face. That's when to the left of me in the mirror I saw something that I've never seen before, the image of a face. It came up to right above my belly button and it looked very transparent. More specifically it was very white and grey, and looked very shriveled and small. There were no other noticeable markings, just some dark round circles that were either eyes or holes where eyes should be. I was so surprised by what I saw that I closed my eyes and opened them again and it was gone. It freeked me out big time.

I texted Jimmy who was downstairs and told him to come up to bed immediately and I didn't want to talk about why. I was certain that I wouldn't be able to sleep all night but I did. Jimmy's staying home sick today, I hope he doesn't have any experiences.

Ghosty Update: 3/31/10

2010-03-31T07:24:00.003-04:00

Instead of coming up with fun names for Ghosty related posts, I'm just sticking to Ghosty Update along with the date. So anyway last night I heard a lot of footsteps and walking around. Early on in the night it sounded like it was coming from somewhere in our room but as the night went on it sounded like it was coming from somewhere else in the house, maybe downstairs or in a different bedroom or even in the attic.

Then this morning I got out of the shower and was standing at my sink brushing my teeth with the door still closed and I heard footsteps from the bedroom. I thought Jimmy was awake but he never opened the bathroom door. About 5 minutes later I opened the door and Jimmy was still in bed.

That's the latest.

The Makings Of Something Kind Of Wonderful

2010-03-30T11:44:00.004-04:00

We started out our backyard oasis makeover this weekend. Here's what we picked up, all from Lowes.

This is the table we bought, with 4 of these chairs.

The cushions we got are reversable to these patterns.

And we can't have a nice shaded oasis without an umbrella and base.

I also bought some Conceal candles from Yankee Candle. I really am thinking of getting some more and possibly a few tiki torches. I can't stand bugs let alone mosquitoes so I'll do whatever is necessary to keep them away. And this is just all for our deck! I bought some plastic end tables for the sunroom and I'll probably pick up a bench that doubles as a storage bin for our pool/spa chemicals and be all set in the sunroom! I'm excited!

Back From Vegas

2010-03-29T07:25:00.004-04:00

Did you miss us? We missed you. Well we really didn't miss not using a computer for almost a whole week. It was actually very nice. We left Monday for Vegas and came back late Saturday night, minus our luggage. Long story but really, at that point, the suitcases were just full of dirty laundry so it's not like it was really all that missed by the time it got dropped off at the house on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, Vegas was nice, we won some money. We spent the money. Now we're home.

Yesterday we bought a grill at Lowes (well really my parents did as it was their birthday present for Jimmy back in January) and we bought a patio set (round table, 4 chairs, umbrella and base) along with cushions for the chairs and some other stuff. It's all sitting in our sunroom as it was super cold and raining yesterday. This weekend we're getting up into the 80s so we'll have it all set up by then. We should be able to pick up the grill Tuesday or so once it's been assembled.

And then there's the latest with Ghosty. We were looking forward to coming home and seeing what had happened, if anything, to the house for almost a whole week as Ghosty was left alone. One of the first noticeable things out of place was that the heat was on. Monday morning before I left I specifically shut it off. I was looking forward to almost a whole week with it turned off for our electric bill and knowing it was so cold in DC when we landed I was a bit fearful it was going to be super cold in the house. Nope, not the case. Not sure why it was on or if it was a setting that forced it to kick on but every other time I've shut it off, it only comes back on when I turn it on. Now mind you, we've never left it off that long before with us being gone. We've left it off before while we've been home and never known it to just kick on by itself.

Then on Saturday night I heard Ghosty. It was in the middle of the night and I heard "elllllllooooooow" in a voice that was very high pitched and younger sounding. Then last night right after we got in bed around 10:45 I heard footsteps, like right next to the bed. I wasn't yet asleep but pretty close and Jimmy had just started snoring. I heard what sounded like someone moving very quickly and it wasn't either of us. After that, sleeping was pretty much not going to happen.

Ghosty's been pretty active for a few weeks now, I'm thinking it's time for him to go away for a bit.

Anyway, we're glad to be back!!

Today's The First Day Of Spring!

2010-03-20T13:49:00.003-04:00

And we celebrated by going to Lowes and getting some spring things!! I love spring things!!! I got a new platform bird feeder for our backyard, we picked up a new plant for the sunroom and a fancy pot for it (along with some potting soil and another watering can) and we got some other spring cleaning items like a new push broom and a bucket. We got home and I potted my plant, I have no idea what kind it is and I threw away the tag, I hope I don't kill it. Jimmy swept the deck and the sunroom and I set up the bird feeder. I love it. I want to go to Ikea and pick up two cheap end tables to go out there but now that I think about it, maybe I'll get 4 and put one in each corner. While we were at Lowes we picked out the patio table and chairs we want and we'll get them Sunday of next weekend when we get back. We'll meet my parents out there and get them and I may sneak in a new Adirondack chair for the sunroom as well. I'm itching to get out and grill on the deck and eat on the deck or in the sunroom. I can't wait.

But we will have to. We leave for Las Vegas on Monday. More then.

Living With A (Possible) Ghost

2010-03-19T07:51:00.002-04:00

I really should change the theme and name of this blog to Living With A Ghost but we're not 100% certain there is a ghost. However, if you ask me and Jimmy straight up, we think there's a ghost. This morning I woke up and knew as soon as my eyes adjusted to being open and as I got closer to the bathroom that something wasn't how we left it. The bedroom was and the bathroom was dark but there was a warm glow coming from the closet. The closet light had been turned on. It's Friday morning, Jimmy didn't go into the closet the night before to take out a dress shirt to spray down to remove wrinkles as he does Monday thru Wednesday nights and Sunday nights. Once he woke up I asked him to make sure he hadn't gone in there and he hadn't. I had last gone in there on Wednesday night.

I need to find out how we can have a camera recording in there. We have a video camera but I want it to record for hours at a time, not just one or two. Wonder if the web cam on my computer and the software will record for hours and hours. I guess I'll have to try.

Ghost or No Ghost?

2010-03-18T08:34:00.003-04:00

(Trust me, worth reading all the way till the end.)

Last night the crew from the Greater Maryland Paranormal Society came by to reveal to us what they found or didn't find during their investigation. It was so funny, they mocked all of the ghost investigation shows and did the whole "well you know who we are and what we do" scenario. It was funny. All of those shows (we haven't seen very many of them but every so often do watch the live Ghost Hunters specials on Syfy) are so funny, you never know what to believe or not believe and what's all made up and what's edited in a way to leave you thinking it was legit.

Anyway, we knew they had technical issues with 2 of the cameras during the investigation. We knew camera 2 went down shortly after lights out. It went to a blue screen, was still capturing audio, still getting power, still recording, it just wasn't capturing video. They've never experienced anything like that. It did it twice. Once after they were able to fix it. And by fix it I mean just do their best to get it working again until it decided to correct itself on it's own. So that was camera #2 which was located at the end of our hallway facing our bedroom door and the time frame was about 1:30ish.

Camera #1 had even more bizarre issues later in the night just before we turned the lights back on. This was around 3:30ish. We were all in our first floor, Jimmy and I were in the family room and the investigators were in my dining room. They had just turned one of the lights on in there and the camera started acting up. It kept getting a weird rolling scroll on the video and static on the audio. It started for about a minute and then stopped and then picked back up again for about a good 3-5 minutes, if not longer. They again have never seen anything like this. They don't know what caused it. They are doing another investigation this weekend and will let me know if they have problems similar with that camera and cable. There was nothing else being affected with this same sort of static. The audio recorder in the room didn't catch anything. We've never had any problems in the bedroom with electronics before. We really don't have any way of proving it is paranormal or not.

And then there is the audio. They were able to capture two possible EVPs - electronic voice phenomenon. From what I've learned you usually cannot hear EVPs unless you go back and pick them up with an audio recorder. However the first "EVP" that they caught was something that the investigators heard and in the clip they react to the sound that they heard. It sounds like a very faint moan. Then you hear the girls discuss what it could be. What's interesting about this was that the recorder that picked this up was in our bedroom and just around the corner in the bathroom there was another recorder and it didn't pick anything up at that exact time. Neither did camera #1 which was also in the bedroom.

EVP #2 was caught in the hallway and the recorder was on the floor where the bathroom tile and carpet meet. Again, this audio wasn't picked up on any other recorder and I believe at this time no one was upstairs. Remember, camera #2 was just a few feet away and it didn't get anything. The audio that this one captured to me and Jimmy sounds like a very low whisper of the word "heeeey" but to investigators it sounded like "ready" and after listening to it a few more times I'm starting to hear "ready" as well.

And that's all they got except for a few "personal experiences" that they can't count as evidence but basically two different people at two different times from two different locations within our house thought they saw a shadow walk by the front door and block out the light coming through the window. One person was sitting at the top of the stairs in the hallway and the other was sitting in our living room on a couch. That's interesting.

They gave us copies of everything, all the hours and hours of video and DVR footage, audio and a recap of all occurrences and temperatures and EMF readings and all 140 photos they took. I doubt we'll ever go back thru it all but it's there if we need it.

We're going to continue taking notes of anything else that happens and if things pick back up and get really bad we can always have them come back out and investigate again. We can also look into having the house blessed. They are going to continue to research the property and history of the area and so are we. They'll let me know if they have any similar malfunctions with the equipment.

In the meantime I'm super glad that they didn't get anything in the form of an EVP when they kept asking "how many of you are there?" I kept thinking that something crazy would answer "fifty" and I'd freek out and run away and cry and never go back to my house. The good news is that they don't think it's anything harmful and the voice and the moan almost sound like a child to them (which is a bit disturbing to me anyway) and we can always just tell "it" that this is our house and we don't have time to play games and have fun.

And what's funny to me, is that the ghost that "lives" in the house where the GMPS's founder lives, has now started talking since he did our investigation. It's like it's contagious. He woke up in the middle of the night the other night and heard what sounded like someone calling him by name. Glad it's not just us hearing that sort of thing.

Spring Is Around The Corner!!!

2010-03-15T21:38:00.002-04:00

I will try and take pictures tomorrow of my proof that spring is around the corner - the bulbs, more specifically, the tulips that we planted earlier in the fall are starting to pop up out of the ground!!!! YAY. I can't wait until I'm able to cut fresh flowers from the yard and make an arrangement to display on my counter or table. I am so excited!!!

And I can't begin to tell you how crazy it is every morning to back out of my drive way and at night to pull into my driveway and see the grass on the sides of the pavement and not see SNOW!! It's exciting to see the grass and yard! Love it!!

And today was a good day in the mail. I got 2 Bed Bath and Beyond coupons in the mail plus a $25 off a purchase of $125 or more!!! That's so easy to do in there!!!

AND (it gets even better) we got 2 coupon gift cards to Lowes - $10 off a purchase of $50 or more and $25 off a purchase of $250 or more....again SO easy to do there and we'll probably buy our patio set there! I can't wait to go shopping!!

It will have to be in a few weeks though. We leave for Vegas on Monday and if we do any shopping this weekend it will be for an anniversary gift for my parents and we may head to the outlets and get Jimmy some new socks.

And I've been quite busy shopping lately so the bank could totally use a bit of a break. I bought some new shirts for the spring for me and it seemed like I ran out of a ton of make up all at the same time and one of my newer, favorite bras broke (damn underwires) and I really wanted a pair of white sneakers, you know, when it rains it pours.

Last Night's Action

2010-03-14T21:58:00.001-04:00

So Saturday night I wasn't home but Jimmy was, I had gone downtown (DC) and spent the night dancing and drinking with my friend Shaun. I made it home at like 2 I think and we watched the end of the Caps game and then decided it was time to go to the grocery store. On the way home Jimmy told me about last night's action.

He said he didn't know if he actually heard it or dreamt it but he woke up to what he thought was me saying "HUSB" and he replied with "Huh?" (Husb is a little nickname for him.) Obviously I wasn't there. He woke up and asked "huh" since he wasn't sure if it was a dream or talking. If it was a dream, great, he missed me. If it wasn't a dream and "something" mimicking my voice, well, that will have been the third time its done that to him.

So its just another weird thing that we can't confirm or disprove since it may have been a dream. Just add it to the list. The ghost investigators are coming by this week to deliver the evidence, I can't wait to find out what they found out. Then I'll worry about how I'll feel about it all.

Let's hope tonight's a quiet night, I need the sleep after this morning's hangover.

This Is Also Interesting

2010-03-12T13:18:00.003-05:00

The red circle is our county, HOWARD. The blue circle is the county I grew up in, prestigious Montgomery. Since we began our house hunting in May/June of last year, I've been telling people that Howard County's average income was more than MoCo's and some people shook their heads. Not like it's a big deal to me (but it was a big deal to the head shakers) and this just proves that I was right. I like to be right. WINNER. All the little black circles are other counties in our area. This report is interesting, you should read it if you've got some time.

Last Night Was Interesting

2010-03-12T07:11:00.002-05:00

I swear last night I heard some footsteps but I wasn't sure where they were coming from. It was around 12am, possibly 11:45. Then at about 5am this morning I heard a few music notes again. It was after Jimmy's alarm went off at 5 and we were still in bed and we were both awake, I didn't ask if he heard it. But it was totally not in my head since I was wide awake and just laying in bed.

I'm actually very excited about Saturday night, Jimmy will be staying at the house by himself. I wonder if he'll have any experiences!!!

Something's Missing

2010-03-11T07:38:00.006-05:00

Well we just noticed it last night. It could have been missing since Sunday morning for all I know. I usually notice these types of things right away so part of me believes that it just went missing sometime since Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. However another part of me is apt to think that it might have been taken on Saturday night during the investigation but I don't think any of them would have done that, it's rather silly and they all seemed like great people. It's just odd that another one is missing and we had discussed it before the investigation started. What is it that's missing? Just another wood button from the banister. It's not the end of the world, we'll easily replace it and this time I'm totally gluing all of them in place. But in noticing that it was missing last night we looked all over for it and can't find it. See for yourself:

Eh, it's not a big deal but this is the second one to go missing. If I had knocked it out I would have found it and put it back. If it was Jimmy, well, it might still be missing so there's always the possibility that he knocked it loose somehow. So many scenarios which is why it's not all that big of a deal but it is interesting. Growing up in our house we were always knocking them loose and we'd always find them and put them back. We also had a bunch of things at the bottom of our steps, a big ceramic pot for umbrellas, shoes, a box with stuff in it, and somehow we'd always find it. Funny how we have nothing at the bottom of our steps and can't find it.

Maybe I'm making too much out of it. I probably am. It's just interesting to me. Once would be a fluke. Twice, is that a coincidence? What happens when a third one goes missing? Especially after I glue them all down?

Ready For A Busy Week

2010-03-07T20:55:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a crazy weekend. Friday afternoon I managed to get to the doctor and put on a Zpack for my faux cold. That's what I'm going with since I had all the cold and flu symptoms but congestion. The meds totally knocked it out and by Saturday afternoon I was feeling like me again. Friday night we met my sister at the movies to see Alice in Wonderland. It was okay. I think I'm becoming less and less interested in TV and movies all together. Then Saturday we cleaned up the house a bit and rested up so we could stay up for the ghost investigation. I'll have more details about that once we get the evidence review in about a week or so. (I'm mainly too tired to type up any sort of comments about it but might get to it later this week.) I'm interested in seeing the outcome. They wrapped up at about 4:30 and then Jimmy had to go into his office at 5am. I slept in and he got home at about 1:30 and it's just been a nappy Sunday ever since.

Tomorrow is Peanut's 11th birthday. We're having mac and cheese and hot dogs for dinner. I'll be making my homemade mac and cheese over at my mom's house. I'm a bit excited to celebrate his birthday, he loves cupcakes and opening presents and I'm excited I get to show my parents how to use their Shark steam mop I talked them into buying.

Then Tuesday I'm having dinner with my mom and my Aunt Marcia. It will be great to see her.

Then Wednesday we might actually have a normal, quiet night at home. And Thursday.

Friday we're going to the Caps game.

Saturday I'm staying downtown with my friend Shaun and we're going dancing and drinking all night. I can't wait!

I feel like I'm moving in slow motion tonight. I need sleep!!!

Tomorrow's The Big Hunt!

2010-03-05T08:25:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow night is the big ghost hunt. I'm excited although I'm not sure how I'm going to manage being awake for the whole thing. I need to connect with them to find out what time they're coming by so I know when I will need to wake up from a nap. I have a doctor's appointment today and I feel like I'm going down hard like I did a month ago. I hope I'm not coughing and miserable the whole time they're at the house.

Let's hope Ghosty is in full action tomorrow night. I swear I kept hearing what sounded like a single note playing from a music box early this morning. I heard it twice. I have 2 music boxes up on my dresser but neither of them are wound up. I also heard what sounded like someone walking around in our bedroom last night as the floor sounded heavy, not like creaking floor boards but just more like the noise someone would make walking around. I was laying in bed sick watching TV and Jimmy was downstairs. It's so weird.

Sold, Again!

2010-03-04T07:27:00.003-05:00

Last night we got home a bit late from a concert but I managed to suck it up and set up the new humidifier and I'm so glad I did. I didn't realize it came with a cartridge but that's okay, now we have a spare. It was really easy to set up and the only thing that was a bit of a downer was that it needed to be up on a dresser and not on the floor. No biggie, I just put it up on the dresser and plugged it in. Oh yes, another downer, the tank is so big it doesn't fit into the sink to fill it up so we'll either have to go to the guest bathroom to use the tub faucet or use a measuring cup to pour water in which is what I did since I had the measuring cup handy as it was what I used to soak the cartridge in the night before.

So I got the tank filled, lifted it up to the base which now sat up on my dresser and set in place. I plugged it and all these lights came up on the electronic display. LOVE IT. I quickly read the directions and figured out the settings. It has a timer of up to 9 hours, it has a mist setting for more or less mist, it has a humidity setting where you can select the percentage of relative humidity you'd like to maintain and you can pick from cool or warm mist. And that's just the beginning. There's also a sleep and automatic function. I selected it to go on sleep mode which sets optimal night time settings and from there you can make a few changes. I didn't want warm mist last night so I changed that setting but other than that, we were in business. I love the big plume of mist that it creates. I am so excited about it!

This was well worth the investment and we've only had it up and running since 11 last night. And it's super quiet. It was eerie not having the black noise of the old humidifier and just having the noise of the ceiling fan. Ah well, I'll take it.

YAY Oysters!

I'm Sold!

2010-03-03T07:37:00.005-05:00

(BTW you got 3 posts yesterday from us - INCREDIBLE)

I'm sold, we're sold on the Shark.

I think I was a bit uncertain at first but after using it for about 45 minutes I think I'm in love with the Shark. You need to do some prep prior to steaming. I gave it a try on my linoleum in my kitchen. You'll need to vacuum and if your floors are really horrendous you should probably use a Swiffer Wet Jet to just soak up some of the dirt. I have a Dyson and even that doesn't get all of the dust and dirt off of the floor. So do the prep and you'll be pleased with the results. You simply lay the Shark down flat on the floor and fill it up with 1 cup of water (1 cup being the cup it comes with) and plug it in, and in 30 seconds you're good to go.

The swivel action is a bit exaggerated in the video. I'd say it's a bit harder to turn and steer. And because you pump the handle to create steam you're actually pumping the handle while you're trying to maneuver it and it's a bit awkward. Other than that I think it's great. It says you'll have 25 minutes of cleaning per cup of water but I'm not so certain about that. I didn't sit there and time it but it seemed like less than that. Maybe I was really enjoying cleaning but I can't imagine it would take 25 minutes to steam clean my kitchen. When you're out of water you can easily unplug and refill and again in just 30 seconds you're good to go. Jimmy liked the way it left the floor warm and toasty under his feet.

This weekend we'll try it on the ceramic tile in our bathroom and the hardwoods throughout the house.

Give it a try!

2 New Toys!!!

2010-03-02T19:14:00.006-05:00

I shouldn't have used so many exclamation points in the title of this post as I'm not 100% satisfied with one of my toy purchases. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond tonight to pick up a warm and cool mist humidifier (finally) and a steam mop. I have done my homework people. I'm not a pushover when it comes to these things. I do my leg work, I eye these things from afar and when the time (and money) is right, I go in for the kill. I'd say I killed one purchase and the other one is still wiggling (sorry, that's gross.)

Let's introduce you to our new oyster machine, (I'd find the blog that talks about the story behind the name oyster machine but I guess I didn't tag it with the obvious "oyster machine" so I'll tag this one.) I've been eyeing a nice, warm and cool mist humidifier for a few years now but have never really wanted to put the money into it. Instead, I'd buy a generic cool mist machine for about 30 to 40 bucks every two years or so and let it mold up, throw it away and start over. Now I want to make the investment into something that cleans itself and is more than just a humidifier. So that's where this machine comes in to play. I knew I'd spend about $200 on it and I was happy to find the Air-O-Swiss line has several models that all do pretty much the same thing. I went with this one:

This is so going to be a favorite. I had to buy a filter in addition to this and it has to soak in water for 24 hours. So I'm going to work on that later and I'll have this up and running tonight after we get home from the Muse show (super late tomorrow night.) This will hopefully be worth the investment and I'm calling this my kill purchase.

My wiggly purchase on the other hand is the one that I was looking more forward to unfortunately. I've been eyeing a steam mop for months now. When we moved we bought the Boda Flooing mop system and I love it. I just wished the floors didn't get dirty so quickly. So I wanted the steam mop mostly for the kitchen laminate flooring and the bathroom ceramic tile. I'd seen them in person at Target and seen them on TV. I've been meaning to get to BB&B to buy them with a coupon. I've been stalking the steam mops on their website and finally made it over there today. I walked to the cleaning section and expected to see displays of all of the mops. I was a bit let down when there was only one in stock and that was sadly the only one on display as well. Boo. And what's worse is that it wasn't the one I wanted. I looked all over the section and even all over the store thinking the one I wanted was so special it had it's own place in the store. I circled back to the display and picked up a box and decided I should give it a try:

This is the Shark and it does score points for being purple. I wanted the Haan. The Haan has a changeable handle for cleaning sofas. That would have been nice but thinking about it, our micro-suede couches probably couldn't get cleaned with it. So we'll see. I took out the paperwork and read thru it. I also read some more reviews online after getting it home. It's sitting just a few feet away from me and I'm very tempted to break it out and give it a try. I had Jimmy bring down the Dyson so I can vacuum first (as you're supposed to). I'll probably give it a go after dinner. After all, I was very excited about it going into the purchasing process. And the reviews are split 50/50. And I can always return it.

I'll let you know!

USPS

2010-03-02T14:01:00.002-05:00

This doesn't have that much to do with our house becoming our home but it's topical. The United States Postal Service announced today that it is considering cutting back mail delivery from 6 days a week to only 5. They've also proposed several other changes including a postage hike, downsizing of post offices and contracting out kiosks in grocery stores, pharmacies, schools and attrition. All of these seem like viable options to save an industry that once was so commonplace. I for one hate going to the post office. Mainly because the one by my office is very buys, has very rude customers and never enough employees working behind the counter. The one by my house seems to be the only one that is in my entire area and is always very busy. I do however still love mailing bills, letters, cards and packages. I don't want to go to a FedEx or UPS store to mail a box, I know the routine and the necessary paperwork from my USPS. I would rather write a check and mail in a bill than get another email that I don't check confirming I've made a payment. I really can't stand my personal email. It's just one more thing I have to check or do. And if it's something I want to save (a purchases confirmation or payment confirmation) I have to log into my email on a computer and can't do that on my blackberry. At the end of the day or on a weekend, the last thing I want to do is get on a computer. And I love writing letters and sending cards to people for birthdays and holidays. It's unexpected and I can't help but hope that the recipient feels a bit of joy seeing something unexpected in their mail that isn't a bill or catalogue or junk. I'm all for the changes but please don't phase out snail mail entirely!!!

And We're Back

2010-03-02T08:40:00.002-05:00

With a bit of a vengeance. And by "we" I mean Ghosty. This morning I woke up totally groggy from a night of fighting what most likely will become a major sinus infection (round 2) and stepped into the bathroom. I shut the door behind me so as not to bother Jimmy who was still sound asleep. Both sets of lights were flipped on along with the light/fan combo and as I was shutting the door I heard what sounded like a voice. I almost thought it was the door not shutting all the way but sure enough it was shut. The voice was simply a voice and not really audible words that I was able to understand.

It actually didn't bother me at the time as I was half asleep. It's almost good to know that whatever it is, is back since Saturday night's the big night.

Hello Spring

2010-03-01T08:45:00.004-05:00

Spring is just around the corner (although we are getting some more snow this week) and all of the stores have gone full on seasonal and have grills, plants, pool supplies, garden supplies, and everything Spring out on the shelves. I can't wait for our first spring in the house! What's first on our list of spring purchases? A grill. My parents "bought" Jimmy a grill for his birthday back in January. Not really, he's just going to pick one out and they'll pay for it.

Why have a grill if you don't have a place to sit outside and eat during the cool spring nights (and summer nights, and fall nights too) and a place to rest your beer while grilling?? Well then I think we must buy a patio set. Jimmy's parents sent us a Lowes gift card for Christmas and it's still sitting in my wallet. I'm thinking we are going to pick out a patio set, nothing super fancy but something basic that we can add to down the road. I'm thinking a table and 4 chairs and an umbrella with a base. I'd like to get chairs that don't require cushions, they're just too much to worry about.

Here's what we already have in the sun room. We got these last year while they were on clearance.

Our bench is similar to this, I think the cushions are different colors. More browns, greens and taupes.

But ideally I'd like to get something that goes with these and is similar. I had such a hard time finding these pieces that I feel like it won't be until the summer before I find a set I'm happy with. I'll get it together and figure it out.

P.S. - Saturday can't get here soon enough. The last few weeks at the house have been uber-quiet in terms of Ghosty, but last night things were picking back up. Lots of odd noises going on and over the weekend randomly heard floor boards creaking as if someone was walking around when no one (me or Jimmy) was. Weird.

Hello Uncle Sam

2010-02-25T11:01:00.003-05:00

I just got back from mailing off our taxes! We finished them up with Mr. Dick Bendt last night (I kid you not, his name is Dick Bendt) and should be expecting a very hefty refund from both the State and Federal in a few months (it takes longer since we had to mail them in with our house settlement paperwork, you can't e-file that.)

So now that we have our refund number we're a bit giddy with excitement. What to do???? It's very tempting to go out and spend, spend, spend (and isn't that the point of getting a refund - to put that money back into circulation by being a consumer??) but part of me knows we really need to pay off our debt (which is around 5000) and possibly pay off part of Jimmy's car loan (which would lower the number of payments he'll make) and part of me wants to pay off a chunk of the mortgage which obviously would be lovely. But part of me wants to put it all into savings as a nice nest egg. And part of me wants to invest into upgrades and modifications in the house (see post below this one) and part of me wants to be selfish and buy ourselves a new computer that we don't really need.

Oh temptation.

I think that first things first, we must pay off the debt. That will help us in the long run financially and after we pay that off we'll still have well over 5 figures left from the refund. And if we ever refinance, we'll be good. And we can't let the debt rack back up.

And then maybe I make 2 mortgage payments in 1 month and then for the next 2 months after that I pay an extra $1000.

That would give us a nice chunk in savings.

Because that's where it should go. As responsible homeowners, we should do the right thing and put it in savings.

In A Bit Of A House Rut

2010-02-21T14:46:00.004-05:00

I feel like we're in a bit of a rut when it comes to continuing decorating and updating and making our house our home. Maybe not a rut but more so a lull. Maybe it's a bit of a lack of inspiration and funding. We are getting a nice chunk of change back in our taxes but I don't want to blow it all on house upgrades. I want to use the majority of it to pay off our debt and put into savings. I think we need to figure out what one thing we want to do in our house, price it out and see if we can do it. But there's so many choices.

Do we finish the garage and mud room?

Do we buy new screening for the sun room?

Do we buy new flooring for the kitchen, breakfast area, bathroom and hallway?

Do we buy some furniture for the basement?

Do we buy rugs for the dining room or living room?

Do we demo the built in shelving in our family room and redo that?

Do we buy nice end tables for the living room to match the dining room set we already have?

There's so many choices and you can see why we're in a rut. I just can't afford to do too much and even with some funds coming in thanks to the IRS, I think we just have to be super smart. I'd love to buy rugs for the living room or dining room but I think we're okay without them. The shelving in the family room is fine as it is for now, we don't use that room very much and our wedding photos and junk are fine where they are for now. The sun room screening has been patched up here and there by the previous owners but I'm not sure how much we'll be using the sun room in the future. We didn't really use it a lot in the fall but then again we didn't have a lot of free time. Furniture for the basement would really just be some sort of chair or small couch so we have more than just the leather recliner down there. With the addition of our new Pilates machine there isn't that much room down there for big, bulky furniture but I'd still like to have more seating down there. And the Pilates machine is movable once it folds up.

I think the best move might be to have our garage finished. And it would be really nice to get the mud room finished as well. I have no idea what it would cost. It can't be all that cheap.

None of this could matter if we end up having to replace the gutter out above the garage due to the snow. Let's hope not. Or maybe we invest in gutter guards.

I can't forget that I want to redo the front walk way in the spring. But we may also have to replace a ton of the bushes in our front yard due to the snow. With what little snow has melted so far we can see bits and pieces of the bushes and from what we can tell, they aren't in good shape at all. In fact, their shape seems to be more droopy and broken day by day as more and more snow melts away.

I realized yesterday that our neighbors 2 houses down had a tree break in their front yard from the snow. Like a huge limb just broke off. And one of the trees in the backyard behind our property line came down, a fairly big one too. Glad we don't have to worry about it and it's part of the common area which means the local government's gotta deal with it.

Or curtains. Our curtains in the family room do look pretty nice. I would love to have them in the living room and dining room as well. And maybe paint the family room, breakfast room and kitchen since it's all open and connected.

A girl can dream can't she?

Ghost Investigation Is Now 3/6

2010-02-18T10:45:00.002-05:00

I had to move it back again, we have plans the night I booked it for. But that's fine because we're relatively quiet right now. Last Thursday morning I had gotten out of the shower and was standing at the sink to brush my teeth. While standing there I felt like I was being watched thru the bathroom door which is stained glass. I finished up and opened the door and as soon as I opened it up I heard the floor creaking as if someone was walking away. I was standing on tile and the tile doesn't make noise like that and I wasn't even walking. I just opened the door to let some of the steam out of the bathroom.

Then this morning I was in the kitchen and just finished making our lunches. I had just turned the coffee maker on for Jimmy's coffee and was putting my lunch in my bag which was on a chair in the breakfast area. I looked up startled as some odd noises came from the kitchen. It sounded like silverware was clunking around as if someone hit two pieces together, its a very distinct sound. The coffee maker was making it's noises but the silverware was a bit odd. Nothing in the sink moved, all that was in there was an empty plastic container. That couldn't possibly sound like silverware. I don't know what it was. There's really no way silverware in our drawer could make that noise, I don't think. And if it did, wouldn't it be muffled? This was clear as day. Nothing weird has every really gone on in the kitchen before.

CRAZY.

No Snow Blowing Just Yet

2010-02-17T21:18:00.003-05:00

We've flirted with morning flurries for the last three mornings but nothing amounting to anything that will allow Jimmy to use the snow blower. I think he's royally bummed out by it. He told me the other day that he wanted to try and clear the path to our front door. I think he's nuts. The snow is just way too hard to even try. I think he forgot about it honestly. He worked really late last night and tonight he left work and told me it was super cold outside. Let's hope we get one tiny snowfall before the end of the season just so he gets one use out of it. (I hear we're in for more snow Monday & Tuesday and possibly something bigger --if not severe-- next weekend)

AND did I mention that on Monday night a front end loader came thru and cleared out a ton of snow in our street? Maybe the driver realized it had not yet been plowed and we had shoveled it ourselves leaving a much more narrow path than a plow would!

No Ghost Hunting Tonight

2010-02-12T16:50:00.001-05:00

The ghost investigation was supposed to happen tonight but due to all of the snow we're pushing it back until the 26th. Since the walk thru last week Ghosty's been a bit quiet. Just a few things here and there but nothing totally crazy or scary. Can't wait to share with you a few things this weekend!

Greetings From Blizzard #3

2010-02-10T18:22:00.005-05:00

I don't think I remember a winter here where we've had 3 blizzards in one season let alone 2 in one week. This picture below is my interpretation of what it looked like out our windows today. Earlier we were sitting in our family room with the blinds open into our sun room, I mean snow globe. With the winds as strong as they were and snow piled as high as it is, the wind would carry snow into our sun room and swirl around as if it was a snow globe. It was pretty. For the first hour or so.

We've redug out the heat pump and I cleared the dryer vent. I hung up the bird feeder but it's very hard to get bird seed into it so maybe tomorrow I'll be able to dig out a path to the window and can fill it for real.

We shoveled the driveway about halfway. We got most of the snow cleared away from the garage doors to about 15 feet down the driveway. Didn't want to get it all done just because if they do manage to plow our street they usually push a ton into the driveway. No word on when they'll get to our street, our main street has just been salted but the snow emergency route has at least been plowed once. They didn't pick up our trash today and it's already been cancelled tomorrow as well. No word on if they delivered mail today or not, I turned off the wall to wall news coverage at about noon. We actually haven't picked up our mail since Friday, or maybe Thursday.

We are so achey from shoveling. It's literally piled as high as we stand on either side of our driveway and we have to lift and throw the snow up and over it so it doesn't come sliding back down on the driveway. There's just no where for it to go.

And how much did we get so far today? No idea really since it's so windy. In the few places I took measurements on our driveway it was anywhere from 8 to 14 inches so average of 11 I suppose? The yard stick got completely buried outside very early this morning so really with all this wind we'll just have to take their word on the news channels in terms of what we got.

And we're not done yet. This winter is officially the snowiest winter in DC history and look at that, we have more coming on Monday.

And you don't believe that this is the snowiest winter in DC history? Check this out courtesy of our NBC station.

Let's hope tomorrow is less blustery.

And just in time to hit publish, Peanut sent me a picture Mommy took of him getting ready to go out for a walkie. He's wearing both of his coats and a neck gator and a a scarf to make sure his ears don't get too cold with all the snow blowing. He pretty much HATES this weather.

Blizzard #3

2010-02-09T18:50:00.005-05:00

We're hunkered down and ready for blizzard number 3 of the season!!! Can you believe it? On average, the DC area gets 10 inches of snow. Our first blizzard back in December left 23 inches and the one earlier this week left 33 inches. Add up the random amounts of snow here and there from all of the "minor storms" which probably was at least 12-18 inches in all, that's over 65 inches of snow! And I'm only 62 inches tall. They're calling for 18-20 inches with this storm, possibly less, possibly more. It doesn't matter at this point when there's already over a foot left on the ground where snow is untouched, where snow is piled up from plows and shoveling, it's anywhere from 3 feet to 6 feet high!!!

All of the stores are sold out on shovels, scrapers, ice melt, snow blowers, you're lucky if you find even a garden shovel. We went to 3 different stores yesterday before we find any ice melt. We went to a hardware store today in hopes of purchasing a replacement snow blower for my parents (who unfortunately look like they have to replace their blower as of this passed Saturday) and they were sold out of the 26 they had just gotten in an hour earlier. Speaking of the broken snow blower, my parents drove to Pennsylvania earlier this morning to buy a smaller snow blower just to get them through this storm and are heading back up there on Friday to buy a larger one once its available. This means we'll get the small one but still, driving to another state for a snow blower is NUTS!

We do have to head out in a just about a half hour, my prescription is ready at the grocery store 5 minutes away. I'm sure it will take at least 20 minutes driving there and another 20 on the way back. So we're not 100% hunkered down just yet.

They've closed schools in the area for the rest of the week. Jimmy's been on code red meaning he can't go in even if he wanted to both yesterday and today, tomorrow doesn't look much better, especially with another foot of snow on the ground possibly. I've been working from home sick these last few days but who knows what my office will do, close most likely.

Stay tuned for more unbelievable pictures tomorrow of the clean up while the snow is still falling since it's not expected to move out until later tomorrow night.

Survived: Blizzard of 2010

2010-02-07T18:03:00.005-05:00

We survived although I'm sure that we suffered a few bumps and bruises along the way, more so aches and pains from shoveling, lifting and throwing tons of snow. Literally, tons of snow. This time the yard stick read 33 inches on the deck by the hot tub. I didn't get a picture of it and I'm regretting that. Oh well.

Here's a few we did capture. Let's start off with the wall of snow that greeted us as we opened the garage door.

Let's start shoveling.

Making progress.

Somewhere under there is the Explorer.

This is where we left off on Saturday night, didn't want the plows to block the driveway if they managed to come thru overnight.

And they did! The plow came thru and we got back out there and kept shoveling. Look, you can hardly see our lamp post in all of the snow.

This is what we accomplished.

Just how much snow did we get? 33 inches and that came up to my crotch and well, here's a pic of Jimmy in the backyard in the snow.

And in case you still don't have any idea how much snow that really is, here's a pic of our deck, the snow came up just below the railing.

That's a lot of snow. We managed to get the driveway cleared out up by the garage doors at the whole width and ended up getting it to about one lane at the bottom of the driveway due to where the plows piled up snow. The sun came out and melted most of the snow on the driveway and I'm sure we'll have some icy spots here and there and especially at the bottom where the ramp meets the street. Oh well. We're supposed to get at minimum 5 inches of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday so we'll be out there shoveling some more. Let's hope that some of this melts away and we're able to shovel it up and out of the way. There's just no where else to put it. And there's no way we can even attempt to shovel the sidewalks. I totally think we're going to be purchasing a snow blower once they get back in stock at Lowes.

I managed to catch a cold or the flu or something Friday night when I got home but that didn't stop me from making Blizzard Brownies and Snow Soup. I'm gonna go heat up some leftovers and settle down on the couch to watch the Super Bowl.

The Snow Is Falling

2010-02-05T12:47:00.003-05:00

(BTW I said that in my head as if I was Chicken Little, you should do it too)

The snow began to fall outside my office window here in the DC suburbs around 10:30 I think. My view of Rockville Pike shows that cars are going fast and there's no traffic just yet.

Really looking forward to a good long weekend of getting snowed in.

More Snow Coming!

2010-02-04T08:55:00.004-05:00

More Snow Coming to the DC area tomorrow and Saturday. This storm is much similar to the one just before Christmas and reports are saying it could dump at least 12 inches of snow upon us and upwards of 20 inches in some areas. So far, that's not as much as we got last time, but you never know.

And we still have about 6 inches on the ground from snow that fell Tuesday night and even from over the weekend. We are certainly getting our moneys worth out of the snow pants we bought. Maybe after this storm we can go buy snow boots. And then maybe it won't snow this much for another 10 years.

Let's hope they close offices early tomorrow and we can all start our weekend early.

The Ghost Investigator Walk Thru

2010-02-01T20:37:00.002-05:00

The investigators came by today to do their walk thru and I was unable to be home for it so Jimmy took care of it. I had him call me them the second they left so he could tell me everything. They came out and did EMF readings and temperature readings. What is an EMF reading, I didn't know until now. Check out this info:

An EMF meter is an instrument that reads the fluctuation in electromagnetic fields. You should always take preliminary EMF readings at various places throughout the site. The locations of power lines, appliances and other sources of electromagnetic fields are also noted. Most normal readings are in the range of 9.0 - 30.0 on the EMF meter. These are typical EMF readings in a home. Anything that registers in the 2.0 to the 7.0 ranges and cannot be traced to a source is attributed to spirit activity. An example of a source would be a computer monitor. The closer you get to a natural source the higher the reading. A natural source should always appear in the same place and will not disappear. You should discard these readings

Well, they got high readings in the basement and that makes sense because that is where all of our utilities are. Then they got some high readings in the bedroom next to Jimmy's side of the bed. (let me just tell you I'm happy it's not MY side of the bed) So that's interesting. Jimmy also told me that the lady investigator had gotten goose bumps while doing the readings right next to the bed right there. Creepy, right? Well we'll have to see what happens on the 12th, that's when they're doing the investigation. 11pm. Can't wait. Actually, I can. Seriously. I'm a bit worried that tonight's going to be ubercreepy because it could have gotten provoked after the investigators were here today. So anyway, during the investigation, we can either go with them as they do their thing in each room or we can hang out in the "command center" aka our dining room. I'm hoping to sit in the corner of my dining room with a hoodie on over my eyes so I don't see or witness anything.

So that's the latest, not so sure it's the greatest but it is what it is right? They did tell us that if it was an evil spirit it would have already harmed us somehow so that's at least hopeful.

Footsteps

2010-01-30T21:53:00.003-05:00

The last two nights have been very quiet in terms of any thing creepy going on with the bedroom. However last night I was awake as usual in the middle of the night and heard the floor creaking as if someone was walking around. Good times. I managed not to let myself get too paranoid after that, actually it was almost comforting knowing it was still going on since I contact the investigators on Thursday morning.

Speaking of the investigators, they called today to do our initial interview and that went really well. They are coming out on Monday to do a walk thru to make sure they know what rooms to investigate and where they can set up all of their equipment. Let's hope that they can't come this coming weekend to investigate since I have weekend away plans with my friend Shaun. Then the following weekend is Valentine's Day, I honestly wouldn't mind if they came out on Friday or Saturday. I don't really think it matters if I won't be home but I want to be around when they wrap up just in case they found anything immediately. I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see how Monday goes.

And in home news, we had our first fire in the new fireplace today. I'm undecided. We used our faux wood and we lit it and it smoldered after about 20 seconds of being lit and then smoke filled into the room. It was not pleasant. I turned the ceiling fan on in our breakfast room and got a portable fan to help clear out the smoke. The flue was open but I think it happened because we lit the wrapper of the faux wood in the wrong place. I don't know, I guess I'd rate the whole experience at about a C+. The fire was really pretty but with the fans on to clear out the smoke it was much colder in here and the whole point of the fire was to make it warmer. I did really like that the glass doors can be mostly shut. The fire burned out a while ago, probably closer to 7pm and we just went to shut the flue and a ton of smoke came back into the room so I think it's still smoldering. Yeah I'm not waiting up to try and close the flue again. I think we'll just have to leave it open overnight with the doors shut. Yeah now we're at about a C-. Sorry Mom, Dad and Alli, our fireplace looks great, we love all of the tools and accessories for it. Sorry, just not going to be using it.

Holy Cow: New Water Filters

2010-01-28T07:56:00.005-05:00

Yesterday morning as I was making our lunches I noticed the little green light on the fridge's water cooler was no longer green notifying us that the filter was "good." No, now it was yellow and telling us to "order" a new one. Makes sense, the fridge has been in the house for exactly 4 months, the filters are good for 6 months so I do give Kenmore props for giving its appliance owners 2 months to get the filter ordered.

So last night I dug out the manual from my files and figured out how to get to the water filter. It looks so simple in the diagrams. But after fidgeting with it for about 10 minutes I finally figured it out and then realized it is actually rather easy. I don't like that the filter is way at the bottom of the fridge right on front requiring you to get down on the floor almost to where you're laying down and eye level with the floor but I'd prefer it to be there than behind it on the back or on the sides making it really hard to get to.

Anyway, I had to remove the current filter only because the paperwork for the fridge and for the water filter didn't say the model number for the filter. Generally you would think that the paperwork for the filter would tell you the filter model. That would make so much sense so of course it doesn't mention a model number whatsoever. No instead it just gives you warnings and such. So I wrote the model number down on the manual so I'll never need to get down there except for twice a year to change the filter every 6 months.

After spending too much time laying on the floor in the kitchen I went upstairs to order the filter. I didn't even need to search for it, the filter not only had the model number on it but it also had the website and phone number of where to order it from. Here are my filters.

If you click the picture you'll go directly to the Sears site where you can order them. You'll also see that they come in 2 packs and only cost $89.99. HOLY COW. So I ordered them. And cuz I hate going to Sears I decided not to pick them up in the store and just have them shipped, for $15.99. My total was about $112. GOOD LORD.

Eh, at least we'll have nice clean water for the next 14 months.

Ghosty Update

2010-01-27T08:19:00.004-05:00

I think Ghosty was standing right next to me yesterday morning. I was standing at the sink in the bathroom doing my make up and Jimmy's alarm just went off, I looked over to see if he was hitting snooze or getting up and he was slow getting out of bed. I turned back to my make up and within a few seconds it seemed like Jimmy was standing next to me already. I turned to look next to me to say good morning and I was startled. I did that whole thing where my body jumped and low and behold Jimmy was just getting out of bed.

It felt as if someone was right there next to me. You know that feeling when someone walks up to you and scares you, that's almost what it felt like but I turned around to see what was there before they were expecting me. But nothing was there. At least nothing I could see.

What was it? Ghosty?

Catalogue Shopping Part 4: Ballard Design & Flor

2010-01-27T07:28:00.014-05:00

Let's start with a favorite, Flor. They are the company that started doing carpet tiles. They have a huge selection of colors, designs and patterns and some of them can mix and match to create a truly customized look for your room.

Seriously, the Flor catalogue is one of my favorite catalogues to get. I just love everything they have and can't wait until I can afford to make a rug for our dining room or our living room. I only uploaded some pictures of the carpets rather than descriptions because I think I took pictures of each one of their carpets. I'm in love!

And now, Ballard Design which is also becoming a favorite of mine because they have really simple designs that seems affordable, sometimes.

Flipping thru with BD, I've mostly gravitated towards end tables, (for the living room) consoles, (for the foyer) and rugs and mirrors to decorate with.

Everything is super expensive!

And last night we got a new WS catalogue and a Home Decorators Collection catalogue. HDC is brought to you by one of my least faves, Home Depot, so we'll see if I even feel like giving them a look thru let alone a post on here.
And later today I should have an update on Ghosty.

Catalogue Shopping Part 4: Preview

2010-01-26T08:43:00.003-05:00

I know I teased yesterday about some fun catalogue shopping but the full post will have to wait until tonight. But here's a preview.

More later, I promise!

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

2010-01-25T08:37:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to Jimmy! Today's his birthday so let's celebrate!

Tomorrow is our 4 month anniversary of owning our house, 1/3 of a year! Time has gone by quickly. Lots of celebrating! I'll also have a big Catalogue Shopping post tomorrow since I got one of my favorites in the mail on Saturday!

It's Not Just Me

2010-01-24T17:07:00.003-05:00

It's not just me that is hearing Ghosty these days, nope, Jimmy's heard him or her twice this weekend so far.

Friday night I got home from work and headed upstairs to get changed to go out to dinner to kick off Jimmy's birthday celebrations. I was in the bathroom touching up my make up when Jimmy came up stairs to see what I wanted. I told him I hadn't said anything and he said he thought he heard me call him. Nope. I didn't. He said it sounded as if I said "hello?" in the way I do when I say that asking where he is. That's twice now that we've heard something say Hello but now in a female and male voice.

Then earlier today I was in the office getting ready to head back to the bedroom. Jimmy had been sleeping and I heard him get up so I was going to meet him in the hallway. He said "hello" to find out where I was and I walked out of the office and met him in the hallway. He made a joke about the ghosty and went downstairs. I stayed upstairs to go thru the dirty laundry and take some downstairs to get started in the wash. As I was going thru the hamper Jimmy yelled up to me asking what I wanted. I said I didn't say anything and asked what he heard. He then said he heard me say "hey baby" and then he yelled out "ok Ghosty it's not funny anymore"

Maybe it didn't like Jimmy making fun of him five minutes prior, who knows. That's twice in one weekend that Jimmy's heard him (or her.) It's not just me hearing things anymore, both of us are. Nothing else has happened since then but it's just been a few hours. Let's hope it stops for a while. It's becoming too much.

Catalogue Shopping Round 3

2010-01-22T08:52:00.008-05:00

First things first, we had another dead Lady Bug last night, this time she was on the floor of the hallway right as you step from the guestbath from the hall.

I really like the idea of this star light fixture, it's very much our style. Not sure it would work with our ceiling lights since they all seem to have fixtures and aren't just a light blub in the ceiling.

I have been eyeing day beds for a while now and this one is really nice.

But HOLY COW!

This mirror is really nice too, I like a floor mirror, they are very elegant.

Again, HOLY COW. PB is way expensive.

It's still good for ideas. I do enjoy a good catalogue to get some inspiration from!

4 Months Coming Up

2010-01-21T15:55:00.002-05:00

We're turning 4 months on Tuesday, just realized it, exciting! A whole third of a year! Crazy how time flies! Maybe we'll celebrate!

Lady Bug and Stink Bug Strike Again

2010-01-21T07:25:00.005-05:00

Ladies first

It is with much dismay that I tell you that another Lady Bug has moved on. Much like many of those before her, she decided to move on to the big Lady Bug party in the sky in the Kitty Cat room. Her body lay on top of the air vent and will be vacuumed up this afternoon. In lieu of flowers, her fellow Lady Bugs whom she is survived ask you to please send food and water so they can ensure their own survival.

It is also with deep hearts that I tell you that another Stink Bug is going to be given the good old flushing treatment any minute now, if he already hasn't. He was first spotted in the family room on the carpet in front of the sliding glass door and authorities were notified of his coordinates and an attack was being planned out. The goal of the operation is to capture the Stink Bug and transport him into the powder room where he'll be given the flushing treatment. Once I have confirmation of his successful capture and death, I'll notify the public.

Hot Water Heater is Good to Go

2010-01-20T12:00:00.004-05:00

Sunday night I took a super long hot shower and had the water running for nearly 45 minutes. I finished up in the shower and got dressed, piddled around and went to the basement to get some laundry that was down in the dryer. I turned around behind me and noticed a tiny puddle (and when I say tiny I mean maybe the size of a silver dollar) of water at the base of the water heater. I then bent down and noticed it was about to drip. I called for Jimmy to come down and showed him and sure enough, DRIP. I got a container to put under it and we checked it a few hours later and got nothing. I called the home warranty company Monday morning to file a claim and get a plumber out. I was very certain not to run anything with super hot water including the dishes until the plumber fixed it. I'm sure Jimmy didn't bother changing his shower routine and I wasn't about to either but I just made sure I took shorter showers.

The plumber came out last night and fixed it, he tightened the nozzle where the water dripped and gave us some suggestions. Nothing major in terms of the drip but incase it drips again they will come back out free of charge for the next 90 days.

Yay, so we're good to go and I couldn't wait to run the dishwasher last night!

Before & After: Fireplace Redo

2010-01-16T22:04:00.005-05:00

We finally got around to redoing our fireplace and by we I mean mostly my dad and by we finally got around I mean he came over. I was at work when my dad got to the house so when I got home they were already done installing the new doors and were ready to start up the accessories for it. I didn't have to help at all! Here's the B&A pics.

I think Jimmy did a great job of taking the pictures except he used his small camera and that sometimes takes blurry pictures but you get the idea. The brass is gone and we went with all black doors that look modern and sleek and really transform that room. We set up the fireplace tools and the wood rack and set out our faux wood which you keep in the wrapper. I think it's great that they're going to stay in the rack all wrapped up in their paper. I'd rather have them look hideous than have bugs and dirt come in on real wood. Priorities and standards.

We also managed to ask my dad for some help on some other projects around the house: fixing the light in the utility room in the basement and hang up the dart board in the basement. It was a good thing he was over to help with the dart board because I would have killed Jimmy if it was just the two of us, there would have been a huge hole in the wall and the dart board would have been in pieces after throwing a drill thru it. Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic as it didn't seem that hard to hang up but mostly it was my dad telling Jimmy how he could help while I cleaned up the junk lying around. Overall, I'd say it was a great day of projects.

I don't really think I need to take pictures of the dartboard. Not until we get more fun stuff in the basement for it to look like a real gameroom. Or at least some more seating.

Good accomplishments for a one day weekend project.

Another Lowes Vs. Home Depot Win for Lowes

2010-01-15T16:24:00.002-05:00

You see that? Lowes donated $1 Million to the Red Cross for the Haiti relief efforts. Home Depot hasn't. Will they?

Catalogue Shopping: Part 2

2010-01-14T07:48:00.008-05:00

Yay, a second round of catalogue shopping. Yesterday we got LL Bean Home and Orvis which seems to sell everything. Neither catalogue seemed to really interest me except something stood out:

Since I cannot have a doggie and my doggie lives with my parents I can still look at doggies in catalogues and love them, but not as much as I love Peanut.

P.S. Sorry the pics are a bit grainy, I turned off the flash and took them in a darker room without the lights on.

Holy Cow

2010-01-13T17:06:00.002-05:00

Our electric bill came in the mail today and it's double what it normally is. We're not cranking the heat so it can't be from that. It's got to be from the hot tub that we had running for part of December. Holy cow. It's $400. Good thing we shut that thing off.

Ghosty Strikes Again

2010-01-12T07:55:00.004-05:00

Ok it's getting kind of old now. Remember a few months ago when we first realized some things were going on and the wooden button on the staircase was missing? It was something so small and unnoticeable but yet I noticed it immediately. I noticed something else missing today. We have a towel valet in our bathroom. It looks like this, in nickel.

Notice that at the end of both of the bars there is a round knob to keep the towels up on the bar? Well one of those is missing as of this morning. I looked on the floor for it this morning, I looked under the bath rugs, I moved a hamper to look for it. It's not in the closet, it wouldn't fit under the bottom of the door. It's not on the floor outside of the bathroom. It's metal and the floor is tile, we would have heard something like that fall and hit the floor. I looked everywhere for it. Something like that could only come off if it was unscrewed. I just don't know where it went. One day maybe we'll find it with the butter and the wood button that also went missing.

And something else happened Sunday night that I haven't told you, or Jimmy, about yet. I was laying across the bed and Jimmy was sitting next to me so he could put some lotion on my back. He was between me and the foot of the bed. At the side of the bed where my feet were I felt the blankets move as if someone sat down next to my feet on the head of the bed side. Jimmy hadn't been moving around enough for the blanket to get pulled. He was also up in the middle of the bed but towards the foot of the bed. How could it feel like something practically sat down right next to my feet? I looked over towards my feet to see what it was. It creeped me out. Like it just felt as if you sat against the side of the bed to support yourself if you were putting your shoes on. And it was just the blankets that felt like they moved from being pulled taught when sat upon.

OMG what is going on??

Stink Bugs & Lady Bugs

2010-01-11T08:05:00.003-05:00

How is it that stink bugs and lady bugs are getting into our house? Where are they coming in? We must find it. I'm so over finding both of them all the time. The lady bugs seem to be confined to the kitty cat room and the upstairs hallway. The stink bugs seem to be confined to the guestroom, our bedroom and the stairs. I found one this morning as I opened the bathroom door after taking a shower, it was crawling on the floor. I found a dead lady bug in the hallway Saturday afternoon. It seems that we get a stink bug once every 3 days and a lady bug every now and then. I can't stand it. I am guessing that these 2 pests aren't part of the 12 or 13 common household pests that Orkin sprays for. I'll have to ask our service guy next month when he's back.

Catalogue Shopping

2010-01-07T08:58:00.015-05:00

Catalogues galore came in the mail yesterday. Not just one but seven!!! Well really two copies of the same one so more like 6 different ones and they are full of fun home decorating ideas and furnishings!!! See:

That would be Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, FrontGate, Smith & Noble, Grandin Road, and the Pottery Barn Bed and Bath Sale catalogue. Are you ready to go shopping with me? Let's go!
First we have the Pottery Barn Bed and Bath selection.

Oh I really like these mirrors, see...

Oh, they are a bit expensive.

Grandin Road, I've never seen this one before but this chair is super cute.

And it's only $200, not bad. If I had the extra cash I could swing it, possibly in the bedroom.

Smith & Noble, nope, never heard of them either.

Those curtains are so dreamy and elegant and simple. I'd love to put curtains in our bedroom, we have custom blinds on all of the windows but only have curtains in the breakfast room, family room, kitchen and the kitty cat room.

FrontGate, super nice stuff but very pricey.

This bench would be awesome in our bathroom since we have some extra unused space in there and the teak wood is the same color as the cabinets.

Um, nevermind, it's expensive.

Pottery Barn, they're always a great place to get ideas from.

I am such a sucker for wall sconces. We don't own but one however I'm always falling in love with them. And they sort of remind me of the Olympic rings and since the Olympics are coming up in just a few weeks it would be very festive.

And my faves W&S

I've been looking for a yellow tablecloth for a few weeks now...

Look at it Mom (hint, hint) it's so pretty and would look great on my table.

It's a bit expensive though...

I can't wait to see what catalogues come in the mail tonight!

"Hello"

2010-01-06T13:07:00.002-05:00

I think Ghosty might be back. I've been feeling uneasy in the bedroom again and been up at night with that feeling that I'm being watched. I also think I heard it last night.

Yes, HEARD it.

Ever since we started having weird activity going on in the house I've been hearing voices, conversations, words, talking and it sounds like Jimmy talking. He's also heard what he thought was me talking but I'd be upstairs or in another room completely silent. So last night I went to bed at around 10:45. I was up at my usual 1:15 dead awake in bed just waiting for it to be morning (it seems like I've been in this 1:15 wake up pattern for 2 weeks now) trying to toss and turn incase I would fall back asleep. I looked at the clock exactly an hour later, 2:15. Somewhere between 2:15 and 3:11 when I looked at the clock again I got severly freeked out when I heard something.

Not just something but I heard what a quick "hello" in a voice very similar to Jimmy's. I've heard Jimmy talk in his sleep plenty of times and this was too clear to be him talking in his sleep. It sounded like him saying hello as if he was answering his phone. I naturally responded with a questioning "what" and looked over at him as I sort of sat up in bed. It freeked me out. I knew it wasn't him and couldn't have been. He was faced away from me sound asleep and snoring. It was almost as if whatever it was had mimicked him answering his phone "hello."

It was creepy!

I don't think I fell asleep the rest of the night. I looked at the clock somewhere around 4:40 and was thankful that my alarm was going off at 5:20. 40 more minutes and then just another 20 minutes after that for Jimmy's alarm to go off so I could turn on the lights. I feel better with the lights on.

I seriously need to get an infrared camera hooked up for night time or something to tell me what's going on. It's starting to keep me up at night, literally.

We Need More Than Just Oysters in the Air

2010-01-05T09:10:00.008-05:00

Let me share with you a family story. Years ago when I was about 6 years old or so I was always getting sick and having nose bleeds and my parents took me to the pediatrician and he recommended a humidifier. As any good parents, my parents followed the doctor's advice and bought one and put it in my room and set it up so I would be more comfortable. Later that day they found my younger sister crying in her room and clearly upset about something. When they asked her what was wrong she said that she too "wanted oysters in her air."

Growing up we always had the oyster machine in the hallway between our two bedrooms and shared responsibility in filling it each night. Since living on my own or with Jimmy over the last few years I'm now on my second oyster machine. I should just buy a really good one as an investment but I keep buying the cheapest one at BB&B and replacing it after it either gets moldy or stops working. But this winter seems to be colder than most in recent years and with all of these high wind gusts it is just a very harsh and bitterly cold winter here on the east coast. I'm trying my hardest to fight it when it comes to my body and how it reacts to the cold.

The oyster machine is helping but I'm not running it during the day while we're not at home, I probably should but it's just extra electricity that will run up our bill and that's the last thing we need. I'm trying to keep the thermostat low so there is less hot air cranking out of it and so we save some money but Jimmy always seems to be cold. He'll be walking around in a sweats, a sweat shirt and a beanie while I have on shorts and a tank top. I'm all about layering up the blankets and thermals. Anyway, with the new year here I started a new skin care routine for the cold, winter months. I've recently discovered just how drafty our windows are since all these super strong and severely cold wind gusts keep blowing in cold air and I'm trying my hardest to keep my skin winter proof. Usually it gets super dry and itchy and it hurts. Mostly my back seems to take the brunt of it from constantly having water pour down over it in the shower. This year I'm combating the cold with an array of products:

This is what I've been using on my back mostly. As a body butter it's thicker than regular lotion and I like that for the winter. In the summer it's usually too heavy but this coconut scent reminds me of the summer so when it's as cold as it is right now, I'm all about a mini mental vacation.

The next two products I've been mixing together for my legs, arms, stomach, butt, pretty much everything else except my hands, feet and face. I like the cocoa butter and the firming properties of the Palmer's lotion. Even if I'm not all that in need of firming and lifting just yet, I'll still do what I can to prevent any of the slightest sagging. And I'm trying to keep everything coconut or cocoa butter scented so I don't smell that awful.

This is a grocery store find that I'm super happy with. I love it. It's so thick for my hands which seem to always dry out with constant hand washing for fear of germs. But it's not too thick to the point where it's greasy. It's absorbed into the skin and you can feel that it's working. Moisturized hands equals happy hands.

These are the products I'm using on my face which always seems to get super dry especially on my forehead and cheekbones. Not this year, hopefully. Meet my buddies Hope and Estee. Hope in a Jar is just an amazing product and it's super light and usually when you purchase Philosophy products they throw in some freebies which are usually travel sized samples which are perfect for flying and travel. In my carry on I usually keep a small bottle of this to dab on my face before landing so I look a little perky and not dried out from the pressurized cabin air. And then there's Estee, she's expensive, at about $160 for a jar but I just use a tiny amount on my eyes where I get bags and my eye lids and it's amazing. It just gives my skin a little brightness it's missing and after a night where I don't sleep very well it's a lifesaver!

And when all else fails there's always A&D. I use this on my lips all the time. Back when I was in high school and on Accutane my skin was a disaster and A&D helped save me from my skin. A&D isn't just for babies! Bring it on! Just a tiny dab on the lips and you'll be all healed up. Last week my lower lip was practically split down the middle and by Sunday it was gone.

I can't find a link or picture since I think they stopped selling it but on my feet I'm using Victorias Secret Spa Pampering Foot Cream which is so awesome and cool. I just love it. If you're lucky to find it in the stores, pick up an extra, you'll need it!

I love getting all lotioned up just before bed and my body feels cool and a bit chilled and I slip under the covers for warmth and fall asleep. Love it!

I don't know why I felt the need to share all this but if I'm not able to have an oyster machine with me at work, in the car and in every room of the house, I am certainly going to try my best to keep my skin benefitting from the few hours I do have one around each night.

House Resolutions for 2010!

2010-01-03T20:38:00.007-05:00

Being on vacation has reminded me just how much I love our carpet. It's silly but since we've been on vacation for over a week and have been lazy around the house, we've spent plenty of time barefoot on the carpet and I just love it!

I think I've told you about it before but just in case you forgot it's brand new top of the line in terms of "green, eco-friendly" carpeting. It's Mohawk SmartStrand Carpet with Dupont Sorona renewably sourced polymer, meaning it's 37% corn!!! Our carpet is in the Titanic color and it's one of the softest carpets I've ever felt. I think that's why I love it so much. Thankfully I haven't had to try and clean it too terribly much in terms of spills and stains. It vacuums nicely and every time I've ever had new carpeting I've always had it fuzz up where when you rub your foot back and forth on it you get a big wad of extra fibers and fuzz. There's none of that with this carpeting. I just love it. When we were over at my mom's for Christmas and I was barefoot, their carpet was like walking on sandpaper. It's not like she doesn't know they need new carpet, they just haven't done it yet, I'm hoping they get the SmartStrand, especially with my doggie and him leaving marks on the carpet every once in a while when he's got an itch.

Anyway, enough about carpet. I have a few house resolutions for 2010 that I want to post mostly so I can refer back to them at the end of the year to see what kind of progress we've made.

1. Replace the fireplace doors with the ones we've purchased and are sitting in the living room. Should be fairly easy - with my dad's help.

2. Fix the lights in the basement. One of the 4 florescent tubes in the overhead light in the laundry room burned out, we took it out, bought new ones and replaced it and it's not working. Let's try and figure out why and get it fixed, don't like doing laundry in the dark.

3. Fix the drafty windows and doors. I didn't realize until earlier tonight that the windows in the living room on the side of the room where Jimmy sits are very drafty. I noticed the windows in the office are drafty as well. That shouldn't be all that hard to fix, I hope. Just need to go to Lowes and see what they say we should do.

4. Get the hot tub up to working order. We pretty much have it working and chemically ready to go but the water has evaporated a lot since it's running so much. I think we should run a hose from the faucet in the garage out thru the living room and sun room to the hot tub and fill it up some more.

5. Fix the patched up screens in the sun room. I've been to the aisle at Lowes where they have the screening for windows and I've read the directions, it looks fairly easy and hopefully inexpensive. I would love to try and fix all of the screens just so they're all replaced at the same time since some of them have little patches from previous repairs in them.

6. Get the garage finished. I don't need it 100% entirely finished. I would be thru the moon if we could get the one wall that's unfinished finished. It looks like they started it whenever they put in the mud room and it just needs a contractor to come out and suggest a few things and price it out for us. I can't imagine it costing a whole lot.

7. Come up with a color palate for the kitty cat room, strip the wallpaper border and paint it. Not that we're using that room right now for anything other than drying our clothes on a drying rack but still I'd like it to be pretty and not kiddie and hideous, kiddieous if you will.

8. Finish up the mancave area. We got a dartboard for Christmas for the basement and I'm not so sure about hanging it up on wood paneling. I'm sure it can be done but I've never hung up anything onto wood paneling before. I bought 2 75 pound picture frame hooks from Lowes last week and I'm sure they'll do the trick since this thing can't be more than 15-20 pounds but I'm still concerned about it. This would be a project where I ask my dad to come by for help and moral support.

9. The yard and gardens. I am sure they'll be a mess in the spring. The stone pathway in the front yard is going to be my first project to tackle. In October we put down chemicals to kill pretty much everything that was growing between the 10 round pavers and we'll dig it all out in the spring and pull the pavers up, level out the dirt and put them back and most likely fill in the dirt with pebbles. I think it will look really nice. I am hopeful that the gardens in the backyard are okay and won't need much help. The garden on the side of the house is going to be a daunting task which will require my dad's help. Earlier this year when we first bought the house he said he would help out and I'm hoping he sticks to his word, although he did get stung by a bee on a rosemary plant out there within 5 minutes of being here the first time. There's a ton of plants in that area that need to be dug out and thrown away or put in a compost. I'd like to get a compost pile too. Although it looks like the neighbors throw their scraps into the hedge row behind our houses - their pumpkins are rotting out there.

10. Get more insulation put in our attic. It shouldn't be that hard to do this ourselves but I'm not sure about the entries to the attic. There's one in the kitty cat room and I think there are pull down steps in the garage. My dad put insulation in the attic of his detached garage and he said it was a pain so maybe if we can afford it before next fall we'll pay someone to do it.

11. Switch around the washer and the dryer. Right now the washer is on the right and the dryer is on the left. The washer door opens up on the left and the dryer door opens up on the right. So you open up both of them and they're sitting on their hinges in the middle and you have to either lift up the clothes over the doors or pull them out and around both doors. It's not all that annoying but does make for plenty of times where clothes are dropped onto the floor (one reason why I put carpet down) but ideally you have them so the doors open to the outside and I'm not sure why they're set up this way. Maybe the pipes for the water weren't long enough or the vent for the dryer isn't in the right place. I'd like to figure it out and fix it if possible.

12. Switch out all of the light switches finally. This was something Jimmy wanted to do when we first moved in and my mom showed him how. I'd just like to finally get it done. There's plenty of nasty, old switches all over the house that I just would rather have replaced with nice, new ones.

13. Get an electrician out to do some work in the basement, garage, mud room and foyer. Ideally I'd like a second light switch for the light in the garage to be installed in the garage. Currently the light is in the mudroom and that's fine but now that they've made it into 2 different rooms, 2 switches would be nice. I'd also like an electrical outlet in the mudroom. I'd like a second light at the top of the basement steps and a switch for the lights on the steps at the bottom of the stairs and a switch for the lights in the basement at the top of the steps. That way you can turn them on and off at either the top or bottom. Same for the steps upstairs. There's a switch at the bottom for the hallway upstairs. But I'd like to be able to turn the light off that's at the bottom of the stairs from upstairs. That should do it.

That's 13 projects, one for each month and one as a bonus. Does that mean we'll actually do and complete one project per month, no, some of them I'd like to get done sooner than that. The list will certainly grow and there are plenty of things that I didn't put on here but would like to but ideally I don't see them happening this year, mostly due to funds and money. And don't get me started on decorating and my dreams I have for furnishing the rooms and spaces we've already redone. A rug here, a painting there, a new lamp there, that list is way too long.

Now if you'd excuse me I need to go run the dishwasher so we have a clean coffee pot to make coffee in tomorrow morning.

PS - check out this video and ask yourself, when was the last time as an adult you went sledding without little kids?

Put That Toilet Seat Down

2009-12-29T08:29:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts but since we're actually on vacation and not simply taking time off from work to unpack the house, we're trying to relax and enjoy this time.

But I thought I'd share something interesting really quickly with you.

This morning at about 8am I got up out of bed and headed to the bathroom. I thought it was weird that the toilet seat was up and upon getting closer to the toilet I noticed it hadn't been flushed. I did my thing and asked Jimmy if he got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He said no. I find it very odd that the seat was up, he's usually very good about closing it. And the seat that we have in there closes automatically if you just slightly push it down. It's slow closing on it's own so you don't slam it down. As soon as I told Jimmy that someone left the seat up and didn't flush he said it must have been ghosty. Must have been, I don't pee with the seat up and he didn't get up in the middle of the night.

It Was A Home Improvement Holiday

2009-12-26T11:01:00.004-05:00

That seemed to be a theme for our gifts we got from my parents for Christmas and they saved the best, and biggest, for last.

Earlier this month my parents had bought a new set of fireplace doors and immediately we were jealous of their new, sleek looking fireplace. Our fireplace is in decent shape in terms of functionality, I think, we haven't used it but really what can go wrong? You open the flue and that's about it in terms of function. Anyway, our fireplace, much like the majority of the house, is outdated. It's brass and black and has glass doors but looks like it's stuck in the 80s or 90s at the earliest. My parents bought a new one that is all black and very sleek and modern looking against their red brick fireplace. Our fireplace is light in color and I'm hoping that we can update the look very nicely.

They got us a gift card to Lowes to purchase a new set of doors. There are plenty to chose from and we just need to go to the store with our measurements and pick something out. I can't wait actually. Maybe we'll go one day during the week. They also got us a fire wood rack for the house to use inside and a set of fireplace tools. This means we'll actually need to have fires now. I was sort of not really wanting to use the fireplace but now I'm actually excited about it and so is Jimmy. They also got us these super cool logs that won't require them to sit outside and be in the wilds of our surroundings - the nasty outdoors. I say that and it makes me sound like I don't like our outdoor space but I really do, I love it, I just don't love the bugs, dirt and mice especially since it looks like we finally got rid of the mice situation.

And speaking of our outdoor spaces, I'll be stopping by the spa place on my way home today from work to pick up some calcium builder for our hot tub. After that, we should be good to go!! Exciting!

Oh Vacation

2009-12-23T16:14:00.004-05:00

Vacation? YES! We both have vacation starting tomorrow and don't go back to work until the 4th, well except for me of course. I'll be working on the 26th and the 2nd and actually tomorrow and on Christmas thanks to the power of technology. But it will really be nice to just have a few days off and not have to unpack boxes or paint or move furniture. Hopefully my body clock lets me get a few extra hours of sleep in next week. Sort of makes up for having worked 12-14 hour days since last Friday.

The Orkin guy is at the house and he says it looks good and that the micies are gone. Good!

Snowed In!!!

2009-12-20T16:32:00.012-05:00

Man it's been quite the weekend. Since last Wednesday we begun hearing the threat of snow which around here in the DC area means "let's all freak out" but this time, the DC peeps had plenty of reason to freek out. The snow started to fall on Friday night around 9pm and when it was all done late last night we got about 20 inches out here in Columbia. This picture was taken about 2 hours before it stopped so it only says 19 but we checked early this morning it's up to 20 now.

BTW the news just said Columbia had 23 inches reported, the most in the area according to that report. I guess that means we win.

Needless to say this snow has allowed me to catch up on a ton of stuff including blogging! Let's start with the stuff from last weekend that I never got to.

Here's our lame Christmas lights on the front door. Very lame. I don't have a photo of the ones in the backyard, maybe I'll go turn them on tonight. They're way not lame.

Here's my centerpiece I made just before our party last week. I love it. I may swap out the ornaments for something more wintery for the rest of the winter and then change it with the seasons and pick up a white candle to use all year round. What do you think of it?

This is my guacamole football field from our party. I'm very proud of it. It's my best one to date.

This is our Christmas tree, it looks so good this year, we didn't use most of the ornaments this year since I didn't want to be cleaning up glitter for the next year. So with fewer ornaments I actually think it looks much better (aside from the ghetto lean it's got going on)

And here we are with the pictures of the snow storm. This is what it looked like yesterday during the storm in our backyard.

And the front yard in the middle of it all.

And since it was so windy out the wind actually blew snow into our sunroom creating a snowroom.

And the driveway before we shoveled this morning.

And after the first round of shoveling today - about 85% done.

We shoveled yesterday morning and twice this morning before going out around 12:30 to finally finish up and help the neighbors shovel out the street. They said that back in the last significant storm in 2003 the plows didn't come do our street for 5 days. That's enough motivation for me to help out and shovel a tunnel for the cars to get in and out.

The driveway is all cleared out down to the pavement and hopefully there won't be any ice on it in the morning, we put down a ton of ice melt and hopefully the snow hasn't melted onto the driveway to where it will refreeze tonight.

Anyway, with the short week ahead I was very glad to get a ton done this weekend. I finished the holiday cards, need to take them to the PO tomorrow which I'm sure will take nearly my entire lunch hour. I also finished wrapping all of our Christmas gifts and need to take the ones for Jimmy's parents with me tomorrow to mail off. I also finished the holiday ornaments for the tree. Last year we bought a 2008 photo ornament and it needed a photo. This year we couldn't find a 2009 one so we bought a hideous mitten frame and put a photo in that. I also baked cookies for my contribution to my family's Christmas cookies. I made 4 batches of 3 dozen each of the following: plain choc chip, choc chip with nuts, Kahlua choc chip and Kahlua choc chip with nuts.

I'm so sore from shoveling. It would be so nice to go soak in the hot tub. Oh wait, that's right, we can't get it working. Finally got the filter for it on Friday but it's not working. Might need to call an electrician after the snow melts to get him to come look at the electrical box for it. Hopefully that's all it is.

We bought a sled on Thursday night, maybe we'll go sledding tomorrow night but tonight, it's all about relaxing and letting our sore bodies rest up. And I'm about to go do that right now!

Sorry For the Lull

2009-12-15T08:57:00.003-05:00

I don't know what happened but my post from Saturday morning has gone missing. Weird.

Anyway, the party Saturday was great. A good crowd of our friends came to celebrate the Navy win over Army and it was just a fun time. Have a ton of food leftover and we're slowly eating it.

Sunday we spent most of the day being lazy after setting up our Christmas tree. It's so pretty. I'll post pictures tonight, hopefully.

Yesterday I was sick so that's why you're getting a post today and not sooner. And hopefully tomorrow we'll have the filter for the hot tub tomorrow. I called 3 times on Friday, twice yesterday and finally my mom went by there yesterday since she was in the area and was able to get someone to call me to work it all out. I think that after we finally get the filter we'll be finding a better, more reliable store to purchase our products from. They're supposed to bring the filter to us tomorrow but I am pretty sure we'll be at work during the day so I'll leave a note by the door and see what happens.

That's all for now, very behind at work.

I'll try and get the missing post reposted, not sure why it's being weird.

Merry Swiftmas

2009-12-10T09:28:00.001-05:00

From my friend Evan to you...

Damn The Man, Save The Empire

2009-12-10T07:54:00.002-05:00

Last night we ventured out to replace the light bulb in our shower lamp since it burned out yesterday. It was a standard 40 watt bulb and the lowest wattage bulb we had was 60 so a trip to the store was necessary. We easily could have just gone to the grocery store but I was secretly hoping we'd go to the home improvement store so I could possibly talk Jimmy in to buying decorations and lights. I managed to get him to agree to putting up some decorations after I came up with a clever name for one of the decorations which I'll tell you more about in a minute.

He decided we'd just go to Home Depot since it's closer than Lowes. Bad choice. Big Mistake.

Disclaimer: The below statement is just my opinion, I am not endorsing any store over the other, just venting my frustration as a consumer.

Home Depot is just the worst when it comes to customer service. No matter when we go into that store there is never a check out counter open that isn't self check out. There is however, usually 2-3 people working the help counter for the self check out section. Their whole concept of putting everything on the scale is just ridiculous. When I'm purchasing something that hardly weighs anything why does the machine have to stop letting me ring up the remainder of my purchase just because the stupid scale can't detect the item I just bagged up? And how come I can't put my full bags back into my cart while I'm still checking out before I'm done with all my items? Why does everything have to sit up there when there's clearly no room? And why does the stupid non cashier person have to talk down to me like I'm stupid when she comes over to "help." I wouldn't even call it help. I would call it belittling. I suppose it didn't help the situation that I was obviously frustrated and just as she walked up behind me I was saying "I F****** HATE THIS STORE." Maybe it's just my local HD that is awful and they're not all this way. I swore on our way to the car last night that from now on we're driving the extra 5 minutes to go to Lowes.

I just want to walk into a store and not have to be talked down to by someone who supposedly is there to help customers out. I'm tempted to go back in there today and write down the number for the store manager and talk down to him just like his employee talked down to me. I'm more than friendly when I'm in a positive situation. I'm that lady that talks too much to the person who is working the check out I'm in. I talk to strangers in stores all the time. But when it comes to having to wait on someone to actually help me out or when I have to go out of MY way to get something done for ME then I'm losing my cool. I once waited 30 minutes for a man to help out a customer who was there before me at Bloomingdales just so I could return some broken dishes I got. 30 minutes. I was fine, didn't lose my cool and totally friendly when he finally finished up and came over to help me out. I help the people out at the grocery store bag up my groceries so the line goes faster and the people behind me don't wait as long. I'll even help put away clothes or shoes that I try on that I don't end up buying just to help out the employee working. I can't get some decent help without getting talked down to at a home improvement store? LAME.

Anyway, sorry, I had to vent.

I did buy 2 sets of holiday lights that we'll put out on the deck! YAY. That way Jimmy doesn't need a ladder to decorate! I wanted to put them out last night but we didn't. We'll most likely wait until tomorrow while it's still light out.

I am so excited for this! This turned out to be the only positive purchase we made at HD last night, everything else was a bit of a let down. However, I managed to get Jimmy to agree to all of this nonsense by telling him I wanted to buy a wreath and name it Aretha Franklin.

Let me introduce you to Aretha, well, her backside.

And those are her friends The Snowflakes. I didn't go outside to take a picture because it was cold out last night. I'll take some tonight. We didn't buy a fresh wreath or a faux wreath, instead we bought an ornament and tinsel wreath. It's gold tinsel with green, gold and red oranaments. The snowflakes light up and change colors. There are 6 of them. I still want to do more out front since overall, I think this set up is lame. I wanted to buy a plain pre-light wreath but all the ones they had were decorated with apples and berries and crap. Except the ones that were over $60. I wasn't about to spend that much. And HD didn't have the cute wreath storage bins that Lowes has. I'll have to go there tomorrow. We're the last house in the cul de sac to decorate. But our backyward should look nice.

I have a ton to do today - it's my Friday since I'm off tomorrow. Busy Busy!

PS I love that the snowflakes sort of look like Stars of David. Yay Chanukah decorations!

Nothing Worse Than A Cold Shower

2009-12-09T08:22:00.000-05:00

No it's not what you think, there's nothing wrong with our water or the temperature. It's the light that's in the ceiling in the shower. It burned out and this morning was the first morning without the heat that it throws down while in the shower. It made for a very chilly shower. I didn't know it even admits heat until this morning when 1. I realized it was darker than normal and 2. it was much colder than normal.

Should be an easy fix this evening of just taking out the bulb and finding a replacement at Lowes later.

Add that to my list of errands tonight.

He Is Too Good To Me

2009-12-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

I got home tonight super late, like almost 7:45ish and Jimmy didn't tell me until I was running around scrambling to make something for myself for dinner since he'd already eaten that he'd vacuumed the the basement and the steps! YAY. One les thing I'll have to do later this week.

And I might have Friday off now. That would really help out a ton!

Let's hope we can manage to get some laundry folded tonight while watching the Ravens play tonight.

Neat and Clean

2009-12-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

Earlier today we had to get a move on in our cleaning. First task was clearing the snow from Jimmy's car and the driveway. Then we started upstairs. Had to dust the bedroom, guestroom and bathroom. Then had to clean the bathroom from top to bottom. Then had to vacuum the bedroom and bathroom and then mop the bathroom floor. Then had to vacuum the hallway and bedrooms and office. Then had to polish the hardwoods in the guestroom and office. Then Jimmy started vacuuming the stairs. That's when I moved the vacuum so it wouldn't stretch and then it fell down the stairs over him and cut his hand on the way down. Then he took a time out while I dusted the living and dining rooms and then vacuumed and then polished the floors. He then vacuumed the family room. All that's left in terms of cleaning is the half bath, the breakfast room, the basement and the kitchen. I'll take care of most of that this week and the kitchen next Friday night just before cooking.

I don't think I'll ever get all of the dirt up off of the floor. That's just how it's going to be. Unless you have any suggestions?

Midweekend Update

2009-12-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

Yay we got snow afterall! I'd say probably somewhere between 3-4 inches. Most likely would have been more but it's sort of slushy and not light and fluffy. I wonder how it will be in the morning and if we'll be able to shovel the driveway. We managed to get out in it for a bit this afternoon to take a picture for our holiday cards. Afterwards we came inside to make hot cocoa and coffee and some cinnamon buns. YUM. Was a much needed yummy and most importantly warm treet.

Earlier this morning before the snow started to fall and it was just rain, we went to BJs to start picking up some things for the party. That was an expensive trip. We have plenty of space to put things now that we have the mud room cleaned up. I'm still a bit worried about leaving food out there since there's still a chance of mice but I'm going to monitor the situtation very closely.

The majority of our day today while being home was spent in the office putting files away and organize our lives. Back in the apartment we only had small file tote boxes to hold of our paperwork. That was such a pain in the butt way to store things so now that we have the filing cabinet it makes things much easier. But the down side is that our shredder is dead so instead of shredding everything we now have one of our plastic storage containers full of stuff to shred. We'll try and pick up one tomorrow while we're running errands in the morning. We plan on going to the big discount liquor store about 15 minutes away and then maybe go make a quick and cheap run to the grocery store. Then tomorrow night it's the private shopping event at Nordstrom. I have to be so very careful not to spend anything and just pick out presents for my mom and dad to buy me.

I got a bunch more things done around here today. Once we got all of the files put away we could then clean up the dining room and put all the other crap away that was on the table. We hung up a photograph Jimmy had in a frame in the guestroom, it looks great. We hung up some other things here and there. Oh I put his flag from Iraq up in the family room above the couch and a wind chime I got for a wedding gift out in the sunroom.

And now I'm very sleepy and cold and my back hurts. It would be a great night to get in the hot tub. Oh wait, that's right, the filter still isn't here. Good times. I hope it's okay and not a frozen block of ice inside.

Albert Has Been Hung (up)

2009-12-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

YAY!!! Yesterday was a good day for the house. The Orkin man came out and thinks that the majority of the mouse activity has been contained to the garage which is good. We haven't seen any signs of live mice, just some droppings in a crawl space in the garage and who knows how long it's been there. Could just be old from when we had the problem a few weeks ago. He set out some more traps and will be back in 2 weeks and we also set up our regular treatment day - the 4th Thursday of every month starting in February.

Also when I got home yesterday there was a big, big, big package waiting for me. Jimmy didn't know what it was but I knew right away that it was Albert's house. Yay. I was expecting it today, not yesterday. Once Orkin guy left we got to opening it. It looks so good. See for yourself:

The picture is a bit fuzzy since it was taken on my camera phone, my regular camera is sitting at home. But how good does he look in that frame? I found a great place online that pretty much makes custom sized frames and ships them out very quickly. http://www.framedestination.com/ Check it out!!!

Also my mom is buying us a little present:

I'm hoping they'll all be here in time for the party. The shower curtain is a color called Midnight, I'm hoping it's a super dark navy and not black. The black one they have looks very black and this one looks very blue so let's just hope that's the case. And I think I'll be much more happy with the bathroom once I get the remaining tumblers - I ordered 2. I also switched out the soap dish with the one I still had in our bathroom. No real reason for us to have one in ours so now after I get these in the mail everything will be the same. The only problem is that these are a mix between chrome and pewter even though they call them pewter. The faucets, towel bars and cabinet pulls are all chrome. Oh well.

Now let's hope that the filter for the hot tub comes in today or tomorrow. We really need to get that done and taken care of and I'd like to get it done before it snows and freezes tomorrow!!!! I think tonight we're going to put away our files and organize our file cabinet. Sounds like a fun night to me! Not!

Snow This Weekend?

2009-12-02T13:12:00.003-05:00

If we do get any snow, this will be our first snow in the new house!

AccuWeather.com News Forecast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Weekend East Coast Storm Track

State College, Pa. -- 2 December 2009 -- AccuWeather.com reports there continues to be concern that a storm may bring snow to Weekend Storm the East Coast this weekend. Enough cold air will be in place, but the key to where and if any snow falls will be the track of the storm.

Regardless of its exact track, the weekend storm will take a path significantly different from today's storm. The current storm will head northward to the eastern Great Lakes, leaving the East Coast on its warm and rainy side.

Since the weekend storm should track over the western Atlantic Ocean, the East Coast will then lie on its chilly side. Enough cold air should be present that parts of region may receive some snow.

Our current thinking is that the storm will deliver accumulating snow across northern Texas on Friday with snow likely to make an appearance even in Houston. The bulk of the accumulating snow should then spread to the southern Appalachian Mountains and central Virginia on Saturday.

A period of wet snow or rain is possible in Philadelphia, New York City and south of Boston. Chilly rain will pour down in Richmond, Raleigh and Charlotte, but it could end as wet snow.

Above is our current thinking, but that is not set in stone. If the storm tracks slightly more offshore, places closer to the coast could receive more snow and endure the resultant travel problems. If the storm pushes far enough offshore, the weekend will just be cold and generally dry across the East Coast.

This is definitely a storm you will want to keep checking back in with AccuWeather.com for the latest updates.

Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski

Ghosty, Turn Off The Light!

2009-12-01T08:20:00.000-05:00

So last night I was practically falling asleep on the couch during the Saints Patriots game and decided at half time I had to go to bed. We laid in bed watching the second half and at around 11 I had to get up to use the bathroom. Jimmy also got up and when we got into the bathroom I saw the light was on in the closet. Not sure how long it had been on. I went into the closet to put my shoes away when I got home from work at 7:30. I didn't even turn the light on when I went in since I had all the lights on in the bathroom. Jimmy said he hadn't been in the closet since earlier that morning. Very weird, right?

Before & After: Guest Bathroom

2009-11-30T21:02:00.001-05:00

Well more like just after since you saw the before not too long ago. Here we go.

And here's a before and after of the curtains in the family room (and breakfast area but really it's the same thing but shorter)

And after:

And here's a pic of the artwork Jimmy picked out for above the guest bed.

I really love it. I love that it's so peaceful for being a photo of a storm rolling in. It's sort of the calm before the storm. Love it!

Also here's a pic of what we got for our master bathroom that just happens to match the cabinetry.

Overall I'm really happy with the guest bathroom transformation with the exception of the shower curtain. That's an easy fix, I just need to take my time to find one that is right and maybe eventually buy all matching shower accessories. One day I'd like to be able to replace the tile in the shower and probably all of it and not just the pink border. I'm not sure how I feel about the flooring tile being very similar to the shower tile, it's practically the same thing only in different sizes. They also tried to match the counter top to it. Everything is really white and I like that but with the grey swirls it almost looks dirty in places. I really like the way the counters turned out being done in an off white - good call Jimmy on not wanting to buy more paint - it makes the room look less sterile and makes it look weathered. I think we'll need to replace the hardware on the doors just so it doesn't match every other piece of hardware in the room. I think it needs something with a bit more character. And I want to buy white or off white flowers to replace the red ones.

Jimmy made it to the hot tub store and it only cost over $230. They only had one filter so we are waiting for the second to arrive in the mail before we can move forward with doing the chemicals. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night and cleaning up the mud room and throwing a ton of paint supplies away like old rollers and trays that are just sitting in there. Can't wait to reclaim that space for us and not for our paint.

And driving home tonight really put me in the mood to hang up Christmas lights. I wonder if I can convince Jimmy we should do it. At least maybe in the sunroom over the door to the house. I think that would look nice and we can even leave them up all year long for parties. I must come up with a plan...

Checking My List

2009-11-30T14:41:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted that we had an official date for our house warming party and it's 2 weekends away. I've gone thru our list of to do's and we've gotten a ton done!!

• ~~Paint and decorate the guest bathroom - shouldn't take too long, just need time to paint!~~

~~• Prime and paint the kitty cat room closet and install built ins - Jimmy filled the holes last night, hopefully we'll sand it down tonight~~

~~• Paint the guestroom, decorate and furnish~~
~~• Buy remaining drawers for built ins for the guestroom closet and build and install~~

~~• Buy storage containers and organize linens and the old towels~~

~~• Get the basement organized - chop off some of the height on our storage shelf and put all the DVDs away~~

~~• Hit up Ikea and buy our bookcase, build it, install the doors and put our DVDs away.~~ ~~Possibly buy a small sofa table for the living room~~ (we didn't actually but a table - instead my dad gave us one) and maybe some end tables. And accessories. I need a rug ~~and some throw pillows.~~
• ~~Unpack the remaining boxes - we have a ton - with stuff for all over the house pretty much. Mostly DVDs, CDs, photos, and random crap.~~

~~• Get the office organized~~ , files sorted and put away, ~~CDs organized and put away~~ (this weekend, it's all about putting away our files)
• Hang up photos and decorate! (I've started this, but so far, we're behind on it. I just restocked paper and ink so I'll get to printing new photos this week)
• ~~Buy new curtains for the living room~~ and kitchen (I bought the curtains for the breakfast area window and the window above the sliding door in the family room, I forgot about the dingy white lace POS in the kitchen.)
• ~~Put bulbs in the lamps and set up all the lamps - only 1 lamp is actually in place and functioning at the moment.~~
• Clean the house once we get all that done.

Like I said, we're making a ton of progress. Tomorrow night we'll clean the mud room and put all the paint in the basement and throw away all of the other junk in there. I may actually be able to use the cabinets in there for storage!!! I also need to get a shopping list together. There's just one box in the living room that needs to be unpacked and one more in the garage.

Guest Bathroom Makeover Day 3

2009-11-29T21:00:00.001-05:00

Yay we finished. I'll have before and after pictures tomorrow sometime. I'm too tired to go back downstairs and find my camera. It's been a long 4 day weekend. We finished the bathroom. It looks good. It looks like I expected it to look but I'm a bit underwhelmed by it. It's colors are similiar to the colors in the guest bedroom being that blue and brown are the colors. In the bathroom the dominat color is the camel and the white which is pretty much the floor tiles, the counter tops and cabinets, the shower tiles which also spill over onto a few of the walls. The shower tile also has pink in it. I covered up a ton of the pink by putting up a hideous blue vinyl shower curtain. I hope it's only temporary and that I can find a better one. Ideally I'd like to hang up my old silver, sheer curtain but it totally would clash. I put the blue bath rugs out on the floor and hung up blue and white towels and put out a combo of the blue with chrome bath accessories and the darker chrome accessories. I tried to mix it up but I'm really not happy with the bath accessories at all. Eh, it's not like it's going anywhere. One day when I can afford to replace the tile we'll start over.

We also finished draining the hot tub. That didn't take long this morning but once the level got so low that the pump couldn't drain anything else we had to get in there with a cup and a small bucket. Then when it was so low that wouldn't work we used pretty much an entire roll of paper towels sopping up water. Then we had to use the cleaner to protect the finish. Then we filled it back up. Of course we don't have any of the chemicals needed to get the water taken care of and of course the hot tub store down the street was closed today. I'm going to call tomorrow to see if they can pull everything I need and have it waiting for Jimmy when he arrives later tomorrow evening. I can't wait to see how much that is going to cost me. And I need to buy 2 new filters for it. I think the way that the chemicals work is that you put them in one after the other and don't have to wait in between so we could have the water taken care of by tomorrow night and just need to get it on a timer so it stays running. Can't wait to see what our energy and water bills will be after this month.

I also got our new artwork hung up in the guest bedroom. I will have pictures of that tomorrow as well. And I replaced the curtains in the family room and breakfast area - I'm very happy with them and am thinking of possibly putting matching ones in the living room and dining room. That would involve having to buy the curtain rods and installing those which isn't a big deal but it's a big commitment.

And possibly the most exciting part of our weekend is that we got our mountain of laundry folded and put away. The only thing not put away is a stack of kitchen towels sitting on my dresser but like I said I'm way too tired to go downstairs again. All of my clothes are put away - Jimmy however has a stack over on the trunk under the window. It's all good cuz at least he got his nightstand finally unpacked and everything put away. No more empty drawers.

My parents came over eariler and helped us figure out how to shut off the water for the winter. I honestly don't even know what the outcome was other than that one was shut off and the other wasn't but will be. And that we couldn't drain the remaining water out from the pipes or something like that.

We also got the last of the boxes put out with recycling tonight. I think there's just one more box in the living room which has a few small pieces of junk in it that haven't been put away yet. Other than that I think all of the boxes in the house are now gone. There's also just one box in the garage that still has stuff in it but hey, it's the garage.

Of all my body parts that got a beating from the work this weekend my hands took the worst of it. They are like sand paper. It's so bad. I hope not to wash my hands too much tomorrow but I know it's no use, I'll be washing them just as often as I normally do and use my hand sanitizer way too much too. At least I'll try and remember to use lotion afterwards.

So next weekend is the last weekend before the party and that means we have to get our files and paperwork organized and put away. It shouldn't take long once we get going. It has to be done. Then we have to clean the house up so we can just do a tiny bit of cleaning the morning of. Mostly the kitchen, breakfast room, our bathroom and bedroom will need to be done. Everything else is just a quick buzz thru with the vacuum and it should be fine.

Ok it's to the point now where I'm yawning and my eyes are watering. I need to shut down for the night.

Before and After pics tomorrow, I promise!

Guest Bathroom Makeover Day 2

2009-11-28T22:05:00.000-05:00

Well it didn't go as planned today. I got home from work expecting to get started on the bathroom but after thinking a few things over I decided we had to get the hot tub drained and refilled so we could shut off the water outside. Well, the hot tub is still about half full. We started out using buckets and that was a very wet idea. Then I sent Jimmy off to Home Depot to buy a pump. That worked but cost us $80some dollars. After sitting out on the deck very cold we finally decided to call it quits for the day and have an early dinner and get to the painting.

We got the second coat of paint done on the cabinet doors and then got to work on the Camel color on the walls. The first coat is all over and done with. Once that is dried by the morning we'll do the second and hopefully final coat, let the dry and I can touch any spots up and then do the second coat on the cabinet base and then the white shelf in the privacy wall. Then I'll need to do the white on the laundry chute door and probably touch up the paint on the base board and the door trim.

And my back is killing me. Probably from leaning over and scooping out gallons of water earlier today and then sitting down on the hardwood and painting the cabinet doors. And it didn't help having to get up and down the ladder and standing on the toilet and the counter just to tape off the wall and ceiling and then paint.

And I have an updated on Albert - I ordered him a house last night. Not sure when it will be here but I can't wait. I think we're going to have him live in his new house above the big couch in the living room. I didn't want it to be the first thing you see when you walk in so I think it will be best for it go on the same wall as the door.

So tomorrow it's finish the paint in the guestbath and clean and decorate the bathroom. Then at some point I'm hoping my parents come over and bring their pump so we can drain the hot tub twice as fast or we'll just use ours. And hopefully they'll help us with the water valves and shutting them off since neither of us have done that before. Then later in the day I want to get the curtains switched out in the family room and throw the old ones out. I should have made sure that the ones I bought are machine washable and not dry clean only.

Jimmy decided today he doesn't ever want to paint another room in our house ever again. I told him too bad, the next room we'll do is the kitty cat room and that won't be for a few months. Then I think I want to paint our bathroom a periwinkle color.

Oh my dream job list goes on and on...

Detour on The Guest Bathroom

2009-11-28T16:11:00.000-05:00

We're draining the hot tub, should be done later today, then tomorrow we'll go get new chemicals and have an actual working hot tub! Painting TBC once this thing is empty, about half way there now.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Ghosty, We Didn't Forget About You

2009-11-28T10:29:00.001-05:00

I didn't sleep very good last night. Well mostly this morning. I woke up at around 5:15 and looked over at my phone which was plugged into the charger and sitting on my night stand. The hands neatly pointed at 5 and the 3 saying to me it was 5:15. About 45 minutes later at around 6 I looked over at it and it was no longer on the clock. Instead it had some message up on it. When the alarm finally went off at 7 I got up and looked at it. Somehow between 5:15 and 6 the email set up wizard had popped up on the screen. That's not something that just pops up, it is afterall a Blackberry and pretty much that needs to be selected from the main menu. And come to think of it, that function has it's own shortcut icon and I have that inside a different folder on my main menu. It's as if you'd have to exit out of the clock and bedside mode, then go to the main menu, go find the folder and open the wizard. Weird right?

Ghosty, was that you? I know you've been quiet for a few weeks, but if it was you, it's okay, just please don't ever turn off my alarm!!!!

I've had Blackberries for going on 6 years now. I've never seen that happen before. Ever.