DONE. 24 days after I started this lil' project from hell, it's done. Done, done, done, done, done, done, DONE! And if I do say so myself, it looks really, truly great. *happy dance*
Pictures coming tomorrow, for tonight the children are off visiting their grandparents and since we're childfreeeeeee, we're off to celebrate the end of this infernal project by having a Jucy Lucy at Matt's and then seeing "I am Legend" at the Riverview.
DONE!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Nature in our yard
Wednesday, when it was bitingly, bitterly cold, I was sitting at the kitchen table, ostensibly working on the novel but actually emailing with Miss Valerie, when a coyote sauntered through our backyard. Stunned, I watched it through the window until it was out of sight, and then promptly changed the topic of whatever our conversation had been:
Me: ....Holy [bleep], a coyote just trotted across our back yard! Glad Bailey* wasn't out (although she probably outweighs the coyote and could defend herself just by sitting on it).
Val: A coyote?? Wow. That's what you get for living by the river. What does a coyote do when it's 15 below zero? How does it keep warm???
Good questions, and I don't know the answers. What do coyotes do when it's -15F? And how do they keep warm???
Unfortunately, the camera wasn't within reach -- and honestly, I was stuck on "OMG, that's a coyote!" and too astonished to even think of going for the camera until after the fact. I've seen coyotes around here before (as Val pointed out, we do live by the river, and that part of the river happens to be within a state park and nature preserve, so there's wildlife galore)...but never in my own backyard. I'm not quite sure that I like this development, but at the moment it was kind of cool.
But wait, there's more.
Yesterday (Friday) around twilight while Pete was off whooping it up with the biking crew, I went from the kitchen into the living room to grab something and didn't bother turning on the lights. Now, there's a large shrub just outside the front door and next to the big window, and in the last light of the setting sun I saw...
[insert dramatic pause here]
...the silhouette of a pair of large ears just above the shrub.
My first thought was that it was the coyote paying a return visit and getting entirely too close to the house. (This was wildly implausible, because one, the ears were the wrong shape and too big, and two, that's a good-sized shrub, so if it was a coyote skulking around it, it'd have to be an awfully big coyote for just its ears to be showing, but I didn't think of those things until later.) I didn't like the thought of Mr. Coyote hanging out by our front door at all, so I kept the lights off and crept toward the window as quietly as I could with the notion of sneaking up on the critter and then yelling and banging on the window to scare it so badly that it wouldn't return, ever.
Well, when I got closer I saw that it wasn't a coyote: it was a deer. A young deer, maybe a yearling, and he or she (the light wasn't good enough to tell whether it was a buck or a doe) was eating our shrub. Surprised and a little outraged, I stopped sneaking and said, loudly, "Hey!" The deer startled and skittered back a few feet -- but only a few feet. It stood and stared at me through the window, and I stared back, and the girls came upstairs and went "Oooooh, a deer!" and then it and two other adult deer that I hadn't noticed took off across the front yard and bounded away toward the river.
This morning there are deer tracks in the snow all through both the front and back yards. I'm also noticing that there are an awful lot of doggy-like tracks all over the place...and they're way outside of Bailey's door-to-potty-and-back-to-the-door range (she does not care for cold and snow one bit, and only goes outside when forced by necessity or great mean people who make her go for walks: in other words, those aren't her tracks).
Hmm.
Deer in the yard...Coyote(s?) in the yard...Gosh, could the two possibly be related? o.O
I need to start keeping the camera within reach at all times.
I also think that now might be the time to sign up for that shooting class (guns, not cameras) I've been meaning to take. Venison, yum.
(That is a joke! Of course I would not shoot a gun in the 'burbs.)
*Our small, fat dog.
Me: ....Holy [bleep], a coyote just trotted across our back yard! Glad Bailey* wasn't out (although she probably outweighs the coyote and could defend herself just by sitting on it).
Val: A coyote?? Wow. That's what you get for living by the river. What does a coyote do when it's 15 below zero? How does it keep warm???
Good questions, and I don't know the answers. What do coyotes do when it's -15F? And how do they keep warm???
Unfortunately, the camera wasn't within reach -- and honestly, I was stuck on "OMG, that's a coyote!" and too astonished to even think of going for the camera until after the fact. I've seen coyotes around here before (as Val pointed out, we do live by the river, and that part of the river happens to be within a state park and nature preserve, so there's wildlife galore)...but never in my own backyard. I'm not quite sure that I like this development, but at the moment it was kind of cool.
But wait, there's more.
Yesterday (Friday) around twilight while Pete was off whooping it up with the biking crew, I went from the kitchen into the living room to grab something and didn't bother turning on the lights. Now, there's a large shrub just outside the front door and next to the big window, and in the last light of the setting sun I saw...
[insert dramatic pause here]
...the silhouette of a pair of large ears just above the shrub.
My first thought was that it was the coyote paying a return visit and getting entirely too close to the house. (This was wildly implausible, because one, the ears were the wrong shape and too big, and two, that's a good-sized shrub, so if it was a coyote skulking around it, it'd have to be an awfully big coyote for just its ears to be showing, but I didn't think of those things until later.) I didn't like the thought of Mr. Coyote hanging out by our front door at all, so I kept the lights off and crept toward the window as quietly as I could with the notion of sneaking up on the critter and then yelling and banging on the window to scare it so badly that it wouldn't return, ever.
Well, when I got closer I saw that it wasn't a coyote: it was a deer. A young deer, maybe a yearling, and he or she (the light wasn't good enough to tell whether it was a buck or a doe) was eating our shrub. Surprised and a little outraged, I stopped sneaking and said, loudly, "Hey!" The deer startled and skittered back a few feet -- but only a few feet. It stood and stared at me through the window, and I stared back, and the girls came upstairs and went "Oooooh, a deer!" and then it and two other adult deer that I hadn't noticed took off across the front yard and bounded away toward the river.
This morning there are deer tracks in the snow all through both the front and back yards. I'm also noticing that there are an awful lot of doggy-like tracks all over the place...and they're way outside of Bailey's door-to-potty-and-back-to-the-door range (she does not care for cold and snow one bit, and only goes outside when forced by necessity or great mean people who make her go for walks: in other words, those aren't her tracks).
Hmm.
Deer in the yard...Coyote(s?) in the yard...Gosh, could the two possibly be related? o.O
I need to start keeping the camera within reach at all times.
I also think that now might be the time to sign up for that shooting class (guns, not cameras) I've been meaning to take. Venison, yum.
(That is a joke! Of course I would not shoot a gun in the 'burbs.)
*Our small, fat dog.
Friday, February 22, 2008
4 walls down, 2 to go
Still painting. But I'm on the home stretch now. 2 more walls to go (and one of those isn't really even a wall, just a giant window with a little bit of wall above and beneath), and this hellish project will be done.Thank goodness.
River Rock, never again!
Edited to add a picture of the newly finished wall. (Excuse the mess.)
Please, please, tell me that it looks good. I've been working on this so long, I've gone blind to whether it's working or not. I'm fearfully worried that I've really screwed up and it's too much green, and I tell you, if I have to redo this room, I'm gonna cry. So please, tell me it looks good...
River Rock, never again!
Edited to add a picture of the newly finished wall. (Excuse the mess.)
Please, please, tell me that it looks good. I've been working on this so long, I've gone blind to whether it's working or not. I'm fearfully worried that I've really screwed up and it's too much green, and I tell you, if I have to redo this room, I'm gonna cry. So please, tell me it looks good...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Breakfast
-11°F currently (yeah, I know, it's balmy compared to Bemidji!). What do you feed the kids when it's that cold and they're going to be standing at the bus stop? A nice hot breakfast, that's what.
Whole Grain Blueberry Pancakes
Man, these are filling. I've been experimenting with spelt flour (tricky to work with, but I'm getting the hang of it), so there's some of that in these, as well as oat, bulger wheat, and whole wheat flours. They're yummy, but dense. Em can usually eat her weight and then some in pancakes, but even she can only eat three of these.
The blueberries are from last summer when they were at their peak and dirt cheap. I bought pounds and pounds and froze the lot.
I also took pictures. (What a surprise!)
It's great to have a summer blueberry in February. :-)
I deliberately made a double batch of this morning's pancakes, even though there was no way the girls and I could eat 'em all. They're great frozen and then toasted in the toaster oven for a quick breakfast. (Not that we ever oversleep or have one of those rush-rush-rush mornings, no no, not us!)
Whole Grain Blueberry Pancakes
Man, these are filling. I've been experimenting with spelt flour (tricky to work with, but I'm getting the hang of it), so there's some of that in these, as well as oat, bulger wheat, and whole wheat flours. They're yummy, but dense. Em can usually eat her weight and then some in pancakes, but even she can only eat three of these.
The blueberries are from last summer when they were at their peak and dirt cheap. I bought pounds and pounds and froze the lot.
I also took pictures. (What a surprise!)
It's great to have a summer blueberry in February. :-)
I deliberately made a double batch of this morning's pancakes, even though there was no way the girls and I could eat 'em all. They're great frozen and then toasted in the toaster oven for a quick breakfast. (Not that we ever oversleep or have one of those rush-rush-rush mornings, no no, not us!)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Funding the orthodontist's lake home, oh yeah
(Still painting. I want to think this round is going better than the last, but I won't know for sure until tomorrow when the 3rd and I hope final coat goes up on the wall I'm currently working on.)
Today was our 14th anniversary. We could have gone to Rome...the Caribbean...taken a cruise....But no. Instead, to celebrate, we threw a bunch of cash into the girls' mouths.
Em gets an expander bar for four months, then braces. Looks like a bunch of purple gum wadded up around her teeth, eh?
If you click the image and look closely at the large version, you can sort of see the actual bar.
She's drooling lots (the orthodontist calls it being "slurpy," and yeah, that about sums it up) and sounding an awful lot like Sid from Ice Age right now. I'm told that will improve in a few days.
Mo has it relatively easy: just braces. And pink and green, how cool is that?!
Unlike her sister, Mo's teeth are relatively straight. But that overbite, yonks. Actually, we learned that that's not even an overbite. It's an "overjet." Eek.
(I took their pictures with the currently-being-painted wall as the background and about two hours difference in time and lighting. I'm still resolved never to use this stuff again, but I have to say that I'm totally digging how the color shifts as the day goes along.)
Today was our 14th anniversary. We could have gone to Rome...the Caribbean...taken a cruise....But no. Instead, to celebrate, we threw a bunch of cash into the girls' mouths.
Em gets an expander bar for four months, then braces. Looks like a bunch of purple gum wadded up around her teeth, eh?
If you click the image and look closely at the large version, you can sort of see the actual bar.
She's drooling lots (the orthodontist calls it being "slurpy," and yeah, that about sums it up) and sounding an awful lot like Sid from Ice Age right now. I'm told that will improve in a few days.
Mo has it relatively easy: just braces. And pink and green, how cool is that?!
Unlike her sister, Mo's teeth are relatively straight. But that overbite, yonks. Actually, we learned that that's not even an overbite. It's an "overjet." Eek.
(I took their pictures with the currently-being-painted wall as the background and about two hours difference in time and lighting. I'm still resolved never to use this stuff again, but I have to say that I'm totally digging how the color shifts as the day goes along.)
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