the remaking of a kitchen

here they are, the happy couple. :) don and i are absolutely delighted and share in the whole family's happiness at their plans.

Labels: happiness

It's the day after our mini reunion. this is the gang......a small percentage of the gang, but we did have a good time. we ate enough to feed a much larger group and it will take days, weeks, months to work it off. it was good tho.
lots of good things were celebrated.....jewlee's 34th birthday, our 44th anniversary and the announcement of sarah's and david's plans to marry. lots of toasts!

Labels: celebrations, food, reunions

today is a prep day.....i cooked the country pork ribs and sliced them thinly before adding some barbecue sauce. we'll have them along with brats for dinner on saturday. tomorrow i plan to do some more cooking and baking, do a quick grocery run to pick up the stuff i forgot to put on the list. duh! don and i sampled the cheddar/blue cheese from the uk.....could be addicting! it is fabulously delicious! i hope it last till people get here. :)

Labels: pork

i finally remembered to take a shot of the veggie "garden" and i use that term loosely!
the plant to the left is the runaway cucumber that gary purchased for me to grow, the middle mostly obscured extremely dainty vine is a cuke that is supposed to be round and was rescued by gary from the chuck and plopped into this space. the next plant is my cherry tomato that looks like it might actually present me with more that 2 toms for the season. the runaway is looking pretty prolific and i hope to have enough for a big bowl of cucumbers and onions this weekend. yum

Labels: cukes and onions, garden

this is a red letter day.....red as in tomatoes. i picked my first little cherry tomatoes from the bush today, and there was another ripe cucumber so it got into the photo too.
i fertilized the cucumber and tomato, also the little round cucumber damaged by marauding woodchucks. i also fertilized the squashes equally attacked by the chucks. the latter two plants were transplanted from brian and gary's garden in hopes they would thrive on this side of the street. i accepted the challenge with strong warnings that any sign of THEIR chucks on our side of the street would make for reprisals.
the veggie garden is small, but it is beginning to produce some goodies!

Labels: eating local

no big exciting progress on things today. i managed to use 3 paint brushes doing some touch-up work in the bathroom, mostly the ceiling, but covering some other areas that seemed to be broadcasting WHITE PAINT! i think it looks better, at least at night with artificial lighting....we shall see in the morning. i also painted the patch in the ceiling around the transformer for the new track in the hallway. i had primed it before we began the project so today i used the ceiling paint from the kitchen/dining area. not sure it is the perfect color, but it's certainly better than the primer! i used the third brush to repaint the spots in the bathroom i'd painted with DUH! ceiling paint. don't know what i was thinking....well i had used that color for woodwork in the kitchen etc.....but not the matte that we used on the ceiling. i seemed to momentarily forget that we used the same paint on the walls, ceiling and trim in the bathroom. anyway.....now it's repainted. egads.

Labels: painting

when we purchased the track lights for the kitchen last year, we also purchased a track for the hallway. we have talked and talked about changing out the old, hated fixture, and just didn't do it. we tend to do that a lot. :) however, that is all in the past. don studied the directions....he is the one who reads and understands stuff like that. we flipped the proper switch to leave the area powerless. we measured and made sure the posts that would hold the track were in a straight line. lots of eyeballing going on! don made a trip to jerry's and got the right kind of screws....the directions and enclosed screws were for drywall, and that would not be us. so, with all the connections and the transformer in place, today we assembled the track and attached it to the posts. next we put the bulbs into the lamps and attached them to the track. i ran down and turned the power back on and then ran back upstairs and flipped the light switch. voila! we have light.....lots more light than has ever lit the hallway.
ah.....and then we realized we had used the connectors on the track were the wrong color. so, off with the power and then we took the whole thing apart and removed the existing connectors and replaced them with the proper white ones. we also measured carefully and calculated exactly where the lights should go. well i decided the starting places at the ends and don did the calculation....honesty is a good thing here. :) anyway, it all worked and it is gorgeous!!! the electrician and his helper do darn good work, and the price is right!

Labels: electrician, helper

today as i was lazily reading a magazine, jen called and said she was in town and could she come look at the table. YES! so she did, and she liked it, but it wouldn't fit in her car, so she just took the chairs today, and a hose we weren't using and some other stuff. next she will return with dad dave and take the table and then another shorter square table that may turn into a coffee table if they cut off the legs. we have also offered the articulated ladder that weighs 3 tons. she can use it to paint indoor high places and work on the outside on window trim etc. this is a good deal for both of us as we get space and she gets stuff she needs. yeah!

Labels: jen, ladder, tables and chairs

friday evening is often gnome night, but we pre-empted and invited missy, cole and allie to our house for pizza. missy is the most frequent gnomish hostess, so it was only right! papa murphy did us proud and the weather was fabulous, so don, missy and i sat on the deck and visited for hours. very nice.

Labels: gnome night, missy, pizza

we had guests for lunch today. john and beth are in the area for a german polka festival in wisconsin and called the other day to see if we could get together. we decided that lunch was what was available and today was the day.
i got into cooking mode and made a greek orzo salad with shrimp courtesy of bon appetit by way of www.epicurious.com. it was really great.....lemon juice and zest, feta cheese, fresh dill (from the farmer's market by the basilica) a bit of oregano, salt and fresh ground pepper. we had sour dough rolls from tj's and i made a fresh blueberry pie. i made some butter bean hummus to serve with stacy's bare naked pita chips to nibble on until we sat down for lunch.
it was great to see beth and john.....beth has known me since i was born....she was a big kid, 3 years older and we have pictures to prove it. these were taken to add to the record of our long lasting friendship. my parents were the only non family guests at the wedding of her mom and dad. beth and i claim we have an inherited friendship!
missy called to say she'd love to have us come over for gnome night, so i brought the leftover hummus and chips. i don't always bring something; i don't always have snacks on hand so it was fun to bring them tonight. we got to meet bob, the new neighbor who just bought the house across from missy. the house would have been on the market for 2 full years the middle of this month. he had big plans for redoing the place, so that should be interesting. we also met pat who lives next to bob with her husband bill. don h. knew him as billy when b grew up with his mom and siblings in the house. marcie and dale and their kids were there too. it was a fun evening.
we have been enjoying fresh red and black raspberries from diane's garden while their family is on vacation. they come back tomorrow, so it's all over then. :(
i am telling myself that i really need to use that magnificent sourdough starter resting in the refrigerator. it could happen!

Labels: beth and john, gnome night