The Waiting is the Hardest Part

BUT NOT ENOUGH TO MOVE THERE!

Chad worked in New York City all week. He's been spending his work weeks in the city for the past few months now, and it's getting really tiresome for him with all the travel, and really tiresome for me feeling lonely. His flight home should be landing about now -- if it's on time, which it rarely is. I miss him so much! Some people have asked why we don't move to New York. We've thought about it, and after waffling a bit, decided not to move to the big city that never sleeps. Here are just a few reasons:

1. We JUST fixed up our Austin home, and can't bear to leave after all that work!
2. Our friends and support network in Austin would be sorely missed.
3. Rent on a decent 1 bedroom apartment in Manhattan runs around $2000 a month, and there's no way we could afford to buy a place there.
4. We're just not East Coast / big city / rat race kind of people.
5. Chad's company hasn't made an official offer to move us, though we expect it any day now.
6. Chad would still have to travel to places like Washington DC, Philadelphia, Orlando & Los Angeles for work even if we moved to New York City.
7. Alligators in the sewers.
8. Rats the size of cats.
9. Roaches the size of kittens.
10. It's more fun to visit NYC, than to live there.

Whatcha Doin'?

Many people have asked what I'm doing since leaving my "day job" a few weeks ago:
• Resting
• Getting my oil changed
• Reading lots of books and magazines
• Cleaning the house
• Taking Kenji to the vet for an abscess wound sustained in a scuffle when she snuck outside (bad girl!)
• Going to the gym more regularly
• Seeing some movies
• Hand-washing sweaters -- it's more time intensive than it sounds, trust me. Cashmere smells like wet goat when you dunk it in the water. Merino wool smells like wet dog. Luckily the Woolite helps with the stink.
• Watching season two of Hart to Hart on DVD


As if the above list is not enough:

I'm rehearsing for this year's Fronterafest show. What is Fronterafest, you ask? According to the website: Every night the Hyde Park Theatre presents a new bill of four or five plays no longer than 25 minutes each. Brilliant monologues? Plays in progress? Comedy improv? Cabaret singers? Avant-garde dance? Short films? Multimedia? They've seen it all. Fronterafest is a theater festival that works like a tournament where the favorite five shows (out of about twenty shows from each week) get to perform again on Saturday night each week for the juried "Best of the Week" performance. After five weeks of about a hundred shows, the favorite ten shows perform twice again as part of the juried "Best of the Fest" in mid-February. I'm working with Max Langert again for a fourth time at Fronterafest. He's a great writer and a super-nice guy. We perform his show "Brand Loyalty" on January 31. Of the previous three shows I've performed in for Max at Fronterafest, we've been awarded "Best of Fest" twice. So the odds are with us, if you're the type who places bets on theater festivals. If you are that type of person, you probably need a new hobby!

Thursday night, January 25, I'm going to San Antonio to put on an interactive dinner theater show with some of my fellow Austin Murder Mystery Players. I'll also be performing with my MMP pals at a Valentine's Day dinner show in Austin.

February 21, I leave for five days in New York City with Chad. I am so looking forward to this trip. Not just to be in NYC again, but to get to spend time with Chad who travels TOO MUCH for work. I miss him. Here we are in Time's Square on our last trip to NYC together.



IF I decide to apply for the master's degree program in Information Studies (that's a fancy-pants term for librarian school) I have to take the GRE test and submit my application by March 1 to be eligible for the fall semester. I got the uptight, neat-freak, organizer gene from my dearly departed dad. I'm not sure where I got my nosiness / intensely inquisitive nature from, or my fanatical love of reading, but these personality traits have librarian written all over them. I have to have some work skills to fall back on, just in case I don't land my dream job of playing a sitcom mom on a popular TV series. Hey, dare to dream!

March 14, Chad and I leave for five days in Los Angeles for our friends' wedding. We hope to catch up with Karen (one of my best friends from college) in Woodland Hills and Jason & Jaimie in Pasadena while we're out that way too.

Never fear, fair friends (& family), I'm keeping plenty busy! I'm thinking that in late March, I might sign up with a temporary service. My sister, Chrissy, was a supervisor / assigner of jobs for Manpower a few years ago. Maybe she has some advice for me?

Snow Days in Austin!

The temperatures dropped into the freezing range Sunday evening as Austin got some much needed rain. That rain froze on the ground, followed by real sleet Monday! I love the ping-ping-ping sound that sleet makes as it hits surfaces. It's soothing, because you give yourself permission to hide inside, convincing yourself it would be downright irresponsible to head out in that weather. In Austin, people entirely forget how to drive when there is even a hint that ice might be around. On Tuesday, Chad woke me up so I could watch big snowflakes drift down. The snow fell alternately with sleet most of Tuesday. This winter magic was fleeting. By Wednesday noontime, I started to hear the drip of melting ice. Wednesday night, I even heard a few chunks of ice fall. I'm glad I got to view the winter wonderland from our cozy home, and glad that it only lasted for a few days.

When my parents moved to the Pittsburgh area while I was in college at the University of Texas, they originally marveled at the beauty of the snow and spoke of it in glowing terms. After a few weeks of their first winter there, snow evolved into a four-letter word strung together with mild curses and complaints of cabin fever. It was then that I learned about Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, and started sending care packages to my family full of chocolate, herb tea and Mahatma Saffron rice (which was hard to find up there for some reason.)

Luckily, I didn't have time to get cabin fever here in Austin during the great freeze of 2007. Chad & I managed to stay mostly warm & dry. We both got a lot of reading done.

My new favorite book is THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS by John Connolly. If you read this book, and do not like it, please hide that opinion from me. Seriously.

Third Time's a Charm / Step Away from the Sink!

Let me begin with the disclaimer: I love my husband, Chad. That said, he can be a bit obsessive. This obsessive nature makes him excel in his career as an interactive group creative director (a fancy title for someone who makes the internet a prettier place.) This obsessive nature fueled the relatively quick completion of our home remodeling projects this summer and fall. This obsessive nature translates to a quirky fixation with the bathroom sink.



Sink #1
When we bought our little 1952 house, the lone bathroom had an oddly large pedestal sink. It just didn't make sense in such a small bathroom and Chad thought it looked a bit "grandma spice." My second disclaimer: my grandma has good taste, but some grandmas do not have good taste. We donated the old sink to Habitat for Humanity. I hope it is making someone's grandma very happy.







Sink #2
Chad found a very tasteful, modern sink and cabinet online from the Ronbow manufacturer. We had a plumber's help installing the new sink and drain in June 2006. The plumber pointed out to me that this sink did not have an air intake dimple and that it might drain slowly. I made the mistake of relaying this information to my better half. Much like a hypochondriac imagines they have the disease du jour, Chad noticed that the sink did drain too slowly and that the sink got dirty quickly. It bugged him. Fortunately/Unfortunately, when the handyman came in October 2006 to install the faux tin tile ceiling, he bumped the sink with his ladder and put two small chips in the rim of sink #2. The handyman apologized and gave us $50 off of the bill so that we could get the sink repaired / refinished.



Sink #3
The chipped sink afforded Chad the chance to correct the drain issues by ordering another new Ronbow sink. Chad jokes that he's paying Ronbow Jr.'s college tuition. Sink #3 has an air intake dimple and a proper drain stopper. Chad installed this sink by himself over his holiday break from work. I guess if there's another tech bust, he could train to be a plumber, or a Ronbow representative. We're very happy with sink #3... for now.

Bye-bye Furry Friends

Today I will do my last official visit as one of the Furry Godmothers. I'll be visiting a sassy-sweet, geriatric cat named Tippy. I love her because she's so darn determined to outlive us all and to get brushed just right! She meows very loudly to let me know if I'm brushing her incorrectly. I give her oral pain-killers for her arthritis while her mom works long days. I hope very much that she'll be in great hands with her new pet-sitter.

I've loved working as a pet-sitter! I've worked with Jody, the founder / owner of Furry Godmothers, for a little over two years. She's run the business for over five years and I totally admire her for building the business from the ground up. I don't know how she keeps it going, especially with an eighteen month old (human) little boy.

Personally, after two long, hot summers and three Christmas seasons, I am tired of walking dogs in 110 degree heat, tired of being available to work over twelve hour spreads seven days a week (at times) and tired of working nearly every holiday while my husband has time off from work. I'm burnt-out after events in my personal life (such as remodeling a house as a first-time homeowner and the death of my dad) have compounded to make me plumb tired!

Here's the description I wrote for Furry Godmothers website when I first started working there:
_________

Jennifer "Jenn" Currie moved around to several different cities as a child, but has called Austin home since 1991. She grew up with a Pomeranian named Honey Dog and many cats, some unfortunately named after characters in the musical CATS. Once a baby squirrel literally climbed Jenn's pant leg to escape a hungry cat. The squirrel was named Fluffers and lived in her house for two years before moving out to the garage, a.k.a. the bachelor pad.

Jenn's résumé reads like a Lemony Snicket novel littered with mind-numbing marketing jobs, several fun years teaching drama to elementary-age kiddos through the Dougherty Arts School, and a regretful stint in retail management. After two years as a loyal Furry Godmothers client, she was absolutely delighted to join the team.

Jenn's current furry/finned family includes: Marigold, a blond & auburn Persian princess; Kenji, a scrappy Siamese, who was found sans momma-cat at a car lot when she was just three weeks old; and Spike, a geriatric Beta fish who will celebrate his fourth birthday (God willing) in March 2005. She and her husband hope to add a small pup to the mix when they move into a bigger home.
___________

Since that time, we've added the darling boy kitty, Sonic, to the feline bunch. Spike, the fish, passed away in early March of 2005, just after his miraculous fourth birthday. We had another fish named Dragon, a red Beta, who met an unfortunate end when Kenji scaled several bookshelves to liberate Dragon from his bowl and nibble on him. (Cue the "Circle of Life" song.) We've moved to a bigger home, but have yet to add the pup. I'm hoping for a shih-tzu or a pug, as some of my favorite canine clients have been these breeds.

Nice Work If You Can Get It...

The New Year's Eve dinner show at Dave & Buster's went very well. I was nervous because it was the first performance of a new script, and it's always more nerve-wracking trying to remember lines for a first performance. The audience of about 110 people participated, paid attention and laughed a lot. They were great!

For those of you not familiar with mystery dinner theater, I'll give a summary. While the audience dines on a three-course meal, the actors present a three-act murder mystery. The actors try to incorporate audience members whenever possible, and include them in jokes. Example: In the New Year's show we had a character with the first name "Happy" and the last name "Newyears." Corny, yes, but effective, because whenever her name was mentioned, the whole audience was strongly encouraged to yell, "Happy New Year's!" This show also featured a wedding, and audience members were picked out to stand on stage as bridesmaids and groomsmen. During the"question and answer" portion in each show between the second and third acts, the audience members quiz the suspects in the mystery and try to deduce whodunnit. The audience votes and then the solution to the mystery is presented as the third act. Usually the sponsor or host of the show supplies a prize to the audience members who correctly solve the mystery. It's not high art by any stretch of the imagination, but people usually have fun with it. Murder Mystery Players (MMP) offers private and public shows, usually at Dave & Buster's, a country club or a hotel ballroom. MMP also offers team-building games and interactive, live game shows. During the holiday season, I average two shows a week. Summers are usually pretty busy with shows too for some reason. I enjoy performing and stage managing the shows and games, AND it pays!

MMP Austin has a strong group of regular performers who are kind of like my theater family. Here are a few pics of the cast getting ready for the New Year's show.


Jeff Johannigman prepares to play the nervous groom.















Tracy Cathey looks over her lines for the role of "Rent-A-Reverand", the officiator of the wedding. Phil Klickman and Gary Hamilton prepare to play a suspect and the murder victim - I won't say which is which in case you attend a future show!





Our devoted director, Russ Wiseman, helps Phil with a costume fix, a.k.a. a safety-pin.













Me and Anna Maria Garcia. Guess which one is the bride.


Happy New Years! (Audience, that's your cue to yell it back to the actors!)


I wish all of you peace, health and wealth (however you choose to measure it) in 2007.

Adventure Kitties!

Further proof that I'm a crazy cat lady, as if you needed more! I should be learning my lines for the New Year's Eve show this Sunday with Austin Murder Mystery Players, but I'm procrastinating.

It rained for three days straight here in Austin, which is a rare occurrence. The weather finally dried up yesterday enough to take the kitties outside for a good romp around.


Marigold looks into her magic ball to tell your future. She says, "Yes, I see that there has been joy and pain, sunshine and rain." Oh Miss Mare, you are so wise!


Kenji grows to super-huge size and knocks down a tree! Almost as amazing as the presence of grass in our yard!


Sonic explores ancient ruins. Is that a Mayan temple? No, just the old stairs up to the back door under the lovely, new deck.

We had a nice Christmas. I was busy visiting other people's furry babies while they travel. Chad played "house husband" and kept a steady supply of yummy food and clean house ready for my breaks. It's so nice when the tables turn, and I work while he does all things domestic!

Sugarplum Furries

Yesterday, I was a whirling dervish of domestic duty! I cleaned, scrubbed, washed and tidied until my feet and my back cried "Uncle." The cats LOVE when I'm doing projects. They like to watch me running around the house. Kenji even helped me put fresh sheets on the bed. Mostly, they just supervise. They are my little furry sugarplums that bring me comfort and joy.

I did NOT send out Christmas cards to my full list of friends and family this year. (Gasp!) As one friend put it, "do you think they'll even notice?" Forgive me if you noticed.

I have "holiday cheer" deficiency due to the annual onslaught of impossibly high expectations for kindness, consumer spending and general fabulousness of the holiday season. I'm feeling a bit blue and melancholy. I miss my dad, of course, and the holidays emphasize that loss. I am also sad about leaving my position in the pet-sitting business. I will miss my little furry friends so much, but there are things I need to do for myself, for my husband and for my family that demand some time for reflection, some time for travel and some flexibility. I'm looking forward to a period of a few months when my only income will come from my acting work with Murder Mystery Players. (In the past I've juggled two or three part-time jobs at a time which left me feeling frazzled.)

One Big Cat Toy

We put up the super kitschy Christmas tree on Friday night. Pre-lit is the way to go, my friends! The cats were especially excited by this latest home decor project. I've made liberal use of the squirter to dissuade them from ingesting too much tinsel. After many years of "real" Christmas trees, we decided to do the environment and my allergies a favor by purchasing this "fake" tree at a post-holiday sale last year at Tape Lenders Video on West 5th Street for 75% off -- score! I dig the glass ornaments. Either by accident or subconscious design genius, I chose the complimentary color palettes of red and green with yellow-gold and purple (jazzes up a tired tradition.) Chad made like Santa Claus a few weeks ago and climbed atop our roof. Finding no chimney to slide down, he strung lights along the roofline instead. 

Sweet Kenji had enough holiday excitement, and climbed into her shopping bag cubby. "Bah humbug. Wake me after New Year's," she seemed to say. Happy Holidays!

Cute to the 3rd Power!

I'm going to retain this blog title and address, but now that most of the house projects are done, this blog will have more sappy weekly reflections and photos to share. If you're looking for the "before and after" house pics, see the September 2006 archives.

On to the cuteness! I went to see my family this weekend. I took lots of pictures, and had a difficult time choosing the best ones to share.



My niece, Mary, age 3, member of Future Heartbreakers of America, picked up lots of ladybugs and tried very hard not to squish them.



Mary and my mom, a.k.a. MeMommy. Yes, her "grandma" nickname sounds like a rapper's name.



Mary with her lovely red locks and me with my new dark hair. I love my dark hair. My super stylist, Monica, at Maximum FX salon rocks!



Charlie, age 10 months, in his holiday suit! Love that hat! He looks like a little elf who escaped from Santa's Workshop at the North Pole.



Christoper, age 6, with Mary and Charlie. I had more pictures of Mister Christopher, but he's in constant motion, and they're all blurred beyond recognition.

I'm happy to report that my mom is doing well under the circumstances. I'm very proud of her. She's learning how to operate the computer, check her email, and how to manage accounts online. Keep her in your prayers and send her happy thoughts.

I'm Thankful for...

my hunky, sweet husband, Chad.

my cozy house and the completion of immediate house projects.

reconnecting with old friends - like Kristen M. who had us over for an amazing Thanksgiving potluck dinner.

new friends - who are fun, and a source of comfort and support.

my three, cute funny cats.

the past two years working as a Furry Godmother pet sitter. I've met so many wonderful pets and people. I've also had a peek at how other people decorate and arrange their houses, which sparked many ideas for my own house.

holidays off from working in 2007 as I part ways very amicably with Furry Godmothers.

time off from working starting in January to be with my mom and my sister and her family. I miss my dad. I know that they do too.

the prospect of new adventures. Losing my dad last month reminds me that I must actively seek to make the most of every day.

Driveway's Done, Time to Party!

The interlocking pavers driveway and walkway were completed on Friday morning, November 17! The old driveway was a sad mix of sand and pebbles that sat three inches lower than the concrete carport pad. The old walkway resembled a jigsaw puzzle, not too safe for actual walking as the puzzle pieces shifted precariously with each step.



Before: Ugh.




After: So pretty. So functional.

On Saturday, November 18, we had our big housewarming party. We wanted it to be six months after we bought the house. Our theory was that having the party would force us to finish painting and updating the house. The timing worked out pretty well.



The "candy bar" featured kettle corn, M&Ms, twizzlers, fried apple pies and packaged candy bars. It was a hit! We sent fried pies home with lots of people. Mmm... pie makes a delicious but not very nutritious breakfast for the day after a party.



We went with a fall carnival theme. We had pickles, corn dogs with fancy mustards (yes, I loathe corn dogs, but our guests loved them), nacho fixings, boneless buffalo wings with celery and blue cheese on the buffet spread on the deck. As one friend put it, "the food was spectacular. It was like going to the fair without smelling livestock and worrying about your car getting vandalized."



Chad made funny signs for various doors. This was the sign for the kitty jail / guest room.



The kitty jail. If you look closely, you can see furry lumps: Marigold and Kenji on either side of the bed & Sonic on the chair.



Hot cider with caramel, red hots & cinnamon to mix in. Yum! The idea for hot cider came to me during a manic, Martha Stewart-like episode at the HEB grocery store. I almost made little caramel apple wedges with nuts as garnish for the punch, but I called Chad and told him I needed him to talk me down. Thus no caramel apple wedges with nuts, but I did keep (what's left of) my sanity.



Proof that we have friends. It was so much fun. We have lots of soda, juice boxes and cider leftover to get us through the year! We managed to give away the leftover corndogs luckily.

I'm so happy that all of our immediate house projects are done! I look forward to some serious lounging in our cozy, cute house.

Ceilings & Pavers & Cats, Oh My!

Chad busted bootie to get the faux-tin-tile ceilings in the kitchen and bathroom painted this weekend. They look fabulous and hide the cracks. I guess I'll forgive Chad for keeping me up so late Saturday night with his tromping up & down the squeaky step ladder, paint-brushing and general project noise. Yep, we have some wild and crazy weekends here! (See earlier post titled, "New Homeowners Are Boring.")



The interlocking paver stones arrived for our new driveway and walkway. Hopefully that project will be done by this weekend in time for the big housewarming party!



Our kitties love to snuggle. Marigold is at the head of the bed with me, Sonic is in the middle-left and Kenji is at the foot of the bed. The newest feline family member, Sonic, was supposed to be a foster kitty. Of course, Chad & I are smitten with the kitten and are keeping him, rather than adopting him out to someone else. Yes, yes, everyone knew that would happen!

Swab the Deck!

We have a deck! It only took the pros two days to build it. Love it! Love the privacy screen on both sides too. Add "buy deck furniture" to the to-do list.

Rest Easy

We finally have a bed in our bedroom! It is wonderful. Chad and I both love it. There is plenty of room for our insistently cuddly kitties too.


We found another distributor of the Java collection who could special order that lovely but modern sleigh bed (previously mentioned) for us, but it would have taken four months (gasp!) to arrive. So we threw that plan out, and found this simple bed, appropriately named The Simple Bed that was in stock at a local furniture store.


The existing, temperamental sliding closet doors were not very fashionable or functional, so we threw them out in the yard. Really, the old doors are in the back yard. I picked these pretty drapery panels with a sturdy tension rod as the new closet-hider.



Here are some gratuitous shots of our jack-o-lanterns. Chad's is a Charlie Brown head as an homage to The Great Pumpkin. My design features argyles inset with sparkly marbles, reminiscent of my days as a prep-style-pusher at J.Crew.
Happy Halloween!

Happy Thoughts at a Sad Time

My dad passed away suddenly last week at age 58 while exercising on his treadmill. We think he died instantly of either a heart attack or a stroke. My chest literally aches with sadness right now.

I'm very fortunate that my dad came to town and got to see our house last May when Chad & I bought it. My dad kept up with this blog over the past month and praised our progress, and laughed at our foibles. I'm happy that I got to share the experience with him even though he was halfway across the country.

My parents have owned MANY homes over the course of their marriage. (Does anyone know of a good twelve step group to overcome real estate addiction? If so, please let me know so I can find a chapter for my mom to attend.) Dad and Mom worked very hard to make each and every home a showplace. Even homes that we lived in for less than two years got lots of beautifying updates. My dad enlisted my help to rip out wallpaper, hang wallpaper and to hold the light while he crawled around working on projects in dark cabinets and corners. Ripping out and replacing wallpaper with Dad convinced me that no home of mine will ever be cursed, blighted or otherwise besmirched by the presence of wallpaper. I don't care how many magazines say it's back in style, no way! I was very happy when Black & Decker came out with the adjustable snake-light, and I snapped one up to give my dad as a Christmas gift. I didn't have to hold lights anymore! I much preferred to hand Dad tools than to hold the light at just the right angle for what seemed like hours until my little arms shook with muscle fatigue. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic.

Here are some happy thoughts and pictures:


A friend of mine and Chad's sent these gorgeous orchids when she heard about my dad's passing. Many friends have reached out in support, and I very much appreciate each and every email, call, card or kind thought.



Every home needs a gnome. We hope he does not roam! Chad calls him Gnomaste, because he looks like he's doing prayer position and wishing us peace.



Marigold takes time each day to stop and smell the flowers.



The front planter likes all the rain we've been getting.



Our beautiful new underpinning courtesy of Ron from Aaron's Stucco. Ron did a great job and cleaned up his mess -- a total gem of a contractor!

Curses! Foiled Again!

HGTV's website reported that installing faux tin tile ceilings was easy. Just lay out your grid carefully and starting in one corner, glue the tongue and groove tiles up to the existing ceiling. Chad made a fancy computer model of the grid for our tiles. He had about six of the 12 inch by 12 inch tiles up on the ceiling Sunday. It was looking great. I thought, "Wow! He'll finish this room today and maybe even start on the next room." Then I heard a crash, followed by a second crash and the sound of the lid of my favorite, big votive candle clattering on the cold, tile bathroom floor. The tiles fell, taking a wall shelf and its contents with them. Chad walked calmly into the bedroom and took a nap. I've scheduled the handyman. Stupid HGTV.




Our bed that was on backorder, the Java bed, which matches all of our Java bedroom furniture, is in Houston in a warehouse. Storehouse, my favorite furniture store and main distributor of the Java collection, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Storehouse was just bought by a liquidator who plans to close the chain of stores and sell off all assets. Yep, you guessed it, our bed happens to be one of those assets. (Cue the silly sitcom sound effect.) Here's a lovely picture of the bed that will not be mine. Time to find a new bed that won't quiet match our existing furniture.

The man who came very highly recommended to repair our sagging underpinning (the stucco that conceals the pier and beam foundation and keeps various varmits from climbing up under our house and in between our walls) has been telling us for over a month that he'll get to us in "a few weeks." The deck construction can't start until the underpinning repair is complete. The deck guys wanted to start October 10. The underpinning guy is still singing his song with the repeating chorus of "a few weeks." We picked a new underpinning guy at random from the internet to come do the repairs. Let's hope he can have the work done by October 10! Keeping our fingers crossed...

The Eternal To-Do List

I remember my days as a renter when weekend days were spent lounging on the sofa with piles of trashy fashion magazines or some actual literature. How I pine for those days. Yes, it's been fun to personalize our house, but even when we rented places, we had the good fortune to rent from men with fabulous taste who had painted and remodeled the spaces in fun and funky ways. In fact, we stole the main wall colors for our 1952 house from our last condo. (Thanks for leaving sample paint buckets at the condo, David!)

Last weekend, Chad and I got away to Dallas for the weekend as a collective birthday present to ourselves. Our birthdays are three weeks apart. It was so nice to have room service (champagne and chocolate covered strawberries upon arrival!) and maid service and already painted walls! We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas. We needed to be far enough away from the house that we weren't at all tempted to sneak back and do any housework.

This weekend, it's back to the grind, back to the to-do list.
1. Install Chad's Closet Maid system and organize closet.
2. Clean the floor in the Master Bedroom.
3. Put dresser in Master Bedroom and finally unpack all the drawer items.
4. Plan grid for tin tile ceilings in the kitchen and bathroom.
5. Buy materials for tile ceiling project and yard projects.
6. Sign and have notarized waiver for new driveway and walkway.
7. Sign and mail contract for deck installation.
8. Rent wood chipper for all the tree stumps we dug up and all the tree branches we picked up from the yard.
Yeah... I don't know about #8, but we gotta do something with those branches and tree trunks / roots.



Is that purple flower a weed? I can't tell. I've started mowing around them because they're kind of pretty. We have a Neuton mower. I love it. It's cordless, electric and very quiet. The City of Austin Clean Air program gave a generous rebate on these mowers. The UPS guy who delivered mine commented that he was delivering a lot of them. When Chad or I are out mowing, people stop and comment on our nice, quiet mower.