Tag: home

Family Heirlooms

In my last post, I’d mentioned a “new” corner cupboard that has come to reside in my house. I’d also talked about a set of glassware which has been part of my household for some while, but has only now gotten displayed. So I thought I’d take some photos to show.

The corner cupboard is from the Short side of the family while the dishes are from the Anderson side of the family. So I’m quite delighted that I get to pair to two. Mom (and dad) was over on Friday and she quite graciously organized the dishes in the cabinet to help display them better. (I’m rubbish at such things, but she’s got a real knack, as you’ll see in the photo.)

So, here we go:

The Corner Cupboard.
Here is a shot of the cupboard with the doors and drawers shut.

The Corner Cupboard
A shot of the cupboard with doors and drawers open. My 6 qt crock pot has found its home already.

Cupboard and Dishes
A shot of my lovely Depression Glassware inside the Corner Cupboard.

The Dining Room
A shot of my "dining" room with corner cupboard and curio cabinet.
Plus my fab IKEA table and chairs and my lovely Hunter ceiling fan.
Oh, and Linus.

So, thank you Aunt Alma for the dishes and Aunt Becky for the cupboard. I have (and have had in the past) some pretty cool aunts. 🙂

Gaming the rest of the summer away….

In case you were curious, I got home from Chicago just fine. Flight & drive back both smooth & easy – the best way to travel. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been trying to milk the little remains of my summer as best as possible. (Short summer due to early school start – all new school building related. It will be our last school year in the 1922 building.)

Our school isn’t the only new construction going up – mom & dad are having a house built in the next town over. It’s been fun watching the progress of that. We’ve been taking lots of photos and videos of it. I missed 2 weeks of the construction since I was in Wooster & Chicago, but now I’m back in the flow of things.

We watched the trusses go up on Tuesday. They had the big crane out & were putting them in place and then nailing them proper. Quite fun. Yesterday they were putting tar paper on the sheathing. Mom and I watched it from the swimming pool. 🙂 (The “gated community” that they’re moving into has a pool. And we were allowed to go swimming. Yay!)

Thanks to judiang (who is, I believe I said before, EVIL) I wound up buying a Wii and WiiFit for myself on Tuesday. It’s been fun and I’ve started a regimen with it. After a couple of days up, I finally went down in weight today. We’ll see if I can stick with it. Just bought two other titles for it today.

And unfortunately, before I bought the Wii, I reupped my World of Warcraft subscription, so I’ve been playing that a lot lately too. But it’s been fun. Despite my playstyle (which is to focus on professions first, leveling second) I’ve gone from level 43 to 47 since I reupped. Heh.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I intend to get a handle on my house and maybe even get back to work on my Master’s Thesis. And of course I have to rewatch all of the Harry Potter movies before Wednesday. (Watched the first flick today. Gee, they were all so small then!)

So anyway, happy gaming to all you gamers! And happy summer to the rest of y’all! (Or winter, as the case may be.)

“It’s curtains for you!”

Since I have a final project due on Monday and a final curriculum due on Thursday, I’m doing everything I can to avoid working on them. But at least I’m doing productive things to avoid them!

The first thing we (parents and me) did today was check out garage sales in town – well, visited Aunt Becky at her son’s garage sale. After we went to the post office and library, we picked up pork tenderloin sandwiches and French fries from a vendor on Main street (in place for the town garage sales).

Before we headed off for our grand adventure, I stopped back home for something, only to find that the kitties had pulled the living room curtain down again. They get their claws stuck in the lace and pull it down. And then trying to get the lace back on the curtain rods is a pain in the arse. So I measured the windows and resolved to buy new curtains while we oot & aboot.

We started out at JoAnn fabrics with the thought of mom making curtains (she’s making some gingham ones for her side-door), but then we decided to check if Walmart had something like I could use. And there, we found just what I needed – sheer but not lace (no place for kitties to get claws caught on) and not floor length like the big window had. I also got some grass seed and wrapping paper & cards for Amy & Rachel’s birthday presents.

Back home I got to work taking down the old curtains and putting up the new ones. And before I did that, I cleaned the front window – it had a long row of kitty nose prints from kitty cats walking along the sill and looking outside. Turns out in addition to nose prints there was a nice layer of dirt. Comes with never cleaning my windows. Ugh. Should do my other windows tomorrow.

I also put some of my grass seed in the dead spots in my lawn. And watered it. That took a bit of time. Then it was time to have supper and watch the new DW. And then judiang, elsaf, and hergrace got online so we watched the episode together. Let’s hear it for Instant Messaging! 🙂

Meme Sweet Meme

After a busy phone day (I spoke with my sister for over an hour today, followed by a nice call to elsaf while she’s in hospital and then another longish call to judiang to see how she was faring) I’ve decided to give my brain a break and do a simple meme which I gakked from bex77.

When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?
The living room.

Do you have a dishwasher?
Yup.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?
Whole house is hardwood floors now except the kitchen & bathroom which are some sort of non-wood flooring – laminate for the kitchen? Linoleum for the bathroom?

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?
On the counter in the block they came with.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer?
House, yay!

How many bedrooms is it?
Theoretically 3, but I made one into my den (where the PC is) and another into my library (where my books are – and where I’m typing this up on my laptop).

Gas stove or electric?
Gas, yay!

Do you have a yard?
Yup.

What size TV is in the living room?
37″ LCD, yay!

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?
Yup. Or else they’d get lonely!

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?
Nah, I don’t like coffee.

What room is your computer in?
The den. My laptop is usually in the library or by the sofa in my living room.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?
Yup. Lithographs of art by Anneke Wills (Doc7, Doc4, her self portrait, 2 garden pieces). I’ve also got a TV guide cover of Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. Some collages of friends & family, too.

Are there any themes found in your home?
The den has lots of Sylvester McCoy & Doctor Who stuff in it. The library’s theme is “books, cats, life is sweet.” Heh. My bedroom has some nice Inuit art on one half, but the rest of the room is rather random. I guess the house as a whole is Fandom Eclectic. 🙂

What kind of laundry detergent do you use?
Tide Free.

Do you use dryer sheets?
No, I use Downey in my main wash.

Do you have any curtains in your home?
Not as many as I should have. I have blinds in most of the windows, but they need curtains too. And my living room curtains are really looking like crap. I’ll get ’em sorted out eventually.

What color is your fridge?
White.

Is your house clean?
Rarely. Today is no exception.

What room is the most neglected?
Basement. It needs to be made into an unleaking thing and then made into a game room. 🙂

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?
The dishes in my sink are clean & drying. The dishes in my washer are dirty.

How long have you lived in your home?
This February marks year 10, yay!

Where did you live before?
With my parents. Before then for 4 years I rented half of a house in Eaton. Before then, with my parents. 🙂

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?
Nah.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?
I have two. Both in the kitchen. One’s for me to step on. The other’s for measuring food weight. Both are digital.

How many mirrors are in your house?
2. One in the kitchen, which I like to make faces at. The other, larger one, is in my bedroom and I often forget it’s there.

Look up. What do you see?
The ceiling of my library, the old ceiling light (which isn’t on), and my reading light (which is on).

Do you have a garage?
Yup. Yay!

Ducman to the Rescue!

I’ve lived in my house since Feb 1998. In all that time, I never actually had my ducts cleaned. I have central air (heating & air conditioning using same system), so I’ve got ducts. And they were filthy. Who you gonna call? Ducman!

I must admit, when I saw Ducman in my phone book (BBB registered) I couldn’t resist. The price he quoted me was reasonable (well, as far as I know – $325 was certainly what I’d be willing to pay someone to clean my ducts). So I hired ’em. They came today and did a thorough job, cleaning all my ducts and vents. The kitties were nervous, but towards the end, they no longer hid in the bedroom and just hung out with me in the den.

One of the fellows on the job said it looked like they’d never been cleaned. Heh – so it wasn’t just me who was lax on duct cleaning. Still, it’ll be nice to not smell dirty ducts whenever my heater comes on. 🙂

Back home to the Heat

Ah, it’s good to be home. I really had a great time with Amy & Rachel this weekend – no question about it – but it’s always nice to get back home. I seem to have brought the hellish heat with me, unfortunately.

Yesterday was a pretty easy-going day. Rachel had to go off to work for the morning, so Amy & I had breakfast without her. Cereal, toasted sour dough roll with butter, and a peach was my breakfast. Yummy. (No, not extravagant like the rest of the weekend, but even breakfast gurus like Amy need a break sometimes.) I was very sleepy during the morning and didn’t move around a lot But after my shower, I woke up. Unfortunately, I then got captured by a video game on the BBC site. As Amy said to Rachel when she got home “she just sort of disappeared.” But I successfully completed it, so we all went off to lunch.

We walked out into the near 100°F weather to the New Delhi Bar & Restaurant. Mmmmm, Indian Fud! We had the buffet and enjoyed it. But then we had to walk home in the heat. Gah! Still, we managed it and then crashed. We did get the energy to play Trivial Pursuit, however. Amy whupped our butts. Heh, I came in third. Amy had made us cosmopolitans (easy on the cranberry juice cocktail) and we had those & chips and the last of the sesame sticks. Worked for me for supper. Heh.

Amy drove us to the airport, and I was there by 6:30. Everything went smoothly. So smoothly, we arrived more than half an hour before the scheduled time. Mom & Dad, thus, were a bit late in picking me up. But they arrived & took me home. Yay!

Today was back to work. And eep! There’s only 2 more weeks before the place is inundated with teachers.

ETA: URL for the BBC game.

Garage Sale

Each year in April, our town has a Town Garage Sale. Anyone in town is allowed to have a garage sale without paying any license fees or whatever you have to do to have a garage sale. So this year, my folks and I took advantage of the day to have our own sale. In past years, the weather has been pretty nasty. Some years rainy. Some years cold. Some years cold & rainy. But this year, the temperature was in the mid 60s F and it was cloudy (so not too much sun). Perfect garage saling weather. 🙂

So, what did Trina bring to the sale? My old Gameboy Advance (I have the SP now, so didn’t need the other), and MP3 CD playing boombox that never worked flawlessly, some knick knacks, and lots of video tapes. Since I am now a DVD addict, some of my VHS tapes have been supplanted by lovely DVDs. That left quite a few videos I didn’t need anymore. Dad looked through them last night and picked up a few for the Lake. The rest I sold for $1 each or 5 for $3. And I managed to sell over half of them! Which really surprised me – my taste in videos isn’t very, um, usual. Some of the things in the video boxes: Columbo, Dangermouse, Red Dwarf, Monty Python (Flying Circus & Live at Hollywood Bowl), Monkees, and several movies including some Muppets ones.

Any guesses as to what sold first?

Well, if you would have asked me which would have sold first, if any would have sold, I’d’ve said Columbo and some of the movies.

Heh – nope, it was the Monty Python stuff! A couple and their daughter arrived early and saw the Python tapes. They immediately started arguing whether the son still owned a VCR and if he’d be interested in the videos. So the daughter called her brother, confirmed he had a VCR still, and bought all the Python. And when it added up to only 8 videos, I threw in two Doctor Who videos to make 10 thinking he might like that. (Which two, you ask? Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric, of course. Only quality videos for my customers!)

The stuff that didn’t sell included Red Dwarf and Dangermouse. (The first didnt’ surprise me, the second did! All those little kids who stopped by and I couldn’t sell them on a cartoon about a secret agent mouse and his hamster assistant!)

During the day, I saw 4 former classmates of mine, two whom I haven’t seen in years (I think since maybe graduation!) and one of my sister’s classmates. Dad and I spent most of the day outside selling and chatting with folks as they came. Mom preferred instead to run errands (getting mail, getting lunch – yay! Texas Tenderloins from a vendor on main street).

So, how much did I net during the day?

Almost $60! Wow! I did a lot better than I suspected. So now I’m rich! I think I’ll go to some town garage sale and spend it all! (Hah, yeah right!)

A Fine Day Out

Tis been a lovely spring day. Temperature in the low 70s (F), sunny, pleasant breezes. Prit’near perfect. And I actually spent some of the day outside!

I, of course, walked to the post office in the morning for mail (all junk, except 1 bill). But once I got home, I realized that I’d forgotten to get cash at the gas station (they have an ATM machine). So another walk there. And when I got home, I realized that I really wanted to ride my bike. However, the tires were a little flat from the long winter storage. No matter, another trip to the gas station for some FREE AIR (that’s what it says!) and I was good to roll. I rode over to Becky’s house to chat with her, the little ones, and Deanna. Then I rode more (actually almost wearing myself out – go me! Oh wait, I didn’t ride that much. Bad me!)

Leo and I had lunch after that (mmm, haystacks! Taco salads for those of you who dunno what haystacks are). Leo got a smidge of meat & cheese, I also had lettuce & onions & crushed nachos with mine. A little bit of City of Heroes (yay – my new build for The Dominie rocks – he’s a kick ass defender-controller now! And doesn’t get tired!) But then Leo and I were bucking to get outside.

We went out for about an hour. I read more of Wicked while Leo flopped about in the garage and on the patio. Then he decided to investigate more of his yard. By the time I was done reading, he was trying to see what the neighbors (the ones that aren’t mom & dad) were up to. That was at the edge of his leash, so I unhooked him from the long lead & held his little purple leash. He walked me up and down the fence as he sniffed & stared at the goings on. After a few minutes, I picked him up and we returned to the house.

So, all & all, a lovely day. (This is Trina in Work Avoidance Mode. The house really needs a good cleaning & I have other things on my list, but I’m doing a great job avoiding all of that. Go me! I mean, bad me!)

4 Day Weekend

Well, I’m now halfway through my lovely four-day weekend. I’ve been having fun. Yesterday, the folks & I spent the day at the Lake. The weather was very good to us. Pleasant during the morning & early afternoon, cloudy & rainy later when we were ready to watch The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. We all enjoyed the movie. And I’d like to see the same group do Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I both enjoy a lot. (OK, so my favorite versions of them has Sylvester McCoy as Reepicheep.)

Today started out rainy & cloudy and became beautiful. Leo and I spent some time outside while I cleared my cart out of trash & straightened the garage a bit. (It’s still quite a state, but at least there’s room for my bike without being in the road of the car.) I let my car stay out in the driveway all night, so the rain washed it nice & clean. 🙂 The rest of my day has been goofing off & catching up on LJ. Oh and I did work on my online class some yesterday & today. (I’m taking an online class about whether one should make online classes available to people. It’s been an eye-opener for me. I don’t think we’re ready at Newton yet – too much work for the treen!)

Tomorrow it’s round to Becky’s for Easter. I guess it’ll be in the afternoon because mom works. It’s always fun to see my little cousins. (OK, so I see 4/5 of ’em at school most days – one of ’em at least 1 period every day, but still…) And I haven’t had a chance to wish Deanna a belated happy birthday yet. I think she’s turned 23? Eeep! I am so OLD.

Happy Easter to all of you playing at home! 🙂

The things you find…

So mom & dad have been doing a lot of rearranging around in their house. (The living room is now the dining room, so the parlor room is now the living room, etc.) During this process, they’re locating things that are mine & Amy’s that had been hiding in various crevasses in the house. Several of my boardgames & puzzles are now in my own house – yay! But perhaps the biggest surprise was my AT-AT! For those of you who aren’t Star Wars fans (and to think, I call you friends! Heh), an AT-AT is a big-ass vehicle used in The Empire Strikes Back. I was under the impression that I had sold my AT-AT to some of the neighborhood boys years ago. But now that I think about it, I think it was my Death Star that I sold them. (No loss – that wasn’t nearly as cool as an AT-AT.)

Leo didn’t know what to make of this plastic thing that was even bigger than him. I haven’t added batteries to it to see if the electronics still work. And if they do, Leo will be even more confused about it. Heh. Poor Kitty.

In other news, shortly before heading off to visit with judiang, elsaf, and hergrace, I had bid upon & won a 60GB iPod video. I was pleased that I’d found it for under $380 (the winning bid was $335). I have over 30GB of MP3s on my computer (most, but not all, of my CD collection. And I still have some albums that I want to convert to MP3). So a 30GB drive wasn’t going to work. The iPod arrived while I was in Chicago, but my parents are lovely people and they picked it up at the post office. I’ve already copied all of my songs onto it (and NOT by using iTunes – woot! MediaMonkey, I LOVE you!) I still have to create good playlists, but I’ll do it as I update my MP3s to have proper album art & information. Some playlists I’ll make in QCD, the others in MediaMonkey.

Oh, and in the Keeping Up with the Short’s, it turns out that a certain recent birthday girl just HAD to go off to her local Apple Store & get herself a 60GB iPod video. The rotter! 😉 Oh yeah, and she paid LESS. Bah! Ah well, all’s fair in love & commerce.