Tease

So...how've been lately? It's been so long since we've last chatted. Love the shirt your wearing. Really brings out the color in your eyes.

Wait.

Wrong kind of flirting/teasing.

I really just wanted to share all the things that have been happening at Chateaux Leaky. That's our house. We thought it would add an air of elegance to name it. The leaky castle.

Anyway, the first picture is of Mel. She now comes and visits us downstairs. And sits in my basket (which has crocheting stuff in it, but oh well).

 Are you ready for the next one? Tile. On the walls. Exciting, right?

 I'm not doing a whole kitchen/tiling post until I seal the grout and we get new light plate/fixture covers. But we love. There were some high fives being done after this.

 Plus, Jeremiah took off part of the light cover (fixture?). We are getting ready to redo the lighting over the island. I'm so excited I could pee. Just a little. And NOT in the pool.

 Here's the part of the light that Jeremiah took down. Wow. I like stained glass, but not like this.

 And lastly, I've been staining tables, legs, and chairs in the garage. Sadly, I was the one who had to move the car. We've discovered that my Subaru can withhold being parked in the sun while Fordsies can't. One point for Subaru. Or not. Because that sun is hot and fades paint. Poor Subie. Anyway, the table is looking good, right? The original color was like the wood in the frame for the light right above.

Those are just a few of our projects. We are having a BEAST of a time finding handles/spout made specifically for a tub and not a shower/tub combo. It's killing me, Smalls. I want to take a bath and seeing the tub sitting in the bedroom is vicious.

So how've you been? Seriously. I miss these talks.

Michigan, Oh How I Love Thee...

This is why I love Michigan. Great song, Great People, Great Scenery. Makes me just a little homesick and I am thinking that our next home will be in a greener state. Or maybe just north of here? Who knows. Anyway, enjoy. I did. I even got a little misty. I would love to be part of something this fun.



Happy Friday, All! Any fun plans for the long weekend?

Ouch, That Hurts

Dear Self,
People are backstabby. Make new friends.
Sincerely,
Ticked-Off Self


P.S. I'm really okay. Classes are scooting right along. They are good and I'm learning (which is the goal, duh). Health-wise I think a trip to the doctor for meds might be in order, we'll see. Last night I blew my nose and Jeremiah accidentally saw it and he almost threw up a little in his mouth (my words, not his). I'm also thinking you all might stop reading my blog if I keep sharing my fascination with snot.

We Don't Need No Education.

Sing with me - "TEACHER! Leave those kids alone!"

Okay. So the last few weeks of school are stressful. There is so much crap that I put off until the last minute that is unimportant to me but I do it because I want my last paycheck of the school year and they won't give it to me if I don't do the unimportant crap a lot of really important tasks to be completed before I pass my wonderful students on to the next teacher. I really am sad to see them leave. It's the rest of the stuff that gets my panties all twisted. 

And then. Because I'm slightly stressed, I want to mention that genius me thought I could pull off two graduate classes while teaching. So that is what I am trying to do. Every.Single.Other.Thing.In.My.Life.Besides.Teaching.And.Grad.School.Has.Come.To.A.Hault


And in the back of my head I hear the lady that I spoke with during registration "This puts you at TWO classes while teaching full time. Do you really want to do this?" That lady needs to shut up. She got her point across.

But back to the screeching hault.

This includes the blog. And the tile is up and EVERYTHING and there all these projects we've got lined up. Including, but not limited to: TWO homemade light creations, kitchen curtain/blinds, beadboard for the island, and that pesky roman blind for the huuuuuuge front window. Oh, yeah. And the staining. I'm staining two coffee tables and two chairs.

And just to add to the stress, I'm sick. Again. Cue the sad music. The other night I irrigated my nose with the Neti-pot and all this STUFF came out and I was all, "Jeremiah, come see this!" and he wouldn't. Sadsies.

At some point I may share with all of you (and some of you already know) more about my disease sickies. And the meds that have lowered my immune system that are necessary to keep the disease sickies from spreading/progressing/causing me agonizing pain. But for now, just know that I am sick and miserable and trying to teach and trying to do two graduate classes.

p.s. In case you don't remember, I almost cut off my finger completing last year's "endoftheyear/mustbecompletedbeforewepayyou" checklist. If you didn't get a chance to read about that dark day when I cried in front of the custodians and said bitch in front of my Mormon teacher next door, you can live out the day HERE HERE HERE I ALMOST LOST A FINGER HERE.

p.p.s. I declare this post open for frustrated rants, comments, tirades, etc. Let it out, people. It isn't good for your skin to keep all that stress bottled up. As Meg Ryan says in French Kiss, "Express, don't repress."

p.p.p.s. I feel better already. I mean, mentally/emotionally. Not physically. That'll take some time. And some serious antibiotics.

Eisley.

I went with Jeremiah and a friend of mine to see Eisley in concert on Wednesday. If you don't know Eisley, you should check them out HERE. It would be silly not to. They are wonderful.

Here's the set list:

My relationship with Eisley started in the fall of 2005. Jeremiah and I had been introduced and we were currently long-distance. We sent each other compilation cds and Marvelous Things (the best Eisley song EVER) was on it. Instant love. With the song. With Jeremiah, it took a bit more time. (kidding, HP.)

So I've waited since then - six years - to see them in concert. Meanwhile, Jeremiah has seen them. Twice. I don't really think that's fair. He got me a t-shirt, but still...

And then we got word that those Duprees (yes, they are a family of like, four hundred) would be here. Well, Scottsdale, but close enough.

And we got there early enough to score awesome parking - both outside the ranch and inside as well. As in, front row. And second row. And there were some annoying chickies nearby, but once the band started, fugetaboutit.

When you are thisclose to the band, you get to see cool things. Like when a Dupree guitar string breaks. Saw it happen.

Seriously cool.

I was a bit bummed because I didn't bring my SLR, so I was trying to manage with the point and shoot. It got the job done, but I've got this, "Awe, man, I totally could have got some fantastic shots" thing going on in my head.

It was a bit funny because the Ranch was separated into kiddie/adult section, and the kiddie section was way more crowded than our side. We searched for people older than us and found one couple. Um, that brought their kids.

There were plenty of people our age. Just not like you might see older folks at, say, Tom Petty. And for suresies there was much less...medicinal smokage going on.

I don't know why this picture is big, but Jeremiah took it. That's my head. Front row. Yessir.

And then as if this wasn't all cool/nerdy enough for you, after the show I got the set list. And a t-shirt. And a poster. And the limited red vinyl.

And we took it all backstage. 'Cause we met the band. And got the poster & vinyl signed. OHMYGOSH!

p.s. I have a video of them singing, but I'm having some technical difficulties.
p.p.s. The tile has been up and I even have pictures.
p.p.p.s. The reason you haven't seen any of this is because I started two of the three last classes I have to take to earn my Masters. I'm busy.

Freeze Frame(s)

So I know that YHL recently did a wall gallery at their house, but I promise you, mine has been a long time in the coming. We actually had a small-scale version at the house we rented. I pulled my inspiration from these two books:

And while this isn't wall/picture/gallery inspired, I've included this photograph of a blue room with yellow, brown, and green accents from Domino as it served as inspiration for my back room. Just a little less stuffy and a bit more casual. And I want that brown pillow.

Okay. So here are some examples we I looked at. The one below is from The Nest. Of course, I could never paint a wall red. I think it looks great, but it simply isn't for me. But we did choose black frames for the project because it was going into the front room, which isn't as whimsical as the back half of the house. We collected frames that we already had and bought more at Goodwill and Salvation Army, where they cost about fifty cents to a dollar. Then we spray painted the ones that weren't black. And by we I mean Jeremiah because I let him do it. He loves it so much I hate to take that away from him. can't spray paint (muffled sob).

The picture below is actually inspiration for our hall upstairs. Jeremiah took an incredible picture and my mom had it enlarged for him as a gift. We'll put smaller pictures around it, just like they did in Domino.

And we smooshed things pretty close together.

It ended up looking like this after Jeremiah got everything up. For now. We plan on spray painting the mail/wall file thing (that I got at Salvation Army) and adding more to the right side of the table.

You can see that we tried to get a variety of frames. I think that the different sizes, textures, etc. really adds to the wall.

We don't have pictures in them yet. Photographs will be black and white and anything else will/can be color. I have a ton of paper that we can use to matte, too.

That is a recent project. More pictures when we get the frames filled. Howsabout you? Any galleries? Black and white photographs versus color?

Oh, Mel.

Sigh.

My cat is special. Like, not ribbons and bows special, but like, special. Like, the politically correct term is differently-abled. I've noticed that her focus isn't great and at times she even looks slightly crossed-eyed. Just a bit. But a bit is enough to get a mom wondering about her fur baby. My fur baby might be different from the other kitties.

My fur baby might be better off in a helmet as she has proven now that she has zero grace, agility, or balance.

She turned away from Jeremiah today and ran into the railing on the stairs.

She tried to hop an inch from the desk to the chair - and fell. She also can't make jumps to get her food, which is on the desk in the guest room (Yes, she is headquartered in one of the guest rooms. Are you SURE you don't want to come visit?). I have to set up a chair so she can jump to that and then do a small hop to the desk.

She tried to STEP from a chair to a coffee table and her middle half sank. Picture front paws on the table, back paws on the chair, and a sagging middle. Until she fell.

I'm reminded of my first cat, Cecil, who used to fall asleep in the windowsill while she was standing up and then she would just tip over. Whoops. 

Oh, Mel. I'm going to be honest and say that I thought Snowshoes were supposed to be intelligent. I thought I was going to be getting a genius cat that could perform emergency surgery if I needed and solve complex puzzles all while finding a way to end problems like world hunger and global warming.

I guess the shelter should have emphasized that she is a Snowshoe MIX.

I don't know what to say. Humans are all different intelligences, right? So it only makes sense that some animals are smarter than others. It's completely obvious with our dogs. I've got rocks in the backyard that are smarter than Atticus.

And speaking of Atter-patter, Mel is quite sure that he is a feline. Which is amusing for us to watch, but not so much for him.

I think Scout, who I'm now assuming, based on interactions with Mel, bordered on genius. Scout played fetch (and could return the item to be thrown again), she could do big hops with grace and balance, she didn't run into any of the furniture, and she knew that Atticus was a dog. And she knew when to stop eating.

I'm guessing Mel has gained at least three pounds since I got her. I'm going to have to start monitoring her food intake as she does not know when to stop.

But, oh, how I love her. She hears me come home and runs to the landing on the stairs to see me. She sticks her odd shaped head through the little rails and stares right at me (sort of). She cuddles on the bed every night. And she provides endless entertainment. Yesterday Atticus was resting with me and she came up, smelled his foot, and then started batting at it. Again, he was not amused, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Anyone else have an odd pet?

p.s. We ended up purchasing one of those break-away collars for her, for fear that her own...oh, let's just say it - her own stupidity would get her in trouble. I would say that she has gotten stuck maybe four times already and had to break herself loose.

p.p.s. The tiling is happening today! Oh boysies.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Every year an organization in Arizona gives the teachers here the opportunity to see the Diamondbacks for free. F.R.E.E.E.

And not being the type of people to give up free stuff, I reserved my two tickets for Friday night. They were playing the Cubbies, which made it even more special. One year they played the Tigers, and I'm sure you can imagine where I placed my loyalties.

First of all, we drove around a bit. We won't go in to details, but here is US Airways Center, where the Suns play and where I saw the Rockettes at Christmas.

I think my favorite moment is when I first see the field. The teachers are allowed on the field pre-game, but I've done it twice and it isn't worth the swamp ass anymore, even if one ends up on the Jumbotron.

So, in addition to Jumbotroning it as a teacher and when I worked in radio, THERE WAS THIS ONE TIME... a co-worker once gave us prime seats and while I was eating nachos and looking a mess Boyfriend and I were put on the Ol' Big Screen to kiss. I was mortified. Having over 20,000 people seeing me eat and kiss with food in my mouth? No. I didn't do it.

Hold on while I hang my head ashamedly. 

Okay. The moment has passed. Look:

So incredible. All the people. There were 23,400 in attendance on Friday. That's like, an entire city in Michigan. 

I get a bit overwhelmed when we get up to the cheap seats. I have a fear of tripping and falling all the way down. To the field. Irrational, but still. So we didn't sit in our seats. We just found some open that required minimal climbing.

Even this makes me nervous:

And then we thought we'd be mean and text/photo message Jer's friend who is a Cubbies fan. So I took this picture of Jeremiah. I should mention that I had my real camera out because I wanted some quality pictures, but I forgot it. Sigh.

And then after the game...Fireworks. Love. Love. Love.

Everyone else have a good weekend? We've also been pool side now for about two weeks. That makes the unseasonably hot temps much more manageable.