<Rainbow Heron>

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Moving Experiences

Last night was the first time I'd been able to go online since we moved in. Was busy trying to find the hidden stuff over at JKRowling.com (found 3!) and still fighting the been-trying-to-throw-me-offline-since-December-randomly-as-if-its-overloaded-even-tho-it-isn't server. We are completely out of the other house as of last week, so how about an update?! Here's what's been up:

Bird Watching

Cardninal Law: Babies grew up and flew off. Last day there, we saw the parents having to ward off a few blueish doves several times. When we found the nest disturbed and empty the next day, we thought the cardinals had lost the turfwar, but since there were no feathers, and it had been about 10-12 days since the babies hatched, they must've flown off.

Wheezy: The cardinal babies sounded like those squeaky toys that sound more like a wheeze than a squeak. We missed hearing those guys. They were getting so loud too!

For the birds: We're gonna end up becoming bird watchers given all the activity around here. We've already got feeders and books and we still need to hang the bluebird house, but we're definately gearing up for it! Tweet tweet!

Midnight Serenade: There's a mockingbird around here with severe insomnia. He must've known I was moving in cuz he likes to sing very loudly outside my window from about 1am to about 4 or 5 am. He knows every song in the book, sings each for about 2 seconds, and never sings the same song twice. At least that was his performance about 2 or 3 nights ago.

Who's on what first?: We know there's an owl that lives around here, heard him hoot once, but we still haven't seen him yet. Scared up a little brown bunny by accident once tho. :-)



The Color Guards

The White House?: Y'know how the White House had different color rooms and they're all named that way? Well, here's what we had: The Red Room (living room, "Bordelo red", "Moulin Rouge"), The Orange Lounge (front hall), The Yellow Hall (hall to bedrooms), The Mustard House (kitchen/den), The Blue Room (guestroom- untouched), The Green Room (now my room), and last but not least: the 1970's Purple Pimp Room! (parents' room). I promise you WILL get pictures of this!

The Bisque House: We had to buy a new fridge and Mom wanted the wall it's on to be painted so that the fridge disappears. So I matched the color. According to Mom, it's bisque. According to me, it's vanilla. French, against the right other colors.

The Cabinet's indecision is: The kitchen cabinets (the outside parts) have yet to be painted because in a house of 3, if one person disagrees with the other 2's color choice, we have to start from scratch. Because we couldn't reach an agreement, we decided to go ahead and just paint them whatever we were gonna paint the wall with the fridge. And since we took a LONG TIME to NOT decide on the kitchen cabinets (whatever we do to them, they'll be one of THE most prominent features in the house the way this layout was done), we didn't get time to decide on the other rooms (except for mine which was a me-only area) so guess what color 99% of the house is? Vanilla bisque. Yes people, we painted our house according to our refridgerator. :-P :-D

Meet me in the blue room: The one room in the house that didn't get painted (we haven't really touched the bathrooms' wallpaper altho I took a thingy that pokes holes in the paper to mine) was the guest room/office. It's a nice blue and is the original Blue Room to this house.

Giving the house it's dignity back: The *other* Blue Room- my room. I matched my wall color to my stuff. According to Sherwin-Williams I got the entire paint sample collection (you know me); AND I keep them in spectral order (you REALLY know me- oh-HO yeah! labeled and everything...). I had a choice of blues between Dignity, Honorable, and Loyal. I chose Dignity. :-)

Gassed out: I can't paint in the bisque any more because the ammonia makes me sick. That plus the smells that still linger from the previous owners and the new yoga moves on my abs/stomach led to some unpleasant results recently. Bring it up again and we'll vote on it.

"Closet" Case: My dying dresser has needed replacing for years so we finally did it. I wanted to finish it (we bought it at an unfinished wood store), but didn't/couldn't by then so I've been going a little nuts by using 10 different colors on it. One of them being that EverClear stuff which you can use a Sharpie on and then erase it with 409. The bisque is also EverClear, but ironically my Dignity isn't. It's a latex paint....OH SHUT UP!!!!! (yes I know what that sounds like and no I'm not re-wording that) I promise you WILL get pictures of this too- right after I get copies delivered to the Sherwin-Williams guys. Same 2 guys throughout this whole ordeal.



In other news...

And baby makes 10: My uncle was helping us paint but the going was slow because my aunt was due with their #8 at any time. They thought it was a girl, but surprise it was another boy! 6 out of 8. Had all 10 out here yesterday to help with the yard (no trees down yet).

Yoga: I'm in the intermediate class now and she's trying to kill us. :-) Got a more appropriate outfit and I've started bringing my mat, which I bought from her months ago. There are only 2 of us in this intermediate class for this 6-week session cuz it's summer, and my Washington DC pal got transferred during the 2-week break. :-( Bye Jennifer, good luck in NC! <waves>

Dip Debut: Mom and I bought our new bathing suits (cuz she threw out the old ones about 3 years ago) last week and I've already gone for a swim with E&E (more cousins, I did the math and if I'm right about two of them, I've got 20 first cousins). Boy I'd forgotten just how much pressure the water puts on your body when you're imersed in it. Burped quite a bit. This is my second pool. Last one was 9 years ago. Still got my old mask.

SOMETHING MATCHES!!!: Anybody who knows us/has been to our house knows that we do NOT coordinate stuff. We are NOT worthy of (sic) Southern Living and we never will be. Don't wanna be. We're too varied in our stuff and with apologies to Trading Spaces, we ain't gonna ditch it all for Pier 1 Imports or Pottery Barn or whatever. Therefore, when we bought new light fixtures for the kictchen and dining room, it's an EXTREMELY BIG THING that they are from the same family of light models from Kichler. They also match the fan in my bedroom, or rather vice versa. I'd already picked out my fan and weeks later they had a sale on the other stuff. :-) Bought 'em all at the same time.

More closet cases: Naturally with the dresser still being painted (taking forEVER!) I've got stuff all over the floor- I must've vaccumed this thing 4 times already. No idea when we'll be unpacked so we're still "camping out". It's so weird to be living in a house that's as disorganized as this is in certain strategic areas. Like we had to put the washer/dryer in a secret offsite location so there's no laundromat in this house- ANYWHERE. Best we've got is the outside sink for maybe the handwashables, but really since it's outside and all...y'know? The closet in my bedroom is untouched so I have a reminder of what *was*, and the closet in my bathroom has been stripped of its shelving and other than that, it's still dirty as heck and filled with boxes so it's a nice reminder of what *is*. <::sigh::>

Memorial: Watched the dedication ceremony for the WWII Memorial.

Surrounded. Defeated.: I made good on my threat by hooking up my dvd player to my surround stereo...BUT...with the kind of connections I have, they won't hook up to the Dolby option area so it's only like maybe quad instead of true surround. :-D Oh well! <giggles and sighs>

Modem citizen: The new local phone books came out during the move. While we managed to get the house phone number unlisted, the number I use STRICTLY (99.99999999%) for my modem line is right there in black and white. :-P And with the old address. :-D I've already had someone call me looking for Paul. ...Who?

Blinded by the light: I hate these blinds. I wanted a certain kind of my own, but Mom's like "all windows on the front of the house have to match". She's already picked out the new kind she wants. While I like that it's a finished wood look, it's still the style blinds (the basic kind you see everywhere) that I hate. Yes people, I do not like the basic style blind.

Well, move along- this ain't no peep show!: Had to take off all of the blinds in my room to paint and wouldn't you know it- we moved the computer table into the room before we decided that we should put 'em back for the time being. With clothes all over the floor, other stuff to do, and a computer table to reach over, I haven't really had a good chance to get them back in yet. Changing has become a covert operation. First night in this house however, NONE of the blinds were on. Had to sleep with the entire world able to see into my room. I hope Daniel and Hackboy were happy...have they even found the new place yet? Got a nice backyard fence for you two to sit on! <waves to the fencesitters> :-D

Risky Business: We've got ourselves a VERY slippery Pergo floor in the kitchen/den. The furniture keeps slipping and sliding around if you sit in, lean against, get out of, or bump into them in just the right ways. Mom, predictably, is also constantly rearranging them trying to find our paths, while in the meantime, the furniture is almost always moving itself! Very strange thing to be leaning all the way back in your recliner and then suddenly have it move cuz you shifted your weight. Anybody wanna get some white shirts?

Unexpected visitors?: Had a little bit of a scare when we thought someone had been in our backyard while we were out and rearranged/went thru some of our stuff in the downstairs outside. Might've just been us forgetting we did it, but it was a bit unnerving and there *are* quite a number of kids in this neighborhood.

Drawn to quartereds: While Kim Le couldn't find herself some Rhode Islands, we can't seem to find any Michigans. Got 2 Floridas but since about a year ago, it's been very hard for us to find State Quarters. I think we have only the 1 Alabama, I **think** we accidentally spent one of them. So how about it, anybody seen any Michigans? If so, PLEASE *DON'T* tell us what it looks like- we like to guess.

Well, I think that just about covers it. Oh wait, I saw a stretch SUV driving down the highway for the first time too. Looking forward to Harry Potter 3 in theaters in *2 days* and I taped the stuff on A&E about it tonight. As you can see, this house has been all about the paint. Been V-E-R-Y B-U-S-Y!!! And when we *aren't* busy doing anything, we're watching the grass grow, the water evaporate, and the paint dry. In the meantime, the painting continues! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! :-D

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