Home, sweet home.

I’ve been back in town for about 24 hours. Guest rooms are made up and I have removed the ugly shelves and hung more photos  and a couple of frames that don’t have photos in them yet. Not 100% finished with the Photo Project, but I’m pretty close.

I have photos but have been slacking, so I’ll post them tomorrow when I’m at work. Since we’re post-Super Bowl I’m predicting above-average slowness.

Spouse and I are drinking beer and watching Supertroopers. It’s one of those movies that should stop being so funny once you’ve gotten to the point where you can quote absurd amounts of dialogue and yet somehow it hasn’t. We still laugh our asses off  through the entire film.

Our bar is the next project – mirrors and shelves for the back bar and grass skirts to decorate the front of the bar. Tiki motif, here we come! We’ve already got the talking parrot so there’s no turning back. Next big investment? Tropical wall mural. Oh yes.

All women should know how to use power tools.

My dad made sure my sister and I had a basic knowledge of tools growing up and insisted we take shop in junior high. I can change a tire but using power drills has been much more useful.

Today I decided to hang the pot rack. It’s steel (and a bit heavy) so hanging it myself was a challenge from a leverage standpoint. And then I tried drilling into the studs. I drilled the first set of holes and then started to set the screws. The screws got about halfway in before balking. In the meantime, I’m trying to make sure the thing is level and not going to pull out of the wall, so I’m holding it up with my rib cage and shoulder, alternately. I have to back the screws out, get a slightly larger drill bit, and tried again. Same result. I begin to think that our wall studs are reinforced with concrete. Same bit, a bit deeper, exact same result. The screws came with the rack and are nice enough, but they have rounded ends which, by this point, are starting to strip out. Frankly, I was relieved the thing was ON the wall but while I was out running the rest of my errands I picked up another set of flat head wood screws. I came back, drilled out a couple of holes with another drill bit and then the bit broke off IN THE WALL.

I fetch some needlenose pliers and gently twist the bit out. I decide that the next drill bit up won’t be TOO big and give her a go. The flat head screws go in much better, although I had to crank them all down with a screwdriver for the last few turns. The end result is that it’ll take an effing AVALANCHE to get this thing off the wall. When the new paint project happens, we are PAINTING AROUND IT.

Awesomely bad ass pot rack and the new credenza.

Not a fantastic picture, but if you look closely you can see the parts of the wall that need to be patched from the ugly shelves. I am a rockstar because I hung it myself and it’s balls-on level.

New lighting! But first the ugly old stuff.

Old lights in the kitchen/dining area.

A closer look at the old stuff.

My least favorite ceiling fan, ever. Except the one left in the basement.

Our new lighting. It makes me much, much happier.

I don’t think you can tell very well from this picture, but if you look at the chandelier you can see that the base is offset from where the hook is. The hook is directly in line with the other two lights. For whatever reason, the old owners had the ceiling fan over where the base is – which made all of the lights look a little more weird. It’s a very long room so it stuck out oddly.

As you can see, the other set of UglyShelves remains. Those mothers will be dealt with upon my return!

A view from the other direction.

All that really remains now is the paint project. I haven’t decided when I’m going to get that ambitious.

Today’s adventure involved big rocks

I was in Glenwood Springs for most of the day. Nice city, really bad parking. On the way HOME from Glenwood Springs, we were on the Battle Mountain Pass and suddenly being waved over to the oncoming lane by a county sheriff. There was a chunk of mountain, bigger than the sheriff’s SUBURBAN, in the middle of the right lane. It had just fallen off the side of the mountain and landed in the road. It was ENORMOUS. It would have squashed Spouse’s truck. Luckily it had fallen before we arrived and it didn’t appear that anyone had been hurt. I expect that Battle Mountain was a BEAR during rush hour tonight.

In Glenwood, I picked up light fixtures to replace the really old (really ugly) ones in our kitchen/dining room. Once this section of the house is done, I think this place will finally feel like home. The pot rack shows up next week and then I’ll have the befores and afters.

There was also a great health food store which carries Greek Yogurt (though they were out) and I got some fantastic premade vindaloo sauce recommended by the owner. We had it for dinner tonight and it was GREAT. I picked up ingredients for meals the next couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to the house stuff being done and being able to actually just cook and look for work. Go bison burgers!

Piper got into the garbage yesterday and has had bowel distress since then. We’re hoping she worked her way through it because we had to leave her in the garage all day today – not my favorite thing. I also picked up a trash can that locks, so we won’t be having a repeat performance.

I also learned that City Market – a big chain of western grocery stores – is owned by Kroger – a big chain of midwest grocery stores. That provides a little cushion of familiarity, at least with regard to SOME of the more esoteric things I like to buy. No guarantees, obviously, but it provides a little reliability with regard to staples. Interestingly enough, I’m going to have to keep a cooler in the back of my car in case I have spontaneous trips over the hill. That way, if I pick up some grocery items I can be sure they stay cold on the way back to town.

When we got back to town, I dropped Spouse off at a meeting, came home, put away groceries,  cleaned up after Piper, and caught up in GoogleReader. I haven’t transferred my pics of the day yet, so that’s probably the last task before bed.

Check one thing off the list

I have officially unpacked all of our books. Spouse had a head start before I arrived, but I unpacked the last 9 boxes. That’s right. We still had 9 boxes of books remaining after he’d unpacked and filled almost three bookcases worth. *sigh* The perils of being an English major.

If I like a book, I’ll read it over and over again. There are many books on my shelves that I reread at least once a year. Spouse is of the read-and-discard persuasion. I don’t think he’d ever purchased a non-textbook before he met me. Luckily we have similar tastes in reading (fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fic, et cetera) so that anything he purchases, I’ll probably read. I tend to lean hard on urban fantasy as well, of which he’s not as much a fan. I have a photo of the six cases of books we gave away, which will find a home on the fridge shortly. Go to the effing library already!

I haven’t unpacked the office but I got the credenza/buffet settled and unpacked the books, which means I can feel at least a LITTLE accomplished tonight.

No place like home

I really, really like our new house. In terms of size (and including the basement) it’s about the same size as our old house (if you exclude the basement – which we didn’t really use with any regularity). The layout is nice and while the light fixtures and paint could use some work, there’s a lot less that we need to ‘do ‘ to it to make it feel like us.

The only drawback to the house is the kitchen. Great appliances. I love that there is a door into the kitchen from the garage, I love that the kitchen/dining area opens onto a small deck. I like the really big space. Unfortunately the kitchen has about half the cupboard space of our old house. I have put every single thing that we’re unlikely to use regularly into a box and stored it in the basement or above the garage, and our cupboards are still busting at the seams.

Yesterday I was in Avon and kind of tooling around on my own. I took a left and ended up in a little shopping area. I found a consignment furniture store that had a fabulous buffet/credenza. I’ve been looking in a lot of places and, frankly, the options are expensive. This was a pretty good deal – worth considering – so I brought Spouse in to check it out. We’re picking it up on Saturday! It’s large enough to hold pretty much all of our dishes, silverware, servingware,  pots, pans, and small appliances. I am very, very excited. It’ll also be really handy for having guests over and not having to clutter the table with food dishes. And now is the time I start thinking about paint.

We’re parceling out the paint project. The wall with the ugly shelves will need repair, so it goes first. The sliding door wall need the door replaced, so it goes last. I also promised Spouse that I would take pictures of the house and then hexdec the Sherwin Williams paint into the photos so we know what it’ll look like.

I have photos from yesterday, which turned out to be a gorgeous day. If I find my camera cord, there may be posted photos.

A Blafair to Rememblack

It was  a LOT of work today, but I hung most of the rest of the photos, plus a mirror. I also got the floors cleaned, made two of the four bedrooms presentable for general viewing, cleaned the kitchen and dining room, and made food!

Of all the things we put up, I’m possibly happiest about the framed Ganesha series above the entryway table. I bought the handpainted (on cloth) prints when we were in India two years ago and have had them sitting on a shelf since then because I couldn’t find the right frame. While in Target yesterday, I found precisely what I’d been looking for. I also rehung the kitchen Buddha (even though there are no pictures). For our wedding, my mom’s cousin gave us a lovely framed and matted copy of our wedding invitation which sat on our mantle in Saginaw. It’s hanging on the wall nearest our bedroom with a photo from our honeymoon where Spouse and I are in costume. I also FINALLY framed the photo from the Cubs game, with our awesome behind-home-base tickets, and got that hung.

In TV notes:

The Mentalist- I was oddly disappointed by this week’s episode. I’m not sure if I was expecting Red John to remain a sort of elusive background shad0w-character, but I was fairly meh about the storyline. Loved the character development with re: the team and Jane. Love Jane all the time.

30 Rock – Hilarious. The title of this post is from the episode. Tracy Morgan plays the funniest character possibly in the history of television.

Grey’s Anatomy – Dude. WTF with this Denny thing.  OVER it. I’m also kind of annoyed by the Mer-Christina feud, though it produced my two fave moments (Sheperd and McArmy bonding; her intern friend busting her out for being insincere). I also love Lexie/Sloan. It was also nice to see Meredith having a divergent opinion from Sheperd which was ABOUT MEDICINE. Surprisingly little (and refreshing!) rship drama for them this week. Also, still love Christina/McArmy.

Private Practice – I’m not really sure what to say about the introduction of the jackass doctor. Like, I don’t really care about him and I don’t really care how any of the characters feel about him, and I guess maybe I find the whole ‘friend opening competing practice on the floor below’ to be unbelievable enough to just not care about the ‘drama’ it causes. I do like that the show is tackling challenging medical issues (this week: vaccinations vs. autism) and talking about it like rational people but from both sides.

Damages – I have mad love for this show.  I adore Timothy Olyphant and I’d be watching just for him, even if it wasn’t great. I felt like the Patty flashbacks were a little much, but they’ve got to catch up those people who weren’t watching last season. I dig the connving and backstabbing and I heart Ellen forever.

Psych – Still consistently funny!

Daily Leadville

Before:

This is only half of the before

The more disasterous 'before.'

I am kicking this house’s ASS!

Dudes, I have made SO MUCH progress that it would freak me out except that I’ve still got a metric asston left.

Also: I don’t step, man; I battle!

Today’s plan

Much simpler than yesterday’s:

Drive to Frisco/Silverthorne and pick up Spouse’s truck accessories.

One quick stop at WalMart (WalMart! How I have missed thee!) for a couple of mats (and possibly frames).

Home to hang pictures, straighten kitchen, and generally clean house.

Excitement, right?

I think Friday’s menu is going to include Chicken Souvlaki and yogurt sauce, Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms, and potentially (depending how ambitious I am) Bite Sized Samosas with Mint Chutney. And Sweet Potato Tarts! I almost forgot…

This morning I had a plan.

I was going to get up, drive to Avon, pick up scotch, go to Edwards, mail the Dish Network receiver, get my hair cut, and do a little grocery shopping. The thing that did not get done was mailing the DN receiver. Whoops. It was the foot of snow on my car that threw everything off – that and Spouse leaving his phone at home so I ended up detouring to deliver it.

That said, I conquered Battle Mountain! It’s a stunning (and sometimes stomach-churning, if you’re afraid of heights) drive as a passenger. As a driver, I was so worried about the road I didn’t pay very much attention to the scenery. The scenery IS amazing but I was focused on hairpin turns.

I got my hair done at Salon Axis which was fantastic. The closest salon to my house in Michigan was also an Aveda salon (ask for Amanda or Markesa) and that’s how I developed a bias. I started going to the salon when I decided I wanted a hairstyle and not a haircut, and let me tell you it made all the difference. Why do you care?

First, I am an internet snob. I googled to exhaustion attempting to find a place here in town (or close) and didn’t find a single website. Not even a FrontPage website. That’s disappointing for me, especially in a city with free wireless. As silly as it may sound, I find the internet to be more reliable than the phone book. Online I can find photos, pricing, or at least get a sense of how a business sees itself (or doesn’t). A good website will bring me to your business.

[example: great website vs. not my thing. Guess where I bought my scotch?]

Second, Aveda. I like Aveda products. I don’t find the scents to be overwhelming and – to a one – I have always found their salon stylists/designers to not only be talented, but HELPFUL. As in “Backcombing, let me show you it!” It can be pricy, but they do an excellent job with their client consults and I have never been disappointed when leaving. Today was no exception.

Third, I am challenging. I am lazy. I am not going to use much product. My hair is fine but there is a lot of it. Curling is out of the question but I’m willing to flat iron as needed. On top of that, I’ve been coloring my hair for the last six years – everything from all shades of red and brown, to a brief flirtation back to blonde, and then red and brown again THIS SUMMER. On my last stop at Shapers, Markesa knocked down the red and colored me a tone similar to my natural shade, but darker.

Salon Axis is located in the Riverwalk area in Edwards, which is a charming faux-town shopping area. Lots of restaurants and stores, but in the best possible imagination of a strip mall. It’s small, only five or six stations (if I recall correctly) but nicely appointed and with lovely wood floors. The waiting area is a bit narrow, but I always bring a book- today’s was Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book – or an mp3 player and pretty quickly don’t notice where I’m at regardless.

Kelly (my hair designer) was fantastic. Another midwest transplant, we had nice conversation about points of interest and places to visit. Most importantlyt, Kelly managed to lighten me up to practically my natural color and freshen up my style. I’m pretty fearless about my hair (which comes from having shaved my head) and was open to all-over color, corrective color, whatever needed to be done. She did the job skillfully with highlights and I love it. I also got a complimentary paraffin hand treatment which was OMG fantastic after three days of working a bar with no hand lotion.

Salon Axis in Edwards, CO

At any rate, I highly recommend the salon.

Before my appointment (I was a bit early) I had a raspberry croissant and hot chocolate at the French bakery a couple of doors down. Really, really good. I also stopped at the Village Market (in the same shopping area) before I drove home to pick up some extras for entertaining. They didn’t have Greek yogurt but they had Bulgarian yogurt and I was intrigued enough to buy it anyhow.

Main Street at Edwards, CO Riverwalk

I’m not sure if it’s a Wild West thing, but I have seen a LOT of these shopping areas in Colorado. They’re spectacular because they engender the feeling of being ‘in town’ in a really clever and attractive package. There is parking on the ‘street’ but also in underground parking garages. They’re structured in such a way that they can be expanded without losing that ‘hometown’ feeling (brick sidewalks, streets, et cetera) and don’t have the traffic of actually being ‘in town.’ They also mean a HUGE variety within a short walking distance, whereas ‘in town’ you’d probably have to drive a little ways for the same options.

I also took some Before photos of the living room today which will not be revealed until all (or a reasonable approximation) of the photos are hung.

Time to stop my rambling and get ready for bed.

More than just photos

Today I got my Colorado phone number. This makes me inexplicably happy, possibly because we are officially Coloradans now. Got the license, the plates, the number – nothing left to do for paperwork!

We’re having a guest over on Friday and all I have to do is finish unpacking, stash full boxes, hang all the photos and artwork, and finalize (and cook) the menu. No problem, right?

Tomorrow I’m running a couple more errands: picking up a special bottle of scotch, mailing our old Dish Network receiver back to the company, and getting my hair cut/colored. It’s been several weeks and there’s about an inch of natural hair color showing. My plan is to get the rest of my hair to look more like the natural color, but we’ll see how that works out. I also have been feeling like I’m rocking some ‘mom’ hair lately and ideally we’ll get something done about that as well. I’m sorely tempted (especially given the clime) to cut my hair very short again. I predict by this time next year that’ll be a done deal. For the time being, I’m willing to humor my spouse and try to grow it out again.

Of course, if anything like the last hair debacle (which required cutting it from below the shoulders to my chin) happens again all bets are off.

I’ve settled into my temp gig, which I like a great deal. It’s also a nice jumping off point looking for other work.

More importantly, WE’VE GOT A DVR AGAIN!! If I sound redonkulously excited about THAT, then you’ve never had a DVR. Not only do Spouse and I have separate (and concurrent) viewing habits on Thursday nights, this Mountain time change thing is killing me. Did you know that out here, prime time starts at 7pm? WTF?

Progress is being made, slowly but surely, and I hope to be completely done with the moving in by next Friday. I also made my plane reservations (yay frequent flyer miles!) to get back to Detroit for Mom’s surgery. Anyone intrested in coffee/tea/beer in the Detroit area should email me (or comment here).

I’m going to put together some shelving and then go to bed. The Battle Mountain pass is mine to conquer tomorrow – something that brings new heights to hair-pin turns (12,000 feet) and stunning (if somewhat terror-inducing) scenery.

Unpacking the House: Scorecard part deux

This morning I have unpacked another box of clothes (mine) and sorted three boxes of clothes (Spouse’s) for donation.  This cleared a big chunk of space in the office, where my clothes will be housed. I’ve also straightened the basement. I’m feeling quite accomplished. I also got my security code for the new job, so one more checkmark off the list!

Today’s list of things to do:

Obtain Colorado plates for both cars.

Drop off donation clothes.

Practice open at work.

Straighten guest bath.

Sweep.

On the bad news front, the teacher who had been considering taking over my classes at the gym in Michigan has apparently declined. I’m disappointed for my students and hope they’ll find a suitable alternative.

Post-Christmas lack of ambition

Today we accomplished important task #1: putting me on  Spouse’s local bank account. That is pretty much all we did. We rented some movies, but have only watched one. Burn After Reading is an interesting and slightly bizarre film and totally worth watching just for Brad Pitt. I never thought I’d say that, but he’s just hilarious.

Up next: Hancock and Baby Mama.

Tomorrow: drive to Frisco and get my new driver’s license, as well as change over registration on vehicles and obtain Colorado plates.

When Mom and A left, they took the cold weather with them. Today was sunny and warm – 35 degrees. The snow on the roads has all melted, though it wasn’t enough to thaw all the rest of it. If you’ve looked at any of the photos, you’ll understand. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as sunny, though less warm. I’m very glad that I invested in good sunglasses.

I sent Mom home with an eclectic mix of music for her iPod. I’m interested to see how she’ll like it. Highlights included John Legend, Fergie, Adele, Rare Earth, The Eagles, The Beatles, Vampire Weekend, Gnarls Barkley, Sarah Harmer, and the Indigo Girls. There was a lot more, but I don’t recall everything.

My dad’s been on my mind a lot lately and it’s entirely possible that I’ll write about it tomorrow, but no promises.

I am looking forward to the house finally reaching ORDER and life returning to some semblance of a routine. As predicted, I’m a bit at a loss without my teaching schedule. Not only that, I’ve slacked on my own yoga practice for the last couple of weeks because of the acclimation. Someone sent me a yoga kick in the ass for Christmas, though, so I’m about to get back on the horse.

Unpacking the house: scorecard

Spouse and I: 3, basement: 1

We’ve gotten almost everything in the basement completely done. The records pwned us by being too numerous for our shelf but other than that, we’re pretty good. I’m pleased with the albums because, as a novice LP-packer, I was really really concerned they were going to break on the cross country trip. They did not and I couldn’t be happier about it. My dad’s record collection is made of win.

Today we made another trip to Denver, as our houseguests both needed to be dropped at the airport (albeit a couple of hours apart). Both have landed safely in their respective home states and, after running a few errands, Spouse and I headed home. We got sidetracked at the largest Whole Foods I have ever seen in my life.

Once we got home we walked Piper. She was very excited to see us because I think she’d just about written us off as dead. I’m not sure canine object permanence lasts more than 10 hours. She is currently sprawled on the love seat, Spouse is ensconced on the couch, and here sit I in my old recliner. We get to relax, having put the shelves together, unpacked albums, stored excess dishes, and walking. I also sorted through a metric asston of photographs that I’ve been keeping forever. I found my K-12 photo sheet, a detention form from 8th grade, and a bunch of photos that my high school friends who have recently friended me on facebook may or may not be happy to see.

The daily Leadville photo will have to wait because the camera is upstairs and I’m going to sit right here and drink cocoa until I get drowsy.

Local photos, by request

Since Middle-Aged-Woman asked for them, here are some photos from our outing today.

Not far from home

deep in thought

And if you ever wanted to know what it’s like to drive across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska – here you go:

yes, all the central states look the same

The only difference was the amount of snow and there was surprisingly little pretty much everywhere until we were west of Denver. You can probably imagine how exciting that drive was.