Communication breakdown

My only excuse here is that it was earlier this morning and I hadn't yet had a cup of coffee....these emails went back and forth between me and DD.

To Mom
Subject: fall break

• Hey mom, I'll be coming home for break on the 8th, not the 1st.

From Mom
Subject: RE: fall break

• Rats, I was looking forward to seeing you next week!

To Mom
Subject: RE: fall break

• Goofball, that is next week.
  

Dogs

I smell treats, do you smell treats?

Do you think she has the treats?

I dunno, let me look.

It's her, she has the treats! Crap, she's holding them behind her back.

Good Food?

This recipe for zucchini "pasta" might be good and I can think of a few of you who might like to try it. I haven't made it but I will - the recipe is here in the New York Times.

Front Porch Insectarium

I am used to opening the front door and finding odd animals or insects there. In the evenings lately there is a frog huddled against the door (he has to hop up to get to it) for whatever reason. We have a variety of spiders, praying mantis, deer, squirrel, turkey - -but until this morning, not a walking stick!

As you can see he/she is on the ceiling of the porch. About 5 inches long, brown, and ridiculously stick-like. Very cool.

Nearly finished!

Here is the result of all the moving around and mess we created in the last few weeks. It was hard to get some of the pics because it's very sunny outside and that makes the rooms dark. I expect that my children will be the most able to see what a big change this is, since they live here, much of the time.

Here we see, from Dh's spot at the kitchen table, how the view has changed....
Here is the new "tv room" formerly known as the office. Notice that nice new floor...

Gratuitous picture of Rusty
The new library, formerly known as the family room. Three of the corners have shelves which, you will see, have not been arranged.
View from the foyer - that slipcovered wingback chair isn't staying. I just don't have the heart to ask anyone to carry anything else right now.
Messy corner shelves, but you get the idea of the room. LOL, I just noticed that I am reflected in the mirror between the windows.
And the living room, where not much has changed except that the bookshelves are gone and the entertainment center's armoire is there instead. I like how that looks.

Same as always, just another furniture arrangement. Alex is so sorry to be the child who constantly has to rearrange that room for me.

And that's all! It feels really different to have the rooms changed so drastically. I like it a lot. We need to get a rug for the tv room, and hang pictures, arrange some storage, etc., but it's very comfortable.

Note to DS

Look, all the books left in your room fit into the two teak bookcases - not a terribly neat arrangement, with some shelved flat, but I think it looks good. Hey, you can enlarge the picture and visit your books.....

I took these two out of your room to borrow because they look interesting. I photographed them so you will have the picture to hold over my head until they are returned.

WHAT WERE WE THINKING??

Oh boy, what have I gotten into here? We finished the office floor and decided to move some things around - to turn the office into a TV room, and to turn the old TV room into a library. So basically, every single flat surface on this floor is COVERED with either:

• office things, like files/computer/printer/copier/etc
• books books BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
• TV things, like dvds/vcrs/tapes/cables
• Things that used to be on shelves, like photo albums, sculptures, framed photos, knitting baskets - - you get the idea. So here, take a look at what has happened - my house is GONE!
  

Look at the foyer. Complete with a sofa and bookcases. There is a view of the dining room from the kitchen.....the living room just keeps getting worse....and this used to be the kitchen!

Does anyone want to come over and help?

Please?

I'll make cookies....no wait....I can't get to the stove...

Home Improvements

These are some of the planks that we "shuffled" from all the boxes so their shadings would be mixed up. They are made from bamboo, which is supposed to be more environmentally friendly, so we thought we'd try it. It's a walnut stain, so it was hard to photograph well but here goes....This is what it looked like going in. That's a plastic underlay on the floor. (The painter's tape is keeping the cords out of our way and holding the spacers in place along the perimeter of the floor.) We made a three-row pattern repeat, and DH kept cutting the planks while DS2 and I did the snapping together. It went very quickly.
Here it is nearly finished:
And TA DA!
DH put in a ceiling fan too, and the room is nearly finished! He's is in the middle of repainting/replacing the baseboards and we'll be good to go.

Hey, what is that thing on the patio umbrella?

Is that a . . . bat?

Yep.


Go ahead, click on the picture to make it bigger. You know you want to.

DS2 was down on the patio opening up the umbrella when DH noticed this guy on the top. It had been sleeping in the folds. It wasn't really ready to wake up yet and it did wait a few minutes before flying off - - right to the deck, where it did a few figure eights around DH to express its annoyance before leaving. I'm glad I got a few pictures.