Nick & Rose Keeping in Touch

Blog Affair

2010-01-04T20:01:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make.

I've been an unfaithful blogger.

I know I haven't blogged here for nearly a year, and with good reason.... We've been busy baby-makin and stuff.

It has come to my attention that ya'll are still looking for updates, which I haven't been providing.

I'm still a terribly infrequent and behind-the-times blogger, but you can read all about our recent adventures over at THIS blog.

(And if you've already been following my personal blog, please click on over and make note of the url change in your Readers.)

Thanksgiving '08

2009-01-09T16:48:00.003-05:00

Halloween in January

2009-01-09T15:17:00.006-05:00

Okay. We didn't REALLY have Halloween in January, it has just taken me THAT long to post these pictures.

We went to a party on the Saturday before Halloween. Nick was a 70's guy and I was a fairy princess. Let me just mention that we were double booked that day. We had ANOTHER costume party to go to BEFORE this one. The earlier party also happened to be a 1 year old's birthday party, where Nick and I were the only adults that dressed up (other than my friend Kara, the mother of the one year old). Um. Apparently I was the princess that was hired for the party. I've never gotten so many baby hugs in my life.

Nick and our friend Chuck

And we went to another party on Halloween. Nick wore the same costume (for the most part), so I decided to match him this time. After the party, we went down to Fell's Point, which was NUTS. I've never seen so many slutty costumes on a FREEZING cold night before! I should've taken more pictures.

Our friends Allen (Where's Waldo) & Silvia (Amy Winehouse)

A female Where's Waldo!

The coolest costume we saw in Fells' Point - Optimus Prime!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T13:11:00.009-05:00

Wow. Has it been a month and a half already?!?!

Things have been super busy here. Once we got back from the wedding, it was time to get back into the swing of things at work and at home (amazing how a wedding puts everything else - like house cleaning - on the back burner). The very next week, we had a friend over for Thanksgiving. It was nice and intimate. I made some pies and we watched 'Wedding Crashers.'

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas. I haven't even had a chance to finish my Thank You cards, so don't be upset if you didn't get a Christmas card... There were birthday & holiday parties to attend, and presents to be made (which didn't really come to fruition). Before I knew it, we were flying back down to Florida to spend a few short days with the family for Christmas and Nicks' 31st birthday.

Grandma Jo & the newest addition to the family, Reagan

Of course we shot some stuff - our new redneck Christmas tradition!

The day after Christmas, we went out on the boat with TJ and enjoyed some natural Florida beauty, the sun, watching skydivers jump, and plenty of Coronas.

The next day was Nick's B-day! We spent the day thrift shopping and hanging out on the beach.

A Leibee family portrait

Here's Nick with one of his birthday presents, a guitar pedal kit. It was almost all put together in this picture.

Nick & TJ play tennis with golf balls so hard, the balls shot through the racket! Wow. He looks serious.

While we were there, we TOTALLY forgot it was still winter up here in Maryland. It was so nice to actually relax for a change! Then we were back in the cold and Nick got sick, so our New Year's was pretty chill. We stayed in and made quesadillas. New Year's Day, we made an awesome brunch - the perfect way to start the year. Forget black-eyed peas and ham hocks. Belgian waffles with homemade strawberry compote and freshly whipped cream, washed down with mimosa is the way to go! YUM.

The weekend right after New Year's, Jordan & Damion came down from New York, so we had them over with Shaun and his girlfriend on Saturday for hot dogs, darts, air-hockey & a jam-out session which lasted well into Sunday morning.

All-in-all, married life is good. To be honest, we haven't had a chance to stop and think much about it. Things feel pretty much the same as always. For those of you waiting on wedding pictures, we're in the same boat. I haven't gotten the disk yet, but I'm sure it will be arriving soon. Once it does, you can bet there will be a LONG posting here with lots of pictures!

WE'RE MARRIED!!!

2008-11-21T11:18:00.005-05:00

Here's a first glimpse... These are some photos Jessica and Kara took.

First Thursday, Firewood & Fish!

2008-10-22T23:34:00.005-04:00

We went to First Thursday this month. It was the last of the season (goodbye Summer...) The Oranges Band played. It was an amazing show. We went straight from work, so we stopped by the Stable for some dinner and a pint. Our neighbors met up with us at the show, where we found a patch of grass and sang along.

Our neighborhood had a community yard sale last week. Unfortunately, the Baltimore Marathon was going on so the main street was closed, and nobody came by. What ended up happening was a bunch of neighbors swapping junk. We found a fully functional fishtank for $5! Once Nick got it cleaned up and operational, we bought fish!
At first we bought a black molly and a dalmation molly. The black molly ended up being pregnant!

Just yesterday, we came home and she was MUCH smaller. At first I thought the other fish had eaten all the babies, but slowly we saw tiny little squirming fish. We have black gravel, and all of the baby fish were hiding in there. We managed to snag a few and put them in the breeding net (to save them from being eaten). There are still a bunch hiding in the tank, but we've managed to "save" at least 11 of them.

We also ordered a cord of firewood. When the wood is delivered, they just dump it in the driveway. It took us almost 3 hours to get it all stacked. Doesn't this look like it's in the country? I love that our city house can feel so peaceful and far away sometimes.

Ren Fest!

2008-09-25T10:48:00.012-04:00

I'm in love with the painted wooden cutouts...

Nick & Rose

In the stocks!

The entire fountain was made out of skulls! Creepy.

Silvia & Rose

Cliff, Nick, Rose & Silvia

The Pirates (Silvia and Ren Fest pirate)

Robin Hood!

Chain mail head ringlets are cool.

Roof Monster

Roof Gargoyle (actual person!)

The Ren Fest King

Jousting!

Rose's wedding update

2008-09-17T09:55:00.004-04:00

Okay, so this is just a small update. I have TONS of pictures in the camera that I need to upload, and then I'll get some new pics up here.

We've been busy busy busy!

The weather's starting to get a bit cooler and mushrooms are popping up everywhere, which reminds me that Fall is around the corner, and we are only 2 months out from the wedding! We have been working on lots of little wedding projects. The big project right now is trying to get the invitations sent out. (A HUGE Thank you to Mandi for all of her help with letterpressing and paper!)

In other good wedding news, Nick finally bought a suit last night! It doesn't need a single alteration. Hooray! I was getting a little nervous there about what he was going to wear...

Nick's hops plants are continuing to do well, despite the rest of our garden being overgrown. He recently made a batch of "summer ale" and it's delicious!

We've also been trying to keep up with all of our friends and our social life. It's so easy to let work and wedding cut us off from the rest of the world. But, our schedule has been packed with birthday parties, playdates, trips to the new resturants around town, art sittings, and soon - yard sales & Fall open house parties.

I promise I'll get some pics up soon! Maybe I can even get Nick to do a post. ;)

I love my friends!

2008-08-21T22:44:00.005-04:00

So I totally love my friends because they took me out to a super cute little tea party for my bridal shower. It was intimate and fun and involved NO GAMES - just the way I wanted it! :)

Nick looked like a total hillbilly trying on my hat as I got ready...

Here are InSung, me & Laura.

Here are Jessica, me & Kara - the ladies with the hats!

Cute favors by Kara! Each little tin had a tea bag inside! So appropriate.

Tea! Yum. We must've had 5 different kinds of tea... I was up until 3 in the morning!

The food was amazing! We had almond scones with creme & lemon curd, finger sandwiches, and a bunch of little desserts!

Here we all are!

And of course, the girls bought Nick & I awesome presents! I love this shot that InSung took. I can't remember what Jessica & I were laughing about, but it's a great moment.

Crate & Barrel LOVES to wrap things. The wrapping just kept coming and coming! According to Jessica, this is my Carrie Bradshaw bridal couture look!

Video Upload Test 1: Pandora Drinking

2008-08-18T21:45:00.005-04:00

This is strangely relaxing to watch. I can't really say anything more about it. -N

Saturday Morning

2008-08-17T01:16:00.000-04:00

Lately it has been GORGEOUS here. I mean about 65 degrees at night and and 85 degrees in the afternoon. Occasionally there's an afternoon shower. The weather has been amazing for the middle of August. That being said, Nick and I have been stuck in a fluorescent lit building on almost every beautiful day.

Today was Saturday, and we woke up to more beautiful breezy blue skies. Finally!

We made an omelet from fresh ingredients out of the garden.

Check out the massive sunflowers.

Cleo & Pandora enjoyed the weather, too!
(And the fresh catnip...)

Aww...He loves the big furball. :)

Doesn't she look ferocious? She's totally killing that piece of grass!

Nick showing off his freshly harvested hops!

I am in love with this photograph. It looks like it could be one of Nick's paintings! It's one of the hops cones.

In the afternoon, I went to High Tea & Nick brewed beer! Those pictures are to come...

Babies & parties!

2008-08-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

Hi all! As usual, it's been a while since my last post....

We have been crazy busy with wedding planning & working. At the end of the day, we're happy if we have any energy after dinner, so there hasn't been too much to blog about.

We had a "play-date" at our place a few weeks ago. Kara, her baby Claire, In-Sung, her baby Minhae, Laura, her baby Victoria, and Kristi (the only other friend without a baby) all came over. Nick retreated to the basement, but he did come out to take some photos of all of us hanging out. :) Victoria is behind In-Sung in the playpen.

Here are Victoria and Minhae. Look at those faces! We're sure they'll be causing a LOT of trouble soon.

Here are Claire and Victoria trying to eat the letters... No worries, we immediately grabbed the choking hazards out of the baby hands.

Our dear friends Jessica & Adam (and their son Chase) our moving to Hagerstown to be closer to family. Sad for us, but great for raising Chase. So, they had a going away party last weekend. We hadn't seen them in a while, so it was great to see them before they move.

The food was amazing! I could've eaten this entire platter. Yum.

Nick & me with Rob & Anna. Rob, his wife Danielle, & their daughter Anna live next door to Adam and Jessica.

Baltimore to Hagerstown...

On a tangent, I bought wedding shoes! These aren't the shoes Nick will be wearing, but I made him put them on as an estimation to make sure my shoes didn't make me taller than him... They don't! :)

This blog covers a lot...

2008-07-14T20:37:00.000-04:00

So... It has been a busy month and a half. After the graduation party, Nick and I bid farewell to my family. A week later, it was my birthday. A bunch of my girlfriends from work went out and saw the Sex and the City movie! It also happened to be my friend Kara's birthday, so it was a double celebration.

Kara and I are trying to do the "sexy look," but I can't stop laughing...

After the movie, we went out for mini-martinis and mini-desserts. :)

Once the girls were headed home, Nick picked me up and we went to Club Charles with Shaun and Jordan.

I like this photo I took of Nick & Shaun at the bar.

The very next week, Nick and I headed down to DeLand, Florida. We were only there for a weekend. Let me tell you, it was a weekend crammed full of wedding planning. We actually got a lot figured out and managed to come home somewhat more relaxed (and with a MUCH longer 'to do' list.)

I couldn't resist posting this pic of Nick. His mom found these great straw glasses, so she had to put them to use!

I would like to say the next couple weeks were spent recuperating. The amount of school work, house cleaning, deck building & stress leading up to graduation didn't dissipate as quickly as we would have liked. But we were busy with baptisms and work related boating trips I know - poor us! ;)

Minhae & InSung at Minhae's baptism

Victoria (our friend Laura's daughter) reaching for Claire (Kara's daughter).

I love this photo that Nick took while we were boating. A huge storm had just passed through.

The fourth of July was nice. We went to our friends, Jeannie & Neal's house for a cookout and some fireworks. It did get a bit rained out, but we still had a great time.

Nick LOVES fireworks!

Our friend Chris drinking "the coldest beer ever."

For some odd reason, I decided that a 3 day weekend would be perfect to redo the kitchen cabinets. By redo, I mean take down, scrape of tons of sticky mystery goo & grease, fill in the holes from the old hardware, sand them, prime them, and paint them. Four coats later, the cabinets were ready to get new handles! We also cleaned, sanded, primed & painted all of the insides of the cabinets.

Ripped out cabinet from above the fridge

Let me just say that applying contact paper is NOT easy.

Obviously, this project took much longer than the 3 (2.5 if you count going to Jeannie & Neal's) days alloted. This would have been okay, except that we had our entire neighborhood over on the very next Saturday! Our neighborhood does a Progressive Dinner, and we had volunteered to host the soup and salad portion of the dinner. All in all, we managed to get the kitchen completed and cleaned up in time, and the dinner was great! Everyone raved about Nick's chicken tortilla soup! As usual, we partied with our neighbors until the wee hours of the morning. Yesterday was spent cleaning, watching movies and recuperating.

The kitchen doesn't photograph well at night, but here's an idea of the new look. The color is WAY less orange. The cabinets are actually a very nice retro-looking coral.

And just for giggles, here's a pic from what our kitchen used to look like. Check out the mustard yellow wall above the cabinets. Please ignore the outfit - this was pre-air-conditioner! Oh, and before you ask, I was cat-fishing. :)

Feb. Ski Trip

2008-05-30T10:24:00.003-04:00

So... this was in February, but we just got the pictures this week. This was the first time either of us had been skiing. It was a great time, but I'm glad it's warm out now! :)

Deck Blog III

2008-05-29T23:27:00.001-04:00

The deck the way it looks now, about 98% complete, just need to finish the sides of the pergola. Totally ready to party on though. (see below)

The Graduate

2008-05-29T23:24:00.000-04:00

I finally have my Masters degree! YEA! It has been three long years, and I still can't believe I don't have to go back to class. My mom, stepdad, grandma & 2 brothers came up for the event. They also helped a lot with the deck and the party.

The school had a reception showcasing the graduate portfolios and final projects.

Here I am sitting at my table with my wine labels.

And here we are just after graduation. I look so silly in a cap and gown. Sorry it's a blurry photo, that's all I have right now. I'm pretty sure my parents took about a hundred pictures, so I may post one of those when I get them.

Thank God for Spring!

2008-05-29T23:20:00.000-04:00

Bye-bye Comcast

2008-05-12T16:41:00.000-04:00

I did it. I finally called and cancelled our cable. We have been cable free for 5 days now! Soon, we will be totally Comcast free. We are switching our internet over to Verizon, which all together will save us $110 per month! We also signed up with Netflix. We ended up saving so much money by getting rid of Comcast that Netflix is a drop in the bucket. Plus, we get to see lots of great movies! If you have any recommendations, let us know.

The deck continues to come along, and the flowers are blooming. I'm sure we'll post a 'flowers of our yard' blog at some point soon.

I am "unofficially" finished with my masters degree!!! I had the last class and presentation on Thursday night. This weekend my family is coming into town, Monday is a reception for the Publications Design master degree students, and Wednesday is graduation. Hopefully the deck will be completed by the next Saturday for our graduation/deck-warming party. I am so looking forward to all of the free time to read, sew, enjoy the deck, and plan a wedding. By the way, the next time I tell any of you that I'm thinking about going back to school, feel free to slap me. :)

So, all in all, we've been pretty busy, but not much else to report.

Hope all the mama's had a happy Mother's Day!

Deck Blog II

2008-05-09T22:32:00.001-04:00

Rose cutting balusters on the chop saw.

New posts for the awning.

Almost got my arm ripped off here.

out with the old

Proper hydration is important when working in sunny weather. I swear I didn't drink the beer while using the saws, I made Rose hold it. ...sorry Shaun.

hanging stair stringers

Done enough for chairs.

Almost there

Deck Blog!

2008-04-20T09:04:00.001-04:00

Deck Blog!

This is pretty self explanatory. The main platform is 19'x11' and it's about 36" off the ground at the door end. Railings and pergola will be up next weekend, and the decking should be installed after that. Then you will all visit us.

It's Official!

2008-03-24T22:30:00.000-04:00

Yes, we're engaged. Nick proposed on Easter. The ring was in a golden egg in my Easter basket. Very cute. And very surprising. I was hoping for it on Tuesday, our two-year anniversary, but he surprised me by popping the question a few days early.

So, for our two year anniversary, we went to the Chameleon Cafe
It was amazing. Here we are all dressed up. :)

2008 Catch up

2008-03-24T21:04:00.000-04:00

So... Other than squirrel mania, we have had a fairly uneventful year. Until recently. My new job has been going really great. It has been a slow and long training period, but now one of the senior Print Production Managers is going out on maternity leave, so I will be put to the test by covering all of her accounts. I am looking forward to having something to do during the day!
School has been going okay. I have two more months and a TON of work to do. Luckily, it's all fun work with a rewarding finish of graduation.

Cleo has had a nasty eye infection. 7 trips to the vet and $600 later, her eye is looking much better.

Apparently, Cleo drank too much... No, she just likes to drink out of the toilet.

Nick's friend Jordan (and his band) came down from New York to play a show in Shaun's building. What a coincidence! We ended up being out until after 4am!

ATTACK OF THE SQUIRREL!!!

2008-03-24T21:03:00.001-04:00

So, one Friday, about a month ago, we come home and the house is destroyed. There are plants knocked over. Citrus eaten through with BIG teethmarks. Crackers all over the counter with rodent holes in the bag... THEN, we find dirt? and BLOOD all over the bathroom! The walls, floor, window, ceiling even! We figure whatever was in the house has either escaped or been eaten by the cats. Once we sit down to watch TV, we notice the cats are staring intently at the fireplace. Hmm... That wasn't dirt in the bathroom, it was ashes! We had accidentally left the floo open. Then the madness ensued. Nick closed the floo, trapping the animal in the chimney, and whatever was up there was MAD. It was growling and kicking the inside of the chimney. Nick went to the store and bought a live trap. He cleverly devised the trap below.

The unknown rodent entering the cage:

A SQUIRREL!!

Biting and running and growling.... We have a video, and I'll post it once I can figure out how to do that.

Nick using the fireplace hook to transport the squirrel.

We called animal control and they said squirrels rarely carry rabies, so there was no need to get it tested (in case the cats came into contact with it). So, Nick and our friend Seth drove the squirrel to a park. Hopefully it won't find its way back into OUR house!

Good news

2008-01-31T20:25:00.001-05:00

I GOT A NEW JOB!!!! =D

I'm still at T. Rowe, but movin' on up to a happier place in Print Production.

Lots of Photos!

2008-01-06T10:33:00.000-05:00

We had a very quite Thanksgiving this year - just the two of us. I made a really yummy sage and cranberry cornish hen.

Our first snow in the house!

I knew we weren't going to be at the house for our first Christmas of home-ownership, but I wanted to decorate anyway. We did lights outside, stockings on the mantle, and of course, a tree! We threw a holiday party, so we could see our MD friends before the trip to Florida. There may be pictures of that to come...

Similar to last year, we spent the first part of the trip with Nick's family and the second part with my family. We celebrated Nick's birthday early with his family. That means lots of food and friends and fireworks. This is Logan, Eric's son watching TJ (Nick's brother) shoot off Roman Candles. He LOVED it! :)

Ah... A "tropical" Christmas Eve in Florida.

Merry Christmas! Christmas at Nick's involves lots of running around the yard with airplanes, frisbees, bubbles, badmitton, fireworks, bee-bee gun target practice, and a burn barrel.

On the 26th, we drove over to Dunedin and had a 2nd Christmas at my family's house. This is Grandma Nonie (aka. Grandma Sugar).

We stayed at a little hotel right in the marina. Here's the view from our room at sunset.

The 27th was Nick's B-day. Happy 30th!!! We spent the morning going thrift-shopping per Nick's request. We then went to the Tarpon Springs Spongedocks. That place is like the Greek Disney World. The sponges are stinky, though! We ate outside at this packed Greek resturant. Afterwards, we went to the beach with my family and went rock-hunting. Then Grandma took us all out for a birthday dinner. It was a good day.

The next day, we went to Caladesi Island, which was rated the 2nd best beach in the country this year. It is a national park island which is left totally natural. You have to take a ferry to get there. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day. Then out of nowhere this thick, wet, cold fog blew in. We were thinking about packing up, and it blew away as quickly as it came in...freaky. The island has a playground for the kids, surrounded by a lot of natural Florida beauty.

Hello!

2008-01-04T10:22:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

I apologize for the LONG amount of time since the last post. We have been very busy with me finishing the Fall semester, throwing a holiday party, going to FL for Christmas...
Florida was wonderful. It was so good to get away, see friends & family, and enjoy the warm weather. We wish we were still there! Pictures to come...
The latest news is that our furnace broke. Yep, that's right folks, the day after we got back from Florida it stopped working. Just so happens to be the two coldest days so far this season(about 17 degrees). Luckily, the furnace is under a service contract, so the repair man is supposed to fix it today. This is good, because I could see my breath in the house this morning!
I hope to post some pictures soon!

Washington, DC

2007-11-17T22:06:00.001-05:00

We went to Washington, DC the weekend before last. We took a lovely stroll in the sculpture garden at the National Gallery of Art. Then we saw the Edward Hopper exhibit, which was amazing, but super crowded.

After we took in our fill of modern art, we got back on the Metro and went to Georgetown. Wow. That place is crazy. I have never seen so many rich teenage Paris Hilton wanabee girls. There are great stores and good food, but the place is full of jerks. Towards the end of the night, we stopped at a bar which claimed to be "the friendliest bar in Georgetown" on its sign. Well, the roaches were friendly, anyway.

Pittsburgh

2007-11-17T18:45:00.001-05:00

So, last weekend we took a day trip to Pittsburgh, PA. "Why?" you might ask. Well, it's this little thing called Flight Club. This is a club started by Dan Klos, a guy we work with. This was the third day trip Flight Club has taken. Check out the site for Dan's commentary about the day. Also, pictures are uploaded to Shutterfly (you may need to refresh the site to get it to work). Feel free to check out the 240+ pics.

Halloween

2007-11-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

For Halloween, we went as a 70's couple. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us together, but here's one of Nick. He's sitting by the fog machine, but we think it looks appropriate with his costume. :) You can see a glimpse of my super awesome polyester jumpsuit in this photo.

I also made super scary finger cookies for work. Don't worry, the "blood" is chocolate syrup & food coloring.

A couple of weeks before Halloween, we drove out to the country and took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

I didn't do a pumpkin this year, and Nick did his really quick.

Just because, here are our pumpkins from last year.

Catching up - October Version

2007-10-20T12:39:00.000-04:00

October has been unseasonably warm, but that hasn't stopped us from doing some Fall decorating. I made a wreath for our door and we bought fake pumpkins!

Pandora likes to play and drink in the bathtub. Nick took a video of her. Apparently, she likes to watch her own home movies.

So, the couch that we got from Adam and Jessica - definitely a bit too big to fit down the stairs to the basement. Let's just say, 3 holes in the walls, a car jack, an hour of kicking, and two very happy boys once it was done. Thanks for all the help Shaun! Luckily, Nick will get very good at repairing drywall.

Um. Uh... Yeah.

And some other random outside pics

Catching up - September version

2007-10-20T12:27:00.002-04:00

Okay. So it's been about a month since our last post. Apologies!

Lot's of stuff has been going on, so here's a bunch of photos and a quick recap.

My friend Jessica's dad got an awesome job a Google and moved to California. This is his going away party.

Jessica also had a baby shower for Peabert. I designed the cake and had it made! (Yeah, I'm a little behind on the posts, because Chase Harper was born yesterday morning - Congrats Jessica & Adam!)

The same night as Jessica's shower, Nick and I took a Thai cooking class. We had lots of fun and ate all the food before I remembered I brough the camera. Oops.

Our friend Amy got married, too! There are more pictures to come (thank goodness, because I look like I ate a bug), but have yet to arrive. It was a great time with lots of amazing music, food, friends & open bar. We are posing with our friend Kara. Her baby is due in less than 2 weeks and I can't wait to meet her!

Basement

2007-09-21T21:42:00.001-04:00

So, as we've been unpacking, all the stuff that needs to go to Goodwill, be sold or be stored has been hapharzadly thrown in the basement. This past weekend came the time to clean it up.
My friends Jessica & Adam were getting rid of thier couch and offered it to us. This one is much more comfy than the last one we had (also a donation from Jessi & Adam). We all decided that the previous couch should be donated to Jessica & Adam's church. So, in order to get the couch out of the basement and the new one down there, massive cleaning had to be done. This picture was taken about half way through, once my alergy attack started (if that's any indication of how messy it was before). So scary.

Rose's Blog

2007-09-21T21:17:00.001-04:00

So I went to DSW with Nick to find black shoes for my friend Amy's wedding. Instead, Nick found both of these, which I just love! So I thought I'd share my new shoes.

Pandora did not want me to take pictures of the shoes. She wanted to be the center of attention, so most of the photos have her blurry face in them. Here's one I meant to take of her. Nick likes this one, so I'm posting it.

And some artsy photos I took the same day...

(Thanks Mom for the shells!)

Yard sale treasures.

2007-09-21T20:52:00.000-04:00

My new tube receiver from 1960. Fisher 800, best receiver you could buy for years.

Since it sort of half-way works, I have to operate on it and perform some standard mods to keep me rocking and to keep it from burning the house down. I have new internet friends that told me what to do to it. Those brown things are bad, and there's a silver thing that needs replaced, and that big black can is leaking. After those are fixed it will sound great, providing I am not electrocuted.

My new bad-ass basement chandelier. $5 and a "swag" light kit with gold chain.

WE BOUGHT A GRILL!

2007-09-20T22:08:00.000-04:00

That's right. Own a house and now we have to fill it with toys. We had a tiny one (see S'mores pic from the very first blog) that Nick had to bend over to use, but it broke. So, we went through half the summer with no grill - a huge problem. Here are the pics I managed to take of Nick figuring out the drill and instructions before I pitched in for the assembly. Yeah... by the time it was complete and cleaned up, we just wanted to go inside (away from mosquitos). So, hopefully there will be a "finished" grill picture to come.

Yard Blog

2007-09-20T22:04:00.000-04:00

WTF?!?

5" slug

1 sunflower, next year we'll try for 2

total hoser

WTF?!? ...our bunnies are of course, evil. We thought we would starve out the evil bunnies by letting all the grass die. It didn't work, they just got smaller and eviler, and now the yard looks like crap.

Cafe DaVinci (Florida Cont.)

2007-09-20T21:59:00.001-04:00

TJ & PBR

Nick, Alaina & Rose

Cook Trio on Break

Florida

2007-09-06T19:37:00.000-04:00

We went to FLA to visit the famfam. We both had a really great time relaxing, seeing family and friends. I even got to see my family before we left to come back to B-more. Miss everyone!
Enjoy the photos. :)

Eric's 30th B-day cake

Gavin & Logan

Nick & TJ eating some flan

Gary & TJ

Nick and TJ flew some kites. TJ had his kite on a fishing pole, which actually works!

Shooting cans in the back yard.

The koi pond in Susan & Gary's beautiful Florida garden

Photos of us at Cafe Da Vinci (at The Cook Trio show) to come.

Photobooth

2007-08-19T19:17:00.000-04:00

Camping!

2007-08-07T14:08:00.001-04:00

Nick and I went camping at Deep Creek Lake
last weekend. It is way up in the most north-western triangle of Maryland. We got there Thursday night with just enough daylight to set up our tents. As soon as nightfall came, and we were attempting to start a campfire, along came the fattest raccoon we've ever seen. Luckily, all of our food was stored away in the car, so as to not attract any black bears. The weather was pretty nice. It never got over 85 during the day and it was in the high 50s to low 60s at night. We had a great and relaxing time. On Friday we went hiking up Meadow Mountain. On Saturday we went fishing and floating around in the lake. We also got in a lot of reading time. It rained on Sunday as we were packing our stuff up, but it wasn't too terrible. We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel on Sunday and it was delicious!

Our campsite.

Us chilling in front of the fire.

N: be glad you can't hear the screaming kids/parents. Or the idiot with the BMW that kept worrying about the "power-to-weight ratio" as they were loading their crap in to it. He was serious.

Nick enjoying a camping cigar.

Me woman. Me climb rock.

A flower we found while hiking. I think it's called a Jewelweed or something along those lines...

Deep Creek Lake in all of its mountainous glory.

Scenic overlook.

This was the welcome sign for a tiny town we drove through. Accident, Maryland. Priceless.

Here we are driving home with the car loaded up.

Nightime photography from our porch by Nick.

So, we seem to have started collecting vintage Florida souveniers. We found this wall scroll at a yard sale. Here it is hung in our red breakfast nook/pantry.

N: Please send me thriftshop/garage sale Florida souvenirs, thank you.

Painting & Randomness

2007-07-29T18:09:00.000-04:00

Hello again. Not much going on here. Just working a lot and still trying to get the house together. We have officially decided to turn our breakfast nook into a pantry. Pics of that to come.

This week we have been painting the bedroom "robin's egg blue." I don't know if it has quite turned out the right color, but we're going to go with it. Here we are painting. Aren't our cheesy fake smiles great? It wasn't really that bad. :)

Randomness:

Cleo being her usual laid out lazy self. Such a fuzz ball!

Our super awesome lilies after a rainshower:

Rehobeth Beach Daytrip

2007-07-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

So as part of our plan to get out and be(feel) more human, we took a weekend trip to Rehobeth Beach in Delaware this Saturday because "it's better than Ocean City", which is closer, but does totally suck, real bad. This place was about as touristy and overcrowed as O.C., but without the gambling, Ripley's museum, and overwhelming urge to murder everyone within reach.

(R: It's not as trashy as OC either.)

After laying out (R: Nick is looking like a lobster from the neck down!) and watching the beach fill to capacity for about 2 hours, we walked around and found a place that we thought might have fried fish sandwiches (R: They had one.), the Purple Parrot, which had that lame beach party themed open air bar thing going—but to my surprise, they had cold beer, huge sandwiches, good service and the best fries we ever had.

We waited around til 3 for the once a day Dogfish Head Brewery tour, which Rose thought (correctly) that I would enjoy, the website gives all the info, minus the fact that the restaurant is not the brewery, come to find out, which is 10 miles outside of town. So now what? ...Duty-free outlet shopping, Delaware's only marketable natural resource. The deal is, as long as you spend at least $120 you will get back the 10 or so dollars in tolls it takes to get there. I bought $5 worth of hot sauce, so Rose, picking up the slack, came back with this...

Behold, $170 worth of Majestic Yellow dream mixer, in all it's refurbished and discounted glory.

Our House (on the corner of our street)

2007-07-22T11:17:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our blog spot. We bought a house 3 months ago. Here it is along with some of our awesome plants.

We love our little side porch and eat almost all of our meals out there. This night is when we had my friends Jessica & Adam over. We had a smore catastrophe, but it was a great time.

I have two hilarious, loving and lazy cats. Nick made a cat fishing pole with feathers at the end. They go nuts for it.