I Love Hugh Jackman!

There's nothing like a movie marathon to take up a lazy Saturday!

All the X-Men movies!

Buster In A Basket

We got a few really cute shots of our puppy.

In a basket:

Wearing a scarf:

And showing Scott some LOVE:

So cute!

Unavailable

Sometimes at work I need to focus so I put my headphones in and just sit and work. This doesn't work and I don't know why I try anymore but I have even gone so far as to try this.

It is kinda hard to see but it is a piece of tape across my desk that has a sign on it that says "Unavailable". This idea backfired... everyone walking past was all "that's funny, did you do that?", or "What is this for?" and even ... "So, if I have a question I shouldn't ask you?"

My desk is right next to the door to the office so when someone comes in and is looking for anyone in the office, they will stop at my cubicle first and ask if they are in. Very annoying.

I did have an office for a while but it was on the other side of the building, tiny, no windows, and bad air. So I moved back to the main office.

So ... my aunt is demented

So ... my aunt is demented... how do I know this you ask? First off, look at this birthday gift from her:



Totally pointless pot holder... with a pad of paper and pencil.

Now that is just one thing ... she is also a hypocrite.

She was at one point in charge of my grandmother's estate when my grandmother was no longer able to do it. She neglected her taxes and other bills. This made my mother upset, thus she worked to become the primary person in charge of her estate so she could get them taken care of. So my grandmother gave her that permission and thus, the taxes and bills got paid.

Years pass... with my aunt very rarely visiting her.

My grandmother passed away. My aunt went to my mom and told her she wanted all of her money... and felt that she was entitled to all of it. Even after my grandmother had said that she didn't want my aunt to get anything my mother told her that wasn't right ... she agreed to 50% and my mother is totally willing to give her this but my aunt refuses to give the information necessary to get the money transferred to her. So my aunt is now trying to sue my mother for 100% of what is left. Now I don't know how much money is left but I have been told that it is not all that much because of my grandmother's deteriorating health.

This is depressing my mother...

Thus, my aunt is demented.

Deck Party: Finale!

The weekend before last Scott spent some time with Ben finishing up the railing on the deck. It looks so good! It looks crooked in some of these shots, but trust me, it isn't:


Next to it you can see the old deck, and if you look really closely you'll see that the railing on it is literally crumbling apart:

So, it's finished! We can have the inspector come and check it out now!

(We do eventually want to put fascia on the front sides of the stairs, but structurally, we're finished, so this isn't a priority)

It's Almost Done!

(I wrote this like two weeks ago and then never got around to posting it, so here you are)

The deck is almost finished! It's amusing that we expected to get it done in one or two weekends and it ended up being a few months... Either way all that's left is the railing on the stairs and the fascia on the front of each step (which we can't do yet because we ran out of fascia and need to go to Home Depot and order more) and it's looking so good, and I can't wait until it's a bit cooler so I can sit outside (it's completely under the sun all day-there's no shade on it after about 9:00 a.m.) and not roast.

Here's the beginning of the railing for the staircase:



We've got the posts up...they look crooked because they're not "railed" together yet:

The view from the center of the back yard (notice the siding and flood lights are back around the door):

And from the corner:

This has been a long project, but it looks great and is made of the good stuff, so it's nice and strong and durable and will raise the value of the house quite a bit. Plus now we have a place to put our grill.

Making Lunches

Lately, Scott and I have been trying to be healthier. So, in order to cut down on our calories (and spending, as well) we've been packing our lunches instead of going out. We take turns every day and it's working out very well.

Scott, of course, is allergicto peanuts (among other things). When he was making me a lunch, including a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the other day, he made me a special paper towel and stashed it in my lunch bag so I would find it the next day:



I laughed out loud at work...he also labeled my sandwich bag:

Out With The Old...

This whole new deck thing came at just the right time. We were in the back yard the other day and we noticed that the old deck is basically crumbling away, so we have a nice new sturdy one and we win.

So since we have a new back door leading out onto this fabulous deck, Scott filled in the old back door. It was a smallish project-it only took about an hour. Here Scott is starting to rip up the old door:
He was very careful so he wouldn't damage the door. We want to reuse as much as possible while we're renovating, so whenever there is a piece of wood that is undamaged or the old window or this door, we save it for later. This door will later go between the garage and the concrete pad in the side yard (but that's a project far, far in the future).

Once he got the door out in one piece it was just a matter of framing:

And then filling it in with plywood:


So no hole!

We still need to put new siding over this spot, but this will be tricky, since we don't know if we can match the color of the siding exactly. We also still need to insulate, drywall, and paint, but just like the back door, we can't fill it all in until the inspector comes to take a look. As soon as we finish the railing on the deck we will be able to call and set up an appointment to meet with him.

Exciting!

Vroom, Vroom, and Police!

As you probably know, the Mustang is back together to where I can drive it to work. You've all seen pictures of the exterior, since the outside is pretty close to being finished. It turns heads as it is, but when it's done it'll turn more! The interior isn't completed, but the only part of the whole car that is completely done is the motor:

I was driving home from work and I pulled up to a stop light. An old '87 Buick with two teenagers pulled up next to me. The driver put it in neutral and revved his engine. I glanced over, glanced away and shook my head. One of them started yelling at me "You wanna race?" I simply ignored them. The light changed, and something in me said, "Smoke them anyway!" so I goosed the throttle and got up to the speed limit within 100 feet of the outside of the stop light. They hadn't even finished crossing the intersection yet. I stopped accelerating once I hit the speed limit and continued on my way home. As I approached the next light, I heard the teenagers screaming out the window "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" as they zoomed past me at at least 60 mph (speed limit was 40, by the way).

As they passed me, they went through the next intersection and a police officer was sitting at the light, waiting to turn the same direction they were going. As I passed the policeman, he pulled in right behind me and immediately turned his lights on. I thought, "Oh, great, I got myself in trouble." But then I thought, "Well I wasn't speeding..." The policeman quickly whipped around me and chased the two teenagers! It took him a little while to catch up to them, because they didn't stop accelerating once they passed me. I caught up to where the officer had pulled over the kids, and as I passed, still going the speed limit, I giggled, a small smirk on my face, thinking, "Stupid teenagers!"

90!

Yesterday was Naomi's birthday party. Naomi is Scott's mom's cousin, so that makes her our first cousin once removed (or something like that...I never understood how that worked) but she's more like a grandmother to us. She's the spunkiest 90-year-old I've ever known, and we love her to death. The funny thing is, she HATES when people make a big deal over her, so when she walked in to the party (it was a surprise party) she was SO MAD. But we loved getting a chance to see her, so it was totally worth it.

There was tasty food, including some amazing meatballs, little baby sandwiches, and some kind of peachy slushy drink.

Anyway, we didn't stay very long, but we were able to have a picture taken of me, Scott, and Naomi. She's a total sweetheart, and we love her so much.

Back Door!

Having a new deck does you very little good if there isn't a door leading onto it. So, where the larger window in the kitchen was, we decided to put a new sliding door.

Here's the old window:

At some point we decided that since we were going to rip that wall out anyway we should make Buster a doggy door:

He had a really hard time with the concept, but after lots of coaxing he finally understood and had a blast running in and out and in and out!

So here's the giant hole, before we managed to get the door in:

And after we put in the door, it looks so good from the outside, even though it's not finished until the siding is back on:

And we can't finish the wall until the inspector comes in to look at the deck and the framing around the door, so the inside still looks unfinished as well:

But I LOVE the door, and it makes the whole front room/kitchen look so much bigger and brighter, and this is just so exciting for me! I love getting things done and being able to see the progress and getting another step closer to having a beautiful house!