Veggie Garden Delight

Our green thumbs have been protruding as of late. Been busy in the front and back yards, as you can see. Next up, churning the earth in the back and making it a yard. Plus, building more raised beds for the front. Even the composter exists happily.

Summer Storm

Rain pouring, was just snoring as great plans were forming.
Saturday's are my favorite.

Keba is healing nicely. He will have all of his stitches removed by Monday, that will ease our stratching woes. There is more swelling now, but that is to be expected. The pit bull owner dropped off a check for half of the vet bills, that was nice.

Not sure what else...going to stare at some raindrops and listen to some thunder booms.

Our Scariest Day

Our lil family went through quite a scare on Saturday! A. and I decided to venture down a block for some lunch. We were both being picky and indecisive, but final selected the Dogwood Deli. Due to lack of seating, we took our sandwiches home to dine on the front porch. The day was just lovely: sun shining; cool breeze; neighbors milling about; Keba chilling with us on the front porch. But, all the sudden A. went into scream-mode with "Stay, Stay!", however Keba's merry self sauntered down the front porch steps, then A.'s screams increased and his voice changed into a voice I have never heard before...Then, I saw the cause.

There was a woman, about my age, walking with her TWO pit bull dogs. I froze, A. screamed more, and Keba began to detect his master's fear. He turned his head back to A. to see why he can't say "Hi!" to the dogs walking down his sidewalk. As he turned to judge the seriousness of A.'s scream (and they were blood-chilling), one of the TWO pits launched and bit into Keba's neck! OH MY GOD! I was still frozen on the porch, but now A. was punching the dog, screaming, the pit owner was screaming, neighbors were gathering and screaming. I finally realized that this dog may kill my essence of pure joy--my puppy--and I joined the fight. Through teary eyes I hooked onto Keba's collar and pleaded for the pit to give me my dog back. This evil pit seemed to have Keba's ear and much of his lower cheek tightly secured in his jaw. OH MY DOG!

A kind neighbor, who was gardening with a smile moments before, grabbed his shovel and began to smack, with the shovel's edge, the pit on the head. This sound haunts me still. There seemed to be no releasing my beloved pet. Then, like an angel, a woman appeared out of thin air, and dropped a bucket of water in the middle of the chaos. This freed the pit's jaw a bit and since all of my body, mind and soul was desperately trying to pull Keba for clutches of this horrific jaw (I was more than willing to give the pit Keba's ear in exchange for my puppy back), I launched backward with Keba in my lap. I scooped him up, ran him inside and couldn't stop his tears or mine. We hugged, cried and shook while A. talked to the girl with the TWO pit bulls.

When A. came inside, after chatting with the pit-owner, we knew we had to drive to the Animal Hospital, even though neither of us was prepared for another one of life's curveballs...Keba did seem fine at this point, but better to be safe, right? Right! Keba's cheek, extremely close to his eye and throat, was seriously cut. There was much blood hiding under his deep golden fur. But, we braced ourselves as the vet explained that Keba needed to stay the night, be put under anesthesia for many stitches and a drain had to be attached to avoid infection. We said our teary-eyed goodbye's and left him for the night.

We woke super early on Sunday to bring Keba home. Showerless and decaffeinated, we drove up Falls Road to bring our baby home. Neither of us was ready for the mangled cheek we were about to see, the teary fur from his night-long cries or the sad look in his eyes, but I guess nothing can prepare one for such hardship. We thanked and thanked the vet, gently lifted Keba into our borrowed ride and took him home.

He will heal physically, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for mentally. He is not perky yet, hating the Elizabethan collar and seems slightly more aloof than normal. He is on pain pills and antibiotics and has an uncountable amount of stitches. OH MY!!

Anthology of Foliage

Like a mother with her first-born's baby album, I want to watch our plants mature and discover the world.

Palm (donated by Mom Bowers):
This beauty fawns the dining room. Its sinewy green fingers long to be caressed while bubbles of growth are sprouting.

Baby Coffee Plant:
With waxy leaves shimmerring in the sun and a soft fragrance, this baby keeps our current vino from Mendoza company.

Rubber Tree:
Both of our childhood homes contained a massive rubber tree, with time Keba will be able to say the same.

Kitchen Crew (from left to right): Spider, Dwarf Plant, Philodendron:
This spider has been through the past four years with me, and looks it. But, its buddies are thriving. The dwarf likes medium light, but the philodendron is a climbing sun-bather. Even with their differences, these three seem to get along just fine.

Aloe:
When you are as accident-prone as me, you quickly learn of this wonder. To use it, is to love it.

Philodendrons:
In this pot you will find two varietals of philodendrons: colorful, air-filtering wonders! I want the yellow to drape downward and red/green to spread, spread spread.

Poppop Philodendron:
This is our majestic beast. Sometimes this plant shares war stories from back in the day (just like my daddy).

Living Room Crew (from top to bottom): Prayer Plant, Exotic Angel, Mandarin Orange:
This trio requires the most attention of them all. The fickle Prayer Plant curls and hides, the Angel is difficult to keep happy and moist, and the Mandarin's tips brown regardless of repeated efforts. Despite our trials and tribulations, this crew seems pleasant enough in the living room.

Ficus Tree (donated by Mom Pintzuk):
I love reading in this corner! The only way this corner could bring more pleasure is if the ficus fingers would turn the pages of my read.

Buddha Hoya Rope and Jade:
For some reason, our easy-to-please jade makes me want to dive into a lilypad covered lake (childhood flashbacks of East Lake, but no idea why). Buddha Hoya is loving the radiating heat. Along with the philodendrons, this climber will soon belong to our living wall.

Mixed Climbers: Philodendrons + Buddha Hoya:
This group of three longs to hear bedtime stories and wake with the early sun.

Orchid Surprise (donated by Mom Bowers):
We are trying to nurture a glorious Orchid, keep your fingers crossed. My parents have unsurpassed luck with orchids...just trying to live up to my family's green thumb.

Diffenbachia (donated by Mom Bowers):
This beauty likes a breathe of fresh air every now and again. Its curled arms are very curious.

How Green Can Our House Be?

That's our challenge to each other...

When we decided to purchase a home together, A & I furthered our study of sustainability and green living while striving to continue living an organic and conscious lifestyle. Our new house is/will be completely organic, furnished with all recycled materials/products (which we will build and purchase), lots of healthy light, full of philodendrons and other productive plants (thoughts now of a living wall in the living room), and we are saving for solar panels as we recycle the enormous amounts of trash that pile up next to our back fence. Also, as we continue to learn and challenge each other, we are garnering a large amount of eco-knowledge, plus a deep love with our house and this exciting new stage of the life we gleefully decided to share.

Here is an update:

As we first settled in:


Mom gave us an Amaryllis and it loved the new pad immediately:




The kitchen mess at first:


Recent purchase from a nearby antique store:


A's tofu-love celebrating one of our first nights, YUM!:








The basement, as it stands now:




Painting began when we were mired by the recent ice/snow storm (we ended up with 6 days off from school):










We're almost there:






The finished product:










Questions, comments, concerns (my should-be copyrighted teaching probe) about our work so far?

I just gotta say one more thing...

COMING SOON!
Updated Photos of Our New Pad

Stay Tuned!

(These photos have been taken but need to be uploaded, and this may very well be my procrastination method for this evening!)

Thankful is me

To my family and friends,
I wanted to publicly thank all of you for your tremendous support over the long moving weekend and for making my birthday so special!

Thanks include (but are not limited to):

Xav, you are the uncle of the year, a million thanks to you!

Janet, you let me know what section of the house is yours, for I have the house thanks to you!

Maggie, the basement is awesome, thanks to you!

Mom, the kitchen feels like home, thanks to you!

Dad, I never had to return to the DC apt., thanks to you!

Brina, the furniture and plants look lovely, thanks to you!

Jay, the pizza on Friday was great and our first night was magical, thanks to you!

Jason, the end tables glisten, thanks to you!

Vic, the heavy pieces of furniture love being out of Pikesville, thanks to you!

Liz, we have new tunes for the new pad, thanks to you!

Kristen, there will be no more hackneyed evenings, thanks to you!

Jaime, colors swirled as laughter filled the house, thanks to you!

Jeanne, the first night was a blast, thanks to you!

Mommalou, we have new locks on all the doors, thanks to you!

Thanks for taking such good care of me and for sharing in this exciting new step in our lives! Some things do get better with age, and my family is certainly one of those things.

Undoubtedly I have the greatest clan around!

Birthday Blast!

Nothing beats a great birthday morning! Today begins the end of my 20's and supposedly the beginning of my sexual peak (at least according to one reliable source). This morning I was greeted by smiling 9th graders with birthday hugs and smiles, a note on my desk, lovely cards from colleagues and overall joy. And, it is only 10 am!

The house continues to please! Last night Jaime commuted with me from DC thankfully, for Aaron had plans in DC for the night. We ventured around the new hood with Keba, dined in a hip spot, met a new friend from the hood, and then thoroughly discussed paint. We stumbled to bed late and woke early to freshly brewed coffee and a glorious sunrise on the MARC (Oh my, this morning the pinks of the sky were vibrant!). The commute still involves some frantic running, for my timing is off. But, with practice these unwanted morning runs will diminish. We boarded the 7 am train and I made it safe and sound to work before 8am. Which was just enough time to finish my coffee and make my To Do list for the day!

Commuter Lessons Cont.

Lessons Learned on Day Two:

1) Penn Station's beauty is mesmerizing before sunrise.
2) Irony defined: It becomes bitter winter when we need to start biking to the station.
3) Sometimes the MARC conductor does not announce stops.
4) The conductor certainly doesn't wait to see if everyone is safely off of the train before departing.


Other house news: Our amaryllis busted open to greet us on our first work day in the new house. Our bedroom is clean and set up (Brina, We used your suggestion and it looks great!). We had our first meal together last night and laughed out loud at how close we sat next to each other out of habit. We still like to run upstairs (or downstairs) and yell, "Can you hear me?" (I think I will like this game for many months.) Keba's tail has not stopped wagging since we moved in. Our new neighbor had a healthy baby girl. For some reason, our morning coffee tastes better when brewed in the new house. We are surrounded by glorious trails and my running routine reconvenes (I am teaching alliteration today too.)this week.

Our New Pad!

Whew! This past weekend was nonstop family, friends, fun, frockling, and food in our new house! We settled on Friday morning (remind me to write about that experience) and Aaron and I went straight to the new house to celebrate!

Over the weekend, we cleaned, organized, dreamed of projects, and debated what should go where while surround by loved ones. The apartment in Adams Morgan has been completely vacated, thanks to Xav, Dad and Aaron (thanks again guys!) and the new house is starting to feel like our home. This was the first morning we woke up alone, got geared up for work and commuted on the MARC.

The commute was virtually painless, but we learned a few lessons:
Lesson #1: The train schedule is a "guestimate" for when the train will actually leave.

Lesson #2: Sometimes a train will be cancelled (like our train this morning!).

Lesson #3: Once on the train, it is a great workplace full of interesting people. I am sure there will be numerous more MARC train lessons to share.

I will post some photos as the house transforms into our living space!

Happy New Year!

You know it is a going to be a good year when the year begins with the most exciting event of your past 28 years*. There is so much excitement with the purchase of a house, especially when you stumble across such news. For the past weeks we've escaped the bustle of D.C. plus the cramped lifestyle we have established there, and this has seriously fueled my desire for change. I am so ready to make some choices, run up and down our stairs, host parties and exhale in the house we just bought! Luckily, my job returns tomorrow and that means the days before January 12th are going to fly.



Note: That last sentence does not follow this colloquialism: "Time flies when you are having fun." But, a part of me is armed for the challenge...

* = Our settlement date has been set for January 12th!

Homebuyer's Rollercoaster

(Also see Wedding Week below!)













We had an eventful home inspection yesterday and the First-Time Homebuyer's Rollercoaster Ride was born. It started with my realtor greeting us with this:
"Well, the inspector is downstairs and there are some issues that may be deal breakers..."

Yikes, I thought this was going to be a fun-let's-learn-more-about-our-new-house morning meeting. But instead of any fun learning, the bad news roared and our first dip on this rollercoaster ride of home ownership began.

The home inspector was friendly, he smiled and shook hands with a noticable gentleness, then morphed into the bearer of bad news
(paraphased, but a near quote):

"Well, the furnace is a big problem. It may only need to be cleaned by a professional and could be usable, but I am not the one certified to say so. It must be looked at by a BG&E profession and certified. Most likely it is rusted and needs to be replaced. It looks like the original (*insert more talk about why it is not safe*)...AND, then there is the hot water heater. This too is very old and needs to be replaced. Yes, it does work, but won't for long..."

Happily, much needed good news and smiles followed as we climbed upward through our new home!

Then, the first ever rollercoaster dip of home ownership became the first complete rollercoaster loop. Yes, the loop that makes your stomach drop and heart rate soar, the full super-doober-triple-looper!

My uncle Xav (a true niece's dream!) and Aaron went downstairs. Then came screams, "There's a leak!"

Eek! A leak indeed...The hot water heater blew, water was everywhere, Xav stopped the flow and ran for his wet/dry vac (see, he was surely needed!), we soaked up water, it scared me into the reality of what we just did when we bought this house...Wow! So, now the house will get a new hot water heater and the furnace saga starts. Our settlement date is January 15th (and isn't it nifty that my birthday is January 18th?).


Until next time, as the Homebuyer's Rollercoaster ride continues...