A few new things around the house

A couple of weeks ago Dean and went to Atlanta to visit with the Kings. In addition to having a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends, we went to IKEA. Here are a couple things we bought for the house.

We knew we wanted bookcases along the whole wall in the parlor. We looked and looked and finally decided on these. So with the help of Tiffany and her mom's SUV, we bought these bookcases. They are exactly what we wanted for this room. On Sunday we unpacked 9 boxes of books and a box of vases. When we decide on getting a new TV and media center, then we will move in the other books from the family room shelves.On to the office..... We knew we wanted a new desk but couldn't find one we liked, let alone loved. When I received the Ikea catalog in the mail I immediately fell in love with this desk. After we had made a decision on the desk, the rest just fell in place. We bought the cabinets and the shelves below the cabinets. We also have a wire to hang pictures on below the shelves. As you can see Jasper loves the new big desk. The last thing we need for this room is some kind of window treatment. I have been looking for fabrics but without much luck.
The final project - the guest room cornice. When Tiffany was here we went fabric shopping for the office window treatment. Instead we found fabric for the guest room. We found this really cute stripped fabric on sale....like 75% off. I couldn't pass it up. I bought enough that if we goofed up making the cornice we would have enough for Sharon to make something else. Luckily we didn't goof up. I think it turned out pretty well for our first attempt.
Here's a close up of the fabric.

Satellite Flybys

I was checking my email for actual work information when I saw this interesting email from Space Weather about satellite flybys. Apparently Tuesday night and I guess Wednesday, too, you'll be able to see a European spacecraft cross the sky, followed four minutes later by the International Space Station (and the space shuttle right now, since it just undocked). Just go to Space Weather Flybys and enter your zip code and they'll tell you when and where to look. (And yes, Jeni has resigned herself to the fact that she married a geek...)

I wish I was at IHOP

Jeni called and she and Lisa and Brian were on their way to IHOP and I'm sitting at my desk envious enough to feel like writing about it because I'm hungrier than I should be and IHOP sounds so good right now. Too bad I'm not the kind of doctor in the kind of office where I can say, "Cancel the rest of my morning, I want pigs in a blanket!" Instead, I'm going to snack on a granola bar and pretend it's smothered in syrup.

A sad day

I received an email on Tuesday morning saying that a friend of mine, Vickie, had passed away. I worked as Vickie's workstudy for four and half years. She and I spent hours upon hours together while I was going through school. We talked about school, our families, life in general, and would enjoy the gossip that was going around. We had many laughs and some tears. She was a person you could always count on -- in thick and thin.

I am heartbroken for her family -- her husband, Todd; her daughter, Lexie, and her son, Nick; and her granddaughter, Madeline. Vickie was a wonderful mother and wife. Her family was her pride and joy.

I'm embarrassed to say that after we moved to South Carolina I lost touch with Vickie. I'm so saddened by the fact that I let so much time and distance come between us. I have always heard people say that, and you always think that you have the time to make up for lost time. I truly regret that I didn't make the time.

As I close I just want to thank Vickie for her dedication she had to the students she touched, and for everything she did for me personally. Thanks ... and rest in peace.

Here is her obituary.

The Hawaii Chair

I have not personally seen this infomercial, but this video almost made me fall out of my chair laughing.

Pulled Pork recipe

I was looking at the stats for Jeni's kitchen blog and she has had 8717 view to the blog since she started, which I think is pretty great. But what I think is really amazing is that one recipe, the Pulled Pork and Coleslaw Sandwiches has gotten 1026 of the views. That's pretty amazing, I think, and a recipe that really deserves the visits, too. The next closest, the Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie (oh wow, drooling just typing it) comes in with 476 views.

Chopping broccoli

OK, I really should have linked this SNL classic with yesterday's post ... Chopping Broccoli!

Gloria In Excelsis Deo, on a broccoli flute

This made my day today ... I borrowed it from the Fabulist (where I find a lot of off beat things) and just thought it was great. Where else but on the internet will you find someone playing a broccoli flute?!?

What a whirlwind couple of days

The last few days have been something else. First, on Saturday we helped celebrate Clara Ann's First Birthday. It was a wonderful first birthday party, and everybody enjoyed themselves and were very complimentary. Lisa said it was the best one-year-old birthday party ever, while makes me feel good and happy knowing we were able to help make it a hit.


This highlight, of course, was Clara Ann demolishing her cake. The polar opposite of Gracie, who looked utterly offended when Lisa pushed her hand into her cake three years ago, Clara Ann went full force into it.


Clara Ann quickly figured out that she could eat the stuff on her hands, and even used the duck decoration as a tool to get the cake to her mouth. This was a little more efficient than the open hand approach she first tried.

Now, the backtrack, on Friday when Tiffany arrived she proclaimed that she wanted to get a tattoo while she was here, so Saturday she spent a fairly sleepless night clicking through websites trying to find the right design for a tattoo. Yesterday, she dropped off some print outs at the tattoo parlor for the artist to work up, and last night this happened...


A work in progress...


The finished product. The sepia tones really show the tattoo at it's best. The redness from the needles blends away and you can really see the detail. It turned out really good.

Then last night we put Tiffany to work. We completed assembling all the new office furniture we picked up at IKEA two weekends ago and, after some measuring and calculating, we got everything mounted and put in place. I'm sure Jeni will post some pictures later. It looks really nice, and we're both happy to be rid of the old Bush desk.

Check out our Flickr page for more pictures of the birthday and the tattoo adventure.

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And as a total non sequitur, this Google Map of roadside attractions is really neat...