|
Nifty! Monday, March 22, 2010 I love Jonathan Adler. He exudes cool to me. I mean, he has to be cool to design Barbie's home, right? Anyhow, I squealed with glee (well, not actually, but I definitely grinned) when I read my Pop Sugar daily email this morning and saw the fun stationary line that is not only in some of my favorite colors, but is, unlike a lot of the things I drool over on his site, not cost prohibitive. Tie that with my recent decision to send more letters to people (who doesn't love mail that isn't a bill!?!), and finishing up most of my stationary in my craft drawer, and voila...a less than $20 purchase that'll make a lot of people smile. Speaking of smiling, I think it might be time to do my annual pay it forward/giveaway blog post; that was nearly a year ago, and I ended up being the winner, getting the opportunity to get to know some of my readers better! Happy Spring! The daffodils opened this afternoon, and the buds on the tree outside of my kitchen window are literally opening before my eyes...see ya later, winter! ~Courtney posted at 6:12:49 PM Happy, slightly early, St. Patty's Day! Tuesday, March 16, 2010 I don't have much tradition surrounding St. Patrick's Day, but I do love this holiday, and even more, love the random memories I have from the variety of different ways I've celebrated over the years. And, well, after pink, green is my favorite color.  And, who doesn't love Kermit? {I fully recognize that outside of the color of his felt, he has nothing to do with the holiday.) ~Courtney posted at 11:10:18 PM Italian? Anyone? Monday, March 15, 2010 An old friend/colleague posted about learning French tonight, via the Rosetta Stone CDs. Their reward? A couple's trip to France. We own the Italian CDs, and have had them for about 4.5 years, but Andrew probably got to lesson 6, and I know I didn't make it through lesson 1 (I blame morning sickness...yeah, that's it); but I think it's time to blow off the dust, and learn enough Italian to traipse around next summer. So, anybody want to do Italy, summer 2011 with us? ~Courtney posted at 10:03:29 PM Just heard from the other room... Monday, March 15, 2010 Mommy? Can we go to Target? I need an imagination and some more oval-crackers. ~Courtney posted at 4:24:43 PM And some things, you just can't get rid of... Friday, March 05, 2010  This sweatshirt is hardly wearable (see multiple rips throughout the torso section), is *GASP* 16 years old; meaning it has been around for more than half of my life. It's lived in NY, RI, MA, FL, CO, MD, and now VA. I have a VERY bizarre attachment to this sweatshirt. I still wear it around the house, even with the, er, breeze flaps, and the fact that it's so thin, it hardly keeps me warm. It reminds me of my best childhood friends, water polo, hot coach Rick, and the Greased Lightning dance. It reminds me of Tera's family's cottage, chasing tour boats, and sneaking a beer. That three of us shared. Oh, 1994. It reminds me of taking chemistry in summer school and the funny, funny notes that we passed back and forth (I think those are hidden in a book somewhere at my mom's house). And the fact that I barely passed that class despite taking it to be proactive. At least I realized young that I wasn't a scientist. It reminds me of Hotel Grande after swim meets, the swim dads talking smack at Massena swim meets, and the songs and giggles that probably drove chaperones MAD on the buses to meets. Other odd attachments include random things from the shoe boxes that my mom slips into our trunk each time we leave a Potsdam visit. Like this duct-tape pin. If you don't know what it means, don't worry about it. You clearly weren't in the club.  Do you have things that are SO bizarre to hold onto, but they'll always find a place on your shelf? Do tell! ~Courtney posted at 2:39:25 PM Gasparilla Marathon: The Final Voyage Friday, March 05, 2010 So, due to traffic issues in the city of Tampa, 2010 was the last and final running of the Gasparilla Marathon. I think it's a pretty weak excuse, but I am also a person who has multiple weeks where I run and walk more miles than I drive, so I recognize that I could be a bit biased. Anyhow, in attempts to be relatively positive about an experience I never want to re-live, I am going to post the good, happy thoughts of the day. First, it was the most well-organized marathon I've done. I mean, I've only done three, but they really had amazing volunteers, and plenty of aid/water stations. Secondly, the weather was AWESOME; particularly for an under-trained northerner who would have been done-for if there had been humidity. What were you doing at 4:15 on Sunday morning?  Third, I got a loud, huge metal, and I wore it to watch the amazing, despite the outcome, USA/Canada hockey game at Hattricks, a Tampa bar owned by a Binghampton, NYer. And lastly, I ate this (yes, that's a shuffle board...standing room only), and drank beer, guilt free.  So, I was fully aware that I should have run the half marathon, but per usual, my heart and drive overtook my brain, and I had a pretty miserable morning. I've been talking about doing the race since I moved there in 2004, and this was the last chance. I am in marathon retirement for now, and am going to incorporate more swimming, yoga and strength training into my workout-life, in hopes to build speed back up to where it was a year ago; and give my poor knees and hips a break. Oh, and lastly, for real this time, a huge shout out to Amy, who did amazing on her first half ever. Your determination and drive is beyond admirable! ~Courtney posted at 8:23:09 AM Under a rock Thursday, March 04, 2010 I apologize to everyone for basically being the world's biggest sketchball over the past couple of months. Partially by choice, partially by weather, and partially by illness, the a, c, b clan has been living under a rock. Or, more appropriately, barely leaving the house. I ventured out in a major way last week, with a trip down to Tampa. Some visiting with friends, some running and some working. I completed (barely) my third marathon, and am officially in marathon-distance retirement for the remainder of 2010. NOBODY will be able to talk me into doing another 26.2 in 2010. 2011? We'll see. In other (actually quite major) news, we're moving again. Without getting into the details of it all, we put our suburban abode up for sale in mid-December, had an open house in January, and sold it later that week. Debating on whether we wanted to do 2 smaller homes with an extremely long commute between them (2 hour flight, FYI), or another suburban home around here, we chose neither. After a lot of talking, a lot of stressing, a lot of panic attacks (me) and a lot of lists (I love lists!), we decided that we aren't really suburb-people, are overwhelmed by the work that needed to be done to this house (we're not fix-it people), and mostly overwhelmed with the day-to-day stuff to maintain a big house that just holds 3 people. When we bought it a couple of years ago, it really seemed like the right choice, but quite frankly, we've not had the visitors we figured we would have, nor did we have the future babies that we figured we'd have, and all we did was feel (self-inflicted) pressure to fill it up with crap. While we can walk a few places here, and that's fun for us, we've decided to downsize our (overly gluttonous, see aforementioned filling of the home) lives, and have purchased an adorable brick, 1800s (completely, brand-spankin'-newly renovated) row home in Baltimore's historic Federal Hill neighborhood. We love, love, love it there. We love the house, and we love even more, the idea of simplifying our life a bit, being able to walk to restaurants, the movies, the Inner Harbor, church, coffee houses, etc. Andrew currently spends part of his time in his company's HQ just outside of Baltimore as it is, and the majority of the developers he has on his projects are there full-time, so he'll have a couple good-length commutes to Chantilly each week, but nothing ridiculous, and he tends to get up early to get his work-day done early, as it is. He's lucky to have such a flexible job, and is now excited to start following some pod-casts during his commuting days. I've got an appointment in a few minutes, so you'll have to wait to see pictures of the awesomeness that is our soon-to-be-new-home. But, I'll try to post them a little later!  This is the addition, off of the back of the house. It'll be my workspace, as well as where B's art supplies and craft table ends up.  Kitchen. Duh. Out to the addition/study. You can't see it, but the door has gorgeous blue glass in it.  One view of B's room. I love, love, love that they kept the old mantel there. Clearly, we have no interest in having a fireplace in a pre-schooler's bedroom, but it's there if we wanted to cut that wall out...I plan to do something fun with books in that space.  Benjamin is a fan of his new room.  We are fully comfortable admitting that we're more patio people than yard people. We'll visit family, or just go to the parks to get our fix of grass. If you know of any good container garden blogs, send them my way, please! I've already got some great plans in my head for that!  And I know, it's a yucko basement, but I've always wished I had a laundry/utility sink, but have never had the space in a laundry area to have one...this makes me happy!  These are just a few shots that Andrew took while at the home inspection earlier this week. The ONLY thing not redone in the entire house is (thankfully, we love them!) the hardwood flooring throughout the house; which is from when it was originally built. It has new plumbing, electric, appliances, water heater, roof, etc. There were three bullet points on the home inspection, and they were just tiny little oversights that we easily could have fixed ourselves. So, anyhow, we're beyond excited, and have been working hard around here to get rid of the excess stuff that has been moved from state-to-state-to-state-to-state, and now back to state #3. It's amazing how great it feels to purge stuff; especially if it can be handed over to someone who really wants or needs it. I took a lot of baby gear, extra scarves, mittens, etc., and bags full of books to our local homeless shelter. They were so appreciated, and when I went back the next day with some more things, they volunteer told me that the books and winter apparel was all taken within 5 minutes after I left; which made my day. Anyhow, so when are you coming to visit us in the new place? We'll be settled by mid-April...just in time for some nice weather, I hope! ~Courtney posted at 10:24:54 AM |
