Maybe she gets depressed during the holidays?

Have you seen the bunny suicide books or calendars?

Last week I heard Lily making noises in the other room as I was getting ready for my day.

As I walked down the hall to investigate, she ran from the living room to the bedroom. I stopped at the end of the hall, looked to my right, and saw her:


Then I looked to my left and saw this:




Love, J

Before & After Photos, Holiday Edition

Before:




And after:




Love, J

Projects and progress - Part 4

The kitchen's done! Just in time for Thanksgiving.

This is what it looked like on inspection day, before we moved in:



Grandpa S. was his usual helpful self and painted it top-to-bottom with the hubs:





My father-in-law was resourceful and handy, finding a great, used dishwasher and then installing it for us:



And the hubs got to use the mad vinyl skills he picked up the summer he worked at the university floor shop in college:





And the final result...


Oooo, aaaah.



We replaced the oven with a garage sale find and the fridge with a new one. We thought the fridge broke one day, and then had the new one installed before I realized the old one wasn't really broke after all. Sort of annoying. But this one's way energy-efficient (and prettier), so it all worked out.



And even though everyone has lots of suggestions on what we should replace our counters with, they are staying put. I like the light color, the gold speckles in it, and even the fact that it's already stained in spots so that I don't have to worry about leaving stains of my own.

Love, J

Another picture-less post

I do have things to write today.

I'd like to show you the *new* curtains I scored at Value Village yesterday afternoon.

Or finally post some before and after photos of our kitchen.

And I've been meaning for a while now to share some other projects I've finished - slippers, scarf, gloves, headband.

But I'm not posting from home this week, and home is where all the pictures of those things are right now.

So I will wait.

And while I wait, I will sit with this sad dog, who thankfully is not in much pain anymore. And un-thankfully (for me. he doesn't seem to mind) has a heinous case of gas this morning.

He still only has the use of two legs. One front and one back.

And he looks oh-so-pathetic when he drags himself around the parlor, and off the blanket I had him laying on. Because he prefers to 'do his business' on the carpet instead. And then take a nap.

I guess even doing your business is hard work when you're short two legs.

Love, J

'The Blind Side'

(I must preface this opinion by warning you that I have bad taste in movies. A lot of my favorites are loaded with cheeze. I have seen 'Fools Rush In' probably 100 times, and it stars Matthew Perry. So take this with a grain of salt.)

We met some friends downtown yesterday to go see 'The Blind Side.' Someone else picked it, and I went along because I wanted to hang out with everyone, not because the movie looked at all compelling. If I had my way, we would have gone to 'New Moon.' This is because the first Twilight movie was so phenomenally terrible, I still have tears in my eyes from laughing through it along with every other person in the theater. A good example of how something doesn't have to be quality to entertain.

But none of my friends yesterday could appreciate why I wanted to spend $7 to see a movie that I knew was going to suck (haha, vampire pun!) They preferred to gamble on the probable mediocrity of the latest Sandra Bullock vehicle.

And I'm glad they did.

Because I liked it. Even though it starred Sandra (who apparently can act - who knew?); even though it was a little bit about football (but less than I'd thought it would be, thank goodness); and even though it was based on a true story (which usually means BOR-ing).

The movie had all of these things working against it, and it was still good. I laughed at a line or two in probably every scene, and I wasn't even laughing at the movie, but with it. It was endearing, and funny, and had a happy ending. And in my head, this is the Holy Trinity of what makes a movie lovable. I don't need suspense or drama. As long as each scene is interesting and there's some coherent plot-line, I'm happy.

Plus, it has Tim McGraw, who is completely adorable even with the goofy haircut they gave him.

And while I do cringe at the pathetically stereotypical poor-black-kid-turns-his-life-around-and-finds-salvation-through-his-athletic-prowess storyline, you can't come down too hard on this version of the story, because it actually happened in real life.

But I'm still waiting on a movie about an inner city kid who goes from the projects to NASA, instead of professional sports.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. But I am still looking for someone to go see 'New Moon' with me and not take it seriously.

Love, J

PS ~ After I posted this, I remembered that I did like Sandra Bullock in 'While You Were Sleeping,' 'Practical Magic,' and she was an awesome Harper Lee in 'Infamous.' For some reason when I think of her, I just always fixate on 'Miss Congeniality,' and 'The Proposal,' which I haven't seen, but just the trailer for it makes me shudder.

Free yoga tomorrow

Lily says, 'Go try yoga or I will be angry.'

I may have mentioned a few times how in love I am with the Spokane Yoga Shala.

Tomorrow is their big grand opening. And that means a chance for you to check out the studio for free!

From their website:

Open House November 21st, 2009

Please join us this weekend! Help us celebrate our beautiful new Shala! Both classes are free. We will be offering special deals, and more.

Saturday Schedule:

• 7:30am: All Levels Ashtanga with Shelley Alkier
  
• 9:30 - 11:00am: All Levels Flow with Katie Gehn
  
• 9:00-12:00pm: Free Massage from Therapeutic School of Massage

'And you won't like me when I'm angry.'
(Actually, you'd probably love angry Lily.
She's freaking hilarious.)

The hubs and I will be at Katie's 9:30 am class. Let me know if you want to car pool from the valley!

Happy weekend,

Love, J

Dog update

The sad face isn't accident-related.
He always looks a little concerned.

Poor Cooper.

He's still mending, but a visit to the vet for an update has revealed that one of his front legs has lots of nerve damage, and he may not be able to use it. So what should have been a really scary day, followed by a few painful months, ending in the carefree and goofy-cute life of a three-legged dog just got way more complicated.

We'll know in a few weeks whether the leg will heal. But I think he could totally pull this off.

Also, pretty Luna is still around. Are you sure you don't want to give yourself the early Christmas present of a sweet-tempered (housebroken! good with other pets! comes with free dog-sitting while you're out of town!) rescued lab?

Look how good she is, even when you bother her with a flashy camera while she's trying to nap.





See? She doesn't get angry, she just gets up and leaves.

Love, J


PS ~ If you crochet and want a very quick, girly gift idea, try this pattern.

It looks silly on me (I can't put my finger on why, exactly), but G can rock it.

My taste for natural medicine is catching

G's smartie-school had student presentations on the Renaissance last night. Nothing like wandering through a room of 5th graders to remind me that I am one short woman.




G was an apothecary.




All the kids had 'ask me a question' prompts on their boards. After they gave their speech, we were supposed to interact with them while they were in character.




Me: So, Ms. Apothecary, do you have an assistant?

G: No, I don't. Some of the other apothecaries have had trouble with their assistants trying to poison them.

Me: . . .

I think she actually found something on that in her research.

Love, J

Dog news

Me: I can come over and help him out, while you're at work.

Too-considerate step-dad: Well, I don't want to put you out, hon', you're busy.

Me: I'm unemployed. What do you think I'm busy doing?

Too-considerate step-dad: Well, you have your crafting stuff you do.

(The conversation ends there because the hubs and I are laughing too hard for me to respond.)

G's dog Cooper was hit by a truck last week, and is recovering. I cannot believe how fast he seems to be improving, considering he lost one of his hind legs and has a broken pelvis. I talked too-considerate step-dad into giving me the morning nurse shift until Cooper can be up and around, which sounds like it may be as fast as a couple of weeks.

I can't even comprehend how fast this is. Can you imagine? Animals are amazing. And he's being such a good sport, you can tell his pain tolerance is through the roof. We're all way bigger babies about just watching how bad he hurts than he is about actually hurting.

In related news, a few days before Cooper's accident, G coaxed a neighborhood stray into the backyard and has kept her around ever since. We're trying to find her owner, but haven't had any luck so far. With all the attention that Cooper needs now, she's been sort of bored just laying around with nothing to do.


Is anyone around Spokane interested in housing a very sweet girl? Maybe permanently, if no owners come forward? G's been calling her 'Luna,' and she's a total lover and very pretty. And if you ever need a place for her to stay while you're out of town, G and Cooper will gladly host her for a while.

Love, J

Because 'success' is totally subjective:

The craft fair was an extraordinary success. I sold practically nothing, but it wasn't my fault. I think maybe 20 people passed our little booth all day on Saturday. And a lot of those people were family we had invited to come visit us.

But I could not have had more fun, visiting with my friend. I think we may have scared away the few people who did stop by our table, since we spent a lot of the day falling out of our chairs and crying from laughing so hard. And then we both played hooky on Sunday (probably along with most of the other vendors), since Saturday's turnout was so spectacularly lame.


I do think that craft fairs would be a fun holiday season tradition, though, so next year I'll plan a bit ahead and try to get into a few that actually have customers!

Love, J

Vitamin C(razed woman assaults postal worker)

I really like this pretty suitcase.

I think I have to go to the grocery store this morning to buy oranges. I'm planning an attack on my mailman, a la Napoleon Dynamite. (Just watching that clip cheered me up, by the way.)

He keeps bringing me bad news. Today it was a letter from the dream job I applied for a while back, saying they're not interested. Nevermind that it's maybe for the best, and now I can give my full attention to studying - it's still so insulting.

I try to keep my whining on here to a minimum. I figure that if you know me well, you get your fill when you see me in person. And if you don't, you probably don't want to hear it anyway.

But casting about for happy topics even on my down days feels dishonest. I get sad. Bad things happen. And that's as much a part of my life as are all the pretty, light moments. So hopefully you'll forgive an odd depressed post. I will stop writing if it becomes too regular a thing.


Anyway, aside from my rage at my postal worker and planned battery-by-citrus, this day is mostly not so bad. The electricians got our dishwasher up and running - yay! - and in a few hours I get to go grab G and then set up for tomorrow's craft fair.

4 wrist cuffs richer & 40 flashcards wiser

Speaking of which, I was able to make 4 more wrist cuffs yesterday after discovering that I can crochet and memorize flashcards at the same time. And with skills like that, I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding a job once I start looking again.

But right now I don't want a job. I want an orange.

Love, J

Blessings with a side of bitter

Counting my blessings tonight. The list is the usual: phenomenal and healthy man/family/friends. Quiet, cozy dream house. I get to sleep in tomorrow. Lots of green tea in the cupboard. Exceptionally fun weekend coming up, full of craft fair-ing by day and dinner with friends by night. Then dancing my cares away. The dancing can't come soon enough.

I had to fight my gag reflex all the way to the mailbox today, as I sent off my 10 page application and a check the size of our mortgage payment to pay for the privilege (their word, not mine) for sitting for the bar again. Then, like a moron, I logged on to Facebook, where I was greeted by a batch of photos from my friends' swearing in ceremony last week.

I am so happy for everyone who made it.

Just also very, very jealous.

What helps the most is reminding myself that everything is relative. If I have this much energy to be bumming so hard over a test, then my life is pretty awesome. Like, hot-cup-of-tea-and-hang-out-with-hunky-cop-husband tonight and misty-morning-run-study-then-hang-with-G-all-afternoon tomorrow awesome. Not too shabby.

Tomorrow I'll have to work harder at kicking this awful self-pity habit. And also probably stay away from Facebook.

Love, J

Wrist cuffs and headbands and flashcards, oh my!

Want to support the arts? Do some holiday shopping? Or maybe just come visit me?

I'll be at the North Central High School craft fair this weekend.


With wrist cuffs.


And headbands.


And the fabulous Kelly Warner, who will be showing me the ropes (and sharing her booth).


1600 N. Howard Street, Spokane.
9 am - 4 pm, November 14th & 15th.


Lily won't be there, but she sends her love.


Until then, when I'm not crocheting, I'll be busy with this:


Love, J

How to get stuff done

On Halloween, before the big party, we had pizza for dinner. There isn't a lot of recycling/garbage storage space in the kitchen, so the pizza box was tossed onto our back porch. We do this a lot, and the theory is that one of us will see it on our way out of the house and take care of it.

Halloween night was very windy, and when we awoke the next morning the box was lying a ways from the house. A week later it was still there. Not tucked away, where we could easily forget about running out to grab it and put it in the trash, but right in the middle of the yard, very conspicuous.

When we got home from the hubs' academy graduation, I had the camera in my hands as I stepped out of the car. I saw the offending box. And I took a picture of it. He wanted to know why.

'Because we're not going to pick it up. We are the type of neighbors who will let garbage sit in their yard in plain sight for weeks at a time. And I want to document this so that I can blog about it.'

'I'm going to pick it up,' he replied, insulted.

'Oh, I'm going to pick it up too, someday. But not tonight. We are the family who grows enough dandelions for the neighborhood. And we're the ones who leave our garbage out.'

While he is uncomfortable with me sharing this information, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with the way we do house and yard work. Both of us have a sort of 'when I feel like it' credo that I find very relaxing.

This philosophy is why I still enjoy chores like raking - I only do them when the mood strikes me. And because I enjoy having a clean house, the mood strikes me pretty often. But there are always two or three tasks sitting on the back burner that I shrug off for much, much longer than would a more diligent housekeeper. Since I am moderately uptight in almost every other way, I am proud that there is one area in which I go with the flow.

So why the title of this post? The morning after I photographed it, the box had disappeared. Apparently the threat of publication is a great motivator around here. Maybe tomorrow I'll show you a photo of the kitchen sink, current home of Dish Mountain...

Love, J

A great, big day

I spent my weekend being quite proud of the guy I married.


I think his mom feels the same way.


And he got a special award, to boot. 'Top Physical Fitness' for his academy class. The guy who presented the award referred to him as a 'rabbit.' Being very fond of rabbits, I consider that a major compliment.

He starts work with his department tomorrow!

Love, J

Destined to someday be a classic

In my quest to someday have a kitchen sink AND a bathroom sink AND a dishwasher all in working order at the same time, our plumbers came over to do some work around the house yesterday. And knowing how nice it is to enjoy some music while you work, I told them 'of course' when they asked if they could put their radio on. After about 10 minutes of blaring gangster rap, I fled to the back bedroom, abandoning my studying in search of something to drown out the gunshot noises that accompanied each chorus.

I switched the computer on and surfed over to Hulu, thinking I'd watch some Bewitched* episodes while I worked on the gloves I'm making. And then I saw it.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE EVEN SLIGHTLY TRASHY TASTE IN TELEVISION, AND YOU HOPE TO BE PRODUCTIVE THIS WEEKEND, DO NOT - I REPEAT, DO NOT - READ ANY FURTHER.

Did you know there is a reality show called 'Househusbands of Hollywood'? HOUSEHUSBANDS OF HOLLYWOOD?!? I thought I'd bottomed out with 'Toddlers & Tiaras,' but this show gives that one a run for its money. The pure tastelessness is truly a thing to behold. It is glorious. I think I'm in love.

By yesterday evening, we'd taken several steps back, and currently neither sink works, nor does the dishwasher. But I still consider the day a rousing success because it included my discovering this gem.

And also because I got to wash our dishes in the bathtub.

Love, J


*Bewitched conversations:

Me: Don't you think Sam's too good for Darrin?

Hubs: No. He's just a dorky 60's husband. It's not his fault he's like that.

Later that day, at Grandma R's house:

Me: Grandma, did you ever watch 'Bewitched'?

Grandma: Yes.

Me: Don't you think Elizabeth Montgomery is too good for Dick York?

Grandma: Absolutely.

Taking my schmoopiness a tad too far

Am I talking too much about the bunny? I feel like I've become some mutant hybrid of the mom-bloggers who give updates on the most minute details of their childrens' routines and the weird cat ladies who refer to their pets as their 'kids.'

But you have to understand what a big deal this whole thing is for me. I haven't been able to love on any four-legged, furry creatures for the better part of the past two decades. Sure, I've made exceptions for the occasional puppy now and then, but I am always punished later by eyes-swollen-shut, sneezing, wheeze fits. And if I'm really incautious, I get to go to the hospital.

This has acted as aversion therapy and led me to develop a basic dislike for animals. No desire to ride horses. No compulsion to pet a friendly cat or play with a dog who brings me a tennis ball. I'm sure this began as a defense mechanism, but it's evolved into my becoming probably the world's only vegetarian who is indifferent to animals.



And then came Lily. I can hold her without sneezing. I can pet her without my eyes puffing up. I can let her lick my hand, and my skin won't raise up in ugly welts. And I can kiss her. I can bury my face in her tiny, silky forehead, and not have to rush for my inhaler afterward.

So excuse me if I'm going overboard on the bunny blog love. She's just kind of a big deal around here. Plus, honestly, I have the same problem as the mom-bloggers who overshare about their kids' diaper contents: I don't have a lot else going on.

Love, J