Long Time Coming

This is embarrassing. According to Blogger, it has been eleven months since my last post. This should never happen, but I'll just pick back up where I left you. My life has changed considerably in the last 11 months. I've been engaged, planned a wedding, bought a house, got married, lost a toe nail, totaled a car, bought another car, adopted an unwanted puppy and shared many firsts as a married couple which included hosting my in-laws at our house for Christmas. That is where the picture to the left comes into play. My sister-in-law, Tamara, took this picture of our house in the snow on Christmas Day. We bought this house together last September exactly four days before our wedding! It was built in 1923 and sits on a good piece of land in the Historic District of Tate, GA. I'll post some pictures of the inside soon. I love old houses. They have so much more character than newer houses that tend to be built with cookie cutters. The inside is beautiful, but the outside does need some TLC which we plan to start this spring.

This leads me to a new direction for this blog. A lot of the posts will be about the house including construction ideas, projects and improvements. We are also planning to plant a salsa garden next month. So I'll keep you posted on those sorts of things.

good fences

Last Sunday Jacob and I completed a large task together. In an effort to solve our dilemma of what to do with Beaulah during the summer while we work, we decided to construct an outdoor pen. The spot is perfect because it is shaded and not manicured (so digging isn't a problem), but it did require us to cut trees and clear some brush. We started early and pretty much had the spot cleared within two hours which was encouraging and made each of us believe we'd be finished by lunch. We were wrong. Constructing a fence is hard work. Jacob build a wonderful gate which is pictured below. We bought wire mesh fencing and metal posts so the gate really put it over the top on the WOW scale. By 5:15 we had pretty much finished, but I had long expired. I'm not sure what we expected from Beaulah when we put her in the pen. I sort of expected her to love it, but I wasn't terribly surprised to see or hear that she really hated it. She barked and whined and ran around franticly. All the dog books say to ignore her which we were doing well until we realized that our perceived success was a lie and her silence was due to her escaping the pen. NO!!!

So the use of the enclosure is halted until Jacob returns from Colorado. Currently I am feeding her meals inside to try to build some positive associations with the area. Yeah I just typed that. I think way too much about the psyche of the dog. Thank you Cesar Millan. But she's pretty awesome so I guess she's worth the work.

SB 2010

Beaulah's beach debut! A few weeks ago we traveled to Tampa, Florida and Beaulah accompanied, of course. We took her to a dog beach and she had a blast! Here are some shots from the day.

Family shot. Eventually we unleashed her and she loved it.

stomach flu

I am tired of the stomach flu. It seems that every couple of weeks another strain of this yucky virus is recirculated in our community. Fortunately I am not the victim this time. This time it has hit Jacob pretty hard which has shifted me into sweet caretaker mode. I came straight over to his apartment after work. Well first I made a quick stop at Walgreen's to get supplies: stomach meds, ginger ale and two kinds of crackers. Mainly my job has been to care for Beaulah so that Jacob doesn't kill her. So far, so good. I hope its only a 24 hour strain...

i feel like a new mom

It is snowing here today. And Beaulah, our new puppy, loves the cold white stuff on the ground. I think it distracts her from the cold, cold air. Having a new puppy parallels having a new baby. She's all I think about. When did she last poop? Why isn't she eating more? What am I teaching her? Its all similar to parenting except its much more expedited because by the time she's 9 months old she'll enter dog puberty. She is learning very quickly. She already knows how to sit on command! I am very proud of her.

My only beef with having a new pup is that it doesn't come with "maternity leave". There's lots of fatigue and exhaustion with both a new baby and new pup. I'm constantly watching her every move and correcting her. These first two weeks would be a lot easier if I was unemployed. But I am thankful for my job... don't get me wrong. My j-o-b allows me to take trips to Petsmart. I took Beaulah for the first time last night to pick out a new toy. She picked a Kong Squiggle. She loved being there and she was really calm. I love being her "mommy".

julia child night

So usually our experimental dinner nights inspire a photo, but not last night. You know how food is first said to be "eaten with your eyes"? Well this dish looked like it had been eaten by a whole lot more than eyes (once or twice maybe) before we even touched it. But it tasted delicious! In the end I suppose that's the most important thing. Last night Jacob had the wonderful idea to make Julia Child recipes for dinner and watch the movie as we enjoy the fruits of our labor. We were ambitious. We picked "Julia Child's Puree of Rice and Turnips With Herbs and Garlic" and "Julia Child's Ragout of Chicken Thighs 'a la Nicoise". It's important to add "Julia Child's" to the beginning. We started the night at 6 with a trip to Ingles to pick up a few ingredients, and then to his apartment to start slicing, dicing, simmering, browning, melting, reducing, thickening, tasting and finally eating shortly after nine. We anticipated it being a late dinner so we ate bruschetta on yummy toasted bread throughout the cooking process to carry us through. The Rice and Turnip puree was really interesting. It was sort of like mashed potatoes, but with a very distinct flavor and almost with the texture of grits. And the chicken... oh the chicken. Jacob did a fantastic job with this dish. It was juicy and full of flavor. The part that wasn't aesthetically pleasing was the yummy sauce for the chicken. As dinner prep went on and on, we started the movie at eight and listened as we cooked. It was inspirational. Julia Child said to make dinner the event and last night that's just what we did. What a blessing to enjoy such a yummy hobby. Bon appetite!

the gift

The hammock swing project is complete! Ha-lle-lu-jah! I took matters into my own hands. Yesterday I recruited the assistance of Mike Signorini, our assistant food service manager and my neighbor, to help me drill a hole in the top beam of the swing structure. Right after work he brought over a ladder, drill and drill bit. Three items plus five minutes and the project was complete. As soon as the parts were assembled, I lowered myself into the fabric swing. I misjudged the span of the fabric. The result was me spinning 360 degrees with the hammock in the clutches of my fists as the swing flipped over itself. It was a whirlwind! In a matter of seconds I was laying on my back in the mud. I'm still not really sure what caused this precisely, but Mike thought it was hilarious. I'm okay, no worries though my shoulder is pretty sore today. I came home right after work today to enjoy the swing once again. It was awesome. I had music from my computer, a book, water and wheat thins. The weather was cool, crisp and breezy. It was the perfect fall day. Occasionally a leaf from the backyard would fly up and stick to the rope strands of the swing. Every time this happened I was startled because I thought it was some sort of rodent or bird attacking me. But every time it was only a leaf.

It occurred to me while I was hanging in the hammock swing that I was in fact hanging there. I thought of how much trust I had at some point decided, subconsciously of course, to put in this structure. I looked at the tethered rope, carabiner, bolt/screw thingy and wooden structure. All of it working together allowed me to hang there without a care in the world. I also thought about how this had cost me nothing and I'll probably have it my whole life. I hope I do. The whole thing was a gift from people that I love. Thank you all for making this possible... you know who you are...