he said. she said. a married couple's blog.

Monday, October 31

Brendan got a little trigger happy buying me a new laptop so we're selling the extra one on ebay if you're interested.

[Update 11/3: The laptop sold last night.]

Saturday, October 29

candy. candy, candy

We're all stocked up on candy for Monday. I have no idea how many kids we'll have come by, either. It seems like everyone around here has at least a few. As I was buying it, though I was a little bit torn. Do I buy the big cheap bag full of Tootsie Roll products? Or do I spend more and get Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups or Kit Kats or something. I don't want to piss off the hillbilly brats next door, nor do I want to be broke. So I got some of each. Hopefully there will be no eggs or toilet paper directed at our house. I honestly don't know what to expect...although, Brendan does have a paintball gun...

Thursday, October 27

damn liberal media.

From my hometown Arbutus Times:

Editorial a two-base error regarding state of Orioles

Your paper's editorial ('Another season is lost, thanks to owner of O's,' Arbutus Times, Oct. 5) turned into a blame it on Gov. Robert Ehrlich spiel. Your paper continues to be one-sided in reporting and editorializing on the news.

You are following in the footsteps of the radical left Baltimore Sun. What we need in our community is news reported as it is, not colored by political agendas.

James Klein

Arbutus

Wednesday, October 26

a note on style

It's turned cold here in the mid-Atlantic, and that means that a lot of people have their winter coats out. I would just like to tell some of these people that the little tags that are sometimes tacked (not sewn, tacked, with one or two loose stitches) on the sleeve of a coat is meant to be removed before you wear it out. Are they such label whores that they want to tell us all that they have a Calvin Klein cashmere blend coat? I just want to rip them off their jackets every time I see someone (and it's a lot more than one would expect) with one!

Friday, October 21

snag, a kitchen update

So our kitchen is just about complete; we are just waiting on the countertops. These, we also ordered from IKEA. They were having a sale, and it was easy to see what the counter would look like against the cabinets, so it made sense to order them there. So they calculated the price up and we paid for it at IKEA. They then had payment sent on to a vendor and told us we'd be contacted. We were called, and a guy came out to template the kitchen earlier in the week. When he left he told me someone would be in touch in the next few days to set up a date for installation.

That takes us to today. Brendan got a call from IKEA. They got a fax from the vendor that we underpaid by at least $300. Furthermore, the vendor said no one would call us to tell us this, nor would they begin on our countertop until they got full payment.

I'm ticked off for several reasons. First, that the vendor would refuse to call us and not tell us what the hell is going on. And second, I'm obviously pissed that the sales girl at IKEA couldn't multiply and/or add right. Third, I just want my damn countertop so I can use the friggin' kitchen again!

Thankfully, Brendan is the one dealing with all this. I'm all badass here and on the phone to him -- demanding something of IKEA for this mistake -- a store credit, the salesgirl's head on a pike, you know just something reasonable. In reality, I'd be useless on the phone dealing with this. I'd take whatever they gave me and leave it at that. Or I'd cry.

Shit. The whole renovation was going pretty smoothly, too. It's just a bummer. Hopefully, it will all be over before Thanksgiving; we're having dinner at our house.

Thursday, October 20

busted

I was hoping I could skip coming into work today; I was hoping to never have to come in ever again. Alas, we only one $4.00 in last night's ginormous Powerball drawing. That almost recoups the $5.00 I spent on the ticket. Oh well.

Sunday, October 16

a nice little saturday

Yesterday we decided to take a drive out to the mountains to check out the foliage. A friend of mine from college, who I haven't seen since our wedding, Amy, lives out in Front Royal. Since it was on the way, I finally gave her the call that I've been meaning to for several months. It turns out that the leaves have just started to turn, so there wasn't going to be much to see, so we spent the afternoon with Amy and her boyfriend in Front Royal.

I fell in love with this store on Main Street, Vintage Swank. I can't usually fit into vintage clothes that I like since it all seems way to small for me, but I adore housewares, furniture and handbags from the 40s and 50s. Take for instance the seafoam table shown here. Sadly, I don't have $1,200 just sitting around.

Thursday, October 13

home again

I think I brought Portland weather home with me. It's been hovering around the mid-sixties and sort of raining on and off for a few days now.

The trip was pretty good -- fairly uneventful. It was my mother's first time on a plane since my parents' honeymoon 27 years ago. The flight into Denver was good until we started our descent and we had a moment where the plane dipped back and forth a few times before we levelled out. Then on the way into Portland, also when we had just started our descent, an old lady across the aisle fainted. She was ok, by the time the flight attendants came to her, she was awake. Fortunately, there was an EMT on the plane a few rows back from us. They had some paramedics meet us when we landed and everything was fine.

Nate and Nolan have both gotten big. Nolan was always big, though. He's only 7 months old and wearing 24 months or 2T! Nate has such a big vocabulary now. He's pretty smart, too. He's got most of his colors down, numbers and he always says please. He is two though, so there are battles, but for the most part he was very good.

We went to the Saturday Market, saw a little of downtown Portland (I'd still like to see more), hit a couple of malls and went to a pumpkin patch. We'll just have to go back. There will be pictures up sooner or later, they're mostly of the kids anyway.

Monday, October 10

An end to major operations

Thanks to Keith who came down Monday to help. I'm pretty much done now, just neet to put on the doors and toekick and put in the drawers, etc. No MAJOR snags today, but a few little ones. It doesn't look like much, but we did enough for today, I think. Now it's just time to take another shower and get ready for the Steelers on Monday Night Football.

More photos to come when we're finished, but you can see what's done so far in the gallery. I've added what we did today. I just hope I can make it through the game tonight.

Sunday, October 9

Home Improvements

Progress has been made. Glen and I got the old kitchen ripped out in under two hours yesterday, and the hanging cabinets were up by 4:00. Pretty good, I thought. It went much smoother than I thought it would. I'm really impressed with Ikea's system. They said it would be easy, but I didn't think it would be that easy. I'm pretty handy, but cabinets aren't something I have much experience with. If Glen and I can do it in a matter of hours and only have one minor screw-up (my fault), then, really, anyone can do it.

Check my progress in the gallery.

Tuesday, October 4

i'm sorry baby

No, I haven't forgotten about you. Things are just crazy busy, and I'm usually too exhausted at the end of the day to say much.

And it's not like there aren't things going on.

We had our first real party at the new house a few weeks ago. I'd say it was successful. People seemed to have had a good time. This Friday I am off to Portland (Oregon, not Maine) with my mother to visit my brother and his family over the long weekend. Brendan is staying behind. His project for the weekend is to assemble our new kitchen. We have new cabinets (IKEA, of course) waiting to be put together in the garage, and a new dishwasher and stove also sitting in the garage. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got the better end of the deal on that one.