Month: June 2006

Today started Wade and I’s trip to LA. We have a wedding on Saturday and then are taking a few extra days for vacation. We got up at a normal time and drove to Atlanta to catch our flight. However, when we went to check in our bags, we learned the flight had been delayed about three hours. That was enough time for us to re-park the car in the cheap parking and grab lunch at Chili’s.

The flight was uneventful except that my new DVDs (Roswell – Season 1) won’t play on my laptop. However, I didn’t discover this until we were up in the air. My movie DVDs were packed in my checked luggage. No worries though, I filled my iPod shuffle with music, took a nap, and did some reading.
We arrived in LA and picked up our rental car. I love renting cars. I always pick the cheapest option, which they never have. Meaning I get an upgrade for free. Wade and I are now driving around town in a PT Cruiser with a sunroof.

The typical Wade and Holly part of this trip occurred when we started to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at the Magic Castle, courtesy of Nicholas. However, when Wade started to get dressed, he realized he had his suit jacket, but not the pants. That meant no dinner and a shopping trip instead. Wade still needed clothes for the wedding tomorrow. I think this is how Wade gets new dress clothes, but I’d be fine with him just going shopping in non-rush situations.

We went to 3rd Street Promenade for a little shopping. Wade found new dress pants, a new shirt, and tie. There was also a movie theater so went to see Superman – shockingly a movie we both wanted to see. The movie was good enough. My lingering thought after the movie – Superman looked animated throughout the whole movie. Wade said the post processing was to blame, but he just looked odd.

Wade installed a nice new ceiling fan in my office, but now I have to make a decision. I have four different colored globes on the fan, but can’t decide which one I like best. The walls are yellow, the furniture is white, and the reading chair is red. So let’s take a vote. You can vote for either the blue, white, red, or clear.

While my mom was visiting, we worked a little shopping into the days of yard work. One of things we did was look for pictures to hang in my bedroom. I was shocked when we found two that Wade and I both liked – we have very different taste. We also bought a bed-skirt and added a few things to my shelves. I am starting to feel like the bedroom is almost “finished.” Now I just need a mirror over the dresser and two other pictures I bought framed over the bed.

Wade and I have really enjoyed serving on the host team at our new church. There is a mix of singles and couples, young and old. One of our favorite couples is Kendall and James – about our age, been married about the same amount of time, moved here from Atlanta, previously attended Buckhead church, and did I mention they are just fun? They invited us to dinner at their house, but we had a bit of trouble finding a date that worked for both of us. Wade and I had all of our weddings, they were out of town, and then my mom was in town. We eventually settled on a night and Kendall said she was going to grill burgers.

Now the sticky part. Do I tell her I don’t eat ground beef or do I just tough it out? Wade’s first suggestion was to say we had just had burgers. With my luck, I figured then she would cook tacos or lasagna. I emailed her back, told her of my odd eating preferences, and offered to bring chicken or a hot dog. She said not to bother and added grilled chicken to the menu. We had a great time! Did I mention they also have a new puppy – an 8 week old lab? Now I remember exactly why I want another puppy!

I feel like my to do list just keeps growing and growing. The painting never ends. Things have to be done before and after the painting. Blah Blah Blah

I recently started painting the trim in the hallway. This means all the doors are taken outside. Then I decided that the inside of the closets should be painted too. That means I have to take everything out of the closets. The logical place to put all the stuff is in the dining room, but the dining room is full of all the stuff that goes in my office. It’s not in my office yet because I don’t have a desk built.

Well, I took charge today. I cleaned out the dining room and neatly unpacked my office. Not to mention taking quite a bit of stuff to the attic. For those of you who have never seen my house, these pictures won’t mean much. Mom will get it .

On a side note: You see we have acquired a foosball table. A friend down the street is a fan of yard sales and picked it up for $10. She didn’t have room for it so it now lives at our house. It will most likely stay in the dining room until we have a dining room table. In case you didn’t know, there is nowhere to buy foosballs in Anderson. However, both John and I picked up some when we were in Atlanta. We now have 12 foosballs so come on over and play.

First Melissa gets a dog and now Jamie. She got the dog from a rescue group that believes it is a 2 year old Shitzu-Pekingese mix. I went over to see the dog after dropping my mom off in Atlanta on Sunday. The dog is really cute, but mostly slept. I think it is getting used to a new place and new people. Jamie still hasn’t decided on a name so the dog is Cody for now.

I had no idea how much mulch to order and did my ordering based on the delivery cost. Twelve cubic yards was the least amount to get the price break on delivery so that is what I ordered. Well that is a ton of mulch! My mom and I worked for four days on the pile. I did most of the shoveling and she did the spreading. Well we finally finished! I have done all the mulching I plan to do. I wasn’t even that far off on how much I needed. There is probably only one cubic yard or so left – go me. Now we just need someone to come take what is left.
Before:

This pile of mulch is actually huge, I am just taking the picture from far away. Compare the two pictures by looking at the fence in the back.
After:

In the process of mulching the yard, I got a wheelbarrow! I have always wanted a red one – no idea why I wanted one. This was the perfect time to get one.

I think I half mentioned this earlier so I will explain. Wade and I have a new roommate – John Maley. (He comments a lot on Wade’s blog for those of you that read it.) Wade knew him at Tech when they were both in the Industrial Design Program. Well, John got hired by Wade’s company as an intern, but they didn’t have a place for him to live. They normally have three interns and put them up at an apartment complex. John was the fourth intern and they were having trouble finding a place agreeable to a 3 month lease. They approached Wade, and we agreed to let John live with us for three months. (He is paying rent.) He’s a nice guy and Wade loves having someone around to play Nintendo with….

After all the weeding, mom told me what we needed to do was mulch. We called around and found a place that would deliver bright and early this morning. They showed up with a truck load and we have been working in the hot sun all day. We’ve finally taken a break and I am watching the last few episodes of Angel. (Steven – the puppet episode did make it all worth it.)

My computer arrived today – I love overnight FedEx. Not only does my laptop have a new fan, it also has a new keyboard. I knew some of my old keys stuck, but I didn’t request a new one. I guess it was just an extra bonus – like the new rubber feet on the bottom that were added. Anyway, my laptop and I are reunited and I will return to posting.

My computer and I have been having a small war. It likes to run very slowly or not at all. Wade can normally work his magic, but not this time. My laptop is now in the hands of Sony Service and will hopefully come back with a new fan and a working PCMCIA slot – very important for my wireless internet. The funny thing is I keep debating about buying a new one, but never quite want to commit. Oh well, there will be a lack of posting till I get my computer back.

Wade and I finally had a weekend at home (no out of town weddings). We both agreed today would be a great day to get lots of chores done from our lists. Wade started his day with a trip to Home Depot. I started mine with painting. Wade had been back about two hours when I ran out of ceiling paint. I was all nasty in my paint clothes so I asked Wade to go to Home Depot again, but he said he would rather not. I grabbed only my wallet and keys (Wade and I both have keys to each other’s cars on our key rings.) and decided to take his car (because it would be less tragic if some random paint transferred from me to his car than if paint got on my car – Wade does not agree with this). When I opened his unlocked car door, the alarm went off. I was already annoyed that I had to make a trip to Depot so I ran in and grabbed his keys (which have a clicker) and turned off the alarm. (You should realize at this point that I have both our keys and no cell phone.)

I got about a mile from our house when Wade’s car died on the side of the road. Wade’s gas gauge is broken so I figured it had probably run out of gas. I walked a short way to a bike shop and called Wade. Because we don’t have a real phone line, Wade is often not near enough to his cell phone to hear it ring. Thank goodness he answered. I asked him if it was possible his car had run out of gas, and he said probably so. I asked him to bring me gas and we hung up. I walked back to the car and stood there about five minutes. Then I happened to look at my hands and realized I had both sets of car keys, which means Wade had no way to bring me gas. I started running home. Then I looked up and saw Wade pass me in my car or I thought it was Wade. I was very confused but decided to walk back to Wade’s car and wait. While waiting, I did have one taxi and a nice couple across the street offer assistance. Wade arrived with the gas – turns out he had found a valet key (which I didn’t even know we had). I drove to the gas station, filled up his car, and then went to Home Depot.

That alone would be a funny story, but then it turns tragic. Wade won a video iPod from a raffle at work about two weeks ago. He has had a lot of fun playing with it – it is evidently much better than his iPod Mini. I had noticed when I was in his car that it was under the driver’s seat, but I would just push it further back when it slid out. Sunday morning we were getting ready to drive to Atlanta for a wedding when Wade asked me if I had moved his iPod. I told him I had seen it in his floorboard. Evidently when he walked outside, the cord was dangling out of the car door. Our best guess is when I got out of the car at home, it fell out without my knowing. We have a lot of questionable people walk by our house and we think one of them probably took the iPod.
To give Wade lots of credit, his only response to all of this was “Next time I will buy paint when you ask”. However, I have felt terrible ever since.

I normally try to avoid all catalogs and junk mail in my mailbox. However, I have found one catalog that I just love. It has such odd and funky items. The catalog is called Uncommon Goods and they also have a website.
I got this bracelet for my birthday:

and I recently purchased this clock for my office:

A new picture of Kate and Scott’s daughter, Taylor. Isn’t she cute? If only she lived closer…

Wade and I decided we had too many projects for our house and needed a master list. Then we decided it would be fun to have a list where we could easily change the order of the projects and edit the items. That led us to the Project Board, which is now hanging in our kitchen. The items on the left are “Do Immediately”. The ones in the middle are “Short, Easy Projects” and the ones on the right are the “Big Projects”. Thank goodness the upstairs bathroom is on the “Do Immediately” List. We have a house guest moving in on Sunday. We’ll see if the bathroom is finished by then…

I got an email from Wade today saying that he had worked on my new domain. I now have a new email address – holly at toadfrogs.com. My old one – holly at firemonkey.org will still work too. If any of the other toadfrogs out there want one – just let me know. I’m sure we can make it work. (And by “we” I mean Wade. I’m sure he would love to know I am volunteering his services.)