Another post that starts with an apology: I'm sorry that it's already April and I haven't posted since February. Let us catch up.
Three words to sum up how the dead of winter went down:
Shoveling
Kitchen Remodel
Snow. Week after week after week. I was ready to go back in time and purchase this sucker.
Damn, she makes melting snow (and burning weeds) look good. Plus, it says it's 100% safe. You can't lose! The piles of snow were as tall as me so I had to lift the shovel as high as I could, and then karate kick the shovel while simultaneously jumping to get the snow up over the pile. I caught my neighbor watching one day; I hope he enjoyed the show.
Brian summed it up well when he said the seasons here have exclamation points. All I can say is that I feel very glad and triumphant to have survived another winter. Spring with an exclamation point is much more enjoyable.
Kitchen. We fell down the DIY rabbit hole (again). We made the mistake of watching
House Hunters Renovation on Netflix over the holiday break, which got our juices flowing. We started with switching out the tile on our kitchen counter-tops, which led to adding a subway tile back-splash, which led to wanting to make a street name mosaic like in actual NYC subways, which led to replacing the laminate floors with tile, which led to buying new appliances. Brian's fancy business term for this is "Scope Creep".
15 weeks and 5,000 microwave dinners later...still not done. But it's gonna look awesome. I don't feel like posting pictures yet; you don't want to have to keep checking in for updates, right? I'm guessing you'd much rather see all the before/afters in one post so, more to come on that. Last week Brian told me we're in the home stretch but then he also arranged with our neighbor to build a fence in our backyard last weekend so...I'm not holding my breath. Doing projects with a German perfectionist requires a lot of patience.
Semi-related note: an old boss told me when he lived in Germany, his neighbor would scrub his cobblestone driveway with soap and water. By hand. Using a toothbrush. Germans, amiright?
Last week we went to get the fence materials and I was feeling powerful as I helped load up the wood; and then we went to get the bags of concrete and I couldn't make a 50 lb. bag move even one hundredth of a centimeter. I stood there using all my strength to
not move anything, only to turn around and see that Brian had already loaded 6 bags into the truck. Wah-wah.
Brian told me he would finish the project over the weekend and I scoffed. I have
never seen one of our projects conclude in 2-3 days, but I owe him an apology because he did it! Even with it pouring rain most of Saturday. We now have a privacy fence between us and the VRBO next door. Introverts rejoice!
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| Good-bye short wire fence! |
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| I helped. |
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| Stop looking at me, swan. |
What else? Cotton got really sick and we found out she has a hypo-thyroid and has to take drugs twice daily for the rest of her little life. We love her, so we're going to do it. She has also decided she will only eat every third piece of kibble and carefully places the rejects on the floor beside her bowl.
We got to go to Amelia Island, FL at the end of February so I could attend a conference. It was so luxurious to get away from winter and be by the beach. As an added bonus, the conference was at the Ritz Carlton = Shi-Shi Poo-Poo. Every time something at the hotel was exorbitantly priced (which was often), Brian would say, "What is this? The Ritz?"
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| Sunrise from the hotel courtyard |
The hotel was pretty isolated and had few transportation options so we had our first experience using Uber. Fun fact: there are 4 Uber drivers on Amelia Island and we got to know them quite well. We spent some good time at Fernandina Beach eating great food and we also rented bikes and rode to Fort Clinch State Park to tour the fort. Every time I rent a bike and it doesn't have gears, I panic...and then I remember you don't need gears at sea level. A-mazing. I can't even make it home on my semi-flat street without going down to first gear (I'm picking up on a running theme in this post that I am out of shape). Anyway, the fort never saw any action in the Civil War so it's in pristine condition and they let you wander about and explore to your heart's content. It was really neat and smelled like ghosts. It's only $2 to get in, so go!
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| Fernandina Beach Main Street at sunset |
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| Riding bikes through Fort Clinch State Park |
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| Fort Clinch & our shadows |
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| Fort Clinch |
My final note on Amelia Island: I have never seen so many shells washed up along the shore. My inner 8 year old couldn't help but bring some home.
In the airport on our return trip from FL, I watched
Fuller House and grinned ear-to-ear the entire first episode. I laughed. I cried. Those were 'my people' back in the day and I didn't realize how much I missed/loved them until I saw them again. These are the people I skipped dances and sleepovers to hang out with in my adolescence. I binged the whole
Fuller House season and it's fascinating to me that it can be SO cheesy and I love it SO much. I approve.
Hopefully the next post will reveal our finished kitchen! So until that time, good day and have a pleasant tomorrow.
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