No! Bad Kitty!

Kagan nominated to Supreme Court!

2010-05-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Mama Coughlin needs a new web cam!

2010-03-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

Mwa HAHAHAHA! :-)

Old Springfield Photos

2010-03-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Whoah check these out, posted by a facebook friend:

http://www.lashuastudio.com/oldphotos/

I find them even more depressing than Dan's *actually* depressing Springfield photos, because of all the promise and vitality. Oof.

Is this the least professional reply ever from a tax accountant?

2010-03-02T08:10:00.000-08:00

Our tax accountant apparently thinks that "Fair" is a dirty four-letter word. Good to know!

I have gone to Alpha Omega (www.TheStrategicWealthCoach.com) before in the Red Mall Suzie Wilson road for taxes. They are nice, but a little pricey. I can't afford to go this year, and Natalie was going to but after repeatedly asking for an estimate and finally finding out how much it was going to be, we co-wrote a Coughlin letter of dispute signaling that the cost was too high. (by co-wrote I mean that Natalie wrote an angry email & sent it to me, and I cleaned it up & sent it back ready to mail.) We cannot *believe* the response below was written by Bob Hudson, the owner of the firm, we are thinking one of the lady accountants must have written it and used his account. The email is included below, it is really a short but astounding read.

****

From: Natalie Coughlin
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 6:55 PM
To: 'steph@aofsnet.com'; 'bhudson@vsrfin.com'
Subject:

Stephanie,

I just got a message from Ashley today about what the final charge for filing taxes with Alpha Omega is going to be.

I’m sorry but I am unwilling to pay $444.25 for my tax preparation for several reasons. First, I asked for an estimate of the cost of filing my taxes with you earlier several times and each time I was told Bob would have to be consulted. Rather than providing the estimate you went ahead and prepared the taxes so that I just got the information the night before my pick-up appointment on what the charge will be. Secondly your office almost lost me my $8,000 first time home-buyers credit with incorrect advice, until I supplied you with the information you needed regarding renting rooms in a primary residence by doing my own research on the IRS web site.

Finally, I expected to pay a reasonable hourly rate for filing taxes, for example $80 per hour. I did not realize you were charging me arbitrarily “by the form” without relation to the actual time spent preparing my return. If I had known from my first request for an estimate that the cost this year would be near triple what I paid two years ago I would not have asked you to continue preparing my taxes. This is three times more expensive than any of my coworkers have paid their tax preparers and I have asked half a dozen of them today. I called every week for almost six weeks to make sure there were no more problems with my taxes at which time you could have provided the estimate I asked for, and the last time I asked if there was a problem with my return you put me on hold with the explanation that you had to look into something and instead transferred me to Ashley to set up a pick-up appointment.

I am willing to pay a fair-market price for the preparation of my taxes. I have just researched the average cost of tax preparation in Vermont for a first time homebuyer. If your office is willing to accept $200.00 for the preparation of my taxes I will keep my appointment Saturday afternoon and pay that amount, but if not I will pick up my tax documents at that time and take my business to H and R Block.

Thank you,
Natalie Coughlin

*******************
From: Bob Hudson [mailto:rhudson@aofsnet.com]

Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:48 AM
To: Natalie Coughlin
Cc: Steph Babcock
Subject: RE:

Hi Natalie,

GREAT hearing from you.

Nice e-mail (sic) – I hope that you realize that “fair” is a dirty 4 letter word.

I have destroyed your copy of our version of your 2009 tax return and please pickup your data/information at your appointed time.

Best regards, Bob

Robert Hudson, CFP®, EA

Wealth Advisor

Strategic Wealth Coach, LLC

Alpha Omega Tax & Investments
1 Market Place, Suite 22
Essex Junction, VT 05452

e-mail: rhudson@aofsnet.com Phone: 802.878.6155 Fax: 802.878.6818

PS. Check out our New Website for Articles, Calculators, Newsletters, Glossary and information about us.

Website: www.TheStrategicWealthCoach.com

****************

From: Natalie Coughlin
Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:53 AM
To: 'Bob Hudson'
Subject: RE:

Thank you for getting back to me, I will be in this afternoon. I apologize for the late notice, but if I had known the price earlier I wouldn’t have continued. I want to let you know that this is purely financial, and I have always been impressed by your office’s customer service. Betty is one of the nicest ladies I have ever met.

Thank you,

Natalie

****
Can you believe that???

Christmas 2009

2010-01-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Album HERE <-- Click that link!! DO IT! :-)
(let me know if I forgot to add you to my contact list)

Pretty Snowstorm!

2010-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

My Yankee Swap Contribution. :-)

2009-12-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

Windstorm 2009

2009-12-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last night we lost power from about 3 pm to almost 11pm. The winds were mighty, and at some point our shed that we so laboriously dragged across the yard, (and Jim just leveled with blocks and then we filled with the mower & other garden crap) took another hit. It's already had a tree hit its right side a couple years ago. But Lo, our canoe was spared! :-)

And this one is just to show the pretty snow and the progress we've made on the kitchen window and tile backsplash. Beauty, eh? :-)

Sandbox in Underhill!

2009-06-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Trench for the force main.

The force main pipes are in, dumptrucks start bringing sand

And they just keeeeep coming! :-)

"Before"

2009-06-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

Halloo Peeps! :-)
This septic mound going into the side of the hill is sure trampling the backyard! :-( I can't figure out how to post more than 5 pics w Picasa so I'll try to add a link to a picasa album (or make more posts) in just a minute.

OK here is a LINK to the web album! :-)
Link to album!

Happy Birthday Kagan!

2009-02-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Kagan!!! Feeeeeeling old?? :-)

I spent a good hour cleaning up the scratches in this picture in photoshop and it's still scratched.
Lots of love & hugs!

William gets Jiggy with it. :)

2009-01-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Can you even believe it??? :)
This is my first video post ever.
I think it was worth it :)

HA HA HA! Happy New Years! More Christmas 2008

2009-01-01T15:24:00.001-08:00

Early April Fools! Nice Hairdo Mama! :-)
A beautiful leg pulling perpetrated on those Southerners, with all of our Yankee cooperation.
Here are more pictures from Christmas.

Christmas Eve...

AND Christmas day, in no particular order since Blogger does not want to cooperate...

Mama unwrapping junk that Natalie wrapped for her.
We both did it, but Natalie might've gone a little overboard. :-)

I'll. teach you. Who. Rock.
DETHKLOK DETHKLOK!
:-)

William pulled a Natalie - bought her a bag of lindt chocolates and ate a bunch of them and threw the wrappers back in the bag. Plus, put a couple back with bites out of them. She does that to his food ALL THE TIME! :)

Note in this photo BOTH Natalie's lovely new camera from Me and Jim and a LITTLE from William even though she's telling everyone it's from WILLIAM! ;-(
AND the really pretty bag Mommy made for Natalie, currently being worn as a hat.

Teeny tiny egg basket.

Itty Bitty plaque de chocolat.

MEAT!!! :-)

Christmas 2008!

2008-12-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

WELL seeing as I aten't dade, Here are some photos of Christmas in Underhill. I haz more but picasa will only post 4 at a time so I had to cut n paste from several drafts. What a pain in the bottom. =)

Enjoy!

Natalie the Rock Star

2008-10-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, these work for everyone!!! :)

Natlie & all her Kittens

2008-09-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

Now of course there is only Meeps! left. :)

Dan & Owen

2008-09-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Finally!!!

2008-09-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

I'm in!!! :) OK so you wouldn't think it would be so hard but I forgot Balthazar's password and the emails to send it weren't coming & logging into blogger as Balthazar was kicking me out of gmail, which is all I use now. SO I'm now officially (Caitlin) a contributor on this blog as my gmail account and can use PICASA with it, so y'all are in for it.

After I get some work done today.
So, until tonight, let's talk about JIM and JIM's SUMMER:

We went to the Adirondacks this summer as you may recall.
Photo of the view from the top of our hike here:

On this weekend, Jim:

Got water in his ear to which he had an allergic reaction (and still doesn't think it's out)
While we were on this hike through a swath of logging detritus Jim was the 4th or 5th person over a hornet nest and got stung 3 times by big black and white hornets that hurt a lot
While screaming and running away from the hornets poor Sweetie fell down and banged his knee on a rock (it's still tender)
A few weeks later at home Jim got stung by one of the wasps living in our plastic hose reel (which he said was not nearly as bad as the black and white NY hornets). He squirted them with death-inna-can in the night.
The weekend after labor day Jim went camping with Adam, wherupon he came home with a spot of some sort of green goo in each of his hiking boots and promptly got some awful case of poison ivy (or sumac).

Does this sound like a 12 year old's summer to anyone else??? :)

PS Did I forget to mention that he has to get his braces put back on because his two front teeth won't stay where the orthodontist wanted them? Yeah. Uh huh.

Natalie & The Spit-up

2008-06-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Boy Annaliese sure does spit up a lot! :)
So, What's up with Alexe posting lots and lots of wonderful updates and Kagan posting every 2 months???
Pot, Kettle, I know I know :)

Awww :)

2008-06-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! I've installed Picasa and you can blog pictures right from the page!
Hi families, good news - Jim found Natalie's high school photo shoot & we have backed it up so they are not lost, they are found.
Hope everyone is doing well. We've had torrential downpours punctuated by sun, and the driveway is getting quite rutted. Plus some of the road above our driveway washed down the bank beside Alexe's raspberry patch. :)

I have 5 new chickens - 2 auracanas and 3 silver laced Wyandotes in a dog kennel out in the coop.
New troops :)

This one's for you, Dan

2008-05-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

We all know new technology is driven by, let's face it, sex.
Anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence as well all point to people providing prurient content being the early adopters for any new technology, and while I don't know the percent of naughty sites on the internet but a google search on the word "sex" returned a page that said

Results 1 - 10 of about 823,000,000

OK a lot of those are not going to be porn, but lots and lots are.

That's why, every now and then, I find it utterly refreshing to run across a web site that is so different from the rest that I can't even tell if it's serious or a joke. Jim found this on a blog collection and it is absolutely wonderful - this one's for you Dan.

http://www.carstuckgirls.com/

This is a web site where beautiful, helpless girls, get their tricked out cars stuck in the mud/sand/snow and full pictorials and even videos of the girls completely (poutily) unable to free their cars from whatever mess they've got themselves into. There's no nudity so visit away there is nothing shocking except the possibility that somewhere someone is serious about this.

The fuchsia VW about 5 cars down on the home page is particularly lovely.

You're welcome. :)

Cheap Coughlins Take Note!

2008-04-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

For Mama - That Soap Recipe that Sarah gave me.
If it's too small click on the picture to see it larger.
It costs something like a penny a load to do laundry.

Laundry Soap:

Two rough weekends in a row. :(

2008-04-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Oof, I have a lot of things that need posting to this space. But nevermind that, I'm here to rant!

Last weekend as you may know, Papa and Mama came up to celebrate Natalie's birthday on friday, and to help murder roosters on Saturday. I had about 50 straight run assorted fancy chickens, some of which were top-hat and many of which had feathered little feet. Straight run means unsexed, so odds are we probably had about 25 roosters. Hard to count, and hard to choose who will die when they are all so different and fun to look at. But feed just went up another buck and a half a bag and we were going through a LOT of bags...

So. We killed and bagged and froze 13 that I could pick out as being more aggressive or less pretty. The barred rock thugs, a couple of the silkies but no other bantams, mostly large pretty birds. Papa kept the pelts for fly-tying.

A week goes by. Thursday evening (the 11th) Jim & I spent a bunch of time erecting a sort of fence funnel to let the birds from the left stall into my fenced garden so that they could eat all the weeds for me. I let Stephen and the other 6 roosters ( a couple silkies, a black and white top-hat, the pretty red one we kept and so on) from the smaller pen on the right into their existing fenced area but only Stephen would stay out. They are chicken :) Evening comes around, we chase them all back inside. Friday I let the left-hand pen out and I can see Stephen in the right-hand through the plastic sheeting that kept them warm but I don't let him out. WELL friday evening when I go out with fresh water I open Stephen's pen and he is huddled on the very top roost and ALL SIX of the beautiful roosters I spared are dead, mangled. Only one is partially eaten. Something has come in and apparently murdered them all for *fun*, probably in the night and I didn't know all day. It looks like it pushed open the slot door enough to get in, maybe it was a weasel. I must have forgot to put the wedges that make the drop panel tight back when I let them out. We wedge the panel shut and go to bed, really annoyed but I still have all the hens.

Saturday we go to Morgan's engagement party which is an afternoon event. Chris and Morgan have put out an amazingly delicious spread of home-cooked goodness, including homemade lasagna, wild turkey meatballs, and ice cream from scratch. I blow all my intentions and eat it all. Not realizing it was a sleepover, we head home around 10 pm and get home just before midnight. Out we head with a bucket of water for the chickens. the lights are out because it's warm now so we turned off the expensive heat lamps and it's hard to buck the reflex of turning off the overhead light when leaving. I flick on the overhead light. In the right hand pen where Stephen is there's a bunch of sawdust pushed away from a rat hole in the *left* corner, having nothing to do with the door I thought the murderer came in the day before. Stephen is on the highest roost. The hole looks like it also passes under the partition to the next pen...

I throw open the left pen door... and there are 6 or seven DEAD chickens, starting from the hole and fanning inwards. One of them is still twitching! I think we interrupted the murder spree that would no doubt have continued through everyone on the floor and probably on the low roost too. "They got Dash!" I yell and Jim says "no, here's Dash" he's on the low roost about a foot and a half up. Captain Jack is OK, but they got both porcelain boys and the really beautiful little red rooster, and several hens, and my last silkie rooster. I think another seven, all Bantams.
So. We are exhausted but we spend an hour tacking hardware cloth (metal mesh) over that hole and any other knot holes that look too large, and reinforcing the door at the bottom and top, and so far so good. But I am ANGRY. MY birds. EXPENSIVE birds that we've fed and watered every day for 8 months now, and paid for lights to heat them when it's cold, and brought them inside when they are sick. Hens that have just started laying. I had that little porcelain rooster in the basement for 3 months until he grew out his pecked feathers, and I trimmed his beak when it got too long and heard him learn to crow. It kind of makes me want to beat a weasel to death with a shovel.

Chickens are *tasty*, and it is damn hard to keep them alive out here.
But I aim to try.
Damn it.

Really? You want some Natalie? :)

2008-02-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

These appeared on my camera on Saturday morning right before we went to look at the place Natalie has her eye on. Right before she ran upstairs and took pictures of me in the tub, yelling at her to get away. Don't worry I got her back.

House Natalie took us to look at. It looks pretty rundown inside, but it's in a nice spot.

It was coooold while we waited for the realtor

I burst out laughing when I saw the tiny tub... or the very large Natalie, depending on how you look at it...

Look Alexe, the *inside* of the fridge is *perfect*!!! :)

The rest of the photos Natalie can email you, I don't have the bandwidth.

Freeze-Or-Burn this Saturday!!!

Ha HA! More Art for Papa!

2008-02-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

OK I have a backlog of photos a mile long to deal with, but for all you louts complaining about looking at the same artwork repeatedly (Dan!) Here is some new artwork for your viewing pleasure.

I will accept votes: next, should I post Christmas photos, or Mississippi trip photos., Arisia photos, or Dan's wedding photos? :)
Ciao!

Superbowl Sunday

2008-02-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Hey kiddoes, I've sure got a backlog of photos to post!
I've been up here on the mountain, trying to stave off a mental meltdown.
Apparently, if you provide instant gratification to anyone, they then think that's normal and you should do that all the time, personal evenings and weekends be damned!

Anyway I am taking a step back from work for a bit to make some new rules and policies, doing some work of course but stopping before dinner and not picking up again after.

Hey, I'm not even a Patriots fan and I was disappointed for those losers.
We had a small "white trash potluck" gathering, only about 10 people this year, and Jim and I came up with a beautiful piece de resistance...

SPAM n GRITS SUSHI!

Ha HA!

(These were surprisingly good. Recipe: The night before make grits, put ina shallow pan in the fridge to congeal. Next day prepare 1 cup (raw measurement) sushi rice, stir in a tb mirin and a tb vinegar when done & let sit while frying spam in thin slices. Arrange rice over nori (seaweed layer) , put in slice of spam and slice of grits in a long strip, roll up and slice. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce, to the disgust and marvel, and eventual "Hey that's not bad" of your friends.)

I'll post more often now that I am mandating personal time, *smooches!*

Blogging from Springfield...

2007-11-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

Mmmmm DSL... :)

Look at it! Marvel at the beautiful art I made for Papa! You're all in it & I have to call The Southerners to make this come true. Click on it!

I'm pretty proud of it. :)

Happy Birthday tooooo You

2007-11-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

HAP-py BIRTH-day toooo youuuu...
Happy BIRTHday deaaaaar Papa...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! :)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

Boy lots of stuff backed up to post about, but for today let's just show a lovely series of pictures of Caesar's outfit!

AWWWW what a cute little sheep-dog! :)

And here's a nice spiderweb that Jim & I made (mostly Jim) for Halloween out of tomato twine on the side of the house. I "sharpened" this in photoshop so you could see it better, even so you may need to blow it up... IMAGINE THE SPIDER!

May you all have a lovely Halloween. We're gonna hole up and watch scarey movies on TV tonight after I get some more work done - drowning a little over here.

Don't forget what tomorrow is! =)

Caitlin's Chickenerrarium

2007-10-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Photos taken this very evening. I tells ya, these little buggers will be going outside this weekend - I started prepping the pen for them wednesday but found it just wasn't a one-afternoon job, so they are still inna basement! :)

Altogether now, to the "Jaws" theme...

Da-dump

Da-dump Da-dump

Da-dump Da-dump Da-dump...

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

Aren't they just adorables? :)

Stuff been going on round heah.

2007-09-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

Well Hello there! :) Lots of crazy business, lots of work to do around here and not enough time to do it in. I've been fighting a cold for days but so far I'm winning, and the harvest is in and I was just too busy working to make dilly beans this year. You'll all have to settle for cheaty store boughten beans I'll dill later this year. :)

Papa & Jim preparing to install a window a couple weeks back, hopefully it'll get done this weekend. It's getting cold, and that plastic bag we taped up just isn't working that well to keep out the breezes!

Cute blond points at daylight streaming through wall.

JimE's pirate beard. Sorry no photos of the pirate getups - we forgot our camera.
Maybe we can get one from a friend later.

The banties, this last Saturday. Look at the cuties! There's some frizzy looking craaaazy white ones, and some little silky poofy tail ones with green beaks, and little tiny gray ones, and more!

Banties!

The full size chickens. Starting to be all feathered out. The barred rocks are the least timid, but this whole batch freaks out more than the banties whenever I feed them. They look more varied at first, but I find myself gravitating to watch the little ones, with their giant snowshoe feather feet and cute little faces. Plus the feather hats are coming in on the full size ones and boy they do look nuts. :)

Bleah.

2007-08-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

What a sucky week. This time of year is hard on many of my readers. I think we're all trying to spare one another by dancing around that giant white elephant in the room, the big empty space left by our missing family member. That's right Brendan, I called you a giant white elephant, what're you going to do about it??? =)

Anyway, it sucks. Natalie and Dan and Jim & I are going to bake Brendan a birthday cake tonight, and then eat it for him. Like the Priests do for Buddha I guess, someone eats those offerings and it isn't the Buddha statue. Well, maybe the Hindu statues do: click here. Natalie proposed we ought to also buy presents and then keep them for ourselves, but I'm afraid my emergency gift supply doesn't have anything in it I fancy or I would already have kept it. Maybe we'll watch Rat Race, or XXX with Vin Diesel, or the Boondock Saints (yuck), all movies Brendan particularly enjoyed. And almost certainly, we will gripe about the way we all had something precious cruelly stolen from us, and we're all pretty bitter about it. Damn it.

In more positive news, look how cute these babies are!!!
They arrived this morning to distract me from my doldrums, adorable as anything and very hungry and thirsty, and I had to go out after these photos were taken to get another set of food/water holders so I could separate out the teeny tiny banty chicks. into the second tank I think I got some chicks that are going to have the crazy feather hats I was hoping for, I'll post a good pic of those a little later. That green stuff is "grow gel" a vitamin supplement to offer after they get out of the shipping container.

A letter from 1995

2007-08-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Oof, I've got so much work to do & I'm just not making any progress! I have a play data with Nate & Ciara tonight which I have to go pick them up for right now. This weekend I have every intention of cleaning the garage *and* preparing for the chicks I am expecting next week. Eek! :)

Anyway, I was cleaning last night and found some really adorable old letters.
Here is one from 1995 (I can tell 'cause that's when Toy Story came out.)

Whose the cutie? Who is it? It's YOU!

2007-08-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Natalie and William when we went to see Harry Potter. Didja notice that Natalie and I look very much alike when you take our hair out of the equation? (Except I'm not usually making a sourpuss.) William, on the other hand, is just adorables. :)

We Prognosticate your Progeny

2007-06-22T18:19:00.001-07:00

The Coughlin sisters foretell the future.

Alexe's future that is. :)

Week 12.
So beautiful, and dainty, too.

Week 24
(a couple hundred bowls of grits later)

Week 36.
Pickles & grits, 100 jars of nutella and a 9 lb baby later.

:)
*love*, us.

Proof that You Southerners were in the new kitchen

2007-06-21T10:44:00.001-07:00

Also incidentally proof that Jim empties the garbage. Sorry Sweetie! :)
Oof, I've been overwhelmed with work and not getting out in my garden enough. This week is going to be cooler - it's been hot, hit 92 one day but I didn't notice I was in my office where it was 76 - but this weeks' going to be in the 70s, perfect for weeding my beans that are just sprouting. We don't have Mississippi gardening weather up North, but on the plus side, we don't have Mississippi weather.

Alexe showing yet? :)
*hugs n kisses!*

Compare & Contrast

2007-05-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Jim spent a lot of the weekend in the attic, all sweaty & hot... and hooked up the ductwork for the hood! Yay Jim!

Before

After

I say, it's coming along nicely, eh old fruit?

Hi Kittens :)

2007-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

How is everyone doing? I'm working a lot, & I've been cranky, which turned out to be helped a lot by a deep cleaning of the house. I spend a lot of time in here, and when my house is not in order, it affects my mood. Evidently. :)

Naughty Romni! Watch where you throw that thing, I mean, just look at Caesar's feet! :)

Two of these things... are not where they should be...

Glorious Sunset, April 30th.

This photo has not been retouched in any way.

Cabinets going in...

2007-04-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Mmm, photos are worth a thousand words.
What do you think? :)

Mmm, Island hood. Mmm, new ceiling.

2007-04-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Mmm, new ceiling. Note also the hood, which was a royal pain to level.

Mmm, the hood. those post-its were to help me level it, and say things like "low" or "high" or "good". Those two little ones under the lip say "No!" because the power is ON but the blowers are NOT vented to the outdoors yet. So, no touchy. You'll never guess who turned one on by accident and got dust all over the island a couple days ago ;)

Oh & while there was no island under it, William walked right into the corner making a beeline for the sink. Then he told me about it later, and he was pointing at the corner he walked into, and there was a little sprout of hair stuck to it! CSI Vermont! My response? "You better not have knocked it out of level! - I mean, are you OK?" :)

My goodness, you look familiar. Have we met before?

Seriously, you even smell familiar.

Didn't I murder you the other night?

Well shoot, I guess I'll have to do it again later.

Now, how to knock this over...

The floor goes in...

2007-04-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's adorable Kagan, the way you think Natalie might want to help with annoying kitchen remodeling tasks. How amusing. =)

She did help a little bit with the rip out.

New 1/4 inch subfloor... We did NOT do our own floor, that was done by a nice guy named Randy that subs for Main Street Flooring in Essex. They were pretty good even though there was a giant delay in getting samples and thus it set everything else back, that's not really their fault.

Long view of the subfloor

Mmmmm, blue. This is a really nice floor y'all will see when you visit, and not at all too dark because the light bounces all around the cabinets and counters and doesn't have a chance to get sucked up by the floor. Which I polished until it shines like the top of the Chrysler building.

Grrr.

Grrrrrrrr.

Yikes.

What we've been up to :)

2007-04-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Some ceiling tiles in place! Kevin and Jim started it, we hired Kevin to take down the old tiles and do a bunch in the middle, then Jim and I finished up about the last third. And the part around the hood, which was tricky. :)

Naughty kitty, helping hold down that little stack of tiles.

Jungle kitty! This beautiful amaryllis bloomed (I have photos of that too), then was mysteriously broken off in the night. It *was* leaning, but this kitty likes to sit in the pot so I can't help but be suspicious. (It's in a vase now.)

No more cooktop!

No more island!

Mmm, linoleum from 1972.

Whoah, Yech! (cute doggy though!)

Yep, nothing left but the sink at this point (this was wed night very late of last week, 4/11.) As it turns out, not having a sink like just the last few days is *very* annoying.

Next, the new floor! :)

Kitchen Demolition Derby

2007-04-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

March 18th.

Several Days Later...

Aww, the Peeps. :)

The white & black kitty is Chadwick, Romni's nice cat.

(as opposed to Max, the other one.)

No crappy hood over the island...

No ceiling over the island...

Natalie's (other) birthday party :)

Mock up of the new island. Jim is testing out our mock rangetop.

New cabinets AND floor are in, pics over the weekend!

Natalie's Birthday Blanket

2007-04-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Natalie's birthday party.
Mama stole the show with her fah-bu-lous birthday blanket, made of scraps of many of Natalie's pajama pants. What a lovely brand new heirloom! :)

The partygoers

The cake, which was covered in saran wrap with candles poked through. Ha HA, NO GERMS! =)

Mama's beautiful blanket, installed.

Susan's most excellent Adobo Chicken recipe

2007-03-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Peeps, sorry it's been so long - we're wrapped up in getting the kitchen ripped out and replaced. I've taken lots of pics to post, but 'til then here is a delicious recipe that Susan made for us that was so yummy I got the recipe from her and made it for Natalie's birthday. (Natalie had pork fried rice, too.) Mama wanted the recipe, so here it is. Note I doubled the onions and used more legs, probably about 30+.

Susan's Chicken Adobo:

* 2 large onions
* About 20 chicken drumsticks. You could use wings also, but there's more meat on the legs.
* a bay leaf

* cup water
* cup soy sauce
* cup vinegar. Susan uses 1/4 cup cider and 3/4 cup rice vinegar, vary to taste.
(Use equal portions of the liquids. Depending on how large a batch you are making the amount can be varied.)

Slice & cook the onions in a large fry pan w/Pam or a little oil until softened. Meanwhile, skin the drumsticks. (If you don't skin them, eat a lot less of them, and if you are using a crock pot you definitely want to skin them). Add a bay leaf to the fry pan, and brown the legs in the onions. If you are doing a lot, transfer the onions to a separate dish, then brown the chicken in small batches with a portion of the onions and transfer each batch to the crock pot or a braising pan as you finish browning them. Add the liquids to the crock pot or braising pan when you are done browning, and cook on a crock pot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. If cooking in a regular pot, cook for about 45 minutes to an hour on low. The chicken is done when the tendons snap.

So delicious, it can't be described by reading the ingredient list alone, you have to try it. =)

Happy Valentines Snow Day!

2007-02-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

OK this has been the MOST snow I've ever seen all at once.
We went out and played in it last night, and you can't really tell from the photos but it is waist deep. Higher on Romni. We got 38 inches yestersay, and we already had probably a foot an a half.

The deck around 4 wed. Note you can still see the wood of the picnic table..

6:00 PM

Fondue for dinner, note how interested Griffin is. She leaaaned over and bothered us all dinner. :)

8:30 PM

Almost midnight

The next morning.

The deck from the upstairs bathroom

The bird garden. That lump next to the bird house is a 3 foot tall birdbath. These would be awful days to stop feeding the birds. Awesomeness: we've had some cardinals for several days!

The trail out to the chickens that Natalie, Romni, William, Caesar and I made last night. It was exhausting and we had to carry poor Caesar, even the trail we were pushing was 2 feet deep over his head. They'll need water today, I'm thinking about snowshoes.

The cars. That's a pontiac Vibe behind a Volkswagon Golf on the right, and a Plymouth Neon on the left, in case you can't tell. In the middle, the detritus from William driving over on a limping Snowmobile, plus Natalie and Romni and I playing King of the Mountain. Romni fights dirty, but she's easy to toss around. :)

How to propose to Natalie

2007-02-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

Natalie apparently laid down the "rules" for proposing over dinner at Chili's. Here are the "notes" William took, on his beer coaster :)

We Love our Wii!

2007-02-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

It's 1:00 AM, Jim and I should sooooo be in bed, but Caitlin has *finally* found an application for her favorite fight-move ever: the windmill.

Flail arms in a rotating motion, like pasties tassels at a cabaret. Repeat.
Jim remarks that I'm sure doing a lot of killing to all that air.
"The grass, too!" I point out with smug satisfaction.

The Wii manual says that I can roll the nunchuck (left handheld, which is attached to the right-hand remote by a cable) side-to-side while swinging the right-hand remote back and forth to effect a spinning sweep attack.
Windmill!

I windmill so vigorously, I pull the cables between my handhelds taut. Little shop of horrors biting plants explode before they can come up out of the tall grass. Swamp goblins and flying bats and rats explode in flashes of light. I mow the tall grass flat. Instead of turning on my lantern, I windmill down long dark tunnels, holding down the Z-key to auto-target enemies. I beat the walls and the floor and the lighting fixtures and the ever-present grass clumps.

Jim sighs in disgust at my complete lack of finesse.
Ha HA! Am I enjoying this game targeted at probably thirteen-year-olds? Hell yeah! Is my horse name a dirty euphemism? Darn Straight!

"Oh hi Caitlin, I washed [euphemism] for you." Coos the girl at the lake, whom I can tell by the lighting and music and her giant eyelashes that my big-eyed extra manly teen character is sweet on.
Ahh, now that's how you play the game. :)

Thanks Kagan & Alexe, I know we've been awful about thank-you notes, but we really are enjoying it. Thank you notes are in the works for everyone, I swear!

More Arisia Pics

2007-01-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Setting up the fabric on the walls. I heard this was very static-y and folks arms were going numb from unrolling the fabric. I was in the other room, setting up the bridge.

The bar. It was lit up from within by a black light, upholstered in black PVC, and had a clear panel in the top so the drinks would glow. We put B vitamins in the lemonade so it glowed in black light. There was a blinking blue rope light clipped to the edges - Andy & Carla did an amazing job on the bar. The rocket ship tip jar was mine. :)

The bridge starts getting set up.

Jim tests out the captain chair. That chair was already in the room :)

Happy Workers.

The bridge all set up. The Luke Skywalker guy seemed really nice, we invited him friday while he was dressed up as Luke and he said 'Oh I'll put this back on & come to the party, absolutely.'

"Send a warning shot across their bow, ensign."

Hot Morgan, looking hot.

Hot Morgan, cracking a smile. The geeks were *so* geeky this year, someone managed to notice that her badge rank (Lt Commander Skank) did not quite match her outfit. =)

Door guards, in the hallway. Note that their expressions have not changed.

Commander Skank. Soooo cute! We totally forgot about the cape I made though :(

Room before the lights go out

See the bar there, glowing, to the right?

Romni had glowing wires.

Dancing fools

Some guy we let in right away.

Morgan's outfit friday night, just had to post it. :)

OK just one for tonight. :)

2007-01-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

The bouncers prepare to stand guard.

Arisia Pics Begin! :)

2007-01-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

OK here is a hand-drawn attempt at what the suite layout was, followed by a "before" pictorial. OK here is a hand-drawn attempt at what the suite layout was, followed by a "before" pictorial.

The big suite room. This is the pointy corner to the right, and right after I snapped this photo Natalie got a brilliant idea. Note that All these photos were taken in about a minute, and Natalie had to *race* to get in front of me. :)

Same corner, panning right.

Panning more right. The little bar and you can see the outside door to the hallway to Natalie's right.

The hallway to the bedrooms, this is to the left of where Natalie was in the last photo.

The king room. This is where we put all the beds from the double room plus all our stuff.

The king bathroom. Very nice, but a tiny mirror in an alcove so there was fighting over it at makeup time.

Double bedroom, where the bridge ended up.

Little hallway to small bathroom.

A better pic of the little hallway.

Small bathroom.

Photos of party to follow. This post took an hour. :(

Dragon Puzzle

2007-01-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

Arisia pics are not ready for posting yet. We had a great time though - and the best party at the place. Yay!

Here's Natalie's Christmas dragon puzzle the whole family worked on Christmas evening, 'cept you missing members. :) It took several days after to complete - and poor Mama insisting on doing the edges first found that the edge pieces mostly did not interlock and needed the inside pieces to be connected. It was hard to get a picture of *just* the puzzle, and it was slightly messed up each morning by that little devil in the photographs. He also completely ravaged the flower garden puzzle Natalie got from Papa.

Arisia here we come!

2007-01-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is Arisia weekend, wish us luck.
The invites for our party, front and back.
I hear the cutting out (which I delegated) was terrible. :)

Pictures will follow.
Kisses to you all! :)

Caitlin's Creche for Mama

2007-01-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Oof, finally I managed to post all these pictures - somehow it just won't let me do more than 5, I've been trying for days - by making two drafts and pasting the first draft into the second. HA!

Look at the itty bitty creche figures! These took a LOOOONG time to make Mama! :)
These were made with lots of love and a little frustration.

More Christmas!

2007-01-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

The weather Christmas day

Mama opens Caitlin's first creche item: the lamb.
Full photo shoot of the entire creche to follow. :)

The lamb. She was the first one I made.

Caitlin says: "finally you naughty Vitamix you are mine!"

Sweetie gets a present! :)

More Christmas Pics

2007-01-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

Caesar loves Squidward

Balthazar is verrrry interested in Jim's bird book that makes bird sounds.

Christmas 2006 :)

2007-01-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve:

The chickens are restless. :)

Our lovely tree

The tree creature

Natalie will be *extra* attractive to William in this!

Aww, matching PJs :)

William is wearing moose underpants too.

Our lovely tree! :)

2006-12-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Note that we paid for this tree, and did not steal it. I will post another picture when its dark so the lights show better.

Look at all the presents! :)

What a nice Birthday!

2006-12-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

I had a lovely birthday.

Birthday eve became birthday a little after midnight and we were still up, so Jim gave me the present that he had wandered down with the other day (a cardboard box) and started wrapping in birthday paper. I was all "Who is that for and why are you using birthday paper"? & he just looks at me and I say "HEY!" and he cracks up and says I *thought* you'd like that. Well there were a selection of dry-erase markers in all the colors of the rainbow which is *awesome!* I thought no one was going to get me any after William asked for suggestions & I suggested those and Jim got all mad because he was going to get them for me.

Then I went to bed and slept and got up for the rest of the birthday.

I slacked off all day - mailed some gifts, worked on some other gifts, hung out at the chicken pen a little. I did a tiny amount of work to fix something easy.

Jim came home early and brought me food of vietnam for lunch, by which point I was reaaaally hungry. Then I slacked off some more while Jim cleaned up the house all Sweetie-like.

William showed up with a hand-delivered bouquet of flowers. Awww! :)

Carla showed up around 3 something and we hung out talking about what our Arisia decorations will look like and looking up pictures of the star trek bridge. Jim went out to get food of thailand and Andy showed up too, just before Jim came back with the foods and me and Jim and Natalie and William and Carla and Andy ate up piles of thai food. Birthday of Asian delicacies, yay! :)

At some point Jim was over at the counter secretly frosting the cake he baked earlier, which came out really nice! Yellow with brown - my favorite.

There were presents from Mommy & Papa - thank you for the flower & pretty crystal rock - I love gardeny things!

We all played rat-a-tat cat which I lost miserably in 5 rounds - doubled Jims score and was the overall loser. Then I demanded the presents Jim was holding on to, and here's where it really got fun.

********
Jims first present came with the comment "No one ever checks those Amazon wish lists. Well I checked yours and got you something from it." Which was a CD which turned out to be some sort of Arabic yodeling. (Ayre). We laughed and laughed and kept waiting to hear which track made me put this CD on my wishlist. We haven't heard that one yet.

Jims next present was -yay- a game! Tiny mens to kill! I opened it up and went "HEEEYYY! are you just trying to FORCE me to upgrade to XP?" and Jim was affronted "No! read the box! - it will work on Windows 2000!" So I was all suspicious for no reason.

Finally Jim gives me a lovely card with sentiments in it, and I'm reading the nice prose about how old I was when we met, and how old I was when we started going out, and how old when we got married, and how he can't wait to see what happens next. All suspicious from before I say "this is a little creepy. Like stalking." Jim protests "It *can't* be creepy, we're *married!* Are you going to read the other side out loud?

And I wailed "But I wasn't sure if that was some sort of naughty euphemism and I shouldn't read it out loud!" And Jim's says "What??? How could it be?"

The right hand part has a single line:

"Wanna make some toast?"

...

Jim pointed out I've been complaining about the toaster a lot and for my birthday I may order that heirloom-quality blue one I've been looking at. That it's NOT some sort of dirty slogan :)

But when I drifted downstairs to look up toasters Jim was astounded at the prices of the models I liked - the models he'd been looking at were the "lite" model by the same manufacturer which are already very expensive.

So we compromised - they have 2 slot and 4 slot models which are extremely expensive, but on Amazon the 3-slot toaster is much less expensive than either the 2 or 4. (Plus there was a coupon.)

Nobody wants to make a prime number of toast!!!

It's my Birthday and I'll Blog if I want to!

2006-12-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well hello campers, geez it's been ages! I'm sooooo busy! :(
Nevermind that, I'll now post all the things I've been thinking of posting for the last month.

First: Our second snow. Pics from Dec 12th. The first snow was just a couple inches and it melted before I got to take pictures. I was sure this one would stick:

But no, it didn't stick.

Second: LOOK at it LOOK at it I've been making presents and not being able to post them because people could SEE them!

I made this little guy for Sarah, isn't he the cutest??? He's a Wallace and Gromit bunny ornament!

(I lightened the bunny for you Mommy!)

Whoah!

2006-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

I just got out of a three hour meeting. That's a three hour *phone* meeting. And you know what? It was the slickest thing ever. There were 4 people in the meeting which was run as a class for the first two hours. We all call a 1-800 number and connect to the audio portion in a regular-old conference call. Then, we all connect to a web site (gotomeeting.com) with the link we were sent in an email yesterday.

And presto, we can all see the presenter's desktop, where he pops around to different slides and waves at stuff with the cursor while talking about it. One of the guys is somewhere down South, the rest of us are in Vermont, all connected to each other through this super nifty technology. I mean, c'mon - a cross-country meeting of minds, and no one had to catch my COLD.

I was better, then over Thanksgiving I caught Aisha's cold. Triple damn!!!
Thanksgiving was very nice except it seemed really short. We only saw the parents thursday and a little on friday morning. We only saw Steve & John & Lori and the kids for about 4 hours on friday until they all went to the tree lighting ceremony in Burlington, which Jim & I were not really up for. Nancy and Aisha stayed until Saturday morning which was nice to see them for a little while. We played Rat-a-tat cat which Natalie picked up also and likes very much. It's for ages 6 and up so anyone should be able to play.

The turkey was very tasty. We missed Kagan.

Sunday Romni swung by and admired our attempts at bathroom remodeling. We were distressed to discover that the existing fan vented - wait for it - directly into the attic *insulation*. Not even all the way up into the attic. The awesome new fan Jim installed is whisper quiet and moves so much air it's pretty cold coming out of the shower... if you don't turn on the included hot air blower. Pretty sweet.

Monday (yesterday) We saw Morgan, who drove all the way up from Rutland to hang out with us and enjoyed the Mussamam beef curry I made (with ingredients from importfoods.com) so much that she ate more of it instead of dessert, and called me today for the recipe. Apparently it was very very tasty, but alas I could not really taste it. I will have to make it again when I have kicked this cold too. Which is a puny cold, nothing like that last one, I don't even have a fever HA!
We played some rat-a-tat cat with Morgan and watched a movie that had a pretty good twist ending that she slept through. And didn't believe us that there was a twist ending.

Anyway back to getting some work done. Check out this site I've been updating lately (I also designed the entire thing a couple years ago) - it's mostly current and coming right up too. This is a fun festival to go to. VIF

PS I love Kagans new blog - but he posts so often it begs the question, to whom was he making all these commentaries before? :)

OK So I've been Sick...

2006-11-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah so I was sick practically forever. It started right after our *super* awesome Halloween party, the one where the power was out. We didn't tell anyone the power was out in case they wouldn't have come then (well, except Morgan because she had to sleep over and it wouldn't be fair to at least not warn her.)

I had been cleaning all week so that I wouldn't have to clean all day Saturday and be exhausted for the party. Jim stretched out on the couch after breakfast, looked around and declared "Well, I can't vacuum without power, and it's too dark to sweep." He looked all pleased with himself while I swear I went supersonic.

So we cleaned in the stormy half-light of a Vermont wintery afternoon, lit a ton of little LED candles in party favor plastic pumpkins that threw no light at all, and real candles that did. Then we went over to William's farmhouse (leaving Susan and Keving holding down the fort) to cook beef stew and cornbread for our impending guests. We showered at Williams (thank *goodness*), came home and Jim filled 5 gallon buckets for toilet flushing purposes. Guests were met at the door by Susan hollering "If it's yellow let it mellow!!!", and "Oh yeah, welcome..." And we really had a wonderful party. There was no music or much light, but lots of libations and conversation.

And, not that Sunday but the following monday, all that wine and getting dressed in the cold caught up with me and I fell ill. I didn't go to Sarah's for Halloween to give out candy, instead I watched one of the vampire movies we had rented to have as background ambiance at the party. I felt miserable monday, worse tuesday, OK enough to visit Papa on his birthday wednesday, and just downhill from there.
Finally, a week later (last monday) I went to the doctor.

This pleasant looking kid with Drew Carey glasses walks into the little hospital cell.

Me "_You_ are the doctor? You don't look a day over 28 to me."

Dr "Yes I'm the doctor. I am far, far older than 28.
I am 30. So no one can call me the young guy around the place anymore."

Me "Only I'm 31 and when someone younger than me has a doctorate, it makes me feel like maybe I was slacking off."

Dr "Maybe you're a slacker. Did you ever think of that?"

Me: "Hey I have my degrees, they're just in Computer Science so I don't have to deal with people."

Dr: "That's good thinking. People Suck."

... we talk about my symptoms for a bit.

Dr: "Do you smoke?"

Me: "Hells no! It makes you smell bad, and it's bad for your health, and worst of all, it's expensive!"

Dr: "So far you're giving me all the right answers. Would you mind going out in the waiting room and yelling out those things?"

Me: "Well, if those people haven't already heard all that they just aren't listening."

Dr: "Yes, well sometimes a voice of authority, such as coming from the elder in the room..."

Me (Smacks Dr in elbow) "Hey!"

... we have a lively conversation about more stuff all about me

Dr: "You have a cold."

Me: "Well I told the girl at the desk when I called that I have a cold and asked if they had a cure for it yet, and she told me I should come in!"

Dr: "Yes, they're trained by the people who count the beans to do that. You're going to have this cold for 1 to 3 weeks..."

Me: (wailing) "3 weeks!!!"

Dr: "What are you doing for it now?"

Me: "I'm sleeping as much as I can, taking lots of vitamins, plus elderberries in honey and grapefruit seed extract."

Dr: "That's all good, keep doing that. Herbal remedies probably help and they can't hurt."

Me: "Can I do anything else?"

Dr: "Yes, do you know about those neti pots for rinsing out your sinuses? Go get one of those or make one out of a detergent squirt bottle... those pop tops fit perfectly in a nostril. Then you lean over the sink and squirt saline into your nose... of course it makes a terrible mess and it's more for my amusement than anything else..."

And that's how I came to smack the Doctor.
Just a little.
But he really really deserved it.
:)

Vanity, thy name is Natalie.

2006-10-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, use my mascara without permission. Rub stolen lipstick all over your face. That's really sanitary that is, and it's a great color on you. NOT! :)

Caitlin's Garden 2006

2006-10-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully I'll do better next year... I say that every year!
I never got my tomatoes staked and had to pick them off the ground. I had a ton of cucumbers but didn't pickle any. And my giant tower of beans made a lot of beans, but not as many as I would have expected for such a looming structure. Next year maybe bean teepees. What's left of my entire crop of delicious turnip-shaped carrots is in the fridge in a bag - I had to pick them all because deer were. We ate some and they were delicious. The deer have moved on the the beets, which I guess I care less about. Not my carrots! :)

Pirate Doggy!

2006-10-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just the cutest doggy ever! He hardly minds the torture he's put through, I swear!

Pics from the Tunbridge Fair

2006-10-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Our first trip to the Tunbridge Fair.
Boy that dumb-looking woman in front of Mommy and Papa ruined the picture, but I cut her out, which helps a little. :)

Devil Chicken! This is a polish chicken. The farmer said they're real bastards, but after he keeps one in a cage by itself for a few months it calms down a fair amount. (!) Then he reached in to pull one out so I could see up close and the thing practically took his arm off. Look, Devil horns! Anyway, perhaps despite their coll hairdo, a breed of chicken that wants to kill me may not be the one for me.

Desk Decor :)

2006-10-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

While searching for some guitar music in one of our many bookshelves this weekend, Jim came across a little clump of desk decor that I had up around my desk before I started painting the office. I thought I'd share :)

Click this to see it bigger. Totally worth it. :)

Happy Birthday Alexe!

2006-10-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Alexe! Kagan better get you nice presents and pamper you even extra, after making you sleep in a truck bed for a month with no running water!
I believe (Happy Wife = Happy Life) and I should think the inverse would be true as well. *kisses&love!*

So Saturday morning I wake up, crawl over and curl up pretty much _on_ Jim, wrap my arms around his neck...

Me: "tell me you love me!"
Jim: "I love you."

Me: "Whisper me sweet nothings!"
Jim: (thinks for a minute) ... "Frequently, you smell nice."

Me: (screeching) "HEY! That means that SOMETIMES I SMELL BAD!"
Jim (smug as can be) "Well that's what you get on a command performance."

And now, for your viewing pleasure, photographic evidence of us muuuurdering chickens. The extra roosters - not the pet birds. Thank Natalie for the unauthorized paparazzi presence. Through the kitchen window - we had no idea. :)

Talk Like a Pirate!

2006-10-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

I promised myself I would figure out my new camera and make dozens of posts of the stuff we've been up to - the week in cape cod, Carla & Andy's Pirate Party, the FIRST EGGS from our hens (sorry we ate those, no pics :) ) Harvest Market, New flower beds, Kagan & Alexe's Cabin-inna-woods... but I haven't figured out getting pictures off of it yet. Or how to use the fax machine either. But here's to cheatin' - pics taken by our new pirate mates after giving us our new pirate names (not our fault) on our pirate day outing. I daresay we were a lot of scalliwags, though Jim n I had by far the least rum!

Pirate Fookinandy

Pirate Bazoom

Well, I didn't die, so Here's a post. :)

2006-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

I guess most of my readers should already know that I had a close encounter with the medical staff at Fletcher Allen at the end of July - a burst ectopic tubal pregnancy that almost killed me. *surprise!* Even though it would probably have been an easier diagnosis if we had known ahead of time, Jim and I are glad we didn't know because we didn't have to go from "Yay we're having a baby" to "Shoot it died and almost killed me!". Instead we went basically from "Yeah medical people, let's not congratulate me until we figure out what's wrong" to "Dude, in retrospect, let's name it Damien."

Anyway I have mixed feelings about the whole hospital visit - while they did technically save my life, it took them about 9 hours to figure out what was wrong with me before surgery, and my GOD the sonogram lady was bitchy about being called in at 3 am. When I told Peach that he said I should've said "Geez I'm so _sorry_, next time I'll try to DIE at a more convenient hour." :) Anyway the lady in the ambulance had already called ectopic pregnancy while they were loading me up. I wonder if they have a private pool & someone calls the next day to find out who was right.

I've heard from a few friends that the St Albans hospital really has it together, and being a non-teaching hospital has more actual staff on hand. I wasn't really shopping for medical options at the time though. "Yes, I'd like to see your quote and that of a few competitors.. what? This isn't Geiko?" Still I am not dead, so FAHC did alright in my book. Well, specifically the xray guy, the first doctor, and the surgeon. Some of the other folks over there I am neutral on, and that ultrasound tech gets an F for bedside manner. Plus, we have decided that passing out = hospital right away, just for future reference.

So I've been gimping around for a week and a half, with little cuts and huge bruises that are starting to be tender now, where they weren't really before. Mama came up last week & cleaned *everything*, then left because I was getting too mouthy. :) (Oh Mama that bread mix rose fine with new yeast, so I think it was just old and Amazon or their vendor did us a disservice sending us aged Hodgeson Mills products.) I thought I'd spare you the photograph I have of my internal organs, unless I get some requests. Instead, here is a picture of our other demon child - Balthazar. :)

(one of these things is not where it should be)

Eww, doggie kisses!

2006-07-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Picture of the day: Natalie gets some loving, about a month ago while Andrea was still visiting. Andrea! We miss you! You two need to kiss and make up, just like Caesar and Natalie are right here.

*poke* the weasels! =)

Oh, the Hair-manity! :)

2006-07-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Jim & Steve and John went down to North Carolina a few months back to bring up the contents of their Moms storage locker to her so she could stop paying monthly storage fees. Well Jim got some dulcimer-making supplies that his dad had bought, and his Mom promised to send up the plans if she could find them as she sorted through the piles of stuff.

Yesterday JimE got a box of tidbits that his Momma thought he might enjoy - trinkets from Korea we can't identify, a yellowed news article about him working at the cider press in West Newbury... and this undated yet clearly amazing homage to the eighties.

Yay! :)

Pretty Kitty - Naked Belly!

2006-07-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

The kitties are doing much better now, to our enormous relief. They still have lost their voices, so when they try to meow Morgan is completely silent and Griffy squeaks like a mouse, but they are sooo much perkier, hungry (for the soft, non throat-scratching food), lovey and much much better. Poor guys.

Anyway, now that Morgan has had a sonogram (to find he was 100% empty and had not swallowed string) his naked little belly has led to a new, very dangerous game around here. You stroke the kitty once starting at his head and going all the way down his back, whispering "Pretty Kitty", which is what we always tell him, but then you alternate this with tickling the naked belly while chirping "naked belly!"

*Swish swish* goes the tail. So far, no one's been mauled playing this game, but no one has dared to play it more than 30 seconds straight, either. :)

In other news,

raspberries that Alexe helped me plant are ripening, not very many but I can see them out the office window and I keep ducking out there after work to eat a few yummy berries. Yay!
The beans twined around the string trellis I put up sunday... by monday morning. Jim called this "creepy".
I have been very uncomfortable in the hot hot work room (vermont is experiencing a heat wave in the 90s and most of us aren't set up to handle that sort of thing), and Jim set up that portable heater slash AC unit in the office for me today, which I actually turned on despite the cost and it's helping a little.
I'm making a new flower bed out back against the house. Natalie and Will dug a hole near the house for my plastic pond I had at Green Street. Natalie said: you should bury the pond! I'll dig the hole! ... an hour later we've got the pond in the ground, dumped in the pond buckets with water hyacinth & we're standing next to it going huh... OK now there's a big hole. Maybe we should have slept on that. :)
Anyway, it's full of little frogs. FULL. There must be 20 of them in there, I have no idea how they found it (it's about 3 by 4 feet) but if you walk out next to it on the (brown, crispy, weed-whacked in preparation for making a flower bed) grass 5 or 6 jump back into the water. And at night, while we're sleeping, we hear little froggy noises. It's really wonderful. :)

Kitty update + flower pics

2006-07-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from my third morning spent at the vets.
I dropped Griffin off at the vet this morning on my way by with Morgan headed for a sonogram in Essex (my vet doesn't have sonogram & the xrays didn't show anything). Griffin was in a good mood but still gagging this morning so I had to bring her in. In the car she usually yowls bloody murder and this time she could barely squeak, so I knew she must have a very sore throat. So a sonogram of Morgan and poking and prodding of Griffin later, Morgan is empty - he didn't eat any string. They both have very inflamed sore throats and must have shared something very bad that Balthazar and Caesar did not get into at all. Racking my brains I can't figure out what, but the doc gave them a steroid shot to bring down the soreness and we'll give them pills when they feel a little better. I only wish I could figure out what they got into to make sure they can't do it again. At least no surgery for Morgan, which is a big relief.
*whuff* :(

On a lighter note, here are some pictures of the biggest scarlet monarda (bee balm) ever! If Jim looks a little wacky, it's probably because he didn't *want* to be used as a ruler. :)

Progress on the Office!

2006-07-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of the office in progress. It's coming along!

On a worried note, Morgan is at the kitty hospital right now because he is very sick with heaving and not eating or drinking. The doc says the xrays showed big gas areas but no foreign objects that Morgan might have eaten. Then, last night Griffin started to feel bad, barfing a little all night - but I think she is sick from being a pig and eating a big pile of catnip and then a bowl of oil on tuna which was meant to help Morgan pass a hairball, not as a one-cat treat.

Anyway, I'm very worried. :(

Natalie the Debate Team Captain.

2006-07-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Caitlin (to deck slaves): "All that grass on the deck is Natalie's fault. She mowed AT the deck.

Natalie, from kitchen: "No I didn't. Prove it."

Caitlin (yelling back): "You were the only one who mowed, and there's grass all over the deck!"

Natalie (stuffing face with candy from jar): "Well... you got me."

:) Those deck boys better do a good job - the only reason I hired them is because they underbid on the sanding. I would never have paid good money for painting, which I'm great at - I just didn't want to sand it.

Happy Birthday To JimE!

2006-07-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

How was everyone's weekend?
Oof. :) Kagan got home in 8 hours and 15 minutes tuesday.
That's interesting, because despite Alexe and Kagan travelling up from DC, we spent over 50% as much time in the car as those two youngsters this weekend. Argh.

To Cuttingsville, then Springfield, then back to Underhill, then to Brownsville and back - we spent over 10 hours in the car this weekend. And we *live* in Vermont. :)
That last one wiped us out & we stayed put on the fourth, did a little puttering around the house, had some yummy sandwiches, and went to bed.

by the way everyone,

Happy Birthday to Jim!!!

Awww! ... and not so much :)

2006-06-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Cute when Doggie does it.

Not so much when boy does it. But notice Andrea's kitten, up by the face. :)

Kagan & Alexes Weekend Itinerary UPDATED

2006-06-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my synopsis of Kagans & Alexes AND OUR weekend plans.
It sure sounds like a lot of work if you ask me, and not enough relaxing.
I'll help pick out a cabin spot, but I'm not hauling logs all weekend. =)

(Inexplicable, unremovable white space again, just scroll down...)

Kagan & Alexe	Caitlin & Jim (tentative)	Natalie (guessing)
Friday 6/30 Drive all day, eat whatever feast Mama & Papa offer, go to bed.	Friday 6/30 Work all day, pack for weekend trip.	Friday 6/30 Sleep, hang out
Saturday 7/1 Go to land. 1) Choose a building lot (Caitlin estimates 4 hours) 2) Pick which trees to build with. (Caitlin estimates rest of day.) 3) cookout hotdogs on a fire. :) Camp out or sleep at Mommy & Papa's	Saturday 7/1 Go to Kagan & Alexes land. 1) Watch choosing of a building lot. Complain about bugs. 2) Watch about 5 trees get cut down before getting bored & throwing ball for dogs. 3) cookout hotdogs on a fire. :) Camp out or sleep at Mommy & Papa's	Saturday 7/1 Sleep late. Drive to land and hang out for a little while. Leave to go party.
Sunday 7/2 Cut down trees. Maybe go swimming. Sunday evening at mama and papa's?	Sunday 7/2 Relax, with Kagan and Alexe if they are not cutting down trees with a chainsaw, or at the parents or home if they are. We will need to feed our chickens at some point. Maybe hang out another evening if we can get chicken sitters or Natalie leaves earlier.	Sunday 7/2 Fight all day with William for having to hay instead of doing what Natalie wants.
Monday 7/3 * Pieter van Sheik's party at some point. * Visit the grandparents sleep at mama and papa's Monday night.	Monday 7/3 We were not invited to Pieter's, or to the grandparents. We may head to downtown Burlington for fireworks, don't rightly know.	Monday 7/3 Do fingernails. Bake something and eat it and let William have firsts, but NOT seconds, because he will still be in "the doghouse".
Tuesday 7/4 Drive home	Tuesday 7/4 Book Sale!!! Relaxing! :)	Tuesday 7/4 Hang out with Andrea. Meddle in other people's relationships.

I'm sure you've all read this, but just in case

2006-06-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

I love this poem so much that I will tuck in in here, just in case one of my loved ones hasn't seen it before.

"The Lanyard"
by Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Mystery of the Rare Breed Chicken

2006-06-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that sound like a Nancy Drew title? :)

I have figured out what my rare chick is! They throw a mystery rare chick in with your order at McMurray Hatchery (along with extra roosters evidently) and it turns out that mine is an "Egyptian Fayoumi"! :)

Here is a good picture:

He is the liveliest of all, holds his tail straight up, and swoops in to grab every worm I offer anyone. He also has started trying to crow, and looks rooster shaped although smaller than the others. If I'm right he may stay as small as 4 lbs!

The chicken chart I like says "Precocious scavenger and escape artist. very economical eater; does not like containment; lively; flighty, known for wildness, but varies."

McMurrays says: "These small, active, lovely chickens have been raised along the Nile River in Egypt for centuries, and even though quite common there, are practically unknown in this country. We got our start of this very rare breed from one of the state universities whose poultry department was using them for special studies in genetics. No other breed matures quite so quickly as these do and the young pullets are apt to start laying their small tinted white eggs at 4 to 4-1/2 months while the cockerels will start to crow at an unbelievable 5 to 6 weeks. They are attractively marked with silvery white hackle and white bars on black background throughout the body plumage. Leg color can be either willow green or slate blue. Baby chicks are highly colored in brown, black, and white markings on the back and a brownish purple head color."

As a chick he did have a brown head, the only one who did - and then it came in white, but the whole time I was distracted by the big white chicken who has a hen comb and looks like an eagle, but has started trying to crow so is probably an Auracana male.

Here is McMurray's Fayoumi page: click here

And here are more chicken pics, look how they've grown! :)

Whoah! Happy Father's Day to ME! :)

2006-06-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

So, instead of my giving Papa a nice present, for Father's day he & Mama came up on friday and gave US an *awesome* present! Look at these wonderful desks! I bought paint & will be painting the shelves to go on the brackets this week. Also, I am moving forward with suing the floor people, but because of the ingenious wall-mounted design of these counters I can move into the room while still suing the floor people. Thank you Papa! :) (And thank you Mama for buzzing around and cleaning the whole house while we were working on the shelves - please let me know where you get your "mama's little helpers" for all that energy! :) )

Today:

This kitty will smack at a great Dane, but BEWARE the mini poodle!!! :)
This is my friend Bev's mini poodle named Ozzie, and this is Balthazar upon spotting the menace (plus, there was hissing.)

Mmmm... Potential Energy :)

2006-06-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

Look at the perfect circles!!! The last little one I planted blackberries in a ring, it'll have two little arched entrances and a tiny grass circle inside. Tomatoes in the middle one - they are half in. And dilly bean beans will go into half the big one! :) I am thinking about all you families while I plan extra beans, because I need enough to share!

Five and Eleven! Loooong miserable years :)

2006-06-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Jim's boss sent this in response to his email about leaving a little early today:


Jim,
   Happy Anniversary to you and your Bride.
   You probably need the time off to find a gift so here's a little help..
   I may not be remembering this exactly but the guidelines are something like this ...
       1st yr anniv    Paper
       2nd  yr anniv    Cotton
       3rd yr anniv    Leather
       4th yr anniv    Flowers
       5th yr anniv    New Car
Regards,
John

JimE in a TreE!

2006-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

We lost lots of branches this winter, and a pretty big one was just a hanging down and would not come down from the other branch it had locked wills with. Jim climbed allll the way up the ladder that was a present from Mama and Papa and then into the tree itself to chop both offending branches down. See teeny Jim all the way up there??! :)

Oh and here's a lovely photo of Natalie snuggling with her blender. I stole it - it was on the coffee table - and snapped a digital photo of the print ha HA. I burnt out my rubber blender gear (repair in progress) and have been missing my blender, so this picture is very appropos of the warm feelings between a girl and her blender. :)

Chicken Pics from Last Thursday

2006-05-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Trying to load these *again* =)

Pics won't load, but here there be words =)

2006-05-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Whoah long weekend. We went to Morgan's graduation from police academy on friday, then to Springfield to make a (pretty late) dinner for parental anniversary number 32, then Papa and Jim chatted in the kitchen while Mommy and I watched Natalie's awful backup copy of "The Forty Year Old Virgin", which seemed to be completely edited for time and content, and was still faaaar too vulgar for Mommy. Ha HA! :)

Back home Saturday to stop at Costco for meatballs and to finish cleaning what Natalie missed (but it wasn't too bad she did a nice job) and then cooking to prepare for hosting Morgan's graduation party, but no fire because of all the rain. Natalie has videos of flooded portions of cambridge and jeffersonville - she and Lisa and Andrea were making fake news reports - they would say to the cops "Please can we just drive past the roadblocks to take pictures?" and the cops would say "OK you girls, but don't drive into the water!"

Sunday Jim would have had to drive back to Springfield (well, White River sinc e mommy was so nice as to drive partway) because he forgot his laptop, but we paid Natalie to do it instead and we went to see the Da Vinci Code. It was OK, but didn't move that well and really the Indiana Jones Holy Grail movie was much better. Oh and "The Order" with Heath Ledger did scary secret Church societies much better. And Dogma had the "Jesus's relative" theme already, with the last Scion and all that, even though she wasn't a direct descendant in that movie but a spare cousin or some such... But all in all, this movie has already been done better by other people and the only drama is in the implication that "Ooh, maybe the church covered something up to conserve faith". Mmmm, like child-molesty priests, only *more* scandalous? :) "Ooh, Maybe Jesus was married." Well I don't see why being married would make him NOT divine, any man who has been married can attest to the saintlike patience and fortitude that can require. Oh but Sir Ian McKellan was totally awesome and I can't fault his wonderful performance even a little.

And then we had Thai food with Eve & Rom and Jill and we argued about scary religions, such as Scientology*.

* Scientology is scary to me personally as a personal opinion, no implication is intended that it is scary to anyone else. Although it sure should be.

New Home!

2006-05-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Toooo many chicks! I went to the aubuchons and bought some shavings and a kiddie pool (ripoff!!!) for the babies, which gives them a bit more legroom. I wanted a bigger pool but this one fit in my car. They seem to have stopped eating the shavings, so that's good.

Then I posted on freecycle asking if anyone had a 6 foot one, and someone said he did so I went to get it but it was never six feet - it was the same size as the one I bought. Anyway now I have two and later when they outgrow this one I'll build a bridge so they can be in two. I don't want to separate half of them without a bridge because then I'm making two flocks and they'll fight when they're put back together.

The 8 banties went home with Romni on wednesday, I trust they're doing well.

Doing OK

2006-05-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well Two of the banties died yesterday but they are all doing fine today. I researched online and someone said sometimes they don't know to go to the other side of the box if they are too hot, so maybe that was it and I made them a much bigger box and kept the light far away and they seem OK now.

All the regular chicks are doing great and are very vigorous - they are jumping around and I was down there looking for poopy butts and cleaning them with a wet washcloth - fun - they can die if their butts get clogged. Anyway I put a big yellow one in with the banties to see what he'd do, and he looked around, went "CHEEEP! CHEEEP! CHEEEEP!" and pecked one of the banties. He knew this wasn't where I took him out of - so I stuck him back in with the rest and he was happy.

Look how cute! :)

The chicks are here!

2006-05-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Whoah these little guys are sooo cute! But there's too many! The receipt says they shipped extra red star males for warmth, which I figured out as I tried to count them - there are way more than 25 chicks plus 10 banties in here - I couldn't count while they moved around but maybe from the pictures.

Anyway the banties were too small to reach the food and looked like they might get hurt and while a dark colored chick did die in shipping it doesn't seem to have been a bantie now that I count them). So I put them back in the shipping box with their own food and water.

After watching them all for a while I came upstairs and they started really screaming loudly cheeeeeeeep! cheeeeeeeeep! so I went to check what was wrong and their lights were plugged into a light socket that turned off with the switch, so it had gotten all dark and they were upset. I switched outlets and now it's all good.

ARGH the photos won't load, I'll post them in a little while. =)

Note - one of the little ones is probably not going to make it - it looks all broken and keeps it's head arched back and keeps convulsing. Maybe the others trampled it. Good thing I separated the little ones from the bigger ones or they'd all be goners!

Magical Moment

2006-04-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today I had a wonderful experience. A nuthatch ate from my hand!

I was bringing out a suet cake to the red star, which was empty. The square cake was still in the plastic container but I had taken the outer label off. I was about 4 feet from the tree and a little nuthatch was forlornly picking at the empty star. She saw the suet I was carrying and evidently recognized it and wanted some, because she started flitting back and forth from branch to branch in the tree, but not flying away as I crept closer and sloooowly lifted my hand up the the closest branch... she flitted over to a twig and leeeaned over and I could feel her *peck peck pecking* the top of the suet cake. I was completely enchanted. I held very still but she flipped upside down and hung from the twig (like they do) and tried to peck the *side* of the cake, which of course meant she was pecking the hard plastic case it came in. I tried to gently tilt it, but she got spooked and jumped to a further branch. I waited, then when she wouldn't come back over I went ahead and put it in the star, and then she took off. Isn't that amazing??? :)

On a related note, we have a nesting pair of nuthatches in our tool shed. There's a chipmunk hole in the top right of the shed and I noticed a big pile of leaves up in the rafter but didn't think about it until yesterday, when Jim and I spent about an hour or so sitting on the deck with binoculars (we each had a pair), watching the two nuthatches pop in and out of the hole in the shed, and also show up with green things and beat them (audibly) on the roof of the shed for a while before bringing them inside. As I approach the shed to get something, a nuthatch runs up and down the tree trunk nearby, which makes a little scratching noise and seems like an agitated reaction. I try to get away as fast as I can. We're wondering how long we can let the lawn grow without having to get the (riding) lawn mower out of the shed!

JimE is gone for a week to a work convention and then meeting up with his brothers to finally empty out their Mom's storage unit and bring the stuff back up to Marion. We went to Dave's birthday party last night and despite trying very hard to leave at a reasonable hour, Jim's flight was at 7 am this morning so he got a miserably small amount of sleep and better go to bed early tonight. I miss him already! But as a nice distraction, the chickens come this week and I just finished building the brooder base today, galvanized grid wire over a wood frame to sit in a plastic bin. Chicken pics will be posted when I have any! :)

Cute Animals! :)

2006-04-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Awwww!... and Ewwww! :)

Progress!

2006-04-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well I have lots of cute kitty pics to post - but let's start with what I've been slaving over: the office. It is now a startling shade of green, with a caramel ceiling ("flan", actually). Papa is working on the built-in desk for the back wall (I think), but here is how it is so far.

And Kagan and Alexe are in India right now and I hope they are safe and enjoying the famous bathroom facilities.

So many choices!

ceiling's done!

Maybe a little greener than I thought, but look ,it glows in sunlight! :)

I bet you're all wondering...

2006-04-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

How's my butt? :)
Well, good news, while it was *very* tender for the first few days, basically whenever moving in any way or also sitting still (so bite me Natalie, 'cause your needles don't require an xray to get them right next to your *bones*) it seems to have helped. Knock on wood. The tenderness from the shot has mostly dissipated, and now I have only the slightest of tenderness in my tailbone region, every now and then. Of course I'm coddling it like it's a calcium-deficient DDT egg, but all the same I had been in an increasing amount of pain lately, and now it seems a lot better. Not to jinx it or anything.

Plus temperatures are in the high 60s! Look at the kitty, checking out the smells of Spring! (the hole in the screen, if you can see it, is because Skeff the Great Dane got tired of being on the porch on Saturday night during Adam's birthday party, reared up on his hind legs, and busted the screen out of the door with a large bang! that scared everyone in the kitchen half to death. Frank was outside trying to get the screen back in the door and telling the dog "Uh-Oh!", which had the dog looking all worried and sheepish. So we knew about "Nothing here for dogs!" and "lay down!" and "eat your kibbles!" but "Uh-Oh" is new. =) )

Shot in the Ass!

2006-04-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

Today was a very bad day. Let me essplain - no there is too much. Let me sum up.
I went to the pain center (in Burlington), which Jim drove me to because part of the deal is that I must bring a driver. Of course I was all worked up and stressed out over getting this done - they thought a shot of steroids might help with my lower back (butt) pain from that time I fell down the stairs and it still hurts two years later. I go in & they put me on a table and xray my butt to see exactly where the needle goes in and swab it and put in a local anesthetic and give me a squishy grenade stress ball to squeeze because I'm really starting to freak out and shoot me in the ass with a big needle and I'm going "ow ow ow ow!" but it wasn't as bad as, say, a bee sting and then they're done and I'm unbelievably stressed out. This is all right at the coccyx so right at the top of the butt crack.

So the doctor's like "see, we barely go in there" pointing at the monitor and I'm like "that's three inches deep! That better be magnified!" which it was. I'm so stressed out the nurse won't let me cross the hall she puts me in a wheelchair and wheels me over to a different room and goes to get Jim. So Jim wanders in singing Bonjovi - "Shot in the ass, and it's too late, darling you give looove - a bad name!"
So we leave and if anything weird happens like I get a fever or anything I'm to call back right away. In a few days after a possible flare up of pain, this may block all the pain I've been feeling. But it's been VERY STRESSFUL!

On the plus side, we stopped in at Mr G's to wander around and take my mind off it, and they get all the costco returns so I got very excited finding work shirts and pants for Jim for less than half the *costco* price. Stuff we've liked enough to pay the full costco price, such as a silk hawaiian shirt that was $20 for about $7. Very awesome.

And look at this: last night it was pouring snow and we made a fire and fondue from a packet which was not bad, and (I) drank wine & we watched a movie. The great train robbery, with Sean Connery & Donald Sutherland. It was pretty good, a little slower paced than today's heist movies, but fun anyway. Look at the perfect cheese spiral!

And this is for you Alexe, unless that "Anonymous" was Kagan, then it's for Kagan: the yard this morning, on April 5th in Underhill Vermont.

Sometimes it Snows in April

2006-04-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hey, we're due to get 6 to 8 inches of snow today, and it took me almost 50 minutes to get into Essex to meet with the money cherub today. So I hope you are all enjoying your sunny, spring weather in NOT Underhill.

And here's a little history lesson of what it's like living with Balthazar, as evidenced by these two photos of our mantel, from November and again just after an "incident" last week. Click to enlarge if they're too hard to read. =)

Poodle Rampant!

2006-04-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

How do you like the doggie's sexy spring haircut??? :)

Kitty in a plastic sack!

2006-03-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Natalie!

2006-03-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

From us here in the frozen north!

So here was yesterday's happiness.

Compare this to a couple weeks ago:

Sad News

2006-03-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

Well a little while ago we had a big snowstorm, and when Jim went out to check on the chickens, they had all vanished. There was no sign of them inside their enclosure, and no sign of struggle or anything like that. We felt bad, and wondered what happened to them.

Then the snow melted, and Jim went out to look, and he reported that he saw signs of a struggle all right. "What kind of signs?" I wanted to know. "A couple of legs" he elaborated. Eww! Disembodied chicken legs!

So I am sad that the chickens I've suffered to live for several years despite their lack of giving me either eggs or respect have been viciously eaten by something. Probably late at night, crawling through their door (which has been open for two years without harldly any incident.)

Bright side? I get to have new chicks! I'm thinking not all Rhode Island Reds, they are just too nervous for life at Caitlin & Jim's Green Acre. =)

Natalie, I deposited your check yesterday.