Bleah.

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

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!

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

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

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

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 :)

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...

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

Mmm, Island hood. Mmm, new ceiling.

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...

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 :)

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

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!