Thursday, April 29, 2010

You thought school was over?

Me too. I was wrong. I had to sign up for something in addition to my thesis credits this semester to keep my finacial aid, so my advisor suggested I do an independant study for her. Woof. It had proven to be more time consuming than I expected, I'm pretty much making power point presentations from the book "The Power of Plagues" currently I'm working on Tuberculosis, I just finished Syphilis and next on the docket is Leprosy. Like I said Woof. I would way rather be painting and such, even writing the last data set into my thesis.  Anything but this.

I changed a few things on the project list, more photo updates soon but Shannon helped me strip the wallpaper in the dining room and I bought the glass shelf for the bathroom. Time is getting tight it's going to be a busy few days here!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Project Dinning Room

I sucessfully defended my thesis Monday, they passed me I just need to analzye one last set of data before its printed, no big deal.  Tuesday I got to work on the Dinning Room, I've had the wallpaper for about a month and had the paint colors picked out but was being very mature and waiting till my thesis was done. So its done and now I've sanded and painted the trim and have the first coat of paint on the trim.
The interior walls of the china cabinet will be a light tan, below the chair rail will be a tan that is a shade darker than the print of the wallpaper and the trim is the background color of the wallpaper  (BM white blush).

For the record, windows take forever to paint, those ladies and gentlemen are oldschool pane windows 16 pieces of glass there no cute little snap out panes for me.

AND I painted the ceiling, it's amazing how much brighter the room already looks.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Channeling the Chooch

Sadly "my" dog reached the end of her life a few weeks ago.  We got her at the beginning of my senior year of high school and she was pretty tightly bonded to me even if I didn't live at home for most of her life, she was still my dog.  Ch.Pinewoods Lady Guenevere, generally known as Guen, affectionately as "the chooch"  (like choo choo train) had lots of arthritis and was generally pretty grumpy the past few years but we did as much as possible to keep her comfortable, she was also very territorial about the house. 

You can imagine how nervous we all were when Bruce and I got Kenny and the next weekend had plans to visit my parents.  After planning a very orchestrated introduction between the two which was delayed by Kenny's hesitation about getting out of his crate/the car, during which time Guen sat in the driveway near my car seeming to ask me "why are we sitting in the driveway its COLD", he got out of the car she sniffed him, wagged her tail, and there was zero issues, they seemed to be connected from the start, she even let him eat out of her bowl with her. It was our Christmas Miracle. One of Guen's favorite things was late night snacks, she would lay underneath your legs while sitting on the couch and prop her head up next to you legs and eyeball your snacks. 

So Monday night I was up very late waiting for an email from my advisor and having snacks, Kenny had been begging, but then he seemed to give up and laydown at my feet, then he did this . . .

I was almost to shocked to cry, but I did grab my camera which for some reason was close.  Its funny how these things happen, it doesn't make us miss Guen any less but I know that she's happy and pain free now.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Spring has Sprung!!

I waited so long to take these pictures that our daffodiles are already gone, both outside and the ones I cut and arranged inside, not to worry we have lots of other things blooming!

We have so many colors of tulips.

I was sad to not see any pink though.

These are my favorite, both red and yellow!

I love how pretty this looks every time I pull up the driveway, granted it is the only spot with good grass.

These are down by the driveway, I spot yet to be raked.
We spread some grass seed in the back yard last week so hopefully we'll have some grass by the time my graduation party rolls around!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Quick and Easy Dinner

So sometimes I find myself scrambling at 6 or 7 after Bruce gets home from work to feed us!  I forgot to go food shopping because I was in a writing frenzy or I had a plan that got swept aside formating data tables.  So one night I tossed some of Ina Garten's Lentil Sausage soup (recipe to follow) in a pan out of the freezer, slapped some cheese in bread and set out to make a salad, but the thought of mixed greens AGAIN made my stomach turn. So I skipped the greens, kept the veggies, and slopped some dressing in a bowl.  It turned out to be a pretty hearty dinner (on one of those crappy rainy nights). Bruce ended up skipping the soup and having a huge salad but here's what I had.  The cucumber I just peel strips off and slice!

Barefoot Contessa : Lentil Sausage Soup
1 Pound green lentils
0.25 Cups olive oil
3 Big onions
2 Leeks
2 Cloves Garlic
salt, pepper, thyme, cumin
8 Stalks Celery
6 Carrots
3 Quarts Chicken Stock
0.25 Tomatoe Pates
1 pound Keilbasa
Splash Red Wine

Cook the lentils and drain.  Saute the onions, garlic, leeks, with the spices.  Once the veggies are tender add the carrots and celery, cook until tender.  Add the stock, tomato past and lentils, simmer for an hour.  Adjust seasoning add kielbasa and wine until the sausage is heated through. (kielbasa is smoked so you aren't cooking it just warming it up). Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some parmasan cheese, and a grilled cheese sandwich and dippers!

Housewarming

We are in a group of several of our friends that have purchased homes in the past year, its been fun to see everyone's homes and visit.  From experiance a bottle of booze is a great gift but I strive to be more creative. I tried to think of things that we needed when we first moved in, the house smelled funny, the kitchen was a disaster and the first thing we set up was the coffee maker! So the last housewarming party we went to I picked up a few pretty and useful things and arranged them in a basket.

Voila! The whole thing was under $20 and hopefully more usefull than a bottle of Patron!
(I got everything at Target, set of mugs, dishtowels, basket and candle)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Things To Come: Spring has Sprung!

So my thesis is written! It's like a big, glorified lab report now all I need to do is polish off the presentation.  I have a practice run this afternoon with our research group then I'm going to take a day or two off to catch up on life and enjoy the beautiful weather!!! So look for some new posts about all our flowers and spring here at the adventure!

Friday, April 2, 2010

We're Not Lost

I'm just really focusing on thesis writing at the moment, it's past crunch time!  I'll have some good posts for you next week, plus it was to gross out this week to take any good pictures!