Fun projects!

My delightful husband has kidnapped my camera at his work, so I still remain photoless. SOON!

Life has settled down, and projects have been accomplished. Now I'm enjoying things without the stress.

Today's list?
* Go to work and get some work done (it's been SLOOOOOW with the holidays)
* Bake cookies for B's work.

Those are the only two things that HAVE to get done. Honestly? I'd love to work on two more projects too:

1) Planter boxes on the deck railing for strawberries
2) COLD FRAME for the garden!!!

I am so excited about my cold frame. When we got the cottage, the big backyard came with a ton of remnants from the previous tenant, including this huge, 10'(L)x7' (W)x6' (H) white, PVC pipe frame. I think she had used it for vines. Anyway, it's out there all abandoned, and I thought: Why not turn it into a cold frame? Arugula, cabbage, kale, and carrots grow well right now, and then we could use it eventually for our seedlings.

I think the best place to put it is on our deck. It'd make the whole thing warmer and less exposed. The wind tends to enter the backyard at one location, and on the deck, the frame would be sheltered. Plus, we could better keep the moisture out from rain.

The cold frame is not really a greenhouse. It protects plants to a point, but it's not like you can grow summertime things in there. Cold frames just give the hardy plants a boost. Upping it to being warmer during the day and keeping the cold from biting quite as much during the day.

I think the lower 3' of the frame, all around, will be dark and solid. Wood, plastic YOU NAME IT. Why? Because you don't really need it, and the more you can insulate, the better the frame will help your veggies. And hard surfaces insulate better than flimsy plastic.

The top 3' of the frame will be clear. It has to be for the plants to get any sunlight! We will see.... hmm hmmm.....

Anyway, photos to come, I promise. The cold frame project hasn't started yet, so hopefully, the camera will come home by the time it does. I also really need to take some "before" photos of the backyard. That way, if the garden does actually take off this summer, I will have the photos to prove it. :)

Money Oddities.

I'm met with a few odd statements today from people I know... so I thought I'd post (they don't read the blog). Yes, the underlying issue is money, but I thought it was amusing.

I've determined everyone wants to complain about money.

Person #1:
"I don't have enough money! Why am I always waiting for my paycheck! Wah!"

Then person #1 goes and hires movers for their short move. And moves into a nice rental house, not apartment.

Is it just me? B and I have a decent income, but since we don't have a house (and thus, more heavy furniture) and we don't have any children (that would make moving yourself more difficult), we couldn't really justify the cost of not moving ourselves. And, I'm not talking about a move across the country. These people a) were not moving from a house, b) have no children, and c) were not moving far. It just strikes me as wrong... I dunno. Thoughts?

Person #2:
"I never buy anything for myself. Ever. There just isn't the money for it."

This person is going on a tropical vacation in a few weeks.

Maybe it's just me. We live well, a little stingily at times, but well. Not too stingily as to not enjoy ourselves. We tell ourselves that planning now will mean more things to enjoy later on. Is that the right method to live by? We do splurge, just not on tropical vacations or movers.

It just seems like right now, there are similar folks all around us that are not doing the things we are money-wise. I'm not tempted to "keep up with the joneses" or be a lemming, but still.

Maybe this all boils down to that I wanna go on vacation....

Dear Santa...

I would like a wheelbarrow for Christmas. Not a 3" deep one. Like 8-12" deep one. Please?

Thank you!

Not enough time

So, we're in our house. And we've unpacked the essentials and squirreled everything else away so the house looks 100% unpacked. It's lovely. And we're tired.

I'm a bit sad though. Why did this all have to go down at Christmastime? I had grand plans, GRAND plans, I tell you. I knew what everyone was getting, and I knew what homemade presents I wanted to tackle.

I wanted to make cookies. I wanted to make soaps, lotions, bathsalts and slippers. I wanted handmade dough ornaments on our tree that B and I would treasure for years as reminders of our first Christmas together.

But DASH that all. The doggone move. A whirlwind of packing in 2.5 days, followed by what we thought would be 5 days of homelessness that turned out to be 8. A cold weather spell that chilled us to the bone and prompted the buying of ridiculous (but warm) puffy jackets. And now, rain that won't let up and a front walkway that was not raked this fall, so the leaves are decomposing and makes our feet leave muddy footprints on our beautiful wood floors. And my garlic needs to be planted. And all our coats are on our table because I don't have hooks for our coatrack.

SIGH.

So right now, I'm at work, quickly typing out this message. And also right now, my house is invaded with fixers and plumbers, fixing up various things that the landlord and we discovered were not right. We'll finally have a working kitchen sink, which means all the nasty dishes can get washed and I can actually USE the kitchen. The dog is in her kennel, probably looking all woeful that she cannot play with her workman friends. And the cats are in the car. Again.

I swear to you, my car may never be clean again. BOTH our cars look like they've been through a few rounds of teenagers. UGH! Stuff everywhere. Gum wrappers. B even has part of a spilled milkshake on his automatic shifter (I know... who spills something like that and doesn't clean it up? Ew, yuck, disgusting, but I still love him.). It's gross. Gross and nasty.

And, my car still smells like vinegar due to the horrible day I had last week when a HALF GALLON OF WHITE VINEGAR SPILLED in the backseat of my car. It's gross. HOW do you get that smell out?! You can't use baking powder, unless you want a gigantic foaming volcano in the backseat. I've already doused it with some other smells, but I'm at a bit of a loss on this one.

I JUST WANT CHRISTMAS, DARN IT! The Christmas I had been hoping for. The one where I make Martha Stewart-quality labels for gifts and delightfulness. The joyful one, NOT the stressed out one.

Oh and? It's my birthday on Thursday, not that any of my friends are going to remember because the last month? Too crazy to plan or do anything. Ok, that was a bit of self-serving mopiness. Sorry. I'm just grumpy. And really tired of running around like a headless, homeless, cold chicken covered in cat fur.

My Thankful Thursday

One of my blogger friends does a Thankful Thursday post every week. I don't always comment, but I love that she does that. This week, I'm stealing her idea. We're ending a bunch of chaos (hopefully) today, so there's a lot for which to be thankful. SO here they are, in no particular order:

1) As of 11am this morning: NO MORE HOTEL STAY!
2) No double rent.
3) A lovely new place of our own with a huge backyard for a massive garden.
4) A patient husband who loves me.
5) Finally having our human and critter family back together in one place.
6) Two jobs (and mine is picking up speed).
7) B's recent grant to help pay off a portion of his student loans.
8) HEAT-- it was 10 degrees at 8am this morning.
9) Helpful friends. We love them dearly and they have been so supportive. We are so happy to be back in a town with many of them in it.
10) Perspective. It's better to work a job you love and be happy than work a job that pays a little more and makes you miserable. Things really do happen for a reason.

COLD.

It was 13 degrees today when I got up and 19 when I left the hotel.

I know... there are probably those of you out there who are saying "big deal. Those temps hit our area in September. You are a wimp."

Well, yes, I am a wimp. Generally speaking? I love the cold. This unusual cold snap (it gets down to those temps, but usually a) warms up in the day and b) is only for a day or two at most) would generally thrill me.

But.

We're in a freakin' hotel! There's a constant in and out that has to occur. Our things? They're on a moving truck, and I woke up this morning scared that all my canning jars and vinegars and and and... had frozen and thus exploded.

Oh gosh. Oh gosh. Oh gosh.

There's nothing I can do about it right now. I mean, what are my options? Unpack the whole truck and then keep the canned goods in our hotel room? Not worth the time, effort, or the resulting lack of space.

And all of our clothing? On the truck as well. I'm pretty sure a human can weather anything with the right gear. We loaded ourselves up with a coat or two, but it was, you know, about 30-35 degree weather gear. So far, I have bought 2 sweaters (yay second hand store for $5), mittens and a head wrap ($3, yay Walmart), and a big puffy jacket (on sale at Walmart for $7). I know that's not too bad, but I still hate that I've had to buy things when I have things ON A TRUCK!

Both B and I did not sleep well last night. I think we're both restless and exhausted. We just want to have our things, be moved in and be DONE with everything.

The cats are sneezy. We hope it's just the dryness in the air (it's super cold and dry. If it was rainy it'd be snowing big time). Regardless, now we have to be extra careful in moving them due to them possibly having colds. We are generally careful, but you know what I mean.

BIG SIGH. And with that, I'll finish whining and get to work ....

No Move....

Well doggone it!

Long story short, there was a misunderstanding between me and the new landlords, resulting in us not being able to move into our new place yesterday. DRAT!

Initially, we were going to move in this upcoming weekend, so we wanted to actually start paying rent around 12/10 or 11. The landlords said "well, it will be available come the 7th, so why don't we do a walk-through and give you the keys at that time?" They interpreted it as us still wanting to move in around the 10th or 11th, and we interpreted that as we could get the house on the 7th.

Well, we arrived yesterday to find the house not cleaned and not painted. ARG! The landlords thought they had more time, so they took more time. In retrospect, yea, I should have called them to absolutely positively confirm the unit's availability of the 7th, but I didn't. We had to pack and move in basically two days' time, so there were other concerns.

So, we called off the moving crew (a group of friends and coworkers to help us unload the truck), and hopefully, we can reconvene later this week. The painting is happening today, so hopefully they'll FINISH today and we can move in tomorrow. If not, Thursday it is.

Our dog is still at our friends' house, as is our moving truck. The cats are with us in the hotel room. We have a few baskets of clothing (which we are beginning to quickly run out of clean ones...) and our bathroom-type supplies.

My hand is healing nicely; the cat jumped off my hand and sliced open one of my fingers. It swelled up pretty badly and the doctor even thought it was a few days old (in reality: 9 hours old). They decided no stitches, but they put me on antibiotics to reduce the swelling. Right now? I can bend it and everything, but it does itch. I can live through that though. I guess another few days without moving is an ok thing... it gives me more of a chance to heal and then be able to help move more.

After seeing the cottage yesterday, we still love it. The closet is much smaller than we remember, but we found out there's an additional storage area on the side of the house. Woo! We'll figure out something. We really pared down our clothing, so we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll just use the closet for clothing that needs to be hung up? We'll see...

And yes yes, photos soon, I promise. We kind of have to get into the house first, you know.... :)

Garlic!

We unload and move into our new home TODAY, but that didn't stop me from ordering my first garden supplies: GARLIC!

They need to be planted ASAP. The ground doesn't REALLY freeze here (doesn't stay super cold for super long), but they need to get planted before it stays cold for really long. If all works out, I'll have Red German Garlic around next September! If not, then, well, shoulda planted a few weeks earlier.

I think I'm going to put the batch in a bed near the deck. Luckily, I had a bag of organic mulch, and we actually moved with it, so I'm quasi-set. I will need to get some more mulch though, to protect my little "clovelings" from the cold. Nine months! Long time to grow. But at least they don't require much work other than planting, protecting, and then wedding in the spring.

New JOB, new HOME, new CITY!!!

I have a new job. I'm doing contract work with a firm in the city I want. I've worked for them before, and they are a fabulous group of people. If maybe eventually it becomes a non-contract and instead a permanent gig, that'd be great. But they also know I'm going to be looking at other options, so I can look but not have to feel weird about looking.

Our new home is a cottage! It is right near downtown, but it's 1.5 blocks from the river and it has a half acre backyard! We're moving from a 3-bedroom house to a lofted bedroom. So, I've been going through our things and downsizing. It's cathartic. Cleansing. And the cottage is stinking cute.

Yesterday, our house where we currently live likely got rented. We'll find out for sure today. We have to rent our old place out in order for that rent to go away. Yes, we were going to live with two rents for a while (no commuting expenses and safety having no long commute was worth it). But now, no possible second rent! Fabulous!

So that's what's been going on over here. Things are coming around.

The waiting game

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just haven't felt up to it. Ugh, that sounds so morose, but it's true.

I feel like I should have SOMETHING to post about. But really, I want to post about either job prospects or moving, both of which I'm playing the waiting game with right now.

Job-wise, I have applications out there, but no word positive or negative. Ugh! I suppose nothing is also good, but sigh. I'm networking too, but that takes effort that is more complicated because we live about an hour away.

Moving-wise, we have some serious nibbles on the house. We have to find a replacement tenant (we had a year-long lease, and we're breaking it, so we have to find a replacement tenant). We could move, but then we'd be responsible for both the lease here and at the new place, and we really don't want that much rent right now. Moving is especially frustrating since we really want this fabulous cottage we found, but we can't agree to it unless we find someone here. So our cozy cottage may slip away to another renter because the nibblers here can't decide.

Sigh.

Anyway.

Meanwhile, I'm at home, and trying to keep busy. Yes, there's the job hunt, but there's only so much one person can do a day. So, I'm also preparing for a move, sorta... I'm going through our stuff and eliminating the things we really do not need. That way, we'll only move the stuff we need to move. Everything else? Goodwill, craigslist, used bookstores, etc.

It does actually feel really good to simplify our lives, and it's something I think we'd need to do even if we stayed here 5 more years. So, at least I'm being somewhat productive...

Here's hoping and praying though that the waiting game ends soon.