July 2009 – The Beehive

July 31, 2009August 10, 2009

Growing Pains

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about our garden. Unfortunately, it is because there is not much good to report.

Our tomatoes look puny. In the past when I’ve planted tomatoes, they grow out of control even if you ignore them! Ours are still small, with thin leaves. The tomatoes are small too. All three plants have fruit on them. The Brandywine (in the topsy turvy) has a whopping three whole tomatoes on it, amazing considering the amount of flowers it had. The largest of the three is starting to turn color, and it is barely the size of a cherry tomato you’d find in the supermarket. There are a good number of tomatoes on the Burbank slicing plant, but they are also small. The largest is also starting to ripen, and it is about the size of an apricot. The orange cherry tomato also has many fruits on it, none ripening yet, and non with a diameter larger than a nickel.

The cucumber is worse off. I was so excited to see little baby cucumbers on it, but each one shriveled up. I did some research and learned this is because they aren’t really baby cucumbers yet, it’s the female flower of the cucumber plant. They have to be pollenated by a male flower in order to grow into cucumbers. Armed with this information, I watched the plant intending to pollenate any new flowers with a small paintbrush. Every time a female flower bloomed, though, there wasn’t a single male flower in sight to pollenate it with, so they continued to shrivel. I doubt we will get a single cucumber off that plant.

The strawberry plants look fine, but we haven’t seen any new berries since the critters ate the first batch that ripened.

ripening-nectarine

The only thing that seems to be doing well is the existing nectarine tree. The fruit is ripening, and I’m sure there are some just waiting to be picked. Maybe there will be enough nice ripe nectarines that we can pick a bunch and share with our parents this weekend.

July 28, 2009August 10, 2009

The Blind Leading the Blinds

When we moved in, there were no blinds installed in the dining room or living room. There were decorative draperies, but nothing that you could really shut to keep the sun out or prevent the neighbors from looking in and seeing you running around naked. The seller did, however, leave several sets of blinds behind in a closet, which she said were for the living room, dining room, and garage. She urged us not to install them, though, so that all that beautiful sunlight could shine in. That sun isn’t so beautiful when it’s 103 degrees outside and the sun is beating in.

blindinstallbefore

I think in response to several extremely hot days, Steve decided he was going to hang the blinds. Obstacle #1: There are two large windows in the dining room, two large windows and two small windows in the living room, and two large windows in the garage. There are only four sets of blinds. Easily overcome. We don’t really need the blinds in the garage right now, so we’ll just use them on the large windows in the dining room and living room (as they are clearly too large for the small windows).

Obstacle #2: The blinds were not all the same size, as were the windows in the living room and dining room where the blinds were to be installed. Although all the blinds were the same width, two of them were about a foot too short for the windows. Steve scavenged the house to see if maybe some other rooms with a same width windows had blinds that were way too long. He did find one. That’s right, just one. So after he switched the too long blinds for the shorter ones in the closet, we were left with three sets of right sized blinds and one too short, with no window anywhere in the house that would accommodate it.

So we installed blinds in three of the four windows and put the last set back in the closet, for the moment. The installation was incredibly easy. Steve measured and marked for bracket placement. Each bracket had four screws, for which Steve pre-drilled the holes. He used a dremel to fit better into those tight spaces than a big power drill. Once the brackets are installed, all you have to do is slide in the blinds and clip the bracket shut.

blindinstallafter

We’ve been very happy with the blinds so far. They help a great deal to control the temperature inside the house on hot days. We’ll be shopping for that last large set and too small sets of blinds soon.

July 21, 2009August 10, 2009

House Tour Part V: The Kitchen

It’s back downstairs for a look at another one of the rooms we spend a great deal of time in: the kitchen. You might recall that the family room sits right off the kitchen. They are actually totally open to each other. And that means that the Pepto-Bismol pink paint that coated the family room goes right on through the kitchen.

We don’t have huge plans for the kitchen. Other than the color, it’s been great (particularly since the size of our old apartment kitchen was pretty similar to the size of the center island in this kitchen). The amount of counter space and storage is like a dream. The kitchen table, chairs, seat cushions, and rug were all left by the prior owner, and we really like the table. We’ll paint it to match the family room (ok, we admit it, it’s well under way and there will be after shots soon), hopefully switch out the round rug under the table and chair cushions, and replace the dark brown electrical outlets with something more in line with the color scheme of the room (either white or perhaps a wood tone to match the wood of the island where they are located).

July 17, 2009August 10, 2009

A Fabulous Fourth

We’ve been slacking on posting about our 4th of July fun. My dad had been prompting the whole family to “think about the 4th of July” for several weeks in advance. Which means he wants to throw a party. Or rather, he wants someone else to throw a party and that is his way of hinting at it. That Dad, he’s such a character! I think he was excited about our first holiday with his new granddaughter, who pretty much stole the show.

A nice crowd turned out at my parents’ house, including me and Steve; my brother; my sister, her husband (the other Steve), and their baby; the other Steve’s parents; one of my aunts, and two of my cousins and their significant others. Our family is all about casual, it’s just the way we roll, but my mom spruced things up with some festive patriotic napkins draped on the table, some dressed up daisies, and some sweet red strawberries that blended right in with the holiday color scheme.

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And to keep things simple and casual, we did a basic BBQ, complete with burgers, dogs, and all the fixings. The sides and snacks were supplied potluck-style by the guests. We had no shortage of choices, including a green salad chock full of goodies like avocado and corn, three bean salad, two different types of guacamole with chips, and our family’s favorite potato salad (which I probably will rarely ever make given Steve’s distaste for potatoes! sigh!). There were plenty of frosty beverages in an ice-filled cooler on the patio and free flowing margaritas. And we capped the whole thing off with Neapolitan ice cream and home-made chocolate chip cookies.

Aside from coaxing my sister’s five-week-old daughter to roll over (yes, she does it, she is a prodigy!), my sister’s dog Maggie and my cousin’s dog Fender provided the entertainment. Maggie is a yellow lab with tons of energy, and Fender is a Welsh Corgi with a bit of a round belly. The two dogs had never met before and they got a bit rambunctious and eventually had to be separated. I didn’t manage to get any pictures of it because, well, I was preoccupied with the baby. In fact, I barely got any pictures at all. But here’s is Maggie looking forlorn and wondering why Fender gets to continue playing outside while she is relegated to the kitchen.

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Hope your holiday weekend was great too!

July 17, 2009July 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary!

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As of today, Steve and I have been married six months. A lot has happened during that short period of time. In the six months since we said “I do,” between the two of us we

Took our first trip to Hawaii;

Wrote the biggest check of our lives and decreased our liquidity severely;

Purchased a home;

Watched the economy crumble;

Watched 4th of July fireworks from our deck;

Took a pay cut;

Got a promotion;

Struggled for weeks to unpack all the moving boxes in our garage;

Got Steve’s car into the garage;

Painted the family room;

Kicked back and watched movies and motorsports in our serene green family room;

Spent hours clearing weeds from our yard;

Planted a small garden;

Met our first niece, Allison; and

Started this blog.

The past six months have been pretty eventful for us, and it does not look like the next six months will be any different. We’ll be getting the transmission in Steve’s 1999 Camaro SS rebuilt, revamping our bedroom, working on a financial plan, doing more work on the yard, buying our first Christmas tree, and spending our first holiday season as a married couple. And that’s just for starters. Can’t wait to get started!

wedding 3

July 16, 2009

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

We’ve been in the new house about three months now. We had one brief encounter with our next door neighbors one Saturday morning when we were out weeding, but other than that, we have not met anyone in the neighborhood. Well today we received our first real introduction to the neighborhood in the mail, and it went something like this:

Dear New Home Owners,

Perhaps as a new owner in Eagle’s View II you are unaware of the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions mandated by this development.

Enclosed is a copy for your benefit. Please read section 5.5, the requirement on maintaining your landscaping. Please hire someone to assist you if you are unable to maintain it yourselves. Our home values have diminished quite a bit already, we would appreciate it if they did not devalue any further due to neglect.

Thank you so very much for your attention to this matter.

Your neighbors of Eagle’s View II

You’ll hear no argument from me that the yard needs some attention, but there’s also no question that it is vastly improved from the state it was in when we moved in, which Steve decribed as “jungle-like.” Both of our families have agreed that it looks much, much better. We’ve worked really hard to get things in better shape. Could you give us a little credit?

The thing that really bothers me, though, is that this person or persons did not even have the guts to sign the letter. It’s totally anonymous, with no return address. We’re your new neighbors. If you have a problem, would it really kill you to stop by, introduce yourself, and talk about the issue? Is an anonymous nasty-gram really the best way to welcome someone new to your street?

I remember when I was growing up I new pretty much everybody living on our street. All the neighborhood kids used to ride bikes or play ball in the street when the weather was good, and our parents all used to bump into each other outside and chat. For a long time we had a block party every year around the 4th of July. I can’t imagine being friendly in that manner with someone that would send this type of anonymous letter, and since it’s not signed, it feels like they were all in on it.

I hope nobody around here stops by to borrow a cup of sugar anytime soon.

July 14, 2009

Finally Finished!

Here is the completed paint job in the family room, with all the furniture put back in place. We recently got a new tv stand and audio tower, largely because we wanted the use of our coffee table/make-shift tv stand back.

In the works for this room: New curtains; new stain on the coffee table; new-to-us couch, and a few other things.

July 8, 2009

When in Brussels

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To put it mildly, Steve is a picky eater. Here are some examples of foods he does not like: potatoes, mushrooms, cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini, eggs, and peppers. Needless to say, I was shocked to learn that he enjoys Brussels sprouts of all things, particularly a recipe his mom makes for Brussels sprouts with prosciutto or capicola. We made it recently, slightly modified to feed the two of us, rather than a crowd, and it was quite tasty.

First, we picked out some nice sprouts at the grocery store, washed them up, trimmed the ends, and peeled off the outer leaves. No fancy measuring, we just guessed about how much each of us would want to eat. Next, we dropped the sprouts in a pot of boiling water, liberally seasoned. The sprouts should boil until just tender, maybe 7-10 minutes. Don’t let them go too far because they will get a bit of additional cooking time with the sauce.

Speaking of sauce, while the sprouts are boiling away, you can get started working on it. Melt a generous amount of butter in a skillet. Throw in a couple of chopped scallions (green onions) and let them saute until tender. Tip: if you are worried about burning the butter, add a bit of olive oil to the skillet. It has a higher smoke point than butter, so you’ll be less likely to burn the sauce. Chop up some prosciutto or capicola and add that to the mix. We used capicola this time, which Steve likes because it’s got some spice to it. Let that saute for a bit until the meat gets a bit brown.

Add your well-drained sprouts to the skillet and stir to evenly combine. Season with salt and pepper. I like to let the sprouts cook a while in the skillet so they’ll get some browned crispy bits on the outside, but you can cook to your taste. Enjoy!

July 7, 2009

House Tour Part IV: The Guest Room

Aside from the peek at the WC in the master bathroom, we haven’t shown you anything upstairs and it’s time to change that. So we’ll show you where you would stay if you came for an overnight visit. These three shots give a good sense of what the room looks like from left to right as you step in the door.

We have no real plans for this room yet. The only use it’s seen is me taking a catnap one afternoon when the master bedroom was prohibitively hot due to the sun beating down on that side of the house. It’s not a five star accommodation (yet), but it is certainly workable. In fact, it’s probably one of the least offensive pastel colors in the house, so we are not touching the walls anytime soon. I actually did give the room a minor tweak while I was taking these pictures. Can you spot the difference?

guestroomcurtains1

Yup, all I did was remove a curtain panel. I think the lines are more simple and clean this way. We’ll probably do something with the small window curtains too, but that would involve a sewing machine we don’t own yet, so I’m sure it will be a while.

July 6, 2009July 6, 2009

Size Matters

For our family room painting project, we purchased a 5 gallon bucket rather than several 1 gallon cans of paint. Why? It’s cheaper to buy in bulk and we knew we would be using most of it because we were painting two large rooms. Buying in bulk can backfire, though. A great deal on a jumbo package of breakfast pastries is not such a great deal if half of them spoil before you can eat them.

A 5 gallon bucket is extremely unwieldy. I should’ve guessed this when I saw Robert the paint guy use a dolly to bring the giant bucket of interior eggshell base to the paint center for mixing. I strained to get it into the trunk of my car, and I strained to get it out of the trunk of my car. I felt like a competitor in the World’s Strongest Man competition as I hoisted it and shuffled from the garage to the family room with veins bulging from my neck. I struggled to pry the lid off only to discover that it had to be stirred — and stirring was no easy task for that volume of paint. And pouring from the bucket to a paint tray? Not an option.

The bottom line is, the big bucket is hard to handle and extremely messy. It is about $2 cheaper per gallon than buying individual gallon cans, so we saved about $10 altogether. Was it worth it? No way, Jose. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with this big heavy bucket, and I probably spilled $10 worth of paint over the course of the project anyway. Unless you are a body builder who doesn’t mind messes, I’d shell out the extra cash for smaller cans. But that’s just me.

Luckily, the bucket is about half empty now . . . because we finally finished painting the last corner of the family room. We’re still putting the pieces back together, so the final “after” pictures will have to wait.

Now, on to the kitchen . . .