Tornadoes

Tornadoes struck our area today, killing at least one person and injuring hundreds. Afterwards, we watched the footage on the news, just like after any other disaster. But tonight I looked at the pictures differently, because those black clouds had been outside my own window. I had seen the leaves whip through my backyard in an eerie, counter-clockwise swirl. And I had thought about my emergency plan, while people just 15 miles away were putting theirs into action.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/04/least-200-injured-tornado-suffolk

The Pink Mouse

Our San Diego house had a little room we called "Hell's Kitchen", partially because it was lower than the rest of the kitchen, but mostly because its journey from an ill-designed laundry room to a proud kitchen space caused us many headaches. (It all began when the gas line leaked. Then the electrical shorted out. We tore out the walls, rerouted gas, electric, and water; resheetrocked, textured, painted; and then tried to find cabinets that would match the rest of the kitchen. Eventually, it was transformed from a weird laundry space to our much-loved bar/butler's pantry.)

Before Hell's Kitchen was a laundry room, it was the garage, so the foundation and walls weren't clean and finished. Near the doorway into our TV room, the stub wall foundation wasn't square. Where the drywall met the foundation wall, there was a bit of a mouse hole. The rest of the space seemed clean and finished, and then there was this dark cob-weby hole with a little chicken wire visible. I always thought it was a bit of an eye sore, so a couple of Thanksgivings ago, my mom suggested that I put something in there, like a mouse, to make fun of it. We had a few glasses of wine in us, and it was good for a few laughs.

For Christmas that year, we received a funny-looking little pink mouse with a gold bell at the end of its tail and a card that read "maybe it was one too many glasses of wine, but it sounded like a good idea at the time". We thought, for sure, she'd lost it. Maybe she found this little pink rope mouse one evening after one too many glasses of wine or something. I mean, how else could you explain a pink mouse and that note? After a few days of laughing at this mouse, I got up the courage to ask "So, about that mouse?", and I found out that the laugh was on me.

Now we have had so much fun laughing at ourselves for laughing at the mouse, that it has become a central part of our lives. It was important to me that the mouse find a satisfactory hole in our new home. As it turns out, it wasn't all that hard to find. Old homes just have creepy holes that need to be lightened by a little pink mouse.
Thanks, Mom!

Dinner at our house

We had our first dinner in front of the fireplace the other night.

Lamb stew on TV trays (ok, in a bowl on TV trays).

We've had lots of dinners in our dining room.

I think this was our first.

And even a few in our living room.
Holly eats on a TV tray, too.

As long as wer're talking about our first meals, I should mention the pink mouse. For those of you who know the story of the pink mouse, you'll be happy to know it is brightening a mysterious, creepy hole in our new house.If you don't know the story of the pink mouse, you're not missing out on much. But if you're curious...click here.

The Hawk Flies

My Hawk flies again...

Before:

After:

Link back to our site

Time Flies!

We’ve been in our new rental house for two weeks. The time has gone quickly, and most of our free time has been devoted to unpacking and finding the right place for our stuff. Funny things happen when other people do the packing…you get aerosol can lids (no aerosol cans…they can’t be shipped), random bits of string, jars of hot sauce with an eyedropper of contents, and every spare rusty nail that might have been laying about in the garage. Unpacking has been a bit like Christmas, with a sense of humor!

Our rental house is nice, and it reminds us a lot of our home in San Diego ~except that it’s on a very quiet street and the neighbors keep stopping by to say “welcome to the neighborhood”. Spring here has been amazing. It seems like people try to fill their yards with as many spring colors as possible, as if to reward themselves for the long cold winter. (I don’t think winters are that long and cold, but ask me again this time next year!) Just on our block, there are pink, red, purple, and white azaleas; white and pink dogwoods; purple redbud trees; luscious white cherry trees; orange-red tulips; purple irises; and then plane ole trees with colorful green, purple, and red spring foliage.
The bird has been enjoying my new schedule of working from home. I think she feels grown up getting to go into “the office” every day. She likes it so much that she doesn't care if I'm there or not. For example, today (Saturday) she begged to go in...even though I wasn't going there.

Our San Diego house finally rented. We tried hard to rent it to a nice, small family or a young couple, but in the end it rented to three young guys in a rock band. They say they don’t practice late at night and that the band has its own studio for weekly practice, but it sure sounds like a recipe for angry neighbors! We're keeping our fingers crossed.

That's it for now. Things here are good. Summer is coming, and we're excited for warm, mosquito-ridden nights with the top down on the Mustang. Work continues to go well for both of us. Holly, too, if you count the hours she logs "in the office".

We miss you all.