The upside of losing something

I have an excellent memory, but I do have a tendency to lose stuff. The other day, I lost a very important piece of paper. I started turning the house upside down.

First, I took apart the kitchen hutch. While I was in there, I decided to clean up the drawers. Still no paper.

I move on. Maybe it fell behind the couch. I move out the couch and check it out. No paper. While I'm back there, I notice some dust bunnies. So I whip out the vacuum and do behind the couch, as well as the rest of the room.

Maybe it's in the pile of papers on the kitchen table. I go through them, twice. No paper, but I do find papers that need to get filed.

I continue to tear my house apart. I never do find my paper, but at least my house is nice and clean.

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

As of tomorrow, I will have been in my house for six years. We have some great neighbors and one bad one. So I ask you, who are the people in your neighborhood?

Good weekend. Laying low and getting ready for a week off.

The Leominster chainsaw massacre

There are a lot of plantings in the yard. The former owners went a little apeshit with the landscaping, which we appreciate from the perspective of it being done, but it's a lot to take care of. A maple tree was growing into the side of my garage. A bush along the driveway was starting to block the house. In the backyard, a huge branch fell off the tree in the way-back onto the fence. And our neighbors' bushes were pushing through the chain link fence and encroaching on our backyard.

Enter my father-in-law.

He came over Saturday with his chainsaw. Down went the garage tree. Chopped into logs went the fallen tree branch. He inspired good feng shui by shaving back the bush that obscured my driveway. As an added bonus, the kid who cuts our lawn came over too, so our yard looks great. Since I am officially retired from yardwork, this is a good thing. Booyeah!

House critical

I've been a homeowner for almost eight years, starting when I moved into M's condo back in late 2000. Or, I should say, I've been a nonrenter since then, since I technically subletted to him when we lived together in the condo. We bought our current house together -- as he likes to remind me, I picked it out, or I should say it picked me out -- in November 2002. So I feel more of a sense of ownership there.

When you own your own home, things you couldn't care less about become of utmost importance. What curtains should go in the living room? Is it time to take out the fall decorations yet? Should we spend our economic stimulus check on a new front door and side lites or a new furnace (the current debate in our house) ? My house is not just, as our departed friend George Carlin put it, a place for my stuff. I put thought and effort and time into decorating it, cleaning it and keeping both it and the yard nice. It's my castle, and the place I most like to be.

I've made it a point not to talk about my family on this blog, but I will say that my mom is a critical person. It can come in handy -- there's no one I like to shop with more, because she'll tell me if something looks like crap on me -- but it can also be grating. Case in point: She came over last year when I was exhausted and pregnant and not in the mood to do yard work and proceeded to point out all the weeds that needed to be pulled, the landscaping that had to be done and how my roses needed to be deadheaded. She then told me our house almost needed a new coat of paint. M was mad. So was I. And she realized that she'd been out of line, because she called us from the cell on the way home and apologized.

All is forgiven, but why is it that parents feel the need to come over and criticize your domicile? I've talked to friends about it who have said their parents do the same thing -- a friend at an old job even said, "That's why you have your own apartment, so your parents can find fault with it." I'd be curious for your stories and how you handled it.

Rainy Monday

Today was one of my two days off a week. I did a lot of housework, and then Boo and I were both getting restless with the disgusting (but much needed) rain keeping us cooped up, so we went over to the mall. Since shopping for clothes is still a nightmare I'd rather avoid, I splurged on a sweet new purse at Macy's. I am a purse whore, although I can't be bothered with name brands -- I spend the money but go for nice and a bit more obscure of a name.

I did some leaf blowing in my yard this weekend, and after the sneezing and wheezing that commenced, I have decided I am not doing any more of that sort of work. Also, after several days of a swollen, gross-looking eye, I got it checked and discovered I have allergic conjunctivitis. I'm sure the leaves, dirt and mold flying around my yard didn't help.

Back to work tomorrow...

And speaking of my house...

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of us closing on Casa Christine. I can't believe we've been there five years. Happy anniversary to my home, and happy Thanksgiving to you!

Halloween at Casa Christine

As mentioned, Leominster is pretty strict about trick-or-treating between 6 and 8, so I drove home like a banshee to make it in time. I got home at 5:50, made sure the hoses were off the lawn, lit the jack-o-lantern and candles and waited for kid no. 1.

About 6:15, the kiddos started coming. They came in spurts at first, and then around 7, they started coming in waves. My observations:

Funniest costume: A kid in a Yankees shirt who looked like he'd gotten the snot beaten out of him.

Cutest: A princess who pulled up in her pumpkin coach (a specially decked-out wagon), complete with a streamer door.

Rudest: Since we get so many kids (at least 100), I ration the candy pretty strictly -- two pieces a kid. A bunch of kids came to our door, and one of the older boys (about nine) turns to me and says, "Can I tell you something? There's a house up there that lets the kids take four big handfuls of candy." I didn't really know what to say, but turns out the other kids said it for me: "That's rude!" "Don't say that to the lady!" "Make sure you say thank you!" The kid turned nine shades of red and said, "I was just kidding!"

We decided that once 8 hit, we were going to go to dinner. So since we actually had candy left this year (seemed a little lighter than in past years -- any other Leominsterites find the same?), we left the bowl on the steps with the lights on and went out. I persuaded M to give up his beloved peanut butter candy for the bowl, with the rationale of, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours."

We came back from dinner and all the candy was intact. So now we have a bunch. For which you'd think a pregnant lady would be grateful, but I discovered last night that excessive amounts of chocolate give me heartburn like you wouldn't believe. I'm sure M will take care of it.

The results of the pool, I mean, poll

In case you couldn't tell from the title of this post, despite no one voting for it in my comments, M and I went to Namco this weekend and bought a 24' round above-ground pool. It will be installed when the ground unfreezes. I am so excited, and I can't wait to go swimming. And M is psyched not to have to cut 24' of grass.

Thanks for your input! Maybe we'll go to Italy anyway. To clarify, it's not really a once-in-a-lifetime thing -- we have an apartment over there for our use, and we've already been in the last few years. Just would be nice to go back.

The great home improvement (or not) poll

So as I've mentioned, I won a nice chunk of change on a scratch ticket. We reapplianced our kitchen, but we still have a few grand left. And we are torn on what to do with it. We're leaning toward putting the rest of it into the house. But we're stuck. That's where you come in, blogosphere.

So what should we spend the money on? Here's what we're considering:

1) A new, permanent above-ground pool to replace the Easy-Set.

2) New Corian countertops and a Corian sink in the kitchen.

3) A high-efficiency washer and dryer.

4) Tickets to Italy this year.

Vote in the comments section, and make sure you tell me why you voted the way you did. Thanks, guys!

The Christmas house

My favorite place to be.

Go shorty, it's your birthday

Man, a year older. I couldn't deal with going in today, so I took the day off. The best gift of all. M is taking me out to dinner tonight. Ahhhh.

This is my house

OK, this is a really crappy picture of it. It's really this lovely shade of gray with black shutters. Whaddaya want from a photo ganked from my town's assessor's database. Gotta get me a digital camera. Anyway, Casa Christine.

UPDATE: Took it down. Crappy picture.

More Random Thoughts
We watched that show Performing As... last night on Fox. That Barbra Streisand impersonator was abso-frigging amazing. What a voice, and she definitely looks like her. I don't know who's coming next week, but I put it on "Babs" to win the whole thing.

M and I painted our basement family room on Monday. Major pain in the ass. We kept stepping in the paint and tracking it on the rug. I got this stuff called Goof Off to get it out of the carpet, but the fumes were so bad I had to leave the basement. It looks really nice down there -- we had this hideous flowered country-like wallpaper down there before with a paisley border. Major yuck. Now it is a soft shade of green. I am trying to convince M to put up a border in some spots.

Things suck at work.

What's with all this hoopla over the Madonna/Britney/Christina kiss? It was a publicity stunt, pure and simple, and Madonna is good at them. Just recognize it for what it is. It also was a very quick kiss; they didn't exactly make out. People are so uptight.