One thing left on the House List!

We’ve made a lot of progress on the home front this fall.  Seeing it listed out makes me feel like I’ve actually done something, so here goes…

What is d-o-n-e done:

1. Paint non-accent walls in living & dining rooms (Navajo White)
2. Paint trim in living & dining room (Ultra Pure White – UPW)
3. Paint doors leading into/from kitchen (UPW)
4. Paint hallway trim (UPW)
5. Paint hallway doors (UPW)
6. Paint hallway walls (Cotton Whisper)
7. Paint kitchen walls & floor trim (Wild Porcini)
8. Paint kitchen cabinet bases (Bitter Chocolate)
9. Paint kitchen cabinet doors (Bitter Chocolate)
10. Paint kitchen bookshelves (Bitter Chocolate)
11. Add hardware to kitchen cabinets
12. New kitchen flooring
13. Add backsplash to kitchen (Cracked Copper)
14. Paint vanity & medicine cabinet in guest bathroom (UPW)
15. Add hardware to vanity in guest bathroom
16. Paint medicine cabinet trim in guest bathroom (silver)
17. Paint vanity & medicine cabinet in master bathroom (UPW)
18. Add hardware to vanity in master bathroom
19. Paint medicine cabinet trim in master bathroom (silver)
20. Paint guest bedroom walls (Lightweight beige)
21. Paint trim in guest bedroom (UPW)
22. New switchplate in guest bedroom
23. Prime walls in master bedroom
24. Paint walls in master bedroom (Parchment Paper)
25. Paint trim in master bedroom (UPW)
26. Add window treatment to dining room window
27. Add shelving in storage closet
28. New flooring in master bathroom
29. New flooring in guest bathroom

What is remaining:

1. Re-paint the accent wall in the living/dining rooms

And the ongoing list of things that are on the radar…

• Stuff for walls – guest bedroom
• Stuff for walls – kitchen
• …..I’m now thinking maybe a new light fixture in the dining room?  Nick is doing a good job in cutting me off – I think that now that the end of painting is in sight, I’m a little too happy to turn these efforts towards something else….

Congratulations to Christian & Amelia!

We spent the earlier portion of today celebrating Christian & Amelia’s wedding.  Nick & Christian are in grad school together (wrote & published a paper a few years back).  The wedding reception was held at the mansion house at the Baltimore Zoo, complete with a penguin and a toucan at the reception! 

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Is there anything better than leftover turkey & sides from a Thanksgiving feast?  In years past, having the holiday at home in Maryland, Nick & I have always gotten a much much bigger turkey than the amount of people were were intending to feed, just so that we could live off of the leftovers for a week or so after the fact.

This year, with my high school reunion falling on Thanksgiving weekend, we’re heading up to Rochester for the holiday, where my sister is hosting the meal this year.  While I’m excited to be able to see family for the holiday, I was a bit bummed that we wouldn’t get to feast on the remains after the fact.  With Nick’s pending conference and a wedding this weekend before he leaves, it didn’t leave us much time before the holiday proper to have our own mini pre-thanksgiving – so, we did it yesterday!

The menu included a roasted turkey (of course), and some quasi-alternative Thanksgiving sides that erred on the side of healthy – not a traditional thanksgiving meal, but could pass for one nonetheless.  This way we were still eating healthy/less processed/less sugar/no white bread, and when the actual Thanksgiving hits us in a couple of weeks, it won’t be like we just had all of this stuff.

Menu & recipes (pictures are in recipe pdf’s):

1. Chilled Asparagus with Tarragon Vinaigrette (asparagus)
2. Pumpkin Soup in its own shell (pumpkinsoup)
3. Roasted Root Vegetables (roastedrootvegetables)
4. Cranberry Sauce (cranberry-sauce)
5. Green Bean Casserole (green-bean-casserole)
6. Holiday Turkey with Rice Stuffing & Fresh Herbs (turkey-with-rice-stuffing-and-gravy)
7. Pumpkin Cheesecake Minis with Gingersnap Crusts (pumpkingingersnapminis)

We’ve also continued work on the home improvement projects over the weekend – big progress in the kitchen.  stay tuned

Election Night in DC

We headed down to DC last night to spend election night in the nations capitol.  Melanie & Javed generously hosted 9 of us for an appetizers and outcomes fiesta.  We were all very excited about the outcome – and very full thanks to our wonderful hosts!  Food selections included the really yummy cupcakes you see to your left, courtesy of Georgetown Cupcakes.  (Side note – some of you may know how I’m really not all that impressed with CakeLove – this was my first exposure to the new cupcake ‘movement’ and boy oh boy was it delicious!)

We left to head back to MD right before Obama’s speech (which was OK, heard it on the radio) – but it was very cool to be driving through DC on the way home, with everyone honking and so excited!  We were passed going out of Georgetown by about 10 cop cars with lights flashing heading back towards the white house, so in retrospect, we were glad that I had to work early today and thus came home instead of walking around.  as it was, a wild goosechase for gas – silly jetta- had us getting home closer to 2AM than the midnight that we left, and i’m having trouble keeping my eyes open today.  well worth it!  and looking forward to taking the day off to head downtown for inauguration day!

oh and the one other thing we were really psyched about when we got home?  nebraska – one of the reddist states ever – guess which county went to Obama yesterday?  Yep – Thurston County – the home of the Rutars.  We totally guessed that though, considering the Obama signs we saw out when we were back in September.  (Or at least, we’ll tell you that we totally called that   haha!)

Get your vote on today!

Oct 2008 Wine Tasting

Oct 2008 Wine Tasting 005, originally uploaded by cdraley.

We set out yesterday for the third annual wine tour in virginia – it was a gorgeous day with beautiful fall colors and tasty wines.