I'm a building hugger

I spent Thursday and Friday at a conference in Baltimore on historic preservation. There were talks about tax credits, "green" building and sustainability, and tours of local historic landmarks. Sometimes conferences are lame and a bore, this one wasn't spectacular, but it was great to be among other people who are as nerdy as I am when it comes to buildings. Most people don't understand why I love old buildings and that sometimes seeing a building being neglected or demolished almost makes me want to cry. Or that I can stare at a building for hours just trying to figure out why it looks the way it does, who built it and how it is a product of it's time, built a certain way for a specific purpose, and that they just don't put the effort into style these days- at least not in everyday buildings. When I dream about what my next house will look like- it will be historic and it will have character, and it will be almost like another person in the family. I can't wait to live in an older house again, I miss the quirks and personality an old building has. I like my home now but we're the same age and it's just not the same living in a duplex from the 1980's as opposed to a bungalow from the 1920's or Victorian from the 1890's or...who knows where we'll end up.

So, the conference was fun and it was great to be around like minds who don't think you are strange for staring at a replacement window in a building and wondering how the owner could have put that aluminum window with sandwich muntins in a building with historic double hung, wood windows and true divided lights! [:-D]

Here's some pictures from the tours I went on. This is the American Brewery in East Baltimore, rehabilitated by the Humanum company. Really an awesome place.

Running in the Rain

If you ever want to feel tough and awesome, go running in the rain. I did that today sort of by accident. I went running on purpose- it just wasn't raining when I started. Towards the end it started drizzling, then raining a little harder. Then finally when I was cooling down it started pouring, so I decided to just start running again towards home. When the lightning started and it looked like it was right behind my house, I decided it was time to run harder. Once I got home it really let loose. Lets just say between the rain and sweat I was one wet looking woman. I felt awesome though, like if it didn't look like I was gonna get hit by lightning I could have run much longer. Either way, I'm happy I went out and got some exercise, I was feeling meh earlier and now I feel much better b/c at least I did something good today!

new car!

What started yesterday as a harmless, "lets go test drive cars for fun..." turned into, "ooooh, this car is really nice..." to, "ooh, you'll sell it to me for how much?"...to, "well, we really aren't ready to buy today," to, " really, it only costs that much?!" to "ok, well let me go get my old car to be appraised for trade in" to, "Wow, thanks for selling me my new Nissan Rogue!."

So, yeah, totally went to test drive, came home 8 hours later w/ a new car! Still trying to convince ourselves it wasn't tooooooo compulsive. But we really got an awesome car for a great price, pretty much couldn't pass it up- but that's how they get you right?

Best part was, they were only going to give us $500 for my old 1998 Buick Regal w/o seeing it. On our way to take it to the dealership for an in person appraisal, we decided to stop by Carmax to see what they would buy it for, and good thing we did, they would buy it from us for $2000!!!!!!!!! When we went back to Nissan we didn't say anything about Carmax right away, and Nissan said, " oh, well it looks pretty good, we could go as high as $750!" BAH! We all but laughed in their faces. Told them we could go across the street and be right back w/ a check for $2000. So, they made it work out to sell it to them and we left w/ a new car :-)

So, I've never had a new car before, "new to me" yes, but not brand new. So this is exciting, and scary. Drive it off the lot and it goes down in value immediately right? I have to keep telling myself, that's just the way it is unfortunately. Cars are not the investment real estate is, which somehow made it more stressful for me to buy the car. At some point I had to remind myself I bought a house, all by myself! And I didn't feel as scared as I did at some points yesterday and this morning about a new car. But, A just finished paying off his car loan, and I didn't have one- and this new loan is actually less than A's previous loan- so we figure we're still in pretty good shape. I don't think I'm ever ready to part w/ my savings, no matter what it's for- wedding, car, home improvements. It's just too fun to see the $ pile up in ing.com that I hate to take it back out again. Oh well. Gonna go cruising tonight so I have a chance to get used to the new car :-) yay.

joys of kitteh parenting

So, I woke up at 2:45 am this morning to find Betty hacking up something on the carpet/blanket on the floor in our room. Poor thing, she has more than her fair share of kitty puke. I just wish she'd keep it to the hard wood floors or bathroom tile. It's just not making our 12 year old powder blue carpet look any better.

So, after that pleasant mental picture of Miss Betty, I'll give you a cuter one:



A is holding Betty and I've got mama's boy, Meatball. They are brother and sister, and about 2 years old now. Usually super cute and cuddly. Unless it's 10pm and I'm going to bed and then it's "crazy kitty time."

bummer

I just washed and dried a tube of Chapstick with my laundry. It left little dark spots on a bunch of things. I'm hoping it washes out with a second washing. I guess it's better than a marker or Hershey's kiss or something. Still a bummer. I hate messing up my clothes.

I always feel good when I get all the loads of laundry done, and put away [which sometimes takes a few days]. But then it starts all over again :-( A clean house feels so good, but sometimes I'm so depressed at having a messy house I just don't want to clean. Kind of a catch-22.

Cow Farts

I read an article yesterday at work that discussed the leading causes of pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. Do you know what causes 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions????? Cow farts! Seriously- the primary gas released by livestock is methane. And where does this methane come from? "Flatus" and manure. Cow farts cause more greenhouse-gas emissions than cars and airplanes. I found this both funny and very interesting. What about people, how much greenhouse-gas do we emit? Do we need to get a super supply of Bean-o for the farms?

Sorry, I just found this article, in a serious journal about sustainable design, kinda hilarious.

Mother's Day

My husband and I had his parents over for Mother's day, which happens to also be his mom's birthday this year. Her favorite food is lobster, so we tried making it for the first time. Tasted pretty good- though melted butter makes everything good :-)

We had a nice little spread going for the table, which let us use some of the wedding gifts we've gotten. We don't have nice dinners at the dining room table often so it's nice to have an excuse to use our nice new things.

Herb Garden * Update

So my plants are actually still alive, and doing quite well. Not enough to make pesto or eat a tomato yet, but still very exciting! I guess all the rain is helping [I can't forget to water them]. I hope they keep up the good pace.





Check out the progress from the post a week ago! It's amazing :-)

Can't follow directions

So, my husband and I got married this January. For several months before that we had packages streaming in. A less-than-honorable citizen stole a gift off of our porch on Christmas Eve [!] and ever since then we notified FedEx and UPS to please NOT leave packages on the porch, and we put up a note just in case- saying the same thing.

So today, a package that was supposed to be delivered, was actually left on the porch, and FedEx put the delivery slip- notifying us that it was delivered, right next to the note expressly asking them not to leave packages. Call me crazy, but the directions were pretty clear. See for yourself.

Yardwork

So, I hate yard work- mowing, weed whacking, weeding, raking, all those things. But, you get such a good feeling after you've done all that work and your yard looks good. At least for a day until the dandelions comeback. "A" and I spent an hour or so this afternoon getting new edging blocks for our planting beds. The old ones were those wooden logs that basically were becoming mulch where they sat. He pulled those up and installed these concrete ones which look pretty good. Once I get around to mulching and prettying it up I'll post a picture. Should have taken a "before" but I didn't think of that.

I went around the whole front yard with a special tool pulling up all the dandelions, that I could see anyway. It's amazing, I filled a whole bucket with them, and you know that just as many will appear tomorrow. We also bought a spreader and some special weed killer, but we have to wait until it's done raining for a few days to put it down. Our goal is for our yard to look as good as our neighbors. They always get to their weeds sooner and mow sooner and we always feel bad when our dandelion seeds blow into their yard.

A few weeks ago we planted a mini herb/veggie garden- and it's all still alive! One tomato plant, two red bell peppers, rosemary, thyme, and three basil plants. Here's what it looked like after planting. I'll post an update soon, things are getting bigger by the day. I'll be surprised if we actually get a tomato or pepper out of it, but the herbs will be fun. One day A would like to have a plot in the yard to grow veggies. I think that would be cool, but also a lot of work.