This is one of the many views on our evening w-a-l-k route. Too bad, Lucie can’t really appreciate this aspect of the nightly w-a-l-k. The lights in the background are Bernal Heights / Mission and the dark abyss behind that is the bay.
A few weeks ago, we had a little party to celebrate the completion of phase 1:
*new interior paint
*new windows & window shades
*carpet removed and hardwood floors refinished
*remodeled bathroom
*new kitchen appliances
*new dining room furniture & chandelier
Here are the pics…
If you can’t remember what the house looked like before, click here.
We still need to buy a mirror for the bathroom, light fixtures and rugs for the hall and foyer, but we’re pretty much done with the major stuff this time around.
I hope that all y’all had a lovely Turkey Day. I think that for the most part our first Thanksgiving was a success!
The brined turkey turned out fabulous! I did make the mistake of not pulling out the bag of giblets – but, hey, the turkey turned out just fine…
I was up late the night before, preparing the desserts…Pumpkin Cheesecake (which was yummy!) and an Apple Tart with Prunes & Cognac (which is now a household favorite)….as well as the Hors d’Oeuvres (Cheddar & Chive Gougeres) and the veggies (Haricots Verts with Toasted Almond Butter). My hubby decided upon himself to prepare and cook the potato dish – and he did pretty well, even though they weren’t mashers. ;o)
All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving with dear friends and family.
Oh yeah, I am thankful for my health, my family and my friends. :o)
So this year, I decided to take it upon myself to cook Thanksgiving dinner. (Really, I don’t know what came over me to do so.)
Things are progressing quite nicely…I’ve baked the cheddar and chive gougeres (just need to reheat tomorrow) , the cranberry sauce is finished (which reminds me, I’m gonna need to make more so that I have enough for the cranberry-brie tarts), the green beans are washed and ready to boil. The pumpkin cheesecake is chilling in the fridge and the apple tart is baking in the oven as I write. The brine for the turkey is cooling and I’m supposed to chill it in the fridge. Yah, well, our fridge is new and quite nifty and the ice maker sure does come in handy, but it’s a tad bit small inside. It’s literally busting at the seams with the turkey and all the trimmings.
A topic I’ve rarely touched upon – due in part that the Niners are just having an awful season and the Giants, well, they did a lot better than how the 49ers are doing now, the Warriors (who are they?), and the Sharks (did the hockey season even start?).
But, what’s making headlines these days is Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers.
I hadn’t known the whole story until I caught a post-game interview with him on the nightly news a few weeks ago. Something about him possibly being suspended and the Pacers’ coach saying that he had ruined the integrity of the team. Artest left quite an impression after asking reporters what “integrity” meant…and I don’t think that he was kidding.
After some perusing of the online sports pages, I discovered that this bad boy had asked to take a month off from the NBA to promote his R&B album. A month off. Just like that. At the start of the season, nonetheless. (Are we kidding? I think that he got benched for a week, for even asking, but I could be wrong.)
Well, as of late, Artest has received that month off and more. A wildly, insane fight broke out during the Pacers-Pistons game in Detroit. (If you’ve seen the video, you agree that it was wildly insane?! I believe that my jaw was dropped as I watched. If you haven’t seen it and want to, just ‘google’ it.) There were players throwing punches at players, water boys being beaten down, and even the crowd got into it: beating and punching players and launching their beer cups at the players as the melee was being broken up. After the dust settled, players here and there got suspended, 2 of the Pacers received a 25 and 30-game suspension, but The Golden Boy has been suspended for the remainder of the season.
I suppose he’s got plenty of time now to promote his album after it drops this month.
Like he needs the publicity.
Before I forget, a very happy birthday to Gina!! :o)
It’s not quite a *phenomenom*, but it has created a buzz on the “internets”. ;o)
Sorryeverybody.com was created and launched in light of the re-election of the village idiot.
I guess the cool part is that our European counterparts (specifically, a few Dutch guys) have started their own website, Apologiesaccepted.
Yesterday, we had our new shades installed! Wahoo! We immediately noticed a difference in sound reverberation and heat retention.
I am super excited to finally have these shades because: [1] they’re the top down-bottom up type shades that allow privacy and the natural light to filter through, [2] the furniture won’t fade, [3] the sun won’t kill our little wine & champagne collection, [4] not as many Lucie-nose prints on the windows, AND [5] I can change clothes in our bedroom without having to give daily stripteases for the neighborhood.
Alas, this morning I fell victim to our “room darkening” shades that we had installed in the bedrooms. Let me tell you, it was dark – as dark as my hotel room curtains during my visit to Helsinki (when the sun is up at 3.30a; the Las Vegas hotels have pretty decent room darkening curtains, too, but I digress). Foolishly, I pressed snooze, then turned the alarm off. (Stupid mistake on my part.) When I finally awoke, it was a quarter to 8a. Whoops.
I changed from the Orange and Eggplant theme to this to spare zeflash’s bleeding eyes ;o)
I found a blog that gave a tutorial on how to convert MT3 styles to be compatible with MT2.x – I’ll give it a go this weekend…
Thanks again to MovableStyle!
Let me know what you think…