Monday, Humpday and Thursday all in one

OHSU is installing a new magnet; meaning my building was closed yesterday. Worked monday, tuesday off. Very fun. Got to play and get things finished in the house. Slept like a baby, but had a hard time getting up this morning. I dillied, I dallied. Ken left ahead of me. I was about to make caffeine to go when I got a call from Laird, another postdoc saying that the magnet wasn't completed yet and our building is closed for at least another six hours. Hooray! Kind of funny because if I was up on time with Ken, I would have already been on the bus when he called.

Have the number to call to check on things before I leave this afternoon, too.

Now what to do today....

Something in common??

I was dropping something off at the boss' desk this afternoon when I caught sight of the current issue of the AIA Journal of Architecture. Flipping through the Journal, I happened upon this article.

Imagine that, The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture!!!!! Nueroscience and architecture finally coming together. Architects starting to tap into the vast array of knowledge that the field of nueroscience has to offer. Perhaps there could be a project for me and Lisa to collaborate professionally and tie our respective professional fields together? Perhaps we have too many other projects right now? Need to read up on it a little more and get in contact with these people.

Wow!!!

House Pictures

Here are the updated house pictures, now with captions.

Thanks for nothing, Britni

Sounds like they gave some serious thought to my email. Wow. Glad I took the time. Grrr.

countertopcollectionUSA@kitchenaid.com to me
Show options 10:00am (3 minutes ago)

Thank you for visiting the KitchenAid website and allowing us to respond to your inquiry.

KitchenAid does not recommend using copper bowls or copper bowl inserts with our products. KitchenAid does not manufacture the product, therefore we cannot guarantee the product will meet our standards. Also, because we do not manufacture the product, it may cause damage to your mixer unit. As a result, using these products will void the warranty. In addition, some copper compounds can be toxic if not used and/or cleaned properly.

Because we do not recommend that copper products be used with a KitchenAid Stand Mixer, we do not provide information as to where they can be purchased.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our KitchenAid Customer Satisfaction Center at 800-541-6390. Our hours are 8am to 8pm Monday-Friday and 10am to 5pm(EST) on Saturday.

Thank you for contacting KitchenAid and giving us the opportunity to assist you.

Britni
Communications Coordinator
KitchenAid Customer Satisfaction Center

[THREAD ID:1-21SSOK]

Home Sweet Home

Just got home after the 7 hour christmas celebration. Sorry for the ranting earlier. Turns out we had a really great and fun time. Saw some second cousins I hadn't seen since I was 10. Realized I really like roast goose. Ate plum pudding. Drank champagne from Virginia.

Even after the fun, I still don't like travelling on holidays and I don't know why. I need to figure it out though since it seems to be hard on Ken -- he enjoys the travel, the 'over the river and through the woods' syndrome. Me, I'm more of a 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' girl, meaning I'm already home surrounded by loved ones. There's got to be some reason, compromise or solution. Hmmmm.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures below. Get to see Rob and Jana tomorrow for lunch and then Burke for dinner. Go Tucson! You rock the Portland visiting scene.

Bah Humbug

It's not that I don't like Christmas; it has been a wonderful morning and early afternoon. It's just that I despise travelling (long or short distances) on Christmas day. Argh. It makes me so fussy. I start freaking out about what to bring; are we ready; are we late? I feel pressured by travelling. It doesn't feel happy -- even though its with family or close friends. What's my problem? I'd much rather show up a day ahead and hunker down for the day. Ken doesn't understand it at all, which makes it worse. Ok, I hear the car keys rattling downstairs. Time to head out.

Oh and for your holiday enjoyment, here are pictures of our house in progress. We just painted the risers on the steps today.

Happy holidays.

I am a sucker

No fig tree for me. Never heard back. However, I did just win this:

Free Grapevine - you dig
Date: 2004-12-23, 9:48AM PST

Hello.
I have a very old, established Oregon native grapevine growing on the
side of my house. I don't know for sure, but I'd have to guess that
it's about 50 years old or so. The main part of the vine is about a
foot in diameter. It's gone dormant, so now is the perfect time to
dig it up and replant it and ensure that it will still live. It
doesn't produce the greatest wine grapes, but it does produce pretty
decent juice grapes - kind of sweet and purple.]If you are
interested, please reply with your phone number and I'll get back to
you. I'd just like to request up front, if you're going to come over
and dig it up, please don't leave me a mess to clean up.
I am located in SE Portland
Thanks and happy holidays,
Gloria

The thought of having grapes was too much to bear. And the free thing. I had to put my request in. Lo and behold:

Hi.
Please give me a call about this later today - I'm actually at work right now so I can't chat. But I'll be home after 1:00. Sunday or Monday would be a good time for you to come over if that works for you.
Thanks,
Gloria

I think I know where I'll put it, but I'll talk to her this afternoon to know its space/light constraints. If all is well, Sunday is digtime.

Bring your shovels.

New Traditions and Krumkake

Krumkake, a large, light, very thin Norwegian cookie made from an egg-based batter poured into an embossed hinged iron similar to a waffle iron. Peeled off the iron while warm and pliable, each krumkake is then rolled around a cone-shaped metal tube so that it hardens in that shape. Can be filled with sweetened whipped cream*.

*Note: see comments two posts down about best temperatures for beating cream and egg whites. Ann, the latter is for you.

Ken has been telling me about krumkake for a long time. How great it is. How his family would make it every year. Sounds amazing. Before last christmas he bought a krumkake maker (basically a really thin waffle iron with a pretty design). Surely we had krumkake last christmas with his new toy. Sadly no, the maker never even made its way out of the box. Grrr. This year is different, he says. We'll have krumkake for this Christmas this year. He's been saying this for two weeks. (smile and nod)

Last night I got home and painted the closet. The hardest room thus far due to all the fumes. To celebrate, he took me out to dinner at the 'best tex-mex place in portland', which happens to be right next to Crema about 3 doors down. They boast the best margaritas in Portland. I got one. And they just may be the best in Portland... but they suck by tucson standards. I've had enough of margarita=sour mix + cuervo gold to last a lifetime (sorry dad, you're guilty of this too but your other drinks are awesome). Poca Cosa and Sara Burke have changed me forever into a fresh lime and orange juices, cointreu and anejo/reposado tequila on the rocks with salt-loving margarita snob. I am picky. I don't care. I have tasted the nectar of mexico and i'm not coming back. I switched to beer almost immediately. But the food was good. Passable for not being in Tucson. The only weird thing to me is that instead of refried beans and rice, they serve pinto beans and mashed potatoes. Hmmm. Is that the tex part of tex-mex? Either way, I love mashed potatoes so it didn't bother me a lick.

OK, where were we. Ah yes, krumkake. After dinner back at the house, I heard the stand mixer going (no, still no word from kitchenaid by the way). Hmmm. Lo and behold there is my sweet husband making krumkake (the batter needs to sit overnight). I didn't think I would care for it all to much, but holy cow that batter is good. Sugar/eggs/vanilla/flour/OJ/butter. Come to think of it, of course it's going to be good. He had to physically push me away from the bowl.

So he'll bake the cookies off later today after work. I can't wait to see them. He'll roll them up like little tubes. I got permission to use some in an experiment -- namely dip one half of a cookie in dark chocolate and allow to harden. I imagine it will be pretty good, especially with the subtle orange flavor of the cookie. Sounds like Dave Herman's dream; he loves orange and chocolate. Anyway, I can't wait. We're both working half days today and then he's off tomorrow and I'll probably come in for a little bit. I feel the weekend approaching. Hooray!

Ken's letter to Santa

I've asked Ken what he wanted for christmas. Invariably, he rattles off a list of electronic/computer type things. MHz, GB, RAM -- I get them all confused. To make things easier, I asked him to write a letter to Santa so he knows exactly what to get. I got this in my inbox a few minutes ago:

Kenneth Roko to me 1:03pm (28 minutes ago)

Well, here's a draft of the letter:

Dear Santa,

I've been a good boy this year. This year has been the best of my life. I got engaged and I got married to the most wonderful person in the world and I moved to Portland (but you already knew that) and I bought a house. I feel I have all that I need in the world.

But, if you have time, here's a list of items that I would enjoy:

*8-in-1 Media Card Reader by Dazzle (the grey and black one if you have it)

*A Lexar or SanDisk 1GB Secure Digital (SD) card. (it's the small one).

Thank you very, very, very much. I'll leave some cookies and milk (or maybe chai....it's yummy) out for you on Christmas Eve.

Kenny



Let me know what you think of the letter.

Love,

Ken

and the award for 'Best Reinvention of their Product" goes to...

Kitchen Aid
hooray, foodies rejoice!

Kitchen Aid has arguably one signature product -- their stand mixer -- for which they keep creating attachments so that people will buy it. Over the years, their stand mixer has become a 'luxury necessity' for those loving to cook. Try to find a wedding registry without one (unless the couple already has one or doesn't like to cook). Pasta rolling attachments. Food grinders. Citrus Juicer. Sausage stuffers. All of these can be yours.... if only you buy the $300 motor in the form of a mixer. Besides, you'll be saving space by having only one machine.

What great marketing. I am impressed.

However, the one great product that they're still missing (and with which they will rake in the dough) is the copper bowl. Egg whites beat best in the presence of copper due to a stabilization of one of the egg proteins, conalbumin. Since a large percentage of cooks that use the stand mixer are bakers, it seems reasonable that this product would be easily marketable. (Note: copper wouldn't be for everything since it's a reactive metal, especially in acids such as lemon juice... therefore, perhaps a copper whisk attachment may be better since cooks could then change out just the whisk rather than switching bowls.)

I have been saying Kitchen Aid should make this for about two years now. Not wanting to get scooped a la Kyle's great ice cream pint koozie idea, I took a proactive approach and wrote KitchenAid's Corporate Headquarters:

Why not make a copper bowl or at least a copper whisk for your stand mixer that people can purchase separately.

Old cooks have been using copper bowls for centuries claiming that improves stability of their egg white foams. Indeed, copper helps stabilize egg whites by binding conalbumin. It seems a large percentage of cooks that use your stand mixer are bakers. Moreover, the bakers that don't use your product are likely to use hand mixers to beat egg whites rather than arm power. Thus, it seems that making a copper bowl or whisk attachment could be very marketable. It may also may be an incentive for bakers to purchase your machine (unless copper beaters were made for hand mixers too).

I understand that copper is a reactive metal and that it shouldn't be used with acids, such as lemon juice or vinegars. Therefore, a whisk/beater attachment may be better as the cook could simply remove the copper whisk after beating egg whites rather than changing bowls.

In short, you would make a fortune.

Love your mixer,
(my name and degree deleted)
(email deleted)
(phone deleted)

Some helpful references on the science behind egg foams can be found in the following books and website:
"On Food & Cooking" by Harold McGee
"Cookwise" by Shirley Corriher
Website about the science: http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/blcopperegg.htm

Side note: this is the first time I've used my "Ph.D." title outside of the lab.

Wonder if they'll write me back. Wonder if they'll make it.

Still no word...

...on my beloved fig tree. It would be so great to get it, but I'm not holding my breath seeing I haven't heard a peep. Oh well. Things are great and I have had such a great year. No need to recap, those of you reading have been through it all. Thank you.

Ken's at the hardware store picking up some toggle bolts to install our coat hooks -- no more dropping bags on the floor when we walk in. He also picked up the shelving for our closet. Meaning no more digging for sweaters out of boxes each morning. He's off Thursday afternoon and friday; I imagine by the end of this weekend we'll have our bedroom set up. Wow. Last month on the 25th - Thanksgiving Day, we set up our bed in our new house. This month on the 25th - Christmas Day, we'll be setting up our bed in our new house. Hmmm. As Yogi Berra would say, deja vue all over again. Also, Christmas marks our 3 monthiversary. Not a big milestone, but I'll be drinking champagne anyway... in the form of pomegranate mimosas. I juiced the pomegranate yesterday and made the syrup. MMmmmmmm.

Speaking of, we had Burke over for dinner on Sunday. Our first dinner guest. We got plates and utensils the day before, ending our two month 'camping' trip. We're still totally mesmerized by Dungeness crabs so we had them again to honor B's visit back to Portland from Arizona. What fun. I love dinner guests... especially ones that you're comfortable with. Particularly the dinner parties and guests where you can make meals that would be considered froofy by strangers, but those that know you understand that you're just experimenting and if you want to write names out of pastry crust in the top of your turkey pot pies, it's okay. Oh crap, I forgot to poke holes in them to vent. Ok, going to sign off so they don't explode all over the oven.

See you tomorrow.

Happy day.

Craigslist: Free Stuff

Found this post today under "Free Stuff". Oh Santa, pretty pretty please let this still be available. It wants to be my friend.

_________________________________________
Fig tree

Bearing Mission fig tree, about 5'x6'. 50-60 plum size figs this year. Now in large plastic deck pot - we need the pot so it must be removed carefully and you transport.

___________________________________________


Here's a little more background on growing and cultivating fig trees.

Dungeness Crab

Read about a market that was unique to Portland and decided to check it out the other day. City Market was like Wild Oats on steroids.



Wow. They had 7-8 types of fresh oysters alone (ranging from $7.99 to $12.99/dozen). Not to mention the Dungeness crab that you could buy (alive or cooked, for $3.99/lb; cracked for $4.99 or the picked meat for $21.99). I bought two live crabs that weighed a total of 5 lbs. And they were the medium sized ones. Wow. They were none too happy about being put in a bag so I had them add ice to slow those suckers down. Even on the way home you could hear them crawling around in the giant bag. Yikes. Plopped them in boiling salted water for 18 minutes (per the recommendation of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission) and we ate them straight from the shell, no butter or utensils. Yum.

I've only had them once before (shipped to the east coast) and I didn't care for them. I found them bland and not well textured. I much preferred the blue crabs from Maryland, served with tons of old bay and lots of draught beer. I am so happy that I tried them again, because they were so good. Taste like a better flavored and textured lobster. Amazing. Drank them with beer, but they could have been easily paired with a glass of wine. Wow. I am very impressed. I can't wait to get some more before the season ends.

For those of you that want to see more pictures of City Market's produce, cheese, pasta and meat selections, check out this foodie's website.

Antsy

2:30 on a Friday afternoon. Waiting for my blots to finish so I can hightail it out of here to pick up paint. No rush for paint. May not even paint tonight, but it's the idea of being able to anything... for the whole weekend makes me reaalllly antsy.

Out of the blue

Got to love Friendster as a means of finding old friends. John Horvath contacted me today. He lived down the street from me since the 3rd grade. Haven't seen him since HS graduation. Crazy. If you haven't signed up, you should.

Painting and Trees

It's been a while since we've posted, sorry about that. Don't worry, you haven't missed much.

On the painting front, we've discovered the joys of 'test-quarts' -- basically instead of buying a quart for $10+, you can buy a quart of the color you want(just in flat) for $4. We bought three testers the other day. We have a vibrant rusty-red in the kitchen, which I adore and I can't wait to get more of. We've painted the upstairs foyer a tan/taupe, which we also love. We've decided on an orangish-gold for the downstairs foyer (bright and fun, yet not 'sun vomit'). However, the stairway is still causing us some frustration. We wanted to go a little lighter than the orange but the color's off. We'll try another shade lighter. Back to the paint store. Also thinking of a light 'warm' blue in the guest room and a 'warm' green in the office. I love that Tucson made me not afraid of color. It's so fun to have all of these great colors. It makes me excited to go from room-to-room because I'm curious for the next color.

We got our Christmas Tree on Sunday. We missed the deadline for the tree rental, so we picked up one down the street. Came from the girl's family farm in Molalla; they run a stand in the same place each winter. A 7-8 ft Doug Fir for $35 bucks. Crazy. We still haven't decorated it. It sits in a tree stand in the dining room without any lights or ornaments. I kind of like it actually, but it's also kind of weird to see it bare.

Sara Burke comes home this Saturday. Rob and Jana are coming for Christmas too, just don't know when. It's so great that people are coming in. We're excited to see everyone.

Going to my boss' christmas party tonight. Last work-related holiday party.

Oh and how great is this: they're installing a crane outside our building, so nobody's allowed to come to work on December 28th. Hooray! Got to love the forced paid time off.

I am Clean!!!

Ken and I had a bet going: If I didn't contaminate my cells by yesterday, Ken could no longer call me a dirty person. The odds were against me... I'm new at cell culture and there's a ton of bacteria and yeast spores floating around. Yet I have successfully maintained the purity of my cells for over a month (I thought I contaminated them about two weeks ago, but the others in the lab said it was just some cell debris). So hooray! Raise a glass of yeasty beer to me -- I am clean!

Changing of the Guard

My beloved yet quirky graduate school advisor is leaving the University of Arizona this coming summer. He's taking a position in Ohio to be closer to his and his wife's family.

Sidenote: that makes 2/2 advisors who have left their current positions for new ones within six months of me leaving their labs.

Sigh

Another weekend gone. They go by too quickly, especially lately. On Saturday, Ken went to buy the concrete and other materials to fill the side of the house. I painted the foyer ceiling and then went to trim six overgrown rose bushes in the backyard. Rob, I talked to you right before they beat me up. One giant thorny branch fell on my head. The others went to town on my hands and thighs. I was very bloody after the battle. I won, but it was not a pretty sight for either party. My right index finger swelled up and more than 24 hours later, I still can't move that finger without some dull pain running through it. Planted about 100 spring-blooming bulbs in the front beds. They were half off when we bought them... how could I resist? Then I went back to the store to pick up some more paint and the same bulbs were down to 75% off. So I had to buy another 140 more. Stupid OCD.

Went out with some coworkers on Saturday night. They're fun, but it's still at that awkward stage. It will be interesting to see if things proceed to friendship or if we'll remain just friendly coworkers. However, I decided that I love Tuaca Sidecars. Yum. Tuaca (instead of brandy), cointreau, orange and lemon juices. Rachel and Taryn would go nuts for them. Actually, Dave Herman might like them too, especially given his Yukon Jack tooth. Kyle, the 'Moscow Mule' was one of their signature drinks. Overall, the restaurant was great albeit really crowded. They featured 'southern' food, although it was mainly cajun with some mac&cheese tossed in. No shrimp & grits -- trust me I looked. I got the fried oysters -- in honor of Lent, who seemed to eat his fill of oysters when he was visiting. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he snuggled so much, Rob. Dave, they were awesome. Now I understand why you love them so much.

Sunday
Ken had already finished the leak on the side of the house by the time I got up at 10. He pulled up all the dirt out between the sidewalk and the house and went through 60 pounds of concrete filling the resultant crack. Crazy. Got my cup of coffee and we painted the foyer together... which ended up looking horrendous. Like the sun had thrown up all over that room. And not in a good way. I couldn't even be in the house. I left to go look at a chair for sale and pick up some more paint chips while Ken watched the viking game. Came home and we quickly picked out a color so we could get more paint on that wall before the store closed. It looked that bad. We love the color now, but I'm a little nervous for all the yellow in the house. Is that possible? In an attempt to make things cheery, even in the winter, we may have overdone it. Does our house look like a cheerleader exploded? I wonder.

The old owner left some paint cans in the basement, so I've been going through those colors looking for new ideas for the stairs, upstairs foyer and guest room. Any suggestions or recommendations?

Two down...

Just finished the holiday "parties" for OHSU and Ken's work. A potluck and comedy club, respectively. Fun but awkward, as most work parties seem to be. Strangely enough, the first comic reminded us of a mix between Karl Newell and Ryan Buff... if you can ever imagine it.

Happy the weekend is here. Think we'll go easy on the painting. Maybe do a little holiday decorating or something that at least makes these two days feel like a weekend. Still haven't found the main part to our espresso machine; I put it in a safe place, apparently. Could make regular coffee, but weekends are for treating yourself. Aw shucks, guess I'll have to make it down to Crema, a little cafe three doors down (literally) that makes it to the top three in 'best lattes I've ever tasted'.

It just tastes so good when it touches your lips.

Will Farrell probably wasn't quite thinking of frothy milk, but maybe he hadn't tasted the sweet nectar from this little place that fashions hearts or trees into the frothed tops. It's no Tartine Bakery, but Rachel would go nuts for this place.

Also, looks like I've met my match in the retarded crafts department. Our department had a holiday ornament competition using recycled lab/office products. One girl thermoformed serological pipets into the runners of an extensive 'lab-ware' sled. I was very jealous. My idea of a christmas tree 'snow-globe' fashioned out of a petri-dish and pipet tips would have gotten crushed. Think, Kristen, think... we have 365 more days until next year's bid for glory.

But I thought I didn't need math anymore...

I harvested my samples yesterday to run all sorts of tests on them, which first includes determining the amount of protein in each tube. OK, assay complete. Oh drats, I used an old standard curve instead of my new one (which I also ran in the same test). So now I have all of these raw numbers in an excel spreadsheet and need to plug them into the new curve or run the assay again. I looked up the parabolic formula up online:

y= ax^2 + bx + c

however, I haven't been able to find any websites that allow you to solve for X (unless y = 0, which it isn't in this case). Frustrated, I went to run my samples again but the amount of buffer I made was short, meaning I had to start again, again. It was late in the day, I was frustrated and started to cry in the bathroom.

So I need your help friendly blog readers (read: Dr Arthur Lo, mathlete extraordinaire). Anybody that can solve this equation or point me to a website that can wins the prize.

Here are the details (or I can send you the spreadsheet if you prefer).

The quadratic equation of y= ax^2 + bx + c
produced A=-0.0149; B=0.2768; C=-0.0085; R-square=0.9992
(Check out that beautiful correlation!)
Where y is the raw number (indicating absorbance). Turn the following raw numbers into the appropriate calculated concentrations (x).
Raw (y); Calculated Concentration (x)
0.329; ?
0.372; ?
0.398; ?

Please help. Pretty pretty please. Don't make me do that assay for a third time.

A chicken in every pot?

Well, it's kind of like that because we have a screwdriver in every room. Seriously.

Painted the foyer ceiling last night. We haven't installed any mirrors in the house yet, so Ken had to help me pick the paint off my face this morning on the way to work. Sat behind the smelliest guy ever on the bus... talking nonstop about beating and killing people -- "just like we did to the nazis in Vietnam". Hmmm. I'm not history expert, but... So instead I read the newspaper, where I found a story of Rob Church's aunt making it to #6 on the list of most influential women in Portland.

My best of the night last night was Ken fixing the one pocket door that was off its track between the living room and the dining room. Now Lent can have his own private dining room when he comes to visit next time.

It rained all night, pretty hard for Portland but average for everywhere else. Anyway, our basement started leaking water. We knew about the problem before we moved in (found it in the home inspection) and it's not a major problem, however, it's also not something you want to leave all winter. So now Ken has a new project for this weekend. Me, yep you guessed it, I'll be painting some more. Actually, question for you painters out there...

Our stairs have a very high ceiling and high walls. Inaccessible by small step stools, yet large ladders rested on stairs seems like a very bad idea, especially for someone afraid of heights a bit -- actually I'm more afraid of falling 15 feet+ down a flight of stairs. Any ideas on how to paint that area? Between taping and cutting in, I'm a little terrified. What do I do?

Floorless

I was all excited to come home to our new floor. Sadly, it was "too cold" to install the floor upstairs. I understand the notion that when wood warms up it could crack. However, what I don't understand is that the wood has been sitting in our house (albeit the basement) since friday. And if they knew it was too cold in the basement, why not keep the wood in the empty, floorless room instead? Alas. They moved the wood upstairs yesterday and have the heater on. Good thing Ken already installed insulation. Hopefully we'll have a floor tonight and we'll still be able to get into it come this weekend.

TGI.... M?

Progress. We've made substantial progress on the house. Now it's Monday and I'm exhausted.

Friday
After work, I met Ken at the Holiday Ale Festival, a local beer festival held in a heated tent under the lighted Christmas tree in the downtown square. Very fun. 29 different beers along with food and crafts. Ken's going to post a description of the beers on Brian's Sudspundit, but suffice it to say that the holiday spirit was in full effect in that $1 'tasters' bought you a half beer (rather than the $4 full beer). Also, one of my other bests was that we met Pete namesake and creator of Pete's Wicked Ale -- he now makes chocolate that he pairs with beers. And very good chocolate at that. Yum.

For those of you sad to have missed the event, mark your calendars because the bigger Oregon Brewer's Festival is being held on the waterfront here from July 29-31st, 2005. 72 beers. Pack your bags and your advil. We have extra room for visitors. Hooray! I don't think there are any weddings scheduled for that day yet, sorry Karl.

Saturday
Starting the day with some significant hangovers, we began painting the ceiling in the living room. 2 coats. Followed by the ceiling and wall in the bathroom. Two coats. Then taped up the walls in the living room, dining room and cabinets in the bathroom for the following day. Followed by scraping and wood puttying the stair risers. Ken releveled the floor (which dropped an inch from one side of the room to the oter) by bolting in 2x8's to the existing joists. It's nice to have an architect and structural engineer in the family... and a cute and handy one at that. Anyway, we stayed up until 4:30 in the morning doing all of these things. Actually, by the time we were about to go to bed, the bathroom paint was dry and I put the first coat of paint on the cabinetry. Bedtime.

Sunday
Woke up around 10. Ken went to the Viking game while I painted the living room. Sweet success. It looks awesome. Then did the dining room and finished up around dark. With paintbrush in hand, there was a knock at the front door. I climb off my ladder to see our neighbor with a basket of cookies, nuts and fruit welcoming us to the neighborhood. Wow. I felt I lived near Kristen and Jana again. When Ken got back, he finished the upstairs bedroom by laying insulation (it didn't have any before -- sweet old houses). Then we tore off the living room tape, installed a new lightswitch, put up curtains on the lower half of the window and put all the furniture into place. Wow. A room that's actually finished. We both ache... his back, my fingers and feet. Ate dinner and three advil each and went to sleep around 9:30.

Today
The floor guys delivered the old wood on Friday to be installed today. So we should have a floor in that front bedroom by 5 pm today. Then they'll sand it and seal it so that we can move into our bedroom this weekend. Can't wait.

Brrrr

I am cold. Getting out of bed has been hurting these past few mornings because it's cold and still dark... I think the only thing that helps me is that we live in an old house and that's the way they're supposed to be in the winter. Getting dressed, I layer on a sweater, vest, fleece windproof jacket and hat to walk to the bus stop. Everything in layers because the ride to work can be stuffy, especially when the bus gets crowded. Also made some hot chai in travel mugs for us as we walked together to the stop. I clutch mine all chilly and look over at him to see he's wearing just a flannel with the sleeves rolled up. He looks back and laughs since I'm all shivery and ridiculous. He's always contended that he's a cold weather person. I fully see that now. I like the cold, but I like being warm in the cold.

I was thinking it may be a factor of our new house. I don't have that warm fuzzy feeling in the house yet. Besides the big furniture, nothing's set up. Seeing how many things there are left to do every morning gives me some sort of 'ugh' feeling because I have to go to work and do it later. To ease my anxiety, I have started working on small projects during the weeknights so I don't have so many things left for the weekend. I have spackled all the holes in walls. I have recaulked many of the doorways and weird cracks between moulding and the drywall (Rob and Lent can vouch here). But my biggest accomplishment thus far is finishing painting the bathroom ceiling, which I did last night. This is no big deal, but it feels me with a sort of satisfaction because I know that room is one step closer to being finished. One step closer to feeling 'warmer' in the mornings. One step closer to having a toilet paper roll holder installed. Luxury.

However, doing these weeknight projects is incredibly draining. We leave for work before 8 and get home around 6. Time to decompress, make dinner & eat leaves either little room for projects or little time for us. I can't wait for the weekend. Last night, I was running late and Ken made dinner. Wow. What an adorable sight to walk in the door and see him cooking at the stove. I hopped in the shower, then poured myself a glass of wine and talked to him as he stirred. It felt like a spa day. After dinner when things were put away, I painted the bathroom. Projects and together time in one night. Victory.