I am having a GREAT birthday. I had breakfast in bed and am lying around surfing the net while C cooks dinner and does dishes!!! I haven't done any significant housework today. YES!!! I might throw in a load of laundry because I FEEL LIKE IT.

No, I haven't finished the holiday shopping yet. No, I haven't made the holiday menus yet. Yes, we will have a full house. And, yes, I'm swamped with work. I just finished for the day 10 minutes ago.

Our second Christmas in the new house is just around the corner and I haven't bought decent dining room furniture yet. I swore I'd pick something out by now, but, I just haven't. We need to alternate between improving systems for energy efficiency and decorating. So far, I've spent most of my time on energy efficiency. Hopefully, by the end of ( Read more... )

We went to the gym this evening. We have been doing it more and more often after a long hiatus. Tonight was the first night I did a really strenuous weight lifting routine. I'm thinking about actually getting back into shape.

I arranged to have our well tested for radon today. While I had the basement inspected before we bought the house -- I didn't realize that one should have well water tested, too. Oh, well :). The energy inspector is coming back early next week to see how far we have gotten in implementing the energy-saving changes he recommended for our home. ( Read more... )

So, we weatherstripped one door and hung two paintings the other day. That's progress. We have to put caps on all of the outlets facing exterior walls that we aren't using. We already insulated all of the outlets. I think I'll head out to lowe's now.

I can feel it. We are actually going to finish weatherstripping the doors today. If we do that and hang one painting, we will have earned the right to relax and go to the gym I think. The well guy is coming tomorrow to look at installing a new water filtering system. Maximizing the affordability and healthiness of a home is not easy.

Well, at least my daughter wants me to come out to the west coast with her for a week or two when she moves there this summer!! Perhaps I really will see her on a somewhat regular basis when she relocates!! She and I almost have dinner ready for Thanksgiving. We made cranberry orange chutney with Grand Marnier, pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie and ( Read more... )

My son is joyriding down to DC with my mom. I just received a rather enigmatic text message from him: "What do you get when you combine every restaurant Mommom has ever taken me to with the redneck diner from Easy Rider?" Oh, dear. She's gone too far this time. Never taught N how to walk the walk and talk the talk seeing how he grew up in Chevy ( Read more... )

Looks like my daughter has offers from Microsoft, Google and some other company in Connecticut so far. She's waiting to hear from Amazon. She will definitely be going to the west coast. I won't see her much after that I suppose. It is difficult not to be depressed about it, but, I certainly only moved to the DC area because of my ex, not out of ( Read more... )