new house!

Well, we closed on our new house on November 9, and have been working on it ever since. We've done lots of painting, installed new blinds and changed some light fixtures. We're so excited to finally have our own space to paint and decorate with no restrictions. This place has so many things that our apartment didn't: guest parking, a big kitchen, "free" laundry, and most of all, lots of space.

I haven't taken any before or after pictures of our big project, but I did snap this photo of Nuku Nuku relaxing as Jon and I installed the last set of blinds in the guest bedroom. The cats have not enjoyed this transition as much as we have. They've spent much of the last week under the covers in our bed. We only see them at night when they venture around the house apprehensively. We hope they will come around soon!

I'll try to post some after pictures later this week when I have time to take pictures during the daylight hours.

delicious dish

Catherine turned me onto the world of Rachael Ray a last year and I bought my first cookbook, Express Lane Meals, a few months ago. Since then, Jon and I have decided that Thai Chicken Pizza is our favorite from the book. We've made it a handful of times and it turns out great each time. I found the recipe listed on this recipe site.

in my life

Erica is no longer a cider mill virgin. Catherine, Jon and I introduced her to the world of cider, donuts, and caramel apples at Yates Cider Mill a few weeks ago. Yes, she's from Michigan. No, she's never been to a cider mill before.

Jon has discovered his new favorite food.

Jon and I have discovered the joy of Buffalo Wild Wings. It's a tasty twist on our monthly Chicken Shack outings. Gotta love 50 cent boneless wing night!

Joel has started planning our visit to Japan next March. We are definitely looking forward to the vacation! We got the ball rolling by getting our passports updated and in order. Next up, plane tickets.

it runs in the family

I have finally figured out who Jon got his sense of direction from...his grandma. Here is a piece of the evidence:

I'm sure you're all wondering why I would post a map of the directions to Jon's grandparent's house. Well, I'm pretty sure you'll never be able to guess where it leads...I sure couldn't. It was all I could do to keep myself from laughing as she drew the map and told us how to get to her house. After ten minutes of explanation I still had no idea what her street name or number was.

Now, every time Jon forgets which way to turn onto our street or which highway to take to get to work, I'll just think of his grandma and smile.

jon's been cheating

on our cats, that is.

He took quite a liking to my sister's two cats, Charlie and Riley, while we were at my parent's house. I think our cats could smell other cats on his clothes when we came home. They're not happy with him right now.

These cats are quite the acrobats. Here is Riley catching some air while he chases after the laser pointer. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of the ground below to give some perspective (he was about 4 feet off the floor in this pic).

rachel/rachael

Yesterday morning I got a call from my good friend Rachael from high school. She was in town from NYC for two days to hang the show she curated and to attend the opening. She has turned into an "art snob" in front of my very eyes and it's so cool to see some of the opportunities that have come her way. First working for the design department at MOMA and being the assistant curator for their SAFE show. And now at PS1 in Manhatten, an offshoot of MOMA that features contemporary art.

She still cracks me up. It's quite funny because I was just telling my mom a classic Rachael story on Friday afternoon. She and her mom were shopping at Smith and Hawken (a ritzy, upscale garden shop) and Rachael decided to ask one of the employees if they had any plastic blue and white Virgen Mary statues for her garden. She went on and on trying to convince the employee that she had gotten her previous statue at the store a few years back, but that it had been damaged by the wind. Rachael's retelling of the story was absolutely hilarious and I was in tears trying to relay it to my mom. She's always got a great story to tell!

Rachael and I have twin families, because she has a sister, Rebecca and a mother, Ruth. And I have two sisters, Ruth and Rachel.

In other news, my little sister turned 17 today! She's growing up so fast. Somehow, I still think of her as a little eight year old. I remember being so shocked to come home from school on winter break and discover that she knew how to read - where did that come from?!? Rachel loved her cotton candy ice cream cake - bright pink goodness.

argh...

Jon and I started house-hunting a couple of weeks ago. Since then we've looked at lots of houses and learned lots of mortgage and real estate jargon. Silly us for sensationalizing the whole process and thinking that we'd find a house quickly and be moved in by the beginning of November! We placed an offer on a house last week but ended up pulling our offer after a few days of negotiation with the sellers - the price just wasn't right. If only we could buy a house like you can customize and buy a Mac! Everything would be so much easier...just type in the square footage, neighborhood, number of bedrooms, architecture, and voila - the perfect house in 7-10 business days.

We've taken this week off from obsessing about houses and are getting caught up on freelance projects and housework. It's nice to finally get some things done and feel productive again. And we're back into our normal evening routine...reading in bed and resting with the kitties...

In other news, my first quilt was featured on the fabric designer's blog yesterday! I'm definitely looking forward to sewing more once the house mania dies down.