Howard and Eunice vs. The Rock

The Rock won.

The plan was for Howard to help me dig out some grass for a flower bed.  About ten minutes into it, Howard glanced over at the mysterious 'lawn rock' that we've been eying with disdain for almost three years now.  He said, "I wonder if I could dig out THAT rock."  And off he went.

I like a good challenge, so I followed him.  We dug and pried with the shovel that dad bequeathed to us.  It creaked and moaned and threatened to snap in two.  I kept warning Howard that he better not break that shovel that has probably been in the family for six decades.  We continued to pull and push and tug and grunt and grimace and kick and hurt ourselves, but that rock did not budge.  Not even one millimeter.

When you work in your yard around here, your life is an open book.  Sometimes that can be a good thing.  Charles (our across-the-street neighbor) walked over and said, "Whatcha y'all doin'?"  I said something like, "We're supposed to be digging out a flower bed, but this rock distracted us."  Charles says, "I have some tools that might help out."  He came back a few minutes later with a big heavy iron rod and two picks.  I could barely pick up the iron rod so Howard took over.

Here we see that after almost two hours the battle is over and the exhausted opponents are strewn about the lawn.

This is an after picture but really could have been the before picture too, because grass does not grow well around this rock.  See how it just lies there, laughing at us.

We are planning our revenge.  We have been working out - on smaller rocks in the flower bed.  With Charles' pick and iron rod and our new leverage technology (devised by Howard the physicist), we will be victorious!

The Christmas Room

Howard and I haven't bought a Christmas tree for at least the last three years.  Sad, right?  This year we felt inspired to actually leave the house - on Black Friday - to get a tree.  We thought we wanted a fake tree, picked one out first thing, and wheeled it all over Lowe's while we looked at other stuff we thought we needed.  At the last minute we decided we wanted a real tree.  We bought our biggest tree ever - from the 8' to 9' section.  The truck came in really handy.  The Lowe's guy just 'threw' the tree into the back of the truck - easiest tree transport EVER!

The presents are in the back. We decided 
to emphasize the Savior's birth by 
putting some nativities under the tree.

My homage to The Christmas Creche Exhibit 
in Palo Alto, CA.

Okay, so I have a bit of a stocking and metal 
reindeer fetish. My sister-in-law made us the snowman

wall hanging several years ago.  Isn't it cute!?!

The Christmas Room

The Chicken

Oh, silly me!  I meant the kitchen.  A friend of mine from long ago, who didn't know much English, once said chicken instead of kitchen.  He turned three shades of rojo when I told him in Spanish that he had said gallina instead of cocina.

Anyway, the kitchen is pretty much done.  I've never lived in a house with such a large and spacious kitchen in my entire life.  For 16+ years of marriage my kitchen stuff has overflowed into purchased storage cabinets, hall closets, and even into the garage (when we were lucky enough to have a garage in our last place!).  Everything, including our food storage, fits in our new kitchen and there is still room to spare!  Howard has done most of the cooking in recent years, but I have to say that I'm almost tempted to start cooking again - almost.

There's a ton of storage in the pantry and the island.

One of my favorite kitchen features is the desk area.
The door to the right leads to the laundry room.

 No more boxes!

Inverted Box Pleat Window Top Treatment

...or 'Out-of-the-Box Thinking' or 'It's Curtains for You!'

Here's my temporary solution to blocking the suffocating heat and blinding light that our bare eastern windows allow to infiltrate the kitchen every morning.  I also don't like being in a fish bowl at night!  I thought I was pretty clever.  I'm sure the neighbors thought I was just weird, and the delivery guys too - they had to move them out of the way before bringing the washer and dryer in through the sliding glass door.

 Look to the right - you can see how much sunlight
(and imagine how much heat) the boxes were blocking!

There are advantages to this box window
treatment - it's easy to accessorize!