Left Behind

The last time I bought a house, it was pristine the day I moved in. The guy I bought it from, Larry, called me a few times in the days before he moved out to see if I wanted to keep anything he was thinking of leaving behind. I didn't want his cooties despite his excellent taste in paint colors so I politely declined and moved into a junk-free house.

This house, however, has lots of prizes left behind. It is like one big treasure hunt - you never know what will greet you when you open up a closet door. I made a few giant donations to Goodwill when moving out of the old house, and I'm collecting lots more for a new humongous donation courtesy of the new house.

Here's a random sampling of what Will and I have found:

Half empty bag of cotton balls - why thanks for sharing these nifty soft things, I've never seen them before!

Cleaning supplies - ironic because I don't think they actually got used before we moved in. I kept the Mrs. Meyers cleaner & the laundry detergent and tossed the rest of the mostly used bottles.

Assorted kitchen stuff - my parents came up to help us on Sunday and I gave my dad the task of taking down the multiple paper towel dispensers and magnetic knife racks in the kitchen. Really, who needs paper towels in two different spots? In the same kitchen?

Super sweet lamp - this nifty little ditty was attached to the wall above my desk in the office. It had a pee-yellow metal lamp shade with a Norwegian type flower pattern on it. I couldn't concentrate on a conference call it was so distracting. 

Iron - perhaps original to the house, circa 1960. My dad thinks I should take it to an antique shop, my mom and I disagree.

Light bulbs - not in light fixtures, mind you. Just laying around the house, in the back of closet shelves, in the laundry room, on the kitchen counter top.

Coat racks - I love coats a little too much, but even I don't need more space than the coat closet allows.

Spiders - seriously wondering if the previous folks bred spiders for research and had an unfortunate escape episode. I'm normally a capture-the-spider-in-a-glass-and-release-it-outside girl, but I have to admit I've become jaded and I squished one last night.

Canadian coins - eh?

And that, my friends, is my assessment of the great moving adventure week 1. 

Old Pecos Trail

Will and I headed down to Santa Fe a few weekends ago. Will had never been and our friends, Brian & Amy, invited us to join them for the weekend. We had a great time, and Will even drank a margarita.

Anne & Will

Really, Will wanted a beverage with a salt rim and Brian and I ordered margaritas that were really weak. Amy didn't drink margaritas because, well, see photo below. We convinced Will he could handle a weak margarita, so he joined us for the second round - and the margaritas this time were wicked strong. He toughed it out and tried not to make too many funny faces while he choked it down. 

Will, Anne, Brian, Amy

(I never realized how much shorter I am than everyone else...)

Happy Gardening Anniversary

The small xeriscape garden bed

I just got an email that made my day. It was from Gardner's Supply Company wishing me a Happy Anniversary since my first order with them was April 18, 2005. 

I ordered a Tomato Success Kit from Gardner's Supply so I could grow some vegetables in pots even though I didn't have a garden. I've had some huge success and huge failures in the 3 seasons that I've grown in the success kit. Cherry tomatoes = OMG I can't eat another tomato by the end of the season. Heirloom tomatoes = it's October and I'd really like one ripe tomato before the frost kicks in.

The gardening project I'm most proud of though is my xeriscape garden. When I first moved to the townhouse, it had two giant, spiderweb infested, fire-hazard dry evergreen bushes straddling the front walk. When I'd leave the house in the morning for work, I'd put both arms straight out in front of me and scissor them as I walked to keep the spider webs from hitting me in the face. I lived with this for three years.

But then, Will moved in and our first project was to tackle the outside - rebuild the back deck and do something about the evergreen bushes. We braved the heat and prickles that summer and spent a miserable weekend cutting back and hauling away the bushes. 

My initial plan was to grind the stumps so we could have a flat garden. But, being smart and responsible we had the utility company come out to mark where all of our pipes were and the gas line went right under one of the bushes. So, Plan B emerged and we used leftover wood from our big deck project to build raised garden beds.

I knew I wanted a xeriscape garden out front because it gets so much heat and sun. I had fallen madly in love with the Xeric Aroma Garden from High Country Gardens. It was sold out for the spring, so I had to wait until the fall to get my plants. They were tiny when they arrived, and Will was embarrassed by our teeny tiny plants randomly spaced our huge planters. But the next spring-summer-fall, they went gangbusters and grew into giant behemoths that gave off the most amazing scent whenever it rained. Rather than defending myself against the plants in the front, I touched them whenever I walked by to release the herby scents from each of the plants.

I can take my Tomato Success Kit with me to the new house, but I have to leave behind my aroma garden. It will be so hard to leave behind something that I've spent so much time nurturing. The good news though, is that I'll have a blank slate (once I clear out all of the new house's weeds & sucker trees) to start over with a new garden that I know I'll love just as much as this one.

Inching Toward Moving On

At what point do I start the break-up process with my now-under-contract-townhouse? Or did I already start it the minute I signed the paperwork to put it up for sale?

I love this house. I have since the minute I walked in the door while house hunting and saw two Birds of Paradise flowers on the dining room table beneath the orange pendant light. It was totally over my budget and my realtor was only showing me the house because he wanted to set me up with the seller. It was love at first sight with the house, not so much with the guy.

This is the last house my old-man cat lived in. This is the house where Will proposed to me. This is the house where I got really sick, and then got healthy again (and again). I still call the guest bathroom "Carrie's bathroom" after my roommate and dear friend who lived here with me for the first three years. Somewhere in this house is the ring that my mom gave me with the green stone that I'm super bummed I misplaced (okay, lost). Will and I have put a lot of work into this house - we've rebuilt the decks, redone the bathrooms, painted and painted again, replaced crunchy dead evergreen bushes with a xeriscaped garden, and so much more. 

I want to move (believe me, I wouldn't go through all the headache of house hunting for nothing). I want new and bigger projects to tackle with Will. I want potential to make a house a home without an HOA dictating how that can be done and what colors can be used to do it. I want a garden with room for more than a pot of tomatoes. And the new (potential) house is perfect for all of these wants. 

But I'm still wandering around the current house, thinking about all of the things that I'm going to miss. That will go away, right? 

Nostalgia

We are getting ready to put our house on the market.  So far, "getting ready" has entailed creating a list of the home improvement projects we didn't quite finish or get to, convincing my Mom to be our realtor, and creating piles of stuff we don't want anymore.  Needless to say, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

I went through my books and CDs today and separated out the keepers from the get-rid-ofs.  It was so much easier to get rid of the CDs than the books.  I get really, really attached to my books. Even books I didn't love, I feel like I'm somehow betraying the characters by admitting that maybe they aren't worth living in my library.  

CDs on the other hand, are pretty easy to get rid of. The good ones I've got on my computer. And the bad ones are the hardest to get rid of because I have to admit that I actually purchased that music at one point (um, Candlebox? I plead the insanity of the 90s).

I also found a whole bunch of tapes that I held onto.  Mostly mix tapes from old friends and a large collection of U2. I know I got rid of tapes a long time ago and I must have held onto U2 because the tapes are all from when they were beyond awesome. I purged the tapes, but found a few that I just couldn't get rid of:

To: Anne From: Chris Keep Jammin' in the Car, Chica. A mix tape from my friend, Christine, from our junior year of high school. Having good tunes in the car in high school was key. I took this mix with me to Architecture Camp the summer between my junior & senior years of high school and the mix became famous in my studio for its awesomeness. Plus, I'm feeling all nostalgic.

Learn Xhosa with Anne Munik. This tape is from my Xhosa language class in South Africa. Anne Munik was my teacher and she was the cutest little white lady. She had grown up on a farm outside of Cape Town and absolutely loved the Xhosa culture and language - enough to dedicate her career to teaching it to other white people so they could appreciate it as well. The thing I absolutely adored about Anne was that whenever we'd learn something contradictory from our host families to what she taught us in class, she'd say, "Well, it is their culture, so they know it best." And she'd make a note. In a country where white people had for so long ruled as oppressors, it was amazing to see this woman who not only loved and appreciated the African cultures around her, but realized that she could never be the ultimate expert despite all of her learnings. 

A Reading for Anne 2003.  I usually get my tarot cards read about once a year, usually around my birthday.  I adore my Mom's friend, Bonnie, who reads the cards and records the sessions for us. She is such a gentle soul and I love that there are people in the world that see things that I don't. I also think that this is the reading she gave me where she said I would have a husband whose birthday was very close to mine. I met Will later that year and his birthday is 5 days after mine. Coincidence? I think not.

An unopened, blank tape. You never know when you are going to need ancient relics like this.

Now that I've decided what to keep, I need to figure out what to do with the old.

How Romantic

Scene: Eating artichokes, candlelight dinner

Me: Want to clean off the rest of this and eat the heart?

Will: Yeah, let's rip into this sucker Temple of Doom* style.

Happy Valentines Day!

*My least favorite movie ever.  I had serious nightmares about everything in this movie.

You Know What They Did to Jesus?

I went to a 33rd birthday party this weekend and even though I had a fabulous time, I felt old. It isn't the highest friend birthday party number I've been to (I have lots of friends that are older than 33). And well, lots of older relatives, so I've been to their birthday parties too.

But here's the thing. I remember when I was a teenager and my Uncle Mike turned 33. Why was it so memorable? Well, my mom called him up to wish him a happy birthday and then said, "You know what they did to Jesus when he was 33?" And my mom and my uncle laughed and laughed because they grew up Catholic and Jesus and nuns are pretty funny stuff to the Catholics (as far as I can tell). Guilt, on the other hand, they take very seriously.

My parents making fun of religion was pretty darn funny to me too. It was almost as funny as my dad bitching out the Broncos on Sunday afternoons with all kinds of good swears when they didn't do well. My dad is a pretty soft spoken guy, but he has no problem coming up with all kinds of "advice" for the Broncos when they screw up that is best delivered in a tone that can be heard by the neighbors... 4 blocks down the street.

So, I'm at this birthday party with my dear friends from college at an old college hangout. And the guys are drinking beer and the girls are not (most of them are preggers and alcohol = hard times for me these days). Okay, so Will wasn't drinking beer because he hates it and Colleen was because she is awesome. But had this been 10 years ago, we all would have been drinking. Except for Will - he is impervious to peer pressure.

It occurs to me mid-way through dinner that I should ask the birthday boy, Brian, if he knew what they did to Jesus when he was 33. But then I realize that this is a bad idea because a) Brian isn't Catholic; b) it is kinda depressing if you aren't Catholic; c) it might just be depressing in general unless you are my mom and uncle.

And then I felt old for being mature enough not to blurt out a depressing topic, but also because my college friends are now the same age as my uncle once was. I mean, whatever, he was 17 once too but I don't remember that. But 33 seemed OLD when I was a teenager. My hip and cool uncle was OLD at 33.

I still have a few years to get to 33. So maybe it isn't me that is old, it is the people I hang out with. Yeah, that's it. (Shuffles off to take Metamucil and curl up in bed at 7 pm.)

2008: A Review

In 2008 I:

1. Got a bad-ass scar from my first major surgery.
2. Went to 3 beautiful weddings.
3. Traveled 94 days between March - December, mostly for work.
4. Found hope in politics again.
5. Hosted my first Thanksgiving with my awesome husband.
6. Flew quietly over the Flatirons.
7. Went to Vegas for the first time.
8. Hung out on the roof of the Denver Aquarium with my brother.
9. Had some really good times with new and old friends.
10. Got to laugh every day with the greatest guy ever.

On the Bright Side

Will actually said that it might be worth if for McCain to win, if only so Tina Fey will keep coming back to Saturday Night Live to play Sarah Palin. That's some serious commitment to comedy!

Last Minute Pays Off

Will and I rarely have life planned out too far in advance. Its not that we are last minute, late to the party, anti-planning, anti-organization. We just don't have a social calendar that books out months in advance. Which is kinda nice - I mean, we're both total homebodies. And hanging out at home with Will is good times in my book. But, last minute plans that get us out of the house are always fun and add a little spontaneity to life.

Will's former (boss/coworkers/friend/person - his job is a little free-form) called us last week to let us know that she was in town for the Monolith Festival and did we want free tickets? Ummm... sure!

One of my big regrets is that I didn't get a chance to go to a concert at Red Rocks this summer. If you live in Colorado, you have to have to have to go to concerts there. I'm sorry, the Pepsi Center and Fiddler's Green (or whatever Fids is called these days) is just not good enough. Red Rocks is where its at (two turntables and a microphone). Last summer we rocked out to Daft Punk and it was a total highlight of the year. This year though... not so much.

So, Jenny (Will's person) got us out of the house for some social time, got us to Red Rocks, and we got to catch up with her.

The concert itself had elements of fantastic. I love me some Vampire Weekend and they were really really good live. Plus, we learned of two new-fangeled bands that we really liked - Holy F**k! and Cut Copy. Good times folks - check them out!

We partied like rock stars with our Artist/Media passes and flashed our fancy wrist bands to get access to the artist tent for drinks & food & hobnobbing. We may have been rubbing elbows with the bands, but we're old and didn't recognize any of the young folks there.

All in all, it was a great day out of the house - and in the outdoors. And totally unplanned, which I think may have made the day even better.

Michael Phelps Broke My TV

I woke up this morning and headed downstairs to watch some Tivoed goodness (i.e. Jamie Oliver's show). I like to fancy myself as a gardener (someday) and a good cook (sorta) - and I always feel inspired by Jamie Oliver. I've only cooked one or two things from his show - I mostly just think about how awesome his food is and then cook the same stuff as always...

Since it has been uncharacteristically cold & rainy here in Boulder, I curled up with a quilt on the couch and convinced the cat to come snuggle with me.  Once Khanyo was all situated on my lap and purring away, I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.  The TV took its sweet time warming up and once it turned from gray nothingness to a picture a close-up, frozen-in-time picture of Michael Phelps was on the screen. Not thinking much about it, I hit the Tivo button to access my sweet Food Network show.  And nothing happened.  Michael just kept looking back at me with the whole "OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!" stunned look on his face.

I didn't want to disturb the cat to get up and trouble shoot, so I turned the TV off and thought, okay, I'll just snuggle with the cat and enjoy the sound of the rain. And that lasted about two minutes before it was boring.  

Still not wanting to disturb the snoozing cat on my lap, I grabbed the remote again and tried to turn the TV on.  Maybe the TV had thought about what it had done and felt bad and would now behave better.  But then after another round of taking its sweet time to warm up, the TV showed frozen Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!).  And then I thought, Will is going to be pissed!

I've been trying to convince Will that the Olympics are awesome for a week now.  The Chinese helped a whole lot with their awesome opening ceremony.  But Will is totally over swimming and gymnastics and the whole Michael Phelps hoopla.  And now, Michael Phelps was frozen on our broken TV because apparently the TV couldn't handle his awesomeness. 

Update:  Will was not happy with Michael Phelps for breaking our TV.  But, Will also didn't have a snoozing kitty in his lap when he found out. So he inspected the TV, forced the Tivo to shut down with some sort of boy-magic, and fixed the solution.  No more Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!) staring at us from the TV. 

If there was an Olympic game for fixing the TV, Will would have totally schooled Michael Phelps for the gold.