Friday, July 29, 2011

Do I Look Crazed???


I sure feel crazed.  Been a busy couple of months.

Summer has just breezed by and I want about three more months of it.  We've had a good time the past couple of months but it's been chock full of stuff.  The CO Boy begins 3rd grade on August 10th!

I need to post photos of my living room floor!  (sorry for the nonexistent transition there). I simply adore it.  When the RD comes back from his gig, I'll steal the camera and take a few shots.  So once I got the floor finished I moved on to getting the remaining carpet clean and it really makes such a difference.  Of course Ella, Gershwin and Mercer will soon take care of my clean carpets.  If they weren't so darn cute, I'd make throw rugs out of them-:).

My nerd group meetings with the niece and nephew have been sporadic this summer, but the last one was extremely helpful.  The niece read the manuscript that has been waiting for finishing touches, and she was able to offer some substantial suggestions.  I'm actually eager to write again.  I've tried focusing on one manuscript at a time - finish it and then move on.  But my brain doesn't work that way.  I'm a butterfly, not a panther.  So I work on MS for a bit and then my attention is captured by another.

I've had precious little time to write these days but I can never go too far from it.  It's like a rock in your shoe.  Just bugs you until you take it out. 

I'm halfway through cleaning out the Lego room, people!  It could happen!  But perhaps not tonight.  The CO Boy has gone up to Vail to visit the RD's cousin so we have a weekend without him.  The RD and I have a hot date tomorrow night, but tonight, he's at a gig and I'm going to crawl in bed with my pups and read.  Yesterday's bootcamp kicked my butt, or rather my legs.  Waaaay too many squats. But remember, bounding is the objective here...I shall be a bounder one day instead of collapsing on the grass.



Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Someone, please give me $900 so I can buy these boots

Luchesse English Riding Boots

I know.  I'm a boot whore.  I get it.  But goodness, are these the most gorgeous things you've ever seen??  I saw them at Rockmount Western Wear, here in CO.  The leather feels like butter and they're just beautiful.  I wouldn't wear them to ride but I would get a great deal of use out of them otherwise.  I also like the buckles on the side.  My legs are fairly slender and I've always had challenges fitting a boot if it was supposed to be snug.  These boots with some slender jeans tucked in and a warm sweater.  Oh my.

I can't help myself.  I may need an intervention at some point.




Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Where we turn the Grey Garden mess into an actual house again

Home eclectic living room
Not my living room, but I love this floor.

I'm getting wood floors!

It's just in the living room but that is by far the most needed area.  Side note:  Have you priced wood for stairs?  OMG.  They'd cost more than the living room, so we'll be sticking with carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms.  I'm beyond excited.

When we lived in L.A. we had wood floors and they're just so much easier.  And now with three dogs and a boy, the carpet takes a major beating.  Stains just don't come out after a while.  The picture above is darker than the color we selected.  Ours is more of a honey/maple color.  I, of course, wanted this gorgeous dark stained oak but it was soooo expensive.  So we have this instead and I think it will be lovely. 

The dogs will have some adapting.  Gershwin is quite used to launching his 13 lb. body off of the carpet and on to a chair.  Won't be so easy.  One friend asked if I was concerned about the dogs scratching the floor and I responded with an emphatic, "absolutely not!"  I love scuffed up hardwood.  Not one for pristine looking things. 

So tomorrow I'll be working from home as they begin a two day installation.  Woo hoo!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Funny

(At a museum exhibit on Egyptian embalming)
"Now there is a society where the funeral industry got completely out of control."
                                        ~Jessica Mitford

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Book Love - Wait for Me!

North American cover

I'm reading the memoirs of Deborah Mitford.  Actually I'm listening to them on CD.  I don't usually listen to books but my schedule has been challenging and I find I have little time to read.  So I decided to make use of my commute and listen to a book.

The Mitford sisters were so interesting.  I'm not really sure why.  Maybe because some of them were outrageous (one was a Fascist who married Sir Oswald Mosley, and another was a Communist, while still another shot herself in the head when she realized Great Britain declared war on Germany).  Deborah is probably the most conventional of all of the sisters and the youngest of them.  How funny that a Duchess would be considered, "conventional".  They had an interesting childhood and her writing is very "listenable".  It helps to have a good narrator in the way of Anne Flosnik.

Even though the girls didn't have a formal education (their mother was big on what we would be something akin to homeschool and she cared little for exams), they were so creative and witty.  All of them were voracious letter writers and their words have been preserved in various books written by them and about them. 

Most people know of Nancy Mitford, who wrote books about her family, thinly veiled as fiction.  You know my love of portraiture, be it human or dog or horse.  This is a portrait of Nancy Mitford I discovered and I love it.  She's a bit pointy looking in it, but I love it nonetheless.  I tried to find information on the artist but came up empty.


Nancy Mitford portrait by Mogens Tvede

The guys are off to Cub Scout Camp and I have three days to myself.  I'll be cleaning my filthy house, but also doing some stuff that will be more enjoyable.  Like staying up late and reading!


Monday, July 4, 2011

A chance to finally sit down

Not my porch...but I do have a cute porch with a rocking chair...

We have been going at a break-neck pace for the last week or so.  Lots going on that all needed to go on at one time. 

My sister has moved across the alley from me.  Yes, you heard me right. Across  the alley.  In our neighborhood we have driveways that are set behind the houses and you can stand on your back porch and talk to your next door neighbor.  Or your neighbor across the alley.  Some folks think it's crazy that we live so close but we're both quite happy with it.  We do a lot for one another - I take her dog to the groomer and pick her up, do stuff for the tea room, etc.  She watches the CO Boy every Monday and has even picked up a spare child in the process (Augie's friend usually joins them).  So it's quite wonderful to have her so close.  The CO Boy is already used to it.  Like she's lived across the alley forever.  And all the little kids in the neighborhood know "Tia Margo", because of the CO Boy.

So that was the first thing that had to happen.  She had to move into the house because she sold her old house across town.  Now I didn't help much, but I had stress just so I could share. You know, sisters and all...

Then we had Auntie come for a visit.  She lives in L.A. and needed her CO Boy time.  Before she booked her ticket I told her we'd be out at the horse stables during this holiday weekend because we were helping Miss Kim with an Independence Day celebration.  Auntie, in what must have been a deluded state, said, "Oh that'll be fun."  Auntie is a CITY GIRL.  But check out this photo of her with the Monte and Scott from the chuckwagon

This was taken at the end of the day, after she'd been stuck under a tent selling water and sodas to folks.  By then she'd had a tasty dinner, courtesy of Monte and Scott.  Plus the sun was going down and it was still stinkin' hot but shaded at least.

So Auntie's visit was the second thing that was happening.

And then the aforementioned Independence Day party out at the stables ocurred.  The Roping Dummies were playing the event and I helped with various parts of the event.  It was our first rodeo for this event, and while there were some kinks (I spent six hours taking money on the dirt road and directing folks to a field for parking), it went well and everyone had a great time.

The CO Boy getting ready to show off.

Biscuits from Monte's chuckwagon

Don and The Roping Dummies

So that was the third thing happening.

May not sound like much but I'm just one tired pup.

So today we are having a semi-pajama day.  We're taking Auntie to lunch and then coming home to be lazy and maybe, just maybe, I'll get my kitchen cleaned.