Tuesday, December 01, 2009

The mill is still used to grind corn. You can see all the little kernels falling in to get crushed!

They had a fife and drum band playing.


And of course, some men firing shots. They also did a lot of random marching around in circles.

We enjoyed free birthday cake and we bought some chowder and beef stew. Yum!

- We bought a house!! Yes, after all that searching and frustration and drama, we closed on our house on Nov 23. Even that was a roller coaster ride.

The owner moved out on Nov 27 and we had our first day in the house on Nov 28. There is going to be a LOT going on with the house. I am contemplating another blog just for house stuff but seeing as I can hardly keep up this one and the wedding one, I should probably hold off.

We are not moving in yet. Right now we are just fixing things up but as each day goes by, it gets more and more real! We already set up FIOS at the house and had the electrician and hardwood flooring people stop by. Last night we even hung out a bit to watch the football game. Home sweet home!

- We had Thanksgiving! We spent the morning with my family and then the afternoon with Eric's. Then I had a sneezing fit and we had to go home.

- We went shopping on Black Friday! Seriously, we had 3 different shifts when we went out. First at midnight to Toys R Us. Then at 4am for Sears, the mall, Target, and Lowes. Then again after lunch to some more stores farther north. We bought gifts for other people but we also bought a lot for our house. In fact, I foresee a LOT of time and money spent at Home Depot and Lowe's.

- I went to a surprise party! My friend turns 30 in 2 wks so she was definitely surprised. One of the highlights of the evening was her gift of a Bumpit which was promptly put to use. It was hilarious.

So that's the bulk of what I've been up to. This Friday is my birthday and I am taking the day off! Eric and I are going away for the weekend to Maine and New Hampshire. Woo hoo!

Posted by Catherine :: 1:56 PM :: 1 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Thursday, November 19, 2009

So what's new with you?

It's been busy but I find myself in a lull today. I need something to get excited about! Usually I can spend hours looking at wedding stuff but today... it's just not working... cheer me up!

Eric is finally done with Kansas and has been home almost a full 2 wks! Can you believe it? We are up to our usual antics on the weekends. Lately we have been cleaning the leaves.

(Image from here)

Yes I know, what a life we lead. We finally broke down and bought a leaf blower/ vac. It's great except that I am somewhat scared to use it since it involves lots of pulling and switching and pressing and stuff. Now I know the leaf blower is not a new invention but they could vastly improve the design. Right now it sucks leaves in to this weird, kidney shaped bag with a zipper. Only to get all the leaves out, you have to really turn the bag inside out and the zipper is hardly big enough for that, not to mention it doesn't hold a ton! But it sure beats bagging the leaves yourself so we've dealt with it.

Besides that:

- we went to a fundraiser hootenanny for Eric's mom's school. We were too tired to dance but we did bid and win some stuff.

- Eric had a football and TWO softball games all in the same day. Sadly they only made it to the 2nd round of softball playoffs but there's always next year

- we had dinner with my relatives for my cousin's b-day

- we had dinner with Eric's relatives to watch their wedding video (this was research)

- we attended the 7th annual Thanksgiving Potluck!

- I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my ladies!

- we went to see "Men Who Stare at Goats"

- we watched an endless # of DVDs from the library and netflix

So things I am looking forward to...

- the weekend

- next Mon (I'll tell you why soon)

- Thanksgiving

- my birthday - Eric and I just booked a little mini vaca for this!

- Christmas!

What exciting things are YOU looking forward to??

Posted by Catherine :: 1:06 PM :: 1 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Week 5

This is the 5th week Eric is working in Kansas! This is also the last week though so after this I won't have to come up with things to keep me occupied!

Weekend:
Eric was back for the weekend and it was nice. We actually *gasp* had free time! We went around on Sat looking for stuff for my Halloween costume (a bee) and ended up at LL Bean where I tried out a bike.


They let me ride around the parking lot but I had to wear a helmet and this lovely orange vest. The bikes were quite comfy but boy do I need to get in shape!

After my little bike ride, we headed back home to hand out candy! That is one more thing I like about the 'burbs, trick-or-treaters! I was told we'd get 100 kids but that source was unreliable and we only had about 20. Needless to say, I have a giant cauldron of candy left. I even left some candy at the door when we headed out to our Halloween party and no one took any!

The Halloween party was great. It was so nice and balmy out. Now all our costume items are in a box of "props" to be used at our photobooth at our wedding!

On Sun we started off easy with brunch at the Wayside Inn. Then off to softball where they didn't have enough girls so I had to play. I still suck. We had plans to go out for a nice dinner with Eric's family but one of the nephews got sick so after we dropped off pizza, we headed home.

Wedding:
We did get our engagement photos and had a couple good ones. I bought the digital prints to two of them but somehow, it takes them 2-3 days for it to be available for download. I don't understand why as the pics are already online. I'm not sure I'll show them yet because I want to put them on our Save-the-Dates and those won't go out till later this month. So you must wait!

PS I still knit! About 2 inches more to go in the length....


PPS Look at the flowers Eric sent me on Fri!

Posted by Catherine :: 9:04 PM :: 2 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Monday, October 26, 2009

Fuji!

I was ready to update on what I've been up to until I realized that one of the items was a Red Sox game that Eric and I went to. And it doesn't much matter now since the Sox are long eliminated and the dreaded Yanks made the playoffs. So we'll skip that.

Eric has been in Kansas the past few weeks so I have lots of nights to myself. I did not sign us up for cable tv so I've been watching movies (library and netflix) and also Hulu! I am now hooked on "Glee." Also I've been going to bed nice and early. Ahhh...

Weekends are still crazy busy because Eric comes back and we try to get everything done in two days! Sun is usually a sports day (watching and playing) but we've also went to see my cousin in a play, went to various birthday parties, and got engagement photos taken! I am eagerly awaiting the results of the latter.

Anyhow, some photos. Eric and I went out on Fri night and tried to go to Longhorn Steakhouse. However our GPS was not updated and Longhorn was gone and across the street was Fuji Steakhouse. Looked nice enough, wait was short, so we went in.


It is the kind of place where they cook your food in front of you! Like Benihana! I have never been to a place like this and I was SO excited. Eric and I saw some special about it on tv including this onion ring volcano:


Here is the guy chopping up all our food:


It was a very exciting experience. Maybe for my birthday??

Posted by Catherine :: 8:58 PM :: 0 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Rhinebeck the Third!

Normal blogging will resume shortly but for now, my weekend in Rhinebeck!

This is the 3rd year I have been to New York Sheep and Wool (check out 2007 - part one, part two and 2008 - part one, part two). It was actually very stressful leading up to it because plans (and weather!) kept changing and there was all this other stuff going on my life. I just wanted the weekend to come and for me to be there!

This year my traveling buddies were Danielle and Alexis who also went in '07 and '08. We added two new companions, our SnB friend Monet and Danielle's 3.5 month old baby, Robert! I give Danielle props for carrying him around all day with no complaints or anything!

First the people photos. Monet was trying on these very interesting alpaca hats. This one makes me think of Elvis!

She did eventually find an alpaca hat that was less poofy to buy. I don't think the rest of us could have pulled it off but she looked very glam in it. Plus it made her really easy to find in the crowds.

Here are Monet and Danielle eating our artichokes after standing in the long line!!

We all had the combo but I think next year I am going for 2 orders of the artichoke french which i think is basically deep fried artichoke and garlic (yum...).

And here are some animals! Sheep...

A llama! Or an alpaca... sigh, I don't really know the difference except they are both pretty cute.

I spotted this lady who had a Shaun the Sheep bag!! I know it's dark, I was too embarrassed to ask for a photo but it was very awesome.

There was lots of beautiful yarn. I love this teal one in the middle but it was something like 1400 yards of lace weight and I know I will never knit that!

Some cute needle felted animals...

We went to the Ravelry party which was much more organized this year! Once again, there were the cutest cupcakes:

We also got treat bags but Blogger mysteriously deleted that photo.

And as tradition, the obligatory yarn acquisition photo:

I hardly bought any yarn this year. In fact, we got there around 9 and I don't think anyone bought yarn till well after noon. We even went to The Fold booth first thing and there was just no yarn we wanted! Could it be I've reached my max yarn stashing??

I eventually came away with 2 balls of Mini Mochi (I haven't seen this anywhere else).

And two skeins of yarn for a Feb Lady Sweater. I think this is Silver Moon Farms... or Silver Creek? It's a pretty teal color.

The next day we drove to Lenox again to stop at Colorful Stitches. I was having a horrible sneezing fit so we didn't stay long and I didn't buy anything! Then we drove back through the torrential snow storm (yes I said snow!) and by the time I got home, I was delirious with sleep.

Here is a snowfall pic. It's dark because this one you can see the snowflakes. And that is not my house or my house to be. Just one across the street. :-)

Posted by Catherine :: 12:06 PM :: 2 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

My Week

I don't know if any of you use google calendar but I HIGHLY recommend it. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be able to remember what I did this past week or what I have for the coming week. It gives my brain a rest!

Houses:
Yes, the house topic has returned again. I am happy to say the condo closed last Thurs! *clap, clap* What a way to start October, I am hoping this is a month filled of good things.

Wedding:
I changed the url of our website just because "Our Wedding Blog" wasn't all that original and then what do I do after we're married? So here is the new blog. It's nice that we were able to squeeze in some wedding related stuff this week. We met with one photographer, had a cake tasting, and went to a wedding expo! Progress!

Other:
Hrm, in other news we went to a house warming. The house is from the 1860s I think and they did such a good job with the paint and decorating. Amazing how it can change a house!

Let's see, we also went to LL Bean because I wanted to test out this bike but it was really raining so I'll have to go back again.

I guess that's it!

Posted by Catherine :: 11:34 AM :: 0 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------

Monday, September 28, 2009

Rockin' the suburbs....

Ok, so the 'burbs are still doing well! I am pretty used to how quiet it is now and we've got nightlights so it's not so dark.

I thought once we moved that somehow things would settle down but really they haven't! Inevitably, though I came across 3 ice cream scoops and 3 veggie peelers and we pretty much packed the truck to the gills, we still had to go out and buy some stuff for our new place.

We have seriously been to Bed Bath on Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sat. The reason for our visits has mainly been this:

This is a Nescafe Dolce Gusto! It is like a Keurig except the Keurig only makes coffee and tea and this makes lattes and cappuccinos and those fancy drinks! My relatives in NY have this machine and Eric and I tried the drinks and have wanted one since. I tried to get Eric one for his birthday but alas, the Bed Bath near me at the time (Fenway) did not carry it! So when we came across it at the Framingham store, I bought it!

Except it didn't work so we had to go back the next day. Then we had to go buy pods for it but we went to a different Bed Bath and that one didn't have it so we had to go back to the original one.

Anyhow, we are very much enjoying it and I highly recommend it! Plus it looks cute right?

Wedding + Crafts:
Hey, I set up our wedding blog! I started writing it today and as I did I thought, oh yes, I have to remember to write about this. And this... oh and that too. I think it might be a novel by the time I get married. So most of my wedding blabber will be on that site but I'll still keep tabs over here.

I am (still) obsessing over my save-the-dates which has waffled between a pre-made postcard and a flat card of my own doing. I somehow decided that embossing was the way to go (having never done it before) so I got a bunch of stuff at AC Moore.

Here we have an embossing gun, assorted beachy stamps (I'm looking for the perfect starfish stamp), some glitter, and the green thing on the bottom is a corner rounder. I picked up some paper at Paper Source so I might give it a go. I got cover weight paper in stardream silver and pool. Although now that I look I see the pool is only 80# weight... if my attempts are successful, I will order the paper online because it's cheaper!

In other wedding news we stopped by a bakery to test out the cupcakes. We will go in for a real appointment and tasting next week! We also stopped at a bunch of hotels/inns to see where to recommend people to stay. This week we meet with a photographer!!

It was a really nice day to be out and about in Gloucester. One of the hotels we checked out was in Rockport so we took a walk downtown. How picturesque is this place??


Other:
On Fri I met up with my maid of honor for dinner (yay!) and then Eric and I went to see "Inglorious Bastards." We spent the rest of the weekend shopping, house hunting, and just driving all over the place! I guess as long as there is some fun stuff mixed in to my busy schedule, I am ok. Although this week already I am booked every night... oh and this weekend too. Augh!

Posted by Catherine :: 8:17 PM :: 2 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------