Busy Weekend and My Own "I Did It!"

We worked on home projects this weekend. Bill fixed a problem with the pool (amazing how quickly the water becomes green when the chlorinator runs out of tablets!), and I pruned and/or uprooted some vines that had threatened to take over the fence around the pool, the deck, and several bushes. Bill put up track lighting in the hallway to our bedroom, in anticipation of putting up a wall of family photos. (His frames of Kiwanis pins are on the opposite wall.) We love our new well-lighted hallway!

I finally started working on (machine) hemming the sheers for our bedroom windows (so that they clear the baseboard heaters). Now I need to clear off the ironing board, which has become a holding station for things on their way downstairs, out to the garage, etc.

I also assembled shelves (brought from Lancaster) for our "Christmas closet," the place we store gifts that we have bought for specific people or to hold for future gift-giving, when we find something we know will be perfect for "someone," we're just not sure whom. We still need to make a list so that we can add to it any time we put something in the closet, so we don't lose track of things, but we're well on our way to organization! This allowed me to move in some gifts that I had been afraid of losing in the pit of the smaller closet that previously served that function (in addition to holding random other stuff), which, in turn, freed up some space on shelves in my part of our bedroom closet, which allowed me to move some things up from the floor! It also allowed me to clear out a cardboard chest, which I've now FreeCycled. (It's like a reverse game of dominoes.)

But the most exciting news is -- inspired by Joanna's own "I Did It!" post -- I played the piano for the first time in years! I warmed up with the theme from Romeo & Juliet and then moved on to Haydn's "Gipsy Rondo," my all-time favorite recital piece (from year 4)! It wasn't very smooth, and my wrists felt very aware of movements I hadn't made in quite a while, but my fingers remembered a lot of it (sometimes faster than my eyes could see), and it felt good to have started up again. (I played Kerry's baby grand, since it's in the living room -- my spinet is in the basement for now -- and the touch was unfamiliar, so that gave me another excuse for rocky playing. But I sat on my own piano bench, with the needlepoint cover that my mom made, and that was great!)

Tomorrow, we leave for the Kiwanis International convention in Orlando, followed by CSTA-related events (CS&IT Symposium, board meeting, NECC conference) in San Antonio.

FreeCycle

Combining two full households yields a lot of extra stuff! At Erica's suggestion, I registered at FreeCycle.org, an online clearinghouse for things that people no longer want. You join a list for the region in which you live, and you can post an OFFER or a WANTED notice. (There are strict guidelines -- no money is exchanged, items are picked-up by the taker, no pets or kids, no matter how much they might annoy you at any given time...) The person making the offer may choose from among the respondents, without having to justify.

I got rid of many things, including some pretty nice stuff (a standing gas grill and a nice dresser that none of my kids wanted) before I left Lancaster, so I could avoid moving things we didn't need. However, I've also joined the list for our county here, mostly to get rid of stuff that was already here, but also moving boxes and some smaller things that I had brought but we discovered we couldn't use. We're still sorting and weeding out, and I'll keep making offers.

I've been amazed at the variety of offerings and requests; when I had a lot of broken pieces of old brick pavers (left over from my patio project), Bill was skeptical that anyone would want them, but a guy came and got them all -- boxes full! One woman came to get a few small things from Erica's earlier years (after Erica had claimed what she wanted), and she mentioned that her husband had lost his job and they were trying to come up with Christmas presents for 12 grandkids. Since the time of my post, Erica (who was still at my house), had weeded out more things, and she offered the woman anything else that she wanted. Bonus for everyone!

Last night, while (finally!) trying to clear the dining room table so that I could set up my sewing machine, I moved a plant to a wobbly set of plant shelves and knocked over the plant at the far end (think dominoes). Pot, plant, and wet soil hit the floor (and baseboard heater), and I struggled not to go ballistic. Bill had earlier suggested that we could cut down on the plant population, so I asked him to be specific about what could go. Around midnight, I posted an offer for 4 different kinds of plants (including a photo of one we couldn't identify), and requests have poured in this morning! Some plants have babies or offshoots, but we have 3 full pots of aloe, which I can divide as many ways as there are requests. (I asked people to prioritize, in case I had multiple requests. Some people follow directions better than others, so those who didn't specify a preference will get aloe.)

Step-by-step, we're getting this place in order, which makes us both happy!

Family visit

Last weekend, we celebrated my 50-something birthday, along with Erica, Jack, and Kent (visiting from Baton Rouge). The weather was hot and humid the whole time, but they're used to it. (At least the pool was available for cool-downs!) Friday's birthday dinner was at a classic New Jersey diner, and we spent Saturday in NYC (well, after we worked out the train schedule): lunch at A Salt and Battery (a great fish & chips place!) and Chelsea Market. Sunday started with church (see Links), including lots of great music (it was recognition Sunday for choirs). Then we went to Trader Joe's, where E & J stocked up, since they don't have one close to home.

Kids change so fast, so it was especially great to spend time with Kent, who doesn't e-mail or call regularly. In April, we spent a weekend with Joanna's family, but I'm ready for another grandson fix soon! Our family get-together in August couldn't come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned! Thank goodness for blogs, digital photos, and nearly-free additional mobile phone minutes. I think of my grandparents in Montana, who saw us once every few YEARS and talked with us on the phone only occasionally, in those expensive, pre-deregulation days. My mom and Grandmother wrote letters about once a week, since that was the main way people could keep up. And if you wanted to keep up with 10 people, you had to write 10 separate letters -- imagine that!

Updates on my life

I just remembered that I had set up this account, and since I haven't posted since November 2006, and a LOT has happened in the meantime, I'm going to post again. (If anyone -- Erica? -- has an automatic notification that I've posted an update, this should trigger a visit.)

I can't possibly go into detail on everything that's happened in the past 1.5 years, but here's a list:

• I met a wonderful man through okcupid.com (85% match). Ironically, there's just one letter difference between his first and last names and that of my late husband!
  
  
• We got engaged in March 2007 and married in November. This was my longest engagement ever, but I had known my other 2 husbands for longer before friendship turned to romance, so this was the longest total time between meeting and meeting at the altar. ;-) Oh, and I didn't change my name.
  
  
• I moved to NJ -- living together seemed like the thing to do, and Bill's job is less transferable than mine (and it provided a significantly-higher portion of our combined income). My dogs and his cat are getting along quite well, so I'm 2-for-2 on successfully-blended families.
  

We just got back from 10 wonderful days in London -- 3 royal palaces (Tower of London, Kensington, and Hampton Court), 3 plays (39 Steps, Billy Elliott, and Spam-A-Lot), and 3 church services (Lincoln's Inn chapel, St. Paul's, and Westminster Abbey). Oh, and a music hall performance that was a revue, rather than a play. We also spent a fair amount of time with David & Angela, good friends of Bill's for the past several years. (He spent Christmas with them the year after his wife died.) Hotel bills and kennel bills were neck-and-neck; fortunately, we used frequent flyer miles for the airline tickets.

New resolution: post more frequently. (It won't be hard to improve my average!)

Cheers!

What's my accent?

Here are my results from a fun quiz:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I got the link from Erica's blog, and I'm always interested in analyzing my hybrid accent. (The one thing they didn't ask is how long -- time-wise -- the vowel sounds are.)

Try it yourself!

Whoa! Electric Pink!

That pink (outside the main frame) is really bright! The outside part didn't show up in the preview when I selected it. What do YOU think?

I'll leave this up for a few days and then think about changing it.

My New Blog!

I created this blog so that I could post to other blogs that don't allow anonymous posting. I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but it's good to have the option, if I suddenly get inspired. (I'll have to think of a more creative name -- suggestions are welcome.)