Before
After
The work on our roof has seemingly been done for months, but we have to wait for the inspector to come inspect our roof before we can reinstall our deck, which has been living in our living room since July. But on Thursday, a realization came to me. We could move the pile of wood onto the deck and store it out there until the inspector comes. A quick call to the head of the condo board said sure so Sam and I spent an hour yesterday relocating the inconcenience outside.
We have now re-fallen in love with our living room. I'd forgotten how great it used to be. Life is good.
As we have in past years, we spent Christmas Eve at Sam's Aunt Barbara's house. We decorated the tree, Sam modeled some of Barbara's knitting creations, and after the traditional Swedish Meatballs and Italian-style Salmon, we settled down to a game of Trivial Pursuit (which we didn't finish due to time constraints). And I got to play around with my new camera.
Our Christmas day plans of Chinese food and movie with my parents were thwarted though by the mob scene that was the AMC Lincoln Square. We had to make due with Ollie's on its own.
Jason already posted his list, so I figured I'd get mine out too, especially since I'll be right here in NYC for the holidays.
Brooklyn, NY*
San Francisco, CA*
Alford, MA*
Dover, NH
Long Branch, NJ
Sonoma, CA
Cambridge, MA
Boston, MA
New Orleans, LA
Somerville, MA
Burlington, VT
New York, NY
Pittsburgh, PA*
Park City, UT
St. Paul, MN
One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. My New Years resolution last year was to travel less (mainly meaning less cross country trips), but at only 1 city less than last year, this doesn't really reflect it. However, with only one trip to CA since I came back for good, I guess I did meet that goal.
Inspired by a cat scratcher that we saw at a friends house, we decided to revisit the cat scratcher issue. We used to have a corrugated cardboard scratcher that Maddie loved and Paris liked to sit on. However, once it got torn to shreds and we replaced it with (GASP!) another brand, neither of them could care less for it. Coincidentally the time our couch and carpet started to look a bit ragged. However, once we saw the Alpine Scratcher, we had hope. Not only was it slanted, hence maybe a bit more interesting to the kitties, but it had a toy inside.
Sunday we picked one up and Sam sprinkled it with catnip and sat it down. And Paris proceeded to hog the whole scratcher and lick up all the cat nip, while Maddie licked up the scraps that fell on the side. I haven't seen or heard any evidence of scratching, but on the upside, it probably was Paris's best workout in months.
I was going to write a post on Monday things got crazy at work and since my laptop is still dead at home, these things get put on hold.
Weekend highlight: Dim Sum. First time in way too long a time, at the place where we had our rehearsal dinner. Mmm.
Weekend highlight: Hearing the older asian woman we shared a table with switch from speaking Chinese to her friend to speaking English with one of the thickest New York accents I've ever heard.
Weekend highlight: Playing Wii at Gamestop. I got to fish!
Week lowlight: Working until after 9:30 both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Week lowlight: Getting to the pool on Monday morning at 6:30 and finding out the lifeguard never showed up for work so we couldn't get into the pool.
Week lowlight: Getting to work by 8:30 four days this week.
Week highlight: Leaving work before 6:30 yesterday!
