for home and hearth and ever-giving hand

pumpkin pie made by Chef Salvatore; you can't see it well in the pic, but the banners say "Hall" and "Smiley", respectively

Thank ye the gods, O dwellers in the land,
For home and hearth and ever-giving hand.

     -- excerpted from "The Seeker in the Marshes" by Daniel Lewis Dawson

Wow, a week since the last post? Where does the time go?

Well, into the busy activity of the holidays, obviously. Not that we get too wound up in the holidays per se, and we are staunch supporters of the stay-in-your-pajamas-all-day tradition of celebration, but even a relaxed holiday is a change of routine that can turn things upside down a bit.

Uncle Sal and Miss M clearly making up for lost timeThankfully, Guy and Sister both subscribe to the same celebratory philosophy, which meant that our family Thanksgiving was delightful and fun with none of that pesky stress nonsense that no one needs anyway. We ate a ridiculous amount of food, visited and laughed and played, took naps, ate some more, watched a bunch of Friday Night Lights (which they loved, because hello, awesome), and ate some more. (Cute moment of the holiday: when they arrived Wednesday night and Miss M was eating a bit of dinner before bedtime, she asked Sister, "Where's Uncle Sal?" Sister explained he was at work and wouldn't be home until after she was in bed but he would see her the next morning. To which Miss M asked, "Why isn't he here to play with me?")

Before they left Friday, Guy very graciously helped move the guest room furniture (my old bedroom set) to the basement where it will be stored until Miss M is ready for it*. Getting the room cleared out was important to getting started on the work in that room, since we pretty much can't do anything until the room is emptied out. We don't have to completely repaint the room, thankfully, but we are going to be doing some painting, and of course putting up new furniture and decorations.

*Miss M thinks of the guest room as hers, since she sleeps there when she stays the night. She (and we) call it her room. So we were a tad concerned what the reaction would be when we started dismantling it. Sister kept her occupied in the kitchen as we started taking the bed apart, but the jig was up when Guy passed through on the way to the basement carrying the headboard and footboard. Which elicited an alarmed cry of "You broke my bed!" from Miss M and sent her scurrying to the guest room to find the other furniture already dismantled and ready to hauled downstairs. "What did you do to my room?!" she asked anxiously. But the opportunity to run and slide across the now wide-open wood floor seemed to ease her distress.

Saturday, we spent a wonderful few hours with ProcrastiGirl, enjoying a quick brunch before catching a matinee showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. The three of us seeing the newest Harry Potter installment at the theater has become something of a tradition; it'll be sad when we'll do it for the last time this summer. We enjoyed the movie, especially the animated "Three Brothers" sequence in the middle. (If you've seen it, you know why.) But I think my favorite part was a scene when Harry tells Hermione, "You're brilliant, Hermione," and she replies, "No, I'm just highly logical with an ability to see past the extraneous details." At which point, ProcrastiGirl and Sally patted each of my knees from either side as a way to say, "Yep, that's our Bitty", and then we all started whisper-giggling. I am, apparently, the Hermione.

After we said goodbye, we figured it was late enough in the day to brave the holiday weekend hordes at IKEA, who were hopefully dissipating enough to not chew our faces off like starved zombies while we gathered the numerous flat packs of furniture we'll need for the creative room. I compiled this list after many hours of careful research and measurement and...yes, I admit it, some 3-D modeling with Google Sketchup. Shut up. Okay, go ahead and mock me, but it meant that we could make a beeline for the warehouse area make a list of the aisle and bins for each of the items on our list, and load up the three pallet carts with our various flat packs, all in the space of about 45 minutes in the midst of a only-slightly-diminished-from-peak-shopping-hours swarm of people. The checkout line was long and the wait at the delivery reservation desk, too, which is why our total trip was about an hour and a half, but considering it was 20 minutes there and back, that's pretty darn efficient.

just a glimpse of the stack of boxes full of furniture waiting to be assembled...Even though we won't start the project for two more weeks, we wanted to get the IKEA trip out of the way as soon as possible since the crowds will only get worse the close we get to the holidays. And, we figured if there was a waiting list for having things delivered, we'd have plenty of time. Turns out, however, that they prefer to get deliver sooner rather than later so they don't have to store stuff, so we ended up having our stuff delivered first thing Sunday morning. Good thing the room was already emptied out! Otherwise, there wouldn't have been anywhere to put all those big, heavy boxes.

So the guest room has been emptied of old furniture, with a few odds and ends to be put away still, and there is now a big stack of furniture-to-be occupying the middle of the room. I'll make a trip to the paint store this week for the bit of paint we'll need and we may even get a head start this weekend and next. Which means...it's coming together!

Guess I'd better hurry up and finish updating the guest room and library renovations. So here, have the next installments: scraping the trim! Oooh, exciting!

Guest & Creative Room, part 3: scraping the trim

Library, part 3: scraping the trim

This is another case of the text for both being the same but the pictures are different so be sure to at least check out the two different picture galleries. (Future phase updates will have different text for each, since the projects began to diverge after this point even though they were done at the same time.)

I have the pictures done for the next couple of phases but haven't yet done the write-ups; hopefully those will be up in the next couple of days so keep an eye open.

art journal bento

This is the lunch I packed Sunday night for Monday that I ended up not eating yesterday. I'd intended it for today's lunch instead but got too busy for lunch, so it's dinner tonight. Which is nice, actually, since we're low on food that isn't for the Thanksgiving Extravaganza, and I'm in the midst of an art journal project tonight so I didn't really feel like making a big production for a meal. It's kind of like a TV dinner except, you know, awesome.

dinner, blue bunny & moons:

• dry rubbed pork chop (from Saturday's dinner Sal made for Kurt's visit)
• pureed parsnips -- roasted parsnips with leeks and fresh parsley, then put through the ricer so they're like mashed potatoes (also from Saturday's dinner)
• green beans sauteed with nions, garlic, and mushrooms
• red grapes
• Granny Smith apple with cashews for gap fillers

i cleaned all the things!

courtesy of the always spectacularly hilarious Hyperbole and a Half, taken from the all-time best post ever (except possibly The God of Cake) and you absolutely must click to read or an asteroid will hit the earthWhat a jam-packed and productive weekend!

Friday, I worked a half day and then spent the afternoon poking around downtown, splurging on a few art supplies for me and Sal and then playing with my supplies when I got home for the rest of the evening. Saturday, we got our New Seasons delivery of all our groceries for our part of the Thanksgiving menu (more about this later in the post), which means yet another year where we do not have to brave the scary grocery store crowds for the last can of Who Hash. So because we didn't have to play Killer Shopping Cart Grand Prix, we instead did some straightening and made a great dinner in honor of our dear friend Kurt who was visiting from out of town.

Kurt is the bestest. He shares my geeky love for intricately programmed Excel spreadsheets and has the best joke delivery of anyone I know, except possibly Sal. He and his wife, Sylvia, are from South Africa so he has the most wonderful accent, and he says delightful things like "Cheers!" instead of "goodbye" and "Howzit!" instead of "hello", which is my favoritest Kurt-expression ever.

Sal (who was taking the picture one-handed with my cameraphone, which is tricky as hell), Kurt, and meKurt and Sylvia share our love for pretty much the greatest TV shows in existence, and Kurt will gladly fan-squee with me over whatever show they're currently watching. And he and Sylvia's stories about their kids are not to be missed. Oh, every parent tells their funny kid stories, and some of them are funny (and some, I'm sure we can agree, are only funny to the parents). But Kurt and Sylvia's kid stories are the stuff of stand-up comedy.

So over another excellent meal courtesy of Chef Salvatore of dry-rubbed pork chops, roasted parsnips pureed with leeks and fresh parsley, and creamed brussel sprouts*, and later, a dessert of tart tatin, we talked non-stop for hours and laughed enough to come close to someone snorting a liquid through their nose at several points. We talked about the awesomeness of Portland, and the good things that Texas has, after all (that's where they live now), despite not being Oregon, and politics and the housing crisis and Arrested Development and the merits of Buffy vs. Angel. Goodbye came too soon, of course, but we were glad to get to see him for a bit.

(Kurt, upon hearing we were having brussel sprouts, proclaimed he would try them but admitted that he'd always hated them since he was a kid. I'll note for the record, as proof to Sylvia since she was on the phone with him when we said that there'd be brussel sprouts, that Kurt did indeed have seconds on them.)

Yesterday, with the prospect of the lowest temps of the year and the forecast of snow, we were finally motivated enough to get outside and do some kind of nominal winterizing. We have seriously been the most procrastinatory (NEW WORD AHOY!) slugs ever for the last few months, blithely ignoring the lovely fall weekends we could've been working outside and not freezing our fingers off, opting instead to go to apple festivals and walks in the park and concerts in the middle of the city square. So waiting until the last possible minute, when it was colder than hell outside and starting to rain, was probably our due punishment for being so lazy.

We didn't get the veggie garden cleared out (I KNOW), nor the leaves raked and put into the raised beds (I KNOW OKAY), and the zebra grasses still need to be chopped back (YES I GET IT WE SUCK AT PLANT CARE) but! We did get all of the various decorations brought in, the twinkle lights in the trees taken down, the potted plants that are still blooming sheltered on the back porch, the porch swing and rocker removed to the basement, and all the stuff that gets stored on the back porch packed away in the steel bins or covered with plastic sheeting as appropriate. We also got the three potted trees on the patio and the two potted shrubs on the front porch covered for the next few days of below freezing temps, so we're feeling pretty proud of ourselves for being actually on top of things for once. Sort of.

I carried that sense of accomplishment inside with me and folded and put away the four (!) overflowing baskets of laundry while Sal ran more loads (I refrained from pointing out that Sisyphus and I have something in common, lest I seem to be an ungrateful wretch). And then! We made a full pan of enchiladas to freeze for Wednesday night's dinner, when the Hall-Smiley Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza officially commences.

For those just joining our program, the H-SFTE is an annual family celebration of food, slothfulness, and inappropriate humor, in which obscene quantities of good food are cooked and consumed continuously, games are played, Wii records are shattered, laughter is heard, dishes are washed, and new shows are marathoned. In pajamas. It is the very best holiday ever invented.

Sister, Guy, and the Fabulous Miss M arrive on Wednesday night (hence the enchiladas, which can be thrown into the oven for a quick and yummy dinner), Miss M is put to bed in the princess bed (aka my old canopy bed*), and pies and casseroles are baked while we wait for Sally to get home from a long day. Beer is consumed by Guy and Sally and we all stay up way too late, the aero bed is put up in the living room, and we all finally go to bed at some ridiculously late hour.

*(this will become her bed later this year, but it will be the last time she sleeps in it at our house...awww)

On Thanksgiving Day, we have a simple breakfast and get started cooking, but there's none of that putting-the-turkey-in-at-5-AM nonsense. No ma'am, we sleep in and get cooking when we damn well feel like it, as god and nature intended. Other dishes are prepared while we nosh on bread and cheese plates and then crudites, all while playing with Miss M and watching movies. And usually, there's a walk in the park somewhere in there. A literal walk in the park. Hee.

We eat late, depending on Miss M's schedule and whatever's easiest. We laugh and we play and then her bedtime comes and we either eat after that if we haven't already, or we eat again if we're hungry (we usually are). And then comes the marathon of whatever new show we're introducing them to (Friday Night Lights this year). When Sister starts to get a little droopy, we liven things up with a Wii tournament (Wii Sports, Wii Resort, and Raving Rabids are the family favorites) and end up eating and drinking even more, and then at some point we realize that Miss M will be up in a few hours and we all finally say good night.

Friday is the late morning brunch of some wonderful elaborate family breakfast usually involving pancakes or waffles, and dishes are done, and leftovers are packed up, and at some point in the early afternoon, goodbyes are said. And thus, another fabulous H-SFTE comes to a close.

(I'd normally stick a pic of today's bento here, and I actually did have it all written up last night after I packed it, but ended up coming home early to get a jump on the inevitable traffic snarl that happens when snow starts to fall. Since I knew I was going to come home before lunch when I left this morning, I ended up not bringing my bento with me. I could've eaten it here, but opted instead for leftover enchiladas so I guess I'll eat it tomorrow.)

these memories we make, these bonds we forge

Had the best, best weekend. Sister arrived Friday evening for one of our famous Girls' Weekends, in which much sleeping in is accomplished, much delicious food is consumed, much conversation is shared, much laughter is heard, and much fun is had.

While eating pizza in our PJs Friday night, we caught up on our most recent goings on, squee'd about the creative room, talked excitedly about decorating ideas for the Fabulous Miss M's room when the time comes to give her my old furniture and convert it from a nursery to a little girl's room, and rounded out our healthy meal of pizza with big bowls of Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. As one does.

She got a Droid X for her birthday in August, so I showed her some neat features and applications she hadn't yet discovered on her awesome new tricorder phone. Including Swype, which I seem to be on a personal mission to evangelize about because hello, it is brilliant. We practiced with it by texting and Google Talking until a late bedtime.

We got up late (a real luxury for her!) and were treated to a brunch of potatoes O'Brian thanks to Chef Salvatore. We'd had some different ideas for how to spend our day, including knocking around with a bit of window shopping followed by a spot of lunch someplace. But since it was drizzly and foggy out, we opted to stay in and do arty crafty things in our comfy clothes. Which was lovely, because it gave us some time to really visit and enjoy just being together. (I mean, we obviously would've done that no matter what, but it was nice to do so without any other distractions.) We both love that kind of gray, misty weather, which is why we're sisters, because we both understand that the proper thing to do in such weather is to be cozy and have fun.

I worked in my art journal while she made a card for a friend's birthday, then worked on a neat little collage piece for herself (that I unfortunately forgot to snap a pic of). When we were done, we weren't quite ready to quit playing with art supplies, so we played around with watercolors and crayons for a bit and then markers and pens. Grand fun all around.

We headed to New Seasons to get nummy smorgasbord-type items for the evening's activity of movie watching. By eight o'clock, we were snuggly ensconced on the couch in our PJs with blankets and cuddly cats, the coffee table spread with more food than two people could possibly eat (though we were going to do our best to put a big dent in it). We hugged and kissed Sally goodbye (who was off to meet a friend at the neighborhood bar for drinks) and then proceeded to watch Auntie Mame (the Rosalind Russell version, of course!), which Sister had never seen. I KNOW RIGHT. Obviously, that tragedy had to be corrected. And then we started her indoctrination into Pushing Daisies. She loved it, which I knew she would, and is well on her way to another fandom that we can share.

We slept in again this morning, and again were treated to brunch made by Chef Salvatore (omelets this time), which we ate while squeezing in one more episode of Pushing Daisies before she had to go. Goodbye came too soon, but it was so, so wonderful to get to spend some quality time together and we're very thankful to Guy and the Fabulous Miss M (and Sally!) for making these Girls' Weekends possible.

So it's back to the grindstone today with many urgent tasks needing to be done. Aren't Mondays always like that? Mine are, at any rate.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• garden vegetable soup
• rainbow carrot sticks, hard boiled egg wrapped in a French sorrel leaf, honey peanut butter in the cup for dipping the carrots and apple
• Pinova apple slices, dark chocolate covered raisins

Also, I posted the next round of entries about the work we did on the library and guest & creative room. Because both write-ups were about refinishing the floors, the text is the same for both but the pictures obviously aren't.

guest & creative room, part 02: refinishing the floor

PHOTOS

library, part 02: refinishing the floor

PHOTOS

this is what math tastes like

Oh man. I have wanted fractal cauliflower (aka romanesco broccoli) in my bento for years. How could I not? It's math in a vegetable.  Who in their right mind wouldn't want that?

So imagine my delight when I was checking the Wealth Underground blog Tuesday to see what would be in the week's share and there in the picture:  A FULL HEAD OF FRACTAL CAULIFLOWER. Did I voice an audible OMG FRACTAL CAULIFLOWER that caused both cats to stare in alarm at the crazy human? Did I immediately envision my next bento, featuring said fractal cauliflower? Did I entertain the notion of eating my lunch in the company lunch room for the first time ever simply to show off my fractal cauliflower?

You can't prove anything.

So I think it's safe to say Best. Share. Ever. And featured heavily in today's lunch.

lunch, blue bunny & moons:

• Panko breaded chicken breast
• mashed potatoes
• FRACTAL CAULIFLOWER OMG
• rainbow carrots & two leafs of French sorrel* underneath
• purple grapes with pomegranate seeds as gap fillers

*This is one of my favorite things I've experienced in the share so I'm glad to see it back as we near the end of this years' share. You can eat the leaves just as they are and they have this wonderful sour taste. Not bitter -- it's kind of like sucking on a lemonhead (though it doesn't taste lemony). And you can imagine the wonderful dimension it adds to a salad!

decorating my nest with bits and bobs and shiny things

Planning and preparation continues apace for the creative room project. I've been spending ridiculous amounts of time on Etsy, ordering handmade treasures for our new room to make it a place of joy and inspiration and creativity. Little packages arrive on my doorstep every few days, and it's become such a lovely thing to come home to, some little package from someplace far away specially wrapped with a little extra thank-you surprise tucked in. My most recent package arrived Monday from Norway, a small packet of a thing that was wrapped beautifully by an artist whose love for what she does shows in her painstaking attention to even the smallest detail, like the illustration scrolled around the return address on the envelope. It makes me want to keep ordering things as a regular state of being, just for the sheer delight of it all. My adamant anti-consumption-ism be damned.

And there are other special treasures that I've gathered for some time now, waiting for me to unpack them and discover them anew. Altogether, it may sound like there will be a lot of clutter and things to dust, but no. Altogether, there will only be just the right amount of things. Altogether, just enough to make it a reflection of us. Me, mostly, but us, too.

As requested, I give you the various prizes of my recent Etsy spending spree. Well, spending sprees, if I'm being completely honest. I, um...may have given in to a list of long-held wants. I don't buy things often, certainly not things for myself, so I'm telling myself it's okay. That I'm supporting individual artists in a sustainable form of commerce. That it's just this one thing, that's all, and then I'll stop. I can quit any time I want, really.

Oh, the dangers of addicition...

It all started with the hunt for a unique pencil cup for my desk. I've long been on the hunt for something that was special and different and fun and handmade. This one fit the bill perfectly:

Unfortunately, my case of The Wants turned into a full-blown fever. I have things for this room already, carefully tucked away. But perhaps it would do no harm just to look for a few more things? Things I've been seeking for awhile for this room, that I've pictured in my mind when I envision it? It couldn't hurt to look, could it?

Oh, how naive I was.

My vision included a big letter "B" to sit on top of a cabinet or shelf. I love decorating with words and letters. Such a surprise, I know. What I saw in my mind was some wonderful cut-out letter, or something delightfully knocked-about and weathered from an old sign, perhaps. It wouldn't have to be a "B", necessarily, since one cannot be choosy when it comes to random letters reclaimed from old signs. But if I found something that didn't cost a ridiculous amount of money, then perhaps...?

There were several that fit the bill, ones made and ones reclaimed, and happily, a great one that was made to look reclaimed. And a "B", no less! AND! They were happy to oblige when I asked for it in dark turquoise instead of gray (shown here):

And speaking of decorating words, how about this oh-so-appropriate sign/decoration for Sal's creative area in the room?

I was on a roll with no intention of stopping by that point. Such a worrisome turn of events! What more could I find to fulfill my envisioned little room? It became a challenge, a sort of treasure hunt -- how many items from my imaginary list could I find? This is never a good sign.

Because I have a thing for stars and suns and moons, I wanted some rusty metal stars hanging from a shelf support or sitting on the door lintel. So imagine my delight when I came across someone in Nebraska who was selling rusty metal stars made from the roof of her great great grandfather's barn (built in 1912) after it was dismantled. Don't you just love stories like that? I do. I got a small one and a large one:

    

Oh how I love those rusty metal stars. So when I found another one made from vintage ceiling tin, I had to have it, too:

And there was the artwork. So much I would love to have, and so many Etsy artists I adore! One of my favorites is located in Norway, and she has so many pictures I want that I simply couldn't decide. But alas, my poor checking account! I couldn't afford to buy all that I wanted in the larger sizes, especially with the cost of international shipping. But! She offers postcard prints of her work, and in packs of 3, no less. Huzzah! I thought to myself, Wouldn't they look so sweet in small frames, sitting on narrow shelves with a few other favorite little things? A sign that the Universe wants me to have them, surely! It was still hard to decide which pack to pick, but I consoled myself that I will absolutely can always order others later. I settled on the pack that included a print of one I wanted in a larger version, the one with the little girl who's floated up into the air so that only her blue-stockinged legs can be seen:

Oh, and the photographs! So many of books, of overstacked bookshops and battered typewriters and other writerly sorts of subjects! How to choose?

There was one photographer in particular who had so many photos of so many subjects in such a lovely, aged vintage-y way that I could fill walls and walls with his framed photos. But I do not have walls and wall on which to hang them. And there are other things that I also love which must find space on those walls and walls I do not have. Such a quandary!

But The Wants care not for my quandary of walls and things to hang on them. I found pictures for Sal that I knew he'd love and would be a piece of him in this room and would fit in with everything else, too. Oh dear, but so expensive, even limiting myself just to the two I knew he'd love the most, nevermind all the ones I could choose for me. But this crafty photographer, you see, he anticipated such a dilemma. He offered a special -- a package of any 4 prints from a specific selection upgraded to a 12"x12" size for a significantly reduced price. Be still, my heart. You sure have to look out for those cunning artists and their plan to fill your home with so many wonderful things! And the two prints for Sal were available in the selection, as were my two favorites. So I couldn't really pass it up, could I? It would be like kicking karma in the shins. I couldn't do that to karma. I dutifully ordered, two for me, two for him. Hmmm...I wonder which is which?

    

    

I had sworn off more purchases, though there were still so many I wanted mightily. Wait to see what space you have left, I told myself. You don't want to clutter up the room, after all. And you already have a nice collection of things you've been saving up for awhile. And you'll want space to hang your own creations. No need to be greedy. Remember your mantra about consumption? Besides, your account could use a rest. This fiscal irresponsibility is so unbecoming!

But then I found Elly MacKay. I spent an hour or more just looking through her portfolio. Her process is amazing and her images capture something...magic. I read her blog and a bit about her fascinating, inspiring life. I looked through her portfolio again. The little boy with the whale. The little girl making shadow puppets. The little boats at the edge of a waterfall. The little girls doing crane poses. I showed them to Sal. He fell in love, too. A sign, surely, that I needed to order just this one more thing? How I picked which one, I have no idea. I want them all. But I did decide on one, and I can't wait to see how it will look in my room of inspiration and creativity.

There are other artworks sitting in my shopping cart, just waiting for me to click "Checkout". I'm hoping for the fortitude to resist pressing that button. We'll see if I can restrain myself.

remembering our accomplishments, one step at a time

As promised this weekend, I've begun posting write-ups and picture galleries of the work we did a couple of years ago on the library and guest (& creative) room. It's been interesting looking back through pictures and remembering all the work that went into those rooms. And a challenge to remember the particulars, the hang-ups and obstacles and delays. Which is why I've been documenting our home improvement projects here, so we'd have a record of all the work that went into it. Note to self: that record is much more complete when you don't wait three years to write it down.

Anyway...part 1 of each of the projects (basically the "before" pictures) is now up for your reading pleasure and entertainment:

guest & creative room, part 1: getting started

library, part 1: getting started

When I wasn't busy skimming through old photos on my computer and trying to remember exactly what we did three years ago, Sal and I managed to fit in an excursion to the Portland Opera for a matinee performance of Hansel and Gretel. One of his co-workers helped cater a function for the opera and received two tickets as a thank you. She wasn't able to go so she offered us the tickets.

After the show, we went for dinner at Pizza Fino in Kenton, and what started as dinner after the show before heading home became a three course meal lasting a few hours. We haven't been out to dinner like that for a couple of months so it was lovely to converse over a wonderful meal in a nice but relaxed atmosphere.

Lunch today consists of Saturday's leftovers, namely chili. Saturday was a series of downpours, some of them downright biblical, so it was the perfect day to break out the crockpot to make that chili I'd been thinking about last week. It's probably the best chili I've ever made so I'm glad that we made a huge batch.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• chili: chili and kidney beans, several red and green peppers of various degrees of hotness and sweetness, onions, garlic, tomatoes, beef, seasonings of spicy deliciousness, with a garnish of (melted) cheese cubes
• small mixed green salad, with radishes and rainbow carrots and a small container of dressing tucked in
• Honeycrisp apple
• orange cheesecake made by Chef Salvatore

Unrelated to anything, other than being cool news on an otherwise ho-hum Monday, I see that scientists have successfully created a "mini big bang" at the LHC.  How indescribably cool is that? (It'll take weeks (months? years?) to analyze the data, but one of the things they hope to find is evidence of the Higgs boson particle, otherwise known as "the God particle" (despite scientists' preference otherwise).) They generated temperatures of ten trillion degrees and created sub-atomic fireballs. Sub-atomic fireballs, you guys! You don't even have to be an astrophysics geek to get excited about that.

the sooper sekrit projekt revealed

I told you I couldn't keep it secret for long. Once I'm taken with an idea, I can't shut up about it to save my life. And in order to save my husband's sanity in the next month leading up to the start, I'm just going to have to blab about it here. That's the whole reason I have a blog/site in the first place: to spread my crazy around a bit, so no single person has to bear it alone.

So, the Sooper Sekrit Projekt is this: we're turning the guest room into a creative room! Well that's not precisely right; it still needs to function as a guest room since we're frequently blessed with friends who visit for extended periods. But we want to make use of that room when we're not hosting guests. We want a room where I can write and be inspired, work on arty crafty things, and where Sally can do the same.

This has been our plan for some time (I've been collecting things for this space for a while), but I wanted to enjoy the guest room as it is for a bit since we only got it done a few years ago (which I still haven't posted here -- more on that in a minute) and we needed to save up for it anyway. And then there's old-fashioned nostalgia...the furniture that's in there is mine from when I was little, and I haven't quite been ready to give it up yet. It'll go to the Fabulous Miss M soon, but until recently I wanted to have it around just a little longer.

As Hall House projects go, this one will be comparatively minor. There's no drywall to hang/tape/mud/texture, no floor to refinish, no trim to strip/sand/paint, no doors to refinish. A few days, with probably some additional hours here and there to wrap things up (since we've learned every project requires unanticipated extra time). There'll be a bit of painting -- the really way awesomely fun kind! -- and lots of furniture to put together and some decorating to do. So, you know. Pretty much my favorite sort of home improvement project.

I can't wait to start and I can't wait to post pictures as we get underway. BUT! I can't very well post about a change to the guest room when I still haven't posted about the renovation the guest room has already undergone. Three years since we did those projects and they're still not updated on the Hall House section of this site! Inexcusable!

So in the runup to starting the creative room project, I'm going to work on getting the posts about the phases of the guest room and library renovations done. I hope to post a project phase each day, give or take, complete with pictures, and I'll link each day's post here so you can see the pictures and read about the trials and tribulations of those transformations.

And of course I'll be posting about the creative room. Because, as I said, I have to spread my crazy around.

a personal plea on behalf of a friend

My dear and delightful friend, Neva, who does very sweet artwork with cut paper, as well as wee paintings and delicate PMC jewelry and meticulous beaded bracelets, is raising money by selling some of her creations at her Etsy shop. She rescues animals, you see, and devotes considerable time and personal resources to these efforts, as well as the ongoing care for a whole menagerie of animals she and her husband have rescued, all of them with special needs.

Since they moved into their house several years ago, they embarked on a mission to care for the feral cats in their neighborhood, feeding them all and systematically trapping as many as they could to have them spayed and neutered, and to provide care for those who were suffering. They've even managed to find loving, adoptive homes for those in the colony who were tame. In all, she and her husband have cared for and provided food and veterinary assistance to <em>dozens</em> of cats since they began this mission. And though she already had her hands and home full with animals, when one of the ferals, Deedee, was hit by a car, Neva took her and her companion, Leelee, to the vet and into her home for recovery afterward.

Deedee and Leelee (and another feral, Pookie) have received the same loving care that all of Neva's other animals do, and have flourished since they were taken in. But Deedee's lingering health problems, including those from the car accident, have necessitated expensive bloodwork tests and anesthesia for dental care. (And if you've ever had a cat, you know that problems with their teeth can quickly lead to dire health consequences, especially if they stop eating.) The really great news is that the bloodwork came back today and Deedee is suffering from an infection and not a horrible feline virus, which means that with some (expensive) antibiotics and lots of special food to coax her to eat, she'll be okay.

The bills add up fast, as you no doubt know if you have pets of your own. So I encourage you to stop by her Etsy shop and pick out a special little something for yourself and in the process, do something that will help out a very wonderful and amazing person who does the work of saints.

progress on this work in progress

one of the eave closet openings before the trim was up; there are FIVE of theseWe've gotten the quote on getting the doors done for the attic closets and it's...not too scary, actually. We'll have to hold off until after the first of the year since we have the Sooper Sekrit Project coming up in December, but it looks like we'll have doors on those damn eave closets by the end of January, just like a real house! If you had told me ten years ago that the prospect of having closet doors would fill me with the kind of excitement most women reserve for large expensive jewelry (or in my case, large gift cards to Powell's), I would have scoffed openly at such hilarity.

these built-in shelves in the kitchen are actually the back side of the built-in buffet in the dining roomThe estimate also includes cabinet doors for the open shelving in our kitchen. We think it originally had doors similar to the rest of the kitchen, and in fact we did find a cabinet door in the basement that seems to fit one of the openings, but they were removed at some point. It's a pretty nice use of an otherwise unusable space, and perfect for all of Sal's cookbooks, but because our kitchen doesn't have hood for the stove, it's hard to keep them clean. So we'd like to have doors with glass inset to protect the books, but still display. We'll paint the interior something rich and spicy -- the color of saffron or paprika, maybe. Should look pretty neat when it's all done. (Of course, it'll make the rest of the kitchen look even more in need of a makeover than it already does, but baby steps, baby steps....)

lunch, Laptop Lunch:

• PB&J, using peanut butter and red currant jam on buttermilk bread
• peas and carrots
• half a Fuji apple with a carrot shape garnish and a few raisins at the corner as gap fillers
• red grapes and a bit of ranch dip in the condiment container for the carrots

A kind of American-style lunch box theme today with the PB&J. (No chips or juice box, though!) I'm famished today so it was nicely filling lunch. But I must say that with the cooler weather, I'm craving soups and casseroles. And chili, lots and lots of chili.

Hmmm...we do have a ridiculous amount of peppers from the CSA to eat up, and some onions...oh, and nice bag of mixed greens from our latest share that would make a delicious salad with some cut up rainbow carrots that were also in our share...yes, I do believe a big batch of chili is in my future....

bento-versary!!

Today marks one year since I officially renewed my bento obsession with bento 2.0 baby!, resulting in about 130 bento lunches and breakfasts in the last year. It's safe to say, I think, that my plan has been a success. I've eaten out for lunch only a handful of times, stopped my (very bad) habit of not eating at all during the day, cut down on lunch expenses, eaten better, felt better, refined my bento routine, and converted a few people to the bento way of life along the way. I've even had a few pretty lunches here and there.

If it weren't the first of the month -- the busiest time of my very busy life -- and if I had my act more together, lunch today would have a bit more panache (and be a tad less monochromatic) to mark the day than simply using the same container as my lunch from a year ago. Then again, that wouldn't really be in keeping with my way of bento-ing, where pragmatic takes precedence over picturesque. Still...there's always room for a few carrot shapes!

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• garden vegetable soup, with a julienned carrot lattice" and heart and star carrot cutouts for garnish
• wraps: herb roasted turkey breast and cream cheese in a flour tortilla
• heart and start carrot shapes, grapes

1,600+ food items filling our lobbySpeaking of food and doing very good things, our office just completed a month-long canned food drive for the Oregon Food Bank and we were, as you can see, mightily successful.

pumpkins from the decorating contest that ProcrastiGirl handpainted with the company mascotOur office is divided into teams so to make things interesting, the food drive was actually a competition among the teams to see who could bring in the most items, with a prize for the winner at the end of the month for the winning team. We also challenged our vendors to try to beat us, and as a result, we ended up with over 1,600 food items.

And finally, just randomly...a week ago, I was on my way home late after an especially stressful day, rushing to pick up my CSA before the deadline and thinking about all the things I needed to take care of when I got home afterward. As I got onto the freeway, I remembered I needed to put gas in the car lest I be stranded on I-5 NB waiting for Comet in busy Tuesday evening traffic. So it was right back off the freeway at the next exit, wading through traffic to a gas station and waiting for the busy attendant to get to me, all the while thinking, "and miles to go before I sleep".

We'd had some impressive storms throughout that day and the three or days before, with dark, dark clouds and rain that came down in a torrent, relentless. But as I was sitting at the light waiting to get back on the freeway, the sun had come in under the the clouds as it was setting, lighting everything up -- including the array of trees in many colors in front of me -- against a backdrop of sky so dark blue gray that it was almost black. A reminder when I probably needed it to be mindful of the now and not to lose sight that life is happening in this moment, and this one, and this one.