She Is Staggering

Earlier this year, I experienced the pure joy/nostalgia overload that was the Adventures of Pete and Pete reunion at the Bowery Ballroom.

On Tuesday there was yet another reunion, this time clear across the country in Los Angeles.  As much as I would have LOVED to go, I don't think I could really justify the travel expense on this one.  It was one thing to spend nearly $100 on tickets for the reunion in February when the only additional costs were gas and PATH tickets, but it would have cost somewhere around $1000 to go to this one, so I had to pass. ;-)

It's a shame, because there were additional cast members there: Damian Young, aka Bus Driver Stu Benedict (who was in the audience, but not on the panel, at the reunion I attended) and Rick Gomez, aka Endless Mike Hellstrom.  Also, freaking POLARIS was there, performing live.

I am desperately hoping that they will play more concerts, preferably in or near New York City or Philadelphia so I can see them without breaking the bank.  In the meantime, I'll have to be content watching the videos folks are uploading to YouTube.

Here they are performing one of my favorite songs from the show, or in general for that matter:





I hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend!  I'll be making my usual farmers' market trip, watching the season premier of Doctor Who, meeting up with one of my college roommates for lunch, and attending multiple picnics.  What are your plans?

Office Relocation

 With the impending new addition to our family, I am faced with a bit of a dilemma.

You see, we live in a 3-bedroom house.  Currently, my husband and I each use one of the spare rooms as an office.  But when baby arrives, my office will become the nursery.  The fact of the matter is that I only use a tiny corner of my office as actual office space:

We have a large storage closet in the hallway where I can store my jewelry-making supplies when I'm not using them, and the filing cabinet could easily fit in there as well.  The printer, which I rarely use anyway, would be relocated to my husband's office. 

All I really need room for is a new desk, since my current desk is far to wide (and let's face it, ugly) to work in any of the living areas.  Preferably one that will close up and hide any mess I manage to make, since it would be in a living area and thus in full view of any guests.  I figured something along the lines of a secretary desk would be ideal. 

During my weekly farmers' market trip, I wandered into an antique store down the block from where the market is held, where I stumbled upon this beauty:

And look, it closes up completely!

And at $300, it's comparable to what I'd pay for a new desk, but made of much nicer materials.  I took measurements, and it would fit quite nicely in the spot where the recliner is now in our living room:

Unfortunately, I may have waited to long to move on it.  I called the store today, and it turns out someone emailed them yesterday to inquire about the desk and said she would call today to put a deposit on it.  I would have felt awful buying the desk out from under her, especially when I had the opportunity to buy it on the spot last weekend and didn't take it.  So I've decided to leave it up to fate.  I'm calling the store tomorrow and if no deposit has been made on the desk yet, I think my plan is to go ahead and buy it. 

If the desk from the antique store is no longer available tomorrow, I'll need a new plan of action.  I managed to find a new secretary desk at Target that looks quite nice:

AND it's on sale: marked down to $260 from $400.  This one would also work in the living room, but it's a bit narrower than the antique desk and would also fit in the space to the right of my piano in the den, depending on what the finish on this desk looks like in real life.  I've already got a couple of different wood tones going on in there, so unless it ends up being very close in color to either my piano or the wall, the den may be a no-go:



So, what are your thoughts?  Do you like the antique desk or the Target desk better?  If the antique desk falls through, should I hold out for another antique, or jump on the great deal from Target?  5 months til little Stormageddon's arrival seems like a long time now, but I'm afraid of waiting too long to figure out my office situation, and I'm worried I won't find another antique in time - Is it worth the risk?? ;-)

I Married a Culinary Overachiever

Yesterday I decided it was a good day to have breakfast for dinner.  I suggested to my husband that we have home fries and chocolate chip banana pancakes.  He decided to get fancy and add zucchini to the home fries, and instead of pancakes he made banana crepes with a homemade chocolate sauce:

This is what happens when you marry a guy who was obsessed with Iron Chef during high school.  Improvisation in the kitchen.  Delicious, delicious improvisation. ;-)

My Amphibious Friend

I just wanted to pop in and share some pictures of the frog that's been living in my pond for the past month or so.  I'd have shared photos sooner, but my automatic reaction every time I've seen him thus far was to shout "FROGGY!!!" and immediately try to catch him.

This time I restrained myself, ran inside to grab my camera, snapped a couple of pictures...

 

... and THEN I tried to catch him. ;-)

Elvis's Big Announcement

Hey everyone! Elvis has some big news he wants to share with you...

And just to clarify, since anyone who knows Glen and me knows our obsession with our pets is a bit extreme and we would probably also do something like this if we were adopting a second dog, we're talking about a *human* little brother or sister, arriving sometime in early February!!

Look carefully.  That's a copy of The Great Gatsby that my husband Photoshopped into the ultrasound.

It's actually a good thing I've been so absurdly busy lately (I kid you not, in addition to extra library hours during the week, we are averaging 3-4 social commitments per weekend this summer!), because for the past 3 1/2 months it's been kind of hard to think of things to post about without spilling the beans. ;-) So I guess it's a good thing that I've just plain not had time to post!

Glen and I are both super excited, as are our parents, who have already bought the baby gifts such as books (including the latest Mo Willems Pigeon book, which I may have immediately claimed as my own...) and Batman onesies.  We don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl, so in the meantime, we've been referring to him/her as Stormageddon, which is a reference I expect precisely one of you to get. (I'm looking at you, Niki!!)

If you want to read about Glen's perspective on this new journey of ours, check out his new blog, The Baby Tickle.  And while I doubt this will become a super baby-centric blog, this will certainly be added to the mix of posts about my garden, pets, jewelry business, and room remodels, and I'm totally looking forward to adding our office-to-nursery remodel to my Before and After series. ;-)

Balloons!!

Another busy week - extra hours at the library, relatives visiting from Florida all week, and a family reunion plus a bachelorette party this weekend isn't leaving me with much free time!

But I just had to pop in and share this picture I just took:

 

 

Every summer, there's a hot air balloon festival as part of the county farmers' fair.  Since the farmers' fair is so close to us, this means that every summer there's an evening when there are a TON of hot air balloons visible from my back yard. :-)