David and Pri

After the rain on/around May 13…. WOW! We got scared…

David left me a message in gmail around 4pm saying: “Pri you’d better come home help me with the water entering in the downstairs floor”. [David: I was running around in a swimsuit and didn't know where my phone was!  Rather than look for it while another 50 gallons of water gushed in, I sent her a gchat!]

Neil (other designer that works at the office) promptly offered a ride. So nice- thanks!!

David looked like he’d been swimming, and I saw that he had been working hard trying to keep the water out of the active room with towels and some of our mulch bags. Drains were clogged - partially taken care, but other part I cleaned. The rain was less strong at that point, and we kept drying and cleaning the downstairs. [david: it was not enjoyable work, but it was effective.  When I went down to my office the next morning, I was struck by the sensation that I couldn't tell that anything had happened!  Over time, I grew to see this as a good thing: no more speculating about last year, now we know the problem, and we were even here to keep it from getting bad.]

Ok - we should do something…. No walls damaged due to Davids work, but I felt strongly that this was the time to act in solving the root of the problem.

Our emergency plan consisted in placing sand bags around the stair under the deck to reduce the amount of water going down in the direction of our back door. It has been working very well as a barrier now. But we decided that it was time for checking what was going so wrong with the drain system in the patio.

I called Ken, and he also helped a lot getting some references for us. After talking with a couple of people, we found a guy that seems to be very passionate and knowledgeable about drains etc.. We hired him after his fantastic plan of action that will not cost much.

In the same week a big branch fell on the backyard (far form our house) on the neighbor’s wooden fence. This was a funny story that happened around 11pm -the cracky sound was a mystery until we figure out what was going on. We called the neighbor and there we were, deciding what to do… Next day the tree guys came and took care of it. We also hired them to take care of all other dead branches and some inconvenient branches around the house. service is done already!

Besides the drain issue we also had bad… no… not bad…VERY bad gutters that were sadly transforming rain in waterfalls on top of my flowers in the front bed.  I even used my umbrella to protect them, such strong pressure it was… Poor little thingies… [david: the umbrella was very cute...] But now we already have them replaced to new gutters, and even bigger gutters with a mesh-type protection for leaves etc.

The house is happy now, and so are we!

Now, the only thing missing is the patio drains, but we think that while this is not ready the sand bags can help with possible storms…  And, people came two days ago and cut down into our concrete 10 inches to prepare for the new drains.  [david: this is the first time I've felt optimistic about the issue... I really think the new drains are going to remove all reasonable risk]

Exciting!  Not always in good ways… but sometimes!

Well, these are my pictures!

Seattle trip 2009

It was great to be there with you, guys!

Calix is adorable and very welcome to this beautiful world!

Well, now we have pictures… More to come…

Hoosier Cabinet

cheers!

Pri

Well, Xie asked, and then I searched the internet.

First, wikipedia… (the one in the image looks EXACTLY like ours - the distribution of the drawers and the doors, but of course we are repainting it, so it’s a modern version of it!)

And then I found many fun images!!! Check these links.

Well, that’s it!

We’ll post soon pictures of our work and the final cabinet as soon as we can. I’ve been fighting a cold now, and don’t feel like dealing with paint. Patience!!

Well, I made 2 videos today (one in Portuguese and one in English), showing a little bit of our house outside - and focusing on the little flowers popping out everywhere, and some of our work with the Hoosier Cabinet.

Bom, hoje fiz 2 videos pra voces (um em portugues e outro em ingles) mostrando um pouco da nossa casinha do lado de fora, as flores coloridas se multiplicando por todo lado, e o David pintando parte das portas do nosso movel de cozinha (que nao sabemos ainda onde vamos colocar). Divirtam-se!

Video em portugues:

Video in English:

(they are different - eles sao differentes!)

Well, there we went today to try to find my earring by the tree… Click here for the first part of the story!

My brother went with us!!

David and Kiko, my dear big brother

Then, when we were very close to the base of the tree, David said - I see the branches that were in the picture! So this means that the earring should be near…. And he saw it!

The ex-lost earring and the "v" shape branch!

Well, that was a GREAT story. We are super happy!!

It is even more beautiful now!

I wanted to share with you that David bough me in Portland a gorgeous pair to substitute the original. I feel really happy with the new ones, but…

Maybe we’ ll have 2 pairs now! (if we are lucky enough…)

I was playing with one of the pictures in close up and saw the earring there, on the snow, near my footprints!

Check this out here.

So David and I will go back to the tree again as soon as the snow sublimes/melts…

I’m extremely excited about it. Let’s see if we find it for real!!

Look how our deck is now!

Meanwhile, you can see 2 delicious things we baked last week here. (what a sudden change of subject, isn’t it?)

I can’t really believe… this is such a great story…

I think that David and I are doing a great job taking very good care of our relationship…  The year was very busy and full of events… but also really full of happy and important moments. See here if you need a review of what we did together…

This Friday January 16 was our first Anniversary! Despite the earring episode, it was all great!

Well… We went back to “our”  tree in Karst Farm Park around 5pm (I got the afternoon off work because I wasn’t feeling well), and climbed it (well, I asked myself many times why I had this idea, since it’s not easy at all for me to climb a tree…) but after a lot of frustration, and even tears, I MADE it!!!

David and I reviewed our vows and our ceremony (I really liked it). It was very cold, but I guess with all the exercise I did to be able to get up the tree I was feeling fine. David was colder than me this time! We went to Dunn In, a new restaurant Downtown, and we had a pretty good dinner. It was there, after we ate, that I realized that I had just one earring… Yes, somehow one of the earrings that David gave me when he proposed to me in Portland was lost at some point in the day. Where? I don’t know… anywhere from the car, or my office, the tree, to Aldi (we were near by and decided to buy some food), or the restaurant. We did come back to all these places in the morning. Zero earrings found.

Well, after a period of real sadness and frustration, I stopped crying and moved on. I asked David to try to find the same earrings in the store where he bought the pair. It’s in Portland and he is leaving there to visit Sue, Michael and Verl on Thursday, so quite convenient… I am not super confident they will have the same pair, but I will be fine anyway. (I guess)

What a coincidence that this earring decided to disappear exactly in our 1 year anniversary. Well, anyway, it became a story… Click in the image to see some pictures!

I made it!

And life goes on! (Oh, yes, I got a new beautiful pair of blue earrings  - this time bought in Bloomington - with an additional butterfly for my third hole!)

:):)

Once upon a time, when we were preparing the Big Move out of Howe St., we examined a chair I had inherited from my parents.  It looked pretty bad, and after some negotiation, we agreed to throw it away.  So, we threw away the cushions.  And then suddenly, we both looked at it and decided “Hey, this is actually a nice chair!”  I guess the cushions just weren’t very nice (at least not anymore… the chair was probably over 30 years old).  Pri said, “let’s keep it, and someday I’ll make new cushions for it”.

Ok!  Well, we scored some foam from my parents (thanks!  And you’re welcome for getting it out of your attic!), and then bought some fabric (not cheap, but not as expensive as the foam (or a new chair) would have been), and we dusted off my old sewing machine (probably 60 years old at this point).  Dusting it off was not a trivial task, and in fact at first it didn’t work.  For reasons I don’t understand.  But then it started working.  Hmmm…

I gave Pri a quick sewing lesson, and she took to it very quickly!  So, sure enough, later that same weekend, we had a beautiful, comfortable, new chair!  A click on the image will show you more pictures of the chair and the sewing of its new cushions.

The stories will (hopefully) come later, but here you find pictures of our most recent trip to Colorado.

Check out: Frank and Sarah’s wedding, Great Sand Dunes National Park (with Pat, Tom, Joe, Krista, Evalyn, Felix), Zapata Falls, Elevenmile Canyon, South Platte River, etc

Enjoy!