adam and anne's visit

Adam and Anne came up to visit last weekend--twas good to see them. Even though we're on the same side of the country, it still is hard to for us to make the journey to see each ohter (a 7+ hour drive). They got in late Friday night and left Monday morning. We ate, hung out, saw Pirates, went to the Snake River, dragged them to Home Depot (where we ordered countertops and flooring for the kitchen) and made them do work on the house. Anne painted a lot of drawers, Adam did yardwork and did some painting, and we were generally amazed with how much 4 people can get done in 4 hours.

Ok, some pictures from the weekend:

Adam on the hill overlooking Lewiston (hill=2000 feet above the town itself)


The hill again:



Jeff taking a leak in a field by the Snake River:


Hiking along the banks of the river:



Scenery:



As for the house, the bedroom is ALMOST done. We feel like we've been working on it FOREVER. Tonight we touched up paint and put hardware back on. Now we just need to install the new ceiling light, haul in the dresser, adn eventually varnish the floors but we'll do that w/ the rest of the house.

We also had the yard guys come today and do some major demolition. The yard feels about 10x bigger now, it's pretty crazy. It has also illumninated the need for us to plant some grass, guess it's time to look into that.

Alright, sleep time. G'night. House pics will come when the bedroom is DONE.

before and after year 1 of job

So I did a funny thing this year. My office computer has a build-in camera, so once/week I'd take a photo of my head. Why? I don't know, I'm a Leo--don't question me. I started it to see how my hair looked, but then I just kept doing it because it was funny to see how tired I looked some weeks, and how my bags under my eyes came and went, etc. In any case, I offer you here a visual:

Week 1 of new job:


Today (37 weeks later):


My hair took quite a turn eh?!? My office remains messy.

House Video--Part III

I say this below, but if you're reading from top to bottom--if you have a slow connection, don't bother with these videos for it will make you sad and angry. Instead, rely on the pictures below. Ok then, enjoy:

House Video--Part II

The Basement--weeeheew

House Video--Part I

NOTE--those of you on a slow connection, do not even bother trying to watch these movies or you will be depressed.

before & after floors

My feet hurt. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect it has something to do with ripping out carpeting and tearing ivy off of the house. First, ivy is insidiuous and if you ever have any nearing your home--KILL IT NOW! I spend a few hours tearing it down and away from the house, and it many parts it had started growing into the siding--messy business. But, no pics of that.

Second, the floors. God bless dust masks b/c there was years of dust and cat hair in that carpeting. We are overall very pleased with what we found underneath, but you can't see the one section where there are a bunch of holes drilled into the floor. Either the woman was OCD and needed to drill holes in the floor, or they were up to something that we can't quite figure out. We figure it's nothing some puddy and a nice area rug can't fix--not ideal, but better than they could've been as we had NO IDEA what was under that carpeting.

Ok then,

BEFORE


AFTER


one more....
BEFORE


AFTER


Off to eat some dinner and maybe go and see Spiderman.

spring in the palouse

Spring is a season. I just learned this. It's not the few weeks between mud and mosquitos, but it's actually a season. I learned this when I asked my colleague Patty why it has been in the 50s for the past 6 weeks, that is, why hasn't it warmed up? why is it still in the 50s and 60s all the time? Having lived in the Dakotas and in Houghton, Patty looked at me and said, "Kristin, it's SPRING! it's a SEASON! it lasts for 2-3 months." Ahhh, a season you say? Magical.

As evidence of this magical season, note the tulip forest in our overgrown backyard. This tulip forest has been ongoing for a few weeks now.


The normally brown/tan/brown hills around here have become green. It's quite lovely. See?


Last weekend we went mushroom hunting along with the Palouse mushroom folk (I forget the organization name, they're odd but intriguing folk). We were hunting for morel mushrooms, a tasty shroom that only grows for a few months in select places in the US. The UP is one of them, and the woods of northern Idaho is another. So we went into the woods and hunted.

The hunt:


Random scenery:




And our bounty. 3+ hours of hunting for this tiny bounty, divided by 4 people (our friends Eric and Jessica). They tasted delicious w/ cod, potatoes, and a cream sauce. Mmm.



Spring. Tahdah!

Oh, and we closed on the house this morning. We are home owners?!?! Crazy. More on that in the near future....