Getting some things done

First off it's really hard to get a good picture of a whole room. So here are a bunch of parts of our bedroom. We have only lived in the place 1.5 yrs and are thinking of moving to make me finally get it looking alright. We bought some carpet remnants and had two area rugs made this past week. I am very excited about these! I just couldn't take the bare floor and cheapo rug in the living room any more! I also scored three oil painting for cheap at an estate sale last week.

And this is the hallway where my Christmas present for 2 Christmas's ago hang. They have only been up for about a month. Apparently it takes me a long time to get things done :)
So when I get the living room shaped up I will post a pic of it. But right now it has become Adam's "work from home office" and is a mess of papers, computer cords, and him laying all over the couch.

Thankful for some dirt

Who knew a very dirty air duct would be so handy! I left a Pearl earring on the dresser and Peach decided to have some fun with it. I looked and looked and then spotted it resting haphazardly in the partially opened air vent. Yikes! I tried to carefully maneuver it out but it almost instantly fell to the unknown depths below. But as it turns out, that's not too deep at all. I pulled out the vent only to find a ton of junk! I started pulling out and vacuuming up stuff but no earring. I kept thinking "if only I had one of those arthroscopic cameras" when I realized why not just take a picture and see if the earring is still anywhere close. So I did and there it was!! Just needed a long kitchen spoon and my earring is back safe and sound in the jewelry box. But know I understand why people would get their air ducts cleaned! If we actually owned the place where we live this would be on the top of my "to-do" list.

We do exist!

It's been awhile but we do exist! Here's what we've been up to since the last post.

We went to Napa with Adam's parents and had a fantastic time! Drank lots of great wine and managed to learn something as well.

We went to a Brad Paisley concert with our good friends David and Tiffany. It was awesome!

We also managed to fly to Colorado for a wedding and make it to the top of Pike's Peak. It was beautiful!

My parents came out to visit and we went on a "haunted" wine tour of Testarossa on Halloween.

And made our way down to Carmel-by-the-sea for some fantastic sites and food.And over Thanksgiving we went to a Packers v. 49ers game with Adam's family. Go Packers!Then got locked up at the Rock aka Alcatraz for... well.. who knows...

But at least we were on Michigan Ave and could pretend we were in Chicago!

Canning

I had a good day. Not only did Michigan Football kick butt, I canned some tomatoes! What an experience. I have to say it is not all that hard, just a little time consuming. My tomatoes have been doing very good but they aren't producing enough at one time to use them solely for canning. Therefore, I made a run this morning to the local farmers market and picked up a few pounds of organic heirloom tomatoes. I don't exactly know how many pounds of tomatoes I canned, but I now have ten 12 oz jars!

I forgot to take a pic of the tomatoes before the skins were off. But here they are skinned and getting mashed and cooked.

And here are the cooked tomatoes with lemon juice and salt getting ready to process.
Here they are in their water bath. I don't have a canning pot but this worked pretty good. It was a little tight with such tall jars! They stayed in here for about 40 mins.
The finished product! I was a little nervous about the space at the bottom of the jars but after a quick search on Flickr it seems that this is very common.

Now what to can next..... except I am out of jars and don't really want to buy more. Which is why these are not pints... these are what I had on hand.

I got a lot of info from these sites:

www.sunset.com/canning

www.thriftyfun.com -this is a pdf

Sailing

Adam and I got the opportunity to go sailing a couple weekends ago on SF Bay. It was awesome! Our friend Joel's girlfriend goes every year with her friends and they invited us to go along. It was a beautiful day! We rented the boat in Sausalito. It was, I would guess, about a 35+ foot sailboat. We had 8 people and that was the max. There was a small cabin with bathroom (gross!) but we mostly stayed in the back on the benches or on the bow.
Unfortunately Joel wasn't quite ready for the pic! And yes, we are a little sideways.



This is our captain, Forbes, and his girlfriend. He also went to U of M and goes back to Mich often to race trimarans. And for my family: yes he knows and has raced with the Gougeon Brothers. But wasn't sure if he knew Joe. It's a small world!

Garden

Inspired by Sarah's posts about her garden, I thought I would write about mine. I have to say I am a bit jealous that she already had a ripe tomato! I have tons of green ones that I am sure will turn perfectly ripe as soon as we step on the plane this Thursday.

This is what the garden looked like on June 1st. Nice, neat, and contained.

This is what it looks like today. Just crazy! My tomatoes are way too big for the cages and everything is all flopping over... plus the picture is a bit blurry.

One thing we have had a ton of is beans.

We have also had one summer squash and it was great.

But look at the tomato plants! How freaking huge are they? And really, I had no idea what I was doing when planting all these, so we will be having tomatoes coming out of our ears! I think I have 7 tomato plants!
6 are 3 different types of heirlooms and 1 cherry tomato plant.
All of them completely loaded with tomatoes. I'm just waiting....

The Big Apple

I love New York City and while I have friends there, I will visit!

The first weekend of June I flew to NYC and stayed with my good friend Darra in Brooklyn. We had a blast! It had been over a year since we last saw each other. I arrived Friday night into JFK after a little rain delay. That night we hit up the corner bar for some dinner and drinks (where they had Goefel Kolsh on tap and Adam is supremely jealous!) and some serious catch-up! Then Sat afternoon we went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the Renegade Craft Fair which was very cool. Darra bought a sweet necklace and I left empty handed. Then we went into Manhattan to check on play times/prices. The show we wanted to see was sold out so we went to plan b which was Ave Q. We got there in time to add our names to the raffle (at 5:30 you put your name in a bucket and at 6 they draw names and sell 12 tickets for half price). And my name was pulled first! Yea! Two tickets, front row, center. A little close for comfort but it was still fun. By the time the play was out, we were both exhausted and headed back to Brooklyn.

Sunday morning we went for brunch at this great place right by Darra's apt. Then went to buy tickets for the boat tour around Manhattan. Luckily it was a beautiful day. We really enjoyed the tour although it was a bit long, 3 hrs. After we met up with Anna in Soho for dinner. We ate at a completely random place but by the time we were done with dinner, speed dating was happening! So of course we had to stay and watch for a while :) What a funny experience! Makes me very happy to be married!

Darra and I on the boat.

I believe this is the Brooklyn Bridge.

Manhattan.

Lady Liberty.

Out to dinner with Darra and Anna in Soho.

This is a bunch of Trump condo buildings. I just read in some mag that Jon (from Jon and Kate) is rumored to be looking at buying on of these condos.

And for those that watch How I Met Your Mother, this is a for real crooked apt building, possible down wind from the sewage treatment plant :)

Then Monday came abound and Darra had to work so I was planning on going in with her and seeing what school, 1st grade special ed., was like in the inner city. Well, neither of us slept well and D forgot to alert the principal that I was coming so she called in sick. Can't say I was too bummed about this :) So we went back to bed and then met up with Anna again in Soho and did some shopping. I left later that evening. It was an awesome trip! But next, Darra has to visit me!