tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42461942667385805132024-03-05T18:30:54.329-05:00Things I'm Doing...Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.comBlogger201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-52725130413247309532017-01-04T10:01:00.003-05:002017-01-04T10:01:30.951-05:00Happy New Year 2017I know this post is a couple of days late but...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>HAPPY NEW YEAR!</b></span></div>
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<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-55269358180124874482016-04-02T17:24:00.001-04:002016-04-02T17:24:38.792-04:00Spicy Veggies & RiceHey everyone! I wanted to share a quick recipe that I threw together for Shabbos dinner last night! I had never made this before, and I was just trying to see what I could come up with with the ingredients that I had on hand. It came out delicious though, and I see myself making it over and over and over again! You'll notice that some of the amounts are uh, less than exact. That's because I was just adding things in until I got the taste that I wanted. Sorry.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Spicy Veggies & Rice</span></h2>
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<ul>
<li>1/2 cup white rice</li>
<li>1 cup sushi rice</li>
<li>1 tsp chicken consume </li>
<li>1 lbs. mixed veggies (I used corn, carrots, beans and peas... frozen)</li>
<li>~1/8 cup Sriracha (Rooster Sauce)</li>
<li>~1/4 cup soy sauce</li>
<li>~1/4 cup honey (possibly less)</li>
<li>Powdered ginger (a few good shakes)</li>
<li>Apple Cider Vinegar (A healthy splash)</li>
</ul>
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Step 1. Prepare the rice with the consume, set aside.<br />
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Step 2. Prepare the veggies according to the instructions on the package. Or, if you're feeling fancy, go ahead and chop and steam some fresh veggies. I won't judge you.<br />
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Step 3.Make the sauce:<br />
Combine all ingredients in a small frying pan (or pot), and heat over medium until everything is integrated. Then add in a slurry of 1 tsp cornstarch and 1 tsp water. Bump the heat up a bit until the sauce starts to thicken.<br />
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Step 4. <i>This step is really complicated, so pay close attention:</i> Put rice, veggies and sauce in a bowl. Stir.<br />
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That's it! You're done! Eat and enjoy! I served this as a side dish with some baked chicken, but I think that it could go nicely with so many delicious dinners (or snacks). I want to try it in burritos, or mixed with chicken and served that way. I've already had a request to bring this to a dinner party, so wish me luck on that.<br />
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<i>Anyway, that's all for now, so enjoy! And if you make this recipe, let me know down in the comments! I'd love to see what you guys come up with!</i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-42941762207025523842016-01-01T01:00:00.000-05:002016-01-01T01:00:15.786-05:00Happy 2016!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzUhkbAl5Hp5E8hR-xtBavZgiISEk3vK88xJBn74qG_bdvik-erTIJv7pY7SSD9F9sGRRNnbxs_JEYBOhIqfpopgSIFN6FvYQN9JWq5XMen1IGhkY1C_Fnu2pQcb7y3EbIZQ6XhQhT4tYJ/s1600/635850197284573487-484381917_Setting-Goals-for-2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></b></div>
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<b>Happy New Year's, and Happy 2016! </b></div>
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<b>I can already tell that this year's going to be great!</b></div>
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-80800187549165990922015-12-30T10:33:00.000-05:002015-12-30T10:33:08.727-05:0010 Minute "Grilled" Cheese, With NO Oil!<h2 align="center">
<span style="color: red;">"Grilled" Cheese, sans OIL</span></h2>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Okay, I'm going to keep this super quick today, because this sandwich is only going to take you 10 minutes to make! Seriously. Go ahead and pre-heat your oven to ~350 degrees, and let's get started!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Gather up your supplies. I like whole-wheat bread and three slices of American cheese, but you can mix and match breads and cheeses, this is not an exact science, after all. You will also need two (2) cookies sheets, and one (1) large piece of aluminum foil (or a silicone baking mat if you have one!).</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYCz1qCx2BTrwNMJaxKzA2JAxFdlLDp3GOE4vrgFsmk39Iv4JX401ps3lim7nuFH1gqiJC8auI-AZJIzgVA2Hq3h9WDWQYcQww5_8Hwo1vLTUofQzsAlYHIWT_7v0QXb3ViU4cUPaX2Qu/s1600/CAM00237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYCz1qCx2BTrwNMJaxKzA2JAxFdlLDp3GOE4vrgFsmk39Iv4JX401ps3lim7nuFH1gqiJC8auI-AZJIzgVA2Hq3h9WDWQYcQww5_8Hwo1vLTUofQzsAlYHIWT_7v0QXb3ViU4cUPaX2Qu/s320/CAM00237.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I <i>love</i> my baking mats, and I highly recommend them!</td></tr>
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Assemble your sandwich however you like, and when you're ready, take the second cookie sheet, and go ahead and put it <i>on top</i> of your sandwich. Yes, you read that correctly, <i>on top</i>. Still with me?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yup, just like that</td></tr>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"> Now go ahead and put the whole shebang in your heated oven, and leave it alone for about 10 minutes. That's all it's going to take before you get a beautiful, scrumptious, perfectly toasted "grilled" cheese sandwich, without any OIL!</span></span></div>
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Your results may vary, but I promise you, it'll be yum. I recommend dipping in ketchup, but that's just me.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-88976318537303899232015-09-10T10:00:00.000-04:002015-09-10T10:00:01.728-04:00Chair Rail, Yes It's DIY!Before I get started telling you guys all about our latest DIY project, I want to share a quick "before" picture with you. That way, at the end of the post, you can really appreciate what a difference a little bit of DIY-TLC can make in a single room.<br />
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This is one of the two back bedrooms in our house. Please ignore all of the crap that the seller never bothered cleaning up, and try to concentrate on how boring and ugly the room is.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzREyO58yuJ85ac6D2ufMaArHeP7CArSatlcQSLtKDF2e4ULw6jSlZs8UcoMSU1H-wifwygAKMo6LkJ7LHepJwxkSQ08x6JBELQmgLNTMkBtr0UfDxHIESeh_LchCslfOmOBPNvzbCFaa/s1600/CAM00290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzREyO58yuJ85ac6D2ufMaArHeP7CArSatlcQSLtKDF2e4ULw6jSlZs8UcoMSU1H-wifwygAKMo6LkJ7LHepJwxkSQ08x6JBELQmgLNTMkBtr0UfDxHIESeh_LchCslfOmOBPNvzbCFaa/s320/CAM00290.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The right-side "purple" bedroom</td></tr>
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When we first saw the house, we had to look past how cluttered and
boring everything was to see the true potential of the spaces. We knew
right away that we wanted the house, but we also knew that it was going
to take some work to really make the spaces look unique and beautiful.
Paint and blinds helped, but there was more to be done.<br />
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Before we had the house painted, we decided that we wanted to have
the two back bedrooms multi-colored, and that we would use a chair-rail
to split up the walls. So we picked out colors we thought would look
nice together, marked a level pencil-line in each room (with the help of
a laser-level gifted to us by my husband's best friend), and told the
painter to have at it.<br />
Then, we crossed our fingers and hopped to
hell it wouldn't look too weird and messed up. But when we finally saw
the results, we couldn't have been happier. It looked amazing!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBVXN9CUcq6WsiYoGavDxkIUrEXz_odTT9G0u7_gk7RkeNjSbMjkBf4umbsEJTTgUGLNzI6zjrXuZA6X_Uq9lUItD-0vI4f4s2CLhH-BkUYU9Z6xixDOGfoONC3BAewC2Zh02kdX2T7GWq/s1600/CAM00291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBVXN9CUcq6WsiYoGavDxkIUrEXz_odTT9G0u7_gk7RkeNjSbMjkBf4umbsEJTTgUGLNzI6zjrXuZA6X_Uq9lUItD-0vI4f4s2CLhH-BkUYU9Z6xixDOGfoONC3BAewC2Zh02kdX2T7GWq/s320/CAM00291.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The left-side "Blue" bedroom</td></tr>
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But wait, you say. You had the house painted <i>professionally?</i> That's not DIY! Well, you're right, we didn't DIO. But there's a reason for that. The house needed to get painted before we could move in, and we were on a fairly strict time-line. We needed to be out of our apartment by July 31st, and neither of us really had the time to dedicate to painting. Besides, the professional that we hired not only did the painting, but all of the prep-work too. You know, patching and sanding and mudding and all of that not-so-fun stuff. I was very happy that we hired this particular job out (even though I originally wanted to DIO), and he did an amazing job. As you can see.<br />
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I know this blog is about DIY though, and I promise, we're getting to that point. Okay, now that the paint was on the walls, it was time to put up the chair-rail, and at this point, we were committed to the project. Unless we wanted to have that lovely white gap showing between the paint-colors... Uh no. So we picked up some chair-rail, and got started. Te chair-rail was actually a <i>gift</i> from my uncle, a contractor, who had some left-over from a job he had done recently. He was even nice enough to drive it over to our house, since the 16ft lengths wouldn't exactly fit into either of our cars.<br />
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Our first priority was getting that stuff cut down to size, so we took some careful measurements, and got started cutting. It was a little tricky, because we had some odd angles to account for, and ended up having to cut some really tiny pieces to fit our unique space. My advise? If you've never done chair-rail before, try to start in a room that's pretty much square, since you're already going to have to cut mitered corners, and compound angles are just going to be confusing at first. We started in the purple bedroom, which was more or less sqaure.<br />
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Once we had all of those pieces cut and dry-fitted (we held them up on the walls together to make sure that they would pretty much fit), we moved onto the blue bedroom. It was trickier, but eventually we got everything cut and ready to paint.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSfj_D0Vb4EuLYO1X0IwoKiwnD-Xn8PMAbIcgBPKv-AN4qaR4ziuh5Iq-tW1Rl5pkZ6lHOe-UXgX77IYPpOJtgF2mSspE-d3RJagnc9AqvmP59LMeEkuzdY7fnXyB_aZ-uygpYYe3r1hO/s1600/CAM00146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSfj_D0Vb4EuLYO1X0IwoKiwnD-Xn8PMAbIcgBPKv-AN4qaR4ziuh5Iq-tW1Rl5pkZ6lHOe-UXgX77IYPpOJtgF2mSspE-d3RJagnc9AqvmP59LMeEkuzdY7fnXyB_aZ-uygpYYe3r1hO/s320/CAM00146.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See all those tiny pieces? </td></tr>
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We then laid everything out in the garage, where it could be painted and dry undisturbed. It's really nice to have spaces (like the garage) to work in. It's a nice change from painting things out on our 3rd floor balcony, and hoping that we didn't drip on the neighbors!<br />
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We had a lot of left-over paint from doing the house, and the chair-rail got one coat (it was pre-primed) of the same color that all of our trim was painted. This way everything will be matchey-matchey. Now all that was left to do was to attach it to the wall. In exactly the right spot. And have it all be level, and pretty... No big deal, right? Right...<br />
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Out comes the laser-level again, this time to line up <em>exactly</em> where we want the top of the chair-rail to go. We didn't need to mark the wall, since the laser line was plainly visible, and we could just line the top of the rail up with that. Then I held things in place while my husband came along with the nail-gun and did his thing. A few times, I was even brave enough to try my hand at using the nail-gun!<br />
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The trickiest bits were those tiny weird corner-pieces, and when it came time to figure them out I was very glad that we got a chance to practice on the big squared corners in the purple room. Don't know that we would have been able to get everything sorted otherwise. But we did, and everything ended up on the wall more or less where it was supposed to go.<br />
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We did end up having to fill a couple of gaps, where small pieces didn't quite meet-up. But that's what caulking is for. And to be honest, we had to caulk anyway, to cover-up the nail holes.<br />
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And really, that was it! Chair-rail, easy DIY. Okay, maybe not <em>easy</em>, but totally DIY. I promise you, if <em>we</em> could do this, <em>you</em> can do this. It just takes a little bit of patience, and the willingness to end up with something that doesn't necessarily look 100% professional. Because guess what? It's not. You did it yourself! And it'll look beautiful:<br />
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<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-75441111853258694332015-08-31T10:00:00.001-04:002015-08-31T10:00:02.262-04:00Super-Easy Veggie "Chili"Okay, I was going to write about more home-improvement DIY type projects, but I thought I'd take a little break and talk about food instead, because you know, everybody's got to eat.<br />
So today, rather than regal you with tales of my DIY prowess, I'm going to share a quick, easy and absolutely delicious recipe with you. Because I like food, and I think <em>you</em> probably like food too, and I especially like food that is quick and easy to make.<br />
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So, without further ado:<br />
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Super-Easy Vegetarian "Chili"</h2>
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<em>First of all, I'm putting chili in quotes because this is not going to be the type of chili you cook and simmer for hours, so therefore, some people might say it's not "real" chili. I don't care. It's yummy, and I enjoy eating it. So there. Second, YES! this is vegetarian! You could easily add meat though, if you are so inclined. My husband and I are not vegetarians, but we do like to have a lot of meat-free dishes. Why? 1, because meat is expensive, and we can't really afford to be eating it every single night. 2. because we keep kosher, and can't mix milk and meat. So if we want our food to be cheesy, we go vegetarian.</em></div>
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<em>Alright, enough chat, on with the recipe! You will need...</em></div>
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1 package (~16oz) Morningstar Farms Crumbles (you could substitute any veggie-meat you like, or real meat!)</div>
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1/2 can cooked kidney beans</div>
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1/2 can cooked cannellini beans</div>
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1/2 can diced tomatoes (if you can get the kind with chilies in them, good!)</div>
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1/8 or 1/4 tsp chili powder: depending on how spicy you want it</div>
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2-3 tbsp. tomato paste: to thicken it up</div>
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<em>Now this recipe is really complicated, so pay attention:</em></div>
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Step 1: Put everything in a pot, and stir over med-high heat until cooked and delicious.</div>
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<em>Got it? I know, I know, so much work. But trust me, it's worth it. ;op Seriously though, this is such a quick and easy meal, I can't even tell you how much I love it. Now, if you are using </em>real<em> meat, you might need to cook things a bit longer, to ensure that your meat is cooked through. Since I use veggie-meat, I don't worry as much about this, and really just heat & stir until things are nice and hot.</em></div>
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<em>If you want to make your meal </em>extra<em> yum, you can serve it with cornbread. I'm not going to give you my recipe, since I just use the one that comes on the can of corn-meal, and besides, I'm sure </em>Pinterest<em> has one or two recipes you could try.</em></div>
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Okay, so that's it! My super-easy vegetarian "chili". Feel free to substitute anything you want. More beans, less tomato, more spices, whatever! If you make changes, and it comes out good, let me know here in the comments! I'd love to see what you guys can do with such a basic simple recipe, and I'll try your substitutions if they sound yummy to me!</div>
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Stay tuned next time for more DIY, and maybe some cooking. We'll see.</div>
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-16117569602424575372015-08-21T10:00:00.000-04:002015-08-22T08:43:50.583-04:00A Little Paint (and Blinds) Go a Long Way...It's amazing what a difference a little paint will make on a house. When we first looked at our new house, we tried to see its potential, but it was hard to get past the drab and boring walls. We knew that if we bought it, we were going to have to paint, like, right away.<br />
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And we did! And it made a huge difference!<br />
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Not only did it transform our walls from drab to fab (sorry, couldn't resist), but it was the first real step towards making this space feel like it actually belongs to us. Our apartment took a very long time to feel like "home" to me; bu despite the fact that we've only lived in the house for 3 weeks (and we were out of town for 10 days of that), and its still full of mess and boxes, it already feels like we've always lived here; and I think a lot of that is because we put our "stamp" on this property right away. That way, by the time we started actually like, moving our furniture in, the place already felt homey and familiar.<br />
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So, this won't be a long post, but I just wanted to share a few of the color choice we made, and show you how just a little bit of paint made our house feel so much more like a home. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRPUaEImf2rJd-2DElXuwMGpboZ1C4lTQGuF5PkcS9fu4kCSEb6uj9SL2T2wvjsjNRaliJLp1OCgyQ_MtC2-z0D7TSGQBxauD7pOcymgpzrAX3SQHQIdl45uDXTD2DvPL-CEpgN_7U_B3/s1600/CAM00241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRPUaEImf2rJd-2DElXuwMGpboZ1C4lTQGuF5PkcS9fu4kCSEb6uj9SL2T2wvjsjNRaliJLp1OCgyQ_MtC2-z0D7TSGQBxauD7pOcymgpzrAX3SQHQIdl45uDXTD2DvPL-CEpgN_7U_B3/s320/CAM00241.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Living room</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl905ffK1sMaCa3Slq4V3nEGV5_mkWClezLklVZ43UhP1WuGknDNzx71C6jG5hUUsuItX5FPJqVvngoseRiLs6sPJvVawZ_4NBDSWEQz06aTO-Xdmutf_fUTISlzT0_oHqmLgnbre_XbQ/s1600/CAM00242.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTl905ffK1sMaCa3Slq4V3nEGV5_mkWClezLklVZ43UhP1WuGknDNzx71C6jG5hUUsuItX5FPJqVvngoseRiLs6sPJvVawZ_4NBDSWEQz06aTO-Xdmutf_fUTISlzT0_oHqmLgnbre_XbQ/s320/CAM00242.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kitchen</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6pGOoyOC0y8cgRPsOBP1OgcqWihE9IuqQeOViCUxhjVoS1h3_4Up5CxZQOru5y4icpH_2mIrvV-CWS1fqBUqdECUl7TqDCVSOptm-SlP1TwvBMo-5SSz1D9dYAkGNA8syEXldhesLqCg/s1600/CAM00243.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR6pGOoyOC0y8cgRPsOBP1OgcqWihE9IuqQeOViCUxhjVoS1h3_4Up5CxZQOru5y4icpH_2mIrvV-CWS1fqBUqdECUl7TqDCVSOptm-SlP1TwvBMo-5SSz1D9dYAkGNA8syEXldhesLqCg/s320/CAM00243.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bedroom (converted attic)</td></tr>
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I've got two other rooms to show you guys, but I think I'm going to save them for the next post because, well... you'll see!<br />
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We also put up blinds before we moved in, so that we could work on the house without passers-by wandering up to our windows and pressing their faces up against the glass for a better look (I'm just kidding, no one did that). And as my husband pointed out "it makes the house look less like a... uh... fishbowl." Always a good thing. <br />
We installed the blinds ourselves, and after a bit of back and forth to Home Depot (3 trips in 1 day!), it was actually fairly cheap, and really easy to do. I'm not going to go over the steps, because blind kits come with instructions, and the whole process was actually super easy. I will show you some pictures though:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzb3gNckQSIV7Y0UYL62qk6TTA3GvuomvXflKLLpT0-jFcDhr1TqCdEejO7qIHreKgVdKQSqEai0fReZ_dyKSAtBpTwRwHG9RIXiwaevHy2QqfnKRJCk-kg22yvREZgOSKrMHMywFrqRWX/s1600/CAM00061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzb3gNckQSIV7Y0UYL62qk6TTA3GvuomvXflKLLpT0-jFcDhr1TqCdEejO7qIHreKgVdKQSqEai0fReZ_dyKSAtBpTwRwHG9RIXiwaevHy2QqfnKRJCk-kg22yvREZgOSKrMHMywFrqRWX/s320/CAM00061.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>And that's about it for today. Stay tuned for more DIY home-improvement projects, and some Pennsic blogging, and general nonsense. You know, the usual.</i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-34597005671049786042015-08-11T13:42:00.001-04:002015-08-11T13:42:01.367-04:00Front Flower-Bed Fix-Up Finished!Hey there loyal readers! I know I haven't blogged in a long time, and I'm sorry for that, I really am. I love blogging, and sharing all of our projects with you, I've just been a bit too busy.<br />
We had a lot of projects that needed to get done at the house, and most of them (like painting and cleaning) needed to get done before we could move in, and since we were under a bit of a time crunch... well... things didn't get blogged about.<br />
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But don't worry, I took pictures, and will be blogging about all of the projects that I need to catch you guys up on over the next month or so. And I want to start (finally) with the raised flower-bed/retaining wall fix-up, which is finished!<br />
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So, just to refresh your memory, this is what we started out with:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CJU6hxSdt4dJ1VjVkWqBqgwbwVwrgZ3S2Hq-uB6hIWy5KMAHnSWqWquJ4SaQsqUl5FAv7AOqV3jCJ65I7FEK3_X-X-3Fp4m2Rx_SIeB-TsYbJfXXc2Cct3iswsVrGtJf-DyeWmXD9aiV/s1600/CAM00142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CJU6hxSdt4dJ1VjVkWqBqgwbwVwrgZ3S2Hq-uB6hIWy5KMAHnSWqWquJ4SaQsqUl5FAv7AOqV3jCJ65I7FEK3_X-X-3Fp4m2Rx_SIeB-TsYbJfXXc2Cct3iswsVrGtJf-DyeWmXD9aiV/s320/CAM00142.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yikes...</td></tr>
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So, we dug out the ugly black plastic that wasn't doing anyone any good, and tossed it. Then we moved all of the pavers to the side so that we could start trenching out the spot where they would get put back.<br />
After trenching, we tamped down the earth, and attempted to get the ground to be nice and level for putting our first course of bricks on. I already blogged about this <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2015/05/project-sundays-5-10-5-17-15.html">here</a>, so I'm not going to go into too many details.<br />
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Next it was time to lay out the first course of bricks, and make sure that they were nice and level. This didn't take too much time, but we ended up getting stuck here for a bit. We laid out the first course, and then... didn't have time to get back to it for a few weeks. See, we had to have the house painted and cleaned so that we could move in before the lease was up on our apartment (we didn't want to have to pay and fees, or another month's rent), so the outdoor projects kind of took a back seat to that.<br />
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We finally did get around to laying out the next course though. We put down some landscaping cloth to prevent weeds from growing up in between the layers of bricks (though looking back, I might skip this step next time, as it was kind of a pain in the ass, and doesn't seem to be working all that well), and then we glued on the next course of bricks, offsetting them by one brick. To do this we used construction adhesive, specifically branded for concrete (you can pick it up at your local hardware store for ~$5-$8, and it fits into a standard caulking gun).<br />
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We set them down, and left them alone for a bit to dry (it helps to do it on a nice sunny, dry day), and when everything was ready, we glued down the third course. I sadly do not have any pictures of us gluing down the second or third courses of bricks, but it's pretty simple to do, and if you guys have any questions, drop a comment and I'd be happy to help!<br />
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I do however have a lovely picture of the finished product! Doesn't that look so much better? It took a lot longer than we had originally thought (mostly because we ended up having to take time to work on other projects), and it didn't go as smoothly as planned, but it got done! And I'm pretty damned proud of how it turned out, especially when you look at it next to our "before" picture. As I said, yikes.<br />
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Now, we're not quite done, you see, we have <i>two </i>flower beds in the front, and while we've pulled all of the pavers out of the right-side flower bed, that's about all we've done so far. So, as soon as we have a chance (and maybe we'll have to wait for the weather to get just a little bit cooler), we can start on the right-side flower-bed, and then we'll really be done. For now. With this project. Ah, the never-ending joys of home ownership.<br />
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A little preview, all of the brick pavers we have to use to make the right-side flower-bed:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">wish us luck...</td></tr>
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<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-57588105870860644522015-05-22T12:00:00.000-04:002015-05-22T12:00:12.400-04:00Project Sundays 5-10 & 5-17-15<br />
<b>*5-10-15* </b><br />
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Now that we've finally got that railing out of the way, it's time to start on our next project, which is to fix up the two raised garden-beds in the front of the house. And by "fix", I mean "completely re-do from scratch". You see, the previous owner of the house left us this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02CNaaIjPNqoPmRPep0Hxz-2EVJ-Od8BOQIOUuuaRoAK_qvwVOt4Js7Cid57Rfhzy_-KM27RHjZkSKI4IegjxPk5XNPyg2Uo3u8yl5YNB-Tj_CiiNB3T1Xuc1fgp3Ku2khthJZ8KUMgbj/s1600/CAM00142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02CNaaIjPNqoPmRPep0Hxz-2EVJ-Od8BOQIOUuuaRoAK_qvwVOt4Js7Cid57Rfhzy_-KM27RHjZkSKI4IegjxPk5XNPyg2Uo3u8yl5YNB-Tj_CiiNB3T1Xuc1fgp3Ku2khthJZ8KUMgbj/s320/CAM00142.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A friend of mine described it as "<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">A masterpiece. No finer landscaping has ever been done..." So yeah, we had to start from scratch. The first step was to sit down and get very overwhelmed. We've never done any real landscaping before, and this is sort of a big project to take on. We found some tutorials and a youtube video, and decided that it was time to get started. We decided to start on just the left side and see how it went before committing to doing the entire yard. Also, the left side was <i>a lot</i> worse, and needed fixing more desperately. </span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">I yanked out that ugly-ass plastic liner and chopped it up with a sawzall so that I could throw it out. Then it was time for the daunting task of removing every single one of the pavers that were already in the ground. We saved them all, of course, and we'll reuse them when we're ready to re-build the wall.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">After everything was neatly stacked on the porch, it was time to start digging. At this point, we took a break and went to the hardware store (a pattern in our lives) to pick up some supplies. We got some marking paint, pea-gravel and landscaping cloth. When we got home, we marked out the line where that we wanted to dig to, and then... then it started raining. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7YwtxdHxQSYJgM75v_CgBkFSa8pBcKNaikvuIzTwivfkygtlnhMa7IRvAqnl6wOOba68jO3yXWKw-nLPBB540Bma56qdL7teahle8EYYBLqiKyZ2UNZ1pN-eCUww37rgwryBFp5Op5d-X/s1600/CAM00213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7YwtxdHxQSYJgM75v_CgBkFSa8pBcKNaikvuIzTwivfkygtlnhMa7IRvAqnl6wOOba68jO3yXWKw-nLPBB540Bma56qdL7teahle8EYYBLqiKyZ2UNZ1pN-eCUww37rgwryBFp5Op5d-X/s320/CAM00213.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">We got a little bit of trenching done, but the ground was getting muddy and gross. So uh, we took another break. But it was a productive break, we went down into the basement and did <i>a lot</i> of demo work. Some previous owner had put up some really shitty studding, that at this point, wasn't even holding anything up anymore. Our house flooded last summer, and I guess the ugly paneling that was in the basement had to get ripped down, so all we were left with were these weird studs. We spent a couple of hours with a friend ripping down the studs and removing the falling drop-ceiling tiles. It was a productive afternoon, and we got a lot done.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9CckdZVXAAptxiVH_x9R4yLmhaRNp58DbNbNpzJukeQvBMwfdAzV-cYBaikX0z8aCmb_5XIuuYsI5_S1E9IEW1vbfvKIwu5Hkj_7WO_zcQ5Jj5wcYW0gzpY9xskCOL86M-vaSBfsanjN/s1600/CAM00218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9CckdZVXAAptxiVH_x9R4yLmhaRNp58DbNbNpzJukeQvBMwfdAzV-cYBaikX0z8aCmb_5XIuuYsI5_S1E9IEW1vbfvKIwu5Hkj_7WO_zcQ5Jj5wcYW0gzpY9xskCOL86M-vaSBfsanjN/s320/CAM00218.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">At this point, we left to go back to the apartment and get cleaned up. It was Mother's Day, and we were taking our moms out to a fancy-ass dinner. Okay, we went for pizza, but everyone had a good time and it was a lot of fun.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /><b> </b></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><b>*5-17-15*</b></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">We started out strong this weekend! We got to the house and worked on finishing up the trench for the left garden bed. We were going to dig down to about 2-3", but got a bit carried away, and dug to about 4-5" instead. But I've been told that this is good, as you want your first course of bricks in a retaining wall to be as deep into the ground as possible so as to provide a stable base to build up on.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">I had purchased an expensive tamper to squish down the trenched ground into something resembling a flat plane, and it turned out to be exactly the tool we needed (good thing too, it wasn't cheap).</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3oNam0bagQSYmKZr-40hm2RlvftmHo7qaYXrJk78kGsOLtc9Hy0ru6zUbNLghIAeGC14t2Ta2zZPoukogbVqdvW8oa1w42ycFVpulzMMM6Bkoz7FomP9r8qMArADvcSIY0ivOo6eUhdC/s1600/CAM00232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3oNam0bagQSYmKZr-40hm2RlvftmHo7qaYXrJk78kGsOLtc9Hy0ru6zUbNLghIAeGC14t2Ta2zZPoukogbVqdvW8oa1w42ycFVpulzMMM6Bkoz7FomP9r8qMArADvcSIY0ivOo6eUhdC/s320/CAM00232.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
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<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">The next step was to lay out all of the bricks (or pavers) in a row to check on how flat the round is, and if the stones sit where we want them to, and a million other little finicky details. Like I said, it's super important to get this first row perfect, because you're going to be putting 2 or more rows on top of it, and you want them to look good, and not to fall over. Once we determined that yeah, it looked good, it was time to move all of the bricks and use our landscaping cloth.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">I cut the cloth into sections with a utility knife, and laid it out about half-way across the trench, so that it would be covered by the bottom course of bricks. The cloth serves a few different purposes, but it mainly prevents weeds from growing up in between the layers of bricks. While we were doing all of this, some of our friends stopped by and got busy moving all of the bricks from the right-side retaining wall onto our porch, and in the time it took us to lay out 1 course of bricks to our satisfaction, they even managed to trench out the whole right side! Needless to say, hubs and I felt like we weren't getting nearly as much work done as them! But it all looks pretty damned good, if I do say so myself.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmvEPgcrIruy9jDJjZMZ0iLjDEtjYxTkeTefrcAftCoF-qqXwJSF6hMpcvubRT596q4kF-Z73WEqu4XtfjT23-LgOr1pqQbIw3EfqNognpYypnyMk7dsUtaVVeQ0KsZRbZZ2xQqRlp8W26/s1600/CAM00235-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmvEPgcrIruy9jDJjZMZ0iLjDEtjYxTkeTefrcAftCoF-qqXwJSF6hMpcvubRT596q4kF-Z73WEqu4XtfjT23-LgOr1pqQbIw3EfqNognpYypnyMk7dsUtaVVeQ0KsZRbZZ2xQqRlp8W26/s640/CAM00235-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">Here you can see the left-side bed with its first course of bricks, and the right-side bed all trenched out! This all took us about 5 hours of work in the hot sun, so we decided that it was time to call it a day. We're not going to be having a Project Sunday next weekend, and I've been a bit under the weather, so I don't know when we'll have a chance to come back and finish this up, but I'm hoping that it'll be soon! I want this project to be done with already!</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">Also, we're having the house painted right now, and I can't wait to show you some shots of the interior (which also needs some fixing up and some TLC), and to give you guys an over-view of some of the inside projects that we're going to be taking on!</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".uw.1:4:1:$replies10152916120963004_10152916939023004:0.1:2:$comment10152916120963004_10152916939788004:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">So stay tuned!</span></span></span></span>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-73794275049067393442015-05-19T13:00:00.000-04:002015-05-19T13:00:37.986-04:00Project Sunday 5-3-15We spent a long day yesterday working on the house. We've decided that the projects for this Spring/Summer are going to be working on the front exterior, so... railings, and flower beds and tree trimming and such. We're making progress, and getting things checked off the list, so check out:<br />
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<b>Railings pt. 2</b><br />
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Again, I'm calling this post pt. 2, but as we've already discussed, I think this should really be pts. 3 & 4 (possibly even 5?). Meh, whatever, it's done, so does it really matter how long it took... (two weeks, if anyone out there is counting).<br />
Anyway, when we last left our heroes, they had successfully installed the anchors that would hold the posts that would hold the railings. The next step was to attach special L brackets to the house where we wanted to put the railings. This turned out to be a bit more tricky than we had guessed.<br />
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Last time we installed a railing, we did so on a brick-exterior house. So installing the L brackets was as simple as drilling into the brick and screwing the brackets into place. Okay, so it was a good work-out, but it wasn't difficult. This time we were attaching the railings to a house with vinyl siding with squishy squishy foam underneath. The problem? If we attached the brackets and tried to tighten them up, we would crush the siding. Not so good.<br />
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The solution? Ask at the local mom-and-pop hardware store. The guy gave us a look for about 0.5 seconds, and then took us to the right aisle to find these little plastic plugs that were exactly what we needed. (If you have a little mom-and-pop hardware store in your area, I highly recommend going there for questions like these. Don't get me wrong, I do love my big-box stores, but I feel like they're mostly for when I already know what item I need to get. If I want to ask what type of item I need for a particular project, I have much better luck at the little local places).<br />
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After our trip to the hardware store, we headed back to the house and drilled some large holes in the siding that we fitted our little plasticy plugs into.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi48lx14b9hYMCz29XNyk2obLP8IasCbTVJS53YNcqJlINDNLtZFrYkVtlmWND3ANMPbdQbUmspWf62oee4UjB3evTaiiwrPPGhXkz7bnbDyR9iAU810mdjPsx-59_zdaqbVFY3GfZkF0KK/s1600/CAM00174.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi48lx14b9hYMCz29XNyk2obLP8IasCbTVJS53YNcqJlINDNLtZFrYkVtlmWND3ANMPbdQbUmspWf62oee4UjB3evTaiiwrPPGhXkz7bnbDyR9iAU810mdjPsx-59_zdaqbVFY3GfZkF0KK/s320/CAM00174.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This will give us something to tighten against, so that we don't squish the siding.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Once that was done, we could actually go ahead and instal the L brackets! Finally! This was taking a lot longer than I had expected, and at this point we had already been working on this easy afternoon project for a couple of days. I'm writing this up fairly well after the fact, so I don't actually remember how long this took us, but I think it was at least three days total. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH537Ezk0sq7KgxFZObLqlwSidjEy7WN8_dXa-OAXYtCVSzAc_E6dxqP-oeXSSv83NRm4yhormluBQ2-OtSye9dVI9KEcn8SjSvhtNmM21M6WLZ18Ib-KUhJXlxJd1ts_Um_4ps_YtHGc1/s1600/CAM00175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH537Ezk0sq7KgxFZObLqlwSidjEy7WN8_dXa-OAXYtCVSzAc_E6dxqP-oeXSSv83NRm4yhormluBQ2-OtSye9dVI9KEcn8SjSvhtNmM21M6WLZ18Ib-KUhJXlxJd1ts_Um_4ps_YtHGc1/s320/CAM00175.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bracket that we will eventually attach the railings to!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Now that we'd installed the anchors and the brackets, it was finally time to put in the damned railings! Huzzah! That part actually went fairly quickly, and I'm sorry to say that I don't really have any pictures of it. It was late in the day, and I was tired, and I just wanted to be done with the damned thing, so I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do. Sorry. My bad. Here's one shot of the first part of the last railing. Yeah, think about that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtbES1G5EvafqLAVlGqynRv_hL6zgL5hKTUWPY6WgHnT-pcHbK40lSkgBXKIDe6oMTu9BPGPzQ7L6T_mXhGABt8qHEZnJUOgU6u_IBEVHpw10GWLTrghipkFjoQnLWJQlMG3VY9KeeoAyn/s1600/11068425_10152892961203004_397083221742187259_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtbES1G5EvafqLAVlGqynRv_hL6zgL5hKTUWPY6WgHnT-pcHbK40lSkgBXKIDe6oMTu9BPGPzQ7L6T_mXhGABt8qHEZnJUOgU6u_IBEVHpw10GWLTrghipkFjoQnLWJQlMG3VY9KeeoAyn/s320/11068425_10152892961203004_397083221742187259_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You can see both of the columns, plus the brackets attached to the house, if you look really closely. At this point, we realized that it was like, 4pm and hot out, and we hadn't had any lunch yet. So we took a break to go get some fries, and came back to install the very last piece of railing.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQS1CyrtPVkpTW8njSr9RFGnhDswmGG6RyDcLG6XT6be7IAeR0pnkOTgh42NxjdyBEB6_WkpEDS8eFF-j09jyxdUuSuHIpI_KGDdQn11yY_AAFHwnPV5eBHxzKPRptvZtg64srfoBnXdkS/s1600/11151009_10152893097798004_3803158082647486523_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQS1CyrtPVkpTW8njSr9RFGnhDswmGG6RyDcLG6XT6be7IAeR0pnkOTgh42NxjdyBEB6_WkpEDS8eFF-j09jyxdUuSuHIpI_KGDdQn11yY_AAFHwnPV5eBHxzKPRptvZtg64srfoBnXdkS/s320/11151009_10152893097798004_3803158082647486523_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here it is, finally finished!</td></tr>
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As a bonus, in this last picture you can see the sorry state of our front garden beds, which are, indecently, our next project! So, I think that's going to be it for right now. I know that I took a long time to write this blog post, and as a result, I probably forgot some important details of the project (which has been done for about 2 weeks at this point). We're currently working on those garden beds, and I'm going to try to write up my posts about those a little more often, so that I can give you guys all of the really boring details you love!<br />
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Stay tuned for more "DIY Summer 2015"!<br />
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<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-49615282769561047012015-04-26T13:58:00.000-04:002015-04-26T13:58:07.592-04:00Project Sunday 4-26-15I know it's been a long time since I've done a <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/search?q=project+sunday">Project Sunday</a> (grad school will do that to you), but now that we're <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2015/04/bought-house.html">home owners</a>, expect to see more of them coming your way! Let's start with this one...<br />
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<b>Railings, pt. 1</b><br />
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Okay, if I were to be 100% honest, this would really be "Railings, pt. 2", since this is actually the second day that we've been working on this project. After work this part Thursday, we decided we had time to instal a railing on our front porch. Long story short, we really only had time to go to the Home Store and get all of our supplies before it got too dark and too cold and too tired to really get any work done.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TnWqJAUpAXMk5_2AbPRkGmxJ5rla5Vt7HLQCmQFOD91kp9aUQEXlG-tTOoPmyWXa6HgtW5CKtIwqB73QAq1cD0k7x8FL4PPS_euirqOMUQ9849ht3dD69EWhYeHiegNFcdD9fzZ9t_kZ/s1600/CAM00145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3TnWqJAUpAXMk5_2AbPRkGmxJ5rla5Vt7HLQCmQFOD91kp9aUQEXlG-tTOoPmyWXa6HgtW5CKtIwqB73QAq1cD0k7x8FL4PPS_euirqOMUQ9849ht3dD69EWhYeHiegNFcdD9fzZ9t_kZ/s1600/CAM00145.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lovely hubs.</td></tr>
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So, we got up early this morning and decided that we were going to get the railings done before we had to leave for a concert at 3pm. Long story short, we didn't. But we did make a lot of progress, and I wanted to share that with you. Here's the before picture, so that you can see what we have to work with:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsKedc_VFtzCpBqxAxP6-a1Ekoa8ckubfRvI2A0r5L7VcmSRCIvQK8Cr70ECVLvR2FWhow1nDOhXuwpzQ9wu-j6oChYQN-i_B8Divh0DKfDmp9YmlKwGR5DanSgr2ifjSZ1sej1o2dXmD/s1600/CAM00154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsKedc_VFtzCpBqxAxP6-a1Ekoa8ckubfRvI2A0r5L7VcmSRCIvQK8Cr70ECVLvR2FWhow1nDOhXuwpzQ9wu-j6oChYQN-i_B8Divh0DKfDmp9YmlKwGR5DanSgr2ifjSZ1sej1o2dXmD/s1600/CAM00154.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before...</td></tr>
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We're installing a railing along the side of the stairs to make it easier to get in and out of the house. It's not super high up, but some of our relatives have had issues with it, and when it was covered in ice... ugh, forget it. Nightmare city. We're also installing a piece of railing on the other side of the porch, where there is a 2'+ drop to the drive-way. Right now it's a nice place to hand things up from the car, but I can see myself tripping and falling, and I really don't want that to happen. So yeah, railing.<br />
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We've installed railings before, and I don't remember it taking an extremely long time, so I figured we'd be able to finish the whole thing in a few hours. Turns out, I was wrong. The first step to installing railings is to put up the posts (newel columns). In order to do that, you need some of these funny looking feet-things to anchor them into. And in order to do <i>that</i>, you need to drill holes into the concrete, with a special masonry bit and a hammer-drill. Not a quick process.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXMOMEOOPFMKTgTRAT1oBFA2U8YSFXRCjixqERc_Mr8DimVVfJoAtRKdauLROGLfjoefnHGgEQzt4Hdo5_coFM4eq3khxvQ6rhwfJZE-amrxqu6IOSjynV1WHfokdbUt3aQ9lHflHvz9P/s1600/CAM00157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXMOMEOOPFMKTgTRAT1oBFA2U8YSFXRCjixqERc_Mr8DimVVfJoAtRKdauLROGLfjoefnHGgEQzt4Hdo5_coFM4eq3khxvQ6rhwfJZE-amrxqu6IOSjynV1WHfokdbUt3aQ9lHflHvz9P/s1600/CAM00157.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trust hammer, gets the job done.</td></tr>
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After we drilled the holes, we need to pound in some masonry anchors, which are basically special screws that expand when you hit them, so they stay in place in the concrete. Pretty nifty, if you can get them to work. It took a lot of finagling, but finally we got all four holes drilled, and all four anchors in... for our first post. Then came placing the footing on, and tightening the nuts down so that everything stayed in place. Here's a joke for you: How many vice-grips does it take to instal a masonry anchor?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas5sJJVXz-Z1dk2kUHW9JEDKuN3yFNIzql7o_vCA-_KVnmrzCaTfGPlAU7SkiK4a8eoSLr4OsvW9oGGIKMK9QVvf2-s7FN8UzaFGphku_XrDVSP3gGzObHZTGgMVN1S7Cpah-o3cqjCbe/s1600/CAM00159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas5sJJVXz-Z1dk2kUHW9JEDKuN3yFNIzql7o_vCA-_KVnmrzCaTfGPlAU7SkiK4a8eoSLr4OsvW9oGGIKMK9QVvf2-s7FN8UzaFGphku_XrDVSP3gGzObHZTGgMVN1S7Cpah-o3cqjCbe/s1600/CAM00159.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's my father-in-law's foot! He helped!</td></tr>
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The answer is: At least two (which was all we had on hand). Once all of the nuts were tightened down, we had our first footing installed. Just two more to go! Luckily the next two didn't take quite as long as the first one. We got into a rythem, and it actually went pretty quickly. All in all, installing three footings took about 3 hours, with one quick trip to the harware store and a break to mow the lawn. Not too bad. Still, we spent all morning on the railings, and I feel like we don't have too much to show for it. At least we got to use our giant shop-vac!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyr_hvBvBJZCxVSJjUCy98BCwz-rDsjHIK0ShiLk_fq4pnIoq1XoZE5WyUCarcnUu-T9tZXTxGr0ocoRYdXCXgYicaexKMhK7UM6WRmV6YD_EYpBfTBtxkS2lqLRIdfpwbyYjLJRQJXwe/s1600/CAM00160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyr_hvBvBJZCxVSJjUCy98BCwz-rDsjHIK0ShiLk_fq4pnIoq1XoZE5WyUCarcnUu-T9tZXTxGr0ocoRYdXCXgYicaexKMhK7UM6WRmV6YD_EYpBfTBtxkS2lqLRIdfpwbyYjLJRQJXwe/s1600/CAM00160.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It came with the house, honest.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway, I'm not sure when we'll have time to get back to work on these, probably Wednesday. You see, we're not actually moved in to the house yet. We're waiting to get all of the painting and flooring done before we start putting our stuff in the house, so we're still in the apartment. So we can only work on projects after work and on weekends and such, and have to allow time for schlepping everything there and back. Fun, right? Anyway, stay tuned next week for Part two! (I hope)<br />
<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-51327706506512590012015-04-08T21:40:00.001-04:002015-04-08T21:40:50.471-04:00"Mock" & Cheese<div style="text-align: left;">
Every year on Passover, I face the same challenge: what to feed my picky husband. He won't eat fish, or eggs, or veggies, or... grown-up foods, really. He mostly lives on pasta & pizza and bread, and on a holiday when we can't have any of those, not eating the same thing 10 nights in a row becomes... difficult. So my plan is to try to collect a list of easy go-to recipes that I can make any night of the week with little or no prep. This is the first one in my new collection. A friend gave me the recipe just two days ago, and I already love it. So, here it is:</div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tova's "Mock" & Cheese</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_BPKu3HfOFpch5ySYVR3rqFp8_sdrf-e-Kc-wF66t_z8OoGRUnAONu2M_d7EaoPfGqdh25YdbnAlT-elECArPF0r7m4P1RGKsuO63mwh4X-PI4eyvdBvYP43x_RvPNJa5McvEQB3qcgX/s1600/CAM00122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo_BPKu3HfOFpch5ySYVR3rqFp8_sdrf-e-Kc-wF66t_z8OoGRUnAONu2M_d7EaoPfGqdh25YdbnAlT-elECArPF0r7m4P1RGKsuO63mwh4X-PI4eyvdBvYP43x_RvPNJa5McvEQB3qcgX/s1600/CAM00122.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
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Ingredients:</div>
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3 eggs</div>
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3 1/2 cups matzah farfel (I made my own with regular matzah, a plastic baggie & a hammer)</div>
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1/2 lb. (or more) of cheddar cheese</div>
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1 cup milk</div>
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1/2 pint sour cream</div>
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1/2 pint cottage cheese </div>
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Salt & Pepper to taste</div>
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1. Grease an 8x8 baking pan, pre-heat oven to 350. Beat the eggs with the milk & seasonings, and add in the matzah farfel, to soak. Cut or shred the cheese into small bits.</div>
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2. Mix in the cheese, sour cream & cottage cheese. Pour the mix into the baking pan and try to make it look all even and pretty.</div>
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3. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake for another 30 minutes, or until golden-brown and delicious.</div>
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4. Enjoy!</div>
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-15358038727720978832015-04-07T14:27:00.000-04:002015-04-07T14:27:03.752-04:00Bought a house!We're still more than a week out from our original closing date (for the house), but because of <em>circumstances</em> we moved the closing up, and as of last week... we're home-owners!<br />
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Yup, you read that right. We closed on the house <em>last week</em>, and have actually owned it for 8 whole days now! Though it doesn't really feel like we own a house, since I never get to see it. Sadface. We closed on Monday the 30th, and my husband and I camped out there over-night (after cleaning it up a bit). We have two twin size air-mattresses borrowed from my best friend (who lives right down the street) and four chairs that the seller left us.<br />
Or rather, we have four chairs that we asked the seller to get rid of before the closing. He dragged them out to the curb and called that good enough. The city however, disagreed, and we had to move them or get a ticket, as we found out once we came home after the closing. So, we took them back into the house, and now we have bonus chairs.<br />
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Anyway, I haven't even seen my house in a week because I've been so busy with school, work and of course, Passover. Hopefully I'll get to go out there tomorrow afternoon sometime and you know, make sure its still standing? Then I probably won't see it again until Sunday night, when it'll be time to start assessing how much work needs to be done, and what we have to finish up before we can move in.<br />
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Stay tuned next time for: <em>The House Saga: Part 1</em>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-22401105434912948382015-03-11T10:48:00.000-04:002015-03-17T15:28:42.954-04:00Buying a HouseSo uh yeah, we bought a house!<br />
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Okay, not quite, but we're <i>very very</i> close. Maybe I should back up a bit? At the beginning of this year, my husband and I finally agreed that we were ready to get our own house (read: I finally talked him into it). We started poking around on Zillow (here's a <a href="http://www.zillow.com/">link</a> to their homepage, if you are interested), just to see what was on the market.<br />
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We found a few houses that we liked, but not much. So my mom asked if she could hook us up with her agent, who had helped her sell my grandfather's condo after he passed away. I said sure, have him send us some listings, it can't hurt.<br />
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So he started sending us listings. A lot of listings. Like, 10 a day. And granted, some of these were updates to previous listings (like price changes), but still, we were quickly overwhelmed. We tried to sort through the listings and keep track of our favorites. Luckily, we knew exactly what area we wanted to be in, so that helped.<br />
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We quickly found one that we liked, just slightly outside of our preferred area. We asked the realtor about it, and he sent us more information. Then I called my mom to tell her. But when I gave her the address, she said she had to check on something and she would call me right back. Turns out, my cousin owns that house, and he's not actually interested in selling. Okay, back to square one.<br />
We found <i>another</i> property we liked, and once we ascertained that this one was in fact for sale, we made an appointment to see it on Monday March 9th. Perfect.<br />
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Sunday the 8th was my birthday, and since the weather was so nice, my husband and I decided to spend the day at the zoo. At around 12:30 we get a call from the realtor. There was another offer on the house we were interested in. He could fit us in that day at 2 to look at the house, but the seller was ready to make a decision, and if we liked it, we would have to put an offer in before 5pm. No pressure, right?<br />
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So what did we do? We went to the giraffe house to sit and think about the situation (and to vent our frustrations to a very nice docent). We decided that we should at least see the house, after all, maybe it wouldn't be what we liked and we would have no problem passing on it. Just in case we liked it though, I called my uncle the contractor and asked if he could come walk-through the house with us, and let us know if there were any glaring issues with the structure or the foundation or the roof, or anything really.<br />
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At 1:45 we were parked in front of the house, nervously wondering what the protocol was. At this point I had never actually met our realtor in person, and didn't actually know what he looked like. I guessed however, that he was the guy standing on the front stoop waving at us. I was right. We took a deep collective breath, and got out of the car.<br />
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We looked over the house, and it was every bit as charming in person as it had been in the listing. We fell in love, we wanted it. Our relator looked at us like we were nuts when we told him that we wanted to put in an offer. <br />
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"Are you sure?" He asked. "After all, this is only the first house you've seen..." But yes, we were sure. It was in the exact location we were hopping for (literally down the street from my BFF), and had everything we wanted in a house, including an unfinished basement that we could fix up. So off we went to my in-law's house, where my mother-in-law (the attorney) helped us look over all of the paperwork before we stupidly signed our lives away.<br />
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We sent in our offer, and 20 minutes later, it was accepted! We were now officially on our way to being home-owners! The whole thing still feels like a dream, especially since it all happened so fast. I woke up Monday morning (the day we were <i>supposed</i> to see the house) in a state of shock. I turned to my husband. "Did we really buy a house yesterday?" I asked. "Yeah, I think we did."<br />
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There is still a lot to do, and nothing's final until its final. We have our inspection on Sunday (though I'm not anticipating any big surprises, after already walking through the house with a contractor & an engineer), and then we're closing on Tax Day.<br />
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So let the countdown begin! <br />
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35 Days!Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-79677762805261311952015-01-10T13:29:00.001-05:002015-01-10T13:29:30.832-05:00What I Read in 2014Okay, I know it's taken me a little bit longer, but I've finally put together my list of books that I read in 2014! This is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition for me, and I really enjoy the opportunity to look back and reflect on what I've read over the last year. <br />
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Some of these are going to look a bit familiar to you. After all, I wrote about 6 of them for my Librarian's Corner series, they're highlighted so that you can find them, and if you click on the (**) symbol next to them, it'll take you straight to the post!<br />
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I kind of wanted to do a big break-down of what I read, like I did last year, but it seems a bit too overwhelming with this many books, plus, I kind of want to move on with my life. So instead, let me take just 1 minute (ok, maybe 2) to tell you about some of my favorites this year. <br />
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Favorite GN (graphic novel) series I finished this year: Preacher by Garth Ennis, and you can read all about why I loved it in my <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/11/librarians-corner-preacher.html">Librarian's Corner</a> post about it.</div>
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Favorite "new" series I started this year: The Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs. You probably know Dr. Brennan from the TV show <i>Bones</i>, but this Tempe is a completly different woman, and the series has almost nothing to do with the show. Very enjoyable though. I'm on book 9 right now, and I can't put it down long enough to write...</div>
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Favorite book by new author: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (and other lessons from the crematory) by Caitlin Doughty, AKA <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5iiEyLwSLvlqnMi02u5gQ">Ask a Mortician</a> on YouTube. Her channel is awesome, and not for the faint-of-heart, or those not into talking about dead bodies. Her book was everything I had hoped it was going to be, filled with gory details and touching stories. Just like the show.</div>
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Favorite book that made me cry: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. There's so much I could write about this book, that I'm not even going to try. Just go read it, seriously (if you haven't already), and bring a tissue, or 20. And then see the movie, trust me.</div>
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Okay, you're bored. On with the list:</div>
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<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/56589/This-Sorrowful-Life">The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life by Robert Kirkman</a>
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<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3508079/The-Calm-Before">The Walking Dead: The Calm Before by Robert Kirkman</a>
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<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/457643/Faked-to-Death-%28Simon-Kirby-Jones-Mysteries%29">Faked to Death by Dean James</a>
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<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/25628696/No-Time-to-Lose">No Time to Lose by Peter Piot</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3726763/Made-To-Suffer">The Walking Dead: Made to Suffer by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/12850761/Packing-for-Mars">Packing for Mars by Mary Roach</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/84160/Decorated-to-Death-%28James-Dean-Simon-Kirby-Jones-Mystery-%29">Decorated to Death by Dean James</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/12904929/Stuff">Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost & Gail Steketee</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/31235386/A-Curious-Man">A Curious Man by Neal Thompson</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shelfari.com/books/131775/Ozma-of-Oz">Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shelfari.com/books/462307/The-Marvelous-Land-of-Oz">The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shelfari.com/books/18182115/Rise-of-the-Governor">Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37305298/The-Walking-Dead-Vol-9-Here-We-Remain-by-Robert-Kirkman-%282009%29-P">The Walking Dead: Here We Remain by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/457637/Baked-To-Death-A-Simon-Kirby-Jones-Mystery-%28Simon-Kirby-Jones-My">Baked to Death by Dean James</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37033800/Cut-Me-Loose">Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood by Leah Vincent</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/35501009/My-Planet">My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places by Mary Roach</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36116718/Redefining-Girly-How-Parents-Can-Fight-the-Stereotyping-and-Sexu">Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from Birth to Tween by Melissa Atkins Wardy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/270414/Round-Ireland-With-a-Fridge">Round Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/50897/An-Abundance-of-Katherines">An Abundance of Katherines by John Green</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/35501745/Consider-the-Fork-A-History-of-How-We-Cook-and-Eat">Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/12264471/Rubys-Diary">Ruby's Diary: Reflections on All I've Lost and Gained by Ruby Gettinger</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/4552790/Shadows-of-the-Workhouse">Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth</a></li>
<li><a a="" href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/14732575/Operation-Beautiful-Transforming-the-Way-You-See-Yourself-One-Po">Operation Beautiful: Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-it Note at a Time by Caitlin Boyle</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36456832/An-Astronauts-Guide-to-Life-on-Earth">An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3966422/Paper-Towns">Paper Towns by John Green</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/31999548/A-Long-Day-at-the-End-of-the-World">A Long Day at the End of the World by Brent Hendricks</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/24026984/The-Fault-in-Our-Stars">The Fault in Our Stars</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/495214/Bound">Bound by Donna Jo Napoli</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/125604/We-Have-Always-Lived-in-the-Castle">We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/189284/Call-the-Midwife">Call the Midwife</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/495210/Breath">Breath by Donna Jo Naopli</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36114439/I-Am-Malala-The-Girl-Who-Was-Shot-by-the-Taliban">I Am Malala: The Girl Who Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/4932567/What-We-Become">The Walking Dead: What We Become by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/1476963/This-Bloody-Mary-Is-the-Last-Thing-I-Own-A-Journey-to-the-End-of">This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own: A Journey to the End of Boxing by Jonathan Rendall</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/25887/Looking-for-Alaska">Looking for Alaska by John Green</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/334725/Homecoming">Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt</a>
(<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/06/librarians-corner-homecoming.html">**</a>)
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/5677007/Fear-The-Hunters">The Walking Dead: Fear the Hunters by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171400/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0-Dead">Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/13177392/Life-Among-Them">The Walking Dead: Life Among Them by Robert Kirkman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/8312616/Dixie-Fried">Preacher: Dixie Fried by Garth Ennis</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shelfari.com/books/31780/Dorothy-And-the-Wizard-in-Oz">Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36906207/Mr-Mercedes-A-Novel">Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171349/Death-du-Jour">Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/11768138/War-in-the-Sun">Preacher: War in the Sun by Garth Ennis</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shelfari.com/books/46776/The-Bookseller-of-Kabul">The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/23831693/The-Sleepwalkers">The Sleepwalkers by J. Gabriel Gates</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171353/Deadly-Decisions">Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/11085/Xenocide">Xenocide by Orson Scott Card </a>
(<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/07/librarians-corner-xenocide.html">**</a>)
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/4210066/Yes-Means-Yes-">Yes Means Yes by Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37738629/Mommy-Man-How-I-Went-from-Mild-Mannered-Geek-to-Gay-Superdad">Mommy Man: How I Went from Mind-Mannered Geek to Gay Superdad by Jerry Mahoney</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/11084/Children-of-the-Mind">Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171347/Fatal-Voyage">Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/60773/Diceys-Song">Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/1014823/Unmarketable-Brandalism-Copyfighting-Mocketing-and-the-Erosion-o">Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore</a>
(<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/08/librarians-corner-unmarketable.html">**</a>)
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36720962/The-Big-Tiny-A-Built-It-Myself-Memoir">The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir by Dee William</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171351/Grave-Secrets">Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37403776/Like-No-Other">Like No Other by Una LaMarche</a>
(<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/09/librarians-corner-like-no-other.html">**</a>)
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171362/Bare-Bones">Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37463999/First-Impressions-A-Novel-of-Old-Books-Unexpected-Love-and-Jane-">First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/2247120/The-Snarkout-Boys-and-The-Avocado-of-Death">The Snarkout Boys and The Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater</a>
(<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/10/librarians-corner-snarkout-boys-and.html">**</a>)
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/4790351/Feminism-Encounters-Traditional-Judaism-Resistance-and-Accommoda">Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism by Tova Hartman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/14953023/Gender-Outlaws">Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/171360/Monday-Mourning">Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37932063/Victoria-A-Life">Victoria: A Life by A. N. Wilson</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/12479847/The-Secret-Life-of-Ms-Finkleman">The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/230290/Fablehaven">Fablehaven by Brandon Mull</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37940998/The-Mathematicians-Shiva-A-Novel">The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/66408/The-First-Hundred-Days">Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37376095/Evil-Librarian">Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudson</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/2390352/Tag">Ex Machina: Tag by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/1481859/Salvation">Preacher: Salvation by Garth Ennis</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/8312615/All-Hells-A-Coming">Preacher: All Hell's A-Coming by Garth Ennis</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/67067/Fact-v-Fiction">Ex Machina: Fact v. Fiction by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/7069353/Alamo">Preacher: Alamo by Garth Ennis</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3531920/Rise-of-the-Evening-Star">Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/6154559/Smoke-Smoke">Ex Machina: Smoke, Smoke by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37289197/Smoke-Gets-in-Your-Eyes-And-Other-Lessons-from-the-Crematory">Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3633343/Power-Down">Ex Machina: Power Down by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37273462/Never-Turn-Your-Back-on-an-Angus-Cow-My-Life-as-a-Country-Vet">Never Turn Your Back on an Angus Cow: My Life as a Country Vet by Dr. Jan Pol</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/3726593/Ex-Cathedra">Ex Machina: Ex Cathedra by Brain K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/38235083/Gaga-Feminism-Sex-Gender-and-the-End-of-Normal-(Queer-Action-Que">Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal by J. Jack Halberstam</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/12679596/Ring-Out-the-Old">Ex Machina: Ring Out the Old by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/15223354/Term-Limits">Ex Machina: Term Limits by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/19346/The-Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy">The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/144796/Embroideries">Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/35853/The-Restaurant-at-the-End-of-the-Universe">The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/24523254/Wild">Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37461678/The-Princess-Problem-Guiding-Our-Girls-through-the-Princess-Obse">The Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls through the Princess-Obsessed Years by Rebecca Hains</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37932195/Hand-to-Mouth-Living-in-Bootstrap-America">Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/7512225/I-Never-Promised-You-a-Rose-Garden">I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg & Hannah Green</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/35846/Life-the-Universe-and-Everything">Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/5492924/Ex-Machina-Vol-8-Dirty-Tricks">Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks by Brian K. Vaughan</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/35943404/Hyperbole-and-a-Half">Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/36976887/Working-Stiff">Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek & T. J. Mitchell</a></li>
</ol>
<br />
<i>My husband and I are both doing a reading challenge for 2015, so expect to see a post about that at some point in the near future. And of course, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/p/librarians-corner.html">Librarian's Corner</a> on the 21st of Jan, see you then!</i><br />
<ol>
</ol>
Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-70687791072534912342015-01-03T18:53:00.000-05:002015-01-03T18:53:26.629-05:002014 Wrap-UpOkay here it is, my year-in-review post for 2014. Just a few days late, no biggie. I had a lot of fun sitting down last year (err, 2 years ago? err, Dec 2013) and thinking about all of the wonderful things that had happened to me, and that I had done over the year. I got married in 2013, so I figured that was going to be the highlight of my year, but when I sat down, I got a chance to review all of the <i>other</i> amazing things about the year.<br />
<br />
So of course, I couldn't wait to do it again for 2014. I didn't get married this year, but it was still pretty damned fun. Let me tell you all about it.<br />
<br />
In January, my husband and I got to go to Washington D.C. for a conference. We turned the whole thing into a mini-vacation that we both badly needed. We got to see the National Zoo, and more Smithsonians than you can shake a stick at. (Seriously, all of the Smithsonian museums have free admission, you're welcome). We also got to spend time with my aunt & uncle who the train up from Baltimore to spend an afternoon with us at the <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/01/dc-day-3.html">National Air & Space Museum</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qJKvso9IfU1jTnJG3Zv09ks3gVEa1LxSJ-SGbACY6vxUcJ0DVW-xxPESVIqprqPTBQqcL2vlkGlHJXKknmkEC7A95CTJZkao3skmSwo2yM-TjYM8WbPGvpF7IdFxiZZRZ3e3s9SFiLsn/s1600/IMG1940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qJKvso9IfU1jTnJG3Zv09ks3gVEa1LxSJ-SGbACY6vxUcJ0DVW-xxPESVIqprqPTBQqcL2vlkGlHJXKknmkEC7A95CTJZkao3skmSwo2yM-TjYM8WbPGvpF7IdFxiZZRZ3e3s9SFiLsn/s1600/IMG1940.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The National Air & Space Museum, and yes, it was <i>free!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In March I celebrated my 26th birthday (and my 1st as a married lady), and got my brand new Asus laptop (it has a touch-screen & a back-lit keyboard), that I love so so so much!<br />
<br />
In May we went to New York to dance at my niece's wedding! It was so much fun, and so beautiful, and it was a wonderful chance to get to celebrate a happy occasion with my husband's side of the family. I also got to meet my sister-in-law (who lives in Israel) for the first time. It was a wonderful time, and I <i>know</i> that the "new" couple is happy because.... baby is on the way! She's due <i>this</i> March, and I've already got plans for a baby-blanket for her!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfmaJl22rnqNDAnDjesbcBiu4raLXwjy2rBC6Oes_eYH-qfrZBLFEfwX2wCByBzEi48vqtXoAHrnm6cV6JWhfK32tAPv8J_UpfUDQiZmHVZTBgpLiIe1NTSk5tkI592lsY6RsI2wqLMOn/s1600/IMG2248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfmaJl22rnqNDAnDjesbcBiu4raLXwjy2rBC6Oes_eYH-qfrZBLFEfwX2wCByBzEi48vqtXoAHrnm6cV6JWhfK32tAPv8J_UpfUDQiZmHVZTBgpLiIe1NTSk5tkI592lsY6RsI2wqLMOn/s1600/IMG2248.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Of course we visited the New York Public Library!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
May was also the month that I started graduate school. I'm working towards getting my Master's in Library and Information Science (yes, I want to be a librarian... shocking). This is by far the single biggest thing that happened to me in 2014. Graduate school was a <b><i>big</i></b> decision for me (historically, school and I have <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2010/02/sorry-for-profanity.html">not gotten along</a> all that well), and it took the rest of the year for me to figure out whether or not it was the <i>right</i> decision.<br />
Even though it's still sucking up all of my free time, I'm 4 classes in (1/3 of the way through), and I finally know that I made the right choice. (Remind me of that in about 3.5 months when finals roll around again, will ya?)<br />
<br />
In July we went to the 43rd <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/08/pennsic-43-recap.html">Pennsic War</a>, my second one ever. We had a blast, and got to spend time with some friends who I hadn't seen in over 5 years. I'm already making lots of plans for <i>next</i> Pennsic, and we'll have a lot of SCA-related projects coming up over the next few months, so keep an eye out for those.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MUvdwV7rwlDmV5WS0ObPglsLVEc5knRAAcRIuww_a0xf7jODpcwgpFbX6anEF40y0xOYrTxgAdN76eVHZ4WtHTlz0SMI5TEKyQ0nS3PHL4z7rgaXqPyx_KVoRd1mFBBWZ8jYDDBy0IOX/s1600/IMG2476+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MUvdwV7rwlDmV5WS0ObPglsLVEc5knRAAcRIuww_a0xf7jODpcwgpFbX6anEF40y0xOYrTxgAdN76eVHZ4WtHTlz0SMI5TEKyQ0nS3PHL4z7rgaXqPyx_KVoRd1mFBBWZ8jYDDBy0IOX/s1600/IMG2476+(2).jpg" height="279" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The field battle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In August we celebrated our first anniversary. It was a very special day, and of course, we spent it at the zoo.<br />
<br />
October brought a promotion at work. I went from being a page to being a Library Assistant. I'm working in the same department, with the same people, but more hours, more money and benefits! It's an amazing job, and I love it every single day. Even when I'm dealing with <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/12/reference-observations-regarding.html">"Problem Patrons"</a>.<br />
<br />
In November my mother and I made <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/11/belated-happy-turkey-day.html">our own Thanksgiving</a> for the second time ever! It was a little stressful since my in-laws were coming over, but it was a lot of fun and everything came out delicious, if I do say so myself.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXjJT2QuibkFfTbpqVUeFYW1OvONZm7uN7ofFq07npSH58ZqeQJN4t421UD6lsoHjSssCJbwGzriv2gAqcIhNqwun8w_zzhxsCgKRIMovNlETvu9iKxHk8rB3SMc8AJkL0QKupYObywMJ/s1600/IMG2810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXjJT2QuibkFfTbpqVUeFYW1OvONZm7uN7ofFq07npSH58ZqeQJN4t421UD6lsoHjSssCJbwGzriv2gAqcIhNqwun8w_zzhxsCgKRIMovNlETvu9iKxHk8rB3SMc8AJkL0QKupYObywMJ/s1600/IMG2810.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are just the <i>leftovers</i>!</td></tr>
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And I think that's about for big events this year. I did a lot of crafting this year, and of course, made a lot of delicious food (I'm looking at you turkey), played some amazing video games, and over-all had a blast. I don't want to talk about every single awesome thing, 'cause that's what the last year of blogging was for! Go <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=49">browse</a>, take a look. I'll wait.<br />
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In the mean time, I'm going to go ahead and get started on making 2015 just as amazing (if not more so) than 2014 was! Bye!Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-61625113559309372432015-01-01T08:45:00.001-05:002015-01-01T08:45:16.294-05:00Happy 2015!I really don't know where the last year has gone. It seems like the time has just flown by since I was here writing my Happy 2014 post. Seriously, has anyone seen the last 365 days?<br />
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<a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/01/happy-2014.html">This time last year</a> I resolved to make 2014 as awesome as possible. And do you know what? I pretty much did! I had an amazing year packed with so many fun and amazing things, I can't possibly tell you about them all right now.<br />
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I wanted to write a year-end wrap-up post in December, like I did for 2013, but like I said, the time flew away from me before I even had a chance to sit down and open up my lap-top. But don't worry, I'm still going to recap and reminisce. Stay tuned in the next few days for that post. And stay tuned also for my upcoming <i>What I read in 2014</i> post. Spoiler alert: It was a lot.<br />
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But for right now, I'm just going to wish you all a happy and healthy new year, filled with amazing times with family and friends.<br />
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<b>Happy 2015!</b></div>
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-11858918826319777062014-12-10T10:28:00.002-05:002014-12-11T11:00:56.684-05:00Reference Observations Regarding the “Problem Patron” <br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Every librarian you talk to will have a story about a “problem patron” or two, or seven. These are the patrons who, for whatever reason, want to argue with you, act inappropriately or generally cause trouble. They are present in every library, and every librarian will have a different strategy for dealing with them. Just as we employ different tactics for answering the reference questions of children, “problem patrons” often require special treatment as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To clarify, when we refer to a “problem patron”, we do not generally mean someone who is physically threatening to other patrons or staff. Those types (and they are out there, believe me), are actually fairly easy to deal with. As Georgia Ann Clark tells us in her piece in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Law Library Journal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “There is only one way to cope with a violent, dangerous, psychotic person: call the police” (52). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She goes on to explain that: “More difficult to handle is the demanding, overbearing, unreasonable user who can wreak havoc among staff with his only weapon - a sharp, vicious tongue and extremely troublesome manner” (52). This is what we generally mean when we talk about “problem patrons”. Now the next question is what to do with them? As I said, every library will have their own strategy, and during my 8 hours of observation at my chosen library, I saw quite a few in action.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While “problem patrons” are in issue in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">every</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> department of a library, my focus was on the reference desk, and the particular challenges that they face. Over my hours of observation, I saw several different “problem patrons” approach the reference desk with a large variety of questions and complaints. One specific issue that arises when dealing with a “problem patron” is that you don’t </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">know</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> that they’re a “problem patron” right away. The best strategy for this is simply to treat every patron who approaches the desk with respect and courtesy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A librarian might not know at first that someone is going to be a “problem patron”, but when treating a person with respect and courtesy only draws anger from them, you might have a difficult case on your hands. One of the most common interactions I observed at the reference desk (with regard to “problem patrons”) was a librarian having to deal with a patron wanting to complain about something. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, we all complain about things in our lives, but the people that we refer to as “problem patrons” tend to have irrational, illogical or just plain absurd complains. A few that I witnessed at the reference desk include: “the guy next to me is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">typing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> too loudly”, “I don’t like something that this website is telling me”, and “I can’t remember my e-mail password, why don’t </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">know it?” Clearly, these are not issues that the reference librarian can actually do anything about, but the patron still needs to be dealt with in a polite and respectful manner. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So how </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">do</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> we deal with these patrons? In </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Customer is Always Right</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, author Rebecca Jackson tells us that “Sometimes a thank-you is enough. Sometimes just having a listening ear helps dissipate the frustration” (213). Her piece uses the world of business to provide valuable insights into customer service for librarians. I found that many of the librarians I observed used these techniques, sometimes to great effect. A patron who came in upset that his home computer didn’t work found a sympathetic librarian to talk to, and even though she was unable to help him with his problem, just having someone to talk to calmed him down.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are always grey areas when we talk about “problem patrons”. There are patrons who are not necessarily rude or demanding, but simply take up a disproportionate amount of the staff’s time. While I was at the library, I observed one particular patron coming up to the desk time and time again to have conversations with the staff on a wide variety of topics. He seemed like a nice gentleman, and was always polite, but never actually had any reference-related questions. Instead, he wanted to tell jokes and stories about anything and everything. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This type of patron can be difficult to deal with, as we don’t want to be rude, but might actually need that down-time between reference questions to get other work done. Our job is to be there for our patrons, but a 20 minute conversation about Buddhism and Godzilla (a conversation I actually overheard) might be stretching that ideal a bit. Most of the time, the librarians just humored this patron, and went along with his rambling conversations. Once in a while though, the librarian on duty would politely explain that he/she actually needed to work on a project and he/she would be happy to chat with the patron next time. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I thought this was a great strategy for dealing with this particular type of patron. He was polite and courteous, and responded well to honesty. Many librarians will have to deal with a patron like this gentleman at one point or another. The best strategy here? I think David Issacson puts it best in his article </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No Problem with Problem Patrons</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “The reference librarians were simply treating a lonely man with dignity” (68). Respect is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">always</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the best approach, even if you think that, as Issacson also puts it “some very weird people are found in libraries” (68).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another type of “problem patron” that many public librarians have a lot of experience with is the young adult “problem patron”. In her paper </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The “Problem Patron” Libraries Created</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Mary K. Chelton argues that libraries contribute to this problem by insisting on treating young adults like children (25). She argues that many reference librarians assume that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">all</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> questions young adults ask are homework related (28), and thus do not always take the same time with the young adults that they would with their adult patrons. I did not witness this at the library I was observing, but I have witnessed it many times throughout my life, and especially my </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">own</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> adolescence. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When teenagers (and other young adults) are treated with respect by adults, they are more likely to respect adults in turn. The library I sat-in at is across the street from a middle-school, so young adults make up a significant number of their afternoon patrons. The reference librarians under my observation took the young adults seriously, and treated their questions with the same respect and courtesy that they showed toward the adults. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a result, I did not see many young adult “problem patrons” while I was observing. This shows us that one of the best reference strategies in this case is to be preemptive, and help prevent a problem before it starts, just by treating a 13 year old the same way you would treat a 30 year old. Chelton concludes that “viewing teenagers as problems does not need to continue (30-31)” and I agree with her completely. We adults tend to treat young adults and teenagers very dismissively, and then wonder why they treat us with so little respect in return.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There’s one other type of “problem patron” that I observed at the reference desk, and those are the patrons who could be called ‘chronically unhappy’. Nothing you can do will please these patrons, and not only that, but they delight in making </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> unhappy as well. There really isn’t a simple way to deal with this type of person, as almost anything you say or do will be wrong. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The strategy I have seen employed most often in this situation is for the librarian to simply give the patron whatever they want to make them happy and calm them down.This might be tempting in the short-run, but won’t solve any problems and is in fact setting a bad precedent. For example, let’s say a patron wants to argue about fines on their account. This type of patron will argue with you endlessly over a very small fine, and eventually, most staff members will simply waive the fine. The problem with this is that then the patron learns that the easiest way to get what they want is yell and scream at the staff until they give into the patron’s demands. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In her essay </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who Says There’s a Problem? A New Way to Approach the Issue of “Problem Patrons”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shelley Ferrell suggests that “staff might effectively de-escalate the situation through the use of skills such as listening, awareness of nonverbal cues, seeing the issue from the patron's perspective, displaying empathy, and focusing on the library-specific issues” (149) and certainly, this is the best possible approach in this situation. Realistically though, there are some patrons who are never going to be satisfied, no matter how empathetically we listen to their problems. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The last type of “problem patron” is the rare patron who verbally or physically threatens and abuses others. In this situation, there is actually nothing for the librarian to do except to call in local law enforcement, and let them handle it. This (luckily) did not happen during my observation period, but I did hear about an incident from more than one librarian on staff. A few months ago the police were called to escort a patron from the premises. He had verbally threatened and then physically assaulted another patron. His mental condition, and the fact that he didn’t actually </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hurt</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the other patron were taken into account in this case, and he would be allowed to come back to the library, after meeting with the director. He had however, not chosen to return at this time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is important for us as librarians (and people) to remember that public libraries are open to the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">public</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. As Calmer Chattoo suggests in his piece </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Problem Patron</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> we might see patrons who “talk to themselves, gesture non-threateningly at other patrons or staff, hum, wear bizarre clothes or speak in tongues” (16). Anyone who has worked with the public in any capacity will recognize a lot of these “types” of patrons, as most of them aren’t specific to libraries. But how they are dealt with can be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Librarians occupy a unique position as both customer service agents, and keepers of the library’s resources and knowledge. When a patron chooses not to use our library because of something that we have said or done, everyone loses. It is our job to make sure that this does not happen, while balancing our own safety and sanity. I watched the staff at this library interact with a wide variety of patrons, in a wide variety of situations, and I think I’ve learned a few good tricks and strategies to handle (almost) any situation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">First, remain calm, courteous and respectful. You do not know if someone is going to be a “problem patron” and we can often prevent issue before they happen just by being polite. Treat everyone with respect, even if they are “speaking in tongues”, or happen to be younger than you. All of our patrons deserve respect, and if you show it to them, they will show you respect in return. And finally, know when to step away from the situation and get help. You are not going to help anyone by getting involved with a violent patron. Just as you wouldn’t expect the police to answer reference questions, so too they do not want you doing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">their</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> job. Know when the situation is out of your hands, and act accordingly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are always going to be “problem patrons”, and they will always be a part of our lives as librarians. There is nothing we can ultimately do except learn to except these people the way they are, and try our best to accommodate them. It is our job, after all, to provide services to all those who seek them, without judgment and with respect.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">References:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Calmer D. Chattoo (2002) The Problem Patron, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 11-22.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chelton, Mary K. (2002) The “Problem Patron” Public Libraries Created, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 23-32.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Clark, Georgia (1979). The Problem Patron. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Law Library Journal,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">72</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, 52-52.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ferrell, S. (2010). Who says there's a problem? A new way to approach the issue of "problem patrons".</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(2), 141-151.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Isaacson, D. (2006). No problem with problem patrons.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Library Journal, 131</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(1), 68.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jackson, Rebecca (2002) The Customer Is Always Right, The Reference Librarian, 36:75-76, 205-216.</span></div>
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<br />Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-2945805869394738812014-11-28T11:49:00.002-05:002014-11-28T14:09:13.041-05:00Belated Happy Turkey-Day!Hey everyone! I just wanted to take a minute out of what I'm assuming is a busy Black Friday to share some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal! (pictures of food on the internet, what? Is that a thing?)<br />
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Let me give you a brief over-view of the menu:<br />
<ul style="text-align: center;">
<li>Two different kinds of salad</li>
<li>Salmon patties </li>
<li>Two different kinds of wine (1 homemade)</li>
<li>Split-pea soup</li>
<li>Homemade bread</li>
<li>Turkey (of course)</li>
<li>Gravy</li>
<li>Stuffing </li>
<li>Sweet potato casserole</li>
<li>Cranberry sauce</li>
<li>Roasted white potatoes</li>
<li>Honey cupcakes</li>
<li>Ginger-apple cake</li>
<li>Chocolate bumpy cake</li>
<li>Pumpkin pie</li>
</ul>
A feast I tell you! We did it all kind-of pot-luck style, where everyone brought something. And by everything, I mean the woman. It's not a sexist thing, but the men in our family just don't cook for whatever reason, although my Father-in-Law did bring us homemade wine!<br />
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And now for some pictures:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvtttJBVsh1xZ42wG4vEPiam4s_QcOaKzP_otSczpVgn7stA-RXk53-4LA-yz9C2teX55s8ZtJ_uWg3FYlBXZ_EMftJr7j58_EvIEtNOUo17f9sH97hhZX3C-kefPVmb4s5UJbkzbgv5I/s1600/IMG2808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvtttJBVsh1xZ42wG4vEPiam4s_QcOaKzP_otSczpVgn7stA-RXk53-4LA-yz9C2teX55s8ZtJ_uWg3FYlBXZ_EMftJr7j58_EvIEtNOUo17f9sH97hhZX3C-kefPVmb4s5UJbkzbgv5I/s1600/IMG2808.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yours truly, putting the finishing touches on my bird.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ujn-nkcY3ya5zgoLuZQn9XppPNRztWQG1tR_TS4NelEVHdq_ne3LuX_h_9twDnL-Loh7iG9p5HTpRNNuUuv4IKuRAUQQ6NXG1z6Tj0zPimaiG2Znyy1hRExgQHApQ8mScnUJRkD-Uj5-/s1600/IMG2809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ujn-nkcY3ya5zgoLuZQn9XppPNRztWQG1tR_TS4NelEVHdq_ne3LuX_h_9twDnL-Loh7iG9p5HTpRNNuUuv4IKuRAUQQ6NXG1z6Tj0zPimaiG2Znyy1hRExgQHApQ8mScnUJRkD-Uj5-/s1600/IMG2809.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And it was a beautiful bird, if I do say so myself.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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My family and I usually head out to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving, so this was actually only the second time I've ever had to put the Thanksgiving meal together. I think the turkey came out pretty damned good! I was really proud of myself and what I was able to accomplish. Would I do it again? In a heart-beat. It was fun, and the turkey was actually easy (and tasty!).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKF-p2SydRxe347nQL2zYj1c7qSWZruC5YPDMCQzinFXWrKYMLP0WsgX1bUY8iSwuluQ3lXyxphjIoTJ2Ow7QgyDjsmXSwy80BvP3oMx2FilRfGz-xjKILTC9NFGkPxhc24gCksgMELnP/s1600/IMG2810.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKF-p2SydRxe347nQL2zYj1c7qSWZruC5YPDMCQzinFXWrKYMLP0WsgX1bUY8iSwuluQ3lXyxphjIoTJ2Ow7QgyDjsmXSwy80BvP3oMx2FilRfGz-xjKILTC9NFGkPxhc24gCksgMELnP/s1600/IMG2810.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And these are just the leftovers!</td></tr>
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Okay, so I know that Thanksgiving isn't <i>just</i> about food, so I want to take a minute to talk about all of the things that I'm thankful for this year. <br />
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<li>I'm thankful for my job.</li>
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<li>I work in am amazing library, where they treat the staff like family. My coworkers are fun and amazing people, and my boss is one of the sweetest people I know.</li>
</ul>
<li>I'm thankful for my family.</li>
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<li>My parents and In-Laws both live about 15 minutes away from us (okay, 20 with traffic), and I love that we're close enough to pop over whenever we want and spend time with our families.</li>
</ul>
<li>I'm thankful for my education.</li>
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<li>I'm working on my Master's in Library and Information Science, and I'm just about done with my second semester. That's 1/3 of the way! </li>
</ul>
<li>I'm thankful for my health.</li>
<ul>
<li>While I'm not always the healthiest person (I could eat less and exercise more), I don't have any big health issues, and that's a blessing.</li>
</ul>
<li>I'm thankful for a great place to live.</li>
<ul>
<li>Our apartment might not be much (though we're slowly improving it), but it's ours, and I love it.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<i>So that's it for right now. How did you guys celebrate Thanksgiving? And if you don't celebrate, did you do anything fun/cool on Thursday? What are you thankful for this year? </i><br />
<i>Stay tuned for another post in the next few days, I'm going to be talking about the end of NaNoWriMo, and my plans for next year (yes, I plan ahead. no, I don't always stick to those plans), and of course, what I learned from NaNo this year and what I love about the event! </i><br />
<i>Also, look for a new Librarian's Corner next month (on-time, I hope), and some year-end recaps!</i><br />
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<i>Happy Friday, and enjoy your leftovers, I know I will! </i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-38311202624461974822014-11-23T11:39:00.001-05:002014-11-23T11:39:44.162-05:00Librarian's Corner: Preacher<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC54n1hkfLY-ZSjG6DLbESAFTLBJhXrNKJ6BeJCMCSePTASJf3tCzUs5xb6crpLkkAqxmIYizQDRkJdgWAtyyifpSkGD1AQR4zevSAUB6iBUyJ9mhraxd8mUKxpAOVfz11Czf69mC-nsgc/s1600/preacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC54n1hkfLY-ZSjG6DLbESAFTLBJhXrNKJ6BeJCMCSePTASJf3tCzUs5xb6crpLkkAqxmIYizQDRkJdgWAtyyifpSkGD1AQR4zevSAUB6iBUyJ9mhraxd8mUKxpAOVfz11Czf69mC-nsgc/s1600/preacher.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.shelfari.com/series/Preacher"><u>Preacher</u></a></h2>
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by: Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon </h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">We're doing things a little bit differently on this month's</span><i> </i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Librarian's Corner. </i>Normally, I like to spend a while telling you about a book that I recently read and enjoyed. This month though, I'm going to be talking about an entire series!</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Now for those of you who don't know, I work in a library (<i>gasp, really?</i>), and my library has an amazing collection of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel">graphic novels</a>. One of those (or really, 9 of them, this is a series, remember) is <i>Preacher. </i>Now, don't go jumping to conclusion, this isn't a religious comic. Well, I guess it is, but it's not <i>that</i> kind of religious comic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Preacher</i> is about the Reverend Jessie Custer, who's starting to become disillusioned with his position (and his flock) when something... supernatural happens. Before he knows it Jessie, his girlfriend Tulip and their friend Cassidy (who just happens to be a vampire) are on a mission to find God (who's missing) and hold him accountable for the state in which He's left humanity. So yeah, I guess it <i>is</i> about religion, but I told you, not in <i>that</i> way. Along the way they run into a whole cast of characters who want to stop Jessie. From the Saint of Killers (who's mission is to collect the souls of anyone who dies a violent death) to an organization called The Grail (bent on bringing about Armageddon, for the good of humanity, of course), and even an unfortunate young man who goes by the moniker Arseface. </span><br />
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I picked up <i>Preacher: Gone to Texas</i> last November without a single clue what it was about, because I had heard that one of the main characters was a vampire. I'm a total sucker for vampires and will read just about anything that has 'em. I ran to the library to see if we had a copy, and was thrilled to discover that we actually had the whole series! I grabbed <i>Gone to Texas</i>, and started reading. It took me a year to work my way through the series. Partially because I knew that there were only 9 books (technically "trade paperbacks" collecting issues 1-66 of the comic books), and I wanted to space them out nicely.<br />
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I love the series, and once I got into the last few books, I couldn't help myself. I was picking up one every few days and powering through them. I just <i>had</i> to know what was going to happen to these characters I had grown to love (and hate, I hated some of the by the end). Who would I recommend this story to? Anyone who has questions about God. No, seriously, this isn't a series for those who might be offended by some <i>slight</i> (haha!) blaspheming. And before I go any further into my recommendations, I should mention that this series is <i>for mature readers only</i>. Seriously, I don't like to tell kids not to read things, but this really isn't for the littles, grown-ups only please.<br />
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So, to summarize: <i>Preacher</i> is about a gun-toating hard drinking, Texas preacher named Jessie Custer, who is on a mission to find God. He teams up with his tough-as-nails girlfriend Tulip and an alcoholic fun-loving, Irish vampire names Cassidy and they travel across the country (and to France, that one time) to find God and hold Him accountable for abandoning humanity. Sh*ts about to get real here folks. So if you like sharp-shooting Texas cowboys, and hard-drinking Irish vampires, and chicks who are not about to take cr*p from anyone, then <i>Preacher </i>might be the series for you. Plus, there are lots of pretty pictures!<br />
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<i>That about wraps things up for this month's </i>Librarian's Corner.<i> Sorry for the 2-day delay. I meant to have this post up by the 22nd, at the latest, but... I've mentioned that I work in a library, and sadly, one of my co-workers passed away yesterday.</i> <i>She was an integral part of our tech-services department, and will be dearly missed. </i><br />
<i>Anyway, thanks for being patient and sticking with me. I promise that December's </i>Librarian's Corner<i> will be more prompt! Speaking of, I'm always looking for suggestions, so if you have anything you'd like me to read and talk about, let me know! You can leave a message here in the comments! And, if you've read/want to talk about </i>Preacher<i>, leave a comment! We'll have a discussion, it'll be fun, I promise! So that's it for now folks. See you in December!</i><br />
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<i>Stay tuned! </i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-30961203245826733872014-11-01T16:23:00.000-04:002014-11-01T16:23:45.838-04:00NaNoWriMo 2014In case you have been living under a rock (or another similarly rock-like object), today is November 1st! Yay! So what? you say. November 1st, big deal. you add sarcastically. Yes big deal, for November 1st marks the beginning of<br />
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<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a></h2>
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What's that? You don't know what NaNoWriMo is? Oh you poor soul, let me educate you. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November tens of thousands (possibly millions) of people around the world (yes, I know I said National, but stick with me here, okay?) gather together to write a novel in one month. For the sake of the event a novel is defined as 50,000 words of a <i>new</i> and <i>original</i> story. And no, it doesn't actually have to be a novel! You can write five 10,000 word short stories that all focus on a similar theme, or a 50,000 word memoir about your life in the Philippines or you can just go ahead and be a <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/en/forums/nano-rebels">NaNo Rebel</a>!</div>
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You might think that it's impossible to write 50,000 words in just 30 days, but it <i>is</i> possible. I've done it! Tens of thousands of others have done it too! <i>You</i> can do it! All you have to do is commit to writing 1,667 words a day. And really, that's not a lot. It's only about 2-3 pages, depending on your writing software and your font size. A few pages, I bet you have a few pages of a novel sitting around in your head, just waiting to be put down on screen, or paper!</div>
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So how do you do it? The first step is to sign up! Head on over to <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">www.nanowrimo.org</a> and sign up for an account today. It's 100% free, and I promise you won't regret it. Then you can go ahead and start writing! Today is Day 1, and there's plenty of time left to write. Grab a snack (and some caffeine, trust me on this one, you're going to want to caffeinate), and get to writing. Open up Word, or your notebook and start putting words down. And don't worry, it doesn't have to be any good. We're writing novels in 30 days folks, but no one said anything about writing <i>good </i>novels. Trust me, just get it all down, and you can spent December, January and February editing. Oh, that's another thing, your Inner Editor is going to want to pipe up and make changes. Before you start writing, grab some rope and tie him up, okay? You're on your own for this one!</div>
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I don't want to bore you with a lot of text, and besides, you've got some writing to do, so I'm going to let you get to it. Go sign up for an account, and add me as a friend if you'd like! Writing is easier with buddies! (I'm <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/participants/carynska">CarynSKA</a> on the site too) There are all kinds of local writing events that you can track down and participate in, and if there's nothing close to you, there are WordSprints and virtual write-ins on twitter (follow <a href="https://twitter.com/NaNoWriMo">@NaNoWriMo</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NaNoWordSprints">@NaNoWordSprints</a> and check out the hash-tag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/amwriting?src=hash">#amwriting</a> for more goodness). </div>
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So that's it! Go write! Have fun and give in to 30 days of literary abandon! I'm going to add a word-count widget to the site for the rest of November, so you guys can check in on <i>my</i> progress, and hassle me if I fall too far behind. After all, what are friends for?</div>
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Happy Writing and remember: <b>1,667 words per day, and you'll hit 50K on November 30th!</b></div>
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Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-38970298969137556692014-10-21T16:03:00.002-04:002014-10-21T16:03:31.819-04:00Librarian's Corner: The Snarkout Boys and The Avocado of Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZXSzYLVnK_OjxFGBP5tHzgsG3FCazRtaWwG2OyVeCb3R_axWHPva8dU1XJH-2of0sUvMMhEt6g1DgyKvlqTuiAI6zKLrKMzG3cqo_10y9_FaB9gg05eLW3zETZ-_UiW6-zANNgtY4QX8/s1600/71Bdg2t1PDL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZXSzYLVnK_OjxFGBP5tHzgsG3FCazRtaWwG2OyVeCb3R_axWHPva8dU1XJH-2of0sUvMMhEt6g1DgyKvlqTuiAI6zKLrKMzG3cqo_10y9_FaB9gg05eLW3zETZ-_UiW6-zANNgtY4QX8/s1600/71Bdg2t1PDL.jpg" height="320" width="191" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/2247120/The-Snarkout-Boys-and-The-Avocado-of-Death"><u>The Snarkout Boys </u></a></h2>
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<a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/2247120/The-Snarkout-Boys-and-The-Avocado-of-Death"><u>and the Avocado of Death</u></a></h2>
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by: Daniel Pinkwater</h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">First of all, I have to say that this is the <i>strangest</i> book that I've read in a very long time. But then again, its a Daniel Pinkwater book, what do you expect? Oh, you're not familiar with Daniel Pinkwater? Let me introduce you. Pinkwater writes absolutely ridiculous books (mostly for children) about such every day occurrences as talking lizards (<i>Lizard Music</i>), giant chickens (<i>The Hoboken Chicken Emergency</i>) and a moose who works as a waiter (the <i>Blue Moose</i> series). Sounds interesting, right? It is, and <i>The Snarkout Boys</i> are sort-of the culmination of all of this weirdness in one delicious book.</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i> </i></span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death</i> is about well, exactly what you think its about. Walter Galt and Vincent Bongo have refined the fine art of "snarking out", or sneaking out of the house after your parents are asleep. While out one night at the all-night movie theater that the boys frequent, they run into a young lady named Rat, who brings them home to meet her crazy family. Thus begins the strangest adventure that young Walt and Vincent have ever endured, and certainly the strangest one; involving mad scientists, all-night restaurants, stump-speeches and of course, avocados. </span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">My love-affair with Mr. Pinkwater started while my husband and I were on our honeymoon last summer. He was appalled to discover that I had never <i>heard</i> of the masterpiece that is <i>Lizard Music</i>. He promptly downloaded it to his talking books player, and we spent a lovely weekend sitting out on the deck of the country house we were staying at, listening to <i>Lizard Music</i> and laughing our butts off. After that, it was on to <i>The Hoboken Chicken Emergency</i> and <i>The Last Guru</i>. I've been reading Pinkwater avidly for over a year now, and I've yet to come across a book that I didn't love.</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>The Snarkout Boys</i> is just everything that I <i>love</i> about Daniel Pinkwater's books. It's ridiculous, and it's fun, it's silly and it makes you laugh. Yes, it's a kid's book, but it's also for adults! Don't let anyone out there tell you that as a so-called "grown-up" you are not allowed to read and enjoy literature aimed at kids. Although there is something beautiful about its childlike silliness. There's a sense of whimsy that you don't get very often in traditional "adult" books, and Pinkwater is the master of whimsy. Seriously, he wrote a book about a giant chicken, remember?</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">This is a short book, so I'm going to keep this short. I loved <i>The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, </i>and if you have a healthy appreciation of the weird, you will too. Where you can you get your paws on a copy? At your local library of course! But wait! There's more! You can actually listen to this amazing novel for <i>free</i>, narrated by the author himself! Head on over to <a href="http://www.pinkwater.com/">www.pinkwater.com</a> and check out all of his <i>free</i> audiobooks!</span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>So that's it for this month. Are you going to run out and read/listen to </i>The Snarkout Boys?<i> Yes, yes you are! It's well worth the price. You know, free. Enjoy! And come back next month for another installment of </i>Librarian's Corner.<i> I'm hoping to do something a little special next month, so please check back for it! In the mean time, tell me what </i>you're<i> reading these days, I'm always looking for some new recommendations (as if my reading list isn't long enough...)! TL;DR? More next month, tell me what you're reading, and have fun!</i></span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i> See you next month! </i></span></h4>
Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-85387286327926882792014-10-19T12:20:00.002-04:002014-10-19T12:20:44.578-04:00Adventures in Grape-SquishingHey, remember <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/09/follow-up-what-to-do-about-that-boring.html">last time</a>, when I mentioned that we'd been grape-squishing? Well, now I'm going to tell you guys all about it.<br />
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It all started a few Fridays ago, when my in-laws went to a pick-your-own-vineyard and came home with <i>165</i> lbs. of grapes. Yes, 1-6-5. That's... a lot of grapes. So what were we to do with all of those grapes? Make wine, of course.<br />
My in-laws have been making wine longer than I've been a part of the family (which, admittedly isn't that long, but still, it's traditional at this point). Every fall they acquire grapes, squish the juice out, and let it ferment into something alcoholic and delicious. <br />
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For the last several years, this squishing has taken place in their basement. The set-up was... precarious at best. There was a car-jack involved, and a cross-beam named Roderick that butted up against the ceiling... and yeah, it wasn't good.<br />
So last year, my husband and I built them a wine-press. A <i>real</i> wine-press. Based off of the design of a commercial wine-press that a friend of theirs had purchased for lots of $$.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWCf1_CrN8cklpC3mQcZWsylIP4AKh81AfTOyqwAoof5uoUpji1ENCD8gTALlUULFxmktrWgJxQlA0pBNkYxbSkBl4_flciYENJBTtZhAAK5Cxgtak-7n4SUG7RCpPp7PTcMlqIW_rmAE0/s1600/IMG2589.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWCf1_CrN8cklpC3mQcZWsylIP4AKh81AfTOyqwAoof5uoUpji1ENCD8gTALlUULFxmktrWgJxQlA0pBNkYxbSkBl4_flciYENJBTtZhAAK5Cxgtak-7n4SUG7RCpPp7PTcMlqIW_rmAE0/s1600/IMG2589.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">okay... so we're still using a car-jack.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The basic design is simple. There's a wooden frame that supports a car-jack, that holds the actual press. Inside the big green bucket is another (Home Depot) bucket with <i>lots</i> of holes drilled into it. Grapes go in the inside bucket, pressure is applied and juice comes out the bottom. The big green bucket has a spigot installed in the side so that the juice can be moved to yet another bucket. You can't make wine without a lot of buckets, apparently.<br />
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Okay, so once you've got your press all set up, you add grapes. 165 lbs. of them if you've got!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRbazNG3nc38npfIVj3FhrUC5ILdbiBVtPDcGZCxu8uDGv-8FQGg4QCbYgYOyGxzen73k-tneTpGnvIwfbh7ULXyqtVQ-E9MvYhVxwvWALUkHcwX2G4VU-oquUZ9lNDYK9z7gPZGDn1GP5/s1600/IMG2591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRbazNG3nc38npfIVj3FhrUC5ILdbiBVtPDcGZCxu8uDGv-8FQGg4QCbYgYOyGxzen73k-tneTpGnvIwfbh7ULXyqtVQ-E9MvYhVxwvWALUkHcwX2G4VU-oquUZ9lNDYK9z7gPZGDn1GP5/s1600/IMG2591.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All the classiest vintners use kitchen pots.</td></tr>
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Then, like I said, it's time to squeeze. We made a set of inter-locking pegs that would fit between the car-jack and the grapes so that we could continue to add pressure even as the grapes got squished down. Once your pegs are in place, you squeeze.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WjLWMWpahUTkfgIcOSgMNOiQnHkWzyctZ9op-4pY0b-_Nse6uQA2p2pG3Y_kkZTOOZUlGiRNYXrz8qj_jSSH-vu2_p8YWDzskRyZAxf7KLZm9NbAI_akX9UFRRKvBjGJ94QyPjzI2QNo/s1600/IMG2592.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WjLWMWpahUTkfgIcOSgMNOiQnHkWzyctZ9op-4pY0b-_Nse6uQA2p2pG3Y_kkZTOOZUlGiRNYXrz8qj_jSSH-vu2_p8YWDzskRyZAxf7KLZm9NbAI_akX9UFRRKvBjGJ94QyPjzI2QNo/s1600/IMG2592.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here you can see our peg system in action.</td></tr>
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<br />I wanted to cut dovetails on the pegs but... meh, you can't always get what you want. What comes next? Well, uh, more squeezing. And then? Even more squeezing. If you've got a lot of grapes (and we do), you're going to have to do a lot of squeezing. We did about 2 batches of white grapes, and another 2-3 batches of red grapes. If you've got a spigot installed into the side of your big green bucket (which I highly recommend), your grape-juice can pour right out into its permanent home. In our case, some fancy food-grade buckets which will house the grape-juice while it ferments.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyU7ahdzkWcvYTMTYNbRlDO9HNMsCG0uaRjQIZOVN8y8MPMEqSN-rMSa1wqBTfeYrhlI1tTnGNU694YxnPcHQrgbPNHHfktq2QRIJ6BKm7AN97PnrltrYj6qPjqZaqGbgPqjhPUemUFBoY/s1600/IMG2609.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyU7ahdzkWcvYTMTYNbRlDO9HNMsCG0uaRjQIZOVN8y8MPMEqSN-rMSa1wqBTfeYrhlI1tTnGNU694YxnPcHQrgbPNHHfktq2QRIJ6BKm7AN97PnrltrYj6qPjqZaqGbgPqjhPUemUFBoY/s1600/IMG2609.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy little grape-juice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
All there is left to do is ferment your grape-juice and make it into delicious delicious wine. But that, boys and girls, is another show.<br />
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What do you do with the left-over grape mash? It composts really really well, so go ahead and dump it into your compost heap... if that is, you don't mind a massive fruit-fly infestation. If you're not a fan of fruit flies, then you're probably going to want to throw the mash out. Sorry.<br />
And speaking of flying pests, if you're squishing grapes outside over the summer (or even in the early fall), be prepared to entertain some of these guys:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2geRl7etG1bBTAcVzOcPh8ruRIVSLhrdE-a6kTrBwzEllLEj_b_0y7C2bJq76EYQn3OPZWjSzr9USeyIMSnh6_Eq4TNnsco5Z4PdY_lBXmE99Cu4wf1CMYkdkLeoOUqQyCZB0tb1Ul2Hb/s1600/IMG2600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2geRl7etG1bBTAcVzOcPh8ruRIVSLhrdE-a6kTrBwzEllLEj_b_0y7C2bJq76EYQn3OPZWjSzr9USeyIMSnh6_Eq4TNnsco5Z4PdY_lBXmE99Cu4wf1CMYkdkLeoOUqQyCZB0tb1Ul2Hb/s1600/IMG2600.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, that's a yellow-jacket, and yes, there were a lot of them.</td></tr>
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<i>I think that about wraps things up for today. We had a lot of fun grape-squishing, and in about a year (give or take a few months) we'll have some wine! Hey, I never said this was a </i>quick<i> process. Alright, stay tuned next time for our October installment of </i>Librarian's Corner<i>. What am I going to be reading/reviewing this month? Who knows! I sure don't! So come back on the 21st and find out!</i><br />
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<i>Happy Squishing! </i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-78471851774857156602014-09-27T20:05:00.000-04:002014-09-27T20:05:37.054-04:00Follow Up - What to Do About That Boring Bathroom?Remember way back when, when I was complaining about our <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-to-do-about-that-boring-apartment.html">boring apartment</a>? Well, more than half a year later, we're finally making some progress.<br />
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Now, we've being adding little things around the apartment to spruce things up. Like our <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/04/oh-yeah-we-built-night-stands.html">night-stands</a>, which added some <i>much needed</i> space in our bedroom. We finished our <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/09/we-finally-made-table.html">kitchen table</a>, and can now eat breakfast like grown-ups (instead of sitting on the couch to do so). And we've been putting various <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/03/anniversary-art.html">art-works</a> up around the apartment. But today, we took a big step toward de-borifying our apartment. We hung a shelf in the bathroom!<br />
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Okay, now I know that doesn't sound like much, but it made a big difference and really pulled the space together. Let's take a look at some before and after pictures, shall we?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6V4ZNmtkLSQlD4134fnKXIY7zhcWYSLTdLJV1oT85GnAJZtb05SZipNIBYfPhtmUBtLvbM2bmyGIYCa8IilYJ_2S5-G7qb2QsZWF6_ohPvgnxl92rKo5m_w_-3e3okKI5knhPOeIG9Ud/s1600/IMG1981.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6V4ZNmtkLSQlD4134fnKXIY7zhcWYSLTdLJV1oT85GnAJZtb05SZipNIBYfPhtmUBtLvbM2bmyGIYCa8IilYJ_2S5-G7qb2QsZWF6_ohPvgnxl92rKo5m_w_-3e3okKI5knhPOeIG9Ud/s1600/IMG1981.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Here's the <i>Before</i> picture. We've got a toilet, a trash-can, and uh, that's about it. Boring right? I mean, it's not like a bathroom <i>needs</i> a lot of stuff in it to be functional, but it's not exactly pretty like this. What to do? Decorate! And here's what I did:<br />
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I hate that stupid sliding door that you can see in the right of the picture. It really doesn't slide well, and we just always keep it shut. So I added some posters that I found in an old anatomy book.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5NlKVep3-RGI4E0bE8lZA7Skcw_w9eyRhFEUrgMTCygfpaRBI8iCJZ1RAd5YrjKNAZYx8tTr1tppTYojiWyM-b4gdsuF4VG7SsAFx5SKCLoaHQpELPMAFVN5TqDJXBjZfc4VjFqK4j9W/s1600/IMG2635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5NlKVep3-RGI4E0bE8lZA7Skcw_w9eyRhFEUrgMTCygfpaRBI8iCJZ1RAd5YrjKNAZYx8tTr1tppTYojiWyM-b4gdsuF4VG7SsAFx5SKCLoaHQpELPMAFVN5TqDJXBjZfc4VjFqK4j9W/s1600/IMG2635.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Somehow, these seemed appropriate for the bathroom</i></td></tr>
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These have been up for several months, and have added a lot of fun to the bathroom. We get a lot of compliments on them from guests. <br />
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A month ago, there was a lot of flooding in South-East Michigan. The sewer system in the Metro-Detroit area got overwhelmed one day when we had a lot of rain, and many many basements flooded. Why am I telling you this? Because my in-law's had a flood in their basement and ended up having to throw out a book-case that had water damaged (and mold growing on it). Why am I telling you <i>this</i>? Because the shelves <i>inside</i> the book-case were perfectly fine, and we snagged two of them!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDPDqzxLtgyBkIkoJTvJPcGZ7kEqhwQ47rAae_FAvFqi8v4c-50FuvNkQwaPFvyiX55YPeEOw8tpn8x-FOij78BojGBGHjkXftX1SH_70YepwGbbgJnjmSspYePFmr7NGQNnB86ErzWQ5/s1600/IMG2636.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitDPDqzxLtgyBkIkoJTvJPcGZ7kEqhwQ47rAae_FAvFqi8v4c-50FuvNkQwaPFvyiX55YPeEOw8tpn8x-FOij78BojGBGHjkXftX1SH_70YepwGbbgJnjmSspYePFmr7NGQNnB86ErzWQ5/s1600/IMG2636.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A little warped, but they work fine</i></td></tr>
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We decided to hang the shelves in the bathroom, so we went out and bought a bunch of really pretty shelf-brackets to hang them with.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUbOwHgQD5CA41aLijv9kGAeSBLErfbofJcM7D3Ljp_dEcPAFOJaKVg99OSPalgAbwQpSpG2RjmeXmOHZPNwVQo_Arj1P107NNuZIuseqcv32uECtyyp9VJ9tkJ1uW7xsVFo3QGE5xyYK/s1600/IMG2637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUbOwHgQD5CA41aLijv9kGAeSBLErfbofJcM7D3Ljp_dEcPAFOJaKVg99OSPalgAbwQpSpG2RjmeXmOHZPNwVQo_Arj1P107NNuZIuseqcv32uECtyyp9VJ9tkJ1uW7xsVFo3QGE5xyYK/s1600/IMG2637.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>We went to 2 different hardware stores to find brackets this pretty!</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></td></tr>
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And then we went ahead and got to hanging our shelf! We have two of these shelves, and we were originally planning on hanging <i>both</i> of them in the bathroom, one on top of the other. But after we hung the first shelf, we just liked the way it looked, and decided to just go with the one.<br />
Once it was hung, the only thing left to do was to decorate, so we did.<br />
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I've got a carefully curated collection of books, my <a href="http://carynska.blogspot.com/2014/06/crocheting-uterus.html">crocheted uterus</a> and a Rubik's Cube. Of course.We finished everything off with a gorgeous framed picture that we got last year as a wedding present.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9m0uQGhsYquWlEOymwwSYCdGPim29Wtg8omFY1qjrwF6on3DBnnFacxKZUM9qXKOgE3iON135u0-AqB4xEjmH8iilu17WvNLVmxUq4OkutsfpMs12alt3f_zZzMntb6FV2K5zuDdXPFJ/s1600/IMG2641.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9m0uQGhsYquWlEOymwwSYCdGPim29Wtg8omFY1qjrwF6on3DBnnFacxKZUM9qXKOgE3iON135u0-AqB4xEjmH8iilu17WvNLVmxUq4OkutsfpMs12alt3f_zZzMntb6FV2K5zuDdXPFJ/s1600/IMG2641.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I need to get a copy of Mary Roach's </i>Gulp<i> to finish out my bathroom collection.</i></td></tr>
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<br />So there you have it. We finally fixed up our boring bathroom, and you know what? It's not so boring any more. Here's the official <i>After</i> picture, check it out:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxk5aUv5EDlmXFVC_dT-Td8sPt2TdwwM5GdWCLNl4sUWb3ss4flHyXV2pPzjLpzO76V69VnZbfYAAgDtCbgsAZUNRVQPoY2fOu8FsXMSq4SXcdu3uQacQ2nP1h7vsTSRfAkBdBhwa2WS4g/s1600/IMG2643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxk5aUv5EDlmXFVC_dT-Td8sPt2TdwwM5GdWCLNl4sUWb3ss4flHyXV2pPzjLpzO76V69VnZbfYAAgDtCbgsAZUNRVQPoY2fOu8FsXMSq4SXcdu3uQacQ2nP1h7vsTSRfAkBdBhwa2WS4g/s1600/IMG2643.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Scroll back to the top to compare the </i>Before<i> picture</i></td></tr>
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So what do you think? Do you like our choice of decor? I know it's not everyone's style, but we like it. I feel like we're slowly making our apartment into a home. Our kitchen is almost done, and we're working on the bedroom. Next up is the den (still the worst area in the house), and the living room/TV area. Sigh. There's always so much more to do. Back to <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/carynfinkelman/">Pinterest</a>!<br />
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<i>That's it for today. Stay tuned for next time when we'll... Well, I don't actually know. But I'm sure it'll be something interesting. Like when we went grape-squishing. That was interesting wasn't it? Oh wait, I didn't write about that yet! Stay tuned next time for when we go grape-squishing!</i>Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4246194266738580513.post-36213264642945161012014-09-21T15:13:00.001-04:002014-09-21T15:13:58.695-04:00Librarian's Corner: Like No Other<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjYd7viEOLsi-h8XxT-6X22KHaVv9AgyzX2UUOSfe1EFEyNAdtgHoNBa1YjNYoL1hmNaDRor0B1L4vZ4HePKn-6qC2BJiqERDuSkqUN9eoiVcklsV9oMkkimPeE0sDG8jugr6kXmLQJAy/s1600/like+no+other.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjYd7viEOLsi-h8XxT-6X22KHaVv9AgyzX2UUOSfe1EFEyNAdtgHoNBa1YjNYoL1hmNaDRor0B1L4vZ4HePKn-6qC2BJiqERDuSkqUN9eoiVcklsV9oMkkimPeE0sDG8jugr6kXmLQJAy/s1600/like+no+other.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.shelfari.com/books/37403776/Like-No-Other"><u>Like No Other</u></a></h2>
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by: Una LaMarche </h4>
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<i>Like No Other</i> is a novel that had me hooked from the very first chapter. I read an early excerpt online, and I had to track down a copy to read the whole thing. Luckily, my library was getting on in, and I was able to place my name on the list.</div>
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The story is about a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasidic_Judaism">Hasidic</a> girl named Devorah who falls in love with an African-American boy named Jaxon (with an X) after the end up stuck in an elevator together during a hurricane. A pretty auspicious start to a relationship, right? And things just get more and more complicated from there. The story is a bit <i>Romeo & Juliet</i>-esque, in that Devorah and Jaxon are not only from two very different communities, but practically from different worlds.</div>
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I picked this book for my Librarian's Corner because I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. I read the whole thing in just a few days, and could hardly put it down. My favorite thing about the book is how <i>accurate</i> it is. Many people who read this book will probably think that Devorah's family is an extreme example of religious Jewish culture, but families like them are actually pretty common. </div>
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Being Jewish myself, this is a culture that I am very familiar with, and it was fun to see it portrayed so accurately in a popular novel. I'm used to seeing my culture in print only in books and novels written by and for various Jewish communities. It was so nice to get to read a wonderfully written </div>
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(and very compelling) love story that portrays the Jewish community in a very positive light.</div>
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And the story is beautiful. Devorah and Jaxon are passionately in love the way only teenagers experiencing their first <i>real</i> love can be. Their love may be forbidden, but it draws them both into their own little world, where nothing matter except for being together. It might sound cheesy, but the story is anything but. There were times when I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what was going to happen to Jax and Devorah, especially during that one scene that I don't want to tell you about, because it'll give too much away, but OMG, I was on the <i>edge of my seat!</i> </div>
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I would recommend this book to anyone who believes in young love. To anyone who believes that our cultural differences aren't as big as they can sometimes seem. And to anyone who loves a good story. So go, get a copy at your local library and start reading! You won't regret it!</div>
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<i>That's all for today folks.</i> <i>I hope you enjoyed this month's installment of </i>Librarian's Corner. <i>I knew I wanted to write about this book as soon as I finished reading it, but I'm not always so decisive. How can you help? Leave a comment with a book-suggestion! If I can, I'll track down a copy and read it, and I might even write about it here on </i>Librarian's Corner<i>. Or, you can leave a comment telling me what </i>you<i> thought of this month's book, or last month's book, I'm not picky!</i></div>
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<i>Stay tuned for more awesome stuff on the blog, and I'll see you again on October 21st! And who knows, maybe I'll find a nice Halloween-themed book to read and review! </i></div>
Caryn F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13857863876118813480noreply@blogger.com0