Curtin Call

Update: I went to B0st0n Interi0rs website yesterday to show someone our new tables. They are no longer referring to the series as “Rustic Oak tables” but instead, “Natural Oak tables”. Heehee. Li’l ol’ me got B0st0n Interi0rs to change their website! So, do I get some sort of a discount for having saved some future manager from having to deal with the likes of me?!?!?!

We were on vacation last week. We took the week and agreed that we were going to “take it easy and relax”. Yeah. Right. With my husband??? Relax is not in his vocabulary.

Really, though… we spent the better part of our vacation furniture shopping. We had set our goal to have our living room furniture ordered before our vacation was over. I would be perfectly happy if I didn’t have to step foot in another furniture store for many, many years!

We had picked our tables out at B0st0n Interi0rs and our sofa/chair/ottoman at J0rdan’s. We went to order at Jordan’s first. The price on the couch was $799. Until I specified which fabric I wanted. Then the couch was $1149. WTF?!?!?! $350 more TO CHANGE THE FABRIC???? I was very impressed with Brian’s calm “Thank you for your time. Let’s go!” I, personally, wanted to say “WTF?!?!?!?!” I figure if we’d stayed around to hear what more she had to say, the ~$1800 I thought we were spending on those three pieces would have been closer to $2800. BEFORE the tables and television we need to buy! Fortunately, we found another set that we like just as much, if not more, at the little local guy, whom I prefer to deal with anyway. Total cost? $1200 – including Scotchguard, two extra pillows AND delivery. Thank you very much.

Yesterday, we went to order the tables and I was successful in confusing the saleswoman AND the manager to no end. The tables (cocktail, end and television stand) come in natural oak and rustic oak finish. Their website refers to this particular series as “Rustic” and says that the finish is natural. Okay, so one place says rustic, the other natural. Are you SURE the finish I’m asking for is what’s on the floor??? YES. And if its not? IT IS. BUT if its not and it comes in wrong? I’VE WORKED HERE FOR 13 YEARS – ITS THE NATURAL FINISH. Okay, I didn’t ask how long you’ve worked here, I’m asking what happens if you special order it and its WRONG????? Grrrr… she finally put it in writing that we’re not responsible if it comes in wrong cause, you know, she’s worked there for 13 years so SHE KNOWS!!!!!!!!

I do not want this to sound like a bashing to B0st0n Interi0rs as everyone that I dealt with was extremely cooperative (and I WAS a pest trying to confirm that what I’m going to get is what I’m expecting) it was just that the manager we talked to was rather easily offended (I used the word “confusing” which I think set her off for some bizarre reason.) In fact, I would highly recommend them!

As for J0rdan’s???? That’s an entirely different story. I do not plan on visiting that store again anytime soon. I have a real issue with that “bait and switch” sales approach.

Okay, its been 1-1/2 weeks and I think I finally have the strength in me to write about what happened to us a week ago this past Sunday.

When we moved into our new house, we were aware that there were bees above the front door and we were aware that we needed to deal with it but it was just one of those things on that list that we hadn’t gotten to.

Last Sunday, Brian was working on the woodwork above the front door inside the house. I walked by him to go downstairs to swap the laundry. He asked me to pass him something from the garage and when I went to hand it to him, I noticed a couple bees on the wall near where he was working.

He grabbed a newspaper and started swatting at them when he realized that there was a HOLE where the wall and ceiling meet and those f*ckers (apologies if that offends anyone but there’s nothing else to call them) got real aggressive, real fast. By the time he could get down off the ladder, he’d been bitten three times on his face and once on his arm.

All we could do was lock the cats in a room and run out the front door. I don’t recall being so petrified in my life (I didn’t actually cry, but damn I was close!)

Everyone’s question at this point? “Is he allergic?” Well, yeah, I asked that, too, but since he doesn’t remember being bitten by a bee since he was a kid, we weren’t sure. I was horrified at the thought of him having a reaction, my having to get him to a hospital and then figure out what the heck we were going to do. Remember, I said this happened on a Sunday?!?!?! A Sunday morning, to boot!

When things calmed down, he covered up and went back in the house to get some local phone books and we started calling one exterminator after another. Leaving one message after another. We finally got to one that actually had a live answering service, they relayed our message, and within one hour, the exterminator came and gassed those f*ckers.

Let me share a couple lessons with you from this one:

1. If you see ANY signs of a bees nest in the eaves of your home, call an exterminator. Immediately.

2. Just in case… find yourself a 24/7 exterminator and keep that number handy.

Frosty absolutely loves baskets. Always has. We used to have this basket on the bay window at our last house and he loved to curl up in it and sleep:

When we moved, I’d just placed that basket on the floor and put some toys in it. With some recent shuffling of furniture in the house, I moved it in front of the sliding doors. This must have brought back memories for him, as he does not agree that this should be his toy box:

Oh, and he’s not picky about the basket. Really, anything will do…

I mentioned earlier that I decided to populate our yard with bird houses and bird feeders this year. I am having sooooo much fun with this!

Back in the fall, I found a Tomorrow’s Treasures Birdhouse at a local gift shop. These birdhouses are ridiculously expensive but I absolutely fell it love with it!

The tag tells the story of how they’re made from old Texas barn boards and that, because of the shortage of standing hardwood in the Northeast, you are almost guaranteed to have birds living in the house the first year. “Yeah, right!”, I said.

Well, surprise, surprise! I was outside one day and I saw what appeared to be a fur ball or a really big bug flying into the house then back into the greens. Back and forth. Back and forth. Later that day, as I was sitting on the deck, that same fur ball/big bug was flying at eye level at the flowers I have on the deck.

Imagine my surprise!?!?!? Its a hummingbird!

I have hummingbirds building a nest in my birdhouse! (If I sound really excited, its because I am!)

Initially, we named her Juliette. Now, I’m quite certain there are two of them, so we named the other… can you guess???… Yup! Romeo!

When I went to buy more bird food over the weekend, I came across finch socks. Not exactly attractive bird feeders but I figured, “Eh, I’ll give one a try!” So I hung one of these in the yard, too.

Voila! Last night, we had one of these feeding off the finch sock:

Did I mention I was having fun?!?!?!

Disclosure: with the exception of the bird house, these photos came from google. I’m just not that quick with my camera!

Angie from Home Grown tagged me for this pay it forward meme with the following instructions:

“The Honest Scrap” award is not one to hold all to your self but it must be shared!

Second, the recipient has to pass along this prestigious award to 10 more bloggers.

Third, Those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given this award.

Those 10 bloggers that receive this award should link back to the blog that awarded them “The Honest Scrap’ award.

My first challenge? Coming up with 10 things that folks don’t know about me (I’ve been known to be quite chatty) but here goes:

1. I keep a blog
2. I’m petrified of heights
3. I mourned Farrah more than Michael
4. I’m trying to eat healthier
5. I just won 10 bucks on a $2 scratch ticket!
6. I’m turning into a geek (I now own an iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, a GPS unit and would love an Amazon Kindle even though I almost never find time to actually read!)
7. If I never had to answer a phone, I would be perfectly happy
8. I have no patience for ignorant people
9. I love gummy bears
10. I have “friends” I’ve met on the net

My second challenge? I don’t follow 10 blogs (though I easily could, if there were just more hours in the day!) There will be one on this list that I only started following recently so I’ll beg forgiveness now (Mir!)

1. Daisy’s Petals
2. A Rug’s Life
3. A Kitchen in Brabant
4. The Dilettante Debutante
5. Stacy’s plate
6. Walking Cambridge
7. Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Now, here is what I ask of you. Please visit each of these blogs. Please leave a little comment and make sure you tell them Mary from Curtin Call sent you with a link back to me. Please? Thank you.

When we first moved to our new house, I got an idea for a “gardening table” from a magazine. I had been searching high and low for the “table” part. Since it would be outdoors, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it and had been visiting local yard sales in hopes of finding something.

Several weeks ago, while driving with hubby, he spotted the perfect table!

It was just what I was looking for!

We also figured out that its not a “table” at all. Its actually an old kitchen cabinet that someone must have used as a work bench or something.

So, I scraped it down and primed and painted it.

I took an old rose trellis that was tucked in the shed, sanded and painted that and attached it to the back!

Voila! My “gardening table”! I am very, very proud of how this project turned out. I am not a crafty person. At all. And best of all, every bit of that sucker is reused. I did not purchase one thing to make it. Not even the paint!

Last week we had four yards of much delivered. We moved it from the driveway to its rightful areas in the yard. In a wheel barrel. In one day.

I had aches in muscles that I did not even know I had. And I’ve been going to the gym for the past several months. It scares me to think of how I would have felt had I not been.

Today, they are delivering six yards of stone. One yard of stone is roughly the equivalent of one ton. It, too, needs to be moved to its rightful areas in the yard. In a wheel barrel. Though our hopes is to get this done in… TWO days!

Are we crazy, or what?!?!?!?!

I was peeking through my photos and ran across some I’d taken somewhere along the line, when it actually wasn’t raining around here. From the dates on them, that would have been this spring, even though it feels to me like it has been raining since the time it stopped snowing.

I started at one corner of our yard taking pictures of all the pretty stuff that was popping up. My plan was to go around the entire yard but I only got about a quarter of the way when I had to stop. I don’t remember why. My guess? It started raining.

Here’s what I got, though. This is the ornamental grass along the driveway:

Our first spring at the house, I decided to chop this down to give it a new chance to bloom. That’s when I got poison ivy. I cut it down again this year, but with a long sleeve top and gloves on. I didn’t get poison ivy and its growing like crazy!

This is some more ornamental grass:

I don’t remember these beautiful yellow flowers last year so I’m guessing that I missed it, didn’t cut it back and it felt neglected. Its just wonderful with its bright yellow flowers this year!

These little yellow flowers are along the border of our property. For all I know, they’re weeds but, hey, they’re still pretty!

We also have ferns along the border:

This pretty white and pink flower is at the end of the driveway. Its the only one that bloomed this year but it sure is pretty!

That’s as far as I got. Rumor has it that we might actually see some sunshine this weekend and if that’s true, I’ll continue throughout the yard. At this point, a lot of the flowering trees have lost their flowers, but I’ll see what I can come up with!

Yesterday was an absolute whirlwind of a day!

My dear mother-in-law is finally retiring after 34 years of service to the phone company. She is 78 years old and has commuted to the city every day and has finally accepted the fact (with very mixed emotions) that it is time. Her company invited her children to join her luncheon retirement party yesterday. I made arrangements so my husband could park his van at the university where I work so we could take the train into town together. After much thought, we figured that would be easiest and it should have been since we have a system in place here that will only allow enough visitor permits to fill the available spaces. Or so I thought. When we got there, the attendant was waving her arms at us that the lot was full. Fortunately, as we were arriving, so was someone else that was just getting ready to leave so that worked out fine. We made it into the city, found the building without any trouble and all was good! Happy retirement, Mom!

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the death of our neighbor who died far too young in an automobile accident. Another neighbor had informed us that there was going to be a “dedication ceremony/memorial/????” (I don’t know what you’d call it) at the local ball fields. The community came together and dedicated a tree and his family, both local and from England, dedicated a park bench. It was a miserable commute home and that was only hindered by the constant rain that has been falling on us for weeks now.

We were, though, able to get to the park. We’d never actually visited this park and we were both amazed at just how beautiful it is. There’s a huge area with swings and slides and all that good stuff. There’s also a couple tennis courts, a skateboard park, a skating rink, a couple soccer fields, a walking path and lots and lots of open green space. Just beautiful!

Anyway, the service was scheduled for 6:00. As we all stood in the rain, waiting for things to get started, I caught out of the corner of my eye, one of the elderly ladies had fallen on the asphalt walking path. Many ran to her side and immediately called 911. Fortunately, they were able to get her up and seated on the park bench (I’m still not sure if she slipped or fainted). The ambulance arrived and took her away. I want to say it was the neighbors Aunt, as her father got in the fire engine and was driven off as well.

After the priest said some prayers, three of Alastair’s friends spoke about him.

It reminded me once again that I was cheated by the fact that I never actually got to meet Alastair. They moved into the neighborhood just a couple weeks before we did (late August) and before we knew it, winter was upon us and anyone familiar with New England knows that we all turn into hermits in the winter and only venture outdoors long enough to remove the snow that piles up on our sidewalks and driveways.

When I learned of the accident, I went to extend my sympathies to Jessica and her boys. As devastated as she was, she took the time to talk with me about what a wonderful man her husband was, how they met (he was here on a visit from England with no intentions of staying but she changed that!!!), how much he loved America (he’d already become a citizen), loved his boys and to travel with his family. He took pride is his home and garden and loved sports.

I cried at this ceremony. I cried for someone I never knew. I realized afterward that that is exactly why. This man sounds like he was the type of guy that every mother would want her daughter to marry and he left this world far, far too soon, and I never got to even say “hello”. (He did come over and introduce himself to Brian once when we first moved in.)

Jessica and I have since become pretty good friends. I am proud of how strong she has been for her boys (though I know there are some days she would much rather just curl up under a blanket and stay there for a long, long time). I also feel proud to be a part of a community that has come together to support this “townie” who has been dealt a life-altering change that no one her age should have to deal with.

When I have one of those days when I find myself asking if there is any one or any thing good left in this crazy world we live in, I will think of Jessica and Andrew and David. I will think of Alastair. And I will think of North Reading.

This cat can get on top of anything!

He doesn’t know enough to keep his paws on the floor: