Just a really gorgeous sunset from last night.
Click for bigger image
Search
Archives
May 2012 S M T W T F S « Apr 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Its beginning to look at lot like Christmas
The day after Thanksgiving I was put to work by Austin’s Mom (Cherie). She owns her own plant business and during the holidays also does Christmas decorations for offices and businesses around the city.
I have been helping her put up trees, untangle miles of lights (someone needs to invent lights that never tangle or burn out), and decorate.
Here are some pictures from a few different places. I didn’t take pictures every tree I helped put up.
One of the first places I helped at
The front window
The top bow on this tree is not quite my taste, but I really like the rest of it
Some days I helped her out with just refreshing office flowers and others did the trees. I will admit liked working with live plants over fake Christmas trees
Flowers that I arranged
We were right in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City and got a good look at Occupy OKC. Which was rather small and sad, really. The campers have been kicked out by now.
The small Occupy OKC camp
There was an office building who requested 38 poinsettias. That was an awesome trip the nursery. There was one entire greenhouse with nothing but rows and rows of the flowers.
So pretty
After a long day of fluffing Christmas trees or putting bows on poinsettias, it is always nice to head home and just relax.
Awesome Sunset
My Desk!
I realize I am far behind in keeping up with this blog, so brace yourself for a few posts in a row. I think that will be easier to read than one super long one.
Last post was of Thanksgiving but I did talk about an awesome desk I got. I found it on Craigslist a day or so after we got into town and we picked it up that Sunday. Austin’s mom lent us her pickup truck and off we went. It was about a 45 minute drive from the house on some back roads, really very pretty.
The desk was at a farm and the had a sign out front advertising fresh eggs and goats milk. In hind-sight, we should have gotten some eggs while we where at it. The family was very nice and the husband helped us load it in the truck. They also had an adorable black puppy running around that they offered me. It was tempting, but I kept my head and said no thank you (he was so freaking cute though!)
On the way back we stopped at a local winery we saw a sign for on the way out. It was a small little place and the owner talked to us a bit about the different wines he produced. We tasted a few and left with a bottle of white something or other. I’m not a drinker at all but this was actually really yummy.
The back label on our wine
Then it was back home and time to manhandle the desk into my room. I should mention at some point that the whole reason I loved this desk and wanted it is that it looks very similar to my grandfather’s desk. The other neat thing about it is that on the underside of one of the drawers it has “US Department of Mines” and the name and office number of the person who had it.
The desk right off the truck
The desk after some steel wool and polish
You can bet that I have cluttered it up by now with a small table lamp and my papers&pens. Now just the small issue of getting a chair. I am currently stealing Austin’s desk chair when he is not using it. I’ve been looking on craigslist for another, but have not found anything I care for yet.
Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The day to watch the parade, unpack the Christmas decorations, and stuff yourself with delicious food. Which is pretty much how our day went.
I turned the parade on in the background while putting up a few Christmas decorations. We are not going to buy a Christmas tree, real or fake this year, so I have turned one of the live house trees into a make-shift Christmas tree.
Our Tree
After that it was time to turn our attention to the food. We ate at Austin’s mom’s house, but where put in charge of the turkey and a dessert. No pressure, right?
Austin decided he wanted to deep fry it and with some borrowed equipment from the neighbor we were ready to go. He rigged up a ladder over the frier so he could safely lower the bird into the hot oil and not risk hurting himself.
For added safety, I wanted to make sure he had something fire proof on. While he didn’t put his race suit on, he does have a fueling apron so he donned that. And really, whats the point of having an apron if it is not fire proof?
Bubbling away
After 30 or so minutes it was done and we hoisted it up and out of the oil to cool.
Mmmm. Can we eat it now?
The day before I made pumpkin cheese cake muffins (recipe found here) and with those and the turkey in the car, we headed over to dinner and procceded to stuff ourselves with our amazing turkey and all the other yummy things to be had.
There was lots of sharing…
Wilbur and Homer
Well, maybe not that much.
Tsk tsk Homer
Now we are spread out on the couch and about to pass out from all the good food in our bellies. I hope your Thanksgiving was as awesome as ours!
P.S. Maybe on second thought I want a snack. There is some turkey left over in the fridge…
Unpacking – Roadtrip Day 4
Here is a quick post that is long over due. We rolled into town last Thursday evening and could have unpacked the car, but we didn’t. I didn’t want anything to do with the car after 3 days in it.
So we unpacked on Friday. Here is a shot of the car all loaded down.
And here is all the stuff that came out of my car (minus my overnight duffel bag).
Note: the daybed and rocking chair in the back were in the house, I didn’t bring them in my car. The best part of all of this? All of that fit in the trunk and back seats and none of it came over the rear head rests. There is a lot to be said for using sweaters/socks/etc for packing material.
And this is my car unloaded. Comparing the loaded and unloaded car, it really did well and the back end didn’t drag all that much.
I added up our gas receipts and mileage and did some maths. In total we drove about 1400miles and used 44 gallons of gas. Our average mpgs was around 32 but I manged to do an amazing 39.6mpgs at some point. And remember this is with a loaded down car. I would love to know what it would have done with just two overnight bags and not a room full of stuff.
With that, I am all moved in and slowly taking over the house with my things. I have my room set up and already got an awesome desk off craigslist that I will have a post on later. With thanksgiving tomorrow (and being in charge of the Turkey – eek!) I’ll have to post on the food too.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!