Another Birthday...

Another birthday, this time my Dad's. Happy Birthday Dad, don't overdo it!

None the wiser

Well, another year older but maybe not another year wiser. At least I have the day off work so I get a lie in and (hopefully) a cup of tea in bed (hint, hint...)

Try to look the part

Off to the gym?

Just spent an hour at the local YMCA on their indoor track (don't be impressed, I was walking, not running). I was amazed at the bizarre exercise attire donned by some of the people there. Apart from the normal lycra, and the more startling velour top and pants, I was amazed to see one woman exercising in a thick, Aran-style wool sweater. She had a pair of sweatpants on that must have previously belonged to her 400lb husband and she had to stop at regular intervals to hitch them up. Another woman was wearing a padded coat and jeans while she walked around the track and a pair of shoes that I would be embarrassed to garden in. But the most inappropriate attire seemed to be on the basketball courts below. I saw a woman running around, fully engaged in a game, wearing a pair of super-skinny tight jeans and some fur lined, mid-calf high, suede boots. I'll bet they smelled nice afterward....

I used to be indecisive; now I'm not so sure

We are about to get our bathroom remodeled, so I've started looking at faucets (taps), sinks and tiles. After just one day of looking I am already going into overload. Faucets come in chrome, pewter, gold, brass, stainless steel, bronze, white or copper finishes. They can be contemporary, modern, rustic, traditional, transitional or Victorian with one or two cross, knob or lever handles. Sinks can be under-mounted, pedestal, self-rimming or vessel, made of ceramic, glass, copper, bamboo, steel or bronze and can be shaped round, oval, square or rectangular in every color you can think of including 5 shades of white. And as for tiles! Where do I begin? Whole showrooms full of tiles, 500 of which are in varying shades of beige.
I will probably look at an endless array of fixtures, agonize over near-identical tiles, bring multiple samples home to view in different lights, then end up choosing a white oval sink with traditional chrome taps and a beige tile. Can't go wrong with that.

Out of touch with reality

Everybody is struggling with the snow. Any melting during the day immediately turns to black ice at night so grit and ice melting salts are in high demand. We ran out of salt today so we went to our local home improvement store "Lowes" to get some more. What a waste of time. If we'd have wanted to buy deck furniture or gas grills we would've had an endless choice, but there were no winter products to be seen anywhere; no snow shovels, no roof rakes, no ice-melt. IF I COULD ACTUALLY SEE THE DECK UNDER ALL THE DAMN SNOW I WOULD CONSIDER BUYING SOME DECK FURNITURE, BUT BEING AS I CAN'T, IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT YOU STOCK SOME FREAKIN ICE-MELT IN FEBRUARY?!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. . . somewhere else!

We have had such extreme weather this winter that I felt a few pictures were in order just to make sure we don't forget what a New England winter is capable of. Thankfully it is not normally this bad, but unfortunately we still have more to come, with 2 more storms forecast over the next week. These photos are the snow around our house. We have cleared the driveway multiple times, the banks of snow either side are so high our snow-blower is struggling to blow the snow over them. We had to clear the snow off our deck because of the potential problems that the weight of 4 feet of snow could bring. We had to dig a path to the deck first. Getting tired of it now but it makes for some good photos.

This is the front path

Mailbox is nearly buried

Path to the shed

Path to deck plus clearing snow from basement window

View of the garden from the deck

The snow bank is higher than the deck rails

Snow mounds either side of driveway getting too high to blow snow!

Did we mention it was Helen's birthday today?

Happy Birthday to Helen, 30 something today. Actually its pretty amazing that we remembered, she's not one to mention it. Would let it pass by without recognition if she had her way. Lucky we marked it on our Google calendars......