May 31, 2010

Sad, sorry state

Happy Memorial Day - the unofficial start of summer!!!

Remember my bogus plant order from the internet gardening site? This is the sad, sorry state they are in -


I received the following email from the internet gardening company -
We are sorry to hear about the condition your plants arrived in. We are able to replace the Chives, Basil and Coleus. We are going to issue you a credit of $6.65 for the Parsley. The replacements should be sent out shortly.

MIL and I planted flowers at her parents' and adjoining aunt & uncle's graves today. I love cemeteries - so rich with history and it's fun to imagine the kind of lives each person lived based on their headstones.

May 30, 2010

An Adventure

Yesterday was a perfect day - 92 and sunny - for a leisurely drive an hour west to see what we could see. Chunky, MIL and I headed to Mudd Lake Furniture. I've had an itch to visit for quite some time - MckMama blogs about it being one of her favorite places on earth and I wanted to see for myself. It did not disappoint.

Here's the entrance -

Outside -

I love this door, but sadly I didn't have room to bring it home (nor a clue where it would go but that's a minor detail) -


I didn't take any photos inside because I was too busy looking at everything. There is a very eclectic mix of funiture, odds and ends. Both MIL and I made a couple of purchases. MIL could chat up a mute and so in true fashion, she began asking the owner, Bob Kratch, for his life story. Bob is a former NFL player for the Patriots and Giants (originally from NY/NJ) which impressed both MIL and Chunky.

Chunky was busy with the cast of characters Bob and his wife keep -

They even have a peacock!

From Mudd Lake we headed home by way of Wayzata. There are several restaurants on Lake Minnetonka so we stopped at North Coast for a bite and to take in the scenery -

My mojito and steak salad were fantastic!

May 29, 2010

Feeding time at the zoo


Abbie (the dog) doesn't mind sharing her dinner with Sadie (the cat). These two even sleep snuggled up together in bed ... on my side of course.

May 28, 2010

Hermey and the molars

We're back from the island of misfit toys ... aka The Dentist. Sassy had to have all her wisdom teeth removed yesterday and I had a filling replaced today.
I think "Hermey and the molars" would be an awesome band name. Remeber Hermey?!

Here's Sassy in recovery - complete with soup, straw, towel, water bottle, pain meds, gauze and barf bowl.

She was pretty sore and loopy. The anesthesia made her stomach very upset. I felt bad for the lady who was parked next to us at the grocery store - she had to walk around her car to get in as the traditional entry was "undesirable" if you know what I mean. I was stopping to get soup, Jell-O and pudding. I offered to make scrambled eggs for dinner but the Jell-O won out. She felt well enough today to go to school and up north with her girlfriends for the long weekend.

It's just Chunky and I tonight so we're going to plant annuals. Most folks planted weeks ago as we've had an unseasonably warm spring (hello El Nino), but I figured if I planted anything I was guaranteeing a late frost so held out. I ordered flowers again this year from an internet vendor that I've used in the past. We're planting herbs in one pot (chives, sage, oregano, parsley, thyme and basil). I love basil and it always makes me think of Basil from my all time favorite TV show, Fawlty Towers. This makes me think of another favorite, The Dick Van Dyke Show ("oh Rob"). Don't even get me started on Lost. I'll have to do a post on TV shows some time. Anyhoo...we're planting a collection of Coleus in two other planters. I received my plant order yesterday and the condition of the plants is terrible - not the quality I expect from this organization at all. One of the coleus (bronze pagoda) is broken at the crown and has mold on it. The chives and parsley are yellowing and broken. The basil is badly wilted and brown. Needless to say, they got an email from me as a very unsatisfied customer. I'll provide a sad, sorry picture of them tomorrow - I was just too emotionally raw from the experience to post any this evening.

May 27, 2010

Ever have one of THOSE days?



Thankfully I'm NOT having one, but just had to share :)

May 26, 2010

Dont'cha wish your laundry room was hot like mine?





Sorry, I couldn't resist sharing more laundry room awesomeness.

May 25, 2010

Baseball Fever

Everyone's catching it around here. Sassy is at the new Twins stadium with the boyfriend tonight and Chunky has been practicing hard for his first game coming up in two days.


I wonder how much these will be worth when he's famous!


He looks so grown up!

Mom, stop taking pictures of me!

May 23, 2010

Annual NYC Trip 2010

It was one of those trips when the time away feels longer than it actually was. I was mostly in the moment so no excruciating detail here about each day. Suffice to say we did A LOT of walking, talking and shopping. My favorite purchase was shoes.

Bryant Park for Project Runway enthusiasts like myself -
Scenes while walking from the Lower East Side into Chinatown -
I may or may not have gotten into a scuffle with a counterfeit purse vendor :)
A favorite shopping haunt - Fishs Eddy -

Bedford Barrow Commerce Block Association Festival in the West Village -

Shopping at one of the countless costume jewelry stores -

We took the wrong train - or rather the right train in the wrong direction -

It took a half hour+ to get back to where we wanted to be due to train maintenance.

My new shoes in Brooklyn -

Central Park from the North - we walked from 110th Street down to 70th -

The ever-fabulous River Cafe beneath the Brooklyn Bridge with a skyline view of east downtown Manhattan - a perfect ending!

We may or may not have seen America Ferrara while dining :)

May 20, 2010

Whistle while you work

I'll be whistlin' Dixie while I do my laundry!

A few weeks ago we decided it was time to replace the floor in our laundry room. It was original to the home - 23 years young!

We decided to do vinyl - I'm not a big tile lover and wood or carpeting aren't conducive to a laundry room. We placed an order for faux tile "planks" in March and waited for them to arrive. And waited. And waited. The week before Mother's Day they finally arrived.


I received a call at work the next day asking, "Do you like the wall color in the laundry room?" No, I do not like the badly sponge painted and poop colored walls. So back to the home improvement store we went. I wanted to find just the right color "palette" (I take decorating very seriously!). Voila - brown represents the wood trim, cream represents existing cabinetry and the two new wall colors are Fortune Cookie (buttery yellow) and Riviera Beach (sand).

I wish I'd thought to take photos BEFORE hubby started painting, but you know ... better late than never.


How awesome is this?!!!

I won out in picking the door color. Hubby wanted to paint the inside doors dark brown to "match the woodwork". I thought it looked like the same poop color we just replaced. Victory is so sweet :)

I think I want to put up a valance or message board with fabric that will bring all the colors together. I found this fantastic print (two small swatches of a larger print) that only costs $35 a yard (evidently I love seriously expensive decorating).