Pinot and DeWalt

Where has February gone? We're already in the last week of it. I'm ready for the Olympics to be over, I enjoy watching some of it - and find myself wanting to go skiing when I heard the skis and snowboards cut the snow - but am ready for 'regular programming'.

We finished a couple of house projects this week and I think this will be the end of our projects for a while.

It feels good to have them accomplished, and amazing how small changes make a big difference in how the house looks and feels. We are becoming quite the pros at putting up curtains! Last weekend, we put up a curtain rod in our bedroom (Lowe's had the length we needed) and put up the two panels I'd ordered. They looked great, but we decided that we wanted to add 2 additional panels. Our bedroom window is actually 3 large windows, so with the two additional panels it would cover each wall section between and make it appear to be one large window. We got the panels in the mail this week (love online shopping!) and I put them up yesterday. Since the hard work of putting the curtain rod up was done, it was really easy. and we were able to use some supplies we already had to make it really POP -- tiny hooks that we screwed into the wall to hold the 'holdback' that came with each panel. We also had to use our own anchors for the screws since the ones that came with the curtain rod were pieces of junk and collapsed on themselves.

I took a curtain rod from our old house and wanted to put it back up -- I think it was the ONLY curtain we'd put up at the old house since we had such a hard time with it. We put it in our bathroom, and it looks great! It was tough to put up because it was hard to get the stepladder in the bathtub situated in a way that we could get to each end of the window and both of us being short it was a stretch to reach up that high from the middle of the tub, but we finally finished it. Lots of up and down the ladder since Kevin works the drill better, and I can get the screws started more easily. Truly, a team Tucker effort! It looks good and is much more stable than it was the last time we put it up - that time, it felt that if you barely touched it, it would fall off the wall. Again, we're saved by anchor screws..

The title of the post is something I thought of last weekend. Our other project was putting hardware (handles, knobs) on the kitchen cabinets and drawers. We bought them last weekend (also at Lowe's), and decided on Valentine's Day (after a wonderful homemade dinner that we made together) to install one so that we could do the trial and error with the size hole to make, and how to measure where to make the holes. It took us quite a while to find the right sizes and get the handle installed. Kevin had to drill the hole a few different times to get it to the right size and then drill a larger hole only *part* of the way for the screw head to sit into. We finally got the sizing right and got it installed. We'd only planned to do one but went ahead and did the rest of the drawers (6 of them) and measured and marked all of the cabinets, Kevin finished those up on Monday. We worked on the project while each drinking a glass of the wine we'd had with dinner (pinot grigio), and Kevin's drill, which is a godsend for each of our projects, is a Dewalt - and there is the reason behind the post name..

I am back from my business trip to Charlotte, NC. I had a good time, and learned a lot. Every work trip makes me happy that I don't travel very much for work. I know that some people love it, and I guess I'd get used to it, but I really like that I get to come home to my house and see my hubby and our dog every day after work.

What I do like about such conferences is its a time to share ideas with people who do similar work and 'speak the same language' in a way. This was a different sort of conference for an initiative called "Achieving the Dream". It was a mix of faculty, staff, and administrators. Hearing stories of individual students, and hearing from some of the students themselves in the closing session serves as a great reminder to me. I work at a university, but not directly with the students. Since I am so removed from the students, they often just become numbers and statistics to me, and this reminder of who they are and what we as a university are doing (and what my job supports) is something I wish I was able to see more often.

While I was there, I got to do a little sight-seeing, the Museum of the New South is a great museum if you get a chance to see it. I love how interactive some of the exhibits are - I was able to try 'carding cotton', and see a set up of a tenant farmer's home. People in that environment worked longer and harder than I've ever had to.

I also had some local food and drink - nearly every restaurant I went to had shrimp and grits on the menu, so the last night I had to taste it. It was surprisingly good! The grits were really smooth, and had some spice to them! and I love shrimp. It was much better than any of the conference food! I even tasted a local made beer, all at the Rock Bottom brewery and restaurant. Should I say I hit 'rock bottom'?

The weather was cold and rainy all week, and snow fell not too far away from us. I am very glad I was able to get out and head home on time on Friday. If I'd have been just a little further north I'd have been stuck, the weather system coming in was the huge snow maker coming into all of the northeast and dropping historic amounts of snow in DC, etc. Many people from those areas left the conference early so that they'd be able to get home before the storm came in.

March for Babies

I am walking in the annual March for Babies, part of the March for Dimes, on April 27. I believe in this cause because the money that is raised is used to:

- support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects

- educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby

- provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care

- push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children

I want all babies to be born healthy and feel that raising money for them by participating in this walk is a way I can do a small part to help towards this goal. It is especially important to me as many people near and dear to me are beginning families and I want each of them to have a healthy, happy baby.

If you'd like to support me in my walk, please donate through this link. Thanks to generous donations, I am nearly halfway to my $400 goal! I've added a widget to the side of my blog to track my donations.

Project Complete

We finally finished our decorating project, and it looks great! Earlier in the fall, we had the kitchen and living room painted, got curtains made for the living room and over Christmas we put stuff up on the walls in both rooms (thank you Hobby Lobby 50% off sale!). The only thing we were missing was curtains for the windows in the dining area of our kitchen. After a lot of searching, I found some I liked online. We ordered the curtains (and some for our bedroom), and bought a curtain rod. Yesterday we tackled the task of putting up the curtain rod and the curtains. With a great deal of help from my dear hubby we were able to get the curtain rod put up, and hung the curtains. I'm always anxious putting holes into the walls, afraid that we won't be able to finish the project because we run into something we hadn't expected (studs in unexpected places, etc.) or it won't end up looking as good as I envision it, but with the right tools - drill, screwdrivers, anchor screws, a level, a step stool, a chair, and some patience - we were able to do it, and now have the kitchen and living room just how we want them.

We'll have many other projects in the house - already on my list is to find a curtain rod long enough for the bedroom windows. For now, it feels very good to look around and have this project finished and love the results.

The vegetarians did it

We're already two weeks into 2010, how did that happen? Its been a busy month so far.

Last weekend I went to Gabriel's first birthday party and had a great time! There was lots of food, gifts and such a cute robot theme! It was a joint birthday party with his daddy, which meant TWO birthday cakes, yum! Given the choice, I always choose chocolate so had a piece of Jay's chocolate cherry cake, so good...I need to find out how the recipe, such a good combination of flavors. Unfortunately, Gabriel gave us all an unexpected gift - a stomach bug. It didn't hit me until a couple of days later, so I didn't realize I'd picked it up from him until I posted on facebook that I was feeling better and others from the party commented about also getting sick. Its not the first time we've picked something up from kids around us and I'm sure it won't be the last. Kevin's entire family got sick from our nephew before we got married, we called it "Kaden's revenge" it was so bad.

This weekend we went to the wedding reception for a former coworker. We didn't attend the ceremony, but went to the reception in the evening. Yang and his new bride looked so happy and she is a beautiful bride! I love weddings, seeing how happy the couple looks and everyone coming together to celebrate with them. The place felt like a rooftop terrace, but it was actually inside -- some of the hotel rooms were overlooking the reception. Note: If you stay at the Marriott in the Galleria area ask for a room AWAY from this area if you aren't attending the party, otherwise you'll be up half the night listening to the music. We were able to sit with another former coworker and her hubby, along with several of their college friends. It was good to catch up with her and meet her hubby I've heard so much about. Our new phrase from the evening: the vegetarians did it. There was a mix-up in the kitchen and our fish dishes were served to some people who'd requested vegetarian dishes (not very strict vegetarians, I guess) and so there were none prepared for us. Once they realized the mistake (and we sat for a while with no food), they served us the next course while they prepared more fish for us. I was so afraid there were going to say they'd give us the vegetarian dishes. They may be good, but Kevin would want no part of it, and honestly after looking at the menu in front of us, I wouldn't either. We're working on getting more vegetables in our diet, but he's still a meat and potatos guy. We got the fish, and it was worth the wait....seabass (drool)....

If anyone has suggestions on things to see or places to eat in Charlotte, NC please let me know. I'll be there soon for work and have never been, and love trying new places.