There is sawdust

...everywhere. I can't remember what it was like to have freshly vacuumed carpets. I wake up every day at quarter to seven when my carpenter and his cute, young assistant show up with their hammers and saws and other ungodly loud construction thingies. I still hear the ringing in my ears and banging in my skull long after they have left at night. I am no longer excited and have discovered yet again that home improvement projects are not my cup of tea.






I am hoping that all of this nonsensical noise and money and sweat will really increase the value of my little house so that I can sell it and move home and forever rely on other people to do my work for me.


Note: Cute assistant in blue.




















Alright, so I'm lying a little. I am having fun. Sorta. I have been painting my house, one little bit at a time and I really love watching it transform from dirty, old white to sparkling, fresh, and bright. Its green, with white trim and dark green accent and I love love love it. I'm adding a little powder room and extending the kitchen so I get to pick out tiles and counter and cabinets and all sorts of other fun things, and as long as I don't think about all the money I'm spending, I do alright.

Zombies ate my brain

I have corrected my thesis 8,562 times. I have replaced, rearranged, rewritten, reorganized, and restructured every line, sentence, word choice, and piece of punctuation. I have followed every obscure APA guideline. I have been up for 24 straight hours examining the thesis (thesi? thesises?) of my classmates as they examined mine. I have contributed to the drinking of 5 pots of coffee, 13 coronas, one bottle of wine and some strange lime cactus flavored mic ultras. I have moved countless periods from where they look like they belong to the end of long citations. I have kissed the ground that my reader walks on. I have driven the 17 minutes back and forth to campus 6 times in one day. I have single-handedly wiped the coffee shop out of white chocolate syrup this week. It never crossed my mind that the drinking of coronas might have been counter productive.

I am going to bed....I have until 3pm tomorrow to have two, finished, beautiful, eloquently written copies on the desk of the director of graduate education.

Here comes the bride, part 3:

Playing on the swings.... we did kick the flower girl off.....
someday we might grow up. someday....












Andrew wearing a wedding band.....


















One too many adult beverages....
but we needed to get two at a time because
we never knew when the alcohol was gonna run out.

















The new couple singing together....enough said.

























Sister of the bride Erin (left) and sister of the groom Leesha-something-something (right). (minus the afro for the moment).























































The whole gang. Ker, Oz, Pat, Todd, Abby, Me, Drew....

Here comes the bride part 2:

So Todd and I arrived in Ellicottville around 1, checked into Holiday Valley, (where I am definitely making the bf go with me skiing this winter), and made our way to where the wedding took place. First, I love the charm of Ellicottville with all its pretty little B&Bs and tiny bars and places to eat. Its cute. So I was imagining the house that Kerri rented for her wedding to be a charming little Victorian with a pretty garden and a jazz band playing in the background. Really though.....this was the strangest wedding I have ever been to. I mean, it was nice. Kerbear and Drew were happy and in love and life is good......but.......

The house was about 2 miles outside the town, up a mountain of a driveway...I was wearing the cutest little silver heels which were not made for mountain climbing so I took them off. There was no flat ground on the property...except for a huge pond. The people who owned the house were there all weekend, getting angry that Kerri had invited so many people to her wedding. (even though they already ok-ed it, kerri had rented out the house for the whole week, and they had promised that they wouldn't be there.) There were not enough chairs for the 50 guests. There were no seating arrangements so one of out friends wound up standing all night while eating his meal that the catering company brought 68 minutes late. There was no cake, there was no "you may kiss the bride", there was no music....that is until the groom, the bride, and their best friend stated singing folk music with the guitar they brought along. I'm not kidding. My typical long island friend who hates anything that seems remotely "hick-like" was singing "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose..." at the top of her lungs while standing barefoot at the top of a mountain by a pond, with a crown of daisies in her hair. Granted she did look beautiful....but where was my friend? The bridesmaids were the grooms sisters, one of whom changed her name from Lisa, the Leesha-nan-er, or something like that, which she told me goes back to her pagan and latin roots....huh? But I was allowed to call her Lee if I liked. She also wore a large Afro wig for most of the evening. AN AFRO WIG! (please note she is not an african american woman) There was no first dance, they ran out of alcohol twice and had to run to the store......the groom's grandparents have a full time nurse who stole my shoes, TWICE. She stole my shoes. STOLE THEM! I know that the nurse gets paid for her services, she does not need to steal my shoes. I told her the first time that she shouldn't bother because you can't stand in the grass with them on, but apparently she didn't believe me because she said "Maybe you can't darling, but I am a lady, so I have the skills necessary to walk in heels." and then 30 minutes later proved her point by putting my shoes on her feet and walking around in them...until I noticed. I literally had to threaten to push her in the pond if she didn't relinquish my shoes.


The list goes on.....
I guess the weirdest part of the evening is simply the fact that one of the "fearsome foursome" is married. I have a hard time imagining Kerbear being Mrs. Kerri Ann Nixon. I have a hard time feeling like I am falling behind my friends who have real jobs, spouses, and children. I have a hard time knowing that the four of us won't be having sleepovers where we imagine ourselves marrying movie stars.... Someday I will have to admit that we are growing up....

I'll end by paraphrasing some of the speech that was made in honor of the bride and groom by Leesha-whatever:

"and there should be carrots, and celery, and red and yellow sauerkraut, and beans of all colors and flavors. And cheese, even bland store bought cheese with Gouda and cheddar. and sausage and chestnuts and all kinds of nuts really. pine nuts and almonds and coffee beans with beets...."

I have no idea what that meant....but I assume it must have meant congrats.

Thats Ker on the left, Abby, Todd, and me........

Here comes the bride....

My college roomie Kerri Ann Diers becomes Kerri Ann Nixon tomorrow at 2pm. Congrats to Ker and Drew and I love you both soo soo much. Can't wait to watch you begin your lives together....and drink until Todd is dancing topless on tables. I will NOT allow you to pee on anyone's front porch while wearing your wedding gown, although you are totally allowed to walk up to the bar and demand a drink from a "house" cup.

How to refinish a deck:

My mother came up for the day on Monday. “Day” usually translates into “week”, as she is still here. I don’t mind at all, because my mother is my best friend. However my weekdays are usually spent waitressing lunch at the smokehouse, lounging around all afternoon doing nothing (or maybe shopping), and then class in the evenings. (Insert in there a few chores and some homework now and then.) But when mom is here, she has different plans…aka productive plans.

We were going to refinish my seriously water-damaged-sun-damaged-dry-rotting deck. I have a wood deck that has NEVER been waterproofed. It could be 100 years old. Its falling apart. I do not have the money to replace it, quite yet. But I would never ever have decided to refinish it on my own. The idea of sanding and staining and waterproofing it...aren't you supposed to hire someone for that?

We went to Grossmans bargin outlet, because we had a coupon that said we could spin a wheel and maybe win 50% off our whole cart of stuff. Who can resist spinning a wheel? We picked out the stain for the deck, antique white, because bright white would have looked stupid in front of my used-to-be-white-now-gray house that really needs to be painted. We got hedge clippers and paint brushes, and sand paper, and garbage bags, and a whole bunch of other useless stuff because we wanted to buy enough for it to be worth 50% off should we win that much…I don’t have a hedge.

…its called a bargin outlet for a reason. This time the reason is that the stain was clumpy and old and all of the color was on the bottom. So we shook it, and stirred it….and stirred and stirred and stirred… 20 minutes later it was clumpy and old and all the color was on the bottom. We used it anyway.

Lets just say I am not a handy-man. I don’t like to sweat, and I am not an artist. I have white, waterproof stain, (not paint because that would have washed off to easily) in my hair. I have it in the creases of my elbows. I have it behind my ears. I have it anywhere that ridiculously annoying fly decided to land on my skin. I have stain between my toes….I have showered three times.

I also have really beautiful white spots on my patio stones. My bushes have white leaves, my geraniums are no longer red, the dog has white feet, and the grill is polka dotted, and I have paw prints on my carpet.

…I only spun a 5% discount and I hate painting.

A little love...and a whole lotta cuteness

There is nothing better than being at home.

If only everyone could be in love from age 14.

The farm is the most peaceful place on earth.

Where you can meet your first fish...

And completely enjoy the great outdoors!

I loved my weekend at home. There is nothing better than puppies and babies....except of course enjoying them while also enjoying a glass of wine and the fact that my thesis is DONE!

Finally got to meet baby Miles, and spend some quality time with the family, and stop the fun for a minute to say "Cheese" (do you like grilled cheese?) with Aidan.....and yes I do.

Grandma gets a little lovin' from wide

awake Miles, (who despite the shirt

proclaiming a "crabby" baby,

is not even close to crabby,

only adoreable.)

I can't imagine a more perfect weekend..... and for a moment, while I download the rest of my pictures onto my laptop, I can pretend that I don't have to go to class or to work, I would like to imagine my only responsibilities being sitting by a fire, making s'mores.

Adam and Jenny Etc

My bro leaves this weekend for real....the Doc said he was cleared to go and so he will be off....I just want to send him with a little reminder:

You have the most beautiful, wonderful, intellegent sisters in the world, who love you very much, and can't wait for you to come home.