Here's the new floor in the dining room. This was my gift to my mother for her birthday.

Hooray! We got the permit!

Over the last few months, we have been working with our contractors on a design for my new studio. After years of working in my garage for three seasons a year, I'm finally going to be able to work year-round. We signed the contract last week and Keith the contractor staked it out. There will be three separate areas of the building: my studio, a forge for Robert and storage for miscellaneous stuff. So in the first picture in the foreground is the storage area. Just past the storage area is the area for my studio. The squares in the middle shows where my workstations will be. (The little black dot behind the fence is Barney).


The picture below shows the area for the forge:



A closeup of my studio area with my workstations marked out:


So the next step is getting the permit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last night while we were away for the night, something big got into our back yard and knocked down our birdfeeders. The metal posts were bent into 90 degree angles, with the bird feeders resting on the ground. The only thing we can think that could or would do this is a bear. And that completely freaks me out. I've always been a little worried that we'd someday let the dogs outside and out there would be a bear and now it's an actual possibility. It makes me mad, because now we have to stop feeding our cardinals, finches, grosbeaks, orioles, morning doves and sparrows. I had really been enjoying the birds who came into our yard this year. Bears suck.

I have to say what an incredible game it was last night -- Jon Lester pitching his first no-hitter. The last no-hitter I watched was in September when Clay Buchholz pitched his to the Orioles. Unfortunately, that night I went to bed around the 5th inning without realizing the potential no-hitter status of the game and I missed it. I watched it the next day, but there was no suspense. Last night's game, however, was just awesome. Full of suspense -- every time a Royal hit a foul or a pop-up my heart stopped and I couldn't breathe until it was ruled foul or caught. The defense did a great job backing Lester up. Last night's game is the reason why I watch every game I can -- every game starts out as a no-hitter -- just in case.

This is two pictures of the mantel over the fireplace in the kitchen. The painting is of the Grand Canal in Venice. I loved the colors and thought it would complement the whole "glass" theme of the kitchen. The Red Sox memorabilia mantel has 5 signed balls, my Red Sox lottery ticket, my Red Sox ring raffle tickets, my baseball cards, a framed picture of Josh Beckett (thanks Sarah!), a picture of Jacoby Ellsbury with a cancelled stamp from October 28, 2007 (thank you Arthur), another Jacoby picture from the Boston Globe (thanks Mom!) and a print of a Boston Terrier in a Boston Red Sox uniform (thanks Ebay).

I thought it would be fun to add a poll and see which mantel display people prefer. I have my preference and I'm pretty sure which picture will win. So vote vote vote for your favorite.

The renovation of the guest bathroom is humming along. It's a small room, so multiple people (painters, tilers, etc.) can't be in there at the same time, so scheduling becomes more of an issue than with a big room. Today we're getting the granite countertop.

Last night we went to a NH FisherCats game. It was a blast. The awesome electrician who is working on my renovation(s) invited us. He's a coach for the NH Women's Professional Football team, the Freedom. So we were there with a bunch of women football players, who were hooting and hollering cheering for the 'cats. Unfortunately, like the Red Sox recently, the 'cats blew a nice little lead and ended up losing 7-3. It was fun to dodge foul balls and hear the crack of the bat and the thump of the glove live.

In other news, my sister Sarah gave me the awesomest present yesterday. It's a blowup of the Sports Illustrated cover of the World Series Commemorative Edition with Becks on the cover executing a pitch. Right now it's on the mantle in the kitchen. Robert says "I love you, but this is not acceptable." I'll find a new place soon, but for now it's pretty sweet.

I walked out to get the paper this morning and the sun was just coming up over the hill across the street. It had been light out for a long while, but it takes an hour or so before our yard sees actual sunlight because of the topography of the area. As I looked into the sunbeams coming through the trees, I could see wisps of steam wafting off the branches and trunks as yesterday's rain evaporated. It came off in gentle swirls and puffs and was delightful to watch. I stood there for a long while just soaking in the beauty. I wish I had had my camera with me.

Wow. It has been ages since I updated my blog. I just have been so consumed with making beads for the show a couple of weeks ago that I kept postponing it until I had something to say. I don't necessarily have anything to say today but I thought I'd better write something just to keep my account active.

I made beads like crazy for the show in Watertown. It went well. I got a lot of compliments on my work, which was really nice. I think compliments, gushing, and oohing and aahing over things that I make means more to me than the money. Which is lucky. LOL. I definitely felt the pinch of today's bad economy.

We are renovating our guest bathroom these days. I think there's something that renovating your home has in common with childbirth (not that I would know, but I've heard) and puppies. The end result is so awesome that you forget the complete pain that it is after it's over (or the baby is born or the puppy is grown up) so you keep doing more (or having more babies or adopting more puppies). So everything is in and is coming together quickly and it's a small room and it won't be nearly as painful as last summer's remodel was.

This weekend I'm heading up to Maine for a class with Leah Fairbanks. I've heard what a great teacher she is and I'm eager to learn what she has to teach. Her beads are incredibly complex lifelike raised florals which isn't exactly my bead style but it's good to learn from as many people as you can.

The Red Sox are doing fantastic. Tonight's game may be a loss, but they've won the last 10 straight or something like that. And they're doing this well with a whole bunch of the starting players either on the DL or down with the flu.

Not much else is new. So I guess that's it for me. I hope to re-energize my blogging and post here more often.

Here are a few pictures of my favorite 2 1/2 year old. The first one is from a couple weeks ago; the others are from our trip to Disney last week.

We had an awesome week in Disney World with my niece and the rest of the whole family. I took no pictures, but some do exist. I might post one here later.

The pictures that I will post now are of my new closet. It was installed today and it's wonderful! I can't wait to fill it up.

This is my side of the closet:


This is Robert's side of the drawer system:


This is Robert's side of the closet:

I'm not a huge Dr. Phil fan. In fact, I'm not sure why I even watch the show - which is not often. There must be something better to do. But. One time I did watch, he was counseling a woman who had lost her daughter to murder and he asked her if she wanted to celebrate her daughter's life, why was she focusing on the moment of her death? She had a breakthrough, and decided not to commit suicide after all - yada yada yada - another victory for the bald "tell it like it is" Oprah protege from Texas.

As annoying as Dr. Phil is, I keep trying to heed his cousel. Especially these days. I cannot seem to stop thinking about this week last year. I call it "hell week". It was one year ago today that we all flew down to Florida, as my father had stopped breathing during the night and was sedated on a ventilator. I was due to go down to Florida that day anyway, but everyone came with me - Sarah, Martha and Robert. On Friday it is one year ago that my father came out of sedation and had all his faculties and it was the last day I saw him alive. On Sunday, early in the morning, is the one-year anniversary of his death.

We are all getting together on Saturday at Martha's house, just to be together. As hard as it is, I really want to stay away from the memories of "hell week" and instead celebrate my father's life and how far we have come since that awful day. We have really come a long way, especially my mother. I'm very proud of her and how well she has held up, the new things she has learned, the new friends she has made and how well she is getting along.

Here's the backsplash above the stove. The border consists of 3 different colors of glass tiles. It was put up today therefore it hasn't been grouted yet and there are still those little spacer things in each grout line. The lamps in the kitchen are in the foreground, blurry, but the colors in the backsplash are all in the lamp, except for that cobalt blue. I still think it looks nice.

It's a gross, rainy day so I'm making a pea soup. I wish I could make soups like my mother does. She's so good at it. She makes the best. There's not much to report these days. I'm a little disappointed that the Patriots lost, but I'm consoled by the fact that spring training starts next week. Plus I got my tickets in the mail for the game we're going to in July. That was nice. It's like the groundhog - it makes you think of spring and summer and you know it's on the way.

I'm also looking forward to getting past the 17th. I can't believe it's been a year. A year ago, I was on the phone with my father and he was yelling at me telling me I was "just like Stephen, you don't ask any questions". I remember getting very angry at this and wanting to just rant back at him and hang up but I was reluctant to because I was afraid that he would not be around much longer and I didn't want that to be the last conversation I had with him. So I didn't and it wasn't.

In a few weeks we are going to Disney World. The goal is to bring Elizabeth and watch her have fun there. I hope she likes it. I know Robert and I do. I can't wait to go. I need to get away from the icky weather and Disney World is so much fun, it's one of my favorite places.

Day 34 and counting...

Still no growth of legs on the Christmas tree box which has been sitting on the porch since we took the tree down. Robert, I think, is hoping they start to grow soon. My question is, even if the box does grow legs, can it actually walk itself upstairs and into the attic? I'm on the doubtful side. Robert remains optimistic. ;)

My husband. I think I'll keep him?

So the comedian (Robert) goes to the store to get the Red Sox ice cream I talked about in the last post. He called me up on the way home and said he found it but they didn't have the flavor I wanted (Green Monster Mint) nor did they have any of the other flavors (Comeback Caramel, Fenway Fudge or Peanut Butter Nation) so he got me a different flavor - CHOKEBERRY.

He thinks he's so funny. He laughed and laughed and laughed. He was the only one laughing. Which is not unusual. :D

I've always been a "date" kind of person. I think it's a family trait. For example, I remember that: I got my ears pierced on January 2, 1975; we left for Europe on April 21, 1976; I bought the Beatles' White Album on September 9, 1977. I just remember weird dates like that, and some not-so-weird dates, too: birthdays of old friends, anniversaries of cousins, etc. Sometimes I wish I weren't like that. I can't help but think of things that were going on about a year ago.

On a slightly more irritating note, I've been waiting in the Red Sox' Virtual Waiting Room to buy tickets since 10:00 am. So far I'm going on 9 hours. I have to get a life. Luckily I got tickets the other day due to my Red Sox Nation membership. At least I'll get to go to one game.

On a more delicious note, Robert went out and bought me Green Monster Mint Red Sox ice cream. Yum!

We got our new dining room table finally! We ordered it back in October and it came last Friday. It's cherry and round and the blue of the chairs is a tad darker than it shows in the picture - I had to use a flash. And the chairs are wicked comfortable, too.

I think I'm addicted to home renovations, as now we are expanding our bedroom closet into the attic and making a walk-in closet. Then we're going to get some kind of closet system like a california closet. I cannot wait. I love being organized and neat versus being sloppy and disorganized and an excellent closet is a way to excellently organized clothes. And baseball hats. ;)

This is my first political blog entry. I think it's fitting as it comes on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, when the nation turns its eye to my tiny state. Every 4 years this state is overrun with celebrities and politicians and journalists and volunteers. It's a very exciting time. It's cool to wake up and see national news media in Manchester on TV, or to walk down the street in Manchester and see Stephen King walking toward you (this happened to me in 1984). It's like all of a sudden for a few days the voters in New Hampshire are the pretty girl and the politicians are her suitors.

On the other hand, all that comes with a price. On the way home from church yesterday, what we thought was a traffic snarl due to an accident turned out to be people parking a mile away from the high school where Hillary Clinton was speaking. Then as we turned down our road, we were again in a traffic snarl on our little country road because Rudy Giuliani was at a house party in our neighborhood. People from three different campaigns came to our door on Sunday (we get maybe 3 drop-ins in a whole year). And the phone calls! We must have gotten 10-15 phone calls interrupting us on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We, like 45% of NH voters, are registered independents. So I can vote either way, and we get bombarded by every side.

With all this courting of us as voters, I still don't know who to vote for. I'm a fairly liberal person so I tend to vote for the Democrats. I really can't make up my mind between the three leading democrats. I think I'd be happy if any one of them were the nominee. On the other hand, I'm pretty against Mitt Romney as a republican nominee. I think he's a panderer and the ultimate flip-flopper. I've just read too many contradictory positions from him when he was running against Kennedy for Senator back in the 90's, when he was running for Governor of Massachusetts and now that he's running for President. Huckabee, while for some reason I really appreciate his sense of humor (Chuck Norris approved) - at least I hope it's humor - uses the word "irregardless" and we cannot have that. So I've been thinking about crossing the aisle and voting for McCain, in an effort to defeat Romney.

So those are my options. I don't think I know what I will do until I walk into the high school tomorrow.

Happy New Year!