Cutting Down Our Christmas Tree

Matt's family has a tradition where they go cut down their Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We joined them and chose our tree, and helped the rest of them pick out their trees and cut them down. Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the day. You can see all 158 pictures here.

You can see all 158 pictures here

First Home Project

The best home projects involve at least:

• new wiring
• cutting holes in exterior walls
• many trips to the hardware store
• soldering
• lot of help

That's why we decided to make our first project putting the washer and dryer into the bathroom. The way that it was set up when we moved in, the washer was in the bathroom and the dryer was in the basement. Neither of them were High Efficiency, and simply having to haul the laundry up and down the stairs made it less likely that we would get laundry done until we had completely gone through all our socks and underwear. So this was one of the things we really wanted to get done first.

Matt ripped out the bottom cabinet against the back wall of the bathroom the other night. Then on Thursday, Hip came and helped him remove half the top cabinets. Then the real work began. Mike came over on Friday night and helped Matt run the wire for the new outlet and they also cut a hole in the wall and installed the vent for the dryer. Matt's parents also came over with tools and made a run to Lowes to pick up some supplies. Then Saturday morning, Matt, his dad, and Aaron moved the washer and dryer upstairs and finished up the outlet. Today, Hippert came back and they did some repairs to the plumbing.

Two days, one disastrously messy kitchen, and about $250 later, we have laundry on the first floor.


We've lost the storage space that we had in the cabinets, but the top cabinet should be enough to store toilet paper and towels. We'll be putting a small counter on the bottom half, with a hamper and laundry detergent and such underneath it. It's still messy looking now, but we're running the washer and I'm sure it will be much easier to get the laundry done. Which means it might actually get done on a regular basis!

Spamalicious

I hate spam. I seem to get a ridiculous amount of spam by email, and now I'm getting spam comments on the blog on a pretty much a daily basis. So I've added a word verification requirement here for comments. Hopefully it doesn't also prevent real people from posting.

Last night Matt and I went to see Boondock Saints II as "date night." Date night is in quotes because we went with Mike, Paul, and Anthony, and frankly, it was guys' night and I was tagging along. Boondock Saints was an unapologetically guy movie, and the sequel followed the same format; lots of shooting and swearing and absolutely no romantic subplot at all. They even indulged in a rant about being men and driving fast and smoking and eating red meat. Grrrr. The movie was good, not as good as the first one, but it was pretty good. The fact that it was guys night was okay because it was nice to spend time with them, and we went to the theater in Methuen and we drove our own car so it gave us time to talk on the way there and back again. It was good to be in the car where we weren't distracted by all of our creature comforts of home - the tv, the computer, etc - and we talked about work, the house, family. Quality time, for sure.

For the house, we are hoping to get the laundry situation updated next weekend. The plan is to move our washer and dryer into the bathroom, putting the laundry on the first floor, and give Matt's parents the washer which came with the house (which is a fairly new machine, energy efficient and works pretty well). That means ripping out the lower cabinets in the bathroom, installing a new outlet with a dedicated circuit breaker and a vent for the dryer. I'm a little concerned about losing the storage in the cabinet, but I'm sure we'll be able to work it out. I'm more concerned about where we're going to put the laundry detergent, because the upper cabinets are too shallow to hold a big jug. We'll have to measure and see if we can fit a narrow deep shelf in between the washer and dryer. I'm hoping! I'm also debating whether we can install a laundry chute from our room to the bathroom. That would be the best!

Pumpkins & pomegranates

Tonight, Matt and I are running Life Teen. It's a social and Matt came up with the theme: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. Which basically means that we're playing pumkin themed games and eating pumpkin themed treats. We're playing Ghost in the Graveyard, and we'll also have pumpkin putt putt (you putt into the pumpkin, you don't putt the pumpkin), pumpkin pass, and one last game which will be a surprise.

Last night I made 48 pumpkin cupcakes, and Matt got the Dunkins at his work to donate pumpkin donuts. The kid we're planning the night with works for cold stone creamery and is bringing their pumpkin ice cream. I really hope there's a bunch if people there or we'll have crazy leftovers!

On a whim, I bought a pomegranate thinking I'd eat it all myself. Well, turns out Matt's never had them before and he Loves them, so we bought a couple more at the grocery store last night. I was looking up recipes and the most interesting one so far has been pomegranate martini. I'll have to buy a few things before we try that.