Thursday, December 04, 2008
Buyer's Remorse
It was swift and certain. What was I thinking bringing a dark couch into my house??? Within seconds of having the couch assembled white dalmatian hairs were shining from it like tiny beacons. It's a magnet for them. And they don't brush off either. In desperation I ran upstairs and grabbed my lint roller and it did pick up the hairs, but by the time I'd done one section I had to peel off another layer of adhesive on the roller. Jake likes to lean against things, particularly the couch. After leaning on it one time he moved away and there were dozens of little white hairs poking out from the couch like porcupine quills.

I had a big 'ol pity party for myself. Why can't I ever have anything nice? With the furniture I'm screwed either way. A dark couch will show Jake hairs, a light couch will show Beaker hairs. I had no idea how good I had it with the variegated colors of my old couch.

The fact is I love the furniture. It's great furniture, but not the best choice for my house. We'll be keeping it and I'll have to learn to cope with the constant struggle of de-whitening it. Beaker just became my favorite dog.

Please ignore the ugly clash of the green carpet. That will have to go next. I told M I'd rather see the bare floor, but he doesn't want to get rid of the carpet until we have another one to replace it. The furniture is actually a chocolate brown, but somehow flash photography does weird things to the appearance of the color. The pieces are exactly the same color in real life.


This is the recliner in my computer room. The picture doesn't convey the scale of the thing. It's huge. Lots and lots of room for cuddling with a newborn. And it rocks.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Major excitement tonight
Around here anyway. We're getting new furniture. M already picked it up, we'll just need to move it into the house tonight. We got a new couch and recliner...and they actually match! Unfortunately they'll be placed in different rooms for now. Someday when we're down to one dog we'll be able to reclaim the floor space in the living room for the chair instead of a dog bed.

It's the first time I've bought new furniture that wasn't scratch and dent or somehow not-quite-right. I wanted to get an end table too, but decided not to get too greedy all at once. After all, M thought we were only looking to buy a couch. Always beware the hidden agenda ;) I wanted the rocking recliner as a space to relax with the baby. Actually, you can blame the whole thing on the baby. I've been dithering about buying a new couch for three years now. What finally motivated me was the thought of my spanking new baby touching that skanky old couch. Yuck. Well, that and finding out I'm getting a nice fat Christmas bonus. Woot!
I want...
Emma is reciting her Christmas list for "Santa." This is as close as she'll probably get to the real thing. She refuses to go anywhere near any red-suited, white-bearded types.




You'll notice her hair band looks more like a head band. She wears them like that 90% of the time, which renders them pretty much useless. I'm constantly pushing them back on her head. Sadly, to no avail.
Our Thanksgiving hosts
We're shameless. We'll travel anywhere people are willing to feed us or give us presents ;) We particularly enjoy Noni and Popi's because it feels like home. Well, for me anyway, duh. Noni put on a spectacular Thanksgiving feast and when we were done another family of ten could have come in and eaten just as much. Here are Noni and Popi with their 18 lb. turkey.


Monday, December 01, 2008
To the jolly white-bearded dude...
On Friday Popi helped Emma write down her list to mail to Santa.



Here's what it reads:

Dora microphone
Dora telephone
Dora house with two sides that opens up
Barbie My House
Dora tennis player doll

Then she wrote her name and had Popi put her location so Santa could find her.
Taboo
Aunt K. wanted to make a departure from our usual games Mexican Train or 10,000 so she asked us to play Taboo. It's been forever since I've played it. If you're not familiar with the game it's one where you're given a word and you have to make your teammates guess it by giving them clues. You see how many words you can get in a minute. But the same card shows you five words, the words which you're most likely to want to use, and you can't use them.

Our team was getting it's ass kicked. On Aunt K's turn she got a word that she was trying to give us clues for. Unfortunately I can't remember her clues. But she was trying to convey that it was a place where people can take clothes to get cleaned. We were guessing dry cleaners, laundry service, mom's ;), but we couldn't quite hit on the word. It was getting embarrassing.

Emma, who was playing in the room with J., pipes up, "laundromat." We were all running our mouths and missed it. So she put both hands down on the coffee table and leaned toward Aunt K. so she'd be heard. She said more forcefully, "laundromat!"

Shamed (and saved!) by a four year-old.
Thanksgiving splendor
Or the closest we come around here. It's like this...if Emma puts on a dress, I'm gonna take a picture!