April 26th

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't actually 97 degrees, but this bank in Everett, MA thought it was! Whatever the temp, it's a gorgeous day and T and I stopped for breakfast on the way out of town.

April 25th

This is a perfect Saturday. Pregame drinks and nachos with friends along Boylston Street, and a Red Sox-Yankee game on a blazing 85 degree day. T bought a 10 game season ticket plan and this was the first game of the 2009 season for us! we couldn't have picked a better one; Yankee fan ejections, a Varitek grand slam, and a see-saw battle that ended with a Papelbon save. Our seats are three rows up past the bullpen and watching Paps warm up is a sight to see. He starts in the 6th inning with a strange set of lunges, and does a freakish arm spin that is so fast that it looks like his arm is going to come off. He entered the 9th inning to the Dropkick Murphies and a fist bump with the security guard.

April 24th

T was back at the house hunt today. He went to look at my favorite house, the one with the antique stove in the kitchen. He loved it and it's now at the top of our list. It's a cape style in a fantastic neighborhood and although it needs some work, we both love the potential that it has. This is the view of the back yard from the driveway. Could this be our new home? :-)

April 23rd

I checked the weather for this weekend and it's going to be gorgeous! Time to unearth the pedicure kit!

April 22nd

Happy Administrative Professionals Day! My salesmen always remember me even though I'm not technically an Administrative Professional. They decided that this year they would steer away from cut flowers and "go green" with this gorgeous orchid. It's a beautiful plant and I only hope that it fares better than my cute little purple plant did!

April 21st

T was off today and had the task of prying Ratatouille out of our broken DVD player. We had perfected the art of hitting it in just the right spot to get the drawer to open, and flinging in a DVD before it quickly closed. With our modifications, we had gotten almost another year out of this sad, broken player. It finally gave up the ghost over the weekend, sadly with our Netflick inside. I came home from work to find my husband performing surgery and the DVD player in pieces around him. Thankfully, Ratatouille has been saved.

April 20th

Continuing the spring cleaning theme, I decided to tackle these baskets full of makeup and beauty products. I filled a small garbage bag with the old makeup and the half empty travel bottles that I always keep because I think I'll use. I condensed these baskets down to half of what's in the photo and in the process, found some things I didn't know I had!

April 19th

This is a before and after Sunday shot...the weather was nice, the husband was working, and I did some spring cleaning! This mess in our bedroom was me cleaning out drawers and shelves and doing the old clothing switcharoo: rescuing the summer clothes from their prison under the bed and replacing them with winter clothes. Good riddance sweaters, fleeces, and thick socks! See you next winter! And this is the after...ah, zen. Please note the teddy bear. I've had that bear since I was a baby. He's a little bit bald and not as fat as he used to be but he still has the place of honor.

April 18th

So I did some house hunting of my own today! The realtor and I saw 5 properties and it was quite an experience. I saw a house that smelled of mildew and had midget sized ceilings. House # 3 had a crazy cat lady and a scary amount of trees and pruning shears in the third floor bedroom. The 5 cats in that house followed us around glaring at us. I was slightly afraid that the woman was going to lock us in the attic. We didn't stay long. House #4 had large rooms and a huge master suite...still unfinished. I took this photo in the kitchen of that house. It definitely needs updating, but I couldn't get over the stove. I think it would have to be replaced but it has a certain charm to it. I really liked this house. For more house photos, click here

April 17th

Nope, not another house. This is our local library! I finished "The Beach House", by Jane Green and needed to reload. In honor of our September trip to Italy, I picked up the audio version of "Angels and Demons." I read it several years ago and wanted a refresher before we follow in Robert Langdon's footsteps. I love this tree out in front and want to plant one of my own when we move.

April 16th

We've been house hunting online for weeks and made a spreadsheet (we're nerds like that) with all the properties that we've liked. T went out with a realtor today (!) and saw 4 houses. He felt like Goldilocks; "This one is too small...this one is too big." Well the big red one was just right. It's a perfect size for us and has a huge, open, beautiful living room/kitchen. The downside? Electric heat. T came home and spent an hour researching the difference in cost between electric, oil, and gas heat. The verdict is...electric is twice as expensive. Figures. This house is still at the top of the list though.

April 15th

T and I love to travel and we decided the other day that we'd like to plan an adventure for next spring! Right now we're leaning towards Costa Rica, but that could change once I read the guidebooks. The flights to Costa Rica are surprisingly inexpensive and one of the hotels I fell in love with is $30 a night...and that was one of the more expensive!

April 14th

We have a big tree in our yard that I pass on the way out to my car. I am eagerly awaiting blossoms, and I think that my patience is finally being rewarded. Is it...could it be? Spring is on the way?

April 13th

After a pretty frigid weekend, I was able to carry my coat inside tonight instead of huddling inside it. Thanks heavens for small victories! I've been seeing signs of spring here and there and I ran into this little flower when I went out to get the mail. There are four of them sprinkled on the lawn next to the grill. Very unexpected and very exciting!

April 12th

The aftermath of a huge Easter meal! How cute is this man?

April 11th

See the redhead in overalls? That's the birthday boy! T and I are unaccustomed to having parties with this many kids, and it was so much fun. Pure chaos but fun! The hit of the party was not to be found in the big pile of brightly wrapped presents, but in the leftover moving box that

a brilliant adult turned into a house with a few cuts of scissors. He cut a door and two windows and soon that box was an ice cream shop with a revolving group of 3-5 kids inside. The were drawn out to "help" Jack open the presents and this photo reminded me of a group of us "adults" gathered around a keg. How the times have changed...

April 10th

And now a test: Remember a few days ago, I posted a photo of the birthday gift for our 1 year old friend Jack? Well, here is the finished product, wrapped and ready to go to Boston! I bought the bag and paper at a store that shall not be named because I went in there with great shame. It's right on my way home though! Anyway, once inside, I discovered some fun wrapping paper, bags and ribbons. I hope Jack likes his gift!

April 9th

I made muffins. Delicious, buttery muffins. As you can see, T and I have made sure that I only have 11 to wrap in a basket for a dear friend of ours. I found the recipe on the delicious blog of Sarah's Test Kitchen. Venture on over to the right side of my blog and when you get to her blog, click on it and scroll down the the recipe, Strawberry Ricotta Muffins. You will not be sorry!

April 8th

I found this bright little plant at the grocery store today and couldn't resist bringing it home. It smells delicious and although we'll be gone this weekend for Easter, I'm hopeful that it will be alive when we come back on Sunday! I'm not sure what it is because it's merely labeled, "bulb." Does anyone have any idea?

April 7th

T and I are going to a 1st birthday party on Saturday! Jack was our youngest wedding guest and the first child of T's longtime friend and his wonderful wife. I ventured into Toys R Us to pick out an appropriate gift and was pretty disheartened by the toy selection. I found the Fisher Price barn that I remember playing with as a child and wanted to pass that on to Jack. But instead of a big brown barn, the new edition of this toy came in a tin lunch box that had the barn pictured on it. The cow looked exactly the same though! If I had thought about it in time, I would have ordered something from www.hearthsong.com, a wonderful site full of toys and games that encourage learning and development. I did finally pick out the above set of Little People, a favorite of my nephew Shane when he was the same age.

April 6th

I have become obsessed with the library again and this is my first ever book on CD! I don't know why I never thought of this before, because I commute 40 minutes each way to work. Before this new revelation, most of that time was spent zoning out to a crappy radio station and watching the brown trees out my window. This has changed my whole attitude! I highly recommend this book; Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Now that I only have two chapters left, I can't wait to go to work tomorrow! Well, almost. I am a quick reader and because of this, I tend not to ingest all of the details because I can't wait to see how it ends. Listening to it forces me to visualize the story and really become invested in the characters and even the smallest of details. Stay tuned for a book review!

April 5th

I am an obsessive list maker. I have been known to add tasks that I've already done just so I can cross them off. This is my weekend list and it's just about done! When I was out doing errands, I ran into a few open houses which was really exciting. I was able to see a few places that we had looked at online and I liked one of them for us. One of them reeked of cigarettes and was covered in wood paneling. T and I cannot figure out why there is so much paneling in houses around here. Our current apartment and the one before this both contained large amounts of it. We feel like we need smoking jackets and brandy snifters! Anyway, the house I liked out of the four I saw had stunning cherry wood floors and a really great neighborhood feel. T will go look at it this week with the realtor. Exciting! Stay tuned...

April 4th

Since I did all my chores on Thursday, today is a scrapbooking day! I have a few trips to add in my girls trip book and I bought all the supplies for the wedding scrapbook. I have started to work on some of the layouts and I'm excited to get going on it. It's a big production in our tiny house because there isn't much room to spread out. It's a good day today because T is working and won't be frightened by the large amounts of paper scattered around. As a side note, my green paper cutter was a rock star when I was working on wedding projects!

April 3rd

I think I have mentioned that my husband is obsessed with baseball. For the last few years, he has talked about ordering the Extra Innings Baseball Package through our cable. Normally we are moving in the middle of the season, and as it's non-transferrable, he has never gone ahead with it. Well, this year he couldn't live without it, so we ordered it today. Since the account is in my name, I had to get on the phone and authorize it. This was a bit painful..especially since we only have 1 TV! The tradeoff for this is, when we buy a house, I get a spare room where I can retreat to watch all the Real Housewives that I can handle!

April 2nd

I've been feeling really burned out lately and when I cried on the way home on Wednesday, I decided that I needed a mental health day. So I took the day off from work on Thursday and was able to hang out with T, who was legitimately off from work. We cleaned the house, reorganized some things, went out to do errands and stopped for lunch. I also attacked this pair of his pants and sewed the button back on. I felt very Suzy homemaker-ish! By the end of the day, I was back to my normal, relaxed self.

April 1st

This is the greatest show ever. Period. Our Wednesday nights consist of LOST, and a Mexican feast of cheese enchiladas, rice, beans, and a couple of beers. We always look forward to Wednesdays!

March 31st

T and I went to the library over the weekend and they said we had a missing book. We were both sure that it had been returned so the librarian said she would run a query for it. It wasn't until I left work this afternoon that I stumbled across a surprise in the back seat of the car: Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein. Whoops. I'll pay the fine now. Incidentally, you should check out her books! She's an excellent mystery writer.

March 30th

I watched the weather change all day from my little window at work and this is what was blowing in as I drove home. This crazy mix of black clouds and partial sun led to a powerful thunderstorm as we were getting ready for bed. It was short lived but very loud!

March 29th

This is my wonderful baseball obsessed husband poring over his newly minted 2009 fantasy team. The nice thing is that we share this team; he manages it and complains when they are doing badly, and I nod, smile, and listen...most of the time! This is the first year in quite a while that I haven't had a team of my own, so I'm sure I'll be called in to pitch a few innings in his quest for the coveted bobblehead trophy! Let the games begin!