Today is Pappy's 200th birthday!

James Pappy Woods
Originally uploaded by mdesive.

Today is my great-great-great grandfather's birthday. He was born Dec 15, 1805 in Ireland (if I recall correctly).

See what else was going on in the world in 1805.

Everything you ever (never?) wanted to know about Haggis

This is a fanciful "Haggisclopedia" about these little animals that live in Scotland. :o)

What I've been reading

I just finished Hatching Magic by Ann Downer. I'd never heard of it when I found it at a Scholastic Book Fair at work (exactly where I should NOT have been with money in my pocket). It sounded interesting, so I bought it and read it pretty quickly for me - about two weeks (that darn ol' real life won't let me just sit and read abook straight through ) . It'd be a good book for someone looking for a Harry Potter fix while they're waiting for the last book to come out (of course I'm only about a third into Book 5). As soon as we finish The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I'm going to read this one to Ashley (that should tickle her little dragon-loving self!)

What else have I been reading (or listening to, as the case may be)?
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (on tape)
Heart of the Sea by Nora Roberts (on tape) - I've FINALLY finished this trilogy!

Still reading:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Miss Fortune by Julia London

Oh Christmas tree...well, sort of

PB301004
Originally uploaded by mdesive.

After a drive home through the snow which took twice as long as usual, we pulled into the drive and Ashley yells "We have a tree!" My first thought was, "Duh, we put it up last week!" Then I looked in the yard. I have no idea what KIND of tree it is...guess we'll find out later when it's not dark...and snowing...and leaf-less.

So I spend waaaay to much time at Flickr now

DSCN0948
Originally uploaded by stepinrazor.

I found some pictures of a subway car done up like a Deadwood saloon. If you scroll through the photos, you'll see even the seats are made to look as if they're upholstered, even though they're still the hard plastic seats. Pretty cool.

My Little Pig Sty

My Little Pig Sty
Originally uploaded by Tosawyer.

Okay, it's not MY pig sty. I wish I even had my desk in the house! (hint, hint hubby!) This is somebody else's photo on Flickr.com. Flickr has this thing where you can draw little squares around things and label them, and, well, this person went kinda gung ho! It just tickled me, so I had to post it! Click on the photo to see what I mean. (And I'll go lie down after using so many exclamation points...)

We have sod!

I stayed home today to recover from all the moving and the unpacking and the unpacking and the unpacking....I took a nice long nap for the morning and when I woke up this afternoon, there was a truckload of sod sitting outside! We now have a lawn! It was too dark by the time they finished laying the sod, though, so I'll have to take pictures before I leave for work -- if I can see it. It's supposed to snow tomorrow...sigh. Oh well, it means Mother Nature will do my work for me and I won't have to water it that whole first day. :o)

Check out my pictures at Flickr

The house is DONE!

P1010946
Originally uploaded by mdesive.

It's ours! We moved some boxes & small stuff in today! I had to decorate the windows right away, of course. To see more pictures of the finished house, click on the picture. You'll have to sign in to see the rest.

Light in the front hall

Light in the front hall
Originally uploaded by mdesive.

I just love this light fixture, which is lucky, since we didn't get to pick these. But I really like it! And with the brushed nickel door handles, etc. (also not a choice, but cool) and the stainless steel appliances (a choice), I think it will help pull things together throughout the house.

To see more pictures of the house, got to www.flickr.com/photos/mdesive/. They're public for now, but soon I'll make them available only to "Friends and Family" so you'll have to sign in (if you already have a Yahoo! I.D., you should be able to get to them...if you still can't get to them, e-mail me so I can add you to the list.)

What day is this???

At first I thought I was just delirious from loss of blood (Mary the High-Maintenance Blood Donor strikes again), but apparently they ARE playing Christmas songs on a local station.

House update

We finally have a driveway! We also have drywall, a front door, and a garage door! We close October 26!

A Night Out

Friday night we went to Maggie McCall's to see Larry Garner (center) play. He's a Blues player from Baton Rouge, LA. He played some great music, told some stories and his guitarist (left)wasn't bad to look at. ;o)

House update

We now have front steps, shingles, some electrical wiring, and the fireplace has been installed! 

We have a back patio! 

House update

The front of the house (a bit washed out, sorry). But we have siding, the driveway and steps are ready to be poured, and there are shingles on the roof, though not actually attached yet ;o)

Pipes and ductwork are going in. 

The back of the house. 

Which Romantic Comedy Heroine Are You?

You're Jenna Rink
(Jennifer Garner - '13 Going on 30')

You are a sparkling, fun dynamo of a person. You
enchant people with your smile, laughter and
ever infectious spunk! You are sweet and always
good-natured. Even the cranky anti-morning
people can't be mean to you.

You're creative and spontanteous. You express
yourself in like mediums, but also keep a
tangible diary.

You feel deeply and believe in fighting for what
you want.
You love music, family, and friends. You keep up
with the trends and often set the fashion
standards.

All in all, you're a doll!


Which Romantic Comedy Heroine Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

We came home from vacation, and...

Our house is starting to look like...a house!


The front of the house

The back of the house 

The kitchen 

The living room (fireplace will be in the corner) 

The family room & laundry room in the basement. 

Vacation - Day Four

Today we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial and walked and walked and walked. It seemed like we walked forever. There was a lot to see, and we even got to take home pieces of rock blasted from the mountain. Since it's still bike week, of course there was a Crazy Horse-themed bike at the memorial. One picture of that is below.

Tonight we ordered in steak from Steak-Out. I had the "Surf & Turf" (shrimp & steak tips). It was pretty good.

Vacation - Day Three

We went to Sturgis today! It was cool, though without a bike it felt a bit like visiting Disneyland and not riding any of the rides. We went out to Thunder Road and saw the guys from Orange County Choppers. When we got there, Paul Jr. and Mikey were signing autographs. The line looked really really really long (I have no idea where the end was), but most of the people in the line were holding out for Paul Sr., who was supposed to be there in about half an hour. Most of them said if we weren't picky about who we got autographs from, then to go ahead, they were waiting. So we jumped in line and were about 5th in line when Paul Sr. came out. People were screaming and cheering. So we got Paul Sr.'s and Paul Jr.'s autographs (don't know where Mikey went, but he was gone by the time I got to where I could see them again (the line was along the semi trailer they were in, so you couldn't actually see in until you got up there). Here are some of the photos.

Vacation - Day Two

We saw lots of things today and didn't even leave Rapid. This morning we went to Prairie Edge, a store downtown with oodles and oodles of Native American-themed things. I bought two Paul Goble books I've wanted for awhile and a couple postcards. The gallery was full of gorgeous artwork - I'll have to organize my notes and find the artists' websites for a later post.

When we were done there, we went next door to the Firehouse Brewing Co. It's actually in an old firehouse. The French dip was one of the best I've had in awhile. Dan and I each tried one of their beers (can't remember which ones, and I can't find my notes)

After that, we went to Rapid City's Harley-Davidson dealership, where we saw gobs and gobs of Harleys. I even got a shirt to wear to Sturgis tomorrow (if it doesn't rain all day). We left the dealership just before the rain started. After that, we went to the Civic Center and saw MORE Harleys - good thing that was inside, because it poured while were were there. I think Ashley is hooked on Harleys now - we'll realize what a monster we created when she's sixteen, I'm sure.

Vacation - Day One

We drove to Rapid City today, with a few stops along the way. Too tired to write much tonight (must blog earlier in the day!) so I'll just post a picture or two tonight. The top photo is what the road looked like most of the way here - Interstate and motorcycles, motorcycles, motorcyles going both east and west. The second photo is Ashley riding the bucking bronco at Wall Drug. Didn't mean to do the stair-step effect with the photos, but I'm too tired to figure out how to fix it tonight. More tomorrow...

We're Not Afraid

Great site! Check this out.

The basement is finished! Framing should start before long. 

What a difference a week makes! We've got blocks! 

We now have a hole in the ground! This is taken from the southwest (back) corner of the house. The houses in the background were just foundations two weeks ago. 

We had a GORGEOUS sunset tonight. Just wanted to share... 

Quote of the day...

"...the 'box' we think is so confining is not really there at all, but just a rearrangement of perception." - Charlie Fox, Editor, Library Mosaics, "Editor's Note," 2005 May-Jun; 16(3):5.

This is where our front yard will be! The house will look like the second one in the row facing the camera, but the color of the first one in the row facing away form the camera. 

This one is down the hill looking up at our backyard. The house will be done in the fall!