Gingerbread house

So, here it is:



She did a wonderful job. And, we also made gingerbread man cookies. I made a few of them anatomically correct; sadly and inexplicably Lisa will not permit their publication on this site. Tragic, tragic, for they are very artistic. Hmmmm.

OK, yes, it has been over a month since we posted, but no we have not been idle. Instead, as the observant have noticed, the Christmas Season is upon us. And that in Lisaland means: Decorating. Our attic breathes a sigh of relief as we approach T-giving and then enter December, as tons of supplies and decorations are hauled down the stairs, and down to the first floor for decorating.

I recall driving back from Santa Fe a few years ago and passing, going the other way, a caravan of 18-wheelers. It turns out the caravan was Paul McCartney's tour moving on from Dallas or Houston or somewhere in Texas to the West Coast. I thought as I saw truck after truck after truck pass by, "They have almost as much stuff as we have in the attic for Christmas. Only Paul has roadies. We have Brad." A sad observation indeed.

This process literally takes weeks, but it is (sort of) fun. And, in all fairness we could have accomplished it probably somewhat easier this year if we had not been interrupted by Lisa's appendicitis and then her Return of Appendicitis (Hello insurance company: They ARE the same medical illness so no you can't charge multiple deductibles!). But, it all came together anyway.

The front of the house at night?






The daytime show is pretty good, too, but unfortunately I am not capable of (a) taking a good picture under the best of circumstances, and (b) holding my stupid Blackberry still long enough to use it for a photo:



Front porch:



And check out the cupcake behind Mr. Gingerbread - hand made by yours truly. And it has a twin on the other side of the door (it was night when I took these and the other one didn't really turn out well on the photo):

The back yard was not overlooked (note the new grill cover - $46 from Sears, as opposed to the tons of money and time we invested in the cover we made earlier this fall):

And, let's not forget the garage wreath (the site of me climbing that darned ladder was probably not pretty; I don't know - I had my eyes closed):

A few inside:

Can you spot the inanimate object in the following dining room picture? Hint, there's a tree in the corner and a 12-year old boy sitting at the table.

That's it for now. This weekend was consumed with cooking for the holidays. Bolognese sauce for 20 Christmas night; enchiladas for 10 Christmas eve; Lisa baking dozens and dozens of cookies. AND Lisa making a gingerbread house!!! I will post that photo later.

Is it me . . .

Or is it STILL shrinking??? I believe it is alive!!

Duck Shrinks!!

Well, now more about the prior post. First, our plan for last Saturday had been to stain the concrete on the front porch. So, off to Home Depot to buy stain, only to find out that first the concrete needs to be etched. With acid. Since I have not handled acid since high school, and then with spotty results, it seemed to me (and Lisa agreed) that we needed to leave that project to the professionals. So, on to next projects: (a) replace back light with a new one we had ordered and promptly stored away about 2 months ago, and (b) build a new cover for our grill since the old one was hanging on by bare threads. So, that is what occasioned the two photos.

Anyway, for the new grill cover, we tried to find a perfect fabric, but were running out of ideas. Ultimately, we decided on duck - a canvas-type material which, as I recall, us commonly used as sail covers and boat covers. Surely that would work, right? So we bought our 8 1/2 yards of fabric, used the old cover (which we carefully took apart) as a template, and 3-4 hours later had the finished product posted earlier.

All went well, then, until it started raining last night and kept raining. Guess what? Duck SHRINKS!! Hence the new photos of our now over-taught, and far too short grill cover. Back to the drawing (or cutting) table, I guess.

OK. Today in the city, not on the island. Reason: Holidays approaching. MUST GET HOUSE READY! So, two project completed: New cover for grill; new outdoor light by back door. Pictures above. Explanation to follow.

No real work today - just a lazy weekend on the island. Cool weather and good breezes. Had to snap this photo of two best friends out for a boat ride - Peanut's first. She now insists upon being called Salty Dog.

Stealth Project

OK, so the next project which is in the works: The bathroom for Harry's study. This was the red-headed stepchild of the house -- the last room to receive only superficial "help" since we bought the house in . . . .1993? Anyway, this one was done in a devious and totally unethical manner. It's real simple. One evening there I am minding my own business -- probably reading one of YOUR blogs and messing around on Facebook - when it APPEARS (the jury is still out on this) that I am asked by Miss Lisa: "Bing, what would you say to getting _____ to demo the study bath and then getting ____ to replumb it and then getting _____ to install new tile and then getting _____ to finish up with new fixtures?" Of course, glass of wine in hand I undoubtedly said something like, "Sure. Sounds good." Well, la-te-dah come a Monday only a short while later ___ shows up, crowbar in hand! What the . . . .??!! Comes to turn out that my "Sure Whatever" response was met with an immediate desire to hire all of these folks, and now we are completely . .. . demo'd. Pictures attached. Stay tuned as we take you through the process. Next Installment: "Bathtub, bathtub, who's got the bathtub?!"