Saturday, September 27, 2008

Labor Day weekend & beyond

Labor Day weekend Mike and I spent on the Cape. We welcomed my brother into town with a fun evening of lobstahs and beahs at the trailah. (sorry, had to get the Boston accent into the story). Mikey of course is the loan meat-eater. We always say that I like just about anything with "fins" and he likes anything with "feet." What's for dinner?? Fins and feet for us! LOL After dinner, we met up with some of Eric's buddies - one of whom was getting married the following weekend - for some out-on-the-town fun in Dennisport. For those of you who've been there, you can appreciate this t-shirt hung on the ceiling...we've all been there (in Dennisport or not)
As you can imagine, the beahs were flowin and the camera was out, so a couple of wacky shots came to be...many of my friends might be surprised to see my "little" brother all so grown up.
Mikey felt the love too...
We did manage to get a decent shot of the three of us before things got too out of hand.
After the weekend on the Cape (Sox was with Uncle Jimmy), Eric came back to our house for a few chilaxin days in our new-to-him house. We were surprised he brought Christmas presents with him (from last year), one of them being a gift card to Lowe's. As many frequent readers know, this is a favorite of ours. We decided to make a brother-sister project out of it and got a new mailbox for our house! All things considered, it was a pretty easy job (what am I saying, I just supervised. My only real task was to measure how high to make the mailbox off the ground...and to decorate it with the numbers). Now we're ready for all those letters!

Thanks Eric & Holly for the gift card - you have made a permanent improvement in our curb appeal!

Next Project: Laundry Room

Well, it's hard to say our laundry area is a full fledged "room" but we're still gonna work on it like it was one! It all started when we decided to take advantage of sales tax free weekend and get a new washer/dryer. Our old ones were circa 1980 and made so much noise you could hear the dryer running when you went to get the mail! I'm surprised our neighbors never complained.

Once the old machines went out, we figured we'd get rid of the nasty, stuck-on floor pieces. Many were coming up anyways and it's not good for Soxie to gnaw on this stuff.
Once the floor was up and the new machines were delivered, Mikey built a platform for them to stand on so it would be easy to get things in/out. We looked into the platforms that are made for them, but they were $400 - this box was about 10% of that. :) Props to Mr. Handy-Mike!

and here are our new, energy star, using-less-water, super powered appliances!

We have also taken on redoing the closet that was in the laundry area. We're thinking of putting in a table on which to fold laundry or put some of the larger, lesser used appliances (breadmaker/mixer/etc). Shelving will go up on the wall and maybe some cabinets to make better use of the space. Just recently, Mikey added a light on the ceiling, which will definitely come in handy! Before it was split into two sides, and you can see where there was a huge piece of plywood going vertically down the middle. This open space will be much better we think - and maybe in the future offer an extention of the kitchen!
We have picked out the tile that will go down on the floor in the laundry room and our 1/2 bath (the ocean room) and Mike plans to put some white wainscotting over the box to pretty that up a bit. Some skim coating and a fresh coat of paint just make me want to spend more time (gasp) in the laundry room! The goal is to have this done by Halloween. Not for any particular reason, just to keep the projects on schedule.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

A note from Sox

I have been missin my daddy, who has been working very hard and coming home way after dark. Momma and I play after she comes home, sometimes going to the dog park, sometimes playing at home. But most nights, after dinner, I wait patiently at the front door for my Daddy:

When Daddy is home, he's often working around the house (Mom can tell you more about that later). But I like just spending time with him. When he mows the yard, I usually watch, although that big red thing is a little scary. It tears up all my sticks - I DON'T like that.

I still love to play soccer ball in the yard and have really perfected my Goalie skills. It's rare for a ball to get by me. If anyone wants to practice, I'm happy to play.

I have had a few sleepovers with friends. Taylor and Ceder came to visit and we had a great time in the park together. We went swimming and played fetch and everyting. Mom said we looked like a three-headed stick tugging together. What do you think? We also played at the house. I especially liked tugging with them with my ruff-toy, although it was hard to coordinate with the three of us. For Labor day I got to spend the weekend at my cousin Mocha's house while Mom & Dad went to Cape Cod. We had a lot of fun and Uncle Jimmy is very good to me. I would like to stay there again sometime.

Then, just when I thought things were getting back to normal, my other cousin, Dylan the pug, came to stay with us. His family was going to DC to participate in a tee-ball game at the White House! I was a little unsure of having another dog around for so long, but we got along great. He doesn't like to tug as much as me, so mostly we just lounged around together.
That's about all I've been up to! If any of you want to come and play with me, I'm happy to lick you and wag my strong puppy tail in your general direction. I'll let Momma have the computer back now...