One Life Stand

Hubby and I took our new bikes for a ride on Saturday morning.  We picked up the trail at a different spot than we usually do.  Apparently the new spot is where all the bikers hang.  I felt like quite the amateur riding along getting passed by all the cool kids in their nifty bicycle shoes and tops and pants.  But whatever, I’m not trying to enter a bike race, just get in shape.

Last time, I rode 5 miles with a 10-15 minute break in the middle.  This time we rode 6.2 miles without stopping.  Yippee!  I’m getting better already.  I may start riding around the neighborhood a bit during the week too.  The only thing is, I need to figure out what the heck to do about my hair.  Eleven months san relaxer + exercise = poofy, wooly roots.  Not to mention summer is around the corner which means humidity, humidity, humidity.

We went to Bed Bath and Beyond after church on Sunday and picked up some knick-knacks for the house.  (Thanks for the gift card GeckoBro!)  I STILL need to get some more curtains but can’t decide what I want.  In the meanwhile, hubby has started the prep work for the backyard patio.  He said something about wanting to rent a bobcat.  Sounds crazy to me (visions of having to re-sod the backyard come to mind) but I’m not in charge of such except as it pertains to cost so I’ll let him do his thing.  We should be picking up our new (to us) truck this coming weekend so now I can buy all the stuff I want from Lowe’s.  Azaleas here I come!

Well, it’s not summer yet but we’re already making progress on creating a backyard oasis.  We picked up this set over the weekend to put on the deck.  Now we can dine al fresca when hubby grills.  Next up is to start the massive undertaking that will be building a patio.  Also, we’ve come to the realization that we need to get a third vehicle, a pickup truck.  Relying on the kindness of friends will only go so far.  After buying the aforementioned furniture for the deck, we realized it wouldn’t fit in the car!  I called one of my friends and thankfully she was in the area and able to transport it for us. 

In other news, my birthday is Thursday.  Woo hoo!  GeckoDad and GeckoBigBro are coming to town on Saturday and we’re going to have a few people over.  I’m sure that will be interesting.  I can’t wait.

Well Linens N Things did have the decorations I wanted.  However, the box wouldn’t fit in my trunk!  Putting it in the front seat wasn’t an option because my coworker was with me.  After wrestling with the box for five minutes (I really didn’t want to have to return the item), we decided to just discard the box and put the contents in the trunk.  This is the first time having a teeny car has been an inconvenience.  And hubby wonders why I make him chaffeur me when shopping for the house :-)

We didn’t really do much decorating last year since we’d only been in the house a few months.  However this year, it’s time to get the spirit and get to decorating.  I’m kicking myself because I waited too long to go to Linens N Things and they’re sold out of the pre-lit trees in urns that I want for the front porch.  I called another location and I think they have some so keep your fingers crossed.

Hubby already put up our wreath and will put up the indoor garland this weekend.  We’re going to get candelabras for all the windows, garland for the mantle and stockings and that’s probably it for this year.  We may add some more outdoor decor next year though.  We stopped by Target after hubby’s game last night and their candelabras were $5 each, which isn’t that bad but we need 14 of them.  Sheesh.

How do you guys decorate for Christmas?

I’d been wanting to epoxy the garage floor for quite some time.  Hubby and I finally got it done this weekend.  It looks great.  However, now that the floor looks nice, the walls and stairs look dingy.  Staining the stairs will be a quick easy task but the walls are 10 feet high!  That would require ladders and much time.  Bleh.  I’ve been trying to think of a solution that doesn’t require painting to the ceiling but I think chair rails would look dumb in a garage.  Sheesh.

Hubby and I were talking after dinner last night and I mentioned a console table that I saw at Bombay Company that I liked for the foyer.  I saw a nice tablescape on another blog and wanted to do something similar.  Hubby usually doesn’t care how I decorate and gives his approval on anything that isn’t plants.  Yeah the moratorium is still on but it had better be off by spring, darnit.  So last night, his response surprised me.  "I’d rather get curtains for the living room."  Um, since when did you start caring about curtains?

Mind you, the living room is currently empty.  It is going to be the piano room but we have no piano yet and I refuse to set up his keyboard in there (vs the basement).  So curtains were not a part of my immediate plan.  But hubby wants curtains so curtains we will get.  I told him we need to come up an idea of how we want the room to be.  I’m not buying curtains now only to turn around and have to buy more in a different color later.  Of course, this is when his eyes usually start to glaze over…but he finally decided on yellow and brown.  Of course it won’t be yellow and brown, more like gold and chocolate, but I doubt if he knows the difference.  LOL.

So now I need to find two accent chairs so that I can know what color curtains I want.  Then I have to find an occasional table and a lamp because there’s no overhead lighting in that room.  I’m still undecided as to whether or not I want an ottoman and/or a rug.  So who has nice (yet not crazy expensive) chairs???