courtesy of Cara.
Jobs I've Had
1. receptionist/secretary for a hardware/building supply store
2. magazine bindery worker
3. student worker in film school equipment office
4. telemarketer - ha!
5. Security guard - ha ha!
6. Intern at the Pittsburgh Film Office
7. Community Media internship - made movies and ran films in the parks series
8. Executive Assistant
9. System Administrator
10. Now...mama, photographer/business owner, maid
I'll give you one guess as to which one is both the most demanding and the most rewarding.
Places I've Lived
1. Zionsville, PA
2. Pittsburgh, PA - Oakland, Shadyside
3. Dormont, PA
4. Crafton, PA
Foods I Love
1. Ice cream
2. doughnuts
3. chocolate
4. pizza
5. cheese
...I could go on and on. I love food. Maybe I should do foods I hate.
Places I Would Rather Be
1. bed...oh how I love thee
2. outside, enjoying some crisp Fall weather, but it's rainy and I have inside work to do anyway
3. visiting my family
TV Shows I Watch
1. the office
2. Lost
3. How I Met Your Mother
4. Heroes...for now
5. Battlestar Gallactica
6. Scrubs
7. Bionic Woman...for now
Books I Love
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Memoirs of a Geisha
3. children's books by Mo Willems
okay, Amy, if you haven't already been tagged, you're it
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Centennial House
No, this is not a post about a PBS historical reality program. This is about my house, Centennial House, built in...you guessed it, 1876. Somewhere along the way it was given the appropriate name. This month (September - took me a while to actually publish this post) marks five years since we moved in. After three years of third floor apartment life I was going insane and needed to be able to walk out my door in bare feet to feel the ground and a little more privacy in order to be my introverted self.
This house is an antique that was not always treated as valuable. In other words, I could afford it and see it's beauty through the rotted wood and layers upon layers of failing paint. R was not as confident about stepping into such an endeavor, but we did it. Inside, the only unpainted woodwork is one stairway and a set of enormous pocket doors. Everything else...everything... was painted white, by some cheap laborer it would seem. We initially had visions of stripping the baseboards and window moldings. Eventually, we decided to pick our battles and that has not been one of them. I remember one of the first things I did uncover was a tiny decorative latch on a pantry door. It started with a little bit of the white paint chipping off and out of the blue, in the middle of an ordinary day I had to reveal it that instant.
My first planned project was stripping our window shutters. There are 26 of them, about half of them louvered. Yeah. After some frustration with chemicals in the back yard, I ended up handing some over to my Dad who took them to be dip-stripped. The guy told him he had to do them multiple times because they were so caked with paint. (As of today, less than half of the shutters have been completed). So, over the last five years we've managed to do stuff here and there. This year, post baby-havin', our task was to fix the failing front porch. My photos from when we moved in are pre-digital days, so I'll have to settle for a more recent one.
There, that should give you an idea of the crappiness.
The railing was rotted at one end. One column was rotted at the bottom. The wood floor had paint chipping off more and more every day and it was beginning to rot in some places. We had planned to tackle this project since before we bought the house, but repairing or replacing a porch column was not a task that I was super confident in tackling myself. Finally, after designing a new railing to match the original on the back porch, and enlisting the help of my experienced father...things are coming together. Hopefully, it will be completely done before the Great Pumpkin arrives.
Here are some pics of things going on...
A new column, railing gone, and a cleaned up floor and columns. You can also see windows that I previously stripped, puttied, and painted.
Me, enjoying priming the floor. It takes a really long time to brush paint a surface this size, but I refuse to use a roller.
This is where we stood at about 10:30pm on the last night of our "vacation" week. This portion of railing ended up coming down and we started over after renting a nailer over the following weekend. Yay!
A week later, while my parents were visiting for my birthday, Rich began to rebuild the steps which we found were really starting to rot.
Sigh...it's looking beautiful and I can't wait until it is done. Heck, it only took me about three weeks to finish and publish this post! It's so darn long, I feel like Annie ; )
This house is an antique that was not always treated as valuable. In other words, I could afford it and see it's beauty through the rotted wood and layers upon layers of failing paint. R was not as confident about stepping into such an endeavor, but we did it. Inside, the only unpainted woodwork is one stairway and a set of enormous pocket doors. Everything else...everything... was painted white, by some cheap laborer it would seem. We initially had visions of stripping the baseboards and window moldings. Eventually, we decided to pick our battles and that has not been one of them. I remember one of the first things I did uncover was a tiny decorative latch on a pantry door. It started with a little bit of the white paint chipping off and out of the blue, in the middle of an ordinary day I had to reveal it that instant.
My first planned project was stripping our window shutters. There are 26 of them, about half of them louvered. Yeah. After some frustration with chemicals in the back yard, I ended up handing some over to my Dad who took them to be dip-stripped. The guy told him he had to do them multiple times because they were so caked with paint. (As of today, less than half of the shutters have been completed). So, over the last five years we've managed to do stuff here and there. This year, post baby-havin', our task was to fix the failing front porch. My photos from when we moved in are pre-digital days, so I'll have to settle for a more recent one.
There, that should give you an idea of the crappiness.
The railing was rotted at one end. One column was rotted at the bottom. The wood floor had paint chipping off more and more every day and it was beginning to rot in some places. We had planned to tackle this project since before we bought the house, but repairing or replacing a porch column was not a task that I was super confident in tackling myself. Finally, after designing a new railing to match the original on the back porch, and enlisting the help of my experienced father...things are coming together. Hopefully, it will be completely done before the Great Pumpkin arrives.
Here are some pics of things going on...
A new column, railing gone, and a cleaned up floor and columns. You can also see windows that I previously stripped, puttied, and painted.
Me, enjoying priming the floor. It takes a really long time to brush paint a surface this size, but I refuse to use a roller.
This is where we stood at about 10:30pm on the last night of our "vacation" week. This portion of railing ended up coming down and we started over after renting a nailer over the following weekend. Yay!
A week later, while my parents were visiting for my birthday, Rich began to rebuild the steps which we found were really starting to rot.
Sigh...it's looking beautiful and I can't wait until it is done. Heck, it only took me about three weeks to finish and publish this post! It's so darn long, I feel like Annie ; )
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
It's official...
I'm old. Saturday was the big 30 for me. I can see the gray hairs trying to take over, and I'm not pleased. I really don't obsess about my age, but I didn't realize until Friday that my twenties were coming to an end and I suddenly felt like I should have acknowledged their last days a little bit more. But then, who am I kidding? I spent those last days being who I am. Like my description says... woman, mama, photographer, knitter, collector. Maybe I should change 'knitter' to 'creator' to encompass my other endeavors. I've held a paintbrush a heck of a lot more than knitting needles lately, and on my trip to the lumberyard on Friday, I was identified as a house remodeler. In any case, I guess the age doesn't make much difference in the end.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Call for help...
I know a few couples who are currently awaiting approval of their adoption of babies from Guatemala. Sadly, the Guatemalan president is now planning to put an end to US adoption from Guatemala at the end of this year, including those already in progress. This would be a terrible tragedy for the families involved and for the thousands of babies left without permanant homes. If you could, please take a moment and sign this petition to help my friends complete their families.
Guatemalan Adoptions and DOS Accountability
You can also read more about this issue here.
Guatemalan Adoptions and DOS Accountability
You can also read more about this issue here.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Catch up - Part 2: Nine and a half months
Last wednesday Finn learned how to clap his hands. I would often clap them for him, but then just out of the blue he clapped them together, completely unprovoked. It started out pretty awkward, but he quickly got the hang of it. I think this is the first skill he's learned that he is truly aware of and it makes him so happy. He'll just do it every now and then and get this great big smile on his face. Awesome.
Last Thursday began R's week off from work. We didn't have a major vacation planned, but wanted to have time to both work on our major house project (more on that later) and to do some fun little outings as a family. On Sunday, we went to the Midwife Center family picnic and talked to one of the midwives who has an 8 1/2 month old about our babies' lack of teeth. Well, it was later that day that I discovered something sharp poking up through Finn's lower gums. The only real sign that I saw was a runny nose, but that also coincided with the sudden fall weather and my reluctance to turn the heat on in September. His naps, however, have been pretty short, which makes getting things (major house project) done during a nap very difficult and frustrating. I am grateful that he hasn't been too crabby otherwise.
Along with the sprouting tooth, he's started sticking out his tongue. In a couple years I may not be a fan of this behavior, but right now it's cute.
His other new activity is what I will call "The Marcus", named after Annie's son who has an amazing talent for launching himself into the air from a sitting position. Finn has started to do this, only he get's so out of control that he usually ends up falling backward or on his face. And he's never gone completely airborne, so maybe Marcus should give him some pointers.
No time for a photo...maybe next time, along with more on the so-called vacation week.
Last Thursday began R's week off from work. We didn't have a major vacation planned, but wanted to have time to both work on our major house project (more on that later) and to do some fun little outings as a family. On Sunday, we went to the Midwife Center family picnic and talked to one of the midwives who has an 8 1/2 month old about our babies' lack of teeth. Well, it was later that day that I discovered something sharp poking up through Finn's lower gums. The only real sign that I saw was a runny nose, but that also coincided with the sudden fall weather and my reluctance to turn the heat on in September. His naps, however, have been pretty short, which makes getting things (major house project) done during a nap very difficult and frustrating. I am grateful that he hasn't been too crabby otherwise.
Along with the sprouting tooth, he's started sticking out his tongue. In a couple years I may not be a fan of this behavior, but right now it's cute.
His other new activity is what I will call "The Marcus", named after Annie's son who has an amazing talent for launching himself into the air from a sitting position. Finn has started to do this, only he get's so out of control that he usually ends up falling backward or on his face. And he's never gone completely airborne, so maybe Marcus should give him some pointers.
No time for a photo...maybe next time, along with more on the so-called vacation week.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Catch up - Part 1
I know I've been MIA for a while, so I thought I'd try to get in a little catch up post if Finn will allow it. I've been busy working and playing and working. Two weekends ago we spent some time in Morgantown visiting some friends and their son, Eli. We weren't able to make it to Eli's first birthday party the week before, so it was nice to see how he's grown and see him and Finn interact. Finn got to know their two large dogs, Sasha and Buckley. It's been a little while since he's been around a dog, so it was like a new thing to him again. He was frightened when we first arrived as they were very excited to check him out, but soon the tables were turned and Finn wanted to check them out. While we were there I was lucky enough to take Eli's 1 year photos. Here he is, with one of his favorite items...
Now it is back to work...stay tuned for part deux.
Now it is back to work...stay tuned for part deux.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Baby update
Finn turned 9 months last week. He is almost 20 pounds and is 29 inches long. We visited family over Labor Day and he has officially outgrown his 13.5 month old cousin, Annie. His hair is also growing. Here's a recent picture of him upon waking from a nap with an exceptionally cool hairstyle, no product needed.
Cute, huh?
His new favorite thing to do is crawl up the stairs. He tries to do it when I'm not looking and then as I approach, he tries to go faster to get away.
Still no teeth. I think they start to come through and then those little chompers recede back into his gums. Is that possible? Probably not.
I'm finding it hard to believe that his first summer is coming to an end. We've been so busy, yet it seems that there are lots of things that we didn't get to do. Luckily we'll have many more summers to come.
Cute, huh?
His new favorite thing to do is crawl up the stairs. He tries to do it when I'm not looking and then as I approach, he tries to go faster to get away.
Still no teeth. I think they start to come through and then those little chompers recede back into his gums. Is that possible? Probably not.
I'm finding it hard to believe that his first summer is coming to an end. We've been so busy, yet it seems that there are lots of things that we didn't get to do. Luckily we'll have many more summers to come.
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