Goin' to Florida

Florida here I come! I leave this morning and Steven leaves tomorrow - there could be worse things than having to go to Orlando for work. I'm luck we can extend the trip to see Steven's parents. Of course its going to be 70 here in CT today -but oh well! We don't get back until Wednesday so I'll have more to share then :)

American Idol

I really like watching American Idol - I know its a silly show - but I got into it my first year living in CT when I didn't get out that much! Now I've got Steven into it too. I hate it when I have things to do and I am going to miss the show. This week I was out on Tuesday night at a meeting and only got home in time to see the recap of the performances - but of course I made sure to vote. And last night we were out so we missed the results show. I haven't reached the point where I tape it yet (even if I wanted to the VCR is in a attic) and I definitely don't need to get TiVo. But of course this morning I made sure to have the morning show on FOX and got to see who got the boot. Next week will be tough - we are in FL and probably will miss the whole week. I just hope they don't vote off Taylor - he's our favorite.

Oh - one last thing - my husband is famous - read his quote in today's paper...
http://news.newstimeslive.com/story.php?id=81694&category=Local

Not much to write about today - its beautiful out - going to take a walk at lunch. This picture is for the Lynches - just thought you'd get a laugh. Hey Greg - where did Santa go anyway?

This morning I have lots of extra time - for some reason I'm waking up a little bit earlier lately. So when the time change happens this weekend I guess I'll be caught up with it. Tonight I'm going to a Volunteer Center training for potential non-profit board members. A friend of mine is involved with the Volunteer Center and I've done things with them in the past when I worked for the MS Society. Speaking of NMSS - the WALK is this Sunday - strange thing about that - yesterday my cell phone rang and it was one of my team captains - Leo from Sacred Heart - he meant to call the MS Office but got my cell phone number confused with theirs. I asked him how he was doing and he said his team wasn't as big this year and hasn't raised as much money - last year they had over 100 members and raised almost $40,000. I haven't really heard anything or seen any posters around here so I hope the event goes well. I'd hate for all the work I put in for two years to just get unraveled. Plus- they are calling for showers on Sunday and we all know that more people sign up on the day of the event if the weather is nice.

I don't like to post twice in one day - but I had to update on the wedding picture situation. This morning I called and asked for the owner and explained my situation to him and that I didn't get any resolution from the woman I had been dealing with. That was at about 10 am this morning. Well - she just called and they did find my negatives - only took 4 months - and they are printing my pictures, only charging me $80 for the 20 something prints, and I can buy the negatives and they will ship everything out to me in the morning. So it will cost me - but at least I'm done with them and I have the negatives now.

Last night on VH1 there was a show called "I Love Toys" that Steven and I watched for a couple hours. It was awesome! For anyone that is in their early thirties all the toys brought back memories. I was very surprised by the number one toy - I won't give it away for anyone who didn't see it. Some things they would mention then Steven and I would say things like "Oh yeah - remember how Play - doh smells?" and then the people on the show would say the same things. Guess we are pretty typical. But from Star Wars action figures to Cabbage Patch Kids - we were laughing the whole way. Oh - and that brings up my Cabbage Patch story. Steven and I must have been meant to be because when I was little I had a Cabbage Patch kid and his name was Stevie. I used to put baby powder in his hair to make him smell good. The funny thing is that Steven's hair now looks like Stevie's did. I think the doll is still up in my parents attic somewhere. And the reason I had a boy Cabbage Patch instead of a girl is a story in itself that my parents can tell sometime....

You gotta love Target - for under a $100 you can get clothes for the entire summer for both you and your husband. Steven's pretty easy to please - so t-shirts in four different colors and a pair of shorts is fine for him. And now that I don't have to dress up most days for work shorts work for me too. Seriously - I got a cute pair of shoes for $10 - and then capri's for $8. Can't go wrong with that!

Not much going on today - Steven is at work - I'm working around the house. I didn't know if anyone saw his latest project. He got an unfinished table and painted it and stained it for the kitchen. The blue paint is milk paint - the kind that was used in the colonial times. We liked it so much that the desk Steven is making will be painted with it as well. It fits perfect in the window. Now I have to do nicer curtains and he says move my plants to another room....

Its a little gray out today. Which is ok - but I don't think I'm ready for the snow showers they say we are getting this weekend. Finally I have a weekend where we don't have anything really planned. About time - that way I can catch up on the laundry. We still haven't ordered windows yet - that might happen this weekend. So I don't have any house projects right now - but I do want to get going on the outside but its still a little cold out. One thing that is bugging me is our fence. The neighbors have apparently hit it (as you can see in the picture below) and now its leaning against itself. After the windows that might be what I want to replace next. Then the patch of dirt outside the porch door is annoying - but Steven already has a plan to do a brick landing there in April.

So this morning I woke up and it was bright and sunny out. So sunny in fact that I almost missed the fact that my wonderful husband had left a bunch of daffodils on the kitchen table. At first I thought he had run out to the gas station across the street really early - but nope - he's a smart one that Steven - The sneeky fella had them in his truck all night and brought them in when he left for work at 5:45 in the morning.

So it seems that another of my friends, Mary, is moving to Methuen. Why do all my friends move to MA and NH and I still live in CT? Oh well - maybe some day we'll live there too. But I do love my house now and the town we live in. Life is good here and I can't complain - but I can be jealous!

I don't know if many people saw our first attempt at updating a room. Here are a couple before and after pictures of the extra bedroom on the first floor that we are going to use as a study/office. Now I just need a desk and furniture. Steven's making the desk and I'm supposed to recover the old armchair that we have. I've been recovering it for almost three months now :)

Before

After

Happy first day of spring! Although it was 30 degrees this morning and didn't feel quite spring-like its at least sunny out. Driving to work I did see some tulips starting to pop up. Our yard still looks really yucky and hopefully we will be able to get the lawn to start growing this summer. It looks like this week we are finally ordering the new windows for the house. It seems like we've been putting off this decision all year. But I think we are ready. Even though it seems like a simple decision, every decision we make about the house impacts another choice we have to make. We have a pretty good idea what we want to do now though. This spring will be busy. We go to Florida in a week and a half for a bit and then its back here to do some real work!

Steven was going to be my guest writer today but he says he has other things to do - like cooking breakfast. He is lucky - we still have his favorite sausages left from last week when I went home to Methuen. He's yelling - my eggs are done - got to run!

Its a great day out - but a little cold. 8:30 is pretty early for me to be up on a Saturday morning. But I have things to do. I've been wanting to pick up the twigs in the yard for about a month now. Our yard looks horrible. Of course it is the beginning of spring so it should not look that great. But the chestnut trees seem to loose a lot of branches. And its been windy. And for me to notice that there are tons of twigs around must mean there are a lot.

Last night we we to Greenwoods in Bethel for St. Patrick's Day - I didn't know there were so many Irish in CT. The place was packed. But at least Steven had made a reservation. We finished our meal just in time - the bagpippers started up. And they really were not the best bagpippers I've ever heard. The one at our wedding was much much better. Steven never got to hear him though since he started playing after Steven was in the church and left before we came out. I have a picture though.

Speaking of pictures. Some of you may be wondering where your pictures from our wedding are. I am wondering the same exact thing. Back in December I called Forever in Time, the photography place, to order prints to give as Christmas presents. Well, its been over three months and still no pictures. It got to a point that I called about twice a week. At one point the lady I've been dealing with tells me that they mislabeld my prints because there was another Allison Lynch who got married on the same day and when they completed the order they realized it wasn't me because the pictures they had labeld with the print numbers didn't match the list of descriptions and print numbers I gave them. She told me this in Jan. I remember because I was in MA for a day or so when I went to MIT to do a recruitment workshop. This is about when I started calling a few times a week. Now you should know that when I ordered my album the company said that I couldn't buy the negatives but that if I ever lost the album or wanted prints, I could call and it wouldn't be a problem. I weighed the pros and cons and figured that it wasn't a big deal. I even have a witness - Mom was with me when I picked up the album. To contine - then I faxed copies of the prints I wanted over to them to compare when they are going through all the old prints. Still nothing. This week I finally got fed up. I called again and said that if they had lost my negatives they needed to just tell me so I can deal with it and move on. No more of this crap. The lady said - and I quote - "I agree - we just need to be upfront" GEEZ! She then said that I could buy the negatives and would have to speak to the owner but that they would work out a deal so I wouldn't have to pay the $150. GEEZ! that is nothing! I would have paid that back in 2004 when we got married. So here I am with no pictures (well I have my album and a couple that I got from them then) and no negatives and the company never calls me back. If anyone is getting married up there soon - I do not reccomend Forever in Time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to All! So I must have the luck of the Irish. Let me back up a little bit to Valentine's Day. It's no secret that the radio stations down here in Danbury are not the greatest. So I've started listening to 92.5 The River from Massachusetts on line during the day from work. I had just gotten into work on Valentine's Day and turned on my computer and heard the DJ announce an online contest - answer three questions and email the answers to him the quickest and you'd win tickets to the KT Tunsell concert in Boston. So I quickly answered the questions and got a call that morning that I had won. I gave my info and that was that. It turned out we couldn't go to the concert - it was a Friday night and would have been tight with time. Instead I gave my sister Colleen's name to go on the guest list (hey - did you even end up going?)

But - the story doesn't end there - yesterday Steven called me when he got home from work. There was a package here from the River for me. He opened it and there was a five pack of CDs! And apparently they are still waiting on the KT Tunsell one to come in so they sent a replacement until they get it. I didn't think I was getting CDs too! And ones that I would buy anyway. In fact - there is the new David Gray one that I already have - so if anyone wants my extra copy just let me know!

Other than that I expect it to be a quiet weekend. Steven works on Sat mornings now. Maybe I'll play some tennis...

Here is a picture of our house from last year when we bought it - it hasn't changed much but we got rid of the window boxes and moved the holly bushes and planted more in the front. Expect big changes this summer!

I've always heard that starting a blog is tough to do - but here goes! As an attmept to keep in better touch with friends and family I thought this would be a good idea. We'll see how long I actually keep up with it. Not too much is going on in CT right now. For those that hadn't heard, I went back to my old office but in a new role. I'm happy working 10 minutes from home and doing some new things. Right now we are trying to get the sorority magazine to the printer - I'm the Editor so its a lot of work.

Steven and I have tons of plans for the house this spring - new windows, paint, possibly expanding our upstairs bathroom. And for those of you who have visited - that is currently the bathroom without a door - so if we can even get one of those it would make life so much nicer! The yard also beckons - we have plans to tear out the garden (since my pumpkins were "all smoke and no fire" as my neighbor says) and just have a great big lawn. If I plant anything I might do a container herb garden.