Dogs and Jen: Home Edition

All but a couple of the presents I have here are now wrapped and hanging out under the tree. I maybe have 5 or 6 left to arrive, but we’re pretty much set!

(Note: Michelle - the presents in the front on the right are yours!).

I tackled my decorating this weekend. The inside turned out pretty well.  I was at a complete loss about what to do on my mantle. I went to Pier 1 this morning hoping for a solution. I expected a mob, but there were like 2 people there (including me). Anyway, after a lot of browsing and about $100, I came home with lots of stuff for the mantle plus a few new ornaments. The mantle has  turned out to be my favorite thing.

And then there is the tree, of course. We only do real trees here in the Dogs and Jen house. This came from the nursery where I bought my live trees. They also had some ridiculous promotion going on that gave you 25% off if you bought a tree, a wreath, and a poinsettia, plus triple the usual 10% member discount. It was so cheap that the person checking me out had to confirm on the receipt that it was right. I almost felt bad for getting it at that price.

So we’re all decked out inside for the holidays. All that’s left is to put up the stockings and clean up the aftermath. Pictures of the outside will come tomorrow. In the meantime, I think I’m going to go make some cookies.

p.s. The dog painting from over the mantle is living temporarily in the dining room, and I must say it looks really good in there. Holiday time reminds me of how bare most of my walls still are. I think this means I may need one more Daniel Kessler giclee, called “Tres Amigos”, to round out my collection of red dogs. I’d love this one in a big 30″ X 24″ version, but we’ll see if I’m motivated to buy it come January when all these decorations come down and I see the full scope of my gift purchases

…from Jen and Dogs

Five days after I was viciously and wantonly attacked by The Germ, I am back to the world of the living today; not back to normal, but definitely back. I slept a good 10 hours last night and, upon finding I had some actual energy when I got up, I went crazy around the house. I dusted, swept, stripped the bed, did laundry, cleaned the ceiling fans, cleaned the kitchen, took out the recycling that had accumulated everywhere, fixed some shelves that needed to be anchored into the wall, tested the Christmas lights, went to the post office, bought Christmas cookie ingredients, and cleaned up the back yard.

That’s not all…I *finally* finished the caulk removal and painting in the kitchen!  I am so glad that white strip is gone! This project really would have taken 2 hours if I’d done it straight through, but I didn’t have the patience for that.

Now, after 8 hours of going non-stop, I managed to feed myself dinner and I have collapsed on the couch. That was all I could handle for today, but I feel much better being in a clean house with so many finished projects and knowing that I’ll be back doing more tomorrow.

 This Morning

This Afternoon

(there’s no line an inch up on the wall - that’s a reflection from the countertop)

I had great plans. After several weeks packed full with travel and meetings, Saturday was to begin 12 days that I did not have to be on campus and could work from home and work ON my home. TWELVE DAYS.

So my plan was to begin Saturday as follows: breakfast, 14 mile run, nap, finish the caulking/repainting in the kitchen, and clean up the mess that accumulated while I was busy. I had bigger plans starting on Sunday. Here’s what actually happened.  I woke up Saturday with my right tonsils swollen. This is not unheard of for me, though it was a bit annoying.  I had my breakfast, went for my run, but about 10 miles in I was wishing how I could just be DONE already! This is very unlike me. I adore these long runs and was really excited about this one. I finally made it home, had a sandwich and took a nap. When I woke up several hours later, things were not good. I was exhausted, sore, and suffering from what was likely a fever of about 103 (thermometer was not in its normal spot, and I did not have the energy to search). I turned the heat up to 70, put on my fleece pjs, burrowed under three heavy blankets and was still shivering uncontrollably for about 15 minutes until the nyQuil kicked in (nyQuil - that’s good stuff).

At some point I dragged myself up from the couch to the bed. Somewhere around 6am on Sunday morning I tried to make it to the bathroom for a drink (roughly an 8 foot walk) and couldn’t do it. I got all woozy and basically passed out on my bathroom floor, sweating through my clothes and wondering who would find my body, and if they would do it in time to feed the dogs.

Later on Sunday, I went to the ER (unwisely driving myself with no other option). They gave me a pile of blankets and I slept in an isolation room for about an hour before they came in and gave me some steroids and a prescription for antibiotics. I promptly returned home and slept on my couch all day, then slept in the bed all night.

Today, I am slightly more alive, though my trip out for bread and juice nearly did me in. I have managed to remain sitting for 5 hours, which is an improvement. Honestly, I’m ready for a nap.

Needless to say, NOTHING has been done around the house. I managed to load the dishwasher today and run the roomba, so I feel like I’m not living in filth, but it looks like at least half of my wonderful free days are going to be totally unproductive for the house.  It is necessary to prioritize now. Priority #1: Christmas Decorating. Friday is still tree day and it will take more than an IV drip to keep that from happening. Hopefully a week on the drugs will have me back in shape next weekend for putting up outside lights. In the meantime, I guess I will be very productive at job work since I can do that camped on the couch. Sigh.

(Yes, housebloggers, it’s yet-another-last-minute-blog-post on this topic. Sorry!)

If you thought  Halloween was elaborate, wait until Christmas at our house. Christmas decorating is extremely important, so much so that one year where Thanksgiving came especially early, I drove around for literally for 5 or 6 hours the Friday after looking for a place that had Christmas trees available (we do not, in any way, allow fake trees near this house - live only). I did eventually find them at the place that is now my normal nursery. I’m always there before lunch on the day after Thanksgiving, while a lot of the trees are still being unbundled and everyone else is in bed or fighting at the mall.

This year is going to be extra great for Christmas decorating. Now that I finally have my own house, I’m going all out. We do not do inflatables or other tacky / excessive decorations here, though. Just lots of white lights outside. I already have been unable to resist picking up a few 1,000 light boxes when I walk past them at CVS. As I drift off to sleep at night, I plan how to rig up a pole that will let me get the lights all the way to the top of that tree in my front yard.

Since I don’t have any past photos of this house to share, let me at least give you this preview of the joy I expect to see on my girls faces when they open presents

This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by SC Johnson’s Right@Home.

The doors are finally up on Craig’s List. Anyone want some?

It has been quite a while since Cabinet Guy miraculously delivered and installed my doors, but don’t be fooled - he has not changed his ways. He still has not dropped off the trim or paint that he promised to do that week. I’ve emailed him, but he’s probably on vacation again and unable to respond.

While I wait for this, Contractor Sal is also on hold, since he will need the trim to complete the job.

I have been making progress on other projects, and once my work life eases up a bit I’ll have lots of posts and pictures of the little things going on around here.

This weekend, I finally dragged myself over to the nursery and bought bulbs. All together, it was a successful trip, though I was allergic to something in there and came out red and itchy on my neck and face.

I  picked up some pink croci and several of each of these bulb sets. Despite the baby theme, I am NOT EVEN REMOTELY HAVING A BABY. Don’t any of you get ideas in your head. I just think the pink and blue will look nice. The purple and yellow are early bloomers so I’ll have some extra color in the late winter.

I’m an exceptionally organized person, so you can imagine the way my workshop in the basement grated on my nerves:

To get this under control, I picked up some shelves at True Value and finally got things organized down there.

It was totally a good way to spend an hour of Sunday afternoon.