Liloia.com Archives: June 2007
June 29, 2007
Miley Plum
Hello. My name is Miley Plum Liloia. I'm named after the girl who plays Hannah Montana... Miley Cyrus. I'm counting my lucky stars that my new boy Trevor wasn't into SpongeBob this week or my name might be Plankton.
I have a lovely plush kittie bed, but I prefer sleeping under the IKEA armoire. I'm a furniture minimalist, what can I say...
June 28, 2007
Loco Pops!
Today I am wrapping up, what has turned out to be a great week (3 days) in North Carolina. I got some fantastic work done, and while I was here I was able to hang out with my cousin Christine and her most excellent husband Mike. I also able to sample a North Carolina new business called Loco Pops.
This great idea is as simple as it comes. They make ice pops. That's it. They are cheap(ish), the store is barren, but clean and bright, and the store employee sits in a lawn chair behind the coolers when no one is ordering (which isn't often).
The hook here is that they don't just make ice pops, but they make AMAZING ice pops in fantastic flavors. Over the last three days I have tried, Avacado, Chocolate Banana, Strawberry Banana, Tamarind, Chocolate Lavendar, Pomagranate Orange and some others.
Don't worry, I didn't have that many whole pops, but I tasted them when others had them (mostly people I know). Today I am taking the sales rep I am working with, and a customer there as a desert treat after going out to lunch. :)
If you are in the Chapel Hill or Durham area this summer, do yourself a favor and go check out one of their locations. Their awesome!
June 26, 2007
5:23 a.m.
Just to let you know, sunrise is at 5:23 a.m.
And I don't have curtains or blinds yet.
And birds get up at sunrise.
ALL OF THE BIRDS IN THE UNIVERSE.
EVERY DAY.
June 23, 2007
The Angry Cow
Having no window coverings (a major source of anxiety pre-move) turns out to be moot when the only living things outside at night are cows. And speaking of the cows next door, one of them has some sort of anger issue. She brays at regular intervals; loudly enough that I can hear her six acres away. She sounds like an insistent donkey.
It still amazes me how dark the real outside is... as opposed to the unreal outside where headlights, streetlights, floodlights and signage illuminate everything in sight. It's a wonder that early American settlers ever bothered to leave their own backyards for the West with so much dark nothingness out there.
June 22, 2007
A New Old House
The first night in a new house is guaranteed to be an evening of discovery... and not always the pleasant kind. Like when you find out that flipping one particular wall switch trips the circuit breaker for two rooms. Three trips to the basement electrical panel came out of that discovery. Or when you notice that in order to turn on the summer kitchen light, you have to go into the dark room, walk around the open door, reach behind it and flick the switch. Not exactly user-friendly.
Then there are the little quirks that every house has:
-- The high spot in the middle of the upstairs hallway
-- The porch light that flickers on and off for no discernable reason
-- The ceiling fan that makes a ticking noise on high speed
-- The back door that needs an extra push in order for the deadbolt to click in
And a few gaffes that were purely our fault. Our clever design for a trap door on the backyard basement entrance instead of bulky Bilco doors has become an incredibly heavy piece of lumber. The point was to have a door that lies flat against the deck when it's not open -- giving us use of the entire square footage. But even the contractors are stymied as to how we can open it easily when necessary.
As everyone tries to figure out the mystery of the heavy trap door, my theory is to leave it as is. Since there are interior basement stairs, the only time we'll ever need to open the trap door is for a large delivery of equipment or oil. In that case, a large, strong man is usually in attendance and it can be his responsibility to open the door. Sexism? Maybe. Practicality? Definitely.
June 21, 2007
The Evolution of Packing
30 Days Until Moving Day:
Boxes are packed with a balance of light and heavy items, color-coded for the room they're from and stacked according to how soon you'll need them when you arrive at the new house. You have a clipboard inventory list and every item is cleaned carefully before packing.
10 Days Until Moving Day:
Boxes are packed with random items from all over the house -- whatever will fit in the empty space. The coffee maker is stuffed with Legos and the toothbrushes are wrapped in socks. You've abandononed your prioritized stacking in favor of one big pile. Sometimes you drop a box down on the pile and hear a sickening crunch... and you remember the box before last was glass vases. You have nine bruises on your shins from tripping over boxes.
The Night Before Moving Day:
Wilting plants, neighbor children and stray animals are being thrown into garbage bags tied with the single, lonely sock for which you never found a match. Every box has equal amounts of dust and items. You're googling frantically for instructions on how to pack a washing machine and you realize you packed all of the toilet paper 50 boxes ago and there's none in the new house.
June 19, 2007
Michigan Dog
Actual conversation:
Me: Do you have chili dogs?
Snack Shop Lady: No, but we have Michigan dogs.
Me: Oh. What's a Michigan dog?
Snack Shop Lady: A hot dog with chili on it.
June 13, 2007
Orphan Knobs
We found a package of brushed nickel drawer pulls and knobs in the garage, but we have no idea what they're for.
I remember picking them out, and for some reason I thought they were for the upstairs bathroom base cabinet, but as you can see, this cabinet came with it's own hardware.
Yet another renovation mystery... like how the summer kitchen sink base disappeared for a month, then mysteriously reappeared.
June 12, 2007
Yes, we saved the eggs
For those of you that saw our post last week about the snapping turtle, we setup a protective netting (chicken fence) around the nest this weekend. Now we can be sure that no rodents or other nefarious beasts will be swooping in and taking our little turtles as a midnight snack!
June 11, 2007
New Cart for the tractor
The instructions said not to let anyone ride in the cart, so what was the first thing I did? Let Trevor ride in the cart of course!
June 9, 2007
Our new kitchen
The house is almost completed! This past week, the floors were all installed and this means that we are only 1-2 weeks away from being done.
Check out Tara's Flickr account (click on the image) to see more pictures of our new floors!
June 5, 2007
Americas Got no Talent
Am I the only one that realizes that "America's Got Talent" is just the modern version of The Gong Show? Wouldn't it have been fun and nostalgic to bring that back?
Anyway, just a thought.
House is going well, flooring is being installed this week. Wrapping up scouts and baseball this week. We will be moving sometime in the next few weeks.It's not as soon as Tara thinks it is, but a little bit shorter until we move than I think it is.
More pictures of the house after this weekend.
June 4, 2007
Turtles!
We learned a few interesting facts about snapping turtles this weekend:
1) A mother turtle will lay her eggs in the first sandy pile she can find. Even if it's your supposedly temporary ash pile from burning brush right, smack in the middle of your backyard.
2) Those eggs will take eight weeks to hatch, during which time you can't move or clean up the burn pile right, smack in the middle of your backyard.
3) After the eggs hatch, the baby turtles will spend the long, cold Vermont winter in the nest from which they hatched. During which time you can't move or clean up the burn pile right, smack in the middle of your backyard.
So it appears that we have a semi-permanent company of turtles, and that the burn pile is here until next spring.
You can't use a push mower to cut five acres of grass that hasn't been touched in six months. Well, you can, but your hands won't thank you for it.