NaBloCleanPoMo Day #5 The Gutter

One project that we have to complete occasionally at our house is cleaning out the gutters.  Well, I at least am in charge of the gutter on the front of our house.  Most people are able to get up to clean their gutters with a ladder.  We don't have a ladder tall enough to get to the gutter on our 2nd floor.  So someone has to go out the bedroom window.  Seeing as I am blessed with former gymnast toe-grip skills, I am the best choice for crawling out on the pitched roof to empty the gutter.

The last time we cleaned the front gutter was 10:30 at night before we were headed to Maine.  A storm called Irene was headed our way, and we wanted to be sure the gutters were free to carry water away from our house.  Even though it was chilly this morning, this was a much easier project during the day.  Although, I could see how high up I actually am on the roof...

I think the following pictures tell the story well:

Clogged gutter

Step 1: Remove window screen

Step 2: Climb out window and scoot down pitched roof towards gutter

Step 3: Lean over and pull gunk out of gutter and throw to ground

Perch carefully (notice the car on the street below...that's how high it is!)

Unlike Felina, who laid on the floor while I was magic erasing the wall, Kyra wanted to help with the gutters.  We told her that dogs and roofs don't mix.

She was sad.

Much cleaner!

I am glad this is a task we don't have to do all that often!

Holy Smokes...It's October!

I love October.  But this year...it's a little frightening!  Simply because we have hit the under 2 months 'til the wedding mark.  Yikes!  Sorry for falling off the 365 wagon.  I had some pictures on my camera...but lost the USB cord to link it to my computer.  Still searching for that...

Anyway, here's a brief little numerical update on what's going on in my life.

Days until I'm no longer single: 50
Wedding tasks completed: 119
Wedding tasks left to complete: 92
Mini-moon facts left to ponder: 51
Concerts to sing this year: 3
Pieces of furniture to move to Baltimore: 14
Boxes to pack: ~20
People who have RSVP'ed YES: 60
Days I exercised in September: 23
Roommates I will miss: 1
Kitties I love: 2
Doggies I will soon adopt: 2
Houses I currently "live" in: 2
Hours until I see my fiance again: 24
Temperature I desire on Nov 20th: 55
Husbands I want to acquire: 1
Daily cups of coffee: 3 (Yikes...used to be 1)

Downtime is Delectable...

I have to say, this weekend was quite lovely.  For me, it was the perfect mix of busyness and downtime.  I spent some time with J, got 2 training runs in, had my planned early Thanksgiving dinner with friends, sang a few Christmas carols, and spent Sunday on the sofa watching football, continuing to acquaint myself with my MacBook, and reading.

Even though cooking my early Thanksgiving meal was work, it was very enjoyable.  Friday night, I went to the grocery store and cleaned the house from top to bottom.  Saturday, I went for a 5 mile run in the AM, had grits casserole with J and watched College Gameday.  My turkey went in around 11, and then I started working on the dressing and broccoli spinach casserole.  It was a lovely fall day outside, which added to the enjoyment of cooking inside for some reason.  My Linner companions came over around 2, and the food was on the table by 2:30.  It was certainly a modest Thanksgiving meal...3 dishes and no sweet potato anything, but it was tasty, and I didn't need to have tons and tons of food leftover!  A friend brought a yummy pumpkin mousse pie (that I am still enjoying out of the fridge!), and after an enjoyable afternoon, we headed out to sing Christmas Carols at a holiday lighting ceremony.

Once the carols were sung, I headed up to Baltimore to hear a concert version of Donizetti's Don Pasquale.  It was a good performance, and I even managed to be home in bed by midnight!  Unfortunately, Marcello seems to be suffering from an ear infection (I took him to the vet yesterday), so he was restless and waking me up all night shaking his head and scratching his ears.  I was worried about him, and didn't sleep very well.  I was up at 6:30 AM anyway to run the Cold Turkey 10K race.  It was a fun race...so fun, in fact, that we decided to run it again when we were done!  Ok, ok, we did have 12 miles on our schedule for Sunday. :)

After I got home from the run, I ate some leftovers, took a nice hot shower, and crawled into bed for some football and a nap.  Di-vine, I tell you!  I managed to rouse myself about 3 PM, blow-dry my hair, and head downstairs to veg on the couch in front of football.  I haven't had an afternoon like that in a long time.  Everything that needed to be done was taken care of, and I just relaxed.  I did make turkey tetrazzini with the leftovers to stick in the freezer, and got to finish up listening to Pat Conroy's South of Broad in the process.  Since I didn't sleep well the night before, I was in bed by 10 PM.  All in all...a great weekend!

Tomorrow, I head to SC for a Homeland Thanksgiving.  As I've mentioned, we are headed to Charleston on Thanksgiving Day.  We'll start off with the South of Broad walking tour, and then have our Thanksgiving meal at Magnolia's.  Sounds like a great day to me! Let's all say a quick prayer that my flight tomorrow night is not cancelled and is relatively on time!  I'm bringing my MacBook, so look for some blogs from the Homeland.

Fall Nesting and Perspectives on Life

Something about cool Fall weather brings out my nesting instinct full force. Perhaps it is knowing that I will soon be hunkering down to survive the cold winter (relatively cold...at least for my thin SC blood!). In any case, I have this strong desire to clean, to organize my closet and drawers, to cook comfort food, to drink apple cider, and to snuggle with the kitty cat on the couch with a blanket and football. Sounds idyllic, huh? October is my favorite month, but this year I have not had time to indulge my nesting instinct. I did manage to get my fall/winter bedding on the bed, but that is about it. In the past I have had a few completely free October weekends to get my space/life "winter ready", but I have missed that this year. Between football, singing, and spending time with my boyfriend, I haven't had a chance to bring order to that area of my world. But for once, that's ok. I've been breaking my tasks up into little chunks I can complete each night that I'm home, and I think I'm making progress!

This Saturday could have been a perfect nesting day, but instead I declared a "do nothing" day for J and I. He was staying with us for the weekend since he performed in one of the Chorale's performances on Friday and Saturday night. We watched football, went to a wine tasting, began the process of making "lime-on-cello", and hung out. It was really relaxing. Saturday night, I went to his performance.

**I don't talk about my relationship with J on here very much...mostly because I think it's the type of thing best discussed in person. But, I'm going to break my rule here just a bit...**

It's so interesting for me to go to J's performances and hear people talk about how great he sounds, his lovely singing, etc. To be honest, sometimes I forget he is really a singer. We don't talk about it all that often (though it is part of his profession). I mean, we talk about music, but not in terms of his career in music. I don't get to go to his performances as often as I would like, so it is a treat for me. To be completely honest, the fact that he sings well was one of the first things that attracted me (I mean come one...anyone who knows me should not be surprised by that!). But it was more of a novel thing like, "Hey, I've gone on a couple of dates with an opera singer!". Or, "Hey, see that guy up there singing on the Jumbotron at Nationals Park? I was on a date with him last night". I must admit, that was pretty fun. :)

But now? Now he is not an opera singer to me...he's just J. A generous and compassionate man who for some reason decided to fight hard for me and not let me run away like I tried to do after our first couple of dates. A man who has seen so many of my insecurities and hasn't run away yet. Someone who, without trying, points me back to where I need to be spiritually on a regular basis. Having someone like him in my life is so much more valuable than the novelty of dating an opera singer. When we do talk about his singing, etc, I have a phrase I use in a bit of a sarcastic manner. "Poor, untalented J." I think I coined the phrase when we were organizing his opera scores and I ran across a few inscribed by Placido Domingo when J sang some solo roles in Washington. Sometimes I think he thinks I am being a little catty, but I really am in awe of his talent and the hard work he has put in to sing well.

Anyway, pardon my mushiness, but I've just been thinking about the interesting nature of that recently. I won't get to do any fall nesting activities this weekend, but I will get to spend time with J. And that is certainly more valuable than having a "winter ready" house!

October Makes Me Happy!

There is just something about the changing of the seasons that is quite appealing to me. I think it must be the fact that I love change. Even so, Fall has always been my favorite season. Perhaps because summer temps are always so hot...and it is lovely to look forward to cooler days and cold nights in the sweltering days of August! I have waxed eloquent on my love of fall in at least one blog post each year... see here, here, and here.

I was thinking the other day that I used to have so many free weekends in the fall when I could just relax, throw open the windows, clean the house (there is just something about a clean house and pretty fall weather) and enjoy the season. Now, my weekends of late have been chock full of things to do. I really need to slow down a bit. The problem is that I love to be busy and tend to overbook myself. Now that we are done singing for the Jewish High Holy Days, I hope things will slow down a bit. While I am still running crazy mileage numbers, the only other "regular" weekend activity will be Navy Football games. While those require some prep-work...once we are there it is usually a fun and relaxing time.

This weekend is the Navy vs. Airforce game. My roommate Maureen's sister went to the Air Force Academy, and her brother went to the Naval Academy, so everyone meets up for the game every year. Her Mom and Sister arrive in town tonight, and we are planning a tailgate extravaganza for Saturday. It should be a fun time with yummy food...shrimp salad canapes, crab dip, beef, chicken, and veggie kabobs, homemade brownies, snackie snacks, and much more. Oh, and champagne of course! Since we now have Navy season tickets, Maureen and I have gone all out and acquired a 10x10 gazebo tent, more folding chairs, and some Navy gear. I've always wanted to be an avid football fan and tailgater...but never really had the opportunity. So, I think it's going to be a fun season!

On Sunday I've been roped into running the Metric Marathon as part of our Goofy Challenge Training. My running partner Lauren runs this race every year, and wants to do it again this year. It's 16.3 miles (26K). We are supposed to be running 13 miles that day. So, my options are run 13 miles by myself, or run 16.3 in a race with about 150 people who will likely all beat me. Hmmm. I'll take the race, thank you! The last time I ran 11 miles by myself I thought I was going to gouge my eyes out from boredom. And I was listening to an audiobook...

I've carved out some "Page" time Sunday afternoon post-race and post-race party. Hopefully I'll be able to do things like catch up on laundry, read my ever-growing stack of magazines, and rest. I definitely need that to recharge...

Perfect Fall Mountain Saturday

Imagine waking up in a gorgeous house to a beautiful sunrise. Birds are chirping outside the open window. A cool breeze is wafting in through the screen. You go upstairs to find that someone is making you a latte from an expensive espresso machine. A precious 3 year old sits in the window with you to find and watch birthday eCards. Breakfast is put on the table, then you take a shower in a fancy European style bathroom with windows that open to the side of a mountain.

Next, your ex-pat cousin who now lives in Spain with his Spanish wife take some time to spend with you driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway (one of your favorite drives), hiking to waterfalls, and generally enjoying yourself. While driving on the parkway, you indugle in dark-chocolate covered pretzels and some chex mix. The hike is stunning (even after you get a bit cranky about the time...sorry Jeff!), and the western side of the Parkway has fall color a-plenty! Beautiful reds and a few oranges.

After arriving back at the amazing house on the side of the mountain, you get your book and sit on both the deck and the screened porch reading. As it gets cooler, you get a blanket and fall asleep on the sofa for 30 minutes. When you wake up, dinner is cooking- asparagus and mushroom risotto, oven-fried chicken, and fried green tomatoes. Another evening of sitting in the cool mountain air on the screened porch with a fire blazing and a glass or two of wine seems to be in the works.

As you can tell, my day was terrible! Don't think I'll be coming back here eve again...:) Pictures to come when I get back to Annapolis and my USB camera cord.

October Musings

October is, and really always has been, my favorite month. Warmish days and cool nights, pumpkins, changing leaves, hot coffee, apples, football, concerts...it's just always a great month for me. Also, cool nights let me sleep with my windows open.

As I've written about before, sleeping with my windows open is one of my favorite things to do when it's cool outside. I adore waking up warm and snuggled up under my down comforter while it's chilly outside my window (although this makes getting out of bed particularly difficult!). I also love falling asleep to the "night sounds"...crickets, an occasional owl, cars driving by...those sounds are my favorite lullaby. The window in my room is 5x5 and my bed is right next to it. It's almost like sleeping outside.

As I was lying in bed last night and listening to the night noises, I was thinking about other places where I've essentially slept outside...camping in a tent, camping on a tarp with a sleeping bag, accidentally falling asleep on a couch outside, napping on my parent's screened in porch...but the one I thought about most and hadn't remembered in a long time was going to "sleep-away" camp growing up. For 3 or 4 summers in Elementary School I went to Camp Gravatt- an Episcopal Church camp in Aiken, SC (a few of you who read this blog are former Gravatt-goers, I believe). Anyway, at Camp Gravatt we slept on wooden platforms that had big green canvas tents on top of them. The tents are huge...each one sleeps 8-10 people in metal beds. In the summer during the day, we would roll up the tent flaps to let the air in. If it was a particularly hot evening, we would leave the tent flaps up to sleep. I always loved this...falling asleep listening to the froggies and the crickets with a nice breeze blowing through the air...seeing the lights of the bathhouse in the distance...and waking up to the Bell ringing on the Dining Hall. When it rained, however, we always slept with the flaps tied down tight. Although, one night I fell off my bed, out of the tent onto the ground in the rain, and didn't wake up. This shouldn't surprise those of you who know how hard I sleep...

Anyway, while I was reminiscing last night, I realized that I have mixed feelings about my experiences at Camp Gravatt. My first 2 or 3 summers were great...I had fantastic counselors and loved all of the other girls in my tent. However, my last summer experience tarnished all of the good experiences I had. For some reason, 4 or 5 of the girls in my tent decided not to like me because I wasn't "cool" enough. I was 11, and I think that was the first time in my life that someone didn't like me for essentially no reason. They were mean to me the whole 10 days, hid my stuff, knocked my bed out of the tent...and even told me that I could join their "club" only if I could correctly answer 10 questions about sex (I was 11 for crying out loud!). Anyway, when I think back on that summer, I think it was a turning point for me in relating to other people. Up until then, I hadn't run into very many people who didn't like me...especially for no reason. I think I lost a lot of my innocent views of people and friendships that summer. I stopped being open and friendly. I felt vulnerable, and always wondered if people would like me for who I was. It was an experience I needed to go through, but it was hard. Maybe once I finish processing these thoughts, I'll write more about how my personality and insecurities developed after that experience at some point. It's pretty personal, but I find it cathartic to write my feelings and reflections on this blog. I'm thankful that I've learned what I have so far in my life...and I think that through my experiences, my personality has somewhat gone back to who I was as that 11 year old...with the maturity to understand who I really am and be secure in that.

Fall is on its way

Every year in early September I'm itching for fall weather to make an appearance. And by fall weather, I mean cool temperatures. We've had a little taste of cooler temps in the 70s this week, and it's gotten me excited for fall. Sleeping with my windows open to the cooler air is one of my favorite things to do during the fall. Anyway, here are 10 things that signal fall to me:

1. Since last year, I know it's fall when we start singing in Hebrew to get ready for High Holy Days.

2. I am not panting and dripping sweat after a run.

3. Fall air has a different smell- probably rotting leaves, but I like it all the same.

4. On Saturdays, I'm either at a college football game or watching a college football game.

5. I'm back to hot coffee in the morning instead of iced coffee.

6. My "extra-curricular" schedule shifts into warp speed.

7. I tend to get antsy at work (I guess I get "fall fever" instead of "spring fever").

8. I get nostalgic for college.

9. I have the urge to buy new clothes

10. Traffic woes seem to plague me more than any other time of year...