Putting the "here" in Here.

Last year around this time we were just moving in. I had had it up to wherever with our last apartment and our not-so-fun neighbors so I started looking for a new place to live. Almost immediately we found this place. Our home came with a part-time roommate, Robin, who is the owner of the house and we don't see him much. Robin spends most of his time at his other home in the mountains. When we do it's great, he's doing so many amazing things. Anyway, it's been great for us to live here, we get the space we so desperately needed and a beautiful space to live.

Most of the blog so far has been about our trip and maybe this won't be so interesting for everyone... But... Doug and I have been doing so much work to get the house back in order since we got home that I really wanted to share. Vain? Yes, that's me. Isn't that why one starts a blog in the first place? I plan to share more of the "there and everywhere" parts of life soon. For now, here's "here."

The dining room

Doug's bamboo used to be in one of our fish tanks, I transferred it to this pretty vase (that used to be a candle holder) for the time being. It seems to like it.

Here you see the whole dining room and the front hall.

The front porch

Look at all my pretty flowers! Ignore that pot in the right corner, it's being moved out.

Yes, there's the water feature again, I just can't get over myself about it. I congratulated both myself and Doug for its success about a thousand times last night. That's not unusual, we're a sort of self-congratulatory pair. Mostly we just run around the house telling each other what a good job we've done. Then we complain about everything else. Hey, I never said we were perfect.

Cute little lights Doug hung for me, the glider and more flowers.

Here's a closer shot of the flowers. The petrified wood was all collected by my dad, my mom has a bunch too, it makes great garden adornment. I finally found a place to put those little birds I got in Mexico! Yay front porch!

The back deck

I worked really hard out on the back deck today. While we were gone there were quite a few storms. There was debris from the trees and even some shingles scattered around, so I got out there early this afternoon and picked it all up. I had to hose off my umbrella and all our deck furniture. It's all nice to sit in again. Please ignore the jungle that is the backyard.

Please note the sign that signifies that cocktail hour happens here. :)

The chaise lounges complete with the new table I bought today at Target (that's for you Mama). We needed a place to put our drinks (and books or magazines) when we lounge. The little table was a perfect fit.

The Kitchen

The kitchen didn't take a lot of work, though we did move that chair in from the dining room. At all our parties people congregate in the kitchen so we put our living room inside it. We have the dining room for our table and they're right next door. It's a cozy solution to a small problem. Doug and I probably watch TV in the kitchen more than anywhere else. Figures.

It's nice that there are bookshelves for my cookbooks. Those of you who were at my bridal shower may recognize that lamp. I love it dearly.

This is the kitchen itself. I'm about to mess it up to make dinner.

I'm lucky Doug does all the dishes for me. He's not so lucky that he has to clean it all up. He's very particular about the cleanliness of dishes. I shouldn't have said before that the kitchen didn't take much work. Doug works hard to keep the kitchen clean. Our counter tops are a dark green and it takes pretty much constant care to keep them looking neat and tidy.

The Family Room

This, clearly, is the family room. The exercise bike in the background is less than aesthetically pleasing, but I wasn't about to move it for this shot.

A closer shot of my new (antique) card catalogue. Perfect for a bookish girl like myself.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig.

So, now that we're home, you might be wondering what we've been up to. I'd be happy to share.

We spent the Fourth of July with my mom and I hung out for a few days to grovel to my cats for forgiveness. Isis still puked all over her carrier on the way home, don't worry. Overall, they seem thrilled to be here. What they don't seem particularly thrilled about is being fed by the timed feeder again. So sorry, kitties.

Doug and I were both pretty exhausted when we got here. What we'd kind of forgotten was that we hadn't really cleaned up the house before we left. I mean it was sort of clean, but everything was still in disarray from Spring Finals Mania 2009. So we've spent the last few days getting everything organized and back in order.

Above, you'll see our project for this afternoon. A water feature! We built it ourselves! Neat, yes? We also went to the farmer's market today and now I feel like I need a nap.

At any rate, we're glad to be home, glad to have the house clean and glad to have a while left in our summer to have a few more adventures. Check back in, I plan to keep taking pictures and posting.

That's What You Get For Waking Up In Vegas

Vegas. What can you say about it? It's kind of indescribable. I'll do my best.

Here's the view of the strip from our hotel room.

And here we are looking stunned by all the hustle and bustle.

We ate some good food (Bellagio Buffet, Burger Bar, etc.), we slept a lot and we walked the strip. That was about all we could handle from Vegas. It was so fun to go, but at the end of more than six weeks from home we were a little spent. Luckily THEhotel at Mandalay Bay is a great place to relax. We forgot to gamble (seriously), so that leaves me a gambling virgin, still. We're already married, so that was taken care of. All I can say is that we'll go back. I want to see a show.

Giant Redwoods Are the Bees Knees

These are some of the very few pictures that we took of the giant Redwoods. Unfortunately, that day, bees decided to attack me. Doug swears he didn't actually SEE the bees, of course. While he was getting the tripod from the car they attacked. I ran down the trail screaming, as you do. There were a LOT of them. Maybe three. After that I wasn't really feeling the whole getting out and looking around thing. Anyway, we had a really nice drive through the forest. Bees can't get you in the car.