The powder room redecorating project is DONE as of today at 9:00 PM! I didn't *need* to paint this room, and there were certainly other things that I could have or should have been doing instead, but last week I suddenly developed a bee in my bonnet to totally redecorate this small space.

To the left and right, pictures of the way the powder room looked before I embarked on this project. The walls were navy blue, the trim was ivory and the floor was cherry Pergo. Lighting was provided by generic globe lights above the mirror. There was a great framed Steinlen poster on the back wall...and about a year or so ago I realized that there was absolutely NO navy blue in the poster and it didn't really match the walls. Oh well.

For reasons unknown to me, not only did I decide that the powder room needed to be repainted and redecorated, I decided to do spongepainting. That's not one color, but TWO. Essentially, twice the work. And, most inexplicably, I settled on green for the new color(s). Green is my absolute least favorite color, yet that's what I decided to paint. Specifically, "Autumn Crisp" and "Tarragon Leaf".

After about an hour or so of taping and maybe half an hour of painting, I started to get that "why did I think this was a good idea?" feeling. Unfortunately, at that point, with half of one wall "ugly-dorm-room green", I was well past the point of no return and had to spend the rest of the day painting.

That was Saturday. As mentioned previously, the finishing touches happened today. Check out the photos to the left and right. The sponge painting actually turned out kinda cute (two shades of green are better than one, at least in this case), the new light fixture is much prettier than the old globes, and I'm displaying a quilted wallhanging that my mom made. For the record, the trim is still ivory and the floor is still cherry Pergo.

So whaddaya think?

March 15, 2002

Check this out! Little tete-a-tete daffodils and primroses popping up in the front yard around the base of the willow oak. Nice to see something blooming, finally... We also have a few daffodils in bloom in the backyard. Oddly, most of our bulbs seem to have died over the past year, and I think the peony died also. Hmmmmm...

It has been warm here the past few days, and will be warm and sunny into the weekend. That's perfect for PAINTING! Yes, the redecorating season is upon us here at Chez Amanda. The current project is to repaint the powder room on the main level---changing from navy to two-tone green. It's worth mentioning that this powder room was the first room we painted and decorated after buying the house in 1997. Time for a change, I guess.

March 11, 2002

Long time, no post! We've only had intermittent internet connection since the last update on March 4th, and by "intermittent" I mean that it has been unavailable about 99% of the time. At the same time, our webhost service changed a bunch of their features and restored our website from their very outdated files. Therefore, if you checked the webpage in the last week you probably saw the February 19th post again. Sorry 'bout that, it was beyond our control. Things are a bit better now, but I'm still cranky about the situation.

We had a full weekend with two parties at the homes of two different couples. Coincidentally, both of these couples are "in the family way" now, which must be very exciting for them though it's slightly bewildering to us. Having friends with babies is vicarious living at its best! We can play with the pischers and return them to mommy and daddy when they get cranky or stinky. (Kind of like Rent-a-Baby...) I just bought really adorable (and soft!) Peter Rabbit fabric for a quilt for Baby #1 (due July 19th) and will probably acquire some appropriately-themed quilt fabric in the near future for Baby #2 (due in late September). Looks like I'll be busy making quilts this spring and summer!

In other news, I spent Saturday morning/afternoon in Baltimore making herbal soap (lavendar) with my mother, and went back to Baltimore on Sunday to see "Kissing Jessica Stein" with friends at the Charles Theater. The film was cute and really well done, especially considering that it's the first directorial effort for Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. There are a number of truly priceless moments in the film and some fantastic acting. Some people will object to the ending, but then again some people will object to the subject matter entirely. It opens on a limited number of screens across the U.S. on March 15th.

March 4, 2002

Limited news here, hence the lack of updates. I worked like a DAWG last week and the week before, including working through lunch, late into the evening and a few hours on the weekend, all to finish a project that I couldn't finish during normal working hours by the required deadline due to another "top priority" project that popped up and took way too much time. I met the deadlines on both projects, not that the extra effort will be appreciated or recognized in any way. Don't even get me started...

For fun, sedentary activities have been all the rage of recent here at Cheezwerks HQ. See photos to the left and right---even the pets have a serious case of lethargy. Taking a few breaks from making butt-shaped dents in the furniture, we celebrated my mom's birthday on Saturday evening and visited with a friend in Baltimore on Sunday morning. I put some pictures of the birthday dinner on my Adventures page, so there's the latest update.

A note to folks who have been disappointed by the lack of webcam updates recently: Sorry. The webcam is, in technical terms, "down". We only have so many ports on the computer, and right now the webcam is unplugged so that another device can take its place. Honestly, there wouldn't have been any webcam updates recently anyway, since I've barely been home the past couple of weeks. Maybe later this week...

February 24, 2002

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure...

To the right, the guest bathroom with the new vinyl flooring, just installed this past Monday! The walls are a light turquoise, the fixtures are ivory, the floor is a light ivory, and the shower curtain has blocks in muted shades of lavender, tan, khaki, and turquoise. This room is SO much more attractive now that the flooring is lighter and brighter and actually matches anything else in there. That being said, the room will be entirely repainted and redecorated later this spring. Anyone need a set of light muted turquoise bath rugs, as pictured here (plus a matching small rectangular rug)?

Here's a characteristically-Amanda non sequitur: I now have four Longaberger baskets of the same small size but different shapes. (The hexagonal 8-inch "Generations" basket is pictured above in my guest bath. It has a custom-made lid and a divided plastic protector inside, and holds cottonballs and Q-tips. You wanted to know that, didn't you?) Less than a year ago, I owned ZERO Longaberger baskets, so I'm not quite sure how I came to own so many in so little time. What can I say, most of them were gifts.

We recently babysat for a friend's daughter, which was actually a fun experience. (Not sure if the pets agree with that sentiment...Toby was a jealous poodle and the kitties were mostly not around.) We colored with crayons, made a picture with Sesame Street stickers, played with toys (Legos, blocks and a doll) and ate ice cream. That's what Sean and I did, anyway. We made the kid earn her keep by cleaning the house. Here's a picture of her buffing the kitchen floor. (Yeah, I'm joking. Not sure what she was actually doing in this picture, but the perspective is interesting so here ya go.)

February 19, 2002

Another brain dump tonight, forgive my rambling. I'll work backwards in time from recent to distant events.

Rather mild temperatures this evening. We joined our neighbors and their sister-in-law on their deck for drinks (mmm, margarita!) and conversation, which was good fun. Those chiminea things are cool.

Yesterday we had new vinyl flooring installed in the basement hallway and powder room and the two bathrooms on the top floor. The key point there is that we had it installed, as opposed to attempting to install it ourselves, which is the entire reason why we had to have new flooring installed in the first place (at least in the basement). Anyway, this stuff looks waaaay better than the old vinyl, so I'm pleased. I'm a little less pleased with the mysterious stains that the installation dudes left on my [recently shampooed] carpets. Grrr!

The weekend was simply grand. Didn't get to see any movies, didn't get to go anyplace exotic, but I did go out to dinner a couple of times and also went shopping for big, fluffy, new towels and a birthday present for my brother. Also, friends stopped by with delicious eclair cake on Sunday night, yummm!

In general news, Toby is fully recovered from the scratched ear incident. In fact, he was back to chasing Zoe the same night that she slashed his ear. So there's probably another poodle injury in my immediate future...

February 13, 2002

Howdy, kids! Hope everyone is enjoying a very pleasant Valentine's Eve! Me, I spent a good chunk of the evening cleaning up dog blood.

Here's the situation: we have one generally unpleasant cat, and one poodle who likes to push the envelope. Zoe has never "adjusted" to Toby's presence and tends to hiss, spit and swipe at him whenever he comes near her. She doesn't run from him, she actually chases him, THAT is how much Zoe dislikes Toby! For his part, Toby is none-too-bright when it comes to simply avoiding Zoe's wrath. He doesn't play with her toys, but he still invades her space. That leads to trouble.

While I was changing my clothes this evening, I heard a terrible cat and dog fight followed by screams from Toby. Now I know how parents feel when their kids get hurt. I got to Toby in one leap, noticed the blood on the carpet, splattered on my laundry, and dripping off his legs and chest, and carried him into the bathroom to find out where the blood was coming from.

Ever looked for a wound on an animal with long, wooly black fur? It's not easy. It turned out that Zoe had slashed his ear. Apparently, ears bleed profusely when cut.

Poor dog had to have a bath to wash the blood off him, I had to stain-treat and wash laundry and the carpet in my bedroom, and Zoe is persona non grata right now.

February 10, 2002

Interesting and varied weekend! Spent Saturday baking cookies with friends (yes, two cookie baking sessions that day), and today we met a friend plus two of her colleagues for bagels, coffee and a movie in the "Cinema Sundays" series at the Charles Theater in Baltimore. This week's film was "Kandahar", which is a graphic depiction of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The film was rather disturbing (particularly the scenes illustrating the dangers of land mines), but that's the point. Immediately following the show, there was a question and answer session led by Qayum Karzai, Baltimore restaurant owner and brother of Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan. Very informative discussion---with the right government there may be hope for Afghanistan's future.

Mid-afternoon, we headed into Baltimore County for dinner at the folks' house, and were home this evening in time for me to bake a pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and a loaf of onion-poppyseed bread.

February 5, 2002

It was not a stellar day. Sean woke me up at 7:15 this morning with, "Ummmm, I hate to do this to you, but Toby got sick during the night and I don't have time to clean it up...and it made me gag." Turned out that Toby had "intestinal distress" in the back of his crate, most of which landed OUTSIDE of the crate. I spent my first 1.5 waking hours today shampooing carpet, wiping walls and washing dog bedding/toys.

Flash forward several hours to lunchtime, which is when I was finally able to get a vet appointment for Mr. Stinky. After flying home from work and falling up/down stairs FOUR TIMES while rushing around getting the dog ready for the car trip---and did I mention cleaning up yet another bout of sickness?---I got the dog to the vet where they violated him in many unpleasant ways before pumping him full of IV fluids and vitamins and antibiotics. Most fun of all, even though the IV wasn't consciously upsetting me, I started to get that pre-fainting feeling right there in the vet's office and had to go sit down in the waiting room. The vet tech was brand spankin' new and was clearly distraught over what to do with the poodle on the table while "mommy" nearly fainted ("Oh! Oh! Do you need something? Do you want water? Oh!").

Anyway, Toby now has a diagnosis of "colitis" and three new medicines to try for the next week.

February 4, 2002

Belated post, might as well make it a general brain dump.

First, an anecdote. My friend's toddler (Alexandra) is fascinated by my pets, possibly because they're furry and about her size and there's just so many of them. Mia and Toby ("To-bee") are usually the only ones that hang around while the kid is visiting, but recently our littlest cat Ali has ventured downstairs a few times to observe Alexandra, usually when the kid is strapped into a booster seat or otherwise immobilized. My cats are all brown-grey tabbies, but most people have learned to identify them by the colors of their collars (red for Mia, blue for Zoe, purple for Ali). The first time Ali got close enough for Alexandra to see her, the kid said, "Oh! Purple Mia!" How cute is that?! (Now Alexandra calls Ali "Purple Ahggie"...that's a bit closer, at least.)

General news is that we had a fairly good weekend. On sunday evening we went to a spiffy French restaurant called L'Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, VA. A tad pricey but good, definitely would recommend it for a special occasion. Sean was being Mr. Restaurant Ettiquette and wouldn't let me bring my camera to dinner ("Photography in restaurants is jarring and RUDE!"), but here's a scan of some of the mementos that I gathered from dinner: a business card, a book of matches, and a cute little French sugarcube.

February 2, 2002

What the hell happened to the warm weather?! It's back to 40 degrees and windy, no fun at all on a weekend! So far, the highlight of this weekend has been shampooing the carpet. Whee!

On Friday afternoon, sometime between lunching with a departing coworker and returning to work to donate 45 minutes of my vacation time to yet another meeting, I went to the post office to sign for a package: my new ring. Sean worked with the jeweler to design it last year. Six small 1920's diamonds surrounding a very blue opal, and designs on the band to match the Celtic wedding ring. It's so pretty!

January 28, 2002

Excellent weekend! Sunny and warm weather, most welcome (and unusual) for late January in Maryland. My daffodils and hyacinths and such are starting to sprout!

Saturday we went to Southern Maryland to visit Sean's family (and see the new garage and the sheep). Sunday I went out to lunch with a friend and then we trolled the Washingtonian Center for nothing in particular. Later that afternoon, Sean and I went to Baltimore to visit our friend in her chic new apartment in Roland Park near Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore Museum of Art. After a very delicious home-cooked Turkish dinner (who knew eggplant puree would actually taste good?!), we saw "Amelie" at The Charles Theater. It's a cute French film, quite entertaining, rent it if you can't see it at The Charles!

January 25, 2002

I'm so happy! We got a new toy: a webcam! Yes, we're getting on the webcam bandwagon later than most, but here it is. Now you can watch us sit on our duffs on a nightly basis, hee hee!

January 22, 2002

Good news! Toby's ear treatments are done, and the icky fungus problem seems to have cleared up. Yay!

It was really unpleasant to put the medicine in his ears twice a day. He's a good boy, but he always gave me the sad look, like I had betrayed him in some way. He also used to ever-so-subtlely lean into me, pressing whichever ear I was trying to medicate against my chest so that I couldn't get to it. If I attempted to go for the other ear, he'd flip his head around and lick at me. Silly poodle, but very slick move!

I am sooo grateful that it wasn't one of the cats with the fungus-y ears...no way I'd still have all my fingers if I had to try to put medicine in any of our cats' ears twice a day for seven weeks!

January 21, 2002

Are you familiar with the saying "One attracts more flies with honey than with vinegar"? Lemme tell ya a little story...

It snowed here last Saturday, about 3 to 5 inches when all was said and done. I'm not a fan of the white stuff: it's cold and wet and makes me not want to leave my house. Unless I have hard-to-get-out-of plans such as a wedding, funeral, or non-refundable travel, forget about me going anywhere when there's snow or slush on the ground. Especially when I'm recovering from a very persistent cold.

Last Saturday night we were supposed to go into DC to have dinner and see a play with a few friends. One friend made an early decision to back out due to the snow, another couple of friends seemed noncomittal about the evening's activities, and Sean and I opted to just keep our snuffly selves at home. These were not the decisions that another friend (I'll call him Monkey Boy) wanted to hear. Monkey Boy had driven a great distance with the Jersey segment of his entourage in tow for this evening, and dammit, he was NOT having any of this cancellation stuff from his DC Metro friends!

Monkey Boy systematically called each household of cancelling friends---3 households, 5 people total---and tried to guilt us into attending. The success ratio of this methodology was 2 out of 5: the other couple felt sorry for him ("But he sounded so pathetic...") and decided to proceed to DC, our single friend saw Monkey Boy's name on the CallerID and didn't even pick up the phone, and I made Sean answer the phone and give Monkey Boy a very firm "no".

Now, here's my beef: when friends cancel plans under reasonable circumstances, the polite thing to do (especially if one wants to keep these people as friends) is to say, "Oh, I'm sorry you can't make it," and leave it at that. If one must add a little jab to make oneself feel better, perhaps a comment such as, "We'll try to have fun without you" could be slipped into the conversation. Well, Monkey Boy apparently was born with a very serious condition known as "complete lack of tact and empathy" and is basically unable to do anything remotely approaching what would generally be considered "the polite thing to do".

Note to Monkey Boy: we *do not* appreciate being called and whined at. We do not want to hear that sickness is not an acceptable excuse in your opinion for choosing not to wade through ankle-deep slush at night in DC. (Eight blocks of slush between the restaurant and theater. I know this because I PLANNED THE EFFING EVENT, and *I* had to sift through the list of the gazillion restaurants in DC to find something affordable and likable and relatively near the theater!) This behavior does not make us more likely to want to hang out with you. It makes us want to change our phone number. Ya hear?

January 18, 2002

[First, a housekeeping note: I change my mood (at the top left of the main page) more frequently than I change anything else on this webpage. Maybe not every day, but often enough to warrant several checkbacks each week.]
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Those of you who know me are probably well aware of how much I dislike certain aspects of my job. I won't go into all the details here, but let's just say that decent pay and an 8 minute commute are starting to matter less and less in light of some of the job-related garbage that I have to put up with. At this point, my biggest complaint is that work is really feeling like work, and I'm not having any interpersonal fun during the 7.5 hours a day that I'm stuck in my little gray-walled cube.

I recall hearing once that one of the best predictors of employee satisfaction is whether or not the employee has a "best friend" at work. Well, my last two remaining friends in my department left this month: one due to a layoff, and the other decided that the Great Unknown is preferable to staying at the Horrible Known. The rest of the staff are basically decent, professionally competent folks, but if the fact that I can go full days without speaking to anyone is any indication, we're probably not going to be a big happy social club. We're all kind of task-focused, and without significant special effort (usually by me when I get in one of my "social director" moods) that's just the way it is.

I'm wondering why I'm still there, but I'm not yet motivated to spend my free time combing the employment ads and going on interviews. When the straw finally breaks the camel's back, it's gonna be UGLY...

January 14, 2002

I'm home sick today and not happy about it; however, given the choice between taking a day off now and nipping this in the bud or attempting to go to work and maybe getting sicker and requiring more time off later this week to recover, plus possibly needing antibiotics, I figured it was best to go for the first option. I woke up around 10 today to find that all four pets had been sleeping on the bed with me. Can't even begin to explain how rare and unnatural an occurrence that is. They were probably waiting for me to die so they could gnaw on my flesh. The cats' kibble dish was empty, which makes that explanation even more plausible.

The weekend was swell, particularly spending time in Baltimore yesterday. Seeing "Beauty and the Beast" was a good time, and---amazingly---there was minimal noise during the movie despite the fact that the average age of the audience was about 12 (figuring in grandmas and toddlers).

I'm in the process of updating the style and content of the website; please feel free to email me with suggestions.

January 12, 2002

This is a rare weekend; not much going on Chez Amandaland. I haven't left the house since coming home from work Friday evening, and I don't intend to leave until Sunday morning when we go meet our friends to watch Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" (my favorite Disney movie!) on the giant IMAX screen at the Maryland Science Center.

In the meantime, I've spent most of last night and all of today cleaning, reorganizing, and working on projects. I just finished a gift (late Christmas present, oops!) for one of my friends...unfortunately, can't post the picture of said project/gift until she's received it because she DOES visit this website. The next new project I'm tackling today is the redesign of this website. After that, maybe working on curtains for the guest bedroom and trying out my new breadmaker. Exciting stuff, huh?

January 8, 2002

A note from my cat:

Greetings, human underlings. If you're not acquainted with me, I'm the Queen Feline around here; you may address me as "Your Highness". Although I'm detained against my will in this hovel, I'm still quite powerful. Annoy or offend me and I'll shred you and your most expensive possession.

Enough pleasantries, on to the reason that I'm lowering myself to communicate with you inferior species of creature.

This evening while perching on top of the computer and monitoring my female captor's aimless pre-dinner internet surfing, I noted that the design of her webpage, is---shall we say---passe. It's old. Tired. Badly in need of massive redesign and general updating.

Just wanted to let you know that I've had a little chat with the so-called webmistress of this page, and she has agreed to make some content and style changes. I, of course, will be supervising the process, so you can expect results of the highest quality. Oh yes, this will be happening in the VERY near future. I have my little ways of keeping her on task. 'Nuff said.

Warmest regards,

Mia
Alpha Cat and Quality Control Dictator

January 4, 2002

Taking some time out from my oh-so-busy schedule to update the ol' webpage with some post-holiday reflection and insight.

First of all, our Winter Wonderland party last Saturday went splendidly! To the right, pictures of the decorations on the banisters---pretty, yes? (More pictures of this event on the Adventures page.) We're still working on some of the leftover food, specifically a gigantic cheese platter that was designed to serve approximately 800 people. I've been eating cheese with every meal since the party. Cut me, I'll bleed muenster.

I mentioned the New Year's festivities in my previous post, so I won't rehash. However, I've been doing some thinking about the events of 2001 and my hopes for 2002. Please read along...

2001 was significant to me for several reasons. First of all, after years of resolving to exercise more often, I finally started doing it. That, coupled with the Three Bad Crabs Diet (TM), and I lost a bunch of weight. Unfortunately, most of this weight was in my fingers, and now none of my rings fit.

Secondly, unlike previous years, we did not spend thousands of dollars on home improvement this year. A bucketful of money on the garden, yes, but not much anywhere else. And that's just fine.

A lot of friends and family members were sick this year, and a few died. I attended more funerals than weddings in 2001, and I could really do without repeating that experience in 2002!

Another big significant event was September 11th, of course. I'm thankful to say that I did not personally know anyone who was killed or injured in the attacks. I hope we never see anything like this in America ever again. Furthermore, I will never, ever again feel silly about being suspicious of other passengers when I'm flying.

Finally, I learned a lot about my friends, myself and people in general this year. Some good, some bad, some just kind of okay.

In 2002, I want to finish some of the sewing projects that have been hanging around. I want to spend more time actually having fun, and less time making plans that never materialize. Fewer big parties, more real conversations with good friends. Reduced time wasted on anything that does not make me happy. And hopefully, good fortune, health and happiness for everyone in my life.

January 1, 2002

Oh my. How gauche of me. I wore white after Labor Day!

Last night we rang in the New Year at the Crofton Country Club. In attendance were Sean's sister and brother-in-law and two of our friends (only one friend is in the above picture). We had a good time listening to a bad deejay, none of our group drank too excessively, and I managed to stay in my dress all night. (Um, I mean that my worries about the low neckline were mostly unfounded.) Please venture over to the Adventures page for more photos from the event.

Soooo, Happy New Year! Hope you had a fun and safe New Year's celebration and 2002 has started well for all!