Gingerbread House

Steve’s mother was kind enough to give all her grandkids gingerbread houses to build and decorate. Aware of our interest in the project in years past, she got one for Steve and me as well. We were going to decorate it at their house, but ended up getting busy with other projects and brought the gingerbread house back to Santa Cruz.

We decided to go with a California Christmas theme, so we did not do snow or icicles or anything of that sort. The only nod to a white Christmas was the snowman we placed on the roof after we ran out of chocolate chips for roofing tiles. We imagine that he’s one of those giant inflatable sort and just couldn’t fit in the front yard due to these poor homeowners’ tiny lot size.

Steve assembling chimney:

Roofing tiles in progress:

Completed front:

Completed back:

Completed left side:

Completed right side:

We attempted a few new things this year, including grinding up candy and mixing it with icing to make “paint” (before you ask, no, we don’t have any food coloring… that would have been much easier, but we didn’t want to go out and buy it just for this). The blue “paint” on the doors looked nice, I thought, but the yellow on the windows to give the appearance that lights were on inside the gingerbread house was a little too runny and didn’t quite work. But I think it turned out nice all the same. Not a bad way to kill an afternoon.

Kuipo

This morning at around 9:30 am, Kuipo passed away in my arms. We felt it was kindest to euthanize her after her health began failing dramatically yesterday. I’m not going to discuss the details, but she had been sick for a long time and we knew this day was coming.


Kuipo was the most remarkable rabbit I have ever known. Steve and I have owned seven rabbits and fostered more than twenty. Kuipo was without a doubt the most personable, amusing, sweet and intelligent rabbit I have ever dealt with. She would lick your hands, loved to be petted and would jump into your lap to get attention.


Kuipo is a misspelled Hawaiian word meaning “sweetheart” and it was certainly appropriate. She came into the animal shelter emaciated and weak. At the time, the shelter was overflowing with rabbits and I was a volunteer there. The rabbit rescue I worked with was pulling as many rabbits on the euthanasia list as they could, but we couldn’t pull them all. One day as I was wrapping up my work with the rabbits, I was told that Kuipo (who at the time didn’t have a name) was going to be euthanized at the end of the day if she was not adopted. Something about her told me that she was exceptional and I informed the director of the rescue that I was taking her home myself.

I took Kuipo to the next adoption fair, which is where she got her name. Tired of the more generic rabbit names, the rescue director was asking around for more creative ones. The Hawaiian manager of the PetsMart (where the fair was held) suggested Kuipo. It seemed perfect for her. And after talking to potential adopters all day, I decided that the best place for Kuipo was with us. So, she became bunny #4 (we had Buster, SweetPea and Demetri at the time).

She was an amazing part of our lives for around five years (I don’t know exactly when we got her… I have her adoption paperwork somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it right now) but it felt like we’d had her forever (in a very good way). It’s pretty devastating to look at the empty place where her cage used to be, and I find myself more affected by her passing than that of any of the previous three rabbits who died in our care.

Now, we have four rabbits: Buster, Demetri, Johnny & Lola. While I know four is a much more reasonable number of bunnies in a household than our peak of six, our home feels a little bit empty now.

Family Pictures

Steve’s family all got together for Thanksgiving and were able to get some updated family pictures. They were taken at Cal State Long Beach, which ended up being a very nice venue. Briefly, here are my favorites:

The whole family (my apologies to my sister-in-law Natalie and nephew Tim who have their eyes closed in this one, and nephew Josh hidden from view, but this one was the best of me and Steve ;-)

Steve with his parents and siblings

Steve and me (it was windy, so don't be too critical about my hair!)

It was (and continues to be) quite a shock going from my traditional family gatherings of 6 (my parents, grandparents, brother and me) to gatherings of 29 (Steve’s parents, 5 siblings and their spouses, 15 nieces and nephews, Steve & me). But they’re all welcoming people and while I don’t always handle the large gatherings with grace, they are always entertaining.

Keychain Lamp Project

Steve and I both are serious collectors of stuff. I have been trying to get away from just storing stuff and actually displaying collections (or getting rid of them). I have been collecting keychains for many years and have amassed quite a collection. I had a thought that it might be interesting to make them into a chandelier of some sort but had just been sitting on the idea for awhile.

On a trip to Target, Steve and I came across these lamps significantly on sale.

It’s easy to see why they were on sale. They were pretty darn ugly. But we both saw the potential in the structure and took two of them home.

I started by removing the outer layer of shiny copper discs.

And once the inner layer was removed, I was left with a blank slate.

Using the rings that held the copper discs together as well as Christmas ornament hooks, I strung my collection onto the frames.

For a side-by-side comparison:

The finished lamps:


Of course, as soon as I finished the lamps and was satisfied with them, I found half a dozen more keychains in a box. Oh well. I’ve at least corralled most of them. The lamps now sit on my desk and I am enjoying the admittedly bizarre and eclectic look of them.

Lamps lit up:

Plants

We have been working hard in our new, beautiful, large backyard. Well, Steve has anyway. I have been helping, but I’m trying hard to keep my black thumb out of it.

We are reluctant to plant too much in the ground since this is a rental and we don’t want to invest too much money in things we can’t take with us. We also didn’t want to spend too much money on any individual plant, in case we accidentally kill it.

We started with these plants:
Left to right: Meyer Lemon, Bouganvilla, Solanum Pyracanthum, Boulevard Cypress, Verbascum Bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer' (Mullien)

We also cleared some weeds and reshaped a flower bed. We filled it with a bag of assorted bulbs. We found out later that the gophers will probably eat them, but at least they weren’t expensive. Next time we’ll put chicken wire down first.

In cleaning up the yard, I found some bulbs underneath some rotting planter boxes. I planted them in a pot and they’re already starting to come up. I have no idea what they are, so it’ll be kinda fun to see.

Most of our backyard is shady, but there is a lot of sun around the deck, so we have arranged our pots there.


Steve is doing a wonderful job with the plants. Our Meyer Lemon is really happy and growing lots of flowers.

I love the look of the Boulevard Cypress. Such a pretty, shimmery silver plant. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

The Verbascum has really soft leaves and wonderful silver color.

The Solanum Pyracanthum is a fascinating plant. It has orange spines all over, including the top and bottom of every leaf, and lovely delicate purple flowers. It was just so unusual and colorful, Steve and I couldn’t resist.

Finally!

After jumping through more hoops that we could have ever predicted, Steve was finally admitted today to the UC Santa Cruz chemistry department’s master’s degree program. He will start in January. The professor who currently employs him will keep him on in his current position as general lab handyman while paying his tuition and providing him a stipend. This amount will of course be less than he is currently making as an employee, but we have discussed our budget and believe that we can afford it.

I hope after all this effort, graduate school proves to be (at least somewhat) enjoyable for Steve. I don’t envy the long hours, the homework and exams. But he’s brilliant, so I know things will work out just fine.

Afternoon Table Project

My grandparents gave me some fantastic chairs awhile ago when they were replacing them with newer ones that were easier to get in and out of. I had always loved the chairs and was so excited to be able to use them when we moved into our new, bigger place. We also found the most amazing matching table at Ikea. I was astonished at what a good match the color was and how similar the attachment points on the legs are.

Table Leg

Chair Leg

The only problem is that the chairs are extremely low at only about 15” off the ground. The standard table height (at least at Ikea) is 29” which is about three inches higher than what would be comfortable for eating in our chairs. So, what do you do if your wonderful new table is several inches too tall? Well, you borrow a co-worker's miter saw and chop off a couple inches.

Steve sets up the saw, using the side of the house as a stop to be sure that all the cuts would be the same length.

Steve marks the table leg.

I put painters tape around the leg where the cut will occur to prevent the veneer from cracking.

Steve measuring twice before he cuts once.

Steve finds the right bit to drill a hole for the plastic feet on the bottom of each leg.

Plastic foot in place.

Steve reassembles the table with newly cut legs.

Our fabulous (and now infinitely more usable) dining table.

The table really needed to come down about three inches, but because of the leaf folded up in the center of the table, we could only take two inches off before Steve would hit his knees. But it’s a lot better than before and we are thrilled. It may seem bizarre, but somehow having a dining table makes me feel much more grown up. In a good way.

Hemmed Curtains

Steve and I lack both the skill and tools to properly hem our curtains for the sliding glass door, so we turned to Steve’s mother for help. With her expertise, we were able to hem the curtains and sheers and I think they look fantastic. We promised to post a picture to show the results and here it is:


We are still progressing in making our new place more and more livable each day and will probably post updated pictures once we retrieve more of our belongings from my parents, who have patiently allowed their house to serve as a storage shed for our excess of stuff.

Opting Out

For the first time in our lives, Steve and I are paying our own utilities. While perusing cable and satellite rates, we became disgusted. No way were we going to pay those rates for a bunch of channels we don’t even watch. So we elected to go “back to the future.”

First, for the blast from the past part, we purchased a small indoor antenna for our little television in the upstairs bedroom. Then, we acquired a much more substantial outdoor antenna for the entertainment center downstairs.


We are able to get local network channels and public television quite clearly.

To watch our favorite cable shows, we are employing a combination of iTunes and free programming from various websites. I actually prefer this to the package cable or satellite model because we are directly supporting the shows we enjoy. They can see what we are purchasing and downloading and know what shows we value.

We should recoup our start-up costs (for the antennas and a converter box for our older non-digital TV downstairs) in just a few months based on the cost of a basic cable package. So far, it’s working marvelously and helping us save at least a little bit of money.

Laundry!

I can’t overemphasize how excited Steve and I are to have our own personal washer and dryer. We had been using the laundromat at our previous rental, which was actually an improvement from sharing the landlord’s laundry at our rental in the mountains (which was seldom available and did not work reliably when it was).

Steve and I were looking at some floor models that Best Buy was liquidating and I was complaining (loudly, I guess) about the price (over $400 a piece). A man approached us and mentioned that if we were looking for a washer/dryer set, he had just consolidated his belongings with his fiancée, and was looking to get rid of his set and would let us have it for $100. I was wary, so Steve took his business card and said we’d get back to him. We called later that afternoon and he said we could come see them and decide if we were interested. He turned out to live in an address on the east side near my work, an area we are familiar with and felt comfortable in. We were delighted to find the washer/dryer to be a very lightly used, good condition, matching set. Here they are at our place:



Granted, the washer is not the newest water-efficient model and the dryer is probably not as efficient as it could be, but they work great!

What didn’t work so well was our landlord’s bizarre drainage rig from the washer. Due to plumbing issues stemming from the slope of the lot, the landlord had rigged a quasi-greywater system, lightening the load on the sewer line from the washer by having the water drain both into the sewer and into the garden. The problem was that the garden end of the system was a long garden hose, which constricted the water to the point that it came bubbling back out into the laundry room. Luckily the laundry room is essentially just a shed on the deck, so no harm done.

Steve got to work to solve the problem. He unhooked the drain pipe from the washer and, using an existing hole in the shed wall, ran the line outside into a makeshift reservoir fashioned from a 20-gallon trash can with a spigot attached and sealed with marine adhesive. From the spigot, we can run the hose out into the garden. The reservoir completely eliminated the constriction problem, and we can even turn off the spigot and save water for later (we have a lid for the can to keep the bugs out).


I underestimated how much having our own laundry would thrill me. It’s good to be satisfied by the small things, I suppose.

Pumpkin Festival 2009

Steve and I drove up to Half Moon Bay this morning for the annual Pumpkin Festival. The last time we went (in 2007, I believe) we got up early for the pumpkin pancake breakfast and perused the booths after breakfast. This year we elected to browse in the morning and have lunch just before we left.

One of the more interesting food items was the pumpkin mac & cheese. This was thick, KFC-style mac & cheese sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and spices.


It sounds bizarre, but was actually delicious. Had my stomach allowed, we would have had more, but we opted to get some garlic string beans (pictured below) and a roasted herb chicken sandwich to finish off our meal instead.

We love going to shop the local artists. Our budget of course is very limited, but you can find relatively inexpensive prints of more impressive original works.

There was an artist there that painted primarily on silk. His paintings were beautiful, but understandably expensive. We decided to get a couple prints and were agonizing over which two to get out of the three we liked best. He saw our dilemma and gave us a deal to get all three. Better to make a half price sale than none at all, I suppose. It was interesting dealing with him, as he was deaf and I remembered very little sign language from elementary school. Luckily he seems to read lips pretty well and I definitely recognized the sign for “thank you” as we left. Here are the prints we got:



I also got an inexpensive metal bunny yard decoration. It’s a little kitsch-y, but I liked it.

Lastly, on our way out, we spent some time in an unusual photography booth. The man explained that while doing some long exposure shots, some of his pictures got “ruined” by shadows. He realized the appeal of the images and, presto, the Spirit Shadows line of photography was born. Check them out at www.sheerentertainment.com if you’re curious. Steve was really drawn to this one, and I like it too.

The artist said he took it in a graveyard in Santa Monica and took his primary inspiration from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.