Betty Crocker Listen Closely

This post was going to be about how women don't need to buy pink tools or call Mike the plumber, or Joe the plumber (if you're more into politics than Desperate Housewives) just to fix a leaky kitchen faucet. But now it's going to be about how even very competent women need to have an extra set of hands around while they're fixing a leaky kitchen faucet.

Andy's at work. I went to the store and purchased the repair kit for my Delta kitchen faucet, I looked up the directions online and got to work taking apart the entire faucet and replacing the worn gaskets, springs, seals and such and then I had a very easy time putting it all back together again...until it came to the metal hose...the hose is the main reason why I love my kitchen faucet.

The sprayer and faucet are one so there isn't worry about having another fixture just to have the pull out spray action.


My faucet is the one on the left, the one on the right is the typical sprayer I was referring to.


But, for some really awesome reason I can't get the metal hose back through the neck of the faucet on my own. I need hands under the sink and hands on the faucet at the same time.

No matter how I contort I just don't have enough reach. Now when Andy comes home, instead of finding a none drippy faucet, he's going to find this:

Yeah. This is going to be good. The super good news is that once I get that second pair of hands on it, I'll be able to put everything back together in under a minute and I won't need any help from anyone. Then maybe I'll bake some bread just to help bring back the softer lady side I'm lacking at the moment. ummm bread baking sounds good...

In other news I'm heading out to the garage to set mouse traps. I didn't buy glue traps, I didn't buy little houses that they would go into and be alive in. I bought little houses that have a large amount of poison in them so that they'll go inside, and never come out. I don't care what anyone thinks either. They're destroying our things that we store out there and they have to die. The end.

there's another reason for that.

One of the best things about being a wife, is being a part of someone else's desires and dreams. It's about being a part of someone's life.

When we were blessed with our home, we've wanted to share that blessing with our friends. And so we bbq, invite people to hang out, let them stay the night on the couch and such. Well. This weekend these two thing collided.

When Science Heroes put on their show at Agate Hall a band known as Mon Marie played, and on Friday night, that very same band played at Lucky's Cigar Club a local bar in Eugene.

The guys in Mon Marie had to play on Saturday in central California somewhere and they were going to sleep somewhere in town...meaning wherever they could find a field to camp out in. Soooo rather than let that happen, we offered our garage.

Let me back up a minute. Andy went to their show, I stayed home to get some sleep (I was working all weekend and tired..that's another story) and when I said, ok, I thought there were 3 guys in the band, so when we woke up in the morning and he told me there were 5...I was a bit, well. Let's just say, our house was fuuulll.







Here's Johnny, their lead singer, I don't know where he was when all the other guys were hanging out, so I had to get him in his own photo.



I really wanted to take a photo of all of them in their sleeping bags in the garage...but we hadn't met yet and I didn't think that was the way I wanted to be introduced..."Hey guys, good morning, this is my wife, she's crazy and going to take a picture of you first thing in the morning sleeping on the floor for her blog." Ya, notsomuch.
Well Mon Marie, thanks for hanging out in our little house guys, you're welcome to come back anytime.

Is it still a success if the neighbors don't call the cops?

All around, it was the best time at a house-cooling party ever. I think everyone would agree. It was our first and so that in itself made it great for us. I didn't let anything taint it. Not the neighbors, not the flies in the garage, not the burn on my fingertips from the insanely hot handle on the bbq lid. It was wonderful.

We had people show up in spurts all night. Some arrived early and stayed late, some hung out for a while and left just as others arrived to fill their place. We planned it so that all the food and such was ready and available from the beginning so the rest of the night we just hung out with our friends and provided guided tours over and over and over again.

I didn't get a ton of photos. But I had to document a few things, of course, and so here's the photos from the evening.

To start things off, here's the new screen door that we built all by ourselves...with a little help from a starter kit from Home Depot.



The Garage/best "great room" ever





No that's not our moped. It belongs to Jo-science. But we're hoping to score one of our own very soon.





And now on to the outdoor space...all set up for partyers







And onto the people that showed up











And then there were the two little girls that just made my day.





How could she resist?





We had this great idea to put floating candles in the "water feature" (yes, I use this term lightly) but, it turns out they made better pieces for a little game we like to call, "Collect the Soap"



As you may be able to deduce. The above shinanigans led to the first baby in our bathtub moment...



Big sister lent a helping hand



And then the best moment of the night happened. The little one's mom had just finished the soaping up stage of the bath and drained all of the water from the tub. Then, right before she turned on the water to refill for the rinse off, my friend came up to the bathroom door. Now imagine walking around the corner and the flash that you initially get when you realize the door's open, but there's someone inside is that your walking in on someone going to the bathroom. But then, instead you see two women and two children crowded into a tiny bathroom. She says with a confused look in her eye, "Oh, sorry, I was just going to go to the bathroom."
To which the mother responds as she motions to the wet, soapy baby in the tub, "Oh you can, as long as you keep an eye on her."
And so, my friend replies, "alright." So the mother, the daughter and I walk out and as my friend walks in and pushes the door shut behind her we hear her say, "Hi, I'm Beth."



And so. The aftermath. We had some friends pitch in last night and carry in all the dishes, and pick up most of the trash. So today we have a clean, organized house. A little bit of picking things up to do in the backyard. And a watermelon juice sticky kitchen floor to mop. All in all, it's not that bad.











Yes we recycle, and no this isn't all from last night. Geesh, what kind of friends do you think we have?




And so, we sit, underneath the umbrella in the backyard. Drinking coffee, writing, and procrastinating everything else.

take a breath, the storm is passing

hello faithful blog checker-reader people.

Alas...the blog from New York has been interrupted by my arrival home and into the world of full fledged Producer.

I would have said previously that I was a Producer, but more specifically a Line Producer. The distinction is in the "Line". This is a Producer that is working on one project at a time. I wouldn't say this was a, by my choice, roll. I love producing...no, what lead me to this roll was, let's just call it, um...no wait, let's say that previously...there was only one project at a time.

As you may be able to deduce. This is not the case anymore. We have been flooded with exactly what we've begged for, wished for, and worked so hard for...clients exploding their wishes all over the place and landing at our front door.

*Pushplay's Blog is going Live this week.
stay tuned for my split personality is arriving with it.


In personal news. We're finally planning a house warming party...if you know me and you live around here you're invited, consider this your personal invitation. It'll be on July 19th. Come around 5 and stay all night. Bring drinks and a food something to share with fellow well-wishers.
Families are welcome but under-age drinking is not...so do it in secret and don't get drunk so when the cops show up they won't know.

Oh, and get ready for a photo blog of epic per portions.
meg out.

the daily grind

After the glorious trip to Ikea a few weeks ago, our house was left not in a state of perfection, but rather in a state of cardboard. This morning the last load of boxes was picked up by the recycling people, and this weekend will be the final house transformation...er, that's the plan.

One area that is slightly more done and makes the feeling of accomplishment reign supreme is the office. I'm off to work...hopefully to do a ton of things I can't tell you about right now, but also to add the finishing touches to the "push this" blog.

I'll leave you with the photo array of the sweet new office space for the man, and a peak at where the bills get paid from a.k.a. my desk.

at least there's an excuse not to do yard work.

*Edited for clarification
I wrote this post last weekend, when it actually happened and then, well, my charger stopped working, so the battery died, I couldn't access my computer and so it sat, awaiting a charge. Which, incidentally, I got the new cord and what's that you say? It almost burned the house down? Yes, that's correct, and frustrating, and making me mad and I have to go to sleep. So we'll talk about it later. Now. On to the post!

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So you know when it's late April, and it's cold outside, and you're all bundled up and warm under the covers and you look out the back window and there's snow all over the place? Wait, it's freaking late April and there's snow on the ground? Here? At my house? I can't believe Al Gore invented the internet and discovered global warming. Shesh! Happy weekend.







Did I mention this happened 2 days in a row?!?! Fluke, or what's in store till the next ice age?

inching closer to home

Wanna come over for dinner?



Or hang out and watch a movie?



come over. there's places to sit.



an enormous thanks to this guy for stopping at Ikea in Portland after our meeting...and for helping rent the uhaul trailer...and for loading everything in the pouring rain and hail....and for returning the trailer by yourself cause we had guests arriving for dinner....and for being rad.

where it's at

umm. ya. it's the new bathroom.
and can I just add, I don't know what's up with the shower curtain, it looks all gross and dingy, but I swear it isn't, heck the things like 5 days old. My camera's adding dirt to my photos, great.



don't worry, Rosie's hung in her rightful place.



The kitchen so far...complete with an open bottle of wine, of course.



here's another view...of the kitchen



my GAS stove, finally we're back together again, making dinner efficiently!



kitchen curtains...I put them up when Andy was out of town for the weekend, playing shows in Ptown. I didn't even think about the fact that I'd be all alone when I kissed him goodbye and I got all kinds of creeped out when the sun went down...so, a perfect time to hang the curtains.



the living room how it looks right now...yeah, I know there's no where to sit...we're working on it.



the new and improved mailbox that I hung, I did it mostly for the mail man. When we met him, I asked if there was anything we should know or whatever and he said,
"well, your mailbox is kind of tiny, they sell bigger ones at Home Depot for 15 bucks, it'd be nice to get all the mail into the box easier...and then people wouldn't see your Netflix envelopes either."

Good call mail man Noland. And it was only 13 bucks to boot!

Also. I just trimmed the hedge in front of the house, it was covering up the numbers, which are placed really low next to the door for some reason...anyways, it was my first yard work and it was brisk and a bit windy out and it was awesome.

We cleaned and organized the garage, it's my man's birthday on friday and we don't have anywhere to hang out in the house except for the bedroom right now and that would be kind of awkward if we invited people over and then asked them to come into the bedroom to hang out. So. Ya. I'll post photos of the new garage, next up, patching the leaks in the roof. Man those people were idiots. geesh.