Come on Irene....

We survived our second act of Mother Nature over the weekend. This time in the form of Hurricane Irene. She hit the coast of North Carolina at 0730 Saturday morning and slowly made her way North. The rain in Northern Virginia started just after 1000 and didn't stop until 0900 Sunday morning. I had a bet with my mom, that they would lose power at around noon on Saturday (they live in Hampton Roads which was within 30 miles of the eye of the storm), and I sadly lost that bet. So now I owe her a Peanut Buster Parfait from Diary Queen the next time I see her. They actually had power until about 2200 Saturday night, and I got word that the power came back on this morning, which is awesome since I thought they would be out for a least a week.

The House of Bartlett-Kerr was able to retain power and cable throughout the storm! Other than losing a branch from our Butterfly Bush there was no damage. Just a soggy back yard. Yesterday was so beautiful that we turned off the A/C and opened up the windows to let the last breezes of Irene cool and refresh the house. We grilled steaks for dinner and ate outside. It was awesome.

Shake, rattle, and roll.....

As most people will know by now (and if you don't you live under a rock) the Commonwealth of Virginia was hit by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shortly before 2:00 PM EDT yesterday. I was at work in downtown Washington, DC, preparing for a conference call. When the tremors first hit I didn't know what was happening so I stood up and that was when the real movement happened. The floor was rumbling and the ceiling was shaking. It was by far the scariest situation I've been through. At first I was thinking this was a residual blast from an explosion downtown and then when it kept happening I realized it was an earthquake. Everyone in my office was panicked and unsure of what to do next.

We did evacuate the building and Pennsylvania Avenue was a sea of humanity (as a co-worker described it) from the Capitol Building to Freedom Plaza. Phone lines were jammed and I couldn't get a call to James or my sister. When we were finally allowed back in after about 40 minutes and I headed to Metro, which by what folks with internet told us was still running. Well, sort of since they were running at a reduced speed of 15 mph. It took 40 minutes for a Blue Line train to arrive and when the doors opened I was pushing my way into the center of the car and speaking loudly that we all want to get home, introduce yourself to the person you were pushed up against, and make room. Thank god that at Metro Center I was able to secure a seat. I re-injured my back Saturday morning and while I was okay the standing around and the very long Metro ride (about 1 1/2 hours when normally it is less than 40 minutes) hasn't helped at all. Perhaps why everyone in that car was good humored was that the A/C was working. I could only image what it would have been with no A/C. Lord of the Flies comes to mind....

All was well at home, a few items knocked over but nothing broken. The cats and Lulu seemed okay, though slightly taken aback. I was very happy to crawl into bed early last night!

On other news, we had Lulu's cyst removed on the 10th and her staples were removed yesterday. You can still see where the staples were but that should fade by the weekend. Speaking of which....

Mother Nature will surprise us once again with Hurricane Irene making her way to the East Coast. Not so much concerned for us here other than a lot of rain and wind, but my folks and sister in Hampton Roads have me a little worried. Irene is expected to hit along the Outer Banks by Saturday. If she is anything like Isabel from 2003 my folks will be without power for at least two weeks. Good thing we have plenty of room at our house!

And we still can't find the camera!

And the settling continues

James and I continue to make progress in setting up house. Seemed so much easier day dreaming about playing house when I was a kid instead of the reality I find myself in. But I'm having a good time. Just wish I could make everything happen all at once!

We still have unpacked boxes, which is an unintended consequence of not having the same places to hide, stuff, and store items as we did in the last house. So the boxes will have to stay until I have the funds to purchase a piece of furniture to hide, stuff, and store. But maybe I should dress them up by covering them up with sheets or old curtains. At least I wouldn't have U-Haul taunting me all the time.

One piece I decided on to hide, store, and stuff items was a pie safe for our board and card games (we have a lot). I have purposefully been saving and waiting for DC Flea to roll around again to make the purchase. Almost right away I found the most perfect one but it was seafoamish green. Seafoamish green isn't in my house's color scheme so I couldn't justify paying $525 for a seafoamish green pie safe that I would have to then turn around and find time to strip before using. Turns out that the dealer painted it himself using an "antique" color he had found on an old door and had Home Depot color match. Really dude? I flat out told the guy that I would have bought it if it wasn't painted green. (And I don't think he did sell it that day.) Pie safes should not be green. I was pretty lucky with one of my favorite dealers. She had two pie safes that were different but both had the qualities I was looking for. And since it was Sunday and she didn't want to take them home she offered both for $550 and since I had the truck I could fit both in the bed and so I bought them! One is our board and card game repository and the second one is our new buffet in the dining room. They look fabulous! I would share a photo but we still have not located the camera (insert frown here).

HINT: always go to DC Flea on Sunday, never Saturday, as this is when you will get the deals you want. If the item isn't there on Sunday you don't need it. This was how I got a dining room table with sitting up to eight with three table leafs (with their own crate) and an option table support for $550 when the day before was marked at $850.

James and I also tackled a rather inventive endeavor for us this weekend in mounting a TV on the wall. It took about 2 1/2 hours and the TV has power and looks great! I didn't want power cords running down the wall like we have up in the Master Bedroom and it turns out that you can't run live electrical wires behind walls (boo! but I totally understand) so we had to install an in-wall recessed power outlet. Even if we wanted a professional to mount the TV they wouldn't install the in-wall power outlet. And we weren't about to pay an electrician so I did the homework and figured out what was needed. The product we bought gives both power and allows us to hide future cables later on down the road. And again Amazon was to the rescue saving us about $100 over similar products at Best Buy.

The last big item I accomplished this weekend was organizing the laundry room, which also serves as a storage room. What I really want to do is frame up a wall and install 1/2" to 5/8" dry wall so I can install my Elfa 74" closet system (that can't fit in the closets on the second floor) to give me even more room and storage possibilities. But I am very happy with boxes emptied and items hidden, stuffed, and stored as they are now. I have a giant box full of household items that need to go to the dump for proper disposal living in the hallway. But it can stay there instead of the landfill. Maybe within the mouth I'll have time to take them for proper disposal!