The Holiday Crush

In our tiny house, space is a premium. With the arrival of our daughter, free space is becoming a scare commodity. The bookcase full of over-sized kitchen items has been replaced with a pack-n-play, a swing, and a stroller. In the past Christmas decorations, especially the tree, pushed each room in the house to it's functional limit. Dottie's bouncy seat, a magical device that calms her fussy moods, occupies the same spot that, in the past, is where the Christmas tree went. So Christmas tree, where do you go now?

Currently the top three places are 1) in the dining room since we never eat dinner at the table anymore 2) in the front corner of the living room supplanting the cat's favorite perch, one of the few comforts he has left after we kicked him out the baby's room/guest room and 3) back in the attic until we move to a bigger house. The problem is I hate all of these ideas - the tree looks terrible in the dining room; I'm loath to take away yet another comfort from out cat; and if we don't celebrate with a tree I'm sure I'll scar our daughter for years to come.

Honestly, removing the cat's favorite perch and sticking the tree there is the only real option. The reason I'm loath to do it is because it's exactly what every baby book said I would do: devalue a pet's once lofty place place in the family. Reading those books, I rallied against that idea, thinking "No way. I'm not going to do that". Yeah, well, too bad. It's time to Think Again.

We're Not Home Right Now: Thanksgiving Edition

We traveled to Allentown PA for Thanksgiving. This was also Dottie's first interstate road trip. I thought we'd have to stop at every reststop along I95, however Dottie only need one stop. In fact on the way back we had to tickle her for 5 minutes just to get her awake. This baby loves car rides!
Thanksgiving itself was a great time. There were lots of family relations to play with Dottie giving mom and dad a chance to rest, sleep, show others how to play the Wii (yes, we brought it) and watch the Virginia Tech at Virginia game (okay, okay only dad did this). Dottie also went to her first restaurant outing in Bethlehem. The table next to us was disappointed that we did not put Dottie between their table and ours. They demanded that we show her to them. Once they saw her the entire table voted her "delicious".

We returned home Saturday night with enough time left in the evening to hang out with uncle Dan and aunt Monica.

The Office

The Office
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

The other thing I've been doing aside from raising my baby daughter is working on freelance projects. I've taken over the kitchen table with this fancy set up. Click on the image and take a tour of my office desk.

It's like Three's Company

I should have posted this here on Oct. 24 but we've been busy adjusting to our newest roommate, Dorothy Paige Hunter. For those that have already seen the hospital pictures here is a jump to the Halloween photos.

Happy Halloween

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

Here's a trick for the bloggers since we got our treat early.

If I Had a Hammer

I'd hammer in the morning? No. I had a hammer on Monday though and I used it to hammer apart a giant "trweed". What's a trweed? It was the massive weed that conveyed with the house. and was already 1/3 of the way up the house. As of Monday the tree was almost to the soffit. That is until I took the claw-side of a hammer to it for 5 minutes and then tore it down. Rock!

WiiBirthday

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

September brought many things - including Dawn's birthday! On this day, September brought a fancy dinner out on the town, a digitized CD collection, and Wii. Additionally I had the NFL move the Washington game to Monday night so as not to interfere with the birthday weekend. Not that I'm bragging or anything.

Nursery Complete!

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

It's done! Well, almost done - it still needs a baby. I checked with the stork about that baby I ordered 8.5 months ago but was told it will still take another 14 days for delivery. Sigh. We are very happy how it turned out. It's ready and all we need is our baby.

We're back!

Oh my! We're back and just shy of one month of being truant from the blogsphere. I've got fun news to share and normally I'd hold some of it back for the coming weeks. However, I sense that I'm going to be very busy very soon so we are going to run through a series of posts very fast.

Revenge is a dish best served with tomatoes

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

Mom Scattolini was here last weekend and she unleashed her fury on the ravenous tomato plants that overtook our front walk. She hacked them back to a manageable length, clearing away the dead loss as she plucked off the good tomatoes. Now the postman and us have a clear path to the door. Of course, the overgrowth was good for one thing - it hide our cracked and crumbling walk. Hopefully, in the spring '08 there will be a post here about how we've replaced it with a new shiny one.

In The Details

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

We are still working on the nursery. We are hoping to finish up this weekend. Until then her are some detail shots of the sea life that were painted by Dawn.

Nursery Progress

Next Wall
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

We continue to paint and decorate the nursery. We painted faces on the creatures occupying the first wall and add some more aquatic pals on the second wall. Dawn also framed the wet pets with white bubbles. The second wall contains my attempts at painting sea life. While Dawn praised my efforts, the true test is when the baby sees it. Will s/he be pleased with my interpretation of sea life? We'll find out in less than eight weeks.

The Guest Room is Closed

Green Corner
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

Dear Future Guests,

We are sorry for the inconvenience however our guest room is currently under renovation. We plan for renovations to be completed shortly. Once renovations are complete the guest room will be available again. However, no reservations will be accepted until 2025 as the room is currently booked by a distingushed guest through that date.

Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Mangement

Attack of the Tasty Tomatoes

Overfed & Overgrown
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

Early in the summer we planted four little tomato plants expecting the venture to be a colossal failure. Instead what we got was success beyond our wildest dreams...and lots of tomatoes. With this success has come a new culinary challenge: what to do with so many tomatoes? Dawn has posted some of the top recipes on her blog. We've given 10 bags away so far and our neighbors have permission to pick tomatoes whenever they want. Next summer we'll have to plant some cucumbers to go along with the tomatoes in the summer salad. That or we'll need to plant a pasta tree. They have such a thing, right?

Meet Me In the Bathroom

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

What was once a closet is now a bathroom. Our long-time dream of having a bathroom in the basement is realized. No longer must we walk up two flights of stairs with urgency, no longer is there a line for relief. Now one person can go up, the other down, for there is now a bathroom for every person in this house (until October when the baby arrives).

Brand New Kitchens (or Renovations Pt II)

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

The sadness brought by the end of vacation was tempered knowing that a brand new kitchen awaited. The suspense was dizzying. What kind of kitchen would it be? Would it be nice? Would the contractor remember to install the counter tops? Would there be a giant hole in the floor? All fears were allayed when we walked into the kitchen. Pristine white cabinets stretched high above us, a sleek stainless steel microwave beamed back at us, and best of all no one stole the fridge. I've hardly made a meal since we've been back. The happy new kitchen has re-energized Dawn and she's full of pep for making dinners and tasty treats. Money well spent, I say.

Kitchen Renovations (Part I)

Kitchen
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

We're back! And we have lots of entries planned. Home renovations tales, vacation tales, invading critters and so on.

First up, part one of our kitchen renovation. In the past we had done some of the renovation ourselves (some cabinets, ceiling) however we had an opportunity to do it right and we took it. The only thing better than having a professional renovate our kitchen is having them do it while we were vacationing in Portugal.

Next week, we'll see the wonderful results of all this destruction.

The Leaking

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Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. While not the flash flood that was last summer, we discovered that the shut-off valve for our outside faucet leaks when turned on. It leaks inside the house, of course. Dripping inside the wall and soaking into the plaster.

I wouldn't have know this if the Roto Rooter plumber had not insisted I pry off four wooden panels. Of course, once the panels were off, the plumber came to the conclusion that removing them wasn't necessary.

I shouldn't complain though. After the plumber tightened a single nut (which was accessible from the start) he told me, "I was smart. I could be a plumber too".

Thanks, dude.

What's Your Bench?

Bench
Originally uploaded by jasonhunter.

This is ours. It's new and replaces the vanity that was a magnet for junk mail, magazines, dust, and pens. Now all that stuff can go in the baskets under the bench. We thought our Bean would want to sit on it so we put his favorite blanket on top. However, he seems content sitting on the couch or in our laps.

This marks the last post I have planned. So unless I accomplish a loosely-related home improvement task before next Wednesday, there won't be a schedule post. To be notified of when I resume posting I recommend Google's Reader, which 'watches' website, like Blogspot, and notifies you when its updated.

Grosser Than Gross

We cooked various meats throughout the winter. With the meat, came a lot of that troublesome grease. Not wanting to pour hot grease in the trash, nor down the drain I began collecting it in a plastic Super Bowl XL cup. During the winter months this worked perfectly - we could store the cup outside in the chilly temperatures and retrieve it when needed. Which was often. By the end of February we had a full cup of solidified grease. I thought of getting a wick and making a meat candle.
Then, like my thoughts, the seasons changed. I become occupied with spring cleaning while the solidified grease began to melt. This weekend we went to Philly and my Mom watched the cat. During her visit she must have carefully placed the grease cup (now liquid) in the recycling bin. I hadn't noticed this. If I had I certainly wouldn't have yanked the recycling bin with so much force. It wasn't just the grease that got over everything including me, the recycling bin, the deck floor that was the nasty part. It was that it smelled like rancid meat. Not just one kind of rancid meat. No, it was a vile bouquet of rancid meat smells.

I placed the foul recycling container on the curb for the morning pick-up. I had hoped that once the recycling folks dumped out the contents it wouldn't smell so bad. However after a day of baking in the sun a nasty, empty bin simply mocked me with it's stench when I came home. Defeated, I took it into the backyard and washed it out.