Happy Easter!

I baked cookies, colored eggs, and ate until I couldn't eat another bite. Tomorrow, the extra candy goes to work, and the diet for summer bathing suit season starts in full force... I guess it's kind of a reverse Lent. I'll just be happy if I can drop a size or two and fit into some of my nicer (read smaller) summer clothes - like the stuff I bought for Disney last spring. It's a goal, anyway!
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:05 PM -

Little White Lies

Will I be condemned for all eternity for lying to my grandma? It was just a little lie, only to prevent her from spending money on something...but now I feel so guilty! She was trying to insist on buying the asparagus that I'm going to prepare for Easter dinner (at her place), because it's pretty expensive right now. I might have stretched the truth just a teensy little bit when I said I had a Wegman's gift card that was going to expire soon that I had to use... I probably have an expired Wegman's gift card somewhere - does that count? Italian and Catholic. Guilt is going to be the death of me someday, I just know it.
posted by Sarah Reilly 5:05 PM -

Blah

I need sunlight. Desperately. I'm in such a blah mood lately, which is probably due to the fact that it's been gray and icky here for the past week and a half. I don't even care if it's still cold, it just has to be sunny. I wonder how much airfare to someplace sunny would be right now?
posted by Sarah Reilly 9:32 AM -

One down...one to go.

Last night I finished one of the twin's cross-stitches. Well, except for putting in the personalization. Now I just have the other to do (completely) in a month, along with finishing my master's project. I won't tell you how long the first one took, except to say it was more than a month. ;) I think I'd better learn how to cross-stitch with my eyes shut.
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:00 AM -

It's Spring...

...well, everywhere but here. It's cold this morning, and it couldn't decide whether to rain or snow. Ick. Times like this, I kind of wish I lived elsewhere. Like Ireland. (As if it doesn't get cold and rainy there!) Or maybe I could just find a warm place to vacation for a bit. :)

Speaking of spring, check out the Kodak Birdcam and see the project that kept me so busy last month. The falcons have returned, although there's a bit of a soap-opera going on around here, seeing as the male falcon appears to be a different falcon than we've had for the past four years. We're pretty sure it's still the same female. Me? I'm just hoping they produce a family so the project isn't cut short after all that work!
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:41 AM -

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day!

I was too tired after the party last night to blog. :) It was a fun party, though! Lots of food and drink was consumed by all. I didn't think that many people would fit in my dining room at once - it's a good thing I didn't go out and buy my new dining room furniture yet! I think we ended up with more beer than we started with, despite the number of empty bottles - either more people brought beer than I remembered seeing, or it was multiplying under the table...

Molly was much calmer than I'd expected, probably due to the fact that she went the groomer's on Saturday. Unfortunately, the little green bows were a little ragged by the party, but still cute. She was very happy when Denis managed to spill all of the juice from the corned beef (which consisted of brown sugar, Guinness, and corned beef, um, juice) all over the oven and the floor. We cleaned up best we could, but Molly spent the rest of the evening licking the floor and the oven door! Despite the fact that most of the alcohol had probably burned off, I'm guessing there was some left, as she was out like a light by 8 pm. I guess a dog named Molly Reilly ought to be able to handle a little Guinness, though.

Just sitting in the living room, surrounded by good friends, with the Irish music playing and sipping my coffee made me all sentimental. I have wonderful friends! Thanks to everyone who came by...this may have to be an annual event in the Reilly household!
posted by Sarah Reilly 10:40 AM -

You know you're getting old when...

...you're in your window-less (yes, even my computer is window-less) office, but you know it's going to rain soon because your old injuries start to ache. Ick. (Not that I'm old yet, but some days I just feel old.) I don't think they've actually proven that low-pressure systems trigger aches and pains, but every time my wrist hurts (at least, the times I haven't been over-playing piano or typing too much) I check weather.com and find that the barometric pressure is falling. Hmm.
posted by Sarah Reilly 4:03 PM -

Red Alert!

OK, I've been mulling this over for a while, but I have to put it out there... Does no one else think it's very strange that we now have a color-coded system of alerts?!? It makes me think of Star Trek, not terrorists. If Pres. Bush starts calling Cheney "Number 1", I'm moving. :)
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:59 AM -

The car karma appears to be improving... Van Bortel agreed to fix our wagon. ;) The fender-bender will be a little more expensive to fix than we hoped, but it's still not bad. We got the kitchen finished this weekend - just have a few pictures and things to re-hang. It's very blue. Which is good - it's a very nice blue! I finally got the hang of the semi-gloss paint, and managed to even paint the window above the sink without painting it shut - that's an accomplishment for me. The only problem with the kitchen now is that the paint is much less gray than we expected, so our gray vertical blinds don't look so great anymore...but they'll do for now. And I'm re-thinking the burgandy dining room - I don't think it will flow well from the kitchen. (Which is why I did the kitchen first, after all.) Which leaves me in a quandry, because I can't really think of another color I want to paint it. I guess I'll have to wait awhile - it's a good thing I didn't start stripping the wallpaper in there.... (Maybe I should rename this blog "Adventures in home ownership - or how to redecorate your entire life".)
posted by Sarah Reilly 1:34 PM -

Bad Car Karma

I may have improved my parking karma - I'm not sure, since I haven't driven much since Tuesday - but my car karma in general has been very bad this week. Yesterday we had a fender-bender with the Jetta. While not good, that in itself doesn't necessarily mean that we're having bad car karma. But we've had a running problem with the used wagon we bought in December, which finally turns out to be...(insert scary music here)...the head gasket. Which is a very expensive repair. The thing is, we brought it back to the dealer during the 60-day lemon-law warranty because the check coolant light was on. They claimed the fuse was blown, replaced the fuse, and probably, for good measure, topped off the anti-freeze. Which explains why it didn't come back on until today. Now we have to bring it back to them and try to argue that the head gasket was split when we brought it in the first time and they missed it. (Which our normal service guy, who found it, can't quite understand.) Conspiracy? Or just bad service people? Either way, it would make me very hesitant to buy a used car from them in the future, which is too bad since they have a very good reputation. Heh. If they don't resolve it, I'll post their name. (As if enough local people read this to do harm to their business. :P )
posted by Sarah Reilly 2:55 PM -

Concerts are great...

...but I must be getting old, because I'm exhausted from being out late last night! Lisa and I went to see The Chieftains play with the RPO last night. It was a great concert. It made me want to go back to Ireland. It also made me want to rejoin orchestra. *sigh* But now I'm really sleepy... It actually wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't taken a half-hour to just get out of the parking garage. When did people become so rude? Once someone finally let me back out of my parking space on the roof, I let every car I saw on the way down back out in front of me. Maybe it will improve my parking karma or something. :D
posted by Sarah Reilly 2:56 PM -

The Home Stretch...

Well, it's done. I just registered for the final 5-credit project course. By the end of this quarter I have to finish my project, write a report on it, and defend it. My target defense date is May 6th. Which is only, what, 9 weeks away? Scary stuff...
posted by Sarah Reilly 2:13 PM -

Blue paint, everywhere!

We painted the kitchen this weekend. It's almost done - tonight we just have to put wallpaper up below the chair rail, and touch up a couple places where the paint came off with the tape. :P I'll probably regret saying this, but I will never again, as long as I live, paint with semi-gloss paint. It takes longer to dry, it shows every little brush and roller stroke, and it takes 10 times longer to do. Plus it would rather stick to the tape than the wall. Grrr. I don't care if I can't wash the kitchen walls. Who am I kidding, anyway - would I really wash them? Probably not. We've lived here for three years and I've never had the urge (or the need) to wash the kitchen walls.
posted by Sarah Reilly 10:31 AM -

Validation

I was really happy with the siding anyway, but yesterday I found out that we definitely made the right decision. My grandfather, a retired general contractor who owns and rents lots of real estate, came up for a surprise visit. (I almost slipped and typed "inspection". Hmm.) Anyway, he was very impressed with our siding guy (who was there working the weekend again) and with the way the job turned out. Yay! If my very critical grandfather thinks it's good, it must be. So, in this case, the low bid wasn't necessarily a bad idea. I know, I'm an adult, and I shouldn't need my parents and grandparents to approve, or approve of, my decisions, but still...it's good to have a second opinion occasionally - especially for big decisions like these!
posted by Sarah Reilly 6:33 PM -

Happy March!

March means: longer days, the first day of spring (well, at least according to the calendar), and...St. Patrick's Day! I'm not of Irish descent, I only married into an Irish last name, but I've always been fascinated by all things Celtic and Irish. So, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I've redone my blog.
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:14 AM -