casacaudill

gramps

Today would have been my grandpa's birthday.  Sadly, he passed away in early October 2007, while I was at a client's user conference.  Not exactly easy to deal with the knowledge that your only grandfather is on his deathbed while trying to deal with work, but he went peacefully and happily, talking about sports with his son.

 

Espana

Is anyone else watching Spain on the Road Again with Mario Batali and Gwenyth Paltrow?  I'm not a huge Paltrow fan, but Mario is one of my two favorite celebrity chefs (Anthony Bourdain being the other).  Mario just seems to live life with such a gusto and you can really tell how much he loves food while he's cooking. 

For those who aren't watching, the premise of the show is that he, she, a food critic for the New York Times (whose name escapes me) and a famous Spanish actress are touring the country in search of good food, good friends and good times.  Sounds like the a winning combination for an amazing trip.  It's funny though because Gwenyth is obviously a famous actress the world over so in this first episode she is always being recognized and she and Mario have a running banter about how famous he is versus how famous she is.  It's interesting to see, but you can tell she's not really comfortable with how famous she is.  When she says she's a London housewife who just enjoys good food and good friends you can almost believe her.

Anyhow, I've long heard that Spain is a country we should definitely travel to but with the exception of Barcelona, I have to admit that I don't really know much about it.  I wouldn't know where to go, what to see or what the regional food specialties are the way I do with Italy.  But watching this show ... wow.  Put me on the next flight out of here because it is GORGEOUS.  We're only one episode in and already I want to visit the town of Toledo - it is simply stunning.

bathroom updates

It's pretty clear at this point that we won't be painting our redoing our bathroom anytime in the near future (although it could use it, I tell you), so I need to start thinking about what I want to do with that room instead of just letting it be.  It's probably the single-most used room in the house and yet it's just there ... being ugly. 

It's a pretty small space, so technically there's not a lot I can do.  We currently have a bunch of shelves installed over the toilet and I'll want to stick with those since Alan spent so much time and energy to get them installed.  But I think I want baskets or something to minimize the clutter.  I also want a new shower curtain and maybe some sort of (mis)treatment over the window.  We currently have a white shade from Ikea, but the window cut out itself is really ugly so a valance would be a nice addition.

I'm really loving these two shower curtains, but I don't think they really "go" with the bedroom. 

Because you can see through the master bedroom into the bathroom, I'd like to have some sort of cohesive look.  I'm thinking about switching out the bedding in the master for the fall/winter - go back to the white duvet and bring back the brown quilt which could be the tie in I need to make the second curtain work.

For reasons which most people won't understand, nearly all of our towels and floor mats are white, so I need to keep that in mind when thinking about our "new" room too.  Is the white too stark against this rich, deep background?  I think it might be. 

migraine alert

This sux.

window update

I mentioned that last year around this time we had a nice gentleman from Andersen Windows come out and give us a quote to replace every awful, badly fitted aluminum window in our house.  He was pretty high pressure and gave us two estimates - one that made my eyeballs bulge out of my head and a second one that was thousands cheaper but still equally heart-palpitating-inducing if we SIGNED A CONTRACT RIGHT THEN AND THERE.  Because, you know, they wouldn't cost the same in 24 hours. 

In the end we decided not to go with them because we just couldn't justify spending $30k on windows.

Now, obviously b/c sometime in the 70s someone put in this hideous aluminum windows, we obviously don't have the original wood-sash windows to restore.  We have to start completely over, and we decided - for cost purposes only - to go with vinyl.

Both of Alan's brothers have new vinyl windows in their house, but for various reasons we decided not to use the same window companies they did.  Our friends who own a triplex over by Grand Lake Theater recently re-did all the windows in their building and it was very reasonable and economical.  We called their guy and after a couple of near-misses he got back to us today with a quote.

And it's a couple hundred dollars under what I thought the lowest possible estimate was going to be.  Naturally, I'm thrilled.

He's coming either Sunday or Monday (can't remember) to do another walk through and then I think it's all systems go.  I'm VERY excited by these developments.

new windows?

We had a guy in last Thursday (9/18) to take a look at our current windows and see if he could help us.  He said he was going away for the weekend but would get back to us early this week with an estimate and timing proposal.  We haven't heard from him.  Now, I understand things come up and we might not be the biggest project, but if you tell me you're going to contact me early in the week, I tend to think that doesn't mean on Friday.  So, where are you window guy?

mac vs pc

There's no denying that the Justin Long/John Hodgman Mac vs PC commercials are a riot.  But even though I like the form factor of the Mac, the price difference alone was enough to make me go with a PC.  Sure PCs have problems - we all have problems! - but PCs are also pretty damn awesome when you think about what we can do with them.  PCs have changed my life, literally.

When I heard MSFT had hired Jerry Seinfeld for their own hip, fun, cool commercials I was a bit afraid.  Afterall, Seinfeld - while incredibly hilarious - is an icon of the 1990s.  What would hiring someone who defined 90s television say about a company that was trying to compete against a company clearly devoted to the new millenials.  I figured that most people under 25 wouldn't quite get the whole Seinfeld thing.  I get Seinfeld, and I didn't get the commercial.  It was a disaster, and I was bummed ... because when you're Microsoft and you have that kind of money at your disposal, surely you could do better?

And they have. 



As someone who knows just a thing or two about (1) being in the market for a new computer, (2) marketing, and (3) messaging ... this commercial is STELLAR. Sure Mac is hip and cool and the barista at the neighborhood coffee shop probably creates electronica on his when he's not hanging out at the clubs, but that's not everyone. Microsoft has brought computing to the world and this commercial PERFECTLY captures that sentiment. I don't know what agency did it (I could easily find out, but I'm lazy), but they should be commended because for once, PC doesn't look lame.

more pumpkiny goodness

On Saturday we went grocery shopping at the Andronico's in the Gourmet Ghetto of Berkeley and can I just say for the record, I wish my house was in the Westbrae neighborhood.  I absolutely loved it.  Sadly, it's not and never will be.  Damn.

Oh, but it was so much fun shopping because the store was so clean and there weren't any deranged people screaming at each other or the people who worked there and there weren't any kids taking bites out of apples while their parents watched them and didn't say anything.  Yes, that grocery store exists and it's the one we usually go to.  I needed a respite.

As we pulled into the parking lot I was so excited to see the following scene.

Fall is finally here!

Oh, and a point of clarification on my previous autumn post for new readers ... the adorable sweetheart in the pumpkin pictures from last autumn?  That's my niece, not my daughter.  But yeah, she's gorgeous.

planning

I have been seriously obsessing about our next vacation - Ireland in February 2009.  So much so that I've really stressed myself out in the process. 

But ... the good news is that I think I've come up with an itinerary and accommodations that are great, albeit a bit more expensive than I had hoped they would be.  But, like I always say - it's all good in the 'hood.

We'll fly into Dublin, spend 2 nights
Drive to Kilkenny, spend 2 nights
Drive to Cork, spend 2 nights
Drive to Dromoland Castle, spend 2 nights
Leave from Shannon

Whew!

This itinerary means we won't be seeing some of the places that were recommended, but let's be honest - it's Ireland ... it's ALL recommended.  So, now that I've got that out of the way, I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can start obsessing about other things.  Like, keeping my house clean.

I need to research carpet cleaners so that we can routinely and regularly clean our rugs - I just feel like they're SO dirty.  And I want to be able to bring the rugs we put in the basement last fall back in the house, but I can't do that without getting a pretty decent rug cleaner to keep them clean.  So, must look into that.

Oh, and I want a new fall appropriate shower curtain.  I'm thinking I could probably kill two birds with one stone if I went to a big Bed, Bath & Beyond to take a look, no?

happy anniversary jenny & sean

Five years ago today my little sister married her husband, Sean.  Since then they've had three children, the last of which was born one week ago today. 

Happy 5th Anniversary, you two!  And here's to a lifetime more.

* Jenny and I did the flowers the night before the wedding.  I had helped a friend who is a florist with many weddings in the year before this wedding so I had a good handle on technique, but had never really put together a full bouquet before.  We were very pleased with how it turned out, especially as these were entirely DIY.  Now if only I had spelled Sean's middle name correctly on the invites.  In my defense, he did proofread them before printing.  :-)