I’ve been typing up my diary entries from last December, and realizing that my idea of a busy weekend six months ago has become what I would consider a relaxing weekend now. I’m not sure if it has to do with living in cohousing… though I suppose that must have more than a little to do with it. And yet I still feel that we’re far less involved that most.

Yesterday was “Pie Day” at work (in fact about pie day times two, as official “pie” day is 3.14). A total of 12 pies were brought in for judging. Unfortunately, the night before I had gone with my mom to our first “Meditation for Stress Reduction” class, and hadn’t had time to bake a pie. So Garry had bought a berry crumble at Trader Joes, which consisted of no less than 6 types of berries, including cranberries. Needless to say it was a little tart, and came in tied for last place. =D

Misc Spring Photo

After work we had to go meet Reese at her unit to help her plan how to stage and sell the place. A typical Arbco conversation, we spent the first hour talking about holistic cat medicine, and only managed to spend the last 15 minutes creating a plan of action. We have to go over there again tomorrow morning to help her stage things and take pictures.

Then it was the birthday pizza party for Karen E. and Janet K. Of course I had had pizza for lunch (pizza “pie”, get it?) but one can never have too much pizza. We sat with Sheila and Oscar and discussed marriage and the insanity of the modern 300-people wedding (one of my coworkers just had a huge wedding and another is planning one, so I’m surrounded by blindingly garish engagement rings and discussions on brides made dresses from J. Crew.)

After we got back to the unit, we took Baxter for a walk, and then my parents called asking if we wanted to come get donuts and watch the sunset on Observatory Dr. Even though we were stuffed, only an idiot would refuse donuts. =)

That was yesterday. Today we woke up at 7:30 and ate our donuts for breakfast (there are benefits to being a squirreler), then off to the Saturday farmer’s market. Today’s shopping: green onion, mushrooms, strawberry jam, cheese, and new potatoes (I love eating local!). And as a donut is apparently not enough fuel for a husband, we had to stop off at the Sunprint café for Garry’s second breakfast; eggs, potatoes and toast (don’t ask me where it all goes).

Only $12 for three future skirts!

We returned home for a bit, then out again and a bus trip to the fabric store to buy some skirt-making materials (I have no skirts!). My parents picked us up from there and we went to Carendale for 24 quarts of strawberries. We had lunch at a nearby diner – the place was nice but my salad was pretty bland. Then a quick stop a Jung’s for more bean seeds (it’s been a bad year for beans, and none of ours sprouted), and over to my parents’ to “put up” strawberries for the second weekend in a row (last weekend we did 18 quarts).

Afterwards we ran a couple errands with my mom – dog food and tomato cages – and returned home for a little rest.

Our few minutes after sitting down we wer interrupted by Linda knocking on the door asking if we remembered the community meal was tonight. Yes, we said, but we had eaten lunch at 3pm and weren’t hungry. But of course we would still have to pay, so I convinced Garry we should brave the curious looks of our community members and do some quality squirreling. After gathering chicken, salad and fruit tart in self-supplied Tupperware, Garry announced that he hadn’t been hungry until he had seen the chicken, and proceeded to scarf it down (he did give me a couple bites, and it was delicious.)

So there you go – a typical weekend day in our new community life.

What’s been going on, hmm…. Well, since March, Spring has turned into Summer has turned into walking home in hellish 95 degree heat by a lake them smells like piles of dead carp covered in maggots and getting bitten by a mosquito on my finger (finger blood, yummy). Ugh, it’s hot. The garden we planted down in the community area isn’t doing very well, but then again none of the ones down there are… basically it’s construction infill covered in about ¼” of dirt, so nothing is going to grow more than a few inches. That said, we do have a few sad snow peas, though the plants are now dying.

View of the raised bed from our bedroom window.

Since the dirt down there is basically sand and bits of metal, we built a raised bed behind the house next to our unit (they said we could) to grow tomatoes and peppers. Now those are doing very well; in fact we already have a cute little poblano pepper that’s growing about half an inch a day. Apparently plants prefer dirt over construction junk. Who knew.

Fainting couch from start to finish.

Let see… going back in the photo folder, there’s the fainting couch we recovered. Here’s the before and after shots. Not that the before isn’t so bad for a grandma’s bedroom, but we wanted something in the window of our living room for the cats and dog to flop on.

The beast (with dog).

Dog, you say? Yes, indeed. His name is Baxter, he’s 55lb of Beagle and unidentified other canine (Collie, they said), and we adopted him from the Humane Society about two months ago. Two years old, loves to knock people over, and his favorite chew toy is a remote control (he’s destroyed three so far). The kitties have gotten used to him, but I’m not so sure we have. Oh, and he howls, poos in the house, and doesn’t understand personal space (as in, it’s 90 degrees and the overheated furry slug won’t budge off your lap, no matter how hard you push). But, you know… he’s cute.

Goose family in front of lake Wingra.

Let’s see, what other photos do we have… random pictures of walks we’ve taken, through the arboretum and such. It’s amazing watching the seasons change in this neighborhood; there are so many flowers and animals and baby animals… I think it’s been a bumper crop of goslings this year, unless geese normally hatch about 20 babies a piece. They sure are cute until they start hissing at you.

Photos most random.

Garry has been looking for a job since school finished, but the recession isn’t making it very easy (apparently my mom has “never seen such a small classified section”). I’m plugging away at Anchor… I’m going to try and remember to bring some of my work home tomorrow so I can post it. The past few months have been brutally slow, though it seems to be picking up a little. I’ve been doing a little volunteer design to keep my brain from shutting down; last week I created a brochure, poster, and business card for a guy next door. I will be getting paid in “Time Dollars,” which lets you log your volunteer hours on a website called the Timebank and then get stuff back for it, like hair cuts and junk.

Anyway, going to try to start posting more. It’s nice to read back on what I’ve been up too, especially since I seem to have the memory of a 90 year old.

The journal has been packed for the last few days. On Saturday we woke at 6 a.m. to try and finish packing, but when Jon and Erin arrived we still had the kitchen and bathroom to do. The kitties were locked in the bedroom, and all the boxes and furniture were piled in the family room.

It took about three hours to do the first load. We stopped and had take-out Rockies for lunch at the condo, and while we were eating a woman from upstairs came down and volunteered her niece and two nephews to help us move. They didn’t seem to pleased, especially as it was raining pretty heavily.

After the second load was done, we picked up some litter from MadCat and then came back to collapse. Pookie took a lot of time getting used to things – I sat with him in the closet for an hour while Bailey explored. After awhile he ventured out. We were able to get the bedroom together and then fell straight asleep.

On Sunday my dad picked us up at 7 a.m. to move the couch, a chair, and some other bits from their house. The uHaul was frozen shut and we had to poor hot water on the door to open it. After we had gotten everything back to the condo, we unpacked for awhile and then headed out around 11 a.m. to catch the bus to the fabric store. The walk to the bus took us through our little park and by the zoo – I love our neighborhood!

At Westgate we bought some bedroom lamp and a different shower curtain at TJMaxx, then spent $100 on fabric for curtains. My parents picked us up and we went for a nice lunch at the Tutto Pasta in Middleton, then to Whole Foods for some especial, and back to the condo to do more unpacking.

First floor window = kitty TV

We tried out the bread maker and had some… interesting first results. Apparently “vital wheat gluten” is indeed vital when using whole wheat flour, or you end up with a lumpy, rock-hard poo.

I also managed to make curtains for the bedroom and living room before we went to bed. Oh, and our shower rocks!

Today it was back to work as usual. Garry came with me and then headed to the apartment to clean, clean, clean. The #4 bus isn’t exactly high-class since it comes from the South transfer point, but the stop is less than a block away.

I went out to eat with Jon and Holly, and I paid for Jon as a thank you for helping us move in the cold and the rain (I’ve promised Erin I’ll help her paint her new house).

After work I went to Cap Foods and picked up some vital wheat gluten and some bread flour, then I met Garry coming back from the apartment and we went home together.

This evening we did yet more unpacking – I put away about half the clothes and Garry put the den/computer room together. Man, do we ever have a lot of crap! I managed to make a real loaf of bread (sooo yummy) and I used our stove for the first time to make dinner.

A Work of Art

So here we are in out beautiful new bedroom with stripy new curtains, listening to the dishwasher running (a dishwasher!), and getting ready for our third night in our new condo. Yay!

What an insanely exhausting day. We had breakfast at Sentry and shopped to scant “After Christmas” sale at Macy’s for some new towels and slippers for Garry. Then we got some curtain rods and painter’s tape at Ace, where my mom picked us up and drove us to the condo for some super-crazy painting time. Man, is painting ever a workout. We barely stopped except to eat the lunch my mom had packed for us (yumyum). And seven hours later my dad drove us to their house for take-out fish, then back to the apartment to collapse. Last night here – yikes!

Probably one of the stranger Christmas days I’ve had. I woke up to see pillow cases bulging with presents – since we didn’t have a tree Santa apparently did what he used to do for young little husband.

I had only had time to get Garry the watch and PC game he’s asked for, and I felt suitably guilty (and happy!) with six gifts! Two board games, candy, a book on Maine Coons, and this cool plastic buildy kit.

Getting Ready to Paint

We quickly wrapped up my parents’ presents – a scarf and “comfort snake” for my mom and an aerial to receive digital TV for my dad – and headed over for breakfast and a few more gifts (a target gift certificate, a calendar, and a book). Garry hooked up the aerial (it was out “gently used” one, but we thing they understood our frugality!). Afterward we headed over to the condo with painting supplies and were greeted by the canine welcoming force (four doggies including a very cuddly toy poodle named Terra). Their babysitter Karen is the woman that will be watching our kitties while we’re in Florida.

Santa Terra stops by.

We set about painting and got the first coat done in the den and kitchen, then went back to my parents’ house for a Christmas roast beast, and then back home for some packing and bed. Two nights ‘til the big move!

Four days of freedom! Today was such a long day, even though I only worked a half-day. I was so tired I actually took a nap with Garry this afternoon – we fell asleep in a crazyknot on the couch, which probably wasn’t the best for my neck.

My mom went with my Grandma, Lynn and Mike to checkout the condo and the picked us up at 5:30 for a Mexican Navidad feast at my parents’ house. Sort of a weird meal – I was a bit too tired to deal with chocolate sauce on chicken, so I opted for the gravy.

A pyramid of paint

As for our Christmas haul – my parents had constructed a Christmas tree paint can pyramid with a big red bow on it. Yay, paint! Plus they bought us a bread maker and the first season of Dharma and Greg. Parents! We’ll be going over tomorrow morning to give them the presents that are still layout unwrapped on our living room floor. Grandma gave us some chocolate cut mix and $200, and Lynn and Mike gave us a dusty old plastic drop cloth we think they found in their basement. Hmm…

Bread-maker-mouse. (photo taken Jan. 17)

Tomorrow morning it’s presents and painting; yay!

Two days until Christmas! It barely seems like it; we didn’t even get a tree this year with everything going on, and we couldn’t afford many presents (well, except for a condo!). I had to work 10 hours today to make up for closing yesterday. We visited the condo after work with my mom, but it still hasn’t sunk in at all yet. I can’t wait to be all moved in and get to explore and decorate.

Art show with father.

I gave Erin and Jon their hats today. Jon seemed really happy with the Batman lining. I also ordered some dark grey wool yarn for my next sweater; it’s a pattern from the last Knitting update. I justified it because Lynn and Mike (my parents’ friends) will be paying for the print they bought at my art show.

Tomorrow is only a half day and then it’s moving and decorating time! I have to remember to tell Jon and Erin to come help move on Saturday (I’m sure they’ll be thrilled). There is still so much packing to do!

Our new living room

Today we closed on our condo. Only three weeks after our first tour of Arbco (and only two days before that we had never even heard of cohousing). There were a lot of papers to sign. The government representative warned us about the high property taxes and about the “Sanibel Stoop” disease. She had cool short hair like the wizard guy in the Nutcracker.

My neck has been aching lately. I had to go back to work while Garry and my mom went to check out the paint samples in the condo daylight.

A plethora of hats (and a cat)

I’ve wrapped my coworkers’ gifts to give to them tomorrow. I had to make hats out of old yarn as we have no money, though I did line Jon’s in Batman fleece. I hope they like them and they’re not too big.

Work is dragging – thank god it’s a half-week. I just want to move in – it’s all not even started to sink in yet. Yesterday they had a “solstice party” with crafts and I cursed the stupid weekend buses – I can’t wait until it’s all just down the hall from us. It’s funny – I’m actually looking forward to the community aspects the most.

Artshow Postcard

Big news! I have an artshow in December, here in Madison, at Mother Fools coffee house - yay! I’ll be displaying my latest collage work and I think it will look really cool in there; the setting really suits the style of my artwork. So I have to get busy - 3 weeks to go….must start churning out the art. I’m not sure of the exact dates yet, probably Dec 1 through to the new year. I’ll post again when it’s set in stone.

Photos from the zoo

Aside from extreme allergies, fall has been pretty nice this year. Today Garry and I took the bus downtown, ate at a local café, and went to the zoo to visit all the aminals. I got to itch a pig, and Garry got pooped on by a bird in the aviary. All-in-all a good day out.

Recent Art

This week I’ve had creativity fever. It’s like I woke up and realized that designing for a bank isn’t all I need to do for the rest of my life. I’ve been drawing, scanning in fabric…. Garry seems to think this is economically viable and started up an Etsy site.