goodbye Elm Street

I grew up in a room with fourteen windows and no closet.

We had a laundry chute that the cats never fell down,

a fancy dining room

and five bathrooms.

I thought the fireplace was hideous when I was 9 but I love it now.

Upstairs the closets had storage spaces behind them, with ceilings that sloped under the eaves. We called them cubby holes and each had our own to play in.


Not every house is a home but this one was.

a long weekend in Austin

Some of you may remember that my getaway to Lake Tahoe was cancelled last month. Cayce and I rescheduled for this weekend in Austin, TX, which happened to coincide with SXSW, a 4 day music festival featuring more than 1,000 performers at almost 100 venues. Initially I didn't care much about the festival, but it added a lot to the weekend. Every coffee shop, book store, and street corner hosted a different band. If you didn't like the music that came with your margarita, walk half a block and see what comes with a cupcake. Day time performances were free, and night time shows averaged $10. We crammed a lot into four days, starting with a visit to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.

A few additional highlights:

The smartest parents EVER make sure their baby isn't bothered by the often loud music at SXSW.

Dancing the Texas two-step at The Broken Spoke. Excellent people watching in this dive-y joint with live music and a packed dance floor. Low light and lack of a real camera left me trying to capture the ambiance with my iPhone. I broke in my new cowboy boots.

After a half day of indulgence at the Lake House Day Spa (excellent facial, mediocre lunch) we discovered their kitchen garden. Lunch would have been better if we'd eaten directly from the garden.

Texas BBQ at The Salt Lick in Driftwood, Tx. We got the sheriff's deputy to take our picture.

the guys kicked a#$

We arrived on Thursday night, having left Sunday afternoon with a bare floor in the kitchen. We knew the base cabinets were in place because the counter guy had called to say he was drawing the template on Thursday. But we never expected this!

In four days the crew did what we expected would take two weeks. And if, as promised, the counter top goes in on Wednesday/Thursday, we'll be back up and running in no time.

Check this out, the guys even rigged up our old sink on a plywood counter so we wouldn't have to keep washing the dishes in the bathtub.

Oh and get this: they filled the bird feeder before they left! We want to marry them.

counting down to a new kitchen

in the beginning:

Day # 1

When you're as food obsessed as we are, it's hard to say goodbye to a kitchen, even when you know something better is on the way.

Day # 2

We actually bought micro-waveable food when we went grocery shopping today. It felt very very wrong, but with no stove, no counter, no sink...our options are limited. Still, we haven't eaten them yet. Not quite desperate enough, I guess.

Day # 3

We have a floor! Can't wait to see what it looks like when we get back here next Thursday. Cabinetry has been promised.