Domestic

Getting Ready to Party

This weekend was supposed to be about tidying up the backyard in preparation for our Housewarming BBQ.

I had high hopes for doing some massive weeding and hacking away at a strange quick-growing, 6-foot tall (possibly carnivorous) plant growing at the west side of the house.

Well, the weekend took a different turn, but backyard beautification happened regardless!

Amy and I took a trip to the Rebuilding Center and spent an hour arduously picking through huge wooden planks with nails sticking out of them. We came out with some nice pieces and we busily got to work building our own picnic table! (The total half-hour I spent pulling nails out of boards counts as "building," even though Amy was the one that actually measured, cut and connected the pieces of wood together.)

We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves now that people will have a place to sit and eat this Saturday. But the Backyard Beautification Gods were smiling down on us this weekend and on our way to a softball game we passed by these vintage lawn furniture pieces.

They need some TLC but should shine soon. [Some TLC? Try a whole weekend's worth... -amy]

Housewarming BBQ time! But watch out for the possibly carnivorous plant.

-sonia

Pork Chops n' Peaches

Imagine that—it's been ages between posts!

A big reason why:

We bought a house! Our landlord—at the supposed-to-be-temporary apartment I couldn't stand (and consequently wasn't all that domestic-ish about)—handed out condo conversion notices. We thought about finding another rental, as we didn't think we were ready for a house yet. But what the heck—why not check in with our old lender? Turns out we could qualify for enough for a house. Boom—five weeks later, here we are! I'm not kidding—we knew the 30-day notice was coming before it actually hit. When it did, we had to be out by June 30. We closed on this place June 29.

So it's been a nutty month or two.

 

But we're here, we're fairly settled, we've got more space than we've ever had—a whole basement! a dining room! a yard! a garage!—and we've got a to-do list a few pages long (not to mention an entirely new part of town to explore—we were SE PDXers, and now we call NE home). Which means lots to blog about.

Last night, we picked up a Weber grill found on craigslist, and officially retired the apartment-issue Lil' Weber. Tonight, we grilled pork chops with a spiced peach-puree sauce and grilled peach halves. Sonia gave them a big thumbs up.