Hen Party

January 20th isn't too late to post about the holidays is it? Oh well, it's my blog, so I'll go by my rules.

Here is what the dogs enjoyed as their Christmas dinner:

No, not the meat head - the Cornish game hen he's holding in his hands.

A big 'hen party' for the bitches only. And it continued the whole weekend! Do your pets get special holiday treats?

In Hiding

Where's the red border collie?

Rylie can't be bothered with being disturbed. Being disturbed = sharing the couch with anyone, even Karma. That means snuggling is automatically out. But yet tossing blankets onto her is totally welcomed.

Weird.

But extremely cute. No?

Out of the closet

What? No I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that*), in fact I'm all for equal rights. But like the typical New Year's resolution, I'd like to get organized, starting with my entryways and coat closet. And I'd like to get my coats out of it. Or at least try and see how it works.

See these pics?

Inside of front door

Door to garage

To upstairs

There's a lot of blank and unutilized wall space. Space that me thinks might be used for more practical purposes (coats, keys, mail, wallets, dog leashes).

I'd like to get these or these, but they are sort of pricey for just being hooks. Here's some quick photoshop magic to help you envision it:

Or maybe I should go for something like this?

Or this?

What do you think?

*does anyone get this? Popular TV sitcom?

Bit the Dust

Regular vacuums cannot be used as shop vacs.

Ho Ho Holidays

A peek into our home for the holidays:

A mini tree in the entryway, alongside a toilet drain pipe.

Peppermint taffy and some nuts for snacking.

Tip: Don't launder the peppermint taffy in your pockets.

Stockings and some fruit and candy canes.

Heavenly Bamboo clippings as the table centerpiece.

Another tree upstairs along with some poinsettia. And a glimpse of our rocking new windows.

Garland up the banisters.

Another garland. With a ton of stockings again. And a Christmas tree scented candle (because we have a scent-less artificial tree).

Paperwhites blooming just in time.

Some bells strung on the console. And a neurotic border collie to go with.

And of course the tree. Decked out with a very obvious bath ventilation fan gift sitting underneath.

Happy holidays everyone!

Sprinkle On

Here's our sprinkler control system:

See all those sliders? Each represents a zone on our property. One of the reasons we don't use our sprinklers often is because I'm not good with numbers. As in, I don't deal with them if possible. See those numbers all over the sliders? Yeah.

So this is how I can actually deal:

I made a chart to show which numbers are which zones. It's probably an accurate way of seeing how my brain thinks - in colors and shapes.

Do you have the same dilemma?

Buttered Up

Some indoor entertainment (for both humans and canines) in this dreary weather:

I could use some more ideas, we're running out of peanut butter...

Window Opportunity - Before and After

We woke up bright and early on Black Friday to spend the most on a project on our house to date. And we did it from the comfort of home. Sans internet. By now you've probably guessed from the post title, that it was new windows for the entire house.

Before:

After:

And we got them just in time. They are awesome and we couldn't be happier. So glad we didn't DIY this project...

Bites of Dust

Does anyone know how these things get dusty and debris-y?

Annoying.

Set Time

Remember how Karma did this a few months ago? After spending our evenings with things like this:

And this:

We did much research and test viewing, and decided to take the plunge and get a new TV. We decided to go with the LG Infinia PK950. For us, we had no interest in 3D viewing (at least where the technology stands today). We don't want to have to wear special glasses (when the bf already wears regular glasses), and then only have 2 pairs of glasses, leaving other people watching dizzying fuzzy graphics. I will admit that the 3D technology was much better than in the movie theaters. But frankly, it made everything look too artificial for my liking.

We also decided against LED technology despite all the marketing hype. They are all LED backlit LCD technology. Sometimes you will see it listed as LED-LCD (not to be confused with OLED which is for real and only found on tiny screens like smart phones). Because it's (seems) new, it's expensive - even though it's not new technology. Picture quality is brighter than with plasma, but frankly too artificial for my liking as well. So that is why we decided to go with plasma.

So after our research, we got a new TV but there was a shipping incident which delayed technological entertainment in this household for a bit longer:

We finally got our new TV and a new console to go with it (conveniently taller than the TV attacking dog):

We still don't have cable but we got a ton more channels than we need. And the TV even has a couple of built in video games which is fun to use with our motion thingy remote. And with the wi-fi dongle that is connected to the back of the TV, we are using the heck out of the widgets like Netflix's Watch Instantly.

Thanks Karma, you secretly did us a favor :)