Four!

It's hard to believe that this little guy went from 5 weeks old...

...to four years old in what feels like such a short span of time!

We are so thankful for our pup. Happy Birthday Charlie!

2010 - 315 N. Improvements in Review

Every year I start off by making a list of all of the things I want us to accomplish on the house as the year goes on. This year, we may have diverged from that list a bit, but really made a lot of headway nonetheless.

Here's a recap of what went down throughout the year.

February: Installed a new garbage disposal and a new bathroom faucet
May: Bought and installed a new water heater after ours died suddenly
May: Started a service to rid our lawn of ant colonies so they don't start coming inside
June: Trimmed trees around the house, cleaned out the garage and cleared the dog run
July: Painted the sunroom
May-October: Cleared out and revamped the right of way in front of the house (this deserves a post in its own right, which I will try to get to soon)
September: Bought a rug for the sunroom
October: Routed the sewer line and had the furnace inspected
November: Scraped the popcorn ceiling out of the 2nd bedroom and tore up and removed the carpet from the room.
November: Had insulation added to the attic eaves
December: Bought a new couch!

As the year goes by I never think that we are doing enough (I have big goals), but when I look back I feel like we actually managed to accomplish a lot. I'll share our 2011 goal list in the next few days. It's pretty optimistic, but I'm a glass half full kind of person and can't help myself.

2010 Books in Review

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Aug 09, 2010 [edit]

I try to make a goal each year of reading at least as many books as I did the year before. This year, I made it by the skin of my teeth. I had to throw in Bridge to Terabithia last night in order to make it, which is kind of cop out, but still resulted in matching number of books read in 2009, so I'm okay with it. In my defense, I'm in the middle of about 5 books, so I blame being easily distracted to the last minute goal completion.

The books above outline what I read last year. I track everything on Goodreads, which if you have not been to is a great site that allows me to keep track of what I read when, and what I thought of books overall.

My favorite book of the year was Born to Run, but The Help and the Steig Larsson trilogy were also really entertaining reads. For 2011, I am going to try to diversify my reading a bit to include some new genres.

Here's a quick recap on my thoughts on the books above (as a general rule, I only give really horrible books 1 or 2 stars):

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall: Fascinating book about a serious group of runners, featuring the Tarahumara tribe of Mexico. Whether you are into running or not, I recommend the read. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. (5 out 5 stars)

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown: This is the third Robert Langdon installment and is pretty consistent in tone and pace with the other books. This one focuses mostly around Freemasonry and takes place in Washington, D.C. I liked it as much as I liked The Da Vinci Code (4 out of 5 stars)

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Patterson: A book from my childhood. It doesn't hold the same appeal to me now as it did then, but still a good read for a young adult book.... and a really quick one. I think I blew through it in an hour. (4 out of 5 stars)

City of Thieves, by David Benioff: This is what I'd call a comedic tragedy. It takes place during WWII in Leningrad and follows two unlikely heroes, as they go off on a seemingly impossible hunt to find eggs in order to secure their freedom. It's definitely the most unique war story I have ever read. (4 out of 5 stars)

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins: The third and final installment of The Hunger Games series. I thought it was just as good as the other two books and was surprised by how much I liked the series. Sad to know that the series is over. (4 out of 5 stars)

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett: I'm definitely not the first person to have read this book in 2010. As I'm sure most of you have heard of it, I will keep it concise. Loved the characters and the writing in this book. (5 out of 5 stars)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson: Same as above, I'm sure most of you have heard about this series as well. I loved it. You definitely have to get through the first few chapters of the first novel to get into it, but once you do, it unravels into a really fascinating story. The last two books are pretty intense from a pace perspective. There were many times when I did not want to put the books down. (5 out 5 stars)

Shelter Me, by Juliette Faye: I started this book in August and did not finish it until the day before yesterday. It centers around a woman in the year after she is widowed unexpectedly with two small children. I think the premise of the book was good, it just never really kept me interested. I think it was well written, but perhaps to sad overall to really keep me engaged. (3 out of 5 stars)

Second Chance, by Jane Green: The 1st of two Jane Green books I read this past year. She is a british author, who pretty much writes a lot of chick lit. This was my favorite of the two books I read of hers. It follows a group of friends who are reunited through a loss after years apart. It was a quick read and entertaining. (4 out of 5 stars)

The Other Woman, by Jane Green: My least favorite read of the year, but a quick beach read if you need one. It follows the relationship between a girl and her soon to be mother-in-law, as they move through engagement to wedding and beyond. (3 out of 5 stars)

Junky, by William S. Burroughs: Dan brought this one home and I picked it up one day and finished it pretty soon after. If you ever need a reason not to do drugs, you should read this book. While it's a little to anxiety producing for my liking it was well written and an interesting look into 1950s drug culture. (3 out of 5 stars)

Barefoot, by Elin Hilderbrand: A fun beach read that takes place in Nantucket. I loved the scenery of this book and would recommend it if you're looking to remind yourself of Summer. I also like the characters although the story could have had more to offer. (4 out of 5 stars)

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, by Lorna Landvik: This story spans a group of friends' relationship over a series many decades. I liked to see how the times effected each character and really liked how each developed. A fun book that reminded me of the Ya Ya books. (4 out of 5 stars)

Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See: While I liked Snowflower and the Secret Fan more than this book, I still found it to be good. It focuses on two sisters' transitions from wealth in Shanghai to being immigrants in Los Angeles. It was somewhat sad overall and dragged at times once they were in the US. (4 out of 5 stars)

Nor'easter 2010

One of the best parts about being on the East coast for Christmas was that we got to experience a huge Nor'easter while we were there. Even though we have lived at 6,000 feet for 5 years, we just don't see this kind of snow out here.

My Aunt B woke the boys up early the next morning to help with the shoveling. Greg had to borrow clothes from Paul. He looked awesome!

It pretty much made Dan's day to wake up and shovel. But all in all the boys were good sports about it.

I spent the morning wrangling my Grandpa to make sure that he didn't head out there with them, which may have been the toughest job of them all.  :)

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We're back from spending Christmas in New York and slowly getting back into the swing of things. We're happy to have this guy back with us every day!

We brought with us a gift for Charlie from Grandma and Grandpa, which he has has been thoroughly enjoying.

I actually woke up to him squeaking it this morning. We had such a great time in New York and I miss spending time with my family already.

Walking the Talk

If you know anything about my working life, you most likely know that a good portion of my time is spent working on the advertising needs of a large utility client (said client will not be named in an effort to avoid Google alerting many of the people I work with on a regular basis). Regardless, a lot of our messaging revolves around the efficiency products and programs that this utility offers to their customers and the benefits that people can reap by investing in efficiency efforts. 

If you know anything about my personal life, which you do if you are reading this blog, you know that I live in a 106 year old home, with it's original octopus arm gravity-fed furnace, original (and completely beautiful) wooden windows, old appliances and many other idiosyncrasies that make this house one of the least energy efficient homes around.Suffice it to say our utility bills each winter can be astronomical.

So, when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to take advantage of a 2010 tax credit for adding insulation to your home and had blown in insulation added to the eaves in my house early this week!

Charlie was very involved in this process, so it's a very good thing that the guys who were doing it liked dogs. Here he is on the sidewalk outside my house right next to their truck. He took an opportunity when I wasn't watching to go through the open gate and help out.

So after a little bit of work to get the process started on our end, we are now looking at glowing R-values in our attic crawl spaces. Our actual attic is another story though. We need to have some old wiring removed before we can have insulation added there. However, in the short term I am giving myself a big pat on the back for actually doing something that I tell others to do every day! I think my own local utility will thank me, and hopefully in the long term my wallet will too.