Home Improvement

A lot of people may think we're crazy for doing this, but Lindsey and I have wanted to paint the radiator in our living room for weeks now. We finally got around to it this Saturday. We used water-based acrylics, so hopefully when we turn on the heat in a month or so it won't kill us with toxic fumes. It was a really fun project and I have to say I think it turned out pretty well.

Close up

Another close up (I painted the butterfly)

From a distance:

The room is pretty bland (I describe it as varying shades of oatmeal) so this really adds a lot and is so much easier than painting a whole wall.

Sadie

So I feel like my car's name is Sadie. It's the only one I've been able to think of since I drove her home. My favorite thing about Sadie, well I have two favorite things:

1. When I accelerate the music gets louder. It makes driving a bit more exciting.

2. I can adjust the seat not only back and forth, but up and down. This means I can make the seat higher and don't have to crane my neck perched on the edge of the seat in order to see over the steering wheel, which was the case in the previous car.

I think afer work tomorrow I'll stop at CVS and get a car freshener. I don't know if it's new car smell or what, but I don't like it. Other then that I have few complaints. It's cool to own something valuable, but I'm afraid to drive over 65 mph because I don't want to risk damaging my own property.

The Record-Breaking Post

This is the most I've posted in one month sice I came home from England. I guess my life has got much more exciting in the past month.
Last night we had 6 extra people spending the night in our apartment. The fam went to Cape May for a week and stopped here on their way back. Mom and Dad got a hotel, of course, while 6 children, aged 4 to 15 spread out on our living room floor. Well, actually the 4-year-old shared a bed with Lindsey. She kicks horribly so I don't envy her that.
This morning we took them to the park to try to wear them out but it really tired me out more. I don't know if it's because we grew up in the country, or for some other reason, but the boys have no sense of sharing space. They are so noisy: yelling, screaming and pushing each other in the playground, completely un-aware that there were several other small children trying to use the equipment being quiet and good.
The real exciting news is that I bought a car! She's a 2008, black, chevy cobalt. Very pretty--haven't decided on a name yet. I got her just in time really, because Mom drove Daria back to Potsdam today.

The Last Wedding of the Summer

August 23 was Melissa & Aaron's wedding:
 
Hanging out before the wedding. It was such a perfect day for a wedding, but I was glad we were in the shade!
 
Me and Rachel played music for the wedding. I don't think Rachel was very happy when I let her music blow across the grass.
 
Me and the Bride!
 
I have to say although I've complained about it, I have enjoyed all the weddings I've been to this summer. This one was especially nice - the weather was wonderful and the park was so beautiful. Me and Danielle shared a tent (that we borrowed from Aaron) and camped out at the park with Melissa's family. It was just a nice weekend being outdoors and hanging out.

People Came to Visit Me (Part 2)

 
After exploring Troy I took Justine to some places in Albany. She climbed up on the legislative building to get a picture with the shadow people.
 
Me and Justine in front of the Egg.
 
Emire Plaza. The sun was shining through the rain. After this we found some secret underground tunnels (actually a bus station).
 
Then Arielle and Chris stopped by! I used all the produce I got at the Farmer's Market and made a fabulous Greek salad. We brought it out to eat it in the park.

People Came to Visit Me! (Part 1)

 
This past weekend Justine came to visit me. I used this time to explore and do some of the things I've been wanting to do since I moved here, but haven't been able to because of the plethora of weddings I've been invited to.
 
First we went to the Farmer's Market in Troy (I don't have pictures of that). I went a little farmer's-market crazy. First I went through all the booths once just to see what everyone had. Then I went through to the ones I wanted things from and tried samples of their products. Then I started buying. We bought fruits and vegetables, as well as two bottles of really yummy wine (black-raspberry and blueberry), feta cheese, organic peanut butter and some delicious crusty bread.
 
When we finally got worn out from the farmer's market (actually I ran out of cash and had to go to the ATM) we got some water bottles and sat down by the Hudson.
 
After we were refreshed we walked down the antique district and poked into some little shops, using this article as my inspiration, http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/travel/escapes/07trip.html. The only thing I'd disagree with is that Illium is not a great place to stop to eat. It's overpriced and the service leaves much to be desired. There are many other cute, more reasonbly priced restaurants to choose from. However, all-together it was quite a fun little excursion.

Suddenly Seymour

Laura tells me I need to blog some more... so, the new addition to the apartment.
Seymour:
 
At first I felt bad because it's just one little fish in a huge 2-gallon tank, but he just seems so happy in there. He never gets bored of swimming back and forth. I used to make fun of people who took pictures of their fish, but Seymour is just so cute. He's got a little black spot on his butt so it looked like he pooped his pants. However, the picture did not turn out too well, so I don't think you can see it.