Teaser

The sooner you help me figure out how to widen my header, the sooner we can get to the real posting around here!  I tried to google instructions, and based on those instructions I fiddled with the html... but either I'm square, or Blogger is uncooperative, so now I need assistance.

the Franc seal of approval

If you need to know if you made the right decision buying your living room furniture, I would be happy to lend you my Franc (pictured below).

With his special skills in catnapping, light sleeping, drowsing, and snoozing, Franc is uniquely qualified to offer your furniture the Franc "Fattycakes" Kovach seal of approval. Seeing how completely he relaxes on our couches makes me (jealous that I work full time to support his habit) confidant I bought the right stuff.

In unrelated news, there are still backpacking pictures forthcoming. Our internet was down for a while, and we've had some other projects to tackle.

Advice for backpackers

The weather reports were spot-on this past weekend while we were backpacking. Isolated thunderstorms? Exactly: isolated to wherever we were hiking. Picking along the soggy trails, I came up with this handy formula we can all use on our next camping trips:

1. Check the weather. Pay attention to the percent chance of precipitation each day.
2. Add those percentages. In our case: 30% Saturday + 40% Sunday + 30% Monday = 100%
3. Multiply by three. From our formula, we now know that there is a 300% chance of thunderstorms over the weekend.
   
4. Pack accordingly - and with a 300% chance of rain, bring your best attitude.
   

When you're backpacking, it's hard to decide how much to pack. You want enough for just-in-case, but not so much that you carry extra weight all the way there and back. So you wrestle: Do you take the extra socks? The extra long sleeves, for if it rains? What about that heavy tarp? 300% chance of rain says, "Yes!"

Abe was the one who bought the duck's back covers for our packs, the one who wouldn't negotiate leaving the tarp at home, and the one who told me "you need rain pants!" and came home with a child's pair that's still too long. And he was right.

(Pictures to come.)

Camp out

A word of advice: If it's only Monday, and you have a lot to do, do not furnish your living room. The previous owners of our house left behind some furniture, including the World's Ugliest Couch. So until this week, I can't say I've sat in the living room more than once. Until this week... when the World's Ugliest Couch went to Goodwill, and we went to Ikea.

Now, my top priorities are:

1. Nap on the sofa.
2. Nap on the armchair.
3. Nap on the loveseat.
4. Oh, yeah. Going to work.
   

Unfortunately, my priorities haven't exactly aligned with reality. Instead, our gear for our upcoming annual "walk in the woods" backpacking trip has taken over the living room.

from left: my husband, the unabomber, my Dad (man of the hour, on his Father's Day backpacking trip), my Mom
not pictured: deadly wild ponies, me

Defeat

Yesterday and the whole past month, everything has happened at once:

• We bought a house -
  
• that came with not just a mortgage. We also got an outdated electrical system and several truckloads of furniture to get rid of.
  
• We put in the garden!
• which grew weeds much bigger and tougher than me.
• The cats got comfortable in their new home
• by getting sick, sick, sick.
  
• We planned to go furniture shopping,
• but my car broke down.

I've been feeling overwhelmed and a little bit lonely, despite the fact that we've already had more people over at our house than we did in our entire last year of apartment dwelling.

Sometimes I feel like there's an expectation that I should be clever here, but lately I've just not felt clever. So today I decided that's okay, and this is my blog, and I'll cry if I want to.

Another day older and deeper in debt

On the most beautiful day ever, I signed my life away to the bank, and Abe and I are now the proud owners of Our Very Own Home... where there is, unfortunately, not yet any internet, so please wait patiently for pictures, and feel free to post congratulations.

Uhaul would be great... actually Wehaul.

Today is packing day. We're celebrating by renting ourselves a uhaul, which turns out to be (a) cheaper than paying for gas in all of our friends' trucks (b) more convenient than driving back and forth across town all day, and (c) easily accomplished online.

And tomorrow is closing!

So you understand, then, that I am much too busy to blog. Unlike Franc, I'm not quite ready for the big move.

I have officially become my dad

Today I went to Home Depot, and I liked it.

I wanted to stay there. I wanted to stay so that I could look at things like lawn mowers and flooring and cabinet hardware. We even looked at boards for our raised bed garden, and for a while. (Until I said. "Okay, I'm 'board.'" Because I am always that clever.)

So, please! Come to visit us in our new home. I'll take you on exciting outings to my favorite home improvement stores, and we can have lively debate about the merits of a 32" versus 48" cut. Or, you know. Not.