Kitties got baths tonight...
Kitties were NOT impressed.
Good news is I only have one set of scratches and no bloodshed! (Ralphie was slightly less impressed than Kitty... she actually did pretty well after her initial shock.... Ralphie... you would have thought I was killing him... poor thing)
My apologies to the Monkees :)
It 's been a long time without blogging... been very busy, but I took yesterday to go on my very first solo hike on Pleasant Mountain in Demark, ME.
I was so excited to go that I was awake bright and early... on the road by 7:$5 am :) I knew it was going to be a great day when I saw this pulling out of Hannaford:
I took off up 302 and headed toward my first destination... Lynchville, ME... what's in Lynchville you ask...
It's the most famous sign in Maine. For 32 years (give or take) I've seen this sign on postcards everywhere... but I had never seen it myself. So yes, I drove 45 minutes out of my way to take a picture of a sign and check it off my "Being a Tourist in my own State" checklist... check. FYI, it's at the corner of routes 35 and 5 in Lynchville.
Then, off to Denmark I drove. I chose to climb Pleasant Mountain via the Southwest Ridge Trail as recommended by my AMC guide. I was the first one in the parking lot and excited to start my hike on this beautiful day. I started up at 10am.
This first half mile was a bit of a bugger... fairly steep and right off the bat. I started to wonder if I'd made the best choice, but when you get gorgeous view within half an hour of starting a hike... it's worth it.
I made it to the summit in about 2.5 hours and was so happy with the views...
Although I could see rain in the distance, the weather cooperated on the mountain and I was able to enjoy the entire hike... 5.8 miles round trip... I got back down to the base in 1.75 hours.
Mother nature is a wonderful and amazing woman... you can see the rest of my pictures here.
Always nice to have a nice sunny day on the weekend.
Today I started off my morning down at the gazebo off the Eastern Prom...
It was beautiful. I took a walk around and met some very... let's say "interesting"... people at the beach area. Suffice it to say the man in the group (older... heavier) had stripped down to his underwear and had no problem sitting there chatting with me in his skivvies...
The bees were out in full force, both honey and bumble :)
On my way back to the car I stopped to read the monument for the Arctic Campaign that is near the gazebo. Check this out:
"Hugh seas"???? How about "high seas" folks! I feel the need to point this out to someone, but am not sure who I should contact. No monument in memory of thousands of people should contain a typo :(
After my lovely morning at the Portland shore, I took off to go work on my master's paper. That is still hard to get motivated for, but I'm slowly but surely gaining momentum.
I left the office and then headed to the Audubon Society in Falmouth to read for a bit and relax. I got to see some cool weather from a distance:
It's raining way over there... luckily it stayed way over there.
Right before I pulled out to leave, I found this motley crew running around...
They're four of eleven turkeys I got to see today. These guys were the biggest. They were pretty cool :)
Time to start another week. Have a good one!
Yay for a day off... while part of me didn't need it, I decided to make the most of it. This whole weekend was rather lovely, but today was full of "me time" and I think I really needed that.
Started off the day by heading down to the Eastern Prom with coffee, breakfast and knitting. This is usually a Sunday event for me, so going on a Monday was a treat :)
I then drove to Mackworth Island to go for a walk... but they were full :( But I'm sort of glad they were... because it prompted a trip into the unknown for me and I found some great spots! I decided to take a drive up Route 88 through Freeport, Cumberland and into Yarmouth. Lovely drive with many beautiful homes to look upon lustfully ;)
My trip down 88 ended at a nice spot in Yarmouth... Grist Mill Park.
I had fun taken the camera out and getting shots of the falls, trees, and berries in the area.
Then I hopped back in the car and headed up Route 1. I wanted to avoid downtown Freeport and vaguely recalled a state park... so I ended up at Wolfe's Neck State Park and walked around for a bit:
I then headed off to knit for the afternoon... with some small trips to other scenic venues for eating :)
All in all... a great day off!
Kitty was a bit over cuddly last night... she kept curling up on me. And when I went to sit at the computer... first I got this:
That would be "constant paw on Cheryl's mouse hand"
But the coup de grace would be when she did this...
About 15-20 minutes of "cat head on mouse hand" It was adorable :)
Some of you may recall the cricket from hell from last summer...
This summer... may I introduce you to the slug from hell.
Oh some of the untold joys of homeownership :) At least this one was OUTside.
So I'm pretty behind on my posting... have a few knitted things I'll need to post about sometime soon, but right now I'm getting ready for my 2 week trip to California *SQUEE* so those posts might have to wait until I have more time :)
Sunday I bought myself a new camera and accessories:
It's a Cannon PowerShot and it came with a 4GB card, a case, and a "flexipod" for pretty cheap :) The flexipod thing is so cool! I've never had a tripod before nevermind one that does this!
Yep... it wraps around stuff... it's cool :)
And now... we pass the torch...
Goodbye hp PhotoSmart... you have served me well over the years and have seen me through many many memories... Maybe you can still serve someone else well :)
Ok... I'm going to be painting two bedrooms over the course of the summer (yes, I've realized this isn't a quick project).
The bedrooms were sort of like this: CLICK HERE
The goal is to strip the paint off the walls/ceiling and strip the wood work. Then I will be painting the walls/ceiling and staining the wood work.
Here's some "where I stand" photos (I'll save you from everything for now)
This is the hallway "before" (except for a little bit of paint that I'd scraped off the door frame on the left)
This was how far I got with a heat gun and scraper in HOURS :-/ I knew I needed help, but wanted something that wasn't a serious bad chemical... enter Ready Strip
And...
While it's not perfect... considering there were three layers of paint, I'm happy with the stuff. I've learned that it works well, but not in the "30 minutes to an hour" stated on the package. But if you leave it on for a few hours, it works great! Which is STILL better than the heat gun and scraping. :) I haven't had the time to try again, but I will soon and post my progress. My goal is to have it all done by Labor Day!
... LIGHT!
Finally... after months (and months... and months) of procrastination... I fixed my light fixture in the bedroom!
The pull chain on the old one broke last year and was unfixable so all I really needed to do was put in the new fixture that I bought. But since that required turning off the power, etc it always got "backburnered". but this morning I turned this:
into this:
And all without electricuting myself :) yay... bonus!
So... let's see... from my "household stuff to do" list:
1) put together my two bedside tables that I bought last year and never assembled 3) fix the moulding in the bathroom 4) strip and paint both bedrooms 5) strip and stain the woodwork in both bedrooms 6) paint the wall in the hallway 7) strip and stain the stairs and railing 8) dig up those *&@# *&@#*&$^*@ shrubs in One and a half down... six and a half to go :)2) fix the light fixture in my bedroomthe front and side yards
Today was about as perfect as could be... (well... a couple things would have made it even more perfect, but I'll take what I can get :))
First, I was up bright and early with my kitty cats who have been being pretty darn adorable this week. Here's a picture from yesterday:
They were very excited that the door was open :)
And then this morning I got to watch this for a little while:
too funny
Next, I spent a lovely morning with my sister and niece. We went and did a "test run" of the Sea Dogs Mothers' Day 5K race. Course isn't too bad! Then we went to Whole Foods to do a little shopping.
By the time I got home, the sun was shining and it was simply gorgeous out. Perfect day to get some yard work done!
16 (yes 16!) leaf bags later... my front lawn is looking good! (now just need to find the time and buy more bags to do the back and side yards... never ending...)
With that finished I attacked a job that I've wanted to do since I moved in here... removing the shrubs from the front yard (there are a couple on the side of my house too that I will remove, but those can wait)
Here is the house before:
It's the shrubs closest to the steps that need to go (the others are very nice rhodedendrons that I'm definitely keeping)... oh btw... note the cats in the window? What... can't see them??
There they are! But I digress...
Well a couple hours later and... voila!
No more shrubs! Just stumps... which I will have to dig up at a later date. And then plant something pretty sometime.
And the shrubs are waiting to get hauled off to the dump (have I mentioned yet how much I miss my truck??? This is going to take me at least 4 trips with my little car (including those leaf bags) :(
I am going to be really darn sore tomorrow (those shrubs were "demolished" with a hand saw... yay fitness! lol) but I'm so pleased with today.
And today's not over!!!! On the agenda: nice warm shower, ordering out for dinner because I deserve it, and a night of vegging in front of the TV with my knitting... yay
AND I took tomorrow off from work... so one more day of productivity to come!! So happy :)
