The final countdown and whatnot

On Friday, I put in a request to KMHD to make me a sweet potato pie. She totally said yes! She even delivered it to me! What a good little sister. Thanks, KMHD.

The pie, delightful. She cut the amount of sugar, so you can focus on the sweet potato & spice flavors. It totally lifted my spirits & helped me take a moment to appreciate autumn & the beautiful weather which I haven't had time to do. Here comes Halloween, my favorite holiday and I've got no pumpkins or decorations; nary a chrysanthemum in sight!   I've got the candy, which is so bare bones.  Hopefully, I can make up for it next season.  Anyway, the pie lent me a moment of normalcy. This living between two places is starting to take it's toll. I'm grateful that we're moving next week. Move in ready. Move on ready.

I can't even figure how many hours we've put toward the Olive St. house cleaning & preparing.  Labor INTENSIVE.   We've dealt with mildew, dank smells & strange ooze on some walls.   All of the rooms, with the exception of the mud room, are ready to be lived in. We're hoping that all of the pre-packing & cleaning we've done will make for an exceptionally smooth transfer.  I had all of our movers in mind -- I didn't want their volunteer experience to be complete misery.   

Removing ickle carpet from the closet:

Shelf-lining. This is temporary as it probably won't be long before we tear the mother out:

So fresh and so clean clean:

Ah, the fun stuff:  I'm excited because not only do we have expected packages being delivered to our new home (Thank you, Allan! We shall return the favor!), but we should be receiving our new post box, too! Like so:


An inexpensive way to add !!! to the exterior of the home, yes?  I'm currently looking into new house numbers, too.  Should we paint them?  Or should we go ahead & invest in something nice?  I love this:

According to the website that I found them on, these were installed throughout Portland, Oregon in the 1930s, which is pretty damn ideal since our home was built in 1935. Yeah, we pretty much have to do it now.  If we're going to do it, might as well do something we adore.  I'm looking forward to spending drab winter days going through paint swatches & decorating.  I've got lovely visions of painting and catching up on podcasts and sipping tea.  

We may get our major kitchen appliances sooner than later, which is very good news for me!  Word on the street is that ATM's momma is going to help us with the stove.  And I've decided to be a big girl & put the refrigerator on my credit card.  We will be able to take care of that with our tax credit.  And once we get that tax credit, we'll be able to get a new washer because ours just went kaput this weekend.  I'm just thankful we have a dryer.  We agreed that washing clothes at a laundromat isn't as awful and drying.  

We're grateful for the first-time home buyer's tax credit itself!  Not only are we realizing the big dream of owning a home, but we're getting a leg up, too!  I don't know who to thank, so I'll just thank President Obama.  He gets a lot of misplaced blame, so I'll give him some misplaced thanks.  Oh, and taxpayers.  Thanks, you lot!

Heather, who is a sweetheart, texted me this evening to see what we're going to do for my birthday, which is a week from today.  Awwwww!  I had already written it off in my mind because we'll be moving.  I'd like to do something at our new home the following weekend (Nov. 7).  I'm envisioning an intimate birthday party involving a nacho bar & an ice cream cake.  Maybe we can fire up ye olde fire pit, too.  

Eating. Resting.

It feels like we've been working two jobs lately. First, there's the boring, paying kind & then there's the one where we go to our soon-to-be home to do some deep cleaning. It's gross! Erasing the previous tenant's mark is hard, tiresome work. So, yesterday evening, we decided to take a night off. We needed it. I got to make supper & hang out with needy kitties. Back to the grind this evening, though!

I did a potluck faux pas on Tuesday & brought an experimental dish that I've never tried. Thankfully, the dish turned out to be exceptional. I made them again last night. This is a great entree if you're looking to do something different for Tex-Mex. This is also great if you've got a lot to do, because you can do things while the potatoes are cooking. Introducing...potato tacos w/ a creamy goat cheese sauce:

Potato filling:
7-8 fingerling potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into bite sized pieces
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 t chili powder (or to taste)
1 heaping t of cumin (or to taste)
almost 1 t salt
ground black pepper
1 1/2 T vegetable oil (I'm sure you can use olive oil, but this is a good opportunity to use up the vegetable oil that I rarely use anymore. It worked beautifully, I might add.)

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, combine all of the above-listed ingredients. Use your hands to mix everything together to ensure an even coating of spices & oil. Put the potato filling in a baking dish & bake until the potatoes are soft. In the meantime...

Sauce:
4 T reduced-fat sour cream
2 T mayonnaise (Hellman's!)
2 T goat cheese (I used the kind with garlic & herbs)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 t cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded & finely chopped
1 t freshly squeezed lime juice

...in a medium bowl, combine the above listed ingredients & mix well until smooth & creamy. Put in ice box until needed.



When the potato filling is tender & ready to serve, pull out of oven and set aside. Heat up in a skillet as many corn tortillas you'll need. I'd say that one person can eat 2-3 tacos. Fill the tortillas, add a dollop of sauce & dig in! It's easy and delicious. And you'll be blown away at the amazing flavors.


Eat well and get some rest.

Boss

Saturday was boss! ATM & I went to Hot Springs to mosey, look @ antique shops, have a bier & enjoy some of the documentary film festival.

I discovered another antique store which made me way too excited to be a (soon-to-be) homeowner! Moonlight Antiques is well-organized; they have things categorized and beautifully displayed. It was so difficult to not buy anything. It won't be long before I have my dream granny house ya'll! But, seriously, I love modern utilitarian design in addition to antiquities, so I'm hoping to find a happy medium. Dare I dream? I'd like the house to be featured in a magazine one day. I'm tossing my hat into the low-budget, low-income interior design arena. So, I'll be sure to post plenty of boring before/after photos. Anyway, even if you don't buy anything @ Moonlight, just looking at their stuff is fun.

After that, we went to Brau Haus for a cold one before heading to the documentary film fest. While we sat at the bar, we decided that we'd eat there for dinner, between the films we wanted to see. I knew it would be underwhelming, but I guess I was in the mood for some ickle bland brown n' white food.

I didn't know this, but Pres. Bill Clinton was in town. Too, Rep. Mike Ross's office is in the area. It made me very very happy to see people fighting for public option in health care reform. I only caught the tail-end of this exhibition:

Our dinner @ Brau Haus. As we suspected, was awful, but we had to be sure. We agreed we would never eat there again. My entree was eerily similar to the appetizer!

Here I am, waiting for our next film @ the Malco Theater. (Photo by ATM):

We watched a total of 5 documentaries. There was only one good one, I Am a Man: From Memphis, a Lesson In Life, and it didn't blow me away. I loathe the other documentaries that we saw so much that I won't even mention them. Despite it all, though, I had a really good time! I will probably go next year and the year after that and so on. I think I just love hanging out in Hot Springs with ATM.

On Sunday, I woke up bright(-eyed & bushy-tailed) & early to buy home cleaning supplies. Then, I paced the living room until ATM woke up so we could go to Low3's and buy a ceiling fan/light fixture. We went to Olive St. House & waited for Zach to show; I cleaned, they did the installing.

While waiting, a neighbor came over to chat us up. I don't mind people being nosy & trying to figure out who's new to the neighborhood, but this guy rubbed me the wrong way. He told us that "this is a quiet neighborhood" no less than 20 times. Yeah, WE GET IT. Too, he "forbade" us to cut the crepe myrtle tree in the back. He told us we needed to attend the Park Hill Neighborhood meetings (And maybe we should, so we can shoot everyone dirty looks!) & join the Yahoo Park Hill online group. He also confessed that he's been in and out of the house via the unlocked window in the back. He said that the previous owner gave him the authority to do so. Without directly saying so, he admitted that it may've been him or other neighbors who made out with the light fixtures. What they hell, hey? Well, we sent him a message by locking the windows: It stops now. Every time my mind wanders back to that event, I get so damn hot under the collar. Thankfully we know some lovely & wonderful people who live nearby.

Anyway, I made some headway on the very disgusting (& ugly) bathroom:

Zach installing our new fan/light:


At one point, we were standing around the kitchen, hatin' on the cabinets. Zach suggested demolishing the cabinets RIGHT THERE. I really wanted to! I felt this amazing adrenaline jolt through my spine! Obviously, we have to wait for closing day, but I wouldn't be surprised if we started disassembling them before the ink dried on the contract!

I've got a simple idea of removing the cabinets and having an open shelf system with a subway tile back-splash. Simple & clean. And NOT A RENTAL. The inspiration:


So, we've got our work cut out for us. The house needs to be deeply cleaned before we start moving in; I think it's been unoccupied for better part of a year or more. I feel that if we can properly clean & disinfect the bathroom, our bedroom, and the kitchen, we will be able to deal with a bit of disorder in the rest of the house. We've been running up there in the evenings cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. I'm hoping that the musty smell will start going away.

We received our first house-warming gift! Zach did right by us with this one:


I am a fan of the Mexican folk art associated with Dia de los Muertos, which my birthday happens to fall on. And now I have inspiration to decorate the phone nook. Brava!

When we got back home from working on Olive St., I did a little more packing. I threw away a sugar skull I made last year. It's been sitting on the toilet; it says 'jiggle handle'. It made me sad to see it in the trash can. We're leaving! Aaaah!:


We've got 13 more nights @ 508 Willow! I've got an overwhelming sadness/anxiety/excitement/happiness/confusion/exhaustion thing going on. I really cannot wait to be past the big move. And I hope I'm not projecting, but I think I am more anxious about moving than SOLO and Hot Dog will ever be. Stress!

We're having dinner with friends this evening; I hope it does the trick of taking our minds off of things for a minute. I'll be making experimental potato tacos!

Item!

ATM informs me that our lender & our realtor are trying to push up our closing date!  Shyeah!

♬ I've got a writer's block inside my head, I let it go to work, bring it all back home♬

So, looking at the calendar, it looks like we've got less than two weeks until our closing date. Trippy!

My mind is jam-packed with worries & 'things to do' that I haven't been focused enough to report the every little goings on in my life. Too, we're so close to living out of boxes, something I haven't done for eight going on nine years. It's just turning my perfectly harmonized life into complete disarray! I was nearly brought to tears & down to my knees when I couldn't find the already-packed hand mixer. It's funny what you think you can do without for a few weeks. I mean, I'm still cooking fully involved meals; I can't pack away the food processor and stand mixer and skewers and immersion blender just yet!

We've done a lot of packing already. I'm hoping that come moving day, it'll be a whole lot of loading and unloading, no last minute packing. We've got a crew of excellent folks helping us out, too. I'd like to give ♥ out to people who have offered to help us move: KMHD. An. Rett. Jeff. You guys are the shining example I give in defense of humans. Really. I've got the dreadful task of calling the utility & cable companies hovering over me. I'm looking for volunteers for that! Heh. Oh, and if anyone knows how to cat whisper, will you notify SOLO & Hot Dog of our impending move and that everything will be o.k.? They know something is going on.

We will be having an open house of sorts as we move in on the weekend of Oct. 30-Nov. 1, which is Halloween/my birthday weekend. I cannot tell you how bummed this makes me. I love Halloween & I LOVE giving out treats to the kiddies. I've heard that children get bussed to Park Hill & gets hit hard, so I won't be able to make my little goody bags, but I did buy a metric shit ton of candy. I'm hoping to at least give out sugary treats, but there will be no dressing up or going out to shows. I also love celebrating birthdays. You won't see me sulking about turning 31. I would never go back, know what I mean? I've thrown my last two parties and they were so themed and so fun. Awww, man. I am straight up pouting over here.


New calendar smell.

I got one of my o-ten calendars. Holidays & birthdays have been filled in. Won't be long (February?) before this thing starts looking a little rough. I think I will go to etsy or buyolympia.com for my other one. A little handmade won't hurtcha! So, I need three; one for work, one for home, one online. Must. Write. Everything. Down. My mind, it just isn't clenching on to info as well as it used to. I have an appreciation for calendars, too. One year. Twelve months. One day at a time. With seasons, traditions, and our rituals to fill in the in-between.

FINALLY! Peace in the house.

Bake

Yesterday, I suffered a very specific food craving, the kind that will not go away until you take care of it. I wanted to taste the very subtle flavor of corn tortillas, Monterey cheese, black beans & corn, in baked casserole form. I perused the WWW for recipes, but nothing sounded appealing, so I decided to just make up a recipe & hope for the best.

Ingredients:

1 c of green enchilada sauce
1 can of fat free evaporated milk
1 small tin of diced green chiles

1/2 yellow onion, chopped fine*
1 can of yellow corn
1 can of black beans, drained & rinsed

2 c shredded Monterey jack cheese

1 c fat free shredded Cheddar cheese

In a medium bowl, mix 1 c. of green enchilada sauce with 1 c. of fat free evaporated milk & one small tin of diced green chiles. Set aside.

In a baking dish, pour in some of the enchilada sauce mix; just enough to get the bottom of the dish wet. Lay down & overlap six corn tortillas. If you really love the flavor of corn torts like I do, lay down a dozen. Sprinkle a handful each of the corn, beans & cheeses over the tortillas. A half handful of onions will do. Pour more sauce on top, about a 1/2 cup? Repeat this pattern until you run out of ingredients with the top layer being the corn/bean/cheese/onion/sauce. Use all of the sauce because the tortillas will absorb it.

Bake for about 30 minutes in an oven that has been pre-heated to 375 degrees.

Serve (after letting it sit for a few minutes) with sour cream, salsa & cilantro.

It is a very subtle dish; I wanted the corn tortilla flavor to stand out. You may want to add salt & pepper, but I think it's great w/o it.

*I didn't make it with onion, but I think it will only make it better next time.

WATCH HIM FALL

Word on the street is that Jay Reatard's band quit. Band dramz.

Here's the original Reatards @ Goner Fest 2009. I was there, man!

The weekend that couldn't have been more October.

We got to meet Alannah for supper on Friday. She is one of my favorite people ever. We went to Lilly's Dim Sum, which was good. The most memorable thing we got was dessert; we murdered it. They've got a kick-ass creme brulee, but the ice cream served between two warm won tons with cinnamon & sugar & chocolate & caramel sauces was bon! Heavenly. The crab cakes & hot/sour soup are notable, as well. I regret that I didn't whip out the camera, but when you're that hungry or your company is that good, you sometimes forget these things. Anyway, it was the very best way to kick off the weekend.

I woke up too early on Saturday. Even after attempting to go back to sleep, I got up at 7:40 a.m. There was a neighborhood-wide yard sale planned & we planned on participating. We managed to find a pile of stuff to get rid of, so I made a pot of coffee and got to work pricing things. About a 1/4 way through, I realized that I didn't feel like yard-salin', so I decided to just put the stuff to the curb. "FREE STUFF" the sign said. People took it as I set it out. Brandon & Mariella (w/their cute babies) stopped by. We joked at how socialistic my place looked what with the "Another Household for Health Care Reform" sign and my free stuff giveaway. Heh. Eventually, the Peeks rolled up. After a bit of coffee & a donut, we walked around to see if there was anything worth buying. Eh. So, we hopped in the car & drove up to the Olive St. house to check it out. They made me more excited about our home-to-be. Or maybe it was the donuts? That much sugar gave me heart palpitations and a tummy ache. Anyway, I'm elated. The Peeks & my bodily issues left, so I spent the next few hours packing more things to make for an easier move later this month. WHOA. This month!

OH! I almost forgot. I got a new toy:

I made a potato leek soup right away. It's been a minute since I've cooked something new or different. It was so pleasurable. That immersion blender changes everything. Smooth, creamy soups 4-eva.

On Sunday, my best mates met me at the house. ATM drove us to Keo, Arkansas to go antiquing. It was a bust, because the store isn't open on Sundays. So, ATM drove us to Jacksonville to look around. Heather introduced us to the very best resale shop I've ever stepped foot into. The goods weren't in total disrepair; on the contrary, they were all in great shape AND very affordable. AND they have a layaway system. This is very good news for someone who will be in the market soonish.

I've always dreamed of having a farm table with a bench on one side & wooden chairs on the other. (Ha, dream big, AMD!) This made me possibly reconsider:

That's some great design! I suppose if a farm table doesn't work out, then definitely this. But, I will hold out longer.

If I had the extra cash, I would've bought this cocktail bar for ATM on the spot:

So stylish!

We went to the flea market briefly. I think we weren't really feeling it, honestly. The grey, rainy weather may've had something to do with it. But, we did stop by Hastings on our way out of town. What a trip. I felt like a teenager in the 90s in there! I even went as far as buying the latest issue of Bust magazine. Time warp. We went home after that. It was too much.

Naturally, I wanted to use the immersion blender again, so I decided on some mushroom soup:


Good grief! It's so good, I'm making it again this evening for Keiko/Luca & Heather. The flavor is so delicate & subtle. I can never eat mushroom soup from a can or restaurant ever again.

More Olive St. photos!

Our realtor let us in to our soon-to-be home yesterday evening so we could take window measurements & get some more photos. I got a better view of the bathroom. Yikes. Yikes. And in the hallway, it appears something was sprayed on the walls near the top & it oozed down. I hope it's bug spray, but even that is weird. Anyway.

Here's one of the rooms in the building out back:



Back of house:


Front door w/entry way closet. Please note the fantastic doorknob on the closet. I do find it strange that the fire alarm is in the entryway:



2nd/guest bedroom w/ stylish light fixture:



Sometimes my camera will take a random shot on it's own. See?:


The bathroom is ghastly! I may have to submit this to some HGTV show for a total redo. Gag!:





We've got a phone nook! And there's that ooze coming down the wall. WTH is that?:


Master bedroom w/ the same vintage light fixture as the other bedroom. Neat shelves!:



Hallway closet. We have so much storage space!


Kitchen. We will need a stove and icebox.:

Finally! A place to put all of my vinegars, oils, sauces, spices, etc.
Pantry:


Laundry:



Hallway:


Front door. We're thinkin' blue, maybe. Maybe.: