Living the Single Life

Eric went away on a fieldtrip with the mayor on Sunday. And doesn't come back until tomorrow night.

I know... a weird start to a blog. But this is the first time I've had the house to myself for this long since before he quit his job a Kite, when he travelled ALL the time. Quite frankly, it's kind of weird to not have him here at night. I mean, he still works a lot, so sometimes I only see him for dinner and then when he comes to bed... but I'm not used to have the remote control to myself. And the couch. And the bed.

Though I gotta admit, it was nice to veg in front of the TV for a couple of nights, without someone griping about the stupid comedies I like to watch. I love some mindless TV (usually sitcoms), which drives Eric nuts (he picks apart everything from plot lines to character flaws).

On the down side, I didn't cook at all. Which some would say is not a bad thing. I had some leftovers tonight, and last night I had cereal. Yes, cereal. I love cereal and have considered making it my three meal-a-day diet. But I kind of missed making some 'real' food, even if some of what I cook is pretty mindless, too. Cereal is just SO much easier! And, sometimes, tastier.

But alas, this little experiment is done tomorrow night. Even if his work schedule and quirks drive me up a wall some days, I still love him. It'll be good to have him home.

Campaigning for a Friend

Ten years ago, if you would of asked me if I'd ever be campaigning for a politician, let alone be friends with one, I would've laughed. Yet, today, there I was, back up in Fishers, doing just that.

David George, whom I worked with at Kite and got to know more since leaving Kite through some other friends, Tony and Jen, has been on the Town Council for years. With Fishers becoming a City next year, he actually has a district now, and actually has to campaign for his re-election (since he actually has an opponent). And, even though we don't live in Fishers, Eric and I go help our friend out.

We did it last spring, for the primaries, too. Before that, I had never campaigned before, though Eric had. Thankfully. I've never been one for answering random knocks on my door, let alone being the one doing the knocking. I was surprised at how friendly people usually are.

Of course, I learned the trickery to it... you only knock on doors of people registered with the party you're affiliated with. Which means no controversy. Since it's done on the weekend, though, people often aren't home. Or just choose not to answer (like I would).

This does not make me any more of a fan of politics. I'm just helping out a friend. Don't see myself ever doing this for a random politician... still not my thing. Still don't agree with the way politics have become in this country. But that's for another blog.

Fall...

So the change of the seasons is upon us. Weird, since we didn't really get a taste of summer until the last month or so. And the past couple of weeks already started feeling like fall, complete with some leaves starting to change colors.

Fall came too fast this year. I want more summer. Not just because of the year flying by fast, but because I actually want some more hot weather! You know... the type when you breathe, you can feel the hot air as you breathe it in. Just call it a weird quirk I have.

And also, there's now the looming knowledge that winter is much closer than we'd all like to think. And I still don't have a garage. Have a nice big patch of dirt and a hole with utilities stubbed... but no garage yet. This makes me sad. I can't deal with another winter of digging my car out. It sucks.

For some reason, I'm just not into the onset of the cooler weather and really am not looking forward to the changing colors. it's just kind of 'meh' in my mind right now. And I've never been one of those people that associate cooler weather with football because, well, I grew up in FL. So football can play on in warmer weather... if it would just stay that way.

So this feeling of 'blah' does not bode well for the upcoming weeks and months. If I'm already dreading winter, what am I going to be like when it's actually here???

*sigh*

I guess one positive is that I can look forward to my boots and coats that come out in the cooler weather. I also have a few cozy sweaters that I look forward to wearing. But I can't even get hyped about that yet. I just want summer back.

No. Just, No.

It was in the 40's this morning. Said so on my car thermometer (forgot to take a picture - I was in too much shock). And on the news before I left the house. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for the cold. It's not even Fall yet!

This just reinforces the fact that I need to go to FL. ASAP. My cruise is still too far off to make that what I'm looking forward to...

Come to think of it... that is the only trip I have to look forward to right now. That's not good. Christmas doesn't count yet... it's a given, and we don't actually have it planned yet, so...

Eric laughs when I say I 'need' to go somewhere. I don't think I could ever be a true nomad... but I do get bored if I somewhere too long without a break from it. Those weekend jaunts up to Chicago for a Cubs games are lifesavers in my book. And Boston was the icing this year... what as awesome trip that turned out to be. But that was two months ago... too long ago. Especially when colder weather shows up on my doorstep.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not one that's on the high maintenance front as far as travel goes... but I've always liked to roam. Growing up, it was on my bike, at the end of Emerson Drive and beyond, where there were no houses, yet lots of paved roads. I could ride for hours out there, by myself, looking for and going nowhere in particular. Unless I saw smoke... then I had to find the source of the smoke. FL brush fires always intrigued me... have you ever watched a palm frond burn? Or the bark of a scrub pine smolder? It's mesmerizing. Okay... I'm starting to sound like a pyro now... I never set them... just liked to watch them.

Anyway... lots of rambling here... point being, I don't want the cold weather yet. And I need a trip to FL soon. That is all.

You Just Never Know What You'll Find...

I think most everyone who reads this knows that I live in an old house. Like, really old house... 100+ years old. It's not my dream home, but it was more ideal than my former home up in Fishers, for Eric and I, when we got married . It's a way better location and much bigger. It was also the one hobby Eric had going - working on an old house. This is his third.

Thankfully, he had most of it done before I ever brought one box down. He kind of had to, with the condition is was in when he bought it. It had been in the same family for decades, and it the later decades, it had been divided up from a single family home into three rental apartments. The plus side to that was nothing was ever painted, so most of the original woodwork just had to be cleaned up. The bad side of that was the fact that you had weird walls build and more kitchens then you needed. So that's what Eric spend the first few years doing - turning it back into a single family home. He had a few surprises along the way, both pleasant and unpleasant. For example, the original wood floors were still mostly intact... just buried under multiple layers of vinyl. Probably the coolest discovery was that he had a true parlor in the front of the house, complete with a knee wall and columns that had been enclosed into studs and drywall at some point. While they weren't pristine, he was able to restore them pretty well.

To date, not much had been done outside. He has redone/repainted about half of the siding, which is a feat on all it's own (I'm trying to convince him to hire someone to do the rest). The front porch was rebuilt by his old contractor, with a finish upgrade to the floor itself (from painted wood to stained wood). But the backyard... aside from putting in a vegetable garden, nada. We're working on getting a garage started, and knew there was a smaller garage or carriage house (literally) at some pint, since the foundation was still in place. But it didn't seem as if they did much else out back.

You may remember the backhoe we had to trench in utilities over the 4th of July weekend. That was fun. Well, we never fully filled in the trench because Eric wanted to make sure a few connections were made, first. With the impending winter upon us, we spent this past weekend filling it in by hand and, also by hand, leveling out the other remaining mounds of dirt so we could reseed and not have a huge mudpit all winter. Eric had just started throwing in dirt when I noticed some bricks along the edge of the trench. They were too perfectly straight to be remnants from the old cistern that was removed. So we did some exploratory dirt moving and found a brick path. At this point, I was excited, and took it upon myself to find out how far this thing went. Well, turns out it likely led from the back porch to the old garage, because we uncovered quite a length of it. Judging from the amount of dirt on top of it, I would say they just threw sod on top of it at some point. Why would you do that??

So now I have a solid path to walk on most of the way to my car (since I park out back). It still needs to be cleaned up a bit, but that's the easy part. Maybe. We also might explore some more and use it and/or modify it to use when our garage is done. Maybe. Since we still have no idea how we're going to finish off our backyard next year, this idea might not be feasible. But for now, I'm just excited to not have to walk through mud.

Penrod

Penrod. Also known an Indiana's Nicest Day. Though that could be argued this year - it got kind of muddy overnight, I think. But never the less, I think it's one of the better art fairs out there. Especially if you go to the VIP event the night before, An Evening with Penrod.

Okay... so it's VIP only in that they sell a limited number of tickets to it, as it's a fundraiser for the Penrod Society. But never the less, it's a fun event. Eric and I went last year, too, and really enjoyed ourselves. There's little one-bite foodie tents all over to nosh on, it includes drinks, and while not all the artists are open, a large majority of them are. And it's not overcrowded like the day event can sometimes get. Which makes for a more comfortable environment, where you're ready to buy, which the artist like. Last year, we found a beautiful painting that we gave my mom for Christmas. This year, though, I found a little something for myself. A cool purse.

It's much more than it sounds. We found this guy who salvages seatbelts from old cars and turns them into a realm of bags, from coin purses, to messenger bags, and everything in between. The guy (Clay Bush) who started it was pretty cool to talk to - very passionate about his start-up called Salvage, which is pretty cool. It's not like some of the seatbelt bags you probably seen out there, either... you know, where they weave the belts or something. He actually busts out an industrial sewing machine and sews the things together. So if you're at an art fair and see this guy, definitely check it out. It's totally worth your time (and money if you like them).

To give you an indication of how on trend this even is, we went by Eric's fashion store, Pattern, and showed them. They liked it enough that they're in talks with the guy to sell the bags out of the store. How cool is that??