Breaking down walls, tearing up cereal boxes

What you see above is the destruction left by an unhappy, stressed out, super tired Cash. I know, lazy lover Cash, right?? He does not like people making ton of noise in our house all day without being able to be a part of it. Our kitchen is in our living room, and as always Cash is allowed to roam free in the open, non-construction areas. Temptation was too much for my little baby yesterday... He ate through two boxes of Kashi high-fiber cereal, leaving the freeze dried blueberries, box remnants, and torn bags left for me to pick up. He also at two whole wheat buns, and tried to break into a bag of brown rice. Let's just say, my baby is not feeling well this morning with all that fiber in his body. I called the vet to see what we could do, and she recommended benedryl to make sleep all day. Jim and I will take one pill if we can't fall asleep, but the vet recommend 3-4 for Cash. I gave him three, and closed him up in the den. We'll see what happens...

In other news, without walls our kitchen is HUGE! Ginormous. One of the non-kitchen things we're doing is opening up my closet for more clothes, purses and accessories. I was worried about using up our kitchen space for such a silly purpose, but now that we can make our nook a functional part of the kitchen, no more worries. I even posed the question to our contractor, and he said the kitchen is plenty big, and improved storage in an old house is always a big selling point. YAY me. Whatever, I want the extra storage. Here's some photos from yesterday... Huge progress.

Looking toward the living room from what was the nook. The plastic is the current entry to the living room. This doorway will actually be opened another 10 inches or so. Notice NO WALL!! The red beam in the ceiling is what is holding up the roof. Big job for such a scrawny piece of wood.

Another similar shot. The existing plant window will be replaced with a basic vinyl window trimmed out with walnut-stained fir to match the rest of the windows in our house.

A look up into our attic at an old, but good roof. This is one of two roofs in our attic. At some point in the past 100 years, an owner converted a porch in to a nook. Left the old roof on the house, and added a new roof above. Kind of weird to see, but typical I guess. The old roof actually hits our new beam, as if that was the old West external wall of the house.

A different perspective... Looking West. The corner where the old pantry meets the basement stairs is where the refer will be.

So all the walls are down, the first "draw" was requested. The plumber is in today to set up all new plumbing for the refer and the sink. Tomorrow we get the second of many roof replacement bids. We are not just remodeling our kitchen, we are painting our house in and out, a new roof, new insulation in basement/attic, and a reinforced, non-tragedy inducing front deck. We were originally going to just touch up the roof, but after many discussion have decided to just get a new roof. Our house will clean up well, I know it!

The electrician comes out on Monday to get all of the electricity updated in our house, including the 25% of electricity still running on knob and tube wiring, as well as giving us a light in our closet that doesn't share an outlet with the bathroom fan!!! YAY!

Now decisions loom before we can truly move forward. Lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinet layout, tile, counters, flooring, french doors - the FUN STUFF!

Next update: drywall...

Rubbish

Day one of the remodel is complete, and our kitchen is gone. I came home at lunch to check things out, and it looked like an episode of Hoarders gone bad. Our dismantled kitchen piled on the lawn did not look as charming as it did attached to our house. The pile of old wood, and garbage bags full of refuse resembled a pile of rubbish coming out of tenement housing. Sad.

Not really... I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. My "sticky" old cabinets are gone. Fuck the charm. The dust and grime of 100 years could never be bleached off my cabinet doors. While functionally sound, my kitchen was a pit of despair, with endless dark corners where the 12 mugs from my wedding dish set went to die. I was cleaning out the area where I stored my baking stuff (a pile really due to such a large space), and found not one, but three containers of unopened Hershey's Cocoa, three partially used corn meal bags, and two unopened bags of panko. Awesome. I am not a Hoarder. I am short, my cabinets were HUGE, and even with a stool, there was no way I was going to be able to get to the back of the baking shelf easily. The shame.

Anyway, here are some shots from day one...

Day two will see our kitchen framed, our ceiling reinforced, our nook wall down, and the plumbing updated. YAY! Stay tuned.

Hoarders, Junction Style.

Where the sink used to be.

Our nook wall. Notice the lath and plaster. This was laid almost a 100 years ago. Prehistoric really.

Our chimney. The contractor said the floor was not sealed around the chimney, thus the flooding in the basement. Better the basement than our kitchen in my mind. We are leaving the chimney intact, and will be exposing it as part of the remodel. Just like this. Kinda charmingly Tuscan, right?

HA! Not.

The window in the nook. This will be french doors in Treehouse Kitchen v2.0.

Having a blast. Love.

The Tear Down

In case you haven't heard, Jim and I broke ground on our remodel today. We spent most of the weekend horribly hung over, but we did manage to find time to tear our kitchen down. It was a dirty process. It's amazing how much filth lies beneath everything. It was a great opportunity to purge broken dishes, never-used mugs and old food. We were also able to "sell" or salvage our tall shaker cabinet doors, our mini sized, 5-panel pantry door, and all of our hardware for $100 to ReStore, or $20 credit. Awesome. I am excited to go back and find cool, salvaged items to incorporate into the remodel.

Our "kitchen" was relocated to the living room, and we are now living like college students in a studio apartment. It's cozy, but temporary. The thrill of the remodel outweighs any discomfort having the refrigerator next to the couch causes. We are likely going to return home to a open, empty space. YAY!

Here are some photos:

Chaotic Mess

Pre-Move

This was Jim's hungover unhappiness.

Our new, temporary kitchen. The stove is merely a counter top, as we do not have a gas hookup in the living room, much to my dismay.

The final shot before the tear down... Awww... Memories.

No one man should have all that power...

Busy fall/holidays/winter

Jim and I started doing spontaneous weekend trips, and it's been a blast. November took us up Rattlesnake ledge to Snoq. Brewing in the pouring rain, then to Walla Walla for an extended, expensive weekend at Abeja, to Bainbridge and Poulsbo for wine and baked goods, and finally to San Francisco for some shopping, a Huskies game, and Thanksgiving in the East Bay. It was a blast, and something that our DINK status makes super easy.

My boys at Rattlesnake

Jim and I in Oakland

My two favorite girls waiting for Santa on our Annual Gebow/Nisbet family outing.

Me and Moo during our XMAS sleepover at my house. Matching jammies and pizza.

Mom wearing Jim's "Cock" hat at our family XMAS eve at my house. I like this photo a lot. I have a wonderful, funny, non-judgmental mom.

Of course the biggest event of the past three months was our soggy, stressful trip to Kauai. Notice the progression of Jim's facial hair through the vacation. I prefer #2.

A "nostalgic" photo on my new camera. Jim drinking Mai Tai's at the Honolulu airport. Facial hair #1 - full beard.

Day 1, I wake up to the Sundance Kid. I love this photo of Jim, a true smile, which you rarely see in photos. Facial hair #2 - handlebars

Prolly the most stressful point in the trip, harrowing hike along the Na Pali coast - torrential rain, severe wind, flash flood warnings, slippery trails 500 feet of cliff from the ocean, and a whole lotta drama.

Post hike, befriending the locals. If you haven't been to Kauai, chickens/roosters are like pigeons, but cuter.

We went on an unplanned hike that led us to a nude beach. Nothing to see but old, overweight men with saggy junk. Needless to say, me, Jim and his conservative parents never actually set foot on the beach once we realized where we were...

The core component of our, really MY diet... Volcanic Eruption Shave Ice: rootbeer, cherry and vanilla syrup over ice, and mac nut ice cream. It's even better covered in sweetened condensed milk. YUM. Best thing ever.

These signs were everywhere. The worst was coming down the hill to the beach on the Na Pali hike, tons of lives lost. So sad, but really? I would totally add a "1" to it, just to make people more scared.

On our way to the airport, looking just as white as we left. Notice the shave. Facial hair 3#: clean, better than beard, but not as cool as the handle bar.

In other news, wanted to share my favorite things from the past 3 months.

A MUST HAVE: Laura Mercier gel eyebrow color. Shapes, darkens, and holds crazy Norwegian eyebrows like mine without looking "filled in". The color sticks to the hair, not the skin. YEAH!

Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. His Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is easy the best album in a LONG, LONG time. Download this: Power. The best run song, serious.

On the opposite side of the spectrum... Found this sweet little Feist, Ben Gibbard cover. I am a sucker for Feist though - Train Song

Oh, and have you ever heard of Bruno Mars? Really. My brother, who has HORRIBLE taste in music said that he was terrible. Don't know how I want to interpret that, but I LIKE it. Maizey does too. :-) Grenade. Jen - you will love this, I promise. Teen pop at its best.

Anyway, boring updates, but thought I would update anyway.

We break ground on our Kitchen Remodel next week. I'll blog the progress. It's bound to be interesting.

Love

Epiphany

Epiphany

On the plane, writing my first blog post in over a year, instead of working as I should be. Why? Read.

I started reading this book the other day, “The Happiness Hypothesis” (HH), a book on how to strive for balance in your life. It was recommended. I know, you’re asking yourself, “WTF? I thought she only read bodice-rippers?” It’s true, when I am not reading romance novels; I read books on the other side of the spectrum – non-fiction. I prefer books on why religion is bad; books that provide another way to lose weight by reducing sugar and carbs, while going to the gym; or, books that help a driven, more than slightly ADD career woman navigate the split personality of her social and career lives.

Anyway, the opening chapters of the HH are focused on discussing early medical research on the brain. Whoa! A little different than learning all about Lizzy Bennett’s home life before she meets Darcy. This section also presented a number of both modern and ancient theories on how the brain has evolved, and why we are the way we are. Interesting. This is as far as I’ve read, maybe 3 chapters, but I’ve learned something: at this point in my life, I am a rogue elephant.

The HH asserts that the emotional self is a huge elephant, and is the rider is self-control and reason. Without a rider, the elephant just roams, survives. With a rider, the elephant has direction, rules, and constraints. They are dependent on one another. This is a relatively ancient theory, but HH crystallized the metaphor. HH believes that if you find a metaphor that will help guide your decision making, you need to grab on to it. Let’s just say, I’ve been intimate with this theory in the last 48 hours, it’s taken up permanent residence in frontal cortex, or whatever.

Right now, I don’t have a “rider”, I am rogue elephant.

Did you ever see those Discovery channel documentaries on teenage male elephants that went MIA from their herd? Without a parental figure, these elephants are extremely dangerous and wreak havoc in their environment. “Rogue” elephants usually roam alone or with one other teenage male elephant, and operate like 14 y/o boys with piss-poor parents.

You’re asking yourself: “In other Discovery channel documentaries, elephants are presented as an intelligent, highly-evolved species.” Forget that. The elephant represents my emotional self, not an actual elephant. Although, swim suit shopping under the glare of the Nordstrom fitting rooms in preparation for my trip to Kauai (YAY me), assured me that maybe I am closer to an actually elephant than I originally thought.

I may be enlightened by this theory, but I am still rogue. I am waiting for the point when the little man in the bright circus costume and tall hat, come at me with one of those electric prods to keep the elephant “under control” under the bright lights of circus tent. Heaven forbid the captive, barely domestic, elephant attacks the cheering crowd. Grrrr!

Anyway, the little man appeared on Tuesday and prodded me not to have dessert after three cups, okay four cups of Lee’s Asian (Chinese food), and half bottle of wine. I did it! I went to sleep without dessert. I always eat dessert. Always, and sometimes two desserts. If my elephant could just eat dessert for dinner, it would. My rider would tell me that it’s not worth it, but I am riderless.

You know what else my elephant does? It consumes. A lot. Expensive clothes, spectacular wine, good food, unique shoes, Open Heart Michael Kors watches, pedicures, manicures, massages and glycolic facial peels – out damned brown spots! It also travels to Hawaii twice in one year to laze about on the beach for days at a time. It’s the “champagne tastes” of my riderless elephant. My little circus man would call those bad decisions, put me in my cage, and lecture me about the importance of conservatism, and long-term financial planning. BORING! The little man prodded me to return a big chunk of what I called my “birthday” presents to myself. This will of course have to wait until I get back from 10-days in Hawaii, and have a chance to get all of the sand out my swimsuit. Sad, my new boots are so cute. Damn you little circus man, elephant charmer or whatever you are...

I mean, what if I die on my way to Hawaii? At least I’ll have a chance to enjoy all of my new things. HH says that a weak little rider, let alone a circus man, can barely reason with a big, strong elephant like me basking in the afterglow of money poorly spent.

It’s taken me years to cultivate my elephant, train her to make choices that provide instant gratification at the expense of long term happiness. Oh well, I guess that’s why my elephant decided to read this book. Ugh.

Wish me luck getting my rider on my back, allow her to break me of my rogue tendencies, and teach me self-control. It’s an uphill battle, that rider is going to need some serious upper-body strength; my emotional self has been rogue for years.

“Epiphanies can be life altering, but most fade in days or weeks. The rider can’t just decide to change and then order the elephant to go along with the program. Lasting change can come only by retraining the elephant, and that’s hard to do.”

18 years later, and still stalking Ed...

This post has taken a week of crazy life events to create... It ends with me settling into an unexpected vacation, sick with what Jim calls my "Jam Cold", reliving last week in this post and rocking out to PJs new album - Backspacer...

Pre-story
On a 102 degree day 8 weeks ago, I "worked" from home. I had just returned from my girl's week at the Canal. When I checked my email prior to returning to work, I had a scathing, furious, screaming email from my boss about something so stupid, it would make you laugh. I went to work that Monday, and barely made it through the day - I was so upset at the way my boss handled a non-issue like a 12 yr old teenage girl that I took Tuesday off. Spent the day in my cool, dark basement, and searched for a way out... I found a job at Amazon. A job I was qualified for... It took about 2 seconds for me to decide that the risk was worth it - a non-existent commute, an amazing job, a true retail company, and mission that I supported in a big financial way. I had two brutal phone interviews, followed by an intense 7 hours onsite. I got a heads up in mid-September that they were "reaching out to my references"...

Monday

Big Day... Pearl Jam concert number one. I was a wreck. Still no word from Amazon. My CONFIRMED references weren't connecting with the Amazon recruiter. September at Starbucks is a total waste - end of year, and everyone is on vacation. Didn't sleep Sunday night - a familiar ritual the past 8 weeks. Started work early, and took off early to hit will call for my Ten Club tix. I was a zombie, drugged out on Airborne and Propel trying to stay well for my 48 hours of Pearl Jam love.

Kevin and I planned to sit together, since we were the two with active 10c numbers, and take

the best of the two sets of tickets, leaving Jim and Jordan with the "nosebleed" seats.

What we did not expect was FRONT ROW CENTER!!! I've been to over 20 PJ shows since 1992. One of my first shows was the Gorge with Blind Melon in 1993 (?). I sat "front row" in the mosh pit. That was the last time. It was a different time - Eddie was married to Beth Liebling, and I was a teenager in high school - angry and unappreciative. Anyway, Jim and Jordan ended up in section 113, while Kevin and I spent an intimate evening with my boys...

Monday was amazing... Stressful. It's hard to be "onstage" for the band in the front row. I felt like I had to earn my seats by rocking out, and constantly showing Ed that I was into his gig - which I was... My natural state would have been to stare dreamily into his eyes while singing back at him at the top of my lungs - not so appropriate when he can see, and LIKELY hear me.

The set list was okay, since it was made up of a ton of new stuff, which I barely knew. What was FUCKING amazing was having my "Number One" reach out across the security aisle and hand me his bottle of wine at the end of the show. DID YOU READ THAT?!!?! I have stalked Eddie in some capacity for 18 years, and on Monday, HE REACHED OUT TO ME. I ended up sharing the bottle with all of the crazy PJ 10c members surrounding me. Given past behavior, I am surprised that I didn't just shut down at that point. See it and weep...

In EV's hands...

In Ricki's hands...

Jim didn't want a good $29 bottle of Italian Barolo from Costco to go to waste.

Tuesday
Went to work. On a high from sharing a bottle of wine with my Number One. About 30 mins before my 1:1 with my Boss, Amazon called and presented an Amazing offer. I was shaking, asking myself how I got so lucky. I gave notice shortly after, and within an HOUR was ESCORTED out of the building - my employment with ATT over, boxes in hand, totally humiliated, and 2 weeks of "notice pay" stolen from me due to a perceived conflict of interest. Not so lucky.

Round two of PJ shows, this time it was just Kevin and I in row 5. Yeah, ROW 5!!! To all you lay people... That means my LOW, LOW member number puts me in the top 3 rows of PJ 10c fans.

I rock, so did PJ. Kev got EV's guitar pick. I got a sweet ass recollection of historic PJ songs including Present Tense, which ranks up at the top for me. I also got to enjoy the show - spending the whole 2 hour set doing what I wanted to do the night before - STARE at EV and dream about how great our life together would have been had the stars aligned... Here are some sweet shots of my man over the two nights...

On Wednesday morning, I woke up groggy and unable to cope with the energy of spending 4 hours intimate with Eddie Vedder, getting my dream job, and losing the worst job ever. Got acupuncture, saw my therapist, cried a bunch, and got my period four days early. I spent Wednesday evening walking along Lincoln Park beach looking for EV Amongst the Waves, then quietly stalking him while driving Beach Drive looking for his house.

How would I know it was house? I don't know, I just would... We shared a bottle of wine.

I can't believe my week. I start at Amazon on Monday. I have one week to relax, grieve my experience at ATT, and listen to PJ non stop... Little sick, I know, but I am going thru the Jam Cold...

Radically 80s

Lana captured my radically cool niece in full 80s gear (tshirt c/o auntie). I had to post!! Is it wrong to totally embrace that diva-deliciousness of a toddler?