New Years resolutions

Jodi: We've never made any New Years Resolutions before, but I think it would be motivating to have something holding us accountable. All you readers are our witnesses!

1. Post at least two posts a month. We started off really well last year, but got sidetracked around July... About the same time we started on that Board and Batten.

2. Paint our Shining master bath

3. Actually clean the upstairs of our house. We've been doing a pretty good job of maintaining the first two floors, but no one goes up to the 3rd floor. Shhhh, that'll be our secret.

4. Keep our resolution list short so we can maybe accomplish something.

Anyone else have any New Years resolutions they want to share/document?

The Ghost of Christmas Present Past (and Present)

Jodi:  I know we said we'd be back next with amusing stories on iPhones.  We can and will get to that.

Part of cleaning and organizing and altogether de-cat-ifying the house, is getting rid of some excess baggage.  No, we're not getting rid of the cats.  We're listing some of our junk on ebay.

Want to see our junk?

OK, that was immature of me.  Sometimes I just can't help myself.  So this is the stuff we are listing on e-bay.

Medieval Knight Helmet

World War II Helmet

Pinky and the Brain 3-Sided Resin Desk Plaque

If you said, "Hey, those first two look like gifts that Bryan gave to Randy," you would be correct.  Ding ding ding!

Randy: Let me be honest. Bryan and I go out of our way to find the most bizarre presents for each other. I am just as much of an offender as he is. I did get him the 1977 Star Wars Christmas Special. If you've never seen (or heard) of it, ugh, its brutal. The whole dinner scene with Chewbacca and his family... who thinks of this stuff?!

But, let's take each of these objects one at a time. First, the medieval helmet. I very much appreciate the idea that Bryan wanted to get me a diver's helmet. And I would have felt terrible if he spent hundreds on it, and I spent $22 on the DVD. But, what the heck am I going to do with this? I've also been given the Green Bay Packers Cheese hat (and I'm a die hard Eagles fan). I've been given the hat with the spinner that apparently will make me sterile. C'mon! I want less stuff... not more stuff that will collect dust. If I wanted something to collect dust, I'd buy Jodi a Valentine's Day present. If I could have smelted the stupid helmet and used the metal as a door stop or a soda can or some prop from Terminator 2, I would have. Jodi wouldn't let me ruin recycle it. No offense, Bryan.

Then there is the war helmet. So, Bryan gives me this present and tells me that it's a French WWII battle helmet. He was so excited. Wait a minute! Why is there a German flag in the box? Let me get this straight... my Catholic brother-in-law bought his Jewish brother-in-law a German WWII battle helmet?! Really? Now, before I say anything... he genuinely didn't know. Bryan can be a goofball, but he'd never be that offensive. I did ask that question when I opened it. I am not one who believed the apocalypse was coming, but what practical purpose will a battle helmet have in my world? I have a hockey helmet. I have a viking helmet (which I think I gave to my brother). I have a Flyers Winter Classic knit hat. If you follow the link and buy the hat, please tell me. I promise to write a story about the origin of the helmet. You can even pick which country it came from. Please stick to either the French or the Germans. I am creative, but I'm pretty sure I have no idea how a Chilean WWII helmet came into my possession.

I have nothing to say about the Pinky & the Brain piece. Jodi had it before me. And until she lets me sell Camille on Ebay, she can do with her stuff from before we met however she feels. I'm just kidding... kinda.

Finally... the Ghost of Christmas Present Present... I am now the proud owner of an iPhone. For those that know me... this is a big deal. AT&T tricked me into getting an iPhone. We went because Jodi wanted to upgrade her iPhone. I think my flip phone is the greatest piece of technology ever created. Yes, its a remedial phone compared to the smart phones. But it freakin' flips open and closed. Can your POS smart phones do that?! I didn't think so. Sure, my phone has a 0 Megapixel camera. And yes, all of my pictures from the Stone Temple Pilot shows look like nursery school finger-paintings, but I KNOW what they are. Sure, I don't have a ring tone, but I have one friend... and that's Jodi... which explains why I'm not on Facebook.

We hadn't upgraded our phones in about 3 years. So Jodi was given this great deal on an iPhone 4s. We took advantage of it. Yay! But then Bobbi (she was super nice) told me about the deal I could accept. I could get an iPhone 4 for $0.99. To upgrade my flip phone (to something with a giant antenna or something that Zach Morris would carry) would cost me $19.99. Really?! Who runs this scam!? Jodi claims that this special deal is to lock me into some data plan. But what is this crazy Wi-Fi and why do I want it?! Yes, I have a tablet, but its the same tablet that the 10 Commandments were written on (sorry to end on a preposition. I'm a disgrace). I felt like I was backed into a corner. I started to sweat. I accepted the offer for one reason. My company has a partnership with AT&T that basically didn't raise my current rate by very much. Now, I can text people. Let's be honest, I'll be texting Jodi. I already practiced Face-Time with Jodi... but I was in the kitchen while she was in the living room. She could see me. I'm so alone.

Anyway... that concludes Christmas. Next stop... New Years! I will be posting from my iPhone... LOL... BRB... :)... :(... cya... bff... ABC... BBD... the east coast family. (If you don't get that reference... you're not allowed to read this anymore).

Jodi:  Actually if you read this far, you get my utmost respect.

Southern BBQ Christmas

Jodi:  I hope everyone had a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Christmakkah/Winter Solstice filled with joy and the spirit of the holidays.  

Randy:  Finally, Randy has returned to blogging!

Christmas is my favorite time of year. Yes, it is the truth. It is the one time of year that people all around are trying to be genuinely nice to each other. I don't understand why it has to be called the "Christmas Spirit." Heck, I'm Jewish... what's the deal?! You never hear about the "Purim Spirit." Whatever, I guess this is for another time.

First, I'd like to apologize for my hiatus from cyberworld. I am 15 days away from the marathon. Between working my tail off and training the remaining nub of my tail... I've been busy. And no offense, if I have a second to breathe... the blog is not my first thought.

But this is about Christmas... not my personal feelings about other random stuff.

Jodi:  We were running a little behind with the holidays this year.  We had the tree up a few days after Thanksgiving, but only got a few decorations on the actual tree at that time, and then never actually finished it.

 

We celebrated Hanukkah, but only made it through the first couple of days before we ran out of candles.  We didn't even get our nativity set up...  which may be a good thing as we didn't have any visits from Dusty the GI Joe sniper this year.  We did however, get Mary, Jesus, and Joseph up on Christmas Eve. There they are on the fireplace, right next to our menorah.  We're such a multicultural procrastinating household.  Actually, we did get all of our Christmas shopping done early this year, so that's a check in the "nice" column.  I also made tons of Christmas cookies and hosted a Christmas cookie exchange.  We didn't get our holiday cards out on time, naughty us.  Christmas came anyway, just like it did in the Grinch.

Randy:  My company has a shutdown from Christmas thru New Years. They figure its easier to send everyone home than to be less productive during that time. Before you get all jealous... I have less vacation throughout the year and barely get the important national holidays off.

But I have been in awesome spirits for quite a while and that's caused me to be more generous which makes my spirits better and then I'm more generous. You should totally try it. It works.

So I was off for 3 DAYS IN A ROW when Christmas Eve rolls around. Jodi had to work and we (her parents included) were going to Christmas Mass. HOW AWESOME! And even better... I had to make dinner! Is this holiday about the Jews in Egypt?! I'm noticing some similarities. Just kidding. So first, Jodi and I went mad food shopping and then I made a great chicken parm dinner. Ok, I cut corners and used a lot of cheese. Cheese makes food better. But while this is going on, its snowing.

Jodi:  A funny thing happened Christmas Eve.  As we were driving to the grocery store for last minute BBQ Christmas ingredients, it started to flurry.  By time we got out of the store, it was all-out snowing!  Totally unexpected, we got a white Christmas!

By time we had dinner and piled into the car a full 45 minutes before mass started, the snow was probably about an inch or so deep.  We drove through the neighborhood and while I was admiring the Christmas lights and snow on the pretty houses, Randy said, "I wonder how many people will be deterred from going to church by this snow?"  Dad replied, "Hopefully a lot!"  

As we turned out of our neighborhood, Karma got them back.

Dad's car wouldn't go up the unsalted, unbrined, unplowed hill.  We had to glide backwards down the hill into a driveway, turn around, go back through the neighborhood of pretty little houses all blanketed in snow, out the other exit from the neighborhood, made an illegal left onto the plowed, salted and flat main road, and made it to church right as it started.  In a Christmas miracle, we even got seats.  Lesson?  Make that illegal left first.  Check for cops, make sure you're clear, then go.

Just kidding!

Randy:  They put us in the 4th freakin' row at Church. I promised to behave. I did sneak out to the bathroom and ran into the Monseigneur. We exchanged some "Merry Christmas's" and he asked how I was doing. I wanted so badly to say, "As Bruce Springsteen would say, 'its hard to be a saint in the city.'" A promise is a promise.

Jodi:  We have a tradition every year where we go to my buddy's house for Christmas Eve after we're done all the family festivities.  Eric and I have been friends since first grade, and his birthday is on Christmas Eve (every year, Mom!)  Unfortunately I didn't finish up my Southern BBQ dishes for Bryan's house until after midnight and was falling asleep in the kitchen.

Randy:  We didn't go to our friend's, Eric's, birthday. Eric is great. And his parties are always fascinating. FYI... vegan cookies suck. In case he reads this... I won't ruin what his birthday present is. I picked it out.  

Let's talk about Christmas.

I got Dunkin Donuts because I love their coffee and the people that work there are the best.

Anyway, Christmas morning with Jodi's family is funny.  I called it the [Jodi's last name] Christmas Present Opening Extravaganza. Why? Because how long do you think it should take to open presents with 6 people? If you guessed 4 hours... you'd be correct. First, we sing the national anthem. Then we name a chairman of the presents. That person is responsible for identifying the location for each person to sit. Also, they must organize the presents by person and by location.  Then, we open 1 present at a time in order of ascending age. I KID YOU NOT! We deviated this year by just going in a circle.

Jodi:  You may remember the tradition from last year of Bryan buying Randy a funny hat each year.  That tradition continued, as well as lots of other funny gifts.  Here are some highlights:

Randy: I wanted nothing this year from anyone. Its not really a joke. I really wanted nothing. But I did get 3 awesome presents. First, I got a combo pack of beef jerky. Second, I got a case for my Google Nexus 7 table (I am afraid of breaking stuff so I leave it in the box until I get a protective case. Shut up). And the best present... I got a sheep. The donation of the sheep for charity is the best. I am putting the card at my desk at work. Hopefully, she'll tell you what charity it was and I recommend it...[note from Jodi:  Heifer International] you donate money to buy sheep, goats, oxen, whatever in third world countries. That made my whole Christmas.

Jodi:  Ashley got a scarf from Grandma, and in the end, all of the ladies received gorgeous scarves from Grandma.  We had a great photo op to send thanks to Grandma for her wonderful handiwork.

A classy wine glass for the Red Solo Cup Fan Club:

Randy got Bryan a full-sized pair of adult Batman footie pajamas from webundies.com.  I'm not kidding.  Incriminating pictures to follow.

Randy got some fancy undergarments as well.  He said no underwear, but he actually picked these out at Target for himself.  I am usually against Christmas lists and people picking out their own presents, but this year I was a little desperate, and I needed something other than the sheep.

Bryan and his framed autograph from Gina Glocksen.  Remember when I said I would get that framed back in May/June?  Hahahahahahaha!

Then Ashley said, "Does that mean we have to hang a picture of Randy in our house?"

Randy and his instant grits:

No self-respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits.  Name that movie!

Calvin even got a gift.

The 2012 Christmas hat.  There was actually a warning on the brim that it contains chemicals known by the State of California to cause cancer and sterility.  Mom made him take it off right away and after the pictures, it got tossed.  Sorry, Bryan.

Randy:  Here's the weird thing... every year, I end up with the most presents. I super appreciate it all, but first, I'm Jewish. Is this some way to convert me with wrapped goodness? Second, I don't want anything. How can people find me presents if I don't want anything.

We finally finished... and the closing ceremony signified another successful Christmas. Don't laugh... if we had 1000 Chinese kids playing the drums like the Olympics... we would.

Then my family came. But everyone was on their best behavior so this must be special.

Jodi: As the name "Southern BBQ Christmas" suggests, we had southern BBQ for Christmas dinner.  Bryan made pulled pork and ribs (shout-out to Cousin Mary who gave Bryan the awesome pulled pork recipe!), Ashley made pulled chicken, and cheesey broccoli casserole, Mom made corn bread, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob, I made Mac N' Cheese (Thanks, T, once again for your awesome recipe, my family LOVED it), and Paula Deen's Apple Upside down Praline Cake, Aunt Marlene made sausage, Jason made banana pudding, and Randy's parents brought the biggest tray of treats I've ever seen from Sweet Eats in Cherry Hill.  It was the most decadent meal I think I've had since Thanksgiving!  Everything was just. so. GOOD.  Kudos to Bryan and Ashley for organizing and making the hard stuff!

Randy's dad spent time in the Peace Corps in the Marshal Islands back before he met Joni.  That is actually grammatically correct, because it is several islands, but considered to be one place.

Randy:  My brother is awesome at gift giving. He doesn't spend a lot of money, but the phrase, "its the thought that counts," he does more than everyone. His gifts took effort.

Shih-Tzus are like potato chips, you can't have just one.

For me... a t-shirt that says, "the greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." I will wear it after my shower after I finish the marathon. It was the perfect gift.

Jodi:  Perfect to wear as I push him around in a wheel chair.

This is my shirt from Jason.  As you can tell by my face, I found it hilarious.

Randy re-enacted his parents' first Christmas as a married couple in a shadow box.  Murray hung an old army sock, and Joni hung a stocking, and the Pillsbury dough boy was Joni's gift.  Randy found a 1972  Pillsbury Dough Boy on the boardwalk in Ocean City in September.  It was at "awww" gift of the night.  Yeah Randy's a sensitive guy.

Calvin was cute, as expected.

This is adorable.  If you can't read it, it says, "Dear Randy, What do these three things (lunch meat, sour cream and cheese) have in common besides being scotch-taped to a shoebox - give up - they all need to be refrigerated!  Our gift to you is in our trunk - a refrigerator for work!  Happy Chanukah!  Love Mom & Dad

This was my other gift from Jason.  It says "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind!  Dr. Suess"

Aunt Marlene, Ashley, Me, Mom and Joni, all wearing our new Christmas scarves.  Thanks, Grandma!

Then it was on to dessert and my Apple Praline cake with Jason's banana pudding and little bite-sized cheese cakes, brownies, blondies, etc. etc. etc.  Yum!

Randy:  Anyway... the things you missed include the conversation between my dad and Jodi's mom about what pain killers Jodi will use when delivering a child. Nope, we're not pregnant. But what do you expect from 2 overly-opinionated people who are extremely not-patient about being grandparents?

We did NOT talk about economics, gun control, or politics. It was a miracle!

Jodi:  Next year will be a Mexican Christmas!  I am already on the hunt for mariachi Christmas music!

Next time: iPhone upgrades

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Family Room Reveal

Anyone else home from work this week trying to get things done around the house?  We haven't actually gotten anything done yet, but we have very good intentions.

So on with the show!  Here is the completed-for-now family room.

After Randy and I screwed in all the vent and outlet covers, we were all ready to....

Take care of those annoying little bits of white paint that we got on the gray.

This one will get covered when we get brave enough to attempt crown molding.  Like I said, completed-for-now.

Looks much better, right?

That mirror was a $40 find at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Coatsville, PA.  I love it and can't wait to hang it over the couch.

This is our first ever project that we did all by ourselves (with Becky's help and mad spackling skills), so let's do some before and afters so we can bask in the glory of a job well done.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Good bye blue splotches!  You know what this means...  we will probably be painting something else blue very soon.  That's to come!

Hope you are all having a safe and happy holiday season!

Optimus Prime-r

Back to all the board and batten goodness.  Besides the fancy-schmancy tools we used below, Randy used a table saw that we borrowed from my dad to cut all the MDF board planks to the right length.  He probably could have used my box miter saw just as well.  Anyone who has just basic equipment could do this, and that is why it was so exciting/rewarding for us.  It took a long time, but it was significantly cheaper than having someone else come and do it, and when we have people over we can say we did it without having to lie.

This is me in my very sexy dust mask sanding the edges of all of the boards.  That is my luxurious purple sand-paper holder thingie that I mentioned in the last post.

Then we went around with the Dyson and sucked up all the saw dust.  I'm not sure if this step was necessary or not, but I wanted the paint to last for the long haul, so I also deglossed the boards to make sure we got all of the dust off using an eco-friendly liquid deglosser we got at Home Depot.  If Sherry and John of Young House Love fame say it helps adhesion, I'll do it.  Yes, I refer to them as Sherry and John.  No, I have never met them.  Randy thinks they're my imaginary friends.  I think they have a lot of good DYI tips and the blog posts about their daughter, Clara, crack me up.  Ashley is similarly enamored with them, and is actually the person who first told me about their blog.  People who name their sofas with great taste in home design?  I'm in!

Then Becky and I started the primer.  I had previously purchased no VOC high gloss white paint for the dining room shadow boxing, but due to my previously mentioned frustration with caulk, it had sat unused under the sink in the hallway bath.  So I decided to use what we had and got a can of white primer instead of forking out more dough for the paint and primer in one (although we did LOVE it for the gray $6 oops paint we used above).

To my dismay, the primer didn't cover the blue swatches so well.  That's ok, I assume most people don't try to paint white right over dark blue swatches on their walls, and maybe that is an unrealistic expectation for my non-so-optimus primer.

Take a look at the sides of the MDF board.  See how they soaked up my primer like a sponge?  I expected a little suckage, but wow, they looked like they were never touched!  Tip for everyone else out there, spackle the sides of your boards before you prime.  It keeps the MDF board from soaking up all your hard work!  Unfortunately I didn't figure that out right away, but did it all along the top edge of the horizontal boards and it worked great.

 Unfortunately cats don't go down for naps, so if you have a pretty persistent feline, it makes it hard to get work done.  Keller likes to be involved with everything we do, and will sometimes sit patiently and watch, but most of the time he cries until you to pick him up and cuddle him.  Otherwise he'll stick his nose in the paint or rub up against a wet wall.  We have needy cats.

 Here's how it looks with the first coat of paint!  It's starting to get there.

Here's one with the blue swatches.  You can still see it, but it's looking a lot better, right?

Anyone else out there tackling a project that makes a huge difference in a room with very basic tools?  We want to hear about it!

Board and Batten Down the Hatches

Here is the family room with newly gray walls in the sunlight.

The color looks good with the white door frames and vents, which will work nicely with the board and batten that we planned to install and paint a nice, shiny pure white.  We wanted to add some architectural interest to the room, but keep it casual, simple, and wipe-able due to the crazy exploits of our four monkeys (and hopefully kids down the road).

Randy and I used Mandi's post on Vintage Revivals as our board and batten tutorial.  I won't pretend we really knew what we were doing, we just followed her very straight-forward instructions.  We used MDF board instead of wood at Mandi's suggestion.  Home Depot cut our MDF boards into 3-inch-wide planks.  When we returned home, we were welcomed by this sight in the foyer.  Which one of these things is not like the other?

Randy and I started installing the pieces.  Yes, we had to use a hammer because our nail gun crapped out...  and we learned that Randy doesn't have a lot of patience for the set-backs that are the joys of DYI.

We used our level to make sure everything was nice and straight.  Then my friend Becky and I spackled the edges where the planks came together for a seamless look.

After we sanded, it was nice and smooth, like a baby's posterior.  I also spackled my nail holes and sanded those too.  I knew from previous experience that caulk shrinks and you have to go back and cover up all your little nail holes TWICE, and I just don't have the patience for that.  One of these days when we tackle the living room, I will do another round of caulk in the molding I put up around the windows.  Hopefully I can just fill them in with spackle!

Randy went around the room installing the boards.  Becky and I would help with with the level and to get the first couple of nails in, and he'd finish each one off.  Then we followed him around the room spackling and sanding. Don't let us fool you...  this took a long time!  Several days since we are not professional DYIers (our bosses expected us back at work Monday morning).

Whenever there was something in the way, we just board-and-battened around it.  Is that a verb?  We kept our boards the same distance apart from one another and ended up with some funny cut-outs like this.  I figure it adds character to the room.

We tried the nail gun again several times.  To no avail.  RIP nail gun.  You were great while you lasted.

I went around and sanded all the edges, so we didn't have any hard right angles to smack ourselves on. We're quite accident-prone around here.  Well, actually that's just me!  I used a nice hand-held sanding thing that looks like a fondant smoother, but with high grit sand paper, not smooth plastic, on the other side.

Then we were all done!  Doesn't it look great?

Just kidding!

We put the curtains back up to prevent them from being cat-nap bedding and getting more furred-up than they already are, but we still have plenty more to do.

So anyone know what the sanding thing is called?  I don't think it's a sanding block because it wasn't actually a block.  It was a nice purple, ergo-nomic-handled plane with sandpaper fasters.  There was also this nice, smushy layer of like non-skid padding between the sandpaper and the sander-thingie.  It was definitely worth the $7 I spent on it!  Now that's sandpaper luxury.