Paint Bug

Lately I have been feeling the desire to paint my whole house, minus my bedroom which I painted blue last year. The only problem is that I have red walls in my living room that I really don't look forward to painting over. Yes, I knew all about how hard red is to cover when I picked it out and put in on the walls but that was three years ago so any change would be Future E's problem. Anyway, I think I have found a compromise by picking to paint my office instead or at least to start. Now I just need a color. I love the soothing blue of my bedroom but think it would be a little much in two rooms. Plus I am thinking a lighter color is in order since it is a smaller room. Thoughts? Suggestions? Willing to Paint? Let me know.

Olympic Memories

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in full force, I am reminded of when my little corner of the world hosted the Winter Games in 2002. The Salt Lake 2002 games were a blast. I had the opportunity to go to hockey game (Ukraine vs. Belarus) and to go Downtown during the height of the games. As you can see from above Downtown was all dressed up for its world debut and bustling with excitement. It was just fun to be down there and take it all in. The best part of the games is of course the competition that it brings but the excitement of the games is something that I will always remember. Go World!

Color Me Blue

The finished product. Thanks to Russ for coming over and helping be tape and paint the trim last night. I also have an extra gallon of unopened blue paint if anyone is interested.

Watching Paint Dry

Before:

During:

Halfway:

Done:


Thoughts?

Color Wheel

I need your help. I have decided to paint my room. I have always wanted a blue room and my Mom would never allow it since it wasn't in the same shade as mother of pearl or eggshell. But now that I have my own place I can do whatever I want (you won't find a single white wall in my house, sorry Mom). Now I need to narrow down my final choices. I have decided that I like the three bottom colors on each of the samples, so let me know which of the three you like best by commenting either 1, 2, or 3. 1 being the one on the left, 2 the one in the middle and 3 the one on the right. I appreciate your help!

CornerView Out Back

This weeks CornerView is outside your back door or window and with that I present one picture of each.

This is the view from my back door, or deck rather as that is were by back door leads. There is a small stream that runs downs the middle and on a quite night gently puts me to sleep.

Outside my back window you will find two trees that block the summer sun from entering my house. You would also think it would be a good home for birds, but these two have decided that my dryer vent makes a better home. I guess that makes this tree their back door.

For more views out back click away.

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana,denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa,britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, di, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama amanda, ali, jenell, guusje, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, jillian, doobleh-vay

Meet Gus Vents

Who is Gus Vents you may ask? Well he just so happens to be this guy (or girl). Thanks to Caity for helping me name my new tenant, rent is due on the 15th.

What The...

Allow me to set the scene for you. The other morning I was getting ready for work when I noticed out my window a bird lifting up the slats on my dryer vent. At the time I just assumed that he was taking lint to help build his nest. Later that day I came home for lunch and heard a very interesting sound coming from my dryer, it sounded like something was trapped inside. My mind instantly went to the bird and with some trepidation I opened the dryer, hoping that a bird wouldn't come flying out at me. I get that enough from the birds that have nested on my deck, thank you. To my relief there wasn't any birds inside the dryer and I realized that the good folks at Sears made it so that shouldn't happen. Fast forward a few days later and I am doing laundry when I decide to go see what is going on at the vent outside and I see this...

That's right. The bird wasn't stealing lint to take back to his nest, he was moving lint so he could build his nest in the vent! The amazing thing is that these slats lie flat when the dryer isn't in use so the bird must of had to lift them up numerous times from the outside to build his nest. Now I am afraid that my dryer may be cooking any eggs that might be in the nest. And as I am on the top floor of my building there really isn't anyway for me to check and see if that is, in fact, a true statement. Well for the time being I guess I will just turn the dryer to a lower heat setting and hope the birds decide its time to move out soon.

Armchair Traveler

Thanks to the great Corner View project that Jane over at Spain Daily as started, I have been traveling the world via the comfort of my desk. Would I rather be traveling the world in person? Yes. But until that happens this project will do nicely. As a way to track where I have been I have added a Corner Viewers link list to my sidebar, located right after the Bloggerheads report. I hope you will visit each of the visitors that have come to see my corner of the world. If you want to have your corner listed, just leave me comment and I will add your corner. Here are a few more pictures from just outside my door:


Now make sure your tray tables are locked and return your seats to an upright position...

My Corner

As always Caity has found the coolest blog; this time it is Spain Daily. Jane, who I am assuming is in Spain, has asked all her blogger buddies to post a picture of their corner of the world. And since I am not wanting to be left out, and have no issues jumping onto a bandwagon, I thought I would play along. You will have to forgive this picture as it was taken at the last minute and is literally just around the corner from my house in Cottonwood Heights, UT. Make sure you check out all the other corners by clicking here. Thanks for the great idea Jane; and thanks Caity for sharing it with me!

For The Birds

It must be spring because I am seeing birds everywhere. This morning on my way to work I saw a gaggle of geese using the crosswalk at 9th and Van Winkle. There are often birds all over this intersection and this is the first time that I saw them using the crosswalk, usually they just cross where ever it is convenient. It is nice to see them taking a safety first attitude. Now if only the ducks in my complex would do the same. They don't seem to care where they cross and don't really care if you are in a hurry to get to work. They have claimed the circle as their own and there isn't anything we can do about it. Mighty Ducks indeed. Then the other day at lunch I noticed that some finch-like birds have nested in the sunshade on my deck. Some of you may remember last year there was a bird battle over this nesting spot between competing birds. It will be interesting to see if that happens again this year or if these are the victors from last year. And lastly one final bird spotting. I was watching Lost and saw this commercial come on. Be on the lookout for one last bird sighting,around the minute 30 mark, it cracked me up!

Pics of Pics

My friends Caity & Bob (aka BobCat) are moving and Caity had an interesting post on her blog talking about all the pictures that make their house a home. Caity challenged (for lack of a better word) her readers to post pictures of what is on their walls at home and since Caity is responsible for half the pictures in my house I decided to play along. Please forgive the poor picture quality. It is late and I haven't slept in a while but I wanted to get this up before I forgot.

The Roaming Rug

Once upon a time there was a rug that felt lonely and wished it could go places outside the garage floor that he called home. One day Rug decided it was time to take action and see the world outside of his basement parking garage home. Rug thought it over and decided the best way to see the world would be to hitch a ride with Sally, his part time garage resident.

Sadly Rug didn't think this plan through very well and didn't book a seat inside, so when the time to travel presented itself Rug did the next best thing and attached himself to Sally's undercarriage. And the adventure began. Rug visited Union Park Ave, Winchester, 900 East and The Woodlands parking garage. That is where Rug's journey ended. Arriving at the Woodlands Rug was found and once it was discovered that Rug was clinging on for dear life to the axle by a string, Rug was removed and placed inside Sally for a return trip back to The Orchards.

And thus ends the adventures of The Roaming Rug, who for one morning left the parking compound and saw the world.

Pictured above is Sally and if you look just behind the tire you can see Rug peeking out, surely planning his next adventure.

It Must Be Thursday...

...I could never wrap my head around Thursdays. Truer words have not been spoken. But today after a long, hot day at work (the a/c is out again!!) I came home to this little surprise:

Now it is not every day that one walks upstairs to find a cake. If I am honest my first thought was, this can't be for me it must be a mistake. All the buildings do look the same; I wonder who's cake this is. Then my next thought was that if it was meant for me then something must be wrong with it. You know poisoned or made with ex-lax or any number of other foul things. Really I know that I am not important enough to justify this kind of thinking, I claim it is from seeing too many movies. That's just the way my mind works now.

But then I read the note that was tucked into the cake carrier (which was ridiculously fancy) and realized that the cake was from my friend Diana. For those of you who don't know (which is not many here) Diana is Caity's older sister and she is a hoot! I don't think I have every spent any reasonable amount of time with Diana that didn't include loads of laughter and good times.

Well Diana's birthday was last week and I missed going to dinner with them. So yesterday Caity invited me Downtown to go to dinner with herself, Diana, Zac and Sophia, Diana's youngest kids while Bob took Jack to Bodyworlds (still want to go). We ended up going to Settebello, which was great authentic Italian pizza, where I refused to let Diana pay for hers as I missed her B-day and this was my way of making up for it. Well I guess this cake is her payback for that and since she isn't online I will have to thank her in a different way, perhaps I will return the cake holder stuffed with cookies. Oh yes, just desserts indeed! Now I am off to eat this cake as I am sure I will like it just as much in my belly. Thanks Diana!

Rainy Days and Mondays

Now imagine this but instead of a nice tropical locale it is coming out of my ceiling, that's what I came home to on Sunday night. Okay, it wasn't quite that bad but by favorite overstuffed recliner was soaked, which I discovered by sitting on it! All courtesy of the nice big rain/wind/hail storm on Sunday.

I don't know if there is a leak in my roof (I really hope this is not the case) or if the wind just blew enough and at just the right angle to send the rain rushing down my a/c vent, which is located just above the chair. Everything is dried out now and from what I can tell there is no major water damage to the ceiling but this is still not something I want to deal with.

Ah the joys of home ownership! Sometimes I wish I could just call a landlord to handle the problems that arise. But I guess that is one of the perks that comes with owning a home.

Ode to a Deck Couch

Farewell Deck Couch, you will not be missed. Well maybe by the birds that nested above you. I am sure you were a soft landing for the wee ones. But know I can enjoy this view:

You were nice while you lasted Deck Couch but now you have gone back to your birthplace, the DI. Thanks to Jon & Collin for helping to haul D.C. down two flights of stairs.

H is for Home

Yep, that's my door!

The Fireplace, which has been used twice.

My bedroom window, overlooking the small stream.

H is for Home and it it also for Homeowner which I have been for over a year now. Where did the time go. So to celebrate one full year of being broke I thought I would put up some odd pictures of my little one year old. (Yes, technically the house is older then that, and me, but to me it is one!)

Haunted House?

Last night I came to the conclusion that my house is haunted. What leads me to believe this, you ask? Well a few weeks back I was sitting at my table eating dinner, minding my own business when the microwave just turns on. That's right just starts going, nothing inside, no time listed outside, nothing! Now normally I would just let this go as some kind of fluke but no, other things keep happening. For instance about a month ago at about 10:30 I swear there is a knock at my door, I get up from bed to check it out and swear I see an outline of a person through the window by my front door. I go open the door and no one is there. Odd? Yes. But I did just see The Strangers so could chalk it up to mind games on my part. But here is the clincher. Last night at THREE in the morning my computer decides to turn off and then restart along with all the chimes and dings that go with it. Now as anyone who has heard the chimes of a computer restarting can tell you, they are not scary noises. Now imagine them at 3am when the other two things have happened and you live alone. Right, you'd be paranoid too. So that is why I think my house is haunted. Anyone know a good exorcist? Or Linda Blair for that matter?