Pics of the new kitchen

Pics of everything else in the new place to come soon, I promise!

My Kevin Bacon number

In a minor brush with celebrity, I waited on Kyra Sedgwick last night.

For those of you who don't know who Kyra Sedgwick is, she is a) Kevin Bacon's wife, and b) a movie and TV star in her own right. Their daughter apparently goes to Brown, because Kyra and her daughter came into my restaurant for dinner last night.

Everyone in the restaurant was super-excited because we thought Kevin Bacon would be coming in, too. He didn't; but still, I waited on a celebrity.

For those who care, she ordered the chicken.

My Kevin Bacon number has just skyrocketed, to 2. Which means I am only one degree of separation away from the Bacon himself.

Side note about photos

You probably already know that I'm spending my free time decorating the new house, primarily by hanging things on the walls (to cover the holes in the walls left by the previous tenants), hanging curtains, and getting some new furniture.

I thought I was being pretty clever by getting new things to hang on the walls, to avoid a huge spackling/repainting project; I hung what we already had, of course, and then (to avoid spackling/repainting) I started getting creative.

I hauled out some old posters, got some cheap poster frames, and hung those.

Then I got a couple of vintage liquor posters on ebay, and hung those. (We now have a vintage liquor them in our entryway, which is way cooler and way more French than it sounds.)

Then I decided to print some 8x10s of some of my old travel photos, frame those, and hang those around.

Here is where it gets tricky.

Naturally I started with the road trip, and went from there. I selected some photos from Rome, one from Buenos Aires, and some from my very first trip abroad, to London and Paris, lo these twelve years ago. I don't think I'd looked at those pictures in the better part of a decade.

Naturally, looking at all those pictures has precipitated a massive wave of wanderlust.

Of course, you're thinking that now I really want to pack up and go to Europe, after looking at my pictures of Rome and Paris and London. You're right, partly--I always want to pack up and go to Europe.

Mainly, though, right now I want to pack up and go out west. Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.

Bear with me here.

The greatest pictures I took on the road trip were in Utah, with a close second in Montana. (Wyoming ranked right up there in terms of scenery, but my photos didn't capture it.) I also got some great shots at Badlands National Park, in South Dakota. Looking at those photos makes me want to return, to really explore those places rather than just zooming through with a camera.

This is not the time of year to go to Wyoming and Montana, I know. It doesn't matter, I won't be going there anytime soon. We can't afford it, and we're going to Costa Rica next month. That should scratch the travel itch, at least for a little while.

Still. Look at that photo. How could you not want to go there?

New home update

I was going to post a diatribe about how the DMV is secretly run by Satan-worshipping assholes, but I'm feeling sluggish this morning. So I'll leave that for another day, and instead let you in on what's happening around here.

As you may know, my husband and I recently relocated to a big, twisty Victorian home. For the first time in my life, I'm in a place with a) high ceilings, b) big windows, c) lots of rooms. And room, in general. I suddenly have an extra room to fill with furniture--and that's after we purchased a new sofa, for a total of three sofas.

All that room space means lots of wall space to cover, too. The previous owners had a love for bright color; one room is painted hot pink, one is a kind of bluey lime green, the office is silver with broad purple stripes, the entryway is fire-engine red. (It looks better than it sounds.) But that also means that the holes they left in the walls, from pictures, curtain hardware, etc., can't really be spackled over, since those particular batches of paint are long gone. And that means I have a lot of holes to cover over.

So I'm spending my days figuring out what I can hang, for a minimum of money. I've printed some of the travel photos I've taken over the years, and pulled out some old posters. (Cheap poster frames are tacky, I admit, but I don't have the energy or the money for a custom framing job right now.)

I'll also be furnishing that empty room on the cheap. I've already gotten a rocking chair on craigslist ($35), and we'll need another coffee table and another nightstand. I've repurposed some other furniture into a entertainment center; it's not quite the right color, but I hope some spraypaint will take care of that.

So if any of you have any old furniture, or pictures, you're looking to get rid of, let me know.

Everything's unpacked, that's the good news. I may rearrange a few things, but that's minor. I'm not working as much as I would like, but my new job tells me they would like to give me more shifts in the next couple of weeks. If that's the case, then maybe I can stop looking for another job, and just work there. That's what I'd really like--I love the people and the menu there, and if I could add on the money-making shifts (Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights), I could potentially make enough money to live on there. Keep your fingers crossed.

Slowly but surely

It's hard to get settled in when you have to work all the time.

But the house is slowly coming together. We've gotten the boxes unpacked and most everything put away. We can now concentrate on the finishing touches, like curtains, hanging pictures, and distributing lamps.

AND my pot rack is hanging! I haven't been able to hang my pot rack in either of the last two places we've lived--that thing hasn't seen the light of day since Brooklyn. We got it installed last night (I love high ceilings) with the help of our new landlord, and it's spiffy. Really spiffy.

It almost offset the fact that my food processor isn't working.

I'm not sure why--it worked perfectly before the move. If I have to buy another one, on top of all the other new stuff we need (new entertainment center, probably some new curtains, all the other miscellaneous crap you need when you move), I'm going to be very upset.

Moving once is like dying twice

...as the Germans say.

We're here, we're moved in, I'm cranky. The end.

The movers were actually much more helpful this time around--they didn't damage anything, and we managed to get almost all the furniture inside.

The new apartment is very cool, tons of character, but it does have two very twisty and narrow staircases. We already knew most of the furniture wouldn't fit up to the top floor--what we didn't count on was that some wouldn't even make it in the front door. The entertainment center had to be completely abandoned (it's in the basement, awaiting its fate), and all the furniture we'd intended for the top floor is now stuck on the lower floor, as none of it will fit up the staircase.

As usual, the entire moving process has been an exercise in frustration.

1. Bank of America fucked me. They charged me a $12 "monthly maintenance fee" they'd never charged me before, then charged me a $35 overdraft fee for the privilege. Conveniently, they waited until the only day last month when I didn't have $12 available, necessitating a $35 overdraft fee. Then when I called to complain, they said they "couldn't help me" and that I "didn't qualify to have the charges reversed."

Translation: you don't make enough money for us to care about keeping your account. Even though I've had that account for ten years.

So I closed that account, and opened a new one at a new bank. Even more conveniently, my funds are now tied up while I wait for the new debit card and PIN to arrive separately.

2. We bought a new sofa, but half of the ottoman wasn't delivered with the rest of it. So there's that.

3. We tried to switch our Verizon cable/internet to the new place, only to be told that they wouldn't be able to get out to connect everything for TEN DAYS.

So I had to close that account, and open a new one with Cox Cable. That was three hours of my life, gone right there.

4. Then my computer couldn't connect to our new network. Another two hours down the drain.

5. The house is in a state of chaos (predictably). I can't find anything, and everything I unpack presents a new logistical challenge. ("Where the hell am I supposed to put the potato ricer? I can't even find my shoes...I'll just throw it over here...now where the hell did I leave the boxcutter?" and so on.)

6. Also, John is working late every night, and I'm working all weekend, so nothing will get accomplished for the next couple of days.

7. Alarmingly soon, I'm going to have to turn the last of the tomato harvest into a batch of tomato sauce. I'm not sure that can wait until Monday. It may have to, though, as I still haven't unpacked all of the kitchen things I'd need for that.

And I'm covered with bruises from bumping into unfamiliar corners and boxes.

Did I mention I'm cranky?

At least I wasn't the one that had to wrestle the furniture inside. There's that, at least.

Gardening update: no more garden

Well, that's it, folks. The Great Gardening Experiment of 2011 is officially over.

We move out of our house, beginning on Monday, so this weekend I'll be ripping out the last of the tomato and pepper plants. Everything else has already been harvested and ripped out, and I've been removing tomato plants as they die/stop producing. It's a shame, I think I could get a few more weeks out of the pepper plants if it doesn't get too cold, but oh well.

Here's my verdict: tomatoes were the clear winner. I harvested bushels, all different kinds, all exceedingly delicious. Herbs were the runner-up. Out of everything else, here's what I got:

Corn: 2 spindly ears, maybe the size of a finger. I don't think they got enough sun.
Squash: Several zucchini, 3 baby-sized butternut squash. They were doing well until Hurricane Irene, but all the water killed them off.
Green beans: A few handfuls' worth, nothing of note, and they never got very big. Not sure what happened there.
Kale: Lots of baby kale in the beginning; the groundhog ate it down to the ground in August and I pulled it up at that point.
Cauliflower and carrots: Lost to the rabbits.
Cucumbers: Several baby ones. Ditto Hurricane Irene (see squash, above).
Peppers: Coming along very nicely. None of the bell peppers got very big, but perhaps that's just because I've been impatient and have been picking them as soon as they get bigger than a golf ball.

Lessons for next year: Well, next year we'll be in a city apartment with no yard (okay, there is a yard, but it's a bricked-in patio), so it'll be all about the container gardening again. But I will expand the container garden to include tomatoes, more peppers, and more types of greenery. I'll also keep some of the herbs inside this fall, to try and keep the basil and such alive as long as possible.