2012, pretty busy so far!

I've really slacked off on the updates lately.  2012 has proved to be a pretty intense year so far, especially as work goes.  That being said it's already brought forth tons of exciting opportunity and we're both eager to see what the months ahead will bring!  I'll leave that somewhat cryptic for now, but onto more fun things to discuss.

The Superbowl!  Everyone was giving Madonna a hard time for her lip synching.  I thought she gave a great, tasteful performance and for being 53...the woman has still got it.  No doubt about that.  She did confess to lip synching the first three numbers, but did give a live performance of "Like a Prayer".   Perhaps I'm biased as she has been and will always be an icon and favorite of mine.  Naturally as a die hard Colts fan I was ecstatic to see the Patriots lose.  Them losing in Lucas Oil Stadium added a little more sugar on top!  The commercials this year were much better than in recent years too, in my opinion.  The dog in the fat suit, the french bulldog racing the greyhounds, the baby in the slingshot stealing Dorito's...so many good ones!  I was so disappointed that they didn't play my favorite Volkswagen one.  If you haven't seen it, check it out here:

Dogs, Star Wars...what's not to love?!

 

In the realm of reading, I have just started Stephen King's, "Under the Dome" at my Dad's recommendation.  I am about 100 pages in (it's 1400 pages!) and so far so good.  This one will take a while to get through, especially at the pace I'm currently going to a review is probably pretty far off.  It takes place in a small rural town in Maine and just as the title would indicate, a mysterious force field suddenly appears over the city preventing anyone inside leaving, and vice versa.  Tons of interesting characters so far, and I'm still in the character development stage.  Stephen King has been hit or miss for me.  One of my favorite books of all time is Salem's Lot, however he really missed for me personally with "Duma Key".  I didn't get it...at all. 

I hope everyone has had a great and successful start to 2012!

Waterfall Cabin Weekend

Waterfall Cabin

Ever need to just get away?  A little mental break from the hustle and bustle of urban living?  Yeah?  Me too!  Michael being the sweet and awesome person that he is, could sense I needed a little escape, so he arranged and secretly planned a weekend getaway to the mountains in Tennessee!  He cleared it with my boss in advance and surprised me on Friday with a trip to Waterfall Cabin!  He picked me up from work at noon and off we were on the open road.  It was an easy drive, about 4 hours south of Louisville.  Upon arriving it looked like something out of a catalog!  A cabin set on a picturesque landscape of a waterfall.  The pictures really don't do it justice, but the waterfall actually went UNDER the house.  The cabin was built over and around the waterfall in the Great Smoky Mountains.  The cabin itself was nothing to balk at either!  It was a large size cabin with 2 full bedrooms and 2 baths.  A hot tub was on the side deck so while soaking it up, you can simultaneously soak up the scene around you.  The waterfall provided a non-stop audio track to the trip, combined with singing birds and it was difficult to NOT relax.  Not always such an easy task for a high strung person like myself.  We ventured out on Saturday to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.  Wow.  Absolutely amazing.  It took us about two hours to walk through the entire aquarium.  We saw sharks, jelly fish, eels, tropical fish of all kinds.  The best part was walking underneath the aquarium in a sort of tube they'd built.  You got to see the fish from every angle.  Very very cool.  After that we returned to the cabin for some of Michael's world famous grilling - dry aged steaks!  Mmmmm.  We ate, relaxed, enjoyed the scenery and got some R and R before returning late Sunday.   If you're looking for a weekend getaway, I'd recommend this destination!  It's privately owned by an individual and not a rental company, this really shows in the quality of the cabin and character inside.  You can tell the owner themselves spend time there, and it'd decorated and cared for as such.

Off the back porch

View from sun porch

Deck off of Master Bedroom

The waterfall going underneath the cabin

Michael climbed to the top....eek!

Back deck

Waterfall behind cabin

Happy 4th Birthday Pete!

First week home - a little thinner then- 2009

Happy 4th Birthday to my baby Pete.  I adopted him from a rescue organization in Indy called "From the Heart Rescue" in January of 2009, around his first birthday.  He's been my little partner in crime ever since and I don't know what I'd do without him.  He's came a long way with his fear issues (after coming from an abusive situation) but we still have a ways to go on confidence.  He's a super sweetie to those he feels comfortable around and trusts, and a great little guard dog to those he doesn't.  Happy Birthday to my little "Tiny Dancer" Petey!!!  I love you buddy!

After a fun game of fetch - 2009

"The Most Interesting Dog in the World" - 2010

Pete with his toy on a Fall afternoon 2011

Winter Wardrobe - 2010

Pete doing what he does best, cuddling! - 2012

3 Simple Steps to Improving Energy Efficiency Within Your Home.

Perfect specimen:  both lazy and fat

Step 1 - Acquire cat from local shelter, preferably overweight for maximum vent coverage.   This cat is both fat and lazy, two major pluses when lowering your heating costs.

Step 2 - Place cat over vent in a room that you use infrequently.  For example, the cat shown to the right, is covering a vent in a guest bathroom. 








 Step 3 - Repeat Step 2, then save on energy costs all winter long!

So, now what?

Ferg had too much Champagne on New Years

Another holiday season is now under our belt.  With lots of gift giving, receiving, visitors, errands, shopping, and general frenzy, life is back to a steady routine.  We had a wonderful Christmas and Christmas dinner at Mom and Mike's.  Next stop was Dad and Sharon's for more gift exchanging and some board game fun.  Michael's parents and his sister and fiancee made it up for New Years weekend for a belated Christmas weekend...all in all it was a fabulous couple of weekends.  Michael and I did small gifts this year, mainly because we don't need anything but more importantly because our major gift to each other was a new surround sound system!  This baby has completely revolutionized the basement and our movie viewing!  Pete and Rigby are NOT fans, but I think they're slowly getting used to it.  I think it confuses them to hear noises and voices coming from behind us.  It's amazing how much detail we were missing before!  So glad we decided to do that.  Next stop on the home improvement tour:  new counter tops and flooring in the kitchen and sun room.

HEATED Competition

In a friendly New Years wager, the Colts vs. Patriots rivalry came alive in our very own home.  You see,  Michael's sisters fiancee, Pat has the unfortunate reality of being a Patriots fan.  I know, I know...how did you even allow him into your home you're asking.  Well, it wasn't easy.   After some adult beverages a wager was proposed.  The loser had to wear the opposing teams apparel for the remainder of the evening, while allowing pictures to be taken, making said picture their Facebook profile picture.  Clearly opening the door for harassment, embarrassment and shame from our friends.  Being the clutch foosball player that I am (the wager was over a game of foosball) I pretty much wiped the floor with poor Pat.  My only regret is not specifying that it had to be a Manning jersey and not just Colts.  Oh well, live and learn.  There is always next year, right Pat?

Winner.

So far 2012 has a handful of trips planned, so that's the "now what" part.  January 31st I'll be going to Bristol, TN to visit a client. (Exciting!)  But St. Patrick's Day is what we're really looking forward to.  We're going to Boston/New York for St. Patty's to visit my friend Jennifer and have an awesome time with some Southie's and green beer.   We'll extend the St. Patty's Day to a long weekend in NYC for our birthdays.  After that I'm off to a conference in Pittsburgh, PA...and I'm hoping to get some sand and beach in there soon afterwards.  Here's to a great 2012 to all!

Christmas 2012

Hodge Podge

Since winter is a time of hibernation for some of us, it's a great time to catch up on some TV!  What's everybody watching?  We watch way too many TV shows, admittedly.  Our favorites are Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, and the one I can't wait to return... Game of Thrones! Season two trailer seen here.  Sons of Anarchy completed it's fourth season last week and although I've been hearing disappointment from many Facebook friends, I was pretty satisfied.  It was a "set up" ending which pretty much laid the groundwork for how season five is going to go.  If you haven't seen this show I would highly recommend it.  It's not all about biker gangs...well, ok it is but more about their subculture including terrific characters, intense plots, and complicated story lines.  I was hesitant at first but I was hooked after one episode.  Note though, you must watch from season one - not something you can jump into.

Hanks and Olmos

Dexter... Oh how I love you.  This season is much better than the last, in my opinion.  Season 6 of Dexter is thematically about a couple of religious extremists trying to bring about the "end of days" by performing acts in Revelations.  It guest stars Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Edward James Olmos.  Both of these actors are playing the parts tremendously and are very convincing as a pair of nutjobs.  Colin Hanks is incredibly creepy and as always Edward James Olmos brings depth to any role he portrays.  Dexter is something if you haven't seen previous seasons you'd be just fine jumping into any of them, as most plots are self contained. 

American Movie Poster

Whatcha reading?   I just finished (finally) the Stieg Larsson trilogy, The Millennium Series.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.  The first two of these had me burning through the pages.  The third...not so much.  Overall this series is great with Larsson's portrayal of  social outcast/hacker Lisbeth Salander and in fact I can't wait for the American version of the movie to come out this month!

I'm now onto The Hunger Games.  It's been on my  list for months and I started the first book last week.  So far it's totally worth the hype!  The synopsis is a post apocalyptic North America, now called "Panem" has now transformed into districts after a series of fires, storms, you know, apocalypse stuff.  The "Capitol" as it's referred to, controls these districts and every year as a "tribute" for the districts waging war on the Capitol and being defeated, are a series of gladiator style games where one boy and one girl from each district fight to the death.   I'm about halfway through the book already and can't put it down.

O hai.  Tanks fur dis new bed.

In other news... it's December 12th and I'm officially finished with Christmas shopping!  Everything is wrapped up and under the tree ready to open by their recipient!  I really went all out with the mint theme...not easy as mint stuff isn't always easy to find!  The cats seem to think the Christmas tree is exclusively for them and won't come out from underneath it.  The Duchess Ferguson has made a permanent kitty bed out of one of the gifts... awesome.  Ever try to discipline a cat?  No?  Me neither.  Pretty much an effort in futility. 

13 days til Christmas!

Bargains Bargains Bargains!

I thought my Mom and Stepdad were insane when they started hitting up the auction scene, and hitting it hard.  I think I got my first taste of extreme bargain hunting yesterday when a few uncovered gems made their way into the house.  I wanted something for the library (by library I mean spare bedroom that contains bookshelves) that had character.  I wanted something old, possibly even distressed looking, ideally from the 20s or 30s era.  What I got isn't that old but fit the bill perfectly!  I eyed this old console record player/radio and it was still in amazing condition.  With the exception of needing a new cord this should actually be operational...if I had any vinyl to play on it.  Michael and I dragged this sucker inside in the pouring rain, and it made a great addition to the room!

New console record player

A great auction find!

Vanity seat - pre-reupholstering!

Other super cheap finds from yesterday were a couple of benches.  The foyer has looked pretty barren since we moved in and I couldn't find anything that would be the correct size for it.  I picked up a $19 bench that could stand to be recovered but will do for now. Same goes for the vanity area in the master bedroom.  Around $20 and voila, new seating!  It desperately needs to fabric as the current is a very 1980s looking pastel motif.  It honestly reminds me of the color scheme on The Golden Girls...maybe it was Blanche's.  I threw a nice cream colored throw over it for now...it has nice bones and some ornate wood on the frame. 

Bench

Bench in use