We're still alive and kicking

...although you'd probably never know it looking at the house. Another slump has hit us. There's just a lot going on. Our new puppy is taking a lot of time to train, though she is sweet as ever. And our old man dog, Simon, was taking trips to the vet several times a week for a while to get arthritis shots and blood panels. He's started on a total dietary turnaround; we've transitioned the dogs to Nature's Variety, and both get a nightly treat of salmon oil and canned pumpkin. Then Simon gets joint supplements, vitamins, monthly adequan shots and Rimadyl. Whew! Just doling out the damn pills takes up all my time! But he feels so much better, so far, at any rate. And thankfully, so do I since PetCo had a mega moving sale and let everything go for about 60% off.

And then there's the historic neighborhood walk. I wrote an article about it for our local magazine and we've been trying to pretty the place up and make the front presentable. Top that with the fact that our washing machine is dying a slow and painful death, so while we were hemming and hawing over whether to take advantage of the labor day sales or wait until the Thanksgiving sales, laundry was piling up swiftly. We finally decided to wait and I've been catching up.

One cool thing to come out of this historic walk, or perhaps leading up to the walk, is the area's place on the National Historic Register. We're getting "historic" street signs tomorrow, and I woke up to find a manilla envelope on teh porch yesterday, stuffed with the papers from the architectural survey done on the house during the petition for addition to the register. Kinda cool. Not a lot that we didn't know, but some confirmation of things we suspected (like that the house was not built in 1940 as HUD suggested, but rather closer to 1922 or so. My research says 1920/21). Gives the place of whiff of the Bona Fides.

Meanwhile, the university is back in session and I've hilariously decided to take a class for fun. Ha ha ha! I have an assignment due on Friday. We also had a lot of grilling and beer drinking to do this weekend.

So anyway, the long and short is, life got in the way. Once again.

But! We at least still have plans. If it weren't for all the rain, Adam would be tuck pointing this week. That's my drive home. I can't really complain when I get a double rainbow
into the prettiest damn valley in the world.

Maybe this coming weekend. We want to start painting by mid-October. It stays pretty warm and temperate quite late into the fall around here, so early to mid-October ought to be a good time. I think I might have chickened out on the red color. Here's the problem. Now think of this picture as Highlights magazine. What's wrong with this picture...


Nope, not the walkway; I've edged it already. Not the peeling paint... Give up?

There it is. See how all those bricks mush into each other? That's all over the house. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad tuckpointing. Even though WE know we're not trying to fool anyone, the people who drive by don't and that flat space will scream "fake painted brick." I've also sort of grown accustomed to a light, bright house. So we're working through some combinations of buff, taupe and brick red for the house, decorative trim, and gable trim. More to come, I suppose.

And that's the big picture. We're still alive and doing very boring things, being "those people" about our dogs (or maybe it's just me...) and trying desperately not to be the worst house on the block. Can you blame us for being unproductive?