Catching up

Oh, how I've been putting this off. Too much going on, too much to say. Here's your recap:

Remember how great our kitchen looked after the remodel? We loved it too. So now we've moved. Basically, no tax credit for buying house from parents + Rob works on the other side of town anyway + oh this house over here is kind of wonderful = We bought a house on the dreaded north side of town. I've been devoted to South Austin for many years so the adjustment is a bit much. We also live in the almost suburbs (still in the city limits!)

We raced toward closing, did I mention we decided to buy this house and went under contract all in one weekend. Just call me the Decider! No, wait, don't. Somewhere in there we also attended the Austin City Limits festival for the first time. 3 days of more good music than I could ever hope to absorb and it only rained 2 of the 3 days! Actually, the rain wasn't a big hassle and listening to Flogging Molly in a downpour just felt right anyway. My favorite show was Phoenix, loved the performance from Ghostland Observatory, danced away to the B-52's, and that's just a small fraction of the bands we saw. It was great, and exhausting.

Meanwhile, we buy a house and it's new. Easy move in, right? Wait, have you met me? Of course we embarked on a 2 week journey to remove 95% of the carpet and replace with wood floor. I also painted a lotta walls with a lotta help from Barb. We finally moved in this past Sunday and we're still finishing thresholds and base trim. Nevermind the clean up at the old house which my parents have decided to use as base camp for their Austin visits for the time being.

There you have it: We had a perfectly wonderful house but bought a new one, had a great time dancing in the rain at ACL, have been banging things up at our new digs and finally moved ourselves in. That's what you missed last week on Glee! Pictures to follow.

The big reveal!

Well, it finally happened. After more weekends than I really care to count, we turned this:

Into this:

We continued the tile through the living/dining room which has made the space look bigger, and, most importantly in my book, has made cleaning up the pet hair from our menagerie way easier. Here's a look at the work crew over the last of the project weekends:


Once the renovations were over (as over as they ever are around here anyway) the only thing left to do was take Barb up on her offer to break the place in. This brings us to today's life lesson: When you have a friend whose superb kitchen prowess is discussed over and over again, and that friend offers to cater a party at your house, you do not think about dirty dishes. You just say "yes, yes please".

Allow me to introduce the chef:
This party had a smorgasbord (there's a word I don't get to use enough) of Spanish tapas. Empanadas, gazpacho, Spanish ham, Manchego cheese with quince paste, flatbread tostadas, grilled vegetables with saffron aioli, french bread with romesco dipping sauce... and yet I still feel like I'm forgetting to mention some things. All I know for certain is I'm considering asking Barb to move in.

Rob was in and out of the kitchen trying to usurp my "official taste tester" status.

I let him live, but it was close. My benevolent dictatorship does not tolerate coups.

The party itself was a lot of fun. I love having the excuse to pull together friends for some mingling and the inevitable Rock Band.


The party left behind a certain amount of carnage, of course:

See Mom, all that hard work was put to good use! Oh, and the dishwasher still does a good job when filled to capacity... in case you were wondering.

Finding a happy place

I've been a little preoccupied lately. Ok, I've been a lot preoccupied lately. Also self absorbed.

If you're lucky enough to not know what I'm talking about, let's leave it that way. The people that have been forced into listening to my long and rambling complaints have suffered enough without me taking it on the road via the world wide web.

However, in a bid to cheer myself up today, I located this little video I made back in 2006. Summer '06. The summer of suffering. Bar exam summer. The summer when I lived for a week off of a pan of brownies and convinced myself the giant spider outside the dining room window was my friend (I named her Charlotte, proving that I was both lonely and lacking creativity at the time). That summer royally sucked - until the end. A few days after the bar exam I hopped on a plane to London for a week in England with my parents, Nathan, and Kelly. It was my first trip to Western Europe and it required zero knowledge of tort law. I had a blast!

Now that I'm looking at another summer that is dragging by, this little memory makes me smile and gives me hope for September.

The monster out back

How was your 4th of July? Mine was eventful. My parents were up for part 342 of the kitchen remodel saga. It is soooo close to done. A few more handles on cabinets and a light fixture are all that stand between you and more pictures. 

Since I'm sticking to my promise to hold off on showing the finished kitchen until it's, you know, finished, I instead ask for your assistance in solving this mystery:

These are my dogs:

I know, ferocious. These dogs usually take several tours per day of the backyard to do their business and run security rounds to determine whether anything fun to play with has made an appearance since their last outing. As of this past Saturday, Luna is completely uninterested in going out there after dark. Cora isn't too thrilled with the idea either, but she'll go if I go. Saturday night they both came in panting to beat the band and Luna had some cuts on her face. Before you worry too much, let me just say that cuts on Luna are not generally a cause for major concern. Her attitude is most often similar to a battering ram when it comes to getting into things. This time, though, something had obviously scared them but good. I didn't hear any fireworks going off while they were out there. Therefore, I am going with the most obvious conclusion:

There must be a chupacabra in my backyard. Does anyone have advice on how to escort this to another area?

Those are not my babies

Rob and I trekked it down to Mo City last weekend to meet our newest family members. Here are some quick introductions for you:

Meet Liam:


And Samantha:


There is an official baby blog and photo explosion at
http://web.me.com/nathan_shipley/Babies/Welcome.html
Check it out for the full baby details.

My mom and I headed over Saturday morning after my very tired brother called to say that he was ready to pass out already. We made small talk with Kelly for a bit, but just as I had settled into a "I'm going to be a helpful relative" plan and started putting dishes away, the twins woke up and I was invited in for an official meeting. On a side note, if you guys are missing any dishes, I'm really sorry.
I got into the bedroom and headed to the crib prepared to ooh and ahh in the way I imagine aunts do. It was about that time that I was handed a baby and a bottle. As Kelly very correctly notes on her baby blog, I was kinda new to this experience. Many years separate me from my last babysitting gig, and I had never held a newborn before. After a brief tutorial, though, I was on the couch feeding Samantha.

That was pretty much the tone for the weekend. We were either feeding babies, watching babies eat, or talking about when we'd be back for the next feeding. It kind of reminded me of making special plans to arrive at the zoo in time to watch the sea lions fed. I've been on a bit of an odd visual kick with this whole thing actually. Every time I think about Kelly having a c-section, I'm reminded of that scene from ALIEN. Except not that scene. Really I'm thinking about the scene from Spaceballs where the alien not only pops out of the guy's belly, it then proceeds to dance and sing show tunes.

Perhaps I have an overactive imagination. That's a good thing, right?

Anyway, here are some more pictures from the weekend, including incriminating images of Rob and I holding babies. Don't get started. Anyone making comments about us looking great, or worse "natural", holding a baby is liable to get a punch in the face. You've been warned.






Finally, here come some ridiculously cute pictures of Nathan holding Liam:







Are you ready?






These are seriously cute...







Ok, here you go: