Quick weekend update
Barbara Warner
essentially the same :-)
On Friday night of last weekend, I took ane xtended study break to
accompany DH in our borrowed car, out to an art / framing store to see
about some work we wanted to get framed/mounted. DH said he didn't want
to spend more than $400 on the 7+ pieces of work we had to take care of,
and said his limit was $500. I said we'd be lucky if we spent double his
mininum... We had, after all, a set of four sketches of San Fransisco, 3
art posters, and 1 large print, pluys two huge (like 6 by 4 foot!) world
maps (one political, one geographical). Of course, I was right. By the
end of our 2+ hour visit to the framing shop, we decided not to get the
maps done at all (they would have been $150+ each and aren't in good
shape), and the rest of the work was framed (in one case, backed and
laminated).
Saturday and Sunday were spent (for me atleast) primarly studying with
some tv watching (Olympics - I'm hooked as usual despite the
disappointing results for my country), houselceaning and sleeping - my
usual modes of procrastination.
This past weekend, DH decided to save us some money on the framing, and
go into the shop to do the work himself. On Saturday, we came home with:
--one laminated print (bordered in black) of a Casablanca movie poster
-- which was my 21st birthday present from DH oh, so many years ago!
It's hanging in the kitchen, and looks goregous as it's mostly white
with speia colour photos, black titles and the movie title in a deep red
(picking the red coloured touches all around the kitchen).
--one framed poster of a New York City street, really, just a huge
building in all sorts of cool colours (it's a poster print of a
painting). The frame is a thick black one with lines through it, the
matting is a deep brown picking up colours in the print, and looks
gorgeous hanging in our dining room (where we have a mixture of medium
coloured woods)
--one framed poster of "Ireland's Writers" which I bought in a bookshop
in Dublin specifically to hang over a lawyer's desk someday --it has all
sorts of greens, beiges and browns in it, with a collage of artist
portriats and mini-bios; it's got a funky brushed metal frame, no
matting, and will be hung, yes, in my office above one of my big
lawyer's desks.
--one framed poster of the midnight sun above "Nordkapp". the northern
most point in Europe, a souvenir from our honeymmon. It has a silver
frame to pick up the white/silvery colours in the midnight sun and snow
in the print, and is hanging in our stairway
--a set of four sketches of famous San Fransisco sites, matted and
framed in the same piece (one mat with four cut outs). The sketches --
which are of Fisherman's wharf, the Golden Gate bridge, the winding-est
street in the world and um, one other SF place -- are black and white
reproductions, matted in a deep marbled green and framed in a plain
black metal frame. It's hanging in our bedroom, where we have a bedroom
set and other touches with plain black metal (draw pulls, fineals on the
curtain rod, etc., etc).
It all looks fantastic! It does seem a bit silly to do this after we've
been here 2 1/2 years and are moving within the year, but it does perk
up the place a bit and will make it look 'more like a home' when we do
go to sell. And heck, it was much easier than painting the place!
AGain this weekend I've had lots of studying, but it's been harder to
get up my motivation. first off, last week's exam was not as challenging
as I expected (not as rattling as law school exams, for instance), and
this week's is closed book (we'll be given reference materials at the
exam site, can't bring anything in). Since I've become accustomed to
studying by preparing my exam materials and using them, I've been at a
loss as to how to study (along with everyone else, I think). And, this
week's exam is all multiple choice, so it's not as if we have much to do
but think....and the only reference materials we're using (a copy of the
applicable regulations/rules) is provided and *very* straightforward.
This ethics stuff is pretty common-sensical, IMO. I hope the exam proves
my theory!
The usual distrastions and procrastination techiques applied, including
eating DH's yummy "study food" -- he made homemade breaded prokchops
for dinner on Friday, and we've been eating leftovers ever since. They
were super yummy (he used the crumbs leftover from the chicken fingers
we buy), and better than 'Shake n Bake' :-) On Friday and Saturday, we
had them with a side of herbed rice and mixed vegetables. Tonight (Sun)
we had them with mashed potatoes and Karen's onion gravy (leftover from
the last time we had her flank steak recipe), and again, mixed
vegetables. DH even fished out all of the lima beans for me :-)) The
frozen mixture we buy has lima beans in with the other veggies and we
usually just make ourselves eat them...This morning he made fluffy,
wonderful pancakes, served with real maple syrup and soft, spreadable
butter - yum. I'm sooooo spoiled. Then again, *he's* not the one who has
to write an exam every 7-10 days!!
Better get back to that studying. I sincerely hope that everyone's
weekend was more interesting than ours . Thanks for letting me ramble on
about it, though...
-Barbara
Leslie Deak
Barbara Warner wrote:
> Okay, two weekends in one, since the higlights and the lowlights were
> essentially the same :-)
Well, we had a great weekend, and it was filled with activities! On Friday
night, I headed to the mall to take advantage of Hecht's Birthday sale,
and walked out with a new Nine West Purse! We met up with some friends at
a Tapas place near our house for dinner, then went to our place for a
drink before heading to a friend's housewarming party. We were all really
tired, so J and I left by about 1am, and headed directly to bed.
DH woke me up earlier than I'd planned on Saturday, so I busied myself
readying the house for my friend Jen's bridal shower (she was a 'maid in
my w*dding). Errands were run, food was cooked, and the house was cleaned.
It ended up being a good surprise for Jen (yay! we kept a secret!), and
we had a great time, though we have lots of food left over (hint: DC
ANers--want some food?). Then, DH and I napped (inseperate rooms--DH in
front of the TV) and I went out around 9pm for Jen's bachelorette party.
(DH stayed home with more TV.) We Metroed over to Adams-Morgan and went to
Tom-Tom (for those of you in the know). We had Jen do all kinds of funny
things and took pictures, and had plenty to drink. It was a blast! We took
a cab home around 2:30 and finally hit the sack at Christina's house a
little after 3am.
Jen woke up at 9, and we walked back to her place, since her fiance's
parents were scheduled to leave at 10. DH came to pick me up, and I got
home only to crawl into bed until 12:30pm! DH went to work, I called my
friend Liz, and we make an Ikea pilgrimage.
Well, Liz DRAGGED me into Nordstrom Rack, and forced
me to buy two pairs of shoes! Then, I popped into the Lenox outlet (bad
idea) to see if they had any good sales. Well, they did, and I finished
out our crystal at buy one, get one 50% off. Mmm, I love outlets. (Except
I overbought the wine glasses and underbought the goblets, so there's
another trip to Dale City in store for me soon.) THEN, we went to the
Papyrus outlet where I spent far too much on a nice album, and we finally
made it to Ikea, where I didn't find any shelving solutions, didn't buy a
light fixture or a rug, and didn't buy any furniture (well, at least
that's good). I did, however, manage to spend a chunk of change on bedding
(we're in desperate need of sheets and decent pillows), cheap picture
frames, and more kitchen stuff. THEN, we went to the SuperTarget on Prince
William Parkway where I managed to buy the WRONG SIZE shelving solution
and various other things I bet I don't need. Hrm, I'm going to hate doing
our accounting in Quicken this month.
Grr. Now it's Monday. J's twin brother is in Bethesda this week, so we're
looking forward to a dinner or something with him, and we're having a
happy hour for a San Diego-bound friend, so the week looks promising. I
have sleep planned for the weekend. (Is anyone else being socked in the
sleep register by the Olympics? I haven't been to bed before midnight
since the opening ceremonies! Stupid NBC!)
Leslie