Mixed Bag

This weekend has been a total mixed bag.

I guess it started Thursday night when we had to take Miss Kitty to the vet. We were there for over three hours for what we had thought was a kitty cold. It wasn't. We brought her home knowing that she wasn't to be much longer in this world.

Friday night we had tickets for Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. It's currently the talk of the town, and it really was amazing! We went with Doug and Michelle, as we had all fallen in love with the Cirque performances during their wedding trip in Vegas. While the staging at the Vegas shows was better, the performers themselves were still top notch in the travelling show. We had a fantastic time!

By Saturday morning, we knew Kitty was done fighting. We had to take her in and say our goodbyes. I know I give Clay's cats a lot of grief, but it was absolutely horrible saying goodbye to her. She was Clay's first pet ever, and she was the one who attached to me the most. She slept on me pretty much every night. We miss her greatly, as do the other two cats.

After leaving the vet, we HAD to stay busy and occupied so that we wouldn't drive ourselves insane after the hard morning. We decided to do some rug shopping, then went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. The parade was one of our very first dates three years ago, and we've made it every year since. This was our fourth and we really didn't want to miss it. It was a perfect distraction, and we had a really good time. We then met up with a big group of friends at Charlestown Pizza Company and had some great food and great conversation. From there, we went to one of Clay's friend's birthday celebrations. We hung out and watched the Cards get their big win! Woohoo!! Around 12:30am, we were finally exhausted enough to crawl back home and fall asleep without having had time to really think or be sad all day! Perfect!

Today was cleaning day! Now that all of the carpet is pulled, we had to do some cleaning/oiling/scrubbing on the hardwood. Clay worked on that, dishes, vacuuming, and bills while I tackled about five loads of laundry, stripped beds, cleaned the bathroom, mopped floors, etc. I finally threw in the towel (literally!) and said I had to get out of the house! We hit up an antique store, then went back to the rug shopping. We had already been to JCPenney and Ashley Furniture, so today we hit up Kohl's and Macy's before finally going where we should have gone first...TARGET! My favorite store! We were able to find a perfect rug that we both actually liked! This was obviously no small feat.

(The colors are actually more muted than this picture shows. What looks like black here is actually chocolate brown and what looks like brown here is actually kind of a mustardy color.)
Here's a pic from my phone, but it's kinda sad:


We are now home, still sad, but mostly just at peace that Kitty is not struggling or in any pain.
We loved you, Kitty. And you loved us. Thank you.

Home Improvement!

So, I kind of teased y'all with that hint about an upcoming vacation. We were really seriously thinking about going to Ireland for a minute. But. We're growing up. We're pretending to be responsible. While Ireland is stoopid cheap right now, we decided our money would be better spent here, in our home. As with any homeowners (particularly those with vintage homes), we always have a running list of things to do. One of our big jobs that we've been looking into was our floors. After 10ish years with clumsy people and gross cats, our carpets were really starting to look rough. Clay had pulled up a corner at some point along the way and discovered that there might be some nice looking hardwood peeking out from under there. Once I got a glimpse of that corner, I HAD to see if these floors could be salvaged. We've really been putting the task off, though, because if the hardwood wasn't ok, we'd have to be prepared financially to put down new carpet. Well, instead of a big trip this year, we decided to take the plunge. OH. MY. GOODNESS. How happy am I that we did!?!?! Check these beauties out! Keep in mind, though, that this is just as we found them, and that we haven't even cleaned or polished them yet.


Ok, here's the living room and front door. There's a dark blotch there on the right. It's from my camera, and is NOT showing darkness on my hardwood.

Between the dining room and living room. Again, dark blotch is camera, not floor.

Hallway (how can I get this blotch off my camera lens??? I think it's inside!)

Dining room
More dining room

How exciting!!! And George, just so you know... I've really been working hard! There's something motivational about seeing your own house get improved! I have a track record of being really lazy (who, me?? HA!) , but even Clay said I've been working really hard! I've taken up all of the tack strip and probably half of the staples. I even helped carry carpet and padding to the curb for junk pickup!