I created a gallery of the goings-on. Here are some of the dramatic before-and-after shots.

The living and dining room had ill-fitted carpet and dark wood-paneled walls.

Painted walls and laminate floors open up this space.

The kitchen before renovation was cluttered and the cabinets were decades old.

The new kitchen has new cabinets against the back wall and a more spacious feel. The blue walls add a cozy touch.

For more photos of the dramatic changes, see my flickr gallery.

Historical Record (Ignore the coffee stain on it.)

We think this would be a fun idea, but I’m now wondering if naming it after the first guy who lived there really makes any sense. How do houses get their names? Or maybe we could make it the John and Sarah Wood house? I guess we’d have to find out if these people were worthy of having a house named after them.

I suppose we can call it anything we want, since we own it.

I really could have bought a lot of fabric at IKEA, but I only got a yard of this on sale for $4 a yard.

With half of the yard, I made the bag. With the other half, I made this wall hanging.

Truthfully, the wall hanging was what I made first. The bag was an afterthought. The frame for the wall hanging was also purchased at IKEA and was Matthew’s idea.

I don’t see myself jumping headfirst into craftiness. I think a few projects at a time are all I can handle. My next project is going to be curtains for the dining room.

I haven’t been in a plane in quite some time (can’t remember the last time), and so I have that anxiety that comes when air travel is not a habit. I am trying not to pack too much. For a few hours yesterday, I resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t bring my camera. But, I decided to fuck it and bring it, because I really feel lost without it.

I just finished a book by John Robison, which was actually a gift I had given to Matthew for Christmas. I borrowed it from him after he quickly finished it post-Christmas. John Robison is the brother of Augusten Burroughs and lives in Amherst. He grew up in Shutesbury, just around the corner from where I work right now. The book is his first and it is about his life with Asperger’s. It’s a quick and engaging read; I highly recommend it. If you do get it, consider the hardcover edition. The paperback edition that I purchased removed expletives so that younger people could read it and learn about Asperger’s, or just growing up different (and all the bullying that comes with it).

Now I am between books and don’t know which one to start. I’m thinking that I’d like to switch to fiction, so I am considering Andre Dubus III’s latest The Garden of Last Days, which I received as a gift. I also received two nonfiction books that are en vogue right now–Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. I heard about them at JBo’s tea party in December and put them on my Amazon list.

I also got Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, but I have already decided against reading it next. Something about reading Obama while in Chicago seems awfully cheesy.

I think I’ve settled on Ande Dubus III. I don’t know anything about the book. A perfect escape.

I won’t have any computer access for a few days as far as I know. Back on Friday night.

It’s been a busy month of being festive — getting a tree, decorating, baking cookies — as well as working to get our electrical system upgraded. Matthew has been doing most of the latter work, dealing with the electrician. We also have been working out a few tenant/landlord issues that aren’t appropriate to comment on in a public forum.

I have been working the new job, trying not to feel too overwhelmed about it all. I’m really happy that I made the decision to take on a new challenge. I am still learning and feel so new, but things are getting clearer for me week-to-week. Still, it’s going to be interesting when the woman I am replacing goes on maternity leave. There are a lot of things I don’t feel I know enough about and I want to know everything RIGHT NOW.

Last year we were in Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving. This year we were on Long Island. On Thanksgiving morning, we took a stroll along the Jones Beach boardwalk, one of Matthew’s favorite places. More photos at Flickr.

The hotel was attached to the conference center AND a huge mall, so I didn’t get out much during the three days. We did walk up to Federal Hill two nights in a row for delicious Italian dinners.

Heather took this photo me taking a photo of the view from the sixth floor of the Westin on our first day.

Heather and I took just a few photos in the hotel and on our last day we went on a little photo safari.

First stop was Federal Hill.

Then we sort of got lost and ended up in a questionable part of town.

Then it was over to RISD to snap some photos.

My full gallery is available at Flickr. Heather’s is also available there.

On Monday it was about 60 degrees in the shade. I scraped and painted the floor of our front porch. Our doorway is on the right (the one with the cute home plate mat — which was an engagement gift from Jennifer Myszkowski. We also got a cute new floor mat for our wedding from Alyson and Bill. It has monkeys on it. We are saving that one for when this one wears out. But, enough about the doormats). One of our tenants gave me the news that it was going to rain that night, so I only got to put one coat of paint on the floor. When the weather gets warmer again, we plan to do more painting on the porch.

On Wednesday night, we went to the Rag Shag Parade in Easthampton. I had never heard of such an event,  but it’s basically a chance for kids and parents to walk down the streets of the city, while the police direct traffic away from downtown. The kids are dressed up in their Halloween costumes and there are essentially no spectators, just parade participants. We did not follow the entire parade through town, but Matt tells me they head for some location where they are given free candy. Matt grew up in Easthampton and did this as a kid.

During the day on Wednesday, I spent some time at the Holyoke Mall. What is a week off without at least one pilgrimmage to the Holyoke Mall? I bought a few tops in anticipation of the new job, had my eyes checked at the optometrist and treated myself to a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I finished it Saturday afternoon. Isn’t it pretty?

Jigsaw puzzles are a fruitless activity, which can be a good and a bad thing. On the one hand it’s very zen to focus on something with absolutely no reward except the act itself. On the other hand, it took hours away from my life.

Despite my reputation as a highly organized person, I will often wait to do things until the last minute. One of those things was purchasing a pumpkin for Friday night’s 2nd annual Halloween pumpkin carving extravaganza. As the week progressed I casually noticed that there were fewer and fewer pumpkins available at the Stop and Shop. On Thursday, I drove around Chicopee listening to Winterpills and trying to find a damn pumpkin.

It wasn’t until Friday afternoon when I finally tore myself away from the jigsaw puzzle and drove to Atkins Farms in Amherst. Atkins was out of big pumpkins, but I ended up picking up the last pumpkin at a roadside farmstand in Granby. The guy sold it to me for four bucks. On my way back I shot some photos of the Holyoke Dam area. This shot is of the South Hadley side.

And here is the carved pumpkin, which we ended up naming Barack O’Lantern, because that’s what you do when you are hanging out with a bunch of commies.

I did a lot more activities, including Endless Shrimp on Tuesday night, but I’d rather not talk about that. Our close friend Amy was also in town for the weekend and so we spent some time with her. And just this morning I met up with a few Twitter friends at a Starbucks in Connecticut.

Anyway, more blogging will happen from here on out. It feels like the seal has been broken.