When the heaters go on

We have been having the most beautiful fall out here in CT. There has been lots of sunshine, perfect temperatures and some colorful leaves. But all good things must come to an end…and I believe today was turning point for the dreaded cold weather.

Today, started off as a pretty dreary day with lots of clouds and no sunshine. There were a few showers here and there, but nothing drastic. I ran out to run some errands and when I got back we inexplicably had no power. It happened to be lunch time and I was starved! I debated what to eat for lunch since I couldn’t open the refrigerator and I couldn't use the oven or microwave. What oh what should I eat?! Why gold fish of course! Gold fish (the snack not your pet) have been on sale everywhere this week which of course means I bought every flavor imaginable. I ate pizza, cheddar, nacho and pretzel goldfish for lunch (I highly recommend the pizza and pretzel goldfish by the way).

After my goldfish binge I started to become aware of how cold it was getting in the house. So I started piling layers of clothing on and snuggled with Charlie for a while. After an hour or so the electricity came back on. The first thing I did when the electricity came back on was to turn our heat on for the first time this fall! It is official….winter is approaching!

Where has the time gone?

The past week has been a whirl wind of activity and I am finally catching my breath. My husband got a whole three days off….count ‘em 1,2 ,3! I have no idea when we’ll see that happen again! So we took advantage of the time off and headed out to NYC. We had such a great time hanging out with our friends. We didn’t do anything special just walked, talked, and of course drank lots of coffee (or tea in my case) .
We considered going to the natural history museum when someone told us it was National Free Museum day! I had never heard of it but what do I know?! So off I went to the info desk to ask if it was National Free Museum Day. The info lady literally laughed in my face and said, “You wish!” Yep, you gotta love New York. The lesson here is that National Free museum day only applies to the Smithsonian Museums.
So we took our cheap selves out for a free walk in Central Park. We of course acted like tourists and took a bunch of photos. There is nothing better than Central Park in the fall!

Beige the Bane of my Existence

I love color! I have always been obsessed with color and very color specific. So can you imagine a person who loves color living in an apartment with beige furniture, a beige couch, a beige rug AND beige walls! Yes, it is sad but true I lived in that sorry state for TWO years. I don’t know how I survived.

We just got our new sectional (which I have only mentioned a million times in this blog) which we picked as a neutral beige since I plan on splashing a TON of color onto the walls. But I just looked over there today and our walls our beige and our couch is beige and even OUR bloddy dog is beige! Ugh! Have no fear I have a color plan that will drive away the beige! And being the nerd that I am, I threw some photos into photoshop. Here is what I am thinking!

Hmmm. Now that I am looking at them here I think that blue needs to be bluer and that green needs to be toned down a bit....but you get the idea. There is one thing that I am really unsure of....what to do with our fireplace wall. The fireplace sits right in the middle between the dining room area and the living room area. I can't decide what color it should be. Should I leave it the beige as it is now, choose the green or the blue or different color altogether? Would love to know your thoughts!

Oh and I have to mention Ron brought home a surprise for me the other day....paint rollers! Ha! I was so excited...I will take paint rollers over a dozen roses any day!

Purely Random Thoughts: Spazziness

Here are some random Jakki thoughts for your Saturday morning

So I have been extra spazzy lately. I have burned myself twice on the oven rack this week (something I have never done before). I nicked myself with the knife the other day; Although I managed to get through 5 years of architecture school without cutting myself once! I also have been walking into everything lately…you should see the bruises on my legs (I blame all the new furniture)! Oh and to top it all off I got poison ivy all along my right arm. Yeah….I truly look a mess! And then I got to thinking that thank god I only have four limbs! I can’t imagine being a caterpillar and having to coordinate 16 legs or more! Can you imagine someone as spazzy as me having to coordinate all those limbs?! All I can say is I certainly would never survive the animal world!

Charlie: The Pied Piper

You never know what is going to happen when you go on a walk with Charlie. Today we had another toddler incident (yes we have had this happen before) where the toddler runs off to meet Charlie while their parents aren’t looking. Apparently Charlie is just irresistible to toddlers. But boy oh boy did my heart stop this morning when I turned around and saw a little one running across the street to greet us (with no parent in sight). Thank our lucky stars that we weren’t on a busy street! I brought the child back to his house but you should have seen the father’s face! Can you imagine looking out your front door and seeing your precious child holding a stranger’s hand?! I thought the guy was going to punch me out! I quickly explained the situation and backed away. Ohhh Charlie why do you have to be so cute?!

A whole lot of Hoopla: Our New Sectional

Ever notice that all things happen at the exact same time? Our house magically turned into a zoo on Saturday. We were having some of Ron’s family over for our first real “dinner party” and our sectional was supposed to be delivered the same day. Friday I get a call from Bob’s furniture telling me that our magnificent new sectional was supposed to be arriving at 4:30 while Ron’s family would be arriving around 4. Great! Ron and I spent a good portion of our Saturday moving all our living room furniture onto one side of the room. Normally, we would just move it to the basement, but our guests needed some place comfortable to sit! So our house looked ridiculous with ALL of our furniture shoved onto one side and a huge empty space on the other. But what can you do?

4 o’clock rolls around and the sectional has arrived early AND before our guests. Wohoo! Ron and I breathed a sigh of relief. The men get it unloaded and started to set it up (amongst all of the furniture we left upstairs) when we see Ron’s family arrive. Ha! You could see them sitting in the car with eyes wide pointing to the huge moving van sitting in our driveway. Ron goes out to greet them all and brings them all inside. So we had all of our old furniture on one side, the new sectional shoved on the other side, 3 movers, 5 family members ,charlie, Ron and I ! It felt like one of those old Marx Brother’s movies…

Charlie: The New Bobble Head Attitude

Charlie’s new haircut has gone straight to his head. He has been misbehaving and running around like a maniac ever since that fateful day! I am pretty sure he is running around thinking, “Wohoo! I am naked! Look at me!” Although, my sister-in-law pointed out that he is probably just getting back at us for getting him such a bad haircut! Hmmm…there may be some truth to that. Either way we have had to retrain Charlie because along with losing ALL of his fur he seems to have lost his obedience too. This week, Ron and I have been focusing on getting him not to jump on the furniture since we are (finally) getting a brand NEW sectional Saturday! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sectional doesn’t have paw prints all over it by Sunday!

What attitude?

Ding Dong The Steaks are Calling

Sometime last week our doorbell rings and I find a stranger on my porch with a brochure in his hand. Yep, you gotta love those sales people! So, I start to prepare to morph into mean Jakki, when he asks me if I am interested in any steak. I falter a moment and asked him to repeat that last part. “Do you want steak?” he asks. Steak? Someone is on my doorstep asking me to buy steak? At this point I must have made a ‘what are you crazy’ face because he suddenly says, “sounds sketchy doesn’t it”. Ohhhhh yeah it sounds sketchy. As it turns out it wasn’t that sketchy. He was from the OMAHA steak company, one of those online stores where you can buy frozen steak in bulk. He was selling some steak half price because someone had canceled their order! At this point my husband materializes out of thin air and is rushing outside with his wallet! Ron manages to get the guy to come down in price a little bit and we ended up with a package of NY strip steaks and a package of peppercorn steaks. So now our freezer is currently filled with zucchini, zucchini, zucchini, 5 cartons of ice cream and some steak shoved in between! Life doesn’t get much better than that!

Labor Day

I hope everyone had a great labor day! Ours was a bit of a world wind. Ron had to work Saturday but was able to get Sunday and Monday off (Horray! Two days off in a row!!). Once Ron came home from work, we packed up the car and drove down to my in-laws house. All of the family came over to celebrate Ron’s birthday (belatedly). We had a blast talking, eating, laughing, eating, smiling…did I mention eating?

We spent the next day moving furniture back to Connecticut. Ron’s Aunt and Uncle gave us their old dining room set! We are thrilled to have a matching set of furniture. The table seems so large now! We actually have to pass each other things during dinner! Total Craziness!

We celebrated Labor Day by doing some much needed yard work. We spent all day clearing vines off of this one tree. Unfortunately, you can barely tell we did anything out there since it is so overgrown. Oh bother. While Ron was hacking away at the vines and I was performing my Tarzan impressions, we came across the most unusual caterpillar (turns out to be an American Dagger Moth). So of course we had to stop our work and take a bazillion pictures.



I have never seen anything like it. It is definitely the punk rocker of the caterpillar family !

Be Happy: Kingsford the Pet Piglet

I saw this on todaysbigthing.com and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen! I hope this puts a smile on your face!

See more funny videos and Cute Animals Videos at Today's Big Thing.

The Attack of The Zucchini

Yes, the zucchini saga continues! I spent this morning baking some yummy zucchini muffins! I just shoved them in the oven. Only eleven zucchinis left sitting on our counter! Good grief!

I bet you thought I was exaggerating!

We have been more than happy to share our zucchini abundance with all of our neighbors. Since Ron and I have recently moved into Quaker Hill, the zucchini has been a nice ice breaker. It turns out we live in a great neighborhood with very generous neighbors. Perhaps too generous! It feels like every time we see a neighbor we have to try the new zucchini dish they made or try the zucchini bread that just came out of the oven. I swear the zucchini keeps coming back to us but disguised in different forms!!!

The Botched up Schedule

So for the past several days Ron has had to work second shift which has thrown our whole household into confusion. Usually, we go to bed around 9pm (I know we are so old) and then Ron will wake up at 4:15 am. He’ll do his morning thing and then come and say goodbye to me at 5:20 am. I will then get up and start my morning (grumpily). Charlie, unlike me, is a morning person and loves to wake up at 5:30am. He runs around like a mad man and is just so excited that it is 5:30 am! Charlie also does not believe in sleeping in. If I try to sleep in, he will simply sit next to my bed whining and jumping until I get up!

Now, that Ron has been working second shift we haven’t been going to bed till midnight or later. Unfortunately for us, Charlie’s sleeping schedule has not been thrown off. He still goes to bed at his regular time and still wakes up perky at 5:30 in the morning. AND remember sleeping in is not an option according to Charlie! So, my schedule has completely gone off to the wayside and I find myself falling asleep at all sorts of odd times. Luckily, Ron finished working second shift last night (but he did have to start first shift again this morning….my poor husband). So I am hoping by Wednesday we will all be back on the same sleeping schedule!

Our Garden

It has finally cooled down here in Connecticut and I have been braving the outdoors again. Yesterday was so beautiful that I spent most of my time in the garden. We have a nice sized garden that had been seriously neglected by me. I stopped wedding the garden regularly when the humidity and the heat were on the rise. Our garden looked like a jungle…as you can see for yourself.

Our Jungle

Our garden consists of an onion, pepper plant , tomatoes, and zucchini. I had never really had anything come out of a garden before. I grew up in a suburban community of New Jersey where the deer are very hungry! They’ll eat anything you plant in the ground. My family and I tried many times to start a garden but the deer or the rabbits would find their way in and demolish it all. So when we were planning for our garden I kept telling Ron to plant some more; figuring we would be lucky if one plant would survive.

All Clean

So you can imagine my surprise when our squash plants took off. I was thrilled with our first zucchini, it was my pride and enjoy. And then the zucchinis did not stop coming. Our last estimate was that our garden has produced about 65 zucchinis! Looking back, I now realize that we planted about 12 too many zucchini plants. We have been eating some sort of zucchini variation for dinner every night and I have also been shredding & freezing the zucchini (to make zucchini bread later! Yum!). Unfortunately, all our friends and neighbors are getting sick of zucchini and the zucchini is starting to take over our freezer (we still have enough space for 4 cartons of ice cream though…we know what is important.) I swear every time I finish a batch of zucchini there are another 8 zucchinis sitting on the counter.

One Massive Zucchini Plant

The zucchini epidemic got to a point where I was wishing the overachieving plants ill will. They started to turn yellow a couple weeks ago and all I could think was, “Ohh thank god. No more zucchini!” The plants are finally starting to slow down and I could not be more relieved. I think next year we will skip the zucchini!

Charlie: Bobble Head Hair Cut

The last time we took Charlie to get groomed we promised him, “We will never do that to you again!”

Charlie's Last Haircut (a little grown out)

Unfortunately we did not live up to our promise. I had put off getting Charlie groomed for a long time. Truth be told I hate how they poof out and style poodles (I know that they have to be brushed out like that but Charlie just looks so goofy). Finally it was getting so hot and Charlie’s fur was getting out of control that we broke down and took him in. Poor Charlie… his fur had gotten so matted that they decided to shave his entire body. No worries though they didn’t shave his head. Ugh!

So Charlie went from looking like this

to looking like this (what I affectionately call Charlie Bobble Head)

Neither Ron nor I have ever owned a poodle or a dog before, so we did not realize that you were only supposed to bathe them once a month. It is going to be hard not to bathe a white dog who loves mud more than once a month! Anyway, we have learned our lesson: have our poodle professionally groomed and bathed once a month! And Charlie we promise we won’t do that again! The good news is Charlie loves being shaved & cool. He has so much more energy and is incredibly happy. So here’s to you, bobble head Charlie!

So You Think You're Smart: Senior Citizens

The other day my husband pointed out to me that we were down to 2 cartons of ice cream!! What?! Only two cartons of ice cream! I peeked in the freezer to check for myself and sure enough Ron was right. Actually the situation was even worse than he stated...the cookies & cream carton was almost finished! I threw my coat on to do some emergency food shopping! I peeled into the Shop Rite parking lot and ran quickly towards the store. As I was walking in the “IN” side and elderly couple was coming out of the “IN” side. We then started to do the awkward we’re in each other’s way dance (you know…. backing out at the same time and going forward at the same time, both faking the same lefts to no avail). At this point I started to roll my eyes and think,"I don't have time for this there is a shortage of cookies and cream ice cream in my household! I mean how hard is it to read the signs!" And then my eyes rested on the “Do Not Enter” sign. Crap. I was going in on the “Out” side. I apologized and muttered something about being an idiot who needed ice cream. I spent the rest of the time food shopping just shaking my head at myself and rolling my eyes.

Boston is hot!

What could be more beautiful than Boston in the summer? A city filled with trees and flowers in full bloom. There was ivy covering the brick buildings and sailboats dotting the horizon. It felt like the city of Boston was rejoicing for summer. And I…well I was rejoicing that I remembered to put on deodorant on in the morning. To say Boston was hot last Friday would be an incredible understatement. It was sweltering, and the humidity was ungodly!

I went into the city to meet up with two of my old college roommates: Katie and Lauren. Katie and I seemed to fair a little better with the heat than Lauren. I guess it is because Katie and I both live along the new England coast; so we are used to the humidity smacking our faces and pummeling our bodies.

My trip began in Brighton where I met up with Lauren. The plan was to head towards downtown Boston to meet up with Katie. Poor Lauren, I felt so bad for her. She was so miserable in the heat. When we first stepped outside I honestly expected her to shout out at me, “ Look at what you’ve done!! I’m melting, melting!” However we did manage to make it onto to The T (which thankfully are air conditioned) before Lauren turned into a puddle.

We reluctantly got off the T and headed straight to the Boston Common where the frog pond was. The frog pond was this little water park where you could dip your feet in the water. We chilled there for a while as Lauren tried to regain some consciousness. Katie joined up with us and took us off to the Haymarket. The Haymarket was filled with fruits and vegetables galore! It was fun and incredibly chaotic. There were so many smells, colors and tons of people everywhere. It was fun to watch Katie bopping along talking to the merchants, smelling the fruit and buying eggplants because they were just so cute. Loaded with all sorts of vegetables and fruits we headed off to grab some dinner.

Dinner was not a thought out process. We simply headed to the first pizza place that had ac! I tried to save room for dessert but the pizza was just too good. After filling up our stomachs, we decided to stop in a bakery to get some goodies for later. You knew the cookies were right out of the oven because it was sweltering in there! It literally felt like you were walking into their oven. I must say that the heat stroke was definitely worth it! We then walked along the water towards the esplanade where once again our feet found their way into the water. Finally the sun went down and it began to cool off. The esplanade had a free movie in the park. They played the new Indiana Jones movie which was great! What could be better than Harrison Ford on the big screen and chomping down some fresh baked goods! The movie was great even though it was about aliens (yes I still can’t get over that part).

Saturday we decided to beat the heat and head on over to the Revere beach. We tanne, swam and just played around! We barely noticed that it was on the chilly side, partly cloudy, and that the ocean smelled worse than dog poop. Okay so that last part was very noticeable but somehow it just made us laugh even more! Side note: I don’t know what was up with the ocean but sometimes ignorance is bliss!

So you are probably wondering where are the pictures of this beautiful Boston with the leafy trees and ivy everywhere. Well, I did remember my camera and I carried it with me everywhere. I just forgot to take pictures! Whoops!

Charlie- The Introduction

Say hello to Charlie Da Poodle! We were lucky enough to adopt Charlie about 5 months ago from the New England All Breed Rescue group. He is a fantastic dog who loves to cuddle and chew on his bone! Charlie was saved from high kill shelter in the south and was transported up to New England. We are so thankful for this group's great work! If you are in the New England area and looking for a great pet check out New England All Breed Rescue’s website at http://newenglandallbreedrescue.org/

Be Happy - College

I graduated from architecture school over two years ago and have never been so thankful to leave a place. Architecture school was rough to say the least. If it hadn’t been for my husband and fabulous roommates, I don’t know how I would have survived. My roommates, Katie, Lauren, and Liz, always managed to make me smile through it all. I will happen to be visiting two of these lovely ladies in Boston this weekend! So in honor of my old college roommates I am going to list some of my favorite college apartment memories….

- Lauren’s room used to be between the kitchen and family room. The kitchen’s vinyl flooring extended right to the edge of her room. I am not quite sure how this started…but Katie and I would spend a good amount of our time trying to moonwalk in front of Lauren’s room. We would carry conversations on with Lauren while we passed her room doing bad moonwalk imitations. Actually, Katie by the end was pretty good at the moonwalk. I, on the other hand, never seemed to get the hang of it and just spent my time sliding awkwardly along the flooring.

- Our apartment’s attic had an unwanted tenant…squirrels. We used to be able to hear them scampering around up there, chewing on the few storage items that were up there. Truth was we were all terrified of the attic squirrels. They never harmed us, but every time you entered the attic there was this overwhelming fear. You would hold you breath waiting for the squirrels to come charging at you, screaming in their little squirrel voices, “Intruder! Charge!” To avoid this catastrophe from ever happening, we developed a warning system for the squirrels. Anytime one of us had to go up there, we would bring the flash light, take a deep breath, open the door, start stomping on the stairs and shout, “Squirrels I am coming up!” I spent many lunches hearing my roommates stomping and shouting at those squirrels. That memory will always make me smile!

- We used to have this one professor who always extremely serious, had his classes at 8 am and spoke in this monotone voice. He was a lot like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Needless to say I don’t think I was ever able to stay awake in his class. One day he was going on and on about how nature preferred even numbers (most animals have four legs, we have two legs, etc). He then made his first mistake and asked a rhetorical question, “Think about it. Are there any animals that have an odd number of legs?!” Katie, who was sitting next to me, shot her hand up (which woke me up), and shouted as if she had been waiting her whole life for this moment, “STARFISH! They have five!” I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard. Our professor’s face was priceless and ever since then he had to include the infamous starfish into his lectures!

A Connecticut Yankee

My husband and I have been living in Southeastern Connecticut for about three years now. We live close to Groton (known as the submarine capital of the world), New London (known as the place you stop at before you head to the casinos), and the Casinos (Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun which are actually well known). While my husband and I were still dating, he graduated and moved out to Groton, Connecticut for his first job. We decided to move in together a little while after and I was thrilled with the prospect of moving to Connecticut. Who wouldn’t be?! Connecticut was home to Mark Twain, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, hell even the Barnum & Bailey circus was born in Connecticut! Oh, I envisioned such a lifestyle: the Hamptons, Yale, and beaches galore!

I spent my first day in Connecticut driving around and discovering the “real” Connecticut. Out here the monster truck is the family vehicle, “downtowns” are typically a series of strip malls, and the beautiful waterfront is surrounded by railroad tracks and industrial parks. I drove around stunned for a while. Where were the smart Yale students? Where were the Hamptons? And why oh why weren’t there any circuses around?

After an hour of driving around and not seeing one circus tent, I turned around headed back to our apartment. As I parked in front of my new home I learned the most important Connecticut fact: watch out for the Connecticut seagulls. Since we live close to the ocean there are seagulls everywhere and they aren’t just ordinary seagulls, these are Connecitcut Seagulls. Connecitcut Seagulls are known for their amazing marksmanship. I had been driving around with the windows down and a segull had managed poop INSIDE my car while I was driving. What are the odds?!

After cleaning up my welcome home present, I called my family to tell them about my first day as Conneticut Yankee. They were all quick to inform me that when a bird poops on you it is good luck! Horray! Combined with the sheer improbability of a bird managing to nail the inside of my car could only mean one thing…I was meant to go out and buy a Connecticut lottery ticket! Of course! How could I have been so stupid! This was the obvious conclusion for when fecal matter lands on you or your possessions, you are meant to win the lottery.

Well, sadly I didn’t win the lottery, I guess that Connecticut seagull was trying to tell me something else. However, my husband and I did get married a year ago and having been living in Connecticut ever since. We haven’t bought a monster truck yet, so we still stick out like sore thumbs, but we do love it here. There are many beauties out here, you just have to know where to look. I should also say that the beaches here are definitely worth visiting…just as long as a Connecticut seagull doesn’t make you lucky!