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Post Move

OK, I know, time to get this show back on the road... I've yet to get to the computer at home setup which cramps the blogging... The move went surprisingly well. We were up late the night before packing (with the help of my sister who came up from Boston), but besides that, things went pretty smoothly. The packing was made easier by the endless supply of identically sized boxes complete with foam padding that I got from work. We hired professional movers to do the rest -- a promise we made to ourselves when we moved into the apartment 8+ years ago. Kudos to William C. Huff Movers who worked quickly and efficiently, came in under their estimate, and did not ding or even scuff a single wall in the new house.

I know, moving pictures aren't that exciting to look at, but I have to share our impressive stacks of neatly labeled boxes, and our cats' initial reaction to the new house (they are fully recovered now).

Us and the Amazing Technicolor Dream House

As I think I mentioned before, we decided to paint the interior of the new house before moving in. We knew we wanted to do something a little more exciting than neutral colors throughout (in these days of Trading Spaces, how could we just leave the walls white?) but then again we didn't want to have anything too bold or bright. We started with our own ideas, based on the colors in our couch, and then enlisted the help of an interior decorator as well as 4KMnD's Beautiful Wife®™ for color consultation. We bought quarts of all the color candidates and tried patches of them on the walls to see what we liked. In every case the colors the professionals picked were right on and the colors we picked ourselves were... well, that's why they're the professionals. In fact we had to have the master bedroom painted twice since the first color we chose was much too baby blue. We're very happy with how it all turned out, and if anyone needs a painter, I highly recommend Jim Dick, who did a phenomenal job for us at a very reasonable price.

So now, I present our house of many colors -- no two rooms the same:

Now before you say it: No, the dining room is not pink. It is Antique Rose. The living room is Salisbury Green, the sunroom is Hollingsworth Green, the halls are Standish White, the office/loft is Kennebunkport Green, and the master bedroom is Summer Shower. (Not shown are the kitchen in Montgomery White, the guest bedrooms in Misty Blush and Bradstreet Beige and the master bath is Mystic Beige.)

No city tree pick-up? No problem.

Looking for a free and exciting way to dispose of that Christmas tree? Meet me down at the Cocheco River landing where I will be starting our own Annual International Re-Rooters Day Ceremony. Not familiar with it? Cape Cod Times: Planting roots:

A tall, gangly man in waders towing a tiny, makeshift boat with a Christmas tree into the brisk waters of Provincetown Harbor while the sun plunges into the western horizon.

Within minutes the tree is ablaze and thick smoke is gusting toward the eastern shore. In the background, a chorus is singing holiday carols with lines like, "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, the IRS does praise thee."

The brainchild of Provincetown resident Jay Critchley, the ceremony is an opportunity to "reclaim our relationship to our earth," said the conceptual artist, activist and founder and president of the International Re-Rooters Society, or IRS.

The IRS was formed in 1983, Critchley said, to "re-root ourselves to the earth after the consumptive holiday season."

You see, now, only in Provincetown can you find this sort of creative problem solving initiative. I can just imagine the brainstorming session: "Hmmm... surely setting a Christmas tree on fire and tossing it into the bay would be illegal... but what if we make it a festival with religious overtones? Then we've got the First Amendment protection!" I'm surprised the environmental activists let this slide -- doesn't this introduce harmful toxins into the bay and destabilize a fragile ecosystem? I guess it's part of the activist code of conduct not to harass one another. Here are some more photos.

Understatement of the year (so far)

Cape Cod Times: 'Kind of a miracle' (January 7, 2004):

Ellis Tomas woke up when he heard footsteps. It was just before 2:45 a.m. yesterday, and he thought someone had broken into his home... Then Tomas realized a car had crashed into his cottage, pushing him and his bed through the small house and into the parking lot.... The bed came to rest 40 to 50 feet away. ... "It's kind of a miracle," [the] landlord said yesterday.

It's worth clicking through to see the photo read the rest of the bizarre circumstances surrounding this incident.