Kitchen Table 2.0

So maybe we're in a DIY phase...

This weekend we looked around for some more hand-me-down-got-for-free-at-a-garage-sale-when-we-were-students furniture to paint (turns out our house is still full of it) and landed on the dining room table.

A few of the things we wish we'd known beforehand:

1. Spray gun is essential (we used it for the black paint but not the primer -- you can still see some pretty healthy brush strokes when the light hits it)

2. Satin finish would be best: We did coat 1 in glossy, then coat 2 in flat. oh well.

Overall I still think its an improvement!

Success!

After a few weeks of having traps in our attic, with no results, the critter company decided to put some traps along the outside of the house. The first night we caught one cat and one raccoon (reluctantly, I let the cat go, hopefully it stays away now). The second night we caught two possums, one mom and one baby. It would have provided more than a few meals for a family from Arkansas. All and all, we are feeling pretty good about reducing the population of small mammals living in, under and around our house.

Suggestions Please!

I have very, very straight hair. I would like to sometimes have curly hair. About every 6 months I try something new, 45 minutes later my hair is flat and straight again, I get frustrated and vow that I will never try to curl my hair again.

Putting the curls in is not the problem -- its keeping them.

So its that time of year again. Enough time has passed that the frustration and disappointment from my last experience have faded and I'm ready to experiment again. I refuse to believe with all the advances in sciences we have made, that there isn't a product out there that can keep my hair curly for longer than an hour. (Hair spray and mousse so far haven't been up to the challenge).

Any ideas?

Wild Kingdom

A few weeks ago, we woke up to some loud crashing in our attic. After we heard it again a while later, we broke down and called a "critter control" company. We figured we may have a racoon or a possum. While they couldn't find anything living up in our attic, they left a bunch of traps. Every few days I check the traps, but so far, nothing.

Last night we were talking to our neighbor, leaning against our tree, when he noticed something in the tree above us. I guess that means we were not hearing things after all.

Things I've learnt in the Kitchen (recently)

1. Baking powder does go bad.

This was discovered Christmas morning - the first year I spent Christmas with my in-laws and insisted that I would make Christmas breakfast for everyone.

2. The temperature of the butter matters.

This was discovered last night. Just making some regular peanut butter cookies that I've made a hundred times. But my butter was frozen so I just zapped it in the microwave and poured it in melted. 30 minutes later I poured the cookie dough into the bin.

Just thought I'd share, in case someone else is as clueless as me in the kitchen. Maybe this will save your next batch of cookies!

Yes, I'm posting about a television show

This week on Project Runway they narrowed it down to the final three. Kenley, who is horrible to everyone, and who has made some awful things in the last few challenges, managed to get through to the finale with her wedding dress (last pic below).

As one of the judges pointed out -- its incredibly similar to dresses recently shown by Alexander McQueen (top 2 pics).

They are the same dress! But she still got through!

I'm feeling a lot more indignation about this than I'm comfortable admitting. I might need to stop watching so much television.

Because I read too many design blogs

Before

After

TJ: "Its like clown furniture."

Galveston

Last Sunday, instead of going to church, our Elder's Quorum and one youth headed down to Galveston to help gut houses. It had been two weeks since Ike had flooded the island and there were only a few days left before houses would have to be condemned for mold.

It was a good time; its always fun to get an excused absence from church. We had a brief sacrament meeting in Galveston with about 200 other yellow-shirted volunteers from various stakes. The week previous we had gone out with the Helping Hands crew around our ward area, however, Galveston was a world apart. The devastation was so entire. Basically, every home on the island needed to have most of their possessions thrown away and their walls and floors ripped out. The mold in the homes created a terrible smell, only topped by the smell of experienced when removing refridgerators (I've determined that prior to evacuation orders, there should be a "clean out your fridge order").

We got to meet a lot of great people down there and provide some much needed service, I'd take that over Sunday School, any day.

A boat in the median of the freeway