a fresh start

Today feels like a really good day and that’s saying a lot for this week. Luckily for us Joe had this past week off and was able to get a lot of things done around the house that were necessary after the break in. One of those thing being available to let our handy man in so he could start the repair job on the dry wall. He will be back this afternoon to finish up. If you ever need someone who can do it all and actually cares that it’s done right, let me know and I will get you his info.

I woke up early this morning and headed out to the farmer’s market. Perfect brown eggs. The one on the bottom right is now in my belly… delish!

I also picked up a couple of Arkansas Black apples. Thought I would try something different. Oh and I am totally excited about those onion and cucumbers in the jar! Can not wait to crack that baby open.

Last, but not least, some nice colorful veggies. I found a couple of recipes this week I wanted to try. My cooking skills aren’t the best so I’ll keep you posted on the results.

That’s it for now. Off to get ready to go to the door showroom so we can figure out which replacement door we will have installed. Wish us luck!

the break-in

You never think you’re going to be the one… Yesterday around 1PM Joe gets a call on his cell from our home phone. It’s the police. Someone has broken into our home.

The two of us race home to find four police cars parked out front and the warning to not touch anything since they are still trying to get prints. This is one of them trying to get prints off of the TV that was mounted to the wall. Looks like they stood on the table and pulled to no avail.

Here is a peak behind the wall mount. At minimum we will have to have the dry wall repaired. Hopefully that stud is intact.

Our front door was in shambles when we came home. Apparently it is pretty easy to kick in most doors. The deadbolt just tore right through the frame.

 

Here are some remnants of our door.

 

So we could actually leave the house to, well, look for a new door Joe was able to rig us up some new framing so the door would actually close and lock for the time being. Not bad! You have to love wood flooring re-purposed as part of a door.

From what we can tell it looks like we got off pretty easy. Our neighbor came home for lunch and it looks like it may have spooked them into leaving in a hurry. They got away with a flat screen TV, Wii plus games, Playstation 3, and a few other small items but they left some other things by the door and there was a lot more that could have been taken. Our neighbor didn’t realize what was going on until he left his house later and saw our front door wide open, that’s when he called the police and reported it. I’m just thankful they left quickly and that we came home to the police and not an emptied out house, or random people. You just have to look at the upside to these things.

 

Here’s a few of the officers checking out another TV that they were hoping would have prints… looks like they may have been smart enough to wear gloves.

 

This is what I had to drink after everyone left the house.

 

Oddly, I don’t feel violated so much as pissed off that someone thinks it’s OK to just help themselves to things that we have worked hard for. It’s just hard to fathom the mindset of someone who thinks that breaking in an stealing someone’s things is perfectly acceptable behavior. I really don’t get it.

Today the Brinks guy came by and now we have an activated (and yes, it’s on right now) alarm system. That makes me feel better about the rigged up front door. Still waiting for the door guys to call and come by so we can get an estimate on having a new more secure door installed.

As odd as it seems, I feel like we were lucky and that this is a lesson learned. Never thought I would say it, but Hooray for the new alarm system! I feel better already. Well, at least a little.

and their were farm animals

Unbeknownst to me I was in for a livestock filled weekend. Leaving work Friday I decided to walk outside to get to my parking deck and ended up in the middle of the Blues, Brews & BBQ event that took place this weekend. Almost immediately I spotted the pen of goats and sheep. I suppose their purpose was to look cute and be fed by us humans or possibly be BBQ… do you BBQ goats?

They also had a pen of llamas. Dr Gemma was right, totally stuck up little things, but cute. A bit on the matted side, but cute.

After work, Joe and I, headed up to WV to visit the fam and to wish Dad a happy birthday. Oh, and Joe had to fix his parents TV set up. Typical visit home.

Saturday, Mom and I headed over to the annual Mound Festival to see what sorts of arts & crafts we could find. Guess who I bumped into? Alpaca! Cute, adorable, super friendly alpaca. These guys were part of the Good Shepherd Farm Alpacas and their coats had been sheered and made into some lovely yarn. I bought two hanks of natural yarn from Biscotti and Gracie… their pictures and stories are even on the labels. How adorable is that!

Sunday morning was Dad’s birthday so in an attempt to get a picture of him with his cake on his actual birthday (we celebrated Saturday night) the cake was picked up, held at an angle for the photo op, and then…

CAKE DOWN! That cake was thrown in my generally direction being the picture taker and all. I was saved only by my wits and ninja like reflexes. The floor, however, was not.

This is what icing looks like on your wood floors, beware the cracks and crevices.

The floor was saved by Mom’s mad skills in icing removal. The cake was lost to the big trash can in the sky.

In case anyone is interested I should be posting pictures of my lovely alpaca yarn soonish. Just need some good lighting.

greek it is

For lunch today I went over to the Yiasou Greek Festival with a couple of my coworkers. If you’re in the Charlotte area, go! The spanakopita is SO good and they go great with the Greek fries. Really, you should go. They also have lots and lot of desserts. No worries about them running low, this was one table of like 5 filled with the deliciousness.

what i did today

I commandeered a few of Em’s tomatoes as payments for watering them and their friends.

Took a picture of the gorgeous night sky after it rained almost all day.

The rest of the evening was spent almost exclusively reading for school. Blech!

the garter stitch

I have been knitting a lot of garter stitch lately. A lot of garter. These are four cute little washcloths I knit for our friend who just had a wee one a few months back. Gotta get them delivered to her this week.

Still working on the Noro garter blanket. Getting ready to splice in the 5th ball of yarn here in a few. After I read Chapter 2 in my biology book that is.

Then Sunday I started this cute hat made out of more Noro Kureyon. Finished it up last night. Super cute!

 

School started a few weeks back and I took my bio quiz on Monday morning. Did pretty well, but now I need to get to studying so I can take test #1 this weekend. Oh procrastination! You are such an evil mistress! Yet, I love you anyway…