The Porch

Warren has been taking advantage of the nice weather by working on the porch. It is phase one of a master plan to turn the front yard into Party Central.



I'm psyched.

Some days on the porch are better than others. When I spotted him Friday, he said, "Man, I had to do trigonometry today!" Apparently the roof rafters have some crazy angles. He's not thrilled. I actually said, "Smile!" before taking this picture.



BUT! It's going to be fabulous. You heard it here, first.

Chicken Update

If there is one thing I have learned about chickens it is that they poop a lot. A LOT! In fact, they pooped during our recent photo shoot in which I tried to get close ups of their faces. As of last week they still hadn't been named because frankly I couldn't tell them apart. Warren says one's wattles are uneven.

After chasing them around for a bit, I could see what he was saying. I couldn't quite capture it on film, but I could see it. So, later I talked to the kids and we finally named them. Let me introduce you to Omelet and Lollipop. Lollipop has the uneven wattles, and is the gal up front.



The chickens have proven to be fairly low maintenance. The kids let them out in the morning, check the food and water, and then let them back in at night, again checking the food and water. Warren comes up with interesting things for them to eat--egg shells, peanuts, food scraps, etc.--and will take the kids out to hand feed them from time to time. This has made the girls more friendly and they show much more interest in us now.

We were averaging about an egg a day. It took one of the girls awhile to start producing, but she eventually did. It's easy to tell who lays which eggs as they have a different shape. (Well I actually don't know who lays which shape, but I can tell if the eggs are coming from one hen or two.) We've gone a few days now with no eggs and I think it's because they've found a new spot to lay them and we haven't discovered it yet.

So yeah, we actually had to buy eggs on Sunday. (And then the cashier forgot to put them in our basket so I had to go back a second time to get them.)

And yes, we still eat chicken.

Bwak Bwak!

It's official. We're hipsters. Or maybe just super earth muffins?

The chickens that we won last year at the Project Green Fork Loving Local auction arrived on Sunday.



We have two giant cochins. Seriously, they are huge. But so far very mellow. Well, unless you chase them around the yard. We hear that they will become friendlier with time, as they get used to us feeding and watering them.

So far they seem to be enjoying their new home.



We let them roam free during the day, and then close them in at night for their safety.

After just 24 hours, Warren found an egg. That was super exciting.



I was going to eat it for breakfast, but unknowingly I ate it for dinner last night. (Warren put it in some pork fried rice.)

The boys are dying to name the girls, but we haven't settled on anything yet. Also, I haven't quite figured out how to tell them apart. Well, one always has poop on its back feathers, but we don't know if that'll last. (I hope not.) If it does, then I won't be able to resist calling her Princess Poopypants.

Stay tuned.

Kittens!

Second only to the soccer game was acquiring some new kittens this weekend!

As you know, we've been ready for awhile and have been waiting for the right opportunity. I've been saying that we have a hole in our house in the shape of a cat for awhile. (Jiro was like, "where??")

On Saturday, a woman who lives a few blocks over sent an email to the neighborhood letting us know that she had three kittens that needed adopting. A neighborhood cat had brought them to her, and she already had plenty cats of her own. In the email she mentioned that they were all black or black and white.

I told the kids and they wanted to head over immediately. However, it took a few hours for us to exchange emails and decide on a time to come visit. I made plans for Sunday morning which means I had to endure about eighteen hours of questioning from the monkeys and Warren. i.e. "How old are they? What do they look like? Can we have two?"

That last question somehow stopped being a question and started being a fact around hour twelve when we started talking about kittens instead of just a kitten. We have two dogs from the same litter and I think it has been good for them to always have a playmate. So why wouldn't it be the same for cats? My only concern of course was double the poop in the litter box.

But I also made sure to tell the kids that we were just looking, and there was no guarantee. I wanted to make sure that they were healthy, I said. Then Jiro, my precious Jiro, said, "Well we should take the least healthy one so we can make it healthy!" Man, I love that kid!

When we finally went to see the kittens they were all three crazy cute. I really didn't know how we were going to decide. Then all but one got away from us! So we brought home the all black one, named him Darkrai, and chalked it up to fate.



The dogs were very curious about our newest arrival.



Warren wasted no time preparing a safe haven for him. We pulled out the bed that Olive never liked, and the boys filled it with stuffed animal friends. Then we set about showering him with love. I was really excited for the boys to have a pet that they could watch grow up. But I was extra excited when Warren said, "I've never had a kitten either!"




Once Darkrai was all safe and secure, we had to leave for a little bit. We went to the Kosher BBQ contest (more about that later), but instead of BBQ, we had kittens on our minds. Warren kept talking about the one with white whiskers. By the time we left, we had agreed to call and see if he came back. Then on the way to the pet store for supplies, I called my sisters to see if either one of them wanted a kitten. Turns out my niece has been pining for a kitten too, so my sister Tracey said she'd happily take one.

Just imagine how thrilled our neighbor was when I called back and said we wanted the other two! She said she'd call me when she caught them, and then about an hour later we went and picked them up!



It was really funny to see how comfy Darkrai got in just a few hours. When we brought the other kittens home, he was lounging in his bed. When we reunited them, he casually tapped them with his paw and greeted them. There was a lot of back and forth, but we finally decided which kitten to give my niece. We decided to give her the one with the white whiskers and keep the smallest, most skittish one, just like Jiro had suggested in the first place.

My niece was thrilled.



She showered Spike with love for the entirety of our family dinner together. At one point she even had him sleeping in a baby carriage.



The cutest part about giving one to my niece, was seeing how the monkeys advised her on the care and maintenance of him. They had become experts in a very short period!

Back at home, we started Operation Snuggle with Darkrai and Pocky. They both really like to snuggle. Thankfully only Darkrai likes to lick.



They are both doing great and easily adjusting to life with Team Oster. They are sleeping in a kennel so that they have a dog free zone, and both have proven themselves to be 100% on board with the litterbox.

We love watching them play and chase each other. "Kitten TV" is our new favorite activity. It's amazing how playful and affectionate they have become in just two days! But I can already tell that once they become fully comfortable with us and the dogs they are going to be wild boys! But hey, what's new?

On the Home Front

Longtime readers of this blog may remember my Calling all Winos post from THREE years ago. I had big plans to decorate the yard with wine bottles. That blog post resulted in several hundred wine bottles (and a visit from the health department.)



After breeding mosquitoes for months and months, the bottles eventually got moved to the garage. Then when Warren started turning the garage into his Man Cave, they got moved into the room above the garage.

It wasn't looking good for my wine bottle project. But then, out of nowhere, Warren decided to dig up the ugly ass bushes in the front and plant an herb garden...complete with a wine bottle trim!


I love it! And I can't wait for him to do the flower bed on the opposite side of the porch...and the one on the corner of our front yard!

If the new herb garden wasn't exciting enough, we also got our house painted. A friend of our neighbor's offered to paint it in exchange for Warren's old 4Runner. (It got totaled by a drunk driver, luckily while we were safe in bed and not in it, and had been sitting in front of the house ever since.)

In a bold move, and one that we both wholeheartedly agreed on, we went from boring tan:


to awesome, bold BLUE:


While things may not happen fast around here, they do eventually happen!

The Kids' Bathroom

Warren and I have wanted to paint the kids' bathroom since we moved in almost three years ago, but neither of us ever quite got around to doing it. (I had a good excuse--I'm not allowed to paint.)

Many times I suggested we pay someone to paint the bathroom, but that was an unacceptable suggestion for two reasons. Team Oster Rule #1: Never pay anyone to do something you can do yourself. Team Oster Rule #2: Chances are if you pay someone they probably won't do a good job.

This presented quite a quandary, until my older sister, Leslie, asked what I wanted for my birthday last year (April 11). I replied, "I want my bathroom painted." Now, if there is anyone who is a bigger perfectionist than Warren, it is my sister Leslie. After months of planning and false starts, the bathroom was finally painted in February. (Leslie actually finished just as our sewer system started to attack!)

A few days ago I convinced Warren to hang up some pictures so I could take a final photo. So, I present to you, our finally finished (minus a few fixtures) kids' bathroom.

With my birthday on the horizon, I'm hoping to convince Leslie to paint the hallway and laundry room.

Shit Happens

Warren and I have officially joined the distinctive club of Midtowners who have had to have their sewer line replaced. I'll spare you the nasty details, but here's a peek at what our yard looked like for most of last week:


It was so nice when the snow came and covered up the mudslide that now exists where sod and a young willow tree once were.

I told the kids that all of their toy money was going to fix the sewer line. Jiro immediately started crying. Satchel very calmly broke it down for him. "Do you want toys or do you want to take a bath in sewage?" he asked.

Jiro, who loves taking baths, sniffled and said, "I want toys."

Luckily, the final vote was 1 for toys and 3 for sewage free bathing!

Vanity

From the moment we saw our vanity in the master bedroom, we knew that we would have to change it.


Our realtor tried to tell us it was a really expensive piece, but it's just a replica of a really expensive piece. (It sells at Lowe's for about $200 and is now listed on Craig's List for $75 if you want it!) There wasn't really anything wrong with it; it just wasn't us.

When we heard that our friend, Caleb, was not only a talented musician, but a talented woodworker, we enlisted his help. (Coincidentally, he had just purchased the flooring from the now defunct Skateland on Summer!)

After hours and hours of discussion, Warren and I finally decided that we wanted our bathroom to look something like this:



Caleb got to work while we continued to debate over the mirror, sink and faucet...


We made some adjustments along the way due to ill-placed wall studs, 50+ pound monkeys who like to climb on vanities, and random fits of indecision.

We are thrilled with the way everything came together. Caleb did an absolutely top notch job on the vanity & matching medicine cabinet. As goofy as this sounds, I love going to the bathroom now!

Honey Do

Tuesday is Warren's last day of school! Yay Warren! There's no doubt he'll get straight As and be #1 in his class.

To celebrate, I'm buying the yummiest cupcakes ever!

When we are full of sugar and have our feet up watching TV, I'll broach the subject of my "Honey Do" list. Sure, it looks a little long, but I'm going to help! I've even got my sister helping. And maybe even Chip!

School starts back January 20th. Warren will be in class FOUR nights a week!!! He owes me, right??

Bathroom
1. Hang new mirror
2. Decide where to put medicine cabinet
3. Decide on new fixtures, purchase, & install them
4. Paint
5. Replace missing crown molding
6. Clear out closet
7. Hang picture(s)

Bedroom
1. Fix hole in ceiling from squirrel hunt
2. Clear out totes, boxes, and other clutter
3. Paint
4. Allow wife to pick out new lamps
5. Hang picture(s)
6. Decide on window treatments & install

Dining room
1. Paint remaining wall
2. Paint ceiling?
3. Rug for under table?
4. Decide on window treatments & install

Kitchen
1. Affix crown molding around pantry
2. Clear out clutter
3. Decide on window treatments & install
4. Replace "architectural feature" on ceiling

Hallway
1. Fix hole in wall
2. Paint
3. Paint trim
4. Purchase new dog bed/rug
5. Hang pictures

Kid’s bathroom
1. Fix holes
2. Decide on towel bar/hooks
3. Hang picture(s)
4. Hang new mirror
5. Paint (Leslie)

Kid’s room
1. Install closet shelves (Leslie)
2. Organize (Stacey)
3. Find Lamar Sorrento painting

Laundry room
1. Shelves (Leslie)
2. Organize (Stacey)

Living room
1. Hook up wireless system
2. Touch up paint/Repaint

Porch
1. Decide on new door
2. Install new door
3. Paint new door
4. Hang new house numbers
5. Build Porch

Garage
1. Organize! (half!)
2. Photogragh & list Craig’s List items
3. Thrift store donation pile/Garage sale?

Backyard
1. Finish garden gate
2. Plant bottle tree

Front yard
1. Line plant bed with protective thingie
2. Insert bottle border
3. Hang “Skater” parking sign

Year of the Rat

Year of the RATS, that is.

Having lived in Midtown for almost twenty (!!) years, I am not scared of rats (like Melissa).

Not as long as I have Warren, that is.

At our old house, we invested in a "Have a Heart" rat trap ($10 on ebay) that catches rats in a small cage without killing them. Once the weather dipped below 40, we started hearing the tell-tale scratchy rat claw noises in the attic.

Warren (aided by Satchel) spread some peanut butter on a piece of bread and set the trap.


The next morning I heard a new noise. Lots of thuds interspersed with jangling. Clearly the sound of a rodent trying to break out of jail. Warren, followed by Satchel and Jiro, went up and excitedly came down with a tiny little rat.

Then they walked out the back door and let it go somewhere in the yard.

The day after that, we had another rat. And then another.

Ok, I know what you are thinking, but it wasn't the same rat. At least not all three times. There were visible size differences.

After several quiet weeks, we thought we had scared them all away. But then last night, we heard the now familiar sound of rodent against metal.


"I know what we can do with this one!" Satchel exclaimed.

"What?" I asked.

"Flush him down the toilet!"

Clearly Dreamworks has led him astray.

At least he didn't suggest letting it cook our snunch*.

In the end, we decided to let the rat go in the park.

Even though we fed it a nice meal of peanut butter and kept it intact, I couldn't help feeling a little guilty about keeping it caged up while we got everything ready for our forest adventure.

First it was ogled by the monkeys.


Then the cat.


It clearly did not like the car ride.

Or the dogs.

When we finally let it go (near a lovely wood pile off of a path less traveled), it raced at the speed of light up the tiniest tree you ever saw and hovered twenty feet above us on a thin little twig of a branch.

"I want to watch and see where it goes," Satchel said as we all stood peering up towards the sky.

"Trust me," I said. "He's not going to come down until he's sure that we're long gone."

I hope that he's come down by now, found a nice snack, a warm place to rest, and had a chance to tell all of the other rodents to stay far, far away from Chez Oster.

Warren says he'll probably get eaten by an owl.


*Snunch--a word Satchel coined today to denote a small lunch that is only slightly larger than a snack. (Nice to see the Greenberg coming out in him!)

The Missing Ramone

Lamar Sorrento had a booth at the Cooper-Young Festival in 2001. In front was a sign that read, "Portraits: $10." Warren and I couldn't resist. I was pregnant and he was in the Hustler t-shirt I bought him in Chicago. The resulting portrait is awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we've never agreed on how to frame it. I planned to secretly have it framed when we moved, but was scared of incurring the wrath. It's currently somewhere in the attic.

We did however agree that we'd like a Ramones painting by Lamar (if we could find one) to hang over the fireplace. Since it seems that he sells his work as fast as he makes it, we finally decided to send him an email with our special request. He was more than happy to oblige us, and after just a couple of days, we had the exact painting that we'd been dreaming of. (On a stretched canvas, ready to hang.)

I went by Lamar's house on Friday afternoon to pick it up and had a nice chat with him about past Ramones' shows (he saw them at 616 in 1994!), how he was once mistaken for Joey Ramone, and the strong smell of gasoline coming from his van that he had tried to start two hours earlier. He asked me how I got into the Ramones and I was a little embarrassed to admit that it was the blockbuster movie, Rock-n-Roll High School. (My sister and I must have watched it 100 times.) If Warren hadn't been laid up with no tonsils, he could have had a much more interesting answer. Having spent his youth in California, he saw the Ramones three times in one week!

Ikea=Warren Can

One step closer to deciding on a rug for the living room!

Ikea=I Can

Look Warren! I did it and it wasn't even hard. (I hope we can say the same for the bookshelves.)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Of course the monkeys are most impressed with the empty boxes.

Mission Completion!

We spent the bulk of Saturday finishing the monkeys' bedroom. We ordered them an unfinished wood bunkbed about six weeks ago. We picked it up two weeks ago, and Warren has been busy sanding and staining in the evenings.

Thankfully, it was amazingly easy to put together. Almost as easy as constructing the matching Flor. As a final touch, we moved in our old kitchen table and the monkeys' Kinderzeats so they'll have a place to color and do puzzles (among other things).

I saved a nice big spot for the bean bag should Warren ever decide that it doesn't need to reside in our living room.

The monkeys were absolutely thrilled with the results and immediately wanted to invite everyone they know over. (Satchel set up "guest beds" for S, JP, and C on the floor.) After Friday's activities Warren and I made a team effort to convince them that it would be much more fun to have their friends come over some other day. Somehow, it worked.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I should say that the room is 99% done. I do hope to have Warren build custom shelves someday.

Rug of War

The sofa is here!


And now we need to decide on a rug. On the one hand, the Internet makes it easy because we can just sit here in comfort (on our sofa) and look at thousands of rugs while the monkeys sleep. On the other hand, it's impossible because there are THOUSANDS of rugs on the Internet!

Here are a few I like, very few of which Warren likes. The sofa is brown but with reddish tones. Our fireplace has pale green tiles. There's white trim. We have a painting over the fireplace that has lots of browns and greens. But it can go. As can the current reddish toned curtains. The rest of the house is likely to be incredibly colorful.

Decorating is hard.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.

On the Homefront

We've been doing a bit more painting. Warren walked into Sherwin Williams and said, "Uh, can you match the color of my 'I'm Rick James, Bitch' shirt?"


Seriously this color was carefully chosen and is phase 1 of 3 in Operation French Country Kitchen Colors (a.k.a. Operation Back Yard Burger Colors). Which means we are painting the kitchen red. And the dining room yellow.

It's probably the last color I ever would have picked, but I have to say that it looks really nice.


In other news, we are still waiting on our sofa (and the bunkbeds), but our GIANT bean bag sofa arrived yesterday.

This is what it looked like when I left for practice:


And this is what it looked like when I got home:


Warren informed me that the boys spent the bulk of the evening jumping and practicing their gymnastics on it. As I type this Warren is asleep on it. I'm trying to make peace with it. I had originally thought I'd just haul it into the boys' room each night and pretend that's where Warren wanted it when he ordered it, but it weighs a bazillion pounds!

I'm consoling myself with the following facts:
1. We will never be at a loss for seating again
2. I might have the leather sofa all to myself.

Show and Tell

While Warren prepared the Curry Shrimp Feast, I tackled the "wall of boxes" that has been living in our dining room since the day we moved in...over five months ago. The boxes contain our rather large collection of books, magazines, scrapbooks, African objets, and extraneous kitchen supplies.

When dinner was over, I convinced Warren to heave a number of these heavy boxes up the 9ft attic stairs. The last item in the "wall of boxes" was Warren's foot locker. We lost the key somewhere along the way and weren't really even sure what all was inside. Warren got out his Swiss Army knife and picked the lock. Inside was a treasure trove of Cameroonian drinking horns, swords, prayer beads, passport masks, and old letters.

Warren called Satchel over to check out the goods. As you can imagine, he was psyched.


The size of the sword made me somewhat uneasy. Especially when Jiro grabbed it and immediately swung it into our new dining room table!!


He took out a tiny little chunk that thankfully isn't too noticeable, but dang. We packed all the weapons back up, locked the box, and hoisted it up to safety in the attic.

Oh and speaking of furniture, I was thrilled by all of the comments on my sofa post! A new record! Thanks to all the great input, we were actually able to make a decision. We made a third and final sojourn to Scan where we decided that we didn't really like any of the sofas. Then we went to Macy's and found the perfect one!



Oh how I wanted to order it in white. (Excuse me, pearl.) But we went for the only other choice: chocolate brown. We also got a matching chair and ottoman.


I can hardly wait.

Meanwhile, we're trying to create the perfect flor to break up all the brown.

Indecision

When I was pregnant with Satchel, my mom and I went to Goldsmith's and bought a nice, green sofa, chair, and ottoman. They were extremely comfortable and I thought they would be something Warren would like.

I was wrong.

There's a chance that he might have liked them if I bothered to consult him before purchasing them. But I did not.

And I've been hearing about it for six years.

So, I told him that once we sold the house we would pick out a new sofa together. We both agreed it would be cool to get a red leather sofa. Having a common vision, we thought it would be an easy purchase.

Wrong again!

So, now instead of just consulting each other, we're consulting you, the Internet. Please weigh in.

#1
We were initially drawn to this one, but it just seems so red. And it seems like if you get a red sofa, you should accent with black. Currently, we have chocolate brown walls in our livingroom that we like very much.



#2
We both really like the way this one looks. It's pretty comfortable to sit in, but neither one of us thinks we could lounge in front of the TV or take a nap on it.


Yep, that's Jiro sipping a Root Beer on it! Right there in the store! Oh my god, what if he tries to eat or drink near it at home?

It even comes in red.



#3
Surprisingly, this is the one that keeps tapping me on the shoulder and waving from the back of the room. Look at me! Look at me! It is very comfortable. Comfortable enough to nap on. The official color is wasabi, which of course, I think is cool. We currently have a green sofa, so I think I could live with the color. Also our fireplace has pale green tiles. It could work. Warren's main concern in that the kids will break out the black Sharpies when we aren't looking.


We could get it in another color, but it would take four months.

#4
Warren hasn't actually seen this one in person. Yet. It's at Sensational Sofas and comes in like 50 different colors. You can choose between microfiber and microvelour, both of which are super soft and stain resistant. Like the fabric was developed at NASA stain resistant. It's also very comfy. And soft. Did I already mention that? (Looking at the pic it seems like a loveseat b/c of the two cushions, but it is a full size sofa.)



Here's a sampling of the available colors--a 30 day turnaround on special orders. I have no idea what color we'd get. I actually like the white. But that's just crazy talk. I also like chocolate brown, dark red, and, of course, green. But hey, I could do something crazy like orange or baby blue.


The main issue is that it doesn't come in leather. I suggested that we get a leather captain's chair or something else leathery to go with it.

So Internet, what do you think?