take me anywhere

take me anywhere's book montage

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems
Night
Divisadero
Atonement
Philadelphia, Here I Come! : A Comedy in Three Acts
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
Imagining Argentina
A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy
The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Amongst Women
Church of the Dog
Charming Billy
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time
The Birth House
The Poisonwood Bible
Catching Fire
The Hunger Games


take me anywhere's favorite books »

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Hammer and Nails.

Camille's preschool had a field trip at Home Depot.

The choices were bookends, an easel, or a memory/treasure box. She went straight for the memory box, in hopes of stashing her favorite things: Hello Kitty watches, rings, all of the things Gabe wants to get into.

I love this hammer so much I am willing to wear these oversized goggles.

Look at that hammer action. She was so excited about getting those nails in.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Running Water (well having something for the running water to go in would be) Nice.

Saturday is a great day to fix an old house, right? We bought my husband's grandparents' house almost 3 years ago and have been re-working it on a pretty consistent basis. I love this old house despite it's claustrophobic size, no dishwasher, and one small bathroom (for some reason when one person is using it, everybody needs to use it and thus we all cram in.) We need a vacancy sign. Today, I went out to shovel this hideous mound of dirt away, that my grandfather apparently purposefully made so that cars would hit it instead of the corner or carport, which is good but I think I'll replace it with something greener, not green like the horrible weed that spreads contagiously from this mound of dirt, but along the lines of visually pleasing life. It's kind of like the onions that emerge springtime in the rose garden. Okay, so now back to "and as I was going out I asked my husband to take a look at the sink because it is leaking and has this deathly smell aside from the running rust. He did and well, 6 or more trips to the two local hardware stores and it is still undone. Nothing, not one single thing in this house is an easy project. Everything is rigged, almost booby trapped I would say. My husband is yelling out as I write, from the bathroom, "Nothing fits in this house, this should be so easy." He did figure it out, with many trips and special tools which we will probably need just once, but bottom line we need a new sink. Oh, and that smell. I refused to look at the green sludge that has been accumulating since 1920. It gets better. The kids and I were washing our hands in the bathroom when the water was a bit stagnant and backing up. I looked under the sink and there was a huge pool of water under there as well. Oh, man. More trips to the hardware stores. This is why my husband was yelling about nothing fitting, from the bathroom, not the kitchen, which still remains undecided. Do we buy a new sink or again, rig this one until we re-do the kitchen? Not sure about being a whole fan of rigging, but . . .

We decided to rip the sink out and man it was heavy. We were using all of our strength, a bit scared that it would come crashing right through the floor or on us. Good thing I have the muscles. Too bad no-one was there to take a picture of water spraying all over us. The water was turned off but still freely flowed. Did I mention this house is booby trapped? It was out to get us. We got a new sink and faucet, of course, once the faucet was installed it was defective and had to be undone. So, now the house is conspiring with the hardware store. . .

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Who Needs an Actual Fire to Roast Marshmallows?

Camille surprised us with a cool rock campfire. So, of course, we had to break out the marshmallows and gather round.

Gabe brought the toothpaste. You can never be too dental conscious.



Yeah, pretty sure she likes those mallows!

The perfect companion for our campfire.