This is what "I'm Sorry!" looks like

My future Niece or Nephew!

My sister Debbie is expecting a baby in early January, the first one in our immediate family! She sent me this awesome sonogram of the little boy or girl, isn't it incredible? Look at the hair on top of the head, and I think the nose is a Hahn nose! :) Debbie and Jeremy don't want to know the sex of the baby, which is great, so it will be a beautiful surprise!

Way behind!

Boy, so it's been awhile since I've written anything, oy! Not sure where the time has gone. But nothing too new to report, actually. I was sick a few days last week, caught a nasty ol' cold that pretty much had me slammed for two and a half days, so spent the time at home resting, reading, resting, drinking tea and juices, resting, drinking more tea and juices. Today feeling about 90% better than I did Thursday for sure. And it happens to be a very lovely day in Minneapolis/St Paul, temperature close to 60, sunny skies, lovely. During the sick time, I started a new book (it seems I write a lot about books in my blog, don't I?) that I'm also just loving. It's called "The Devil in the White City" and it's an historical book about the building of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, revolving around two main real life persons, Daniel Burnham the architect behind the design of this World's Fair, and H.H. Holmes, probably America's first serial killer, who was doing his bad deeds in southern Chicago at the time leading up to and during the Exposition of 1893. Very fascinating story, and a true one. The book reads like a great novel, but the fact that it's all true is even more compelling. I promise to keep up on my writing better than I have! That's all for now.

What I'm Reading

Or actually, what I've just completed reading. This incredible story called "The Thirteenth Tale." It's a great story for people who love books, who love to read, and who love a "ghost story" of sorts. Not a scary ghost story, but think beyond the idea of a ghost and what that might mean outside of the supernatural, and that's what this story is. I LOVED this book, I pretty much devoured it in a week. It's about a woman who works in her father's antique book store and she gets the opportunity to write the biography of "the most beloved and famous author" in England. This author is an elderly woman who has been known to "tell lies" when asked about herself and her past. Now she feels she is ready to tell the whole truth. She gets the biographer's attention by saying..."Let me tell you a ghost story..." no interest from Margaret, the biographer, then "Let me tell you a story about twins..." and that hooks Margaret. Read this great book and see why....

We have a Raccoon!

Last night I was looking out of our sunroom window into the dark front yard, and noticed an animal sitting by the tree that was too big to be one of the many squirrels that hangs around, eating bird seed from the bird feeder, when suddenly some light came from the street and I was like "Wow, we have a badger or what are they called... in our yard, Joe come look!" And sure enough, there was this large sort of fat raccoon just digging away in the dirt eating bird seed and whatever else he was finding, and just staring at us. Joe took his camera outside and of course, the 'coon went up into the tree, hence this great photo. Joe has named him "Old Deuteronomy" from the T.S. Eliot book of poems of Cats. We think maybe he was the cause of some scratchin' we were hearing one late night that sounded like it was from the roof.

Reality TV addiction?

So, somehow I got completely sucked into "Project Runway" this season. Practically can't get enough of it. And the waiting for a new episode on a weekly basis just makes the time inbetween episodes go ever more slowly. I just have to find out "who will be auf'd" each week! In all honesty, this is a really good show as reality TV goes. I am a fan of "Survivor" "the Amazing Race" and things like "Who Will Be the Next Food Network Star?" or "Who Will be the Next HGTV Design Star?" (and by the way, I'm super happy that David won this one!!) But Project Runway just won't let me go. The designers are all fascinating characters, they create "interesting" to "intriguing" to "bizzare" designs, and it's just too fun. And when they fight amongst themselves, it's awesome. :) If you haven't checked it out, you should sometime and you'll see what I mean. -- "Make it work!"

House Interiors

I've finally taken a few shots of the interior of our new house for those of you whom haven't been able to see it yet. So, here's a shot of the master bedroom (actually just a corner of it, it's a very large airy room), a shot of the living room and our lovely sunroom. We are really enjoying the home, and Max is now more at home, too. I'll write more later.

What I'm Reading Lately

So, I've been in sort of a reading funk lately, probably because I've been concentrating a lot on the move into the new house, and being sort of busy at work. But, here's what I have on my nightstand recently. The new book by the author of "A Simple Plan" entitled "The Ruins." A really good, rather spooky, story set in Mexico about four friends who go off to look for an excavation party, but run into some rather harrowing things along the way. Including creepy vines. It's a good well-written story that keeps me on the edge of my seat. I'm also reading Julia Cameron's book about writing "The Right to Write." It's a great book about getting the creative writing juices flowing, with nice tasks to get back to writing. So I've gotten a new "school notebook" to do these exercises and it's been pretty fun. Just getting some creative juices going again is a good thing.

Max and the yard

Here's a cute picture that Joe took on his phone, of Max sitting in our new yard enjoying the sun. On a tether of course, sadly since we're on a busy street and there are gaps in the fence, he could get out if he set his mind to it, so we keep him on a tether which is fine.

All Moved in!

Friday was "big move day" with guys from Two Men and a Truck. Everything is pretty much moved in, unpacked, and settled in our new home! It's very exciting. We've been very busy this weekend getting our stuff situated, and building two wardrobes and two nightstands from Ikea. The place is looking sooo nice, it's a great feeling. Rather worn out from it all, but in a good way. Max is starting to get more comfortable I think, he's been feeling weird, he gets confused and agitated with a move like this. I will take some interior photos soon and post them as well. Looking forward to having friends and family over! More later. :)

Brunch with family

Joe and I had a lovely brunch this morning with my sister Debbie, husband Jeremy, and Jeremy's parents Morris and Natalie, in town for the weekend from Chicago. We went to the Modern Cafe, a fantastic cafe in NE Minneapolis. I had scrambled eggs with tomato, brie and spinach, delicious.... It was great to catch up with everyone, it's always fun to hang out with Morris and Natalie, and of course fabulous to hang out with my sister and Jeremy. Debbie is starting to show, she's due to give birth in January!! Yea! I'm going to be an uncle! :)
They all went by our new house and are very happy we're buying it. It'll be fun to entertain people in the new house. Closing tomorrow morning!! Woo! I hope I can sleep tonight, I'm very anxious!

Then I had to come to work the last two performances of "Rent." So, a full day to be sure. More later after we close on the house!

I Love the Minneapolis Skyline!

Especially during a storm, isn't this a cool photo?

Closing Date Set!

So we have a closing date for the bungalow! Monday August 14th! We won't move in immediately, want to do some initial cleaning and minor fixing up of some things, and be able to take our time getting settled. We will most likely completely move in the following week sometime, we'll keep you posted. Huzzah! A new venture in our lives. Joe found an interesting organization in the Twin Cities of bungalow home owners, which we shall sometime join. See their site here.

NOT a Monster House

Joe and I are in the process of purchasing this fantastic home only a half mile from where we currently reside. Wooo! We are so excited! This happened pretty quickly, we just decided what the heck, let's take a look at it and just loved it. It's a 1918 Craftsman (Arts and Crafts) style home and is in really good condition. Only a few rather minor repairs are needed. Last night we met with a building inspector (who was fantastic, so if you ever need one, let us know) and after agreeing that the building was sound, the SOLD sign went up on the post. We will set a closing date soon, and will keep everyone posted. Most likely we'll close within three weeks. Here are just three photos - Sunroom, Living Room and Exterior. Yay!!!

Monster House

I am looking forward to this animated film, "Monster House." Why? Well, who didn't as a child know of a "haunted" house in their hometown, and firmly believe there were witches, ghosts or zombies living in it? In Clear Lake, there were three such houses that "all the kids" thought had some sort of spookiness to it. There was a house in my neighborhood that had a small "forest" in the backyard and I swear the people who lived there would stand around in the forest watching us kids, but not hardly move a muscle. So we dubbed this the Zombie House. Then there was a house on the south shore of the lake, that was all stone and cobblestone, and the woman who lived there had scary big grey hair, wore BLACK (which was unheard of in the '70s) and sometimes when driving past her house your car would stall! Scary...so this was the Witch's House. Then lastly, just down the road from the Witch's House was the Doll House. And this was for real. This house was owned by a couple who had two life sized dolls that they would set around the living room (and all could see them as the house had a big picture window). They would set them at the piano, in two rocking chairs, etc. No one knew really why this did this, it was thought maybe they had lost two children. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this film, lots of little kids running around the theater or not.