Snakes On A Plane

Not really…snakes in my attic. That’s right. No joke. I swear. I. KNOW.

Shane got up in the attic Thursday afternoon to put a suitcase away and there was a nice little snake coiled up on the tailgate chairs that lie right inside the attic. Shane freaked, as would I, jumped down, slammed the attic door closed and got in his car and left. Ha Ha! He then called me:

Stacy: Hello?
Shane: Hey babe.
Stacy: Hey.
Shane: How is your day?
Stacy: Pretty good…I’d give it a 7.
Shane: Oh, good.
Stacy: How is your day going so far?
Shane: Well, mine is probably going to be a 2 before it’s done.
Stacy: Why’s that?
Shane: Well, because we have a snake in the attic.
Stacy: WHAT?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me? Oh my god….where at? How did you find it?
(He then tells the story)
Stacy: Oh my god…we’re selling the house. I mean, what are we going to do???
Shane: Well, I found a company that will come out and get it.
Stacy: Have you called them yet? You need to hang up right now with me and call them…
Shane: Okay.

He hangs up and calls Tru-Tech (in case anyone else experiences this horrible, horrible nightmare) and they send out a tech to remove the snake. In the meantime, back at work, I’m completely distracted, can barely even remember what I’m working on, and start to google…dun dun dun. I found this, this and this.

Really, really long story short – the guy, who is super smart and VERY sweet, gets in the attic and doesn’t find anything. When I say doesn’t find anything – I mean doesn’t actually find the snake that Shane saw sitting in there hours before that, BUT he does find evidence of ‘several’ other snakes inhabiting the attic as well as evidence of ‘rodents.’ Basically, he suspected that the snake was a rat snake…a snake that eats rats…he would have no other business in my attic other than to…well, eat rats. I have never, ever, ever, ever seen ANY evidence of a rat in my house. We have chipmunks, sure, but Chip and Dale do not carry the stigma or general flesh-eating and plague-causing diseases that rats carry, so they’re cool.

But this is our fault. When we had the house inspected a year ago, our inspector told us that there was a hole in the side of the house that allowed access to the attic. Apparently some power hookups had been moved and the holes had never been fixed. Well, I’m not going to spend money to fix holes when I need granite countertops! Duh.
Justin, the snake handler, sets some traps and tells us not to worry and that he’ll be back the next day. Right. I slept maybe 2 hours that night…I can swear at one point there was a snake dangling from the ceiling, coiled in my hair, hiding at the foot of my bed and laying across my face. I. Swear.

Well, when Justin comes back the next day to check the traps…nothing. As he is climbing out of the attic, he rests his hand on one of the tailgate chairs and feels the snake in the bag. He yells for me to get a bucket or a trash bag – but what do I do? I run around my kitchen like I had never been there before. I was looking for a bucket, knowing that I don’t have one, and then I couldn’t remember where I kept my trash bags. In times of stress, I always stay in control. Finally, I pull myself together and get him a bag. With that said, I’d like to formally introduce Sammy the Snake! He lives (lived) in the attic at Honeysuckle Drive, loves warm places and ratty snacks, originally hails from a nearby field but decided to pursue other options when he heard about the gaping hole in the side of local home where he could live a life of carefree whimsy and eat without even having to hunt.

Note: Sammy has been relocated back to his field. None of his friends have been found but we will never give up our search…or our hope.

Snake Handling...

On my way home to wrangle snakes...snakes and home in the same sentence...I'll update later.

April Goal #6

April’s #6 goal can officially be striked off the list. Well, not completely gone because it needs to be accounted for, but let’s put a small check out beside it.

Below are the front, back and side yard landscaping plans for Honeysuckle. I know…horticultural design, and drawing in general, are my calling in life – but unfortunately, my talents are needed elsewhere.

Let’s first examine the front yard (click to make larger):

Not much is changing due to budget overages on the deck (who knew we would need so many new tools?). So this will involve mulching around the two big trees, ripping out the random onions (yeah, they’re everywhere) and monkey grass from the beds by the sidewalk and laying mulch around the bushes that are currently planted there. I also threw in some potted plants for color on the steps. The right side of the house will be pine straw, but it could be mulch depending on how much we can have delivered. The mulch will be black (to compliment the black shutters and newly painted black front door.)

The side yard is a difficult area. There are two huge oak trees that shade the entire area, making grass non-existent and non-growable. We do, however, have a very lovely moss garden. I want to put black mulch around the trees, again digging up all of the monkey grass. There is also a random azalea planted down the slope next to the street that will be coming out. The biggest change will be the area that once housed the infamous handicap ramp. Another oak shades this area, so we have decided to lay rock here. I can’t decide if I want to put permanent potters at the foot of the driveway or build an elevated bed for flowers…not sure.

The backyard is where it’s at…in terms of work - it CERTAINLY isn’t ‘where it’s at’ for the party. This plan includes laying pine straw around the entire perimeter of the yard, planting Leland Cypresses around the back of the yard to create privacy, and shrubs around the fence line that faces the road as well as around the deck. We’ll also be either seeding for grass in the middle or laying Fescue sod, depending on the price.

We hope to get a lot of the backyard cleanup done this weekend…any volunteers? Any advice for shrubs? Let me know!

Happy Earth Day!

Since we are doing so much work outside, I figured that I would acknowledge Earth Day! Yay for dirt and flowers and outside stuff...(not much of an outdoorsey girl, so bear with me.) I also don't really have any updates, so this blog post is a mere attempt to meet my quota. Wonk wonk.

BTW - my plants from Ikea are still alive and kickin'! See?

AND, I had to move my podiatry appointment again to tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know what they have to say about my disgusting bunion.

Deck In Progress

"The Ramp"...before:

And then "The Ramp" was gone:

Demolition of the deck:

No more deck:

Building the new deck:

We aren't quite finished, so we'll be working on it again this weekend. I say 'we,' but I really mean Matt and Shane. :)

Big thanks to Matt, the master deck builder, for helping us out with this, and my dad, Greta, Tanner and my brothers for helping out yesterday! We'll all be enjoying a celebratory beer on this deck next weekend...Stay tuned.

Off to NYC....

Leaving today to head to NYC…not a big fan of the city, so I’m not really excited, but I AM excited that our new deck is being built this weekend!!! Shane and his friend, Matt, will be starting on Friday and hope to have everything complete by Sunday. I cannot wait to pull in the driveway on Friday night and not see a handicap ramp, painted wood, or unsafe construction (our current deck just sits on bricks on the ground…it isn’t that sturdy).

On another note, NYC weather isn’t looking that hot, literally:

I was determined not to bring a jacket, but it looks like I’m going to be miserable if not…sigh.

I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week! I’ll try to blog while I’m there, but let’s face it…I have a hard time blogging at home – much less while I’m traveling.

Pain in the Bunion

All of the power was out in the Dunwoody area on Monday, except for my building (of course!). So, when I showed up to my podiatrist appointment, there was no power, thus appointment cancelled. I admit, I was initially pissed. ‘Couldn’t they at least call me?’ Well, the phones were out…’Didn’t anybody have a cell phone?’ Yeah, but they couldn’t get on the computers to get your number…Oh, yeah. So, I decided to go shoe shopping for some new flats. I figured that I could use that time to try to do something good for my feet. Check out my new shoes (red shown below, but mine are black):

I will be in NYC Wednesday through Friday at the New York International Auto Show – and there is LOTS of walking involved…so hopefully these shoes will keep me a little more comfortable. I’ll keep you posted!

The Weekend Update

Hope that everyone had a great weekend! Shane and I did…

Friday: Got to catch up with some friends at the always yummy, El Ranchero. We then went for drinks at another Woodstock bar where, apparently, 50-year-old men go to try to cheat on their wives. We met some pretty skuzzy and extremely inappropriate dudes there…but they bought our drinks and then we promptly left. Ha!

Saturday: My allergies got the best of me. I woke up at 4 a.m. and could not stop sneezing so I took two Benadryl’s and went back to sleep. Well, Shane had to wake me up at 11 a.m. and I felt groggy until at least 4 p.m. Needless to say, we got a lot of TV and movie watching in. Later that afternoon we went over to a friend’s house to let their dog out and brought Beau and Brother to visit. You would think that my dogs are never allowed out of their crate because they are extremely spastic when they get to leave the house. They just ran laps around Dave and Jennie’s house while Abbey, their dog, just trotted around a little confused. When we got home we took them for a walk with their new collars…

I know that these collars look really scary and mean, but they are a necessity when walking B&B. Last week, Brother took off running so hard that he snapped the leash, leaving me in a cloud of dust behind him. Not good. So now they wear these and are lead on a 4’ leash. Research states that these leashes are an excellent communication tool for your dog as they learn to understand that you are the pack leader. Establish dominance – that’s how Cesar does it….

And Sunday: Happy Easter! Shane and I went to church with my fam and his fam and then out to lunch at California Dreaming. It was a really nice day and I’m glad that we were able to all get together…

We came home and got busy on the yard. I didn’t mention that last weekend Shane finally cut the grass (love ya!) and we started to manicure the area under this huge tree in our front yard (my mom thinks it a non-blooming apple tree).

I sprayed Roundup on all of the vines and crap that were underneath it, making a circle where we could lay mulch after everything died. So over the course of last week, everything died and it was now time to lay mulch. How much mulch? Um – 35 bags of it! For just the area under the tree…at $4 a bag – you do the math…geez! Funny part is that we still need about three more bags and Shane is going to stop and pick some up this afternoon. And the other funny part was that we had to load all of the mulch into Shane’s Honda….why is that funny? Because the trunk was almost dragging the ground from all the weight and I can only imagine what we looked like! LOL!

And today, I’m going to the podiatrist during lunch for them to have a looksey at my bunion. I know, gross. But it has become so painful over the past few days that I have to get it looked at…I’ll keep you posted – continue to wait with bated breath.

Mirror Transformation

Blogging twice in one day? That’s right…I have to meet my blogging goal during the first week of the month, at least!

So, a while back I told you about my bathroom mirror that Shane and I picked up at Kirklands. Well, we aren’t quite finished with it, but I’ve applied the primer and one coat of white paint. Take a look at the progress:

Not bad, huh? I’m seeing a lot of brush strokes right now, but I assume that as I continue to layer on the paint this will go away. Anyone have any tips?

Old Timey Pictures

There is nothing better, or prettier, or more unique than an old-timey picture. My aunt Linda sent me some a few weeks ago…Check these out:

My Nini Pat:

My Uncle Charles:

Me and Shane:

So cool, huh? I found this website on someone else’s blog…but cannot remember who! Sorry! And just a warning, the website is written in Japanese. Literally. Except for the ‘Browse’ button…so just find your pic, it will convert it, right click and save. Voila!

April Goals

Every spring, I tend to get really distracted. I have thoughts and dreams of doing spring cleaning and planting flowers and saving the world – and then never do because either A – my allergies are killing me and I don’t feel like doing anything or B – I just want to go sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.

With that being said, I’m establishing goals for this month and putting them here for the world to see. Hopefully this will keep me accountable:

1. Finish reading Eclipse and Breaking Dawn


2. Organize office files


3. Build new deck – scheduled for weekend of April 17


4. Paint hallway bath and mirror


5. Paint kitchen trim


6. Develop front and back yard landscaping plans


7. Blog 5 days per week


8. Get bamboo shade for kitchen


9. Sign up for 401K


10. Figure out Breck medical bills – got sick in January 2008 in Breckenridge…and never paid those medical bills. Ha!


11. Make 3 new pieces of jewelry


12. Send security certificate to HOI – you would think that a discount would get me in gear…apparently not.

There it is. I’m going to also put these in my new left hand column so that I can view them at least 5 times per week….because that is how many times I am blogging each week, right?

It's Fixed

Don't know about these colors....maybe I'm feeling the gray because it has been raining for like 12 days straight! I'll mess with it later...But I am loving my new third column!

I know...

I don't know what I've done to my blog...I was trying to add a column to the left and everything just went awry. I'll fix it tomorrow. This is what happens when I have to type in html code. Sigh.

Planting a Seed

Well, not really planting seeds, but does buying plants at IKEA count?

I made a trip over to IKEA on Monday (had the day off – so nice) to look for some new pillows for the couch and, of course, came out with that plus 38 other items. Two of those being some needed greenery for the house…

Check out my new Dragon Tree ($6.99 at IKEA, ba lee dat):
The best thing about this tree is that you hardly ever have to water it. That is my kind of tree – minimal water, minimal attention, minimal light, minimal air.

And these are our new, pretty little succulents ($2.99 each at IKEA):
What is a succulent? Well, yet another plant that doesn’t need water. It does need minimal light but as you can see by their new home on the kitchen windowsill – I still don’t have to do anything.

We shall see how these new leafy creatures fare in the Wilson/Carlisle household…it could get ugly with my brown thumb.

AT&T U-Verse: Rocking Our Universe

Last Friday, as we were getting started on the living room paint, we hear a ring a ding-ding on the doorbell. I open it and it is a solicitor (ugh). “Mrs. Rudolph?” “Umm..no.” (Door slam) Just kidding – she tells me who she is and blah blah blah and basically she is selling the new AT&T U-Verse cable.

My dad, who also works for AT&T, has been talking about this new IP-based cable. I didn’t understand the awesomeness until the girl at my doorstep completely rocked our world with the details.

Here are the highlights:

• You can record up to 4 shows at the same time.


• Over 100 HD Channels – and once you go HD you never go back


• DVR – no charge


• Modem/router – no charge


• Receivers on the other TV’s so that I can (drumroll, please) watch movie channels in my bedroom! Absolutely god sent.


• Picture-in-picture capabilities


• DVR stores up to 230 hours of standard shows OR 65 hours of HD shows


• Awesome On Demand movie library


• Lots ‘o sports – ESPN U, NFL Channel…

Plus, we have it for the first 30 days for free with the option to cancel at any time. If we decide to keep it, it is only like $6 more expensive than Charter (my current provider). AND, AT&T will give me $100 for signing up! Woo hoo! How shall I spend my, I mean our, money???

Onions in the Yard

That’s right…I’m pretty sure that I had onions growing in my front yard. Here’s the story:

About a month ago, these random bushes started growing in the middle of the yard – and not just weeds, but full on bushes. So, we didn’t do anything….and then they started to bloom these really pretty yellow flowers. We couldn’t get rid of the flowers! But again, they were randomly interspersed in our yard – very tacky. We started to notice that they were blooming everywhere in Smyrna…on the sides of the roads, in other people’s yards, in landscaped areas by the grocery store – so weird. And then the flowers died, but the bushes stayed. And we did nothing.

UNTIL last night! I was tired of looking at them so I put on my flops and gloves and went to pulling…and this is what they looked like:

Is that not a freakin’ onion? It smelled like an onion.

But two funny things happened – I was pulling one of the big bushes (just leaning over and pulling) and it ripped and I fell. That wouldn’t have been a big deal if it was me and Shane in the yard messing around, but it was just me – so I fell, immediately jumped to my feet and then looked around to see if anyone saw. If someone was looking out their window at me…they would have definitely said “What an idiot. Cut your grass while you’re out there.” Or maybe that is something that I would have said…

AND a bird pooped on my arm. This takes me back to about two weeks ago at work, when I was walking between buildings and a bird pooped on me. I got in the elevators (which are mirrored, lovely) and I thought that I had a ball of lint on the front of my shirt. I go to pick it off and it is not lint. It was poo. Good thing that my shirt was red – so it wasn’t that hard to get out, but I was wearing a white tank underneath and the ‘greenness’ had soaked through. Absolutely disgusting. Why, all of a sudden, am I a magnet for bird crap?

So, Shane has committed to cutting the grass this weekend. It’s not really that bad, I mean I’m not going to post pics or anything – but it def needs it! We also need to start seeding and doing whatever else you do in the spring to make your yard grow…any suggestions?

And stay tuned because April is the month of the new Honeysuckle back yard deck!

Our Trip to the Outlets

Shane and I got A LOT done this weekend! It was so nice to have a weekend with nothing planned, other than house stuff, of course. First, we painted the living room and were able to knock it out with only one coat. But before I show pics, I must share our fabulous finds and deals at the outlet mall…

First, with the new sectional – we really had no idea how we were going to light the space. We lost the side table, and room for a floor lamp, so Shane had the fabulous idea to put up wall lamps. (He is learning.) Really great idea, but I remember the issues that I had when looking for one for the bedroom…issue being that they are all ugly. But I figured that we would just deal with what we had and when we found one that we loved – we would make the move. So, back to the outlet mall. We go into Restoration Hardware, not thinking that we would find anything, or find anything at outlet prices anyway, and are pleasantly surprised. In the back area where the ‘50% OFF’ signs are located are none other than…freakin’ wall lamps! Venetian bronze ones too! So we are looking at the price and they are $155 with 50% off….$75. Not great, but not too bad. Then we find the shades and they are $11 a piece. Rip off. But then the sales lady came by and said that the lighting section was actually an extra 15% off – totaling 65% off (for those who are bad at math). So two lamps and two shades wound up totaling a little less than the price of one lamp! Score! Take a look at this luminous wonder: We then move on to Pottery Barn and score a $198 wool rug for a measly $45!!! What?!? This rug was also chosen by Shane…I’m still deciding if I love it:
After Pottery Barn we head over to Kirkland’s – we always find the most random, good deals there. We walk in and they have a ton of mirrors…hmmm…I need a new mirror for the guest bath. (The powers that be over at the bathroom mirror making companies like to jack the price up significantly for bathroom mirrors. No matter if they are the plainest of plain…they just know that you have to have a mirror in the bathroom. You know, that whole supply and demand conspiracy.) Well, all of these are gold and silver and either really plain or really ornate. Nothing appropriate for a bathroom. BUT I could totally buy one of these and paint it white, so I did. Check my new $25 bathroom mirror pre-white paint:
And our last stop was to the Home Depot across the street from the outlets. You never know, they may have some good deals that we couldn’t possibly get at our local HD. Well, it was a success. Not so much on a great deal – but to find our living room rug! Finally! So without further ado – here is the new living room (new lamps and rug included):
Our trip was a success!

Securi-tay!

Happy Thursday everyone…only one more day until the weekend. Thank god.

We had our new security system installed this week, and it comes at a great time because apparently Smyrna has turned into the new South Central. No drive-bys or street crime, but a ton of robberies. Between the number of stories that I have heard at work and the actual peeps that I know that have been robbed, this was a very good investment.

We had ADT and Brinks come to the house a few weeks ago and give their sales pitch. We just didn’t like Brinks…didn’t feel right. ADT was okay, but wanted us to spend almost a thousand dollars to install the system (unfortunately, our 1960’s casa isn’t pre-wired for a security system, go figure). We tried to haggle with them, but they just weren’t having it. Apparently they missed that memo about the horrible economy.

Shane, who is an avid 680 The Fan listener, has been hearing these ads for Ackerman Security and how cheap it is – so I gave them a ring. Why not give my business to a local company during tough times? Wow. Hundreds of dollars less to install than both Brinks and ADT, and almost $10 less a month than the other two! Sign me up! They came out yesterday and installed that bad boy – but I have just a few things to comment on (of course):

• Our security keypad is humongous. It looks like a 1950’s calculator mounted to my wall. Or better yet, a more realistic comparison, one of those really big notecards…4x6 I think? Yeah, massive.


• The door chime sounds whimpy. I wonder why we can’t choose our own tune? When I open the door it sounds like those chimes that are in thrift stores or deserted gas stations. Sounds kinda’ cheap in a way. I wanted like a bright, chirpy sound – like a bird. Or maybe a tweet…I’ll have to check and see if Ackerman carries the ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’ soundtrack for door chimes.


• I’m skeptical about the motion sensors. They don’t register small movements of the arms or head turns. Shane brought up a good point that a burglar would not just be standing in a room twisting his head or flailing his arms…but I guess I’m looking for Mission Impossible style technology.

So, all complaints aside – I definitely feel a lot safer over at Honeysuckle. But I now have this gnawing urge to set it off…just to see what it does.

Happy St. Patty’s Day and Happy Birthday!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Hope everyone has a little luck o’ the Irish on this special day…which also happens to be my dad’s 51st birthday! Take a look at Jim C back in the good ‘ole days…
Happy Birthday Dad!

And check out that paneling, looks just like the kind in my house...30 years later. Hmmm...

So…

Where have I been? I fell off the blogging wagon there for a second – but I’m back!

The Weekend

Not sure where it went, but I didn’t get much done. We purchased the paint for the living room, but none of it actually touched the walls. Friday night, we went over to my dad’s for dinner to celebrate his 51st birthday, Saturday was running around and then some bar hopping on Saturday night, and Sunday consisted of me laying in the bed until about 1 and then Shane’s parents came over for some hang out time and dinner. It definitely flew by!

The New Furniture

The couch is really, really big. I was a little bit worried that it was too big, so I may take out one of the inside chairs and put it in the sitting room. Not sure yet, though. We’ll see how the paint makes the room look. Also, as part of our running around on Saturday we think that we may have found a rug for the living room at Lowe’s. They actually have a pretty good selection and they are C-H-E-A-P! Just what we were looking for! I can’t find them online and I didn’t take a pic, but we’ll be back to Lowe’s (trust me) and I’ll try to snap a quick pic for your viewing pleasure.

Book Review

So, as you may have noticed, I was reading Twilight (started two Thursdays ago) and am now reading New Moon. I’m officially on the bandwagon and am thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t think that I’m as crazed as some about the book, but oh, but I’m hooked. I want to become a vampire and date Edward – stat. And I’m so excited that the Twilight movie is available OnDemand this weekend – I know what I’ll be watching!

The book that I was reading before Twilight was The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold. Absolutely horrible…horrible. I loved her book The Lovely Bones, but this one didn’t hold a candle to that book. Horrible.

So, work is really busy this week, but hopefully I’ll be able to at least get the kitchen trim painted during the week so that I can focus on the living room this week. Stay tuned this week to details about our new deck (yeah, come on) and our search for a security system.

Hope that you all have a great week!