So this is what Christmas feels like

I grew up in the South. Twenty plus years in Texas, then almost a decade in North Carolina. It's often tough to get in the "Christmas spirit" when it's 80 degrees outside. I have no idea how my buddies in the Southern Hemisphere do it!

This weekend has been a perfect "Christmas-time" weekend here in Ohio. Friday night was the Christmas extravaganza drag show at Axis in Columbus. A former co-worker of mine is a fabulous drag queen, and we went to see the holiday show. Fan-tab-ulous.

Saturday our new furniture arrived. "LOVE" does not even begin to explain what I feel about this furniture. It's hubs and my first ever REAL furniture that has not been either purchased at a thrift store or reclaimed from a dumpster. Really. And I love this stuff. It was like Santa showed up a few weeks early.

Hubs hanging out in the chaise reading the owner's manual for the new sweet-ass furniture

This morning, I got up to go to run club only to receive an email that due to inclement weather, we would be shifting the run to inside the gym (i.e. treadmills). Ummm, no thank you. I put all my stuff down and ran from my house. What inclement weather? You mean the rain and 29 degree temps? Eh, it will be fine. And it was - but by the time I got home and stripped down, my entire body looked like I had a major sunburn. The skin was ummmm, a tad chilly. But I got in 5.8 miles before the snow started. Although I kind of think it would have been pretty sweet to have the rain shift to snow in mid run. Maybe later in the winter :-)

When I got home, hubs and I started a fire in the fireplace, turned on the Christmas tunes, and we got to baking and decorating. Here's the fruit of our labors.

Merry, Merry all. Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, The End of the Year, Snow, Heat, whatever. Just Merry, Merry :-)

EXERCISE BREAK

Hubby and I came up with the idea to flip our home office into an all purpose media room. What does that mean? It means I got home last Friday to find that hubby had moved all the furniture out of the room and into the garage. He pulled up all the carpet and the only strip that remained is where the fishtank stood. So, I guess we are starting this project NOW?


I am thrilled to say that "Operation Move Fishtank" succeeded. We drained it down to about 10% capacity, loaded it onto a moving cart and trucked it across the house. We only lost one fish due to a siphoning accident :-\ (RIP Fish #24) The rest of the fish have all adjusted well to their new location and super clean tank. whew.


Once the room was cleared, we had to cover up the horrendous wooden paneling that was in the room. Two coats of Killz primer and 2 coats of paint later, we now have beautiful "Italian Ice" colored walls. As for the floor, we opted for carpet tiles - thanks to kitties and their loving of peeing on carpet, we needed a cost effective and eco friendly way of dealing with cutting out sections of floor without having to re-do a whole room. Enter the carpet tiles. At 2 feet x 2 feet, all we have to do is roll out adhesive then stick down the tiles. Kitty pees on one? Pull it up and replace it. Done. Last night we installed the tiles. We now have flooring. See beautiful "after" pic below :-)

New carpet tiles with Italian Ice walls.....sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

We should start moving in the furniture tonight, but I have a lady date. A buddy and myself will be going to see SATC 2 after martinis this evening. WOOT.

And due to the fact that I spent the entriety of yesterday evening on all fours (get your mind out of the gutter), I skipped Jillian this morning. I am onto Level 2 now, and it is super push up/plank heavy. My right wrist is feeling a bit weak, and my back and knees are killing me after the carpet work last night.


Jillian and I may be on a mini break for the next few days though. One of my bestest buds, Cookie, is coming up from NC on Friday. She will be spending Memorial Day weekend with us, and I'm not sure I will want to get up in the mornings and face Jillian's wrath of evil. We'll see. The triathlon is barely a week away, and I need to be ready!!!!


In the meantime, a mini exercise break for home improvement and catching up with friends!!!!

Who's Buying a House? US!!!!

We found a beautiful, awesome, amazing home. And we are buying it! YAY!!!!!! Our trip to Columbus was fantastic. We saw some AMAZING homes. Truly, it was an embarrassment of riches. To be able to choose from that many great properties was a blessing. But when we walked into this home, the last one we saw, we knew it was the place we wanted to be. We decided to go ahead and live in the village of Granville where Denison University is located. The whole place is out of a storybook. Treelined streets, a beautiful little downtown, farmers market, bike and running paths, parks, hills, just amazing.

More photos to come of the area, but first - here is our house!!!!!