Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is my grandmother, Beulah Mattie Conger's 98th birthday! I love her dearly and she can sure make a mean breakfast.

This week we were the lucky recipients of a (free??) new couch-it's there on the left. To celebrate the fact that we now have seating for more than 3 guests at a time, we invited folks over for rhubarb pie and coffee and wine. You can see that our new couch can comfortably seat at least 4. Not to worry, the old love seat is still with us and still uncomfortably seats 2.
I say free?? because our neighbors gave it to us and didn't ask for any money. I'm not sure what to do short of taking them to dinner.
I made the pies in my new apron from Kim and served coffee in mugs from Becca. I miss you girls!














And we are also the recipients of a "wee garden gnome" tee-hee. Maybe I've seen "Amelie" too many times but it makes me happy. So, until we have a garden for real he will have a home with our token house plant. In case you're wondering, this plant is a replacement for the previous one that I killed. I'm trying really hard not to kill this one.


Peace be with you all-BLU

Happy Year of the Pig

Today began as a cloudy, blustery day and I began by deliciously sleeping in until 9. It's Saturday and we have heat again; a modern marvel that is not truly appreciated until you move up the dial on the thermostat and nothing happens; at one point last weekend I was wearing both sets of house slippers simultaneously. Once our tank was filled with the precious warming oil again nothing happened with the thermostat. After reaching several handyman websites in a row that stated "for oil heat, it's best to just call someone," Ben did and 1 hour and 15o dollars later our tank responded to the thermostat.
In other news, we finally found a new coffee spot that nearly takes the place of Community Bakery in LR, care of some lovely friends. There are no shortage of such places in this town but I'm picky. This place makes their own hummus and takes the time to put fresh flowers on the tables and has a view of downtown. (we too were initially surprised that W-S has a skyline).
The place is in a part of town referred to as Old Salem - the building at the top caught my eye today; both its shape and appearance of having a beard with the wintry leave-less vines.
I'm more than glad that my intern year is coming to an end; I have 6 weeks of OB, then my long dark tunnel is pretty much over, at least hour-wise.
We're off to a Chinese New Year party--it's the year of the pig and we're gonna work on our dumpling-creating skills and probably hear some of that lovely harsh clanging Chinese opera. -BLU