7 Things About Amy

So!

Remember waaayayyyyy last year when I said I was going to interview my friends for my blog and I started with Amy?

Ummmm.....yyyyeeeeah.

I still have all my information from that interview. I needed a picture of Amy and she sent it to me twice, but it came in a funky file format and I couldn't open it.

So a year goes by..... A YEAR!!!

I finally get the photo from Amy a few weeks ago, but now I can't find the one of me for the same year!!! We both decided that our first grade photos (the year we met) were ugly and we were going to show our 2nd grade photos. Only I can't find mine now. My whole family was looking through photos and none of us could find it!

So anyway.....7 things about Amy. I'm going to give you a little background: Amy and I grew up in the same town. Her Dad was the highschool Biology teacher. I hung out with her in the 7th and 8th grade - we had band together. We played basketball and tennis. Amy was much better in sports - especially tennis and waaaayyyy smarter than me. Amy went to Notre Dame for college and then never came back to Minnesota to live until a few years ago - now she lives in the 'burbs with her hubby and 3 kids.


"How I Met Your Blogger"

1. Martha and I were "First Grade Friends." No, we were not in the same first grade class...in fact we did not even attend the same elementary school. "First Grade Friends" was the name of our pen pal program with the grade school on the other side of town. My classmate's mother was Martha's teacher. So our class would write letters to our assigned pen pal, my classmate would bring them home to her mother, who then brought them to her class, and then the reverse. Very high tech. At the end of the year we had a big party at Martha's school to meet our pen pals. Martha with her little red dress and me with my long braids...I wish we had a picture of that day! (MZ: I don't remember the red dress, but I remember Amy's hair. It was SO long! And my teacher's daughter, Renee....we all hung out together in Junior High.)


2. My worst job was working at a box factory...my freshman year of college we had a very long Christmas break...5 weeks...so I thought I could earn a few bucks since all of my friend had returned to their schools already. I took this temp job working the second shift...3-11pm...in an industrial area of Minneapolis in the cold dark dead of January. I stood on an assembly line for 8 hours and packed 100 freshly printed boxes (like a Cheerios box) into a shipping box which would then get shipped off to General Mills or someplace. I worked directly across from a woman named Rosie. She wasn't all that Rosie, she really didn't talk to me and had a permascowl on her face. She had been working there for over 20 years. My hands were dry and raw from handling all of the cardboard and I had terrible paper cuts all over them. I lasted two days.


3. And, speaking of jobs...In a little over one week I wrap up being the "cookie mom" for my oldest daughter's 1st grade Brownie troop. Ladies...if you ever think this would be a fun volunteer position...think twice...especially if you work full time. (Oooo....they try and get you to be cookie mom, right away, don't they?? They asked me on Noodles first day as a brownie last year.)


4. In April, we will mark FIVE years in our home. Already this has blown away my longevity record for time spent in one residence as an adult. I've been kind of a wanderer in my adult life so 5 years in ONE place is a long time. And, we are making a commitment to this house. We just started the process of adding a room onto our house. This is very exciting, we are tweaking the design right now and I can't wait for them to break ground. We are adding an office and new laundry room. Under the addition will be unfinished basement space. The office will be our "adult" room. No toys in this space! And the unfinished basement space will be for storage. My husband wants to put a TV in there and our exercise equipment...I think he is going to slowly transform this unfinished room into his secret "Man Cave". (I gave Amy a piece of my mind about this. Her house is already a freakin' Mansion. And I'm jealous of that. But I can't wait to see the addition!!!)


5. I have been using the Red X system that Martha blogged about earlier. I LOVE it, it's really kept me on track. I have an X for each day in March except March 17. We had some houseguests (from Mexico) arrive that evening and I thought it would be rude to go workout after they just arrived. Since I've been on the treadmill every day, I have noticed that my husband is on the treadmill almost as much. Is he feeling a little competitive???


6. TV. Right now I watch one hour of regular TV programming a week. That's it, one hour, I can't even watch Entertainment Tonight anymore because I don't know the people. What is this show "The Hills???" Anyway, my hour is Survivor. I am totally a Survivor junkie, can't get enough of that show. And, as much as I love Survivor, I love The Amazing Race even more. However, The Amazing Race is not on right now so I cannot count watching 2 hours of TV. My sister and I actually sent in an application to be on The Amazing Race. We thought we had to do something really creative to catch the producer's eye so we decided to SING our video, making up alternate lyrics to Broadway show tunes. Keep in mind, we're not singers...remember Cameron Diaz in "My Best Friends Wedding"? You get the picture. I guess our idea backfired, they probably turned us off after the first few bars! (One hour?? AMY! You need to catch up! TV should be your TOP priority - not those 3 little ankle biters of yours :)


7. I like to decorate cakes. I am very practical so cake decorating is a perfect creative outlet...it actually serves a pupose (cooking also falls into this category!). I would have to buy a decorated cake for my kids' birthdays right? I only decorate cakes for my family because it is quite time consuming. Seriously, I know why wedding cakes cost so much! My friend and I actually baked and decorated my sister's wedding cake last year. That was truly a labor of love. It was absolutely delish too. You know sometimes wedding cakes look beautiful but don't taste beautiful! This one, fresh not frozen, was very yummy! (Dumb Blogger wouldn't let me load the 2 photos Amy sent me, but they were cute. Especially her boy's treasure chest cake.)

HOUSE TOUR!!!!

Finally! A new tour!

I love this little sweetie. It's close to the stinky-hair grocery store - within walking distance.

But here's the bad, bad thing: It has the ugliest, UGLIEST addition on the back of the house. The facade on the addition looks like a sandcastle - you know what I'm saying? With the square cutouts? Weird. I wonder what the reason for that is? Because the inside of the addition seems just fine - it looks original to the house.


Anyway....here it is: Built in 1909, 2000 square feet. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. $485,000.

Might as well start with the range.....er.....I mean, kitchen! Looks like they painted some 1950's cabinets and installed a bitchin' range, huh? And some can lights.

The kitchen is 16x11

The living room. Sweet. I like the white woodwork and the windows, of course. 16x12.

Looking into the dining room on the right and the library to the left.

The library. 16x12.

The family room. I do believe this room is part of the ugly addition.....see what I mean about the inside, though? It looks original. 15x12.

Here is the front porch which is now "the drawing room".

The main bath. Could it be any whiter? Dudes. It's Minne-freakin'-sota! Slap some color on those walls and warm it up in there!!! Goaaah!

The Master bedroom. 14x12.

This Is NOT Okay......

Found it on the Brooks' Brothers site.

Creeps me out.

Amen.

7 Things About Michelle.......

Michelle is my niece. She married my nephew Kris last summer. I can't believe we are aunt and niece because we are only about 10-ish years apart in age......right Michelle? How old are you? I'm thirty-freaking-eight. Are you mid to late 20's?

Noodle fell in love with Michelle immediately. Here they are right before Michelle and Kris moved to Seattle:

Here are 7 things about Michelle....she emailed her list to me:

1. My current favorite shows are Last Restaurant Standing on BBC America, Top Chef (Bravo), and Coupling (BBC). I'm also strangely and embarrassingly drawn to The Real Housewives of New York City, even though most of the women make my teeth itch and give me facial twitches. I just can't look away.
(MZ says:"Ha! Teeth itching and facial twitching!! You crack me up!Dude....I've got to see that show. What channel is it on? Probably on cable, which we don't have. My pal Holly feels the same way about that show. Like a train wreck, right? Gotta see it....gotta see it. Love a good train wreck. Unless it's my life. Then? Not so much.....")

2. If I'm wearing socks, I guarantee you they're Smart Wool socks. They're all I wear. I haven't gotten around to throwing away my other socks because that's wasteful, and my mama didn't raise a wasteful girl. Perfectly good things you don't want should be given to someone, donated to charity, or sold at a garage sale. But who really wants my used socks? So all those socks, whose only crime is not being a Smart Wool sock, will sit in a dedicated un-Smart Wool drawer until I get motivated to do a major purge. Then I'll break down and throw them away and feel guilty about it for months.


3. My husband is hands-down the better cook in the relationship. I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, but it's easy to let Kris do the cooking when the man whips up some fine grub and has knife skills that rival anyone on the Food Network--not that that's saying anything. Lately I've been having the urge to try new recipes, and he's not complaining about the break. But when I'm in the kitchen, you can invariably hear me saying things like "Baby, does this look done to you?" and "Ew, this recipe specifically says NOT to use the garlic press, will you chop the garlic?" and "Um, dinner might be like an hour later than I originally said". I'm learning as I go, and he's very patient. Especially since he considers himself a cook--not a pastry chef--and since I started taking over the meals, there has been a 100% increase in the appearance of chocolate-y baked goods in the house.


4. Since I've been doing more cooking and baking, the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-quart mixer in Metallic Chrome has been appearing in my dreams. And they're some hot dreams. I've used all four of my email addresses to get one-day trial memberships to Cook's Illustrated on-line; it's practical--I'm waiting until Kris will let me subscribe to the magazine AND the website because together they're 25% off! But if I'm honest with myself, it's gateway food porn. I used CI's equipment section to make a 46-item Amazon shopping list of kitchen accoutrement we MUST get because CI said they're the best. We probably own at least half of the items on the list but they weren't rigorously tested by the chefs in the Test Kitchen. Thus, they suck. I added eight cookbooks to my Amazon Wish List; I promptly deleted five of them because it pushed my list to two pages and that looks greedy. I've added at least 50 food-related sites to my bookmarks. I've started drooling over the course offerings at Cook's World--a great locally-owned shop down the street--and I want to take the Thai class, the Italian classes (the Tuscany class with the chef from Serafina AND the Northern Italian class with the chef from La Spiga), the Turkish class, the knife skills workshop, the rustic break baking class, the growing and cooking from your own herb garden class, and the Tamales and Mexican favorites class. So, uh, when I get a new hobby, I get a little obsessed. But just a little.


5. I've been playing the piano since I was four years old. I taught piano lessons for five years, quitting when nursing school got too intense. We moved to Seattle in September, and this is the longest I've ever gone without playing the piano. Some days I have intense cravings to sit down and play my favorite pieces, and some days I'm surprised to remember that I play an instrument.


6. We have two guinea pigs, LuLu and Shelby. They are adorable, cuddly, and endlessly entertaining. They beg for food in the morning and for treats in the evening, getting up on their hind legs and singing to let us know that they would very much like some spinach or a piece of apple or some parsley. Or a nose rub. If there are no treats to be had, they will happily settle for a good nose rub, collapsing into a pile of contented piggyness.


7. I set up a blog once, but I deleted it the next day. I worried that since I'm a nurse, it would be too hard not to write about my job, which would be a huge HIPAA violation and would get me fired and worse. And sometimes my entire life IS my job. So instead I barf all over other people's blogs! Thanks, Martha!

I've Got A Screw Loose and 7 More Things.....

Yeah, yeah.

I know.

You already knew about the loose screw. I did too. But this totally confirms it.

You see, I was shopping for a reusable shipping container for my job when I came across THIS:

Why, oh why does this make my heart go pitter-pat????? Why?

I don't know. But I'll tell you this: Here's a little something else I'm a little kooky about:

Do you see what my sister got me? Do you? Click on the photo and look on the lower shelf, right in the middle. Go ahead.....I'll wait.
They're those little prep bowls fom Pampered Chef!!!! She read the ol' blog and saw that I liked them and bought them for me!!!! Can you believe that? Just to be sweet! Thankyouthankyouthankyou....I use them everyday.

Hey.

Just throwin' it out there.......

Okay, what else.....loose screw.....prep bowls....shipping containers........it's FREAKING SNOWING RIGHT NOW!

Seriously, I can't take the snow. Any. more.

I might have to go on a crime spree to quell my anger right now.

And the Noodle is off from school today, which means I will have to take her with me. And then what?

She'll be introduced to a life of crime, that's what.

Her whole life will be ruined.

She'll spend the rest of her life in the clink......join a prison gang....traffic drugs and cigarettes to fellow inmates. Or some other contraband - like Aveda products! Or L'Occitane Verbena shower gel!! Or Mrs. Meyers cleaning products!

Then she'd be released for good behavior - because of all that calming aroma therapy. She will have cured crime in her cell block! Rehabbed formerly vicious criminals! She will be on the cover of Time magazine as a genius in criminal behavior and and expert in the rehabilitation of career criminals formerly thought to be beyond reform.

Errrr.....anyway. I think I will skip the crime spree for today. Maybe we'll go to IKEA instead.

Alrighty-then.

So, I need to update my favorite blogs. I've started, but the list! It keeps growing!

Here's another new one: Amongst The Oaks

Oh. My. You've got to go to her the 'labels' section of her blog and click on 'remodeling'. Wait until you see what she's done with her house. Especially the outside. And the inside. And the yard. And the kitchen. Oh my.

Anyway. Check it out.

She also tagged me for 7 more things about moi. Me. Myself. AND I. Me, me, ME!

And you know what? I'm going to tag 7 people, too. Yep. I'm not going to tell you all to reveal 7 facts about yourselves if you feel like it.

You're going to do it.

Or else.

Here are 7 more things about moi.

• I'm wearing a wool striped sweater over my jammies right now. There are 4 or 5 warm, wintery sweater or polar fleece items I wear all of the time when I'm home. They're the only things you will ever see me in. Well, I pair them with sweatpants of some sort. Don't you judge me!
• I had a total temper tantrum when I came back from my Boston trip. There was crying, swearing and teeth gnashing. Zuddy didn't bother to sweep, Swiffer or vacuum when I was gone. I don't think he will make that mistake again.
• As a matter of fact, Noodle told me that because of my crying? She was made to do the dishes and scoop the litter box. She seemed a little put-out and irritated at me.
• Zuddy and I were looking at Google maps a couple of weeks ago? And they have real-life photos of our house. With me in front of it. In my ratty orange shorts. Weeding the front garden beds.
• I've been a very good walker lately. But it turns out that breaking my string of red X's doesn't really bother me all that much. Because I'm a rebel like that. However, I'm really making an effort and going for a walk when I'd really rather not sometimes. And if I've got a long walk between gates at the airport? I'll count it as my walk and not use the moving sidewalks. My clothes are fitting a little better.
• Yesterday morning I caught Zuddy talking lovingly to the dried pinto beans sitting on the counter. So I made Cutzi's refried beans again. And now Zuddy is making some methane music...if you know what I'm sayin'. And I think you do.
• I watched that new Ashton Kutcher show last night. Is it Miss Understood? No....it's called Miss/Guided. It was kind of like Scrubs, but set in a High School. I thought it was hilarious.

That's it! 7 things!

Now here's who I'm tagging: Mrs. Bob Vila from Coastal Nest, Mrs. Fortner, Paula from ForCryEye, My pal Amy (get a blog, Amy) who will need to email me 7 things so I can put them on my blog, and my niece Michelle (get a blog, Michelle) who will need to email me her 7 things as well.

Work, Potatoes with Life Lessons and Loree

Yep! I'm at it again! Working at the photo studio. Do you want to come along and see what I've done?



What? No?



Oh.



Okay....sorry to bother you.



Hey! Wait! This is MY blog. If you don't want to come to work with me, you just point that cursor to that red box with the white "X" and get outta here!



Sheesh. Ungrateful Internets.



Okay. Here we go.



You know where we need to go first? Do you?



In my business, this will always be the answer: "To the grocery store." Always. This question will be on the final exam, so file it away in the ol' hard drive, people.



Here we are at one of the nice ones. Brand new in Northeast Mpls. Not too far from the studio. This store is so great that I almost try to go there for every shoot.
Anyway, we've got to get some red potatoes. The ones I found the day before at that other store (with the harsh lighting) had skins that were too thin.



Ha! Did you hear that? The potatoes had skins that were too thin.



This brings us to a new feature on this blog.....Life Lessons Through Food.



MJ will laugh at this because we've been learning life lessons through food together for about 12 years. It's times like these where I'm reminded how much I want to work with MJ every day.

Because I miss her.

And nobody else thinks the life lessons are the least bit funny.

So then I sit there and giggle to myself and everybody thinks I'm a crazy person.



Okay. So I get to the studio and the first thing I do is grab some of Dave the Photographer's delicious coffee. It's really really strong. And made from the very best beans.
Yummy.
But I need some milk to tone it down a little bit...........oh look!
No milk...........but there is some HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM!!!!

Don't you judge me!

Okay. I need to sort out the potatoes and pick the best ones (life lesson).

It's kind of hard to tell which ones are the best when you first look at them.

All I know is: They shouldn't be too small or too big:

A little character is a good thing. You don't want (your potato) to be too perfect.

Sometimes, though? You find out that very character you loved so much in the beginning? Well....it's too much. It's just not working the way you thought it would.

Sometimes (potatoes) things aren't classically beautiful.......But they're almost so ugly that they're cute:

And you know what? Sometimes life hurts. And once in a while you'll get stabbed in the back. Don't worry, it happens to all of us. You just need to let it go.

Okay. Lessons over. But they were useful, right?

So I baked up my potatoes and now I need to scoop out the innards for Pegi, the food stylist. I try to make them as beautiful as possible. I futz around and figure out that I need to use a melon baller to get a nice edge on the potato. Then I need to trim the skins with a little scissors because they get a little raggedy:

After all of this, lunch came. The studio caters in lunch every day. Today was Asian. After lunch, the potatoes that Pegi styled and baked up need a little freshening up.......a"facial" perhaps? Pegi gives them a little steam.

Now I go into the other kitchen to bother my pal Loree. 'Memba her? She's the one who turned 50 and got the hair-brained idea to run a marathon to "celebrate". Freak.

Anyway, Loree just styled a thick, juicy steak for a grill shot. Here's Mara, our hand model. Kevin, the photographer, will take a close-up of the steak and of Mara "flipping" the steak.

Isn't Mara just tiny and cute? The grill has fake, glowing coals. I love the fake glowing coals.

This is my old new best friend, Loree, with Mara.

Loree just found the love of her life at age 50. She knew him years ago when she was in the Coast Guard and reconnected with him through the wondrous Internet! Exciting, huh? And he's sounds so sweet that I now have a mouthful of cavities from listening to her nauseating stories of all of the sweet things he says to her.

Okay, I've gotta go. More on Loree and Mara another time!

Whew!

I feel so much better.

You see, Lisa from Coastal Nest? She recommended I use a little moisturizer. She is so right.

Every girl could use a little moisturizer. Go on! Stop reading this and slap on some hydration! I'll wait.

Doodle-e-doooooo, doodle-eee-dooooo.......

Done? Now just you wait until tomorrow! Because last night I went to bed looking like this:






But today? Well, look at me!
















Hey - does anyone know how to get rid of spam comments (from my brother)? I can't figure it out. And you know what I'm going to have to do, don't you?
Yes. I'm going to activate it right now.

Problem:

Turns out?
When it's daylight savings time?


There's not enough of this in the world: To keep me from looking like this:


I'm working today....have a good one!

Labels

I hate racism.

And I'm not going to get into it here on the ol' blog because this is supposed to be my happy place.

Anyway. Let's just say it's not welcome at our house. And it certainly isn't taught in our house.

Any of you Internets out there with children will understand this story. Because no matter what is taught in your homes, the kids? Well, they pick things up, don't they?

So I was sitting at the computer last night, writing recipes and Noodle was playing with her dollies, which I was pretty much tuning out because that crazy Noodle does a lot of talking and role-playing when she plays. And we Parents? We get pretty good at the tuning out of the children, am I right ladies?
So since I was tuning most of her "conversation" out, I only heard the tail end of her "labeling" session.

This is what I heard, but I missed the first label for Sarah:

"Nicky? You're the clumsiest"
Nicky has a cast on and is in a wheel chair, so I get it. Nicky is looking a little clumsy these days.

"Baby? You're just the cutest!"
Baby is - well, she's the baby of the bunch. So, while it's arguable? She could conceivably be the cutest.

"Josephina? You're the Mexicanist"

"And I'm just Normal!"

Apparently, we've got some work to do.




ps. I have a photo, but blogger is acting up. I'll try to add it later.

(***edited to add: Okay, right this very minute she's making play-doh tamales. So I'm starting to feel a little better. Just a little, though.)

When It's Okay To Say The "F" Word:

Here's what I'm gonna do.....

1. Use some of this.

2. When I shower? Some of this. My Mom just gave me some. I love the citrusy-fresh air scent.







3. Then I'm going to use this.

4. And for SURE some of this.

5. So I don't look so much like this.

6. Then after I develop a few recipes? I'm going to hang out with her.

Any questions?

A Little Clarification:

Zuddy wants you to know something.

When he wore parachute pants in the 80's?

They looked more like this:

And not so much like this:


He wants you to know that.

Because the top ones are so much more attractive on skinny adolescent rock "stars". And we wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression.

And I would like you to see this old Craig's list ad that I found through Google when I searched "M C Hammer":

Guess what,

I was cleaning out my closet and I found 47 pairs of BRIGHT NEON MC Hammer pants. I was going to burn them and dance around the flames to try to make it rain or something, but I thought that maybe somebody would want these. They are absolutely the worst pants of all time. I can't remember being stupid enough to buy these, but I must have been. Either that or MC Hammer owes me a bunch of rent money. I have them all in a huge garbage sack sitting on the sidewalk. If you want them you must just come pick up the bag and drive away. If anybody comes up and tears the bag and spills those hideous things into the street where my neighbors can see, I will be very unhappy. Garbage collection is on Monday so if they aren't gone Mr. BFI gets them. If you want this garbage, email me and I will give you instructions.

Note: all of my photos were found through Google

Oh! And Guess what? I start my new job today! Yay new job, Yay!

My Zuddy

I was thinking about sharing a Zuddy story with you the other day, but you know I should be working.
Not blogging.
I'll still share it, because I was reading Big Mama's blog and while I was almost in tears laughing at her "Forever in Blue Jeans" post, I was reminded of another story. So now I have 2 stories to share.

Zuddy isn't a fashion plate. I know, I know......pot calling the kettle black. But believe me - it's been an issue almost from the beginning.

Awww, crud. Now that I mention the "beginning" and "fashion issues"? I have 2 more stories.....this could be a long post, but I'm going to stick with the original 2 stories.

So Big Mama was talking about her Dad and Husband and their escapades while shopping for blue jeans. And I was cracking up - that girl can write. But I was remembering when Zuddy first got hooked on online shopping - it was right after the Noodle was born. He found a cute outfit for her (little cow-print velvet skirt) on the Old Navy website and then proceeded to shop for some new Levi's for himself on another website.

Now - you should know this about Zuddy .....he's a pretty good "try-er". When we go to a restaurant (which is pretty much never these days), he'll always order something new. Zuddy isn't afraid of taking a little risk here and there. No SIR. But really? It's best to keep that attitude within the food demographic.

Because when he was shopping for those jeans, he bought a couple of new "fits". You know - they have classic fit, relaxed fit, etc. Well, the jeans came and Zuddy put on one of the pairs.

Which made me laugh.

I said to him, "Ummmmm. Where did you get those?"
Z: "What? They're Levi's."
M: "Well, what kind of Levi's? They're not the ones you usually wear."
Z: "I don't know. The description said, 'great new slim fit!'"
M: "I'd send 'em back."
Z (offended): "I'm late! They're fine."

Fast forward to 6:30 pm that night. Zuddy walks in the door, immediately takes the pants off in the living room and says, "Stupid jeans! The guys at work called me Timmy Tightpants all day!"

Second story of the day:

I'm doing some recipe work at home. Which means lots of things in the fridge are off-limits. I need these food items for my recipes. Zuddy is pretty good at asking first, but I went into the fridge looking for my seedless cucumber and I couldn't find it. There's a leftover stub of one in there, but not enough for my recipe.

I'm kind of feeling the pressure today - I hate everything I'm working on and I need to make somebody else feel as bad as I do.

So I called Zuddy at work and said to him in the most accusing voice I can muster, "TELL me you didn't feed Noodle that cucumber I had in the fridge over the weekend!!!"
Z (defensively): "Mupp! I swear to you....no cucumbers were harmed in the feeding of our child!"

Okay, now I have another story: Zuddy just sent me an email as I'm writing this post.
When I'm doing recipe work at home, I bring the food to Zuddy's work for the guys to sample and give their opinions.
Well, I made a recipe called "Bull Bites" and brought it over.

Zuddy's email response?

"YAY! BULL BITES! YAY!"

Ooo La La!

Hey! Internets!

Are you Cottage Living subscribers? Did you get your new issue over the weekend?

SIGH........love that magazine.

Here is my fave spread from this issue. I just love this house.

I mean - come ON! How great is this front yard??? So lush and cottagy.


The living room looking into the dining room. First of all, I love the curtains. I'm thinking about going with curtains in my house, but I'm worried my house is too small.

Wow.

Did you notice how I just made these people's beautiful little cottage all about ME? I'm good....

The dining room/library. The owners are both architects and they had the bookshelves in the dining room built to accommodate their book collection. I love that over sized chandelier.

Awwwww......sweet Jesus. How awesome is that kitchen?? So big! I guess that table is 14 feet long.

The kitchen has a SINK, too! Heh.

Okay, the kitchen freak in me has a problem with the sink being on the other side of the room from the range. Because I'll bet they're about 18-20 feet away from each other (if that table is 14 feet long). Maybe they have another sink by the range. I'm sure they do, right? Because if they don't I can't love the house anymore and I'll need to discontinue this post.

So let's pretend they have that sink, shall we?

Yes.

The master bedroom with doors to the back yard.

Oh, sweetMaryMotherofGod. I love this patio. It's exactly what I want someday. ARGH. I wish I could have those big planted box woods. I'll take that baby, too. I've been wanting another one lately.