The Finished Product

Here are the "After" pictures from the remodel. I'm very pleased with the end results--definitely worth all the hassle. I took it as a high compliment when a coworker who was at the house on Tuesday asked if I'd had a designer help me with my new furniture selections, tile choice, etc. I've had another friend ask me the same thing after visiting a friend's house that did use a professional designer. I guess the countless hours of HGTV, looking at catalogs and magazines, and stealing ideas from friends who can use designers has paid off. (I didn't do a very good job of staging the pictures though. Please ignore all the stuff that come with actually living in a place.)

One more remodel picture. A little Southern ingenuity on doing dishes in the downstairs bathroom--use a sweater dryer for the dishes. Oh, yes. Someday we'll look back on all this and laugh.The finished kitchen. I guess I did have help choosing the tiles although the remodeling consultant really sat back and let me decide, offering a few suggestions but not many. That's why it took so long to make a final decision--I had to mull through all these choices before I settled on these. I had taken the doors off the cabinet over the microwave when I had all my cookbooks there. Now, because there are only a few left in there and the rest of the cabinet has been reclaimed as dish space, I put the doors back on. Putting the matching pulls on is on today's honey-do list.
A close-up of the finished counter and backsplash. The contractor did a fantastic job with the tile and the little finish details like the finish tile on the edges of the tile.
The new sink and bar area. We reused our old faucet much to the chagrin of the remodeling consultant. He wasn't sure I'd like the old faucet with all the new surroundings. I like it and think it looks fine here.
A close-up of my fabulous new sink. The right side is 11 inches deep while the left side is 9 inches deep. Looking into the living room from the hallway. I'm positively thrilled with the end results of taking out the windows. It is such a nicer light in here--proof that it really is possible to have too many windows in a space.
Another view of the living room, this one from the dining room.
Our new chair and ottoman. It was delivered earlier in the year.
Looking into the dining room from the living room. I like our new cabinet. It's a darker wood than I'd anticipated but very pretty especially against the red wall. I love the tin tiles and since I put our Nambe pieces and some silver picture frames in the cabinet, I thought it looked nice with them hanging like that.
A closer-up view of the cabinet and tiles.
An even closer-up of the picture on the bottom shelf. I found this picture at an antique store when we were in Kansas in December and it amused me enough that I had to buy it--four farmboys from Kansas on the beach of Santa Monica, CA in the early 1900's.
So, that is it. One more big project that is finished. I haven't figured out the next project I'd like to tackle next around the house. I'm sure there will be something. There is always something. . . .

Why, yes, we do realize we're dorks

Donna sent me this lolcat:


see more crazy cat pics

When Paul and I got to the back of the church as a newly-minted married couple, we did our own Wonder Twins routine, touching wedding rings and exclaiming, "Wonder Twin powers, activate! Form of a married couple! Form of Paul & Carrie!" because we're nerdy like that. Hey, if Grape Ape or Hong Kong Phooey or Captain Caveman had had some cool slogan involving rings, we would have been doing that back there. There have been many many times in the past 8 1/2 years that I've been thankful we don't have the Wonder Twin telepathic powers--it's just better that Paul wasn't reading my mind although I'm fairly certain he knew *exactly* what I was thinking.

And I'll take Jub over Gleek any day. He's enough comic relief and not nearly as troublesome as a blue space monkey might be.

Weekend Recap

The conference was great and I'm really glad I went. I hate the term "network" but I know that's what I was doing--catching up with people I know and like, getting fantastic new ideas to try in my library, and generally walking away from the conference feeling with a good feeling about my job and how I hope to improve it. The keynote speaker for Friday wasn't able to make it because of the American Airlines debacle. Fortunately, he's technologically inclined and was able to do a podcast for the group on the pros and cons of Wikipedia. I would love to have heard him speak as just the podcast was pretty dynamic. It was also nice to know that I've been teaching the use of Wikipedia correctly (as a good site to use as a starting point for information and for the external links but definitely not as the expert site).

During the morning on Friday, I was manning the ASL-SIG booth and flipping through a catalog for a book vendor. I started chatting with the book rep at the booth, explaining that I do use them every year and really like my rep and the company. Another book rep came over and started chatting with us. He lives in Rio Rancho and through the course of conversation, I mentioned the church we attend and my inlaws' names. Come to find out, that rep went to school with my MIL in Louisville and Wamego. Reva was his 4-H leader. He asked about Paul's aunt and uncle. He and my inlaws have been in and out of touch over the years but he gave me his card with his phone number to pass along. Small world.

I got home on Friday evening after a horrible drive home. I managed to drive both to and from Cruces with a headwind and Friday's was especially rotten. One of those ones where you have to hang on the entire time and I held my breath any time I drove over a bridge. Not because I thought I'd go over the edge but all those "gusty winds" signs and the flapping wind socks did nothing to deter that thought. I promise the best thing about the drive was stopping at the Border Patrol check-point outside of Las Cruces and being asked if I was a U.S. citizen. Because I look so foreign. I'm sure it's just a standard question asked of all drivers but really. I wanted to ask if it was a trick question but simply replied "Yes." (Paul said I should have answered "Si") and headed back into the nasty gusty wind. 230 miles and 3/4 of a tank later (I'm not going figure out that gas mileage), I finally made it home.

Happily, all the inside construction was finished on Friday. I spent most of the day yesterday doing all kinds of cleaning--getting all the construction gunk out of every nook and cranny of the house. I could probably call in Merry Maids to get the gunk I missed--I gave up out before cleaning out the inside of cabinets and drawers that probably need to be cleaned. But I LOVE the new countertops and tile. Alan did a fantastic job with the tile work. I wrote him a nice thank you before I left and Paul bought a gift card to a local restaurant to put in it. Alan will be back at some point in time because the stucco still isn't finished. We haven't had rain in two months then we scheduled outdoor work. Oh well--as I said before, that doesn't bother me much because I don't see it. Pictures are forthcoming. It seems that the camera is never on the same floor as I am and as Paul is currently vacuuming the stairs, I don't want to interrupt his work.

Today has been a lazy day for both of us. Finishing up the laundry and that sort of thing. We finally finished and e-filed our taxes. We knew we'd owe money so we weren't in a hurry to get that done any earlier than need be. Paul leaves tomorrow for a week-long conference near L.A. and I've got a few little things going on during the week to keep me busy. A good weekend followed by a hopefully good week.

Conference Day 2

Today was the first full day of the conference and so far, I'm really glad I came. That is, I was after I finally found a parking spot today. I don't have a map of the NMSU campus but I figured there had to be a lot for commuter students (I wasn't going to attempt to find a spot in one of the 10 or so spots universities reserve for visitors). After much driving around and much avoiding of college students who just walk or ride wherever forgetting that I'm in a car, I was able to find some big lot which was convenient to the conference location. If it was the commuter lot, NMSU students don't realize how good they've got it. Tech and UNM both have their lots at the far nether regions of the campus so it's a hike to get to class.

There wasn't anything in the first session of the morning that really grabbed my attention so I spent most of the morning in the exhibit hall talking with book vendors and visiting with librarian friends who had come down. I never have a chance to just visit with these peers when we're back in ABQ--we do our own thing in our own schools, possibly seeing each other at the monthly library inservices but we never get a chance to just visit. The two afternoon sessions I attended have given me quite a few ideas to take back to school. I just hope my coworkers are receptive to collaborating and actually using me as a resource. So far, I haven't had much luck. Maybe with these ideas, I'll be better able to armed to convince them to do this.

I was invited to dinner at La Posta in Old Mesilla tonight by two of my books reps, a married couple that I really enjoy working with. There were two other librarians at dinner as well--one from Rio Rancho and another from Espanola. The one from Espanola had worked in Felt, OK, years ago--before my days of knowing people in Felt but not many people have even heard of that place much less lived there. We had a nice visit and it's always great to be able to visit with peers and bounce ideas around.
Tomorrow starts off with a breakfast meeting and I'm interested in the keynote speaker's talk on Wikipedia after that. After lunch, I have to choose between two sessions both led by other ABQ librarians that I know, like, and respect their work. Then it's back home again to my hopefully completed kitchen and my husband and my cat.

Coming to you live from Las Cruces

I'm currently in Las Cruces for the annual NMLA conference. I drove down this morning and will be here until Friday afternoon. This is the first time I've actually been to Las Cruces. I've driven through once on our way to Houston. So far, my impression of Las Cruces is that it's windy, dusty, and not well marked. Actually, it might be well-marked. I just couldn't see it for all the dust blowing.

When I was telling my student aides yesterday that I wouldn't be at school the rest of the week, one asked me what a bunch of librarians discuss--"I've got books. You've got books. Read books." Not quite but kind of. When I started explaining to them the types of sessions I would be attending, they didn't seem at all interested. This afternoon, I attended a session on repairing and preservation of books and a/v materials. The other sessions I plan on attending cover collaboration with classroom teachers, using graphic novels, lessons using Internet sites--generally stuff I find interesting and important but to a 13-year-old, probably not the niftiest thing going.

The conference is being held on the campus of NMSU. I feel old walking across a college campus. I mean, I can remember being 19 years old and walking across campus on my way to class. Until times like this, I forget I'm not 19 anymore. Or even 25. I'm an "ancient" 33 years old. But for the next two days, I'm going to try to look like the coolest old person I can be.