Hello, 2009

I hope everyone had a great New Year's and holiday time. For Christmas I went with Michael to the Dallas area to spend it with his Mom. She has this huge 4500sq ft house and it's so gorgeous. We mainly just hung out - didn't do anything too major. She bought us a new food processor and a GPS unit for the car. The story with the food processor is this: Michael's mom (Karen) came to my house for Thanksgiving. There's a certain cranberry dish she makes every year, so she was going to bring the ingredients and make it at my house. Well, she asked for a food processor, and I did have one, but had never used it. When my grandmother passed away in 2001 I got it from her kitchen. It was Wolfgang Puck, and it had never been used - still had the receipt from HSN (my grandmother bought a lot of stuff over TV). Anyways, I figured I might have a use for it, so I took it and it's been in my cupboards ever since. Well, Karen got it out and started using it to chop up the cranberries. Well......unfortunately, the blade spun backwards! We could not figure out how to fix it. So, instead of chopping, it kinda just mashed them with the other side of the blade. It was so weird. My brother in law even took it apart and moved some wires around and it still spun backwards. We think the motor had been installed the wrong way. So, anyways, that's how she knew I needed a new food processor! As for the GPS, I refused to let Michael buy one since his iPhone connects to Google, and really what more do you need? But, hey, if Karen wants to spend money on a swanky new GPS, I'm not going to say NO! So, yes, I do really like it, and yes, it will really come in handy for our trip to CA. I just didn't want to spend our own money on it. But, hey, that's what the holidays are for, right?? My parents gave me and my sister money as usual, and there's no complaints over here!

Michael and I spent New Year's in my hot tub. He had a bottle of $40 champagne, and I had my $3 bottle of Martinelli's Sparking Apple Cider, which I drank straight from the bottle, thank you very much. Mmmm....sparkling sugar water....so good. My neighborhood has now been officially annexed into 'City' of Austin whereas before we were just county. Now we can't do fireworks in our yard. Too bad, so sad. Although we did hear quite a few go off on New Years. I think my Mom still isn't 'City' so at least we can go over there again for 4th of July fireworks in the street.

Again - can I just say how much I love Austin??? The Saturday before Christmas, it was 78 degrees so Michael and I went kayaking on Town Lake. Then, on Friday Jan 2 we had another warm day so we went out again with some of Michael's friends that were in town for the holidays. We weren't even bundled up! Shorts and a tank top on the water, in winter! Love it.

Friday night I had ANK Party Games Night at my place and we had 6 people total - good group. We played a great board game called 'Wits & Wagers' that incorporates trivia and betting. We also played Charades since the 2 new people that showed up had never really played. I know whenever Loel comes to Party Games, he and I can usually successfully lobby for Charades. Love playing that! But, we usually just write our own, which is starting to get annoying. I may just break down and buy an official game. My favorite one that I made up on Friday was 'manny'. You know, a male nanny. Now, that was hard! But someone eventually got it.

Oh, right, I promised pictures of the yard, right? Here you go.

Here's the 'before' pic. I really hate bushes in front of houses - just big green blobs. I told the designer I didn't want anything 'structured' or box like. She did a few different designs and gave me a bunch of pictures of native/drought resistant plants. I told her which ones I thought looked cool, and she incorporated what she could. We kept my Lacebark Elm tree in the middle of the yard since it was new and she agreed it was a really good tree for this area.

Here is the after. It took 3 days and they did it right before Thanksgiving. I also put in irrigation for the front yard. I had received quotes for that a couple years ago, and the guy she works with quoted me $1000 less. So, I went ahead and did that at the same time so his irrigation could match her plan. The rock sitting by itself on the right hand side is part of 'Phase 2'. It will be a circle around the tree which starts near the boulder and ends at the raised bed in the middle. It's already been taken into account with the irrigation and she said it will only take 1 day to implement. That will be in March sometime.

Yes, the grass is fairly dead...eh give me a break, it's winter! The rock in the front is pea gravel, the walkway has decomposed granite around the stones, and the beds near the house are Texas hard-wood mulch. We're going to start working on the grass in the spring.

Here's a closeup of the part near the house. They also put in the walkway leading to the front door. Before it was just cement and it was cracking and it wasn't straight. So, they did this flagstone walkway which is so cool.

I have 29 different plants and I have a map of what each one is. She also gave me a list on how to take care of them - which ones to cut down to the ground after the first frost, which ones to cut into a fist sized ball, and which ones to leave alone. They are all perennials, so they should come back in the spring. I really like how it came out, and the designer was a pleasure to deal with - Her name was Liz Klein with Design My Yard, for anyone interested. She has a website. I was just glad she took my little job. So many designers only want projects over $10,000. They won't even deal with small projects. I think with the economy right now though, this is the best time to do this kind of stuff. I even got great deals on the plants since it was 'end of season', so she was able to get me bigger plants than she originally expected.

When I first decided to do this, I really thought it was going to cost a crap ton of money. I always watch 'Curb Appeal' on HGTV and most of their yards are on the east coast. Every so often they'll flash how much money each item is, and it's always really pricey. When Liz first showed me the plans, I really thought it was over $10,000. She was saying how item A is 'more expensive' than item B, and I kept saying, what do you mean, 'more expensive??' Couple hundred dollars or couple thousand??? I had no concept of what things cost out here. But, she said I could do most of the original plan for $5,000 I was shocked. But, she said things are a lot cheaper out here in Texas compared to the east coast. And, the quarry where most of my rock came from is actually just down the street from me, so the delivery was cheaper. All in all, if anyone is thinking of doing this, the irrigation was $1450 and the yard was almost $6000 - which includes all the stone work and new walk way. I think phase 2 is going to be around $1500. I'm really happy with how it all came out. Michael also chipped in some money as part of my birthday present, which really helped pay for it. I had planned on using the last of my Accenture stock, but then the market tanked, and I ended up just using money out of my savings. That was annoying. One of the reasons I'm doing this now is that if Michael and I do get married, we're going to need a bigger house. So, I know within 3-4 years I'm going to sell this house. By then the yard will be matured and it will really add value to the house. I'll definitley get my money back with the sale price.

Oh,....yes, I did paint my kitchen but I don't have pictures yet. I'll post that later.

I guess that's it for now. Going to Mike & Annette's for dinner and a movie tonight - They're making a new slow-cooker recipe and need guinea pigs. Eh, I'm always up for free food! I'm making dessert. I'm trying a new cheesecake recipe which is currently chilling in the frig. But, as is my way, I never rely on a new recipe when bringing food to a friend's house, so I also made Ghiradelli brownies which are always good. We're going to see Tropic Thunder, which I've been looking forward to.