Back to School Shopping Weekend

Today is my last free day before fall term starts. :( With this in mind, I decided that this weekend needed to be back to school shopping weekend. In my case, this includes shopping for home-related stuff, because well, that's what I call fun. :)

I decided to take a trip down to Annapolis today, so that I could hit lucy and Crate and Barrel in the same trip (oh, and this amazing Italian deli that we randomly found about a year ago...they have amazing bread....). So after a visit to the deli to bond with a meatball sandwich, I went on my merry way around this outdoor "mall" (one of those mixed residential/commercial areas they keep building). Before I even made it to lucy, I fell in love, twice.

I remembered received an Arhaus catalog a few months ago, and I thought their stuff was pretty. Visiting the store in person took things to a whole new level. I honestly had to stop myself from drooling. The store even SMELLED welcoming. I realized that I either need to find that long lost rich uncle who can help me furnish my house, or I will need to make running around and finding cheaper copies a second job (err, third I guess, seeing as how school is my second "job"). I have found my style, and it is out of my budget. There wasn't much in the store that I wouldn't have purchased if the price was right.

My second discovery of the day was right next door. Great Gatherings apparently has two brick and mortar locations and sells merchandise online. (I just reread that sentence and wow, I've obviously been in b-school for way too long. If nothing else, I can now talk about retail quasi-intelligently.) At any rate, they evidently sell outdoor furniture in the summer and bar/game room furniture in the winter. This is where one would go to furnish the ultimate man cave, but the result would be a man cave that women could also enjoy. Their bar furniture is amazing, but again, I may need to spend a fair amount of effort finding copies. As an aside, I was feeling a bit of sensory overload, as evidenced by the fact that one of the salespeople actually stopped me and asked if this was my first visit.


Just to be sure that my two discoveries were as exciting as I first thought, I drove about a half mile to the nearest Crate and Barrel. I just don't know. I've always wanted to like their stuff, let's just say that. I like their kitchen and some of the decorative-type stuff, but in order to pay full price for their furniture, I feel like I should love it. I don't, so my two-year-old gift card (no, seriously!) is going to stay in my pocket a little while longer...

Lingering scents

When we first visited our house, it was February and therefore cold outside. There was this wood fire smell in the house, which I found a little odd, seeing as how the fireplace is gas. Whatever the origin, this made the house feel welcoming, and at some point after we had moved in, I made the association between the fireplace smell and the man who previously owned our house (no names here, just in case someone actually reads this!).

Throughout the spring, I would occasionally smell this while walking through the house, and it made me smile, knowing that he had left a little piece of himself with the house. It had been a while since I had noticed the fireplace smell, which I had attributed to the fact that there hasn't been a need for a fire here in Maryland for several months. This evening; however, the smell was back and I was reminded of our first tour of the house and of meeting the previous owners for the first time.

Ironically, there is also this potpourri-ish scent that I sometimes detect in our bedroom. We have a second vanity next to our closet, (sounds odd, but it works - this is actually one of my favorite features of the house - there is no fighting over the bathroom sink when we're trying to get ready at the same time in the morning) and on occasion I get a quick waft of this scent near there. I have no idea what causes this, but again this makes me smile. It's as if the former female owner is with us too.

I think this would be disturbing if they led unhappy lives in the house. Fortunately, they seemed to enjoy the house and each other's company, so I welcome these small "visits". I hope we can add our own memories to those that seem to linger from the previous owners.

Murphy's war

The cat usually wakes us up in the morning, but he was being more annoying than normal today. :) My husband discovered that Murphy's bowl was under attack again by those little "sugar ants". We've had such problems with them this summer, and they seem to like meow mix as much as the cat does. Ant spray, traps, caulking, vinegar water! Nothing seems to keep them at bay for more than a week. Does anyone have a solution?

And speaking of Murphy's war....we've been toying with the idea (for a while now) of adopting a second furry critter. While I would like a second friend, I don't want to traumatize Murphy. Cat? Dog? Cat-like-dog? I like the idea of a dog now, but I know that it won't be as much fun in the winter. How does one go about finding a pet that will get along with the first one? How do you introduce them to each other without major drama? (Haha. Major Drama. I am saluting like they do in "How I Met Your Mother", whenever a miltary rank is said.)

Silly grad school

I realized I haven't written in almost a month, which makes me sad. I also realized that the amount of writing I manage to devote to writing is an indirect relationship to how close it comes to the end of a term. Closer to the end of term = no writing. Boo.

However, it is now "summer vacation"! I used quotation marks because a three week break from classes doesn't really constitute a vacation, in my opinion.

The good news is, that I'm getting closer to completely covering over the slaughtered salmon in our guest bathroom. Major progress over the weekend! We're close, but not quite done. I'm honestly not sure how people get projects done in a weekend. I'll be lucky if we can finish the bathroom projects by the end of the summer...or the end of the year....