A Very Libra Wedding

I've been a back-burner blogger lately...thinking I need to do it, then never getting around to it. I've been distracted.

Just when I thought I'd never stop obsessing over furnishing and arranging our new apartment, Tommie gave me something entirely new to obsess over: a wedding. The little stinker caught me by surprise on our 11-year anniversary a few weeks ago.

Oddly enough I'm not driving myself crazy thinking about it all (yet). Tommie and my relationship is comfortable and low-drama and I want our wedding planning to be the same. I want it to come together more organically and creatively.

I say all this with fine print, of course. Given my nature as a planner and my capacity for worrying, I do realize that at any moment this calm demenaour could morph into hysteria but I'm hoping for the best. On the night of our proposal I turned to Tommie and said, "I'm really going to try not to be a bridezilla throughout this whole thing." And he replied, "Well, I'm not making any promises."

And so begins the Libra wedding plans.

Starting to Feel Like Home

Now that the stress of the actual move is over, I can focus on the fun part...making the new place feel like home.

After moving back to Mass., Tommie and I spent a year living below my grandparents in an apartment collectively furnished over the years by my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Sitting below my great-grandmother's large framed multicolored rooster, I couldn't help but miss our furniture...not to mention our freedom.

It's been fun rediscovering the San Diego furniture we had stored, finding new things on Craigslist, and trying to make it come together to form a place that feels like home for us. Here's a peak at a couple rooms we have been working on:

A dining/reading nook in our living room. Lamp and shade are from a thrift store; the bookshelf and table/chairs are Craigslist finds (I recently gave the table an easy makeover by painting the top "espresso"). And the painting is by Tommie's grandfather.

Maya checking out part of our kitchen. I ordered the wooden island online with free shipping and a coupon. The chalkboard (Tommie's menu board) is from a seller on Etsy.com and is made of recycled barn wood.

Yum.

Farm Fresh

Yesterday was the first day for pick up from the local CSA (community supported agriculture) that Tommie and I joined (we're splitting a share with my co-worker and the CSA happens to be on the same property as our office...can't get any easier than that).I can already tell it's possible I will eat more veggies this summer and fall than I have my entire life. It's a good thing. I always say, "I need to get more vegetables," then I go to the grocery store and come out with ice cream sandwiches. (It's not my fault the ice cream is in the same isle as the vegetables). But now I don't have a choice. I go down to the farm and pick up my farm fresh produce from the cute boys who grow and pick it...which almost makes it okay that there isn't a box of ice cream sandwiches tucked in the bottom of the bag.This week there was romaine lettuce, spinach, radishes, turnips, garlic scapes, baby summer squash, and swiss chard. We had a salad last night to try a little of everything. We put spinach in our sandwiches for lunch and cooked spinach with our fresh fish tonight. Popeye would be proud. I really can taste the difference. The spinach is crisp and I don't typically eat radishes but these guys have a subtle fresh flavor to them and aren't bitter. It's going to be a healthy summer.

Our New "Home"

I have been quiet on here lately.

Tommie and I finally moved into our new apartment. The move has been consuming my mind ever since we found out about the place a few months ago, and to be honest, it is still consuming my mind because our place currently looks like this:

But as I unpack, swiffer the hell out of things, and find a home for all my wayward Craigslist furniture, I can tell it is going to be a lovely little place to live. It took us just over a year, but we're finally back on our own. We have a small yard, an ocean breeze, and delicious take-out thai food three minutes away.

I will post photos of the clean apartment soon!

The Results Are In

As you may recall, a couple weeks ago we met a man and woman who had a dog that looked eerily similar to Maya. The couple told us they had just sent away a DNA kit to find out what kind of dog theirs might be, and that they would e-mail us the results. Well, the results are in...

There were only three identifiable breeds associated with their dog, and the breeds are ranked according to how strongly they show up in the dogs DNA. Showing up with the highest percentage (12.5%...which is still considered a "weak match") was Boxer. The other two were LESS than 12.5% and they are Italian Grey Hound, and...ready for this...Poodle! People have called Maya a lot of things before, things I've never heard of and may even be considered insults to dogs across America, but NEVER a poodle.

(Maya with a couple of Italian Greyhounds)

The report went on to say that there was a high likelihood (greater than 90%) that the last four generations of this other dog's lineage were mixed from at least three breeds themselves, which is why there are not more significantly discernible breeds in its genetic make up. What I love is that none of the discernible breeds account for the most obvious physical traits (like out-turned front paws, short legs, extra long bodies, or light hazel eyes).

We still want to get Maya's make-up tested one day to see if they can uncover anymore of the mystery. But knowing the way this has gone, she would be something we'd never guess, like 50% husky. All we know now is that Maya sure is special; her smarts could come from her great-great-grandpoodle; and she probably comes from a long line of hoochies. No surprise there.

Twin Lobsters and Twin Dogs

When I asked Tommie what he wanted to do today, he said, "I was thinking lobster." I may say no to a lot of things but I never say no to lobster. We headed down to Roy Moore's in Rockport so we could take Maya and sit outside on the crates overlooking the harbor. Maya looks like a seal about to get fish dropped down her gullet.It's a good thing we had Miss Maya with us because we ran into her twin along the way. We don't come across a lot of dogs that look like Maya (especially around here), and this was the first dog the other couple had seen that looked remotely like theirs. She was the same size, age, had the same out-turned paws, perky soft ears, slightly long snout, even the same light green eyes, and a matching doggie dimple. Like Maya, they said theirs is smart, and therefore very stubborn.Maya's twin doesn't have the same long tail, but the owner's mentioned she had lost some of her tail when they found her in rough shape on the side of the road in Mexico (so sad!). Both she and Maya have had quite the journey from the U.S. southern border to northern Massachusetts. The owners told us they just sent away blood work to see what kind of dog they have so we exchanged e-mails and hope they will let us know what they find. Maybe there is some new kind of funny looking Mexican dog breed emerging.