Correction -- Just goes to show i know so little about plants and trees. That one there is not a pear tree... our neighbour has one... i think... and maybe, if i got the conversation right (never can tell with me!), that tree we have is a crabapple tree. I still think, whatever it is, the blossoms are nice, but the tree needs to be chopped down...

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Our poor lil leaning pear tree. Beautiful blossoms it gets. No wonder someone did all that work trying to save it....







We got flower boxes for the front porch.. and planted pansys. Yay!

oh, how i wish i could sleep normally. i wish...

that i didn't have to be so tired i can barely make it up the stairs just to fall asleep. that i could just be tired, or assign myself a bed time and just get in bed and fall asleep. that my tired, aching legs that like to run marathons in my sleep didn't wake me up. that waking up in the early hours of the morning just to pee and run back to bed wouldn't wake me. that if any of that happened, i could still nap mid-day so i am not dragging my ass around feeling like i have a hangover without the fun the night before.

I haven't posted much about our house in quite some time. I reckon that means we have been lazy... But, in our defense, sometimes, you have to live somewhere for a while to figure out what you really want.

We've owned this mini-mansion for less than a year now, and earlier this week we finally had some drywall dust floating about. Our house used to have an in-law suite, or apartment, on the back upper side. Since neither (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i want to be the evil landlord, we thought we would prefer to have the apartment connected back to the rest of the house (other than having to march up the back staircase).


Here's the house side of the hallway before we did anything... including one with some junk there (ok, not junk, that room to room air conditioner is hardly junk..).





And here is the apartment side of the house. Looks like things were done and decorated around the late 60's, doesn't it?



And here we are with the apartment side partly done.. ugly tile board off, some of the drywall gone... The peeps that did it used insulation as what we assume was for soundproofing.



Here is the apartment side done... Studs and electrical box still there.



Here is the handyman himself, the one and only (e:Uncutsaniflush) !



This is a closeup of the baseboards. We are ever so grateful to the peeps that did this wall didn't damage the baseboards and took the extra time and effort to do the studs this way!



Drywall and electrical box gone, but studs still there...



Studs gone now... but lots of drywall dust in the air...



And cleaned up afters. One from the main part of the house looking into the apartment. Another from the apartment looking into the main part of the house. Eventually, we want to make it look less jarring, and perhaps move the stove somewhere else (damn, i adore the look of that range!). For now, i am happy to not have to go down the main stairs and all the way to the back of the house to pee in the night; now, i can just take the 30 or so steps from our bed to the apartment bathroom. Woo hoo.





Still wanna be our tenant, (e:Twisted) ?

Happy Big Three-Oh, (e:imk2) !!!

Today, (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and go for a short day trip. I was in a picture snapping mood...

The dash screen of our lovely Toyota Prius, a mere 15 minutes into our journey. Love love love what the temperature reading was telling us.. and the MPG -- 52.2! Woo hoo!



The New York State Thruway... gotta love them tolls.



This guy is telling us we are going the right way...



Right on in to PA...



We stopped for lunch.. but i am so sorry, (e:Paul), i forgot to take pics of our eats.

On our way to the Erie Zoo, we see this structure. It looks like an air traffic controllers tower. Once closer, we saw a sign that it is a plastics factory of some sort, but i can't imagine the length of plastic they make in which they would need a tower like that!



Ah, cute kitties will solve all the world's problems.. unless you are on a lower level of the food chain...



These birds, blue and gold macaws, to be more precise, were inside a building that had exhibits in it, but when we went inside, there was a door saying "Employees Only"... i hope they get paid more than just bird seed!



Fishies!



And there were also plants in the small greenhouse...







And Polar Bears playing... awwee...



And gay giraffe. Both of these giraffe are males. Tried my best to get pictures of them having fun, but oral sex was about the closest i could get.



Also tried to get some examples of just how large an errect giraffe penis is (did anyone know they acutally unfold. not just slide out?!?), but this guy was camera shy, i think...



On to more wholesome things... in the kids part, swimming penguins. Usually, when we are there, they are fussing about on land. Finally, we saw them swim!



Orangoutangs. Adorable baby...



Beautiful mommy...



A drive around Presque Isle was so nice in weather like this. I forgot to take a snap of the entrance, so this will just have to do...



Nice sandy beach on the windward side of this Lake Erie barrier island...



And out of Erie, PA. We saw a lot of these frogs about town today. I guess they are like the buffalo seen about town here, the bears about town in Knoxville and the hideous giant moose that Toronto had a few years back...



And finally, back home...