T-minus Kelly!

My good friend Kelly is coming for a visit. She's never been to Seattle before and even took a few days off of work to leave Detroit for a mini vacation. I'm so happy she's coming and I hope I don't annoy the shit out of her by the time she leaves.

In preparation of her arrival, I've been trying to really finish the house. Sure, all the stuff is hanging (except a pot rack) and things are in place, but it's the little things that only I care about - shit like installing a light fixture above our bed so we can stop staring at wires. You see, our landlord didn't quite finish everything in the house. We were blinded by the awesome clawfoot tub and the fancy kitchen that we didn't realize the knobs on all the cabinets don't quite fit and that every single outlet is in the middle of the wall, instead of on the bottom where they should be. The landlord's husband is even a contractor/electrician/handyman. None of the windows are done and there aren't even doors on the closets. I don't quite get how a contractor or home owner would allow this, especially when they used to live there for EIGHT YEARS.

But honestly, it's a great house. These are just tiny things that we'll keep in mind if/when we actually buy a place one day. We will make sure that the front door has a peep hole, that the house is leveled and that the light switches actually work for switching things on and off.

So yesterday, we installed the light in our bedroom so that guests, like Kelly, could have the lamp we were currently using in our room. The problem was the wires to install the light were waaaay up above the bed, and well, we are both of medium height. We could reach the wires, but not completely. It was a battle of, "ok, i'll hold this while you reach that and ooh, my arm is going numb and hey, can you see if i'm screwing that in right? oh right, you can't see anything because my arm is in your face." I actually kinda enjoyed this little back and forth. We didn't fight at all. We worked as a team. Sure, we both huffed and puffed, and at one point I tried to add more height with our breakfast tray that almost broke when I stepped on it. But in the end, we made light happen! We're officially Team Electrician. And we work for hire!

V.I.C.T.O.R.Y!!

The past few weeks I've been setting our yard up for a victory garden (do they still call it that)! I enlisted a friend who also wanted a garden but didn't have a backyard, so we can split the costs and tending to. Considering I don't know the first thing about tillers or dirt, having a garden buddy is perfect!

And after 2 weeks of weeding, picking out starters (it's too late to seed) and buying compost and things to get rid of pesky birds we finally have a garden growing things!! It's all very domesticated and grown up. It's all also great learning for my long term goal of living on a farm (fastly approaching by the way - a 18 months and counting).

We planted cherry tomatoes, strawberries, thai basil (i have regular basil growing inside thanks to my mom's gift), rainbow chard, broccoli and cucumbers! The strawberries are already sprouting and we immediately had one a piece. THEY WERE SO AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. I can not wait to start picking at the garden when I need something for a salad or stir fry.

Plus, it just feels good to get dirty. After 90 minutes of hot yoga, I was so sticky that I thought I should take a shower before planting but instead I headed straight for the garden, like it was whispering sweet nothings in my ear, "tend to me barrie. you know you want to." I kept getting sweatier and grosser when I dug my hands in compost made of chicken manure. Thankfully, Dominic wasn't here to smell me. It was bad. But good. I really like digging and mixing dirt together. It was sunny and cool outside. I was with a friend. She freaked out from a few spiders, to which i just brushed them away. We kept digging and talking and she pictures. Then we stood back and marveled at what we've done.

I haven't done that in awhile. And it felt awesome!