kitchen dilemma

ok, i'm going to need your help on this one...

for a while now i have been wanting to buy an old stove. not for decoration. to use. as my stove. in my house. when we bought our house, we were ok with the stove in the kitchen for now...

...but we knew that we would eventually want to replace it. initially we were thinking of buying all new, stainless steel, blah blah blah, and we did buy a new stainless fridge that i love. but the more i think about my design style and how i want to live (simply, trying not to acquire so many possessions, and trying to buy used/vintage/salvaged as much as possible) i started to think that an old stove is what i should do instead of buying new. there are always lots of old stoves on craigslist, like this one...

...but being the worrier that i am i think about how i will know if it's useable or not, how will it fit it into my TINY kitchen, etc.

here's some examples of the same stove in other kitchens and i think it LOOKS great (both pictures are from sneak peeks on design sponge).

now, look at that very first picture of my kitchen and try to imagine how we might make it work. i think we would have to take out one section of the lower cabinets to the right or left of the stove to fit the slightly larger older stove and then build a narrow section of cabinets to fill in the remaining space. we are most likely going to replace the counter tops someday anyway, because we HATE them, but we were planning on doing these types of projects gradually instead of all at once to spread out the cost over time. so, if we decide to buy the stove from above from craigslist this kind of bumps up all of these projects to the more immediate future. this ultimately brings up bigger home project dilemmas for me. those of you who do DIY or reno projects understand: how far should we go with this reno? how much money should we invest in changing what we have? should i take some risks to go with what i love or just stick with what i have? are we going to stay in this house for a long enough time to make it worth it?

so my questions to you are: what would you do? what do you think of using an old stove instead of using modern appliances? do you have creative solutions for fitting it into my tiny space? should i go for it or play it safe?

spring

this is a lovely little screenprinted book my sis sent to me for my birthday. i decided to share some of the clever illustrations with you, especially those that reflect my mood lately...

i have been thoroughly enjoying getting outside with my camera, taking walks downtown for brunch, and basking in the sun this spring, but...

...it does come with a price.

approaching the end of another school year and i am deeply needing a...

alas there is no rest until june 2. 29 days of school left, and counting...

here are a few shots from around my yard and on the walk between my house and downtown:

i have a few single tulips that spring up every year. i really ought to plant some more bulbs to fill it in a bit. a single tulip seems a little depressing.

i found this winding vine-thing (honeysuckle maybe?) to be really curious. i like it.

blooming yard = happy black thumb!

despite my shameful neglect of my yard and my ominous past as a black-thumb plant-killer, the magnolia tree in our front yard has the most beautiful blooms. they only last a short while, so i ran outside with camera to capture the moment before the wind swept all of the petals away!

this is one of my favorite shots, but it was not a very pretty flower! the blooms almost begin to look burnt at the edges when they start to fall off, makes for very curious-looking photos!

loving my new camera and it's ability to zoom in very close! this is inside the magnolia bloom, you can actually see the pollen!

i did take some other fun pictures from around the yard, but they're still on the camera so that will have to be for another day...

i have not disappeared...

...i'm just busy, nearing the end of a long school year, and out of clever thoughts to share with the blogging world. maybe i should share un-clever thoughts. maybe i don't even have un-clever thoughts to share! so here's a brief summary for now:

*i have to take my comprehensive exams for my masters program tomorrow. it is four hours of writing. bleh. i will be finished with my masters in may barring a terrible disaster resulting in failure on an epic level! i'm excited and proud to finally be finished. but mostly excited about being able to just work without also being in school.

*the students are squirrel-ly, it's spring, we're all just holding on by the thinnest of threads of sanity. i'm running extremely low on grace, patience, logic and other positive qualities that are helpful for teaching.

*i have some new vintage finds (old-new, new-old, whatever) that i will eventually post...i've been storing up. there is a theme among the finds...i like items that function as containers, i like to contain...that's my teaser.

*i have tried running again for the first time since the maybe-stress-fracture...nothing spectacular, which is to be expected. the hip seems ok, but the knees are rebelling against this newfound activity called jogging!

*i have gorged myself on basketball but i'm not quite done! one more weekend of blessed basketball. go VCU! or Butler! i know they can't both win, but i'd really rather root for the underdogs than see stupid uconn or kentucky take the ultimate prize!

*to get me through the drought between the end of march madness and the beginning of football season i have indulged in purchasing some Sporting KC tickets (formerly KC Wizards...MLS soccer). fun times.

*couldn't decide what to give up for lent. so here's a list of things that have fallen to the wayside that i could choose from to give up: working out, reading for pleasure (not for my classes), sleep, blogging. i'm just kidding. is that sacrilegious? no, i'm just being dramatic because this is the time of year when everything else in life comes to a standstill to make way for "just getting through" to the end of school.

so that's all for now...the least i could do.

i'm not ok with bill self and other sports thoughts

been a while since i've done a sports post, so i'm due for one i suppose. let's start with the good: here's some of my highlights from this year's NFL postseason. i realize it's a little late, but i've been really swamped with work, school, masters (had to do a video taped lesson... heinous! as soon as the camera's on, a few of my students decided to go insane! good news, i think i'm thinner on camera than i was at this time last year! may be an illusion, was wearing a black shirt. hmmm.). anyway, so every time i had a thought, or a rant, or a favorite sports moment in the past month instead of posting i've just had to set it aside and focus on other things. time to free my thoughts. release the kraken!

i realized that most of my favorite postseason moments this year have been from the NFC teams... odd. well, what else would it have been? matt cassel throwing an interception in the chiefs playoff game? i don't think so. but it's not time for "i'm not ok with that" yet so let's get on with the good stuff.

highlight #1: marshawn lynch's amazing td run for the seahawks! i watched this happening live and i was like "oh wow. oh my gosh, he's still going! Oh NO HE DIDN'T! HE JUST PUSHED THAT GUY RIGHT DOWN! OH MY GOSH!!!! WOW!!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" or something like that. the crappy thing about being the sports genius that i am is that i knew immediately this was an amazing moment in sports, but i didn't blog about it immediately, and then within 2 hours it was ALL OVER THE PLACE, and here i am a month later writing about that one awesome thing that happened that one time. great. still worth another look-see if you ask me.

highlight #2: this is just one measly example of why i chose to root for the packers during the superbowl... because aaron rodgers is the kind of quarterback that i love to watch... gritty, hard-nosed, takes a tackle head on, and doesn't play "scared" when he has already had 2 concussions this season. i don't know if that's just stupid or if it's the smartest thing ever! when you play scared, you get hurt. so what does rodgers do? dives for a rushing td headfirst against the bears in the NFC championship, that's what! note the mini-weight belt celebration at the end. also, i always enjoy a rushing td where the carrier stretches out over the pylon... it's such smart play to use every inch of the field, the entire width, to stretch the defense. check out how deep he runs for this play to develop before he turns for the end zone. i just think it's brilliant.

highlight #3: big fella does a little dance. becomes an instant classic. if this isn't one of my favorite things of all times i don't know what is. no need for explanation, it is what it is...pure awesomeness.

i will not show any highlights from the super bowl. i was glad that the packers won, i've been a packers fan since reggie white, which i realize is still pretty recent history, but i was a kid when his career started so it's where my memory of loving the packers begins. you know, for the same reasons that i like how rodgers plays i find it REALLY hard not to like how ben roethlisberger plays too, but he's just not a very likable person. from a pure sports perspective, though, i would still probably prefer rodgers over big ben because he takes his risks on the field and not in life.

ok, now on to what i'm not ok with this week and that is bill self. i've always held that, while i will never be able to bring myself to root for ku and the fans drive me insane (except holly, she's just great and completely rational in her fandom and she's about the only person that i'm allowed to watch sports with because she won't judge me when i have to say some words), i've always had great respect for bill self as a coach and a person. well, he has been on a slight downward trend in my heart for the past month with how he has chosen to handle, or not handle, the mario little situation and the hot-headed morris twins. first of all, 4 weeks or so ago mario little was arrested for assaulting 4 people. within a few weeks he was back on the court. not only was he back on the court but his playing time mysteriously seemed to increase! not only this, but last week he was on the court scoring 17 points and being named player of the game against rival MU. well, i am simply dumbfounded. a month ago, when self was questioned about the incident of assault, he was defensive and even slightly disrespectful to the female member of the training staff that was assaulted by mario little, saying she wasn't "part of the team, oh but she was 3 weeks ago, oh but she's busy with classes now so she's not working with the team at this time (semantics, bill!), oh but there's no proof she was his girlfriend, but, but, but..." i was irritated at the time, but i thought i would just ignore this irritation because people are misunderstood in the press all the time and maybe bill was just still a little stunned by the news that one of his veteran players just assaulted 4 people. so i cut bill a break. but to see little's minutes go up and to see him getting the recognition and the applause from the fans, and the hoopla... ick. just ick.

so, in that same game, the mizzou game, markieff morris had a flagrant foul for a -not-really-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove directed at the face of an MU player. the broadcasters thought he maybe should have been ejected, i don't know, could go either way. i thought at the very least that he should not have gone back in the game, yet he did. what's more, self didn't even seem to have a problem with morris' dirty play. he didn't yell, didn't glare, didn't seem even all that frustrated that one of his star players almost got ejected and got an unnecessary foul called against him. no, self did not even say a word to markieff about it. not only was it just plain bad sportsmanship on markieff's part, but it's also extremely selfish and completely without regard for his own team! as one of the best players, in a rivalry game that was still a game at the time, you can't afford to risk being ejected! you can't afford to risk sitting the rest of the game. you need to be available for your team and you're not available when you hit a player in the face and get ejected or sit the bench...but wait. he didn't get ejected. and he didn't sit the bench. so i guess it really wasn't selfish play after all, because he must have known that bill wouldn't have the stones to sit him in a big game. yeah i said it. so then i thought, maybe bill just didn't see the not-quite-a-punch-kind-of-a-shove hit. maybe he didn't know how bad it was. maybe he'll watch the tape later and he'll address this in a press conference later this week. maybe he'll suspend morris for a game. i mean they're facing ISU in their next game, they can afford to teach markieff a lesson in that game. surely he'll take this seriously. there have been too many problems with the morris twins crossing the line from aggression to just flat out losing their tempers for self not to treat this with seriousness. i mean, surely he values his integrity as a coach more than he values beating ISU by 50 points. right? RIGHT? well, if you can't tell, i was typing with a very sarcastic tone there. because bill's only response this week was to say that people shouldn't be worried about it, that it looks worse than it really is (REALLY bill?? can you say that it "looks" worse when it has happened more than once in a season? when it has become a bit of a pattern? can you really say that?), and that it's being "addressed." then he went on to sing the praises of the morris twins and how much they've matured. eh???

look, i'm fine with the fact that self may not want to put everything out there in the public eye. i guess. and really, i don't have a MAJOR problem with any one specific event, it's more a problem with the cumulative non-addressing of things, the collective ignoring of things, if you will. because i'm watching my team, my coach, frank martin, get blasted for being tough, for being a disciplinarian, and for having players leave his program because they are too poo-poo-pants to cope with having to share the spotlight and not getting enough playing time. so yeah, i have problem with people NOT having a problem with bill self for doing nothing and i have a problem with people HAVING a problem with frank martin doing SOMEthing. i'm not going to make any snap judgments about self because i've respected him for longer than i've not respected him. but, the recent events are a bit of a crimson flag to me.

p.s. and by the way, freddy asprilla, what the crumb do you expect to happen to your precious playing time when you played like crap every time you were in the game??? really.

p.p.s. you will recall that last year when the doo-doo-diaper ku football and basketball players got into a fight on campus over some gross girl, it was hefty mangino that did nothing of consequence to discipline his team while self came home from the recruiting trail to hold team meetings and discipline his players for their stupidity. so here we are a year later and...

p.p.p.s. i would like to congratulate myself for using words like "poo" and "doo" and "crumb" instead of the more passionate language that i would typically use when i'm not self-editing.

short term memory...a snow day post!

i'm in the midst of enjoying yet another snow day...got to sleep in until 8:15!! that's 2.5 extra hours of sleep people! so far this "blizzard" has more bark than bite, but it is still early i suppose (update: in the time it has taken me to write this post, the little wisps of snow have truly become a blizzard indeed!). i will say that weather.com has pretty much got it wrong all along, i recommend accuweather.com instead. according to weather.com, the snow was supposed to start yesterday morning...oops.

anyway, enough about that. i realized that two

posts ago i promised to do a post showing off some new old found things. that promised post then promptly slipped my mind. i have a short term memory problem. i really do. i need to start doing puzzles or something.

ok, on to the new old found things:

*mom and i dug around in her basement a little over christmas and pulled out a bunch of her grandmother's china. since she doesn't use it (mom notoriously has about 40 different sets of dishes!), i brought it home with me... the pieces i'm not using are carefully stored away in china storage bags. there's a whole set of the floral china like the teacup, plus this great fireking bowl (the pink bowl), and a couple of mismatched dessert plates. i've always wanted a little collection of mismatched teacups, but even better than buying a bunch of mismatched cups is getting my great-grandma's teacups for FREE!

*so, ever since we moved, i have been trying to remember where in the BLAST i put our silver set that was a gift to kirk from his mother... i know, i know, i'm the most HORRIBLE person to not remember where i stashed the gifted silver!

short term memory, what can i say. i could remember where i stored it when we were living in the old house, but for the life of me could not find where i'd put it in the new house (i've torn the house apart searching and it's not a large house!). so, i went back to check the old house several times and still could not find it!!! my worst nightmare was that i had accidentally put it in a pile destined for goodwill! kirk insisted that even i am not THAT evil, which only made me feel worse for not being able to find it! this has literally kept me up at night, wracking my brain, think, THINK! where is it?!?!?! so, finally mom and i decided to look one more time in the drawer under the stairs at the old house. little did i know that there was about a foot and a half extra drawer all the way at the back under piles of mom's serving platters and place mats which was secretly hiding my precious lost silver! so, i've brought it home, washed it, and put it out for display and use! i decided that i did not want to keep it hidden away in the box now that the

prodigal silver has returned.

recent etsy finds:

*i love colorful vintage enamelware and have been looking for just the right piece. i like reds and turquoises in my kitchen and i wanted to get a piece that i will actually use because i just DO NOT have room in my tiny kitchen for things i won't use. i'm not really a collect-and-display type of person. things need to have a purpose. well, i do not have a stock pot so i found this dansk enamelware pot for a great price on etsy and the enamel on the inside of the pot was in great shape so i bought it! and i've already used it to make lentil soup!

*found this great little creamer to add to my white collection... it's not really a collection, i just have white dishes. the stripe-y pitcher is a gift from my friend, hannah, from france... apparently they use pitchers such as this to serve wine!

free finds:

*i snatched this old, outdated, extremely dirty globe from the school library (with the librarian's permission, of course!) for FREE! it was

caked with dust and has some damage on the

metal because of the layers of dust...but i cleaned it up and i love it! you all know how i feel about globes.

so, what have we learned today?

*check accuweather.com for accurate weather forecasts (hence, the name).

*always, ALWAYS look in the very back of the

drawer under the stairs...you never know what treasures you may find.

*free stuff is always better than not-free stuff.

*when starting a collection, check with your mom who has thousands of dish sets first to see if there are heirloom pieces that she's not using.

*only buy vintage pieces that you a) love and b) envision using. unless you like vintage globes. it's ok to buy vintage globes, or get them for free, even if they do not serve a very practical purpose. because they look awesome. and they are cheaper than traveling to exciting places. although traveling to exciting places really is an adventure that cannot be replaced by globes. that's all.

p.s. i am having a great deal of difficulty posting pictures today so apologies for the confusing pictures in the wrong places and wonky typing!

worth the view

i've seen some excellent movies/shows lately, thought you should know. mendy's must-sees, so to speak. as always, please heed my disclaimer: i am not easily ill-influenced by movies, so i'm open to almost anything. i may enjoy movies that others would take offense to, but my favorite movies always provoke, inspire, teach, and inform me. so, don't be shocked if you watch a movie, or read a book i've recommended, please just keep your mind open, is all i ask. ok, disclaimer aside...these are some pretty darn good choices:

*PBS Masterpiece Theater's series "Downton Abbey" examines difficult class and social issues between lords and the serving class. fascinates me.

*also on PBS Masterpiece Theater: a great twist on one of my personal favorites, "Sherlock" features Sir Arthur Canon Doyle's famous characters set in the 21st century. and it's hilarious. you will have to find the first season on netflix as pbs only shows repeats for a limited time.

*True Grit: had the pleasure of seeing the new version with my mom-in-law, Judy. very aptly named movie. highly entertaining.

*The Fighter: i know i've mentioned this already, but it is just that good. mind the profanity. it's boston, what do you expect? i, of course, was not bothered by the cussing. shocker. amy adams was feisty and awesome. christian bale...very deserving of the award nods he's received.

*The King's Speech: true story about england's prince albert and his speech impediment. so clever. colin firth, as ever, was incredible and witty. laughed out loud deliriously. my favorite scene is when albert discovers that he does not stammer when he's angry and swearing...had me snorting i was laughing so hard. don't judge for thinking swearing is funny...it is british cussing, which is somehow less offensive and more than a little charming. one of the many injustices of life, to be born without an interesting and charming accent.

useful things

last week, i posted about how to clean your house in approximately 20 minutes a day by following this list of tasks to do each day over the course of 30 days (please only do 1 of these tasks a day...the list is meant to take you 30 days to work through!...there was some confusion about how a person could possibly work through all of those tasks in only 20 minutes a day! no, that would definitely NOT be possible!). this cleaning plan has been very useful and helpful to kirk and i and has even inspired us to tackle some organizational projects that have long been neglected! this got me to thinking about other useful things. so here's a few useful things that i've been enjoying lately:

*my brother the chef got a fancy-pants set of knives for

christmas which prompted the question: "what utensils can you not live without?" i realized that i'm fairly simplistic, i need a GOOD chef's knife, but it's pretty much the only knife i'll use; wooden spoon, a classic; kitchen shears for trimming fat and tendons off of poultry, cutting that too-large-for-the-toaster slice of bread, and opening those ridiculous bags of shredded cheese that say "tear here" but always manage to screw up the resealing zipper (you know what i'm talking about, i'm sure of it); a good spatula; and measuring cups (i RARELY bake, for which purpose i'm sure measuring cups are essential, however i use them for measuring and estimating food portions...see useful thing #2). obviously, these are not the only utensils that i use in the kitchen, but definitely the most frequent flyers. so, what are your essential utensils that you can't live without?

*online food journal: i've kept a "journal" of the food i eat since november and it's made me a MUCH more conscious eater. i've not really changed what i eat, still allowed myself to have all of my favorites (popcorn at the movies, coke, cheese, CARBS), but i feel much more knowledgeable about how much i'm eating, portion control, planning ahead, and creating balance. so (fingers crossed!), we'll see how it goes!

*my bike: since the stress fracture (or the almost-stress-fracture), i've not been able to run or play soccer or anything high impact. therefore my bike has been my best friend! also useful is the trainer that it sits on that allows me to ride inside, like a stationary bike, instead of having to hit the frozen roads in january!

*food processor: this was a gift from my mom and i haven't even used it yet but i have loads of plans for it! can't wait to make pesto and use it to try so many new recipes! right now, i just have ideas in my head, so if you have favorite pesto recipes or any other recipes involving the wonders of a food processor, do tell!

that's the short list of my useful things. later this week: more pictures of found objects from my parents' basement, the back of the drawers under the stairs, and etsy. also, a post highlighting the buchheister family "christmas" in january.

new year's resolutions (a week late...i know, i know) and decorating dilemmas

as you know from my post last week, i am torn in my opinion of the importance (or irrelevance) of making resolutions. however, kirk and i did have a good chat last week about how to be more productive with our time AND simultaneously creating time to rest. we talked about what it looks like for us to rest/be productive on a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal basis. anyway, we came up with a few ideas, such as kirk taking a few vacation days a year to go for a good long bike ride (that's rest to him...crazy), or spending 10 minutes a day cleaning/tidying so that the house doesn't become overwhelmingly cluttered. so, then i found a handy little list on apartment therapy for cleaning house 20 minutes/day in 30 days. i like this plan because it doesn't seem too daunting; it breaks up the chores so that it keeps cleaning from becoming a huge, all-day project. here's my altered version:

Tips for cleaning the house in 20 minutes/day:

1. Deal with what comes through the door (mail, keys, coats, shoes, etc)...still working on that one. don't really have a great system.

2. Deal with dishes, recycling, composting everyday after dinner so it doesn't start to pile up.

3. Set the timer for 20 minutes!

Daily Tasks over a 30-day period:

1. Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust)

2. Clean bathroom (toilet, shower, sink/counter, mirror)

3. Surface clean bedroom (put away clothes, dust)

4. Surface clean extra rooms (office, basement, laundry room, dining room, etc)

5. Surface clean living room and kitchen

6. Clean bathroom

7. Clean all interior windows

8. Sweep and vacuum all floors

9. Surface clean bedrooms

10. Deep clean living room (dust baseboards, artwork, windows)

11. Clean bathroom

12. Clean out closets (hang up clothes, etc)

13. Surface clean extra rooms

14. Deep clean bedrooms (organize, tidy closet, dust)

15. Surface clean living room and kitchen

16. Deep clean bathroom (clean out drawers, mop)

17. Clean all doorknobs, remotes, switch plates, banisters, etc (this one is weird to me, i'm not really one of those germ-people...maybe i'll just take this day off!)

18. Clean out the fridge (take out food, wipe down, organize, make grocery list to restock)

19. Clean entryway, sweep porch, clean out car

20. Surface clean living room and kitchen

21. Surface clean bathroom

22. Surface clean bedroom

23. Sweep and vacuum all floors

24. Clean/tidy linen closet (organize towels/sheets)

25. Surface clean living room and kitchen

26. Deepclean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash out trash can, dust baseboards, wipe and reorganize cabinets

27. Surface cleanbathroom

28. Surface clean bedroom

29. Clean one area that you've been meaning to get to but have neglected (yardwork, hello!)

30. Sweep and vacuum all floors

so far, the daily task has taken longer than 20 minutes/day (about 45-60ish) but i'm thinking that if i keep up with the list, it will get more and more efficient each time. if i am sweeping all the floors 3 times a month, for example, instead of once every 2 months (embarrassing!) then, it will not be such a big job each time.

in keeping with this theme of getting my life organized, i reorganized my "office closet" on saturday (i'm a party animal). this, mind you, was not on the cleaning list for saturday, but i will share with you what lead to this:

our c-mas tree was sitting on a dresser i found on craigslist (for $35 or $40, i think!) that i bought with the intention of painting a bright color to act as a tv stand in our living room. here's the dresser in it's "before" state:

problem is, now the look of it is kind of growing on me, so i'm debating whether or not to actually paint it. i wanted to paint it a glossy lemony-mustardy-yellow like this, because you may notice a theme in our living room: A LOT OF BROWN (big brown bookcase, big brown piano, brown hardwood floors, brown couch, brown, brown, brown). i need something different, something exciting. so, dilemma #1 is to paint or not to paint. what do you guys think??

ok, but let me get back to how this led to my organized closet. so, we switched out the new found dresser after taking down c-mas decor for the old dresser-acting-as-tv-stand, which lead to kirk having to finally clean out his junk drawers from the old dresser. hideous. i tried to set up a little drawer for keys, phone books, etc and kirk soon absconded the drawer for papers, batteries, loose change, cords, cables, and all sorts of things that i have no idea what to do with. so we spent HOURS zip-tying all of the cables, sorting everything into categories, and i got to make labels for all the plastic bins accordingly. i love labels.

so now, dilemma #2: as you see from my living room pics above we have a lot of woodwork in the house (door frames, window frames, baseboards, etc) and we are debating whether or not to paint them white. our main objection: a lot of work. we're kind of lazy, ultimately. but really, we both prefer white painted woodwork unless the woodwork is HIGH quality, which ours is NOT (which you could see from closer up...most of the varnish is sticky, wood is cheap, and in a few rooms the window sills have so much sun damage that we really need to refinish them anyway, but to take on the whole house...whew!). almost every home in design blogs or magazines that i love has white painted woodwork. we really have to decide before we start our bathroom project because we are going to gut the bathroom and whatever we put in there for baseboards and windows i will want to match the rest of the house, so...what do you guys think??

lastly, and not really a dilemma, i had an idea of what to do with our previous dresser-as-a-tv-stand (pictured on the left below). i think i may paint it with blackboard paint and put it upstairs in our future attic-guest-room-playroom-media-room. i have wanted to use blackboard paint for something, but really don't enjoy using chalk at all (hate the chalk-under-the-finger-nails thing). so, i thought i could turn the dresser into a "toy bin" of sorts, filling the drawers with sidewalk chalk, crayons, markers, craft supplies, toys, and kids books for when we have the nieces and nephews over. my worry: by the time i make this attic-playroom-etc a reality all of our nieces and nephews will have grown! kirk says that by then it will be our nieces and nephews' children playing in our attic-playroom!

favorite things - lawrence/holiday/Olympus Pen edition

well, i survived the first half-week of the 2011 spring semester...barely. so, in honor of it being the weekend (!), this post will celebrate some favorite lawrence places, activities, holiday moments and traditions, and show off a few more photos from my new camera...prepare yourselves. this is to be the MOST random and unrelated list of items you ever did read:

*good idea for brunch in lawrence: Mirth. kirk and i frequent Mirth almost every saturday and always order the same things. for kirk: a "short" stack of honey whole wheat blueberry pancakes and coffee. for me: a half order of vegetarian biscuits and gravy and a half spinach and pear salad (yum!). downside? smelling of roasterie and onions (rather like the famous "Radina's smell" from our fave coffee shop in Manhattan).

*good idea for a family tradition: making homemade pizzas. growing up, my family made homemade "buchheister pizzas" which was only appropriate considering mom and dad met when they worked together at pizza hut during college. my personal journey with pizza has continued with kirk's family tradition of making a dozen different types of pizza at christmas: pepperoni pizza, bbq chicken pizza, veggie pizza, chicken and bacon alfredo pizza, shrimp pizza (not MY personal fave, but it seems to be rather popular with everyone else),you name it. just make sure you come with a ready appetite!

*good idea for a game night with friends: settlers of catan (nerds, i know). the davidsons and hutsons have a fairly competitive, yet amiable, board game relationship as you can see.

*good idea: visit a local movie theater that shows indie films. in lawrence, that would be liberty hall. really i just wanted to share photos taken with my new camera.

*good idea for a movie night: and my favorite movie of perhaps the last year: the fighter. christian bale...so good. marky mark (i don't think he still goes by that name...), also wonderful. definite favorite.

and to complete this post of celebration i must acknowledge that the chiefs made a most improbable turnaround this season and are heading to the playoffs for the first time since 2003! although i am still reeling from the shock of our heinous performance last week against the raiders (did our offensive line conspire with charlie weiss against matt cassel or am i being paranoid??), i really believe that the equation for success against baltimore is not outside of our reach. my keys to the game (by the way...my journalist cousin, josh, despises amateur bloggers that charade as sports writers, so i make this disclaimer: i am not claiming to be a professional sports analyst or journalist! i promise, josh! just my opinion! plus, i am too scatter-brained to keep a sports-only blog, as my reader friends all know). anyway, back to my keys to the game: run, run, run the ball. involve d. bowe early in the game. stop the run (baltimore's passing numbers are not great so we HAVE to stop their running back, ray rice...he is the biggest threat against us). no excessive going-on-4th-down decisions (ahem. todd haley). no turnovers. these are the strengths that we have shown in our wins this season, and really, this is not breaking news or rocket science, just really good ideas. go chiefs!