Artwork belongs on walls

So how long does it take to put new artwork up on walls?  It depends on the artwork and the difficulty of the location in which it must be hung.  Sometimes.  For instance, we have this great metal sculpture thing (named "Ray") that belonged to Cortney's godfather and was given to us as a gift... last summer.  It is still in the basement, mostly because we want to hang it above our stairs, which requires either a fancy ladder or acrobatics, or both.  We also got a great clock from Jon's mom for Christmas, and until tonight that was sitting on the wine rack in our kitchen, but there is no excuse for that delay beccause it is just on a normal kitchen wall now, ticking away.  Then there's the African photograph we got at the Art Fair several weeks ago.  It waited on the floor in Cortney's office until tonight when it has finally come to rest on the wall above our bed.  Ah well, Ray will have to wait another few weeks I fear.  As for our bedroom, we are now sleeping in the heart of Africa although the wildlife seems to be a bit on the small and cuddly side (except for the turtle, which dwarfs our bed).

Round one, sprinklers.

This is our first house and we have only been here for a year so there are a lot of things that we are still learning, like lawn care.  Last summer we tried to get the hang of the inground sprinkler system and I won't lie to you—there were several mornings when we were awakened at disgustingly early hours by the rush of water against our bedroom window.  Oops, set the system wrong again.  Now, last summer I blamed it on user error, but after the past few days I have come to realize that the issue isn't us, it's our system.  I have just sat down from my most recent mad dash to the control box in what appears to be a futile attempt to reign supreme over its sudden spurt of adolescent egotism.  Last night we were watering when system two decided to throw a tantrum and just quit.  Following that assertion of self independence the revolution spread and none of the systems would work at all.
Today the battle continued in the form of a militant revolt on the part of system two. Its watering every couple of hours started at 9:30 this morning... even though the dial was set to OFF.  It had seriously developed its own agenda and would not even respond to my repeated depressing of the "off" button.  I'm sure its goal was to completely wash away my garden as a means of getting its point across, whatever that may be, but I will not let it be the boss of me.  I unplugged it.

The arrival

Who knew that furniture companies delivered on Sundays?  The scheduled delivery for our new set was between 8 and 11  today, but we couldn't be here because of church, (and church was especially important and long this morning because it was all-church picnic day and "good-bye" Lloyd day, a wonderful man who we will all miss).  We were all set to have Cortney's parents come and hang out during the delivery hours as a special favor (and because Cortney's mom loves the dogs) but low and behold, the delivery guys called at 7:10 am and wondered if they could come early—they were right around the corner.  Worked for us...although we were almost late for the 8:00 service.
But the furniture is great. It is bigger than what we had before so it makes the space seem a little smaller, but we were expecting that and it still looks great and is really comfortable!  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time sitting on it.  Instead we tried out the weed whacker and mowed the lawn in sprinkles of rain, and we cleaned the bathrooms and our offices, and even some of the basement.  We always keep a clean house, but it has to be spotless this week;  Steve and Rachel (our best friends) are visiting from Seattle Wednesday and Thursday.  We are really looking forward to seeing them, but I'm not sure they were worth the lawn mowing in the 86 degree heat. Finally, after finishing the above and grabbing a shower we were able to sit on the new furniture...but it was 6:00 by that time!  We want to point out that even the animals look pooped in this picutre, and they sat inside in the air conditioning all day!

New furniture!

Our old sectional sofa, a much appreciated hand-me-down, had become more uncomfortable than a Democrat at the Republican convention.  So last weekend we engaged in a right of passage through marriage—we bought living room furniture!  Come this Sunday our sitting room will be graced by a comfortable couch, chair and ottoman in tan, or camel.   The chair has spiral swirls for contrast.  I think it's the presence of the ottoman that makes us feel the most refined; a place to put your feet with such a fancy name.    The floor model of the ottoman was actually the last one, so we were able to take it home with us.  I thought we would get to try it out, but Cookie has taken up what appears to be permanent residence on it.   Diamond spent a good ten minutes trying to remove the attached pillow-top until finally giving up and falling asleep with her chin resting next to Cookie.  So much for refinement.  It's not an ottoman, it's an animal bed.