aaaahh - the weekend

I mentioned in my last post that we were planning to spread some dirt to level our yard on our two days off. Can I just tell you, when that dump truck backed up to our yard and deposited three yards of dirt I was ready to cry. My job was to load the wheelbarrows. James dumped them and started spreading. I'm not sure I was the winner there but I went with it. Do you even know what muscles you use while shoveling dirt? I can point them all out to you since I pretty much couldn't walk the next day. We filled in the low spots and our yard still looks like it has a comb-over but we're hoping for the best. If your husband ever suggests doing something that involves 'yards of dirt' ... run. Run as fast as you can and don't look back.

This weekend we're getting our patio furniture delivered (YAY!) and we're planning to do our planting (and mowing and pulling weeds). I can't wait to get my tomatoes and jalapenos in the ground! I hope putting them in the ground instead of pots will produce much healthier plants and larger fruit (or are they vegetables - whatever). We have some weeds in front of our house that are bigger than the bushes. It's ghetto fab!

WOW - I just updated to the new blogger (yes, finally) and that new spellcheck rocks!
Just had to share.

Oklahoma City

I have to admit something ... Oklahoma City isn't that bad. I don't know what I was expecting -- maybe I just hate Oklahoma -- but we really had fun last weekend. We went up to OKC for the Big XII Basketball Tournament last weekend. We skipped the first day since the Aggies didn't play until Friday. I only own one maroon shirt and I wasn't going to wear it Friday because I wanted to save it until Saturday's game when we would most likely be playing t.u. I put it on when James told me "there's no tomorrow in a tournament" so I'm pretty sure he jinxed the Aggies. That and the face-down penny he insisted on putting in his pocket earlier in the day. It was a horrible thing to lose our first game to OKLAHOMA STATE but they had quite the 'home court advantage'. I'm not a basketball fan. I've never really cared for the sport but being in that atmosphere was utterly amazing. We saw A&M play OSU and Texas almost lose to Baylor on Friday night. We thought about leaving but decided to stick it out and watch Kansas/Kansas State and t.u./OSU on Saturday. I really enjoyed the games. They were all very good - and they all proved my theory that all important basketball games are decided in the last 5 minutes. We dumped our tickets to the championship game because, let's face it, there were casinos to visit on the way home and neither of us cared that much about the championship game. Either Kansas was going to win OR we would be really pissed that we stayed late to watch t.u. win something ... again. No, we didn't win big at the casino. It was fun, even though they don't serve booze, and only about an hour from our house so we'll probably go there again.

We're taking off Thursday and Friday this week to tackle some spring projects around the house. We ordered dirt to level our lumpy bumpy lawn but it's not being delivered until Friday so we have tomorrow to clean the house ... errrr... watch basketball. More basketball. hmmmm ... maybe I am a fan? It's a little mini-spring break for the Starkes even though we're not going anywhere. We might even do some planting but I think spreading dirt is going to be more than enough work for me! Things are starting to green up so it's starting to look like the land of the living again. The flowering trees (pears/redbuds) are blooming and are so pretty but my allergies are absolutely killing me so I'm about to chop them all down!!! We had good rain yesterday and you would think that would knock the pollen out of the air ... right ... can I please breathe now? really. please?

Gig Em Aggies!

I'm baaaaack ...

I know I haven't posted in over a month but, let's face it, absolutely nothing interesting has been going on in my life. I tried to post about 3-4 weeks ago but the pictures wouldn't post so I just gave up. Let's see ... we installed cabinet hardware in our kitchen, painted an accent wall in our bedroom, I spent a long weekend in Florida with my mom and my aunt while James was in NYC for work, I turned a year older, we've been married a year longer, and I guess that's about it. Other than that, it's work, walk dog, cook dinner, eat, sleep, repeat. Like I said, not too exciting.

James was in NYC the weekend before my birthday (if you don't know, it's 2/14) so I used our last remaining Continental miles to buy a ticket to Tampa to spend the weekend with my mom and my aunt in Clearwater Beach. When they're not cruising around the world, my aunt rents a house down there to escape the cold weather in Pittsburgh and my mom goes to hang out with her and their dogs. James and I got home from our respective trips on Feb 13th and we both took Feb 14th off so I had him all to myself on my birthday! It was a good day ... even though I'm a year older.

I really have nothing else to talk about. Is that sad? I promise I won't go so long in between posts anymore. I hope I have some more exciting things to talk about too. I'll leave you with some pics ...

First came the cabinet hardware. It was very nerve wracking knowing a small slip would be very visible, and we actually messed up on one of the drawers in this picture! After freaking out for a minute James became the MacGuyver of drawer repair with a nail set, a hammer, some sand paper and Gorilla Glue ... crisis averted.

Here's the master bedroom. We already painted the walls a sandy khaki color but the room was still blah with the drapes and walls being very similar and the ceiling being too light. We finally painted the ceiling to match the walls and we chose a chocolate brown color (Labrador) for an accent wall. I've never been a big fan of "accent walls" but I really like it. It really is a nice rich brown.

Here's a pic of Clearwater Beach. It was kind of cool while I was there so I didn't get very much sun but a cool day on the beach is better than a freezing cold day at home, right?