and the night is as black as the sea

its been a busy month. and sadly, busy doesn't always mean good.

we went up to erie father's day weekend to visit my family, and to be there for my nephew's dedication at church. the church was also doing a memorial type thing for my dad, acknowledging all the work he did for the church. father's day would not have been my ideal choice, but, then again, when would have been a good day? we spent time with my sister, and visited my mom and aunt. we made it back to pittsburgh in time on sunday for a father's day picnic at ian's parents. it was a difficult and emotional day. the fact that fathers day is just a week after my dad's birthday... well, that doesn't make things any easier.

after arriving home,we get the news that my aunt lois is in the hospital with pneumonia. mid-week, she isn't doing well. i don't think the word "dying" was used, but it was understood. she passed away friday afternoon. she was 79 years old, unmarried with no children. other than my parents, i've never really talked about "personal" aspects of my life, but this may need a little explanation. my aunt moved in with us when i was 5 years old. she lived with us until she moved into a nursing home several years ago. she had to be in a wheelchair at that time and couldn't maneuver thru our house. needless to say, she was like a grandmother to us, and often told us that we were like her children. [my only living grandmother died when i was 5; my aunt had lived with her, and thats why she ended up moving in with us.] of course, we visited her whenever we went up to erie, even when my father was getting bad. at the very least, we'd always manage to squeeze in a stop before we got on the road, many times visiting with sydney. the elderly *love* sydney :)

the funeral was held on tuesday. i had been up there awhile, to help with the final arrangements. because of her closeness with my parents, they had all pre-planned their funerals at the same place. to make a long story short, the funeral was held in the same room as my fathers had been. it was just a little too soon :( we had her brother and 2 cousins sing "i'll fly away" and "peace in the valley" which was really beautiful. other than some annoying family bullshit, it was a nice ceremony and i know my aunt would have been pleased.

having another family funeral brings up alot of sadness and memories, but i won't get into that now.

we needed a little happiness. or at least "fun". thursday night we headed down to the strip district to see alkaline trio play at metropol, er, i mean, the ridiculously named club zoo. we started off the night by having dinner at kaya, the setting of our first date. after being seated, we were asked to move to the next table over, and given a carafe of sangria on the house. unnecessary, but a nice touch :) we enjoyed our meals of paella and burger and then made the rainy walk down to the club.

we had purposely missed the first 2 bands and worked our way thru the crowds to find a good spot. [this was after realizing that even tho alcohol is normally served at all ages show in a separate area, there was no separate area or alcohol. i was much more looking forward to the separate viewing area.] so anyways, the lights dim and i hoisted myself up to sit on the tiny ledge of an uncomfortable industrial pillar, as others on the pillar were doing. this was met with shouts of "sit the F down" from the 15 year old emo kids behind us. and while i normally don't have a problem with perfectly coiffed whiny emo kids, i was more in the mood to just enjoy the show from my perch. which i did. and it was a great show. very loud, but enjoyable. however, i do find it somewhat distracting trying to watch a band thru all the camera phones being waved around. between that and the flailing legs and arms coming from the mosh pit, but... maybe i'm just getting old. well, definitely too old for all ages shows!

my sister came down this weekend to visit for a bit. she went out for a few hours on saturday which left ian and i to do a little more work on the house. i finished removed the old flooring in the spare room and we got a coat of paint on half of it. [thats basically to seal it before we put down the new flooring]. this week we will need to patch the walls in the stairwell/hallway. we have a continuous floor joining the top floor bedrooms + hallway so we need to finish the walls before installing the floor in the hallway and then into the bedroom. luckily, its a fairly small hallway, so it shouldn't hold us up too long. because of the rain the back patio is still on hold, but we're hoping for sunny skies this coming weekend.

thats it for now. time for me to get back to my day job :)

35

so last sunday [the 1st], i turned 35. yes, 35. i feel old. i am old. it sucks. to cheer myself up [and to get myself out of a rut], i decided to cut off my hair. i've been debating this for the past year or longer, after "growing my hair out" for the wedding. [which, i don't even understand, because my hair, as usual, was pulled back]. so i went to the salon and emerged an hour later with 10" less hair, and possibly 2 pounds lighter. i have very thick, heavy hair. i am donating the ponytail to "pantene's beautiful lengths" hair donation program.



after having my hair straightened at the salon, it looked sleek, swingy and light. i have not quite been able to duplicate it yet. i even bought a new wigo flat iron at ulta to replace my shitty one. i've been whipping out all my hair products and trying them out, but this humidity is killing me. and having naturally wavy hair isn't helping. this morning i let it air dry and it looked like rhona mitra's from doomsday. decide for yourself if that is a good or bad thing ;)

my birthday celebration was low-key, exactly what i wanted. ian and i went to casbah for sunday brunch and, as usual, it was delicious. i had the brioche french toast with carmelized bananas, while ian tried the hanger steak. both were delicious. we also had appetizers of cheese + fruit plates and granola. and mimosas. and complimentary little muffins. its always too much food, but so worth it.

i received some wonderful gifts, including some craft books, some "green books", a few movies that i love but for some reason didn't own, some cute clothes, godiva chocolates, and some random other stuff that i can't remember at the moment. ian also got me some screen printing + block printing supplies as i've been wanting to try out some ideas on clothes that i've made.

we took that weekend off which was really nice, but it meant we had a lot to catch up on this weekend. we resumed work on the patio first thing saturday morning. armed with iced coffees, coppertone, and some wendy's breakfast frescuits, we started working in the 90 degree heat. it took awhile, but once we developed our system things went smoothly. we are using the quickrete walkmaker mold in the country stone pattern. ian mixed 2 bags of concrete with 1 box of charcoal colorant. then we would pour it into the mold and i would level it off and make adjustments while ian would work on the next batch of concrete.





we finished about 1/3 of the patio on saturday, which was maybe 6 hours of actual work on the patio. we stopped when we ran out of concrete. we'll need to pick up some more this week and then get back to work! once we finish setting the patio, depending on how the color finally dries, we may spray a concrete stain on it. then we'll add sand between the pavers and start setting everything up. here's how its looking so far:



i'd like to rearrange the "firepit" so it is lower and not open in the front... more like a pit than an oven. i also need to finish potting my plants and rearrange everything in the gravel area. its alot of work but its going to be totally worth it. for us to enjoy and for selling the house :)

so needless to say, its been a busy week. i'm still bummed about being 35, but i did get carded the other night, so it can't be all that bad. plus, with all this adorable cuteness at home, how can i possibly stay bummed out?