It's funny, 'cuz it's true...

So excited for this to begin again on Sunday...

Franks

Relatives on my Father's side, eating hot dogs before a night out.

All the Trimmings....

This is the last untouched trim in my house...

It was the only "wood-colored" wood left in my entire home. And soon, it will look like this...

I'm one coat into this project, and I think 2 more coats will do it. High gloss paint is so annoying to use, but so worth it when all is said and done.

Rumble

Spent Saturday here...

It was so hot and humid that we spent most of the time in the pavilion, eating ice cream and listening to bands.

Swanky

This is one of my favorite photographs of my Grandparents. it was taken at Kelly's Lobster House in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1951 (or 1952.. my mother isn't quite sure.) My grandfather, Thaddeus, is in the upper left and my grandmother, Anastasia, is the gal with the cigarette in the upper right. The photo was taken by one of those roving photographers that restaurants used to often employ. This photo is framed in a tiny cardboard folder with the establishment's logo on the front.

My mother had thought she lost this photo and we searched for years for it. It just recently turned up. This is what happens to pack-rats. They lose things and then they magically reappear, years later.

Pearly Whites

This guy went to the vet yesterday because it appears that his ears are going bald. It turned out to not be a problem and nothing to worry about, BUT the vet mentioned that he needs his teeth cleaned. Ok. No problem.

The I get the quote...

FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS.

Almost half a grand so my cat can have sparkling chompers?

You don't knock...

This past weekend, my Father installed my side-of-house-oh-look-now-you-can-get-to-the-backyard door. He did this for me for free, because he is awesome. (Hi, Dad!)

He did the whole thing in two days, which i think is pretty amazing. Admittedly, I know nothing about door installation, so I'm not sure if this is an amazing feat, or 2 days is the usual for doors. Whatever, I'm impressed.

This blog post is full of "Dad is great" type stuff for two reasons....
1. He just installed a door in my house, for free. A door that is greatly increasing my quality of life... I'm lazy and now it's much easier to get to my backyard.
2. Sunday is Father's Day.

Onward to photos!...

Here is my Father sitting in the door hole. (I don't know what I find that funny.)


On Saturday, my Father lost his sunglasses and promptly flipped out. Here he is wearing mine so he could continue working outside.. Luckily, we found his shortly thereafter.


Tools...


Taking a break.

He's really just showing off one of his tattoos here, but you know, I might as well post it. After all, HE PUT A DOOR IN MY HOUSE, IN 90 DEGREE WEATHER. That's amazing.

Happy Father's Day, a bit early, Dad.

(when ya wanna get going on the diner construction, eh? I KID, I KID!)

YES. yes. YES YES YES.

His new game...

The cat I live with is an asshole.

I say "the cat I live with" as opposed to "my pet cat" because he doesn't seem to think he is a pet, and referring to him as a "pet" would lead you, dear reader, to believe that the cat knows his place in this household. "Pet" indicates that I have jurisdiction over him in some way. I don't. He does whatever he damn well pleases and gets away with it because he is adorable. The bastard.

Annnnnywaaaay....

For the past week, every time I walk into the bathroom, he jumps roughly 4 feet into the air and attaches himself to the bathroom doorframe. He hangs there like a monkey halfway up a tree. While he hangs there, on the doorframe, he gives me the "What is your problem?' face, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The door frame is clawed to hell now. Wonderful.

So, I decide I'm going to photograph this recent act of cat defiance, but have been unsuccessful thus far. It seems that he is on to me, and won't repeat his jerk carnival for the camera. If I am able to get a photo of it, I'll post it... but don't hold yer breath.

He's the Michigan J. Frog of cats.

Sales Gal

...at The South End Open Market, pretending I'm a "people person."

Side Door

This past weekend, while I was selling Bag Lunch balms at the South End Open Market, my father came down for the weekend and started prepping the side of my house for the new door that he's going to install.

He's going to order the door for me sometime this week and come down to Suburbia and install it. The odd thing is that I don't get to pick it out, He said that he knows what sort of door I want and that he'll just order it.

When I asked him about it, he just said "What? You're just going to paint the damn thing pink anyway right?"

Oh, he knows me too well.

Busy Bee.

Since I'm so busy getting bag lunch ready for this year's Open Market season, I've had nothing to write about on this blog. I've been pouring and labeling lip balm every day for the past 2-3 weeks and nothing amusing or amazing happens when I'm doing that... so no blog posts.

Opening weekend is this weekend, so after that, I can return to my regular life and you know... actually do something outside of my house.

In the meantime, check out one of my favorite blogs...
www.retrorenovation.com

Spring has sprung

The tulips in my front gardens have bloomed.

This is sheer luck for them though, as I have no green thumb and don't actually do any gardening whatsoever. My mother drives to my house every few weeks in the spring and summer months and tends to my gardens because she enjoys that sort of thing.

I agreed to let her do this under the stipulation that she can not get angry at me when these plants die under my watch. Because they will. I am horrible.

Here we go...

With the warmer weather approaching, I have a long list of house projects i want to get through this summer:

1. Install backyard access door.
Currently, the only way to get to my backyard is out through the front door and then walking the entire length of my house via my driveway. It's really a hassle if you're sitting on my deck and need to run into the house for something... you'll need to walk down my driveway and squeeze by my car to get to the front door. How irritating.

2. Stain deck.
The deck wood has "settled" and now can be stained. I want to get this done before it gets really hot out.

3. Continue with the diner construction in the basement.
Currently, the walls have been painted and that's about it. I've told myself that the backyard access door is more important and that I'm not going to work on the diner at all until that door is in. There is a LOT to do for this, and once the door is in, I'll dive into this.

4. Paint the exterior trim under all the windows.
I will probably not actually do this. I want to, but it seems like it's going to be a giant pain.

Back to the Eastern Seaboard

I'm back from Vegas. Here are a few photos...

Bright Light City

Tomorrow morning, I'm going on vacation with my friends Myk and Allison. I'm going to the annual Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. Four days of music, car shows, burlesque, and vintage clothing vendors.

I'm even closing Bag Lunch while I'm away. In the 5 years I've owned Bag Lunch, I've never closed shop for any amount of time. It's odd. I won't be checking Bag Lunch emails or processing orders or anything. Whenever I go away for the weekend or anything like that, I generally still run Bag Lunch from wherever I am. But not this time...I'm going to be 100% on vacation.

Also, although "Swingers" is one of my favorite movies, I'm going to refrain from quoting any part of that movie while I'm there. I'm no hack.

Needle in the groove

The record player I ordered a few days ago arrived today. It's very exciting because i haven't been able to listen to any of my records for roughly two years.

You see... two years ago i was living with a fellow with a record player, so i never replaced the one I broke in college... then WE broke up and obviously he took his player with him. For some reason I was ok with being record player-less for the entire time I've lived in my house. Gah!

Well no more! I'll be spending the evening catching up with all my old vinyl friends.

The future is NOW.

Everything about this is awesome....


Sadly, this is not yet available in Massachusetts.

The elusive picnic basket

I would like a picnic basket just like this:


You would think it would be easy to find a simple picnic basket. It's not. It's in fact, very difficult.

A lot of picnic baskets that I've seen look like tiny wicker suitcases. I don't want to walk around looking like I'm in some sort of prairie mob, about to close a deal.

Also, a lot of picnic baskets come with a bunch of forks and plates and other tools for eating. Don't need these. Every time I've ever been on a picnic, I've simply removed my sandwich from it's plastic baggie and eaten it. I'm classy like that. If you need to lug a bunch of plates and forks and glasses out for your picnic, why don't you just save yourself the trouble and stay in your kitchen.

All I want is a picnic basket with no bells or whistles, that doesn't come with a bunch of useless crap, and opens from the top in two pieces like the picture above..

Apparently, I've asked for too much.