Do I need my dvds?

The three boxes on the middle shelf hold our dvds.

At the moment, I own 105 dvds.  I never would have guessed I owned that many.  Does that seem like a lot to you?  It does to me, particularly since I watch one of my dvds about. . . oh, once in three months now.  Chris and I have three boxes that each hold 120 dvds.  (well, I have one box and Chris has two).  But here's the thing -- we don't really sit down and watch that many dvds.  Ok, so I watched Pride and Prejudice the other weekend, but I think that was the first time this winter that I watched one of my dvds.  So, why do I hold onto these?

I know if Chris and I were to move (and therefore downsize) I would have no problems shedding my dvds.  I should add that through iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, and network websites, there is little need for me to watch/keep my dvds.  Wow, I am totally talking myself into getting rid of these.  Cool!  Heh, heh, wonder what Chris will think? ;)

Here's my dvd box with my sentimental faves.

btw the movies I have are movies/TV shows that I have loved for years.  We're not talking the latest blockbuster, we're talking classics like The Parent Trap, The Princess Bride, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.  Movies that remind me of times I spent with my family and friends, my real dad had the pleasure of watching The Parent Trap every weekend that I visited him, ha!, my step-dad enjoyed Bill and Ted with me, and I loved watching The Princess Bride with my brother.  Some of the other movies/tv shows, such as A Miracle of 34th Street and Jeeves & Wooster, were ones that I enjoyed watching with my mom.  I wonder if part of the reason I chose to buy and keep (hoard?) these movies is an attempt to hold on to those memories?  Perhaps the best way to remind myself that those memories will not disappear is to take the leap and release my grip.  Anyone want some dvds?

Weekly round-up: How'd we do?

So, I'm curious how Chris and I did with our goals this week.

In terms of eating out, we ate out three times, once for lunch ($29.36), and twice for supper ($63.47).  We actually hadn't planned on eating out for supper one of those times, turns out the meal I had planned for Thursday had gone bad (I bought fresh pasta from a local source, and it turned to a mush the consistency of oatmeal).   One concession I always allow myself when I have to work Saturday, is to go out for lunch (I obviously worked this past Saturday), what I hadn't planned on was ordering a $12 salad -- ouch!  We also spent $38.73 at the grocery store this week (mainly on fruit and veg, yum yum!)

As far as other expenses, this was a week.  Aside from paying our bills (internet, mobile phone, and vet) I bought a splurge item from Amazon ($78.51), Chris got stuff for the yard from Lowe's ($32.80), and I signed-up for a race with peeps from work ($25), oh, and we dropped $13.16 at the post office on stamps and mailing a book.  At the pump, we spent $32.10 on gas.  All and all, I guess that's not too bad.

Pinspiration for a coat closet!

Are you on Pinterest?  I love Pinterest, which is an online inspiration board.  See something on the web that you want to try?  Pin it to your Pinterest board to remind yourself later.  I use it mainly to help remember great recipes I stumble across or for easy DIY projects.

The dream closet featured on Martha Stewart.

One of the best projects that I had pinned to my Pinterest board, was a coat closet makeover.  The original inspiration came from Martha Stewart.  See how nice and neat this closet is.  With shelves on the bottom you easily have room for shoes and the baskets located at knee height make looking for scarves easy for us shorter gals.

I fell in love with this design and asked Chris if we could redo our closet.  He was totally game and went to work with his new favorite program, Google SketchUp.  To set the stage, our coat closet is. . . well, closet size.  It has one door, and it had two upper shelves and the clothes bar.

I knew that in addition to our coats, mittens/gloves, hats, and scarves I wanted to also have room for the shoes we frequently wear.  I also wanted a space on the upper shelf for the two boxes of Christmas ornaments I have. With this in mind, Chris and I measured the ornament boxes and that height dictated how tall the upper shelf would be.  Then, Chris added the clothes bar into the design, and finally, the two lower shelves were added to the design.  Here is his Google sketch:

To get a sense of how much of the closet is visible from the door, Chris did two sketches, one with the walls and one without.

After the design of the closet, Chris and I got to work scraping layer upon layer of wallpaper out of the closet.  That was the biggest time-consuming part of this project.  I would say we easily spent two 8-hour days taking turns scraping out seventy-one years worth of wallpaper, and there were six different papers.  Personally, I hate wallpaper.  I would much prefer paint on the wall to a design that I will likely become tired of in a few years.

After we removed the last bit of wallpaper, we went to Benjamin Moore to get a Carolina blue paint for the back wall and white for the two side walls and the ceiling.  The paint went on quickly enough, and Chris was able to start measuring the shelves and painting them white while waiting for the closet to dry.  Once everything was dry, Chris installed the shelves and the clothes rod.  Here is what the closet looks like today.

In our new and improved coat closet, Chris's shoes go on the floor (so he can just kick them off) and mine go on the first shelf.  On the second shelf, the basket on the left holds our scarves, and the bag to the right holds, in addition to my backpack, Frisbee, and football, my other pocketbooks -- you can see what's used most frequently! ;)

In terms of our coats, both Chris and I love our outerwear.  I have 7 coats, and they are all hanging in this closet.  I actually am a bit ashamed that I have that many coats.  Chris only has four in this closet (they are hanging out of the picture in the right of the closet, you can just barely see his hoodie), but our guest bedroom closet has the rest of his coat collection, 8 additional coats!   Dude, if you're keeping count (like I am!) the man has 12 coats.   

 

Previous owners at some time in the past installed hooks along the back of the closet and that is where we keep our hats, and hanging from one of the hooks is a Colonial Williamsburg bag where we keep our flashlights.  My Christmas ornaments are on the upper shelve on either side of a wooden basket that holds our ski gear, goggles, gloves, earwarmers, etc.

On the door of our closet hangs a shoe holder that I have had since the late '70s.  My godmother lived in China then, and sent this back to me.  Now it holds our gloves, hats, lint brushes, and other lightweight items.  This item is starting to show its age, and as it's one of the things I treasure, I try not to add too many heavy things to it.  Below this on a row of hooks, hangs our laptop case.

Again, pictures of the inspiration and the fruition.

Our closet.

The dream closet featured on Martha Stewart.

  

Safe disposal of medicine: save time on 28 April

Did you know that the national drug take-back program is coming up soon?  And by soon, I mean Saturday, 28 April.  I love this.  Chris and I participated last year.

So here's the deal.  The trash we throw away regardless of whether it goes into a landfill or worse, is carted around the earth on those trash barges, has the potential to leach harmful chemicals into to soil, groundwater, and ultimately us.  Flushing meds down the toilet is advisable for some, but not all meds.  But, here's the rub with that.  Flushing meds down the toilet introduces the chemicals into our water stream. 

Another method for disposing of medications is to ground them up in coffee grinds.  Ok, sure, that can be done.  But Chris and I don't drink coffee, and after our coffee maker died a couple of years ago we didn't replace it.  So that's not an option for us.

We will be ridding ourselves of 16 expired meds and containers

Luckily, on 28 April from 10 am to 2 pm, a nation-wide program has been instituted to safely dispose of medications.  I can't wait.  It cannot come soon enough.  Since April of last year I have been hording meds that Chris and I have taken (and empty medicine containers - it sucks that those can't be reused by the pharmacist or at least recycled!).  We also have a very old and aging dog, Byron, who is has had to have various meds over the year. 

I encourage everybody to check their medicine cabinets for any expired medications.  This is a great way to reduce clutter and get rid of your meds safely.  We will be dropping off at least 16 meds at Richmond's Southside Community Center (assuming this year's location is the same as last years!)

Office 2.0

I mentioned in a couple of posts ago that Chris and I easily work together in our new and improved office space.  So here's the lay of the land.  Chris and I live in a Georgian Revival built in 1941.  It is a spacious 1200 square foot house.  Way bigger than what the two of us really need.  Included in the square footage is an addition that at one time was probably a screened-in porch, but when we purchased the house previous owners had enclosed it, drywalled, added carpet, and turned it into an office.

When we first moved in, we agreed that the office would be my space (and Chris would have the basement).   I've looked and Chris has looked for pictures of what the office used to look like, but neither of us can find them.  However, Chris did use Google sketch up to redesign the space and he started by sketching the space as it looked.

The office as it once looked.  Drawn in Google Sketch Up by Chris.

The room is rectangular with a door leading to our back deck on one side and a huge window looking to the front of our house directly opposite.  Underneath this large window is a great built-in desk that features a narrow book shelf on the right.  On the long side wall there was a series of cabinets and shelves.  I imagine they looked great when they were first installed, but the years have not been kind to them, and the shelves were pulling out of the wall -- to the point that I was afraid to put anything on them (but eventually I began storing lighter items there without any problems).

When we decided to redo the room, Chris used Google sketch up and the two of us weighed in on what we wanted.  We agreed that a long desk in an L-shape running along the two outside walls would provide needed counter space.  Chris has a lot more things than I, so he wanted his desk to have upper shelving, and I was delighted to stay in the spot in front of the window.  Actually, my spot hasn't changed all that much.

The office as we imagined it.  Drawn by Chris in Google Sketch Up.

The first step in the process (after clearing the room) was to tear out the cabinets.  Not a difficult task as they were practically falling out anyways.  Next, Chris built a long desktop to create the L-shaped desk.  It joins nicely with the existing desktop; you'd never guess they were added separately.  

Once the desktop was built, we needed to weigh it down, so the glue adhered.

The way Chris chose to attach the desktop was pretty ingenious.  To avoid using too many nails (and thereby reducing the weight of this sucker), Chris built a narrow shelf along the two walls with a groove cut out on one side.  Then, where the desktop meets the walls, he added a tongued piece of wood which was inserted into the groove.  All this was secured with globs and globs of wood glue.  Finally, he joined the two desks underneath with a brace.

Next, Chris focused on the shelving.  He built an overhead 2-shelf cabinet over his workspace and carried the top of that cabinet as a shelf that extends the length of the wall.  To divide our workspaces, and provide more storage, he then built a center bank of shelves.

The shelves installed.  (Ignore the wallpaper leg, it was there for support during the build.)

Once the shelves were installed, we went to Pottery Barn and purchased the Bedford 3 drawer file cabinet to match the one we previously purchased when we first moved here.  That adds storage, and perhaps more importantly, adds support for this long, floating tabletop.

So Chris worked on the office project 3 months ago.  Care to see how it looks today?  Check out these photos!

And here is Chris's side of the office:

to keep or not to keep?

Last night Chris and I were in our basement, having just completed an Insanity workout and waiting for Modern Family to come on, when I suddenly had all this energy.  I needed to do something!  I did some yoga poses (mainly balance poses) but was a little shaky, so I turned my attention elsewhere.  I thought, perhaps I would go through stuff in the basement to see what needs to be taken to the thrift store.  When I mentioned this to Chris, he naturally got a little anxious, and told me not to touch his stuff.  ;)

So I started looking in a few of the drawers down there, and aside from guitar picks and strings (Chris's), pens and some paper, and a deck of cards, there was little for me to go through, let alone ditch take to the thrift store.  Truly, the only things that are down there, that I consider truly mine (and therefore can decide their fate), are my photo albums and movies.

I don't have that many movies and the ones that I do have I watch (Chris has gotten so used to the Pride and Prejudice music that I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote lyrics to it; although, in my defense I watched it recently for the first time in years. . . yep, years!).  So, I started turning my attention to my scrapbooks.  Working at a special collections library, I appreciate how scrapbooks, diaries, and correspondence provide us with a glimpse into the lives of earlier people.  I think I've reached a point where I don't need my scrapbooks from earlier travels, but I can't throw them out.  I would rather donate them to a special collections library, but would they want them now?  Obviously, I wouldn't want to part with all my memories, and the scrapbooks of Chris and I on our honeymoon and travels overseas I would keep.  But, in the last 20 years I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've looked at the scrapbook from my 1997 trip to the Pacific Northwest with my family.

I know some bloggers out there deal with this by scanning the pages and keeping a digital copy and ditching the paper.  But in the archival world, this is creating a void.  I mean, who writes letters anymore?  And who keeps years of email correspondence?  We are obviously losing touch with our ability to leave a legacy for future researchers, and I don't want to be a part of that.  In fact, one of the reasons I waited so long to write a blog was because I didn't want to give up my journaling.  But I think I can manage both.  Now I just have to decide whether to hold onto these scrapbooks for another 20 years or to donate them.  Suggestions?

positively primal

So today I skimmed the The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. and I was surprised that I was so impressed.  I've never been one to follow fad diets, and the idea of eating a low carb/high protein diet seems out of character for me.  But lately there have been the health issues that keep cropping up that are making me reassess my lifestyle.

The first big news came when I was about 24 or 25 and I was diagnosed with primary lymphedema, otherwise known as elephantitis.  I was rather shocked to learn that the swelling in my legs and feet would never really go away, but after talking to people who knew my dad's side of the family well, I learned that my great-grandfather (who lived until I was about 16, so I knew him pretty well) also had lymphedema.  The good news is this is easily managed and I can go about with a normal life. . . with perhaps a bit more shoe and boot envy than the average gal.

Fast forward about 10 years, and I find out that my teeth are having a tough time in my mouth.  I'm losing bone that is needed to hold the teeth in and I'm developing deep pockets in my gums where food gets caught and creates more havoc.  And this is all happening regardless of my increasing (almost OCD) habit of brushing and flossing my teeth.  It culminated two years ago in oral surgery where the periodontist crushed up cadaver bone to fill in the holes.  My mouth is doing better, but there is still a possibility I will have to do this again.

And then, just seven months ago, I was diagnosed with Graves Disease.  My hands would not stop shaking, and as you might imagine, that is the last thing you want to have when holding unique manuscripts or rare books.  Graves Disease is the result of an overactive thyroid and while I have to admit, I love what it is doing to my metabolism, ultimately it is wreaking havoc inside.  My first question, when I found out that I had this, was to ask if I caused it?  The doctor assured me that it was nothing that I did; that it is most likely genetic.  But I couldn't help wonder if poor habits and decisions I made earlier in life have manifested in the health problems I am experiencing today?  That thought still rattles around in the back of my mind.

Sideline note: If it goes untreated, Graves Disease can cause psychological problems, and as it is somewhat difficult to diagnose, I wonder if it does run in my family.  That might explain all the crazy that was my dad's side.  Of course, to date no cause has yet to be established for the crazy on my mom's side.  ha ha, Mom.  Don't take it personally! ;)

But, back to me and my habits, I have to admit that I do eat a largely vegetarian diet, and much of that consists of pasta, grains, legumes, and rice served with veggies.  Oh boy, do I love brown rice!  So my curiosity was piqued when I started following Tiffany of naturemomsblog and heard her rave about going Paleo.  My first reaction probably involved an eye roll and comment, dear lords, please not another diet where eating fruit and veg is considered hurtful.  But as I started paying attention, I discovered other favorite bloggers discussing this Paleo diet, and I began to sit up and take notice.

Most recently, Tiffany's post about her troubles with her teeth and gums, and the turn-around that has occurred since going Paleo, really made me perk up.  I knew from my studies in Anthropology that the teeth of societies who made the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural demonstrated a marked increase in dental decay, but I never put it together that it was likely due to the difficulty our bodies have in processing these foods (Duh!).  And that, when you look at societies that do eat high protein, low carb diets, their teeth are in remarkably good condition.   Now I am even more sold on trying to reduce the grains, beans (wow, that'll be hard), and rice (wow, this'll be even harder!) and replace these with lean meat.

I haven't yet reached the point of throwing out the beans and rice we got from the bulk bin (oh, and I just bought pasta, too) but I also don't feel the need to eat them right away either.  Today I actually did feel full from all the fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, and applesauce I ate, as well as a thick-ish ground turkey chili).  And I am down with any lifestyle change that advocates eating as much as you want of the good stuff.  Counting calories is just not in my skill set, nor do I want it to be.