The year in review

2009 was an excellent year for us, filled with grand journeys, great love and copious amounts of meat (for San). It marked the first entire year we spent together!

We traveled across the sea to glorious Ireland, where San’s BFF Holly had spent the previous three months. Holly hosted them with gusto, enchanting San with the Guinness Brewery tour where we all learned how to pour a perfect pint. San also drank several perfect pints…enthusiastically. Next came our first rugby game in the hotel pub, in which Ireland breathtakingly defeated Wales in the waning seconds of the match. After the first night of revelry, which included finding the Dubliner version of Captain America, Holly lured us into a train using wine and cheese, and stole us across the country to her abode in Galway. One day was devoted to visiting the majestic Cliffs of Mohr, underground caverns where bears once dwelled, and exploring graveyards and castle ruins. We even met her Irish Boyfriend, who introduced us to a village where where old (and not-so-old) Irishmen start drinking at the local historic pub at approximately 7:06 a.m. (The Irish Boyfriend eventually made two trips to Chi-town later in the year to see his beloved Holly.)

Shortly after returning from overseas, Tracy hunkered down to study for her professional engineering licensing exams (yes, plural, as in two). Hours, hours, and more hours at the end of March and most of April disappeared in such quiet places as coffee shops, libraries and the dining room table on Saturday and Sunday mornings. She rejoiced in July upon finding out that she passed. She can now legally oversee and sign off on dangerous projects that could very well kill you.

We met our respective families for the first time this year, traveling first to Tracy’s hometown in Kentucky. On Day One, during mid-drink at the local baked goods establishment, Tracy’s Aunt Sheila unexpectedly gave San a southern seal of approval. San also experienced a Kentucky tradition of biscuits and sausage gravy, made from scratch by Tracy’s Pop. (It was later explained that such a feast was only prepared for those her father liked.) In the fall, Tracy met San’s extended family in New York. His parents, aunts and uncles took a vote, and decided she could stay.

In June, San fulfilled his 10-year dream to attend the Annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois. The geekfest featured the world’s largest Superman statue, a Superman Museum, appearances by Superman writers and actors, locals dressed in a variety of superhero costumes, and a nefarious gaggle of Mole Men - all eagerly enjoyed by a wide-eyed San, who gleefully purchased collectibles and photographed as many Supergirls as he could.

This year was also filled with obligatory wedding trips. We attended our first Jewish wedding in Cincinnati, complete with a “little hat” for San and kosher delicacies. Tracy was a beautiful (and unfortunately pink) bridesmaid for her brother’s ceremony in Kentucky, where she managed to be unnaturally perky for several hours. San was the best man at his childhood chum’s wedding deep in the Adirondack Mountains. He got to ride in the back of a 1940s fire truck, was appropriately introduced at the reception to the Pulp Fiction theme song and, of course, gave a riveting best man speech about the groom’s love for dragons, which had been sweetly supplanted (or at least augmented) by his love for his new bride.

Halloween was celebrated with eerie finesse, complete with costumes, cobwebs, corpse-faced fiends, chili and spider-legged cheeseballs. We hosted our friends in our first and final bash at the old apartment, filling it with opposing sounds of creepy sounds and death metal, and baking decorate-your-own cookies. The party was certified a success when the marathon partiers began battling board-game zombie legions, while Tracy mysteriously disappeared around 1 a.m. San later found her on the bed, where she mumbled, “Someone must protect the coats!”

In November, Tracy closed on her first home. During this exciting time, San reached his major personal accomplishment (along with his trustworthy chum, the Captain) for 2009: he finally defeated every single burger on the menu of his favorite restaurant, Kuma’s Corner. While San and Cap packed their bellies, Tracy spent the day packing boxes. (San made penance by spending 14 hours packing the following Saturday.) We finally moved ourselves and the two grumpy old cats in December, shortly before Christmas.

Christmas was spent with Tracy’s family, where San woke every morning to the savory smell of pork sausage in her Pop’s man-kitchen. A painful amount of food was eaten, many presents were opened (to the three kitties’ glee), and much snow and rain was driven through to get to and from the festivities. San even learned not to snuggle with the calico cat, who first played shy then tried to eat his ear.

We hope this year has been as kind to all of our friends as it has to us. Happy holidays, and may 2010 rock your arm sockets out!

San & Tracy

Misadventures in new condo'ing

Summary of misadventures thus far (the day before moving in):

We bought a fancy closet organizer. It will be awesome. It's still not in, because when we ripped out the existing shelf and hang bar, the moulding was glued to the wall and ripped off the underlying paint. No big deal...we spackled and sanded, and prepared to paint the upper half of the closet, above the line at the bottom of the moulding. The previous owner had painted the bottom of the closet steel blue to match the bedroom walls, but left the upper part cream. We taped the edges, found the matching paint, and started painting the edges. It was the wrong color. Forty-five minutes later our entire closet matched the hallway outside the condo. We have yet to figure out why the previous owner, who painted the common areas on commission, kept the common area paint colors under the sink of the guest bathroom.

I learned to install sealant by caulking the edge of the tub with clear silicone and questionable lighting. I started to get the hang of it about 3/4 of the way around the tub. There are some holes that need to be patched one of these years.

I learned to remove caulking by scraping up the edge of the sink. I think white caulk will make it look better. If not, I get to pick a new color for the master bath.

Speaking of new colors...I took down the too-industrial-looking pipe fixture towel bar (yeah, weird, right?) in the guest bath, spackled the holes, and dug out the paint from underneath the sink. Learning from the closet mishap, I carefully matched the dried paint on the side of the can to the wall. San compared, and we came to agreement on the most likely color. Six days later, there are still too dark spots on the wall. So I get to pick a new color for the guest bath, too.

San created his own damage in the second bedroom closet. He took the hang bar out so that he could put shelving in for his comics. As part of this, he decided to lower the shelf to sit evenly on the moulding. Sometime in the past, someone raised only the ends by adding a 1 inch high piece of moulding to provide more clearance for the hang bar. Once he tore into it, San found holes all the way through the moulding and the drywall that had been drilled to install the hang bar, gobs of paint that had collected on top of the short upper moulding (which had now been removed) and general mayhem. We now need to replace some moulding, scrape, smooth and patch some paint, and again paint yet another closet.

When I bought the place, we thought that we didn't have to paint anything because the previous owner was a professional painter.

Before we even started, I learned how to stain a kitchen cart. It went pretty well, except for the exorbitant amount of dust that collected on the first coat of stain while it was tacky. I guess that's the downside of keeping the windows open to allow for the proper ventilation that the authors of the warnings on the can are so worried about.

The sixth (or eleventh maybe, I'm losing count) trip to Home Depot will be to pick up white sealant, moulding, wood primer, paint...and drywall anchors so we can finish installing the tall bookcases...