Rest stop

I had an awesome bathroom experience today (perfect first sentence? why yes, I think so). We stopped at a gas station. When I found the restrooms at the back of the store, I noticed something funny- the girls bathroom had a nice plastic sign announcing that it was the ladies room. Next door, the mens room had a taped up, torn piece of lined paper for their sign.

When I met Kurt back at the car, I asked him about his bathroom. "It was awful! I didn't want to touch ANYTHING. I don't think it had been cleaned in weeks!" I started laughing. Then I described the ladies room.

It had a Tuscan theme. Flower sconces on the walls, a newly tiled floor. The marble sink had folded towels, lotion, and tissues nicely stacked. And it was one of the cleanest bathrooms I've ever been in. It had an automated sink, and it smelled like flowers.

He was so mad. And I'm still laughing.

I should be...

Packing. Cleaning. Sleeping. After all, we are leaving for Michigan at 9am, and I am not going to want to do that stuff in the morning.

Instead, I am...

Blogging. Crafting. Eating Ice Cream. And I don't even feel guilty.

Aw man!

I wrote 7 blogs yesterday. I was gonna spread them out over the week, but I just got so excited and couldn't help myself and I posted 5 of them. Now what am I gonna do? I've used up all my interesting thoughts.

This could be a very boring week for Life in the Pitts.

My mother in law resents me

...and I don't blame her.

Kurt's dad, Bill, is a total pack rat. He hates to throw anything away, because "someday someone might want it." Their basement has rooms full of very organized piles of stuff. It drives his mom crazy.

When Kurt and I were moving out here, Bill very sweetly showed us tons of shelves and mirrors and picture frames that made Pirjo's eyes roll. "I've been trying to throw that junk away for years. But he always finds out before the garbage man takes it away, and he digs it out of the trash!" We politely declined his offerings, and he good naturedly put it all back into organized heaps in the garage.

That was 4 months ago. 4 months of being bored, starting a blog, and becoming obsessed with both crafts and home decor. And now I am on the lookout for mirrors and shelves and picture frames. I was brainstorming where to find some, and Kurt thought of his Dad. Perfect! AND we are going to his parents house this week for Thanksgiving. I got really excited, and insisted on calling his mom to talk about it right then (even though we were on a date).

"Of course" she said. "that is no problem. Bill will be so excited. But... I'm never going to hear the end of it."

Aw man. We didn't even think about that. All her hard work over the years, ruined. The minute he hears about this, Bill is going to be prowling the garage sales, gathering even MORE stuff, in case I might someday want it. It's so sweet- and I love it! But her life is over.

So she hates me. I just know it. And I really can't blame her.

You give me fever

You know how sometimes you can tell if you're starting to get sick, because you start to sweat a lot?

You do not want to be in my armpits right now.

Still Suspicious

I took your advice and I called the police today. And I told them about our friend in the van. They said they would send someone by to check it out. I waited, and watched, and eventually got bored and went shopping. While I was wandering through Michaels, I got a phone call from a 412 number. "Please let it be a job interview, please be a job interview..."

But it was the police, reporting back to me. Turns out she is a school teacher. Who can't get internet anywhere else. And so she sits in her van in the parking lot every single day, arriving anywhere from 10am to noon and staying until 5pm or later, with the van running the entire time, even though there is a library not even a mile away that is open during those hours and shouldn't a school teacher be IN SCHOOL during those hours and how much is she paying in gas and THIS STILL SEEMS SUSPICIOUS TO ME.

So don't worry guys. Just because she has the police fooled doesn't mean she can pull the wool over my eyes! If you're looking for me, I'm probably standing at my window, peeking out the blinds, wearing a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers with a shower cap on my head. Talking to my imaginary cat.

Good neighbors

Our neighbor is a third year dental student. And even though we have lived next door to each other for 3 months now, we've never met. Because she's busy learning how to be a dentist. And we are too full of ourselves to go say hi.

Last week I made a pan of Ghirardelli Brownies (which are so yummy). I decided that letting that whole pan sit on my counter was a bad idea, and so I cut out a big chunk and left it on her door. Don't worry, I put it on a plastic plate and wrapped it in saran wrap first! I attached a little card to it saying:

"To our Dental Student Neighbor. Sorry we haven't said hi. And sorry this is so ghetto. but I promise it tastes good! - Kurt and Helena"

Yesterday she retaliated. We opened our door to find THIS:

Only, it wasn't half eaten then. She bought us an ENTIRE pan of brownies topped with fudge and cream cheese icing. Her full size card said this:

"thank you so much for the brownie. It was delicious! I hope you like this one. It is from the best bakery in the area."

OH, IT IS SO ON. Does she really think she can win this game? "Kurt, what are we gonna do?" His face looked grim. "We'll think of something."

I have a Pumpkin Roll in the oven, and I'm running out to buy more cream cheese for the filling. That's right. WHO'S THE BETTER NEIGHBOR NOW.

Chewing marbles

The last two mornings have been awful. I've woken up with Migraines both times. You know, the light-sensitive ache, coupled with the movement-induced stabs of pain behind the eyes. Not fun at all. But we figured out what's causing it! I am grinding my teeth.

Yuck.

I do this when I am super stressed out. The summer after my Mom died, Chantel and I both started doing this in our sleep. It drove Amber crazy (we were all sharing a room). She said it sounded like we were chewing on marbles.

I'm not sure what has me so stressed out right now. But if I don't stop soon, Kurt has threatened to get me a mouth guard. Which would be so hot.

My First Giveaway!

This is my 101st post!! I know, I know. I'm sorry it took so long to get here. I'll try to post more often in the future.

Because this is such a big deal, I am celebrating by hosting my first Giveaway! I have always wanted to win one, so I'm hoping that hosting one will up my chances. Good Karma, you know?

Here is what you need to do to enter:

Step 1: Become an official follower of Life in the Pitts. If you are already a follower, move directly to step two. If you are wondering "What the heck is following??" I will walk you through it. Go to your dashboard. Scroll down, and you will see an Add button. Click on that, and you can paste in my URL. Choose to follow publicly. Ta Daa!

Step 2: Leave a message on any new post this week.

That's it!

I will be giving away 3 handmade Fall magnets, which you will recognize from Salt Clay Madness

See? You know they are awesome. And ok, its true that Fall will pretty much be over by the time you get these. But you can save them for next year. This is kind of my trial-run giveaway; if it goes well (if I get a lot of interest) I will be giving away a lot of IN-SEASON stuff in the future!! Who knows- down the line, I might even have enough traffic to do sponsored giveaways.

The contest closes at midnight, this Friday the 27th. 3 of you lucky people will be chosen at random (I'm thinking names from a hat with a blindfold).

So to clarify- Three lucky followers will each receive one of these beauties. Since this is my first giveaway, I am starting small. Only one entry per person. But I look forward to hosting many of these in the future!

I miss...

stealing borrowing my roommates clothes

Thanksgiving Decorations

We are so ready for Thanksgiving!

Well, our apartment is.







And then there's all the stuff I made. I can definitely stop complaining now.

Tax Free

Pittsburgh has weird taxes. Or, I guess, they have weird tax exceptions.

I understand not taxing essentials, like food.

But lingerie? How is that a necessity? This is especially weird because I heard that all other clothing is taxed. I just know that law was put through by some creepy old men.

I'm not complaining. But I am a little weirded out.

(((Ok, good news. I guess I heard wrong, and ALL clothes in Pittsburgh are tax free. Which makes me feel better)))

At least its not dial up

The internet is so spazzy here. Sometimes it is SUPER fast. Like, I'll upload 6 pictures at a time, and its done in 20 seconds. And other times it takes hours to upload a single picture. I check the speed of the internet every morning before I do anything else, thinking WILL THIS BE THE DAY I PUNCH THE COMPUTER IN THE FACE?

So now whenever I have a picture I might someday maybe even kind of want to write a post about, I upload it as soon as I can, and just save it as a draft. I have over 25 in there right now.

Blisters and Blueberries

Here is my adorable sister in law, Annie. She is awesome at being thoughtful and baking stuff to give away. She is really bad at eating pies.

I decided to make some blueberry pancakes tonight. When we lived with her and my brother before moving out here, she made these for us. And they were like a revelation. I asked her for the recipe, and she got this deer-in-headlights look. "But... I don't know! I just make them!" I finally got her to write it down, and I think they are so funny!

1/2 box bisquick
1 egg
pinch of salt
palm of sugar
3/4 pint blueberries
some water

That's it! They are really easy to make. The "some water" part is tricky- you'll want the batter to be thicker than normal pancakes, because these are more cakey. And you'll want to cook them on medium low heat, so they cook through and don't burn.

I suggest NOT making them when you are half asleep. Because that was me tonight. You end up doing dumb things. I finally woke up all the way when I casually grabbed the pan, instead of the handle. Um, yeah. That hurt SO MUCH.

Salt Clay Madness

I decided to branch out from my scrapbooking supplies. I wanted to try something that had nothing to do with paper. When I saw this. and this I knew my next project was going to be awesome (that's where I got the idea from, and all the instructions are in those links).

These crafts may or may not be designed for 4th graders.

I started by making salt dough (the recipe is here.) It was sticky, messy, and I was afraid for my cameras life (so no pictures of this part).

Here are my little guys, fresh from the oven.

And here is after I painted them and glazed them with the shiny kind of Mod Podge. Detailed instructions are on those sites I linked above. I guess I should add that for the turkeys, I watered down the paint, so it was more of a wash, and added brown to the bright colors. Just thought it looked better.


And a close up on the Turkeys! I totally thought I'd like the leaves better, but I am loving these little guys!

I have no idea what to do with them all. I forgot to poke holes in them for string. If you have any ideas, let me know.