A slightly bizarre proposal

Saturday afternoon, after two full girl scout camps, I helped with a proposal!

A guy contacted me about two months ago to see if we could have an owl fly in with a ring for his proposal to his girlfriend (who is a big owl fan, apparently). Unfortunately, because our birds can only be used for educational purposes, we couldn't offer this to him. Instead we decided on a tour through Owl Forest and a private meeting with Barney, the Great Horned Owl, culminating in his finding a ring in a fake owl pellet and proposing to his love. All of this had to seem like it was just happenstance, though.

(The owl pellet idea came from a goofy conversation between Helen and I and was more of a joke than anything, but the guy really liked the idea. I felt a little nervous about it, since it would technically be almost entirely my fault if she said no because she thought the proposal was disgusting. He was positive that she would like it, though, so we went along with it).

I met them at the entrance of Owl Forest after my last camp, pretending like I had never met the guy before and certainly wasn't there to talk to THEM specifically. I was speaking with another group (carefully corralled into talking to me so the whole thing would seem more natural) and when they came up I casually offered to walk them through the forest since I was at the end of my shift for the day. They agreed, she was none the wiser and we went through the exhibits until we 'stumbled' upon Barney and Helen waiting at the end of the forest.

The soon-to-be fiancee was enthralled and launched into asking questions about Barney, who was being really territorial and hooting up a storm. Helen subtly introduced the topic of owl pellets by discussing how to find owls in their territories in the wild, but struggled to really describe an owl pellet...Jenn to the rescue! I pulled out the tupperware container holding the fake owl pellet and offered it to the guy to pull apart, so that they could see the bones inside.

Only there wasn't a bone inside, there was a diamond engagement ring. He went on one knee, she started to cry and she said yes.

Here is a real owl pellet:











Here is my fake rendition, made of dryer lint, stuffed animal fur, diluted Elmer's glue and some dirt on the outside:

Something new every day, folks! Something new every day.

Beautiful fall

The weather has dipped it's head just below 80 degrees during the day time now. Absolutely perfect! I've been biking to work most of the summer and right now I am REALLY enjoying it.

Andrew and I are working really hard to not just eat at home, but eat respectable foods. yesterday we made a sort of improvised chicken-garam masala and rice dish. the four days before that were the pasta marathon. I made spaghetti, linguini and ravioli (which rocks!). Tonight is panko breaded yogurt chicken and haricote verts.

hurrah for fall!

Uh oh, what's this?

Yesterday's kitchen:

And the day before:

But wait, what is this?

Increments, ladies and gentlemen, increments.

Ok ok ok, this is the last post for tonight. I've just been so derelict in posting things that I can hardly hold myself back when I find what I want to post and have the time to do it.

The week before our 1-year anniversary Andrew and I got some photos taken, because Anginet was in town and we're sort of ridiculous like that. These were the 10 we chose that were included in the photo shoot and there are 10 more we would like that we'll buy soon.

Enjoy:

It's transforming!

I asked Andrew to help me with my maniacal laughter earlier this evening but unfortunately it's gone nowhere. I won't be denied this skill, however. The more I seem incapable of a villain's laugh, the more steely my resolve becomes to develop one.

In the mean time, our office/dining room/current junk room is transforming!

Sadly, the kitchen is getting worse, except that we've hung up a shelf and our pot rack!

I feel like we're really cooking with gas when we start to hang things up on the walls all on our own. Also, Andrew and I each cut down a tree today*, so we are practically basking in our adult accomplishment.

*If I'm being totally honest, they were very small trees.

Ready for take-off!

I just cleaned off the SD card from my camera and lookie what I found! Christmas pictures!

And there're also pictures from the wedding open house last year!

I am at the tail end of what will likely be a 50 hour week, which is sort of my treat after last week...which I have been fondly calling the 'week of hell' in the back of my mind. My interns are gone, my seasonal finishes on Monday and tomorrow is International Vulture Awareness Day, which has been a huge event to plan and is FINALLY here.  But I don't have a lot of interesting things to say about work or this week that isn't just boring coordination, so I'm going to give you a photo tour of the main floor of our new place. Bask in the glory of the astronomical mess we are slowly untangling and the adorable living space hidden somewhere beneath.

The front of the house. Ours is on the right.

"Oh, hello!" The dogs looking out the front door. The entrance to our place is on the right.

Our incredibly messy living room. Admire the fantastic paint job!

Looking from the living room through the doorway into the kitchen. MESSY.

Through the doorway to the right. We have a WORKING DISHWASHER.

From the stairs into the bathroom.

Into the back room. Once more, admire that bluish green! This room is the disaster zone. Slowly, I will rend it to pieces and reassemble it into glorious order.

The window in the disaster room. Can you find the secret visitor?

The door at the back of the disaster room leads into this! A mud room!

Just outside of the mudroom door we had a secret wasp nest that Andrew and I sneak attacked last night. They are all dead!

This is the patio. The stairs leading down lead into the mudroom.

This is the backyard! I'm watering it! I have a goal to save the lawn from the weeds that have overtaken it.

This is my inherited garden!

These are my tomatoes!

These are the neighbor chickens that Lucy loves to watch. She doesn't bark at them and doesn't act aggressive toward them, I think she's just fascinated by them.

Next time: The top floor!