happy thanksgiving

We are leaving today for Thanksgiving at my mom's house. I am so excited, I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in 3 years.

Except I hate leaving all the half-finished stuff in the new apartment; I really wish we had time to do more now. It's so fun and satisfying fixing up the place.

I had no idea I married a handyman, but look at this gallery he put up out of ikea curtain hangers:

new place

I love this new apartment! Just two nights and it already feels like home.

All the legos survived intact, although it took some work.

And my wonderful, perfect husband hung this light today:

Wired it up and all, without even googling how to which would've been my first step.

Lots of boxes left, but a tiny tree was one of the first things unpacked, and that just may be the only one that goes up this year.

our first night

Empty shelves in old apartments...

and new apartments waiting for shelves...

can't wait to move!

It's barely raining outside, but somehow our new waterfall feature is in full force:

The result of the maintenance men "fixing" the flooded apartment above us, which leaked right into ours, by busting a hole in the backed-up gutter above our window. It sounds like it's pouring out, even with the rain completely stopped.

Turns out you can't just put a bucket under the leak when the leak is a 6-feet-long dripping crack in a concrete ceiling:

photos of our apartment - before the packing

Last Saturday, after sushi and The Men Who Stare at Goats, we stopped by on a whim to see a new apartment+shopping complex across from the theater. It seemed so safe there that I think we decided to move right then and there. The next day, we drove around looking at apartments and the next day we made appointments and saw them, and the next day we signed a lease and started moving and by this Saturday we will live there. One week. And when I say we I mostly mean my wonderful, impulsive husband.

I will miss this place, especially the giant windows and all the green and the animals that play in it, the ceilings so high that now half of the lights are burnt out, the massive amounts of storage.

I will not miss looking both ways before you leave the front door, the scary people who bang on your door occasionally, my new car getting broken into, the scary 2nd bathroom that we just closed up two years ago and haven't opened since, the broken stove and the no-bathtub!

CameraBag, I love you.

Oh my, I almost screamed out loud when I saw that they are making Camera Bag for mac! This is my all-time favorite iPhone app, and what I use to edit all my blog photos. Now I can post filtered non-iPhone camera pics - without having to email them to myself, save to my iPhone, edit, then email back to myself, and download to the computer. Which was a little ridiculous, don't you think? No more wishing for Photoshop! Here are a few filtered Halloween photos, to celebrate.

Which of these things are not like the other?

It was strange, but most of the little girls liked this costume, kept coming up to him and smiling and waving and stuff. I think they though he was a puppy.

The winner of the scary contest. There's just something about a clown.

Although personally I though this was the scariest. His mask had a pump that you fill with fake blood and hold in your hand to make blood pour down your face...

When I was young I was always a princess or a rag doll or a rock star or something like that. And since I was an adult, I've been a cowgirl, police woman, fairy, a pink-and-black cat, and now red riding hood. I think next year I'll be a gothic vampire or zombie prom queen or something. Or at the very least a witch.

Speaking of Halloween, this Vogue page got magneted to the fridge to remind me to keep me away from the kids' candy. Gisele's stomach is sick, no? Maybe I should tape her to the tv instead, to remind me that the stack of exercise tapes is not just for looks...

guitar hero 5

Is it terrible to open your kids' Christmas presents ahead of time so you can play with them?

Guitar Hero is so fun!

faithless

We caught this old (1932!) movie on tv and it was wonderful, which led to deciding to watch more good classic movies, which led to finding imdb's list of top movies, and, wouldn't you know, there's an app for that:

It's not that fancy, but does list the movies and let you check them off and sort them as you watch. It's called MovieList and I'm pretty sure it was free, but I can't find it on the internet anywhere which is weird.

So far we've watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (I just love Jack Nicholson) and East of Eden.

They just don't make movies like they used to.