Apple Creek

It's Saturday and Kayo had a day off! But instead of sleeping in, we actually got up earlier than workdays and went fishing with Joe's dad. We must say it was worth getting up early. Yeah, the pictures below speak themselves. Nope, I (Kayo) didn't catch those nice trout. Joe and his dad let me carry and hold them like I caught them. But I caught several little trout on this trip. Very exciting. The best part was that I didn't lose any of my lures. Pretty good. My casting skills are getting better too.

Fresh fish for dinner tonight. Probably on the grill. While I took a shower, Joe cleaned the fish and had to go back outside to PLAY with his *weedwacker. Just picture one of those ugly monsters from the movie "Fifth Element" shooting up a spaceship (sunglasses included). That's Joe mowing grass.

*There's a really good story about the weedwacker that Joe has to post sometime soon. He LOVES his new toy!

Our Sexy Bathroom (Joe says)

Finally, I painted our upstair bathroom. It took me a while to decide on the colors, but I'm glad I waited. Now we need a wild animal fur rug and an antique goddess figure... or something (JOKING). Wait! Joe is pretty serious about that.

Chipmunks' Victory

Well... Joe's feeding the critters only works one way. Chipmunks have been very busy packing their cheeks with sunflower seeds and stashing away. They go through seeds so fast that I didn't even know how many times Joe had refilled the feeder already!! And still, they get into Joe's sunflower sprouts whenever the feeder gets empty.
Joe isn't taking any chance with those critters. In the picture are many containers of seeds: lupine, Oriental poppies, Chinese lanterns, chives, cilantro, AND MORE SUNFLOWERS... INSIDE the house. It's just inside from our back door to the stairway to the basement, and that's where Joe keeps the bag of sunflower seeds too. Chipmunks now sit at the back door and bark!!!
Joe said this evening when he was refilling the feeder, a couple of chipmunks came to him and actually ate some seeds off his hand. I'm really hoping I'll eventually get to take pictures of Joe feeding the chipmunks.

Joe vs Critters

As it turned out, spring skipped us, and summer came all at once. Of course, the 4th of July is only next week, so we were ready to put out our Tiki torches to enjoy a warm evening outside. And Joe officially declared a war against bunny and chipmunks who were nibbling on his sunflower sprouts. He almost got himself a pellet gun, but too many people talked him into feeding the critters. The idea is to keep them well fed, and in theory they should stay away from our garden. So instead of spending $150 on the gun, Joe picked up a bag of sunflower seeds for 5 bucks. Chipmunks took no time to appreciate the seeds. In the picture is this one chipmunk who thinks seeds are all to himself, though he doesn't fool around too much with Joe every time he senses Joe's presence nearby.

Good-Bye Flannel

Finally it's been more like June. On the 17th we parted our flannel sheets! That's almost 8 months of winter. Two weeks ago we had hard time believing we could get rid of flannel sheets this year.
And after the long wait, spring flowers are in bloom all at once. In the photo is a lupine bouquet Joe picked the other day. Now that we have our own hill behind the house, we can fill our backyard with flowers... we just picked up seed packages for oriental poppies and chinese lanterns for a starter. Our sunflower seeds have been nicely sprouting too. Exciting!!

Pier Delights

We just went out for a stroll after dinner to enjoy what was left of the nice day. We walked northbound on Teal Lake Ave. and came across a wonderful surprise. Joe had thought this little lakeshore ice cream place was closed, but on this warm evening it was surrounded by people of all ages. We had to have hand-dipped ice cream cones to celebrate! This made our walk even more enjoyable and will be our good reason to take the walk many times in future. A little thing like that gives us more bond to our new neighborhood and community.
No photo today, and we ate all our ice cream... sorry!!

Not That We Haven't Been Eating....

It's been a while since we posted photos of anything from Joe's grill. Yes, we still eat. Joe's been grilling some awesome stuff on the grill. In fact he just grilled the best ribs yesterday (meat falling off the bones and the zesty BBQ sauce).

In the photo is our dinner table tonight: beef fajita with spanish rice. The bottle of Asahi Super Dry beer happened to make a presence, only because we took a picture to print a Father's Day card for my dad. We are trying to convince him that he can feel right at home with his favorite beer even in the states.

Here's a better picture! Joe with a BIG mug that he picked up at a rummage sale and has been saving for my dad. The mug isn't even full after pouring the whole 21 oz. beer! (F.Y.I. Joe has a set of four mugs. Plenty to have company!)

Still Painting!!

Joe just called and said he won't be home for another couple of hours. I have a little time to post some photos.
Nope, we're not done PAINTING... after 17 gallons of primer and, oh another ten gallons of various colors of paint. Here's our little downstair bathroom, freshly painted in a hint of lime color to carry the Mexican chili theme of our kitchen. The photo lacks the brightness of the actual color though. And we love our matching light blue sink and toilet! We still have the big upstair bathroom to tackle. I want to make it very different from this one.... I'm thinking a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme (Bath & Body Works), rich red and silvery grey... exotic, chic, and a bit wild!
Finally here's my studio set-up, a half of our large dining room. I had to fight with our house plants who also want that wonderful sunlight. I might still lose some window-front space to them.

That's it for pictures. Last night we planted a few different kinds of sunflower seeds, hoping our weather guys are right about the warmer temperatures (warmer than 40s at least). We also hope not too many birds and chipmunks get to our seeds!

The Neighborhood

It's cold and raining outside. Barely above 40 degrees! We've been hoping to stroll around our new neighborhood when it stops raining and gets a little warmer. Certainly a perfect weather for a nap, listening to Joe's record collection this evening. We took a moment to take some pictures (videos) of our neighborhood and some updates in the house.

The old built-in hutch in the diningroom with our Fiesta collection.Joe's stereo system/TV/PS3 in the living room. Joe's closet now with most of his clothes.Lastly, a view of our backyard.

Not Antique, But Eclectic

This was Joe's mid-week project last week. We needed a little more closet space in our bedroom. It had to be either an antique armoire (to go with the old house) or an eclectic Joe & Kayo style closet (which no store would have). So we went with the latter. Joe had those two large side boards from a book case at work. I painted the outer side white, and Joe mounted them on the floor and secured them from the wall to create two free standing walls. Then we simply put white wire closet organizer shelves.
Joe is no master carpenter... but he is a Finn. He builds things with what he's got and makes sure they're strong and sturdy.This weekend we had Joe's family over for dinner: teriyaki chicken, bratwurst, corn, grilled veggies. As always Joe did an excellent job on the grill. The funny thing was that we had to ask them to bring their own chairs and table to set up in our dining room!
And slowly we are getting to know our neighbors (they all seem to know us already). You must understand we came from the "big" city, which is only 15 minutes away by car, but this smaller town is where many families have lived long time and everyone knows each other. Real old timers only go to the "big" city twice a year, or something like that.