Items Both Sundry and Diverse

Hi! It's been dreary and wintry around here so I bought some flowers!I'm also reading Jane Austen for the first time (my understanding thus far is that the art of flirtation and the drama of heartbreak is about the same now as it was 200 years ago). But ignore that picture. I meant to place it after the flowers, but Blogger isn't letting me move pictures. (What's up with that, Blogger? Just because we don't post anything for a few months, you're giving us the cold shoulder? Not cool.)

Back to flowers! The first one is a cylcomen, and the picture really doesn't do it justice. Those magenta flowers are so glowy and lovely, it's enough to make a gal forget the slush outside. And then I got these African violets:
Wait a speck! What's that mysterious substance on the leaves? Let's take a closer look.
Yes, that's hot sauce all right! Mmmm! My hope is that it will deter certain trickster felines from chewing on the leaves. I will report back on my success/failure.

In other news, my parents were here for a few days to enjoy the lovely grey weather we've been having in Columbus. And also to see the Chihuly exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory. And meet our cats. And buy us dinner. Aaaand also theoretically to spend some time with me and Scott, though you can see how far down on the list that was.

This is Mom! Looking pensive, as well as slightly yellow due to the brilliance of her raincoat.
And my dad!
As requested, we took them to see the Chihuly pieces at the conservatory.
Chihuly is this crazy-awesome glass artist famous for doing really large, brightly colored pieces of glass art - many of which are designed after something in nature. Hence, a greenhouse conservatory is a really great venue to see his pieces.
Here, I believe Scott and my mom were looking at this:
Which, if you can imagine, was even more spectacular in person. There were also these:




And a little J.Crew modeling on the side:
Plus, my dad hiding from the paparazzi:

Wily paparazzi! You caught him!

Also, this was pretty:
At home, Dad showed me how to shape baguette loaves.
And also how to let them rise inside garbage bags. You learn something new every day.
And I'll leave you with this shot of a panade we made for dinner last night. Leftover baguette + cheese + veggies + chicken broth baked until creamy and gooey = crazy delicious. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be.

New Low Brewing Company: The First New Low

We now pause in our regularly scheduled wedding coverage to bring you a summary of the first homebrewing attempt by the New Low Brewing Company, co-founded by Scott Heines and Emma Christensen:

Adventures in Homebrewing (click each link for the full scoop on the Kitchn website):

• Basic Homebrewing Equipment

• The Wort and Primary Fermentation

• Siphoning and Secondary Fermentation

• Bottling the Homebrew

• Tasting the Homebrew

NO PAPARAZZI!

(Many thanks to Faith Durand for taking most of these pictures while Scott's and my hands were busy!)

Moving Day: Reprise

Yesterday marked the first official day in our new digs. Yay! The movers showed up bright and early, and promptly began unloading. Scott and I helped of course:

Maybe we'll get rid of our living room furniture and put in a few bike ramps instead. Eh? Eh?!

The fun was shortlived, however. The movers quickly put us to work marking off the inventory list and making sure all our stuff was indeed, well, ours:

We did fit in a small photo shoot.

No paparazzi this time, thank goodness. We were in NO MOOD for their shenanigans!

The movers had finished hauling in all our worldly goods by about noon, and we were left us to our own devices. Whhhaaat?!

This unpacking business has been hard. Harder than we thought it would be. Or, I guess, more emotional than we thought it would be. It's hard to explain. I guess...now this move feels real. Moving into this great apartment is both incredibly exciting and also very final. The past two days have felt like a complete roller coaster of emotions. Which took us off guard, I think, because we kind of thought we were already done with that stuff. Whhhaaat?!

It's also just exhausting. It was a lot easier when we moved into Bynner Street with only an armchair and a milk crate to call our own. Anywho. At least we have our bikes.

Moving Day!

Hello from the Holiday Inn Express in Buffalo where the shampoo smells like vanilla frosting and the lotion is labeled "Soothe." Yes, please! But backing up a few days, we thought we'd bring you a few snapshots from moving day.

After being stuck in the traffic for most of the morning (we won't miss that!), the movers showed up Friday morning and got right to work packing, disassembling, and loading.

The crew was really really awesome. They moved too fast to get a good shot of them, so this is the only group photo. That's Todd on the left, then Mikey, then the boss man, Gilberto.

We really couldn't have asked for a better crew. Even though they had to work into the evening after getting off to that late start, they were chipper and careful and took time to chat with Scott and I. As stressful and emotional as it was to watch our belongings get packed away, the respect and attention these guys showed really helped set our minds at ease.

They finished packing up in a few hours and started loading the truck.

Although the movers seemed happy to let us hang out, it was pretty obvious that they had things well in hand. We were really just cramping their style, truthfully.

Since packing our own car didn't really have a lot of appeal...

...things quickly disintegrated into goofiness.

We even got a visit from our favorite neightborhood dog and dog walker. In the five years that we've lived in this neighborhood, this man has never made eye contact or smiled at us despite our escalating attempts to force his hand and the fact that his dog OBVIOUSLY wanted love from us. I surreptiously snapped this shot as the dog walker passed by (still avoiding eye contact as usual, of course).

So mysterious. So intriguing. We'll miss you, strange dog walker man! And your cute dog, too!

Thing were still a little slow, so we decided to do some pro bono modeling work for J Crew.

Until the paparazzi showed up, that is. No paparazzi!

All too soon, the van was loaded. That's all our stuff! It will be going into storage in Ohio until Scott and I find a place of our own. (We're in temporary housing provided by Honda until then. Thanks, Honda!)

Goodbye, stuff! See you in a few months. Eep!

And then it was just me and Scott in an empty apartment.

A very dirty empty apartment.

Guys, this still feels like our apartment.

It feels like we're just on vacation. It feels like we'll be back next week. 112 Bynner Street still feels like home.