Kona isn't really any different than any other cat, she will seek out the highest spot she can and just sit there. Seems kind of dull to me. She just figured out that she could make it up to our wine shelves. If she weren't cute, I'd probably be mad.

Sir. Maxwell Shepherd graced our home with his presence recently! It was the first event of it's kind for our humble home and we are most honored with his decision to sleep on our table for a short while.




Kona was suspicious and curious, but did not suck his breath out, putting that nasty rumor to bed once and for all.

And now for some random bathroom photos.

The washcloth's presence on this pristine piece of enamel calls to mind relaxed Sunday mornings and the rituals that common people once had. Also, there is a contact case in the foreground. Doesn't everyone love the foreground?

The cat is huge!

We have a few projects going on at once. Here are some pictures from installing the stainless backsplash, in attempts to finish the kitchen up. The tape is now off and it just needs some caulk and outlet covers.


I was "convinced" that we needed to do something about the ugly vanity and associated hardware in our bathroom.
And here I have done something about it.
Still in progress, but it's looking pretty good.

Today (or yesterday or tomorrow or so) is Kona's birthday, near as we can figure. I know some might accuse us of being crazy cat people, but we don't have kids or dogs, so we go with what works. In honor of the occasion, some cute kitten shots

First, a special congratulations to Maxwell Ronin Shepherd on being born this week. It was a hard fought battle and you came out on top little guy. Also congratulations to the new parents, I've only seen you guys be parents for four days and I can already tell you are the best.

Slow but steady progress has been made to the kitchen. All the trim was painted a couple weekends ago, but it still looks pretty awesome. The stainless back splash around the stove went up and will be followed by stainless under our other cabinets later. I was also able to hang up some kitchen 'accessories' like sweet knife racks and shelves.

We have also finally brought all the boxes with kitchen stuff up and everything is (more or less) away. It only took us 7 months, sweet.


Oooo...how artsy.

So we have just now (within the past 20 minutes) walked in the door from Portland and we are quite sad to have had such a short trip in such a cool city. The get away was just what Katie and I needed after some intense months of work and school. But seeing a well designed city and lively streets makes me long for a more urban environment to live and work.


This exemplifies one of the many reasons that Portland is awesome (and conversely why other, un-named cities are less awesome). If you look closely at the sign, this place has "Wine + Beer + painting your own pottery." Take one activity that can be somewhat dull (painting your own pottery) add alcohol and you have an awesome time. Pretty much everything in Portland follows the formula "Something + Beer/Wine/Liquor = Awesome" Day spa/wine bar. Dentist/wine bar. Spinning class/wine bar. The possibilities are endless.

Also, the weather in Portland was great. Barely rained at all, nice temperatures, and Spring was in the air.

Pretty much everything we did on the second day was a direct suggestion from Laura (thanks Laura!) and it was all cool. Multnomah falls is the second largest year round waterfall and it was pretty killer.


This was Katie's now-we-have-to-leave-Portland face. Pretty sad, I think.

So after a month of working 80+ hours a week, I am finally done, no more overtime. Katie is also done with her Seminar (thanks to those of you who listened without exactly understanding to help her prepare). But now that both of us have had a weight off our minds, we decided to do something we hadn't done in over a month...eat a home cooked meal together.

Also, Modern Materials was having a great liquidation sale, where we bought some cool things for relatively cheap (like this "rock" inspired table runner").

Look at that action!

The meal consisted of steaks w/ blue cheese, roasted Yukon gold potatoes w/ garlic and herbs and creamed spinach. Steak houses, eat your hearts out.

This beats a mass email. I found these here. It's not the best site around, but there are more similar items.

Too drunk to really post anything of value. Anti-baby shower, that was joined with the real baby shower later in the evening. Here are some pictures.






We had 12 different kinds of scotch. All were delicious.