real quick

No pics today, just a quick post with 5 random facts for you.

1. It's the last day of February which means I need to get my butt in gear and finish February's organization project, tonight!

2. I will be a wrestling widow for the next few days as David cheers on his wrestlers at the state tournament. But I am actually looking forward to a few free evenings as I have some major cleaning to do with visitors coming the next two weekends.

3. Franklin ripped off his entire toenail last night, hopefully it's for the best because neither of us were enjoying bandaging up his paw. And he doesn't seem to mind, he is running around like a mad man per usual.

4. Am trying to decide if I want to do something along this line for our front hallway, or if that would make it look too cluttered, and should just opt for hooks. But either way I want to get that project underway ASAP. Any thoughts?

5. I got sandals very similar to these at Target a few days ago, makes me excited for summer and vacations (not spring though, I hate spring with all the rain, mud, melting, and worms...).

 These specific sandals, found here.

Now, I'm off to do some spring cleaning!

rental inspection

In Minneapolis if you own a rental property, you pay up front for a rental license, which is required, and then at any time in the near or distant future you can be subject to a rental inspection. This inspection is a fairly straightforward list of requirements your unit(s) must meet above and beyond code compliance. Some of the things on the list are logical to ensure the safety of the tenants, like requiring working smoke alarms, others are unnecessary to provide a safe/ comfortable home, such as requiring all wooden fences to be either painted or stained.We had looked over the list before renting out our duplex, but had not crossed everything off as it could have been years before the city decided to inspect the property, and really not everything is necessary to attract and keep tenants. Unfortunately, it wasn't years, but just a few months before the city contacted us for our inspection. 

We got a letter in the mail in mid-January stating that our inspection would be on February 15th. Luckily we had a month's notice, and luckily we could do it late enough in the afternoon that David could meet the inspector (as these things make me incredibly nervous). We did very little to prepare for the inspection- just walked through checking the smoke detectors. There were a few other little things we could have easily fixed, but we left them in case she didn't notice, or in case writing down a small thing would satisfy her enough to not write down a big thing.

The inspection lasted 15 minutes (I was expecting it to be 45min- an hour). She (according to David) simply walked through each room with a clipboard, opened some blinds, tested some water and was done. We almost survived with a clean bill of health. When she left she informed David that we needed to scrape and paint over all peeling paint on the outside of the house by June 1st. Now this is actually a pretty big task. We knew we could get caught on this as the outside of the house does need to be painted, and no peeling paint is a requirement in the rental inspection list, but we were hoping it would be overlooked. We were however planning on painting the exterior this summer, so now we just have to expedite our plans and get it done by June 1st- a hard feat in MN. Luckily we literally just have to scrape and paint the peeling portions, the rest of the paint job can look like crap. So we can do a preliminary scrape/ paint job by June 1st and then have the rest of the summer to make our house look spic and span. She also informed David, by the way, that our basement bedroom might not be legal. And here is where things got/ get a little tricky.

 This picture probably makes the siding look better than it does in person, 

but you can see the paint job isn't terrible, not great either, 

but good enough where we had hope it would be overlooked.

She explained that our basement bedroom (which to us, and our personal home inspector appeared to meet all the requirements) must have had a permit pulled at one point in time, by any previous owner, for the egress window (which we did not install) as it was an "uninhabitable space being made habitable." She told David she would look into it when she got back to the office and inform us if a permit had never been pulled, and if not, and we wanted to make the room a legal bedroom, we would have to go ahead and have one pulled and have the room re-inspected. She called back a day or two later and left a message, with what we thought would have been good news- that a permit was pulled for the window- however she added in there that the room still wasn't a legal bedroom and if we want to make it legal we can go to the city with our plans and pull a permit- but did not say why it wasn't legal. We have left a message with her asking her to explain, but have not heard back.

 The picture doesn't do the room much justice, 

but just to give you an idea that the room does in fact look like a bedroom-

normal ceiling heights, spacious enough, closet, egress window, etc.

The room meets the size requirement, egress requirement, ceiling height requirement, window size ratio to room requirement, and heat requirement. We can not figure out why it is not legal. Our guess (because she commented on the heat source when in the room, according to David), is that they want to see more than pipes heating a bedroom, even though the pipes adequately heat the space to 69 degrees (the city's requirement). If this is true we would have to pull a permit and install electric baseboard heaters- after asking around, everything included, the cost would be around $500. So, not too bad, to be able to advertise the room legally as another bedroom. However, it is incredibly frustrating that this, or whatever the issue is, was not pointed out at the initial rental inspection, and that we have not heard back from her in over a week.

The really good news in all of this is that our tenants were not using that room as a bedroom. If they were we would have been fined for illegal occupancy and then had to deal with making the bedroom legal immediately. As it is, we can decide to take action on the issue now or wait until we go to rent it out again. Or we can do nothing and say it is a 2BR, 2BA apartment.We are incredibly thankful for getting/choosing these tenants right now as opposed to some of the larger groups that came through that would certainly have had beds in there.

So, all things considered, the rental inspection went well. The only real thing the city is making us do, we had plans to do anyways. And the other issue we can deal with at our leisure. We also now know our rental inspector, though not great at returning phone calls, isn't too much of a stickler (inspectors work an area of the city, so she will be ours on that property until she leaves her job). Another lesson in expecting the unexpected in home ownership/ property management, and another first crossed off our landlord experiences list!

a typical work day

... cause, why not?

Here are what my weekdays look like right about now.

6:30am - Alarm goes off.

6:40am- David gets up, lets Franklin out.

6:50am- Assuming I did not shower the night before, and a shower is absolutely necessary, I get up and shower (if a shower is not necessary, lay in bed for 15 more minutes)... let's be honest though, a shower is really only necessary two, maybe three times a week...

7:00am- David leaves, I get together my work things. My breakfast and lunch were hopefully packed the night before, but I put them the door, as well as my workout bag, and anything else I need to bring to work like heels, planner, etc.

7:10am- Get dressed. Hopefully I already know what I am wearing, otherwise this can take a long time.

7:20am- Blow dry and straighten my hair, let the dogs out, put on makeup.

7:40am-Leave for work.

8:00am- Get settled in to work- check voicemails, emails, eat breakfast. Then ready to go for the day!
 
4:30pm- Change into work out clothes, on a good day. Many days this might not happen til 5:00 or later.

4:45pm- head out (again, if I am lucky).

5:15pm- Stop at Lake Nokomis or another path on my way home, go for a run.

6:00pm- Arrive home, let dogs out, get mail, change into sweats.

6:15pm- Start on dinner, David gets home, decide who is going to finish dinner.

7:00pm- Consume delicious dinner. On Monday/ Tuesday this would probably happen on TV trays while watching Biggest Loser* or The Taste. The rest of the week we are more civilized and eat at the table (this is of course assuming David hasn't absconded for the evening to work the Wild game or coach a wrestling match).
  *I am sure David would like me to add this disclaimer that this show is not by his choice.

7:30-10pm- Free time! Do laundry, tidy up, blog, play WWF, David probably plays some form of video games, read, pack lunch and bag for tomorrow, if it's nice- take the dogs for a walk, if it's not nice out- shovel.

10pm- Let dogs out, get ready for bed.  David usually starts an episode of something (South Park) upstairs while he waits for me. Dogs decide now is the optimum time to run around like crazies and get their wrestle on after a day of lounging and napping.

10:30pm- Episode over, bed time. Spend the next 5 minutes trying to convince Franklin to lay down under the covers.

weekend

Two pictures sum it all up.

National Duals

Individual Sections

january birchbox

I considered lying to you all and saying this was February's Birchbox, but really, where would that get me besides feeling better about posting this so late? So now, at the end of February, I give you January's Birchbox.

My mom gifted me a 3-month Birchbox subscription for Christmas this year (just like last year), and it is one of my favorite presents since it is basically made up of little presents every month that come right to my mailbox.

January's Birchbox consisted of:

-Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy

"Juicy's charming scent will bring out your inner girly girl. Wild berries flirt with mandarin and sfot floral notes for a fragrance that's fun and happy."

-Embryolisse Laid-Creme Concentre- 24 Hour Miracle Cream

"A favorite of models and makeup artists, this cult French moisturizer heals dryness and leaves skin primed for foundation."

-Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo

"Gentle enough for everyday use, this cleanser has a low-suds forumla that removes buildup whitout stripping hair of essential oils."

-theBalm cosmetics Mary-Lou Manizer

"Play up your best features with this three-in-one highlighter, shadow, and all-over shimmer."

-LARABAR (not pictured)

"These satisfying bars are packed with wholesome ingredients like dried fruits and nuts. They're good for you and good-tasting."

I put off posting about it because I wanted to make sure I had used each product numerous times in order to write a review I could post of each item along with the descriptions of the items I received.  I soon realized however, I am not quite a font of knowledge on makeup and beauty products and therefore, reviews should probably be left up to someone a little more knowledgeable in order to be helpful to you!

And in case someone out there is looking for a present to get the world's cutest chihuahuas, a Barkbox is a similar monthly gift I am sure Winston and Franklin would love;)

a full, fun weekend

Another successful weekend over here- productive, fun, and restful.

It started off by getting together with some of David's friends on Friday night to say goodbye to a friend that is moving to New Zealand, indefinitely. He leaves in less than a week and we are sad to see him go. David and I (and a few others) are secretly hoping he's not gone too long.

The festivities continued Saturday night, after another day of coaching for David, as we had another friend and his significant other over for dinner and games. I whipped up a few swiss chard, white bean, and bacon pot pies, recipe from the SK cookbook:

These pics are from the test run a week or so ago, they looked even better after the practice round and a little egg wash added to achieve a glistening effect on the crust.

The SO is a vegetarian, so this was the perfect dish as the bacon (or pancetta) was easily omitted from her pie.

David was in charge of the appetizer- toasted baguette with goat cheese and roasted tomatoes- and a blue cheese, grape, fennel, and arugula salad to accompany my pot pies.

I got to use my formal china, for the seventh time. Which always makes the evening more special, at least for me.

We ended Saturday night by playing a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. I had never played before, but that didn't stop me from winning the game, even if the game was cut short (relatively speaking)  by a chihuahua barreling across the board. And speaking of chihuahuas, Franklin spent the entire evening mean-mugging our male guest. He had to be put in his kennel upstairs because he would not stop barking and nipping at my friend. He proceeded to get in a tizzy in his kennel where he ripped one of his toenails on the door and when I went to let him out discovered his paw and the kennel were bloody. It was traumatic for everybody involved (well probably just me and Franklin). It was also shocking behavior from Frankie, normally Winston is the more aggressive of the two, but Winston snuggled right up to our guests while Franklin tried to run them out of the house. I guess they decided to switch personalities for a night.

Sunday we spent the morning recuperating from the cooking, cleaning, and entertaining flurry that was Saturday as well as getting a few chores done around the house. I took the dogs on a much needed walk, baked some delicious cookies, and then headed to a friend's house to watch the season finale of Downton Abbey while David worked the Wild game. I knew how the season ended (thanks for the spoiler Syd) so I wasn't devastated after the episode like apparently all of Facebook was, and was able to enjoy the evening with my friend (and her mom) and some cookies and cucumber sandwiches.

Now here's hoping for just as good of a week! And it's bound to be as we started it off with ALL of the dishes washed, laundry put away, and a clean house!

shellac part 2, the removal

So now that I have had to remove the shellac from my nails I am not so sure if the manicure was as slick as I thought.

I knew it was going to be hard to remove after watching some other women get theirs taken off while I had mine done at the salon. I figured if it took the professionals that long, it would take me awhile. However, I did not want to drive back down to the salon to get it taken off and figured I would just pop in a DVD of friends and get 'er done. I had googled the process and was optimistic I could do it myself without damaging my nails (which supposedly just chipping it off will do) and without investing too much money. All I would need is some 100% acetone and an orange stick.

So I ran to Walgreens to get supplies and of course forgot to pick up an orange stick. I wasn't convinced that would make a huge difference so I decided to carry on. I got all my other supplies ready: acetone, cotton balls, small bowl, Friends DVD, rag, cell phone, water (because I knew I wouldn't be moving for awhile), and a plastic spoon (my orange stick-substitute).

I then soaked my first hand for 10 minutes in the acetone like the interwebs suggested.

After 10 minutes, almost nothing would scrape off, but I could tell the shellac was getting softer. So I continued to sit and soak. At about the 15 minute mark I began to scrape my nails with the spoon while they stayed in the acetone (another suggestion from google). It was slow work, but the shellac was coming off. I scraped for about 5 minutes (now I had spent a total of 20 minutes on 1 hand) and this is what they looked like:

 

Clearly there was some stubborn spots, but I was getting sick of this and decided to move on to the next hand. I repeated the process, soaking for 10 minutes, trying to scrape, resoaking. This time I discovered that just scraping with my nail worked better than the plastic spoon. I cut my scraping time almost in half by discovering this and was able to go back and clean up the other hand. So now I was about 40 minutes into this project my nails looked like this:

Clearly there was some residue left from the shellac but I wasn't concerned as the internet informed me that this should wash off. So I go wash my hands and almost none of it budges. The chalky stuff washes away, but there are still bumps left on several nails. However, I was over this and just decided to paint over what was left and call it a day. A man on a fast horse will not be able to tell that some of my nails have bumps under the new polish.

So in summary, I still think the shellac manicure was kinda worth it. It lasted 2 weeks easily, with the only real problem being the growth that showed at the bottom of my nails. Even though it was so time-consuming to remove, the time I would have spent painting my own nails in those 2 weeks makes up for that (and it looked better for those 2 weeks than I could have done). However at $30+ a pop I don't think I will be making this a regular occurrence, but it will be a nice treat every once in awhile. 

And if you are thinking about getting one, be forewarned that it might not be as easy to remove as other online tutorials would have you think. Or maybe I am just unlucky.

weekend

A very low-key weekend for us. We finished up part two of our Twins training on Saturday morning and are now officially ready to go for the season. David had a wrestling match and Wild game to work. Other than that we stayed in the house and laid low. This was mostly due to the fact that we were supposed to get a HUGE snowstorm yesterday. Therefore we didn't go to church as it was already raining ice pellets and was promised to get worse, and decided to forgo the errands we had planned later that afternoon. That decision proved to be a  mistake as we only got a few inches of snow and the plows easily cleared it away.We did however have fun barricaded in the house. 

We played a little Life.

 

While watching Home Alone,

 

 Snuggling with puppies,

 And getting smothered in canine kisses.

Also some cookies were baked, a tasty new recipe tried out, and a trip to Midtown Global Market was taken for lunch. Overall another good weekend even if neither of us ended up with snow days today.

11:56pm on a thursday

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have to go out in the frigid weather to pee before bed, or maybe it has to do with the fact that our bedroom is the only carpeted room in the house, but whatever the cause, Winston and Frankie seem to think that bedtime is playtime. It's even more fun when I am making the bed and they have their own wrestling mat.

Look for Winston's sweet spin-move starting at 1:12 and Bear remains (white stuffing bits) all over the carpet at 1:26.

 

what i wore wednesday

It's back, finally! Had some difficulties getting pictures taken since it's not David's favorite thing to do. But I think I finally found a good place to do self-pics at our new place.

Outfit #1

Location: Work

 Button Down: H&M/ Sweater: DKNY (thrifted)/ Pants: Old Navy (thrifted)/
Shoes: Guess (thrifted)/ Belt: Steve Madden/ Watch: Coach

shellac manicure, part 1

10 days into my shellac manicure and the polish is just starting to show some wear and tear around the edges. Due to user error- attacking my nails with a potato peeler and a cheese grater- I don't think I am going to get two full weeks out of the manicure. But I am still quite impressed with how long it lasted. I will probably even spend some of my own hard earned money on a shellac manicure in the future- thanks to a gift certificate I got for Christmas I got to test it out for free.