March wrap-up

Things are good here at the Porter residence, though March seems to have flown by and I realize I haven't posted much this past month. April is looking like it's going to be a pretty fun, busy month though, so I'm sure I'll do better with my blogging next month!

A few weeks ago, Rob ran the Georgia half marathon. The race went through downtown Atlanta and ended in Piedmont Park. He did great! Roxanne and I got up early to go down to the park and see him run by at mile 10. It was Roxanne's first race day experience. She was unsure at first, with all the police on motorcycles and bikers with the wheelchair racers. But once Rob ran by and called out her name, she was all excited and became much more interested in the runners going by. Next big race for Rob is the Boston Marathon on April 18th!





Roxanne is doing well- very happy and healthy. She continues to make us believe that she is the funniest pup around, and she gets more treats than she needs just because she is cute. She has been on a path of destruction lately though. First there was the kitchen floor, then the living room rug, and this week she has pulled quit a bit of stuffing out of some of her toys. Now I understand why they make stuffing-free toys. Luckily, one of her favorite toys is stuffing-free. I will be buying more of these from Big Lots the next time I go! Here she is with it-



This past weekend Rob and I had a nice Southern dinner with college friend/sorority sister Cheryl from Texas. She was in town for work, so though it was a short visit, it was great to see her again. We tried Mary Mac's Tea Room, which I first heard about from a cookbook I got for my birthday. I had fried okra, mint juleps, fried chicken, mac and cheese, and squash souffle. Not quite a healthy dinner, but a yummy one!

The balcony

Here are some pictures of my balcony & new furniture you have read so much about lately. It is a gorgeous day here in Atlanta, and after sweeping off the balcony and putting the cushions back on my loveseat, I enjoyed a magazine and a margarita outside. Roxanne enjoyed the warm outdoor balcony weather with me.

This is war

Here we are a week later, and still no balcony photos to share with you. Our balcony was perfect for literally 1 or 2 days. It finally felt like a completed space to sit and enjoy, the love seat and table went well with the rugs, and I was happy. Well, my happiness was short-lived, because that's when the bird seed started appearing.

It started out slow- little by little I found seed here and there, and then the next thing I knew, the whole balcony was covered in bird seed. BIRD SEED, lots and lots of it. For once in my life I am pretty sure I hate birds more than Rob does, and that is saying something! The funny thing is that only a couple weeks ago I told Rob that I was going to get a bird feeder, and how funny would it be to watch Roxanne watch the birds all day? Rob pointed out that there probably wouldn't be any birds eating out of our feeder because Roxanne would scare them all away. He's right, even though part of him was probably just trying to put a stop to the whole bird feeder idea.

So I quickly got over not having a bird feeder of my own when I went outside the other day and realized my table, love seat, rugs and plants were covered with bird seed. The guy who lives 2 floors above us has a bird feeder on his balcony. At first I thought he was being really careless with his birdseed. Then I thought that the birds must really be going crazy with their eating up there. I even took into consideration that it had been really windy and stormy out lately so maybe the seed was blowing off of the feeder. Or maybe the 2 little child monsters that live directly above us were actually taking bird seed and pouring it through their balcony floor cracks onto our balcony. It didn't hit me until I saw the squirrel on our balcony that the squirrels are at least 75% to blame for the mess I am currently dealing with. They climb up 4 floors, attack the feeder, and make the biggest mess ever, those little devils.

I was so mad about it that I wrote the neighbors a note and taped it to their front door, explaining the daily mess I am dealing with and how my dog is trying to eat all the bird seed, and it's all over the furniture and can you possibly manage your bird seed better?!? Maybe a more mature, secure person would have knocked on their front door and talked to them face to face, but I couldn't bring myself to face that sort of awkwardness. I don't know who lives in that apartment, but I think I have narrowed down the possibilities to 2 men in their 50's. Though I don't really want to talk to either of them, I do hope that whoever lives up there walks by one of these times while I'm sweeping my rugs off so that he can see the situation firsthand, and just maybe start a conversation with me about it that we can have at a comfortable distance (me on my 2nd floor balcony, he on the ground level). Since I haven't received any response letters, the bird feeder has not moved/changed, and I'm sweeping the same amount of seed today as I was before I wrote the note, the future is not looking very bright. I have a real jerk of a neighbor on my hands here. This really wouldn't bother me as much if I didn't just buy new furniture that I would like to enjoy without having to pick bird seed off of my lap. Rob said it best when he said something along these lines, "It isn't going to be the loud, disrespectful neighbors that push you over the edge, or the continuously broken gate, or the people who drive 40mph through the complex with their music pumping, or the average/sub-average apartment amenities that make you want to move to a new apartment complex; it's going to be the bird seed on your balcony that does it."

And an update...since I wrote this post a couple days ago, it has gotten worse. Today when I went outside to assess the situation, I found 5 blobs of squirrel poop, more bird seed than ever, and it looks as though something has been in my plants kicking dirt around to get pieces of seed that have fallen into the plants. I faced my fears and knocked on apartment 261's door, but no one answered. So, I called the front office to complain to the manager...but she was in a meeting. Manager Nancy will be hearing from me today though, that is for sure.

I'm glad Rob watches HGTV

What a wonderful husband I have. I critique and poke fun at him plenty in this blog, I know, but who in a relationship doesn't do that now and then? I just happen to be sharing my stories with everyone on the internet. It's only fair that I brag a little about him as well.

Since we moved to Atlanta, decorating our apartment really has not been a top priority of ours. Of course we would like it to be, but when it comes down to it, the money could be better used elsewhere. Our bedroom probably gets my vote for the least decorated room in the place. It is one of the larger rooms and all of the walls are bare. Not a single thing was hung up, until now.

Rob took it upon himself to decorate the space above our headboard, and I just love how it turned out. He used pictures that he took on the last 2 cruises we were on together (2 from Jamaica & 2 from St. Maarten), got them blown up and printed out in black and white, framed them and arranged them above the bed. I played no part in the project, so what a nice treat it was when Rob called me into the bedroom to show me the final product.

Patio furniture update

You may have read about my patio furniture I was pretty excited about a few posts back. Some of you have asked what it looks like, and I will surely be posting finished product balcony pictures soon enough, just not yet. We've have some difficulties with the furniture.

First, the table. While Rob was at class the other night, the UPS man delivered our 2 boxes of put-it-together-yourself furniture. Actually, the 2 boxes were delivered over 30 minutes apart from each other. Poor deliveryman had to come back to our apartment complex after he realized he forgot to deliver one of them. Anyway, I opened up the boxes and decided I would take it upon myself to put the small side table together. While the directions seemed simple enough, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but what literally went through my mind was, "What if I wasn't married, what if I was single living on my own? Then I would definitely have to put all of this together myself, so get to work!" AHH! I definitely don't have the do-it-yourself/handy woman/I own power tools trait that my Mom has. The table took me well over 30 minutes to put together, and even then it was not standing straight like a table should. I tried to loosen the bolts, rearrange the legs and shelf, and re-tighten, but I couldn't get it to look perfect. And a table is something that looks a little ridiculous if it doesn't stand up perfectly. Luckily Rob came home before I had to throw anything, and he took the table apart and put it back together so that I was happy with it.

Last night I came home from work around 12:30am and what did I find in my living room/guest bedroom? Rob had put the love seat together! And you can only imagine what a headache that love seat looked like to me after dealing with the little table. I was pretty excited about it, but I wasn't sure why the love seat was still inside. I just assumed it wasn't completely finished yet. This morning Rob told me the reason it's still inside is that it won't fit through the balcony door! The classic case of putting something large together in one room, only finding out you can't get it to another room because it's too darn big. It's the worst! There is a chance it will fit through the front door, and that we might be able to lift it onto the balcony once we get it outside. Otherwise, both the table and love seat will have been built not once, but twice.