For my birthday, maybe?

New shoes are totally not in the budget at the moment, but how gorgeous are these Progetto pumps??

The details and colors are beautiful and those heels are exactly the right height/shape for people (me) who don't wear heels very often.

Available at Lori's Shoes and found via oh happy day (a great blog I've been enjoying recently).

This entertained me for a long long while this morning.

My favorites: 1 2 3 4

via kottke.org

Bday gifts

Here is what I bought R for his birthday

This one
This one
and This one

Click through the site and read some of the character descriptions. They're hilarious!

Happy Birthday!

R. turns 33 today. For his birthday he gets a house!!! I don't want to jinx us but it looks like it's going to work out.

On our menu tonight:

swordfish with braised endive
parsley leaf potatoes
cherry cheesecake from Dublin Bakery

I'll post his bday gift later, I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Worth the drive

Altomontes Italian Market in Warminster - lots of olives and cheese, a great butcher section, fresh pastas, homemade sauces and stock/gravy... so glad my friend pointed this one out to me. I'm regretting the fact that I didn't buy any beef while I was there, it looked so good.

Dublin bakery in Willow Grove - famous for their butter cake (I can't believe there is a wikipedia entry for that one). Also: homemade donuts, sticky buns, cakes, cookies. A few of the cakes looked completely foreign to me, making another trip a must. All for extremely reasonable prices (I bought two cakes and a donut for $15.80). Here are a few reviews.

Diversions

Did anyone see Nova last night? The show was titled Marathon Challenge and they gave 13 out-of-shape people 10 months to train for the Boston marathon. Twelve out of 13 finished the race. Pretty amazing!

I also wanted to watch Sick around the world on Frontline but forgot. Looks like this one is available online.

Just waiting

This house buying endeavor is really an emotional rollercoaster. We've entered the post-inspection negotiation phase and are stuck between us taking time to get reasonable cost estimates and the sellers pushing for an early close date.

Of course we love the house but also don't want to make a very expensive mistake. At the moment it is all very uncertain and the wait is killing me!

Oh the possibilities

This kept my husband up for quite some time last night: home inspection nightmares from the This Old House site

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII

We met with the mortgage lender on Wednesday night, radon testing started yesterday and the structural inspection is set for Saturday afternoon. We both have the distinct feeling that we are totally flying by the seat of our pants, but so far haven't encountered any major issues. We'll see...

Recently

It has been a while since I posted... I spent almost all of last week in bed with the monster flu bug that has been going around. I had a fever for so many days that I actully started sobbing on Wednesday night, asking R. what I would do if it never went away. That's how pathetic I am and how infrequently I get sick. I was starting to forget how it feels to be well.

AND, we've spent the last two days buying this:

How cute is that?? We're totally in love with the interior (there is an entire room filled with floor to ceiling bookcases), I'll post more photos as soon as I can. It was built in 1850, and the owners accepted our first offer, so we're hoping the inspection this week isn't a deal-breaker. Keep your fingers crossed! If all goes well, we'll be moving in early June. It's so crazy and happened much sooner than we thought, but we're really excited and have already started arguing about how we will divide up space (my craft area and his "toys" are going to have a throwdown).

More later!