It's beginning to look a lot like....

It's July - so no surprise to get the first email from the company I order Christmas Cards from.   No pressure to order though - this is an Exclusive Preview.  I'm sure they'll remind me to buy soon enough. 

Although the temptation to order early and send my sister her Christmas card in September may be hard to resist.  :)

Classical Music galore...

OK, I have a new addition, and it is Magnatune

I had first found them through a podcast.   I was searching for Classical music podcasts as a way to listen to new composers and all.   I picked a Magnatune podcast at random and added the feed to my playlist.   An hour of classical music, with a short self-ad between tracks.   Very nice.

Then one day I heard a song I had to have, so I actually went and checked out the web site, and found it to be a pretty good deal.    $15 a month for all you can eat.   That's right, you can download any and every album they have.  No limits.   No DRM.  Great quality.   Artists get the money, and best of all, no RIAA.   Their company slogan is We Are Not Evil, and they seem to live up to it. 

They also have New Age, Ambient, Electronic as well as Rock and Alternative, but I haven't gotten to all those yet - too sucked into the classical music.

Check them out.   You can listen (streaming) to everything at their site for no cost.   But if you're into on line music sources, especially one kind to the actual artists, check them out.  
A sample album is below.  The song fandango got me hooked on the site.    And if you're on itunes, look for Magnatune - they actually have 47 different free podcasts, based on genre and even specific composers...    

Enjoy




Boccherini Fandango Box by Bezdin Ensemble

Things I read

Astronomy Photo of the Day blog. Name says it all - a different astronomy picture every day. A variety of images from the heavens - stars, planets, celestial events. The photo in the link today is a close up photo of the sun - very nice...

There's a Sale at Korvettes!

For some unknown reason, my family used to line dresser drawers with newspaper. Mom can't remember why, we just always did. For posterity's sake, I never changed mine out in all these years.

Now that the old dresser is gone, the paper is headed to the recycle bin. But some interesting things happened 30+ years ago, and since then

• Korvettes , Gran Central, read's and Caldor are just some of the many stores that are gone.
• They're not called Master Charge or Bank Americard any more (who knows their new names?)
• 8 track player with record player for only $150. $20 will get you a pocket camera. Chickens for 49 cents/lb. A VW Rabbit will set you back $4,400, but a Chevetter is only $3,800
• Taxes, Jobless benefits, Veterans, Middle East Unrest are all in the headlines
• You could get a 5 room apartment for around 400/month., but being a receptionist will only get you $10K/y
• You could get a bank CD at 7.8% (those were the days)

History passed down.

If you read my last post, you know I have some new bedroom furniture arriving this week. My first 'adult' bedroom set as my mother put it. But let's reflect on my old piece...





This is my old dresses. Simple 3 drawer wooden dresser. Been carting it around all my life. Literally.

I actually have a first memory of it. I came home from school one day and mom was in the back yard refinishing this piece. I was excited to get something new. It was probably her way of saving a few bucks on new furniture. (OK, who else remembers re-stringing venetian blinds? :) I don't remember where it came from - I don't remember it being in our basement. I'll have to ask. This piece was her old dresser. She and her older sister had gotten a matching set when they were little kids.

So at the age of 12 I got a new dresser, and it has been with me ever since. Growing up through high school. At the point in college where "my stuff" finally came to Boston, the dresser came with me. Been a part of my bedroom through quire a few apartments, and has managed to survive all the moves in-tact. And never really thought about replacing it before.

In my last place I had a high boy that I had found on the curb and re-painted, but this dresser remained. It was built well. The finish was still holding up. And, well, it has been in the family. And those who know me know I'm not exactly a fashion plate or a clothes horse. The drawers were big enough to hold t-shirts and shorts and such. It worked.

But like my last post said, I saw something new in the store and that got me thinking... On top of this dresser I had put a shelving unit that held 'stuff'. And after a dozen years in this apartment, I realized the stuff just sat on the shelf, and I was getting tired of that. The bottom drawers, while nice and deep, were almost too deep. I was packing so much stuff in them it was tough to find anything. (I have up the used high boy when I moved, so I had fewer drawers.) I also had my old 'pantry' shelving unit form the old apartment, now in the bedroom serving as a t-shirt rack. Functional, but too easy to fill up with stuff I didn't wear much. And the clothes got awful dusty being in the open all the time. So while the new furniture 'hit me' in the store, part of me was looking for a change.

The chaos of my 'old' bedroom.

After Mom gave her blessing to me getting rid of the old piece, I felt uncomfortable giving it away on craigs list. I had this horror of some college kids getting and trashing this old (officially antique?) piece. The family is spread out now, so I couldn't just haul it to someone's basement. And with a lot of furniture available so cheap these days, to actually haul it to Connecticut wouldn't have been worth the money - you could buy your own 'new' decent one for the $100 bucks a pickup trick rental would have cost.

On a lark I emailed a photo to a friend form work - he and his family had recently moved into a new condo. It was a smart alec "Hey, you want this" email. And was surprised when "sure" came back. Come Monday I had to ask if he was serious - which he was. The dresser in his daughters room was rescued form the curb (I can relate) so he was happy to have some nice furniture for free. I emptied it out (yes, I found some clothes I had forgotten about). Cleaned it up. Did some repair on it - which was kind of fun. Got to put my 'fine woodworking' skills to use. Funny - I repaired one of the glide supports inside, and the top drawer works better than it has in years. A quick car trip that weekend and it was his.

So the dresser that's been in my family for close to 60 years has a new home. Perhaps his daughter will live with it and take to off to college one day????

Marlee T. poses with her new dresser.

Time to grow up?

I was in the mega furniture store a few months back, primarily looking for a new chair for the living room. In shopping I took some time to wander around the other departments, including bedroom furniture. just kind of wandering around not really looking at anything. Then I saw it. The style. The color. The lighting. The bedroom set I almost had to have.

Not like I needed anything new. What I have works fine. So I took some photos and kept it in the back of my mind. Then mass announced another sales tax free weekend, and I figured it was time to either fish or cut bait. Buy the pieces or stop thinking about them.

And think about them I did. Is Mission style furniture, which a style I really like. Solid oak construction with a nice cherry stain. Cedar draws, dovetail construction and European (full extension) drawer glides. All very enticing. What I have is a low boy dresser (3 drawers) and a shelf that used to be in the kitchen in my old place, and now holds t-shirts and jeans. Hey, it's functional and easy access to everything. Should I take the plunge? Was it time for - gasp - grown up furniture?

Long story short, I took the plunge. it may seem odd, but one of the holdups was the current low dresser. It was my mom's growing up. When I was a kid my mom had refinished it and it's been mine for over 30 years. Kind of tough to let go of a family heirloom. So one night I call mom to say hi and all, and anticipated discussing the possibility of getting rid of the old family piece. (given my family is scattered across the country, and the abundance of cheap furniture these days, there really isn't anyone to pass it on to. So I'm talking to mom about the me maybe getting some new furniture. She immediately comes back with "you're almost 46 and you're finally getting some real furniture for that bedroom?". That pretty much sealed it.

So I've ordered a 6 drawer high boy and a slightly larger highboy with door. Some pics are below. This past weekend was the big cleanup of the bedroom (blog about that later). Now that I'm committed, I'm psyched about the new stuff showing up. I love the design. it'll go well with a piece that I'm keeping. And it looks like they're piece that will last. Let's hope all goes well.

Here are the two pieces that'll be here next week....

Harvesting

OK, I'm behind in the blog again.

Ate my first and most likely only harvest of the corn this year. Ears were small but quite tasty. The garden is a bit strange this year. Maybe the soil just exhausted soil - we haven't had good compost delivered in 2 years, and I didn't get any manure or such. So the corn stalks were a bit shorter, but I got corn. My neighbor has really tall corn, but no ears. Maybe it's just global warming.

So the corn was tasty. I've had spinach and peas - I'll get to those pics. The Swiss Chard is ready to harvest - perhaps pics of that shortly..

And if you can't garden yourself - get to the farmers market. Local is always tastier. I'm going through farmers market blueberries like they're going out of style :)