(T)arina and (A)tkins in Chicago

Alrighty, then. I finally have some pics to show you. Right now, the old tv and entertainment center are hanging out in the middle of the living room, which is less than ideal. Hopefully we’ll have someone who wants those things take them away soon.

Okay, then. Here’s a pic of our new bookcases, all loaded up:

Nice, huh? They really hold all the books well, and we have room to grow! Which is good, because I’m always on the lookout for more books.
Here’s a pic of the new tv stand and new, spiffy tv. Atkins will post more of the details about it later. I just like it ’cause it’s pretty! Raika seems to like it as well.

So, this last pic shows you how everything fits together, which I think looks really good. It’s less cluttered and less dormroomish. And that’s always a plus.

That’s it, kids! So, if you know of anyone in the Chicago area that would like a tv or an entertainment center, just let us know! ;)

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Hi all!
So, if you read the post below, you’ll know our AC partially flooded our living room and destroyed our bookcases. If you didn’t read it, do it now. I’ll wait…
Okay, now we’re all up to speed. We decided to get two new bookcases. Oh, and a new TV stand to go with our new, giant TV. I ordered the tv stand a few weeks ago and the bookcases a couple of days ago.
All of our furniture was delivered today. Yup. The TV stand was delivered by three nice gentlemen and then I called down to the receiving room and was told that we had “a really heavy thing” waiting for us down there. That turned out to be our two bookcases. I got those up to the apartment, and I’m currently working on assembling them. As you can see, Anubis is “helping”:

Completed pics will follow. I just wanted to post this while I took a break so I didn’t forget.
The best part is they are all solid wood! No more particle board covered in veneer for us! No sir. We’re getting ourselves real, grown-up furniture. Yay!
Okay, then. Pics will be up shortly.

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Hi! So, I had my second pottery class, and it rocked! I was able to make five bowls, and they all look pretty decent. I’m so happy I decided to take this class. It makes me very happy. :)
Everything else is going well. I had an emergency surgery on Friday night that kept me at work 3.5 hours after close (no, not the entire time was in surgery). It was a great experience, though I admit, I was pretty much terrified to try it at first. One of the techs, Shannon, kept me nice and calm and helped me out. Mainly just by saying “You got this.” haha!

Our air conditioning unit flooded. The little pan that collects water overflowed. We don’t know how long it had been going on. I only discovered it because as I went to feed the cats Saturday morning, I stepped on a wet part of the carpet. Atkins investigated (since I had to go to work) and discovered the AC problem. Unfortunately, it looks like it had been going on for some time as the small bookcase (which is against a wall that is shared with the AC unit) was moldy on the bottom. We decided to get rid of it. The larger bookcase was also wet, so we took everything down and are letting it dry. I think I may just get rid of that one as well and get decent-looking, larger bookcases. Here’s a pic of what the living room looks like now. (Bonus–you can also see our new tv.) Here’s another pic if the link ever comes back up. For some reason, that link is a little dodgy right now.

So, that’s our business at the moment. We are trying to figure out what to do for book storage. Should we get a nice couple of bookshelves and recreate the setup? Or should we move our books into the office and do something new in the living room. I’m not sure what that would be…
Lots of choices!

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the wedding photos!

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Hey all you loyal tanda readers.

I had my first pottery class last Thursday. It was pretty cool! It hurt my back and my bum, but it still rocked. We are beginning with wheel throwing, which is the only ceramic work I’ve done. I actually found it easy to center the clay, something that completely flummoxed me eight years ago.
Centering is when you get the clay perfectly in the center of the wheel so there are no wobbles when you turn the wheel on. Sounds easy, but it’s not! Here’s a pic of a centered piece of clay:

So, then after you center it, you “open” the clay, which is the process of making the inside, basically. You stick your thumbs in the clay and make a divot.

After a little more work, you start raising the walls.

This is where I get into a little bit of trouble. I am out-of-practice and so I tend to overwork the clay and make the walls thin in some places. This is obviously not good for stability, so some of my practice pots this last Thursday kinda went “squish” in the middle and collapsed.
That’s okay, though. I figured if I could center the clay, I’d be way ahead of where I originally started. So, there it is. I centered and opened and raised some walls. No, those are NOT my hands up there. haha.
I just have to be a little more forceful and raise the walls with fewer throws. It’s all about firmness and rhythm. And the instructor is really nice and good about giving tips. I have gotten a lot of great info out of him already. I need to go in more often (there are open studio hours on Saturday) so I can get better and mail people cool stuff. ;)
As much as I love throwing on the wheel, I think I may try the handbuilding part of the class as well. I’ve never done it before, so it’ll be nice to branch out a little.

It’s so exciting to be making art again. Well, sorta. I mean, I haven’t made anything permanent yet. But I’m getting back in the groove, and that’s all that matters, right?

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Hey, guys! So, I spoke with my photographer and she said that you should check out her website and check out the pics from the wedding. Once you’re there, you can look at all the pics (and there are a LOT of them) and order the ones that you like!
There are some very wonderful ones, and I hope you guys like them!

Let me know what you think!

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If anyone tried to call our home phone in the last couple of days, they might have noticed that the line kept ringing and the answering machine didn’t pick up. That’s ’cause our phone (and therefore our internet) was out.
We first noticed it Wednesday night. Atkins mentioned that his iPhone wasn’t connecting. We figured it was down because of a line of storms that had come through that evening. In any case, we didn’t notice the phone was dead until Thursday morning. I spent many hours on the phone with AT&T for that and some other billing issues (that I’ll leave for another blog). Long story short, everything is all fixed up now. It was a “problem in the central office.” I’m not really sure what that means, but it got fixed and didn’t cost us anything, and that’s all that matters. haha

So, we are back in action. It was kind-of odd not to have the internet or home line for even such a short time. I wanted to look things up several times, only to be disheartened. It’s funny how reliant on technology we become! I wouldn’t last too long in the jungle, would I? Haha.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July! It’s one of my favorite holidays, and I wish I was with my family to share it. Atkins and I are going to go to a party, though, so it should be fun. We watched some fireworks last night, but couldn’t see the big show from our balcony. Once we figure out the prime viewing spot in Chicago, we’ll be set!

I’m sure there will be more blogs now that the Internet is up and running.
Ciao!

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Hello everyone, Atkins here…

I posted about 250 photos from Paul and Larry and Claudia on flickr today. We still don’t have the digital copies of our professional photos. You can look at our current collection of wedding photos or see Paul’s pictures or Larry and Claudia’s pictures separately. Once I’ve collected most of the wedding shots, I’ll make a new flickr set that just contains the best of the best photos.

In other news, I got soaked on my walk home from work today.  Usually I really like wet weather but today I was not a fan. Once I was home, I noticed that our nice new grill cover has mysteriously vanished. I can only assume that it was blown up and off the grill and is either in Lake Michigan or stuck on someones fence.

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It’s officially one year since we pulled up to Chicago in our Penske chocked full of all our worldly possessions. Ah, how full of optimism we were! How easily we thought we would get into our new home on Lake Michigan.
Our temporary home, the Heart O’ Chicago motel, quickly lost its appeal as we ended up staying there for ten days. Ten long, hot, sweaty, stressful days that put a strain on, well, everything.
In the end, though, it was worth it. Our new condo is amazing, and our new life together as husband and wife is exciting!
We do miss our friends and family and look forward to every chance we get to visit you guys! Or have you visit us. We have a brand-new inflatable guest bed! Queen size, baby! C’mon over.

We look forward to another, even happier year in Chicago as we grow into city folk. We don’t know how long the appeal of the city will hold us here, but we do know that through it all, we will love each other and look to the support of our family and friends. Awwww. Share the love, kids!

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