Reader Question - Invisible Fence

As you may know, we have an abundance of dogs, 2 black labs to be specific, in our family. At the new house we are sans fence and that really needs to change. Zeus & Zoe are typically OK to wander around the yard, do their "business" and come when called, but we have had a few occasions of wandering next door to bark at the neighbor's dog, sniff out the construction at the other neighbors, etc.

We love all of the landscaping, trees, and shrubs that we have and hate to risk losing them with a traditional fence, so we are having a visit from Invisible Fence on Friday. My question(s) to all of you are, have you ever used Invisible Fence and how did you like it? Did you have any problems with your dogs running through or issues with other dogs coming in your yard?

Thanks for all of your help!

Yummy goodness, Banana Bread

I noticed that we had two overripe bananas this week and I finally had the chance to make a batch of banana bread this morning. I also wanted to try out the convection feature on our oven. Banana bread is a childhood favorite, so I was very excited about my baking adventure.

The recipe is from Joy of Cooking and is really simple and yummy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease an 8.5x4.5 inch (6-cup) loaf pan.

Whisk together thoroughly:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

In large bowl, beat on high speed until lightened in color and texture, 2-3 minutes.
5 1/3 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar

Beat in the flour mixture until blended & the consistency of brown sugar. Gradually beat in:
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Fold in just until combined:
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2)
1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (I omitted)

Scrape the batter & spread into pan, evenly. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean (50-60 minutes). Let cool for 5-10 minutes on a rack... or not!

I had 2 good helpers while I was getting everything ready...

Before:

And, after:

I think this will make a great addition for my Father-in-Law's birthday celebration later today, if I can restrain myself from slicing a big piece right now!

Our neighbor

We have been settling nicely into the new neighborhood - meeting neighbors, stopping to pet new dogs on our walks, saying hello, waving when you drive by... It's really nice, because we've met more people in the 2 weeks here than we met in 3+ years at the old location.

One neighbor that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting is a hawk. The house to the left of us is under renovations and the woman in charge of the work has seen him several times and thinks that he may live in the backyard, in one of the huge trees. Last week, apparently, he swooped down into our front yard and then perched on the roof long enough for her to grab a shot with her camera phone. She is supposed to send it to me, so as soon as I have it, I'll post it.

I do think hawks are magnificent, beautiful birds. Am I glad that Zeus & Zoe are 80+ pounds each? Yes. Hopefully nothing like this could ever happen... I do think there are a shortage of squirrels in our yard, but I'll try not to think about that!

Our 2nd home

Oh, I just like the way that sounds... if it were only true. Our 2nd home that we are desperately trying to sell is more like it. We did receive a nibble yesterday and found out that a realtor has a person interested in making an offer. Cross your fingers and say a prayer to St. Joseph for us.

I think the house looks great - my parents helped us do some last minute things this summer, Hubby (along with a couple of friends) updated the kitchen last spring, and we recently updated the bathrooms. All we need to find is the right buyer!

Let me throw in some realtor speak...nicely updated kitchen with neutral colors and new appliances...

New bathtub and surround and fresh paint make this house move in ready...

I think Zeus & Zoe do miss our backyard - full of trees, squirrels, and cats that they tormented on a daily basis. Spacious lot with mature trees (don't mind the race track left by previous dogs).

a "blue" surprise

I had to stop by the old house last week to water plants, make sure that we didn't have any mail, and I noticed a small box on our porch. I checked the return address and it was from Hubby's company, so I figured that it was more crap for him to file away.

I brought the box back home and didn't really think about it for a couple of days. Hubby was at a conference in New Orleans last week, so I finally thought to mention it to him toward the end of the week. "Oh, it may be your bracelet" he said. "What?!" Now I can't get this package off my mind and couldn't open it soon enough.

For part of a sales competition, Hubby was able to choose a prize for all of his hard work. There were sunglasses, pens, cameras, tools, and a few items that came wrapped in a specific shade of blue.

Now, before you get in my business about why Hubby is giving me his present, since it was his sales competition... let's just say that I do believe I have married one of the kindest men that I have ever known. With that being said, I would just like to think that he enjoys making me happy. Thank you, Hubby. Did I mention, he was at a conference the week after we moved? And he got to see this band?

And now...

Is it just me?

Or does anyone out there have a thing for doorknobs? I have a friend who nearly caused a divorce over changing out every single knob in her home with $50 doorknobs. Ours don't match, but we have several that I think are original to the house. They just add charm.


So, some of the oldies look like this..

And our front door, like this...

We have a lot of these cool old keys that actually still work...

It's not really inside the house

I love the many hydrangea bushes that have been planted at the new house. The landscaping that was done looks extremely natural, but so much work has been put into it. I can't wait until spring to enjoy the azaleas, camellia and gardenias that are also planted. One of our goals is to keep it up since at the old house, our backyard pretty much consisted of a race-track where Zeus & Zoe would run, oh and eat the hosta plants.

Even this late in the season, we still have a few good blooms on the hydrangea, so I decided to bring some inside to enjoy.

Why I (heart) the new house

I thought I would try to share a few photos of the new house this week. Of course, I'll be sure to try not to get any half-empty boxes in the shots or the rooms where nothing has been unpacked!

Some of the details in this home really stood out to us, like the built in cutting boards in the kitchen. Not only one, but four cutting boards are located throughout.

So, this morning, when preparing to slice strawberries for my cereal, it was a breeze.

I just realized that this photo doesn't really do it justice, but the cutting boards are actually built in like a drawer, so all you do is slide it out to use.

Runnin' and Whinin'

I started training tonight for another half-marathon and I can honestly say, I sucked. I have been doing a run-walk training schedule called the Galloway method. Typically, I run for 10 minutes, then walk 2, run 8 and alternate between running & walking the rest of the way. It helps your knees, provides much needed mini-breaks and when you aren't an extremely fast runner (like myself), you don't really lose much time.

Tonight, it went like this:
Ran 10 minutes
Wheezed for about 3 minutes and decided to run again.
Ran for 1 minute
Walked for about 9 minutes.
Ran for 2 minutes and wheezed some more.
Walked for another 6 minutes.
Finally ran for another 3 and walked the rest.

Sucky. Tonight, I only had to do 35 minutes and I ended up going 44, due to where I had parked my car at the park, but still. It's sad that I finished Boot Camp not that long ago and I feel this out of shape.

What I've learned in the past 4 days...

Closing wasn't as bad as I expected... other than handing over a large sum of money and lots of signing, it was fine. I'm sure I should have been reading every line with extreme concentration, but that's why we have a good lawyer.

Professional packers and movers are the way to go. I think we've reached the age that we can no longer buy beer and pizza and expect a few friends to move us. The actual move was pretty stress free.

Until we realized that our queen box spring was not going to make it up our new flight of stairs. They are rather steep. So, Hubby & I have set up camp in a downstairs bedroom for now & lucky for us, we found out that queen box springs are available in a split option.

Zeus does not like the stairs either. After coming back from a few days of "doggie daycare", we were walking them around the house - letting them sniff and get accustomed to it - and we decided to take them upstairs. Zoe, the dog that has no fear quickly bounded up the stairs so she could continue her sniffing. Zeus, not so much. He would get about 2 steps up and freeze and revert to the landing. The steps do have a runner, so I thought he would have enough traction, but apparently not enough for his liking.

And, I never realized how much CRAP we have accumulated. Word of caution - when two independent thirty-somethings marry, they come with lots o' crap. I've been unpacking and quickly separating items into a keep, throw, or yard sale pile.

Moving Announcements

It just wouldn't feel right if I didn't get excited about finding cute moving announcements to send to friends and family to let them know about our new address. I wanted something simple, cute, and let's face it, inexpensive. At this point, if I were to plop down several hundred for the adorable Kate Spade moving announcements, Hubby would kill me. Love, love, love these. But for $439 for 50 cards, it was just a tad too steep for our 3-days before closing budget.

So, for around $40, I found these online today.

So, it's not Kate, and it's not Crane, but honestly, don't these just get thrown in the trash after a couple of days? Sad, but true.

Countdown..

I will be out of commission for the next several days. We are counting down to closing and our move. And, in the meantime, we are:

• having our current house inspected (just so we're aware of anything that may need to be fixed)
• dealing with turning on utilities (Hubby is still bitter that we had to get a new phone number and I will note for the record that cable was 1st on the list)
• still packing a few boxes of items that I don't trust the movers to take
• picking up a washer, dryer, microwave, and I'm sure several boxes from my former landlord's house that he was nice enough to let me store for almost 2 years.
• dealing with last minute things with the mortgage, insurance, ordering a house survey, etc.
• being super busy with both of our jobs

It is so exciting even with all of the little details - we saw our new house yesterday for the re-inspection & everything turned out great. Can't wait to get there - it just feels like we have so much to do before that can happen! I'll try to post next week with exciting packing & moving pictures!

It's a small world

I spent the day attending this seminar with three of my co-workers. While I appreciate the fact that they had volunteers directing us into the parking lot with their "two-fingered or full-handed" pointing gestures, mouse head-shaped balloons to make sure that we knew we were in the right place, and Disney music that played to cue us when it was time to take our seats, I'm still a little perplexed by the fact that the average family (all 3.3 of them) save for 2-3 YEARS to take a trip to Disney. Isn't that incredible? I bet that same family could travel to a wondrous place like Yellowstone National Park, or take in all the history, art, and culture they could want in D.C. for a lot longer and still come away with life-long memories and scrapbooks full of photos that they will enjoy for many years.

Why I (heart) my job

Yesterday afternoon, my editor and I went to meet the guy who started this movement in NC. We met at Carolina Brewery to enjoy a cold beverage and find out more about his plans, a little beer history, and discussion of beer and food pairing. It was so interesting and who wouldn't enjoy having this kind of meeting on a Friday afternoon? From there we hopped over to the welcome reception of this meeting. We really just went for a little networking, and what a fabulous opportunity. These people were all remarkable, knew their food, and have a passion for it. Lots of food writers and chefs were in attendance. We left with lots of great ideas and some great contacts.

Looking for Nashville-area voters

A good friend of mine from college is running for city council - District 11. Now, I won't air any skeletons or dirty laundry on him and I do wish I could give him my vote. Darren was such an inspiration to me on so many levels and he would hate me for saying that about him. He's humble, funny, smart, charming, has a great music selection, and was my best formal date ever. He was a great mentor to me as I tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Studying with Darren always revolved around Seinfeld episodes on Thursday nights and making sure that we had enough time to play our favorite CD's and participate in some crazy game that included trying to one-up the other person by picking a more obscure, even better tune.

Good luck, Darren and I hope the voters rally for you on the 11th! Now, when you run for President, don't forget about me and I'll serve on your campaign!

Happy Anniversary

If Hubby reads this title, he may be confused. It is actually just a few days past my one-year blogging anniversary. Wow. I just looked back at my first post and it's amazing how some things have changed, but some are pretty much the same.

For the changed part:

• I now have a job that I really love. Then, I was at a job that I wanted to love, but didn't.
• I was training for my 1st half marathon. I've now done that one, plus another, and am currently contemplating another one for December.
• While we are still living the bachelor pad, we are about 3 weeks away from buying and living in a home that we found together that gives us plenty of room to hopefully have and raise a family, entertain, and enjoy our "own" space without feeling like we are right on top of each other.

For the hasn't changed that much part:

• Our 2 black labs are still a huge part of our life. One is currently snoring at my feet while I type this.
• I'm still heavily involved in the Junior League, currently serving my 2nd year on our Executive Board.
• I still hope that I can continue to keep blogging and use this as a journal of sorts in the future.

So here's to one year at Love, Life, and Labs. Hooray!

My updates have been a bit sporadic and this week, frankly has been a bit "off". My parents left on Sunday, so it's been nice for it just to be Hubby, myself, and the big black dogs. The dogs seem to have settled down, even though we are still in a bit of pack/clean/move/declutter mode. We have to make time to call realtors and list this house, but it just seems like the week has gotten away from us. I think I'm just anxious to list this house, knowing that in about 3 weeks, we are going to be the owners of a new house. While I'd like to think that one day, we may possibly have the luxury to own two homes, I didn't want them to be 10 minutes away from each other!

I was on one of our local morning news stations this morning to talk about the magazine. My editor and I went, while it's always nerve wracking, it's also kind of fun. They loved the latest issue, so it made it really easy. I felt like all we said was "thank you". I'm fairly used to being interviewed, but I had never been interviewed at the TV station set, so seeing the teleprompter, talking to the anchor (and noticing that he has a helluva lot of make up on), is just kind of surreal. We left, immediately called the office and husband's to make sure that we didn't sound or look like idiots, hit Starbucks for a much needed caffeine boost and headed back to work.

Hubby and I also thought that I might be expecting this week. From my calculations, I was about 3 days late, which is pretty late in my book. I bought my first EPT 3-pack ever, tested twice (both negative), and then had a visitor later that day. It's OK. I will admit, we were disappointed, but would have been shocked if we really were. But, as some of my friends have said, it only takes one time.

Not sure what Labor Day holds for us. I have a short day at work tomorrow and we may head to the lake, but we feel like we need to work on the house. Possibly a compromise, and we'll go up for a day.

Plug it in, plug it in...

This is also a must have for the new home office. In black, I think. We can finally have the mobile phones, iPods, Garmin, and digital camera all in one place without cords plugged in everywhere. This make me so happy! From Pottery Barn, of course.

Cake & such

After nearly two weeks of close quarters, we said goodbye to my parents this morning. They have done so much work that we could never begin to repay them. I should preface this by saying that my parents are 75 and 65, and are probably the hardest workers I have ever known. I wish I had their know-how and talent. They were at our current house, painting, cleaning, packing, sanding, giving Zeus and Zoe way more attention than they needed, and getting our house ready to go on the market. I hope we didn't guilt them, but now Hubby's dad is visiting on Tuesday to help us with a little landscaping and yard work. Hubby's dad owns several rental properties, so he's also a great guy to have around.

Since we were up early today, we made a 2nd pot of coffee and attacked our storage building in the back yard, emptied it, cleaned it, and reorganized it. Our plan is to call in three realtors this week and hopefully have it listed by the end of the week.

So, Hubby and I needed a little reward today, so we set off to our favorite bakery for a little yummy goodness. Red velvet cake for hubby and raspberry lady for me (vanilla cake with raspberry jam and cream cheese frosting). Yum. I couldn't even finish my piece, so I'm now debating if the rest can count as my dinner.

My "new" 1939 kitchen

In the new house, the kitchen has a cute, built-in plate rack. To go along with the year the house was built, I'm trying to find coordinating dishes. I'm considering Fiesta Ware, since it has been around since the 30's. I was also introduced to this wonderful site today by a co-worker. I am now so in love with the pantone plates. Apparently, these were used by salespeople in the 40's to show the pantone colors. I'm thinking that these could be really cute in the new kitchen. Our regular dishes are Emma by Pottery Barn in white, so I would want to use something that could possibly coordinate.



Of course, this part of the kitchen is actually new, but I still think it could work. I would love any retro ideas that may fit in.

Also, we have this cute little phone cubby. Hmmm, to use as a resting place for flowers in a vase, or this? Decisions, decisions...
I promise to post more photos soon, but probably not until we move in. I feel strange about showing photos while it's not yet our home.