The first place I checked when we moved into our house was Freecycle, a service that helped me learn the concept that “free” things usually don’t come for free, per se. Basically, users post messages with items that they are either giving away for free or are in search of. I did a quick search for “grill” and found a woman giving away a free grill just 20 minutes away. We were thrilled. We had so much to spend money on the interior of our house, it was hard to justify spending hundreds on a nice grill at the time.

I grabbed the directions and we set off. When we pulled up to the house, I was impressed. It was huge, the kind of household that would have a really nice grill to give away. I rang the doorbell. A man in a business suit with a loosened tie answered the door and I said, “Hi, I’m here from Freecycle to pick up your grill.” The man stared at me. I stared back at him. It didn’t seem that my message was registering. The man excused himself and called for his wife. They spoke briefly. The man returned to the door and informed me that no, they had not posted anything online giving their grill away. I walked away sheepishly and realized I had the wrong address.

Fast forward 5 minutes and we arrive at the correct house, a much less… impressive establishment. A man wearing cutoff shorts and a stained t-shirt was working on his car outside. He called for his wife, a plump woman who dragged a charred and rusty relic behind her on squeaky wheels, the off-brand nameplate hanging from one screw. We managed to squeeze the grill into our trunk and it remained in our backyard, an eyesore among eyesores, until now.

We actually grill quite a bit—usually more than once a week during the summer, and have friends over for cookouts about once a month. And no, we didn’t bother buying new grates for the thing or even sterilizing it once we got it home. Really gross. We decided, after three years, it was time for a new grill. Thanks to the generosity of some family friends who gave us a belated housewarming gift towards the purchase of a new grill, we set off to find a new outdoor cooking machine.

After scouring grill reviews online for weeks, we finally settled on this beast of a machine, the Master Forge Four-Burner Split-Lid Gas Grill, on sale for $299 at Lowes.

With 60,000 BTUs, a split lid, a side burner and a separate sear burner, and cute little perks like an attached bottle opener and condiment shelves, it’s perfect for us. Hopefully, this should be around for years to come. We’ll be christening it this Sunday, when we’ll be cooking for friends.

Now I just need to get around to posting about our old grill on Freecycle so I can pass it on to another couple of suckers.

It feels really nice to ride around town again in style.

(Photo taken by Jason, ‘shopped by me)

When I woke up the next morning, the scissors were put back in their drawer and I found this response.

In case the message isn’t clear, Jason’s referring to the collections of glasses I leave strewn about the house, which have been known to serve as petri dishes if they’re left for too long. He definitely has a point.

It’s only a matter of time. But I can stave off their death for a while by using Aqua Globes, the best invention since the Roomba. Seriously, this takes 80% of plant care out of my hands, which is really best for everyone involved.

The fire, which completely destroyed The General Engineering Company building, a beautiful old thing that was used as a warehouse during the Civil War, took six hours and 25 fire companies to extinguish. The source? The Gazette reports it was the result of a malfunctioning refrigerator. Even though Jason had pretty important business to attend to today, we hung around with the crowds for about an hour an a half to watch the flames eat away at the roof of the building. Luckily, no one was in the building at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so I snapped some iPhone pics. I wish I had taken a picture of the crowd on Carroll creek, everyone out with their dogs and cameras and neighbors to mill around and vie for the best spot. The whole event somehow sparked a giant downtown block party that was surprisingly un-somber.

We started out on East St., and we made our way over to the Carroll St. bridge right in front of the Delaplaine. But not before spotting these two young lovers taking in the fire from afar. Romantic.

We made it to the bridge, then pushed our way to the front.

When everyone was forced off of the bridge, we managed to secure a spot behind the building, where we watched a portion of the roof cave in as it started to get dark out.

It was all very fascinating; I had never seen such an extreme fire in such an intimate setting, and I was amazed by the tenacity of those flames. Without getting overly profound, I’ll just say it was sad and beautiful. I hate to see a historical building go.

So I sent Jason out for the following items:

• Mushroom soup
• Challah bread (to soak up the gravy, obviously)
• Carrots

This is what Jason returned with:

• Mushroom soup
• Margarita mix

At least the margaritas were good.

My next stop was CB2, my go-to home decor online shop. To remedy our ragtag lot of mismatched drinking glasses, we ordered 12 22-oz. handblown Ambi glasses. If you’re not in the market for a new set of glasses, the fact that they’re 22 oz. probably doesn’t mean much to you, but I just want to point out that 22 oz. is a lot of liquid. We don’t want to mess around with these silly 14-oz. glasses anymore that can’t even handle a whole bottle of beer.

I also went ahead and ordered that dream cutting board set that I first fell in love with on the MoMA website (but which I found for much cheaper on Amazon). I never thought I’d find cutting boards that I’d want to display, but these fit the bill. I just love it when form and function come together harmoniously and semi-affordably.

I also ordered a brushed nickel “Euro” napkin holder and a “perfect tear” mountable paper towel roll holder. The Euro napkin holder just arrived, and I do have to say that it’s about as European as a napkin holder can get.

Finally, Jason got got me this retro-styled yellow breadbox that I’d been eyeing at Target for a while. So now when we ask each other if something is bigger than a breadbox, we’ll have a pretty good visual.

But now it’s back to the not so fun stuff, like tile. And painting. And waiting another two weeks for countertops and a sink. Which means more plastic cups and paper plates and eating out. I’m craving a good home-cooked meal like I never have before, so if anyone wants to invite me over for dinner, I’ll repay the favor once we have a kitchen again.

Two weeks ago. We’re bright-eyed, ready to go, and naive in thinking we’re going to have a brand new kitchen in two weeks. We rip out the cabinets, revealing a really ugly paint color, a hidden chimney, and some other fun artifacts.

The kitchen crew arrives on a Monday, inspects the cabinets and leave. We wonder if they’re just on a lunch break, but we don’t see them until the next day. The next day, after a real lunch break, the crew begins by removing a portion of the wall separating the kitchen and dining room…

…exposing some really ugly and potentially dangerous cloth-wrapped wiring circa 1934. We pay an extra $1400 to get that rectified after a dispute that left us feeling pretty dismal about contractors.

The other half of the wall comes down. We have a couple more fights with the contractor, which ultimately saves us $900, but which I will inevitably end up handing over to United Healthcare to rectify the ulcer I am surely headed for. The breakfast bar half-wall is almost revealed!

The whole wall is down. The crew takes more than two days to mud the wall and we call the contractor to complain because Roscoe could have mudded the wall in less time, and also because it’s no fun to not have a kitchen for several weeks. A heroic and brave plumber comes out to remove the steam radiator, which is a system that apparently most plumbers want nothing to do with.

Roscoe steals a biscuit to prove our point. He really is very talented.

The world ends in the DC metro area. All kitchen progress comes to a standstill.

At first it’s a great time and it’s really romantic and full of SNOW DAY! and MOVIES! and CUDDLING! and BLANKETS!

But then it starts to feel a little bit like The Shining and we still don’t have a stove or oven or sink. We become creative in the art of entertaining each other.

Kitchen work resumes. We remove the old flooring, Jason and Justin install sheets of Hardibacker in preparation for the tile, and upper cabinets are hung on the window side of the kitchen.

And here is what we have as of yesterday. The ‘fridge is all boxed in, the breakfast bar upper cabinet has been hung and will soon be sporting some fancy glass doors, and we have some lower cabinets (sans doors).

I might make it out of this alive.

If you haven’t been following the drama over the past few years, despite its being the third most requested TV series on DVD, there’s been little more than gossip and rumors surrounding a possible release. And a pitiful attempt to appease fans by releasing the two Daria movies on DVD (Is It Fall Yet? and Is It College Yet?).

The N network showed reruns of the series until 2006, but viewers complained that the shows were often edited for content, rendering them devoid of important plot points and containing more often than not nonsensical attempts at sarcasm. No good.

Then, in the summer of 2009, this surfaced.

(via www.tvshowsondvd.com)

But, not one to be duped by a little Photoshop and a mean streak, I didn’t put much faith into it. UNTIL last month, when MTV officially announced that Daria would, in fact, be coming to DVD in 2010. And they even threw in a teaser.

Another reason I like 2010 already. I can’t wait to enjoy some obscure pop culture references that will surely be lacking all relevancy at this point.

Life = complete.

This is what I see when I look at our kitchen remodel contractor.