Tag Archives: maine

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Toogoodoo and a giant pineapple.

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Day 5 of our 40th anniversary trip dawned sunny and warmer.

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Which was such a welcome change I actually got the husband to participate in … and (half) smile … for a morning balcony selfie.

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On the itinerary that day? Charleston.

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By way of Toogoodoo.

At first I thought the nav system in the overpriced Lincoln was drunk…

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But no, the road exists.

Toogoodoo: The name given to the creek and the area by the Bantu (African) slaves who worked the sea island plantations surrounding it. The word translates loosely as “I have plenty/ My life is bountiful”.

A sentiment that resonated with me all day.

Charleston is a southern city I’ve always wanted to visit and in a little over an hour, we were there.

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We skirted the harbor…

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And drove down one of the most famous neighborhoods.

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Filled with lovely homes…

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All facing the water.

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Unfortunately right after we started driving we ran into a detour due to storm damage from the night before. So we zigged and we zagged in our giant monster rental and elected to ditch the traffic for a walk.

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This is the most popular park in town and thankfully pretty deserted off season.

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It sits right at the mouth of the busy deep water harbor…

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And don’t you dare let Fido off his leash.

$1087 seems like an arbitrary sum, but whatever.

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We hopped over puddles and made our way to the park’s most popular tourist attraction.

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The pineapple fountain.

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Pineapples are a symbol of hospitality and you’ll find them everywhere in this friendly city.

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This is probably a beautiful shot in summer when the sun is high…

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But I couldn’t quite capture the canopy angle properly this time of year.

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Done with the park, we strolled.

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Charleston is an old city with beaucoup traffic and very little parking. Take my advice, put on a pair of comfortable shoes and walk…

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It’s the only way you’ll get a real feel for the place.

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We were headed for the French Quarter and the magnificent Rainbow Row so beloved by Instagrammers.

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I couldn’t wait to explore, so of course my husband had to strike up a half hour conversation with this nice gentleman who had a strange car.

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In case you’re wondering, it’s a Figaro built by Nissan in the early ‘90’s. Only 20,000 were made and he said his wife had to have one. It’s a tiny little thing but after battling the in town traffic with our luxury behemoth rental, I’m sure it’s perfectly suited to life in Charleston.

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Miscellaneous missives.

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Furniture shopping continues and my snarky friends are still being helpful. Their latest suggestion?

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Well, it is green.

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The dark eyed Junco is a small bird of the sparrow family that we never see until the snow flies. They’re always the first to appear after a storm and we’re not the only ones looking….

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten keeps a close eye as well.

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Well, that’s rude.

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Trim work has started on the bedroom windows which means the man cave has once again been taken over….

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And reeks of wood stain and polyurethane.

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It’s odd how sometimes you read a passage in a book and it just gets you. This choked me up the other day. I hope it’s true….

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Sign seen at a local restaurant.

😊

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And then there was snow.

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We haven’t had a lot of snow this year.

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Or last year or the year before that unfortunately … so when the pretty white fluffy stuff does fall and stick?

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I wake up early to photograph it in that lovely pinkish blue morning light.

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And while I do enjoy it…

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Our contractor who still has to replace the siding from the bedroom window replacement does not.

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Can’t say I blame him.

🥴

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In with the new… and a disturbing foamy bonus.

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When last I left the bedroom picture window saga, the old had been removed and the new was on its way.

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Carefully, across the ice covered snow.

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This baby was heavy, and awkward to lift as there’s really no place to grab.

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You knew it wouldn’t be easy, right?

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Did I mention it was about 12 degrees that day?

Good times.

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Hallelujah, it was in.

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Secured, insulated and awaiting new trim and sills.

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And speaking of insulation..

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Sometimes the spray foam has a mind of its own.

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A rather disturbing mind as it turns out.

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Or maybe that’s just me.

😉

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I had to throw him a bone.

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After forcing my husband to endure hours of fabric selection, I offered him a reward for good behavior.

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And we headed northwest from Waterville to Bigelow Brewing in Skowhegan.

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Housed in a barn on the owner’s property ….

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The feel is down home rustic Maine.

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We’d never been here before, but as soon as I saw who was helping keep an eye on things….

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I felt right at home.

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We did an assorted flight…

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And my husband liked the Lying Bastard. Make of that what you will.

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The tasting room has live music on weekend nights…

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And table supports shaped like beer bottles.

The only food on offer is from a brick pizza oven out back.

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And while my crust was burnt, the garlicky chicken broccoli Alfredo pie was quite good.

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Upon leaving we noticed the Xmas decorations were still out.

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But the beer was good enough to bring home, so I’ll forgive them the transgression.

😉

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Is it wrong that I’m enjoying his discomfort this much?

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He didn’t believe me when I told him how hard it’s been to find fabric for the furniture he chose so I’m continuing to show him firsthand.

Seeing is believing after all.

In my search I’ve discovered that even though different stores sell the same brand, they’ll often have different fabric available and I’ve made it my mission to check them all.

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Hence our trip to Waterville to a small but 5th generation family run store.

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Their showroom is a two story barn from the 1800’s.

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And while they didn’t have the particular style set we wanted, they can order it…. at what turns out to be $600 less than their larger competitors. Free delivery included. I’m all about supporting small local businesses so this is where we’ll purchase it.

If we can ever decide on a fabric.

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Green is still nonexistent. And even the blues that I didn’t really want are muted. But I pulled and pulled hopeful something would catch my eye.

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This photo perfectly portrays how thrilled my husband was to be on the journey.

🤣

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I’d tentatively narrowed it down to these two with the husband bored out of his mind behind me.

Until…

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He discovered a huge computer loaded with the company’s app.

With it you pick your style…

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And punch in the fabric number for a peek at what it will look upholstered. He had fun with this for quite a while, laughing at how horrible some of the patterns were. But when I gave him the number for the fabric I was considering?

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I stopped laughing because he said the cushion had two eyes staring at him.

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Jesus wept.

Will nothing please this troublesome spouse!

🥴

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Out with the old…

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The ice was here to stay… so work on the bedroom windows was fraught with slippery hazards.

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After the two small windows were installed our contractor needed another set of hands to help him with the big picture window…. so out went my husband.

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The jerry rigged planking platform was less than ideal.

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And the supports were definitely not OSHA approved.

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Mind you, that’s all ice covered snow.

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*Gulp*

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They did it, so naturally I had to document the event.

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That thing was heavy, and awkward to maneuver.

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I was cringing the whole time… expecting a slip and a crash.

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But it exited without mishap.

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And a giant air conditioned hole was left.

The crazy part of the removal? When they took it out we found this on the sill.

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A handful of screws.

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The old window was sitting right on them. How crazy is that!

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Winter a/c.

You gotta love it.

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Because furniture shopping drives my husband to drink.

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After a full day of furniture shopping my husband cried uncle.

Or more accurately, Sicilian Table in Falmouth.

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It’s the new sister restaurant to our favorite and we’ve been a few times. Remember the fabulous fish?

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We snagged a spot at the busy bar…

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And commenced cocktailing.

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Okay, maybe that was me.

First up? A rosemary lemondrop.

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Sheer herby perfection.

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Enough so that I had two, with a beautifully rich chicken Marsala.

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Moving on to the winter Cosmo I watched my husband devour the Devils Tower of beef.

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My name not theirs. It was a fabulous but ridiculously expensive filet mignon, no sides included. I don’t mind paying for a great meal, but geesh… don’t make me pay extra for potatoes and veg.

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I don’t care how full you are you can’t pass on their desserts.

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I took half home, but the hazelnut tiramisu was divine.

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And according to my fussy husband, their cheesecake is the best in the state. Caramel bourbon pear sauce…

How could it not delight?

😉

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More furniture shopping, more frustration.

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Since I’m not on board with any of the hideous fabrics associated with the living room set my husband chose, shopping continues.

I stepped it up a notch last week and took him to an Ethan Allen showroom. And aside from the fact it was the smallest store we’d been to, they only had one hard backed sofa.

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Which was too low, too square and too soft for my Goldilocks spouse.

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Factor in most of their couches were over $5,000 a piece, even the simple ones like this, and it was a hard pass.

Next up was the store where I started my search with my girlfriend a few months ago. They had two sets I thought might work.

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But Mr, Picky vetoed this one because of the T shaped couch cushions.

Really?

At this point I thought he was just being obstinate on purpose and didn’t want new furniture. But when I brought him to set #2….

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Hard backed, rolled full arms, not too deep, available with firm cushions.

Could it be?

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A long discussion was had with the (very patient) salesman about features and quality…

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These arms were an eighth of an inch different in size… noticeable to no one on earth except my husband who worked quality control in the Marine Corps.

But despite the glaring anomaly, the husband agreed that this set might work. They even had the pattern he’d picked out at a previous store, seen on the back of the chair above.

I vetoed that as it was probably too light for our white walls and rather liked this one.

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When I asked if I could bring a few swatches home, I was told yes… for a price. For a deposit of $50 each I came home with 5. The $263 to be refunded to my card when I returned them.

Geesh.

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Lord Dudley seemed partial to this one.

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But as I suspected…. it’s too light and bright for our all white walls not to mention my husband’s feet on an ottoman.

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I need more contrast of color and though I really didn’t want blue….

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This one might work.

😊

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