We Bought a Second Home This Year

When I started up this blog again recently, I mentioned one of the main things that happened with us this year is that we purchased a second home. It is in the town where I grew up, Rising Sun, Maryland. It is a small town in the northeast corner of Maryland, about halfway between Baltimore and Philadelphia. It is also where much of my family still lives.  Also, Rising Sun is just a couple hours from New York City, DC, and several other metropolitan areas where we can access restaurants, piano bars, theater, and other benefits of urban life. We love Maine and it will continue to be our main residence, but we will be spending more time in Maryland to be able to have more time with family and extracurricular activities. 

Here are some photos of the house, which we bought sight unseen. We did see photos, and my sister and niece did a walk-thru for us and sent us video and pics, but we didn't see the house in person until after we bought it. We love the house, but it needed lots of work that still continues. It had room air conditioners, but we put in an HVAC system. That installation caused us to lose a closet, so we had another closet built in the main bedroom. We had all the light fixtures replaced, bought a new dishwasher, refrigerator, and washer and dryer. We had to buy a bunch of furniture also. Monday, a company is going to start work on repairing the walls and painting the entire interior. Frankly, it is a money pit, but the result will be a pretty awesome place we hope. Will post some after photos when we return after the painting is done. 

The backyard is small but nice, and over to the right is the detached garage.

The fireplace is going to have an insert and a cleaning.

The living room from the opposite side. 

We bought this table for $45 and the chairs are on loan from my niece, Nicole. We also bought that awesome corner cabinet at an antique store in Strasburg, PA. 

One of the upstairs bedrooms. The house has three bedrooms (one downstairs)  and one and a half baths.

The back porch. We bought the rockers and patio set.

A Thanksgiving Miracle!

 Today is Thanksgiving in the USA. Our family gathering today will consist of just Shane and myself. We are staying home and cooking a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal. We are having turkey, but we're not cooking a full turkey. I bought turkey breast slices, which I will basically fry, but will make a bit better by adding a raspberry sauce. We'll also have mashed potatoes (microwave), stuffing (Stovetop), glazed carrots, macaroni and cheese, and yeast rolls. It is a very starchy, unhealthy meal, but it's Thanksgiving, so it is fine. 

The best part of the meal is dessert. Shane will be making an apple pie from scratch this morning. Apple pie isn't my favorite, but his apple pies are usually very delicious. We have good vanilla ice cream and whipped cream also. 

My favorite item for Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie. Our local grocery store here in Maine offer very good "Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pies" for just $2.99! I know they are good because this isn't the first one I've purchased this season. I have never made a pumpkin pie myself, but know it wouldn't be much better than these $2.99 pies. And these $2.99 pies are a lot less trouble. Anyone who knows me knows I like a bargain, and in my book being able to get such a delicious dessert for under $3 qualifies as a Thanksgiving miracle. 

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Maine today. We'll be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV and I will try to offset our meal with a run on the treadmill. 

We do have so much to be thankful for this year. We are alive and healthy (but somewhat less healthy after today's meal). It looks like our president's days in office are numbered, next year will be better with the hope of vaccines, and we will soon have a new president that isn't insane. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating! 

Overdue Update

It is apparent that I am fairly horrible at keeping a blog. The first clue is that I haven't posted since forever.

Since my last post, we got our puppy, Dinah, and she is awesome. We have continued doing our radio show... a three hour eclectic music show on Tuesdays. We bought a house in my hometown of Rising Sun, MD, which needed lots of work. So we have been busy. 

It would be impossible to do a complete update of everything that has happened in the last 7+ months, so I'll just leave you with those highlight right now. Above is Dinah at 8 months. She just had her operation to remove her lady parts on Tuesday, so she has been recovering from that. Luckily she has been doing extremely well. Yay!