Studying Again?!?

Yup. Tomorrow and Friday I have mid-term exams for structure and function. Three of them. Tomorrow there are the histology and anatomy practicals. Friday is the big written exam. Needless to say, I have been hunkered down studying this week...Sadly, no exciting updates to report about the house today.
The one good thing about this exam, is unlikely last time it falls at the end of the week rather than on a Monday. This means I actually got to enjoy some of last weekend and will certainly enjoy this coming weekend. The highlight of our weekend was Groupon tickets to see the Warsaw Philharmonic play. This was my first Groupon purchase and it was worth it. The Philharmonic was excellent. Had a great piano soloist. My favorite part was the the third encore where they played almost a mash-up of several favorite songs, like many of the ones featured in Looney Tunes. Many people were clapping along. I really enjoyed myself and it was a nice relaxing break. Well, back to the grind. 

Grass Master

So all of this work in the front yard has made Chris a bit obsessive about the lawn. Our lawn is alright. Better then the guy on the left, on par with the guy on the right, but it pales in comparison to the guy across the street. His lawn is perfect and Chris has decided to step up his lawn game. Now I didn't see any crabgrass, but Chris manged to find and remove a lot of it:

To add to the visual appeal of the whole deal. He cut the grass really short before digging:

Not exactly an improvement at this point. But he put down 'lawn soil' and new seed. He then fertilized the whole lawn.

So we might be the only house with a sprinkler on in Mid-October, but Chris is hoping for a better lawn in the spring. I am filing this whole obsession about the lawn under "Man Things" but as long as he is doing the work, he can do whatever he wants. 

Front Yard Reveal

Some black mulch, spring bulbs, and a ton of manual labor and it is finally time to reveal the front yard makeover. So first the befores:

Jungle-tastic!

Shaggy for sure. And the in-progress pictures:

Wasteland with a Peony. 

Getting Better and now with mums. And the reveal:

So non-jungle-like it hurts. What you can't see are the 112 spring bulbs (Daffodils, Tulips, and a pair of Irises) that I planted under the mulch. I am hoping for a colorful spring. We also plan on getting some plants in the spring once we see how it fills out. As a bonus, we also did the tree on the otherside of the driveway, before:

And after: 

Fall Color

So last week I also mentioned that we were redoing the front flower bed/mini jungle. We worked really hard last weekend to rip it all out, leaving it looking awful!

Woo, hard work.... So while we were working on getting this back to something we want in our front yard, we picked out some fall mums to add a bit of fall color (and a sneak peak of the black mulch that I put down - Big reveal on Friday):

A rather large orange one:

And some color...albeit not really fall themed:

So while we are still working on dealing with the jungle turned wasteland in the front yard, we did put some fall mums in, hopefully to enjoy for at least a few weeks - it is getting really late in the season. But even so, There isn't much in this space, so I think I will let the mums come back next year to add greenery during the spring and summer, and some color during the fall. Lets see if they come back in the spring. 

Flooring Update III

So last week I left you with a little teaser of what the hard wood floor in the Family Room was looking like:

Well, Chris has been working at it a bit each day. The giant pile of boxes has gone from this:

To this (clearly now a work zone and no longer a foyer - Sad face):

Clearly, Chris is hard at work. And now the floor about half way done!

Ohhh, Ahhh. I think it looks really nice so far. He looked at molding this past weekend at the Home Depot, but he hasn't committed yet. And there is still the other half of the room to finish before he gets to put that down anyway. Still very pleased. I think the wood floor is an even better color than I expected in that room. So back to work to finish the second half!

Fall Football Game

So a couple of weekends ago, I 'tricked' Chris into running a 5k with me. Well, he wasn't so happy about that, but he was more than happy to use the free Rutgers football tickets we got this past weekend:

Woo, awkward cell phone picture with super intense guy behind us...whoops. It was a beautiful day. Sunny, pretty warm, a slight breeze. Oh and Rutgers was 4-0...undefeated...and playing UConn. It was a 'blackout' and we were wearing our free black shirts from the run too:

There was copious amounts of AC/DC playing in support of the blackout. The crowd was good and it was fun with some cool distractions by the band: 

Rutgers played pretty well - it was still college football, with many penalties and botched plays. Rutgers remains undefeated and came away with the win. 

We enjoyed ourselves, but the highlight for me was an in-stadium ad for the red Rutgers R car decal... encouraging Rutgers people to let other Rutgers people meRge if they have the decal. Haha! Only in Jersey!

Flooring Update II

So Chris has been kicking some home renovation butt this month. I have another impressive, in my opinion - I might be biased - update on the flooring. So last week I left you at this:

Well, he went to town tearing up that floor:

Yup, and it is all gone - the baseboards too:

This is impressive, but that's not all. He even started to put down the moisture barrier:

And as a teaser to both you and me, he started to put down some of the flooring:

This is way more progress than I could have hoped for and I have a feeling that this room might even be ready to light up the fireplace for the first chilly days of fall that will be shortly upon us. 

Front Lawn: Falling Cleaning

In early September, Chris picked up some bulbs for fall planting:

By some, I mean a lot. There is a big bag of daffodils in featured above and we later picked up another big bag of tulips to mix it up. Both of these are early-mid-spring flowers that require fall planting. I have big plans to get them planted before the close of October. Hopefully, in future years this will be not a big deal, partly because these bulbs will come back every year, and mostly because we won't have to deal with this first:

So maybe, and just maybe, I left the front yard get a bit out of hand. It wasn't really my fault, I swear. The plants left by the previous owner just took over. This left it looking very messy, and devoid of variety - you can barely make out the peony that I found in May.

So Chris and I decided to take some drastic measures. The plan is to replace this triangle of miniature jungle with some mulch and a more 'planned and maintained' look. This will be bordered by some landscaping stones and for this season at least, will feature those bulbs and some mums. So we started ripping it out:

Oh, look, the peony. I was going a bit slowly, so Chris helped me out:

So right now it looks a mess. I'll admit. But this is just the first step. We went to Home Depot and looked at landscaping stones and mulch, but the weather yesterday was gross (like fifties and rainy) so this is a project that will continue into next weekend.  

Hunkering Down For Fall

One of the best parts of this house is the pool. It may be a big source of headache for Chris, but really enjoyed it this summer, especially since I had so much free time. But now it is cold out and no longer swimming weather. It really hasn't been swimming weather for a couple of weeks, but it took us a little while to get to closing the pool.

Chris spent a lot of time ensuring there was no water left in the filter lines and adding the wintering chemicals. Then it was a group effort to cover it with the tarp.

The backyard isn't a cheery as it was with the pool open, but it is officially fall and it's time to embrace that. Onward to fall planting and fun activities!

Medical School Update: October

So I mentioned that I had my "Biomedical Sciences" final last Tuesday. Well the results are in and I am happy to report that I have passed my first med school class. Woo!

I can't believe that it is already October and the start of a new unit as of last Thursday. Yup, there was all of one day off - But I think I made the most of it - more on that later. This unit is "Structure and Function." The way the classes are arranged we have 3 blocks this year, each with two classes. So Biomedical Sciences and Structure and Function make up the Foundations of Medicine block.

This is a change from the traditional medical school structuring where there were many classes that were ongoing. They have mushed it all into one big class with many different components. For example, this new unit includes a bit of gross anatomy, histology, and embryology - among others. It is nice because it means both less testing and a better integration of the material. 

So back to slaving away at new material. There is a bit of a break until our next exam - October 25, but it is a two day exam with a written test, anatomy practical, and a histology exam...and that is only the midterm. 

Flooring Update I

So now that the wooden floors have been purchased and are awaiting placement in the Family Room. Chris has already gotten started on pulling up the nasty carpet that was there:

Unlike in the Kitchen and Dining Rooms, it appears that they put down a laminate floor prior to putting down the carpet:

It has a faux wood pattern to it, in 1 foot tiles. It is pretty awful. Better than the carpet, but just barely.  Chris is intent on ripping it up too, so that there is a level base to put the flooring on. Here is a small section he already did:

The black is actually the glue that was holding the old tiling down. It is otherwise concrete. Chris has made more progress than I expected in the first week, but there is still a long way to go.