First post from an iphone: benson hard ar

Ebay is Interesting

We bought this painting on ebay, and it was the first item I have purchased from them since 2006. Susan the designer found this piece in November and showed us the link; I liked it, Benson wasn't really sure. It was $250, so we skipped buying it. Two months later, it was still available. We are getting more serious abouit picking accent items rather than just big furniture, so we checked out the item page and it was still available. It was, so for kicks, I put in an offer for $100 -- and bingo, it was accepted! Now that I know buyers will sometimes take lots less in a "buy it now" scenario, I'll be looking for more bargains. :)

Here's the description from the site:

Vintage 1980s Oil/Mixed Media; High quality modernism abstract; Signed & Dated on the front: Gwen Gershon, 1985....has very nice quality in very good to excellent original condition, original frame; no glass; measurements: image is 23 by 33 1/2; outer frame size is 30 x401/2.

Organize Everything

If you ever need something for decorating/organizing your house and can't find exactly what you want, try organize.com, aka Organize Everything. I searched all over the Internet for a 24 inch wide, bookshelf-style pot rack in stainless steel (or nickel or chrome) and couldn't find it anywhere. I finally found something that worked on this site.

Also, we have some additional new organization tools in our home- a white board and dry erase markers. We are keeping a running list of all the outstanding decorating tasks on it. It's easy to walk up and pick a task to get crackin' on, and very easy to update, erase finished items (yay!), etc. We also have the grocery list posted there, and reminders to renew our license plates, etc. While much less low tech, this works a lot better than the wiki page we tried using a few years ago. The white board is right in our faces every time we walk down the hall ;)

Purple Reign Makes Roses Bloom!!!!

Rose Parade - the Lindbergh High School Spirit of St. Louis Marching Band

Rose Parade - My fave float, from Cal Poly Tech universities

Frog Nation!!!

We won!!!!!!!!!!!

TCU Won the Rose Bowl!!!!!!

Megan is a TCU Alumn, and when the football team earned the invitation to the Rose Bowl it was a dream come true. For those of you not familiar with TCU football, the team has been steadily improving its national ranking over the last decade or so under coach Gary Patterson, and the last three years in particular have been stellar. Sadly, the BCS system that favors the traditional football powerhouses has kept the Horned Frog team out of the big BCS bowl games, and out of the running for the national championship. The invitation to the Rose Bowl was a HUGE step, and the team WON, beating the U of Wisconsin Badgers (who were ranked number 5 behind TCU's number 3, so proving again how good the Horned Frogs really are on a national level).

Benson was a trooper and got up at 5 a.m. to leave the house by 5:30 a.m. - we had to hit the Rose Parade before the big game! We arrived in Pasadena at 6 a.m. to avoid the crazy traffic from the street closures, and after napping in the car a bit headed over for the parade. Thanks to my dad for snagging us bleacher seats in the second row so we didn't have to consider camping out on the street overnight! The parade was beautiful, with lots of amazing floats, great marching bands and very impressive equestrian entries, too.

After the parade we went back to the car for another nap (yes, we were that tired, it WAS New Year's Day) and after 45 minutes of rest we hoofed it over to the Rose Bowl!!! Our seats were third row from the top in the North end zone, and we can tell you from experience that there really is no bad seat in the Rose Bowl, because we had an excellent view. The TCU crowd kinda seemed like freshmen invited to the prom compared to the Badger fans who were well-seasoned in bowl game excitement. The Badgers were hardcore tailgating, taunting the TCU fans here and there, EVERY one of them was in red head to toe, etc. The TCU fans were, well, just bright-eyed and really happy to be there! Which seemed fitting, since just last year was our first real BCS game, in the Fiesta Bowl, and it was against another newcomer to the national stage, Boise State.

The game was a blast, and we've never hung on every play in a football game like that ever before. Everyone we talk to who watched it on TV thought it was a nail-biter at the end, but in the stadium it felt different. By the third quarter the Badger fans had deflated a lot. Even through that last rush where the Badgers scored, everyone was just watching the clock and it seemed like there was no way the Badgers could win it - even when they went for the 2-point conversion, it just felt like it was TCU's game.

Looking forward to watching lots of TCU football with friends and family next season!!!!!