Its been a really good week. I won the Patch NYC candle giveaway from Hello Gorgeous and Boxwood Home in Rehoboth Beach! I happened to be home yesterday afternoon when the UPS man pulled up and I couldn't wait to open my package. Its the triple wick stag candle, and it smells fantastic, piney and clean. I even got extra matches, which I really dig. I have a Zippo candle lighter, but there's just something about using a book of matches that feels good.
You should take a look at Boxwood Home's website for candles or anything else you might need to spruce up your place. I literally don't see anything I wouldn't want to own.
One of these days I hope to visit Rehoboth Beach (its a world gay heritage site you know) and when I do this will be my first stop. Unless I manage to track down the address for HG's beach house, then I'm stopping there first to demand gin and tonic, then a ride to Boxwood Home on the back of her Vespa. Thank you to HG and Boxwood Home!
Boxwood Home
39 Baltimore Avenue
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
The other cool thing that happened was my company's holiday lunch. We're privately held, and as such we're treated really well. So well in fact, that in the year you hit your ten year anniversary, which I did in September, you get recognized at the holiday lunch with a gift.
Rather than a catalog of stuff you really can't get excited about (like my 10 year pocket multi-tool I got when I worked at Sprint), we get to make an appointment with Kansas City's old-guard jeweler, Tivol, to pick out a watch.
Before you think it's all crazy and limitless, it's not. But what the company pays is truly generous, and we're welcome to add to it ourselves to get the timepiece we really want. I banked my tax refund this year in anticipation and for not even all of that ended up with something I really love, my steel Rolex GMT-Master II.
Inscribed with our company logo, a 10 year anniversary notation and my initials, I put it back in the box to take a picture. Even the box and paperwork are beautiful. And other than when I'm asleep that's the longest it's been off my wrist since noon on Wednesday.
I know just how incredibly lucky I am to work where I do, where we're treated so generously and graciously, and it really is an organization I'm happy to be a part of.
It was deceptively sunny today, but still cool with a brisk breeze, a perfect metaphor for my mood. I'm thrilled that we've started doing something to this place, but today the process wore me down.
We're partially wired and there is new insulation, and sheetrocking begins tomorrow. There is also a three foot wide path of mud and dust and plaster bits that runs the length of the hall, through the entry and living room, swings around through the corner of the dining room and completely across the kitchen to the garage.
Every surface here is covered with a fine, gritty dust, including the bathroom we're using, which is now completely devoid of any counter space. Our toothbrushes are in their holder... on the closet shelf in the bedroom. There is nowhere to hang a towel since I'd always used the door, which must now be closed so that the neighbors can't see my ass when I exit the shower.
The electrician had things come up, and while I know things happen, he had planned to be done today, but must now come back tomorrow. And beat the sheetrocker. The carpenter, in an effort to be helpful, had his Pella guy come bid the three bedroom windows. Two grand for three windows is not in the budget.
So I'd been battling a mild crankiness when I headed off to the bowling alley. Just as we started, Brett called. Mrs. Blandings had stopped by and brought this:
When Patricia posted that she'd been invited to sit on the Elle Decor panel at West Week I was thrilled for her. If you read Mrs. Blandings you know that Style and Substance, the title of Margaret Russell's new book, is an apt discription of Patricia as well. Because I'm often prone to making a joke, after offering my congratulations I also offered twenty bucks if she could boost Margaret's lipstick. Even better than pilfered cosmetics, is an inscription:
Thank you so much Patricia. That was incredibly thoughtful of you, and came on a day when I really needed a nice surprise.
45 year old gay guy, living in the flyover states with his partner and schnauzers. Loves coffee, conversation, lamps. Hates mayonnaise. Opinions on everything else vary widely.
Inscribed with our company logo, a 10 year anniversary notation and my initials, I put it back in the box to take a picture. Even the box and paperwork are beautiful. And other than when I'm asleep that's the longest it's been off my wrist since noon on Wednesday.
