Happy Holidays? A Sense Of Fun, NOT

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 / Ally Bean / 33 Comments

:: Well, didn’t the holidays suck this year? Or at least that’s how it went for us here at Chez Bean. You too?

The weather, of course, was all wrong. No matter where you were in the USA the weather was. not. right.

We had April-like spring temps in the 60s with rain and gray, depressing, bleak skies, instead of cool crisp winter weather with clear blue skies by day, starry skies by night.

Star of Bethlehem? Nowhere to be seen.

Adding to the blah, Zen-Den had pneumonia so he was a noisy hacking joy to be around. Keep in mind that I’m a highly sensitive person, meaning that for me his almost hourly coughing fits were like being jabbed with little plastic forks over and over and over again.

I used up my adrenaline supply for all of 2016 & then some.

Full moon, hazy sky. No stars in sight.

:: Needless to say, but I’m going to say it anyhow, we did not get together with friends and family because… well, read health issue discussed immediately above.

So alone we sat. Playing games, him on his iPhone, me on my iPad. Occasionally watching TV or a movie or a football game. Sort of. Ordering things online because how else could we go shopping?

Why didn’t I read, you ask?

As you may or may not know, April is my least favorite month of the year because I’m allergic to the pollen and mold that it produces. So, when that same weather showed up here [in December, thank you global warming] my eyes immediately went blurry, irritated by the aforementioned crap in the air.

Say adios to books.

Drab brown leaves accented with a sprig of red.

:: MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT THIS YEAR WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING A HEALTHY ZEN-DEN HOME FOR TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT WITH NO WORK COMMITMENTS SO THAT WE COULD GET THINGS DONE AROUND THE HOUSE.

Things like sorting through and boxing up the junk in the basement. Taking things to Goodwill and Habitat For Humanity. Hanging pictures in gallery wall formations. Deciding on new paint colors for bedrooms. Going to furniture stores to look at and sit on potential new chairs and sofas.

Did any of this get done?

NO! Not. one. stinking. thing.

Meaning that as far as I’m concerned this holiday season was a bust. While I’m the first to admit that it wasn’t the worst holiday season* I’ve lived through, overall Christmas 2015 + New Year’s Day 2016 were a downright old bummer of an experience.

So boring.

* My worst Christmas/NY holiday memories include: hospital stays; a nursing home; post-operative recuperation at home; talk of hospice care; electrical outages leading to days of no heat & food spoilage in refrigerator.

And one horrible two-night stay, stuck in a shabby motel in northern GA, adjacent to nothing, with only basic cable, pre-wifi & cell phone, when our car broke down on NY Day, a Saturday, and the car dealership where it needed to be repaired wasn’t open until Monday.

Married Life: Of Wordplay And Lettuce

December 9, 2015May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 23 Comments

In case you were thinking I was just another blogging floozy, let me share with you, my gentle readers, the following conversation in which my wordsmith-y skills came in pretty darned handy. Score one point for Team Wife.

# # #

HUSBAND, aka chubby hubby, getting up off sofa, declaring loudly on his way to bed: BE A SHARK, NEVER STOP MOVING.

ME, laughing: You look nothing like a shark. There’s no sharkness about you. I think you should say…

HUSBAND, trying to look stern: DON’T YOU DARE SAY IT.

ME, coyly: Say what?

HUSBAND, grumpy: Beached whale. Don’t tell me I look like a BEACHED WHALE. Or Santa Claus.

ME, sincerely: That’s not what I was going to say. You don’t look anything like Santa, you don’t have a white beard… yet.

HUSBAND, irritated, but curious: What were you going to say?

ME, smiling: I was going to say: BE A MANATEE, NEVER STOP GROOVING.

HUSBAND, sighing: Huh? I don’t want to be a manatee.

ME, cheerful: Why? They’re cute. And groovy.

HUSBAND, defeated: Because all they eat is lettuce. I DON’T WANNA ALWAYS EAT LETTUCE. Forever.

ME, attempting to be empathetic but failing miserably due to a fit of giggles: Yes, I can see that’s true already.

# # #

Our conversation, more or less about lettuce, reminded me of this, my favorite Simpsons quote, which seems like the perfect way to end this rather ridiculous blog post about, of all things, lettuce.

A Little Vacation: Went To Texas, Got Wet, Came Home

October 26, 2015July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 21 Comments

:: Late last week we went to Texas to visit Austin, TX, but our little extended weekend vacay took a different turn, and we ended up in Dallas, TX.

Perhaps you heard about Hurricane Patricia?

While both cities were soaked by this unprecedented storm, after getting to Texas, driving to Austin & finding ourselves in the moldiest suburban Hilton Garden Inn room ever, we reconsidered our plans & decided to focus on Dallas instead of messing around with Austin, which was more directly in the path of the storm.

And had unbelievably expensive hotel rooms. [$200.00 per night for a downtown budget Motel 6 room. That’s without taxes. And, of course, no room service available in the place.]

Photo of bleak wet world as seen from room window in Marriott Hotel at Legacy Town Center in Plano, TX, October 2015.

:: I’m glad that we made a change in our plans and chose to goof-off in Dallas, even though the whole region had the most amazingly consistent gray sky that I’ve ever seen.

A sky that some might be tempted to say was gloomy and foreboding.

A sky that seemed to hover over us as we drove around Dallas on about seventy hundred thousand different highways, toll roads, expressways + freeways, in the rain, while Siri told us how to reroute ourselves to avoid flash flooding.

:: So what did we do? Activities that kept us dry, of course.

We visited the Dallas Museum of Art [fascinating American silver collection, Islamic art + Inca artifacts].
We visited the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art [art displayed partly in museum and partly in law firm that shares the building with the museum].
We drove to, but were unable to see, the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano, TX, because it was closed due to flooding.
Then, despite my dislike of malls, we went to NorthPark Center, an upscale 50-year-old mall, incredibly clean– and about as soulless as a mall can get.
Continuing on went to another mall, The Shops at Willow Bend, which for a mall wasn’t so bad. I guess. Zen-Den bought a few shirts at Dillard’s, so not a total waste of time.

:: Do I have a conclusion? Well, I don’t know. Sort of.

All I can tell you, gentle readers, is that I am not unfamiliar with vacations not going as planned. I am nothing if not adaptable. Meaning that while I didn’t return from our vacation rejuvenated by local cuisine, music and artsy-fartsy Austin stuff, I’m happy that I got to see a little bit of Dallas, TX.

Which is massive, affluent, with lots of new buildings, friendly people and, in my experience, incredibly wet. 😉

Sitting Pretty On New Kitchen Chairs

October 13, 2015January 25, 2024 / Ally Bean / 29 Comments

~ ~ • ~ ~

Just like on HGTV, here’s a teaser for the BIG REVEAL.

~ ~ • ~ ~

I’M ALL ABOUT MISMATCHED CHAIRS. If things are too matchy-matchy, I get nervous. [What if I stain or break something? Then what? Things won’t match.]

I prefer the positive energy that eclectic style brings to a space. So after years of perfectly coordinating table and chairs in our kitchen, it was time for a change.

Here’s the story.

~ ~ • ~ ~

Is this box from Hannibal Lecter or Pottery Barn?

~ • ~

I BEGAN THIS PROJECT BY SEARCHING for chairs in brick & mortar stores and online. Eventually I decided which new chairs I wanted around our Ethan Allen kitchen table, which we’ve had since we moved here 15 years ago.

UPS plopped this very large box, filled with chair pieces + hardware, on our front stoop and I dragged it inside.

To make the table look better, Zen-Den painted the pedestal a warm neutral shade, SW6141 Softer Tan.

I figured that we’d use 2 dining chairs from Arhaus that we already had, knew to be comfortable, and were no longer being used in the dining room. To these we would add 2 new chairs from Pottery Barn, ordered online.

We received the Pottery Barn chair pieces in a very large box. Then one of us put them together in the foyer on Sunday morning while the other one of us photographed the event. For posterity, ‘ya know?

~ • ~

Looking lonely, a chair back leans against the wall, waiting to join together with other chair pieces to make a seat.

~ ~ • ~ ~

I’M GROOVING ON THESE NEW CHAIRS, brilliantly built by Zen-Den. After sitting on the wobbly, match-y Ethan Allen Windsor chairs that came with this table, these new sturdy chairs are wonderful.

They coordinate with, but don’t match, our former dining room chairs repurposed as kitchen chairs– all of which makes my frugal, design-y heart happy.

No higher praise than that, eh?

~ ~ • ~ ~

The BIG REVEAL shows my eclectic sense of style works for us.

~ ~ • ~ ~

[Hello FTC! I know it’s been so long since we spoke, but I wanted to make sure that you understood that there was no monetary &/or other compensation involved with these kitchen chairs. The foregoing is my opinion about things, shared here– just ‘cuz I can. We good?]