there's hope for green and gray yet

Abbey and Erica's theme for Spring Break this year was "staycation," and they did all sorts of fun things around the area. They saved one of the best stops for Thursday when I could join them, and we drove to Atchison to Nell Hills. Before we started browsing, we had lunch at Marigold Cafe and discussed my Behr paint samples. Abbey, a self-declared "paint snob" pronounced the gray "cold" and the green really "70's-ish." Both of my aquas passed the test. The gray I also think is a little cold the more I look at it. The green is bright, but I like bright. It's happy. I would be even happier if I could afford one of those little tvs that drop down from the kitchen counter so I could watch tv while cooking in VA. That would really be happy.

And then Mary Carol Garrity saved the day and my interior design woes. The bright green was in every room in her store - if it wasn't painted on the walls then there was an abundance of fresh green plants and greenery hanging from the ceiling and in every sort of urn or metcal container possible. There were also two great rooms in a warm gray. And to top it all off, she sells samples of her colors that I can use to help match things. Abbey approved (I breathed a sigh of relief since she is going to help paint in VA), and I bought the samples. That's it. Nothing else. Lots I could have bought but nothing I needed. You should be rightfully impressed.

The green and grey flowed well from room to room thanks to a good combination of blacks, golds, foilage and white. Very neutral things in the two rooms. This will be key as I plod ahead.

I knew Mary Carol would come through. In related news, I still need a date for the "Dancing with the Stars" fundraiser on March 29. Ironically, Mary Carol is a judge.

the south will rise again

My last VA interview was a screening interview that a principal in Prince William County was nice enough to do this afternoon. It was at Stonewall Middle School in Manassas, VA. Mascots - Sabres. I like my Civil War history quite a bit, and I love the fact that the middle school is named after a fallen Confederate leader. I think living in the South might be an adjustment because something tells me they forgot they lost.

Rachel put most of the finishing touches in the nursery except for the super secret baby name and some framed images of sock monkeys she took with my Frienime, Courtney. The red and brown stripes compliment all of the sock money fabric (see left).

Baby Figgy is one lucky baby. He will have a good life at 7916 because with all the tv Rach and I watch someone will always want to hold him. He might have to learn how to talk only during commercials. Don't be surprised if Fig's first words are OMG. XOXO. Awesome. (That's from Monday night TV - Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother.)

Home again. Trip tomorrow to Nell Hills where I'm scouting things for 7916. The challenge is making the gray (that I'm really committed too) warm. I think I can do it.

a high note

I was afraid of this. Rachel made Sol and I watch "Michael Jackson Night" on American Idol while we worked on the nursery, and while watching I got kind of attached to the contestants. I loved Danny Gokey singing "PYT." I would like to be married to Arkansas Kris if he were 8 inches taller. And just like that, I'm into the show. I'm invested.Yesterday I reminded Rach that Idol was on tonight. Today I had her double check the DVR to be sure that it was set to record. And now I'm sitting through two hours of toe tapping Grand Ole Opry songs with Randy Travis.

From the couch judges here at 7916, we have several favorites. Still Danny Gokey. Definitely Kris. Also Matt. I like "Amy Winehouse" American Idol contestant, Megan Joy. Rach says she is a bad dancer, and we think she could probably wear better clothes. She likes pink hair Allison. Sol laughs everytime that Randy says "Anoop-dog." When asked to pick a favorite, he won't because "there are a lot of ballers. It's tough." And Copper the dog doesn't understand why we aren't paying more attention to him.

Good news: I have room on my TV schedule for Tuesday. SVU can easily be DVRed and watched at a later time. I don't know what I'm going to do when I actually live here and a lot of my shows don't START until 10 pm like SVU. Rach and I are at risk. If we start watching all of each others shows we will watch approximately 22 shows combined. We may have to reinstate the TV rubric.

About the jobs...
I've talked to people at Loudoun County (two principals), Prince William County (one principal tomorrow, one vice principal today), Fairfax (Rachel's principal), and Arlington County (recruiter and social studies director). The moral of the story: it is a waiting process. I need to follow up, send some thank you notes and check back in a month. There will be very few early hires so I'm waiting. The last interviews with Arlington were fabulous.

We picked out colors for the first floor. Colors later. We also painted the nursery, and it is sock monkey theme. Photos posted later.

One more day here...