Festimorial Celebration

Mark's and my annual hosted family holiday is one we made up. NOTE: each O'Leary has a hosted family holiday, but they are typically Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving. Making up our own holiday gives us flexibility in planning the date - but we've decided its a summer thing- scheduled sometime between May and August. This year, to beat the heat, we tried Memorial weekend, and adjusted the name of the celebration to Festimorial.

There was a quorum of family attendees, and we had lots of food. The rainy weather cleared and it was beautiful for going to the beach and for feasting. The obligatory telling of jokes and feats of strength were a bit more competitive with awards for the best (decided by me). While the feat of strength last year was arm wrestling, this year we had one legged, intertwined arm wrestling. And the winner was....MOM! This feat required lots of hopping and upper body strength, topped off with strong core strength. Mom's pilates paid off!

The hands down highlight of the day was watching the baby doves, literally inches from where we were wrestling and eating. Their mother decided it was time to learn to fly. So we watched the process which was uncannily like teaching a baby person how to take their first steps. And like humans, each baby bird needed motivating by mom, was clumsy when they tried to fly, and had a protective mother taking care of them along the way. It was like having our own personalized National Geographic episode.

Kitchen Awakening

We are almost done with the kitchen!! With water now running, it is functional. Originally, the kitchen was a separate room. The previous owner removed part of the kitchen-dining room wall and made an penisnula/bar between the rooms. While this was an improvement, it made for an awkward kitchen with minimal counter space for the size of the room, and a door to the patio that took up most of the counter when it was in use. The only lighting was from the ceiling fan which made any meal a surprise.

Ultimately, we: Opened the kitchen to the patio with french doors, closing the single door in front of the counter. Removed the peninsula/bar with the tongue shaped counter. Added lighting - can lights, LED under-counter lights, spotlights with new ceiling fan. New maple cabinets with rollout bottom shelves and drawers for pots and pans. Black granite composite sink. Stainless hood and wall guard for the stove, gas stove...and gas to the house. New stainless ceiling fan. Stainless shelf microwave to replace the over-the-stove microwave that was too low for the gas stove. New faucet.

Mark did the demolition and the construction, including cabinet installation. We did spring for counter-top installers, plumbers and electricians though! There were a few surprises along the way - which is typical. But none were show stoppers. I did however learn a dictionary worth of new and excited Turkish words that seemed to address each and every one of the challenges along the way.

Mark and I are really enjoying the larger, more efficient space, especially since we seem to be sure to be in the kitchen at the same time. As one can imagine, even though we have a BIG island, we end up working in the same corner - go figure!