Festive

I guess it's starting to feel like Christmas, even though outside it feels more like early November. Not that I'm complaining; I keep hearing people say, "We're saving money on heat," and I can certainly get behind that.

There are always a decent number of houses in my neighborhood that decorate, and if I get ambitious I might go out and take some photos. But I was out with the dog the other night and happened to be across the street from our house, where we don't typically walk at night. After I brought her back inside, I went back out to get a quick pic.

That's SAR HQ on the right; the upstairs neighbors started decorating last year, after that apartment transitioned from having three unrelated single residents to a couple, with one member who's quite enthusiastic about the season. (There are also lights in that small square window above the mailboxes, but they weren't turned on.) Our next-door neighbor decorates every year, and I welcome the display, as much for the added brightness it brings to our block as for any other reason.

Medford Christmas Decorating

Hey there... the day sort of got away from me. Have you ever sat around trying to remember the administrator password for an old Mac you no longer use? It's not a productive way to spend any portion of your day.

However, I was more successful at printing the recipients' addresses of our holiday cards on their envelopes with my current computer and printer, something I've never even attempted before this year. They came out well; the printing is where it's supposed to be on the envelopes, and the lines of type are straight. This is largely due to the new printer, which has a handy guide slot that can be adjusted to the width of any envelope. Also of note: we are actually sending cards this year, after years of neglect in this area.

So I thought I'd just toss out a couple of photos I took the other night of some of the Christmas decorations near our house. This group of four adjacent houses is on the other side of our street just west of us. All of these houses always have some outside decorations, and while I don't know if they coordinate their efforts, the "cluster effect" benefits all of them.

This garage is on the corner opposite our street where it meets the Fellsway, and it's where I took photos of the Pontiac LeMans convertible (which is still there, parked behind the tow truck, almost a year after appearing). This is the first time they've done this, so I was pleased to see it for the first time about a week ago when getting off the bus on my way home one evening. It didn't take a genius to come up with this but it's clever and festive, plus I think there's something quintessentially Boston about it.

Festive

Since before we moved to this house eight years ago, the upstairs apartment has been occupied by various unrelated single adults, some of whom moved on when their relationship status changed. This summer two of the three left, and the girlfriend of the third moved in. There were furniture purchases and other expected domestications.

Then about ten days ago I started noticing bits of holiday-related decoration appearing. There's a small window in the front wall of the house, about head-high, that lets light into the stairway going up to the second floor apartment. Vinyl lettering saying "Merry Christmas" showed up on that window, affixed to the inside. A couple of days later there was a package on the front porch addressed to the female upstairs resident. It was a doormat, and because it was wrapped in clear plastic I could see that it said "Wipe your merry feet." Indeed.

I grew up in a house where Christmas decorating was embraced enthusiastically, and I have friends who are equally merry, but I'm not used to seeing it so close by, or so early in the season. The majority of people in the neighborhood who do decorate seem to have an unspoken understanding that visible exterior decorations are not supposed to appear until after the Thanksgiving meal has been consumed.

On Sunday I went outside to get the paper and found that the window in the door leading to upstairs had been covered by a piece of holiday wrapping paper. It blocks the light that comes in through that small window and makes the vestibule dark, but at night when their stairway light is turned on it makes the paper glow warmly.

Last night when I took the dog out, I saw that a couple of rows of blinking lights had been strung on the second-floor porch railing. They were arranged in a straight line running around all three sides of the railing about halfway up it. There were white lights and blue lights (thankfully not those LED ones that emit a weird, artificial-looking light) but they weren't mixed together, and they'd been set up to blink in seemingly random patterns.

It struck me as something of a half-hearted effort, but perhaps it's only phase one in a larger light-show plan. It's still two days before Thanksgiving, so there's plenty of time for who knows what else to appear.

Under the Chair, Over the Carpet

I spend a lot of time at my computer. I still have a desktop setup; I don't like typing on laptops, I prefer a large screen, and I just find it more comfortable overall to use a traditional setup at my desk rather than hunch over a laptop, or sit with one on the couch as the Mrs. does.

Back in June I mentioned that I had worn a hole in the plastic chair mat where I sit, mainly from having my weight press on a certain spot. (I have to have a mat because the room is carpeted.) We went to look for a replacement, and liked the ones made of strips of bamboo wood mounted to a flexible backing. They are far more attractive than the plastic alternative, and the Mrs. had a Staples gift card so I only had to pay the difference.

Some people have said that the bamboo can get scratched depending on what kind of chair you use and what kind of wheels it has, but it's still going to be far more durable than a plastic mat and will likely still be more attractive.

Now, Staples sells two brands of these mats, their own and another that is far more expensive. But the Staples-brand mats are not online, so you have to go to a store to get one. They come in two sizes and two finishes, "natural" (which resembles hardwood flooring and goes nicely with our bookcases and my desk) and a darker, browner finish that I think is called "cherry."

Decorated

The houses in our area tend to do a nice job of decorating for the holidays, Halloween included. While walking around recently I took a few pictures of some of the more interesting efforts.

This couple appears to be waiting for a bus, but they don't run on their street.

This fellow reclined on his chair, with a spider and a skeleton to keep him company.

And I'm not sure if this poor creature was intended as a Halloween decoration (which represents a rather twisted approach), or if he was punished for some other transgression.

Birds at Play?

The Mrs. did a window display for our local coffee shop, Mystic Coffee Roaster in Medford Square:

It's just an informal arrangement, she enjoys doing it and it helps the shop fill its window space.

Throw Me A Throw

Sorry folks, I've been sick all this week. Not great, but at least it's on the way out now. I have a good tip for everyone though, courtesy of fellow blogger United Style.

Setting aside the fuss about the recently fired CEO, JCPenney has some very nice wool throws on clearance. These are made in America and are currently available in eight different color/pattern choices, marked down from $75 to a very reasonable $36. But wait, until April 17th the code SPRINGUP will take off an extra 20%, bringing them down to just under $29 each. These would make really nice housewarming or hostess gifts, or are just nice things to have around your own house.

(For you true patriots, there's also an American flag throw from the same maker in a slightly larger size for $75, down from $150. Apply the code and it drops to $60.)

Too Soon?

There's a house around the corner from us that's already fully decorated for Halloween. I know the mornings have been getting brisk around here, but it seems like it might be more reasonable to at least wait until it's officially October. Then again, I've seen reports of Christmas decorations starting to show up in stores...

Bathroom Break

Most people keep at least a few things in the shower: soap, shampoo, a scrubber. I have a few others, like face wash and shaving cream. Even in a household like ours with only two adults, it's difficult to avoid shower clutter. (This is not exciting stuff, but it is necessary.)

Years ago I lived in a very old house in Somerville. The bathroom had a footed tub with one of those old shower curtain rods that goes all the way around, and a shower head fed by a length of hose from the faucets. There was some shelving built into a corner where two walls met that worked nicely for holding the necessities. Later, when the Mrs. and I moved in together, we tried a variety of storage solutions, including one of those plastic buckets that attaches to the shower wall via a suction cup. This was fine except that it decided to de-suction every once in a while.

After moving into this apartment six years ago, we settled on one of those pole things with shelves on it. It provided enough space, but we had to pay attention to how much we put on the shelves, because they were held in place by tiny rubber rings and couldn't handle too much weight. After several years that unit started to show some rust, even though it was made of stainless steel coated with a white vinyl outer layer. We replaced it with a similar unit that was just stainless. It started to rust literally within a week of installing it, and after a while both of us were sick of looking at it.

While flipping through a recent catalog from The Container Store, I found this shower head-mounted caddy. Not only was it attractive and on sale, but the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, including one that claimed no rust after two years. It's made by simplehuman, whose products are well made and well regarded; we already have one of their kitchen trash cans. I'm generally not a huge fan of over-the-shower-head organizers, but we both liked the adjustability of this one.

So on Friday we headed out to the Natick Container Store, which is a bit of a drive from our house, but there is also a fabric store nearby that the Mrs. likes quite a bit. (The shower caddy also comes in a version with bamboo elements, but it was not on sale and $20 more, and it would look out of place in our shower and bathroom anyway.) As a bonus, the Mrs. found a nice little work desk on clearance in the back of the store for about 75% off its original price, so she decided to buy that too. It had to be disassembled to fit in our car, but that small inconvenience was worth it.

(The Proper Bostonian asserts that Shower Caddy Organizer was a semi-underground band back in the 1980s, but I can't find any evidence to support her claim.)

By the way, The Container Store is opening a new location in the Northshore Mall in Peabody in October, which may be more convenient for some Boston-area shoppers.

A Touch of Color

We usually have some sort of decoration on the front door. When we got married, a friend of the family who had grown up with my sister made us a beautiful decorative wreath. We had it on the door of our Somerville place for years, and unfortunately it faded from the sun, and stuff started falling off of it, so when we moved we didn't keep it.

One year, in lieu of an evergreen Christmas wreath, I bought an artificial holly wreath. It stayed on the door for months, long past its intended decorative period. Last fall I was stuck wandering around a craft store while the Mrs. picked out fabric, and I ended up buying a fall wreath that was on clearance. After Christmas, I took down the holly wreath again and the Mrs. suggested we needed some other sort of non-fall, non-Christmas decorative item for the door.

A few weeks ago she was at another craft store, buying yarn for crochet, and came home with this:

It's a little different from what I was expecting, but that's good. Now that winter is really gone, it's nice to see this flash of colors when I come home from work.