There's no place like home...

Hello, summer. Good to see you.

Ah July, and the Watervale Road has infiltrated my mind, spilling its delicious blues and greens into my dreams. Each day I awake hoping to find a bar of handmade soap on my vanity and blueberry buckle at my snap-dragon adorned breakfast table.... Nuts. It's still not time for vacation (our New Year.)

Let's reflect, then, on the year we've been given. All of us.

And while you're reflecting, however you may do so, peruse a few shots of our beloved old home. Here are a few of the inside. The garden is yet to come (two new zucchini today!)

Summer Rhythm

Summer is, obviously, the season that seems to go by the quickest, but Mandy, Grace and I are enjoying the middle of it right now about as well as you could. The yard is still green (thank you mild, wet weather) and the vegetables are taking off. Our first tomato will be ready for picking any day now with about a dozen more on the vine waiting their turn. We have the world's biggest zucchini plant with no zucchini. Same can be said for the watermelon, which has a vine that grows 3 inches a day in 4 different directions. And the little critters are devouring our first strawberries. While I don't enjoy digging in the dirt like the two ladies of the house, I certainly am fascinated by the daily watch of developing edibles.

I will go more than a month without travelling for any type of work, which is a first. My last trip was so enjoyable, I took some time off! Ah, Buffalo dorm life...

(Yep, that was my abode for a whole week with 3 roommates. I don't feel old, but I can not remember when I enjoyed sleeping in a place like that)

We finally got back to the little lake this summer (thank you, Laurent family!) and got a little R&R in the sun. More importantly, it gave us the opportunity to let the little fuzz practice her doggy-paddle stroke...

All in all, we've really had a chance to relax, which is great. Mandy continues to update the house as she channels the interior designer within. Friends are getting married, friends are having babies and we continue to realize that every day is an amazing gift. Grateful isn't a strong enough word for the life I have and the opportunities provided. The more people who can share that attitude, the better the country, in my opinion.

So, enjoy your summer, wherever you may be!

Broken, old, mossy stuff? Be still my heart.

I am an old soul. I love creepy old things—crooked old houses, creaky floorboards, old doors and closets, historic hotels, abandoned buildings, shacks on the side of the highway…anything with a past and a couple cobwebs. I am so fascinated with days gone by that I can’t help but daydream about the lives old objects led as they pass under my glance. The hands that must have held that bowl, the sink it was soaped up in, how it was used…. the picture unfurls in my mind.

When Will and I began shopping for our first home, I knew I wanted it to have some history. I dragged him through multiple dilapidated homes, all of which would have cost us a fortune in heat and repair, but swooned over the details: limestone fireplace crest, chipped French doors, stained glass basement door, and moss covered patios. A great sport, my husband is. After numerous “hard-hat tours” of potential homes, we fell in love with an oldie in SoBro that lets us live comfortably and without many dips into the “cookie jar.”

Still, I toddle on real estate sites scanning the homes for sale in historic parts of town, rummaging the Indiana Historical Society, and unraveling the history of our abode. Each year, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, Woodruff Place, has a HUGE flea market, which lasts all weekend. We headed there for the festivities this month, and I snagged 5 pink crystal champagne glasses for $5, while Will picked up some good books and BU apparel. (That's my reflection in the picture above)

Check out the haunts I love so well.

Wasatch

For my birthday weekend this year, Will rented a cabin for us at Wasatch Lake, located in Poland Indiana, which turns out to be just a hop, skip and jump away.... The thunderclouds rolled in as we hit the highway, and the driving rain made us keep our hazards on for most of the trip. Still, we arrived safely and in one soggy piece-- our two friends, Kyle and Amanda, and big bear Grace in tow.

We had a great weekend-- relaxing, fishing, swimming, hiking and getting into trouble. Ah, the adventures we shared. Grace got to do lots of swimming too and test out her new lifejacket. It worked. She floats.

Multiple rousing games of Catch Phrase, bottles of wine, birthday cake, bonfires, bug spray, swims to the lake rafts, boat trips and three days later we packed up and hit the road for home with one small stop at the 24-hr vet for some temporary boots for our "Boots" who got a little toooo aggressive with the tennis ball fetching. All in all, the peace we felt there truly makes you think you may be miles and miles away from the world. And what better way to spend a 28th birthday than miles and miles away with the ones you love.

Enjoy some pics!

Here comes that rainy day...

What do you do when the radar looks like this?

















Make a mess so your house looks like this! And tackle your long-awaited indoor projects!! Where there's a will (and electricity), there's a way. Crank up the weather channel and get to it!

We have had oodles of rain in Indiana the last few months, but it's been awesome for the garden-- the lillies are taller than me (literally) and the veggies have exploded! I have been dying to paint the kitchen for some time now, and got the opportunity one recent rainy day . Here's a before shot of the neutral decor:
And here's the finished product (just in time for the sunshine):

New Mindset

Mandy and I made a nice little (Who knew $200 could go so fast?) trip to the grocery store last night and you knew summer was officially upon us when we came around the corner and saw this on the beer shelf. While I have been accused many times of needing to turn in my "man card," I really don't like a lot of fruit-based beers, but the Summer Shandy is the best. Not a shameless plug for the beer because I honestly don't think the taste is amazing, but the flavor is so crisp that it makes you just relax and think of summer...

And with summer, comes the new mindset. Does the world seem happier in summer? Maybe just in the Midwest, but it's like there are two different lifestyles between the warm and cold seasons. The allergies are starting to calm down a bit, and I can be outside in 85-degree heat for 10 minutes without breaking into a sweat. My golf game is starting to round back into shape, and it seems like every week is full of an opportunity to play in a league or any fun outing that allows you to get your picture taken on a Harley. (For your own safety, swallow any liquids in your mouth before viewing the photo below)

This weekend marks the 28th anniversary of my wonderful wife's birth. What's the old expression about marrying young to keep your youthful spirit alive? I've got my spring-chicken bride covered by a solid six months, so it's about time she reached the ripe-old age of 28. We are so excited not just to reach another year in good health (knocking on wood as I type), but after almost five years of marriage, we are actually venturing out into the world for our very first family vacation. Of course, what family of 2 1/2 wouldn't be complete without some friends, so we'll have Kyle and soon-to-be Mrs. Kyle join us. Grace gets to come too and stay in a cottage back in the woods. When she heard there was a lake there, she immediately got dressed up in her boating gear and polished her goggles. Tennis balls and lake water are the summer cocktail of choice for our dog, and we can't wait to wear her out.

Enjoy the summer, and hopefully the bliss of our summer mindset will lead to a surge in posts on this running journal of our lives.

The Month of June

It's never good when your blog title matches the one from the last post, only you change the month. Life got a little hectic towards the end of May for the Hasketts. Not in a bad way, but the frequent flyer miles picked up again for me (Will here). Balancing the full-time job with the part-time broadcasting is starting to become a chore, but that's a good thing. Having more broadcast opportunities is obviously the goal. For the second straight year, I got to experience calling both the women's and men's NCAA D1 golf championships. The women played at Caves Valley Golf Club just outside of Maryland, home of some beautiful terrain for a golf course...

It's amazing what 125K up front can get you!


Part of being on the road for this broadcast work that makes it really fun is having a bit more time to actually explore the city. My friend (and producer) John found this place called Matthew's pizza, and it didn't disappoint. The entire experience was a story. Remember the expression "on the other side of the tracks"? Well, we crossed to the other side about 5 times during this trip. When was the last time you saw an old theatre and the marquee said 'double feature porno show, twice daily?' That was a highlight. It was rough to say the least, but we survived and found the true neighborhood for Matthew's. The setup? It was like a diner, squeezed into a narrow strip of a city building. The murals on the wall were colorful and the place looked like it hadn't had a makeover since opening in the 1940's. It didn't matter, the pizza was flaky, gooey and delicious...







The next week, it was off to the men's championships in Toledo and the famous Inverness club. Drama was in full effect, including an amazing finish to the match play portion of the tournament. You can watch the drama of the last hole archived on ncaa.com (click on the multimedia link at the top of the page and search for M Golf)

In typical Will Haskett fashion, I got to play the top 50 golf course and managed to take only one picture, without me in it...

While my game is suited for long, wide open, modern courses, my favorite ones to play are these old fashioned layouts with small greens and so much character. It was truly a treat.

The weekend also marked the one-year anniversary of our famous Winthrop Ave. flood (check out the archives in this blog for details on that one). Mother Nature did everything in her power to stage an encore 365 days later. I drove back from Toledo (too fast, according to one state Trooper) watching the lightning show from my car, hoping I could get home quickly enough to help with any possible damage (Mandy would kill me if I missed flood #2). Well, we were fortunate, kept power and didn't get hit as hard as other areas. But, experts called it one of the biggest hail storms since spring of 2005, when my car got turned to Swiss cheese in Broad Ripple. If you don't believe that fact, check out this picture taken at 1:00 p.m. the next afternoon...


It was close to 80 degrees in full sun and the hail was still gathered in bunches on the golf course, a full 15 hours after falling. Don't bother aerating the greens, the hail took care of it.

Hopefully the worst of the spring storms are behind us. Mandy and I (who am I kidding, Mandy did all of it) just repainted the kitchen and I'm sure my lovely live-in interior designer will be posting pictures of our new kitchen soon. I like to kid with her, but she can't go 4 months without changing the color scheme of at least one room in our house. My next bet will be our bathroom. But, we got the big project out of the way. Time to enjoy a few weekends together, including a much-needed vacation to Wasatch. We'll be sure to create some envy with posts this month!