Wednesday, February 29, 2012

NOOOO!! Not Davy!!!!

Davy Jones can't die, he's a Monkee! I watched The Monkees waaay back when I was just a little thing before I can even remember. My mom used to tell me how it was my favorite show when I was only about 3 years old. Now Davy's dead. RIP Daydream Believer

it's raining and crappy outside, I'm in no condition to think of a title

Well, Adeline is still holding the PoC dvd hostage. I did a complete clean of the living room yesterday, the last place the dvd was seen, and I didn't come across it, though I vacuumed up enough dog hair to make another dog or two. Short of taking every book out of the book case, I think the living room can be declared PoC clean. Our house isn't that big and it barely has any closets or storage space in general, so it's pretty hard to believe it got stuck in a random drawer or something, not to mention I checked all the drawers, random and otherwise. I've got one more library renewal left after Monday, so I've still got a week and a half for it to turn up....though my Mouli is still MIA, so I'm not real hopeful.

Tanya & Jeanie, you need to check out Retro Renovation, the link is on my sidebar. It's all about restoring (or keeping) mid-century homes in all their glory. They encourage pink tile bathrooms and boom-a-rang print laminate counter-tops. That site is my internet crack, I love it. I don't know about Adeline not liking the house's new color scheme, if the previous paint jobs are any indication, she was a color lover as well. Our laundry room, unheated entryway porch thingy and our stairwell were painted pepto bismol pink. I'm not a real fan. The laundry room is now a sage green color. I've got the stairwell painted a cool looking lime green as far as I could get it without scaffolding, so it's only about 1/4 of the way painted. The porch is still pink, but I'm hoping that maybe this summer we can insulate and drywall it, making it a heated porch so we can put snow boots, coats etc, out there next winter. When I was prepping my kitchen walls for painting (they were a poopy brown color) I pulled off some old wallpaper behind a shelving unit and discovered that at one time, the kitchen walls were a dark turquoise color about 4 layers of wallpaper ago. So, it's just going back to the beginning. I've got the cabinets about 2/3 painted with the melon, the rest are still the bright yellow they were when we bought the place. So, if it wasn't Adeline, someone in my houses past was as big a color freak as I am. Now, if we can only get the fake blue marble wallboard off the bathroom walls, all will be right in my world.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Enough already, knock it off, Adeline

Adeline the ghost has struck again. Saturday morning, Angel #4 & I went to the library. As I was collecting library material to take back, I saw the Pirates of the Carribean pt 2 dvd sitting on a bookshelf. #4 had checked it out a few days earlier and I debated whether or not to bring it back to the library and decided against it since she hadn't watched it yet. While at the library, she picked up the other 3 PoC movies and when we got home Saturday afternoon, we were going to have a PoC film festival. BUT, movie #2 was NOT on the bookshelf where I last saw it. Hubs & WE were home all day, but neither of them saw it, we've searched the house from top to bottom (there were a LOT of dog toys stuck under the couch) and we can't find it. I even double checked at the library to see if I returned it by accident, nope. So, once again, I'm blaming our stuff-stealing ghost, who also hasn't produced my missing Mouli yet either. I hope the movie reappears before we have to pay for the stupid thing. It's bad enough if I have to pay for lost library materials, but it's insult to injury that it's the worst of the Pirate movies, so if it does show up, we're the proud owners of the Captain Crap Sparrow of PoC movies.

In addition to mysteriously missing DVD's, I also had something else weird happen today. I did my time on the treadmill, went upstairs and took my shower and whatever else I did. When I went to put the treadmill away, I noticed that a big chunk of paint was scraped off the window trim. I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill looking out that window and the trim was not like that when I was treading (?) and I saw no evidence that something had fallen against the wall or anything else that would have made 3 layers of paint come off a window. Once again, I'm blaming Adeline.

Many people have "To Do" lists they leave lying around the house. I was looking for something on hubs desk this morning and found a piece of paper titled "To Don't List". There was nothing on the list, which brings me to believe that there's nothing my husband won't do.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

as soon as I open my mouth...

So, the day after my last post, where I was saying I hadn't heard from Angels #1&2 for awhile, I heard from them both. Angel#1 called in the morning and we had a good chat, he's doing fine, though they moved him again. He's back where he was when they first shipped him to Afghanistan, which isn't a real comfortable place to be. There's not as much food choices available and things just aren't as nice as they are in the main base. That afternoon Angel #2 was online and I Skyped with her for a bit. She's having problems getting on the internet at the ranch where she's living, so she only goes online when she's in the town or can hook up to a cable as opposed to using wireless.

This Saturday and last, Angel #4 and I participated in the yearly Winter Wonderland of Homes put on by our local home builders association. I usually go with my sister, but she had other plans and I thought this would be a fun thing for #4 and I to do together. We're pretty different, personality-wise, so finding something to do together that we both enjoy is kind of difficult, but nosing through houses is something we both enjoy. Last Saturday we toured 22 of the available 35 homes and we did another 8 yesterday, deciding to skip the others. By the end of the day yesterday, we were both a little sick of walking through houses, they all started to look alike. One thing I noticed while going through most of these houses was the genericness of them all. Every kitchen had granite or granite-like counter tops and stone-look ceramic tile floors (if they were some sort of hardwood). Most of the walls were painted some sort of neutral color. I understand that most of these houses were built on spec intended to entice an interested buyer, but I can't see that going the safe, neutral route is the best way to get people interested. The houses I remember most are the ones that had some color and personality to them and those are the ones I heard the most positive comments about as well. Is someone really going to love a house to death, but pass on buying it because they really didn't want blue walls in their kitchen or an orange dining room? It's paint, people, for $25 and an open afternoon, you can change it if you really want to. I was so sick of granite that I was ready to scream. I can't help but think that in 10 years, someone is going to look at a kitchen with granite counter tops and say, that's SO 2012 and dated and want to rip that overpriced stuff out and replace it with something that will also become boring and blase ten years from then. I guess I'm just the kind of person who likes color and excitement in their home, as my turquoise and melon colored kitchen will attest to.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I'm not lazy, there's just nothing going on

Things have been quiet around here...a might too quiet, as they say in the old westerns. I hope that doesn't mean I have to circle my wagons in preparation of a Cherokee attack or something. I haven't heard from either of my international kids in over a week, I'm assuming their just too busy to bother talking to their dear old mom. Last Monday Angel #2 moved from the city she was staying in in Uruguay to a horse ranch out in the country. She'll be spending the next 3 weeks there. I haven't heard from her since the move, I think the internet out there isn't the best, that, and she's probably busy shoveling horse poo and going on trail rides or whatever it is she does out there.

As for Angel #1, I don't really want to think about what he's doing in Afghanistan. I've decided that he's living in a tank that's parked inside a big, bullet and bomb proof warehouse and he's just staying there until he comes home in June. My brain prefers that scenario. I sent him a care package last week. Last time he called, he told me that he had forgotten to pack a full sized bath towel when he deployed and wanted me to send him one. I don't want to think about the fact that he was in there for 2 months before he realized he didn't have a bath towel. Anyway, I sent him a towel and a pillow (the one he had was too flat and uncomfortable) and I crammed packages of microwave popcorn in the empty spaces of the box and sent it on its way. Hopefully he'll get it soon.

Friday, February 10, 2012

first too hot, then too cold

My kitchen is in extremes this week. Yesterday, while making my lunch, I burned my fingers. I admit, it was sort of my fault, I probably shouldn't use my fingers to flip a grilled cheese sandwich over in the frying pan. But, it saved washing a spatula, so I was pretty much saving the planet. I think that balances out all the water I waste washing my garbage. Remember back in the old days when you emptied out a can of beans then just tossed the can in the garbage? Now you've got to wash the can, pick off the label, then crush it before putting it into its own special little bin. I spent more time taking care of my garbage than I do making food sometimes. Then, of course, there's the irony factor if you use paper plates. Yep, you throw away your dishes and wash the garbage. I think our ancestors are laughing their butts off at us.

Then tonight, I pulled a plate out of the cupboard and noticed how cold it was. It was a snowy, blizzardy kind of day today and the wind really made the house feel chilly. I decided to do a little experiment. I put a thermometer on the countertop right under the plate cupboard and it read 63 degrees. It's against the north wall of the house and getting pretty good blasts of wind, so that part of the room is a bit cold anyway. So after getting a counter top reading, I put the thermometer on top of the plate pile in the cabinet and shut the door. It was 42 degrees in there. Brrrr to the nth power! If it gets much colder in there, I can just unplug the refrigerator and put my leftovers in the kitchen cabinet. WE found the silver lining though. We also keep our glasses in that cabinet and he says that when he pours a drink into one of them, they keep it nice and cold much longer. Problem is, the plates do the same thing to our meals. Is it spring time yet?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

the big bang theory

Today, I was at the post office and this minivan pulls up next to mine. As the guys are getting out, I notice that the door panel in the drivers side sliding door is all dinged up, but in a weird way. I swear, it looked just like a giant woodpecker was trapped in the van and tried to peck its way out. This is not the kind of woodpecker you want to run into in a dark alley, people, these were some big dents. But, the guys who got out of the van were in one piece so that blew the woodpecker theory, because if you had to get a woodpecker that size out of your van, you'd get messed up pretty good. So my next thought was, someone shot off a couple rounds of birdshot from inside the van...possibly trying to take out the woodpecker?? I really don't know and didn't really have time to sit around and wait for the guys to come out of the post office to ask them, besides, my guess is that what I come up with in my head is far more interesting than what really happened.

I'm happy to report that there was no poltergeist activity today, maybe the ghost gave up, or all the easy to throw plaster has already been tossed and we've got a lazy ghost.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

rats, poltergeist or Adeline? You make the call

We don't actually have drywall on our kitchen ceiling yet, there are 2 sheets leaning against the wall, so they're practically there though, so don't judge us!! :p So, the kitchen ceiling is just bare studs and the underside of the upstairs wood floor of the kids bedrooms. It's been this way since we bought the house, so see? We didn't actually rip out the ceiling and neglect to put it back, someone else did the ripping, we're just doing the neglecting. It's no big deal, after awhile, you don't even notice it. But, the dining room does have a ceiling, so things are cool in there, but in the gap between the kitchen non-ceiling and the dining room ceiling, there a spot that's got some broken lathe and plaster chunks piled up. I don't know why it's just in that particular spot when the surrounding areas are cleaned up, it just is and I never did anything about it because to clean it out, I'd have to put my hand in a dark dirty hole and scoop out lathe, plaster and 160 of who knows what kind of icky stuff. Yeah, it ain't gonna happen. But apparently, someone doesn't like it because for the last week or so, chunks of plaster have been falling onto the floor from that spot. Not only falling, they're landing like 2 feet away from the wall, almost like somethings tossing them out. I'll be sitting there in the living room and hear some noise in the kitchen, look behind me and there'll be a bunch of plaster on the floor. I searched around the hole with a flashlight, but didn't see anything. Hubs saw me and decided I was crazy, even after I explained to him that a poltergeist was tossing plaster at my kitchen. That man never takes me seriously...until the day he was alone in the house and sure nuff, falling plaster. Now who's looking for his EMF detector, Mr. Skeptical? He thinks it's possibly Adeline, the old lady who used to live here, telling us in her ghostly old lady way that it was time to put the drywall up. I assumed that meant that he'd be putting the drywall up soon, but nope, it's still leaning against the wall and I cleaned up more plaster chunks this morning. I think he's purposely trying to tick Adeline off. He likes to live on the edge that way.

I got an e-mail from Angel #1 today requesting that in the next care package I send him I put a bath towel in it. He said he accidentally only packed one small towel when he went off to Afghanistan and needed something bigger. My question is: he's been in Afghanistan for 2 months now and he's only just discovering that he doesn't have a bath towel???? This reminds me of the old days when I practically had to hog tie the kid to get him into the bathtub.

The Snow Ball is Saturday night. The Snow Ball is the big, semi-formal high school dance. WE can't wait for it to be over. As a single guy who doesn't have a date for the dance, he's been getting schmoozed like crazy by the dateless girls who want an escort for the ball. He doesn't have anything against girls and had a great time with his date at the Homecoming dance this fall, but he'd rather just go with his friends. He says it's getting really annoying, so today, he decided to do something about it and got down on one knee and asked his best friend to go to the dance with him. He best friend is an 11th grade boy. He's thinking about putting a sign up on his locker saying that they're going to the dance together so the girls quit bugging him. I'm not sure if he's getting his buddy a corsage or not. :p

Thursday, February 2, 2012

it's not even raining, stupid G-Mail

G-mail 'improved' their options, which we all know means they've changed things and we're not going to like it, but tough noogies, g-mail users, because you're using it for free and aren't really in any position to complain. Because of these improvements, I had to change my ninja background because it made my screen all dark and yucky, which I guess would only help a real ninja be all stealthy, but I just want to check my e-mails, so yeah, it needed to get changed. So I changed it out to this little bus stop looking theme which has been working fine. The people at the bus stop change regularly so it gives me some random e-mailing excitement and stuff, except for when the giraffe is sitting on the bench and I start thinking, hey, why is there a giraffe waiting for the bus, shouldn't he be in a zoo or something? And would he even fit on the bus with that long neck and stuff? Also, it turns from day to night at the bus stop and sometimes it snows. But today, I click on it and it's all gloomy and rainy at the bus stop and even my control panel background is dark gray (which is why the Ninjas had to go). What the heck, g-mail? Rain? Yeah, we're having an unusually warm winter and all, but still, it's February and it doesn't rain in February unless you live in Seattle or something, which I most certainly don't. Besides, didn't the groundhog see his shadow this morning, which means that the sun was shining this morning (and still is here, actually), so, get your weather reports right, g-mail.

I also wish I could see myself like my husband sees me. He'll look at a Victoria's Secret catalog and say, hey, honey, you could model for this (and I almost think he believes it). The other day, he told me that with all the treadmilling I've been doing, I could probably enter a thong contest, and I'm all like, a thong contest? But I'm not a very good thinger. Maybe I could play the piano?

Talk about the treadmill. We've got a hole in the wall at floor level between the bathroom and the laundry room. Two weeks after we moved in here, the bathtub got all bunged up and we had to rip stuff out and we haven't fixed the hole yet. Don't judge us, people, it's an old house remodel job, it'll get fixed eventually. So anyway, the cats love to crawl through the hole from the laundry room while you're sitting on the toilet and totally freak you out. Today though, Muse, aka fat cat, couldn't fit his fatness through the hole and gave up. Hubs was laughing at how fat the cat was getting and it must have hurt the cat's feelings because next thing I know, Muse is sleeping on the treadmill. You've got to give the little fatty some credit, he's kind of trying.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

apparently, pregnancy was more fun when our moms did it

So, I'm reading this book written back in 1960 about a pregnant woman (The L-Shaped Room, in case you were wondering) and as I'm reading, I'm going all, what the heck? This girl is doing all kinds of stuff I wasn't allowed to do when I was pregnant. She got totally drunk at a night club, when to a bring your own bottle Christmas party, she lights up cigarettes (at work!!) while other people are puffing away around her and her doctor gives her pills when she doesn't feel good and tells her to eat lots of food and get plenty of bed rest. Totally the opposite of what I was allowed to do when I was waiting on a baby. I haven't reached the end yet, but I feel pretty safe guessing that even though she's doing all the stuff we were told would result in a 3 armed alien baby, her kid's going to come out perfectly normal (after a labor where they give her more drugs...and possibly a shot of brandy - and let her sleep through the whole thing) I think pregnancy was a whole lot easier when my mom did it. If that chick were in a book written now, CPS would probably put her in bad mom jail or something.

I had one of those days today that are all screwed up. I was going to do my time on the treadmill, but I was going to wait for hubs to do his first. So, I sat around in my pajamas waiting for him to do his run (it's too cold in the house to put my shorts and t-shirt on until right before I exercise), but he kept doing other things. So it's like, 10am, and I'm still sitting there in my jammies and the gas guy comes to fill up our tank. I had to run upstairs and put some clothes on because I didn't want the delivery guy to see me in my Tinkerbell jams. I get him paid and finally hubs starts his run. I finally get my chance to go on, but he's working at his desk so I can't play music or watch videos or anything because the machine is right next to his desk, so I got bored and got off after 30 minutes instead of my usual 50. Then I finally got my shower taken and real clothes put on and it was already stinking lunch time and I felt like such a slug. I think exercise makes me look lazy.