Quick post

So today Mike and I went skiing at Liberty Mountain Resorts (I think that's what it was called) in PA. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, and substantially more time to get back due to traffic, us stopping for dinner, and stopping at Kmart, Target, 2 GameStops, KB Toy Store, and Border's Books. Why did we stop at so many places you ask? Well, Michael is on the search for Super Mario Cart for the Wii. And out here, it is impossible to find. He was determined to find one copy left but to no avail. So we left the house at 7:30am and got back at 8:30pm. We are very tired. My second experience skiing was much better than the first. I didn't fall as much, learned how to slow myself to a stop fairly accurately, and learned some movements that I didn't learn last time. I think it was a good time and we'll probably try again sometime soon. Michael only skied on the beginner's slopes with me so I'm sure he was a little bored, but he didn't show it too much.

Tomorrow night we leave for Dallas. I can't believe it's Christmas Eve already! I hate leaving the cats for any extended period of time. And since they are used to having me home all day long, I'm sure the 24 hour periods in between cat sitter visits will be tough on them. I will make sure to give extra room to Stumpey and Sabrina on the bed tonight and give extra kisses to them all tomorrow.

Merry Christmas. I think I'm off to bed. It's been a long day and I'm tired.

Microwave is installed!

After almost a week of trying to install our new over-the-stove microwave, we have finally completed our mission...but not without more complications to slow us down. I bought the 5/8" drill bit the other night as well as a stud finder. But since that day, we haven't attempted to continue with the installation, until this morning. We marked the stud with the stud finder and drilled the holes with the big drill bit. Then we attached the bracket that holds the microwave in place as the directions said. Next, we were to drill holes in the cabinet above using a template included. We taped the template to the bottom of the cabinet and moved on to the next direction...drill 1/2" holes in three places. Well, as you might have guessed, we didn't have a 1/2" drill bit. After much more frustration, back to Home Depot we went! We made a trip to the grocery store too while we were out and I got my prescription for Veramist filled. My sample is just about out and it seems to be working for me. Either that or I've been lucky the last week and only sneeze a couple times a day.

So, we got back with the 1/2" drill bit, drilled the appropriate holes in the cabinet, placed the microwave on the bracket, put the remaining screws in to balance it, realized the microwave wasn't on the bracket in all four locations, removed the balancing screws, removed the microwave, repositioned the microwave on all four places on the bracket attached to the wall, screwed the balancing screws back on and FINALLY got to plug in the microwave. And guess what...after figuring out which switch in the power box needed to be turned back on, the microwave WORKED!!! Now we are just waiting on the charcoal filter to come in the mail to be used with a recirculating air exhaust and everything will be complete! And I don't think it's going to be falling off the wall any time soon since I actually read the directions! Something I don't think would have happened had I not been supervising this entire affair. The only mistake on my part that I must confess to was not reading further in the directions to know that we were missing the 1/2" drill bit at the same time I had to purchase the 5/8" drill bit.

On another note, we opened up presents tonight for Christmas and we now have a dual compartment wine cooler! It was my present to Michael since he's been talking about wanting one since we moved in. I got a really good deal on it and the shipping was free. Now it is installed in our kitchen as well. WE FINALLY HAVE A FULLY FUNCTIONING KITCHEN! And the counter tops aren't covered with crap anymore either (including the little microwave that found it's way to Springfield, VA from Wilmington, NC after making a 6 month stop in storage in Camp LeJeune, NC.) The wine cooler's two separate compartments can be set to two different temperatures each corresponding to the color of the wine. I think I did good this year! And since it's the first Christmas that Michael and I will be spending together, I hope it turns out to be a good one.

The hand is improving but the kitchen is not

My right hand is feeling much better. It is still not completely healed as I'm pretty certain some deep bruises are going to rise on my palm in a few days, but most of the blisters are gone and the wrist pain is barely noticeable at this point. Good news for sure!

Unfortunately, the installation of our microwave has caused even more issues than before. Reinstalling the cabinets one would think would be an easy task as the holes have already been made into the wall and it should just be a matter of matching them back up and screwing the screws back in, right? Not quite. The cabinets are pretty heavy and with Michael holding them and me standing on the counter tops trying to make sure the thing is level AND find the holes which can't be seen because it is so dark, well, let's just say it caused our stress levels to rise last night. After installing one of the cabinets, Michael had to drill bigger holes into the bottom and side of the cabinet over the microwave to accommodate the plug which was bigger than the previously installed one. Then, after getting the cabinet up and trying to maneuver the microwave below it so that the cord would reach the outlet, we realized the plug wouldn't bend to the degree needed to fit in the outlet where it was currently placed. So, time to remove the cabinet off the wall again, take the cord out of the cabinet and then reinstall the cabinet again. This time a new hole had to be drill in the side of the cabinet so that the cord won't have to be bent in order to be put into the outlet! Success! Great idea husband of mine! So, now the cabinets are back up and it looks as though we can actually get the microwave installed. So, we start reading the installation directions for the microwave. The first directions are to find at least one wall stud to drill into. We don't own a stud finder (although I consider myself one as I found Michael...yes!...good one Kristen!) but, as anyone knows, you can also listen for the difference of sound a wood beam behind a wall has. Yes. People say this is possible. I don't think it is. What are you people listening for? Yes, one thing sounds different from another when you hammer on them, but how are you to know whether you are hammering on the stud or the hallow wall? My husband claimed he could hear the difference. Needless to say, we now have about 6 holes in the wall behind where the microwave will be installed and we still don't know if any of them hit a stud. And then after the multiple drilling fiasco, we needed to make a couple bigger holes for a couple of the screws. Well, we didn't have a drill bit the size that was needed. Yep...so after all of that crap last night which took a few hours in itself, we weren't able to continue trying to install the microwave because we don't have a 5/8" drill bit. We put everything down and I'm going to make a trip to Home Depot today. And this morning, Michael said that since we don't have an outside exhaust for the microwave that we are also supposed to buy a separate charcoal filter that needs to be installed on the microwave prior to installation onto the wall. This project has become much, much more difficult than we imagined on Sunday morning. We probably should have just paid the Sears installation team $150 to do it for us. But who would have guessed this would be so much fun?

An interesting weekend behind me

This past Saturday was ExxonMobil's Procurement group Christmas party. It was held at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner, VA. Since it was a formal event, Michael wore a black suit (although I still wonder if it was dark blue...either way, his pants matched his top) and a maroon colored tie. I wore a black satiny dress. The first hour was a cocktail hour, so we got there about 45 minutes into this time, 15 minutes before sitting down to eat. I met some of his very nice co-workers and I also met some of the nasty old men that work with him. I found out that sexual harassment occurs everywhere, including high paying corporations. Apparently, Michael hasn't seen this trend in his office, but I got a taste of it Saturday night and I don't even work for the company! Anyways, the sit down dinner was very nice and as good as you could ask for when feeding 150 people at once. Since I wasn't able to eat the appetizer, they made me a special salad which was very nicely plated with care. For dinner, they got lobster and filet mignon and I got a layered vegetable dish, some potato layered thing and a spinach flan (as they called it). The dessert was also a good dish, but I have no idea how to describe it....another layered fluffy pie-like thing. Everything was the best catered dinner I've ever had. They also had more desserts to nibble on throughout the night which included a chocolate fountain with assorted fruits, brownies and marshmallows to dip. Christmas decorated cookies, mini-creme brulees, um...and other desserts too but I can't recall what. They also had espresso and hot teas to prepare if you wanted. The drinks continued to be free all night including a martini bar with only top shelf liquor. I presume the one dirty man in particular, Dick was his name, spent most of the night hanging around that martini bar. I actually hope this was the case, because, if not and he was sober, I'm pretty certain he will never have a chance with the opposite sex and friends are out of the picture too. Oh, and my wonderful husband left me ALONE with this man on several occasions to fend for myself. So much for chivalry.

On Sunday morning we decided to uninstall the currently inoperating over-the-stove microwave in preparation for installing the new microwave we bought last week. After trying to figure out how to get the old microwave out to no avail, Michael ended up removing the cabinet above it. After removing the cabinet, we discovered more dead bugs everywhere. Yuck. Bad memories of cleaning that disgusting kitchen came racing back to me. In addition to bugs, the ceiling was also fairly moldy. Yay...more mold! He got the microwave off after cutting the plug into 3 pieces. Now, we had more to deal with than we originally presumed. So, back to Home Depot for some mold deterring primer. After returning home, we decided to remove the next cabinet over to see if there was mold growing on the ceiling there too...which there was, but not as much. It was pretty obvious that the mold was growing in the areas where condensation could reach from cooking over the stove. Oh, and more bugs were discovered too. Michael was nice enough to clean up all the bugs, kill the mold and paint the ceiling. Sometimes he does good things :) While we were waiting for the paint to dry, we decided to pull up the carpet on the staircase. I expected this to take a maximum of one hour to complete as the entire upstairs only took us a couple hours, granted with 2 more people but still a much larger area. Very quickly into beginning to remove the carpet (with respirator attached to my face...I was not going to have another episode like the last time we pulled up carpet) we realized there are 100 times more staples and tacks on a staircase then on a flat floor. It was ridiculous! Seriously, there must have been several thousand staples on that entire staircase. Starting that project at about 3:30pm, I did not finish until 10:45pm. Granted again that, after the initial removal of the carpet which took maybe 3 hours, I worked on this pretty much alone since my husband isn't very good with tedious tasks that require patience such as removing staples. Regardless, it took WAY longer than we expected and I'm definitely paying the physical price for my labor today. Even with utility gloves on and, whenever a blister began to appear I would cover it to keep from it getting worse, I still managed to get 5 blisters on my right hand. I have scrapes and scratches all over both arms (making me look like my husband after trying to pet one of our cats). In addition, my right hand's bones/tendons/ligaments are extremely tender. I definitely strained them. I have a wrist brace on today because it hurts for my wrist to bend. This isn't the first time for me to strain my right wrist and hand so I'm prepared...kind of. My lower back is also quite sore today, but that is minor in comparison to my poor right hand.

Needless to say, we didn't end up putting the cabinets back up last night in the kitchen and the new microwave is still not installed. Tonight at 6:30pm we have a consultation with a lady who works for a pet sitting company. She is coming over to meet the kitties in prep for our trip next week. After she leaves, hopefully Michael will be up to finishing our kitchen project so I can get my kitchen usable again. If not, I guess we'll be eating out tonight. But only if we avoid the times between 8 and 9pm. It's the season finale to The Sarah Connor Chronicles tonight.

Got a new pillow...ahh...

So we bought an inexpensive Extra Firm Martha Stewart pillow from K-Mart on sale for $6.99, and since I've been sleeping on it, bedtime has been grand! With that wonderful bed plus a new pillow, I love going to sleep at night! The only complaint I have is that Stumpey still takes up too much of the bed. She still snuggles up so close to me on my left and then, as the night continues on, she'll stretch out where I'll end up in the middle of the bed sweltering hot and Michael directly in my face to my right side. I will never kick her off the bed as I know she just loves being near me at all times of the day (and it IS really cute), but it does make sleeping uncomfortable. Sabrina lays at the end of the bed beneath my feet and although she doesn't cause too many problems with my nighttime, occasionally I'll have to straddle her body so I don't kick her. So, that adds slightly to the nighttime blunders as well. But, again, I love them being near so I shouldn't complain.

My allergies have been on the haywire again. I made an appointment to go to the doctor tomorrow. I would like to get allergy tested to see exactly what may be causing me so many problems in this house, but my primary care physician said they will check me out first and if my problems still don't cease after they treat me, then they'll refer me to an allergist. In addition to all my sneezing, runny nose, coughing, itchy eyes and now itchy throat, I've been feeling nauseated on and off for about a month now and I've been burping a lot which is something I rarely did before. At first I thought it was something I ate, then the next week I thought I just ate too much from Thanksgiving, then, when the problems persisted, and earlier this week I actually threw up, I decided to research my symptoms online. I've found that allergies can cause all of my stomach issues as well. So, that is ultimately why I ended up making a doctor's appointment. I'm tired of sneezing and coughing all the time, but more so than that, I don't like thinking I may puke at any moment. The PCP will probably just prescribe me some allergy medicine which probably won't work any better than my Claritin-D has been lately and I'll end up having to go to the allergist after all. We will see and I'll keep this posted as I find out more. I'm tired of feeling like crap all the time!

So I slept...

I slept on the bed last night. It was nice, but now the pillows are really uncomfortable. I'm not sure if this is due to the mattress being so much firmer now that the pillows feel too soft or that using the Tempurpedic pillow that I have makes my spine get out of alignment now more than ever. Whatever the reason, I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. And before waking up so early, I was waking up and falling back asleep more often than normal. The bed was definitely not the culprit. The bed itself was very comfortable. But because the cats choose to sleep to my left side and force me to sleep on a diagonal between them and Mike, that causes contortions that I shouldn't have to deal with in bed. One positive about last night that I must mention is that no matter how many times Mike twisted and turned, I didn't feel him. Also, he wasn't leaning towards me all night and making me slide in towards the middle. And I got up a few times after 3:30am when I couldn't get back to sleep. He said he didn't feel me get up once. It's a great bed! Now I just need to get some great pillows to match...and train the cats to sleep at my feet or on my chest or stomach. At least that way I can sleep on my back and not have to sleep crooked.

Tempurpedic mattress is IN!

The sheets are in the washer, the comforter is in the dryer and the mattress is waiting to be slept in. I have never been so excited to go to bed in my life! And the awful old mattress is going to the mattress graveyard somewhere...anywhere but here! I will report back tomorrow to let everyone know how the night went.

Also, we bought our tickets to go to Dallas for Christmas. We'll be there from Wednesday night Dec. 24-Monday morning Dec. 29. Now I have to find a cat sitter. And get Christmas presents.

New Bed on the way

Yep. We are getting the Advantage Tempurpedic mattress to be delivered tomorrow! Thank goodness. No more neck or back pain when I wake up. No more tossing and turning at night caused from sinking into the center of our current mattress. No more waking up from Michael tossing and turning. I'm very excited. From the reviews, they say the bed takes some time to get used to but that it is wonderful once you adjust. And we get 90 days to try it out and if for some strange reason we don't end up liking it, they will take it back and we get a full refund. I'm looking very much forward to tomorrow night's sleep!

Last night we finished setting up the new Christmas tree. I had some ornaments from my childhood that my father sent me several years ago, but we went to Dollar Tree and bought some more for one buck each. I think the tree looks pretty good. We still need a tree topper, but even if we don't get one, I think the tree is pretty nice the way it is. We also got the cats each a stocking. We got Stumpey a stuffed bear that's really soft so she can carry it around the house like the other 10 babies she currently has. Skore really likes carrying around pictures so we may put a picture in her stocking. Sabrina may get dental floss because that's her favorite toy (she watches as I brush my teeth at night in hopes I will let her play after I floss) and for Skye, well, we haven't figured out what he likes. We know he DOESN'T like Mike, so maybe we'll give him a day of freedom from his daddy. In addition, they'll probably get some wet food which they don't normally eat. And, of course, they'll get lots of love. But that's not just for Christmas!

Thanksgiving has come and gone

It's the Friday after Thanksgiving. Mike and I had a good meal yesterday afternoon and then again later in the evening. We still have leftovers, but I expect they will mostly be gone by tomorrow. We really didn't have too much extra stuff like I had originally expected. Boy how nauseous I was after eating the second time last night. I couldn't drink another cup of eggnog because I was afraid I would puke. I ate a few Tums in hopes that my stomach would feel better but it really didn't help. I was afraid to even lay down but, once sleep did decide to take over, I felt OK. Turned out that laying down, for whatever reason, made my stomach feel better. By this morning I wasn't nauseous anymore. I ate breakfast and felt fine, but by the time I ate lunch (a banana and peanut butter and a slice of leftover pumpkin roll) I felt nauseous again. I don't know what it is but it's annoying. Anyways, I'm feeling OK right now so I don't think I'll eat any leftovers for dinner tonight.



Today for "Black Friday" Michael went to Home Depot and picked up a normally $200 Christmas tree for $49. Then, we went and looked at mattresses for our bed. It's getting very difficult for me to sleep in the one we currently have. It bends in toward the middle, whenever Mike moves at night I wake up, the cats take up most of the left side of the bed so I'm stuck in the middle and it gets really hot...the list goes on and on. So, after doing some searching and laying on beds, the Tempurpedic mattress was the winner. We found a place that will sell us the Advantage model box spring and mattress for our queen sized bed for $1299. That is a really great deal! We came home, did some more researching and couldn't find a place to beat that price. I think we are going to get it. They have a zero percent finance option that we'll go with so we can pay it off over time. It will be SO nice to have a new bed that I will actually want to sleep in at night. The couch has gotten to be more and more of my favorite place to sleep lately.


In addition to mattress shopping, we also purchased 3 used Wii games at GameStop for $30. They were having a deal, Buy 2 Get 1 free! So we now have more entertainment at home to keep us from doing the things we should be doing...like working on our house.

Thanksgiving in T minus 2 days

I've never been a big Thanksgiving fan. It's just not a holiday I really feel any connection to. The traditions include killing hundreds of thousands of turkeys and pigs and cooking for numerous members of your family. Since I don't eat turkey or pig and don't condone the killing of any animal, this holiday seems just stupid to me. I understand it's about giving thanks for everything you have but I feel that every other day of the year is just as important for this cause. And since I've pretty much always been far away from my family during the holidays, the numerous family members getting together at one time thing is a moot point. So, usually for this "holiday" I have always either been working or hanging out at the house. There have been some Thanksgivings where I would spend them at my dad's house, or with friends, or, like last year, in Michigan with my relatives, but these are fairly rare occurrences. And I have never spent a Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine's Day with my husband! This just emphasizes how unimportant this holiday has been to me in my past.



This year, Mike and I are going to be cooking up a big vegetarian feast for the two of us to share. We will definitely have leftovers to go through for at least a week, but, since I enjoy cooking and making a spread of food and don't get to very often, we are going full force. We've spent about $200 in total for groceries for the week. I'm going to make one more trip to Whole Foods here in a few minutes to try and get a couple more things and then I plan to come home and start cooking. I'm going to prepare the cranberry and orange sauce tonight and I may start the prep work for the brie cheese in the puff pastry and the butternut squash ravioli. Then tomorrow I'll start prepping the eggnog and make the pumpkin roll. Everything else will need to be prepared and finished on Thanksgiving day. I figure I won't even eat breakfast since we'll have so much food to eat for lunch/dinner/dessert.

So, have a Happy Thanksgiving where ever you may be. Hopefully one day this day can be celebrated every other day of the year as well minus the killing animals part.

Saturday night in Springfield

So today Michael and I stayed in bed pretty much all day. We got up and ate a make shift breakfast (mine consisted of 2 hard boiled eggs and 2 cookies I made earlier this week and his was some nasty ramen noodle dish). Then Mike went and took a nap...so I watched TV in bed. Then, several hours later when he woke up, I continued to watch more TV in bed. It wasn't until around 4 or so that I finally got up and took a shower. Then we finally went out to dinner and used a buy one get one free coupon at a Thai restaurant in Vienna, VA. It was a very yummy dinner. Afterwards we went to REI and looked around for pants for Michael (didn't find any) then to the grocery store. We spent $144 on stuff for the week including stuff for Thanksgiving. And we're not done yet! I still have to go to Trader Joe's tomorrow and get a few more things. For just the two of us, we are going to have quite an extensive menu. So far I've decided to make a butternut squash ravioli in a sage butter sauce, asparagus, mashed potatoes, corn, pumpkin roll and eggnog. I'm sure I'll decide we need something else before the day actually is here. Lots of leftovers I see coming on! I'm thinking we are going to be feasting.

So, to go back in time, yesterday we went to see Louis C.K. the comedian in DC. He was really funny. Usually live comedian acts are somewhat humorous, but not that laugh out loud kind of funny. But this guy made me laugh out loud for at least half of the show. Apparently he is well known although I had never heard of him before. He's been on the comedy channel so he must be someone I should know. I know him now. And I would go to see him again if that opportunity ever presented itself.

Well, it's 11:30p, Mike is sitting next to me on the couch with Stumpey sleeping on his lap and the TV is on, but it's only background noise for me. I guess I'll be signing off for now and giving a big shout out to Dominic! Miss you!!

Well it's Thursday

Which means it's The Office night. So far I've watched My Name is Earl and now that new show Kath and Kim is on. I'm pretty certain this show is only going to make it one season. It's kind of funny, but not in a way that will carry a large audience I don't think.

The last couple days have been pretty unproductive. I made some white chocolate and Brazil nut cookies last night and then I made some granola today. That's been about it. I've been really sleepy today for no apparent reason and I was also nauseated for quite some time. I think it may have been from eating some yogurt that expired on Nov. 11. It didn't look bad so I tried it, but then didn't feel so great afterwards. I still haven't eaten dinner but I'm thinking I should eat something quick here soon. Maybe I'll try some soup. It's supposed to have a 30% chance of flurries tomorrow afternoon and it's supposed to get down into the mid-20's tomorrow night. We have that comedy show to go to tomorrow night and we'll have to walk around the city...in the freezing cold! I'm so glad I recently got a new really warm coat to wear. It may not be the most stylish coat ever, but I will be warm while those other people in their high fashion jackets will be shivering. And that is what is most important to me.

Time for The Office. I must bid farewell for now.

Burr...it's cold outside! Good thing I didn't leave the house today!

For those of you that actually read this, I'm sorry I have been so slack lately in updating. My father was in town from last Wednesday until this morning and we've been busy with renovations. A huge thanks goes out to him for everything that he helped us with this past week! I'm lucky to have a dad that is willing to work so hard to help out his daughter!

The upstairs of the house is pretty much complete now. We still need to rearrange furniture and put face plates back on outlets, and in one room the baseboards still need to be painted, but for the most part, everything is complete. Michael starts his Thanksgiving break on Friday so for the next week after then, we'll be working to get the house feeling like a home. I will say, it's pretty close right now. I will take pictures once everything is put together. We need to start looking for blinds and window treatments now. I will admit I'm not looking forward to moving on to the downstairs. It's so cold and dreary down there. I want to stay where it's warm and cozy but we will have to start on it sometime.

Today I took off from working on anything. I feel a little cold coming on and I just felt like laying around all day. Oh, and playing the Wii. Dad bought us a second controller and a charging station and then I ordered a game called Magnetica Twist online for the Wii. I played that stupid game for over 7 hours today! It's so addictive. That's the same game that I played at my dad's house when I was there in October. And I stayed up until 2-3 in the morning two nights in a row because I couldn't stop! And one of those days I had to get up at 5am to get ready to go to the airport!! It's fun and addictive and now my eyes are dry and my shoulder is sore from the position I was in. But it was worth it!

OK. I guess that's the update for now. I'll try and get back in the swing of things and update this more often...for those that actually care.

Cold Monday...

The weather has been pretty nice here for the last week and a half but not today. Although I haven't stepped outside, I've seen my thermometer and it is only 51 degrees and it's already almost noon. Burr! Tonight the low is going to be 33. I don't like this stuff at all.

Yesterday Mike and I cleaned up all the leaves around the outside of our property. We have a lot of trees around which is really nice, but the leaves they leave behind are not so nice to rake up during fall. It didn't take us as long as I expected, only a few hours, but we now have 10 bags full of grass clippings and leaves ready to be picked up on Wednesday. The yard looks much better than it did and in the process, we discovered we may have deer that cross our backyard sometimes as there was new deer-looking poop back there. Kind of cute!

Today I am very allergenic again. I think it may be from the yard work yesterday. My eyes are really itchy, my nose is running and I keep sneezing. I'm so tired of being allergic to everything around here. I hope I get used to the climate and environment so that I don't have to live like this forever.

For those that read my blog, you will know how I've had jaw issues for over a week now. As an update, my jaw is much better. It is still popping a little when I eat certain foods or move my jaw a certain direction, but it doesn't hurt like it did and the popping is minimal. So, I have to say that it has improved dramatically. I'm still not sure what caused the problem, but I have to go with the way I sleep on my pillow coupled with me eating a half of a bag of Sour Patch Kids. I think I may have just strained it too much and it needed time to heal. Now, I can eat fairly normally and I can also kiss my cats again, which is the most important part!

Tonight Brendan James is going to be headlining for his MTV tour at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA. Mike and I went to see him a few months ago when he was still a very new artist, and now he's coming back with MTV's backing. Pretty cool. I was planning to go as Vienna is only about 10-15 minutes away, but now I'm thinking otherwise. Mike said last night that he didn't want to go and, although I don't mind going alone, I don't know if I want to go with it being so cold outside, my being allergic to everything, and going by myself tonight. We will see what tonight brings.

I'm having an urge to bake some homemade cinnamon rolls or some other goodies. I also need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll give in and make some pesto pasta...Mike's personal favorite. It's not hard to make, but it takes SO much prep work in pulling off every basil leaf, making sure there aren't any bugs crawling around then grinding them up with your pine nuts that you've previously toasted, olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. It is the Marine Corps birthday today so maybe I should delight him with his favorite meal to celebrate. I mean, I didn't have to go to any stupid ball this year with him, so I guess that would be the least I could do.

Wild Friday nights!

So today I went to Home Depot. I got some more semi-gloss paint, another roller, some furniture sliders and a cable cord. Then I made a trip to PetSmart and got the kitties some new food (usually they get Science Diet Sensitive Stomach), Royal Canine Sensitive Stomach, and some kitty litter. The Royal Canine is a better quality brand so hopefully it will do well with Skore's awful intestinal track and they'll still like the taste.

Once I got home, I decided that a veggie burger was going to be dinner tonight. So, I cut up some potatoes into wedges, tossed them with some olive oil, black pepper, cajun seasoning, blackening seasoning, paprika and cayenne pepper and baked them for a half hour at 425 degrees turning them half way through. In addition, I sauteed up some mushrooms and spinach and added them to my burger. If I had any onion in the house, I would have sauteed that up as well. My meal was wonderful! I went for the American meal tonight and it paid off!

In another note, my jaw is getting better day by day. I still don't know for sure what caused the problem, but it's been about a week now, and finally it's starting to heal. I have an idea that the way I sleep on my face may be the problem though. I'm always sleeping on my left side of my face when Michael is in the bed because that is the opposite direction from him. I'm pretty certain that I sleep where my jaw is pushed out to the right side. Maybe over time it just caught up to me. Anyways, over the past couple days I've been VERY careful about not moving my mouth except when absolutely necessary and not chewing anything that required a lot of force. After two days of that routine, I'm finally getting to the point where I can open my mouth again and not hear too much of a pop. It's still bothering me a little bit, but SO much better than it was just a few days ago. So, looks like I won't need to go to the doctor. Usually I'm pretty good about healing myself. And I think this isn't going to be any exception to the rule.

Yep...that's what I do on a Friday night. Go to Home Depot and eat dinner at home. At least I can gloat that Skye is sleeping beside me. What a cute little boy!

Tigress's birthday!

So Barack made it! I was so moved last night to see him give his acceptance speech. He was obviously touched himself. And, again, the love between he and Michelle is indescribable. I just hope the love between Mike and myself is that obvious to others.

Today I painted and showered. Those were the two highlights of the day. Now I'm sitting on the couch watching HGTV. This is becoming my new favorite channel. I'm getting so many ideas for our home.

My jaw has been clicking and hurting on the right side for the past 5 days. It seems to be getting worse. I'm trying not to eat anything too hard and not open my mouth too wide. But even talking to the cats or kissing them hurts me. It hurt to brush my teeth last night because I had to open my mouth! And yesterday that side of my jaw was swollen. I've never had this problem before. If it hasn't gotten any better by Monday, I'm going to make a dentist appointment. I'm just concerned that when Michael gets home and I'm talking more, things will only get worse. I guess I'll wait and see.

And in closing, today would have been my little girl Tigress's 19th birthday. She's been gone now for 2.5 years, but she will never be forgotten. I love you sweet girl.

Election Day!

I must say...I've never been much of a political person. I've always voted for the Democrat up for election at the time, and always watched the news afterwards to see who would ultimately win the election, but this election has been something special to me. In 2004, all I wanted was someone to get elected besides Bush. I wanted Bush OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Unfortunately, I wasn't too keen on Kerry. But I still voted for him in hopes that we would be a nation that would come together to get this most awful president in my time OUT. I was disappointed with the outcome.

This year, when the democrats and republicans were still duking it out to see who would end up being the last man standing to run for president, I was torn over the final two democrats, Clinton vs. Obama. It took me a while, listening to both sides and critiquing performances, to decide on a candidate for me. As time went on, I decided that Barack would be my candidate. Don't get me wrong. If Hillary would have won, I would have voted for her just the same, but there was a part of me that felt more of a connection to Barack than to Hillary.

The more time has gone on and the more I see random clips here or there with Obama and his family, whether candid or not, I can tell their family is real. I can see the love between Michelle and Barack, and I can see the love they have for their children. I was moved to find out tonight that they brought both of their girls to the polls today and let them watch as they voted themselves. I just feel they are really good parents that put their girls first. And I see them as having a very stable marriage. This, again, isn't the basis of my decision to vote for Obama, but it just adds to the humbleness I feel he and his family maintain. As much as people have tried to put him down and say that he's all phony and all talk, I see through that. And I think he's going to truly be a great asset to this nation.

I say that prematurely, as no polls have closed and been released yet (except for the small town in New Hampshire where Obama pulled out a HUGE win; but that doesn't count for anything in the big scheme of things). I just have a very positive feeling that Obama is going to win by a landslide margin. And if I'm wrong about the landslide, I'm still sure he's going to pull out a win. I don't think this is just because of the African-American population getting involved (although they have played a very big role in making today happen), I also think there are others out there that have seen the same thing from Obama that I have.

I feel I'm a pretty good judge of character. I haven't met this man in my personal life, but just looking at expressions and noticing certain movements and gestures, I feel I've done a good job judging this one. I am looking forward to things to come. I know no political winners can do all they have promised exactly the way they have promised them, but I feel that things are going to start turning a positive direction for this country and our Earth. We really need a change and I think we are going to get a start to that change.

On another note completely separate from the election, tonight I made myself a spinach, mushroom, garlic and tomato quiche with cheddar and Parmesan cheese. I have never been much of a quiche fan, but I figured since I still had half of my dough from my pot pie crust from last week, and I have plenty of eggs and some left over light cream from a dinner I made a few nights ago, I thought it was a good time to use everything up. And it was delicious! I am starting to really impress myself with my dinners lately. I've been good with desserts and baked goods for many years now, but my dinners were always still lacking. But for these past couple weeks, I will have to pat myself on the back because I've really impressed myself. I just am sorry I was the only one to eat my meal tonight. And I'll have to finish the leftovers myself before Michael gets home. I guess that just means I'll have to make it again. But the first attempt is always more impressive.

Happy voting and happy dinners from the Wilcox Clark household, to yours!

What a nice weekend break

This weekend has been really nice. Saturday morning, Mike and I went to breakfast at this one place out here called the Silver Diner. I didn't want to try it at first. They had one in Fairfax as well and usually "diners" don't pan out too well for vegetarian folks like me. But, a few weekends ago I decided to give it a try. And it was so good then that we decided to go back yesterday. It's a really yummy place. And CLEAN! Not something you would typically think when speaking of a diner. They even serve vegetarian sausage. Of course, I wouldn't order anything like that a restaurant that also serves real meat. There would be too good of a chance that something would get mixed up or touch something meaty. But just that they have that as an option says something positive about the place to me. Yesterday I ordered the pecan pancakes. They were really good! They served 3 on a plate which I would have considered a perfect sized meal, but the pancakes were so thick that I could barely eat half of the stack! Too bad you can't take pancakes home in a to go box! The first time out there I ordered the blueberry and cream cheese stuffed french toast. That was really good as well. I can't wait to try out something else!

So after our yummy breakfast, we went over to the mall to try and get Michael some new fitting pants but failed. Then we went over to Trader Joe's where I got some vegetables to cook last night into a lasagna. It was such a beautiful day. The temperature was in the 70's and it was sunny. It just added to the nice afternoon. We came home and relaxed until I started dinner. My spinach and mushroom lasagna was a hit! I can't believe I've never cooked that for Michael before. It's one dish that is fairly simple to make and mine is always yummy. After dinner Michael left in a personal vehicle that came and picked him up to go to the airport and then off to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Today has been just as a relaxing of a day as yesterday. I read before going to sleep and then had 4 kitties keep me company all night long. It is a rare occurrence that all of them will sleep with me at the same time, probably mainly because there isn't enough room on my side of the bed for them all and Mike likes to kick them in his sleep. But last night, with only me in the bed, all of them were showing their love. Every time I woke up someone else would be beside me. I guess they kept rotating their positions from my feet, to my side to my chest. One time I woke up and Sabrina was sleeping right where Mike normally does. It's just so cute! Right now I'm on the couch and Skye is sleeping with his belly up in the air laying right next to me. I think they know that no one is going to chase them around when I'm the only one home so they are more relaxed. They are the best creatures ever!

So, now that I've had a nice relaxing weekend, eating good food, spending quality time with my cats and reading my book, I plan to get the rest of the upstairs completed this week. I have one of the spare bedroom closets to finish, most of the hallway, and some trim. None of that is including the bathroom which I think we will tackle once we have the downstairs bathroom in working order again. I'm hoping that at least can get started when my dad is in town in a couple weeks. It doesn't sound like too much left, but it will end up taking me all week. It takes a long time to tape up walls and then once you get your first coat of paint down, you can't paint again for at least 4 hours. So really, only one coat can be done per day. I figure, by the end of the week, everything that I wanted to accomplish, should be done. Which is really exciting.

I think it's candy time. I've already eaten some leftovers from dinner last night as well as some Sour Patch Kids, but I feel like something sugary again. We have plenty of left over candy from Halloween, so I guess I'll go dig in there for a bit. I hope everyone had just as good of a weekend as I did. I can't wait until Michael gets home next Saturday to have another one...minus the reading and cat time. Neither works out too well with him in the house.

It's Halloween!

I was just thinking about how few memories I actually have of my own childhood Halloween experiences. I remember gutting pumpkins and hating the goo and strings inside. I remember one year gutting a pumpkin and then puking up curly fries from Arby's that I had eaten that night for dinner (I believe this was the last year I ever removed the insides of a pumpkin). I remember one Halloween walking around with my Dad and sister in our Michigan neighborhood with glo-sticks. And I remember one Halloween in Tennessee. That's about it.

Since then, I have dressed up from time to time, and sometimes have given out candy, but I guess Halloween isn't too special of day for me. This year, Mike and I were going to carve a pumpkin (on the basis that he was going to clean out the insides) but we didn't. I haven't carved a pumpkin in probably 18 years. And that's no exaggeration. Maybe next year I guess. I do like to eat roasted pumpkin seeds, so if for no other reason, I'd like to carve a pumpkin to get to the seeds...after someone else cleans the pumpkin out for me of course.

This is the first Halloween that Mike and I have spent together. He's always been either working in North Carolina or working in Iraq. So, I guess you could say this is a monumental occasion. But I don't think we are going to make much of it. I've made a trip to Walmart today for candy and now I'm cooking a broccoli and cheese pizza for us for dinner. There have been several groups of kids come by already and I guess as soon as they stop knocking, we'll probably call it a night.

Tomorrow morning John McCain is going to be in Springfield. Mike got tickets. I'm not going because it's going to be 40 degrees and I'm not willing to stand outside in that weather for any amount of time for even Obama so definitely not McCain. He was planning to go, but I think he's second guessing for the same reason. But I'm not influencing him either way.

Well, I will leave you with a "Happy Halloween" and sign off for the day. It's time to eat pizza.

Nothing too new

Nothing really to report. After my delicious veggie pot pie on Monday, I made homemade gnocchi with tomato sauce on Tuesday and then a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wednesday. I need to go to the grocery store to stock up on more vegetables because I'm pretty much out again. Plus, I still need to get candy for the kiddos tomorrow night.

Our bedroom is pretty much complete. I need finish painting the closet in there and touch up where I screwed up the ceiling in a couple places and then clean up. That's it! So, it's very possibly by tonight we may have a bed in there again. I've been enjoying sleeping on the couch the last few nights because it's more comfortable to me than the cot. But my hubby hasn't been too happy with the situation. It's not like he even knows I'm beside him at night anyways. We have two cot bars between us!!

I also got the call back on our windows today. They are in and ready to be picked up at Home Depot. The makers of the windows told me that they could install them for us, but Home Depot has told me otherwise. So I guess we are on our own trying to figure out how to remove the current windows and put the new ones in. We may wait until my dad's in town to mess with the installation since we have no place to put the old windows once they come out. Dad will be bringing his truck so at least we could take them somewhere. Does anyone know if there is a place to recycle windows? I bet there is.

OK. I smell. I think it's time for a shower.

Monday night MEALS!

I am proud of my concoction for dinner tonight. I have never had a pot pie before in my life but I found a recipe for a vegetarian pot pie on line. It was very lenient on ingredients so I decided to put broccoli, spinach, onions, peas, red bell pepper, potato, and garlic into this pot pie. I put it in a white sauce with milk, soy sauce, and some herbs and then covered it with a homemade pie shell. I think I could improve upon the taste of the pie shell (needed more salt) but the rest of the meal I found to be very impressive! I can't wait to make it again! I think it would be really good with carrots (I'm usually not a fan), fake chicken, and the rest of the stuff I already had in there. Even my omnivore husband really liked it. I think I may have to try this recipe out on my father again here in a few weeks. I'm SO glad to have my kitchen back!!!

I guess that's all for today. I just wanted to blog about my pot pie I am very impressed with. I'm sad that the Sarah Connor Chronicles was not on tonight. Instead was some stupid baseball game...what, the World Series or something?

Sunday brunch

I just finished making our extravagant Sunday brunch of scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar, mozzarella and garlic and whole wheat toast. Yup. I spent all morning cooking on that one! Now I've just set up the Wii to wireless Internet and am waiting for it to update the system. I need to create my Mii. I haven't even played this thing yet since Michael set it up early last week. All we have is one controller and the sports game that comes with the system so it's not too interesting at the moment. But I think once this Internet finishes updating and we can buy games online, we may find some we like.

Dinner out on Friday night in DC was good. I ordered a platter of vegetarian food consisting of a cheese enchilada, chile rellenos and guacamole taco. I was so full I could only finish the chile rellenos and a couple bites of the other two. Everything was good though. I'd like to go back and try to finish all of the plate. We also had some margaritas which were yummy as well. Afterwards one of Mike's coworkers took us walking around the city near Dupont Circle and that was pretty boring. I guess he was trying to find someplace we'd like to go afterwards to hang out, but it ended up just being a tramp around DC in fairly cold weather. So, after an hour or so of that Mike and I said we were going back to find our car (we ended up driving after all) and it seemed that everyone was going to call it a night then as well. Not too much excitement to report.

Yesterday we spent the day listening to the rain outside, staying under heating blankets and watching the Food Network and HGTV. Nothing was accomplished on the house but Mike did go to Home Depot to get more paint and some other things. Today he is taping more trim and I'm going to finish our Master bedroom. Stuff needs to come out of our closet too so I can paint in there as well. Mike also suggested bringing up our bed from the basement and putting it in the living room for the time being. I think we can manage a few more days on the cots. Plus, last night I slept on the couch with Stumpey and Skye and it was quite comfortable.

It's Friday!

Which means it's just like every other day of the week for me except tomorrow I will have a husband that can sleep in past 7:30am too. Yesterday I went and got my car fixed. We had to replace the rear brakes, left exhaust hanger, windshield wipers and right side light. I also threw in an oil change since it was almost 3000 miles since the last one (and the last one was 1 year ago. Yes, I didn't even drive 3000 miles last year!) Then I went and officially passed my inspection. So I am now legal to drive in the state of Virginia. We got the deal that Mike wanted on a 2009 Prius, $100 over invoice, but we just don't have the money to pay another several hundred dollar bill every month. I'm just hoping my car lasts until we do have a little extra money. Soon my car will be 11 years old! I don't think any of my family has ever had a car that long. We are the family that gets a new vehicle every other year or so. Maybe by the time I start looking for a car again the 2010 Volt's will be on the market. I don't think I would ever drive on gas! And even if I let Mike drive that one, he could go to work and come back and still have more than half of the mileage before falling into using gas. I think that car would be the best way to go for our driving. Everything is so short distance!

So a house update. Last night Mike removed the trim wallpaper from our master bedroom and painted the ceiling white. It's my job today to spackle holes, tape the ceiling and paint the walls. Things are coming together!

Tonight we are going into the city to meet some of Mike's co-workers at a Tex-Mex place. I called and they don't use anything but water and salt to cook their rice and black beans so I think I'll actually be able to eat there. We'll probably drive over to the Springfield metro and take that into the city. I'm thinking parking would be difficult on a Friday night. It will take us a long time to get there on the metro, probably an hour I'm guessing, but when you take into account time looking for a parking space, I think we'll be making up for it. This will be the first time we've been to the city since we moved into this house. It will be a nice little break, but I'm not looking forward to walking around in 50 degree weather. I need to find the box with my wool coat in it and break it out for tonight. Even if I only walk from the metro to the restaurant, I still don't want to be freezing.

OK. That's my Friday October 24, 2008 update.

Just another day

So yesterday I painted the computer room. All that is left to do in there is painting the trim. It looks a million times better than it did with the floral padded wall and greenish-gold colored paint. I still haven't taken any pictures but I will. I think we are supposed to work on our bedroom today but I haven't started anything as of yet. The trim wallpaper needs to be removed and then we can paint. No need for primer in there; the walls are already off white.

My allergies are much better today. I'm feeling like I have been in this house for the last month which isn't perfect, but it is much of an improvement over the last two days.



I just finished making baked fuselli and cheese with broccoli and spinach. I added some cajun seasoning as well so it should be a little spicy. We'll see how my creation turned out here in a little while once my hubby gets home.



I thought I would leave you with an amusing photograph taken last week when I had forgotten that the trim had just been painted. I was watching Stumpey and Skore play together and I sat on the floor and leaned backward. Have a nice day!

Miserable

The last two days I've been just miserable with horrible allergies. I didn't sleep all night on Sunday because I couldn't lay down without snot running down my throat or out my nose. So, I watched TV all night. Yesterday wasn't any better. We kept the windows open all day and it was cold outside so I was snuggled under a heating blanket all day long while trying not to allow snot to get on anything. I finally slept last night after taking some NyQuil. I think that may have been the first time in my life that I've ever taken that stuff. It tasted terrible. And I'm pretty certain it didn't make me fall asleep. Even a couple hours after taking it I was still awake. But I finally got to sleep, I'm pretty certain, on my own accord. I slept for about 12 hours. I woke up and probably could have slept longer but felt it was about time to get up and see how I was going to feel today. I dreaded sitting in a vertical position because I knew that the coughing would begin and the snot would start draining again, which it did. But, all of my symptoms are to a lesser degree today. I have the windows open again and it's still pretty chilly outside but not as cold as yesterday. I'm coughing up a lot of crap now, and still sneezing and have a runny nose, but I have confidence that it is getting better. I've taken another Claritin-D today, but it hasn't seemed to be working the last few days so I'm not sure if today will be any different. I think I'm going to tape and paint the computer room today. I didn't do anything yesterday and that makes me feel like a slacker even though I had a good excuse. I can't let my husband work all day and have me just lay around. Today I don't feel miserable enough for that. Time to eat some breakfast at 1pm. I'm actually hungry today which is a good sign I think!

A HUGE thanks to the in-laws!

So, of course we've been working on the house the last couple days. The computer room is now primered and ready to be painted. It took a day to spackle and then a day to sand and primer. Then Mike's parents came into town and brought a lot of antique furniture with them. Of course, we aren't quite ready for all of it to go into their places yet, but everything is in the basement. Mike's parents were a HUGE help on Sunday. We ripped up all the upstairs carpet and removed all the staples and tack stripes from the hardwoods underneath. Then we cleaned the hardwood floors with a floor cleaner. Afterwards, we brought a TV stand and a china cabinet upstairs, close to their prospective places, once we've finished everything. We could have NEVER gotten so much done in one day without their help. IF YOU READ THIS BLOG BECKY OR MARC, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This place looks totally different now. With no blue carpet everywhere and with the light colored hardwood floors taking it's place, we are starting to feel more at home. I can't wait to see what another month will bring. We've come so far in this first month!

On the down side, my allergies are EXTREMELY bad right now. I'm wheezing every time I inhale and my nose is running so much that I have Kleenex stuffed up in each nostril. And this is after taking a Claritin-D last night and tonight. I'm hoping now that the carpet is up, that the dust is either mostly gone, or will settle and I can start breathing normally again without the use of medicine. I can't stand being so miserable in my own house. But I am excited for the way it looks now. Hopefully I will feel better in a couple days.

I'll take some more recent photos soon and post them so you can see the progression. It is quite amazing. And once I have final pictures, it will be even more dramatic! I can't wait!

We have stuff again!

Not that any of it is out of boxes, but at least everything is in our possession again. The movers ended up getting here at 10am. They were extremely apologetic (obviously) but put me a little behind. I just had them leave everything in the basement in boxes except for the kitchen stuff and any tools. They brought those things upstairs. By the time they had all our stuff in the house it was 12:15pm and I needed to get moving on getting my car inspected and then on to the DMV for the new title and registration by 4:00pm. So I had them leave everything in boxes upstairs too. Turns out, the emissions place and the DMV is not too crowded on Wednesday afternoon. I got in and out of both places within a half hour or so each. That is unheard of out here! Michael spent all morning the Saturday that he went from 7am until 2pm if I remember correctly. And when I went to get my license at the same place, I got there when they opened at 10am and there was a line around the building already. It took me about an hour and a half in there that day. Going in the afternoon on a weekday seems to be the way to go. So, my car passed emissions but not the inspection. I need new windshield wipers, a new muffler holder thing (a piece of rubber that keeps the muffler from moving up and down), a new light on the side and new back brakes. All these things could be fixed fairly inexpensively, but I only have 15 days to do everything. So, we've started looking harder at getting a new vehicle really soon. We went and looked at Toyota Prius' and Honda Civic Hybrids tonight. I'll keep you posted about what we end up going with if anything at all.

As for the house, we haven't done anything with it today. I was busy running around today after having to inventory everything that came into our house and then had that phone interview and then once Mike got home we went to look at cars. And now it's almost 9pm and we are about to watch the last debate...although I don't know why. They say the same things at each one and we both know who we are voting for.

I'm exhausted today and can't wait to fall asleep. Maybe I'll fall asleep during the debate again like the first one.

Waiting for the Movers

So I woke up at 7am after going to bed after 1am to be sure I was ready when the movers get here. Supposedly they were supposed to be here at 8am. Well, it's 8:30am and no movers yet. I want to go back to sleep. I have other stuff I need to be doing too like getting my emissions test done on my car and then getting the new title and registration. I guess I'm just being impatient because I'm tired and would rather still be sleeping.

The kitchen only needed one coat of paint so we lucked out. It is pretty much completed now except for some touch-up painting on the ceiling and walls and the trim still needs to be painted, but luckily there's not too much trim in there. It's so messy in there. The floor and counters need a scrubbing badly. Actually, so does the rest of the house. But what's the point when all you are going to do is mess it up again once you start that day's worth of chores. Eventually it will be done and we will be able to relax.

Last night we had a flood. It was in the utility room...AGAIN. This time it was due to the washer hose coming out of the utility sink's drain. Who knows when this happened, but I put in a load of clothes before leaving the house around 4:30pm yesterday. When I got home and went to put the clothes in the dryer, water was EVERYWHERE! I told Michael to bring down a mop...he didn't know why at the time. He said he was going to bring some paper towels! Ha ha! We are lucky we have that drain in the floor in that room because it would have been hell to clean up that mess. It still took some patience, but wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been without a drain. I think we are going to look for a hook or something to attach to the hose and sink so this doesn't happen again.

Well, I will post again later once we get our stuff if it's of any interest. Still no movers as of yet.

Taping, priming, painting and painting...

That's what has been going on in the Wilcox Clark household for the past couple days. That kitchen is definitely the most time consuming room we've had to deal with. It took forever to clean out all the cabinets and drawers, we had to carve a piece of plywood to put underneath the stove and refrigerator so that they would roll into place since the last owners didn't pull them out when they tiled the floors, and then yesterday it took me from 4pm-9:30pm to tape up that room! It's been crazy! All the cabinets and light fixtures took FOREVER to tape around. Michael painted the ceiling in there last night and that took him several hours. Today I taped the ceilings so that I could prime the walls. I started at 10am. I wasn't done until 1:45p. Now I'm waiting the allotted 4 hours to begin painting with the actual color we are going to be using. Then we'll have to wait at least another 4 hours before putting on the final coat of paint. Tomorrow the movers are coming to deliver our stuff. They were supposed to come on Thursday, but have moved it up a day. This isn't a good thing. I was planning to have completed the kitchen so that they could at least unpack those boxes and have my kitchen usable again. But I don't think we'll have the final coat of paint done by tonight in order to have everything dried and appliances pushed back in place by the time they get here in the morning. That just means more stuff for us to unpack when we get everything together. We are already going to have them leave everything in the basement which means more work for us then it should. Oh well. I don't have a job so I guess by default unpacking boxes will become my job.

On another note, I was going to go to the DMV and register my car and get a new title today. My registration from NC expires tomorrow. We've been holding off getting this done because we were hoping to get a new vehicle for me by the time my registration was up. Still no new vehicle for me so we now have to register my old car. I've run out of time to get this done today, so now, after the movers leave tomorrow, I'll have to go...on the day it expires. Talk about procrastination. But this one was a planned procrastination. Most of them are not.

OK. Shower time for me. I have paint all over me...including in my hair. I'm sure I will go through this process again later on tonight. But tonight, instead of my hair being white, it will be light blue/green.

Back in Town!

So, as most of you probably know, I've been out of town for the last ten days. First I went to Tennessee and then to Michigan. The trip went by very quickly but I'm glad to be back. Last night when I came through the front door two of the kitties were waiting at the top of the stairs. When I called for Stumpey, she came running down. And then all of them started getting excited that their momma was finally home. All of them were rubbing me and purring and you could see that they were just so happy. But Skore, she acted the least excited to see me. I guess daddy gave enough affection to her to tide her over. The others took turns laying with me last night. When I fell asleep, Sabrina was laying above my head and Stumpey was laying on top of my chest. Skye tried to lay below Mike's feet, but he kicked him accidentally so he ran away. But as soon as Mike left this morning, Stumpey, Skye and Skore slept with me. Right now, Stumpey and Skye are still laying with me. I need to get up and eat something and start taping off the ceiling in the kitchen and get to painting. The movers are coming back with all of our stuff on Thursday and I'd like to have the kitchen completed by then so at least we'll have a working kitchen again. I can't wait to get my baking utensils!!! Cookies or cake anyone? Pastry perhaps?

OK. Time to eat. Oh, and for those that haven't heard already, I didn't get the DNA job. I did, however, get a call back from a job I didn't even remember applying for 3 months ago. I don't really want it, but I'm going through the phone interview on Wednesday if nothing more than for interview practice. I qualify for this one, but I don't want to continue working in pharmaceuticals, plus this job is in Gaithersburg, MD. It's only 30 miles away, but in this traffic, it would take me an hour and a half to get there every morning and coming home every night. No thank you.

Oh, and while I was away, Mike painted the living room and dining room. It looks really nice. I can't wait to get more paint on the walls and remove the carpet. This place is going to look really good eventually.

OK...I guess it's time for more "before" pictures

So I just got back from getting my hair cut...again. It wasn't but probably 4 weeks ago that I had it cut the last time, but I was fairly unhappy with it so I tried another salon out here in Springfield. This guy David with Jon David Salon, knows what he was doing. He had 3 people getting haircuts at the same time. Of course he had his helpers, but I've never seen someone work on so many people at once. I like my hair so far. We'll see if I continue to like it when I have to fix it myself. That's always the test.

Alright, I'll post some more pictures that I took from the other day now while I'm waiting for this headache to go away. The picture to the left below is part of the "barnyard" basement. This is where we will be putting a wood burning stove, once we buy one. We are taking down all the brown wood pieces around. They are just for show. The picture on the right is also from the basement in the "bar" section. We will be knocking this down and replacing at some point.

Here's another picture of the basement from the front side (left). We plan to knock out this wall completely. Who needs two small closets in your family room? If you look through these front windows, you will see the "barnyard" in the back. The picture on the right is across from the closets in the left. All of the pictures above are part of the basement family room. As you can see, this part is on the first floor of our house. The house is built on a hill so you walk into the front door on the first floor but you walk out the back door on the second floor.

This is what you see when you walk into the front door. The floors are porcelain tile which is nice, but I hope to be able to take down this wall and closet as well to give a much more open feel. Currently, to the left is the family room, to the right is the downstairs spare bedroom and also the utility room is to the right.

Here's the downstairs spare bedroom. This will eventually be our guest bedroom. It is on the exact opposite side of the house from us. Once we finish renovating the downstairs bathroom, they will have their own little hideaway.

Here's the downstairs bathroom. It looks a lot better in this picture than it does in real life. When the water is turned on, everything leaks and the shower is disgusting. We are completely renovating this. The tile on the floor isn't too bad in here though. Right now, unusable.

Here's just a peek at our utility room. We've already replaced the washer and dryer with the washer and dryer we had back in Wilmington. This room is actually pretty big but who needs to see the rest of it. When you've seen one utility room, you've seen them all.

Here's a picture of the back of the house and the shed. We will be knocking that baby to the ground as well and putting a new one up on the top of the hill where it will be hidden. The picture to the right shows most of our backyard but not the area where we will be putting the new shed. It will be to the right.

Here's a picture of the side deck. There are so many decks/patio areas in the backyard! Underneath is where I park my car. We may eventually extend this and make it a one car garage. But that will be a plan many years from now...if we are still here.

I'll leave you with one more view of the front of the house. The things you didn't see include the two skylights (one above the staircase and one in the upstairs bathroom), the staircase and all of the backyard. You got glimpses of the "before" of everything else. I will take more pictures as the transformation occurs. As for me, I'm off to Tennessee tomorrow night, have my 10 year reunion on Saturday night, then off to Michigan next Wednesday morning. It's my Grandmother's 80th birthday on Tuesday!! Then back to Virginia on October 12th. I'm looking forward to getting away for a little while. The only thing I don't like is being away from my husband. But he'll be flying to those places on the weekends as well. So I guess it will only be 5 days away from him. But then he travels a lot when we get back so, I guess it's a never ending cycle. But I do miss him when we aren't together.

Sorry to disappoint

I know I said I would post more pictures tonight, but I'm just too tired. It's 11:45pm and I'm ready to go sleep sleep for the night. I didn't sleep well last night so I guess it's catching up with me. Usually I'm up until at least 12:30a, but not tonight. I will post more pictures soon though. We painted the spare pink and white bedroom today. Now all we have left is to paint the trim and rip up the carpet. The color is Peach Praline. It's probably the brightest of all the colors we've chosen, but the room also has 2 windows and is going to be my sewing room. I want it to be the "happy" room. I will take pictures of it once we get the trim painted.

I haven't heard anything back about the job yet. I guess that could be a positive thing. If I was someone they eliminated immediately, I would have a higher probability of being rejected by now I would think. But I really don't know anything about this so I'm just talking without any backing.

GOOD NIGHT. Let's hope Obama is a USA born citizen.

House pictures...I tried to fix the weird way the pictures posted, but I can't. I'm no computer junkie so I guess you'll have to live with the funk.

So I finally took some pictures today. Granted, I didn't get pictures of all the rooms the way they looked before we started working on them, but I think you'll get the idea. Here's the outside of the house. We talk of eventually adding on a front porch to give it more dimension.

Here are some pictures of all the upstairs bedrooms. The picture on the left is a spare bedroom that will become our computer room. It did have a chair railing on it, but here it is already removed. Also, you can't tell from the picture, but the floral print is actually a padded wall. The cats enjoyed using it as a scratching post. The picture in the center is what our master bedroom looks like with cots and all. We have not worked on this room yet. Notice the beautiful wallpaper trim on top. The picture on the right is the other spare bedroom upstairs that will become my sewing room. This picture was taken after Mike had already primered over what was previously there. (If you look close enough, you can still see what was underneath.) This used to be a white and pink room with the pink that had been sponge painted on. It gave the look of wallpaper. Also, make note of the blue carpet in every room. Underneath those carpets are gorgeous oak hardwood floors.

Below is our upstairs bathroom. We plan to replace the tub and tiled floor. I also want to change the color scheme throughout the house to brushed nickel. All in good time. Oh, and, of course, don't forget more wallpaper to remove.

This is the dining room to the left. It is open to the living room which is where I took this photo from (on the right). We've already painted the ceiling and trim white. Previously, the ceilings and trim were the color of the wall...drab.



Below is the kitchen. The appliances are pulled out right now because we have been working to remove all the wallpaper. I didn't take any pictures of what it looked like with the wallpaper, but the picture on the right shows a little strip of what it used to look like. It was a leaf print wallpaper. Next on this room is to primer and paint...but we haven't decided on a color yet.

OK. I'm tired of posting pictures for the night because you have to upload these all separately and it takes forever. Tomorrow I'll post more. We'll make it into the basement and more of the outside.

I haven't heard anything on the interview as of yet, but maybe tomorrow I'll have an update on that as well.

Just another update

So, I still haven't taken even one picture of our house and it's definitely different than it looked even one week ago. I really need to get on the ball. Michael finished painting the trim and most of the ceilings in the upstairs today. He also started puddying in holes that were in the walls. I finished taking off the wall paper in the kitchen. That was a two day project. There is still a little area by the stove that has been stubborn. I'm going to leave it over night and then try again tomorrow, but for the most part, the wallpaper is off. Thank goodness. I would rate wallpaper removal right below cleaning bug poop and brown goop off of cabinets. There is still some trim wallpaper in our bedroom and the whole upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are covered in wallpaper. But I feel somewhat accomplished by removing the wallpaper from the kitchen. One room at a time.

Other than that, we are doing well. Mike went and became an official Virginian today when he got his driver's license, registered his car and registered to vote. We also briefly went to look at trucks. It would be nice to purchase one before my registration runs out on my car October 15. Otherwise, we will be paying for it to be registered and then probably buy another vehicle soon and have to pay the registration fees on it too. We'll see though.

This place is still making me sneezy and it's starting to get to Michael too. I really need to set up a duct cleaning appointment. I think it will be much better once those get cleaned out and we are fairly dust free.

Interview complete and update on house

So I just came back from my interview for DNA analyst 1. I think it went pretty well, though the questions they asked were pretty generic. I wished it had been a little more personal, perhaps the interviewers giving me a little background on themselves prior to me answering questions. I didn't even know one of the interviewer's position within the company until after the interview when she said she had recently been promoted to Supervisor. Oh well. They said they had several interviews but would get back to me next week sometime. The interview process itself was pretty quick. Usually I would think this was a bad sign, but they each had a sheet with identical questions on it and, in total, there were probably only 10 questions to ask. I think I did a fair job on answering the questions. The only one's I had trouble with were the questions that revolved around specific genetic questions. I did the best I could in answering, but I know I wasn't completely thorough in my answers. One question they asked about some extraction process that I had no clue on. But, all in all, I did the best I could. I guess I could have researched more into questions that could have been asked at the interview, but I don't think that would be a make it or break it deal. We will see though. Apparently there are going to be a few positions opening so I guess I have a shot. I know they said that their last two interviews were phone interviews so that could either mean that those people don't live in town yet and they couldn't travel all the way out here for an interview, or they are more qualified than me and they didn't need to see them in person because they already knew they were going to hire them. I guess I will find out next week. I'm quite anxious over this whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to calm down a little bit and just wait it out until I hear back. I leave next Thursday for TN so hopefully they will get in touch with me before I leave. I'll keep this posted.

As far as the work on the house goes, Mike has been very diligent with painting the last few days. He's done a great job with painting ceilings, taping up walls and painting trim. We still have A LOT to go, but we are moving forward. The kitchen was a big challenge to get cleaned up. It's a nice, updated kitchen, but apparently at some point they had a German Roach infestation as well as a rat in the kitchen. Cleaning out all the cabinets and drawers was disgusting. They had put this goopy brown insect killer in every crevice in every drawer and cabinet. In addition, there was plenty of dead bugs in the drawers, under the drawers, in the cabinets, under the cabinets and everywhere in between. I had a couple breakdowns over the course of a few days continuously cleaning these areas and just finding more and more disgusting things everywhere I looked. It still sickens me. But we brought in an exterminator to keep the problem from reestablishing itself now that there is food in the kitchen again. We had them spray inside and outside the house yesterday, they will come again next month, and then every other month from that point on. Apparently this is their normal schedule that keeps bugs from entering your home. If problems arise in between those times, they will come out also. I hope that as long as we stay proactive about this potential problem, that it won't become one. And, the kitchen is now clean. Except, does anyone know how to move the dishwasher out so we can clean behind it? Apparently there is some old rat poop back there. Yuck. I don't like bugs and I don't like cleaning so fixing up that kitchen was a very unfunny time.