The things we discuss when working a puzzle

Who likes to work a puzzle? If you don't then we kinda think you've never worked one with us. All kinds of topics come up and we just have a great time. I was at my mothers house tonight working our 2,000 piece puzzle with her and my brother and I mentioned I had seen The Great Gatsby trailer. My brother asked who wrote the novel and I answered that it was someone who wasn't that famous. My mother countered with a no and that it was someone famous. So wikipedia we went.

In case you didn't know F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby. My mother said "see it is someone famous". Which prompted my brother to ask her to name another novel he wrote. She couldn't but she was on imdb.com and eventually said The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I was on wiki still and I said "what?! He most certainly did not!" That is when I noticed she was on imdb and said that maybe the two movies share the same screenwriter. She said she searched F. Scott Fitzgerald. I laughed at her and then named the other 3 novels the real F. Scott Fitzgerald penned, one of them being Tender Is The Night. I sang the words Tender Is The Night and my brother corrected me saying it was Lonely Is The Night. My brother pondered if he remembered correctly that Lonely Is The Night was sung by Billy Squier and wouldn't you know, he is correct. We youtubed this video and listened as we continued our work on the puzzle.

What I've done in 4 weeks time

I moved 4 weeks ago. I've learned that I don't like moving as it is a change and I hate changes. Plus, it's a lot of work, stress and it winds up costing a lot. My plan is to only move once more and then never again. I'd like to blame it on me working but it also boils down to laziness. Here is a before and after of my living room. Gotta get back to work.


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Random Thoughts...

I don't have enough to make a full post on one subject so I'll just "random thoughts" it. Which makes me think of "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy". Classic.

Ever play that game of "that's a good band name"? No. Just me then, eh? Doubtful. Anyways, I do love it. It's nearly as good as "that's what she said". Maybe it's the new version!! My brother and I played this game when we were remodeling the bathroom as well. I can't remember the ones we came up with there. Within days of each other I had two pop up in regular conversation just the other week with my friends. The first one is "We Steal Dollies" and the second one "My Gay Friend Thinks It's Electric".  I've been told we need to start writing these down. Maybe I'll find a twitter hashtag for them. For now they live on here.

I love music. Do I make that clear on every chance I get? I don't dance but I love music. I love nearly every genre of music. Except rap. Although I think I may find a favorite rap song if I was to delve in my deepest corners of my mind. I'd find a rap song there that I didn't mind. I felt my summer of 2012 was summed up nicely by the playing of two songs, back to back, on the radio, on the last day of summer. Those songs were  Madness by MUSE and Anna Sun by Walk the Moon. I also heard a One Direction song today on the radio that wasn't You Don't Know You're Beautiful and I will admit that they'll probably be a one hit wonder for me. It was awful! But I love me my Beautiful and proclaimed it the song of my summer a while ago.

Recently I've been looking for quotes that I want to remember forever. This has led me to poetry and I want to buy some poetry books but I feel very overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I don't think I want just one person, I'd rather have a collection of different ones. I recently read a book that highlighted the Dylan Thomas poem of "Do Not Go Gentle" and loved it. So then when my favorite quotes search brought my full circle to poetry, I figure I should just start there. I then listened to a audio recording of Maya Angelou and loved that. So I think right now my mind and heart are into poetry. But it's just such a big world and very intimidating. I feel like I'll start with things that  I don't like as much as what I do already like and then I'll be turned off of it forever. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'll take them.

I leave you with a favorite quote of mine that I heard in 1997 but didn't consider it a favorite until recently when I started thinking about poetry.

"You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See in all out searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other."

Bullshit Mountain

I love Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. I can remember watching him 13 years ago when he took over as the host but I think my fondest memories are at my sisters. When I was done working at the Clearfield Pool(now known as the Clearfield Aquatic Center) I would go over to my oldest sisters house. Usually, to return the nights dinner dish but also to see my nephew, and later nephews. Each time I went we would watch The Daily Show, except on Friday. That is where my affinity for Jon Stewart was born.

I've compiled two of my favorite clips from the show. When I think of The Daily Show these are what come to my mind.

Check out this 8 minute bit on job hunting.

Or this tongue in cheek clip

Well last nights episode also had another gem. The video is great but in years to come it's not the video I'll recall. It's the words.

"The biggest problem with the denizens of bullshit mountain is they act like their shit don't stink. If they have success, they built it. If they failed, the government ruined it for them. If they get a break, they deserve it. If you get a break, it's a handout and an entitlement. It's a baffling willfully blind, cognitive dissonance."

Well The Daily Show is now on so it's time to say goodbye. Enjoy!!

It just suddenly occurred to me today

that I am totally Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. In the early years. Not when she gave up her sweets. Who would want to do that? Crazy people, or as people deem acceptable in today's slang, cray-cray folks. One day I'll discuss why I hate today's slang. It will take a whole post, or maybe three or four. Back to Brenda; I love her.  Probably because of her addiction to sweets. I can relate to that so so so well. Much better than anything else I've ever related to before. 

See that delightful drawer? It is full of goodies. Sugary, sweet, chocolaty treats. I think everyone should have such a drawer. It would make life nicer. 

This is my version of such a drawer. I also have a cabinet that I regularly stock with some such items and with actual real food. As real as anyone can call easy mac and cheese, cheez-its, cookies, emergen-C and at times beef jerky. I love that I get to call myself Brenda. I wouldn't want to do her job though. She also has Fritz. I hope to find my Fritz one day. I adore them together, they are so cute. It doesn't hurt that Fritz is portrayed by Jon Tenney, whom I've had a crush on for over a decade now. That is a long time to crush on a person, if you were normal, but I am not, and that is a relatively short time. No worries, I'll continue to crush.

I'll miss The Closer. I haven't watched the series finale as I'm worried that they may have split up Brenda and Fritz. Fritz is on the spin-off Major Crimes. But if Brenda is not there, then how did they write her out but keep him. Plus, I have decided I like to give up my tv shows when they end they way I want. So Lost ended with Desmond and Penny reuniting, and I ended Gilmore Girls when Loreali proposed to Luke. Yep, they ended there. Nothing else happens.

Much like this post ends here. 

This is why not having a computer was probably for the better.

I'm obsessed with being on etsy now. I can browse for hours. Here is what I've found thus far.

The only skirt I've actually wanted to wear!

Of course I'd never have the occasion where it would seem to fit so I'd probably wear it for about 5 minutes, then just look at it forever more. 

For this I'll need my own place as I shouldn't subject anyone else to this wonderfulness.

Not that big of a fan of the sofa/chair things. Looks a little uncomfortable. 

"Doctor, why is the crack in my bedroom wall following me?"

Because you're carrying it with you! And it's glow in the dark!!

I love this watercolor technique. It reminds me an awful lot of my "Albert Einstein" art find(say that 9 times fast!) but with color.

This person, saying he or she when I didn't know seemed wrong, does a lot of plate switch covers. If you've ever wanted to add some coolness to a room it's going to be by custom plate switch covers. Check them out sometime. 

I'd drink to, or from, these.

Again, this person will do custom orders and I think I'd like to pick my four favorites lines, which will take me about 10 years since there are so many good ones, and have them put on the glasses versus the images. I like the pictures but I think nothing gets people started talking after taking a shot than talking about the words they just drank. 

I've bought items previously from these shops:

A turkey hat

A knitted headband

I guess I like to think that I'm supporting small business when I shop at etsy. I'm sure I'll post another entry with another several items and I'll just hope that you find them as awesome as I do. 

You are the 3 best friends that anyone has ever had...

I've had on the visor on my car a very important picture for years, easily 3 1/2 years but more likely 4 now. How can I recall this? Because of the picture itself. It is a very early production picture of the Twilight movie.

Entertainment Weekly, you know my version of the Bible, ran a little article with that one picture, to whet the fans appetites for how the picture would look. I loved it! He was wearing his white jacket, from what I could only assume was the restaurant scene because that is one of my 1,000 favorite scenes. I will admit because of the white jacket though he doesn't appear as pale as I imagined in my mind...

Yes, I am nerd/dork enough to have watched and watched the movie countless of times for my white jacket but you won't find it in the movie as it has been taken out. I later found out that they nixed the lighter color clothes. It made none of them appear pale enough so they switched everything to darker colors. Oh, the magic of chin-ema.

...I love his hair as much as the jacket. It was exactly the color I'd imagine. It is beautiful. It's a great picture. So I've kept it all these years to enjoy and remember. Unfortunately my friends think me a geek for it and snicker, I say it's a jealous snicker though, whenever I pull my visor down. Well they got me.

They got me by putting up a picture of their own. They sneakily used the excuse of "cooling down the car" to obtain my keys and placed the picture. A scheme they'd be working on for quite some time. I giggled for quite some time when I found it. It makes me smile. Therefore, both their picture and mine, will stay for another 4 years.


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Another screamer

Or maybe I just have an obsession with men screaming. Notice how the color schemes are similar. Maybe it's the beautiful blues. By the way, the music that plays in this scene is wonderful. I was sad when I bought the soundtrack that they didn't include it. I watch this scene time and time again just to hear it, or if anyone is interested I can hum it for them.

My shot for best use of dramatics

I adore this song, this movie, this actor, etc. etc. I get chills everytime they show this shot. I feel it displays what I consider to be drama-rama. I also love that 80's band. Look em up. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch this film again. Or at least this song. It is close to bed time.

Why did I ever think 1/2" binders would work?

Quite a bit ago I decided I'd toss all the magazines I was keeping for recipes. I went through them grabbed the ones I wanted with dreams of making all those decadent, wonderfully gooey, delicious foods. As with most of my plans all of those papers sat aside on a shelf in my bedroom for ages. Then I was at Costco and got the screaming deal on 1,523 1/2" binders, okay more like 6, and probably 1,523 sheet protectors. That one is more likely. Then the binders, protectors and recipes sat on that same shelf for another set of ages. Every now and then I'd add a recipe to the stack. I'd wager the stack got to be about 8-10inches tall. All the while that depth of recipes never dawned on me. So just this past weekend, as a way to relax, I start separating them. Once they were separated I started trimming some, putting them into the separators. Then tonight I realize, when my binder wouldn't close, that my 1/2" binders are useless! So much for relaxing. But yay for the jerk jamaican pork cheese burgers with apple slaw recipe that we will be making in a matter of days!

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We don't need no stinking boxes!

I loathe how they make boxes like these. You tear open the flap to find another flap. And if someone says it's perforated for you to rip, I'm gonna smack. Why?! Why does it need perforation? I do not see the purpose!


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Cherry Ice Cream Smile..

..I suppose it's very nice.

What a day yesterday was! I came home from a hard days work to make us some pizza and cherry scones. I made a sauce from scratch, chopped up our veggies and shredded the mozzarella. I roll out the pizza dough, which is a task I loathe because it's tedious like pie crust, and top it with the aforementioned items. I'm getting all excited and cannot wait for my pizza. Into the pre-heated oven it goes...

Let's venture backward in time for a bit. Many months ago my genius brother wanted to make himself a snack. He puts his snack onto a cookie sheet and pops it into the oven. After a while he notices it is smoking. Turns out a plastic piece of "silverware" was "stuck" to the bottom of the cookie sheet and he "cooked" it. The "cooking" causes it drip onto the electric coil thus causing the smoking. He goes forth into the oncoming days without mentioning this to any of us. When we use the oven next the plastic causes the coil to bend out of shape, so when I notice this he finally mentions the spill.

We try to clean it off best we could but it never really does come clean. It only seems to cause issues if we use it at a high heat or for long periods of time so we continue to use it. Luckily it is summer so we try to limit use of the oven. Sometimes though recipes or just baking in general gets the better of me and I use it non-stop.

So our pizza is in the oven at 425 degrees, usually we use 475 but like I said it doesn't do well with high heat. Well it considered 425 today as high heat. When I went to turn the pizza after being in for 8 mins the coil was sparking like fireworks! I'm not exaggerating or making it up. It was! It would change from sparking to a bright light. As my mother and I contemplated how we should put "the fire" out I snapped a picture for you good folks. So now I'm ovenless. What am I going to do?!

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My Sister's Birthday

Celebrating my sisters birthday made me miss celebrating my birthday. Remember all that free stuff? Brownie sundae, full rodizio, lemon cake, chocolate pudding pie and french silk pie. I hope I didn't miss anything. Onto the point. For my sisters I sure am glad she choose to do something I didn't, Cheesecake Factory.

We indulged and indulged. Stuffed mushrooms, mushroom soup, peachy or coconutty drinks, stuffed chicken tortillas and chicken samosas. But the real stars were the cheesecakes. Wild blueberry and chocolate coconut. We love them bunches! I'm sure you're looking at the picture saying "that looks like cherry, you idiot!" Well it is. It was for my mum. She enjoyed her as well.

Now to find the next birthday who wants to go to the Cheesecake Factory.
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Ogden Marathon Debacle

Short version: I took the wrong course. I'm just as upset at myself as I am at the very unhelpful UHP officers. I missed making mile 17.3 by 5 mins. Had I stayed on course I would've been fine and finished.

Here's the long winded version: Yes, a friend of mine did somewhat the same thing last year. Being the person I am I wanted to drive the course weeks before. So I started looking at the course. I never could find exact roads/directions so I decided to study the map they did provide. I knew the generals; like a right in between miles 7 & 8, road curves left at mile 9, etc etc. So I knew after mile 13 we made a left. What the map doesn't tell you is that 2 streets being somewhat close to each other which one is the correct one. So I approached the first street after mile 13 and Utah Highway Patrol was there with the road barricaded. It was a t intersection. My thought was that they were stopping traffic so as I passed in front of the UHP officers(2) I looked at them and said "thanks" and kept right on running straight. The road curved left a few hundred feet beyond that intersection and continued on I did. I passed a yard sale, boys baling hay, two walkers and several cars parked on the street. Then a biker came up to me asking if I was part of marathon. I said "yes" and he informed me I was on the wrong road. I wanted to quit right there. He gave me directions for two ways to get back on course and I choose to double back the way I came.

So along I went passing all the same things I had passed before and as I curved with the road to the right I paused once more. I thought surely the biker wasn't talking about the building next to the UHP officers. A vehicle stopped and asked if I was with the race and they told me I needed to go to the UHP controlled intersection. My heart sank as I quickly did some pacing math and realized in all likely hood I wouldn't make it. If I continued to think that thought I knew I was going slow down or give myself a side ache. All I could do was try. I took some extra pain pills and ate some more tortillas.

Here, as I'm sure you're all dying to know, are my splits.

Mile 2 - 27:30
3 - 13:00
4 - 16:13
5 - 14:30
6 - 13:59
7 - 14:19
8 - 15:44
9 - 14:59
10 - 14:09
11 - 15:08
12 - 14:34
13 - 15:09
14 - 29:05(approx 1 mile off course)
15 - 16:21
16 - 15:18
17 - 16:38

I hate that I didn't finish for 2 years in a row. Gah! So upset. Even days later, I am. I'm not sure I want to run the Ogden Marathon again. I feel like it's become the Moby Dick to my Captain Ahab. Maybe running Utah Valley will shake that feeling.
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The Birthday

My, oh my, what a wonderful day. It was hectic and filled with stress, but it is what is and I'll cherish the fun parts. What were the fun parts? Well let's see if I can recall them.

1. The constant barrage of facebook alerts telling me someone posted on my wall. Thanks for the wishes pals!

2. The constant barrage of people telling me "happy birthday" to my face. Thanks for the wishes pals!

3. The constant barrage of all my nephews telling me happy happy birthday. Every single one of them were so cute and I loved it! Nathan, Noah & Zach sang to me. Hunter shared his treat with me and gave me a hug. Iggy & Milo asked what I was doing and then seemed jealous he couldn't share in my pudding pie. I'll get him his own pie one day. How can nephews be soooooo cute!?

4. The constant barrage of texts texting me happy birthday. Thanks for the wishes pals!

5. The constant barrage of emails wishing me a happy birthday. BBC was the only one though to give me an awesome discount. I received a total of 3, but that is not including those who had already sent me free/discounted stuff wishing me birthday wishes in the past week. I must say though the email from Florence + the Machine was nice. Step up your game MUSE and Matt Nathanson. **still love ya though!**

6. My constant barrage of treats. Some I made and others were given to me. I started the day with chocolate chips cookies, butterfinger snackers, oreo cookies, lemon passion cake, nerds rope and chocolate pudding pie.

7. The constant barrage of Doctor Who. I got to watch 3 episodes!! My favorite exchange "What is a horse doing on a spaceship?" "Mickey, what is pre-revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get some perspective!" It's such a fantastic show and with my discount I'm buying myself another season.

Birthdays are made for friends, family, treats and Doctor Who. I say keep 'em coming.
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Rootbeer to Honey

I was going to delight in a rootbeer float from Sizzler but changed my mind, fairly last minute. I decided I'd save my gluttonous behavior for Tuesday. I have such self control.

I went to Target after dinner to get the items for my birthday pie. When I got there I remembered that they have wonderful, chewy, delicious bit o honey in their dollar bin. I bought 4 bags. What store puts bit o honey in their dollar section?! It's blasphemy I tell you. I am so happy and ecstatic that I bought 4 bags. I'll let you fathom just how many bags I ate in the hour they've been in possession.
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Birthday Week!

I really don't make a big deal out of my birthday but this year I want to. Or at least I've started, we'll see if I stick with it once my birthday has passed. I've got tons of treats planned! Some I'll make, others I'll buy and a few I'll get for free.

I started tonight with a FREE brownie sundae from Chili's. What to say, what to say. Chili's has kind of gone downhill, except in the dessert category. I do believe each one of their totally good for you desserts is completely delectable. Even if I've eaten an appetizer and gobbled my entire entree, I'll always make room for Chili's dessert. I am able to show public decorum and I request the dessert to go, but honestly once I'm home I'm spooning it into my mouth. Oh brownie sundae, thank you for starting my week off fantastically(read: full of completely unnecessary calories but I've got a marathon here shortly that will counteract these. Right? Right?!).

Cinco de Mayo

This saturday is a good precursor to my next two saturdays. I was non-stop, keep moving, no sitting Mary for 90% of the day.

I started my day off with a run, calf be damned. I started an aerobics class this Wednesday and it trashed my calves. I've attempted many things to make the pain go away to no avail. I wasn't going to put off running any longer. Surprisingly, once I got started it didn't hurt anymore. But as I lay here in bed, typing this up, it kind of does.

After the run, it was a shower. That led into me finally getting my hair cut. Yay! As I sat there, getting my hair played with, I realized I needed to go grocery shopping. So a quick jaunt to the store and then I was home.

Once home I cleared out all my books that I wasn't going to be reading soon into a bin. I started to sort through some magazines and papers on my bed when my brother returned from the liquor store. After all it is Cinco de Mayo.

I spent the next several hours prepping a marinade, making salsa and guacamole, whipping up margaritas and doing the dishes. Exhausted. Thankfully that margarita will help me sleep deeply.
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Bathroom, Day 15

Wait. Waiting. Waited. That's what we've been doing. Waiting for set times. Waiting for cure times. Waiting to do anything. I'll admit there was a few days that we didn't do anything.

What I did do one day was seal the tile and the grout. I thought it would've been fast but not really. It took me about a little over an hour for each coat. I did one coat on Monday night and then another Tuesday afternoon. The sealer only needed 4 hours to cure completely. I did a "test" after 4 hours, which was to put water on some spots and watch for beading and water being soaked in. Thankfully, it beaded and never seem to soak in. Success!

Then on Tuesday night I caulked. Again, I mistakenly thought it'll be quick. Ha! Prepping for it took longer. Using the gun took longer and more energy to use it. I don't even know what the process or term is but the removal of the excess caulk was WAY WAY more difficult than I thought. I read to prep the space by putting two parallel pieces of painters tape near your joints/adjoining planes and then you could just pull it off. Well, do you do as such when it's fresh? No because it seemed to take more off than should've. Do you do as such when it has dried for 15 minutes? No because then it left it looking wrinkled. Basically what I'm trying to say is caulking is hard, hard work. I'd liken it to painting the Sistine Chapel.

I've given you 2 pictures. One is of a bad caulk spot and the other is how I wish the entire project would've went, smoothly.

Forgotten pictures

See I'm tired.

Bathroom, Days 8-10

I've been neglecting my updates. Sorry folks. Well, actually let's be honest, I've switched to sending them to you via texts. And to be truthful I just haven't had any thoughts other than pure hate for bathrooms over these days.

Days 8 & 9 consisted of tiling. Tiling and more tiling. When I wasn't tiling I was tiling and then when I was tiling I was thinking about tiling. We averaged it out and it took me approx 5 minutes to lay each tile. What?! I can't believe it but, sadly, it is true. I thought I could have it tiled in a matter of hours, like 4 or 5. Instead it took me 15ish hours spread out over 2 days. I hate tile.

But I LOVE the look of it! Then day 10 we bought the vanity and sink. We will have that installed tomorrow. I also grouted the tile today and that was a bitch as well. Seriously, tilers must hate themselves to do this day in and day out. A friend told me it would take me 1 hour or so to grout. It took me 4 hours. I've learned everything will take me double, sometimes triple, the amount of time. As it slowly comes together and I get a few moments of rest I think "I should update my blog" rather than the constant hate.

The nice thing is all this hard work results in some pretty imaginative dreams.
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Bathroom, Day 7

We've got a toilet. We've got a toilet. We painted. We've got a toilet. We've prepped for shower tile install. We've got a toilet. Can you tell what I'm most excited about? Still lots to do but with each day that passes I feel more confident.

Bathroom, Day 6

As the number of days grows so does my exhaustion. The nice thing about today was I went to work and got to talk about all of this work. I got to use all my cool new terms I've learned and I felt like I sounded professional.

I got permission to take 1/2 days for the next 2 days so after being there for a bit I left to come home and finish this beast. We laid the last of our floor tile! Huge shout out to KJ for letting me borrow her dremel. We got that hole cut out! The air duct register was put in and I bought grout. Then we patched up all the wall joints.

I know it doesn't sound like much but it was. I want to tile the shower tomorrow but I also want a day of not dealing with tile. Plus I think I'd rather paint. Ugh I don't know. But tomorrow we get to set the toilet. Yay!!

Bathroom, Day 5

I get to send this one early as we won't do anything else to the bathroom today. The tile is drying.

We finally actually laid tile. It's no professional but I think it looks good. Would I tile again? I sure hope not. It's back breaking! Did I say I was going to tile the tub surround? Well I'm rethinking that statement. If we tile the tub it'll be until next week before we get a shower back. And technically I went about it the non-professional way that we still have 3 tiles to lay before we can put a toilet in. So we're still 2 days away from a toilet.

BUT...

It sure is looking good! If I'm allowed to say so.

Bathroom, Day 4

Houston, we have visible progress. What an extraordinary day! We showered.

Not in our own shower but a shower none the less. Then we started cutting the cement backer board but didn't have the right tool, so to Lowe's we goes. While we were trying to cut the cement backer board a replacement cartridge for our shower valve arrived. That solved our water leaking issue! So we turned the water back on for the house to discover we hadn't put the shut off valve for the toilet back on. Oy vey! We clamped and crimped that and success, water and hot water again.

As we were finishing cutting the cement backer board my brother cut his finger. I put a bandaid on it so we both had bandaids on our fingers. Mine was because of cuticle though. Still twinners. Our last piece fit like a glove and with that it was off to my sisters for a birthday party.

It was hard to play around and forget what all still needed to get done. I'm exhausted and playing with the nephews just exhausted me more. Regardless when we got home I laid out the tile for a dry fit. I discovered we'll only have 11 cuts to make. To cut porcelain tile we needed a diamond bit so we went to Lowe's. We got home 5 mins before Lowe's was closing to discover we didn't have access to a 1/2" notched trowel. Gah! So after searching and hoping Walmart or Smith's would have one, they didn't, we called it a night.

In all though, it was successful. I may have to take an extra day off though.

Bathroom, Day 3

No picture. It looks the same, really. Plumbing bites the big one. Never ever try to change plumbing. If your old tub had no overflow don't try and get a tub now with overflow. Oh plumbing, you and me will never be friends. There I said it.

Highlights of the day include finishing putting all but 1 piece of backer board. The piece that's still missing is the one for the shower trim/set-up. My brother quoting D.L. Hughley's stand up routine. The oatmeal breakfast that I had, delicious.

We had 2 upsets over the course of the day. One was forgetting the styrofoam that needed to go on the tub apron before installation and the fact that the new shower valve leaks. Lame! Stupid shower valve. Lame plumbing.

Let day 4 begin..
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Bathroom, Day 2

What did we do in day 2? If you look at it not much. It was mostly us buying things and conjecturing. I like to tell myself it's behind the scenes stuff. Yeah.

When the day started we had high hopes. We wanted to finish putting in the plywood, run the shower plumbing, put up cement board, install the tub, lay the hardie backer board and the tile. So out of that we did the plywood, the shower plumbing and 1 piece of cement board.

Things we did that weren't on our lists is cleaned the walls, give oneself a bloody nose and Tangled was watched. That last one was important. We ran into issues with plumbing and supplies. Hopefully we're set for a fantastic and productive day 3.

Bathroom, Day 1

We are a little behind schedule after 1 day but I believe we'll make it before the end of Monday.

Obviously our first day included demo. I'm not a demo gal. It was tedious and all I wanted was for the new bathroom to be in. I like the process of installing better than the take down. Everything came out with too much of problem. Once we had everything out though the cracked and warped floor gave way. This remodel definitely was needed.

After everything was out we bought some supplies but by the time we got home we were bushed and didn't accomplish much more. We got one piece of plywood subfloor put in. So now we have a bigger hole in the floor and it truly frightens me. But today it goes away. But I have to face my tiling fear today...

Bathroom Update

Today I, along with my brother, a friend of his and the comments of assistance from my father, are remodeling the bathroom. It's a bathroom we've had for 15 years. I'll admit I'm frightened of what we'll run into, the choosing of our materials and our workmanship. Please send us all your well wishes and I'll keep you updated.
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My First Car

As I'm watching a movie(About A Boy, for those inquiring minds) I keep seeing these ads for myfirstcarstory.com for Subaru. People go online and write about their first car which got me thinking about mine.

I really don't remember my first car. It's only been 16 years but I really don't. I think it was a Chevy. What I do recall is that it was basically a hand me down from my sister Tami and it was a station wagon but a mini one. I believe the agreement on the sale price was $500 but knowing me at that time I probably never paid it in full.

My story certainly isn't fit for tv so I shared it here instead. I hope you were thrilled to hear it!
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Contradictions

I'm watching the Daily Show tonight and they showed a clip of President Obama defining insanity. Although technically I don't think it's a true definition just the famous quote from Albert Einstein. In the event you are unaware of what I'm talking about, here: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Which perplexed me tonight because what popped into my head is the fact that we are taught "repetition is the key to success" or "practice makes perfect." So which do we believe?
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Smitten with the cold stuff

I love ice cream. I love it plain, I love it topped. Butter pecan, smore's, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, praline pecan, fudge ripple, peanut butter, cookies n cream, caramel, cherry chocolate chip and so many more that I can't name. Sometimes I'll eat mint chocolate chip just because I got to have ice cream. I love it full fat, 1/2 fat, no sugar added, sorbet, sherbert, gelato and fro yo. Simply put I love it.

What I don't like is the waiting. The waiting for the ice cream to hit the perfect temperature where it is still semi solid but melty enough to be a little runny. This texture can only be achieved by patiently waiting with your hands around the bowl. The rub lies in the fact that you have to stare at the wonderful stuff as you try and remain hands off. Whatever you do, don't rush it. Don't think for a second that you can put it in the microwave and heat it up so you can eat your cool creamy treat faster. It's not the same and quite honestly microwaving it ruins it. Don't do it! Wait and you will reap the rewards. The reward of the perfect bowl of ice cream.

Now that I've waited as I typed this post on up, I'm off to enjoy me some cookies n cream. Yeah.....