Well, I’m officially done with the red paint. I made my last touch ups, and threw away the tray liner and roller. I just didn’t want to deal with washing that shite. Anyhow, the entryway is lovely red. I began priming the kitchen, and hopefully can get some paint on that bad boy tomorrow.
We also ripped up the hallway carpet. Good riddance. I would have done a cartwheel on the revealed subfloor, but felt that I might injure myself or a loved one, so we settled for a mental cartwheel. On the downside, we do have to replace a portion of the subflloor. We expected we would, but hoped that somehow we wouldn’t have to. We pulled up the first half of the portion we are replacing. I decided to pull out the trusty shop vac to suck up the dirt and junk that had been sealed between. I got halfway through, and the shop vac kept sucking up dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. I realized I was creating a hole. A hole in the part of the floor that is just dirt. I mean really, why would one want to make sure there was a bed of all concrete before laying the floor? Moisture barrier? What? So, we’ll have to pour some concrete. We’ll probably go ahead and put some plastic down while we have that chunk open. As my dad said, “where was the building inspector???” Where indeed.
Since we have the ceiling completely ripped out in the kitchen and entry, Lucifer has taking to tightrope walking on the exposed pipes, wires, and cables. While I was priming the kitchen (the part that will be behind the fridge if you are concerned), I was bent over getting the bottom of the wall. Suddenly, “WHOOMPF!” Something somewhat soft landed on the back of my head, then slid to the floor. It was a rather pissed off Lu. Apparently he lost his balance on his little tightrope walk. Guess he’s not ready to work without a net. He also has some white hairs on his tail from brushing the wall. That darn cat. Good thing he is small and furry, because the experience didn’t feel good. Couldn’t imagine if he was large. Or not furry.
Anyhow, we are making progress. Slowly, but surely. As we keep hitting setbacks, it makes me tell myself more and more that it will be such a miraculous transformation. I keep telling myself how much more storage we’ll have, and how organized it will be. Part of me worries it will let me down, or something won’t work out. However, for the pain in the ass, it should be miraculous.
I think the disaster area that is our home is part of what’s been making me feel so down lately. When you don’t have a lot of room to begin with, then you pull nearly everything out of one room into other parts of the house, then bring a bunch of other stuff in so that you can put that stuff back…well, it makes for close quarters. Every inch is stuffed. It is impossible to set anything down much less put it away. It’s tough to move…even the cats are grouchy. Forgive me for sounding all new-agey and whatnot, but it is making for some bad energy. Couple that with job annoyances, and the fact that I’ve put on a few pounds, and it makes for an unhappy Raven. The few pounds are annoying because when I gain weight, it hurts. My wee bones get all grouchy, my joints decide to give me hell, and my muscles cramp and seize and all sorts of fun. It is not helping that I don’t have my space to workout right now, and it is too cold for me to feel like going for a walk. On the bright side, I put in my notice at my part-time job yesterday. It took a lot of thinking on my part, and building up my nerve, but I think those few extra hours every week will make a big difference.
So, yesterday was the big V-Day. It was a pretty romantic day. I worked both jobs, and got to see G for about half of an hour. Fortunately, we already celebrated. We decided to celebrate on sunday. Since we have had zero time, I suggested that we just do our shopping together. Great minds think alike, and we found we were planning on shopping at the same store. We had to stop at two locations, but we got what we were after. I got G this:
And he got me this:
Ahhh…geek love. We also decided on extra gifts once we were out. Hot Topic had their Nightmare Before Christmas stuff on clearance, and I saw a great jacket for Geoff. He’s been wanting a hoodie type jacket, and there was a pretty cool one. I pointed it out, it was super soft…so I thought it would make a nice second thing for him. He found the Jack Skellington hoodie I’d been wanting but thought was too pricey. It is black and very dark grey striped with a big Jack Skellington face appliquéd on the front. Wicked cute. We then saw the perfect hoodie for Geoff. Despite it being full price, it was way more awesome than the Jack one, so I made him try it on. I had been planning on getting him a different hoodie previous to our excursion, but apparently this was in their new batch of merchandise. Seriously it was too perfect…
Megatron versus Optimus Prime. Even though it will be in July, I am totally making him wear it to the Transformers movie when we go to the midnight opening. Well, let’s be honest, I don’t think I will have to make him.
We did buy some non V-day presents. I finally found a wallet I liked:
I got some new mats for my car and a steering wheel cover, we got G some batman boxer briefs, and some stuff for a friend.
We then took a romantic trip to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and popped home. We changed into our dork twin ensembles, and headed to the Olive Garden. (don’t knock it. That’s some tasty food, and reasonably priced) Then we headed to the Chatterbox Pub. Which, side tangent here. There is a restaurant half and a bar half. Both halves have gaming consoles, and you can check out board games for either half. We arrived early to meet our friends, and thought we would kill time with some old-school nintendo. Since we were going to do karaoke when it started, we thougt we could stake out our sofas and get going. However, some lovely parents apparently mistook “console games” for “babysiter.” There were three kids. Apparently they needed to use all three TVs in the bar. One of the kind servers said he would check into it, because they’d been taking up the space for a long time (mind you this included two full-size sofas, a loveseat, and four armchairs that were around the three TVs). It was a no-go. The kids really needed all three TVs. Fine. We took one of the restaurant sets, with the understanding that we would move when the brats left. I tossed my coat and purse on the sofa and headed for ladies. As I walked through the bar, I saw the kids. One was at the table with the parents, completely on the other side of the bar from the consoles…the parents wouldn’t even have been able to see the kids at the damn consoles. Not to mention, I could tell the dad was trying to get the kid to go back to the other children (the oldest of which was maybe 10) One was playing with the Golden Tee machine, and one was actually playing a console. The other two were just left at the intro screens of the games. Needed all the TVs my ass. First of all, if you want to go to a bar and drink and have the kids out of your hair…hire a freaking babysitter. If you think your kids would have fun playing games, sit with them. Pay attention to them, and have some courtesy for the other patrons. People piss me off. Especially parents who don’t think they actually have to parent or be held accountable for their children’s actions.
Anyhow, eventually the brat pack left, and we moved to our sofas in time for karaoke. The rest of the night consisted of hanging with our friends, playing some tetris, and singing some songs. I discovered that I am really not cut out to sing Morrissey. However, I also discovered that the KJ had Vanity 6…so I made up for my lack of Morrissey talent by rocking out with that. So, the night turned out pretty well.
We ended the night by curling up in bed and watching The Apprentice LA. Perfect for a couple of dorks like us.