Mar
28
2006
I should probably go to bed now, and I will in a moment, but I just wanted to say that Ty Pennington has nothing on me.
I just finished scraping the paint off all the molding in the living room. I have been working at it since Sunday and today I started at 5:45 and just finished at 11. Scraping paint isn’t glamorous, but it is a necessary evil of redoing our house. Even while I am here scraping paint, D (and Albert) is also scraping paint from the molding that we took off the walls and they took to the lake.
The process involves a heat gun (think hair dryer and flame thrower in one) and a metal scraper. The heat produced from the gun melts the paint (and what ever is underneath) and then I just scrape it off. Seems pretty easy, but when you add where the paint is (near the floor, above my head, in corners, around curved structures) it can get pretty tricky.
And it can get very hot. Sometimes the paint will flick toward me and land on exposed skin causing small burns. I actually have a blister the size of a tic tac on my left arm from falling paint. I burned my right index finger today and had to stop for about 20 minutes to get it to cool down. (That actually worked out for me because I got two phone calls during that time.)
There is still more dirty work to do (sanding) before I can start with the fun stuff (priming and painting) but the hardest part, getting rid of the 6 plus layers of paint is finally over.
All Ty Pennington does is yell into a bull horn and tear stuff down.
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Mar
26
2006
Fuller and I are spending the week at Lake Martin, Al. We arrived last night (Saturday) and stayed up rather late as Fuller surveyed his new and interesting surroundings.
Eager to continue exploring my parents’ cabin, Fuller awoke at about 5:30 AM and insisted on being let out of his crib so he can get back to some serious playing.
In preparation for our visit, my parents tried to Fuller-proof the cabin, but I think they weren’t counting on how much he’s advanced since the last time they saw him (Christmas).
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Mar
25
2006
This morning D & I were getting the house ready for Albert (D’s dad) to arrive and help with the final three windows in the never ending project of window restoration. (Really, it is a huge pain in the butt. But overall, totally worth it.)
As I was cleaning the dining room and D was gathering the materials and tools, D discovered a serious situation. We were three weights short.
Our windows are double hung and require 8 pound weights to help them go up and down and stay in their various positions- opened or closed. Each window requires four weights, and since we were three weights short that meant one window may not get restored yesterday.
I started calling various salvage & surplus stores, lumber yards, and even the Habitat for Humanity store. No one had the needed 8 pound cylinders. It was still early and the one salvage store that we figured we could count on was not answering its phone yet- Apex Surplus & Salvage on Dodds Ave. That store has everything and we decided to take a chance and just go over there.
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Mar
24
2006
Last Friday Fuller must have found our secret lab of mind altering potions because ever since he woke up with that fever he has not stopped whining since. Well, at least not when I am at home.
Yesterday, I came home from work, walked in the back door and there was Fuller, standing by the gate to the kitchen, eating nilla wafers. I stopped, said, “Hi Fuller!” and he looked up, smiled and then in 1.3 seconds his smile disappeared and he started to “UNNNHHHNNNN” and contorted his body into tantrum mode (complete with full body fling to the floor). His actions made it seem like I had just denied him something he really, really, really wanted when in fact I had just walked in the back door.
He acts like he is hungry by going to his chair and trying to get in it. We put him in the chair, bestow him with gifts of food and drink, and he immediately wants to get out or not eat anything put in front of him.
It’s maddening really.
And these are just instances where the word “No” wasn’t even uttered.
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Mar
23
2006
Yesterday the inevitable happened.
Yesterday TPTB at work blocked my access to this very site.
I knew this day would come, but I was still really, really sad when I got the “BLOCKED!” message instead of the fresh blue and green page you are currently reading.
I understand the reasoning behind the blocking of various web sites and frankly, I was kind of surprised that it took this long for it to get branded with the category “Messages and Clubs,” but it just drove home something that has been bothering me ever since I started back at the office full time.
When I scan my badge and walk through the sliding doors I get electronically cut off from my little world, and this really bothers me. I don’t get to follow the updates of my online friends and by the time I get home in the evening, the last thing I want to do is power up the laptop so that I can have quality browsing time with you. I wish I could log on to NPR.org and listen along with their programming but that pesky “Blocked” message comes up when I want to listen. I would prefer to spend my lunch break catching up with terrablogs and the latest happenings with my blogger friends, but alas I may just have to leave my cubicle at lunch and take a walk.
And someday, I will delete my bookmark from my work computer so that I quit going to a dead page. Just… not today.
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