Wow

Wow #1-we got a lot more done than even we thought we could do


There are some small pieces that still need to get pulled up, but the majority of what you're seeing is the subflooring. We pulled up: a hardwood floor, 2 layers of vinyl, and 2 layers of plywood. And we are dying.

Wow #2-We chose the color for the accent walls. It's Behr brand, color "Surfer". Check it out at www.behr.com.

Fat Tuesday

Thanks to Rob, I enjoyed a wonderful lunch today. Red Beans & Rice, Jambalaya, Muffaletta Sandwich, Bread Pudding, Sweet Potato Puree....YUM!

Then it was off to the store to get more paint swatches. This is really tough. There are a lot of color choices out there. Hopefully I can make up my mind so we can get this done!

Last night we did more floor removal. Here's something interesting we found under the carpet:
yes, a wire for cable.

It was right at the edge of the carpet, covered by the padding and carpet. just the head of the plug was sticking up from the subflooring. What the hell? I have no idea. Maybe they were going to run cable to the half-wall that we just took out, but forgot before they put the carpet down? Who the hell knows. It's gone now though.

More Work...er Progress

Denny stopped by today with the Durock and the Sawzall. In this first picture, you can see he's taken the top off our half wall. You can also see his hat just barely peeking over the wall.

Here he is, working away

And the end result:

No more wall! We are so excited to get the area opened up. It's amazing the difference it has already made.
When Dave got home, we finished getting the first layer of vinyl/plywood up. Then we started on the last layer. Ugh. This one's tough. First, it was probably properly installed, which is more than I can say for anything else in the house. Second, it's probably close to 30 years old. It's coming up in much smaller pieces, but it's coming up. We got a system going. Then we had to take a break. Another trip to the store. I've decided I no longer want a red, white & blue kitchen. So we checked out paint. We got 3 color swatches. Daves order of preference is exactly opposite of mine. I'm the one who cooks, so I guess we'll see how that works out!

This is an extremely hard process...neither of us could have ever imagined we'd be the ones doing it. But we can't wait until it's all over and we can look at our brand new floor and bathroom and know how much hard work we put into it. Very satisfying!

More progress

we were at Wal-Mart twice today, and still didn't get everything. We had to borrow a scraper from Denny. He sometimes uses it to chip ice. We used it to get a layer of plywood off the floor.
The left side of the floor is where we were trying to take up the layer of vinyl. The bottom right is where we decided to just bring up the wood instead! It's MUCH easier that way! We'll be done in no time! And then we will get to start ripping up carpet! Woo hoo!

Befores, Durings, and Afters

Our kitchen floor before:

The three layers. Top being wood, the "white" and yellow being linoleum. And can you see the different colors in the carpet? That's not a camera trick. The white was covered with wood. The not-white apparently was white at one time.

Dave working on our floor. Really. He was working.


Our floor now:


We're not leaving it that way obviously. Tonight, as soon as we got word that Denny would be over next Saturday to start tiling, we ran to the store to get a crow bar and tore up that wood. Yes, we tore out wood flooring. It was not great wood. And it was put down over 2 layers of linoleum. So, our next step is to get layer one of the linoleum off. We had to move the refrigerator into the spare bedroom. It kinda got stuck in the doorway. Here's my vantage point:


Here's dave's view from the outside of the room i was in:



Fortunately we were able to remove some wood from the door jam and it's in now. More pictures to come!

Expensive Day!

Took Sami to the vet today. She did pretty good, considering she had to get 2 shots. She didn't seem to mind the car ride either. We have a cloth cat carrier, and the top zips open. about halfway there, she decided to peek out. Didn't try to jump out like Blu would, she just wanted to see what was going on. We got her home and Blu was hissing at her, which is really weird. They are best friends....I don't know what the deal was. Maybe Blu was mad at Sami for leaving her alone. She hasn't been alone in a LONG time. I can't imagine what it was like for her!

We also went to the hardware store. Twice. The first time we got less-than-desireable help in the bathroom vanity department. Second time in as many days that we got the guy that talks with shit in his mouth and has no idea about the product he's selling. The guy actually said to us, when we asked him a question: "I'm not sure. My manager told me, but I don't remember". WHAT? I thought customer service meant your response would be "I'm not sure, let me ask". Don't tell me you don't listen to your manager. We decided then that we'd check the internet for the vanity we want, so we bought some paint and went home.

Checked the internet...the vanity we want is only sold through the store we had been at. SO, we went back. Thankfully, shit-in-mouth-boy was no longer there, and the guy at the counter was very helpful. SO, $700+ later, here's our new sink and vanity:

We also got the matching mirror. We searched and searched for something we liked better. It just didn't happen. So, it should be in-store in a few weeks.

So basically, the last two days have been crazy. With money we owe our old landlord and buying a new bathroom set....probably no visits to the sushi place this weekend. or for the next month, for that matter. dammit.

Step On It!

Ok, maybe the wording on this sign is a little confusing. Limit implies that you should not go over posted speed, maybe going a bit under. I realize that the dictionary says limit means: The point, edge, or line beyond which something cannot or may not proceed.

However, if you are on the Interstate and do not wish to be run over, you should disobey this rule. 65 is the MINIMUM. And that's still annoying to the people coming up behind you in the middle lane.

*disclaimer: I will, in no way, be responsible for the outcome should you be pulled over by the police. This really is just my opinion.

Today...

was a little rough. I went to make a doctor's appointment, and she's booked up. I can't see her til the 13th. Thing is, I'll probably have to call soon and say "get me in now!" Nothing major. Just a couple concerns/questions. Then we had our court date. On the computer thingy, it says "schedule a hearing for the defendant" and so we thought we would be there, pleading our case, solo. Not so much. It was NOT fun. We didn't win, but we're paying him $600+ less than he wanted. So I guess it wasn't a total loss. We have 60 days to pay. I suggested to Dave we overnight it 2 days before it's due. It's within the time frame, right?

It did get better though. Some pictures for you:

Our second bedroom has been invaded with tile!!!



Here's a closeup of what we're putting on our floor


It's going in the livingroom, kitchen and bathroom. We're very excited to get this project underway. Thankfully I was looking on the city website last night (for a part time job of all things) and found that we need to get a building permit for installing a new bathtub and toilet. I'll get that taken care of on Monday I think.

Part of the reason we're doing our bathroom? The crappy job that was done before. Exhibit A:

That's the space between the tile and the floor boards.

Last but not least, a t-shirt with an explanation. March 3-5 is AWOL weekend with the women in Dave's family. His mom, aunt, sisters and sisters-in-law. And me. We go away for the weekend, hanging out, shopping, eating, just being girls. I'm the youngest one by 10 years. Here's the t-shirt I get to show for it...

edit

Is it just me, or is it really hard sometimes to decide what to put on your blog? You have a thought or feeling that you want to put out there (for feedback sometimes) but you don't want to offend someone, because a friend might read it and not like it. Is that was a blog is supposed to be??? dang it for public blogs sometimes!

Simple, right?

Didn't we all learn about this in drivers' ed? If you are car A, the first at the stop sign, you don't actually have to wait until B and C get to the stop sign before you can GO. Yes, it is a 4-way stop. That doesn't mean there has to be 4 cars at the intersection before you can GO.

Thank you.

Yep

I just poked myself in the eye. Partly because my eyes are dry. Partly because I'm tired. Partly because I'm a dork.

All-in-all, a pretty good weekend. Friday I went to the doctors office and I was pretty annoyed at the service. I guess I was foolish to expect more. Nothing doing Friday night. Dave was out for a bit after work, and I went to bed early. Saturday morning I had to work and then we went north to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. We got some good deals, but forgot half the things we went in there for. We also stopped to see Damian waiting tables at a new restaurant. Good food!! It's nice to find a new place for dinner, even if it's a few miles away. We got in the car after dinner (it was SO cold out...probably -10 at this point, without considering windchill) and said "What the hell are we doing out of the house???" Our plan was to go straight home. Well, an hour and a half later, we were finally almost home. We stopped at Dave's parents, the gas station for a lottery ticket (we didn't match a SINGLE number out of the 12 we picked), Menards to check prices on the vanity we want for our new bathroom, and THEN home. Still very cold.
Sunday I was going to sleep in. I woke up at 8:15am. Probably because I've been doing the first shift thing for the last couple weeks. So I did dishes, organized a bit, and met Babe and Gertie for lunch. The afternoon/evening consisted of grocery shopping, dinner, some tv, and an attempt at a nap. I'm back on 3rd shift now...and EXHAUSTED. I've been up since 8:15am, and won't get home til at least 3:30am. No wonder I want to poke my eye out.

Another baby!

My friends Terry & Anji had their baby boy on Thursday. Introducing, Ragnar Van:

Our dawg

here's blu, playing dawg again. it's taken us a long time to get a picture of her playing fetch. she always seems to know when the camera's on.

Tina you fat lard, come get some dinner

I watched Napoleon Dynamite for the first time last weekend. It was funny, but not a movie for everyone. Of course, I'm watching it again. I've been looking through IMDB and it's so funny to see who these guys really are. The characters are so dorky (and so good at being dorky), but are pretty good looking in "real" life. Even Napoleon's brother Kip. Oh, and Deb...the girl that does glamour shots (Tina Majorino)...she was in "Corrina Corrina". I loved that movie! Sometimes ND moves a bit slow, but there are just some parts that make you laugh out loud. Like the bike ramp scene, and the scene where Napoleon slaps Kip. Ok, so I had to laugh out loud. I was a little surprised to see Hillary Duff's sister listed as Summer Wheatley in this movie.

We watched a couple movies last night too...Kinsey was one of them. Interesting movie. A lot of names, like Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Curry, etc. Kind of a graphic movie. Worth a watch sometime.

We also watched Walking Tall. I can't decide on that one. Not a total bust, but I probably wouldn't watch it again. It was the first movie I've ever seen with Johnny Knoxville in it. And I'm pretty sure I now know why.

We got Saw II from Netflix today. I think we'll watch that one this weekend. I don't know why...I could hardly watch the first one. But Donnie Wahlberg is in it, and that's all that really matters.

Snow Day!

Today is a day I wish I was still in school. For the first time in a couple years, Madison schools closed because of the snow. While private schools in madison and public schools in the surrounding areas close more often, not Madison public schools. Between 9pm last night and 7am today, there was 3". I made it to work at 730am, and by 9am it was a blizzard out there. White-out conditions. And thunder and lightning. In a snowstorm. It was a very odd day. The snow ended around noon, and by that time we'd had about 7" total. Ok, I'm totally guessing, but it's somewhere near that. You can see some pics at Dave's Blog. I left work at 2pm. I got my car out of the parking lot at work at 2:25. It was covered in snow and stuck. Thankfully I have a new transmission in my car, so rocking back and forth to get up the very small incline of our not-yet-plowed parking lot didn't completely kill it.

There are quite a few things that came to mind on my drive home that took a lot longer than normal. Thus, "things I hate about driving in the snow"

-cleaning off my car
-idiots who don't clean off their cars, making it impossible for them to see, and causing sheets of snow to fly off their car while driving on the interstate
-semis. don't they take the most time to slow down? so why do they go the fastest?
-semis. you can clearly see that I am not going very fast. don't get so close up on my Neon ass that you scare the crap out of me. get in another lane and go around me.

Oh, and one more thing. Show me someone who does everything they can to take it easy in bad road conditions (going slow, driving cautiously, etc) who ends up in a ditch, and I'll feel sorry for them. Until then, not so much. If you're gonna take your sedan/SUV/sports car/semi (i saw all of them in the ditch today) past me on the interstate because you're cool and the conditions "aren't that bad", then you can go in the ditch. Good luck getting out.

Damn weather

My friend in Dallas called today. While I was there, it was in the 30's and 40's most of the time. Got quite cool at night.

Now I'm home, and we're expecting 6-10 inches of snow by the end of tomorrow. (I know, not much considering what the East Coast just went through.)

It was 76 in Dallas today.

Is it just me, or is that REALLY mean that she called and told me?

Yeah, I would have done the same thing.

what a weekend

It was a good one. Cold, considering I was in Texas, but it wasn't bitterly cold, so I was enjoying it.

Thursday we had dinner at Jack In The Box and took the train to Dallas to see the Mavericks beat the Heat. what a good time. We, of course, had to stop at Sonic on the way home.

Friday I babysat Tatum while mom and dad were at work. We didn't do much, as it was rainy/windy outside. Oh yeah, that and she's 10 weeks old. Friday night they took me to dinner at Red Hot & Blue. Good food and really friendly service. I miss that when I come home. Southern hospitality. We also had ice cream at Braums. Not your typical ice cream place. It's like a Dairy Queen, except with a little grocery store inside. Apparently the milk is so good, people will do their grocery shopping at a bigger store, and go to Braums just for milk. It was good stuff!

Saturday...what the heck did we do? We found a huge scrapbook store and I found some valentines things. It was a great store. Then we grocery shopped for things to make dinner for Sunday night and had lunch at Chicken Express. We dropped Dad and Tatum at home and went to Super Target...man, I love that place! I didn't buy much, but it was nice to be able to get a watch and ice cream in the same store. We then went to Frisco for a birthday party for a 9 year old. That night we watched Just Like Heaven. It was a cute, funny movie.

Sunday was church and a stop at Sonic again. We also did some more shopping at Walmart Super Center and Costco. I found Rachael Ray's cookbook 365: No Repeats. The retail price is $19.95, Costco's cost was $11.39. Exciting, I know. Oh, we also found our way to Crate & Barrell. I LOVE that store. I could have spent my life savings...which isn't much, but I really could have gone crazy. I then cooked dinner and we watched Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, it was the first time I'd seen it. Oh. My. God. It's not for everyone, but it was funny.

Monday morning I was up at 4:30 to get to the airport. THankfully I got there 1 1/2 hours before my flight. The place was a ZOO. It didn't dawn on me that people couldn't fly out to the East Coast yesterday, so they were flying today. I got to my gate in plenty of time after a couple interesting incidents. One woman in the security line must have realized she needed to check her bag, so she ran off. She left behind her carry-on. I thought, of course, it would explode. It didn't, and I saw her running to her gate a bit later...almost late because she had to run to Starbucks. Then there was the elderly lady at the security checkpoint. I think she was trying to get to her purse, which was on the other side, holding her boarding pass. I don't know what the real situation was, but it was goofy and I needed to get out of there. When I got to Houston, I had a splitting headache. Houston airport is HUGE, so I had to walk forever to the train thingy. It wasn't running...broke down. I had to walk forever again to the shuttle busses. Again, a ZOO. Thankfully I had a 2 hour layover and didn't have to worry. I took some advil, got a bit of a nap, and was on my way. Got to Milwaukee, Dave picked me up, and it was a smooth ride home. I napped for 3 hours and then went to work. Yikes. I need to plan my vacations better!

Over the weekend I absolutely fell in love with baby Tatum. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to calm her when she was fussy...sometimes even mom and dad couldn't do it. Hand her to Aunt Kari, it'll be fine! She was in the midst of getting a cold, and I was the only one not to...well...mess with her nose, if you know what I mean. I couldn't have done that if I tried.

A great weekend, but I'm SO glad to be home!!!

Make that 13

The Mavs won their 13th in a row last night! What a fun time. There were a few Heat fans near us, and they tried to keep cheering...but with a score of 112-76, it was a difficult task.

So far Dallas is....wet. I brought the crappy weather with me. But they tell me that's good, because they're in a drought. So, I guess I do what I can. Always a people pleaser...that's me!

Anyway, I'm babysitting today, so that should be fun. She's sleeping right now, I'm not neglecting my duties to blog. I swear!

Here you go, B!

1 and 2. 1 is a duplicate. hope you don't mind! Did you watch tonights episode??? Dave has it recorded, if you missed it!

Wanna get Lost?

This post is mostly for B, who is thinking about starting to watch "Lost".
Evangeline Lilly (Kate).



I have no problem saying that she's HOT. I gotta get to the gym...

I'm getting a new car!

Well, not "new", really. I'll be getting my same car back. But it'll have a lot of new stuff in it. Like a new transmission. Thankfully when I got my car, it came with a 7yr/70,000 mile powertrain warranty. My car has 64k miles on it. Whew! There's a $100 deductible for that. $100 for a new transmission is OK by me. Of course there's other stuff that needs to be done. An oil change (I'm so bad at keeping up on those), tire rotation, fuel system flush, new head gasket (i think?), overall inspection with new spark plugs...i think that about covers it. All that, including the transmission, for about $500. I'm NOT complaining. I think all that should about cover me for the next year (I will get oil changes on a regular basis, i promise!) when the car will be paid off!

I'll be outta touch for a couple days. Going to Texas to visit baby Tatum. I'm SO excited. I will also be going to the Mavericks/Heat game, and enjoying the warm Dallas weather.

...now that I've said "warm weather", they're going to get hit with something while I'm there, aren't they? Dammit....

Is this for real?

I love "My Name is Earl". A hilarious show. But is Karma a REAL thing? Seriously.

Last week, I got $3 for my 30th birthday. Dave commented on Thursday"Now we can get the new car we've always wanted!" On Sunday, my car died. Literally died. When the tow truck driver came to pick it up today, I started it and put it in gear. I hit the gas, and it went nowhere. Even in neutral, they couldn't push it. So, my car sits in the shop now. (This is just a web photo, not my actual car).


Then, and this is worse...we find out that Dave's aunt was in the hospital due to bad reaction from medicine. Last weekend, when we went to Delavan, we didn't stop to see her. CRAP. She's home now...so we'll see her as soon as we can!

Seriously people...it's Karma, isn't it?

MY EYES! MY EYES!

you may not want to look at this picture. it is not attractive. and it surely doesn't look comfortable. does she really have to do this to prove she's pregnant?

Happy Belated Birthday....

To me. I got a card in the mail from my uncle today. I didn't expect a card, or any money for that matter. I did appreciate it, however. Even if it was $3.


That's it. no numbers missing. for my thirtieth birthday, i got $3.