Too Many Hobbies

I'm fighting the urge to embark on too many projects at once. This is normal.

Would you believe that I still haven't finished scrapbooking our honeymoon? From 2003? Or that I have 8mm videocamera footage from back in April 2000 that I never managed to edit together into a final montage? IKEA kitchen accessories purchased a year and a half ago, and never installed? Photos and art moved from our apartment back in 2004 that I still haven't hung on the walls? Art that I've purchased, and photos that I've gotten enlarged, and haven't yet framed?

I'm trying to make a concerted effort to finish these orphaned projects before I start on anything new. I'm also coming to terms with the fact that some things, like my three unfinished novels, may never be done.

I'm on Day Two of a new initiative to prioritize and get things done, and it's going well. One chunk at a time, and nothing too overwhelming — that's how everything will get done.

Maybe, someday, my desk will even be clean and organized.

Pshaw.

An Open Letter to the Toledo Division of Streets, Bridges & Harbor

Dear Commissioner Welch:

I live on a residential street — on a dead-end street, in fact, in the last house on the street. Understandably, ours is not one of the first streets to be cleared of snow. In fact, the main streets are often cleared by the city days or weeks before our neighborhood streets are finally clear (generally due to a natural melt-off, rather than any city intervention). When our neighborhood does get plowed and salted, very rarely do any of the trucks clear our end of the street.

While I do understand that supplies and manpower are limited, especially in this time of economic hardship, and I also understand that Phase IV roadways have the lowest priority, I cannot help but feel slighted. After all, my husband and I do pay city taxes, just like residents of the more trafficked streets; part of the service we expect in return is that of safe access to our home.

Thanks to the ice storm we experienced approximately 36 hours ago, our neighborhood streets are several inches thick in solid ice. I will be pleasantly surprised if city trucks come through and clear our streets before Mother Nature does the job herself, as temperatures are expected to rise well above freezing in the days ahead.

While I don't truthfully expect any change in the response time of the city anytime soon, I at least wanted to make my displeasure known. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Diana M. Schnuth

Purge

Aaron and I have spent the past couple of weekends purging our lives of various media that we no longer need. First, he went through his videogames and got rid of some stuff he wasn't going to play anymore. Then, we weeded out our CD collection, ripping some of them to iTunes before trading them in to Allied Records with the games. After that, we went through the records and laserdiscs, offloading 150 LPs and 40 laserdiscs.

Today, we went through books. As avid book-lovers, we tend to collect cheap books that sound interesting. Sometimes we get a good deal; other times, we pick up books that we can never actually bring ourselves to read. We finally bid farewell to a few of the latter this evening, along with some books that aren't relevant to us anymore... like these diet books.

I had picked up some of these early on in college; The Hilton Head Metabolism Diet, along with The 200 Calorie Solution, actually helped me lose 10 pounds one summer. The Setpoint Diet and Farewell to Fatigue were some other early purchases, and I do recall that they had some helpful (if typical) ideas. Of course, Atkins' New Diet Revolution helped me lose 50 pounds (and keep 80% of it off). The rest of the books were in the review queue for my now-defunct Low Carb Lifestyle Podcast. I read The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet and found it to be something I wouldn't feel comfortable following. (I hesitate to use the word "hogwash," as I am not an M.D. like Drs. Heller.) I never got around to reading The T-Factor Diet or Protein Power, although I do remember scanning Sugar Busters and trading e-mails with an avid follower of that diet. It seemed fairly reasonable, as low-carb diets go.

Now that I'm having moderate (if plateauing) success on Weight Watchers, though, I feel quite comfortable giving these books to the thrift. Maybe they'll be what someone else needs to get themselves on the road to good health.

Oven Update

You may recall that my oven had a breakdown last week. Well, the part arrived in no time, and Aaron and I installed it yesterday.

Although most of the breakers in our box of electrical magic and wonder are not labeled, it just so happens that the one for the range happens to be one of two that are. So, Aaron took charge, flipped said breaker, grabbed a couple of Phillips-head screwdrivers, and went to town on the oven. It took maybe five minutes, if that, to unscrew the mounting plate, pull out and unclip the old, broken element, clip in the new one, and screw it back in.

Nothing burned down, although the factory dust did burn off of the element for a minute or so, and I baked some VERY tasty No-Pudge Fudge Brownies later that day.

No worries. Our oven should be good to go for many more years to come.

Crisis Averted

I bought some No-Pudge Fudge Brownies at Claudia's a couple weeks ago, and decided to make them for our trip to Canada this weekend. All they needed was a container of vanilla yogurt, mix 'em up, and throw 'em in the oven for a half hour. That I can do, no problem. Preheated the oven, stirred the powdered mix together with 6 ounces of vanilla yogurt, put it into a lubed-up pan, and opened the oven—

Why is only one little bit of the heating element glowing red? How odd.

I turned the oven off — I'm kind of skitchy with appliances that don't do exactly what's expected of them, especially when it involves electricity and lots of heat — and waited for the oven to cool again. I figured that maybe something funky had been spilled onto the heating element, and I could just clean it off and be on my brownie way.

So, once the oven was cool enough, I got a sponge (for lack of anything more abrasive) and got to work on cleaning the heating element. Carefully.

But apparently not carefully enough. Where the element looked like something had spilled on it and simply needed cleaned off, the element easily snapped in two like chalk.

Um... I think I broke it? Maybe it was already almost broken. At any rate, now we need a $35 - $40 part for our oven before I can a.) make brownies, which are now sitting raw in the refrigerator; or b.) test out any luau recipes. Oh, or c.) make any more tropical-scented candles.

So, why do I say "crisis averted," when my oven doesn't work now? If I hadn't noticed the weirdness with the heating element, I could have set the oven on fire with my brownie-baking. As it is, we'll just have to buy a part and either try installing it ourselves or pay someone to do it for us. We won't have to buy a whole new oven, or a whole new kitchen.

Crisis averted.

No Soliciting

Aaron was assembling his lunch this afternoon/evening (since he works nights) when we heard two quick rings of the doorbell and two quick knocks on the front door. That's usually the UPS man's MO, so Aaron went over to the door and peeked through the peephole.

"I don't know who that is," he said, turning back toward the kitchen, "so I'm not answering it. Some lady with a clipboard."

Not ten seconds later, the person rang and knocked again, and I saw Aaron's eyes flare before he turned to stride back toward the door. I stayed in the kitchen, unseen, while I listened to the exchange:

Aaron: Can I help you?
Woman: Good afternoon! How are you today?
Aaron: Can you read?
(I assumed he was pointing at our prominently displayed "No Soliciting" sign.)
Woman: Yes.
Aaron: Thank you.
Woman (just before door closes): Piece of shit.
Aaron (yanking the door back open): Fuck you, too!

According to Aaron, the woman flipped him off from the driveway as she walked off, and her clipboard read American something-or-other. I'm guessing she was a political pollster of some kind, and I'm hoping she wasn't working on behalf of a charitable organization, considering her reactions.

As for me, I prefer to go the more passive-aggressive route of not answering the door at all, even after the second knock, but it's easier to go that route when the car isn't in the driveway and I can feign not being home. Aaron's OK with being a little more confrontational than I am, generally speaking.

Still, though, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to be left alone by pollsters and solicitors and proselytors when you post a No Soliciting sign right next to your doorbell.

DIY Question

Remember when I was all excited to get my IKEA kitchen organizer hanging bar thingie? I actually purchased the Gründtal bar and spice rack and shelf and S-hooks back in early December 2007... but I haven't installed them yet.

Why not? Let me explain.

I located the studs in the wall before I even bought the rod, just to be sure it would fit properly. No problems with the fit — however, the stud finder we bought told us that there is hot AC by one of the studs I'd planned to drill into.

Now, I'm not in a big hurry to either a.) electrocute myself, b.) screw up the wiring in my kitchen by drilling through it, or c.) all of the above. Do you guys think I'm OK to go ahead and drill through the stud and install the mounting screws and the bar, or should I not mess with it at all?

I can't find any specific info about this online, so I'm asking my faithful readership. What do you think?

IKEA Upgrade #1

One of Saturday's IKEA purchases was a Billy bookcase. I had previously measured the ceiling height in our finished basement, and determined that a Billy bookcase would reach to within an inch or two of our low ceiling. I had also determined that the white plastic shelving unit currently living in our basement was just plain ugly, and needed to go.

The white plastic shelving unit was a throwback to Aaron's bachelor days, when an $8 shelving unit worked perfectly fine either as a bookshelf or for general storage. (I had one, too, I admit, but mine was black.) The shelving unit was thrown up in the basement as a stopgap measure — in my mind, anyway — until we could get some nicer-looking furniture in the basement.

So, I came home Saturday night with a couple pieces of nicer-looking furniture for the basement, including the Billy bookcase. Sunday afternoon was spent assembling the bookcase, then unloading and removing the shelving unit and replacing it with said bookcase. The assembly really wasn't any worse than putting together a Sauder bookcase — it may have been easier, in fact, thanks to slightly different procedures with locking screws and whatnot. I did miss with one of the nails while attaching the back, and messed up the middle shelf a little. It's not very noticeable in the grand scheme of things, though, as Aaron kept assuring me right after I did it.

Unfortunately, nicer-looking storage doesn't magically turn the stored items into books and knick-knacks and cuteness; I still have super-8 equipment, camera equipment, sewing and craft supplies, photo storage, and other randomness on the bookcase. At least it looks a little classier, though:

The white plastic shelving unit is now in the garage, where plastic shelving units belong. :-)

Responsible Decisions

Having received severance and retention pay from my former employer, then having landed a job relatively soon after, I recently found myself with several thousand dollars burning a hole in my ING Direct savings account.

So many possibilities flooded my imagination. Another vacation to Japan? Or a trip to Ireland? Or maybe someplace else?

Alas, the grown-up part of me seized hold and reminded me that I have several thousand dollars in credit card debt that should really be paid down.

That's not saying that this Christmas won't be more kick-ass than usual, of course. There will also be a dishwasher in our future. And perhaps the professional installation of some ceiling fans, in view of the astronomical cost of installing central air in a house with no ductwork.

Generally, though, responsible finances reign. Oh, well.

IKEA Mania

Last weekend, Sheryls and I had an awesome girls' afternoon o' shopping up in Michigan. First stop: IKEA.

Now, I've mentioned IKEA before, and had grand plans... and they didn't quite work out. But now I have ideas for the kitchen that don't involve very much money. At all.

The IKEA store features a showroom, where you look at the furnishings and textiles and accessories and fixtures in their native environment. You can see how everything fits together, how it actually looks in a room, and how it would function. The kitchen setups were great, because I could stand in the middle of a kitchen setup and say, "This is exactly the size of my kitchen!" And I could see how they put cabinets and shelves and everything together, and get ideas for how to maximize my own kitchen space with IKEA products.

Let's back up a bit. The duplex apartment Aaron and I rented before we bought our house had a truly indecently excessive amount of storage and counter space. We had cupboards that remained empty the whole time we lived there. This kitchen, not so much:

We have appliances that remain on the counters, unused for months; we have a crapload of stuff on top of our refrigerator (not shown); our drawer of pots and pans is in constant disarray; and I'm always afraid that my rummage sale spice racks are going to fall into the sink.

Being that IKEA is made specifically for small spaces, I think I can seek solutions there:

This is my Photoshop representation of what our kitchen could look like with a $50 investment. If that. The Grundtal system includes a wall-mounted rail with various sundry items to hang on said rail: spice rack, dish drainer, S-hooks for pans and utensils, and a whole lot more. We could make use of our wall space — and have a much sturdier (if slightly smaller) spice rack. (But we could get *two* racks...) I also see some under-cabinet task lighting, a new overhead fixture, and a dishwasher in our future. (Dishwasher sold separately.)

Where will the countertop appliances go? Hell if I know. The kitchen will get rearranged somehow, and counter space will be had. I haven't used my flower vases in forever — maybe an appliance or two would fit in the drawer currently occupied by my multiple vases. I really only need one or two. I could also relocate my candle supplies to a space in the dining room and free up one more small corner cabinet. Install one of those neat organizer racks that pull all the way out, and we've got even more storage. Install one of those in the drawer of pots and pans, and we'll have easier access to what we need. I don't think IKEA sells the pull-out organizers, though. Meh.

One step at a time, though. First, I have to buy or borrow a stud-finder, so I know where I can install my rail.

Shields Are Down, Captain!

For all of you out there who have been waiting for your opportunity to burglarize my house... Hmm. That sounded like a cute opening when I thought of it, but now it's just creepy. Moving on...

Last week, there was a power surge at home while I was at work. Aaron says that the TV turned off, his computer restarted, the XBox 360 threw the scary error that means it's fried (it's not, don't worry), and our home security system started beeping. Turns out everything's OK... except the security system. It's hosed.

Now, we only signed up for the service because 1.) the system was already installed when we bought the house, and 2.) I failed to read the fine print that locked us into a FIVE-YEAR contract, of which we have now completed three. According to the technician that looked at our system today, we may have to upgrade our security system instead of simply having it fixed. Our model has been long discontinued, and even the next model up from ours hasn't had parts available locally for over seven years.

We're hoping to either get a major discount on an upgrade, or get out of the remainder of our contract. I'm really hoping for the latter. Over $80 per quarter is a little steep for a service we only use when we go out of town.

So, now our perimeter is wide open (yes, our doors and windows still lock), and the ever-present keypad night-light is now dark. Good thing Mom's going to house-sit while we're in Japan...

Life Is Good.

Furniture was delivered Saturday afternoon. Only major downside was that the old couch didn't fit through the basement door, so the entire point of buying a new couch (so we could put the old one in the basement) was nullified. On the upside: we have a giant, nine-foot pillow-back sofa on which to lounge; a new, smaller dining room table with non-80's chairs and a bench; and after our return from Nihon, we will have a new massagey recliner.

In other news, Aaron has determined the status of his passport. Due to our change in departure date, it hasn't yet been processed, even though he applied for it back in February. It has now been expedited, and should be on its way by week's end. Which is still calling it close, and may mean that we'll need to obtain our Ghibli Museum vouchers after we arrive in Nihon instead of in advance.

Weight has stabilized at 198 pounds. I'm OK with that for now. Slow and steady weight loss means it's more likely to stay off. I won't make my goal of 190 by Japan, but so be it. I still intend to eat heartily while we're on vacation.

I am SO almost done with my freelance project. I'm hitting some snags with programming the content management system, and I'm going to just have to set some strictures on what it can and can't do. I can't make it account for every possible instance of weirdness. Hopefully, the client will be accepting of that. Honestly, though, I'm really just glad to have it done. I don't know if I'll get the remainder of my pay by the time we leave for Japan, which is unfortunate... but, again, I'm OK with that. Between Aaron and myself, we have enough money saved up to have a sufficiently good time.

Yes, indeed... life is good.

IKEA

And I wasn't the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue.

—Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5

Is it so wrong to want nice things? Stylish things?

It's tough to justify spending over $150 on what is basically a large bookshelf, though. It's tough to move from the mismatched, second-hand furniture you acquired in your young adult years to actually paying for something stylish. And heaven forbid you don't actually have a defined style yet.

When I was in high school, my dream decor was black and white. Now, it's more black and earth tones. Dark woods, light tans, black and rust accents. Our current decor is definitely nothing like that. It's more of post-collegiate, free-is-good mix-n-match. Someday, I'd like to work on establishing a real interior decorating style/sense. And actually spending the money to do it.

Today's distraction at work was an all-day e-mail volley with Sheryl, in which we moved from talking fitness to talking about her new house to talking about home improvement and interior decorating in general. Much was said about the IKEA website and the store that is really quite close to where Sheryl will be living.

Now, I'd already looked at the website and found some picture frames I want to stock up on; unfortunately, they're only available at the IKEA store, about an hour north of here — not online. There are also some large bookshelves which would serve as some keen DVD storage; however, since they're not marketed as such, and don't have a specific DVD capacity listed, Aaron isn't entirely keen on them. I am, though. I'm willing to put out the money for them, and Aaron is willing to put his DVDs in them as long as he isn't paying for them. And I'm OK with that.

The shelf I want is six feet on a side by 15" deep, with square compartments. It costs $180, but I bet it'll hold a shitload of DVDs and anime figurines and plants and other stylish accoutrements. I thought about buying it online, but then thought that maybe I should try something smaller and less expensive first, to see how the shipping and customer service goes.

So, I looked at a smaller shelf of the same design, about five feet tall by 2½ feet wide. I measured the spot in our living room I had in mind for it, and it would be an absolutely *perfect* fit. Well, except for having to drill an access hole for the electrical outlet in the right side of the shelf. I wouldn't have a problem with that, though, even on an $80 shelf. Hell, we can keep the piece we drill out of it and patch it back in if we ever move the damn thing. It would so be worth it, because it's so *us* (OK, maybe it's so *me*) and it fits that spot so *perfectly*.

But I digress. I looked at this smaller shelf online, and saw that it's also not available for online ordering. You have to go to the IKEA store to buy it. *sigh* So, I looked at the big shelf again, and decided to put it in my shopping cart and see how much shipping would be.

Are you ready?

Shipping literally costs as much as the shelf. Yep, $180 for the shelf and another $180 or so for shipping.

Not worth it.

I'll have to wait until we can a.) go up to the IKEA store, and b.) convince someone with a truck to take us up there. I'll want to buy both shelving units, plus my picture frames, plus whatever else I see that strikes my fancy.

Whenever this happens, it's going to be a very dangerous trip. For one of my credit cards.

Houseplant Geekery

It occurs to me that nearly every single one of my houseplants is in need of repotting.

Every. Single. One.

If you care to indulge my plant geekery, read on for my current houseplant inventory...

read more...

So Much To Say

Back still hurts like a mofo. I made an appointment with a local chiropractor for tomorrow right after work, so hopefully that'll set me on the road to recovery. Every time I try to stand up, I swear vehemently at no one and declare that this is fucking bullshit. I'm looking forward to living without lower back pain again.

Man, WTF. I've never fucked myself up this bad before.

Anyway. Not that we'll be doing it this weekend, being that my back's still fuckered up, but the next room to paint is the dining room. Home improvement veterans, I could use some design opinion assistance.

Aaron still isn't sure what to think of Sheryl's idea to build the color palette around the awesome bachelor pad lamp. I'm having a time of it myself. I have to decide a.) what color to paint the living room and upstairs hallway (preferably the same color, as they share a wall), and b.) what color to paint the adjoining dining room. I'm unsure what would make the space seem bigger: painting the dining room a darker color, so it seems to extend farther back than it really does; or painting the dining room the same color as (or even lighter than?) the living room.

My general idea for the color of the living room is for it to contrast the lamp. Light enough to contrast against the base, and dark enough to contrast the shade. My original thought was the Bagel color (these are swatches from Behr paints), as I was trying to match one particular color on the palette I pulled from the lamp (above — and yes, all those colors were sampled directly from the lamp photo). Now that I see the potential wall shades all together, though, I'm thinking I prefer a tan to an orange. I mean, I spent over ten years of my life hating being stuck with an orange and brown and school, and now what do I start planning for my living room? Yeah.

Anywhozit, I'm trying to create an understated wall and general color palette, so that the lamp is actually an accent against other more muted earth tones. I'm thinking of going back to behr.com and starting with the Chai Latte color as a jumping-off point for other earth tones. I can't reconcile the idea of having a living room, hallway, and dining room the color of dried pumpkin. Might look nice, but it's not really my thing.

And for one last Martha Stewart moment: I just started a few more seeds tonight. Three lemon basil, three lavender, and three sweet basil. I'm planning to put them in a planter indoors. Maybe I'll transplant the lavender outside after it's grown big enough — like, next year. Until then, it'll get harvested and eaten like the other herbs.

OMG. The entire weedy area by the house is going to be overtaken by catnip! ...And I'm OK with that. ^_^

Ouch.

I really fucked up my back this weekend. Now I know how Aaron felt the few times he messed up his lower back.

I'm still going to work tomorrow, but I'm calling the chiropractor shortly after 9am. Hopefully Dr. Smith can get me in sometime tomorrow. I'd even be willing to take half a day off of work to go get fixed up sooner.

Man. I'm OK as long as I don't fucking move. As soon as I go to switch position or stand up or whatever, though, my way-lower back hurts like a bitch. I'm not usually one for going to doctors, but I'm definitely going to the chiropractor tomorrow. This is ridiculous.

Update, 7/5/06 12:40pm: Ended up taking the day off of work. Woke up this morning with an improved back, but tired as hell. Called in at 7:30am and told my boss's voicemail that I screwed up my back painting over the weekend, and that today would be devoted to having quality time with my chiropractor and generally getting better. Promptly went back to bed.

Called the chiropractor's office at 10:15am. The earliest I'd be able to get in as a new patient would be next week, and that would be with someone other than Dr. Smith, as she's out of the office. I told the nice receptionist that I'd give it some thought and get back with her. I promptly went upstairs and went back to bed.

My back does feel a little better today. I have plans for maxing and relaxing for a good part of the day, using either the massager or the heating pad on my back to keep it loose. I'm not terribly keen on going to a different chiropractor, as Dr. Smith has been heartily approved by both Aaron and Kris. We'll see how I feel after today.

Painting Complete

I mentioned before that taping the trim and ceiling took two hours on Saturday night. What I didn't mention was that I woke up on Sunday with a twinge in my lower back, presumably from bending over and applying painter's tape to over 60 linear feet of trim and window and such.

No matter. After lunch on Sunday, we laid down the plastic dropcloth and began priming the room. That took an hour and a half, then we waited another hour for the primer to dry, during which time I became better acquainted with the pain in my back. Laid on the floor, did some stretching, and was ready to go for the actual painting process.

After we thought we were done for the day, and after Aaron had already showered, I read on the internets that it would probably be a good idea to remove the tape before the paint dried. So we did that. (The above photo was taken while Aaron was getting his shower on, and before we removed the painter's tape.) We had a few oopsies, including blooping paint down through the tape in one place and accidentally peeling the old ceiling paint off in others, but I'm not really upset about that.

I think we were a little concerned that one gallon of paint wouldn't be enough to cover the entire room, so we probably spread the paint a little too thin. At any rate, we have a few touch-ups to do tomorrow. Overall, I'm still pleased with the result.

Check out more photos of the painting aftermath on Flickr!

PS - My back is still sore, but it's getting better. Taking a walk today really helped to loosen it up. I'm going to try to lower myself into a nice hot bath shortly.

Painting

Well, last weekend was Mom's visit, and the weekend before was the Waterville Community Garage Sale, so this weekend has been the first where we've been able to think about painting the small bedroom.

Yesterday, we hit Home Depot and bought all our supplies: painting implements, dropcloths, painter's tape, spackle, putty knives, and other miscellany. Including primer and paint, of course. We're painting the room in April Mist, which is kind of a light green with a tinge of blue to it.

We didn't actually start on anything until well after dinner yesterday. Around 9pm or so, we moved all the furniture and boxes out of the room and vacuumed the carpet. Then we spent two hours taping the edges: baseboard trim, ceiling, window, all that. We finally got done around midnight.

Today, once Aaron wakes up and we have lunch, we'll start on applying our one coat of primer (Kilz, of course), let it dry, then one coat of paint. We'll see if that's sufficient, or if we'll need to go get another gallon of paint for a second coat. The room is small — 9' x 9' — so one gallon of paint should suffice, assuming we only need one coat. We'll see.

Taping went relatively well, if slowly, so hopefully that was the most tedious part of the process. I hope we don't screw anything up too bad today. :-)

Grown-Up Toys

Yesterday, Aaron and I spent our tax return on a new Whirlpool washer from Appliance Center. It was delivered today, and is now swishing happily next to our 20-year-old Maytag dryer.

No more trips to the Reynolds Laundromat on Sunday evenings! Not that I didn't enjoy my times there — the staff were always friendly, and the washers always worked as expected (as long as I didn't overfill them), and there was only one time in the past year that the place was too busy for me to comfortably do my laundry.

So, thanks, Reynolds Laundromat, for hosting my weekly washings... but I'm good to go from now on.

I feel all domestic.

The Joys of Home Ownership

Granted, this particular joy isn't limited to only homeowners, but... I just got to clean up after my very first completely overflowing toilet! Yaye! :-P

I mean, I knew I had taken a pretty dense crap, but jeez.

I'd never actually experienced the kind of clogged toilet that actually overflows onto the bathroom tile. It's like one of those slow-motion "Ohhhhh nooooo..." moments. I managed to keep the rug from getting completely soaked, and the overflow was luckily *not* completely nasty toilet water.

Still, though... spending quality time re-mopping the bathroom floor was not fun.

(As a side note, I had a particularly memorable bad dream when I was maybe four or five years old about the toilet overflowing and filling up the bathroom to my armpits. While I mopped this evening, I recalled that bizarre nightmare, and how I and my dream-friend saved ourselves from being swept away or drowned by pulling out straws and drinking the overflow water. I was a weird kid.)

Dancing In The Dark

I had spent probably an hour or so fiddling with the new LSM site, saving to the server every few minutes.

Thank goodness for my particular choice of workflow, because shortly before 9pm, the power went out. I had been listening to some Oakenfold (generally my soundtrack of choice while doing webstuff), and suddenly I heard a popping noise outside as my monitor winked out. Then silence. And frustration, until it occurred to me that I'd been saving every two minutes. :-)

I got up from my desk, walked over to the cabinet o' candles, and pulled out a couple. Lit one for the basement, one for the living room, and one for the dining room. It wasn't actually dark yet, but I like to be prepared.

Anyway, it was too dim to really do anything indoors, even with the candles lit, so I went outside to see if the neighbors' power was out, too. (Yes, I left the candles lit like an irresponsible Diana.) Sure enough, the neighbor lady was outside, and so was the one a couple doors down from her. Our whole end of the street was out.

Went back inside and located the old-school phone that doesn't need plugged into a power outlet. Not the cell, although that would have worked, too. Anywho, I dug out the electric bill and called the 24-hour Emergency / Outage number I found listed there. I was expecting some surly switchboard operator, but it ended up being one of those automated voice recognition systems. At first, I thought it would be voicemail hell, but once I figured out that it was that voice recognition shit, it wasn't bad. Just weird.

Once our power outage was reported to the nice computer, I grabbed a book and sat out on the front step to read for a while. After about 20 minutes, though, even the light outside wasn't sufficient for reading. So, I went inside, blew out the rest of the candles (I'd extinguished the one downstairs before I went out to read), put on socks and shoes, grabbed my keys and my cellphone (it has a built-in flashlight) and went for a walk. Hell, nothing better to do, right? And maybe by the time I got back, my power would be back on. Right?

Wrong-o. Got back half an hour later, and still no lights. Not even any streetlights. Went back inside, re-lit the candles, and got out the Palm IIIc to write this entry. Thank goodness for backlit screens.

So, here I sit, at... *checks watch in glow of Palm screen* ...10:45pm, covered in a thin film of perspiration thanks to the impotent and powerless box fan—

Holy shit. The power just came back on. I'll be goddamned.

Two hours without power. Could have been worse.

Now to go upload this entry, and see whether my computer's fried...

Neighbors

Our next-door neighbor just freaked my shit out. I could have sworn I heard someone call a hello through the open door upstairs, and then I heard the chain-link fence rattling. Was someone in our back yard?

I went upstairs to the living room, closed the front door, and started peering out all the windows to try to see what I'd heard. Finally, looking out our upstairs bedroom window, I saw movement: branches of the overgrown bush that's beginning to encroach onto our property from our neighbors'. I figured it had to be the neighbors doing some yardwork, but I had to be sure.

I put on socks and sandals (I know, I know) and headed out the back door. Sure enough, once I got into the middle of the yard, I could see him out there in his own side yard, with a tree pruner plunged into the middle of this straggly bush, cutting away. Of course, he saw me, so I had to say hello and make small talk: stupid shit like, "Decided to chop down that bush, huh? I heard noises out here and wondered what was going on..." and so forth.

Keep in mind, we've never introduced ourselves to our neighbors in the year-plus that we've lived here, so he was understandably perplexed to see me. He also wasn't in the mood to talk—he was in the mood to kick the shit out of that bush. So, I wished him good luck and went back inside.

Nobody scoping out our backyard in broad daylight. Just the neighbor getting rid of the bush Aaron had been complaining about a couple weeks back. :-)

Weekend Projects

As Amy had to cancel our weekend of girlie giggles due to Grandma's gallstones, Aaron and I opted to make use of the weekend to take care of some much-needed home improvement projects. More maintenance than improvement, actually.

First on the list: fertilize the lawn. It was very necessary. Our yard looks like poo, due to a.) the lack of proper lawn care by the previous homeowner, and b.) the giant field of weeds across the street from our house. The back yard also has vast bare patches, but that is a problem to address another day—say, in the Fall.

read more...

One Year Ago

As Erk reminded me a few days ago, Aaron and I moved into our house exactly one year ago Monday.

I still wish I'd kept the digital camera handy during the move, so I could have taken pictures of the perfectly-packed 24-foot giant U-Haul, or the inside of our empty apartment, or the all-volunteer moving crew at their complimentary Easystreet lunch.

I do have some other pictures of interest, though:

Our house, at inspection time (February 2004)

The aftermath of getting the U-Haul stuck in the mud across the street from our new house

Our living room, after we got the furniture in place, one year before we got the widescreen TV

So, yeah. Happy one year in the house to us! (Only 29 more years of house payments to go...)

Holy Big-Screen, Batman!

Courtesy of Sheryl, for a whopping $800: a 55" Mitsubishi widescreen TV. Not pictured: Kenwood surround sound system (ProLogic).

Anyone who knows how big that damn orange lamp is can truly appreciate the scope and magnitude of our new purchase. Holy shit.

Communing With Nature

Today, I decided to go outside and enjoy the fall weather by reading at the picnic table for a while during my lunch break. While I was sitting there, engrossed by The Stand, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over—and there was a squirrel. On the bench. With a nut in his mouth. Looking at me. We just sat there, looking at each other, for a long moment before he finally decided to go bury his nut somewhere.

And more nature stuff... instead of turning on the computer immediately after dinner and the news this evening, I ended up moving my near-dead Mums from the front yard to the back yard and planting my Roses of Sharon into individual pots. I had nine Roses of Sharon (aka Althea) all together, although two of them had rooted together so closely that I just potted them together. Most have fairly decent root systems—say, the size of a golf ball with random tendrils—but one had a nice softball-sized rootball, and one was surviving on a single solitary root strand. I have eight pots in all: two I left outside to brave the winter, one I put in the kitchen, and five are in the library/media room upstairs. Hopefully the cat won't knock them over like she did my damn begonia.

After I got done potting, I got a hair up my ass to organize the boxes we have in the garage. Now it doesn't look quite as ghetto... but it's still pretty ghetto. I mean, our shelves of gardening supplies are the orange and blue milk crates that were once my bookshelves in college. Our lawn chairs are sitting on top of the old-school mower. There are packing peanuts on the floor. But now, at least, there aren't quite as many empty boxes sitting in the back of the garage.

PH34R my wifeliness once again

Just to prove that I have that little bit of garage-sale savvy and a touch of HGTV about me, I will now show you how wifely I was this weekend.

I'd already hung this shelf up once, but I had to move it from the dining room into the kitchen to make room for...

...the $15 microwave stand we bought at a garage sale Saturday.

I also made a spice rack out of some cast-iron shelves I'd bought last month.

By the end of the day, I ran out of knick-knacks, so this shelf I hung in our media room features Martha Stewart candles.

And, in the midst of all this, I hung up our engagement photo in the living room so everyone can marvel at our melonheads.

Hmm. LiveJournal no likey the tables too well. Ah, well, you get the idea. Go me.

w00t... yardwork.

My fingers aren't too keen on typing right now—I just got back in from doing a little over an hour of yardwork. Forgot to take a picture of what it looked like beforehand, but I've got almost all of the out-of-control forsythia bushes hacked down. Don't worry, I took cuttings, so they'll be back... only much more controlled next time.

This afternoon, Fries helped Aaron pick up our free washer and dryer from Aaron's buddy Joe from work. I guess he had some issues getting the washer hooked up—the hose connector squirts everywhere, which is ungood. We need to hit Lowe's tomorrow and get some new hoses or hose fittings or something.

Actually, we have a whole crapload of stuff that needs to be done around the house, especially outside. Doesn't it just figure that this is when the drumcorps season starts to kick in with extra weekend rehearsals and parades and such? That pretty much wipes out about every other Sunday from now until early September, with a few exceptions. To make it worse, the initial joy of being in a drumcorps again has been overshadowed by the insanely long distance I have to drive to get to rehearsals now. But I can't back out: 1.) because I know I'd regret it later, and 2.) because I committed to stick out at least this season and probably another one or two on top of that. Oh, yeah, and 3.) because I'm the only damn mellophone. Four or five trumpets, four baritones, a tuba, and one lowly mellophone. Poor Diana. No pressure, none at all. *crosses eyes* Oh, yeah, and did I mention I can't get excited about practicing at all?

That reminds me: I need to e-mail my potential car-pool hookup from Clawson to Holly. I'm not planning to ride with Paul again. The caravan thing didn't really appeal to me. Nope. Kind of defeated the purpose. So, not again.

Did You Know...?

From the Sky internet policy: "Sky Financial Group Inc. retains the copyright of any material posted on the internet."

Any material? Anywhere? Better tell Viacom and all the other media giants that they're infringing on Sky Financial Group's copyrights.

In other news, last week's trip to Holly MI was almost a waste of my time. I finally managed to contact Paul, my supposed ride, once I was 20 minutes from his home in Hazel Park. Got to his house, and he springs on me, "Why don't we caravan? I have to leave early. Oh, do you have directions?" On top of that, his POS car can't go over 70 MPH—so after stopping for a good 20 minutes at Paul's house, crawling along I-75 (I would have preferred to go 80 with the rest of the traffic), and getting mildly lost in Holly, we ended up being a half hour late. Rehearsal only lasted two, maybe two and a half hours, then Paul left, and we discussed uniforms and rehearsals and other crap for a half hour. So, all told, I ended up spending twice as much time in the car as at rehearsal. Which, IMO, was pretty much a waste of my time. Everybody else lives in Michigan, and had to drive as far to this rehearsal as I usually do to the Detroit area. Boo-hoo. Ah, well. Next time, I'm carpooling with the Brass Caption Head / Board Member / Whatever-He-Is and his wife, instead of with Paul, who may or may not be back from his barbershop quartet convention by then.

*deep calming breath*

And now for something completely different... I've also discovered that the crazy insano out-of-control shrub in our backyard is a forsythia bush. I plan to take some cuttings of it before we chop it down and dig it up. It's crazy. I should take a picture of it before we take it out. It looks like the previous owners tried to chop it down, not realizing that it would only come back stronger. And wilder. Hmph. I am bound and determined to have a nice, pretty-looking yard, dammit. You'll see.

Home Depot

Yesterday, Aaron and I used our 10% off coupon for Home Depot to purchase:

• a 6-foot ladder
• hedge clippers
• grass clippers
• two rakes
• a shovel
• lawn soil
• ryegrass seed
• a Clorox wet-jet mop

Then we bought two 10-packs of leaf bags at Kroger, and spent an hour and a half raking and bagging leaves. And those were only the ones next to our driveway, on the fence. We now have 12, count 'em, 12 bags of leaves sitting by the curb, waiting for trash day on Tuesday. And we still have quite a bit of other work to accomplish this week... but at least the front yard looks a little more presentable. Aaron has this week off, so he's planning to do some of it while I'm at work.

I have a hornline rehearsal up in Holly, Michigan today, and I'm supposed to be carpooling up with a friend from Hazel Park (Detroit), but he hasn't gotten back to me about when to be at his house, or if we're still even doing it at all. I gotta go call him now, because I'll need to leave in about a half hour to be there in time, either way we do it.

I don't wanna drive two hours up and two hours back myself. Ugh.

The Big Move

All hail the triumphant return of the on-site blog... kind of. I still like my LJ, and am going to continue posting there, but I think I'm going to reserve my website for major, more important and archivable posts. Like the tale of The Move.

My apologies to everyone for not posting this sooner, but now that a week has passed, I think I can safely focus on the important parts and not bore everyone with stupid details. That, and the house is pretty much unpacked and I have now downloaded Dreamweaver 4 for Mac (until I get the PC back online using the power supply Sheryl generously donated to The Cause).

So. Sunday, March 21st.

Aaron and I get up before 9am, strip the bed and gather the remainder of the we-can't-do-without-it stuff like toilet paper and shampoo. A little before 9:00, Aaron walks the five blocks or so to the welding place which is currently the U-Haul mecca of Bowling Green. While he's gone, Eric shows up, and we shoot the shit about RCC and other randomness. As we're waiting for Aaron to return with the big-ass U-Haul, Kris Heath shows up. (For those of you not overly familiar with the Schnuth Friend Clan, he's the skinny vegetarian.)

Aaron does show up shortly thereafter, driving the biggest fucking U-Haul I've ever seen: a 24-footer. And he manages to park it in our driveway without smoking the fire hydrant, which is jolly good form. Since we have a decent beginning to our moving crew, we opt to start hauling the big shit out: couch, chairs, mattress and boxspring. In the midst of all this, Mark arrives. (Note: he's the tall, skinny, bearded one.) He assists with getting the big shit out, and we continue with dressers and large boxes of clothes and other light stuff to pitch into "Mom's Attic" in the front of the truck.

Meanwhile, our designated foreman Kris Fries and his wife Kathy have not yet arrived, and neither has Aaron's brother Matt. We're still operating short-handed, but doing fairly well. It's around 10:30am and we've gotten most of the big shit out and into the truck. Finally, Kris and Kathy arrive. Kris takes over his duty as truck-packer, and Kathy does a heroic battle with her asthma and the aftereffects of November's epidural (right in the spine!) to help carry out some lighter boxes. I take over vacuum duty once the master bedroom is clear, and let the guys and Kathy handle the moving on their own.

The rest of the actual move-out is kind of a blur. The guys gaped over how much shit we had ("We didn't see all these boxes in the kitchen! All this goes, too?"), and I swept and cleaned the rooms, fighting a losing battle to retain some of our security deposit. I declare it a losing battle because Aaron punched a small hole in the drywall several months ago, trying to shut up our old upstairs neighbors.

Anyway, before long it's almost noon, and the truck is just about packed. We put the fragile stuff in the car—stuff like the remainder of my plants, and the TV, and the giant lamp, and the guitar. So, after a record 2 1/2 hour truck-loading, we prepare to head off to Easystreet for lunch... but, as Kris Fries points out, we can't leave the U-Haul packed and unlocked. So, off to Wal-Mart Kathy and I go, for a padlock for me and some Tylenol for her. Brief trip, no mishaps, we return with lock and drugs and all is well. Lock up the truck, walk downtown to Easystreet.

Wait half an hour for a table.

Wait another half an hour for our food. Wait longer for the waitress to return after the meal with the check.

All in all, treating everyone to lunch took nearly as long as moving. Meanwhile, we were all chomping at the bit to get back to the truck, drive up to Toledo, and unload, so we can be done with it. Gah. All told, we spent an hour and a half at Easystreet.

Finally, we take care of the check and all mosey back to the apartment. Everything is in order, and everyone has been given directions on how to get to our new place, so everybody leaves separately. I get to go last, because I'm parked in front of the U-Haul in the driveway. :-) Kris Fries accompanies Aaron in the U-Haul, so he's not alone driving this massive beast.

So, despite the fact that I know how to get to my own house (really I do), I opt to follow the U-Haul and watch Aaron's fun with getting the truck to stop on funky brakes with tonnage of personal belongings bringing up the rear. Meanwhile, I have to grab the damn lamp every time I make a turn, so it doesn't tip and break or fall in my lap from the passenger's-side floorboard or something. No major issues getting to the house.

Once we get there, though, it's a different story.

First off, Mark's car stalled not less than six times en route, and he thought (at the time) it would never start again. Then, I parked with all the other cars in the grassy (muddy) field across the street, and I got out to watch Aaron attempt to back the U-Haul up the driveway... and adjust... and pull forward... and backward... and cut the wheel... and forward... and cut the wheel some more... and backward... and forward—

A little too far forward. He got the rear wheels up over the curb and into the muddy grass, and that's all she wrote. The damn thing got stuck there. We were destined to haul everything into the house from across the damn street. We figured that maybe, once the thing was empty, it would be easier to move. So, off to unpacking the truck.

Unloading took even less time than loading: only two hours. Once the truck was empty, around 4:30-ish, we all made a valiant attempt to brainstorm a way to get the U-Haul unstuck. There were some leftover bags of play-sand the sellers left in the back yard, so we tried putting that under the wheels; to no avail. We tried pushing from the front as Aaron reversed, and Aaron tried rocking the truck from forward to reverse to forward to reverse. All this only succeeded in digging the U-Haul deeper into the mud. Finally, Aaron called a halt to the U-Haul rescue attempt and resigned himself to calling a tow truck.

Once we were all inside and perched on various pieces of misplaced furniture, and once Aaron had retrieved the cell phone (I'd had it on me, in case anyone got lost), Kris Fries suggested a tow company, which Aaron called. Yes, Ray's Towing had the capacity to tow a U-Haul, the nice man on the phone was going to call the dispatch, and the truck would arrive in 45 minutes. Great. Kris and Kathy bailed to rescue Grandpa from the perils of watching little Samuel, and Kris Heath decided to take off, too, which prompted Mark to leave so Kris could follow him home in case he stalled again. Eric, however, was determined to stick around and see how the story played out, and we were grateful to have someone to share the insanity with.

Because Ray's Towing never fucking showed up.

After an hour, Aaron called Ray back and got his answering machine. Nobody was even there. So, we decided to pick another towing company and call them. I believe Aaron chose the company with the largest, prettiest ad in the Towing section of the Yellow Pages. :-)

Anyway, the nice man from Mayberry Towing arrived 45 minutes later, only fifteen minutes after their estimated time of arrival. David, from the towing company, pulled up into our driveway and surveyed the situation, telling Aaron, "All we can do is try." Oh, boy. He secured his vehicle against the force of the U-Haul, and hooked up the chain to the underbelly of the stuck truck. On the first attempt, the hook came unattached from the chain. On the second attempt, his tow truck began moving backwards against the pull of the U-Haul, and he had to further brace his truck with wedges behind the back wheels. But on the third attempt, he actually got movement, and had Aaron get in and get ready to hit the brakes and cut the wheel once the thing was free—which he did.

So, it took $48 and three hours after the move was complete to get the U-Haul unstuck and ready to return to the truckyard. After David the tow truck technician left, Eric took his leave and headed home, but not before we decided that we really need to hang out more. We'd both forgotten how cool Eric is to hang out with. :-)

At that point, it was somewhere around 8:00. We took the U-Haul back and drove to Ruby Tuesday's for a late dinner. Low-carb cheesecake... yum.

Got home, put the bed together while half-asleep and grumpy and tired, and crashed early (for Aaron, anyway). So ended our epic move to The New House.

Post Script: Despite the fact that Aaron's brother had called the day before to confirm that he would be there to help move, he ended up getting wasted that night and oversleeping until 1:00pm. Heh.

I also intend to photograph the ruts left by the U-Haul in the field across the street. They're still there, and will be for some time.

Forthcoming update...

We just got our internet back today, so give me some play time... then I will either post here or create a dedicated page on the.details page. Highlights of the day include a superfast truck-loading in BG, an extended lunch at Easystreet, an even more superfast unload in Toledo, and getting the 24-foot U-Haul truck stuck in the field across the street. Details to follow...

T-minus four days and counting

We have almost everything packed, the U-Haul is reserved, and Aaron's picking up the key to the house on Friday. Time to let everybody know The Moving Day Schedule.

9:00am - Aaron picks up the U-Haul
9:30am - Moving commences as fellow movers arrive
after loading - Aaron and Diana take the crew out to lunch at Easystreet (our treat)
after lunch - Return to Grove Street and line up vehicles for the Schnuth Caravan up to Toledo
upon arrival - Unload at 4651 Ventura

Unfortunately, we're not positive what time the whole operation will be over, but we're guessing sometime in the mid- to late afternoon. So far, the moving crew looks like myself and Aaron, Kris Fries (and possibly his wife Kathy), Kris Heath, Mark Sheets, and Eric Fertel. Jason Garza may be making an appearance after lunch.

I'm kind of frustrated that I don't have Dreamweaver for my Mac, and/or that I haven't gotten myself a new power supply for the other computer yet. I have grand ideas for a slight redesign of "the details" page, but it would require that great search-and-replace function in Dreamweaver, so I wouldn't have to open up every damn file in the whole site and see what styles everything was set at. For the web geeks: yes, I do have stylesheets set up, and yes, they are a linked file and not individually applied within the page. Yes, I will pretty much just be writing a new stylesheet and making new graphics. Still, though, I have become a creature of habit and I prefer my WYSIWYG program to hardcoding, despite the fact that I once prided myself on my ability to code HTML. (That was long before the days of Dreamweaver and its Adobe analog, however, back when WYSIWYG programs were awkward and clunky and required code-tweaking, anyway, to output properly.)

Anyway, as much as I enjoy my LiveJournal, I think I'm going to begin updating my actual page again, as soon as the PC is back up. I may keep the blog section on LJ, and just add updates to the page, though. I'm looking at, first, a new and cleaner design. Second, I'll be updating long-unused sections, like the Reviews, Photos and Bio. Third, I'll be adding new sections, like an Atkins Diet factsheet with reviews of low-carb foods and links to Schnuth-approved recipes.

All this... as soon as I get myself a new power supply.

Moving Day

It has been decided. Moving Day is Sunday, March 21st. We have begun packing, we have reserved a U-Haul, and we have contacted the utility companies so we have the necessities of life when we arrive in Toledo.

It's kinda damn cool.

So, the festivities will begin bright and early at 217 South Grove Street in Bowling Green, Ohio. We will pack the giant-size U-Haul with all our personal effects, then caravan up to 4651 Ventura Drive in Toledo, where the unloading will commence. All who assist will be welcome to partake in the traditional "Thank You For Helping Us Haul Our Shit" post-move meal, courtesy of the move-ees (that would be Aaron and myself).

For now, the challenge lies in getting everything packed and ready to go.

Landscaping and other randomness

I gave some more thought to landscaping the house today at work, and over lunch I drew our a couple plans for the front flower bed. I was thinking, for anyone into the whole HGTV-ish gardeny landscapey thing, that first we could hack down the overgrown bushes in the front to normal bush size. Then, I plan to mix some purple and some white flowering plants along with some white flowering ground cover, so as not to cover up the windows. I do have some ideas of flowers I'd like to use, like Lavender, Petunias, and Christmas Roses, among others that I haven't decided on yet. The trick is going to be finding just the look I want, with flowers that like the shade, since it's beneath an overhang on the north side of the house. I was also hoping to plant some stuff that blooms at different times, so there'll always be some color out there... but that might be a little beyond my scope. Maybe I'll save the rotating garden concept for when I tackle a backyard flower garden...

OK, girlie time is over. *whew*

The dude upstairs came home after I got back from my walk this evening (enjoying the weather), and proceeded to turn up his stereo. He doesn't do it often, but it's annoying when he does. So, I proceeded to fill my 5-CD changer with stuff—nothing too overbearing, though. Peter Gabriel's latest, and Catherine Wheel's last album, and 24 Gone (their only album), and Depeche Mode's most recent album (I'm seeing a trend), and the Cure Acoustic Hits (which I think was their latest release, too. Weird). It's turned up a little louder than I would normally keep it, but it's by no means blasting. Just loud enough to drown out whatever music he decides to turn up every now and then.

That got me to thinking... I kind of miss college, but not really. I miss it in that pleasant nostalgic way, where the memories are fun to look back on (like radio wars, which is how my brain got from there to here). Not the kind of missing where I would want to do it again. Not like drumcorps.

Speaking of... I've been practicing more this week, when the upstairs dude isn't home—more out of a need not to embarrass myself than to be considerate. :-) I've been getting better, and my relative pitch and pitch memory seems to be returning slowly but surely. The muscle memory is sort of there, but the endurance isn't. I've been practing for about a half hour every day this week, doing a slow warm-up to try to rebuild my range (which wasn't that stellar to begin with). After I warm up, I have about enough stamina and concentration to play through the warm-up tune once, the ballad twice, and to woodshed the march. Then I'm done, and I warm down with some pedal tones (reeeally low notes).

I'm also recalling why I stopped being a music major: I hate to practice. If I'm going to do this, though, I'll have to crack down. Senior corps doesn't coddle like Junior corps—and I can't believe I can think of it like that now. It was so physically exhausting... but everything was planned out and served to you, from your rehearsals to your meals to your everything. Now, in senior corps, I'm going to have to practice on my own time, and hype for shows and parades on the weekends only. It's a lot easier when it's your entire life for three months. I hope I've still got what it takes. We'll see.

And on a final note: On the front of my package of round Avery labels, the generic name on the pictured envelope is Tyler Durden.

"In the ear?! Why'd you have to hit me in the ear?"

Plants, candles, and other femininities

I've been feeling all house-y today. Thinking up what to put in an herb garden, what color scheme I want the front landscaping to have, all that sort of crap. I think I've decided on a purple and white thing, but we'll see. I feel all girlie now. *girlie giggle*

Since I got the rest of my candle supplies, I've also been making candles again. Last night was a batch of nine chamomile tealights, and tonight was a batch of nine Drakkar Noir® tealights. Mmm... I've gotta splurge some holiday and buy Aaron some Drakkar. Mmm. —Ahem. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm planning to continue until I have sample tealights of all my in-stock fragrances, then ship a package to Sammie to see if she'll promote me. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.

I'm also planning to get myself a new power supply for the poor dormant Frankenstein PC, though that may not happen until we move. I don't want pieces-parts being forwarded from here to there in the mail or getting misplaced in the move.

And speaking of the move... I tried to be all helpful today by starting to pack the VHS tapes we never watch. Unfortunately, I chose poorly and picked a large box to put most of them in, and it is WAAAY too heavy. So, I'm going to have to unpack the damn box and repack two smaller boxes. Plus another box for the remainder of our tapes. Not to mention our DVDs and CDs, which will be packed at a much later date.

So far, the moving crew appears to consist of myself and Aaron, Kris Fries, Mark, and Eric. We'll see if we can rope Kris Heath into helping, although it may depend on whether Jamie's out of town for her students' Speech Rodeo or whatnot (she's a high school English teacher and coach for the speech team), or if she's willing to help us move, too. We'll see. In any case, it looks like we'll be able to round up enough bodies to help us cart our shit. Oh, yeah, and yay for U-Haul and giant trucks.

House-house!

Well, today was the long-awaited home closing in Toledo. 4651 Ventura is now ours, and we're just waiting for the seller to call us and let us know when she's vacated the premises. Transfer utilities, get the keys, find out when trash day is. Yeah.

The only hairy part of today's closing was reconciling the electrical work we'd requested. See, the outlets in the kitchen and basement weren't grounded, so that was the main thing we'd asked the owner to get done before closing. When we went through with Rebecca the realtor at 11am this morning for the final walkthrough, we discovered that the kitchen outlets had been fixed, but the downstairs outlets had been replaced with new two-prong outlets instead of wired for the pre-existing three-prong. WTF? When we got to the closing, we found that the seller's electrician had only brought them up to code by eliminating the possibility of trying to plug in an applicance that needed grounding. I guess that makes some sort of sense... *shrug*

At any rate, our realtor stuck by her guns and made the seller and her realtor (and her electrician, via cell phone) realize that they hadn't done what we asked. In the end, the seller cut us a check for the estimate on getting the job done right (which Rebecca had gotten faxed to her office while Aaron and I were enjoying a huge lunch at Charlie's Coney Island).

So... we're homeowners. Rock on.

FYI, the offer still stands, to anyone who will be in the Toledo or BG area in a few weeks when we move: if you help us move, we'll buy you food. That seems to be the going rate for moving assistance amongst our group of friends. That, and future indebtedness to the next person who needs help with a move.

We spent a lot of the afternoon contemplating what our future weekend projects will be, including but not limited to:

• Trimming Bushes
• Cleaning Gutters
• Replacing Downspouts
• Raking Last Fall's Leaves
• Reseeding Sections of Lawn

And, of course, arranging and re-arranging our furniture. Especially since we'll have to keep the downstairs bare of furnishings until we get the electrician in to fix his attempt at a quick-fix. Then we'll be moving out desks and computers and bookshelves and musical instruments downstairs. Eventually we'll get some new furniture, too, and put the old stuff down there for a lounging and reading area... but that's still a ways away.

Long day. Busy day. Whew.

In other news, Aaron took the night off and we rented Lost In Translation. We're still not sure what we thought of it. I think it accomplished what it set out to accomplish by leaving us feeling slightly disjointed. It's worth a watch, especially if you're into Japanese culture (Sheryl, have you seen it yet?), but I don't plan to watch it again.

Mel!

My old buddy Mel came into town today! I got her e-mail last night, saying that she'd be in BG for an audition, and suggesting that we could do lunch. Absolutely! I ended up taking a half hour longer for lunch than I should have, but it was worth it. I really hope she gets in, and for more selfish reasons than I might like to admit. I miss having girlfriends to hang out with. And Melody in particular, especially when she's Happy Mel and not Chronically Tired Mel.

In other news, my left shoulder has had a nagging piercing pang for the past two days. It's not a muscular soreness; it feels like more of a nerve thing, or possibly a muscle tightness or twitching or a joint a little out of place or something. At any rate, it hurts just enough to annoy. (Maybe I should take some Tylenol... nahh.)

And on the house front (as opposed to homefront?), John gave me the final news on the closing today. The amount of money we need to bring to closing is... nada. Not a damn thing. Our driver's licenses and our smiling faces. Hell, we're most likely going to get money. Here, have a house and a check. Huh?? But I'm not complaining.

I've also been OD-ing on my genealogy of late. It's amazing what you can piece together from just census records and other easier-to-obtain documents. For instance, check out this brief narrative on my great-great-great grandfather:

On 14 Jan 1869, Samuel's father James consented to the marriage to Mary Lunette Shupert, due to the fact that his son was under 21. At this point, Mary Lou was already three months pregnant with James. Bill Cook's genealogy indicates that this marriage took place in Ellerton, Jefferson Township, Montgomery County.

By the summer of 1870, Samuel and Mary had established a home in Jackson Township. Their son James was almost a year old, and Samuel was supporting his new family by working as a farm laborer.

In the 1880 U.S. Census, Samuel's last name was spelled "SHARITZ" and his occupation was listed as 'laborer.' Samuel and Mary were both age 30. Their first five children had been born and were living at home -- the oldest, James, was 11, and the youngest, Harvey, was one year old.

In the 1900 U.S. Census, Samuel's last name was spelled "SHARRITS" and his occupation was listed as 'farmer.' He named his birthplace and the birthplace of his parents as Indiana. All the children were still living at home -- except Samantha, who had died four years prior at the age of 13. The oldest child, James, was 30. The youngest, Mellie, was twelve.

Also in residence in 1900 was Oscar RIDENOUR, Samuel's grandson and Ona's son. Ona had died in 1898.

By 1920, all of the children had moved out. Samuel was still farming at age 69, and his wife Mary, also 69, was still living with him. She would continue to live with him for another five years, until she died of heart disease in the summer of 1925.

Samuel was 80 years old and living alone in Poasttown in the Spring of 1930. He owned his $4000 home, had no radio, and did not work.

In 1938, Samuel developed a nagging case of pneumonia that was destined to persist for years. Samuel died three years later, in 1941, of heart disease and pneumonia. His oldest surviving son, Charles, was the informant on the death certificate, and was apparently caring for Samuel in his later years. The death certificate gives the birthplace of Samuel and both of Samuel's parents as Miamisburg. Samuel Oliver is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Poasttown.

And that's just the stuff I wrote down, not even all of the records of his kids being born and marrying off and dying and all that. Something about the narrative just strikes me as... poignant, I guess, even though it's not really much to read if you aren't related to Samuel.

This is harshing my bouncy mood, yo. But I'm still pretty happy. Ever since seeing Mel today, I've been unusually smiley. I don't mind. I like it. Mel is such a character. *shaking head*

I hope her audition went well...

Home Closing Shenanigans

I just got up from a three-hour nap in the recliner, so I'm a little disoriented... but I had to share with you today's homebuying insanity.

Keep in mind: from the beginning, John from NOIC—our lender—has been stressing upon us that we'll need to bring some money to Closing, even though our loan is technically zero percent down. He said we'd need a few hundred at the least, to cover pre-paid interest and lender's fees. See, we weaseled the seller into pitching in 3% of the home's price toward closing costs, but that doesn't necessarily cover everything. We have to foot the bill for whatever that 3% doesn't pay for.

So, what's this "pre-paid interest" crap, you might ask (as we did at first)? I'm still not sure I've got it completely straight as to why, but when we buy the house, we have to pre-pay the interest on the mortgage from that day of the month through to the end of the month. For this reason, closing at the end of the month is good; closing at the beginning of the month is bad, as far as the amount of money we'd need to bring to closing. Therefore, had we closed on February 27th like we'd hoped, we would only owe two days' worth of pre-paid interest.

Closing on March 1st, however, makes for a whole new ballgame. The difference? About $500.

We didn't realize how much of a difference that would be until John called today. See, while John had been telling us one story, Rebecca the Realtor had been giving us an entirely different story: telling us that, if anything, we should get money back at Closing. We were all for that, obviously. So when John called today to give us a ballpark figure of what we'd need to bring to Closing depending on which day it would be held—$500-600 vs. $1100—I got kinda nervous. And I really, really hoped we'd manage to close on Thursday or Friday instead of Monday.

But no, first their lawyer couldn't make it, then our lawyer couldn't make it, then they couldn't reach our lawyer to reschedule for sooner... and all the while I'm having kittens because I don't know if we're going to have to pull a grand out of our asses on short notice. Finally, it's agreed by all parties that the closing will be on Monday, March 1st—and, boy, was John apologetic about it. Hey, though, whatcha gonna do? *defeatist shrug*

This was my entire morning and part of my afternoon at work today: fretting, freaking, and generally getting my nose out of joint. Aaron was wonderful and tried to calm me down until we knew for sure that, yes, we need to come up with $1000+ in the course of three days. Then he started to stress out, too. :-) Ironically, that was when I kind of calmed down a little; knowing that it had to be done and figuring it out was less stressful to me than not knowing if it would have to be done and just generally worrying about it. At least, once we knew for sure what was going on, I could sit down and actually apply myself to the problem.

So, we came up with a few ideas. Plan A: Take money out of my 401(k). I've got enough in there to cover the closing costs, and I haven't been contributing for very long, so it's not like I'd lose much ground, retirement-wise. Plan B: Scrape together money from Friday's paychecks, which would cover closing costs, and pay rent and some bills late. It's our last full month's rent, so what are the Smiths going to do—kick us out? ;-) Plan C: Yelling for help, a.k.a. The Dad Loan. Although we'd vastly prefer to be self-sufficient, we know that Aaron's dad would be more than willing to float us a loan if ever we need it.

I looked into Plan A. (Didn't get much actual work done today at work, you know?) Turns out that a 401(k) Loan takes two to three weeks to process, so that's right out. Aaron did the math on Plan B, and saw that we'd actually have enough to cover closing costs, though we wouldn't really be able to eat for a week. ;-) So, we opted against pursuing Plan C and decided to just force ourselves to make it through on what we've got.

At this point, there was a karmic kind of turn of events, under the category of "doing for those who do for themselves"—Aaron found that our income tax return is due to be direct-deposited on Friday. OMG. That took a load off. It'll still only cover half of what we're required to pay, but that still takes the pressure off... and lets us eat for the next week or two.

What a draining day. What a roller-coaster.

On the good side, though, it turns out that the seller has a place to live and is moving out right now. We might get possession sooner than 30 days, which would mean moving at our convenience, and not having to extend our lease.

Also on the good side is the fact that I get free Cashier's Checks, since I work for the bank. So, either Saturday morning or Monday morning, we head out to the bank and get a Cashier's Check for the amount the Title Agency will disclose on Friday. Monday morning at 11am, we'll meet at the house for a final walkthrough, then go to the closing at 1pm (hopefully with some lunch in between?). —Oh, yeah, I took Monday off of work, too. Yay for personal time. I'm also planning to take a personal day to finish packing and start moving, whenever that ends up being.

Unfortunately, my little nap this evening took the place of the cleaning and reorganizing I had been going to do in the bedroom, in preparation for packing. Gah. I hate it when I sleep away my time at home. It feels like such a waste.

Anyway, on a lighter note, check out my completed eBay auctions—in particular, the Super 8 stag films. Holy shit. Not bad for a bizarre five-dollar garage sale find.

The future Schnuth abode

4651 Ventura Drive. Three-bedroom, one-bath, tri-level single-family dwelling. Now with a clean bill of health, apart from a few ungrounded electrical sockets and a mishmash of other minor (and easily fixable) flaws. (Photo above taken by Aaron at the home inspection today, with our new-to-us digital camera.)

Now, we have to wait until the appraiser and surveyor do their job, and get all our silly busywork to the mortgage lender... and wait. Closing is on or before March 5th, and as I've said multiple times before, I hope it's before rather than on. I still need to call the Smiths and let them know we won't be renewing our lease, but I'd rather do that once we have at least a closing date, and preferably a solid date of possession.

Moving on to things-not-house-related... I've decided to track the things I should be doing on a daily basis, mainly just to remind me to do them. Thorough tooth-maintenance (brushing, flossing, Stimudent-ing, mouthwashing, gargling, and rinsing), exercise, mellophone practice, and... well... showering.

Yes, everyone, surprize of surprizes, I don't bathe daily. I bathe every other day or every third day (a.k.a. "European standard"). I'm guessing you all knew that years ago. Especially Amy. :-) However, with my excuse of "my hair gets too dry to wash it every day" about to be thrown out the window by—gasp!—actually conditioning my hair, I'm going to make a concerted effort to shower more frequently. I know, you all had that figured out in Junior High. So I'm a late bloomer. Shoot me.

I feel empowered by having admitted my most embarrassing downfall in public. Aaron just found out my second-most embarrassing one a couple months ago, and I'm not sharing that one. It's just too gross.

Aaron took a buncha pictures of the house during the home inspection today. If I feel saucy, maybe I'll post them on my main page this weekend. I love our digital camera. :-)

BTW, my PC is still down for the count. I haven't really made any sort of effort to resurrect it yet, since I haven't really wanted anything I have stored on it in the past couple of weeks. Aaron's Dell and my Mac are doing a fine fill-in job for now... and I don't have to put up with the damn thing being continually unstable. I think I mucked it up at some point. If I thought it would help, I'd consider installing XP on it... but I'm afraid it would muck it up even more.

Hmm... anything else? Oh, yeah, yay for dead presidents. I get the day off Monday.

The house-buying saga continues...

How sweet. Aaron just called home to see how my trip to visit the Teamster Legal Fund went today.

See, the Teamsters Union has a lawyer on retainer at the Union Hall. Teamsters can consult with the lawyer for free with minor matters—it's included in Union Dues—and pay only a small co-pay for cases like non-contest divorces and... home closings. And that is the capacity in which I was utilizing the Teamster lawyer this evening.

The meeting was fairly uneventful, and the Purchase Agreement looks perfectly fine. The trip to and from the Union Hall, however, involved me getting turned around and going down wrong streets multiple times. That part of town, up the Anthony Wayne Trail close to downtown Toledo, is a weird place. But I got there in time and got home in the end, and that's all that matters.

So, we've signed the Purchase Agreement. We've had it looked over by our lawyer within the three-day period after signing. We've paid the appraisal fee for the home appraisal and land survey. The home inspection is on Friday at noon. Closing will be on or before March 5th (hopefully before), after which we are required to give the current owners 30 days to vacate.

Which puts us five days beyond our current lease.

That means that next on the agenda is giving our landlady, Mrs. Smith, a call to appraise her of the situation. We're really hoping she'll be nice and extend our lease by a couple weeks or a month. Actually, we haven't made any provisions for what might happen if she refuses, so I really hope she's OK with that. :-)

Once all the boxes are unpacked and we're in our new house, we'll definitely be hosting a big party. It may not be until well into the spring, but you can count on it sometime. Oh, yeah, and we'll have at least one extra bedroom, a big finished basement, and one air mattress, in case anyone gets too... jolly.

*crossing my fingers that the home inspection doesn't turn up anything bad*

New house and old chops

My weekend:

Saturday was house shopping day. We met Rebecca the Realtor at her office at 3:00 and headed off to look at the seven houses on our list. The first one, which we'd initially thought was one of the more promising ones, turned out to be just too damned small. Nice and bright and clean and open, but just too damn small. The other two that we'd thought would be just perfect from the exterior photos and their descriptions were actually the most skanky inside. Nappy carpets, smelly, and generally run-down. There was one tri-level that had some serious potential, though—of course, that house was owned by a cat-lover, and I made friends with the longhair in the cat window-seat. :-)

The house after the cat-lady's, though, was almost identical. The owners left music playing for ambience—sounded like something mellowish you'd hear on 94.5. At any rate, I think it helped our opinion of the house. As did the glass-pane door (French door?) down to the finished basement. We liked it so much that Rebecca inadvertently referred to it as "our new house" several times before we were even finished looking at the rest of the houses.

So, after we were done, we ended up going back to Rebecca's office and making an offer on the house on Ventura. (!!!) After that, we went out to dinner with Kris and Jamie at Ruby Tuesday's (yummy low-carb cheesecake...), then went home and began agonizing over whether the sellers would accept our offer... Well, not really agonizing, per se... well, not really at all. More contemplating how much more furniture we're going to need to buy to fill up our new house.

Sunday was my day to drive up to Clawson, Michigan for the LakeShoremen brass rehearsal. Saturday night, I'd crammed for half an hour, getting the notes "under my fingers," as they say. I hadn't played in seven years, so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to read the music as well as I should.

It should have occurred to me that my weakness wouldn't be my noodley-finger-speed; it would be my unused chops. Like, the actual real chops. As in, my lips. OMFG. After one third of the rehearsal was over, my chops were already gone. I have no range left, very little pitch memory, and I feel like I'm having to start all over again. Like my year in the Bluecoats was someone else.

My lip muscles are so underused (hey, be nice!) that, since I had no endurance, I started shoving the horn into my face. For non-brassers, this is how you are not supposed to combat fatigue, but it's an automatic habit. After a while, I just started blowing air. I tried to play, but got nothing but air. And I was so pissed off, because I had everything under my fingers... I just couldn't make it speak.

My lips are still swollen.

So, back to the saga of the house: After rehearsal, I called Aaron on the cell, and he said that Rebecca had given word that the sellers had rejected our offer and made a counteroffer. He told me what the offer was, and I agreed that it was fine with me, so he called Rebecca and she wrote up a new Purchase Agreement. Aaron and I drove up to her office today, separately, to sign the PA and send it on its way.

So, barring a piss-poor home inspection, we (almost) have a house! Next on our agenda is paying the appraisal fee, getting a home inspector, and talking to the Teamster lawyer about coming to the closing with us. The closing will be no later than March 5th (hopefully sooner), and we get possession 30 days after closing. If all the cards play out like they should, we may not even need to ask the Smiths to extend our lease at all.

How about that.

Clutch at Howard's

Here's a (slightly edited) e-mail Aaron sent out to our friends about the incredible Clutch show at Howard's last night (Thursday):

read more...

Homebuying, Step 1: Complete

It's true: we've been pre-approved for a mortgage loan. w00t!

Now, Step 2 is finding a realtor and looking at some houses. John from NOIC is being nice enough to do some legwork for us and hook us up with a realtor. I'm sure it's not just for our benefit, though; I'm getting a definite "you scratch my back..." vibe about his relationship with the realtors he's researching for us. That's cool, though. Whatever gets us into a house by April.

While I was looking for houses on Realtor.com the other night, I found this sidebar. Read the caption carefully. Then scratch your head at the randomness and move on.

We've found a couple nice homes on Realtor.com, mainly in the Wildwood/Reynolds Corners area of Toledo. We have a few requirements/preferences:

Three bedrooms (or two plus a den) • Attached Garage (preferably two-car) • Dishwasher • Central Air • Pleasant neighborhood (where we can safely take walks)

It would also be nice to have a washer and dryer included in the deal, but we can always buy those later. If push comes to shove, we could install central air later, too, like the Frieses did, but we'd kind of prefer to enjoy the first summer in our new home.

There are lots of other houses that don't meet all our wants, but that are still pretty cool, too. I think we'll find something right for us in the right amount of time and for the right price. It'll be fun.

MLK Jr. Day = Day Off Work

Gotta go back to work tomorrow. Don't want to.

Spent today chillin', cleaning the bedroom, French-braiding my hair (Go me! I done it!), watching TV, and making a Spearmint candle for myself. Did not spend today reflecting on the life of the country's greatest Civil Rights leader. That's OK, though, because when I get Presidents' Day off next month, I don't intend to reflect on the lives and achievements of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, either. I'll probably do pretty much what I did today.

John from NOIC also had the day off, so he wasn't there when I tried to give him a buzz. Hopefully I'll get some news at work tomorrow about the mortgage. Gah. We need to get going on this shit so we can find a damn house and close on it before March 31st.

My boss has this week off. So, it's entirely possible that my e-mails and phone calls will increase exponentially starting tomorrow, since he left contact information in his voicemail and e-mail for each division of Quality Control specifically. He oversees not only the Patriot Act issues that I work with, but also Bounce accounts, Deposit Verifications, Kiting, and some other stuff I'm not sure what is. I hope this week doesn't suck. At least it'll be short.

Saturday is Ohayocon in Columbus. This year, unfortunately, I won't have a point-and-shoot camera to bring along, but there were plenty of people last year who posted pics online after the fact. So, I will once again be able to post about the weirdness that ensues.

You know, if I weren't on the Atkins Diet, not yet to the point of adding alcohol back into my diet, I might have given this a go tomorrow night.

(Not Quite) House Hunting

Sometimes, being a girl sucks. I'll just leave it at that, and let you draw your own conclusions.

Had a nice long meeting with John from NOIC on Saturday. He explained a lot of the finer points of mortgages and first-time home buying that we really hadn't known. Quite helpful.

John pulled our true credit report this morning, and called me at work about some stuff on Aaron's. Seems that the bills he paid off through Consumer Credit Counseling Services way back in 2001 are still showing up as outstanding judgements. WTF? So, today was spent calling credit places and attorneys (on Aaron's part) and calling John for information (on my part). Much more calling was done by Aaron than by me, though.

So, we have to fax John our W2's for the past two years, and proof that the judgements were settled, once Aaron gets that proof. Eventually. Once Sears and Great Lakes Higher Education get back to him with detailed info.

I should have known it couldn't be that easy. Blah. If John strings us along like Dan the Mortgage Man, I'm going to be sincerely pissed. I don't think he will, though, since he's paid by commission. :-)

I'm going to go curl up in the recliner now and spend some quality time with my cramps.

Murfle

I'm not entirely convinced that anybody gives a crap about what I do day-to-day. I jot down notes at work when I think of things to bring up on my blog later that evening, then sometimes I look at some of those notes and think, "Who gives a fuck?"

I think I'll just attribute my cynicism to being tired and bored, and I'll just move on.

Anyone into web comics has probably already discovered Something Positive. As for me, though, I've spent the past two evenings reading the S*P archives. About three years' worth. I found myself wishing for a printed comic after a while — still do, actually, since I'm only caught up to July 2002, I think.

My favorite character so far is Choo-Choo Bear, the 25-year-old kitty cat with "a bone disease that makes him extra huggable"—basically, he's an elastic kitty. Many great gags ensue. So lovable, and so, so cute. So cute, in fact, that I made myself a new IM Buddy Icon out of him. Murfle!

Tomorrow's the big day, when we head up to Sylvania to see if we can get a home loan. Last time we tried this with Sky Bank, Dan the Mortgage Man strung us along for a week before he told us that I hadn't worked for Sky long enough. ...Come to think of it, we tried to go to Sky for a car loan first, too, and got smacked down; but we got it the second time, when we did our financing through the Kia dealership. Maybe the second try will do it for us with a mortgage loan, too, this time with NOIC. We can only hope. As much as I'm not thrilled about moving again... *looks around at mess* I really have a hankerin' for a house.

Worked out with my weights some more yesterday. Didn't work my pecs... or didn't mean to, anyway. Managed to make the rest of my upper arms, shoulders, and back mildly muscle-sore, while making my pecs oh-so-stiff. Oh, yeah, and there's a muscle down the outside of my right arm, from around my elbow to the outside of my wrist, that makes typing quite the joy. I hope I didn't mess with my whatever-I-have-wrong-with-my-wrists.

I'm bored. I need to pack up eBay stuff to send out tomorrow morning. And I have to take another crap.