Category Archives: house
Entertaining
It’s a Sunday morning in the middle of a three-day weekend, and I’m relaxing on the couch in my yukata (Japanese summer robe), reading my final issue of Better Homes and Gardens.
I’m obviously not in their demographic, though, as their main stories this issue revolve around entertaining guests in the home during the summer months: garden parties, grill-outs, and the like. Don’t they know that most of my potential invitees have spouses, houses, children, and/or have much better things to do than hang out with me on a Saturday afternoon? Didn’t they get the memo that I’ve cancelled all future post-vacation parties, due to a lack of interest?
Hmph. Just as well that my subscription’s expiring, I suppose.
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.
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.