Category: Domestic Life

ack

Inertnests not running until now.  I didn’t even know if my previous post got uploaded until now.  Trim almost finished.  Order of service in the can for Sunday.  Have obtained a line on an apartment for May 1 but have not passed the credit and reference check as yet.  I did a lot of weeding and hacking this morning and the beds and yard are more presentable (also removed quite a bit of the normal garbage that blows into your yard when you’re on the end of an alleyway).

Tomorrow, detailing the house.  Ack.

inertnests weirdness

We’re running bareback —- no router…. or is that commando?  I can ne’er tell.  Anyway, the only way we can get the internet to work is without the router.  As Lady Miss Banjola remarked, welcome to malware land, population, you.

I have tons of news, most of it not fit for public consumption, alas, but I guess I can say that there will actually be bonuses at work this year.  I think mine will come to just enough for one really fun bender, but hey, it’s all in the game. I associate work with alcohol, or at least the requirement for same.
Katie and I are off to Ikea to purchase the bed hardware that got lost when the bed was taken down.   Pic is of my brother’s house.  He’s coming to visit soon so I am thinking of him and I miss him more because I know he’s coming.  Does that make sense?

Carpet being laid today

I ran the vacuum over the upstairs, but it’s really hopeless.  Once the underlay comes up, there will be enough dust in the old homestead to decorate a haunted house.  I’m still liking the paint job, but now… the exterior.  When I get home tonight it will be grab the last hour of daylight and police up the front bed, or at least get a start on it. And now to wheedle a pressure washer out of Tom, which shouldn’t be too hard. 

The cats are in full-bore freakout mode.  Kira keeps running to Keith’s room to hide under his bed and it’s….  GONE!

 

Spitted briefly yesterday with the Dunnettfolk, and picked up my Sheep In Helmets Mug from Ingrid, may she be blessed and adored.  We also watched a wonderful travel video about Venice, which is much mentioned in Dunnett.  May Dee be blessed and adored – she got me to and from the Spit in good order and it was really good to talk with her about the whole ‘dayvorce’ thang.  Pretty much all the Dunnettfolk are never marrieds or long-divorced, either with relentless cheerfulness (à la Jan, who really is almost obscenely cheerful, AND energetic, and she teaches very young kids one third of whom speak no English) or more soberly (à la Dee).  I brought Camembert, and we ate the whole damned wheel.  Oh, and Ingrid BAKED a coffee cake which was the last word in succulence, and she never bakes, so we all felt especially happy about that.

If I talk about the other stuff that happened this weekend, I’ll just cry until I puke, but at least I know that Paul and I have agreed to disagree.  That’s what civilized adults do.

Early to rise

I’m up at 8 am this morning – and no one else is stirring.  Very peaceful……

I note that Conrad Black’s emails are being blown up to “size large” in a Chicago courtroom.  The only thing missing, that I can see, is that Orson Welles isn’t alive to read the damning phrases to the jury in his snide and orotund way.

Everybody tidy up

The painting – except for the trim / doors – is finished, and now we have to get every stick of furniture out of the house preparatory to the carpet going down on Monday.  Katie is going to show up around supper time and she and I will go out for fish and chips with Mike (or such is the current plan).  Then Kate will head back to the inlaws and I will head home, hopefully to do some serious revision on the homily for next week.

I light a candle for a workmate who is sad right now.  I light a candle for my boss’s son’s safe return home from his bout in hospital.  I light a candle for the workmate who was burned out of her home.  I light a candle of joy for Keith, who had a workshop session with the stellar Atsuko Wakai last night, four time Kata World Champion in Karate – not an easy gig for a woman as you might imagine.  I light a candle for the rapid departure of Peggy’s cold.

As for the rest, I guess I’d better just shut up now.

Sea Dragon!

The title of this post is a joke…. it’s the name of the first game my brother ever hacked.   It had >>>gasp<<< sound, and ran on an Apple II.  But THIS picture is not a joke.  Purty.

If the two apartments I saw yesterday were a joke, they were a really lousy one.  The first apartment’s environs stank of ill-use and poverty – although the apt itself wasn’t so bad -and there was a horrible gas furnace right in the middle of the apartment for heat – essentially meaning that the bedrooms would be freezing in the wintertime.  Pass. 

Serendipitously there was another sign up saying Apartments Available a couple of blocks away, and when I viewed THAT apartment the stench of rotting garbage (chicken bones and meat, I think) could be appreciated through the door.  My viewing was brief and to the point.

Keith tried to make the first appointment but he came off his bike and trashed it.  He was not seriously injured.  No sign of Katie.

The last coat of paint goes on my room, and then we bid farewell to Unca Dave tomorrow midday and then Hello Carpet Layers on Monday.  Which means we’ll be camping out in our own house, as we can’t move any furniture back in until all the carpet is down. 

The new light fixtures, wall sockets and light switches look def triff.

Work continues apace

The master bedroom is getting done today and then Unca Dave is leaving tomorrow for Gadget House – a day earlier than planned.  He will be returning to finish the bathroom and the trim and then head back to the wilds of Castlegar. 

Katie slept at home last night.

Although for the dignity and sanity of the miscreants I cannot name names, I love my coworkers.  Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of my full time employment with the company that any widgeon with a cursory understanding of the internet could learn the name of.  I got THE BEST PRESENT from a coworker ever; it was a MOMENT and not a thing, but it was a frikken priceless moment, and I snicker helplessly every time I think of it. 

I was awoken by choppers this morning and learned at the bus stop that two human hearts stopped beating two blocks from my house.

I have been having dreams with colour in them.  In the first one Paul and I were living in a three story house when a yellow piece of landing gear came through the roof.  (I took this as a sign that Paul’s not going to make it in Vancouver through the layoffs, but we’ll see.) The following night I dreamed I was in a women’s change room and I picked up a bath bomb and it turned into an explosion of purple mud which I promptly painted my chest with.  It smelled good, too.  I very rarely feel or smell things in dreams, so I was quite pleased about that. 

 

I am so spaced out that I took a bag of plastic insects instead of my bathing suit out to Tom and Peggy’s car last night.  That makes me snicker too.

Trim

Yesterday I cleaned, painted trim (1st coat) and moved crap around.  Tom and Peggy fed me and Martha (may she (many years hence) inhabit a cushy cloud in the Hesht Behesht) gave me about fifteen minutes of neck and shoulder work, which I desperately needed.

Work is rapidly improving over my last grumpy post on the matter.  There has been, as they say, a sea-change. 

Tonight I put on the second coat and go to the puddle with Tom and Peggy and anybody else we can inveigle into going.

Glenn and Maggie were here last night as well to eat with Paul and Keith and Unca Dave, and they were still here when I got back from Tom and Peggy’s, so I got in a nice visit with them.

 

Man does the place look better…. the ceilings are shiny and clean!

Busy day

After a work week from hell, which only got better when I got a lift to the golf course with Brian C., and where we said goodbye to Will C. who went to a place that’s paying him… uh… a lot more than he was making …. I came home with the Dalai Jarmo and Susanna (may they be blessed and adored) and found out that much work had been accomplished.

The master bedroom is now empty of everything except the clothing in the closet and three pieces of furniture. Katie’s room proceeds apace but needs more ceiling paint and a top coat. Keith’s room ditto. Right now Paul’s working on electrical and Dave’s painting up a storm.

I’m off to Benjamin Moore in New West to buy more paint and another cutting brush, after which I’ll be coming back here and emptying cupboards etc so the menfolks can move the fridge and paint behind it. Then I will be doing whatever I’m physically capable of doing to speed things along as well as any domestic stuff like keeping food happening.

I am happy to report that two weeks of sitting on an exercise ball at work have strengthened my abs and lats to the point that my back is much better. I’m working on an ear infection but it’s better this morning than it was last night (I was practically in tears when I begged T3s from Keith) and if I spike a fever I’ll whip off to the clinic for antibiotics. I’m thinking of making some eyebright tea and applying it – thus far I’ve been managing with hydrogen peroxide.

Now to find some clothes to change into, ha ha, and I’m off. Pic of St Patrick stolen from Wikipedia. I meant to post this yesterday but I forgot to take it off draft mode.