Sabrina's Gone?!?

Okay, I should have the mudding done. I don't. No pics.

I am working on a post about my recent trip to STL but nothing big happened so it will wait.

The news - Sabrina was voted off DWTS! Holy Shit! She actually had skill. I will admit the fact that this was not her best week. I am in a semi-shocked state. It is really unfortunate. Anyway, I am all jazzed up about it now since I just watched the results show on ABC.com. That whole "no TV owning" thing making it impossible to watch shows unless they are posted online.

Sigh. Oh well. At least Jennie is still there. When she gets the boot, I may be done with DWTS for the season.

The only other news in my life is I had my ass kicked by a personal trainer yesterday at the gym. He had me do a bunch of new lifting exercises. OMG! My back muscles are sore, my quads are screaming, and my biceps are visible because they are so tight! Grrr. Tonight is chest&tri's which means I can expect to have trouble brushing my teeth in the morning because my tri's are going to be strung out. Sweet!

Guess that's all on my end of things. I'll try to get the post about STL up by the end of the week. Mostly it's just about my shopping extravaganza.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Vacation

I felt like a brat before the fall break. Part of me was, in fact, not looking forward to the time off. There were a few reasons for this perspective. One, whenever I have a break it is uber hard to get back into the swing of things. Second, we are celebrating mole day tomorrow and we had to prepare everything in three days versus the five we would have had if it had been a full week of work. Third, I don't have a whole lot of things to do down here because it is the hamlet of hell.

Well, surprise, surprise! I have had a glorious break! I made up my mind to completely ignore school (work), the house, eating healthy, and just about everything else I try to do each and every day of my normal life. It has been faboo. I went golfing every day it was nice (four of five), I borrowed seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Grey's Anatomy (a show I have never been into) and sat on my couch for almost an entire day doing nothing but watching episodes of the show. An aside - I see why this show would be really popular but I hate the main character. I will not be setting aside time weekly to watch the new eps during the regular season. I ordered pizza, drank beer, went out for wings, went to a BBQ, and basically destroyed my four months of general good eating. I didn't cook from scratch once! It was lovely to finish eating and just throw the trash away. No dishes, no cleaning the stove, no hassle. If it didn't make me feel so gross later on, I could really get into this whole eating out thing. It is only a matter of days before it starts to make me feel worn down and just generically icky. I'm already starting to crave salads in a bad way. It is a nice break from life but I am ready to get back to balanced meals.

The golfing was terrific. It turns out one of the best things you can do for your swing is to not play for a few years. I always played with people and it would make me competative. I would try to power through on my swing. This has been really eye-opening. I am not feeling pressured in any way because I am playing alone and I haven't played in such a long time that I have very low expectations. Wow. What a difference just relaxing makes. My swing is more fluid, relaxed, and EFFECTIVE! My shots, even the bad ones, are almost always dead straight where I am aiming. They go just as far if not farther than when I was really laying on the power. I feel much more confident with the drivers. Now, if only I would stop topping the ball...

I can't think of anything else to mention. I guess maybe I will finish the mudding this week. I feel the motivation building. The walls surrounding the fixed area are textured and I am thinking of skimming the entire room to get rid of that. Maybe Tuesday... I'm done at work around 1pm... Mmmm. Well, I know I definitely want to get it done before the next weekend. I am going to St. Louis with friends which means I won't work on it then either. I'm starting to feel compelled to return the mudding tools to the guy who loaned them to me, oh, about three weeks ago. He said I could keep them for as long as I needed but I'm starting to feel a little rude anyway.

Hope all of my readers (all three) had a glorious weekend!

DWTS

Alright, I've been a little busy and I didn't have time to finish the mudding - so no pictures.

I have made time to watch DWTS though. I am so, so, so happy that Floyd is gone. Woohoo. I was tired of seeing him clod around the floor bent over like he was going to take a swing at his partner. I know he is a boxer and that is how they stand but maybe that is a good indicator of him not being the best choice for a dancer.... just sayin'.

Not much else is new. I have a few days off and have no idea what I am going to do with all of my free time. The weather here is nasty but clearing. Maybe Iwill be able to get some scraping in. Oh joy of joys. I really am totally over scraping paint. Man, I cannot believe how much house I have left to do. Poo.

As I can't think of anything else, this is just going to be a really short blog post. Maybe there will be pictures at the end of this break period. Fingers crossed. I certainly have the time now. What I need is the motivation.

I Hate When I Do This

Dammit!!! I managed to score a discrete outting with "the man" from campus that I am diggin' on. Yeah, all fine and good until I had a 23 oz beer and followed it up with a 16oz beer on an empty stomach. Dammit. I am absolutely sure I made a huge ass of myself. I am nearly drunk! And I didn't hold my tongue at all. Shit. Now he knows I am a sarcastic bitch who is nearly a drunkard (but not really since I haven't had a drink in over a week). Not the best foot forward. Oh, AND he's dating someone. Boooo. He's only been on three dates with her and he isn't a fan of the fact that she is 30 miles away. Maybe it won't work for very long. Although he did seem kind of happy about it. Apparently, she is an ex student and just called him out of the blue. I wish I had the balls (or belief) that a good way to get a guy is to call him. I think that he should pursue. Not me. I've tried being the catalyst and it hasn't worked. Aaah, anyway, I did have a good time and he is as interesting as I thought. I'll need to work on the friendship thing, I guess. Not all I want but better than nothing. Oh, and he paid for me and the other woman (faculty in his department) that was there. Score. At least I got some semi-free beer since I felt compelled to put in the tip amount. Mmm, this blog entry is shit because I am still a little intoxicated. Sorry 'bout that. Cheers!

12 Days, Huh?

Drat. So much for regular posting. Unfortunately, nothing much of note has been going on.

I went to a "Beer Bash" on Friday at the local wine depot. What a joke. The 'patio party' had all of three people out there and it smelled of pot. Not fresh smoked either. Anyway, the group I was with decided unanimously to just get dinner and dash. We didn't stay for the live music either. And, based on the two 'songs' I heard, we weren't missing much by leaving.

School is in full stride right now. The schedule is a little grueling. I had no idea when I was a student it was possible that the professor wanted to be there even less than me. We have a fall break coming up this next week. The fall break is just two days but boy, oh boy, am I looking forward to it.

I hate when a fun, casual idea turns into a major project. Mole day is coming up. My department cohorts were going to celebrate by dressing up kind of nerdy and mentioning it to the students. WELL... one of the instructors just happened to mention this plan to our chair/boss. Oh jesus, now the fun, casual idea has morphed into a monster. We found out on Thursday that the 'word' had gone all the way to the ACTING PRESIDENT of the COLLEGE. The school AP has allotted us funds for mole day activities and they are going to list it in the bulletin that goes to the local paper. Fuck me. By Friday (the next day) we needed to have a list of activities written out. And next week we are off Thursday and Friday so everything needs to be done by Wednesday. Kill me. What was going to be a fun and casual thing just involving the science department is now a campus-wide "celebration" involving announcements on the TV bulletins, posted signs, contests, food, and local news coverage. Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. Like I don't have enough shit to take care of in the middle of the semester with a course overload.

Work on the house is same as always. Slow but progressing. I almost maimed myself with the extension ladder this past week. I had it extended and was trying to un-extend it. I suppose, in retrospect, that trying to do this alone was stupid. The ladder is a 32' fiberglass behemoth. I only had it extended seven or eight rungs. In any event, that was enough for me to totally lose control and just barely manage to maneuver it away from the WINDOWS before it came crashing down on the ground! I modified my methods this weekend. I take the ladder down extended and then retract it while it is lying on the ground. Much more effective and, more importantly, safer for my bodily health and house.

Speaking of ladders, I really must remember to clean up debris from demo work before climbing on a ladder positioned in the middle of said debris. Otherwise, on climbing down off the ladder, there is a high likelihood of stepping on the debris in an ungainly and unbalanced fashion leading to sprained ankles. Really must remember that in the future. For now, ice and an ace bandage will have to do. Damn.

I really, really hope to have the wall/ceiling repair/remodel done this week. I've reframed the area, hung the sheet rock, and put on the first layer of mudding. Of course, once I finish there will be pictures posted. By the way, does anyone have tips for mudding the outside corners? I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make the mud 'stop' at the corner. I keep getting these little mud boogers hanging on. For now, my plan is to sand, and then sand some more to get rid of the boogers. It would be handy to find a way to avoid them altogether. In a not totally unrelated thought, I was really worried about the inside corners. I remember the ex had a hard time with them when he and his brother did the mudding for the basement. Just for the record, I don't know/remember what the trouble was about. I had a wall-to-wall inside corner and a ceiling-to-wall inside corner. I pre-cut the corner tape, laid some mud, shoved the tape in, and mudded/feathered over it. It was cake. I do have to admit though, I think I may be a bit too generous with the joint compound. Maybe that is why my tape stuck up just fine.

Oh, and I am learning how to embrace my inner sketchiness. When I was looking at houses here, the homeowner remodelling technique was determined to be, well, shit. And as it turns out, so is the work of professionals down here. They fudge on everything. Well, on this most recent project, I fudged in what I would consider a 'big ugly way'. I only bought one sheet (4'x8') of drywall (or sheet rock, if you prefer). I needed three long but narrow pieces, one end cap type piece, and then this weird triangle piece. The pictures will show why. Anyway, when I was done with the narrow pieces and the end cap I only had scraps left. Instead of getting another sheet of drywall, I put up scraps in the triangle area. This is totally sketchy because... wait for it... one of the scrap pieces is not actually attached to a stud! In fact, it isn't attached to anything! A free-floating piece of drywall. Yes, sketch at nearly it's best. The only thing that doesn't make this totally sketch is that once I mud the shit out of the area, it shouldn't really matter. Oh, the pity I feel if the next homeowner tries to hang a picture there. Baaahahahahahaha!!!! Oh, just so you know I am not a totally heartless sketch bitch homeowner - it would be a weird place to hang anything.

I really wish that men who are one of the following: missing teeth, barely above retarded, more than 60 years old, religious zealots, or bigoted assholes... would stop hitting on me! Dammit. This place seriously sucks in a special way that I have never had to deal with before.

On the upside, when I needed to buy only one sheet of drywall, joint compound, three 2'x4's, screws, tape, 3 metal outside corners, a roll of insulation, and one sheet of plywood (for a different project) - they delivered it for free AND offered to unload it in the room where I needed the stuff! I declined because my cats are indoor cats and I was concerned that the delivery man would leave the door hanging open between trips to the truck. But, wow, not the treatment I would get in a big city. A funny thing occurred during the delivery. I said I would take the joint compound inside while he unloaded the sheet goods. He kind of gave me a look and said, "oooookaaaay." He totally thought I wouldn't be able to lift the 5 gallon thing of joint compound. HA! Don't mess with me. I go to the gym and, gasp, don't do just cardio. And when I lift, I like to use free weights. Egads. He was surprised. It made me giggle inside.

Mmm, I just cannot think of anything else to write about. I am guessing that I won't blog again until I have pictures to post. Maybe Thursday if all goes well. Hope everyone had an excellent weekend!

House Update

Oooh, look at the pretty trees... that are entirely WAAAAY to close to the house.

Bu-bye trees, hello nasty peeling paint.

And post scraping with big scraper, sanding with 60 grit, scraping with razor blade, sanding with 100 grit, washing with TSP, rinsing with water and SIX tubes of new caulking....

And voila! Now with a coat of primer and two coats of paint...

Obviously, there is still a lot of house left but at least this is progress. And I don't think the pictures do the color justice. I am not home in the mornings (ever) and it is shaded when I take the pictures in the afternoon. Anyway, that's how it is coming along. You can also see the next section which I have started scraping. I hope the saying is true... slow and steady wins the race.