Another Year Older

Happy Birthday to Rudy and Pilot!
Hope you have a great day.

Hottie

I'm convinced that this has been one of the longest weeks ever. Probably because it butts up to a 4-day weekend. At any rate, I can hardly wait for tomorrow to be over and for the weekend to begin. Unfortunately it's going to be hotter than hot this weekend, but the good news is we're going slightly north for the 4th and hopefully it will be cooler than the temps expected here.

Doing the Bump

Today, as I was going to the jail. I was rearended. The young woman said her brakes went out on the car she just moments prior traded for. Luckily there was no damage to either vehicle and nobody was hurt but I've been imagining a neck injury all day. I keep asking myself if I'm stiff or if my neck feels strangely and I've just about convinced myself I'm hurt. I insisted on a police report as I was on work business and I have to file a report at work, and just in case a true neck injury comes up later on. I tell you being a neurotic is hard work!

Another One Bites the Dust-ah

We painted the foundation at the back of the house this morning. Our plan is to eventually do it all including the porch, but our home improvement motto, or philosophy is you will, is bird by bird. I'm trying to tie that into the killing two birds with one stone and two birds in the hand sayings but I haven't figured it out yet.

Picking It

Here are my picks for the Big Brother house.

Big Brother Is Watching

I'm a big reality TV fan. I like to watch lots of reality shows of varying quality. Perhaps my favorite one started tonight, Big Brother. This year the show will feature all stars and America gets to vote for who they think should live in the house. Should be fun for the summer.

The picture is of Ike lounging in a box. If you want to give your cats something that will give them hours of enjoyment, give them an empty box large enough for them to get in.

Hee Haw

Sometimes you come across something in life that makes you laugh even though as an adult you shouldn't.

Let It Rip

Today has been busy and mostly a blur. My dad and mom came up with their truck and helped us carry off some railroad tyes and some old paneling and sheet rock out of the garage. We also removed my old couch from the den. The cats peed on it when we attempted to change their litter to a more environmentally friendly type. As anyone who knows anything about cats can attest that the pee smell never really goes away, it just varies in intensity. It took us forever to figure out how to maneuver the bulky thing through the doors and outside, but we finally did it. Dad and Ragged moved the futon out of the basement into the den while I went to work for an hour. The den looks alot less crowded and smells better too. Later, we went out to lunch with my parents and also my sister, my brother in law and niece. After we returned, Ragged brow beat me into attending a Blues festival in an adjoining county. I'm not a fan of the music and the temp was in excess of 90 degrees. Fortunately for me, a storm blew threw and forced us home early. We then went out for a late dinner and now we're home. I don't really remember experiencing any of the events I just described, but I know they took place.

I Get Up Again

Tomorrow my parents are coming up to celebrate Father's Day and to help us carry off some old railroad tyes we took up from the flower bed. Not having a truck sometimes is a big pain in the arse. Though, considering the trouble Needles and Pilot are having of late, I'm not sure I want one. It's supposed to be hot again, so hopefully we'll have it hauled away early. I'm going to think cool thoughts this weekend. Tonight we're staying in and watching movies. I've already taken a nap since the weekend started. I hope to get a couple more in before it's over.

Business as Usual

We put everything back today. Luckily it wasn't extremely hot and Ragged has a strong back. It feels good to have everything back in its place. I'm really happy with the floor and Sammy likes the floor too.

Mind Over Monday

Why do Mondays have to suck? I mean, I try to go into each Monday with a positive attitude because I know the mind is a powerful thing and can pretty much make reality, but positivity never works on Mondays.

Lead Bottom

I think I had lead in my butt today because I didn't accomplish a thing. I did get the yard mowed before it started to rain but that was it. Ragged and I stayed most of the day in our bedroom watching a marathon of The Closer. What a great show!

Running Like the Wind

Today has been busy. The first thing we did today was get up early and go to yard sales. Ragged bought CDs and I returned empty handed. When we go to yard sales, we kind of have a tradition of going out for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito and a biscuit and gravy with a 79 cent coke (AKA the breakfast of champions). Following breakfast we went to the Farmer's market. The picture is of the veggies we bought. After coming home and getting our showers, I took a nap and Ragged went off to the yarn store. Two hours later, we went out to lunch on a gift certificate Ragged won.

We then went to Lowe's to get some paint, a hatchet, some furniture pads and a roller. After that we went to Kohl's and made some purchases then to Wal Mart for our weekly grocery shopping. We got home to find the city police at the house on the end of the street. We live in such a great neighborhood. Now, we're hanging out in our concrete room were it's cool but crowded with furniture. We're staying at home tonight. It's oppressively hot outside, so I can't think of anything better to do this evening.

Watching and Waiting

First of all, I want to say thank God it's Friday. This has been a trying week. Now that that's out of the way, I want to let everyone know that the floors are finished and cats are out of the basement. We still can't venture onto the new floor until tomorrow, but we're not going to chance it until Sunday and we're not moving any significant furniture back int until late Monday. For now, we're living amongst our crap separated from our living room by a plastic sheet taped to the door frame. The cats haven't seemed very interested in it, so we felt comfortable leaving them in the house today while we worked. Ragged and I have been sniping at one another a bit, so we need to stay outside the house during this time. This weekend we're going to try to be gone as much as possible. Ragged wants to geocache and visit the yarn shop. I'm hoping to see X-Men. If I have any energy, I need to clean out my filthy car and perhaps do a home improvement project or two. In my sites next on the home improvement front are the basement door and the inside of the nonfunctioning door and painting the foundation on the backside of the house. Of course I'll be mowing too, but that goes without saying.

It's Not So Bad

My expectation for this floor project was just short of armageddon however it isn't the end of the world I thought it would be. The crowding caused by the furniture displacement I hardly notice. During the week, I don't spend a great deal of time at home. I'm sure I'll notice it more this weekend when I'm here for longer stretches. The worst part of it all is our five scared cats. They stayed the day in the basement with loud buzzing equipment above them. When I came home for lunch, I joined them in the basement to console them and assure them everything was okay. They had each found a place among our stored belongings to hide from the terrible monster they imagined was after them. Eli was probably the most frightened. Despite being so mean, he is a true blue scaredy cat. After Ragged got home and opened the basement door, an hour and a half had passed before he came out of his hiding place. You probably think we're nuts for being so sensitive to our pets emotional states, but we are so blah!

Today, the floor guys sanded the floors, filled in holes and imperfections and stained the wood. There are about 6-8 boards which were obviously replaced at sometime over the past 60 years and they did not stain as dark as all the other ones. We are going to see if they can stain them a little darker so they don't stand out as much, but I'm not optimitic. Otherwise, they look really nice. Tomorrow they will put the polyurethane layers on and then 48 hours after that, we'll have a new living room floor. There are still miles to go before we finish our desired pre-move projects, but this one definitely feels like a large step forward. I'm not going to unclinch until the bathroom is done though.

The photo doesn't give a true idea of how rough the floors look.

The Big Day Approachth

Wednesday the floor guys will invade Chez Cynical (AKA Chez Ragged) for 3 days to refinish our living room floor. This means we will live for 5 days in a complete and utter mess. Ragged has devised a plan to put the displaced furniture to allow us room to get to the necessary areas of the house, but there won't be much room for play. I've left it entirely in her hands. The difficult part for me will be the cats being relugated to the basement during the day. It's a dark, dank place where there could be bugs and God only knows what to eat and get into. Eli, Cooper, and Ike have each been left in the basement for more than 8 hours at a time when we've miss them sneaking past us or we've forgotten they were down there. But, having all 5 down there is a whole new thing. I sort of wish we were going to stay in one of Ragged's dad's rental properties for the week. That's not going to happen, so we'll have to make the best of it. We'll keep you posted with pics and rants.

Before and After

This weekend I knocked out two of my most aggravating home improvements on my list. I put linoleum in the pantry and I painted the non-functioning back door. Here are some before and after pics of the back door. It looks better but I think the awning needs to go. Ragged thinks otherwise.