Days off

Today I spent a perfectly lovely afternoon reclined on a picnic table bench, reading a book. The dog stretched out next to me and alternated between napping and rolling in the grass. I started and finished The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman.

I think the first Hoffman book I read was Practical Magic, which I adored. It’s one of the few novel-to-film adaptations I also enjoy – the movie keeps to the sentiment of the novel, if not the letter, though the book is to be preferred.

When I had to describe Hoffman’s work to a friend last night I said it wasn’t fantasy, it’s more like fantastic fiction. It has every quality of ‘literary’ fiction but each work contains something magical or otherworldly that’s thoroughly woven into the narrative in such a way that it almost stops being fantastic and simply another element in a great story. It bridges genres and never fails to surprise and delight me. There’s never the sense of a re-tread or staleness, no matter how many novels I’ve read (and re-read). She’s one of the few authors whose work I can reliably buy in hardcover or, in this case, kindle.

All in all, a wonderful and relaxing afternoon.

End of work week

Sort of. I’m done with my shifts at the club, but I felt like I worked TWO shifts today. While the inside-house paint project is done for a couple of months, the deck isn’t entirely finished. I stained the decking last week but hadn’t finished the railing. Since we used as much of the OLD railing possible, I had to get paint to cover the old paint job.

I picked the paint up today and got all of the new railing covered. Tomorrow I finish the old section of railing and then I’m honest-t0-goodness done with paint until after my EMT exam. We’re going to have some company on Friday, so it also means that the deck will be completely finished by then.

The weather was just about perfect for painting- sunny with a light wind, even though the internet weather was calling for rain. Being this close to the mountaintops makes just about all weather forecasting irrelevant. Mostly we look at the radar and then see how things roll in. I was a bit more than half through with the paint job when the wind kicked up and some cloud cover cropped up. When it finally felt like it might rain, I checked the sky and could see sun and blue sky just to the other side of the clouds and decided to gut it out. Sure enough, barely sprinkling.

It’s funny here how you can always see around the weather. This summer has been beautiful – temps of about 70 and sun pretty much every day. We’ve had more rain than they usually get this time of year but everything dries so quickly that you barely notice it.

Tomorrow we have erranding to do and then it’s all school and relaxation for a couple of weeks.

Today I took a vacation day.

There were no real house projects (I re-stained part of a bench). I didn’t do any homework. Spouse and I drove into Frisco for the BBQ Challenge – Big Hoss had the best sauce, fyi. I started to rain as we were leaving, so we came home and couched watching movies.

The Wrestler was good, as predicted. I think the creepiest part about it is that Mickey Roarke’s own career has to feel very much like the character, making it less like acting and more like voyeurism. We also caught most of the latest X-files movie on cable. It was… strange. Good strange but not really what I was expecting. Spouse likened it to a much longer X-files episode. Pretty accurate and ultimately satisfying. One can never have too much Scully.

I was unsuccesful seeing The Proposal. In fact, I completely forgot about it until we were halfway over the mountain. I think the plan is to make it part of Spouse’s vacation week.

Tomorrow, life returns to normal. Work, then homework. Rinse and repeat for Monday.

New favorite blog

Where has this been all my life? How come no one told me about it!? I’m very disappointed in you, internets.

End of the week roundup

The inside upstairs paint projects are DONE. That includes touch ups where we changed lighting fixtures. There’s a guy outside right now hanging a gutter on the back of the house because they old owners didn’t have one. Gutters are the last home improvement for (at a minimum) the next year, if not more.

In terms of current home improvements, I painted the front deck post and have started painting the front deck bench. The benches were a gift from my in-laws for our wedding. When they’re pushed together and the backs are flattened, they become a picnic table. Very cool, but also makes restaining a challenge. I’m going to do it in two parts.

All that remains is the railing on the back deck and the back deck bench. I’m very happy at the prospect of being DONE for a while.

In related news, I got an 83 on my exam which I’m pretty happy about. First exams suck because you’re never quite sure what the test is going to look like. I’m excited about class time in July.

With any luck, our plans today will include a trip to Frisco for BBQ and maybe seeing The Proposal.

House project, phase 1 complete (lots of pics)

Paint project upstairs is finished. Colors used: Sherwin Williams – Cavern Clay, Lemon Verbena, Golden Gate, Dormer Brown.

View from the front door. All the walls used to be the same color.

I’m really really happy with how the colors have turned out. I’ve said it before, but the Sherwin Williams paint chips are – without fail – balls on accurate. The color on this chip is the color on your wall, period. I pay a little more for the paint but I am never, ever surprised. Also, SW does a good job of sending out coupons and giving you deals if you’re on their Preferred Customer list (which you can do at any store by giving them your mailing address). Their deals are typically 20-30% off – I got all of

Left LR wall from the front door. New color: SW Dormer Brown.

the paint for these projects at 30% off. I used their Cashmere line, Low Lustre (if you care).

My tools for this project were the Shur-Line 9″ roller with padded handle and extendable arm, Shur-Line Edge Like a Pro, a 1″ paintbrush, latex gloves and Ziplock bags. I did a better job using those supplies (and no tape) than the “professional” who painted this place last. The only thing that required tape was light outlets and the one edge of cupboards because there wasn’t enough wallspace for the edger.

New color: SW Lemon Verbena.

I maintain that the edger is the single best paint tool innovation since the roller brush. It takes a little use to get the hang of it, and you need to wipe off the guides after every pass, but it is completely and utterly worth it. You CAN wash and reuse the pads, but I’ve been just pitching them after I’m done with the color.

The Ziplocks are invaluable between coats. Instead of trying to wash rollers and pads, sticking them in the zips until I’m using them again. It also makes for easy disposal when I’m

View from the dining/kitchen entry

finished – keeping me from getting paint all over myself when taking off the rollers. Buying a box of gloves is also much more practical than getting the little packages from the hardware store. Then you can just dispose of them whenever you’re done without feeling pressured to reuse them.

The basement project will be a lot more work and is going to be postponed until probably August, when I’m done with school.

View from dining/kitchen entry.

We’re having some folks over for a ‘deck-warming’ tonight. Mostly the house is squared away (hence the photos) but I’ve also got to review for my exam tonight.

View from kitchen/dining entry. New color: Cavern Clay.

Dining room from kitchen. Cavern Clay on the left Golden Gate on the right.

Golden Gate. Kitchen buddha matches the paint!

View from dining room. The mask covers our thermostat!

My fave shot of the dining room. Cavern Clay.

New sliding door.

Baseboards have been stained, we have to get paint for the railing.

Our mountain view from the deck.

Our room. Dormer Brown on back wall.

Gratuitous Piper shot!

This project is close to done!

Got the clearcoat done on the deck – now I’m just hoping that it doesn’t RAIN.

I’m painting the last living room wall today! I’m not PLANNING on painting any of the other rooms, but since my exam got postponed, I’m not making any promises.

Sooooo it turns out that I may be a color addict.

It turns out, once I get started I can’t stop. I had full intentions of leaving the rest of the upstairs paint project (read: living room) until August. Then I started thinking, ‘HEY, those two walls are WAY smaller than the two I just painted. I bet I could knock those out in no time!’ And then I woke up at 6:00 am.

I put all the clean dishes away, loaded the dishwasher, loaded my Zune, and painted the first coat on wall 1. I’ll have enough time between now and when I go to work to do the second coat as well. Sweet!

The current debate is whether or not to maintain my two-color pattern. The dining room/kitchen has a gold/terracotta mix (one on each wall). The living room will either be 1) all moss-green (lemon verbena to be specific) or 2) one wall green, one wall tan. I won’t know for sure until I see the second coat.

I understand that some people like to live in white and off/white walls, I just can’t wrap my head around WHY.

I think it’s time for a toaster strudel and action movie. Or maybe studying.

Link to photos of current house projects.

What I am doing instead of homework

Making dinner. Watching the NCIS – Abbycentric marathon on USAHD.  Listening to Spouse banging on wood outside.

Mostly in that order.

Dinner is actually in the oven, so it’s almost done (Turkey-Spinach mini meatloaves). I’m half-watching the marathon since I’m websurfing. The noise from outside is unavoidable.

The EMT coursework is going well, but I haven’t spent as much time on it this week as I should have. That situation gets resolved this weekend.

Status of the house:

Deck out front = done

Paint in kitchen/dining room = done

Deck out back = 98% done. Needs to be stained, Spouse is building a bar for the deck to cover hideous dog door scar (hence the banging outside)

Our other projects (more painting, me custom framing some posters) are on hold for a bit yet. Alas, blogging STILL not back to normal. Also, Dreamwidth NOT having their cross-platform posting up. Grr.

We have been in the midst of minor home renovation.

Hence blogging not returning to normal. I’m also waiting on Dreamwidth to get their multiplatform posting sorted because then I guarantee more blogging.

The small deck for the front of the house is done, save for a second coat of stain.

The door is installed, the trim is stained, and now I’m just waiting on Spouse to patch the wall. Once he patches, I can paint the wall and we can hang the casement trim. Our new rugs are here and (mostly) placed. Slowly but surely we are going to be tweaking this place – and ideally within the first year rather than waiting 8 like we did at the old place.

Mission accomplished!

I’ve successfully made reservations for our anniversary dinner. It’s going to require a trip over to Vail, but 40 minutes isn’t a bad drive for good food. Not only that, but we’re in the off-season so we’ll be able to take advantage of some pretty sweet deals.

I’m waiting for Spouse’s new phone to arrive and then running some errands before he’s done wth work.

Have pretty much finalized house painting colors and a decorating plan for the basement. We’ll need an area rug for the kitchen but all in all we’re in good shape. The new sliding door arrives this weekend and I’ve just got to contact my guy to put it in. We’re inordinately excited about it for reasons I’ll elaborate later.

Our anniversary gifts are working out fantatsically and I’m going to update with some more Santa Fe details later.

Wide awake for no discernable reason

I hate that. But it’s why pharmaceutical companies make things like Ambien. Just waiting for it to kick in.

Today I picked up a tomato plant and a Topsy Turvy. I’m going to give it a go though Spouse is not confident. I generally forget to water things, so we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve got an unexpected trip to Avon later today. We also picked up a much-needed bookshelf for the living room. And it’s entirely possible that I’ve finalized the paint colors for the house. Not looking to start the paint project SOON but having the colors mapped out makes the project about half-done (in my head, anyhow). Not realistic but it FEELS good and that’s what counts.

Now I just have to determine if it’s better to edge the room before rolling paint on or vice versa. Also if I can freehand the top edges or maybe should use a piece of cardboard as a guide. Decisions!

Mom’s coming to visit over the 4th of July weekend! She’ll get to see Leadville sans snow! Probably not as fun as Boom Days (1st weekend in August) but I think something can be arranged. Possibly a little hiking.

I’ve got an extra lengthy work week this week (contrary to that of most) and while it should be busy, I also predict exhausting.

The short version

My lack of posting began shortly after we got an offer on our house back in Michigan, mostly because nearly all my free time was spent on the phone with either the mortgage company or Fannie Mae or the retirement people (we also had houseguests in there somewhere). The counteroffer which was accepted was considerably lower than what we’d paid for the house and we were pretty upside down on the mortgage. We applied for a short sale – where the bank accepts the offer and we all walk away clean – and it was mostly a nightmare. This experience has convinced me that we will never have functional health care.

I was told in not so many words by the folks at Fannie Mae that because our house wasn’t already in foreclosure, we weren’t a priority for help. This was, of course, ONLY after I had submitted my paperwork no less than three times in two weeks- because they kept saying they didn’t have it, even after a confirmation email from a specific employee on the 2nd occasion telling me he’d gotten it all. I’d made several phone calls and found exactly one helpful employee (the aforementioned dude). I DID have a spectacular runaround, including ONE employee who began to argue with me when I requested to speak to a supervisor. She was telling me why I wanted to speak to one and that they couldn’t help me. The third time, I finally said “I don’t CARE what you think, put a fucking SUPERVISOR on the phone.” Having done a shit phone job, I generally do not lose my temper with those folks. On the other hand, they don’t generally ARGUE.

Oddly, the supervisor was able to answer some questions. Which is when I found out that because we’d been responsible and kept paying our mortgage, we were going to take the entire shaft, sans lube, right in the ass. Thanks so much. If Fannie Mae can’t keep track of THEIR paperwork, we have NO HOPE of having a functional national healthcare system which – by definition – will require a much larger amount of paper and customer service.

We gave up on Fannie Mae after that and set about scraping together the funds needed to get the hell out from under the place. Paying two mortgages has NOT been fun. But someone bought it, I flew home to sign the paperwork and hand over the last of the keys, and we are now and forever shut of Saginaw, Michigan. We couldn’t be happier.

While in Michigan I seem to have developed something of an earache which is, apparently, not an infection. I pick up medication tomorrow.

I got to see some of the family back in MI, which was nice. Everyone seems to be doing well. I’d forgotten that mosquitos can be as big as my thumbnail though. We haven’t seen any up here yet, which is perfectly fine by me. The weather has been great, as usual. The last couple of days have had a bit of rain which is interesting because it doesn’t LAST, including the water on the ground.

Our anniversary is coming up next week (9 years!) and we got each other a sweet anniversary gift to help take the sting out of the house fuckery. Details on that later.

I start classes in a couple of weeks and it sounds like Spouse is planning a House Project. We’ll see how far that gets.

Mostly AWOL

I’ve been NotPosting because I’ve been trying to get things sorted out with our house sale – not fun and definitely not anything I wanted to blog about. Still have some things to add about Santa Fe but I’m also making a trip to Michigan this week. In related news, I’m also working on a different hosting solution for the blog so we’ll see how that shakes out.

With any luck, posting returns to normal this week!

Delayed posting due to slackage

We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Fe. I’ve been catching up on various things and getting back on work schedule. I’ve also figured out what classes I’m registering for in the summer session and I’m looking forward to a more regular schedule again.

I’m going to leave my TV and yoga natters for the end of the week (for the most part) and I’m going to post my Santa Fe pics instead!