Holly-days and Randoms
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I know I’m a bit late 
I decided to forgo the long drive, traffic, and family fight this year and stay home alone. I had some Thanksgiving nachos around 4pm, it was great. LOL
So still plugging away at the house. Didn’t get much done except the leaves the past 6 weeks. Every weekend. Leaves. Leaves. Leaves. I have 2 HUGE Elm trees in my backyard so it was quite a job. But, of all the things I have to do in the yard, I enjoy raking the most. It helps that my neighbor is super cool and we chat while we work. She always tells me I’m doing a good job and she’s proud of me (I require a lot of encouragement LOL).
This week I’m dog-sitting. I like dog sitting. Its fun, easy, and making some extra cash around the holidays is always good.
Here’s a pic of all 3 of them cuddling up while we watched some crappy MTV (they have cable! I was so excited! I stayed up way too late watching Jersey Shore and True Life!)
Mojo tends to stay away from the other 2, he’s not real impressed with the baby especially.
So in between dog sitting I made some cookies. While I was shopping I saw this. It made me laugh.
My Buckeyes turned out great this year but boy what a pain to dip all those things. My kolachi were a bust. I couldn’t find my recipe so I used one online. It was awful. I always have issues with proofing yeast. I swear I’ve never gotten yeast to work correctly for me. And I made some thumbprint cookies with the cherries in the middle. Those taste great, but I accidentally melted the butter while trying to soften it. So they spread out like crazy. They don’t look pretty, but they taste good. I’m going to re-attempt the kolachi and thumbprints this weekend.
Some more random pics I found on my phone:
Its ridiculously drafty in my house. See below (click on them for larger):
That’s how he sleeps…all wrapped up in a cocoon.
He’s the best snuggler:
He sits and stares at me with his nose on my lap until I invite him up to snuggle, then he falls right asleep. So happy 
So my next big project in the house is to start that yellow room that got all wet last winter when the roof leaked. I got the stuff to fix it…I hope. Then I need to paint and re-carpet. I decided to hurry up and start that project cause I’m really missing my knitting. I haven’t knit anything in a year now 
All my needles and yarn and books are still packed up and stored in that stupid room. Also, I really really really hate yellow. I’m tired of seeing it.
No Santa-mas decorations this year. Still packed in the garage. I have to go the day after and get all my stuff for next year. If I’m lucky I can find my cards and at least get those out this year, since I skipped last year. Seems like there are just never enough days in the month of December. I haven’t even started shopping yet. Come to think of it, I gotta go! I need to get on amazon.com!
OMG Funny Story…Well It’s Funny NOW Anyways
So I’m doing laundry the other night and I look to my right. My furnace is next to my washer and there are pipes and black tubes that run up and down. And I see something looking back at me. Like right at eye level. And I jump back, and I look again, and I’m like “OMG its a mouse!”. So ok, cool, its a mouse, no big deal.
So I go a little closer to grab its tail and get rid of it. Except, there is no tail. And I look at it again and it has fucking FANGS. That’s right my friends, and godddamn WINGS. It was a BAT hanging upside down on the pipes next to my head!
It was dead – thank whoever it is you pray to. Seriously, a freakin’ BAT in my house. I’ve never seen one that close. So anyways…
When I realize its a bat I go kinda running and fall backwards out the back door screaming like a 4 year old. Then burst into tears. That lasted about 10 minutes.
Then I decided to get a plastic bag and try to not touch that discusting thing (they’re seriously nasty, sick animals) and get it out of my laundry room.
Yea, a BAT. I’m scared to do laundry anymore. Luckily I have talked to many people and they have all assured me that it was probably just one bat that got in and couldn’t get out. I’ll tell ya what, if I see another I’m moving.
For the Love of Bob
Its not like I’m SO BUSY I can’t update my blog my friends, I’m just lazy! Let’s see… what’s up?
Mom came out last week and helped me paint the dressing room upstairs. Looks good! It’s almost done now! A friend from work hung the cabinet behind the toilet in the bathroom last night, so now I can finish up the bathroom. It needed some storage badly. I have way too many hair products.
Moo hasn’t ripped up the carpet again…thank goodness.
I had a date the other day…it was good I’ve ended the self-imposed dating strike. We’ll see how that goes for me. Who knows, the strike could be on again as early as next week….
Wylie refuses to come out here and help me with my house. But I still love her anyways. (I hope you read this and feel guilty!)
I am going to Toledo next weekend and taking Wy apple picking…cause I’m a nerd…and I love apple picking!
This weekend I get to babysit my friend Scott’s daughter. She’s 3 months old and such a cutie, I’m so happy I love little babies.
Hmmmm…what else is going on?
I love my Blackberry. Seriously, don’t get one…so addictive. I find myself waking up at 3am just to make sure that I haven’t had any new emails or that Kerri hasn’t IM’d me in the middle of the night LOL
Oh! Duh! Most important! Jodi’s baby is due tomorrow! Don’t know if its a girl or a boy but I can’t wait to hear I talked to her today and she’s slightly dilated, but nothing yet. Hopefully she doesn’t have to go too far past her due date. Her son Aiden turns 2 next week – he’s getting so big!
Ok now all caught up? I think so. Hopefully next post I’ll have some cute pics of Wy and I from the apple orchard. Maybe some of my new dressing room too. I got some Ikea furniture to help me organize my make-up obsession. It looks good and I love that I can find everything now.
Ok I’m outtie. Leave a comment…seriously!
I hate Mondays, and evidently so does my dog
When I left for work this morning, I left my good, sweet dog behind, just like every weekday.
When I came home, he didn’t come to the door, which immediately means “Mommy, I did something bad”.
Then I found this:
Sorry about the crappy quality, I had to use my camera phone. But, that would be my living room carpet after I cut off all the fuzz that he shredded.
Evidently evil puppy was here while I was at work.
Now he’s sulky puppy:
I’m sure the neighbors got a good laugh at me chasing him around the back yard. He doesn’t come when I’m angry with him. (Not that it happens very often). I chased him upstairs, into the office, out the back door, back upstairs, then I gave up and grabbed his collar, which came off, so I grabbed him and dragged him over to me. I showed him the carpet and he looked at it and I said “bad dog! baaaaddddd!” and he started shaking and dropped his head. It was so cute and I was so mad but I couldn’t help but laugh at him looking so pathetic. Glad I can instill fear in the heart of someone lol.
I wanted to get rid of the carpeting, I just was planning on waiting until I had some money to do it!
Hiatus
As usual. Maybe my New Year’s resolution should have been to update this thing once a week. Sorry, but my life isn’t that interesting. If I’m not posting you can assume I’m doing the usual: feed the dog, do laundry, clean house, grocery shopping and I don’t feel the need to tell you all about it because I don’t want to lose what few readers I have left!
So, this morning has not gone well.
I woke up late. Threw my hair in a ponytail. Set my BlackBerry on the corner of the sink, grabbed my eyeshadow and knocked my BlackBerry into the sink while accidentally turning on the water at the same time. NOT GOOD. So, now its drying out by the window. It wasn’t working when I left. I don’t have insurance on it. Its 2 months old. I will kill someone dead if I have to pay full price to replace that stupid thing. So here’s my blogland question for you all:
Did anyone happen to take advantage of the Verizon Buy One, Get One Free on BlackBerry’s a few months ago? Cause I’d love to buy your free one (cheap)!
So then I got on the road to work, and my usual 25 min. commute took like 40 minutes because the “Tumblebus” (I have no idea) broke down in the middle of the construction area. Not to mention that its ALL construction area right now. And, I didn’t have my handy dandy BlackBerry to entertain me while I was sitting there.
Ok, so what else?
Oh, um, 4th of July was fun! I went to my Aunt MaryAnne’s place. She has a little farm, alpacas, horses, a pond. It was cool out (like 70 degrees) but it was still fun. I wanted to swim but it was a little too chilly. But Mojo swam for hours, he loves the water. Unfortunately I have no pics cause my camera battery died and I can’t seem to the find the charger right now (I swear these things just grow legs and walk off). Plus, I got to see my cousins who were in from Phoenix and Chicago, which is awesome. And after seeing them I have come to the conclusion that I really made a huge mistake when I didn’t go into Teaching. Having summers off is like the best career move ever.
Ok, back to work, I have tons to do before Friday gets here.
Better Late Than Never, I Guess
Look! House pics!
Ok, so I don’t have them all, but I hope to take some more this weekend. But, here are some before and afters for your viewing pleasure!
Here’s the KITCHEN.
Before - note the black ceiling, hideous dark red wall, old beat up dirty folding doors (ok you can’t see them in the pic, but I swear they were there), gross yellow curtains
After - light gray walls, WHITE ceiling, ugly gross curtains gone.
To Do - Paint cabinets white, get new countertops, get an island so I have some room to work, wood flooring throughout bottom floor of house, oh, and find some new curtains!
LIVING ROOM
Before - Seriously ugly orangy red color that was giving me a headache, dingy white trim, seriously cute doggy in the corner!
After - Pretty light grayish purple walls, bright white trim!
To Do - New wood flooring, pretty white crown molding, oh, and fix that piece of wood on the stairs where we kicked out the ugly open bookcase
MY BEDROOM
Before - Dirty dark yellow paint (its hard to see how dark and ugly it was in the pic), filthy floor with playdough, mascara, and nailpolish on it, yucky curtains that I swear had never been washed
After - Gorgeous greenish blue color walls, new bedding, CLEAN floors (thanks mom!)
To Do - Hang the curtains I bought (I totally forgot), look – I made the bed for this pic!, get some art for the walls
UPSTAIRS HALL
Before - EWE there’s that yellow color again! and dirty dirty dirty! Did this girl EVER clean!?
After - Clean and white!
To Do - Needs art or something, huh? Get rid of the gross green runner.
DOWNSTAIRS HALL
Before - Dark green, dirty, need I say more?
After - Clean, light gray like the kitchen, (ignore the bright yellow room in the background!)
To Do - Wood flooring, hang photos
Ok! I think that’s it for now!
Next up we are going to rip the plaster out of the walls in that yellow room. They got soaked when the roof leaked. I had the roof fixed, so now its time to redrywall. That’s going to be my office.
Mom’s been working in the yard a little for me. I hate yardwork. I’ll get some outside pics up soon, I’m swear!
Peace!
*THANKS to my mom for all her HARD HARD HARD work! There’s no way I would have gotten all this done in years!
Rant of the Century
This is becoming less of a blog and more of a huge rant isn’t it!? Too bad. Its my outlet and I wanna rant! I had a bad day.
To All of You Who Drive South on Rte 8 in the Evenings:
- Stop checking your damn brakes every 25 feet. If you’re doing 65 and they worked 20 seconds ago at the stoplight, they still work now. There is NO EXCUSE for you to be stepping on that brake pedal every 10 seconds – there’s no one in front of you!
- When the two lane highway is opening up to three lanes, I have no idea WHY everyone has to slow down 20 mph to decide if they want to jump into the 3rd lane. Move along!
- If I’m in the left lane, I’m already doing 80 in a 60 zone…DO NOT run up behind me and flash your lights at me. I will slow down to 60 and watch you scream at me in my rearview mirror just for fun. I will also purposely line up with the two people in the other lanes for the next two miles so you have no where to go.
- If you are driving 60 in the far left lane…you are begging to be tailgated and headlights flashed at you. Knock it off!
- To all you idiots that get on Rte 8 at Steels Corners…its called MERGE. If you don’t know how to do it, find another route home. You do NOT just fly down the on ramp and hope that everyone that’s already on the highway moves out of your way.
To Those of You Living with Me (you know who you are):
- The smell and sight of eggs makes me heave. You know this. Stop leaving little scrambled egg pieces all over the kitchen until they get hard. I’m not your mother and I’m not going to walk behind you cleaning up.
- You’re loud when you cook at midnight…STOP IT.
- You don’t have to SLAM the door, if you just push it gently, it will shut.
- You do not need to call me every time you leave the house. If you need directions, look them up before you leave the house. No, I do not know how late the corner store is open. No, I do not want to hear your daily epiphany. No, I do not need you to call me every time Moo gets in the garbage. If you quit leaving chicken and eggs in there, he won’t eat it. No, I will not close your windows every time it rains. I check the weather before I leave…you should try it.
To My Incompetent Coworkers:
- When you call me over to your desk, you better damn well be ready with what you need. I do not need to stand there for 20 minutes while you finish up, especially when I had to come to YOU.
- Stop yelling to me from the other room. We have intercoms for a reason.
- When I ask you 3 times for something and you wait until the last minute to give it to me, do not bitch when it’s not done on your timeline.
UPS:
- You suck. This is Ohio. It rains and it snows. FedEx delivers to my house at least twice a week. When I’m not home they wrap the cardboard box in a plastic bag and put it in the door. You guys leave the cardboard outside the door to get soaked. You’re idiots. You better step it up before you become the next DHL…its called common sense. Oh, they also leave a dog biscuit in the plastic bag with my delivery…now that’s some good customer service!
To My Neighbors:
- I don’t know you. Don’t walk into my backyard uninvited and act all surprised and hurt that Moo is growling at you. He’s SUPPOSED to growl at you! You’re lucky he doesn’t bite…use your head.
To All the Restaurants in the Cleveland/Akron Area:
- If I order a veggie burger with everything, I do not mean that I want a veggie burger with bacon on it! Oh, and to the 5 waitresses that keep asking me how I want my veggie burger cooked – warm would be just stellar…really.
Mojo:
- I love you, really I do, but if you don’t stop peeing on the grass seed, I’m going to kill you. Ok not really, but stop it. Also, if you could PLEASE just poop behind the garage that would be great.
Giant Eagle:
- You cannot charge $2.79 for ONE avocado – that’s highway robbery!
I feel better now. Thanks.
Oh, And To Top It Off
I think I need a root canal…with no dental insurance. My dentist’s office calls me every month “hi, its been a while since you’ve been in, we’d love to see you again”. Matt has the same dentist. Every time he goes in for some work they tell him the same thing “where’s your sister?”. I told him to tell them I would love to come in but I don’t have any freakin’ dental insurance! I love how they’re all “we have a payment plan, just put half on your credit card”…um yea, cause that never catches up with you – you put it on your card and then the credit gods just pay it off!
Plus, my boss sent out little notes in our paychecks last week that said there would be no raises this year. Ok, well, we never get raises we just get cost of living increases, but evidently this year the cost of living has stayed the same. Meanwhile, he’s on vacation…again.
Can I ever just get a frickin’ break?! I swear I get to the point where my head is above the water and life punches me in the stomach again!
Completely Overwhelmed!
Ugh – homeownership SUCKS!
I have so much to do and I’m officially out of money.
My grass is full of dandelions in the front yard. I barely have any grass in the backyard cause the previous owner ripped out all the overgrown bushes and reseeded, but did it too late in the season. So basically I have big brown patch, and a small green yard. It looks pathetic.
I still don’t have any cold water pressure in the kitchen sink. A friend of mine was supposed to be coming to fix it, but hasn’t made it here yet.
The electrical outlets are so loose they’re falling out of the walls. Nice job with the inspection there, buddy! My mom was here a few weeks ago and was drying her hair in the downstairs bathroom and blew a fuse…twice. That’s not a good sign.
I would love to have my friends over to hang out at some point, but its 90 degrees in my living room because the front storm door is all glass and the previous owner didn’t leave the screen insert – WTF?! Even if she did, the door doesn’t close all the way, so its fly city in my house.
The back storm door doesn’t close either, and there’s no screen at all, so there’s no way I can leave it open.
I’d love to invite my friends over and hang out in the dirt-laden backyard to avoid the 90 degree living room (yes I have AC but its April!)…but I have no where for them to sit. I need some patio furniture. Do you know what patio furniture costs!? Good god man!
Painting? No I haven’t done anymore painting. Seriously, I have to prime every room in this house to get rid of the black ceilings and dark red and dark green walls. I don’t even know where to start. I should probably finish the bathroom first huh?!!?
Oh, this is just the beginning of my problems. My home inspector SUCKED and they will be getting a nasty letter from me soon!
So yea, what the hell was I thinking when I thought “I’ll buy a house, I can handle it”…”UM NO YOU CAN”T STUPID – YOU’RE ONLY ONE PERSON ON ONE SALARY”.
Oh, and then my damn insurance company denied my allergy shots (which I called to make sure were covered BEFORE I started them) and the doctor sent me a bill for $1600…I wrote them back and told them if they could find $1600 they could have it. I told them they better recode that shit and rebill it if they want to get paid!
I’m gonna go cry myself to sleep now. I hope I’m feeling better about this whole experience soon cause I can’t take much more of this!
I Got Something Done This Weekend!
I’d love to show you pics, but I’m not totally finished and I don’t want to ruin it. I guess I could do “in progress” pics, but I think I’ll just wait till the final reveal. I worked on the upstairs bathroom this past weekend. It looks so good, I’m really impressed with myself! I even hung the new light (took me forever to try to wire it and hold it up there all by myself)…same goes for the new medicine cabinet. But it looks awesome, I’m really happy with it so far. And I love the color Nancy and I chose. She’s my decorating guru at work. She can envision things…I can’t. She did great with this one! So, I still need to do the trimwork and the ceiling and hang some towel bars. Also still need to do the shelving project. I’m debating over the beadboard. I would really love to do it, but I don’t have all the tools I need. It may be a project down the road when I get bored with the bathroom. Pics coming soon!
