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[Six Months Same as Cash]
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This week my living room will be populated with furniture--finally! I bought a brown leather couch at Macy's today, and an end table and sofa table at Value City Furniture. I have a knack for combining the pricey and not-so-pricey thanks to The Learning Channel and Style. Still on the hunt for a nice, glass-top coffee table, I'll probably head to Target, or perhaps the antique mall on Reading Road. I'm planning on touching up the floor's dry spots with some wood stain and polyurethane, and painting the ugly wood-grain particle board television cart black or dark brown. If it ends up looking bad, I'll just buy a new one, but there's no loss in trying to reuse something that might end up getting tossed out eventually.
On the workout front, I've gotten to the point where I've built enough muscle that I don't have to do nearly as much cardio as I did in the past. Two pairs of paints that I bought just before Christmas are already too large. In fact, I am able to pull down most of my pants without unbuttoning or unzipping them. This means that my hips are now about the size that my waist used to be. And that's without killing myself with crunches and situps as I only do abs once a week. In addition to weight training, I'd like to thank the 4-point Weight Watchers meals I've been eating for lunch. I need to buy stock in that shit.
Speaking of stock, P&G went up. My little nest egg is growing. Who would have thought--me an adult with some fundage to boot? Speaking of fundage, I hope I get my bonus soon. I forget when we got 'em last year. The end of January, I think. Perhaps before the end of this week. That would be nice. Of course, it will all go towards my gas/electric bill. Ugh. Luckily, this has been a very, very mild January (which I find a bit disturbing) so I've been keeping the thermostat on about 55-58, and the furnace rarely kicks on thanks to my kick-ass insulation job before moving in. I predict a small January energy bill. Should I click my heels three times?
This was a good weekend. A party Friday night at S.'s with excellent vegetarian chili, a fridge of beer, and a small collection of quality booze. And an outside fire! Yes, it was so nice outside--at midnight in January--that a fire was made and fun was had outside!
Non sequitur: My daffodils and Live Forevers are already coming up for spring, and my two large rosebushes AND my tiny tea roses are sprouting new leaves. There is something terribly, terribly terrible going on here. Really.
Saturday morning, I went on the hunt for furniture but made no purchases. I looked but didn't get attached to anything: just assessing my options.
Saturday night, we headed to J.'s to a party celebrating his new (first) book that will be out in the spring. J. will be having a book signing at Joseph Beth in April, and it seems like many good things are happening for him. We watched his performance as Mary Sunshine in Chicago, drank sangria, and chatted about various things. We didn't stay long as S. and I were both worn from the debauchery from Friday.
Today was about getting serious about furniture, and I did. The couch will be in Feb. 4, and delivered soon after. I will pick up the two tables on Thursday after work and get my brother to take me, as I don't think I can cram the purchases in my car. Brothers with trucks are useful, yes indeed.
Off to do a load or two of laundry. |
[Grilled by a senate subcommittee]
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I was nudged. So I am here for another fragmented update on my life as it has been lately.
First, I'd like to say that I am so.excited.so.excited about the Winter Olympics. I always preferred the Winter games to the Summer ones. Perhaps it's the heightened risks associated with the competitions that seems to be non-existent in the Summer sports. Or it could be Apolo Ohno.
Today marked the end of the first full week I've worked in a spell. Five days in a row nearly killed me. And since I opted to work on MLK, Jr., day and take Presidents Day off instead, I have another five days staring me in the face next week.
I volunteered to throw a party at my house to celebrate my Dad's upcoming 60th birthday in May. A surprise party, which makes things like putting together a guest list and finding addresses for save-the-date cards difficult. Thank God for online county records, and all the good stuff the National White Pages doesn't reveal (I'm such a snoop). Before the party, I have a laundry list of things that need to get done with my house:
The upstairs ceilings need painted, as does the upstairs hallway and staircase hallway. I'm hiring my uncle to take of that.
My upstairs bathroom needs wallpapered. I left a message with a wallpaper hanger recommended by Sherwin-Williams, but she has yet to return my call. I'll give it a few more days before calling again. The bathroom floor also needs tiled. Since it's such a tiny space, I figured I'd buy the best tile I can get. I'll pop over to Ohio Tile in Northside next week and take a roll of wallpaper with me for color-matching purposes. Also, I need a new medicine cabinet. The current one is just plain fugly. And I figure it needs to be replaced with something nice considering my wallpaper cost a small fortune, as will the tile.
I have an antique chest and two chairs that need refinished. My aunt recommended a man who does marvelous--and reasonably priced--work in that area. I'll call him Monday.
My kitchen needs to be finished off: knobs for my cabinets, trim attached to wall (it's currently leaning against it), and trim between floor and lower cabinets.
And one last thing: I need living room furniture. That's a biggie. I pray that the day of the party brings pleasant weather, as the guest list is large, but my house is not. It could be quite the cozy event if rain (or snow!--it could happen, I live in the Midwest after all!) decides to make an appearance. I'll probably try to slap another coat of polyurethane on the floors before any furniture arrives, to ensure that the floors are protected from spills and dirty shoes. My OCD demands it. I'll also have to vacuum and Scotch guard the dining room chair upholstery, again, because spills are inevitable. Since becoming a home owner and beginning to purchase "nice" things, I've become an anal retentive clean freak. Just thinking about the dust-bunny possibilities since the last time I vacuumed and Swiffered (last Sunday) makes me itchy.
Back up. This is my last thing: I need to take care of catering and get a beverage list together. Once I get confirmation of who's coming and who's not, I'll determine how much booze and how much non-alcoholic drinkage I need to purchase. Very important. Very important.
Fortunately, having a token brother-with-money is going to help with the party preparation, as I'm not going to be able to contribute much financially to food and beer purchases, considering my three-hundred-dollar gas and electric bill from December that's due in a few weeks. The downside of owning a home, indeed. At my apartment, the steam heat was "free," As was the water--hot and cold. I've turned down the thermostat quite a bit, and I'll probably turn down the temperature on the hot-water heater to help out with the bills.
And, I'll probably pick up another freelance project as soon as my current project is complete. I'm very close to completing the site for my mom's work. I'll be in charge of maintaining once it's up, but that will be minor and will afford me the opportunity to put in more hours at my other at-home-part-time gig (which I've been slacking on lately!) and to pick up another project. Because I enjoy the stress.
I also enjoy being in constant pain thanks to free weights. I'm also enjoying my kick-ass physique as of late. So it's all good. Tomorrow, I have a date with preacher curls. Yeah baby. |
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