greetings from oblivion

Yes, I’ve fallen off the face of earth and I’ve landed here:

Sorry to have disappeared on you for a while there.  If you’re here, you haven’t given up on me entirely and I truly appreciate that.  Thanks for sticking around.  I came back to work on Monday after 16 days off and, while my desk may not look like the one in the photo, my workload is certainly making me feel like it should look like the one in the photo.  It doesn’t help that the end of the tax year occurred while I was away and now I have to play catch up on that stuff while trying to perform my normal daily tasks.  Oh, the insanity.  Anyway, I’m digging myself out, slowly but surely.

Christmas really sneaked up on me this year — somehow I managed to be ready (in an admittedly low-key sort of way) despite the utter chaos in my home.  However, I usually do a ton of baking in advance of Christmas and I didn’t do any this year (that probably goes without saying).  That lightened the load quite a bit.  Anyway it was a lovely, quiet Christmas that included a nice visit to the in-laws’ house in New Hampshire followed by some quality time with my loved ones as well.  Visiting and gift giving and breakfasting, oh my!  It was wonderful.

And then there was the rest of my vacation.  I pretty much spent that time getting my hands (and my hair on one occasion!) all gummed up with various home renovation materials like caulk, wood filler, primer and paint.  Joel applied wood filler to all the holes/gashes in the trim.  I sanded the wood filler.  Matthew contributed a hefty amount of time helping me prime and paint the trim, and then showed up with his professional painter brother-in-law who proceeded to paint the ceiling and put two coats of paint on all the walls in one day!  (Thanks, guys!)

Because we had the floors refinished during the week before Christmas, the painting completed during the week after Christmas, and the granite counter tops installed on Tuesday of this week…it means…oh my, it makes me want to weep with relief just to say it out loud…it means the kitchen is basically done.  Done!  It’s done.  The kitchen is done!!  DONE!!!  Ok, now I’m blubbering, so I’ll stop.  But in case you missed it:

THE KITCHEN IS DONE!!

We moved the stove, refrigerator, microwave cabinet, and a shelving unit back in after the painting was done.  I’ve been gradually adding things back to it this week and hope to do a bunch more organizing and decorating in there this weekend.  People, I’m starting to get my house back and I can’t tell you how much more peaceful that makes me feel.  I just don’t think I could have dealt with the chaos and filth much longer.  It took us six months almost to the day (started 3 July, finished 6 January).  But now it’s done and it’s beautiful.

I know you’re jonesing for pictures (some of you have been along for this whole damn saga and are demanding pictures) — I will do my very best to get some posted as soon as I possibly can.  Again, thanks for your patience.

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top ten tuesday: to do on vacay

As you can imagine, due to the never-ending kitchen renovation, there isn’t much in the way of Christmas decorating going on around my house.  So I’m living vicariously through others.   I’m not asking for much, just a tasteful little light display:

I kid, I kid!  Seriously, why would someone do this to his/her house?  The electricity bill?  The wasted resources?  The light pollution?  The annoyance to the neighborhood?  The potential for traffic accidents due to rubber-neckers?  It’s a free country and all, but come on…

Anyway, on with the long-awaited next installment of top ten tuesday:  Things I’ve done so far or plan to do on my Christmas vacation:

10. prepare the wood trim in my kitchen for priming and painting
9. caulk all the cracks in the wood trim in my kitchen
8. prime the wood trim
7. spend time with friends and family
6. prime the wood trim again
5. eat lots of food, most of it bad for me
4. paint the wood trim
3. open presents
2. paint the walls in my kitchen
1. paint some more

Did I mention that last one already? Oops. It must be because there’s SO. DAMN. MUCH. PAINTING. TO. DO.  Sorry to get all shout-y on you.  I shouldn’t complain — the kitchen is thisclose to being done, so that’s a beautiful thing.  With any luck, I will start the New Year with a beautiful, new, finished kitchen…

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flickr friday

This funny is pretty similar to one I posted last week, but I wanted to use it anyway.  I mean really, who wouldn’t giggle at least a little bit at the concept of a blowdryer-wielding bunny burglar:

And now that we’ve had a little chuckle at the expense of the snowfolks, I have to really dash through the rest of this post.  This is my last day in the office for two weeks and I have a ton of stuff to finish up before I leave today…

News
The kitchen floor looks amazing! AMAZING!  By the end of the day yesterday, they had sanded and applied two coats of polyurethane.  One more coat of poly today and it’s done!  It doesn’t look new, by any definition — there are some places where the floor is discolored due to water damage, but the worst of that will be covered with a small area rug — it looks like a refinished old floor and has great character.  It’s beautiful — I’m thrilled!  I’ll try to get some pictures up here soon…

This weekend brings the last (the last, I tell you) round of wall-surfacing and sanding.  Also, window caulking.  And then…  Then?  Painting.  PAINTING! (Did I not mention that the painting didn’t really happen last weekend like it was supposed to?  It didn’t happen.  Long story.)  I swear, it’s going to happen this weekend, even if it kills me.  Which it might.

Ok, on with the Flickr favorites for friday:

These first two go together:  img_5866e and img_6283e — I love watching flocks of birds when they do that shape-shifting thing (for lack of a better word).  So fascinating.

writing frightening verse… – Lovely photo, great song referenced by the title. Morrissey is such a bada$s.

golden hour

i have reflected… – Gorgeous photo, great movie referenced by the title. (I’m sensing an unintentional theme here…)

cluster – This one was taken by my friend, Kim.  I think it’s really beautiful, in that stark, New England winter kind of way.

* (untitled) – Finally, because this is the last flickr friday before Christmas, a little sparkle (“schlparkly!”) to wish you a Very Merry!

Have a productive and festive weekend — see you next week!

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two more days

Straight to the funny today:

Let’s talk about my week, shall we?

Monday

• Three meetings – literally half of my day

Tuesday

• A meeting with the Vice President of my department regarding my interim job status (No updates or end in sight; just “keep up the good work and thank you very much.”  Alrighty then.  Will do.)
• My department’s holiday party
• A quick shopping trip to pick up gift bags and a specific gift before it went back to full-price
• A fun-filled evening of tearing up 50-year-old linoleum (A task which, frankly, sucked.  A lot.  I’m bearing the consequences today in the form of severe back pain.)

Wednesday

• Granite company came to make template of kitchen counters!
• An appointment during my lunch hour
• Quick food shopping to pick up and then prep the ingredients for a pot of chili
• Wrap gifts for my co-workers

Thursday

• Holy crap, the floor crew arrives at 8:00 to begin sanding and refinishing the kitchen floor!  I would be excited, but I kind of don’t believe it’s actually going to happen.  If I wasn’t already a bit of a total skeptic, this kitchen renovation has certainly made me into one.  I’ll let you know how it goes…
• Two-hour software training at work
• Assemble chili to cook overnight in crockpot
• Nothing else!  Thursday night is sacred!!

Friday

• Day Two of floor refinishing (final day?)
• One meeting, thankfully very low-key
• A holiday potluck lunch with my co-workers (now you know what the chili was for)
• College President’s holiday reception

Bear in mind this is just the stuff that’s happening in and around my regular daily workload and personal obligations.  Oy.  But after all this?  Say it with me now:  two whole weeks of vacay!  Woo, hoo!!

Next week maybe I’ll actually be able to think straight in order to plan and organize my Christmas gifts and wrap them in time for Christmas…

Hey, what about you?  What’s stressing you out during this season of universal insanity?  Please tell me I’m not alone…

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art: best for last

Floor with Light at Noon, Sylvia Plimack Mangold

You’ll probably be relieved to know this is the last “art” photo for a while.  Being a save-the-best-for-last kind of girl, I…well, duh, I saved the best for last.  This is my favorite of all the works of art I’ve showed recently.  I love this painting.  I love everything about it: the sunlight and shadows on the floor, the floorboards, the grain of the wood, the baseboards on the walls, the window’s proximity to the floor, the trim around the window, the little slice of green outside the window…  I especially love the fact that the viewer is only given a glimpse of the window itself, but there’s an indication of its full size in the sunlight on the floor.  It seems like such a simple painting, but there’s a lot more to look at than you first realize.  Oh, and if you’re curious (like I was), here’s a bit more of Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s work.

There’s news on the never-ending kitchen renovation : Joel did some re-spackling and I did some sanding (between the two of us, about ten hours worth of work, I think) and we’re getting so close to the painting stage.  Still continuing to remind myself constantly that it’s going to be so amazing and beautiful when it’s done…if it’s ever done…  I definitely need to start looking for someone who can refinish the floor for us…any suggestions?

So, that’s about it for me…what’s going on with you?

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flickr friday

How sad is this?  It’s flickr friday and I don’t have a picture for this post.  I do have a pretty decent excuse, though.  It’s been a week of total insanity at work, to be quite honest, and I don’t think it will let up anytime soon.  Meh, it keeps me busy and out of trouble.  Mostly. 

Even though I’m too much of a slacker to have a picture today, we can still appreciate and enjoy other people’s pictures, right?  Yes, we can.  Let’s.

guirlande

into each life some rain must fall

sf lovebug

lost in fog

untitled

morning mist

Oookaaaaay, apparently I’m on a bit of a fog / mist kick these days…  How about something a little more colorful to perk things up in preparation for le weekend?!

morning has broken

untitled

Did I mention le weekend?  Yeah, I’m pretty happy about that.  Although I’m not quite sure why I’m so happy about it considering that I’ll probably spend a fairly sizeable chunk of said weekend sanding my kitchen walls…  It is a glamorous and exciting life I lead, let me tell you.  At least the weather is going to be coldcoldcold and blustery — good time to stay inside and sand.  And I keep reminding myself of how great the kitchen is going to look when it’s done — that helps.

Have a great weekend, friends — see you next week!

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miscellany monday

single tulip, Lewiston

~ In case you haven’t already read it on his blog, I thought I’d let you know that Joel’s car was recently vandalized (albeit in a pretty minor way).  Presumably by some nutjob who considers himself a member of “the party of tolerance” or some garbage like that.

~ I heard a good joke the other day.  At least, *I* thought it was a good joke, but I like puns and I’m a bit of a word nerd.  There’s no accounting for taste, is there?  Anyway, here it is:

A font went into a bar.  The bartender took one look at him and said, “Hey, we don’t serve your type here.”  And then he called the Serif.

Hee, hee, hee!  See?  I still think it’s funny – even re-telling it made me laugh right out loud.  And now my officemate thinks I’ve cracked…  Ah, well, she’s probably right.

~ Good news: Joel re-installed the kitchen cabinet on Saturday morning (not the sink cabinet, but the one to the right of it) and…wait for it…installed the dishwasher!  The dishwasher!!  Perhaps you didn’t hear me.  I said, he installed the DISHWASHER!!!!!!!  My very first dishwasher, ever.  I’m pretty excited, as you can tell.

~ Joy visited over the weekend.  For lunch on Saturday, we all went to Silly’s in Portland and it was so good!  They have tons of vegan options on the menu.  Oh, and the french fries were super yummy.  Hey, It’s all about the french fries for me – if they’re good, I’m a happy girl.  Joy and I shared a tofu appetizer and then we each ordered meals with tofu as well.  Joel had pulled pork.  You know, just to make waves. Then we spent the afternoon shopping – some outlets in Freeport and then the antique place at Fort Andross in Brunswick – it was a blast!  Although I didn’t buy anything.  Not a single thing.  I must be off my game…  We ended the day with dinner at El Camino in Brunswick (also really good, but hello? no website?) followed by a showing of Sweeney Todd at home.  I’ve been wanting to see it since I first saw the preview and it totally lived up to the hype.  Stephen Sondheim just kicks a whole lot of a$s in general.  And on this particular movie, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter killed it.  It was awesome.  It also brought back a bunch of good memories – Sweeney was the mainstage show during my first semester at the Conservatory – so that was a nice added bonus.

Joy left on Sunday morning and Joel and I went back to…you guessed it…working on the kitchen.  Such is life during renovation, I guess.  I will try my darnedest to have some pictures for you very soon.  Which brings me to my next topic:

~ That lovely tulip above?  I took that picture on May 2nd.  Today is the first day of autumn.  (Happy Autumn, little chickens!)  This is how behind on I am on uploading pictures – both here and on my Flickr page.  It’s gone way beyond sad, sailed past slackerly, and is quickly approaching utterly ridiculous.  I am going to make a concerted effort to catch up over the next couple weeks, which is why you might see many more pictures and much less text for the next week or two.  Please bear with me while I try to dig out of this horrible hole of my own making…  Don’t feel sorry for me – I don’t deserve it.  (I’m being facetious.  Of course I want you to feel sorry for me.) 

Have a great day!  Later…

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flickr friday

For your entertainment on this chilly, gray Friday (note – so completely and utterly NOT SFW or for anyone under 18 for that matter):

My co-worker – who has recently developed a shoe habit that rivals my own, due in no small part to my tutelage I like to think – introduced me to Kelly and now when we see each other around the office we randomly say to each other, in Kelly’s petulant way, “Shoes.”  and “Let’s get ‘em!”  It’s awesome.

Alternately, “let me borrow that top, betch.”

Ok, now that I’m done being spectacularly immature, let’s check out some pictures, shall we?

citgo sign – Ah, a nostalgic reminder of the old neighborhood.  (Too bad it’s the symbol for a bad, bad company…)

days old

oriole in a pear tree

heaven-ish – Oh, the book love…(drool)…

giants (9/11)

it’s really easy…

write your own story – I love, Love, LOVE this picture — the lighting, the colors, the subject matter, the title — it’s all just brilliant.  Love.

While I am glad it’s Friday, I’m really not so enthusiastic about getting back to the kitchen renovation.  And yet, there it sits, unfinished and waiting to be worked on.  I think I see some more spackling and perhaps some sanding in my future…

I hope you have something a bit more fun planned for your weekend — maybe a movie? baking? anything besides renovation?    Leave me a comment and tell me about it, ok?  I need someone through whom to live vicariously.

Have a great weekend, friends — see you next week!

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top ten tuesday: tools

This picture gives you a good idea of how confident I’m feeling lately about our ability to renovate:

Seriously.  This is what we should be doing with tools — playing.  Not renovating actual rooms in an actual home.  A home that we expect to live in.  What the hell were we thinking?!

Needless to say, the kitchen renovation project is kicking our butts.  We spent last Saturday and Sunday ripping out the old sink, cabinets and counter top, and then repairing the wall behind them in order to install the “new” sink, cabinets and (eventually) counter top.  Because the plumber was due to arrive first thing Monday morning, we had to finish the job before the end of the weekend — we worked until after 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night and until almost midnight on Sunday night.

Here is some of what the work entailed:

• removal of rotted floorboards and replacement with pressure treated plywood (it won’t show — it’ll be under the cabinets)
• removal of two layers of paneling from the walls
• scraping old paint/plaster in preparation for four or five more hours of spackling and repair with tape and joint compound (I don’t care what anyone says — I am now officially and without question the Queen of Spackle.  It’s a dubious distinction, I know, but one I will defend to the death.  I’ve earned it.)
• several unsuccessful holes in the wall for outlets and more than two hours of trying to run wire through the walls for said outlets
• a few gauges in our custom-made, newly-painted sink cabinet
• a long period of shimming to achieve levelness (I’m sure that’s not a word…  What is the word for the state of being level?  Levelity?  I have no idea.) of the new sink cabinet
• and the long haul from the garage to the house (the sink is a two-well, enamel-over-cast-iron deal which weighs at least 150 pounds)

After all that, we tried to put the sink into the new cabinet and it didn’t fit.  The sink — for which the cabinet was custom-made — did not fit into the cabinet.  No, I’m not kidding.  There’s a lot more to this story (shrieking, tears, etc.), but I’ll spare you the ugly details.  Let’s just say that Joel managed to find a workable solution and the sink is now installed.  The plumber didn’t show up on Monday like he was supposed to, but he should be at the house right now attaching the water/drain to the sink, installing the faucet, and installing the dishwasher.

I want to get excited about these new developments (new sink! my first dishwasher ever!), but I’ve been burned, so instead I’m just cautiously optimistic.  In the interest of maintaining some positive feelings about this whole freakin’ project, I’m bringing back top ten tuesday!  And so I give you:

Top Ten Renovation Tools — tools we’ve used throughout the project, that were indispensable, that were never far from our hands (in no particular order):

10.  framing square and carpenter’s square

and 

9.  tape measure – Duh.

8.  jigsaw – Being about 100 years old (not really 100, but it was my Dad’s so it’s old), ours doesn’t look like the one pictured below…but it still kicks a$s.

7.  dimpler a.k.a. drywall screw setter – Considering Joel used an entire five-pound box of drywall screws for this project (so far), this tool was an absolute must.

6.  power drill – Did I mention the five-pound box of drywall screws?

5.  1-inch chisel – You wouldn’t think such a basic, old-fashioned tool would be so critical, but we’ve used it quite a bit…you know, in a pinch.

4.  circular saw – Our neighbors are probably so sick of the sound of this saw coming from our garage…

3.  torpedo level – If you have even a slight propensity for OCD-ish behavior, like me, you need one of these.  I don’t know about you, but it drives me absolutely bonkers when things (pictures, towel bars, shelves, etc.) are crooked.

2.  multi-tool scraper – I’ve used this tool so much over the past two months, it feels like it’s an extension of my arm.

1.  drywall lift – Simply put, the best $50 (rental for $25/day) we ever spent.

Ok, so there you have it — our “by experience” list of necessary tools for home renovation.  Although, I must warn you to take our advice at your own risk — we’re obviously not experts.  We may not even make it out of this project alive… 

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flickr friday

green scrim, new holland, pennsylvania

Oh my holy hallelujah, people — it’s Friday.  How happy does that make me?  Pretty darn happy, let me tell you.  Even better than that ?  It’s a three-day weekend!  Hooray for Labor Day.  (Ha, it rhymes!  Sheesh, I’m easily amused…)

We have dinner plans tonight and then no other plans for the rest of the weekend.  How amazing is that?  I’m sure we’ll end up doing some work on the house — laundry room trim is still waiting to be sanded and primed/painted and kitchen work has stalled completely — but I’m hoping we’ll also take some time to just relax.  What about you?  Anything exciting going on for the long weekend?  (C’mon, I’m trying to live vicariously, ok?)

So, how about some favorites for flickr friday?

untitled – Did someone say relax?  Beer is good for relaxing.

cupcake envy

we gonna rock down to… – Man, I used to love this song.  In college, I even used it as my background music for my voice mail greeting…I’m dorky like that.

chairs – Again with the chairs.

valises oubliees

espresso machine

land’s end

Ok, that’s it for me.  I’m out.  Have a lovely weekend!

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