Men Are Just Happier - sent to me in an email...

Men Are Just Happier People - What do you expect from such simple creatures?

Your last name stays put.

The garage is all yours.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can be President.

You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.

You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal.

You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character.

Wedding dress - $5000. Tux rental - $100.

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

One mood all the time.

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.

You can open all your own jars.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

You almost never have strap problems in public.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life.

Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Stuck Keys

This morning I went to D&D as usual to get my morning fix (coffee & a muffin) and when I came out I tried using my clicker to unlock the Pathfinder doors. Well it beeped at me but it didn't unlock the doors. My hands were full so I kept pressing the button and it kept beeping.

Finally out of frustration, I put my coffee and muffin on the hood of the Pathfinder and stuck the key in the door to unlock it. Well after I unlocked the door the key seemed to be stuck. After much prying and jiggling on the key and the door I called Daniel to get advice.

Daniel told me where a spare key was and we decided that I should just drive on to work but to park where no one would be able to see the key hanging out of the door.

When I got to work I jiggled the lock and the key finally fell out of the door!

TILING

I would love to be optimistic and say that I am done with tiling and that I will never in my lifetime have to get on my hands and knees with mortar and a trowel but I would be lieing to myself.

We just finished laying the final tile in our entry & kitchen area however we still have to grout and then seal the tiles. And then some time down the road there will be bathrooms to tile and who knows what else to tile.

So for now I will be happy for the evening knowing we finally accomplished our first tiling goal and I will try not to think too much about future tiling projects.

I am learning as I go. This time BEFORE I started laying the tile down I took 2 extra-strength Tylenol. About 10 minutes into being on my hands and knees I started to get extreme lower back pain but within another 10 minutes it was gone. Hopefully I won't be in extreme pain tomorrow from my efforts today.

If the nice weather holds and it we feel up to it, tomorrow we are going to reward ourselves to mountain biking. The leaves are changing and the weather is the perfect temp and it will be perfect to be out riding in the woods!

FINALLY TILING

 

We are finally in the process of tiling. Actually I am taking a break because my back hurts and Daniel is making a difficult cut that I am waiting on (and soon Dominos will be here for dinner). I am so excited that this project is finally under way! I can't wait to see it fiinshed.

floor leveling cont...

It is 12:13 a.m. and we just finished a 2nd go-round with leveling the floor (with the "self-leveling" compound), hopefully this is the last time we have to go through this process.

My wonderful husband got home from work at 9 p.m. and then started the process in order for it to cure by Friday so that we can definitely tile this weekend. He is really swamped at work right now but I suppose he also realizes that we have been trying to tile for some time now and he is making every effort to make that happen (mostly to make me happy).

So if nothing else goes wrong, we should be tiling, grouting and if we are lucky, sealing this weekend. After all of those things are done, the fridge and stove can be moved out of the living area and back into the kitchen and then we can start thinking about the rest of the floors....

Pursuit of Happiness...

Mary-Beth,
Thank you so much for sharing with us. I think it is awesome that you are quitting your job in order to follow your goals. I know you will be a happier person for doing that. I think my husband would let me do a similar thing, but I would have to have some kind of plan in place – he knows that I am the kind of person who needs a plan. I also come from a family of dreamers – we dream big but sometimes have problems following through. This may be why I am still where I am, there is a fear that if I try to pursue my big dreams I will fall short. I guess you never know until you try. Best wishes.

-Cheree

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Cheree,
You can do whatever you put your mind too, as long as you have FAITH! You have to take care of yourself, your family & all the people that are near and dear to you. This will make you a Happier person. Dreamers are the BEST! Just follow through!!!!! I will keep in touch with you, so follow your dreams make those plans and Be Happy! Life is way to short.

Best wishes,
Mary Beth

To the people in my life who remain nameless.

There are a lot of people I interact with on a daily basis who remain faces without names to me. The odd thing is that I have a strange relationship with these people and I know they have names. These people know all sorts of little details about me that a lot of people wouldn't know. True it may be their job to know these details, but in their own way they make my every day life better. Here is to the people in my life without names.

To the 2 girls and a guy at Dean & Deluca that know I want a alto cafe au lait with skim milk and a blueberry bagel.

To the various servers at the Original Pancake House that can almost write the order before we sit down: chocolate chip pancakes for Daniel and eggs, bacon, pancakes and sometimes a coffee for me.

To the crew that works at the YMCA deli that knows I like the BLT on honey wheat and gives me a hard time if I don't come in for a while.

To the teenager at McCallister's Deli who shamelessly flirts when I go to lunch with my co-workers and gives everyone a hard time.

To the guy with the funny bow-tie at Lowe's that knows that Daniel is going to hunt him down and ask him 500 questions about plumbing or electrical or any number of things (and then has sympathy on me for having to listen to their long dialogue). To the guys at the paint counter who answered my every question and also made me 10+ different kinds of paint.

To the girl at O'Charleys who is FINALLY figuring out that we are NOT going to order margarhitas or dessert. She probably thinks we are cheap, what she doesn't know is that we eat out for almost every meal.

To the older gentleman at Harris Teeter sandwich line who knows I like Philly Cheese Steak on wheat with cheese and onions only.

I could probably go on and on, but you get the picture. These are the people that I appreciate and that make me feel special b/c they notice when I haven't been around, they give me a hard time when I change it up and they are always happy to see me.

Self-Leveling Shenanigan

So why would something be advertised as being "self-leveling" when it does not level itself? It would seem that you actually have to level your floor first and then the compound finishes leveling itself.

As you can probably tell, our floor is still not completely level and we are going to have to level it AGAIN!

So the new plan is to level the floor again one night this week and then hopefully we will be dry laying the tile and officially tiling this weekend.

I think this is a bit of false advertising...

The Never Ending House Remodeling Saga

So I keep thinking the house will get finished sooner or later, but things always seem to happen to prevent completion. There are have been car problems, trees that have been blown down, cold weather, hot weather, weekend trips, too much too do during the week and not enough time on the weekends and most recently Daniel isn't felling well. All I want are floors - is this too much to ask? I just want one weekend where things go right and we finish the floors. I want the dust to go away. I want to be able to unpack everything I own. I want weekends where we can once again go backpacking. I want to start cooking again...

No Mountain Biking Today...

Last night I was really excited because I knew that we had to wait 24 hours for our floor to cure so I figured today would be a great day to go mountain biking. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy and Daniel hasn't been feeling well so instead we went to the movies and were kind of lazy. 

 

Later in the afternoon (before we went to get supper) Daniel had be help him to pull some dents out of the Pathfinder. You might be wondering how we would do such a thing... I was in the drivers seat and Daniel used a board sandwiched between a tree and the vehicle while I backed the vehicle up slowly to force the dent out. As I am sure my sister will comment, this is not a normal married people activity, but it is a somewhat normal Cheree & Daniel activity. The good news is that the Pathfinder has head lights again!

 

We have to use the make-shift ladder to get from our hallway over to the living area for 24 hours while everything cures. I am disappointed about no MB but there will be other weekends (I hope).

Sunday, Lord willing, we will FINALLY be tiling the kitchen. That is something to be excited about - I have been waiting for 6+ months to do this.