House Progress

Friday nights we try to keep open to do fun things. This way our life doesn't consist of only work (at work and at home on our house). So last night we headed out to hang out with my friends from work for an evening of home-made pizza, wii, old-school Nintendo and YouTube videos. It was a good way to kick off the weekend.

This morning we woke up to a wet, dreary day, but tried to motivate ourselves to get stuff done on the house. We succeeded in sealing the basement floor. We should be able to wax it Monday night and then I can start painting it (and we can move our washer/dryer back into the laundry room to do some much needed laundry). Hopefully the following weekend we can install all of the baseboards and then we can check the basement renovation off of the list.

Due to the wet weather, we didn't get a whole lot done with the bathroom tiling - all of the final tiles are prepped for cutting. We just need some warmer days to do it. We may suck it up and try to tile some tomorrow, but we are not holding our breaths as snow is in the forecast which = cold.

We feel pretty good about our dreary-day accomplishments and are going to go see Valkyrie at the dollar theater. We may try to grab paint at Lowes if we have time. Everything is really starting to come together and I can't wait for it to all be done... a party may be in order to celebrate our 3+ years of hard work.

Cooking Distractions

For the past several months I have enjoyed listening to Michael Buble and various other jazz musicians while I cook dinner. I don't know why, but listening to jazz makes me enjoy cooking even more... wish I liked wine to go with it as that seems like it would be a good fit.

Anyways, Daniel is not a big fan of jazz, but ever since I started cooking with music, he always wanders into the kitchen and will start dancing with me (he is also not a dancer, neither of us are). He always tells me that he is "helping" but really he just wants to distract me and maybe steal a couple of kisses while we dance in the kitchen. It has been really sweet and it always makes my day better.

Poll

Last night Daniel and I met some friends for dinner at a little Italian restaurant where the owner plays the accordion and walks around and mingles with his patrons. It was a lovely evening.

Daniel and I are in the habit of splitting meals when we go out (we don't do this all of the time, but it has become more common as we try to save money and work on portion control). Anyways, at this particular restaurant there was an additional charge of $2.50 to split the meal. Not all restaurants do this, but some do.

My question is this, "Do you think you should be charged extra if all they do is bring out an extra plate?" It feels less painful to pay the extra charge if they actually plate the meal on two separate plates and bring it out to you divided. I would like to know what others think on this matter...

Marley & Me

 

Tonight Daniel and I headed for our local dollar theater (actually $2 theater) to see Marley & Me. I have to be honest and tell you that there is a moment in the movie, after John and Jenny have had their second child and Jenny is struggling with lack of sleep, that I thought to myself, "If this is what having children is like, we are NEVER EVER going to have kids." I had similar thoughts about the dog with all of his crazy antics of growing out of puppyhood. At the end of the movie, the sweetness of a family growing together and the precious moments shared with the children and dog softened my previous sentiments. Dogs (and I am sure children) love you no matter what. They make you feel special and important and that is the overall message of this movie. If you want to laugh out loud (a lot) and cry out loud (a lot), I would definitely recommend this movie.

In The Dog House

Yesterday afternoon Daniel went by the Home Depot Design Center to see if there were any good deals as it is closing and everything is supposedly on sale.

While there he found the shower door that we have been planning to buy for 15% off. He called me to make sure we wanted to go ahead and buy it and then proceeded with the purchase. This took a little while since the cashier had to look it up in the computer and confirm that it was in stock. During this time, something along the lines of the following discussion occurred between Daniel and the cashier (as it was relayed to me later).

Cashier: What day would you like to pick this up?

Daniel: Tomorrow.

Cashier (as keys in the date): Hmm... February 14th. Valentine's Day. Are you sure about that?

Daniel: Absolutely. She'll be thrilled. There's nothing she'd like more.

Cashier (with a smile): Well, okay then.....

(Insert long pause here)

Daniel (only half way joking): So if your significant other brought you home a shower door for Valentine's day, you wouldn't be thrilled?

Cashier (laughing): Um no. You have GOT to buy her something besides a shower door.

Daniel: Why? How bad is it to buy a shower door for Valentines? Does that fall into the same category as getting her a toaster?

Cashier: Worse. Much worse. A toaster could be kind of cool. Bringing home a shower door is more like bringing home a vacuum cleaner. Actually, it may be even worse than a vacuum cleaner for Valentine's day, if that is even possible.

Daniel (smiling at this point): So I'm hearing then that tomorrow while I'm out running errands picking this up I should stop and pick up something else for Valentine's day in addition to the expensive shower door that she wants?

Cashier(still trying to figure out if Daniel is joking or serious): At least buy her flowers and a card.

Daniel: Oh. Gotcha.

What the cashier does not understand, and that Daniel did not waste time explaining, is that we don't really participate in the commercialism of Valentine's Day (or any other holiday for that matter). Granted, he did surprise me with dinner of 131 Main last night. But we do not generally buy cards, flowers or gifts and we are fine with that. Also finishing our house is an extremely HUGE present that we have been working on giving ourselves for the past 3 years and it is almost done. The shower door actually contributes to this and we managed to get it on sale... so even though the cashier at the Hope Depot thinks Daniel will be in the dog house today, I can assure you he isn't.

Eco-Friendly???

This morning Daniel and I had to stop at Chik-fil-a on the way to work so Daniel could pick up breakfast for his studio (and me). While we were sitting in the drive through, we noticed a radio station was set up and broadcasting from the Chik-fil-a parking lot. Upon closer evaluation, we realized that they were advertising that they were the "first eco-friendly radio station in Charlotte." The best part was this phrase was plastered on the side of a big, green SUBURBAN. Maybe it is just me, but if you are going to claim to be eco-friendly anything, you should NOT drive a big gas guzzlin' SUV...

Unfortunately could not find a pic online of the green vehicle...

Foot through Vent

So today is a two-for-one in the world of notes for me.

We at the Moore house seem to have bad luck at least a couple of times of year, or maybe we are just plain klutzy. Maybe neither... sometimes things just happen.

We are on Day 2 of some major projects - almost done with tiling the master bathroom and almost done with the basement floor. It has been a heck of a lot of work. To be honest, things just seem to go wrong when we do too much and get tired.

Tonight we were almost finished with our tiling for the evening and Daniel asked me to hand him something. I walked toward him, not paying attention to the floor, and managed to stick my foot through an uncovered vent. I must have placed my foot "just so" because I found myself falling forward with my leg all the way up to my knee hanging through the vent and my arm hitting a bucket of water.

Thankfully it didn't hurt me too bad, mostly just scraped me up. Thanks to the medicine I am taking for my blood clot (back in October), I also experienced some pretty big bruises.

Note to self, don't work when you are getting tired. Too bad you can't just stop tiling when you feel tired... there is always stuff to be cleaned.

Wondering...

I just found out that one of my co-workers and friends was laid off yesterday. Makes me a little sick. I have been waiting for this day to come (actually I suppose I have been waiting for much worse), but it still sucks for it to start happening closer to home. Granted Daniel has been dealing with the ongoing layoffs at work since August, but it is still hard.

The selfish part of me is frustrated that we won't be buying a second vehicle or the new furniture that I want for my basement any time soon. Instead we will be socking away extra "just in case." I am thankful that we are capable of living off of one salary and will have all debt (sans school loans and mortgage) paid off soon. But these (selfish) things do not make the sadness of seeing others lose jobs or the fear of losing a job any less real.

I keep wondering if it is even possible for our country to dig out. What is really going to happen? What happens when job loss spirals out of control and job loss begets job loss? How much more are we in for? What will we (when I say we, I mean collectively as a nation) do? Anyways, these are just some of the thoughts that have been churning around in my mind lately. I am sure that I am not alone in these thoughts...

CraigsList

CraigsList is a truly fascinating thing. We use it regularly to find good deals and also to sell off old stuff that we no longer want. We once sold a family of 3 non-working lawn mowers to a man through CL. It is also interesting in that in brings you in contact with people you might not interact with otherwise. Yesterday we sold our old couch and chair (that we purchased when we first got married for $100 in Nashville from a retired couple) to a couple of young guys from India who barely spoke English. Then tonight we sold our old microwave to a woman who was so sweet and friendly that if I met her in real life I think we would instantly be friends. Unfortunately you don't exactly become friends with someone by selling them a microwave on a dark, rainy night from your porch...

Best Dumb Naming

Part of my department's collective job is to name new products and occasionally services. We have been through many rounds of naming for one particular client. Today I was exhausted and off the top of my head came up with the following names...

The Nav Series
Map
Quest
Direction

So when my co-workers read this list they started laughing because it sounded like
"MapQuest Directions."

I definitely need more sleep.