Domestic Geek

Current mood: sick
It's not fair. I've got time to get my house ready for the holidays and I get sick. Booooooo! I don't have the flu, luckily. It's just a flare-up of the viral infection I've had for the last couple of weeks. I have no energy, I can't breathe. This sucks. Oh, well.

I tore the backspash behind my kitchen sink apart. I should've taken pictures of what it looked like before. I thought we were getting tile backsplashes. They even had me pick out a tile color. Anyway, we ended up with these laminate things. That would be fine except that they didn't caulk them right and they're made out of pressed board. The laminate didn't stick, water got up in there and the board has been slowly disintegrating (plus the mildew that has been growing). The other day when I was wiping the counter down, most of the front piece popped off. I decided it was time to do something about it.

The hard part was getting the board off. They used liquid nails to attach it to the wall. I only ripped the wall board in a few places. I've been using "Goof Off" to get the liquid nails and caulk off the wall. I used wallpaper glue to secure the tipped paper edges. If I feel up to it today, I'll go pick up my tiles. I should be able to put them up tomorrow afternoon. The toughest part has been finding tile that I like that I can still afford. I had an idea of what I wanted, unfortunatley, that's not in style right now. If I had money, no problem. I could order just about anything I can think of from the tile stores. Sadly, I'm on a Home Depot budget. I'm still torn about buying these tiles that have fruit on them (2.49 /ea) or buying plain white 12 cent tiles and painting them myself (do I have time, will I actually finish them?) or puttng some decals on them that are on eBay. I'll probably make that decision when I'm out actually buying the tile. I wanted blue tiles. A Lowes I went to had a few remnents of a discontinued tile in the color I had in mind. Of course, not enough to do my kitchen (eventually I'll have to do the other counters so they'll all match). I checked out all the Lowes nearby and none of the stores had any of these tiles left. Oh, well. I think I'll do a green tile instead. I'll post a picture when I finish it.

Current mood: disappointed
Marcus and I have had a very frustrating evening. This all started last Sunday when Marcus and I were going to stop in at the Atlanta Bread Company for some soup for dinner (we had to do errands at CompUsa and Target). It was about 6:10 pm and of course they closed at 6:00. We ended up going to Chili's instead. They had some good broccoli cheddar soup. Well, he got home earlier than I expected this evening, so I asked him if he wanted to go try to have soup again. We got over there, decided what we wanted (cream of broccoli soup in a bread loaf), he went to get in the coffee line and I got in the cafe line. Nobody came to help me for a long time, then I was informed they were out of cream of broccoli. Argh, this happened the first time we tried this place. Marcus wanted a turkey panini and they were out of turkey. So, I called Marcus over and we decided on chicken and dumpling soup instead. We were sitting at a table waiting and drinking our coffee when the pager thing goes off. Marcus goes over there and is informed that they are also out of the chicken. We could either have tortilla soup or there might possibly be enough French onion. I personally can't stand either one of those. Marcus was totally pissed off at this point, so we got a refund and left. Now it was almost 9 pm and places are closing. Where does one go in this town if all you want is a decent, relatively inexpensive bowl of soup? We need the soup nazi like they had on Seinfeld. Anyway, we ended up at Applebee's and Marcus got some baked potato soup, but I spent way more money for dinner than I had intended. They don't have just soup there. Oh, well. Marcus and I will probably give them one more chance before they end up on our boycott list. He's going to write them a letter, though.

Current mood: excited
For the first time in a looooonnngggg time, I'm actually feeling a bit of Christmas Spirit. Even though I don't have much money this year, I think it's going to be a good holiday season. I'm so excited that I'm actually going to get to decorate this year. It's been so long since I've seen most of my holiday stuff. My stuff is in storage alot closer now than it used to be. When we lived in Byers, my stuff was stored in Bennett (12 miles away). Last year we were in the middle of moving the house and the year before that I was in a funk because I had just graduated from CollegeAmerica was so depressed about the whole experience. I think we only put up a tree that year. So, we're going to cut the tree on Saturday, Dec 13th with Dave, Mike and Nina. That's always fun and pictures will follow.

I only have class one day a week this module and the heavy duty work for this class really begins after the holidays. I forgot that this class requires me to buy a portfolio case, lots of supplies and some outside printing costs that I totally spaced out about. So, this afternoon I'm putting in an application at the Starbuck's where my friend works. I'm going to need more money coming in than I've got now or I won't pass this class. I also need some Christmas cash. It became blatantly obvious yesterday that I'm not going to get more hours at my delivery job. I told my boss at work that I was available anytime for the next 12 weeks and he schedules me two days this week. What the hell? Also, all of a sudden, I'm everyone's confidante. It seems everyone there wants to unload all of their problems on me. Why do they seem to think that I care? I don't want to know all this personal crap about all these people. I don't like any of them and I don't want to know how sick all of their relationships in that store really are. I think I've finally had it.

OK, I'm going to try and upgrade my photo gallery. Wish me luck.

I downloaded this cute flash December desktop calendar today from the Hallmark website. (I keep trying to add a link, but it never works. Look for December Desktop Calendar if you want to get it.)



It's so adorable. It's having a little problem today because it was scripted to only work in December, but it's nice having a little festive touch on my desktop. I'll have to go install it on my laptop to see if it has music or anything (since my Windows box has no external speakers). God, I hope not.

Current mood: groggy
I went to bed last night (this morning) about 12:30 am and I know Marcus came to bed way later than that. Who's alarm went off at 6 am and every 10 minutes after that for an hour? Not mine! I hadn't planned on getting up to go to work until 8. Damn it. So, after I get home from work this afternoon, I've decided that it's time for some major life renovating. For the next 12 weeks (including two weeks for holiday break), I've got class one day a week. Whoo Hoo!!! Christmas is coming up soon and I've got to get my decorations up this year. We haven't really decorated in about 4 years. Last year, since we were in the middle of moving the house, we didn't decorate at all. It really bummed me out. Anywho, it's our turn to host our annual Christmas Eve gift exchange for our friends, so I'm going to do it right. That means I need to finally finish unpacking (I did say we moved a year ago, right?), organize some stuff that I've let get waaaay out of control since I've been so busy with school and finish painting my dining room.

I also want to redesign this blog. I am so sick of looking at this sterile, boring layout.

Have I mentioned that I love eBay? Didn't think so. Every year Hallmark releases at least three Star Trek ornaments. I have almost every one except for the very first (that is a really sore subject) and possibly two other "special" ones that I didn't buy for one reason or another. Anyway, every year I put off buying them and then I waste time driving around mid-December to every Hallmark store I can find because I'm missing just one ornament. This year I decided to buy them on eBay. I found someone offering a "Buy It Now" for $42.00 for all three. Since the ornaments total $61.90 retail, I jumped at it. After calculating tax vs. shipping, I figure I got one of the ornaments for free. Not too shabby. They arrived yesterday and it's not even the end of November yet. Have I mentioned that I love eBay?

I'm thinking that I might start trying to collect the Star Wars ornaments, too. Since the ornaments are so freaking expensive, I decided to concentrate on getting thet Star Trek ones. Of course, eBay didn't exist back in the early 90's when I made that decision. One of these days the original Star Trek Enterprise from 1991 is going to go for a price that I can't refuse. I keep looking. People used to be able to get $400 or more for those. Now I'm seeing them go for under $200. I have a real problem spending more than $50 for a small piece of plastic. Maybe by next Christmas, I'll have a complete set. (crosses fingers)

Well, I guess I better get going. Unfortunately, that dough won't make itself.