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: 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.

Current mood: bored
Man, I was sooooo freaking bored today. I have all this stuff I need to do, but I just couldn't make myself do anything. Ok, I did manage to load the dishwasher before I went to work. I just plopped my ass on the couch and watched tv and dozed off and on. Oh, well. I'll more than make up for today's lack of action tomorrow.

Current mood: tired
I'm soooooo stupid sometimes. I had a notebook due today at school. I've had four, count them, ONE TWO THREE FOUR! weeks to do this. When did I start it? Last night about 8 pm. Sometimes I do the most moronic things. Luckily, I finsihed it and got a decent grade, but at what cost? I'm already sick and now I've had no sleep and get to go to work. You think I'd learn, wouldn't you?

Current mood: exhausted
This insomnia is really starting to get to me. Add a sinus headache to it that just wouldn't go away and I didn't accomplish squat today. OK, that's not entirely true. I went to several print shops today to get bids for the client. With the prices that you can get for stuff on the Internet, I don't see how these smaller local shops can stay in business. The total cost for 2000 postcards on the net is about $375 and local shops charge from $850-$1000+. The quality of the cards on the net appears to be better, also. How stupid is that? The shipping is another $20 or so. I know it is my client's fault that the cards aren't ready, but why should he have to pay that much more than he needs? So, I went back to school and talked to the teacher. She's willing to extend my deadline as long as the online printer provides a hard copy proof that I can turn in on the due date. Sweet! I will be soooo glad when this module is over. I've never been so apathetic about a class as I have about this one. A couple of days ago, I didn't even care if I failed. Oh, well. It'll all be over by Thanksgiving.

OK, I've got to try and get some sleep. Wish me luck.