Uh, Pete. Is there something you want? I'm guessing that since you're slobbering all over my computer it must be important.
Yes, Mom, it's important and it's about time you put that computer down.
Fine, so what is it? You need to go outside?
Does this look like my "I need to go outside" face. C'mon now. You know what I want.
OK, is your water bowl empty? I know how your brother has been slurping up the water lately.
Hey, "brother" is right here and I can hear you and no I have not been slurping up ALL the water (just most of it). Now, big brother, Pete, has something important to discuss with you so listen up!
OK, what is it, Pete? Are you ready for bed and the door's shut again?
You know that if the door was shut, I would just push it open so, no, try again. And quit playing games, this is important.
You know what? This is getting silly. I want a bone. Period. This is my "I want a bone now" look so get up and get me a bone. I think little brother wants one, too.
My goal is to have all of the unfinished projects completed by the time Michael returns sometime in August. So today, I got started. I removed the sheetrock from both sides of this wall (pics below). While it may seem that I'm creating new projects, it really is a continuation of a larger project. A few weeks ago, Michael and I took out a portion of the closet wall in this room and now I need to repair the sheetrock, floor and run electrical to that area. Well, the same items will need to be completed when this wall is removed so I figured I may as well go ahead and do it all at one time (I really don't want to go into the attic running electrical and such more than once).
So anyway, the purpose of this project is to replace the current door with a pocket door and move the opening to the left by about a foot. Of course, now I will need to move some wires before I can begin framing the opening to accomodate the pocket door. Tomorrow will be "wire day" - 1) moving the light switch and thermostat located on this wall and 2) for the new desk area created when Michael and I removed a wall a few weeks ago - adding a couple of electrical outlets, adding an overhead light fixture, moving the light fixture that was in the middle of the old closet, and moving the internet hookup from the other side of the room. Hope I can get all of this done in one day. My guess is that there will be MANY holes in the walls before I'm finished...
Before:
Before: Inside room w/camera aimed towards hallway
After Today: Inside room w/camera aimed towards hallway
Before: In hallway w/camera aimed towards room
After Today: In hallway w/camera aimed towards room
Of course, when Michael saw these pics he said that he thought I should just enlarge the room out into the hallway and forget about the pocket door. Well, Babe, I think I have enough to finish as it is and if you still feel that way when you get home, we'll get started...
I spent the day shopping with my friend, Linda, today while Celeste and Hipparchia spent the day at the vet. We had a great time negotiating some great deals at the Boyles furniture store that is going out of business, found a great little cafe' that makes awesome homemade chicken pie and checked out the Red Collection. Somehow, we managed to fit a very large ottoman and a desk that we purchased into my 4Runner along with Ollie. Unfortunately, Ollie is a big sissy and freaked out by the furniture "noises" and leapt into the front and onto Linda's lap...and that is where he rode until we could get to Linda's to unload her desk. It's hard to be mad at him though - he's just so cute.
The forecast called for something like 4-6 inches of snow followed by ice. We ended up with only about 1/2 inch of snow but the ice that followed created a big mess. The best part? Watching Ollie slide past me uncontrollably on the ice - the look on his face was priceless. Sure wish I'd had a video of that! I finally ventured out this evening to the grocery store. Once I got out of my iced driveway, all was good so it looks like my shopping trip tomorrow is still on! Wonder how long it will take for this crap to melt? And in case you're wondering, that concrete where my vehicle is parked isn't wet...it's a sheet of ice.
What is with the mail carrier? First, it was the incident with the wedged box. Now this. My calendars arrived today (Positive Pit Bull Calendars) and thanks to the mail carrier were almost ruined. Around noon, I noticed a package leaning up against the back door when I was walking through the kitchen. It was the calendars as well as the rest of my mail. Sitting outside on an uncovered porch. Did I mention it was snowing today? Luckily, I was home and noticed the package outside before it got wet. Why didn't they leave it on the front *covered* porch?!?! They also left ANOTHER letter meant for that attorney's office that they always confuse with my address - you'd think the "Suite C" part of the address would clue them in that they are delivering it to the wrong address. I do love the calendars.
The hubby came home for two whole weeks during the holidays! Here's a photo diary of his vacation:
This is the beginning of the vacation. You can tell because he still looks happy and chipper. He's removing the drywall in preparation of removing the entire wall.
Then he went up here (the attic) to help install a header to support the ceiling joists before we (uh...Michael) finished removing the wall.
Here he is removing the wall. Now he knows why I asked him to operate the sawzall. That darn thing will knock me backwards to the floor.
And here he is climbing the ladder to clean out the gutters:
And here he is cleaning more gutters:
And here is the flex duct he removed from the crawl space and replaced (due to an incident with overwatering a potted plant):
And this is what happens to his jeans when he crawls under the house:
By the time I got out of bed every morning, Michael had taken the dogs for a short hike, played ball with Ollie and resupplied the Diet Pepsi stock. There was always cold caffeine in the fridge when I got out of bed.
During the time he was here, I never had to put Ollie on the treadmill or play ball with him...not once. Yes, Ollie actually goes straight from the treadmill to playing fetch. It is not possible to wear him out. In case you're wondering, that is Hipparchia (my manx cat) sprinting in front of Ollie as he goes after a ball. She tries to break his concentration but he's pretty focused.
Michael did find the time for a little relaxing. Here he is fishing in the pond. Of course that's kind of hard to do with Ollie trying to fetch the "ball" that Michael keeps casting into the water.
And this is what happens when Michael sits down:
See ya' later, Babe. Been a great couple of weeks and we're all going to miss you!
We created our family website and the only thing lacking was our domain name. I spent hours trying to come up with a proper domain name that wasn't already taken. One night as I lay in bed WIDE AWAKE because my dogs were snoring it hit me: mydogssnore.com Pretty much sums up life around here.
I saw an article about a man that took a polaroid every day for 18 years. I thought it was a great idea and decided to take it one step further by adding text to each picture (thus, this blog). It is much more difficult than it seems. My original blog site was mydogssnore.blogspot.com but my husband hijacked it and I soon lost interest. Several months later I decided to try again and created this blog. Next thing I know, hubby is complaining to me that none of his posts are showing up on his blog. I poked around and what do you know...his posts are showing up on my new blog. Apparently, there was some confusion (on his part) due to the title of the blogs having the same name. So, I titled this blog "Not This One" to avoid confusion and prevent him from hijacking another of my blog sites. :)
