A girl can like grunge, but not too much

I love the 80s and hip hop. Put on some Prince or Tupac, and I'm in heaven. Add in some Snoop and Dr. Dre, and I'm even happier. Then I find one hit wonder gems like this on Youtube, and I'm in absolute heaven. Warning: I have no taste. I know this. It's purely *awful* music (or is it even music?), awful lyrics, an awful music video (way too many almost naked women, like the flannel and sports cars?) but I still love it:



And slightly less awful but along the same vein:



Yes, you can lecture me on the misogynistic lyrics and the vast amount of swear words, blah blah blah. I say this because I have listened to this crap for 20 years and I tell you to please count the number of times I have sworn in your presence (with the exception of my husband, not too many people should be able to attest to this). And there's not too many blackmail photos of me out there participating in really bad actions...

So there's the classic 80s music that I love, and most people can't really argue with that because the 80s was a fun genre. The 90s hip hop is kind of questionable. I get that.

However, there is a small part of me that is really taken with the brooding grunge/alt rock genre. I call it Prozac music because this stuff can depress you within 5 minutes of listening to it. I suppose not *really* depress you, but it makes you all brooding and contemplative and soon you're tying a flannel shirt around your waist, putting on Doc Martens, dying your hair black, and trying to decide whether you should pick Jordan Catalano or Brian Krakow...

Nirvana, 3 Doors Down, Candlebox, The Fray

The problem is that it's a very slippery slope. With every hour of continued listening of grunge/alt rock & I need an extra Prozac to get back. Or, since I've never taken Prozac, every hour of depressing music takes another viewing of the first video above to get back to normalcy. Yes, I use awful 90s hip hop videos instead of Prozac. You've heard of more insane things, right? I can't be the only one to use Youtube to cure my ills.

ABC's of Me

A) Are you a PC or a Mac?
PC, but I have an iPhone, that's kinda like having a Mac, right?


B) Best show currently on TV:
I really don't watch TV. I do sometimes watch Big Bang Theory though, and it's cute.


C) Chore you dislike:
All of them. :)

D) Dogs or Cats?
I'm really allergic to cats, and they kinda freak me out. So by default, dogs. However, I'm not fond of the ones that run up to you and jump on you.

E) Essential "Start the day" items:
Shower, food

F) Favorite Color:
Purple

G) Gold or Silver:
I'm not super picky on the jewelry.

H) Height: 5'5.5" almost 5'6" but not quite. I have to start rounding because otherwise doctors' offices put 5'5".

I) Instrument you play:
Julia's drum?

J) Job:
most days

K) Kids?
1 quirky girl

L) Living where?
My own personal Jamaica

M) Mom's name:
I call her Mom. :)

N) Nickname:
B e t h y

O) Overnight hospital stay:
Just when I had Miss J

P: Pet Peeve:
Shall I write a novel: being late, incessant clearing of throat, whistling, "hang in there," hypocrisy, people who reek of way too much fragrance, not washing hands, laziness, people with constant excuses... need I go on?

Q) Quote from a movie:
I don't know any movie well enough to have a quote.

R) Righty or Lefty?
I'm a righty...

S) Siblings:
Nope, and it's okay.

T) TV shows you watch:
Big Bang Theory sometimes and HGTV

U) Underwear:
Yes?

V) Veggies you like:
almost ALL of them! Aren't you proud? I think the only one I don't like is brussel sprouts.

W) Ways you flirt:
Is rolling your eyes counted as flirting?

X) Expiration Dates - do you keep or toss?
Depends what it is. Meds - oh yeah, like years after (or maybe a decade...). Dry ingredients - maybe up to a year. Wet ingredients - not so much.

Y) Yummy foods you make:
I suck at cooking, but I do enjoy baking.

Z) Zoo animal you like:
I always enjoy the snakes at the zoo. I always see if I can find the mouse being digested. Do I need mental help? Okay, I'll change my answer to koala bears. They are so darn cute! :) Now do I seem more stereotypical?

Long week and it's not over

I knew going into this week that it would be terrible. Bathroom remodel (which means I get 2 additional husbands for the week) & have to make things look decent since people are trudging through the house, work meetings, painting, cabinet problems, picking up furniture, Julia's GI appt, S's tournament, after work meeting... I mean, when you have that many things out of the normal routine, something's gotta go wrong.

There have definitely been blips: the cabinet problems we weren't anticipating & Julia meds screw-up. And today I used my entire day off on painting. That in itself isn't bad, but I didn't relax any today & I think I ended the day at my most wound up thus far this week, and I still have 2 work days to make it through. And then on Saturday S is gone all day, so I need to think of activities to do with her. Somehow I don't think she'll go for taking an all day nap! I think my mom and I (and Miss J) are going shopping in either the morning or afternoon. I presume for the other timeslot we'll play outside, barring rain.

It's funny how on weekends I schedule the day with "breakfast," "morning activity," "lunch & nap," "afternoon activity," "dinner," and "winddown." Another method I try to use is to make one of the day's activities productive and one *fun*. My logic is that as Julia grows up, she's going to participate more and more in the everyday running of the household. So if she *helps* do chores or goes along while we do chores, she's exposed to that. The fun activity is self-explanatory. It also gives us time to spend with her while doing something productive and some time that's specifically geared toward her having fun, whether it be going to the park or swimming lessons or playing outside.

I am so sore! Today I had the day off and painted from what would have been my work start time until what would have been my work end time. I didn't even stop to eat except for 3-minute granola bars. It felt good to make some progress on painting. I know, I know, I always say I'm painting. But I just started the basement, and it's HUGE & it feels like it's going to take forever. It really is easier to do the basement in large chunks of time like I did today. By the time you prep, get the paint in the roller pan (for the roller stuff) or the canister (for brush stuff), clean all the brushes/rollers, put away, etc., that takes about an hour. If you're doing 8 hours of work, that's not too bad. But ordinarily I only have 2-3 hours between Miss J's bedtime and my bedtime, and 1 hour taken out of that for logistics doesn't give me a whole lot of painting time. Plus after working all day, doing the Julia routine, any errands, etc., the last thing I want to do after she goes to bed is to paint.

However, on the bright side, 7 hours of actual painting today burnt 2,000 calories according to several different fitness sources online. I could NOT believe that; that's why I had to check multiple places. I am sore. My back and arms are killing me. I'm physically exhausted. So while I may be burning the candle at both ends, I am getting a workout. Not too bad.

"Hang in there!"

Have you realized that whenever you post a frustration that there's always someone who says "Hang in there!"? I don't get that colloquialism. There really is no alternative other than saying to heck with everything and hitchhiking to Alaska and living on an abandoned bus. You basically DO have to hang in there if you're a responsible person. It's not a terribly supportive or constructive statement. So why do people say it? I guess it means "so sorry you're in a frustrating position - don't give up on the world and hitchhike to Alaska." If you want to actually be helpful, tell the person they can call you or give them cookies (food makes the world better) or something.

I was just noting that as I was reading other people's statuses. There's always that person that says that. Ugh!

For the record, I will not ever tell you to hang in there. I'll try to pull you up. :)

Good weekend but so much to do

Back in the old house our weekends seemed so much more fun. Sure, we had chores and home projects, but our home projects were like 3 times a year and they were projects like paint one room or change out a faucet. (I lie like a rug because we redid the master bathroom and changed the kitchen floor, but that was after living there for 10 years).

In this house, it seems like there are so many massive projects looming over our heads. We redid the kitchen, but there is a significant amount of massive still ahead: redoing all of the bathroom cabinets & countertops, new entertainment center cabinets, painting the entire basement, painting the entire hallway & stairwell, installing new carpet, refinishing the hardwood, laying tile in the laundry room, laying tile in all of the bathrooms, more painting, etc. And after all that, then we really need to turn our attention to the yard that has been neglected for 10 YEARS! Plus we both work full-time and try to do some fun stuff with Miss J. Although she is getting pretty good at handling a screwdriver being our "Lil Assistant"! Hopefully we're not inflicting psychological damage since we tend to skip the park more often than not and instead paint and install things around the house.

Friday night we spent painting. S finished painting the stairwell to the basement. I painted the baseboards in the downstairs bathroom. The original owners had done some sort of beach theme in that bathroom, and they painted gold on the white baseboards to kind of match the antique-y beach theme. It really didn't look good, and it was one of those things that had to be done so I tackled that. This weekend we made a huge Lowe's expedition: buying 180 sq ft of tile, mortar, tiling accessories & some outdoor lighting (the old lights are 1995 vintage brass and have completely oxidized). In the afternoon, I took Julia to Target to buy sheets, and we hung out at the mall for a while. Then we went grocery shopping. While I had Miss J in the afternoon, S started painting the upstairs bathroom. Then today S finished up that painting, I went to the store this morning, we had a playdate (yay for Miss J!) & I finished the painting in the downstairs bathroom. Tomorrow they are starting the bathroom cabinets & countertops remodel, so we had to pack up all the stuff in the bathroom cabinets. And we thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and swept the hardwood. And Grandma came over to play with Miss J. Whew!

Hope this week goes smoothly. It's going to be a weird week. The remodel's going on all week, on Tuesday is Julia's GI appt, Wed I have off (but the remodeling is going on so I'm not sure if I'm going to hang out at home or not), Thursday is a union meeting after work & Friday is a long meeting at work. During the kitchen remodel, it was completely exhausting because things would come up each day & it would take a few hours in the evening to resolve/figure out. So I don't think much is going to get done other than a few loads of laundry during this work week. :)

Morbid Thoughts

Here is my view from bed:




First of all, don't you like the paint job? Even if Cinnamon Toast isn't your favorite color, it's a heckuva lot better than the beat-up hospital green. When I was 8 years old, we moved into a house that had seafoam green in the dining room & I remember making that wincing expression even then when I saw it.

So the reason I took the picture was of the fan. There are 4 ceiling fans in this house, and oh how I dislike ceiling fans! It probably has to do with almost being decapitated by one that fell out of the ceiling and onto my head. Thankfully I heard it coming and only got dinged on the head instead of the decapitation. I ponder if that house would have sold if there had been brain and blood splattered all over the walls and carpet??? Wonderful thought, huh?

It is with trepidation that I will turn on the fan on the hot nights of summer. Even if this baby fell out of the ceiling, the worst that would happen is that my legs would be amputated. Amputation is better than decapitation, wouldn't you say? But I would be the one who's amputated, while my darling husband continues to sleep soundly next to me with his limbs intact.

Do you think he would be on to me if I asked him to switch sides on nights that the fan is on?

Why do I think this stuff? The house inspector said all of the fans were securely attached to the ceiling.

But still, when the time comes, I think I'm going to be hunting in the garage for the stand-up fan that blows horizontally. Morbid thoughts die hard, and I don't want my husband to have to clean up after my amputated legs. Aren't I thoughtful?

Crossing my fingers at the picture fairy

My pal Marie's niece came to our house in February to take pictures. I have the CD of all the pictures, and I just got the chance to upload them to a photo service and get them to printed. Of all the services, I like Costco the best but am not currently a Costco member. However, I *think* my order went through because it had my old membership number filled in & it didn't yell at me saying I was expired at any point during ordering them.

I think I've tried most of the photo places: drug stores locally, Snapfish, Shutterfly & a few others. I like the matte look, and a lot of places don't offer it, so I have to wait for the mail service. Shutterfly seemed like a better quality, but Costco seemed the best. That's who I went with this time. Any suggestions for any other places to go?

I don't know about you, but I hate futzing with pictures. I wait til I have a big batch, go through and select the ones I want printed beforehand (writing down the numbers on a piece of paper), uploading them takes forever, then I remember I want to do editing & hope there's a photo editor in the software, then the cropping depending on the picture sizes I get, then selecting what sizes I want & how many I want of each size...on repeat x 50 or however many pictures I uploaded.

As much as I gripe about the tedious nature of such a project, I must say that I like being able to pick and choose so much. It's tedious and requires far more patience than I have though.

In other boring news, I finished most of the playroom painting tonight. I just want to check it tomorrow in the natural light to make sure that I didn't miss anything, and then I'll put all the furniture back & clean up. Whew, that will be nice to be able to check a room off the list!

I also did some laundry tonight and watched the free lesson Dave Ramsey gives. We really don't have much of a debt problem (aside from the mortgage), but I've heard so many people rave about him. I had to see what he says. Entertaining and lots of good info. Like Suze Orman but far less irritating.

Can they have a Dave Ramsey out there for weight loss? It was amazing how much of his lecture you could substitute overeating for overspending.

It was a productive evening, wasn't it? It's amazing that I fit a productive day of work in there too. Sometimes I'm proud of how productive I can be. "Can be" is the operative phrase. Most days I choose not to be productive, but on those rare days where I put the pedal to the metal, I feel very accomplished.

It's going to be a sucky weigh-in tomorrow. I ate 2 cans of soup today, chocolate, and Mexican food. Can we say water retention with all that salt?

Lost in the Woods

I took today off. It was a bi-yoo-ti-ful day! My day started with taking my new camera and going for a walk in the woods/state park that's a block away. There is a very intricate trail system with little signage, and I got lost 3 times. I was intending to take an hour walk, but it became 2.5 hours due to how turned around I got. It was okay - I'm persistent, I like to walk, and I enjoyed trying out the new camera. However, after reaching hour two in my ordeal, my right hip started hurting, and I was really thirsty. The fun had worn out. Memo to self: keep all hiking within 2 hours.

After I got home, I took a little nap. I love naps, and a day off is not complete without a nap. And gosh darn it, after walking 6+ miles (half of which was uphill), I earned it!

When I woke up, I started painting the playroom. Just like Julia's room, it was a bright lavender when we moved in. I like it for Julia's room, but it's a little too much for TWO rooms. Either it's easy to overdose on lavender, or I'm not much of a lavender fan. I took down the very thick blue and yellow flowered valance (don't tell me how that was supposed to match lavender). Then I started painting. I made good progress for 5 hours of painting, but I still have a bit of trim to do, then taking the tape off, putting the outlets back, that kind of stuff.

S is taking over basement stairwell duty since the remaining to be done requires being on a step stool while on a stair. My balance isn't the best, and he's taller. Hence, he's it!

Lots of painting going on around here. Thursday morning the bathroom cabinets will be delivered, so those will be hanging out in the dining room until next week. Things are moving along well, I suppose.

This weekend looks pretty clear as far as agenda items, and I'm thrilled. The last few weekends have been so busy that it's nice to have some time to putz and just hang out without urgent things and commitments.

Sick Daze

The Center Director at Julia's daycare is always sick. She's sick like 2-3 days a week; that's how much she calls in sick. And the thing is: it's always a different ailment! I completely understand if you have chronic issues with one body part. I really do. But in the last month it's been migraines, feet hurt, flu, stomach hurts, back hurts, sinus infection, cold, hair hurts (okay, I jest on that one, but you get the point).

Can that many things be wrong with someone who's 40 years old? Or is she a complete hypochondriac who has zero threshold for pain? Who really knows? Is it even possible to know? For some of those illnesses you can drag yourself to work. It's just crazy that she can take that much time off of work for being sick. And the employees in all seriousness will tell you that her feet hurt and that's why she's not in today. Really? My feet hurt too sometimes, but they'd hurt if I was at home instead of at work. So why not come to work and distract myself?

To each her own. I suppose we all have different work ethics. I really hope to raise Julia with the work ethic that you drag yourself to school or work unless you can't get out of bed. Otherwise, she'll get fired so fast from her jobs & I'll end up supporting her til she's old and gray.

Painting

The good thing about painting after work is that it's hard to snack while you're painting. Less calories ingested is always a good thing for me. The bad part is that it's harder to get my exercise in. 2 hours with Miss J before she goes to bed, 2 hours painting, 1 hour putzing (laundry, blogging, e-mail, phone, clip coupons, etc.) & it's 10-11pm.

Right now I'm painting the circular stairwell to the basement. The ceiling to the stairwell is the bottom of the stairwell to the upstairs. So it's painting the underside of the other stairwell. I can't quite reach it, and I can't get the stool to stay on the stairs while I paint. I'm not quite sure how to paint the part I can't reach. Maybe that's why God invented husbands. When I try painting that ceiling, I stretch too far and end up almost slipping and then dripping Eldorado Tan all over me.

I exercised on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. I couldn't muster the energy to exercise after painting tonight. There's only so much a girl can do in a day.

More to come

Sorry to have been gone for a few days. Julia was sick last week, hubby sick this week, I'm trying to paint at night, I'm trying to get back on the exercise saddle, that pesky thing called work...hence, less blogging time.

Needless to say, I wish I could write blog entries while I'm staring at the ceiling trying to get to sleep or painting. I have so many that I'm trying to form.