welcome.to.the.working.week[end]

hello, hello there. seems like its been a while since i updated you, so i thought id take my lunch break to do just that. although... [if youve guessed anything from the title of this post] theres not as much to report as usual. 

[02.07.09|saturday]

well i woke up bright and early at 7:30 on saturday morning and hopped in the shower. why would i be up at such an un-godly hour on a saturday? glad you asked. because i had the pleasure of having to go in to work on saturday. i found out friday afternoon that i was going to be working this weekend, and although i wasnt thrilled about the prospect, i made my peace with it. so saturday morning i got up and got to it. well by the time i got out of the shower karen informed me that id missed a call, and as i checked my voicemail i discovered that the window guys had called about installing the new [and final!] window in the "project room." well i called back a few times, but to no avail, theyd skipped us and gone on to the next house. bummer. oh-well, i had to get to work. so karen and i discussed our days, made coffee and then i was out the door with one last kiss. 

i made a quick detour through wendy's to pick up a little breakfast and made it to work at about 9:15 sharp, and got right to it. around 11 the window guys called back to make sure someone would be there, and then went and did their thing - we now have all our windows! woohoo!! and yet... i remained.. at work. around 1:30 the bossman ordered lunch and i grabbed a quick bite before getting back into my work. all in all i worked about 6 and a half hours on saturday [this after id already pulled a 14.5 hour day on thursday....] and by the time i left for home, i was drained. there was no way i was getting much accomplished that evening. well i got home and found that my lovely wife had done some cleaning throughout the day [while she was hopelessly depressed missing me, im sure] and had also started prepping the rest of the dining room - good girl. but i wasnt going to be doing a ton of painting, not in my current condition. so we discussed the rest of the evening and she told me about a craigslist item we were picking up later and then started baking dinner while i did just a little painting and had a nice adult beverage to unwind from a long start to the weekend. 

soon enough we went to pick up the new craigslist item - any guesses? haha, i know its impossible, we got a grill! karen has been wanting a grill since... well, before we even got married, lol! and saturday she found one for 20bucks - only 2 years old, in working order, one mostly full propane tank, and one spare tank [empty], only a little rust - overall a hell of a buy! oh and did i mention it came with a bearcats grill cover as well? [i think on some level she was more excited about the cover than the grill, lol!] well it was fun to go pickup the grill - and im shocked at how light it was! on the way we had a long drawn out discussion about karen's thesis and what direction shes taking, topic, etc. [i wont go into the details, you'll just have to bug her if you want to know] and then on the way home we had a spirited debate on doing a thesis project and if it should be required, and what requirements we thought were appropriate to be a professor... and apparently what the definition of a professor even was. shes a fun one, my wife. =]

anyway, the rest of the evening we relaxed, ate some delicious dinner prepare by chef karen - her own little gourmet creation: mexican cornbread casserole - ole! [heh, just had to throw that in there] it was awesome, she did a great job! and we also watched life as a house. a+ movie, one of my favorites, if you havent seen it, you should consider it. i swear, i almost cry every freaking time at the end - almost.

[02.08.09|sunday]

well i woke up bright and early at 7:30 on sunday morning and hopped in the shower. wait... deja-vu? yes... sadly... i was going to work, yet again on sunday morning. ugh. [karen wasnt exactly delighted by my absence this weekend] well she dropped me off this time, and then went to run some errands [mostly grocery shopping and filling the truck up with gas - for 44 cents a gallon baby! woo-effing-hoo! thats right! 44cents! eat that big oil! - how, you ask? have i mentioned the bigg's pump perks program before? well if no,t google it, its pretty self explanitory] i ended up working for 4 hours on sunday before id had enough and called it quits for the day.

karen picked me up at 1:30 and we decided that it was a beautiful day [low 50's, sunny, just gorgeous!] and that it was perfect weather for margaritas - haha! so we decided to hit a local "mexican-food" place on the river [don pablos - not real mexican, but itll do. they do have pretty good margaritas!] for a nice relaxing lunch. so while we over-indulged on our "mexican-food" we also started a list of projects that we could possibly attempt when the entire family shows up next week [list to follow at the end of the blog...]. after lunch we headed home and were so full we didnt want to do much of anything - so we started to watch a netflix: righteous kill. about halfway through it karen really wanted to take a walk [i think she was feeling like a fatty, haha!] so she made me get off my lazy arse and go walking with her. it was actually a really nice walk, the weather was still great, and we had fun sliding on the remaining patches of ice, haha! not to mention, it was just nice to get out of the house and stroll around our awesome little neighborhood. we lazily looked in all the windows of the different buisnesses, and i woke up a sleeping cat in the local art gallery, haha! he seemed a little pissed that i woke him up and wasnt able to scratch his back as he so clearly wanted me too - sorry! anyway, it was a nice sunday afternoon stroll through the park [literally at one point] and then we went home to finish the movie. 

i dont know if ive just seen too many movies or if the "plot twists" really were that predictable, but i figured it all out halfway through the movie. overall it was okay - i give it a solid b i suppose. it was a little slow going, and i was thoroughly unimpressed with robert deniro, carla gugino, & john leguizamo's performaces - ive come to expect more from them. donnie whalburg was at about par id say, the true godfather [al pacino] was great as always, and 50-cent was... actually a little better than i expected - kudos. but again, it was pretty slow - even the intense parts. see it if you want to, you'll probably enjoy it. anyway, after the movie i was feeling super-lazy so we retired to the bed to watch some tv on my laptop before turning in for the night...

[02.09.09|monday]

...until 6am this morning, when we had a little scare. at 6:03am our alarm system went off and in full force. i hadnt heard anything before it went off, like glass breaking or pounding, etc. but none-the-less it was blaring and i was a little caught off guard. i slowly put on some pants and grabbed the flashlight as karen and i discussed what i should do - we decided shortly that i was going to go check it out while we waited for the alarm company to call me. well, ive got to say, im not entirely impressed with their response time, it was probably a solid 2 minutes before my phone finally rang, at which point id turned on half the lights in the house and was finally arriving at the first floor. i told the girl on the phone i wasnt sure what was going on and she told me it was the dining room sensor that had triggered, so i de-activated the alarm and checked things out while she was on the phone ready to call 911 if necessary. well, after thoroughly checking out everything - i couldnt find anything out of place. all the windows and doors were in their normal condition, nothing obvious had fallen over, there were no signs of someone in the house, nothing. so i thanked her and said goodbye before turning the alarm back on and going back upstairs. the woman said that sometimes it could just be a large particle of dust that sets it off, so i really dont know. maybe some of the tape on the walls fell loose and caused enough movement to trigger it. or maybe it did its job and whoever it was was on the front porch or side of the house and was scared off by the alarm picking them up. either way, im glad it worked, but it was an unsettling morning getting ready for and going to work, lol. but we're fine and the house is fine and our alarm system is obviously fully functional. =]

anyway, im at work now and thats about all there is to report for recent events. i ended up working half the weekend and we didnt get too much accomplished because of it. a little disappointing, but im sure we'll survive. hey, we did get a pretty good list going for next week!

and here it is[for those of you that are excited about what you'll be getting to do soon!] ;]

general house stuff:

electrical 

exterior doors [replacing, repairing, & weather-sealing]

caulking any remaining windows

paint various furniture

basement:

clean floors, walls, & rafters

board up walk-out & weather-seal

mortar walls

paint & weather seal walls

insulating foam @ exterior walls?

patch & seal hole @ north end

entry:

put up crown

touchup paint on baseboards

parlor:

thoroghly clean fireplace

clean, patch, & prep walls & ceiling

paint walls & ceiling

window treatments

bookshelves

dining room:

powder-room entry

powder room:

i dont even know... it needs help - tiling?

kitchen:

halfwall

dishwasher & garbage disposal installation

2nd floor general:

strip any wall paper

clean, patch, & prep walls & ceilings

paint walls & ceilings

unpacking and organizing [at the appropriate time]

2nd floor bedroom:

clean & strip fireplace [then figure out what to do from there]

run electrical for and install light

window treatments

2nd floor closet:

repair heating duct

acquire & install closet systems

window treatments

2nd floor office:

assemble and install shelves or bookcase [if acquired by then]

assemble and install desk [ditto]

put up artwork?

2nd floor bathroom:

acquire & install new faucet for tub

install new faucet for sink

remove shelves

re-finish tub?

new cabinets?

new tile?

2nd floor project room:

remove wall board

other...?

2nd floor hall:

pull up carpet & refinish floors

stairs...

3rd floor closet/bathroom

install towel rack

install closet hardware

patch walls...

um, thats all we've thought up so far. i doubt we'll actually get to all [or most even] of it. and depending on the electrical situation... well, that might be all we end up working on, who knows. 

either way, its sure to be a busy & fun-filled family time, haha! cant wait!

hope you all have a great week! talk to you again soon! =]