Suffering from neglect

I've let this poor little blog suffer a bit of neglect for the past few weeks. I haven't really felt very inspired or motivated to write in here.

My inspiration and motivation is actually lacking on so many fronts. Can't seem to pull things together at the house. Haven't been paying any attention to those dating sites I'm paying for. There's a scarf I started knitting just sitting there not getting any notice either.

Can't seem to keep a smile on my face either, which is why I'm back full swing into therapy appointments. My hope is that as we work on things all of the neglected areas of my life will start to receive the attention they are rightfully due.

Until then I'm trying to make sure I go to the gym at least three time a week. So far I've been twice this week. I'm also in a weight loss bet at work. Three of the four of us need to be at a certain (lower) weight by 2/10/08 or we owe the others a total of $210. If we get down to the lower weight then the company is taking us out for a nice dinner. Not too sure about food as a reward for weight loss but I sure do not want to lose $210 so that is definitely a motivator.

My hopes for the weekend are that I will go to the gym at least once, but twice would be ideal. That I will sort through all of the unworn clothes and shoes in my closet in order to donate them. And that I will go to Urban Craft Uprising!

Getting all of those things accomplished will take a great deal of motivation. I really hope I can muster it. Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy yourself no matter what your motivation level.

Keepin' It Simple

You don't need that fancy college degree of yours to keep up with my blog.

Found at Black,White, Bliss.

An Electrical Weekend

On Sunday an electrician come by to do a few things in Molly's place, remove the old mostly unused electrical mast, and pull wire to two new boxes in my bathroom.

When I remodeled the bathroom I removed the old light fixture and covered over the electrical box with cabinetry. Don't worry it's just IKEA cabinetry so it's easily removed to get access to the electrical box. I wanted to put two new lights to the side of the new mirror but really wasn't sure how to get the wire and boxes to their new locations. So since the electrician was there I threw my money at him. Within about an hour he had gone to Home Depot for supplies, cut holes to pull the new wire and installed the two new boxes.

Later that afternoon I finally pulled the bathroom back together and installed the new lights. They look great! I'm so glad they are finally in there. I can actually see myself in the mirror now. Which is perhaps both a good thing and a bad thing.

Now all that's left in order to really finish the bathroom is to find the right paint color and center the mirror over the sink. It's off to the left for some reason. I perhaps may not have followed the "measure twice, hang once" adage the first time out. Oops.

The front of the house looks much better without that silly mast sitting smack dab in the front of it. The three unused wires (two cable, one phone) are now dangling out at the utility pole. Gotta figure out who to call to fix that. I think Molly may have taken a picture or two. I'll get those from her to post here.

I promise will soon post pictures of the living room. Probably this weekend, once I've taken the TV to my brothers place.

Items are getting crossed off of the list. Love it when that happens!

Darby must be a Siren

Last night as I was driving to the manned UPS facility south of downtown I realized that I had left the address and directions back at work. For some reason I remembered that it was on 7th and perhaps it might just be on the 4400 block of 7th. I've been there once before but it was probably four years ago at least. So I continued making my way south in the hope that I was right and it was where I "felt" it was going to be. Oh and I had forgotten the little slip they leave on your door at work too and my license still has my old address on it. All of these things made it seem as though I was not destined to add Darby to my life last night.

But I kept heading south on 7th, holding off an anxiety attack with all of my might because all I really wanted to do tonight was get this errand done for the love of the holy person. Yes, I have been a bit on edge lately, why do you ask? And yes, I did leave a message for my therapist last night asking for an appointment if you must know.

I digress. I was travelling south on 7th when all of the sudden I felt as though I was supposed to turn right, so I did. Then I knew I was supposed to veer left and lo and behold what did I spy ahead of me... the Manned UPS Facility! Darby was getting closer.

I parked and held my newly elevated hopes in check as I walked inside expecting to be turned away for not having sufficient proof of who I am and what package I was supposed to be picking up. As I waited in line for the next available Manned Facility attendant, who turned out to be a woman, I steeled myself to be turned away because of my lack of proper ownership proof.

I handed over my license and she took one look at it and said "Emily, this isn't your current address, is it?" I hadn't yet uttered a single solitary word to her. I stammered a bit and then said "No. It's not." She asked "What's your current address?" To which I said "XXXX Avenue N". To which she said, "That's right. I'll go get your box. It's a bit of a big box, right?"

Shock and awe. This wonderful, smiling manned UPS facility service person knew I was coming. She knew I wanted Darby without even knowing that Darby was inside said big box. I have come up with only two explanations for this; 1) Manned UPS facility service person is psychic. 2) Darby is a siren and she makes her wishes known to all around her.

Either way Darby is now home as is her wish, unpacked and filling her place in the living room wonderfully. I promise that I will soon put up pictures of the living room. It is coming along nicely. Especially now that Troy and Darby have made their way home.

To the Gym and Parts South with You

I made it to the gym last night. It felt great! 25 minutes on the elliptical and then another 20 (1 mile) on the treadmill. Hopefully I will remember just how good it feels and continue to go. Too bad the endorphin high has already worn off.

Tonight I have to head south of downtown to the UPS facility (the parcel service, not my Alma mater) to pick up Darby. I left work early yesterday to try to meet the UPS man when they said they would come by. They came nearly 2 hours earlier than they said they would. So instead of trying to catch them again today I just had the package re-routed for pick up at the "nearest manned facility." For some reason I find that term funny.

Here's hoping that Darby is waiting for me with little bells on. I certainly can't wait to see her.

The Living Room is "Done"

OK so it's not completely done but it's so close I can almost taste it. I wonder what living room tastes like?

This weekend I primed the newly textured living room walls and then painted both of those walls as well. I even hung a picture! It's starting to look a bit like a home. Thank the holy guy for that. I was beginning to lose a bit of patience with myself. OK not a bit of patience a LOT of patience.

This week is better than last week for all of the normal female reasons. Hopefully that will help me accomplish even more this week than last, like actually setting foot in the gym. You've got to have goals, right?

Here are my goals for foreseeable future: (I'm hoping that by writing them down I'll feel more empowered to make them happen.)

1) Go to the gym. Every other day would be GREAT!
2) Finish off the living room. Hang more pictures, attach shelves in tall Besta unit and attach to the wall, completely clean up from painting, remove old TV, sell/give away old TV stand.
3) Keep on top of the cleaning. Laundry, kitchen, bathroom. Having these items pile up makes me hate my home. Can't have that.
4) It would be wonderful to start on the den. Getting the den completed requires money to be spent on closet organization. So perhaps this has to wait for a bit. It's already been a really expensive month.
5) Painting needs to happen in nearly every room. The newly textured Kitchen wall, redo the bathroom to a better color, make the "hallway" match the living room, add color to bedroom and den.
6) Hang the new outdoor light and house numbers. Also, finally decide on a mailbox.
7) Fix the bedroom closet floor from where the sliding doors were removed.
8) Install the door handles in the kitchen.
9) Apply the "Organic" Wall Slicks All Grey's Combo Accent Pack on top of the privacy film on the bedroom window. Hoping it will give the window a bit of depth and "life".
10) Get patio area completed.
11) Insulate the crawl space and figure out sound proofing options for the bedroom wall.

I'd say that's enough for now. Although I'm certain there are more things I want to add to this list I'm going to leave it at that. I wonder if Blogger has a list function so I could make a list for each room and then cross them off as I get them done. Who doesn't love having a list and crossing things off of it?

Things are a happening...slowly

Several items happened as planned this weekend.

Ceiling painting finished. Troy arrived in all of his loveliness (I was napping on him within an hour of his arrival). Brother came to remove my old couch, chair and ottoman, which he is very much enjoying at his place. I bought a fab 32" LCD TV! One wall of the living room is now painted Gull Green.

So many things still need to happen; finish painting the walls, hook up new TV to wireless cable dealy, remove old TV and TV stand, and much anticipated arrival of Darby (Friday if UPS is telling me truths).

Last night I tried to hook up new TV and wireless cable dealy but couldn't seem to trouble shoot quickly enough to get a signal to the TV before prime-time TV was to start so I bagged it and resorted to old fashioned cables. The TV is great. It will be even better once it is in its proper location and wireless.

Hopes for tonight are: to get the wireless thingy worked out, cut holes in the back of BESTA to feed all of the cords, and get old TV and stand out of the living room. Depending on how long all of this takes I may even paint another wall, but don't hold your breath.

I should also work in an attitude adjustment for this evening. Any ideas on how to do that are welcome. Anger, Frustration and Blah have returned and I'd really like to figure out a way to evict them since they are very unwanted guests.

A Living Room Status Report

The current state of my living room:
- All furniture in the middle of the room covered in plastic.
- Perimeter of ceiling textured and painted. Then spackled, sanded and then retextured from where "crown" molding was removed leaving a divot in the ceiling which I was hoping would just be covered up well enough from just texture and paint, alas no.
- One coat of white ceiling paint applied (after first round of texturing) and another coat waiting to be applied (since perimeter now looks somewhat presentable).

Items set to arrive to beautify this currently NASTY space:
- Troy!!! My new sectional from Crate & Barrel is scheduled for delivery between 10 AM and Noon tomorrow, Saturday November 3rd.
- Darby Table by Victoria Hagen for Target. She really is too cute and too reasonably priced to pass up. She should arrive sometime between November 8th and 13th.

Items that need to leave in order to beautify this NASTY space:
- Navy Blue couch, chair and ottoman. Brother, please come get your "NEW" furniture.
- Black TV stand that is too deep and too big for where I want to put the TV.
- 27" Tube TV that is also too deep and too big for where I want to put the TV.

Items I "need" to buy (need being a relative term):
- 32" LCD TV
- Perhaps a storage ottoman to assist Darby in her life as a coffee table.
- Another chair or most likely two to round out the seating area and also serve as seating for an eating area.
- Table for above mentioned eating area.
- Curtains for HUGE front window and smaller side window.

When will all of this be done and the living room back up and functioning as an actual living room and not a hell hole? Not soon enough.