Happy Friday: It's All In The Wrist

Our formerly rotten bathroom floor...

Is there anything better than whipping your house into shape? Well, OK, sure. Lots of things are better than cleaning house and repairing stuff. But! Taking care of these issues sure is nice.

HUBS and I finally had a sump pump put in our basement so that it won't flood anymore. It'll take us a while to pay that work off, but at least it's DONE.

Since the beginning of the year, we've had insulation added to the attic and basement, the kitchen plumbing replaced, the bathroom floor replaced, the toilet fixed and upgraded and we're about to add an electric outlet in the basement.

Holy shit, we're on a ROLL NOW!

We've also been getting rid of mounds of clothes, shoes, dishes, electronics and various useless household items we've been holding on to for way too long.

It's almost, very slightly, like living in a new house. And that's nice.

What's going on, peeps? Let's see...

1) Autocorrect never fails to fail spectacularly.

2) Want to take better photos? It's really not that hard.

3) If you loved Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers as a kid, immerse yourself in this & this.

4) Virginia Woolf thinks all writers should keep a journal.

5) If you need help getting motivated to do...anything, while depressed, Psych Central has 12 tips for you.

Oh, yeah! Have a great weekend, everyone!

At Least There's A Good Reason This Time

I'm tired again. But, this time I'm sore too, because I spent about eight hours yesterday cleaning, moving furniture, vacuuming and organizing in an effort to remake our little library. The best part? Aside from smelling like a horse at the end of all that, the area still looks messy as all hell.

It all started when HUBS called Monday night from a solo shopping trip saying he'd found several storage bench options for the foot of the bed. We've been scoping benches for a few months, but the only one we liked was at Target during our penniless period a couple of weeks ago. And, of course, that one's not for sale anymore.

So, after picking up some stuff (including a Dyson, which works incredibly well but costs way more than I've ever thought a vacuum should) he came and got me so I could see what he found at Homegoods.

Now, HUBS doesn't have bad taste or anything, but his ideas about what will look good where tend to be a bit different from mine. Also, he occasionally likes unattractive things. I wasn't that impressed with any of the benches he found, but I did see one he managed not to notice at all.



See how cool that looks at the foot of the bed? It's a slightly off white leather, and as soon as we set it up I loved it. Now I'm looking for a (under $20) bright yellow or turquoise lacquer tray that I can sit on top and put those books in.

I managed to clear out three under bed storage boxes by filling the bench. That opened up space under the bed for some of the crap that's been cluttering the corners of the library. Which led to me dusting things as I moved them around and then vacuuming the open spaces and then rearranging stuff and vacuuming some more.

Boy howdy! I was not expecting to spend that amount of time on this yesterday! But, at least I've made some headway into this get-it-done-in-2011 project.

I'm also trying to arrange the library in a way that will (somewhat unobtrusively) accommodate HUBS' bike on a stationary stand. The couch will likely have to go the way of Goodwill, but I'll miss the way it looks there. Any design buffs out there? With any ideas?

Happy Friday! Meet Our New Tree...

Wow, Monday was quite the experience. Within an hour of taking all those cool shots of the snow, our neighbor's tree fell into our backyard. It destroyed her fence and ours (though ours was rather shabby anyway), and narrowly missed our deck. Thank God we had to remove our backyard tree a few years ago, or that likely would have smashed into our deck.

After doing a walk around to check out the damage, we did our taxes. When I cashed in my 401k to pay our credit card bills, the lady at the bank estimated the state taxes. (The Feds don't play, they take that shit out before you even get your hands on your 401k funds.)

I put that amount plus an extra thousand into a CD so we wouldn't spend it. Well, after doing the taxes we realize she way, way overestimated the amount. What does this mean? Holy Fuckballs! It means we have money for groceries and maxi pads again, that's what it means! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!

We went out to an early dinner to celebrate and then headed over to the nearby theater for a preview of The Lincoln Lawyer. By the by? Film and soundtrack were awesome.

It's nice to, once again, have some financial pressure taken off. We can actually add to that teeny tiny savings account I started a few months ago! Maybe take a real vacation! Take another class! Finally go to a concert! Money can be so exciting...

Well, my weekend is going to be filled with grocery shopping and probably at least one meal out. Let's part to an amazing performance by Jessie J on last week's SNL. Have a great weekend, guys!

Tuesday Tipday Wednesday: For Your Kitchen, Or, Home Ownership Can Drive You Batty

Monday's exhausting night led into an even more exhausting Tuesday. A two and a half hour nap was brought on by what can only be described as Home Repair Despair.

As I was feeding the stray cats that morning, a neighbor pointed out to me that (wait for it...) our gutters were falling down! Looks like last week's snow has melted and refrozen just enough to clog our gutters and then drag them down from the heft. The panicked anger that followed really cannot be described.

After I found someone to come out and do an estimate, I called PT to vent and broke down like the champ I am: crying hysterically, yelling, pacing the floor and barely speaking coherently from all the not-being-able-to-quite-catch-my-breath. Why so freaked out, you wonder? Well, last weekend I was setting about fulfilling 2011 goal #5, when I did the math and realized that after paying off all those credit card bills last fall, HUBS and I will still be behind (by $32.20) when the 401k money runs out.

This means that we will, once again, have negative cash left after paying all our bills. No money for groceries, toothpaste, cat food or entertainment. None. So, once the 401k train has left the station, we'll be fucked yet again. And now we have a home repair to attend to. I was hoping it would cost no more than $120, but I can deal with the $385 first estimate to replace all the gutters with stronger ones.
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Well, on to today's tippy goodness. I told you last week how much I've come to lovelovelove Mad Hungry? Well, there's been one negative side effect: I think I'm addicted to cookbooks, because now I want every cookbook ever written. EVER.

I have spent countless hours since buying MH trolling Amazon for other cookbooks. I'm reading reviews and excerpts, comparing prices at other sellers and getting giddy from the thought of buying them. Now, since I haven't actually finished MH, I have been able to restrain myself and haven't bought a single thing. But, if chopping, peeling and measuring is your idea of a good time, today's tip comes courtesy of my current cookbook wish lists above and below.



So, what cookbooks do you love?