Puppies.

How cute is this? I can't stand it.

Cue the Choir of Angels

My I present the newest addition to our family. This little guy had a tough life before he came home. Nobody knows how he lived before his new mom and dad adopted him, but judging by the state of the rest of the house, it's safe to say that he wasn't getting a proper diet of Soft Scrub and bleach tablets. 

We haven't used the toilet yet, but for right now, I am happy that it's there. Plus, there's no bathroom door, and no curtain on the window. Lest I give my husband or the neighborhood a show no one wants to see, well, I'll go elsewhere. Door should go up tomorrow. 

Did indeed head over to the Depot this morning. They've been doing a lot of advertising about their new low low prices, and while I can't vouch for the low cost of anything we bought, mainly because we never seem to need anything that's reasonably priced and instead are fully financing the Southport Rd. Home Depot on our own, things do appear to be on sale A LOT. Plus, there were like 50 employees everywhere we looked. At least 5 people asked us if we needed help. And that's 5 more people than asked me at Lowes last time I was there. Plus, the people who did end up helping us at Home Depot did not treat me like a runny-nosed child asking for a blowtorch--heaven forbid a woman ask for grout sealer... Maybe I should just stuff the grout lines full of cookies. Ugh. 

Anyway, we will indeed be patronizing the Depot, and have decided that, at least until Home Depot pisses us off (which it will... we're there far too often for 100% satisfaction), we're not going to Lowes anymore. I feel good about this decision. 

Picked out the paint color of my dreams today. I am SO pleased. This is Koala Bear. Lame name, I know, but I am surely loving it on the walls. I don't know why I didn't pick this out the first time, or the second. 

In other news, I had a great conversation with a dear old friend who lives in Australia, which totally made my night. We used Skype, and I am now a huge HUGE fan. Free video calling. Perfect. 

"It's more like an Egyptian mummy than anything ever seen on this continent"

Fascinating! Eric is watching the Sci-Fi channel, home to some of the best acting and cinematic achievement on television. Good lord, I can feel my brain cells dying by the second. The show is called The Fallen Ones and the description: "An archaeologist finds the remains of a giant warrior."

Do you ever worry about the future of our country?

I guess we're going to the Depot in a while, after Eric finishes his interminably long weekend morning routine, which includes several cups of coffee, bathroom, grooming, bathroom, and picking out which of the 19 pairs of cargo shorts he owns that he will wear. Meanwhile, I've been up since 7:30 because Pixie will not let me sleep past 7:30, have done the dishes, Swiffered, walked the pups, texted Ashie several times after learning about her raucous Friday night, and talked with my sister about how this house is sucking all the fun out of my life, among other things.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy here. REALLY happy, because, after all, if I wasn't here I'd probably still be in Boston. And Boston made me REALLY unhappy (in general--there were some things that were pretty darn super about it). But perhaps it's a signature of those of us who choose to enter into a relationship with a house, where we give up a lot of the stuff that makes us fun to be around.

For instance, I cannot have a conversation about ANYTHING without it turning to the house. A co-worker comments on the color shirt I'm wearing--I immediately say something like, "Oh, thanks! We're thinking of a shade of this color for the foyer." A friend says, "You were sick last week. Feeling better?" I say, "Much better, thanks, but I think it's the drywall dust that's making my allergies act up, and we've got SO MUCH more drywalling to do. Do you know of a good mask?" Seriously, I used to be interesting. And I used to be smart--not to toot my own horn, but I looked back at some work I did in 2004-05 in grad school, and jeez louise, it was fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that me in 2008 did not understand what me in 2005 was talking about.

So, anyway, we're off to the Depot. Maybe we'll buy a nail gun so we can put up the million pieces of trim that have been sitting in our dining room since May. Maybe we'll get the mushroom colored paint for the master bathroom that I've been dreaming of but can't match my dreams to reality. Maybe, but probably not, we'll clean up the debris and building materials on our front porch (in our defense, we utilize the house across the street as a litmus test--when she removes the dresser, 14 chairs, ceramic rabbits, and bowling pins from her front porch, we'll know it's time to bite the bullet and clean ours) .

We used to be normal. Really.

EDIT: Apparently, The Fallen Ones were "the offsprings (yes, offSPRINGS) of fallen aliens." Well, that explains everything.

YES!

We're doing laundry!!!!!

Random

Pixie has eaten yet another of Eric's beloved Patriots coasters. This is number 4 of 5. She must be a Colts fan. 

Eric is understandably upset since he feels 1) betrayed by the horrific games the Patriots have had so far, and 2) that somehow he could have affected said games outcomes if only he was there to watch them. So he said to me, "I want you to make sure that she doesn't get my last Pats coaster." And I said, "So put it up somewhere."

"I did."

"Well, Pixie didn't climb up on the mantel and get your coaster."

"It was under the candle, I think."

"Pixie didn't lift up the candle and remove your coaster, either."

___________________________________________________________

Several weeks ago Eric came to me with a very serious look on his face. "Sweetie," he said, "I have a dilemma for you." One, Eric is 99% never serious. Two, he never uses words like dilemma. I was worried.

"So, the Patriots game is not going to be televised on any of our channels. You have two choices. Either we can get DirecTV season ticket, or I can fly back to Boston to go to the game. It's your choice." 

____________________________________________________________

I trimmed out the master bath with primer tonight. Just trimmed. No actual painting. I hate HATE trimming, and I hate priming even more. Together, it is the perfect storm of Haley misery. Then I went to the upstairs bathroom and put primer over the gray smudges of paint I left on the ceiling up there. What I don't understand is how I broke a sweat doing this. I like to think it's because it's about 20 degrees hotter closer to the ceiling. What I really think is that I'm becoming very Hoosier-esque in my proportions. Must exercise. 

Meanwhile, Eric is eating ice cream with smushed up Oreos in it. And I'm considering some candy. 

What?? 

Ahhhh....

I decided that tonight, and only tonight, I would do absolutely nothing house related. It has been nothing short of freaking MAGICAL. It would be even more magical if I had a toilet close to my bedroom, but that is my lot in life. 

I've been hanging out all night reading, eating lots of different things, and making howling noises to annoy the dogs. 

The night off is necessary. I'm crazy CRAZY tired tonight, and I'm feeling old and decrepit and like my body is turning on me. My hands are aching and cut up and my knees hurt and my ass hurts, and good lord, as I was stretching this morning at work (what? I sit at a desk all day--I get stiff), my shoulder fell out of its socket. Old yoga injury. And it took me 30 seconds to pop it back it, and all the while I'm growing more and more panicked that my fingers are starting to tingle and pain's shooting through my elbow. And then it popped back in and I'm fine, but it's sore as hell and I have no strength in my right arm. 

So, yeah. Awesome day. I'm going to bed. 

RE: TWIWEH v. 2.0

I spent several hours grouting this afternoon, and I discovered that it's pretty much the only part of tiling that I like to do. There are nice neat seams to fill in and I can tell where I'm messing up--pretty much my idea of a good time these days. 

 

While I waited the two hours for the grout to harden entirely, so I could get down on all fours and polish it like a crazy woman, I used my new Swiffer Wet Jet. Now, I'm a big fan of the original Swiffer, and use it all the time. But I may have found my new favorite tool, after nippers and a grout float. The Wet Jet is freaking awesome. Our floors are super clean. I'm happy. 

Anyway, I did get down on all fours and polish. Here's what it looks like now. In three days, we'll vacuum and make sure every last bit of dust is up, and then we'll seal. And maybe then I can do laundry.

 

Earlier today, while Eric and his cousin were watching the game, I went on a quest for bathroom mirrors. Stopped at Home Goods, which I hated because I was just looking for one thing, though had I been just browsing, perhaps looking for a kitty cat sweatshirt or cornucopia or something to put on my front porch, I would have been in business. As it was, they had about 300 mirrors, none of which appealed to my aesthetics, which were: wood, rectangle, no engraved flowers, designs, words like "live, love, learn" or something like that. I found nothing. 

Then I stopped at Kohls, and was sorely disappointed. I was tempted to buy some candles, but figured that I should stick to my guns. 

At this point, I really had to go to the bathroom, so I decided to head back home, mirrorless. But as I was driving past Target, I decided just to hold it and went inside and found two mirrors for the half bath and the 3rd floor bath. Sweet. I also found some garbage bags and some band-aids, which would have come in really handy yesterday as I was dripping blood all over the tiles from tiny ceramic-caused cuts on my hands. No bandaids. I used toilet paper wrapped in painter's tape around my fingers. And I sort of congratulated myself on my ingenuity. I may or may not have infected fingers right now.