Un Mélange

A "mélange," for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is a mixture, a grouping of relatively incongruous elements. Just so you know.

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My dad returned home from the hospital on Friday. He still has an IV port in his arm, from which he will receive antibiotics every six hours for two weeks. Then, it will switch to every eight hours for the following six weeks. I brought my parents groceries and dinner last night and had a nice visit with them. He is looking so much better and is up and walking around a bit, getting his strength back (he said he lost twenty pounds because of this ordeal!). I want to truly thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

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Yesterday, it also snowed. WTF.

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Also yesterday, of course on the first day of snow since, ohidontknow, February, I helped put on a bridal shower for one of my dearest friends. I will be a bridesmaid in her wedding at the end of April, and it will be a lovely affair. Here is a sampling of the loveliness (her, not me):

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Husband and I spend most of the weekend working on the house (although I had to ditch him for the bridal shower on Sunday afternoon). We are both getting very burnt out. I would love to take some time off of work and just have a fun day for the two of us (which would include sleeping in), but we would only end up feeling guilty for wasting the day on frivolity without working on the house. We really are getting closer. The majority of the house has been painted. All major purchases except for carpeting have been made. We are mostly in a holding pattern now, waiting for the wood floors, kitchen cabinets, and appliances to arrive. I know that we have come a long way; it just seems we have so much farther to go; the light at the end of the tunnel grows dim.

It seems to me the insanity began three weeks ago when I had my wisdom teeth out. Then I had work to catch up on and Dad went into the hospital and the renovations at the house heated up. I am hopeful April doesn't cause us to voluntarily commit ourselves to the mental institution. Although, it would be a good excuse to get away from the house...

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I just had lunch with two beautiful ladies whom I adore, Dedracula and BlindIrishPirate. I haven't been a very good friend to a lot of people lately because of The Craziness (I know, excuses, excuses), but it warms my heart to sit and eat and chat with people I love. They both have beautiful souls and are lovely inside and out, no matter when length their hair is. ;-)

Are you a loser or something?

I think it's kind of sad how many of these I can check off. I guess at least, by his standards, I'm not a loser or old or something...

Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something

A Game to Pass the Time

Courtesy of BlindIrishPirate:

Just choose one picture, one poem, one song, one quote, one article of clothing, one location, and one Disney Princess. Whether it is on your mind or your favorite...

The picture and song go hand in hand:


I Could Have Danced All Night
Bed! Bed! I couldn't go to bed!
My head's too light to try to set it down! Sleep! Sleep!
I couldn't sleep tonight.
Not for all the jewels in the crown!
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting;
Why all at once My heart took flight. I only know when he
Began to dance with me I could have danced,
danced, danced all night!

One quote: Helen Keller
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

One article of clothing: Red patent leather stilettos

One location: Giverny


One Disney Princess: Jasmine

Out with the old...

...and in with the new.


These daffodils are blooming right outside my office. They made me smile this morning. Spring has sprung, and like the renewal of the season, our house is getting a renewal of its very own. We seemed to get a lot done this weekend, including installing two new ceiling fans, one for our master bedroom and the other for the living room. I'm not in love with ceiling fans, but I'm naming the living room ceiling fan "Compromise" and the bedroom ceiling fan "Acceptance." At least they are kind of pretty in their modernity. They each come with a battery-powered remote which will either get even cooler as time goes on, or even more annoying when the remote gets lost in the couch cushions and bedclothes.


We also installed the new front door, which is linear and sparkly, two of my favorite qualities in inanimate objects.


A giant hole in the half bath behind the medicine cabinet was also discovered. The previous owners pulled out all of the easy route stops. Instead of finding a stud with ohidontknow a stud finder, they instead punched a hole in the wall and installed a slat of wood on which they mounted the medicine cabinet. And then never patched the hole. Klassy with a kapital K.


Meanwhile, paint is continuing to cover every square inch of the Old Ugly. Here's our new chocolate upstairs bathroom. Soon, we will be installing a mottled brown floor to match and sharp, white vanity.


And here's our REDRUM guest bedroom. Want to come have a sleepover? I promise s'mores and pillow fights.


The paint is even finally seeping down our stairwell. A nice, calm "Pebble Beige" that will continue throughout the living room and possibly serve as the major neutral for the kitchen and downstairs hallway. I declined mounting the scaffold to paint, however. I'm just not that brave.


And, finally, one of the most exciting changes is the eradication of the kitchen wall. If you remember the strange six-inch wide opening for dinner plates? stooped conversation? utter decorative laziness? you will understand why this wall had to go. This is where we are going to put a breakfast bar and some arty hanging lights. OH! And we also purchased our kitchen appliances this weekend. LG. Slick. After almost two years without a kitchen of our own, at least this one will be well worth the wait. This is going to be kick-ass.

The biggest sigh of relief...

My blog has been rather bereft of posts lately because my dad was admitted to the hospital this past Monday, and nothing else seemed quite as important to me. He has been dealing with terrible, clenching back pain since the end of January, and three emergency room visits and countless pain medication prescriptions later, they finally admitted him for testing. They discovered he had a staph infection (probably the same one he had earlier in February). He had been taking a great amount of pain medication for the back pain, as well as ibuprofen, and that might have kept his fever down, tricking doctors. During his testing this week, they discovered a mass on his spine, and he was sent for a biopsy. The word "mass" is terrifying in its ambiguity. All I could think about this past week was the dreaded "c-word," the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named of all of my conversations. Thankfully (if there be any thanks in this situation), the biopsy revealed that it is a mass of infection, more staph, which has probably been causing his back pain. They are giving him heavy duty antibiotics and pain medicine "stronger than morphine" (I didn't realize there was such a thing...is it crystal meth?). I'm not excited about his diagnosis, but it should be treatable and help him back to his old self someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, because he has suffered so much recently. He will be in the hospital a few more days and will go home with an IV, but he has definitely been where he needs to be (plus, that new hospital is like the Hilton, seriously, have you been in that place? I kept looking around for the pool and weight room...).

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Off kilter

This past week and weekend were strange and have thrown me rather off kilter, so I'm trying to play catch-up. I didn't end up working Tuesday-Friday, so I have a mountain of work piled up (which I really should be...uhm...working on instead of blogging, but I am the master of my own misery).

As an aside, I'm almost off chocolate pudding and don't care if I never again drink another milk chocolate Ensure.

Thanks in part to my wisdom tooth removal and mostly to our home renovations, I awoke this morning to find my wallet weeping tears of pure sorrow. The amount of money we spent this past week/weekend is sickening.

But we got a helluva lot of cool shit.

Apart from the pricey surgery (thanks, dental insurance...I'll be dropping you soon!), Husband purchased two guns, a shotgun and a pistol, because I am afraid of a zombie invasion and he is afraid of the government-subsidized apartments that are next to our new house. I'm not thrilled with the idea of guns in our house (they will be locked away when we reproduce), but I will feel just a little bit safer when the hordes of brain-eating undead come knocking on our door.

We also finally ordered new cabinets for our kitchen, which, unfortunately, only totaled about half of our final bill at one of the giant hardware stores. We also purchased vanities, tile, lighting, and countless other pieces necessary to make our house a home (and, admittedly, some unnecessary pieces). We're still fine on our budget (thanks, Obama!), but we still need to purchase our bamboo flooring and kitchen appliances. It feels like we're making progress, though, simply because our living room is stuffed with things waiting for installation.

Now is the part of the blog that I would post thirteen thousand pictures of the minutiae of our renovations, except that my camera told me the battery was "exhausted" yesterday, so instead, here is a picture of a cute kitten in a sweater.

YOU'RE WELCOME!

Back in the saddle again...

Hello, my lovelies! I am back, more or less intact.

I went in to have my four wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday, and the experience was better than I had feared (isn't that always the case?) I don't remember much after the doctor inserted the needle into my arm (although I do remember wondering if he was going to put on a lab coat or something because I was envisioning bleeding all over his lovely yellow checked shirt and khakis). Suddenly, my memory starts to pick up again with me in the car (how I got there, I know not!) with Husband poking me every so often to keep me awake (bite on the gauze! Bite, I tell you!)

Husband dropped me off at my parents' house, and there I stayed until just a few hours ago. I did some sleeping and some tv watching, but mostly I think I was there for slave labor. My mom enlisted me to make dozens of rolls for a funeral dinner our church is hosting tomorrow, and I also painted a very large sheet to look like a tomb as well as a tall mural to hang next to the sheet for the one-day vacation bible school coming up. I don't even go to church anymore, what in the world was I doing? Slave labor serves as a good diversion at least...

I'm still doped up on my oxycodone, but I am gettine ever closer to solid food and coherency...I think...you tell me...

And the beat goes on...

We spent the better part of this weekend working on the house, breaking only to go to The Biggest City Within 50 Miles to watch the Canadian Mist Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour Saturday night.

It felt like we made some progress on the house, and I know we got our hands dirty. Here are the highlights:


Husband, being very manly, using a power tool. He and Brother-In-Law disassembled the kitchen cabinets and this was the result:


How satisfying!


The only prize they received was discovering some year-old cat vomit on top of one of the cabinets. I do not think words can even express how excited I am to get brand new, vomit- and hair-free cabinets.


Again with the power tools. Husband also took down the screen door that was destroyed by wind months ago, before we owned the house. But honestly, I didn't take this picture to document our renovation journey. I took this picture solely because of his glorious ass. Seriously, people, that thing could cure cancer. You're welcome to squeeze the merchandise, but, unfortunately for you, it isn't for sale.


Meanwhile, Father-In-Law finished painting our master bathroom a beautiful "Thunderstorm" color. Very soothing light slate gray, and the picture is actually pretty true to the color this time.


We also picked out our tile for the master bathroom and attached walk-in closet. It is also a light slate blue/gray/possibly even green ceramic tile. And I am in LOVE. Plus, it is on CLEARANCE. This proves that my love can be bought. Cheaply.

The world is full of beautiful things...

Butterfly wings, fairy tale kings
And each new day undoubtedly brings
Still more beautiful things

Thanks, Bobby Darin, for that lovely segue into a small taste of Branch, a Web site I stumbled across this morning that promotes "sustainable design for living." Just because it's good for Ma Nature doesn't mean it has to be ugly. Note, the beautiful things:
This 14" "Granite Pillow" retails for $188 - a little out of my price range for ONE pillow, but could the woven puzzle design get ANY CUTER? Answer: No, no it cannot.

This "Birdfeeder" is $84, again, a little pricey, but this is what I would want to eat out of if I was a bird! Can you imagine the contrast between the crisp white and the glittering feathers of a little golden finch (my favorite bird)? I would have three of these hanging on either side of my porch, if I could! I wonder if it comes with birdseed...And finally, a "Cortica Chaise Lounge." I won't even mention the price on this (my wallet tried to jump out the window and commit suicide when I peeked), but the beauty of the pure cork is undeniable. If I didn't like eating so much, I would totally buy two of these and display them on our front porch (right beneath the gorgeous birdfeeder above!). Can't you imagine a quiet spring day, perhaps raining lightly, with a glass of lemonade and a book and this chair?

The Ides of March

So, I don't really remember exactly when the Ides of March is (March 15?) or what it entails; I just know that it is bad. March is an unpredictable, sloppy month. It could still snow. It will probably rain. You're bound to get muddy one way or the other.

Now I have another reason to dislike March. One week from today I will be flat on my back, (hopefully) completely unconscious, having my poor little wisdom teeth ripped from my head - all four of them. If you can't tell, I'm not exactly excited about it.

While I'm not looking forward to the procedure in the least, I can honestly say that I will be happy to have the whole experience over with, never to be repeated. I can tell my four teeth are starting to poke through, and they have been really hurting these last few weeks (although I'm convinced that's just psychological; they didn't hurt too much before I scheduled the appointment and started dreading the date).

I'm the wimpiest of wimps. I've never broken a bone or even had my blood drawn. I could barely bring myself to pull my own teeth when I was a child. Often, the dentist would have to pull them for me (somehow that was better...). I never really feared the dentist, in spite of years of braces, but I've also never had a cavity filled or any other major dental work done. The worst dentist visit I can remember was when he was about to pull one of my baby teeth. I started that annoying, high-pitched squeal children expel when they're about to burst into tears. He smacked me on the shoulder and said sharply, "Stop that!" I was so shocked that he hit me that I immediately stopped crying, my tooth was pulled, and I bounced out of the office with my sticker and new toothbrush.

I think I probably have a false impression of the wisdom tooth extraction aftermath because of Husband. He was terribly sick from the pain medication and looked like the most pathetic of chipmunks for days (and he only had two pulled!). On the opposite side of the spectrum, a dear friend of mine had her wisdom teeth extracted recently, and she was back to work the next day!

I really don't think I have that kind of dedication...but I sure hope I get a sticker next Tuesday...