254 - By the fingernails

Today was just one of those days...

Mike worked on the truck and Bo was inside with me... 98% of the time he is adorable and well behaved. Today was the other 2%. It was a gorgeous day so he wanted to be outside running around, but we still don't have a fence so I can't just let him run as he pleases, every time we try to let him have some leeway, he runs up the road and doesn't come back until he's good and ready. It's too dangerous for him to be on the road because people don't slow down, and there are other dogs out sometimes... never know how that will go. He was pacing and whining at the window... pacing and whining. I'd take him outside, he wouldn't do anything. And then, I found puddles. After seemingly finding our groove, the last couple of days we've had issues again and I JUST mopped yesterday. So I took him outside and put him on the leash out there with Mike and got dressed to go out.

Long story short, I had something of a Ya-Ya moment and needed to get out of the house, so I went for a drive. I don't really get much opportunity to just leave without being on the clock as it were. When Mike and I leave together, Bo goes in the basement and it's either been cold and I worry about him being warm, or we're gone for a while and I worry he might run out of water... it's just always kind of hanging over me that we need to pay attention to the time. Not to mention that he hates the basement and I don't blame him. In general I'm a homebody so it doesn't bother me, but every once in a while I just want to escape. Mike has search and rescue to get him out of the house... he goes hunting... I don't have anything. No respite, no friends to call, as much as I love it here, sometimes I feel trapped. And as much as I love spending time with Mike, I occasionally want to run around on my own and be selfish, to shirk responsibility and just go and have me-time outside of the house. So I did. I drove around the area and explored. I considered a trip to Murfreesboro or Lebanon but decided to just see what's around here... honestly I haven't really explored near the house. I have about 20 minutes of time that I can leave Bo in the house without coming home to a mess, so I usually only have time to run to the bank or the local grocery store.

It's interesting that I didn't use my GPS to guide me but ultimately ended up making a large circle. Well, circles within a circle. There's some really nice stuff and some really crappy stuff out there. Ultimately the ride did what I needed it to do, it relaxed me and gave me a break and I came home in a better mood.

I've been stressed lately. Part of it is life in general, part of it is the clutter as we remodel. I am not good with clutter. I can stand it for a day or two, but after that it wears on me, and the longer it's there, the worse my mood gets. I'm ready to get stuff where it needs to be and frustrated that I can't make it go faster.

Last night's moon. Harvest moon? Was huge, but even with my new lens I couldn't get close enough.

Messy bird knocking all the seed out of the bird feeder.

Camo barn.

Sunset

Sunset mode on the camera. Makes it more vivid. It was pretty vivid on its own but not quite so electric.

I have bad days like today but most days I can find something to be excited about. Yesterday I got my seeds planted and into the greenhouse, I dusted our room, I mopped most of the house, I finished the laundry I'd bagged up... yesterday was alright as far as days go. Maybe tomorrow will be alright, too.

253 - Officially Redneck

Last night we thought we were going to a party, but found out we had our weekends mixed up. Mike thought he had a plan B, so I finally went to the local video store, and grabbed movies for a girl's night in. Well... me and Bo, who is pretty metrosexual and doesn't mind girly movies. Guess Mike's plan fell through, so we watched Haunter, the least girly of the movies and ended up going to bed early because we were worn out.

This morning Mike went on a rabbit hunt. If we weren't currently out of propane I'd fry it up on the stove, as it is, somehow our propane is gone so we're contemplating frying it in the turkey fryer instead. Ultimately we decided to hold off on the rabbit and we're grilling potatoes; I pulled some of our yummy smoked brisket out of the freezer yesterday... we're having bbq-baked taters. Lemonade from lemons.

Yeah, so Dec 27, I was chatting with Mike and mentioned that I checked the levels while we were walking... we had 50% of the tank left. Today Mike happened to check and it's at 0. Either the tank itself is leaking or the heater installation caused an issue. Or perhaps the gauge is busted, but I tapped on the side of the tank and it sounds pretty empty. In any case, it's no good... It's a lot of money that we don't need to spend. As usual. I'm so tired of bullshit.

I decided to try a homemade dusting recipe this afternoon. It's a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and lemon essential oil. It worked GREAT. The wood looks beautiful, it smells like Pledge, it's cheap, non-toxic and it was handy... I already had the supplies.

And my big accomplishment for the day... I looked up planting dates, put everything into a spreadsheet and organized my seeds. We bought a $25 greenhouse at Tractor Supply the other day and I have seed starter trays that I got from TS and Dollar General. I am ready to garden. Tomorrow I'll start filling up some trays and by April/May the seedlings should be ready to go into the ground. Maybe by then I will have caught up on my gardening lessons. I got off track with the cold weather, but the gardening bug is back.

And I got my camera lens. It makes a huge difference - I love it. So all in all I am happy with the outcome. My camera is awesome. The flip screen would have been cool, but I can live without it. Now I'm browsing Overstock to see what to spend my credit on.

252 - Wood

We laminated the header today. It is now one big, thick piece of wood... gonna be a hoot getting it up the stairs and installed where it needs to be... I can help a little, but it would be better to get Tom or someone to help. Lifting it into place? No idea how that's going to happen; but I'm almost sure Mike has a plan...

It's like wood lasagna.

Bo and the kittens had a nice little romp around the yard while we worked on it. I get nervous letting Bo out but he mostly stayed within visual range... mostly...

And he did mostly come back when we called... mostly...

Mike fixed our bedroom closet so that now we have two hanging rods with a shelf in between. Looks good. I'll have to use a stool to reach the top rod, but we can put stuff we don't wear as often up top and the rest can go on the lower rod. It's just nice to have extra space instead of everything being all scrunched up like it has been.

The bathroom closet is still a work in progress but it's close, just need shelving cut for the sides. The two shelves he added are already helping immensely. Soon I'll be able to empty some boxes and get everything organized.

And there has FINALLY been a resolution with my camera. Long story short, I am keeping the camera I originally got, they have sent the missing lens and I am getting a $75 credit. They did send the camera I asked for but even though I was told it would be black, it was white and completely hideous... the flip screen is a nice feature but I would be angry every time I looked at the camera, so it's going back. I guess I just need to get an anti-glare screen protector. It's not the resolution I originally wanted but I'm happy with it.

Bo is never more focused than when there is food involved... here he is staring pointedly at Mike's chicken wings

He has also taken to supervising me as I make his meals. Every time he sees the saute pan I use to cook his chicken, he gets excited and now he thinks it's "his" pan... And he goes bonkers over his Bo cookies. They smell really good but don't have much flavor that I can tell... yeah, I sampled one after they came out of the oven... he is very food centric. He's such a sweetie... we couldn't ask for a better puppy.

251 - Meh.

Another rainy day. All week... rain... flurries... rain/snow... showers... flurries... BLAH! I don't care too much except that I get better pics when there's sun out. Mike is hating it because he wants to be outside tinkering, and I don't blame him.

Mike got to work on the bathroom shelves last night. We still need one going lengthwise and then wood to complete the side shelving on both sides. It's going to help immensely... we still have boxes that we haven't unpacked... Storage... this house needs storage...

Monday, we will get dowels to increase the hanging space in our closets. They aren't very large, more like coat closets than anything else, but they are what we have to work with.

Tonight we will, perhaps, laminate the header so we can finally start moving the kitchen wall and get the pantry built. It's a pain in the butt not to have one, and adds to our already cluttered state to have a half finished project. I know we need to borrow tools from a friend, so we'll have to wait on that... I'm just ready to have it done. I'm looking forward to a pantry and I think it will be the biggest one I've ever had.

Also, my almost month long battle with Overstock seems to be nearing its end... I ordered my camera and their site pictured it with a flip screen. With the advent of LCD viewfinders and the the demise of actual viewfinders, the sun can cause a glare which makes it impossible to see what you're shooting at. The ability to move my screen around would resolve that somewhat. So when I received my camera I tried to use that feature but couldn't figure out how to get the screen to move, and in fact it appeared to be fixed in place. When I downloaded the user's guide, I found that this model doesn't have a flip screen after all.

So I contacted customer service. Went from an online chat representative, to another representative, to a supervisor and finally a manager. My solution was simple: swap out the camera bodies so that I get what I thought I ordered. They kept giving me stories about their warehouse and inventory and how they couldn't just swap the camera bodies, they'd have to have the whole camera and the bundle back. Then they tried to entice me with a camera that is two generations old, with 4 fewer megapixels, a slower shutter speed and no touchscreen... but it had a flip screen. They tried to dance around it... always using the word "comparable."

Well finally they are going to replace the camera body with the one I originally asked for, the one that is the same, but with the flip screen. Yes, that's correct. They will swap out the camera body now, which is what I suggested doing three weeks ago. I also realized that in focusing on the screen, I failed to notice that one of the lenses I was supposed to receive was not in the box. So they tried to duck out of that one by first making it seem as if they were doing me a favor by allowing me to keep the lens I have and just return the camera... which means I would still be short a lens. Then by giving me whatever lens is in the box with the new camera... one that goes to 84mm, when the lens I should have gotten goes to 150mm... that's almost double the zoom, so no thank you... I want the 150mm that I should already have.

I THINK they have have already shipped the camera body out. The manager is working on the lens issues, she knows by now that I'm not going to let it slide... It was supposed to have been in the box... since it wasn't, they need to provide it to me. Anyway, I guess we'll see tomorrow. If not I will call the corporate headquarters and take it up with them. I'm done settling for things. My life has been crappy enough and sometimes it is because I didn't fight when I should have. Lesson learned.

Tonight I'm going to make Pad Thai for dinner, but since the grocery store doesn't have rice noodles, I'm going to have to hope egg noodles will suffice. And we'll be watching The Walking Dead later. This season is looking really good. The prison setting was good for a while but started to feel stale, and all the new characters they brought on... eh, they didn't add much to the story. The Governor is finally dead... that's at least some progress; he was a loathesome individual. This season looks exciting... the group has been split up and who knows where some of them ended up since it was chaos. Only 4-1/2 more hours...

P.S. This gorgeous cardinal dropped by

250 - Date Night

BOOM! Knocked it out of the park - my wings AND my fries tasted as good as Wingstop tonight. Made half buffalo style and half a Michael Symon recipe that is hot but so delicious. Followed it up with chocolate milkshakes for dessert. Most of the days run together, but this Friday night was a date night. Country style. Now we're watching a tv series on Netflix and relaxing.

Other than that we've been slogging forward with the remodeling project. And bird watching.

Gorgeous female bird, who despite her muted coloring is still quite the knockout.

Her male counterparts is absolutely stunning. They are so incredibly blue.

And after I refilled the bird feeder this little guy showed up. Almost didn't see him hiding in the grass until his head twitched.

249 - Oh Deer

Ah the things you see when you go to to the bathroom...

First I saw just one... and then three... then five... then a sixth one popped up. So beautiful.

248 - Progress

We've been talking about how to solve our kitchen issue... the lack of a pantry, how closed off it is. Initially I wanted to put shelves in what is currently the mancave, but then I had an epiphany. The wall is offset where the chimney comes up from the basement, if we moved the kitchen wall out and made it flush, I could have a pantry in the kitchen where it makes a whole hell of a lot more sense, and we can use our dining room table as a countertop until we are ready to install something more permanent. It's not as open as we'd like, but it's a start, it gets us a pantry and a casual eating space/counter space and opens up the kitchen a bit.

We also need to add some shelves to the bathroom closet, rearrange the closets in the bedrooms, and add shelves to the basement so we can better organize our things. But one step at a time, the kitchen frustrates me the most and is a cheap fix. We've already scored some free pallets that I can use to make a decorative wall. Trust me, it'll be cool.

Anyway, we got started tonight. For about $100 we bought some lumber. The framing within the walls is also in very good shape, so if we can reuse them, we're even further ahead since that leaves the other lumber for the basement.

It may surprise you to learn that I didn't participate much in the demo. Mike was having too much fun and I'm still recovering from my cold. I helped clean up a bit, we'll finish that up tomorrow.

And, the job thing seems to be working itself out. That's all I know right now, but things look good and the happy feelings about the future that I experienced the other day seem to be bearing fruit. The fruit is always bittersweet, but at least there is fruit right?

Yesterday I made boudain. It wasn't the *best* boudain, but the fact that I made it was somewhat impressive and it looks like boudain. It's a start. I don't know how other people do it, but it took both Mike and I working together to stuff it into the casings.

I forgot to take a before picture, but this is about mid-demo on the living room side of the wall.

Kitchen side before... the wall heater has already been removed.

Mike working out some aggression.

Ta-da. Now we have to install headers where the pantry wall will go and remove the studs where the counter will go.

A mess.

So our plans are coming together. We have two versions, one where we have the money to do an addition, one where we make the most of what we have now with an eye to the future. They're both pretty exciting. Honestly, once we get our stuff out of storage we'll have two bedrooms so it won't seem as urgent to build a master suite... nice yes... eventually we want to... but for the moment we think maybe a half bath where the coat closet is, better storage options, get rid of some stuff, replace the windows, and we'll be on our way to living more comfortably. Mostly we just need to find a place for our things, to reduce the clutter, which will make the house feel bigger.

Being back on track feels nice regardless.