Muuuuch better

I'm feeling much better these days. In fact, it only took a day or two for me to get out of my funk last week. About half of the scab fell off my nose, and I started seeing scar tissue, which was a big improvement. The rest of the scab just fell off today (I know, ewww!) and I'm finally starting to see what it will look like eventually. There's some lumpy spots still, around the edges (where the stitches were) but for the most part it's nice & smooth, and when the pink & lavender color fades, it will look very normal again, I think.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty mellow around here. Like most folks, we had a "staycation" instead of a "vacation." Gas is too darned expensive to go anywhere (over $60 to fill my tank this morning! OMG!). Plus, Mr Wonderful had to work -- hospitals don't close for holidays. So I filled my weekend with other fun things: watching the Indiana Jones movie, getting a pedicure, lunching with friends, and painting the last wall in Tomboy's room. Did I mention that she has three walls in her room painted ACID GREEN? Yeah, ugh. But that's what she chose - and it matches her bed linens perfectly. I painted the fourth wall chocolate brown yesterday, and I think it looks fantastic. It does a lot to offset the crazy green color. Now we just need to get some curtains, a rug, and some decorative stuff for the walls.

Oh yeah, and I bought a Playstation 3 yesterday. I know, I know. But it's got a blu-ray disc player built in, and I was planning on buying one of those anyway, so why not spend the extra $100 and get an upgraded video game player at the same time? It really is awesome; the graphics are incredible (especially hooked up to my HDTV with the HDMI cable!), and the new Guitar Hero III (which I also bought) is loads of fun for Mr Wonderful and the kids. We watched the pilot episode of LOST on the PS3 last night, just to see what it was like with a regular DVD, and the upgrade was amazing. You could see the forest reflected in Jack's eye in the opening shot.

Babydaddy and I are discussing the possibility of letting Rugrat be a "latchkey kid" next school year. It would be really nice to not have the daycare expense, but fourth grade still seems pretty young to me. In the meantime, he'll be out of daycare this summer, spending most of the time here with me, but I'm lining up some activities for him to do for a few of those weeks. He'll have sleep-away summer camp for a week in late July, and we've got our family camping trip in late June, but I'm also going to put him in some summer programs through the city. There will still be a lot of unscheduled time though, and one of the ways that he needs to show us that he's ready to be a latchkey kid is by entertaining himself for long periods of time without bugging me (since I'll be working). I'm not saying I need to have perfect silence and never hear from him, but I can't have him telling me he's bored every five minutes either. So this is one of our "tests."

Another thing we're working on is responsibility: he has a tendency to forget things at school sometimes (although he's been MUCH better this year than in previous years), so he needs to remember all of his stuff (backpack, lunchbox, homework, sweatshirt) every day through the end of the schoolyear. And even more importantly, I gave him a copy of the house key. He has to know where the key is at all times. I told him I will randomly check to see if he knows where the key is, and he has to always know, because if he loses his house key, he'd be locked out for hours.

And finally, there's the cell phone dilemma. Babydaddy doesn't have a landline, just a cell phone. And I would feel a lot better about Rugrat walking or riding his bike home alone if he had a cell phone with him, in case of emergencies. A landline would be fine once he's in the house, but if he got locked out (like if he lost his key) a cell phone would be preferable. And it wouldn't cost much to add him to my plan; I've got a family plan already. But nine and a half years old? That's awfully darn young to have a cell phone. And it's another huge responsibility. He might be ready for it, but I don't want to overload him with too many big responsibilities at once.

What do you think? Is fourth grade too young to spend a few hours home alone each day? It wouldn't be more than two or three hours a day, and he's a pretty level-headed kid. He seems to have outgrown a lot of his rambunctious impulsiveness in the past year or so. He's also very anxious to prove that he's ready and responsible enough to do this; it's something he really wants to do, not something we're pushing him into. How young were your kids when you first started leaving them home alone after school? And what about the cell phone issue? At what age and under what circumstances would you give your child a cell phone?

Busy month

Stupid hectic month. I just got an email from a friend wondering if I'd up & died because she hadn't heard from me in a while and I realized that this month has been a complete ball of crazy:

• Mr Wonderful's uncle died and we had to go to Red Bluff for the funeral a few weeks ago; one hour before the actual funeral we found out that his COUSIN just died and Mr Wonderful's mom and sister totally lost their shit - two deaths within a week.
  
  
• I went in for my consult with the surgeon last week; surgery for my skin cancer is scheduled for 2 weeks from now (May 12) and I am going to have a scar but hopefully it will look much better than it does now.
  
  
• Mr Wonderful went on his trip to Pahrump with friends for some gun class for five days and I was stuck here alone with the kids all weekend, which sucked. We painted 3/4 of Tomboy's bedroom that weekend (three walls LIME GREEN - ugh, but she loves it). I got a cold and was not only grumpy but sick as well.
  
  
• I found out my sister's pregnant again. Also, we're going camping up in Humboldt Redwoods State Park at the end of June: Mr Wonderful & I & the kids, plus my sister & her family, plus my cousin & HER son, plus Mr Wonderful's sister & HER family. 7 adults, 8 kids. Gonna be fun!
  
  
• My mom called when she found out about my sister being knocked up and tried to get me to tell her I'm getting married, and I told her she'd be the first to know, he hasn't asked me yet, GOD, Mom! Chillax! Once the ring is paid off, he'll propose, and THEN I will tell you I'm getting married. We all know I'm marrying this guy, it's not going to be a huge surprise or anything. But I'm not making any plans, setting any dates, or officially saying "I'm engaged" until I he actually pops the question, mmkay? Smooches!
  
  
• I had a couple of stupid PMS breakdowns and took off for a while by myself this past weekend. I was going to stay overnight somewhere but instead just ended up driving for 9 hours and making a big loop through the north bay area and then came home. I just needed to get my head back on straight because I felt like I was getting a little nutso, and a road trip was just the ticket. I ended up finding mecca: the Cowgirl Creamery in Pt Reyes, where they actually MAKE the cheese! It was awesome, and totally coincidental. I parked less than half a block from the place; I was just looking to get out of the car, stretch, maybe get some coffee or something & take a piss, and lo & behold -- the home of the best cheese ever!
  

I'm ready for May to be a nice calm relaxing month. Can we do that? Please?

What happened to February?

It's been over a month since I've posted...I can't believe how time flies.

The house remodeling is nearly done (well, at least the downstairs). The bathroom is done, with everything new except for the toilet. The kitchen is almost done as well - new lighting, flooring, paint, sink, and...almost all the countertops. Stupid IDIOTS keep screwing up the bar. We ordered the bar countertop at home depot, along with everything else. The bar was to be 80.75 inches long. They delivered it (along with rest of the countertops) several weeks ago...but the bar was only 80 inches long. Even though it said quite clearly on both the original order AND the shipping manifest: 80.75 inches. So Babydaddy & I went over to Home Depot and told them that they sent the wrong size. Of course they got all confused and it took a good half hour to straighten them out, but they sent off the order again. Two weeks later, the new bar was delivered: 80 inches AGAIN! Are those people on dope? And if they are, can they get me some? Because it must be some good shit. So they called again this last Tuesday, wanting to ship it out (only a week later this time) and I asked the girl, is it 80.75 inches this time? And she's all, let me check. So I hold on for fifteen minutes while she putzes around, smokes a doob, and gets back on the line to say, "Oh, sorry, I was looking at the old manifest; yours should be in next week." Sigh.

Also done: new fireplace surround (slate tile - yay!) and mantel custom-built by Babydaddy. New six-panel doors - painted & almost all new doorhandles installed. Bought some tumbled stone mosaic tile for the backsplash in the kitchen, which just came in yesterday at HD. The end is in sight....I'll just take a break for a while and then we'll tackle the upstairs bathrooms, which should be fairly quick & easy.

Last month there were two birthdays: Babydaddy's, and my friend K's. For Babydaddy, I made him a special dinner. His requests? "Something with cauliflower, some asparagus, some pasta (so Rugrat will have something he'll eat), and some meat." He bought some delicious pork chops from Kinder's and I seared & roasted them. I made roasted asparagus with sea salt & pepper & olive oil, and cauliflower au gratin (which was super-yummy), and pasta with sauteed crimini mushrooms and olive oil & spices. Oh, and I got him a cheesecake too - his favorite.

For K's birthday, last weekend, we went to Vegas. We drove out and stayed at the casino where her mom works, and went to a couple of clubs. We had a bunch of stuff comped - free dinner one night, loads of free drinks, free hotel room. We also got VIP entrance (no line, no cover) at the clubs we went to. It was awesome (and cheap!). The club we went to on Friday was amazing, too - Body English in the Hard Rock casino. I have never seen so many gorgeous people in one place - that casino was just CRAWLING with hotties! Oh, and I saw Z & N (my step-siblings) at the Hard Rock -- they live in Vegas so they came out to meet us for drinks. The club on Saturday, Jet at the Mirage, sucked though. The DJ was awful, and we were tired and sore from the night before. Oh well, can't be fabulous all the time, I guess.

Unfortunately, between the super-dry air of Vegas and all the alcohol, I ran down my immune system pretty hard and when I came back home I got hit with a vicious flu bug. With a temp of 103, I went to the Doctor's office on Tuesday afternoon and got a prescription for Tamiflu. This is my new favorite thing. I took some that night, and by the following morning I had nearly recovered. Little to no fever, body aches all gone - just stuck with the stuffy nose & cough that sounds like I'm an emphysema patient. I decided to try & do some work today since things are so busy, but I'm feeling really beat now. I'm definitely going to shut down early and take a long nap this afternoon.

Turmoil...of a different sort

OK, the job turmoil is over. I talked to CurrentBoss and he said he really didn't want to lose me, and offered me a 10% raise. Sweet! This covers my monthly deficit & then some. So I backed out of the other job, and things have calmed down now on that front.

On the other hand, though...house turmoil. Babydaddy is out of work now, having left the body shop and his brother's asshole ways. So he offered to come work on my house while he's got all this free time, and I jumped at the chance. He's really good with this stuff, and I was happy to get things moving finally. So for the last couple of weeks I've had no downstairs bathroom. First he ripped out all the old crap, and we shopped for a new sink & light fixture & faucets and all that other good stuff. He had to do some drywall stuff because the old light fixture was one of those fugly flourescent things in the ceiling. But it's all coming together now...it's painted and the new light fixture is in, and the new mirror is up. Flooring will be going in later today (a nice stone-looking vinyl tile), and I'll have a toilet downstairs again either tonight or tomorrow. Yay!

In the meantime, he's also been working on the kitchen. He ripped out the ugly (again, flourescent) light fixture and put in recessed cans, which look great and put off a lot more light. I bought some laminate tile-look flooring (it's a lot nicer than it sounds) and that should be going down in a day or two. AND he started ripping up my countertops. The horrible white tile will soon be gone! Woohoo! For the time being, I'm keeping the cabinets I've got and just buying a laminate (granite-look) countertop. Eventually I'll replace the cabinets, because the ones I have now don't give me nearly enough storage space, and at that point I'll spring for the nice granite countertops. But this will at least tide me over and make the place look a lot nicer in the meantime.

Grout!

OK, tile is finally grouted. Yay!

Zippity doo dah

Dad & stepmom came over on Saturday for my birthday. I ran off to a seminar at the library on starting your own small business, and while I was gone, they started changing the switches and electrical outlets in the house. I don't mean that they started rewiring them so as to completely confound me, but that they switched the actual switches and outlets from nasty almond to a lovely, clean white. So...whee! I have all new outlets & switches, including GFCIs in the kitchen & bath (which were not there before, despite the violated building codes). Bitchin' birthday present, even if dad nearly gave himself a heart attack doing it all in one day. Seriously, I was hollerin' at him to TAKE A FRIGGIN BREAK ALREADY by the time he started on the upstairs rooms. He was turning purple and huffin' and puffin' every time he had to get back up off the floor.

I also got a fabulous birthday dinner of boeuf bourgignon and garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach with pine nuts and sultanas (golden raisins). And dessert: creme brulee. Who can resist that? In addition, I marinated myself in pinot noir and a good snort of that fabulous $200 scotch. Amazingly enough, I was NOT hung over the next day (may have something to do with the fact that I basically passed out at 9 PM and slept TWELVE HOURS).

And now I am 32. I was thinking the other day about how I could be on that old television show Thirtysomething now.

Haircut tonight! Will celebrate with something a little different - very long bangs (or very short layers) and at least four inches off the ends. My hair has gotten unwieldy, y'all. The last time I actually styled my hair (blow dry, curling iron, etc.) it took forever. I have at least four inches of incredibly dry ends that resemble straw. AND I woke up in the middle of the night a few times with my hair wrapped around my neck and trying to strangle me. I don't want my hair to be so long that it's strangling me. Seriously. And when I'm not laying down, the hair occasionally will wrap under my armpit and my head gets yanked to the side. That's just too long.

"Spring" cleaning

Today I spent three hours weeding in the backyard and planting spring bulbs. Almost 250 spring bulbs, actually. I planted:

• 90 crocuses
  
• 88 tulips
• 36 daffodils
• 22 hyacinths

I'm exhausted. And I didn't even do what I was REALLY supposed to do, which is to grout the tile in the entryway. Why didn't I do it? Because my friggin' drill doesn't fit the whirlygig mixer-thingy I got to mix up the grout. How is that possible? Aren't they a standard size? I dunno, but Babydaddy said I would need a corded (as opposed to cordless) drill anyway, because you have to mix the stuff for five minutes. Yeeeaaahhh.

So, no grout yet. But I will have an abundance of spring flowers this year. :-)

Carpet is done!

Looks FANTASTIC. Feels silky soft and super-cushy too. Yay!

God, I'm so freakin' tired. I just want to sleeeeeeeep. I have been having serious insomnia the last week or two, and haven't been able to fall asleep until at least 1 or 2 AM. I'm just exhausted, y'all.

Stinky

My carpet is being installed. Dude, it smells AWFUL. What is that crap they use to glue down the pad? Toxic waste?

Sittin' outside on the patio trying to squint & see my laptop screen. Glare sucks.

Tile is done!

Well, it's not grouted yet (we decided it needed grout after all - the tiles are way too irregular to try and do it groutless). But it's all stuck to the ground. And it looks freakin' fantastic! Here's a picture of Babydaddy laying the tile yesterday.

Carpet is being installed on Thursday. I am so excited! My house is going to look SO much better. :) Of course then I'll want to gut my kitchen...

New carpet!

I ordered new carpeting this weekend, finally. And what the hell is wrong with me that I needed to get the absolute most expensive carpeting in the whole freakin' store?? Over $5 per square foot! Thank goodness for the Home Depot 20% discount sale -- but even that didn't bring down the price too terribly much, because I've got stairs to carpet (you know they charge extra for each one) AND I asked them to move the furniture. Do you know how much they charge for moving furniture? For two bedrooms? $350! I couldn't believe it! I'm going to call back and tell them I'll move my own damn furniture for that price, and give me back my $350.

Sheesh.

On the plus side, me finally ordering carpet has galvanized Babydaddy, who (in a fit of generosity that I never expected or asked for) offered to install new tile in my entryway. So last night he took out the old tile. Only took about half an hour - I would've thought it would take longer than that, but he was lickity split. We're going to install the new tile this weekend, which means I better get my butt out and buy it. Heh. I'm doing slate tiles, since it's such a tiny area (about 30 sf) - and that means we won't have to grout!! YAY! No grout! That's the most irritating part of tile installation anyway.