4/25/10

What a positively dreary, rainy day today! I just lit a coconut candle so it’ll seem more cheerful in here. I didn't even get Angel up to go to church. She went to a sleepover birthday party Friday night & it must have been one heck of a party! I was over at Mom’s yesterday & Randy told me he had seen her dozing on the couch a few times – that’s totally unlike her! So she must really need the rest. And poor Randy is working at the March of Dimes walk today in Troy. Maybe it won’t be too bad – he said he’s net control so he’ll be inside. I feel sorry for the walkers, tho. Maybe they should be called waders!


Mom got her new carpet yesterday. When spokeslady Laurie called me Friday, I was under the impression that Mom was going home with her, and needed someone to be at Mom’s house when the carpet guys got there. Nope, I guess she thought Mom wasn’t a big girl and needed someone else there. I was tweaked for a minute, but then thought it would be nice to go visit Mom for a while, so I went. They tore up that nasty brown carpet that’s been in there as long as I can remember. I didn’t know there were gorgeous wood floors under that! I was sad to see them get covered again – but then again – I’m partial to wood floors. Oh well. The color she picked is really nice. It goes well with the new paint. And the two – very silent – guys who did the work did a really nice job. Even on the stairs. So now she’ll be getting new furniture! I get to envy Mom now since I can’t imagine anything ever getting done around my house.

Case in point – the biggest sore spots in this house are the bathrooms. The nice hole in the floor of the shower off our bedroom– makes it totally useless. I’m perfectly content with the idea of ripping the darn thing out and putting an armoire in that corner, then a new taller potty & a pedestal sink. Nice. A half bath works fine for me even if the shower was convenient, I can deal without. The hall bathroom is useable, but the tiles around the shower are coming loose, allowing water to get behind them. There is a plastic bag taped to the wall right now covering where Randy pulled off one of the tiles. Classy. We found at Home Depot you can get a 5 piece shower surround for $50. Trims to fit & says it’s easy to install. However….. Randy wants to temporarily (forever half-assed) patch the hole in our shower as back up IN CASE IT TAKES LONGER THAN 3 DAYS TO DO THE OTHER (! ! ! ! ! !)  Then he wants to pull all the tiles down from the hall shower, which means replacing all the drywall that had gotten wet underneath….THEN putting the cheap wall panels up. Personally – I’d just cover the crappy 70s brown tiles with the panels. And I was going to do that anyway while he was in Dayton for HamFest. Heck, even if you call one of those places that will custom make a new surround – they just cover the old stuff! So he’s making a LOT more work than there needs to be. Which, happily for him, backs up his story about how horrible home improvements are. He’s even mentioned waiting to get our shower fixed until closer to when we’re going to sell the house. That makes no sense. Why not get it fixed so we – the ones who currently live here – can use it??? Gggrrrrrrrr! OK, done venting.

~gusty sigh~

So, Friday night we had date night! First, on a whim, I stopped in to Fantastic Sam’s and got a haircut. Just a smidge shorter than I thought, but I like it and am getting used to it. Man I look old.  Should have put some makeup on!  After dropping Angel off at the sleepover, I met Randy for dinner at Red Lobster & OD’d on shrimp (BBQ bacon wrapped, pecan encrusted and lobster & crab stuffed – with coconut shrimp for an appetizer!!) Mmmmm yummy. Then we went & walked around Michael’s for a bit. I wanted to find a smallish shadow box so I could put Grandma’s turtle pin & great-Grandma’s hanky from my wedding in. We ended up finding one that was bigger than I wanted in the clearance section. But I liked it better than the one on the regular shelf because of the black background and it was marked 50% off. So $4.95. But then when I went to pay, it rang up $.99 !!! Crap! 90% off! Outstanding! Then we went home and did nothing exciting until game 5 started at 10. We turned it off at 2nd intermission and went to sleep. We are such party animals. But we did do our co-ed naked hockey watching! LOL! And the Wings won again - so all is good!  Oh, we did have some excitement. Jack was outside & was barking like an idiot. We can usually tell when someone or something is in the yard. He really sounded distressed, so I grabbed a flashlight & went out to see what it was.

POGO !!!

Wednesday I went to SkyWarn spotter training for Macomb County. That was pretty neat. I enjoyed it. I’ve always loved watching storms, so now I can be useful while doing it! I thought it was interesting to learn was a tornado wasn’t. I could see where a lot of people would freak out at a rain shaft or smoke plume because of the general shape. And I got to meet the EC (emergency coordinator) for the county & chatted a bit. Of course they knew Randy & sent home a nasty gram to him for missing a meeting. Shame shame shame.

Angel got 3 of her 4 recital costumes this week. Of course the one I really wanted to see – ballet - is the one that hasn’t come in yet. Randy picked her up from dance while I was at spotter training & he got to see her do hip-hop in costume. Darn him! Of course they didn’t do it Thursday for lyrical when I picked her up. Pppft.

Hip-hop

Jazz

Lyrical

Last Friday I was supposed to have 2 extra kids at my house, but only ended up with one. Amanda’s mom had asked if she could stay over, because the older sister was having her 18th b-day party. Sure. So we went to the mall & out to dinner. Then they goofed off in Angel’s room because I claimed the TV to watch game 2 of the Coyote stomping (heehee). Then Jazzy came over. She & Amanda don’t always get along the greatest. Amanda is one of those people who gets offended very easily & will hold a grudge for a couple days. Anyway, Jazzy came over at 10:15 – Amanda was calling her mom to go home by 11. I told Angel next time she’s only having one friend at a time spend the night and she agreed.  Too much drama!!

I had a good laugh at Angel & Amanda tho. While we were out, there we got a message at the house from the school.  I enjoyed the looks of horror on both faces before I told them that it was just a recording saying that as a cost cutting measure, report cards were being sent home with the kids on Monday, instead of being mailed. I have to say I am impressed with Miss Angela’s report card. It could be better, but I’m not complaining. She brought home Bs in both English and Innovative Presentations and Cs in Math, Science, Geography & Art. I’m not complaining about the C in Art. It seems like it should be easy, but they’re learning a lot tougher stuff than I did in 12th grade.

This was our entertainment at work Friday.  He was eating lunch - we assume a pigeon - but there was nothing but a pile of feathers left when he was done.  Magnificent!  Not a bad pic for being thru the glass on the front doors, zoomed in as far as possible, then zooming in again on the camera.  I impressed myself!

So that’s about all for today. I’ve got truckloads of laundry to fold / iron / hang up and put away. The entire loveseat is filled. Scary. Plus 2 more loads in the washer & dryer and probably 1 or 2 more after that. Cringe!

Random LFMF - blue food coloring on french toast makes them green.