We've been working hard on this whole "moving" thing. It's really not very fun. We spent about half of the day Saturday and then most of the day today at the new house, finishing up some cleaning and painting that needed to be done. We had painted all of the walls already, but needed to paint all of the white trim in the kitchen and bathroom. When we paint, I'm the one who gets to do all the edging, so most of my time was spent doing that. But it looks so much better now, it's amazing what a coat of paint will do. All we have left to paint now is a little touching up in a few spots in the kitchen. Alfred also put some insulation around one of the doors, there was a pretty big gap that is now much smaller. Our electric bill for that house was over $90 last month, and we weren't even living there! We do keep the heat on to about 58 or so when we're not there, partially to keep the pipes from freezing since it's been getting so cold at night, but that was still pretty crazy. To compare, our bill here was about $120. Little to no insulation + an electric company with the highest rates in FL = that sucks! Hopefully sealing the cracks around the doors will help.
Saturday afternoon and evening was spent with Alfred's family for Valentine's Day. Emily was home from school for the long weekend and had her boyfriend over, so we got to meet him. He seemed like a nice chap. We had Caesar salad (with dressing made by the incomparable Alfred, as taught by the incomparable Doug), some awesome red velvet ice cream cake, and then a whole bunch of fried things, thanks to Robyn and some of Emily's friends that came over after dinner. Then Sunday was spent mostly around the house, except when I had to go to work. Yeah, I had to work on a Sunday, on Valentine's Day no less, because of some stupid adult group that showed up 40 minutes late for an hour tour and then complained because they didn't get to do everything they were expecting to do. Here's an idea, move your asses out of the gift shop and get where you're supposed to be on time.
I finished a bottle of liquor tonight - 1 guess what kind it was! (hint: I still have some fat free half and half in the fridge...)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
You might be white trash if...
You spent February 14 taking down Christmas lights. From Christmas 2008. Guess what we did today??
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
A clean house is the sign of a boring person
Our house has been kind of disgusting for awhile now. I've been putting off cleaning, since I thought we were moving this weekend and I'd need to clean like a little mofo next week, but our move date has now been pushed back to next weekend and I couldn't take it anymore. So when I got home from work tonight I donned my bleach-marked sweatpants (I'm so bad about getting cleaning stuff on my clothes), fired up my mp3 player, and got to work. I wouldn't call the house clean, exactly, but the bathrooms are at least. And the carpets upstairs are sort of vacuumed. I think our vacuum cleaner is shot. The hose part works fine, but the bottom part that actually vacuums carpets and stuff doesn't appear to work anymore. It doesn't appear to be clogged or anything, it just sucks. Or, more accurately, it does not suck. This is the second vacuum we've gone through in 6 1/2 years. Either we're abnormally rough on our vacuum cleaners, or we need to bite the bullet and splurge for at least the second-least expensive vacuum at Walmart. The point of this story is that I pretended to vacuum the carpets, then went back over them with the hose to at least suck up the noticeable stuff. Which included a cockroach graveyard we unearthed when moving crap out of the office. I'm telling you, we live in filth.
The downstairs is a total disaster area. At least the upstairs is now clean and shows very little evidence of the move, other than the nearly empty office. Downstairs, though, looks like all of our closets and cabinets threw up. And then all the stuff that came out fell in love and made babies. And invited their friends, the cardboard boxes from the garage, over to visit. It's sort of horrific. Oh, and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, there's a load of laundry in the dryer waiting to be folded, and the kitchen sink needs to be scrubbed. Yet here I sit, listening to "Rock Lobster" and typing. Hell, it's not like that part of the mess is going anywhere.
While cleaning I was musing on one of the little things that I think makes my marriage happier: we thank each other for doing chores around the house. I generally get stuck with most of the inside cleaning, though Alfred vacuums maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the time. He refuses to touch the bathrooms. I do more of the laundry, we split the dishes fairly evenly. He does most of the outside stuff, like mowing the lawn and cleaning branches off the roof. Clearly I think I do more, partially because our lawn gets mowed about twice a year and cleaning the tile in the upstairs shower sucks more than I can say. So when he does stuff around the house, I try to make sure to thank him, and he usually thanks me too. Of course we don't always remember, but I'm definitely very good about reminding him to thank me. Now, I'm only part of one marriage, but I feel like in other relationships chores may just be seen as jobs that need to be done to keep things running smoothly, not anything deserving of thanks every single time they happen. But I could be wrong. So, I pose a question for my cohabiting readers: do you and your significant other thank each other for doing daily chores? I'm quite curious.
The downstairs is a total disaster area. At least the upstairs is now clean and shows very little evidence of the move, other than the nearly empty office. Downstairs, though, looks like all of our closets and cabinets threw up. And then all the stuff that came out fell in love and made babies. And invited their friends, the cardboard boxes from the garage, over to visit. It's sort of horrific. Oh, and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, there's a load of laundry in the dryer waiting to be folded, and the kitchen sink needs to be scrubbed. Yet here I sit, listening to "Rock Lobster" and typing. Hell, it's not like that part of the mess is going anywhere.
While cleaning I was musing on one of the little things that I think makes my marriage happier: we thank each other for doing chores around the house. I generally get stuck with most of the inside cleaning, though Alfred vacuums maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the time. He refuses to touch the bathrooms. I do more of the laundry, we split the dishes fairly evenly. He does most of the outside stuff, like mowing the lawn and cleaning branches off the roof. Clearly I think I do more, partially because our lawn gets mowed about twice a year and cleaning the tile in the upstairs shower sucks more than I can say. So when he does stuff around the house, I try to make sure to thank him, and he usually thanks me too. Of course we don't always remember, but I'm definitely very good about reminding him to thank me. Now, I'm only part of one marriage, but I feel like in other relationships chores may just be seen as jobs that need to be done to keep things running smoothly, not anything deserving of thanks every single time they happen. But I could be wrong. So, I pose a question for my cohabiting readers: do you and your significant other thank each other for doing daily chores? I'm quite curious.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
how is it already Tuesday?
First of all, congrats to Allison and her husband on their freshly born baby! Little Gabriel arrived Monday morning, safe and sound, though he caused a bit of drama by deciding not to cooperate and necessitating a surprise c-section. I stopped by the hospital after work today to say hi and visit, and to bring Allison some chocolate from Claude's. He's very cute, and she looked damn good, especially considering what she went through yesterday. So, congratulations all around!
We were actually quite social this weekend. Kevin called Alfred on Saturday and asked if we were busy, (which, other than packing, we were not) so we met them for an extended lunch (complete with plenty of colorful drinks) and then did a little sightseeing, for free of course. Then on Sunday we headed up to Alfred's parents' house for the Super Bowl. This involved even more eating and drinking. Plenty of frozen margaritas to go around. I think I watched about 10 minutes of football. So, plenty.
Other than that, most of our time over the past several days has been spent cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting things together to donate to Goodwill. They're really going to get to know me over there. So if posts are a little sparse for the rest of the week, that's why.
We were actually quite social this weekend. Kevin called Alfred on Saturday and asked if we were busy, (which, other than packing, we were not) so we met them for an extended lunch (complete with plenty of colorful drinks) and then did a little sightseeing, for free of course. Then on Sunday we headed up to Alfred's parents' house for the Super Bowl. This involved even more eating and drinking. Plenty of frozen margaritas to go around. I think I watched about 10 minutes of football. So, plenty.
Other than that, most of our time over the past several days has been spent cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting things together to donate to Goodwill. They're really going to get to know me over there. So if posts are a little sparse for the rest of the week, that's why.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
our new house
I realized that I haven't gotten around to posting about our new house yet. My bad! So, here you go. First from the outside.
Cute, no? That's a pecan tree to the right of the picture, there's another one in the backyard too. Plus there's a really big backyard too, which means I get to have a garden! I need to start getting some gardening books out of the library or something, because otherwise I'll kill everything in minutes.
Anyway, the house has 3 bedrooms, which is nice, but only 1 bathroom. In general I feel like only having 1 bathroom is not so great, but then I think about how that means I only have to clean 1 bathroom. I like that part. The living room is a little small, and sort of weirdly set up. Three of the walls have doorways, and the fourth has a fireplace, so it's not exactly ideal for furniture. The carpet's all been pulled up now and the floors are wood.
Just past the living room is this weird dining room-like area. It's bigger than both the living room and the kitchen, which is unfortunate. The kitchen is through the doorway on the other side of this room and, again, is small. Not the smallest kitchen ever, but definitely a step down from our current kitchen.
The main benefits of this house are a) the location (closer to Alfred's family and job, and all of our friends who live down here), and b) lack of a mortgage. It's a little longer drive for me to work, by about 10 minutes, and it's an uglier and more boring drive. But I'm willing to take one for the team for a little while. It really is a cute little house. The plan is to move next weekend. Should be awesome!
Cute, no? That's a pecan tree to the right of the picture, there's another one in the backyard too. Plus there's a really big backyard too, which means I get to have a garden! I need to start getting some gardening books out of the library or something, because otherwise I'll kill everything in minutes.Anyway, the house has 3 bedrooms, which is nice, but only 1 bathroom. In general I feel like only having 1 bathroom is not so great, but then I think about how that means I only have to clean 1 bathroom. I like that part. The living room is a little small, and sort of weirdly set up. Three of the walls have doorways, and the fourth has a fireplace, so it's not exactly ideal for furniture. The carpet's all been pulled up now and the floors are wood.
Just past the living room is this weird dining room-like area. It's bigger than both the living room and the kitchen, which is unfortunate. The kitchen is through the doorway on the other side of this room and, again, is small. Not the smallest kitchen ever, but definitely a step down from our current kitchen.
The main benefits of this house are a) the location (closer to Alfred's family and job, and all of our friends who live down here), and b) lack of a mortgage. It's a little longer drive for me to work, by about 10 minutes, and it's an uglier and more boring drive. But I'm willing to take one for the team for a little while. It really is a cute little house. The plan is to move next weekend. Should be awesome!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I'm a winner
My boss nominated me and another person I work with for these regional hospitality awards (we were in separate categories, so we weren't competing against each other). The awards banquet was tonight. And what do you know, I won in my category! I got this super fly plaque/trophy thing with my name inscribed on it, a lapel pin, and a bunch of swag, including free tickets to an attraction that I get free admission to anyway and a gift certificate to a liquor store an hour away! Seriously though, it was pretty exciting. There were 11 of us there total from our company, and our table made a lot of noise when they announced my name. It was a nice night. And I get to wear a lapel pin to work tomorrow!
Monday, February 1, 2010
birthdays!
We've had a couple of birthdays lately: 
Rosemary and Ilya. Rosemary's birthday was on Thursday. This picture is from our road trip, when we visited her and Greg in LA. It's from the night we practically destroyed her brother-in-law's house. It was great fun! I've actually seen Rosemary 3 times in the past 6 months, which is pretty impressive. Once in LA, again in Ithaca a few weeks later, then last month in Boston. That's more than we've seen each other since I graduated, probably. Miss you, Rose!
Next up: Ilya. His birthday was yesterday. We celebrated with him and his family last night. Alfred helped drink an entire liter bottle of tequila. The food was good, as usual (Ilya's mom is a really good cook), Mister the dog performed some tricks for us, and fun was had by all. This picture is from when we went camping this past summer. Ilya was quite a fan of his gas lantern. The two of us got trashed off of vodka and Kahlua based drinks that night. Pretty sure he's drunk in this picture.
Tomorrow, one of my employees has a birthday. Not too exciting, because I don't have a picture of him, and even if I did I probably wouldn't bother posting it because no one who reads this knows him. Neato!
Rosemary and Ilya. Rosemary's birthday was on Thursday. This picture is from our road trip, when we visited her and Greg in LA. It's from the night we practically destroyed her brother-in-law's house. It was great fun! I've actually seen Rosemary 3 times in the past 6 months, which is pretty impressive. Once in LA, again in Ithaca a few weeks later, then last month in Boston. That's more than we've seen each other since I graduated, probably. Miss you, Rose!
Next up: Ilya. His birthday was yesterday. We celebrated with him and his family last night. Alfred helped drink an entire liter bottle of tequila. The food was good, as usual (Ilya's mom is a really good cook), Mister the dog performed some tricks for us, and fun was had by all. This picture is from when we went camping this past summer. Ilya was quite a fan of his gas lantern. The two of us got trashed off of vodka and Kahlua based drinks that night. Pretty sure he's drunk in this picture.Tomorrow, one of my employees has a birthday. Not too exciting, because I don't have a picture of him, and even if I did I probably wouldn't bother posting it because no one who reads this knows him. Neato!
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