Tag: home improvement

Non-Lunch Post

We’re coming to the end of another work day spent in the office. How many more will there be at this desk? I don’t know. A few, probably.

It’s been a hectic and stressed out day. I’m not sure how, but I managed to do everything right as far as the weight loss surgery prep steps are concerned. I’m up to date on my vitamins (still have one more to take with dinner), and I tracked all of my food, and I stopped drinking more than 15 minutes before eating, and I didn’t drink again for over an hour after eating.

My exercise ring is half closed. That’s due to the long walk from the car to my desk, and the long walk from my desk to the kitchenette and back, and the long walk from my desk to the bathroom and back. I think wearing a mask contributes to the increased heart rate as well, but I don’t have proof of that.

The building recently switched from masks required in all common areas to masks optional for vaccinated folks. I think it’s too soon for that, but I have to deal with it. My mask was on in all common areas but I was in the minority. Will peer pressure eventually remove my mask? I don’t think so but I can’t say for sure. The Covid numbers are way down for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I would like to take approximately 1/6,893,000th of the credit for that. At least that much. I kept my mask on and kept those around me safe from the virus that I don’t have. That’s not sarcasm. That’s honesty. Wear your effing mask.

Anyway, I was able to eat lunch today, but I was not really able to take a lunch break. That’s why there’s no lunch post from today, and that’s why I titled this post the way I did.

I might look into a new theme for this page. It might be time. Maybe something black and gloomy. Yeah, that would be cool. Black and gloomy is tight.

Now I need to get my exhausted ass home so I can eat dinner with the love of my life, check out how far the paint job got while I was out, watch the new episode of Star Trek Picard, and then finally get some of that sleep that I didn’t get any of last night.

Almost quittin’ time, babie!

How Do You Spell Cacophony?

The kitchen work continues. The contractor we hired took down the paneling and put up new wallboard over the last two days. He also started taking off the wallpaper border. He had another guy come in today to gunk the wallboard. Is it gunk or mud? I always heard it called gunk, but everyone’s calling it mud now. When did that change? Was I just starting off with bad information or something?

Anyway, the guy has been patching and mudding and/or gunking all day today. He just started sanding it down. The volume level is impressive. Holy schnikey is it loud. It’s looking great though. Painting should be starting tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing the end result.

Sure is loud in here right now though. Let’s consider it practice for the next band practice. That’s probably still a couple of weeks away, but it’s coming… I think… I hope.

The Last of the Paneling

The contractor is here. He’s been here for a couple of hours or so. He took down the last of the kitchen/dining room paneling today and it is everything I dreamed it would be. There is still paneling in the hallway, but I don’t eat in the hallway (or to put it the way Connor McCleod of the Clan McCleod did, I don’t dine in the hall*). The end of the paneling will be a day long remembered (It has seen the end of Kenobi, and will soon see the end of the rebellion**).

The contractor is subcontracting one item on the to-do list out to someone else. That someone else is coming tomorrow at…

…wait for it…

7:30am.

Yeah, that’s going to suck out loud.

Totally worth it though.

*Highlander reference, of course. They had the French guy play the Scottish guy and the Scottish guy play the Egyptian via Spain guy. Fucking brilliant.

**Star Wars quote, of course. Most things in my tiny little brain are revolving around Obi-Wan Kenobi these days and they will until we get the full Disney+ series. The few things in my tiny little brain that are not revolving around the imminent release of Kenobi are revolving around Star Trek Picard. Oh, how yesterday’s enterprise***.

***Star Trek Picard quote that is a call back to the title of a Star Trek the Next Generation episode. A killer episode at that. Welcome to the 21st century, Q.

Paneling is a Jerk

We have paneling on our walls all through the house. The kitchen, the dining room, the hallway. I hate paneling. The house I grew up in was wall to wall paneling when I was a kid. I hated it. I guess it was better than wallpaper, but only by a hair.

When we moved into the house in 2010 I said the first thing we need to do is get rid of all of this horrible paneling. Here we are in 2022 and it’s still there. We’re trying to find a way to redo the kitchen a little at a time over the course of a couple of years. One of the things we want to do to kick things off is repaint the kitchen and the dining room and that includes taking down the crappy, ugly paneling.

We had a guy come in to give us an estimate. He said it would depend on the state of the wall behind the panels. Makes sense. There’s one spot in the dining room where it’s busted up pretty bad so we tried pulling it away from the wall to see what it looked like.

That’s when I learned that paneling sucks even more than I already knew it sucked. He said something that I was assuming was the truth all this time. The paneling is nailed to the wall. Take a crow bar and pull on a spot and it should pop right off. That makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, when we were looking at that one little damaged spot we found that the friggin’ jerk is actually glued to the wall. Glue! Are you kidding me? So now we have to pry it off and deal with the glue left on the wall.

Paneling… you’re an effing jerk. I hope you are eradicated from existence the world over. Glue? Really? What a jerk!

The Goings On

I am procrastinating. The Apple Activity App has a challenge for National Women’s Day to do a 20 minute work out. I want to do it but I don’t want to do it. So I’m sitting here procrastinating.

We still don’t know what we’re doing with the kitchen. We have an estimate for like four different upgrading scenarios. All or grossly expensive, but only a couple are beyond us. We have more people coming in for estimates, which is terrifying on the Covid front. We have someone coming tomorrow to look into pulling down the panelling and the wallpaper border and repainting. No promises, but when we moved in 11 years ago it was the #1 change we wanted to make. Still waiting. We’ll see how that goes.

I have my next appointment at the weight loss clinic on Thursday. It’s the psyche check in. My first. I am not sure where it’s going to go but I expect a nervous breakdown, or at the very least tears. We’ll see how that goes.

I haven’t done any music today. If I end up doing an album in a day thing then it will probably start around dinner time. There’s just too much else going on.

Okay. Enough procrastinating. Let’s do that 20 minute workout. Wish me luck.

Kitchens

We had a meeting with a kitchen guy at Home Depot tonight. 20 minutes into the meeting we all realized he wasn’t the guy we needed to be talking to.

Jen has been itching for a new kitchen for over a year now. We really can’t afford it, and every time we looking into doing one thing it pulls in five other things and the cost estimate balloons and we back off. We’re going to try again though. This time we’re thinking more of an upgrade or a face lift and less of a remodel. The guy we thought we were talking to tonight is going to come over for a look see tomorrow. Another guy will come on Wednesday for a look see to see about getting rid of the awful paneling and wall paper border in the kitchen and the dining room.

We’re not agreeing to anything yet but hopefully we’ll be able to make it work. I want this to happen because I want my love to be pleased. We’ll see.

The main issue in all of this is that Covid is hardly over. I am not nervous the way I was a year ago, but I am still less than comfortable with it all. I can’t complain though, as I am going to the office regularly and I am going to the weight loss clinic and I am even thinking about getting the band together. I fear I am being selfish by being concerned. I’m not though. I am concerned about everything, I just can’t do much about any of it anymore.

In other news, the album in a day idea might be back on, but it won’t start until morning. I haven’t decided yet. We’ll see. Also, I have an afternoon appointment at the weight loss clinic on Thursday. The weight loss clinic is on the way to Guitar Center in Nashua. I wonder if I might go early and bring my Strat. Also maybe bring my Bassbreaker 18/30. Also, I think we have a Guitar Center credit card. Maybe I’ll bring that too. No promises. I would say I am about on third in favor of going and two thirds against. We’ll see how I feel on Thursday.

Okay, going to watch the Bruins. They are tied with the LA Kings, one a piece after one period.

Green White Orange

Our kitchen is green. It’s been green since we moved in. We’ve always talked about repainting but just haven’t done it. We were just talking about it in terms of remodeling the whole kitchen and Jen said she was okay with keeping it green. She said green and white was nice.

I countered with this:

Erin go Bragh, am I right?

Uncover the Secrets of the Scoop

Yesterday I wrote about the existential crisis I faced when trying to mix up my first protein shake. I had been lead to believe, by my own eyes, that the huge bucket of protein shake powder did not come with a scoop. Today, day two of the new shake world order, I took a tablespoon and tried to dig out about 32 grams of powder. While digging in the huge bucket I found the scoop buried inside.

Now, knowing what the shake tastes like with the exact correct milk to powder ration, how’d it taste? Okay. I promise I won’t be drinking it for fun, but I also won’t be turning my nose up at it. I’ll put it into the weight loss surgery win column.

What else is going on today, no the first business day of vacation? I tried to watch The Walking Dead on my iPad while sitting in the living room with Jen and Harry last night, but they were watching Rick and Morty and I had to join them. I mean… Mr Nimbus, right? I am watching the new episode on AMC’s website and the stream during the commercial breaks is screwing up left and right. I’m not very optimistic that it’s going to let me get through the whole episode, but amazingly I just heard one of the new bad guys use the phrase, “mother puss bucket” in what can only be thought of as a verbal tip of the hat to Ghostbusters but given that I use that phrase as a verbal tip of the hat to Ghostbusters I am feeling seen and acknowledged right now.

So what’s the music plan for my vacation week? I mentioned doing an album in a day, but I am not going to go through with it. Instead I will just try to come up with a couple of song ideas for Record Every Month. I was also thinking of hitting up Guitar Center and trying to trade in my Strat. Instead I might get back into the idea of finding someone to overhaul my Les Paul Custom. Like everything else, it all depends on money.

What about non-musical plans for the vacation week? Well, I’m glad you asked. We are thinking about getting back to figuring out the ways and means of upgrading out kitchen. We’re going to do some research tonight. You know, do some interviews. Ask some questions. Rattle some trees and see what shakes out. We’ll let you know.

Okay, this morning’s zombie watch is now past the point where I stopped last night. I’m going to pay more attention now. Talk to ya’ll later.

Mutha Puss Bucket.

Kitchen Lights

The two electricians had to run out to pick up a part. I took the opportunity to see what they’ve done so far. We have a light over the kitchen sink again! Oh, it’s been so long! Happy, glorious day!

Looks like the dining room, the mud room, and the front porch (sorry, birds) are all done, I think. The kitchen has one more thing to finish and then I think we’re all set for today.

I’m not going to make it to my meeting, but that’s okay. I told my manager and he was cool with it. He’ll catch me up when I get back.

Now the next question is this: When they are done and all of this is wrapped up… do I go and get a haircut?