Nothing to Say

I’m down to the final minutes of my lunch break on this fine Friday afternoon. I am pretty exhausted from a lack of sleep over the past… month(s) but I’m hanging in there. I had some Purdue Popcorn chicken and some peanuts and some sugar free Hershey bites for lunch. I really want a drink of water but I still have to wait the better part of an hour before I am clear to drink anything. That’s a gastric bypass patient thing. If you know, you know.

Fed Ex delivered a package today. I am not home to get it, but it contains a new guitar pedal. If I read the amazon shipping notes correctly, it’s a compressor pedal. The first I’ve ever purchased. I have this weird idea of using cleaner guitar sounds for this year’s RPM Challenge in February and a compressor will be a part of that. I bought an MXR Dyna Comp because it’s super simple and it will let me squash my clean signal down to a delightfully mushy… mush. There are two more pedals coming over the weekend. One is a Flanger, the other is an Amp Sim. I don’t have room on my pedal board for any of these kiddos and I don’t have open slots on my power brick… so I am going to need to get creative, I think. It should be fun. I don’t think I bought a single guitar pedal during all of 2024. I know I bought a couple of microphones for band practices that haven’t actually happened yet, but no pedals.

There are a lot of tentative plans for the weekend. We may be messing with our living room and we may be going to some stores for research purposes. I hope to spend some time wandering around town taking pictures with my new/possibly antique (though probably not) camera. I got a gift card for the sugar free bakery in Salem, NH for xmas. I haven’t bought anything from them in about a month, but now I am definitely going back and getting some cookies. Good stuff.

What else… I thought there was something else… One of our cars is going to get a break job. That wasn’t the thing that I am forgetting though… am I going to go shopping for a new iPhone? That’s definitely on the to-do list before we go to Florida at the end of the month, but is it this weekend? I don’t know.

I have to start practicing the guitar. The band is hoping to reconvene (hopefully for real this time) at some point after this weekend. I need to get ready for that. Which guitar should I bring to the first practice? Probably the Les Paul Standard that my wife got me for my 50th birthday in 2021. I really dig that guitar.

I know I had something else I wanted to write about but it has slipped my brain entirely. Don’t get old, kids. This is what happens to you when you get old. Stay young for as long as you can. Unless you’re already old like me in which case… sorry, folks. We had a good run, I’m sure.

The Dishwasher Follies

Yesterday our dishwasher was dead.

Today our dishwasher was fixed.

Later today our dishwasher was dead again.

Still later today our dishwasher was fixed again. It’s actually running as I type this.

I think that’s enough dishwasher shenanigans. It’s not dead, but it’s dead to me. We went shopping for a new one tonight. I’ll keep you posted on the progress because I can tell by the look on all of your faces that you cannot wait to hear how this turns out.

More info coming as it develops.

Stay tuned.

Mondays Suck, But We All Knew That

Yup… Monday… blah.

How’s everyone doing? Did you have a good weekend? I was sick all weekend, but it was okay. My step son was here. That was awesome.

I feel a little better today. It’s been the cold from hell ever since last Tuesday afternoon, but today I feel like I am starting to come out of it. I’m still stuffy and sneezing and coughing, but not nearly as bad as I was. I still don’t feel well enough to be comfortable going into the office. I think this week will be Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe Friday. I only went in once last week because of being sick. Maybe I’ll go in an extra day this week to make up for it. We’ll see.

The kitchen remodel will hopefully officially come to an end tomorrow. The contractor is coming back one more time to hang some shelves over the new tile. That’s the only thing left to do, though our dishwasher is acting up. It might be shitting the proverbial bed. Nice timing, eh? Get the kitchen remodeled and immediately have to buy a new appliance. Yeah, because we have money for that! Sheesh! Is the universe trying to tell us something?*

Okay. I need to blow my nose, read some work email, and then make lunch. Hopefully you are all having a good Monday even though Mondays as a rule suck. That’s okay though. Mondays sucking is not a surprise to anyone who lives in a place where Monday is the start of the work week.

*No, the universe is not trying to tell us something. It doesn’t give a shit about us one way or the other. Why? Because it is not sentient in any way. It’s just a universe. It’s just a really, really, really big collection of stuff. It doesn’t have feelings. It’s not intelligent. It’s just stuff.

Kitchen Remodel Postscript

I think our kitchen remodeling project is done. We’re looking at getting a piece of art to hang in one of the empty spaces, and there are still a few things that need to find their new home, but other than that we’re done.

Proof?

See this empty space?

When we woke up this morning, our dining room set was in that empty space. Now?

I moved that insanely heavy-ass table back to where it belongs. Why? Because we’re done and we don’t need to store stuff in the dining room anymore. Done and done. The most important item to note as the project comes to a close?

I love the new kitchen. It’s wonderful. That also proves that I am a boring old person now, but whatever. I love our new kitchen.

In closing, here is Robin the kitty roaring like a lioness.

She might be yawning instead of roaring, but it’s more fun to imagine her roaring like a man eating feline monster from your nightmares. Good kitty.

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, everyone. Hopefully Friday has meaning for most if not all of us. It has extra meaning for me this week. Starting this month my company has changed it’s hybrid work requirements. Where it used to be that we had to be in the office for 20% of each pay period (basically one day each week), as of March 1st we have to be in the office for 40% of each pay period (basically twice per week). Today is my first, second day of a week. None of us our happy with this, but it’s a whole ton better than being back 80%, which is what we had prior to the pandemic shut down. Oh well. I’ll deal with it. I am still coming in every Wednesday. My group has Wednesdays as a mandate and the second day each week is at everyone’s personal discretion. I am sort of planning on making Mondays my regular second day, just to get it over with, but that didn’t work this week due to the contractors working in the kitchen. Friday was the only day that worked for me. Fortunately there was zero traffic today. I made the 40 mile drive to the office in 45 minutes. If only it were like that every morning.

In other news, the kids are on the ground. Bellana’s flight landed in Georgia (the US state, not the European country) before I went to sleep last night. Harry’s first flight landed in London well after I nodded off for the night, and his connecting flight landed in Scotland before I woke up this morning. All is well on both of those fronts. Here’s hoping they both have a great time on their trips.

I am taking advantage of the fact that I am 40 miles from home right now to make my way to IKEA after work. IKEA is about 60 miles from home, but only 20 miles from work. I will head down there as soon as I am free and go to the returns department and bring back a great big pile of stuff that IKEA included in our kitchen redesign blue print that we didn’t end up needing. There is a lot of stuff to return. A lot of stuff. If I get it all done tonight then we don’t have to worry about it, and with the money we get back maybe I’ll be able to afford a hair cut this weekend because damn, do I need a hair cut!

Anyway, here’s today’s photo-a-day picture. I took it before I did my workout this morning at about 5:40am. It’s only 9:14am now but it’s already felt like a long day.

Driving Around

I had to go to a Fed Ex office, the grocery store, Lowe’s, and Home Depot. Success on all fronts. Everything that needed to be returned has been returned, and everything that needed to be picked up has been picked up… and I treated myself to stop at the sugar free bakery.

Picture, please? Okay.

Almost Done, I Hope

Another day for the kitchen remodel project. Here’s hoping it’s the last day.

They are doing some touch up work on things that have otherwise been finished. They are hanging some stuff on top of the tile. They are doing a little painting.

I think that’s all that’s left to do. Once they are done we have to clean up any dust they left behind and then wash all of the dishes that have been sitting out collecting dust over the last week and then find a new home for everything in the new cabinet/storage setup.

I am so ready for this project to be over. I want my house back again.

Unrelated note… I used my good camera to take today’s photo a day picture. I will post it now for no reason at all.

Frustration

The plumber went out to get some dinner. He expects he has about two hours more work to do tonight. It’s 600pm. I think we’re going to be working until after 9:00pm again tonight.

Insert the sign of frustration here.

Stressing out like nuts over here, kids. Like nuts.

The plumber just walked in the door. Here’s hoping he can wrap it up in two hours. Fingers crossed.

The Mood Has Changed

The last time we had a home improvement project done was about a year ago when we had new windows installed. When the project started we were so excited. After a few days without the project being completed our mood changed and the whole thing just became super frustrating. We wanted it to be over so that we could have our house back again.

We expected the kitchen remodel project we’re currently involved with to take ages. The contractor told us he would have everything installed by the end of the second day. Then we needed walls patched and tile work done, plumbing work, and touch up and paint work.

The tile guy got here yesterday around 8:00am. He left a little before 10:00pm. It was around 8:30pm or so when the mood for this project changed again. We just crossed some invisible line between excitement and frustration. It’s is totally unfair to the contractors because we are still in their estimated window of how long it would take to finish everything. It doesn’t matter. It’s all just stress now, no more excitement.

The tile guy is coming back today. The plumber is coming too. It’s 9:26am and we haven’t heard from either of them yet, but we aren’t expecting to until after 10:00. IKEA was just here picking up some of the things we need to return to them. There is a mountain more stuff that needs to be returned. We aren’t sure if we can get them to come back or not. I expect we’ll be driving down there one of these days soon. We also need to book a junk pick up because there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be removed still. We also need to clean off all of the dust that is covering everything before we use anything in our new kitchen.

I’m stressing out. We’re stressing out. It’s starting to be difficult.

I went to Home Depot this morning to pick up some stuff for the tile guy. Pics from the drive home… because.