marmal8

I didn't finish everything on the list for 2016, but I started late and winter happened to me. At least I did some things, and I'm ready to start thinking about things I want to do next year.

I started drafting this list on the 23rd, though it contains a number of things from the 2016 list. This entry will change.

1. Start the year with chanting, Bhakti, and happiness at Kripalu. (done, entry upcoming)


2. Take a Journey Dance workshop with Toni Bergins


3. Snowshoeing with Venture Outdoors (done at Kripalu but more to come, entry upcoming)


4. Go Ape


5. Escape Room


6. Volunteer somewhere


7. Get a bike


8. Go to 5 different yoga classes with instructors I haven't taken from before (may also include studios I haven't gone to before...I need to play on the wall at Exhale!)


9. Go see at least one live music show thing


10. Visit Kentuck Knob


11. Go hiking somewhere interesting


12. Take an aerial yoga class


13. Join JT Swing Teams


14. Visit the PA Grand Canyon


15. Make my home more comfortable


16. Return to Kripalu for Bhakti Bliss to start 2018 the same way I started 2017.


17. Participate in the Women's March on Washington a peaceful protest (Why I'm Not Going to the March)


18. Fix the front porch - it needs concrete rehab, paint, metal shutter removal, and new railings


19. Get the two upstairs rooms floors' finished


20. Return to the actual Grand Canyon


21. Literally just adding things from this article such as visit the giant ice mine


22. There is room for more stuff on this list!

Having received the tip that a local furniture store is going out of biznaz, I decided to postpone touching up my bedroom paint YET AGAIN and head out to see what was on sale. I learned a few things: 1) I have no idea what furniture should cost and 2) I hate everything. I kind of knew that I hated everything already since I have had a hard time buying furniture in the past. My budget limiting me to IKEA only made that problem worse since pretty much everything they sell has lots and lots of right angles. I have gone without such luxuries as a coffee table for years because I hate all the ones they have. But now that I have a Real House I should get Real Furniture, I figure. I think I'm going to have to do a lot of looking online because I hate shlepping out to stores and my foot still doesn't like to be walked on all that much. Pier 1 has some things I like but they don't really fit my color scheme. Urban Outfitters has some accents I like but I've heard about them totally ripping off independent artists for their designs. Etsy takes hours to sort through. I can only imagine how much harder this would be if I had to find things I liked and then agree with someone about them. Or maybe it would be easier because I would just let that person's decisions narrow things down.

UGGGGH. The room that's closest to actually being done is the bedroom. I need to finish that. One thing at a time. I never finish projects. I wonder why I do that. It's not like I don't have the whole rest of the house to work on after this one room is done.

Also, I want a new purse. I don't want it to be blingy (every purse I see at TJ Marshall's is blingy these days). I want it to have two handles so I can wear it tucked in my armpit. I want it to not be a boring neutral color. I want it to be smaller than a housecat. I do not want the purse to weigh more than what is in it. I do not want the purse to be emblazoned with a brand name. It cannot be a quilted diaper bag (sorry Vera Bradley fans but that is what they look like to me.) Most startling of all, I do not want the purse to have a monkey hanging from it (I have plenty of those).

Please find me a purse under $80, because $80 is already too much to pay for a purse.

Would anyone like to know how much of a loser I am? I have spent most of the day playing Stupid Facebook Games. The old Stupid Facebook Games bored me so I sought out new stupid games to play. I am bored, and apparently I solve my boredom by doing things that are boring. Hmmm.

Ah well it's been a busy few days and that I like. Had a nice little bonfire Thursday night at bryguypgh 's with lttlredcorvette and special appearance by sonbanon . That puts the cap on 10 months of Still Unnamed Writing Group, since we are due to go on hiatus to participate in National Novel Writing Month. There were s'mores and FIRE and wondering what the future of our little group holds. It's still unclear who is in and who is out, and maybe this has come at a good time as we will undoubtedly meet some new writing-type people next month at write-ins.

Saturday I worked in the yard and started composting my vegetables. Later on there was a nice little gathering at sundaygray and sui66iy 's with lots of fall-themed food and a carbohydrate coma.

Today I had a wild hair and primed the ceiling and panel wall of my bedroom-to-be, ran out to Home Depot, and painted the ceiling purple. I'd like to do the walls too, but that may have to be accomplished tomorrow as I am quite tired. There's some sanding down of peeling paint that I need to do, and I'd rather wait until the ceiling is dry to do that.

Finally, the cats took a nap with their behinds less than six inches apart, which is the closest they've napped yet. They woke up and saw where they were relative to one another, but no one seemed inclined to move.

No formal exercise this weekend...just work around the house. I hope that burns calories in some way.

I slept in, thankyouverymuch, and watched episodes of Torchwood on Netflix. I really don't know why I even have cable and a media-playing device. It's all about the computer these days.

Lest you think I was totally unproductive, I took Rufus out back for a bit on the leash. He seems to think the whole neighborhood is his this weekend, and I'm tired of chasing him.

And I read over the last 4 chapters of the book and jotted down some ideas for how to tie it up. There may be just too much of the supernatural in there, but it's better than "he was a bad guy."

In five years combined living in Pittsburgh, I had never been to Kennywood until today. It's sometimes difficult for me to go to things that are local favorites, having grown up in the Land Of Excess. Doesn't matter who you are; your Zoo is pathetic by comparison. Whoop-dee-doo in regard to your marine life. Rivers? Beaches? Whatever.

That said, Kennywood is a manageable size for my aching hips and impatience. It's decently affordable - as is the not-that-bad-at-all snackage. And okay, we didn't get everything done, but it was a pretty good day nonetheless. Just don't ever bother with the Ghostwood thing. They got it all wrong. Not nearly enough puns and ambiance. For my money, I like fewer gimmicks and more thrills - Phantom's Revenge was lovely. Didn't get to go on the new coaster this time, and though the food was decent it took forever to get it. Still, can't beat a half-hour drive to get there and free parking. Might have to go back for Fright Nights.

We had to come home early, so I did some gardening in the back. I'm going to try to stay home for most of the weekend because my brakes are shot and the grinding is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Getting those looked at Monday for sure.

I just did not feel like doing anything today. Really, even getting myself to put in a movie and waste time in a less boring manner was pretty hard.

I did sand down the wall today. I hate sanding. I should just buy a sander, but I try to convince myself that I'm not going to need to sand all that much. Except...think of the things I could sand!!!  Spackle shrinks a little so I'm going to have to slap on a second layer and sand it down too. Ugh. I am such a perfectionist. That can be a problem. I'm thinking of doing a faux finish on the wall, but chances are that I won't like the way it comes out. Oddly, all the websites I have looked at so far will tell you how to do a faux finish but not show you what it looks like. I guess I could watch a video of how to do it...sure helped me to figure out where the "putty groove" was on the sink plate thinger. Uggh, I don't have the patience.

Cassie's playing with her Noisy Ball in the kitchen. It's super-cute, but I know better than to go in and watch her, because she'll get embarrassed and stop. It's good that she's playing though. She seems to be playing more since we moved. She's already lost one of the mousies from Auntie sundaygray. She still has to go down the stairs like a bunny, but she shoots up them quick!

I finally bucked up my chipmunk and fixed the kitchen faucet. Replaced it, actually, which may not have been the most cost-effective way of going about it but there were several places that the old faucet was leaking. Fixing it just didn't seem practical considering it was all grody and leaky. And now I know how to replace a faucet, which really isn't that hard so long as you have a few things handy.

You know all those putties and spackles they sell in the paint department? I should have the entire set by the end of the year. In addition to the new faucet, I picked up some primer and spackle to fill the grooves in the cheap ugly wood paneling in the bedroom and would you believe I actually filled half of them on one of the paneled walls? I haven't decided if I'm going to leave the closet wall as the paneling or paint over it as well. Probably I'll figure that out by painting the other walls and seeing how it looks. I still have to figure out how I want to patch the hole and whether to replace the wood trim around the door or just patch and paint it over.

No exercise today, just fixing things. sundaygray 's poetry reading in the evening. She didn't warn me I'd be featured in a poem. Gotta watch what I text. Snarf snarf.

For the second day in a row I'm going to leave my novella aside, but I want to finish reading sorenlundi 's as I only have about 15 pages to go.

I was trying to deny it yesterday but I'm certain it's true: I need to get my brakes checked. I can feel the grinding. As much as I hate having to drive to Mechanicsburg several times a year, knowing that I have to do it forces me to keep the truck in good repair. Which is what the mileage compensation is for. Ugh. Still. Can't very well do without brakes.

"It's informed every comic book and story I have written."

Ah, health benefits. Ah. LJ-Pittsburgh and your fine recommendations for doctors and dentists and things (if only there were more for contractors and other people to fix my house). My dentist's office staff keeps claiming that it's hard to get an appointment, but fitting me in on cancellations. As a result I got x-rays, initial exam and cleaning yesterday and have an appointment for a couple minor fillings on Thursday. In between parts of my exam I went down to the Squill Library, which I hadn't been to since the remodel. Ooooo. I borrowed a kitchen design book to further fuel my kitchen lust.

Worked on the ceiling patch in my bedroom-to-be. I didn't get out into the yard because a) it rained and 2) I was tired and needed to nap with the Cassinatrix.

Got back to my book and worked on a couple chapters. I'm starting to see some of the Issues (social, but also clarity/continuity/characterization) in it.

Sometimes I don't know what I need, so I look for an article that tells me what I need.

1. Toolbox: $30 Oh, wait, already have one. I bought it in 1998, I think. I was feeling ironic and put kitty stickers on it.

2. Hammer: $15 Yup, got that too. It was my grandfather's. Not giving that up.

3. Pry bar: $15 Just got the WonderBar a couple weeks ago. I love it, and it's got a great name.

4. Vise grips: $10 The description says "also known as locking pliers." I got a couple of these around 1998 as well because there was some screw on my windshield wiper assembly I couldn't turn. I was living in Tacoma at the time, but the brand name on my pliers is Pittsburgh.

5. Needle-nose pliers: $8 Hmm, I have some for jewelry, but let's put these on the list. Jewelry and tooltime really don't mix.
 
6. Screwdrivers (mixed set): $20 Have 'em. I have a bunch of my grandfather's as well as some that I bought myself. I love that this article suggests using screwdriver bits with the electric drill, which is exactly what I do.

7. Wire cutter/stripper: $10 Hmmm. I don't know if I plan on ever needing to "score and strip the casing off varying gauges of wires to speed electrical jobs."

8. Tape measure (16-foot): $4 I have one, but I hate how the case gets in the way when I measure things. As far as I know, this is a design flaw inherent in all tape measures, but if anyone knows different I would love to hear it.

9. Electrical tester: $2 Again, I don't know if I really intend to do any electrical work, but it was always kind of fun to touch the red and black thingers to the ends of a battery and see if it was good or not.

10. Reversible drill with bit set: $40 Dude, I've had this forever. Or since 2000. It really is the one tool you must have. My mom has the same one.

11. 1/2-inch steel chisel: $10 Help me out here. Please tell me what I will be chiseling.

12. Utility knife: $4 Well, yeah, I've had this forever too.

13. Handsaw: $15 Nope. I don't have any kind of saw. I might need to saw something at some point. Like the ivy. I think that's more of a hacksaw thing. Well, a gal can have more than one saw.

14. 9-inch torpedo level: $9 I've got a couple leveling tools, bubble-based of course!

15. Safety glasses: $6 Yup, got those on a recent trip out. Masks too.

6 NICE-TO-HAVES

1. 7-1/4-inch circular saw: $80 I think I'm going to try to avoid doing anything that requires this much sawing. And they'll cut boards at the store for just a few shelves. Whereas no one will put your Rufus back together.

2. Electronic stud finder: $10 Tee hee, if I had known I could find a stud for only $10...!

3. Carpenter's square: $6 Dude, I remember this.

4. Random orbital sander: $55 I would very much like one. If you have one, can I borrow it?

5. Staple gun: $17 I found one once, but I later set it free because I really didn't need it for anything.

6. Clamps: $2-$40 These things vary so much, it seems like I should just wait until I need one and buy the right one for the job.


 

The first of the two chapters I looked at today is confusing. Because I don't remember enough about the book, I can't answer many of the questions that I'm having as a reader. I think there are going to have to be some chapters inserted around it, unless I've made the answers clearer later in the book. There are also some direct contradictions of information in the chapters immediately preceding this one. I wonder if I cleared that up at the end or if that's my job to do now.

One advantage to having the whole month off is not having to run errands on the weekend. I pretty much refuse to! Of course, I haven't done much of anything either. I had a sewing project started, but like most of my sewing projects, I started it at 11 pm so by the time I really figured out what I was going to do, I was too tired to do it. I seem to have spent a lot of time today eating pancakes and playing with cats. Eff it, it's my vacation. I have a lot of "how to" windows open on my browser right now. But I'm going to try to do one crafty project at a time, and maybe no more than one big and one small home project. Right now I have too many thoughts in my head of things I "must" get done. I need to get over that and just work on what I can do comfortably. I have until the end of time to fix up this house, right?

Yay, two more chapters down. So what if I don't update my LJ until I've done my chapters? It gets them done, therefore it is an effective system.

Hooray! The rain yesterday has brought the weather back down to enjoyable. Outdoor yoga, midafternoon nap, writing on the front porch. In a few short days I should be halfway through the book. It's not very long, and the last couple chapters are each barely a sentence of summary, but I might actually get to write them if I just keep going through.

However, since it's not as hot, I really do need to get back to doing what I can do on the house. I'm tempted to buy some kind of wall-plastering compound and smear it all over the nasty paneling in my bedroom. It's not finished, it's not pretty, and it may not even be real wood. There is, of course, still the matter of The Plumbing Hole. The internet has show me how to put up a patch in the wall, but I kind of wanted a door in case of future need to access the plumbing, since plumbing is the leading cause of more than one friend's ceiling-related misfortunes.

Dang, I should take some of those DIY classes at Homo Depot.

I think I'll take a look at the list.

1. Remove all plastic flowers and foofy curtains from the premises
2. Call plumber - clear water line, remove old boilers, install new boiler
3. Call electrician - new circuit box, outdoor outlets, possible more grounded indoor outlets (electrician coming on Tuesday)
4. Remove wallpaper and paste from back bedroom (90% done...just a few spots to finish on this)
5. Paint back bedroom
6. Have carpets removed and floors finished in back bedroom and upstairs hallway
7. Move into back bedroom
8. Paint front bedroom
9. Have nastyass whatever it is removed from front bedroom floor and have floor finished.
10. Purchase and implement compost bin.
11. Purchase hedgetrimmer. Use regularly. (will implement this part of the plan in a little bit...waiting for it to be less hot out)
12. Purchase lawnmower. Use regularly.
13. Clear weeds from back fountain area of garden - replant with perennials that attract pollinating insects (in progress...probably about 75% done with this)
14. Clear ivy growing into house (about 30% done with this...got most of the stuff that is on my property. Am going to have to talk to the neighbors about going onto their pro
15. Scrape crustiness off old mailbox and repaint with Rustoleum. (I was just going to replace it, but it's so crusty the screws won't budge, not even with locking pliers.)

I put together my lawnmower and I mowed with it. The most difficult part was putting on the "shroud hole covers", twisty plastic things that don't cover the hole but are essential for some reason. Oh, but about the mowing. It's a lot like vacuuming, which I don't like either. The way my yard is set up, it makes no sense to turn the mower around at the end of each "row" of mowing...um, the wheels don't turn, so that's needless aggravation anyway. Going back and forth worked fine. Mulch clippings directly onto lawn, thank you. Lawnmowing counts as exercise, right?

Got in my two chapters of revision and summarizing. This is getting to be a good little routine. Two chapters is totally manageable. With my chapters, that amounts to about 6 pages. Not that much, but enough to keep me moving forward.

Well, mostly true. I finally got myself motivated enough to write chapter synopses of the first nine chapters of NNWM07, which were the chapters I'd read over. I then read over and wrote a synopsis of chapter 10.

I also made some more lettuce-free salad - steamed asparagus, orzo, halved cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot, bell pepper and chicken. I like lettuce, but my lettuce-based salads have been all of a piece lately, so I'll be trying something new.

Called my mom since it was her birthday. She has the heat on. It's a whopping 64 in San Diego. Moms have such a narrow range of temperatures they can tolerate without HVAC intervention. I've mostly been in the air-conditioned room all day, but it's Hotmaggedon here, so it's justified.

Or it may be the few days of it being hot and me not doing a whole lot of house stuff because of fun friend stuff, but now I have no desire to do anything. I did call the electrician and leave a voice mail blah blah I hope he doesn't call me at 8 am tomorrow to follow up. Also I bought that lawnmower online, not that I plan on using it before it cools off. I unpacked a few more CDs. And I wished that I had more outlets.

Ugh, Rufus just looked out the window and turned away, and I agree with him. The sky is a gross-looking gray. Sometimes I think my contacts have slipped out of place, but it's just the air.

So instead I went to Beehive and read over 2 chapters of NNWM07. I haven't looked at that document in a month and a half, so I could not even remember where I was in my reading. I actually thought that I had somehow overwritten the document with changes over with a clean, unaltered copy, because I thought I'd used the comment feature and could not find any comments. In the way of most places, Beehive was over-air conditioned and I was uncomfortable. But at least I got some book time in.

Hmm, what can I do that borders on useful? I was thinking of setting up my sewing area, or at least a temporary sewing area. This would mean extension cords criss-crossing the room...but what's another unsightly cord? Seriously. The front room is set up with the only three-pronger on the wall opposite the window (that's the only outlet I can plug the air conditioner into) and the other outlet a two-pronger next to where the bed is, which is sensible but the net result is that most places I would put furniture, there are no outlets. Gotta love houses made before electricity was popularized. I imagine I'll be asking the electrician about a lot of things and their costs.

It is too hot. Really and honestly it is too hot to do much of anything. So I unpacked books. I have not unpacked all of my books; I have decided that some of them really don't need to be unpacked. Does every book I own need to be on display? Perhaps they do, but maybe my CDs do too, and maybe some more of this stuff can go in the basement.

I was going to replace my crusty old mailbox, but it's so crusty I can't unscrew it, so I returned the new one and got a wire brush to scrape off the crust and Rustoleum to apply on top of it. In a sort of dark bluegreen.

I did trim the hedges the other day. My 100 ft extension cord is not long enough to reach the hedges in the back of the yard, so for now those will just grow wild. It did bring up another problem though, since I wanted an electric mower (no trips to the gas station, no stench, no big gas mower noise). Granted I can be mildly unsafe and chain extension cords together. Hmmm, possible safety risk vs several hundred more dollars and at least 10 more pounds for a cordless electric mower? Yeah, maybe I'll take the safety risk after I get the electrician in to make my outdoor outlets safe. Until then I think I will call the neighborhood yard guy who left me a note and see how much he charges to mow the weeds lawn.

The kitchen faucet leaks. Putting a new aerator on (where there previously was none) seems to have slowed the leak, but it still leaks. For now I am collecting the leakage and watering my plants with it. I really don't want any part of that kitchen to remain, so it seems silly to fix it.

The side hose spigot leaks terribly - I would say about 50% of the water makes it into the hose - not really worth using at this point. Uggh. when I moved in I wondered why all these things were turned off or painted shut...I am beginning to see why. Because nothing ever got fixed.

Bought some mulch for the flowerbeds in back...I guess that means I'm ready to call them done for the year. It is so hot, I need to do anything I can to help them absorb water and help me not have to water them daily. It is, in fact, so hot that I don't want to plant anything else. Hopefully it will make the compost happen faster. In addition to the full composter there is a pile waiting to go in.

And I'm annoyed because I was supposed to have a date this week. The guy, who I've been writing to for a while, said "pick a day next week." So I did, and that's the last I've heard from him. I'm very tired of trying to convince people to go out when they don't want to go out. I'm very, very tired of people wasting my time.

So instead tomorrow I will call the electrician, call the lawn guy, and set up my sewing area. Finally set up my sewing area. Maybe even sew.

Writers' group tonight. Oh, yeah. I forgot I am a writer and supposed to be revising a novel. Add to tomorrow's plan: sit in air-conditioned coffee shop for at least an hour and work on revisions.

It was vacationy because I had FOJ lunch at rottgrub and boadiccea 's, isn't that enough. Um, and I put a couple nails in the wall to hang up my don't-lose-yr-keys thing.

I've been dragging some stuff to the basement. Despite having a whole house, it's not necessarily big where it counts. I need more kitchen cabinets, and until I finish up in the bedroom, I have only a small closet for my clothes. It just doesn't make sense to unpack everything if I'm going to have to pack it all up and move it to rip up carpets and so on. On the other hand, it also doesn't make sense to not unpack and feel like I'm just staying and not really living here. So I'm unpacking "enough."