He Finally Took the Plunge!

Hubby has been debating for months about getting his hair cut. He's always liked long hair. He's one of the original hippies and as we all know, hippies never die. Last time he talked about getting it cut, I made the mistake of saying that the longer hair made him look younger. That's all he needed to make him change his mind. (For the record, I like his hair both ways, so it was totally his decision on what to do about cutting it.) He finally decided that the long hair was bothering him....getting in the way when he tried to do things. The problem is.........his forehead has gotten higher, especially on the sides, and a regular part-on-the-side man's haircut would have accentuated the problem. He did finally go and talkto the hairstylist and came back with a very acceptable middle ground. Here's the before pictures: (please excuse the haziness of the pictures. Apparently a certain grandson had his fingers all over the lens.)

And here's the after pictures:

And Hubby had the girl put his ponytail into a bag so he can donate it to Locks for Love. Isn't he a handsome hubby?

Enough Already!

Will the rain EVER STOP???? I'm one of the lucky ones who has no fear of flooding in my house. I live in a condo and I live on the second floor. My son is not so lucky. He bought a new house in the fall and is now finding out that his basement (which has an in-law apartment where my daughter lives) leaks!! I certainly hope they can do something about it. And I certainly hope the previous owners are forced to pay for whatever they have to do.

Done! Almost..........

What a day! We worked our *%$^ off but we got our room 95% done. My wonderful son Nick came over in the morning with piles of tools, including two saws. He had done all the floors in his condo, so he was our instructor.

He also did all the cutting, because frankly, Hubby and I both like having all ten of our fingers and would like to keep it that way.

We did our share of the work though. It was funny how...at the beginning.....we were all fighting over whose turn it was to put the next board in. By the end.......we were all saying, "you do it!"

Our completed living room. We do have a smidge of painting to do on the baseboard where Hubby had to countersink (cool word, huh?) the nails and I wood-putty'd them and the little putty'd holes will be painted over tomorrow. Of course, I also have to put the curtains up and redecorate the walls but............ain't that floor pretty??

I can't wait until it's over..........

Finally, finally...................tomorrow we'll put down our wood floor. We spent over three hours tonight pulling up the rug and the padding. It took forever to pull up the pieces of wood with the little nails sticking up that are all around the edge of the carpet. They were nailed down with nails every 3 inches! And the padding was stuck to the floor in many places and had to be scraped up. ewwwwwwwwww I'm so hoping we get the whole floor laid on Saturday. Then I can spend Sunday putting the house back together. I know there'll be plenty more to do after that. Painting the heater boards. Buying, painting and installing the wooden baseboard. Putting up curtains and pictures, etc. Buying area rugs. But it will be so nice to have that floor down!

Why is everyone so Snarly?

Yes....snarly. It's a word. Go look it up! I think because we want it to be spring so badly but it's not it makes everyone cranky. And those who are usually cranky are even more so. Today was supposedly 60 degrees out; with the crazy wind it was more like 40. Tomorrow......35-30 degrees!! WTF? Brought my car in to the garage today because it was "running rough". (Should that be "running roughly"? Who cares? It's a car!) It ended out costing me $400! The mechanic originally estimated $500, and it took less time than he thought so it only cost me $400. Somehow I was very excited and happy about that. Since when is it exciting to spend $400? The PITA at work who throws us all under the bus so much we have tire tracks up our butts wanted me to congratulate her today for helping out a co-worker. "Isn't it nice," she says, " when we all work together as a team and don't throw each other under the bus?" HELLO!??? It stinks that we got a new digital box for our Comcast cable - against our wills I might add. We had to do it....Comcast said so. And we can't figure out how to record onto our VHS tape with it. We might have to get DVR. And now I have to watch Survivor -which was on last night and didn't get taped because we coulnd't figure out how to do it - on my computer. Which is not comfortable. Because I do not have a couch in my bedroom where my computer is.

What A Decision!

Hubby and I are finally at the point in our living room makeover where it was time to pick out our flooring. If I thought picking wall paint colors was stressful, picking the floor was so much harder! For one thing, the walls are paint....easy to change if we decide we don't like it. The floor is permanent........forever! Plus, the walls cost like $70 total including all the crap we needed in addition to the paint....rollers, brushes, etc. The Floor was $500. 'nuff said. So we went to Home Depot and to Lowe's to compare prices and products. We ended out at Lowe's because they had a better selection plus the Pergo was 15% off. We bought two floor samples (YES! bought them! You'd think if you're going to spend $500 on a floor they could give you the friggin' scraps!) Anyhow.......we brought them home and tried to see if they matched with the wall AND with the kitchen floor since they are adjacent. The one on the left - Natural Oak - was too grayish looking and dull. The one on the right - Newland Oak - was too reddish. So we went back to Lowe's to try again. We ended out ditching the Oak and going with Beech!

We thought it was brighter, richer and matched better than the other two. We hauled home our treasure and stacked it in the soon-to-be-renovated living room.

My son Nick is coming over on Saturday to help us install it. Our plan is to spend Friday night ripping up the rug and using the shop-vac to get the floor ready for when Nick shows up on Saturday morning. With lots of luck and hard work we're hoping to get it done by Saturday night.

I'll post photos.

Let's All SING!

A fun-filled day today. We went with my Dad to see a friend sing in the Merrimack Valley Chorus. It's a group of woman singing four part harmony acapella. Unbelievable. They make it look so easy! But I know it's not. It takes lots of hard work and dedication.

I made the mistake of saying to our friend that it looked like fun and seemed like something I'd like to try sometime. Next think you know, the friend that's in the chorus is coming over and inviting me to their next practice! Yikes! I don't think I sing nearly well enough to join a group of singers. After the main group sang, a bunch of different barbershop quartets, all female, came out and sang for us. They were wonderful.After the show, Dad stayed for dinner. Daughter Jamie came over and joined us as well. She didn't want to come to the show........go figure! She doesn't know what she missed!

It was a fun day and great to visit with Dad and Jamie. Back to work tomorrow though. sigh............

Oh Glorious First Day of Spring!

The first Day of Spring in New England and it was 70 degrees outside!! WOW! Hubby and I both had to work in the morning but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the gorgeous weather. I had found a place in Newington, NH called Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge. There were hiking trails there, so after we both got out of work around 1pm, Hubby and I headed up there. We were worried about the trails being washed out because of the flooding, but the smaller trail started off with lots of wooden walkways. We were awestruck by some of the destruction from the wind storms.

And then we found the mud!

But the paths were all passable. At the apex of the loop, there was a nice wooden platform where you could look out at Great Bay.

Hubby looks out through the binoculours.

I enjoyed the bench!

We actually both enjoyed the bench.

After we left the Wildlife Sanctuary (where, BTW, we saw NO wildlife), we went into Portsmouth and stopped at Prescott Park. It was nice to sit on a bench and look out at the ocean. We drove from there down the coast along Route 1 - beautiful scenery and beautiful houses. We stopped at one of the State Parks.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of a very sweet little girl who was enjoying the beach at dusk.

We finally ended out at our favorite Seafood Place, Brown's in Seabrook, NH. We knew it would be crowded, but at 7 pm the line was around the block! The place was packed with very happy people who had spent the first really nice day in New England at the beach and had now settled down for some seriously good seafood. The wait was worth it. Their scallops are sublime.

Back to Normal

Life seems to be back to normal here in good old New Hampshire. The flood waters have receded. I'm sure there are still people who are bailing out their basements though. And another good rainstorm will do us all in again, but so far, the weather report is bright sunshine. I think everyone has their power back as well. That was the result of the last storm. Here's hoping we're all done with that. And now we've had a coupld days of bright, bright sunshine, crystal blue skies and 60 degree weather. How can you not love that? I even went out yesterday and bought a few spring blouses. Spring begins tomorrow, with a forecast that includes possible 70 degree weather. It all sounds great. But somehow I'm uneasy. I find it hard to believe that we're done with winter weather. I've lived in New England too long to be taken in by it. I know there's a winter storm and several inches of wet, heavy snow waiting for us. I refuse to put my boots away just yet.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And around and around and around we go.

The rain has finally stopped. But the rising rivers have not. Even though we woke up to bright sunshine this morning (Thank God!!), the rivers have not crested yet.

Hubby called me this morning to tell me not to go my usual way to work.....the road had been closed.

I couldn't got the one back way I knew of...the road was closed. And I couldn't go round the other way....the road was closed.

So I had to get onto the highway. Lucky for me, the road leading to the highway was open....even though I had to go through two very, very deep and huge puddles. I heard that later on in the day....that road was closed. We questioned customers all day as to the status of the roads. More roads were being closed rather than re-opened.

So on the way home, I went back onto the highway, this time not using that same road that led to the highway. I got home safely and in good time.

Not so much my co-worker. She carefully figured out a maze of backroads she thought she could take to get home. She called me 45 minutes after the office had closed to tell me she was still sitting on one of the side roads waiting for traffic.....because everyone else had taken the same way home.

Phase One is Complete!

Phase One of our Living-room Makeover Project is complete. That is....fixing up the walls and painting them. We spent the whole day Saturday working on it, telling ourselves that if we worked hard and finished, we'd be able to relax on Sunday. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! There is ALWAYS more to do! We had to finish edges, and then repaint where we messed up. Then we decided to change all the outlets and plugs so they'd be clean and new. That entailed a trip to Home Depot in the driving rain. Then Hubby decided to paint the door, on BOTH sides. So for the whole weekend our living room furniture looked like this.

When we finally finished, we spent another hour or so cleaning up, vacuuming and wiping the dust off everything.

Finally, we were able to sit down and enjoy our new walls.

We are taking a weekend off- we're too busy next weekend- and then we'll put in our new wood floor the following weekend.

Let me just say I have the most wonderful Hubby in the whole world. He worked like a dog beside me every step of the way. He even went grocery shopping with me Sunday night when we were too tired to move. The man deserves a medal!

Things that make you go Huh?

This is a picture my daughter sent me because she knows of my love for penguins.

King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance -- but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a "one in a zillion kind of mutation," biologists say that the animal has lost control of its pigmentation, an occurrence that is extremely rare. Other than the penguin's monochromatic outfit, the animal appears to be perfectly healthy -- and then some. "Look at the size of those legs," said one scientist, "It's an absolute monster."

The under-dressed penguin was photographed by Andrew Evans of National Geographic on the island of South Georgia near Antarctica.

There's always a Silver Lining

I am at the point in our living room make-over project that I'm saying to myself, "Who's stupid idea was this, anyway". I either want it to be done.....or to never have started it. The house is a wreck. Stuff that belongs in the living room is all over the house. The living room is stripped of all the stuff on the walls, the furniture is in disarray and there's dust covering everything. I'm sick of it. But here's the silver lining: Hubby using a vacuum cleaner!

Living Room Make-over

So even though it was the very nicest weekend we've had in months, we began our living room make-over.

It was supposed to be just replacing the living room floor. Our condo has the original 1970's blue wall-to-wall indoor-outdoor carpeting. Added to it is lots of cat puke and many spots where said cat has clawed little tufts into the rug.

I don't like doing things half-way, so I decided we needed laminate wood flooring.

But of course, you can't just do the floors. You have to paint the walls too, right?

Problem is, the wall under our window was a mess. Either rain is seeping in through the bricks outside, or maybe it's just the cold or something, but the wall was cracked in some spots and bumpy in others.

Enter "Demo-man" .....aka Hubby.

He gave me a heart attack by ripping out much more than I had anticipated. But he was right. We're doing it the right way and it's going to look great.

When we're done, I'll be happy like this.......for real.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

Is there anything more fun than playing with bubbles?

How about playing a silly game with Pepere?

My Baby is Home!

Finally....my baby......my Ellie Elantra...is home! She did not like being in the car hospital for three days. I called yesterday around 11am and left a message at the garage (you always have to leave a message!) and said I had a 1/2 day and would be getting out of work at 12pm and needed my car. He called back at 12 and said the part had just come in and it would be ready in the afternoon. I explained that my problem was, I had a ride home from work, but then no way to go back and get the car later in the afternoon. I know there were plenty of people I could have called.....but I wanted the garage to have to deal with it. They offered to have someone come pick me up. And sure 'nuff, they called at 4pm and had the woman who runs the front desk come get me. And Ellie is purring like a kitten. I'm still mad that the dumb-asses broke my steering fluid line. (Yea, it was a steering fluid line, not a transmission line as previously reported. My bad. But, same thing right?) And I'm still mad that I had to go three days without my car. But at least I feel like they made it right. They fixed it for free and gave me a ride to get it. That counts for something. But I'm still never going back there.

Have a Laugh

Check out this link for a good laugh.

Another Day

Another day with no car. WTF????? The mechanic called today and said they couldn't get the part for the car. Of course. We haven't heard that before, have we? Tomorrow I have a half-day. So I'll call the garage before noon and ask if the car will be fixed before the end of the day, and if he says no........... I will insist on a loaner car or a rental. Shall we take bets on whether I get one?

My Prediction Came True

If you read my prediction in my last post, I said the car dealership would say that whatever was broken was not their fault and it was just a coincidence that it broke while it was in their shop. Sure 'nuff ..... the dealership guy called today and said my transmission fluid line was very rusty and that's what's making all the noise. I asked if they were going to fix it free of charge. Oh no....it was very rusty. It had nothing to do with the work they did. I put on my very stern "preschool teacher" voice.......you know the voice I had to use when asking who used crayons to color all over the walls? "I am quite concerned that my rusty transmission fluid line just happened to break while you had my car up on a lift fixing something else." And they guys says, "Fine. If it will make you feel better we'll fix it for free." And I said, "Thank you". I'll let you know what happens when I pick it up tomorrow.