I'm Walking Into Spider Webs

Remember that song from back in the day? (Hey, Jess now you can have a different song stuck in your head). Well, as many of you know, and by many I mean the 3-4 of you that read my blog, when I moved the condo I moved in to had been vacant for over a year and by vacant I mean of people. Some spiders had made themselves a nice home. I got rid of the spider webs inside and eventually, I got rid of the one on my hose outside. Well, a day or two later, the hose spider web was back. I figured I must have not gotten ridden of it well enough so I tried again. Guess what? It came back! A couple of weeks ago someone (finally) came to clean the moss off my roof and when he cleaned up his mess on the ground/driveway, he cleaned up some of the spider web too. I again tried to get rid of the web. Guess what? It came back. So I got rid of it again last week and I'm wondering if it'll be back again tomorrow. Perhaps I am going to just have to accept the fact that the spider likes the hose on my house and and is determined to make his home there or I'm going to have to take drastic measures and um...move the hose? Get some spider spray? Keep fighting him? Who knows!

Help, I'm Turning Into My Mother

I've turned into my mother. I thought it would never happen or at least not this soon in my life, but it has. It's happening at work and at home. I used to tease my mother because she did most of her cleaning on the weekends. Some of it got done on Thursday nights, but the rest was either Friday evening or Saturday morning. I always figured I'd do mine during the week so I could enjoy my weekend, but last weekend, first real weekend in the new place, do you think I enjoyed my Saturday morning? Oh, no, I decided that would be a great time to wash the floors and clean the sinks. Just call me Bonnie. At work, I now find myself saying things to the kids that my mother used to say to me. I.e. a student whined at me and in an annoying whiny voice I told her not to whine like that because it was annoying (the same way my mother used to do it!). I'm blanking on another concrete example at the moment, but on several ocassions in the past month I've found myself saying oh, gosh, I sound like my mother. I've also been on the look out for holiday decorations whenever I'm at a store or today at the craft section of the seafood fest. My mother decorates BIG TIME for all the holidays: I'm not just talking Christmas and Halloween people. I think she has a Flag Day decoration. Don't get me wrong, Mom is a lovely person, but really, do I have to start acting/talking like her? Next thing you know I'll be baking cookies every Saturday and letter-boxing all around New England.

What Is It?

My neighbor moved to Florida and didn't take his living room furniture with him. He offered it to me and since it was only a couple of years old, rarely used, and free, I gladly accepted it. What a nice friend/neighbor I have. Anyway, he gave me a couch, a lovesesat, an ottoman, and...well, I'm not quite sure what the fourth piece is, nor were the three people who helped me move. Another seat? A table? A really big ottoman? Tony (my neighbor/friend/big brother--not biologically, but he was like one to me growing up) used it as an ottoman sometimes i.e. I'd be over there hanging out with him and sometimes he would put his feet on it. However, he also used it as a table sometimes i.e. I'd be over there hanging out with him and he'd put food or drinks on it. I do believe I also saw people sit on it from time to time. So I just don't know what to do with it. It's nice and all, but I'm not yet sure how to use it. (Can we say redundant sentence?) Currently it is sitting in the "fireplace ready" section of the room. I'm thinking next month when my family comes over to see the place that I will wait and see what they do with it. Will they sit on it? Will they expect me to put food on it? I doubt anyone will move it and make it into an ottoman, but one never knows. What do you think it is?

No, I Do NOT Think I'm Cooler Than You

I've never been the most up-to-date with technological toys. I didn't have a DVD player until I was in college or grad school. My VCR worked just fine so why bother getting a DVD player. (Actually, the only reason I got one was because I wanted some movies for Christmas and my mom couldn't find them on video any more so she bought me a DVD player and DVDs). I had the same cell phone for years and it was getting outdated when I got it. I had no desire to get rid of it, but I finally gave in to peer pressure. The one I have now is probably "antique," but it still works so I see no need to upgrade. So I guess it shouldn't be surprising that in a world where CDs are going out of style, I had to pull out my CDs the other day. Now I do have an i-pod (only b/c it was a birthday or Christmas gift a few years ago) and this year I bought an i-touch because my friend Megan had one when we went to Alaska and I thought it was cool and would come in handy when I traveled (which it did this summer). It also came in handy in July when I was painting so instead of listening to myself screaming "How did I get paint on the ceiling? Why do I suck at painting? Will I ever feel settled?" I could hear some nice music. My car does not have Sirius (sp?), XM, or any of those things. I've got the regular radio/CD player that comes with the car. I also don't have any way to plug my i-pod into my car, which normally suits me just fine. I can get plenty of stations and I usually don't have too far to drive. Well, on my way home from work earlier this week, that song, "You Think You're Cooler Than Me" came on the radio. I'm not sure I was a big fan of that song, but since I now seem to hear it EVERY TIME I'm in my car, I'm sick of it and if I ever did tolerate that song, I can't stand it now. So when I heard that song for the second time that day, I switched from one station to another and it was playing on that station too! Do I have to put on country or olides to avoid it? I actually did try the country station, but it was a commerical. Hence where the CD comes in. Since most of you read Jess' blog, you may remember her mentioning Circles in the Sand a while back. That inspired me to dig out an old Belinda Carlisle CD when I was packing to move and I put it my car CD player since I had not heard that song in YEARS. And it was still there yesterday, thank goodness! So now in addition to having the cooler than me song stuck in my head, it is mixing with Circles in the Sand. Perhaps I could mix them together and make my own song, ha ha.

All I Can Say is Wow

I had my first ikea experience yesterday. Wow! Four of us went. Two of us (including me) had never been before. I figured we'd be there for a little while, not all afternoon (I believe we were there for four hours, plus an hour drive down and an hour drive back). Good thing today was a holiday. I had no idea that place was so big. When we got there, I just looked in the area where we were standing and said, Wow. Before we could shop though, we had lunch as it was nearly 2:00 and we were all starving. In case you didn't know, they have a restaurant in ikea! The food was pretty good too. I would never think of eating lunch at a furniture store. Who knew! At lunch, my friend Hal told me the store is the size of four football fields. You all know how indecisive I am, can you imagine me trying to make decisions about things in a store that big. I found tons of stuff I liked, but since my original intention in going there was to get a bookcase (and well, to see what all the hype was about), I am proud to say that I narrowed it down to three bookcases. When it came to decision time, I think one of the people with me wanted to kill me because I kept debating between two, but I finally picked one. Now if I could just get it set up...Perhaps, that'll be next week's project. I also found a chair I liked, at least I liked it until I saw the price. Then I decided it best to wait on the chair until I win the lottery. We wandered around some more (the people with me were also recent home-buyers) looking at things we liked and I thought that was about it, when I remembered there was a whole other floor to explore. Lamps, dishes, rugs, pictures, oh, my. I liked too many lamps so instead of getting all 85 that I liked, I didn't get any because I couldn't decide. I got a couple of small things for the kitchen and was indecisive on the pictures so I skipped those too. I am so excited that I now have a place to put my 8000 books, well, at least I will when it's set up and knowing how "handy" I am, there may be a future blog about that coming. Oh, and I haven't forgotten to blog about the mysterious piece of furniture in my living room, but my camera is temporarily M.I.A. Actually, I believe I know where it is, but it's not here and will be (I hope) tomorrow. All for now and cheers to ikea, all four football fiels of it. :)

If It Makes You Happy...The joys of owning a...bathroom

So as much as I'm finally staring to enjoy owning my own place (okay, let's be perfectly honest, I own about 20.01% of it now and the bank owns the rest so I own what like the half bathroom?), it bothers me slightly that things I once NEVER would have found exciting now greatly excite me. Okay, clearly, the bills suck and they certainly pile up when you first buy a place, but progress has finally been made so read on to see what now makes me happy in life.
-Having all but one room painted (I'll be even happier when the last room is painted)
-No longer having cracked windows
-Finally remembering to buy toilet cleaner and getting it on sale!
-Getting my vacuuming done tonight so it's one less thing to clean this weekend
-Getting two free couches an ottoman, and another piece of furniture (there is some discrepancy on what it is, if my camera were handy, I would take a picture of it and post it on here) from my awesome friend Tony. It is either a table or a seat or a really big ottoman. I will take a pic this weekend and blog about it in the future.
-Finally getting a box spring so I could sleep here (first time it didn't fit up the stairs so had to send it back and get a split, which made it up the stairs successfully, now if the store would finally credit my account and not charge me for two box springs when I only have one, I'd be completely happy)
-You've all ready read about my dryer vent, toilet seat, and fan happiness
-Having air conditioning in my bedroom for the first time in my life!
-Being able to recycle EVERY week (not because I am all hardcore about saving the earth although I agree that it's important, but every other week was too little, the recycling bin was always full after one week so by the second week it was totally overflowing).
-Finally having food in my fridge and cabinets besides water and a few snacks (since I wasn't completely living here I never bothered to grocery shop until last week; I was eating breakfast and dinner at the old place). Literally, for the first three or four days after I went grocery shopping, I would smile every time I opened the fridge because had food and drinks in it. :) It's the little things you know.
I'm sure I'm forgetting other things, but that's a start. Next time I'm in a bad mood, I may list the things that make me unhappy about owning a place, but we'll play it happy tonight. :)

Is It Time to Get Up All Ready? Just One More Hour Please!

Is it just me or does anyone else find it difficult to go back to work immediately after vacation? Actually, I shouldn't even say to go to work, the going isn't so bad, it's the getting out of bed part I find torturous (sp?). I rarely swear, but when the alarm clock beeped the other day many not so nice words ran through my head in succession for several minutes. I started bargaining with well, no one, since no one was there, if I can just sleep for a little while longer or if work would just change their hours and start one hour later...Why is it so hard to get out of bed? Even if I go to bed early and get a good night's sleep 6:30 just comes so early after vacation and feels so painful. I know some of you get up long before that so you think I have it made, but yeah, getting out of bed after vacation is rough. And not being a morning person doesn't help, but what can you do, right? And to all you morning people out there, keep doing what you're doing, but forgive me if I'm not so perky until 8 or 9. :-p