Mr. TV, when did I become so addicted to you?

I miss my tv! And yes, I realize how pathetic that sounds. I read somewhere once upon a time that many people watch an average of six or seven hours of tv a day. If that's true then I wonder where these people are. I know I do not have a spare six or seven hours each day to watch tv unless I want to give up sleep (which I don't) or not work (which I wouldn't do) or perhaps spend every non-working non-sleeping moment watching tv (and let's face it, that's not practical, even then I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a spare 6 hours in a day). So all you people that watch that much tv, what's your secret? Perhaps they are not working? Insomniacs? Feeling ill? Have to watch tv for work? Are children who do not like to go or unable to go outside? Regardless, I guess I should not judge them because lately, I'm missing not having a tv. Now, I will admit on snow days or days when I'm sick and a few lazy summer days, I may spend too much time in front of the "tube." When someone got me into "Lost" a couple of years ago, I spent 10 hours one day watching season one on DVD. Sad huh? So I've had my moments, but as during the school year, I don't usually spend more than a couple of hours watching tv each evening and approximately 20 minutes watching tv each morning , I never thought I'd be bothered by the fact that I can't watch tv. Well, I suppose technically, I could watch it, but it would just be static. I've lived in my new home for a couple of weeks and still have not called the cable company to get my cable hooked up and thus be able to watch tv. I bought the place a few weeks ago, but it needed some work so it was a few weeks before I was officially moved in and thus didn't see the point in getting cable until I was fully living here. I moved in about two weeks ago, but I was going on vacation last week so I didn't see the point in getting cable hooked up if I wasn't going to be home to enjoy it. And now I'm back home and haven't called, and as it's a weekend, I imagine there's no point in calling now. I go back to work Monday and I'm not sure how late these people work so I'm wondering if I'll even be able to get it installed any time soon because I'm not taking the day off from work to wait for the cable company to come. Of course since I'll be working, I won't have as much time to watch it as I do during the summer so maybe I won't mind so much (yea, probably not likely). Much of my life I didn't have cable, we got a few stations, but we didn't have cable from about the time I was five until I was 20 or 21. We moved when I was about 5 and my dad called the cable company three times, but they never showed up so he decided to just not get it. We could still get a few stations so life was peachy. We had cable at college so I had it then, and one year, I think it was my junior year of college, my dad got sick of not being able to watch all his Red Sox games so he decided to try for cable again (this time they showed up) so I could enjoy it on Christmas vacations and summer vacations. I didn't have it my first year of grad school (thought not for lack of trying; some issue with the landlord so we couldn't get it because he didn't want them drilling a hole or something). I've enjoyed my tv and having cable tv for the past few years, though truthfully most of the shows I watch are on the "free stations." Unfortunately, I can't even get the free stations as I don't have rabbit ears any more so I get NOTHING, just static. Now I keep busy, I have a decent social life, I like to read, watch movies, and I still have boxes left to unpack so why in the world does not having tv stations bug me so much? I think I've come to rely on it too much. Each night after work, I would usually watch the news while I relaxed for a few minutes then got ready to go to the gym. (I feel so out of touch with the world since I can't watch the news, I don't get a newspaper anymore--used to peek through one at the old place, and my internet is 50/50 at the moment). I'd check the weather each morning when I got up. Since it's rerun season, I'm not watching any of my shows so that's not a biggie, but each night I like to set my sleep timer for 30-6o minutes and watch a few minutes of tv before I fall asleep. Last night after I unpacked, did laundry, and put some things away, I wasn't really in the mood to read so I just wanted to watch tv for a few, of course I couldn't so I watched a movie instead, but I had tv on the brain. I spent last week on a cruise and watched very little tv (we mostly put it on to check cruise information) and I survived just fine, didn't miss it at all, but yet back home I'm feeling the need for the tube. Even now as I write this, I'd kind of like to have the tv on in the background. I came home from dinner with some friends tonight and had an urge to put the tv on. When did I come to rely on tv so much? Am I an addict since I can't seem to live without it? And will I get it back before the new seasons start? If not, I'll certainly be able to make a good dent in my Netflix list. :) So for now, I'm off to watch a movie then perhaps read some more of my book.

Help, I'm Addicted to Scrabble!

I think I am addicted to Scrabble. I discovered you could play it on Facebook and I can play it on my i-touch. Even if I have a really busy day, I feel the need to pop on-line and make my move. I'm not really that good at it. I like words and like to think I'm a decent player, but of all the people I play with there are only a couple I can beat. One of my friends often beats me by 100 points. I thought he made up words, but according to dictionary.com they are real, though how often people mention qi or qats in daily conversation is beyond me. We'll be really close and then he'll get a 50 point word and I'm done. So anyway, today when I should have been packing, I stopped and went on-line and played Scrabble instead. Oops! Hey at least I am building my vocabulary. :) And then post-Scrabble playing I felt the need to blog about it since it's not my turn in any of the ten plus games I'm playing.

Let's Try Happy Thoughts Tonight

So per usual there are many things I could complain about as I still want Andy Rooney's job, but despite my 8000 complaints, I'm trying to be more optimistic today and think happy thoughts. Tonight is my first night in my new home; at some points, it felt liked I'd never get here and although there is still a lot of work left to do, it's finally starting to look like a real home. This is partially because of some people I hired to do stuff, a little because of my hard work, but also because I have some awesome friends and family members. A good friend of mine who has been like a big brother to me and who used to be my neighbor moved to Florida (I am still mad at him for doing that) and didn't want to take his fairly new living room set so he gave it to me as a house-warming present. Who does that? He's as good guy. You rock Tony, thank you! That may be the only good thing about him moving to Florida--I got his furniture. hee hee Friday, three of my friends helped me (okay let's face it, they really did most of the work; I stood there and held, screws, made small talk, and smiled a lot) move the aforementioned living room set to my new home. Another friend and one of my cousins got me some deals on furniture. My mom, aunt, and Mike have helped me in numerous ways both big and small. Many thanks! "The boss" hooked me up with some repair people at good prices. Mr. C has improved my toilets, replaced my garbaged dispsoal, and tried to clean my roof--had it not been so slippery, I think he would have done it, but it was too slippery so instead he ended up with minor injuires. :( Mr. H delivered furniture, changed a light fixture to one from this decade, and helped with the toilet-seat fixing. Megan has answered my 8000 ?'s about the joys of owning a home. So a big thank you to all of you! Hope I didn't forget anyone. Tomorrow I may be back to complaint mode, but there's some happy thoughts for tonight. Cheers!

Andy Rooney, I Want Your Job

So I have a tendency to complain a lot. I can be happy, appreciative, etc, but I can also complain, especially about stupid things. When I was a kid, my Dad used to watch 60 Minutes every Sunday, I think he probably still does and at the end of the show Andy Rooney would appear on the screen and he would usually complain about something. I thought that would be a fabulous job for me. I could get paid to complain about random things. Mr. Rooney, when you retire, may I please have your job? How do you even make a resume' for that? I've had lots of experience complaining about life??? So to practice for the position I thought I would share a few random home-owner complaints. Nothing is easy.



1. As my friend Megan warned me (and I didn't belieive her, but she was totally right) people do not show up when they are supposed to. Eventually, they reschedule and life is peachy, but at the time it is frustrating.



2. Rusty toilets you've all ready heard about so I'll spare you.



3. The latest rusty thing--the screw on the washing machine hose so I couldn't change it.



4. My newly purchased box spring arrived on Friday afternoon, but it wouldn't fit up the stairs so the delivery man told me I had to order a split, which was $100 more expensive. Fine, I'll do it, but do you think it was as easy as going to the store to change my order? Oh, no, I had to go on-line, call several people, and I think it may finally arrive on Sunday...Here's hoping...



5. Getting moss off the roof; someone tried to get it off for me, but the roof is too steep and he nearly fell off the roof (how would you like to have that on your conscience). Thankfully, he just dropped the power-washer and not himself. Do you think it's easy to find someone to clean a roof? I've tried googling various things and there are about two people who do it, but the research is mixed. Power-washing a roof is bad some say, while others say it's okay. How do people know this stuff and why don't I? Where do you for for Roof 101?



6. Garbage disposals that work during the home inspection, but not when you buy the home. :(



7. Buying the amount of paint your painter tells you to buy only to find out it's too much and you can't return the extra can.



8. Seeing more cobwebs and dust in a week than a person should see in a life time (I think this has mostly been resolved now)



9. The insane amounts of money you spend at Home Depot/Lowes/Wal-Mart



10. Unintentionall painting the ceiling



So what do you think? Do I qualify for Mr. Rooney's job?

Interesting Moments in NYC

Two of my friends and I went to NYC this past weekend to visit another one of our friends. We had a fabulous time and we saw/heard some shall we say interesting things. Here's a list of a few of them:

-A crazy lady screaming at her son for a full half hour ferry ride; we finally moved to the other sisde of the boat; the kid wasn't even doing anything horrible, but apparently, she missed the lesson on using your indoor voice

-A song called Shots, that is about what else, Shots (as in drinks); I'm not really sure if I liked the song, but it kept getting stuck in my head (kind of like another song that I won't mention that a fellow blogger has managed to get stuck in my head a few times)

-Fabulous sushi at affordable prices; I thought NYC was expensive, but this place had it cheaper than NH and it was good (and I'm still alive so it must have been fairly safe)

-The idea of doing rum shots; seriously people, if you're going to do a shot, do something good; at this age what's the point of eating/drinking things you don't like unless it's something really healthy that you're supposed to eat

-A restaurant that only serves varieties of macaroni and cheese; this was the high-light of the trip for one of my friends; I never knew how much you could do with mac & cheese

-The enormous amount of shoes available to buy in NYC

-Pulling out the high school yearbook and walking down memory lane; always an interesting time

-Crazy bus driving; okay Mr. Bus Driver, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job because I certainly wouldn't want to drive to and from NYC, but when the traffic is stopped and then starts moving at under 10mph you need to go at 10 mph and not speed up, slam the brakes, speed, slam brakes, etc. no one wants to get sick (speaking of which, I never got car sick as a child and we did many long car trips, is this a sign that I'm getting old or can I blame the bad bus driving?)

-Being given a small soda when I ordered french fries; I totally understand that people make mistakes, but I said fries twice and said nothing about soda. Weird.

7:00 on a Saturday? No Thank You!

So my last day in Vegas was a Saturday, which meant my friend didn't have to work, which should have meant I could sleep in. Now, when I am on vacation and want to see new things, I don't necessarily feel as strongly about sleeping in on a Saturday as I do back in the real world, but I'd been getting up early most days over vacation and we had no set plans so I was not opposed to sleeping in, but could I? NO! Why? Soccer! I actually kind of enjoyed watching some of the World Cup games. I found them more enjoyable than oh say football. So I don't dislike soccer, but I do not feel the need to watch it at 7am. My friend was born in Argentina so he is a big Argentina fan and wanted to see Argentina play at 7am. He even invited some of his friends over--and they actually came at that hour on a Saturday! Shouldn't they be sleeping too? Good thing we just had to watch tv because I was half asleep and not in the mood to be social at 7am. I did my best to cheer for Argentina (since the US was long since out of the running), but they lost, by four goals I think. It was kind of depressing, more depressing that I was up that early to watch a team I didn't know anything about lose. However, the "party" ended by 9 or 10am so I got to take a nap then we went to Red Rock Canyon, which was pretty and then downtown to Freemont St (I think that's what it was called). After a drink and an appetizer, we walked around and my friend told me since I was in Vegas, I "had to play Roulette or Black Jack." I reluctantly agreed to try Roulette (am I spelling that correctly?). It was a $20 minimum, hello, I only play 2 cent slot machines and you want me to spend $20?! Are you serious? I need to save my money to buy my new home in less than a month, but I gave in and agreed to play. I won $35 on the first hand so I asked if I could quit, but my friend wouldn't let me! Good thing I got a free dinner that night. And in the grand scheme of things, I really didn't spend that much money so I shouldn't complain about losing $20, but aren't you supposed to quit when you're ahead? Plus as you can probably tell I complain a lot. :-p The next day it was back to Boston. I have to say flying on the 4th of July is kind of nice. My flight from Las Vegas to Chicago was full, but I had a row to myself on the way from Chicago to Boston, it was quite nice and even though people had to work/fly on a holiday, they were quite friendly. And there we go, over a month later, I've finished blogging about my trip. Now it's on to more "joys" of homeownership.

How Many People Does It Take to Change a Toilet Seat?

How many people does it take to change a toilet seat? Go ahead, guess. 1? 2? 3? No, no, and no. The answer is: five, yes, five. The half bathroom in my new home had a broken toilet seat, the toilet itself is fine, but the part you sit on was broken and resting next to the toilet and the cover was still there. I went to Home Depot with my Mom one day (I think I should just have my job forward all my paychecks to them as that seems to be where all my money is going these days) and while I was waiting for paint, I asked her if she would go grab me a toilet seat. Being the nice mother she is, she did. When we got home and I started to paint my cabinets, she decided to be nice again and take off the old toilet seat cover and put the new seat on. Unfortunately, she couldn't get it. My mom is fairly handy so I found this surprising, but she said she couldn't get the screw to come out. I tried later and had no luck. The screw was so rusted on there that the screwdriver did nothing. I tried a drill. Still nothing. Mike tried a couple of days later and he too had no luck, but he came with a spray that is supposed to make rust go away so I sprayed that and do you think it worked? No, not only did it not work, but the stuff smells so strong I think I may have killed a few brain cells. Five days, more spray, screwdrivers, and drilling later, still no luck. On the bright side, I thought perhaps I'd have fabulous calves from all this squatting (tmi? probably. sorry!) On the not so bright side: if I had guests over I was going to have to deem this the boys only bathroom or the camping bathroom. Wasn't exactly thrilled about that. So I tried the spray again. I think it resulted in a few more lost brain cells. When my friend's dad came by that afternoon to drop off a piece of furniture for me and to take down and put up a new light fixture for me (which was a process, but he did it, he is my hero!), he gave it a try. He couldn't get the screws out, but he did get the cover off. He thought perhaps a hack saw might do the trick. Unfortunately, I don't own a hack saw. I should also mention, that by this time in addition to the screwdriver and drill, I had also tried wrenches, a clamp-like thing of some sort, and a hammer. Two days later Mike's dad came by with a hack saw and it took some doing, but he managed to saw the screws out (or whatever the proper tool lingo is). And hence how it took five people to solve this problem. You might even be able to say seven as one friend of mine asked her husband what I could do and he offered some advice (the spray). So as perverted as this may sound, I don't mean for it to, but watch out for those rusty screws.