Update on Projects

As we all know, I am a project efficianado. Kind of. I like to start them...

This one will be finished. It is finished for the most part. We made the decision to rip out Sis's kitchen and bathroom. All of it. Floors, walls, everything. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Well, now that it's over I can laugh about it. But during the project it was dirty and frustrating and hard work. My Bro came and stayed with us while this was going on and he did most of the work. I never would have been able to do it without him.

One month later we are done. New kitchen, new bathroom and oh... we ripped out the walls in my bedroom to because... why wouldn't we. Actually I had the spray foam insulation guys come out and insulate the attic. Whew. Lots of work but it was worth it. I am looking for the before pictures, but here are some after pics.

When you need it - it will come

I love life!!!! I have been struggling through a few things lately, as we all do. Nothing major, just some worry about economy and well, just making it in this crazy world. I think we have all gone through feelings like this, especially lately. As I was at the height of my contemplation and looking for some answers and anything to develop forward movement I had some small but significant and incredibly necessary things happen. All in the way of friends.

BFFlingere and I have begun to hang out more frequently than we had before. While we have known each other for over 6 years, we only got together on occasion. As I mentioned, it has been more frequently and as we have been talking I have been bringing up my concerns and contemplations. She has already gone through building up a business and has been quite sucessful. Prior to starting this business she owned a communications company and does quite a bit of consulting. She has been an incredible sounding board, and has helped me immeasurably in putting marketing efforts in perspective and giving me new ideas on developing new business. It is just the consistent shot in the arm I have needed to keep a good attitude and move progressively in the forward direction.

BFFBears and I have been in touch for a very long time. He is another inspiration. He started his company 7 years ago and has been a successful business man and has grown his company through ups and downs, but no matter what is happening is always looking for the best ways to achieve his goals. He is a numbers guy and tracks everything to the minutia, but makes me see where things are going good and where things need improvement. This has not been my modus operandi, but I see the necessity. He is making it happen. No one else... just him by the sheer force of his will. And as I said, and inspiration.

BFFNeighbors. This is very recent and much appreciated. They are both experts in PR, writing and events planning in addition to many other talents. The other day I got a call from them saying "why don't you come over so we can talk". When I got there they were both ready to talk to me about my business plan and objectives. Now, truth be told, if I would have actually listened to the message I wouldn't have been so surprised by this, but I was blown away that they would take the time to do this with me.

I guess what I am getting at here is that I felt stuck. Between these people and of course many others, I feel like I have some activity and am gaining momentum. Watch out world... I am on a roll.

Dr. heal thyself

Ok, I am not a doc, but I think the same phrase applies. The other day I was in my office and one of the chiropractors and I both had some time on our hands. I have not had an adjustment for a while, so we decided… what the heck. Let’s give me a good ole’ fashioned crack. Just so you know, I am a huge believer in Chiropractic work, and for the most part use them for all issues that I have. In this particular instance, I haven’t had any issues for a while, so I was thinking more along the lines of a maintenance treatment.

As it turns out, I was a little tight… in all places. Hum, that is not so great on my part. I felt fine when we were done, good actually. A little light feeling. Well, 2 days later I was sleeping, woke up and my back was hurting. I had popped a rib out of place while I was sleeping. Go figure. It hurt, went in again, and had it fixed. About a week later, had a thoracic issue where I felt like I couldn’t stand up straight. I had become a hunch back and no matter what I did, couldn’t correct the posture. Went in to get that fixed. Whew. I am really glad she could fit me in. Now at this point I have come to realize that I have some structural issues that would best be fixed sooner than later.

I went to see our massage therapist where my prognosis was not much better. My entire back was so tight that I didn’t even feel where the knots were and my skin had lost elasticity due to the tight muscles. Needless to say, the massage was more therapeutic than relaxing, and it was necessary. I am now actively working on making sure that I take care of myself as well as I take care of my patients.

Moral of this story… Just because you don’t feel like there is a problem, it is better to go in for periodic check ups so that no one gets to the point where I find myself now. Preventative will always be the best way to take care of yourself.

Pending project

As the days get nicer and nicer I find myself looking toward the back yard. The place that socializing happens, the place where summer foods are cooked, the place where the pup digs up all flowering botanicals. Yes, summer is on its way.

Sis and I were scrutinizing the yard yesterday and discussing the best use of space. As it turns out we put the patio in the wrong place. Yes, 2 years ago we laid out a patio, tilled the ground, leveled it out (kind of) and poured the cement into cobblestones to form a beautiful patio off the back of the house. Now, in our use of said patio over the last 2 summers we have come to realize that it is in direct blazing hot sunlight ALL of the time. This is not a bad thing on cool days when the sunshine feels good, but on days when the thermometer is registering 95 in the shade, the patio becomes a blazing inferno where even food and beverage in the cooler find themselves in a boiling tub of what used to be ice.

A decision has been made. We must move the patio to the shade of the garage. Cobble by cobble this will be done over the next week or two. We will get our hands on a tiller again, level the ground, and transfer the patio to its new location. I am truly hoping that this will be easier than pouring the cement.

We will use the area against the house for planting. We have made a household decision that we would like to grow food. We are thinking asparagus, all of our typical herbs, tomatoes, raspberries, onion and garlic. I wouldn’t mind some carrots or brussel sprouts, snap peas and green beans. We will see how it goes. So far our collective green thumb has been a bit brown. Basil seems to be the only thing we can keep alive. It is a good thing because we make the most incredible pesto.

Wish me luck on our pending project.

Very cool opportunity

I am going to officiate a wedding!!! How cool is that??? Yes, I will perform the ceremony. I am so excited. I got a call from BFFNewYork and it looks like we are all settled. New Years Eve in Vegas. It is perfect for him!

I recieved my decleration of ordination about 3 years ago, when we were tossing around the idea of me doing the ceremony for Sis and BIL. Since then I really haven't thought of it, but it looks like the time has come. I have gotten to do some very interesting things in my life, and this will definately go in the journals. I have a while to plan for it, but I will let you know how it goes.

That would be a fun topic. The top 10 or 25 interesting things you have done in your life. It sounds like one of those facebook lists, but still would be fun to hear some from anyone out there. You can comment on this blog you know... I will get together my list and post it one of these days.

Participation in the hype

I went to a superbowl get together last night. Yes, huge sport fan that I am. Don't worry, I didn't embarrass myself by painting my face or screaming and throwing things at the TV. I went over to Cuz's place. It was the perfect superbowl scenario for me. CuzIL invited Sis and I over around 6. Our plan was for the girls to watch the commercials and Tivo through the rest. Somehow the boys plans were changed, so they stayed to watch the game with us. It's ok. We were still able to skip thorough a lot of the meaningless jabber and recaps.

Game aside, the food was awesome! I ended giving myself a bit of a food coma. Again, it worked out ok, when we left it was 10:30 and time for bed. All in all it was a pretty darn nice evening. Thanks for having us over!

A beautiful day at the beach

Yes, it is the middle of winter in Chicago. And, yes I did go to the beach. It is crazy that it can be cold out, and the dogs just don't seem to care. BIL, BFFneighbor and I had a nice little excursion to the beach yesterday. It was a balmy 35 degrees or so and the pups were hit with a bout of cabin fever. I can hardly blame them, if I were cooped up in the house all day with my only exercise being running up and down the stairs I would be a little stir crazy too. So, we packed up the 2 pups and off we went to Montrose Dog Beach. This place is so cool! You get there and every one lets the dogs off the leash and they all go play together. I like to just watch. Actually, I don't have much choice. The dogs don't want to have anything to do with people when they are there.

It is really interesting to see how they all react together. There was a bully picking on Bosley and our neighbor dog, Blue, came to his rescue. Literally leapt to his rescue. This big dog was hovering over Bosley barking (not very nicely), and Blue came running from across the beach, leapt over Bosley and basically tackled the other dog. BIL, BFFneighbor and I just stood there somewhat dumbfounded. I guess it goes to show that they know who their friends are.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year was a few days ago and some friends from school and I got together at the HoT to celebrate new years yet again. It was an intimate gathering with food, drink, movies and fortune cookies. We all had a nice time. BFFA brough the chinese horoscopes for the year. I have to say that there were only 2 people out of the whole group that are walking into a good year. RMB - well all I can say is sorry, it's not looking good.

Needless to say we ended up with way too much food. How does that keep happening? But, everyone took some home, and I am left with minimal extra. It worked out perfectly.

I would just like to say at this point that I suck at using chop sticks. I am one of those people that when something goes flying across the room everyone knows where it comes from. To try to pick up a piece of rice with 2 sticks is an absolutely rediculous notion. This is when chinese food becomes finger food. One would think that I would get the hang of this after so much time spent studying chinese culture.

Organization is my nemesis

This morning I was thinking that if I had an arch nemesis, it would be the evil clutter clown. I know for a fact that this jokester runs around my house pulling out papers, mail, clothes from my closet, dishes from the cabinets, and books off the shelves. He leaves them lying around in areas that look just like where you would have used them. This is his secret, he makes you think you did it yourself, but no one ever remembers leaving anything out… Did I mention that he is invisible?

I had a run in with him last week sometime and it was a doosey. He attacked my closet. I spent about 3 hours yesterday going through and putting everything back in its rightful place. Clowns are evil, especially this one.

Drat the technology

My little UMPC won't pick up an internet signal. Great... I just got it back and it doesn't work again. Not sure, but this one may be user error.

Resolute to make no resolutions for the most part

I am not a big fan of new years resolutions, but there is something about the month of January that makes you take a look at the last year and do some self evaluation. I read a lot of things and came across a question that struck me.

"What difference did I make?"

Yes, I am in a bit of a contemplative mood as I jot out my notes here. But, truly, what difference did I make? Today, this week, this month, this year. Did I even make a difference? It's an eye opener.

I think this is a question that I will need to be asking myself every day. So often I go about my day and then it is over and there was nothing accomplished, I didn't make a difference in anything. I think this will help to keep me more focused and productive. There are so many things to do and it seems that time just gets away from me.

More technology - because that's what I need

I am so excited I got my UMPC back up and running! Well I didn't, BFFideas did it for me. But it works now!!! I just need to figure out how to use it.

I feel technologically complete.

Moving + snow

It has been a busy weekend. BFFperfection was in town, so I got to hang out with him for a while. I got a call from him on Thursday night from London. He asks “do you have time to get together this weekend?” All I could think was… Don’t tease me like that. Turns out he booked a flight and was here on Saturday. So, we got together on Sunday to pack up his condo. This makes it official… he no longer lives here. After packing we headed out to Michigan to store some things in a friends barn. The 3 of us loaded up a trailer and headed out.

Woo hoo!! I love road trips. The home/barn in Michigan was beautiful. I am considering looking in that area for my farm, anyway, I digress. About half way over there it started to snow big beautiful snow flakes. This is a truly gorgeous sight. Let me clarify… It is visually beautiful. We, however, were moving. It had been snowing on and off for the past week or two, and when we got there I would say that there was a good 2 feet of snow on the ground. There was good news; the driveway had been plowed. There was bad news; the road to the barn had not been. All items needed to be stored in the barn. Hum. Dilemma. So, we did what any car with 2 men and 1 woman would do… We tried to drive through the 2 feet of snow with a full trailer attached. Can any one guess what happened? Anyone?

Yes, about a half of a car length in we were totally stuck. We spent a good 45 minutes digging the car out and trying to get it to move. Detached the trailer, used boards under the tires, shoveled… you name it. We finally got unstuck, but now the trailer is in the middle of the driveway and we can’t get around it. It must be moved. Hooked up the trailer again and were about to make another go of it. Wait, wait, wait! Maybe it would be a good idea to not try to go to the barn… today. Let’s get the trailer out of the way (on the plowed area) and come back and take care of it after the road to the barn has been cleared. It was an ah ha moment that wouldn’t have worked before we tried the previous route given the testosterone available.

Truth be told, I can not take credit for doing the manual labor involved in getting the car unstuck. I was in charge of the flashlights.

Once we got the hard work done I got a tour of the house. There was so much work that had been done to it. It was incredible, and makes me want to jump in on more projects at my own home to make it look half as good as this place. I was obviously in the company of 2 perfectionists. Really, it looked like it should be on a magazine cover.

The ride home was uneventful for the most part. We stopped off for and enchanting dinner at Popeye’s chicken and we were home from my most recent adventure by 11. I know most people don’t consider moving fun, but I had a great time, even given our less than optimal circumstances. I guess it just goes to show that when you get around friends it doesn’t matter what you are doing, it is the company that you are with that makes it enjoyable.

stitch 'n' bitch

Ok, this is why I wanted to learn how to knit. So I could have a stitch 'n' bitch. Doesn't that sound like fun?? Some wine, some yarn, some good gossip. What could be better?

Well, let me tell you... knitting is not as easy to pick up as one might think. I went out, got the book, the needles, the yarn and some other misc. supplies. The book is teach yourself to knit in 1 day. I wasn't sure how well that would work, so I also picked up knitting is easy in 3 simple steps (or something to that effect). I was super excited about this and I had a day when I didn't have much planned, so I jumped right in.

As I sat there mumbling explitives under my breath at the yarn and needles I could hear RMD in the other room chuckling. This did not help the situation. Who would have thought that tying knots in yarn would be so difficult? About 5 hours later I had a perfect rectangle dog toy. That's right. Bosley was there as part of my cozy perfect knitting day. I think he may be a little confused (dog?cat?dog?cat? it's complicated). I will give you that we dressed him up as a cat when he was a pup, but I had no idea that it would have caused permanent doggie brain damage. It was halloween and he went as the cowardly lion but, I digress. Bosley decided that his favorite toy that day was my skane of yarn. Every time I got up to grab water or food he would grab it, run around the house and bat it around. By the time I was done with my sample rectangle, it was so full of slobber that I just gave it to him.

So, the book was right. 1 day, learn to knit. I have not gotten any further than my sample piece, but now I know how to knit. As for the stitch 'n' bitch... Who has time for that??? It took me 5 hours to make a 5 inch square!

Hey, let's start a project

The HoT is getting yet another new look. The back stairs. The work has begun, the dust has started to collect and the smell of paint is in the air. What started out as a couple of day project has already stretched into a couple of weeks, and there is drywall dust everywhere. The walls were in desperate need of repair. I know we will all miss the 2 foot hole in the wall, but alas we must persevere.

Our project started with minimal planning but we had to do something. There plainly were not enough construction projects going on. We were going to paint, then we had to fix the walls, then talk started of ripping out a wall, of course the stairs needed to be painted, and so it goes. Elfa is on sale, that is good. There is still no insulation. Should we just rip out the drywall, insulate and then replace all of the walls? It would look better and cover the electrical conduit. So, what started out as a gallon of paint project is now 2 weeks out. No decisions have been made, some of the drywall has been repaired, and there are splotches of primer all over the walls. So much for getting things done over the Christmas break. Updates to come, and maybe even photos when it’s done.

No, I have not finished the caulking of the trim in bathroom. The joys...

Dreadful little box

There is a dreadful little box that sits next to my bed. I am quite sure that the only reason it is there is to irritate me in the morning. I never did anything to the box, but yet when I am lying there peacefully a rancid sound emits. It comes screeching forth to jolt me into the only action thinkable at that point. I hit it. It recovers it bearings after about 9 minutes and starts screeching again. What started out as blissful slumber has now become an anxiety filled nightmare. When will this aggravation end? The only thing that makes it happy is when I get myself up and stagger from my warm cocoon to turn on the light. Ugh... Good morning.

Note: I don't normally feel this way about waking up, just today for some reason.

Holiday season continued

This is pretty cool. I love love love food and getting together with friends. I had been thinking that after new years, the social season would settle down and leave me to my knitting. Fortunately for me, that has not been the case. I am pretty sure that just about everyone I know has been in touch to get together for either lunch, dinner or drinks. I have an entirely full calendar! I may put on a few pounds, but it will be so worth it. This week alone I am having Joe's Seafood (crab), Fogo de Chao, burgers at O'Donovan's, MacNamara's and one yet to be determined. I am in heaven.

It's perty

I will admit that I am a little freaked out about the cold that is supposed to be coming our way. Apparently we are supposed to be reaching temperatures of -5 in the next few days here. Interesting side note... I don't think my house has insulation.

Ok, all of that aside, I was walking to the train yesterday while it was snowing and it was truly beautiful. There was almost no one on the street. Everything was white and pristine. The sounds of the city seemed to stop all but the poor schlep trying to get out of parking spot on the street. It was almost like time was standing still.

Starting the new year right

Yes, yes, I know. I have been gone for quite a while, and I even missed the holiday season. Yes, I know my witty commentaries about the goings on at the House of Temptation have been sorely missed. But I am back, and I am going to try to update you on a more regular basis. A quick recap on what has happened since we last connected which was… wow, before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving dinner, I think, is one of my favorite holidays. Everyone brings food, BIL grills one turkey, and has taken to deep frying one turkey. We have every variety of potato, green beans, basically all of the traditional stuff. BFFhost makes the most incredible warm cranberry port beverage every. We keep it in the crock pot throughout the day. Well, until it lasts anyway. It is normally gone well before dinner is served. This year was great, Mom and Dad were there and the whole household. BFFmusic was there this year too. Surprisingly, Turkey day is one of the most relaxing holidays, even with all of the hubbub of cooking.

Fast forward to Christmas. Bro and family came home from being in Hawaii for the past year. We were very happy to have them home for the holidays, and spent a great Christmas eve and day with them. It was great to see the boys (4 nephews). I have to thank BFFmom for shopping with me. My inner little boy just wasn’t working this shopping season.

New Years Eve was great. BFFmusic and I went to BFFphonegirl’s for a party. Neither one of us knew anyone there but the host, and we ended up having a great time! There is nothing like starting out a conversation with someone you don’t know with them asking you to define making out.

New Years Day Brunch at the house has become an annual event. Again, a great holiday. Way too much food but we did cut down on the sweets this year. I haven’t been doing as much baking.

I think we are caught up. I will start getting into the swing of things from here out… I hope. Feel free to give me a little push now and then if you don’t hear from me.

Ya ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Yeah! Elvis’ Birthday! We play Elvis music all day. I love it!!!!