I saw Big Fish over the weekend. It was pretty good. Very enjoyable and uplifting.
Got my first oil change for the truck. And spend the rest of the weekend trying unwrap and catalog my mother’s Avon bottles for sale on eBay. That was exhausting. I accomplished a lot, but this is a big project.
Over the long New Years weekend, my friend Cate, who was in from Germany, came over and we went to Dan and Doug’s New Years party (photos soon!) along with Kathy and had a good time. Cate and I went to the Catholic supply store downtown and got religious medals (I know, I know, I was just saying below that I’m not a fan of the Catholic church. I still like the saints, though. They never did anything to me.) and went to the 62nd Street antique mall. It was great to see Cate again, and I hope it’s not two years before I see her again. I’m hoping to visit my sister in England, though, and if so, maybe Cate and I can hang out in London.
I went to see House of Sand and Fog with Melissa. Deeply depressing. If you see this, do it on a bright sunny day, not a dark gloomy one like we did.
And I did more painting in my living room. I also read ALOT. I finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and read Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown, the guy who wrote the DaVinci Code.
Middlesex was excellent. Angels and Demons was good, but not off the charts good. If you liked the DaVinci Code, you’ll enjoy this. I had it figured out well before the end, though, and it basically followed the same formula the other: Langdon as hero, girl as intrepid side-kick, a race against time to solve a puzzle, with an anonymous, unknown bad guy who turns out to be someone familiar to you in a wild twist at the end of the book. The appeal for me is the idea of clues to mysteries hidden in plain sight, amongst objects you see every day, with a scavenger hunt like puzzle attached. And I love the idea of secret societies, unusual iconography, etc.
1) Had fun at Girls Game Night at Outword Bound books.
2) Washed my truck and cleaned it all out.
3) Raked my leaves.
4) Bought a table, a cabinet and copper trellis from Urban Bloom, because they’re going out of business.
5) Visited my mom to take her Dutch Letters, a book, and bought several other books.
7) Helped Dan and Doug unbox ornaments for their Christmas trees.
8) Visited Tim and Avi’s Salvage Yard.
9) Sorted out all the door and window trim I had and picked out enough to put in the living room.
10) Upgraded the operating system on my iMac to 10.3.1
11) Messed up my e-mail so I can’t download it. (That’ll be fixed soon!)
Friday night, I went to Kathy’s softball game and then went to girl’s game night at Outword Bound Bookstore, where we played electronic Scattegories and I bought a couple of CDs.
On Saturday, I got the tonneau cover put on my truck, and took donuts to the neighbors who were planting trees in the right of ways in various places in the neighborhood. I didn’t get back in time from the truck enhancements to really help them much. I guess they planted 27 trees this weekend, which is really cool. Then I ran up to Noblesville to shop and have lunch with my mom. I found some cool tin signs for the laundry room and bath room doors, so that people don’t have to ask which room is which any more.
Saturday night was Amy’s birthday party. We started off at Dan and Doug’s house and went to Talbott Street after that. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad we had a successful night out.
Sunday I was hung over and didn’t do anything except prune back the lilac bush in front of my house. I followed what the arborist said and cut it back to just before the first forks of each branch, but it looks like I scalped the tree. He assured me that it would grow back fine next spring, though, and it would bloom better. I hope he’s right.
I also got to meet Anne, the new owner of the house across the street, and she gave me a tour of the house, which is really pretty. It was really cool, and Anne seems very nice. I’m really excited about her and her husband moving in.
Kathy did most of the work finishing the drywall in the living room while I stressed out as everything when haywire for me all week long. (You can interpret “stressed out” as “threw temper tantrums”). The wall around the fireplace is brick with a thick layer of plaster over it — plaster that’s in bad shape and needed to be covered. I also needed to put up drywall around the fireplace to match up the edges of the drywall on the other two walls. All this would make more sense if I ever get my pictures organized and up on the site. [grin].
I dug up the brick pathway in front of my house this weekend, and moved the bricks to the side of the house so I can use them in the path in the back yard. I also uncovered part of the sidewalk and started work on the flowerbed on the side of the house. Kathy and I started to put drywall up around the fireplace, but I need a better masonry bit to pre-drill for the masonry screws. When I get that, I’ll have all of the drywall finished. I’ll stop by Lowe’s to get that tonight. I’m also going to buy a wheel-barrow to move stuff around in the yard.
I pruned and cut back all the dead flowers in the beds from last year, raked the back yard and neighbor’s yard, seeded the backyard, dug up the gravel in what will be the new flower bed on the northwest corner of the house, finished the laundry that will go to goodwill, bought 5 sheets of drywall with my brother Gary and brought them to my house.
Over on the north side of 22nd Street, they pulled a backhoe up and completely demolished a house on Sunday in less than six hours. It was pretty wild. I have photos.
On the less stressful, more pleasant side, Kathy and I took Spike for a walk along the canal Friday night. He loved it. I also have to take some photos of him with his brand new bed. Also, Kathy and I had a great dinner at Ruby Tuesdays Saturday night. And I saw Chicago with my friend Melissa at a Saturday Matinee, which was cool. I’ve been singing the soundtrack ever since.
I fixed the wall above the window in the living room, and I put smaller sections of drywall on the two walls that Kathy and I started, so I have two walls finished. Now I just have two living room walls left to put drywall on, and the corner surrounding the fireplace, as well. I think I need about two sheets of drywall for that, and perhaps three for the back entry hall… maybe a little more. So if I can get six sheets of drywall, I should have enough for everything. I’ll still need to get wood for the baseboards in the living room… but we’ll see when that rolls around. I don’t have a mitre saw yet, so I can’t do baseboards anyway, yet. I think when April rolls around, I’ll know better how far I’ll be in regards to having the party I want to have. But I think I can do it. I’m feeling better about things, after Sunday getting some stuff done. Tonight I’m going to the gym, and after that, I want to get some more stuff done.
So this weekend I spent Saturday stripping wallpaper off the walls in the living room, and doing some cleaning in the living room and throughout the house. I finished two walls, have two to go. I felt kind of funny/ill all day, dunno why.
Saturday night Kathy and I went out to the final evening of Utopia, which is now closed. Kim Archer was singing, and Jess Curtis, and others. It was an interesting evening, but I have to say, I didn’t really feel all that sad about the closing. It was a decent club, but I’ve kind of moved on in a lot of ways from going out all the time. And I have to say it was never as much fun as going to the Ten. The crowd at the Ten is just more fun and accessible and doesn’t seem to be made up of people who would blow you off if you spoke to them. The crowd at Talbott Street seems pretty snotty too, come to think of it. Interesting — Talbott Street used to have a website up, but when I searched for it to link to, it’s no longer there. Hmmmm.
Sunday I went shopping for stuff to help organize my house. Then later Kathy came over and we put up two sections of drywall. Then we accidentally bumped the good hammer, and it fell through the hole in the floor down into the crawl space. So Kathy figured out how to fish it out of the hole while I took a break to relax and ummm… de-stress. Then we showered, and she gave me a backrub, and when I fell asleep, she did her laundry and also washed all my dishes, so when I came downstairs, all my dishes were done. Isn’t that the coolest thing? She’s pretty thoughtful.
What did I do this weekend — mostly shopping. I didn’t get too much done around the house. I did get a large chunk of stuff done for my dad’s website. And Kathy and I got to spend time together, which is important to me. But I need to get working on the living room so I get most stuff done before it gets too hot outside.