Oh Snow

So the weatherman is calling for snow. It started coming down about 2 hours ago and is epected to keep snowing for the next 18 or so hours though they are only calling for 4-6 inches. We'll see. In the meantime I have the trim guy and plumber here at the house working on the bathroom. Techincally I could proably take a bath tonight though I still don't have any lights in there but that is what they make candles for right. I may be picking up some Mr. Bubble too. Kinda hoping dance class gets cancelled tonight with the snow.

So the snow is inspiring me with a new playlist:
1. Backstreet Boys vs. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars That Way (MeiJonce) - I really like this mashup, the songs really compliment each other.
2. Good for Me - Amy Grant, this showed up since one of hte composers last name is snow.
3. Snow in July - Garth Brooks, this actually is his whole Chris Gaines thing he did back in the late 90's. I actually liked the CD and listened to it a lot.
4. Velvet Snow - Kings of Leon - Interesting tune.
5. I Celebrate the Day - Reliant K
6. When I get home for Christmas - Snow Patrol - Christmas songs were bound to come up on this list but its ok, the song has a meloncholoy sound I can listen to year round
7. Snow Angel - Tori Amos - love this song and I'm not a huge Tori Amos fan
8. Alibis - Tracy Lawrence - Tom Snow is a busy composer.
9. First Snow - Trans-Siberian Orchestra - the only instrumental on the list.
10. Snowed Under - Keane - love his voice.

Short fun little list.

I started this thing when? Hi post #105

All the way back in 2006. Holy cow. I remember I started this before I even had a Myspace, though I did join Myspace shortly after. I've been completely inconsistent with posting as I really can never focus on what to write about. Squirrel.

Even now I sit here staring at the screen, twisting my hair and I've got nothing.

Random list of thoughts:
1. My dogs are getting old, seriously. I would just like them to get through this winter and get to enjoy another spring/summer. I'm not ready to lose them yet.

2. So ready to take a bath in my new tub. I'm hoping by Valentines.

3. I should bring back random MP3 player day. Yes, I still have the same MP3 player but I've added no new music to it in about 18 months because none of my computers support the software thanks to XP/Vista/W7. Yes, I do have 3 computers and each have a different OS (2 work, 1 personnel). I do have all the music on the home computer though. Can I get WMP to generate random playlists? testing... testing..... OK sorta. lol. So what I did was auto generate a playlist with the word 'ham' in the song title. This could be fun.

4. I've fallen 4 times at dance class this year, the last left quite the bruise on my right knee. I may just have to admit that its time to admit I should move up into the 'ladies' class. I maybe able to pass as 26 on a good day but my brain/body are definitely 36. My relationship with gravity just keeps getting closer and closer.

5. That is an interesting thought, especially if you plan to be buried when you die. As you age gravity keeps pulling parts of you down until you finally end up in a box in the ground. Huh, never had thought about it that way before. Damn you gravity!

So the Ham Playlist:

1. Ain't that a Shame - Cheap Trick - actually a good start to a list
2. Apple Shampoo - Blink-182 - good 2nd song to a playlist
3. Birmingham Jail - Michael Martin Murphy - what can I say, I spent a good part of the mid-90's wearing boots and belt buckles and this is a beautiful song.
4. Chameleon (LOL Boys Remix)-Christina Milian - I have a thing for dance music, this is going to help me with my other playlists I have too. This got added to the remix one. Though I can't stand any remix that is over 4 minutes.
5. Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends - Fall Out Boy - Loved their concert, no lines at the beer stand or for the bathroom. Hush, that makes for a great concert.
6. Champagne Supernova - Oasis - will always love this song
7. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon - LOL. Love it. So random. Um, is it weird that I still remember all the words to this song. Ah pop music, it'll get ya.
8. Drinking Champagne - George Straight - class George, always makes me smile. Love the lyric 'I never loved you much when you were mine' Ouch.
9. Hammer Down - Billy Dean - Fun country song, need to goodle Billy Dean to see what he's been up to. He's a on F, now I'm following him. He's still playing
10. Hammerdance - Omni and Otherwise - Whoa, interesting song.
11. Shame (At Night) - Kid Cudi vs. Evelyn King - Party Ben - And now I wanna disco.
12. Krawhitham - Aerosmith - Rock instrumental, nice.
13. Molly's Chambers - Kings of Leon - First time I've heard the song, nothing really stood out about it.
14. Shame - Matchbox 20 - God I love Rob Thomas' voice. Nice song.
15. Shame and Fortune - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Makes me chair dance.
16. Shame on Me - Twister Alley - Ahh this takes me back to the day of 'Cactus Moon' starring the Jessie Couch band. Only Flint people will get that reference.
17. Shameless - Garth Brooks - This just makes me want to slow dance with the husband who is the best dance slow dancer EVER. He is. If you've danced with him you know what I'm talking about.
18. Shottas (Featuring Kardinal Offishall & Cham)- T-Pain - Kinda seems odd, mixed in with the country
19. Ten Pound Hammer - Aaron Tippin - I always like him. Man, the thing that got me with main stream country musci is how once the industry embraced the pop song style, that is all we got on radio and seriously after awhile I couldn't listen anymore. Oh that and then I started listening to Dave Mathews Band.
20. What a Crying Shame - The Mavericks- This band has fantstic voals. This CD used to be in constant rotation in 1995/1996.
21. Whatchamacallit - Pussycat Dolls - What a way to end a playlist. LOL.

I just realized I don't have any MC Hammer. I may have to correct that.

We're getting closer

On the bathroom that is, since my last update the tub has been installed and the drywall is done. So this past weekend the husband and I spent Saturday priming the walls and Sunday painting. I choose (yes, I'm taking full credit for the color choice) a lovely shade of green called Promenade from Behr. I love the color in the can, I love the color on the roller, I love it on the wall. When the morning sun hits it.... I'm not so sure. This time of year we really get a yellow light from the sun as its so low on the horizan and when that yellow light hits a green wall? Well, I'm not sure that is how I'm going to want to start out my day. We've only done 1 coat with the plan to do a 2nd once all the fixtures are in place so I could still change my mind on the color. I just know I don't want to do tan.

Here are a couple pictures, though they really don't capture it as well as I'd like:

Another Project Complete

No, not the bathroom remodel. Still waiting for the tub to come in (which should be any day now). No, I decided to tackle a small project to take care of a minor annoyance I had with brass door pulls. For some reason the people who built this house 20 years ago had a love affair with brass pulls on all the closet door pulls which makes no sense since all the door knobs are brushed nickel. We replaced all the pulls in the hallway (3) and in the kitchen (1) a couple years ago. Well, I finally replaced all the ones in the bedroom closets and the coat closet. For most of them I just purchased new pulls but in the office the pulls they used had a 2.5 base on it and I couldn't find pulls or new bases that big so I decided to just paint them. They turned out pretty good. Way better then they were before.

The old pulls were an odd oblong shape with the huge circle spacer behind them.

I had these simple round pulls from one of the other rooms that I like better with the spacer. Ugh, the flash really showed off the ugly brass.

One can of spray paint.

And 4 coats of paint later this is what I ended up with.

I still have a lot of spray paint left. I have a pair of lamps that just may be painted with this hammered finish. That will need to wait till spring or until I find a bigger box I can use to paint in. Though my next mini project will probably involve some pond pictures.

CD ripping is done for now/Advice for Gym Newbies

So the CD ripping is 99.5% done. There are 10 CDs in the disc changer in the boat that are left plus a couple box sets that could be ripped. I have a feeling we already have most of the songs on the boxed sets anyway. Plus, they are buried under all the Maxim magazines that the husband has kept and I really don't feel like trying to get them out. I mean I can see it now, I find myself buried and unable to move under stacks of Maxim magazines and the guys working on the house find me. LOL.

So this being the first week of the year at the gym it tends to be really interesting. Monday was kinda busy a couple new faces but mainly regulars who were getting back in the groove. Tuesday night was actually pretty slow but there were 2 new faces and new to working out. I felt bad for them because I could tell they had no idea what they were doing. Now, I didn't offer any help nor did they ask for help and honestly if I see them again at the gym I'll be surprised. Now I'll give them credit for coming to the gym but that's it. They were totally unprepared. No idea what they were going to do. I mean one of them went from the elliptical, the treadmill to the bike all in less then 20 minutes. She did not work hard enough to sweat and complained her feet were too tired from work to stay on the treadmill where she was only walking. Sometimes I wish gaining weight physically hurt, like each fat cell expanding was like a bee sting. Because if it hurt, there would be no fat people since everyone seems to shy away from things that make them hurt. I mean after 2 days at the gym and a dance class sitting here without even moving I have soreness in my left hamstring, my neck and shoulders/biceps. I really think many people have a hard time differentiating from good pain to bad pain. I'll be honest it can be very uncomfortable working out, sometimes it hard to breath, sometimes I want to throw up. But how I feel when I'm done, the results in the way my clothes fit and when I pick up my 50 lbs niece and throw her around and am not tired, it is all totally worth it.

So newbies at the gym my advice to you is this: get a plan, break a sweat, stock up on aleve. You can do it and you'll be glad you did. If you don't think you can do it, get outta my way cuz I'm gonna do it!

So it's 2010

Nice, I guess I could finally get rid of the dress I wore for NYE for 2000. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever wear that again. LOL. I can't post a picture of it because I wasn't digital then nor do I have a scanner now. I should get one though, I have so many pictures I would like to scan. At least the ones from 2000 are in an album, I have tons that need to be in albums. I need to keep an eye out on sales on albums and work on that. Maybe I should finish the projects I'm working on now though.

Current projects:
Currently ripping all my CD's, this will be done this week, maybe even today with the exception of the CD's in the boat's disc changer. Those will wait to spring. I like to pretend we don't have a boat in the winter.

Cleaned out my main closet. This is a by-product of the bathroom remodel. I have split items into piles so I have a pile to just donate which I'll drop off this week when I go grocery shopping and then there is the stuff I'm going to take to a resale shop and see if they want it. I went through all my old work clothes and pulled out all the stuff that was only work clothes so I know I haven't worn those in over a year now since I've been doing this work from home thing for over a year now. I'll need to reorganize the closet once I can move everything back into it. That should be soon.

Painting: new bathroom, old bathroom and both spare bedrooms. Also do to remodeling project. Hmmm, I should paint my closet too before I move everything back in since I do love the smell of fresh paint. Hmmm.

2010 is gong to be the year of getting the house in order before spring/summer hits when I plan to enjoy the yard and then get some projects done in the yard too. Also, boat trips are in the forecast. I'm hoping for 3-4 trips not in Bay City, hopefully Lake Charlevoix, Cheyboygan, Lake St. Clair, Caseville/Tawas. That is an ambitious summer and months away at this point.

Off for more CD ripping (Steve Earle and the Dukes currently)

Let the Destruction Begin

I think I'm officially a grown up now. I say this because I just gave a giant check to a contractor to put a new roof and to remodel the upstairs bathroom in the house. I think it was the check writing that felt so grown up and wow, I didn't even write it, the HB wrote it. But I hugged the check before we handed it over. So this week the progress has been:

Monday - back of the garage roof tore off and reshingled
Tuesday - front of the garage roof tore off and reshingled
Wednesday - Snowstorm
Thursday -Windstorm
Friday - Tearing out the upstairs bathroom. This by far has been the loudest day so far.

This is what the old bathroom looked like:




It is tiny, only 3x9, with the weird slanted ceiling. The new bathroom will be 10x9 with a nice big tub and lots of storage and double sinks. Can't wait. But have to live through the process. Finally something to write about. :D

Next week they cut a giant hole in the roof on the back of the house. Nervous!