The Year We Make Contact

So here we are on the final day of 2009. It's been a decent year, which makes me feel a little guilty considering it's been such a shitty year for so many people. Oh well.

The Jeanners is over at Katie's celebrating the New Years Eve, but I was too tired to be up to it. So I'm enjoying being here at the house and not working on anything, listening to music, eating pizza, drinking beer, and farting around on the internet.

We moved into the house yesterday, in a long move that was tiring but not terrible. We've moved into half the house while we work on the other half. The half we've moved into is probably about as big as our last apartment (which nobody but A-train ever saw), but it's kinda weird right now because we're using the future dining room as our bedroom. So there's a big window behind our bed.

For the first time in my life, I have a refrigerator that makes and dispenses ice. As an avid gin and tonic drinker, please let me say that I am very excited about this. I bring it up because I just heard the ice maker drop its first load. I'm definitely a cube man, but I'm sure I can get used to the weird wedge-things the ice maker makes. Those wedges make me feel like I'm 12 years old and it's summertime and I'm over at my neighbor's house drinking kool-aid out of tall skinny pastel-colored plastic cups.

If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask the J-Dog to tell you about the time her parents' ice maker flooded their kitchen while they were on vacation. Although it probably won't be that funny because I pretty much told a lot of the story in that last sentence.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: Work on my handwriting.

Hopefully 2010 will be the best year ever for everyone in the world.

Yesterday when we saw that all the plumbing fixtures were working I was about as happy as I've ever been.

I've been meaning to mention: if you're a Tom Waits fan, I would highly recommend picking up his latest live CD. I've been listening to it in my car non-stop for the last two weeks and it's pretty damned good. Plus, I was able to pick it up at Best Buy for $7.99.

Cool Ranch Christmas

Merry Christmas 2009, everybody.

I'm sitting on our couch, and it's cold in the apartment. I have my winter jammies on (long sleeve t-shirt, brown long underwear bottoms, brown stocking cap) and there's a choir on NPR singing Christmas carols. We have opened presents from Jeannie's folks, and we've had a tasty bacon and fake-sausage breakfast, and I finished off my cool ranch Doritos, which were my present from the J-Dog last night. Had a long, busy day at work yesterday, although it was not too busy, and I received some Guinness and Gin and tonic and limes as Christmas presents from my co-workers. They know what I like. That being said, today is exactly one month after the one-night-only reunion show of the Quintessential Pine Tree Brothers, where I went a little overboard with the celebratory libations, and I haven't had any booze since. Just wanted to see what a month with no drink would be like, would it be rough or would it be ok? Turns out it was ok.

Today we'll begin tiling the shower in the new bathroom. Perhaps all the little mistakes we've been making along the way will come to a head, but perhaps we'll find out that we're actually in better shape than we think and we're worrying for no reason. Will it be rough or will it be OK? Stay tuned. Can't wait for this bathroom to be done. The plumber comes back on Monday to install the toilet and sink.

I think this is the first Christmas ever that the Jeanners and I haven't been home. Feels a little strange but not too bad. We've missed other holidays and this just feels like another one of those. Still, Christmas is a time when we usually get to catch up with a lot of family and friends, and it sucks a bit to have to go a longer stretch without seeing everybody.

We've rented a moving truck for Wednesday to make the move to the new place. Yikes. Since we're still working on a rather large portion of the house, we're going to be sleeping in the dining room for awhile.

I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas.

Snow Adventure

So on Saturday the area got dumped on by a bunch of snow, enough that work was closed (on what would have been the busiest day of the year, no less!) so the Jeanners and I had a snow adventure at the new house. It was a good time. Snow is good.

Katie is back in town and has come over a couple of times to help with the drywalling of the bathroom. It sure is nice that she's back in town.

I am no good at drywalling. I'll be glad when this portion of the program is over.

I'm off work today and I'll be walking over to the house to do some small framing projects, and I might try to get some of the snow off the lower portion of the roof so that there are no moisture problems.

Blogging about moisture problems is perhaps more boring than blogging about interest rates, and I shall make every attempt to not do it in the future.

Boogoo.

Doesn't the basement look scary?



Ugh. Slow progress. The remainder of the year is ticking away.

Today at work was the day that happens each year when I get really tired of seeing people. Work hasn't been too bad yet, though.

Today John Waters came into the store. But I wasn't much help. I wanted to tell him that I really loved the "no smoking" thing that he did, but I thought that it might be insulting to tell someone who has made many movies that the piece of work that you really like is a little fart of a joke that you saw on the internet.

A Good Name For a Dog or a Dragon

Sheesh! It's almost been a week since I wrote, but it feels like it was just yesterday. The house continues to eat up all free time, as it will for another few months, I'm sure. Progress report: old bathroom completely torn out, new bathroom walls framed up, bathroom subfloor torn out (we're going to attempt to go with hardwood in the bathroom...not sure if it will work), the plumber was there today starting to rough in the new pipes for the fixtures, we have bought a tub and toilet and sink (although we have to return the tub tonight because the finish is a little screwed up), and everything is torn out of the basement except for the crazy outdoor-as-indoor shower. We are eagerly awaiting getting stuff roughed in in the bathrrom so we can start tiling the shower wall and getting drywall up. We are tired of looking at a mostly-torn-apart bathroom.

Well shit. It's hard to write anything interesting when life is consumed by pretty much one thing. Hmmm. I went to court today in case I was needed to testify against a particular shoplifter. That's about it. Things are picking up slightly at work but the real rush hasn't started yet.

Alright. Gonna go poo and then put my laundry in the dryer.

Jeannie Said She's Gonna Poop in My Water

When did I become a busy person? I remember many times during the past few years when I had absolutely nothing to do. Those were good times. It seems like I haven't had any days like that in the last few months.

Here's what I want for Christmas: one day between now and the end of the year that transpires like the one described in this old blog post.

All that being said, the Jeanners and I are having a pretty good time working on this fucking house. I think it's gonna be really great when it's all done (estimated completion date: June 2047). Working has been especially fun because Jeannie is doing all the hard stuff and I just tag along to do the grunt work. Seriously, though, if you ever want to think good thoughts about the J-Dog, you should work on a house with her because it's really impressive to see her do all the planning and designing and building and everything. Cannot say enough good things about it. And then after working we come back to our shitty apartment and she opens the fucking windows in the bedroom, and it gets down to about 40 degrees during the night and we're bundled up in long underwear and stocking caps and blankets. It's absolutely bonkers crazy. Also, our current shower has 2 "slippery spots", which are two places on the floor of the shower that are permanently and perpetually slippery, like they're covered in shampoo but they're not. This is also bonkers crazy. All-in-all life feels just generally a little bit bonkers. In a good way. It feels good to be doing something. Feels good to be working towards something.

Wish I still smoked cause I think when the house is done it would be a nice place to have a cigarette.