Thursday, January 28, 2010

Postscript

Mouse House update: I forgot to mention yesterday that we have not seen any rodent activity or rodent poop in the house for several weeks. We think that when we plugged the holes in our kitchen that we really did take care of all the mouse entryways, and that the 4 mice that we caught in the days following our hole-plugging had just been living in the bottom of the stove.

Also forgot to mention that the new Laura Veirs album is really good. Very good, in fact. An early candidate for album of the year. A taste:

Laura Veirs - July Flame
Found at July Flame on KOhit.net

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pork = Smoke

Haven't written in awhile, but shit's been going on and that's what happens. I was off work for many days in a row over last weekend, and my sister and nephew were visiting DC, so I spent some time driving them around and whatnot. It was nice to have them around. We went to dinner at Ban Thai one night and it was delicious. I must remember that I really like that place.

We didn't get a whole lot of work done on the house during my days off, but I did manage to find a couple of decent doors (Lino, for some reason, got rid of most of the doors in the house, except for the basement door and attic door), so once we get the stupid things hung (which, in the case of the bathroom is proving to be tricky business) we'll be able to start working on trim and other finishing-type details in the bathroom. Still, a long long way to go.

After my stretch of days off work, my mood has improved dramatically. I no longer feel like I want to kill every person that comes into the B&N, and I feel cheerful and motivated. It is very very nice, and much better than the way I was feeling before my time off.

A co-worker who shall remain unnamed to avoid any legal repercussions was able to furnish me with a copy of Midlake's new album. It's pretty damn good. I would describe it as pastoral prog-rock. Nice harmonies, nice acoustic guitars, nice song structures.

Started working on our taxes last night. I want my guv'ment dolla billz!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Real Heat at Last

Life is rolling on. Work has settled back into boringness, some slight progress has been made on Lysistrata, and work continues on the house. We got our first heating bill and are sad because it's higher than we thought it would be and we've been trying to keep our house pretty chilly. Oh well. I guess a lack of insulation will do that.

Been re-watching the last season of LOST, getting ready for the airing of the final season. I am reminded that watching the show on DVD (or illegal download, as the case may be) is much better than watching it on TV. Anyway, I am looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

Been thinking a bit about recording some music. Not really sure about how to go about it. Should I try and set up a temporary little workstation in the basement? Should I get out The Boss and just do some acoustic sketches? Should I just wait until a room is finished where I can set everything up? Not sure. I'm thinking that for the next set of songs I work on, I'm going to try and stay away from the acoustic guitar. Not sure. No real ideas yet. Little flashes of lyrics go by in my head but that's about it. Like watching a fish swimming in a clear stream. Or a muddy stream, which is probably a better analogy. And actually, it's probably more like a turd than a fish. Anyway, you get the idea.

My friend Jenn posted this blog the other day on fecebook. It's pretty hi-larious.

What else? Our friend Katie the North American Traveler is back in Baltimore and is going to be living in our neighborhood, which is pretty cool. And my sister Patty and her son Kevin are going to be visiting us this week, which should be fun as well. They're pretty much just going to be sleeping here and spending their days in DC, but it will be good to see them.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

VERSHITZON

I would like to submit that there is nothing in the world more brain draining than being on the phone with the phone company attempting to take care of a problem with your phone line.

Yesterday, after one such very long phone call, I was rescued by Jeannie and Katie and we went out to dinner at the local Mexican joint, Los Amigos. Which is not great but it'll work when you have a craving for a Mexican place and you've been sitting in a dark corner of the living room all day.

THINGS TO DO:
1. start doing actual work on lighting Lysistrata.
2. start exercising again.
3. put the rubble from our basement into THE BAGSTER.
4. find a door for our potty.
5. read through old blog posts to find out if I get depressed every year at this time or if this is new.

It really is lovely taking a shower in the new bathroom. It's nice and tall, and the water pressure is good, and it's easy to make the water the right pressure, and the shower curtain lets just the right amount of light through. We need to finesse the drain mechanism a little bit because it's not working right, and when we do I look forward to taking a few baths, but for now I'm just gonna really enjoy the shower.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Settling In, or Mouse House 2





We have settled into our new place, which is 1,000,000 times better than the apartment we were living in. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be out of that place. We're continuing to work on the bathroom, and also starting on the living room and bedroom. Since moving in, though, our rate of work has slowed drastically, which is a good thing. It's going to take awhile to get everything done, but there's no real hurry and we won't kill ourselves (and each other) in the process.

There are mousies in the new house. We thought we had successfully plugged the hole where they were getting in, but we caught 4 mice in 3 days so I guess they're getting in somewhere else. I feel bad for those poor little mice. But I also want them to stay the fuck out of my house.

I might be becoming bipolar or something. Going crazy in some way. I have had some moments lately where I get real crankypants in a major way for a few minutes, and then it passes. Or, like today I feel like I've been under a dark cloud all day. Which is odd for me. I don't like it, and I know it's hard on the Jeanners because she's the one who gets the brunt of it (although the customers at work get it, too, in a much more subtle way). Maybe I just need to get back to exercising or something.

Maybe I just need to listen to more Phil Collins because I swear, 'Easy Lover' rocks. Do it.

Anyway, my pick for best album of 2009 is Phoenix' Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. An easy pick. Also, I downloaded my first bona fide rap song the other day. Jay Z's 'Empire State of Mind.' I can feel my street cred rising as we speak.