Holy shit, Batman!

Pretty sure this is my first blogpost from home. Getting on the internet at home isn't convenient anymore. First of all - I should be studying (as is the case right now) and then you have find a computer, turn it on (wait), then find a comfortable place to sit with it where it can be plugged in (unless it's just a quick surfing trip), then you can finally open your window and do your internet business. Of course, now that I write that out, I'm not really sure what the problem is. Maybe it's just because there is always something else to do at home now (like studying!) and by the time we finish doing stuff and settle in at night, we're too lazy to go thru those steps. Oh well.

ANYWAY, I'm completely off track here. The reason I'm neglecting the studying that I'm way behind on is to drop in and let you know that I FINALLY passed my first part of the CPA exam!!!!!! Ok, yeah, I'm pretty sure 100% of the 3 people who read this blog already know that, but if there is one person left in the world that i haven't told and there is the vaguest possibility that he/she will stop by here - then I have to share!! I want EVERYONE to know!!!! (I'm gonna feel pretty dumb 18 months from now when I haven't passed the other 3 parts and I'm about to lose this part, huh?) Oh well, cross that bridge when I get to it.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Husband has been out of town on business all week but will hopefully return tomorrow (yay!!). Turns out our house is creepy as fuck after dark when you're alone ::shiver:: and I don't like it. I'm not sure what I think is going to happen, especially considering there is an 84 year old woman who lives in front of us who has lived there alone for 7 years and nothing has ever happened to her, but she's a lot closer to the road (at least that's what my paranoia keeps whispering in my ear). So basically what I'm saying is that the main things that drew me to this house in the first place (no neighbors, seclusion, privacy, for real darkness at night) are the very things that are unnerving me completely this week. Hmm...lesson learned. Regardless, I'm pretty sure I have an ulcer now from sitting out in the living room freaking out all evening for 3 nights in a row.

Right now, I'm in bed (getting ready to study some more!) with all the doors in the house locked, the bedroom door is locked and I have 3 dogs, a shotgun and a 357 in here with me and I'm scared. Nothing on earth is more dangerous than a scared woman with a loaded gun (with no safety). I warned Husband not to come home unannounced unless he wanted to get his ass shot off.

Ok, I gotta get back to ignoring the 30 million sounds I hear every minute and get some more studying done.

Finally Friday (or...How a 4 Day Week Can Stretch into Eternity)

So today is Friday. That's cool. I've been at work for an hour and haven't accomplished a single thing...not cool. But, I figured since I haven't done anything yet, might as well publish a blog post and then get started...no sense rushing things.

This weekend, we painted our living room/kitchen. Our house pretty much has an open floor plan so the living room runs into the kitchen and painting them one at a time really wasn't an option. We started some time ago painting the places we could reach because, you see, we have vaulted ceilings that are at least 12' high at the peaks. Naturally though, that wasn't the problem. The problem is when you look at our house, there are dormers on the front, but no attic, instead, the windows are 2 stories up in the wall, one in the kitchen, one in the living room. Then, when they put those in, they cut a place back into the ceiling and painted it wall colored (I know that doesn't make any sense, but I don't know how to describe it any better than that...I'll post a pic of it one day). So the real problem is that one of those is directly over the stairs going down to the basement, which technically, makes it 3 stories off the ground. Fun! Even better? The scaffolding won't fit in the stairs. So what I ended up doing was getting up into the dormer on the 10' scaffolding, then reaching across the stairwell with a "brush-on-a-stick" (patent pending) and painting it like that. The "brush-on-a-stick" is simply a paint brush duct taped to the end of an extension pole. Good stuff.

We started on Friday when I got home, then discovered we'd need an extension ladder (a.k.a. Rickety Fuck)l, so my in-laws brought us a couple and we continued working. We worked until about 11pm that night, then started bright and early Saturday and worked until about 9pm then went out to dinner to celebrate the living room being done. Sunday we did the kitchen and finished the woodwork and got done about 5pm. We worked on putting everything back together Sunday and Monday, but we still have a ways to go there. We are waiting for the paint to cure good before hanging a lot of stuff back up and we need to get my china cabinet moved back in the living room so I can get all my glass put back in it. It was a long process and we both felt like dealth on Saturday and Sunday (and possibly on Monday too), but we're so glad it's finally done and we don't have to stare at that nasty green paint anymore. It looked like Swamp Thing came in and took a shit on our walls.

In the kitchen, there is a chair rail in the "breakfast nook" (area where the table sits) and we painted blue below that. The rest of the room is just cream colored because we wanted it very neutral as we never intend to paint it again, but that gives a little pop of color and we can change it whenever cause it's a small, easy to get to area.

We purchased tile for our half bath and we're going to repaint it the same blue as we used in the kitchen, but it probably isn't going to happen until the weekend after Thanksgiving. We wanted to do it sooner, but I have to study for this next part of the exam and I only have 3 weekends (counting this one) before the test, so I don't have any free time to devote to the bathroom. But that's ok, I'd rather do it when we can be all leisurely about it anyway. After that (or maybe before) Husband is going to start working on finishing the room in the basement so he can move all of his stuff down there. I guess we'll turn the room he's using upstairs into an actual guest room - even though we have no guests. But that way we could have our friends come up and visit and they'd have a place to sleep since we live about 3 hours from them now.

Well, this has turned into a book so I better get back to work. I have so much sinus pressure in my left cheek I'm pretty sure it's about to explode - not pleasant. Not to mention, this time change and darkness and season changing is being pretty rough on me this week, so I'll be glad when this day is over and maybe I can find some cheerful this weekend. Later dudes.