Friday. Oh thank god. That is all I really need to say. So in honor of the evening where I can drink wine and watch Dexter, I will do some catching up. - Our Condo sits up against the back of the football field, baseball diamond and track of Broughton High School. During most of the week it is quiet and really nice to have as a backyard. Not so much on Friday evenings during a home game. When I drove up tonight, I would have sworn that the band and the players were standing on our back deck. Inside it isn't THAT bad, but it certainly causes one to raise the volume on the TV a tad. We're pretty certain that Iona thinks all the cheering is for her. If you doubt the proximity, here's a photo from our back door.
- The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend, so back to the House we go. No Durham World Beer Festival or Farmer's Markets for us. We know how to have real fun, so we'll attempt to remove a deck and some bad hardwood floors. Our contractor's truck is parked in front of the House again, so it would be a shame not to fill it.
- Someone asked why it was bittersweet getting my new NC plate. Well, it felt like winning at a bad game. It was such an ordeal going through the process that I was relieved and excited for being successful, yet bummed to give up my CA plate. I expect I will feel better when my giant bear IONA plate arrives in 4-6 weeks.
- I'm not sure if I mentioned that the shed is completely painted. If we can salvage the hardwoods that we are removing today, Michael's thought is to install them in the shed. I think he loves the shed. Our Anniversary is in a couple weeks and I was initially concerned that the shed would be my gift. I think he loves it too much to even gift it in principle to me though. Considering all the money we're spending, I am not entirely opposed to home equity projects counting towards our presents. I do hope though that he at least buys me flowers to go with my wall paper removal tools and paint stripper.
- The best box of good things arrived for Iona last night. She ran out of food a couple days ago and we've been feeding her some store-bought stuff that she consumes with zest but also seems to give her a stomach ache and bad smells. We started her on Limited Ingredient food (Lamb and Brown rice or Duck and Potato...yum) last year when she was battling allergies, and it worked so well that we've been remiss to change. I haven't found a local place that carries it (WE ALL miss the Centinela pet stores), so I went to the magic of the Internet. It's like Christmas for Corgis around here.
Last week I mentioned (repeatedly) that we had regressed and were living like pathetic college students again. At least I can say that the Condo is cleaner than that first house I moved into with Michael. This was back in Madison and he was already living with 2.2 guys (one of their brothers slept over a lot). NONE of them cleaned and the place was absolutely filthy. The basement had flooded and was filled with moldy boxes and spiders. That's where the washer and dryer was, which might explain why they never did laundry. The kitchen was covered in a thick layer of grease and they never threw out anything. I am completely horrified by bugs, so you can only imagine the screaming that occurred when a silverfish crawled out of a hole in the porcelain while I was showering. Michael came to my rescue with a can of WD40. If I recall correctly he had to caulk over the hole before I would ever spend the night there again. If you don't know what a silverfish is...here you go. They are about an inch long, have a bunch of legs and run really freaking fast.
I just gotta say that the lust factor had to have been really, really, REALLY strong for me to have agreed to eat there, sleep there, bathe there and eventually move in there. He was lucky he was cute.
And just to prove that 14 years of marriage and 15.5 years of togetherness really don't dim the lust, here you go. This is my husband as I described last week...watching the Packer-Cowboy game from his laptop, on top of a clearance Target lampshade using stolen wireless while sitting on a borrowed couch. Damn he is still hot.
Sigh....there goes another piece. My LA life continues to fall away. Yesterday morning I spent a couple early hours at the NC DOT in a second attempt to register my vehicle. Apparently they don't see a lot of leased vehicles and it caused some headache all around. If you recall, I tried this once before and left the DMV empty-handed and a tad frustrated. This time though, I felt PREPARED. Well, perception is certainly not reality.
With my power of attorney from VW Credit, my NC license, NC insurance and a plethora of forms...I was ready. The first lady looked painfully at me and asked if I had a copy of my title - front and back. Ugh, no. "Ok, call VW Credit and have them fax it to this number and then go sit over there and come back in 15 minutes."
So I did. The next lady also sighed when she discovered it was a leased vehicle and looked at me in horror. Ok, here we go again. She pulled herself off her stool and tumbled over to the fax machine and tumbled back empty-handed. "Kin you call them agin. Eye dont see it", she said in her heavy Southern accent. I would hear that voice a lot over the next couple hours.
The first fax never arrived. The second was too dark and unreadable. The third was success! Each attempt solicited a yell across the room of "Ms. Stealey" Ms. Stealey come here!" Finally I stood before her, this woman of roundness and helmet hair. This woman prone to the eye-roll behind her glasses. She had a mountain of paper in front of her and we began our plow through it. I signed at least ten things and gave up reading them all. I am sure I just deeded my house to the NC DOT and enslaved our firstborn to working at the DMV for life. Truthfully, I no longer cared. As she handed me my plate (you only get one here), I had to add some additional pain and ask for a custom one. I hate the plates here. It's a good thing there are about 300 custom options to choose from, including about 290 with a NASCAR theme. (Shock, I did not opt for one of those.) Another roll of the eyes and we dove in again.
My real plate arrives in 4-6 weeks, so in the meantime I continue my game of Russian roulette. The ugly plate sits on my passenger seat and I continue to drive around with my precious CA plates proudly displayed on BOTH sides of my car.
After traveling virtually every week for the past several years, I had not been on a plane since returning from Manila in mid-May. So where is the first place I fly off to? Portland, Maine of course!
My dear husband worked about 5 hours longer than me and didn't complain at all. He spent the day in a field of 2x10 boards and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. He single-handedly removed the entire deck. Tomorrow the truck needs to be filled with all the scrap. We'll keep the big boards to reinforce the original floors from beneath the house. Recycling at its best.
We'll knock back some ibuprofen in the morning and be ready to re-tackle the day. As Michael said, we are systematically dismantling our House, and having more than a bit of fun in the process.
