Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?
Sep. 2nd, 2004 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonelThis is a general catch-up sort of post.
House update
At the last post, the bedroom carpet was in, but the wallpaper hadn't arrived yet. It did eventually arrive, and Pat and I spent one day and two evenings putting it up. It was a bit less work than I thought it was going to be, and rather more than Pat thought it would be. Apparently the fact that I chose a pattern with a much larger repeat than the ones Pat had dealt with before made quite a difference. Be that as it may, it went up, and looks just fine, though I do need to go back to the store and pick up the glue that one uses to do minor repair after the major installation is done.
After the wallpaper arrived, I had the furniture finally delivered. It was only five months or so after I bought it. Good thing they didn't charge me rent on it. I had them arrange it in the location we'd determined was necessary in order to fit it in with the waterbed -- not ideal because it meant the bedside table wouldn't fit next to the side of the bed I slept in, but so it goes. When DD-B and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lydy arrived to help put the waterbed back together (they helped take it apart, too, for both of which much thanks), it turned out that the actual furniture, unlike the worst-case theoretical furniture I'd been dealing with, fit just fine in a more useful configuration. The mirror is a bit of a problem in that I have to either a) be too close, b) to far away, or c) stand on top of the waterbed, but that's minor.
So the bedroom is done.
The next project was getting the carpet removed in the office, hallway, and dining room. This required boxing up all the paperbacks on the bookshelves and moving everything in that area to places that weren't that area.
I'd planned to have a mini-moving party on Saturday, until I realized that my plan reservations were for that very same Saturday, which was going to put a crimp in things if anything didn't go exactly to schedule. Instead,1crowdedhour came over one night, and Lois and Pat the next. I'd originally arranged for Lydy and DD-B to come over the following night, but instead they came the same night, and we managed to get it all done. The corner of my living room now has piles of boxes five high that my cats keep jumping on, and some of the piles are leaning alarmingly.
The sander was supposed to do all the work while I was away for a week (in South Haven, Michigan, with family), but when I returned, it turned out nothing had been accomplished except that Lydy had immured the cats in the basement as arranged. I released the cats from durance vile, and tried to get caught up on work and e-mail. Eventually I heard from the floor sander; he was having personal problems involving Prozac not working properly. Since then, he's managed to get the carpet removed, but nothing else. Perhaps paying him for removing the carpet was a mistake. I will need to find someone else if this goes on much longer.
Oh, and my air conditioner stopped working last week. I held out until Greg could come over to take a look at it, but he couldn't fix it. (I'd had great hopes, since the last time an AC unit stopped working entirely, he diagnosed it as a bad fuse, went out and bought a replacement, and had it working soon after.) I got my Home Service Plus up to date and called in Centerpoint Minnegasco. The technician first diagnosed it as low refrigerant, but then said that the compressor was shot. Since it's a 20+-year-old unit, repairing it isn't in the cards.
A sales rep from Minnegasco called, but he couldn't arrange an appointment until a week later. I told him I hoped to have a new unit purchased and installed by then, but even that incentive didn't help him find an earlier slot. Nice that they're so busy, I guess. So I looked up Standard Heating & Air Conditioning on the Web and arranged for a sales rep to call me. He called back promptly, said he'd come over tonight, and if I bought a unit tonight, he'd have it installed tomorrow. Much more encouraging.
Diet and exercise update
I've lost over 50 pounds, and several sizes. It's actually noticeable, I think. Better still, I'm not feeling terribly deprived. I occasionally miss pizza, bread, and potatoes, but then I have some pistachios or raspberries with cream to console myself. There's nothing magical about this except possibly the appetite-suppressant effect of Atkins; I'm keeping to 1,300 calories per day. Still have quite a ways to go, though, and the last third is going to be the hardest.
Still exercising six times a week: three times a week at Pat's for half an hour on the elliptical, and running three times a week with Pat. We're now up to four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and six miles on Saturdays. I'd really like to work more on speed, so we may be doing interval training soon. Possibly not until the weather gets cooler, though.
Everything-else update
I'm an Olympics junkie, so I pretty much lost two weeks to the Olympics this year. The NBC and affiliate stations coverage pretty much rocked. It was wonderful to see more complete coverage of sports that so often get short shrift, especially if Americans aren't medal contenders. I would have loved to see complete coverage of gymnastics, but I saw the gymnastics competitions in Atlanta in 1996, and it really is a six-ring circus (four-ring for the men), since all events go on at once except for the individual apparatus finals.
I regretted not having had surgery done on my TiVo yet -- I'd bought a larger hard drive, but hadn't had time to get it installed yet -- but it may have kept me sane. If I'd been able to record everything I wanted to, I'd probably (four days past the closing ceremonies as of today) still be watching the first week's worth of competition. Knowing that I could only have 25 hours or so at a time meant that I was only a day or two behind at the most.
Because I spent just about all my waking hours for the past two weeks working, watching TV, or sleeping, I didn't get much reading done. I made the mistake of picking up my hardcover copy of Kushiel's Dart for bedside reading (third reread). It was a mistake because now, of course, I want to reread the other two books, and since I have them in paperback, they're packed away.
I read Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots and Leaves by dint of leaving it as my bathroom book. I'd heard enough about it on the copyediting mailing list not to be too excited about it, but my mother sent me a copy. In the event, I found it mildly enjoyable, and not nearly as didactic as I remembered some people on CE-L claiming. I still don't understand why it's so popular in the U.S., since it's quite definitely oriented toward British style.
My neighbors across the street had a garage sale, and while there wasn't much of interest for me, I did come home with a couple of treasures (or more clutter, depending on how you look at it). The first was a complete Spirograph set. It was always a toy I'd loved, though I'd never had my own copy, just access to a shared one at my grandparents' that over time lost more and more pieces. It may have some collector's value, but I plan to keep it for myself.
The other thing was a bag of all the Kinsey Milhone mysteries from A to O (missing N). I've read most of them, but not all, and it'll be fun to read them in order. I'm about halfway through A is for Alibi and I'll be set for bedside reading until I have my paperbacks unpacked.
This has not been a good week for inanimate objects in my life; on Monday night the frame of my eyeglasses broke. This frame was the replacement for the frame of the same type that had broken back in December, so I was mightily annoyed. I tried taping up the glasses to make them functional, but they wouldn't stay put. They would have been good enough to drive out to get the new frame, but that was going to be another three or four days. I know I have a backup pair of glasses somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Luckily, I could find the boxes of disposable contacts that I'd kept after I gave up on my last attempt to wear contacts. They'd expired in 2003, but I figured that was conservative. I got through the next few days with the contacts, but the end of each day reminded me why I'd given up on contacts -- eyes too dry. Now I have the new frames (which I got a 50% discount on because of the one-year warranty), and the bridge of my nose is killing me. Back to the store tomorrow for adjustment, I think.
And now for something completely different
I've been considering getting a subscription to Audible.com, and I'd like to share it with someone who has similar tastes to mine. (This is kosher; by their rules, up to three people can share a subscription.) You get a choice of two books a month, for $20 or so, so it'd be just about $5 per audiobook. I've been paying about that for audiobooks on eBay, and that's only because I've been shopping very carefully, passing up the more expensive books. Anyone interested? My primary interest is SF and fantasy, and only unabridged selections in any case.
House update
At the last post, the bedroom carpet was in, but the wallpaper hadn't arrived yet. It did eventually arrive, and Pat and I spent one day and two evenings putting it up. It was a bit less work than I thought it was going to be, and rather more than Pat thought it would be. Apparently the fact that I chose a pattern with a much larger repeat than the ones Pat had dealt with before made quite a difference. Be that as it may, it went up, and looks just fine, though I do need to go back to the store and pick up the glue that one uses to do minor repair after the major installation is done.
After the wallpaper arrived, I had the furniture finally delivered. It was only five months or so after I bought it. Good thing they didn't charge me rent on it. I had them arrange it in the location we'd determined was necessary in order to fit it in with the waterbed -- not ideal because it meant the bedside table wouldn't fit next to the side of the bed I slept in, but so it goes. When DD-B and
lydy arrived to help put the waterbed back together (they helped take it apart, too, for both of which much thanks), it turned out that the actual furniture, unlike the worst-case theoretical furniture I'd been dealing with, fit just fine in a more useful configuration. The mirror is a bit of a problem in that I have to either a) be too close, b) to far away, or c) stand on top of the waterbed, but that's minor.So the bedroom is done.
The next project was getting the carpet removed in the office, hallway, and dining room. This required boxing up all the paperbacks on the bookshelves and moving everything in that area to places that weren't that area.
I'd planned to have a mini-moving party on Saturday, until I realized that my plan reservations were for that very same Saturday, which was going to put a crimp in things if anything didn't go exactly to schedule. Instead,
1crowdedhour came over one night, and Lois and Pat the next. I'd originally arranged for Lydy and DD-B to come over the following night, but instead they came the same night, and we managed to get it all done. The corner of my living room now has piles of boxes five high that my cats keep jumping on, and some of the piles are leaning alarmingly.The sander was supposed to do all the work while I was away for a week (in South Haven, Michigan, with family), but when I returned, it turned out nothing had been accomplished except that Lydy had immured the cats in the basement as arranged. I released the cats from durance vile, and tried to get caught up on work and e-mail. Eventually I heard from the floor sander; he was having personal problems involving Prozac not working properly. Since then, he's managed to get the carpet removed, but nothing else. Perhaps paying him for removing the carpet was a mistake. I will need to find someone else if this goes on much longer.
Oh, and my air conditioner stopped working last week. I held out until Greg could come over to take a look at it, but he couldn't fix it. (I'd had great hopes, since the last time an AC unit stopped working entirely, he diagnosed it as a bad fuse, went out and bought a replacement, and had it working soon after.) I got my Home Service Plus up to date and called in Centerpoint Minnegasco. The technician first diagnosed it as low refrigerant, but then said that the compressor was shot. Since it's a 20+-year-old unit, repairing it isn't in the cards.
A sales rep from Minnegasco called, but he couldn't arrange an appointment until a week later. I told him I hoped to have a new unit purchased and installed by then, but even that incentive didn't help him find an earlier slot. Nice that they're so busy, I guess. So I looked up Standard Heating & Air Conditioning on the Web and arranged for a sales rep to call me. He called back promptly, said he'd come over tonight, and if I bought a unit tonight, he'd have it installed tomorrow. Much more encouraging.
Diet and exercise update
I've lost over 50 pounds, and several sizes. It's actually noticeable, I think. Better still, I'm not feeling terribly deprived. I occasionally miss pizza, bread, and potatoes, but then I have some pistachios or raspberries with cream to console myself. There's nothing magical about this except possibly the appetite-suppressant effect of Atkins; I'm keeping to 1,300 calories per day. Still have quite a ways to go, though, and the last third is going to be the hardest.
Still exercising six times a week: three times a week at Pat's for half an hour on the elliptical, and running three times a week with Pat. We're now up to four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and six miles on Saturdays. I'd really like to work more on speed, so we may be doing interval training soon. Possibly not until the weather gets cooler, though.
Everything-else update
I'm an Olympics junkie, so I pretty much lost two weeks to the Olympics this year. The NBC and affiliate stations coverage pretty much rocked. It was wonderful to see more complete coverage of sports that so often get short shrift, especially if Americans aren't medal contenders. I would have loved to see complete coverage of gymnastics, but I saw the gymnastics competitions in Atlanta in 1996, and it really is a six-ring circus (four-ring for the men), since all events go on at once except for the individual apparatus finals.
I regretted not having had surgery done on my TiVo yet -- I'd bought a larger hard drive, but hadn't had time to get it installed yet -- but it may have kept me sane. If I'd been able to record everything I wanted to, I'd probably (four days past the closing ceremonies as of today) still be watching the first week's worth of competition. Knowing that I could only have 25 hours or so at a time meant that I was only a day or two behind at the most.
Because I spent just about all my waking hours for the past two weeks working, watching TV, or sleeping, I didn't get much reading done. I made the mistake of picking up my hardcover copy of Kushiel's Dart for bedside reading (third reread). It was a mistake because now, of course, I want to reread the other two books, and since I have them in paperback, they're packed away.
I read Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots and Leaves by dint of leaving it as my bathroom book. I'd heard enough about it on the copyediting mailing list not to be too excited about it, but my mother sent me a copy. In the event, I found it mildly enjoyable, and not nearly as didactic as I remembered some people on CE-L claiming. I still don't understand why it's so popular in the U.S., since it's quite definitely oriented toward British style.
My neighbors across the street had a garage sale, and while there wasn't much of interest for me, I did come home with a couple of treasures (or more clutter, depending on how you look at it). The first was a complete Spirograph set. It was always a toy I'd loved, though I'd never had my own copy, just access to a shared one at my grandparents' that over time lost more and more pieces. It may have some collector's value, but I plan to keep it for myself.
The other thing was a bag of all the Kinsey Milhone mysteries from A to O (missing N). I've read most of them, but not all, and it'll be fun to read them in order. I'm about halfway through A is for Alibi and I'll be set for bedside reading until I have my paperbacks unpacked.
This has not been a good week for inanimate objects in my life; on Monday night the frame of my eyeglasses broke. This frame was the replacement for the frame of the same type that had broken back in December, so I was mightily annoyed. I tried taping up the glasses to make them functional, but they wouldn't stay put. They would have been good enough to drive out to get the new frame, but that was going to be another three or four days. I know I have a backup pair of glasses somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Luckily, I could find the boxes of disposable contacts that I'd kept after I gave up on my last attempt to wear contacts. They'd expired in 2003, but I figured that was conservative. I got through the next few days with the contacts, but the end of each day reminded me why I'd given up on contacts -- eyes too dry. Now I have the new frames (which I got a 50% discount on because of the one-year warranty), and the bridge of my nose is killing me. Back to the store tomorrow for adjustment, I think.
And now for something completely different
I've been considering getting a subscription to Audible.com, and I'd like to share it with someone who has similar tastes to mine. (This is kosher; by their rules, up to three people can share a subscription.) You get a choice of two books a month, for $20 or so, so it'd be just about $5 per audiobook. I've been paying about that for audiobooks on eBay, and that's only because I've been shopping very carefully, passing up the more expensive books. Anyone interested? My primary interest is SF and fantasy, and only unabridged selections in any case.
