Three Word Recap for the Week

And this week's recap is . . .

Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend as usual. Today I'm lucky to find any time at all to sit at the computer. This is the last weekend at home before vacation and I could spend 48 hours running straight and I doubt I would finish all that I would like to accomplish. But so be it. I'll do what I can do and that's that.

We started off yesterday tackling the laundry room project. Here's the before picture. Well, of course it didn't really look this barren before. We took down the artwork that originally hung over the counter. But for the sake of impressive befores and afters, here's the wall looking as bad as it can:

Then about an hour later it looked like this:

More changes have happened since then, but I haven't had time to photograph and will have to wait for the grand unveil of the 'after' picture . . . to come some time after vacation.

After the tile project and our P90X workout it was time to exercise the dogs. I've been wanting to check out our brook which, according to Karlo, has become a raging river due to all the rain. We hiked down to see this:



And then two minutes after getting back into the house the dogs competed in their favorite sport – Synchronized Snoozing. Not sure who won this match.

Boy am I jealous of them. I sure would like to partake in a little bit of that on a weekend. But there will be no rest for me. I'm off to a boring meeting followed by two errands. So much to do and so little time to do it in.

Cooper Is In Training

We heard last week about a burglary that took place in our sleepy little town. And apparently it's one of many that has occurred over the past 6 months. Who knew? I guess when you think about, robbing somebody out in the woods makes a lot of sense. It's not like any neighbors can see each other's houses. Seems like it would be pretty easy to pull off. Well, except for the fact that most people that live in the boonies pack some heat. And I'm hoping to be one of those people some day. I've wanted guns since the day we moved in. Not only for protection, but to play with. We have a perfect shooting range here. The only reason I avoided getting and shooting guns on the property is because of our skittish dogs.

So since they are the reason we don't have guns, I figured they need to earn their keep. Well, forget about Peanut. She's just hopeless. Way too cute and scared to ever look or act mean. But Cooper, now he has potential. Nice big guy with a dark face. He can look vicious . . . maybe . . . with some training.

As soon as I heard about this story last week I banged my hand on the desk and said, "See, I knew we should have gotten the Dobbie that I wanted to begin with." Then I got the brilliant idea of docking Coopy's ears to make him look meaner. That gave us a good laugh. But at the very least we can buy him a nice mean-looking studded leather collar. And maybe we should change his name to Spike, or Duke, or Attila, or something equally as tough.

So Cooper, oops I mean Spike, is now in training. We are trying to teach him to be mean. OK maybe just an occasional bark would be good. He's got one more week of training and then we're going to see how Jill does when we ask her to enter our garage all by herself. I guess she will be our crash test dummy. What a sport she is!

The Next Project on the Horizon

Time to get more tile adhesive and grout . . . This time it's the laundry room getting a mini makeover. Why do tiles excite me so?

My 3 Words for the Week

I almost forgot to sum up this past week in three words. Here it is:

That's right. I'm starting the madness all over again this year. I'm on the 8th day and I've been averaging about 1200 calories burned per hour. Yesterday and today I burned over 1600 calories each day. Good thing I have this super fattening bread laying around the house because I need more calories in me just to get through the day. I can't explain the high that this exercise gives me. Doesn't take me more than a day or two before I get addicted, excited, and eager for more. Makes me long for Spring even more now. By the time the roads are ready for me I should be ready to make my bike fly! Bring it!

It's a Miracle

I still can't believe that I pulled this off . . . Last week a friend gave me some Amish bread starter mix. Now my first thought was, "What kind of friend makes me bake?" I teased her and gave her Hell for this, but I was determined to make her proud. So I took my bag of batter home and diligently followed the instructions. I have to admit, there's not a whole lot to it. You mostly just have to 'mush' the bag every day. But on the 4th or 5th day it required you to add some ingredients to it. I paid attention to the directions and went to Big Y to get my supplies. I was all ready for that night's bread duty. Only I put all the groceries away and proceeded to completely forget about the bread. Good grief.

I fessed up to said friend that I already screwed up and she advised me to just push everything off by a day. OK, there's still time to come through with this project. So today was the big day that I was to finish the project. I put it off all morning until I got an email from her reminding me. That's it, I knew if I didn't spring from my chair that minute it wouldn't get done. Luckily another friend (Jill) was over at the time and assisted me.

Well, things got off shaky. I barely had enough flour and sugar and my baking sodas and powders were an expired nightmare. The powder (or is was that the soda?) was in solid form and I had to pick away at it with an ice pick. But I plugged on. Then it got down to the very last ingredient which was instant vanilla pudding, of which I had none. Now what? I'm not traveling an hour to get some. I decided to use pistachio pudding instead. I know it was odd, but I truly thought it would just be going to waste and I didn't want to waste Karlo's precious chocolate pudding mix.

The batter looked like split pea soup and it was, in my opinion, disgusting. Jill and I just had to laugh at this whole scene. I tried to force one of my starter bags on her, but she wouldn't bite. Unfortunately she went home before the loaves were baked. Hmmm, she might have planned it that way - to escape having to try it. But I'll be darned. Karlo and I just had some pieces and it was delicious. I still can't believe how yummy it was and how I made it - nearly from scratch. I'm so proud of myself!

I have 4 starter bags here. Who wants one? You gotta come over fast because they need to be tended to starting tomorrow. Come and get em.

If I Thought I Could Get Away With It

I would steal him!

This past week we were watching our neighbors two dogs and bird. Unfortunately Money Penny, the Cocker Spaniel, wasn't into playing this morning. But Alfie, the German Shepherd, was more than happy to run around and have some fun with the Hounds. I'm not even sure why there is such a soft spot in my heart for Shepherds. I never had one, but have always adored them.

To see more doggie play date pics, click here.

Master Bath Tile Unveil

Here's a snapshot of the master bathroom tile project. I'm thrilled with the results and can't wait for my next batch of tiles to arrive . . .

Why oh Why?

I am so frustrated. I'm sitting here at my computer impatiently waiting for my new software to load. The new software that I just bought for WINDOWS. Uuuugh, it makes me so darn mad that I'm still tied to Windows and can't seem to make a clean break away from it over to the Mac. I get nothing but frustrated every time I need go back and fourth. I wonder how many years down the road it will be before I can function completely in the Mac OS. It can't come soon enough for me.

And now I must get back to the pleasant task of figuring out how the heck to use QuickBooks. This is sure to be a fun weekend. NOT.

A Bad Catholic

On the drive to work this morning I was thinking about the fact that it was Ash Wednesday and pondering whether or not I would go through the ridiculous exercise of giving something up. Now before any Catholics get upset because I’m calling the ritual ridiculous, let me explain. I found it ridiculous for me to think about giving something up when I couldn’t even explain the concept of Lent to Karlo. He asked me questions about Lent and I told him that Lent was the 40 days leading up to Easter . . . and you are supposed to give up something you enjoy during this time . . . you are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays . . . and oh yeah, you’re also supposed to go to church and get a spot of ash put on your forehead. Karlo laughed and said that we have plenty of ashes at home if I wanted to ‘dirty my forehead.’ Then he went on to question what the symbolism of the ashes on this day called “Ash Wednesday” was. I reached way back to my Catholic schooling and my years of, not bible school, but something similar that I can’t even begin to spell (catechism?) and with all that reaching I pulled absolutely nothing out of the air. I haven’t a clue what the ashes are all about, or the 40 days. I’m a terrible Catholic! So if I don’t even know what it’s all about, why would I give something up? It all seems so silly to me. I think I’ll just go about my life trying to be the best person that I can be and live a life that I will be proud of when I stand before the Lord on judgment day. Hopefully he won’t be quizzing me on the bible.

Then I went on to explain to Karlo that yesterday was Fat Tuesday. He was amused with this term and had no idea what it was all about. I pointed out the fact that some people at work had on mardi gras beads and Karlo never knew there was a connection between the beads, the celebration and religion. I was all happy that I knew just enough to explain that the day is called Fat Tuesday because it’s the day before the 40 days of fasting and sacrifice begins and that’s the day when people overindulge and eat too much. And Karlo promptly yells, “What??? And you’re telling me this TODAY when it's already over?” Suddenly he wants to be religious. Go figure.

Thoughts On the Olympics

This past weekend we watched a few hours of the Olympics. Every Olympic year I look forward to, and try so hard to stay up for the opening ceremonies, but it’s the same sad story over and over. I always fall asleep. Last year was particularly heartbreaking because the Chinese really put on a show of all shows.

So I got all ready for the big show on Friday night and the first thing that hit me was the shock over how I could be so overcome with grief and sadness at the passing of an athlete that I didn’t even know existed prior to turning on the TV. It was so incredibly sad to think about the elation this young guy must have experienced making it to the Olympics. His lifetime dream had come true . . . only to get to Vancouver and have it all end before he even got the chance to compete. My God, it was just so sad.

The second thing that made me sit up and take notice was the pure beauty of Vancouver. I’m pretty sure next year’s vacation spot has just been decided upon.

And the third thing to strike me (and this is also the same story every year) is the astonishment of how geography inept I am. So many countries that I just never heard of! Where do all these little country come from? I swear I can’t keep up with the changing globe and it just fascinates me. Poor Karlo spent an hour explaining where all the little unknown countries were in relation to ones that I knew. It was an exhausting geography lesson. No wonder I fell asleep not long after the athletes marched in.

Important Lesson Learned

Today was what Karlo and I like to call a “vacation at home day.” We instituted these days last year when we swore we would take one per quarter. We did our first on the long Thanksgiving weekend and it was blissful. We tried our second one on Valentines Day last year and it was another great day. Then a year lapsed and I realized that we were long over due. What better time to start up again but on Valentine’s Day? This was to be a day where we do no work and just hang out together all day. Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned.

It’s now 3 PM and I’m alone in my office. First Karlo insisted that the dogs need a hike (because you know our lives revolve around the dogs). Apparently they could not miss a hike on our special day. So Karlo went out for a hike while I stayed in to do yoga. That wasn’t so bad I guess. But his hike turned into an hour of moving wood from the shed to the garage, stacking it, probably splitting it, installing new tires on his trailer, and Lord knows what else is going on in the garage. I swear that garage has an incredible sucking force that pulls him so strongly that he can’t overcome it.

So here I sit, all by myself, on our vacation-at-home-let’s-spend-the-day-together-day. Sigh. I guess I’ll go upstairs and clean the tiles.

I realized an important thing about me and Karlo and vacations. We suck at them! We literally get jittery if we don’t have our days completely planned out. Even on our vacation day we need an agenda . . . What fun things are we going to do, for how long, and when will they start and end? This is exactly what happens on a real vacation. We absolutely need most of our waking hours filled with an agenda or we can’t function.

That’s it. I’m going to fetch him from the basement now. We will have fun together, starting now . . . dammit.

Week Recap

And my week can be summed up with these three words:

Like all tiling projects, it was a multi-day event, and it's not quite over yet. We are still in the grout haze phase so I can't post the 'after' picture just yet. So far I'm pleased with the result. There is always that brief period during the grouting phase where you are convinced something is going wrong and you are creating a disaster, but somehow it all works out in the end. A tile project just wouldn't be a tile project without that heart sinking "oh no" feeling. I can't wait to install the new switch plate covers and most importantly get the mirror hung back on the way. We are almost there . . .

And our grout wasn't nearly dried on the wall before I was online shopping for another tile project. Yesterday I bought 6 square feet of mosaic blue glass tiles for an upcoming laundry room project. Since all the tiling tools have been brought up from the basement and Karlo's tiling skills have been exercised I figured I would strike while the iron was hot. So this week definitely deserved my 3 word recap.

The Jury Is Still Out

As you all know I am painfully disappointed in my new high performance exhaust system in the Mini. Between the super load roar of the muffler, and what I now consider a super stiff suspension, I just can’t drive the car without getting a headache. It’s amazing how my perception of the car changed drastically after being spoiled by the super smooth ride of the Audi. God I love that Audi. I knew I would love that car, but what I wasn’t prepared for was how it would change my attitude toward my Mini. I don’t know . . . maybe it’s just the terrible condition of the roads around here with all the frost heaves. Maybe I’m just getting old and prefer a luxury ride. Or maybe it’s that damned exhaust that is just ruining the whole driving experience for me.

So Karlo went on the hunt for a solution that wouldn’t require another investment. I swear I am SO DONE with dumping large sums of money at cars! He found what is called a silencer–a little device that fits into the tail pipe that quiets the exhaust. Here one of these.



This sounded like the answer to my prayers. It only cost about $35 and that almost sounded too good to be true. I decided that we needed to put it to the test. When Karlo starts the Mini in the basement the entire house literally shakes. I made a little video to illustrate the vibration in the house before and after the silencer install. I honestly can’t see much difference in the video, but I have to admit that the car is slightly less loud on the road. I think the pain in my head has been downgraded from a mini migraine to a just a plain headache so I guess we are making progress.

Here’s the video

Tile Project Underway

Karlo took a sick day today and I stayed home due to the super dangerous DUSTING of snow that we got. I swear this is the last time we are going to trust a weatherman. But the good news is that the day was well spent. Karlo got a jump on the tile project that we planned to start this weekend. You know Karlo, if materials are in the house he can not sit still until the project is underway. So here are some scenes from our bathroom throughout the day.



I know it looks like Karlo got ridiculously lucky with the sizing of the tiles and the placement of the outlets, but nothing is ever that simple. The reality is that he had to cut the wall and move both outlets so they perfectly lined up with the tile pattern. And how convenient that the tiles were nearly the same size as the outlet openings. These glass tiles are very cool, but I could not imagine how one would ever cut them. I guess we did luck out a little. And as you can see we cheated (or cheaped) a little and opted to not put tiles behind where the mirror will go. Nobody will ever know. Ooops, wait a minute. I just told the world. OK, scratch that part.

This weekend will be all about grouting. That should be fun - not. But it will be worth it in the end. I just can't wait to have my mirror back!

I've Been Itchy

No, I don't have a rash. I've been cooped up in the house too long during this dreadfully long winter. I've been trying to be good about going outside to play and have been forgoing evening hikes with Karlo and the hounds. Instead I sit in the house and brood over my sore fingers. All that time spent inside just made me itch for a home decor project.

Enter these:
I've been wanting to do something with the wall above the sink in our master bathroom for ages. Can you say 'ages' if you only lived in a house for 2.5 years? Well, since we moved in I've wanted tiles as a backsplash because I really need a backsplash. Every morning I stick my head in the sink and splash water all over the wall. I figured I could justify actually 'needing' the tiles. Just look how barren the wall looks now. Please excuse the horrific picture. And obviously Karlo has already gotten a jump on removing the switch plate covers.

I'm hoping those tiles on the counter will be on the wall tomorrow. Stay tuned . . .

Don’t Save it for a Rainy Day

Normally after I spend (or commit to spend) a large sum of money I have that guilty, almost remorseful feeling. I’m not sure why I do this, but it’s never really been easy for me to spend on myself. Last month when I decided to splurge on me with my facial products it was such a new feeling. And it felt really good to do something nice for myself without that nagging guilt.

So here I am after booking a rather expensive European vacation and, of course, I had that sinking feeling in my stomach, reminding me that the economy sucked last year and thinking about how both Karlo and I took a substantial hit in our salaries. Unfortunately our salaries are directly proportional to the amount of sales the company that we work for makes. So knowing that we made less money caused me to question whether or not we should be splurging on another big vacation.

I have to say, those guilty feelings didn’t last more than a day. No sooner did we book the final detail of the trip, but we get word that my closest aunt is in the hospital with (likely) cancerous tumors on her lung, liver, and brain. Not more than one month after getting a clean bill of health from her doctor she can’t walk and is awaiting news of her fate. This really puts things into perspective. Karlo always says, “Tomorrow never comes.” Why wait for tomorrow if you can something today? You just never know what the future will bring. I spent most of my life saving things for the future, but lately the lyrics to that song “Live like you’re dying” are really hitting home. I’m done saving my life for some undetermined time in the future. I’m done eating stale chocolate because I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. I want to live every day to the fullest and only worry about tomorrow when tomorrow actually comes.

The Week Recap

It was a busy week for sure and with the finger issues flaring I didn’t have the heart to endure the painful typing. So to recap the busy week . . . in a nutshell:

Just a few weeks ago Karlo and I marveled at the fact that we are now in the New Year and we have no vacation plans for 2010. I normally have our vacations planned out two years in advance, but this time I seemed to run dry. Our last trip to Italy and Spain caused me so much stress that I just couldn’t muster up the energy to start researching new trips. So I blamed Cooper!

But then we bought our new free-feeding contraptions and there went my excuse for not planning a vacation. So 2 weeks ago I started to think about some options and one week later I have two different trips booked. And I must say, aside from a little date confusion, getting special permissions from work, and some nerve-racking calls to United Airlines, it went pretty smoothly. It took all week to do, but it’s done and now I can just sit back and wait for Spring. Ah Spring, just the thought of it is like taking a mental vacation. Our first trip will be to the Outer Banks in March and that is less than a month away. Yippee.

Typing is Slow and Painful

It's not that I don't have much to say . . . it's just that it hurts too much to 'say' it. Regular blogging to resume when finger pain subsides.

I’m Ready to Ride, Or Dance . . . Or Go To Texas

I just bought these fabulous little cowboy botties and I love them to pieces. I can’t believe how comfortable they are and how much fun it is to look down at my feet with them on. I totally feel like a cowgirl. I’ve been wanting a pair of cowboy boots for a long time, something that I could line dance in. After all, if you’re going to do something, you may as well look the part. How much time do I spend uncomfortably looking like a biker (both pedal and motor)? I dread walking around in ugly motorcycle boots or sitting in a deli with spandex on, but I do it. So why not look like a cowgirl when I’m line dancing? Not to mention that I truly don’t own a single pair of appropriate shoes for that sort of dancing. You have to actually try to dance to understand that statement. I swear.

So I’ve been thinking about buying a pair for a long time, but real dance boots cost a lot of money and I didn’t have that sort of commitment. Not just yet anyway. I wasn’t sure it would be possible to find pure fashion boots that were comfortable enough for dancing, I didn’t know where to shop, and I was lacking the motivation. But then I recently booked a business trip to Texas and thought, “I will surely need cowboy boots to go to Texas!” Enter new motivation. I totally lucked out by stumbling across these online at DSW. It was the consumer rating that made me actually buy them, and I must say . . .the woman that wrote the rating wasn’t kidding. I love them. So now I’m ready to dance and ride a horse in Texas. Hee haa.

A Brilliant Invention

Since the day Cooper joined our family our lives have gone to the dogs. It seems everything we do, or don't do, revolves around the dogs. The positive has been our dedication to taking hikes just about every day because "Cooper needs exercise." Most all of Karlo's free time is spent laying on the floor cuddling with the hounds. And the last time we got invited to a social visit on a week night I had to explain that we couldn't go because we had to hurry home to feed the dogs. Once we drive out to bonnyville there's no way we're driving back for a social call. We have not gone shopping or done any time-consuming errands after work in over two months. We even ditched our special dinner plans on Karlo's birthday because of the dogs. Those buggers were really starting to cramp our lifestyle. And because of them we've been putting off any sort of vacation planning.

Enter this brilliant invention.


It was time to reclaim our lives. We really needed to get back to our old trick of 'free feeding' the dogs and these contraptions are made for that specific purpose. The dogs just push their head into that white swinging door to access their food. Another perk of this system is that the mice can not get in. This is huge in our basement!

When we first got Bentley he automatically picked at his food like a bird. He was basically already free feeding himself because he rarely finished what was in his bowl. We were told that we could never keep this up once we adopted another dog. And for a while that was true. Peanut entered the household and ate like she's been the runt of a pack her whole life (which, of course, she was). But she fell right into the free feeding routine in no time. Now she also eats like a bird.

But Copper, now he was going to pose a challenge. He eats like horse and I worried that he would devour 20 lbs of food when nobody was looking. But I'll be darned, he's doing great. It's been a week with these new contraptions and they both learned how to use them in one day. I do think Coop has put on a couple extra pounds, but the novelty of endless food will likely wear off soon. I think he's doing a whole lot better with it than Karlo would! And to celebrate this accomplishment we are going shopping after work this Friday. Yippeee.