Just for the Record

Yesterday morning I received the dreaded 7:10 am phone call from work. A phone call that early in the morning can never be a good thing, especially when it is from work. I reluctantly dragged myself from the warm snuggliness of my bed and called them back. Apparently I got my schedule mixed up, and was supposed to be working Wednesday, not Thursday. And yes, they still needed me, because they were already short. Darn. An hour and a half and approximately 2.5 cups of coffee later, I was immersed in patient care, trying to catch up on what I had already missed of the day.

Of course, my coworkers were curious to know what had happened to make me an hour and a half late for work, so throughout the day, several people asked about my morning. I then explained to each concerned person that I was merely a doofus, and had gotten my schedule mixed up. After we would chuckle about it for a minute, each conversation took the same route. The other person would then reply, "Well we knew we needed to call you, because you are never late for work."

See, I have witnesses. I am not always late!

The Other Side of the Coin

After reading Oob's last post, I took a look at some of my recent posts and realized that I might need to change my blog title to the Debbie Downer House Blog. It's true, the past two months have been tough: overwhelming, stressful, and exhausting. Usually I think of myself as an optimistic, upbeat person, who tries to make the best of a bad situation. But somehow, the past two months have turned me into a whiny, grumpy pessimist with an eternal gray cloud over my head. I'm starting to realize that having a crappy attitude toward life is neither making the situation any better, nor making me feel any better. In fact, it's making things worse. And the reality of our situation is that it could be worse. It could be a lot worse, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

So today is the start of a new week (Ok, actually yesterday was, but close enough). And today I'm going to start thinking more positively. Because really, it's just not that bad. So here are some things that I'm looking forward to:

• Today I'm going to paint the guest bathroom, and I think it's going to be kind of fun. I am excited to see what the finished product will look like when it is all fixed up.
  
• My close group of friends from nursing school is getting together this weekend, and I'm starting to get really excited. We always have the best time when we get together, and I don't doubt that will be the case this time around. Plus, we are going to Lake Hartwell on Saturday, and it will be so nice to just lay around in the sun for a bit!
• Two weekends from now, we are heading to Athens for a gig that my Favie is playing with Grogus on Friday night at Farm 255. I am so looking forward to hanging out downtown and listening to some great music!
• Ready or not, three weekends from now we are going to have a housewarming party to celebrate all of the hard work we have been doing around here! It will be so nice to finally relax with friends and family in our very own home.

And here is a happy kitteh for the week. (Also doubles as a picture of what I looked like last night after sharing 4 bottles of wine with my parents and my Favie):


more cat pictures

And No Vacation in Sight Yet

Today I started out my day by stepping in a pile of cat puke with a bare foot. Startled by the warm squishiness that was suddenly seeping in between my toes, I squealed rather loudly, as my hands flew up, spilling my coffee all over the floor, and almost tossing my bagel across the room. I then cringed, hoping my Favie hadn't heard me, and wouldn't run into the room to see what was going on. But of course, being the sweet, concerned gentleman that he is, he interrupted an important work phone call to check on me. "Sorry, I just stepped in cat puke." He sighed and went back into the office.

This is going to be a long day, I thought.

I finally received somewhat of an answer today from the two week long string of phone calls that I have been exchanging with Mark the Mover. They are going to give me a refund on the 30 minutes of time that was wasted by the moving crew arguing about how to move our refrigerator into the house. OK, great. That will be enough money to cover the tip that I gave each of the guys. That is, the tip that I have been regretting giving to them ever since they had been gone no longer than five minutes, and I started surveying the damage that was incurred.

I said, "Well sir, that's great, but what are you going to do about the numerous scratches and dents all over my new hardwood floors and my brand new refrigerator, that I have to look at every time I walk in my kitchen?"

He replied by stating that he could either send someone out to the house to survey the damage, or I could send him some digital pictures over email. I opted for taking the pictures myself, thinking that there is just no telling how long it would take before someone would be able to come out to the house.

So now I have spent my afternoon trying to take some decent pictures of the damage, taking measurements of each scratch, and composing a professional-sounding email to this guy. Taking the pictures ended up proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be, because I forgot about the glare that happens when you try to take a picture of something that is already shiny (AKA stainless steel refrigerator and polyurethaned wood). Four hours later, and the finished product has been sent.

Boy am I going to be pissed if we don't get any more extra money back for this. Fockers.

Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here is a display of some of my (and their) handywork:





(Each little white box contains the measurement of the scratch that is outlined by the black bracket--Just click on the picture to enlarge it. Yes, I know I'm OCD. Have you met me?)

Kittehs Are the Best

I am tired of blogging about our house. But that is really about all that is going on. All the complaints that I wrote about in the last blog have been resolved, so that is good. Except Mark the Mover. They are still on the bad list. Otherwise we are still slowly making progress on our house, little by little. Soon we will have a big party....Yay for that! We still have a lot of work to do, but I am just glad that I can sit on my couch and drink a beer without worrying. It is not perfect by a long shot, but perfection is overrated anyway. I have stopped worrying about fixing every little thing, and just accepted what we have for what it is. Anyway, I would much rather laugh at these silly kittehs, than worry about fixing our house, so here is my Kitteh of the Week: