Sooooo it turns out that I may be a color addict.

It turns out, once I get started I can’t stop. I had full intentions of leaving the rest of the upstairs paint project (read: living room) until August. Then I started thinking, ‘HEY, those two walls are WAY smaller than the two I just painted. I bet I could knock those out in no time!’ And then I woke up at 6:00 am.

I put all the clean dishes away, loaded the dishwasher, loaded my Zune, and painted the first coat on wall 1. I’ll have enough time between now and when I go to work to do the second coat as well. Sweet!

The current debate is whether or not to maintain my two-color pattern. The dining room/kitchen has a gold/terracotta mix (one on each wall). The living room will either be 1) all moss-green (lemon verbena to be specific) or 2) one wall green, one wall tan. I won’t know for sure until I see the second coat.

I understand that some people like to live in white and off/white walls, I just can’t wrap my head around WHY.

I think it’s time for a toaster strudel and action movie. Or maybe studying.

Link to photos of current house projects.

What I am doing instead of homework

Making dinner. Watching the NCIS – Abbycentric marathon on USAHD.  Listening to Spouse banging on wood outside.

Mostly in that order.

Dinner is actually in the oven, so it’s almost done (Turkey-Spinach mini meatloaves). I’m half-watching the marathon since I’m websurfing. The noise from outside is unavoidable.

The EMT coursework is going well, but I haven’t spent as much time on it this week as I should have. That situation gets resolved this weekend.

Status of the house:

Deck out front = done

Paint in kitchen/dining room = done

Deck out back = 98% done. Needs to be stained, Spouse is building a bar for the deck to cover hideous dog door scar (hence the banging outside)

Our other projects (more painting, me custom framing some posters) are on hold for a bit yet. Alas, blogging STILL not back to normal. Also, Dreamwidth NOT having their cross-platform posting up. Grr.

We have been in the midst of minor home renovation.

Hence blogging not returning to normal. I’m also waiting on Dreamwidth to get their multiplatform posting sorted because then I guarantee more blogging.

The small deck for the front of the house is done, save for a second coat of stain.

The door is installed, the trim is stained, and now I’m just waiting on Spouse to patch the wall. Once he patches, I can paint the wall and we can hang the casement trim. Our new rugs are here and (mostly) placed. Slowly but surely we are going to be tweaking this place – and ideally within the first year rather than waiting 8 like we did at the old place.

Mission accomplished!

I’ve successfully made reservations for our anniversary dinner. It’s going to require a trip over to Vail, but 40 minutes isn’t a bad drive for good food. Not only that, but we’re in the off-season so we’ll be able to take advantage of some pretty sweet deals.

I’m waiting for Spouse’s new phone to arrive and then running some errands before he’s done wth work.

Have pretty much finalized house painting colors and a decorating plan for the basement. We’ll need an area rug for the kitchen but all in all we’re in good shape. The new sliding door arrives this weekend and I’ve just got to contact my guy to put it in. We’re inordinately excited about it for reasons I’ll elaborate later.

Our anniversary gifts are working out fantatsically and I’m going to update with some more Santa Fe details later.

Wide awake for no discernable reason

I hate that. But it’s why pharmaceutical companies make things like Ambien. Just waiting for it to kick in.

Today I picked up a tomato plant and a Topsy Turvy. I’m going to give it a go though Spouse is not confident. I generally forget to water things, so we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve got an unexpected trip to Avon later today. We also picked up a much-needed bookshelf for the living room. And it’s entirely possible that I’ve finalized the paint colors for the house. Not looking to start the paint project SOON but having the colors mapped out makes the project about half-done (in my head, anyhow). Not realistic but it FEELS good and that’s what counts.

Now I just have to determine if it’s better to edge the room before rolling paint on or vice versa. Also if I can freehand the top edges or maybe should use a piece of cardboard as a guide. Decisions!

Mom’s coming to visit over the 4th of July weekend! She’ll get to see Leadville sans snow! Probably not as fun as Boom Days (1st weekend in August) but I think something can be arranged. Possibly a little hiking.

I’ve got an extra lengthy work week this week (contrary to that of most) and while it should be busy, I also predict exhausting.

The short version

My lack of posting began shortly after we got an offer on our house back in Michigan, mostly because nearly all my free time was spent on the phone with either the mortgage company or Fannie Mae or the retirement people (we also had houseguests in there somewhere). The counteroffer which was accepted was considerably lower than what we’d paid for the house and we were pretty upside down on the mortgage. We applied for a short sale – where the bank accepts the offer and we all walk away clean – and it was mostly a nightmare. This experience has convinced me that we will never have functional health care.

I was told in not so many words by the folks at Fannie Mae that because our house wasn’t already in foreclosure, we weren’t a priority for help. This was, of course, ONLY after I had submitted my paperwork no less than three times in two weeks- because they kept saying they didn’t have it, even after a confirmation email from a specific employee on the 2nd occasion telling me he’d gotten it all. I’d made several phone calls and found exactly one helpful employee (the aforementioned dude). I DID have a spectacular runaround, including ONE employee who began to argue with me when I requested to speak to a supervisor. She was telling me why I wanted to speak to one and that they couldn’t help me. The third time, I finally said “I don’t CARE what you think, put a fucking SUPERVISOR on the phone.” Having done a shit phone job, I generally do not lose my temper with those folks. On the other hand, they don’t generally ARGUE.

Oddly, the supervisor was able to answer some questions. Which is when I found out that because we’d been responsible and kept paying our mortgage, we were going to take the entire shaft, sans lube, right in the ass. Thanks so much. If Fannie Mae can’t keep track of THEIR paperwork, we have NO HOPE of having a functional national healthcare system which – by definition – will require a much larger amount of paper and customer service.

We gave up on Fannie Mae after that and set about scraping together the funds needed to get the hell out from under the place. Paying two mortgages has NOT been fun. But someone bought it, I flew home to sign the paperwork and hand over the last of the keys, and we are now and forever shut of Saginaw, Michigan. We couldn’t be happier.

While in Michigan I seem to have developed something of an earache which is, apparently, not an infection. I pick up medication tomorrow.

I got to see some of the family back in MI, which was nice. Everyone seems to be doing well. I’d forgotten that mosquitos can be as big as my thumbnail though. We haven’t seen any up here yet, which is perfectly fine by me. The weather has been great, as usual. The last couple of days have had a bit of rain which is interesting because it doesn’t LAST, including the water on the ground.

Our anniversary is coming up next week (9 years!) and we got each other a sweet anniversary gift to help take the sting out of the house fuckery. Details on that later.

I start classes in a couple of weeks and it sounds like Spouse is planning a House Project. We’ll see how far that gets.

Mostly AWOL

I’ve been NotPosting because I’ve been trying to get things sorted out with our house sale – not fun and definitely not anything I wanted to blog about. Still have some things to add about Santa Fe but I’m also making a trip to Michigan this week. In related news, I’m also working on a different hosting solution for the blog so we’ll see how that shakes out.

With any luck, posting returns to normal this week!

Delayed posting due to slackage

We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Fe. I’ve been catching up on various things and getting back on work schedule. I’ve also figured out what classes I’m registering for in the summer session and I’m looking forward to a more regular schedule again.

I’m going to leave my TV and yoga natters for the end of the week (for the most part) and I’m going to post my Santa Fe pics instead!

We have returned from Santa Fe

One more way in which Leadville is superior to Saginaw: when we got home, one of our neighbors had plowed our driveway for us. Out of the goodness of their heart, without being asked. In the entire 8 years we lived in Saginaw, nobody ever even OFFERED – including when Spouse threw his back out and I was stuck outside shoveling 12 inches of snow off our entire driveway. I love this place.

Santa Fe was very nice and very relaxing. While I’m in the process of uploading pictures, I will leave you with this hilarious dog story.

How To Drive in a Whiteout

1. DON’T PANIC. Whiteouts are typically caused by blowing snow. ‘Blowing’ means that intermittently you’ll probably be able to see.

2. DO NOT stop your car.

3. Drive as slowly as you think necessary but don’t pull over or stop. It increases your chances of getting hit and/or injured.

4. Turn on your effing lights. They won’t help YOU see, but they’ll help OTHER PEOPLE SEE YOU. See above.

5. Look for the sides of the road. Specifically, the right side of the road. If you have a hard time seeing, roll down the passenger window.

6. Don’t pass people. It’s a dumb idea.

7. Don’t tailgate. Same reason.

Snowpocalypse, part deux

Cocaine use =/= a woman’s right to choose

I don’t watch The View very often, but I enjoy their hot topics shows because I think they do a good job of covering the gamut of reasonably expected responses (considered/intellectual: Whoopi, Barbara; ignorant/emotional: Sherri, Elizabeth; going for the punchline: Joy). Today they were talking about the rumor of Joe Biden’s daughter having snorted cocaine and one of her dirtbag ‘friends’ shopping it around to tabloids. They were saying that you can’t tie the actions of a child to the parent, with which I absolutely agree.

Kids come into this world with their own personality and ability to make their own decisions. Ideally, the way that they are raised will influence some of their decisionmaking processes but ultimately they are their own person.

That shook round to the political spectrum and how it’s potentialy MORE unfair to hold these kids up because the press implies their parents aren’t good at their JOBS rather than at parenting (which is the more logical conclusion). This, of course, brought up the issue of Bristol Palin. I think there’s a difference in that particular case.

If Sarah Palin had refused to comment about the pregnancy (Biden has yet to comment on the drug allegation), or simply requested privacy, that would  have been just fine. Instead she started crowing about how proud she was of her daughter’s “choice” and turned it into a pro-life wictory. This would also be fine, if Sarah Palin wasn’t actively campaigning to take that exact same “choice” away from everyone else. She SHOULD have been talking about how there wasn’t a choice, of course Bristol was having that kid because it was the only right thing to do – because that’s what she believes.. Instead, she MADE it a political issue by discussing it in those terms,  precisely because she’s AGAINST a woman’s right to control her own bodily functions, and that is why it became okay to talk about it. You’ll notice that Bristol’s “choice” was a topic of conversation but her decision to drop out of high school was barely a blip.

Being a politician doesn’t hold you to a higher standard of being a parent. It doesn’t hold your kids to a higher standard, because your kids are entitled to make their own mistakes and learn from them. It DOES require that you occasionally shut your mouth and put your kids before your own political agenda.

The View was also hilarious today talking about Twitter. The whole ‘not getting it’ is easy to see. It’s sort of a mindless occupation, though it can be entertaining.

I was kind of interested to see Bill O’Reilly on the show and see if Joy Behar or Whoopi were going to call him out. O’Reilly *did* make a good point about shopping with your dollars – if you disagree with something, use your money to make your impact. It was also hilarious that Bill suddenly wanted to “move on”  when they began discussing WHY we were in Iraq. Oddly, he rarely wants to “move on” on his own show. Speaking of which, I wanted to link this particularly heinous story. It’s especially nice because he has frequently spoken out on the rights of ‘celebrities’ to not be stalked. I guess famous people get more rights than everyone else.

Last political note: when the economists say you’ve got to keep spending money in order to fix the problem, people like Bill O’Reilly and Sherri Shepard should STFU. We’ve already spent into what most average people would consider to be imaginary numbers (as in, we can’t IMAGINE how much money it is) so if the people who study this FOR A LIVING think it’s the right path, I’m okay with it.

In unrelated news, I’m finally posting my CO snowpocalypse photos!

The trees outside my house, when I left.

Merging onto I-70, believe it or not.

In case you haven’t been watching the news

We’re supposed to be in the midst of snowpocalypse out here. I could point out the irony of said snowpocalype in a place reknowned for its snow but, la.

Ironically, up in the mountains it’s not as bad as it was on the I-70 corridor. In point of fact, I had a perfectly uneventful trip to Frisco for a haircut and various errands and didn’t realize, until calling to speak to Spouse, that the roads were supposed to be in any way disastrous.

When I left at about 11 am, there was about 6 inches of snow on my car. It was overcast but not snowing, so it didn’t even occur to me to call 511 for the road update. Once I was over the Fremont Pass (upon which there was virtually NO blowing snow) and about halfway to Coppper, the visibility deterioriated. I have a couple of great pictures on my camera (to be uploaded later).

There was more snow on I-70 than usual and the visibility was such that you almost had to take it on faith that you were, in fact, merging onto I-70, but other than that it was okay.

In related news, if you were the douchebag in a red Land Rover who decided to just put their brakes on as though they were going to stop in the middle of the highway, you can eat a bag of dicks.

Dog maintenance

We were in Glenwood Springs last week and while we were there, we visited the Petco. It’s great because Piper gets to sniff new stuff and stare at the ferretts (she can’t quite figure out what they are) and Spouse gets to look at the turtles. It’s better than the zoo!

At any rate, the reason for stopping (besides stocking up on dog food, ferretts, and turtles) was to pick up a Pedi- Paws. Piper is a black dog,with black nails, and I’m paranoid about nicking the quick and making her bleed. She also doesn’t love people touching her feet to START with, which does nothing to assuage my Piper-maiming anxiety. Enter the Pedi-Paws, which is essentially a portable sander for your dog’s toenails. They give you a whole step-by-step guide to acclimating your dog to the sander which I promptly ignored. My reason? There is nothing in the world that cannot be cured with lots of petting and treats in Piper’s world. Plus, nail trimming involves full body contact with Piper.

She seemed okay with it. She didn’t love it, obviously, but that’s why the brilliant people at Purina make Beggin’ Strips.

Recovering.

If you haven’t seen the BSG finale, don’t read this post.

Unless, that is, you have no idea what I mean by BSG and in that case you probably won’t WANT to read this post.

I think the gut reaction for a lot of fans was that I WANT MY KARA/LEE 4EVAH. I’ll admit it – I totally felt it for about 15 seconds. And then I started thinking about the Kara/Lee dynamic and why that ending for them totally worked (because it did).

From the start, Kara and Lee were on separate courses destined for a collision. It starts with drunken flirting and Kara’s admission that she fears “being forgotten” most, while she’s dating/engaged to his BROTHER of all things. Kara is the absolute arbiter of self-destruction. On the other hand, all of her self-destructive behaviors and crazy widespread fallout ensure that she WON’T in fact be forgotten.

Their sexual tension doesn’t ever dissipate because they never REALLY consummate what they both clearly want. She’s afraid it will mean actual happiness and a descent into ‘comfortable,’ ‘normal’ – forgettable. She’s also afraid of disappointing Lee, of screwing it up. When they finally have sex, she takes off and marries Sam – ensuring that Lee will always wonder WTF – both about her and what it means about HIM, what he did wrong.

She’s never really serious with Sam and begins pushing him away almost immediately and guaranteeing that his life will also be halfway ruined by her. He can’t ever quite let her go because he never really had her to start with.

Meanwhile, she Starbucks for all she’s worth. Does the crazy things no one else does, has no fear of her death in these ridiculous exploits because even if she bites it – people will KNOW. She doesn’t mind being talked about, being badmouthed. She has clearly defined her role and never deviates – not for a moment. She’s a trainwreck. She takes a lot of prisoners, tortures them, and makes no apologies. She doesn’t apologize when Leoben takes HER prisoner. And when she’s told she has a destiny (over and over) she isn’t upset about THAT – she’s upset that she can’t SEE it, can’t touch it, can’t CONTROL it. She’s been so busy making herself memorable that she’s afraid to let go of the icon she’s created and is afraid her destiny might take it.

Lee, meanwhile, is always half a person. He’s always responsible for someone or TO someone. His brother, his father, Kara, Dee. He can’t be who he wants to be because it will hurt his brother (and his brother’s memory) if he really pursues Kara. He’s the guy who has to try and keep Kara put together since she’s so determined to flame out spectacularly and in public view. He can’t walk away from the military (or roles of responsibility) because his father’s gravitational pull is impossible to overcome. The only way he can defend himself is to try and create his own roles and ultimately falls short. His relationship with Dee was far less well defined but it becomes clear that Dee sees herself as the rebound girl. Lee is responsible again, for not making her feel valued or important. He’s still not able to be himself. He doesn’t have any idea who he is but he has a thousand ideas about who he COULD be if his life was just different.

And in the end, Kara has become something EVERYONE will remember. She’s remembered because NO ONE knows what she really was. An oracle, an angel, a savior? The contradiction – that someone so flawed could become something so mysteriously benefiical – has guaranteed her the one thing she wanted most. She is the enigma that allows them to keep living, keep believing. And when she leaves, she’s the perfect example for how you don’t REALLY get a second chance. You don’t get to have a second life where you can do everything right – even if you’ve learned from all your mistakes – or get to rewrite history. The second chance is a great idea but you have to live your life like you only get the one you’ve got. 

I wish Lee had chosen his own destiny, but it makes perfect sense that he can’t. Dee leaves him – twice – and the first time was an attempt to make him choose his own path. The second time she left, she was so far past him that he couldn’t even see her. His father leaves him as well, and I’m willing to wank that it’s because he knows Lee will never become his own man with the Admiral around. And Kara winks out in the moment before he can ask her to stay. He can see the thousand paths he might take but now he HAS to take one, and the only one he’s repsonsible to is himself. There is no one to live up to, no one to take care of, no accounting to be made. He gets to finally become Lee.

There are a few things I would quibble about with the finale, but this is the one thing the writers got perfectly and absolutely right.

Downshifting

There has definitely been an adjustment to living out here that extends beyond the change in altitude.

A couple of weeks ago, it was snowing and there was a fair amount of traffic to Vail. I made it over and back the Battle Mountain Pass without ever having to touch a brake – unlike the two drivers in front of me. I was inordinately proud of myself.

The other notable difference from home  is the dress code. I’d heard jokes about the Colorado Tuxedo (jeans) but there’s more than a little truth to it. For example, we’re attending a dinner tonight. At home, I’d have worn a dress – not an especially fancy one. Out here, that’s still way too formal. I’ve tentatively settled on a sweater and skirt and am still running the risk of being ‘too’ dressed up. Spouse suggested I wear a pair of “good jeans.” Alas, I own only regular jeans. Possibly I will have to consult someone to find out what “good jeans” consists of. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this.

I was hoping to find a book club in town, but haven’t had much luck. It seems I’ll have to drive to Avon or Vail but at least there are a couple and they’re not so far that I’ll mind the drive. The social interaction will be nice, for sure.

The job hunting continues, without much success. Right now I’m working three days a week which leaves me with just a little too much free time.

I’ve started running with the dog again, intervals in a 1.8 mile route for the time being. I’m hoping to work up to a 3.5 mile route. Running is a DEFINITE challenge. For the first time in my life, I find that heart rate charts might apply to me.

Next week I’ve got an appointment to get contact lenses. I haven’t worn glasses this much since I was 13 and I’m not really loving it. The nice thing is that the new eye doctor just needs me to fax my old prescription – rather than needing all my records.

For now, I’m off to run errands and get things around for our overnight trip.