Power Tools and Naps

All day Jimmy has told me that he got me a present on his lunch.  And this is what it was.  I was sooooo happy because my drill is not very powerful.  Plus, these batteries get charged in only 15 minutes.  15 minutes!  I'm going to hang the wall cabinets in the laundry room tonight so I'll give these a test run and see how awesome they are.

Drill Driver and Impact Driver Plus a Spotlight

Then he held the mounting track for the wall cabinets while I cut it with a reciprocating saw.  Then he came inside and fell asleep.

Tired Jimmy

Then the dogs fell asleep.

Tired Puppies

Awwww

 Then I made him a sandwich and woke him up.  I love Jimmy.

Much Love
Erin

Tired Backs

Today was "Put the Laundry Room Back Together Day."  My wonderful father came over and helped me do everything.  Or you could say that I helped him do everything; either way works.  But we got a lot done and most importantly, I will have hot water to take a shower in tonight.

Drywall should be finished tomorrow and then I can mud and then the next day is just sanding and then painting.
The finishing touches will be hanging the wall cabinets and connecting the utility sink.  Wow, I don't know how many times I've typed "utility sink" in the last week but it seems somewhat excessive after the twentieth time.

My amazing mom was wonderful and picked us up some food to eat as we were running on empty.  Shaking muscles and tired backs.  Dad has a spa to relax in.  Natch.

Holy Moly.  As soon as I stopped moving I got incredibly sore and tired.  I might be disgusting and just crash and take a shower tomorrow.  Hmmm...better not.

I'm really happy with my day.

Much Love
Erin

Losing Steam

I feel somewhat down today.  I went to Ikea in Burbank yesterday, but I knew exactly what I needed so I didn't browse or look around, just a straight shot.  Jim and I have spent hours in Ikea.  We've had a lot of "discussions" in Ikea.  But he was sleeping because he'd just come off a 12 hour night at work.  So I went alone.  I went grocery shopping alone.  I remember going with Mom grocery shopping when I was a kid a lot.  Dad worked a lot when we were a young family.

I'm losing a little steam.  But I figure I'll get it back when I start on the laundry room.  Hopefully.  It's hard to have focus when you want to do so many things.  I end up watching ghost hunting shows on T.V.

I bought three wall cabinets for the laundry room at Ikea
and stayed up until 2am putting them together.

I left my job at Borders at the beginning of this blog and now the Bakersfield location will be liquidating and closing down by the end of May.  I feel true sadness for my former co-workers losing their jobs, especially people that have worked there for over 5 years.  It becomes a second family.  Now they won't have that stability and paycheck and I won't be able to see them easily.  I know I won't ever see some of these people again because that's just the way life goes.  But I could care less about the company.  The company is not the company I was hired onto.  I hope they go under all the way and a new bookseller shows up and does it right.

My second home for almost 9 years.

I need to do better with this gift of time Jim is giving me.  I need to get it together.


Much Love
Erin

Wonderful

Me: Hello

Mom: Hey, Honey.  Do you want a tree?

Me: Uh...what kind of tree?

Mom: Pomegranate.

Me: Um...do Pomegranate trees grow in California?

Mom: Yeah, they grow here.

Me: Sure...I'm not going to pass up a free tree.

Mom: Ok, love you, bye.

Pomegranate Tree -  "Wonderful " Variety

Ugly Dog Models

Taken

I worked out with the video game EA Sports Active 2.  It was hard because I'm fat and walking isn't really a "workout" that's structured and fast paced.  It's a nine week program and it's cool because all I have to do is turn it on.  I have a goal to commit to the workout once it's started to finish it and do every exercise.  It's not going to kill me but it's more than I've done in a while.

On another note, I put my miter saw together today and I bought a reciprocating saw from Sears.  And I got taken by a plumber.  But I'm not going to get into that.

Much Love

Erin 

Demolition

So the demolition of the laundry room went well.  There was a significant leak from the shower into our bathroom which shares a wall with the laundry room.  The problem is that the mold keeps going behind the hot water heater.  So I'm going to have to disconnect the hot water heater, get all the moldy drywall off, put new drywall on and reconnect the hot water heater.  All before we need hot water.

Before

After

I'm going to get a plumber to come out and check all the connections and maybe see if he could plumb for a utility sink before I close this wall back up.  Then I will put up wall cabinets for lots of storage room and paint.  I will need a second pair of hands to hang the drywall, but it's not a very big area so I don't think it will be too hard.  

I say that now, but I've never drywalled anything.  Well, I did help Dad the first time the laundry room was fixed, but it wasn't a whole wall.  We'll see.  For now, Jim and I are taking our showers in the other bathroom.

Much Love

Erin

Waterfall Walk

Last Sunday Mom and I took the dogs on a walk out in the fields by their house.  The almond orchard was in full bloom and I wanted to try out my spiffy new camera and see my mom and exercise my dogs.  All of those goals could be met by going on a innocuous walk.
I told all this to Jimmy before I left and all he said to me was, "Well, be careful. Don't let them go in the aqueduct." (Foreshadowing)

It all started out fine.  The trees were beautiful, the dogs were full of energy, Mom was getting used to me not having any hair.

Ahhh...Almond trees in March

I'm warning you now, I have a love of high contrast pictures.

Mom telling Dad what we're doing, "Yeah, we're having a great time."

That's Lily running in the wheat fields trying to scare up some birds.

The dogs were being very entertaining with their frolicking.  Except for Bugs.  Bugs either sticks close to me or sticks close to Wickett.  Her preference is Wickett, since he's her boydogfriend.

Bugs.  She's not very photogenic.

Sadie frolicking.

Lily not really frolicking yet.

Sadie and Wickett uber-frolick through the water and almond trees.

Yee Haw

Then we pass the bee hives.  Bees are Nature's wonderful way pollinating these trees so we get to witness their beauty and reap the benefits of their labor.  That said, I hate bees.  I'll punch a bee in it's face.

Dead Bee.
No I did not kill this bee, it was already dead.  Ask Mom.

Let's look at the pretty trees again.

So we finally reached the aqueduct part of our walk.  Now Lily (especially) and Sadie are known to go in the aqueduct.  They are strong Yellow Labradors that were bred for swimming.  My dogs were not.  My mutts rather eat horse poo and pee on everything they can find.

Yummy

So Lily saw some ducks in the aqueduct and naturally she went over to investigate.

Lily investigating the ducks.
Wickett looks like he wants to go in but he didn't.

I didn't take any pictures of this part so I'll just have to summarize.  Lily went all the way over to the other side and wouldn't come back over.  So I trot down to the little bridge that crosses the aqueduct to get Lily back over to the other side.  Little do I know that Lily doesn't like the bridge as it's over a waterfall.  So I'm on the other side trying to get Lily but then Wickett follows me over the bridge.  Lily gets back in the aqueduct right in front of the waterfall and heads for Mom.  Meanwhile, I'm running after my dumb dog, trying to catch him so we can get back over to the other side.  

Now, I'm not worried about Bugs.  Bugs never goes in water without me having to push her; not even when I'm in the pool will she go in the water.  But I guess the combination of Wickett and myself on the other side of the aqueduct was too much for her so when I turned around Lily had made it back to the other side and Bugs was in the water right in front of the waterfall.  Bugs is 9 pounds.  Bugs got sucked over the waterfall.  

There are few moments in my life, real life, that I'm witness to dramatic happenings.  But I will always remember Bugs' little face looking at me as she went over that waterfall.  A couple things went through my mind, "There she goes." "Ah, she's dead." "Oh, shit."

But she popped right up after going over.  Picture me and Mom running, one on each side of a fast moving aqueduct, frantically trying to get this little dog.  Finally she pathetically swam over to me shaking and shivering.  I picked up both my dogs and carried them back over the bridge.

9 Pound Daredevil

She was snuffling a little but unharmed.  Quite the adventure for a Sunday afternoon.

Buddies

Lab Buddies

Bees in Blossoms

Pretty Susan

Annnnddd...this one's for Dad.

Oh yeah

So next time we go on a walk with Mom and the girls there will be leashes next to the aqueduct and a little less excitement.

Much Love

Erin

We'll See

I'm going to take down a lot of drywall today.  I've watched it done so many times on TV, we'll have to see if it's as easy as it looks.  But first, I have to go the The Home Depot and buy some supplies.  I love living two blocks from a major home improvement store.

Much Love
Erin

All Gone

I shaved my head last night.  I've always wanted to do it.  I was nervous at first but it was too late to stop because Jim was hacking away with the scissors and I just let it go.  I can mark this off my life list now.  I feel brave for doing this and stupid at the same time.  Oh well, no regrets.

Much Love
Erin

Finally

Vacation

I still feel like I'm on vacation.  I know I'm not, but I still don't feel unemployed.  I'm sure I will when I don't get a check next Friday.


Much Love
Erin

Excuses

I'm really addicted to sweets.  To eating in general.  I did OK for about half the day and then I ate some candy that I had, and then I had a big dinner, but there was asparagus involved.  Then I had some more candy, but I shared it, but I still had some.  And right now I just "had" to have some chocolate milk, just because.

I love food.  I love eating it, cooking it, smelling it, watching it be made on TV, throwing it through the air, touching it, etc.  But that doesn't mean that I can't have some self control.  I am an extreme person.  I go from one extreme to the other.  I eat all day - to I don't care what I eat it's just fuel, give me the bare minimum.  I'm in the eat all day extreme right now and haven't been in that other extreme for years.  I was proud of myself for half the day.  I drank water, two glasses!  I rarely drink water.  But then I went off the tracks.  Portion control and eating a lot of fruits and veg.  That's what's important right now.  That's what I haven't been doing.  I've just been making excuses.

Much Love
Erin