Friday, January 30, 2009

Seaweed anyone?

Brent got a Boes sound system for Christmas and one of his favorite things to play on it is the concert video of Celtic Woman, the group of Irish women that sound like Enya. They even sing one of the songs she made popular, "Orinoco Flow". There is one particular song on this video that whenever I hear it, it sticks in my head for the next couple of days. It's called "Dulaman". It's and old Irish folk song and sung in Celtic (is that the proper for the old Irish language or is it called Gaelic??)so I had no idea what they were singing but thanks to my trusty computer, below the video is what I found in Wikipidia. Listen to the song first, it is quite catchy, then read what it's about.



The text of the song relates to the Irish practice of gathering seaweed for various purposes, dating from lean times when seaweed was valuable as a defense against famine.[2] It details the discussion between "dúlamán Gaelach" (a collector of seaweed for dyeing clothes) and "dúlamán maorach" (a collector of seaweed to be cooked and eaten). The latter wishes to marry the daughter of the former, and makes various arguments and entreaties for this purpose, finally declaring that he will simply take her away. The traditional refrain of the song is:

Dúlamán na binne buí, dúlamán Gaelach
Dúlamán na farraige, b'fhearr a bhí in Éirinn
This translates as:

Seaweed from the yellow cliff, Irish seaweed
Seaweed from the ocean, it's the best in all of Ireland

I knew it had to be some sort of song about a young man tryig to get the attention of the fair maiden but had no idea that seaweed played any part in it!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Three Boys


The only one that I missed in this picture is Taz. He jumped up on the bed as soon as I left the room. I was too slow to get that picture but I tell you, these dogs (and cat) love it when Brent is lazy. In fact, when he is busy doing stuff around the house, they whine and cry and even seem to have small panic attacks. When he's gone to work, the drive me nuts.

Monday, January 26, 2009

My new phone




Like my new phone? On our way into the parking lot at the bowling alley, We saw Jenny getting out of her car to go into the T-Mobile store for a new phone. I jumped out and told Brent I needed a new phone too so he went on to bowl a game without us. I almost bought the blackberry but decided it was too much phone for my needs, I went with this Samsung. I insisted on having a full alpha keyboard because I am not good at texting any other way. This, and one with bright green were the only choices they had. WHY can't T-Mobile come up with girlie phones? And because they tend to have such boring phones, I decided to dress it up a little with some sparklies. After I bought my phone, I headed over to the bowling alley and Brent was a little jealous so after bowling, he got a new phone too. Same as mine but he got the green one. No sparklies for him though. Now I just have to call customer service to get my ring tones that I've paid for transferred over to this phone since that is stored on the phone memory, not the sim card.

Weekly Bowling 1/24/09

Brent 100 / 122 / 121 / 202
Terrie / 126 / 108 / 168
Jenny / 107 / 140 / 104

Awsome job Honey! 202 on that last game! This included 5 strikes in a row, then a 9 then two more strikes, a 7 and a 9. That's more like it! His first game was just a warm up.... uh hu!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Progress?

My mom always told me that to be beautiful, you must endure pain; only she said it in dutch and it rhymed. I guess the same holds true for home improvement projects too. I am making progress and my sweet hubby is helping me but oh boy, what a MESS. We are getting closer to being able to put things in order in my office. Since it's laundry day in a couple of days, we have to have the machines in place by then.


The counter is relatively clean compared to a few days ago but it's still frustrating to see it this way.
Don't trip over the stuff that used to be on the counter but is now on the floor just outside my office door.

UPSTAIRS, I have finally been able to get my railing to the color I like. This took about 5-6 coats. It's called cherry mahogany. I still have to put on the polyurethane coat. That will happen tonight and tomorrow. As you can see, it clashes with my floor. Ummmm, I guess I will have to re-do my floor too!
This is the color it used to be. I call it Boring Oak.
YES, I did use the electric sander IN MY FRONT ROOM to sand the hand rail. It went throughout the entire house. I went downstairs and thought it was all dusty there too until I took off my glasses!
And, just to show that I am making progress, here is a flower arrangement that I put together for my new kitchen. I know, it's not symetrical and professional looking but I like it, although for the money I spent on everything, it would have been cheaper to buy a pre-made one.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Projects

My last project was to have the tile in both bathrooms done and to finally finish my bedroom. As you may remember, I've blogged about that. Since then, I've been busy with Christmas and planning my next projects.

So, here they are:
**Paint and redocorate my office

**Paint and update my kitchen. This will include removing the cabinets above my peninsula, removing the wall oven, removing the countertop stove and cabinet, Replace with a free standing range. In place of the wall oven, install pull out shelves and use the doors from the cabinets that have been removed. Restain all the cabinets and stair railing.

**Paint the living room and hall. No money to redecorate in this room yet.

I started both of these projects at the same time and Brent is not too happy with me. I told him they are my projects and I am not asking him for any help (except he will have to paint the ceiling in the kitchen since I have a hard time with that).

I got three coats of RED paint on two of the walls in my office. Brent informed me that I should have hired a professional because I did a lousy job . Upon telling him I didn't have the budget for that, he indicated that HE didn't come cheap but perhaps we could strike a deal. He put the 4th and final coat of red paint on the two walls and then primed the other two on Friday and Saturday. THEN, he announced that he is going to paint the ceiling too. Although it doesn't need it, he said it will look better. Man, this professional is really bilking me for all he can.

Staining the kitchen cabinets is my job. He's not touching them. I started with the railing. I sanded it down and got what little shine was left on them, off and proceded to stain. I put the first coat on, wiped off the the excess (but that was difficult because it was so sticky) and let it dry 4-6 hours as instructed. Well, after 24 hours, it was still so sticky. Even though the instructions said NOT to sand between coats, I did run some steel wool over it to get the sticky-ness off. Then I put another coat of stain on there, waited the 5-15 minutes and wiped off the excess. AGAIN, sticky. So I put on another coat but this time, wiped off immediately. This pretty much took the first two coats off. So, I went to Home Depot to ask someone. He was stumped but suggested that I use the gel stain because this will go over any slick surface like metal and unsanded shiney surfaces. I put the first coat on and wiped off the excess within 3 minutes and still super sticky but I left it alone. This was on Saturday. Sunday it was still sticky but today, Monday, it can be touched without leaving fingerprints and the dog's tail hairs aren't sticking to it anymore when they get too close. And though the color is blotchy, I still like the color. I am going to try one more coat to try to even it out a little then call it quits. I certainly hope the cabinet doors are not this much trouble.

Any experts out there? I am up for advice.

Weekly Bowling Scores 1/17/09

Jenny 91 / 130
Terrie 110 / 111

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The saga of my new table

A week ago last Sunday, while Brent was working, I was out running my usual errands and decided to stop by that new block of stores across from Ikea; Furniture Row. I have been wanting to go in there since they opened, particularly to the kitchen area. My kitchen table chairs were falling apart and the whole set so 80's.

(I had a picture of my kitchen of how it was decorated and the furniture that I wanted to insert here and I've somehow lost that picture. Anyway, this one was taken today but the table is out on my deck waiting to be taken to the D.I. instead of in the kitchen.)

Back to my story about my new kitchen table. Yes, obviously I did buy a new kitchen set. It's a counter height table and 4 chairs and I purchased extra chairs to go at the counter. I also purchased two taller bar stools for the basement bar. The set of table and 4 chairs was available for pick up but the other 4 chairs had to be ordered and would be here by Wed 1/7. Surprisingly, Brent didn't get upset with me when I told him what I'd purchased. I guess he knew I'd do this sooner than later. We decided to wait until Wednesday to pick everything up at once. Wednesday came and I called to make sure everything was there. They told me that the delivery had been delayed but the truck was in the parking lot waiting to be unloaded and to call back on Thursday. I did and then I was told the truck had been delayed by ice storms in Wyoming and had not arrived yet and to call back on Monday. Saturday, I decided I didn't want to wait any longer so we went and picked up the set of table and 4 chairs. We brought that home and had to leave again so it wasn't until Sunday that I opened the box. I noticed there were some pretty large pieces of wood splinters just sitting on the box but since I could't see where they were coming from, I proceeded with putting on the legs. I waited for Brent to come home from work to help me lift it right side up. When we did, more splinters came out. We tried to pull the table apart to pull up the center leaf but it wouldn't move very easily. We did get the leaf up but it was very crooked and would not sit flat. Brent found that the plastic slider where the table pulls apart was out of place and the wood was broken there. We decided to call the store. I wanted them to come and bring me a new one but since I had not paid for home delivery, they would not hear of it. The did agree to let us bring the table back and get a new one so we did. I do love my new set but I am still waiting for the rest of the chairs that I ordered. They have no idea now when they will be in. So much for customer service. It's not likely that I will be shopping on Furniture Row again.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Weekly Bowling Scores 1/10/09

The GOOD, The BAD and the UGLY
There's just no rhyme or reason to our scores, EVER!

Jenny 112 / 106 / 114
Terrie 129 / 92 / 86
Brent 115 / 110 / 161

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Where's the Kitty?

There he is. It's a good thing I was planning on taking down all the Christmas decorations by New Years because Taz had just figured out how to jump up on the table into my village. He would steal the little people figures and jump off the table with them and knock them around on the floor like they were HIS toys. As I was taking the village down, no sooner had I put him on the floor and turned around, he was back on the table. I decided to play his game so I put him under the "snow" to see what he would do. It didn't take him long to find an escape. (I run the light cords through the batting to hide them and he found one of the holes.)

Friday, January 2, 2009

Resolutions Anyone?

Does anyone make New Year's resolutions anymore? Truthfully, I never have. Oh, I may have thought to myself about losing weight "after the holidays" or something stupid like that, that I know will never happen (look at me; you know that resolution really was a fleeting thought). After all, it's always been my opinion that if you don't set the goal, you won't fail. I said that to a boss of mine once and he quickly retorted with "but if you don't set the goal, you have nothing to reach for and you'll never grow as a person".

Here I am, 12 years later. I've never set any real goals but I do think I am a better person now than I was then. Back then, I let everyone walk all over me. I did what I was told and never questioned anyone. Now, although my questions often get me in trouble, my intregrity is in tact and I know that what goes around, comes around. The other day I heard a woman attempt to quote the Golden Rule saying she lived her life by this rule. She said, "Do unto others as they do unto you." UMMMMM I think she left out the entire point of it being called The Golden Rule: Do unto others as YOU WOULD HAVE THEM do unto you.

So, here's my challenge to you. Forget about the silly resolutions like losing weight, getting better organized, getting your husband to accomplish that list of honey do's, etc. Instead, concentrate on things that make you a better person. Live your life by The Golden Rule because what goes around, really does come around, tenfold.

"Open your mind to change but don't give up your values"

Thursday, January 1, 2009

The nightgown

Here are the nightgowns I made for Aubrey and her dolly. By the way, she named her doll Alice. I asked her if it was because she looked like Alice in Wonderland with her long blonde hair and she said "Yes". I'm not really sure if that's true or if she just said yes because it suddenly donned on her that the doll does look like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe that's the next dress I will be making for the both of them...