Non-holiday musings.

We arrived home on Boxing Day to a mess of fallen trees. They were done on purpose, and the driveway itself is clear. But holy hell. What a mess. It figures that D’s chain saw is in the shop - thankfully the neighbour and another friend are going to come over & start limbing the trees so we can burn the branches. Then all the wood will be cut up & removed.

Remember my post about the former neighbour who plowed our driveway? I finally talked to him yesterday, as he was plowing for the 3rd time. It turns out he’s charging us. It’s reasonable, and worth it from an OMG-I-have-to-shovel-that-by-hand standpoint. But. I’m a little pissed. Would it have been that fucking hard to call & tell me the rate before doing it?? I’ll pay him (eventually), but I’ll say one thing: D is teaching me to use the tractor this weekend, and I’m plowing the goddamn driveway myself from now on.

The mess:

So happy I moved here.

In an Ultimate Blog Fight, WordPress would kick Blogger’s ass.  Hands down.

To say that I am happy I moved would be a vast understatement.  Things are just so much easier here.  More intuitive.  Things make sense.

I feel I have at least a little teeny bit of control.

Yay!

Keener.

Alternate title:  GEEK.

It’s Sunday.  My husband finally arrived home yesterday afternoon.  What do I decide to do?  Go to work.  Gahhhh.  Someone shoot me!

I was only there for 1.5 hours, and it was rather blissful - the office is closed, so there’s no chance of being interrupted by anyone.  I got a few things done, including de-cluttering my desk.  I can’t deal with all the piles of stuff on my desk - it makes me feel I’m closed in.  I hope I can get tons done tomorrow, although Mondays tend to have a way of throwing me curveballs.  Whatever.  I’m ready!

Junkie

I have become an HGTV addict.  Real estate shows, home improvement shows, relocation shows.  I watch many of them.  Last year at this time, I was perusing the new fall listings, thinking about the shows I might enjoy.  This year?  Not even on my radar.

Because I already have HGTV.  I suppose I might be inspired to do something around here one of these days.  Maybe.

On my list of wants:  new paint in our room, new paint in the living room (am bored of the lovely cranberry I painted 6 years ago), new flooring upstairs, drywall to replace the semi-tolerable paneling in part of the house (I may settle for painting the paneling), removal of my kitchen drawers and one high cabinet so we can move the fridge into it’s proper space, installation of the new bathroom fixtures that we’ve actually had ready to go for an embarrassing amount of time (eek), a new front door, a basement exit door, and new siding.

I get a little overwhelmed by all this.  Ok, a lot.  And the reality is that, aside from the painting, the bathroom fixture replacement, and the fridge move, I just don’t have the money.   Or the time.

So, for now, I will keep watching HGTV and dreaming big.

Opera!

OMG. Whoever recommended this browser (Sephy? I owe you! I’m assuming it was you. I could look, but damnit, that might be something like work.) is a genius. Screw IE. I abandoned it long ago, when the popups became more annoying than the pre-recorded telemarketers I so adore. Fuck Netscape. Abandoned this year, when it would. Not. Work. Buh-bye Firefox, previously adored browser. I am seriously tired of the freezing, the pausing, and the whole “I just can’t work with that bastard QuickTime” diva routine.

I am a convert. At least for tonight. It’s possible Opera will begin to piss me off in the near future, at which point I may reconsider my formerly beloved Firefox. Or maybe not. I am a difficult bitch woman to please.

Ok. It’s ALREADY pissing me off, making my WSIWYG blogspot editor lose it’s mind and forget to text wrap. GRRRR.

Perhaps a switch to WordPress is in order. Hmm?

Feed me.

Our computer has some issues. I blame Windoze. That damn Gill Bates dude. Bah. Really, we just need to clean it out (me: photos, D: poker crap) and do a reinstall. This does not excite me in the least.

In advance of this lovely job, and because my blog addiction reading list is on the verge of Wow, She’s Fucking Nuts, I’ve added almost every blog I read to Google Reader. I am reserving judgment until further notice. I still need to visit to comment, and I fear the ease of reading all in one place will make me less likely to do so. I have a commenting “thing” if one can call it that. I just need to DO IT and not worry if I a) sound like an idiot; b) repeat what another commenter has already said; or c) sound like an idiot.

See? It’s a definite thing.

I should not be excited about such things. But I am.

We need a new furnace. And a hot water tank. So we are shopping around. Well, as much as one can “shop” in a town of this size. Har.

The first quote we got? Effing redonkulous! For our homeowning delight, we were invited to spend $4,000 for a new furnace, installed. There was no mention of the hot water tank we requested be included in the quote. Nor was there any mention of the most effective position we should assume for the contractor to pump us up the ass.

$4000. For a regular, everyday mid-efficiency furnace. One that is for a relatively small house. If the quote were for a high efficiency AND the complete re-ducting of our home, maybe I could understand it. Instead, our shock turned to gales of laughter. There is a reason my husband no longer works for them.

Our second quote was verbal, and was couched in terms such as “ballpark” and “oh, yeah, that’ll be enough $$” (in reference to the maximum we wish to spend). While I’m appreciative of the contractor’s willingness to even give us a ballpark, considering how balls-to-the-wall busy his company is at this time, it doesn’t encourage my faith in that number remaining in said ballpark.

Then! The heavens parted and a miracle occurred.

D’s current employer, it seems, has a wholesale account with a heating company. D started checking into costs, and the amount of money that can be saved is beyond my wildest hopes. (Well, maybe not the wildest, which would include the Furnace Fairies alighting in my basement with a new furnace & h/w tank at no cost to me.) But close to that.

Furnace + h/w tank + parts for installation = $1500. Maybe less. And we think we’ve found someone to do the install. (Which? Will certainly NOT come with a $2500 price tag, making it a very sweet deal.)

Evolution of a (new) profile photo.

Ok. Don’t look at camera. Or? Look? Duh. Don’t look. Take photo. Nice green walls in bathroom.

Nice smile, idiot girl. Why didn’t you change your damn shirt?

Ooooh. Alternate side. Now the internets can see my ugly-ass mismatched towels. Screw it. Mismatched-schmismatched. When you plan and execute a party with a wedding theme inside of 6 weeks, registering for towels is low on the list. Actually, we did register. At one store. In small-town BC. Imagine for a moment what that means. Laugh aloud, if you must.

WTF is the smirk for? Gahhh. Taking picture HARD work. When did my nose get so damn big? And that is not my hair colour. Well, sort of not.

OMG. I am now scaring little children AND the internets. Open eyes, Nej. do not make them jump out of sockets.

‘Tis the night for badly displayed body parts. Hellllloooooo, Mr. & Mrs. Nostril!! Gah.

Not bad. Boring. Wondering if foundation is now a good idea. Skin ok, but sort of blotchy. Bah.

Again, why did you not change your shirt, dumbass??? Nobody wants to be blinded by your glaring white-girl skin. Other than that, I think I’m getting somewhere.

Almost likey this one. My birthmark is even in evidence. How risque! Ok, it’s on my left palm, which is not at all risque, but I bet you were wondering…..

The one I think I might keep, unless the few people who read this blog make an effort and comment to indicate which one I should damn well use. I like to think there are more than a few of you (SiteMeter gives you up, so don’t try to hide), but my comments say otherwise. Without sounding like a comment whore - because I’m already the Kitten Whore and that’s about enoughe Whoriness for one girl - say something. Tell me to shut the fuck up. Tell me I’m stupid. Say hello. Leave me a link to your blog(s). I’m terrible at commenting elsewhere, and I must get over that. Must. It’s on my list. I swear. Considering the List is only about 3 years and 4.56 million pages at present, I might get around to it by the time I retire. No promises, though!

Very interesting.

Perhaps my Blogger bashing was a tidge pre-emptive.

Beta Blogger?

Me likes.

Me might LURVE.

Drop, drag, easy editing. OMG, this is what blogging (for dummies like yours truly) should be like. If this keeps up, I’m going to stop looking for other options.

Dear Blogger.

Please stop with the trickery. I’m tired of the little bullshit moves you keep pulling on me.

To wit:

1. How can my “cookie functionality be disabled” (to quote you) when I am able to log in by going back a page and retrying? Hmmm? How does that occur, lovely Blogger?

2. After I’ve offered up my username and password, why do you insist upon opening my blog dashboard in another tab? One oddly titled “Pop-Ups”, I might add. If I’m already in a tab, I’d like to continue using that same tab.

That’s it for now. I have some other issues, but they are things you seem incapable of providing for me, at least without me sacrificing precious brain cells to learn something New. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve had enough of the learning bullshit for a while.

Sincerely,

Refinnej