Thursday, March 13, 2014

Still Life With Socks

There shall be no rhyme or reason in this post.  Just sayin'.

Mom was here for the weekend.  We were hoping I would have a working bathroom next door, and perhaps for the first time we would be able to sleep in real beds, but alas, it was not to be.  No contractor dudes last week, but Erin told me they would be here on Tuesday this week.  Rock and roll. 

One night last week I had popcorn for dinner.  Usually when I do that it's all I have, but since I'm trying to eat better this month I had a salad for dessert.  Made me feel virtuous.  I cooked tilapia and carrots for dinner on Friday when mom was here - I accidentally went a little overboard with the carrots.


Tasty.  It's really easy for me to get in the habit of eating whatever I can find that doesn't require any prep work; I forget that cooking isn't difficult and (usually) the end result is worth the extra effort.  Here is my food porn from tonight:


Scallops with green beans, shallots, garlic and the leftover soy sauce stuff that comes with scallion pancakes from the Chinese store.  Awesome.

I painted a few more coats on the face of the cabinets next door over the weekend.  I keep forgetting to take pictures because nothing looks different.  This is three coats of primer:


That's three coats just on the face, only one coat on the sides and back.  These are all the uppers.  As of Sunday afternoon they also have three coats of blue paint on their faces.  And here are the base cabinets, after one coat of primer on their sides and back bits:


They now have all three coats of primer on their faces, and tomorrow will get their first coat of blue.  Sandpaper is my friend.  Since I took these pictures, I moved some of the uppers into the kitchen to make room for the lowers in the living room.  I was hoping my dudes would fix the two broken cabinets on Tuesday so I could start painting them, and was trying to make room for them to maneuver.  Also, the range and microwave were scheduled for delivery Wednesday - today - and I had no idea where I was going to stick those buggers.

Then Erin called and postponed me until Thursday.  That was good and bad:  bad because I really want to get this project rolling again; good because while I was unable to sleep last night it SUDDENLY occurred to me that I need to paint the beadboard in the bathroom before they install the vanity and the toilet.  Oops.

This morning the phone rings and it is the delivery guy, calling from the next town over.  The roads were getting slippery and he was worried.  Better safe than sorry - we rescheduled the delivery for Monday.  And tonight Erin called and said he thinks they will be shoveling out tomorrow and won't be able to make it.  So it looks like Monday will be the day for serious progress around here.

Oh yeah, did I mention we are having a storm?  I got an email from Stowe earlier today and as they said, "it's puking powder around here."  I shoveled twice today, and this is what my driveway looks like right now:


I can't wait to see what it looks like in the morning.  My back hurts just thinking about it.  I sure wish I had figured out how to work my snow blower.  Someone in Montana posted on facebook today about driving around with her sunroof open.  Grrr.  I curse you.

But here is a happy something.  Way back last year, maybe around this time last year, my friend Lauren sent me a link to a small design company that was putting together a book about dogs called "1,000 Dog Portraits:  From the People Who Love Them" and she encouraged me to submit artwork for consideration.  I looked at the submission form and thought "what the hell, it's free."  So I sent in the two portraits I painted of Roxie and waited to hear if they made the cut.  I waited for a couple of months, only to find out the woman putting together the book decided to notify all the accepted artists when the book is actually published in the spring of 2014.  Poo.  So I forgot all about it.  Until a notice showed up in my facebook newsfeed today saying the book is available for pre-order on Amazon.  I clicked on the link and used the Look Inside! feature to see some of the pages.  No, I didn't see either of my paintings, but I DID see my name in the list of contributing artists!  WOO HOO!  I think only one of my paintings made it, and I don't know which one, but WOO HOO!  I put the book in my shopping cart.  I hope you do, too.  Roxie is going to be famous.

As a final note, here's an awkward question:  do you ever multi-task in the bathroom?  If you are one of those people with a magazine rack next to your toilet, the obvious answer is "yes."  But that has nothing to do with why I am asking.  Other than the toilet part.  Not to get all TMI or anything, but the other night I sat down to pee and, taking advantage of the fact that my feet were closer to my hands than they usually are, I also whipped off my socks at the same time.  See?  Multi-tasking.  Anyway, I got up, walked to the sink to wash my hands and brush my teeth, then turned around to leave the bathroom and saw this arrangement:


Standing up, all by themselves.

Okay, maybe it was really late and I was kinda tired, but at the time this was so funny I wanted to leave them there until someone else could see.  But the only company I am expecting in the near future is a bunch of contractor dudes and I don't think they would find as much humor in my socks as I did.  So I took a picture.  Still Life With Socks.

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