Okay, Just Knock Me Out for a Week or So...

Okay, I think my momentary insanity has finally passed - more or less. (No comments from those of you who know me well...) I have finally finished the saga of the cupboard. I was engrossed in putting it together until just after midnight (or thereabouts - may have a been a touch later, but who's counting?), and I am happy to say that the cupboard is now completed.

The doors are wonky though, but I'm here to tell you that I absolutely refuse to try and fix them tonight. All the holes were pre-drilled, and it looks like someone went a little off kilter on the assembly line with the holes for the hinges. So I'm going to have to figure out where to drill new holes so that everything will line up properly. Or better yet, I just might rope one of the brothers-in-law into assisting with that little project...

At any rate, the cupboard looks good, aside from the doors, and it looks like I'll have a LOT more storage space now. So that is all good. And while I admit I was tempted to take the damned thing back because of the wonkiness of the doors (I don't care if wonkiness is not a word - it is now, because I've just made it up. You'll all just have to deal with it.), I quickly decided that there was no frigging way in hell that I was going to take that damned thing apart again, nor am I about to pack it up and cart it back to the store. I won't be able to move for a week as it is, I'm not about to add more strain to the old bod by hauling that thing around again! Besides, the more I look at it (and think of taking it apart and hauling it) the more charming the wonky doors look. *grin*

At any rate, I'm rather proud of myself for having gotten the whole unit assembled, and in a relatively short period of time too, all things considered. Did all the 8 million screws by hand - no drill for this chick. Well, I have a drill, it's just not variable speed, and I shudder to think of what the results would have been had I attempted to use it. I used it once to hang a picture and just about went through the concrete wall, so I learned my lesson on the importance-of-having-a-variable-speed-drill-that-I-didn't-think-I-needed-when-I-bought-mine. Ahem...

Well, that's that update on the cupboard saga. I am now off to enjoy my tea, eat a delicious lemon square that Judy made this morning, and relax. Hopefully I'll be able to get up again when it's time for bed, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Have a great night everyone!

Ouch!

I really should know better - okay, to be honest I really DO know better - but today I did a very stupid thing. As you're aware by now, if you've read the other posts on here, my kitchen was pretty much dismantled due to the ceiling issue. So now it's going back together. Of course, I'm also cleaning some things out and getting rid of some stuff I simply do not use anymore. However, this still leaves me with not a lot of storage space, so I decided to get a new free-standing cupboard for the kitchen.

It's a lovely cupboard. It's also a VERY HEAVY cupboard. Judy will attest to that. You see, Judy and I had a moment of temporary insanity, and decided that we could get this cupboard home by ourselves. Okay, so it was several moments of temporary insanity. But let's not nitpick. At any rate, the first indication that things were not going to go well was when I got my hand jammed between the VERY HEAVY box and the seat of my car as we were loading it in the vehicle. I not only broke my favourite ring that I had custom-made from my old wedding rings several years ago, but in the process the ring took a very lovely gouge out of my finger. So now said finger is rather swollen and VERY sore. Plus, the knuckle of that same finger has been giving me problems for awhile now (gotta love getting older!), so that has not been helped. Then there's the wrist on that arm that is weak due to being fractured when I was a kid - that is now protesting greatly. Along with the elbow on that arm that has been giving me a lot of trouble (again, love the getting older thing!). Yes, the elbow is protesting violently too. And we won't even get into how all the muscles in every part of my body are screeching at me...

Now, when I say I should have known better, it's because I have fibromyalgia. This is not the type of thing that one should be doing any heavy lifting, hauling, etc. with. But every now and then I get stubborn - and this was one of those times - and decide "the hell with it, I can do it anyway". Then I pay big time for it. But does that stop me? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

Of course, poor Judy is also going to be very sore from all of this too - so we are both going to be in rather icky shape for awhile, I suspect! Thanks Judy, for your help, and for injuring yourself alongside me! *hugs and kisses* We both said that we will never do something like that again, although I know that I will get stubborn again one of these days. Part of the reason for me is that I don't have a muscle bound male around to help, and I don't like asking the brothers-in-law - not to mention that I don't like having to wait for someone else to be able to make time to help. Plus I just get fed up with not doing things because of the fibromyalgia. So common sense is overriden sometimes...

And the cupboard still has to be put together - groan... I took a look at the instructions, and had to wonder what on earth had gotten into me today. Not only did I choose to haul the damned thing home with only my sister and I to wrestle with it, but I also had to pick the most complicated cupboard to assemble in the store! Ah well, it will be worth it in the end - it really is a very nice cupboard, and was well-priced. And it will be VERY helpful to have the extra storage! Although that also means that I have to figure out how to rearrange everything now. Groan... Oh well, that will be the fun part!

Now that I've grumbled and griped, I suppose I'd better stop procrastinating and figure out how to assemble the cupboard. Lord knows if I don't do it tonight, it won't get done for awhile, since I doubt I'll be able to move for a week after today's adventures! So sooner done, sooner over with! Have a good night, everyone!

I WON!!! I WON!!! I WON!!!

Okay, before anyone gets excited, let me state here and now that I did NOT win the lottery.

What I did win was a couple of eBay auctions, and I'm quite excited because it was pretty close - I didn't think I was going to win them! I inherited a set of dishes when Mom passed - they were my favourite dishes, and their sentimental value is priceless to me. It is a fairly rare pattern, and difficult to find, but I have managed to find a few pieces here and there on eBay. I replaced all the missing pieces (that had gotten broken over the years) except for one, and even managed to find a couple of pieces that Mom hadn't had. Because the pattern is so hard to come across, it's quite an event for me when any pieces do show up on eBay.

A few days ago, two pieces came up for auction, and I've been watching them avidly. One is a covered serving dish that I didn't even know came in that pattern, so I was really excited about that. The other is a gravy boat and underplate. I already found and got that earlier last year, but I decided that I didn't mind having two of them! Right up until this morning, no one had bid on either piece, and I was quite pleased with that. But when I got home from my day out (more on that in a minute) it was to find that someone had started bidding on them. So I waited until the last minute and threw my bids on - and thank goodness, I won both auctions! My heart is still going a mile a minute though - I was so worried that the other bidder would jump back in and outbid me!

Okay, enough of that - now for the rest of my day. My sister and I went out to the flea market this afternoon, hoping to find some things. I'm always on the lookout for Corning Ware (I collect the old Blue Cornflower pattern), and I did find a few pieces, but they were ones that I already had. Both my sister and I ended up leaving there empty handed, but that's all right - we still had a good time!

On the way back from the flea market, we had to drive by an old antique store that we thought had been closed. The lady who owned it was selling it last year, and fortunately for us we discovered that she hadn't been able to sell it yet! I spotted the "Open" sign, and promptly found a spot to turn around and head back to the store. The owner is still trying to sell, so she has a lot of stuff marked down, and I was able to pick up a lovely crystal pickle dish for very cheap. We'll have to keep an eye on the place until she sells, as she said she will be continuing to mark things down.

Then we made a stop at a thrift store, and I was thrilled to find a piece of Corning Ware and two lovely cut glass divided pickle dishes for VERY cheap. The piece of Corning Ware I found is one that I've been wanting to get, although it does not come in my pattern - it is usually just plain white. This one, however, has a very rare pattern on it, which happens to be blue, so it fits nicely with my Blue Cornflower stuff. It was horridly dirty, which almost kept me from buying it. But I figured since it was SO cheap, I couldn't really pass it up, and I just hoped I could get it clean. After much scrubbing I am pleased to report that it did come clean, although it's a bit of an effort to type with these prunes that I now have in place of fingers.

So all in all, it's been a fun, fruitful, albeit tiring day! (Although I doubt if anyone reading this will find it quite as enjoyable as I did!) Oh yes, I forgot - it's also a long weekend, and I've made it an extra-long one by taking Tuesday off as well, since I have some banked overtime that I haven't used up. So that's just even more of a bonus for my weekend! Now I am going to relax for the night and recover from my adventures! Have a great evening everyone!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Okay, you know how it is - you're browsing through a site or article on the internet, and you come across a link or some information that you just have to look into further - even though every brain cell that has any sanity left is screaming at you to just leave well enough alone. Well, I just came across one of those things and opted not to listen to my few remaining sane brain cells...

I was reading a news article that caught my eye. It's about an apartment building (in Winnipeg, I believe) that is infested with bedbugs. The building, I say, not just one or two apartments. Okay, so it was bad enough reading that article. But did I stop there? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... I had to go and do a search on bedbugs, just to satisfy my curiosity as to what they look like.

Now, it would have been bad enough just seeing what they look like - anyone who knows me knows my complete and total aversion to all insect life - but of course I couldn't stop there. I just had to read the accompanying articles which went on to describe what they do, how they live, etc. The worst bit was reading about how to tell if you have them.

The little buggers (pardon the pun) actually leave stains on things - like mattresses, and other areas that they hide in. I was horrified to discover that these stains are, as they so politely put it, excrement. The little monsters actually leave shit all over the place! And you can see it - quite clearly, I might add! (Yes, they had pictures of it!) It was horrifying to see that a small insect could leave such copious amounts of crap that are so highly visible! Ugh! Not only that, as bedbugs actually suck blood out of people, it is very likely that a person would find blood stains on the bed linen due to crushing the little devils in the middle of the night. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Of course, all of that wasn't good enough for me. No sireeee! I had to follow up on a tidbit in one of the articles (what, you thought I stopped at just one of the bedbug articles? Hell no!) which stated that another sign of a bedbug infestation was if you also had Masked Hunters on the loose in your house. What's a Masked Hunter, you ask? Go ahead, ask me about them - I was insane enough to read several articles about them too...

Okay, Masked Hunters are a type of Assasin Bug. They are called Masked Hunters because the young nymphs coat themselves in dust whilst crawling around the house - I believe it's as a type of camouflage... Anyhow, these Masked Hunters feed on bedbugs - they feed on things by sucking the fluid out of them. Charming, no? Mind you, if I had bedbugs, I'd probably not be too upset to see the Masked Hunters going after them. Nah, scratch that. I'd be moving as far the hell away as I could - after piling all my worldly possessions on the lawn and having a huge bonfire.

These Masked Hunters don't feed on humans, however, they will bite if provoked or mishandled. Now, I ask you - who the hell in their right minds would want to be handling one in the first place?????????? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!! Ahem... Most of the articles I read advised that if one of these Masked Hunters should land on you (yes, they fly - joy of joys), you should just gently brush it away. I have to wonder if that's before or after I entertain the neighbours with wild screams and contortions? And they also suggest that if you find one in your home, you treat it carefully, and brush it gently up into a dustpan and put it outside. Excuse me? Handle? Brush it on a dustpan? Actually carry it outside? The heck with that noise - I find one in my house, it's 50 - 100 whacks with the most solid shoe I can get my hands on!!!!!!!! That puppy's going to Assasin Bug heaven,immediately!!!

Oh I almost forgot to mention - apparently they have quite a nasty bite too. As opposed to bedbugs, which apparently are for the most part painless, although people often develop welts after a bedbug bite due to the secretions used by the critters when they bite you and suck your blood out. Isn't that just lovely?

After reading those enlightening, and admittedly morbidly interesting, articles, I now feel as if I have 10 million insects crawling all over every surface of my body. I suspect that before the next 1/2 hour is up I will have scratched at least 10 layers of skin off! And the thought of going to bed tonight has definitely lost its appeal - I think I may have to pull everything apart to double check for bedbug droppings... On second thought, since I just washed all my bedding last night, I think I would have noticed anything amiss while I was making the bed. Okay, okay - so I know I don't have bedbugs. But geez, after reading all that...

Once again - ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!! Now, aren't you all glad I was kind enough to share this information with you? (batting eyelashes) Y'all sleep tight - don't let the bedbugs bite! (bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!)

YAY! Ceiling's Done!

Okay, so no one has a clue what I'm talking about - well, there aren't many people who read this blog anyhow! LOL! But long story short - brother-in-law bought a new washer and gas dryer, electrician had to come and install a new outlet, which ended up meaning my entire kitchen and dining room ceiling had to be torn out. Brother-in-law then had to put up a new ceiling, which was finally finished this weekend - four weeks after it all began! He did a good job - the ceiling is very different, kind of funky, and looks very good! And I am SO GLAD that it's done! Of course, so is he! ROTFL! Now it's just a matter of getting everything all cleaned up and put back in the kitchen - groan...

However, that will not happen tonight. I only got about 4 hours' sleep last night, so no way am I going to be on kitchen duty! Other than making a quick and easy dinner, of course. I am doing laundry tonight - bedding. So I can imagine how late it will be before that's done. I know, I know - I should have left well enough alone. But I really wanted to get the bedding done... Silly me...

Not a whole pile for news other than the good news of the ceiling being done! I haven't been doing too much - still sick, and not getting any rest due to the ceiling issue. But one of these days the stupid bug will take a hike, and then I might have some news!

Oh, I guess there's a bit of news, although I wouldn't qualify it as good. I broke my digital camera! I was bending over to pick something up, and the wrist strap slipped - the camera hit the floor! It didn't hit very hard, so I must admit I was very surprised that it did any damage. However, damage was definitely done - the LCD screen has officially passed on to LCD screen heaven. Sigh... I can still take pictures - I just can't view them or change any settings or programs... I'm hoping that it will be covered under warranty, but I highly doubt it.

Hmm, what else...? Oh yes! I picked up the Shrek and Shrek 2 DVD's, and I would highly recommend them! I watched Shrek quite awhile ago, so I'd seen it before, but it was fun watching it again. And Shrek 2 was hilarious!

Well, other than that, I think I'm done here! Have a good night all!