update to 'ripping out the carpet '

He says "I think the foyer will be okay like it is, I don't think I'll tile that."
I say "Okay. I'd like to redo the kitchen floor, but the foyer is okay."
time passes......
He says "it's weird that the floor in the foyer is raised. I wonder why. And did you notice that this is just a stick on laminate?"
I say "hmmmm.....that is weird. I wonder why the floor is raised."
time passes....he starts picking at the edges of the laminate on the raised floor.
time passes
I say, "it's really weird that the floor is raised..." I get down on the floor to see if that's just a sheet of plywood, or what. I laugh.
He says "what?"
I say "oh, it's just funny. This floor is tiled. The laminate is on top of ceramic tiles. When we lay down the new tiles, it should be just the right height."
He says "hmmmmm....."
time passes, he picks at the edges of the laminate.

Last night, there was nothing on tv. Nothing. If the cable service had gone out, it would have been an improvement. I guess he was finished with his book, because he got bored and went out to the shed and got a scraper, and started scraping up the laminate. Just the edge, like it wasn't an irreversible decision already. So he scrapes up enough of the laminate to see what is underneath it, and as we should have guessed from previous experience with this house (see below) there was another layer of laminate. It is absolutely hideous. Seriously, I think somebody probably bought it in 1974. From a clearance sale. They might have been paid to take it. Trailer house manufacturers in the 70's would have rejected this flooring. So we start scraping up THAT layer of laminate to get to the ceramic tiles underneath. They are even uglier than the laminate. Why? sigh. So now, in addition to laying tiles in the hallway, and painting the hallway, and the closets and the bathroom and repairing the drawers in the linen closet....we also have to remove two layers of laminate flooring, chip up the old tiles and the grout, and retile the foyer. I'm going to have to bribe my sons into coming over here and doing some manual labor. Time to make a big pot of spaghetti. :)

*previous history with house. The owner before was a contract painter. When he retired, and he was bored, his children brought him buckets of white paint so he would be happy. He liked painting. He painted the whole house white. Over and over again. Then over again. Then he painted the bricks outside white. Then he painted the sidewalks and the porch white. Then one day he painted the suburban white. Inside and out. ouch. The kids decided maybe it was time for Dad to go to an assisted living apartment. Now when we start redoing something in the house, we scrap off layers of paint only to find wallpaper. We remove the wallpaper, and find holes in the wall. Paint is peeling off the kitchen cabinets because he painted over the varnished surfaces without prepping. It's a challenge. :) So now we have tiles covered by laminate covered by laminate. eh. Adventure is always good. right?

Scattered thoughts

I've been doing research and then doing more research, and thoughts are beginning to fall out of my head and scatter on the floor. I think it's time to gather them in some form of logical order and start writing. I lay awake in bed last night thinking of way to form my report...I'm still struggling with that. I can come up with a nice sounding sentence, but it doesn't really cover all the information I want to write about, and when I try to include all the information, the sentence gets disorganized and too long. It's a work in progress. :)

I'm writing my paper about weight loss, and what I believe is the right way to do it. I've done so much research on diet plans and found so many diets that I have never heard of that I am amazed at the number of people who publish these things. I've decided that I'm going to combine some of the diets, and add another element or two, and publish my own diet plan. LOL Maybe I'll get rich.

I'm going to call it the 'Green Diet' because as you all know, GREEN is the new black. (ed. note: I am SO tired of everybody calling everything 'the new black', that has become kind of a personal joke of mine). I do, however, like the play on words. My diet plan would be 'green' because I would stress the importance of eating food in the most natural form possible, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the processing and reducing the garbage created with packaging; I would also stress the importance of eating things that are green. (Not like moldy leftovers from the fridge, like spinach and broccoli).

I think if I combined The Banana Diet (eat a banana and drink a glass of water for breakfast every day) , The Apple Diet (eat an apple before every meal), add in the elements in several different diets that advocate eating food in its most natural form whenever possible, then add in my own encouragement to eat something green at every meal (except the breakfast banana, of course) then I could have a winner. My 'diet' would urge people to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, cut out refined sugars and the chemicals that are added to processed foods, and drink lots of water. If that is combined with some physical exercise, it would help a lot of people to lose weight and feel better. The trick to this is, I don't actually consider it a 'diet', I consider it common sense. People need to stop thinking of a 'diet' as something that prescribes a certain list of food they can eat for a specified period of time, and start thinking of a 'diet' as a lifestyle choice. No diet in the world works if it can't last forever, and most diet plans are not designed to be fulfilling to us in the long term.

I don't have my project figured out yet, but my conclusion is along these lines - the only way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight is to eat sensibly sized portions of healthy food, drink a sufficient amount of water, and get physically active.

Now, if I would only practice what I preach, I could probably lose this 30 pounds that I don't need. :)

Men (exasperated sigh, hands on hips)

So yesterday I came home from work, and his jeep was backed into the driveway; that means he was hauling something. As I stepped out of my car, a gust of wind approximately 40 degrees cooler than me sent leaves skittering across the driveway and down the street, and I indulged in a brief fantasy ' oooh, maybe he went and got some firewood....that would be nice. We could sip some wine and watch a movie with a nice roaring fire....' but then I stepped into the house. The carpet from the hallway is gone. Gone. The floor is concrete.

This is why I don't let him vacuum.


I can just imagine the process...he vacuums the dog hair out of the bedroom, he vacuums the muddy paw prints from the living room, as he is finishing up in the hallway he thinks "I hate this carpet. I've always hated this carpet, I'll be so glad when I can pull it all out and put down ceramic tile....(push the vacuum. pull the vacuum back) This carpet looks like crap. I hate this carpet. (push the vacuum, pull the vacuum back).....(push the vacuum)...you know, it wouldn't cost that much to tile just the hallway...(pull the vacuum back, mentally measuring the hallway)...I really hate this carpet....(push the vacuum, mentally pricing tile) ... stand, with the vacuum droning uselessly....he shuts off the vacuum, pushes it out of the way, and starts ripping up carpet.



This isn't entirely a bad thing. But the timing leaves a little to be desired. The problem here is finding a stopping place. If we put down tile in the hallway, we really REALLY need to paint the hallway. I don't mind painting. Well, I don't mind painting walls. I hate painting corners and trim. The hallway has three bedroom doors, one bathroom door, one linen closet that has four doors and three drawers, and a laundry room door. THEN there's the entry way, and the front door...(confession time. I started stripping the paint off the front door right after Christmas, and I haven't repainted it yet)...so we need to lay tile and paint the hallway and the entry way and the front door. We both work full time, we both take college classes, we have company coming for Thanksgiving, and OH! by the way....I'm having surgery next week. So, yeah. Should be fun. :)

As we get into bed last night, the wind blows THE BRANCH against the roof, and he says "Oh, crap. I forgot to fix that."

Tomorrow I am off work, and I'm working on my paper. I really have to get started on that.

just because

I'm sitting here working on my discussion board postings (why am I always doing this on Friday night lately? I MUST get my scheduled organized and add a few more hours into my day)....but anyway, I am working on my postings, and in the course of finding the articles to write about on the discussion board, I did find several very good articles to use for my project, so now I feel like I have a decent amount of information to study and get started on writing.

But the best part? I turned on my itunes, and made a "Genius" playlist off the Eagles Desparado, and MAN I AM LOVING THIS MUSIC. :) I really am working, music is very freeing to me, makes my mind release the stress of the day and relax and that helps me work, but I just have to say that I just listened to Billy Joel singing "Just the Way You Are" and I'm very happy and relaxed now. Oh, goody. John Mellancamp. ;)

Pre-Writing

In our first seminar we touched briefly on the pre-writing phase of our final projects, and discussed the importance of brain-storming to come up with a topic. Since that time, I've been attempting to 'brain-storm' my topic; unfortunately, that works out more like an endless loop of pointless thought process. It's more like a thoughtless process. My mind just wanders, then it wonders, then I remember the old joke about 'not letting your mind wander, because it's not big enough to be out alone'. :)



So after seminar last night I was determined to come up with a topic and move on to the next step in the process. I didn't come up with anything last night after seminar, so this morning when I woke up, I decided my first task of the day would be to GET A TOPIC. It's important. It deserves capital letters. Luckily, today I am off work and I also feel like I am over my stomach bug so it's going to be a good day. So I lay in bed and think about my paper (that passes for multi-tasking in my world). I am going to share my thought process with you. No, seriously! this is how my mind works.



"okay, I really have to think of a topic. So I have to write a scientific paper about a controversial subject. Okay. I can do that. I could write about....hmmmm......well, I could write about kids with ADHD and 'to medicate or not to medicate' but I think somebody is already writing about ADHD. I could write about.....what is that noise? Oh. The wind is blowing that tree branch against the roof again. If I thought I could get onto the roof with a chain saw I'd cut it off myself, but if I didn't kill myself trying to do it, somebody would kill me when he got home. Maybe he'll do it this weekend. I have to get him to fix Stephanie's computer too. Think about your paper, Kathy. Okay. I could write about......man, whoever said that your mind could not be a blank never met me. My mind is like the whiteboard when Ms. Perales has it set to private. ha ha You know, it's a shame that I have these beautiful french doors in my bedroom and the view is of a telephone pole with an extraordinary number of lines on it. That's not pretty. I wish that wasn't there. I wonder if I could get somebody to build a really tall fence and paint a pretty landscape on it. ha It would be nice if I could see all the way across the street to the park and the pond....think about your paper, Kathy. I could write about...okay....what's controversial? Gay marriage? Yes, but not scientific. Though isn't it odd how gay men are exposed to so much more prejudice than gay women? Or at least I think they are. I do have a gay woman friend that broke down in tears last Thanksgiving though, about abuse she has taken because of her lifestyle, so maybe not. The paper, Kathy. Controversial subjects......gay marriage, death penalty, Obama, actually politics in general....this is going nowhere. Scientific subjects....well, I'd like to research and learn more about depression and what causes it and what cures it, but that isn't controversial. I think society is basically united in the 'depression is bad' opinion. I maybe could use that for my A & P paper, though. Okay. Controversial things that affect our bodies: pregnancy, sports injuries in children, depression, piercings, tattoos.....oh my GOD that branch is driving me crazy. There's a branch on the neighbor's roof too. They are probably going to shoot out our windows if we don't get this tree trimmed. What was that dream I had last night? That was weird. I can't really remember it all, but it was something about a baby picture of my cousin, which is weird because she isn't a baby. She has grandchildren. Why was I dreaming that someone wouldn't let me have her baby picture? So strange. And then her sister was in my dream, and I don't speak to her. The subconscious mind is a strange thing. I think right before I woke up my cousin had a seizure and passed out in the bathroom, and my friend was trying to help her...maybe I could write about epilepsy? Not controversial. My cousin is controversial....but that's a different story. Sigh. Okay. Well, what else makes somebody have seizures? My friend had them once because she was taking speed to lose weight and she took too much. Wait. That might actually work!!!! I could write about obesity. Maybe not obesity, really....I think someone might already be doing that...but about weight loss products. The attitude of society that there should be an 'easy' way to lose weight. I could do that. I could write about the physiology of our bodies, what nutrients our bodies need to function, what kind of crap we fill our bodies with instead, and what we really need to do to get healthy, as opposed to what most people do, which is fill their bodies with dangerous products that make them lose weight fast and how bad that is for them."



And on that note, ladies and gentlemen, (not that there are actually any gentlemen here, but whatever) I actually got out of bed to e-mail Ms. Perales and see if that topic is acceptable. If it isn't, I'm writing a ten page paper about the tree branch that is hitting my roof. :)

I never said it would make sense....

The strangest things irritate me and make me feel incompetant. I'm sure that for the most part it is just getting used to the new term and getting back into the swing of being in class...(although how I get OUT of the swing during the short break between terms astounds me)...but what should be the simplest task seems to be beyond me at the moment. LOL
Find a specific article in the library and read it?
Check
Post an opinion of said article on the discussion board?
Check
Follow all of my classmates on their blogs?
Check
Make screenshots of Writing Center links for this weeks activity?
Che....wait. What?

Now, don't get me wrong. I know how to make the screen shots...no biggie there. But I can't find the links. I'm sure any third grader I pulled off the street (not that I would EVER actually pull a third grader off the street, but work with me here) would be able to find the links. But not me.

I'm wondering if a glass of wine might help my powers of observation. If not, it'll at least help my frame of mind. I'm disgusted with myself. Not really...I just want some wine.

See how this works? I'm writing on the blog when IT ISN'T ASSIGNED instead of finding the links and making screen shots. I WILL get this done.

The beginning

The first seminar is over, and now I'm trying to get ready for the term. I'm getting my task list in order and making sure I have all the necessary requirements to succeed in the class. I'm still not at all sure what we are supposed to be blogging about, but I can usually find something to say, so I'm sure it'll work out fine. This post is mostly to make sure that I set this up right. :) I tried several different names for my blog, and couldn't really come up with anything that I liked, then I thought that surely no one else was using 'paper plate or silver platter', and I was right. That is just a line from a song I like - basically saying that the important things in life aren't things at all.


"A lot of love and a little laughter, you'll find out that's all that really matters."