Out of sight, out of mind

Distractions have been easy to come by.  I've hardly been online these past few days - Google Reader is overflowing, I post to Twitter maybe once a day, and I give Facebook a once-over in the morning with my coffee and that's about it.  I've been watching NCIS from the beginning, crocheting, and the weather has finally turned spring-ish too.  I've been spending my days outside planting things that will more than likely (a) not come up at all, (b) get dug up by squirrels, or (c) freeze when we get hit with a freak frost in May.  But at least I'm getting some sun!
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The countdown begins...
B and I have started the job search.  He had a phone interview today for a job that would send him out in the wilds of central Oregon for three months this summer.  I sent my resume to Starbucks for a marketing job, emailed a prof I knew vaguely about a potential new position at my alma mater, and I keep looking in Seattle, Portland, Bend, Spokane, Missoula, you name it.  I also keep my fingers crossed that something good will happen at my old workplace and I'll get a happy phone call one day soon.

Lovely Landlord is putting our house up for sale in the next couple of weeks.  We've made arrangements with her to show the house ourselves, plus we still have a few projects that we promised to complete too.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to scrounge some boxes from the old workplace so we can start packing, and put a few things on Craigslist.

In unrelated news, we think Jake may have figured out how to nose open the clasp on the gate to our kitchen.  He managed to get in there last night and couldn't get out again... so he of course got into the trash, ate the cat food, mistook the basement floor for the toilet, and now he has the nastiest gas ever.  My dog may have a cast-iron stomach, but holy lord, he's melting the paint right off the walls!

Crossing fingers and toes and arms and legs...

I've mentioned it here and there, in passing, vaguely.  I don't want to jinx it.

But here goes: we are making every effort to move west this summer!

By west I mean Washington or Oregon, maybe Montana, possibly Idaho or even Colorado.

B is graduating in May, and he's looking for jobs out there.  I'm still holding hopes that I'll get called back to my job, mainly because when I mentioned the possibility of a move to them before I left, they were pretty enthused about having someone based in that area and were open to the idea of me working remotely.  But in case that doesn't pan out, I'm looking too.

We have no idea what our timing will be - as early as June, as late as August.  Our landlords are willing to work with us on the schedule, and we've promised to work with them on making the house sellable.

Our friends here in Ohio aren't too happy, but our friends and my family out west are ecstatic.

So, that's the general idea.  As plans come together, I'll post some more.  And if anybody has any recommendations for places to apply for jobs in the environmental sector, let me know!

Sweat Equity and the After-Effects of Manual Labor

I've planted myself on the couch today, with no plan to move.  I didn't even do anything that exciting these past couple of days, but it left me a bit painful.

On Sunday I got a bug in my butt to finish the basement bathroom project that I started, oh, sometime last year.  (Or was it two years ago...?)  When we moved in, the floor was done in indoor-outdoor carpeting (which my cats decided would double as a litter box) and bright blueberry walls and cabinet.  So we ripped out the carpet with plans to put in vinyl tile, and re-painted it in cream and aqua with matching paisley curtains.  But the floor, it waited... and waited... and waited... until finally on Sunday I opened the box of tiles and started laying them out.  It really wasn't that hard of a project, except that (a) every wall in the room was crooked, so there was nothing to square the tiles up to, (b) the toilet was permanently affixed to a concrete slab, so I had to cut around it, (c) the rest of the floor was wood sub-flooring, which was fine except that (d) it wasn't level with the concrete slab, and (e) there was an access panel cut into to it to get at some of the plumbing.  So okay, it really wasn't that easy, but it's a tiny room so it only took me one day despite the challenges.  I still need to run a bead of caulk around the base of the toilet to cover the cut edges of the tiles, and the sink is still not functional, but it looks pretty good for what we were able to do.

I had some tiles leftover, so yesterday I decided to rip out the badly stained and fraying carpet on the landing inside the back door and re-do it with the tile.  I also went stair by stair, trimming the carpet to fit better and re-stapling it to the underside of each stair.  The carpet is still pretty worn out on the stairs, but it looks much tidier and the landing will be easier to keep clean.  I have one piece of trim left to install once B cuts it to size for me.  Not bad for a weekend amateur DIY'er like myself!

So after all this bending/kneeling/climbing/cutting/whathaveyou, I'm a little sore.  My hands are dry and cracked, and my back and legs complain every time I move.  You'd think I'd done something a little more strenuous, but I'm just that out of shape.

But the house is really starting to look sharp - just in time for us to move this summer!  But if it helps our landlords sell it, I'm all about helping.  They've been so understanding and such great people to deal with.  (And if anybody is looking to buy a house in Toledo this summer....!!)

Maybe scotch has less calories?

Scene:  In the car with B, on the way to the local watering hole for Jiggs Dinner and a pint on St. Patty's Day.  The new song "Whiskey in Mind" by Christian Kane is on the CD player.  The song basically talks about a hot woman buying the singer several rounds of whiskey in an obvious effort to get him drunk & take advantage of him.


B: See, guys like him, this kind of shit really happens to them.  Hot country singers-slash-actors-slash-Batman type guys, they get chicks buying them shots of whiskey.  Me, I get chicks buying me salads.  "This is from the lady at the end of the bar.  THE SALAD BAR.  Don't worry, it's low-fat dressing!"

Sunshine can be deceiving.

 

I know, I know. All sorts of free time, but no time to write. Things have been uneventful... no word yet about going back to work, but the unemployment checks are keeping a roof over our heads and groceries in the fridge (including Haagen Dazs Vanilla Honeybee Ice Cream, OMG YUMMM) so I'm not worrying yet.  

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It's a beautiful day today. Makes me want to dig in the dirt and plant things! Except it's still 40 degrees out there, and still freezing at night, and I guarantee that as soon as we put plants in it'll freeze again. But I do have some seeds started indoors, in a sunny spot on my craft table, and I have my copy of the new Gardener's Supply catalog burning a hole on my coffee table. I keep telling myself to not go overboard this year, that we won't be here through the whole summer, and to save my money for new plants wherever we move to. Easier said than done...

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I took up a new crafty hobby a couple weeks ago (like I need another!) and tried my hand at crocheting. My first attempt was a bit wonky, but looks like a scarf. Unfortunately I used a tight stitch so it's a bit stiff - it looks like a wrap-around popped collar or something. I bought a new skein of yarn yesterday to see if I can make a lap blanket to match our bedroom. Yes, I know I'll need more than just one skein to do this, but I didn't want to buy 10 skeins only to burn out on the project. My craft closet is already overflowing with half-finished cross stitch projects, I don't need to add to that pile.

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I have this great picture in my head of what our next living room is going to look like. I want it to be centered around this photo my brother-in-law took.

It goes with our existing black & red decor, and opens up the color palette for new furniture. I want to make a quilt throw in plaids and tweeds to go with. Of course this is all months and months down the road, so I have plenty of time to oogle furniture (like this awesome couch!!) and change my mind a million times about the fabrics to use in the quilt.

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I spent a day last week sorting through our CD collection, reorganizing them in their binders and ripping a few more into iTunes.  I came across the very first mix CDs I made in college, when the shine was still on Napster and I'd rounded up a ton of crappy oddball songs that I thought I wanted.  Holy lord, is it ridiculous.  I actually had to Google the lyrics of a few of them because I not only couldn't remember the artist, but the name of the song escaped me as well (and some I still can't figure out).  That's how craptastic these songs were.  So naturally I added all of them to my computer.  

(Daggum narrow columned set-up...)
Yeah.  Awesome, right? 
I'm just bummed that I still can't find my "Monster Ballads" CD.  That thing had some kick-ass tunes on it, like the stuff you'd request to hear at junior high dances then get your friends to go ask your crush to dance.  Sad.