The Bag Lady

My mom would drive my dad to the train station when he worked downtown. My sister and I were often fascinated by the characters at the train station. One such lady always rode her bicycle and carried a bag of bags. She was affectionately named the bad lady by us and I'm sure many others who saw her around town. I remember my sister at no more than 3 or 4 claiming that she wanted to be the bag lady when she grew up. Today, my eco-friendly little sis wouldn't step foot in her house with a bag of plastic bags. She was the first in the family to start using the cloth bags at the grocery store and routinely turns down the use of a bag when carrying the items will surely do.

Since we now have a hybrid and we recently celebrated earth day, I decided to go bagless this weekend. I haven't made the effort to purchase the grocery store bags but I was able to make grocery and household purchases at meijer, walmart, target, linens n things, and lowes without a single bag. I have purchased vinyl cube baskets for the trunk so no worries of spillage.

I know that this is not a major breakthrough for many folks - but it was suprising to me how little effort it took on my part and how much it threw off the store clerks. I know my sis and bro-in-law get similar reactions when they say "no thanks - we brought our own". JC Penney went as far as saying that the bag would ensure that Dr. T was not wrongly accused of theft. I guess the receipt wasn't quite enough evidence of a legitimate purchase.

I was planning on posting some pics of the house since things are really coming together. It will have to wait a little while longer as I don't want to spoil it for those that are coming for the big day bday/open house bash.

17

cans of PAINT! I just went around and counted all of the full and partially used cans of paint/primer in out house. Bear in mind, this 17 doesn't include the 20+ cans of paint that came with the house and currently reside in the basement.
This pretty blue is waiting for the kids bathroom. It has been all primed - but needs a coat of ceiling paint. For whatever reason in the pic below, the wall looks blue - it is actually just primed.
I think we might as well get stock in Kilz primer which we are using on the future kids bedroom.

We decided to paint the ceiling white to cover up the corrugated tile looking things. The plan is to go back and fill in the brown around each of the tiles. Needless to say, this is going to be a rather tedious process....only slightly more fun than the few hours I spent cleaning the walls in this room - 30 yrs of dirt removed!

These 8 cans are the remains of the master bedroom and bathroom painting. We also have a few cans of ceiling paint and some paint for the trim to use.

Finally, here are the supplies currently sitting in the living room. The lady who we hired to paint the living room and family room is using these.

Here is her work so far. The bay window had some water damage, so we are hoping that the Kilz will keep this looking good for a while.

A strangely familiar feeling....

I woke up this morning and had this strange ache in my back. In fact my whole body was sore. I spent a good minute or 2 wondering how this happened. Until, it hit me. We spent most of Thursday night painting the kids bathroom. Hence by deduction, the physical labor had strained muscles that clearly had not been used in a while.


Suddenly it all came back to me - this familiar feeling of doing work on the house in the evenings during the week. Since we moved upstairs at Christmas we have been slowly getting things done under the gise of being ready for my bday party. We have also had a woman painting the downstairs living room and front room. The plan was to have her finish up and then we would start our work.

Not quite sure why we couldn't be working simulataneously (she's downstairs, we're upstairs). In any case we have procrastinated away several weekends. Buying a car is way more fun than painting!

So pictures to come - as I hope we are pretty close to done on the kids bathroom!

Hey Harvey!

We are pleased to announce the latest addition to our family - Harvey the Highlander Hybrid.

This is a picture of what Harvey will look like in the rain that is due today and with his new sunroof (which is being installed at the moment).

We decided to take the plunge this weekend into full yuppiehood and get not only an suv but a hyrbid. I love it and am thoroughly annoyed at the non-hybrid loaner from the dealer which requires a REAL key and gasp - doesn't tell me my mpg! I know the horror. Let's just say in a mere 5 days I have gotten used to all of the bells and whistles of Harvey.

Not to brag - but Harvey is smart and therefore only requires a button to start. He is also wise enough to show me what is behind me so that I don't run over things (btw no beeping noise either Prius owners). It is making me a more cautious driver as I am aware of the size difference between a car and an suv. I also have a fun new game to play called - drive so that you can get your mpg as high as possible.

So why the name Harvey - well first off we are big geeks and wanted alliteration AND a certain song from hs about a hamster pops into my head when ever I hear the name Harvey. 2pts if you can name both the song and the artist!