So, our G-ville house is starting to take shape. They finished installing our floors August 24, and we started putting the house together…getting out of the garage and patio and boxes and into the house. Now all we really have left to do is paint the master bath, finish stripping the wallpaper in and paint the extra bath, and finish stripping the wallpaper and paint the rest of the kitchen. For those of you who haven’t seen my tweets, I am not a huge fan of stripping wallpaper, especially when it doesn’t want to cooperate. But we have a neighbor who knows someone with a steamer, and an 8 foot ladder which we will need for the kitchen, so hopefully our house will be complete soon. Then I just have to get that indoor-outdoor carpet unglued from the patio floor, and paint that, and we’ll be really complete. Trying to plan a trip up there for the last week of September, so we can catch a Cowsills show and a Susan and Russ show in the Orlando area that week.

I don’t have much time to say much more now, so I’ll just leave you with some pix.

Our bedroom:

Extra bedroom:

Office (gotta get more now that we’re getting things moved in):

Living room:

Patio:

My fixed shelves with many of my nostalgic childhood toys, in the corner of the office:

And finally, the dresser, which was not nearly as bad getting into the room as I thought it was going to be:

You can find the whole album here.

For those of you who don’t know, I packed up the moving van on July 30 and 31 and headed to Gainesville on the night of the 31st. I took all of our newish appliances, plus Rose’s freezer and refrigerator, along with most of the big furniture from my condo, and some boxes of stuff. Half of this trip was to get all of that installed, since Rose didn’t have a working fridge, and the other half was to sit there while they installed our laminate floors for 2-3 days.

I left nola at 9:22 sunday night. after 3 naps at aptly named “rest stops,” i pulled into our driveway around 10am. brought daisy in to see samantha and the cats. samantha was happy to see us. daisy seemed a little confused, but also excited. i then spent some time unloading the truck into the garage. i unloaded the fridge and stove into their appropriate places. rose got off work around 9pm. we went to eat and passed out when we got home. i have the truck til wednesday morning.

tuesday i slept. most of the day. i actually woke up in the morning to bring rose to work, then came home and did some remote computer stuff using my phone tethered to my computer to work on the draftfreak sites and the saints for sinners site and to do something remotely at st. pat’s. then i slept til like 3. got the old dishwasher disconnected and into the garage, and got the new one in, but not connected, cuz it leaked and needed something new. rose realized she’s gonna have a surgery around 8:30 so i pick up DQ around 7 and go eat there. then i run in the torrential downpour right before she goes to surgery to get to lowe’s in time to see about getting something to fix the dishwasher leak. they pointed me in a direction, i bought it, and went back to sleep in the car at the vet school until rose was done around midnight. we go home, unload the stuff we need 2 people to unload, bring the truck back, and go home. around 2 or 3 am.

wednesday. yay, time to get our floors! guy shows up at 9am. i work on getting the dishwasher in, succeed. install guy points out something about the floor. long story short, it’s faulty, would void 25yr warranty if we installed it anyway, they tell him to pull it up and bring it back. there’s nothing in stock that we like, so they’re going to order it, it should be in some time next week, and they’ll make sure it gets here as soon as it gets there and they schedule the install as soon as possible, because we need to get rose actually moved in and not living out of boxes. we went to home depot that night to see if there’s anything in stock they can get to us right away, even if they have to upgrade us (for free, to console us for our time and delays). there was nothing in stock that we liked.

here is what our floor is supposed to look like:

here is what it actually looks like, with the red underlayment still down. excuse the mess.

but at least the fridge, stove, and dishwasher are in and hooked up, and our bed from my room is up, and i removed all the tack strips.

friday i brought all our excess trash to a dump site, since she has been here a month and only got trash cans the week before, and they only pick up trash that is in the can. there’s this big corner of our garage taken up with trash, so i got rid of that crap.

saturday we went to st. augustine beach.

alcohol? check. glass? check. two things you’re not supposed to have on the beach? check.

sunday we went to mass, rented a car for me to drive back home with the carpet in (a chevy traverse, go figure), went and picked up a dryer we found on craigslist, pretty much new, for less than half of what it originally cost. got the dryer in, put a lot of carpet in the truck, had lunch, and sadly, left. but happily knowing that i’d be back in like a week. 🙂

You can find all the pictures in this post, and more, at photobucket.

Rose and I both watched the eclipse “together” from 1075 miles away. Her from a snowy icy Virginia apartment parking lot, me from the roof of my condo in 65 degree December. Here are some pictures. I’m not a pro, so keep that in mind. 😛 And if you haven’t heard The Dan Band’s version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” you should. You totally should.

Two blogs in two days?! This is what happens when I don’t blog for a while.

Just a couple of things I forgot yesterday.

Is anyone else sick of the current fad of overusing autotune, or is it just me? Roger Troutman and Cher are probably turning over in their graves right now. Wait what? Oh. Um, sorry. But she would be if she were. Ok, so Roger Troutman wasn’t exactly autotune. It was autotune’s great grandpa. But you get the idea. I mean, if I wanted all my music to sound like robots, I’d just give Wall-E a record deal.

What’s up with places that say they’re open 24/7 not being open 24/7?? There’s a gas station convenience store on the corner of S. Causeway and W. Napoleon whose marquee advertises open 24/7, yet they’re closed at night, and when I went there at 7pm Monday night to get a bag of ice to bring to Taryn’s for the Saints game, they were closed? Huh?! And then there’s McDonald’s. Don’t advertise that you’re open 24/7 if you’re only open 23/7. Or even 23.5/7. Cuz I guarantee that .5/7 will be when I’m having late-night on the way home from Carrollton Station munchies. Sure, I should actually thank them for making me healthier and richer, but still. It’s the principle. I mean, when I pull up at 2:30 am and you say you’re temporarily closed to prepare for breakfast, then you are NOT OPEN. Do you close from 10am-11am to prepare for lunch? NO! So really, what’s the difference??

Now, check this out. Didn’t think THIS would ever happen in NOLA.

The Jefferson Parish Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a sweeping new zoning ordinance for Fat City, defying a firestorm of complaints about earlier closing times for bars.

The 64-page set of codes for buildings, signs, parking and other development standards articulates a gradual transformation of the once vibrant but now fallen entertainment district, into a more upscale mix of shopping, dining and condominium living. It makes for the most dramatic change in Fat City regulations in a quarter-century and marks Jefferson Parish’s first participation in a national trend toward redeveloping neighborhoods in favor of pedestrians and promoting a classic “town center” ambiance.

But the provision requiring drinking establishments to close by midnight most days and 1 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday dominated the debate, with detractors saying the rules suffocate businesses, threaten livelihoods and unfairly and unwisely discriminate against certain night spots based on geography. Strip clubs and other adult businesses, formerly icons of the district, must now phase out altogether by the end of 2012.

Wow. Just wow. I mean, I don’t hang out in fat city (ok, who doesn’t reserve at least a tiny piece of their heart for memories of Kenny’s Cheese Fest), but I still think that’s odd that NOLA would even pass anything like that. Ok. Technically it’s not NOLA. But it is. Heck, as I saw somewhere recently, New Orleans is now a suburb of Metairie. 🙂 Click here to read the full article.

Finally, on a more positive note, Jane Lynch is the ONE AND ONLY reason I watch Glee. No offense to the gleeks out there…but honestly, if it weren’t for her, I’d have an hour less tv to watch. She’s just flipping brilliant.

Now I must finish up at work and get ready for my flight. 😀

OOH! And as a p.s. to my p.s., the word “bookface” has become such a part of my vocabulary that I forgot that it was a reference.

I’ve got some rants and raves. But I’m gonna try to balance them out with positives. Wish me luck. The rants and raves just come so easily.

It took me a while to find out what these things are. At first I thought it was some kind of action figure tasing device. Or maybe Robert “One-String” Gibson‘s musical instrument. But what I found out was that they’re some kind of new-fangled tooth-cleaning apparatuses (apparati?). A fancy-man’s toothpick, one might say. Which only makes me more disgusted. Because they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. Seriously, people. Can’t you take your disgusting personal hygiene products and dispose of them properly?!

This is what goes on in the lost and found of the church. Apparently this medieval knight was too much for both Superman and the zebra power ranger to handle. But, like a true chivalrous gentleman, he at least called the ambulance to pick them up. I hear Medieval Times has an opening… I’m not sure about the zebraranger though…there seems to be a lot of blood pouring from his body. Jesus looks on in the distance. And, in case he has trouble seeing as he’s looking on, there are about 40 pairs of glasses and sunglasses on another shelf (not pictured).

These are cables. We had some work done on the church a couple of weeks ago, and I believe these were involved in lifting the platform up that they used to do the work from. Apparently these cables were also “dragged across the roof, causing huge holes that when it rained the other day, allowed rain to get in” to the inner-ceiling, which left “huge water stain marks” on it. These “huge water stain marks” are also known as shadows, caused by light shining on something and casting a darkness. But, although it doesn’t apply here, I’ll give you this tip. If you ever want to open holes in your roof for purposes of irrigation, just drag cables similar to these across it. That will be cheap and solve all your problems. Trust me, it works. Or at least I’ve been told. And I believe it, because of who told me. It was the same person who told me furniture polish is wax (the same furniture polish whose commercials say “does not contain wax”), and that using it on pews will make people slip and fall and get wax all over their clothes. Even if that were true, though, the pews were roped off, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Oh wait, you took the ropes off the pews, genius? Thanks for being helpful. Next time, at least wait til it’s dry.

This is what I got to witness yesterday. The picture tells 90% of the story. The rest goes like this. That used to be a loading zone in front of the church. For some reason, it’s not anymore, even though they only took down one of the two signs that stated it was a loading zone. So, the employee who owns the silver car (see diagram) has been parking there every day, instead of in the lot that is only for employees (and special guests, but I won’t go there), so that he doesn’t get blocked in. I also won’t go into how I feel about someone taking up a public spot that has a perfectly good private spot…wait, that sounds dirty…but you know what i mean. On this particular day, “employee” was trying to help a random person squeeze their chevy blazer into that spot. What you don’t see is that there was a perfectly larger spot, which would’ve fit the blazer, and then some, behind the truck that the blazer is trying to squeeze in front of. Why not park there? I have no idea. What you also don’t see is that in the process of squeezing in, blazer “love-tapped” the car behind it no fewer than 3 times, and I think the car in front of it once. Well, “love-tap” may be accurate for the car in front, but I think a more appropriate phrase for the car behind it is probably “dry-humped.”

Ah, finally, it’s time for the balance. I was listening to our rehearsal party the other day, and every time I listen to it, I think, how awesome is it that we have all these talented friends that love us enough to come out and perform for us?! And not just at the rehearsal party, but at the reception as well. And these aren’t your average joe schmoe’s with a guitar playing on the corner of Royal and something-street. Nono, these are highly seasoned veterans! And they’re here for US! Makes me feel all warm and gooey inside. Feel free to check out an older post I had to download the rehearsal show. I’ll put up the reception stuff after I watch it at the end of the month. Also, feel free to go to Robin Walker Photography and hire her and buy her stuff, or at least go get a drink from her at Banks Street Bar on Saturday nights.

Finally, how awesome is this?! Granted, I didn’t make it to the parade, but I did get some beads from it, and saw Cowboy Mouth play for the first time since Jazz Fest. A whole show for the first time since February. Yeah, I know! I didn’t get the game, since I barely play the 2009 one I have, but I just may have to get this one when the price drops. Just because it’ll finally be a NFL video game where the Saints don’t absolutely suck. Yeah, take that, Tecmo Bowl! :-Þ

Alright! Let’s get ready for Wednesday!