Cody’s going out of town for business, making tonight out last night together until Sunday. This is very sad. There is, however, a silver lining. I get to “surprise” her when she returns by presenting a de-wallpapered pantry, ready for painting. She has been on me to finish de-wallpapering it…well, pretty much since we stopped major housework after finishing the kitchen walls. So, while I’m not looking forward to doing it, I’m looking forward to having it done and making her happy.
Speaking of done and happy, the wedding website is finally live.
A random collection of WoW-related thoughts follows.
- After spending several hours researching and implementing a customized UI for Jakosta, live use made it clear that it was a big pile of fail. With some more research, a few more addons, and some alterations to existing addons, I think I may have something truly awesome. Won’t have a chance to test it until tomorrow, though.
- Speaking of Power Auras, I got absurdly excited about it once I first tried it out. I immediately started wondering how I might apply it to Deowyn as well. After running my heroic for the day, I realized that it would be useful for at least two reminders: when I’m in combat without the Glyph of Life Tap buff active, and any time that Fel Armor isn’t active. Might also be worth having one when Haunt is available for casting, though I think the Mik’s Scrolling Battle Text notice I have for that is sufficient.
- Every time I hear “Everybody’s trance dancing tonight” from the DMB song “So Right,” I think “Everybody’s stance dancing tonight,” and want to make up some alternate, WoW-themed lyrics to the song.
- I think WoW has become my favorite hobby, which is amusing. Every time I worry about it, I just think about Jace’s “I Play W.O.W.” song and feel better. That said, I’m hoping to do some novel editing and guitar playing while Cody’s away, too.
I’m tempted to rant about driver etiquette, but have lost the gumption for the time being. My urge to write such missives tends to peak while I’m, y’know, driving, which is a somewhat inconvenient time to compose them.
This weekend, Cody and I finally finished the last milestone in making the house “livable:” painting the kitchen. The kitchen’s modification has been a long, arduous process that started in mid-June. The first hurtle was getting rid of its hideous pineapple wallpaper. This took an army of people to do (who have my everlasting thanks) over a period of several weekends. Once finished, we still had to patch some substantial holes and cracks, sand down spackle, prim, and finally paint.
To celebrate, we threw our first proper house party.
It’s a little odd to walk through the kitchen, dining room, and sunroom now. They’re so open. Before, they were cluttered with boxes, tools, and debris. Now, the floors are clean, the walls are brightly painted, and the boxes have been tucked away. It feels like a home.
With the major house construction projects out of the way–the pantry still needs the same treatment the kitchen got, but it’s a small space and low priority; the upstairs bathroom just needs to be repainted–I can start focusing on writing. NaNoWriMo is still a month away, but I’m going to try to amp up my daily wordcount and plow through a novel by the end of November.
The trouble is, I have yet to decide which story is the most promising. I’ll probably end up writing both at the same time, depending on which strikes my fancy at any given moment.
This weekend, thanks to the assistance of our friends Keith and Lisa, Cody and I managed to finish painting the dining room. All that remains now is the kitchen! (Technically, the pantry off the kitchen still needs to be de-wallpapered and the upstairs bathroom still needs to be painted, but those are very secondary compared to the dining room and kitchen.)
Cody and I have created a deadline for ourselves, in that we’re hosting a party on the 26th. This should be no trouble at all to hit, assuming we spackle the kitchen throughout the week and then paint this weekend. In general, we can do two coats in one day. I don’t think the kitchen will need as-extensive priming as the dining room did. The kitchen is going to be almost entirely spackled due to the underlying surface.
So, the light from the end of the tunnel is bright!
On the downside, my seasonal allergies are starting to kick in. Ugh.
The vast majority of the kitchen is now free of wallpaper. Only one small area (behind the refridgerator) remains, and it should be fairly quick. Tomorrow, sanding and spackling. I’ll probably be sore as hell, though.
Also, did some spontaneous writing tonight, inspired by both Starship Troopers and Old Man’s War, as well as myriad other ideas that have been kicking around in my head for a while. Got about four pages (single-spaced, TNR 12, MS Word, 8.5×11) written. Pretty happy with it so far. Might try to develop it further.
Cody and I spent a great day up at the cabin with Laura & Paul, Paul, and Nana Pat. We cooked lobster. My last memories of eating fully shelled lobster aren’t the best, and I remembered lobster seeming far more difficult than it was worth. The shell on this lobster was easy to tear, though, and not all that troublesome.
Then Cody and I came home and watched True Blood.
Every Sunday should be this relaxing.
Tomorrow, I’m going to be Mr. Handyman around the house: taking garbage to the transfer station, working on the wallpaper in the kitchen, and unpacking some of our kitchen supplies, so as to better facilitate Cody’s desire to do more cooking. Hopefully, this week will see the end of the wallpaper in the house.
Also, there are far too few pictures of Cody and I. We just don’t take very many, or are rarely in situations where one might have a camera to snap pictures of us. This is somewhat distressing, given the notion of a wedding slideshow. If anyone has any pictures of us that aren’t on Facebook, let me know.