Weekend update

On Tuesday, if you read my blog, I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well so we'll start with an update there. Technically, I'm still sick but I've learned how to control it to a degree. I still wake up having to go pretty bad, sometimes twice, but I've figured out that if I take a couple of Immodium when I get up, after an hour or so, I don't have to go anymore and have very few cramps, in other words, pop a couple and I can get through the day. Tonight I took a couple before bed and we'll see if I can actually not wake up with the cramping. Something else we've noticed is that when I lay on my left side, even for 5 minutes, it makes me have to go. Cheri said that's the way she was when she was pregnant so maybe I just need to poop a baby.

Why don't I go to a doctor? Well, I tried. He couldn't get me in but I could go see a nurse. I went home early from work on Thursday and went ahead and put a vacation day in for Friday so I made an appointment with him for Friday morning. I got up and didn't go (I was shocked) but I was still having the cramping so I went ahead to the appointment even though I was thinking I was probably at the tail end of it. Since I hadn't gone since early afternoon on Thursday, he basically thought the same thing and told me to call back on Monday if it was still a problem. The problem was, as soon as I got home from his office, I was running to the bathroom (I didn't take Immodium that morning, hadn't figured that part out yet.)

Since I had the day off and after an hour or so after taking the Immodium, we headed out to run errands. The first errand (and the most important) was to go to the cafe and get a Greek Skillet (Finally!). We were about half way through our meal and my uncle walked in and got a table so Cheri snuck over and sat down with him. Once I got done eating, I went over to his table and hung out with him while he ate.

My new mugshot

Afterwards, we headed for the license branch to change the address on our drivers license (we moved, in case you hadn't heard). They had to take new pictures, which sucked. Why do they have the camera at the angle of shooting up? In this age of a selfie, shouldn't they know that the best angle, at least when you're fat like I am, is shooting down. I'll get the new license in the mail in 7-10 days. This will actually be the first time I changed my address in around 10 years, which is about 4 places ago. I kept telling myself that I'm not going through with the hassle until I bought a house. I just wasn't expecting it to be 10 years. After that we basically did our usual weekly stuff, groceries, drugs and Lowe's (that's becoming a weekly trip) then headed home.

Finally!

Saturday, my stepdad and I finally got around to see the new Star Wars movie. It was so much better than I was expecting. I won't go into how awesome it was, you probably already know. They apparently changed all the seating in the theaters to recliners as well so it was very enjoyable. I do need to get Cheri out there to watch it, even if I have to "suffer" through it again. The things we do for love. Just as I was leaving for the movie, Cheri came home from a moving sale that she had been at in the morning, trying to find stuff for the house. Cheri bought another dresser for our room but didn't have enough room in the van so I had to go out and get in on Sunday.

We were sitting around most of the evening on Saturday, Cheri was doing some online shopping for the house and I was doing some research and eventually bought a Fitbit for myself. I've been debating on picking one up so I finally decided to do it, I ended up picking up the Fitbit Charge, which oddly enough is the top of the line for the "inactive" line. I thought that was fitting. I chose it mainly because it had an automatic sleep setting to track how well you sleep and I can wear it on my wrist. I have always kept an eye on my steps on my phone but this is supposed to be more accurate. Plus, I tend to leave my phone when I walk around the house so I miss out on some steps here or there. Our daughter has Amazon Prime so we use her account to get the free 2 day shipping. I figured if I was lucky, I could get it on Monday but probably Tuesday.

Sunday, we were chilling in our recliners when the doorbell rang. I answered it to find a package from Amazon on my doorstep. I got the Fitbit in less than 24 hours, holy crap, talk about service. I charged it (it was dead) and have been wearing it most of the day. I think I got all the settings where I want them so we'll see tomorrow and see how the day went. I'm sure you'll probably start to see updates on this blog about my steps and stuff, even if only so I can use my "fat ass" label again. If you have one and want to sync up with mine, I'd tell you to send a request but to be honest, I'm not even sure how to do that other than Facebook friends so first, you'll have to tell me what to do. I do plan on starting to walk after work again, I'm not sure how much I'll get in when the weather gets real cold again because let's face it, I'm not that dedicated. I'm going to try to remember to weigh myself at work (we don't have a scale here) in the mornings (before I eat) everyday and see if I actually lose some weight. I'm pretty sure most mornings I won't even remember.

9 mil. (not the actual gun I used)

My brother came by and picked me up to take me to his "gun range" which is basically a field with wooded area around it and dirt piles behind the targets. I had never even touched a gun, let alone fired one but this was something I had been wanting to do for awhile. After quick instructions from my brother, I shot off a clip of his 9 mil., I didn't think I was terribly impressive but he seemed impressed. I was only maybe 25-30 feet so I thought I should have had everything right around the bullseye but apparently it's not as easy as I thought. I went ahead and tried another clip and afterwards, my brother handed me the target and told me I should keep it and that I didn't realize how good that was.

I did alright.

AR Rifle (not the actual gun I used)

Next up, I tried my brother AR rifle. I shot a clips worth of that as well, I hit the targets maybe a third of the time from around 75-100 feet. The targets were only about the size of a softball so again, my brother praised me. I just felt awkward because I was around a bunch of guys who were probably way better than me.

Glock 40 (not the actual gun I used)

Later on, one of the guys let me shoot a clip of his Glock 40 just so I could see the difference between that and the 9 mil. I had shot earlier. A little more kick but I did alright with that as well.

12 gauge shotgun (not the actual gun I used)

Lastly, before we left, I went and shot my nephew's 12 gauge shotgun. There wasn't any targets out for it but I shot it just to see what it was like. I shot it until it was empty, maybe 6 or 7 shells, I don't remember which. Talk about a little kick, wasn't anything I couldn't handle but I won't be surprised if my shoulder isn't a little sore in the morning.

Once I got back to my mom's house, we headed back out to grab the dresser that Cheri had purchased. It's an old antique one, it doesn't look bad but Cheri said she's going to refinish it or something. It came with a mirror that attaches on top but I don't think she's going to attach it, last I heard it may go on a wall in the living room. We basically got another dresser because we had a whole wall with nothing on it and plenty of space, not that we couldn't use the drawers to but that was the real reason.

So that was my weekend, I can't even check anything off my honey to do list because we never finished anything. Oh well, I guess there's always next weekend.

Greek Skillet

What did I get all accomplished on the house this weekend? Not a damn thing.

We planned on going out for breakfast on Saturday morning to the local cafe because I have been craving their Greek Skillet, I absolutely love them. It has hash browns with all the usual veggies with lamb meat (what's used in Gyros) and Fetta Cheese with a couple of eggs on top. It is awesome which is why I had been craving one for awhile. My mom, brother and I love them so much that when we get one, we immediately take photo and send it to the other two just to brag. That's probably why I was craving one because my mom had sent a photo a couple of weeks ago. After breakfast, we were going to hit Lowe's and pick up paint and other stuff for projects this weekend.

Anyways, early Saturday morning (2:30 am), I woke up and had to use the restroom, which isn't normal. I never wake up having to go to the bathroom. I was having some diarrhea issues. I crawled back into bed and woke up again a couple of hours with the same issue. Again and again for 4 days. It started on Saturday morning and I was still sick this morning. For those of you that know me, I rarely ever get sick and when I do, it's a 24 hr bug and I'm done. I ended up having to call in sick yesterday and today so I'm sure they aren't real happy with me at work but it's a little hard to load trucks if I have to keep stopping to run to the restroom. They'll probably be the only 2 days I call in at work all year but they'll still be mad at me.

So that's what I've been doing since the weekend, absolutely nothing. The more I moved, the more often I had to go so I pretty much sat in my recliner with my legs up. Actually wishing I could go to work just because I was pretty bored.

Oh, remember that Greek Skillet I mentioned up there? Guess what I woke up to on Sunday morning. My brother sent this.

Bastard! I'm still craving it and now I have to wait until next weekend because I know my wife won't bring me one to work. (Hint, hint)

Still waiting on you to impress me

When Cheri called our trash service on the 4th, they said that they would deliver the trash bin in 7-10 days. I'm pretty sure the 10th day would have been the 14th. Today is the 21st. Maybe I should send them a calendar, maybe explain how it works, you count the squares with the numbers on them until you use all your fingers, that will be 10 days.

Step 1: This is a calendar.

Cheri called again last Thursday (the 14th) to ask about it, they said it would be Friday or Monday. Fine. Monday comes and goes, still no bin. We received a bill last week, but no bin. So you want me to pay you, for a service that you were supposed to provide, even though you have yet to provide it? You've promised me a delivery by a certain date, and have not delivered, but you still want your money?

No money for you.

Cheri called again on Tuesday of this week and basically told them since we didn't have the bin yet, that they need to pick up our trash regardless since Wednesday was supposed to be our day and our garage was getting filled with trash, and that was after I've filled the trunk with bags and took them to the apartment dumpster, twice. They agreed to take up to 8 bags of trash and a box of cardboard (they do our recycling as well).

At the rate they are going, I might need one of these.

When I got home from work on Tuesday, I spent some time in the garage filling up lawn bags of all our kitchen bags. I was squeezing as much as I could in each bag, I wanted this trash gone. I got up to 4 kitchen bags in some of them. I actually ended up only using 6 lawn bags because I was cramming them full. Then as far as the cardboard went, remember last week when I said we had installed a new toilet? Well guess what box I used for the cardboard, the toilet box. I crammed all the cardboard from the packing boxes in that nice big box, sure it was sticking out a couple of feet, but it was all in the box.

I came home from work on Wednesday afternoon and it was all gone so hooray for them doing part of their job. When I came home from work today, the trash bin was at the end of the drive so hooray for them doing the 2nd part of your job. Let's just hope that everything else is smooth sailing from here on out, because as of now, they have yet to impress me.

Finally!

House update

So, since my last post, we have done a few things with the house. We might have everything perfect before we die, that's how I feel and we've only been here a few weeks. I joke with my wife that I don't have a "Honey To Do list", I have a "Bitch, Do This list." Mainly because I always refer to myself as her bitch. She doesn't like it, but she doesn't deny it, she says it makes her sound bossy. I do these projects to make her happy, she can't do them, otherwise I know she would.

Last week, my brother came over and helped me replace the toilet. We wanted to switch out the toilet in the master bathroom to a taller one because my wife has relapses of her MS every so often to where her knees hurt and it's hard for her to get up from a low seating position. I shouldn't say my brother helped because he pretty much did all of it. The only thing I was there for was to pick up the toilet. He got everything together, but the new hose between the floor and toilet leaked a bit so we headed down to Walmart to get thread tape. We went to Walmart because A) I had just replaced my car battery and needed to return my old one for my $12 back and B) my brother wanted to pick up ammo which conveniently, is right next to the tire entrance.

Saturday, we ran to the Habitat for Humanity store to look around and donate the old toilet. We didn't buy anything, but I still find it odd that I was shopping there. It's all home supplies, which is just something I never shop for. After that we went to Pet Smart for some food. Doing that on a Saturday was a mistake, I had to drag Cheri away from the kitten adoption thing that they had set up. She even said that she could very easily become a cat lady with 1000 cats. Once I got Cheri up on my shoulders and carried her out (not really) we headed to Lowe's. Does Lowe's have a rewards card? I need to look into that because I've been in 3 different ones in the last few weeks and tend to spend a bunch of money every time. Up until buying this house, I bet I hadn't been in a Lowe's or Menards this many times in my life. I could say the same for the local hardware store up the road. I may have been in there once or twice in my life, but I was there and back 3 times in a 2 day period and a couple of times since. Now if I could just learn to actually do all the home projects. We picked up more paint and wood and some small stuff at Lowe's before hitting the grocery store (I've been there a lot) and headed on home.

Sunday, I slept in till just after 10 (I must have been dreading the day in my sleep.) I got up, put my painting shorts and a work shirt on and headed out to the living room. I painted the upper half of the living room with another coat of paint (Bungalow Gold) and touched up spots towards the ceiling, then I painted the lower half with primer and followed it up with a coat of an off white (Bistro). Let it dry and put another coat on, then let it dry and put another coat on, or at least three quarters of the wall since we ran out of paint. I wasn't expecting to have to put 3 coats on. After we let the last layer dry, we spent an hour rearranging the furniture. Cheri liked it the way we had it, but during the day, the light from the front windows glared into the TV so we were going to rearrange so we didn't have that issue. The problem was, the shape of the living room only allows it to really fit one way and that was the way it was originally. We figured that out after I moved everything 4 times. The couch and recliners were a piece of cake, the buffet, however, was not. The last spot we ended in, we quit, even though it'll probably get changed back in a few days, but I was to wore out to move it anymore and I heard a nice, hot shower calling my name.

                  Before                                                              After     

Today, I came home from work and sat on my ass all evening. I'm feeling it, my body is sore because it is old. I was also waiting for my trash bin from our trash pick-up that was supposed to start last Wednesday, but I'm still waiting on my damn bin. My garage is going to be completely full of trash at the rate they are getting me my bin. That's the excuse I'm using for sitting in the living room, I was waiting for our bin to get delivered, had to keep an eye on the driveway.

I tell myself this to make me feel better

So that's what we've done so far. I'll keep you updated with any other changes and believe me, there is plenty of coming.

• Den - Paint.
• Dining Room & Kitchen - Paint and Stain the cabinets.
• Garage - Rearrange and clean (clean probably won't get done till spring.)
• Living Room - Some touch up to the paint and put the wood (board and batten) up. Put some kind of tile at the front door (there's carpet there now).
• Main bathroom - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bath - Paint, possibly restain the vanity.
• Master Bedroom - Paint walls and possibly ceiling.
• Outside - Reseed grass (spring), stain the deck and the porch, put up a column, paint the door, replace the lamp post.
• Samantha's Room - Paint, take down fish wallpaper, put up chalkboard paint on one small mall.
• Trevor's Room - Completed.

Like I said, plenty to do. I reread all that and it makes it sound like we bought a dump, but in reality, the previous owners did a crappy paint job with colors we don't like, that would be most of our issues.

If you're happy and you know it

We've had a fairly busy last couple of weeks. In case you hadn't heard, we finally moved into our own home. After 5 years of trying, we have finally purchased a home and got out of our apartment. We pretty much got everything we asked for in our home. Big kitchen, garage, fenced in yard, big deck out back, a "den" for the kids to play their video games and the best part, all that in our budget. We closed on the 30th last month and came over here and painted my son's room and part of the living room, those were the priorities because the living room we'll spend the most time in and my son's room because it was a hideous lime green kind of color. His room got finished but we still have to finish the living room with another coat on the top half and we are doing board and batten on the bottom.

   

Before                                                   After

We are planning on painting pretty much every room eventually but we are going to do a room at a time to limit clutter of doing a bunch of rooms at one. Plus, we have a lifetime to make it the way we want. Trevor's room is checked off but we still need to get covers for the plugs because the previous owners apparently didn't take them off when they painted. They actually did a pretty crappy job when it came to all their painting. Lots of spots and drips, another reason we need to paint every room.

I just want to take a second to give a shout out to my family who are just as happy for us as we are. My mom, stepdad and my moms cousin have been very helpful with everything as well as my brother and his kids. On top of that, we've had many visits from family to check out the place.

I got the garage cleared enough (we were using it as a staging area when moving in) to get both our cars in, the night before the snow hit at that. Right now we have quite a bit of trash bags in there because our trash service is supposed to start this Wednesday but we haven't even received our trash bin yet. I'm hoping we get it by Wednesday so we can get some of it out. We already made one run over to the apartments to unload some, we were going to do that again today but it's really cold and snowing so we nixed that idea.

The only issue we had with moving was with Comcast. We moved in on the 31st and we had scheduled for them to come out on the 31st. They didn't show up. After calling 4 times (kept getting hung up on when they tried to transfer me) and over an hour and a half of waiting, they couldn't do nothing. They claimed we had an appointment on January 9th, but they also claimed that we hadn't called them since April when we upgraded our equipment. They couldn't explain why I would have called in April and made the appointment for January. The best they could do was get someone out on the 19th. No, I'm sorry we'll get someone out there immediately, no nothing, our next appointment is the 19th.

The only reason I called them was because it was a holiday and the local office wasn't open, I always go in because their tech support via phone sucks. So I waited until the 2nd when they opened up and went down and talked to them, she sent a signal and I gave her my phone number. Just before they closed, she called me and asked if the signal worked, it didn't. So she schedule an appointment for the 7th and said she'd call if she could get it any earlier. She ended up calling the next day and got it bumped up another day. So we ended up going about a week with no cable or internet. It wasn't as horrible as it sounds since we had plenty to do around the house and I hit Redbox pretty consistently for stuff to watch in the evenings.

When they did come out, the reason the signal didn't work was because it was never hooked up from the pole. The previous owners had dish network, that explained that. He also upgraded our modem to a bigger one with 2 signals so we are hooked up to the fastest one and the kids to the slower one. That's fair, they don't pay for it.

So that's where we stand, we are extremely happy to be in our new home. I smile every time I pull in the driveway and hit my garage door opener. I smile when I hear the kids in the den chilling on the couch and recliner down there. Let's just say, I'm smiling a lot more these days.