Success Along the Weigh

Tis Monday...again.  Did you get everything done over the weekend that you wanted to?  Me either.  I mean, I got stuff done that I was forced to do, not what I actually wanted to do and that's not fun.  "The Room" is rebounding on me saying "yeah, you're not done."  Last week was not great for sleeping.  I seemed to wake at 4:30 am every morning with no hope of getting back to sleep because of the gagging from the off gassing of God knows what in the room.  During my middle o' the night wee Thursday, I could swear I smelled vinyl pretty bad after we had used the fireplace.  (Not super strong but when I put my nose against the mural, I could actually faintly smell it which is hit or miss but I feel like after 2 months, it shouldn't still be doing that. Some groggy panic Googling showed peel and stick wallpaper is pretty full of pure toxic crap that will off gas forever.  I initially found a decorators varnish that looked to be the solution I n...

It's Aloha Friday...no work til Monday!  (Man, do I miss hearing that song on the regular.  Pardon while I sing along for a second.)  Okay, now that I'm officially teary and missing the islands.  We've gotten really lucky on our park walks lately and saw little packs of deer here and there.  It's always so cute how they look up and stop- we look over and stop- they go back to eating and we take a few steps on our route and repeat with deer in headlights game.  I named this little weak one we saw after my grandma and told her it would make her strong and to go find a pack to take care of her.  I think I saw her in the pack of seven we saw on Monday.  She is wee but appeared stronger to me.  I hope that was her and that grandma is looking out for her. In the overnight going into Monday, we caught a coyote roaming our yard at 1am.  I wanted to go out and ask him if he was a super genius. source If you think my brain will ever NOT operate i...

Do you know how many stupid lists I see come out year after year for Valentine's Day, Father's Day and Christmas that try to talk you into giving your man something for his grilling, alcohol or sports addictions?  Well, I do the grilling, he doesn't drink and he watches one college team so those lists are pretty much useless to me.  So what do you get a Gen X dude who just wants to be left the hell alone and maybe indulge in nostalgia from time to time?  Here's my suggestion list that is Mr approved for your viewing pleasure. Dark Side Washable Area Rug While I'm all for personal expression, a rug in the office of Han Solo in Carbonite or a full on Millennium Falcon is more for your man's room when he was 10.  What if we could express the love for Star Wars in a more fancy pants style that is better for the sophisticated Sith Lord he is?  Enter this Ruggable Dark Side Damask Area Rug .  The Mr has this and loves it.  When he sent a pic to his co-work...

Most people knew Lisa Marie Presley as Elvis' daughter and obviously so did I initially.  There was so much written about her in the rag mags back in the day (now every 'news source' feels a rag mag these days, doesn't it?) and therefore much mystery around who she was as a person.  I remember very clearly watching her clutching Michael Jackson's hand in terror as they walked out on the MTV VMA stage in 1994 looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there.  We were in Las Vegas on a trip with my family and had retired for the night and there were rumors about this appearance so we were glued to the TV.  Watching that kiss with the rest of the world, you knew it was going to cause a stir and then there came the famous Diane Sawyer interview with them where you actually got to see Lisa's personality.  You could tell she was likely told to act a certain way but man when her personality came out, it was undeniable.  She was feisty, snarky, a smart ass, funny a...

Good Monday morning everyone!  I hope you got in some tomfoolery this weekend sprinkled with some productivity.   We started out at our wits end over the neighbor situation.  For those of you who have never lived in attached living- be grateful.  I am on edge 24/7 from these a-holes and moving just isn't an option.  You all know how the housing market is out there and it would be no guarantee we wouldn't have dicks living on either side of us who let their dogs bark, hoot and holler, etc.  We've looked at a lot of soundproofing articles over the years and the best form for existing rooms seems to be green glue behind a layer of 5/8" thick soundproofing drywall.  (Even better if you use the super expensive soundproofing kind with a layer of dbag dampening crap in between.)  Then the Mr played devil's advocate about the corner fireplace wall that is against that same wall where dbag #1 has mounted his TV and occasionally just rams something int...

Happy Friday you sexy beasts.  We're firmly into the third full week of the new year.  I hope it's treating you well and I hope our fellow snow lovers (all six of you) are getting plenty of the white stuff to play in because I know we're not.  😢  We got in our two strength sessions this week like I planned.  One with 10 lb dumbbells and one with bands.  It was quite disheartening how heavy 10 lbs felt when I was used to lifting 15-20's for so long.  I know I'll get back there but I have a hand injury that doesn't like me very much during or after those sessions.  Wanna know how I injured myself?   Ready for it? Putting on a GLOVE!  Yep.  I'm apparently at the age where you put on a pleather glove and if your ring catches just right inside as you plunge your hand in, it will eff your connecting finger tendon right the hell up!   Now let's plunge into: 3 Ways to Stick With Your New Year's Resolution   (This is abo...

A quick word to those living with depression/anxiety etc.  Please make sure if you're choosing to do a DIY project this year and  feel too overwhelmed that you consult your doctor or therapist if you feel yourself going down a slippery slope.  The tips given in this post are not to be construed as medical advice, they are guidelines I learned for myself as we went through the process.   I'm sharing our experience and also a reminder to myself for future DIY projects because they're looming.   *** For those of you who saw our master bedroom remodel project, you know it was a long, arduous road.  That would've been the case with most people but when you throw having depression into the mix, the road is longer and seems to jump five steps back with every one step forward you think you're taking.  An actual renovation with contractors hired is one kind of stress because you have to make sure you're not getting taken, they don't flake on you wit...

If anyone happened to sing that Peter Brady style when you read it, you get bonus points. source Good Monday morning everyone!  I hope you had a nice weekend whatever you ended up doing.   Last week I had to break down and buy a new gadget : My grip strength was always kind of bad but we essentially stopped doing strength training about 6 weeks ago and were just focusing on walks for activity during the final push of the remodel because that's all I could handle.  The past 2-3 weeks, I've noticed an alarming amount of weakness when doing things like opening jar lids.  (To be fair the Mr, who has excellent grip strength, has also felt like the jars are overtightened.)  My hands/joints would ache and while I would've loved to jump straight back into strength training upon our return, I didn't trust I could even hold a moderate dumbbell.  So I got that grip strengthener for under $10 to help me build things back up as we move into light strength training...