September 16, A.D. (After Drywall)

Well it's been a long weekend priming and painting, and painting...and painting. We made a really good start on it and we're planning on having all of the painting done by the end of the week so we can start on floors (yippee!). Everywhere in the house there's a little cloud of drywall dust that follows us around and covers anything that stands still long enough. There will be one BIG cleaning purge once this basement is done. Look out!

Here's the 'just primed' photos of the basement. I'll leave out the photos of the actual painted walls until we get some flooring in (sha-bam! impact!).
The laundry room:My office!The bathroom (toilet to come!):The media room (aka, Trevorlossus, the Trevorplex, Cineplex Trevortron, etc. You get the idea.):

Four years ago today

We got married!
(This is the most accurate picture of the two of us. I would have scanned in some wedding photos, but my scanner is in a different room and not hooked up. And even if I did want to hook it up, there's no room.)

It was one of the most fun days I've ever had. Not too nerve-wracking and a lot of good memories. Now if only I could rewind and do the honeymoon all over again (who couldn't use a two week getaway to Orlando and an Eastern Caribbean cruise??!).

*snorffff* *cough* *cough*

Well I'm officially sick with a cold. It's pretty crappy considering that this is one of the nicest weeks in September so far, and we're still not working in the basement yet. Wait, that could be a good thing, more time to rest up. The drywall will be done tomorrow (as I hear the drywaller working on something outside around the side of the house). Trevor is all pumped up about starting to prime, and I'm going to catch up with that enthusiasm just as soon as I can breathe through my nose again.

I was looking through some photos of when we were at the insulation stage yesterday. Wow, have we come a long way. Here I am being all retrospective and it's only the halfway point! (okay, maybe a little further than that)

That was so three days ago...

Here's the cake that actually TURNED out. Despite a few strange icing recipes (is it supposed to be the consistency of oatmeal?) I finally found one that worked and worked well. And it did taste as good as it looked (raspberry and white chocolate...mmmmm).

We had a semi-slow weekend, birthday dinner on Saturday (we made the BEST rotisserie chickens on the bbq, must note to do that again), and I went out to Metrotown with Cynthia on Sunday. I think Trevor and I are both still trying to get out of the routine of seeing each other for 24 hours everyday like we used to. It can be very strange because we were with each other like that for two and a half years -- and we didn't rip each other's heads off, it worked quite well. When the weekends come around now we both just have the feeling of wanting to bunk down and just have time to ourselves, which I think we'll do this weekend.

Even though we don't see each other all the time now, we still manage to share each others GERMS. Trevor had a cold last week, and I managed to catch it just in time for an important presentation with a new client today. I made sure to drug up, but still found myself feeling woozy and tired on the drive downtown (wait, maybe that just happens normally). Things went really well in the meeting (exact words to Trevor on the drive home: 'I killed!!!'), despite feeling -- and probably looking -- all hot, sweaty and clammy. No, no, no, not nerves, LOL. I think I hate that upper lip sweat you get the most when you're sick.

My mountain of kleenexes are calling...

Wish me luck...

I'm making another attempt to make a cake. Those who know will recall the memorable other attempts: 'The Slider', 'The Melter' and the 'Brain Cake'. LOL The last cake I made was a Barefoot Contessa chocolate cake that turned out really well and reaffirmed my faith in cake baking/assembly.

The one I'm baking today is a white chocolate and raspberry cake. (It's the F.I.L.'s birthday dinner at our house tomorrow evening and I REFUSE to eat another crappy lardy cake from Costco. BLEGH. So it's really more for me. ahahaha.) So far so good. I've had to make a few substitutions -- well one -- I forgot to get buttermilk at the store so I figure some sour cream and a little touch of milk should do the trick. Oh, and I also didn't read the part about THREE cake pans and I've only done two, might have to increase the baking time there.

But for some reason it's smelling like bread baking right now. I should go and check that I haven't put the bread I bought too close to the oven... Pictures to come!!!

Ode to drywall, and a rant

As I type, the drywall is having it's first heavy coat of mud applied, and all I can think is 'it's not me doing it!!!'. We've managed to have a relatively normal (if you call living in a storage locker normal) week. We're putting bets on the drywall being ready for priming next weekend. I'll be sure to post some photos of the progress before then.

What's really irritating to me is the new Home Depot ad on tv showing a guy and his family and how they finished their basement and owe it all to Home Depot (and with the help of 'Muskie' an employee). Oh and it's so easy, and we couldn't have done it without all the help and confidence that Home Depot gave us. Well that's all BS, seriously. Home Depot doesn't do it for you, and the confidence you get is by having your credit card ring up as being 'approved' when you're paying for more of your supplies. And don't get Trevor started on the guy who's trying to screw plastic to a stud ('you would never do that! what a retard!'). I wonder how many months that ad will run and mock us...wait, we're the ones who have subsidized that ad to begin with...

Is it Monday? No...

I've had the feeling like it's been Monday for most of the day so far. Kind of dragging a bit to get going this morning, but I went to the store to pick up a few groceries before lunch and I feel a little more human now. (Not to mention, how can you NOT be perked up by seeing all those lovelyyyy children with backpacks and walking to and from school! ahahahah! I love it!)

It felt very strange to not be working in the basement over the weekend. There were a few times that Trevor started to look twitchy, like 'give me something to do!' and we went out instead. We hit Ikea on Saturday morning instead of Friday night (combination of bad traffic and a headache; this does not equal quality Ikea time). That was a bad idea, everyone and their college students were there trolling the aisles and picking up supplies (and cutting in check-out line ups), and Trevor was twitchy there too, but in more of a 'get me out of here' sort of way. We did, however, hit the Cactus Club for lunch and I partook in a most delish bellini*, what more could you ask for before noon on a Saturday? I also had key lime pie there for the first time EVER (I know, I know) and it was to DIE for! Saturday evening was spent with friends, and having dinner at Kobe's downtown then on to a show at Yuk Yuk's (where one of the bitter chicks went a bit loco at some guy in the audience).

* The last time I partook in a Cactus Club bellini around noon I was feeling quite 'good' and insisted to Trevor that we needed to wash the car. 15 quarters, a drive in do-it-yourself car wash and one sweaty husband later (my job was pumping quarters in and telling him to scrub faster, the time was going to run out), we still had a crappy half-washed car.

Sunday was a bit of a blur (maybe from the late night?). We had a bbq over at the in-law's. Monday was a nice slow day. We wanted to wander around Fort Langley, but a bunch of shops we wanted to wander into were closed (including that really cool toy store) so we decided on the fly to drive up to West Van and wander around the Whole Foods there. That whole store is just deluxe and never fails to impress us, Langley could sure use something like that. (Oh and I did see their crazy muffins in the bakery but wasn't able to FedEx them over -- sorry Dana, Mom!). We bought some chicken sausages (apple and herb, lemon thyme) and I'm roasting them up tonight with some nice potatoes, yams, onions and carrots. mmmmmm! Fall dinner anyone?

Oh, and I'm officially addicted to that 'Sarah's House' show. Damn her and her money and good ideas! (And the nicest laundry room I've ever seen...grrr.) Perhaps when I watch the new season of Top Chef tonight I'll forget allll about it.