Collect

I don't like Mountain Dew. At all. And 7-11 had the nerve to serve Mountain Dew Icee's for a while. What the...?

10%

Well, Borders.  Your going out of business helped me Santa not at all.  As a representative elf, I have this to say to you:  I don't consider 10% off a "sale".  I consider that an insult.  You want to dump your inventory on the public North Pole, you're going to have to do a lot better than that.  -> 

Delta Upside-Down L

As you know, I live in a university town that has, I don't know, fifty-six? sororities and not one, but two Wal-Fart Super Centers.  


I can't believe it took this long for the two to meet.  ->  

15

 

The bathroom still isn't done.  These are the kinds of things one notices when one goes to Lowes.  Again.  -> 

Styles

 

I know I've essentially done this picture before.  But the fact of the matter is I love the paint displays at any store.  

Say you: Seriously? 

Say me: Truly! 

There is always such possibility when you walk by them.  "Oh!" you think to yourself "I can paint the dining room that lovely red!  That will look divine!"  

Painting is cheap! It's relatively easy!  It can instantly change the feel of the room! So says all the home decorating sites anyway. 

All it takes is some elbow grease.  The taping off. The tarps on the floor.  The constant cleaning of the drips where the paint isn't supposed to go.  The inevitable big spill that will set you back at least three-quarters of an hour.  The occasional Really Bad Color Choice that requires priming and then re-painting, thereby setting you back an entire weekend*.  The sore shoulders from the unnatural reaching. The cleaning of the brushes that takes 16 separate washings to get them ready for the next use....

Yeah. 

Herein lies the disconnect between the stores' promise and reality. 


Reality never seems to sink in when you need it.  It only sinks in after you impulsively bought that gallon of Fireside and started taping off.  At which point you're married to the project.  And then the cursing begins.-> 

*Mattek kitchen, circa 2001.  

$74 7

-Posted using (enter requisite phrase which brags about your cool gadgets and applications for said gadget here)

Mega

Oh, these are just dying to be bought, aren't they?  Thirty MEGA JUMBO crayons in a cool little plastic container.  And better yet: They're sold in the art section of a book store.  

Instant panache.  

And who doesn't want panache scattered amongst their art supplies?  

Plus, look at those colors! Sure, the classic Crayola 64-ct box has more than twice as many colors (and for the record, it's simply an abomination to peel the labels off crayons until absolutely necessary.  And even then it kills me), but here's the real question: Does that box have panache?  

I think the answer is clear.  

Say you: So how much were they? 

Say me: You're changing the subject.  -> 

Bites

I'm quite sure that they translate "sensible portions" as "half the bag in one sitting.  With chicken salad."  ->1

.9 FL OZ

Epic Fail

This is, without a doubt, one of the worst pictures in the series.  I was goofing around. I thought it would come out better than this.  I thought I took other pictures besides this one.  Sigh.  


It's supposed to be a silk flower.  Which I hate.  Hate, hate, HATE.  But it looks more like a group of newborn finches all cuddled up in their nest.  Have you seen newborn finches?  Not pretty.  


At any rate, it was the only one I had for the day, so I'm stuck with it.  -> 

Canon

Day one of my big trip. This is in the Houston airport. I never cease to be astounded by the vending machines selling electronics.

For the record, we're fine. Oklahoma got some scary weather yesterday, but Norman was safe. We were scared for a bit, but in the end all was well. ->

Rapid

I don't keep acetaminophen in the house any longer, but generic drugs are the bees knees. ->

Soft Tech

Sent from iFrank.

Press for Demo

 

Isn't it the cutest thing ever??  It's a FAKE butterfly in a jar.  But the jar has "Butterfly" embossed on it, so that makes it all the more special.  Get this:  When you press the button?  The butterfly FLIES around.  Just like a real one would.  How cool is that?  And you can barely see the cable that attaches it to the battery pack, so you can fool all your friends. 

Yours for only $12 at Wal Fart.  Hurry.  Offer ends soon.  -> 

Behr

Did you know that now instead of just buying the little cards with the paint color on them, you can get actual samples of paint mixed? It's true. Sherwin Williams helpfully sells them in quart sizes, so if you don't like the color, you're stuck 1/95th of a quart of it. Which is great. So handy to have that paint color you don't like lying around.

Pictured above is a rejected paint color by Mom. One of five. ->



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cupcake

 

This is what everyone needs.  A package of seven socks, each pair not only a different color but emblazoned with a different day of the week.  

Because there is no way one of them will be lost in the first wash cycle.  None.  And there is no way that within a matter of weeks, the wearer of said socks will be forced to don one green "Wednesday" sock with a purple "Friday" sock just so the sock folder in the home can make the folding-the-socks process come out evenly, thus preventing that Lonely Sock Pile from growing ever so larger.  -> 

Right Angles

 

My new tile.  With grout and everything.  ->

Cabinet

 

The Geek doesn't know this yet, but there's some electrical work in the "new" old bathroom that he's going to have to attend to.  I simply cannot keep the old medicine cabinet you see.  It's old. And tiny.  And there's an electrical outlet installed right next to, which means it's simply in my way and therefore  must be relocated. 

In the meantime, I'm blithely shopping for replacement cabinets.  Lowes has some perfectly serviceable ones of course.  But I've recently (read: 48 hours ago) discovered Restoration Hardware and their products simply make me drool.  Of course, so do their price tags, so I may have to find something at Lowes after all.  

Or maybe I should forgo the cabinet and just go for a big mirror.  Small room + big mirror = optical-illusion-big-room, right?  

But then there's the storage issue.  

But I am getting a new sink cabinet built with drawers and whatnot, so maybe storage won't be as much of an issue now.  

But the kids are going to be using it, and one kid is a girl and girls generate a lot of bathroom stuff so the more storage the better, right?   

But The Boy is off to college before she'll hit the age where she really generates said stuff, so maybe the mirror after all.  

But what happens if he moves back in four years after graduation?  Then I need the storage again! 

What if he flunks out and is back home in a year???  

I need wine. 

And a medicine cabinet.

Or mirror?   ->  

Related articles

• Top Kitchen & Bathroom Trends at KBIS 2011 (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Tips on organizing the medicine cabinet (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Tile

The Bathroom Project, which started earlier this year, is now in full swing.  We dropped $500 on tile yesterday and we still have a long way to go.  So for the foreseeable future (read: until this baby is DONE) I will likely have construction related pictures posted.  Which is merely consumption on a larger scale.  I may or may not post finished pics of the room.  I will absolutely pat myself on the back for any and all attempts I make at reducing, reusing and recycling.  Naturally I will brag about  said attempts here. 

So far I have none.  

But I plan on it!  

Really!  

On a completely unrelated noted, I've had two people ask me in the past few days if I take several pictures at once and "can" them for later use.  

The answer is that with the exception of one picture, no.  For this project, I've taken a picture every single day (a "day" for me is 12:00 am to 11:59 pm) for the past nine months, although obviously I get them posted later.  The date posted in conjunction with the picture on the blog is the date I actually took the photo.  


Getting close now...I only have until August 19th (I think).  I can't believe I'm on the downward slope of this.  A year goes by fast.  ->

Giftcard

This reminds me: I still have my Christmas bonus in my work bag.  Guess I could use it, huh? ->