I've done pretty well with selling things on craigslist. While I didn't make a fortune, it's better than a kick in the teeth!
Washer/dryer $325
2 IKEA chairs $150
Sofa and ottomans $375
I have the refridgerator and dining set to go - that's my project when I get back.
Thanks Penny for this.
NAME? Philippa
Four Letter Word? Crap
VEHICLE: Lexus RX330
RESTAURANT: Baipo (Ipswich, England), Sushi Lounge (NJ), Aoki (NY)
CITY: Hoboken
BOY NAME: Thomas (completely and utterly random here)
GIRL NAME: Lucy (again, random)
OCCUPATION: Program Manager
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Gym kit
FOOD: Yorkshire Pudding
SOMETHING FOUND IN BATHROOM: Scales
REASON FOR BEING LATE : I'm not usually late
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Trevvvvvvooooorrrrrrr
Usually I'm relatively supportive of call centers that have their first line calls taken from India and while it gets frustrating sometimes I've never had the bad experience that I've heard so much about.
Until today. Oh good grief. Beside myself I was....
If you remember back a few weeks I said that I'd spent a load of points on our credit cards. One of the things I'd purchased was a handbag (in a beigy tan colour to go with my summer sandals). It arrived in black rather than brown. I called the helpdesk at the weekend and they said that someone would contact me to return and replace it. I then got a phone call yesterday asking me to call them and tell them if I wanted to return the item and get my points back (yes please....as it was much smaller than I thought it would be). That's when the fun started. I told them they could pick it up tomorrow (Fri) as I was home all day but if they couldn't do that I wouldn't be home until the 18th.
Each time I asked a question the guy said "I hope you don't mind, but I need to put you on hold". This happened 4 or 5 times. To precis, they wanted me to stay home on the 19th to wait for UPS to turn up to pick up the package. Of course, being out of the office for over 2 weeks, that's not feasible. I offered to take the package to work, they said no. In the end he escalated to an American lady - he must have told her I was pissed because she was quite ratty on the phone. I wasn't particularly annoyed - I just couldn't do what he was asking. She said that he wasn't asking me to do that - he was. Oh well - I've told them I'll leave the package in the building - it's down to the UPS guy to figure out how to get in. I also told them they better not complain if I'm not there when they arrive. Man, what a pain in the rear.
On a better note, my ankle seems to be calming down again, although very tender. Not looking forward to the flight to England - but hopefully a couple of Tylenol PM's and I'll be out for the count! Here's hoping!
So, I've got used to my bootie thing for my ankle, and all was going along ok. I've realized that I need to use an ankle strap at night so that I don't hurt myself, my only problem is now the shower. Stepping over the bath used to be so easy - and while I move gingerly, it's manageable.
This morning when getting ready for work, I managed easily to get in the shower. Getting out, I managed to do a minor twisty thing of about 2 inches.....and the biggest shooting pain when up my leg and now my ankle is throbbing like crazy. Obviously this is more serious than I thought.
I did talk to the car hire adjudicator again yesterday and they're going to follow up. They asked loads of crazy questions like "what type of shoes were you wearing", "what were you doing", "how far did you fall", "where did you land" - and on that last question my initial response was "on my ass......" but realizing she actually meant the road. I'm sending her the pics I took, and she's told me to keep all my receipts.
On a more positive note - I still love the fact that Jose, our builder, has made our water pressure so brilliant. It's AWESOME.
I forgot something in yesterday's chapter and verse:
8) Allergies. I have a cough, I've always had it for about 10 weeks a year. Doctor's have looked and tested and have found nothing wrong. Now, this Allergist believes that I'm violently allergic to dust mites. We've nuked the bed and it's now lovely microfiber encasings for the box spring, mattress, duvet and pillows (to the tune of nearly $600 I might add - ouch!). Last week if you remember i had 2 creams for the rashes, an inhaler and then 2 pills (one of the pills left me soooo tired). I felt like a walking pharmacy. Anyway, when I saw him on Friday we talked for a while - first, he started talking to me about allergy injections to try and fix it. I'd heard of them but knew nothing so I asked the question - did you know that you have injections weekly for 7 months and then have to go on maintenance mode for ever? For a cough that lasts a few weeks a year? Seemed a bit overkill to me - so I told him that. Then, he said to scrap all the other meds I was on and to take a nasal spray. At least it's only 1 thing. I'm to call him Tuesday to tell him if it's working or not. All I know is the damn thing tastes like wet grass - and that's not nice at all. Oh well, about a month from now the cough will disappear anyway:)
We're in our apartment - yeah! Very excited about that - so much has gone on since the last post. Had an impromptu evening with our neighbour last night - it was funny, although not so funny when i had to get up early this morning for the cleaners:) Hey ho - we had fun, and I was fine by 9 (after a triple shot of coffee!). So, go get a cuppa, take a breath and get ready for a long ol' read. I'll take one thing at a time.
1) One of the things that's annoyed me since we moved into this apartment was the water pressure in the shower. It was crap - and when I had long hair it'd take an age to get all the suds out. Well, Friday morning when I took a shower there was a very loud scream of excitement - it is awesome. Now, of course, I don't want the crappy shower head - so I'm on the lookout for one:)
2) Furniture. We spent most of yesterday putting together the sofa table and 2 end tables - they look AWESOME. I have to say that I think www.overstock.com is fabulous. It's always great quality stuff and it's really easy to put together, even if it takes a little bit of time. The ottoman in the living room is also cool - it's got so much space underneath that it'll hide a multitude of sin:) One of the things I've tried to do is find furniture that has drawers and places to put things as we have so little closet space. All I have to do now is decide what to put in what drawers (weird, huh?). The other cool thing is that the website has now released a china cabinet that will fit very nicely where I was going to put the audio cabinet - seriously, seriously considering adding it as to complete the set.
3) Building work. The floors are done, cabinets built, backsplash is on (even though it's not the colour I want), walls painted etc etc. Still got to do the bathrooms and have the TV mounted on the wall and get the bathrooms sorted out. The little bathroom is easy - it's already painted and the ceiling fixed, we just need to have the floor ripped up and the plain white tiles laid. That'll be cool.
4) Selling items. Not done bad here - craigslist is awesome. I've sold my Ikea chairs and washer/dryer. Still got the fridge, sofas and dining set to go. Working on that.
5) Appliances. New stuff got delivered today. Who knew we had a gas dryer - I always thought it was electric. Well...after we removed the old one (not an easy task and at least 2 wrenches had to be purchased!) we found out that it was actually gas. That was great - except I ordered an electric dryer - so, we had to send it back. The new one arrives on Friday - the day I leave for England. The fridge though looks great - except for the fact that the water dispenser doesn't work. They couldn't get it to work when they installed it and gave me some flannel about needing to leave the water to chill for 24 hours before it'd work - I fell for it. However, 3 nano seconds after the elevator shuts Trev pipes up "it's not going to work!". Brilliant. The ice is working fine, although it's not coming out of the dispenser. I tried calling, but they're shut until Monday - I'll call then. Hopefully they'll be able to arrange for delivery of a new one at the same time as the dryer.
6) Home organization. So through all the clearing up yesterday we went through our closet of crap as well as the closet in the spare room - we've had a huge reorg that took ages, but we have lots more room. You know that Skymall magazine that's always in the back seat of the plane? Well, when we were delayed getting back from Denver I spent a good hour going through that magazine and found something I had to have - usually I always feel like that, take the magazine home then decide I don't need it anyway. As it turned out I really wanted this and ordered it - it's blinking brilliant. All it is is a waterproof, breathable bag that houses all the cushions for our outdoor chairs. Apart of the fact that it's mustard yellow (not my first choice, of course) it sits at the end of the balcony and easily takes all 10 cushions. It's guaranteed not to leak. It also gives us oooodles of space in our one and only closet in the living room. I feel such a sucker for buying it after I saw it on the plane, but hell - it's great. The other thing I want to do is bring up my piano - we've got a spot for it in the spare room. Before i do that I need to get hold of a restorer as from all the floods last year, it's got damaged. That will give us a lot of room in the basement storage unit. The electric piano will still be stored there - but at least one of them can come into our home.
7) My ankle. I'm out of the cast (hurrah!) but now I have this big ugly boot to put on and I have to wear it for at least 2-3 weeks. That means when I head to England that I will have to take it with me. I thought having the cast was bad, but this thing is far worse. Not only is it huge and clunky, but it's heavy. It's like walking around with an additional 5lb. The other thing is that I need to be VERY careful is when I'm walking around without it - while I have athletic tape to brace my ankle it's very easy to overdo it. I'm taking it easy and getitng used to the fact that I'll have to wear flats for my 2 weeks in England.
8) Diet and Exercise. I did really well in fall last year - lost 17lb and got into the groove. For whatever reason, it's sucked this year. I know I lose weight if I follow the diet - the problem is, I've just found too many times that I'll cheat "just a little bit". I've really got to get back on the straight and narrow. Exercise is OK although all I'm oding right now is working out with Billy. I can't get much cardio done at all. Hopefully though I'll be able to spin when i get back in the middle of June.
Ok, I just ordered dinner, it'll arrive shortly. Need to shower before we head out to see Indiana Jones. Hmmmmm.....Harrison Ford.
I get to go to the doc tomorrow afternoon - hopefully it'll be mended enough that I don't need a cast. It's still very sore, but I can at least wiggle my toes without grimacing - that's progress, right?
The car hire company actually called me today - lots of excuses about the note we left being water damaged so they couldn't read the phone number etc etc, but they did find my reservation and called. They have logged a complaint number - when I called to confirm my phone number and address etc they said that an adjuster would be calling me in 3 days. That sounds serious....which I guess it is given i've got a) proof and b) a sore blinking ankle.
Let's hope this gets fixed soon.
Here's an article that made me chuckle:) I don't think it's supposed to but it did. Everyone I know has money trouble - not that we all spend more than we make, but there's always the "what we're supposed to do" vs. the "I could be dead tomorrow" mentality. I shift constantly between the two. I'm always paranoid about frequent visits to the coffee shop, but I've dropped craploads of money for a washer, dryer, refrigerator, sofa, leather chairs, ottoman, entertainment center, decorating in the past few months - and now we're on a roll, Trev is getting in on the game deciding he wants to revamp the spare room with new office furniture, a fancy sofabed (getting rid of the actual bed that gets used rarely) etc etc. it never stops.
So, the question is do I believe in these rules?
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105041/Ways-to-
Your Heart Is Blue |
 Love is a doing word for you. You know it's love when you treat each other well. You are a giving lover, but you don't give too much. You expect something in return. Your flirting style: Friendly Your lucky first date: Lunch at an outdoor cafe Your dream lover: Is both generous and selfish What you bring to relationships: Loyalty |
Your Heart Is Blue |
Love is a doing word for you. You know it's love when you treat each other well. You are a giving lover, but you don't give too much. You expect something in return. Your flirting style: Friendly Your lucky first date: Lunch at an outdoor cafe Your dream lover: Is both generous and selfish What you bring to relationships: Loyalty |
The furniture is in the apartment, albeit VERY dusty and "new paint smell". The living room is fabulous and our new sofa and chairs will look awesome. I can't wait. That said, the TV isn't on the wall, they haven't wired the speakers into the ceiling like we asked and they've put all the old furniture back - when we explicitly told them to put the new stuff together. Hmmmpf.
There are many things that I'm also not happy with. Here goes
- the quality of the woodwork is not up to par (thanks Dad here for teaching me the beauty of painting and how it should look). While they can fix some, I can feel a project coming on for Dad and I next time my parents visit!!
- the living room stuff above.
- in the master closet they took a big chunk out of my newly finished floor while putting back stuff.
- master bedroom needs a 2nd coat on the walls
- they got paint on my expensive blinds
- the closets aren't painted in the 2nd bed and living room
- they didn't paint the elevator to match the walls in the living room
And then there's loads of other stuff. They're nowhere near finished so now they're working on the kitchen and little bathroom.
On the good side, I posted stuff on craigslist and in a few hours have responses so I think I've sold the dining room set and the IKEA chairs already. yeah!
I think I'll be in the UK before they're finished. I'll take pics soon.
So, the weekend started and we bought a washer, dryer and refrigerator. That was bad enough. Then, I needed to buy the waste disposal for the kitchen work that was going on. Tonight, I had to order all the allergy stuff for the bed that the doctor prescribed - a casing for the box spring, mattress, 4 pillows, duvet.
Our new leather chairs arrived, along with the ottoman today - it's taking up all the space in the hallway downstairs.
I've put my stuff that needs selling on craigslist - so hopefully we'll recoup some of the money from that.
So, our apartment is still not ready - but it looks AWESOME. We should be moved in by the middle of the week which is great. They just need to finish a few things then they can get the furniture in.
Nick and Jackie got back from their 2 week trip so we're all roommates again - it's like a huge dose of deja vu when they were living with us. Good job we get on well:)
Anyway, Nick has this friends and family site where you can get huge discounts on washers, dryers, refrigerators etc - so as I really really really wanted a side by side fridge we took a look. Then, having used their washer and dryer which are huge compared to ours I had a look for them too. We got about a 40% discount overall which is great. I'll be putting our sofas, red chairs, washer/dryer unit and fridge up on ebay and/or craigslist - as I need to recoup some of the money.
The other thing I did was cash in all our points on the credit cards - on one, I got some cool stuff like a new handbag and got Trev a $100 Starbucks card (as he uses it so much!!) as well as $150 Target cards but then I also cashed in for real cash on the other one. That'll help with all this stuff we're buying.
Back to work tomorrow...
My foot still hurts, and it's getting bluer by the minute. We've decided, before hiring a lawyer, that we should given the car hire firm the benefit of the doubt before we bring in the big guns. So, this week we're contacting the car hire firm, checking that the manager at the local office received the letter Trev wrote on the day of the accident. If they did and did nothing, we'll contact head office. If that gets us nowhere then we'll hire a lawyer - in talking to colleagues there's big bucks in this. Watch this space for more news:)
So, as you know, we're staying at our neighbours place this week while our decorating gets finished. They're on vacation, so we're on our own. Last night I met up for drinks and dinner with a colleague was visiting from Germany.
I got home about 9.30pm.... when I travel I have my Bose headphones and loud music and can't hear a thing.
I put the key in the lock.....and the door wouldn't open. A little worried I figured the builder must have been in during the day. I was in the process of trying the second lock (that I hadn't used) and the door flew open!
Apparently Nick's sister had decided to turn up to do laundry and bake cookies. It was 9.45pm by this time. Who bakes cookies at that time of night?
I nearly had a heart attack. Anyway, they left eventually. Mind you, it made me want my own place back.
On a totally different topic, for amusement, read this article....it's very funny. It's a list of advice from 1943 for men hiring women:)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1166042.ece
Thanks Penny for this one...
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Well, we'd been living in the US for a year, so I was being Mum. Making sure we had a home, was a 1950s wife with all the homely chores, and wishing I had a job. I think that being Mum for the 3 years i did it was instrumental in us all settling down in this country....without it, it would have been awful. The kids grew up into great adults...and, while it might be a tad modest for me, I'll give myself some credit here.
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today- not in any particular order?
- Log into work and catch up with all the stuff I missed this afternoon being out at the docs
- Find a bathroom vanity for our master bath, so when the builder gets around to the bathroom we have it at home already - this is proving a challenge
- Pay off our escrow from the mortgage from 2006...just need to write a check
- Work...get ready for my one to one with my boss on Friday
- Work...finish the client reports I've been trying to do
3. Snacks I enjoy
- romaine lettuce, cucumber, grated carrot, crumbled Boursin cheese and an Asian dressing
- nuts (cashew, almond and walnut)
- cucumbers and celery with ranch dressing
- grapes
- 100 calorie Chessmen
4. Places I've lived
England:
Hemel Hempstead
Chinnor
High Wycombe (thanks for reminding me Mum!)
Stowmarket
Ipswich
USA:
Cedar Rapids, IA
St Louis, MO
New York City, NY (briefly)
Hoboken, NJ
5. Things I would do if I were a billionare:
- Make sure my family was debt free and comfortable
- Have a home/apartment on every continent (America, England, Australia, somewhere in Asia)
- Buy a few timeshares so we can all go on holiday
- Fund new inventions - but only the ones I think will make money:)
- Have an apartment overlooking Central Park
- Fund a homeless shelter or 2
- Get Mum the best medical services....and figure out how to fix the diabetes, tiredness, knees, hepatitus etc etc etc.
- Get Mum and Dad a personal trainer and dietician for a year.....and make sure they exercised and got healthy:)
So thanks to Mum and Emily here's another Meme...
Now, Here Is What You Are Supposed To Do...And Please Do Not Spoil The Fun! Hit Forward, Delete My Answers And Type In Your Answers. Then Send This To A Whole Bunch Of People That You Know...And Send It Back To Me So I Can See Your Answers, The Theory Is That You Will Learn A Lot Of Little Known Facts About Those You Know. Remember To Send It Back Please!
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? – no idea, don’t think so (Mum?)
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? – last Saturday when I fell off the bus in Denver. It wasn’t for long, because then I got angry….but I did shed a few tears.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? - If I’m using a nice pen then yes
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? – don’t have one. If I had a choice, I’d never choose a sandwich.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? – 3 – Peter, Carrieanne and Rachel (technically step-kids, but as far as I’m concerned we’ve shared a lot over the years and we have jumping genes!!)
>>
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Of course
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Sometimes – mostly when I’m with my brother Tim
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Yes
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? A choice between Readybrek and Shreddies (both English cereal, I always bring a box back home with me when I visit)
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Not unless I have to
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes – both physically and emotionally
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Homemade rum and raisin (minus the raisin…I pick them out), or a caramel type ice cream.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their eyes
15. RED OR PINK? Red, every time
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My legs – and on the non-physical side, the fact that I have an opinion for everything
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I miss my family, and I see them often. I miss my Gran
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Yes, but they won’t (well, Penny will….as always)
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue gym pants, bare feet
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Organic tomato and red pepper soup, a slice of wholewheat bread, followed by a couple of cookies
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? CSI on the TV
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Royal blue
23. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SMELL? Homemade baking
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Trevor
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I love them both
26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I’d rather get a massage or work out thanks very much
27. HAIR COLOR? Reddy, blond
28. EYE COLOR? Blue
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes
Yes
30. FAVORITE FOOD? Sushi, or a full English roast dinner
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Baby Mama and Spiderman 3
33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Black
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Definitely both
36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Homemade chocolate cake
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Penny
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Everyone else
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Fitness and Shape magazines
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? My company’s new logo
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T. V. LAST NIGHT? CSI Miami
42. FAVORITE SOUND? Howling laughter
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Neither…..but I guess Beatles
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Melbourne, Australia
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Can multi-task up the wazoo
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Hemel Hempstead, England
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Everyone’s
Before we went to Colorado, we agreed with our builder that he'd empty the apartment, redo the floors and also paint all the walls. Here are a couple of pics of the new floor and walls of the living room. One of the pics is natural light (the first one), the other is with a flash. The floor is much less red than it used to be and looks good - tomorrow they varnish/finish it (today was the sanding and staining). The wall colours - on the window wall we've gone for a poppy red for a bit of a change -and it goes really well. My only concern is that I chose that colour before I bought the sage green sofa - I'm worried it'll look like a Christmas Tree shop:) I may as well as wait until the sofa arrives to worry about it. Interestingly the beige colour on the walls looked fine with the old floors, but now may be a little pale....
I'm still hoping we'll be back in there by the weekend, but for now, I'm hanging out at our neighbours place.
Yeeeeeehhhaaaaaaa! Trev and I both worked out with Billy yesterday. We found another gym where we can pay him directly - yippdidoo... of course, I ignored the fact my ankle hurts:)
Needless to say we're hurting like hell today. Gotta know a good trainer.
I feel soooo much better now he's back. I"m back on my diet too - he's always a good influence!
Oh my....so I went to the doc. I went for 2 things - first my cough which is persisting and then to get my ankle checked out. Here's what I left with:
For my cough - apparently I have something wrong and my doc can't fix it so I have to go see someone else.
- appointment to get a chest xray (Tues)
- appointment with an allergist (Thurs)
- 2 prescriptions; 1 pills and 1 inhaler
For my ankle - he said that he can tell if it's just a bruise or something more serious. Suffice to say I hit the ceiling with a loud "aaaaggghhhhh". I've also been told not to work out - ha!
- appointment with a podiatrist (Thurs)
So, we'll see how we go.
I feel like I turned 40 and now have oodles of things wrong with me. I hope it sorts itself out.
So, I ordered the 3 seater green sofa, 2 leather chairs and a leather ottoman. Should look pretty damn cool I think!
Let's hope when we get home tomorrow that the floors and painting will look fabulous!
For those of you who knew us when we lived in Iowa, we had the most comfortable green sofas in the world. We had a big 3 seater then 2 loveseats, complemented with an ottoman. Man, it was comfy. When we first moved to the USA in 1996 I walked into the first cheap furniture store and bought these green sofas and a full bedroom suite (drawers, dressing table, big mirror, bed frame, bed) for about $1200. Cheap as crap, right?
When we left Iowa the sofas got split up. Carrieanne got the big one, and then Peter and Rach got one of the loveseats. Can't remember who got the ottoman. In St Louis we decided to go on a search for the same kind of thing, but newer. And that was our cream sofas. While they were cheap-ish they have never been as comfortable.
So this past week we've been in Colorado looking after Peter. He's still got the old green sofa - it's got rips, and it's totally knackered. However, it's still as comfy as ever. I started to pine for my green sofas all over again. It was compounded by going to see Sanya and Jeff. In their basement they had the EXACT green sofa - it just looked less lived in:) Even better, in their living room they had a leather version of the same thing. I didn't like the leather - I never have, it's just not cosy. I took a look at the manufacturing labels....just in case.
So.....
Yesterday, on a work day, we met one of Peter's professors for lunch (Vietnamese restaurant called "You and Mee" - the Pho (noodle soup) was awesome. I then spent the entire afternoon on the internet like a complete geek/nerd/a woman possessed looking for the damn sofa.
I found them. Yippeeeeeee. You just HAVE to love the internet. How did we survive before? I am amazed at how quickly I managed to find the sofa. I'm convinced I can sell my existing sofas on craigslist for at least $500, if not more, so I won't be out of money that much. And it's still relatively cheap - at $587 for the 3 seater sofa. I've also looked at all my points on my credit cards and I was surprised to see that if I convert the points to cash they'll give me $800. So, my sofa is free. Then also if I manage to sell the sofa on craigslist I'll be totally in the money!!
So....
Now the big question is whether to have a 3 seater and a loveseat (2 seater) 0r just a 3 seater and then get a complementary leather chair, or something similar. The big debate going on is when we have people to stay (which is quite often since we've been in NY), there would be a constant fight over getting the comfy seats - trust me, it happened when we lived in IA. I found some nice leather chairs on overstock.com (another favourite website of mine) that would go really well with the other furniture we bought and the ottoman I want. They look really comfortable - and we could put the 2nd one in our bedroom and pull it out when we needed to. We really don't need 2 sofas....but the question is why do I keep going back to wanting them.... the other thing is I really like having an ottoman - I always want to put my feet up when i sit down - I'm a short arse and my feet never hit the ground. This time though I want to go for a sturdy leather type ottoman where I can store crap underneath it (on my permanent quest for "places to put things" as we have storage space) - I found that on overstock.com too.
So, as you can see, rather than my mind being busy with lots of work stuff that I can do while being out of the office I'm totally obsessed by my green sofas. What's even weirder is that the ONLY colour this new one comes in is sage green.....which totally messes up with the wall I've just had painted poppy red:) My room'll look like a Christmas tree....so I guess I'm having that wall repainted to the paler colour.
OK, obsession rant over.....I'm off to buy all this stuff! Oh yeah, and put all the other stuff on craigslist:) I'm really hoping I end up no money out of pocket on this....now THAT would be cool.
On another note, Trev is now actively looking for a job - he's got a spiffy resume and he's talking with recruiters. The great thing is he's now only traveling Tues-Thurs so that he can interview and talk with peeps on a Mon or Fri. how cool is that? I really hope he finds something soon.
I've never had to make the choice (thankfully), but I've always been a believer in a woman's right to choose. Not that a woman should choose willy nilly, but if they were pregnant as a result of a rape, their life was in danger etc, I think there's reason to justify the decision.
That said, in England the legal limit for abortion is still at 24 weeks. Read the stories in this article - makes you think.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=564459&in_page_id=1879
Certainly, if babies can survive....that limit needs to be moved. A lot.
So the last few days here in Boulder have been beautiful - not humid, about 70 degrees, sunny. It's absolutely gorgeous. And today, they've cut the grass outside of Peter's house - a sign that summer is definitely here to stay - yeah!! Now, I know that most of the time we've been couped up in the house looking after son number 1 and his knee - he's at his first physio appointment as I write this so as I had a few minutes I thought I'd post what we've done since we've been here.
- went and saw Baby Mama - it's HYSTERICAL. Love that movie. I want to watch it again, but I think it's going to go down as one of my favourites. Everyone was so great in it - what a fun movie.
- we went to dinner at Frasca, a beautiful restaurant - the food was fantastic.
- after the surgery we stayed home (of course) - but it's given me a chance to cook some basic English home comforts. I made shepherds pie with minced turkey (rather than beef) - I thought it was pretty good.
- Peter's friend Bill then brought over a pot roast on Saturday and that was fabulous too.
- Peter was feeling better by yesterday (Sunday) so we went out to lunch for Vietnamese which was awesome followed by (in the evening) a bar of his and we had some more English fare - curry and chips, and sausage roll - favourite, favourite food. It was yummy.
Today Peter's not feeling so well. It's a combination of coming off the narcotic pain killers and the removal of that natural high you normally get after surgery. I'm sure after physio he's going to be wiped out - so tonight it's going to be toad in the hole* (more English comfort food) for dinner.
Toad in the whole is sausages baked with yorkshire pudding batter in the oven. The batter is basically pancake batter...but the English kind, not American. For the recipe see http://www.deliasmith.co.uk/recipes/toad-in-the-hole-with-roasted-onion-gravy,1030,RC.html - Delia Smith is an icon of British cooking.
In other news....we're training with Billy next Sunday. Very excited about that. He's got a new gym, right across the street from the old one so I'm able to still do my classes and then go train with him. It's certainly making me think about working out while I'm in Colorado - that's for damn sure.
OK back to work:)
Is it May 1st today? Did I miss something? Check out the picture.....I'm in Boulder, CO - and it's snowing!
The temperature isn't too bad - about 50 degrees, but holy moly....it's snowing!
