The cost of being lazy.


I just realized I haven't gone to the gym in quite a while and I'm feeling it, not just in my waist but in my wallet. I've let 24Hour Fitness bill me and I haven't used their facilities in quite a while.

A while back I managed to cut about 25 pounds off my body through exercise, eating a lot of zone bars, and drinking lots of water. Also I cut out the Coke.

I think I'm going to have to get back into that mind set, but I wish I had gotten back into that mind set a few months ago so it wouldn't be such a chore now.

Well, next door, actually.


Okay, now I really feel bad. The next door neighbors' place was broken into during the day and they were robbed. It's probably a good thing I work from home right now. I would suspect who ever broke in probably knows my neighbors and when they come and go and so it's unlikely the same person would break into my place. I've made it clear to everyone that I work from home anyway during the day so if someone tried anything there would be a confrontation but still it's a little unnerving.

Just in case I've covered all of my nice wooden floor with butter so that if anyone tries to walk on it they are going to whooooooopies.....

<crash>

argggghhhh........


my head........


Okay, I should probably rethink my plan to cover all the door knobs with razors dipped in curare...

Actually, it's pretty cold right now.


I felt a little bad tonight as I walked out my door to go get something to eat. One of my neighbors was outside on the steps because their air conditioner had broken and it wasn't going to be fixed for a couple of days and she said they were sweating terribly in their place.

I felt a little bad because the ac was running so well in my place I was actually pretty cold and I'd turned it off about an hour earlier.

My niece turns 7.


Here's a nice shot of my niece acting a little silly with a boa constrictor around her neck, taken a few weeks ago at Crococun while on our recent trip to Mexico.



She is so photogenic it's hard to believe we are even related.

Tomorrow is a day off.


I'd really like to spend a day doing something other than working on the kitchen and buying stuff for it, but it seems like I'm hooked on it and I can't stop. Tonight I was trying to figure out if I could convert one of the wall cabinets into a pull out cabinet.

It's weird thinking that I need to go back to my old obsession, golf, to save money.

My place is the opposite of my brother's right now.


Although I'm only remodeling the kitchen I've had to move everything out of the kitchen and into other rooms and that's kept me from really keeping the other rooms straight so that my entire apartment looks like a bomb went off. Once I finish work on the kitchen though I'm going to have to sort all this crap out and actually clean all these other rooms.

Perhaps I should consider delaying the completion of the kitchen remodel for a few more months or years...

Looks like I need to invest in paper plates.


The good news is that with the new range arriving this week I should be able to start cooking again. The bad news is that since I'm going to have to special order the kitchen sink I won't be able to clean the dishes for a few weeks...

I seem to remember being relaxed just a few days ago...


The nice thing about having so many things going on in my life that are making me completely frazzled is that they should all be resolved in just a few weeks and then I can go back to my quiet, boring, debt ridden life, but with a nicer kitchen.

Coming a long.


Kurt did a great job laying out the floor while I was in Mexico. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the old floor to compare it to, but I do like the diamond layout of the tile Kurt suggested.

A few of the cabinets are in place and the rest will be put in place by the end of the week when the new range arrives, but so far the kitchen is looking good.





I've posted more pics on facebook for anyone really interested in this, and for people who really have no interest what so ever..

New iPhone!


I've been waiting patiently for a new iPhone for some time, ever since my original was damaged mysteriously and lines started appearing in the middle of the screen. It's been several months since the lines formed and I have no idea how many people I had to explain to while showing pictures on my phone that the lines were not actually in the image itself but were on the phone, so instead of thinking I was a lousy photographer instead people just thought I was too cheap to get another phone.

Well, today I was too cheap no longer. I was a bit impatient, but not cheap.

The iPhone went on sale today when the local store opened up at 7AM. I decided to wait an hour to try to pick mine up because I figured by 8AM all the really crazy iphone fanatics would have picked theirs up by then. Unfortunately when I got to the store at 8:05 AM I discovered an Austin secret. There are a lot of iPhone fanatics in Austin. In fact, the line stretched in front of four stores.

Four stores may not seem like a lot of stores, but when you have people lined up in front of the stores and the process for moving the line (selling the phones) is something akin to watching a pot boil as molasses carries it up hill. In other words it was impossibly slow.

I waited in the reservation line because I set up a reservation on line a few days ago. That line stretched in front of all four buildings. There was another line however, made up of non reservists, mainly lazy and irresponsible people who hadn't bothered to even check to see if they were eligible for the new iphone based on their contract with AT&T. This line was of course noticeably shorter, about half as long.

Fortunately, the store had more agents handling customers from the longer line of responsible customers. Unfortunately it was not all of the agents. It was less than half as many but more than zero, which is what I would have allocated for people without reservations.

When I first arrived at 8:05 AM I had no idea how long it would take but I figured it wouldn't take more than an hour. How long could it take to sell an iPhone? If the customer had a reservation that meant it had already been confirmed the customer was eligible for the upgrade so the process should be pretty quick, five minutes, I figured, maybe, so it might take an hour and a half to get the phone given how many people were in line, but not much more than that.

About an hour an a half later I found myself standing in line about 25 feet from where I started and about 75 feet from where I could by a new phone. I waited a little while longer to see if by some miracle the process might speed up, more employees show up to help out, a flood washes away most of the people in front of me, I was hoping for just about anything, but nothing changed.

Instead I left to take care of my household chores and then went to play a little golf at Butler where I stank up the joint and put three balls into the street. I did not hit any cars though.

After golf I went back to the store to get in line. By then the line was much shorter, but as soon as I got in line i was told by an employee the store would be closed in an hour and they could not guarantee I would get in the store by then. I decided to take my chances anyway and wait, just like the 50 or 60 people that showed up after I got there.

I waited less than an hour until 9PM, and for quite a while I was sure that I would not even get anywhere near the entrance to the store, but in the last 20 minutes the sales seemed to go much faster. One by one parties wandered out of the store with smiles on their faces and people still in line were slowly escorted into the store. Sometimes it was just one lonely person like me, and sometimes it was a huge family that were all waiting together.

Finally the last person in front of me was escorted in at 8:53 PM, and I waited in front of the door.

8:54 PM, rolled by on my phone, and then 8:55, then 8:56, then 8:57.

Finally at 8:58 I was told that they weren't going to let anyone else in and that that I would have to come back some other time. My reservation was going to be cancelled but I could try again tomorrow morning or later in the week.

Still, it was only 8:58 and I wasn't leaving. Not until 9 PM. 8:59 came while I was talking to the guy behind me about how much it sucked to wait all this time and be shut out even before 9 PM. I understood it but it still sucked.

9 PM rolled around. I was just about to wander back to my car but there was still too much stuff going on. It wasn't 9:01 PM yet. That would be the cut off. Just a few more seconds.

Suddenly, an employee poked his head beyond the glass doors. There was some mention or reservations and both the guy behind me and I said we had them, and suddenly we were both waved in. We were the last two in for the evening.

Since i had my reservation the sale should have been pretty quick but I also wanted to get a couple other things. I can only imagine how many people would have been angry at me if my shopping had delayed their getting a new phone tonight but given no one was going to be allowed entry anymore I didn't feel so bad.

And so now I am armed with my new phone and I'm pretty excited to play with it, and I can finally show pictures without lines on the screen.

Now I just have to wait another year to 18 months for the next one.

Made one today.


I had to pick out tile today so I borrowed a friend, Alison, to make sure I didn't pick out something horrendous. We settled on a couple of tiles and took them back to my place where I realized one of the reasons why the kitchen is so dark is because of the 40 watt bulb in the ceiling, so after swopping it out with one of it's more powerful and brighter brethren we settled on the winner.

One quick trip back to Lowe's and I bought enough to take care of the kitchen and an extra box in case there are some broken ones.

Now all we have to do is start breaking the old tiles and picking them up, but I'm not sure I'm going to have the time to do that because I have go back to IKEA tomorrow one more time...I think Kurt, who is going to be installing everything, will enjoy hammering at the tiles anyway.

Me, I'm going to enjoy being on vacation. Only one more day of work before I leave...

And tomorrow may be busier.


It's been a long evening putting together cabinets and I have a few more to do tomorrow. I'm also going to spend a good 5-10 minutes picking out floor tile tomorrow, and I might bust up the tile in the kitchen so that Kurt can get started putting the new tile down right away, or right away after the countertop and base cabinets are removed.

I've also picked out a countertop although what I've picked is going to be a bit more expensive than I had initially budgeted for the countertop. I'm not going to pull the trigger on that purchase though until after I get back from vacation. By that time the tile and cabinets should be installed and I'll have a good idea how much debt I'm in and how much more I'll be in debt after the countertop is installed.

Fortunately I am off work tomorrow so I'll have plenty of time to work on the renovation plans. Hopefully things will go smoothly and I'll have time for some fun as well.

I don't want to die.


I really need to make sure I have switched off the right breaker before I go tearing down some piece of electrical equipment in the kitchen, in this case the overhead fan/lamp above the range. It's weird that an english major would have such a hard time with reading comprehension when it comes to the breaker box. Fortunately I figured it out before I killed myself, although not before I nearly killed myself.

The overhead fan/lamp i down though and I took down all the other wall cabinets. The countertop needs to be removed and the floor cabinets as well, and the pantry cabinet, but I'm leaving those to Kurt who does that stuff all the time.

Besides, I still have a lot of work to do to put the new cabinets together. I'm on a tight schedule because I only have one day off before I go on vacation but I've got one cabinet put together already and I just have seven more to do including the new pantry cabinet.

Here's the damage so far, with the overhead cabinet, exhaust fan and light on it's side on the left because I don't have anywhere else to put it right now (hello industrial sized garbage bin...).

I actually feel like it will happen.


I spoke to Kurt tonight about renovating the kitchen and all that it entails and it actually seems like it is going to get started soon. So soon in fact that I've emptied out all of the kitchen cabinets and I may start taking the upper cabinets down tomorrow. I'll let Kurt deal with the bottom cabinets and the countertop.

After discussing the set up with Kurt, he pointed out one area in my master plan that will have to change, but It will work out fine with the new set up and it actually saves me a little bit of money.

I'm going to re-tile the floor so I'll get those this week along with the cabinets which will be coming from IKEA. I still need to pick out a countertop though. I've got to decide how much money I want to (or can) spend on it. Color is one issue, but I'm also thinking about a curved edge to the side of the bar facing the living area, which means it will cost more.

I also need to pick out a new faucet and handles for all the cabinets, and a new oven and microwave (although I think I have found the last two online and I can get them from home depot).

I'm going to start posting pictures of the renovation intermittently, starting tomorrow...

Sahara Smith.


Although I was at Republic Square to see Los Lonely Boys perform it was nice to see Sahara Smith open for them. I'd heard good things about her and I had missed her last year when she opened the ACL Music Festival last year.