General

When we woke up this morning to no electricity, I almost panicked thinking there was another ice storm. Granted, all the schools are closed and there’s a coating of ice all over the trees, but the power was only out for about three hours. Just long enough for the house to start to get a little chilly. And for me to start going through internet withdrawal. I’m so ‘net-dependent it’s pathetic.

At least I got some knitting done. Maybe the socks I so desperately want to start won’t have to wait too much longer. :)

Now we just have to figure out if it will be safe to travel down to NYC as planned.

<whine alert>I just ripped the chair rail tape down…it didn’t do a very good job. Not at all. There was dark color underneath the tape where the light color is supposed to be. The tape pulled away some of the dark paint on the chair rail, despite my careful scoring along the tape line. I spent half my lunch hour with a tiny little art brush, a three-inch putty knife as a straight edge, and a bucket of paint…and only got one wall done – which needs a second coat, since the light color doesn’t cover up the dark color so well. Why does this always seem to work perfectly on Trading Spaces? They can manage to get razor sharp edges between different color areas, why can’t I? </whine alert>

Who needs the gym? Just climb up and down a step ladder 50 times, and every time you get to the top, hold both arms straight up wielding a paintbrush in one hand and a paint shield in the other. You will never have to worry about lifting your arms again, because they will have fallen off by the end of the routine. :)

No “after” pictures yet – I’m not done with the trim, and the blue tape on the walls right now really doesn’t fit in with the color scheme!

My dining room before today:

(Yeah, I know, I got impatient and started ripping the wallpaper down before I took the picture.) Now, it’s not that the wallpaper was all that bad. Really. OK, yes it was. I’ve disliked it since the day we moved in, but it had been recently done, and was in too good condition to change when there were so many other rooms that needed a change first.

A while back, I’d posted my plans for this room. Let’s just say, they changed. A lot. Thank goodness I didn’t do that, because what I’m doing is so much better, and more my style!

I felt a little like I was in an episode of trading spaces, opening up the first can of paint. Hopefully I’ll have some “after” pictures to post soon!

It’s such a beautiful day. Warm, sunny, a mild breeze – well, ok, more like a “mild” gusting wind… I went out to lunch with some friends and decided to stop to buy dinner things on my way home. I have salmon marinating in the fridge right now, just waiting to be grilled. :)

I’m sure I got more than a few odd looks – in honor of spring, and of going out to lunch, I wore short sleeves, sandals, and my new blue crocheted hat. I couldn’t believe the number of people wearing coats – it’s 70° out!

(I’m ignoring the fact that they’re forecasting snow for Sunday.)

Check out Lord of the Rings – “peeps” style! All I can say is, someone sure has an awful lot of time on their hands… Go on, click on the link already!

This morning, I skipped out on the gym (bad, bad, Sarah) in favor of getting a couple of things done that I’ve been procrastinating over…including, finally, getting the pictures from the St. Patty’s Day party I had a couple of weeks ago up on Ofoto and out to everybody.

Why am I posting them here? Well, there are an awful lot of very cute puppy pictures – of my two, and of Jenny’s pup. And no, before anyone calls animal control, none of the puppies actually drank any beer. :)

Yes, I know, I live in Rochester. So…the fact that the calendar says it’s going to be spring on Friday shouldn’t mean a thing. Let’s face it, spring here usually comes at least a month late.

But for the past several days, we’ve had sunshine, and above-freezing temperatures often straying into the 50’s. I just can’t help but think that we really might end up with spring happening right on time.

I’m itching to go out and garden – at least long enough to get rid of the dead leaves we never managed to rake last fall. We tried to take the doggies for a walk in the lovely warm sunshine, but Murphy obviously has no clue how to walk on a leash and tried very hard to choke himself – we ended up turning back. Ah, well. Obedience classes start in two weeks – thank goodness!

(Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all!)

I know, I know, yesterday’s news…but did everyone see this? It makes me really wonder about our politicians, and why they have time to do really silly things like this. Just one thing…am I now required to call my “French” horn a “Freedom” horn? (Not that it’s even really French in the first place…)