Fun with my kitchen

While Rand is off gallivanting about the UK, my mom and dad came up to Buffalo to help do some work in our kitchen. Our main goal? To get rid of this:

ugly wallpaper

I hate wallpaper. I curse the man who invented wallpaper. And this? Barf. It looks it should have been in someone’s guest bathroom in 1986.

Here are a few other “before” pix of the kitchen:

light

This light was hanging above the kitchen table. Not really my style. I think the pink/blue flower motif was supposed to match the wallpaper. And I’m not entirely sure the bulb was supposed to be hanging down like that.

kitchen

This is not to demonstrate what a mess the countertop was, but to give somewhat of an idea of the rose counters, white cabinets, and ugly, ugly wallpaper combo. Oh, and you can see a wee bit of the blue valance above the kitchen window, too.

cabinets

Just a close-up of the cabinets.

sink

The last person who lived here was obsessed with white. I really want to replace this white sink…and while the faucet looks pretty, it is not at all practical. Because it’s so high up, every time you use the sink, water splashes *everywhere*.

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While I was at work on Friday, my parents began stripping wallpaper. My dad made a trip to the hardware store, where he learned that there is special primer for painting over wallpaper. Score! No more stripping.

in progress

Walls have been primed, and we begin edging.

behind the fridge

Pulled out the fridge to paint behind it, and I was amused by the way the molding just stopped six inches short of the corner.

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Same area, after paint. This, obviously, is the color I chose. It’s sort of a rosy chocolate color.

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new paint

We’re finished now, and my parents have headed out. I’ll post some “after” pictures once I put a few finishing touches on, maybe later on today.

Music I like (according to Pandora)

In between proctoring midterms, I spent a lot of quality time in my classroom…grading, cleaning up, and all kinds of other little classroom tasks. This allowed me to spend some quality time with my favorite Internet radio station–Pandora.

I have a bunch of stations that I listen to, but the one I keep coming back to is this one. I named it something lame, like “mellow,” and I don’t remember what artist I used to create the station. Some of my old favorites there include Carbon Leaf, KT Tunstall, the Shins, and a few others that I can’t remember right now

But what I’m most interested in are the songs and artists Pandora suggests to me based on what I like…here’s a sampling of the artists that come up regularly on this station:

Travis
Guster
Fountains of Wayne
Howie Day
Jack Johnson
Glenn Tilbrook
Oysterband
O.A.R.
Turin Brakes
Jump, Little Children (I saw them live several years ago, and liked them very much…I had kind of forgotten about them until they popped up in my station!

I *love* the Travis song that keeps coming up…it’s called “Side.”

The thing about Pandora is that they are a bit limited in the song selections. It’ll play an artist, and I’ll only get two or three songs by that artist playing on my station. So, I’d be very interested in hearing whether any of you have any recommendations based on the above list. Throw ’em my way!

Tagged!

Linda tagged me on this one.

Make a list of things you can see without getting up: the TV, the Wii I just bought (still in box) , lots of books and DVDs, Rand, the dinner dishes.

What were you like when you were five? Shy.

What are you wearing now? blue sweatpants, a cream mock turtleneck, slippers and my robe.

What story/book/novel have you read over and over again in your life? A Wrinkle in Time

What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? An ARC of Ally Carter’s Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Garth Ennis’ Hitman

Do you nap a lot? Occasionally.

Who was the last person you hugged? Rand

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction? Lost

What was the last thing you ate today?Half a clementine

What was the last thing you said aloud? Why does he merit an article?

What websites do you always visit when you go online? Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter

What was the last thing you bought? a Wii

What are you listening to right now? commercials

If you could have any super power, what would it be? Telekinesis

What is your favorite weather, and why? Sunny and warm, but not too hot or humid.

What time do you usually get up? Around 6:20 am on the weekdays

What is your most challenging goal right now? Being a better teacher

Say something to the person who tagged you: Linda, I’ve so enjoyed being your “wedding buddy” and getting to know you through our blogs!

If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? I’d like to have a beach house somewhere…not to live in year-round, but for vacations.

Favorite vacation spot? Uh…Vermont was nice. I also like beaches. I guess I don’t really have a favorite.

What is your favorite children’s book? I’ll say The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, just to have a different answer from the one above.

Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: Cupcakes

If you could meet anyone famous – dead or alive – who would it be? Shakespeare

What was your first job? Babysitting. Or working at the public library.

What’s the last movie you saw? Silver Streak, via Netflix

TAGGED: Samantha, Eden, Emma, Stephanie, Julia, Caren, Jessica, and Amanda

(I won’t be offended if you don’t want to do it, really.)

THE RULES:
Step 1: respond and rework—answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.
Step 2: tag—eight other un-tagged people will be tagged.

Random Monday Things

In easy, bullet-point form.

  • Over the weekend, I purchased this book. It is chock full of low-fat, low-calorie recipes involving PUMPKIN! WHEE!
  • As of today’s “Biggest Loser” weigh-in, I am down 5 pounds from the weight that so horrified me and prompted me to join the competition. That’s nearly halfway to my target, so yay.
  • Eden just invited me to a Facebook event that brought this song to my attention. I was amused, so I thought I’d post it here. (It’s a Steeler fan parody of Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies.” Darn it all, that song is catchy.)
  • Eden and I chose and notified our Dead of Winter contest winners. Yay!
  • It is mid-term/Regents week at school, and the marking period closes Friday. That means I have no classes to teach this week, but I have a TON of work to do. Tomorrow and Wednesday, I proctor exams. When I’m not doing that, I’ll be grading or entering grades.
  • Rand and I decided to attend Trinity @ 7 last evening. We enjoyed it, and will probably be back. What makes it even more enticing? Completely randomly, we ran into his cousin Paul and his girlfriend Tyra there. Tyra was reading! Small, small Buffalo world.
  • Have not yet located a Wii. I just need to sit down and make phone calls one of these days.
  • Chatted with my dear friend Stephanie today. It had been far too long! So thanks again, Stephanie, for pinning me down. 😉
  • Through a serendipitous series of events that led to me being online friends with Jessica (aka miss_shortskirt), I got to read an ARC of Ally Carter’s upcoming book. Squee! I *heart* this series.  I’ll have to post a review.
  • Since I was a slacker and didn’t really post last week, I forgot to mention the inauguration. I got to watch for a bit at school, and I thought it was incredibly moving.  Yay, President Obama!

    Is there more? Probably, but that’s all I can manage for now. Toodles!

    New computer dilemma

    So a while back, because I was running out of space on my computer, I bought an external hard drive and transferred my iTunes library. Other than a semi-annoying glitch during the actual transfer, that’s worked out fine.

    Here’s where it gets annoying.

    My laptop has two USB ports. Both my iPod and external hard drive need to plug in to a USB port. I’ve discovered that these two devices cannot be plugged in at the same time. Serious bummer.

    I’ve done a bit of poking around the internet, and it appears that what I need is a USB hub with its own power source. Anyone have any experience with these?

    Here I go again

    mamma-mia

    So, remember how I talked about wanting to (among other things) see Mamma Mia! (again) at Shea’s this February?

    Well, yesterday Rand came home holding two tickets for the February 13 show.

    And how did this fabulous turn of events come to be? Well apparently a good while back, Adam asked Rand if the two of us would like to join him and his fiancee Jolene for the show. Rand said he thought that would be swell, and Adam and Jolene gave us the tickets for Christmas. Rand, however, wanted to surprise me and waited until now to tell me–so he could be sure I didn’t make alternate plans. Or buy tickets for Mamma Mia! 😉

    This will be my third time, but Rand’s first (apart from seeing the movie). Many, many thanks to Adam and Jolene for the awesome gift. Squee!

    Book recommendations?

    As a rule, I don’t read a whole lot of nonfiction. What I did read last year was mostly entertainment or education-related. And yet, almost every time I see someone on The Daily Show promoting a book, I think, “hey, that sounds interesting. I might want to read that.”

    So I’m looking for your recommendations. What irresistible nonfiction is out there waiting for me?

    Money, money, money

    I’m finding myself wanting a lot of things these days, and having trouble deciding what is worth the money and what isn’t.

    As I already mentioned, I’m still waffling over this whole gym membership/Wii thing. I know I need to start getting active, and I just don’t know what the best thing (for me) is. I suspect that whatever I choose is going to involve spending some money.

    I think we need a new water heater. We cannot take two consecutive showers without running out of hot water, and the tank takes a LONG time to recover. Our home is entirely electric–there is no gas line into the house. I am aware that gas hot water heaters are more efficient than electric ones, but that’s just not an option. I have no way of knowing how old the hot water heater is, but from the little research I’ve done in the past couple of days, it does not appear that what we have is very efficient at all. (It’s a 40-gallon tank with an FHR of 32, and the energy efficiency is terrible.) I really have no idea what it will cost to replace/install a water heater, nor do I have any idea what we need.

    While both of our cars are currently running fine, we recognize that we should probably plan ahead for replacing at least one of them.

    Our laptops are also both aging. Rand’s seems to be giving him more trouble than mine is giving me.

    We’re both finding ourselves mildly strapped for cash since the holidays and our stay in NYC…nothing we can’t handle, of course, but it means this month is probably not the best time to be spending oodles of cash. Tell me that as I’m enviously eying tickets for both Rent and Mamma Mia at Shea’s this month/next month. Not to mention how desperately I want to shop for some new clothes/shoes. And I’m not even going to get into the whole iPhone thing…

    And looking around the house? Don’t even get me started. Very soon, I’m going to be posting some pictures of my kitchen…at the very least, we WILL be tearing down wallpaper and painting in the near future. More on that to come.

    So yeah, this is what I’ve been spending my weekend thinking about. I shouldn’t complain too much–I know that we’re in a very good position compared to a lot of people right now. (On the other hand, while I’m hopeful, I have no guarantee that I will have a job in September…)

    Ah well. I’m off…got to buy groceries and eat dinner before doing some lesson planning this evening. Any advice on the water heater thing would be welcome!