The Concert

While I was on the "girls" road trip at the beginning of the month, I got a message on my cell phone from Jennifer asking if I had seen the e-mail she sent me. Well, since I was on vacation, I hadn't, so when we got to the hotel in Kalamazoo, I borrowed Barb's computer and checked. I figured it had to be important because I very rarely get e-mails from Jennifer. By George I wasn't disappointed! She was writing to tell me that Ranya was going to be playing with Barry Manilow at the new arena on St. Louis University's campus. The first words that came out of my mouth were, "I hate Barry Manilow"! I also wondered if it was a joke since it was April 1. Barry is not really my type but I was impressed that Ranya was invited to play with him (in the band, I mean). Since I missed the Christmas concert when she played with The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Jennifer didn't tell me until afterwards), I felt compelled to go witness my niece and her remarkable talent. Jennifer also informed me that she was buying a ticket for Mom and Janice would be coming up from Texas to attend.

Well, let me tell you that it was quite a memorable experience. Janet & I made the decision to go to "The Hill" for dinner so Janice could have some great Italian food while in town. Unfortunately, I failed to remember that our Mother is quite the connoisseur of Italian food and Rigazzi's wasn't up to par in her opinion. I informed her that my food was fine & the place was packed which is usually an indication of good food. The evening had begun!

We made it to the arena and dropped Mom, Jennifer & Janice off in front right before it started pouring down rain. They had more expensive tickets than Janet & I so we weren't sitting together. We went in search of a parking garage and, unfortunately, Janet listened to me and we went the wrong way. I told her I didn't really care if we were late getting to the concert but we made it in plenty of time. We found our seats which were in the very last row at the very top of the arena. Oh well, we didn't have anyone behind us! So we're waiting for the concert to begin & Angie calls from New York. She had been out with her crew and feeling no pain! When I told her where I was she said, "Oh, that's right, you're seeing Barely Man-enough tonight." We joked a little and hung up.

The band started and I had brought binoculars to see Ranya and she wasn't out yet. I couldn't understand because the guy on stage didn't look like what I remembered Barry to look like. Fast forward 30-45 minutes later and I realized they were a warm-up band and Barry hadn't even taken the stage yet. That's how much I know about Barry Manilow's music! I didn't recognize the first 4-5 songs he played but was thrilled to be able to see Ranya playing her cello. Also, Janice (the liquor store manager) had stuck a little airport-sized bottle of Canadian whiskey in my purse which mixed quite well with my Diet Coke to make the concert more bearable. I wasn't sure if I'd joke & make fun of this concert on my blog because I didn't want to offend Ranya but when Jennifer told me what she said when she found out we were all going, I figured it was okay. She said something to the effect of "why are they wasting their money, tell them to pitch in and get me a GPS for my birthday!"

In the end, it was all worth it because Mom loved the concert! Let me repeat that---Mom loved the concert! She said she liked it much better than the Rat Pack we had seen at the Fox and Jennifer said she was acting like a teenager! It made us all happy that she had such a good time. Unfortunately, getting into the parking garage was a nightmare and took us about 45 minutes. There was one 3' door propped open with a trashcan for everyone to squeeze in to. Very poor design or traffic control (?) - I'll let Butch be the judge. By the time we got out of there some people had to use a restroom. We got out of town and ended up stopping at a Steak 'n Shake and in filed Mom, Jennifer & Janice. Now, I told them they'd be better off going to a convenience/gas station but they insisted. So Janet & I watched as the 3 of them walked all the way through white-bright Steak 'n Shake to the restrooms at the back of the restaurant. Then we watched them come back out one at a time. And I'm not naming names, but one of them left a lingering gift. It really was quite funny! We had planned to go see the new Lumiere Casino downtown but it was late so we decided against it and I ended up getting home at 1 AM.

Saturday afternoon me, Jim, Mom, Janice, Janet, Ronnie, Jackie, John, Angie & her new friend, Brian went over to Jennifer's for food & drink. I had met Brian a couple of times before, but this was the first time he met the "family". We were sitting outside talking about the concert when Johnny spotted a dead vole so Jennifer goes & picks it up with her bare hands. The next thing I know she throws it in the trashcan, goes inside and comes out with a brown paper grocery bag and pulls out this humongous frozen dead hawk!

I had forgotten about it until I saw Angie & Brian at the house when I came home from work yesterday and he brought it up. I made sure to set the record straight on the Barry Manilow concert, telling him Ranya was the reason I went. I didn't want him to think I was weird or anything.

That's what I love - the wonderful first impressions we make on people.....

The Mole Hunter

Jim & I have been battling moles for the past 2 years. We tried grub control for the lawn because everyone said that moles are attracted to grubs. We bought a bait/poison on the Internet and poked it down into the runs. We set the steel "archaic" looking traps. We stomped down their runs & hills. We didn't try the juicy fruit gum or the gas or the human hair but we've been educating ourselves along the way. There was a 1-hour show on the Nature/History/ National Geographic channel a few weeks ago that we happened to surf to. The show was about the "lawnmower man" battling moles and it was quite comical. Basically, we learned that moles are prehistoric, they've never died off so I don't know if that means they're millions or thousands of year old, and although they have no eyes, they're very smart and they're nearly impossible to kill. Jim's latest attempt at mole extermination was to buy 6 poison worms a couple of weeks ago but he hasn't tried "fooling" the moles with them yet.

So yesterday there was a home show at the St. Charles Convention Center with free admission and an informative lecture to be given by Jeff Holper, "The Mole Hunter". Naturally, we were there! Along with hundreds of other people! It gave us a secret jubilation that there were so many others with the same problem. Jeff turned out to be quite the entertainer and he dressed the part with a safari-looking outfit and hat. He's been hunting moles for over 20 years and he's got it down-pat. Turns out, he uses the same archaic traps that we do, but he knows where & how to set them to ensure a kill. Also, he uses 6 traps instead of the 2 that we've been working with. During his performance, we discovered that we not only have moles but we also have voles. Voles don't tunnel like moles but they eat the roots of plants which can be even more damaging in this gardener's eyes. We learned about every rodent, snake and insect along with remedies to kill. Or you can hire Jeff. He'll kill the moles for a hefty price of $600 per year plus $79 per mole killed. He can also be hired to hunt & kill any varmit you might be battling. Needless to say, we didn't want to pay the big bucks so we bought an arsenal of supplies. We got 6 mole traps, 1 vole/chipmunk/mouse trap, 5 lbs poison bate, a Becoming a Mole Hunter CD and The Joy and Celebration of Mole Control book (2nd edition) for the basement bargain price of $117. Actually, I think Jeff & his partner are amazing at exterminating nuisance creatures but may be lacking in the math department as I don't think they charged us enough. We didn't realize the CD & book were in the bag until we got home, and we hadn't ordered them. Could be that since it was the last day of the home show they wanted to get rid of stuff instead of having to pack it up or Jeff thought I was cute. Whatever, we got a deal. We're willing to share so if anyone's interested, you can borrow the book or CD anytime!

Even though our weather turned cold again, Jim got outside & set the vole trap as soon as we got home. He's setting the mole traps as I write this blog. I'll let you know if we are successful and in the meantime, I think I'll return the poison worms to Lowe's...

Dining room redecorating

This entire white space is where the pictures originated and now I don't know how to get rid of it! As you can tell, I am not "blog savvy" yet!! Just keep scrolling down until you see something! There are pictures at the end as I've edited the post about my dining room re-do.

When Jim & I decided to start working on the dining room, it wasn't even 10 minutes and we were pissed off & fighting with each other. Normally, we work real well together but this was a unique situation. If you recall, we had the most hideous flowered wallpaper from floor to ceiling (even the cold-air return was meticulously covered!) in the dining room and we were unsure about whether to strip it or paint over it. I performed the test I learned on HGTV and held a wet rag on a seam for 10 minutes and it didn't buckle so I told Jim that we could paint over it. Well, as we were surveying the room that Saturday morning, I noticed a piece of the wallpaper sticking out by a seam so I pulled it just to see if it would come off easily. I had this unrealistic vision that I would peal the whole 4X8 panel off in one piece. No such luck! So Jim goes balistic and says now I ruined everything and we'd have to strip all the paper. I disagreed and told him that it would take forever and I wanted to get done in 2 weekends. I walked upstairs to change and by the time I got back down, he had ripped off some pieces around the door frame and by the light switch. That's when the real fighting began!

After we calmed down, I went to Home Depot and got some primer to paint over the wallpaper. Jim & I have a system. He uses the paintstick and I do the cutting in. It works real well but we usually have to be on opposite ends of the room so as not to get in each other's way. The primer is very messy as it's oil-based so we needed dropcloths all around. We only had one, so we used an old sheet, an old towel and Jim's old bathrobe (he got a new one for Christmas and heaven forbid if he'd throw anything away!).

My plan was to have Jim put up a chair rail, picture frame molding and some other trimwork so I painted the lower section of the walls aqua breeze and the upper walls rootbeer. I told Jim that I wanted to paint the interior flat part of the tray ceiling so it would stand out against the white crown molding. He disagreed and said he didn't want me to paint it because if I got any paint on the crown molding it would look terrible. So, I took his concerns into consideration and painted it aqua breeze.

The spots where we had pulled the wallpaper kept showing through even though we put a few coats of primer on them, some spackle and we sanded. So I went back to my favorite store to see what could be done. It just so happened that there was a lady giving a demonstration with Ralph Lauren's Bellagio faux paint. I talked to her and decided to use that on the rough wall because it would definitely cover anything. After I finished with the faux painting, I didn't like it. I guess I didn't do it right. So I repainted it over with rootbeer. Of course you could still see the rough spots. After a couple of days I repainted with the faux and it turned out a lot better and you can't see the rough spots. I hope not since that wall has 5 layers of paint now!

After several more trips to my favorite store to buy trim, molding, a nail gun (Jim got a new toy out of the deal!) and trim paint, we finished the project and it looks pretty good if I do have to say so myself. Jim gets big credit for the excellent job he did on the trimwork & molding. The furniture is being delivered and we're happy once again.

Old dining room---ugly paper!

New dining room set, chocolate brown upper, aqua mist lower with picture frame moulding. Barb was surprised that Jim could do such a great job! Even and all!

Faux painting on the wall that we screwed up with the wallpaper removal!

Cleanliness is next to Godliness?

Don't ask me what that means. All I know is I think Jim is trying his hardest to be clean - or shall I say to keep the house clean. Oh no, not by actually cleaning, but by trying to prevent dirt from getting in! I guess you could call it preventive maintenance.
I'm going to try to get you to envision the number of rugs we have in our garage. First off, the far wall of our garage consists of: 1) Jim's workbench, 2) the freezer, 3) the refrigerator and 4) the door into the laundry room. So in front of Jim's workbench is a 5X7 rug. In front of the freezer and refrigerator is an oval braded rug which overlaps the end of a 3X4 throw rug that are both underneath a 10X5 rug. In front of the door there is 1) a rubber tread-thing on the step, 2) a door mat that was left by the previous owners, 3) another door mat that overlaps the other, 4) a 3X4 throw rug, 5) another 3X4 throw rug overlapping the other. That's a total of 8 rugs!
So I came home from Home Depot yesterday where I had bought some paint & supplies to start working on the dining room (which is a whole 'nother story!) and as the garage door was opening I noticed some big pieces of cardboard (salvaged from the new television) scattered on the floor where I park. I decided not to pull in because I was going to be leaving. So as I'm walking into the garage, Jim starts pushing this big piece of cardboard in front of me and says, "I'm trying to keep the dust from getting in." Do you think it's because maybe he might have to sweep or vacuum? Or maybe he's trying to talk me out of the cleaning lady by showing me how clean the house is. Whatever, he's driving me crazy.

Television madness

When Patrick moved out I was able to unload some furniture that I wasn't particularly fond of. It's just a coincidence that it was Jim's sectional and Jim's dining room set. I don't really care what we replace the sectional with since it's in the basement but I've already picked out the dining room set I want. It's beautiful! I told Jim a few weeks ago that I found the set I wanted but he wasn't real eager to go see it. You see, he's been pricing televisions for over 6 months. He decided that we needed a bigger screen. He also decided (even though I very much objected) that we should have the TV installed over the fireplace. I personally think a fireplace mantel should be decorative and if you have a TV over it how can you have candlesticks, plants, clocks, etc. on it? So, here we go again - another battle I was going to lose. Much like the one where he mounted a 20-year old baseboard heater on the wall in the bedroom downstairs! It seems to me that he was much more agreeable and obedient before we got married!

So he went shopping a couple of weeks ago to get the best deal he could - going from one store to another until he felt he got the best bargain. It took him hours and he must've called me 5 times throughout the afternoon to update me on his progress. When he finally came home, he said he got the best deal, he requested to talk to the manager, etc. and got another $100 off. I think he must've taken lessons from Butch! Anyway, he also told me that the bracket to mount the TV on was $150 plus another $500 for installation! Can you believe that? What a rip-off! I continued to protest the inevitible TV over the fireplace and pointed out that the eyeball lights would be useless because we wouldn't be able to have them on with the TV there. I wasn't fighting real hard because Jim can be very stubborn and it's just not worth it.

Well it just so happened that Jim was home sick from work for 2-1/2 days last week so he had plenty of couch time. When I came home from work one night, he told me he decided that he didn't want to put the TV over the fireplace. He grudgingly admitted that I was right and he didn't want to have to move lights nor be unable to use them. Plus he wasn't thrilled with having to run wiring down the wall. So before he could change his mind we immediately went to Best Buy to take the mounting bracket back and cancel the installation. He got an amazing $684 back! I told him that would be more than enough for a TV cabinet that I would pick out! So we went to a few furniture stores, I found the perfect cabinet and everyone's happy now.

I know what's going to happen next. When I'm ready for the dining room set he's going to baulk because we (HE) just bought a new television...