Reno 2008

Theoretically, that header should read, "Reno 2006", but these things take time. Now that it is underway, however, things are just motorin' along. A lot has happened since the demolition. The carpenter has spent some time here doing tons of measurements and installing brackets; The electricians have been and gone, and we now have everything roughed in that is supposed to be, including a groovy looking conduit to meet our AV needs; and hubby's best friend, D, has been here doing some patching and plastering of the Swiss-cheese ceiling that the electricians left us with. More plastering will take place tomorrow. There is a floor scheduled for installation on Thursday of this week, but it may be delayed if D is still here making a mess. D and the floor guy are friends, so they coordinate well together. Meanwhile, the carpenter is working on cabinets in his shop, so it appears that everything is coming together. Do my skeptics want to change their bets that the baby will be here before the reno is completed? Hmmmm? I'm personally feeling the love, and think that the reno may be completed first. Dreamer? Maybe, but I AM workin' The Secret, so I'm going for gold.

The room towards the end of last week

At this point, I quite like having my home under construction. My mom was saying that it is important not to let the whole house fall into a state of disarray in the wake of the construction, but I personally feel that it's a perfect excuse to have a messy house. I now make no apologies when people come in and trip over toys in the foyer, or when they have to climb over an arm chair to get through a doorway. Much of my life will be spent keeping my place tidy, but a renovation excuses me from the pressure of it all. This actually reminds of a post over at Part of Everything, who put more effort into decorating her dollhouse than most people spend on their real houses. Whenever there was an unfinished room in the dollhouse, she put out miniature tools and paint cans, which represented being under construction, thus she was excused from having that part of the house looking pristine. Pure genius.

In addition to seeing the positive side of a destroyed family room, I have also managed to find the positive in being 8 months pregnant. No muffin top! All the slack and waistband spillage that Pumpkin left me with has been picked up by my unborn child, and everything is firm again. Isn't that great?!!! Well, it's something.

My Life is So F*cking Glamorous

My female dog has spay incontinence. That means that as a result of being spayed, she doesn't produce enough estrogen for proper bladder control. We control it with drugs, that periodically need some adjusting. One becomes aware of the need for such adjusting when one steps in a puddle in one's home. Sitting in a puddle can be just as likely, hence the recent disposal of that couch that no one wanted. So last night at 11pm, I discovered a puddle, and shampooed the rug, which I guess is just part of pet ownership.

My male dog has an iron stomach, usually. With all the tradespeople coming to the house lately, we've been giving him a lot of rawhide to chew on as a diversion, as he is extremely mistrustful of strange men in the house, given his background of abuse from previous owners. This also teaches him to associate new people with a positive reward, which seemed like a good idea ever since he almost bit the guy who came to baby proof the house. Normally rawhide doesn't affect him in any way, although I am told that it can cause constipation. That would actually be nice. Unfortunately, it seems to have caused the opposite reaction. This morning, we found a large pile of crap in the baby's room, as well as a lot of pee, adding insult to injury. Our carpet shampooer couldn't handle this one, so we're going to have to bring in a professional. In the meantime, I have been following the dog around the backyard, just to see if his crap is back to normal, otherwise there is no point in calling in a professional carpet cleaner just yet. Based on the two piles that I just scooped up, we're going to have to wait a bit longer.

On top of my leaky dog woes, yesterday was the day that we eliminated diapers for Pumpkin whenever we are at home. Bad timing, but I don't think that we should turn back on this. We did have some successful potty moments, but also an equal number of lesser successful moments. So now we have three beings who are not relieving themselves where they are supposed to, a carpet that may or may not come clean, an inevitable bill from a carpet cleaning company, and a lot of laundry. Lovin' life today!

My Demolition

I feel hungover today, and all I did last night was watch people drink. It's going to be a long six weeks. I can't believe that at the same stage with my last pregnancy, I managed to pack up a house and move. I can barely move myself around this week-end. Bitch, complain, whine, moan.....

The other night, I dreamt that I was adopted by Ellen DeGeneres, and that she and Portia de Rossi were going to help me raise my unborn child. Is that weird?

The eye update: I would say that the average person would not notice that I impaled my eyeball with an exploding bottle last week-end. It's almost not even worth mentioning, except for the fact that my post about that incident generated more comments than usual for me. I am now going to pepper all of my future posts with the phrase, "bleeding eyeball", just to keep the flow of comments coming in.

And now for the highlight of my week, MY DEMOLITION!!!!! (cue music from the game show, Definition, because "demolition" and "definition" sort of, like, rhyme). Behold, a picture of my favourite room in my house:

This ugly room is my favourite because it's bareness is indicative of something that I have been waiting for for a long time. About two years ago, hubby and I decided that our family room was really ugly in an '80s sort of way, and that we needed to start from scratch if we were ever going to love it. The paint colour was my error as I was talked into it by a painter who scorned me for going with off-white in my last house. I took his advise on the current house, and regretted it right away. We never re-painted because we then got the idea for a complete renovation. Anyhow, since construction was part of the equation, I met with a decorator to determine how to proceed. The decorator came up with drawings, and then it was up to us. Hubby wanted to use a particular contractor named Neil. Yes, Neil is his real name. I'm trying to shame him so Neil, if you happen to find this post, it serves you right! Neil was doing a lot of carpentry and mill work from my husband's company, so it seemed like a good idea to use him, given that he would want to please us to ensure future work within the company, or so one would think. Neil kept putting us off, and lying to us, and never came to do the work. Finally, after A YEAR AND A HALF (!!!!!), hubby decided that maybe Neil was not the man for the job. Either Neil isn't a smart businessman, or his actions have something to do with an unsuccessful blind date that he and I went on about 15 years ago. It was a one-time-only date that didn't go anywhere, which he may or may not have remembered. Yeah, I went on a blind date - I was lonely, ok??? I wasn't always this hot and marketable. (Shut up and leave me to my delusions - they make me happy.) Anyhow I never did let on that I recognized him on the one occasion that he came to look at the room. Small world nonetheless. So now we have a real contractor who is working on our project as we speak, a completed demolition, electricians and flooring people scheduled, new furniture jammed into several rooms, and only six weeks to go until the baby is born. That widget on the right is now a countdown for two events. The race is on! Place your bets on which one will happen first!

...oh yeah, I almost forgot... bleeding eyeball!

Bits and Pieces

First off, thank you all for your show of concern for my bleeding eyeball. The bleeding has stopped, and everything will return to normal soon enough. It's still very red though. Pumpkin just noticed it today for the first time. She seemed very concerned, so I will return to wearing sunglasses during her waking hours. The only real problem is that it looks pretty gross, so I am requesting that no one look me in the eye for at least another week. Stare at my chest instead, ok?

In retail news, we finally bought our patio dining set, and decided to go with the medium to higher-end stuff as opposed to the cheaper sets that I was deliberating about back when I first posted about it. In my travels, I learned that aluminum is a good way to go as it does not rust, and that wrought iron is just too damn expensive. I went with the sling-style chairs so I don't have to mess with cushions, and I made sure that the chair backs were high enough to accommodate people taller than myself. At 5'1", not many chairs are too short for me. The chairs also have lumbar support, which matters to our aging bodies. So there you have it, 'cause I know you were dying to know.

In the land of Mother's Day, it was an iffy day. Aside from my icky eye, I have one of those non-medicate-able colds again, so I was pretty weak and crusty. Thanks to my ever lovin' husband, I got to sleep in, which helped, and then I didn't have to do too much toddler wrangling for most of the day. I met a friend for coffee, and did a little more furniture shopping for Pumpkin's room. I'm replacing the change table with a bookshelf, and I bought a matching desk, not that she needs one now, but no doubt the line will be discontinued if I wait another few years. In keeping with the teachings of "The Secret", by preparing to eliminate the change table, Pumpkin actually used the potty twice yesterday. Today, not so much success, but that's because I only half-ass The Secret. It's in my nature. Anyhow, to cap off the day, we ordered in from Dante's, which, if you have ever spent any time in Thornhill, will make you salivate at it's mention.

I still have to post about the family room demolition, but I'll leave you in suspence for another day as I am too tired to sit at the computer and need to close my eyes for a while. Stay tuned!

It's All Fun and Games Until....

I can't believe no one wanted the couch! Not to worry though - it has been hauled to Goodwill by the fine men who demolished my family room this past week. More on that later, but first, an interruption in the week-end with a visit to the ER.

Last night, about a half hour before dinner with my mom, FIL, hubby, and Pumpkin, I put two bottles of sparkling mineral water in the freezer to cool down quickly. You can already see where this is going, can't you? When dinner was served, hubby grabbed one bottle from the freezer, leaving the other one in there to get colder. We always polish off two bottles when my FIL is over for dinner, so it didn't occur to either of us to take the second bottle out yet. Well, somehow, we weren't very thirsty last night, and the second bottle remained in the freezer until I remembered it just before heading up to bed. I pulled it out of the freezer, and stopped to examine it to determine that it was, in fact, frozen. While I was holding it, the heat from my hands must have ignited the explosion, and that bottle burst into a kajillion tiny shards, landing in every nook and cranny of the kitchen. I sustained only one injury, but it was a significant one, as I discovered that I was bleeding out of my eyeball. Curiously, it didn't hurt. Nonetheless, I wasn't going to mess around with something like that, so after my mom so graciously came over to babysit, we headed off to the ER to get my eye looked at. As it turns out, there was no glass in my eye, but a cut was evident, as is the fact that half the white of my right eye is now red with blood that probably won't clear up for a week or so. Pretty! Speaking of pretty, as I was leaving the ER, there were about ten girls in prom dresses hanging around the waiting room, creating a 90210 effect. I would have liked to ask one of them their story, although I was too tired to think about it at that moment. Anyhow, I feel quite lucky that I wasn't hit in the cornea or some place more important. I'm actually inclined to think that I was cut by ice, and not glass, since the damage is so minor. I'm also lucky that Pumpkin was already in bed, and that the dogs were outside when this incident went down. Yup, I'm one lucky girl. So how is your week-end going?

Free Couch!

Serious Offer!

Down filled.

Doesn't smell very good.

Cushions can be machine washed but take four days to dry.

You pick it up. (Thornhill, ON)

Dogs not included

Shaking My Head Over This One

This was a little disappointing:

I guess I could have read the box and noted that there were 15 of these unfulfilling snack cakes inside, but I just guestimated that 100 calories would be about three times larger, with maybe 6 cakes in the box. I'm also a little worried about how many calories are in the regular-size May West cake as I tend to eat them by the box-load when I can find them. That explains the more-rapid-than-usual weight gain over the past few weeks. Shame on my unborn child for craving edible oil products so badly!!!!!

End of Week Wrap-Up

This week in pregnancy, I am now sleeping with eight pillows in order to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Consequently, I feel pain all day long in my neck and lower back. The baby is, however, doing very well. I had an ultrasound on Tuesday, and the Dr. is happy with whatever he saw. I can't say that I'm all that enthused though. Based on recent pictures, I'm having a baby who looks a bit like a cross between Gary Coleman and Alfred Hitchcock. I had better change my diet while I can still fix this. I will stop eating Jos Louis cakes, a relative of the Twinkie, and replace them with Oreo Cakesters. Have I mentioned that I know the sex of the baby but that my husband has decided to wait to find out? I have become very good at using the pronoun, "it". We have had to argue about baby names for both sexes. He is convinced that we're having a boy, which may or may not be the case. I guess that's all I can say on the matter for now.

This week in random thoughts:

1. I am shopping for a patio set, comparing sets of similar materials, and am trying to decide if the expensive sets are actually better than the cheap ones, or if the people who pay more are just stupid. The cord blood episode from last week has me looking to save a buck, (and appear less stupid).

2. On my Facebook account, I have the function that updates me whenever there is a new toy recall. For the record, at least once a week, I get informed of at toy that violates lead safety standards. AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK! A lot of the products are distributed by dollar stores, but not all of them. If you use Facebook, this is a worthwhile application if you are logging on regularly. I don't know if I'd remember to check the other sites for recalls often enough.

3. I tried to see what would happen if I put Pumpkin in underwear today, instead of a diaper. She had an accident, which she didn't like, so I changed her into a new pair of underwear and pants. She had another accident within five minutes. She wasn't in the least bit concerned, and just demanded that we go upstairs and change again. I'm thinking that this may not be the right way to go yet.

4. A fellow mommy and I were discussing Anthony of the Wiggles, and are trying to figure out if he had plastic surgery or if he has just aged well. We can't figure out what's different, but we know that something is, besides his teeth. Does anyone know the scoop? (Yes, we do have better things to do with our time)

5. I just came back from The Bay, a fabulous store that took back all of my BPA tainted, breast-feeding paraphernalia, and gave me store credit! That's a whole lot of credit given how much an Avent breast pump costs. Ok, who can tell me which brand to buy for baby #2?

Hmmm, I think that's all I have for now, unless you want to hear about my latest sausage fetish that was brought on by the new BBQ season. Didn't think so.