Month: September 2006

Melissa and I had planned a shopping day months ago. We met up in Dawsonville, GA at the outlet mall and proceeded to shop the day away. We had every intention of doing some early Christmas shopping. We got a little done and a few things for ourselves! Although we spent the whole day there, my car came home much lighter than I expected. After dinner, Melissa followed me back to my house and spent the night. She had never seen our house or met Tubbles.

Wade has been in New York for the week so I decided to paint our bedroom. My initial plan was to paint the trim white and then paint the red border above the picture molding. However, nothing is that easy. I also put another coat of yellow on the walls and two coats on the ceiling. I am still debating, but I think I like the red border. Now if only the paint smell would dissipate!
Before:

After:

I have posted before on my bad luck with doctors. Well I found a great dentist today. I called to schedule a cleaning 6 months ago (which is when I needed it) and the end of September was the earliest they could get me in. I decided to wait, and I’m glad I did. The entire staff was great. The hygienist noticed that I had a sensitive tooth and asked if I would prefer a cleaning without cold water. Cold water makes my tooth ache, but even the dentists that know about my tooth always use cold water. This is my first cleaning without discomfort in years! Then the dentist told me I had beautiful teeth and no cavities. A little flattery goes a long way. Of course, Wade spends so much money there they maybe they figured it would be best to keep me happy!

I spent the rest of the afternoon in Greenville. I met Kendall for lunch and then we did some leather couch shopping. I am determined to find exactly what I want for our living room. Too bad it is not just me that has to be happy. Wade has some pretty strong opinions.

Now I am off to do some more painting. Will it ever end?

I got an email from the Brittany Rescue coordinator today. They had another dog they wanted me to foster. She called this dog a Sumo Brittany Wrestler. And here I thought Tubbles was a big dog. Sadly we had to say only one foster at a time.

We made it. The drive from Anderson, SC to Memphis, TN took us 8 hours. The dogs got the backseat and were better behaved than kids would have been. Madison took the seat and Tubbles took the floorboard. Tubbles has a bad back leg and was so stiff she couldn’t walk on it when we got home. That is a lot of time looking at nothing but road. Wade did all the driving with his audio books for company. I read, watched tv, and slept – what a great companion I am.

We visited with Aunt Viola and hopefully she will be out of the hospital and headed home soon. She was supposed to be coming to visit our house in October, but won’t be able to make the trip. Wade made a DVD for her of our house and we used my new little red DVD player to show her. It got a smile out of her.

Dog Parks are interesting places. In a big city atmosphere you have a small neighborhood feel. Wade and I lived in midtown Atlanta for a year and never met a neighbor. We took Madison to the dog park in Piedmont Park (right down the street) and met all kinds of people. I guess having a dog makes people more friendly. People talk to strangers and even enjoy it.

Wade and I are driving to Memphis today to visit Wade’s Aunt Viola. She is 95 years old and recovering from a broken hip. Wade had to stop in Atlanta for a work-related errand so I took Madison and Tubbles to the dog park. Tubbles mostly slept at my feet and Madison ran around. The funniest is when Madison decided she didn’t like a tiny Boston Terrier and tried to hide in my arms – silly dog.

Our house has awesome landscaping, if a bit neglected. Two owners ago, there was a master gardener who put a lot of time and effort into the yard. Wade and I are slowly learning. I have been continually surprised by all the flowers that appear. My favorite has been the Cannas. Our side yard has a ton of them. However, Anderson has not had much rain this summer so the Cannas have only been blooming in the last few weeks.

The purple flower is another surprise. When my mom visited in March we did a lot of yard work. This was a plant she suggested I leave. If it didn’t bloom, then I should consider it a weed. Well a couple of days ago it bloomed. If anyone knows what it is, please tell me.

After a week of work, the living room is done! We stripped the paint from the crown molding using a heat gun, sanded the molding using a contour sander, painted the trim, painted the walls, and painted the ceiling. Now we are done! We put the finishing touches on the trim and ceiling this morning.

Greenville was having an “Art in the Park” festival this weekend. Six of us – John, Matt, Skye, Ben, Wade, and I – piled into our car for a trip to check it out. I bought a pitcher and a few Christmas gifts. The best part was the location of the festival. It is called Reedy Park and is gorgeous. I posted some pictures last fall here.

I got two magazine subsriptions for Christmas – Cooking Light and Southern Living. They both have lots of recipes that I have been trying. Most of them are meat dishes that Wade and I really enjoy. Today I decided to branch out and try “Hot Cross Buns”. I started the process around 8 am. They weren’t done until noon. Nobody told me (and I didn’t read far enough in the recipe) to know this was an all day event. I went from thinking about them for breakfast to eating them for lunch. In the end, the hot cross buns were very yummy. However, I can’t see ever taking the time to make them again.

Netflix is a great thing. It allows me to get all kinds of movies and tv shows delivered to my door. When I am finished, I just put them back in the mail. One of the netflix services is to suggest movies and tv shows based off of your rating of shows you have watched. One of the suggested shows was the British tv show – MI-5. I thought it sounded like Alias – a fast paced, action driven show. I watched three seasons and I think I am done with it. The episodes are 58 minutes long – an American TV show is 42 minutes at the longest. The show just seems to drag. The characters might be spies, but they don’t live very exciting lives. They don’t even carry guns or have cool toys. Not to mention that over only three seasons all of the original (and some of the second round) characters have been killed and replaced. I gave it a fair shot, but enough is enough.

I have to admit that I did like one British tv show – Coupling was very good.

I learned two things today: 1.) A check hasn’t really cleared the bank when it appears in your account. I have only had issues with larger checks, which are not deposited in your bank until they do clear the bank. Smaller checks appear in your account and then are taken away (with a charge) if the check bounces. 2.) I am a little too trusting.

I recently tried to sell my old washer and dryer on the craigs list. A man contacted me about buying them. He explained he worked for the military and had recently been transferred. The government was paying to move his possessions and he wanted to buy the washer and dryer, which they would pay to move. He sent me a check for the price of the washer and dryer and the cost of shipping. He asked me to get the shipping money to the shippers. He even instructed me to wait till the check cleared my bank.

He obviously knew more about banking procedure than I did. Thank goodness I procrastinated in taking care of all this and the bank contacted me about the counterfeit check before the money was received by the “shippers”. I can’t believe how close I came to falling for the scam. I am selling the washer and dryer again, but this time I am only doing face to face with a cash payment.

The funniest part of this whole thing is the man’s emails. After I realized what had happened, I emailed him and said, “You are a bad, bad man. I am disappointed.” He actually wrote back acting very confused.

Then he wrote a second email telling me that the shippers had the money (not true) and would be picking up the washer and dryer the next day. I was tempted to email him back and act confused when they didn’t show up, but I didn’t.

Most of my potted plants have been sitting on the kitchen counter since we moved in February. The majority of those belong in the planter Wade designed for a class. The planter is named Chester and I mentioned more about it here. Chester finally has a home in our new house. He seems to be doing well in the sunroom with my new herb garden in the window.

Wade and I have decided on green for our living room walls. Now we just have to strip all of the molding, sand it, prime it, paint it, and paint the walls. That is a lot of work! I painted one wall of the living room so that we could start rug shopping.

After church, we all headed up to the outlets in Gaffney. I was hoping to find a rug, but no such luck. In the end, even Mom and Carolyn didn’t buy anything. We did introduce them to lunch at Moe’s!

We have visitors for the holiday weekend. My mom drove down with her friends, Carolyn and Jay Siener. Jay is a home builder/renovator and offered his help on projects. My mom and Carolyn offered their help with decorating. Wade and I jumped at the offers.

After a long day of working outside and in the attic, I now have a water spout in the backyard. I was having to use a pitcher of water to fill the dog’s water bowl. There was a water spout on the inside of the garage closest to the house. Jay and Wade ran pipe up that wall, across the garage, and out the other side. Now I can easily water the dogs. Maybe I’ll even look into an automatic water bowl. Lazy aren’t I?

Mom and Carolyn were a lot of help, but I think my favorite was the jar of berries for my bedroom. Simple but pretty.

Wade and I now have our first foster dog. I got an email asking me to pick up a Brittany Spaniel in Greenville. All I knew about her was that she was 8 years old and overweight. I was still shocked at her size. She should weight about 40 pounds and is about 20 pounds overweight. The poor dog couldn’t get up into my car by herself. Wade quickly named her “Tubbles”.

The upside to her being overweight is that she isn’t overly hyper and doesn’t jump up on people. The minute I bring her inside she finds a dog pillow and doesn’t move until morning.