movies

This is adorable!

Here's the original, from one of my TOP FIVE favorite movies of all time, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Briefly

It's back to work today and it's ALSO the day I've decided everything is going to change (see yesterday's post). It's also a good morning to post some pics of things I find AWESOME.

Debra Paget, in a costume I would LOVE to wear to the Michigan Renaissance Festival.

I guess I do have a similar costume, after all! This is from several years ago, at Halloween. Mr Handsome is The Dread Pirate Roberts. HAWT!

I love, love, love to knit and I love, love, love Cary Grant! A GREAT combo!

I'm still a fan. Always will be. Original Trilogy is BEST!!!

I always liked Luke best.

ALL day

Yeah, I have no questions about my internet addiction. I am. No question. I've been meandering around ALL day long. On only ONE cup of coffee. Tomorrow, I go back to work and all will return to normal. Better than normal, even! I'm going to go out and DO things that I can then put on this blog, instead of putting in links to what other people (total strangers, at that) are doing!

And I'll be walking to work to work off some chub! Yay, me!

update: Aug 27, 8:30 a.m.

I won't be walking to work after all. Mr Handsome's car needs to go to the shop, so I'll be driving along so he can get back home. Universe! Do you not WANT me to walk to work?!?

night

I am just feeling so anxious lately. Is it 'cause I'm going back to work after having some time off? Is it 'cause I didn't get as much done as I thought I would during my time off? Could be worries about the future, feeling overwhelmed about stuff that I should be doing (where to START?!?), cats' health, our health, family-members' health....

sigh

I'm going to go read now.

And think about this pretty picture.

after canoeing, with THAT squirrel

Golly, this guy gets everywhere. He could show up in your pics, too!

...the world smiles with you....

We're putting the dining room and the little bathroom back together again, now that the wall paint is on. Hopefully, someday soon, I'll paint the trim, too. Anyway, it'll be nice to have the rooms looking how WE want them to look, rather than how people who lived here over a decade ago wanted them to look. Next up: Spare Bedroom!

This chipper tone of mine goes along with this blog entry I read today. It's always easier to go downhill, to be sucked into the vortex, to drown in the whirlpool, than to climb to the top, fly to safety, or swim harder. But it's much more satisfying to see the view, glide along, or float on the waves than to just be carried away or swept along. I got carried away there, in a big way, with the analogies, eh? Anyhoo. It's easier to find the negative in everything, but what does that get ya? Depressed. Focusing on the positive, CHOOSING to be hopeful and happy: it's harder than it looks. But it's soooooo worth it.

see more dog and puppy pictures

more painting

Well, it's been very rainy, hot and humid, so Mr Handsome can't play work in the garden on the deck, and my paint is taking forEVER to dry, but here is the first coat of paint (go here for before pics)!

Unfortunately, the boring-ass cream color I THOUGHT I chose turned out to be a lemony-cream color, heavy on the lemon.

It's YELLOW! sheesh.

Also, I started ANOTHER project. When we moved in (over 12 years ago, ahem), the FIRST thing Mr. Handsome did was take down the ridiculously over-sized ceiling fan in the living room. But we never did anything about the mess of wires oozing out of the hole. Well, eventually, he kinda capped them off, but we never repaired the hole or replaced it with a different fixture. There it sat, ugly and raw, an open wound, for over a decade.

I'm gonna tackle this baby! Maybe it'll just be a b@nd @id I put on it, but anything's gotta be better than that!

Updated Aug 18, 11:45 p.m.

Second coat is finished in both rooms. For the ceiling hole, I painted a plastic food-container lid and hot-glued it to the ceiling. It only stayed up for a day. :(

Sibs

I return today to the Sibs Reunion!

After lunch (after white-water rafting), we hung out at Big Sis's house and played cards in her beautiful garden. The kitties enjoyed the garden, too. She just remodeled her living room and in the process had a nasty surprise regarding male cats and territorial behavior.

(Oh, Meech, THIS is why you have been banished.)

Now, NO kitties are allowed inside.

They've got a very comfy shelter in the courtyard and still get lots of love.

That's Esau gettin' some lovin' from Mr. Handsome. Esau used to be a Hidey Kitty, always staying in the depths of the basement, before he was banished outside. Now, he's a love sponge!

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go canoeing. I called dibs on being in Mr. Handsome's canoe. Used to be, not too many years ago, I'd be all "do you see that log?" "There's a rock RIGHT THERE!" "Don't hit the turtle!" "WE'RE GONNA CRASH!!!" when Mr H and I would canoe. Geez, I hated being in the front and having no control. Maybe there was a little tee-tiny trust issue, regarding Mr. H's paddling skills. Well, those times are ancient history! I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my man has mad canoeing skillz. So, being pretty selfish, I called dibs on his canoe.

First, though, we had to get there. The day had started out rainy and chilly, but it was PERFECT now. Sunny and warm with a light breeze. We got to the canoe place and the young guys who helped us might have been CIA agents or Mob hitmen, they were so reticent. They used absolutely not one more word than was strictly necessary. No joking around, no banter, no info; just get the job done.

They loaded up the canoes onto their pickup and started to get in the cab. We asked, "How are we getting there?" The driver just jabbed his thumb at the truck bed and said "In the truck." Which was AWESOME!!!

I haven't ridden in the bed of a pickup in 15 years, minumum. It was a fast, jouncy, dirty, blowy, "HANG ON!" ride!

Fun! A sherriff passed us going the other direction and all the guys did was pretend to put on their seatbelts. I said something like "huh. Where I come from, it's illegal to have people in the back." They guys answered, "Yeah, here, too." They didn't slow down one little bit, and neither did the sherriff. I love the country!

The river we canoed down was so pretty, like something out of a fairy tale or the romantic tales of Camelot or Ivanhoe, all golden sunshine glittering through soft green leaves and sparkling on the water. We had an escort the whole way, too, though I didn't get any shots of her.

A Great Blue Heron. So elegant! So graceful! So prehistoric-looking!

The canoeing part was just so much fun! I really enjoyed feeling like Mr H and I were a team, working smoothly together. Sisses and Metal Man got grounded a couple times, but it was no problem. Sis just jumped out and pulled them free. All the pics are from Sis's camera, 'cause I didn't bring mine (I didn't trust myself not to drown it).

Combining two of my faves

painting

urgh, I just don't enjoy this process, this process of washing, rinsing, skimcoating, patching, priming, painting, cleaning up... ick. I just keep telling myself it will be nice to have it finished.

The dining room won't even look all that different, 'cause I'm painting it a milky-cream color. Boring. But with the bright blue chair covers, dark cherry table & chairs, yellowish oak floors and sideboard, it's tough to come up with something else! I keep gravitating toward a reddish-brown color, but since that's already in the front hall and the TV room (the nest), I don't think I should do it again. Sis said "Cruella DeVille!" in response to yet another red room and I totally see her point!

Anyway, here's a "before" and then a couple of "during" for the dining room. I'm STILL not done (currently waiting for the skim coat and patching to dry), but I'll post pics then, too.

Where the two windows are in the dining room, Mr Handsome is going to have french doors installed. He's building a deck out in the yard to connect the doors with the existing deck.

So, since I'm SO BORED with the dining room (I mean, what's the point? It's gonna look just like it did before, sheesh, how disappointing), I'm ALSO redoing the little bathroom downstairs.

Before:
This is the little rosebud wallpaper. We all remember that pattern from the 80's, don't we?

The wallpaper came away deceptively easy. In fact, that part was FUN!

(Note my "Wonder Woman" watch band. That's neither here nor there; I just like it.)

yummy beer always helps.

The craptastic part is where the skimcoat is coming away WITH the paper or just crumbling into dust if you look at it sharply. Dang stuff. Though tiny, this room is gonna be a suck project, too.

Well, enough whining and moaning. I have to go cook dinner, dust and vacuum and clean up after the cats. And I should do laundry and clean the bathroom, too. What I SHOULD do is spend less time on the computer! :-) AND I should read my little inspirational quote over there on the right.

the days race by

see more Lol Celebs

That pic has nothing to do with this post. I just think it's AWESOME!

Ok, so, I haven't finished the dining room yet. And so, since that apparently wasn't enough to do, I decided to re-do the little bathroom downstairs.

Pictures tomorrow!

Cleo news

Well, Cleo has ANOTHER UTI, but is responding well to antibiotics. Also her kidney disease is progressing, as expected. We could give her subcutaneous (subQ) fluids a couple-three times a week, which would FREAK her (and me) out, or we can let things go naturally, keeping her as hydrated and as comfy as possible for her last few months (or, hopefully, years). She's 19 years old. She's my baby girl. Even if she's old enough to vote. I'm preparing myself to say goodbye, even though I know she's got lots of time left. And, of course, she's going to live forever.

I'm working on the dining room. Its walls are MESSED UP. Someone, in the past, skim-coated the plaster. Now, it's peeling away in huge sheets, revealing crevasses and cracks and even holes. Cripes. I was hoping I could just wash and then paint the walls. Nuh-uh. Lots of spackle and then I'll probably skim-coat it myself. THEN I get to paint it. But I still haven't chosen a color. I keep getting drawn to cinnamon-ey reds!

Well, enough procrastination for now. hmm.... I think I'll get another cup of coffee....

Updated at 6:47 p.m.:

I finished scraping, washing and rinsing the walls last night and have now finished priming them. Mr Handsome says I should do that BEFORE the skim-coat. * sigh * another step. Now, for the last two hours, I've been trolling the 'net, ostensibly "while I had lunch." HA! It doesn't take two hours to eat a piece of pizza, three hot wings and a dozen Pr!ngles. ...or does it...?

Canadian funny Air

Rainy, steamy, slow day; and I like links.

Golly, today was slow at the Bookstore. Really slow. With no winning at the end, like the tortoise. It was just a slow, rainy, steamy day. EuropeBoy went home early, after winning our coin-toss to see who'd reduce the payroll burden for the day. Lucky dude. Mr Handsome spent the day working on the airing porch deck-railing. It RAINED today, hard, like being in a shower. He's soaked right through to his tightie-whities. Poor guy, he hates few things worse than being in hot and muggy environs. The deck he's finishing up will look GREAT when he's done.

So, now I'm waiting for the pizza and hot wings to arrive (I've already got the beer, in hand NOW!) and will give you some more pics of the Sibs Reunion! YAY! CHEERS! YIPPEE!!

Sis and Mr Handsome and I stopped at a sweet new brewery on our way to Hoosierville. We had refreshing adult beverages and DELISH food!

The next day, we went "white-water rafting" in South Bend. It was harder than the pictures make it look! AND it was a LOT of fun! Two (or was it three?) boats ahead of us capsized and, let me tell you, that is one NARROW channel they've got us in there. It's called a race. The pics aren't actually us, 'cause, hello, how would we take our own pics? but they kinda show what we were doing.

This picture doesn't show perspective well. That is a DROP, people, a real DROP! And worse is to come, though I've got no pics of that. We managed to stay upright. Mr and Mrs Puffythinginthesky both got DRENCHED and pushed over by the waves that tried to drown us two or three times. But, our Captain Handsome piloted us around the floaters (people AND debris) in the rampaging water and we finished the course with our dignity and pride intact!

So we went to get lunch!

(How cute is Sis?)

Kilroy was with us.
He always knows the best places to go!

Lighthouse

I have the morning off, so I SHOULD be dusting, vacuuming, doing laundry and cleaning the bathrooms, but, hey, dirt always waits. Instead, I'll talk more about the SIBS REUNION!

It was a kinda chilly day (note Sis's cardi), and the water was downright cold (this has been a very chilly July), so we just hung out on the beach for a few minutes before continuing on up the pier. There were people in the water, though. They stayed right there the whole time we were on the pier; they just stayed in the water! Were they mannequins, put out there to fool us all??? Or just insensitive to the cold? Either way, I say "brrrrr..."

We wandered down to the end of the pier. I was taking it easy, due to pain (despite the two pints of beer); Sis's squeeze, Spy Master, says I look like I'm walking like W!nnie the P00h here.

I think he's right!

There were quite a few people at the end of the pier, probably waiting for sunset, though that was at least an hour away. Next time Sis visits, I'm going to take her to the beach and we'll have a picnic and we'll watch the sunset. There's just no place like the lake. We grew up with it as our own, private, magical lake and not having it anymore is like a soul pain.

GEESH! AAAANYway, we watched the lake, we watched the boats, we watched the people, and we watched the fishermen. It was a beautiful evening.

Then it was time to go back.

Look how tall Mr Handsome is and how tiny my sis is!

This is a really cute pic of Sis.

She's so cute!