Family Project Day

This weekend Mom asked us to pick one day for projects and one for fun as well as what we would do.  Before the weekend we decided on Saturday as the project day and the project being unpacking and finishing setting up Mik's room.  We also planned Mik getting a haircut and Mom going into work in the morning.  We had not (and still have) made fun day plans.

Here is how the project day went, though:

• ~7:15 a.m. I discover there are open houses in one of the developments we may be interested in several years when we save up for our dream house on the lake/river.  Dad and I decide to go to them and we piss Mik off who now says no haircut and no working on his room this afternoon, so the new family project becomes switching the bookcase from living room with the piano in Dad's office.
• 7:45 a.m. Mom, Dad, and I go to Farmer's Market as planned
• 9 a.m. Dad and I leave to go to open houses and Mom goes to work
• 10 a.m. We discover no signs and no cars for there to actually even be open houses at any of the four houses advertised, although one not advertised was oddly open unmanned and unfurnished, but it was not on the water.
• ~1 p.m. Dad and Mik are trying to decided what to make for lunch and decide to go to Panera Bread and use up a gift card we had.  I go with since it is also a good time to go by Target and pick up the rest of the Disney gift cards for our cruise next week.  As we leave Target Mik suddenly decides that while we are out he might as well get a haircut.
• ~3:30 p.m. We get home and instead of starting a family project Dad and I decide to figure out where our lawn mower basket is we ordered from Lowe's online and had not heard about it being in like it was expected.  We find it is at the store and leave to go get it.  On the way we end up finally stopping at Mad County Winery and tasting their fruit wines.  Mom and Mik were napping when we left and when we got home.
• 6:30 p.m. Dad, Mom, and I decide to play Rock Band

I guess we did get some to dos done, but it sure ended up seeming like more of a Fun Day than a Project Day and we certainly never did anything towards accomplishing any of the proposed projects for the day.  Maybe, tomorrow or our next weekend we are all home (i.e. a month or two!).  One thing is for sure I am determined this week's project of installing my cabinets will happen!!!

Choosing only 5 hats to display

For over a week I have had a hat rack mounted over the door in my office just waiting for me to hang hats on.  Initially I had to find my ball cap collection.  I found that box on Friday, but couldn't at all decide what hats to put up there as pairing down my collection to fit in that box last summer seemed hard enough.  After three days of thinking about it, I finally decided what hats to hang up there and two of the hats came out of other random boxes I unpacked this weekend.

The finalists are a Stanley Equipment Stanley, N.D. hat; a Turkish Naval hat given to me on my first trip to Turkey; a USS Crommelin FFG-37 (ship Daf served on) hat; a well worn Nats Park Opening Day hat; and my Students on Ice hat.

Computers have almost outgrown my desk

Since even before we moved to our new house, we had no idea where we would put the desktop computer.  While Mom and Dad were gone for most of April, I ended up putting it on a desk Mom had "temporarily" put in the living room.  I kind of liked it there to play on and watch television, but no one else did.  For awhile I had thought of putting it on my roll top desk because that's what it was designed for.  Today with my laptop going in for repair I was finally motivated to move the desktop to the roll top desk only to find it just barely fits in the opening for computer screens.  I kept thinking computers were getting to be too big screen size wise when I got my last laptop and if it was just a half an inch wider or taller the desktop wouldn't fit on my desk.

I Need a Magic Clock like the Weasleys

In the Harry Potter books/movies the Weasleys have special clocks that show roughly were each member is at.  Such as home, work, school, etc.  I so need one that says things like out walking/running, out of town, at work, etc. because it seems like just when I expect someone to be at home (Dad!) I cannot find them.

Who knew making frozen pizza was so hard?

Mik asked Mom to make him some food for dinner tonight and she decided to make a garlic cheese bread sort of pizza thing we had in the freezer.  To make it, though, she first asked me how to do it as if I knew off the top of my head and I only have made one once.  I told her to read the box and she still needed pretty much word by word help, as in she didn't know how (or at least pretended not to) to set the oven and then the timer.  In setting the timer she ended up setting it for 90 hours and then it got stuck at 10 hours and I just set the microwave one, which I like better anyways.  The craziest question, though, was when she took it out of the oven and asked if it was precut or if she has to cut it.  For one, I don't know of any precut frozen pizza, but even if it was you would think it would have been noticeable that it was when she put it in or took it out of the oven.

Repainting Childhood Nic Nac Shelves

The box I have had opened to unpack next has not been touched in weeks mainly because it has the items that belong on two pink shelves I originally came from my room when we lived in California.  I have long not liked them being pinked (yes, I know I originally must have picked the color for the shelves), but it did not really bother me with them being in the upstairs hallway.  Now, though, it did not make sense to put them back up with the things on them before repainting them a color I actually liked.  For once, the forecast looked clear, so I yesterday I set up one of my craft tables on the back porch and painted the shelves and the matching hat rack the Sorcerer Blue to match the one color wall of my room.

Before:



After:



Another couple weeks and maybe I will even get around to having them on the wall and unpacking a box.  Really, though, once I am done with my Masters by next Monday evening I do plan to pick up the pace on unpacking and ready to move my storage stuff to the storage unit, so the cabinets can be moved from storage to my room when Dad gets home, which is hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Finally Discovered an Easy Spot for Farm Brand Switchplate

While I haven't gotten around to painting my switch plates blue in my new room, one of the first things I tried to do when we moved in was put up my farm brand plate we used to have in the great room on a light switch near photos of my great grandparents farms in North Dakota. However, the plate was designed for rectangle switches and none of the lights have that in our new house. Eventually Dad may have gotten around to making one work for it, but tonight I realized the speaker control knob's plate was a rectangle.

Now if only the bookcase wasn't taking up that wall, as that would be the logical place to put the farm photos. I guess maybe, I will let Dad try his idea of switching the bookcase with the piano in his den, as then there would be wall space for the farm photos, but it will also make the furniture more crowded as it sticks out more than the bookcase and that feels almost too close to the couch as is.