I Thought We Were Addicted...

So what happened? Can you say, "Do it yourself home remodel?"

I can.

My parents own a home that is 104 years old and I had dedicated many, many hours to help them with the remodel. It started out as a simple project because the kitchen sink started to have a bad odor that would not go away. That kitchen drain project lead to replacing the water main line to the house, construction of an new second bathroom, remodeling a bedroom then the office and remodeling of the home's original bathroom.

The job is not finished because we have two new doors that need to be hung, installation of the mop boards and touching up paint in some areas. Let's not even mention that there are still plans to remodel the laundry room and the possible addition of a family room. The thought of more construction makes me a bit tired. Oh well. It has been nice to have my evening free for the last couple of months but I am so happy that my parents' home is so much more comfortable and relaxing.

Two years have almost passed since we began the project. They have been two difficult years but satisfying that we were able to do almost all of the work on our own. There have been some people that guided us that I hope got a gold star next to their name so that good karma will bless them when they are in need such as we were.

My hope is that my addiction will now be redirected back to you.

Kim's Corner: Do you want to touch my swale?

So the other day was a big day in the history of the United States. We have a new president and hopefully the country will be able to get itself turned around to a better direction. My boss was nice to not say anything about me bringing my laptop from home so that I could work on the work computer and watch the morning to night activities of the inauguration. I enjoy history and hearing all of the little facts, plus, I love Washington D.C. I would like to go back since it has been nineteen years since I have been there. Sigh, I’m getting old. Living in the western United States we don’t have old buildings that are hundreds of years old like in the Eastern states and definitely nothing like Europe. Second sigh, I want to go back to Europe too.

January 20, 2009 will be a great day in history but the next day, January 21, 2009, I learned a new word. I thought for a minute that my boss has lost his mind completely. I was typing a document for him when I got stopped on a word and had to ask what a “swale” is. Then I had to look it up on dictionary.com because “by the mouth of two or more witnesses you shall know all things.” There it was . . . swale is a real word.

swale
sweɪl Show Spelled Pronunciation [sweyl] Show IPA Pronunciation,
–noun Chiefly Northeastern U.S.
1. a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land.
2. a valley like intersection of two slopes in a piece of land.

I guess if I had grown up in the northeastern United States I would have known that word but I didn’t. I live here where our oldest buildings are about 150 years old (give or take a few) and there really aren’t too many of those. Here we would call it a wash or ditch and in Kansas it might be a gully.

The funny thing is that my boss grew up here. He hasn’t lived anywhere else but here. He must have been watching a lot of This Old House on PBS and listening intently to the landscaping guy’s word usage so that he would seem more informed than others (and me).

Oh well, it’s a day for me to make down in my journal tonight about the historical day I had in a swale without the lovely landscape of 200+ year old buildings on either side of me. By the way, his use of the word swale is definition #2 because #1 just sounds nasty.

Kim's Corner

I have been thinking about the Golden Globes that happened last Sunday. I love this award show more than any other. I actually watch every minute of it and I don’t get bored with any part of it. I love that it has a little bit of everything from movies to television and even some music stars. I love that the stars are relaxed and loud and joke around.

My only problem is that red carpet show to the Globes (and every other award show) completely SUCKS! It is amazing that I am going to say this but I miss Joan & Melissa Rivers. They talked to everyone from the A-list stars all of the way down to the D-list stars. Nothing offended me more than having to actually hear and see the Jonas Brothers being interviewed on the Red Carpet. I don’t care about them. I don’t want to know anything about them. I wanted to see Brad & Angelina. I wanted to see people that are important and not Eva Mendes three times with three different red carpet hosts.

Joan and Melissa at least you would talk to the stars old and young, pretty and not so pretty. You made us laugh and you made the stars slightly uncomfortable. I loved it but I guess you have gone too far with all of the plastic surgery so we probably won’t see you on the red carpet any time soon.

Okay, so maybe one of those pictures really isn’t Joan but you have to admit that too much plastic surgery either way makes you look creepy.