Farewell Horrible Wallpaper

Before:

After:


I know, in this picture my after might not look as polished as the before. Let me defend my simpler choice here for a moment. First, that flowery wallpaper was especially horrible up close. It is indefenseable in a bathroom that a man will be using every day.

Second, why would you put wallpaper in a master bathroom? It was a nightmare to remove because the previous owners had repasted it at the seams over and over again and it tore the wall up when it was removed. Any wallpaper in a bathroom where the shower gets used multiple times a day will not stay up on the wall without peeling at the edges. Dumb.

Third, it had a white background and the vanity/sinks and tiles are a sandy yellowy off-white. Yuck. They put in a flooring (you can see it in the before) with white and blue in it to try to tie it in, but it just looked like a big arm wrestling match between the two schemes.

It's not perfect--the floor still doesn't quite tie in, but now that the ceiling color ties in the tiles and the vanity and the walls pick up the blue in the flooring, the floor almost recedes away and isn't quite as objectionable. Also, the blue towel in the after is going, to be replaced with a sand-colored one that matches the ceiling almost exactly. Those towels are in my dryer at the moment, and I couldn't stand to wait for them to finish before I took my after picture. Just imagine a perfect sand-colored towel there, because that's what'll be there in about an hour.

It was a nightmare project that took me a month in real time to complete, mostly because I could never work on it for very long with a baby to take care of. It may not be perfect. There may be some places where the paint got on the trim a little or the line at the ceiling isn't perfectly straight. But of all the things it is and isn't, the most important thing is that it is...done!

Mother's Day Wrap-Up

So, I just completed my first mother's day as a mother to an actual child living outside my womb. I got a card from the mister last year because we already knew I was pregnant on mother's day, but I have to say it's a bit different now that I've actually gotten a little mothering experience under my belt.

I liked my day. It was pretty sweet. I got to talk to CK and LWC, which is a further loveliness, and I got a hand-drawn card from my youngest niece. I got cards from the mister and one from the B, who scribbled in what I'm sure is her desperate attempt to tell me that she appreciates me cleaning up after that little poo incident she and her onesie had a few days ago.

I also got to drive our new minivan for the first time, going out to Circuit City to pick up a new DVD player (ours was skipping like mad) and to the grocery store. I am embarassed to say that I could not have left the driveway without the mister's help in moving the steering wheel. I was very confused because most of the controls are exactly like my Civic hybrid because they are both Hondas, so I just couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that the steering wheel lever appeared to be MIA. It's there, it's just not the way I thought it would be.

I also owe a random lady a huge favor for her help in the parking lot of the grocery store. Now that I have a baby to get settled in a car seat, I always seem to park right next to someone who comes out of the store at exactly one minute after I leave, so I'm faffing about with the baby when they want to get in their car and go. I always apologize and offer to put the car seat shenanigans on pause, and every single person so far has insisted that I get the baby settled, with several of them saying, "That baby's more important than anything," which is very nice. In this particular case at the grocery store today, I got the baby settled and then put the whole affair in a holding pattern so the nice lady to my right could pull out. I tucked my diaper bag right behind the back passenger side wheel so it wouldn't get run over, and then proceeded to put the stroller away in our kick-ass back storage section, followed by the groceries, and then got in the car. You'll notice I didn't say anything about the diaper bag. The nice lady stopped behind me and got out of her car, then ran up and got my diaper bag and ran it up to the driver's side. I plead mommy brain. I hope somebody does that lady a really nice favor soon, because I'll never see her again to pay her back.

So, happy mother's day to everyone out there who fits the bill. All you dads, I'll see you in June when you get your day, and we can spread the love to both halves of genetic material.

A Fool for the Dragon

So I was at the mall with the B a couple of weeks ago, just looking to get out of the house and do a little walking with the B on a rainy day, and we chanced upon this stuffed dragon. It's a baby toy, safe for kids under 3, and he even has a mirror on his tummy to further entrance her.

I saw it in the store and shook it in front of her to see what she'd think. Before then, she hadn't really been interested in bigger stuff like that, other than the elephant that plays music that she stares at while she does tummy time. Her little eyes lit up and she giggled at it a little bit.

Well, she might be a fool for a stuffed dragon, but I'm a fool for her and I'd been looking for an alternate toy that had the power to distract her. What we have now is the first object she really seems to have become attached to. In a couple of months he will probably be mostly drool and about five pounds heavier than he currently is because of it, but you should see her little eyes light up when she sees him.

Did I mention he has a little rattle in his back too? What a quality dragon.

The End of an Odyssey

If you've been reading my mister's blog then you know we've been considering the purchase of a minivan, which would make our transition to midwestern parents complete.

We pick up the above automobile (picture of our actual car, not of some minivan like it on the web somewhere) tomorrow at 4:00 after faffing around for a bit wondering which model we should decide on. It looks black in that picture but it is actually really really dark metallicy blue. (Deep Midnight Blue I believe is the name of the paint.)

In the end, we are paying just a tiny bit more in order to get the higher resale value and better reliability of the Honda Odyssey. That's not just the schtick their salespeople tell you, it's borne out in Car and Driver and Consumer Reports surveys. It's a really neat car and will be really good for the long car trips we tend to take.

Anyway, we're very excited. And if you all are very, very good, I'll tell you tomorrow about stripping wallpaper and painting our bathroom over the past month.

(Don't we lead fascinating lives here?)

Can You Believe This?

What do you get for the man who's spent the last decade or so ruining the coolest thing he ever created? Why, an image of himself, of course.


I wonder if his ego comes along as an accessory, like those little plastic guns I always used to lose back in 1977.

G4TV - Least Viewed Basic Cable Network in America

Ratings numbers give G4TV the richly-deserved distinction of being the least viewed basic cable network in America - less than evangelistic channels, less than third-rate shopping channels. (Read last paragraph of TFL.)

That's what you get for killing the Screen Savers.

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Go Irish!

Go Irish!
Originally uploaded by lostonpurpose.

What do you wear to go and cheer your daddy on when he's playing softball?

Why, your officially-licensed Notre Dame cheerleader's outfit, complete with logo spanky pants, of course.

She'll kill me for this picture when she's 16. But look at how well she's holding herself up on her arms these days! She'll be driving before you know it.