Snow Day, Again

So it’s snowing again here in Virginia. Totally out of the ordinary for us. This means working from home with the cats hanging out sleeping in my office. It also means that area counties closed schools either yesterday or early this morning- before anything was falling from the sky. We Virginians don’t handle snow very well.

On my way home yesterday I stopped at Kroger. It was packed but thankfully they had all the lanes open so checking out wasn’t too much of a headache.

I have a routine when I go to the store and always take the same general path through the store. Start in produce, move on to deli, beer/wine, meat, then through the aisles that have items from my list, then frozen (if needed). Yesterday I broke the mold and headed straight back to the meat section. I wasn’t early enough and all fresh chicken breasts were GONE. Thankfully all the meat wasn’t taken yet and I was able to get a roast to use in chili. I’ve got to figure out how many days before snowfall I need in order to get fresh chicken and meat.

Thankfully I was also in time to get beer and wine. They really are more of a snow-weekend staple than milk and bread, at least in this house.

I think this is going to be another non-productive weekend. I got 2 more Patterson books from the library yesterday (I’m reading through the Alex Cross series) and I have 2  more episodes in season 1 of Friday Night Lights. Snow makes it tough to get out of the house and do errands or get supplies for projects. But it sure is nice to have a relaxing weekend.

Hope y’all have a good weekend- stay warm!

T-3 Days till Super Bowl

What a week, you guys.

It’s supposed to snow/wintry mix starting tomorrow. I’m anticipating working from home which is fine by me! I’m having crazy back pain today and its just no fun.

The big game is this Sunday which means 3 things:

1. I need to cook delicious snacky food
2. I need to make a t-shirt jersey for the dog
3. The Colts are totally gonna steamroll the Saints (… I hope)

I had big ideas about building a bookcase this weekend, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen with this weather forecast + Super Bowl prep. Especially if this back pain doesn’t go away!

The weather also means that I have to go grocery shopping on my way home from work. I’m hoping they aren’t sold out of chicken and beef yet, which is quite possible! Hopefully all the housewives will wait till tomorrow morning to hit the grocery store.

So I’ve decided on my Game Day menu for Matt and myself (and possibly some football-lovin friends depending on the weather). We are NOT having a Super Bowl PARTY because we are WATCHING the game. So here’s my starting lineup:

1. Buffalo Chicken Dip, by popular demand
2. Cake Balls, by popular demand
3. Pigs in a Blanket, by my demand
4. Chips and Salsa, because I made PW’s Restaurant Style Salsa last weekend and I love it almost as much as the cats

What are you serving up for the Super Bowl? Are you going to watch? In it for the commercials? Let me know! Unless you’re rooting for the Saints.

Monday? Tuesday?

What day is it? I worked from home yesterday due to the road conditions so I’m a little confused. I also almost died on some black ice this morning (slight exaggeration) on my way to work. Oh and guess what, more wintry precipitation today! I think I’ll have to leave a bit early to miss rush hour and the maniac drivers on the interstate.

Also today, Savannah comes home from the vet! She had her “big girl” surgery yesterday and now I have to keep a 4 month old kitten calm for 10 days. Not so sure how well that one’s going to go.

Also tonight,

Can. Not. Wait.

Matt ventured out into the world of snow-covered roads on Sunday, leaving me with not a whole lot to do after finishing up a book (that I started on Saturday. I love snow weekends).

So to fill my afternoon, I started watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix Watch Instantly.

Now I’m trying to find things for Matt to do so I can keep watching Friday Night Lights. He thinks it’s stupid. But he said the same thing about House and now he wants to watch that with me. Maybe by Season 2 he’ll be hooked…

Weekend Update

It snowed. Over 12 inches.

Here’s a picture of the front of the house. Let’s note that I shoveled the front stairs and walkway around 11am Saturday, where there was already about 3 inches on the ground.

Here’s the table on our deck at about 5pm Saturday.

Crazy.

Friday Edition

I’ve got paint colors on the brain for my office update. Right now I’m thinking of a cool blueish-gray. I’ve found a few swatches from Ralph Lauren that I’m thinking about…

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

I’m also thinking that I’ll build one of the Pottery Barn bookcase from Knock Off Wood to replace a too small bookcase that I’ve got in the room now. It’s too small for the wall and it’s horribly painted black. I’m thinking of building the bookcase out of hardwood and staining it to go with the desk and balance that out. It’s pretty big at just over 4ft wide, so it should fit in the space on that wall quite nicely. If the cost of hardwood is too high, I’ll probably paint it a light blue color.

I’ve also decided to NOT use a color/print for my folding table skirt. I’m going to keep that neutral since it’s a 6ft table, a bold print might been too much. If I build a daybed, I’ll make some colorful pillows for pops of color. I also plan on bringing in color through artwork. I think that’ll suit me better for when my color preference inevitably changes.

This weekend I’m not setting any goals for myself. I’m hoping to get to try some snow photography and I’ve got a photography book on exposure from the library. It’s just too bad that I don’t have a daybed to lounge on and watch the snow fall from my office! And who knows, by having no plans I might end up being crazy productive!

Hope y’all have a great weekend!

Random Post Thursday

Another Random Post Day brought to you by my laziness to download pictures from my camera.

We have a forecast for snow this weekend, currently at 4-8inches. Naturally this is occurring on a weekend where we had some pretty big plans, like getting the kitten fixed. Since I’m a total wuss and don’t want to drive in the snow or pay for the kitten to be at the vet all weekend, I’ve rescheduled her de-lady-business-ing for Monday.

On the nerd alert front, the iPad was introduced by Apple yesterday. Isn’t that just the worst product name ever? The first thing I thought was that it sounded like a feminine product. Yuck. It doesn’t seem too interesting to me, but according to the husband, the video that Apple put on their website shows off how cool it is.

Also on the nerd front, we just bough a network storage device. We’ll be able to back up our data and back up the back up. This also means plenty of space for the growing number of pictures that I’m taking.

That’s a good thing about the coming snow- I’m hoping to get some good photos of it.

I’ve been working on/thinking about my office update a lot. I moved some furniture last weekend and I think I’ve decided on building a Pottery Barn-ish bookcase with plans from Ana at Knock Off Wood. If this goes well, I’ll likely forge ahead with a daybed. I should have an updated mood board soon.

We’re potentially doing our master bedroom towards the end of this year, so I’ve started looking for inspiration and thinking about the layout in that room, too.

I’ve been doing the Couch to 5k running plan for awhile now (took some time off around the holidays) but just completed week 5, which included a 20 minute run with no walk breaks. I’m excited about working my way up to doing a 5k and doing a race sometime this spring maybe. Then in May my sister and I are (likely) going to do the Muddy Buddy race. It’s a 10k run-bike event with obstacles and a big mud pit that you army crawl through at the end. We did it a few years ago and I was able to complete it even though I didn’t train. So hopefully this time will be better.

Do y’all have anything exciting going on lately?

Caulking For Dummies

Alternative title: What Not To Do When Caulking

So Friday night I scraped out the old silicone caulk from the shower. I forgot what a huge pain in the butt that was. Saturday morning I headed to Home Depot for caulk and a caulk gun. Simple enough, right?

Let’s just go ahead and point out the fact that this was my first time caulking with a caulk gun. And I was home alone.

Have you ever used one of those huge tubes of caulk and a caulk gun? Well, I managed to (safely) cut open the tube and load it up in the gun.

I must admit, I felt pretty much like a badass home improvement guru at this point.

And this is where it goes downhill. You see, I didn’t read the instructions on the tube of caulk. I HIGHLY recommend that you all read your caulk tube before you attempt to apply it.

So I hop in the shower and start caulkin’ away. Tip #1, use your dominate hand for squeezing the trigger on the gun. Tip #2, use your non-dominate hand to wipe excess caulk.

Obviously I didn’t do either of these things.

So I’m wiping the gobs and gobs of caulk that have spit forth from the tube and I something just did not seem right. That’s when I realized that I was supposed to screw the cap back on and snip the tip of that before caulking.

So I get the cap back on and in the process, get silicone all over both of my hands and all over the gun. This is where tips 1 and 2 really come in handy.

So I finally finish the job and for some reason decide that now was a good time to read the label. Turns out I should NOT have been getting the silicone all over my hands. So I try to rinse them off, but don’t have much luck. I got my wedding rings off, just in case, and started washing my hands, furiously.

I may or may not have scrubbed my hands with a kitchen sponge.

Eventually, my hands felt silicone-free but when I dried them, they were still sticky & tacky.

This is when I realized I should not have done this when home alone for the weekend. I thought I could call my sister for help if the situation didn’t improve, but my hands were sticky and I wouldnt want to mess up my iPhone! And I don’t know if I could drive anywhere, because what if my hands stick to the steering wheel!

I googled for some help and saw a tip about using plastic bags (no help) but also had a recommendation of using nail polish remover.

So I used a few cotton balls full with little success. So I poured some out into my hands to really rub it in. This helped a lot, but now my hands reeked of nail polish remover. I washed them AGAIN with soap and unfortunately some spots were still sticky. After a few hours though, they were back to normal, thankfully.

Has Dr. Google ever saved you? Have you ever poured nail polish removed all over your hands and had to endure the horrible smell that lingers on them for a few hours?

Weekend Recap

I had a great weekend home alone. Friday I relaxed with a bottle of wine (A by Acacia’s Pinot Noir. Totally delicious. Pick it up if you get a chance) and pizza, a movie, and popcorn. I wanted to stay up to watch the last Conan, but the whole bottle of wine prevented that.

I woke up early Saturday thanks to the cats, but got all the animals fed then was back in bed for more sleep. I finally got up and then hit the town for some errands at Goodwill, Home Depot, and the Dollar Store. I found a lamp at Goodwill that I’m thinking about for my office. I might go by on my way home and if it’s still there I’ll purchase it. I got some supplies at Home Depot for my day of getting things done.

There’s a whole story to my “getting things done” morning in the house, but that’s gonna need to be a whole other post. I feel it’s best described as a comedy of errors, except nobody else was home to experience the comedy with me.

I also made some progress in my office on Saturday- stay tuned for updates on that later this week.

Saturday night was low key with some tv/movie watching (including Lifetime’s world premiere of Pregnancy Pact. I swear nothing else was on tv!)

Sunday I got my other weekend-tasks done (grocery store, meal planning, laundry) and then got some chili on the stove for football.

Here’s my meal plan for the week:

1. Chicken Chili
2. Christi’s Balsamic Salmon
3. Christi’s Baked Chicken
4. Thai Chicken Wrap (via Rachel Ray)
5. Hoisin Chicken & Rice (found on Tasty Kitchen)

How was your weekend?

Superbowl Bound, Baby!

Image via Colts.com

The Colts came from behind and pulled out a big W against the Jets yesterday. What a game!

I told a friend yesterday that if the Colts made it to the Superbowl, I’d make a tshirt/jersey for Zeus to wear. It’s gonna be Zeus’ favorite player, Austin Collie.

I’m so excited about the Colts win but bummed that the Vikings couldn’t keep their hands on the ball. I think Peterson must have dipped them in butter before the game. It’s sure to be a great game vs the Saints though!

Weekend Edition

It’s finally Friday! For only a 4-day work week, this sure was a long one, filled with post-normal-work-hours work activities. But I’m glad it’s Friday and the weekend and extra excited because I have the house to myself all weekend!

And this means that I’m bound to be super productive. Or not productive at all. You see, I have a tendency to get in strange cleaning, get things done funks when Matt is out of the house. Pull-out-the-fridge-and-vacuum-behind-it kind of funks. I have lots of projects swimming around in my mind, but honestly can’t say what I will and won’t get to. Here are my list of projects and I’d be shocked if I got to all of them:

• Touch up trim in family room
• Touch up paint in family room
• Paint below the chair rail in dining room with the trim paint
• Re-caulk the shower in the master bath (not really re-caulking but re-doing the silicone seal around the class. But it’s basically the same process)
• Vacuum the house
• Mop downstairs
• Rearrange my office (again)
• Sewing

Like I said, pretty sure there’s no way I’m going to get to all of this between now and Sunday afternoon. Because I’d also like to squeeze in these activities:

• Relaxing
• Watch a movie (I’ve got Paper Heart from Netflix)
• Take Zeus to the dog park
• Do some photography
• Try out Bikram Yoga with my sister
• Go to the gym
• Catch up on my TV shows from this week

And then there are the things I do every weekend like:

• Meal planning
• Grocery shopping
• Laundry

And the Colts take on the Jets Sunday afternoon! Phew! I’m tired already!

Do you have any big plans for the weekend? Think I won’t survive the weekend if I actually try to get all of this stuff done? Check back on Monday to see what I got done (if anything!) and tell me about your weekend!