My bathroom plans revealed.

Well I finally have some decisions made on my bathroom plans!! I will be doing the walls in a purple color. I already have the shower curtain I'm going to use, and I'm going with a square pedestal sink with satin nickel hardware. Here are a few examples of some of the things I've chosen. I promise pics as soon as it's finished, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.

The bees are going down!!

My uncle owns and runs an exterminating business. We have 3 generations of exterminators in my family. So why is it that the house my parents have owned for 15 years is OVERRUN with carpenter bees?

If you look up Carpenter Bees in Wikipedia, the website will tell you they are solitary bees, usually living on their own. LIES! We have a metropolitan colony living in the eaves of my parents' roof. They do not sting you, but they are big and loud. And they aren't shy.

Dad used to sit out on the porch playing "bee-minton" swatting them with badminton rackets. I have to admit he was a pretty good shot, but the problem is, dear father, that the bees don't care. They will still move in.

So tomorrow my uncle had donated a truck and some chemical to my cause. We are going to spray the eaves of the house with something that will GET RID OF the bees. What a novel concept, huh? It will also keep the wasps from nesting in the roof. 2 birds with 1 stone, my kind of solution.

The downside is that female carpenter bees will actually attack you if they feel their nest is being threatened, and we have a good few nests to erradicate. So, how to get rid of the bees without getting stung? Well, my friends, I have the perfect solution. I am going to withold that last little tidbit of info from my fiance and let HIM spray the eaves while I am safely enclosed in the house behind screens, windows and doors. Let no one say I have no sense of self-preservation.

Hopefully by Monday Carpenter Bees will be a thing of the past for my future home. Looks like dad will have to find a new hobby. He really has no problem with finding new hobbies, trust me.

Something Bugging me

Okay, so we all know Bravo edits its reality shows to within an inch of their very existence, so why, oh why, can they not edit out all the fat girl jokes we have been hearing on Top Design this season? Call me sensitive if you will, but there have only been a couple of episodes where someone has not made a thinly veiled fat girl joke aimed at Carisa. It makes me feel bad for her, and she isn't really a person I would probably get along with (if the Bravo TV edited version of her personality is anything to go by.)

But seriously? Is their next reality tv show going to be about who can lose the most weight via anorexia or bulemia? Because through their editing they are really letting out a lot of snipery towards the big girls in this world.

Being a big girl myself, I am proud of my body and I don't let fat girl jokes get to me in a personal way. However, I just wonder why everyone wonders why public figures are starving themselves within an inch of their life, but then laughs along with the fat girl jokes made later.

You can't laugh at fat girl jokes and turn around and slap anorexic girls on the wrist and tell them to eat something. It's hypocritical. I agree that there is a healthy medium, but instead of being judgemental of too-fat and too-thin girls, how about we praise healthy looking-women? I'm one to tell you that a fat girl joke never made me put down a donut. I'm pretty sure harsh criticism never made an anorexic girl want to eat. How about we all stop being so damn judgemental and start trying to help each other feel better about ourselves???

So Margaret Russell, the next time you read an article about a too-thin celebrity, please remember your "big banquette" remark about Carisa and hang your head in shame.

And as for you Michael, just pray to whatever higher power you believe in that all the fat currently stored in your head doesn't migrate south, lest you be the object of all those fat girl jokes you love so much to tell behind Carisa's back.

I'm just sayin'...

Yard work and Paint colors

It has been a weekend. We really got started with the house this weekend. One of the challenges we are facing is a packrat of monumental proportions in my dad. He has 20-some-odd years worth of junk all in that house and yard. When my mom gets on to him to get rid of something, he just turns it into what he calls "yard art" i.e. just plant some shit in that piece of junk and he won't have to haul it to the dump. So now I'm having to do it. Ugh. It's bad when the dump man looks for your visits and knows you by first name on sight.

As far as the house goes, don't get me started. He's always been a packrat, but when I moved out he went wild. He has a kiln in one of the old bedrooms. I'm not even joking but wish I was. He has all the stuff for woodworking, scuba diving, stonecutting, a lathe, tools for every known purpose to man, old computers, a welding station, a huge rock tumbler, you name it, we got it. Crammed into a 1700 sq ft house. Oy.

So this weekend I started piling up the junk by the road and we started hauling it off. I also started hacking through the wilderness that used to be a front and back yard. We made some serious headway with it Friday evening-Saturday.

Yesterday I got the flower bed in front of the house totally re-planted and we got my daughter's room started. We got the carpets torn out and her ceiling painted, and the old ceiling fan taken down. This week I have to buy paint for her room ad what will be the guest bathroom. We are totally remodeling it ASAP.

I worked so hard this weekend. I think I might finally shift all those pounds I gained back when they had me on all those steroids for my allergies. And, by the way, my allergies have not been getting to me despite the fact that grass pollen has been out so bad that my car is now yellow...

Speaking of colors... I have to pick out most of mine this week. What a job!!! I know my daughter wants her room pink, and the bathroom will probably be a pale plumb, but I want to reserve judgement for the living room color until we get the new laminate floors in... There's only about a million shades of green out there. No pressure or anything...

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

Check-in

Thank you for those of you who have been concerned. Those of you who don't know me in an un-internet sense are no doubt nonplussed by my disappearance, but unfortunately I have a reason.

About a month ago (around the time I stopped posting) my brother committed suicide. I really haven't been able to write or talk much about it. His 22nd birthday was Friday, March 16th. This weekend I went to his friends' house and had a very therapeutic time talking about my brother and reliving our happier moments. It has made it easier to sit down and talk/write about it.

He was always a very happy person quick to a mischevious grin and I will miss him terribly. He had recently been having trouble with his life decisions not being accepted by our family and his friends, but I don't think any of us realized quite the toll it was taking on him. The shock is only starting to wear off for me, but as a family we have been coping, and for some of us, learning some lessons about acceptance. As soon as I get some pictures scanned it I will post some happy memories.

But, other things have been happening as well. My parents now feel they cannot live in the house they are currently in any longer, and wish to build a new, smaller house. They are going to give me the house they are currently in. I am very excited about this. This is the house my brother and I grew up in, and we have lived on that property since I was 2 years old. The house needs a lot of work, but I'm up to the task.

I'm probably going to start posting pictures of the work we are doing on the house as we go. I'll also post some pics of the new house being built as we get it done.