Monday Update 10/8/07

~Unpacking~
Last week, I tried to concentrate on getting things in order with my new house. Let’s just say that the previous owner didn’t take much care in cleaning. After cleaning the stove, S says it looks like a new stove (even though it’s probably 20 years old). I thought the chrome drip pans were corroded from being old. Nope. It was cooked on food! There was so much that they were black with a little silver showing. A couple treatments of oven cleaner and they are SO shiny!

I wiped down the ceramic tile on the walls of the kitchen and wiped out some of the cupboards so I can start putting things away. The drawers in the kitchen are/were bare wood so I decided to paint them white to match the cupboards. I used the Kilz primer/stain blocker. What I didn’t realize is I needed mineral spirits to clean up. When did it dawn on me to read the label of Kilz? After my hands were covered in the stuff. Yikes… Where did I pack the mineral spirits? Frantically, I searched for MS. Ahhh…. There you are, my savior! The alternative was to drive to the store looking like I was in transformation to a ghost. Kilz is a real pain to clean up after! Since I have two more drawers to do, I bought the disposable paint trays and a couple more sponge brushes. It’s worth the $2 not to have to clean up anything but myself. How do I manage to get paint all over myself??!

Most of my hanging clothes are put away in the closet... Only because the rack I had them hanging on collapsed and I was forced to clean up the mess. I am still going through them to get rid of ones I haven’t worn in the past 2 years. Can anyone say: Freecycle??

I even managed to unpack one entire box for the bathroom and one for the kitchen. Woo Hoo!

S helped me out by moviing the Christmas decorations from the garage to the attic. He also repaired the roll top desk that was damaged by brother movers. With that fixed, we were able to re-arrange the furniture in my office aka 4-season room and hook up the rest of the computer components.


~Exploring the Neighborhood~
S and I have taken a couple of long walks around the neighborhood. It makes for a very nice walk. Within walking distance are 2 large parks, tennis courts, public pool, skate park, and basketball courts. If I’m really ambitious, I could also walk to the shopping center.


~Adding to the Collection~
No, I'm not talking about my stash collection! I found this Baby Brownie Special at the Friends Forever Rummage Sale last weekend. I bought an entire box of camera "stuff" for $1.



Kodak manufactured these from 1939 to 1954. Mine has a date of 1941 stamped on the inside. This tiny bakelite camera (3 1/4" wide x 3" tall) camera takes eight images on a roll of 127 film. It gives edge distortion with center of the image remaining in focus. See this cute little pushbutton shutter to the side of the focus free lens? You can't see it very well, but there's a nifty little braided handle that goes across the top. The BB originally sold for a whopping $1.25!

In addition to being a bean counter, I'm also a photographer. I have a small collection of old cameras that I display in my home. Well, I did until I moved!


~Weather~
The weather was unusually HOT and HUMID this weekend. It was so hot that the Chicago Marathon was cancelled a few hours after it started because people started dropping like flies. Unfortunately, one runner died. I’m not one for extreme heat or cold, so I stayed inside most of the time.

~School~
I finished up my beginning Excel class, a week before the "semester" ends. I would've finished before the move, except the instructor decided he wasn't going to grade assignments turned in early. He wanted to grade the online assignments at the same time as the on-campus assignments. By the time, he changed his mind about it I was in the midst of buying and moving. Glad that he came to his senses in that it's unfair to hold students back who want to work ahead. He even commented on how rare that was.