(no subject)

I may not be an expert painter (or an expert paint selector), but I can tape like a pro. I should contract myself out as a paint prep-worker. Most people hate the tediousness of it, but honestly, once I get some music on and get going, it goes quickly. I think at this point, we just need to tape the baseboards. The windows and door frames are almost entirely done, except for the hall window, which looks out to the front door. Lance still needs to take that shade down. But we'll leave it up for now, until we actually find a paint color we can live with and feel ready to start painting.

I'm wondering if using primer would help the paint be more true to the color that appears on the paint chip. The thought of priming all of this really bothers me (the entire area we're painting is about 75% of the interior of the house). The painting alone is a massive undertaking, never mind the priming.

Anyway, Lance and I are alone. I dropped Reece off at Petsmart this morning. She's there until 8 tonight. I stopped at Panera to pick up breakfast for myself and then to Burger King for Lance's breakfast. Then we got to work.

I'm really not feeling great today. Didn't sleep that well last night. I came out to the couch at about 4 this morning, since Lance was dead to the world and snoring like a freight train. Normally I can nudge him a little and he'll automatically turn over on his side, where he's less likely to snore, but he was unresponsive this morning. I finally gave up and moved out to the couch. Reece followed me out there to check up on me, kissed me on the cheek, and went back to her little doggie bed next to our bed. I had a horrible leg cramp while I was out there, so my right leg is now really sore. At about 5:50, Reece came out and gave me another lick on my cheek. I thought she wanted out, but she just wanted me to come back to bed so she could jump between us and snuggle. So that's what we did.

She's such a sweet girl.

But now I have a gimpy left knee, a sore right calf, and I had to have a super huge, super strong latte this morning just to feel remotely awake.

Now we're talking about putting off the painting for another week or two so we have more time to find the right color. I really don't want to do any shade of white, since we eventually plan to replace or paint the baseboards. They're currently stained, but we want white baseboards, window sills and door frames. I don't want the walls to be white too.

Lance can always take off a couple weekdays to finish up the painting if we start it on a Saturday. This is going to be more than a 2 day job.

And at least the prep work will be done. Except for moving all the furniture away from the wall and putting down the tarp.

Trip Planning

Few things in life make me happier than planning a trip.

And Lance said yesterday that we need to go somewhere. He signed up for a credit card with Alaska Airlines rewards, since he generally flies that airline anytime the military needs him to go somewhere. We can take a flight on Alaska/Horizon to anywhere they fly for the cost of one ticket + a $50 companion fare. We have to do this by September.

That means Los Angeles (to visit my brother, although it's more likely I'll go there by myself, and I am thinking of doing that next month). That could mean, of course, Alaska. It could mean Vegas. We can even go to Hawaii. Possibly even to Mexico.

Lance is strongly leaning toward Vegas at this point. He's been there a lot, but generally for work. And he knows I hate casinos, but he was talking about all the shows, the food...

I would really like Hawaii, but that would be a more expensive trip. Probably Mexico too. And while I wouldn't mind visiting Alaska someday, I would probably rather do it on a cruise. And I don't even want to think about Alaska this time of year. I'm sick of winter!

Of course, I would always really rather go to Europe. More and more, I'm sorry we ever left. The timing, as Lance said, was impeccable (that's sarcasm). Because the economy went all the crap right after we moved here and now we're stuck with a house worth much less than we're paying for it, and a less than ideal work situation for me that will seemingly never change for as long as we live here (I'm trying to be hopeful, but finding it to be very difficult).

Yes, I met wonderful friends here whom I wouldn't trade for the world. And yes, we got Reece. And those are beautiful things that would never have happened if we stayed in Germany. And I am grateful for that.

I'm going off on a tangent. A trip to Vegas might be fun. And I could really use some fun in my life right about now.

Erranding

Lance and I were just out running errands. Off to Lowe's, to get the Paint Mate Plus kit, or so I thought, but Lance decided to hold off on those for now.

Instead we got more paint chips.

Went to Walmart and got some paint chips there too. Mom told me that she's always had great success with their Color Place paint.

So now I'll tape all these suckers to the wall and see what works.

Lance suggested that we go out and grab lunch while we were out, but then told me later on that he actually wasn't that hungry. And I was kind of hungry. I had planned to reheat my leftover chinese from dinner last night before he mentioned going out. So I told him I would wait until we got home and get something to eat. We stopped at Starbucks so he could get a Venti Frappuccino. That's his lunch. I still had one coupon left for a free tea latte or tea infusion, so I ordered the apple chai, which is pretty good.

We're home now. Maybe we'll try having dinner out instead. Maybe he'll be hungry then. It's just that everyone will be out tonight, so I'm not sure we'll find a table anywhere without waiting for ages.

Lance needs to finish taping around the ceiling. Then he needs to prime around the windows. My work is mostly done. I'm not sure we'll tape the baseboards today, since I suspect Reece would just destroy all of it anyway.

Amante

Lance and I had an amazing dinner at Amante tonight. And it wasn't amazing because it was a pretentious restaurant or because it had a unique ambiance (because, truth be told, the ambiance was rather bland), or because it was anything particularly extraordinary.

It was amazing because the food reminded us so much of our favorite restaurant near our home in Germany. And just experiencing those flavor combinations again brought back a huge flood of memories for both of us. And while the restaurant wasn't cozy, intimate or romantic, just having those memories...just tasting that food again...that was romance for us.

Just sayin'.

I posted about it on itinerantwriter.