Nuthin’ but an H thang, Baybay…

Picture this: I’m on my way out of the office trudging through the parking ramp trying to find my car (so, a bit distracted). A bright yellow Porsche Boxster starts to drive in my direction and I notice that the driver has a short blond hairdo styled upward. In my mind’s eye, I thought it was one of my high-ranking female coworkers. I smiled as she passed by and nearly waved…until the car got closer and I realized “#@*&! That’s a dude!” Nope, it wasn’t my coworker at all, it was some random guy who spotted me smiling at him, slowed down slightly, and smiled back. Great.

As I approach the ramp’s exit, my car ends up behind the Boxster so I divert my eyes from any possible contact. He pulls ahead, then I do. Now on the street, I have to pull up behind him again at a stoplight to make my turn for my usual route home. He checks his rearview mirror nervously, probably thinking he’s being stalked by some weird chick from the parking ramp.

Oh, it gets better. It turns out that he takes the same route home I do – nearly all the way to my neighborhood! Which means that I followed him for about 6 miles on side-streets! He’s probably filing a restraining order against me today.

Think I need to start taking the bus again.

For 7 days, we have been BIZZIE.

It started on April 10th: Audra & BIL’s Moving Day. I arrived at 10am and didn’t go home until after 8pm. That’s not a complaint actually, since I was sincerely glad to be there. Their first house! And it’s closer to our house! YAY.

Sunday: Adam and I did some stuff around the house (as far as I can remember) and we prepared to have friends over for supper. Afterward, we had a fire on the patio with cheesecake. Delicious, creamy cheeeeesecake.

Monday: After a hectic day at work, I raced to my hair appointment. I have a new stylist (the old one went back to school, or joined a convent, or something). The new person, Jessica, ratcheted up my highlights to a brighter new level. So now I’m a little…shiny. Maybe I’ve mitigated my risk for getting hit by a car now? Ew, that was both glass-half-full and it resembled something I’d say at work. Sorry.

Tuesday: I had dinner with my mom at Cecil’s. She let me try her Reuben, which was so beyond wonderful that I nearly passed out. Then I imagined the big burly server-dude there trying to revive me via mouth-to-mouth and I snapped right back. I delivered a few gifts to my mom for Kirby’s bridal shower this weekend and was glad to check it off the list.

Wednesday: Met up with an old friend to deliver some photos of an event I shot for him. We attempted to meet at Majors on 394, only Majors on 394 is closed. How did I not know this? FAIL. Anyway, we went to a scarcely populated Timberlodge and enjoyed 2-fer-1s. WIN.

Thursday: Current day. We were supposed to meet up with the windows/doors guy for measurements but he had to reschedule. That’s why I’m sitting here blogging into oblivion. I don’t know what to do with all this free time.

Coming up…

Tomorrow night, we’re having dinner with my cousin, her husband and their adorable boy. Saturday, we’re rescheduled with the windows dude and will be attending a Dr. Who Premier Party that night. Sunday, it’s Kirby’s wedding shower, my Grandma Mason’s birthday dinner, my BFF’s birthday (though I won’t see her because she’s out of town) and my cousin Adam’s Drunken Karaoke Birthday event.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

I’m happy to say that the bathroom remodel is really close to being done-done. Adam will install the speakers for the TV and I’ll do some touch-up painting, but we’re otherwise finito. I’m even happier to say that the TV crew is done with us! They don’t know when the show will air yet, but they’re guessing August-ish. I promise we’ll let everyone know when we get the deets (unless we look like idiots, then I’ll pretend I didn’t see it and change my name and move to…Idaho).

Since we’re so close to being done with the bath and because I’m crazy, I have another small project in the works: Home Gym. The Futon Room is no more! We moved the futon to Audra & Donnie’s new place last weekend (is that a weird housewarming gift?), where it now lives in their lovely guestroom/office. This opened up a nice big hole in the Futon Room for workout gear. I already have an ab/back hyper bench and some small weights in there, as well as a couple of exercise balls (stop snickering). I’m getting a treadmill from my Daddio – for free even! – and I’m on the hunt for an elliptical machine and a weight training gym. Other than outfitting the room with various pieces of equipment, I also have a master plan to extend the wood flooring from the hallway into this room.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

Me: Hello?

Adam: Hi, what are you doing?

Me: Working. Where are you?

Adam: North Minneapolis.

Me: What are you doing there?

Adam: Drugs.

Me: *laughing*

Adam: What?…What?

The BATHtastic! crew arrived at 7:30am on Tuesday and didn’t leave the house until after 10:30 that night. It was a loooong day of shooting.

At the end of the day, the bathroom was nearly done:

1. Sadly, the backsplash shattered into 1,000 pieces while our contractor was trying to shave it down to fit the wall-mounted faucet. Not his fault really, since the faucet specs weren’t followed by the glass company. The good news is that we’ll have a new one next Thursday. I can’t wait.
2. The vanity didn’t quite fit the plumbing needs, so it too has to be messed with some more before we can use the sink. Plus, there’s no drain yet because I bought the wrong kind. Rats. A plumber will be stopping in tomorrow.
3. Oh, and no one realized it until we unboxed the TV mirror, but we have to install in-wall speakers. That information would have been helpful when they were dealing with the sheetrock. Now we have to figure something out (and when I say “we”, I mean “Adam”).
4. Finally, there’s some trim work that needs to be finished off in the closet and hallway…and then it’s really, actually complete.

Looking beyond our short list of final tasks, I absolutely love the result of the design. The way it came together was simply amazing. Thinking back on it, I had a bit of a hard time visualizing how all of the pieces would fit. Normally I’m good at picturing how things will look together as I pick them out, but I didn’t get too deep into all of the details on this project and it ended up being a very fun surprise.

Next week and over the weekend, we have to participate in some “lifestyle” shots. Basically, they want to shoot us in our natural habitat(s) to describe who we are for the show. They plan to play up the geek angle for Adam by shooting some of his Retro Gaming party this weekend. For me, they’ll stage me shooting photos someplace outdoors. We tossed around ideas for capturing our work-lives…which quickly deteriorated into me drawing a unicorn-like creature on a whiteboard. Should be entertaining, anyway.