Sometimes Nuts, Sometimes Not.

When I think about my job, I feel this:

When I actually get to my job, I feel this (no really, click on the link. It's worth it):

Toby Zeigler, West Wing

It's Tuesday, folks. Let's just try to survive.

Success.

So while there is failure (the beagle, my dryer broke, my allergies are sending a constant stream of phlegm into my stomach making me nauseous), there is also not-fail. Success. Like these:

New couch, new ottoman/footstools,
clean jiujitsu gi, completing wall decor,
a happy puppy :)

My niece, who sticks a laser pointer
up her nose and turns it on. And my sister,
why just reached her goal weight!!!

Might not be the next A-Rod, but
do we really want her to be?

Snuggly pup

Completely finished cabinetry!!

Rolling in the grass on a sunny Sunday afternoon

Roaming campus

Fail.

I've posted this before:

But I'm really trying to believe it this time. About a month ago on Nora's morning walk, I found this beagle wandering aimlessly around the apartment complex. It was covered in fleas, underweight, and in bad shape. I took the little guy home (little, but obviously very old) and called Animal Control (DeKalb County Animal Services, DCAS). I felt really bad for the old coot, so I had them call me if they didn't find an owner. They didn't. He's here. And it's awful.

This is the calmest behavior
he exhibited.

It isn't his fault. He is deaf and has cataracts, so I'm sure he can only make out shapes and maybe some light differential. He was neglected for so long I'm certain he has some serious mental issues. He just spent a few weeks in a DeKalb animal services cinderblock cell, which I'm certain did not help his anxiety. He's old.

But it's awful.

He's deaf, so his bark is this strangled shriek and he is so anxious that he barks constantly. It took a Benadryl and half of a Flexeril (a human muscle relaxer. I take half of one and I'm knocked out for hours) to calm him down last night. He had two Benadryl with breakfast this morning and he's still pacing the living room. He's incontinent, which makes it impossible to leave him unattended, but he shrieks and howls and whimpers and whines every time I gate him or crate him so it's impossible to contain him even while I do simple things around the house. Like shower. Or sleep. I'm sure my neighbors love me.

This is how I remember him.

I called the Human Society since they are no-kill and they are full. I am about to put on shoes and take him back to DCAS. That is going to go well.

Update 2:59pm: I took him back to DCAS and it went as well as I expected, though I was not expecting the icy stares and questions about my ability to care for a little creature. Apparently I should be wondering at how Nora's survived this long. Here's to you, little beagle buddy; may the force be with you.

...and also with you.

No wait, that's not right...

Kitchen Reno, Part 3: It is finished. Finally.

After two solid days of sanding and staining, I have never been more grateful for my small one bedroom-er. I think if I don't see stain for 10 years, it'll be 10 years too soon (or however that saying goes...I've never been good with sayings). But it's done!! And they look pretty good if you don't look too closely. I will never be a professional, but they are done and they are done and they are done. Whew.

Darrrrrk Walnut.

And I'm healthy. Boom.

All the cabinet doors say, heyo (heyo).

Staining this part is way easier than staining the doors.

Now all that's left is to put the doors back on, probably hairspray a few more parts, and then giddyup cowperson, onto the next project: covering my box spring.

Kitchen Reno, Part 2: Stain is a Pain.

In.the.ass.

In the future, go with paint. Or have someone help you stain. Or just have someone else do it. At least the cabinet doors. Those super suck.

Stage 2 in pictures and captions:

Prep work like a boss!

Yea, that's painters tape and that's plastic sheeting.
Prep. Work.

Staining and staining and staining :)

Half the cabinets done!

Part 2 is a lot like Part 1, except it's going faster since I've gotten the hang of staining things. Paint on, wipe off, wipe off some more, then keep wiping it off. And then lay it out to dry. It will still be kind of sticky, but since I've discovered hairspray I'm feeling confident. This stage is also way easier because my sweet pup is at someone else's. I'm dogsitting Bella so Nora gets to hang out with her while my apartment improving project is taking over.

I sanded the cabinets (the attached-to-the-wall-part) with the power sander, but ran out of steam so I left that for later. And did other things like hanging out with this little mister:

I'm 1 and I'm amazing! 

Yay cereal!

Nora was super happy to help with clean-up.  

She seriously sits like this.

Kitchen Reno, Part 1: The First Stain is the Deepest. And Won't Dry.

The most important news goes above the fold:

Stain is not paint. You have to wipe it off 15 minutes after you apply it. Like all of it. More than you think. It's going to suck. Just go with it.

That could actually sum up everything I want to say about the start of this project, but I am determined to document every sticky, dark walnut-colored moment. So here's what it looked like when I started:

Mmm...yucky.

A close-up of the yuck.

I thought I'd do all the work outside, it would dry, and I would stack it all inside while starting on the next set. Yea. Right. What really happened was I stained the first set of cabinets, left them outside over night, and awoke to sticky cabinets. Because I didn't quite read the instructions and so I didn't wipe off the excess stain. No one mentioned wiping the stain off!! And since I did such extensive research on Pinterest, obviously I knew everything. How many times do I have to ask for things to be explained to me like I'm 5?

So for all the 5-year olds out there...

Sand everything x1000. Forget the sanding bar thing
and use the power sander. Use the little sanding block
for smaller areas and corners.

Open the stain. Notice my awesome can opener and
paint stick. I stirred it the first couple of times and
then gave up. I didn't see anything say I had to, so...

Coat #1. I was so gung-ho at this stage I did two coats.
I quickly switched to one coat after fixing my walnut-colored
sticky boo-boo.

The first cabinet doors done, ready to sit out
all night and get sticky.

I brought the cabinet doors inside that morning before work and they were still sticky after 9 hours, so I googled "I stained my cabinets and they're sticky." At that point, all websites were happy to tell me about the wiping-off-the-excess thing; however, since it had sort of dried and had sat for so long, I had to go back to Lowes, get mineral spirits (sounds like something to mix with cranberry, but it is definitely not), wipe down all of those cabinets I had painted, re-sand them, and then stain them again.

That's a bunch of bullshit, so I did that for 2 of them and found a better method: hairspray. I used my Garnier medium-hold anti-frizz humidity-defying hairspray and sealed up the other six. Minwax should totally include that as an option in the future. You're welcome, Minwax. You're welcome.

Sharing is Caring

When I got Nora, I was expecting to share everything with her: my apartment, my bed, my time...but I had to stop myself when it came to food. I wanted to give her pieces of whatever I was eating except, well, it would probably kill her. I've been giving her bits of stuff, but I was just eating this (see right) and didn't want to finish it. Nora was looking hungry, so I googled some shit and found these foods are good to give:

Peanut butter. 
Yogurt. This provides a great source of protein for dogs (especially Greek yogurt).
Lean proteins (like chicken, turkey and beef).
Salmon. 
Pumpkin and sweet potatoes. a great source of beta carotene and vitamin A and help keep your pup's digestive system on track.
Rice and pasta. Plain or whole wheat pastas are a good source of energy for your dog
Apples. 
Peas and green beans. 

Unfortunately, I hate green beans so Nora will not be getting any of those. Definite no-no foods are these: 

Chocolate and cocoa.
Grapes. 
Avocados. (apparently causes diarrhea and vomiting).
Onions and garlic.
Alcohol. (because not giving your dog alcohol isn't obvious)
Milk and dairy products. Just one slice of cheese won't kill your pet, but excessive dairy will likely negatively disrupt their digestive system. (oops...Nora gets cheese...)
Coffee. Just a sip of coffee or caffeine can lead to restlessness, heart palpitations and bleeding, while a large dosage can be fatal. (because giving coffee to your dog seems like a good idea?)
Gum. (all warning labels came from some dumbass who did something dumb...ass)

So. Luckily most of what I eat can be shared. Just apparently not any of my beverages. Or my Trident whitening gum.

Kitchen Reno, Pre-Start: Ugly is over. Go to Lowe's.

Since my financial goals do not include a new and updated apartment, and since my HGTV addiction makes me want to DIY the hell out of everything on less than $15, I decided to do a little something extra to my not-so-fancy-schmancy mid-1990's apartment. I made a list of things I wanted to improve and started with the most obvious: the cabinetry. Who doesn't love dirty, greasy, nasty, scuffed up cabinetry in a light, faux-oak stain? Oh right. This girl.

So I Pinterest-ed "how to stain my kitchen cabinets" and read 2 tutorials and looked at the pictures. I figured this made me an expert, so I took the best from both (i.e., pieced together ways to make it as easy as possible) and went to Lowe's. Since I am writing this in hindsight, I will explain it like I'm 5. Because that's how I wish the tutorial people had explained it to me.

First, when you go to Lowe's, here is what you'll need to get:

• Gloves. I bought nitrile resistant, or nitrile proof, or maybe just nitrile gloves. They are green and size medium (because there were no smalls). I bought 2 pairs for $4 each.
• Lots of plastic sheeting. I bought 3 rolls of 12 foot stuff for about $2 each. There's never enough covering of delicate things like stoves and floors, and your desk (which is where you will be putting the cabinet doors to dry since it's raining outside).
• Stain. I bought 2 quarts of Dark Walnut: Penetrate, Stain, and Seal (that sounds really dirty) by Minwax for about $8 each. I could have looked on the can to see how much area it says it covered, and probably discovered that one can was enough. But I didn't.
• A paint stir stick. I still haven't figured out if you have to stir the stain, but I got one anyway. It was free. I hope. Otherwise I just shoplifted for the first time in my life and I didn't even mean to and I didn't even get anything cool.
• A paint/stain can opener. Probably the best idea I've had so far. It was less than $1. I should have just gotten a lot of those.
• Foam brushes. I bought the biggest ones they had figuring it would be best to cover the most surface area, right? Wrong. I'm glad I also bought smaller sizes because the biggest size doesn't fit in the can opening. They were about $1 each and I got 6 (you never know).
• A sanding block. I borrowed a friend's power sander and will probably use it for the rest of the project. I saw the sanding block in one of the tutorials and thought, hey, that looks easier. But I'm not sure if it's working really well, so... $4.
• Painter's tape. To tape down the plastic sheeting that will be covering your entire existence for the next week or so. I had some at home so this was free. Boom. Saving money right and left.

When you get home, grab as many old t-shirts as you can find. I seriously don't know why I need them, but I've found at least three reasons to have them. Then clear a place on your porch, but not too big of a space because you'll be moving everything inside once you realize how humid and rainy it's going to be for the next few days. It's also a lot cooler inside and everything is less sticky. Except your cabinets. Because you did that part wrong...which leads to Day 1: The First Stain is the Deepest. And Won't Dry.

Also, I added a final picture frame and put an old map of the home town (34952). Now I'm just waiting to find the perfect oval/round mirror, and voila!

The wall-o-family

Speaking of family, this perfection happened:

Lila looks just like her mommy

It's pretty pretty.

So I was taking a lunch break - [slash] - answering voicemails - [slash] - drinking a Black Cherry Fresca (fan-freakin-tastic) - [slash] - responding to emails and thought, hey, why not multi-task a little and start a blog? I also just made up some punctuation there, but I'm forthemostpart happy with it :)

Anyhow, this: http://workingatanonprofit.tumblr.com/. The fax machine at work has been down for nearly 2 weeks with a server/memory issue. I don't know what that means except that it means I can't fax anything. It's been a fun week of "why does your fax machine suck" phone calls and "I've tried faxing this 6 times" emails. Nonprofit work must be so rewarding...

Also, I sold this:

And got this:

I'm so excited about being a big girl sometimes. Sometimes it sucks (like, seriously? I have to cook food every day?) but sometimes it's fun. Like buying big girl things like couches and bed frames and nice towels. I get to dress all pretty if I want and I don't care so much anymore what other people think. I don't worry about over- or underdressing for something; I wear what I think is appropriate and what I'm comfortable in. I LOVE having my own apartment because I get to make it all pretty with things I like. It's always organized because no one's there to mess it up - except Nora, who ate a tank top during the night. Chewed the straps right off. That's my girl.