Not Quite Grimace, maybe a little Grape Ape

Quigs asked for photos of the purple bathroom. The first photo is pretty much what the bathroom looked like "before" the painting (when they were building the house, so yes, the floor was a mess). I didn't take a more recent "before" photo because I guess -- it's a pretty forgettable bathroom. :-)

I found the shimmery shower curtain at Kohl's today. It's striped light purple, dark purple, white, and silvery gray with shimmer, so it fits with the trim pretty well. X-man was very excited about the new towels, but he agrees that we need something ("Maybe another bar, Mom") over the toilet. We have one of those small cupboards above the toilet in on the first floor bathroom. I may wander back to Target and look for another version. 

I also have a silver mirror that we had in our last house to put up in the basement. It's more decorative than the plain one. I'm not sure why we didn't have the builder put it up 3 years ago. It's just been sitting in our garage. But it's no secret that MacTroll and I suck at hanging things. (Rogers, got an afternoon you want to head over with your laser accuracy?)

The flooring guys are coming back on Friday to insert the correct laminate. Then Picasso and Sons painting will return on Monday to do another coat of yellow in the Loosey Room and touch up all the trim around the floor area again after the baseboards are put back up. 

A Room of One's Own update

One step forward, two steps backwards. It's hard to imagine that a 12'x12' room creation in my basement could be such a pain in the ass, but it has been.

For example, whenever a process seems too easy, it probably is. We went into Flooring America by Meijer and picked out the laminate I wanted in 2 minutes. The sales woman was pleased that we were so low maintenance. She came to our house 48 hours later to do the measuring and talk to us about baseboards and installation. Then she sent me the quote for the materials and labor. It was under my projected budget, so I was happy. Then the guys came and started installation on Nov. 22. I was running around doing errands that day and MacTroll was working from home. It wasn't until 3:30 p.m. when I got downstairs to take a peek. 

It was a Coastal Living Flooring -- but it wasn't the gray I ordered. It was a brown. I told the guys to stop and called the sales person. She was out to lunch. I got the guy who does the ordering and told him the problem. Of course, the order form that I approved (because I saw Coastal Living and the price and not the color) had the brown floor. But it wasn't the sample I picked out or the one I took home... so they took up the flooring and placed an order for right one. 

I never heard back from the sales person to apologize. 

Several years ago, I wanted the house on Buttercup painted white in the living room. It was beige and I'm not a fan of brown (clearly). But if you know me, you know I lack the coordination to walk up stairs without tripping... Therefore, ladders and I do not get along. I hired Blair Cohen at Picasso and Sons to do the painting. I love them. They left my house every day cleaner than I ever had it. They were timely, polite and they did a bang up job. They are not cheap, but they are worth every penny. 

So, I hired them back to do the basement work and the trim around all the new floors. The basement bathroom is now purple. My Loosey-only room is optimistic yellow... They have to come back after the flooring is installed to make sure their paint job doesn't get messed up by the flooring installers (and for that I'm grateful). 

At some point, I'll get up to Ikea to pick out some furniture. I did find some interesting couches that turn into a double bed online that I'm keeping in mind. We'll see. 

Crap - literally

My son had a bit of diarrhea on Friday night. He appeared to be fine after noon yesterday, but we still kept him on the BRAT diet. Unfortunately, he woke up at 6 a.m. this morning with a pair of PJs full of loose stools.

Then he had a follow up 20 minutes later. He tried to make it to the potty, but didn't quite make it. He's taken four showers in the last 24 hours. It can't be easy to either smell like soap OR smell like shit.

Normally, I'd be jumping up an down and thankful that his happened on a weekend when MacTroll is home. But we were supposed to leave for Chicago today to have dinner with my sister and go to a couple museums and Ikea. We lost the points for the overnight at the W on Lakeshore (so if you want to spend Friday night downtown tonight, let me know and we'll hook you up.) We cancelled the pet sittters, and my child had his 20-minute breakdown over the fact that "Everywhere has bathrooms, I'll be fine!" Apparently the logic that he couldn't make it to the potty 15 feet from his bedroom doesn't count. He thinks he'll be able to make it in the car for 2 1/2 hours and then at the museums.

The pre-paid Lego Discovery ticket for $15 I bought to supplement the free passes we have is also gone, but we did get back the points for the Schaumburg hotel since there's a 24-hour cancellation requirement on hotel rooms.

The only other logistic situation is figuring out how to get MacTroll to Chicago on Tuesday for his 1:30 flight. Apparently the Lex and train leave at 5 or 6 a.m. He's not looking forward to that. But I might need some help retrieving his car from the lot that day. In case anyone's got a free 30 minutes to drive me downtown, so I can come back with his car.

X-man is watching movies about Spiderman on the iPad right now and seems to have worked through his disappointment. So, he's calmed down a bit... And MacTroll and I, we're just doing a lot of poopy laundry and hoping we don't get what the kid has.

(We can dream can't we?)

Black Friday

Clearly, I'm still at home in my pajamas. My oatmeal just came out of the microwave. I don't drink coffee. But each year I venture out on this holy shopping day to a few stores.

The usual suspects are:
- B.Lime
- Ten Thousand Villages
- Champaign Surplus
- Karen's Kloset
-Body N Sole

When Wind, Water and Light was downtown they were included. Since they've moved to Urbana, I hit them last week when I was at Art Mart and the Art Coop. :-)

I haven't been to B.Lime since they went uber baby focused, so I'm not sure what I'll find. But I used to like to go and get smaller items like water bottles, jewelry, lip gloss, socks, etc. Stuff for stockings for the parents in my life. We'll see how it goes today.

I know there are a mess of people who went out to Toys R Us last night or hit Target this a.m. for the 4 a.m. opening. I usually stay away because I hate large groups of people. That and really everything except stocking stuffers was purchased by Nov. 15th around here...

But I do have to pick up some scotch tape today to wrap some of those bad boys already purchased. I'm thinking finding tape at Schnuck's is probably my safest bet, unless Rogard's is open on for black Friday, but somehow, I doubt the office supply sales has a black Friday hoopla.

The Excitement of Thanksgiving: Variety

Last year, I hosted a group of folks at my house for Thanksgiving. It was nice because I was recently "out of the box" with Weight Management, so I could figure out the calories and the contents of everything going into my mouth.

My plate looked like this:

This year, it's just the three of us. And I realized the problem with holidays isn't so much the content of the food as it is. The problem is that I want to try everything on the Buffet. I don't eat at Buffets a lot, but I gander that this is always the problem. You put a mess of appetizing food in front of people's faces and even if you just use a 1/4 cup scoop of everything, you've got a mess of calories on your plate.

Since it's just the three of us, I limited the menu, but added dessert, which has become a rarity in this house due to our inability to have just one scoop or one slice of something.

So, on the menu is Pork Tenderoin Agrodolce, Citrus Green Beans with Pine Nuts, Spinach Salad, reduced fat crescent rolls and a Chocolate Walnut Tart.

The total caloric value should be high, twice what a normal meal for us would be, at a bit over 700 calories due to the dessert. But I feel like we're eating well without stuffing ourselves full because our brains tell us to try the 20 different items at the buffet. We're also meeting the 2 vegetables/fruit at each meal requirement that I'm trying to pass at home. We're at the 75% mark. Sometimes, I just get lazy...

Here's a photo of tonight's dinner:

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. We're heading out to see Tangled at 5:20 p.m. at the Savoy 16 today. X-man is totally looking forward to it.

Bearing Weight

I've been going to the Body Bar weight lifting class twice a week at the Savoy Recreation Center since I joined at the end of September. I was sad because my favorite class at the Fitness Center went away due to the instructor's new job. I tried out her classes at the Refinery -- and I still loved the instructor, but the gym was out of my way.

Emily is the Body Bar instructor. She is very fun and provides a challenging work out. The class is mostly made up of women (in that 9 a.m. hour) and on occasional husband. I've been feeling self conscious because the bars in the room stop at 27 lbs. I squat and lunge with the 27 and then I use the 22 lb bar for all other lifting. When I started, I was squatting the 22 and using the 18 lb bar.

But I noticed that when I moved up, several other people in the class also moved up. The two women that were using 15 lb bars moved up to 18 lb bars. But today was awesome... today, the woman who always stands behind me and lifts a 9 lb bar while her husband does a 12 lb bar, went and got a SECOND bar of 6 lbs and started doing shoulder work with it. I totally noticed and I thought it was awesome. I think her husband thought it was pretty awesome, too.

A room full of strong ladies. Before you know it, the SRC is going to have to purchase bars with adjustable weights at the ends... because we'll all be fighting for higher weights. :-)

Relax

I'm sitting at my desk drinking a beer. I have spent all day at home, except for an excursion to Target where I bought a bunch of paper products, but forgot to hand over my coupons at checkout because my son was helping... and I was afraid he was going to fall off the cart while putting things on the checkout counter. Go figure. Other than that, there's been a lot of laundry -- and I read -- one half of an adult book. Something I've only been able to do successfully on vacations the last few years.

It was a lovely Sunday.