Congrats to Carolyn, who won Trick or Treat by JL Merrow!
I just needed a little Misadventures break this week – tune in next week when we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming! 🙂
Meanwhile, check out the view from my chaise lounge when I look up from working on my laptop (click to embiggen for the full effect):
Here’s a lovely maple in front of the Linden Hills Library last weekend:
“See how nice and quiet it is without any naughty boys, Mom?!” -Mayhem
Randonymity
Before
You can’t tell from the picture, but that toilet was very low and also almond-colored. The light switch for the main bathroom light was a dimmer switch (one of eight (!!!), now all replaced), which made the lights buzz. It’s not easy to take pictures of my wee bathroom, but… Here’s what it used to look like:
While that vessel sink looked great, it was just too low for me. Plus the vanity developed numerous cracks over the dry winter, so the sink wasn’t level anymore and started to leak. Also, the paint on the walls doesn’t look that dark in these pictures, but combined with the tiny frosted glass single-candelabra bulb light fixture (on the wall above the toilet, not in frame)… I could barely see myself in the mirror! Also, the grout was an assortment of different colors – red-brown, light gray, dark gray.
After
I sealed all the grout using a medium-gray tinted sealer (tinted sealer looks great, but it is sooooo much work), had the walls repainted a much lighter gray-green (SW Rare Gray), had the low almond toilet replaced with a “comfort height” white toilet, had the low sink and vanity replaced with a taller but less wide sink and vanity, had the ineffective single-candelabra bulb light fixture replaced with a three-bulb fixture, switched out the (black) dimmer switches and a white, now black, GFCI outlet… Much better now!
Bookity
Think, Make, Do, Learn
Cookity
Gluten Free
Cool
Cool or Wha…?
Wha…?
LOL
Teh Cute
Reading Update
“Hee hee! May will never notice me hiding behind this box until it is too late!” -Chaos
Congrats to Rush, who won Junk by Josephine Myles!
Congrats to Suze, who won The Stars that Tremble by Kate McMurray! The Stars that Tremble is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.
My being busy is hell on the Misadventures in Stock Photography, isn’t it?! Yesterday was spent cleaning my old condo until late and I’ll be back there cleaning more today. On the plus side, it’ll hopefully be ready to go on the market after I get a carpet cleaner in there. Keep your fingers crossed that it sells quickly! 🙂
“Oh, yes, our old condo – so you’re getting rid of that like you’re getting rid of our old table?! I’m not getting off this table, so you can’t get rid of it!! Ha!” -Chaos
Although Chaos may be house panther-sized, he was easily removed when the guys from Steeple People came by for the table…
Congrats to Tracy, who won Black Hurricane (Boston Boys #3) by Erica Pike!
Congrats to PaParanormalFan, who won Waiting for a Spark by Lillian Francis!
I know, I know – you’re here for a new edition of the Misadventures in Stock Photography. Alas, there isn’t one – home “improvement” devoured my weekend, including the Friday I took off.
It all started a few weeks ago, when, flush on the heels of my great tub caulking triumph, I realized that the grout in the shower needed sealing and decided I could certainly do that myself. Since there were multiple grout colors in the shower, I decided I’d use a colored grout sealer. The colored caulk (Pearl Gray) I’d used was a slightly too dark shade of grey, so I went with the lighter shade – Silver.
No one warned me that, like knitting, there’s a tendency to start a home improvement project and, upon realizing it doesn’t quite look as you’d hoped, carry on thinking that of course it will look better when it’s all done. *cue ominous music*
Picture the shower below with very pale grey (erm, silver, whatever) grout. It looked even worse than you’re imagining.
So I spent last weekend and this past Friday removing the silver grout sealer as best I could, using a micro abrasive (to not damage the stone and grout) and plastic grout brushes. I wore six grout brushes to nubs – sanded grout definitely takes its toll. Friday evening I cleaned up and prepped.
Saturday I started sealing grout again. This time I used “Natural Gray” (from a different store – oh, that I’d seen this before ever laying eyes on the accursed Silver) and an actual grout applicator instead of a toothbrush. The directions said to work in small sections and remove excess grout sealer from the tile before it dried. What that turned out to mean was seal one side of a six-inch tile, clean up the edges with little pieces of paper towel, seal another side, etc. Don’t even get me started on the corners – you can’t really tell in that picture, but the corners are made from six vertical rows of one-half inch by two inch tiles. I think each corner took over three hours.
The whole thing took nine hours on Saturday and ten hours on Sunday. Why, yes, my entire body does ache, particularly my wrists and shoulders. Throughout this (and the grout sealer removal and the initial silver grout sealer application…), I had to keep the glass shower doors closed to keep out the cats. Chaos would periodically come sit on the toilet and meow crabbily at me every time I moved. Saturday evening, he sat there for over an hour, meowing his Siamesesque meow nonstop. Oh yeah. That’s what my nerves needed! (Also, it got pretty toasty warm in there for hours with the doors closed. Ugh.)
At least there wasn’t any cleanup to do after finishing, since I had to do it as I went along. And the Natural Gray looks great – great enough that I’ll probably need to seal the non-shower bathroom tile at some point. Not anytime soon, mind you!
Until Wednesday evening, it’s sponge baths and washing my hair in the kitchen sink. *sigh*
“I am still suspicious that there’s a naughty boy hiding somewhere up there. Perhaps behind the bathroom door in that picture.” -Mayhem
Congrats to Lily, who won the copy of Mobry’s Dick by K.Z. Snow, which is being released today from Loose Id. (Congrats, K.Z.!)
*….zzzzzz….* -Mayhem
*….zzzzzz….* -Chaos
I knew something was up when May got on top of a cupboard and started chittering at the corner behind the microwave. Then Chaos got on top of the microwave, leapt at the corner, and fell behind the microwave stand.
Oh oh. I don’t remember there being a tarry blob up in the corner like that…
Oh oh. That’s not a tarry blob at all…
It’s a bat!
Remember back in January of 2009 when a squirrel ripped a hole in my kitchen screen? I haven’t been able to figure out how to get the @!*#)@(*!! screen out to take it in for repair. And, since the kitties were taking care of any bugs that wandered through the hole, I haven’t been that concerned about that hole.
Until now. I’m going to get some thread and darn that hole so nothing larger than a bug can get in.
Anyway, back to the excitement. I sat down with my laptop and panicked via email to some people. (Many thanks to the calming online presences of Carolyn Crane, Bronwyn Green, Tam, and Lily, and to Jeanne who laughed her head off on the phone after everything was over.) Then I googled an article about how to get a bat out of your house.
Based on that information, I locked the kitties in the bathroom and closed my bedroom door. Armed with leather gloves and a towel, I put the towel over the bat and attempted to wrap him up. He got away and started to fly around as I hit the floor shrieking. When I looked up again, he wasn’t flying anymore and I didn’t know where he was.
*whimper*
By the time I figured out that the bat was in the ficus, he had taken off and started flying laps again. I crouched on the floor, trying to keep an eye on him in the living room mirror. Finally he hit the living room window and landed on the air conditioner, where I was able to drop the towel over him. (I’m glad that the article I read about removing bats warned me that he would squeak and chitter!!) Took the towel outside, tossed it on the step, and off he flew.
Whew!
“My eyes are locked and loaded, just in case!” -Chaos
“Mom, that bug was really big and cool! You were mean to take it away.” -Mayhem
I’ve lived with the bungee cords on the closets for years – ever since Chaos figured out how get the sliding doors open.
Bungee cords are quick and easy to fasten and unfasten, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Over the weekend, Chaos taught himself how to open cupboards, to ill effect (from my perspective, at least). Escalation was required.
“I really don’t like the look of that.” -Chaos
“I really don’t like the look of that, either.” -Chaos
*applies cupboard opening technique*
“Why do you hate me, Mom?” -Chaos
Sadly, cabinet locks are not quite as quick and easy to use as bungee cords.
Please forgive the odd colors in most of these pictures – the lighting in my kitchen continually defeats my poor camera!
“I’ll give you one chance to recant that ‘bad kitty’ business, Mom.” -Chaos
Can you figure out this picture? (Nope, you are right, she’s not in the kitchen sink… at the moment.)
“…..zzzzzzzzzzzz…..” -Mayhem