vacation

My 'vacation' started Friday after working an event at the arena.
I have to work a bit from home tomorrow, that's just the price of not wanting to go crazy last week. Some things just can't be done ahead of time -- this is a newspaper after all. I'm going to try to get the 'work' stuff done very early tomorrow so the rest of the week can truly belong to me, but we'll see.
This is a working vacation anyway. I have, have, have to cross some house projects off of my to-do list or I'll never get finished! Ever!
Finishing the office is priority number one. I'm almost there...almost!!
#2 paint the unpainted hallway, touch up paint throughout the house, and finish the doorways.
#3 clean the basement, build the shelves, organize a storage area.
#4 have carpets and vents cleaned.
This list is probably done more linearly as opposed to in actual order of priority. I guess it's probably more honest to say that my goal is to get the carpets cleaned and the items on the list leading up to that will make #4 easier to achieve.

The work in my office would probably be easier if I weren't so obsessed with shredding documents. Thus-far, I have not fallen victim to identity theft and I'm not sure if it has anything to do with my obsessive shredding, but I can't stop now. The only thing I wish I could change about the shredding is that I wish I were some kind of crafty lady who had something to put all of this shredded paper to some kind of good use. If anyone knows someone who could used shredded paper in some kind of constructive way, please let me know!
I'm no environmentalist, ask my sister and she'll roll her eyes at the idea of me as an environmentalist, but I deeply want to be in that club. At best, I'm an associate member at this point.
I have always been very energy conscious. I don't leave lights on. I bought only energy-saving light bulbs for the house, I just bought a drying rack and am going to try to eliminate using my dryer, my furnace isn't on yet, though I am using an electric blanket on low at night.
A lot of that has to do with how frugal I am...but I do appreciate the environmental benefits.
I used recycled rubber mulch in my garden. When my tub faucet was leaking, I collected the water each day and used it on my plants. I only use cold water in my washing machine and use cold water detergent.
I switched beers to purchase only clear-glass bottles so I can recycle them -- my city doesn't allow colored-glass recycling. I go through a lot of paper in my day job, but I just can't throw it all away. I stopped using post-its and have taken to saving and cutting up old sheets of paper from things I've either had to print out or faxed items to use the paper again for phone messages, shopping lists, etc. I've even manufactured little notebooks out of the used pages and used them to take notes during meetings. Trying to lower the amount of paper I consume is something I'm very, very mindful of.
I'm going to Camp Lutherlyn next month, where I went as a child and worked as a teen/young adult. They have these fantastic getaway weekends for folks who have projects who they haven't had time to finish. Most of the women are working on quilting or other crafty items. Two years ago I went and spent my time putting all of my photos into photo albums. It took nearly all four days to organize the pictures into categories and then to slip them into various albums. I had intended to put my newspaper clippings into a portfolio/scrapbook during that weekend and to write at least a chapter or two of the book I'm writing. I wrote one chapter and made zero progress on the scrapbook/portfolio. Two years later, I'm have two additional years worth of articles and not a one in any organized fashion or in the portfolio. Now I'm at 10 years of writing that needs to be dealt with -- so I'm heading back to Lutherlyn.
I'll get to use a bunch of my saved computer printouts, press releases and faxes to assemble my portfolio. I have a nice stash saved up and won't have to use any additional trees for my project!
Part of organizing my office will be to put everything that I'll need for that project into a box to take with me to camp. Maybe this year I'll finally get it together! We'll see. Wouldn't that be something to get that finally crossed off of my list?? I can't imagine what that would be like.
I'm thinking about hitting the sack early tonight to get a head start tomorrow morning, it's probably a good idea.
Thanks for checking in on the adventures of a long-time single gal and newcomer to the world of home-ownership. It's a journey I'm enjoying immensely;)
~kll

October is half-over already?

Some day, I will learn how to enjoy all of my days so that I don't find myself looking up at a calendar in shock that it's the middle of a month I barely realized had started. Some day, I will figure that out.
I know that, at least in part, the flying passage of time has a lot to do with working two jobs -- two jobs that seem to get busier and busier as the year moves along. I did virtually nothing yesterday, except for a few naps, and slept in hardcore both weekend mornings. It was like being in recovery from such an insane week.
I have unpacked my office, and it's about 80 percent organized. I'm working on the final 20 percent today. I need to get started on my basement, it's my final frontier. I'm considering doing some holiday entertaining this year, and the basement is crucial. It's partially finished, and I'd definitely need that space to be presentable to have a significant number of people over for a few hours.
I will be on "vacation" next week. I'm hoping to get a good portion of the remaining to-do list items crossed off during that time. Maybe I'll even work in a massage and the time to read a good book. Who knows?
I made dinner for my cousin Ashley last Sunday and it went really well. Lime-tortilla crusted chicken, lemon pasta, blackberry cobbler and sangria. I impressed myself a little bit for being able to pull it off. She gave me the cutest pumpkin decoration and it inspired me to pick up a few other things and 'decorate' for fall.
I'm really looking forward to the week off. It's not going to be easy to get everything done in time to leave Friday, but I am looking forward to having a few days to do nothing and a few days to get things done without having to worry about going back to work the next morning. I need the time off desperately.
More soon, I promise, ~kll

Random

I've been neglecting this blog in a major way, but I think living life is probably a bit more important than writing about life...
In the last month and a half, I think that's how long it's been, things have been pretty busy.
I started dating someone who is a wonderful man and we had a good time. It didn't work out, that's life sometimes, but we got out before our friendship was damaged. I'm relieved that we still care about each other so much and still want to be in each other's lives. It was by far the most mature, most genuinely mutual break-up I've ever experienced. I'm sad it didn't work, but we're doing the right thing.
I had my first overnight guests a couple weeks ago. My best friend Chris, his wife Anna and daughter Cassidy, came for a night over Labor Day weekend. It was great! I felt so domestic.
I've had a couple of friends over for dinner, as well. I'm getting closer to having a party-ready house. I need to get an organized to-do list together, divide it up and start making the progress on what a contractor would call a 'punch list.' Whenever I cover a big renovation or big construction project, when things are nearing the end of the project, they always talk about a punch list. It's usually really small things, like 'touch up paint on the second floor window frame, install lightbulbs on the third floor, fix the chipped floor tile in the basement, etc.'
My punch list goes something like this: paint the stairwell, finish the painting that still needs to be done, touch up paint in bedroom and kitchen, have all carpets shampooed, clean basement, purchase basement shelving and organize things for storage, finish unpacking the office, hang up pictures, clean back porch, get rid of packing boxes, and probably about a million other things I can't think of at the moment!
I got my own office at work. It feels better than I ever imagined it would when I used to fantasize about having an office with a door I could close and space to spread out. That little space needs to be cleaned and organized as well, but it's so fantastic even in its messy state. It feels amazing.
My nephew is six months old and weighs somewhere around 25 pounds! He's gigantic.
My neice Arabella celebrates her first birthday this week, her party was yesterday and I had such a fantastic time!
Working at Consol Energy Center has been a little crazy. It's been very, very busy and it hasn't gotten started yet! Hockey starts (pre-season) Wednesday night and then things kick into high gear.
I purchased a digital SLR camera this summer and I just love it. My paper looks better, my facebook pics look better, I'm really enjoying it.
Check out my garden, it's really filled out, hasn't it?

The recycled rubber mulch has worked like a charm. I love it! Maybe next year I'll try a real garden, but we'll see.
All in all, it's been a pretty great summer. I'm settling in to my house, and I love every thing about it. It's just fantastic. Homeownership can be difficult, I've had a couple plumbing issues and some other things that have popped up, but having my own place is just as amazing as I always thought.
I didn't get to go camping this summer, which makes me sad, but I'm serious about getting out there next year. I need to plan a couple of vacations soon. I have three weeks to use and have only used one day so far!
Maybe I'll eventually get into the habit of writing more often here. I need some discipline.
~kll

What a difference...

I feel like I start a lot of blog posts/phone calls/chats over drinks with the phrase "what a difference a year makes...or something similar.
Every time I point out a difference in my life today from my life a year ago, it's like checking off an imaginary to-do list of things I wanted to eliminate and things I wanted to add.
It's been a little more than two weeks since my last blog, and it might seem incredibly trite, but what a difference two weeks makes!
In that time, I've been spending time with someone who I've known for a long time, but who is also someone I could stand to know a lot better. I'm marveling at the differences in both of us since we first met and opening up doors I have intentionally kept closed for a very long time.
Could I be more vague? Probably.
A few posts ago I mentioned there were only three things that I wanted to change in my life as opposed to the thousands of things I wanted to change a year ago.
I'm down to one thing on that list.
Stay tuned...
~kll ;)

Letting go

I can't believe it's been a little more than two weeks since my last post!
Every time I post, I think that's the week I'll get into the swing of posting at least once a week ... and then the very next post starts out a little something like 'I can't believe it's been so long since I've written!'
Since my last post, I've made a little more progress on the house. I built my desk -- I also made a sort of big mistake on the desk, but it's something only I would ever know about. Instead of a cabinet on the side of the hutch, there is just a shelf. I accidentally mixed up two of the pieces and didn't discover it until it was much too late and the door to the cabinet wouldn't fit anymore.
Luckily, I've somehow managed to become a little more 'go with the flow' in the months since buying this house.
I've never, ever, been a go with the flow person. I've desperately tried to be a go with the flow kind of gal, I've even given a reasonably good acting performance of a go with the flow person from time to time. But, it's never been real.
It's amazing how buying a house, and doing a LOT of work on that house, can teach you about 'letting go.' I have some perfectionistic, control-freak tendencies. Mostly with my work. While painting my living room in March, I spent a good bit of time alone working to meet a deadline on getting that room done.
It was during that stretch that I learned how to let go a little bit. I had to make decisions every day of this redecoration process about what I was able to live with and what I was able to do without. If the paint wasn't entirely straight, if the tape pulled off some of the paint, if the paint dripped...I had to make snap decisions about what needed to be redone and what I could live with.
It was a great lesson. I've had to figure out some things about 'letting go.' I had to learn how to accept what I was capable of doing rather than expecting more than I could do.
It helped me at work, too. I learned how to set reasonable expectations for myself and to say 'this is how much work I can do in one week' and to stop trying to cram more and more work into each week in this effort to produce a perfect newspaper every week.
It's amazing how much my stress level came down. It's not gone, I'm still in a deadline-based business and am still writing, editing, photographing, and paginating a paper nearly entirely by myself each week.
But, instead of trying to bust out 900 editorial inches of material each week, I'm accepting that it's a lot more reasonable for me to produce about 650 to 700 inches. Sometimes I have guilt about it, but most of the time I accept that it's what I'm able to do.
It's a struggle.
I've been struggling with ideas about the house, too. I have postponed a house-warming party because I have this concept in my mind that everything has to be finished and perfect before I 'unveil' my home to everyone I care about.
I'm trying to apply my new 'letting go' lessons to this, but it's hard. I'm getting a lot closer, though. Once the office is unpacked, which will be easier now that the desk is finished, I can get the carpets cleaned and the air vents cleaned, and I think that is the goal I'm going to stick with for the unveiling.
Finishing the basement into a guest bedroom can probably wait until after my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, and best friends have been over for a quick party.
Does anyone have any personal tips or advice for someone who is trying to learn to 'let go?'
~kll

garden done!

The flower bed project is complete.



Above and below: After moving the dirt around (and finding pieces of glass, aluminum foil, pop tabs and a huge chunk of what appears to be quartz) and planting the flowers. Mostly begonias and marigolds...not much else likes as much sun as my flower bed will get each day.


For the final touch, I added rubber mulch, which is allegedly good for the environment and doesn't need to be replaced as often.

Keep our fingers crossed that the flowers take root and thrive!

~kll

Gardening!

My friend, M, who has this sort of 'character in a novel' opinion of me -- and by that I mean, she sees my entire character and as if she's writing my story she can envision me doing all sorts of things that I'm either already doing or hope to do one day.
A while ago she wrote about my new house and said she imagined me reading while drinking green tea and sitting near a flower garden of my own making. I laughed out loud at that vision as it stretched from Japan to my email inbox.
The email came as I was sitting in my living room, which was just far enough away from the unpacked boxes of clothes and office stuff still crammed in my office but not far enough away that I was able to forget about all of the things I hadn't accomplished yet. And here's M talking about flower gardens!
The previous owners did a few awesome things while they were there. They built a flower bed, planted three perennials in that bed, secured it with a blanket meant to keep out weeds and covered it in mulch. They also planted two big day lilies near the curb, also secured with a weed blanket and covered in mulch.
Because this is my first season as a homeowner, I was forced to take a 'wait and see' approach to the flower garden. I had no idea how many perennials were in the bed so I didn't want to waste too much time or money tinkering with it until I was sure everything that was going to poke through the soil had come up. I was also forced to wait by my amazing energy drain after months of fixing up the house and packing, so it worked well.
This past weekend a friend needed an ear and a chance to get out of the house. I quickly enlisted him in manual labor and unpacked all of the clothing boxes, built a garment rack and moved into the large closet off of the office. It took hours. Now the desk must be built so I can unpack the other office boxes...until the desk exists, there is no where to put said office stuff...
In the meantime, I bought a second flower basket to balance the basket my coworkers gave me a month ago, and I bought a half-flat of flowers. I didn't think I'd need any more than that because I was under the impression that the clematis plants were covering the garden with an ivy-like plant. Then I found out it was a weed...a very insidious weed that was actually choking all of the existing perennials. As shown below:

I knew I had to get rid of the weed blanket for two reasons: 1) it's not killing any weeds 2) I needed to get under it to plant the new flowers.
So last night, over the course of nearly two hours, I worked to get rid of the weed blanket, the old mulch and the massive ivy-like weeds.

Just getting cleaning up the mulch and rolling the blanket was a bit more labor-intensive than I'd imagined.


It took a lot of work with the garden shears, a lot of tugging and finally using an actual set of scissors to disentangle this weed from all of the actual plants. The roots looked like tree roots. When I was done, the pile of weeds stood about knee-high.


Wrapping up the blanket and the old mulch and weeds was one thing, wiggling it into a garbage bag was something the drivers sure enjoyed as they passed my front yard!
After a long, hard fight, I was finally able to recapture my flower bed in the name of flowers and perennials everywhere!
DIRT!

Now over the next couple of days I just have to pick up some more flowers, some new mulch and find the time in my schedule to finish this project!
It's funny, but for me, I couldn't really feel like a piece of property was mine until my fingers were caked with its dirt. When the worms squiggle away from you, the hard-packed earth parts beneath your tools and your very own roots start to stretch out -- it becomes yours.
So, while there are still cardboard boxes filled to the brim in this house, in the end, M was right. I would find the right ways and the right time to turn this house into my home. And last night I sat beside my flower garden, reading and drinking -- well, I had a cold beer -- okay? It was a little warm for the green tea, but the feeling that M 'wrote' for me was definitely there.
~kll