Everything is Unfinished

I have a sewing machine. A very nice one, a Singer that my parents got me for Christmas about 10 years ago. I used to use it rather frequently, but like a lot of things it got buried under a mound of stuff and has sat unused for several years. In fact, it’s been so long since I did any regular sewing that Johnny didn’t know I even could! So recently I’ve been in a pretty severe organizing/purging phase, and my little sewing desk was the target the other night. I found 3 shirts, a skirt and a dress that were waiting for repair. I haven’t worn the skirt since college. I found a half-done purse that I was making for my mom for Christmas in either 97 or 98. I found the materials for my Christmas tree skirt, purchased in 99. I found a half-done skirt that I started in 2000. I found the material and pattern for a skirt that I was going to make to wear to my wedding rehearsal dinner. Very sad. I really need to fire the old girl up again and get some of these things done! Actually, the reason I even went through everything is because I was looking for some thread so I could hem a pair of pants. I’ve only had them for a couple of months, so I’m doing pretty well there. And they’re pinned up, just need to be pressed and have a seam put in. I will do that this weekend! Then I need to make a fabric liner for my picnic basket. I have the Longaberger one that my Grandma gave me at my wedding shower. I was going to purchase a liner, but they’re around $40! Then last fall I went to Dresden, which is pretty much a town filled with Longaberger knock-off stores. I figured I could pick up a much cheaper liner, but I was wrong. So I got a pattern instead, for only $8. I have plenty of material stockpiled to choose from! And of course now that I’ve unearthed the sewing machine and everything’s organized, I can use it to sew on my scrapbook pages too.

After about a year and a half of talking about it, I was finally able to coordinate a day to go to IKEA in Pittsburgh with our friends Bryan and Gretchen. And by coordinate, I mean Bryan called me on Friday night wondering if I was available to go on Sunday. Fortunately I was, and the saga began! Bryan has a Jeep Wrangler with a hitch, so we were just going to rent a trailer and bring everything back with us. The plan was to get to Uhaul by the time they closed on Saturday, 7pm, so we could leave bright and early on Sunday to be to Pittsburgh by the time IKEA opened, 10am. Well, B & G had a meeting on Saturday afternoon that went longer than they planned, so no trailer on Saturday night. No big deal, new plan: be to Uhaul by the time they open on Sunday, 9am, then leave from there. I actually made it to their place by 8:40am on Sunday morning, so Bryan and I did in fact get to Uhaul by the time they opened. There were already 3 people in line ahead of us, somehow. So we waited, and finally got up to the counter. Bryan had forgotten his license (even though he drove us there) so we used mine, and everything got worked out. Until we went outside, and the Uhaul guy told us they don’t rent to Jeeps with soft tops. Wha?? Discouraged, we headed back to B & G’s. But we were determined not to let this stop us. We’d been talking about this trip for so long, and now we finally had a day we could all go! Not to mention there was a Tax Day sale going on, where we would get 7% off all our purchases. So we got online and found another rental place, over near our place. We headed over there and they had what we needed and would rent to us. In fact, the place was pretty shade and they probably would have hooked a trailer up to a bike with a hitch as long as they had the money. A quick stop for gas and Wendy’s and we were on our way by 11. A nice sunny drive later, we were to IKEA by 2pm!

My goal was to get a new bed there, upgrading from a full size on a metal frame to a queen size on an actual bed with a headboard and everything. I was torn between three styles (in this order):

Once we got there, and I was able to see all three beds in person, I actually liked the Dalselv the best. In a nice coincidence, it was also the least expensive! I also picked up some mirrors (Krabb):

and a cool patio table (Applaro):

B & G were there mainly for a couch. The way couches work at IKEA is that you buy the “naked” couch, which is just white, then you buy a slipcover for it, with pieces that go over each cushion. Cool concept - you can change the color of your furniture or wash the slipcover very easily. So we looked at couches and Gretchen fell in LOVE with one, a bright green one. There were 2 others that she also liked a lot, but the green one was her clear favorite. She wrote down the styles and we went and looked elsewhere. When we were ready to get our big pieces and check out, she went back to the couch section to find out where she could get the one she wanted. The lady working there told her that it would have to be ordered, but she couldn’t pay for it now. When it came in she’d have to come back to Pittsburgh and pay for it and take it home. Same with the other two she liked. Almost verything else was available to take home that day. I could see fumes coming out of Gretchen’s ears at this point, so she headed down to Customer Service, where someone proceeded to tell her that what was actually going on was that those 3 couches were probably being discontinued, and she couldn’t pre-pay for them because they might not be able to get them in. Ok, fine. She asked if she could buy the display model. Oh no, it’s not discontinued YET, so even though they can’t guarantee you can buy one, they still have to display it. Grr.

At this point, I think Customer Service suggested that they look in the “As-Is” room. It’s a good thing too. There, without a mark on it, was the second-favorite couch, marked down $100 because the box had been damaged during shipping. Beautiful! But since it was also one of the possible discontinued models, there were no slipcovers in stock. Fortunately, they were able to order one of those, pay for it, and have it shipped to their house. So we took home a naked couch.

During all of this, I decided to check out and look in the Swedish Food section. I figured I’d kill some time there and we’d be ready to go. I paid at around 5:45, went and bought some Swedish meatballs, talked to Johnny, talked to my Mom, and even found a cool painting for our bedroom in the “As-Is” room for only $10. Finally at 7:45 we hit the road! But it was a fun trip and very worth it. We all got what we wanted, and we know where to get a trailer again if we want to go back.

Yesterday, we got our new mattress delivered and put the bed together. Here’s what we slept on last night for the first time, with the new painting hanging above:

So ok, the Pope is a very well-known figure, that many people worldwide respect. I’m talking about popes in general here. So it stands to reason that in this media-saturated world in which we live, the death of such a well-known, respected figure will get lots of coverage on TV, radio, and the internets. Fine. I accept the world for the way it is, and can ignore the media to a large extent. So I did. Sure, I still managed to see some images of Vatican City and the throngs of people there, and I saw the near-death Pope John Paul II reduced at the end of his days to nothing more than the Human Interest Story du Jour. I was sad, in the sense that I feel sad for the death of any human being, but let’s be honest here: I really didn’t care much. I didn’t care about the Pope when he was Poping. Why should I? I’m not Catholic. At this point I’m not even religious. And being a pretty left-leaning progressive, our views didn’t usually mesh very well. So now there’s this new Pope. And he’s the new Story du Jour. And I still don’t care, for the same reasons I listed above. Yes, I realize what he thinks about homosexuality, and the poor, and that he was a part (unwilling/unknowingly as it was) of the Hitler Youth. And those are Bad Things. And now he’s the head of the Catholic church. But you know what? Even if there was no Catholic church, people would still think and believe and do Bad Things. That’s just the way some people are. But there would also be those people who thought and believed and did Good Things. Because that’s just the way other people are. And then there would still be about 99% of the people in the middle, not really knowing what’s going on.

I haven’t been scrapping much lately, but I have managed to get a few pages done. Tonight I used Picasa to resize, crop and fix the color on some. I really like Picasa except for a few small annoyances, like the fact that you can’t save anything on your desktop. But my favorite part is the straighten feature! Almost every time I take pics of my layouts they’re a little skewed, and although I can fix it in Photoshop it’s a much bigger pain. So although I haven’t gotten the total hang of the program yet, Picasa is looking pretty good. It’s Flickr that I’m not too crazy about. I couldn’t get anything to upload tonight, and I just haven’t gotten into it yet. We’ll see about it. But now, for some scrapbooking goodness. Click here to see! Here’s my favorite of this batch:

It’s Orlando! Straight from his starring role in the upcoming Ridley Scott movie Kingdom of Heaven.

This will be the first time he’s played the lead, so we’ll see how it goes. He’s got a lot of great people backing him up: Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Edward Norton (so both of our boyfriends are in it, Johnny :P ) The trailers make the movie look a lot like Gladiator. Check them out here:

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808529407&cf=trailer

I also must say, I usually prefer a clean-shaven Orlando. But the beard he’s got going on here isn’t too bad. Of course, I’m liking beards more in general nowadays.

…that I take too many pictures. I put an order in for prints last week from our Orlando trip to the tune of $65. When I went to pick them up, I got a stack of pictures about 3 inches tall. Single prints, mind you. I brought them home and started sorting them by day, only to realize that I had only printed Saturday through Tuesday! So back online to order 3 more days’ worth of prints, this time for a mere $25. Yowza.

I put the pictures from Johnny’s birthday up on Flickr. You can see them right here. Be sure to also look at Kris’s pics too to see more.

I’ve been trying for the past few years (well, for most of my life really) to lose weight. I’ve been overweight since I was about 6, and if the trend continues I’ll be the fattest person alive by the time I’m 43. Ok, that’s a lie - I’ve actually been holding steady, give or take 5 pounds, for the past 7 years or so. I think one of the reasons I haven’t succeeded in shedding the weight is that I had a hard time looking at it as a lifestyle change. Even when I’m following Weight Watchers, I’m trying to make unhealthy foods fit into the point structure so even if I’m losing pounds I’m not lowering cholesterol, sodium or sugar levels. Something snapped in me yesterday though, and I had a revelation. More on that another time. The outcome, however, was that it’s time for me to get my act together and make the lifestyle change. I need to eat more fresh fruits & veggies. Hell, I need to eat more fruits and veggies, period. I need to get more calcium. I need to eat WAY less salt and sugar. My blood pressure is higher than it should be, my blood sugar is out of whack, I don’t even know what my cholesterol is. I’ve gotten pretty good at ignoring all of those things, but I know if I keep ignoring them I could have really bad problems later. And with my rather irrational fear of doctors, I’d rather fix little things now than have to fix big things later.

So what am I doing about this? Well, some obvious, easy things: eating dinner at home more often. Going to the grocery store more often to have fresh produce on hand. Snacking less and snacking healthier. Not keeping junk on hand in the house or at work. Making healthier choices at restaurants. Getting out and exercising. All things that I’ve said I was going to do before. But this time…it feels like there’s something different at stake here. We’ll see, I suppose.

Anyway, about the title of this here blog entry. Last night for dinner I grilled up some Morningstar Farms veggie burgers, and they were delicious! I don’t care for the Boca soy-based meatless burgers, but these were yummy. I’ve also tried, and liked, the Morningstar Farms chik patties, and I have some of the nuggets in the freezer to try too. Now, I’m not announcing that I’m giving up meat, but these options have so much less fat and calories that I’m definitely going to be cutting back on the real meat at home. I already use ground turkey rather than ground beef, so I’m heading in the right direction. I hope.

If you’ve read Johnny’s blog you know that he’s got a job interview today. He’s been looking for a job since last September (it’s a long drawn-out process with academia) and the whole time I’ve been really trying not to get ahead of myself. I’m trying not to imagine myself moving to a new city in 4 months. I’m trying not to imagine househunting. I’m trying not to imagine getting a new job in a new place with new people. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that I’m dreading these things, I’m looking forward to them! I feel like I’m at the end of an era in my life, and the next chapter begins when we figure out what the future holds as far as Johnny’s job prospects. There are some major life changes that neither of us want to make until the job thing pans out, and they’re so close I can smell them. But like I said, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, because it’s also likely that we’ll remain in Columbus for another year. And even though I shouldn’t, I’ll stay in this end of the chapter mindset if we stay here. I think it has something to do with turning 30 this year too. I’m not dreading it, it’s just such a nice round number to start a new era on. And I certainly don’t hate Columbus. I wouldn’t mind staying here, if the job was here. The new chapter doesn’t depend on a new city.

I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, or has felt this way before. I’m not even sure if I’m making any sense - certainly wouldn’t be the first time! I often have problems adequately extracting what’s in my head. I’m pretty tired today too, so that doesn’t help. Must get more sleep tonight, after I go through the Orlando pics and get them printed. I’ve got big scrapping plans this weekend, and I’m ditching everything else to do the trip! I’ve been shopping at 3 scrapbook stores in the last 4 days, and have done some shopping online too. That’s what being the best wife ever gets you - freedom to shop ;)