Tracey

Tracey Thorn's new solo album is being released in the US on my birthday this year.  I'm soooo excited.  2010 is shaping up to be the best year for music in a while.

You can download one of Tracey's new songs at the following link.

http://www.strangefeelingrecords.com/divorces.html

Full

Another weekend is drawing to a close and it was another jam-packed weekend.  Everything I mentioned in my Friday night post came to pass.  And then some.  My house is really starting to look amazing.  It's a shame that selling the place is what forced us to finish up everything we lost steam on five or six years ago.  Everything on the second floor is so close to being 100%.  A few more pieces of art still need to be hung.  There are a couple of spare lamps in Ken's new office that need homes.  And a box of stuff going to Goodwill that needs to be brought downstairs.  But for the most part, the second floor of my house needs a deep cleaning.  There's still so much dust covering things.  If there was time this weekend, I would have started that project.  

The first floor is nearly as put together.  Sean and crew came this morning to pick up the furniture and that freed up a tremendous amount of space on the front porch and the living room.  Ken managed to clean up a big percentage of the tools, etc that have been living in the dining room.  And he began sorting all the tools, etc we have to get rid of the excess.  He's always had his own tools.  Then his dad died and he inherited all of those.  And then his step-mother's neighbor moved and she brought over more tools.  So he's sorting, keeping everything that he needs and then the rest are going to Habitat For Humanity.

We filled up the storage unit with a lot of my shit this weekend.  It's amazing how many boxes of comics and toys and cds I pulled from my office.  Nearly 40 boxes.  They're all in storage right now and it feels good not to have the boxes piled in the corner of Ken's office.

We found time to take in an open house this afternoon after lunch.  Loved the house, hated the location.  *sigh*

All in all, I'm EXHAUSTED!  I'm looking forward to going in to work tomorrow to escape the house for a little while.  This week I need to find time to start the cleaning process.  My house looks like Oscar Madison lives in it.  And I can't have that.

I'm climbing into bed, putting Amazing Race on and then crashing.  Hard.

Tracks

I love music.  I love statistics.  I love charts.  I love all that crap.  That's one of the reasons I love the website last.fm.  When I sync my iPod, I have a widget thingie that sends what I listened to to my profile on last.fm and it tracks what I listen to.  I love looking at the charts it generates.  I'm such a nerd.

Anyway, there are a whole bunch of widgets you can post on your last.fm page.  I found this one recently and I love it.  It tells you what your 5,000th, 10,000th, 15,000th, etc, etc song was and when you played it.  I'm missing the first handful of my songs because of a glitch in the widget that the developers are supposedly working on fixing.  But no big whoop.  I just hit song #125,000 and here's my current list.

Last.FM Milestones 
20000th track: (04 Aug 2008)
Barbra Streisand - Suppertime
 

25000th track: (04 Oct 2008)
Peter Gabriel - Mercy Street
 

30000th track: (10 Nov 2008)
Cher - Just Like Jesse James (live)
 

35000th track: (25 Nov 2008)
Kay Hanley - Sheltering Sky
 

40000th track: (05 Dec 2008)
George Michael - Freeek! '04
 

45000th track: (16 Dec 2008)
Keane - Crystal Ball
 

50000th track: (26 Dec 2008)
Michael Penn - (Untitled Hidden Track)
 

55000th track: (05 Jan 2009)
Nena - Es ist in Ordnung (Live)
 

60000th track: (14 Jan 2009)
Biffy Clyro - Umbrella
 

65000th track: (02 Feb 2009)
The Red Button - Floating By
 

70000th track: (28 Feb 2009)
Paul Anka - It Doesn't Matter Anymore
 

75000th track: (29 Mar 2009)
The Originals - Baby, I'm For Real
 

80000th track: (01 May 2009)
Murray Gold - The Unicorn and the Wasp
 

85000th track: (07 Jun 2009)
Elvis Costello - Satellite (Demo Version)
 

90000th track: (02 Jul 2009)
Shawn Colvin - This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody) (Live 09)
 

95000th track: (28 Jul 2009)
Cyndi Lauper - Money Changes Everything
 

100000th track: (25 Aug 2009)
Better Than Ezra - Juicy
 

105000th track: (07 Oct 2009)
Tina Turner - Tearing Us Apart (The Platinum Collection)
 

110000th track: (13 Nov 2009)
Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova
 

115000th track: (18 Dec 2009)
Nancy Wilson - Angels We Have Heard on High
 

120000th track: (15 Jan 2010)
Donna Summer - Now I Need You
 

125000th track: (19 Feb 2010)
Mayer Hawthorne - Let Me Know
 
Generated on 20 Feb 2010
Get yours here

The Return

My mind is kind of fried, so if this makes no sense whatsoever (like anything I write makes much sense....), you've been warned.

The last few weeks have been really trying and tiring.  I've been keeping up my extended schedule at work and then working my ass off at home nights and especially weekends.  The house is getting even closer to going on the market.  In the last week or so we've made huge strides.  Or at least it feels that way.  The last two rooms upstairs (my office and Ken's) are now 99% done.  Ceilings have been patched, sanded and painted.  Same with the walls and trim.  Wednesday they both got carpeted.  We're now in the process of getting the rooms set up the way we want them to show when it comes time for open house showings.  Ken got the basic set ups done once the carpet guys were gone.  In my office, he took a bunch of my comic boxes, stacked them in a corner, covered them with bedding and you'd think I have a bed in the room now.  It's amazing.  The guest room bed is now set up in his office, as that's now our guest room.  I need to take some pictures and show some before and afters.

Tomorrow we have a lot going on.  The handyman is coming over bright and early to get back to work in the basement.  We rented a UHaul truck tonight and tomorrow we're loading it with stuff and making a trip to the new storage unit we've rented.  That should help clean out the old guest room (now an office).  On Sunday, Sean & Jeffrey are coming over to pick up some furniture, which will help clean up the front porch.  I know we have a lot of other stuff to do and I'm blanking on the chore list (probably intentionally.)  It will be nice to start getting the house back to the non-chaotic version.  The dining room has been the workshop for the last couple of months.  Tools and paint cans and what have you all over it.  This weekend we can bring the kitchen table in off the porch (it's buried right this moment).  I'm really starting to feel good about everything.  I can see the light at the end of this tunnel.

I've noticed in the last couple of months, really since the end of last year, that I've been distancing myself from everyone and everything.  I've had so much going on that something had to give and the social aspect of my life was the easiest thing to pull back on.  I don't have a huge "real life" social life, so that was pretty easy to cut back on, but it's my "virtual" social life that's really suffered.  It's going to be a little while longer before that recovers, I fear.  I try to stay in touch, but I know I'm failing miserably with the one on one communication.  This blog has been the easiest way to keep everyone up to date on my comings and goings.  

One of the things I've managed to make the time for is the new season of Survivor.  It's another All-Stars edition of my favorite show.  All-Star editions tend to suck balls on shows like Survivor.  Shows where the eliminations are determined by the contestants.  Cliques and alliances form quickly and they get boring.  But so far, only two episodes in, I'm hooked.  This is starting off really strong and I'm just giddy.  This week's episode made me mad because my favorite player was eliminated by her dumb ass tribe.

And speaking of Survivor, I saw this posted over on Facebook tonight and it made me laugh.  Sure, you've probably seen this clip a thousand times already, with different subtitles, but this one is Survivor themed and I laughed out loud a couple of times.  If you like the show, watch this.

Bye For Now

The next step of our home improvement parade takes place tomorrow.  The final two rooms are being carpeted and that means I need to dismantle my computer and get it the hell out of here.  I'll be offline (at least via the desktop) for the next couple of days.  Don't miss me too much. :-)

Super Tuesday

Holy crap.  Yesterday was a great day (for me, at least) when it comes to new music.  Look at all the great new stuff that came out.  I'm such a happy boy right now.

And while on the topic of music, I saw this commercial posted on another website and it cracked my shit up.

Lucy Update

Ken had a meeting this evening out near where our vet is, so he picked up Lucy on the way home.  My poor baby.  She's a mess.  She's staggering.  She's stumbling.  When I look at her face, she looks all hopped up on goofballs.  She's definitely not herself, and I think I'm happy about that.  Lucy usually cries (and/or caterwauls) when she's in the car.  The entire way.  At the top of her lungs.  Ken said she barely spoke on the way home tonight, and when she did it was the most pathetic attempt at meowing.  I'm glad I wasn't in the car because I would have bawled the whole way home. She's currently locked in the back mudroom & bathroom, away from Ollie.  She's supposed to be separated from him for the time being.  It'll probably be about 24 hours before she's feeling herself again, we're told.  She's not thrilled about being locked in the back, but it's for her own good.  Ollie is curious as shit about her.  He hasn't moved from the door separating them since she got home.  I have a feeling he's going to be spending the night there, too.  I just hope she sleeps it off.

I love my babies more than I can say.

Why I Can't Have Kids

I know I've mentioned before that I entertained the idea of being a father for a little while, but quickly came to the conclusion that it's just not for me.  I think I'd make a kick ass uncle, but father?  Nope.  Here's another very valid (at least in my mind) reason I can't handle the pressures of having a kid.  Lucy had a vet appointment today.  It's the first time I've ever brought a cat in for a dental check up.  At her last regular check up, the vet said she had a lot of build up on her teeth and we should make an appointment to get that taken care of.  The appointment should have been for a few months ago, but we kept pushing it back and pushing it back.  Well, today was finally the day.  And I've been a basket case since last night.  You see, Lucy is kind of my special needs baby.  She's all fucked up inside and is on a prescription diet because her body can't process most foods.  She hates her food and would much rather eat anything else in the world.  I feel terrible, because she'll just sit and watch Ollie eat his food.  He can (and does) eat anything he wants.  It breaks my heart when I see her just watching him.  I know I'm putting human emotions and feelings on my cat when I say this, but I'm sure she's sitting there wondering why she's being punished like this.  I feel bad for her also because Ollie will beat up on her.  She's able to fight back if she wanted to, but she mostly doesn't.  I kind of feel like she's the fat retarded girl who constantly gets picked on at school and doesn't know enough to defend herself.

I called the vet a little while ago to get an update on Lucy.  They'd just finished up with her and she was still pretty groggy.  She had to have an extraction.  The tooth had a cavity below the gum line.  She has another tooth that may need extracting in the future, but not right now.  We'll reevaluate it next year.  Her gums apparently are very sensitive.  Even while unconscious she was reacting to the poking and prodding.  To tell you that I'm fighting back tears right now is no lie.  Just thinking about my poor little baby is getting me really upset.  She's going to be miserable when she gets home and I'm sure she's going to be miserable for a few days while she heals.  I'm hoping and praying we don't have any behavioral issues with her because of it.  Right now we're having slight little box issues.  She won't go near the boxes when Ollie's in one of them and twice now we've caught her trying to pee elsewhere.   One of those times we managed to chase her to the spare box in the basement.  The other time she climbed into her basket of toys and let loose.

I'm this fragile about my cat.  I can't imagine what a mess I'd be if I had a kid that had any sort of issue, whether it's a runny nose or a broken arm.

Rock

I live under a rock.  I really do.  Ken's mother was over tonight and we went out to dinner.  I commented to our server that it was really quiet in the place tonight.  It's because it's Superbowl Sunday, he replied.  My bad.  I really need to start paying a little closer attention to the news.  I mean, I knew the Superbowl was coming, but I didn't think it was for another couple of weeks.  Whatever.

It's been another weekend of home improvement bullshit.  Dmitry was back to do some more work both Saturday and Sunday.  He got a lot of stuff done, including a whole bunch of basement projects.  We still have more for him to do, but I'm thrilled by what he accomplished for us this weekend.  Ken and I started to tackle my office.  We got the rest of the stuff in there out, I took down the shelves I made, took out all the nails and screws and whatever else I had in the wall, Ken spackled, I sanded both the walls and ceiling.  I got the room taped off, all the trim sanded and washed and we got some paint up.  The ceiling isn't going nearly as smoothly as we'd hoped and that's going to require a little more work before we can paint.  And the walls can't be painted until the ceiling is done, though a lot of the cutting in has been done for the walls.  We're getting there.  For the first time, I'm feeling pretty good after what was basically a crappy, chore intensive weekend.  I'm sure I'd feel much better if we got further with my office, but I'll take what I can get.

Every Sunday Ken and I record our weight on a spreadsheet we have hanging inside the bathroom cabinet.  I was looking back at where I was at this Sunday last year and was pleasantly surprised to see I'm only 1 pound off that number.  I was 188 last year, 189 this year.  That made me really, really happy.  Of course I ate like it was my last meal tonight at dinner and I feel like I'm 289 right now, but I deserve to go a little crazy now and again.

It was a pretty long day today and the bedroom and the stack of comics on my nightstand are both screaming for me.  I think I must comply.

Progress

We're getting closer and closer to putting the house on the market.  Every day something new gets either started or finished.  Yesterday Ken put in a call  to a mortgage broker.  They talked for what seemed like hours and her preliminary run of our numbers seemed really positive.  We will be meeting with her in person soon to run real numbers and get that process going.  One of the things Ken's been freaking out about is "what if we can't get a mortgage or a mortgage of sufficient funds to buy what we want."  His mind is now at ease.

Tonight I didn't stay late at work (it was actually still light out when I left!) because I had some stuff to do at home.  My office is now almost completely empty.  The stacks and stacks of boxes of comics are out of the closet and resting in the guest room.  I lugged all four of the bookshelves downstairs and put them out on the porch.  Some of the clutter from the guest room has now be returned to where it belongs.  All that's left in here is my desk and the guest room bed.  The bed has been leaning against the wall since we cleaned the rest of the house out to have the floors done back in December.  I need a hand moving it out and Ken didn't get home until just a short while ago.  My office needs to have the ceiling and walls painted, the trim touched up and new carpet installed.

Work has been both very busy this week and just plain crazy.  The first week of the month is always my really busy week as I have extra projects to tackle.  And it's a well known fact that I sit right in the middle of the highest concentration of mentally ill employees.  Most days I enjoy it because it always means I'm going to get a show, but sometimes it's scary.  Right now it's been pretty scary.  I've been trying to keep my head down and not make a target of myself, because I feel like any of the four mentally ill neighbors could pull out a gun at any minute.  Good times!

LOST starts tonight.  I'm excited that it's back, but annoyed that I have to add more television to my schedule.  Thursday night SURVIVOR unofficially starts with an anniversary special.  The actual season starts next week.  Again, very, very excited/annoyed.