Ooh OOh what kind of progress?

Much to the dismay of everyone following the blog, this week's update does not include pictures or mildly amusing stories about what transpired over the weekend. This past weekend was one of a relaxing nature spent in Queens..... One of Diane's friends got married on friday, and of course during the reception, when they throw the bouquet and garter, we both got called out...

Saturday was a costume party, thank god there are no pictures. I went as the guy from Operation. An easy $30 costume from Target, however, note to anyone: THIS COSTUME DOES NOT BREATHE WELL. Subsequently and completely un-arranged, Di went as the board game Twister.

Sunday I watched some of the Jets, listened to the rest of the antics on the radio, saw some of the Giants, ate a great dinner at Mom & Dad's, listened to the rest of the antics on the radio, and returned to Clifton. I did drum up the energy to do some cleaning/dusting when I got back, and hooked up the TV to the antenna on the roof. I get CW HD, and PBS HD, and the regular channels, but no HD. Sooner or later I will call Dish.

Next weekend: Golf Tourney saturday! and hopefully working on the wiring for the home theatre! Woohoo!

"Insert Tetris Theme Song Here"

Oh what a fitting tribute to the wonderful game from 1988... For those of you who just went and looked it up, you're pathetic... I'm guessing it was 1988, but i can't really be sure. So after the furniture guys delivered my furniture (only 2 or 3 minor knicks, and some styrofoam stuff stuck to the dining room chairs) we ran over to The Depot.. or as it all it The Debt-Oh! Picked up some furniture sliders, and proceeded to re-arrange the living room furniture a few times. SOME PEOPLE insisted that the TV be placed on the western wall, ie far away from the door, where those ugly mirrors used to be. Well in order to do so, said couch & chaise, and wandering ottoman, kind of blocked off the space. Rotating the couch 180 degrees, proved to open up the room alot. I heard some chirping about the TV being "too far away". Oh! forgot to mention we picked up the TV stand from Circuit City, which included a nice spot to conceal the center channel! So, thou who shall remain nameless, insisted that the TV and entertainment center would never fit between the stairs and the tiles... scroll below


Not only did it fit, it fit pretty damn well! And, at 52", its nearly impossible to be too far away. A drop in visit from Mr. Musler confirmed that the TV was in fact, in the best position. What you don't see, is the temporary blinds over the window... A tribute to my college days... A Sheet!

So, there's dust everywhere. Evidently the virtually dust-free floor refinishing means, "we'll leave a film of dust on the walls that you'll have a b*tch cleaning. The best results came from a swiffer and some good ole elbow grease. Below, a picture of the awesome table w/granite inlay.

Matching server. It was dark, and there were some light issues.

A dark picture of the bedroom, but it looks real nice! I finally have a bed to sleep in! I'm so excited.

To those of you expecting the normal style of humor that accompanies the writeup - I've been up for 23 hours, and although that in and of itself means i should be loopy, I can't think of any situations i can impose my views upon to make it funny.

Travel note: beware of flying with Halloween costumes. I am going as the guy from Operation, and realized due to my travel plans, I had to bring my costume to Arizona. The TSA agents thought the round object with string coming from it looked suspicious. Upon asking, I opened my bag and explained that it was part of the costume. A few jokes were thrown around, and they explained to me that its not Halloween yet... National Security at its best!

This weekend just FLOORED me

So, this past weekend was an interesting time. My brother flew in from Michigan because Caesars gave us free tickets to see Seinfeld (we'll get to that later). Along with that, I happened to be getting the hardwood floors stripped and refinished. Thursday, while I was in Arizona, my mom and sis stopped by the house to check on the flooring guys and make sure my house was still there. Mom dropped off the truck for me so that I had a car when I got back to NJ. Somehow, they managed to plan this whole spectacle to include a trip to Forno's.

So what do I see when I groggily (not sure if that's a word) stumble into my house Friday morning... My floor has chicken pox!

Later on that day, a view of the blue room, completely stripped... looks purty, but that damned noisy floor sander prevented me from sleeping all day.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Just kidding.... So Kevin and I had this brilliant plan, and it did not involve drinking Guinness. Since I normally fly out at 6:45 on Mondays, he took a 6 am flight to return to Detoilet. Only one problem, this Monday, I would work from home, while the floors are finished. I woke up at 3:45 am, to drive my bro to the airport. I should get a nomination or something. Nonetheless, Mike Yarwich (Statewide Maintenance & Flooring in East Rutherford, or Lyndhurst) did some work on Saturday, so I'd have some really shiny floors Monday morning. A quick view of the dining room and living room after the first clearcoat. It got buffed up, and a few more clearcoats after that... they look amazing!

So the free Seinfeld tickets? As soon as we finished dinner, Kevin and I got the itch... We gave the tickets to Mom & Kelley, which once we said "complimentary drink" they disappeared... Later on, they said the show was not worth the free drink... ouch! WHY AM I YELLING? I DON'T KNOW!!! Anyway, I spent the first 15 minutes of the gambling night in positive territory, and Kevin grabbed a straight flush in 3 card. That didn't last long. We went home unhappy campers.... Overall, productive weekend, great to see the family, and nearly gave them a heart attack when I purchased a book! It was a book on poker theory, so don't get your hopes up about my recreational reading.

Furniture comes Friday! No more aerobed on the floor! I'm so excited. All of the wiring stuff is on the way to install the home theatre system. Volunteers welcome!

Congrats also go out to Kevin & Jen Bryce as they welcomed their daughter Emma to the world today!

Put on my blue suede shoes, and I boarded the plane...

WAIIIIIIIIIT.... stop the presses. My shoes are not blue suede. They're now light blue, leathery paint covered Adidas sneakers. I did however board the plane just before the asscrack of dawn on Monday.

While there is a general cost to home improvements, there has been an incidental cost of $3,040.
Paint for week 3 of the NFL: $250
Not doing research for week 4 of Kevin's (my brother) Knockout Pool: $2200
Making a second poor choice for week 4 in the "loser's pool": $800
The aforementioned now blue Adidas sneakers: $40
Weekends of aggravation and soreness: Definitely not priceless...

So week 5? of the NFL... I think its week 5, at least that's what someone told me. Consisted of another weekend of painting. Di swung over Friday afternoon and we started workin on the second coats of mountain honey and sweet sage... or maybe mountain sage and sweet honey... ok, the YELLOW and the GREEN rooms. What's left? The BLUE room! We picked Yacht Harbor. Where they come up with these names? I mean yeah harbor goes with yacht, but it could have been shipwreck yacht, which might provide some insight for these projects.. Unfortunately Di had to call it a short weekend, but she's put in plenty of hard working time. Wanna hear something funny, Bryce made soup again on Saturday. I spent Sat afternoon/evening working on the blue room, to get the first coat down. I made it over to Chez Bryce around 11 pm, and after a few pieces of cheese, was ready for a few hours of wii.

Sunday, I rolled off the air mattress... groaned, and said "oh boy, another day of blue." I rocked and rolled through, and only broke one paint roller extender. DO NOT BUY THE PLASTIC ONES! So, during most of the Giant game, I finished up coat #2 of the blue room. Funny thing, I was even able to paint over the spackle spots in the living and dining rooms I had to do because someone could not wait 10 minutes for me to do that before painting the second coat. Thou shalt remain nameless.

End result, a nice blue room, clean floors ready to be sanded... and another check out the door.

FYI: I didn't paint that picture with the really cool swirly effect, that's called glare.

What's next? the chicken or the egg? Floors get done Thurs, Fri, Mon and maybe Tues. Furniture comes on Friday! I'll finally have a bed up there. Just need to figure out the TV stand issue, so I can hook all those goodies up! I also plan on trimming some hedges this weekend, and fertilizing the lawn.