There was such a transformation throughout the house during the past four days it makes the time period seem longer. The house went from being a warm, family atmosphere filled with the sights and sounds of a Thanksgiving day to a scene of chaos as rooms were ripped apart to prepare for painting and then late yesterday things were back in order with two rooms with entirely different feeling personalities to boot. But let me start at the beginning.
Wednesday evening after work I went with Ali to the runners club meeting to do my presentation about the various timing systems. Evidently there is some bad blood circulating between people on the board and it played out in the discussion regarding the timing system. To me the one system was a clear slam dunk but the infighting resulted in no final decision being made. It’s no skin off my back but the delay will make the implementation of the system just take longer. It’s unfortunate.
After the meeting we picked up mom and brought her back to our place. Although mom was already tired, she stayed up once we got to our place and watched part 2 of the Oprah show about the hoarding fat lady. I was interested on mom’s take on the woman whom I so harshly criticized. Part 2 had the big reveal after Oprah’s crew cleaned the place out, gutted it and totally redid the house inside. The hoarders were basically rewarded for their years of disgusting, pathetic display of unabated, gluttonous consumerism with a brand new house. Yay. The woman talked about how she is a changed person and just loves how neat and organized things now are. Of course she has only been in the house for a week or two since it was redone. This is one show where I would definitely want to see the “where are they now…” follow up. I can almost guarantee this woman will fall right back into her empty abyss of junk piles. When the episode was done I asked my mom her opinion of the situation. She agreed with me that the woman was indeed pathetic but offered little else.
I woke up early on Thanksgiving thanks to the alarm. Ali had to drag herself out of bed at 5:15 to go work the race. I got up with her and simply played WoW until mom got up a little after 7. Once mom got up I hung out with her even though she assured me I could go back to diddling on my computer. It was a beautiful, crisp morning, the type of morning that I used to be in awe of when we first moved to Florida but now has become accepted reality.
I flipped on the tv early out on the lanai in anticipation of the parade starting. I have seen the Macy’s parade every year for as far back as I can recall however this year was the very first time I remember seeing the very beginning of the event where they cut the ribbon. The weather in New York was too nice. I like the parades were it is like 20 degrees and you get to watch the parade performers try to act like they are enjoying freezing their asses off.
Once the parade started I actually saw very, very little of it. We had it on as background noise mostly but by mid-morning mom was in the pool which I had been heating for the past couple days. We also started on the round of phone calls with me calling my brother, my sister and my dad. I was on the phone with dad the longest by far. He was ranting about a few topics.
Once Ali got back the food prep began in earnest. This year we totally skipped the turkey and went just with Tofurkey. In fact our entire meal was vegetarian and to be honest I didn’t mind at all. We had tons of food, way more than was needed for 3 people. Right before we ate I broke down and called my grandmother, despite my mom’s desire to the contrary. Grandma picked up the phone and after a brief delay where it almost sounded like she was getting instructions on what to do, she answered with a grumbly “Hello…” “Hi Grandma, it’s Shawn” “WHO??” Me, louder, “It’s SHAWN your grandson!” “I can’t hear you..” she says. I repeat again that it I am her grandson. She acknowledges it with a simple “Oh ok…” like she had no clue still who I was. So I ask her the standard questions, how are you feeling, how is the weather and if the facilities cat still came to visit her, all of which got one word answers. I was really sad about the mental state grandma was in and was in the process of saying my goodbye’s without even handing the phone to mom. However mom motioned that she would talk to her. Surprisingly mom said grandma seemed more with it when she was on the phone with her. Maybe mom’s voice is more recognizable to her. Mom talked to her for a couple minutes and then hung up. Wow that was indeed painful. I tried to put the call out of mind as we sat down to eat our Thanksgiving feast.
Instead of eating in the dining room, we had all the food lined up buffet style on the kitchen island. We loaded up our plates and then headed out to the table on the lanai to eat. Again, the novelty of eating outside in late November is somewhat lost on people that have done it for a number of years but I took a second to be thankful for it. 90% of the population probably aren’t swimming or eating outdoors on Thanksgiving. We are lucky.
The food was great and we all enjoyed our meal. Clean up with three people involved didn’t take long at all and shortly after clean up mom was ready to get back home. I brought Nicki with on the trip back to mom’s place. When we got there, mom asked me to take a look at a plastic cover that had fallen off her third brake light. It was funny, as I had the rear door open and was working on it, Nicki jumped up into the back of the Rav 4 and just sat there calmly looking around. She just seemed very content with the world. It was cute. Mom thanked me for the good time and that was that.
So the rest of the day we could have relaxed I suppose but knowing that we had a big painting project looming ahead of us made sitting around feel like wasting time. So late afternoon, early evening we started on ripping down the guest bathroom. We removed as much as possible, pulling down the towel bar, toilet paper holder and even the medicine cabinet. This process really shined a light on how shoddy some of the work on our house had been. The idiots that did the detail painting were so lazy that they didn’t remove anything when they did the final painting. There was white paint on the towel bar, the outlet covers, the toilet paper holder and the coup de grace the little silver disk that is around the shower pipe. In order to avoid painting on that disk, the painter would have had to take 1 second to pull it away from the wall before painting around it and simply slide it back when done. Nope, too lazy to even do that. I would not recommend our builder to anyone, there are lots of places around the house where shoddy workmanship has reared it’s ugly head.
So anyway, after everything was out/off the walls the taping and patching could begin. Having never taped up a room like this before it was a learning process. At first I tried to use one long continuous piece of tape to do each edge. It was next to impossible to get the tape from bunching up and folding while attempting to precisely place it. So I changed my technique to ripping off manageable sections of tape and overlapping. Ali handled most of the patching duties. We reached a stopping point where after a bit of sanding, we should be able to start painting on Friday.
Friday morning Ali and I went on a frustrating whirlwind tour of errands. I was quite anxious about venturing out into the world on Black Friday. We stopped at two banks and then hit Lowe’s and Bed Bath & Beyond before making our final stop at the grocery store. We picked out all new matching accessories for the bathroom. The mostly black iron and wicker stuff along with the cheap, painted on bars and holders that adorned the bathroom was now history, replaced by much nicer, matching pieces. I bet all in all we spent 3 to 4 hours out on the road, yuck. Traffic was bad but manageable.
By the time we got back home and got things put away and unpacked it was a little after 3pm. Well I was ready to get down to business and start painting. It was a bit unnerving putting the first blob of paint on the wall. Our walls that have been generic white for so long were about to get a rude awakening. Ali manned the brush while I handled the big manly roller. The process went rather well, the biggest trouble spot was doing the line at the ceiling. Mom had directed me towards using this edge painter thing that has two wheels on the top and a brush pad on the back. The theory is you get paint on the brush and then the wheels keep it right below ceiling level to give you a nice even clean edge. Mom warned me about the possibility of putting too much paint on the pad which in turn could get on the wheels, causing a mess on the ceiling. Well I had issues using the tool. At first I wasn’t getting paint close enough to the edge and the paint that was getting on the wall was streaky. So I got more aggressive with applying paint to the tool. At first it was working better but then I went overboard and had paint spill onto one of the wheels. Damn it. It was a learning curve. Eventually I learned a few things like you can’t use the tool to get all the way into the corner. I also learned that the best way to use it was to start down on the wall a bit below the ceiling line and then push the tool up to the edge, ensuring that excess paint is moving downward, once up at the edge, the thing seemed to work better if I went left to right. Ali hand painted the ceiling line at the corners. The end result was not perfect but good enough. As the paint dried it went through several color variations. Since it is a small room, it didn’t take that long to paint. I had the second coat on and drying in a total of maybe 2 hours. When we started pulling the tape we saw several spots where we didn’t have a good seal, resulting in some shaky looking paint lines. Ali’s steady hand once again came to the rescue as she delicately redid these spots with a tiny brush. The color really looked good, it transformed the feel of the room.
After allowing the second coat to dry it was getting kind of late but I was motivated to complete the transformation. First I told Ali I just wanted to get the new toilet paper holder on the wall. However that started an unstoppable snowball as one thing lead to another. By the time I was done, everything was mounted and leveled. 
Each piece we added made the room look better and better. By the time we got it all together we were both incredibly pleased. The bathroom now felt like it belonged in a Tommy Bahamas instead of our humble abode. The glass shelf and glass table we added was a nice touch and the shitty, too low towel bar was relocated and replaced with a cool double bar that our guests will find much more workable. We didn’t stop working until between 10 and 11pm. Ali was extremely tired. I was tired as well but the excitement of completing the transformation carried me through. However, the prospect of starting the process all over on a much bigger room the next day was very daunting to me. In fact, I considered at that point postponing doing that room until a later time. Luckily, depending on your point of view, when I woke up the next morning my motivation had returned.
Ali had some things to go out and do in the morning so it left me alone to perform room dis assembly. It was bust ass work. I pulled out all the light furniture including the king size bed, took down curtains, blinds, the shelf on the wall and the shelves in the closet. I removed armies of stuffed animals as well as my collection of “old stuff I like” that I keep in that room. By the time I was done, the great room was a disaster area of “stuff”. With a casual glance, you wouldn’t have thought the guest bedroom had so much in it.
As I cleared stuff out I pulled a few things aside and put them on the kitchen counter to accompany me to work, namely my two handheld Mattel Electronic Football games. These were the very first electronic game I ever remember having. I recall mom getting it for me from Two Guys back in the 70’s. It was a the biggest thing going. Imagine the fun of moving a red blip around a tiny little screen avoiding all the other little fainter red blips. It sounds ridiculous nowadays but damn I loved that game. I would play for hours on end until the tendons in my thumbs were screaming in pain. I also have the newer version of the game where they had fancy things like “passing”. I always have preferred the original.
Also set aside was the Furby. I bought Ali this early on the year that they were insanely popular. I remember being all proud of myself for securing one for her even though I paid a ridiculous 150 bucks for it.
Ali tried to act like she really liked it but it soon came out that she thought it was dumb. Furby has spent a rather boring life, stuck on a shelf with boring, non-robotic stuffed animals. When I picked Furby up I was surprised when he sprung to life with his normal “Cockle doodle doo!!” I couldn’t believe the batteries had any oomph in them after years of non-use. Evidently they were just a click above dead as after he came to life Furby almost immediately went back to sleep. I felt bad for Furby. He now lives in my office where he at least can be a conversation piece. I gave him a new set of batteries. You can see him right now asleep on the web cam, poor little guy.
So anyway, by the time Ali got back I had just started doing some of the taping. Ali jumped right in and started to help. It took awhile due to the vastly larger surface area we had to prepare. The color we picked out for this room was supposed to be a grayish purple. By the time we got around to painting it was a little after 2. With a day of painting under our belt, things went pretty smooth. However one thing become apparent, the single gallon of paint we bought was not going to be enough. In fact I just barely had enough to do the first coat. As the paint went on, Ali and I both commented how it looked a whole lot more purple than gray. So we took a mini-break to run back out to Lowe’s to get more paint. All I had to do was write down the codes on the old paint in order for them to make me another can of the paint. The new can looked identical as the first. Ali and I wished we had the codes for the paint that was used originally on the house, it would make touch ups a reality instead of a guessing game.
So back home we went and after a small supper break where we watched a bit of next Loose Change flick, I was back into the room rolling away. I asked Ali if she could work on getting some of the mess out in the great room addressed as it was making me a bit nuts. (that and the full moon) In addition to all the junk I drug out of the guest room, the kitchen island also had plants, packages and other junk strewn about.
While we were painting there was a weird thing that occurred. The paint we used in the bedroom definitely had a stronger smell in it than the stuff we used in the bathroom. Evidently the fumes had a weird side effect. Whenever I left the room, the rest of the house smelled like piss to me. When I first noticed it I marched around the house looking for the source. Every room smelled that way to me, even the spare bedroom that had the door closed. The only thing I could come up with was it was coming from the AC. great, just what I need. However later I realized that once I was out of the bedroom we were painting for awhile, I wouldn’t smell the piss smell in the house. But if I went back in for a bit, came out, the smell returned. For some reason the paint fumes were short circuiting my sense of smell.
So once again we worked late into the night. Rolling the walls in the bedroom was tougher than the bathroom because they were textured. I had to really lean on the roller to make sure I got decent coverage. Finally we finished up and confirmed that yep, the room is definitely purple.
it didn’t look bad, just different than we both expected. The all white furniture from my bachelor pad days contrasted nicely with it. Again, the color really put a new spin on the room. We were pleased with this change as well, just not as pleased as with the bathroom transformation. Saturday night we left the room with the tape off the trim but all of the junk still out in the great room.
Sunday morning was clean up time. I put stuff back together and then after Ali got up she was in charge of deciding what went back into the room. We didn’t want it to be as cluttered. I made a concession and told Ali I would put my “old stuff” collection into one of the empty drawers. She also conceded to remove the majority of stuffed animals that were littering the room, only returning a few that had true sentimental value to her. Through steady, deliberate work, Ali and I had most everything cleaned up and put away before lunchtime. It seemed very weird to have what felt like two new rooms in the house. The new color in the guest room makes me not want to keep the door permanently closed anymore. In the past we decided to do this so the cats would not use this room as a warm little vomiting area. I may have to revisit that decision.
We got done just in time for Ali to get ready to go out with a friend of hers to go see the Nutcracker. Ironically we discovered when mom was over that she too was going to the exact same show with her friends from work. Ali and mom decided to have everyone get together after the show to go out to dinner. That left me home to tie up some loose ends.
It was funny, at the beginning of the day I felt like the house was a HUGE mess and there was just so much shit to do. In the span of four hours that all changed. Things felt in order again. While Ali was gone I Roombafied and Scoobatized the house (words I invented) as well as shooting another round of bleach into the water system, doing some laundry, hanging out with Nicki in her play area and just unwinding. Several times during the afternoon I would go over and look at the two rooms we painted, admiring the transformation. I went and laid down on the bed in the guestroom and imagined I was the guest. I determined I would be quite content staying there. The color is different but not in an unpleasant way.
I thought about the prospect of painting the rest of the house, which we eventually want to do. The job seems extremely overwhelming, especially considering the effort to just paint two rooms. However now I know that the effort should be worth the end result. That project will be back burner-ed for a while though. We want to first get our new counters in place before painting. You can see all the before and after pictures I took here.
So even though I knew the Eagles were going to get trounced, I tuned in for the game. I was surprised to see that AJ was starting. I was too busy to check to see McNabb’s playing status. The game starts, AJ immediately throws a pick that is run back for a TD and I laugh out loud while thinking how the slaughter has begun with little delay. But then things started happening. Instead of crawling into a hole after making a mistake, AJ and the rest of the team came out aggressively and drove the ball right down the Patriots throat scoring a game tying touchdown after a long, impressive drive.
The Patriots offense finally got the ball and marched right down the field and scored. However during the drive Brady got HAMMERED from his blindside. The defense at least was making the Patriots pay for their yardage. JR Reed laid out a few Patriots himself with crushing hits, I liked what I was seeing. The decision making/play calling was equally aggressive with a successful fourth down conversion followed by a TD and then an awesome onside kick recovery on the next kickoff. The Eagles were finally coming to play, maybe being an embarrassing three touchdown underdog finally lit a fire under their ass.
The game was quite exciting with the two team trading shots back and forth. Even though the Eagles D had a hard time keeping the Patriots from moving the ball, they kept after them non-stop. AJ Feely was borderline brilliant during this stretch. He showed accuracy on throws that I am not accustomed to seeing. He was calm in the face of pressure, beating blitzes with quick throws to open targets. It was awesome.
Finally at the end of the game the wheels came off. The Eagles were driving for a game tying or leading score when AJ made an ill-advised throw to a well covered receiver. The Patriot defender snagged it in the end zone and that was pretty much the ball game. The Eagles had one last shot with 30 seconds to go but again AJ got picked off throwing into a very densely populated Patriot zone, game over. The 21 point predicted blowout instead turned into a 3 point barn burner.
So what was different about this game? Why did the team seam to come alive against the best team in the NFL and give them all they could handle on their own home turf? Well the most obvious change is at the QB position. Just like last year, the team seems to play it’s most determined, gritty agressive ball when Donovan is not at the controls. Why is this? Do you think that they are all waiting around waiting for Donovan to make a play? Maybe 4 years ago they could do that and obviously for a long time, that formula worked as the team did make it at least to the conference championship game 4 straight years. But the past two seasons have been differnet. To me, the team has played the best ball when Donovan is not in the equation. Feeley is similar to Garcia in that he gives the feeling that he lives and dies on the field. When things go well he is genuinely excited, when things go poorly it feels like the dagger goes deeper into his heart than even the fans. The team seems to respond to that sort of passion from the QB position.
Donovan, for whatever reason doesn’t exude that quality. In recent years his proclivity for pulling out the race card whenever he receives criticism has also soured the fans view of him. Philly fans are tough but it isn’t because of the color of your skin. They want a winner above all else and if you do lose we want you to feel as bad about it as we do. When you throw a boneheaded interception or one hop a pass to a reciever for the fourth time in a game don’t come off the field all grinning and joking “My bad, haha…” That shit doesn’t fly with Eagle fans.
I’m really ready to turn the page on Donovan as the Eagle QB. You get the feeling he is laying the groundwork for his exit anyway. The other big positive I saw from the game was JR Reed. I remember when he came up as a rookie, he was exciting as hell. Then he hurt himself badly in a non-football related injury and was all but written of for good. Well he busted ass and due to injuries was in the line up last night as one of the starting safeties. I loved what I saw. He made Dawkins look like a pansy. JR was laying the wood, hitting players with authority. That is what I want to see out of a safety, unabashed anger and violence. I think Dawkins still wants to play like that but due to age and/or injuries he just doesn’t seem to hit people all that often anymore. He always seems a step slow.
Anyway I am grateful for the years of play Donovan has given us and I certainly remember the rotating door of QB’s we had before him. Names like Bobby Hoying and Doug Pederson still give me the shakes. However what I want from our QB above all is passion and leadership. I want him to motivate the players around him. It doesn’t matter if the guy can throw a ball 70 yards, if the other players don’t get motivated by him it just isn’t going to work.
Unfortunately Donovan will probably play next week. If the team drops right back into it’s recent pattern of listless, uninspired play, you can bet the chants of AJ, AJ , AJ will come booming down from the Linc in no time at all.
So I never did get to watch all of Loose change Final Cut, I am only a half hour or so into it. So far it has been rather dry excpet for one new thing I never knew. Shortly before 9/11 Mohammed Atta was wired a sum of $100,000 dollars from the head of the Pakistan intelligence agency. This transfer is indisputable yet it was covered up by the US government. In yet another coincidence, guess who was in Washington during 9/11? Yep, the same guy. After 9/11 he “resigned”. Yes this is from Pakistan, the same country that supposedly was an ally of ours in the fight against terror, more smoke and mirrors. I can’t wait to see the rest of it.
We took it out of it’s bag and removed all the old lights and ornaments that were still attached. the funniest ornament was the one Ali made as a kid. It was balled up Hershey Kiss wrappers, attached to a paper clip. I had gotten some funky LED Christmas lights at Sam’s Club that we put on the tree. Ali wasn’t crazy about how they looked. I thought it was kinda cool, the contrast between an old Christmas tree adorned with modern LED lights. We placed the tree on a small table and put it in front of the window.