free saturday

I can't remember the last time I had a Saturday free. I almost don't remember what I should be doing. So, before I pour myself my first mug of coffee and sit on the couch and do nothing, I figure maybe I should update.

Home improvements are ongoing, but are not nearly as intensive as before...

We've taken a two-week hiatus from flooring, doors, and trim, and I believe CJ intends to start back up this week. We're hoping that the living room will be easier to complete, since we already have the supplies on hand and he knows what to expect. I still need to fill in the nail holes on the trim and door frames, but really, I'm in no hurry whatsoever. And once CJ gets the living room done, he'll need to install quarter-round, but hopefully that won't be as big of a deal (fingers crossed).

Since he didn't finish the floors this week, CJ spent one afternoon building shelves in our utility room. Our house lacks serious storage space everywhere, and this was quite possibly one of the best improvements we've made. We now have space for all of our cleaning supplies, plus some of my bigger kitchen pieces that won't store elsewhere -- cake carriers, baskets, etc. I'm sure I'll fill it all up very quickly.

We also had more plumbing problems this week, this time with an outside faucet. We have a faucet on the east and west side of our house, with one turn-on inside the house. Even if we had the water turned on but the knobs weren't turned on, the faucet on the west side leaked. The ground slopes on the side of the house, so it'd end up being a muddy mess trying to even get to the faucet. And things just deteriorated this spring, so much that instead of dripping, it would spray water everywhere. Of course, we ended up making the problem worse by trying to fix it ourselves, so we ended up with a plumber out here again, cutting yet another hole in one of my walls to get to the plumbing. Seriously, can't win where plumbing is concerned.

The outside of the house is starting to look really nice. There is far more green grass than yellow straw visible. We got some flowers planted this week before it started pouring. I planted some flower seeds in pots, and those pots had standing water in them, so I'm not sure how well those plants will do. We also got some of our garden planted, and it looks like those plants withstood the water fairly well. At least we'll save on our water bill.

There's nothing new to report on the work front for either of us.

We have decided to turn over a new leaf and we joined a new gym. We were both members of Cardinal Fitness up until we got married -- not that either one of us really used it much after CJ signed onto my plan anyway. We canceled because CJ got a free gym membership to the big sports/aquatic center in Plainfield (I could join for free too) and I also have access to a free gym in my work building. I think one big problem we had was that after we spend 24 hours in Plainfield or 7-9 hours in one building, we really just want to get out of there. So, we joined the Anytime Fitness down the road -- CJ likes that he could get up extra early to go run before work -- and we're locked into a year and a half contract now, so we have to go. We also both decided -- separately, and then told the other -- that we want to run the mini next year, so looks like we'll have plenty of time to train.

Unrelated to all of this, I might note that I changed my comments setting so anyone can post as anonymous. Just leave your name in the text box so I know who it is.

With that, I'm going to shut down the computer, fix myself some coffee, pop in the House DVD I got from the library, and think about checking out our new gym...