autumnal bliss

it has been several months since the last post ... how time passes by so quickly.

august turned to september and now october. winter will be here far too soon as well.

21-aug. i had several weekends after mum & step-father visit before the labour day weekend bbq to get the house in order. i applied the embossed wall paper to the bathroom walls to cover the damaged plaster on the upper-portions of the walls. opting for a two-tone pain scheme (light blue base w/dark blue over), the bathroom walls look better but not quite right yet. the wall paper edges didn't adhere well in spots so still need to go through & glue-down properly, also not too fond of the overall look of the two-tone paint job so may repaint in single color.

27-aug. vacation! flew friday eve to tucson to visit renae & monica for a few days. fri night renae picked me up at the airport & we went to the buffet bar where monica is now bartending. saturday morning started early, renae, adam & me drove up to lake roosevelt w/their boat for weekend on the water. monica met us up there saturday afternoon & their friend debra drove from phoenix to meet us there too. we spent all saturday on the lake, i even tried wakeboarding, though i wasn't able to get up. sunday morning was the 4 of use (minus debra) back on the lake until about 1pm, then headed back to tucson from there.

was in tucson until tuesday morning, then headed back to chicago. took the week off from work. tues-thurs spent in chicago. headed to house fri afternoon.

3-sept. labor day weekend. arrived at the house friday afternoon on 12.30 train. had lots of preparation to do before bbq on saturday.

saturday afternoon had first offical "party" at the house ... labor day weekend bbq with about 15 friends (mostly from chicago), was good time but need to build a privacy fence in backyard to keep nosy neighbors prying eyes away. family friend of renters next door stood on their back porch & scanned the party in my backyard & said "where the women at?" ... i said "they're on their way" ... so a privacy fence along that side will be first on list before i entertain any more at the house.

10-sept. dad visits again. took 17.58 train friday after work. dad came for the weekend to help get some fill dirt to help regrade soil away from the foundation. unfortunately. my neighbor said the city had free dirt @ their hitchcock street facility, but we found out it was only free compost. so instead of hauling dirt, we ended up running errands, hitting lowes/menards & driving to hammond to the cabala's (first time i had been to one). bought a used VHS tv for the house, plus bought a new DVD player & a dremel multi-pro tool. the TV/DVD is a nice addition, i wasn't sure i wanted a TV at the house, but it certainly is nice to have for guests.

on sunday we drove to chesterton to pick up a dining table/chair set that i found on craigslist. the seller was some white trash meth whore with rotten teeth & brittle hair, and her matching friend. i wanted to get the table & get out of there ASAP ... the table looks nice in the dining room now, another piece of reclaimed furniture for the house!

17-sept. stayed in chicago this weekend, no train service on the south shore this weekend due to pre-scheduled repairs. several more weekend service outages to come through end-of-year.

25-sept. weekend at the house, friend michael from new buffalo picked me up & took me around town to run errands. stopped @ wallmark for a different TV antenna (which still doesn't work well). also stopped @ menards to get last of wood needed for bathroom paneling. lastly, picked up 6 feet of striped "shazam" roll carpeting, made a 6x8 area rug for dining room (still need to get the edges finished).

2-oct. stayed in chicago, no train service. went to IKEA with grant, bought a metal rolling storage cabinet to use as end table / night stand & a kitchen utility table for the house (along with other random items).

9-oct. took train saturday afternoon to the house for short visit. brought a quart of black paint for the front door (decided black would help the security screen door blend in better), also brought the assortment of random items from IKEA with me for the house.