House of Swank

Now With Pictures

I've found the cable that will allow me to upload photos to the computer, so soon you'll actually be able to see PHOTOS of the house, which I'm sure will be much more interesting than me trying to describe it all.

And I'm willing to take the pictures, because we've finally started getting the artwork up on the walls.  The living room is done, and it should be the hardest part of the job, as it had one piece that needed to be framed and another that needed a hanger put on the back.  Everything else is ready-to-go and just needs hangers in the walls.

It always amazes me how much homier a place feels once there is artwork up on the walls.  I thought the living room was feeling big and empty because it still needs drapes, a rug, and tables.  But with the art on the walls it seems a lot cozier.

It also just astounds me what fabulous, artistic friends and family we have.  Every single piece of art that will be hanging in the upstairs of our home was created by or for someone we know and love.  A couple of them were pieces commissioned for us.  Most are one-of-a-kind.  I've come a long way from my when I felt like the shit because my prints from the poster shop were actually FRAMED.

I've come a long way, baby.

(Photos likely won't appear until Sunday at the earliest, but they ARE coming)

Other Bloggers On The Block

Blog the first:  A blog about reffing my Sweetie reads is giving a dollar to Special Olympics for every person who leaves a nice comment about refs on his blog today.  You should go there and leave a comment, too.  If you can't think of anything to say for yourself, you can also comment on Ed Hochuli's guns.

Blog the second:  My mom and dad have started a blog.  Well, mainly my mom, but it's about the both of them.  They leave in a week to do their annual six week road trip to California, Arizona and Nevada.  This is a blogging test-run for this spring, when they plan to sell their house, buy an RV, and live the mobile life for a while.  You can check it out here.  You should leave words of encouragement if you check it out.  And pay no mind if there are two posts that look really, really similar.... I bet your 70 year old mom couldn't do any better.

Happy Christmas!

Apologies for my brief disappearance - there was a bizarre little dance between me, my bank, and typepad, in which we were trying to decide what the address on my MasterCard should be.  All better now.  And it's even the right address.

Just in time for the holiday festivities to begin in full force.  Blogging will likely be light between now and Santa's appearance, but I'll be back in full force at that time.

Hi!

This is the first blog post officially made from within the confines of the House of Swank.  Wirelessley and everything!

Turns out that the only phone lines in the house (at least that I can locate) are in the dining room and the bedroom, so the broadband modem and wireless router are set up in a corner of the bedroom, and all of our internet needs will be taken care of via our laptops.  We may explore getting Sweetie's desktop connected to the internet, but at least for now we can check e-mail and websites from home. 

We can also check fantasy football stats, but that's not a plus for me at the moment, as the one week I decide to bench Vince Young he goes all crazy and scores points.  Grrr....

Off to make sure Sweetie's computer is functioning well, then to continue with the unpacking.

Obligation

Per the rules of NaBloPoMo I must blog every day in the month of November.  There are no rules regarding quality or content of said posts.  Therefore, living up to the letter, if not the spirit, of the law, this post is up.

Another post MAY be forthcoming tonight, but even if it is it may not be posted until after midnight.  And although I am still of the mind that an upperclassman taught me my freshman year of college - that it's not tomorrow until you go to sleep or the sun comes up - I don't want to try to engage in that debate with the powers that be when it comes to them denying me a prize because I didn't post today.

So there.

Doors

Welcome to NaBloPoMo.  I don't know what circuit in my brain was short circuiting the day I first found out about it, but I knew we were scheduled to close on our house on October 31, and what's more fun to do while jumping into home renovations and unpacking with both feet than to commit to posting on your blog every single day in the month of November.

I'll save you all reading any of the blog posts now... here's how it will go:

The next week will be me rambling on about all the work we're doing to the house.

After that I'll be trying to discover all scope out all of the spots in Vancouver with free wifi (the house, unfortunately, is not one of them).

And, if we're lucky, by the end of the month I'll be so exhausted from it all that I'll simply write posts that say "Hi, I'm sitting in my living room right now."

Today it's all about the doors.

I've never been a big fan of doors.  Sure, they serve their purpose.  I like bathroom doors, because they allow me to take really steamy showers.  And I can close them if there are other people in the house.  (If I'm home alone I never bother).  Doors from inside to outside are nice, because they keep the heating bill reasonable, make it harder for people to steal your shit, and keep the cat from running away.  But there are a lot of extraneous doors in the world.

Growing up I had a walk-in closet, with the door removed, because I couldn't understand why I'd want to open and/or close that door all the time.  I did not need privacy from my clothes, and accommodating the door swing took up valuable floor space real estate.

The new house had three extraneous doors that had to go.  The main living areas of the house run along the front: living room, dining room, kitchen.  Parallel to the dining room is a hallway from which you access bedrooms and bathroom.  There are doorways from the hall to the dining room and kitchen, and from the dining room to the kitchen.  And all of these doorways had doors in them.  I do not know why you would ever need to close these doors, yet there they were, just taking up valuable real estate.  Now they're sitting in the garage.  I may turn them into giant shelves.

I also got started on removing carpeting today to get at the hardwood floors.  I'm not going to say any more at the moment, because this looks to be my life for the next several days, and I don't want to lose what little content I may have available for blogging.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm....

In the past seven hours not one, but TWO people have found my blog searching on the phrase, "boob motorcyle helmet." 

This disturbs me even more than the whole Muppet porn thing last year.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsors

We regret to inform you that, due to cirucmstances beyond our control, Swankette was unable to accomplish anything this evening that might merit a blog post.

If you stoppped by because it's Tuesday and you were in search of some tres fabu shoes, please come back tomorrow.  We'll be featuring the party shoes, to thank you for your patience on this matter.

If you stopped by wanting to know whatever became of the hole in the ceiling, we can let you know that it is no longer a hole, but is not quite a ceiling fan.  It should complete its metamorphosis tonight, and be ready for an unveiling tomorrow.  Or maybe Thursday. 

Thank you for your patience,

The Management.

The Dark Side of Blogging

Someone found my blog by searching on, "how do i injure myself to get into the hospital but not kill myself."  Whoever you are --  call a counselor NOW.  In many parts of the country 2-1-1 has been implemented, which is like 9-1-1, but used to access social services.  Or call 9-1-1 if you have to.

Crap, that's scary stuff.  Hopefully whoever it was got either so bored reading about my fantasy baseball team, or so enthralled at the rest of the season, that nothing came of that.  FUCK!

Someone else (I presume) found my blog on the search, "boobs, bored, meta."  Sarcastic Journalist has the #9 hit and I'm #14.  I'm pretty sure that person was dissapointed with their results, although I'm not quite sure what the desired results would be for a query such as that.

Take 2

Attempts to turn Homer into a blogger have failed, so we're scaling back our goals.

The new goal:  get the parents to actually post a comment to the blog.  Mom has a habit of reading the blog and then either e-mailing me with a comment or, as was the case this evening, calling to leave me a response.  (Sorry I didn't answer the phone, Mom... I was just getting ready to start dinner and the phone was buried in the bottom of my purse.)

So, friends, lets get Mom and Dad to comment.  Just leave a nice note to them in the comments here, and encourage them to comment back.  Better yet... ask them about something from my past that you've been DYING to know, and they'll have to comment back for you to get the answer.

But do remember I do have editing capabilities and Dad has heart problems, so try to keep it PG-13. :)