Missed Opportunity

You know those “Ferrari” style soda machines that are popping up at the casual dining restaurants these days?  I love them.  You hit a button, and can choose a million different soda options.  They almost always have Coke Zero, my favorite, and I do a “suicide” combination with mostly plain coke zero, but add a little of the flavored ones, like vanilla coke zero, as well (sometimes raspberry, too, if I’m feeling frisky).

Yesterday, I went to Noodles and Company with a girlfriend for lunch, and had already filled my soda from the Ferrari machine and was fitting it with a lid and straw while the handsome man in line after me took his turn at the soda machine.  He stared at the options for a long time.  I gave him a sideways glance, and said, “So. many. choices.”

He said, “I know.  It’s like online dating.” 

I giggled.  And clammed up.  That’s all there is to this story.

I tell you that because I think that I have a reputation for a quick wit and always knowing what to say in these situations.  I didn’t.  He was totally flirting with me, but all I did was put my lid on and went back to my table.  Sometimes I don’t have the right thing to say.  And he was so cute.  Dangit.

My Poor Neglected Little Blog...

Ah, my poor neglected little blog.

I spent my whole month of January doing another major renovation at the Pink House.  It was only slightly dramatic, because how could it be my life if it wasn’t dramatic?

The project was simple enough, but as with anything I do, it snowballed.  In my house that was built in 1900, I have plaster walls.  There were a few holes in the plaster in the stairwell.  But the stairwell and the upstairs hall are connected, and between those walls and ceilings I had at least five different mismatched textures.  So, as long as I was having the plaster repaired, I might as well have the texture smoothed out as well.  And as long as we were doing it in the entryway and stairwell, I might as well do it on the whole downstairs level, since those were a mess, too.  And as long as we were doing the walls, I might as well have them scrape the popcorn ceilings and smooth that, too, right?  (Whoever decided to put popcorn ceilings in a Victorian 1900 house should be horsewhipped, but I’m sure their 1980’s brains were thinking, “Oh, our house looks so modern now!”)  And then I had someone working in my house for the entire month of January.

I had a 24 hour period where, in true Noel-the-Drama-Queen fashion, I was sure that I had exposed myself, my dog, the guy working, and anyone who would ever come to my house in the future to asbestos and we were all going to die.  I made a late-night phone call to a friend of a friend who owns an asbestos abatement company.  He totally talked me out of a tree and sent his guys over to test first thing the next morning and when he called me with the good news that my house was free of asbestos, he teased by telling me, “Good news.  You’re gonna live.”

The great thing about the guy that I had do the work on the walls is that he would let me work with him, which saved me some coin, plus I learned a lot, but it kept me super busy.  I cleaned up plaster dust, I painted, I cleaned, I painted, I cleaned up plaster dust, I shopped for light fixtures, I cleaned up plaster dust, and then I cleaned up plaster dust some more.  And now I’m done with projects for a very long time.

Thanks for not giving up on me.  I neglected all writing for the last two months, so it feels good to flex that muscle!  Love to all of you!

A quick shot of my smooth living room walls and ceiling.  I haven't put any art back up yet, I'm just enjoying the smoothness!  Plus, isn't my gray just lovely?