House-Lift in Progress

Well, our house has been due for a paint job for a couple of years now and since our sailing adventure is off, Mike decided he'd get on it. I chose the colors and Mike's doing the work, heh heh. Well, he wanted to! I wanted to pay someone to do it! I did tell him I'd help with the trim, though, so once he's done with all the walls, I'll have no more excuses, dang it.

Anyway, for the last week or so this is what he's been doing:

He's got a nice little paint sprayer so the actual painting goes quickly. The prep work, however, is a different story! He's had cracks to mend (those darn earthquakes!), windows to mask, bushes and vines to cut away where they hid the walls, and I don't know what all else because I mainly hide in the house for fear he'll put me to work hauling and carrying! And in many places he will probably need to put on a second coat.

Well, I do venture out to take photos occasionally to check his progress, and to make sure he hasn't fallen off the ladder. The photo above shows the wall that's in the cat garden. The window where Mike is painting is the kitchen window (with the bird feeders), the one closer to the camera is our office, and the smallest one, up high, is the guest bathroom. Almost all the windows in our house have plastic sheeting over them right now, which makes being inside kinda weird. Even though the sun is shining the plastic gives the feel of fog. Kinda cool, especially with Halloween coming!

This is the garage; Mike is also going to paint the door to match the house. You can see there's not a huge difference in color. Our house has been a light tannish color, and the trim a strange sort of gold which I call "baby diarrhea." I've never liked it. So now the house will be almost-white, or "Cotton Ball," as it says on the paint chip.

This photo shows the wall on the side of the house, opposite the cat garden. This wall is completely painted. Doesn't it look fresh and new? I love the color. I know it's not very "different," but I've always like white on houses; they look so clean and classic.

The trim is a color called "Ten Gallon Hat." It's a medium brown but more on the grey-y side. Hard to describe. Here's a photo of a small bit of trim where Mike slapped on the paint just so I could be sure I like it. I do. I don't know how true the color will be to your eye - everyone's computer monitor displays colors differently. You'll have a better idea when I can get a photo of an entire wall with the trim done.

It's going to look fabulous!

Worried about the Economy?

And the election?

I vote we just all take a nap:

Hopefully, when we wake up things will look a little brighter.

No celebrity is going to tell ME how to vote

Yesterday I was watching the Ellen Degeneres Show. I've watched her show for a couple years now and usually enjoy it. Yesterday I turned it off in the middle. In disgust. This is probably the 10th time I've done that this year and I'm almost to the point that I'm going to stop watching it altogether. I turn if off everytime Ellen, or one of her guests, uses the show to promote their political views. Yesterday it was Julia Louis-Dreyfuss telling the audience how to vote on Proposition 8.

When was it that celebrities began to promote themselves as political experts?

Why is it that Ellen, Julia, and the likes of Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Sting, rapper Kanye West, the Dixie Chicks, etc., etc., etc., think that their political opinions carry any weight at all with voters?

Do they have political science degrees? Do they even have degrees at all? Brad Pitt doesn't. He dropped out of college (where he was majoring in journalism) to become an actor. Ellen doesn't either; she dropped out of college (communications) to go into comedy. Kanye West? Dropped out after one year of art school . You can research the other names I mentioned if you want; I've lost interest.

You may argue that it's Ellen's show so she has the right to say whatever she wants, to invite her choice of guests to appear on the show, and the right to allow them to express their political opinions (although I betcha she "screens" those opinions first).

You're absolutely right.

But since I originally started watching Ellen's show not for its political messages, but for its entertainment value (in general, she's hilarious), I have the right to stop watching it when it ceases to entertain me.