Day 73

Lucy is a lot better today. She is putting weight on her foot. Now the challenge is to keep her from overdoing it. It didn't work well. In the afternoon she was limping a little again.

I forgot to get screws for the vanity yesterday, so the first thing to do was back to Lowe's. When we got back I planned on finishing up the vanity. It decided to fight the process. The dimensions of the new vanity are slightly larger than those of the old one. That meant that I had to cut some off of the trim on both sides of the vanity. Than I had to cut off some of the splash shield above it. It took quit a bit of time and effort.

I have the base attached to the wall now. I'm ready to hook up the plumbing and glue the top on tomorrow.

The optical converter came today and I hooked it up. Now we get surround sound from the satellite receiver in the living room. It sounds very good.

I also finished entering the titles of all of our DVD's and Blu-rays into my phone. The only ones not entered are the ones in the trailer in Oregon. That should end my buying duplicates.

Day 72

We went over to the Lowe's in Bee Cave to get the fire pit. I was going to take the truck, but it's batteries were dead. My old charger wouldn't charge them. On the way back from Lowe's we bought a new battery charger at Wally World.

The new charger wouldn't charge the batteries because they were too low. I hate microprocessor controlled chargers that won't just do what you tell them to do. Fortunately the charger had a limp mode that it goes into that basically trickle charges that batteries at 6 volts.

After doing that for awhile the charger threw an error code. Of course the manual didn't list any codes. I restarted things and it started charging at 12 volts. Hopefully this will charge the batteries. The reason that they went dead was that the GPS was left plugged in when we last drove it.

Lucy was feeling better, so she went to the garbage can with me. Apparently she hurt herself again, because she let out a loud yelp while we were coming back. It was back on the couch for her.

I wanted to accomplish something today. So I put together the fire pit, put the outside temperature sensor up, and entered most of the DVD titles we have in my phone. That way I won't buy any more duplicates.

Day 71

The day started out strange. Ellen let Lucy out for her morning constitutional. When she came back in she wouldn't put any weight on her back right leg. We just let her lay on the couch.

I went over to the apartment and finished the putting the trim on the vanity and the faucet on the sink. I was feeling ambitious so I took out the old vanity. The dumbshits struck again. They didn't leave enough pipe for the shutoff valves, so I couldn't turn off the hot water without punching out some sheetrock. When I got finished with removing the vanity I didn't feel like doing anything else, so I quit.

Lucy had gotten worse, so we took her to the vet. $170 later it was determined that she had a seriously stubbed toe. She's supposed to take it easy for a week. Yeah, right.

We went to Lowe's to get the fire pit. After seeing it there for months, now they are sold out. We also stopped a Verizon to find out why my phone wouldn't download anything. The guy did a power on reset (I didn't know you could do that), and the phone started downloading.

It rained last night and part of the morning, so I didn't get the satellite mount painted.

Day 70

The new satellite stuff was installed today. It's a vast improvement over the old equipment. I went out in the morning and beefed up the mount that I built on the side of the house. It's a good thing that I did. The new dish wouldn't have fit without the modifications. The job was made especially pleasant by the steady rain. So was taking out the garbage. It rained all day.

The installer gave me a line on a dish to take on the road. I'm glad he did as the new dish requires a power supply.

While we waited for the installer I decided to shorten the blinds in the kitchen and entry. It wasn't hard, but it was time consuming and a pain in the ass. I wasn't finished until after he left.

During the install I discovered that one of the two HDMI inputs on the old TV is dead. Crap. I'll have to buy a remote controlled HDMI switch so that we can have both the satellite box and the blu-ray player hooked to the TV.

After I finished the blinds I put the bedroom sat box in the cabinet and cabled everything up. It works great with the surround sound.

Finally, I vacuumed the whole place. We haven't been very careful about taking our shoes off and it was pretty dirty.

Day 69

We slept in late and then went to the credit union to sign the papers for the loan. The office was way up in north Austin. The signing went well, and the loan officer said she'd call us with the name of a good contractor.

Since we were so far north, we went to Fry's. They didn't have anything that interested us. So we stopped by an outdoor mall just south of Fry's called the Domain. It's mainly high end clothing and jewelery stores. You couldn't swing a cat without killing a couple of yuppies. We stopped at Penney's on the way home so that I could buy some new underwear.

That pretty much killed the whole day. When we got home I put a second coat of paint on the wood I put up for the antenna mount.

I took Lucy up to pick up the mail. Apparently one of the neighbors has an outdoor cat. She saw it an started chasing it. I was upset when she didn't come back immediately when I called. I made her heel all the way home.

Day 68

We went out for a little while today. It was partially to look for after Christmas bargains and partially to get some wood so I could build up a place in the eves to mount the new satellite dish.

There wasn't much in the way of bargains, and surprisingly few people out looking for them. We got the wood and went home. I cut the wood up and attached it to the house. It was a little bit of work to figure out where the rafters were to screw into. Of course when the framed the house they didn't space the rafters evenly. I hit it right on the nose though.

I had looked for paint in the apartment where the previous owners had left all of the cans. There was one can of exterior paint, and it was gray. So I thought I was OK. When I started using it I found out that it didn't match either of the two shades of gray that were used on the house. Those people were true idiots.

I painted the new boards with the paint anyway because it was the only exterior paint that I had.

While I was painting that, Ellen painted the trim pieces for the new vanity. They'll be ready when I get back to that project.

Day 67

It was a pretty good Christmas. I slept in late because I got sick last night. I had a bad allergic reaction to something. There was a lot of sneezing and both my eyes swelled up. My right eye almost swelled shut.

I was much better this morning, although my right eye was still swollen.

We opened presents this morning. We got some cool stuff. Ellen called her sister and I called my brother.

Ellen worked pretty hard on dinner. It was Cornish Game Hen. It was pretty good.
the dog got a lot of good stuff - sweet potatoes, a bone, table scraps and cookies.

To top it all off, the Cowboys lost.

Day 66

It's been a good two days for presents. We got 5 packages worth between the two days. We aren't opening them until tomorrow.

We did a little surfing in the morning. I had to do something, so I put up a clothes hook in my closet. A big 10 minute job.

Then we went out to get the plumber's putty. We got it, but I didn't feel like doing any work when we got home. So we declared it an afternoon at the movies. We watched Up and Drag Me To Hell.

It rained hard when we were out and for about an hour after we got home. That should make the people crying drought a little happier.

I wonder if I'll have any visions of sugarplums tonight.

Day 65

This was mainly a fairly lazy day. We went out shopping for a few things that we needed. Things like or third set of cat bowls.

When we got back I felt guilty about doing nothing. So I got out the mower and finished the last bit of the side yard. They fixed it well. It seemed to cut grass better and throw the cuttings farther. The stuff was tall and thick. When I was finished I felt like I should rake it and bale it.

I also finished up the trailer. I drained the grey tank, lowered and fixed the antenna, and closed the oven vent (it took a ladder).

That wasn't enough, so I went over to work on the new vanity. I put the fixture on the sink and cut the molding to go around the bottom of the cabinet. I would have installed the drain, but I didn't have any plumber's putty.

My back hurt all day. And my sides started hurting from all the coughing I've been doing. Getting old sucks.

Day 64

The first morning in the new house. The foam bed is a nice bed. But its nothing to write home about from my point of view. Taiko spent the whole night roaming around the house jumping up on things and bumping things. He woke me up several times.

When we got up I moved the rest of the food from the trailer. Then I started cleaning it. The process took several hours. When it was finished I was too tired do anything else. Also I hurt. Somewhere along the way in the last two days I hurt my back. It was painful to lift a bowl of water.

Sooooo ... I spent the afternoon surfing. Both cats were very friendly. I think that they're adapting, but they are still unsure about things.

After dinner I had cabin fever. We had developed a fairly long list of stuff that we needed for the house. Nothing big, just a lot of little things that will make living here easier. So we went to Target and Walmart. We managed to get just about everything on the list.

Day 63

We moved into the house today. With Ellen's help I figured out which cables to use to connect the satellite to the living room TV. Then I moved the dish from the trailer and Ellen aimed it. While I was doing the wiring, Ellen started cleaning up the apartment.

I called the mower repair place. They had finished the mower, so we went over and picked it up. After wards we stopped for lunch at the Salt Lick. It was very good food. We bought a pound of brisket to take home.

When we got back Ellen continued with the cleanup. I did a little more wiring and then started moving stuff from the trailer to the house. We quit about five. There's enough stuff here for us to spend the night. Tomorrow we'll finish the move and clean up the trailer.

The cats are not happy about the move. Both of them are hiding in the catroom and Fletcher is crying. I expect that they will settle down after they sleep with us tonight.

Day 62

I decided not to do much today. Instead of working, we went out and about. I loaded up the car with a bunch of stuff for Goodwill. Five or so lights that I removed from the house, the wireless phones from our old house, and some stuff that the previous owners had left. It filled up the trunk.

After that we went looking for a comforter for the bed in the house. Half way through we stopped for lunch at Marie Callender's. We hadn't eaten a meal at a sit down restaurant in quite awhile. We picked up the comforter and cover from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I don't get why the cover should cost half as much as the comforter. It's just two sheets sewed together.

On the way back we stopped at Costco to stock up on frozen food. We also stopped at another Goodwill and bought some stuff for the apartment.

We ate dinner in the house. I think we'll probably move in tomorrow after I get the satellite dish hooked up.

Day 61

We picked up the new receiver about 10:00. We checked out that it turned on before we bought it. Then we went looking for a place to eat breakfast. No luck. We could only find one place in the whole area around 290. It had a line out the door.

So we went to Best Buy. That turned out to be a good deal. There were people there from Directv. I stopped to find out how much HDTV would really cost us. Their fee structures makes this very difficult to figure out. They told me that the best way to go was to sign up as new customers at our new address. So we did. It ended up saving us almost $30/mo for the first year, and is a wash after that. They'll install the new equipment at the end of the month.

When we got home I decided to set up the new receiver. It took a long time to unhook all the old equipment and hook up the new stuff. As I was hooking up the speakers I discovered that the receiver doesn't have a amplified channel for the subwoofer. That sucks. Right now I'm using the old receiver to power that channel.

In the evening I watched football in high def on the new TV. It's very impressive. I think we'll probably move into the house tomorrow. We have to get a comforter first.

Day 60

It's finished. Ten days after I started, the antenna is installed and both TV's are hung on the walls and working. As an aside, the new TV has a fantastic picture. Reception for both TV's is very good.

Finishing up the antenna work took about 4 hours. First I strung the wire, then I put the antenna on the end of the pole. With Ellen's help I fine tuned the antenna direction. Then I raised the pole and drilled a hole for the bolt that locks the inner pole. After a little pruning to clear the antenna wire and installing a makeshift boot on the grounding block I was done.

I found another surround sound receiver. I'll probably buy it tomorrow. I'll make sure it works first. I messed around some with the one I bought. According to the manual, it probably has a bad voltage regulator.

Just before dinner I went up into the attic to try to figure out the wires that the previous owners had installed. I worked out all of them except the one that I'm most interested in. I'll have to figure out a way to identify that wire before I can move the satellite dish to the house.

Ellen has been dealing with a soap opera at the club for the last two days. Dan is afraid they aren't going to renew the contract. We listened to the meeting today. Dan made an emotional speech about his history with the club and how we shouldn't risk losing it. I suspect that this isn't the end of the story.

Day 59

Samsung sucks. Their stupid "mount" is basically a high strength picture hanging wire that you connect to two of the TV's mounting studs. It's barely long enough to reach between two 16" studs. What a great bargain at $200.

To make matters worse, the power cord plug is way too big to fit behind the TV. It's also too big to fit through a cable access panel. I had to cut a 1 1/2 inch hole in the wall below the cable panel and push the power cord into the wall space.

All of this involved pulling and repulling the wires in the living room wall. Part of this was poor planning and part was discovering how crappy the Samsung was.

Ellen worked with me on this all day. Having her around made some things easier and others possible at all. We finally got everything done and the TV on the wall. The Blu-ray and A/V connections work. That's all I can test for now.

Because I had the tools there I decided to put up the curtain rod in the master before having dinner. No drama, but it took awhile. Then I took out a bunch of garbage, the tools, and some stuff to store in the well house.

As I was finishing up I came across the bag of extra stuff that came with the TV mount that we used in the bedroom. It looks like some of it could have been used to adapt the living room mount to the Samsung. It looks like all I got for our $200 was a lot of frustration.

Late breaking news. I just tried to get the receiver that I bought to turn on. It's DOA. My first Craig's list ripoff. I've learned my $45 lesson. I won't buy anything from someone that I don't have contact information for.

Day 58

This was a pretty good day. It didn't start off good. I lost out on a converter that I was trying to buy on Craig's list.

So I took the implements of destruction to the house and worked on the antenna install. I finished the cable supports and removed the braces from the antenna pole. Then I pounded in the stakes for the guy wires and started making up the wires. About half way through I broke for lunch. After lunch we went over to Radio Shack to exchange the cable I bought yesterday for an audio cable. We also took the dog to the park for some retrieves.

While we were out a seller from Craig's list called about a surround sound receiver that he's selling for $45. I set up a time to meet him after 5:00.

When we got back I finished up the guy wires. I thought that would be difficult, but it turned out not to be too bad. It's probably the first part of the whole install that didn't turn into an unexpected pain in the ass. When I was finished the pole was within a degree of perfect vertical. I had some extra time, so I put the antenna together. It looks pretty sturdy. I hope it works as good as it looks.

Then we went out to meet the guy from Craig's list and bought the receiver. As long as it works, it's a very good deal.

One note. The TV mount from Samsung came today. It's just a couple of hooks and some cable. For $200 it's a colossal ripoff.

Day 57

I finished most of the antenna cable supports today and wired in the grounding block. That leaves putting up a couple of supports, stringing the guy wires, and putting on the antenna to go.

I probably would have gotten further except I went to get the oil changed. It took two hours, I'm not sure why. It gave me a chance to read the paper and surf.

Afterwards we went to Lowe's to pick up some odds and ends for the antenna install. Then we went on a search for a 15 foot A/V cable. Lowes, Home Depot, Target, and Best Buy didn't have any. Best Buy didn't have any A/V cables at all. I had to settle for a 24 foot one (way too long) at Radio Shack. It really sucks living so far away from Fry's.

The TV mount didn't come today (it was supposed to). So much for paying extra for expedited shipping.

Day 57

I started out today doing some small chores in the apartment. We had bought some hooks for the large bedroom's drapes. They set a new standard for cheap Chinese junk. They were so cheap that they wouldn't screw into wood. The price wasn't cheap - $1.50 apiece.

Then I built the supports for the antenna pole and connected them to the pole. I put the pole in the hole and poured in the quickcrete. Everything looks good this evening except that I expected the stuff to set quicker than it has.

While I was doing that, Ellen was doing the wash (it's Tuesday) and writing Christmas cards. Better her than me.

After a late lunch we went to Sears to get the other drape. They dicked around for half an hour looking for it. Then I bought a workmate kind of thing to use up that store credit that they gave us for the remote. They wasted more time bringing (or rather not bringing) it out for us. I finally got pissed and got it myself. I was not a happy camper.

On the way home I stopped by Home Depot to get another post to use as a grounding rod. When I got home I put up some of the supports for the outside antenna wire. I ran out of light before I got much done, so I finished up the day putting the workmate together. It's pretty slick.

Day 56

I decided to tackle the hardest remaining part of the antenna install. With Ellen's help I managed to pull the wire for the outside antenna inside the attic. The low pitch of the roof made this as unpleasant as pulling the bedroom wires was. I ended up with another scratch on my head and a cough from breathing fiberglass.

After lunch we went over to the credit union to sign some more loan papers. Apparently we're going to get the loan. We also made another pilgrimage to Home Depot. I got the hardware that I need to put up the posts to support the antenna wire.

We got home a little late so I decided to clean up a few details that wouldn't take a lot of time. I finished changing out the cables in the wall in the living room. I still can't believe the TV only has one A/V input. Then I put connectors on the antenna wires. I wasted three connectors by crimping them wrong. The problem is that I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It's good that I bought some extra, I'm going to need them.

I also mounted the amplifier in the attic and connected everything up. The only thing I should have left to do in the attic is plug the amplifier power supply into the wall.

Tomorrow I'll start by putting up the antenna pole. If everything goes smoothly I should be able to get all of the wire support up by the end of the day. That will leave mounting the antenna, putting up the guy wires, and stringing the wire.

Day 55

We spent the morning reading the paper. Isn't that what the Sunday [a[er is for? While we were doing that a person I emailed yesterday called. He had a Logitech remote control on sale for about 1/3 of it's list price. We went to see him and bought it. It turns out that he works for Intel and used to live in Bethany. We had a good time talking to him about life at Intel.

When we got home I started to work on the antenna pole. The first step was to check out the one I bought last winter. It was pretty rusted. Ellen and I spent a couple of hours oiling it up and using the bench grinder to clean it up. It doesn't work great, but it should be serviceable.

Then we split up. Ellen sanded the kitchen table for the apartment and then put a second coat on it. I took the pick and shovel and dug a hole for the antenna pole. I took more rock out of that hole than I did dirt. It also reminded me of how much I hate digging holes.

It's after dinner now and time to watch the Cowboys get beat again.

Day 54

Today was supposed to be mainly a dog day, and it was. A local pet supply store was having a grand opening celebration. Money off on products, and free pies. We took Lucy over there and she had a ball. She got free treats and had a chance to meet and great a lot of other dogs. We even had her portrait taken ($10 donation to the humane society).

After that we went over to Sears to pick up the remote. They gave us the wrong one, a 520 instead of a 650. It turns out that something in their inventory system is screwed up. They have the 520 listed as the 650. Unfortunately we couldn't get a refund. We had to accept a gift card instead. The trip wasn't a total loss though. We found some drapes for the master that we liked. Unfortunately they only had one, so we bought it and had them order another.

On the way back we stopped at Rudy's to pick up some brisket. Then we took the dog to the park so she could do some retrieves (remember it's a dog day). Then we walked one of the trails in the park while Lucy explored the woods. When we got home she got a bone (from the pet store) to chew on.

We went over to the house to pull the antenna wire for the living room. When I first started this, I thought that would be the hardest part. It wasn't easy, but it was a lot easier than getting the bedroom wires pulled. Then we unboxed the new TV. I was all ready to hang it up when I discovered that it doesn't use a VESA standard mount. You have to buy one from Samsung. That's an extra $200. Assholes.

So now we have no remote and won't be able to use the TV until sometime late next week. I'm so happy.

Day 53

The TV is finally on the wall. In the morning we went out and got the power cord that I forgot to get earlier. We took our time and screwed around some. After yesterday's work I wasn't interested in another long work day.

When we got back I pulled the wires in the wall while Ellen did the patch up painting that needed to be done in the kitchen and cat room. After I got all the wires buttoned up and the mount installed she helped me put the TV on the wall. The Blu-ray player works with it. I didn't try anything else because I just didn't want to screw with it.

One note from pulling the wire. Those compression fittings for the RF cables are cool. The trick is to strip the wire correctly. If you do, the fittings go on slicker than snot.

In the evening I decided to look into buying a programmable remote for the bedroom. I found a great deal on a Logitech 650 at Sears. I ordered one for pickup tomorrow.

Day 52

I got up thinking I'd have the old TV installed in the master by noon. I should have known better. The task was conceptually simple. Drill two holes in the sheetrock, pull the cables through them, and put a cover on the hole. Fat chance.

I drilled the first hole into the wall below the ceiling. It hit a 2x4. In the only luck I had today, part of the hole broke through the bottom of the 2x4. With some work with a rat tale file I opened the hole enough to pull wire through.

The hole in the ceiling was worse. There was 3 or 4 inches of wood above the sheetrock. I could have dealt with that, except halfway through I hit a nail.I managed to hog out the other half of the hole enough to pull wire.

Then it was off to Home Depot to get a sheet of plywood. I had them cut it into 2x4 sections. I used these to provide a floor for crawling around in the attic. It was a bitch. The highest point of the roof is about 3 feet, so everything was done on my hands and knees. To get to the place where the wire was coming up I had to lay on my back and scoot to the edge of the attic. It was just like caving. My face was 3 inches below the roof, which had a forest of sharp nails sticking through it. I had to stretch my arm out as far as possible just to get a pair of pliers on the wire as it cam up through the boards. I cut my head twice and my finger once.

All the wood above the ceiling was because the hole I drilled was directly below a ceiling joist (bad luck) which was also connected to a rafter (worse luck). If I had placed the hole 3" either left or right it would have been though only a layer of sheetrock. As it was it took me a spade bit and two drill bits to get the hole big enough to pull wire through. It also took two tries.

With considerable help from Ellen I finally got it all pulled. Then I buttoned up the openings. That's when I realized that I had forgotten to pull a power cord. And I didn't have one. So at 4:00 I called it a day. I'd been working on the "about an hour" job for more than 5 hours. I was bushed.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get the TV moved if something else doesn't go completely wrong. We got the 3D glasses today and Ellen is dying to use the new TV. Unfortunately I have to finish moving the old TV and pull one more wire run before we can hook it up.

Now that I've spent so much quality time up in the attic I'm really looking forwared to having to pull the wire for the outside antenna.

Day 51

We got the new TV today. It's in a big box and it's very heavy. It's still in the box. If we're lucky, we'll get to it tomorrow.

The TV was scheduled to get here in the morning. It made it here just before noon. That gave Ellen time to put the finishing touches on the bathroom. I started the process of mounting the old TV in the master. I measured out the position of the mount on the wall.

I went into the attic to see how much work it was going to be to install the antenna wire. Because of the pitch of the roof, it isn't possible to drill down through the header to run a cable. I settled for an alternative. I'll run the cable inside the wall up to the ceiling. Then I'll run it out of the wall and up through the ceiling. I'll cover the cable with a cable access plate. It will look a little funny, but it's the only alternative that I can think of.

With that worked out I started cutting holes for the cabling from the equipment to the TV. I got them done and ran the fish wire down from the top hole. It stopped 3 inches short of the bottom hole. The dumbshits that built the house had put a 2x4 across the studs, at an angle, about 6 inches from the floor. Who knows why.

Suddenly a 10 minute job became a major effort. I cut a hole above the 2x4 and drilled a 1" hole through it.

Then the TV came, so we went off to Fry's to buy all of the various cables I was going to need. Unfortunately they were out of long A/V cables. I made do with a pair of audio cables.

While were were out we also got the mail, stopped by the credit union to apply for a loan, ate a very late lunch, and did some grocery shopping.

When we got back I started to pull the cables. This was made very difficult by the need to feed each one through that 1" hole in the 2x4. I had to split all of the A/V cables and pull each wire through the hole separately. I think it took about 3 hours to do it all.

Finally I connected all of the cables to the equipment in the cabinet. Everything is ready to go when we move the TV. I'll need to pull the antenna cable first. I'll do that tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to it.

Day 50

It was relatively cold today. 39 degrees at 9 in the morning. The high was in the mid fifty's. So I decided to work inside.

I started in the apartment. I hung up the drapes in the large bedroom, put in a power cord through the closet wall, and put up a paper towel holder in the kitchen. This officially finishes the work on the apartment that we needed to do to make it livable. I'll replace the vanity sometime, but it's not a critical fix.

I hooked up the new Blu-ray player. I also debugged a problem with the power control on one of the amps. It needed to be power cycled (pull power cord from the wall) in order to work correctly.

Then I went to work on setting up the bedroom surround sound system and connecting the old Blu-ray player to it. It took a lot of messing around to get it the way I wanted it. The Yamaha amp will drive the front two speakers and the surround sound will drive the subwoofer, back and center channels. I still need to get some cables. I need a short optical cable and two long (5m) A/V cables.

While I was doing that Ellen was busy painting the bathroom. She's almost completely done with it. At the same time she did the wash.

After the bedroom system was (almost) set up I put the boxes away in the apartment attic and hauled out the garbage.

I also figured out why the previous owners put the TV connection in such an odd place. Two sides of the master are outside walls with insulation in them. The place I need a connection is on one of those walls. I'm not looking forward to trying to fish wires through that wall.

Ellen reprogrammed the system for the new Blu-ray player. I played Brothers in Arms on it. It's great. I just wish that I still had ears so that I could hear it. I listen to the music and I know what I should hear. It's just that my ears don't register all of the frequencies anymore.

Day 49

We started out on the web. I bought an antenna. Then the new Blu-ray player and TV mount showed up. Unfortunately the player only has a digital output. This wouldn't be a problem except the preamp only has one digital input and I'm using it for the TV. Sigh. Back to the web to order an optical to RCA digital converter.

Ellen spent a lot of time fighting with the computer and printer to print out mailing labels for the Christmas presents.

Once we won that battle it was off to run errands. I had a list of 14 things to do or buy. We managed to get eight of them done.

All this running around took a lot of time so we got home relatively late. We ate dinner, I fixed a whiskey and eggnog, and then we watched Monday Night Football.

Day 48

Today started at the crack of 10:00. After taking it easy the last few days today was a work day. I started out by taping the guest bathroom in the house. While I did that Ellen shortened the curtains that we bought a couple of days ago for the large bedroom in the apartment.

After I was through taping, Ellen started cutting in the bathroom. I went outside with the weedeater to clear a place to install the antenna pole. When I got that cleared I decided that since I already had the cords strung, I'd do the rest of the weedeating in the side and back yards. That took about an hour. Then I got ambitious. I decided to cut the thick tall grass between the house and the playhouse, and by the trailer. The weedeater wasn't the tool for that. It took hours and my back was killing me by the time I was done.

The place looks presentable now, and I've got one big thing off the todo list.

Day 47

We basically took the day off. Neither of us did anything except surf and read the newspaper.

A cold front is supposed to be coming in, so in the late afternoon I went over to UHaul to fill up one of the propane tanks. $4.00 a gallon. That's past highway robbery. On the way back we stopped by Home Depot and got paint for the guest bathroom in the house. I'll probably tape it up tomorrow. I also got a bunch of stuff for putting up the antenna pole. We also stopped at the park so the dog could have some fun.

Our internet connection has gone to shit today. It's barely functioning. I hadn't realized how dependent we had become on it until today.

Day 46

We went to get a new bathroom vanity for the apartment. It was as advertised, so we bought it. I won't put it in until we start living in the house. I don't know when that will be. The bed smells as bad as it did when they delivered it.

The table that Ellen painted looks good. It isn't dry yet though.

After we bought the vanity we went shopping for drapes. We bought blinds for the cat room and drapes for the family room. When we got home I installed the window coverings while Ellen finished the Christmas presents.

After dinner I had a double feature at the house. I watched Jonah Hex and the Expendables. The new sound system is really nice. It's going to be even better when the new TV arrives.

Day 45

I finally got my burn barrel. It was used to ship insulation. I had to drive past the airport to pick it up. Ordinarily that would be a pain. However, we had to go to the club to pick up the ammo. That made it a lot better. On the way we took the apartment table and the blue chair the owners left to the Salvation Army.

We shot at the club while we were there. They still had the tournament course set up. It was fun.

I expected to hear from someone selling a vanity today. They didn't call until after 4:00. Maybe I'll go see them tomorrow.

Ellen put another coat of paint on the new table. It looks pretty good. The CD storage boxes came today. They work great. Unfortunately the lid on one was broken. Also, I'll need to get a couple of more to hold all of the CD's.

Day 44

We slept in. When we got up we didn't do anything except surf and buy Christmas presents online. Mainly we were waiting around for the bed to show up.

After lunch it occurred to me that I should get the old stuff out of the bedroom. I did that and started to install the blinds that we bought yesterday in the kitchen. That's when the bed showed up. They brought it in and set it up in almost no time at all. It looks nice, but it stinks. It will be awhile before we can sleep on it.

While I was in the house Ellen finished the last door in the apartment. Except for possibly needing a second coat THE APARTMENT PAINTING IS FINISHED.

When the bed guys left we loaded up the truck with the box springs, bed frames, the old TV cabinet, the mattress topper, and a file cabinet that the previous owners left. The truck was pretty much filled.

We took all of the stuff to the Salvation Army. While we were there we saw a nice leather recliner and footstool for $90. So we bought it for the apartment.

We stopped at the Post Office and HEB on the way home, so we got home kind of late. After dinner we discovered that the trailer tank was out of water. I had to fill it up in the cold and dark.

After that we took all of the Christmas presents over to the house. Ellen wrapped them while I finished installing the blinds. It would have gone smoothly except for the cheap Chinese screws that kept stripping out. The wrapping would have gone smoothly except we don't have any packing tape. Sigh.