Sanding is fun.

No. It's not. Not fun at all.


I have a dresser. I hated this dresser.


We bought it when Zachie was a toddler, when we lived in Lacey, Washington. We bought it from an unpainted furniture place and had it stained a darkish oak.

We were young.

At some point I painted some of the drawers red. Because I did. Four of the eight big drawers.(I have already sanded the red off one of the drawers in that photo there.)

I may not have been young.

I don't know why I hated this dresser, except that the drawers are kinda shallow, and the red does not work AT ALL in our current bedroom scheme.

So Thor and I have spent much time today annoying the neighbors with sporadic sandings. Our hands do not like the vibrating and shaking and the dust in the eyes is no good.

But now it's looking really cool.  I was going to paint the case with dark gray, so that the grain still sorta shows, and paint the drawer fronts peacock blue, the color of our walls.

Also, I papered the light switch cover with some cool wrapping paper and about eight layers of mod podge.

But I am loving the raw stripped worn wood look of the sanded wood, so I am rethinking the whole thing. I am gonna just oil the hell outta the dresser with lemon oil and leave it at that. I can always finish it later if that doesn't work.

The idea behind our bedroom these days is -- okay. I have an idea. I know what I want. I just don't know what to call it. It's supposed to feel like the colonial days in the Caribbean ( c'mon, spellcheck. I add two "r"s and just one "b", and you can't figure out it's supposed to be Caribbean? Sad and pathetic.) or India or Africa, but not the bamboo pole and palm leaf. Instead it's should be feeling like furniture that was hauled in the hold of a ship from England or The Netherlands or you know, Europe.

Our bed is beyond awesome for this, and is in fact the genesis of this idea.

(the wall is peacock now, not white.)

This has no basis in reality, very likely, it's probably about as authentic as an Indiana Jones movie set. But I like it.

I am really tempted now to do the same sorta brutal sanding to this case.  I have already papered the inside back with the same wrapping paper used on the light switch.


This vanity is from my Mom's cousin's home, and is going in the room too, as my instead of bedside table.

But first I have to sand ten drawer fronts.

Where.

Where is my damn crockpot?

Where are the jeans I ordered?

Where is my cute little vintage crazy daisy pyrex bowl?

Where can I get an awe.some. but cheap vintagey old looking globe?

Where is that disc from Netflix?

Where is a tough question to ask.  I mean, I ask why, I can come up with plenty of them.

Why the Kardashians?

Why did I lose my crockpot?

Why is this keyboard so ridiculous and Why am I using it?

Why am I not independently wealthy?

Why did Harry Potter have to end?

Why?

Why is the sky blue?

Why didn't I get a vote about that?

Mojo

070, originally uploaded by randomjules.

Mojo loves his new and huge backyard. He leaps off the deck -- I need to get a shot of that. It's amazing -- and runs flat out in big loops around the yard. He does skid into the fence sometimes. He is not grace.

cranky.

So cranky lately.

Moments of cool, like realizing that the grill blew across the deck yesterday, during our very blustery day.

But mostly.  Shit.

The tiny number of people who have almost all the money in this country is obscene.  Mark and I have worked hard and tried to save money and do the right things, and yet we still have a house in Tucson that we won't be able to sell FOR YEARS.

Are we better off than we were a decade ago?  Hell, no.  This economy sucks.  We should be so very much better off than we are, and sadly, we are in so much better shape than a whole lot of people we know.

I really don't feel bad for the guy who nets $400,000 a year and doesn't want to pay more taxes.  Pay me $400,000 a year and I will be thrilled to pay more taxes on that, because I realize HOW DAMN LUCKY I AM.  Asshole.

Told you.  Cranky.

On the other hand, we watched Terra Nova last night.  Pretty good, not groundbreaking, but fun.  Not thinking about it too hard, because then I will start to notice the holes and the unoriginal writing and characters and stuff...

And Pinterest.  Sucked me in and won't let go.

I haven't started reading the SciFi/fantasy list yet, but I did get Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett on audible.com and started listening to that.  So so so so so so very good.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address in a Wordle