Just Your Typical Day

Ever look up at the end of your workday and think, "Where did the time go?" I decided to track how I spent my time the other day and this blog post is the result. Enjoy. 

• 6:30 AM - Day gets off to a sluggish start as I'd planned to be up by 5:30.
• 7 - 8 AM - Try to work through e-mails while fighting off attempts of both cats to derail my productivity by insisting I give them lengthy backrubs. Cats - 598, Dena - 0.
• 8:30 - 9 AM - Interview Barefoot Josh on my radio program this month.  
• 9:15 - 12:30 - Write and edit ongoing book project
• 12:30 - 1:30 - Revise index for my book due out in October
• 1:30 PM - Consider fixing lunch but choose instead to wander through the kitchen every 10 minutes and stuff random handfuls of almonds, apples, cereal, bread with honey and granola bars down my throat instead. 
• 1:40 - Stare longingly into cupboards, mentally wiling copious amounts of chocolate to appear
• 1:45- 2 - Sulk in chair pretending to work, but really still thinking about chocolate
• 2-2:45 - More book writing/editing
• 2:45 - 3 - More sulking about the no chocolate thing
• 3:30-4:30 - e-mail, admin work
• 4:30 - decide there's no time like the present to paint the accent wall in the hall. We've selected a bright cheery yellow to compliment the orange because we like color
• 5:30 - I still need to do my speed work on the treadmill, but I know I'll be to tired to cook dinner if I do and I don't want all the vegetables I bought to go to waste plus I really need to eat a healthy meal. Go ahead and cook dinner and place in fridge.
• 6:15 - Convince myself it really won't take all that long to put a second coat of paint on the wall and better to just have it over and done with. Solid logic, except the wall is going to require a third coat. Bummer. 
• 7:10 - Finally hit the treadmill for speedwork. 
• 8:15 - Reheat dinner in the microwave (giving myself mental high-fives for having cooked in advance) then drag dinner plate, myself, and ice bags to the couch where I ice my knee and eat gobs of food as I watch The Biggest Loser.
• 8:30 - Blair gets home. Having stayed in one spot for more than 10 minutes, I have lost all will and ability to move. After being at work all day, he cleans up the kitchen for me. The man is a saint. 
• 10 - Bed. Bed, bed, bed. 

And that is where my day went. How about you?

Early Morning Cat Chat

SCENE: Dena at her desk, madly typing away, trying to get a bit of work done before it's time to leave for her radio interview. Into the room wanders a large black and white blob. It is Lucy_Cat. 

Lucy: Mrow.

Dena: Hi, baby.

Lucy: MROW.

Dena: I don't have time to pet you, sweetie.

Lucy places herself at feet of busy writer. Sighs and gazes upward: Mrow? Mrrr-ow?

Dena: Later, I promise.

Lucy: whine-whine-whine

Dena: Stop it!

Lucy: Eh-eh-whine-mrrr-eh-eh-eh-mrrr...

Dena relents and reaches down to give the blob a quick scratch behind the ears.

Lucy: Purrr.

Dena returns to her work.

Lucy: ACK-ACK-ACK-MROW. Eh-eh-eh-whine-eh-eh..

Dena: Enough!

Sullen silence.

Lucy: Mrow? Mow? Mow? Mrrr-ow?

After banging her head fruitlessly on her desk, busy writer relents and spends 10 minutes combing a purring cat who informs her the bonding is over by reaching back to bite her hand. Writer returns to desk. In wanders fuzzy furball #2, Olivia.

Olivia: Mew? Mew? Mew?

Repeat scene.

Not even 8 AM and I've already been emotionally manipulated by two creatures small enough to fit into a grocery sack. And I wonder why I'm not more productive. 

Decorating Diaries: Early Results

I hope Blair likes orange...Blair is in Fayetteville, so I came home from today's run and started painting. It's easier to just jump in and start the process versus waiting for him and having the discussions on whether we ought to wait until we have a clear schedule to tackle such a project (Him- yes, Me-no) and if taping is necessary to protect the trim (Him-yes, Me-no) and if the cats should be locked up while we paint (Him-yes, Me-no -- see a trend?).

I've got one coat up on half the hall but so far I'm liking it. It's a little more orange than I expected. Lowe's was WAY off on so many of the sample colors they gave me that I went to Sherwin Williams where they did a color match on the sample and it's dead on. The Lowe's sample I'd brought home had a tad more yellow to it, but not much. I'm still pleased. It looks like a fiesta in the hall. 

Once the hall is painted, it's time to take down the tacky 70's chandeliers and maybe think about getting a rug and some artwork in there. But one thing at a time. Dinner, and then I have another half of a hall to paint. What remains to be painted of the beige hall

Decorating Diaries: The Hall

We're long overdue for a Decorating Diaries post. So in an effort to entertain readers and drive Blair to the edge of madness, I've decided it's time to paint the hall.

This is no small task. Our hall runs the length of our home and I get cold chills at the amount of cut-in work that's going to be required to get this puppy painted. Still, I'm desperate. Years ago a designer convinced me that the hall should be beige. Every instinct I had fought against it, but she rationalized it by saying that since we wanted color in all our rooms, the hall should remain a neutral so that the colors could be off-shoots and not clash.

We painted the hall beige and it's been a dead zone ever since. No life. No light. So clash-smash. I'm throwing some color up on those ten-foot walls and not looking back. 

Unfortunately, as long time readers of this blog and anyone who has ever seen me dressed in public knows, I am not the most color-coordinated individual. Hence the rainbow hall that you see here. Blair said I could use this part of the hall for testing. I quickly outgrew my testing space though, and moved on to the wall opposite. 

I can not be blamed for the ugly colors you see here. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE PAINT CARDS LOOKED LIKE. There is some sort of Lowe's conspiracy where the paint in the can never, ever matches the card sample. Hence the neon yellow, baby-turd gold, and bright pink you see above. 

But I think we've found our color. I'm digging this "Pumpkin Harvest" color on the top in the photo to the left. I'm going back today and getting a sample a shade or two lighter, but this is pretty close to it. I have visions of our hall feeling year round like a fall harvest on a bright sunny day. Or else it's going to look like someone threw mustard on our walls and we were too lazy to wipe it off. Either way, I'm only painting this hallway once. 

First my hair, now the hall. What else can I destroy with color?