Fizzling out

So I decided last Sunday that I would give up pop for a month (#46).  I always seem to make these snap decisions and then start regretting them immediately!  Although maybe it's for the best, because then I can't overthink it and wonder if this is a good time or should I wait for a better time or why am I even doing this at all?  Normally I don't drink much pop at home, although I have gotten in a bad habit of drinking Pepsi whenever I get my lunch in the cafeteria.  It's the good fountain kind, and it's soo crisp and sweet and tasty!  I almost drink at least two 22 ounce cups of water when I'm at work, and I usually drink milk or water when I'm at home, so it's not as if I'm not getting plenty of other liquids.  But lately... first I had stocked up on 12-packs when all the grocery stores had them on sale back before Memorial Day, and then CVS kept putting 2-liter Cokes on sale for 69 cents.  69 cents!  That's less than half of what they usually cost!!  And with all my recent couponing, I was in CVS at least once a week and picking up two or three 2-liters each time.  Gads!  Hi, my name is Kristina and I'm a Coke-aholic.  (Hello, Kristina)  So, on Sunday, as I drained the last syrupy, fizzy goodness out of yet another bottle, I decided this would be a really good time to stop.  I've always said that I'm not addicted to the caffeine (because, believe me, I love them all equally... Coke, 7-Up, root beer); I'm addicted to the fizz!!  Pop just quenches the thirst like water can't sometimes.  But it's on the list.  And not just once.  I said I would do this three times!!  I seriously question my own sanity sometimes.  And while I'm at it?  Giving up fast food, too (#9).  You might want to give me a wide berth for the next 24 days.

End of an Era

Image via WB



Thursday night I went to the midnight premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" (#10).  Now I'm not a crazy Harry Potter fan, but I have read all the books and seen all the movies in the theatre as well as multiple times at home.  I don't have any idea what other movies might come out in the next three years with midnight premieres, but the more I thought about it, the more this seemed like a good choice.  The first book was published in the US in 1998 followed by the movie in 2001, so this franchise has ruled for more than a decade now!

The crazy part of all of this was not that I went to a midnight premiere or the movie I chose.  The crazy part was that I worked all this week, meaning that I got off work Thursday at 6pm, went to the movie at midnight, got home around 2:30ish am, and was at work at 7am on Friday!  Miraculously I stayed awake for all of it, although I do admit to taking a 3-hour nap when I got home from work Friday afternoon.  And the movie?  The movie was good!  A fitting end to an era.

Ahhh, relaxation!

One thing I absolutely wanted to finish this summer was getting my porch finished (#63).  The screened porch was one of my favorite features when I bought this house, but it needed to be repainted and some of the screens needed to be replaced.  I had all the intentions of having this done last summer, but, as my mother always says, life is what happens when you're making other plans!  When my mother and her husband first visited me last year after I bought this house, they brought a porch swing which my step-father had bought and painted for me and a glider chair which my mother had refinished and recovered the cushions for (aren't they so nice!).  We originally hung the swing on the hooks where the previous owners had their swing, and a month later on the day the movers moved all my furniture in, I was sitting on the swing and one end fell down.  Apparently they didn't have it in a stud, and the fact that I was swinging in circles loosened the screw just enough.  And that was the end of the swing for last year, because I didn't see any point in trying to rehang it before the ceiling was redone.  So here's what all got done... ugly paper ceiling tiles removed and replaced with beadboard, new beadboard ceiling painted, screen door replaced, all trim and brick wall repainted, light replaced with ceiling fan, and swing rehung.

View from the outside  Amazing how the fresh coat of white paint really makes the trim pop agains the brick!



It's a good size... about 8 x 16



One of these days I'll repaint the front door, too, but I think it's going to have to be stripped and painted from scratch.  Plus, I'll have to pick a color, and that could take forever!  (note the comfy striped chair that my mother refinished)



This gives a nice shot of the ceiling fan and my pretty, pretty blue beadboard ceiling!  I like the industrial look of the light on the fan; initially, I didn't like the color of the blades (still can't figure out why they're such a light color compared to the dark metal finish), but it bothers me much less now that it's actually up.  I agonized for literally weeks last summer trying to find just the right shade of blue for the ceiling (Behr's Niagra Falls), and I have to say that I think it turned out  just perfectly!



This is my view toward the street from my favorite place to sit -- the striped chair.  I like being able to watch people going by walking their dogs and riding bicycles.



This is my K-Mart Martha Stewart table and chair set that I've had since Denver... much as she annoys me, I have to say that the quality of her stuff is always good.  I usually like to prop my feet up on one of the chairs when I'm lounging.  Beyond that is my neighbor's tulip tree, which I love for the shade it provides, but hate for all the twigs, blossoms, and leaves that it drops.



My neigbor's house on this side sits on a double lot, so we have their whole yard between us.  It really makes it feel open and green, which is nice for sitting outside.



This is the swing that my step-father painted for me, along with my Target clearance cushions and a cute little metal Ikea table in the foreground.

 I love sitting out on this porch, especially in the evenings.  One of the things I really wanted when I was looking for a house was a neighborhood where people got out and about, and that is definitely the case here, so I enjoy seeing everyone going by and waving to my neighbors.  Now that I have the ceiling fan, it's pleasant out here, even when it's hot outside.  It is so relaxing to come out here with a book and listen to all the birds (and we seem to have lots of very loud ones!) and enjoy all the greenery.  And my favorite time of day is dusk, when the fireflies are out and it has started to cool down some.  This ended up costing much, much more than I had originally budgeted, but it has already been well worth it.

3-2-1- Contact!

I love being able to do things online instead of over the phone.  While I was working the long holiday weekend, I decided to look up a local optometry chain and was surprised to find that you schedule appointments online, even if you are a new patient!  Well, that was all it took, and I had my appointment this morning.  I liked my doctor very much, but the greatest thing was the new technology that uses a laser to scan your eyes and check for retinal defects... no more dilations!!!  Here's the website...  http://www.optos.com/en/Patients/  It was very cool.  And the appointment was all good.  My prescription hadn't even changed in the last two years, which was nice to hear.  He was a little concerned that my eyes seem a little dry, but I told him this is unusual, and I think it's mostly related to having worked that last six days and having been pretty stressed and tired.

Anyway, since I had had contacts before (albeit almost 20 years ago), he just gave me the contact lenses to take home and try out.  I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye, but since I only want to wear the contacts occasionally and not all the time, he didn't feel it was necessary to use lenses that would correct that.  My take-home bag contained ten pairs of lenses, contact solution, and some drops for dry eyes that can be used with or without the contacts being in.  I have to admit that I was a little nervous about putting the lenses in.  Never mind that I did it every day for four years, but that was a long time ago!  So I didn't exactly rush right home and stick them in, but eventually curiousity got the better of me.  These are disposables, compared to the durable soft lenses that I used to wear, so my first surprise was how much thinner and flexible they are.  Nice in theory, but every time I got them on my eyeball, there would be little air bubbles that caused them to stick up and then they would immediately pop back out as soon as I blinked!  It took several minutes on each eye, but eventually they went in and stayed.

Wow!  I had forgotten how nice it is not to have the "blind spots" that you get outside the lens of your glasses.  I am horribly nearsighted, so if you wear glasses, you have to get used to having very blurry peripheral vision.  No more!  I can feel them floating around in there, but it's not too bad.  And the vision in my right eye is definitely blurrier, so I'm not sure about this whole not correcting the astigmatism thing.  Maybe it will be less noticeable as I get on with normal activities.  I was planning on taking my "new eyes" out and running some errands this afternoon, but since it is bright and sunny, my first stop will have to be for a pair of sunglasses!  Didn't think about needing to have them before I got the contacts.  My prescription sunglasses aren't exactly going to work with the contacts in.  But shopping will be fun... I'll actually be able to see what they look like while I'm trying them on!!  I have a follow-up appointment in two weeks, but I feel pretty safe in going ahead and crossing this off the list (#28)!!