Juggs

Yes, I have gained weight. I don't like to admit it, but my double chin tells a different story. My weight gain has prompted me to get a gym membership. I hate the gym. So many fluids that people should keep inside are out in the open when it comes to the gym. Anywho, I still have some nice jugs.

WHAT!!!

Mandy does not like people being in the house. When ever someone comes into the house, Mandy freaks out.

Holly models the room

Here is Holly attempting to model the living room after it was done.

It's hot in here baby

When I bought the house, I knew that I would need a new furnace. The one that was in the basement was like 40 years old and looked like the bottom decided being rust was more fun then being metal.

Yes, I knew that I needed a new furnace so I saved or it. I was waiting for my mom's 'guys' to come through. They did not. I went far too long without heat so when it got down to 52 degrees in my place I had to call in the professionals.

Now I have heat. I must say I am kind of sad because cold cats are lovey cats. When they are cold they hangout under my blankets. When it is warm they hangout in the basement, then they smell like basement. However, I have a roommate that likes to be warm, so I got a new furnace.

By the way, the picture is of two cats. You mainly see Mandy, but Mewska is the big black spot.

More from the river

Here are some more pictures from my favorite place on earth: the river by my house.

Tiny head

Look how small my head is. I am the one on the left. I took the picture when Holly and I were doing the Dr. Dumbass (Dum-as) and Dr. Douche (Douch-shee). It all started when we were working on striping the floor upstairs and had to wear masks because it was toxic. We started calling each other by Dr's for some reason reason I said "calling Dr. Dumbass, Dr. Dumbass to the front. Please tell Dr. Dumbass he is needed. *over com* "It's Du-mass!" *says doctor*

Idiot

Mandy Mew is not the smartest cat on the block. She farts when ever she is spooked (it is stinky) and she doesn't keep her nails groomed so she gets stucked on everything. Whenever Mewska is on her leash, Mandy sits from the door and watches. One time I took her out and I think I have a scar on my chest. She freaked and farted a lot.

Man this sucks

When I bought the house I thought that I could remove most of the paneling in the two spare bedrooms. Well the paneling in the dining room came off super easy, but when I got to the TV room it was not the same. I could get the paneling off, but the walls didn't look the same after 50 years of settling. Then on the exterior walls, they did not replace the walls and it was plaster.

So basically I had to take join compound and fill in the cracks from the paneling. That was not fun. It sounds easy to just put compound on the wall, but if it is not flush with the wall it has to be sanded. Then you have to put Kills over it. Kills smells really bad and is so hard to get off your skin. If you don't do that, then the lines show.

Poor floor

Ok, so I don't have the money to re-do all the floors at my house. The old part of the house had hardwood so it was inexpensive to get them lookin' good. However, new floor is freak'n expensive.

In order to do my bedroom in pergo it would cost me about $400. That is money that I should spend on getting a bathroom sink and a working oven. However, I really want to have a nice place to sleep. I decided to save the $400 and only spend $5 on stain. I figured since I always change the way my bedroom looks, in a year I will completely change things. The good thing is I have a rug that covers the entire room so you can't see the floor. But if you could, you would see that I made fake hardwood.

Winter is-a comin'

With the cold weather coming in, I figured I would put up a picture from one of the most beautiful places in the world. No, not Disney land, the river buy my house. Yes, I can go about a mile from my house and find this place. I can go down a short path and see down town Minneapolis, a coal plant and a train bridge. Three of my favorite things: urban life, real-life Tonka trucks and trains.

Holly's batty!

So, I was working on the house with my mom and Mike and I get this call from Holly. She is freak-a-ta-freaked out. She is screaming about a bat being in her apartment and she didn't know what to do. I, of course, did not know what to do. When we were in college there was a bat in the bathroom. The way we dealt with it by putting lamb shades on our heads and screaming a lot.

Of course my mom had an idea. She said to hit it with a broom to knock it out and dispose of it. About an hour later I get a call from Holly and she is wrapping up a dead bat in Tupperware. I could seriously hear the tape as she told me the story. So she listened to my mom and hit the bat with a broom. Only she hit it really hard had killed it. Then she scooped it up and brought it to the trash. She wasn't convinced that it was dead so she put it in the neighbors trash, ya know, so the bat wouldn't remember where she lived.

After she got back to the apartment she started thinking about a dream she had the night before. She woke up after dreaming about rats biting her hands. Then found a bat in her bathroom. Then she started thinking, bats are flying rats...rats have rabies and rabies kill. Cut to Holly looking up rabies on Wikipedia. Her eyes keep getting wider and wider as she learns that .5% of bats have rabies and they do bit when people are sleeping.

Holly got on the phone and called animal control. They told her that it is possible for her to have contracted rabies and the shot is about $2,000. She had to fish the bat out of the trash and bring it in to be tested. By this time it is dark and Holly remembered that she didn't have a flash light so she called the building manager to help her. Now remember, she did not toss out the bat in her garbage, she tossed it in the neighbors.
So after wrapping up the bat and keeping it in the fridge over night, I picked up Holly and her bat-sicile to the UMN's animal hospital. When I picked her up I asked, "so what did you do after we got off the phone?" I loved what she said, "I went and got waisted."

My other favorite quote from Holly that day was when we were standing at the reception desk filling out paper work and Holly asked, "So, does the bat get a name?" I lost it and started coming up with different names. "Smashy McNoflight", "Chill, the frozen bat", "Adam West". She explained that she would request that the bat not be named Holly. Oh, and the form. Man that thing was funny. I kept trying to get Holly to lie and say the bat was a pet and domesticated.

In the end Holly is ok, for those who care.

Feral Cat = Mewski

Wikipedia describes a feral cat as one that has not been domesticate and through abandonment, loss, or running away, and becomes wild. The term may also refer to descendants of such cats, but not to wild cats, whose ancestors were never domesticated. That is my little Mewska. She spent the first year of her life on the mean streets of St. Cloud before she was rescued.

I had Mewska, aka moo-moo, for about 2 years before we moved into the house. After a couple weeks, she was heading for the door. I would let her out, but there are a bunch of major streets and I don't want a cat-pancake. I decided to let her out when I could control her and make sure she didn't go far. I got a leash and let her out.

At first getting the leash on her was not fun. After spending some time outside she started to understand that a leash would mean that she could spend time in the sun.

The first picture is of her loving being outside, the other is of her wanting to run far away.

The wall

So, I have an interesting situation at my house. From my dining room, every room is on the first floor is visible. That means the living room, master bedroom, craft room, bathroom, tv room and kitchen. The problem is that from the dinning room is the bathroom. Seriously, right next to where I put the dinner table. The last thing I want my dinner guest to realize is that they are sitting next to the pooper. To compensate, I drew a really interesting tree on the wall. That way my guest will comment on the drawing, not on being next to the pooper...that is if I ever have guests.

"Thomas is a useful train"

My nephew is obsessed with Thomas the Train and after my dad watched him for a weekend, he became obsessed too. My dad obsessed with things is a very bad thing.

So my dad came over to help with something and all he kept saying "Thomas is a useful train" and that brought me to this post. NorthEast is known for the amount of train track we have. On the walk down to the river, the path crosses numerous train tracks. I don't know if it is a family things, but I also love trains. The first picture is from a bridge that has like a billion tracks under it. The picture below is from the river. There is a bridge that trains follow....beautiful...

Michael

As I mentioned in the previous post, Michael helped us with the move in. I have a theory that Michael may the single most funny person living today. I have submitted my charts and graphs to NASA and am waiting their results.

Anywho, as we were moving things out, Michael noticed a baby stroller in Holly's apartment. Yes, it was strange since Holly does not have a child nor watches on frequently. So Michael made up a story about how Holly has a fetish with dressing up as a baby and having people roller her around. He kept saying "hey Holly, I get to be the baby this time and you can push me around. It will be hot!"

He made the day so much better! Here is Michael looking sexy by the property line at my mom's cabin.

U-Haul Sucks!!!

Holly was scheduled to move on 9/21. Her mother was coming to town the next weekend so we had to get it done two weeks early. Yeah, the plan did not work.

So we woke up early on Sunday to work on the room and get ready to move. Holly had the truck rented, but did not have a line up of help. Sunday afternoon is not the best time to get people to help because, well it was a Sunday afternoon.

**note** the night before I really hurt my thumb and was missing half my nail. I couldn't lift anything with out the skin that should be where a nail traditionally should be would get all big.

The only other person we could get to help us was Michael. We love Michael. So we get the truck filled and Michael says, 'you got the keys' and Holly says, 'yes'. She had a key, but it was not for the lock.

We get back to the house and couldn't get into the truck. I had to find a neighbor that could break into the lock. Who-da-thunk that the guy two houses down had a tool that actually could cut through steel lock! 10 minutes later we had access to the truck and I have a new favorite neighbor!