Wednesday Weigh-In

Another week has passed.  My diet bet ended yesterday and I have until tomorrow at midnight to submit my weight.  It probably won't matter though, because I have not lost enough meet my goal if I have to wear clothes on the scale.  I'm at 193.0 today and the goal was 192.4.  There's a chance I can hit that if I'm undressed, but clothed, no way.  Sad.

I haven't been trying very hard this past week.  The chaos of having those two rooms a mess is getting to me.  It really is driving me crazy.  It's been a bit of a nightmare, too.  Last week, I got a call from Penny Mustard that the rails for my bed were in and would be delivered on Friday.  I was really excited and I went out and bought the mattress on Thursday.  On Friday, they come with the rails, but they didn't have the right bolts for the bed, so they couldn't be installed.

As soon as they realize the bolts were wrong they called the office and arranged for someone to come on Saturday with the right bolts.  This is less than ideal because it means Rob and I have to assemble the bed ourselves, and when you spend over $1000 on a damn bed, the delivery guys should set it up.  But, I just wanted it done, especially because there was a full size mattress set taking up a ton of room in my foyer.  So, we agree for the non-delivery guy to come Saturday with the bolts.

On Saturday, the guy shows up, hands us a bag of bolts and leaves.  I convince Rob that we need to drop everything and assemble the bed.  He reluctantly agreed.  We go up there, start working on it, only to realize they gave us the bolts for the wrong bed!  So, we still don't have the damn things and still can't set the bed up!  I was so mad.  We called the guy right away (less than 5 minutes after he left) and he doesn't answer.  I emailed the woman who we worked with at the store right away too.  Hours later, we get a call from some guy, Travis, who says he is going to have to mail us the bolts because they sent the wrong ones (no sh*t, Sherlock).

Travis says he will overnight the set to us on Monday so we would have it Tuesday.  But, what annoyed me is, they've asked me to drive to one of their show rooms to drop off the incorrect set that they gave us.  I mean, seriously?  They need them back that badly?  I have already been inconvenienced by this place 3 times with nothing more than an "I'm sorry." Well, sorry doesn't compensate me for taking 2 days off of work.  It also won't magically assemble that bed.

Of course, Tuesday has come and gone and I have no bolts for my bed.  I'm pretty ticked, if you can't tell.  I like the quality of the furniture at Penny Mustard, but they sure have done everything they can to screw up delivering and assembling the furniture for us.  If Walter E. Smithe had made even one of these mistakes they would have compensated us with a gift card (I know, because it's happened).  This is now four issues we've had and nothing.  All they can tell me is that they need to hire a new scheduler.  You would think that after the first 2 screw ups they would have made extra sure to send the right bolts with the guy that came by on Saturday.  Instead, Travis admitted that he didn't even look at our order when he was getting the hardware to send over.  Genius.

So, given all of that, I probably won't be buying any more furniture from Penny Mustard.  It's too bad.  I want to support American companies and American made products, but I cannot spend $5000 on a bedroom set and deal with this many issues in getting it set up.  It's just not worth the hassle.  I think I'm going to post all of this on Yelp, actually.

Anyway, that's my life right now.  Two bedrooms with furniture parts scattered all over the place.  I'm too tired to do much of anything still and lacking motivation in general.  I am going to, hopefully, work from home tomorrow so I can get bedroom #1 painted.  I just need it done so I can reclaim the first floor of the house and the garage.  It is too cold to be parking our cars outside when we have a heated garage.

Hopefully I can get my a-game back soon.  I don't like being this lame and tired.

Going in the Wrong Direction

I'm not doing very well on the weight loss front at all lately.  In fact, I'm going in the totally wrong direction!  Not good.  At least my waist measurement is down from last week.  I actually measured my waist on Tuesday night and it was 43"!  Somehow though, that was gone by the next morning.  On my Weigh-In page, the weight is from today, but the waist is from yesterday because, for whatever reason, I forgot to weigh myself yesterday and forgot to check my waist measurement today.  Oh well.

Anyway, I wish I could say I've been doing everything right, but that would be a lie.  Lately, I've been doing just about everything wrong on the weight front.  I've been so excited and preoccupied with decorating that everything else has fallen by the wayside.  I think there is a light at the end of the project tunnel; at least as much as there ever is with me.  For bedroom #1, the furniture is about 60% painted and I'm getting more done on bedroom #2 every day.

Rob hasn't done any painting for bedroom #1 yet this week because we've had things going on every night, but he's going to do it tonight, I hope.  After that we'll probably need 2 more coats on the pieces, but he is working on the last set of pieces now.

Also, for bedroom #1 I found a rug that I think I like and will work.  The rug is black and white and sort of a shag.  It's fun looking, I think, and will work in a kids room but can also work in a regular guest room.  I was thinking about getting a red rug, but then I'm tied to the red theme and I'm not sure I want to commit to that.  The shag rug feels nice on your feet, too, so that is a plus.

I also got the paint I'm going to use on the walls (which are currently pale blue).  The paint is from Menard's and the color is called Summer Suede.  Part of me wanted to use gray, since it is so in right now, but we already have the gray and purple room (bedroom #2) and the walls in our master bedroom were gray when we bought the house and we haven't changed them.  So, I figure I should go with a different neutral.  I had intended to paint on Tuesday when I was off for Veteran's Day, but I was so darn tired I didn't do anything after my shopping trip but cross stitch on the couch.  I'm going to (hopefully) start taping the room tonight so I can paint tomorrow night and/or Saturday.

The other big thing I crossed off my checklist, somewhat, is that I found a mattress set for bedroom #2.  I got a really nice pillow-top set from HOBO.  If you live near a HOBO, I suggest checking it out when you are doing a home improvement project.  They have great prices and most of the items are high quality.  Of course, I still have to figure out how I'm going to get that mattress set home.  I bought it, but I couldn't transport it myself last night because I was alone.  I thought I might be able to fit each piece into our car separately, but I knew there was no way I could get the mattress back out and into the house alone.  So, Rob and I can hopefully do that tonight.

I'm pretty excited because we are getting the rails for the bed in bedroom #2 tomorrow.  I really want to set the bed up and see how the purple bedding I have looks on it.  I also made curtains for that room over the weekend and they look pretty good, I think.

I wish the purple accents in the fabric were a little darker, but it's good enough.  When sewing the curtains I used drapery weights this time.  I've never used them before but I think they will help them keep their shape, which is a bonus.

Other than the curtains, the paint for the walls, the paint on the furniture and the rug, I started making a decorative painting for bedroom #1.  I'm basically going to make a poppy dot painting like the one I made and sold with our last house.  The painting was easy, but it took a really long time to do.  So far, all I've done is paint the canvas black, but it's a start.  Just another item on my to-do list for the weekend, I guess.

Back to the topic of health/weight loss... I finally went and got my blood drawn yesterday to follow up on my thyroid medicine.  I know I'm very tired lately and I'm hoping that my doctor will increase the dosage or give me something else to try.  I hate feeling like this and it really makes me nostalgic for phentermine because that stuff gives you so much energy.  I also know it is very easy to get; just an appointment at the weight loss clinic away... I hated using it because it makes it very hard to sleep and I firmly believe that good quality sleep is key to good health.  But, I also am really tired of being so tired and not being able to lose weight.

The thing is, I haven't been cooking at home as much as I should be and I have been eating odd, hack meals lately (like last night's 4 leftover meatballs, half a brat and leftover mashed potatoes).  But, I haven't been eating a lot and I have been moving a decent amount for someone so tired.  I've continued to take the stairs each day I am at work and I'm going up to the 14th floor now.  I shouldn't be gaining weight, at the very least.  I'm nervous that I am going to lose my diet bet.  Actually, that seems all but inevitable since I need to lose about 4 pounds in order to still be able to wear clothes and hit my weight goal.  But, I have lost 5 pounds in 5 days before by doing things like the potato hack.  So, if I am desperate I will do that Monday through Wednesday.

Anyway, I guess that's about everything for this week.  I need to start posting more frequently so my posts don't get so long.  I guess you can probably tell that when it comes to decorating, I have a lot of thoughts and I'm pretty passionate about it.  What can I say... a well-appointed room is this girl's best friend.  :)

Temptation is Everywhere

Well, the title pretty much sums up the last week of my life.  We went to my friend's cabin over the weekend.  I tried so hard to plan a menu that wouldn't cause me to go totally off the rails and I thought I was successful, but I guess not.  I was 197.0 on Monday and down to 195.2 by Wednesday and holding there now.  I'm sad about that.

When we were planning our trip to the cabin, I planned as much of the food as I could:

Friday night - Brats, Baked Potatoes, Creamed Spinach
Saturday & Sunday breakfasts - Frittata
Saturday dinner - Beef stew, Biscuits (from the Wheat Belly Cookbook), Brussel Sprouts
Snacks - Popcorn (non-GMO, better than chips fried in PUFA); Cucumber, Cream Cheese and Salmon "Sandwiches"

So, I really did have a plan.  The plan was even mostly executed.  We never made the popcorn (someone brought Cheetos, unfortunately) and we didn't need or make the brussel sprouts either.  We had the stew, frittata, and we made some fried green tomatoes.  The tomatoes were breaded in corn starch (not great) but we fried them in coconut oil.  We made a dipping sauce that was based on homemade mayo.  The unplanned items were the frozen custard, Reese's peanut butter cups, the fun size snickers bars and this stupid pumpkin cake.  So, I didn't totally avoid gluten and definitely wasn't avoiding sugar.  I just can't control myself around some stuff, I guess.

Anyway, my weight sucks.  I don't think I'll ever really get control over it.  I'm hungry right now as I type this.  I've been trying to fast until noon and then eat within an eight hour window as suggested in The Perfect Health Diet.  It has been really hard.  Every day this week I've broken down around 11:00 and had something.  Today it was orange juice at this silly "meet  and greet" thing we had at work which was full of extremely tempting baked goods that were simply covered in sugar.  They looked so good!  In that context, having orange juice isn't so bad.  It's not so good, either.

Lately my resolve is just so-so.  I hate my weight some times and other times I just don't care.  If I'm wearing something I feel good in, that makes a big difference, of course.  I want to lose weight, but I don't want it enough to exercise, that's for sure.  I did some sprints yesterday and it really just makes me more hungry all day.  I just don't have the motivation for exercise anymore.  I'll keep up with the stairs, only because it is something I can easily commit to and is an excuse to leave the office.  Beyond that, I'm tapped out.

Aside from my weight gain, I'm still working on the bedroom set for bedroom #1.  I haven't decided on a color scheme for the room yet though.  I've realized that we're using the same colors all over the house, and I don't want the whole place to be the same since it is certainly large enough to have different colors in different rooms.  I'm probably going to paint the walls beige though, since that way I can go with any colors I want.  Currently the walls are pale blue, which is fine, but isn't doing anything for me.  Hopefully in another week we will have the furniture back up there though.  Then I can figure out what to do as far as area rugs and all that are concerned.

Here are some pictures of the chaos in progress:

Half-painted furniture has taken over the garage!

Sorry this picture is shaky... it's my sweet spray painting station in our basement.

I guess that just about sums up my life in the past week.  Eating too much, drinking to much, and probably inhaling too much spray paint.  Hopefully I can get things under control soon.

Another Decorating Endeavor

Happy Hump Day!  I don't know about you, but I'm glad that this week is about half over.  Work has been dull, nothing out of the ordinary there.  What has been "exciting" is that Rob and I started refinishing the ugly 80's bedroom set we got from a friend.  We've had the set for about a year now.  It has a trundle bed, three dresser-like pieces, a desk, a nightstand, and these bookcase hutch type things for the desk and two of the dressers.  It sounds like a lot, and it is, but somehow it all fits into the smallest bedroom we have.  (Just to clarify, this is a different bedroom from the one I posted about previously that we recently painted and bought furniture for.)

Appreciate the ugliness...

A side view of an 80's treasure

We bought paint for the set a couple weeks ago and Rob said he would paint it whenever I got it sanded.  The weather on Sunday was really nice, so I said we should carry everything downstairs so I could get started.  Eight hours later we had moved everything from the bedroom to the garage, from the garage to the driveway, from the driveway to the yard and from the yard back into the garage.  It was a workout!  I managed to sand everything and Rob sprayed one coat of paint onto at least one side of each piece.  We still have about a million coats of paint to go and I don't expect to be done anytime soon, unfortunately.

To make the set less 80's looking, we decided to cut the bottoms of the dressers and nightstand to give it the appearance of having feet.  Originally, we were going to add legs/feet, but then the dressers would have been taller than the desk and we couldn't arrange them next to each other and they were designed to fit together.  So, we did this hack job of cutting them instead.  We also decided to fill in the paneling effect they have using a spackle-like product.  Here are some pictures:

A garage full of chaos

Cutting the "legs"

Sanded drawers and filled in dressers

I guess I didn't take any pictures of them half painted, but I can certainly do that tonight.  They are being painted white using an oil-based enamel.  Unfortunately, all we could find was glossy, but oh well.  Considering that this is a child's bedroom set and it may someday take a lot of abuse, we figured we should use something tough, even if the gloss finish wasn't our first choice.

The other unfortunate aspect of this set is the hardware and the way it is recessed into the drawers.  Since it is recessed like that, we can't just replace it with whatever we feel like.  So, I am painting the hardware.  I got a dark gray/black metallic spray paint and a glossy coating. This is the stuff I got.  I think the dark color will contrast with the white nicely.  Who knows, maybe I'll even like how it looks when everything is done... Once I paint it the black color I'll go over everything a second time with the glossy top coat.

I can't wait to be done with this project so I can put the room together.  I'm going to start painting the hardware tonight.  I spent Tuesday washing it thoroughly.  I was going to start painting it yesterday, but then I ended up being my sister's therapist for the night instead and didn't get anything done.

Now, as for the subject of weight loss, well, I'm just barely hanging in there.  Down to 193.6 today isn't exactly cause for celebration, but I can accept it.  After listening to my sister all night I feel like a few pounds isn't that big of a deal.  At least I can deal with my life.  My sister seems to have no ability to cope with anything.  She really wants to have kids and, honestly, I wonder if she could actually handle it.  She can't seem to handle even minor stress a lot of the time.  I worry for her, even though I'm pretty sure there is nothing I can do.

Anyway, that's what has been going on over here.  I just finished reading The Perfect Health Diet and I'm hoping I can put it into practice for tonight's dinner.  We'll see what I have time to figure out at work today.  I definitely need to visit their blog for some recipe ideas.