I’m not crazy! June 25, 2008
I’ve taken the Hundred Pushups Challenge. According to the website, if I follow the program exactly, I should be able to do 100 (yep one-hundred) pushups in 6 weeks. Given that I do good to squeak out 10 now, I’m very eager to undertake this mission. More upper body strength (and overall fitness) is never a bad thing, in my book.
Happy Anniversary to us!!! June 23, 2008
Currently eating year-old wedding cake, and it’s actually quite good. A nice surprise. 
Progress update June 23, 2008
My first question is finished. As in, done. It feels pretty damn good, too. I plan to occasionally go back and read through it to make sure it’s as polished as it can be, but the hard work is behind me, and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment.
In looking at my timeline, I think I was a tad unrealistic in my expectations. I essentially was giving myself 2 weeks to write a very intense 15-20 page paper, and write my best, to boot. Even under the most pressing of deadlines, I doubt I could have cranked out even a mediocre 15-20 page paper in the span of 2 weeks (unless I wasn’t doing anything else). Also, I was giving myself way more time on my other two questions, and I feel like in some ways they will be easier to write, though certainly not easy.
I’m taking today off (for our first anniversary, yay!) and then start up on the next question tomorrow. There will be some distractions this weekend (a trip out of town), but I feel like I’m on track to finish in plenty of time.
More house-y goodness June 21, 2008
We had a tile backsplash put in last weekend. Up next is a new kitchen faucet. We were supposed to have it installed on Thursday, but when the installer got here, he discovered that our cold water line was a straight plumb and had no shut off valve. Ah, the joys of living in an old house. He didn’t have the tools nor the valve, so he’s coming back Monday morning. It will be nice to have something that looks nice, doesn’t leak, and is high enough to where I can fill a pitcher or other tall container.
In somewhat related news, we’ve decided not to pursue the condo I mentioned earlier. We’re still 99% sure we’re moving to Chicago, but we decided the timing wasn’t right for buying it, and it would have put us under a lot of unnecessary stress. The market’s doing some funny things right now, and we don’t want to be locked into a place that’s worth less than we’re paying. We’ll be up there next week staking out some places and neighborhoods and getting an idea of what’s good for us.
GTD June 18, 2008
My comps progress is…progressing. Do I want to be further along? Definitely. I’ve let myself get sidetracked by some house-related projects, plus daily stuff that needs to be done. The house doesn’t clean itself, y’know. Although as a feminist I often find the notion of hiring help to clean your house to be troubling, times like these make me willing to rethink this aversion. The amount of time I spend cleaning up around the house (or thinking about it, or nagging about it) could be spent in much more productive ways. I need a strong dose of Fuckitall if I’m going to keep my sanity.
In order to feel like I have a better grasp on my workload, I checked out Getting Things Done from my local public library. I appreciate the irony of spending time reading a book when I could be working on academic stuff. Everybody I know who has read this book highly recommends it, and I’ve read nothing but favorable things about it on blogs such as Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar. I have a habit of “hanging on” to things longer than I need to. Why not just go ahead and mail off that form? Why not just drop into the bank on my way home to deposit that check? As I type, I have a wedding dress that I still haven’t sold, and a pretty nice digital camera gathering dust in a drawer when I could probably sell it for a few bucks. According to my proposed comps timeline, I was to have one question completed and a few pages down on another question by this past Sunday. I haven’t even halfway completed my first question, much less started work on another question. This is bad. What exactly am I waiting on here?
Part of my problem is my inability to tell people “no.” I’m always worried I’ll miss out on an opportunity, or I’m worried about what people will think about me if I don’t do something. I need to start looking out for #1 and worry about the rest later. Nobody is going to do my work for me, so why would I try to do their work for them?
Home improvement saga, Part I June 17, 2008
As with most things I do, I started off with the best of intentions. A couple of weeks ago I noticed our faucet was spitting water moreso than it was allowing the water to flow freely. After asking some of my handy friends, I learned that I needed to clean out the traps under the hot and cold valves. So, I removed the handles from the sink, flushed out the valves, and then attempted to replace everything as it was. Somehow, something got stuck in the wrong position and I was unable to reassemble the valves. Uh-oh. We decided that this was the perfect opportunity for us to replace our faucet and hardware, since it was that hideous late 80’s/early 90’s brass, and it was looking skanky, anyways.
Trip to the Hardware Store #1:
We went to Home Depot and found a nice, simple, classic chrome faucet and handles (American Standard, in case you care). The price was good, and it fit our tastes pretty well. We bought it and took it home.
We went to Home Depot and found a nice, simple, classic chrome faucet and handles (American Standard, in case you care). The price was good, and it fit our tastes pretty well. We bought it and took it home.
Upon attempting to remove the existing faucets, I found that my wrench just couldn’t quite make it around the nuts. (It took me 2 days before I could say “get these nuts off” without cracking a smile. I am so bad sometimes!) I did some online sleuthing and figured out that I needed something called a “basin wrench” that looked a lot like those things they make people pick up trash on the side of the road with.
Trip to the Hardware Store (hereafter, TTTHS) #2: So, I went to Lowe’s and bought a basin wrench. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how the thing worked, and then, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get anything loose. I also dropped the wrench on my face. Good times! I read some more and found out I could also try some vise grips.
TTTHS #3: I exchanged the basin wrench for some vise grips and some Liquid Wrench, and ran into the dude I sold my car to and talked to him for a while. I came home, and the vise grips were ineffective as well. I gave up for the night, and we brushed our teeth in the kitchen sink. Gross.
The next day, it dawned on me…Why couldn’t I just remove the sink from the countertop, and work on it while sitting on the floor, so I wasn’t getting dripped on and having wrenches come falling down on my face? Scott came home to a sink sitting in the bathroom floor and a very frustrated wife. Whoever did the plumbing work for the previous owners did a piss-poor job, and everything was rusted/corroded AND they’d caulked everything down (totally unnecessary). There was no fucking way I was getting these fixtures off the sink without breaking the sink itself. By this point, it’s Friday afternoon, and I decide to call a plumber. No one can come before Monday, and no one will walk in our door for less than about $70. Um, no. I decided the time has come to buy a new sink.
TTTHS #4: I measured the dimensions of the cut-out and proceeded to Lowe’s to return the vise grips and buy a new sink. We got it home, and discovered that it didn’t fit. D’oh!!!!!
Again, we brushed our teeth in the kitchen sink.
TTTHS #5: I trolled the Lowe’s website to find a sink that would fit in our cut-out, and went back to exchange the sink that didn’t fit. When I got there, they didn’t have the sink I needed in stock, but there was one left at their other store across the river. I got back in my car and drove over there.
TTTHS #6: Finally, a sink that fits (and for less than $40, too)!!!! I also picked up some plumber’s putty for the space between the sink and the counter.
I get home, mount the fixtures into the holes of the new sink, and if I may say so myself, it looks damn good. Now, to put it in the counter, hook up the lines, drains, etc. and get this thing running! I soon realize that I need some more flexible supply lines, and the drain pipes are all out of line.
TTTHS #7: New flexible J-pipe and new supply lines. I get it all fixed up, and the sink runs!!! Huzzah! I hop in the shower, and go over to my friend Stu’s house to help him and his fianceé paint.
I get home that night, and attempt to replace the shelf under the sink. I knock something out of line, and there’s now a leak in the drain line. I stay up until about 1AM trying to fix it, to no avail. I am seriously about to throw a hissy fit. I brushed my teeth in the shower and went to bed.
I STILL can’t get the chrome pipe from the wall to meet up with the plastic flexible J-pipe from the drain. Some stuff I read indicates you really can’t join up chrome and plastic without a leak. Mmmkay…
TTTHS # 8: I go to Lowe’s and buy a new p-trap made of PVC and install that. Then I go to connect the flexi-line and discover that I’m missing a reducer washer that meets up to the 1 1/4″ pipes. Where the hell did it go?!
TTTHS # 9: New flexible J-pipe with all the required parts. The dude in the plumbing department recognizes me (because I’ve been in there like 3 times in the past 2 days) and asks how the project is going. He’s a sweet old man, so I refrain from roundhouse kicking him in the head. I smile and say, “It’s going!”
At around 4:30, the damn thing is finished. FINISHED. My sink runs. It drains. It…it….works!!!! Scott takes me to Surin for sushi to celebrate.
I am never, ever, ever doing that again. Ever. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that.
Anxiety ensues June 8, 2008
All play* and no work makes Freckles one stressed out bitch.
*Trying to discover the reason the bathroom faucet runs at 1/2 pressure, disassembling the hot and cold levers, failing to re-assemble them, buying a new faucet assembly, unable to remove the old faucet from sink, buying new sink, assembling everything without a hitch, now unable to reconnect the j-pipe so the damn thing will drain. Oh, and helping friends paint their new house. I know how to party.
The longest journey begins with a single step June 1, 2008
Sure it’s cliche, but it’s true. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks gathering up my articles, finding books, and drafting outlines for each of my comp questions. While this sort of work is invaluable, it doesn’t do much for your psychological outlook, because you don’t really have anything “done.” Very frustrating.
Yesterday, I started writing the answer to one of my questions, and I am so, so glad that I did the amount of prep work that I did. I spent about 3 hours reading over some materials, and working on question #2 (the one that feeds into my dissertation prospectus), drinking an Italian soda at a coffee shop near campus. I was thankful to have my headphones so as to not have to listen to the butt rock being piped in or the self-important loudmouth types that are apparently built into every single coffee shop in the world. You know I’m right.
I figure if I can put in that kind of effort 2 or 3 days a week, I’ll finish my writing in plenty of time for my August 18th deadline. Yesterday’s work generated a little over 2 pages, but for me, it was a huge accomplishment. Now I have something, however small, to show for my efforts.
