Out of the Loop

Apparently life has been a little crazy and I am totally out of the loop. How do I know this? Because usually, after a summer of reruns and general lameness on TV, I'm counting down the days until the premiers of all of my favorite shows. This year, though, I completely missed the premier of Survivor last Wednesday! How could that happen? I didn't even know until last night when I asked Mr. Frisby to look on the internet and find out when the premier was. All is not completely lost, though. I am well aware of the fact that The Office and 30 Rock premiers are tomorrow night and I'm super excited. Onward and upward!

Gum

Remember how annoying it is when some idiot spits their gum out and you step in it? It's even more annoying when your dog steps in it.

Scout's Latest Hobby

Scout is now our resident bug-catcher. She's keen on attacking anything smaller than her that moves (or hops) across the floor. This includes brooms, swiffers, the vacuum, leaves and, much to our delight, bugs (maybe someday I'll try to post the video we took of her going after the swiffer - it's pretty awesome). Last night, a poor little green grasshopper made the mistake of trying to hitch a ride on my shoe when I was minding my own business in our garage. I wasn't expecting the grasshopper, so when I saw it, I was quite startled. Scout noticed me jump when I saw it and came over to investigate. When I pointed out the grasshopper to her, it was game on. The grasshopper was pretty evasive, but Scout was tenacious. She followed that thing all over the garage until she got it. And, Scout also makes a great bug-catcher because not only will she catch the bugs, but then she eats them, leaving no mess to be cleaned up. It's a pretty good deal for everyone involved. Mr. Frisby no longer has to come take care of the bugs that come along and Scout gets the mental stimulation of a good chase. After the grasshopper incident last night, Scout later took care of a spider (she actually couldn't see it at first because it was the same color as the carpet, but in her efforts to find it, she stepped right on it. And then, when she did find its carcass, she ate it). Mr. Frisby said she took care of a grasshopper last weekend as well and when a cricket tried to barge into our house a couple weeks ago, Scout was right on it. This is a hobby that I am behind 100%! If only she could jump high enough to catch the flies. Believe me, she wishes she could.

Updates

I don't have a lot to say, but I guess I'm about due for a new post. So, here's an update on what's been going on. My ear is healing nicely. I'm now band-aid free and the scab even came off. We still don't have our ceiling done, but hopefully it won't be too much longer. I think we have pretty much decided to go with the cherry color stain on the wood. Thanks for all the blogpinions. When we get the ceiling done and I post pictures, you can all give me your blogpinions on whether or not it looks good. Life has been a little crazy. Mr. Frisby has started another semester, so working on projects around the house has taken a backseat to homework. Which may not necessarily be a bad thing. If we can't do projects around the house, we don't spend money on project supplies. And that gives us a chance to start saving again. Oh wait, we just spend our money on other things. Like taking this little monkey to the vet:



Speaking of Scout, we've had her for just over a month now, so I guess she deserves an update as well. She is almost 4 months old and is currently growing - so fast I can almost see it happening. She's ginormous (please note, ginormous is relative. She was super tiny to begin with, so while she's actually very small, she's ginormous compared to when we first got her)! She's gotten over her bronchitis and ear infection nicely and is feeling much better, but now has Giardia, so we're giving her some medication for that. Hopefully she'll be all healthy after she kicks this parasite. She has another round of vaccines coming up and then we get to set up her spaying appointment, so she's in for an exciting month. She's had lots of adventures recently, but I didn't take any pictures of them. She had a playdate with some other friendly dogs. We're working on getting her all socialized so she'll be nice to everyone. She did pretty well and seemed to enjoy playing with Logan, Moxie, and Marceau (thanks a ton, Mostess and Cashby!). We're also trying to teach her how to get out of the swimming pool. She has absolutely no desire to get in the water, but we figure she needs to know how to get out in case she were ever to fall in. So, we decided to put her in the pool and teach her to swim over to the steps so she could get out. She hated it, but she did pretty well. She started swimming immediately, but she got tired fast since she's so small. It'll take some more work before we'll feel like she could get out on her own, but she made some good efforts. And she looked so tiny all dripping wet! I really should've taken a picture. Maybe next time.

So, that's what's been going on with us. We don't really have anything super fun planned for the near (or distant) future, so I hope you're all looking forward to house updates!

Labor Day, Projects, and a Call for Blogpinions

Yesterday was Labor Day and, apparently the end of the summer that never really seemed like summer. Today was freezing! I had to bundle up when I took Scout out for a walk. Anyway, yesterday was a lovely, relaxing day. What did we do?

Lots of swimming in our new pool:







Playing in the water:



Tried to fix the pool sweeper:



Scout even did her favorite activity. She LOVES babies and loves to chase them:



Of course, we topped it all off with a BBQ. Hamburgers are so appropriate on Labor Day.

Okay, so on to the projects. My kitchen cabinets are finished and I have photos.

Here's what the cabinets looked like before (this is actually the cabinets in the hallway, but they had they same finish. Ugly, brown varnish):



And, after:





I painted the bases white and the doors and drawers orange. I'm pretty happy with them. Of course, we eventually plan to redo the kitchen and get all new cabinetry (you know, when we have some money again). But, for now, it's a fun, happy kitchen. And, way better than before. The next project we'll be working on is our ceiling. With the popcorn ceiling gone, we have decided to put up tongue and groove wood paneling on the vaulted ceilings. The other ceilings we'll just texture to match the non-popcorned ceilings in the kitchen and office. Here's the living room ceiling in its current state:



And, here's another view with the floor so you can see how dark the floor is (and the added bonus is that you can see Scout sleeping in her little bed):



This is all important because now I need your blogpinions. We're putting up the tongue and groove, but first we have to decide what color to stain it. Mr. Frisby votes for a lighter stain. I'm thinking more of a darker stain. We've talked about doing a whitewash which could look good, but I don't want it to look too country and I'm worried that it might with a whitewash. I'm also worried that a lighter stain will make it look like a mountain lodge. So, we've tentatively decided on doing a cherry color stain. Of course, whatever we do has to look okay with the floor. So, blog readers, what should we do? Would a whitewash make it look too country? Would a cherry stain look okay with our floor? Will our living room end up feeling like a ski lodge? Opinions, please!

A Trade

I am usually accustomed to paying for any services rendered to me. On occasion, however, I have had the opportunity to make a little trade instead of paying cash. A good friend of mine cuts my hair and usually I pay her. We have done a trade before, though, which worked out well. When I went to get my hair cut by her this morning, I was not expecting to make a trade. But, a trade was made. See, she cut my hair and I gave her a small piece of my ear. It's a good thing she gave me an awesome haircut, because it was one of my more awesome chunks of ear that I gave her. Anyway, no injury post would be complete without pictures, so if you're squeamish, you better stop here.

And, please note that these photos do not do it justice. Basically all you can see is that there's a red spot on my ear (the red spot being fresh blood - yep it was still bleeding 8 hours later). What it doesn't show was the little piece of my ear that my friend found on her scissors. Or the constant blood flow for over half an hour while she finished the cut. Or the band-aid that was completely soaked by the end of the haircut. Or the light-headedness and near fainting by both my haircutting friend and myself. Or the new shape of my ear sans small chunk. Or the second round of light-headedness that came when I changed the band-aid later (which is the reason the pictures aren't so great. Someone who feels like fainting doesn't make a good photography subject).

And, no, I'm not writing this post to make my friend feel bad. She already feels bad. She told me that (though, she will probably read this post and subsequently feel worse). It was actually her suggestion that I blog about it. It was an accident and I'm not angry. And, she brought me Kit Kats and didn't charge me for my haircut. It's all good. But, every good story deserves a blog post, right? So, I got my hair cut today and I lost a little piece of ear in the process. I hope this blog post does the story justice. Here are the pics. Next time you see me, just look for my scar. It'll be on my right ear in the back.