Music

Depending on how many years you have known me, you may or may not know about how important music has been to me throughout my life. I began playing piano in the 1st grade, and I stopped when I was about 18 years old. I also played clarinet in the band from about 7th grade through the middle of high school.

The last time I played any instrument in front of people was graduation. The last time I played piano, period, was probably with my friend Sue my freshman year of college. Since then, I've never really missed it.

If you were a "child of the 80s," you might remember Sunday radio top 40 shows with Casey Kasem and Rick Dees. You might remember anxiously awaiting what would be #1 that week. You might remember putting your blank cassette tape in your boombox and recording those songs so you could listen to them on your walkman on the bus or at recess. Well, thank God for technology! In the land of downloading entire CDs as mp3s through iTunes or DVRing your favorite shows so you can have a life, I sort of lost sight of how easy it is to find new music.

One really great thing I love about my job is that I can listen to my iPod all day long. It can be any kind of music or audio books. No one ever has to know what you're listening to. So, over the past year - with the help of my friend Ashley and satellite radio - I've really tried to stay up-to-date with the latest music (of my liking). I had really forgotten how a song or an album can make me smile or put me at ease or make me forget about all the really crappy things happening in my life at any given moment.

So, I've decided I'll use this blog as a place to also share what I'm listening to these days...or should I say, the songs I keep repeating when they come up on shuffle.

• My Darkest Days "Pornstar Dancing" (with Ludacris) is my favorite right now. In fact, I'm being one of "those" people and listening to it as I walk from the parking lot in to work every morning.
• Anything by Five Finger Death Punch, but especially "Hard to See" and "Far from Home".
• Red. Until We Have Faces is a really great album, and I just bought tickets to see them in May.
• Last, who can continue to work when RunDMC's "It's Tricky" shuffles around!
  

2011 projects

Well, the calendar might say Spring has arrived, but my 19-degree walk at 5am this morning tells me otherwise. Regardless, I have started to think of my home improvement projects for 2011. My federal tax refund got "delayed" through no fault of mine or my accountant, so I've had some extra time to think about what I want to do.

I went out yesterday with my notebook in hand and measured and priced and assessed. While I will not be able to do exactly what I want for all my projects (time, money, some are not DIYish projects), I do believe I have found acceptable alternatives. First up is replacing the emergency lattice fence out back with an actual wood picket fence. The neighbor's yard that borders mine has one, and although I cannot find the same picket style anywhere in this town, I think it will look much better than what I have now. Hopefully it will be stronger for the dog, but I fear it will allow more bunnicides to occur. From what I've been reading, I should wait a few weeks/months to paint it so it has a chance to weather. (Not sure what constant canine urine does to it!)

From there, I am hoping to replace the leaning chainlink kennel pieces with beautiful white vinyl fencing. This appears to be quite costly, and I can't really find any I like. Here's the dilemma: If I go with a privacy fence with no slats, Lucky won't be able to see people/dogs walking by and might bark less. However, he's an outside dog during the day most of the year. He's always been able to see outside his yard. It seems cruel to take that away from him. Decisions, decisions. I am going to send my specs to a local company to get a price quote on materials/labor. Based on what the computer spit out at me at Menards yesterday, I'm wondering if it isn't worth it to just pay someone to install it. We shall see...

From there is the basement. My really nice, very cold basement. Gosh I wish that was usable year-round. First I need to strip all the crappy paint off the block. Then I need to fill all gaps. Then I need to seal it against water. And those are just the steps I had planned to do last year! From there, insulation. I've been online for weeks now trying to find alternatives to framing and sheetrocking. I'm not sure why I'm against that option, but I am. I'm still working out the details on this project, but I will have insulation in that space before next winter. I'm hoping that one of my friends who just added a room addition to her house can help me with the heat source for my new basement. Appears that this will also be a difficult decision to make due to the amount of options available to me.

Finally, and I'm sure there will be $0 left over after the above, I'd like to bring a company in and insulate the walls of the house. Based on how cold I am 6 months out of the year and how much my bills are, I'm fairly confident I got nothing in those walls. I don't even know what this little adventure would cost me, but the local company that blows it in from the outside is the same company who replaced my windows. Good people. So, I'll be working on getting an estimate for that. It might be worth dipping into my savings to do that before next winter. Who knows what kind of money I could save next winter if I opted for this project yet this year.

So there it is. My 2011 all planned out. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted with updates of my successes and failure along the way.

This day in history

Four years ago this weekend, Dan and I were in Vegas.
Two years ago today, Dan got married...obviously not to me!
It's funny the way life works, huh?

I celebrated Dan's wedding day with good food, good friends, and good drinks. Last night I was able to do that again. So, happy anniversary, Dan. Seems to me that we both have the lives we wanted. Perhaps you should thank me for walking out on you!

Relationships Part 2

I am surrounded by dysfunctional relationships, mostly marriages. I have never claimed to be a proponent of marriage, but at least I comprehend the concept. Here's how I see it: You get married and commit yourself to another human being. You learn the art of compromise. You do everything in your power - even through the bad stuff - to make it work. But, should that day come when you have exhausted all avenues to make it work, GET OUT! Don't lose your identity because you are too afraid of a different life. Don't ruin the lives of your children or other members of your family because you are afraid. And for the love of Pete...don't screw around while you are still married.

So, for the people in my life that I know and love that are going through some tough times in their relationships, I wish nothing but good things for you. Please try everything in your power to make things work. But, at the same time, please don't let fear win in your decision-making process. When fear wins, we all lose.

My Dove message for today: Love without rules.
It's a beautiful thought.