the living room.

now, please bear in mind that we have only been in the house for 3 days, so try to look beyond the lamp with no shade, the lack of curtains, unfinished trim, etc.

man, i wish my blog had Smell-o-vision so you can get the full effect on these "before" pictures...

before:













after:

the dining room

before:

uhhh, nice carpet. >:(

after:

i'm waiting on a new glass tabletop; the one we got had 2 chips in it, and they had to order us a new one. :/ i also got these really cool curtians, that we will hang up soon.

the guest room.

before:

after:

this room is going to be painted yellow soon. don't think the bedspread will stay; i want to put something else on this bed.

i'm bound to pack it up, i'm bound to pack it up today

so, i'm taking a teensy internet break from packing all of our insane amounts of crap up for the move tomorrow. coming soon: pictures of the new house! we are not finished with the house yet, ohhhh no. not by any by any means. but, as things reach their final stages, i can share all of the hard work we've been doing for the past month or so...

here are some links i've been holding onto for the past few days:

beat generation & counterculture links. (courtesy of the marvelous pcl linkdump)

how can you not love this man? i mean, come on.

syd barrett's possessions auctioned off.

ruined music. this is a great site. i'm already working on one to send in (working on it in my head, that is. there are so many songs that have been ruined for me by various people that it will be hard to pick just one!)

this chick has two vaginas. yep. calling her blog "box set" is pretty clever, though; i'll give her that.

they eat horses, don't they?

there's a kurt cobain movie coming out. i actually have read the book that michael azerrad wrote; it's pretty good. although i read it in 1993, so maybe if i re-read it now i wouldn't be as into it. meh. it's probably still good.

and finally, a great picture of keith richards, just because.

awesome new house purchase of the day

i can't wait to make my first big meal and eat at this BITCHIN' TABLE!!! i think i also may want to replace the chandelier with this one, in light of this new development (no pun intended).

i probably won't be bloggin' much this week...chris' parents are coming from ohio tonight and staying for a week to help us do some house stuff and get ready for the big move next week...wednesday we are going to see bob dylan (woo!), and then thursday my family and chris' parents are going to meet for the first time...ack! then on sunday we are doing the big move. could i have any MORE happening right now?!? i can't take it. i'm a hot mess.

in other news, i gave myself itty-bitty bangs yesterday when i really should have been packing:

















meanwhile, gertie is still the prettiest kitty in all the land:

















finally, let us take a moment to bid farewell to the 2nd pair of chucks that went to shoe heaven during this whole house experience:













goodbye, old friends. you've served me well.

p.s.

top 5 drug-fueled tv appearances.

jack white's awesome house up for sale.

how does your surname rank?

oh, hell no.

this weekend was exhausting! saturday we did a lot of work on the new house. i primered and painted the bathroom, painted the ceilings of the master bedroom and the office, weeded in the backyard, washed the walls of the living room with this toxic chemical goo...ugh. the ceiling painting was the worst. my arms were so sore. i also broke the handle of the special ceiling painter-roller thing. oooooooops.

the next morning i woke up bright and early to go to new york with my sister, my 17-year old niece, and her friend. we really did have a good time, but it was also exhausting. my niece wanted to go to all the rah-shah-shah stores on 5th ave, like saks (even though no one had any intention nor the means to buy anything there). i never do that kind of stuff when i go to the city to hang out. when i go i usually head straight for the village, or hang out with my brooklyn friend matt in williamsburg and stuff. anyway, we hit up a bunch of stores like that, and then we FINALLY went into H&M, which i love. we have once close to where i live, but nothing like this one! so huge! i got a really cute outfit there for really cheap, so i was pleased. but the day could be best described as "power shopping." yuck. oh yeah, we hit up daffy's, which seemed like one could find some killer stuff for dirt cheap. but, the place had 7 floors, and we had no time to explore. so i just hovered like a vulture around the chairs and waited for someone to leave, and i pounced like a puma so i could rest my tired little feet.

my niece also wanted to see times square, which i totally could have done without. i hate times square. so many people, too much stimulation...aaaccck...but hey. it was her first nyc visit, so i guess it had to be done.

but the ickiness of times square does not even hold a candle to the horrors that inhabit the american girl store. my sister also has a 5-year old girl, who is WAAAY into her american girl doll. she has outfits that match outfits that the doll wears, all this furniture, some little dog (that also gets matching outfits)...it's really bizarre. i wasn't into all the doll crap when i was little. except for barbie, of course. but eventually i chopped off all their hair and melted their faces. ANYWAY, this americal girl store was packed with crazy mothers with their bratty daughters (and a few men who looked like they wanted to kill themselves). that is a world i will never, nor do i want to, understand. this store even had a damn salon where people did the dolls' hair, i shit you not. ugh. if i ever have a daughter, she is not going to have anything to do with american girl or any of its millions of stupid accessories, all of which are really expensive and she won't even care about in a year anyway. soon my little niece will be cutting off her american girl doll's hair and melting her face off---YOU JUST WAIT!!!

although chris put it into perspective when he pointed out that if there was a store that was 5 floors of nothing but blythe dolls, i would be in heaven. and he's right. so i guess i am horribly judgemental or something.

anyway, we barely made the bus back, we were running like crazy people (okay, that's a lie, we were just walking really really fast), and then the only seats left on the bus were in the very back, where the floor was really hot (like, so hot that when i picked up my bags off the floor, they felt like they were about to start smoldering). some lady took a massive poop in the bathroom, which we were sitting right next to, about 10 minutes into the ride. also, the AC didn't really work back there. *heavy sigh*

did you miss me?

ugh, i am sore, achey, stressed-out, exhuasted, and overwhelmed. i also owe everyone in the world emails. :/ it may be a while until i get caught up again...this house is sooooooo much work. and it's been soooo friggin' HOT the past week! but, our next-door neighbors gave us a fresh pan of brownies last night, so things are lookin' up. :) i thought that was so cute and old-school of them to give us baked goods to welcome us to the 'hood. below are just a few pictures of what's been going on with the house...i can't wait to get the floors sanded and stained, and to paint everything. then it will seem like we are actually getting somewhere.

this is what the living room and dining room looked like when we owned it for approx. one hour, right before chris ripped out all the carpet in the entire house:



awwww, look, we're not completely insane yet! i miss those days...















bastard wallpaper paste.













f you, wallpaper!!!













and now, some linkage. i honestly have no idea what's been going on for the past week. one thing that is exciting to me, however, is this newly-discovered version of "something." i heart george.

oh, and I'M # 4 NOW!!! please keep voting, this is incredible!!! tell your freinds, tell your mom, tell your weird internet-addicted uncle. vote for mondo!!!

50 albums that changed music.

25 most important questions in the history of the universe.

top 10 rock "diss" songs.

not starring.

here's madonna showing lenny kravitz her 48-year old hoo-hah.

tenacious d movie!

holy crap, i'm #6!!!

this is amazing, THANK YOU!!! please keep voting for me! and please don't be frightened by all the new people who have entered the contest. it may take a little longer to come across my little 'ol picture, but EVERY VOTE COUNTS! again, thank you to all who are voting for me. i really, REALLY want these tickets! neil!!! willie!!!! front row!!! COME ON!!

ok, we did our first official first full day of house stuff. my main job today consisted of slathering the dining room walls with goo and scraping off the wallpaper paste with a little tool called a paper tiger. which made me sing that beck song in my head all day. for the record, i would like to horribly mutilate the person who invented wallpaper. oh, and i pulled about 5 million staples from the floors with a pair of pliers. i have a blister on my hand the size of detroit. but whatever.

did i mention that we are gonna be next-door neighbors with a cop? yep. a real cop. we saw him come home today, with his cop outfit on and everything...so weird. not that i am MISS ILLEGAL ACTIVITY or anything, but it's kinda weird with a bona fide COP right next door...

anyway...

70's blacklight posters. (via boing boing)

this is what a woman raised by wild dogs looks like.

invent your own suri. because the real one doesn't exist anyway.

see? there are many employment opportunities (okay, 12) for people like me who have a penchant for crazy hair once in a while...

chelsea hotel blog.

see? i KNEW it was gonna be good!! I KNEW IT! (i'm being sarcastic, because not allowing reviewers to screen a flick is always bad news. but i know i will love it anyway. this is not an oscar caliber movie, people. it's just good, cheesy fun. SCREW YOU, CRITICS!!!)

ow. ohhhhhh, achey achey.

yowza, did we kick boo-tay tonight! we closed on the house at 4, left the bank by 5, stopped at the apartment and changed, got to our house by 6, and ripped out all the carpet and ripped off the top layer of wallpaper in the kitchen, dining room, one of the bathrooms, and a bedroom by 10 p.m. very impessive, but we are SO GONNA BE HURTIN' TOMORROW. man, i can feel the burn in my arms already...

but it was so cool. borderline enjoyable for me, even (chris may have a different take on things, since he was the icky carpet-ripper-upper). it felt so different from the painting and whatnot that we've done for our apartment. 'cause, you know, it's OURS. we even had our first visitors, ryan and tracy and their 3 adorable kids. yay!

when we closed on the house, at first i was so sad i almost wanted to cry. BECAUSE...we bought the house from a couple who filed for bankruptcy, and they were really, really nice. i guess pretty much all the money for the house went straight to their creditors. the woman was talking about how, in addition to losing their house, they had to put their dog and their ferret to sleep. man, i almost cried right there. they did find a home for the turtle, however, just yesterday. i guess they moved into an apartment, so maybe they can't have pets, i don't know. and then THAT statement about the turtle made me think about how i took pictures of their personal items and posted them on the internet. :( i just felt so bad for them; they seemed like good people. the guy even said that if we needed to call him for anything at all (like if we can't figure out how something works or if we have questions), that we should not hesitate to call him. i thought that was really nice. but, i must admit that the guilt (or empathy or whatever it was) faded away when we left and was replaced by total excitement and glee. is that bad?

another wonderful thing was, as soon as we got in the house and looked out the big dining room windows, we saw a bunny and 2 robins in our backyard. that bunny made me so happy! living on the 2nd floor on a busy main street of a city doesn't offer those types of warm, fuzzy goodness. we had lots of fireflies when it got dark, too. awesome.

when things start shaping up, i will post "before" and "after" pictures. and maybe some "during" pics, if i am motivated enough. ohh yeah, the central air TOTALLY works. yesssss...

maybe we'll make this for the house...? eh. probably not. but maybe!

how ironic. (because, you know, carrots are supposed to help your eyesight.)

file this one under, "ewwwww gross!"

i just cannot believe the animated version of pamela anderson on her site! hahahahaha. i do hope those are vegan cookies she's holding...oh, and regarding the announcement--ewwwww gross!

hot enough for ya?

ugh. this heat sucks. in other news, we close on the house today, so i don't know how much bloggin' i will be doing in the next week...we both took a week off to start working on the house. please keep your fingers crossed that the AC works in the new house...we still aren't sure if it does. ugh. i can just imagine trying to take off wallpaper and re-tiling floor and painting and whatnot in a sizzling, stinky house. and it doesn't excite me.

1950's DIY projects. maybe i should do some of these this week...

12 delightfully odd concept albums.

uppers.org. not about pills.

ahhhh, dig mickey rourke's shirt!

here are the myspace profiles for all of your favorite awful reality "stars."

check out this great photo i found while looking for turquoise toilet seats on eBay:

yes, that's a real turtle.

so, chris and i were able to go into our new digs recently to measure and take pictures and whatnot. the people we bought the house from still have a ton of stuff in there (we close in about 2 weeks), so i snapped some pics. here are the highlights.



















also:

i wonder if he was listening to "ride the lightning."

13 things that do not make sense.

the ten greatest books about rock & roll.

"i despise you and your so-called taste."

so, that's the house in the picture there. yep. i especially like the dead grass in the front there. nice touch.

mmmmm...smells like 5,000 groupies.

one of life's burning questions.

happy hamburger month, everyone.

of course the answer is YES. duh.

would ya look at all that hair!!

malkovich malkovich malkovich malkovich...malkovich.

i'm sure that july 4th release date of "american v" is a total accident...

how to light matches with your thumb.

"Bob Dylan's Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, an object lesson in filth...

The opening track, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 reminds me of a pre-teen violinist playing scales over and over in some desperate attempt to make music, tears running down their chubby cheeks with every screech. I wish it wouldn't. What possesses people to make music that sounds like track 3, The Times They Are A-Changin'? The bastard lovechild of Joe Dolce and Mariah Carey? I'm not offering further opinion because I'm not listening to it again. Ever. The sound of that buzzing, ringing sound you get if you stick your fingers in a wall socket that track eight, I Want You so accurately reproduces is relieved only by the fact there are no pictures to go with it. In fact, there's no excuse for people buying this and taking it into their homes to tortute their innocent children.

this sure is a slow internet day.

nothing really going on at all. personally speaking, the house hunt is getting hot n' heavy, so that's kind of exciting. it seems like all we do lately is look at houses...we found something last night that would be perfect. awesome location, beautiful view from every angle, great yard, porch, doesn't need a whole lot of work on the outside...except that the house reeked of cat pee so severely that i almost passed out. literally. i thought i was gonna puke. it was insane. i think whoever lived there must've had 267 cats and a few dogs. and then died in there. ugh. so we would have to rip out all the carpets, re-do all the floors, scrub the place from top to bottom, paint, etc. but it's really cute with a really amazing yard that is HUGE and has big old trees and a pink flowering dogwod and ivy...*sigh* it really is incredible. but, it needs a lot of work. to be honest, i don't even know what the inside looks like...i was in & out of that walk-through like The Flash. it was awful. but---it could be really, really cute.

man, this is stressful. but an exciting kind of stressful, i guess. maybe we should be doing this...?

p.s. new sonic youth song here, charlie sheen's mean voicemails to denise richards here, jared leto mistakenly thinks his band is relevant here.