Staycation Day 4

Amazingly enough, the dogs let me sleep in until 9am!  I actually had to prod them with a foot to make sure they were ok (Loki growled at me, so yes, they were fine).

First up, a trip to the most wonderful place on the planet!  No, not Disney, a place even more wondrous and fantabulus!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Its the land of minimalism, storage, and awesomeness!!!  Of course, being that it was labor day, everyone in the state of Maryland was here too, but that's ok, I discovered underground parking and packing lanes that apparently nobody else knew about.

Instead of rushing through the place like I have to do when Lobsterman goes with me (he HATES Ikea... BLASPHEMER!!!), I took my time, armed with my paper tape measure, pencil and map.  I sauntered through the displays and marveled at their wonderful simplicity and abundance of storage ideas.  It was at this point where I realized that it would just be easier to move into the Ikea than try to recreate it at my house, but I would have to forbid the world from walking through and I'm pretty sure the store wouldn't like that.

I bought some stuff with strange names like Flurbengadden, and Kevorstaggedon and whatever that would organize all of our junk and make it look cool and retro... or just pathetically half-assed cool and retro, but dammit I'm into organizing this week!

For some reason, the Ikea experience caused large amounts of sweat and a slight headache... probably because it was 90 degrees, gloomy and 400% humidity.

I drove home with my wonderful purchases, dragged them into the house and began putting one of the things together... and wishing a had a power drill for the 8,000 screws.  Yes, we have a power drill, but that would have required me to walk downstairs, get it, plug it in, find the right bit, and screw that, I'll just work those atrophied arm muscles.  I can't show you what I did, because its a surprise for Lobsterman.  Meeshka was very helpful in the putting together of the Ikea stuff.

I also got a new bathroom hamper for our dirty clothes.  We have a hamper thing that's pretty much worthless because its got three sections, but neither of us bother sorting clothes, so I moved that downstairs in the laundry room where its useful for pre-staging laundry.  I also got some storage bowls and containers that stack, and I threw out the mish-mash of tupperware that have no lids and are of no useful size.

After a much needed rest for my now shaking arms, I did some more clearing out of the back room as a torrential downpour kept me from finishing the trimming of grass out front.  The fact that we have large tufts of grass sprouting in strange places may have caused a very nice man to leave his business card with me.  I was polite and took it, but just one look at it made me toss it (not before taking a picture of it).  While I'm sure his grass cutting skills are fantastic, its the attention to detail of the card that made me skeptical about the services that may be rendered:

To be nice, I blocked out the identifying details and contact information, but... seriously... there is so much fail on this card I can't stand it.

Since the dump is open Tuesday, I shoved as much junk into the back of the RAV so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning, then did some reading and lounging the rest of the night... and started watching Hillbilly Handfishin, which is disturbing and like a freakin train wreck.

Staycation Day 1

In light of the dismal jobs report (and subsequent tanking of my 401K), I decided that I needed to go invest in some infrastructure jobs by going to Lowes:

While at Lowe's, I created/saved one job by asking an "associate" where on earth they hid the Ziploc Totes, which are the best invention since the spleen and are much sturdier than the stupid Space Bags that are made out of cellophane, rip if you look at them wrong, and leak the moment you suck air out of them.  Space Bags: expensive pieces of crap.  Ziploc Flexible Totes: manna from heaven.  Dear Ziploc, I can be bribed with freebies.

When I got home, I assembled my infrastructure:

Please note that the packaging had very large notices that these shelves are made from "green" technology.  So not only am I investing in infrastructure projects, but I am also supporting "earth friendly" products that create flimsy plastic that is made from soybean products that began to decompose the moment I removed it from the plastic wrap (made from normal plastic and was much stronger than the shelving), and in a pinch I can always eat the shelves.

Please note that on the right hand side now blocked by the shelving is a treadmill, which demonstrates how serious we both are about staying in shape.

The rest of the week will be spent going through the crap on the other side of the room (out of view of this photo for fear that one of you will submit our names to the Hoarders people), and most likely visiting the dump on a regular basis throughout staycation.  I have already found drywall and a glass screen door insert for a door we no longer have.