Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
do-it-yourself

lumber rack, part 2

It was so nice yesterday that I suggested we take the wood out of the shop and install the lumber rack. Brian agreed. We’ve been wanting to do it for a few weeks, but the weather has not been cooperative on the weekends. Now that its Daylight Saving Time, we can start doing work during the week again.

Things were going pretty well last night until we found out that we were going to have to install the lag screws by hand because Brian didn’t have anything he could use with his drill. Of course, there were only like 50 of them. So, about 4 hours after we started, we finally finished. Funny thing is that there’s really not much more room for wood in that area. It’s just all spread out now. But, it sure looks nice. Maybe we’ll find some more room when we reorganize the other lumber rack…

books

hide and seek

Last Sunday, my mom lent us a stack of James Patterson books. I ripped through the first one, Hide and Seek, last week. I don’t know what it is about his books, but once I start reading them, I’m done before you know it.

This book was pretty good. As usual, there are the ridiculous plot twists, but I like them anyway. It’s fun to try and guess just how the main character is going to “get out of this one”. Of course, I never guess correctly, so that must be why I keep on reading.

This was a story about a woman who was on trial for the murder of her husband. Unfortunately for her, she also killed her first husband in self-defense and one of her boyfriends died of a heart attack while they were alone on a boat (that is, no witnesses). So, as you can imagine, this did not look good for her. But, as it goes in James Patterson novels, a few conspiracies and a half dozen plot twists later, everything works out for the main character.

weather

snow!

What is this–some cruel (albeit late) April Fools joke from Mother Nature? It’s calling for 5-9 inches of snow and we’re well on our way to those totals. If nothing else, at least it’s supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow and the 60s on Tuesday and Wednesday. But, this is uncalled for.

me

jacobug

When Jacob was born, there was a song we liked called Ladybug by a band called Agents of Oblivion. Brian always used to go around singing it to Jacob. So, Jacob ended up being called Jacobug or Bug for short. We have always associated ladybugs with Jacob. So, when I decided to get a tattoo in honor of my son, I naturally decided to go with a ladybug theme. I like tribal tattoos, so Brian came up with a design for me that implemented the ladybug idea.

Today, I had my appointment at State of the Art Tattooing. We are tattoo snobs, so we have to drive all the way to Winchester, Virginia to get tattooed. Anyway, this is the first time I was tattooed in seven years. Incidentally, today was Ripley’s 7th birthday (Happy Birthday, Rip!). The last time I was tattooed was a week or two after we got Ripley. Judy was kind enough to babysit her for me that day because you certainly can’t leave a 10 week old puppy alone in the house for 9 hours.

I was kind of apprehensive about today because I thought my first two tattoos hurt quite a bit. But, John started working and I thought, boy, this doesn’t hurt as much as I remembered. It all went well and only took a little over an hour. Then, Brian asked him to touch up a few spots on my last tattoo and then I remembered how much a tattoo can hurt. Much like real estate, it’s all about location, location, location!

Anyway, here’s a pic of the new ink.

health & wellness

quitters, inc.

Today was the big day. The day we’d never thought we’d see…Brian quit smoking (and it’s not because he’s dead). He was supposed to quit 9 years ago before we got married, but that didn’t quite work out for him. He finally decided that he was going to quit next year, right after his 35th birthday. But, the more we talked about it, the more he kept moving up the date.

Unlike the last time he tried (9 years ago), he did not go cold turkey. He’s on the patch and will be for 8 weeks. He also read this great book (thanks, Steve!) that really motivated him to quit right away. So, we’re all pretty happy about this.

But, you know what the real motivating factor was? The almighty dollar. I used to think that cost wasn’t an effective deterrent for smokers. Thankfully, I’ve been proven wrong.