So I finally got my middy cut.  I found a nice rockabilly stylist close to my parents house that specializes in vintage cuts.  She cut my hair for $55.  Its pricey for me since I have always cut my own hair or had my mom do it.  But she is great!  Very no drama and works out of a cute 2 chair salon in Newport Beach.  She even teachs the vintage cuts and styles at Paul Mitchel.

So, Thanksgiving weekend Johnny and I bought ourselves a brand new mattress.  We did some price shopping and found a mattress store that was having a grand opening sale.  Not only did we get a top notch mattress on sale but it was miss marked and we got it for 70% off the regular price(from our shopping around).  Gotta love California law that says they have to sell you the item for the marked price even if it is wrong.  Now we have a king size mattress to fit our mid century teak bedframe. 

I bought a dust mite zip cover and some dust mite covers for our current pillows.  I already mentioned the deal I got on sheets.  For the past 3 years I have asked my mom to make any quilts for us in a king size.  We have the basics for the new bed.  Slowly I have been pricing and buying shams/duvet covers.  I got a deal on a Restoration Hardware duvet and sham set on ebay.  They are used but in good condition.  I haven't put them on the bed because we do not have a comforter or king pillows yet. 

Because I am addicted to Restorations bedding I can't seem to start looking for retro/vintage bedding.  Any ideas?

Ugh!  I woke up this morning stiff in the hips and with 3 blisters on my feet!  How am I going to do my walk at the Naples Canal tonight!?  I did find my blister pads but I think moleskin is needed!  One blister is on the ball of my left foot.  I can tell its a a deep one rather than a surface bubble.  The other 2 are on my right foot- one on my heel where my shoe rubs and the second is on my baby toe.  Both of these are thin skinned and could be popped with a bit of pressure.  Any ideas to prevent them from getting worse on my 5 mile walk tonight?  Maybe I should wear my hiking boots rather than my walking shoes?

This weekend I need to pick up pillowcases.  I had gotten a steal of a deal on 350tc sateen sheets for our bed.  I got 4 sets for our king bed at $20 each NEW IN THE PACKAGE!  They are the same style/brand as the set we bought in November for $90.  Since we use 5 pillows on the bed at night the 2 king cases that come in each set is not enough.  The cases alone are $20 for 2 standard or king.  So I need to pick up at least 2 sets for each set of sheets if I want each grouping to match in color.  I know I'm being anal, but we have a chocolate brown set, black, blue, white and cream.  I want to pick up a set in baby blue in the next few months after I get the pillow cases.  So for now I will pick up cases for the chocolate and blue sets.  I have 3 coupons for Bed, Bath and Beyond which should help with the cost.

I really need to hit Restoration Hardware soon.  They are closing their Culver City store soon and everything is on sale!  I'm mostly looking for good deals on their shams and lampshade since we can't afford their products.  I'd love to have one of their sofas if I can train the cats not to scratch it up!  But Johnny and I have some RH Stickley/Mission furniture in our future when my parents pass(not for at least 20 years). 
Speaking of inheriting things... I'll also be getting their late 60s slate front track house.  That is going to be one BIG pain in the rear to restore/remodel to late 50s/early 60s.  My parents have granite counter tops in the kitchen as well as built-in appliances. They did leave the original cabinets even though the wood has been re-finished.  I'm not going to think about having to remove the Mexican paver tiles in the bathrooms and den! 

Enough about that!  Morbid thought...

It looks like we will be getting a new upstairs neighbor in February.  It seems the family upstairs stopped paying their rent back in October before we moved in.  We didn't find this out until we called the landlord after Thanksgiving to talk to him about the parking situation (we get 2 spots since the garage is toooo small for a normal car to pull in).  He gave them til Nov 30 to get out without penialty.  They never did so he started the eviction process.  He was awarded the eviction and received a judgement against them for all back rent!  He served them the eviction last week and gave them the offical notice of the lock out on Jan 15.  Well, they moved their junk out on Sunday and Monday.  They haven't been in the apartment the last 2 nights.  I have slept soooo sound!  This is important to me because they have been very rude to us the past 2 months!  They run up and down the stairs, yell all hours of the night, stomp around like a herd of elephants and park in our spots blocking access to our garage/storage.  We have even called to police on them!

Here are pictures of what we did with the laundry room...

Here are the pictures from the bathroom we restored back in March 2009.

First I'd like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone that has stuck around through my absence.  I know I have been gone a lot and haven't responded to messages or community duties.  The hell house took a lot out of us this past year.  Now that we are moved and 99% settled into our tiny apartment I should be around more to handle anything.

Second no resolutions for me.  I am making small goals to myself that will be hard not to keep.  My main goal is to go to sleep and get up with Johnny 5 nights/days a week.  This way I'm not up until 4am(like last night) and sleeping til noon.  Those sleep habits are bad for my hormone levels and could be the main reason they are off.(hypothyroidism be damned!).  My next goal is to be active for 5 minutes a day- everyday.  This could be a walk or something as silly as wrestling with the dogs on the carpet.  Sound good?  Start small and work up to bigger and better things.

I will be going through all my old entries and if they are personal in anyway they will be marked friends only.  As well as any pictures of myself and family.  I think I should go back to the original intent of this blog as a domestic diary or at least on the public end.  Mostly because I have an online stalker. 

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh tomatoes, sliced and chunked
• dash of dried basil (or a handful of fresh basil, crushed)
• dash of fresh ground black pepper
• dash of ground ginger
• 4-5 boiled italian sausages, sliced
• 3 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 lb. pizza or bread dough*
• 1/2 cup grated Low fat mozzarella

1. In a large saute pan, saute garlic and tomatoes over moderate heat for 6-8 minutes or until tender. Add sliced sausage and spices.  Cook until tomatoes are "sauced" or mushy.  Let mixture cool.

2. In a bowl, combine cooked sausage tomato mixture, mozzarella and parmesan.

3. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll each one out to about an 8 inch circle. Fill each circle with 1/4 of the mixture. Brush the edges of the dough with water and fold the dough over while pushing out any air trapped by the dough. Seal the edges well.

4. Place calzones on a baking sheet that was sprayed with pan spray. Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 25-30 minutes or until well browned. Remove from oven and transfer the calzones to a baking sheet to cool. Keep refrigerated until needed and warm in a microwave or oven before eating.

After all the stress and crap we dealt with at the hell house we are finally getting internet at home!  The installers come on Wed to hook us up. I will be able to post on a whim once we are hooked up.  I'm excited!  I'll be able to tell you all about everything!

Well, I haven't posted in a while because we have been packing and preparing for our move.  We are moving from the craftsman house of horrors to a 2 bedroom apartment at the end of the month.  Right now we are trying to sell off furniture and other appliances to keep our moving costs down and save on space in the adjoining garage.

I didn't want to move into an apartment but with few options we had to settle.  There are soooo many real estate scams out there!  Tenants subletting at the end of their own leases for 1/2 the true rent to make some quick cash... placement agencies that ask for large deposits before they let you even see the rentals!

Well, the exterminator came yesterday and set glue traps in the kitchen.  I decided to check them before I went to bed and found a mouse stuck to one.  He had his poor little head stuck to the glue and was trying to get out.  I woke Johnny up and forced him to dispose of it.  The last thing I wanted to do was go to bed KNOWING there was a trapped mouse in the kitchen.

For those that care about the issues Johnny and I are having with this house here is an update...

Feb 28, 2009, our landlord got a notice from the county health services that there were health violations with the house that needed to be fixed in 21 days.

March 17, 2009, none of the violations were fixed so I called the county to let them know.

March 21, 2009, the county inspector came out to the house to review the violations. He found a total of 26 major violations inside and out that the landlord had to fix in 21 days or be fined $300 each violation.

April 1, 2009, our landlord started scrambling to fix everything as the inspector was returning April 15. He moved off the property finally and took all his crap with him!

April 20, 2009, the inspector came and signed off on all the repairs. He then reported our landlord for having an illegal backhouse with tenant to the city safety inspectors office.

Now, our landlord needs to bring the backhouse up to code or tear it down to the ground!

Lou, our backhouse neighbor, is going to make our landlord pay through the nose!

I love it when the system works for the little guy and not the slumlord.

A quick update white I have a minute...

Johnny and I are not going to be parents. I have several cysts in my uterus. A larger one had burst and caused the pregnancy symptoms. Turns out I am in the early stages of a genetic condition that effects my fertility. My mother had her uterus yanked at 40 because of the heavy periods and the debilitating cramps caused by the overgrowth of cysts. Her mother had many miscarriages caused by the cysts as well.

Because of the now ever closing window of my fertility we have planned to talk about trying for a baby after we move out of the 100 year old Craftsman hell hole. (Rather than get into the mess that is this house I'll give you the skinny of it... rats, mice, roaches and disrepair)

Now I have to go pick Johnny up from work. I'll make some time later this week to update again.

Look what i found while harvesting artichokes! A wild bee hive in the pomegranet tree! Sorry about my spelling... Posting by phone.

Wed 05/13/2009 14:09 05132009029

Last night i finally got my long middy cut. It is past my shoulders but will look better when it is 6 inches longer. Pictures to come.

Sat 11/10/2007 01:24 11102007006

Pregnancy test came back negative. Guess i'm just a bit under the weather. Having some allergy tests done. I'm hoping that explains my headaches and "morning sickness"

Sun 04/12/2009 20:44 04122009019

A lot of things going on. Like i might be pregnant...

Mon 04/20/2009 15:48 04202009027

I wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays as I know not everyone on my friends list is christian. Hopefully I'll have some time soon to update you all on our living situation.

A lot has been going on on this end of things.  Not sure if you all want to read any of it so I have broken it down by topic behind cuts...

( Landlord from HELL! )
( Weighing the facts )

I have found my set of Francsican El Patio and even have a few serving pieces(a steal of a lot on Ebay for under $20 shipped!).  But I have a bug about another Francsican pattern I found at a thrift shop.  It is called Swing Time.  I found 2 berry bowls and a butter dish for $2 and had to have them.  They have a neat boomerang type pattern and a very un-Francsican look!  The colors are much more alive than the picture shows.  This would make a nice formal set for dinner parties.  But I am stuck on the mix-n-match idea my Mom mentioned when she saw my collection of patterns.  This pattern will look great on my kitchen wall with all the others!

We lost our internet connection.  To be honest we have been using our neighbors wireless signal.  If you don't password protect your service you deserve to have everyone using it!  Well, they sold their house and moved.  I have been using the wifi at the library this past week.  Its free and I don't have to go during business hours!  The signal reaches the parking lot.

The internet snafu has been causing me to miss offers on my ebay listings.  But the offers I have been getting are crappy.  I have a BIN of $74 on a nice hatbox suitcase and the offer was $10!  i banned that bidder asap.  It upsets me that people are not being fair with their offers.  I try to be fair when I make an offer and even add a note to the seller I am not trying to jerk them around.  I'm just looking for a great deal.

At least the internet issues will keep me from buying toooo much off ebay for the next few weeks.

I have been losing a little weight too!  I am down to 233 lbs this morning.  My waist is 37 inches!  It hasn't been that small in a year!  I will give the credit to biking to the library to use the computer and not eating after 7:30pm.  I have been trying to eat better but sometimes I feel like some sugary cookies or candy.  As long as I don't over do it I should be fine.

Hopefully I'll have internet at the house by the end of Feb.

We have been having really high electric bills so we have been discussing getting a new fridge since ours is from the 50s.  I want a refurbed vintage fridge but Johnny wants a NEW one.  I told him I'll settle for a Big Chill fridge.  20.9 cubic feet, ice maker and frost free!  But its $3200 delivered!  That is a bit more than we can afford.  I guess I'll have to save every penny without being too tight and get it behind Johnny's "back".

Our bathroom restoration is coming along.  I ordered the tiles and Johnny is almost done texturing the walls so I can paint them.  Once the tile is in we can set the toilet and put up the trim.  And we will be done!  I have been thinking of painting our kitchen cart white and using it as a storage cart in the bathroom.  Of course I'll use steel wool to de-rust the chrome and reset the wheels.  Hopefully I can find a stool for the vanity...

Well, time to go back home.  My butt is frozen from sitting here on the library steps!