Bloggio, Bloggio … Where for art thou Bloggio?

Apparently not keeping your blog more up to date can have far reaching consequences, including adversely effecting the global economy. So, I am sorry world, my bad. (Sorry, that is the best I have right now).

I have no excuses for not writing more frequently, trust me I have looked. Oh yes I did! (wiggling my neck around like a cobra on a Red Bull overdose.)

In fact, here are some random excuses, most pertaining to work, I found while conducting my “research”. I categorized them for the sake of organization and OCD.

1. Boring:  My cell phone was set to silent mode and I use it as my alarm clock, so it went off on time but I didn’t hear it to wake up.
2. Gross: My cat just vomited.
3. Extensive: I really want to come to work but my headache was making my feet act funny and I fell over when I tried to stand and broke my glasses, then the dog started growling at me and I had to lock myself in the bathroom, only to notice mold on the grout lines, which  led me to dialing 911 thinking that I may have been exposed to an apocalyptic, world ending disease, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Mayans concerning no Christmas for 2012!
4. Honest: Sorry I missed your wedding, but I just don’t like you.
5. Enabled: My Mom didn’t wake me up in time.
6. Admirable: I was busy solving world hunger, global warming, and who shot JFK.
7. Creepy: The water bed in my 1970’s van burst, shorting out my Mr. Microphone and my favorite book on picking up chics.
8. Disturbing: When I got up this morning I accidentally took two Ex-Lax in addition to my Prozac. I can’t get off the toilet, but I feel great about it.
9. Plausible: I cut myself shaving this morning and I died.
10. Threatening: I can’t come in to work today because I’ll be stalking my previous boss, who fired me for not showing up for work. OK??!!?

I am quite sure there are much better ones out there, so post away, give us your best “excuse”.

Floor score and seven years ago …

In keeping with my monk-like legacy of braving Wizards, Dragons, and Goblins in my thirst for knowledge, I took on the arduous process of typing in “Flooring” in Google and cautiously striking the “Enter” button on my keyboard. Its a miracle I am even alive to talk about it.

Evidently, floors have been around for a long time. Who knew? Ever since Wilma had to clean up behind Fred and that damn cat that keeps coming back in, flooring has been important to most people. Interestingly enough, the most common type of flooring up until Colonial America was dirt. Can you imagine? No one is going to complain about how dirty the floor is, that you are tracking poo everywhere, or that you set the carpet on fire … again. Pretty awesome. Believe it or not, they had floor mats, even then, to wipe mud off of your feet so you didn’t track it in on the custom, hand packed dirt floor. Crazy.

Deena and I decided to swap out the flooring in the farm house prior to moving in, there is just no better time and the existing carpeting looks as if Wilma has been slacking … like … drastically slacking. WILLLLMAAA!!

We knew right away that we wanted something rustic, simple, environmentally friendly, and low maintenance. Oh and did I mention cheap? Apparently it is taboo to head into your local flooring store and if you can have 13,572 of their short, 4″ samples. Talk about grouchy people. Uhmm … Hello … you sell flooring. Can you say dream job? I know, right?

I had no idea there were SO many types of flooring and options out there … hardwood (which encompasses softwood, just try to figure that one out), engineered, laminates, bamboo, tile, vinyl, stone, pebbles, carpet and dirt … oh wait, I already mentioned dirt. Then there are all the “options” you can get … handscraped, matched ends, reclaimed (used wood costs more than new …. soooo … yeah), and plastic to put over your flooring if you are a mobster and need to get rid Tommy Two Toes. Then there are moisture barriers and underlayments. Are you on a slab or plywood/MDF subfloor? Are you going to stain, dye, or paint your floor? What about finish? Poly, Oil, Wax, etc. Sheen? Mat, Satin, Semi-Gloss, High Gloss …

Wow, I am just tired typing this … geesh! I don’t want to join the local “Guys that know a lot about floors and stuff anonymous”, I just want some flooring!!

After much self-education and long days grueling of research, I decided just to let Deena decide! LOL … actually no. We both spent a ton of time looking online, visiting stores, and educating ourselves. We are SO super smart now … if Jeopardy has a Flooring Week … Ooooooo Yaw! Look out Alex Trebek and Sean Connery! But I digress. We finally settled on a good, unfinished white pine, from a renewable source. We love the rustic look. It will indeed get scratched and dented over time, and that is fine by us … it will build the floor’s character. We are going to pre-finish the boards prior to installation, allowing us to customize each board, giving it an even more rustic look. Some boards will have a lighter tone, others a darker tone. And yes, the flooring was super cheap too! 🙂

We are heading to pick out our stain and finishing treatment this afternoon. And I think we have settled on paint colors as well. We will post all of those here in a few days.

The Curiosity Mars Rover

Lastly, I wanted to finish up with something completely unrelated. The new Mars Science Laboratory/Rover, Curiosity, is slated to complete its 9-month journey to the Red Planet, making its landing late Sunday night, early Monday morning at 1:31 am EDT. I am super excited and pretty nervous. This is by far the heaviest rover yet AND NASA is using a brand new, completely unproven landing system called the sky crane. Its all  very interesting. If you want to check it out, here is the mission’s webpage on the Internets: Mars Science Laboratory.