Chipping away at the little things

Despite a lingering ailment that just won't go away (a persistent fever that comes and goes - I've had it for over a week now!) we managed to get some of the little things done. You know the things of which I speak: those minute details that leave you scrambling at the 11th hour to get everything completed, even as guests are arriving at your door.

The big thing was getting the television hung in our living room. My in-laws came up from Iowa and my father-in-law's task was setting the bracket into place on a stud so we could mount the flat-screen T.V. from downstairs and move the old T.V., and its bulky, accompanying cabinet to the basement. This was done to free up space for my wife's daycare, and I have to say, I really like how it turned out. There is about 6" of cable that shows on the right hand side of the set that will drive me crazy, but after awhile I'm sure I won't even notice it's there.

So on Saturday night our daughter went back to Iowa with her 'Big' Grandma and Grandpa ('Little' Grandma and Grandpa are my folks, because they live in a smaller house) and that left us with only our Chunky 1-year-old son to contend with. We actually got most of the way through a movie Saturday night (the spooky foreign flick: 'The Devil's Backbone'), and Sunday Mel went scrapbooking while I took Chunk to the zoo. Originally, she was supposed to start work on this year's invites - but she seems to be at an impasse on that front (I'm not worried, sweety - it happens every year!)

In the meantime, while Chunk was napping, I set about working on what will be this year's treat bags - which involved more cutting with scissors... uuuuuuugh!) I should also mention that for the time being the big T.V. cabinet that was upstairs is now in the crawlspace - so we had to move out all the Halloween boxes to make room. This is something we usually don't do until my wife's birthday three weeks from now. So... while everything was already out, and we didn't have a soon-to-be-five-year-old hopping about like a lunatic and getting into everything, we decided to just take a peak and see what new stuff we got last year. A little early, yes, but still a lot of fun. I had forgotten that we purchased a ton of neat stuff last year that was something like 90% off after Halloween! Ya gotta love All Saints Day bargain shopping!

I also found time to spray-paint a few props and loaded the lumber for my graveyard fence into my in-law's car so they can be cut into the proper size, which I will then pick up over Labor Day weekend. I got a few other things done as well, which is impressive considering I generally felt like crap all weekend long. I'm hoping to shake this bug soon, because work on Halloween stuff will begin in earnest in the next few weeks (not to mention Iowa State Football kicks off this Thursday!)

P.S. This one is for my folks: Mel says: "Who the hell is Joe Biden?"

Hee hee...