Abe: a dog with a job!

That's a horrible rendition, only because I'm at the law library in the courthouse and they only have Microsoft Photo Editor on here. I can't cut and paste very well... But anyway, Jay called me Wed. morning with news that Abe saw a mouse in the kitchen and let it get away. (He tried to gloss over the whole "mouse living in our house" thing with, "Guess who was almost a Dog with a Job?" because he LOVES that show.) Abe just sort of looked at it and tilted his head as if to say, "Wha's daaat?"

But when I got home that night, Jay was proudly walking around, gloating about how Abe is now truly a Dog with a Job, because he caught the mouse and killed it! Jay said, "Now I now how parents feel when their kid wins a soccer game!" I guess Abe was playing around with it, doing the little Abe dance where he lowers the front of his body onto the ground and lifts his butt up and wiggles it, then looks back and forth wildly. Then he took the mouse in his mouth, gave it a few quick whips of the head, and it was dead! We're very proud of our cat-like dog.

In other Indian Spring news, the desk on the porch that Mr. Hawkins left us is no more. We tried moving it into the back bedroom, but it wouldn't fit. So we tried to stand it on its side and move it in sideways, but since it was made out of particle board and not real wood, it just snapped on its one wimpy side. We had fun demolishing it, though.

New color for family room!

The family room is now orange!

Weeee! I don't think Jay likes it very much, as he keeps saying things like, "We could put lots of stuff in there" [meaning "to hide the color"], or, "Stuff to mute the color would be good," or, "I hate this color!" No, he didn't say that last thing. But he picked out the color for me because I like it a lot.

We'll be finishing moving today, hopefully, and then we'll slowly but surely put stuff where it belongs, put the finishing touches on the home improvements, and we'll be set!

And on the Sixth Day, God made floods.

We get back from hangin' at the Framingham Elks last night, the sixth day of being at the new house, and I look out the porch windows. I say to Jay, "Gee, our backyard looks really... reflective." We walk out, and the whole back half of the yard was under a huge pond! Seeing as how we just saw a picture of one of the ex-Elk Grand Exalted Rulers who was from Ogallala, Jay, Cuddy, and I dubbed the newly-formed pond "Lake Ogallala." It was seriously a huge body of water that went over into our neighbor's yard. But we woke up this morning and it had gone down mostly. Screw that spring!

We have no internet...

...so this post is going to highlight the fun things we've been doing. Also, we don't have our digital camera handy, so there are no pictures, unfortunately. We do have video, so at least there's something.

SAT: Ripped up carpet.
SUN: Ripped up carpet tacks; ripped down kitchen wallpaper.
Jay had bought a bunch of wallpaper-ripper-downer stuff, like chemicals and scrapers and scorers. So we said, "I wonder how stuck the wallpaper actually is to the wall," and we found that it practically fell off when we sneezed. So we ripped down the wallpaper in one fell swoop. We found baby-diarrhea brown underneath and we almost puked.
MON: Jay and Matt painted the kitchen. Jay rips off paneling in family room.
We got a lightish greenish color, but not minty. But on the wall it looks blue. It's verrrry nice. Three coats. Later in the evening Jay takes our new Wonderbar and rips off all the wood paneling in the family room.
TUE: Jay joint compounds the wall in family room.

Wednesday we both worked, didn't do much...
And today is Thursday, and I'm at work, but Jay's got the day off... we'll see what happens. I think more joint compounding and maybe some painting.

Oh, and last night we found out we have cable, although I'm not sure how. We got to watch the Celtics game, and that made Jay a happy boy. We also checked out Nick's Pizza Place in Ashland... the guy made us the wrong kind of pizza, so he made a mini one for me the right way and didn't charge us anything. What a country! It was tasty pizza..... mmmmmm.

Our first night at Indian Spring

Well, we survived our first night! We found out that the house makes lots of loud banging noises, which I'm assuming has something to do with pilot lights lighting things on fire here and there. Abe freakin' hates it so far... he's so freaked out. He's already pooped three times in the house and zero times outside, and we think he may have peed in the family room, or else someone spilled beer. We have to keep him in his cage most times, or else downstairs, but he just whines and whines. Poor puppy...

First thing we did was rip up all the carpets, because they were old, ugly, and nas-tay. We found old hardwood floors underneath, ripe with old water (and other fluid) stains, but we figure that's better than carpet any day. So we've been spending time crouched on the floor pulling out hundreds and hundreds of carpet tacks and nails. It sure is tough on the groin muscles, surprisingly!

So we still have more stuff to move; we'll do that today. Next up on the list of thing to do: rip down wallpaper, paint, get hardwoods refinished... then in the future: cut down pine trees that are 4 inches from the house, extend bathroom, and the most expensive: redo kitchen! Or a new roof... both are pipe dreams at this point. But we'll keep you posted.

A joyful event has turned somewhat sour...

Well, as Jay put it, we own the house but someone else is living there. Here's a synopsis: Last Sunday we got a call from the sellers saying that they want more time to move their stuff. We said.... no. You've known for a month and a half, and the closing date stays. Week goes by... we get a call Thursday saying that they still need more time. Thursday night's supposed to be the walk through, and we show up to "We need more time! Please!" from the wife and "Whatever. Just... whatever" from the husband. Oh, not to mention the large amount of CRAP still in the house! They don't seem to understand the, you know, legal contract, and the, you know, large amount of money involved with this... not to mention it's Christmastime and we can't realistically change OUR plans.

So we're giving them until noon Saturday to get all their crap out, but I highly doubt they'll be out. So that's the exciting news with the new house! Lesson learned: ummm, I haven't learned one yet. But it sure is frustrating when people just don't do what they're supposed to do! Stay tuned...

Welcome to Indian Spring Road!

In one week, Jason, Erin, and Abraham will move into this humble home. (The yellow explody-thingies aren't really there. Photoshop, people.) Please check back for more updates as we rip out carpet, tear down wallpaper, and enjoy the bottom-of-the-line stove whose warranty is good till 2007.