So this nursery has turned out to be a TON harder than I ever imagined… no … not the wood work – the paint! Really?!? Is painting really that hard? Apparently so
So after the lines were all taped off I went ahead and through the high gloss paint on there to get the different sheens which will create the appearance of 2 different colors. In reality they are the exact same color with two sheens. Most people use a flat for the entire wall, tape off the stripes, and then paint the semi gloss paint in the taped of stripes. Well, since it will be in a nursery, we decided to go with a satin paint and then use a high gloss to create the sheen contrast. – yeah- terrible idea. So after spending HOURS taping off the high gloss stripes and then painting them, we pulled some of the tape down only to find out that we could not see the difference in the sheens very well at all. We then tried to put a high gloss polyurethane over the high gloss stripes to add additional sheen – no go!
Flash makes it look better... look at right wall
After debating on whether to give up on this project or move the tape over to the satin stripes (which is another 3 hours of work alone) I decided to do it right. I took all of the tape down, moved it all over to the satin and bought another gallon of the paint – this time in flat like it should have been the whole time. I painted the stripes as well as the rest of the walls (other than the high gloss stripes) so that it would all match. I was through the roof livid to find out that we still could not see the stripes. Talk about mad - I was piiiiiissed! I was so frustrated. I wasted so many hours in this nursery and still dont have the look that we want and it is the paint that is giving us such a hard time! Really?!?!
So after much debate I decided to bring the flat paint back up to Lowes and have them add an additional 25% of the color back into the paint. Came back home and painted just the stripes in this new very slightly darker color. Removed the tape and ….. PRESTO! it worked!!!
Stripes Painted
I have no clue why the normal method for this type of look was such a failure for us… I just dont get it, but I do know that this worked for us: Flat paint with +25% color next to a high gloss of the same exact color (other than the +25%).
It looks great and we are so excited about having this done. I just need to retape a bunch of the stripes and fix where the paint decided to pull the paint off of the wall. Unfortunately, this whole process took too long and the tape really started to adhere to the walls too much.
Check out the gallery for pics of the nursery in its current state!
So after yesterday’s adventure to the ER I tried to make a cardiologist appt so that we can get my meds and anything else worked out. After speaking with the recommended cardiologist I found out that the quickest that they could get me in was on Friday at 4:00 PM. I made the appointment but decided to call my thyroid doctor that prescribed me the original medication to see if I could get in to see him. When I did, they had an appt at 1:20 so I grabbed it.
I spoke with him about my current energy levels (read lack of energy) as well as my high blood pressure. He decided to change my medication over to a new pill and see how that goes as well as run a ton of labs. I dont think I have any blood left in me… they literally took like 10 little bottles. It was nuts. I am glad that I did not pass out while they were doing it because let me tell you – I am a WUSS!
So after getting back from the dr’s office I headed straight to CVS to get the prescription filled. I waited around for it and when it was finally ready I asked if it was part of the generic 90 day supply for 9.99 play that I signed up for. The lady said no. I asked her if it was generic and she stated yes… then I asked the price – $65!! I told her she can keep it. I am not spending $65 a month on pills when the ones I am taking are $9.99 for 3 months. Yea I agree they are not working… so up the dosage of find an alternative… not one that costs 6 times more for 2 months less! I will be making a phone call tomorrow morning to get a new prescription. I refuse to pay that much – not going to happen.
So I am at square zero until I get a new medication. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.
So yesterday I was driving home from working in Covington and lunch with my cousin Justin when I began just not feeling right. I was heading down 285 when I started feeling some pressure in my chest and then by the time I hit 400 I was beginning to feel light headed and my pulse was noticeably faster. I knew I had a ton of work to do, my cell phone battery was on its last leg but this was dangerous. I headed to the Walmart across from Northside Hospital (Forsyth) to check my blood pressure before heading to the house – unfortuantely the readings did not allow me to go home.
I called Alisha and asked her to call a local doctor to see if they could see me before the end of the day. They said that they would not do so and that I needed to go to the ER. My readings were a pulse of 98 and 171 over 95. Typing them just makes me sick. I got to the ER at about 2:00 and was there until just before 7:00 PM. I had no phone as it died, no computer as it was also dead, and no one to keep me company as we decided that it would be better for Alisha to stay home as the ER is not the place for a pregnant woman to be hanging out. They ran an ECG, a ultrasound of my heart, blood work, as well as an x-ray of my heart. After several hours all of these tests came back normal and they allowed me to go home but asked that I see a Cardiologist in the morning.
This flat out sucks. I am 26 years old and am dealing with stuff people twice my age start to worry about. ugh!
All in all, i am fine. I just need to have my blood pressure medication tweaked so that it will regulate my BP better.
So being a dad (or knowing you will be soon) really does change a lot about what you do. I was a motorcycle addict ( LOL) and miss it dearly. I LOVED riding but know what it puts me in too much danger and I could not fathom not being around to support my wife, kids, and brothers in the future. I used to ride around NEVER wearing my seatbelt in the car – until a friend from high school was killed recently for not doing so. I live lived on my cell phone while driving as I searched the web, texted, updated facebook, etc. just like any other person right???
Well watch the video below. It really just puts things into perspective. Just like anyone else, I knew this was a risk the whole time, but if this video stops even 1 person from creating a wreck like this it is a success. This video was made in Wales, but is relevant around the world!
Stop Texting while driving people…. it’s not worth the risk to you…. and as you see from this video, the others around you.
So on Saturday night at my uncle’s house my aunt thought it would be a good idea to break out a blood pressure monitor.. yeah bad idea / buzzkill.
Me tomorrow
I knew that my blood pressure had been slightly high for a while now. It really bothers me when I think about it because I am only 26 years old… why the hell should I have high blood pressure. Well Alisha conned me into taking the test and of course it came back at 173 over 116. I almost died from the numbers alone. It totally ruined my night really.
It really ticks me off to think that I am so damn young and have to worry about crap like this. I work out 2 – 3 times a week (including a 2 mile run), eat well most of the time, and have never smoked a day in my life. The only thing I do is drink on the weekends. A lot of this blog mentions our trips to Taco Mac and my love for beer, but I don’t touch a drink during the week unless we go to Taco Mac which has not happened all that much during the week recently. I don’t crave been, I simply enjoy it.
Well… time to revisit sodium intake, diet, and exercise. I am so pissed! I picked up a bottle of Omega-3 vitamins and DHEA and am keeping an eye on sodium now as well. As if eating well wasn’t hard enough now I have to make sure there is not too much sodium too…. as Dan says FML LOL.
This morning I got bored and was trying to find things to do… so i decided to edit the blog site a little more (look to the right.. the new icons below the header). While doing so, I decided that this was the end of the road for MySpace. I had not logged into it since August of last year and could not care less about the site. With all the stupid music that started on its own and childish setup I decided it was worthless.
Facebook is much cleaner, faster, and better. Goodbye MySpace…. you suck!
So I am just as interested in this show as Alisha is and last night was their announcement of their divorce. I think that it is pretty evident that Jon just wants to live some separate life. His kids dont seem to matter much anymore and Kate made it a point to mention that she was trying to make this work but he wont really talk about it.
Sad stuff. Those poor kids! And poor Kate. Yes, she is a bitch… and quite often, but she is no more a bitch now than she has been for years… years before they married. That is a lot of responsibility to take on by yourself. She has no choice at this point, but it is sad.
And how exactly are you going to care well for your kids when you are looking at apartments in Trump’s Place in New York? huh???
This past week I stepped on the scale for the first time in a while. Big mistake – or was it? I almost had a heart attack when I saw that I was back up to 190 pounds. Seriously!???!!! No Fing way!! Maybe some of that was just water weight from a bad day, but I don’t care. That was way more than I was willing to handle.
Last year Alisha and I got pretty serious about losing weight and both of us lost a considerable amount of weight. We were so happy with ourselves and then we were even happier when we realized we were expecting a child. Unfortunately the expectation became a loss shortly after and it really was the crutch and collapse of my diet. Alisha has done quite a bit better than I about keeping to her eating habits, but I was reckless and stupid about my eating choices including an increase in beer consumption . Now it is time to get back into the groove. Yes, I do enjoy beer, and yes, I will still brew – but I will consume much less of it than I was. Whenever the guys came over, I’d have a beer – not anymore. I gotta be realistic with myself about how much beer I can drink and still loose weight. And don’t get it twisted. I am far from an alcoholic and no I do not drink beer everyday – not even every other day. And when I do it is one or two at a time.
I have gone back to eating well. I have always followed a lot of Men’s Health’s “diet” called the Abs Diet. It is much less of a diet than people expect when they hear the word diet and bases itself of 12 foods that are packed with health and nutrition. Those foods can be seen here. Because I like to know why things are better or worse, I decided to pick up the book that was written by the Editor in Chief of Men’s Health magazine. This book explains why this way of eating does work – scientifically, and talks about why other fab diets do not work long term. In addition it gives you a good work out routine and many different recipes for food and smoothies to enjoy while eating well. While am committing to eating much better, I will allow myself to still live. We will still enjoy ourselves day-to-day just in a healthier way. I will still do Taco Mac Thursdays with the guys – I just will no longer eat there. After all, it is bad enough I am drinking the beer, but adding an extra 1500 calories with a Buffalo Fried Chicken Sandwich and fries I can no longer stomach.
In addition to eating well, I will be going this afternoon to sign up for a gym. Since I am going, Alisha decided to join me and will be coming as well. We will be going to Golds Gym in Cumming for the next several months and then will decide if we will stay there or switch over to the new Atlanta Fitness that is opening up on Windmere pkwy in July.
I have to get back down to my weight I was before our miscarriage. It is a shame that I let myself go. And while it does not look like a ton of weight that I have put on at all, I know that it is too much. So to all the guys I hang with, make fun of me being a bitch all you want. I gots lbs to shed!
Damnit! The bill that would allow sales of alcohol on Sunday has failed again!!!!
I just cant for the life of me figure out what it is about this bill that they will not pass. You can go to a bar on a Sunday, get hammered and then drive home, but I cant go out and get beer/wine/liquor and bring it to your home for yourself, an unexpected party, or to purchase more for an ongoing party?? WTF?!
This is a revenue opportunity Georgia. Do you not need money anymore Georgia??
So as you may know the prelude’s check engine light came on recently and I found out that it was the catalytic converter that was bad. After almost replacing it myself, I realized that I did not have any bolts (cause the stock ones are welded onto their cat ) I had to put it all back together and I just took it to a shop for them to do. When I went to pick the car up from them replacing the cat, I made it about 1/4 mile up the road before my car threw another check engine light … this time for the O2 sensor. I was still trying to get this all done before my birthday but I had to hurry. So I found the nearly $200 O2 sensor online for about $50 bucks shipped from a company in North Georgia. I received the sensor in 2 days and installed it, but it was not enough time for me to get enough mileage on the cleared ECU (you need 100 miles after resetting your car’s computer or you will automatically fail for lack of data in the computer). I knowingly failed my emissions so that I could pay my taxes and then took the car back to the shop to have a oil switch replaced that was leaking oil again. When I picked the car up from getting that done… guess what… another issue! Dead battery!
So after replacing my battery I took the car for a test ride to make sure that all was well. It wasn’t. The car turned off on my 3 times in a 6 mile trip. So I went back online racking my brain to figure out what the heck was wrong. Dan came over yesterday to help me mess with it… and there was nothing to mess with. The car drove perfectly. It was absolutely crazy. I mean, I guess I am not complaining, but I just dont want to have issues in rush hour traffic on Monday when I decided that it is safe to take out.
As an ode to the prelude: Adam Sandler’s Piece of Shit Car – not work safe only for language (shit)
Everyday I can see how many viewers we have on our blog and then I compare that to the number of comments that we get… they dont add up . It is a fraction only Dan can figure out.
Do you all just agree with everything that I say? Noone disagrees? No one thinks anything is funny? No one thinks what we did was stupid?
So as you may have read earlier, my freaking check engine light came on about 2 weeks before my birthday (with holidays and vacation in between) which leaves me very little time to get it fixed. I ordered the cat which was there when i got back. I came home from work on Thursday to install it which only appeared to consist of 6 bolts… yeah… not the case.
After 4 hours of squeezing under my car on ramps, trying to break loose 8 year old bolts, i got the cat off of the car. Then i tried to remove the O2 sensor.. yeah.. that didnt work. I dont have a O2 socket. In addition, i found out that the cat I ordered didnt come with bolts and the stock ones are permanently welded onto the stock cat. So after all of that time and being completely covered in grease, I had to put it ALL back where it came from.
What a freaking waste of time!
Now I need to get the cat installed professionally, reset the ECU, drive 100 miles, get emissions, and register my car… all before my Birthday!
. Now it is time to get back into the groove. Yes, I do enjoy beer, and yes, I will still brew – but I will consume much less of it than I was. Whenever the guys came over, I’d have a beer – not anymore. I gotta be realistic with myself about how much beer I can drink and still loose weight. And don’t get it twisted. I am far from an alcoholic and no I do not drink beer everyday – not even every other day. And when I do it is one or two at a time. 
