Not MIA, just IA...

Maybe that post title isn't very self-explanatory, so here you go...

Not Missing in Action, just in Action...

Meaning that things have just been topsy-turvy around here.  Lots has been going on - let me enlighten you.

WORK-RELATED:
My company has been laying people off for the past year or so, and while I've never really been nervous about my job, now I am.  And not so much about getting laid off, but more about not being able to do my new job...

I've always been a part of a department that sort of flew under the radar for the most part.  We brought in $20 million so I'm sure if we DIDN'T bring it in, we'd have been noticed, but for the most part, since we consistently made our numbers we sort of never drew attention to ourselves.  The irony is we were always ticked off that we were being treated as the "red-headed step-children," as my colleague would say. 

NOW, however, my job description has changed and I've been told I have to toot my own horn and the horn of my new department, that NOW we WANT attention brought to our division and I have to contribute to that.

My job has changed.  I'm now going to be specializing a particular subject category, focusing not on all the accounts in my geographical territory, but on a handful (25 or 30) key accounts that are supposed to be the focus of my attention and the attention of the company.  I have to grow their business, proactively expand our volume of sales with these customers, and make sure everyone knows what I'm doing, how I'm doing it and how successful I'm being.

HEALTH-RELATED:
I think I've mentioned the chronic bursitis in my hips.  I also have two knees (!), both with a torn meniscus and arthritis.  I have seen my GP, an orthopedist, an acupuncturist, a rheumatoid arthritis specialist, and most recently an orthopedic surgeon, the one who did hubby's shoulder surgery.

Regarding my hips - they hurt.  They hurt all the time.  I really don't want to be taking anti-inflammatories every day, and I really don't want to start with cortisone shots at age 52 (who knows how much shot-related deterioration I'll have in the next 30 years...).  But I'm not sure what else to do.  I've gone for therapy, taken yoga, done some stretching at the gym, and nothing has relieved the pain.  I seriously walk about 20 feet or so before I'm walking relatively normally, after I've been seated for a while and my hips have stiffened up.  I just called a radio doctor this weekend and he's recommended some alternative treatment.  I'm in enough pain to follow up on his website...

Regarding my knees - the surgeon said he'd recommend surgery on my left knee.  It's funny, I first had trouble with my right knee last December.  I'd gone shopping for the day and my knee hurt so much that I really thought, at the time, that I would have to call J to come and get me, that I wouldn't be able to drive home.  So I started seeing doctors about my right knee.  NOW it's my left one that's worse, and while the pain isn't as severe as the one day in December, it's constant.  I feel stiffness and pain, like a tight muscle or tendon, on the back of my knee, and it's constant.  Again, when I'm sitting, it takes me a long time to get up and walk.

So I made an appointment with another orthopedic surgeon, the one who just operated on our friend K.  K has had 20 years worth of trouble with his knees, and he was up and around within a week, actually up and around the next day, but functioning almost normally within a week, with painkillers only one day, and Advil for a few days.  I go on November 6.

FAMILY-RELATED:
Just worrying about a sister who's not as happy as she should be...  and hoping all my family stays healthy and safe...

We're waiting for a new great-nephew to be born.  October 18th was his due date, but apparently he's real comfy and in no hurry to be born, so if he doesn't decide to make an appearance on his own, R has to be in the hospital at 1:30am Friday morning and they'll induce.  I'm leaving for New Orleans Saturday morning so that's not great timing as far as I'm concerned.  On my last business trip I missed a family funeral.  It looks like I'm going to miss a baby this time around...

And my holiday resolution, which has to start being implemented NOW -- I HAVE to clean this house.  Thank goodness I have a lot of days off left to take this year so I'll do it and get the house ready for the holidays.  There won't be too much of that staying home and watching TV and eating bon-bons I'm so used to...

And just for fun, here are a few photos I've taken that you might enjoy...

This is Dobby who was originally named Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) except that when my daughter called her, the dog would sit instead of come, thinking she was saying "Sit."

Took this photo at the lake this past weekend, with nothing but my iPhone.  Even I'm impressed with this picture...

This is the rocking horse hubby made for the nephew-to-be.  He made a cradle for our great niece and planned to make another but the kids freaked out and said the cradle was an heirloom and they were going to pass it along to each other as needed.  So J decided to make a rocking horse this time, even before we knew they were having a boy.

This is my new kitchen at the lake house - I don't have a photo (yet) of the backsplash up and grouted, but here's a shot of the new cabinets and counters and appliances, even though the counters are messy with tools and grout...

And another iPhone photo I love, the view from my office window, unfiltered.

We were at Sam's Club a few weekends ago, and we were walking to our car when we saw this, 2 dogs in the back of the SUV, no owner, no one in the car (and I checked)...  They were just hanging there, waiting for their people...

Our new kitchen

Tearing out the old... My beautiful farmhouse sink cracked. I'm so disappointed...

Some of the cabinets in, some with doors, stove is not hooked up yet...

Putting that cabinet over the refrigerator was tough!

Working on gas pipes...

It took all day Saturday, but we're now ready for counters...

 

I'll look for curtains and "stuff" later: can't wait to put food away...

New Floor Update

I realized when I was responding to a post on Young House Love that I'd never posted a photo of the new floor at the lake house.  So how could I point them to a photo if I never posted one?  So here you go, photos of before, during and after.  And yes, hubby did much of this with a bum arm, prior to surgery...

Keep in mind we only took these photos for ourselves, not for publication, so don't count on any white balancing, cleaning up of clutter in the background, or consistent points of view...

 

 

I'll have to take photos this weekend when we tear out the kitchen island that is at the opposite end of the room in this last photo, to your left if you're standing where I was when I took the photo.  The floor will be extended into the kitchen then all the new cabinets and appliances will be installed.  Then I'll have to take some more photos!

Not Too Happy with Home Depot Today...

SO, we went to Home Depot and surprise, I'm getting the cabinet style I wanted!  Off white, traditional with a twist of modern, and a hazelnut glaze to add a little distressed look to the finish.

C was our designer.  Not that he had too hard a job:  there really is only one place to put the refrigerator and that's what's been holding us up all these years, trying to imagine another option...  Nope, no other option available.  But he DID get me a stove on the wall, not in the island, so I'm happy about that!

He explained that Home Depot does their own measuring now, and that we'd have to pay $99 for the measuring, but it would be credited to the cabinet purchase down the road.  We explained the house was not here in town, but up at the lake, at our weekend home and he said, "No problem!  We go all over NJ!"

Yea, sure you do...  So Steve called us and it turns out Steve doesn't go past Dover.  So he referred us to Pablo and Pablo doesn't work weekends.  He works 15-hour days and apparently deserves his weekends to himself.  Well, Pablo, Home Depot told us there's no problem getting the measurements done on Saturday, but that of course, those appointments go fast so we might have to wait a couple of weeks.

WHICH we were prepared to wait for anyway 'cause hubby dearest is having his shoulder surgery done on March 4.  He won't be installing cabinets any time soon...  But Pablo was a bit nasty and for the absolute FIRST TIME IN 23 YEARS, I heard my husband get snippy on the phone with the guy:  he sounded JUST LIKE I WOULD HAVE!  I'm so proud!

So Pablo starts backpedaling when J complains that we're getting the run around, the HD said we could get a weekend appointment at some point, that he's the SECOND person we have spoken with and if he's unwilling to do his job, we'll go back to HD and just get our money back and take our $15000 kitchen somewhere else...  All of a sudden he can come on Sunday - get this:  "on my own time, at 6:30am."

FIRST of all, Pablo, you're getting paid for your time.  You're not doing this out of the kindness (ha!) of your heart!  And SECOND, 6:30am?  Really?  You'd better be there at 6:30am or you'll be subject to the wrath of Krys since she's going to have to get up at around 5:45am on a Sunday, on a Sunday in the middle of a long weekend!  If the phone rings with some nonsense about "I can't find your street, it's not on Mapquest," ALL BETS ARE OFF, PEOPLE!  Pablo is in for some trouble!  (After he accurately measures my kitchen, of course...)

Two fireplaces in February!!!

I had this post ready for 2 weeks but had some trouble uploading the photos from work, so it had to wait until I had some uninterrupted time at home with my laptop...  Jack was sick yesterday; he even stayed home from work.  (You KNOW he had to be feeling not-so-good!  In fact, he's taking a nap now; we're staying in today so he can get his strength back.)

After spending a few weekends doing the bedroom fireplace, it took hubby ONE.DAY to put up the stacked stone on the sitting room fireplace.

I know you're all thinking he's incredible, and he is, but we were working with an advantage:  the gas fireplaces were installed by the fireplace people when we put on the addition, so all he had to do regarding prep work was remove sheetrock, add tileboard, mix mastic, and slap those tiles up there!  The tiles were 4-5 stones high, and 24" long, so that made it a LOT easier.  Also, FYI, we bought the bedroom rock 2 years ago but just got to the project this month; they were even blocks, all rectangular.  The sitting room fireplace stone was ordered a couple of weeks ago, picked up on the Friday of our long weekend, and they've improved the design (yes, it's a different company, too):  they had interlocking ends, about 2" long on each 24" tile, so you see far fewer "seams" where we had to cut and modify to fill in spaces.

I am not the person to describe this in technical detail, so I hope that was enough of an explanation that you could figure it out!!!  Suffice it to say, I think these new fireplace surrounds add a LOT of oomph to those two rooms!!!

This is the one in our bedroom.  It's not a deep mantle; neither of them is.  I'm going to lean framed photos and/or a mirror against it, since hanging photos on a rock wall would mean damaging the rock...

This is the one on the other side, in the sitting room.  The fireplace is see-through and throws heat on both sides.  I'll put framed pictures on this side, too, most probably the focal one will be the painting we had done in Vegas by one of those street painters.  You can click on this link to see what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzi_BGnY0Vc  We had one done in greens and browns, trees and a lake, to remind us of our lake house...  I'll take a photo of it and post it when I can...