I'm tired

Wow, what a weekend. Unfortunately I don't mean 'Wow, how great'. I mean, it was okay. I'm just tired.

Saturday I went into work, which is something I am staunchly against. To me, if an employer knows you'll come in on weekends to keep from getting too far behind, they'll feel confident that you will get the job done even when the job is too much. But, this time I decided to do it because we are in a state of transition at work, and everybody knows I'm up to my eyeballs in work. So, I told my boss that I would come in on Sat and get a big chunk of work done, but that I wanted to take another day off in its place. He agreed. So I worked from 9-5 without a lunch break. It did feel good to get so much done. I never have 8 hours of uninterrupted work time.

When I got home, I was hungry and in the mood for pizza so Joe & I went to CiCi's pizza and pasta buffet. Pretty good food, cheap price. Afterwards we went for a little drive, since it was still light outside and the neighborhoods are beautiful this time of year. Azaleas, cherry trees, dogwoods - you name, its here. There's nothing like Spring in DC. Then we went home and I watched decorating shows and Joe watched some lame movie on HBO.

Sunday I was determined to finish the painting in our office/library. Embarrassingly enough, I started painting this room in October. Yes, you read correctly. October. I had to do a lot of wall and ceiling repair, as the previous owners of this house appeared to have played darts on the walls in this room. Either that or they tried to wallpaper using postcards and pushpins. Either way, there were a lot of holes to fill before I could even start painting.

I had painted the ceiling and all 4 walls, and had started priming the trim. All the baseboards, door jams, door molding, window sashes, and window moldings had been painted with oil-based paint. Since I don't use oil-based paint, I had to prime all that trim before I could paint it with latex, or it wouldn't stick. So, as of October, I'd gotten the baseboards primed. Then, it seemed we got a bit of Indian Summer, so instead of continuing with the painting, Joe & I ran around with the top down on our car on the nice weekends. Then came Thanksgiving, then came the purchase of the new place at the beach, then Christmas, then moving from the old beach place to the new beach place, then came cleaning the old beach place and having some repairs done, then came showing/selling the old beach place. All the sudden, it was May.

So yesterday I was determined not to let the pretty weather or anything else distract me. I primed the doors and windows, took a quick break for lunch, then painted all of the trim. It took me 6 hours. I would have finished the room except I absolutely had to stop painting to get showered and shaved for Mother's Day.

Joe & I took his mother and my aunt to McCormick & Schmick's for Mother's Day dinner. It is a fine restaurant, and they loved it. I had a fabulous seafood fettucini alfredo. Joe had blue fish, and Evelyn and Mary both had the broiled seafood platter. Then we all got dessert! Needless to say, I was absolutely stuffed, and in no condition to finish the last little bit of painting at 9pm last night. I was so tired I went to bed at 10.

So this evening, after working a full day, I painted the attic door and the door jam and molding. It took 2 coats since the color is rather dark. Tomorrow, when there's enough light for me to be confident I don't need to touch up anymore on the door, we'll be ready to fold up the drop clothes, pull up the tape from the wood floor, vacuum, and put the furniture back where it belongs. I can't wait to see the finished room.

"Hi, my name is Mark, and I'm a cable-TV-decorating-show-aholic."