Good weekend

I had a pretty good weekend these past few days.

It really started Friday at work, when I took a break while downloading an enormous audio file to talk to someone I've wanted to talk to for a very long time. (Calling cards rock!) That set the tone for the days that followed. Later that night I got to chat with several people I had been looking forward to chatting with (including the lovely and talented Ashley, who is back online after a brief hiatus), although I think one of them fell asleep after an hour or so of chatting. (It was nearly 4:00 in the morning her time, so I can't take all the credit for putting her to sleep!)

Saturday morning I was up bright and early for a blood donation, the first since I went to Ireland in March. This was the first time I ever had to report that I had travelled to the UK, since part of that trip included a long weekend in London. Even the blood donation went well - the nurse was able to hit the vein in the first shot, and it didn't roll or misbehave in any way.

After that it was straight up to the house to scrape, sand, and prime the sideboards of the steps. Then I ran back home to get the Rustoleum I bought last year to paint the fence, along with some extra twine and a dozen more homemade WET PAINT signs. Then back to the house to paint the spikes on the top of the fence. The paint is a "hammered" style, intended to give the illusion of being worn and ideal for rough surfaces, and you can allegedly paint directly over rust. I sanded half the spikes, but just painted directly over the other half. We'll see what happens.

Painting in the heat after a long night of online chatting and a long morning of getting leaked is an odd experience. Even though I made sure I was getting plenty of fluids, occasional waves of weariness would wash over me. They passed, but left behind a residue of yearning for some reason.

In time the spikes were painted. Along the way I managed to dump half the can of Rustoleum all over my back porch, which will eventually need to be painted anyway. (It's really just a small concrete pad.) While searching for something to scrape it up with I realized that most of the paint was still good, so dumped 90% of it back into the can. (The rest I mopped up with paper towels.) It was at this point that my mom brought my nephews over to visit me. I was glad they hadn't visited five seconds after I had dumped the can.

By then the primer on the sides of the steps was dry and I was able to quickly apply the first coat of paint. After this I had a short break before 4:00 Mass. Since my church is just two blocks from my new house (mostly straight uphill) I decided to be all old-school about it and walk there. It took less time to walk than it would have to drive and park.

After Mass it was back to the house for the second coat on the sides of the steps, and then I mowed the lawn. And then home, to do whatever the hell I wanted to do without a twinge of guilt that I was wasting time. Which consisted of paying bills (including my second mortgage payment already, yayyyy!) and more online chatting.

Yesterday was light duty. Started off with more international chatting, a shower, then the nephews came to visit. Took them up to play with their cousins. After that, I moved a few more boxes of books into the house, took the WET PAINT signs off the fence, and went grocery shopping. I bought some odds and ends for the house - hot pads and oven mitts and Spongebob Squarepants coffee mugs and a little airtight container for tea. Then back home for more chatting interspersed with intense thunderstorms, then the first of the final episodes of Chapelle's Show, back online to help Rima set up a Sitemeter, and then bed.

Beautiful weather. Not too much money spent. Lots of stuff done. Lots of people talked to. Got to see the nephews. All in all, a good weekend. Here's looking forward to more like this.