It's official, I love long weekends. You're probably thinking I'm a crazy person for not having come out and said it sooner, but I'd like to make it officially official.
Normally I can appreciate a long weekend as much as the next person but by the end of it I'm fine with going back to work, making a little more money, and not feeling obligated to clean my house. Well! Let me tell you, this weekend was everything I could have hoped it would be and more. Minus, of course, the fact that it never got hotter than 17° outside.
Friday night I went to body destroying yoga. It was so hardcore that I was still stiff from it yesterday. Even though it felt kind of like boot camp, I was glad I did it and was ready to greet the weekend with the ability to touch my toes. Friday night was also a big night for me as I finally achieved one of my long term goals. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but I finally suckered Karl into watching Firefly with me. I knew that if he just gave it a chance he'd be okay. We'd tried once before and only made it into the first ten minutes of the pilot before he gave up like a grumpy two year old. Well not this time!
Saturday was lovely because it involved breakfast with girls and their children. The real successes came later and spilled into Sunday, though, when I organized like a crazy person. The thing is, our place is rather small. Our bedroom is child sized with a queen bed, I hadn't mopped the floor in an indecent amount of time (we're talking months and months here), I had dishes starting to smell a little funky, and stuff was just... everywhere Before you start thinking horrible nasty things about my housekeeping skills I may be a little dramatic here. Our bedroom really is a disaster and always has been but it's so small that we don't spend any non-essential time in it so if we close the door it's easy to ignore. I wish we had a dishwasher but we don't and only have one sink to boot so the yoghurt container I'd rinsed out a couple days earlier was starting to make everything a little funky. But I fixed it! And, yes, we didn't really have many nights at home together last week so there was a serious lack of cooking going on so, horribly I know, there were dishes a week old sitting on the table.
Can I just say, I'm not actually a slob. I hate disgusting messes but I enjoy my free time even more. I don't actually mind making my home more livable, but it's an ongoing process already two years in the making. It's a journey of self discovery that involves storage and organizational woes. It is my latest Everest and always will be. It also involves less swearing and rage than my last Everest, so that's nice. It's hard to make a housecleaning mistake when you think about it. Organization is a tricky foe but it's not unconquerable. That I'm learning.
Back in February we bought an Expedit to replace our dinky little Jysk desk that was collecting garbage. It took us a month or two get the thing put together and organized (we're such go-getters!) but ever since it's been amazing. Actually amazing. If it's possible to be in love with a piece of furniture I might be in love with our Expedit. It wasn't very expensive and has a desk attachment we can buy if, in future, we need another desk. Plus it's really pretty and has some cute baskets. Okay, I'll stop gushing over furniture now.
So I woke up with Karl on Saturday around 7:30, a good hour earlier than planned, popped in my Harry Potter ebook (I'm now on The Half Blood Prince) and decided that it was a good day to work towards organization. I informed Karl that I was going to make some storage oriented purchases and that it was worth putting a little bit of money out there to save us from marital distress because when Karl and I fight it's usually about housework. Fact.
So I headed out armed with a positive outlook and a lovely friend to Home Sense. I was looking for something kind of like this but with a proper lid. I ended up finding a long, ottoman type folding box with a polka dot lid. And it was $20. It fit our towels and extra bed stuff perfectly. Score! To give you some perspective, I bought a couple boxes roughly half the ottoman's size that were $14.99 each at Zellers afterwards. You can only have so much long storage before it gets ridiculous. I did decided to take the plunge and get another ottoman style box, though, because we have an under the stairs space that is in serious need of loving. And a lot of rogue pillows.
So after some serious organizing on Saturday Karl and I went and finally saw The Avengers. It's been out for almost two months and was only playing at one theater so I wasn't expecting it to be packed. It was, though, and we got some of the last decent seats. Poor Karl was sitting beside a rather large man, though, and had to give up his arm space. I had a lot of thoughts and feelings about the movie. Since I hated Thor but enjoyed Iron Man I wasn't really sure what to expect. In the end, there were parts and characters I liked and those that I didn't. I didn't like the villain or Thor or the weird space aliens that were from across the universe. Not that I don't like space aliens from across the universe because I really do. I just don't like them mixed with demigods that talk like they're from a Jane Austen novel. It was good, though, and I guess I don't have as much to say about it as I thought I did. Huh.
Sunday was my most productive day ever. Ever. I ended up cleaning the house properly, sorting through some old stuff, cleaning the bathroom, and mopping the floor. It was a solid three hours of domesticity that in retrospect makes me think it must have been in serious disarray to have taken so long to deal with. I also did some picture shuffling and redecorated our minimal wall space by moving some photos and replacing them with some art of Karl and I on our wedding day. I say art because it's big and on canvas, but really it's just a blown up black and white photo of us looking attractive, windswept, and in love. My hair is also really awesome.
It's amazing what adding some art can do to a place. Because it's black and white the picture contrasts nicely with our green walls and opens it up a bit. I think. As much as you can open up a long wall in a converted garage.
My domesticity was followed by more Firefly (success!) and then twenty or so people coming over to celebrate Canada's 145th in style. And hoodies. It was the easiest BBQ we've ever had. Actually, it was the easiest gathering of people we've ever had. At the end of the night it took about ten minutes to get everything squared away and the house looking like it had a few hours earlier.
And Monday? Well, Monday we rested and it was good. I went down to the used bookstore and picked up four books, two of which were on my list, one that wasn't but I was still looking for, and one that I got because I was intrigued. It was an interesting mixture of mystery, chick lit, fantasy, and horror. Since I've only got one more Harry Potter book after this one I plan on spending an absurd amount of time reading my many used book store and book sale books over the next few months. If I like every series I bought the first books of I'm easily good to go for reading material until next summer. I may need to look into finding new book storage options too. Whoops.
Alright, I think that's enough updating.
In case you're wondering just how dismal the weather is here today, the post man was wearing shorts and his winter jacket. Lovely.
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