I was so productive last week, what with the wallpaper removal and painting and paper writing that I needed a break. The most productive thing I did all weekend was get up off the couch to change DVD’s. It was wonderful, although Sunday afternoon I got twitchy and felt like I needed to clean! Organize! Do something besides sit on my butt!

So I moved a few cans of paint down to the basement and decided that was enough.

There was a tree mishap on Saturday. I noticed it leaning the other day. Saturday it was leaning even more. I unscrewed it from its hold in the tree stand to discover that the wood is so soft, a couple of the screws were just sinking further and further into the stump. My boy and I got to work trying to fix it. He held it, I turned it, and tried re-screwing. (hehe). No dice – the wood was so soft. He came up with the idea to insert a piece of metal between the wood and the screw. We played around with that for a bit, and he got it to stand up straight. I went into the kitchen to finish cooking dinner when all of a sudden I heard “Flomp”.

Oh. My. God.

The entire tree was laying on its side. Mercifully, no ornaments were damaged. He got it all standing back up, set up fans to dry out the carpet, and now I won’t plug the tree in unless I’m home, lest it fall over again when I’m not here and start a fire.

Grades for my students were filed on Friday. Today I got an email from one student, questioning his grade. I rolled my eyes, because gosh, those students bother me. Yes, I dropped your lowest quiz grade. This is what you got on the final. Sorry you only got an “A-”. Sheesh. This kid strikes me as the one that doesn’t get anything besides “A’s” and this “A-” will kill his perfect 4.0.

Learn to live with disappointment kid.

Of course, 5 hours later when I checked my own grades, I was surprised to see one lower than I thought. I immediately started thinking “I have to write the professor and ask him if that one analysis really pulled down my grade”.

Yes. I rolled my eyes at myself. Apparently I am that student. What a double standard!

Continuing on the painting saga, I think we last left off with the bathroom being successfully painted a light blue after a failed sponging attempt. My fish curtain is now hanging, everything matches, and I’m happy. This morning I pulled the wallpaper border down from the kitchen, left a couple sections up when I realized that pulling them down would mean destroying the wall, and taped up the borders. Then I left. There were Christmas presents and Thank You notes to deliver, and lunch to be had with a classmate. Leaving was probably good. The kitchen was a total bitch to tape up. I was ready for a break.

I came back and proceeded to paint the kitchen red. I liked the test patches the other day, but it’s a whole new ballgame when the test patches become the wall. The kitchen is interesting. There’s not really one full wall in the kitchen – most are broken up by cabinets or windows, so I figured there was enough breaks in there to make it less scary. Painstakingly I did the edges, only messing up a couple of times (and my shirt became the rag to wipe away mistakes). The end result is fabulous – I love it. I can’t wait to see it tomorrow in the natural light, of which the kitchen gets plenty.

So tomorrow I’ll be more productive…a few errands to run in the morning, laundry to be done, a visit to my chiropractor so he can get me in good enough shape to sit on a plane and undo all his work. Then organizing, packing…and then birthday fun, as my boy’s birthday is tomorrow!