Odds and Ends

Here's the critter who's been digging up our yard. Apologies for the fuzziness of the pictures, but I was taking them through a screen window. I figured if I went out side to take them he would run away. (wait, don't I want him to run away?) Anyway, I watched him frolic around the yard, digging little holes and pulling out acorns and other seeds that either fell there last fall or were buried there by him or one of his buddies. A little googling has helped me learn that the best solution is granulated predator urine. It's available in wolf, coyote, and a few other dangerous creatures. you shake it around the perimeter of the yard and flower beds and critters like skunk and squirrels stay away. I am definitely getting some for when I put in the vegetable garden.

With this week off from work, I have a few projects in the works. The biggest one is painting the front hall and living room. Goodbye ugly grey panelling! By the end of the week, the hall will be a medium blue (Behr's Ocean View) and the living room a pale blue-green with a touch of grey in it (Behr's Rhythmic Blue). Last night Matt helped me sand the hallway, and today while he's working, I'll be sanding the living room and (hopefully) getting a coat of primer on the walls. Luckily since the blues are in the same range, I only needed to get one can of tinted primer. I looked into getting a low-VOC paint but apparently they aren't as reliable on surfaces like panelling, so instead I got a snazzy respirator to breathe through which will filter out the fumes, and I'll be using the ceiling fans and the big industrial fan we have to make sure we have plenty of circulation.

I used the respirator last night while we were sanding. It's less than comfortable. It pinches your nose shut a little, so you have to breathe through your mouth, and the chin part puts tension on the jaw, so you actually have to hold your mouth open against resistance. Unfortunately I have a problem with TMJ, so that leads to a very sore jaw after a few hours of breathing in this thing.




The reason I'm doing it, however:

We found out on the Monday after Easter, and Matt has refused to let me refer to it as the jelly bean, but in my head it's evolved to "little bean." According to the online calculators, it should arrive sometime around the Immaculate Conception, but I still have to meet with Anne Marie to get a better estimated due date.