http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php babblings ! en 2008-07-21T00:37:40 graceunc@graceuncensored.com hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1107&c=1 2008-05-07T09:41:35 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General Are you still here? You know I have a fancy new site, but it appears that your browser still has the old one in cache. Just click here and you'll be redirected to the improved version of my blog. Or if you're using a bookmark, you need to add a new ... Are you still here? You know I have a fancy new site, but it appears that your browser still has the old one in cache. Just click here and you’ll be redirected to the improved version of my blog.

Or if you’re using a bookmark, you need to add a new one that looks more like this: graceuncensored.com/WordPress. That is all.
]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1106&c=1 2008-05-06T23:01:31 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General ok i guess it's not that late; it's 10:44 p.m. but it feels like about one a.m. because of all the exertion today. i was looking forward to going to mom and dad's house to help pack instead of staying here and painting, but now i long to paint instead. i ... ok i guess it’s not that late; it’s 10:44 p.m. but it feels like about one a.m. because of all the exertion today.

i was looking forward to going to mom and dad’s house to help pack instead of staying here and painting, but now i long to paint instead.

i guess what i really long for is the end of this whole moving thing.

i have a photo of the newly-installed windows but i don’t have the strength to go into the office and get the jump drive and plug it into this computer and select the photos and reduce their size on photoshop and upload them. at the moment.

mollie is sprawled out on the floor and that looks mighty good to me.

yesterday the MRI was an interesting experience. i had to lie down on this slab and i guess there wasn’t much padding on it because it took about a half hour and when i got up the back pain was a little bit excruciating. during the MRI the guy, vincent, put a cloth over my eyes so i wouldn’t get FREAKED OUT inside the MRI machine. he slid me into the machine, but i wasn’t totally encased; my feet were outside of it. he gave me headphones and asked me what kind of music i wanted to listen to and i said something relaxing. he went into the other room and turned on the music and it was VERY LOUD. he talked to me through the headphones, or maybe through a speaker in the MRI, i couldn’t tell, and he turned the music down a little. and then he said the MRI was going to start and it’d be loud and he would take several pictures.

YES IT WAS VERY VERY LOUD. i guess the closest thing i can think of is a really loud ambulance going by, only it’s going on in your ears. he did five images, and each took from three minutes to 3:45. except for the RIDICULOUSLY LOUD NOISE, it was kind of relaxing because at least i wasn’t painting anything.

in between the imaging the soothing music came on, which seemed a little bit pointless to me.

i didn’t get claustrophobic luckily, except at first i was afraid that i was breathing too deeply and then i felt i shouldn’t breathe so much which of course made me felt like i COULDN’T CATCH MY BREATH. but after a couple of images it was fine.

before it started victor had me fill out a form asking if i was claustrophobic (what if i had been?), and all kinds of questions about things that i might potentially have in my body, like ear implants or wires in my blood vessels or old bullets lodged in my body somewhere. i wish i could remember more of them, because i tried to imagine somebody having them all, and how their body would probably clang when they walked, like the tin man.

when it was over, victor gave me a copy of the MRI results and it was this HUGE folder, i’d guess it was 11x14 at least. he said that kevin had gotten his results on a disc, but that mine were on these ridiculously huge negatives because we have different doctors.

hmm.

i keep staying up tonight waiting for the results of the indiana primary to dribble in, but i just can’t bear it anymore.

lots and lots of people appeared to have watched my obama video today, maybe because of the primaries?

ok ok ok goodnight goodnight goodnight.

grace hughes]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1105&c=1 2008-05-06T22:25:20 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General see how crazy things are around here, i totally forgot to post that exciting announcement! no, the alumnus of the year isn’t me. it’s KEVIN. the very first college he went to called him last week to say that he was “head and shoulders” above all the other alums ... see how crazy things are around here, i totally forgot to post that exciting announcement!

no, the alumnus of the year isn’t me. it’s KEVIN. the very first college he went to called him last week to say that he was “head and shoulders” above all the other alums they were considering for the distinction.

kevin claims he was picked because he’s one of the few who aren’t in prison. i wonder if he’s arrested any of them over the years?

we’re going up to northern illinois on friday so he can get his plaque or trophy which hopefully comes with a large box of chocolates so we’ll be there for the college commencement. i don’t believe i’ve ever been to a college commencement. i graduated in december instead of in the spring and didn’t feel like going back to the U of I in champaign to go to the graduation ceremony. i don’t know why i didn’t attend amy’s graduation; i was probably living in austin, but that’s not a very good reason.

so we’ll be spending the night with kevin’s parents on friday which will be lovely because we haven’t seen them in a very long time.

of course we have plenty of free time for galavanting all around the state.

but all the work will get done. we had lots of help on sunday, and soon i will show you some of that hard work.

that’s all for this moment,

busy grace.]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1104&c=1 2008-05-03T23:32:41 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General giving the room a second coat of edging was fine. it took about an hour. no problem. but then i spent 15 minutes using the roller, which went really fast, but then i was in severe pain for a few hours afterwards. randy and i went ...
christine said “you’re going to have to have surgery.”

i’d rather not.

for one thing, besides the fact that i talk to so many people whose backs are now completely messed up because of having surgery...if i had it, i’d have to sleep on my stomach while recovering. i can’t sleep on my stomach.

oh, and also - WE’RE MOVING. no time for any of this whole back stuff. no time.

at one point today we were finishing putting in the new piece of flooring and heard a little “meow.” poor winnie had decided to jump down into the hole when no one was looking, and when the flooring was screwed in there was just a little crack that the kitty could peer through.

kevin had to climb into the crawl space under the pantry and rescue the cat. i took some photos of it, because it seemed funny to me. i was also glad i didn’t have to crawl down into that crawl space because i’d probably have gotten trapped and there we’d be, me and winnie.

i really have to go to bed now.

ok then,

saturday night grace.
]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1103&c=1 2008-05-03T09:34:51 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General today is dad's birthday; we were going to join him and mom for lunch at a restaurant in the little town of salisbury, but we had too much to do. hopefully they'll have a lovely time; the Official Birthday Celebration will be tomorrow night. dad wanted to come over to ... today is dad’s birthday; we were going to join him and mom for lunch at a restaurant in the little town of salisbury, but we had too much to do. hopefully they’ll have a lovely time; the Official Birthday Celebration will be tomorrow night.

dad wanted to come over to our house for cake after going out to dinner, but because of the lack of seating plus the giant hole in the wall, we’re going to have to relocate to amy and jim’s house, where their dining room table has room for TWENTY PEOPLE around it.

instead of sitting around on the floor here.

i really REALLY have to paint now.

grace.]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1102&c=1 2008-05-03T08:59:08 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General you think of a hole in the wall as a divey little restaurant that serves unexpectedly great food, or an intimate bar that not a lot of people know about. around here, it is an actual HOLE IN THE WALL. not a little hole, a BIG hole. on wednesday afternoon kevin decided that ...
around here, it is an actual HOLE IN THE WALL.

not a little hole, a BIG hole.

on wednesday afternoon kevin decided that since the weather was nice and because it needs to be done, it was time to replace two of our three living room windows. the two windows were right next to each other.



this is what it looked like after the windows were ripped out.



and here’s the view from the outside.



and this is after we’d tidied it up a bit.





because these windows that had been installed when the house was built were cheap and crappy, they leaked, causing the floor underneath to rot.



and because our huge white couch was right next to the window, we had to move it. part of it is now in the garage, and another section of it is piled on yet another section in the living.

what did this mean for mollie? TREATS, of course! kevin took a picture of mollie gobbling up the many dog treats, nuts, and random stuff that had collected under the couch.



here’s a closeup of the carpeting all peeled back.



when i got home from working on wednesday, this is what it looked like, and still does.



and this is the disarray that is now one portion of the living room.



here’s the other part of the living room, where at least we have places to sit, even though it is stark and full of patched nail holes.



and to conclude today’s photo essay, here’s honey, queen of the move, happily stretched out on the big pile of couches.



on monday we’re both going in for MRIs. you’d think they’d give us a group family discount. (i finally went to the doctor on thursday and he took an xray of my back and there is almost no space between two of my lumbar vertabra. i take this as a very bad sign of what may be to come regarding my back).

mom came over to help me paint yesterday, dressed fashionably as usual. she wore one of dad’s old shirts over her nice clothes, though, and she even took off her long dangly red earrings.

my hope for the weekend is that nobody ends up in the ER.

ok, i must paint.

saturday grace.
]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1101&c=1 2008-05-01T20:06:37 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General finally FINALLY here are some photos of the roof work on saturday. jim was sawing and sawing the jagged edge of roof. because he was crouched like this for quite a few hours, i think he was pretty stiff and sore when he finished. and of course ... finally FINALLY here are some photos of the roof work on saturday.



jim was sawing and sawing the jagged edge of roof. because he was crouched like this for quite a few hours, i think he was pretty stiff and sore when he finished. and of course he finished, because he’s jim.



for a while randy was having a great time up there on the roof.





but then, as i wrote earlier in the week, randy unfortunately SMASHED his thumb with the hammer and now the roof is covered with his blood. ouch.

meanwhile, in the garden, honey and mollie were having a stand off.



the animals love it when people are outside; they love to cavort all around whoever is out there.

that night, though, mollie was just as happy. kevin emptied the bowl of nuts from the coffee table in order to pack the bowl that they were in. he lined up a bunch of walnuts along the edge of the table, and it took almost all day for mollie to pay attention to the fact that they were there.

but when she found out, she went to work. i watched her as she selected a nut, cracked it open, and at the contents. she kept going back to the table to get another nut, and i wished i’d had the energy to find the video camera and tape it, because it was quite entertaining.

here she is, trying to dig out every last nut crumb.


after the nuts were all gone and the shells were littered all over the carpet, she had to keep sniffing the table, hoping that just one more nut would magically appear.



many many more things happened today, moving and other-wise, but i think i need to take a break right now.

these things include both me and kevin making appointments to get MRIs next week. you’d think they’d give us a group family discount.

ok then,

grace]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1100&c=1 2008-04-30T09:54:35 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General right now kevin is working RIGHT OVER MY HEAD, caulking some of the many many many nail holes in the living room. i should be HELPING HIM RIGHT NOW. i woke up at 5 a.m. mollie jumped up in bed with me, nuzzling my right side and lying down ...
i woke up at 5 a.m. mollie jumped up in bed with me, nuzzling my right side and lying down against me. winnie then curled up on my left shoulder, so i was once again sandwiched in. i then heard honey come in through the doggie door, but it was a pretty big noise and i decided she probably wasn’t alone. winnie sat up and looked very intense, so he clearly also knew something was up.

he bounced off the bed and then i heard lots of thumping and noise in the kitchen and figured that some poor animal was being played with, and i prayed that the animal was dead. i slept fitfully with weird dreams of honey dragging a large creature down the hall into the room, and mollie jumping up onto the bed with a big bone in her mouth.

finally, i heard a “cheep” and mollie heard it too and bounded out of bed. this woke kevin up. THANK GOD KEVIN WOKE UP SO HE CAN DEAL WITH IT.

i went back to sleep.

when i got up, he said that when he got into the kitchen a bird was flying around, but then it stuck its beak into the floor next to the refrigerator and mollie lunged for it. kevin made her back off, and then winnie took a turn trying to get the bird, and honey was right there ready for the kill.

i don’t know how he did it, but kevin managed to corral all the bloodthirsty animals and open the back door so the very traumatized bird could fly away.

on saturday morning randy and jim were vigorously roofing and then randy SMACKED his thumb with his hammer and lots of blood squirted out everywhere and he had to stop for the day. our roof is covered in plenty of blood now, i hear; i wonder if the house inspector will note that in his report? we’re getting the house pre-inspected next week, but maybe it will rain and wash away the blood by then.

it’s very dangerous around here.

ok then,

wednesday grace.
]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1099&c=1 2008-04-26T10:17:41 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General randy and jim are UP ON THE ROOF right now. things are hopping around here on saturday morning. i went to panera to buy them bagels, and was amazed at the huge number of people there. hordes, throngs of people. all sitting around noshing and drinking ... randy and jim are UP ON THE ROOF right now. things are hopping around here on saturday morning.

i went to panera to buy them bagels, and was amazed at the huge number of people there. hordes, throngs of people. all sitting around noshing and drinking coffee.

the line went fast though, not enough time for my slow morning brain to calculate the best deal to buy, bagel-wise. the price options for numbers of bagels and accompanying cream cheese was too staggering for me because i’m always math-challenged anyway but especially when i’m not fully awake. i asked the girl behind the counter about cream cheese options and she said “you can get any kind of cream cheese you want.”

this of course is not what i meant, but at that point i figured i’d better just order quickly because she seemed a lot like a nazi and clearly just wanted me to HURRY UP AND ORDER CAN’T YOU SEE WE’RE VERY VERY BUSY HERE THIS MORNING.

so i did, and now i must go document this very very important roof work.

ok then,

saturday morning grace.
]]> http://graceuncensored.com/v-web/b2/index.php?p=1098&c=1 2008-04-25T23:28:53 grace (mailto:grace@graceuncensored.com) General i just re-read the post from this morning (WHICH SEEMS LIKE ONE MILLION YEARS AGO) and noticed that i typed "over-jealously" instead of "over-zealously." this strikes me as funny now. i wasn't actually being overly jealous, nor not actually jealous at all about the gardening. just so ... i just re-read the post from this morning (WHICH SEEMS LIKE ONE MILLION YEARS AGO) and noticed that i typed “over-jealously” instead of “over-zealously.” this strikes me as funny now. i wasn’t actually being overly jealous, nor not actually jealous at all about the gardening. just so you know.

here are some of the photos from moving. this is one cluttered section of the music room.



and here’s how it looked after we lugged all the books away.



here’s another cluttered part of the room.



this is after some moving and hauling.



and here’s the same corner without stuff.



last week as we were about to take away the pontoon boat, honey hopped aboard. she loves all this moving, as i’ve said.



winnie is also happy, but just because he’s a contented cat. he was trying his best to relax this morning.



here are just a small portion of the boxes which continue to fill our hall.



here’s some of our back yard. we have a LOT of stuff to get rid of back there. pieces of the boat, the ladder (jim and randy are coming here tomorrow morning to finish up the roof for us because they’re VERY GOOD PEOPLE), the garage door that kevin replaced, the old swing with the stuffing picked over by birds, the pieces of the catamaran encased in brown plastic hanging on the fence...lots to do outside as well as inside.



i keep thinking about that chinese website where they had a photo of the garden and they cited it as an example of a “sustainable garden” and now i believe that many many chinese people are checking the site to see the garden’s progress. here’s a fine photo of the weeds and general debris that now constitutes the garden. we actually still have a couple of giant old beets halfway buried in the soil. so i guess it could sustain us if we were STARVING and didn’t want to eat dirt, or the rawhide bones that mollie keeps digging up and bringing into the house.



last summer we bought a peach and a cherry tree. i guess we’ll never know if they bear any fruit. the peach tree has quite a few blossoms now and is very pretty. adding to the general loveliness, of course, is the brown plastic covering the catamaran sail. very very classy.



one more picture of honey, because she’s just so darn adorable.



it’s now getting late on friday night, and i need to get to sleep so i can get up and pack some more tomorrow.

ok then,

friday night grace.
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