Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
do-it-yourself, out and about, pets, relationships, volunteering

so many things

The weekend was a busy one. On Friday, I was supposed to go to Jazz Along the River with my parents. We went down there around 6, but apparently the event had been canceled and we didn’t get the memo. So, we went to The Phoenix Tavern for dinner instead. I have not been there in ages. The place was surprisingly busy.

On Saturday, I did my pack walk thing at the shelter in the morning and Brian officially moved out in the afternoon. We split the bedroom furniture and since the bedroom was half empty, I had the guys move the rest of the furniture out of the room so I could remove the carpet and refinish the wood floors. (Side note: I’ve been wanting to get new carpeting for years, but didn’t have the funds to do so right now, so I figured I’d just redo the floors instead. Now seemed like a good time with the furniture situation.) I spent the evening removing the carpeting, padding, staples, and carpet tack strips. Turns out removing carpeting is super simple, but the tack strips are another story (not particularly difficult, but time-consuming).

There were a number of steps to the refinishing process and I’m happy to say that I was able to complete all of them on Sunday. Granted, I started in the morning and didn’t finish until 10:30pm, but still. It wasn’t like I had to work on it constantly–there were waiting times between each step. In between, I did things like grocery shop and volunteer at the shelter. But, when I got to the shelter I found out that the application I had put in for a kitten was approved, so in the midst of that, Jake stopped up and we picked out a new kitten! His name is Sylvester and he’s a light orange tabby. Sylvia is not pleased about the addition, but Buster’s ok with it. Buster is King of the Cats.

I’m glad the floor project is done, but I have to wait a week before I put any heavy furniture on it, so I’m sleeping on the couch this week, which isn’t terrible, but I’d rather be in a bed. Buster, too. Every night at 10pm, he starts barking (which is his way of letting me know he wants to go to the bedroom). Then, I have to take him in the back and show him that there’s nothing in the room. Sometimes I have to do this multiple times. That dog is really set in his routine.

At some point before the furniture goes back in, I’m going to paint the floor trim to match the walls. Then the room will finally be done. I’m looking forward to getting the house back in order. All of the bedroom furniture is in my office right now, so that room is not usable either. I don’t like to wish away my life, but I’m really looking forward to Sunday.

gardening & landscaping

trimmed

Ideal Tree Service finally showed up today. I guess this has been a busy summer for trimming trees. They trimmed two oaks in the front yard and a maple in the back. I’m really happy with the job they did. If you’re looking for someone in the Johnstown area, I totally recommend them.

Next year, I need to have them remove the two huge evergreens on the side of the property. Those trees got way bigger than I had anticipated (oops). Also, I was supposed to be living somewhere else by now, so it was going to be someone else’s problem. Not any more! I will probably just plant a smaller variety there after removal. But, that’s a problem for next year.

books

proving ground

Way back when, I read another book by this same author, Peter Blauner, and I couldn’t put it down. If I recall correctly, I stayed up half the night reading it. Unfortunately, the same was not true for this novel. While good, it didn’t pull me in like that. I took it on vacation and expected to read the whole thing while there, but it ended up taking me a month to read. The plot is too complicated to explain, but it was a crime novel, so if you’re into that, you might like this book.

This was a first book in a new series from this author. I don’t think I will continue with the series, but I do plan on checking out some of his previous work.

My rating: 3/5

movies

second act

I should have heeded the critics’ warnings on this one. But I figured it would be worth it just to look at Milo Ventimiglia for a bit. Turns out, he was hardly in the movie. Not good.

My rating: 2.5/5

family, live entertainment, me, politics

back to it

I have spent the past five days doing nothing around the house. It all started with the Democratic debates on Tuesday. I don’t know why, but they had them on an hour earlier than last time (they started at 8pm), so by the time we had supper there wasn’t much time to spare before tuning in. And, like last time, the debates were on two nights in a row, so Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday. Then, my mom invited Jake and I over for supper on Thursday. We went there right after work and didn’t get home until almost 9pm. But, that’s not all–the Flood City Music Festival took place on Friday and Saturday. I went there in the afternoon and again in the evening both days (and, as an aside, while all of the musicians were top notch, Brownout presents Brown Sabbath was the winner in my eyes–they were amazing!). At least on Saturday I was able to accomplish a few things, but it’s going to be full steam ahead starting tomorrow!