day 4 of 8, trucking along here at work....

So I got some things accomplished this week, which was nice.I put that Artscape "stained glass" film on my closet window (yes, there is a window in my closet! lol) to defeat any would-be voyeurs from observing my closet activities (dresing and undressing), as well as protecting the tops of my shirts from UV damage and sun bleaching (yes, the sun really does bleach clothes! i'm not paranoid, it's happened before). In any case, it's really neat bcause during the day, beautiful filtered colorful light shines into my closet, and at night I can turn on the closet light and shine a colorful beacon to the world. As the window is hexagonal in shape, it really does look neat from the outside. Next project: Trav's closet window (slightly more complicated because it has panes, and I'm not sure whether I should do the same color "stained glass" or buy another roll of the more traditional design.... mine looks sort of like a watercolor painting rather than a church-type stained-glass window, sort of Georgia O'Keeffey) and the upper half of the panes in the upstairs bathroom and the hallway. (I'll leave the lower half untinted so allow the plants to get real sunlight, and also so we can look out and see who's at the door) I just love this Artscape stuff! It really is easy to apply and looks fantastic. (for those curious, it's at Home Depot for about $18 a roll about the size of a baseball bat)Also, I have been actually working out for the last 5 or 6 days or so. i have done the treadmill for 27 minutes a day since Monday. A couple of times I even lifted weights and stuff. Yippee! I really need to get in shape.... because I really am a lazy bum, you know. It takes 21 days of doing something every single day to make it a habit.... so i guess I am almost one-third of the way there. We'll see if it sticks *this* time! heheI also finally cleaned my dirty pink coat. This was no small accomplishment. The story of this coat is boring but I'll tell it anyway: when I was in St. Louis Christmas before last, my now mother-in-law Judy got me a down coat for Christmas. Except that they didn't have black (my color of choice), so i went with a pastel pink color. Well, Oklahoma winters are dirty as hell, and before long my lovely pink coat had dirty (we're talking *black* with dirt) areas all over, particularly the arms, and wherever the fabric stood up (along seams, the collar, etc.) Totally gross; it made me look like a bum. I hated wearing it in public because it made me feel so shabby. Anyway, I hardly ever wash the coat because until January, we had no washer and dryer, and once the coat is washed, you have to stick it in the dryer for 3 HOURS, what a pain. Anyway, imagine my dismay when after running the coat through the wash, NONE of the dirt had budged! Now it's soaking wet AND dirty as hell. So in desperation, I got the bathtub scrubber (we're talking like a plastic Brillo pad with a handle, the one that is shaped like an iron, for scrubbing the bathtub and grout) and some big yellow rubber gloves from the bathroom. i put on the gloves, soaked the scrub brush with the liquid detergent (ALL Free Clear), and went to work..... and, to my surprise, it worked like a charm! The dirt rubbed right off the coat! 30 minutes of elbow grease, one more wash and 2 rinse cycles later, i was pulling a pristine, like-new pink coat out of my washing machine, yay! Dried it for 3 hours and it looks, literally, like new. I'm thrilled. Sorry i made everyone sit through that, but I was quite proud of myself!And the final accomplishment of the last 5 days: Got the husband to start putting the damn toilet lid down. Finally! How did I do it? I took a Sharpie permanent marker and wrote, on the underside of both the upstairs and downstairs toilet lid, the words "down please." Magic! No more gaping open toilets. Ladies, you have to do this, it works like a charm and it took me three years to think of it so this will save you the frustration in advance. :)In other news, the dog has decided it loves me and wants to kiss me every morning, eiher that or it really likes my perfume, or something. In any case, I wake up to dog tongue coming precariously close to actually touching my face every morning.Ick.The negative ions in the atmosphere are making me feel nice today. Now if it doesn't actually go all the way and rain, it will be a perfect overcast January day.Just remembered it's Eric---er, Tana's birthday today. Wonder how old (s)he is? I need to send her an email. (Eric/Tana is my ex-boyfriend, my one true love in high school who recently became a woman) It's also Freya's birthday today.... haven't talked to her since before the wedding, wonder how all these birthday people are doing?