A Twilight Disaster...

Ugh. The movie was awful. Absolutely pitiful. I can't believe that so many people have talked about how good it was. It was a disaster.

The script was poor at best. It was like the screenwriter took a chainsaw to the actual book and then went around picking up scraps of it and gluing it to a new piece of paper. A lot of quotations from the book were in the movie, but they weren't in the right places and they sometimes weren't said by the right people. My favorite lines from the book were in the movie, but they were poorly placed and the lines were butchered. Lines that should have been beautiful seemed forced and uncomfortable.

The acting (if you can call it that) was absolutely awful. Robert Pattinson is no Edward. He looked uncomfortable throughout the whole movie. He just seemed scary and stalkerish instead of mysterious and intriguing. And, a lot of the other male actors were way hotter than Edward. James (the villain!) was way hotter. Even his brothers, Emmett and Jasper, were hotter than Edward.

Alice seemed ditzy rather than eccentric.

Jasper seemed constipated the entire movie.

Carlisle looked way too young and kind of creepy looking instead of dreamy.

Jacob looked way too pretty (like a girl). He's supposed to be ruggedly handsome, like Hugh Jackman. Not pretty in the way that Kate Hudson is pretty.

I came to terms with the way that Bella looked. I can deal with that. It wasn't the Bella that I wanted. Even with regard to her acting. I didn't like the way that Bella was portrayed. However, I think that she did the best job she could with the script that was given to her.

If I had to choose a mate from the movie, I totally would have picked Mike Newton. And that is completely inexcusable from the book standpoint. I thought that Michael Welch did an awesome job with Mike though.

The movie. It sucked. It lasted for 2 hours. Nothing really happened. There was no real show of how and why Bella and Edward fell in love.

1. Bella moves to Forks.
2. Edward seems to find her repulsive.
3. He disappears for a week.
4. He comes back and talks to her.
5. He follows her to Port Angeles.
6. They're in love.

That's it. One minute he finds her disgusting, the next minute they're inseparable. There is nothing to show how they feel for each other. They say they're in love, but that's the only way you'd know it. The whole thing is so forced and uncomfortable. It's awful.

There is a scene where Edward and Bella kiss for the first time. It's beautiful in the book (It is dangerous because he thirsts for her blood but he wants to control himself because he cares for her). The scene in the movie was horrible. It was very uncomfortable. People were laughing in the theater because it was so bad.

Also, the fight scene with Edward and James was not very believable. Edward can read James' mind. Therefore, the fight should not have been like that. James shouldn't have been able to hurt Edward at all. Edward can see what James is going to do before he does it. And he's also incredibly fast. This can be seen in Eclipse when Edward fights Victoria. So, that was really discouraging as well.

The movie was very disappointing. It was poorly acted, it had a piss-poor script, the plot was forced, and the special effects were bad. And it didn't do the book justice. :(

Twilight Tonight

Joe and I are going to see Twilight tonight. :)

So far, I've heard bad things from critics, but great things from my friends who have seen it. It's getting my hopes up so I really hope that it is good.

I'm getting excited. Like a giddy teenager. Just a few years older... lol

I hope that all of my hopes and dreams aren't smashed. I didn't like any of the trailers and I liked very few of the actors that they cast for the parts. So, before, I wasn't really looking for the movie to be good. Now, people have told me how amazing and wonderful the movie is, so I'm hoping that it lives up to the hype. :S

Wish me luck.

lol... luck. On watching a movie. Sounds silly. I just don't want to be heartbroken about how pitiful this movie is.

What I'm Thankful For...

1. My wonderful family: Joe, Jack, Cody, Jippy, & Daly. My babies are smart and sweet and beautiful.
2. My fantastic friends.
3. My healed relationships with my parents and sister.
4. A house not in Crackton.
5. Four-Day weekends :)
6. A degree in Religion & Philosophy (I can't believe I finished in May... It seems so long ago now).
7. Mario Kart. It's amazing how much fun it can be. Especially with cool people.
8. Black Bean Soup. It's just so incredibly comforting and delicious. :)
9. Good books... like the Twilight Saga and White Oleander. You just can't beat curling up with a good book.
10. Rain. It rained yesterday. I missed that a lot during the drought (technically a lot of NC is still in a drought -- Shelby is still in a Severe drought, Salisbury is in a Moderate drought, and Charlotte is still "Abnormally Dry", but there are now only 6 counties in an "Exceptional Drought" and only 8 counties in the slightly less bad "Extreme Drought." See the link for more info.).
11. Autumn. There actually was a fall in North Carolina this year. It was beautiful. Oh, how I have missed the change in seasons. Indiana always changes dramatically and I missed that in NC. I didn't have to miss it this year! :)
12. Hope. In many things. A hopeful change in direction for the way our country is headed. A possibility of snow in Shelby, North Carolina. :) A house in a nice neighborhood. A lot of things.
13. Having tickets to South Korea to see a couple of amazingly awesome people.
14. A job. Not my dream job. Not an exciting job. But, a job. That pays pretty well. And that is something that no everyone has. Especially with the way the world is right now.
15. A clean conscience (vegetarian since August 20, 2007). I can look animals in the eye without the guilt of knowing that their kin had to die for my dinner. :)
16. Netflix. It is so awesome that I can watch movies and tv shows online. It makes me happy.
17. Good television. Mostly The Big Bang Theory and Heroes. They keep me entertained on Monday nights while Joe is gone to his basketball game. :) And to go along with this, Sylar... Wonderful character. You have to love the bad guy who has the potential for something good. Keeps me on the edge of my seat. And I would totally date any of the guys from Big Bang. They are awesome! lol

And so much more... I am just thankful for the here and now. :) It's wonderful.

Wonderful weekend...

My weekend was wonderful. Joe said that it was probably his best birthday ever. Saturday morning, Jon and Aileen called him from Korea. He was so excited. He kept telling everyone about it. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. Philip was the only person to arrive on time. Everyone else arrived at about 4:00.

We went to play Ultimate Frisbee at the park in the cold. It was only about 40 degrees. It burned our lungs, but once we started running around, our bodies didn't feel quite so cold. Joe had a great time.

Then we came home and hung out. Philip got Joe a Wii game where you fight people with light sabers, so they did that while I finished dinner. They played Epic Duels as well. I made vegetarian lasagna and my ravioli from scratch. It was really good.

Then we played Mario Kart for a while (Joe loves doing Mario Kart competitions) and those of us who weren't a part of the current race, smoked the hookah. It was fantastic. We had banana split shishah first and then we did mint chocolate (my favorite). Dan and I won the Mario Kart competition despite it being Dan's first time playing. :) Later on, we played Cranium Wow. It was girl's versus boys (Kelli and I versus Joe, Nate, and Philip). Later, Haney joined the girls team. lol :) The girls won. As usual.

At 8:30, pizzas arrived from Papa John’s. They were Jon & Aileen’s present to Joe. So, pizzas from South Korea. ;) Joe was thrilled about that as well. Late that night (or early the next morning) we went to Denny’s. Haney started getting sick despite the fact that he hadn't drank anything. We went to bed about 3:30. I woke to the sounds of vomiting not much later. Poor Haney. We got up at 11:00ish the next day. Then we played more Mario Kart and goofed off some more. They were getting ready to go when I realized that we hadn't touched either of the 2 cakes I made. (haha... only us). So, they ate some cake and then went on their merry way. They left about 4:30. I spent Sunday doing some cleaning. The house was a disaster! Lol

Then, last night, Joe and I watched Closer and ate black bean soup. And I didn’t want to get up this morning even though we went to bed at a decent hour. I couldn’t fall asleep.

Joe loved his presents. He got a harmonica, a lap harp, wooden spoons, a guitar (from me), the Wii game and the light sabers, and a bunch of guitar picks and other accessories. And he is awaiting his musical presents from my mom: a tambourine and maracas. If you can't tell, we went with a musical theme. Joe has a "Music Room" in our new house. However, we didn't have anything musical to put in it. So, now he has plenty of stuff to put in it! :)

Could it be????

Are we actually finished??!?!

No, not really. Hahah! Fooled you. :)

To be fair, we are pretty much finished. For real this time. I have to mop and put the new door handles on the bedroom and the music room. That would have been all there was left to do, but Paul Kitchen screwed up in a way we didn't even realize. There were 2 doors leading into the kitchen. One from the foyer and one from the dining room. Well, we wanted them taken off so that there would be more room and so it would be more open. He told us that he would haul them off for us. Tuesday night we realized that we still hadn't put on the door for the half bathroom. I went to the garage to find it. It doesn't exist. However, there is still one door left in the garage. One from the kitchen. Paul hauled off one kitchen door and one bathroom door instead of 2 kitchen doors. Unfortunately, the kitchen door was much bigger than our bathroom door, so it doesn't fit. So, we have to get another door and have it installed. Zach will be coming tonight to get a check, so we'll probably see if he can do it for us. Hopefully he can.

After that, we will be finished. :) Finally.

Saturday is Joe's 27th birthday. I had a really awesome idea for his birthday present, but I ran out of money and time. lol... I had to buy a bunch of stuff for the house and it took up all of my paycheck from last week (well, most of it... the rest went for my monthly charitable donations and my Netflix subscription which come out of my account the middle of the month). So, I have to wait until I get paid tomorrow to buy Joe's present.

And! Twilight comes out at midnight tonight. I wish I could be like the giddy teenagers lining up to see the midnight showing. But, alas, I already missed 1.5 days of work this week for house-related reasons, so I can't be late and or mentally gone tomorrow. So, I will either see it tomorrow night, or I will wait until Sunday afternoon to see it. Either way, I am going to see it this weekend! :)

The good, the bad, and the ugly of my weekend...

Joe and I got a lot accomplished. The house is relatively clean and organized finally. However, the wall that I was supposed to be repairing in the kitchen just will not work.

The cabinet people tore off some laminate that was the back-splash before. We were leaving it on the wall because it was glued on and the wall was damaged behind it. Well, of course, the people we hired can't do anything on their own, but when we want them to leave something alone, they don't ask and just do it themselves. They can't turn on a light because they didn't ask, but they can ruin the wall in my kitchen without asking. Their excuse for tearing it off? "We thought you wanted it torn off." Did we ever tell them that? No. Was there any reason for them to think we wanted it torn off? No. They're just stupid. And I better be getting a damn discount because now I have to have new wood or laminate put up there. I tried and tried to sand the glue off of the wall. I even bought an electric sander to try to sand it down. Nothing. I got a chisel and hammer. That worked-ish. It damaged the wall as much as it got the glue off. Zach is coming in to put in the new whatever hopefully today or tomorrow. It shouldn't be too expensive, but I know where I'll be sending that damn bill.

I thought that the countertops looked lighter than what they were supposed to. I figured that it was just because they looked different when there was a lot more of it together. Well, I found the sample in a box this weekend. It is definitely darker than what they put down for us. And that pisses me off. Can't these people get anything right?

At least we are just about finished. I'm done with all of this stupid crap even if it doesn't look right in the end. This has been absolutely ridiculous.

We paid a lot of money for tile that isn't right (the floors aren't even and the grout lines don't line up and it took FOREVER). We paid a lot of money for countertops that aren't right. We paid a lot of money for plumbing that isn't right. We paid a lot of money for electrical that isn't right (we paid Paul Kitchen to put in a vent fan in our bathroom. It doesn't work).

If I ever think about hiring someone to do remodeling work for me, someone please just knock the ever-loving shit out of me. I deserve it. I should NEVER forget this hellish experience.

Strange News from Around the World...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcOvvtsmfNmImgbi_kq5WYoe6cSAD94E3F380

Austria -- Has anyone heard about this? It's absolutely disgusting. Definitely check out the link. It's so incredibly disturbing. I can't imagine. None of these children is ever going to recover from this. What makes people do this? What happened to this man to make him think that this was a swell idea?? I just don't understand.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcOvvtsmfNmImgbi_kq5WYoe6cSAD94E3F380

Nebraska -- This is not okay. Joe doesn't like it when I make black bean soup often (I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never get sick of it). However, if he ever tries to wack me with a pot for making it, he will lose a testicle over it. :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081112/od_nm/us_fat

Canada -- Well, if you're too damn fat to be comfortable in prison, maybe you should just have to deal with it. Lose some weight. Or don't do illegal things to get you put in jail if you know that you're too fat to fit on a prison bed. This is ridiculous. If you don't want to have to stay in jail, just become obese! It's a get out of jail free card! Then you can get out and start your life of crime all over again!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081111/od_nm/us_crime

Beijing -- I support this man. If your relatives are criminals, definitely arrest them. They're standing against everything that you stand for. They have to go! It's one of the many reasons that I didn't go into law enforcement. Sending my redneck relatives to prison would probably put a damper on holiday get-togethers. :S

Some Random News

I got some more painting done in the kitchen. I have to fix the walls before I can do any more painting. We got more stuff organized and unpacked. The house looks like a home. :)

I am tired. I just want to go back to bed, curl up into a ball, and fall asleep for a few more hours. It would be so nice! I plan to do some sleeping in on Saturday. I haven't really been able to do that for a while. It will be fabulous!

I need to find new chairs for our dining room table. The ones we have are not good. In fact, I would go as far as to say they are bad chairs. Ugly. Bad, bad, bad. And in our nice new house, bad chairs are especially bad. So, I want to replace them.

My mom just finished the Twilight Saga. She really liked it as well. She's probably not nearly as obsessed as I am though. I downloaded the Twilight Movie Companion book last night to my kindle. I haven't started reading it yet though. I had too much to do. I was going to read a little before I fell asleep, but my kindle was going dead and I wasn't sure where my charger was. I need to find it. Joe and I will be going to see the movie on November 21. It's the day before Joe's birthday.

Speaking of Joe's birthday, I will be having a party for Joe. Nothing huge. He doesn't like big surprises and he doesn't like for all of the attention to be on him. So, we are going to play ultimate frisbee, eat dinner, hang out, play some games, maybe play the wii, and smoke the hookah. It should be a good time. So long as all of the cool people can come. :)

Finally! Some real progress!

I am so excited! We actually have a fully functioning house! Everything in the kitchen works! Everything in the bathrooms work! Most everything is in our house! It's so wonderful!

Yesterday, the countertop people drilled the holes in the counters for the sink. Then, the plumbers came and hooked up the plumbing in the kitchen for the sink, the disposal, and for the dishwasher. I made dinner last night in my new, fully-functioning kitchen! :)

That's not to say that we are finished with the house. I finally found the right paint for the kitchen last night. Sherwin Williams had the right formula for the Slate Green paint that I wanted. So, we bought some and started painting the kitchen. It looks much better. I have to finish touching up the paint and finish painting one of the walls in the kitchen. I also have to do touch up paint on the walls where the baseboard heating was in the hallways. And then I have to do some cleaning. Then, I think we will be finished. :) It's so exciting!

I'm going to take some pictures tonight and I'll put them up hopefully tomorrow. I can't believe the end is in sight! Finally!

Other exciting news: Connecticut ruled in favor of gay marriage! Yay! One step back for California, but a huge step forward for Connecticut! :)

Closer

I don't really feel like blogging. That's why there hasn't been an update in the past few days. I get irritated and stressed out when I do an update. So, I decided to wait until some good things happened for me to do an update.

Friday, the countertops were promised to be in. They weren't. No one knew what was going on. We finally got a hold of someone. They promised that if they didn't make it Friday, it would be Saturday morning at the absolute latest. Well, the plumbers came to do the bathrooms and kitchen on Friday and since they couldn't do the kitchen (since there was no sink or countertops), they just left and didn't even do the bathrooms. I was not a happy camper. They came back on Saturday. Well, the countertops still did not arrive. No one would call us back. I was beyond pissed. But, the plumbers hooked up the bathrooms.

We got most everything moved in and I got a lot of organizing done. The house feels a lot more like home now.

The countertops were installed yesterday morning. Finally. They look okay. Not as good as I had hoped, but at least they are in. Unfortunately, the paint does not match. You might remember that Lowe's formula for Slate Green is incorrect. They give me a paint which is not Slate Green, but instead it is a yellowy green color. It's not good. So, I picked out another color a lot like Slate Green, but darker. I thought it would be okay, but it doesn't match the countertops. So, Joe and I are going to try to match the Slate Green color. We're hoping that Sherwin Williams can help us. ** Fingers Crossed **

The light fixtures in the kitchen and the bathrooms are supposed to be installed today. Also, the countertop people have to come drill the hole for our faucet because they didn't do it yesterday. They better get it done today. I'm sick of having to wait. We can't do the plumbing for the kitchen until they finish! Grrr...

But, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Please, don't let a train come before I reach the end. :S

No surprise...

The countertops were not right. No one called us yesterday, so we assumed that everything went smoothly. We walked into the kitchen and still had no countertops when we arrived home last night. This is a big problem. The plumbers are coming today to hook all of the water up to the sinks (and also the dishwasher and the garbage disposal). They can't do that if THERE IS NO SINK!

We tried to get a hold of Steve, but there was no answer. He finally called us back this morning while we were on our way to work. They cut the countertops wrong, so they couldn't put them in. I was freaking out because we don't have time to wait another few weeks for countertops. No problem, says Steve. They ordered a new one yesterday and it will be put in today. What the hell!? It's taken us WEEKS to get these counters in, but they can get them in one day!?

This remodeling project is going to be the death of me. I'm going to end up in an asylum. Please come visit me...

Anyway, the plumbers can't get there until about noon, so they're going to get started in the bathrooms with installing the sinks and the toilets and the shower in the master bath. Hopefully by the time they finish with that, the countertops will be installed and they can finish up the kitchen. If not, Steve needs to be paying for the plumbers to come back out because it's his damn fault that we're behind. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I am so absolutely serious. Do not ever even consider remodeling your house. If you must, do NOT hire these fools: Paul Kitchen, Buddy Dyer (tile guy), Hensons Cabinets, or Bolton Plumbing. It will just end up being ridiculous. I am just about ready to go insane. I feel like crap, I'm not sleeping well, I have dark circles under my eyes, I cry at least every other day, and I still don't have a finished house. It is not worth it. I don't care about how beautiful this house is when we finish, I would not do it again. At least not with these assholes that we hired.

It's absolutely amazing. We hired people with empeccable recommendations. Now the people that recommended them are saying, "hmmm... they are known for X." It really pisses me off. If you knew that this person was lazy or sloppy or slow or known for never showing up, why in the hell would you recommend them?! I am not like that. I will never recommend these people to anyone. Because, even after it has taken over 3 times as long as it was supposed to, it is not as good as it was supposed to be. So, Fuck 'em.

If you need your hardwood floors refinished, I can give you a recommendation: Maurice. I don't know his last name, but I do have his phone number. If you need a handyman (woodworking, shelves, trim, painting, hanging doors, installation, etc.), I have two people to recommend: Sammy Hood, who is wonderful, and Zach (idk his last name either). I have phone numbers for both. Also, Sears did a wonderful job helping us with our heating and air conditioning unit. They cleaned up after themselves and did everything they could to make everything right as it should be. And they never wavered on cost, even though lots of things went wrong and it probably hurt their profit a lot. They took a little while, but we weren't in need of the unit with the way the temperatures were at that point, and we were too focused on everything else going wrong. So, if you need a unit and you have some time, definitely go with Sears. :)

Another day, another problem... with the house.

Yesterday, the vanities were installed in the bathrooms. The one for the master bath is wrong. Of course it is. Because nothing can go right with this damn remodeling project. It was supposed to be a really dark brown wood. They sent us a really red wood. So, it doesn't match the rest of the bathroom. And, because they took over a week longer than they were supposed to, we now do not have time to get a new one in before the appraisal. So, we will have a beautiful bathroom with a vanity that does not match. Wonderful.

The countertops for the kitchen are being installed today. Finally. If they aren't right, I don't know what we will do. I'm just hoping that they are perfect. Just give us this one thing! Because that would be it. That would be the only thing that didn't have something go wrong. It's really hard to stay positive while remodeling. I get more depressed the longer it takes. Not just in that it's taking forever, but in that absolutely nothing has gone the way that it was supposed to.

Tomorrow, the plumbers are coming back to finish up. They have to hook up the sinks in the kitchen and the bathrooms.

I still have to finish painting the kitchen. I have to finish hanging the doors for all the rooms. I need to replace the handles for all of the doors. We have to have the locks changed for the house. And we still have to clean the entire house. We've been cleaning, but it will need more cleaning. And then we have to actually move in. Almost all of our stuff is still sitting in the garage. Yay.

I will never, ever do this again. EVER.

Mixed Emotions...

Last night I was so incredibly happy. Barrack Obama won. Not only that, but John McCain gave an incredible speech. It left me feeling so wonderful about the direction that our country is heading. We will have change. We have a nation where truly anyone can do what they set their minds to without having to feel discouraged about race or gender. We have a nation where republicans and democrats are willing to work together to make our country a better place. I was brought to tears several times throughout the evening because of how proud and euphoric I was. It was incredible.

And then, today, I was still riding that high. And then part of me cracked. Proposition 8 passed in California. And other gay marriage bans passed in Arizona and Florida. So incredibly disappointing. I am really hoping that it will be overturned. No one has the right to take other people's rights away based upon sexual preference. It's ridiculous.

How likely Is It That McCain Will Kick the Bucket?

Well, I did bring it up in my last post, so I thought that this was very relevant. This author gives some odds of how likely it is that McCain will die in his first term as president [God (or your preferred Authority) help us!] leaving Sarah Palin as the President of the United States. I shudder to think of it. Anyway, he goes on to compare those odds with things we come across in every day life. It's definitely worth a look. :)

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/09/15/feeling-lucky-the-odds-of-a-president-palin?tid=advert/bizjourn/prespalin

Also, there are a bunch of websites where you can dress Sarah Palin up in her old clothes and even her new $150,000 wardrobe. This one is my favorite (I love that you can see Russia through the window in her closet!):

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/election2008/shopwithpalin/index.html

And, my favorite story that I came across today is of Sarah Palin's other wardrobe malfunction. See Below...

Yes, folks. Those are donkeys on that scarf. Even Sarah Palin wants you to vote Democrat. :)

I voted! :)

It was my first time going to the polls (I sent in an absentee ballot in 2004). Joe and I went together this morning. I got up at 5:30 AM so that I could get ready for work and still get to the polls by 6:30 AM when they opened. We had to wait in line for 20 to 30 minutes and then we voted. It was pretty uneventful. But also exciting at the same time. It is an extremely important election.

I, of course, voted for Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the people surrounding me a majority of the time are McCain supporters. So, I have taken a lot of crap from people around me. I don't understand it. I don't go around telling people that they are stupid for voting for McCain when that evil wench would end up being president if/when McCain kicks the bucket in office. I don't tell them that they are stupid for voting for a third term for Bush/Cheney. So, why do these people feel the need to bring me down for voting for Obama? The worst argument I've heard is that Obama doesn't have enough experience. Well, first of all, Palin has less experience and she is likely to become president if McCain wins (because he's freakin' old!). Second of all, we've had "experienced" leaders in office and so far it hasn't done us much good.

People are ragging on Obama because of his eloquent speech and saying that it doesn't do much good. Well, how often do we bash Bush because he can't speak well? The president is the face of our country. It sure helps if we don't have a complete dumbass in that role. It can help bring the country together and it can help the rest of the world see us in a better light. And after the hole we have dug ourselves into in the past several years, I don't see that as a bad thing!

Anyway, I've already irritated myself, so I'm going to stop. I shouldn't have to defend my vote to everyone I know. It's my vote and I can vote for whoever I damn well please. Thank you very much!

On a different note... I found this comic and it made me happy inside. :)

If you're ever thinking about remodeling a house...

DON'T DO IT! It's not worth the pain!

Buddy has promised us for the 537th time that today will be the last day and our tile will be finished today. I'm not holding my breath.

Rudy came out on Friday to set up the electrical on our hot water heater because the plumbers lied and didn't hook it up how they were supposed to. We now have hot water. However, the plumbers messed something up when they were working on our house and so our shower does not work. The sink and the toilet work, but the shower has no water running to it. They didn't call us back until today. They're going to try to fit us in today. If I have to pour water into my tub via Solo cups from the sink again tonight, someone is going to pay for it. Well, actually, I'm just going to take it out of their pay. For my suffering. People sue for those kinds of things all the time! :)

Also, we were paying the plumbers over $4,000 to replace all of the cast iron pipes under the house (~$2,000 for the pipes going into the house and ~$2,000 for the pipes going out of the house). They told Joe that they didn't replace a few of them because they were in such good shape, so they offerered to take a few hundred dollars off of the bill. First of all, we told them to replace all of the pipes no matter what condition they were in (cast iron will rust and deteriorate and PVC will not... we didn't want to have to worry about it down the line... just get it all over with now). And next, when the shower didn't work, Joe crawled under the house to check to see if they forgot to turn something on. They haven't replaced ANY of the pipes going out of the house. So, a few hundred dollars is not going to cut it. Try a discount of over $2,000. I think that they were counting on Joe not checking to see if the pipes were replaced! I mean, anyone could look and tell that they haven't been replaced. They are still cast iron instead of being PVC pipe! These plumbers are obvious crooks. Also, we paid them to install a shutoff valve in one of the closets because we didn't want to have to turn it off from under the house. Well, they installed one but it DOESN'T WORK!!! Why is everyone we hire so damn completely incompetent!?!?! It doesn't make any sense at all.

The house is a complete mess. It's covered in a thick film of dust from all of the work that's been done. I sweep and I dust and it just doesn't help. Our stuff is still sitting in the garage until everything is finished so that we can actually move in. That should be by this weekend. Should be. Of course, it should have been over 2 weeks ago that we SHOULD have been able to move in. But here we are. Still living out of boxes sitting in our garage.

Also, I decorated my house like crazy for Halloween and our neighbors promised lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. I bought over 30 pounds of candy. Good candy. We had 13 Trick-Or-Treaters. THIRTEEN. That is not lots and lots. I totally got jipped. And now I'm going to gain 10 pounds by eating that 30 lbs of candy. Hopefully it will make me feel better about the lack of Trick-Or-Treaters at my house. I also went to Walmart and got a lot of Halloween stuff half off on November 1. So, I will be prepared again next year and still hoping for lots and lots of Trick-Or-Treaters. :)

Also, one of my bestest friends came to visit me yesterday. :) Everyone needs to go see the play that he's going on tour with for 14 months. You can go here to get tickets: http://www.annieontour.com.