the shitstorm....and other stuff

having a house is great. privacy, freedom to do what you want, the ability to really decorate the interior, having a place you can truly call "home". what people may not realize is that there are about a million things that can go wrong with a house and it is up to YOU (or in my case johnny) to fix it - whether you know how to or not. as of right now, we have a leaky roof, no insulation, a scorched front porch, half-finished painting, mildew growing on the exterior, gutters that are detaching from the house, rats living in the basement, a heater that we just recently got to work, a doorbell that went senile and had to be taken out, cracks that you can actually see outside through, about a foot of pinestraw on the roof, a kitchen floor that sags, a bathtub that leaks and will probably fall through the floor soon, and half of the electrical outlets and switches that need replacing and/or a switchplate. and as soon as you get one thing under control another thing breaks down. and i hate it when my stepbrother is the one to break the news. last time we woke up to fire but this time right before bed saturday night he tells us that raw sewage is filling up the basement bathroom.

what do we do? there's nothing except don't flush any more toilets and hope that everything will go away by morning. not so much. first thing sunday morning johnny tackled the sewage problem. poor johnny. he hates to smell stinky things - it makes him gag. i have to admit, having a man around the house sure comes in handy cause i didn't even go downstairs to see the situation. all i know is johnny spent all morning trying to figure out how to fix it. it took a 25' long snake and some serious chemicals to unclog the sewer pipe. i wasn't so happy about the chemicals but it was either that or run the risk of flooding the basement in poopwater.

johnny needs a man of the year award for all the crap he's had to put up with since moving up here. i am very proud of how he handles everything - i mean, i'd be cranky too if i was elbow-deep in poo.

i would have just called a plumber.

in other weekend news, johnny and i went to the west end to help move my mom's office for the hundreth time. that woman does not understand the meaning of portability. her freakin desk was unreasonably heavy. and those damn sun faded burnt orange cruched velvet sectional couches from the 60's - yeah you don't need to see a picture to know how hideous they are - those couches have beeen all over the world and back. we brought them into the space she is using for her dollar store and also to check out our future business space. not happenin'. it's a nice space and would be perfect but she wants us to just use a couple of rooms in the back. hell naw - if we wanted to work in a closet, we can set up shop in our basement. we need a real shop. i was kind of pissed cause this is so typical of my mom. dangle the carrot and right before you chomp it shrinks down to a pea. or you take a bite and realize you have just sold your soul to satan...

so if we are gonna start small with a basement press room then we are gonna stay at home and forget about the govt loan and starting off with a huge 4 color press. we start small. i guess that's how many successfull businesses start, huh?

and last but not least johnny applied to the digital design program at Ai. i am very happy and he's nervous but i think he will be an excellent student. winter quarter begins january 7th. what a great way to start off 2008!

i finally get to open the calendar that inspires me so much - the front of it says "live with intention". i really like that saying.