If a First Anniversary is Paper, Then...

It was one year ago today that I closed on my very first house.  And then realized that the people I bought said house from were total pigs and spent the next two weeks cleaning and fixing it up enough so that The Boy and I could move in.  I think I vacuumed the living room twice that day before I even let him come in, and then had it shampooed before we moved our stuff it.  I just tore out the carpet that was in the dining room - so nasty.  It's amazing how a bunch of crap can make you not see how filthy a house truly is when you're just walking through it.  Anyway, there has been a LOT of paint; a new dishwasher; a sewer backup and all the time, money and work that went into fixing that; a furnace that got an energy efficient fan motor and brought up to code/manufacturer's recommended installation; a deck that got some desperately needed TLC in the form on sanding and staining; and there's still so much more that I couldn't afford to get done yet.  But this place feels like home, and The Boy loves it, so I guess we'll be staying a while.  Hopefully there won't be any surprises like last year, and all I'll have left on my to-do list for this year will be staining the front porch decking and getting a new outside light at the back of the house (motion sensor so it doesn't have to be on all the time), maybe sealing and adding insulation to the attic space if I'm feeling motivated.  But what to get the house for the paper anniversary?  I guess if I buy the light with cash that will count...  There's no way I'm putting up any wallpaper *shudder*


How's my shoulder doing?   Thanks for asking!  Well, it was doing just fine, but then I went and mowed the lawn last night (REALLY long grass, push mower, damp ground, hill-on-a-hill yard) and I'm a bit more tender today.  Not as bad as a week ago, and it's definitely getting better, but I doubt I will be laying on that side to sleep anytime soon.  Hopefully now that it's getting cooler out the grass will slow down its infernal growing and I'll be able to heal up properly before I mow again.  Alas, the joys of home-ownership.

Today's Run

I finally got to the new section of the Lakewalk, starting at Brighton Beach.  It is pretty awesome.  A person could technically go from Canal Park to Two Harbors on either a paved path or a road with SUPER wide shoulders.  Pretty awesome.  Now they just need to extend the Lakewalk to the Munger Trail and I will be in paved-path heaven!  Anyway, I ran 5 miles almost on the nose in 46:45, for an average pace of 9:17.   It was nice to not have to deal with a Big Hill, but the wind off the lake was STRONG today.  And I realized today that if I keep up what I'm doing, with no huge breaks, that I'll be able to beat last years total mileage of 517 miles easily, even with missing July and August (and some of January too).  Yay me!

*Update (9/15/2013): Apparently The House thought the first anniversary was pooper, not paper, and invited a mouse to come join the party.  I was having none of that.  However, the little fucker was too fast and got its rear end stuck in the trap instead of having its head smacked like a good little mousie; I awoke this morning with a live mouse stuck in a trap in my sink after having left way too much mouse shit and piss on my counter.  Needless to say, the disgusting rodent saw the sharp end of a shovel once the sun was out this morning.  I'm going to have to have a talk with The House about this.  If you can't tell, I HATE rodents.  I think I'm going to go dry heave a little more now.