I got the basement cleared.  I have to say, it is very sad to see it devoid of its ground furniture.  Things that suck: picking up a giant black chair by yourself, finding an old piece of carpet padding that had soaked up some water somehow, and rolling a giant rickety whiskey barrel into the furnace room by yourself.

Despite all that suckage, I got it all sorted out!  Hopefully the guys installing the carpet will have to time to get it all done in one shot.  Again, before pictures have been taken, and I might have spent a little extra digital film photographing my props! Woot!

Well, at least for tonight.  The red room was a tall order for one day, however Team Dalcher prevailed in the end.  I’m taking a short break before going downstairs to see how much I can get moved on my own.  I may have to use the second day of installation just to get the basement accoutrements off the carpet and ready for the installation team to do their job.

I am exceedingly tired right now.  I think my time for sitting has lapsed, if I don’t make an attempt at the basement stuff soon it might not happen at all tonight.

In the process of hauling boxes, I took a spill off of the step into my garage, dropping a box and attempting to steady myself with my right wrist.  Slamming it into the ground certainly wasn’t pleasant, and it is kind’ve swollen.  Tasha made me ice it for a short time after, so hopefully it won’t be in too terrible condition.

The before pictures have been taken.  More tomorrow!

Tonight, after a surprise visit by a certain photographer buddy of ours, Tasha and I launched into the final (and perhaps most daunting) phase of cleaning to prepare for the carpet installation.  The red room has long been a bastion of memories long forgotten… boxes ranging back to my junior high school days stacked up in the closet, spilling out into the main room.  We had a rickety computer desk in there, where my old Dell desktop long sat.

After lightning struck down my Dell, I hadn’t spent much time in there lately and the mess seems to have multiplied.  We’re about 3/4 done clearing out the junk.  I am taking this break to keep my September Blog Posting Month alive, and that is about all I have time for.  I will take some before and after pictures for posterity, and then let loose the dogs of carpet installation tomorrow.

Can you hear that?  That’s the sound of my equity increasing!

Yep, that’s right.  More cleaning in preparation for the new carpet.  We’ve got 1.5 of 3 bedrooms cleaned out and boxed up, tomorrow we’re going to try to finish up our master bedroom around Tasha working late and me going to karate.

I have kicked up a vast and horrifying cloud of ancient dust, most of which is settling in my sinuses.  The inside of my nose itches and there is nothing I can do about it but complain.  Poor me, I know.

I am eagerly anticipating the Apple event that will take place tomorrow.  I hear they’re going to revamp the iPod line, and with it should come some cool new features.  If one of those features is turn-by-turn GPS, I’m getting it.  I fell in love with a coworker’s Garmin nuvi 350 during our last Denver trip, and I want in on that action.

Graciously, the end is in sight for this whole carpeting ordeal.  We have a few small pieces of furniture to move, but the rest of the effort is just boxing up and moving plastic tubs and cardboard boxes… considerably less taxing and/or aggrevating than going through boxes of old clothes and papers.

The last important thing to note: God Bless the technology trend that made Dell and Asus put ghosted partitions that contain the factory default installations on them for morons like me that enjoy tinkering with our systems.  My Dell laptop was in sore need of cleaning, so I found a forum entry that instructed me to press Ctrl+F11 during boot up to send it to a hidden tool to reinflate the original image onto the hard drive.

Wham, instant fresh Dell.  I’ve spent far more time agonizing over my iTunes library than I did restoring the entire computer.  I guess you’ll have that sometimes though!

Some of you may have heard by now, but we’re getting new carpet in the house this week.  Thanks to this, I got to spend my weekend sorting boxes, moving furniture, and generally just busting my butt.  My brother-in-law came over to help me dismantle an old computer desk and move some of the larger or more awkward furniture, and we have temporarily relocated ourselves to the brown room at the end of the hallway instead of our luxurious master bedroom.

The carpet folks come Thursday, and they’re going to make a pass at installing everything in one day.  If they fail, we have Monday scheduled as a backup to get the basement carpeting installed.

I am now preparing to ride a Hannalore streak,  so I’m headed upstairs, lousy with cleaning supplies to do battle with the lingering grodiness that is my bathroom.  I might give the bunnies a reprieve until tomorrow night, but they’re next on the chopping block.  More tomorrow!

I started off the day by dropping a significant chunk of change on carpeting.  These home repairs are getting a bit pricey, but they certainly are good to get knocked out.  On my lunch hour (or the designated break period, whichever came first) I spotted a deal on Ben’s Bargains for an external hard drive.

I have been wanting one of these since I got my Eee PC, for quick and easy transport of my music collection and for easy backups of my other laptops.  This spawned a mini-analysis cycle between <a href=”http://wyoming-1.livejournal.com”>wyoming_1</a> and I, which led us to compare several options.  Tonight I pulled the trigger, laid down my $100 (digitally) and got <a href=”http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136295&nm_mc=AFC-Bensbargains&cm_mmc=AFC-Bensbargains-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA”>this 640GB external hard drive</a>.  Pretty neat, I can’t wait for it to arrive.

My last expense was the chiropractor bill, which is a normal cost for us.  That wasn’t so bad, but it did add to the overall total for the day. It’s pretty crazy spending 70% of ones monthly paycheck in one day.  Some day I might have the extra disposable cash to make this a common occurrence, but it won’t be anytime soon!!

I look back at the pockmarked August calendar and realize that my blogging goal was shot to hell by many factors, most of which being GenCon this month.  I re-commit myself to success for September Blog Posting Month, wherein I will return to my daily posting regiment.

I will be enjoying my Labor Day in many ways… finishing this beer, painting my deck, stripping wallpaper, and various other household chores.  We might end up doing our budgeting and grocery shopping, followed by some sort of dinner out… we’ll have to see how the morning goes.

On Tuesday, I have a man coming to measure my house for fresh carpet… it has become time to remove the trappings of 1973 and get some neutral colored plush carpet upon which to wreck my special brand of havoc.  More on that as it develops, but I think the “joys of home ownership” tag will be growing in the next few months as the weather becomes more conducive to outdoor work.