whew

this week i just haven't been able to sit still. i've been in a flurry of redecorating, and every morning i wake up thinking "ok, where should i go today?" it's a bit exhausting, but i figure i might as well ride the wave of energy while i have it. this doesn't happen to me very often.

so anyway, i now have a new comforter set in the bedroom, plus a framed poster print of a japanese watercolor of a cat that looks just like Daddy-O and a floorstanding wrought metal thing from which i can hang my cool hanging candle lantern thing with the star cutouts.

in the living room, i have the couch, a coffee table, a small bookcase, two pedestal tables to hold the surround sound speakers, a reading lamp, a couple of nifty red glass hanging candleholders, two handwoven kilim throw pillows, and two kilim area rugs to cover the places where speaker cables and phone wires run across doorways.

in the kitchen, i have a new set of dishes (a whopping $20 at Ikea!) and three very beautiful glass serving dishes in vivid shades of green, orange, and purple, plus some glasses that match my other glasses in a pleasing manner. oh, and a really neat looking purple glass vase.

what i still need: a 5x7" kilim for the living room floor and a TV stand and CD rack(s) that match the new decor (darker wood than before). so far i have spent only $800 of my $1000 budget for this redecoration. i'm going to go over budget, but not by all that much.

i've also gotten rid of, via sale or donation to charity: my old futon and frame. my old laser printer. three end tables. a chair. eight boxes of books. one complete set of dishes plus some assorted other dishes and glassware. a hanging paper lantern. a table lamp (given to B. because it matches one he already has). several throw rugs. four throw pillows. a couple of badly-framed poster prints. a faded Michael Whelan print i am just too old to enjoy anymore. 10 bags of trash and counting.

i did say 'frenzy', right?

pictures to be posted once i've got things a little more organized. right now there are books everywhere. next time Leticia comes to clean, she isn't even going to recognise the place.

something you don't see every day

there are a lot of cargo ships anchored in the bay this week, with Coast Guard cutters circling among them making sure they're at a safe distance from each other. they're there because there's no room for them at the docks, which are already jammed with fully-loaded container ships waiting for a chance to unload.

turns out, longshoremen make the same kind of money i do, which makes this strike all the more inexplicable. why is it that i feel lucky to be able to make $80K+, but a bunch of longshoremen are holding the US economy hostage because they want more?

and this, ladies and gentlemen, is why i think unions are a crock of shit. there was once a need for them, but that need passed long ago. labor laws now cover most of the issues unions were created to address, and at this point their only purpose seems to be to throw their weight around trying to chisel every possible cent out of any company unfortunate enough to have to deal with them.

hey, kratkrat, your turn. care to rant a bit about the baseball players' union?