| | Well... I see I've got lots of dust to clear on this here Blog... doggone Xanga didn't even contact me to tell me I'd lost my Premium upgrade... that's alright, my Premium page will be back shortly. For now, I'll just update with what's gone on since my last update, and what's coming soon. Four months and five days since my last update... and A LOT has happened... with my upcoming marriage to D, settling into our house, me growing as a person, a Christian, a recording artist... OK. Here's a few bullet points to quickly get you back on track with us: - My Redskins tanked this season... 5-11. *smh* Since we're well into the pre-season, I would have thought that there would have been some major player moves already. But... guess we'll have to wait until the week after the Super Bowl. That's when I'll be on Redskins watch to see who they drop and who they pick up in free agency.
- D got herself a brand-spanking new job last month, and she is settling well into her new job, and this semester at school... but because of her hectic schedule, I hardly see her during the week. It's a bit trying on me... but I fill my time with Scrubs re-runs and working out.
- In my last Blog entry I mentioned some things D and I did to the house - getting the utilities activated & instaled, buying some furniture and light fixtures, and some other things we were planning. Well, since then... we got the futon for the office, so it looks complete... we got the entire living room & dining area painted... I have so far replaced one wall switch with a dimmer switch (the one for the office)... we finally got the ceramic tile in the foyer finished (I had to hire an outside contractor... I'll tell you about that ordeal in a moment)... we got a great queen-sized bed and dresser for the guest room... and we completed the TV stand/entertainment center in the living room (thanks to my future mother-in-law). We still have to paint the office, paint the hallway leading up from the second level to the third level, finish painting the master bedroom, have a contractor inspect the deck for code violations and install joist hangers, install a ceiling medallion I bought above the chandeleir in the dining room, seal the grout and install trim around the floor in the foyer, and clean out the garage. And we still have plans for pets - a cat (black domestic short-hair or Tuxedo) and a dog (Jack Russell Terrier or Beagle).
- OK... so this ceramic floor... *smh* it turned out to be a much bigger headache than I thought it would be. It began to take on a feel like trying to get into the music industry - everything you complete, the next step seems to be 2 times harder. We got up the original flooring (three layers of linoleum sheet flooring... YUCK!) and cleaned up the floor. I mapped out the floor for a diagonal pattern and began laying tiles. I noticed they weren't turned properly, and would end up being uneven against the main wall between the foyer and the garage, so I ripped up the 8 tiles I started with and began laying them again. I got all the tiles in the middle of the floor laid. I suddenly realized how difficult it would be to cut tiles for the pieces that needed to be laid around the perimeter. I rented a wet saw from Home Depot, but got it home and suddenly realized they rented me the wrong one. I took it back and got the right one, but then I couldn't get it to work right. I finally hired a contractor. His team came, and they couldn't get the wet saw to work either. *smh* I took it back to Home Depot and they noticed one of the rails wasn't working right, so they replaced it again. Finally, the contractor's team got to work. They began at 5:00pm and finished at 11:00pm the same day. A few days later, my father and I laid grout down between the tiles. The next day, I cleaned up the floor to remove the excess grout. So that's been the ongoing process. The floor looks great now, but I haven't sealed the grout and there are now stains in one or two spots that I'll have to clean up with a grout saw.
- The holidays were great. D's parents came up and went with us to my family's Thanksgiving dinner, and had a wonderful time. My family is a trip... *LOL* anyway... then, we had our housewarming party, and her mom and aunt came up for that. And then for Christmas, D and I went to her parents' house in Suffolk, VA to spend the holiday with them. All in all, just absolutely wonderful holidays for me.
- My Christmas haul - a 30 GB video iPod, a black 4-button single-breast suit, 1 lavender dress shirt from K&G, 5 ties, 1 pair of sweatpants, 2 fleece quarter-zip sweatshirts, a chronometer and lock for my bicycle, a mug warmer for my office, 3 dress shirts (2 blue, 1 white) from Land's End, a dresser valet, pajama pants, and some "interesting" things for the house (inside joke between me and D). No, nothing dirty... GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER... it's just... my mom tends to find these wierd things for me and my sister. She got me a popcorn popper too, but she got me this thing that looks like an 18-inch tall replica of a taco stand. It actually holds tortillas in one compartment and meat sauce or whatever in the other... it's called a Fiesta Station. And since my mom found it in her heart to give it to us, I'm going to find a doggone use for it! Hmmm... maybe I'll put black beans in one of the hot compartments, tofu sauteed with onions and peppers in the other hot compartment... and all the rest of the standard taco fixins up top... hmmm... see, I be thinkin'... *LOL* And her mom gave us the money to complete our entertainment center! So... we went from this to THIS...
- New Years'... D and I decided to just have a romantic dinner for 2 at Clyde's in Chinatown. Absolutely great dinner... and we both ended up ordering the same thing! *LOL* I'll tell you what, though... as the midnight hour approached, the waitstaff began to hand out noisemakers and party hats. And from 11:15 until midnight, folks cranked them noisemakers like there was no tomorrow! It was cute for about 20 seconds... but began to get really annoying around 11:29pm. I'm just sitting there like, CAN YOU FOOLS WAIT A FEW MINUTES?!?!? *LOL* Anyway... midnight came... we kissed right at midnight... finished our dinner, went home, and went to sleep. (Hey... I'm an old man... I need my sleep.)
Is that everything? Yeah... I believe so. OK... so... D's birthday is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to giving her the gifts I got for her, and a bunch of us are going to dinner at Bucca di Beppo this Saturday. This is gonna be cool! I've got a show coming up on February 21st. Got the band and background singers all ready and rearing to go. If anybody's interested and you'll be in the DC area on that day, come on down to Cada Vez nightclub on the U Street corridor (in NW Washington, DC). I've challenged myself to maintain a completely Vegan diet for Lent. *nervous* I've actually started working on my second album! Two producers have submitted tracks to me, and they all sound awesome! I'd like to give a projected release date of May 2008, but I just don't know yet. Gotta see how Not The Last Gentleman will do this year. I'm tentatively naming this album Balladry. It may even feature some collaborations. Wedding plans are going nicely. We got our marriage license! And we're currently trying to plan our honeymoon (or the possibility of one *LOL*). We also got some of the materials for our invitations... it's gonna be fun getting those together. Also, I'm picked up LL Cool J's Platinum Workout, and I'm going to give it a serious try. I mean... I'm getting a write-in journal, I'm going to keep an Excel spreadsheet of EVERYTHING I eat, and keep up the food journal I used to have at sparkpeople.com, I'm going to photograph and weigh myself every week, and I'm going to keep a separate Blog on a different Blog site for it. For those of you who want to keep up, contact me via e-mail (nubnprince524@yahoo.com) and I'll tell you how to access it. Hope all is well with everybody... I've been trying to keep up with everybody's Blogs... |
