Here’s an updated to-do list.

Master bedroom:
– Wash bed linens
– Make bed
– Take old TV stand to garage to be stained
– Straighten up books to be readv
– Hang up artwork (Rush banner among other things)
– Steam clean floor again

Master bathroom
– Hang up curtains (I haven’t found curtains I like so I’m using tabards for the moment 🙂
– On Thursday deal with inspections
– On Friday clean litter box and sweep

Library
– Put back area rug
– Put in rocking chair
– Replace doorknob

Hallway
– Steam clean again
– Vacuum and steam clean runner

Guest bathroom
– Put up Unicorn Tapestry pictures

Living room
– Staple down cables
– Move furniture and vacuum
– Move furniture and steam clean
– General straightening up

Kitchen/Dining room
– General cleaning
– Move Derdriu’s lathing stuff
– Dust window
– Put stuffed animals back into window
– Make sure there’s no icky stuff in the fridge 🙂
– Clean a few painty bits off of floor
– Sweep and mop, which must be done before mom shows up 🙂
– Shop for food for weekend, especially chili for Friday night so there’s something warm and tasty for crashers. Of which there are lots.

Garage
– Set up camp bed for me
– Move chests to the side
– Organize beer fridge (especially important!!!)
– Sweep floor, though it’s pretty clean
– Set up dog crate for Ginger
– Move other dog crate downstairs for Abigail
– Put last coat of paint on corner trim

Stairs
– Staple cabling down
– Desperate need for vacuuming

Downstairs landing
– Sweep and mop

Downstairs bathroom
– Get Joe to put stool back in place
– Install trim
– Clean mirrors
– Hang towels and place rug (waiting on floor to dry)

Washroom
– Laundry (duh)

Workroom
– Clean off mats
– Move end table to big room
– Set up cot for Derdriu

Basement main room
– Finish double bookcase
– Attach double bookcase to wall
– Install trim on south wall
– Install trim on door opening
– Put games/books on double bookcase
– Sweep and mop
– Make up futon
– Set up Derdriu’s camp bed
– Move furniture to appropriate places
– Move tools to appropriate places
– Wipe everything down again
– General straightening up
– Put up artwork, esp. picture of Omega

Office
– Move extra boxes into closet
– Move 19in monitor to garage
– Organize printing area
– Re-setup network printing
– Sweep and mop
-Organize work area

Lawn
– Sweep driveway
– Sweep porch
– Sweep patio
– Sweep deck
– Put things out on deck/patio in appropriate places
– Clean firepit
– Get small bits of wood/paper/lighter ready in garage to put out for fire
– Set out chairs

For now, that’s it 🙂 I’m leaving Derdriu’s room and office up to her, although I think they’re mostly ready. The list is actually much shorter than it was this morning, though I’m sure I missed a bunch of things. What’s great is other than the trim/bookcases along the south wall of the big room and in the basement bathroom, the construction is done.

Here’s an updated list in the past week or so.

Completed in last four days.
Stain remaining items for bathrooms
Clean west end of basement
Stain west end of basement
Paint ceiling and walls of west end of basement
Paint north wall of stair well
Replace mantel shelf (actually Fantastik cleaned off all the paint easily so I just cleaned it)

For those scoring at home (or if you’re by yourself) this means I beat my timetable by two days. It didn’t seem like I was doing much, but I kept puttering around and then all of the sudden the floor was done, and then the first coat was done, and well, I thought, how cool will it be if I finish the painting tonight?

Still To do list
Re-clean basement floor after painting
Install trim in basement
Clean trim around doors
Get countertop for washroom
Install basement cabinet
Miter and install trim (some mitered and installed, will probably take 2 hours total when the rest of the room is painted)
Clean house for crashers for the Scribal Symposium
Finish creating the workshop for the Symposium

Now I can add projects 🙂

Replace entertainment center setup. I’ve needed to do this for a while so I can organize my DVDs. I totally believe I’m not OCD, but I’ve stared at this mish-mash of DVDs too friggin’ long. So friggin’ long I’ve developed a “huge guy theory” and “serial crusher theory” as to why they’re a mess. I’ve actually started this and have 2 of the 8 pieces completed. Only 6 need to be done to get the basic requirements, and 3 of those are like 15min projects. I suspect they’ll get done tomorrow 🙂

Install bookcases. I have a hole in the wall where a speaker was put by the previous owner. I found two of the cheap Wal-Mart bookcases on Craigslist for $10 total so I’m going to do a wee bit of refurbishing and nail them to the studs to cover that hole. For probably $25 or so in parts, I’ll have new bookcases and cover the big hole. Wheeeee.

Finish website for student medieval studies group
Contemplate seeing if I can do the stuff to the downstairs bathroom before Scribal. (i.e. repaint and replace medicine cabinet and lights with the contractor’s help. I’m not going to worry about the trim. I may just clean it, but the downstairs bathroom has had a bunch of paint drops, stain drops, and sealant drops from all the projects and it just needs to be repainted.

Anyway, I’ll be able to start moving stuff back into place tomorrow evening, which rocks.

Here’s an updated list in the past week or so.

Completed in last week or so
All but 2 pieces of basement trim painted
One corner of the basement trim installed
Upstairs bathrooms painted
Upstairs cabinetry and trim painted (except for several added items)
East half of basement electrical fixtures replaced
West half of basement electrical fixtures mostly pulled out
West half of basement floor 90% done (I hope to complete it tomorrow)
Some of the stuff has been moved back into place, and one corner of the room is actually essentially back to the way it will be.

Still To do list
Stain remaining items for bathrooms
Re-clean east end floor after painting
Install trim in basement
Paint trim around doors
Replace mantel shelf
Get countertop for washroom
Install basement cabinet
Clean west end of basement
Stain west end of basement
Paint ceiling and walls of west end of basement
Miter and install trim (some mitered and installed, will probably take 2 hours total when the rest of the room is painted)
Paint north wall of stair well
Clean house for crashers for the Scribal Symposium
Finish creating the workshop for the Symposium

If things go well, I will finish scraping the floor tomorrow. What will almost assuredly happen is that at some point on Sunday, if I don’t finish tomorrow, I’m going to say “fuck it” and just start the remaining steps of the process. If I finish tomorrow, it will go something like this:

Saturday: Clean floor with TSP cleaner
Sunday: Stain the floor, stain the remaining bathroom items
Monday: Clean the excess stain, prime paneling on north stairwell wall, put on first coat
Tuesday: Apply topcoat to floor
Wednesday: Apply primer to remaining basement paneling and paint first coat
Thursday/Friday: Paint second coat in both basement and stairwell

If I don’t get it clean tomorrow then this will move back a day, but hopefully by the end of next week the big parts of the process will be done downstairs plus both bathrooms upstairs should be completed by the end of next week. I have plans to do a little work on the downstairs bathroom, but I’m sort of doubting that will happen prior to Symposium.

Anyway, progress is progressing

So, for those who haven’t talked to me lately, it’s because I’ve been working on my house.

Completed:
Back room floor cleaned
Back room floor stained
Back closet floor stained
Back room walls and ceiling painted
Back closet painted
Back room trim painted and reinstalled
Back room electrical fixtures replaced/repainted (with the exception of one outlet cover that seems to have disappeared. I expect to find it someday)
Essentially the back room is done

East half of basement floor scraped. This was a massively sucky project. There was an adhesive that had to be scraped up. The east end was the worst part because it adhered more then than the west end. Nevertheless, the west end scraping still sucks.
East half of basement cleaned
East half of basement stained
East half of basement walls and ceilings painted
Basement cabinet painted
East half of basement trim mostly painted

To do list
Polyurethane the cabinetry and trim for the upstairs bathrooms
Paint the upstairs bathrooms
Re-clean east end floor after painting
Re-install electical fixtures
Install trim in basement
Paint trim around doors
Replace mantel shelf
Get countertop for washroom
Install basement cabinet
Scrape west end of basement
Clean west end of basement
Stain west end of basement
Paint ceiling and walls of west end of basement
Finish painting trim
Miter and install trim

Oh, and move everything back into place so I can haz office.

I just had to look at this to see what I have already done because it seems like this is never-ending. Sigh.

Big point to remember. The Cowboys are up because they’re scoring TDs in the red zone, and the Giants are not.

DeMarcus Ware is amazing. What a play to tackle Jacobs there.

Well, that was crappy defense. No pressure on Manning and non-existent coverage. We’re making Manning and his receivers look gooood.

24 points off turnovers for the Giants. Think that might be the story? The Cowboys would be dominating this game if the turnover ratio were essentially equal. Sigh. It’s amazing they’re in a game with a -4 turnover ratio.

Big 3rd and 7 here… Incomplete. I wonder what Romo was thinking here though. Crayton should have caught it though.

Need the defense to make a play here.

Wow. Great catch and throw by Manning and Manningham. Sigh.

First down because of missed tackles. The Cowboys have to stop this drive at a field goal or less or I don’t think they can win.

I have to say I love how well they’ve stopped the run, but wow on the pass defense.

Great defense there. Holding it to a FG was big. Just a 6 point lead despite mediocre defense and a -4 turnover ratio. Somehow or another, they can actually win this game.

Jones seems to be returning kickoffs tentatively. I don’t know if that’s to set up blockers or what.

Over 200 yards rushing for the Cowboys. Huge hole for MB3. Not so much there.

Big play here… with a nice play there. First down to Witten. Really nice route.

Another good run by Barber. Really good cut. He pulls up lame but Felix finishes the drive. Looks like a pulled quad or hammy for MBIII but the Cowboys can take the lead.

The Cowboys have killed the Giants up front running the ball. 29 rushes, 251 yards, 8.7ypc, 3 touchdowns. Wow. Did not expect to be able to do that to a really good Giants defense.

Speaking of the defense, now it’s up to the Cowboys’ D. 3:40 to go.

Weird. Why decline the 15 yard penalty? It’s like 2 yards of difference on the half the distance. Oh, because of where it happened.

1st and 20.

Wow. Ratliff in coverage. And he made a great play. LOL 2nd and 18.

Bleah. Nice play by Manning. Big 3rd down now. 3rd and 6.

Wow, the Giants wasted a bunch of time there to let it go to the 2 minute warning.

4 down territory, but got the first. They need about 30 yards now.

Need about 17. The Giants are probably going to be able to do this. Should have been a hold called there on Ratliff.

3rd and 4. Again 4 down territory.

Good timeout by the Cowboys here. Needed to stop the momentum and get them a breath.

Wow, another tip goes to the Giants. The bounces in their favor. And the Giants will win because of gifts and bounces. Good call by the Giants.

Bleah. The Cowboys dominate the game if they get 1 turnover or give it up 1 turnover less.

Two games. Still no sacks and no turnovers. Nearly 900 yards of offense against them. I’m shocked that the defense is playing so poorly. The offense does have 4 turnovers, but still puts up 31 points despite no gifts.

In the greater scheme of things, the big defensive plays will come. They’ll win some games because of the defense at some point.

Sigh. Can’t let those get away and that was a gift. You’re welcome New York.

And we’re back with 100,000 plus of our friends…

Nice coverage by the Cowboys. The special teams has been a bright spot so far in 2009.

Crap. Justin Tuck is hurt. I hate it when there are injuries.

Good run by Jacobs despite pretty good defense.

Even better run by Jacobs. Bleah.

I hate Cris Collinsworth. “The second half is all Brandon Jacobs.” Two plays. Two plays, that’s it.

No, the story is missed tackles by the Cowboys… oh wait, it’s been three plays.

Wow, what happened at halftime in the Giant’s locker room. Hamlin really screwed up. And we got away with 2 personal fouls on that play. The Giants have come out fired up.

At some point, the Cowboys defense will start making some big plays. Maybe not tonight… 🙁

Though that was nice defense there.

Wow, what kind of throw was that? Nice defense there once inside the red zone. Which gave the opportunity for a big break for the Cowboys. 3 free points back from the Giants. That sort of equalizes the Jones fumble on the kickoff.

Romo and Garrett have made a habit of making really good adjustments at halftime and owning the third quarter. Time to do that again.

9:28
105,121 attendance. Wow. Largest NFL attendance evah.

Wow, Jones nigh unto went all the way. Nice run there.

And Collinsworth may be right about the heat, because both defenses are missing tackles. I would have thought that would have kicked in later in the 3rd quarter though. I wonder if teams cool off at halftime too much at times.

That was a weird play, too short for the first down. However, nice punt by McBriar though Bradshaw should not have caught it.

Out of sorts start by both teams to the third quarter. Both teams wasted nice runs by their backs.

Nice tackle by Newman on Jacobs to cover a mistake by Spencer.

Liveblogging with a cat is challenging. Aesc says “Hi.”

A great blitz to force a quick pass and a big 3rd down. But before that the Giants had to burn a timeout. That’s four wasted timeouts by the Giants. Didn’t matter in the first half. We’ll see what happens later on.

2 down linemen and a great blitz to force a punt but a huuuuge penalty. Damn.

Wow. Penalties. Gifts to the Giants. Two mediocre penalties to create 40 yards of offense.

Great tackle by Newman to stop a first down. Nice stop. But the field position battle got switched. Sigh.

9:47
Tony Romo is just too pumped up I think.

Felix!!!!!! El Gato with 56 yards. And Marcus is somewhere yelling at the TV!!!!

And a good run by Barber.

Beautiful cutback by Barber. 1st and goal at the 2.

Giants sell out to stop the run and hold them on first down.

Wasted opportunity. Bad throw there.

W00000ttt!!!! A QB draw. They don’t call that often. I can’t remember them calling that at all last year.

One thing about the Cowboys this year is that they have yet to have any real huge plays on defense or special teams. What I mean is that all of the points they have put up so far (58) have come from normal field positions. I don’t think they’ve started a single series yet on the other side of the 50. All of their points have come on long drives. This is a goooood offense.

Buehler with another touchback.

Olshansky sighting. Nice tackle there.

Wow. Missed opportunities on both sides. Should have been the first sack of the season but missed it allowing Eli to miss a wide open big play.

Good defense there leading to a mediocre punt. This might be the best field position of the Cowboys so far this year 🙂

Nice little taking advantage of what’s there on a pass to Hurd. His first catch of the season.

Hey Collinsworth, Barber got hurt. That’s why his numbers went down.

And we have a first down.

And now another gift to the Giants.

Damn. What a mediocre end to the quarter for the Cowboys. They had a chance to put the screws to the Giants there. Nice catch by Manningham, though the throw was mediocre. Had Manning put it in front of Manningham it’s a touchdown.

OK so there’s a comment to the 1st quarter blog, and it’s spam. Sigh

Big sequence here.

Beautiful run blitz there to cause a 7 yard loss. 3rd and goal from the 12 because of a great play by Anthony Spencer.

Really nice hold by the Cowboys there, and that might be a bit of momentum… but still we’re looking at 10 gift points to the Giants. Bleah.

It’s neat how much the open roof looks like Texas Stadium.

Wow, I actually agree with Collinsworth. I do think the Cowboys are a bit too emotional and fired up right now.

Nice block by Cricket Anderson on Antonio Pierce there, followed by another solid run. So far, they’ve been able to run against the Giants pretty effectively, which I wasn’t sure was going to happen. As I say, the NY front 7 is damn good.

I really like Marion Barber, but sometimes he needs to just go north-south and not look for the big run.

Nice patience by Romo and big gain to Austin with a face-mask on the end.

Great reverse by the Cowboys there. 1st and goal on the three. They took advantage of Mathias Kiwanuka’s aggressiveness and speed to create a huuuugge hole for Crayton. Gotta love Romo there. Got out there for a block and made a great QB block. Got in the way without an actual collision 🙂

8:22
One thing about the Cowboys offense is that they change their personnel and formation every play. This is not the norm, but reflects the ideas of Jason Garrett who wants a lot of good targets coming from a lot of different directions. I suspect we’ll see a play that will illustrate the clearing out of zones by Bennett and Witten, which is exactly the sort of thing Garrett likes to create.

Nice push by the Giants.

And a nice catch by Witten. The Giants actually played that really well, but Romo and Witten just out-executed them. Cowboys up 14-13 despite giving up 10 points on turnovers.

Right now, the Cowboys have had 12 runs to 4 people and 11 passes with 7 completions to 5 passcatchers but not yet a reception to the two leading receivers, Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton. Nice. That is what the Cowboys offense will look like in 2009.

8:31
OK, so this is a big defensive sequence to calm this game down.

Nice move by Mario Manningham, who is very good after the catch.

Really nice play by the Giants and Manning there, especially with the block by Ahmad Bradshaw. It was good defense and great offense.

Big 3rd and 5 here… and really nice coverage by Scandrick didn’t give Manning a place to throw it.

Nice punt by Feagles. He’s really good at the directional punting, of course, he’s got like 80 years of punting experience.

Nice play by Michael Boley. Nothing really there on either play from the 4 by the Cowboys. And a nice play by Kenny Phillips to force a punt, because I think he gets a first down there.

Nice to have Mat McBriar back. 50 yard net punt there.

Wow, bad throw by Manning there because he had a lane to Smith for a nice play. The Cowboys may have a chance to put some points up before the half depending upon the punt.

Wow… huge mistake by Flozell there, and I hope that Tuck is not hurt. Well-deserved 40 yard penalty. GRRRR. Adams is a good LT, but he is penalty prone.

Nice catch and run by Williams. Got a first down and got out of bounds.

Good choice by Romo to throw it away there.

Wow, what a break for the Giants. Another pick-6 for the Giants on a fluke play. Or maybe not a pick-6, maybe just the INT. Probably be Giants ball near the 30. Sigh, what a weird fluky play. Really nice play by Kenny Phillips there.

Big sequence now, with a good tackle by Newman to start.

Nice play by Marcus Spears to knock it down to make a huge 3rd down.

Wow, all the bounces going the Giant’s way right now. Bleah. Another fluky play, but again well done by Manningham.

And we’ve got 0 sacks and 0 turnovers by the Dallas defense in 3 halves. I did not expect that. That play works only because the Dallas blitz did not get to Manning there.

Well, a good first half for the Giants, who get 17 points off of turnovers to take the lead. Hopefully, the breaks will switch in the second half.

40 seconds with 3 timeouts still means the Cowboys have a chance to tack up some points.

Wow… what a picture from INSIDE the big TV

Nice little play and catch by Barber, leading to a salvage of 3 points. 20-17 after 3 gifts to the Giants. The Cowboys are giving the game away, and if they can get a break or two in the second half they will win.

OK, so I’m going to try this and see what happens.

So far, the Giants had a nice start, but I see a number of encouraging things. The run defense was stout. The defense on the really long play was actually really good but the Giants executed it well.

I’m not also all that worried about the somewhat slow start on offense. The Cowboys and Tony Romo have been consistently slow starters.

3rd & 3 on second drive…. and a nice little swing pass to Tashard Choice for just enough for a first down.

7:48 update
I think the Cowboys will be getting a bunch of 7-9 plays this year with Jason Witten sitting in zones.

Nice play by Kiwanuka to stop a first down where Barber had a lane.

Wow, nice push by Choice to get another first down. The Cowboys will also have a lot of people contributing to this offense. I really really like the versatility.

And just as I say that, Marion Barber with a 27 yard run… lovely blocking at the point of attack and really good downfield block by Roy Williams.

And now an 11 yard pass to the 2 directed to Martellus Bennett.

Leading to an easy TD for Barber.

Let’s see, that drive included passes to both TEs and had 2 RBs making key runs.

Very Nice

Dallas 7 NY 3

7:56
I said in my preseason predictions (http://rhodri2112.livejournal.com/30463.html#cutid1) that I thought the Cowboys would have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. A lot of people thought I was crazy because we were losing the contributions of Terrell Owens. My thought, however, was that with 4 good WRs, 3 very good RBs, a great QB and 2 great TEs, that if they stayed healthy and the offensive line played well teams would struggle to figure out what to defend. I think I’m being proved right.

Nice play by Spencer, who needs to have a good year.

My biggest surprise from last year was the fact that the Cowboys had 0 sacks after leading the NFL with 59 last year. I think they’ll have that many or more this year, but as yet still none.

Nevertheless, they’re getting good pressure. Nice hit by Ware on Manning to cause an incompletion. Actually Bobby Carpenter on the body hit, though it looks like Ware hit his arm.

Basically I’m predicting a really good Cowboys team because I saw significant improvements to the offense, defense, and the special teams. Some of those improvements were just having some injured players coming back, like Felix Jones, but this is a good team in a lot of places.

This series has had two nice defensive plays to start by the Giants.

Make that three as Romo throws a pick-6. The Giants have a really good defense front 7, and it showed right there. However, Romo made a bad underthrow to Crayton there too.

8:05
Wow, not a good sequence for the Cowboys. What might have been a nice return turned into a fumble by Felix Jones.

2 turnovers this week to none last week. I believe that the Cowboys are a much better team, but giving the ball away….

Bradie James with a nice hit to hold up Jacobs, but Manning had protection and made a nice throw.

Good first down stuff of Jacobs, with a nice play by Brooking.

So far, it looks like what we expected in the first quarter. Two teams that will trade punches. The edge obviously to the Giants because of turnovers.

So I don’t want to get too much into health care reform. I suspect we all have our positions and are unlikely to dramatically change them based upon someone else’s opinion.

But before you let your opinions solidify completely, we should all read this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care
Because this seems to have a great deal of objective information.

Much of this matches, BTW, my own health care experience as an IT provider. The antipathy towards IT in the health-care industry is fascinating.

Oh, and both of my remaining grandparents died in 1999 because of illnesses contracted while at the hospital.

My response is that I will start asking how much everything costs in total dollars and not simply allow myself to remain ignorant.

Just for fun, and because I think I’m more able to research than some of the so-called professional prognosticators, here is my projection of the 2009 season. The record projections use the following format Overall (In the team’s 6 games in their division, record in the 4 games against the first outside division, record in the four games against the second outside division, and then a projection of the remaining 2 games).

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