Ikea can kiss my butt...

Ikea can kiss my butt
Last night Marshall and I adventured out into the wilds of NE Portland.  Our destinaton: Ikea.  I had never been to an Ikea superstore, and I was so beguiled by the catalogs and the talk of cheap stylish stuff.  My mom swears that the bunk beds my sister and I had had kids are Ikea, but they were purchased back when Ikea was just another Scandinavian housewares company whose goods you could find in a few boutique shops here and there.  Well, my nieces now own that bunkbed, and it's still doing quite well.  But let me tell you, NONE of that cheap plastic crap they are selling at the 'showroom and warehouse' I went to last night could POSSIBLY still hold up after 23 years.  The showrooms were cute, I admit, and for the first 45 minutes of weaving around an air-hangar of tiny little fake living rooms, offices and bedrooms I was charmed.  But after 45 minutes, when I still hadn't reached the end of the candy-land style arrows painted on the floor, I was thoroughly disillusioned.  It's cheap crap made with cheap materials that seem to be put together lego style.  So now I've been.  I've had that experience, as I don't think I'll need to repeat it. 

Progress Report
The SB eating has been going swimmingly.  I know it's mostly or possibly all water weight, but I now weigh 13 pounds less than I did when I started the whole process.  Very soon, the weight loss should slow down to 1-2 pounds a week or so.  I look forward to that, cuz it'll mean that it's definitely body fat I'm losing.  And my goal?  I don't want to be uber thin or anything.  But if I were able to comfortably wear size 14 or 16 pants, I think I would be quite happy with myself at that size. 

Housey Stuff
Lately I've been thinking about mlittle things I can do to improve my quality of life.  Specifically, things that could make home a more fulfilling and comfortable place to be.  As much as I tend to avoid housework for all of its womens-work baggage, I've realized that I really and truly appreciate living in a tidy environment.  And since Marshall is generally quite happy to do his fair share of the housework, I want to work on doing little things around the house to keep it tidy more routine and less "holy shit this place is trashed, we'd better spend all day Sunday making it livable again." 

So in terms of cleaning the main areas needing regular attention are:

• The kitchen.  Cleaning up after preparing meals, keeping the dishwasher unload/reload cycle moving and washing the pans that pile up in the sink
• Laundry.  I can't remember when I didn't live out of laundry baskets that were overflowing with a mix of clean, dirty, and could-be-worn-again clothes.  I've never really liked doing or putting away laundry, but it sure is nice to be able to a) find clothes, b) walk through the bedroom and c) not have to do a million loads at a time to catch up. 
  
• The living room.  The newspapers pile up on the couch, next to the chair and on the coffee table.  Mail and books and magazines end up scattered and piled up on the coffee table.  It just gets obnoxious.  Mail alone is a huge issue.  Recycle the junk mail right away and make a designated place for important crap and put it there.  How hard can it be?

So these are the things I want to get better about in terms of cleaning.  Just incorporate them into daily life, a few minutes here, and few minutes there and the house won't be trashed. 

Lifey Stuff
I like to do stuff and make stuff.  The other day I bought an icosahedron building kit and had a blast.  It was simple and fun and made my fingers hurt.  But it's pretty rare that I actually do or make anything.  I think part of it is not having a place where I can set up and leave stuff like art supplies out and not have it be in the way or in danger of getting sat on by a cat.  I want to find some projects and find a place to do them.  I don't care if I start out with jigsaw puzzles.  So here are some ideas I have for myself.

• Set up a studio space in the basement.  Kind of a big deal to get this rolling since the basement is full of stuff and crap and boxes and shit, but it would be cool.  As long as I can make it comfortable and not scary feeling.
• Take knitting back up.  Find a pattern, maybe spend some time at the knitting store learning some new techniques and make some stuff.  I've always wanted to knit socks.  I think the time may be near.  So step one would be go the the knitting store and say "hi there, it's been a while since I've knit anything and I want to knit some simple socks.  Could you recommend a pattern to me that is relatively simple?"
  
• Do yoga again.  I fight with this one all the time.  When I do it I love it and it feels great and I feel way awesomely better.  But I gotta do it.  Disciplined I am not.  Baby step?  Find my yoga books
  
• Finish unpacking/putting together the house.  It may be more appropriate to put this under housey stuff, bout oh well.  I mean for crying out loud, we've lived here for two months now and the bookcase in the dining room still just has boxes in it.  And they're not even books.