Make Lemons... » 1001 day project

Complete #15 – Buy a New Sofa

michelle — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:57:22 +0000

I have been wanting a new couch for about a year now. My old was approaching 10 years old… and Madison had destroyed that matching arm chair (well not destroyed… but it had definitely seen better days). So I started looking online at the major players.. Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Room and Board…. and had pretty much narrowed it down to Crate and Barrel by August. I knew they had a yearly furniture sale… so I waited for mid-October… went to the Mall in Annapolis one Sunday… and along with a few twitter followers narrowed it down to 3 sofas…. and after about 2 hours made my final selection!

I went with a custom fabric… so it had to be made to order. The sales guy said it would take about 3 months… So I planned for a mid-January delivery…. but they called just after Thanksgiving…. it was ready! But I wasn’t taking time off work for it… so I had to wait a few weeks for actual delivery…

It arrived today…. Next up a coffee table and TV console

Complete #42 – Get HVAC Serviced

michelle — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:11:45 +0000

I live in an old house. About 70 years old. The furnace is old. Not sure if it is original… don’t think so since at point the house used Oil Heat.

About a year a go … one of the group buying sites had a deal to get the HVAC inspected and cleaned. I bought it. Since it expires in 2 weeks… I finally scheduled the inspection.

They guy arrived today and the cleaning took about an hour… he even changed my filter! (Good thing I had extra on hand…. i look like such a responsible home owner )

Conclusions…. My furnace is older than all get out… this I knew. But he said nothing is cracked and its in good working order. Luckily he didn’t try to go into the hard sell for other services….. He did recommend changing the thermostat to get rid of the mercury – and I want to do it… and actually I did try to get a programmable one installed by Pepco for free about a year ago… Also recommended…. Yearly service agreement – Pass for now… and Duct Cleaning… which I do need to do and have been wanting to for a while. Will probably wait for a group buying deal for that … as I have seen a few in the past.

Complete 98, 99 & 100 – Clean-out Master Closet, Chest of Drawers, and Bureau

michelle — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:57:51 +0000

Yesterday I found myself with some extra time on my hands and a The Tudors marathon on BBCAmerica. So I decided to clean. Specifically clean out clothes that are too big for me. And since I am a procrastinator at heart I started cleaning out my jewely armoire.first. Then I did Shoes and Handbags in the Master Closet, then moved onto clothes in the closet, chest of drawers and bureau. I even cleaned out my basket of gloves, scarves and hats!

When all was said and done… I found a lollipop, $0.46, jewelry I forgot I had, a pair of shoes to sell on eBay ( and possibly an old Coach bag… can’t decide). Made the decison that I will never buy another white/cream handbag again. Decided I have a cute collection of clutches..

and need to go out more to show them off (I’m sure no one at a Caps game will appreciate my paisley clutch, even though it IS red.) And had filled 2 large shopping bags, which have already been signed up to be picked up by Purple Heart this week.

Complete #53 – Meet Alex Semin

michelle — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:59:21 +0000

I’ve been waiting for CapsCon since April 2011 (that’s when we bought our tickets!) And after Tampa I didn’t think it would ever get here…. but yesterday was finally the big day! I had 2 missions… 1) Get in Sasha’s Autograph line and 2) Get my picture taken with Sasha. The picture was the easiest…. since you pre-buy it… which I did More on that later……

The autograph line is the trickiest part….. they have 4 timeslots, with 4 tables (2 players each) in session. Luckily I was advised how to pick your slot based on which players have panels at certain times. I knew Semin wasn’t doing a panel…. so figured he would sign at 1pm prior to 2:30 pictures…. So I picked 1pm and ended up with table B. My friend got table D and the plan was to switch if Semin ended up in D. Anyway…. 12:45 arrived and we decided to get in line….. and OMG….. the lines were huge…. we ended up way at the back of the convention center. about 10 minutes later someone came back to tell the people behind me who was at the table……… ALEXANDER SEMIN!!!!! Holy Hell!!! I couldn’t believe it. I was like are you serious??? Answer Yes they were!!!!

So the line is moving…… it took about an hour….. but I was finally to the front… probably grinning like a huge dork …. Handed Sasha my Semin jersey and he signed it! I said Thank You and moved on to Potulny and Alzner (who I wished a Happy Birthday).

Went to meet up with my friends… and I think I ran across half the convention center and then started jumping up and down!

Next up…. pictures…. Went to stand in another line….. this one was much shorter….. i think it took 15 minutes….Anyway soon it was my turn… I somehow managed not to trip and fall as I walked up to him…. He put his arm around me and I put mine around him (though too chicken to actually touch him…. smiled! Pictures taken…. I turned to say Thank You…. and I think he said welcome……… but I really have no clue because after he said it…… ALEXANDER SEMIN WINKED AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is when I lost my brain…… I was like ZOMG he just winked at me……… I totally walked out of the picture area and forgot my picture…. so I had to go back and get it……

And yes… I am wearing a Pearl Jam 20 tee…… only fitting since I wore an Alex Semin jersey to the 2nd Toronto Pearl Jam show

Complete #5 – See Pearl Jam in a Foreign Country….

michelle — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:46:02 +0000

When this tour was first announced back in May, my friend C and I were debating going…..but the Airfare for flying directly into Canada almost killed the whole trip. We originally did a search on Expedia and Non stop flights were around $560, 1 stop flights weren’t much better at $500. Somone told C to fly into Buffalo and rent a car and drive from there. So we looked at that. Southwest had $70 flights (return flight $50)… can’t beat that… and Rental car was only about $150 for 3 days.

So once I said I thought I could handle the actual driving duties… we were in! (provided we could get tickets

On sale day arrived and we got tickets for both shows! Booked a hotel a few days later… Thanks Priceline! Then booked the flights and reserved the rental car.

Travel day arrived bright and early for me on Sunday… Up at 5:30am…. Super Shuttle picked me up at 6:45….. we picked up 2 more people. Despite being September 11th… I breezed thru security fairly quickly… and had a whole row to myself…The plane wasn’t even half full. A quick hour flight to Buffalo… Then off to pick up the rental car.

I have never rented a car for travel… so this was all knew to me. I reserved a economy size car back in June. Yes economy is the cheapest… but I need to drive a small car…. I have always driven a small car (not counting when I learned to drive using my mothers Buick). So I get up to the counter and the guy is like “we don’t have any economy size cars…. I can put you in a Mini-van or a yukon.” My reponse “There is no way I can drive either of those.” Rental Car guy “yeah… I kind of figured…. I may have a Compact that I can put you in.” So the next size up was a Chevy Malibu… sold.

Activated the Canadian Data plan that I added to my phone….Got the car and off we go. The drive was pretty straight forward…Crossed the border.. where Canadian Border Agent said “Bonjour” as we crossed over…. but Booooo … No Stamp on my passport

Anyway…. we stayed about 2 blocks from Air Canada Centre… in Old Town Toronto. And OMG. Between the people biking, the pedestrians that walk as slow as molasses when crossing the street, and the drivers that peel out from stop lights…. I can’t believe I didn’t hit someone or get hit myself. The hotel was pretty hidden and it took us about 20 minutes to find it (and asking a cop for directions – which didn’t help, and asking a cabbie for directions – whihc did help).

I’ll cover the actual Pearl Jam shows (and Maple Leafs that we “met”) in separate posts.

Biggest shocks…. Tim Hortons — crazy crowds… and they don’t take Visa … Huh?? I have never seen a major metro area where people walk so… slow. Didn’t have to change any money… cause they would take US dollars… though we used cards for most purchases. Food was good. Beer was good. People were freindly.

Next up Montreal??

Complete #56 – Drive to H St NE

michelle — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:37:14 +0000

If you know me IRL, you know that I rarely drive to Virginia or DC….. I take the Metro everywhere mainly for 2 reasons…. people around DC drive like crazy people ….. and I hate parallel parking.

So when I made my new list I decided to add some DC driving to it in order to expand my horizons. First up H St NE. Why? Metrorail doesn’t service the area. You have to Metro to Minn Ave and then take the X2 bus. Not a terrible trip, but time consuming. Last week I had a Living Social deal at Dangerously Delicious Pies that was set to expire. If I metro’d it would have been at least a 90 minute round trip.

Driving……. 30 minutes round trip.

I managed to find free street parking….. that didn’t require parallel parking… Woohoo!

This opens a whole new world for me, since there are some great restaurants on H St NE.

Complete: #59 Go Skydiving

michelle — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:27:23 +0000

Waaaaay back in January a Living Social deal came out for Tandem SkyDiving. I saved it to revisit later in the day. A few hours later a R emailed another me and A to see who was interested. I replied immediately and said I was in, and A said she was in shortly thereafter (R later said she was shocked that we agreed to go so quickly…LOL).

We originally planned to go in April (Day after the Caps last regular season game… Haha!) But DC Skydiving called to say the jump was canceled due to fog So we rescheduled for July.

Sunday I woke up excited, but nervous. Around 7:30 I went to go print my LS Voucher………but crisis! No printer ink!!!! Ack. Of course it was Sunday…. nothing’s open! Around 8am I decided to run to CVS….8:17am they were still closed (website said they were to open at 8am)…. Then I decided to hop on Rt 50 and head to Target. As I pulled onto 50… I realized I didn’t have my phone…..So I started imagining if something happened in route I wouldn’t be able to call anyone ( I was supposed to meet my friends at 10:30)…. Luckily I made it to Target w/o incident, found the ink, grabbed a sandwich from Panera and headed home.

20 minutes before I was supposed to meet my friends, my stomach started doing flip flops…..which was weird cause we had a 90 minute drive ahead of us. We set off for Warrenton, VA. Arrived, signed in and settled in to wait for our turns.

(Yes… I am wearing my Caps #Winning tee….. I did it on purpose )

So the runway and landing spot for the Skydivers was right in front of us….

This was the plane.

We watched the people climb in, and the plane set off down the runway…. WITH THE DOOR OPEN!!!! This was when I started freaking out. I could not be in the open door way while the plane took off… No way, No how.

We got harnessed up…. and took some pictures….

Then it was time for A and I to load in…. yes… I was in the open door :X

So we taxi down the runway, to turn around for takeoff…… I have a death grip on the pilots seat and the door frame… and I’m yelling “Please don’t let me fall out of the open door!!”. A’s tandem guy starts batting my hand away from the door frame…. and he says “the door is gonna close”. Phew. Up we go. and were climbing. and climbing. This took about 15 minutes. My tandem guy starts singing Showtunes to distract me. LOL.

Then he says ok… we’re gonna open the door in about 20 seconds. The door opens… and all this air rushes in. I somehow get my legs out of the plane, grab onto the harness…….. and out we go. I closed my eyes, but I can feel us somersaulting……. Then my tandem guy says “Arch!”. So I arch, and can feel that we are facing down and falling flat……. so I opened my eyes!!!! And I see the earth getting closer… and then we’re falling through clouds (this was probably the coolest part…. glad I opened my eyes).

Then he pulls the chute, we’re yanked up….. and then we are gliding down the rest of the way……..

So cool. So glad I did it. I got the video, but its write protected. Once I figure out how to crack it I’ll post it somewhere

Complete #36 – Call Purple Heart and donate the bag of clothes that’s been sitting for a year

michelle — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:09:59 +0000

I’m sure everyone has that big huge shopping bag sitting near their closet that they put clothing in when you realize you’re not wearing it anymore. I’ve done it for years,, and when I lived in my condo I would give the full bags to my parents for donation to Purple Heart (no front porch, secure building, and the HOA would have had a meltdown if I left a bag of clothes outside of the front door.

So last weekend I finally looked closely at the green mailers that Purple Heart sends out…. and you can schedule your pickup…. ONLINE!!!! Sold.

I scheduled my pickup for this past Friday…. put my full bag out in the AM… and came home to see the donation receipt…. YAY for less clutter!!!

Complete #60 – Go rock wall climbing….

michelle — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:55:52 +0000

Waaaaaaaay back in February my friends and I bought a Groupon to use for 2 hours of Tower Climbing at Terrapin Adventures in Savage.

We finally used it this past weekend.

We showed up and registered and got all harnessed up….. and then walked outside to see this:

ACK!!!! what did we get ourselves into!?!?!? My friend A bravely went first…. clipped in and made it about halfway up the wall. I was next up….

It was hard. I didn’t even make it halfway up…. the places to put your feet and hands are not very big…. and once your hands start getting sweaty its all over.

Next up…. some rope walls….

I did slightly better at this (still didn’t make it all the top), but both of my friends kicked a$$ and totally did

So we continued climbing around on different parts of the tower, and then the adventure took a surreal turn. Savage Mill was hosting a wedding… and they were setting up close by….so at one point we were being serenaded by a string quartet. It was funny because, when we went on a Segway tour of DC we ended up posing in someones wedding photos in front of the White House (on our Segways).

All photos (and some video) can be found here.

Complete #44 – Replace floodlight bulb

michelle — Sun, 22 May 2011 13:12:32 +0000

When I first moved in (almost 2 years ago!) The gutters were in horrible shape. In fact one was hanging off the rear addition…

I finally replaced the gutters last fall and was finally ready to replace the lightbulb for the floodlight that the old gutters had been blocking.

I trotted out my trusty 6 ft ladder, and while holding onto the side of the house I climbed up to the top step that is recommended for standing and screwed in the lightbulb… YAY! Too bad the floodlight isn’t really attached to its base anymore. Must have been knocked off its base when the old gutter came down. Looks like another project for someone that is taller …. like my Dad