One wonders sometimes

how things can go so terribly, horribly wrong.

You remember my dilemma with the bookcases? Weeeeelllllll it seems things have gotten worse. My sons came over yesterday to put the rest of the stuff together. Brent, the oldest, got here first. He's my Peter Pan son. I love him dearly and in some ways he most like me and in other ways the complete opposite. He got the shelves out of the box, worked on it for about five minutes, got frustrated and flounced down on the couch saying he didn't know why I asked him to help - he hates doing this kind of thing and now I put him in a bad mood.
You see, my sisters call me a quotation mark Draaaaammmmaaa Queen quotation mark. I laugh at them, laugh at myself and admit I might have a wee bit of it in me. Brent, on the other hand beats my drama queen with his Drama King without the ability to laugh at himself. He sulked for the rest of the day. I told him at one point to just go home but he said he was only staying to help with the heavy stuff and then fell asleep.
Ryan arrived not long after and worked on putting the main entertainment shelving unit together. It took him over four hours - working by himself. I offered to help a few times but he just said "out" so out I went and finished reading Creation in Death. I learned that was the best thing to do when Ron was trying to put something together too.
Later on I ordered pizza for the 3 of us. Brent woke up long enough to get pissy because I wasn't ordering it from his favourite pizza place - which I don't really like and is the most expensive.
Ryan finally got it done. It was in two parts and the two of them put it up. Although seeing how large it was I started having those dreadful suspicions again that the measuring thing was going to bite me in the butt again.
They put it against the wall and said "done."
At which point I said "Not exactly".
"There is another one?" Ryan said.
"Um." I answered. "Not one."
"Two???" came his reply.
"Weeeelllll, how about three?" I confessed.
You see - I had two more on either side of the big one the TV sits on and there was still the third bookcase.
"I'm not doing those today!!" came his emphatic answer
"No, no I don't expect you to." I said
It had taken him almost 5 hours to do just the one and I wasn't about to ask him to do the rest. Besides, seeing the one big one there, I don't think two on either side will fit. Those show rooms at Ikea are so much BIGGER than my living room.

So then, with food in his stomach - he somehow managed to get over his pissiness and eat the pizza I wanted, Brent and Ryan worked on setting up the cable and VCR. It was at this point another problem cropped up. You see, the SurroundSound/DVD cable was quite short. It just barely reached on the other stand. This one is higher and the DVD is further away from the television.
It wouldn't reach. I have to go and get a longer cable. This means no North and South. This means no Robin Hood. This means no music real loud (which is how I like it) because the DVD is also a FM radio station. There is a snow storm going on outside.
So - I have boxes upon boxes all over the living room and hall. I have two more entertainment/shelves that probably won't fit. I have a bookcase that won't fit. I have no DVD. And somehow I managed to break the sound on the computer.
I have to have the kitchen cupboards all cleaned out by the day after Christmas. I will have no kitchen for a month starting January 4th.
On the positive though - I did stop at the mall on the way home from work on Friday and got most of my shopping done. Mind you at this point I don't want to give Brent anything except a lump of coal and if we didn't have a snow storm raging, I'd be very tempted to take his gifts back.

February - I can hardly wait till you get here.

'til later

One of those d'oh moments

Do you ever have one of those "I'm an idiot" moments? I had one on the weekend. I mentioned that I recently spent a great deal of money at IKEA on bookcases and an entertainment shelving unit. I had them shipped because they were way too heavy and way to big to carry home in my mid-size Chevy Cavalier. They delivered them a few weeks ago - all eleven boxes. And since they go upstairs they were kind of all over the place. I was waiting for my sons to come and help *snort* put them together. That's one of the reasons I figure I had sons. Well the oldest one came over the day after I went out drinking - oh and more on that story later. I was unfortunately not feelin' so hot so the only ones he put together with me observing, were the two CD/DVD towers. Then I had to wait a whole week for Ryan to come and help *snort* put the other ones together. He said he'd be over last Saturday so I spent the day cleaning out the old bookcases, emptying, dusting etc. I had books all over the sofa, the kitchen table, the end tables in the living room - where ever I could find a spot for them. And this was just the upstairs books! Well he didn't show up until after 7:00 that night. While I was glad he showed up at all - and on a Saturday night even, I wasn't sure if he would feel like helping me *snort* in putting nine boxes of shelves together that late. He should have had a date or something. He's a handsome successful head of the accounting department. And he has a nice big truck. And a cowboy hat I brought home from Dallas with me that he could use in doing a strip tease for his lady friends. He found the two book case boxes out of the nine boxes and proceeded to put them together while I observed. Then together we put them against the wall. The plan was to put the two CD/DVD towers on the outside, the two tall bookcases next to them on the inside and the half-sized bookcase in the middle. He looked at me. I looked at him. We both looked at the wall with the bookcases & CD/DVD towers.




"You didn't measure the wall, did you?" he asked.

"Ah, no - I didn't." I replied

"They aren't all going to fit you know."He said with a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes.

"I kind of gathered that."

"So, what are you going to do now?" he asked still shaking his head at his mothers lack of forethought.

"I don't really know." Was my slow reply.

"Well, let me know when you figure it out. I gotta go now," came his his reply.

So now I have the two CD/DVD towers - empty, next to them two tall bookcases and in the middle a bit empty spot that I have no idea what to do with. I have books all over the sofa, all over the kitchen table, the end tables - where ever there is room for them. See, if I put them on the shelves and then decide to move them, I'll have to empty them all again.

In the meantime I sit and watch TV on the one section of the sofa that isn't filled with books, glance over at the empty middle spot, looked at the squished down carpet that I'll never be able to fluff up and then back at the TV where I have a WHOLE bunch more shelves and TV stand to go - and think to myself - "I didn't measure that wall either."


til later