Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 83, Down ~40.5lbs

Today is another day of cleaning and working around the house for us.  I got our stereo system out of the garage and got it set up (but not plugged in) in the den so that at least it is where it is finally going to go rather than sitting out in the garage in a box.  Now that we have our speakers from dad’s house and the stereo receiver from the garage we are able to see how they fit in that room.  And the verdict is that they don’t.  They don’t fit at all.  We have no idea how we are going to make these, or any other, speakers work in that room.

The first order of business is really to get the television mounted up on the wall.  Having the television on the TV stand on the floor is just not working.  That is a horrible arrangement.  It takes up a lot of floor space and it makes it hard to see.  So hopefully in the next two weeks we will be able to get that mounted.  Once that is mounted the plan is to have some shelves added beneath it to hold the receiver and video game gear in a nice, neat fashion.  Then that should clear up the floor giving us more floor space in which to spread out.  I think that Liesl will want to use that space to play a lot.  It will look much nicer.  But even once we do that we have no idea where to place the speakers.  We are stumped there.  There just isn’t a good space in that weird corner with the plants, the brick pillar and the buffet.

Dominica’s project for the day was to paint the wood paneling on the front of the bar.  The bar, where it is against the living room, that is the part at which one would sit to drink at the bar, has always been a very dark wood paneling which is very dated and very dark in a part of the house where we are always struggling to have enough light.  So Dominica painted it a bright white today and boy does it look a lot better.  She did the first coat around noon, the second at four and the last coat around eight tonight.  Already you can tell that the living room is much brighter and feels cleaner and more modern.

After this we are really looking forward to having the same dark wood paneling painted on the buffet and in the bar area itself.  We can tell that it will really make a difference once we get into those areas too.

Medifast Status: Day 82, Down ~40.5lbs

This morning I walked outside to do something and looked down and noticed that the sidewalk coming up to our front door had cracked.  I knew that this crack was not there before and I knew exactly what this meant.  This is the shift that I have known was coming since we first looked at the house but no one had believed me that it was going to be a problem.  I looked up and, to my horror, I was right.  Three of the four brick pillars supporting the roof over our walkway and begun to significantly sink into the yard and were leaning away from the house even more than previously and the mortar had given way, bricks were loose many feet above our heads and the roof had broken away and was buckling from the lack of support from the pillars.

So this is not going to be fun.  At all.

Today was our day to do work around the house.  It really needed it.  The house is a total mess, mostly caused by us getting in from New York and just dropping everything where we were and not getting a chance to do anything about it all week.  That and Liesl wanted her “tunnel” taken out so we have that set up in the living room again.  Boy that thing is huge.

We got a lot of the house cleaned up today and then worked on the garage too.  This morning we got the unfinished dresser out and set it up on the back patio so that Dominica could work on staining it.  It is incredibly hot outside which is good for the stain itself but it does not make it a fun job for Dominica.  She was melting out there.

It took several hours but the dresser appears to have turned out really nice.  It needs to sit outside in the heat tonight so that it will be ready to come inside tomorrow.  Liesl has never had any real furniture of her own other than her bed (which is going to become Luciana’s) so this will be nice for her.

I got the Nintendo Wii all hooked up today.  It is nice to have that back.  I popped in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and played that for about an hour tonight.  I have never actually played a Zelda game before for more than maybe fifteen minutes except for Ocarina on the Wii about a year and a half ago.  I know how unbelievable that sounds, but it is true.  It has just never been my thing and I never got into it even though we own what must be nearly the definitive collection of the games and that Ocarina of Time is one of Dominica’s all time favourite games.  So I decided that I needed to give this one a real try and see how it is.  I’ve seen it listed as having more than one hundred hours of gameplay in it.

We also played just a little bit of Super Mario Galaxy.  Funny enough, this is a game that we still had in shrink wrap when the Ralstons borrowed the Wii.  So even though we have owned it for probably two years we had never played it, ever.

This evening Dominica made some popcorn and we settled in to watch the latest Harry Potter movie on BluRay.  It was late when we started, after Liesl had gone to bed, so we were pretty tired.  We only made it halfway before we were too tired and headed off to bed ourselves.

Medifast Status: Day 81, Down ~40.5lbs

It is apparently a La Cima themed week for us.  Dominica saw today’s menu and decided that she was coming down with the girls to join me for lunch again.  They have just had a really good menu this week and we’ve been completely unable to resist using the club again.

This afternoon we got a panicked communique from our renters back in Peekskill, New York.  Apparently there are several issues going on at the house including a broken door, wasps, a water stain, a running toilet and some exterior painting issues.  These things just never end, it would seem.

So we spent a bit of the day just attempting to coordinate work up in Peekskill.  That was stressful and not fun at all.

I worked late this evening and then went home for a short night with the family.  We are going to be home all weekend just dealing with stuff around the house.  And around the other house, apparently, too.

Medifast Status: Day 80, Down ~37.5lbs

Eighty days on Medifast.  It really does not seem like it has been all that long.  But looking back, it sure has.  I can barely remember what food is like anymore.  It’s not that I am hungry very often but boy do I crave normal food.  I really miss being able to eat.

I skipped lunch today and just stayed at work all day.  I’m still struggling to get caught up from having been out of town.  I’m pretty exhausted and looking forward to the weekend coming up at home.

We stayed in again tonight.  Just stayed home and relaxed.  I brought home dinner from Rockfish so that we could just eat and take it easy.

Medifast Status: Day 79, Down ~37.5lbs

I sent the menu over to Dominica this morning from La Cima and she decided that she wanted to bring the girls down and go eat there again.  They are on a roll this week.

This evening we just stayed in and spent a quiet evening at home.  We’ve been watching 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter – the television show that John Ritter did and passed away while filming the second season.  Neither of us have ever seen it and we have both wanted to and the first two seasons are available on Hulu Plus in HD so we have been watching it there.