I seriously want to set my bed on fire. I loathe it. It's hard, lumpy and I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in forever. I'd love to buy a new one... but I don't want to cut my finances too thin. It's my fault for buying the damn thing online. It had the same name as my old one which was comfy but old. It even had that extra comfy thing added. We've shook it, flipped it over and almost out the window. The thing still feels like it's filled with cement. I even tried snoozing on the couch. Sitting on it is no problem. Once you lay down it digs into you like some Gremlin is living beneath it. Welcome to our humble abode. Coffee, tea or torture rack?

On Friday Jake started talking about getting a bookshelf for all his books that he has lying around and in a big ole box in the closet. After fretting about where we would put it I remembered that Cat helped re-design a house before using her Sims program. I called her up and asked if she could help. Within minutes I was being sent different options on where to place all of our furniture. Here's the current design and the one we chose. She even offered to come over and help with Mark so we could get all the heavy furniture moved. I cannot even begin to say how much I appreciate all that they have done for us. Besides being tired Mark still said yes and within a few hours we had everything in place.

The next day it was back to Hell. Ikea-Hell, that is. I cannot even start to talk about how much Burbank is like the fifth ring of Hell for us. Especially at that fucking store. The people are pushy, cranky and it's almost like war in the pick up area. After returning the extra flooring for a 200 dollar credit (yay!) we ventured our way back into the bowels of Ikea to look for a bookshelf. Jake wanted to high tail it out of there but I said no. I'll be damned if I was going to make another trip to this place... EVER (unless Cat or Mark needed something). We found a decent one and bolted for the door. After paying for the bookcase Cat suggested we head over to Islands for dinner. Since they knew where it was I waited for them to get their car. I thought I saw them and pulled out of my space (big mistake). When I realized it wasn't them I pulled to the side and hit the hazard lights and waited. Some complete idiot pulled up behind us and started flashing his lights. I rolled down my window and waived him on... nothing. He just sat there. He yelled something and I yelled back, "Don't you know how to go the fuck around!" With that I gave up and headed for the entrance... with the idiot in tow. He followed us all the way around the corner before parking and jumping out of his car. He slammed his door, stomped to the passenger side, opened and slammed that door too. It was... odd. We made it to the restaurant and tried to cool down while Mark laughed about how we manage to get the biggest idiots to deal with. We're lucky like that. :/

This is going to be a busy week for me, so don't expect much. I'm going to be pushing myself to pack away all my things so that we will have an easy time of moving furniture come Friday. Saturday we'll be busting our asses putting in the floor and Sunday we'll be enjoying a nice, new place... compliments of Ikea and my two friends who graciously offered to help. So far the place is looking great as far as newly painted walls go. Who needs a new place when you can do a little touch up here and there for half the price. Woo hoo!

So many things to do... and such a big limit on the credit card. It's so tempting just to charge it all and pay off later. If we just got the floors, the paint, the tools the put them on and the A/C we'd be okay. That is... until the bill arrived. Then I'd have to come up with a way to pay it. I'm okay with it until Jake starts mentioning other things... then I start to worry. We need to write down a list of what we want in the order of need VS desire and the cost. Everything goes below his teeth, which are more important. I think the biggest issue is moving the idea into the reality phase. Telling me that starting a savings account is all good until three months later when nothing has been saved and we need to buy things. *sigh* Goals...

We've decided to rip out the old carpet and put wood floors down in our apartment. The carpet we have now is beyond nasty and I am at my wit's end trying to clean it. I've used deep cleaners and the water still turns black. After HOURS of cleaning I was finally told it was the layer underneath the carpet that disintigrated from being so old (the building was built in the 1950s). After Caufield and Kitty offered to help I decided it was time to make a change. Plus, seeing their new apartment made me dream of the day we can move into something bigger. I asked for the time off and we started to make a game plan. The only thing left is to find out if the manager says it will be okay. Before that we also have to find out if the place is going to be around for a while. Here comes the sob story....

A few months back the city building inspectors made their rounds and wrote up our building for a few small issues... and some big ones. They painted my bathroom, kitchen, the bedroom ceiling and even installed new outlets that were grounded. After the guy came through and gave us the okay the manager received a notice about the four apartments on the side of the building. Aparently they're illegal. Oh joy, oh rapture. A hearing date was set to decided what to do about them. I believe it was in July. Four apartments is a lot of money to lose if they decide against the building and my guess is the owner won't want to keep it. Considering all the nice new apartment buildings popping up around us our place could go for a pretty penny... and be torn down for something a LOT nicer. We can afford to move if we have to. We just won't be living as comfy as we are now. I'd rather stay at my current place (I literally pay HALF of what a new one bedroom costs) and save money for a house.

Yesterday I started calling my manager to see if the verdict was in and he had any idea of what was going to happen. I got his answering machine both times. Today... same thing. Now I'm getting antsy and have been robodialing his phone to see if he answers. So far... nothing. I don't want to leave a gazillion messages but it's getting a bit annoying. I'm also running out of excuses for making multiple calls. Pick up the damn phone already!!!! GAH!

The television is officially fixed! Friday night JakeD and I planned on some quick cleaning which ended up being a mini spring cleaning. It spilled over into Saturday too. You'd think we were expecting company for the week, Then on Saturday e JakeD went to the anti war rally while I stayed home for the television repair guy. After zipping through the repair he showed me the possible culprits. Two little switches that Samsung had originally used on their newest lines of televisions. Apparently the company that made them did a lousy job and Samsung is eating a lot of the cost. He had already replaced four yesterday and I was the second one of the day. I'm just glad the whole thing is over with and we can get back to movie date nights.

This scale situation is making me crazy! We ended up buying another scale. After entering the info I stood on it and... it was off. WTF!?! I kept standing off and then on, each time a slightly different weight. Then I started moving it around the bathroom. I wanted to scream. Finally it got close to what my doctor's office said I was and I just gave up. I realize the bathroom is uneven (thank you California Earthquakes and bad designing) but this is rediculous. Now we have two scales I don't trust. *sigh* At least I lost 23 pounds from this diet. Yay!

I really do. I point it north and gain two poinds. point east and lose three. We paid a lot of money for a scale to track my weight lose and now all I can say is I roughly lost 19 to 22 pounds. I feel like we bought Jake Sparrow's compas and am trying to find what I really want. I want to lose weight! How ironic that 'north' is pointing to where the kitchen is. Maybe the scale is threatening me. You go in there and prepare to see THIS! Bastard....

Sometimes there is nothing more satisfying than coming home after a long day and flopping into my favorite chair. Suddenly all the bullshit that I left at the door is a distant memory and all is right in the world. Let the weekend begin!