Where to start?

Since I've been MIA the last week, let's get a recap on the life  of the Mac Man.

This past weekend was all about paint. Lots of paint. More than the amount of paint you're thinking of. Yep, more than you're even thinking of right now. A little bit more. Perfect!

My parents came up this weekend to help paint the main floor and upper floor of my house. This was partly because Ms. Fiance was not as enamored with the multiple colors everywhere as I was. Actually, it's probably because I was too lazy to finally start the project, unlike her. The painting in my bedroom had bothered me since the day I moved in, but it took over 2 years for me to do anything about it. Life as a single guy, I guess...

So, with the help of the parental units and Ms. Fiance, we painted the entry way, kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, master bedroom, spare bedroom, bathroom, and every single ceiling for all of those areas as well. Quite the undertaking. Even worse, the old paint that was on the walls was quite dry and seemingly oil-based, so we had to put 2 coats of primer on the walls in the entry way, part of the dining room, and the living room. On top of that, we also had to put 2 coats of paint on the accent wall in the living room. 

We started when I got home from work on Friday, painted until about 11:00 pm, then went to bed. We got up the next morning and painted all day until about 10:00 pm. On Sunday, we went to church, came home, and painted until evening. We really didn't take any breaks except to eat and sleep, but we got all of the painting done (well, except a few closets).

The end result looks pretty nice. My parents are the expert painters, so we learned quite a few tricks of the trade from them. The taught me the proper way to hold a brush while trimming, and with a little bit of practice, I was out-trimming them. I was really sceptical when they said they didn't use any of that painter's tape that you can put down to keep from getting paint on the ceiling, windows, doors, etc. We did the whole house without tape, and it looks really good. You can get closer to the trim without the tape, and you don't have the problem of the new paint (that's on top of the tape) peeling off along with the tape.

I also replaced a bunch of receptacles and switches in the house at the same time, which was the first time I've done that. The old ones were covered in paint from the previous residents, and not just the color paint that was on the walls before we painted. I replaced 17 outlet covers, about 12 receptacles, 3 light switch covers, and about 8 light switches. It looks much better now.

I also played electrician and added a new GFCI outlet (the kind with the test and reset buttons) to the bathroom and fixed the wiring on the existing one. For some reason, the person that put in that outlet had it wired up so that if the breaker on the GFCI outlet tripped, it would cause the lights to go out in the bedroom downstairs. That's kind of annoying, so I finally got around to fixing that as long as I was playing around in there anyway.

I also had more car trouble on Tuesday night. When I was coming back from Home Depot with all of my new receptacles, switches, and covers, I smelled something unusual in the car. When I got home, there was a big puddle of gas forming near the back of my car. It slowed to a small leak, but when I turned the engine on again, it started pouring out really fast again. The wet spot from the gas was about 8 feet long and 8 inches wide, so we're talking about a pretty big leak here.

I didn't want to drive the car to the shop like that, so I figured I would probably have to have it towed. I let it sit there until the next day, when it was light out. I crawled under the car to have a look, and nothing looked cracked or loose (not that I'm an expert). I tried to tighten the couplings along the fuel lines, but nothing really seemed to be very loose. The car hadn't leaked overnight, and still didn't leak when I turned the engine on. I decided to make a run for the shop, and experienced no leaks along the way. They had it for about 5 hours, but didn't find a thing wrong with it.

So, no expensive repairs this time, but I'm a little afraid that something is going to happen again. After all, the gas was just pouring out of there the night before. I must have just tightened something enough while under the car, but who knows how long that will last.

Finally, we had our last co-ed softball game last night. I lead off, walked, got to second base, and then tradgedy struck. While running to third base to try to beat the third baseman to the bag (a grounder was hit to him), my foot landed a bit awkwardly in the sand, and I felt this strange sensation in my hip as my hip slipped partially out of socket. It popped back in right away, but it hurt pretty bad. It hurt a bit to walk on it, but I could still run pretty well. I was able to finish the game (even hitting an inside-the-park homerun after my injury), and ended up a triple short of hitting for the cycle. I also had a few nice defensive plays. In the end, we won for just the 2nd time this year. It was easily our best game of the year. The hip still hurt, but that pain got much worse after sitting still in the car on the way home. Today I am limping badly, and it's hard to bend over to put on socks, tie my shoes, or even get into and out of the car. Hopefully it's short-lived, however, because I start fall softball in just 2 weeks!

So, that was my week in a nutshell. If you've made it this far without your eyes glossing over, congrats! 

DotD: Two of the As Seen on TV products that I consider to be the most useless ever are now on sale! Help your arthritic dog with the Doggy Step for only $19.99, and while you're at it, cook some pasta for yourself with the Pasta Express for only $6.99. While I can't say that I've tried the Doggy Step, I have tried the Pasta Express. Ms. Fiance's parents got me one for Christmas as a joke, and we tried it out as a joke. It was even worse than we thought. It took longer than the normal way of cooking pasta since you still have to have hot water to pour in there, and once you do, you can't keep it heated like you would over the stove. The pasta was quite starchy even after waiting what seemed like forever. But it's on sale!