So happens I have the answer.

Down South, we had regular ol’ carpet, a low shag type of fluff. It looks great right after you vacuum, no doubt, but it tends to look trampled relatively fast. Like, as soon as you touch it. I understand why people used to be so anal about not walking on the carpet; pretty to look at, hell to maintain.

We move up north. The place we rent? Has berber carpet. Has a mix of colors, which we assume will wear well, hiding daily dirt and whatnot. Great that it has no real ‘grain’ or anything, as now whether your vacuum or not, walking on it doesn’t make it look trampled. Yay.

BUT, we were dead wrong about the wear ability of this sh!t. I mean, our carpet is most definitely spotted where it’s used the most. And I think it’s actually a function of the low shag; since there’s no grain, there is nowhere for a stain or discoloration to hide.

Our kitchen is tiled in a sort of renaissance-type color scheme, with mixed reds, oranges, browns, etc. I don’t know what to call it, but I can say this: it stays clean, it’s easy to clean up, and eventually, I will have a house that’s floored entirely with something similar to it.

Though maybe not the grout. I hate grout. No grout. More specifically, I was thinking something like this here. Ah yes, a solid, easy-to-clean surface without grout lines. What do you think?



The. Most. Fun. EVER
That might be a small exaggeration, but I did have more fun than a barrel of monkeys with their pants down today. We took the dogs out to the beach where we normally do, then as we were leaving, I decided to take a right instead of a left and go exploring. What did I find?

Dunes. The kind that you go off-roading all over. I knew the dunes were there, sort of, but I didn’t figure I could just drive there, keep going, and then be free to do as I pleased out there. It was a surprise, and lo-and-behold it was a fun one.

Unfortunately, The Girl had to work tonight, so we had to skip home earlier than I would have liked. I took some quick photos that didn’t come out, so you can look forward to me not putting them on the web to share, too. We’ll be back there soon enough. We have some friends (turns out I have a couple) that are going to be visiting us during the late stages of this month, so I plan on taking them out there and 4-wheeling the hell out of some dunes with them. They’ll enjoy it.



The Girl is too damned nice
I mean, it’s a good thing for me that she’s nice to me, but she’s too damn nice to everyone else. I keep telling her she needs to stand up for herself and not let people walk all over her all the time, otherwise they’ll continue to do so because they know they can get away with it.

Case in point: We get home, and there’s a message on our machine from some girl asking if she could work in The Girl’s place tonight. Cool, because The Girl needs to finish getting ready for her trip back to Southern Hell-ifornia this Sunday. They make the plan, all is set. We have lunch, look forward to another night together, then the phone rings.

This lady is calling back to say that she kinda changed her mind, and doesn’t want to work for The Girl anymore. Now since she’s technically scheduled for the shift, it’s not like she can really say too much to the effect of “tough sh!t,” because it is her ass on the line. But, she was so overly nice about it that she made it sound like she was relieved to be having to work tonight after all, which wasn’t the case.

If it had been me, instead of being all “oh it’s alright, I’ll do it, no problem,” that lady would have heard “You mean now that I’ve gone out of my way to give you the shift you asked for, and subsequently made other plans, you’re calling to renege on that deal? So I’m going to have to cancel my plans because you changed your mind? No no, that’s fine, I’ll do it. I have to go and get ready. No really, I’ll do it. I’m on the schedule anyway. I can’t talk anymore, I have to go and cancel my other plans and then get ready for the shift I thought was covered. Bye.”

Yes it’s petty, but how the hell else do you get across to these people that this sort of behavior is just not acceptable? A little shaming can go a long way, OK? And really, that's what I sorta feel is necessary.

Yes I told The Girl this. Yes she gets it. It’s just hard for her to do, because it’s in her nature. Which is why it’s good for her that it’s not in mine. Don’t worry, baby; I’m here to keep you from being a door mat ;-)

Peace.

Tags: Animals, women