Busy, busy weekend. Sometimes, I think the weekends can be so busy, you need a day off on Monday just to recuperate from the weekend activities.
On Saturday, we actually didn’t do too much, but we hung out with the kids most of the day. I took Josh to his gym class in the morning, followed by a haircut to tame the large ‘fro on his head. Late lunch for the kids, and we were off to get ready for an adult dinner. But first, dropping off the kids for a few hours with my wife’s family!
Yes, an adult dinner. Every once in a while, we get the opportunity to dress up and eat a nice dinner sans children. It’s a wonderful experience. Saturday night, we had dinner reservations at Sophie’s Bistro, a supposedly very nice French restaurant in Somerset, NJ. The food was so good and so rich, by the time my entree arrived, I could only eat a few bites before I gave up and asked to have it packed up.
The evening was young, so we went to drop off pajamas and other supplies to the kids, and then we were off to watch The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock over at the AMC in Hamilton. Keeping in mind that this was our second attempt to watch this particular movie together (read here), but also my wife’s second viewing of the same exact film, it was still enjoyable. 🙂
On Sunday morning, we picked up the kids, and hit the road for some home improvement shopping. Due to the all the recent home improvement work, we still had to pick up better-than-we-have-now light fixtures, curtain rods for our new window treatments, and other things. I’m not big on home improvement shopping, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Otherwise, the alternative is to live in a cardboard box under the Brooklyn Bridge. Mmmmm, DUMBO.
Late Sunday afternoon, while the daylight was still streaming, I (we?) decided to install at least one of the light fixtures, so I chose the downstairs hallway. Now, the last time I did this was April 2008 when replacing the kitchen ceiling light fixture (see around Apr 15th if you’re interested.) The dome of the original fixture had come loose and fallen (and oh boy, shattered) one evening, so we needed a replacement light fixture back then. Instead of calling a qualified electrician, I decided to do it myself. It took me about four hours later at that time, it wasn’t fun, and yet no ceiling fires in the past two years. Time to try it again!!!
This time, it was still a pain in the rear end, but it only took me two hours to replace the ceiling light in the downstairs hallway. Again, so far, so good on the ceiling fires, i.e. there has been no sign of fire! The only downside is that I think some of the fiberglass that was in the new light went into the air, and embedded themselves into my face, as my face hurts. I’m not even joking. Apart from that, the downstairs hallway is better lit, so I say “Mission accomplished!” I have one more light to install in the upstairs hallway, but will do that next weekend, when I have daylight. Obviously, one needs to turn off the power to that fixture at the circuit box, and installing a ceiling light is probably an even greater pain in the ass while in the absence of light. I don’t know for certain, but I’m just assuming here.
You know, I think I’m turning into a regular handy man.
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