Let's see... over the last couple of weeks I've taken down more wallpaper, painted some more, gone to a bachelorette weekend, bought a 7 lb. bag of ground beef, gone on an interview, taken a trip to Germany, and eaten a giant sundae.

So first things first- the wallpaper... what? Oh, you've heard this before. Same book, different chapter. Don't worry, I won't get into it again. You know the drill. So let's move on.

Bachelorette weekend in Chuck Town with the cutest bride EVER. We had so much fun! Her wedding is in about 10 days and I'm so excited about it! Beware of the ugly cry. I can't go into detail about our trip cause as you know, what happens in Charleston, stays in Charleston. Yeah, I'm' pretty sure that's right. Or I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you. Either way, not telling. Before we hit up the wedding festivities, though, we'll be headed to Lake Anna for our annual July 4th fun thanks to the Bryan family. Always a good time. Basically, we have a super fun week coming.

On to the meat. I know that one got you. Ok so there's this really cool market in what's called "The Strip District" (and, no, it's not like the red light district). It's like a giant farmer's market and a bunch of restaurants. The bag of meat came from this cool market called Wholey's. It's a giant meat and seafood extravaganza. I imagine it's something one would imagine more so in San Francisco or somewhere. But it's here -which is awesome. Anyway, you can buy giant bags of meat. Who knew?

The interview. Oh, the interview. Ugh. I'll tell you one thing, I hate finding a job. Hate. I mean, I've been using Outlook and Excel for years and never have I ever experienced some of the things they were asking. First of all, I'm not sure it's entirely reasonable to ask someone to describe how a function works in excel without letting them look at the program. Also, what I do know about that specific program is that there's more than one way to skin a cat. Well, not for them apparently. Their way or the highway. I wish I could remember some the questions on the timed, only one correct answer exam. May or may not have been worse than the SAT. Then after an hour of testing, I finally get to talk to someone. And by someone, I mean a robot. What is wrong with HR people? Is it a qualification that you have to be personalityless to get those jobs? I was using some of my best stuff. I'm funny. I'm witty. I'm personable. She gave me nothing. And, seriously, are "give me an example of a time when you..." or "what would you say your strengths are" really the best questions they can come up with? It's exhausting. They can't possibly think these asinine, redundant questions are insight to a person's personality or work ethic.

Guten Tag! Ok so we didn't actually go to Germany. Just to Haufbrauhaus. This place is crazy. We originally sat outside on the giant deck by the water but then moved inside after dinner when we heard all the singing. They have picnic tables lined up inside and everyone stands on them and sings along with the band. It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious kind of fun.

The sundae...mmmm... the sundae. Never in my life have I experienced such a sundae. Sarris Candies. It's where hot fudge lives. I don't even know what to say about it. You have to experience it.

So, there's your update.  Kinda makes you want to visit the Burgh, doesn't it?

Befores

Left-Den

 Right- Dining Room

 Left- Foyer         Right- Living Room (you can't tell from the pic but the LR is the same green as the dining room)

 Kitchen

Wallpaper and other stories of drunkeness

Welcome back internet. Welcome back TV. Oh, how I've missed you! And I have so much to tell you all. Okay, so we closed on the house about a month ago (although I've only been here for about 2 weeks of that). We've been working our butts off!! P.S. if I can give anyone advice about decorating, let it be that wallpaper is NEVER the answer. Seriously. I have spent far too many hours spraying and scraping, spraying and scraping. Then peeling. All the peeling. I can't get those hours back, ya know what I mean? Do yourself and everyone who may own your house in the future a favor and just don't do it. I hear an accent wall is coming back in style. I salute and encourage it, in fact, I'm doing one...but not with wallpaper. And yesterday I discovered a delightful treat, 2 layers of wallpaper in the dining room. The hits just keep on comin...

Moving on- the people we bought our house from are...let's say...different. And by different, I mean crazy. Like certifiably nutso. To be fair, we suspected the husband might be a bit off his rocker towards the beginning of our relationship. Little did we know, the wife was also on the crazy train. Let's see...what tale to tell. Well, first of all, they were drunk at our walk through. Classy, right? At one point, Sparky asked them if they work or are retired. Her response, however, indicated what she heard was "Are you retarded?" Then there's the fact that the garbage man told me, in no uncertain terms, that they are alcoholics. Yeah, the universal hand signal for alcoholic. You know, the thumb and pinkie out, thumb to the mouth signal. Then there's the fact that they busted out bags full of crushed beer cans every week. Oh, and lest I forget, there was a restraining order on the husband for three months prior to the sale of the house. I could go on and on. The arsenal of guns (he actually laid them out in the driveway once), the vague answers to questions ("let's just say I work for an agency"), the fact that they left cups of wine and open beer cans in the fridge. P.S. it took me half a day to clean the refrigerator. The inside of the dishwasher is all rusted...how does that even happen? Cra Cra, I tell you.

So, I'm going to try to post some pics of the house soon. Before and afters hopefully. I would like to say, for the record, that just by painting and taking down wallpaper, I think we could turn around and sell this house for about $10,000 more than we bought it for. Amazing.