Help! In Over My Head!

Oy yi yi. I should have known. I've lived in this house almost 20 years and NOW I'm undertaking a major rearranging project - and my house is a mess! It all started when my desk top mysteriously decided to quit the wireless network that had been working like a charm since I pulled hair out of my head last September setting it up. What's more, it decided to do this on December 23rd, when I was waiting for dondelion to arrive from Montreal and the weather was causing everyone fits, and we were due the next day to depart for Las Vegas, and I was in serious danger of having a heart attack and/or a stroke. To make a long, complicated story short, I was not able to get the desk top back on the wireless network but somehow my laptop became the main connector - or, what the hell, I don't know what I'm talking about! LOL! Anyway, I did get the desktop jerry-rigged to restore it's internet connection - by wheeling the mobile hutch it rests on back into my bedroom - which was the main reason I'd wanted to go wireless to begin with - to get that darn set-up out of my room! Okay, so the desktop is still jerry-rigged with a wired connection to the wireless router and I've got cords running all over the place, and I can't see the t.v. from where I've got the computer hutch set up - oy! So I decide I'm going to move my bedroom. I hemmed and hawed about that since December 26th, and yesterday I arrived at a plan. The present guest room will be turned into my bedroom. The middle bedroom (which is also the smallest), where the desktop used to sit before entering menopause and getting all bitchy on me, will become the guest bedroom. And my present bedroom, complete with pink walls (hey, 20 years ago I liked pink), will become the new den/library/computer room. It's the biggest bedroom and has a walk-in closet, so I'm not going to move my clothes out, just my bed. Okay - so with a plan in hand, I pondered how to get the beds moved. Then I decided I wouldn't move the present bed out of the guest room that is being turned into my bedroom, I will just swap out the box springs and mattresses. Only, I can't handle the box spring by myself, they are too heavy. So, I tugged and pulled and lugged and huffed and puffed, and knocked pictures off the wall and knocked a few holes in the drywall in the hallway, but in the end I managed to get the current mattress out of the guest room into the spare bedroom that will soon become the guest room, and my current mattress on to the bed in the guest room that will soon become my room. Now I'm stuck with a bed frame, headboard and box spring in my "former" bedroom, what used to be the guest bed mattress lounging against a wall in the spare soon-to-be guest room, and my nice cushy mattress is now resting on top of a box spring in the former guest room that wasn't designed to hold the nice cushy mattress. And so it will be until dondelion arrives in May and can help me with the box spring dilemma! So now I'm in the middle of trying to fix up my new room (the former guest room). It doesn't need to be painted (thank Goddess!) but now I can't decide whether I should use the red floral comforter with the red and white plaid flip side (very lumber-jacky and "warm, cozy feeling") or the black and white paisley print comforter, and whether I should use the black and white striped curtains or the black and ecru toile curtains and use the matching sheet set, and whether to use the black and ecru striped bed skirt or my old while petit-point bed skirt, and whether valances should go up, and all of the old pictures in that room have to come down because they were color-coordinated with the color scheme of the guest room, which I am NOT using in my bedroom. Oh, and I was going to use the black and white checked sheet set but the white doesn't match the ecru, so now I'm wondering what to do with the black and white checked sheet set. All of this is the fault of my scheme to decorate my bedroom conceived more than 2 years ago when I was paging through some old decorating magazines and saw this fabulous toile bedroom with red walls, and I went nuts buying black, white and red toile and assorted accessories all for a room that was never repainted to host such new colors. So, I was stuck with my pink and grey scheme (that I was tired of). Now in the guest room (now my room), which is painted a nice neutral antique white with gold stenciled stars here and there, the new stuff that has bided its time in my closet for over 2 years will actually "go." Only I can't make up my mind what to use. That's what I get for buying too much stuff. I could have taken a trip to Egypt for what I spent on this stuff, geez! I should have stuck with ONE comforter set, and ONE set of curtains. And ONE bedskirt. Oy yi yi. So you see my problems - no, I'm not mental, it's purely a decorator's dilemma, darlings! And - get this - the stuff has to be IRONED. I know I've got an iron around here somewhere, because I found an ironing board in the same closet where I stash the vacuum that I hardly ever use (only when company is coming). Add to this the fact that I lost an entire day yesterday first shopping with my sister Debs - and boy, did I haul in some great bargains - and then shoveling out from the snow we got Friday. More snow is expected tonight and tomorrow, and then we're in for the DEEP FREEZE, and I'm scared to death about walking to and from the bus stop. The local forecasters are saying it will be as bad as 1994, when I missed several days of work because wind chills were down to 60 below zero and I didn't think I could make it to the nearest bus stop (about half a mile away in open country) without getting frostbite - which I've had and believe me, it really sucks big time! Schools were closed then, people had water pipes bursting in their homes, car batteries froze solid, the buses were packed because people couldn't get their cars started and people actually STOLE batteries out of other people's cars - it was an awful, scary time. And we're in for it again. Goddess, I HATE this frigging climate. And so, in panic-mode (everyone is in panic mode, it seems) amongst other stops, Debs took me to the supermarket where I stocked up on my favorite cheap boxed wine, bread, milk, bird seed, critter food and dog food (for the crows) - enough to last a good week. I didn't need to actually buy food, but I did buy four boxes of Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese (although that's not really food), thanks to the generous Christmas gift I received from Isis and Michelle - a freezer full of Omaha Steaks' best offerings! I have enough food in that freezer to last two months, maybe more. $68 later, Debs is shaking her head over why I spent $10 on myself (not including the wine) and $20 on all the food for the animals. We also stopped at the Walgreens and Debs showed me these hand and foot-warmer thingies that one puts inside of one's gloves or mittens and inside of one's shoes or boots. Oh my! I'd only recently become aware of these miracles of modern technology, but evidently they've existed for years. I just hope my shoes don't start on fire tomorrow when I test drive them for the first time - before the DEEP FREEZE arrives early Tuesday morning. I am hopeful that I can figure out how they operate - I understand one merely has to open the package in a certain way, but I'm somewhat skeptical about that... Well, I should be able to figure it out, I do have a college education! Another issue I've been wrestling with the past three days is how to get my photos to print out looking less BLUE. Arggggh. It's driving me NUTS! I've wasted untold amounts of prime photo paper and have experimented with settings, etc. etc. - and each photo I print comes out the same - looking decided blue-ish. But the reds looks fine - so I figure it must be an issue with green and/or yellow, but I don't know how to solve the problem! So, amongst moving mattresses and whatnot from room to room, decorating issues, shoveling issues, BLUE photo issues, shopping for bargains - you should see this sexy black blouse I bought for our New York trip - oh, Mr. Don is going to have his eyes popping out of his head when he sees me in THAT number with my boobs popping out above a layer of small, demure ruffles - house cleaning, trying to keep up with my weight-loss dancing regime (I only did my Lady Marmalade routine twice last night) -- well, darlings, NOW you know how come I haven't been blogging. I will try to do better today... Oh - and dondelion and I are going to Las Vegas for my birthday in August - spent lots of time tracking down hotel rates and flight schedules - what a hassle, but in the end, I prevailed (I always do :)) It will be the 10 year anniversary of my first "modern" visit to Las Vegas, when I met Isis and Michelle face to face for the first time and also covered the FIDE World Chess Championship at Caesar's Palace in August, 1999 for the then fledgling Goddesschess website. Wow - talk about a blast from the past! Check out: TOURNAMENT CHESS The Anatomy of a Coronation JanXena's Posts Regarding the 1999 World Chess Championship (July-August, 1999 - by Jan Newton) What follows are the postings I did live from Las Vegas on Isis' laptop computer, as well as posts about the final games that took place after I had to return home. These are, of course, my personal observations, brash, unabashed and unabridged - and you will see that, as always, JanXena pulls no punches! As a counterpoint to my admittedly neophyte and quite personal observations, the following are five articles written about the 1999 World Chess Championship written by the professionals: reporters, an arbiter, and players, that I found while perusing the archives of Chess Cafe. They are informative and fascinating because of the different perspectives they bring regarding what actually took place in Las Vegas, and what it all might mean to chess history and to the future of The Game itself: Vegas Views from Chess Cafe's "Skittles Room" Archive - by Hanon W. Russell High Anxiety from Chess Cafe's "Dutch Treat" Archives, August, 1999 - by Hans Ree Las Vegas: Surprise, surprise!! from Chess Cafe's "An Arbiter's Notebook" Archives, September, 1999 - by Geurt Gijssen Is Khalifman the Real World Champion? from Chess Cafe's "The Kibitzer" Archives, September, 1999 - by Tim Harding Odd One Out from Chess Cafe's "The Miles Report" Archives, September, 1999 - by Tony Miles Conclusion October, 1999 Jan Newton I'm an unabashed egotist. I find it fascinating going back and reading those old posts about my "I'M HERE AND LOVING IT EVERY SECOND OF IT" first and only trip to a World Chess Championship. I hope all the links still work - this stuff IS nearly 10 years old! Enjoy!