it's shake 'n' bake! and I watched!

I went over to my friend Rian's house last night to help her with some unpacking, because she and Josh finally closed on their cute little house! I really didn't do a whole lot, but I stocked their pantry full of food they had put in boxes. It's AMAZING how much work goes into moving into and fixing up a new/old house. ESPECIALLY the painting. I would definitely love to paint my own house, but I'm so afraid I'll screw it up. I can see it now..... It's dinner party time (because that's what people with houses do, no?) and everyone's gathering around after we eat to play a nice game of Balderdash™ or Loaded Questions™ (because that's what people.....riiiiiight) and suddenly no one can focus on the game because the unblended (word?) paint lines on the wall are simply too distracting! The party will be a complete disaster, and I will be a pariah among my peers! Oh, the shame!!

Things like that make me want to just hire someone to do it, which of course means that I'll have to have a high enough paying job (or a low enough debt to income ratio - thank you MBNA) that I can afford something like that. Speaking of things that people pay to have done, last night Annie was talking about this Christmas party that she and her husband Michael went to for the latter's work. They had their Christmas lights professionally done, and she said they were fabulous! I was wondering how much it would cost to have something like that done. Methinks it would be about....I don't know $500 at most? EEEEEEEENHHH. *that's my incorrect buzzer noise* I don't know if they were looking into it or not, but Josh said that the company they got a quote from said that the initial cost of buying the lights and putting them up was $3800 *gasp!* and then for them to come take them down and store them in boxes with your name on them is another $1700. At this point, I was searching underneath scattered newspapers from unpacking to retrieve my chin, which had indubitably (I just wanted to say indubitably) fallen to the floor. I can't believe it! Hmm..........down payment on a car? Or a ridiculously well lit front lawn? When will the reasonably balanced decision options end? Oh well. I'll just marry rich, and get both! All I really need is money to be happy anyway. And on a completely unrelated topic, I've included a picture of myself as a sort of signature.





And on another completely unrelated topic, here's the ring I wear to clean house.