T minus

23 days to pickled herring. (Or 14 working days to real swedish fish.)

Things I learned while re-doing my floor

1) My Dad worked in the ketchup factory as a senior in high school and after he quit IU but before he went into the Army.

2) He wanted to be a chemistry teacher originally.

3) He quit going to IU because he didn't have the money to continue. This versus the story I was originally told; that college wasn't his "thing."

4) He joined the Army on Valentine's Day 1961.

5) While he had known of my mother since he was 12 (or so) he didn't ask her out until two weeks before he joined the Army. (Nothing like waiting until the last minute Dad.)

6) He never actually proposed to my mom, they just talked about getting married and, while he was home on break, he gave her an engagement ring in December of 1963. And by talk I mean "wrote about it in letters." Because a) my mom doesn't like the phone (that's where I get it from), b) no internet, c) after basic training and then more training in MA he was stationed in Shemya, AK for a year d) even though you get 30 days of leave per year in the Army, before his third and final year my dad had only taken 15 days. Now you may think that means there are stacks of love letters or some such somewhere, but no. While my Dad is a packrat, my Mom is not (that is unless they are hidden somewhere, but I am pretty sure they are not, I probably would have found them looking for Christmas presents.

7) He got out of the army on February 13, 1964 and my parents were married June 20, 1964.

8) At the time my dad left the Army the GI Bill didn't vcover his tuition since he hadn't seen any "action." He was more involved in the Cold War and got out the year before we entered Vietnam. Later it would be amended to cover those who were in the service during the Cold War.

9) After getting back he rented the apartment that my parents would live in for the first few years of their marriage, and when my Mom showed the place to her Mom, my Dad caught Grandma testing for dust.

10) My dad worked in a glass factory for one day before he was hired at P&G.

Because I will not be paying for a flickr account

and yet I have exceed my monthly upload amount:



This is what I have put up to replace the ugle shade that was in the bathroom.



And these are the new curtains.

Portrait of a DORK

*You may recognize this picture as it was on my flickr page for about a day, but then I deleted it in a vain attempt to add more photos after going beyond my free monthly upload amount. It didn't work, but I decided I needed to preserve my dork status and re-post it here.

Riddle me this Interweb...

So, let's say you are working on putting coat two (of three) of polyurethane on your soon to be refinshed floor with your father...

And suddenly...

You hear the hippity hop sex from upstairs start-up, and apparnetly they are really in tune with each other this week - because the moaning? Which you usually only hear if you are in the bathroom? You can hear in the living room while you are working on the floors with your FATHER.

So, what is the appropriate respone in this situation?

A) Make a joke. Hey, that's what I would have done if it had been anybody else with me. But if I make a joke to my dad, then he will know that I know what sex is (shut up, I know I am 27 and have known about sex for the past 20 or so years, but still).

OR

B) Studiously ignore. Hoping he doesn't realize what it is; or that he can't even hear it, because he is losing his hearing and why call attnetion to sommething that may be a little weird to talk about. (I didn't even like watching parts of 16 Candles with my parents when I was younger.)

Personally? I choose B. But, now I wonder if he did hear it and we were both ignoring what was going on. Obviously this is over thinking the situation, but I wonder what others would have done in this situation.

PS - It must have been pre-party sex, becuase now it sounds like there are more people up there (usually Friday night is a big night for them, but they usually go out afterwards - Why do I need to know and share that?).

Buddies

Hey....

Floors, floors, floors

The floors have been sanded, and just in time for my dad to come up on Thursday for the staining! Now I just have to finish cleaning all the dust up. Which, by the way, is the biggest pain in the ass ever. But, I shall overcome.