Success (in the housecleaning)

While my walls were bare, people came over and said they liked the house. So, all-in-all, a total success.

The one thing I thought was a problem, and it was probably only me, was the seating. I'd love to find a way to fit a beanbag back into the set-up. I really only see this possible if I flip the room. Dining area becomes living room and vice-versa. I'll do some measurements and see how it fits.

My house is clean (sorta)

The big day has arrived. Why I'm blogging about cleaning my house still eludes me, but hey, might as well.

I've been waking up early each day this week due to the Italian time change. This has had a wonderful effect on my house cleaning. I am now stating that my house is clean (sorta). While the main room and kitchen are now presentable (but still lived in), the rest of the house (bedroom, computer room and garage) are about to burst at the seams. It still amazes me how much one person can acquire over the years.

My tasks were as follows:
1) Clean kitchen (done, but now with dirty dishes)
2) Clean mainroom (done)
3) Get people over (will happen tonight)

The continuing House Cleaning.....

One day away and the house is almost done. (Well, at least the main rooms.) The living/dining room area and bathroom will be clear of clutter and ready by tomorrow night. My bedroom is in a "lived in" state. The computer room is a disaster, but that's cool as it is a work room.

Cleaning the house has led me to a few observations:
- I hate to clean.
- It's amazing how much you accumulate over the years.
- It's a pain to keep cleaning week-to-week, but if you don't, it'll take awhile to get everything into a decent shape.

In addition, I've made the following purchases:
- New futon mattresses. (One of the futons was dead and needed to be replaced. I also replaced the second mattress so the two would match.)
- Some simple legs for some InterMetro shelving that I had laying around. (I'm amazed at how much life I'm getting out of these shelves.)

Some simple "cram into the garage" and dusting/vacuuming and viola, the house is ready.

A few things have occurred

I finally took a much needed vacation. It was split between two events.

The first event was helping out a few friends at a glass sale they were holding. It was great! Two days of troubleshooting point-of-sale computers and helping out the general public. A great time was had by all and a lot of hard work paid off for both me and my friends.

The second event was a bit larger. I took an inaugural trip to Murano, Italy. Yep, you read it right, I went to the islands. Now, one would think that it would be all fun and games. You would be wrong. The aforementioned glass sale was a lot of 5:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. days, so I was a bit tired from those. So, sleep played a major part of the trip.

I was contacted by a friend to check if I'd be willing to take a bag to Murano for a friend of hers. (The friend was grossly over the 50 pound bag limit a week before I left.) I said, "Sure."

Airport to airport to airport, I finally reached the Venice airport. After collecting the bags and waiting a few minutes for the mysterious bag owner, she greeted me with the greatest (and I mean greatest) hug I have ever received. After a quick "Hi, how are you?", we left off to the boat bus.

Now, you might be questioning the idea of a boat bus. In the island of Venice, Murano, Burano and others, everything is boat based. There is no need of a car, in fact, if you had one, it would be useless. There are boats for everything. If you can imagine it as a boat, it exists.

Now, I should be awestruck of an island of glass people, but unfortunately, I was a bit "ah, duh" from lack of sleep. Throughout the week, I had a few things to do: take a murrini class (the reason I was there), meet up with Afro (a glass blowing friend who lives on the island) and try to spend some time with Amy (the mysterious bag lady). Only one of the three items I feel was accomplished, taking a murrini class. Afro wasn't there at his studio when I dropped in the couple of times. And, Amy or I was too busy for any real hang-out time. This has a simple solution... I'm going back to Murano.

The class was great. It had a slow start, but met my expectations nearer to the end. It was held in the studios of Lucio Bubacco, an Italian flameworking glass maestro. Lucio was a great host. He made sure that everyone had everything they needed. The class was a Loren Stump murrini making course. We chose to do a picture of Murano (and make it authentic Murano). When it was all said and done, we got the whole thing to about 3/4 of the way done before class was over. A bit disappointing that we didn't complete it, but the class was still great.

Now, looking at things from the rear, I needed to spend more time in Italy. Everything seemed so rushed (because it really was). There was very little time, if any, for "fun". Everything seemed so scripted, making sure I was here, or there, at a certain time. As I mentioned above, I will be going back for a "fun" trip.

Cleaning the rest of the house...

If you haven't guessed, I'm cleaning my house. Why? Well, in a few weeks, my house will become the central meeting place for Thursday night TV watching.

My tasks are as follows:
1) Clean kitchen (done, but now with dirty dishes)
2) Clean mainroom (in-progress)
3) Get people over

The mainroom is the living room/dining area. It's a longish room that I started cleaning on Sunday. While I thought this might be an enormouse pain-in-the-butt, it has been otherwise. There are boxes everywhere and I saw that most of the boxes had a few things in them. Combine, close up and move to the computer room. (That's ultimately where they will be unpacked.)

Soon, my home will once again be a place to relax.