Katdish.net

My copy of "Crap at my Parents' House" which ironically is being propped up on the counter in front of a giant ceramic chicken.

There are many book affectionados who swear they will never come over to the dark side–reading books electronically.

I’m not one of those people.

It took me roughly an hour and a half after charging up my kindle and reading (and highlighting) my first book on there to determine that instant books via Whispernet was the preferred method of reading for me. Oh, sure…you don’t get that comforting “old book smell” from a kindle or a nook. But I can’t say I’ve ever bought a book because I liked the way it smelled.

I recently finished reading Stephen King’s latest novel, 11/22/63 on my kindle. The print version of that book is around 800 pages. Since I usually fall asleep reading, had I been reading the print version, I could very well be writing this post from a hospital bed whilst recovering from a concussion which occurred when I dropped that thing on my head.

There’s a point in there somewhere…

Oh, yes! Digital versus traditional books. While I prefer MOST books in their digital versions, there are some which don’t translate well. The Art of Looking Sideways for example would be a miserable failure as an e-book. And incidentally, if I dropped that book on my head I’d be dead. But I digress…

One such book (which strangely enough is available on kindle) is one I received for Christmas. A charming little picture book entitled Crap at my Parent’s house. Unless your parents were interior decorators with exquisite taste in decorating, I’m fairly sure you will get at least a few mild guffaws out of some of the items in this book.

The crap in this book is categorized by room. Here’s a small sampling of what you will find:

Crap in the Living Room:

Crap in the Dining Room:

Crap in the Kitchen:

Crap in the Bedroom:

Crap in the Home Office:

Crap in the Bathroom:

Crap in the Basement:

And Crap around the Garage:

Many of you know I’m not a fan of clowns. I felt a certain solidarity with others who shared their disdain for them via pictures and captions. If the following samples don’t convince you that clowns are evil, I just don’t know what’s wrong with you…

And my personal favorite:

In conclusion, I’m giving “Crap at my Parents’ House” my ringing endorsement. It’s not exactly Tolstoy, or even Nicholas Sparks for that matter. But it has certainly given me some much welcome laughter. Fair warning: If you’re easily offended, this book probably isn’t for you. Then again, if you were easily offended, I don’t imagine you’d be reading my blog.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have de-cluttering to do…

UPDATE: There’s a website. I should have known: Crap at My Parents’ House

Happy New Year!

Brand new year, same old me. Even though I try not to make new year’s resolutions, I do tend to think about moving forward this time of year. A big part of this thought process involves evaluating what’s not working anymore and what, if anything, I plan to do about it. A logical answer to “What’s not working anymore” would be either fix it or let it go. But we grow comfortable with things, don’t we? Change can be uncomfortable, and when faced with the worked involved with making things right, sometimes we simply choose to do nothing at all.

Take our master bathroom (please–ba-dump-bump!)

No one has used the shower in there for months. It seems there was a crack in tile where the shower door meets the threshold which caused everything to buckle. The end result being that the shower door no longer closes. Fortunately, this is one of three showers in our house, so we’ve been using the shower in the guest bathroom. This was meant to be a temporary solution until we fixed the shower in the master bath, but we’ve since decided to renovate the entire bathroom. Which is great, but now we’re faced with more decisions to make–new cabinets, tub, etc. Like I said, sometimes it seems easier to do nothing because doing something gets overwhelming.

But my husband got the ball rolling last week:

And honestly? Even though I still really like how I’ve decorated the bathroom

I think maybe I like it more for sentimental reasons than practical ones. The faux finish on the walls? I did it myself. Actually, probably one of the first times, if not the first time I’ve done so. The window coverings? My mom sewed them. She also made the bedding and window coverings in the master bedroom, which coordinates with the master bath.

If the bathroom gets redone, so does the bedroom. And even though these rooms have looked like this for 9 years, I’m still having a hard time letting go. Mostly because of the hard work involved in creating these rooms. Not so much mine, but my mom’s. But it’s time to move forward. There’s a loose tile on the tub held up by duct tape. Nothing says “elegant bathroom” like tile held together with duct tape.

And the cabinets have seen better days.

Soon begins the process of moving forward. I anticipate things getting a whole lot messier before the process is complete.

Change is messy sometimes, and almost always pulls us out of our comfort zones.

But I’m anticipating something better and more functional after the chaos.

I’ll let you know.

Got any projects that need starting?