Average Jane™

Average Jane vs. Wallpaper

I had to check my Twitter timeline to see how long it took and it turns out I spent about four straight hours yesterday removing the wallpaper from my bedroom walls.

Here's what it looked like before I started, and please note that this photo somehow fails to show any of the many terrible wallpaper hanging flaws that were very evident throughout the room.

Of course, what this photo does show is one of a pair of cool (antique?) cobra-shaped wall sconces I have. I don't think they'll fit into the new decor scheme, but I need to find a place for them somewhere in the house because I love them.

So anyway, I started by peeling off the green part of the wallpaper. Naturally all of the backing remained.

You may be able to tell from the photos that this is a very small room. We had two bedroom options when we moved in and we chose this one for sleeping and eventually turned the somewhat larger one into a TV room. We have a queen-sized bed, a dresser, two small nightstands and a clothes hamper, and that's about all you can cram into the room and still be able to walk around without bumping your shins.

I didn't want to take all the furniture out for the de-wallpapering, so I settled for moving the nightstands out and pushing the dresser and bed into the middle of the room.

It turned out that the dresser and  my husband's nightstand had both suffered the same fate over time: the nails that held on their thin wooden backer boards had worked their way almost completely out. I hammered them all back in so maybe we'll have gained another few years from our cheap Scandinavian bedroom set.

I filled the steamer and just as it was heated all the way up and starting to steam, I realized I couldn't find the scraper I'd been using. I looked and looked and looked and finally found it in my trash sack with the discarded wallpaper. Sheesh.

The steaming and scraping took more than three hours but I did it all without stopping because my rented wallpaper steamer had such a high capacity that it never ran out of water that entire time.

When I was finished, the room was restored to a plaster-patched robin's egg blue, which was the last color that had been painted on the walls before the former owners began wallpapering and then painting over the wallpaper. I'd already steamed off those many layers of paint and wallpaper back in 1995 when we moved in.

From the chips in the paint, it was evident that the room had also been painted a coral color in the past. As far as I can tell, every room in my house had once been coral and robin's egg blue in turn.

Did I mention that removing wallpaper is messy?

The cats seemed to think the entire process was riveting and each of them spent large amounts of time in the room watching me. It turned out that they were really just acting as lookouts.

When I finished with the steamer I discovered that they'd found their Nulo treats on top of the fridge and savaged the bag in the living room. (I don't know why my hand is magenta in the photo. I'm sure it was a little red from hours of holding a scraper, but still...)

By the time I was done, I was exhausted and covered in wallpaper paste and paper fragments, so I was happy to hold off on the cleanup until after I'd had a lovely Mexican dinner and split a pitcher of margaritas with A Librarian.

Once I got home, I finished shoveling the detritus of my project into a trash bag, put the furniture back where it belonged, changed the sheets, showered and promptly fell asleep.

Now I just need to figure out what exactly I'm going to do with the room and when. I need to have someone else give the ceiling a new texture and caulk all the way around where the walls meet the ceiling. I also need to hire someone to refinish the hardwood floors because that is not the kind of project I'm willing to tackle.

However, I'm fine with refining my earlier plaster fixes on the walls and making any other repairs that are needed. I love to paint and I may recruit my sister to help me add a faux finish to help hide the bad parts of the walls. Once I've gotten the hired work out of the way, I guess I just need to settle on a decor scheme, choose the colors and jump on in.

But that will be later. For now, I'm just glad to have gotten this far.

Average Jane's Progress So Far

Well, I'm on the third day (really third? yes, it's already Sunday) of my four-day weekend and I've been keeping pretty busy.

Yesterday my nerd friends and I played a single game of Dune that lasted more than five hours.

The spice must flow!

I perpetrated a great deal of backstabbing and treachery...and yet I still didn't win. Darn it.

Since the weekend began, I have taken a total of three volunteer shifts at two different pet stores caring for the adoptable cats (almost four if you count stopping by one store to take photos of one of the cats). That's the kind of thing that happens when you spend a long weekend at home and everyone else leaves town.

This is Tori. She's very cute but kind of stressed out about living at the pet store, so you should make her your cat.

I also decided it was time I did something with an aging carton of eggs in my fridge so I hard-boiled them all and I've already had two large helpings of tuna noodle salad today.

I predict deviled eggs and egg salad in my immediate future as well.

My only big project for the weekend will be steaming the wallpaper off my bedroom walls. I located a wallpaper steamer for rent at Home Depot and it's currently sitting in my living room waiting for my husband to wake up so I can get to work.

I don't really have plans for this evening, but it might be a good opportunity to get together with friends (read: invite myself over to someone else's house). On the other hand, I have some work (work work) that needs to be done, so maybe I should just get that out of the way.

How's your weekend going?

How Average Jane Intends To Spend Her Memorial Day Weekend

I have a lot of plans for this weekend, which will either be three or four days long depending on my workload. Here's some of what I have in mind:

Renting and subsequently using a wallpaper steamer to start undoing the egregious decorating faux pas I committed on my bedroom walls in 1995.

Photo credit: imspence

Playing Dune at the home of friends who are moving away soon.

Photo credit: Kanga

Taking care of adoptable kittehs (twice).

Photo of Peter, Popoki and Emma by Cathy Prather

Accompanying my husband to the cemetery at Ft. Leavenworth to put flowers on his mother's grave.

Photo credit: Juliett-Foxtrot

Yoga on the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

And finally, a deep-tissue massage.

Photo: Indigo Wild

That should keep me pretty busy and still allow for reading, naps, playing with my cats, going on walks, cooking, gardening, etc. Of course, that assumes that I'll be out and about rather than hunkering down in various basements trying to stay safe from tornadoes.

What do you have planned?

Average Jane vs. 3D

Yesterday a friend happened to mention Cave of Forgotten Dreams on Facebook, which reminded me that I'd really wanted to see it. I had a free afternoon and there was a 12:10 showing nearby, so I was all set. When I put on my jeans, I found $17 in the pocket, which was exactly the cost of a movie ticket, a small popcorn and a bottle of water. It was fate.

The movie is an amazing look at the cave drawings and paintings at Chauvet, some of which date back 32,000 years. It also includes some commentary by scientists and visuals of the surrounding area. I can definitely understand why Werner Herzog chose to present the movie in 3D because the contours of the rocks on which the artwork was drawn are a big part of the viewing experience and the 3D adds significantly to the feeling that you are there in the cave.

However... This is where I'd like to point out that I have been completely out of the loop on the latest 3D trend. I didn't even see Avatar in 3D, much less any of the other movies that quickly jumped on that bandwagon. I can't even say that I was avoiding them deliberately, other than a general unwillingness to pay extra to see a movie that is playing in 2D elsewhere in the theater. But I'd missed the whole modern 3D experience so far.

So I got my 3D glasses and sat down. The movie started and the artwork was breathtaking, the things the scientists were learning from the depictions of prehistoric animals were really interesting, the cave bear bones covered in thousands of years of mineral accretions were fascinating, etc. It was all very cool.

Unfortunately, the longer I watched the movie, the more nauseated I felt. I'd been eating popcorn, but I could tell it wasn't the food that was the problem. The feeling subsided when the documentary focused mainly on the cave artwork itself, but it got worse on exterior shots and interview segments. I found I had to turn away from the screen during those sections of the movie. Toward the end I was even wondering if I might have to just get up and leave.

I am not generally prone to motion sickness, but it was obvious that the 3D and I were not compatible. It took at least an hour after the movie ended for my stomach to feel completely normal again.

It turns out that 3D sickness is not uncommon. From what I've read, I probably made it worse for myself by sitting too close.

I was actually quite grateful that I'd seen a sedate documentary rather than some kind of action movie. It would have been embarrassing to have barfed in front of a whole theater full of strangers.

It's easy to see that 3D is not going away, so now I'm left with the quandary of whether or not to ever attempt to see another movie in that format. It's possible that sitting further back in the theater would help, but what if it doesn't?

Have you had any bad reactions to 3D or do you consider it a wonderful frontier in movie watching?

Photo credit: Hisakazu Watanabe

Average Jane Cooks With Lemon

Tonight I'm invited to a party that will feature homemade limoncello, and all of the guests have been asked to bring lemon-y foods. I was going to go for some kind of obvious dessert, but then I remembered a casserole recipe that I was pretty sure was buried in my recipe box.

The card is in my handwriting, so there's no telling where it originated (although the presence of Miracle Whip as an ingredient suggests that it may have come from Kraft). It was intended to be served as individual portions in bowls made from deep-fried egg roll wrappers.

For practical reasons, I'm not going to spend my afternoon making a dozen little fried bowls and then attempt to keep them intact on a 30-minute car trip, so I've modified the recipe to sidestep that requirement.

Lemon Chicken Casserole

• 2 tsp. minced onion
• 1 cup minced celery
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup Miracle Whip
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp. grated lemon peel
• 2 3/4 cups cooked chicken, cubed
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar
• 1 cup chow mein noodles or other crispy fried noodles

1. Mix together the onion, celery, almonds, Miracle Whip, salt, lemon juice, lemon peel and chicken.
2. Place in a standard casserole dish and top with cheese followed by fried noodles.
3. Bake at 400°F for 15-20 minutes or until heated through and lightly browned on top.

If you want to go the individual portion route, form each egg roll wrapper into a bowl around an empty 1-pound metal can, deep fry (removing the can before the wrapper hardens too thoroughly) and drain on paper towels. Fill each with a scoop of the hot casserole (sans chow mein noodles) and serve.

I haven't had this dish in years but I remember it being quite tangy from the lemon, Miracle Whip and sharp cheddar. I'm looking forward to trying it again this evening.

Post-Cooking Update: I found a big container of fried wontons at my grocery store in the deli/bakery section. I crunched some up to make about a cup of crumbs for the top of the casserole and it was delicious.

Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to my Pampered Chef microplane grater. It was the best tool for zesting a lemon that I have ever used. I'm not being compensated in any way for that opinion, but it had to be said.

Photo credit: Moyan Brenn

Average Jane Celebrates

Today marks the four-year anniversary of our cat, Velvet, joining the household.

She's a lovely cat with a great personality and I'm glad every day that we were able to take her from the shelter and give her a happy life with us.

Oh, and if you recall her quarterly staff review from last year, you'll be heartened to know that she has made improvements in several key areas.

Average Jane's Cable-Free TV Watching Update

It's been about four months since my husband and I discontinued our cable television service and switched to a combination of digital antenna and Roku streaming. Now that we've gotten used to the arrangement, I thought an update might be helpful for any of you who are considering the switch.

I'll start with the stuff we don't like about our arrangement.

Mainly, it's the huge number of shows that are available for streaming to the computer but not to the TV. Right now, they represent about 80% of the shows we'd like to watch. If we're really motivated, we'll go ahead and watch them on the computer. If we're really, really motivated we'll purchase them via Amazon ($2.99 for HD, $1.99 for regular, which is plenty good enough) and watch them on the TV.

It's odd that the networks can't work out some kind of advertising model that will make Hulu watching more equivalent to regular cable TV watching. Most Hulu shows have minimal commercial breaks and usually show only one ad per break. That's nice and all, but I'd be willing to sit through a standard number of commercials in exchange for getting to stream all my favorite shows to the TV.

In most cases, we've just stopped watching the shows that are too difficult to watch conveniently. Unfortunately, most cable network shows fall into that category, so I didn't catch the last several episodes of "Psych" last season. I'll probably go out of my way to get "Burn Notice" and "Warehouse 13" when they start up again, but I doubt I'll start watching new cable shows unless the model changes.

Some of our issues with convenience could be solved if we simply hooked our TiVo to our digital antenna. That's my husband's job, so I'm just waiting. The antenna itself is another weak link in the chain: sometimes the reception is perfect but a lot of times the picture is pixellated, the audio doesn't synch correctly, etc. We probably just need to find a better place to hang it.

So on to the good things about living cable-free (aside from saving about $90 a month).

Between Netflix and Crackle, we're pretty covered for movies. We still get one DVD at a time from Netflix, but we could probably do without them considering how long it often takes us to watch the disks. Netflix has turned out to have a great selection of stand-up comedy specials, so that's been our go-to entertainment lately when we can't think of what else to watch.

Hulu's interface is a little awkward (still not sure why Subscriptions and Queue aren't the same thing), but the playback quality is good and they have several of the shows we like, including "Raising Hope" and "The Event" (which just got canceled).

One of the best things about dropping our cable is that we simply watch less television now. When you're paying a bazillion dollars for cable, TV watching starts to feel like an obligation to get your money's worth. Now we only watch it when we feel like it, which frees us up to go live our lives the rest of the time. It's rather refreshing.

Photo credit: Rantes

 

Average Jane Begins Her Gardening

I took the day off from work yesterday and, after fortifying myself with coffee and a breakfast sandwich from Mildred's, set about getting the things I needed to work on my flower and vegetable gardens.

This was one of those times when it was helpful to have a smart phone. I looked up the website for Planters and was pleased to learn that they open at 7:00 a.m. each day. I wasn't far away, so I headed there and started choosing plants for my vegetable garden.

I selected several varieties of tomato, bell and jalapeño peppers, eggplant, cilantro, rosemary and marjoram. I also picked up a flat of safari red marigolds and seed packets for green beans, zucchini, lettuce, spinach and sugar snap peas.

After I'd dropped off that load of purchases, I went to Lowe's for cypress mulch, a new trowel, work gloves and potting soil. While I was there, I picked up a couple of hosta plants to fill in around the oak tree in our back yard, two small pots of ground cover for a bed that's looking a little sparse, and a cucumber plant for my vegetable garden.

It was a bit challenging to fit it all in my car:

As you can see from the photo, it wasn't exactly sunny yesterday. In fact, it was rather chilly and the guy at Planters suggested that I wait a week before transplanting the vegetables. That, and the fact that it looked like it could rain at any moment, caused me to decide to begin my gardening at home.

First on the agenda was the restoration of my herb garden. It had been several years since I last planted anything there, but the chives and one oregano(?) plant were still volunteering. I dug up and weeded the bed, planted my new herbs around the more established plants, then mulched around them.

The next bed was to be given over to the elephant ear bulbs I'd stored for the winter, with marigold plants for accents. Eight of the elephant ears seemed to have survived nicely, one was questionable and one had obviously rotted. I thought that was pretty good for my first overwintering experience.

Once again I dug up all the weeds, did my planting and mulched.

It will look a lot more impressive in a couple of months, but at least it's tidy.

I also planted my new hostas and the ground cover went in a back yard flower bed with some of the elephant ear bulbs. I'll be filling in that bed with some of my extra marigolds today.

Because it's still cool and cloudy outside, I'm planning on limiting my vegetable garden planting to just seeds today. I'm keeping the plants outside, but I'll give them a break on the transplanting until it warms up again. Once I find the motivation to get dressed, eat breakfast and drink coffee, I'll load up my tools and seeds, head over to the community garden and get things going.

I love long weekends.

Average Jane's Weekend in Pictures

Checking out the local food trucks at First Friday.

With M. Toast and Well Hell Michelle watching an air guitar flash mob.

SUNDOG surf band at First Friday.

Saturday morning trip to Shatto Milk Company.

Locally made cheese. Yum!

Hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law at a blues, brews and barbecue fundraiser.

Watching my husband play with his new band, Voice of Reason. They're really good.

Free yoga class on Sunday morning with my niece and sister at the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery as part of America: Now+Here.

I also saw I AM and Thor on Sunday. And did my usual volunteer work with the homeless kitties. I went walking both mornings. And probably did some other stuff, too. So it was a busy weekend.

What did you do?

Average Jane Previews America: Now and Here

This seems like a Kansas City-centric post, but not really. It's about a very cool event that may very well be coming to your town, too!

Tomorrow evening is the official debut of the America: Now and Here traveling multimedia art extravaganza. I had the good fortune to get a sneak peek at some of the exhibit tonight at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and I was blown away at the quality and variety of art on display.

The exhibition will remain in Kansas City through May 28th and there's a full schedule of free special events that includes music performances, movies, demonstrations, hands-on art activities, yoga classes and much more.

If you're going to First Friday tomorrow in the Crossroads, be sure to check out the America: Now and Here kickoff activities.

Here are some of the photos I took this evening. I apologize for not making note of most of the artists' names, but I hope you'll get the chance to come and see them yourself.

I liked this one because the woman looking at the child beauty queen is herself dressed up with a fancy hairdo.

These sculptures are by Kansas City artist Peregrine Honig.

Be sure to go to the basement to see some installations suited for the relative darkness there.

If you get a chance to experience America: Now and Here either in Kansas City or as it travels around the U.S., definitely take advantage of it! Just look for the distinctive 18-wheelers.

Disclosure: I got the chance to check out this exhibit early because of my company's relationship to the event. However, my opinions are my own.