On My Own

For the first time in a long time, I will be on my own this weekend. I have the entire weekend all to myself. Well, me and this little giant furball.

I’ve been mentally preparing myself for a weekend alone for quite some time now, and I’ve come up with a long list of things to keep me busy. I know I won’t get to all of them, but with the proper planning, some good music, and a couple of cans of sugar-free Redbull, I might get through half of them.

Some of things on my mental to-do list include:

• Working on the bathroom. I have a concrete slab for a floor right now that needs leveling before we can lay the tile. This will be the most time consuming project.
• Laundry. It never ends.
• Cooking. I want to attempt to make my first pot roast.
• Baking. I’m really digging these Fiber One muffins. I’ve made the apple cinnamon ones before and now want to try the blueberry muffins. (Edited to add: Okay, I couldn’t wait. I went ahead and made them after I wrote this post. They are delicious.)
• Installing a shelf. Now that we have AT&T U-verse, we also have extra receiver boxes and since my living room TV is a mounted flat screen, I had to buy an extra shelf for the extra receiver. (Edited to add: Also tackled this after writing this post. The shelf looks good, but the 18 different cables sticking out of the back of the box adds a good 4 inches to the width of the box so therefore the shelf is too skinny. So I awkwardly stuck the box on top of the hanging flat screen and just put a couple of decorative items on the shelf instead. I doubt this arrangement will last long.)
• New driver’s license. This may also require a stop by the bank to get my social security card out of the safety deposit box.
• Shopping. I don’t necessarily NEED to go shopping, but I could use a new pair of brown boots and a few new work-appropriate clothing items. So much of my stuff is old, faded, and raggy-looking.
• Deep cleaning. I’m talking shampooing the carpet, wiping down the baseboards, scrubbing the tub…major stuff.
• Organizing. I’m still working on printing off all of our vacation pics from our entire relationship. I’m up to Feb. 2007. I also need to re-organize all the papers and files that have been piling up in our office. I can’t even see the office desk anymore.
• Raking leaves. The hubz and I made a tiny dent in this last weekend, but I’m sort of a weirdo in that I actually ENJOY raking leaves and he, well, doesn’t. So we only did it for maybe an hour before we called it a night.
• Power washing. Our brand new power washer ended up breaking a couple of months ago after about the third use and we couldn’t find the receipt to take it back, so we took it to a repair shop and for a whopping $25, the guy fixed it. But we haven’t tested it out or used it since. I probably won’t get to this because I don’t know how to do anything other than press the spray button. The whole putting gas in it, priming it, and starting it up like a lawnmower? That’s boy work. I can do it, but I’m afraid I might blow myself up, or just break the damn thing. Again.
• The gym. (HA!) I haven’t been since the Monday before Halloween. I NEED to get back into a routine with this, but considering all of the other activities I want to do, I don’t know how likely this is to happen.
• I also need to visit my grandparents and see if I can help them with anything around their house. Oh and spend time with my poor neglected dog. I’ve been leaving him outside during the day in hopes that the neighbor kids will come over and play with him after school (they sometimes do that. He’s a big hit with the kids.)

Wow, just looking at that list makes me want to take a nap.