Progress at the Museum of the Weird - and a Doctor Who Quiz

My blogging schedule is getting more and more screwed up as my sleep schedule shifts, and when I'm obsessing with something, as I have been over the last few days, that only disrupts things further.

So anyway, this was supposed to be last night's entry. It is now today's entry. Later tonight I'll do tonight's entry.

First off, an explanation. I spend all day and all night yesterday reading about the casting of the Eleventh Doctor for Doctor Who, arguing with people online who think that shadowy forces at the BBC are forcing new showrunner Steven Moffat to wreck the series by turning it into the UK equivalent of Smallville, and playing Doctor Who trivia again. (I am now ranked as the #513 player out of 50885, having achieved the "minor demi-god" level with a score of 30800 points.) I also submitted 10 questions to the Addicted to Doctor Who quiz on Facebook, eight of which I've since recycled in the following quiz:

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

But enough about Doctor Who. I wanted to show you a few pictures of what's been happening at Casa Blocher this weekend, as John's two weeks of vacation come to an end. He wanted to accomplish lots of stuff around the house during that time, but you know how it goes. When you're on a vacation there's nearly always a strong temptation to sit around and do relaxing things, like watching tv or messing around on the computer.

To his credit, though, John moved a bunch of boxes and other stuff so that the den is much more livable. That's a good thing, because it's the room we spend the most time in, other than the bedroom and our respective offices.

Lots of boxes.

The first thing he did, more or less, was consolidate and stack a bunch of our full storage boxes across the length of the den. There already were some, but he added to them. This unfortunately blocked our view of the tv from the couch, so we ended up watching Doctor Who Confidential on his computer.

Next step was to remove some old units of utility shelves made of particle board. They are probably over 20 years old, haven't been used efficiently in years, if ever, and John's always hated them. John moved the remaining stuff off them onto shelving in my office and other appropriate places, and got the units the heck out of the den. To be honest, I don't know where they are now.

Pepper ties to stay out of range of the movement of large objects.

Having cleared out that section of wall from the den, John moved the plants and plants stand from in front of the sliding glass doors, which stood open so that he could easily carry stuff in and out, and because it was a nice day on Saturday. (It rained all day Sunday.) Pepper hid outside, trying to stay out of the way.

Cayenne wants to know what's going on.

Cayenne followed John around, wanting to know what he was up to. Drove him crazy, and she got herself stepped on at one point.

This plant is too big for the stand now anyway.

I've been trying for two days to clean the glass on the plant stand, but there are mineral deposits on it and it's not so easy. So far I've used Method glass cleaner and a long soak with vinegar. No joy.

Cayenne looks at half of a vintage shelving unit as John revamps the den.

Meanwhile, with my help, John carried a vintage walnut shelving unit from the front room to the den, and set it up where the crummy shelves had been. In the front room it was a room divider, but John wants to do something else with the front room now, and anyway, it's mostly a storage area these days, and will be until we can pare down our possessions considerably.

Christmas junk is in front of the vintage shelving unit, but not for long.
The flat pack box was also about to go away.

Eventually John got the shelving unit looking nice in the den, except in a few places where it's gotten scraped by nearby objects. The thing is probably about 50 years old, but I've a sinking feeling we did some of the damage with the stuff we stored next to it in recent years. Even now we have two bins of Christmas stuff in front of it, waiting for Epiphany, after which I'll dismantle our Christmas decor and John will put it all away.

My birthday present, assembled 22 months later!

As I mentioned at the top of this entry, I was busy today writing Doctor Who trivia questions, and was pretty obvious to everything else. I therefore utterly failed to hear the sounds of pounding or even drilling in the next room. When I came up for air, there was my rolling file on the middle of the den, ready to go under my matching desk in my office. It was part of my 50th birthday present from the Tempe IKEA in March 2007, but it stayed in its flat pack box until today. Thanks, John! This should help me clear my desk!

I hate to lose any exhibits at the Museum of the Weird, but lots of what was have is old bills and other papers, magazines, Happy Meal toys, movie and tv tie-in cereal boxes, 25-year-old audio tapes, unsold eBay stock, low-end Arizona Diamondbacks memorabilia, 1980s electronic, old stained clothing and so on. Bottom line is, there's an awful lot of it. We're hoping to go through a few boxes a week, give stuff to Goodwill, throw other stuff away, possibly have a yard sale, and find places for stuff we still want to own. It's gonna take a while. But it will take a lot longer if we don't work on it!

Karen