Well, I’m going to have to put quarter round up by the ceiling because the edge is so rough that even good painter’s tape didn’t keep the paint colours from bleeding, but I’m okay with that. The ceiling is white, the area around the shower is cream, and the area behind the toilet has beadboard textured wallpaper that will be painted cream.

Ceiling finally finished, around the shower painted. I don’t think the green tape goes with the colour scheme, though.

Moar. I stopped painting a little past the area that would be papered.

I’m not exactly experienced at wallpapering in the first place–I’ve only done a small area once before–and this was…interesting. it was prepasted, but I put a little extra on the wall because this is a bathroom. I’m not going to trim it because it’s very soft when it’s wet, and it tears. The wall is a long way from smooth…or flat…or rectangular…but it came out okay. Looks a bit pinkish because of the pink wall opposite, but painting will fix that. For the record, the paste on this stuff was almost exactly the consistency of snot.

Next weekend, this will be dry enough to paint, assuming it doesn’t shrink a lot, or fall off. We’ll see. Anyway, I like the texture, and I might just like it enough to use it over that awful peach flowered stuff in my office and the north wall.

I’d decided to do the walls around the shower with the same creamy white I used for the table and chairs. Then, I thought, “Why not?” and tried it on the ceiling, too. Walls, yes. Ceiling, nope. It’s got two coats of Killz on it, and now a coat of latex semi-gloss paint. I’m not going to go buy flat white ceiling paint; I’ll just throw another coat of Killz on it tomorrow. Stuff cost enough and it’s flat white; I might as well use it. I do like the creamy white on the wall around the shower, though, but I’ll have to decide for certain in good daylight. I’m sweaty and I hate painting ceilings. Don’t mind walls too much, but ceilings suck. Sigh. Will my bathroom ever be finished?

This morning, I went looking in the Play Store for a sunrise/sunset app that would allow me to track the additional minute or so that we get each day. Yes, I am that desperate. I found a really nice one, and it was not ad-supported free, but actually free. I made a donation; the $5 that I would have paid for the app itself, and the $5 I would have paid for the widgets. It’s a really good app, and it didn’t nag for Play Store ratings, or FB likes, or Twitter shares, or anything…it just gave me a pretty, functional display of sunrise and sunset times, and also twilight, and moon rise. Anyway, it looked so nice that I decided I didn’t want the bright butterfly wallpaper anymore, and once I changed that, I didn’t like the coloured icons, so I got Glasklart (used that on my phone for ages). Well, Glasklart doesn’t work with the vanilla launcher, and I’ve used Nova on my phone forever, too. I decided to pay the $4.99 for Nova Prime; I’ve got it on two devices, and it’s really a very good launcher. I tried buying it from my tablet, but didn’t notice my old Visa was set as my default, so it declined (it ought to…the card hasn’t been valid for a while now). It also locked me out of purchasing for 30 minutes, which pissed me off, but I had to plant spring beauty anyway, so meh. I tried again, after logging into my Google account on my computer and changing my default payment method. Nope…still “high risk” (whatever the hell that means). I got onto my phone, and was able to purchase Nova Prime on that, then cleared the settings in the Play Store on my tablet, and was able to download it there. FINALLY. Jesus Christ, Google…let me spend my money if I want! Anyway, my tablet has Nova now, with vertical app drawer scrolling, and Glasklart icons, and LunaSolCal, which is kind of a stupid name for a really nice app, but whatever. I like the tablet a lot, and now it looks nice.

Just in case anyone thought I might be sane…

I planted Eastern/Virginia spring beauty today. It’s 30 degrees with a windchill factor of 22, but they arrived last Wednesday (I think), and being in a grocery bag inside a box on my desk wasn’t going to do them any good, so I had to plant them. The only time G on eBay has them is January and/or February, and I want to try to have a bloom this year. We’ll see.

These tiny corms are good to Zone 3, and the ground isn’t frozen, so hopefully, they can’t read a calendar. It didn’t take long with my bulb…whatever it is, and that’s good because it’s cold. I put them 3″ (ish) in the ground, sprinkled a little bone meal, dumped in a small handful of potting soil (for the fertilizer), and popped the plugs back in.

Mulched with a couple of inches of dead leaves, and done! They have a tendency to spread, but I put them near the base of the Cliffie Bush, so they can spread all they want, and it won’t matter if the first mowing or two doesn’t get done over there. Hopefully, they’ll get enough sun; the Cliffie Bush seems happy there, so they may be, too.

Brrr. Hurry up, sprang!

Tulips, doing their best to get frozen.

Peonies, not so far along, but still insanely early.

M did an extra-awesome job yesterday; I got about 1/3 more fat this time, and much less went to the trash pandas.

Pink mush. Ew.

Greyish-brown mush with lots of fat. Still ew, kind of.

Well, on the window, at least. I bought new privacy film for my bathroom windows; the old stuff was dusty and peeling at the edges, and had been sloppily installed in the first place, and my pink bathroom wants pretty windows.

The old stuff did not come off easily. Some of it was brittle and broke in small pieces, and the stuff that came off in big pieces left behind old, hardened adhesive. I soaked it with mineral spirits and scraped with a razor. Not fun, but I got it eventually.

The new stuff has a pattern of bubbles, and getting it on straight and not rippled was a little bit challenging. Half-finished.

All done! I like it better than the old diamond-ish pattern, and I definitely like that it’s not yellowed and brittle, and put on with crooked, ragged cut seams right across the middle.

If you’re a goddamned worthless European starling, that is. Just doing a little bird-watching out by the suet feeders. My little birds don’t pay any mind at all when I’m close; they seem to know I’d never hurt them. The starlings, however…that’s why Maw’s got ‘er gun.

I also know how I’d look as a fat person. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, winter work socks, winter boots, a polar fleece jacket, two polar fleece bathrobes, a fuzzy microfleece hooded bathrobe, a balaclava, a scarf, and winter work gloves. Very…bulky. I would not be happy as a fat person.

Well, for whatever it’s worth, I put my pond heater in place. It’s going down to 18 tonight, and windy, so even though it was nearly dark when I got up, and I had to feed the birds, I dumped the deicer in beside the pump hose and left the pump on. Worst case scenario, I burn out a $100 pump and have to buy a new one. Here goes!

EDIT: 0645 next morning. Temperature 8.7F, wind chill -9F. The deicer does work, at least for the time being. Some people said theirs crapped out after a season, or a few weeks, but at least mine wasn’t a DOA like some claimed to have received. So far, the moving water in the bird pool appears to be unfrozen. We’ll see how long that lasts.

DAYLIGHT EDIT: More pictures when I can actually see. 9.3F on the patio.

When I got home yesterday, I happened to notice the croci…that apparently think it’s spring. Next week, it most emphatically will not be spring, so I’m going to go down to the compost pile and get some of the leaves that B brought over, lest my little sprouts freeze to death in actual winter. I think we’re in for at least a couple of weeks of extreme cold, and I certainly don’t want them to die before I’ve even got to see them in bloom!