Lapping at My Heart

Last week, my boss surprised us.

He herded us all into the conference room where there were helium balloons covering the ceiling.

"Pick one and meet back in the common area."

Blue one, favorite color. Nab.

We were then informed that EVERY balloon had a slip of paper in it with a monetary amount ranging from $100 to $750!

Awesome! $100 right before the weekend!

We all popped them on cue, and my little slip of paper wafted to a halt between my silver faux snakeskin flats.

I unfolded the little crinkled Post-It note and blinked.

A couple of times.

$750...

At dinner that night I announced my windfall gleefully and then threw out suggestions on how we should spend it! New windows? A bazillion gallons of alien green paint? Tenting the house? Mass cat grooming? 500 pounds of Meow Mix?

The hubster stopped me. 

Hubs: Go get a laptop. You haven't had a computer of your own in over a year.

Ms. Practical: I can't do that. We need stuff.

Hubs: You never buy anything for yourself. Go get one. Tomorrow. No arguments.

I had permission. And to be honest, he was right, I needed one. My Quicken records had died with my Hewlett Packard, and all of my chore and packing spreadsheets were just in exterior hard drive storage. I needed my own Mommy Space for planning and executing our lives.

So into Walmart I waddled.

What you see here is the

Compaq Matte Black 15.6" Presario CQ62-219WM Laptop PC with Intel Celeron 900 Processor with Windows 7 Home Premium and a little wireless mouse from the fine folks at Logitech. And wine by Alice White. The machine itself was a whopping paltry $348! I had, of course, read up on it and its capabilities before hand to make sure it would do everything I asked of it. It will.

Now, the reason I'm telling you all this is because I have lacked a ground zero zone for some time. Yes, we've done a LOT on the house, but there's just as much more left to do, and this has been impeded by my lack of planning space and my lack of untouchable work area. I need someplace to set a project where it will not get cleared off of the dining room table and parts misplaced I'm talking to you Thomson Maximillian!!!

*coughcough*

In other words, I need a craft room. And I'm going to get one.

Starting tomorrow, dear readers, first, you are going to get The Ugly House Tour, and we're going to start pounding out some major projects, starting with a crafting zone; then, once I have a place to plan strategy, we're tackling the workshop. Tomorrow will be a day of 

Sweet-Mother-of-God-How-Is-She-Still-Living-In-This-Insanity Before shots, and we're going to go for broke and knock them out. And I still have $400 to play with.

Who wants to play along?