How I Spent My Day . . .

Scraping peeling--and cracked but not yet peeling--paint off the fucking bathroom ceiling. Wendy and I thought, it can't be as bad as last time, the bathroom hadn't been repainted in AGES last time we did it, a mere 2-1/2 years ago. We'll totally be able to do everything today. Well, let's just say that Wendy and I do not have fabulous powers of prognostication. Those pictures are from about 12:30, an hour into the progress. We finished scraping after 5. We got the plastering done as well, but I still need to sand down the plaster, prime, and paint tomorrow.

Since it's probably hard to tell from these shitty cell phone pictures, the tiles on the wall are yellow, the tiles on the floor are grey as are the tub, sink, and toilet. For that reason we'd initially painted the walls and ceiling to match the lighter grey floor tiles. This time around we're going for a shade of green called "palm breeze" (which I do not think is a very appealing name). 

Springtime

I had my first personal training session today in what is going to wind up being a year long, 24-session series because that's the only way I can force myself to actually go to the gym and get in shape. My goal? To be in better shape. Their goal for me? To weigh 115 lbs and have 13% body fat. The latter is something that is going to be addressed at my next session because a) I've already established with them that my weight is not really a concern for me and b) that body fat percentage is so low it's practically unhealthy. Of course I think they also want to tell me what foods I can and can't eat. Which is definitely not happening. I'd much prefer this to be about what I want. Which is to eat what I want when I want among other things. These training people are not going to like me very much.

After my training session I went with Wendy to the Union Square Greenmarket to pick out flowers for our balcony. This is what the balcony looked like this morning. Benches, pots with the remnants of dead plants, a filthy storage container. Lovely.
And here we have the cats enjoying the sun and supervising while I clean the storage container and Wendy pots the new plants. Those looks of utter disdain are for the harnesses and leashes we make them wear on the balcony. They don't seem to buy the argument that we're saving them from becoming high-rise cats. Can't imagine why.
And, finally, the springified balcony (not in very sharp focus, I'm afraid).
Although our aloe is still waiting for it to get warm enough that it can join the other plants in the fresh air.