11 August 2009

The bathroom painting took a little longer than expected because it required a second coat, and especially in the bathroom it's good to put that extra layer there. We went with Supreme Green at Sherwin-Williams. That's really the only place to go for paint in my experience. Have used Behr, Glidden, Dutch Boy, etc. and none of them were as easy to work with as S-W. Well, I lied, actually. The Rustoleum brand (both spray and roller/brush paints) gets a high rating as well... but they're not for interior walls.

Did get the toilet in, a day behind the mental schedule of Thursday last. Just wanted to give that paint extra drying time for a full cure before placing things against it. The toilet install was relatively easy, though. The hardest part was caulking along the bottom rim, what with the lack of good angles with the caulking gun and having to clean the excess away. The toilet was christened that night.

Speaking of christening, we attended my niece's baptism down in Southington on Sunday at St. Aloysius. We ourselves are not Catholic (and personally speaking, I try to steer clear of organized religion), so it is somewhat amusing to watch the ritual of Sunday Mass. It was also somewhat amusing to see "FUCI" carved into the left rearmost pew --- there were the beginnings of the K diagonals, though faint. We pointed it out to an usher. Otherwise, my cousin down from western NY was denied communion because she is not Catholic. That policy just... seems very un-Christ-like. And again, this is but one of a million examples why organized religion isn't my bag. The more people brought into any group, collective intelligence, efficiency and dedication to the original purpose suffers --- rules are adopted to suit the particular whims of a majority or passionate vocal minority of members, core beliefs are staked out a la carte, intra-church cliques appear, the Us vs.Them mentality forms between different church branches (as much as Christians will usually deny, deny, deny the extent of this simple fact) and before you know it, the church is more of a social organization than anything else. As for me, I know what I know, I know what I believe, I can conceive the immensity of what humanity cannot possibly know, and I try to reconcile a little sense from it. Anyway, after the baptism was a lunch at a local restaurant and it was nice to see some family members we don't get a chance to meet up with very often.

Sunday night, I saw my Buffalo Bills get faked out of their shoes early in the NFL's Hall of Fame game, the first game of the preseason. But there were some positive showings, including Terrell Owens getting two nice catches in the starting offense's brief appearance. The pair of rookie offensive linemen projected to start were raw at times but showed promise. Especially on the play where Andy Levitre was shoved backward into the Edwards's face... and yet, to his credit, he stayed upright and bought his QB an extra second when many veterans the team has had in the past 10 years would've fallen down or morphed into a turnstile. You've got to appreciate a lineman who has the mentality that even if something goes badly, he won't let a defense have a free shot on the QB. Too many times, from players making enough money to make you think they'd actually care ($7M +), they stood and watched as their QB got pummeled.

Anyway, got the pedestal sink in position last night, and lag-bolted to the floor and wall. Need to do some jury-rigging with the drain pipes (we want to try to hide as much as we can inside the pedestal) and connect the water lines, and it'll be good to go. Opened the mirror I picked up at Lowe's a while back, and there are some dark splotches from where the glue is on the backside. They've faded since it's been out of the box, but still quite noticeable. My fault. I should have opened the box at the store and looked. It was on clearance when we got it, so I don't know what their return policy will be... Will try anyway if the spots don't go away. 'Clearance' shouldn't mean 'Defective.'