Recap of yesterday

Hello? Am I still welcome here? I planned on posting yesterday, but extreme busyness got the better of me. And not even the 'good' busy.

First of all, the Mr. is sick and I am 95% sure it's the flu (fever of 100 and rising, aches and pains, headache, chills etc.). So I am doing all that I can to make him feel better and make sure I don't get sick. I keep reading reports on how bad Virginia has the flu right now, so I am scared to think about what it could mean for him/me/us.

We picked Macintosh and Aspen up from the behaviorist and got a decent review. She's not sure Aspen will ever be a 'dog park candidate', but if we stay on top of her and correct in a positive and level headed way, we should be able to improve her in house growling/barking. She also gave us a British Slip Lead that works wonders with correcting her on a walk. A rope 3/8" thick will whip her into shape like it's nothing! I ended up purchasing two of them in the 1/2" thickness, since it will be easier on the hands and still get the desired response. So hopefully her walking manners will improve.

I amazingly got around to filling all the screw holes and gauges in the wood with wood filler, sanding them and painting on all the supports, so that is done. When we went to put up the shelf last night, we realized that the brackets we bought were made by an idiot.

Let me back up... I posted a few days ago about sanding the shelf down so we can paint it white to match the rest of the shelves in our closet. This is what the shelf looked like before:

Simple, with a nice edge

Obviously the color is the only thing that changed. Instead of doing a floating shelf, we decided to purchase a pair of brackets for $10 from Lowe's. They were simple looking, but decorative enough that it didn't look cheap. Similar to these:


Well, whoever designed the brackets didn't think it all the way through and installation is downright impossible. I won't go into details, but there is no feasible way to connect it to the wall and shelf without ruining the brackets a little. The Mr. came up with an idea on how to fix it as he was trying to fall asleep last night, so we're hoping to try that out today. If that works, then I'll post the final product. If it doesn't, we're returning that shelf for a non-moron-designed option.

In other news, Lent begins this week and I haven't decided what I will be giving up/taking up. Last year I gave up all non-essential spending, and that was a big boost to our bank account. Other ideas floating around in my head are fast food, chocolate, and working out (obviously more of that). I guess I still have a couple days to decide...