For Meghan, on her 35th Birthday.
Today, Meg turned 35. When I woke up this morning, well after her I’m sure, she was sitting in front of the TV, in her chair, playing Skyrim on Xbox, with her headphones on, so she wouldnt wake me up. I woke up eventually, and picked on her a little. My usual attempt to get her to squeal, giggle, and smile. Of course, I succeeded. I have that talent. After some morning fumbling, we rolled out of the house and headed to Lowe’s. 2 years ago, when we were house hunting, we were also developing an obsession with home improvement stores. Home Depot, Lowes, Harbor Freight…If they sold tools, fixtures, etc, we were there. Anyway, Lowe’s had this art deco stained glass pendant chandelier that Meg loved. For $200. Not cheap, but gorgeous. It was on our list of “when we have the money” items. Well, that was a while back. Almost 18 months ago. And truth be told, we both hated the chandelier in the dining room. It was an afterthought, cheap, and hung poorly. With the rest of the house coming along nicely, and becoming more and more art deco, it was the clear choice. So, today, I got Meg into the car, and we went to Lowe’s. We found the chandelier, just as expected, for the price we’d expected. After putting it in our cart, we wandered Lowe’s in order to check for anything else we needed. Satisfied that it was all we’d come for, we paid and took it home.
As soon as lunch was complete, we promptly pulled the dining room table out of the way. It took almost no time to pull down the old fixture. To my surprise, the old one was wired correctly. This is a rarity in this house, as almost every electrical project so far has been a nightmare, since whoever did the previous electrical work was apparently a moron. Regardless, I pulled down the old fixture, sized up the new one, hung it, ran the electrical, switched on the breaker, and done. The dining room chandelier now looks much better. It fits the house, fits our taste for this house, and is much more pleasing as a focal point to the dining room.
Now, this whole lighting fixture business is very much not the end. Also for Meg’s birthday, there was even more lighting. For those of you who dont know, I’ve always installed cabin lighting in my car. Typically red neon in the foot wells. Well, I upgraded my red neon to red LED tubes, and added custom rocker switches. As one does. Much brighter, much better. Meg of course loved this. So a trip to Radio Shack, and a trip to Fry’s later, I had all the components. I wired custom lit switches into her center console. I then ran blue LED tubes to each of her foot wells. I connected them to the power source for her new stereo (the one from my car) and hooked it all up. Her car now has a super awesome custom blue glow, with toggle switches. It doesnt get much more awesome than that.
But the awesome doesnt end there. Tonight, we met up with Sooz, Chris, Jim, April, Katie, Aaron, Anita, LeAnne, Mick, Jane, John, Rachel, and Batman™ at Mellow Mushroom Pizza for dinner. Awesome foods were had all around. We then segueway’d to Thatch Tiki Bar to see our favourite Mixology Girl Heather for drinks. This of course, was a good time, and we shut the place down. We took Sooz home with foods for her Tom, and rolled home.
Now, Chris is downstairs asleep. I’m in my office typing, and Meg is in bed asleep. I hope she’s had a good day. I very much tried to knock it out of the park. I got her the chandelier she’s been wanting. I hooked up her car with custom lighting and stereo. There was dinner and drinks. I even went so far as to print out tons of “Happy Birthday Meg!” stickers, that I stuck to stuff all over the house. I hope her birthday was awesome. My girl is awesome, and she deserves a super good birthday. I think she got that. And now, I’ll netflix while I process my alcohol. Lots of water, then bed for me too. All in all, a good day. Nooch.
Cross-posted specifically for Zula, The White Grace Jones.