My week in pictures:

This week we had the big meeting at work. This equates to my leaving my house at the butt crack of dawn and returning in the "almost tomorrow" hours of night. I wasn't at home to fight the changes, so Mr. Borealis made quite a few of them.

Sunday, June 20th. Fireplace intact and all is well:

Monday, June 21st. I get a call at work, and find out that my husband has started ripping out my fireplace. We got lucky--the wall behind the bricks was already drywalled:

Thursday, June 24th. The man who provided my husband the tools to rip out my fireplace (my father-in-law) provides the tools to texture the wall after painting a base on it Tuesday and letting it dry on Wednesday:

Friday, June 25th. The textured wall gets painted:

Saturday, June 26th. My husband is gone all day with his dad, building a new mantle for the fireplace. He comes home at 7pm and tells me to get my shoes on because we need to buy something at the store. When I ask what it is, I find out he has intention of getting a big screen television. When I ask if we can maybe buy a new vacuum cleaner, replace one of our ancient cars, or perhaps fix the water heater that's crapping out on us, he says "it's okay, we have the money." Um, okay...Once in the car, he says he priced it out and we have the money to cover $1500 for a new television. That was the point of ripping out the fireplace, and besides, "we need a big screen now that I got the Wii for my birthday." Um, okay...when was I involved in this decision? --The answer is never, because I was asleep during the 6 hours a day I was actually home all week. We get to the store and my husband picks out a television. And a DVD up converter. And an Xbox 360, extra controllers, 4 new video games, a wall mount, and all the cables and other bits and bobs we need. My foot goes down at the Blu-Ray player and associated movies. With the bill almost twice the price he quoted me earlier in the evening, I'm secretly hoping I'm about to find out we won the lottery. But alas, no--this is just a mid-life crisis following the hospital drama earlier this year; I settle my mind that we can afford it this once, and if it makes him happy, I will allow it. ONCE.

Sunday, June 27th. We installed it ourselves. My heart palpitations from the cost haven't yet subsided, but I have to admit, my living room now ROCKS.


~Alula