Busy busy busy weekend...

As I've said a million times, the Allans are hosting Thanksgiving. Right around Columbus Day when we hatched this genius idea of let's offer to host and see who comes, we also decided, why not do some work on the house? Mr. Allan has been a little nomad traveling the country for work, which left me at home with plenty of time to play with the cats and go to yoga. I'm a pretty smart lady, I could start tackling some projects. We set a list to do of house stuff that included painting all wood trim, painting our main living areas, hanging new interior doors...and then I added buying new dining room furniture and redecorating that room to our list.

I'm glad to say that my husband returned from travel in the wee hours of Thursday night and after a tiresome weekend we met our goal! Yeah for the Allan duo or Mr. Allan and Mrs. Allan.

Here's a snapshot of what we accomplished this weekend....

First on the list was a trip to the lovely RI Dump..also known as it's politically correct title the RI Resource and Recover Center. I read in our lovely local newspaper that on Saturday, November, 20, there was a state wide recycling event. Mr. Allan is funny about his recyclables. He takes them very seriously. If I name a number plastic he can tell me if I can put it in our bin, bring it to wholefoods, or recycle it elsewhere. I know. Impressive and makes him terribly attractive, ey?

He made the recycle bug bite me and we make an effort to be a greener household. So, I clipped out the article and circled the date on the calendar. This state-wide event included the Eco-Depot at the Dump would be set up to take all our hazardous materials such as paint, paint thinner, old oil, pesticides etc. We could also recycle old electronics and bring paper for the great paper shred. Exciting stuff...isn't it?

Well, at least Mr. Allan was smart...we left bright and early. I had my gimp arm from the cat bite and took a week off from the gym. So, no kickboxing as usual for me bright and early on a Saturday morning. Instead we loaded up our mini-van, aka Big Blue, packed him with all our hazardous waste, Mr. Allan grabbed a coffee as I ate my breakfast, a Cliff Bar Jr. and had the morning paper to prepare for, what we thought, would be quite the crowd.

The gates to the dump opened at 9am. All in all, we waited about an hour in various lines. I couldn't get over the amount of people or the amount of bitching and whining. It's a state wide recycle event people! Bring a coffee, pee before you leave the house, and hoist up that Christmas music...it's a no brainer, you're not going to drive in and out. We were surprised by 1) how nice the people who work there are 2) how nasty people waiting in their cars can be and 3) that it's a full service event..you don't even have to get out of your car. The dump personnel empty your trunk etc...it was like the Starbucks drive thru...yet people still complained.

Here are the pictures of the lines we drove by on the way out...unbelievable!

I kept snapping picture after picture because just when I thought the line couldn't get any longer...it did! But..kudos for people wanting to dispose of this stuff properly. There are probably way too many numbnuts who throw it in their yards etc. That's how our groundwater and soil get contaminated.

After our exciting trip to the dump, the navigation on my phone brought us to Walmart in the most indirect, circular, route it could. Just to give you a glimpse of what we did this weekend..here's my to-do list..with items still left may I add!

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While I feel accomplished, I'm also pretty freaking tired today. Gym after work, then the grocery store for more crap, then home to prepare for a trial on the Wednesday..real smart timing for me. And go figure..the house is spotless so of course a cat decided to throw up its breakfast in the middle of the rug. Glad some more tasks await me when I get home tonight!