Shades of Paint, Thirteen Dwarves and Other Random Thoughts

Today's post is one of random thoughts, mainly because I haven't posted in awhile and have nothing else to say.
We painted the lower half of our dining room yesterday, below the chair rail. When we moved in it was Go-Bears Blue. Not a bad color, but it didn't go at all with the green carpet and '80's-small-print-mauve-and-hunter wallpaper above the chair rail. Since I don't currently have the money or the patience to rip off and replace all that wallpaper, we updated it by painting the patterned paintable wallpaper below the chair rail a more updated color. I was aiming for a
tan-ish linen color, but the dear people at Menards just couldn't get it right, and we ended up repainting at 11 pm with paint that was already in the basement when we moved in. This was after two coats of primer/concealer on top of the Go-Bears Blue and a coat of the paint I actually bought. I'm praying that the wallpaper is not now so heavy with paint that it falls right off the wall. So far, so good, and the new color looks a lot better than the one that was there to begin with. Next project: the hot-pink room that my daughter inhabits. Who paints a room hot-pink anyway?
While I was doing the breakfast dishes this morning, my mind was wandering aimlessly towards nowhere(A pleasant place to be when you're stressed and not feeling too well, as I was). Of the things that were cavorting around in there was the fact that I can still name the thirteen dwarves without even thinking too hard about it.(If you just said,"Thirteen? Aren't there only Seven Dwarves?" Then you are not sufficiently geek-ified for this blog. Please move along to a nice Disney oriented blog where you will feel more at home.) I suppose that being able to name all thirteen dwarves means I am still, after all these years, just a nerd at heart. That's alright, I guess, because I feel at home here. (And for the record, Dori , Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bomber, Fili, Kili, Dwalin, Balin, and Thorin Oakenshield. Nod to Tolkien.)
Another thing in my mind is that our new puppy, whose official name is Buddy but has been known affectionately at various times as Vlad, Imhotep, Dingbat, Stupid, Trouble, and D*&^^%! , is, sad to say, not the brightest of dogs. Our four year old Alaskan Malamute seems to think Buddy's going to go away if just ignores him long enough.
Black Labs are supposed to be intelligent fast learners. Ours is just stubborn, or lacking a few marbles, I can't decide which. When we took him for shots recently, the vet said he needed obedience classes badly. We got some, in the form of a shock collar, which is not as bad as it sounds. All the other members of our family tried it and said it wasn't bad, it just sort of vibrated. We used this same collar on our Mal, and it worked wonders. Schooled him right up. We'll see about Vlad.
The last thing I'll write about is my new-found interest in old houses. New-found, that is, since I first walked into this house, and wanted it right away. It just felt like my house the moment I walked in. It's a 1920's - era Craftsman style house. I love all the cool touches put in by whoever built it. Aside from the woodwork every where, which is what drew me to it, there are neat little extra's everywhere. In the closets, for instance, are brass coat hooks. If you look closely you can see flowers have been carved (molded?) into them. This is something that no one but family will ever see, but the care this little touch speaks of makes the house feel like a home.
Since we moved in, I've almost stopped reading the other things I used to read. Now I read things like This Old House magazine, The Old Home Journal magazine, and browse the web for old home websites. I worry about whether or not our lighting is period-appropriate, and whether or not my dishes look right with the cool new period-appropriate dining room table we seriously splurged on. It's sort of an obsession.
Oh, well, just an adult form of geek-dom I guess! Have a great day!