Whew. That was an unexpected marathon. What I thought would be a quick 2-week refresh on a dated rental house turned into more of a 5-week deep dive, and worse, most of our work barely even shows. There were so many little repairs: removing an old security system, moving A/C vents around, running new wiring, installing new exhaust vents, painting closet shelves, etc, that just don't show up in before-and-after pics.
But of course all the new paint and fixtures still make quite a difference, so I still have some fun stuff to share. C'mon, I'll give you the official "B&A" Tour.
BEFORE:
That A/C closet on the left got a complete overhaul, then we painted all the walls, trim, and doors, refinished the chandelier, and added some pretty light-blocking curtains to the sliders:
Ta-da!
How 'bout those black doors, eh? I love them so much, y'all. As a nice bonus, they pick up the black window frames throughout the house, so everything flows a little better. We also changed to
daylight bulbs, which helps neutralize some of the warm pink tones in
the tile and makes everything look all cool and de-saturated.
Thanks to the new A/C return vents on the left there's no more air coming in at ground level, taking in all the dust with it. Should keep the closet and whole system much cleaner.
On Saturday my friend Robyn made some digital wizardy happen so that a group
of us could all watch Eurovision live together, and my friends, I AM A CHANGED
WOMAN.
Where.
Where has this competition been all my life??
The hours FLEW by, and it was much fun to be in a group that was
cheering or snarking or laughing with each new act. If you're not familiar,
Eurovision is an international singing competition, but those words can't do
it justice. The stage productions aren't just eye candy, they're
eye cocaine. The outfits, the dancing, the laser light show with pyro
and giant props, all on the most STUNNING stage... wow. Just wow.
Like many of you I first learned about Eurovision through the
Will Ferrell movie
on Netflix last year. The movie is a roller coaster of soaring
heights and cringing depths - the depths being any time Will Ferrell is on
screen - but I highly recommend it for the good parts. Dan Stevens'
character alone makes it worth your time (John & I are both a little in
love with Alexander Lemtov), but then there are some absolutely
jaw-dropping musical numbers, including John's favorite that he plays at least once a week,
Husavik.
Anyhoo, if you've seen the movie then you might
have thought they were exaggerating with the musical numbers - making them
sillier or grander or more over the top. We certainly thought so. But Y'ALL.
They're not exaggerating. And I am so happy about this.
Even though Eurovision doesn't air here in the U.S., happily you can find most of
the acts on Youtube, so BRACE YOURSELF. I'm about to blast you with a bunch of
my favorites from this year's lineup. And fun fact: most of the contestants sing
in English, so no subtitles needed!
Let's start with a good example
of Eurovision as a whole, just so you know what you're in for. ::evil grin:: Take it away, Lithuania!
If you're not grinning by the end of the first minute then your heart has
no sense of whimsy.
Now let's hop over to The Netherlands, because I can't believe this one
didn't get more love. So powerful it makes me want to stand up and cheer and
cry at the same time, oof. I love a good anthem. Anyway, like several of these
the
live performance
is blocked in the U.S., but here's the official music video, which - oh wow -
is actually even better:
(P.S. In the live version they translated the chorus: "Yu no man broko mi" = "You can't break me.")
That's fueling my obsession, btw: every act has both a live performance
AND an official music video, so of course I have to go watch all my favorites
again and see which version I like better.
Speaking of favorites,
Graham Norton (who was emceeing the broadcast we watched) was hilariously
snarky about this next one, saying the song was good but you had to close your
eyes to enjoy it. I think Graham may be right, but it's hard to look away from
this performance, haha. PLUS, this is John's favorite of the whole
competition. It's a solid 80s style pop song, definitely one of my favorites, too. (Again, the song. Ha!)
