painting is actually pretty boring, since most of it is prep work. the actual painting part itself normally just takes a few hours stretched over a few days for the paint to dry. but definitely the more preparation one does beforehand, the easier it becomes when it's actually time to paint (and to clean up). most of today was spent layering down more rosin paper on the floors. the work is tedious and meticulous, and i wonder why i even do it, but it helps enormously with the clean-up afterwards once everything is done. while i was doing that, my father was busy removing the remaining items from the walls, like the thermostat, doorbell, and switch plates. i'm not exactly sure when my parents' house were built, but 1950's come to mind. particularly interesting are the old wallpaper peeking through the switch plates.

instead of a radio, i listen to the news on tv when i work. usually i don't eat when i'm working but i had some oreo cookies i found some in the kitchen. tomorrow looks to be more prep work (sanding) with painting to start next week. i'm starting to get painting fatigue. normally my father works with me, until he has to go to work in the afternoon, leaving me to continue working. despite the help, i still feel like it's a solo project, and it's taking so long because one person can only paint so fast. if i had a team of painters, i could assign a person per room, and have the whole place painted in under 2 weeks (sooner, if my team worked longer hours).

i wasn't at my garden yesterday but in between that time something happened because it looked like someone trampled through my sunflowers. maybe a hungry squirrel looking to score a sunflower or an angry cat chasing said squirrel. i was able to upright most of the stalks except one; i ended up having to decapitate the flowers and bring them home to live the rest of their days in a vase. there was a suspicious man hanging around the community garden: he was talking on his earpiece cellphone the whole time, walking through the plots as if he was inspecting them. i gave him a long stare which made him nervous because he left soon afterwards. that's another reason why a backyard garden is better than a community garden: no strangers walking through your vegetables and flowers!

for dinner i had more leftover rice noodle soup while watching the season finale of burn notice. since it's a summer series, new episodes won't start until next summer, 9 months away.