i was overjoyed today to learn that i would use up half of the second can of yellow paint. i was very much afraid that i had overestimated and would have a lot of unused paints on my hands, but i now think i overestimated just but a little and in the end everything came out all right. i finished the second coat of yellow in 4 hours instead of the 5 hours it took to do the first coat yesterday. nevertheless, 4 hour is a good chunk of the day, and by the time i was ready to start on the second coat of blue, the had already crept far enough into the western sky that i didn't have anymore natural lighting in the master bedroom, and if i wanted to paint i'd have to do it by incandescent light, which is a poor substitute. so i had a short work day, took some time to clean up, relaxed by watching the evening news on television lying the living room floor, using a can of paint as a hard pillow. i taped up a few things, went to home depot before coming to the house to buy another role of that scotch blue tape. that blue tape doesn't come cheap either at $7/roll. in my mind originally i had wanted to tape everything in preparation for the trim painting, but there are areas that i can easily paint without masking tape as long as i'm careful about it, so i just might forgo much of the taping. it'll definitely save me time, too much goes into the preparation, i really don't need to be that careful.

one of things i learned since a week ago when i was still at the priming stage is i can't reuse the roller tubes. early on, when i was priming, after each day i would pull the tube off of the roller stick, wash off the paint in the sink (there was a lot of paint to be washed off, those tubes are like sponges), and then dry the tubes. first, the tubes took forever to dry, so i couldn't use them again the next day. second, they'd harden once they were dry, probably due to some residual paint still left in the tubes. once they're hard like that they're pretty much useless, no amount of rewetting will get them back to their fluffy original state. so instead of washing the tubes now, i just pull them off of the stick and keep them stored away in individual plastic bags so they don't dry up. the blue tube from sunday, i checked today, it's still "fresh" in its plastic bag, waiting to be reused tomorrow. just a hint for anyone thinking about a big painting project!

i also have a painting outfit i've been wearing since last thursday. this outfit includes a white t-shirt (fruit of the loom, bvd, you're standard cheapy t) and a pair of old faded jeans. the t-shirt i change everyday, but i've been wearing the same pair of jeans for almost a week now, and let me tell you, that thing is covered in paint. i wear this outfit everywhere, and just by looking at me you know i've been painting. i feel self conscious going into home depot (a place i visit just about every day) because i'm afraid someone's going to realize i've been wearing the same thing every time, but i'm pretty sure there isn't an on-site fashion critic.

two things i can't stop thinking about when i'm painting and they have nothing to do with home renovations: first item, did everyone see this past weekend's episode of the sopranos? can you believe what danielle ciccolella aka special agent deborah ciccerone did to adriana? i wonder which is worse, these mob guys or these undercover agents? sure, mobsters are involved in all sorts of criminal activities, but they're still human, they still have feelings. i think it's worse to be an undercover agent, gaining the trust of these mobsters, and then suddenly betraying them by turning them into the fbi. say what you will about these mobsters, but at least they're honest about their intentions. i understand you can't just ask mobsters for information, and that the fbi have to resort to secret techniques in order to get information, but i think using an undercover agent is probably the lowest thing the bureau can do. second item, i saw a photo of mila kunis (she plays jackie on that '70s show) going out with macaulay culkin in an issue of Us magazine. maybe she's too young to realize how lame her boyfriend is. who would ever want to date macaulay culkin? what happens when she brings him onto the set of her show? does everybody make fun of her for dating macaulay? i can just picture topher grace (eric forman) suppressing a laugh, asking macaulay, "so, do you ever watch our show?" and macaulay, the battered hollywood veteran, would answer in between puffs on his cigarette, in his deepen man voice, "yeah, i watch it now because mila's on it." i also can't stop thinking about mila, how she's not a little girl anymore, especially since starring in that lame direct to video sequel american psycho 2, co-starring with william shatner.