This weekend, I worked on a reupholstery project for our dining room. Our chairs are over 10 years old and were barely more comfortable than sitting on a piece of plywood. Something had to be done, and buying new chairs that might not match the table didn’t really seem like a good solution. Also, buying an all new table and chair set wasn’t really something we wanted to do either. So I decided it was time for me to learn how to reupholster!

After hours of searching for fabric, I ended up getting fabric in the “discount” pile at S.R. Harris (I put discount in quotes because…is it really a discount when everything in the store is already discounted??). Originally, I had wanted to go with something that would be a bit more durable than canvas, but I couldn’t find anything that I really liked. I would have loved something in purple or a bright orange, but in the upholstery sections, those were very outdoor furniture looking. Although thinking about it now, who doesn’t want pink flamingos on their chairs year round?!

I was a little nervous about reupholstery, since I have learned how home improvement sites can make things seem really easy, and then, when I’m in the middle of the project, I realize how out of my league I am, and have a mess of stuff that I’m not sure how to make better or how to put back to its original form (Yes. I’m talking about retiling the bathroom…). But luckily, this was not too difficult. Really, the hardest part was getting the staples out! The second hardest part was getting the corners to look nice. The tutorial I was following was for a chair that goes into a frame, and the sides are hidden, so the wrap they did on the corners didn’t quite work right on my chairs, so I just winged it. They’re not perfect, but they’ll do. My only fear is that I didn’t wrap everything tight enough and it comes undone. That would mean I would have to remove more staples! Nooooooo!

For now, we are getting used to the surprise of having a really cushy seat under our butts, when we are used to sitting on plywood! I hope this lasts, but if it doesn’t, that just means that I can change out the fabric and maybe find something I like more. Maybe I will just change the chairs up as they come apart, and then all of the chairs can be different. That could be fun! (This is my way of pumping myself up, in case I have to deal with removing more staples…I put a LOT of staples in these chairs…)

This year, I went to Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio for work. This is the first work trip I’ve ever taken that was longer than a day-long conference and not within driving distance. I was a little worried about how I would do, since I didn’t have a lot of roommate experience in my life, and I hated camp the one time I went. And, this was an entire week long…from Monday around 7am to Monday around 7pm. Would I be able to handle my co-workers for that much time? It turned out that I worried for no reason (…hmmm…seems to be a common thing in my life…). Everyone was fine, and the only times that I started to get even slightly annoyed with people, it turned out that I was just hungry. Luckily, I kept my annoyance to myself, and nobody had to deal with the wrath of my hanger. And, no apologies were necessary on my end. Phew!

I was also a little worried about how I would deal with being around people constantly, since Nick and I have a pretty quiet house, and I seem to do better when I get some down-time alone. But apparently, all the extroverted training that my mom gave me when I was younger didn’t go to waste, and I actually enjoyed going out after the conference closed with my co-workers and some of the volunteers. But after I got home…I crashed big time! And I took a smile break too. Not only were my cheeks in pain from all the friendly smiling at the convention, they hurt from all the laughing I did with our team. Good problems to have!

During the convention, my co-worker, Heather, told me about The Columbus Coffee Experience that one of our Instagram followers posted about. You pick up a passport, go to four of the coffee shops listed, and get a free Columbus T-shirt. What?! I have to drink coffee and try different coffee shops? Well, if I must… It was a lot of fun, and we even got Josh and Adam (Chip Theory Owners) to join us. We are now all proud owners of the t-shirt. And, it’s actually a pretty nice t-shirt that I would wear in public. (It’s pretty good for me if a free t-shirt doesn’t go straight to the workout pile!)

So how was the convention? It was good; tiring, but good. I met some nice people, played about three games, and stood a lot! We had an amazing volunteer in our booth that made me realize that I really need to up my game for our next convention. He had never played our games before, and he was running around and telling everyone about them and answering all kinds of questions that I had no idea how to answer. I could not keep up with him at all. Amazing!

As far as checking out other booths and playing games, I really didn’t do much of that. I did admire the art booths when I went past them, but I wasn’t sure how I would get anything home without damaging it in my suitcase. And I only played games on the night that I hung out with Seppy. Next time, maybe I’ll do some more browsing.

The next convention that I will be going to is GenCon in August. It’s supposed to be even more crowded and crazier than Origins, so I’m glad I had Origins to get me acclimated, since Origins was much bigger than Con of the North (the last convention that I worked at with Fight in a Box). Hopefully there will be another Coffee Experience to get me through!

This month I had a ladies’ trip to Charleston, South Carolina. This was my first time ever being there, and it was not what I expected. First off, since we were in the South, I expected everyone to have a Southern accent, but it seemed like the only people that we ran into that had Southern accents were tourists. (I guess now I can’t get upset with everyone who comes to Minnesota expecting us to have “Minnesota” accents. I totally get it now.) Second, I expected it to be more city-ish. I figured that since it’s a very old city and a capital, that it would have at least a few skyscrapers. I think someone told us that the tallest building is only 4-stories high. And the city seemed more like a sprawling suburb to me. Maybe because the buildings were so short?

But despite all that, I had a fun time! My friend, Sarah, who is 5’2″ (I can’t remember her exact height, but it’s somewhere around there) rented a car for us, and the only thing they had available was a huge truck! I think it was a Ford F-150. I tower over my friends at 5’9″, and it was not the easiest vehicle for me to get in and out of. I don’t even know how it was for them. Sarah was amazing navigating that giant truck through the tiny, winding streets of Charleston though. I would have at least done a curb check once, and been lucky if that was all the damage I did!

We took in some sights, went on some tours, went to an open house (curiosity!) and enjoyed the warm weather. Yes. It was in the 70s, while there was a super snowstorm here at home. I’m glad I missed it, but I felt bad that I was enjoying a stroll on the beach while Nick was at home fighting to keep the driveway cleared and being stuck inside in April!

When we were leaving, one of my friends asked us what our favorite part of the trip was. And I had two favorites. The first was staying up late with Sakura and laughing hysterically at Facebook videos. The second was when we took a tour of the Charleston Tea Plantation, found a white bridge near the entrance, and I took “Senior Photos” of Leslie and Sarah. (And yes, Nick told me as well that both of these activities could have been done somewhere closer to home. But it wouldn’t have been the same.)