I returned to the wallpapering job (described below), but the idiot owner had failed to obtain sufficient border to finish the installation.  So I withdrew prematurely from the locale and have now relocated to the entertainment district of Cleveland (the Flats) and am doing my remote thingy with laptop and cel phone while sipping a Foster's lager in a popular hangout.

I'm really totally relaxed taking my laptop anywhere and going wireless.  Which reminds me, what we call the "World Wide Web" (WWW) will someday be more appropriately re-described at the World Wireless Web, or in my case, the Wherever Wireless Web!! 

Hrm...I wonder if i bought a digital camera, if the nudie bar down the street would let me blog the occasion for your edification??!!

I'm not taking a break from bloggin...exactly.

I'm just leading another life.

Which tends to be time-intensive.

My secret life: professional wallpaperer/painter/finisher.  Evenings. Weekends.  Hell, I've no love life, so I might as well work!

Yep.  And I'm damn good at it.

Correction: Actually, one of the best.

Damn, I could wallpaper a basketball with striped paper and not loose the pattern.  I think.

Well, I put my skills to work yesterday, 7 AM until 9 PM--no lunch, no break, and knocked out papering an expansive newly-added bathroom in a lush suburb.  Damn, that work was backbreaking.  And lunch was merely two warm beers--in between waiting pieces of pasted paper.

But, oh, I'm falling back into the old tradesman habit of busting one's ass all day and then rushing to the bar to spend all the money just made.  Watch out for those tabs--the plastic a credit card's made out of has a much longer life than the worth is supposedly represents!  I tell you this, though.  A pretty girl in a bar looks so much prettier just after you've given your vision for 14 hours to staring at seams drying on the wall.

Hrm...what wisdom might I share as a professional paperer??

1) Never, never, never, follow the instructions for pre-pasted paper!!!  Water alone as an activator sucks!  Years ago, we used to ALWAYS use a water/paste mix and roll it onto the pre-pasted papers.  I used to kid about inventing a product for pre-pasted papers, then, lo and behold, "Pre-pasted Wallpaper Activator" appeared in the stores!!!  Use that--always!

2) Never allow the paper to "book"--or setup with paste--as long as is usually recommended--5 minutes.  That's overkill.  Two minutes is plenty except for the very rare paper that expands slowly.  Allowing it to "book" (pasted and infolded upon itself) too long renders the paste less slippable, and hence, harder to work with on the wall.

3) And never, never think that wallpaper is the answer to hiding defects.  On the contrary, always repair/prepare the wall as if you were going to paint it with the expectation that  every defect will show.  If you use wallpaper to cover cracks or other defects without repairing them, sad you'll be when they break through.

Okay...so this was my little break/respite for today.  I'm heading back to the same job now to put up the border.  Then I have an estimate to do tomorrow night on painting an entire house (interior)--which may eat up the rest of my summer.

No rest for the wicked, they say. I hope the wicked don't mind my company.