Blogmas - December 3rd: Painting

See the upstairs porch railings? Multiply that by 2.5 (the back porch is slightly larger) and that's about how much we had to paint/stain today! We being M and I.
This had been something that we had told Mom and Dad that we were going to do since we first got here. Seeing as M's getting ready to fly out, we figured we should finally get around to it. We did most of the work today, leaving a little touch up work that I can do over the next several weeks while I'm still stuck in the States.
Today we found out that American Airlines is awfully rude when you ask for clarification on their military flights policy, and we are currently out $130 for a plane ride that I will not be able to take. So far the passport agency's blunder has cost us over $250 extra. By the end of this... eh, I don't want to think about it. On the bright side I get a lot longer with my family! :) On the downside M will very likely be spending Christmas by himself. I already had myself a crying fit over how unfair and ridiculous it is that the passport people did not get in contact with us sooner so we could get this all worked out.
We spent at least 9 hours total today working on those darn porches. There was a break for breakfast (eggs) and lunch (goulash) but after lunch we worked until about 6 in the evening. Meanwhile my Dad did some work cutting the bushes and trimming the trees on the back right of this picture. The day went by pretty fast all things considered. Tomorrow we have to replace a few spokes (is that even what you call them?) to the porch fence, as the old ones became so warped they snapped. My hands are still covered in dry paint no matter how many times I've washed them.
We rounded out the end of the day with some Halo: Master Chief Collection multiplayer madness between my brother, M and I. M's talking about picking up an Xbox One and Halo 5 so him and I can play Halo 5 together while we're waiting for everything on my end to be settled. I'm inclined to go with these plans. We've been wanting to pick up our own Xbone for a while anyway.
Now I'm getting ready for bed and possibly sleeping in tomorrow. We'll see how my body feels about that.

Have you had to deal with American Airlines before? Is it always this tedious keeping up with several acres of land and an aging house?