My friend Cheryl and I were just chuckling over how we didn't seem to have anything to chat about, because our lives are boring right now. And it's true, my life is pretty boring at the moment.
When I was younger, I used to think it was terrible to have a boring life. Now I realize that there are a lot of non-boring yet dreadful things that could be happening, so it's better to revel in the boringness while you can.
A few things from my boring life right now...
I finally got a nice white fridge for my kitchen, replacing the stainless steel abomination that came with the house. It was impossible to clean, and had black sides, which really sucked up the light in this north-facing kitchen. We took advantage of end-of-the-year sales plus Todd's dad's Sears employee discount and got a great deal on this one. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning when the guys arrived with it last week. It's so beautiful!
I have experienced lots and lots of serendipitous moments in my life, and I got to experience another one last weekend when we were visiting my brother's family and stopped at an old grist mill in Dayton, VA. The mill had a small gift shop, and the gift shop sold handmade rag rugs.
I had been looking for a long runner type of rug to put in the kitchen along that stove/counter/sink side where I seem to do 99% of my daily walking. The store had a 9' runner in the perfect colors. An elderly Old Order Mennonite lady weaves the rugs on a loom in her home, and she had made this long rug as a custom order, as all her other rugs are much smaller. The order had fallen through and so she put it in the shop to see if it would sell. And it did! Serendipity!
I'm so pleased to have a handmade rug instead of the typical Chinese thing from Target or somewhere. And for a lot cheaper, too, which is always a bonus.
I have finally, after years of hesitation, journeyed into the world of yeast breadmaking. I found a great recipe for wheat bread on Allrecipes, and I've started baking two loaves every other week. We eat one the first week and pull the other one out of the freezer for the second week. I had been getting more and more unhappy with the wheat bread from the store, and this is so much better, and I'm sure better for us...although slathering it with a thick layer of apple butter is probably not doing us a whole lot of good. Apple butter's good for the soul, though.
I'm starting to scrapbook again after more than a year's hiatus. I pulled down my 2002 album a few weeks ao to look for some phoos, and I was struck by how many of the pictures and the things I'd written about I'd simply forgotten over seven years' time. It really brought home to me, again, the reason I'd started scrapbooking.
And lately, especially since losing my grandpa and grandma last year, I've started to think more about keeping track of the people who are important to you. So I am working on last year's photos, and taking a vow to take more photos this year, and not just of the cute little kids in my life, but of all the grown-ups, too!
I'm working in the dining room, so I have tubs of supplies stacked there...not my ideal working situation, but it's what I've got to work with right now, so I'm making the best of it.
Speaking of people who are important to me, here's what we did last weekend at my brother's house...
Marissa and I faced off in Wii boxing (she kicked my butt):
Natalie Wii hula-hooped:
Tracy cooked us a terrific dinner:
Marissa got tickled:
Jeremy and Natalie got birthday cards and presents (their birthdays are a week apart):
...and we had a nice visit with their friends Mike and Jen and their little boys. A nice quick trip.
So maybe it's not so boring around here after all.
And like I said before, boring is just fine compared with what some people are living through. Like people in Haiti, for instance. I have been promoting Mennonite Central Committee on my Facebook page, and I'm going to do it here, too. These people do so much practical good in the world, you just wouldn't believe it, and they are amassing a major effort to provide relief to Haiti. You can read about what the MCC relief workers who were there when the earthquake hit are dealing with...it's such a devastating thing. I'm sure you've all donated already, but if you haven't or if you have a few spare bucks, think about MCC. They're already looking and planning toward the long-term in Haiti.
Starting off my blogging new year with a template that my friend Mimi uses sometimes, from A Woman's Daybook:
Outside my window...Sunny, partly blue sky, partly feathery gray clouds.
I am thinking...about all the things on my 2010 "to do" list.
I am thankful for...a warm house, my beautiful nieces and nephews, my sweet husband who spoils me.
From the kitchen...finished off the last of my Christmas ham/cheese/veggie leftover soup for lunch.
I am wearing...black yoga pants, blue long-sleeve tee, slippers.
I am creating...the last of my Christmas journal, and hopefully some scrapbook pages soon. Also have a Valentine craft idea floating around in my mind.
I am going...nowhere today. Feels nice.
I am reading...a Louisa May Alcott biography and a Ross MacDonald mystery.
I am hoping...this free-floating anxious feeling will dissipate soon.
I am hearing...the fan, the washer, and my keyboard keys clacking.
Around the house...washing sheets and towels, tidying up, looking at my study with tiredness, knowing it's time to once again clean and purge.
One of my favorite things...Sheldon Cooper, theoretical physicist, as played by Jim Parsons.
A few plans for the rest of the week...car repairs, errands, knocking more stuff off the "to do" list.
A picture I am sharing...for anyone else who's a little tired of winter browns and grays:
...waved good-bye to Todd's parents as they headed back home to Ohio.
...watched "The Big Bang Theory" on DVD while folding laundry.
...perused the Christmas decorations at Jo-Ann Fabrics.
...came *this close* to buying a Sinatra Christmas CD.
...started Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene.
...listened to Mozart on the public radio station.
...smelled roses, coffee, chocolate, apples, bread, nuts, pears, and spicy candles all at the same time at Fresh Market.
...plotted a chicken soup for supper to use up leftover roasted chicken and roasted vegetables from the other night.
...smelled wet leaves in the front yard and on the driveway.
...swept up wet leaf crumbs from the foyer for the umpteenth time.
...pondered what to get all the nieces and nephews for Christmas (or "ThanksChristmasgiving" since Todd's family is combining the two this year, cutting my gift buying time down to--yikes! Three weeks!)
...wished for just a smidgen of sunshine. Just a smidgen would be fine.
Ah, what a lovely day for cleaning out the linen closet! Which is what I did this morning. Also sorted Todd's clothes, and dusted our bedroom. I guess I'm in fall nesting mode. I sorted out a bunch of books for disposal on Friday...it's truly scary when a person can remove 150 books from her shelves and it isn't really a noticeable difference. Yikes.
Todd is pressure-washing the house in preparation for some trim painting later this fall. And after my burst of activity this morning, I'm hanging out in my study pondering fall craft projects and cruising the Internet and chatting with my cousin Roland on Facebook. And blogging.
Tomorrow it will be eight weeks since my surgery and I'm doing just great. I have a haphazard method of taping up my incisions as recommended by the plastic surgeon, and massaging the incisions with Palmer's Vitamin E lotion, as recommended by the nurses at the breast health forum I read. Hopefully the combination of the two methods will result in a reduction of the Frankenstein effect I'm sporting right now.
Other than the tape/massage, and still not doing any strenuous lifting or tugging, I am completely back to normal and working on losing some more weight. Baking pumpkin scones and cinnamon rolls is not contributing to that effort much, but those are things that feed the soul, so I'm making allowances for them, at least until my Tuesday weigh-in when I can see how much harm they've done!
One unforeseen, and slightly frustrating, element of my reduction is that very few of my old clothes fit well--but now that I am raring to buy some new clothes, there is nothing in the stores that remotely appeals to me. In fact, the last few places I've looked, the fall fashions have been actively hideous, like the designer was trying to offend the eye on purpose! So I'm waiting it out. Sooner or later I'll find something I like, and till then, I'll just keep trying to go down another size.
My friend Beverly has started writing a column for a local news site. She's covering mortgage information right now, but hopes to branch out into other topics. There are tons of articles on the site, on every topic you can imagine. She's an excellent writer--go check her out!
I re-read a very sweet book from my childhood this week called Miracles on Maple Hill. I know I read it back in the day, but I had almost no memory of the story as I re-read it. It has a tremendous amount of detail about the natural world, especially wildflowers, and it made me feel a little bit sad to think how few people today would have the wealth of information about the natural world that the kindly neighbor in the book, Mr. Chris, has, and that he imparts to the main character, ten-year-old Marly.
What made me even sadder is the thought of how few people have the opportunity to amass such knowledge--the knowledge that comes from living in a place your whole life, and that your parents and grandparents lived in, and having their knowledge in your bones as well. Mr. Chris is out every day walking through the fields and forests and observing and working in the natural world. When the book was written 50 years ago, it was already an endangered lifestyle...now it seems almost archaic.
Fall seems to be truly here-some days are quite warm, but that breathless, sweltering humid feeling is gone now. And the nights--and most days--are cool enough to have the windows open again. This time of year is so wonderful in Virginia.Off to make some turkey meatloaf for dinner.
Why is organizing such a satisfying thing to do? My garden looks terrible, like a freaking jungle, so I sublimated by cleaning and organizing my fridge instead, which was much easier (and cooler.) My wheat germ and oat bran and flaxseed and dried fruit sacks are now resting neatly in plastic shoeboxes instead of piling up at the back of the fridge. What a feeling of accomplishment from two plastic shoeboxes! The jungle still awaits, though. Unfortunately, I am not up to yanking weeds just yet, I don't think my still-healing incisions would like it one bit.
I have had to retire two beloved pieces of clothing this week--a big comfy t-shirt that I bought at a yard sale 7 years ago which finally developed too many holes for decency, and today my wonderful cool cotton pajama capris completely fell apart, ripped right across the leg where the fabric had gotten thin. And of course I can't find any appealing petite pajama pants at all online now, let alone petite pajama capris, which don't seem to exist any more. So sad!
We went to see "District 9" last night and while it was an okay movie, it has replaced "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" as the most gooey, oozy movie I've ever seen. Body fluids (both human and alien) of every color oozing from every orifice (both human and alien.) I was sorry we'd eaten dinner beforehand...although one wouldn't really be in the mood to eat afterward, either.
And I think I may have to either stop going to movies, or else start entering the theater late, if they don't stop showing horror previews before every darn movie. "District 9" was not a horror movie, it was just a sci-fi alien thing--and yet 6 of the 7 previews beforehand were for horror movies. I don't LIKE horror movies! I don't want to be scared even a little bit! And some of those previews are really disturbing! It doesn't make me look very cool to be the only person in the theater with my eyes squinched shut and my fingers in my ears, like a frightened toddler.
Don't you love it when you go to the post office, or the bank, or an eatery, and you walk right in at the head of the line, not a soul in the place, and then you turn around two seconds later and there are 10 people behind you in line? I just love it when that happens--it makes me feel so special, like I have some supernatural sense of timing.
The only good thing about August is delicious peaches. And the fact that my grandma, my dad and my niece Evelyn were born in August. Those are August's only redeeming qualities. Let's have some fall now!
Is everybody sick of my whining about how tired I am? Too darn bad.
Today is like a whole new level of tiredness. I have to exert effort to plop each finger down on the keyboard. This may just be the most exhausted I have ever felt in my life. The gnomes in my body must be very hard at work repairing my chest area today, that's all I can figure.
What's that you say? There are no gnomes in the human body? Well, maybe not in yours. But my body is maintained by a team of tiny gnomes. They like Ben and Jerry's ice cream for a special treat. I don't provide it for them very often, though, as their next task will be to address my tummy area and butterfat ice cream isn't the tool required for that.
Sooo tired. Blinking takes an effort today. I feel a disbelieving annoyance way down under the tiredness...I didn't expect to be this tired at this point. And I'm more bored than ever...what am I supposed to do between passing-out-on-the-couch periods? I type a sentence and then have to sit and rest for a minute or two!
Anyway, I found this game the other day. I can't even imagine having the energy and mental capacity to play it right this minute, but maybe someone else out there is more on the ball today than I am. It's addictive, I warn you. Kind of a cross between Scrabble and Tetris. Must Pop Words
Also my friend Beverly forced me to go to Bath and Body Works on Sunday and then she forced me to fill up a bag with stuff and then she forced me to buy it all. She had a gun stuck in my ribs and everything. I swear. She is mean.
So one of the things she forced me to buy is this scent called Vanilla Noir and it is seriously one of the best things I have ever smelled. I like vanilla scents, but often they are way too sweet. Vanilla Noir, on the other hand, smells like a warm pound cake that just found out about sex and is planning what to do with the knowledge. Yum.
I was also going to type in a recipe for something I ate for lunch and which is fresh in my memory as delicious, but I am too tired now. I'll do it later. Back to the couch for me. Sigh.
Just a couple little things that are coming up unexpectedly in my garden...
I remember throwing a couple packets of seeds on the flowerbeds last year, but I can't remember if hollyhocks were among them. Seems unlikely, but here are two big tall flowers coming up in front of my picket fence, right next to the daisies. Are they hollyhocks? Color me dumb, because I don't know. But it was a nice surprise to glance over there the other day and see this unexpected splash of pale yellow. I love pale yellow!
Last year when my grandparents' home was sold, my dad dug up some of Grandma's mint for me, and I brought it home and planted it in the only place I could think of that wasn't too hot or too shady. I thought it had croaked over the winter, because it died back to absolutely nothing, and because I have never had much luck growing mint on my own, but here it is coming right along:
I have never been able to find a mint at any nursery that smells and tastes quite like the mint from Grandma's house, so I am thrilled to see this one taking root. I hope it takes over the whole little bed where I put it, so we can have gallons of mint tea all summer long next year! Not even enough for a cup of mint tea at the moment, but enough to pick a couple sprigs and think of Grandma.
Grandma fell and broke her hip week before last--this is her second broken hip and we don't know if she'll bounce back from this one the way she did from her first one. She's 89 now and not as mobile as she was then. Think a good thought for her if you would.I have two grandmas, with three broken hips between them...my other grandma, in Missouri, had quite a few health struggles after her broken hip last fall, but was able to leave the nursing home and go back home this past spring, which was so important to her. It's amazing to me how much they can do to bring elderly people back to health, or if not all the way back to health, at least back to some good quality of life. I'm really grateful for that, because both of my grandmas are precious to me!
It's a nice day here--the clouds are moving in and I have my fingers crossed for rain, but the Weather Channel disagrees. It's just nice and warm, not hot, about 80 degrees.
I visited the library for the first time in at least two years this morning, looking for a couple of audiobooks, and I found Julie Andrew's memoir, read by her, which I've been wanting to listen to since it came out. I just love that lady. She wrote my all-time, numero uno, top of the list favorite book when I was a child, Mandy. I think my love of cottages and cottage gardens comes directly from that book!
Off to do some kitchen cleaning and plan supper. What sounds good for supper?
I've been anxious to get some hanging pots up on the front porch, because it's that time of year, when the mourning doves come and nest in the pot of their choice, so when we found some lovely red petunias at the grocery store Saturday, we brought them home and hung them up.
Not a moment too soon, either--look who I found when I peeked out the front door just now:
Meanwhile, daddy bird is fluttering about with bits and pieces to help out...here he sits on the front steps checking me out to make sure I'm not going to interfere:
I can hear them out there right now, clucking and chattering to each other and scolding all the other birds who get in their way. We've had doves nesting on the porch every year--for all I know, it's the same parents every year--and it makes me so happy to see them getting their spot all ready again.
The only problem is that it makes it impossible to do any dead-heading, and virtually impossible to do any watering, so the plant usually dies. I'm going to try to at least keep it watered this time--but I have an extreme aversion to baby birds, so it's a very shuddery experience, because I'm so afraid of tipping out a creepy, slimy baby bird if I get too close. Maybe I'll make Todd do it.
We had an extremely productive weekend--got our taxes filed, got some financial stuff taken care of at the bank, bought a carload of plants, totally re-vamped the corner flower bed and built two low rock walls across it, filled the bed with plants...that's all I can remember, but I'm sure there was more.
This year I've decided to go for it with the gardens and landscaping--that is, fill up those beds with plants and hang the expense. (Within reason, of course.) I'm going to pull out every single one of my flowerpots and fill all those up, too. By July, I want this house to look like a freaking flower festival.
One good thing is that after three years, I have a good idea of what will grow well in our dry and sunny and hot conditions, so I can make more informed purchases. Another good thing is that I have a lot of established perennials, so I can concentrate on filling in the gaps with lots of colorful annuals.
When I get a minute, I'll try and find some "before"pics of the corner bed, so the new-and-improved version can be fully appreciated. But believe me, it's MUCH better!
Todd got his 15 minutes of fame this week. He spent several days e-mailing people about this issue--it's crazy that we live on a peninsula almost entirely surrounded by water, and yet there are only a couple of places where you can actually get to the water. And then the bad seeds have to ruin it for everybody. Sheesh.
I realized what a mistake I made, not having kids...free labor! First my e-mail friend Bonnie told me that her 23-year-old son loves to tackle all her home improvement projects, and then I had to go and hire a kid (my friends' son Matthew) to help me weed the front flowerbeds yesterday. If I'd had my own kid when we first got married, I'd be reaping the benefits right about now.
Nah...still not worth it! Besides, Matthew is a delightful yard work companion. And if he was my kid, I'd go broke just trying to keep him clothed, the way he's growing.
Um...what else? I bought a cool black globe at the thrift store--it's about 60 years old, I think.
We're going to watch "30 Rock" on DVD tonight. I love Tina Fey. Todd hates her glasses.
I'm planning my big projects to do when Todd goes to the Outer Banks next weekend: washing windows and planting flowers are the two biggest.
This weekend is tax weekend--we can't put it off any longer. Sigh.
My gosh, we are living some dull lives right now! Not that I mind, necessarily, but it doesn't make for scintillating blog reading. I can't even comment on current events because I am keeping the news resolutely off. "The Daily Show" doesn't count as news, right?
I really dislike holidays and holiday weekends, so this time around I'm pretending there's no holiday at all. It's worked well so far. I may make some deviled eggs, though.
Back later.
Do you get grumpy in the afternoons? From about 3:00 till about 6:00, I just feel dreadful most days. I know part of it is a blood sugar problem, but even with a snack, I still feel so out-of-sorts. Even when I start out the day in a fabulous mood, by 3:00 life looks ever so bleak.
I LOVE the picture on this blog today. I wish I could go back in time and take a road trip in a big old car and stay in little tourist camps and get an ice-cold Coke at a gas station like that. The photo makes me think of a fave childhood book called Judy's Journey by Lois Lenski, written in that same era. Judy's family were migrant farm workers that traveled all over the southern U.S.--not a luxury road trip, but it was fun to read about all the different places they stayed. I love books and movies that deal with road trips..."National Lampoon's Vacation," "Harold and Kumar," Blue Highways...I know I'm forgetting lots.
I baked my first successful loaves of wheat bread yesterday and I'm still basking in the glow of achievement. I am so sick of nasty store-bought bread that tastes like chemicals. I tried a recipe from my King Arthur Flour baking book last week, but I think the yeast was too old--it rose, but not a lot. It was also sweetened with molasses, which was too overpowering. And it weighed about ten pounds.
I will try that recipe again with fresher yeast and maybe some honey instead of molasses, but for my second attempt I tried this recipe: Kid-Friendly Wheat Bread. That worked much better. I'm mostly looking for a bread that will serve as a good delivery vehicle for homemade lemon curd, and this fits the bill admirably.
Next I think I'll take on my mom's wheat crescent/cinnamon roll recipe--you can use the dough for either crescents or cinnamons, and it tastes awesome either way. Can't wait to try!
I'm starting to think the sun has gone away forever. It's absolutely bizarre to have so many cloudy days here. I went out to clean out the car this afternoon and ran the battery down listening to the radio while I cleaned. I thought a car battery had more juice than that--I barely got started! And oh, is it a sty. I am embarrassed to have people travel in it with me. So I'll tackle the rest tomorrow and maybe (fingers crossed) there will be a little sunlight to clean by?
I don't usually get up at 5:15 with Todd, but I was inexplicably tired last night and went to bed early, so I am up early, too. Usually I wait till the sun has peeked out before I wake up. But it's very peaceful, getting an early jump on the day, taking time for more of a breakfast than a granola bar, sipping some tea, getting the first load of laundry started, surveying the "to do" list, and listening to the birds chattering outside in the dark.
One of the benefits of reading a lot of history is that it makes you more grateful for the peacefulness you live in and more aware of what a rarity it is, in the course of time, that you get to get up each morning, go about your business, think what you want and do what you want (mostly) and not be quite so buffeted about by forces beyond your control. Of course, we are buffeted about by forces beyond our control, but not quite to the extent of someone living in say, Tudor England or Poland in the 1940's, to name two tumultuous times I've read about recently.
So things are quiet here, which is the way we like them...I have painted most of the master bathroom and we've hung a new shower curtain rod and window curtain rod in there. Todd has ripped off the countertop and today I'll be sanding the vanity and hopefully putting on a coat of primer, at least.
The guest bath is still awaiting a medicine cabinet, but it's done apart from that, and we've been using that bath while the master bath is torn up. So glad we have two bathrooms upstairs!
The paint in the master bath looks awesome (Benjamin Moore, Woodlawn Blue), and I'd take a picture if it wasn't dark right now. The only bit left is behind the toilet, where you practically have to stand on your head to get back there, and when we replace the floor and the toilet comes out, I'll be able to get that bit done. I think I'll be needing a new shower curtain in there, too, as we've mounted the new rod higher than the old one, so I guess I need to start looking for fabric. No hurry on that, though.
Now my attention is turning to the front flower beds and yet again trying to figure out what to plant, what will survive the heat and sun and benign neglect of summertime. I wish I liked to garden more than I do. I thought I did, but I guess I don't!
And we're making plans for putting in new porch rails and painting all the trim on the front of the house. It has that dingy, wintertime look, and now that the weather's getting warm, it's time to bump up our curb appeal, especially since our next-door neighbors are selling their home and have really spruced it up. We're coming off badly in comparison!
I'll be back with more interesting stuff later, promise.
...this is the Big Project:
I will get this bathroom done in a timely manner, I will, I will...!
(And let me be clear that the filth on the wall was there when we moved in and has proven impervious to scrubbing--so I hung a cabinet over it. Now I'm gonna paint over it!)
While I work, I am singing along with this:
I got this set up the way I want:
I'm putting together this:
...for an Easter basket swap...it's going to be really pretty when I get it done!
Reading this, and not sure if it's worth it:
And there's always, always this, isn't there?
When I get to heaven, St. Peter's going to hand me a full laundry basket, I just know it.
And now I have to go scrounge up some dinner out of this:
I've been trying to get us to eat up everything in the freezer, and we're truly down to the dregs now, though it may not look like it. Not much besides frozen stock, waffles, and random ancient bits of meat. And lemon ices.
Hope everybody's having a happy Monday!
I've been having insomnia lately again, but it's the good kind where I have lots of ideas to think about, and not the bad kind where I get all anxious and full of dread thinking about every possible bad thing that could happen to me and the people I love. Hate that kind of insomnia.
So far this week is going much better than last week...but then, any week without a trip to the dentist has to be better than one with a trip to the dentist, right?
Sunday I went to the home and garden show at the VA Beach convention center with my friend Beverly, and we had a fantastic time. She and I both have an extremely irreverent and often inappropriate sense of humor, and we tend to exacerbate that in each other. We bring out each other's inner 12-year-old, I guess is what I'm saying.
I'd never been to a home and garden show before, and although much of it was what I'd expected (vinyl siding, hot tubs, replacement gutters and windows) there were a few surprise booths. The Sham-Wow guy was there...well, not the guy from the infomercial, but his brother or cousin maybe. It was hilarious watching the crowd watching his patter, as he mopped up water and soda and everybody oohed and aahed, and after a three-minute routine, he sold about $200 worth of Sham-Wows as we--I mean, they--all rushed the stage.
Okay, I'll admit it--I rushed the stage, too. I've always wanted to sop up liquids with a super-absorbent bright orange towel, and now I can. The Vita-Mix people and the super-sharp knife people were there, too, but I managed to resist their blandishments.
There was a huge booth advertising certified Angus beef...because when you think "home," don't you think of a big old slab of beef? They had all these tables with spices and spoons and little baggies where you could mix up a special rub with dried rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, and coffee. Yes, because when you think "beef," don't you think of Starbucks?
I mixed one up and it's been sitting on my counter and making my house smell like coffee all day. Coffee that ain't quite right, like maybe it's been sitting in the pot for a couple of days and you spilled a little soup in it by accident. Queasy.
My favorite booth by far was the wine-tasting booth, where I got a little wineglass and got to go around and sample wines from three different Virginia wineries. Now, I'm not much of a wine-drinker. I've never really gotten the big deal or understood when people talked about wines being oaky or having hints of pear and chocolate or whatever.
But when I stood and sipped seven or eight wines in a row, taking my time and thinking about what I was tasting, I began to get a glimmer of what people were talking about and why some people like wine tasting. It's very sensual, you're really concentrating on what's moving around in your mouth. Then when I moved to another winery's table and tasted four or five of their wines, I started to see how tastes could vary from winemaker to winemaker.
I also got slightly lit, which is probably the main reason people like wine-tasting. Anyway, it really was eye-opening for me. Eye-opening experiences are always fun. And I bought a really nice wine called Virginia Breeze Red from Davis Valley Winery in western VA.
Monday morning I stopped off at an estate sale on my way home from the grocery store--it had run all weekend and Monday was the dregs, at half-off. I found a few little treasures there that I'll share tomorrow.
Work on the bathroom has been in idle mode, but I am definitely going to get the vanity doors painted this week, and Todd's definitely going to get the second coat put on along the wall tops. Then the sink top will definitely come off, because I'm tired of driving around with the new one squeaking in its styrofoam padding in the back of the car. Then we will definitely put in a new medicine cabinet, and then we'll definitely install a new shower curtain rod.
Then by that time it will be mid-March and we'll be able to put in the new floor, because it's going to take two weeks for it to come in, and Todd's dad can't get here to help Todd install it till then. So the brown floor will be around a little longer, but that's fine--it gives us time to get everything else done.Oh, one last thing--we have been watching this Canadian show called "Slings and Arrows" on DVD from Netflix. It's about a small-town theater company that's known for its Shakespeare festivals. Long ago Todd and I had a very good friend who was an actor, and who later was the managing director of a small community theater, and let's just say this show rings true. The writing is excellent, and the show's creators (one of whom is Mark McKinney from The Kids in the Hall--he's also in the show) really, really understand actors and theater and the drama and self-absorption of that world and how it can all come together to make art. The show's a little uneven in the first couple episodes, and some of the actors are better than others, but it's funny, funny. And the first season revolves around a production of "Hamlet" and how different directors interpret it. It's very clever. Not PG-rated, though. Unsuitable for kids or in-laws, Viv, in case you're reading this!All right, I'm pooped and cold, time to hit the hay.
Well, this week I have:
--bought a $32 gallon of the wrong non-refundable paint.
--incurred a $15 late charge on an $18 bra that I forgot was charged on my Macy's card, which I never use.
--ruined a beloved, expensive and irreplaceable pair of yoga pants by kneeling in them in half-dried paint on the floor.
I am going to stay in bed tomorrow and not touch anything.
In other news, Todd got contact lenses last weekend and has been adjusting to them this week--namely, adjusting to the putting-in and taking-out process, which is really hard for him to do, but getting easier, I think.
As further proof that I'll never win the Best Wife award, I have to say that I was not real excited about his getting contacts. I really, really like glasses on men. Especially on my man, who's worn glasses for all of the 21 years I've known him.
Plus, his glasses were the one lingering quality that kept me in his league. Now he's the hot young-looking guy with the ugly fat middle-aged wife. Who wears glasses.
I wore contacts briefly in high school, but I felt, and still do, that I need glasses to break up the vast expanse of my big face. It's tempting to switch now, watching Todd flaunt his spiffy off-the-rack sunglasses, but my face is even bigger now than it was in high school. I think I need the glasses, even though it means wearing dorky clip-on sunglasses..
Anyway, for absolutely selfish reasons, I'm not stoked about the contacts. But they will make things a lot easier for Todd when he windsurfs and kayaks and whatnot. I'm glad he likes 'em, even if I don't.
I've got the bathroom about 85% painted. Todd will be doing the rest as penance, because he forgot his kayak paddle and I had to drive out to York County to take it to him tonight! Actually, he'd end up doing the rest anyway, because it's mostly ceiling cutting-in, which I can't reach to do anyway. I've painted everything I can reach.
The color looks great. It's Laura Ashley Sage. I'll put up a picture or two once we get it all done. It's a little dicey around the shower, because I taped over the caulking and now the paint wants to come off the wall when I peel off the tape. Todd will be dealing with that, too. My patience ran out right around the time I ruined my yoga pants!
Now I'm kicking back with an episode of "Dirty Jobs." Mike Rowe can make the worst day better. Mm mm!
I'm up late at night again, talking to myself. Todd conked out at 9:30 while we were watching "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on DVD. I love Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Anybody who can look that good at whatever her age is--without getting all plastic-surgery-freakish--is a hero to me. (Wikipedia says she's 48.) And she is so funny, and she loves being funny and doing whatever it takes to get the laugh. Love it!
We had fajitas tonight because I saw Tyler Florence make them on the Food Network last week and they looked delicious. I used his recipe, which calls for chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, which I'm sure are stacked in mountains on the grocery store shelves in L.A. and New York, but which are harder to come by here in what we fondly call the butt crack of Virginia.
I had to go to two different stores to find them, and in the second store, I had to keep muttering "chipotles in adobo, chipotles in adobo" to myself as I was shopping, so I wouldn't forget to go back to the Mexican aisle and pick them up, as I'd already passed that aisle once and forgotten.
It occurred to me that "chipotles in adobo" would be a good mantra if you were in one of the goofier meditative religions and needed a catchy mantra. It's just this side of nonsensical, especially if you mutter it 10 or 20 times.
I think weird thoughts in the grocery store. At my old grocery store, I would wheel my cart around and sing along with the oldies they played on the Muzak system, so chanting grocery items is a step up from that, I think. Maybe not. Anyway, the fajitas were good. It was hard to scrub the chipotle stink off my hands, though.
I was doing really well for a long time with planning meals, making grocery lists, and cooking, but somehow the double whammy of Christmas travel and being sick really threw me off my stride. We're still eating at home most of the time, but I'm scrounging around at the last moment every night for an idea, and I don't like that. I need to get back into my groove.
The couponing has just been dreadful lately, too, and that's also disheartening. There are so many of them I just can't or won't use because the products are too salty or too gross or whatever, and it seems like the ones I do use are getting worse. 50¢ off one item is much better (when your store doubles and triples coupons under 99¢) than $1.00 off two items is. And the sticker shock is such that I really feel motivated to get those coupons and USE them with the sales. It's just not happening.
I've been having to go to my happy place a lot the past few days because of my anxiety over this economic stimulus package and the cost of it and hearing every day about jobs lost, and homes lost, and the post office talking about cutting back mail days because it's so broke...it's all a little disturbing. I try not to fret about it because there's nothing I can do about any of it, but it's this nagging worry and you can't help but wonder how bad it's really going to get. And you have no idea who to believe about what we need to do to fix it all. It's not keeping me up nights, but I know there are lots and lots of people who are having sleepless nights wondering how they're going to survive, and I feel terrible for them. We are doing okay for now--Todd's company has more work than they have people to do it--but I don't want to get complacent. Things can change in an instant.And on that cheerful note--night-night.
That sounds so ominous, doesn't it? Black Friday. OoooooooOOOOOOoooh! Bring out your dead!
Todd is out this morning braving the crowds for a couple of sales, and I am home relaxing before we throw some clothes into a bag and head for my brother's house for the rest of the weekend.
We had a really nice day yesterday, if an unorthodox Thanksgiving. We went to Bass Pro in the morning and I got a new pair of brown clogs, on sale. I seem to have lost my liking for shoes with backs on them, except for sneakers. All my other shoes are either flip-flops or clogs/mules.
Then we came home and had turkey sandwiches (Todd) and German restaurant doggy bag (me) for lunch, I cleaned the kitchen, and then we tackled putting in our new shrubs.
We had put three boxwoods across the front three years ago after we moved in, boxwoods that a friend of Todd's wanted out of his own landscaping, so they were free. One boxwood died last year and we pulled it out, one is two-thirds dead, and the other is okay but not thriving.
So we pulled out the last two and put in three smooth-leafed holly bushes and two abelias, with gray-green leaves and a branchy shape that contrasts well with the compact dark green hollies. The abelias will have small white flowers in the summer.
Then we put in a large rose in front of our little white fence to anchor that corner of the yard, and it looks terrific already. The hollies and abelias are still small and not too distinctive-looking yet, but the rose settled into its corner and looks right at home. It has red leaves that look wonderful in front of the white fence, and it will bloom red all next summer and fall. I'm thinking about running back and getting another one today while the nursery's 50% off sale is still going on.
While Todd dug and planted, I busied myself with chopping down all the brown dead stuff, dead daisies, dead mums, vincas that were blooming until last week when we finally got a killing frost. It was a big task...I am very into my garden from March till June, and then when it gets hot, I completely neglect the thing until late fall. I resolve to do better every year, but I don't seem to.
I got some good ideas from Elaine at The Flower Pot, though, and some inspiration for next spring, and I'm hoping the shrubs will provide some of the structure I need to build in front of and really make the beds look nice.
Anyway, after getting cleaned up, we drove down to Virginia Beach and had a nice dinner out with my friend Bev, at a seafood buffet place that added all the Thanksgiving staples to their spread. It was actually quite good.
On the way home, I called my mom and learned that my dad is in Missouri visiting my grandma right now. She's still in the hospital and not doing great, unfortunately. And her condition seems to fluctuate--one day she's on the upswing, the next day she's worse. So he decided to go ahead and go out and see her. We're all pretty worried about her.
But it was a nice day, and we thought about our blessings, as well as all the people we care about so much and couldn't be with that day. It would be wonderful to be able to just zap myself to Missouri and sit with my grandma, or to Ohio to spend the day with my mom who enjoyed a very quiet holiday, or to enjoy the delicious dinner my father-in-law cooked for the Ferrante-Mozeleski Thanksgiving. But I also felt very grateful last night for my warm comfortable home, my sweet husband who was poring over the ads and planning his Friday attack, the delicious dinner we had with our old friend, and my hot cup of chai tea.
Well, I'm off to pack my bags. Have a good weekend!
Well, I was in a cranky mood yesterday, wasn't I? I'll try to be nice today and spare you the rant on horrible Christmas music I was composing earlier today in a store which shall not be named. (Let's just say that if that was indeed Aretha Franklin, then she needs to retire. Now.)
Speaking of Christmas, I actually used a new scrapbook line right away, and not two years after it comes out, after everyone else has seen it eleventy-billion times, which is my typical creative arc. This is Basic Grey Wassail, for those to whom that means something:
I got it all scanned and stitched (yes, I scanned! I stitched! And it worked!) and then realized I forgot to put on the journaling. So there's a little sticker with journaling attached over the three small squares. These "home decor" pictures are so pathetic, I thought I should really snazz up the page...the whole lipstick on a pig thing, which has far more uses than merely in American politics.
See, almost every year, we go out of town for Christmas, and last year we were seriously gone for three weeks, so this is the only decorating we did--a few bows on the windows and a swag and wreath by the door. No tree, no nuthin'. And I suspect this year will be just as bad. I know someday I'll look back from the old folks' home and long for the exciting holidays when we traveled all over creation and never got to have Christmas in our own home with family visiting us for once...but till then, let me hold my seasonal grudge!We went out to get Halloween candy last night and I jokingly told Todd that we had to go, before all that was left was Bit O'Honeys. Does anybody really like Bit O'Honeys? Or those caramel things with the "creamy" white centers that were actually flaky and gross? We got Tootsie Roll pops--delicious, but not pig-out-able in case there are any left over that we have to dispose of. You can't really pig out on lollipops.I am holding out on turning the heat on...shivering in bed at night, sticking my hands in my armpits and holding them under hot water, layering on the clothes. I have no compunction in turning on the air conditioning as soon as the temps go over 80, but when it comes to heat I decide to get frugal. I figure I have to be frugal to make up for the wild, abandoned a/c use from May to September.The nice thing about the early cold weather is that the trees are turning earlier, too, and drives around town have become opportunities to enjoy lone beauties here and there among the strip malls. Makes the time at red lights pass faster! The tree in our side yard (it's not an oak, it's not a maple, and there my knowledge stops) is just starting to turn burgundy and I can see the leaves against the blue sky from my desk--so gorgeous.You know, I spent the whole fall of 1985 collecting, identifying and pasting leaves into a huge collection for tenth grade biology, and what was the use? I suspect if I had kids, I'd have a very hard time enforcing the homework rules, knowing how little I remember of anything I learned from K-12. My brain is the kind that latches onto random, useless facts and completely ignores vast patches of the kind of knowledge school is made to impart, like quadratic equations and what rocks are made of.It was a peaceful way to spend the evenings after school, though--I had a table set up in the room off our garage, and I'd go out every night and paste leaves to big sheets of cardstock with rubber cement. The pressed leaves all smelled like tea, kind of sweet and mossy. My mom finally got me to take the leaf collection back with me when I was home in July (after about 15 requests) and now it lives under our bed. I just can't throw away all that hard work, even though the rubber cement has probably completely disintegrated the leaves by now.I guess I should pull it out and find out what the tree in the side yard is.
(Lifted from Mimi, who got it from this blog:)
Outside my window...it's cloudy, rainy, and semi-cool.
I am thinking...that Election Day can't come soon enough.
I am thankful for...a cloudy day and my sweet DH.
From the kitchen...chicken breasts are thawing, now all I need is some inspiration!
I am wearing...a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.
I am reading...April 1865: the Month that Saved America by Jay Winik.
I am hoping...for a good, safe trip to Ohio in a few days.
I am creating...nothing at the moment, but the urge is stirring!
I am hearing...the dryer, the ceiling fan, and the wind rustling the big tree across the street.
Around the house...getting the living room squared away and painting the last interior door.
One of my favorite things...is PG Tips tea in the pyramid bags.
A few plans for the rest of the week...make family history board for family reunion, hang pictures in living room, go to Lowe's.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...
(garden ornament from my grandma's house)
Oh, what a gorgeous spring day we are having here. Today started out cloudy but the sun came out around lunchtime, so we've had big billowy clouds and blue skies all afternoon. Warm, but not too warm. A perfect day, though not windy enough to suit Todd. I can hear him out in the garage sanding away on something, though, so he sounds happy enough!
We've been home puttering contentedly all day. I've been working my way through the laundry, and I gave Todd a badly-needed haircut this morning. I'm so proud of how my hair-cutting skills have developed--no more side-of-the-head bald spots!
We had tuna sandwiches and salad and grapes and Girl Scout cookies for lunch, and then I headed out to work my way through the big flower bed out front.
I have been putting off dealing with this front bed since last fall. I let it get all overgrown in the late summer, and then I didn't have the desire (or the arm strength) to clean it out. I've been staring at it guiltily since New Year's, and when you figure that it's the first thing I see when I enter or leave the house, or look out the front windows...that's a lot of guilty staring!
Friday something clicked and I went out and spent about an hour working my way down the bed, pulling out all the dead plants, trimming the dead growth off the perennials, and raking out the dead leaves. That got me about a third of the way done, and I quit early so my arm wouldn't hurt too much. This afternoon I spent a couple more hours at it, and now almost everything is cleaned out and ready to grow and for new plants to be added. Now my arm and shoulder hurt!
But three-four weeks of physical therapy and home exercises have definitely strengthened the muscles, and I think gardening in small chunks will be very do-able. I had my last physical therapy visit on Friday, and I'm supposed to try to keep from reaching over my head, and keep up with the exercises, and then if it's not substantially better in a couple months, then I'll head back to the orthopedist and decide where to go from there.
Thursday night we were taking a walk around the neighborhood and spotted two paper boxes by the curb, each one filled with a giant clump of daisy plants (with a sign scribbled on a bit of cardboard that said "daisies".) So when we finished our walk, we drove back over and hauled them home. So another part of my gardening tasks involved dividing the clumps and arranging them around. I also pulled some stray tubers off the daisies that I planted last year and re-distributed them around the bed. I think this summer will be daisy-riffic, to coin a phrase. I'm so curious to see what color the freebie daisies will be! The leaves are a little different than the ones I planted last year.
I've been in a sour mood the past few days because of following some of the political stories that are going on right now, and then when I was working out in the garden, I just was so in the moment, listening to a mockingbird on the neighbor's chimney, looking at the new growth on my established plants, spotting earthworms, cleaning and tidying...it was so enjoyable. Then I came inside and opened the laptop to write this post, and the browser window was open to a news site, and seeing it made that sour feeling poke its head up again. So the solution seems pretty obvious--no more politics! At least not for a while. Spring is too pretty to pollute it with all our human garbage, don't you think?
Tomorrow I'll see if I can get some good pictures of some of the baby leaves and shoots.
I'm starting to scrapbook again after more than a year's hiatus. I pulled down my 2002 album a few weeks ao to look for some phoos, and I was struck by how many of the pictures and the things I'd written about I'd simply forgotten over seven years' time. It really brought home to me, again, the reason I'd started scrapbooking.
Speaking of people who are important to me, here's what we did last weekend at my brother's house...
Natalie Wii hula-hooped:
