what would Joe Exotic do?

 I took pooch Merlin to the vet's yesterday. He needed a bordatella booster as required by the place we board the dogs. We don't actually have any boarding plans currently, but I keep the dogs on schedule to keep our options open. 

So we're at the vet's, and Merlin was great as usual. "He's a really good dog", was the vet's comment at their first meeting over 5 years ago. And he really is, except...

...don't come to our house.

He's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Sweet, easy-going, compliant. But at home, he's like an over protective junkyard dog if anyone outside the family comes over. 

Friends, friends of our kids, family he's not met, service technicians, etc.

No matter how much we try to get him to chill, he's stuck in full guard mode like something takes over in his brain. We just have to sequester him away somewhere.

He's a shelter dog, and we don't know anything about his life before us. When he was found and transferred to Colorado, he was emaciated.  When we met him, he weighed 35 pounds, and now he's 70 pounds at the same height and length.

We just know he was a stray from Oklahoma, to which Magnum noted, "Oklahoma? Weird things in Oklahoma", referring to 'Tiger King'.

But, it's clear to us that someone loved him, and trained him in his easy-going ways. The way he obediently sits, was house trained, is happy to get into a vehicle. What is it that makes him so protective of our home?

We wonder what traumatic thing happened that led to him being alone and emaciated. What happened to his previous owner(s)? 

On weekends, when we sleep in a little, Merlin comes into the bedroom and sniffs us, seemingly to check that we're still alive. 

My mother-in-law was visiting a few months ago with Magnum's brother and sister-in-law. SIL has had many dogs, and could tell Merlin was not going to warm up to her. MIL tried, and I was certain Merlin would've bitten her if they weren't separated by a fence. It's a conundrum.

I'd asked the vet about this at our meeting last summer. She seemed surprised, as if to say, 

"Him? You're referring to Merlin??"

She told me a little about the muzzle up project,

I didn't do much with the information at the time other than look at the site, but now I'm thinking we should get on with some proper training and teach this old dog some new tricks. 

It came up again yesterday during our visit. As we talked, the tech in the room with us had that similar confused look, 

"Are y'all talking about THIS dog??" 

Sadly, yes. Maybe I'll get him a friendly muzzle for Christmas. Then we'll arrange for some victims helpers to come to our house and commence the training. 

Any volunteers?

the unclean, the broken

I had a teeth-cleaning appointment scheduled for this week, but the dentist's office called over the weekend, saying the hygienist broke her shoulder - no teeth cleaning happening just yet. 

Ouch. How might one break a shoulder? I'm thinking mountain biking mishap? Seems to be a common injury among the partakers and fits the time of year.

Speaking of time of year, we're having us a heat wave. Nothing terrible. Temperatures should get to mid-90s today. I went for a run this morning, and the last couple miles were a struggle in the heat. I maybe should've brought some water, but, ack, such a pain to carry.

As it was, I popped a Nuun® tablet into my water bottle once back home, and I was quickly back among the living. 

Now I'm using the dry heat to my advantage. Those pesky weeds that grow in the driveway cracks? Can't stand 'em. I doused them with white vinegar, which usually makes quick work of the pesky weeds when applied on a hot dry day. I'd rather not do the commercial weed killers. The murder attempt captured by the driveway cam:

Now we wait.

At least I survived the weed spraying. Coworker Sarge called off a couple of days ago -"threw my back out". He made it in yesterday, moving quite gingerly. I asked how he injured himself, thinking maybe he was doing some heroic handyman project.

He was on a bike ride with his kids, and they stopped at a store. He bent over to lock the bikes to the rack and - *ZAP* - down for the count. 

I hope my dental hygienist was at least doing something more adventurous than reaching for a lock when she broke her shoulder.

who moved my cheese?

We've made it to April.  As such, I got into some spring cleaning this week.  Well, really, it's not because of April, it's just that it was so needed, and I couldn't come up with anything better.

I found some cheese.  I was spring cleaning away and decided to include a good scrub down of our fridge that came with the house when we bought it two years ago.  Prior to us buying it, the house had been a rental for several years.

There I was, removing shelves and drawers of the fridge and soaping everything down when I found a couple sticks of string cheese behind a drawer.  

I couldn't recall having bought string cheese in recent years, so I determined that this was not, in fact, our cheese.  I was able to make out the expiration date of May 2013.  

Anyone want antique string cheese?  Egads, it's 10 years and probably several renters old.

Speaking of cheese, I'm trying to cut down on my dairy intake.  It's pretty mean to the cows, y'know?  I gave up eating beef several years ago, and that was fairly easy.  But it turns out that, gawd, I love cheese and have yet to find a decent substitute.  Advice?

Meanwhile, maybe I can use the reminder of this rental fridge discovery to help curb the cravings.

And speaking of chucking things out, this week, I got around to getting a much needed haircut.  Honestly, it's been a bit of a crapshoot finding a good stylist since moving here, plus a global pandemic, blah blah.  I had one I liked in the last town, but I've bounced around here with mediocre results.  

I went to a new-to-me salon this week and came away happy.  I brought a reference photo, and the stylist nailed it without charging an exorbitant amount or trying to upsell me on everything.  

The anxiety around finding a decent stylist along with whole slap down at last weekend's Oscars reminds me to put less importance on hair in light of other things going on.  I confess to getting nervous whenever I plop into the stylist's chair, having had a handful of bad haircuts.  But it's just hair.

For those who've watched the Fleabag series on Prime Video, you probably remember the iconic "Hair. Is. Everything!" scene.  I found it hilarious, and, sadly, a bit true.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen in here.

Sorry, see ya next week.

when the dog bites, when the bee stings

This week, I lost one glove, one earring, and one sock.  I'm annoyed when I lose one component of a pair.  I would honestly rather have lost the pair of gloves, the pair of earrings, and the pair of socks.  Then I wouldn't have those solo reminders of their uselessness... as they remind me of my carelessness?

BUT I'm not going to whine.  Even with a pandemic in the air (literally), there are always good things happening.  Here are a few of my most recent favorite things:

• The weather's been lovely.  Not to bore with small talk about the weather or anything, but really, after we got hit with a foot and a half of snow and subsequent cabin fever in October, November's been so kind.  A fellow bicycle commuter refers to it as "Goldilocks weather" because it's just right - after that massive dump of snow put a handle on our wildfires.
  
  
• I'm enjoying my job, and I'm happy with the idea of taking on the lead position.  After getting over the initial queasiness of working with the frail and infirm, I find I get a kick out of the residents and enjoy making their days a little more comfortable, and I enjoy the lot of young coworkers.  Really, if someone would've told me a few months ago that I would be happy to rinse off some dude's dentures (or do other tasks involving old people who don't like wearing clothes, etc.) so he can eat his chicken, I would've said they were talking about someone else.
  
  
• Our new fiber optic internet installation was quick and easy.  Honestly, I haven't noticed much of a difference because I don't really need Gig speed, but it's  nice to know it's there.  No issues so far.  It's only been three days...
  
  
• I got a new vacuum cleaner this week, speaking of boring small talk.  But really, omg, it's life changing.  Y'all know we have two dogs and a cat.  It's a constant battle with the fur, and I was losing.  Chaco linked me up with the new pet vacuum cleaner her recently got and oh my god. Seriously, after the piles of fur I've since sucked up, how do our dogs still have fur on their bodies?
  
  
• Hulu, Netflix, and Kindle are making it easy to stay entertained while social distancing.  
  
  
• I'm remaining positive about staying negative.  With the increase in COVID cases in our state as well as others, our facility has increased required testing to twice a week for staff.  It's nice to know skills acquired as a kid are still useful in real life.
  
  

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
4. Share a list of some of your most recent favorite things.

in search of a crack ho(e)

We're slowly getting our house up to our liking.  Of course, as most homeowners know, this is a never ending saga.  The house was a rental for years before we bought it in March, so it's been a little neglected.  We have a list of improvements to be made and have checked a few off.

Note:  my office ceiling still has a cat portal.

There are some big jobs that are best left to the professionals, and other little things we can tackle.  One thing I don't like is little weeds growing up through the cracks in the driveway.  How is it I get those, but can't keep a houseplant alive??

I wanted to find a tool to remove the weeds from the driveway cracks.  What term to search on?  The first thing that came to mind is "crack hoe", but then I figured that's probably not what they're called.  Yup, "crack weeder" or "concrete weeder" or the combo "concrete crack weeder" work.  

I would love to just get all the improvements done in one big swoop of activity.  Patience is not one of my virtues.  

Ever watch HGTV?  We don't have cable or dish or anything more than network TV, but it seems like whenever I've been in a waiting area with a TV, HGTV was on.  Good thing Meego had braces or I would never have learned the many home improvement methods from the orthodontist office.  But who are these people with unlimited budgets?  I saw this meme and had to nod in recognition

Yesterday, I worked my last shift at the hospital before my voluntary 2-week furlough kicks in.  I hope to get a few projects completed during the downtime, but also have some adventure time planned, so projects will have to wait.

The driveway will be a quick task.  I just need that crack ho.

sun's out, buns out!

I went for a lovely bike ride this morning which took me through a ritzy lakefront neighborhood that Magnum and I discovered a while back.  

Lake access is limited to residents of the neighborhood only.  Bike riding riff raff that I am, I snapped a quick pic of the sunrise before continuing on through.  I checked out some real estate prices in the area out of curiosity, already knowing we are not in the target market.  Yeah, they have M's instead of K's after the sale prices.  

I noticed some decent condos nearby for the 62+ crowd.  I thought I'd check those out for future reference and found them to be pretty cozy and decently priced.  What's the catch?  HOA fees:  like 2K/month!!  

What does a $2,000 per month HOA fee get you?  

But speaking of sun and sky, I saw this notion in my instagram feed:

And then of course, the comments...

Yeah, there's one in every crowd.  At least one.

Do you have an HOA?  Likes?  Dislikes?

what's cookin'?

We've got snow, yes we do!  We've got snow, how 'bout you?  *points*

Okay, it's Colorado. It snowed.  Not really news, but sheesh, there's so much of it.  I think we got about 10 inches at our house.  It felt like more when I shoveled it, but I did have "help" from these two.

Poor Penny, she's so short, when she first went out to the ladies room, all I could see was her head and shoulders.  Didn't seem to phase her, though.

Chaco, who lives a little north and west of Denver, sent this pic from his place, saying, "and it's still snowing!"

Then I got this pic from Meego in Fort Collins:

It's actually rather pretty for those who don't need to go anywhere.  And... I might be a little annoyed that these college boys have better patio furniture than we do.

In a way, it's good to be shut in because it's been good help in getting our house ready to vacate.  Magnum's sis is hosting Thanksgiving again this year, and I'm thankful that I don't have to cook anything.  We're responsible for booze.

With that in mind, my task for today is to clean the oven.  It's a self-cleaning oven, but to be honest, I plan to just scrub it with some Dawn dish soap.  Self-cleaning ovens freak me out a bit.  Ours is the type that uses high heat - like 1000 degrees F - to burn everything up.

I had a self-cleaning oven in one of my college apartments.  I recall coming home one night from my retail job to find firetrucks leaving the parking lot and our oven sitting outside on the grass.  What the...? 

My roommate had tried the self-cleaning mode. 

As I recall, I don't think there was any actual fire.  Just lots and lots of smoke and fumes.  The firefighters were nice enough to loan us a fan. 

As I was pondering a good cleaning for our oven, I paused at the various precautionary notes in the owner's manual and my online research - research that didn't make me want to use self-cleaning mode.  One note stated that the fumes can be specifically harmful to birds, so remove pet birds before cleaning.  I don't have any pet birds but, yeah,  no.

Anyone reading ever used the oven self-cleaning feature?  Any stories to tell?

'til I drop

One of my least favorite but necessary activities is "fetching" groceries. I try not to complain about it because of the starving people out there - first world problem that it is.  But I just typically find it so mundane, traipsing around the grocery store, checking items off my list, dodging the other shoppers.

Then there's the waiting in line to pay for the cartload.  I'm always in the slowest line.  Every.  Time.

However, it's better now than in the "old days".  Now, there are self-serve checkouts.  Plus, I'm old enough to remember when cashiers actually had to punch in prices for every item.  Lovely things, those bar codes!

Monday, I used Walfart's pickup service for the first time.  Go online, fill the cart, pick a time to pick up the stuff, and... voila!  A wonderful Walfart's employee wheels the goods out.

It worked just as planned.  I didn't have to go in the store.  I didn't have to go through any register line.  I still had to drive there, but all in all, it was a wonderful thing and didn't even cost extra.  Really, I had NO problem with the fact that someone else picked my bananas.  

This, I'm sure, is in response to the power of amazon.com.  Many actual retail stores - the ones that have been able to remain open despite the amazon competition - are jokingly referred to as "Amazon Showrooms".

Who here has tried something out in a store, only to go and get it cheaper off amazon?  Anyone?  Admit it?

I have bought groceries from amazon too, but still had to wait a whole two days, so I appreciate that amazon lit a fire under Walfarts, of which there is one about a mile from my house.  About a mile away in the other direction is a Whole Foods - now owned by Jeff Bezos/Amazon.  It's been quite a while since I've shopped at "Whole Paycheck", but I'm curious now to see what's changed.





I remember when amazon first showed up as an online bookseller back in the mid-90s.  What a great thing it was.  I figured it would give used book stores a lot of trouble.

And now look, what an understatement.

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Linking up with Mama Kat again for the prompt:
2.  Write a blog post inspired by the word: books

...it's how you use it

How big do you like it?  Magnum and I pondered this question this afternoon.

Yup, headed on out to the Tiny House Jamboree!

We might be looking to downsize someday, but we're not really in the market for a tiny house.  It just looked like a fun thing to go kick around.  We invited Meego to come along:

Me:  Wanna go check out the tiny houses?!
Meego:  Why?

Uhm...

Okay, so he stayed behind.  I will say that, although the event was well attended, I didn't see a whole lot of teens there.  Families with little kids and empty-nesters made up the majority.  A few young childless couples too.  I'd bet that a lot of attendees were like us - just looky loos,  not really serious about owning a tiny house.

So it was a fun few hours.   This was the third and last day of the event, and judging by the crowd, I'd say they made a good amount of money from it.  Since the houses were so tiny, there were long lines to go inside them, as they only held a few people.

There were also quite a few houses.  I don't know the complete count, but plenty to see.

It was interesting how the designers made the most of the small spaces, but really, we didn't find them to be anything special compared to a camper or RV.   In fact, the Airstream people were there.  Maybe they realized they'd have a ripe and captive audience.   Here's a shot for Agg79.  Don't mind the huge paint brush.  Obviously no one told them this was an event for tiny things.

One thing that did seem to set the tiny houses apart was that most of them had nice roomy loft areas. Once inside them, they did feel like they had more space than one would expect from looking at the outside.

And, of course, I have written permission from these random jamboree goers to publish photos of them here.  *COUGH* ahem*










Here's a tiny house kitchen, with my good friends the PhotoBomb family.

There was a range of sizes, but most fell within about 300 square feet of living area.  Some of the bathrooms were surprisingly large, while others were very airplane travel-esque.

Good times at the jamboree, but I'm in no rush to shrink.  How big do you like it?

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in time, you slipped away

Meego informed me this morning that his phone is on the fritz.  My usual fix of "turn it off and turn it on again"  is, surprisingly,  not working.

I also noticed this morning that the fridge seems to be just going through the motions of a fridge.  Running, but not fridging like it should be.





In addition, caring mother that I am, I leave sweet little daily missives for Meego that force let him answer a fun "question of the day" (QOD) during the summer to keep the brain from going into hibernation.








Throw in the various pets and their various needs, and it's the little things like this that keep me secure in my position of House Wench.  Somebody's gotta oversee and manage this complex infrastructure.

But not this House Wench.  Not today.  I've got a weekend away planned without the guys.  Just me and several hundred of my closest friends.  We are set to launch shortly.

So, is my refrigerator running?  Why yes.  Yes it is.  Somebody else better go catch it.

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joy and sparkle

With the start of the new year, I've once again declared myself smoke free, and I'm back to strapping on the pedometer and getting my healthy money.  Another quarter, another round of health incentives.

In addition to giving us credit for the number of steps we take each day, the program sometimes offers supplemental "challenges" for bonus points.  This week, we have the "Aim High Challenge" where we set our "number-1 priority" each day.  I don't even have to meet the goal, just have to set it.  Heck, in reality, I don't even really have to set it.  Just say that I did, and *BAM*, points.

But it wouldn't feel right to cheat.  And I've actually been trying to do this anyway.  Spring semester doesn't start until next week.  We get a long winter break because the university does this "winterim" session where they offer a few one-week long concentrated classes.  That's going on now.

So, in the meantime, I'm taking care of a few necessary mundane things while also continuing to call upon my "fresh eyes" to make a few simple home improvements.  This has mainly involved getting rid of crap, and I'm enjoying that immensely.


I've heard of this popular book, but haven't yet read it.  I do get a kick out of reading some of the reviews.  From them, I get a feel of how this book is written and why it may cause a few snickers.

In short, the author apparently advises to get rid of anything that doesn't "spark joy".   My fresh eyes are finding a lot of non-sparking things.







I thought I would get into the spirit of the Aim High Challenge along with this life-changing tidying magic and set a few number-1 priorities to outline my week.

• Monday: Go through dresser drawers - (got rid of two joyless pairs of pants, yay)
• Tuesday:  Go through the food storage.  I've got a feeling there are some joylessly expired items in there.
• Wednesday:  Win the Powerball Jackpot
• Thursday: Research joyously sparkling islands for purchase
• Friday:  Make a list of things to do with the rest of 500+ million dollars (after taxes)

Okay then.  All pretty doable, I'd say.  Should be a productive week.

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tranquility sunset, please

I've heard that it's good to look at things - your job, your relationships, your home/work environment, your finances, etc. -  with "fresh eyes" every now and then.  We can get so stuck in the routine, we don't realize when things aren't going as they should.

Even when they're as hideous as this:

Remember?  Back when I was desperate to find a fix for China's trouble with the hardwood stairs?  I got these awful stair treads as purely a stop-gap measure until I could order some proper coverings?  I figured maybe a week or two, tops?

Well, fast forward to a few MONTHS, they were still here!  Yes, they were still ugly, but I think we all just got used to them, and they somehow became less ugly.  In our messed up minds anyway.  I had proper stair covers on my list of things to do, but they got buried under other things to do.

Now that the to-do list has become less cluttered, I took the "fresh eyes" approach, and thought, "Where did these hideous stairs come from?".  Then I ran screaming from the house.

In my return, we now have:

"Tranquility Sunset".  That's what the packaging says anyway.  Looks like beige to me.  Either way, it's a heckuva lot better than "Geriatric Swimming Pool Exit" that was before.  And the stairs are all warm and soft  now too.  I don't know what took me so long.

Even Magnum, who is not as picky about such things, thought those old treads were just awful.  He did note that their reflectivity came in handy during our recent power outage.  I don't necessarily see that as a good thing...  Even in the pitch darkness, they wouldn't go away.

And on that note, we've survived the longest night of the year.  In Tranquility.

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breathing room

Fall semester began this week for Chaco, Wolfgang, and me.  Meego had week 2 of school.  Magnum continues to bring home the bacon for us all.

I am so tired.

NOT from classes, however.  Those were the fun mellow parts of the week.  All that tidying and decluttering I was going to do during my end-of-summer break? It didn't quite pan out until this week.  It hit me with a vengeance.

I guess since Wolfgang was still temporarily living here, I couldn't really go hog wild.  But he pretty much got all moved and settled last weekend.  Then I felt that most anything left behind was free pickings.

My dad will readily admit that he's probably got some psychological "condition" that makes it difficult for him to throw anything away.  Plus he felt a need to always have a large number of any one item on hand in case one broke down.  I wouldn't put him on the same level as true hoarders, but borderline?  Our home was always clean, but full of stuff.

I remember going home while in college, and I'd mention needing a lamp or something. He'd say, "What color do you want?" and whip out an assortment.  And he's a math nerd.  I can't begin to estimate the number of calculators in the house.

So, I think from that, I went the other extreme.  I like space.  Lots of empty space.  The final frontier.

Having lots of stuff cluttered around puts me on edge.  It's like a constant discordant racket, I can't concentrate.  For instance, remember this?  On my desk?

Gosh, that was loud.  It's all been silenced and resides in here now.  

Was that SO hard?!

And once I got started, I just couldn't stop.  Yesterday, after the desk, I moved to the rest of the basement, the bedroom, the garage, the hallways... It was wonderful!  Everthing put into its appropriate place.

The trash and recycling dumpsters are full, and there is stuff in the front hall ready for those nice guys with the donation truck on Monday.  

So I'm physically tired but feel so much better now.  Still, a part of me worries that I might need some of that crap someday.

Not.

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Sivler Liningness Sunday

I expected to be at my dad's today, after not making it there on Friday after not making it there on Wednesday.  Here I sit.

Mom was cremated, and we didn't have a public service.  I was going to get her ashes on Wednesday but the state was covered in ice and my dad didn't have the ashes yet anyway.  Plan B was Friday, but once again our state was covered in ice and Dad didn't have the ashes.  Today was plan C.  No ice, but no ashes either.  Plan D - tomorrow.   Snow is forecast.  Of course.

But all in all, it was another good, productive week.  Thanks to the icy times, my house has been fully de-holidayed and meticulously cleaned.  Being shut in does weird things to a person.

This activity also included tidying up after having all of the kids and their various electronics at home.  Somehow, a lone computer tower has bubbled up, like a lone sock from the laundry.  Whose is it?  Where did it come from?? And more importantly... where am I supposed to put it?!

We had a PEO meeting yesterday, and I want to share something that I hope readers won't mind.  A member of our chapter died totally unexpectedly at the end of December.  The timing so close to my mom's passing is why I say I hope no one minds, because I don't want this to come off as a "blog of death"!

Thing is, Bev's passing was in total contrast to my mom's.  Bev was young, energetic, active, "full of life".  She was a school teacher and very inspiring to me in my own teaching endeavors.  She'd had a lower back injury a while back and successfully treated it with a chiropractor.

So when her lower back started bothering her in early November, she attributed it to the earlier injury needing some straightening out again.  Back to the chiropractor.  Except this time, it wasn't getting any better.

She visited her GP to see what other options she had, and ended up being diagnosed with - BAM - late stage colorectal cancer.  She died just about a month after the diagnosis.

My PEO chapter, along with Bev's other friends and family members, are still in a bit of a state of shock.  But yesterday's meeting was nice in that it was a means for us to gather and process this together and support each other.  As sad as it is, it's brought us even closer.  PEO is, by definition, an extremely supportive organization, and something like this really brings that quality out.

I mention it because I was looking back at last year's posts to see if I'd made any New Year's resolutions that had typically gone forgotten.  Lo and behold, I found that I had resolved to "hook up" with a local PEO chapter after several years of inactivity on my part.  Whaddya know?  I did it!

As for this year, I haven't really made any specific resolutions yet.  Just going with it.

Thanks for coming along!  Take care of  yourselves!

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Silver liningness Sunday

Not to harp on fire season, but I was glad to learn last night that the fire near my parents is now 10% contained.  Anything is better than zero.

East Peak Fire
Source

Really, it does seem that Colorado has two seasons:  Winter and Fire.  The fact that we've had two destructive fires near us in a year's time is not indicative of a necessarily bad row.  Colorado burns every summer, it's just a little "better" when it happens in the boonies.

That said, the smoke is not so bad this morning.  We're advised to "limit time outdoors, close the windows, and use the air conditioner".  Well... our open windows ARE our air conditioner.

Nighttime temperatures usually get into the 50's.  We open up all the windows, run the swamp cooler, and the house is pretty comfy.  Then in the morning, near sunrise, we scramble around closing and boarding up the windows to keep out the evil passive solar.  It's quite a fun challenge to time the closing of windows and blinds for optimum temperature control.  Each window is different.  I imagine it's something like successfully baking a souffle'.  Only trickier.

And all of this forced house arrest has meant that I've gotten pretty caught up on the housewifery.  The house is "clean" enough for an insurance video, but tidiness is a fleeting thing around here.  Some areas are just NOT going to make the video...

In other silver liningness, I've already mentioned that I've got both bicycles back home.  And they are running like well-oiled, prettily tired machines.

Wolfgang went to see Man of Steel.  He and his friends - all comic book movie aficionados - totally panned it, so I know not to waste my time.  Not that I had much desire to see it anyways, but now I have a good excuse if someone tries to get me to go.

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hot mess

There is an ironing board with an iron atop it in what is sort of our living room.  There are three piles of folded laundry on the coffee table.  A corrugated cardboard box rests up against a wall. China's bed is disgusting.

As I type this and look around my desk, I see a small sketchpad, a couple of ultra fine sharpies, a roll of duct tape, some ASVAB flash cards, a stray rubber band, a receipt for flour...

Then there are the various piles that Chaco brought home last week.  They've been somewhat rearranged, but the net effect is still the same.  And there are all these shoes laying around.  What is up with all these shoes?  Where the heck did they come from?

In short, the house is messy.  But then I look at what's going on in tornado ravaged Oklahoma, and I am NOT complaining.  We had a brush with a tornado once.  It was eerie scary, but a sneeze puff in comparison with what moved through Oklahoma.

No, our mess is a result of a positively busy week, mainly from Wolfgang's high school graduation.  You know the high-falutin' jobs that require "high school diploma or GED?"  Well, he's eligible now.

My in-laws - both sets -  have been in and out since Sunday.  Commencement was last night. In between that stuff, life goes on and messes pile up.

I also attended Meego's 7th grade end-of-year shindig.  He got a silver medal.  It was a nice little bash in the school library - nice to see kids taking pride in receiving academic awards, and cheering for their classmates.

Then last night's commencement ceremony wasn't too uppity as these things can sometimes be.  Only a couple of the speeches went too long-winded IMHO.  And it turns out that the Valedictorian was a kid I'd tutored.  I'm SO taking credit for that.

Well, no.

I actually spent about two hours with him last spring to share some "boot camp" strategies for his ACT.  I remember him as bright, but not at all arrogant about it (some are obnoxiously so).  He was the type of kid where a 2-hour strategy session with a tutor was enough to get him where he wanted to be.   His was not one of the too long-winded speeches either.  WOOT for him.

So now, the dust will literally begin to settle, hopefully.  But still, it's a good mess.
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woman seeking

Today I finally got around to getting a spare key made for the Element.  Yes, we've only had Ellie Mae for about 5 months now.  With one key.  Maybe it was Riot Kitty's key-in-the-sewer-grate mishap that spurred me on to finally getting this done.

So now we have a spare Ellie Mae key, and when I got home, I went to put it where I've put the other spare car keys.  Except, I had to think of just where that is.

See, I have various stashes of things I don't want certain people getting into.  It's not that I don't want these certain people having access to the things I've got stashed, it's just that these certain people have a habit of not putting things away (grrrr), however important.  Either that, or the things I have stashed are reserves of things that are readily available.  If I put the entire stash out in the readily available places, they get plundered, I guess because of the illusion of limitless supply!

So I stash things, either because they're important so need to be in a safe place, or because if I make them plentiful, the bounty is wastefully raided.  Stashing works wonders... except, I often forget where the various stashes are.

Today's hunt for spare car keys is the third such forgotten stash in recent days.

When Chaco was home this weekend, he mentioned he needed some new socks.

"Oh, I've got a spare pack of your socks.  Where are they?".  An exhaustive search turned them up.  Truth is, I'd discovered packs of spare socks when I was recently looking for something else.

The next day, Wolfgang wanted some Chapstick and asked if I had some stashed.  "Yep, sure do!"  Heck if I knew where...

Luckily, our house isn't that big.  We found the Chapstick.

Now, I know I'm not getting dementiaed.  These various stashes are all very organized in boxes or other such containers.  But then I take those containers and put them in some out of the way place.  I know that we'll find them EVENTUALLY if we look, so I don't etch their locations in my brain very deeply.

Happy May!

But do you see the problem?  Which is perhaps the reason I keep forgetting where the stash locations are?  For example, Wolfgang wants Chapstick.  I know there's some in the house somewhere.  I offer some suggestions and tell him to go look.  He finds.  Then I must change the now non-secret Chapstick stash location to some other location lest it get plundered.  God forbid our Chapstick stash should get plundered.

It's NOT dementia.  Is it?

So remember, when the zombie apocolypse comes, we've got plenty of provisions.  I'm just not sure where they are.

And on that note, has anyone seen our spring?
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day 1

Smiles
Puppies
Rain
Ice Cream
No Sleeves
Grass

Spring break, YAY!  Officially, it doesn't start until next Monday, but elementary and middle school kids don't have school today or tomorrow either.  Practicing for spring break?

It was just two days ago that I realized there was no school today or tomorrow.  Being an Outsider crossing guard, I don't pay that close attention to the elementary school schedule.  I usually find out inadvertently from one of the kids or from noticing some reference when I do my weekly e-mail purge.  I'm happy to say that I have yet to go to the crosswalk on a non-school day and then wonder why no one is going to school, not even cars headed for the Kiss 'n' Ditch.  But I admit that I've come close on a couple of occasions!

So never mind the fact that there is a swirling winter storm headed straight for us.  The calendar says it's spring, the school schedule says it's spring...

I say SPRING!  DAMMIT.  I'm dreaming of being someplace tropical.  With beaches and flowers, warmth and sun.

Track season has begun for the high school.   Wolfgang's had two meets, but one was cancelled on account of snow *sigh*.  We'll see if this weekend's suffers the same fate.  He does the mile and the 4x800.  Way way way back when, when I ran high school track, I was a sprinter, and we have an ongoing friendly rivalry over who the best track athletes are - sprinters or distance runners.  Maybe it's neither.  Maybe it's the shot puters and discus throwers - things neither of us will likely ever be good at!

Lately, however, I've been flexing my housewifery talents.  Spring brings that out in me.  My floors are to die for.  Really, you could eat off 'em.

But don't, that would be weird.  And a bit rude.

Happy Spring!!
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life begins at 65

Or at least it seems that way today.  It was sunny and 65 degrees.  January?!

I don't want to go all Weather Channel, but really it was just too nice to not mention.  For one, I get a lot more company at the crosswalk.  Wasn't I just all alone and freezing my butt off last week?  These last couple of days, it seems that literally everyone and their grandma is walking to and from school.

And today, I noticed how much easier things are when it's nice out.  Not having to bundle up, not having to work so hard to keep breathing while not freezing a lung, not having to keep moving or die.  Is there a way to keep this and still have water next summer?

And with spring in the air, you know what that means!  *wink*wink*nudge*nudge  Oh yeah you betcha... cleaning!

Monday was a day off school, so I had some extra time and just couldn't stop myself.  Wolfgang even came in and asked, "What's that smell?".

That would be the smell of clean.

Even Magnum, in all his Aspergerness, noticed in just a few seconds.  Amazing!

... or maybe I should do that more often.
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luck be a lady!

My house is tidy, all things considered.  It's just not clean.  I know it's not.  Stuff is picked up and put places, but the house needs a good post-holiday scrubbing.  

I looked around wondering where to start.  The kitchen?  The bathrooms?  Bedroom?  Faced with such a choice, I chose shopping.  Not fun, indulgent shopping, but mundane, ho-hum grocery shopping.  It seemed the lesser of the evils.

So I was at the checkout, signing off my purchases when the cashier gets all animated-like.

"*GASP*!  You won!!", she says all happy.

"Wha..?", I reply all clueless.

"You're our winner today!", all game-show hostess like.

Bells were ringing, lights were flashing, confetti was flying, a sharp man in a tuxedo was placing a tiara on my head! Really, it all happened just like that except for the sentence preceding this one!

Bottom line, I got my groceries for free.  All $72.55 of them.  Apparently, this grocery store has a random daily winner of "Win What You Spend".  Today it was little old me.

Now, I'm not much of a loyal grocery shopper.  I like to play the field.  I've got a good batch of stores within equal distance from me, so depending on what I need and where my other errands are, and my mood, I select one of them.  Today, I selected this one.

Or was it... fate?

Here's a bit of AbbyNormal trivia, in case it should ever come up at a party:   My favorite number is 13.  I just like it, probably because of the dark connotations, the rebellion of it.  Plus it's a prime number, and I've always been rather partial to prime numbers.

Earlier today, I was looking at the overall results of that 10K I did yesterday.  Turns out, I finished 13th overall for the ladies.  See that?  See what I did there?  Thirteenth overall for the New Year's Day run for year 2013??  Huh?  HUH??

Ooooh, it's gonna be a good year, you think?

Really, I'm not superstitious.  Not about numbers anyway.  I know the true force behind my good fortune, and it's none other than our cat Kat.  I've always gotten good vibes from black cats, and now I live with one!

I returned home with my load of free groceries and thanked her muchly.   And I'll let you in on a little secret.  She's not just a cat.  That's just the form she chooses to hang out in most of the time.   She's asked me to share her true self with the blog.  She's the... uh... larger one.

rafiba.wordpress.com

As you can see, she is elated that we won.
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