What Time is it?

I am so lost. The clocks got changed last night, right? Nobody told me, so I'm a little confused. Is it really 12:17? PM? Just checking.

I almost forgot to post today. It's going to be a long month.

My house is a mess. I need to clean, but it's hard when every time you turn around, there's a kitten knocking the plants off the shelves. And lasagna being made willy-nilly.

Yeah, I made lasagna last night, and it is amazing. My first try. Very good stuff. (I'm really glad I like it, because I'm going to be eating it for at least a week.) I made it with some of my homemade sauce, and I think that made the biggest difference. It is seriously excellent.

Purging

Bruce is coming home on either Thursday or Friday, and I have to say, this is long-overdue. No more two months in between visits. Yep, that's all I've got to say about that.

In the meantime, though, I'm trying to clean the house in a rush - don't want him coming home to see that Lazy has moved in in his absence. Actually, it looks more like Hurricane Lazy struck the house. And stayed for a visit. I'm clearing things up, though.

Did you know that when you do laundry but neglect to fold, eventually you won't be able to reach the machines to do more laundry? It's funny how that works. Not to fear, though, I've taken care of that mess. Well, most of it.

It's also Clean Out the Fridge day - garbage day is tomorrow. I think I'll expand it this week to include my closets. I don't like to throw away clothes. I have a deep attachment to most of them. I can remember what I was wearing when I first met Bruce, and while it doesn't really fit me anymore, it would be sad to get rid of it. Sure it was a Walmart shirt, probably cost me five dollars, tops, but that isn't the point for me. I made out on the dock in that shirt. That's a big deal for me.

Most of the clothes I'm talking about don't have that kind of memory attached, though. Most of them have several memories of me trying to wear them because I had nothing else to wear, being uncomfortable for a few hours, and remembering why I don't like to wear them. Then I forgot they were uncomfortable and put them back in the closet, and the cycle repeated. I'm going to bring these clothes to Goodwill. There's no point in keeping them.

Fixing

So, I cleaned the fridge. It was more of an undertaking than usual, because I haven't exactly been on top of the 'smell & pitch' method I usually use, and it's been a while since the last time I cleaned. I had leftovers in there from before Bruce went to Missouri. He's been gone for almost a month.

Completely unrelated Fun Fact!: Lemons sometimes get mouldy and turn into vaguely lemon-shaped (but shrunken) balls of green dust that will rise up in a toxic cloud when you try to pick them up and throw them away. I'm only guessing, but I don't think it's a good idea to inhale the cloud.

The Possibilities are Endless

I quit my job. I put in my notice two weeks and four days ago, and that makes this my third full day off. It feels awesome. I don't know what I'm planning to do in the future, but the luxury of having a wonderfully supportive and enthusiastic person living with you who believes in you 100% no-matter-what and thinks you're doing the right thing is... well, you can imagine.

In the meantime, the time between now and when I'm starting work again somewhere, I'm going to take care of some things that are on my (endless, ever-growing) list. (The biggest irony about the list is that although I'm constantly worried about where I am on the list, most of the time I can't remember half of the items. I don't think I'm the only one with this problem.) I'm going to plant the seeds that are in my extra bedroom growing in peat. I'm going to clean the house and get in the habit of keeping it that way for longer stretches. I'm going to start walking every day. I'm going to keep up on the laundry, and maybe find a place to put it all when it's clean. I'm going to read. I'm going to continue to learn to cook. Most importantly, I'm going to become more eco-friendly.

I'm starting with the last one. I want to stop using chemicals around the house, and make my detergents and cleaners. This weekend I made my own laundry detergent. I took the recipe I got at Modern Cottage and made both the detergent and the laundry rinse. It was fun, it was cheap, and I'm excited because I found all of the ingredients here in town, in one store. Pick'n Save saved me again. I used a lemon essential oil, which I found at a natural goods/religious store in our town.

I've been using the homemade laundry detergent the last couple of days and I'm amazed. Our clothes smell cleaner than I can ever remember clothes smelling. I'm sure it's a combination of a lack of heavy gross perfumes and the fact that the crap actually rinses out, but knowing the reason isn't making it any less amazing. I love having clean clothes. These clothes are very clean and smell so fresh and nice!

The greatest thing is that when I was buying the ingredients, I over-bought. Now I have three extra batches just waiting to be made, batches that I'm going to give to my family and friends along with the recipe. There's no reason that other people shouldn't be using this stuff when it's so easy and so much better for them. One cousin in particular has two people with really sensitive skin in her family, and I have a feeling this will be a lifesaver. I can't wait to share this with people. (Just to be extra eco-happy, I'm giving this stuff away in old coffee containers.)

So, that's what I'm up to! Not working, but working, in a totally satisfying way. Rest assured, when it stops being satisfying, I'll find some place willing to pay me for my sparkling wit and dazzling good looks. I hope I get some of this other stuff done first, and some relaxation taken care of too.

White is White!

Last weekend I went through a terrible trauma. After reaquainting myself with my village in Animal Crossing, my GameCube broke. Something is wrong with the lens, and cleaning it only did it good for a few minutes, and then it stopped working again. I was pissed. After all, I was starting to remember all the things I love about Nintendo - their games are the top of my list. Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, I love them all! And of course, the console broke on my first day of vacation.

Bruce decided that my meltdown was unpleasant and asked if there were any computer games he could download for me. I picked one out, and it took all weekend of downloading for it to come through. When it finally did (we were back from Milwaukee for two days, and I was officially back to work when it was finished, the bastard), my video card wasn't good enough for it to run on my computer. I gave up and bought an older version of the game, one I'd played on this computer before. It worked just fine all week, but I'm not going to be entertained by Zoo Tycoon for too long.

Today, Bruce convinced me that I should get the new Sims game, The Sims Life Stories. When I installed it and tried to start it up, it informed me that my video card wasn't capable of supporting it. Gaaaaahhhh! I feel like such an old lady saying this, but my card is perfectly good! It works fine! There's nothing wrong with it, and when did this video card thing change, anyway? It didn't even mention anything about the video card requirements on the package! When did this miraculous across-the-board upgrade happen, when did it become the standard? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?!

Long story short, I now have a new video card, and my computer is no longer using the 800x600 resolution, and most importantly of all... drumroll please... white is no longer pink! Life is good.

I cleaned out the fridge today - everything but the freezer, now that I think about it. It looks so shiny and nice, just like the day we got it. I rearranged a few of the shelves too, so everything fits where I want it to now. Like my perpetual box of wine is on the top shelf now, so that I don't have to drag it back and forth across the bottom every time I want a pour. And I got rid of that chunk of melded-on cardboard that has been on the glass shelf since before we moved - it was removable, who knew?

Tomorrow, I'm making a stratta. A sweet stratta. Here's the recipe and I'll let you know how it goes. Tomorrow is also the day of the first baby shower I'm attending for one of my friends. It starts.

Changes

I'm sure some of you (or maybe even all three of you) have noticed the little changes I've made recently to the look of my blog, and also to the content.

Lately, I've been craving a simpler life. That's all it boils down to. So all that extra stuff, like the counter on the side that told me just how many people come here? (Three.) To be honest, I never ever looked at it. Ever. I know, I know, this "blog thing" is supposed to be about me being extra-snoopy and looking for every single person who comes to this site, where they came from and what their IP addresses are but really? In the past (woah, almost three years) I've looked at the stats about six times. And it was depressing.

You know what it is? The more stuff I have on this site to remind me that other people are involved, the less fun it gets for me. I mostly like to pretend that it's only me here. Don't get me wrong, I go completely nuts with happy if someone leaves me a comment here or there telling me that they like my idea for this, or they thought a few minutes about t'other thing they wouldn't have given a second thought to before I mentioned it, but for the most part the comment remaining empty is another thing that makes me forget that I'm mostly doing this for my own benefit - it's just another in a longish line of reasons why blogging isn't as useful as it could be for me. So from here on out, at least for a little while, I'm going to stop the comments. If anyone has anything cool to say, feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you.

I took down the entire sidebar because I noticed that everything over there was either something I could be talking about over here (and wasn't, because it was over there) or something that doesn't matter a whole heckuva lot. To me or to anybody else. This stuff here, in the middle, is where it counts. If I've got something to say, it'll be here from now on.

I'm also taking down the link to the list of blogs that I read. Really, I read the same blogs as everybody else. You know the ones. If I find any more that really float my boat, I'll tell you about them here and assume that if you like it, you'll bookmark it for yourself.

So that's my blog-version of cleaning for Spring. I'm so ready for Spring.

My Part (And Hopefully Yours, Too)

Last week my cousin Michelle took me to a special store here in our small town, one that specializes in natural products and also in GOD. I'm not so big on the GOD aspect, so I'd been waiting to go in until I had company. Turns out that was all in vain. They're not in business to tell you about GOD, but to sell you natural, less-harmful products. And in the case of their spices, sell you things in bulk which cost tons less than at Pick'N Save.

Here's one thing I'm proud to have bought:

Here's what the back of the bottle of dishwashing detergent says:

You are making a difference. If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz. petroleum based dishwashing liquid wiht our 25oz. vegetable based product, we could save 81,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 4,600 U.S. homes for a year!

Our natural dish liquid gets your dishes sparkling clean yet is gentle on your hands and the earth. We use only ingredients that do not pose any chronic health risks and are safe for the enfironment.

The frog sponge-holder was bought at a completely different time, for completely different reasons. (IE: Total cuteness.)

Sundays are for Cleaning -

and Oh, How I Wish the end of that sentace wasn't "Up dog turds." But it was, and it got done (you're welcome, neighbors!) and our driveway is negotiable again. Without stepping on any turd-stones.

I'm slow-cooking some pork shoulder right now, and I'm looking forward to eating it. (It's a simple recipe I halfway found and halfway made up. Basically, you put pork shoulder and some broth - I used beef - in the crock pot with some chopped onion and a clove of garlic all day long, and then you add a bottle of BBQ sauce - or make your own, which I'm not doing today - and then shred the pork and put the pork and the BBQ sauce and the broth in a shallow pan in the oven and bake at 350* or so for 1/2 hour uncovered, so the sauce sticks well to the pork. I'll let you know what I think, but I'm prematurely calling it fantastic.) The hard rolls they sell at Pick'n Save are the best, so that's what we'll be eating pulled pork from this evening. I bet you're jealous, aren't you? I would be.

I'm pretty excited, because this week I got the crock pot, and it's something I've been wanting for over a year. There are just so many things that I feel like I could make now. I'm definitely more confident about making meat in a slow-cooker, because of how well meat responds to low and slow cooking. I hope I'm not making that up, and that it's an actual fact.

Well, those of you who know me well will be shocked, but I'm going to go take a bath now. I like taking baths now. I hope your week is fantastic!

Bread

Amish White Bread
I, like many people suggested, reduced the 2/3 cup sugar to 1/4, with great results. Mom, Dad, Bruce and I all approved.


English Muffin Bread
Simply wonderful. Crunchy crust, crumbly slightly sweet insides, perfect with honey butter. Simple to make, with only one rise. I'm going to make this all the time. It's that good.

If you'd wondered what I've been doing lately, wonder no more. I'm making bread. At least twice.  And cleaning the house. And making soup. And learning how to embroider. And reorganizing the pantry. And unpacking the spare bedroom so that Bruce will have somewhere to set up a studio/practice room for his instruments. And jumping on a mini-trampoline whenever I pass it, for a few seconds at a time.

I'm a little busy. And (I hope this doesn't jinx it) I also think that I might be losing weight. A little bit. I bought a pair of work pants from Old Navy that were on super-clearance, because a pair of pants for $7.50 is a good investment, even if they're slightly too small, at least it is if you're really going to try to lose some weight. Anyway, they're size 14, and the last pair of work pants I bought was slightly too small at size 16. However, those were from a different store, and I don't believe they were "stretch". If you've ever bought pants with "stretch", then you know how much that can falsely boost your confidence level. They fit like a dream, though, and even if it doesn't mean I've lost any weight, I'm going to let it boost my self-confidence and my desire to slim down (some).

I'm also really impressed at myself for making the chicken soup I made this week. It wasn't anything fancy (in fact, I didn't add actual "chicken"), but it was much more than I would have thought myself capable of. Part of my New Year's resolution was to open myself up to trying new things, things that are scary. Cooking is turning out to be so enjoyable that I'm having a hard time understanding why I didn't start this a long time ago. I hope the rest of my experiments turn out as well as the cooking. I have a feeling they're going to. I can't wait.

Also, I started knitting a pair of felted clogs (from the FiberTrends pattern I bought almost a year ago). So far, so good. Oh, and I started over on my hourglass sweater, this time with a different yarn. So far, so good. The drape is much nicer with the new yarn and new gauge. I might have to do some creative increasing for the chest portion, but I'm going to cross that bridge when I get there. Still haven't ripped out the old sweater, because it's much more fun to birth a new project than to bury the old.

Dishcloth count is up to 6.75. That doesn't sound right, but those are the ones I was able to grab from the bin at one go.

Things that Vexed Me Lately:

- When people put up a recipe for homemade bread online, say at cooks.com or at allrecipes.com and the instructions read, "Put ingredients into breadmaker in order suggested by your manufacturer," and continue on to read, "Select the settings for wheat bread, dark crust." I realize that breadmaker bread is homemade, but shouldn't the instructions then be under the heading "breadmaker bread"? I don't have a freaking breadmaker, and my hands didn't come with a manufacturer's suggestion for adding ingredients. Unfortunately.

- I can't finish my knitting projects. I have six million (more like five, actually) dishcloths waiting for the ends to be woven in. I have one broadripple sock that has existed for more than one year. I have one brand spanking new embossed leaves sock that I can't wait to knit the pair to, but I'm having the damnedest time kitchenering the toe. That would have to mean I'd have to look something up. How lazy is that?

- The flatbread I made on Sunday was a little blah.

- Aldi didn't have any sour cream.

- I can't stay out any later than Bruce does, and Bruce lately decides he wants to go home right when I'm at the point where I want to stay out and be drinking forever. (When we do go out, which is twice a month or slightly less.) It's not that I can't stay out if I want to, it's that I end up being sad because Bruce isn't there to talk to and oh my god why can't I be one of those cool womyn who don't give a shit? but Bruce is my favorite person and I miss him when he's gone and then I turn into that girl who's drinking and on the verge of tears. It ain't pretty.

- The Linus knocked over a bottle of water on my desk last week, and it was all my fault for leaving the bottle untopped, and I hate that it's all my fault because the water shorted out my keyboard and now I'm using B's old one, which is nice but just not... you know... matchy.

- I can never keep up with my own mess. I clean the hell out of everything, but then I turn around and am making bread which takes a long time doesn't really leave me in the mood for cleaning, what with all that kneading and stuff.

- My coworker had surgery last week and I've been working a lot. Not as much as last week, when I'd been scheduled for several ten hour days, which let's just say I got up the balls to put the kibosh to, but a lot. For me, anyway. I'm hoping to make tons of money and pay off our taxes right away this year. You know, after paying off the ones from last year. (cough)

- We've got other things to pay for too.

- The fact that I'm a whiney cow for writing down everything that's making me unhappy, when really I'm very damn happy and have no right to be making a pissed list. Ha! That rhymed. See?

Craftily Ill

While I'm home sick, I figure the least I can do is try to be a little productive. So I've spent the morning making Christmas ornaments for people on my list (most cost-effective presents ever*) and cleaning the house a little bit. There's been a laundry build-up for about a week and we also have some clothes that have been packed away since we moved up from Missouri that are "questionable" in their cleanliness. The easiest way to fix that is to just wash them again, so that's what I'm doing.

*It cost me about four dollars for the ornaments themselves, and three for the glue, and four more for the glitter. That's less than twelve dollars (tax included) for the whole kit 'n caboodle. Nice, right?

The ornaments are proving to be very fun indeed. I'm using glue pens and very fine glitter to decorate them with Christmassy sayings and Christmassy things (wreaths, snowflakes, snowmen, etc.) It's turning out quite well. I'm hoping that by tonight or tomorrow they'll be dry enough to start on the other sides of them, where I'm going to write "B & S '06" or something simple like that. Maybe throw in a "Love" or two. You know, cause it's family, and family likes that mushy stuff.

One thing I'm learning as I go is to not use too much glue. When I'm done gluing and glittering one globe, I set it back in the egg-crate type contraption to dry. Several of them had too much glue and dripped down the sides before I noticed. Luckily, I was able to catch them and fix it reasonably well before the damage was permanent. I'm not saying they're perfect - far from it! - but they are cute and one-of-a-kind, and that's what I really wanted.

Splish-Splash

Our water heater makes crazy noises if you turn it up past medium-low. It sounds like an icemaker.

We don't have a dishwasher, either, but I'm starting to realize that I like my houses better that way. It's not like I don't have the time to do them (I'm sure many of you guys actually don't have the time, but I work twenty-five hours a week) and when I have a dishwasher, there's a lot of stress involved for me.

You can't run it when it's half-full, that's wasteful. You can't run out of forks, either, and that's where the trouble lies for us.

Plus, when I have a dishwasher, I'm always feeling guilty about the dirty dishes just sitting there not being clean. I'm a freak.

I think I'm going to dye one of the skeins of laceweight today. Wish me luck!

My, What Authentic Floor Coverings!

My mom came over today to take a look at the new house. We made indian tacos and baked apples and talked about how festive we're feeling this holiday season. We also played a half of a game of cribbage. It's funny - I sometimes get the feeling that Mom forgets that I'm an adult, and can do things like follow a recipe without instruction. She's not terrible about it, but I wonder if it would be the same if I had kids of my own. When she was my age, I was four years old. I guess your kids growing up is a hard thing to get used to for most parents.

Here's a picture of the baked apples. Don't they look appealing? It's not my sort of thing - too many things going on - but they look great. Beautiful, I mean. And my house smells great.

Here's a picture of the needles and yarn I bought from knitpicks.

Huck and I took a walk through the swamp to the lake this afternoon. There's a path to follow, and it looks like it's been well-used, but it goes right through the marsh for about a half mile. It was very pretty, and the deer skull we came across was interesting, but I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not just finished It and my heart had not been palpatating in terror.

Lots of Stuff

First off, embarassingly enough, I don't have the slightest idea what Susan's word "teh" means. It's definition is probably in her archives somewhere, else it's a bit of pop culture I have secluded myself away from, but all the same - I don't know what it means. I get the general meaning, teh = tre, or or very, or muchly, but I don't know the specifics. Susan, care to lend me a hand?

Secondly, I have done the impossible in the past week - I've finished off two pairs of socks that were languishing on the needles. Care to see? I thought you might.

The first pair is a triumph of mine. It's a beautiful yarn that knits up to the most delicious tweed. It's my second pair of completed socks, and the first pair I'm completely happy with, largely because I altered the amount of ribbing after almost completing the second sock. I'd known for a while that the ribbing on the first was a little excessive, but I had decided to "go with the flow" with the first. I chose to start the ribbing much before I needed to, and it resulted in an almost ridiculous three inches of trim at the top.

I had knit two socks before this one, but they had been top-down socks - this was my first try at a toe-up sock. I chose toe-up mainly because I wanted to use as much of the yarn as I could, because I think it's beautiful. As I was new to the knitting game when I knit it, I wasn't sure how much yarn I needed for any length of knitting, and I started ribbing too soon. When I got to the end of the second sock, I stopped the ribbing after an inch or two, deciding to edit the first sock to match. It turned out beautifully, although I may go back at some point and change the binding-off method. I used a simple bind-off, not one of the looser one's I've learned since beginning to knit.

The second sock is my real triumph, however. These socks are exactly what I want in a sock - not too long (long socks annoy my warm-blooded self) and with the right amount of jazz. They're Jaywalkers, and the pattern is really fantastic with self-striping yarn. I have a pair of Jaywalkers already (the first completed pair of socks I knitted), but these are really much more my style. I love the stripes, the colors, the ankle-high-ness. They're perfect. I even love the pictures I took of them - one self-portrait, and one self-portrait with the dog's whiskers in the corner.

Thirdly, we finished Angel this week. Yes, the full five seasons have been borrowed through Netflix, and I'm pretty sure Bruce is never going to recover. Even though it took 128 pictures to accurately describe his sadness at finishing the series. He loves him some Angel. I'm not as enamored of it as I am with Buffy, but it's hard to beat a Joss Whedon series no matter what it is.

Here are a few shots of Bruce cracking up when I asked him to show me his "Sad Face":





And then an actual picture of the Sad Face, the Sad Face that can be when you don't yell out "SAD FACE!" in the middle of trying to take a picture of it. Bruce is such a wonderful happy man that Sad Face doesn't come very easily to him, and you have to be sensitive to that and give him time to think about something depressing, like puppies dying or There is No Santa Claus, or perhaps the end of the television series, "Angel", for him to make the sad face.



And you know what? That's the best thing about him, the fact that it's so very easy to make him laugh, and that his saddest moments are his favorite series going off the air. He can be cheered up by a simple visit to a cheap chinese buffet, and his parents raised him to be completely independant and not afraid of anything (except for a television series ending). He loves life, and the very simplest things make him exceedingly happy. That's why he's perfect for me.

Lastly, our great friend Cam is coming to visit us in the beginning of November. I'm very excited for this, and I hope everything goes smoothly for his visit.

Passing the Buck

Most of the time, I wish I could pass it off. What, you ask? Well, pretty much anything. Everything, even. I wish I could assign tasks to people around me (most notably, B. He's a good person to look to for tasks of the gathering-information-online sort, for example. Or the taking-out-the-trash nature. You know, the stuff I'm really not interested in.  

I look to various people for various things. Most of the mundane stuff at work I can laze my way out of - nobody works a full day, and there's always somebody there to pick up my slack.

I think this way of thinking is biting me in the ass, not to put too fine a point on things. I can't really expect to get the most out of life by sitting back and letting someone else do the dirty work. For one thing, I'm being a major pain in the ass. For another, no one is going to figure out what I want to do with my life for me. It sucks, but I can't just lay around and expect to reap the benefits of being self-sufficient.

So, long story short, I'm going to try to take an active role in, well, myself. The Buck Stops Here, as some politician or other might put it. Only I mean it. For reals.

In light of this new variety of thought, I've been thinking about going back to school. Someday. In the meantime, I think I'd better get a better idea of what I want to do. After twenty-odd years of trying to figure it out, I'm thinking Veterinary Technician might be a good prospect for me. So let the research begin.

Chop, Chop!

Yesterday afternoon, I saw my dad start up the lawnmower and thought I'd give him some help. So out I went, poop-scooper in hand, to take care of the leavings of our precious puppy.

I walked out the door, and noticed that all the poop seemed to be gone. I gave my dad a questioning look, and he smiled and shrugged. Apparently, he's the bomb and had it all taken care of already. Then he stopped the mower.

"Well, I'm sure I missed some," he said. "I'll point it out as I go around."

This was not what I had bargained for, and he proceded to point out all the piles after he'd gone over them with the mower. I can handle my poop as well as the next guy, but when the poop is all smooshed into the ground and has been mowed over, it turns out it makes me a little nauseous. Go figure. So the next time my dad had stopped the mower, I suggested another way of dealing with it.

"Can't you just, you know," I gestured frantically mowing over the same spot a few times, "chop it up?"

You should have seen the look he gave me.

HELLO STOP

WE HAVE ARRIVED STOP EVERYTHING IS EVERYWHERE STOP YOU KNOW WHAT'S WORSE THAN MOVING STOP ITS MOVING INTO A PLACE THAT IS ALREADY FULL OF STUFF STOP I WENT TUBING WITH LISA ON MONDAY STOP TUBING IS SORT OF LIKE A FORM OF FLOATING FOR YOU MISSOURI PEOPLE STOP WE GOT CABLE AND THE INTERNET HOOKED UP TODAY STOP YOU WOULDNT BELIEVE ALL THE CRAZY CHANNELS YOU GET ON EXAPANDED BASIC UP HERE STOP LIKE FOR INSTANCE THE VIDEO GAME CHANNEL STOP ARE YOU WATCHING PROJECT RUNWAY YET STOP WHY NOT STOP DO IT STOP BECAUSE I TOLD YOU TO STOP HUCKLEBERRY AND LINUS ARE BEING SPOILED ROTTEN BY THEIR GRANDPARENTS STOP I ALREADY MADE AN ASS OF MYSELF AT A LOCAL BAR STOP THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME TO MAKE AN ASS OF MYSELF AT A BAR STOP WE JUST GOT BACK FROM OUR FIRST WALK WHERE I SHOWED BRUCE ALL OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS LIKE WHERE I TOOK SWIMMING LESSONS AND DAVE WAS THERE AND HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO SWIM AND BRUCE THOUGHT THAT WAS PRETTY COOL STOP WE ALSO SAW THE CANDY STORE SLASH OFFICE SUPPLY STORE SLASH JOCK SHOP STOP THESE PEOPLE REALLY LIKE TO MAXIMIZE THEIR SPACE STOP

Moving Day

I've resorted to packing in suitcases* and throwing loose things into them as I wander around the house. In less than an hour, I'll be watching Bruce and Mac (who took the day off of work to help us, thanks Mac!) heft everything we own into a Penske truck. While they're loading things up, I'll be cleaning behind them. It's sort of like horses in a parade. You know what I'm getting at.

I plan to leave the place sparkly and nice for our landlord, because you know what? He let us out of our lease. It's months early, but I told him our situation, and he's letting us out of our lease. It figures that the best landlord I will ever have, I only had for a few months, don't you agree? He also told me a few days ago that he wants to make sure he's got our forwarding address, in case they rent the place out really fast, so they can send me what's left of our deposit. I had to stare at him with my mouth agape - you just have to in that situation, it's required.

Dudes, have you tried this Magic Eraser deal? If you're moving, get the Extra Strength one. I thought it was all bunk, because the commercials are too hokey - I was sure it was a scam or something, but then I used one at work and it REALLY IS MAGIC. REALLY. I brought one home last night and it took off 90% of the marks on the walls (the insides of closets get lots of marks) and it's a miracle and it will get so many more people back their deposits. Everyone should buy one if they're renting. When they're moving, I mean.

_______________

*Once upon a time, I lived with some boys who had hardly enough money. These boys would take their grocery bags (the plastic ones, mainly) and store them between the stove and the refridgerator. Every few days, one of them would be off to visit someone or play a gig somewhere, and they's shout in to whoever was in the kitchen (probably getting a beer), "Hey! Grab my suitcase!"

The designated person would come back from the kitchen with a beer and a grocery bag. That's the sort of "suitcase" I'm packing in today. (I knew they'd come in handy one day...)

Time

I realized today as I was cleaning the bathroom before work that three
days ago I was folding laundry before work, because I'd rather be
doing anything than getting ready for work, that I'm nuts. Why am I
doing this to myself?

I mean, the side effects of clean laundry and a cleared bathroom
counter are great, but at the cost of my sanity? I don't think it's
worth it.

Sighing,
Sarah

PS: Have any of you tried that Chlorox bath wand or whatever fairy
name they gave it? Is it any good? Does it work well, but leave
behind a residue unless you wipe behind it (because then, what's the
point, really?) I'm in the market for something to make cleaning the
bathroom easier. Any ideas?