Control Your Punctuation, Maybe?

And another thing:

I was thinking about this while I was on the treadmill today trying to harness my mind into thinking about something useful while my body was busy doing something I wasn't especially comfortable thinking about: (double colons! Triple "thinkings!" That can't be good...) I was thinking* about resolutions and goals for the upcoming months. Like sticking to a budget and being tidier. It occurred to me that my resolutions and goals tend to be about me controlling myself.

Whoa Nellie! Control yourself! It's a slippery slope! Better watch it or you'll wipe out! As usual!

It occurred to me that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Maybe it would be more fair, more reasonable if you're going to tighten up somewhere, to loosen up somewhere else? But where can a goofball like me afford to loosen up? I do not know. I'll have to think about it. Anybody have any thoughts?


*Another one!

Last Night And Today

I have a new nephew, born last night! Congratulations to Christian and Sarah!

More trivially, here's what I want to do today:

1. Weed, weed block and mulch the paths
2. Clean up all the flattened stems left behind by the October snow storm
3. Tidy the roses
4. Do the fall cutting back
5. Clear the dining table
6. Clean the shower
7. Laundry
8. Put away the nine plus piles of books that I have left all over the house
9. Read Sin and Syntax
10. Get groceries
11. Wash the lettuce
12. Bake something
13. Meditate

As you can see I'm in over my head by the third word of the first item on my list. Guess I'd better get going.

Clam

Mom and I have been to the clam bar twice since I last posted. Neither time did I remember to bring a camera with me (not even my phone) so no clam photos. My apologies for failing you as a blogger in this area.

We continue to clear out the beach house for rental in August. I had planned to come out here by myself this week and take care of it but Mom offered to come along.  Thank God she did because it would have really sucked to have to do this alone. I must say that we've done a very good job. We celebrated our triumphs with rum and tonics on the deck tonight (before getting lobster rolls for dinner at the clam bar) I didn't think rum and tonic sounded very appetizing but it turns out to be quite delicious.

Fay is also having a good time. She enjoys running around the yard chasing cars and barking at them. I should probably get some video of this. She likes to be outside here more than she does in Vermont because the lawn here is far more sumptuous and there are far fewer black flies. In fact, there are no black flies. They do have very sneaky mosquitos here though.

Today it was very foggy when I awoke. After breakfast I walked down to the beach and it began to rain. You might think "well that sounds gloomy and unpleasant." It turns out that that was just the atmosphere I've been missing.  I love the ocean but I've been feeling unable to connect with it the last several times I've had the good fortune to see it. I may have just needed to be alone with it.

The beach was pretty deserted today, I'll tell you. It felt so good to put my feet in the water and watch the waves crash and foam and see the light change and the clouds race by and to be pelted gently with rain. Since no one was talking to me or otherwise requiring my attention I could take the time to sound out my feelings, to actually feel them. So luxurious. Of course, then the rain picked up. It was cool though, I had an umbrella.

Later in the day the sun came out and Mom and I kicked butt on the list of chores we'd drawn up. All in all I'd say it was a very satisfying day.

Okay, so the plan for tomorrow: get video of Fay chasing cars. I think I can do that.

Good Deal

I got this floral arrangement at Whole Foods a few days before Valentine's day. It's really hanging in there - this photo is from this morning. The colors are all wrong, of course. It's much brighter and more intense in real life.

I don't usually get cut flowers. I find that they die too quickly and then I can't bear to throw them out. I have miserable vases of rotting flowers and swampy water sitting around the house. Sometimes the flowers will dry out completely and when I finally toss them I can manage to find dust bunnies in the bottom of the vase.

I don't plan on doing that with this bunch. I intend to get rid of individual flowers as they fade and shift the still presentable stems to other vessels.

Wish me luck with that.

Babblesville

I was waaaay too cranky to not go running today. Fortunately the weather is beautiful today: it's sunny and sixty degrees! What a break!

I found out that I'm kinda out of shape. Crap! I had a nice run at the reservoir and ran with my iPod for the first time ever. I'm not so nuts about the flapping earbud cable and the music did distract me a little from what was going on with my body. That said I'll probably try it again.

So yesterday when I was talking about the good people I've been encountering lately I neglected to mention the little old lady that ran me and another girl over with her wheelie suitcase on her stampede towards the D train we were all trying to board. I'm not exaggerating - she came from behind us and ran over our feet with her bag! That wasn't so awesome. It was okay though, no harm done. I didn't mention her, obviously, because she was off topic.

My job this week is to reclaim our house for the humans/pugs and make it less hospitable to the rodents. On Saturday I took a large load of stuff to Goodwill. We have a lot of recyclables ready to go for trash night tonight - yay! Progress continues. It feels good to get rid of the useless crud that seems to collect when you're not paying attention.

My goal is to make the house presentable for some kind of party I'm hoping to have soon. Inauguration maybe? It's been something like eleven years since we've had a party. That is inexcusable!

Before that I am intent on becoming Christmassy this year. Intent! Cleaning out the house is part of that. I'm also determined to either make my Christmas gifts or to get them at little "shoppes" this year. I've done my Christmas shopping on line for many years now. It's so simple and efficient. But once in a while I'll make it into a little brick and mortar and be really sorry I didn't go there in the first place. When you go to an actual store they have music playing and decorations up and people are (usually) feeling jolly. Sometimes they have nice stinky candles or potpourri going. It sort of gets a person feeling festive.

Okay, I'm going to stop babbling and move on to productive work! Then later maybe a bath (!) and too much C.S.I. watching and knitting. Cupcakes?

So much for my crabby mood!

Three More Days

I'm sorry. I probably won't even win a prize. I don't really care about that though. I just apologize for the poor content of the last few posts, including this one.

Heck, everybody's probably too busy today to even read blogs. I know I am!

So hug your families (especially if you're having a fight) and pet your pets (although I consider pets family) for me.

Now I'm going to clean off the dining room table so we can sit down at it and have a meal.

FlyLady

Every once in a while I like to learn a new skill. Web design, gardening, crochet, computer animation, dog training - these are all examples of things I've taken up in the past and still like to do. I think that this time-frame's skill is cleaning my house. I say time-frame because I don't know how long it will take me to pick up and if I do pick it up, how long it will last.

I believe I have mentioned before that I am not a tidy or mentally organized person (try Saturday, August 4, 2007) My friends know this about me very well. A couple of weeks ago my good friend Alex sent me to the FlyLady website. The overall tone is a little sweet and kind of sexist (the assumption is that only women are responsible for keeping the house clean) for my taste but the system looks very sound so I'm giving it a try. I love a system!

So far the sinks in my house have been spotless and shiny for over two weeks. I didn't know that the way you keep your sink clean and shiny is to dry it out at the end of the day. It's so easy! I wish someone had told me this when I was a little girl. I bet my Mom doesn't even know. I could have had shiny sinks for my whole life. Better late than never though. Once you've done one sink and you see how easy it is you just do all the sinks you use. Then you start keeping the counters and surrounding areas clear too because it looks so much better that way.

The philosophy of the system is that you take "baby steps" that eventually become habits that help you get rid of your clutter and keep whatever you have left clean and tidy. You start with shining your sink and proceed very slowly from there. I'm expecting there to be further cleaning-related epiphanies down the line, like how to get a vacuum cleaner to actually work or how to keep your shower grout from turning black.

The downside is they send their members probably twelve e-mails a day. They say up front that you don't have to read them all. You just read the one about the day's task and one evening reminder. If you have some extra minutes to kill you can read any of the seven or so inspirational ones that come rolling in all day long or the promotional e-mails about system-related books or organizers or products (like a timer so you know when to stop cleaning or a feather duster with purple feathers) I usually end up deleting most of them unread. But some of the inspirational e-mails have been just that and I've archived them.

The point is that these are skills I don't have that I need to acquire and this seems like a system that will work. So I will ignore the schmaltzy sexism and try the damned system. And it's working so far!

Here's an added amusement factor: the Hey Tom website. They answer questions for women like "why does my husband leave the toilet seat up?" and "why does my husband have a garage full of junk?" Info for men is about seasonal home care (I imagine things like gutter cleaning and air filter changing) that are usually Man Jobs. I haven't looked at the site much (I just found it while writing this entry) but it looks intriguing.

This is the world we still live in: people still expect that women do all the women's work, men do the he-man stuff and never vacuum or dust. I don't know, some information is not gender specific, like how to scrub a pan. It's just useful information.

Old Spice and Other Things

I was thinking of posting about more old flesh in the news. They've taken the mask off of Tutankhamen's mummy so those who visit his tomb can see his face. If you go to this site you can page down and see some photos. He has a pretty good amount of face left for a body that old. I imagine that the 400 year old clam's complexion was fresher looking however, since it was still alive.

I wonder what they did with that clam? Chowder? Pasta? Certainly dissection. Wow, people really stink sometimes.

What I'm really excited about today is that the hour has come to start taking out the trash. Finally I can get rid of the recyclables and the fifteen-year old dried parsley leaves (okay, that's really an herb. But I also threw out a bottle of Accent. Can you consider MSG a spice? If not I'm sure there are some spices in the bag too) and the tea that I bought in 1990 that I just cleaned out of the pantry. The dozen bottles of hot sauce (spicy!) that our former house-mates left behind when they moved into their respective bachelor pads earlier this year. The six bottles of barbecue sauce and the instant rice and/or potato side dishes that appeared in the kitchen somehow that I will never use, make or eat.

Fay will have more room to maneuver her wheelchair now. This is very exciting.

Eating and Stuff

Some days I really don't want to bother to eat. But then I get REALLY hungry and there's nothing for it.

Then I have to decide (like everybody else on the planet who's lucky enough to have a choice) do I go cheapo and have a bowl of cereal or a piece of pie or (heavens to Betsey!) stop at McDonald's (only on the drive to or from VT) or do I be a "good" grown-up and make a salad? Stupid salad. Why does it always have to be a salad?

Usually I love eating but today I wish it were optional.

I continue to be in MA, mainly because I can't stand to miss another trash night here. We have something like seven bags of recyclables waiting to go out and the curbside trash can is full.

I'm not enjoying it that much. I had dinner with my friend Tammy one night, Fay has seen some of her dog friends, I handed out candy on Halloween and I'm purging the house of detritus (since I live here there's plenty of it) but I'd rather be in VT with the birds and the bugs and my studio.

T.S. I guess.

Is there anywhere where nature and culture co-exist?

Tidying, Yarn and Fay's Dents

I'm tidying.

I'm not a tidy person. Anyone who's been to my house knows that this is an understatement. I have an untidy mind. I just don't know how to be neat.

When I was a kid my Mom would say "go clean your room" and I just wouldn't know where to begin. If I figured out where to start I wouldn't know what to do next. It's exactly the same now. I go to put something away and I notice a big dust pile in another room so I go get the whisk broom and sweep it up. When I'm in the kitchen emptying the dustpan I see a smudge on the floor and wipe it up. Then I notice that the handwashing I've done is dry and ready to be folded so then I go do that. I take the clothes upstairs to put them away and see that the toilet needs cleaning. By the time I've done that I've forgotten which room I was supposed to be straightening. It doesn't seem to make much difference in any case because all the rooms are equally trashed. It doesn't occur to me to dust or vacuum until I'm just about to have guests.

Plus there are some things I don't want to put away. Projects I haven't gotten to yet that I'll forget if they're out of sight.

My studio looks like an explosion at the glitter/google-eye factory. Every surface is covered with unfinished paintings, paint jars, palettes, beads, magic markers, crochet doilies that I'm trying to work into a painting somehow, the aforementioned glitter and google eyes, pompoms - all kinds of random stuff. It's actually helpful in the studio though because just seeing all that stuff juxtaposed gives me ideas for how to use it that I never would have had if everything had been stowed away properly in labeled bins.

Of course visitors see this kind of thing and think I'm mentally ill. Heck, maybe I am. But I'm not dangerous. I'm just profoundly untidy.

Speaking of bins, here's a picture of the bin of yarn next to my chair. Obviously the bin of a complete nutball.



Fay's "trapdoor" from when she had her MRI and spinal tap. She looks brown but that's probably something to do with the flash.



The tooth she just broke chewing on a bully stick.


That's the second tooth she's broken in two weeks! I'm going to have to stop giving her bully sticks. Then what will she do? I've been trying to get her to leave off her hobby of sprouting tumors. I hope she doesn't go back to that!

So have I put off tidying long enough? Shall I get back to it? Ugh. I don't think I'll even get to making a salad today.