At Warp Speed

Family room Floor?  Installed.
Storage unit?  Rented.
Boxes?  Some packed.  Not all, but quite a lot.
Fresh paint?  many rooms.  Still going.

We're moving right along.  Brian painted the house foundation over the weekend and installed a new tub surround in one bathroom that needed replacing.  Well, "installing" is more like it, those things are trouble!  Took a couple of trips to Home Depot in true home repair fashion but it's going well.  Still need paint in some areas, our bedroom carpet is getting stretched on Friday, and my dad is coming over on Monday to help Brian with replacing the deck surface/railing.  Things are moving quickly, the house is looking emptier and fresher, but it STILL doesn't seem to be going quick enough.  There is a calendar posted on the fridge with something to do every single day, and we're feeling the fatigue.  But it will be done.  One way or another. 

Still, after this place goes on the market, I'm looking forward to things slowing down just a tiny bit.  Though we'll be having to keep it in show condition with the kids running around, so I guess there's no rest for the weary!  :)

Thirty Days!

90.  Give up soda for a month (3/24/13)

I simply cannot believe that I managed to pull off this one.  I love soda.  But honestly, most of the time it wasn't too difficult.  I got through every day by telling myself "I won't have it today."  NOT "I'm giving this up forever," because I know myself and if I said that I'd want it more and eventually cave and have to start over.  Once I was over two weeks I had no desire to start over, right?   I had iced tea or sparkling juice for lunch every day, and I drank a lot more water.  At first, the caffeine withdrawal every day after lunch was a bit much, but I got through it.

I didn't lose any weight.  I think that's because I didn't drink it all the time when I started.  Ten years ago, I'd nurse a 20 oz bottle of coke all morning, have some more for lunch and drink even more at home.  Nowadays we don't keep it in the house much unless company's coming, and a can at lunch.   Interestingly enough though, my pants fit better.  

What surprised me was when it was hard....we're in the middle of doing a lot of house projects to get this place sold.  Apparently, I drink a lot of Coke when I'm working on things like painting.  I was used to drinking two or three cans during a remodeling project.  THAT was tough.  But I didn't crack, and I'm proud.  Apparently soda is a "stress thing" for me, too.  I drink more of it when I'm freaking out or obsessing about something.

So, where to now?  Well, I had no intentions of giving it up forever.  But now, I'm not going back to it every day.  Only when I really, really want it, will I have it.  And I think that'll make it taste that much sweeter.  :)

The Poet

Last year for Christmas, my parents got Will a copy of Shel Silverstein's poetry book "With Everything On It."  Will and I both enjoyed the heck out of it, reading a little every night.  Over a year later Will will occasionally mention a poem from the book "Mom, remember "A Mouse in This House?  that guy was crazy!"  or "Why would anyone want a kitchen sink on their hot dog???"  Since he loved that book, I picked up a copy of "Where the Sidewalk Ends" for Christmas this year. 

I never read much of Shel Silverstein growing up.  I was really big on books, but poetry never crossed my radar.  Now I'm glad I didn't, because we get to enjoy it together, and Will has already pointed out to me that there's another book called "A Light in the Attic."  Yep, we'll be getting that one too.

But the real joy is that all on his own, Will's decided to start writing poems himself.  He busies himself with paper and pen at the kitchen table coming up with things like "Swim with me, swim with me, swim with me baby."  Some of them don't make any sense, like "Do you like this new toy?  Is it your best?  It's mine."  But who cares?  This kid is writing on his own, sentences and everything.  Sure there's some backwards letters, and some of it is spelled phonetically.  But my goodness, is this Mom proud today!

The Twilight Zone

It has been a frustrating couple of days.  An absolute comedy of errors, if I was watching the events unfold on TV I'd probably laugh.

I ran out of toner at work yesterday.  I had a crap-ton of things to print out for a training that I had to take online, something like 300 pages.  Plus 15 of my tenants are coming up on their anniversary date (ohmygosh...is it that time already???) and must re-certify.  There's all sorts of letters and attachments for that.  Anyway....I got a message from the printer/copier that it was running out of toner.  Two seconds later.....OUT OF TONER.  No real warning, no "mercy printing" nothing.  When that sucker says it's out, it's truly "out." 

I had an appointment at my old job, and I had papers for the person to sign.  Only I didn't have any papers.  Nor could I print them out there.  So I did the only thing I could think of to do....I drove the 15 minutes home and printed them at home.  Where I had like 8 sheets of paper (made it, whew!) and my printer was making sounds like a freshly bathed cat.  Only to drive to the appointment to have the people not show up.  Ah well.

The copier company wouldn't be able to deliver the ink until tomorrow, and I needed it YESTERDAY.  So the rep said that I could drive over to get it.  So I headed into the city, to a seedy neighborhood and parked in front.  Only to find out that I had dimes for the meter and it took quarters.  I decided to live dangerously, being on deadline and all, and bravely crossed the street.  One door says "use other door" and points to the right.  I try that door.  It's locked.  Things are starting to feel very "Alice in Wonderland."  No one seems to be in the office....so I mutter "I don't have time for this crap" as I'm pulling out my cellphone.  Someone answers, sees me at the door and is yelling to me.  Only I can't hear her because the damn glass is so thick.  (Bad neighborhood and all.)  Finally I get that she's saying "I'm sorry...I don't have the key."  What the hell???  How did she get in, then?  Finally she asks my name and yells to the guy in back.  And proceeds to give me directions to the back of the building, which are of course muffled.

Walking around to a secluded part of the building in that neighborhood is like the last thing I want to do.  Is "toner" a new term for drugs?    Now I'm officially  a pissed off chick on a MISSION!  So I work my way to the back of the building, and the copier sales guy is there with my toner.  He's all apologetic, and tells me that "eight years ago his brother Roland changed the locks and refuses to give anyone a key."  Huh.  This is something that you could've mentioned on the phone, Dude.  "Come around back and give us a call."  Just sayin'.  But seriously too....eight years ago the locks were changed and no one has a key to the front door?  What in the hell would you do if there was a fire at the back of the building????? 

I go back to the office (without a parking ticket, thankyouverymuch) and proceed to wrestle with the toner and machine, only to discover that I'm trying to put it in upside-down.  I can't make this stuff up.  Now I've printed lots of things and I'm glad that ordeal is over! 

Memory Lane

For the past week, we've been packing up and de-cluttering in order to get the house on the market.  Savers came this afternoon and picked up a very large pile of donations.  Mostly  baby stuff, like the changing table and diaper bag.  Strangely, I don't feel too sad seeing those things go.  We're quite happy with the "babies" that we have.  And we're almost to the home stretch where there will be no diapers anymore!

Brian and I have started taking separate trips down to the basement to go through things down there with a trash bag in one hand.  I've unearthed craft supplies that I forgot that I had.  For one thing, I found a sewing project that I started with my mom, a nightshirt for me.  I had to have started it at least nine years ago so it won't fit me.  Into the trash it went.

Then I made a fun discovery:  in a diaper box marked "sharp utensils" I came across every single on of my diaries!  I brought the box up to the kitchen table to marvel.  I also had another box containing letters from my high school boyfriend, B.  We dated for two years, and he was my first heartbreak.  I didn't keep these things because I still hold a candle, but because they were snapshots of the past, time preserved.  Plus his notes were always fun, with pictures that he had drawn of people we knew, jokes, and general sweetness.  I didn't go through the notes much, but I've already discovered that in the twenty years that have passed, I don't "get" all of the jokes anymore.  :)

So all productivity ceased and I took a stroll down Memory Lane, allowing me to do this:

70.  read all of my old diaries

I had diaries from 1988-2002.  I was in fifth grade in 1988, and 2002 was the first year we owned this house.   I was big on diaries, I would spend lots of time writing in one.  Sometimes it was theraputic, sometimes it was just about documenting things that I wanted to remember.  Some of it was good, and some of it was not-so-good.   All of it was intriguing.  The younger years are what one might expect, "I'm mad because so-and-so is no longer my friend" or "we had chicken for dinner."  Really deep stuff.  :)  As the years go on the content gets better and the writing improves.  There are a lot of Madonna lyrics in the teenage, junior-high years.  (Apparently this was before the music companies were required to carry age labels I guess....racy!)  

I was apparently boy-crazy.  Every entry revolves around some boy named Dave, or Mark or Pete or WHATEVER!!!  A lot of teenage angst.  I wouldn't repeat that time of my life over again for all the tea in China.  (So-and-so is mean....this so-and-so is trying to wreck my life.  I have no friends.  WaahhhH!)  Interestingly enough.... A lot of my "so-and-so"  friends from those years are still people that I am friends with today.  So I guess it all worked out!  Old friends are the best.    They also made me happy that I have BOYS.  No teenage girl drama in my house.  Though....if these boys are heartbreakers like their Dad was back in the day, I may have some teenage girl problems after all.

Brian got to enjoy some of this too.  He got ahold of the diary that I was keeping when we first met, and those first few months together.  That was fun to re-live for both of us.

Back into the box they go.  Maybe I'll find them again in 20 years and do it again.

Sunshine, Is that You?

It's March 1st!  February is finally over!  I feel this way every year.  For such a short month, February drrraaagggggs.

Today is quite cold, but there's sunshine.  Lots of it.  We're almost there, folks.  Daylight savings time begins in about a week, with spring following shortly after.  New England spring is such a mixed bag, but the snow cannot go on forever. 

It's been a long, busy, sometimes craptastic week.  Work stress, house stress, school stress.  Dentist appointments, specialist appointments, general craziness.  If it can make you crazy, trust me, it's happened in our house in the past week. 

Moving forward:  We've selected a realtor and she is coming this weekend for us to sign the contract, and talk about when we're going to be ready for "primetime."  I've procured boxes from friends to start the big packup for storage.  The house looks like a bomb hit it in some places but hey, it's a selective bomb, only hitting the office for the most part.  We're plugging away. 

And a very happy birthday to my friend Jen!  We miss you bunches and hope you have a great day!

That's it from our neck of the woods, back to you in the station, Bob.  :)