Some Observations

Can't think of a coherent topic today, so little pieces of things I have gleaned over the last few days:



Every inanimate object in this house that gets in my way, acts up, or otherwise thwarts me is of illegitimate parentage.  (At least that's what I tell the world when said objects thwart me.) 
Though, sometimes these objects and the circumstances surrounding the thwarting of my purpose are said to be fornicating. 

I hate rolly-pollys.  Pill bugs, woodlice, whatever you call them.  They came in the house somehow and died in their hundreds along the baseboards on the north wall of our bedroom.  I spent several minutes this morning removing the corpses.  I have also now sprayed the exterior and interior surfaces at the base of that wall.  I better NOT see any more rolly pollys.  (Chemical warfare is on! I have my chem gear, bugs.  Do YOU?!)

While losing weight is very good, and important for my health; when my favorite pants are TOO BIG, it isn't so much fun.  These were nice trouser jeans that I got on sale, and I really liked them.  Now I can't wear them, and I can't find replacements. Also, replacing clothing that no longer fits is getting expensive.  Matt has lost enough to be back in his smaller set of slacks, but if he loses as much as he intends to, we're going to go broke buying clothes.  A lot of my stuff will still fit all right, but his slacks most definitely will not. (I don't even want to think about how much it will cost to get new brassieres.  I will have to custom order because of band size vs cup size.  Been there before.  Not cheap or easy.)

The cords on vacuum cleaners, extension cords, and garden hoses will tie themselves in knots the minute you unwind them, no matter how carefully and correctly they were wound up after the last use.  It's some kind of law that you must stop and unsnarl them from themselves every time you go to use them.  The same is true of ear bud cords.  I am looking forward to the day I can get Blue Tooth headphones.

Now that I'm older, I notice it more when I don't eat.  Used to be able to eat a couple of lettuce leaves for lunch when dieting and not have it really bother me.  Not so anymore.  The stomach rebels, and I get light headed.  So I keep fruit and low fat cheese and crackers in the house.  I also feel the effects of alcohol much more strongly on an almost empty stomach.  (No surprise there!) 

When one of your friends has a great experience, it can make you really happy, too.  Glad to share vicariously in a friend's OzComiCon adventure, mostly because she is so over the moon about it.  It is great to know that someone I really like and care about is having such a great experience.  Great to see other fellow fans being supportive and happy for her, too.  No griping and jealousy.  Renews my faith in human nature.  (And my faith in my own judgement about people. Especially regarding a certain actor.)

Though I have been kind of superstitious in the past, I haven't seriously had "lucky" clothes or items.  Not until now.  I now have a lucky shirt.  (2 actually).  Both have the same artwork on them.  One of Michael Ornstein's paintings called "Blue Sweater."  I really like the art, and every time I wear one of those shirts, good things happen.  So when I need a little boost, or I want to maybe send a friend a little good luck, I wear one of the shirts.  Has worked every time so far! :-)  I am going to have to order a third one soon.  I'm going to need a smaller size! 

Two adults can generate more laundry than you would believe.  There are only two of us here,  yet I end up doing seven or eight loads of laundry every week.  (Well, I do have to separate things that need special care, and we do have towels at least every other week.)

My throat will be perfectly clear all day until I start to do voice practice.  Then every little bit of phlegm in the universe comes to visit.  Very glad I only sing for fun.  Would hate to depend upon this capricious voice for my livelihood.   Singing is done for the love of it.  For the soaring, ringing beauty of great music.  To share with others when appropriate, but not for money.  For money, I do something I also love and believe in passionately.  I help keep our public library open and running smoothly.  Getting people access to the information they need to make decisions, or just finding a good book to read for fun, or a DVD to watch is important.  Freedom for ALL to access ANY information they need is important.  Helps keep a democracy going.  Helps people keep learning and growing their whole lives long.

Things are still shocking me as regards the tornado damage.  Intellectually I know they are tearing down what was left of the hospital.  Still knocks me for a loop every time I drive down there.  My landmarks in that part of town are just GONE.  Still grateful that our large retail areas are intact.  City could not have taken that big of a sales tax hit.
 Extremely grateful to Bill Warren for building his theater so well.  It is a beacon across the darkened parking lot and the highway from the book drop when I have to go empty it some Thursday nights.  Always cheers me up to see the Warren over there with its old school movie palace design.  So glad I am going to get to go see Pacific Rim on Friday evening in the IMAX theater at the Warren. 

Got to see Pacific Rim.  Not JUST because Ron Perlman is in it,  and I happen to love his acting,(Okay, I love HIM, too) but because it is about giant robots.  I LOVED Gigantor as a young child.  Always wanted my own giant robot.  In this movie, humans control giant robots to fight giant monsters.  All that excitement AND Ron Perlman!  You can't ask for better than that for a great summer movie. 

That is about all the random observations that I can come up with for now.  I happen to know there is a load of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, so I'll be on my way.
Thanks for reading. 
As Ever,
Katie

Another Miscellaneous Saturday

Yes, this Saturday has also been a bit miscellaneous.  I am very grateful to have had this Saturday.  I will like it better when Matt is more rested and acclimated to the medications he has to take, so he can be busy, too.  He has spent the day downloading and setting up LoseIt! to help him monitor his food and exercise, and he has a diabetes helper app to help him track the blood sugar.  So far, everything seems to be  going all right.

I went for my walk, and came home and did a few miscellaneous things that needed doing, and then mowed the lawns.  When I was out front, I noticed how covered in blooms the one Simplicity pink rose by the front walk is.  Thought you should see it. 

Even before I went out to mow the lawn, I went looking for something in the side compartment of my desk.  Big mistake.  It made this lovely crapalanche for me to clean up.  Fortunately, I eventually did have a chance to sort it all out (and throw out a bunch of crap).  Below is the result of my efforts.

There is still the small matter of the phone cables that I need to get rid of.  I don't think we'll ever need them again now that we have not only cell phones, but wireless handsets for the landline.
The cables over by the wall are always a mess.  Too many extension cords because I have two printers in this room, and this computer will only talk to one of them.  Fortunately, the laptop speaks to both.

I have also gotten all the laundry done.  This happened before 10 pm.  For some reason, this is a rare occurrence lately.  Something usually happens to delay the laundry.  Not today.  All done and put away except the stuff that has to hang dry.

A little superstitious about what to wear tomorrow.  I could wear what I was going to wear last Sunday, but maybe it's not a good idea.  So much went wrong after that.  Hm.  I have to quit being so superstitious.  Real problem with wearing it this week is that it is probably too cold to wear it.  Last Sunday was lovely and sunny.  It's cloudy and COLD out there tonight.  Supposed to get up to 64 tomorrow, but that's the high, and usually shows up in the afternoon.  Sunday morning is going to be chilly.  Calls for something more substantial than the dress I had in mind.  Oh well.  This is Oklahoma in the spring.

I should also say a few words of thanks to all the friends who have reminded us of their care and concern this week.  It feels good to know we are so well loved by friends both near and far.  The words of support mean a lot.  We know you will be on this journey with us, and knowing Matt, it may well lead to some really good tasting food that is actually good for you.  Just this evening, I made an even healthier version of my chili.  It tasted really good, was only 245 calories  and 7 grams of fat per 1 cup serving.  Sodium was 464mg, carbs 27g, and protein 20.2g.  The sodium is acceptable for limited sodium diets when you consider processed foods and my usual recipe contain much more.

I hope we can modify other things to make them healthier, and we will be sharing our successful recipes, have no fear.

Time to call an end to this.  My brain is still not completely back to normal after this wild and crazy week.

A Very Miscellaneous Saturday

 I got up this morning and changed the linens on the bed, and took my walk, and came back and started the rest of the laundry.  Then I embarked on an all day adventure.  I cleaned out the closet in my office.  The sticker pictured above is on the top drawer of my filing cabinet.  It is the only one I know for sure survives from the days before Matt left our home in Germany for the Gulf War.  He put them all over the place, in hidden places, and in plain sight.  What a mushy guy he was back then.

 The picture to the left shows some of the excess I had to remove from the office closet in order to begin the reorganization.  This is a pretty small closet.  It is truly amazing how much stuff I have crammed in there. 
The next picture shows yet more of the stuff that came out of the closet.  The chair is ordinarily at the desk, of course, it is just full of stuff from the closet.  The cleaning caddy on the desk does not live in the closet, either.  It lives in the laundry room.  Its presence was necessary in the office today, however. 

Here is the closet, still packed full, but no longer jumbled. You cannot see the overhead shelves full of Christmas decorations, or the file cabinet side of the closet that is also home to a very large carpet cleaning machine.  At least now I have some hope of finding what I go in search of in the closet. 

I also did a thorough cleaning of the office today.  My keyboard and the computer screen are both nice and clean now.  Even waxed the desk.  All of this whilst running to the laundry room to shift loads of clothes around and fold and hang and put away as needed.  How can two people produce five loads of laundry every week?  It is astounding.  At least we have water saving washer that is also Energy Star compliant.  Dryer is as energy efficient as we can make it.  Wouldn't like to try drying my clothes outdoors here in Oklahoma.  Awful lot of dust and dirt in the air around here on a regular basis.

Finally got the husband to buy new clothes.  Like pulling teeth.  Worse than shopping with a teenager, I am willing to bet.  He now looks like my husband again instead of some old bum.  (God, sometimes I miss the Air Force.  They made him exercise, they made him dress neatly, and they were the ones grumbled about, not me.)  I bought some more things yesterday, now that I know what size to buy for certain.  Got myself a few new things, too.  Also culled out the clothes closet and bureau, and have a large donation waiting for a local veterans group.  Thing that made me feel good, besides donating the clothes, is that I got the things I bought yesterday at a really good sale price.  I got a pair of really nice skinny jeans for $4.  Ya can't beat that!  They will mainly be worn around here because I consider myself a trifle long in the tooth for skinny jeans, but these do look pretty good, if I do say so... (Sorry , no photo.  I can't make pictures of myself that look anything like decent.  Husband doesn't like making my picture unless it is his idea, so I won't even ask.)

The recital I was supposed to sing in on Sunday has been cancelled.  Karen, my teacher is ill.  It is always scary when she gets sick, she has diabetes, and complications are always a possibility.  She has taught me so much, but I still have so much to learn!  She has to get better!  I hope Adria and I get to sing our duet together sometime.  It is SO pretty, and our voices blend so well.  Karen knew they would.  The aria I was going to sing solo is a really complicated business.  I am kind of relieved not to have to sing it just now.  It's fun, but I still trip over some of the words. 

My husband did not go to judge at the barbecue competition today.  They had a sign up problem so he wasn't needed after all.  He wasn't feeling well anyway, so I have had him underfoot all day, but he has just been parked on the couch most of the day.  If he doesn't feel a lot better soon, I will haul him to the clinic whether he wants to go or not.

Well, this disjointed and admittedly miscellaneous post is about to end.  I have one last load of laundry to deal with, chicken to get into the oven, and then I think I am going to crash for awhile with my Nook and some good music.  (Been listening to Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook albums lately.  Beautiful music, and he does rather well with it, surprisingly so when you consider how he has mistreated his voice over the years.  Most rock singers do mistreat their voices.  Some can learn better habits, some can't.  Sounds like Mr. Stewart learned  some better habits.)

So, off I go to relax, I hope.