Work, play and cleaning

It is one of those multi-function days.

I got up relatively early and headed to The Smith to test a few things. The HDMI splitter started working again, which is good and confusing. We shall see if it works for the projectionist on Thursday, as she has a DVD film to show. I also tested the DVD, added a trailer to the playlists, called the electrician about when he would be coming to start work on some lighting work that we requested a month ago (sigh) and blew out the rusty boiler water. Phew! I also went to the bank and checked in with the people who do the kiosk for us.

After that, a quick trip to the grocery store, where I got some huge beets!! Yay. I had my beet, apple, carrot and lime juice this morning. Yum. I also did my yoga. Sadly, the only thing that I have actually accomplished every day so far this year is writing my blog. So far, so good. Oh, and I have been doing my Daily Challenge response every day. Baby steps.

When I got back from my tough morning, I played for a little bit. I am playing Dishonored which has been enjoyable so far. A cross between an FPS (first person shooter) and an RPG (Role Playing Game). Fun stuff. I have gotten stuck a couple of times, but many people have gone before, so there is help aplenty on the internet.

Next up, room cleaning. My room hasn't been cleaned in at least a year. I was going to take a "before" picture, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of cleaning my room. I might take an after picture, just so that I can look and see what my room looks like when it is neat (ish). I don't mind a messy room, or a chaotic space, generally. Weird, right?

Wow, it really wasn't all that dirty - just cluttered. The status of my existence just now. Maybe one day I will be down to the minimum amount of belongings and stuff, but that day will be a long way in my future, I fear...next step - dusting - and then vacuuming. Yippee!

Augustus, vacuum cleaner repairman! So, I started to vacuum my room and noticed that the bag wasn't inflating. Oh no, Mr. Bill! (I am reading a book about Saturday Night Live) I took the thing apart and got out the clog (the entire tube was filled - I think we kept the last bag in too long...). It was not as easy as it could have been - but it is done now - and my room is as clean as it is ever going to get. Huzzuh! Time to cook dinner and chillax!

It's a start

Yesterday, all my troubles...no, that's not it. Yesterday, was the first day of the rest of my...nope. Hmm. Anyway, the good news is, it has started. Well, restarted. Started again. Decluttering the house, that is. A kind person came and worked for a couple of hours in the red room (linen closet room) to try and figure out what was going on in there - it had become sort of jumbled and pile-y over the past few months - a year maybe? - since last someone made use of the room as a place to sleep. Now if only the kind person will continue to help and I don't piss them off somehow...

Puzzle progress - getting there - I am at a different point where I am sure I am missing at least one piece. That almost never happens, but there is this one piece...

One piece eludes me there on the middle left (the bottom left I am sure will turn up)

The rest of the day yesterday was spent Smithing - a looooong and productive meeting with Kelly, then a quick look see at a rug remnant that we might use for our upcoming Oscars event and then some more meeting with Kelly - over a beer at Lake Drum. Happily Victor isn't sick of me. Yet.

Somethings always change

That is a working subject line. And it is a fact. Change is the only constant.

So, where was I? Yesterday was an interesting day. I spent a good part of it puttering around (at home and at work) for the Smith. There are a couple of projects that I am looking forward to getting started and finished - small jobs - one is lighting fixtures, one is assisted listening. A third, about which I am really excited is a set of boxes that will allow everything technical to talk to everything technical from all over the theatre. Yippee!! Dreams do come true. Though I would really like 20 movable LED lighting instruments and a new light board (and a couple more updated light racks...) Lots of email, an email blast, some web work etc. Yay.

I cleaned my bathroom yesterday. Yes, I really did. I did not scrub the floor - or the bathtub - ok, I really just cleaned the sink and the toilet. But those are the most important bits, right? I admit it, and I probably have admitted it before, cleaning is not high on my priority list. I would rather nap than clean. Heck, I would rather do just about anything than clean. I do, though, like to organize. And I don't mind having things be clean. I just don't like to do it. It always surprises me that there are some people out there who actually enjoy cleaning. Weird.

Rough night - I was tossing and turning a bit - mom was calling for me off and on and after a nap this morning,  I woke to find that a yogurt I had given mom at 7 or so  had ended up well distributed between her stomach, her sweater, her nightgown, her table, her chair and the floor. Yippee! Washing with Woolite in water that is almost freezing is so much fun! And poor mom, she thinks she did something wrong. Sigh.

Here is the latest puzzle progress.

Two thirds done, I would reckon

When I am not doing a puzzle, I forget how much I like them. I just ordered myself one of those "roll up your puzzle" things - though it won't be coming until February - at the same time that my Downton Abbey season 5 dvd is shipping!

It just might work...

Last night I wrote down all the things that I would like to accomplish before heading to Maine a week from Tuesday. The list is not all inclusive - I am not putting down daily tasks like cooking and shopping and working at the Smith. And there might be a couple of things that I have forgotten to put on it - hopefully they will come to me before too long - anyway - here is the list:

Pills for mom
Car Looked at/Oil Change
Bike Rack
Bike Helmet
Laundry
Empty Out Orange Room
Clean Little Bathroom
Pay for laptop fixage
Give Card Back to Kelly
Pay Bills
Pack mom and me
Call Time Warner (ick) about speed boost
Vacuum my room
Look in dance studio and third floor for good chair

Most of these are easily doable with a little planning. Monday will be the day when I get the ball rolling on most of these. And here is where the little epiphany thing happened. Used to be, when I took my car to Dave's Garage to have it looked at, I would walk back to the house. And when I was called and told that the car was ready, I would walk back down. Not a big deal - maybe half an hour each way. Then I had my little aha moment. If I bought the car/bike rack before getting the car looked at, I could take the bike down to the car place on the bike rack - ride home and then ride back to the car place then carry the bike home on the rack. Win, win, win! Love those triple win things (which makes me think of horse racing and taking mom to the track again this summer - at least once - hopefully more frequently than that...) Anyway, that will knock three things off my list. Yay! And, while I am out and about, I will try to do some of the other errands on my list - get as many accomplished on Monday as I can. Yay!

Today, I plan to do some of the things around the house - oh, one I don't know if I want to add to the list or not - put the porch back together. It is a good day to do it - not much wind, pretty warm - that way, when I rinse the floor, it ought to dry quickly. Maybe I will wash the floor today and put the porch together tomorrow. One little problem is that mom's port-o-potty is in the doorway to the porch. Hmm. I will have to think on that one...

Ok, time to get started - I have been toiling away on this and a relationship post about what exactly I mean when I talk about relationships. But I gotta eat!

I love crumbs

I do, I love them. I would marry them. And bear their children. Ok, maybe that is going too far...There are times, all things being equal, when I will dig deep in a bag of chips or pretzels and go past the larger pieces and scoop the small crumbs out and eat those.

This is sort of like saving the best for last. Yes, I usually eat my pizza crust end first. And I often eat a meal in such a way that my last few bites are a bit of everything and the best bits. Which is why I usually ask friends to not take the last bites of my food. When I first get my food, anything goes, but towards the end, please refrain from eating off my plate. Thank you! Would that I had a girlfriend to ask this of, but, as some of you know, I am not having much fortune in that department.

Speaking of which, I had a dream in which I was in a grocery store - in the card section when the power went out. There was an attractive woman there, too. We started chatting and then making out. I suggested that we exchange names. Then I woke up. Sigh.

Yesterday was a day. A day of change. I changed my sheets. Changed my clothes. Cleaned the kitchen. Neatened my room (ok, probably not, but I thought I would toss that in there). And shaved.

Probably my favorite - despite not looking at the camera

I love this face!

I look a little surprised...

This one is pretty good, too.

Not thrilled with this one...

A face only a mother could love? I vacillate between thinking I am moderately attractive to thinking there are many butts that are way more photogenic. Sigh. And no, I am not seeking compliments or reinforcement. Just honesty.

Guess who neatened his room!?!

That's right, this guy. Phase one is complete. I got my room back to a semblance of neatness. Most of the mess was clothing. So it wasn't that hard to clean up. We did laundry yesterday - mom read a book, had a snickers bar and a bottle of water out of the vending machines and watched me put clothes in machines and take them out again. She is, as I type, working away at folding some of the clothes. Go mom!

Sorry for the digression - where was I when I so rudely interrupted myself - oh, right, a neatened room. I wouldn't say clean because, well, it could do with a bit of vacuuming. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Later today or tomorrow, though, the plan is to clean up my desk like thing - tomorrow - bill paying. Baby steps.

We also went to the library. Mom didn't really know why she wanted to go. Then she decided it was for Gideon books - they were all out of the library. And a book that she saw on the back of the New Yorker - which has four people requesting it before us. Yippee. I am thinking a few months before she will get to have it in her hands. We took out two Rumpole of the Bailey books but she found the one she tried to read not to her liking. Back they will go! I got out two audio books that I picked randomly from the shelves. I hope they are ok. 

Oh, huge-ish news! The pile of newspapers and other things in the corner of the dining room is completely gone. All that remains are some National Geographics which I have a hard time getting rid of for some reason. But they will be moving soon. I think the last time that corner was empty was 2009. Yay!

I did spend some time at the Smith yesterday, despite wanting to have a full week day away from the place. I did neaten a little there as well. And decided I would like some cross bracing on the light storage unit that Bruce built. It wobbles side to side a little too much for my comfort. I don't think that will present a problem. Not looking forward to working on that project on Monday. Poo even.

I ordered a set of Marx Brothers movies for mom. We shall see if she likes them as much as the Fred Astaire movies. I doubt she will. But at least we will have them for a rainy day. Speaking of which, I think a lot of the Northeast is getting rain today. Yay! And the trees are starting to tunr colors and shed leaves. Before we know it, snow! Erich, one of my nephews, loves winter. Me, I can take it or leave it. I have read somewhere that it is supposed to be a very cold winter. Brrr.

Darn Coffee Mug Handle!

I don't know if anyone recalls my frustration with the handle of my mom's coffee cup always ending up facing away from me when I heat it in the microwave. Well, I had another one of those flashes - perhaps if I put the handle in facing away from me, it will end up facing me. And so far, it is working!

Handy Augustus fixed his bed! Hopefully for a little while at least...You would be proud of me - I was quite handy yesterday. The bed I have, I have had for quite a long time - 20 years maybe? No, can't be that long - 16 years perhaps. Anyway, it has a few little issues. The main one being that the metal "slats" that hold the box spring up (and hence the whole bed) tended to slip and fall leaving fewer and fewer slats to support the bed. (A little side note about the box spring. I got this bed when I was living in NYC for a year - I think in 1997. The store delivered it, only to discover that the queen sized box spring couldn't be gotten into the apartment (third floor walk-up). Apparently they were not surprised or flustered by this turn of events and produced a queen-sized box spring that was composed of two smaller box spring units. Yay! Easier to move for sure. The one problem is that if not supported, the bed tends to wilt a bit in the middle, which is disconcerting to say the least...) This eventually necessitates pulling the whole thing apart and putting it back and starting the process over again. I had tried several times in the past with no luck to figure out ways to keep the slats up. Well, yesterday, I had had enough. So I went to the hardware store (avoiding Wal-Mart) (and all large chain stores, actually) and bought little bolts, washers and nuts. Came back and secured the slats for good! Yay! Hopefully. (I borrowed this (mostly) from a note I wrote someone - yes, I know how to copy and paste - why not reuse decent verbiage, hmm?)

Great sorting day yesterday - next step, clean out the study. I spend a good bit of time in the study and it is really cluttered and a little claustrophobia inducing. First step was to take all of the empty boxes that had accumulated in there in the past 6 months out to the front porch. I broke a bunch of them down for recycling and will probably do the same to more of them. It feels great to have them out of the study. Next I went through a tub/pile of stuff that I had put aside for later sorting. Let go of more of that, found some interesting things to keep and made some more room in study. Yay! Next, I want to move the electric typewrite, the electronics (like mom's iMac) and a desk out of there and probably onto the porch for the time being. That is part of today's effort. My longish range plan is to work on the study alcove next. Eeek!

On a side note - I came across a second box of paper from my brother Karl. He gave this to mom I don't know how long ago. It is paper that was designed for use in printers that needed feeding perforations in order to work. Not much use in this day and age. So one of my little side projects is to strip off all of the feeder perforations and to separate all the pages. Not a glamorous project - but mindless and rewarding.

Owie! Yes, I have another odd owie. On my left arm there is a tender spot that is also puffy. I am hoping it is just a critter bite that will soon go away and not a harbinger of greater doom. That would suck.

While out and about getting the hardware (which was quite expensive actually) for the bed, I also went food shopping. And that led me to the idea of getting mom (and me) some ice cream from Mr. Twistee's. They only had orange for their Sherbet (rhymes with hermit) so I got grape frostline for me and cappuccino crunch for mom. She was almost beside herself in happiness. Gotta love that.

Speaking of mom, I am trying to spend more quality time with her. I know that she is lonesome a lot of the time. I also know that it is tough for me to spend a lot of time with her. Not because I don't have the time, but because time spent with her is often sad and frustrating. Sigh.

Last night, I decided to watch Transformers Dark of the Moon - also known as Transformers 3. It was not terrible. Lots of action. Not the biggest Shia LaBeouf (had to look that one up) fan. And I was sad that Megan Fox wasn't in it. The replacement woman was pretty - but had a weird thing going on with her lips, I thought. Only watch it if you like one of the actors or if you like the Transformers in general. Not sad I saw it, but will not be seeing it again. Ever.

Lastly, but not leastly, I started adding wineries to my brewpub blog. Now I just need to make a concerted effort to get out to the many wineries in the area. Maybe I will start next week. Monday even. Are wineries open on Monday? I will find out!

And then there were four?

I was wrong about the ages of my brother's kids - they are 4, 3 and 1. True, the oldest is almost 5, but not quite yet. And he manages them so well! I guess he got enough practice from the first three that these three are easy.

In three minutes, seemingly, with two people, my tasklets all got accomplished. This is one reason it is good to have a partner in life. Not that Karl, my brother, is my partner, but I am just saying. We moved a chair into the basement, a foam mattress thingie into the attic and I got up the motivation to go fix a fence - not as hard as it sounds. And it isn't really fixed. More like I put a figurative band-aid on the problem. Sadly, Karl laughed at me when I said that my plan was to clean up the habitable areas of the house first before taking on the basement and the attic and the garage/barn structure. Oh well. I will keep plugging along. A little bit at time and before one knows it, icky and huge tasks are completed! Speaking of which, anyone think I ought to keep electric typewriters or should I let them go to the recyclers?

Well, dinner was interesting. My brother cooked, which meant that I didn't. Yay! Not that I mind cooking, but anything I don't have to do, is fine by me. The kids are all at different stages of eating habits and tendencies. Karl handles them so well! Then, Jacob let slip that Candace is pregnant again. That will make four babies and counting. That's all I am going to say. (Thankfully, I think mom has forgotten already...)

I don't mind chaos. Really, I don't. And I don't mind craziness. Disruption of routine, fine. All in moderation as I know that this too shall pass. Last night for a little but I just felt really intolerant. But I breathed through it.

Mom hasn't let on as to whether or not she is enjoying all of the stimulation. When she has a better audience than I am, she exaggerates her infirmity. I know that she is not as firm on her pins as she once was, but she is not as incapable as she likes to make people think. Sigh. She did become exhausted, that much is sure.

We went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was a sort of remake of the television Original Series episode where Khan is introduced. I enjoyed the movie, all things considered. Not loved it, like my brother, but enjoyed it. I didn't like the costumes at all. Is that too picky? I am not thrilled with any of the characters/actors except Spock and Uhura - so happy they are in a relationship! And it it no way explores difficult social issues in a serious way like the original series and to a lesser extent the other series did. Still, not too bad. Glad I saw it on a big screen. I could tell that they did a good bit for 3d versions of the film but I don't think we lost too much by seeing it in 2d. One thing that irks me is the gratuitous use of aliens in the movie. Who is the little critter who is a coworker of Scotty's? Who is the cyborg on the bridge? What kind of alien was the one we glimpse in the detention area? And others. The Klingons looked pretty scary and they had bat'leths. Does anyone know if the Klingon in the movie is the same as it has always been? (I think it was...)

Good Day, all things considered

Yesterday was a mixed bag. I got a bit of mail from my brother the day before, to which I responded publicly. In the letter he said that the reasons I didn't have a meaningful romantic relationship were because I am basically a hairy, weird, friendless, poor, shallow, childish, mooching, unkind, lazy loser. Sadly, there were some people who thought my brother was "right." Well, I don't agree. I wrote a long post about that, but it will never see the light of day. Suffice it to say these things - I love me. As I am, warts (and long hair) and all. Secondly, the love of money is the root of all evil - it was true in Christ's time it is true today - so anyone who values money is, well, an unfortunate person in my eyes. I send them love. And third - Love is acceptance, not sacrifice.

So, there, all done. Moving on. Yippee!

I got defriended by a friend I had never met on Facebook. Whatever. Her loss. Is that unkind to say? I don't think so. I do wish her the best in whatever choices she makes in her life and whatever eventualities may unfold.

Yesterday was "Operation Clean out the Guest Rooms" day. Mom helped by writing stickers/tags for the various containers - she did some odd stuff and got some things mixed up, but overall, I think she felt helpful. I got all the boxes I had planned on moving out of the room at the head of the stairs into the attic with room to spare. And all of the empty containers out of the red room into the attic as well - still more room.

Today is laundry and break down boxes day. Yippee again!

We had several severe thunderstorms come through the area. No damage to the house that I can tell. Wow, the weather is really weird. Wish I understood more about it. Maybe meteorology school? Nah, probably not.

Walking in the rain when it is warm is a pleasant experience for me. Especially when I have my huge golf umbrella - thank you Rosanne! Memory is funny - as I learn more and more both from my own experiences and watching mom and her brain/memory issues. I walked to one my locals - The Red Dove where I had a lovely time talking to someone who told me about the beer scene in Buffalo. Her boyfriend is a home brewer and she appreciates beer. Yay!

Rocking on!

Got another music book - and this is exactly what I was looking for. It is still PVG but the arrangements just seem better. And there are a lot of the classic songs. Yay! I just tried Money and the base rhythm is there. How cool is that? I think the tally is four down, one to go!

I have started the moving/sorting/cleaning process a bit earlier than I thought I would. Yessterday I unpacked three boxes of books and culled out about a third of them to sell. Not including the Britannica set I have - including lots of Books of the Year. Don't really know what to do with those. Any suggestions? At least it was a start. I hope and plan to do a little bit each day so that I can redistribute two large piles of stuff. There are three large piles of stuff that came from North Carolina (not including the stuff that got squirreled away in the basement and in the attic already) Two out of three isn't bad, right? Maybe when Karl comes, he can help me a bit. Probably not. Whenever he comes, he has his hands still full with his kids (three under the age of 6) and his wife. And mom of course, which is why he comes. We shall, of course, see.

Speaking of whom, he asked to do a home evaluation for the possibility of keeping mom here after she progresses into the last stage of Alzheimer's. I already know that keeping someone here is doable, since we have had other people here who were in various states of decay. So, I'm not sure what he is really after. One of the nurses from the place where we get our aides came and asked me what he was looking for. I tried to explain, but don't think I did it very well. I hope he wasn't looking for the official thingie - that costs money and is only good for six months. Mom could be six months away from the third stage - she could be two and a half years from the third stage. Who the heck knows?

One big task to accomplish today. I can do it! Get to the County Assessor's office and apply for mom's STAR exemption - reduction in taxes. Mom is awake and needs to sign some papers before I head off into the, er, well, it is mid day so sunset or sunrise don't really apply here. Hmm...

Ramble On Note

I figure I am just going to write whatever I write. I do hope it will be interesting and somewhat well written. But for me, getting the information out of my head is more important than the artsy-ness of it. Hence the title. I might just ramble on hither and yon.

My rejection letter from Hobart came on Friday. Not a huge surprise. Sad that they didn't even see fit to interview me. Whatever. It is their loss. On the bright side, I wasn't thrilled with the notion that they are building a performing arts complex with a theatre that won't have fly space. Wow. How silly is that?

In that vein, I am thinking of directing some shows here in Geneva. And maybe looking into teaching at FLCC as they have a theatre concentration. One never knows, does one?

Here at the house, mom is getting worse. Not horrible yet - that is still to come. According to the brain doctor, in 1-3 years. Sigh. I am not sure what the future will hold, but it isn't looking great where mom is concerned.

I have decided that I am going to try to accomplish at least one distasteful thing everyday. Hopefully more than one, but at least one. Living life is full of less than jolly and fun tasks. Like paying taxes. Or doing laundry. The list is (sadly) endless. Since I just dumped a household's worth of crap into this house (again) I figure I need to add cleaning that up to my list of distasteful things. Right now the bulk of it is put away. There are three piles (which by the end of the day will be two piles) that are in occupied territory - the kitchen (which will be redistributed) the living room (second most urgently in need of redistribution) and the side screened in porch all of which need to be dealt with. Yippee.

Mom gave me permission last night to just trash her non-happy mail - meaning all of the solicitations for money that she receives. Yay! Less stealth sorting for me. I wish I had a larger recycling bin.

That's all for today. Thank you for letting me ramble! Off to make up mom's Easter basket!

Fleeing Friday

As you all know, I love alliteration. The lazy man's way to make language seem interesting. We didn't really flee anything, we just headed to Kingston, NY for the beginning of Erich and Shelly's wedding festivities.

Because of the proximity of the wedding, we didn't have to get up early, which is a good thing. I like to sleep latish (which is often 9:30 or so) and do a bunch in the morning - like write my blog, do my daily challenge, check out facebook, maybe look at the news online, the weather, play a little on my phone (I keep playing Flippety and seeing if I can make it crash) (speaking of which, my great nephew Lewis crashed it again - and my nephew Ernst, an actual programmer sort told me one way to maybe prevent the crash - though I think it is not necessary as I doubt many people will actually do what Lewis does - just randomly push on the screen over and over again until it crashes...), maybe work on a project or two, figure out the day, plan dinner, etc. I usually get a lot done in the morning - mainly because I have silence in which to work. No nattering. I don't mind a few minutes of nattering now and again, but incessant nattering is another thing entirely...

Well, that was quite a little digression, verging on a rant. Moving on. I got up and did a lot of the above stuff before going in to mom's room and checking on her status. Asleep. Gentle prodding yielded an awakening mother. While she was starting to do the arising thing, I got her blunch (breakfast and lunch) (not brunch - that seems to be something that happens before lunch time, while blunch is something that happens at or around lunch time but is one's first meal of the day) and some coffee. Much as I disdain coffee, it does seem to clear some of mom's mental fog. Not memory and such, just her normal morning miasma of unhappiness and disgruntlement. And I started cleaning the kitchen which I like to leave as neat as I can when we go traveling. Few things are more unpleasant than coming back to a messy kitchen after being away.

We got out just at one - barely. Yippee! The drive was pretty smooth - no back-ups or traffic snarls. Mom did natter quite a bit - sadly, she has a way of harping on the two topics I most dislike talking about - money (ick) and my house in NC. When I say that I don't want to talk about them she gets angry and says that she can't talk about anything. Sigh.

The lovely Super 8 motel used to be something else I am sure. It is more of a hotel than a motel - with the rooms all opening on inside corridors. It is ok. Not scintillating. Mom doesn't like the pillows (too hard) and we had a little electrical problem - the multi-plug in the wall was loose - or the plug plate was loose or something was loose. Anyway, the staff swapped things out and it all works fine.

Since we had some time to kill, I turned on the news for mom, missing most of the BBC news because it started half an hour earlier here than it does in Geneva. And then ABC for some reason was out of synch. Other channels were fine - just ABC was weird. Oh well.

Off to the rehearsal dinner at the lovely Rosendale Cafe in Rosendale NY - where the wedding is happening as well. (Not the Cafe, but in or near Rosendale.) We ate outdoors (not my favorite thing) at unassigned tables. It all worked out eventually. Juliet was kind and forced me to not sit with mom. Yay her! Mom ended up sitting with Juliet and Candace and Karl (my brother and his wife). I sat with two of my nephews, their significant others and Lewis (Ernst, Jill, Sam, Abby). Food was good - all vegetarian (sigh). I had a sweet potato burrito - which I enjoyed - though Jill's Greek Salad - which seemed more like a Mediterranean plate than just a salad, looked excellent as well. And I got to have two yummy Rogue Dead Guy beers! Yay!

All in all, a decent day! Tomorrow I will write about the wedding, which is happening today!

The Sign!

Rockin' Rosendale Cafe

Betty (mother of the groom) Mom and Juliet

Ernst (father of the groom) and Paul

The menu

Ernst reading a sonnet that he wrote (we are that kind of family)

My sweet potato burrito

Jill's Greek Salad/Mediterranean Plate

Safely Over Whelmed

Last night, just before midnight, the hordes descended. It took a while to get everyone settled in their various sleeping situations, but it did happen. Eventually. And unfortunately, today, of all days, I have an early morning appointment. Yay.

Yesterday was laundry day! Yippee! Clean-ish stuff for everyone! I had been looking forward to doing laundry by myself, running a couple other little errands and basically having some me time. But it wasn't to be. Mom wanted to help the entire day. Joy. I think it is wonderful that she is showing interest in helping. But like a child, her help is often less helpful than if she would just let me do it and get it over with.

It started with her wanting to help vacuum. She has been pestering me for days about vacuuming. So I set her up to vacuum. But she couldn't find the receptacle. So I found showed her the receptacle. Then she couldn't plug it is, so I plugged it in. Then the cord had a knot in it. So I unplugged the cord. But she couldn't manage to undo the knot, so I undid the knot. Finally, she vacuumed while I continued to do what I needed to do. Then she called because she couldn't get the vacuum down (hard to explain - but an easy fix). Am I complaining? Sort of. I could use a vacation. A real vacation. Two weeks being pampered in a luxury resort. Or even two weeks alone in the house. It could happen.

Meanwhile, I vacuumed my room - even moving furniture - that's right, Mr. Muscles Moved Mucho! And made the bed in the red room. And got the laundry together - only to find that mom wanted to go with me. So that was exciting. Mom folded a bit. At one point she lifted a bath towel and said - this is too big for me to fold. Sigh. She did great with the socks and underwear...

There is still a new place moving into the mall, but they are moving in really, reallllly slowly. I haven't a clue what it is going to be. Big excitement in Geneva!

After our hard day getting ready for the onslaught, I opted to not cook and to take mom to her favorite dining local - Friendly's. I find the place to be hit or miss - last night was a miss. Our server was slow and inattentive, my fries came out cold despite being double dipped and I never was asked how my food was or if I wanted a refill. Oh, I take that back, she asked me if I wanted more tea - I had half coke/half orange soda in my glass. Sigh. Mom had fun though, which in the long run made it ok.

We watched My Fair Lady on DVD last night. I thought Audrey Hepburn was ok - sad that she didn't sing her own songs. Overall enjoyable. And it does give me hope for a December/May romance! :)

A clean room (will last until noon on Friday)

Mom gayly feeding quarters into the washing machine

Candace, Jenna and Mom

Karl and Jenna

Jenna and Mom

Jacob

Mom and Skyelyn

Almost Karlmegeddon

Yes, it is almost upon us, the visit of the year - Karl and Candace and Skyelyn and Jacob and Jenna are descending upon this poor, suspecting, quiet household! Eeeek! Run for the hills! Hide the silver!

Seriously, it isn't a big deal. It is more of an issue for Karl & Co. than it is for us. The kids are still young enough that they may be a handful, but they are, over all, manageable. Karl has to contend with two longish drives in three days - or more like 36 hours. Personally, I think he is a little crazy, but he wants to do it, so he is coming. Tonight. Late. Which still gives me time to get the house even readier than it is already.

Yesterday and last night I spent some time working on the house. The rooms I most wanted to get done are the room Karl and Candace will be sleeping in (the room I use as my bedroom). I am glad that they are going to use this room (where I am typing right now). This way I get to clean it up, sort and organize a little bit. Yay! Mostly done - I just need to toss a few things in the closet, remake the bed and vacuum. All tasks for a little later in the day.

The other room I wanted to finish yesterday was a neatening and reconfiguring of the dining room. It has been a long time since the dining room was used for dining (except for breakfast for Sam and Lewis when they were here). And even longer since it was really cleaned. It had become the repository of boxes to be sorted - leaving the living room mostly clear of boxes. If I were stronger and braver I might have taken all of the boxes down to the basement room. But I wasn't and am not, so I opted to move them to behind the yellow sofa in the living room. Yes, back into the living room, but in a less prominent position. And there weren't as many as I had thought. Maybe 20. That is good news to me. Though mom seemed surprised that there were so many. She sat on the sofa and asked if she should be helping. And where they all came from. I didn't really have an answer to either of her questions after the fifth iteration of each.

After the boxes were all out (leaving the stacks of over 200 New York Review of Books) I took out all the chairs and put an extra leaf in the dining room table. Mom got her act together and did a good job polishing it. I cleaned off all the chairs and the legs of the table and vacuumed the room. It is looking pretty spiffy (and will do so for at least three days after Karl & Co. leave). Yay!

One more task for the evening - getting all of the stuff that had been accumulating in the room at the head of the stairs up into the attic. Eeek, the attic! Spiders and bugs and who the heck knows what all else. I really want someone to come help declutter the house. Maybe when I am rich. Someone without ulterior motives would be nice. An impartial, third party. It may happen eventually. So, it got up there, but I wasn't thrilled about doing it on lots of levels.

Oh, at some point, I also wandered downtown to Red Dove for a delicious Slyfox O'Reilly's Irish stout. Chatted a bit with Abby and the servers there, though they were sort of busy. Saw Elena and Jim, which is always pleasant. And then wandered home, stopping at Microclimate - not because they were open, but because James was there having a meeting of some kind! Yay!

Oh, I did do a dating post - not so rant-like. I just can't bring myself to rant...

Boxes out of sight, mostly

Dining room more better

A view of the lake

Pretty

A regular daily post before a rant

I think it is just about time for a dating rant. Or lack of dating rant. But before I do that, I will write a bit about my day yesterday and see how I feel.

Yesterday...what the heck happened yesterday? Oh, right, I had a couple of meetings and took a trip to the NY DMV and to Wegman's. So, a full-ish day!

First meeting was in downtown Geneva, with Kelly from the Smith Opera House. We wanted to get on the same page about her expectations and my expectations about working together. I think we chatted for about an hour and got a lot of things straightened out. Turns out that she wants me to act as sort of the production manager in addition to my stage manager role. I can do that! We also talked about getting creative with the curtain speech about cell phones and such. We shall see if anything comes of that. It would take some effort and I don't know that the effort will be forthcoming. Everyone is always very busy (even when they aren't) (I should know about the latter...).

I also went to the DMV. Did you know that you had 30 days to get a new license and to re-register your car after moving to a new state? Well, good thing I haven't moved, yet. And I need to have insurance before I can get the car license. And for that, I need to find my car's title. I am sure I have it somewhere. Maybe I will look for that later today. Maybe not as well. I might just wait until after Karl and crew leave (on Friday). Wow, I am talking about them leaving and they haven't even arrived yet.

Second meeting was with Donna, a friend of a friend of a friend, who had an idea for an iPad application. We also chatted for about an hour. I am going to help her with the project. Mostly because it seems pretty simple and straightforward. I don't know when I will be able to focus on it, since I want to get Flippety done and the opera is getting closer to being in full swing. I told her that it would be at least two weeks before I had something for her to look at. I was thinking of working with a prototyper application and seeing what it can do before moving on to actual coding. Yay, another project! One that might actually bring in a dollar or two. Literally.

Next, mom and I went to Wegman's. Mom came along because she was determined to help by doing the recycling of the deposit cans and plastic bottles. Go mom! As for the shopping, I had a list, so it was pretty easy - in and out pretty quickly. Yippee! I like easy. Mostly I was getting ribs for dinner - which turned out pretty well, if I must say so myself. Mom liked the meal so much she had seconds!

I also worked on excavating my room a bit for the imminent arrival of Karl and his cohort. (Ok, not quite 480 strong, but still a good sized bunch.) My mom loves to stand in my doorway and say things about how messy my room is. Really, it isn't. It is just cluttered and disorganized. I will post before pictures today - and hopefully after pictures tomorrow. :)

The dating rant is going to be its own separate post. Yippee!

Not messy, just disorganized...

Again, disorganization rears its fearsome head

More Errands

Mom went to get her hair done yesterday in advance of heading to the Reunion. They are so nice to her down there. Cindi (Cindy?) especially. She even gave mom a free blowdry. While mom was doing that, I went to the post office and had the mail held until Tuesday (Monday being a holiday and all). And stopped in at the Beautiful Beef and Brew. No Lorraine again. Apparently she has decided to stop working on Wednesdays. Without asking or mentioning it to me! Well, grrr. Christie was there, though, which was a pleasant surprise. Her last day is Saturday, which was an unpleasant surprise. Oh well. Life is that way sometimes.

Next, off to Rite-Aid to get mom her blood pressure medicine. We also couldn't find mom's toiletries travel container, so picked one up there. Had a nice interaction with my phavorite pharmacist. Sigh. Oh, and mom's medication was free! How awesome is that? I had forgotten that (since I only get it every three months...).

After errands we came back and did little. Mom was mostly packed, though later in the day we did some more packing. She wanted to add all sorts of things that were already packed. And wanted to carry all sorts of stuff in the car, from which I had to dissuade her as she won't only be in my car on the next leg of her travels. I got her pills together and started to pack myself. I also cleaned the kitchen decently and put out the garbage. Yay! Now, all I need to do is finish packing my own stuff, clean out the car, pack the car and we will be ready to head off into the sunrise. Well, East, at least. Wish us luck!

Mom at the Salon being attended by Cindy (Cindi?)

The yellow rose bush did great this year!

Pretty!

What's it like?

I often wonder what it is like inside my mom's head. Maybe I will find out for myself one day, but for now, I am still baffled. Frequently. I mean, she forgets from one minute to the next what TV show she is watching. Sometimes. Other times, she will be watching a show and remember what happened two weeks ago on it. She remembers having dinner with a couple of my friends in Raleigh, but can't remember my sister's downstairs bathroom's walk-in shower. Weird and scary.

Mom and I went and did laundry yesterday. She was not a lot of help but I am glad that she was at least interested in getting out and about. Yippee! We had three loads because I have been neglecting the laundry a bit. We really need a cleaning person to come in and help. Ginger is nice and all, but a cleaning person she is not. The fact that she helps mom with a shower every other week is awesome! But I need someone to come in and make sure that I am not helping us both to live in squalor. My idea of cleaning is to sweep the kitchen floor at least once a month...and that is not on a regular, clockwork sort of schedule...

We also went food shopping together - first time for that in a long while. There weren't too many things that mom wanted to but that we didn't need, which is great. Against my better judgement we bought a box of clementines. I hope they don't go bad before they are eaten. Dinner last night was home made chicken wings and home made pizza. Well, the pizza dough was from a packet. Maybe I will learn to make my own pizza dough, one day. I tried cooking it on a pizza stone. The directions suggested to use cornmeal between the dough and the stone. When I went to get the cornmeal from the jar labeled "cornmeal" I smelled it first and just couldn't bring myself to use it. So, I put nothing between the dough and the stone. Oops. The pizza tasted good, but the bottom crust was all stuck to the stone. Better luck next time!

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I thought the woman who won Jeopardy last night was very attractive. Ooh, maybe she reads my blog and will contact me and we will meet and hit it off and...it could happen. Not very likely, but it could! :)

Mom helping at the laundry

The pizza stone

Looked good! I think next time I will add onions to the toppings...

Found it!

And I had written it off as lost and gone forever! How exciting is that? I speak of the second iPhone/iPad charger thingie. Turns out it was plugged in next to the sofa all along. Sigh. Well, that is good news. Now I know where I can always charge up the iPad. Yay. Life is good. Sweet even!

I decided to take us on a day out yesterday. Well, not a full day, but a partial day out. Maybe every Saturday will be mom's day out. We shall see. Anyway, we went to see a movie: The Descendants. Not sure why it was really called that since the movie was mostly about the main character coming to terms with his wife's impending death. Whatever. It was still, overall, an enjoyable movie. Not one that needs to be seen on the big screen - except for a couple of beautiful vistas we see a couple of times. I definitely recommend it!

After that, we went to Ling Ling. I do fear that mom is slipping a bit. When I mentioned the Chinese Buffet restaurant, she didn't remember what that was and where it was and what its name was. Scared me. Oh, in the movie, there is a woman with Alzheimer's. That was a bit on the scary side. Moving on, we went to Ling Ling after the movie - and it was packed! Note to self - do not go to Ling Ling on the weekends! It is crazy busy and really stressful. Especially going with mom. I let her fill her own container - and I think she did really well. I over filled the soup containers, again. Sigh. We get enough food for three meals or so. Maybe two if I am really hungry. So left overs for lunch tonight. And I was already planning left overs for dinner tonight!

Managed to do a little clean-out of a cabinet in the kitchen. I didn't find anything very interesting in there. I am looking for some pans. I think I need to throw some of our older pans out - too rusty and glunky to be happy.

Posted another writing blog post. Yippee!

Movie Poster

Aha!

I love epiphanies. And I think I just had one. One of the things I am looking for in my relationship partner is my audience. In a person. I am looking for someone who gets me, who reads my stuff and always says "wow" even when it is crap - because she (I am assuming a she because I like shes) knows that it will get better or whatever - but she reads something, or listens to a story or even my most boring, repetitive drivel and her gut response is "yay."

And I would hope that I could be for her whatever she wanted or needed wherever she was in her life...

That being said, there are lots of other things I am hoping for in a relationship partner, but that was a big "aha" for me. Just saying.

Yay!

Ok, moving on - yesterday was a weird day. Weird but good. It was a struggle getting mom up and out, but we managed. First stop, Rite-Aid. I admit, I went in with a little trepidation. One of my myriad crushes, my favorite pharmacist, works there. The previous night I found her on Facebook. And saw that she was being hugged by a man in her profile picture - a pretty clear sign that she is at least dating the guy - and wrote and apologized for flirting with her. I didn't put any identifying comments in the message - as she has copies of my card and my name in and of itself is fairly memorable. After hitting the send or reply or whatever button, I thought "gee, maybe she didn't even realize that I was flirting with her." I mean, I am not in her head - she could have just thought I was a freak. Oh well. Anyway, I was dreading seeing her again. And she wasn't there! Yippee! There was a new-to-me staff member who took my mind off my F-PH for a minute.

Next stop, Walmart to return one of mom's pairs of sweatpants. That was easy. And despite have a brand new pair - she wore her icky old ones again. Sigh. I don't know why I don't like them, but I don't.

We went to see We Bought a Zoo. It was that or Sherlock Holmes. I can always watch Sherlock Holmes by myself sometime. I thought this would be a better choice. And it was great! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't hate Matt Damon. I would have liked to have seen and gotten to know more of the animals and the zoo staff, all interesting seeming - but the movie really was more about Matt Damon and his getting out from under the weight and shadow of his beloved's death. Good stuff. And the little girl who played Rosie was amazing! And I loved the idea of 20 seconds of amazing courage. I have done that in the past and will aim to be aware of doing it again in the future!

Next stop, Friendly's. They are getting to know us there. As we were leaving one of the managers said - See you next week! Sigh. We are in a rut! I hate ruts!! Anyway, we were served by Jeanette (who has the same name as my mom's mom) who presented mom with a hat that mom had left there a few months back. (I don't think I used mom enough in that sentence...) I hadn't realized that she had lost it. It is a hat that I also am not a huge fan of, but mom loves it, so I am glad she got it back. Dinner was ok.

Back at home, mom scared the poop out of us both by tripping over a table. Luckily she tends to fall in slow motion so didn't break anything. What a nightmare that would be! But she was quite shaken up by it. As was I. Glarp.

Oh, I almost forgot - drawers. I cleaned out three kitchen drawers. I actually threw away three icky spatulas - and boxed a lot of other stuff for later disappearance. Maybe in a yard sale, maybe to the Center of Concern. We shall see. (More pictures of the drawer organizing will be posted on Facebook soon)

So, all in all it was a day.

All of that was in one drawer!

Yay art picture!

I didn't see a Zebra with a ribbon around it in the movie...

Friendly's food with funions!

A Friday of Laziness

Well, for me at least. All I really did was read, play CODMW2, play Garden's of Time, and cook dinner. Oh, and made lunch. And did some food shopping. And had an opera meeting. Ok, not a totally lazy day, but certainly not chock full of excitement. Yippee! Need a few of those days mixed in with the others.

Mom, on the other hand, got into cleaning mode both yesterday and the day before. The day before she emptied a box of papers, throwing away a good third of them! And last night, around 11, she went into kitchen cleaning mode - and scrubbed the bejeebus out of the stove - it is shiny. I will take a picture of it today and will post it tomorrow. Anyway, go mom!

My books on podcasting came. Yippee!! I think I over bought - which is not a surprise. Oh well. I bought two books on podcasting, one on content and a novel that was recommended to me - about a character named Sharpe - historical fiction of some kind. I plan to take some of these to Maine with me and read them then. Yippee! The only downside to going to Maine when the weather is nice, is the lack of fires in the fireplace. C'est fromage!

The opera meeting was to chat with the technical director of the Smith Opera House, Mark. Turns out he was fairly agreeable, now that the other show has opened. Yay. And he really did have cool shoes. I need new shoes. Just saying...

When I restarted this blog back in January, the idea was to post a picture a day, which I have successfully accomplished. Yay. The motive behind that was twofold - one to get me to take the time to take at least a picture a day and two to get me to write at least 200 words a day, a la The Artist's Way. Successes are great!

A little about stats - since learning about them a month or so ago (Thank you Elizabeth) I have been watching them daily. Just recently, one of my more recent posts - July 10th's Zuper Zaturday - has eclipsed the previous most viewed page which was back in 2010 - Long Time No Post. Yippee!

Going to see the show tonight - Into the Woods. I saw it once at Raleigh Little Theatre and enjoyed it.

Pictures from July 22, 2011:


I don't know how long I have had this - or where it came from originally - but I have had it at least 20 years. And I use it sporadically - still like it a lot, though! Yay perpetual calendars!


The Lovely (and historic) Smith Opera House!


This picture was supposed to be rotated, but it wasn't, so I just put it up this way. I tried something new with the omelet - I used light cream instead of water...