Tuesday Tweaks

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I spent a couple of hours working on the basement. Packed up a pile of stuff to donate. Hanging on to little stuff to sell is just to energy intensive. I'm constantly drained looking at the things. Getting them out of the house will be freeing.

We have three rooms in the basement, my creative room (normally a disaster, really bad now that the filing cabinet and bookcases are gone and their contents are in boxes piled all over the floor), the tv room (which is the main room I'm using to stage things leaving the house), and ds's room (which has his bed and sea chest, some side tables and a tv, plus his lego.) Dh is using the bedroom for his recording now since there was too much noise from the tv room since it faces the street. Unfortunately, the location of his setup blocks the closet which I was using to store empty bins, waiting to be used to pack. Plus I had moved my desk from creative room to the tv room for him to use and now it is is just sitting there. In the meantime, the contents of my desk drawers are in bins and the surface stuff is balanced on a board on my keyboard-piano stand which is 1/2 the surface area so things are piled high. Sigh....

Anyway, we are now able to walk around most of the rooms (except around the closet) and I've vacuumed the floors. The amount of stuff I have to do is overwhelming me at the moment. Dd has left me her china doll collection to sell plus I have ds's coke memorabilia to try and sell. Those will have to wait until after I get back. I'll try selling things that people might buy for Christmas gifts.

[OKay]

Harriet - That is very interesting about TDay & Christmas timeline. POTB for finding a solution to lock

Lunch has been served and several drainers of dishes done. I'm thinking 3 more drainers of dishes washed will return the kitchen to MM status.

LO is down for a nap.

Next up - crank up the Twins and try to make a dent in the huge pile of dirty clothes.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Booked my car rental for January.

Confirmed weekend itinerary with my tour guide.

Dh is muttering away as he writes the next module for the online course. He has to write the 'patter' because otherwise it isn't smooth. Just like I have to write out my sermons, word-for-word.

I haven't got back to productivity at all. I'm just wasting the afternoon staring at my screen.

I've loaded my mp3 player with a new Economist, so maybe I'll turn that on and at least putter around the house.

[Sunny]

Hi everyone. I'm taking a quick break before fixing supper.

OKay, I'm so sorry LO has been so sick. ((Hugs)) for you both. I remember changing sheets and taking showers in the middle of the night, too, with our three boys. My oldest ds was always catching colds and strep about once a month and he finally had his tonsils and adenoids removed when he was seven years old. He did much better after that.

Good luck with your job hunt, Elizabeth.

Today was voting day here also for several municipalities, but not for us as we are in unincorporated county.

I have been tweaking my schedules for a couple of months. At the moment, nothing seems to be routine. It seems when I was working a full time job, it was easier to keep on a routine because I had to work within my job schedule. Ah, well, times change, don't they?!

Today was errand day. Dh had an appt with primary dr. - all is good.
Stopped at W-M on the way home to get some much needed groceries and dog food.
Got a lol washed and in the dryer.
Did a few desk chores.
Spent a couple of hours trimming the Ixora bush by our back door. This is a good spot for it and grows well there. With all the rain we had this summer it was well over 8 feet tall, higher than the roof, and blocking the light on the house; so it is cut back to 5 feet again. http://okeechobee.ifas.ufl.edu/News%20columns/Ixora.htm It will grow back again in the spring.

I hope Dee and dh are enjoying their leisurely trip to FL. So nice that they got to visit with Harriet and dh on their way. It will be nice to hear about the next SHE Meets, also.

The sun sure is bright this afternoon. During the fall and winter months the sun shines more in the back windows and is now making the family room lighter. It's a nice feeling.

Time to feed our hungry girls and our supper is almost ready.

[OKay]

Sunny - That is a beautiful shrub!

I'm looking forward to Dee checking in.

Next up -
** take LO to store to pick out his snacks to take for the classroom on Thursday. Usually I already have this planned and ready to go.

[Ivy]

Harriet, Thanks to you, an idea "popped" into my head, so I wrote in shocking pink magic marker on the top of a legal pad: THANKSGIVING O.M.M. LIST: Do NOW I'm all psyched, ready to write my list, to tweak my mind and actions between now and Thanksgiving. THANK YOU for the starter upper and getting me motivated, too.

I'm now on the next to the last row of the grson afghan. I'll take 1 day off before starting the last grson-2.5-yrs afghan, but I'll get the yarns out, which are in 2 totes. I have no idea what sequence of colors I'll do. The first 2 had only 3 colors and #3 afghan has about 6 or 7.

DH went to the store, brought home mail, and 2 maple bars, but my tummy's queasy so told HIM to eat mine. I asked him to buy vanilla hand lotion, as a tip I learned to combat evening snack-eating, but he brought home cherry, I can't smell it, but I also have cucumber lotion. I'll "imagine" my cherry and cucumber lotions to being vanilla. If I have fresh hand lotion on, I won't want to be holding food to snack on. Also, I asked him to get me a whole wheat cereal, for fiber and eating healthier and wow! I got a gigantic box of shredded mini wheats and I know they've got sugar on them, but it's better than 100% sugar-type cereal for kids. At least I'm getting fiber.

I helped DH put groceries away, need to read a letter, so now I owe 3 letters, but 2 have the envelopes addressed, stamps on them, the papers out, etc... That's half the battle.

It's been a dry day here, but high clouds or filtered clouds. White sky without sun breaks.

Have a Super Tuesday Tweaking afternoon and evening, Everyone!

[Twins' Mom]

I think I saw that Dee and Mr. Dee had a flat tire yesterday a.m. so they got a late start?

Tomorrow a.m. I'd like to be out of here by 7:30 or thereabouts so I can be there in time to meet at 11:30 a.m. Made a list of issues/concerns with dsis while waiting for oil change.

I am going to try to do some catch up type stuff
-refill meds containers
-reboot laundry
-Water the orchid from Master bath -roots have to be submerged for 20 minutes
-clean stovetop
-make the bed

Ta das so far:
-set up vet appt for Moe
-called about dMacs meds, need to pick them up
-called my doc, who has changed hospital affiliations, and set up my annual physical
-gased up the car and had oil changed
-got cash from the bank - I don't like to be on the road w/o having some cash
-good workout, and have eaten well today - not junk!
-tracked what I ate on WW and my 4 activity pts for my workout

As Harriet said, Hanukkah actually starts the night before Thanksgiving. It's played havoc with Thanksgiving menus and activities. We're invited to friends for Thanksgiving and I've committed to making sweet potatos. At temple, the Friday night service of Thanksgiving weekend is not usually well attended and the rabbi plans for guest speakers to try to bring in more bodies. Instead of a Hanukkah dinner that night at temple, I think we are having a "Latke reception" after the service as we're feeling that no one wants to do a huge meal on Friday night after cooking on Thanksgiving. The following Friday night is after Hanukkah ends and is our traditional "First Friday dinner" and I think they will do a Hanukkah type dinner that evening. The temple Programs VP doesn't want the men cooking latkes while she's in the kitchen, as she said they made too much of a mess last year. So they will cook on Thanksgiving weekend, I hope.

[Harriet]

Oh, Sunny reminds me, I neglected to post the TaDa that I voted. Mayoral and town board elections here. Was met at the polling place by one of the 2 current candidates who were also board members while I was covering the town. I had learned years ago that he is a good choice, and was already going to vote for him. He showed me his "slate" of hopefuls who are all supporting each other because they agree on one issue. (Sigh) One of the names had been a possibility in my mind and with his support added, I was swayed, so I'm glad I happened to run into him and hear his thoughts.

However, his hope that I might vote that full one-issue slate was way too optimistic. It includes the dreadful man who, I still maintain, never should be allowed to run because of his record of violence, anger issues and a moral compass that points due ugly. Legal sleight of hand, dropped charges, reduced charges, agreements, and he evidently appears to be someone the board of elections has to stomach. But I can't imagine that the other people on that "slate" admire him or can get along with him, and it's a mystery to me how they can let agreement on one issue press them into including his very questionable name among their own. No chance to express all this to the more reasonable candidate today, but the next time we chat I warn him to watch his back. literally.

[Elizabeth]

Here is my progress so far:

DPC about cat crate
Arrange Christmas pet sitter
Mop kitchen floor
Insurance homework
DPC mortgage company to make sure taxes were paid
Make list of things to take from work (personal files and items) before I am laid off
Minutes for animal org
Undecorate
Dye some yarn
Job search (including LinkedIn profile)
Trash out

Added to list:
Get job references
Check school thanksgiving meal date/time

Moved to TADAs:
Deal with problem phone
Reschedule an appointment
Christmas travel arrangements
DPC eTrade for rollover
Email some congrats
Change watch for Daylight Savings Time
Upload new project to Ravelry
Transferred money

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dh cooked a nice dinner for us and we watched another episode of Doc Martin. He'll be recording tonight after his weekly conference conference call, so I did up the dishes right away because the kitchen is on top of ds's old room.

I asked dh to move the bin into the closet for me while he was down there and he mentioned he wanted to move his setup away from the door a bit, so we spent some time rearranging things for him. I also hung up a couple of blankets, and since the room has a ledge, propped up some foam along it to help absorb the sound waves. The first recordings dh did in the front room and the third in the back and when he was editing he could hear the difference. Unfortunately, moving back to the front room isn't going to work because lots of furniture is now out of there, including the bed. So that room echos now too.

While dh is on his conference call I'll gather up my paperwork from the kitchen and work in the dining room, on carpet, at the front of the house. But first I'm taking a little break.