Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Under A Rock

Under a rock



Not a bad place to be
If you're a bug
a worm
uh..dirt

or me

I haven't crawled under one, 
but my inactivity in the big world 
may seem like it to everyone else.
Things are great
small, quiet and great.

Ben and Anam 
were here for my B-day 
and it was so lovely.....such a sweet time.
Did we do big stuff? Nope
He cooked a couple fab meals
(I prepared a great chicken piccata)
Ben repaired everything broken that he could find,
what a super son,
and we watched great films.
I even convinced them to watch Creator,
which they either enjoyed, or lied to me  hehe
We visited, noshed and wined
and not a photo to show.
(I do wish I had a chain saw one - up in the tree)
I was in the moment, savoring each laugh,
 smile and raised eyebrow.
I never left the house,
they did a "little Vegas"..

I had several B-day lunches with pals, 
received some great B-day gifts. 
My pals are so kind, 
but oh girls, the chocolates! 
I saved time and just rubbed 'em into
my thighs and butt.

This weekend I spent quality catch up time
 with a pal just returning from 4 weeks in Europe.
Another yummy lunch, more chocolate,
this time brought back from Belgium...
they know me well.

Polished off 10 books last week.
Battled wasps and more broken tree limbs
 from latest monsoon storm.

Pooch Howie sleeping atop my feet
under my desk right this minute

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with.....but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. 
― Victoria MoranLit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

Haven't read the book but I liked this quote


Small
Simple
Quiet

Living the good life here under my rock




Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Dang it all to Hades Doris

So there I was a few days ago bragging 
on how the world was being nice to me.
"Gratitude is Riches - Complaint is Poverty"
Doris Day

The garage door opener broke several days ago.
No biggie, I have repaired before.
I went through all the checklist,
 and got it kinda working and then a sudden
grinding nasty noise made me fear the whole
door would buckle so a quick call to
 Sears repair was necessary.
While waiting for him yesterday in
a five hour window I decided to repair the toilet.

I had diagnosed the problem.
replacing gasket tank to bowl.
Purchased the parts $7.00 versus 
Roto Rooters charge of $250.00
(seriously I called to check)
that's $1,000 an hour folks.
Watched a video on You Tube on how to repair,
supposed to take 16 minutes...
and printed out some directions to take upstairs to follow.
GRRRRIND < EEWW< POP < CRACKLE
uh oh, my printer was jammed.
After 45 minutes of picking out paper with tweezers...
I reloaded paper and hit print.
GRRRRIND < EEWW < POP < CRACKLE
Are ya KIDDING ME?
Tweezers again
and fiddlling faddling and it's feeding
 but inks are all screwed up.
Nozzle checks blah blah blah and it's still hooey.
Just paid 59.00 for new inks so if this one goes belly up...
ARGH!

Head upstairs to work on toilet and 
the 16 minute process evolves into 90 minutes 
as the bolting does not go smoothly.
I nearly reached the tears
of frustration phase..
you know the sitting on the side
of the tub, weeping cause you're
sick of all this crappola...

Ok, so maybe I did do a little weeping.
Sometimes being on a beneath minuscule
budget and solving every problem alone gets to me. 
Even Doris Day had bad days.


Then I put things in perspective 
compared to "real" problems,
and pull up my boot straps and get back in there.


They're just metal and parts anyway

Sears Repair arrives and after $154.00
I have a working door.
 A gear had pulverized.
So one issue down.
Two more to go....
and oh
Power went out this morning around 5 a.m.
I woke up to even earlier howling from
Le Pooches 
who sensed the outage somehow.

Went to make coffee.
DANG
Check email, blogs, check the news?
DANG again
Then thought of folks who depend on 
power for medical reasons,
or for business and
quit my DANGING....

 I poured some iced coffee from carton in 
barely cold fridge and headed out to the back yard...
The sunshine still worked.
I could still read a book...
and there I sat until 8:00 until the big 
whoosh when all the air conditioners 
turned back on.

Hades can wait, right Doris?
I have an old spare printer I can hook up.
I have two other toilets my guests can use
this weekend.
Be careful with the DANGS
Be careful with the BRAGGING
A friend tells me it's all Mercury Retrograde 
anyway and by Saturday all will be well.
Check out the last part... HA!
Perhaps baking a B-day cake is too risky?


Mercury's retrograde periods can cause our plans to go awry. However, this is an excellent time to reflect on the past. Intuition is high during these periods, and coincidences can be extraordinary.
In Cancer: Expect annoyances at home with baking, gardening, and household duties under domesticated Cancer. Complete repair projects that weren't finished or done correctly.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Oh Happy Day!

The world is being kind to me today.
The first season of The Newsroom is on today,
great background for more purging and cleaning.

The second season begins tonight.
WoOt!
Being driven mad by promos for tonight's
 True Blood and The Newsroom!
I watch very little TV.
What I do watch is addicting.

It is five days until 
Dearest Son and his Sweetie arrive.
WoOt wOoT!



I am beyond excited.
I will turn 60 this weekend and Ben is 
driving up to fix me dinner!
How lovely is that?

My brother Scott turns 61 the day before.
Happy Birthday Bro!
Not that he ever reads my blog....

I have a new chair to use to plant my butt 
for watching the shows tonight.
I sold my floral sofa and chair to a good pal
and they are happily ensconced in her new pad.
The cute little ottoman was on clearance (34.00) at
Target.. It opens up to store this week's
 stack of library books.

The chair came via Home Goods.
 It was already a great deal and it 
was already dirty. I hate how most furniture
is dirty there thanks to unruly kids
 NOT being watched by indifferent parents.
(topic for another day)

Anyhoot I brought the dirt up
to a manager and got another deep discount.
Don't want to tell you how little I paid.
I'm known for getting kick ass deals
that make my friends go
Aw damn!
Yes, the dirt came out. 
I love it.  
The sides are some kind of paisley "pleather".
Because it is half the size of previous chair and ottoman, 
it makes the room feel larger.

Son and Sweetie are coming in five days.

Her first time here,
wonder what she'll think of Ben's homestead?
Your home does reveal a lot about you;
what does mine say... hmmm? 
His old room is now the guest room,
so very little of his youth to discover there.
I do have his Magic and Pokemon cards still
under the bed though... 
We are more likely to drink wine and 
nibble cheese than play card games I'll bet.

So purging and cleaning all day - Love It!
Great TV all day - Love It!
Great TV tonight - Love it
New Chair - Love It!

Son and sweetie will be here soon - ADORE It!


Told you it was a Happy Day!


Sunday, July 7, 2013

RAINDANCE


Rain Glorious Rain

I'm praying this rain puts out the fire in our mountains.
It  always happens this way,
right after the fourth, cool down a bit and then rain.

I am working on some custom canvases.
French doors wide open so I can 
enjoy the sound on the tin roof.
Old movies on the tube, 


and when not, I switch to Mathis.

The best "drink your wine
and bawl your eyes out CD",
and then you replay it


then switch to  
Joan Jett

to say my musical taste is diverse

is 

well

right as rain

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

FRIED

Fried Brains
Fried Blogger
Fried Eggs

Still working with my air conditioning company
on the repair of my attic truss they cut through
while installing new unit.
uh huh yep - of course.... 
Meanwhile fancy thermostat decided to 
channel Frankenstein's monster and
spring to life,

"It's ALIVE"

 as for two days
it has had the ability to raise itself 
to higher temperatures
all by itself.

Frustrating yes, but the real 
pain in the tuckus is that this thermostat
talks. Yep, weird male voice that announces
any action it performs. 
Soooo no matter the time of day,
or night in this case,
you'll hear...
"81"
"82"
..."95"

It is 3 am and I am awakened
by Howie freaking out downstairs.
Howie is growling and running in circles and this
male voice is counting up
"93"
"94"
"95"
I nearly fall rushing down the stairs
half asleep hearing male voices.
So it's true like in scary movies.
Women DO run down to the 
pitch black basement or
open the closet door to look behind...
( Not really, I knew it was the thermostat)

I discover Justice lying right at the base
under the swing gate at foot of the stairs.
To those who don't remember Justice is deaf.
The gate is to protect her from
falling up and down the stairs 
as she is also 90%  blind.

So I gently tap her on the head
 and she startles and slams up into the gate
from underneath and RIPS all four screws 
out of the wall, causing the gate to 
crash down behind her. 
She is terrified
but unhurt.
Howie views this
all as some attack from within  
and promptly runs to chew
 the side of the Ballard Design $$$
 burlap tablecloth he munches on 
when in distress.
HOWIE!!!!! NO!!!!

It is too damn hot for this....
hot enough to fry an egg,
well, you know


and if you don't here is a link on how to do it.
Seriously?
A link?
NUMEROUS LINKS

GET LIVES people!!!


Some mornings the world tilts off sideways 
pretty early for me.
Blogger keeps sending me pink alert messages
that have nothing to do with anything I am doing.
ALERT- this space cannot be left blank
Huh?

118
117
116
115
Our red hot numbers this week.
Death Valley I heard hit 129.
People were driving there to have their
photos taken in front of a big thermometer.
Again..
Really people?
Risk your health and perhaps
blow up your car for a photo op?
Some people have fried brains.

Fried eggs
Fried Blogger
Fried Brains


True Blood and Falling Skies
are back 
Newsroom is close..
coming back right before my signpost B-day.
I watch very little TV
so this is momentous.




As for me?
I have a working air conditioner.
Lots of iced tea
and eggs.

I'm good.