Getting My House Back
Our guest has left! Yes! As much as I wanted to be a supportive friend I learned several things during this episode.
1. Never trust Trip to making money negotiations. If we are going to “help out a friend” who is going to “chip in and give some money towards the household” I’m having that discussion. If I dwell on this I’m going to get pissed off, so moving right along…
2. Only REALLY GOOD friends get this kind of help. This friend was a passing acquaintance of mine – and apparently not that close a friend of Trip’s. Too many things were too awkward to say – and with a really good friend we shouldn’t have that problem. Also, I think really good friends would understand more the nature of the helping – and contribute accordingly.
3. No exercise equipment or storage! I can’t go into too many details – but putting up a friend is one thing – storing all the assorted bullshit this person feels the need to cart around is ridiculous.
But my guest room is back – I will be sending a bill for the difference in our water bill – and now I have another big project to move forward on. In the midst of this “visit” I did a major house purge. The results of that work are now piled unattractively in my dining room. In addition, for over a year I have had several other things piled under furniture in my dining room that fall in the “Sell on Ebay” category – which for me always means PROCRASTINATION! So TODAY I am going to move the stuff for the yard sale over to the location of the sale – Trip’s Aunt’s house. And TODAY I am going to list SOMETHING on Ebay – enough is enough! And we need the money!
Speaking of which – we had a little reprieve from our woes. Trip sold some computer stuff to a friend and we got a nice bit of money to hold us over till his next paycheck which will hopefully include the raise. when I typed that line I felt an ominous stressful clutch in my stomach – so I forced myself to check the bank account and it looks okay. I would love to never have that sick feeling again. Someday!
I finished reading Getting Things Done – and although I haven’t fully processed my IN box – still need to collect it all – I have:
Purged all the rooms of the house including the attic & basement (except my sewing room – just the corners left, also in the interest of full disclosure I was unable to face the “Skinny Summer & Skinny Winter” clothing bins in the attic)
Cleaned out my email program of over 100 old messages – several replies I needed to make (some several years old!)
Cleared my desk – but I already need to do it again
In addition, my “This is My Life” photo scanning project is complete through July of 2002. I got my digital camera in November of 2003, so I will be done soon. Eden was a big help to me, scanning and photo editing. She rules!
Regarding Eden – she came (forced to sleep on the couch as my guest room was still under siege) for a two night visit and we had a GREAT time. She was wonderful with the boys – even reading them stories to put them to sleep – and remarkably she moved Nathan into the boys room – he is finally out of our bed. Granted, we weren’t ready to push the issue – although there have been a few times lately when I’ve wished he was out already. But it just happened while she was here – and I am not going to go backwards! He still wakes up a little disoriented and sometimes cries in the morning, but that’s fine. Progress! I guess I have to go make the kids breakfast and move through the day. My list said “Update Blog” at the top for several days now. It’s said Exercise for even longer. (since last month when I got The Curse!) but now I’m going to force myself to do it. List for today:
Make breakfast
15 minute super fast houseclean (which will put it all back nicely)
Exercise – Abs, Gluteals at least, maybe later a bike ride
Move stuff to Aunt Kathi’s house
List 15 things on ebay
I’ll report back here next time.
Stressed about $
I would so love to not have to worry about money constantly. And I am SO looking forward to our house guest “checking out” this weekend. Of course, someone who is checking out has usually paid to stay, and that is NOT the case here. This despite the fact that I very clearly asked Trip and was assured that they had spoken about it. The balls on someone to stay and entire month, taking showers, doing lots of laundry (running the dryer with one shirt when he wants to press it!), having his kids over (and all showering – using up about 40 towels in the process) and never offering a dime! My sister is supposed to come this weekend – and I am having a yard sale – and I have had to stage the piles of stuff in the dining room, instead of the primo corner of the living room because of that freakin exercise machine of his. Good Grief! I will move on…
Something nice happened the other day. I was reading My Confederate Kinfolk by Thulani Davis and I was completely moved by her words. I was agitated and emotional – it’s hard to describe exactly what was going on with me – except that I felt she had expressed some deeply held feelings for me. So I thought I had to talk with her. (crazy?) I Googled her in NY, and boom – a phone number. I called and she answered. And the stammering began. I wasn’t exactly stammering, but I WAS extremely nervous and honestly didn’t know how to begin. But I was polite, apologetic for disturbing her at home, and had the forethought to ask if it was a good time for her to talk or if she would prefer I contact her by email. She was on the other line, and had to walk the dog, and said I could email her. I wrote her a nice, and rather coherent note – explaining my feelings and how I was enjoying her book. She wrote back a wonderful note – it was her birthday and she said my note was “a lovely present”. She checked out my website and admired my work in many areas. She looked me up on a map and noted that she had been to Long Branch. I would love to meet her some day, and talk some more. She is the kind of person I could see being a friend to.
The day started so nicely, and then I got The Good News. Trip called to say his raise had gone through (with the Retro Pay of about $500.) so could we go out to dinner? Sure! I picked him up at the train station, we went out to Ichiban where I had my favorite – Una Ju – broiled eel over rice with oshinko pickles, miso soup and a double salad order – PLUS a Blue Hawaiian! Then we went grocery shopping on the way home – I had been waiting till he got paid because things were so dire. Then we got home and THE BAD NEWS. He DID NOT get the raise yet. He mistakenly looked at Retro Pay Year to Date (that showed his last late payment of a raise). So now (after paying all the bills I had stacked up) we have to live on $55 till August 2. WTF!
Yesterday I shifted into high gear preparing for the yard sale. I purged the basement, the bathroom cabinets, and my dresser. Then M___ came over and helped me with the boys closet, my closet, and the attic. It would be nice if Trip would actually do some in his office – or at least tidy it up – I asked him. But he said he already did get rid of everything. JUST TRY LOOKING!!!! If I can do the whole freaking rest of the house – can’t he do his damn office!!!??! Then we got our tax bill. The property taxes are going up by what averages to $120 a month starting August 1. I can’t get a break!!!
So now it’s Friday. I’m hoping the kids will cooperate so I can take the to the nice park and the Spray Ground, but it’s not starting out well. Alex is whining because his shorts keep falling down and won’t change them. I gotta go move the day along. Adios!
Getting Things Done – Again!
When I first discovered David Allen’s Get Things Done – I found his website after searching through some personal productivity sites – I really was thrilled, and immediately found myself blazing through “things” in a remarkable way. However, I never really implemented his system, and maybe haven’t quite yet, but I’ve gotten much further along. I sat at my desk yesterday and collected my “in” box. I’ve been thinking of a few things here and there, but already the mental distraction of “projects left undone” is lifting. My desk is still clear. Of course, I already had a great deal of my projects listed in my Life Balance program, but it is much fuller now. I also adjusted a very important reminder – a key part of David Allen’s system. I had put in my Life Balance program Weekly Review, but I forgot to set it to remind me weekly, so naturally, it never got done again. I am currently borrowing his book through inter-library loan, and find the ideas are really sinking with much more clarity of purpose. My Current Projects have been separated from Someday/Maybe with greater distinction, so there is less likelihood of my simply skipping over them because I never really committed myself to finishing them. I’m learning how to split Projects into Action Steps so that I can take those Next Actions and move forward. In the past, I just included the Project in my list – but would never attempt any progress. (No more “Update Website”!) Now I have broken it up into small tasks that can be done and checked off. So in the last two days I’ve:
Made a Thorough Sweep of my desk, it’s drawers and files, in order to get a real handle on my In Box.
Read 1/3 of a book: My Confederate Kinfolk, by Thulani Davis. It’s right up my alley!
Purged my Sewing Room bookshelves
Mowed the lawn
Folded & put away a load of laundry
Trimmed the edges with my weed wacker
Swept my front walk
cleaned out my fridge
Started dinner hours ago in the Crock Pot(!)
Took the kids to Spring Lake Park – I always give myself “Good Mom” points when I get the kids to the park.
While I was at the park, I ran into an old friend and neighbor of mine with her new baby daughter. It’s funny because out of everyone I knew in that area, including this girl’s brother’s and sister, she is the only person I’ve ever seen again, and this is about the 3rd time. I see her about once every 5 years at this point. But now I think we’ll keep in touch. It was so nice to see her and she looked so happy and vibrant. We weren’t best buddies as kids, but she seems really sweet. I was glad to hear that her sister is also happy (with 3 boys, naturally) but also attachment parents, and is like minded in many ways from what I hear. Her daughter is from China, and of course had me thinking about adopting again. It doesn’t take much, does it. Anyway, I’m off to exercise! (I fell off the exercise wagon – as I do every month – when I got “the Curse”.) Despite repeating affirmations about daily exercise, I haven’t really been good with it. I’ll try again. Holding steady at 150 pounds, Goddess help me!
Hot & Sweaty – but not in a good way
I’m enjoying a little quiet while my kids veg out in front of a Pokemon DVD that I’ve been saving for just this sort of opportunity. I had a really nice play date with my new friend L____ – it was so funny, her mother in law remembers me from the Smocking Club and from when I worked at Royce Sewing Center, and she loved my work. L____ has said she is so impressed with the house and my talents – and her mother in law apparently is too. I felt very special receiving their praise – it made me think I ought to be doing more with my life. Anyway, the boys get along really well – and the house is in terrific shape even after a 6-boy playfest, so that in itself is a miracle.
I have a few things to take care of – better make a list. I’m trying to think of what has transpired since I last wrote. Sunday I scrapbooked several pages of my 2002 photos – almost ran out of paper again, but I’m up to July. Monday I cleaned house, then went to a viewing for S____’s grandmother, who passed away last week. It was very fortunate that the dates for the service worked out well for my mother and father-in-law to take the boys so I could be there for her. Then I came home, pruned the front plants, swept the porch, cleaned out the fridge, pickled some cucumbers, made gazpacho, made kale salad, made grilled vegetables and shrimp, and a great salad for dinner, then after dinner played with my new software – Apple iWork – which includes Keynote & Pages. I thought that it would be great for me to use Keynote to do digital scrapbooking, but I think I am mistaken. It turns out to be much more of a learning curve for me, and I am beginning to think it’s a much better idea for me to try out that Memory Mixer – even though I’m pissed about the fact that it is supposedly a great mac program that seamlessly works with iPhoto, iTunes, and what not – it doesn’t send the movie to iDVD without a major intervention – basically doing all the sound editing from scratch and making it line up. I don’t want a CD Rom that I have to use in someone’s computer, I want to be able to send the thing right to iDVD! But it’s looking like a really nice program. Just have to save $79.00. I checked my but Life Balance “List of Things to Do” and though I can easily skip over the things at the top – according to my preference to balance my life with Me time among my other responsibilities and projects – it’s time to do my nails, steam my face & exercise. But instead I skipped those and went straight to “Pay Bills” (more like record the damage already done, and make note of the bills that will be paid late, when money is there to pay them!). Next was “Update Blog”. At least that’s good! After that I think I need to run around and give the house a 15 minute once-over. Then:
Take out the trash
Figure out Dinner
Vacuum Upstairs
Dust Upstairs
Then maybe some more scrapbooking.
Tomorrow it would be great if I could list some things on ebay – it’s amazing how fast that $300 went. Trip’s raise didn’t go through on time, although they submitted his paper work early – so annoying. At least they said it is retroactive, but that doesn’t help me right now. I have a late car and an almost late house payment! Eek! I bought gas and food with my Paypal money. My new hard drive arrived, but Trip couldn’t get it to mount, so he’s carrying on about the effort required to take apart my computer and that it might not work. Either way, I’m sure he’ll be complaining about it, and I will do my best to ignore the worst of it. It’s just his way.
I’m feeling quite a bit depressed again. I realized at Mimi’s funeral that another aspect of my wanting a baby girl – although I consider myself an enlightened woman – raising my kids without gender prescribed roles. It’s simply more socially acceptable and welcome for girls to nurture – period. And I witnessed that in action with Mimi and her family – it’s the girls who act as social glue. And I’m still just hurt about missing a girl. And I want to leave NJ and go to North Carolina.
Plus we had an incident with condoms that got me kind of pissed. I’m a bit annoyed now with our extended houseguest situation. I am sexually frustrated. I feel trapped and unhappy. I keep trying to remind my self to “Be Here Now” and not to neglect my current situation and miss the good things about my life, but I can’t help thinking about what is missing and the things I am so sad about. I am feeling angry that Trip is not even thinking about moving to Asheville now, and my baby dream is going to go up in smoke if I wait too long. I wonder if I’m being stupid by staying in a situation where I feel like these very important things are wrong, and my husband is not with me. I want to run away.
Why am I awake? 3:07am
I actually didn’t realize how late it was, but I’m going to pay for this tomorrow! Today was so busy – productive, but it seems like two days packed into one. Here’s the brief list of today:
1. Went to the Community Garden and picked Raspberries! And lettuce, beans and cut a nice bouquet of flowers. (plus some pretty nasturtium flowers and leaves which I intended for a salad, but just ate out of the bowl!)
2. Came home and met my mom & stepfather and we got ourselves together and spent about 3 hours at the beach, where I got to visit with my cousin in law and another friend I haven’t seen in ages. The kids were great and had a ball.
3. Cleaned & prepped my food
4. Kind of planned this upcoming week’s menu
5. Did a major grocery shopping trip.
6. Exchanged several emails with the guy for whom I am beta testing software.
7. Did another upgrade on my purse – it now has a stiff inner panel with several pockets for holding stuff: My cell phone, business card case, pens & my coupon book along with a small notepad. It has a much better structure to it now. Just a key hook of some sort, and a small makeup case, and I’ll be done with this batch of projects.
Yesterday I had a nice play date at the beach with L_____ a new friend I met through M_______. We get along really well, she has 3 boys also, just have a few major differing opinions on religious matters, but nothing so major it keeps us from enjoying each other’s company. I even got the kids into the tub afterwards without a big ordeal. I did a lot of shopping with my pay from the first batch of beta testing – I bought a hard drive upgrade – more than tripling my storage capacity!, a new version of Apple Keynote – which I intend to use for digital scrapbooking, but it appears no one else has really been using it this way, despite a large upsurge in digital scrapbooking (recent stories in Times and Forbes!) I also am sitting on purchasing a really nice set of scrapbook paper, because I can’t do it right now – need to chill out on spending! That said, the first thing I did when my Paypal draft arrived was call Trip and ask if he wanted to order take out! It was Vietnamese & Thai food, though, delicious as always and worth every penny. ($34.77!)
I can’t think of any other major events to report. I need to be a little more grateful for things in general, so I’ll say that today I was especially grateful for my darling boys. This morning I awoke to see Nathan smiling at me and patting me gently, curled up with me as he is every night. They really are sweeties. I’m going to get to sleep before the sun comes up. Enough is enough.
Rainy Day
It’s 7:40 – pouring rain and has been all night. I am hoping fervently that I can drop my kids off with M_____ in order to redeem my 2 hour kid watching credit. I’m ready for some time off. The house is completely put together. Yesterday was a crappy day for Trip & I. He really talks to me in an asshole tone sometimes and he did that yesterday.
After finding out that at least two huge blabbermouths know that one of our married friends is staying here – I decided I’d really feel more comfortable about everything if I spoke to his wife – opened to lines of communication, told her my feelings and got to hear hers, rather than just worrying about it. I drove her husband to the train station, and told him what I thought, and he gave me his blessing. After that, when I spoke to Trip on the phone, I mentioned it, and had the pleasure of being yelled at! Like I’m some kind of dolt for even thinking it. But again, it wasn’t what was said as much as HOW it was said. Such an asshole! Then in the evening I was making dinner. I had turned off the central air early in the day because it’s just too expensive to run, but I had not yet opened up all the windows and it was getting pretty hot. I was sure he’d be mad at me for a) turning off the air, and b) not opening up all the windows. So I tried opening some of them, but let’s face it, cooking in the summer makes the kitchen get hot. He came in and immediately starts with the sighing (I HATE THAT!!!!!) followed by sarcastic comments (It’s great to be home) – I tried to jokingly insert, “You mean, ‘I’m so glad to see you!'”, followed by mild berating about how sticky it is in the house, why did I open the windows, etc. It was much cooler but damp outside. I wanted to tell him to go out on the porch where it was much cooler and go fuck himself.
So I finished dinner, ate without talking, barely looked at him all night. And I stayed up to fold 2 loads of laundry, make iced coffee for this morning, clean house, take out the trash, and generally avoid him until he went to sleep. By the way, it’s like day 5 with no “dating”. Last night was out of the question – I was so pissed. But Tuesday night? he was tired, Monday night? hot and tired, Sunday night? probably tired, Saturday night? who knows. WTF!!!! How did I wind up with the only man in the world who is completely disinterested in sex?!? And now he’s trying to be a little bit nice to me – but I’m still kind of pissed. And he would never in a million years apologize for the way he spoke to me. What kind of idiot am I to just put up with that. I should have yelled at him yesterday, but I was a little shocked both times. I think I always feel shocked. I wish I could have taped it all – because he never can recall the venom in his voice.
When I started typing this, I thought it was Friday for some reason. Now I am going to figure out what to focus on today. I woke up M____ yesterday when I called at 9:00am, so I am afraid to call her yet to ask her to take my kids. Wish me luck!
Partied Out
It’s been a sociable holiday weekend – the Superman movie then a party at M___’s house last night, a barbecue at Aunt Doreen’s Sunday, the Ocean Grove Parade and Riley’s birthday party Saturday. I did wind up finishing mom’s cupcakes and also made a very nice gift for them for their anniversary. I forgot to take a picture, but will get one soon. It’s an accordion scrap album in a tin. Of course, the sky was lightening by the time I got to bed, but I was glad to be finished.
I found out today that in spite of MY scrupulous silence on the subject of our house guest B______ (in order to protect the privacy of his family) two of the biggest blabbermouths in the world know about it, and now I’m all concerned that I am the topic of discussion, and perhaps people are finding a way to make our family hospitality into a bad thing. As far as I’m concerned, of course, I’d rather NOT have an extended houseguest, and one more man to clean up behind in the bathroom, but B____ is really no hardship, and I think we are helping out him and his family by giving him a place to stay so close to his home and without the unbearable stress he was having at his parents’ house. I asked for my husband’s reassurance before we were committed to this that he would be chipping in something to us for staying here – but I haven’t seen or heard a thing more about it. I’m kind of pissed about that – it’s a minor thing, but I thought it was only fair and good business between friends that if you are asking something a little above and beyond the call of regular friendship, particularly since he said, “I’ll chip in a little something for staying there.” (or something similar). I also understand that we were not invited to a friend’s barbecue yesterday which might have been an oversight (although it has happened more than once). It’s possible that there has been some division along religious lines due to some social discussions that got a little heated – but I wasn’t part of them – and of course, now that I know that our houseguest situation has been made public knowledge, I wonder if that has something to do with it. I almost don’t want to know, but part of me thinks I should call up B___’s wife and just speak my piece.
Yesterday M____ had a barbecue that was bring your own beverage, bring your own food and I was just a little peeved about that – but not really – I was more hopeful of the event and the chance to socialize with grownups. I have to say I was even happy about Trip’s engagement in the party – I always find myself hoping that he will decide he’d like to socialize some more, but God forbid I should suggest this – I’m sure I’ll get some eye-rolling and an earful about how he hates people and parties. In any case, I somehow managed to drink the entire pitcher of Strawberry Margarita’s and even got baked with another friend, but did not make an ass of myself and had a fabulous time. My only complaint was that I had some bloating gas – and several times when I stood up I was mortified at my stomach, but completely unable to pull it in and rather uncomfortable from the pain of the gas. Not cool. So I am sure I looked extra fat. And I haven’t been jogging or doing my DVD. I always get thrown off when I take those days off when I get “the curse”. I wish I could go away to a fat camp or something.
Today I finished up some more beading on my iPod case – that might be the last of it – and added hooks to keep it shut. I also put in some time cleaning up my desk and then mowed the lawn. I realized that despite a major spurt of activity when I first discovered David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I never really implemented his program fully – and I never do a weekly review. I am finally getting around to it again – requested his book through interlibrary loan. (I finally put all my Book Wishlist into my Palm Pilot Splash Shopper program, so I can whip out my list at the library and check the items off as they come. I kind of want to scrapbook a little today. I still didn’t get paid so I feel like I can’t do any more scanning – I’m running out of Hard Drive space and can’t keep adding pictures. One other thing I took care of – I dated and photographed the last 2 years of the boys artwork, and I’m going to quick burn those to iDVD so I can clear them off my computer. That’s progress!
Burning the Midnight Oil
It’s 12:25am, and I’m up baking cupcakes for my mother in law’s birthday, as she requested. I should be working on my in-laws late anniversary gift – but here I am typing. Perhaps I should have been working on any one of these things before right now, but I’ve been busy scanning pictures. I’m up to about 1990 in my entire life’s catalog of pictures. I don’t know why I decided to do this right now. (before I am able to purchase my memory upgrade – sorely needed. I’m down to 10.76GB on my 80GB hard drive. I’m anticipating purchasing a new one as soon as I receive some Paypal money – but surely I’ve got other things to work on in any case.) In the past few years, I have gone through my entire photo catalog (which is in chronological order in album photo sleeves) and scanned all the pictures I thought were especially precious to my mom – to make her “This is your life DVD. And I also did that with my Grandma Mary Gwyn in mind. Over the last 3 days, I’ve been going through and scanning all the pictures I personally loved. 100 of them (spanning 1969 – 1987) were scanned, cropped, adjusted, named & dated and have been imported to iPhoto and MemoryMiner. 161 of them (spanning 1986 – 1990) have had everything done except being imported to iPhoto or Memory Miner. (I’m actually afraid of hogging up too much memory – for now I know I can just move the whole lot of them onto a CD and put them back when I’m ready with more Hard Drive space.)
This whole process has been such a walk down memory lane. I also found myself wondering “Whatever happened to…?” as I easily do. I Googled my old friend Brent Kort – to find that he was in a band in Tucson several years ago, but who knows what he’s up to now. I was kind of bummed, because I didn’t think I had any photo of him, but then I found one of him and Eden, peeking up a slide at a playground. I had just pushed her down. All of it has made me miss my old acquaintances – and has had me thinking long about the people who passed through my life so briefly, but whom I would call dear friends. And then there are the several X boyfriends. My oh my! That got me thinking about the editing process – who do I leave out of my photo montage, and why? Embarrassment? Lack of Hard Drive Space? Just coldly pretending they weren’t there by omitting their photo from the collection? Why am I even doing this? Because I can – and because I am endlessly fascinated by the process.
But I’ve got so much to do before I can go to sleep – and I’d love to get the house straightened up so we can start fresh for the busy weekend. Aside from scanning and general business – I also took the boys out to the beach today for the first time this season. At least it was still in the month of June. It was nice – until I got my messages to find that Trip needed me to scramble and get him at the train station in Long Branch. It wasn’t so bad – he was home early and we had a family movie after dinner – Back to The Future part 3 – after catching parts 1 & 2 the past two nights. Watching that movie and seeing my old high school pictures gave me an unwelcome reminder of the ugliness of the 80’s. The hair was so big!
Here’s a few prize shots from the batch through 1987:
Kindergarten 1975
4th Grade 1978
Senior Class Florida Trip
60’s Day
While I was at the beach, I got started on the finally stitching for my iPod case. I posted pictures of it in my last post, but I realized it was far to flimsy – just one layer of quilting fabric around plastic forms (which are heavy duty quilter’s template plastic sheets.) Every edge seemed like it would just wear through from minor use. I turned the case inside out again, and cut out two layers of heavy weight fusible non-woven interfacing to fit exactly over wrong sides of the inside and outside of the case. Then I fused those layers to both wrong sides and also added some quilt batting to the back (behind the iPod) to cushion it if it ever (God forbid) goes crashing to the ground. You follow? So it’s much thicker now – so much more sturdy. I started to close the opening and hold the forms in place all around it, but decided that I’m going to bead it at the same time – I’ll show pictures when it’s all done, but I’m really happy with the way it came out.
Well, cupcakes are cooling off – time to work on my accordion folded tin album – pics to follow!
New iPod & Accessory Case!
What a productive week! Thursday I made my iPod case – somehow just planned it out and measured Wednesday, fussy cut the pieces Thursday (so the bandana patterns are symmetrical), and sewed them together by the evening. My hope was to make a cute case that could fit my super fabulous Kate Spade ipod case, AND hold the ear phones and AV cable, for when I take my ipod out for a video slide show. I was pleased to do that on Friday at Eden’s house before we left for her graduation ceremony – I played a nice photo slide show of all of my digital pictures of Eden – only about 50 for now, but it was really cool to be able to just plug that into their television. Anyway, I used some more of my Alexander Henry fabric – Sisters of the Wild Frontier, with the matching bandana prints. It’s so adorable. Next up – a small make up case, and possibly a divider panel inside my swing bag with a stronger liner and some pockets for my stuff!
Late Friday night after dinner cleanup, and putzing around on other stuff, I finally made the dough for two Frangipani Plum Tarts – my cousin Duane requested them for a dinner party he was having, and I made them as birthday gifts for him. I cooked them both Friday morning and they looked and smelled delicious. I delivered them to him in Shrewsbury. Then we went up to spend the day with my Grandma in Kearny – where she gave me a nice new box of old pictures and documents, and another box and a nice tin with my Great Great Grandfather’s buttons!!!
That afternoon we went to my little sister Eden’s house – her mom Linda just moved them in with her boyfriend Ronnie to his place in Nutley. There we visited and enjoyed Eden as she got ready for her Glen Ridge High School Graduation. She looked so nice – beautiful really. All the young women wore white dresses, the young men wore white tuxedo jackets. What a nice presentation it was! Though we were on time, there were no seats or programs for us, but I got on the case and rounded up 5 seats from the gym and brought them out to the perfect spot for us to see Eden and we cheered really loud for her.
Saturday it poured rain most of the day, and I was glad I could just sleep in instead of running out to the garden this week. Not much else to share. Today I went to the scrapbooking event at AC Moore, but didn’t win any prizes or really try to work on lots of free samples or anything. Just got a few cool things. I should be earning a nice chunk of Paypal money this week, and look forward to doing a tiny bit of shopping and paying off some bills!
Hot but busy
I thought I was going to hit the ground running today, and I guess I sort of did, but I think I’m going to have to start going to bed earlier and waking up earlier if I think I’m going to be getting things done in this heat. Yesterday, despite the heat, I:
Mowed the Lawn
Trimmed the edges
Swept the back deck
Powerwashed the front of the house and porch, including the furniture ( NICE ! )
Today I:
finished fixing some of my front porch plants that needed more dirt
deadheaded the old blooms
watered all
stripped the old caulk and re-caulked the yucky parts of the bathtub (been on my list for far too long.)
same for the kitchen sink
But I have to go grocery shopping – and it’s already over 90. At least I planned the menu for the rest of the week and made my list. I promised my cousin Duane I’d make him two plum tarts for Friday. He said he’d pay me, but I noticed Saturday is his birthday, so I can’t even make a few $’s. He’s so sweet, though, I don’t mind. The house is still spiffy inside, and things have been going well with B____, our houseguest. I hope after our grocery run (which I pray is quick and easy) the kids will be up for some outdoor fun. No running or exercise yesterday, but I think my work counted for that. Off I go!
Gossamer Threads 