Journal: Cleaning, Cooking, Cutting, & Cats

There’s another wedding coming up!  The grandmother of the groom-to-be – Caleb’s brother-in-law – tells me there is a ‘coffee theme’ in the kitchen, and she is hand-embroidering tea towels with coffee cups on them.  So I’ve been looking around for ideas:  Coffee Cup Appliqué.  I need to get busy, if I’m going to sew them something!

Tuesday was spent washing clothes, sorting through things and filling boxes for the Goodwill—which is pretty much the way each day went thereafter, up to Saturday night.

I wanna quilt!  No time to sew – but I still made a quilt that afternoon.  Well... not a real quilt.  Not yet, anyway.  But an EQ7 quilt, which is quite a fun program to play with.  I call this design Baskets of Lilies:

On the way to the school to pick up the grandchildren that afternoon, there were two opposing banks of clouds to the south, with the sun shining through them – and obviously a lot of wind traveling in opposing directions.  The clouds were making thin swirls between the banks, and one thicker swirl was spinning a bit of a vortex, ruffling up the upper bank of clouds at the whirlwind’s base.  Such an odd sight to see, whatever mild sort of twister that might’ve happened to be.

And of course I didn’t have my camera!

Home again, I put another load of clothes into the dryer, folded the big wool/velvet/corduroy quilt that had finally gotten dry, and put it away. 

Now, that was a problem – the folding of it, that is – because funny ol’ Teensy cat kept scurrying into each and every new fold and rumple, trying his bestest to bury himself in it.  He loves that quilt.  I was folding it in my sewing room, so as to put it on the shelves in the closet down there.  Trying to fold it.  But... since the kitty looked so utterly cute, I left him in it for a few minutes while I cut that fur I spoke of a few days ago, and sewed it together lengthwise.

I’d hoped the cat would extricate himself from the quilt since I was no longer pulling and tugging on it so enticingly and making it such fun to hide in it; but no such luck.  Sooo...  I politely asked him to kindly remove himself, and he, being a good Christian cat, kindly did so.  I folded it once... twice...  and then the cat lost his salvation and dashed headlong back into it. 

This time, I lost my – uh, polite kindness, and cried, “Hey!!!  Get out!” 

He got out, sat down, stared at me with big, gold, reproachful eyes, and remarked, “MMmmmmrrrroowRRR!”

“Yes, well,” I replied, “I have to put it away!”

(I’m not screwy, talking to cats; I just have very intelligent cats who understand English.)  (And I, of course, understand Cattese.)

So now the scarf was ready to line, and I would do that – the next day.

Tiger, aka Fat Cat, likes to lie down beside the water bowl and drink.  Never saw a cat do that before.  Tabby wants his water in a small, rectangular lid in the bathroom.  Teensy prefers nothing but running water, pôr fąvör, from the tub faucet.  We used to have cats that liked to drink out of the toilet bowl.  One or two lost their grip and slipped in, ker-SPLOOOOSH. 

And they say cats can’t look surprised! 

About 8:00 that evening, Larry sent me a text:  “I’m priming my pup (trailer) at the shop and that will take a while.  Probably be 11:00 or so before I get home.”

It was 1:35 a.m. when he walked in the door, making that one of his better guesses.

Meanwhile, I went on cleaning out cupboards... drawers... closets...

Why do I have 50 gazillion large thermal mugs, and an equal number of lids, but nary a one of either variety matches up to another????????!!!

About the time Larry had said he would be home, I pulled some chocolate chunk/peanut butter chip cookies out of the oven, all soft and gooey and warm.  I’d baked three for each of us.

I ate my three.  That’s actually at least one too many for me; I invariably get a stomachache when I eat three.  But I’m a valiant person; I eat three anyway.  Sometimes, even two make my stomach hurt.  I courageously ignore it.  (The stomachache, not the cookie.)  Usually, a stick of spearmint gum solves the problem.

An hour later, Larry wasn’t home yet, the stick of spearmint gum had done its job as advertised – and there were three yummy-looking chocolate chunk/peanut butter chip cookies still sitting alluringly on the cookie sheet.

Whose fault do you think it was, if I ate another one?

(Fortunately, there were a couple more sticks of spearmint gum in the package.)

When Larry eventually walked into the kitchen, he paused at the stove.  Then, “What happened to the third cookie?”  (He knows I generally bake six at a time.)

I couldn’t think of any clever answer right quick-like, so instead I pointed urgently somewhere toward his feet and cried, “Don’t step on the cat!”

He automatically sidestepped, even though the cat was a good ten paces away.  The cat meowed, “Yeah!” in agreement with my advice.  I poured him (Larry, not the cat) some coffee to go with his two cookies, and life went on.

This screen on my new laptop enhances photos, just like the newer iPads do.  It sure makes a big, high-quality picture look pretty.  Trouble is... when I then post what I think is a gorgeous, stunning, dazzling, magnificent shot, do people with ‘normal’ screens see a drab, unattractive, dowdy, dingy picture?

When my oomph fizzled that night, I retired to the recliner for a few minutes, turned on the heating pad, and started watching a youtube video.  The quality was bad, so I clicked on the little gear icon to raise the resolution.  I had the option of raising it all the way to 720p, but it didn’t help in the slightest.  This is sure rotten quality, I thought, and, scrolling down through the comments, found the prize remark:  “Why was this filmed with a potato?”

(I wonder what he thinks that ‘p’ after ‘720’ stands for, hmmm?)

Wednesday, I got another big bag ready to take to the Goodwill when I went to town.  I cleaned out one cupboard in the laundry room, and cleared some things out of the pantry cupboard in the back hallway.  I filled a large trashcan with stuff... and the house still looks exactly the same.  I tell you, I really have to pick up speed!  I trotted upstairs and filled another bag in five minutes flat.  I must quit thinking ‘sort and save’, and instead think ‘donate, clear out, and throw away’!  But here’s a stack of sweaters and jeans Hannah’s boys might need...

See what I mean??

When I picked up the children after school, Emma showed me her poor little hand – a ball had hit it, and her fourth finger was all swollen and turning colors.  Teddy and Amy took her to get it X-rayed.  It’s not broken, just badly sprained.  The doctor taped it to the third finger.  Unfortunately, it’s her right hand, so writing is going to be a problem for a while.

I patched a couple pairs of pants for my brother, getting them done just before time to go to church.  Larry was painting his truck and couldn’t stop in the middle, so he didn’t make it to the service that night.  But I didn’t have to go alone; Teddy and Amy dropped off Ethan, Lyle, and Jeffrey so they could ride with me, while the rest of the family went to the doctor’s office with Emma.

After church, I brought the boys home with me.  Larry had gotten home shortly before us.  I popped a Canadian bacon pizza into the oven.  The boys, big, little, and in between, were hungry!  They discovered they liked beets, how ’bout that.  Their Daddy loved beets when he was little.  I stirred up some orange Crystal Lite, since we were out of juice, and Larry warmed up some deer meat and doled out butter crisp crackers to go with it, since we were out of bread.

Sort of an odd combination for an after-church snack, but everybody was just as happy as if they didn’t know better.

Later, I put together a little fleece doll blanket for baby Elsie using the leftover pieces from the knotted-edge fleece blanket.  And whataya know, I found a little Ty beany baby lion to go with it.  It’ll be for her first birthday, which isn’t for quite a few months.

I overlapped the edges of the squares and used a feather stitch to hold them together.  I found a piece of white fleece amongst the stuff my brother gave me that used to be Janice’s, and used it for the back.

Next, I lined the fur scarf with cream-colored doeskin satin. 

More pictures here.

Thursday, Victoria found a beautiful white nursery set – crib, dresser, rocker/slider chair, bedding – on Craigslist for $900.  She offered $750, and the lady accepted.  Kurt and Victoria picked up the furniture Saturday.  

The lady also offered to sell them a bunch of clothes and things for either a boy or a girl, once they find out what they need.

In last week’s journal, my Word of the Week seemed to be ‘sporadically’. 

My kiddos often had Words of the Week... and sometimes, Words of the Month, if I couldn’t unobtrusively insert another Big Word into their busy little brains, somehow.  When Victoria was just past two, her favorite word was ‘actually’.  She drew it out, long and precise:  “Ack... choo...uh...lee,” with a great deal of expression in both voice and face. 

Lydia liked ‘ab-suh-loot-ly!’ at about the same age.  She was so funny... I can clearly see that little oval face, big gray-green eyes earnest and sincere, when, after one of her siblings would announce, “I’m hungry!”, she’d respond, “I’m waaaay hungrier than her, because I’m starved!!”  (Not ‘starving’, but the done deal, past tense:  ‘starved’.)  When she was a little older, about age 6, she came home from one of her first days of first grade, and when one of her older brothers, having gotten home from work after school, announced, “I’m tired!” she countered, “I’m waaaay tireder than him, because I’m exhausted!” 

Hester, on the other hand, made words up.  She came in one day at about age three, all pale, eyes wide, and told me sadly, “I fell down, and I really hurt my karumpasetter!” 

Try being totally sympathetic and not laughing at that.

That afternoon, after taking more things to the Goodwill and then picking up grandchildren, I extracted my Sizzix Ellipse2 cutter from the box for the very first time, removed all the packing, plugged everything in, and prepared to give it a try.

But first, I was famished, which is waaay worse even than starved.  So I popped a fat pretzel into the oven.  Eight minutes later, it was done, and I was about to slather on butter, sugar, and cinnamon – when along came Tabby to inform me that he was dying of hunger, which is worse even than famished.

(Yes, Tabby got his food first.)

By 5:30 p.m., this was the progress report:

Sizzix Eclips2 electronic cutter, plugged in.  Check.

That was all. 

I discovered the children had added something more to the box than what actually came with it:  a 12” x 24” fabric cutting mat.  The mat that comes with the machine is 12” x 12”.

Okay.  I was ready to download and install eCAL lite software from CraftEdge.  I filled in my information, and was stymied by a notice saying, “Check inbox for an email containing your eCAL lite software Activation Link, blah blah blah.”

I checked.  I waited.

I checked, and I waited.

I checked, and then I waited with all my might and main.

Eventually, I would discover the email had landed in gmail’s Spam folder.  Grrrr.

In the meanwhile, I read through the manual.  There are half a gazillion Caution Notices on every page, including at least a dozen warning me that the blades are sharp. 

Why in the world would anybody ever make a blade that’s sharp?!  Unconscionable.  Tsk, tsk.

Nevertheless, I put the blade into the blade holder, and the blade holder into the machine. 

I found the aforementioned email with the Activation Link, copied and pasted, and finished the software download.

Pulling up the program, I chose a petal shape that would match the flower petals on the quilt I’d designed Tuesday (pictured on page 1).  After making it a size I liked, I put as many as would fit into the 12” x 24” area, then went to my sewing room, chose some fabric, and pulled out a roll of Heat ’N Bond Lite from a bin of things that were Janice’s.  I read the instructions... ironed the Heat ’N Bond to the fabric... and returned to the machine.

The manual didn’t say which way to put the fabric down, so I laid it on the mat paper side down.  Then, thinking that that just didn’t seem right, I found a youtube video that showed how to place it:  fabric side down.  So I pulled fabric and fusible back off the mat – and it was stuck good.  A bit of a residue from the fusible paper was left here and there.  Most came off okay, though.  I hated messing up the mat, first thing out of the starting gate!

I was giving a blow-by-blow account of my adventures on an online quilting group, and a friend immediately sent a link to helpful tips:  How to Clean and Restick Your Cutting Mats

The manual mentions a special Eclips2 Spray Adhesive for these mats.  But they have to be clean before the Adhesive is applied, so the tips on cleaning them will be helpful.

In a few minutes, the fabric was back on the mat, fabric side down.  The petals for the Baskets of Lilies quilt were ready to be cut.

I checked everything... checked it again... pressed ‘Load Mat’... then ‘Cut’.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

42 petals were cut from that adhesive-backed fabric in about two minutes flat!

I didn’t mean to, but... I have begun the Baskets of Lilies quilt!

Hmmmm... I need 392 petals, if I follow the design I put together in EQ7.  If I can cut 42 from each 12” x 24” sheet (and there is very little waste), that means I need a total of ten sheets of petals.

What takes the longest is cutting the 12” x 24” pieces of fabric and fusible, and ironing them together.  I’ll be using raw-edge appliqué, and cover the edges with a fine satin stitch.

I might use this machine to cut triangles and diamonds – it would sure make sewing easier, to have the cuts so accurate!

After cutting another sheet of petals, I quit for the night.  I need to finish cleaning the upstairs before I work on this quilt – and that’s going to take a while.  Plus, there are other projects I need to do first ... but I just had to try out the Sizzix.

The Eclips2 is computerized, and connects to my computer.  I can put any design or shape, even photos or drawings, into the software (including templates from EQ7), make separate layers of various parts of the design, and then cut only those parts I wish to cut from fabric, paper, vinyl, etc.  That’s useful for cutting different shapes from different fabrics.  There is a function for gradually removing detail from a photo until you have only the shapes you want.

The blade is adjustable for different thicknesses – it can even cut fiberboard.

I’ve looked at AccuQuilt GO! cutters and thought they’d be nice – but the trouble is, I rarely make the same thing twice, and dies are expensive.  Many times my designs in EQ7 wind up with odd sizes.  That’s no problem, with the electronic cutter.

Lydia has an Eclips2; she used it to make all the pretty little favors boxes for Victoria’s wedding.

The quilt for which I cut the petals will have to wait, as I have other things I want to complete first.  I chose fabric that would work for the Baskets of Lilies pattern – but if something went wrong, I wouldn’t be too sad about wrecking up a piece of it, since it’s actually a sheet I bought many years ago, though I never used it as a sheet.  It matched Hannah and Dorcas’s quilt, linens, and curtain set, and I purchased this extra top sheet to cut and sew into a circular table coverlet, complete with ruffles around the bottom, for a little round table they had in their room.  This is the leftover fabric.  Since the machine cut it perfectly, I’ll use it; I never like to waste anything.

Before going to bed, I loaded two old computer towers (Whew!  Those things are heavy!) and two old laptops into the Jeep; I would take them to Chopper’s Computers the next day.  The man takes out the old hard drives, rebuilds the computers, and sells them for very good prices. 

A friend wrote to caution me about leaving personal info on hard drives.  “It’s very hard to really, fully delete things.”

That’s true... most data can be recovered.  Even when ‘erased’, it is really only gone after it has been rewritten with other data.

But our friend Chopper who runs the computer store removes old hard drives entirely and destroys them.  His refurbished computers have only new hard drives in them.  We’ve done business with him for quite a few years, giving him our old computers, and buying a few refurbished ones.  Just for curiosity’s sake, I did a deep search on the refurbished ones – and found that, exactly as he promised, the hard drives were new.  My recovery programs showed that nothing had been put on them, except the antivirus programs and a few other basic programs with which he loads them.  It was a good place to get a cheap laptop for a couple members of the family, back when they didn’t really want (or know how) to set it up themselves.

One more reason it’s not a worry:  any information on the computers is old and outdated.  Plus, if anyone steals our ID, he’s not going to get rich, that’s a fact.

Motto:  Live so that if anyone steals your ID, they will immediately be deep in debt, hounded by bill collectors, and hunted by the Italian Mafia.

Okay, that was a joke.  You can laugh now.

Teensy and Tiger don’t get along too so awfully well.  Tiger likes to make threatening howling noises when he sees Teensy approaching his airspace, and Teensy obligingly acts scared and hightails it outa there.  I, in turn, obligingly yell at Tiger to “Be nice!”, whereupon both cats come back, Tiger to rub around my ankles purring (“Surely the bitterness of death hath passed!”, à la King Agag), and Teensy to see if I might give him a treat for being so evilly misused.  Yet this is where they often sleep – back to back on the loveseat.  And there they stay, for hours on end.

Friday as I was working my way through the stuff in Victoria’s room, I found Dorcas’ baby ring, tucked inside a very small jewelry box.  It’s a size 2.  It wasn’t terribly expensive, just gold-plate with a tiny ruby in it; but it’s pretty.  She’ll be pleased to have it.

Now and then, I paused to send a note to Victoria, asking if she wants this and that:  “Do you want your basketball?  Iron yard seat and cushion?  Card-making supplies?  Heavy-duty fancy-edge paper punch?  Desk chair?”

“The iron backyard bench was your anniversary present last year,” she replied.  “Yes, I want the basketball, no to the chair.”

“!!!!” I wrote back.  “Did I ever say thank you????????”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I’d assume so 😄,” she answered.

Just for the fun of it, I then asked, “Do you want a very small doll head with a charming smile?”

This was my answer:  😳

She asked for an address... I sent it, also asking, “Do you want any of the Barbie dolls?”

Answer:  “Thanks.  No thanks.”

Me:  “Not even this witchy one with purple hair and lips, and tall boots????!”

And the reply?  “Probably not.  😱”

This instant communication is handy (and fun) stuff!  :-D

Here’s Victoria’s room, just after she redecorated it, a year before she got married.

You know what I discovered you can do?  You can open up a large plastic bin (well, one of those the size of a large roaster) full of broken pencils and Crayolas, pens that may or may not work, old rulers and compasses, and ------- oops, hang on a second while I extract these two permanent markers ------ anyway, as I was saying, you can open the trash can, close your eyes, and upend the whole works into it, clinkety-plinkety-plunk!

And you won’t feel a bit the worse for it, either.

I did the same thing with a large drawer full of dilapidated headgear, saving only a pretty ribbon headband Hannah made.  I’ll give it to Emma.

Hearing this, a friend remarked, “Ouch!  I think of all those ‘collectible’ old ink pens you just trashed.  My grandmother had quite an extensive collection.  I wonder what happened to it.

“And the Crayolas!  They can be used to melt down and use for color in candles.  Of course, not all at once.  And that is if and when one is inclined to make candles.

“Now let’s see......what else did you throw away?  I wonder how they could be repurposed.”

“Noooooooooooo!” I cried, “you’re supposed to be encouraging me in this cleaning spree, not perpetuating my penchant for saving every speck of lint I see!

“Believe me, there was nothing collectible in the lot.  I promise you, even the diehard Goodwillers are going to be turning up their noses at some of the things I just couldn’t throw away, and tossed into the donation boxes.”

“So now you understand why I have so much stuff stored in every nook and cranny!” laughed my friend.

“Well, it’s not too bad if it stays nicely in its nooks and crannies,” I told her.  “It’s when it starts escaping that it gets bad.  That’s called ‘nookicreep and crannicrawl’, when that happens.”

Victoria once tried melting candlewax – in a shallow lid in the microwave.

The inside of that microwave was bespeckled with mulberry wax ’til the day it died.  Food smelt mulberryish for a looong, long while, too.  Even a mug of coffee warmed in that appliance emerged with a decidedly mulberry disposition.

A little after 2:30, I took the old laptops and towers to Chopper’s Computers.  I mailed some things, went to the bank, took three bags of stuff to the Goodwill, then stopped at Dollar General for one or two vital necessities.  By the time I got to the school, it was 3:23 p.m. – I had 7 minutes to spare.  Good timing, eh?

Home again, I got the built-in drawers in Victoria’s room cleaned out.  The frame they are in is open to the rafters – and there have been mice in there.  Squirrels, too, I think – they’ve destroyed the, uh, fluff.  ?  Oh – insulation.  Yuck.  Something must be done about this.

Perhaps you’ll recall that Victoria painted her room a little over a year ago?  Well, the bottom built-in drawer was as good as glued shut (see them in the corner behind the vanity).  I tugged on the handle – and pulled the front of the drawer right off, since the drawer was stuck tight to the frame.

I sorted the stuff... washed the doll clothes that were in them (things just don’t store well in pine drawers or cardboard boxes, you know that?)... put some in bags for the Goodwill... threw some away... and put some in bins to save for Victoria, as she has requested.  Then I scrubbed the drawers good and proper and left them to dry.

In the future, if I really need to use those drawers, I will purchase plastic lidded tubs that fit in them, until Larry has time to enclose the frame.  There are two sets of like drawers in Caleb’s old room – with the identical accompanying problems, I’m sure.

And then the room was done, and I was ready to start on the cubbyhole, if my back would just quit complaining.  I pulled open the cubbyhole doors – and heard Larry coming in the back patio door downstairs.  So I went and fixed supper, instead.

I decided chicken tortilla soup from Schwans was exactly what we needed.  Mmmmm, it’s good... but is it ever hot stuff!  We chased it with pears, just to cool our mouths off.  Then we went to town, dropped off three more bags at the Goodwill, and continued on to Menards for a filter for the shop vac.  On the way back, we stopped at Hy-Vee for cottage cheese, orange juice, cherry turnovers, and bananas.  Turnovers never, ever make it all the way home.

(I really do need to put wet wipes in the Jeep for sticky fingers.)  ;-)

Larry put the filter into his shop vac, cleaned out the cubbyhole where the drawers had been, fixed the drawer I’d mangled, and put them all back. 

Meanwhile, I started getting things out of the big cubbyhole behind the closet.  It was absolutely clear full.  I mean, completely clear full.

I emptied out two bins... put a box and a bag into the Jeep... got another two bags ready to go... and quit for the night, as joints in all manner of locations were protesting.

And Larry was sick.  He’d been getting a cold for a couple of days, and by Friday night, it was full-blown bad case.

When the kids were little, Lydia (I think it was Lydia) got a cold... and was the only one in the family who was sick.  She’d evidently heard us discussing contagious bugs, saying we’d gotten a cold from this one, or the flu from that one ......... so she said mournfully, “I have a bad cold, and nobody else does.”  ((a sad shake of the head))  “I must’ve gotten it from my dolly!”

I hit the hay, almost fell asleep, and then thought, What if Bobby and Aaron come for Victoria’s old mattress and box springs, and I haven’t cleaned it? 

It didn’t look too bad, but I wanted to scrub it a bit before they took it.

At 3:25 a.m., unable to bear it a moment longer, I scrambled back out of bed, grabbed the Resolve and a cloth, trotted upstairs, and sprayed and scrubbed, sprayed and scrubbed.  I came back downstairs for a bowl of hot water, trotted back up, and dipped and wiped, dipped and wiped.  It looks pretty good now, except for one spot that I suspect is black Chinese ink.

The mattress was an expensive one from the furniture store in town, and it’s still nice (if you discount the Chinese ink).

When I was quite young, I once complained to my father, who was a minister for 48 years before passing away in 1992, “Why do we have to sleep?!  It wastes so much time.”

And Daddy, who had a Bible verse ready and waiting for any possible situation, told me, “King David wrote in the Psalms that the Lord ‘giveth His beloved sleep’.  We don’t want to be like ‘the troubled sea, that cannot rest’ (i.e., evil people)!”

Ah.  Well.  Now that you put it that way.

So...  I don’t complain about time wasted in sleeping.  Or... well...  that is, I try not to.  There’s just so much to do, you see!

But... it sure feels good to climb onto a nice fresh sheet under a soft microfleece blanket, with a flannel quilt on top.  When I got that cozy microfleece blanket, I did away with the cotton top sheet, because I so love how the blanket feels. 

Saturday, Victoria wrote to ask my opinion on baby names.

“That’s not my business!” I informed her.  “You can name yer offspring’n whatever name you dearly so well wish!”

She threw out a few suggestions, trying to coax an opinion out of me.

“I’ll leave you to work out your own delightful dilemma,” I answered.  “I prefer not to name other people’s kids.”

Silly girl.  I never told a soul the names we’d chosen for our babies!  At least, not until they were born, I didn’t.

Maybe part of the reluctance springs from the fact that when my niece Susan was born, they didn’t name her right away.  Lura Kay was still in the hospital when John H. stopped by our house.  I met him outside.  I was 12.

“Did you name her yet?” I asked, all excited.

“We’re debating between Sharon and Susan,” he told me.

I immediately made my choice (because that’s what I do, you know):  “I like Sharon best!”  (I loved the name Sharon, and didn’t like the name Susan at all – though I soon, and quite abruptly, changed my mind.)

He smiled, always kind to his little sister-in-law, and went into the house.

In a day or two they announced that the baby’s name was ‘Susan’.  I spent a good long while worrying over whether or not he remembered, or had told anybody, specifically my sister, that I had chosen the name ‘Sharon’, and would they therefore think that I didn’t like the baby, since I had chosen the ‘other’ name!

Such things as worry 12-year-olds.

I went on pulling boxes out of the cubbyhole that day – and kept finding more mouse tracks.  Ugh.  Do any of you have that particular malady where, once you use a particular cleaner on a particularly yucky area, you then don’t like the aroma of the cleaner anymore?  Orange Lysol, for instance, makes me think, ‘litter box’.  (I’m glad I don’t need it much anymore, since getting bigger and better litter boxes, and especially since Kitty went to the Happy Mousing Grounds.)  Hard Surface Pet Mess Cleaner now makes me think, ‘Mouse Citadel’.  Perfectly good scents, in themselves. 

Well, except for Pine Sol Original Scent.  That’s baaaad.  Even though it’s been 45 years, it never fails to remind me, Danny, Jr., threw up in the choir loft smack-dab in the middle of the Christmas Program.

There are three large cubbyholes in the upstairs, one in each bedroom and one in the little office I used to use.  My big oak rolltop desk is still in there.  I had that room spic-and-span... until Somebuddy trashed it.  Maybe multiple Somebuddys. 

No more stuff will be stowed in cubbyholes – at least not in their far reaches!  They’re too hard to access.  Larry has Big Plans to build pull-out shelves for them, or to make built-in bookcases. 

After working on something that morning, Larry came home and took a nap.  He hoped to work on his garage, as it was a nice day – sunny, not windy, and the temperature got all the way up to 50°.  But when his alarm went off, he reset it.  Half an hour later, it went off – and he reset it again.  And again. 

“Why don’t you stop making yourself miserable, and just sleep?!” I suggested, and he actually took me up on the idea, and turned the silly alarm off entirely. 

He slept most of the day – which tells you he really was sick.  That evening, he got up long enough to eat supper and to pull the rest of the boxes from the cubbyhole for me.  The once-empty room is full again.  Many of those boxes are heavy, as they are full of books.  I was younger and tougher when I put them in there!  I found the little blue hardback King James Version Bible with the beautiful pictures that we gave Lydia for her fourth birthday.  That was 21 ½ years ago.  It’s still in good condition, even though she used it every day for a good five years.  She liked to have it on her lap when we all sat down for family devotions each evening, and of course she carried it to church three times a week.  I gave it back to her last night.

I cleaned out the big hope chest in the living room – the one Larry made me when we were teenagers – that had a heap of videos and a few cassettes in it.  There were even about a dozen vinyl records, too.  All but a couple dozen home videos went to the Goodwill.  Our DVD player has the capacity of recording from video tape to DVD.  I suppose I should do that one of these days?  Or not.  

The back of the Jeep was clear full, and the middle seat was partially full with things to give the kids the next day.  The cats are having the time of their lives exploring the cubbyhole and boxes while I clean – but Teensy was delighted when I quit for the night and sat down in the recliner.  He didn’t quite give me time to get the heating pad behind my back and the fleece blanket adjusted before he landed on my lap.  Soon he was making things difficult by trying to lie on his side, partially upside down with his back to my laptop, and his paws wrapped around me front and back.  What a cat.

Teensy is the nicest kitty we’ve ever had – and we’ve had a number of nice cats.  Hmmm... ((...counting...))  We started with Calico Kitty.  She was born on our wedding day, and lived to be 14.  Next, there was Black Kitty, a stray who came to Larry’s auto shop.  We brought her home, and a couple of months later she had three kittens, one of whom we kept – Tad.  He was the most adorable, sweetest little thing, and he doubtless would have rivaled Teensy for Best Cat in the World status as soon as he got out of the ‘I’m A Busy Just-Grown-Up Kitten’ stage, but at age 14 months he got hit by a car. 

We got Socks to take the place of Tad, though ‘Substitutes would irk a saint, for you hope they are what you know they ain’t’... but he did improve immensely, and we became quite fond of him.  He died of poisoning about four years ago.  I have no idea where he got into poison – probably at a nearby farmer’s barn. 

Tabby, another stray, came to us malnourished so badly his little ribs were squaring off instead of rounding nicely, and he had infection in both eyes.  He’s 19 years old now. 

Then along came Teensy (TNC – say it fast – The Neighbor’s Cat).  Their daughter didn’t want to take him when she moved, so she dropped him off with her parents, who put him outside when he’d never been outside in his life.  Scared, he ran away.  Victoria found him two weeks later, thirsty and hungry and frightened.  Of course he chose... us! 

Finally, Tiger, another stray, came waddling in – like the hippos in my little Golden Book on Noah’s Ark, who ‘had to squeeeeeeze through the gate, huffing and puffing, and terribly late.’

So that’s seven cats in our 37 ½ years of married life.  There have also been two dogs, a Black Lab, Ebony, and a Siberian Husky, Aleutia, a horse, a pony, a mule, a canary, three parakeets, a gazillion fish (some of whom lived in our pond for a couple of years after we moved out here, growing very large), several hamsters, guinea pigs, and a large snapping turtle that we found on the highway, harbored for a few days in a large wading pool, and dug up grubs for until we could safely transport him back to a better locale near the river.

?  How did I get off on all that?  Must’ve been big ol’ cuddly Teensy’s fault.

Larry slept Saturday night and a good deal of the day Sunday, too.  He never does that, unless he’s really sick.  Going to church without Larry makes me feel exactly like King David must’ve done when he wrote in the Psalms, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert... and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top” – plumb outa place!  Not many writings are as descriptive as the Psalms, are they?

I’d sent notes to the kids that there were things in the Jeep for them, and they could get them after church.  But I was a bit late getting out of the building, having stopped to chat with my sister and my brother.  I got out to the car to find... nary a one of my absentminded, fleabrained offspring’ns had remembered to get their things. 

I can’t be too awfully judgmental when people forget things, because heaven knows I forget stuff right along with the best of them.  I have sometimes remarked, “Someday when I get Alzheimer’s, nobody’s going to know it for just the longest time, because I’ll seem so normal!”

But this time, I told Caleb, “My children won’t know if I ever get Alzheimer’s — because they all already have it!”  heh

Well, I headed to the Goodwill to drop off the load of stuff in the very back of the vehicle (the Commander has three seats; I had the third one laid down, which makes a fairly large cargo area) (the middle one can be lain down, too, and then you can haul such things as SmartCars back there) (I never exaggerate) (much) .......  Where was I?  Oh.  Yes.  The Goodwill.  So I hopped out, a lady came trundling out with a big wheeled cart, and I started loading it up.  The lady was helping me...

People are sure helpful and nice to me.  I was once shopping in Omaha with a friend(?) back when we were teenagers.  Perfect strangers were friendly to me – but with her, not so much.  Directly, in a bit of a huff, she snapped, “Well, someday when you’re old and not so cute anymore, people won’t be so nice!”

I laughed at her.  “You have to smile at people, dearie!  Doesn’t matter how cute you are.  You have to smile.”

She sulked on.

I am now old and not so cute anymore, and I am happy to report that, just as I told my friend(?), people are nice – if you smile at them.  Plus, they’ve become helpful, into the bargain!

Solomon wrote in the Proverbs, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.”  ‘Must’!  He must, if he would have any friends.

Anyway, back to the Goodwill.  We were putting boxes and bags into the cart, when, all of a sudden, another lady had sprung from some unknown location behind me, and had reached into the Jeep, grabbed a big bag, and stepped past me to put it into the cart, too.  I turned to thank her – and it was my very own Lydia, just ready to burst into that contagious laugh of hers for surprising her mother like that.

So at least she had belatedly remembered to get her things, even if she had to trail me to the Goodwill to do it. 

After church last night, we had a little lunch of Traeger-smoked venison on 12-grain toast with tomatoes and lettuce and a tray of fresh-cut vegetables, followed by pears.  Mmmm, just right.

Larry’s cold still sounds pretty bad.  “Do you think you need to see the doctor?” I asked.

“Naaaaa...” he responded predictably; “it’s just a cold.”

That man!  At least we do have quite a number of things in the medicine cupboard that seem to be helping.

This afternoon, Loren brought me a couple dozen big, medium, and little plastic totes that he recently emptied out when he went through a spare bedroom at his house.  I knew he had empties and had wondered what to do with them, so yesterday I offered to buy them – but of course he wouldn’t take a red cent. 

So I gave him the birthday gift I got for him 2 ½ years ago and then lost, shortly before his birthday, on account of Victoria going through one of her whirlwind cleaning sprees.  (It’s a wonder people didn’t get lost, when she got into one of those.)  It’s a DVD set, ‘SwissView’, with beautiful videos of Switzerland from the air, taken with high definition cameras mounted on the landing skids of a helicopter.  The whole series is on youtube:  SwissView

I found that DVD set in the hope chest, which now contains albums, a few DVDs, and the home videos.  It isn’t nearly so crammed full now.

I’ll use the bins my brother brought for things I wish to keep but still need to store – things that are now in boxes.  Living out here in the country with cornfields all around, we wage ongoing battles with mice and field voles.  Ugh, are they ever destructive little beasts!  Thankfully, they don’t seem to have destroyed any books or albums.

I just put away the last load of clothes, and folded a faux suede/Sherpa blanket I made for Victoria a couple of years ago (if merely hemming it can be called ‘making’ it).  She doesn’t want it... and I’m not very sad about it, because I wanted to keep it, the entire time I was cutting and hemming it. 

Our State Tax refund came today, so I spent a while paying bills. 

We had Mexican pizza and a tray of fresh vegetables for supper, followed by big juicy oranges... and then M&M oatmeal cookies with chocolate chip mint ice cream. 

There’s a wilted bouquet from the funeral over there (pointing).  I keep intending to toss the flowers and save the basket, but every time I notice, I’m busy doing something else, hands clear full of bags and boxes I’ve been hauling out, and so forth.  And right now I’m sitting at the table, and if I don’t peep over the top of the laptop screen, I can’t see the wilted floral eyesore at all, so everything’s good.

’Til next week...

,,,>^..^<,,,       Sarah Lynn       ,,,>^..^<,,,