Monday Stuff

I just finished up a bout of Tuesday morning productivity at work, so it's time for a break. You just can't keep that stuff up non-stop. :)

Yesterday was a pretty quiet one. J worked early, and was home before me, but he had to be in at 3 in the morning today, so I was pretty much alone anyway, because as soon as the Simpsons got over at 7:00, he went to bed. I tried to Sim, but just couldn't get into it (I know! Shocking!), so I watched a movie on the Netflix site. If any of you belong to Netflix and didn't know about this, it's great. You can go online and watch anything that they have available to watch (it's not as much as what they have on DVD - not even close - but I assume the number of titles will grow), and it's included in your monthly cost! You can watch an hour for every dollar you pay per month, so you can figure that out for yourself. I'm loving this new feature, because it makes me feel less like I'm wasting my money if the DVDs sit on my desk for weeks at a time, which they have a tendency to do lately, especially if it's something J and I both want to watch. It's pretty hard to coordinate our time for DVD watching, especially when we're spending a bit of our precious joint free time organizing the house to make room for his stuff.

So I watched a movie, and I downloaded ceiling tiles from ModtheSims2, so now my Sims have ceilings! Which is a big thing if you're taking pictures to include in stories, and you don't want sky showing above the living room, or whatever. I installed them in the family college house last night, and I already love them.

And that was my exciting Monday. Neat, huh? Tonight promises to be more of the same, only I'm going to try to write up chapter 10, so I might not be watching a movie - it's kind of hard to concentrate on a movie and on writing at the same time. I do have a few more scenes to shoot for chapter 10, but I'm hoping to have enough time to do it all tonight. We'll see.

I need to find a name for this other than weekend recap

I had a very good weekend. Friday after work the washer repair man came out and fixed my washer for me. Woo! I can now wash clothes again! Which is fantastic. And he was a very interesting old guy, from the area where I live, and he knew the history of my house back to the 1920s, if not earlier. I knew who lived there before me, of course, because I bought the house from him, but this guy knew the person who lived there before them, and even who lived there before them! The original person (that he knew - probably not the original owner of the house, though) was a doctor, who used to run his office out of the house. In fact, he delivered the repair man's father! I thought that was pretty cool. I found myself trying to imagine what the house looked like when this doctor lived there in the 1920s. Where was his practice? How much of the house was there then? I know parts of it were added on in the 60s, so I imagine it was just the main two story part that was there then. I loved the idea of knowing a little, tiny bit of the history of my 100+ year old house.

Anyway, so he fixed the washer and I was able to do laundry this weekend, exciting! Or necessary, anyway.

Saturday J had to work, so I was at home alone, but the day went really quickly. I mowed the lawn, washed and hung out clothes, and of course played the Sims most of the day. I have enough played now to write chapter ten, except for one part that I need to work on first. But it'll be out sometime this week, I imagine. Maybe Tuesday night, because J has to work again.

Yesterday J and I were planning on relaxing and just watching TV and DVDs all day, but somehow we ended up cleaning and organizing the bathroom cabinet. I had given that cabinet up because of a couple of really large spiders that I had seen (and killed) in it, so I hadn't used it in years. Well, now we've reclaimed it, which feels nice. And I'm sure I'll eventually stop obsessively looking for spiders on my towels (shudder). Then we went upstairs and I helped him move his entertainment center to a different spot in his music room, and while he was fixing that up and reconnecting all of the wires, I went down and cleaned out the desk that he's been using. There were papers in that thing from the early 90s. I've never been a real organized person. But, J seems to be instilling it into me a bit, because I am much happier with the house with all of these steps that we're doing to fix things up. And now I want to clean out the desk that I use. It won't be so bad, but only because I've only had it for a few years. Hee.

And that's pretty much all the organizing we did yesterday. After that was all done, we went to Pizza Hut and got dinner, and then we relaxed. He watched the NASCAR race, while flipping back and forth from other things, and I played the Sims some more. It was nice.

And now it's Monday, and we're both back to work, and it kind of sucks. But, I can hang in there, because July 4th is next week! And my vacation is only two weeks after that. I can't wait.

Story of a very bad, no good Tuesday night

My Internet addiction is being tested, and I am NOT having fun. Plus, Tuesday night kind of sucked. :)

We had thunderstorms roll through Tuesday afternoon, starting just about the time I was leaving work. I got soaked going out to my car, but water dries, so no biggy. J was at work late that night, so I went home, took care of the dogs, and started writing chapter nine of my Sims legacy. And in the middle I also put in a load of clothes to wash, and was so paranoid about the water after the whole water pump problem of the weekend that I kept getting up and listening to it while the water was running into it. Yes, I am paranoid that the water is going to stop working again.

Anyway, so just as the washer was finishing, I opened it up to look inside, and the little switch that the lid pushes down to make it run fell out. Freaking great! I tried to get it back in, but the part it connects to is way under the side of the lid where it's impossible to see it, so I couldn't. And then when I took the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer, I saw a necklace that J must have had in his pocket on the bottom of the washer tub. I went to take it out, and the clasp was stuck in one of the holes of the tub - I broke the necklace two times trying to get it out. Wonderful! I put the rings of the necklace back together with pliers and hoped it would be okay.

Then I finished writing my story and got it uploaded to the Sims 2 website. Woo! And then I moved the Internet connection from my desktop to my laptop, so that I could post the link to the forums I frequent, and the Internet was down. It was taken down from the thunderstorms, and as of this morning, it was still down. Worse yet, we didn't have the Internet at work until after 3:00 yesterday, by which time I was going into serious e-mail withdrawal. Yes, I am addicted to the Internet. The addiction isn't as strong as the one I have for the Sims or chocolate, but it's there. I'm not proud, but I'll admit it.

Anyway, after all of that, I gave up and just watched TV until J got home. Luckily, the necklace was one he was going to throw out anyway, so he didn't care that I had broken it. And a washer repairman is going to come out this afternoon to get it working again. (And you better believe I'll be running home this afternoon and cleaning all the lint and dirt out from behind the washer, too.) And if my Internet is still out this afternoon, I'll call them and find out what's going on, and hopefully it'll be back soon.

But there, for your enjoyment, is the story of my very bad, no good Tuesday night.

Weekend wrap-up: water problems, Father's Day, etc.

I wanted to write an entry yesterday, but I was so tired all day that it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I certainly didn't have the brain power to write anything. But, I got more sleep last night, and today I feel good, so here I am.

I had a pretty good weekend. J was off all weekend, so it was automatically better than it could have been. But we had water problems again. I seem to have problems every spring with my water pump, where it sucks up a stone or something and it makes the pump not able to shut off and basically I live without water until someone comes out to fix it. This time it started acting up on Saturday, so J and I went to his house on Sunday to shower and to do laundry. Then we came home Sunday night and turned it back on so that we could fill the dogs' water dishes, and it miraculously was working again. Ooookay. I talked to my plumber last night, and he said shutting it off caused it to backwash, which washed out whatever was in there blocking it. So, cool! I was afraid I was having problems with the well, because it's been so dry here, weather wise, but he said the well should be fine. So I'm officially relieved. I love when problems fix themselves! I'm still kind of holding my breath whenever I have to run water, but so far so good.

Other than water issues, we seemed to do quite a lot this weekend. Saturday we went to the dump with all of our recyclables and then we went to Denny's for breakfast (waffle, yum) and to Walmart to get groceries, and then home. We went to Lowe's last week when we borrowed my brother-in-law's truck and J got a couple of sheets of wallboard, so he got that cut and hung up on Saturday (he's recreating a closet that I tore out a few years ago). Sunday we went shopping and I got a new shirt for work (which I wore yesterday and promptly dropped chocolate on, but luckily it washed right out, whew) and I bought the most recent stuff packs for the Sims 2. Yay! I love Sims stuff.

We also went to J's sister's house for a Father's Day celebration, with his whole family. We hung out there for about five hours, and it was pretty fun. His family likes me. :) I like them, too. I was happy to get home, though. At the end of a long day, it's just nice to put on my PJs and relax. And I loaded my stuff packs onto my Sims computer, although it was too late to play the game.

Oh, and speaking of the Sims, I posted chapter 8 on Friday night, for the reading pleasure of any of you who might be interested. :) I'm hoping to have chapter 9 up tonight or tomorrow night, so that I can start playing again. Writing is fun, but playing is better.

And then I didn't get enough sleep on Sunday night, and I was horribly tired all day yesterday, and now we're right back to where we started in this entry. So I guess it's time to wrap it up. I hope you all had great weekends, and are having good weeks.

Reality sets in, and I like it

Yesterday when I got out of work, I drove home and J and I started a moving extravaganza that lasted for the next five hours. Fun! But actually, it was. I drove home and picked him up, and then we went to my sister's house and borrowed my brother-in-law's truck, so that we could haul stuff that wouldn't fit in our cars. We picked up some drywall and took it home and dumped it off in the garage, and we drove to his house and picked up his futon to put in his entertainment room upstairs. It was all basic, boring stuff that you have to do when you're fixing up rooms and moving someone in, but since I was with J, it was fun anyway. He's a fun guy to hang out with.

And something interesting happened for me. He's been moving stuff in one carload at a time for a while now, and I've been at our shared house to see it come in usually. But somehow the reality of it didn't hit me until I was at his house last night, seeing the empty spots where his stuff used to be. And then it hit me - he's really making the commitment of moving out of his house to be with me! That's such a huge thing. And it made me incredibly happy.

I'm so happy to be sharing my (our) house with him. I can't wait to see the upstairs rooms all done and decorated, and I can't wait to see all of his stuff living harmoniously with my stuff. I thought I would live alone forever, and was afraid I might have lived alone so long that I wouldn't be able to live with anyone ever again. I'm so glad I was wrong on both counts.

Kitty Nature Show

I noticed Sable was very interested in the back window this morning. Here's why:


Such a mean chipmunk, to torture my indoor kitty that way. :)

Duff and weekend and oh, brother

I took this picture of McDuff Saturday afternoon. He's so stinking adorable that I almost can't stand it.

My weekend was pretty good. J had to work all day Saturday, so I was at home by myself, playing the Sims and cleaning a little bit. It was nice, but quiet. Well, as quiet as a house with four dogs in it can be.

Sunday J was off, thank goodness, and we had a good day. We hung out, we cleaned up most of the stuff in the other side of his room, so that he can finally take possession of it, paint it and start moving his stuff in. We watched some TV. It was very low key, but it was just really nice to be together, just spending time. We live together, and yet we don't get nearly enough time to just hang out and be together. It's nice when we get it, though.

I also had a little bit of a worry this weekend. Well, not a worry, just a general dread. My sister called me Friday afternoon while J and I were out getting dinner and groceries. My brother - the one with a drinking problem who has made himself such a problem to his family that none of us really want him around anymore - called her at ten minutes to six that morning (what the heck he was thinking, I have no clue - why would he call that early?) to let her know that he was moving back to New York. He had broken up with his girlfriend again, and he had to get away from her. So apparently he has to go a few states away. I stopped trying to figure him out a long time ago. Anyway, she called to warn me that he might show up on my doorstep. Historically, I've always been the one that he comes to for a place to stay or for sympathy. So I kept watch all day Saturday, but he didn't show up. And we didn't see him Sunday morning, either. And then that afternoon, the phone rang. I didn't pick it up, just in case it was him, and it was. He had "something to ask me." So naturally I assumed that he was going to ask to stay with me, but thankfully I was wrong. I waited a half an hour or so to gather up my courage to say no, and then I called him back. He told me the same thing about his ex, and that he was coming back north. And he wanted to ask me...and I started to get all stressed at having to say no, you can't stay with me...if he could store his TV, toolbox and a couple of boxes here.

Um, what? That's it? Yup. Apparently, he's going back into rehab, because he had been sober for three years, but since the problems with his ex, he started drinking again. Personally, I think that this is all an excuse to live on the government's dime for a while until he finds someone else to take care of him, but who knows. So he's going to drive north after he gets his last paycheck. He's going to bring his stuff to my house and store it in my basement, where it won't be in my and J's way. He'll hang out and visit for a little while, and then he's going to go stay in a motel until the next morning, when he's going to drive himself back to rehab.

And of course I'm like, um, sure you can store your stuff, I guess. As long as it's his stuff and not him, I'm okay with that. I'm just glad I didn't let myself get too stressed about it. Stupid brothers. I always told Mom that she should only have had me and my sister. Boys are just trouble.

And okay, I guess that's all for now. I need to go clean out a filing cabinet now.

Portrait of a Thursday Night

I walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. While not late, I am of the wussy variety and need at least eight hours of sleep per night, so it was late enough. I went to the sink and washed my hands, and then, when I was reaching for the toothbrush, I looked up, and horror of horrors! A semi-large, extremely creepy black spider, crawling on the ceiling. “Eww, fuck,” I said, and then walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

“Baby,” I said softly, “are you awake?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“There’s a spider on the bathroom ceiling, and it’s big.” And he gets up, out of the warm bed, to be my spider killer.

“Where is it?” He asks when he gets into the bathroom.

“On the ceiling, over the sink.”

He didn’t see the creepy crawler at first, because it had moved down onto the light fixture, but then he saw it, and it was soon dead.

“Thank you, sweetie.”

“You’re welcome,” he says, as he starts to walk away. I go back into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and look up. “Fuck! J? Are you still right there?”

He comes back in.

“There’s another one just like that one, hanging from the ceiling next to the medicine cabinet.”

And for the second time in about as many minutes, he kills a spider for me.

“That one never saw it coming,” he says, and then he goes back to bed.

I walk back into the bathroom and brush my teeth and hair, watching the ceiling and walls in paranoia the whole time.

Stupid fucking spiders. Why do they love to torment me? And why the hell are they drawn to my bathroom? Yuck.

I shut off all the lights and walk into the bedroom, with Bernie ambling along beside me. I get into bed, set my alarm, and lay down to sleep. And to avoid nightmares about big, black spiders all over me, I start to think of the Sims. Imagine how cool it would be if I could be a Sim - spiders don't exist in the Sims. I could walk through the Finch brothers' house, and go home to the house I share with Sim J, and he would never have to kill spiders for me. I like that house, with its nice big kitchen, and living room, and....

And I sleep. And I don't dream about spiders at all. Thank goodness.

Trip and weekend and Willow

I had to go to Albany for work on Thursday and Friday of last week. They did a focus group with students from the SUNY school there, and it was actually interesting to hear what they thought about the services on campus. They hate dining services, but love the customer service they get there -but the food sucks. And the campus store is overpriced and no one goes there. Interesting information if you have to market those things, but the most fun was just watching the students (I just typed "kids" and had to change it, because what am I, 60? Geez). They got free junk food and a $50 gift card and played games to win more prizes. They were all there solely for the $50, as you can imagine. The time when the students were there was fun - the rest of the time I was just wishing for it to be time to go home, already. I hate meetings.

The dinner Thursday night was kind of fun, though. The coordinator made reservations at a French restaurant, which everyone loved except me. I'm such a picky, plain eater. I'm happy with burgers, with Italian, with Chinese, but a French restaurant has nothing for me. I ended up getting a Caesar salad that cost me over $11. Sigh. The conversation was pretty interesting. It turns out that if you get a drink or two into marketing people who are in their 40s and 50s, they'll talk about all kinds of things - religion, sex, you name it. It was enlightening, to say the least.

So, it was an interesting trip, but I was glad to get home. I missed J, I missed the dogs, and I missed my house.

We had a fairly quiet weekend after my trip. J had to work on Saturday, so I was at home by myself, playing the Sims. (God, how I love that game.) When he came home, I went and got Chinese food for dinner - I sure do love me some sweet and sour chicken. We watched a lot of Buffy. We did a lot of yard work (the lawn looks great now). We went to Walmart a couple of times. I repotted some African violets and put them in my living room windowsill. Now I'm just waiting for the cats to knock them down and make me want to kill them. Quiet, like I said.

And now I'm back at work on Monday, and I'm counting the days until July 4th and my birthday week vacation (four weeks to work before the 4th, six more to work until I'm on vacation). I like my job, but I love getting away from it for a while.

And now I'll leave you with this:


Willow: "Please, no more pictures. Doesn't a dog deserve her privacy?"