Therapy

I woke up from a nap on Saturday afternoon to a husband who had just seen an episode of Hoarders on A&E. "You're not as bad as those people, but still!" Sheesh. I wake up and suddenly I'm in the wrong. Well, OK, I already had been in the wrong, but now I was in the spotlight for it. And right after a good nap, too.

I can't really complain about my husband because he's right, I have too much stuff, but I'm more of a pack-rat than a hoarder. I have to work up to being able to let something go. It's easier to just keep it than go through separation anxiety. I can usually let it go in the end, I just can't get rid of it without a bit of grieving first. I have to have a mini-therapy session and counsel myself "...it's OK... I haven't used it in years... I can buy another if I really need it... it doesn't bring me joy...."

Sometimes the "I-still-want-to-use-that-one-day" feelings surface when I find something I don't need but still want. Self-counseling is trickier in those cases.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were productive. My sewing room got a kick in the pants and I was able to get a lot done. I cleaned out a box of general crafty supplies without any heartache. I finished all my Girl Scout badge sewing jobs, ALL! Then I started to clean up one of my work tables and found another GS vest that needed work. Sheesh, I wonder how long it had been there? It wasn't with the others and the mom never called to check on its status. Oh well, it got done, too. I even got my sewing table cleaned off to the point where I was able to actually quilt for the first time in six months. I had Dan take this of me to prove it:

I'm trying out those blue quilting gloves for the first time. They have little grippy nubbins on the palms so you can control the quilt without having to grip the fabric to death. I can't believe how much easier they make machine quilting! Why did it take me so long to listen to my fellow quilters about them? I should show my progress to my quilt bee tonight, however:

My ceramics instructor called me on Friday to encourage me to sign up for another class session. Evidently, they want to get enough students in each section so they don't have to cancel any classes. I talked to Dan about me taking one more class and which night of the week is best. Monday night is the winner, so I'll be back to the studio tonight.

For this session my goal will be to get everything finished by the end, perfect or not, so I don't have any unfinished work and I can make a clean break from ceramics. Ha ha, that's funny: clean break from clay! OK, never mind. The problem is the mandatory lab fee is for a package of 25 pounds of clay. Do you know how hard it is to go through that much clay when you're still struggling to make decent pieces? I go into each class with the mindset of "practice" and not worry about perfection, but more than half of my pieces end up as a crucible-sized vessel or in complete ruin: a mangled lump showing no signs it was ever almost a coffee mug or bowl. When that happens I can re-wedge the clay and try again. However, I'm not using up the 25 pounds very fast that way. This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice....


And now I will finish this post with a complete nonsequitur: who came first (without the help of IMDB!) Wayne & Garth or Bill & Ted?

Weekend

It's crunch time at work.

My survey I've been working on is going to sponsor testing this week and external usability testing next week. That just means I have no time to blog.

OK, so I'm making time, which is why this'll be short. Sort of.

We went to the in-laws on Saturday to visit Dan's folks. When we got back yesterday, I started working on my 55 gallon fish tank.

The tank is set up in my bedroom along the rail that separated the sitting area with the sleeping area. I've always had algae problems in this tank for some reason, but never in the tank down in the family room. The difference? Dunno. Both are neglected. I don't vacuum the gravel nearly as often as I should, but I think the tank upstairs is in direct sunlight part of the morning.

I was so inspired walking in the Caribbean to get my tank clean and stocked again. We had seen a school of small fish so large it cast a gray shadow in the water. I walked into the school and just stood there watching thousands of these small fish swimming back and forth around me. I decided to stop procrastinating and get my tank back in shape. I wanted a school of fish.

So yesterday I siphoned all the water out (it was so green, I hadn't noticed there weren't fish actually swimming any more) and took out and washed the gravel. I cleaned out the filter box and bleached the plastic plants. I got the stand moved to the opposite wall and Dan helped me get the tank back into place. Now it's full and the water is cycling through. Looks good, but I think I'm going to set up the diatomic filter too just to make sure the water is sparkling clean.

Tetras are great schooling fish, so I want to buy a large school of them for my newly cleaned tank. I talked to the owner of the pet store here in town, he places orders on Mondays for Tuesday shipments. I should be able to get about 50 fish for a near wholesale price, and I'll order whatever small tetras are on his order sheet today, green or black neons would be pretty.



Despite the work I did get done, I could have gotten more accomplished. Every time I went downstairs for something I was sucked in to the TV. Dan had the travel channel on. It was running a marathon of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. If you like travel or food, or drinking, you'll like this show. Except for the fact it renders you immobile, you just have to keep watching. Tony travels to a different place each show and learns about true local cuisine and drink, not necessarily the food we Americans think of when we think of that country. Far too captivating. We finally turned off the TV at 10:00. Sheesh. I think the new season premiers tonight at 10:00 pm.


 

Snow Day

I'm back to work today, which means I can blog. For some reason I just don't blog from home much. Which is where I was yesterday, home. The schools were closed because of the snow storm that went through Sunday night and I chose to stay with the kids. It was a pretty day to take pictures, but the battery on the Nikon was dead and the Kodak decided it wasn't going to acknowledge the memory card again. Grrr.

I had grand plans to get some quilting done. The quilt show is coming up and I still have work to do. I also had grand plans to do some archeology. I wanted to excavate my closet, find the floor.

A couple years ago, the last time I could see the floor, Kevin felt it was a great time to dump some Legos out, the clean space made a great play area. I was never allowed to clean them up. Then add to that shopping bags, shoe boxes, piles of clothes that were folded but never put away, shoes, hangers, more legos, drill bits and a step stool left over from the new shelf installation, and dresses that were hung up but removed for the window installation.

So I spent a good part of the day doing laundry and cleaning out my closet. I got several loads done, including three loads of towels, and the mattress pad. I set up a mirror so I could sit on the closet floor and pick up enough Legos to fill two, count'm, two, large barrels and watch Lost DVDs at the same time. It's cool the TV remote works in the mirror. I stayed in my jammies until after 3:00 when I started trying on the pants in my pants drawer. I purged most of them, they were either too short or too small. A couple pairs almost fit so they got to stay.

By bedtime I could walk into my closet easily. I hid one barrel of Legos and will have to hide the other one tonight. Most of the piles of stuff in the bedroom were better. When I clean, I tend to push everything together and sort it from there, then put the sorted piles away. I can tell I made progress, but to the untrained eye, it might look worse, I still have piles on the floor to deal with.

I need to find some time to try on the clothes hanging in the closet and stashed in the dresser drawers. I'm sure there's stuff in there I could wear several sizes ago but has no hope now. Once the hanging clothes and sweaters get purged there should be room for the clean clothes that're on top of the dresser. I guess I'll need another snow day. Oh, and I still have a lot of quilting to do, too, so make that two snow days.
 

Weekend Round-Up

I've been trying to write a weekend round-up post for a couple of days now and stuff keeps getting in the way. Like work.

In This Issue:

• Mr. Clean


• Child Services


• Laundry Queen


• Back to School

Mr. Clean

Last Friday was Day 3 after the teeth got pulled. My poor baby. I feel so bad having done this to Kevin without his full comprehension. Because of his autism, it's hard to explain it to him. He's so independent, he pretty much takes care of himself when it comes to napping when he is tired and eating when he's hungry. So He napped a good part of Wednesday and Thursday and ate very little despite the offerings of food. By Thursday night, he felt well enough to take a shower and by Friday morning he showered again and again and had taken three showers in 12 hours. I'm not really sure why.

I finally got him to swish the salt water in his mouth and not drink it. It took a lot of modeling but finally he got it. He even made his own cups of salt water after that.

The doctor said he'd only need ice on his cheeks for the first 12 hours, but Kevin made his own ice packs through Monday. I guess he knew he felt better with them. I wish he could explain it to me.

Child Services

Saturday morning Dan drove down to rendezvous with his sister to collect Fern since she had spent the week there with her cousin, Rose.

While she was gone I went into her room and got her hamper and collected all the clothes that were on the floor. Then I scraped together all the flotsam and jetsam from the periphery of her room into a pile, you know, that stuff she ignores when she thinks her room is clean. It's hard to ignore when it's in a big pile. All she has to do is sit down in one place and sort through the debris and, voila, her room is clean. But as I did I knew she'd be mad at me for doing it.

Laundry Queen

Saturday I added the laundry I got from The Girl's room to the pile in the laundry room. I got through most of it so there wasn't enough of any one type of clothes left to make a full load of anything. Whew. I even did a few loads of sheets and towels.

But on the other side of getting laundry done, is putting it away. Another chore I'm bad at. The pile on my dresser is so high I can barely see the mirror so I started a new pile on the floor next it. I have too many clothes, I know I do, but I'm reluctant about getting rid of stuff. AM helped me last week get rid of a lot of dresses that don't really fit or are hopelessly out of style. I am always grateful for her help, (always, always, always) and we cleared out a lot of rod space in my closet, but I wish she could have stayed for another hour or so. I need to clear out more to make room for the clean clothes I just washed.

My goal is to get the master bedroom in shape. Soon. I got part of the room cleaned up over the weekend, but now the cleaned-up spot needs vacuuming. Somehow our room collects stuff. Kevin likes to play in there. Like the rest of the house. Sheesh.

Back to School

Monday morning, the culmination of a summer vacation, was the first day of school. Both kids were up and ready on time. I opened the garage doors at 7:20 and Kevin went out to wait at 7:25. And waited. And waited.

Fern's bus information had come in the mail a week before school started but we didn't hear anything about Kevin's bus. I had checked the school's web site and found out his bus would pick him up at 7:31. Because he's on a special ed bus, we usually get a call with the information, not just a letter. Finally over the weekend we got a call from his new driver telling us the same time.

His bus never showed, unless it was way early. Which on the first day of school, I highly doubt. By 8:15 there is still no bus so I started calling around. The guy at the bus lot was very nice, even offered to send a bus to pick him up. I declined. He said he'd talk to the driver and find out when she came by my house and call me back.

I took Kevin to school and waited my turn in the busy office to explain my presence. The new CRI teacher herself came up to get him instead of an aide, so I got to meet his new teacher. She seemed nice, but a little frazzled. I didn't hold it against her.

The bus lot guy did call me back (surprise!) and said the driver said she was at our house at 7:35, only a few minutes late. But I know she never stopped by our house, I was there. I'd remember a big yellow bus pass by. Tuesday morning, we were ready and waiting, and the bus went past our house before it stopped. Kevin ran across the lawn to get on. Now you know, if she really was at our house on Monday, she would have known where to stop on Tuesday. Right?

This morning I tried to ask her where she went on Monday and she dodged the question by saying she was sorry she was late. Arrrgggggg.
 

Working Backwards

Aye Yi Yi.

My triangle quilt was going along just fine, I had three out of four borders on, but then I started encountering problems. I couldn't get a border to fit right, it wasn't square and then I didn't like the width of the inner-most border.



So I took the borders off as one unit of the three strips already sewn together. I was going to trim down the inner-most strip and put them back on, but the center part, with all the triangles, was caddy-wumpus. Sheesh. A lot of the seems were not even or a full quarter-inch wide. I was probably so excited to get it into one piece I didn't notice my mistakes.

So I spent an evening resewing the seems that were not acceptable. There were a lot of them.

Now it's better, lays flatter, no bubbles or puckers.

My sewing machine has a display screen to show the stitch selection, the length and width, as well as other information. In the middle of all this sewing, unsewing, and resewing, the oil symbol starts flashing. Wow, it had been a while since I'd brushed out the lint and oiled it, I'd completely forgotten. The hole in the machine oil bottle is a smidge too big so the oil gushes everywhere. Oh well, none got on the quilt so all is fine. But when the maintenance was done, it sounded a lot better, it almost purrs now.

Sunday I visited Material Girls, a fabric shop in LaPlata, and bought more fabric. In addition to the other things to fix, I've got to decide whether I'll use the new stuff or keep with the choices I'd already made.

Last night I get the border sections back out and start measuring carefully so they are straight and even when I do the trimming. But the first one isn't straight. It is too wide in places and too narrow in others. Sheesh. Another step backward.

Now I've got the stitches unpicked for the three strips in the first section and ironed them out. sheesh. Maybe one day I'll actually make progress again.

In the mean time, the Girl Scout vests are piling up and I probably have 6 or 8 jobs to work on. I probably ought to switch back to that work and give myself a break from the quilt.

And let's not forget laundry. I'm down to the dregs of undies...

Weekend RoundUp

For months I'd been looking forward to last night. It didn't go down as I'd pictured but it was still enjoyable, nonetheless. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Thursday night Dan and I went to the Verizon Center to enjoy our Wizards wallop the Cavs by 36 points in game 3 of the play-offs.

Friday we took Kevin to swim team practice and headed out for supper. We ended up at PF Changs at the Mall in Columbia and was told there was a 15-30 minute wait, but before we could even get to another restaurant to check their waiting time, my buzzer went off. Please remind me next time they are slow there if I'm in a hurry, because we almost didn't make it back to the pool to pick up Kevin in time.

Saturday was a qualifying swim meet for Special Olympics. Parents were strongly encouraged to help, so I reported for duty and got assigned the duty of race timer. Having something to do was much better than sitting with a book for six hours waiting for Kevin's events. I was between books anyway, so the job was good. Special Olympics doesn't use touch pads to determine times because some athletes don't do well with them so we used stopwatches, two or three times to a lane. The mean or median time, was used for each swimmer.

It was a long hot day, the temperature on the pool deck must have been close to 90° and I was exhausted by the end of the day from the heat. However, I had a good time cheering on all the athletes and getting to know the other parents. Kevin got assigned "my" lane twice so I got to use my "mom" voice to cheer and encourage him. He got a 5th in 50m Free, 1st in 25m Free, 2nd in 25m Back and his 4x25m relay team got a first, too.

Saturday night Fern and I went to see a local production of The Sound of Music, her friend was in the role of Brigita. Oh, but before that, I phoned in an order to a brand new Asian restaurant for carry-out over an hour before the show was to start. I was told my food would be ready in 35 minutes. I was pulling back into the driveway with food over an hour after I called. The food was good, but I'll wait for a couple weeks to call again so they can get the kinks worked out. I think they should have done a "soft opening" first, it was too much for them to handle like it was.

The play was very good, Fern was a little sad she didn't audition, she said it looked like a lot of fun.

Sunday, Kevin and I went to church and Dan went back downtown for game #4, 'Zards vs. the Cavs. The outcome wasn't as pleasant as it was Thursday, a loss by a three-pointer at the end. While he was gone, I tackled Kevin's room. I expected resistance, but he let me pick up the legos and letters on his floor. He usually would dump out anything I'd pick up but this time he just sat down and started putting the legos together. After a while he disappeared and I found him in my closet where his big supply lives. Come out of the closet, Kevin When I got the room done, he even let me vacuum, but he promptly dumped the bucket of letters out on the guest room floor. Oh well. I'm glad it wasn't my closet floor.

Fern asked if I'd take her to Target, she needed clothes. Sure, I needed light bulbs.

On the way home I reminded her she would be staying with Kevin, Dad and I would be going to a concert.

Who are you seeing?
The Proclaimers.
Really, can I go?

I've been looking forward to this concert for months, they don't come to the US very often. Dan was going as my guest, he's not the invested party. The Wizards just lost to the Cavs and I would bet he's now apathetic about going out. If she behaves, if she really wants to go, then why not?

You really want to go?
Yes.
OK, if your dad says yes and they let kids in at the club and your homework's done, you can go. Do I need any other escape routes, have I covered all possible outs? She squeals with delight.

When we get home, she asks permission and I tend to six! light bulbs that needed replacing.

The Birchmere in Alexandria is a general admission venue. When the box office opens at 5:00 they hand out line numbers, then at 6:00 they let people in in order to claim their seats. The shows start at 7:30. Dan never liked going early just to get a good seat, then wait for over two hours for the main act to take the stage, and it's about 30-40 minutes away, so we don't go there. Except on the rare occasion when The Proclaimers play there and not at "our" Ramshead Tavern on our side of town. It was my first visit to the Birchmere.

Fern and I left the house at 6:00 and managed to find very good seats, very close to the stage. We ordered supper and finished just in time for the opening act, Jeremy Fisher to start. She loved him, he's now the greatest thing since sliced bread. So, of course, I had to buy her his CD.

The Proclaimers took the stage sometime after 8:30, I forget to note the time or how long they played. They played a lot from their new CD and a lot of my favorites. The crowd whooped when they introduced familiar tunes, I was the only one who whooped when they introduced the title song from the CD. It was a fabulous show.



Fern liked the concert, she said The Proclaimers sounded better in person than on CDs, but she still liked the opening act better.

I inadvertently drove away with Kevin's backpack so he couldn't do his homework until I came home. Then he didn't go to sleep until well after 3:00 this morning. Sheesh.

Weekend Roundup

I'm sitting in room #21 in an inn in the Mission District of San Francisco. I'm tired, it's been a long day, my initial flight was canceled so I had to find another one. And I did. So here I am.

Remember when I wrote about doing laundry before vacation? Yeah, well, that's basically the last time it was done so the pile in the laundry room was higher than the dryer door. Made loading and unloading a bit interesting. I wonder if anything got washed more than once because of it. I got a lot done but left a load of whites/hots in the dryer. I hope Dan finds them so The Boy has socks to wear this week. Do you have this problem: your washer washes clothes faster than the dryer dries them? I hate that.

Went to BJ's with Kevin and bought some stuff, bacon, milk and chocolate milk mix on Saturday. Kevin helped put the wares away:

Kansas just won, so I guess it's time to sign off and go to bed.

Back to the Grind

Dan and I did have fun on new year's eve. I wore my hair pinned back with a clip I borrowed from The Girl. The crowd in the club skewed older and therefore dressed "down" more than I'd have liked. I had no idea how fancy to dress for the event so I went for the upper level of the range. And, yes, I was one of about 10 women who wore dresses, I had the fanciest. (Yay me!) Which means I was stared at a lot. I tried to remember to stand up straight and look like they were the ones who underdressed. It was a party, for goodness sake!


The crowd also seemed asleep for until midnight. I called the club the night before to get an idea of the schedule. Dinner was to be at 7:00 and the band was to start at 8:00. We arrived at 7:00, hors d'oeuvres were served at 7:30, dinner after 8:00, all while we were serenaded by acoustic classical guitar. For three hours. (That explains the sleepy part) The band came on at 10:00. sheesh. Still no dancing. Dan and I started it to some degree by dancing to Faithful and True, but the floor wasn't packed until after midnight and the horn blowing. And the kissing. A lot of kissing going on. Except for the couple next to us. They just sat there, and didn't move, except to drink and go to the restroom. Go figure.

On the way to the car we got a comment about Dan's tie going with my dress. It made it all worth it. We left at about 12:40 so we could get home and relieve the sitter. And The Boy was still awake. sheesh.

Now I'm back at work, wading through emails and checking on everything that rolls over with the new month. Next week we'll be getting all the annuals ready.

I need to balance my check book, it hasn't been done since I did it in August, and get a new register for '08. I also write 2008 on a bunch of checks in the pad ahead of time so I get used to the idea of the new year.

The boy was up in time for the bus this morning, which is a miracle because he hasn't gotten up before 10 this whole break, sometimes 11:00. I left for work before The Girl was up, told her if she missed the bus, she had to walk.

I can see clearly now...

...the algae is gone. My 55 gallon fish tank in my bed room with South American fish had gotten so scummy, the algae was so thick, I couldn't see anything. I finally cleaned it out a couple weeks ago, again. It took me more than a week this time. I used lots of bleach to kill the algae and let the tank come back up to speed before I put the fish back in. I even had the garden hose up the side of the house into the bedroom so I didn't have to haul buckets of water back and forth from the bathroom. I swear that stretches my arm 2 inches. Probably explains tendinitis, too. And I just hate hefting the buckets up on my shoulder so I can not pour the water on the carpet, but into the tank. The hose makes it so much easier, but it takes a while for the temperature to stabilize.

Today I bought 12 new fish, six black neons, two cory cats, and four Columbian tetras. I already had a surviving black neon and a surviving Columbian tetra and these guys are monsters compared to the new tank mates. Ohmigoodness, I never realize how much the fish grow until I get new ones from the shop. I'm not sure what of this purchase is left, probably two of the cory cats and one of the neons.

I did a search for my previous post on the same topic and was surprised to find I did the same thing last December. Boy, does time fly. Maybe I'll be a better fish parent this year and not have the algae problem again. Either that, or find algae eater fish that live in the soft Amazon acidic water with a pH of 6.5.

I'm getting a massage today! And boy, do I need it. I like to have a massage every two weeks, but I missed having one two weeks ago, so I'm especially knotted up this week. I really notice a difference if I miss a session.

Today is also house cleaning day. I get so frustrated about the state of my house. No one can put anything in the dishwasher unless I remind them. No one else helps with the laundry, so If I'm not in the mood to do it, it doesn't get done. I have a new housekeeper who comes on Wednesdays. I still have to pick up stuff before she can come in. She says I don't have to, but I do. My autistic son won't let me clean up his letters, so I have to wait until he's on the bus. He has piles of them everywhere. and piles of k'nex. and legos. Anyone have any clues about how to get him to only play with one messy toy at a time?