Started with barfing, ended with giggling

Last Saturday, Mom and I spent the morning cleaning my breezeway (after ripping out the carpet on Monday!) and it was hot, hot, hot.  She left around 4, and I took a shower and a nap, packed a bag for two nights and headed to Mom & Dad's for an exciting evening of making 4 large batches of buffalo chicken dip.

Sunday morning I had a headache and Dad was grumpy, but we were on the road by 9:30 and headed for Columbus.  The elder of my nephews graduated from high school on May 20, and his party was set for Memorial Day.  In addition to the buffalo chicken dip, we also had 7 1-gallon bags of sweet snack mix and 5.5 1-gallon bags of savory snack mix, plus the big cooler which was temporarily full of bags of tortilla chips & corn chips.

We pulled into the driveway at 11:30ish.  Mom popped right out of the car, and I saw my brother approach the front passenger side where Dad was sitting.  As Dad rolled down the window, he said, "What is Captain Crossword doing here?" and I thought he was talking about Jeeves until I looked up and saw that my baby brother was in fact in Columbus instead of Dallas!  Turns out that Mom had arranged to fly CC, Bookworm Mathgeek and the girls in and kept it a surprise from everyone.U

After that we had a quick lunch of New York-style pizza, then commenced with the party prep.  It was nice to chat with CC and Bookworm and catch up.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 7 with the beginning of a migraine, including the barfing.  Mom went out and got me some Excedrin Migraine, I took 2, had a hot shower and went back to sleep.  When I woke up at 11, the nausea was gone and my headache was manageable, so I took 2 more pills and got dressed.

The party went very well, with tons of friends, neighbors and family, including my mom's brother from Florida and her sister from Cincinnati.  The food was great, there was lots of laughter and silliness and everyone had a good time. 

The best part of the day for me was late at night, when the cleanup was done, the outdoor light was off but the pool was still illuminated, and Jeeves and I had a long heart-to-heart talk.  Of  course, because we are siblings, he had to psych me out, pretending he was going to shove me in the pool. :-D

So the day that started with barfing, ended with giggling as I lay in bed thinking about my brother.

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Finished kitchen floor pictures:

Two more days

(hopefully) until the kitchen floor is finished.  One more day (hopefully) until the appliances are back in place and I don't have to have yet another bowl of granola for dinner.  I like granola, I'm just tired after a week of it for dinner.

After my trip to Cleveland last week, I missed two more days of work thanks to a nasty case of bronchitis, something I haven't had for a decade.  I haven't missed it at all!  Then, just to put the grey icing on the cupcake of doom that was last week, in addition to the floor being sanded, I developed a sinus infection.  I am now recovering from both illnesses, but it's been a week I don't want to live through again any time soon.

Also, I decided that I am going to bring the map home from Cleveland and just plain have it framed at Joann or Michael's or Pat Catan's.  I don't need to spend $2,000 for museum-quality framing for something I just want to hang in my living room and enjoy.

Oh, and Little Miss Piggie Pie continues to have the staff at Valley Animal Hospital snowed--they tell me every day how sweet she is.  However, in her favor, she was a snuggly little girl last weekend when I needed a nap partner, and she didn't even huff much when my coughing shook her off the bed.

It takes more than blue skies

...to make a happy Jammies.  I hate DST.  Just when I was getting used to it being light when I got up, now it's back to pitch black and the alarm clock.

The weather's been warm and springlike all week, with two days of blue skies mid-week.  Unfortunately, this week was also Call Day, and it was a big one this month.  I hadn't gotten my Lexapro refilled, so I missed one dose on that day, which didn't help.  Granted, it didn't hurt all that much since it's a cumulative medication, I just felt a little dizzy and foggy-headed.

The good news is that I'm getting the mechanics of Call Day to a point where they're pretty smooth, and the judge really likes being able to send folks straight to the help desk.  That will be even smoother when the renovations are finished and the help desk is directly across the hall from the courtroom.  I did say one stupid thing in court, which led to a resolution to keep my mouth shut (hard for me to do, as those who know me well would say).  The judge was nice about it, and didn't say anything when we were on the record, but she did discuss it with me the next day.

AT&T is providing miserable customer service, including offering a "payment arrangement" that is actually a demand, then cutting off my phone four days before the agreed-upon date, then saying I'll have to pay $30 to have my service re-connected.  The flooring people I agreed to allow to start my floor with less than a day's notice so their workers would have something to do have left me for a week with an unsanded, unstained floor and no word on when it will be finished.

So the blue skies are nice, but I'd like more, please.

Squeeeeeeeee! DAD SAID YES!

With some trepidation, tonight I asked my dad if I could have his grandmother's map of Ohio.  It's the map she used when she taught in a one-room schoolhouse and had a teaching certificate just like Laura Ingalls Wilder's!  Dad reminded me that what look like roads on the map are in fact inter-urban railways, I said that was one of the reasons I wanted it.

The map needs a bit of repair, as the handle had almost come off the bottom when Mom and Dad put it up, and it might need some restoration, but since I started work at the courthouse, I know people who know people.

I am going to hang that gorgeous 1897 map of Ohio with all its counties, cities and railways in my beautifully re-painted living room where I can see it every single day.

...and a day without Mom

Today is Mom's birthday, and I would not ask her to spend it moving stuff and cleaning with me.  So I have done my best to stay motivated without her.

So far, I have:

Changed the sheets and made the bed.

Watered the houseplants.

Done half the laundry.

Finished emptying the bookshelves in the living room.

Filled a box for Goodwill.

Shoveled and salted the walk from the driveway to the breezeway.

Refilled both birdfeeders.

Dusted the mantel, the two built in bookshelves and two of the standalone bookshelves.

Washed much of the glassware and divvied it up between what I am keeping and what is going to Goodwill.

What I still have to do:

Finish the laundry.

Move the television and DVD player to the car.

Clean out the back seat so I can take Lil Miss Piggie Pie to day boarding tomorrow.

Dust the last two standalone bookshelves.

Vacuum the living room.

Shove the furniture I can move into the center of the living room.

Paint my nails.

What will probably not get done tonight:

Clean the bathroom.

Hey, I am less discouraged when I look at my list! :-)

A day with Mom

This morning, I hunched over a computer and ran back and forth to Mom's office so we could balance a final guardian's account.  Then I came home, ate a quick lunch and took a quick nap, and then Mom came over and we started packing up the living room.

After 4+ hours of labor, the books are packed and the boxes stacked in the kitchen; the curtains are down and headed home with Mom for washing; one recliner, two boxes and one bag are on their way to Goodwill; one-fourth of the glassware is washed and boxed; and tomorrow I need to finish washing and boxing the glass and vacuuming.  Mom's energy levels continue to both amaze and depress me, but mostly I'm just grateful to have her.

It is a very good thing that I bought some Epsom salts this morning, because I needed them in the bath I just took.  Now for some ibuprofen and an early bedtime!

My new couch is here!

And my new kitchen clock is here too, but I have to figure out where to put it, so it's resting on the sofa at the moment.  Input from folks who have been here is welcome. 

Tall folk will always be welcome at Casa de Jammies,

but they will need to be careful, too.  The new kitchen light is so low that I can just walk underneath it.

It's huge and too expensive and I love it. :-)

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K Casa de Jammies

Monday through Thursday of last week, painters came to Casa de Jammies, and Little Miss Piggie Pie day boarded at a local vet hospital/kennel.  The staff there said "She's really a sweet girl" and I didn't get a bill because she ate someone's Bichon, so she must have behaved.

The kitchen and back hallway have had the 1970s wallpaper removed (hears distant cheers from South Carolina) and painted, the kitchen in what was supposed to be sage green but is in fact more mint green and the back hallway in a barely-tinted cream.

The painters were good painters, but lousy guests.  One of them kept leaving the toilet seat up, they used up all of my good hand soap, half a roll of paper towels and two rolls of toilet paper and left me with a nearly full gallon bucket of mint-not-sage paint.

This past Thursday night, Mom and Dad came over and helped me pull up the carpet in the eating area, revealing some awful linoleum.  It looks like raw meat.

When I brought out the shop vac to clean up the dust left behind, Dad said, "Oh, that's where it is.  I needed it last week."  I didn't remind him he had left it unused in his garage so long a mouse built a nest in it, just told him that if he wanted, I'd bring it back, but I'd cry real tears.

For the first time ever, I had professional cleaners come to the house.  A team of sisters Mom knows from her law practice worked from ten until two cleaning the kitchen and bathroom while I removed the staples and the tack strips from the NY strip floor.  Both women were friendly as well as being very good at cleaning, and I enjoyed having them here as much as I enjoyed the clean house they left behind.

While I was pulling up staples and tack strips, I came to the very sad conclusion that the hardwood floor in the eating area was pulled up to make room for the Porterhouse lino.  I've already picked a pretty brown carpet for the living room and now I need to consult with the guy at the carpet store about what kind of floor is best for homes with dogs.

Speaking of dogs, LMPP was excitable but not bite-y with Mom and Dad, but growly and snarly with the cleaning team, so she spent five hours outside, allowed in to warm up whenever I took a smoke break.

Today I get to rest from yesterday.

The schedule for the coming week is Sunday, grocery shopping and laundry, Monday work with Mom, lunch with Mom, shopping with Mom, and Tuesday through Friday, bring one piece of kitchen furniture out of the living room, clean it and put it back.

A long and winding update

Life at Casa de Jammies has been interesting since the end of September.  It's election season and my boss is running this year, so there have been some volunteer things, but there has also been a slew of replacement appliances both small and large.

First up was the coffee maker.  The old one was one of my parents' old coffee makers which had been replaced when they did an upgrade.  That one died early this year, and I used a 4-cup freebie one I'd gotten years ago from Gevalia while I fiddled around and researched and generally put off buying one.  I did have fun reading online reviews which included comments about how some coffee makers "let too much sentiment into the carafe" but it wasn't until mid-September that I finally made up my mind and got a Technivorm MoccaMaster.  It is worth every single penny.  It's quiet, quick, energy-efficient, makes great coffee and I don't even care that it isn't programmable.  You also get to watch the bubbles as the water boils for the coffee!

Next up was the water heater, which was more than 15 years old, and then a new dishwasher, which was just installed today.  The dishwasher was actually delivered a week ago, but the Home Depot installers wouldn't do anything because the water shutoff was in the basement.  I hired an actual plumber and it turned out to be a bigger job than either of us anticipated.  He was here for over three hours, but it's working now and it's lovely.  As a bonus, because he had to turn off the breaker for the back half of the house, I got the guest bedroom neatened up and all the houseplants into the garage because I wasn't sitting in front of the computer.

When the plumber was done today, he asked what I wanted to do with the old dishwasher.  I asked him to take it to the curb, and he expressed a little concern about whether the city would take it.  I told him that if I had to, I'd call for a special pickup and pay for it, but I was pretty sure a picker would find it before Monday.

After he left, I brushed my teeth, tossed the dog in the basement and ran out to do my grocery shopping.  I was on my way in less than 10 minutes, but my driveway was blocked by a giant pickup truck whose driver had just chucked the old dishwasher in the bed.  I told him he'd never back out of my driveway, but if he pulled into the turnaround I could get past him and then he could get turned around and out.  He said thank you and "I just had to have the dishwasher" which made me grin.

So all is well and warm at Casa de Jammies, and I have had more baths in the last 10 days than I think I had in the 10 months prior!