This is your brain on migraine

So I missed work yesterday because of the first migraine in 5 or 6 months.  I spent the day sleeping, got up and assessed, had a hot bath and some more meds and then moar sleeping.

I woke up with a bit of a headache but also with my typical post-migraine thing where I'm jittery and so sensitive that it feels like my nerves start four inches outside of my skin.  I managed to get dressed and drive to work, and get through 3 hours (including auditing one fiduciary account and one guardian account) before the headache started to grow and my sense of smell tripled.  The latter is my biggest pre-migraine warning, and I heeded it and gtfo of work.

When I got home, I let the dog out, explained to her that it wasn't 4:20 so no, not dinnnertime, took off my coat and went to turn up the heat.  Oh, shit, the thermostat screen is blank and none of the buttons make it be not-blank.

Schlep down to the basement and check the breaker, which is in its proper position.  Flip it off and then back on again on General Principles (salutes).  Come back upstairs and call 1-800-DADHELP.

Unfortunately, Dad is still sick with flu or norovirus, whichever one he got last week.  He listens to me try to word and tells me to call Hudson Heating.  I do, and speak with a nice young woman who tells me they can have someone at my house between 1 and 4.  There goes my nap, but okay, maybe I can color while I wait.  Two minutes after we hang up, a different young woman calls and asks if I checked the batteries in the thermostat.

Headdesk.  No, I did not.  Guess what it turned out to be?  I called everyone back, with lavish praise for the young woman at HH who saved me the cost and embarrassment of a service call.

I forgive both Dad and myself for missing something so obvious because WE R SEECK and I have heat and a marginally clearer head after meds and a three hour rest.

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!

Alarums and excursions, the final chapter (I hope!)

Previously, on Curmudgeonette:

Our heroine's garage flooded and she went to work anyway.

Jammies took a day off to clean up the garage and it flooded again.

Then the basement flooded!

Jammies took another vacation day.

We join the story with our heroine discovering that her sump pump wasn't pumping, which was the cause of the flooded basement!

More alarums, more excursions

After driving out to Casa de Senior Jammies and getting a brush, the ozone generator and a squeegie, I came back and worked all day just clearing the garage.  I found at least one dead mouse and a ton of styrofoam peanuts.

Then it flooded again.

Then the basement flooded.

So here I am, taking another vacation day, using every rag in the house to try to mop up the water in the basement, bleaching the garage floor and thanking my lucky stars that I met a scrap metal dealer at court last week who is coming by to pick up all the metal I found whilst cleaning out the garage.  Goodbye, old lawnmower blades, rabbit ears and plant holders.

Now I just have to get the icky, sodden, dog-destroyed armchair out of the basement and wash another load of rags.

Busy day

Since today was the only day in all of July & August Mom & I could work together, I was at her house and working on accountings at 8 a.m.  I also took my laundry, because my dryer has had it, and the eggs and coconut to make macaroons.  Mom & I worked steadily until 11, then I took a break to bake.  Unfortunately, Mom was out of sugar, so I had to run up to the grocery store, but I still got 4 dozen macaroons done in time for a late lunch.  Then I went back to my computer and got the forms done for her to take in and file tomorrow.  Then I ran out of energy, loaded up the car and came home and took a nap.

The macaroons are for a Probate Court tradition--each person brings treats for everyone else on his or her birthday.  It's certainly practical, because no one person gets stuck repeatedly baking cakes or cookies or buying bagels.  Mom says it's just like hobbits giving presents to others.  Since the judge is allergic to wheat, macaroons are perfect.  Any vegans in the office can just suck it, however. :P

My dryer is 47 years old, and despite a nagging feeling of disloyalty, my sheets were so hot when I took them out last week that I finally decided to bite the bullet and just replace it.  It's had at least two new motors, several full clean-outs, and two years ago, Dad removed the drum and re-painted the inside.  So it's time.  I got a no-frills dryer from Lowe's, and they're going to call me about delivery.

Both of my brothers called to wish me a happy birthday, and that just put the cap on my day.  Now I'm going to go take a cool shower and read the book Mom loaned me.

Another hero (although this one's not soggy)

An old friend of my uncle's lives in New Jersey, and is without power.  Because my father is smart and caring and thoughtful, he purchased a generator today, and tomorrow morning he is driving to New Jersey to get it hooked up.  He just says that it's something he knows how to do and something he has the time to do, but I'm pretty damn impressed.

I hear the Ozarks are nice this time of year...

I hope so, because that's where Mom and Dad are, as they make their way to Texas for my nieces' spring break. They left at noon on Wednesday, spent the night in Cinci with my aunt, and are taking it easy. They're supposed to call me tonight from some place called Mountain Home.

On Thursday, I learned a very valuable lesson--do not make filing rounds at lunchtime! The overpriced fast-food student 'restaurant' in our building smelled like hamburgers, the county building smelled like chicken noodle soup and the state building smelled like bacon. I was so hungry when I got back from my rounds that I ate my lunch half an hour early!

NE Ohio got some nice torrential rains yesterday, then snow last night, and this morning I had water in the basement again. I went in to work long enough to grab some stuff to do at home, then came back and called Snoopy and the guy from the water-proofing company.

The latter made it out here first, and he jackhammered a long trough in the concrete so any water coming in from the west wall could make it to the pipe. I'm a little concerned that Piggie Pie is going to decide she needs to eat gravel, but I hope that doesn't happen. Someone else from the company is supposed to be coming out next Friday to see if they can figure out a more permanent fix. Hopefully, it will not involve lavish amounts of money to replace the chimney.

And all of my good thoughts tonight are going to the people of Japan and Hawaii, and hoping that the American West Coast has nothing worse than extra high tides.

The last thing I did Monday night

...was invent a new way to fall. I took a step backward to let the dog in and tripped over my own feet, staggered into the wall, banged one leg on the dog's table and the other on the floor when I went down on one knee.

Then on Tuesday morning, the company who'd said they couldn't come Monday didn't call, and when I called them, they said they couldn't come Tuesday, either. The guys from the water-proofing company showed up and said there wasn't anything they could do to help. So Tuesday morning I put every rag I had in the house on one of the giant basement puddles and put the dog down there and felt bad.

I got to work about 10:30 and started helping Mom with trial prep, and called Snoopy to see if I could borrow his shop vac. He said he'd go over around two and replace the bathroom faucet he was supposed to replace last weekend and clean up the water. Mom and I got the trial prep done, took a couple of minutes for lunch, and I managed to get out of there by 4:30.

Little Miss Piggie Pie was waiting for her dinner when I got home, and Snoopy was just finishing up in the bathroom. I fed her and put her outside and then back in again, and then Snoopy dragged his shop vac down to the basement. It took him about an hour, but he got most of the remaining water off the floor, yay. Then I had four loads of rags to wash, but at least I had a damp basement rather than one with standing water in it and I'm only out $100 for Snoopy's labor. Of course, that doesn't count the bump in my gas bill from having the heat on so high for so long and the bump in my electric bill as well, sigh.

I was so tired I didn't even take a bath Tuesday night, and my muscles were really screaming from the fall when I woke up this morning. However, I had the satisfaction of knowing that Mom went to court with her ducks not just in a row, but lined up with military precision. The hearing got continued because opposing counsel didn't have his ducks even the same room, but Mom did get one of the things she asked for, court-ordered mediation.

Tonight, Mom's at Antique Club and I am definitely going to use one of my hoarded, discontinued, cinnamon-mint Lush bubble bars to soak my aching muscles in!

I've always known I hated Mondays,

I just never knew Mondays hated me back.

The MS flareup is still ongoing, making it very difficult for me to do anything much more than type with my left hand (and at that, I'm wishing I didn't need to capitalize any of the letters I type with my right hand). I still managed to get the bathroom cleaned and the laundry done yesterday, at which time every thing in the house was normal.

I knew today and tomorrow were going to be absolutely crazy at work, because Mom has a big trial coming up on Wednesday and so there'd be a lot of copying, collating, etc. for me. I was already half-dreading the day as I showered, got dressed and packed my lunch, but that was nothing compared to the fact that when I went to put Piggie Pie in the basement there was standing water at the bottom of the steps. I left her down there, went in to work, went through the mail from Friday and Saturday and called both of Mom's afternoon appointments to cancel. I also made all the copies of the finally balanced accounting from last week and got them ready for Mom to take to court and checked the voice mail. By the time Mom got there at 9:15, I had the decks cleared enough so that I could come home and call my insurance agent.

Of course, said agent isn't sure whether the damage is covered, but he gave me the name and number of a cleanup guy and started the claim process. Michael, the cleanup guy, was booked solid today and is hopefully going to come out early tomorrow, because I made a point of telling his office that I had to be at work to do trial prep.

Please note that at no point in this process did I call my father. Dad is pretty much out of the home repair business after almost killing himself with work on his own house last summer, and right now, I can't manage cleaning up the basement, even if he had brought me a mop and bucket. I couldn't even do my usual trick of putting towels down and then taking them to the washing machine in a basket--there's just too much water!

I did put on my boots and go down and check, and the water appears to be coming in the west wall, and it's pretty much all gone towards the south (front) and east walls, which means that it is away from the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer (good) but far away from the sump pump (bad). At some point while I was exploring and evaluating, Mom called Dad.

Dad called me, told me he couldn't do anything but said he'd come over after dinner with his mop and bucket. I have not told Dad about the flareup, because he's going through enough medical crap on his own, so I didn't tell him that wouldn't work, just said that my insurance guy wanted me to have the pro clean it up. Dad then yelled at me for not keeping better track of the one piece of paper we have regarding the alleged basement waterproofing done two decades ago. I declined to get into that with him, because while I believe that Mom has said piece of paper, I also know that I could have stuck it "someplace safe" and I'm tired of hearing about it from him.

Mom called about 6:30 and said she'd found it, and gave me the name of the company plus the phone numbers from the sheet of paper. Dad said he'd looked them up online and they had a good rating both with Angie's List and the BBB, but he couldn't give me the url because he used Google and just went straight to the site. I used Google too, but got several different companies in different states with the same name. I finally found it and wrote down the number. The last thing Dad said to me was, "Don't make an appointment for tomorrow." I said I had to, because I can't leave Little Miss in a wet basement. His response was, "Your mother needs you more than your dog does."

I hung up on him. I am SO sick and tired of him being a crabby ass bastard that if he were here, I'd hit him with his own damn mop.

*breathe breathe breathe*

I did reach three different guys at the waterproofing company, and someone will be at my house between 8:30 and 9:00 tomorrow morning to take a look. I tried to call Mom to tell her, but the phone's busy, and since they have call waiting, I think maybe crabby ass bastard took the phone off the hook. Fine, I'll call in the morning and wake his crabby ass up.

Mailboxes and If Bunnies

The driver who hit my mailbox fell asleep at the wheel about 12:30 a.m. In the realm of odd coincidences, she both lives at the apartment complex where I used to work and has the same insurance company I do. Snoopy gave me an estimate for the labor, Plaid Jammies is going to pick up a new mailbox at Ace, and hopefully State Farm is going to pay for the whole thing.

On Veterans' Day, I had an interview for an administrative assistant at a local college. The benefits are good, if pricey, the time off is stellar, and the commute is hideous. I didn't know until the end of the interview that I was one of only four people offered in-person interviews, but after an e-mail yesterday, I now know that I'm one of two people to be asked for second interviews. Eeep. If (big, bouncing If Bunny) they offer me the job at the higher end of the salary range, I'll probably take it and split the extra money between gas and maybe one day at week at doggie daycare for Little Miss Piggie Pie.

When I got home tonight, there was a message on my machine for a phone interview for a position I applied for a few weeks ago, so that's another If Bunny.

Also, today was a horrible day at work, thanks to a family tragedy yesterday, the details of which I just learned last night and am still trying to process; a bitchy field examiner from the VA; a monster masquerading as opposing counsel and topped off with a brainless client. I really needed my workout tonight.

Happy birthday to my dryer

My Kenmore dryer is about 43 years old. It's had new motors, new belts, new fans and other maintenance over the years, but the last year or so, the paint has come off the drum and left bare metal, which leaves rust stains on my laundry. So rather than buy a new dryer, I bought a can of special appliance spraypaint and on Halloween weekend Dad came over and took out the drum and took it home to paint it. According to the guy at the appliance parts store who sold me the paint, you can't use it inside ever. Dad's a little sceptical, but he followed instructions and on Sunday, he brought the repainted tumbler back and we put it in.

It's been a long time since I was Dad's mechanical assistant, and there were a few fumbles as I tried to hand him the right tools or parts and hold the light where he needed it, but we did okay. Dad did a lot of grumbly cussing, but only one f-bomb, and when the exhaust pipe came out of the wall for the third time, if he hadn't said it, I would have. He even made a joke at one point--he was putting the door back on the dryer, and I was essentially bent in half trying to support the entire weight of the tumber when he said, "Now stay just like that. I'm going to go have a cigarette and I'll be back in about ten minutes."

Ha. Funny man in my basement. :p

I have to thank Sherri and Jay for the Legacy Kirby, because the dryer had a ton of lint and dust and whatnot inside, and with the cleaning attachments on the vacuum, I can say that I'm confident there isn't a cleaner 43 year old dryer on the planet.

Dad and I were done in about two hours, with one coffee-and-cigarette break, and then I got to work on two weeks' worth of laundry. I'm still not completely done, but it's really nice to know I won't have giant orange blotches on my clothes!

Thanks, Dad.

The joys of home ownership

As I mentioned, Sherri and Jay made a spontaneous trip to Ohio on Thursday. We had a lovely, quiet Friday and Saturday, full of shopping, baking, eating, movie-watching, perfume-testing, laughing, exercising, lunching with relatives, etc.

On Sunday, I got up at my usual 6:20, and the water was out. I tried flipping the breaker, to no avail. When Sherri woke up, I sent her down to the basement, and explained what had happened, then put some empty bottles in my car and headed out to the folks' house.

Mom was out riding her bike, but I got in the back door to the garage, and started filling water bottles at the utility sink. I was almost done when Mom got home, and she invited the three of us to spend the day at her house. I wound up not going anywhere, although Jay and Sherri went to Barnes and Noble and picked up dinner at the Olive Garden. Somehow, throughout the day, the pump came back to life enough for us to be able to flush toilets, although not shower or wash dishes.

Monday morning, I took a shower at the Natatorium, then went on to work. While I was there, I talked to Dave, the well pump guy, and he said he'd meet me at the house at 12:30. It wound up being closer to 2:00, but he replaced the switch, and didn't have to dig anything up, yay! As soon as he was gone, I told Jay and Sherri to have the long showers they both wanted, and then it was time for a nap, then dinner, then a quick trip to World Market.

Tuesday morning I dropped Jay off at the Nat and went on to work, then headed for a local nursery, where I picked up six pink-flowered lavender plants. When I came home, Jay walked Little Miss and Sherri and I made pesto. We also discussed books and knitting and gardening. She's taken up knitting again, so I can count that and BPAL as my enabling successes for the visit.

While I did very much miss Imp and Rob and Dampy, it was nice to have Sherri and Jay all to myself. I wished they lived closer.

Ded Jammehs iz ded

Mom and I are going to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, so of course we thought this would be a good time to have a handyman take care of one or two things that need fixing. That's all well and good, but I have to move everything out of the library closet while still trying to reclaim my back flowerbeds.

On that subject, I got an early start this morning, removing weeds and schlepping mulch out to the back. I took a short break and went to Ace Hardware for topsoil and Temptation nursery for three white lamium and four blue columbines. I worked outside until it was too hot (noon) and then came inside, finished up the laundry and took a nap. At 6:30, I went back outside and stayed out until 8:30.

I'm both happy with what I accomplished and a bit dismayed that there's still so much too do. The smaller of the tricky beds is weeded, re-soiled and mulched, the seven plants plus two irises which were waiting to be planted are all in, and I scattered a bunch of gladiolus bulbs in there for good measure. At this point, I'm thinking that I'll do the other tricky bed the right way, and on the two narrow beds, I'll wait until fall, then mow everything down and start over in the spring.

Tomorrow night I have to finish cleaning out that closet, and then start packing. My biggest dilemma is how do I know what scents I want to wear until I get there?

*ponder ponder ponder*

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Dude, this stuff is ug-leee
Silver and gold wallpaper
Is gone from my li-brar-eee!

Just a little reminder from me to me about why all my books are in boxes, my house is a wreck, my neck hurts and my hands are wrinkly old-lady hands tonight:

Before:





There will be "after" pictures when there is an after, but first there will be a wee paws in transmissions from KJAMZ, as my computer will need to be disconnected and moved this weekend. It is possible but not probable that Dad will have my new-to-me laptop ready by then, so my few readers should be prepared for radio silence.

Honor thy father

means not killing him, right?

Clearwater was typically non-specific about the arrival time of the water softener installer, so I was home and changed out of my work clothes by noon. Dad arrived about quarter after, and was pouty because the work I'd brought home was stuff I had to do on the computer. After his little hissyfit, he stomped out to the garage to hook a battery charger up to my lawnmower while the coffee he'd pretty much demanded I make was brewing. At some point after Dad went to the garage but before he came back in, Bigfoot pooped on the breezeway floor.

On his way back in, Dad not only stepped in it, but failed to notice that he'd done so, and he tracked it through the breezeway, the kitchen, the hallway and the bathroom. When I told him what had happened, he got angry with poor old Bigfoot and angry with me, and bitched and whined about how it would never come out of the treads of his shoes. NB: I took them outside and used the pinpoint setting on my sprayer head and they cleaned up perfectly. Dad put his shoes back on, poured coffee into his traveling mug (leaving a small pond of coffee on the kitchen counter for me) and went to the bank and to do some shopping. He told me to call him when the service guy arrived, but he came back at 2:00 and no one was here yet.

I closed all my files and told Dad he could have the computer for ONE. HOUR. At 3:15, I basically had to bully him into giving it up, and he told me I hadn't given him enough time to put the keyboard, monitor and speakers back where they were. After rebooting and re-arranging, I went back to work on my book. Dad installed the new bathroom fan, and I had to go admire it.

The guy finally showed up at 4:05, and I put Littlefoot in my bedroom and tied Bigfoot up outside. Dad borrowed one of my garden hoses to drain the hot water heater, put a "severe kink" in it and then borrowed my good snips to cut it apart. It started to rain, so I let poor Bigfoot back in and got yelled at for not keeping him out of the basement, despite the fact that Dad is the one leaving the damn door open every time he goes down there.

Right now, the guy's still down there installing, Dad is wandering around being a major grump, the water's still off and I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally need to piddle.

I need to send my mother flowers for putting up with him for forty-six years!

Sweat equity

Mom & I worked for four hours at the law office today, then had breakfast for lunch at a neat little local cafe, then worked three more hours on a house she's cleaning out for a guardianship. For those three hours of working in yucky heat & humidity dragging things down the stairs or up the stairs and out of the house, I earned four plastic outdoor chairs, an aluminum outdoor lounge, a recliner in decent condition, four or five books on gardening and a beautiful old steamer trunk with a domed lid.

I ache in every muscle and while I am clean and no longer sweaty, I miss being able to soak muscle aches out in the tub. I have my bath for Monday night all planned out--Aura Suavis bubble bar & shower gel, plus the spearmint/geranium Winter Stress Relief OOAK perfume from BPAL. Maybe I should have a ticker for hours left until bathtime. ;)

Let there be (drinkable) water

Yes, there will be water in time for JammiesFest '08. Rob will not have to worry about remembering which is the potable water if he wakes up in the middle of the night, and I will be a relaxed and happy Jammies owing to my renewed ability to bathe.

On either June 30th (hopefully) or July 7th (more likely), Clearwater Systems will be installing a new AquaSystems Smart Choice 200 model water softener.

I'm so excited I may go organize my bath products, and I am already debating what scent my celebratory bath should be.

Buggre All This Everything

The following is from Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

The book was commonly known as the Buggre Alle This Bible.* The lengthy compositor's error, if such it may be called, occurs in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 48, verse five:

2. And bye the border of Dan, fromme the east side to the west side, a portion for Afher.
3. And bye the border of Afhter, fromme the east side even untoe the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
4. And bye the border of Naphtali, from the east side untoe the west side, a portion for Manaffeh.
5. Buggre all this for a Larke. I amme sick to mye Hart of typeƒettinge. Master Biltonn if no Gentelmann, and Master Scagges noe more than a tighte fisted Southwarke Knobbeƒticke. I telle you, onne a daye laike thif Ennywone half an oz. of Sense should bee oute in the Sunneshain, ane nott Stucke here alle the liuelong daie inn thiƒ mowldey olde By-Our-Lady Workeƒhoppe. @*"Æ@;!*
6 And bye the border of Ephraim, from the east fide even untoe the west fide, a portion for Reuben.

*[The Buggre Alle This Bible was also noteworthy for having twenty seven verses in the third chapter of Genesis, instead of the more usual twenty four.

They followed verse 24, which in the King James version reads:

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life," and read:

25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming sword which was given unto thee?
26 And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.
27 And the Lord did not ask him again.

It appears that these verses were inserted during the proof stage. In those days it was common practice for printers to hang proof sheets to the wooden beams outside their shops, for the edification of the populace and some free proofreading, and since the whole print run was subsequently burned anyway, no one bothered to take up this matter with the nice Mr. A. Ziraphale, who ran the bookshop two doors along and was always so helpful with the translations, and whose handwriting was instantly recognizable.]

It was this passage (or paƒƒage) which made me realize that I am essentially a high-tech typesetter (not that I mind, it's actually good to have a label to use when I need to answer the "What do you do" question). After last week, I'd replace "Master Scraggs" with "Miƒtreƒƒ Patricia," but other than that, I'm familiar with the temptation.

Got my water softener estimates today. The good news is that it's not $3,500 or even $3,000 but probably more like $1,800-$1,900. The bad news is that is 95 Ladies of the Grindhouse, 158 Body Glaze Samplers or just under 30 dog baths!

Dad was a big help this afternoon, asking questions and letting me think out loud after all the salesmen had left. He also took a look at my bathroom fan, couldn't fix it, and took the carcass away to get a new one (which I hope will be installed before JammiesFest). He also did all my Windows updates and admired my Kogimugs (but refused to use one on the grounds that he would feel awful if he broke it). It was a productive afternoon if not an exciting one.

It looks as if JammiesFest will have usable water but possibly a lot of ramen on the menu. Ahh well, the most important thing is the time with the friends willing to drive all this way to be here. :)

A Jammies without a bath is like

...any unpleasant simile, really. I am sore and cranky and all rumpled up in my soul. Plus my bathtub is blue with orange from my showers (which are so very not the same as a bath) and my dishwasher is a giant drying rack and I'm worried about doing laundry.

On Monday there are three companies coming to give me estimates, and my dad is going to try to be here. Nothing like a Monday full of grumpy old men. :P

Zombies, pants and Oompa Loompa water

My custom sock zombie arrived from Erin. As a result of a discussion Mallie, Becs and I had a while back, his name is Izbin. He is so freaking cute that I keep expecting him to ask "I can has bwains?" and looking into his one big and one small green eye, I would say yes, because he is adorable.

Littlefoot has no pants. He spent last Friday at the groomer's, and came home fluffy, sweet-smelling, wearing a triangle of cloth with a puppy print on it, and pantsless. His formerly Jiffy Pop butt is now sleek and you can see his cute little feet! He keeps nudging the "bandana" as if to ask me to put it back on him, which I will do for JammiesFest.







Speaking of JammiesFest, I am awaiting loan approval so I can get a new water softener. Because my water is dark orange thanks to all the iron in it, I am on both a no-buy (meaning no spending fun money) and a no-bath for the foreseeable future. I just hope I can get it fixed before JammiesFest. *sigh*