Thoughts whilst driving home from work

Buick, I don't care how many mini shark fins you put on your cars, they'll still be staid and stodgy.

Wow, I hate the Akron Art Museum's building.

Okay, when did I become such a priss about driving through puddles and getting my car dirty?

Why do traffic people talk about surface streets?  All streets are on a surface.  Are traffic people too stupid to say secondary roads or are they pandering to a stupid audience?

Gah, why did I agree to bifocals progressive lenses?  Am I going to be able to use them?  Why did the eye doctor make such a big deal about how hard it's going to be?

Ooooh, very dramatic stand of forsythia there.  Hey, why did the city have to take out all those pear trees?  The side of the road is horrible, all weedy and junky where it used to be pretty.

Ten plus years of working in Akron and it still pisses me off that they take 2.25% in income tax for me and only give the city where I actually live 2%.  Dog knows the extra money isn't paying for road repairs.

Pretty cherry tree!  Oh, hey, that's mine and I'm home.  Long week.

Minimum comments

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.

Nice day for a drive to Cleveland

It was warm and sunny this morning, so Mimi's map and I took a confusing drive to ICA Art Conservation on Detroit Ave.  Between heavy traffic even though it was technically after rush hour, it's a good thing I left 25 minutes early.  I arrived with time to spare, and a (or possibly the) paper restorer spread the map on the table and was kind enough to say it was in really amazing shape.  Apparently a missing bottom dowel and some small tears are minimal damaged--the restorer said that most maps they see are absolutely trashed and that my grandmother must have taken good care of her things.  The copyright date on the map is 1895, and Dad was right, it was made by Rand-McNally.

Although I had joked about paying anything under 5 figures, it turns out that to have the map cleaned, restored and custom-framed would in fact cost about $10,000.00.  When I said that was not in my budget, they said for about $2,000 they can repair the small tears and encase it in Mylar, which can then be attached to the old case.  So I left the map with them for a full exam and quote, and got to drive along the Shoreway on a sunny day, looking a blue skies and a lake still almost completely iced up.

Then I took Mucinex for the chest cold which is trying to develop and took a nap.

Oh, and of course I now have a picture of the map:

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. :-)

The power of words

I overheard a discussion this morning which made me so angry I could have screamed.  Two guys were talking and one of them was explaining to the other that his "woman" was ugly, fat and "old" but she had money and she was so grateful to have him that she paid for everything.

At that point, my day was already a Monday--we got a lot of snow last night and the roads were only semi-cleared, I had a headache ibuprofen wasn't helping, a co-worker putting on her martyr suit and close to 300 approvals and publications to do plus my usual work.  I really really wanted to take a minute to tell this jerk he was no prize himself and if he was lucky, the woman in question would kick him to the curb while he was still young enough to change, but I refrained.

The rest of my day was similar, but it was saved in the last ten minutes.  An attorney I like and admire came in, and while we were talking, he asked if I parked at Morley Health Center.  When I said yes, he said "Then you know it's such a mess that someone posted a sign saying Welcome to Lake Morley."  I said, "Oh my gosh, that was ME!" and the attorney laughed his big, infectious laugh and we talked about it for a bit.  I was excited at the time when other people contributed to the sign, but to find out that someone remembered it nine months later was such a rush that my day really ended on a high note.

I love making people laugh, and I love being appreciated. :-)

It's all about the details

I don't have the budget or the spoons to do a whole steampunk room, but I've decided I want my kitchen to have some copper touches that could lend themselves to steampunkery if I ever have the funds.  I ordered light oak outlet covers for the lower outlets which are located in the wainscoting and copper switch plates and outlet covers for the higher outlets and switches.  I think they look lovely against the green walls!

And Sherri probably doesn't recognize the microwave cart any more, it was such a mess when she was here!

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.

In the Living Years

I've been thinking about my dad a lot this week.

He taught me to use the internet, which I used to look up the correct tire pressure for my car.

I used the 12-volt compressor he gave me to inflate my tires to the proper pressure.

I saw someone stick an arm out of the driver's-side window and squirt their windshield with Windex, something my dad had to do a few times on his Oldsmobile.

And my friend Jay posted the two songs which make him think of his dad, who he lost 24 years ago.

My dad frequently makes me crazy, but I love him, and I listen to him and I learn from him, and I have told him so and will tell him so.

In 1989, I bought the cassette single of this song for Dad for Father's Day, and he really liked it, so here it is once more for him:

Spirit, spoons and shortness

The day after Christmas last year, I bought 150 plastic ornaments with the intention of decorating the two evergreens outside my breezeway.  This year, I dawdled and procrastinated until December 21, when I finally bought ornament hangers and got out in cold and damp and decorated.

I ran out of spoons before I ran out of ornaments, and I knew that climbing up on a ladder at that point was A Bad Idea, so I put everything away.  I took today off work, so this morning after a quick grocery run, I got the ladder out.

Guess what?  Even with a 7-foot ladder, I'm too short to reach the top of the taller tree.  I've got blisters because I'm allergic to evergreens, sore shoulders from reaching over my head, and the decorations aren't quite perfect, but I'm still pleased.

I decorated something for Christmas for probably the first time in seven or eight years!

The year is ending nicely

Well, mostly.  I think I've burned out on Bubbles & Baubles, but at lease what may be my last post there is one that makes me happy.  I enjoyed making up the polish bags, and I'm pleased to have gotten rid of a tiny portion of my ridiculous polish stash.

The probate court has adopted a family for Christmas, and I got to go shopping for a 4 year-old girl.  I found some pants, a cute sweater and a Minnie Mouse sweatshirt and pants set, and then found the winter coat I've been wanting for two years.  Instant karma!

The courthouse café sends postcard with a coupon every month to the folks on their mailing list, and for December, my coupon was buy one sandwich get one free.  Instead of tossing it, I took it down when I bought my lunch on Thursday, and told the cashier to use the free sandwich for the next person to get one.  That happened as I was waiting for my sandwich, and it turns out that I bought lunch for one of the domestic court judges. :-)  Then I went out and bought a couch from a local business. :-D

Yesterday wasn't very pleasant, because instead of doing my work, I was docketing extensions filed by idiots who didn't get their filings done in time and don't want to be cited.  But we got raises for next year, and the day eventually ended.

Today I was at Mom's, aka the second job, and in addition to my usual boring paperwork, I got to make gingerbread cookies and cut out ninja shapes for my nephew to decorate.  I even figured out how to work the convection oven by myself!

My brother, sister-in-law and nephews will be here for Christmas, I have the 23rd through the 25th off and the last of my presents are scheduled to arrive on Monday.  The house is warm, the dog is getting fat, and all is well.

Love to all of you who took the time to read this--you're what Vio calls "Friends as Family" and you're a big part of why I'm content.

Snobservations from a VERY long week

Before I start snobserving, if you don't follow me on Google Plus, you might not know that my boss was on the front page of the paper on Thursday, or that my workplace will be featured in a documentary.

That leads me to my first snobservation, that it used to be 15 minutes of fame.  Now, apparently, at least for buildings, it's only 6 minutes. :-(

It was a very long week, in part because Tuesday was Call Day, in which m colleagues and I are frantically busy but don't actually get a ton of work done, and partly because of the looming departure of one of said co-workers.

To the attorney who was upset with me for sending back an insufficiently documented Inventory, I say, "Mister, you can tell me that house is worth a cow and a sackful of magic beans, but if it's not in writing, I can't docket it."

To all of the attorneys who say that's not how they do it in [insert name of other county here], I say, "That's how we do it here, and that's why you should read the damn local rules before you try to file in a new-to-you county."

To the attorneys who ask about the rules of service and wonder when we started doing that, I say, "It's been almost a year, and you should read the damn local rules before you try to file in a court where you haven't practiced in a year."

To paralegals who call me asking how to do something, I say, "Ask your boss, she's the lawyer!"

And to the snooty-ass OSBA-certified paralegal who types things like, "Your welcome" I say, "My welcome says you need to brush up on your basic grammar."

Hmmm

My city has decided to go with fabric recycling.  On the one hand, I am delighted to have an outlet for the pillows which are too manky to give to Goodwill, along with single socks and bras which have quit fighting the good fight.  On the other hand, it's a for-profit company called Simple Recycling doing this, and I don't know how many of my fellow citizens will go to their website and read the details.  

I hope that some, if not all, will, and that Goodwill, the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations will not be hurt.  I know that the scam drop-boxes have cut into donations to those same organizations.  And yes, the drop-boxes for used clothing are almost completely for-profit despite the misleading labeling. 

The one that ticks me off the most, of course, is the book "recycling" boxes.  When I saw a box in the local shopping center, I almost plowed into it with the car when I recognized the name of an online "store" from which I had purchased used books.  I still have not completely discarded the idea of tacking up a sign reading "THESE PEOPLE SELL BOOKS.  YOU'RE NOT DONATING TO ANYTHING BUT THEIR BOTTOM LINE."

I guess in regard to the fabrics, I will give the city the aforementioned manky pillows and donate clothes to Goodwill, but if you're reading this, please, please investigate before you give anything to anyone.  These days, almost anything can be turned for a profit, and that's fine if you know that's what's going to happen.  If that's not what you want, find a reputable charity which will take it.

A matter of taste

So yes, after at least five years of wanting to, this was the year I did this:

When the kits to turn your car into a reindeer first came out, they were at least $30 or so, and I passed.  But last Saturday I was at a local discount store and found this particular set for $3, so of course I grabbed it!

So I posted a picture on G+, and my buddy Rob commented to the effect that he thought I had better taste than to do this.*

Guess what, Rob?  I don't have better taste, I just have iron control over my terrible taste.  The louder, flashier, shinier, gaudier and more ridiculous it is, the better I like it.  But since I'm not going to get very far at work looking like a drag queen exploded in my closet, I pull back.

Way back.

And because I don't have the budget to light up a ghastly fantasy of outdoor lighting in garish colors every year, I skip it.

But the truth is that I have terrible, terrible taste, and for now, antlers on my car.

*The sister of my heart, the lovely Vio, commented that I needed a speaker which played "Gramma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" as I drove.

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!