Category: Daily Life

This morning was a triumph of errand running. I'd had my Honda Insight at the car shop for a couple of days getting the main hybrid battery pack replaced at enormous expense. I made it to the rental car place right as they opened at 7:30 a.m., dropped off their car, got a ride to the dealer, picked up my car, stopped for coffee and a quick breakfast, and made it to my eye doctor appointment by 9.

I had a 10 o'clock meeting at work and I got to my parking garage a few minutes before that. It was pretty full, so I took an uncharacteristic parking spot and hurried in.

Later, a friend called to ask if I wanted to go to lunch. I went to my car a little before noon and immediately opened the hatch to grab a little gift for her. I saw that one of the gift packs I had was unwrapped and thought that was very odd. Surely the car shop guys hadn't opened one?

I didn't get clued in until I opened the driver side door and found one of my plastic console panels lying on the seat. I'd been hearing pieces of the broken glass from the passenger window falling, but it took several long moments for me to put it all together in my head. Someone had broken into my car, taken out my stereo, stolen my nice radar detector from the glove box and generally made a big old mess.

After calling to cancel lunch, I went back to my desk and filed a police report over the phone. It turned out that my car was one of many that had been broken into, so eventually I talked to the police in person, but they wouldn't have come out for just one break-in.

Then I called my insurance company and got that ball rolling. I still haven't heard back with a claim number, but I went ahead and got Safelite Auto Glass to order a new window for me and scheduled an appointment to have it installed tomorrow afternoon.

Big props to Safelite, by the way. They invited me to drive to one of their locations so they could vacuum up the glass and seal the window hole while I waited for the installation. I also appreciated that their appointment confirmation e-mail for the mobile service includes the name and photo of the tech that will be coming to do the work.

I started out angry and upset at first, so I blew off steam via my usual social media accounts until I felt better.

I went back out to my car and noted that my garage door openers were still there (whew!); he hadn't found my GPS; the console panel had actually been removed with a screwdriver, so the damage to the car was limited to the window; and for some reason the guy had torn off a couple of the paper towels I carry in the car for my animal rescue volunteering. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that he'd spilled a bottle of water I'd had in the car.

Also not stolen:

• My glasses, which I'd left in the car after my eye doctor appointment
• A CD of The Yes Album (although now that I've looked on Amazon and seen that it's only worth 50¢, I guess I can see why)
• The rest of my Christmas gift packs (they're all pretty girly and I think he only opened the one to get some of the candy)
• The book I was reading (you can see it in the photo)

So that's good.

I've already discovered that the most annoying thing about not having a car stereo is that it means I also don't have a clock in my car. I'm dealing with the lack of music by singing every Christmas song I can think of, which also has the effect of cheering me up somewhat.

It's all a collossal annoyance, but minor in the grand scheme of things. As I noted in my "acceptance phase" post on Facebook, I guess crack money has to come from somewhere.

Happy eighteenth wedding anniversary to the guy who still makes me laugh every day!

Photo credit: Colby Lysne

I can't put my finger on why I've been so neglectful of the poor old blog lately. I'm still out there doing interesting things, but the will to write about them is sorely lacking.

Just to keep this from being a ghost ship, here are some photos I've taken over the past couple of months.

This is Tinkerbell, my foster kitty. I always swore I'd never foster, but I must have had a weak moment. Tinkerbell is the shyest non-feral cat I've ever met. She's really a sweetheart, but so skittish that she vanished for an entire week after she got to our house. We just moved her from the basement to the studio/office so she'd get more time to interact with us. I hope she finds a family that can be patient with her super-slow warmup process.

Speaking of animals, the bromance between Toby and Dr. Jones is still in full swing. The other night while we were watching TV, Jones had settled on the chair in the TV room and Toby was pacing back and forth trying to figure out where to settle. Finally he just jumped on the chair and spooned the cat, who was perfectly happy to let his buddy snuggle with him.

Ooh, pretty!

Ooh, pretty! Part II.

At Thanksgiving I made a lot of my own recipes and took photos of them so they're be more pinnable. Isn't Pomegranate Salsa lovely? I still have a lot of photoless recipes. Getting the rest of the photos may end up being a project for me between Christmas and New Year's Day while I'm off work. After all, we have to eat!

Finally, since today is National Cookie Day, here's a crazy video that my company did for our client Quiznos. It appeals to the hair band-loving teen who still lives in a dark corner of my brain:

Enjoy your day and have a cookie!

This turned out to be a slightly more relaxed weekend than I'd anticipated, which was good because I needed a break from running around.

I started the day by baking two loaves of Italian bread. My plan was to turn one of the loaves into Stuffed Cheesy Bread on Crack for a game night that evening. The other would be left to complement the minestrone I made on Sunday.

To give you some insight into what I deal with every day, once my husband got up I said, "Did you enjoy the smell of fresh-baked bread when you woke up?"

His reply, "I didn't really notice."

You can forward applications to be my new husband to the email address listed on my "About" page.

So anyway, in the afternoon I helped judge a pet costume contest at one of the PETCO stores where my rescue group has cats on display. The winner was this American Bulldog dressed as The Incredible Hulk. Here she is meeting her fellow Avenger, Captain America.

He's holding his hand like that because he had just petted She-Hulk and realized that dog-safe spray paint and sweaty palms don't mix.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and was thrilled to discover that pomegranate season has begun, so I purchased some and made pomegranate salsa. I'll have to pick up some more of the secondary ingredients to make another batch soon. Yum!

That evening, I went to A Librarian's house to play Cards Against Humanity with a group of friends. Thanks to the magic of technology (specifically Facetime and an iPad on our end), one of those friends played from the comfort of her own home in another city.

It really worked amazingly well. The room lighting was a little problematic, but they'd done a practice run beforehand and worked out how the virtual gameplay was going to proceed, so it went so smoothly that we might as well have all been sitting at the table together. 

However, only those who were physically in the room got to drink gummy bear martinis.

On Sunday, I put Toby's sweater on. He was less than thrilled.

My husband had a band in the studio and their cars blocked me in, so I cooked all three meals at home that day starting with waffles, proceeding to tuna sandwiches and finishing with the delicious minestrone. I had three bowls for dinner. It might be my favorite food in the world.

It was really nice to have more time to spend at home than usual. I didn't get in as much reading as I'd intended, but I'm sure the pets appreciated all of the extra snuggling (and probably the food smells as well, although they didn't get any of it).

I go back and forth about even having the porch light on at Halloween. We have very few kids in the neighborhood and we live on a dimly-lit, dead-end street. I think the most trick-or-treaters we've ever had could be counted on both hands.

However, my schedule aligned so that it made sense for me to be home on Wednesday night next week, so I decided to buy some treats for the few kids who might stop by. Of course, I also wanted to do it with an eye toward leftovers that I would enjoy.

On a recent trip to Target, I noticed that they were selling a big box of individual-serving bags of Pirate's Booty. Considering that I can eat an entire big bag of the stuff by myself and it's also pretty healthy, I thought it might be a nice option to hand out this year. That is, until I discussed it with my husband.

Husband: What kind of Halloween candy are you going to get?

Me: I was thinking of getting a bunch of individual portions of Pirate's Booty. 

Husband: That's more the kind of thing you like. How about some Almond Joy or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?

Me: Yeah, but the Pirate's Booty is healthy…

Husband: When I was a kid, I hated getting an apple or raisins or any of that bullshit. Halloween is about candy!

And he is right, of course. Apparently I lost touch with my inner child for a moment.

So now we have a giant bag of mini Almond Joy, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Whoppers and Heath Bars.

Here's hoping for a more robust showing of trick-or-treaters than I'm used to.

Photo credit: vvvracer

The combination of ample unused vacation days at work and lots of stuff to do around the house led me to take off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Here are a few of the things I've accomplished so far:

• Cleaned out all of the drawers and cupboards in my kitchen. Thanks to our recurring mouse problem, I ended up washing everything in several of the drawers. I also threw out a ridiculous amount of stale pantry items with "use by" dates ranging from 2008 forward.
• Did a full refrigerator and freezer cleanout. Oh, the expired condiments!
• Purchased a tulip poplar tree and planted it where the old locust tree had been. After I bought the tree, I had to go back with my husband's vehicle to pick it up later in the day because it was far too tall to fit in my tiny hybrid. Even in the SUV, I was pretty cozy with the branches as I drove home.
• Clipped all our cats' claws.
• Stopped by a veterinary office to pick up meds for my animal rescue group. Then I went and gave pills to three kittens at the store where I volunteer. I only lost a little bit of blood in the process.
• Laundry, of course.
• Brunch or lunch with different friends every day, just to have something to look forward to.

While I had the extra time, I scheduled Toby for a dental and ear cleaning yesterday morning. I cannot begin to tell you how much I like this new veterinary office. When I dropped off the dog, the doctor who would be handling the procedure checked him over thoroughly and took a good amount of time explaining exactly what would be done.

After the surgery, which involved removing one of his upper canines (the poor dog only has six teeth left now), the vet called and talked through every step of what he'd done to clear out Toby's ear, take care of his abcessed tooth and the complications that arose from it, and remove the two skin tags on his back that I'd asked them to take care of. Then he went through all of the post-care instructions in great detail despite the fact that they were written down for me to take home as well. 

Toby's ears had been so clogged way deep inside that it's highly probable that his hearing is now much improved. The doctor must have been impressed with how much gunk he removed because he saved it for me to see. I took a picture to show my husband but I'll forego posting it online. You're welcome!

I brought Toby home yesterday in the late afternoon and gave him a pain pill around supper time. Today he's supposed to be about 90% recovered but still on pain meds and antibiotics for a while. Right now he's asleep, poor little guy.

So now I have three days left, which doesn't sound like very much considering my continuing to-do list, which includes:

• Take everything out of the pantry closet and put it all back so that more stuff will fit. I'm going to see if the hardware store has one of those racks for hanging brooms and other long-handled implements on the wall. That would go a long way toward uncluttering in there.
• Clean out the closet, drawers and shelves in my dressing room. The closet is jammed with my husband's stuff from last year's bedroom remodel. He needs to go through it and decide what he wants to keep. I have gotten to the point where I can't put away all my clean laundry, so it's time to cull my clothing collection. Then there are all of the lurching stacks of books to be dealt with…
• Go through my home office, clear off the surfaces, file things as needed, and throw away the rest. I still have a big tub of junk that never got sorted out when I moved into my current office space in the house. I was trying to look back on my blog to see exactly when that was and ran across a post from 2007 that also mentioned my need to deal with my "Big Tubs O' Stuff." The good news is that I'm down to one now.
• Scrub and seal the slate floor in the kitchen. (This is another item that I'm constantly declaring that I need to do. Apparently blogging about it is not enough to get me to follow through.)
• Clean and mop the basement floor in the cats' area. Ick.
• Hang up a fluorescent light fixture above my laundry table in the basement.

I'm pretty sure a few of these aren't going to make the cut before I run out of weekend, especially since I also have two cat shifts at the pet store to squeeze in there, but I think the majority will get done if I can physically do it. My back is starting to bug me a bit, so I need to do a little pre-housework yoga and foam rollering to make sure I'm up for it.

Wish me luck!

Yesterday morning I was out taking Toby on his post-breakfast walk. We had just reached the end of the yard and I was stepping onto the concrete driveway when my ankle twisted and—just like that—I was on the ground.

It's always a shock to go from casually strolling to crumpled on the pavement. I'd caught myself with the heel of my right hand, so I didn't faceplant, despite the fact that the driveway slopes downward pretty dramatically. I had to sit there a bit to do a body inventory and decide whether it was a good idea to try to get back up.

In the meantime, Toby was ambling around the yard, tethered to the leash I still had in my hand. I think he was wondering why I felt it was necessary to sit down at that juncture and how long it was going to be before he got the treat that he had earned.

The side of my right calf was a little scraped and bruised, but I concluded that I was largely uninjured. I carefully stood back up, threw Toby's poop bag into the bucket at the foot of the driveway, and went inside.

The scary thing is that it was such a routine little trip outside that I wasn't at all prepared to get help if I'd needed it. I was basically dressed in my pajamas, I had no phone with me, and my husband was already asleep with two closed doors and two loud fans between us. If I'd needed assistance, I would have had to sit or lie there and hope that one of our neighbors happened to come by and notice that I was having a problem.

As it turned out, I escaped the entire incident almost completely unharmed except for the aforementioned leg bruise (which, honestly, might have already been there) and an incredibly minor scrape on my hand. All I can say is that I'm going to try to be more careful in the future. We'll see how that goes.

Photo credit: Christian Guthier

This morning while I was drinking my breakfast shake and thinking about a pre-yoga class shower, I heard a muffled crash. 

Hurricane Isaac had a little gift for me.

Now, of course I knew that a huge portion of this locust tree was dead. In fact, I had been meaning to call for a quote from a tree company that had left a flyer on my door not once but TWICE in the past week. The first flyer is sitting right here on my desk with some key sections missing thanks to Dr. Jones' penchant for chewing on paper.

So once the rain came after months of drought, the rotted section of the tree probably took on water like a sponge. And then it fell on top of the phone/cable lines, just the way I'd pictured it in my mind's eye a zillion times when I was telling myself that I needed to "do something" about that tree.

Once I looked out and saw what had happened, I went in to tell my husband. He had only been asleep for maybe an hour, so he was no help at all beyond a promise to pay whatever it cost to deal with the issue.

I stood out in the rain, gazed at the fallen tree blocking the street and honestly had no idea what to do.

Even though I was in my pajamas and robe, I went out to see if I could move enough of the tree so that people could drive by. The answer to that was "no." And now my robe needs to be washed.

I went inside and called the guy from the flyer. Fortunately, he was just about to leave the house anyway and he said he'd be right over. Then I called my sister and let her know I wouldn't be coming to yoga class.

It wasn't long before someone drove into our dead-end street and needed to get by. Fortunately, the neighbor she was coming to visit had a chainsaw, so he drove up from the other direction and cut enough of the tree away to clear a path.

My guy arrived about twenty minutes later. We talked through the options, ranging from just dealing with the immediate aftermath of today's incident, to trimming the dead parts off and hoping to keep the rest of the tree going for a while, to taking the whole tree down. I had him give me a variety of bids while I thought about it.

This is not the only time we've incurred expenses thanks to this tree. The first time a limb came down, it knocked the guttering off the porch and we ended up replacing all of the gutters. The time after that, a limb shattered our rusty old water main, which had to be replaced to the tune of about $5,000. Basically, having this tree in our yard has been like sitting on a pile of unexploded ordnance.  

As tempted as I was to try to save the tree, I decided it was time to let it go. His quote for the entire job was less than I expected, which helped tip the decision in that direction.

He started cutting up the fallen section of the tree while I went in and attempted to reach the phone company to let them know that their utility pole had snapped.

It took a number of attempts to get through to a person and explain what I was calling about. I could tell that there were severed cable TV lines involved as well, but after the phone company ordeal I decided I would let them deal with notifying the other companies whose services were affected.

Because there was nothing left for me to do, I went ahead and met a couple at the pet store so they could meet one of my rescue group's kittens, and then had a late second breakfast and coffee. By the time I got back, the tree crew had removed most of the branches from the tree and was starting to run them through the woodchipper.

They weren't able to finish the tree removal today, partly due to the unceasing rain and partly because our neighbors need to move two non-running cars out of the way in case one of the big tree sections falls in just the wrong place.

However, as of tomorrow we will have a treeless front yard. It makes me sad to see such a big, old tree taken out, but nothing lives forever. I'll start thinking about what kind of tree I'd like to plant in the front yard next.