Category: Daily Life

Thank you to everyone who commented or e-mailed yesterday about my cat. She’s still hanging in there and actually seems a little brighter today, so I’m hoping we’ll have her around a bit longer.

If you’ve commented recently, you may have noticed that I’ve started something new: e-mailing every commenter back. I’ve always felt like a slacker when it comes to interacting with the people who visit this site, so I checked the box in Typepad to have each comment e-mailed to me. Now I can easily reply when someone comments and I hope to encourage more back-and-forth with all of you who share your thoughts.

Speaking of sharing thoughts, I haven’t mentioned that this is National De-Lurking Week. It’s a little late in the game, but now would be a good time for you to de-lurk and say "hi."

Finally, a couple of things that have caught my eye lately but don’t warrant whole posts:

• When I was working at the rabies clinic last weekend, I saw a little girl about nine or ten years old wearing a sweatshirt with a cartoon monkey on the reverse along with the phrase, "Get this monkey off my back." Is it just me, or does it seem a leetle bit inappropriate to adorn a child’s garments with drug addiction street slang?
• On Wednesday night, I saw the best nail salon name ever: Nail Jail. It’s now right up there with the Rib Crib in my list of awesomely bad business names.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to say hello so I can say hello right back atcha.

That post title sounds as though it could be sung to the tune of "London Bridge":

Average Jane is wearing down, wearing down, wearing down
Average Jane is wearing down
Where’s the coffee?

All of the veterinary turmoil with Friday (not to mention the bill, which was more than my house payment just for yesterday’s tests), plus my ordinary workload, the home improvement chaos, and let’s not forget the cold I’ve had since late December – it’s adding up. I woke up feeling hung over, and I don’t think Robitussin has that effect.

My cat very likely has some kind of cancer. We won’t know the specifics until her cytology tests come back today or tomorrow. It’s going to be very difficult to decide what to do once we know more. After watching my mother die of cancer, I already believe it would be needlessly cruel to subject a sixteen-year-old cat to chemotherapy and/or radiation. If it turns out to be something they think they can address surgically, that would probably be worth trying, but otherwise I think we’ll probably just have to concentrate on keeping her happy and comfortable for as long as she seems free of pain.

I’ve been back and forth to the vet so many times in the last couple of months that it sort of slipped my mind that maybe I should go to the doctor for my sinus infection. It’s probably not good to let those go on for weeks and weeks.

Well, off to rinse myself down in front of the sink again. I woke up too late to go to our contractor’s house to take a shower. Is it the weekend yet?

I had a non-restful night last night because our Scandinavian bed frame staged a protest after twelve years of use. I was already asleep when my husband came to bed and the minute he sat down on his side, there was a loud "crack!" as the wooden rail supporting the slats ripped free from the side. I made him sleep on my side and I slept on the couch one last time (seeing as the new one arrives today).

We’re going to see if our construction guys might be able to fix and reinforce the bed frame. I’d really prefer not to invest in a new bed right now.

Our bathroom is starting to take shape. The glass-block window is in, as are the sheetrock and tile backing board behind the shower. Today they’re taping and mudding the sheetrock, so if the new furniture comes wrapped in plastic, we’ll be leaving it that way until the sanding is finished on Wednesday.

The other day I gave into the temptation to shop online for t-shirts again. See, I have a balance in my Paypal account because an item I ordered pre-Christmas from Musician’s Friend was discontinued. So it’s really like anything I buy using Paypal right now is FREE! I ordered the Evolver and Elliot’s New Friend shirts because they amused me. I really need to rein in my spending immediately.

My new year’s resolution to cook at home more often is going quite well. I think we’ve only had a couple of dinners in restaurants since the first of the year. The "bringing my lunch to work" thing isn’t going as well, but that’s really no surprise. I like having a lunch break away from the office, particularly when it gives me the chance to socialize with co-workers.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. I need to get dressed and take my cat to the vet. I spent the whole night worrying about her, so I’m really hoping there’s something they can do to help her out.

I spent about equal amounts of time this weekend trying to improve the community and trying to improve my house. I’d say they were equally successful.

On Saturday, I volunteered at a low-cost rabies vaccination clinic. It was my job to greet people as they came in with their animals and fill out paperwork for them to take to the payment table. It went well until the very last family, who didn’t speak English very well. I should have called over a Spanish speaking volunteer, but instead I forged ahead and completely failed to comprehend that they wanted their dog to be microchipped AND get vaccinations. Oops. I blame the fact that I hadn’t eaten breakfast or drunk any coffee beforehand. I won’t make that mistake again.

Earlier that morning, I took my own cat to the vet. Ever since she finished her second round of antibiotics for a kidney infection, she’s been unusually round through the belly. The vet x-rayed her and found that she is retaining fluid in her abdomen.

Apparently she’s in the tenuous position of having kidney problems and heart problems at the same time. Thus, her body can’t process fluids properly. She’s now on a small dose of a diuretic, but it only flattens her out for a few hours and then she fills up with cat juice again. The vet referred her to a cardiologist at another clinic and I’m taking her tomorrow morning.

On Sunday, I decided that I needed to paint my living room to prepare for the new chocolate-brown leather couch and chair that are being delivered on Tuesday. I chose a color that Lowe’s calls "Purple Earth." It’s pretty much the color of a Hershey Bar wrapper, only a shade or two lighter. It took me about five hours to do two coats on all the walls. I’ll have to get to the white trim later; I failed to tape before I painted, so I ended up with quite a lot of sloppy spots infringing on the baseboard, window and door frames, and ceiling molding.

The living room walls started out the color of chocolate milk. The new color is very dramatic in comparison, but it looks fantastic, particularly with the white trim and hardwood floor.

Meanwhile, the bathroom remodeling project continues. There’s been a mixup with the tile supplier and it turns out that I won’t be receiving my shipment tomorrow after all – it was shipped to the retailer instead. For those of you playing the home game, that means we haven’t had a shower in our house for five days now. I’m getting mighty tired of washcloth baths in front of the sink.

I’m hoping we’ll get the tile by mid-week and have the new shower up and going by this weekend. Until then, I may have to start dropping in on random friends with a towel, shampoo and conditioner in my hands.

Well, I’m sure I’ve bored you enough for now. This post is really just so I can look back in a year or so and be reminded how lucky I am to have my nicely decorated and remodeled rooms.

So what’s new with you this week?

When I got home last night, I stood in the empty shell that was once our bathroom and talked through the whole plan again with our contractor. At this point, all of the old plumbing has been removed, so it won’t be a big deal to switch the sinks to the opposite side of the room, glass-block the window, and move the shower and toilet (or "shitter," as our contractor consistently puts it) across from them.

The most fascinating disaster area created by the construction so far is in our basement, just below the bathroom. The previous owners had built a strange sort of lowered ceiling section and bar to cover up the plumbing. Now it all lies in a pile of rubble on the basement floor with a huge section of cast-iron drainpipe on top. I’m carefully documenting everything with my digital camera, but I’ll probably wait until the weekend to throw the photos up on Flickr.

Today the cats are going in my dressing room, which I’ve furnished with food, water and a cat box. They’ll have to wrangle over who lies in the window hammock and who gets to sleep on the chair, but I’m sure they can work it out. According to my husband, they were very stressed out all day yesterday, so maybe this will help a bit.

If the stars align just right, we’ll have a shower again by the end of the day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the floor tile arrives sometime fairly soon. I ordered it a week ago yesterday and there’s still no tracking number listed. 

This weekend I’m starting a new project: painting my living room. This one I’ll do on my own. We’ll see how that works out.

Okay, it’s driving me crazy that I’m not at home while the bathroom remodeling work is taking place. Here are summaries of the phone calls I’ve received from my husband today:

• He’s locked the cats in the bedroom because otherwise they’d be underfoot or get outside.
• It turns out that the window in the bathroom is too close to the shower and we’re going to have to cover it back up again.
• The reason the ceiling was lowered over the sink is that there are pipes up there. No, he doesn’t know what kind of pipes, but the workmen are going to relocate them.
• "Hey, maybe we could put the shower in another corner, keep the window, move the toilet and sinks…" I absolutely could not picture what he was trying to describe and it sounded like a lot of relocation of plumbing, so the default answer was, "No, just plan to block the window again or wait until I can see it."
• We discuss the cats’ unhappiness at being locked in the bedroom. I suggest giving them food, water and a cat box, but my husband prefers to keep his fingers crossed and hope they develop supernatural self-restraint. Husband also mentions that our friend, the contractor, is very allergic to cats and is experiencing a lot of symptoms. I tell him that there’s nothing I can do about that, but has he considered taking a Claritin tablet?
• Husband wants to know if there’s access to the attic from somewhere other than the ceiling of my junk-packed closet. I tell him that the guest room closet ceiling also has an access panel, which seems to come as a complete surprise to him. Admittedly, I’ve never so much as glanced into our attic via either access point, but that’s mainly because I rarely bring a ladder into the house.

I’m just itching to go home early and "supervise," even though my husband is more than capable of handling things himself. When we did the studio remodel, I didn’t really care about the details. The bathroom, however, is something I’ve been picturing a certain way for years and years. It drives me crazy to be out of the loop as they discover surprises in the walls and make adjustments to the general plan.

[Deep breath] I’m sure my input at 6 o’clock will be more than adequate.

Our long-awaited bathroom remodeling project begins tomorrow. In preparation, my husband and I went through every cabinet, drawer and cupboard and mercilessly pitched anything that we hadn’t used recently.

It was obvious that the last clean-out happened circa 2001 because all of the old OTC medication had expired around 2002. Our ridiculously deep cabinet had the most junk in it, just because of its sheer size, but there was a surprising amount of completely useless stuff in our small medicine cabinet. You’d think that I’d have addressed the problem sooner, considering that I have to jam things in there every day, but I guess I can pretty much overlook anything when I’m in a hurry.

The remodel will make our tiny 7′ x 7′ bathroom much more functional for two adults. We’re having the bathtub removed in favor of a corner shower. The giant, built-in cabinet will make way for a long countertop with two sinks and a more modest linen cabinet. We’re having a pocket door installed so that we’ll no longer have to have the door bumping into us as we stand at the sink. (If we’re lucky, the cats won’t be able to burst in on us in the bathroom anymore either.)

I’m going with all white fixtures (shower, countertop, toilet), this tile on the floor and accenting the shower, and a cherry finish on the cabinetry. The walls will be painted the color of the lightest tile in the mosaic, with a faux finish treatment of one of the darker colors. My sister is the queen of faux finishes, so I’ll enlist her help.

The bathroom used to have a window, but the previous homeowners installed the fiberglass tub surround right over it, nailed a piece of plywood onto the back of the house and painted it. Ugh. We’ll be reinstating the window, probably with glass blocks. It’ll be delightful to have a little natural light when I’m trying to get made up in the morning.

I have hated our bathroom since the day we bought our house, so I’m very excited to see this project finally started after almost twelve years. Now I just need to work on our bedroom, and the guest room, and…

Welcome to 2007! Hope it’s going well for you so far.

I love the idea that you can start fresh every year. It’s obviously an illusion, yet there’s a glimmer of hope in there, too. Wouldn’t it be nice if a positive outlook and an earnest to-do list were really all it took to change your life?

I’m not much inclined to make New Year’s resolutions, but there are a few things on my radar for 2007. In the interest of saving money and eating healthier, I’d like to start making my own lunches and dinners more often. My other goal is to clear out all the clutter in my house as soon as possible and keep it cleared out. I think those two alone will keep me hopping.

Even though I’m battling an ugly cold, I think I’ll make the most of my last vacation day and get started on the decluttering. There’s an overstuffed bathroom cabinet downstairs calling my name…

Happy New Year!

My husband and I spent the afternoon and early evening today with a former bandmate of mine who used to work with my husband. He mentioned the time our band played a party celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary. He was reminded of it because he and his wife will soon be celebrating their 35th anniversary.

It made me think about another gig that took place about 18 or 19 years ago today. I was playing in a hard rock cover band with a guitarist, bass player and drummer. We had a pre-New Year’s Eve gig booked at a club in a small town about four hours away. As usual, I drove and my passenger was the drummer: a huge, taciturn man with whom I had absolutely nothing in common.

We arrived at the bar and set up our gear at the far end of the long, rectangular room. As soon as we started playing, it became clear that none of the patrons were the slightest bit interested in the band. They all stayed at the end of the bar where the pool tables were and never even glanced in our direction. We could have set up cardboard cutouts of musicians and played a record over the sound system and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference.

Still, at the end of the night the bar owner asked us if we’d be willing to stay over and play the next night. She couldn’t pay us much more, but our bar tab would be included. Young and stupid as we were, we agreed. (It was especially stupid for me because I’ve always had a strict "no drinking at gigs" rule for myself.)

We all crowded into one motel room that night. As the only woman, I got one of the double beds to myself. Unfortunately, nothing could drown out the sound of all of my bandmates’ snoring.

Our drummer was such a notorious drunk that he was barred from every restaurant and bar within a 10-mile radius of his house. With an open bar tab available to him on New Year’s Eve, he drank himself into a near stupor before we had gotten halfway through our sets. Every song was way too fast or too slow, depending on the mood he was in when he started it, and nothing could prompt a tempo change once he’d gotten going. Luckily for us, the crowd was just as indifferent as ever.

Once we’d ground through all four sets and gotten our money, the guys had to literally drag the drummer out of the bar. I’d never seen anyone that drunk before. I put my foot down and refused to have to deal with him in my truck all the way back home, so they stuffed him into the bass player’s van and the guitarist rode back with me.

I don’t recall that I ever had another New Year’s Eve gig after that, but I’ve been to some pretty awful ones that my husband has played.

This year, neither one of us is performing, so we’re planning on going to a party at some friends’ house. I think that’s probably for the best.

What are you planning for New Year’s Eve?’

Hey there! How was your holiday?

Mine was quite nice. Everyone seemed to love the gifts they received. I couldn’t say anything before in case they read this, but I was especially excited about getting my sister an iPod Shuffle (one of the adorable new ones that clips on) and my husband a Roomba for the studio. (See Tomato Nation for a very funny article about the Roomba.)

On Sunday, I cooked pretty much all day. I made dinner rolls, an ice cream cake roll, pomegranate salsa and Big Soft Ginger Cookies. Aside from that, the only other thing I did all day was drive from grocery store to grocery store trying to find some fresh cranberries.

I was supposed to get to my sister’s house on Christmas morning around 7 a.m. to help her make stuffing (I was bringing the recipe and the celery) and get the turkey into the oven. Unfortunately, the Keeper of the Alarm Clock, my husband, forgot his promise to wake me at 6. I woke up at 7:30 and ended up having to talk my sister through celery-less stuffing preparation over the phone.

In my frantic race to load the Jeep with gifts, a card table and chairs, and all the food I’d prepared the day before, I overlooked the cake roll in the freezer. That’s right, I forgot the Christmas dessert. According to my sister, I’d also promised to make a pumpkin cheesecake, but that slipped my mind long before everything else and I never even settled on a recipe or bought the ingredients.

Continuing with the theme of forgetfulness, I realized about an hour after dinner that I’d never made the cranberry sauce. After all those trips to the store specifically to get cranberries… With the amount of coffee I drank that day, you’d think I’d have been more alert, but you’d be wrong.

Still, those were minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things. We all had a good time, the food we did have was delightful, and the gifts were thoughtful and generous.

The only damper on the day the news that James Brown had died. My husband played drums in James’ backup band, James Brown’s Famous Flames, back in the 1980s. When I saw how sad he looked upon hearing the news, I wished I’d waited until later to tell him.

I don’t go back to work until next Tuesday, so I’m going to settle down with the many books and DVDs I received as gifts and drink in entertainment until looming housework intrudes upon my conscience. Are you working this week or are you off? If you’re off work, what are you doing to keep busy?