Slacker

I've been a slacker lately. It's been weeks since I've posted on here, so this is a quickie-update on life lately.

School started August 24th. It has been wild, to say the least. Our school has gone through some interesting changes, to put it mildly, which means that every day I come home and flop down on the couch, only to get up a little while later realizing I am starving, that I will soon have a starving husband at home, and that dinner does not miraculously make itself. (Although, if it did, life would be sweet.) Then I pick up the phone and order a pizza. Or, to shake it up a little bit, I Google-chat Dutch Boy at work and have a discussion that goes a little like this:

Me: Are you coming home soon? I'm bored. And hungry.
DB: Maybe. We'll see.
Me: Well, what do you feel like for dinner?
DB: I don't care. Make what you want.
Me: But I don't know what I want. What do you want?
DB: Seriously, I don't care.
Me: But what should I make?
DB: Whatever you want.
Me: But....

I think you get the picture.

I really do love to cook. But so often, I feel uninspired by all the of the options that we've already tried. Plus, when I spend all day at work literally running around the school, cooking takes extra energy that I just don't have by that point in the day. So I sit. And continue to harass Dutch Boy at work.

And on a completely unrelated topic...

Right before school started, I went with my friend Brooke to a real-live, just-like-Lucy-and-Ethel grape stomp at a winery about an hour from here. It was a blast. And, in case you were wondering, grapes are incredibly cold when they are oozing between your feet. I mean, almost as cold as the time in high school when I decided to run around the house barefoot in the snow. Almost. (That was not my brightest moment, by the way, but kind of invigorating.)

Squish squish.

Finally, my job is often good for a laugh. Especially when a nine-year-old can put me in my place:

Quote of the Day while I was pretending to jump higher than a fourth grader on the trampoline.
Me: I'm gonna beat you! I'll win!!!
Fourth Grader: You know you're only embarrassing yourself, right?

Please note that I was jumping in a dress and heels. There is no way this could have been an even match.

That's all for now. I'll try to be better about posting several times a week, instead of going for a month in between. No promises though.

The Back-to-School List, Part 2

Yesterday afternoon I was determined to finish that closet.  Fifteen minutes in, I was hot and bored, so I sat down next to the dog on the bed, petting her.  The next thing I know, I'm waking up from an hour-long dream involving my swimming lessons at the YMCA.  This dream included a girl in my swimming class who was wearing high heels while trying to learn the breaststroke.  Obviously.  I even dropped my cell phone at the bottom of the pool.  Disastrous.  Who does that?  Or, more importantly, who dreams about swimming lessons at the YMCA when she hasn't taken swimming lessons since she was about ten years old?  PLEASE psychoanalyze me.

I FINALLY finished it, and here it is.  Believe it or not, while there is still way too much stuff in there, you can actually walk inside it!!

And now, presenting my next two projects...How did we accumulate so much?!?!?

Also, on a side-note, I just got a package from my mom and she sent me Funky Bands.  You know, those rubber bands that are in the shape of various animals and are made for ten-year-olds?  Why would my mom send me those?

The Back-to-School List

I have to go back to work next Monday after a nice, long, dull summer of respite and sloth.  That means that in the last week I remembered just how many goals I had when the summer began, and how few of those goals have actually gotten accomplished.

Today I started cleaning out our bedroom and closet.  We moved in last summer, and ever since then, I feel like neither of those spaces has ever been completely organized.  I started in on the closet this morning.  This is what it looked like when I started:

 Def-Com 5.  I know.

Sidebar:  Apparently I have issues.  Do you see all those clothes?

Unfortunately, no bulldozers were willing to come in and help me shovel things out, so I used only my brute strength and huge muscles to clean it out all by myself.

Sidebar:  Do you know anyone with a bulldozer?

I have an incredibly short attention-span and that closet gets really stuffy, really quick in the Texas summers, so in between my 15-minute stints of cleaning, I sat on the couch, stuffing my face with ice cream and watching Real Housewives reruns. 

Sidebar:  I swore that I would never watch an episode of Real Housewives.  That all changed last week when I realized I could get them on Hulu.  Stupid technology.  Real Housewives is detrimental to my health.  It is also highly addictive.

While actually cleaning, I found a box of winter clothes that I forgot I have. 

Sidebar:  In case you forgot, I live in Texas.  Having a box chock-full of wool sweaters and cashmere socks is superfluous.

Most of them are getting donated to Salvation Army, along with countless other random belongings of which, before this morning, we thought we could not live without--including, that's right...a fanny pack that my hubby got at some conference awhile back. 

Sidebar:  A fanny pack?!?  Really?! 




Meanwhile, this is the dog...

Sidebar:  Yes, she's still sleeping on the fireplace.






To be continued...

Getting Comfy

I don't know if you realize this, but Central Texas in August might as well be the surface of the sun.  I hear that it's only about 10 degrees cooler here.  It's 11:30 right now, and the thermometer already says 93.  Not promising.

Because of this, poor Miss Lady has been trying to find new ways to stay cool.  This is what she discovered about 20 minutes ago:

The bowl kept getting pushed over...

Until it fell on the floor and she had all the space to herself.








Oh, the life of a dog.

5 Things

1. My dog is a freak. This is how she spends 90% of her sleeping time (which is about 89% of her overall time).









2. On Friday I drove to the cute little downtown of Georgetown, Texas. I searched for some antiques. Here is what resulted...

My purchase. I love Delft.









3. While there, I also snapped some pictures...

Cute little alleyway in Georgetown.

The county courthouse.







4. Last night we made Bananas Foster for dessert (or Flaming Bananas, as my family always called them growing up...sometime I will have to write about the time(s) my dad lost an eyebrow in the process).

I was so excited to do this. I mean, who doesn't love fire and rum? I tied my hair back, made sure nothing was in burning distance, and stood back to light the mixture. The problem with last night's attempt was that they didn't have the flame part going on. Failure. I think the rum burned off too quickly. (Why is all the rum gone? Where has all the rum gone? Name that movie.) Here is what they looked like:

I call this my face my Evil, Try to Light the Booze on Fire-face.

But, alas, no fire. Who cares. The bananers were still delish.




5. On Thursday, I got together with our special ed. posse from school for a summer reunion at Chuy's. I love me some creamy jalapeno :-) Stephanie bought us all Big Girl (Disney) sippy cups. I represented Snow White of the bunch, which was very fitting, given my pasty-white complexion. (Although the pasty-whiteness is getting better, considering how much swimming in the pool/creek I've done this summer.)

That's all for now! Happy Monday :-)

Dreams

I have never been a deep sleeper. Typically, it takes me quite awhile to fall asleep, and then I wake up several times during the night, tossing and turning. This means that I spend a good portion of my sleep in Dreamland, dreaming of who-knows-what...usually my dreams are excessively strange.

For example, this one from several years ago stands out in my mind. I went to Toys R Us to buy a new purse. (In case you didn't know, the best purses come from Toys R Us...or something.) While there, I also purchased a large amount of vegetable oil. Don't ask. On the way out, it started raining, and these GIANT snapping turtles came up out of the puddles and started chasing me. These were not your typical turtles either. In a race between the tortoise(s) and the hare, my dream-turtles definitely would have won. Eventually, I managed to outrun them, but only after hopping over a large guardrail and having a nearby cop pull out his gun. Interpret that one...I DARE you.

This week I have really gotten into a book by Philippa Gregory, who writes historic fiction, based on the royal families of Europe from long ago. Right now, I'm reading The White Queen, about Queen Elizabeth of York. Apparently, I've been a little too into it, as last night my dream involved me hiding out with all my allies in the Tower of London. Trust me...if I ever had to hide out, a creepy place like the Tower of London is the last place I would go.



Also, later in the night, I dreamed that I went shopping at Kohl's, only to get suckered into helping with their day care program. Summer vacation, and apparently I still can't get away from kids. Sad.

Critters

I love my dog. I really do. There are actually a lot of animals I love...but some that I'm not so crazy about. As in, if I see anything that slithers, I usually run away/scream/cry/all of the above. No joke. There is a reason that Satan was a serpent in the Bible. So, with all that being said, this is the joke that my friends played on me last month when we were fishing at one of their cabins in Michigan.



Along this same subject line, since moving to Texas, Dutch Boy and I have experienced some other interesting critters. (By interesting, I mean, I'm not a fan.) There was the time several months ago when I turned the alarm clock off at 5:32 a.m., stumbled out of bed, and opened the shower curtain, only to hear something scurrying through the shower. I am also, it's decided, not a fan of cockroaches...especially those of the Texas variety. Everything IS bigger in Texas. Anyways, I woke up sleeping Dutch Boy and made him go kill it for me. Now that's love.

Our apartment has a fireplace. (Why? I have no idea. Rarely does it get below 40 degrees here, so fires are not typically a necessity.) Anyways, last winter we bought a load of firewood, and I had burned through all but the last several pieces. One day when it was actually cool enough to justify a fire, I started one when I got home from school. Several minutes later, I happened to look over on the hearth and noticed a swarm of ants. A colony of RED ANTS had decided to make its nest inside MY firewood. So, what was there to do? I grabbed the vacuum, pulled off the hose, and sat like a crazed woman for the next half hour, sucking up evil red ants and secretly relishing the chance to do so.

And lastly? We had potatoes go bad in the cupboard awhile back. I'm not going to disgust you with the details, because a)you might be eating, and, b)I don't want you to hate me forever. Just use your imagination and think of the worst thing that could possibly be discovered inhabiting my potatoes.