August 20 through 23

[chochiyo_sama]

Saturday, August 20

Started the day with a refreshing shower.  Then I made a batch of delicious buttermilk pancakes.  I have been hungry for them for a long time, and I always forget just how easy they are to make.  After gobbling them up, I did the dishes and cleaned up the counters. 

In the living room, I went through all the papers on the little table next to my recliner and straightened up the floor under and around it. I am trying to get the living room straightened up so it is ready for Jason to paint.  I want all the clutter cleaned up and all the knick knacks and doll stuff out of the way.

It was a quite summer day—very sunny and pleasant.  I wrote out my check for Minnesota Energy and watched The Shawshank Redemption.  I have seen it probably 15 times before, but it is always worth watching again.  I spent a lot of time on the phone today, talking to my mother, Jack, and Joni.  Nobody had any earth shaking news, but we had nice chats.

It wasn’t an insanely productive day, but I got a little bit done.

 

Sunday, August 21

Happy birthday to my youngest niece Cora. She turned 18 today and celebrated her birthday with a bunch of her friends at the Steele County Fair. 

I got up early enough today to sort and start my laundry (and get it all done except to dry and fold the final load), sort out and bag up a bunch of garbage and recycling, and clean the litterbox in the laundry room which was FILTHY.  Also, the monsters had spread litter EVERYWHERE, requiring me to sweep it up.  I got all this done, as well as making a couple of pieces of peanut butter toast, before getting on the Zoom chat with DeAnn.  As usual, it was worth doing.  We chatted about all kinds of things from 10 am until 2 pm.  She mostly talked about all the things she has to do during her sabbatical and her hunt for a house that meets her needs better.  I talked about my improvement plans for my house and how thankful I am to have Jason being a handyman for me now.  I have so many projects for him to do, and he is so kind and willing to do them!  I am looking forward to him painting all of my house.  In the coming week, he will be painting my living room the same color as the office and hallway. 

Then we will move on to the kitchen, bedroom, and laundry/craft/sewing room.  I will save the bathroom for last as I hope to have a bathtub installed and the shower taken out.  I will continue to have one of those handheld spray nozzles to use in the tub, but I hate showers.  I like to soak.

When we were done zooming, I cleaned the breezeway litterboxes, moved some books and binders into the tall bookshelf in the breezeway, and dragged the kitchen garbage into the breezeway.  I called my nephew Erik and asked him if he could come and carry my garbage and recycling bags out to the bins and take the garbage bin to the curb.  He walked over from Mom’s and took all of it out.  I had a lot.  Then I asked him to take down all the wedding pictures of my siblings from the shelf over the couch as well as some other pictures and stuff that was hanging in the living room. 

Afterwards we had a nice chat about life, politics, his future plans, and random other things.  He is applying for some jobs out in Seattle.  He thinks he would enjoy living there, and there are some available jobs that he thinks would suit him.  I hate to see him move so far away, but if he will be happy and employed there, I will rejoice for him.

For supper, I made some Schwan’s mini corn dogs.  They were okay, but nothing to jump up and down about.  It is unlikely I will ever buy them again.

 

Monday, August 22

 I finished my laundry and packed up a bunch of stuff in my living room.  I got my cabinet under the TV completely cleaned out.  I am hoping that Jason will fix the shelves’ braces that have come loose and fallen down so I can use it more effectively again. 

When Waylon delivered the mail, I was thrilled to receive my Wellie Wisher boy doll.  I have not decided on a name for him yet.  I believe his factory name is Brandon, which does not suit him at all.  I am drawn to “Anthony,” “Joseph” (to be called “Joey”), and “Micah.”  So far, “Micah” is in the lead.  After I ordered him, I went on Etsy and bought him a few clothes.  The girls have more clothes than you can shake a stick at.  I got him two pairs of Jeans with long sleeve tee-shirts, two sets of bib overalls (one white pair with red and black cartoon dogs all over them, the other in blue), a very cute and realistic jacket, and a pair of flannel pjs. There were also two pairs of shorts—one Khaki and one denim blue, both with “real” functional pockets.  A package that has not yet arrived will have three pairs of slip on shoes in the colors of red, black, and white and a couple of short sleeve tee shirts.  One will have a sea turtle on the front.  The other, I think, has a black dog face on it. I will add to his wardrobe as time goes on.

One seller was offering an absolutely darling tuxedo with a red bow tie and a red posey in the button hole, but she wanted over $40 for it.  That’s a nope for me at this time.   I just wanted him to have some clothing options, like the girls have.  He came in a dragon outfit—green and blue striped shorts with a blue/green tee shirt with a dragon face on it.  It also came with a dragon tail that would attach to the back of the shorts with Velcro and “wings” that could be put on his arms like a back pack.  

He is very cute with dark brown hair and eyes and medium brown skin—so he looks like he is Hispanic.  I hope they will make Asian, black, and white boys as well.  Ideally, I hope they will make five as there are five girls. 

Once I get my house in order, I am hoping to start sewing for my dolls myself.  I have been missing doing that.

Late in the afternoon, I watched an old movie called The Fury.  It was about a guy (Kirk Douglas) whose psychic son (Andrew Stevens—formerly a Hardy Boy, I think) had been kidnapped by the typical government entity with no name.  He found a girl (Amy Irving) who was also psychic to help him find his boy.  There were quite a few people in the movie who were nobodies when the film was made, but became well known later—two are Daryl Hannah and Melody Scott (well, not that well known.  She plays Nicki Newman on my mom’s soap opera, The Young and the Restless.  She was very pretty in her youth.  Now she is quite matronly.  Still nice looking, but the bloom of youth is long gone).  The special effects were pretty cringe worthy but the end of the movie, when Amy Irving’s character takes her revenge, was particularly gruesome.

I made open face tuna sandwiches, the last of the asparagus, and some strawberries for lunch.  Later in the day, I ate some cracker spread that Lily had made on crackers, and that was my supper. 

 

Tuesday, August 23

Before he arrived, I packed up more stuff from the living room to get it out of Jason’s way.  He arrived and worked very hard from about 10 am until nearly 8 pm.  First, he repaired that cabinet that the Yankoviak boys had built for me in their 9^th grade shop class. He glued the braces back on and made sure they’d never fall again by putting sturdy screws through them.  He was careful not to let the screws come through on the other side of the cabinet.  He moved a lot of furniture out of the way, took down the hideous vertical blinds that I have hated since I bought the house.  They look cheap and ugly.  I have not decided what I will replace them with—if anything.  He suggested I try to sell them on Craig’s list as they are in very nice shape.  I told him that if he wanted to do that, he could keep the money.  So he took them to his house.  He said that if he could not sell them, he’d drop them off at Salvation Army.  I’m just glad they are out of my house.

Then he taped all the woodwork and windows and painted the whole west wall, 1/3 of the south wall, and ½ of the north wall.  He was able to get two coats of paint on.  The Sherwin Williams paint is really nice.  It totally covered the ugly coppery brown paint and the even uglier avocado green paint that was on the walls when I bought the house.  It dries quickly and has a lovely sheen.  The green paint the walls are now is so fresh and light.  That other dark shit felt like it was crushing my soul. The new stuff really sets off the woodwork and the wood frames of the pictures I have on the walls.

Jason even took down the television which was mounted to the wall and replaced it.  He stayed late just so he could set the TV up so that I would not be without entertainment. 

Around 6 pm, I asked if he was hungry and offered to buy a pizza from Casey’s if he was willing to go and pick it up.  He thought that was a great idea, so I ordered a black olive/mushroom/sausage pizza.  We ate the pizza while waiting for the paint to dry.  When it was dry, he finished the areas he had painted earlier.  After he left, I watched the updated Rogers and Hammerstien Cinderella starring Brandy as Cinderella, Whoopi Goldberg as the prince’s mom, Victor Garber as the Prince’s dad, Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, Bernadette Peters as the Wicked Stepmother, and Paolo Montalban as the prince.

The cast was very diverse, which made it fun.  I had a little chuckle over how the Filipino prince had a black mother and a white dad.  Haha.  I still sort of prefer the original one from the 1960s with Leslie Ann Warren, but that was one of my childhood favorites.  The production of the 1997 was much finer and more exuberant, and the 1960s version had really campy artwork for backgrounds.  Jason Alexander was also in this movie as an aide to the prince.  He even danced. 

Both of the versions are fun.

That’s about it for my day—I have an appointment at the clinic tomorrow morning at 8:05, so I have to get to bed early.  I will have to get up at 6:30 to be able to shower so I am nice and clean for the clinic.  It’s just a nurse visit to check my blood pressure and a visit to the lab to get a blood draw.  I really hate going to the clinic.   

Comments

[the_godiva]

I made pancakes for my Dad and me this morning. I stayed overnight because I as supposed to bring my car in for servicing to replace a waterpump and belt but yesterday when I brought my parent's car in for an oil change (that took three hours) I checked and was told I already did that. And they did the inspection when my oil was changed on Saturday so no need to bring it in so the appointment was canceled. Good thing to as I worked a 12 hour day.

Since I was there overnight I spend 20 minutes last night looking for the trust and will stuff in the file cabinet where I helped my Mom put it. Went through all of the drawers twice. Not there. I suppose it could have been tax stuff. I looked a bit around the room but didn't see it. It will likely be in a strong box or safe somewhere. But fuck. I was hoping to scan the entire thing and then go through it to see to what extent she screwed me, exactly how much power she has and if there is any what I can undo it without going to court after the fact. If I could identify that account he promised me and then get him to name me as beneficiary, that would override the trust. But he's so far gone I doubt that would happen without better hearing aids and a longer and better length of lucidity.

I feel like I did nothing but clean up shit. My Dad didn't make it to the bathroom fast enough Sunday night so when I got to my parent's house on Monday I was cleaning his shit off the bedroom carpet. Then today, my Mom didn't make it to the bathroom and I had to clean up shit from the living room carpet. And Freyja shit in the computer area on Monday and again this morning.

Josue will be 18 soon, right? She should find a small house for just her and the dog. I think y ou said she has a dog, right? Just her, not him. He can be informed that he has X months to get a job to support himself and find a place to live because he's not coming to the new house to live with her. My sister was going to do the exact same thing when her husband died. She was going to sell the house and move to a small two bedroom closer to my parents, just her and the dog. She gave the boys three years as she didn't want to declare a death in the house when listing it. I told her that it wasn't a homicide or criminal so she didn't need to declare and could have done it right away. Of course, now she'll never leave that house and ShitForBrains will live with her forever. But she'll still manage to fuck me over so I'll never be able to live in my parent's house either.

I wouldn't take out the shower. I'd leave it and have a hand held spray as the shower head. I bought a really nice one that has a magnet that holds it to the shower pipe. It has a lot of different sprays. Moen makes one called Magnetix and there is even a magnet shower station you can buy to hold it in a different spot if you want it lower or something.

Yay, the cabinet is fixed. Yay, the hideous vertical blinds are gone. I hate vertical blinds.

I did not care for the updated "inclusive" Disney Cinderella even though I like most of those stars. I never like the updated version when they try to improve on a classic. So many are horrible. That Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. I rest my case. Like all of the actors but the movie was just awful and you couldn't suspend your belief enough to swallow that swill. We're no Angels bore very little resemblance to that Christmas All-star Classic with Humphrey Boghart. Hopefully they never attempt to remake The Shawshank Redemption.