chochiyo_sama: (Default)
After a puke-free Fourth, I discovered a slimy puddle of puke on my desk chair in the craft/laundry room--the cloth one, of course.  It couldn't be the vinyl one that would have been an easy wipe up.  No.  It had to be on the fabric where I had to scrub it for 15 minutes to get it off--and having t o live with the knowledge that no matter how much I scrubbed it, there will be puke residue deep in the fiber for the rest of its life.

My aunt called and wanted to stop by so I could help her figure something out on her FaceBook account.  I tried, but I couldn't find what she was looking for.  She and her daughter and her granddaughters are going on a "Girls' Week" vacation soon, and one of them set up a private FaceBook thing to discuss it.  I couldn't find anything.  We tried to call my cousin Rhonda to see how she could get into it, but she didn't answer her phone or return the call--at least not to me.  She may have called her mother later. 

After my aunt left, I decided I would clean my litter boxes and actually replace the scoopable litter as I have used the same stuff since I moved in, just adding more as it got low.  I've noticed that it has been smelling more pissy lately, so it was time to go totally fresh.  I went into the kitchen to get a big black garbage bag to empty the boxes into, and felt something wet under my foot.  Yes.  A huge pile of chunky cat vomit--and I stepped right in it. Ugh.

So, I had to change my socks and clean up that nastiness. 

Then I cleaned the cat boxes and hauled the big bag of dirty litter out to the garbage bin--only to discover that there was still some garbage in the bottom of the bin.  Apparently the garbage man didn't fully empty my trash bin.  There was still a white kitchen bag at the bottom of the bin.  Why?  I hope it will get completely emptied next Monday.

Then my mother called.  I had expected to take her to her eye doctor appointment at 3 pm, but it turned out that her cousin had an eye appointment at 2:45, so they decided to go together.  I was glad as it was supposed to be 92 degrees this afternoon, which means that I would have been miserably hot waiting in the car in the parking lot.  I was so happy to have a day totally to myself! 

I was taking a break from housework, messing around with my computer, when my doorbell rang.  I thought it might be my aunt coming back to try finding that private group again.  Nope.  It was the three Dahlbeck girls, Emily and the twins, Brenna and Bailey.  These are the little girls I tutored while they were in Kindergarten and first grade for  the twins and second and third for Emily.  They are going into fourth and fifth next year. 

They had gone to the park across the street from my house for a picnic and decided to stop in and visit me.   I do love these little shits, but I do not especially want them turning my house into their club house.  They hung around for about two hours, then Christine, their step-grandma showed up in my driveway--apparently they didn't have permission to go visiting. They scattered like cockroaches when the lights are turned on.  Christine didn't come to the door, so I hope she isn't mad at me. If she is, it doesn't matter much.  But, I'd just as soon not have an uproar in the extended family with me in the middle of it all.

I gave the girls a bunch of fingernail polish I had acquired while I lived at my mother's house.  I never use it, and they might have fun with it.  I saw that they all had nail polish on, so I figured it was okay to give it to them.  I had six bottles, so each of them got two.  There was a little dispute over one bottle, but I told them that there was enough nail polish in each bottle to do a thousand paintings, so they could share all six bottles amongst themselves.  That seemed to settle them down.

I wouldn't mind their visits if they don't stay too long and if they don't pester my cats.  My cats are not used to being teased, and that seems to be their idea of "playing" with them.  I will have to educate them about proper cat treatment. 

When they left, I had a brief rest in the recliner and cuddled my poor, traumatized kitties. 

When we had all recovered, I went into the kitchen and mixed up a batch of pumpkin bars.  Cynthia is coming on Thursday, and I am going to send a pan of pumpkin bars home with her along with a note offering this batch as a token of my love and promising another batch as a reward if her dad will come and hang up my globe lamp for me.  When he comes, as I am sure he will as he is a good guy, I will see if he will also hang up the little coat hook bar in the breezeway and my two small shelves. 

My sister Kim called while I was mixing up the bars, and we talked for about two hours.  I finished the bars and turned the hamburger I had in the refrigerator into meatballs.  We have a family recipe called Porcupine Meatballs which is basically hamburger mixed with rice and covered with tomato soup.  I have been hungry for meatballs, but I made my own version of Porcupine Meatballs.  I mixed the hamburger with finely chopped onions, two eggs, and a cup of Minute rice.  Then, I formed them into balls and put them in my roaster.  I mixed two cans of cream of mushroom soup with a can of chicken broth and poured it over the top of the meatballs, put on the cover, and stuck it into oven. 

About this time, Mom tried to call me, so I got off the phone with Kim and talked to her for a little over an hour.  Mom was extremely happy as it looks like her eye doctor has found a way for her to avoid going to Rochester to have her eyes examined by them twice a year. 

When my timer went off, I took the meatballs out of the oven and ate three of them for a late supper, washed my dishes, and put the leftovers into the fridge.  I have enough meatballs to feed an army.  I will give some of them to my mom, and maybe Cynthia will have a couple as a snack when she is done cleaning for me tomorrow.  She enjoyed the lasagna last week.

That's about it for Wednesday--I started a list of chores for Cynthia--I am going to have her sweep out my garage and throw all the little strips of crap left over from the installation of the vertical blinds that the former owners left in the garage and break down the two TV boxes and put them in the recycling bin.  I think I will also have her take every single thing out of the linen closet and put things back in a more orderly way.  Things are just jammed in however they fit right now.  I may wash up a couple of the afghans in there too, as there is a smell in there that reminds me of sweaty man bodies.  Yuck.  I will have her scrub down the shelves with Clorox Clean Up water which should eliminate any odors. 

I am so thankful for Cynthia's help.

chochiyo_sama: (Default)

However, I accomplished a ton of work this weekend, and I feel good about it (though exhausted).

Yesterday was an errand running day.  I went to Owatonna and got some groceries, kitty foods, and one of those organizer thingies that are supposed to be to keep nails and other man-shit in.  I used it to separate out a bunch of my doll shoes by color.  I didn't do Barbie or Ken's shoes.  Only the "kid" dolls like Kelly, Stacie, Skipper, and so on.   I know I have tons more somewhere.  I'm sure they will turn up eventually.  I wish I had another one of those things so I could separate out the other shoes--I will probably actually need two--1 1/2 for Barbie and the other half for Ken.  LOL.

On my way home, I stopped at my sister Joni's house to drop off a couple of Johnny West horses I had found in my frenzy of cleaning this summer.  I got to see my nephew Matthew and a female friend who may or may not be his girl friend.  :)  If she is his girlfriend, she is a lucky, lucky girl, because they just don't come any sweeter, cuter, smarter, or more talented than my Matt.

Joni's little Papillion dog went crazy over me.  I can't believe that dog remembers me all the time, I hardly ever see her.

My little Kaylee bug was happy to see me too.  I feel so sad when I see her hooked up to that trac thing, but it's keeping her alive, so I guess it's okay.  She tried so hard to coo at me--her little face turned bright red as she tried to talk, but of course all she could do was wheeze.

She has lived such a shitty life, yet she is always happy--always smiling--always glad to see you. 
 

Joni gave me a sack of potatoes that she had just dug out of her garden--three red ones and two brown ones.  She also gave me three ears of corn, a pepper, and a tomato, all from her garden.  I ate the corn for lunch yesterday--it was delicious.  I boiled up the potatoes and ate some of them tonight for supper.  Part of the pepper I ate raw, and part of it I chopped up to add to the meatloaf I made today.

Today I got the laundry all washed, though there is still a load in the dryer in the basement that I just couldn't go down and get.  My knees have had all they can take of the basement stairs for one day.  I'll try to remember to get those clothes up tomorrow after school.

I also picked up the living and dining rooms and vaccuumed them.  I dusted part of the living room because there were tons of cobwebs.  

I also went through a basket of stuff in my downstairs "den."  Mostly, it contained recipes that I have clipped and saved or typed up at school.    I also found a bunch of articles on overcoming stress, meeting your goals, organizing your life, and other self-improvement topics.   I organized the desk area in there a little bit--it still needs a lot of work, but I can save that for another day--that's something that can keep.  Getting the dirty stuff clean and the cluttery stuff put away is much more significant to me.

For my school lunches for at least three days, I made some tuna salad with pickles, celery, and onion.    I made meatloaf with onions and peppers, oatmeal, and eggs.  I ate some for supper and it was delicious.  I gave half of the meatloaf to DeAnn.  She came over to pick it up, and bless her heart, she threw my big garbage sack into the trash can outside, put my five gallon bottled water container onto the dispenser, and hauled my plastic crate of used kitty litter to the porch where her dear hubby will pick it up and add it to Mount Poo later.  

I forgot to mention that I did a ton of dishes and washed up the cat water fountain.  Unfortunately, I put it together wrong and water leaked out of it all over the floor.  what a freaking mess.   I took it apart and put it back together again.  Next time, I have to pay attention to how it is when I take it apart.  I should wash that  thing once a week, but it is often two weeks or more before I get it done.  It is such a pain in the ass. 

I swept up the area near the litter boxes as well as cleaned them out.  I wanted to drag them out of their little cubby and scrub the floor too, but I just didn't have enough energy left after all my other labors. 

Everything looks so much better than it did on Friday, at least in the downstairs.  Upstairs, the bathroom is disgusting.  I had planned to get that done this weekend, but it did not happen.  I'm hoping that I can come home from school with a tiny bit of energy so I can do a little bit tomorrow night.  The kitchen is only partially swept and needs to be scrubbed.  I also need to get out my cobweb brusher-downer as there is an enormous spider who has taken up residence in the corner of my kitchen, right  above the door to the dining room.  I wouldn't mind if he would eat the damned mosquitoes and fruit flies that are multiplying like rabbits around here--or the giant flies that have invaded from somewhere.  You'd think I had a mouldering corpse in my basement by the number of huge flies I have in here.

Thank goodness the kitties find them a great snack and will chase and kill and devour them. 

When I sat down to mess with my computer a bit before bed, I made myself a diet rootbeer float.  It was very refreshing.  Stewart got on the table and demanded a taste.  He slurped it right down too.  Then Tiggsy wanted some, but she only gave it a couple of licks and was done with it.  No sign of my Baby Peach.   She is probably full of flies.  She is my boldest and most effective hunter. 

My pill caddy is filled up for the week.  I have to do the upstairs one when I get up there.  I only have three pills to put in each day of that one, so it doesn't take as much time as the one down here--where I have thirteen pills and vitamins for the morning and seven at night.  Yuck.

I think that is all that is on my mind for now. 

One of the tomatoes in my pots on the front steps is nearly ripe.  I can't wait to pick him, slice him, and eat him on toast.  YYUUUUUMMMMMM.

Next summer I want to do pots of green beans and possibly summer squash or zucchini. 

Well, I need to head upstairs and get a bath.  I feel dirty and sticky and stinky.  Can't go to school in the morning like that!


 


Why is it?

Feb. 7th, 2010 06:51 pm
chochiyo_sama: (Default)
Why is it that I always run out of money before the bills are all paid and I always run out of steam before the household chores are all done?

Today, I cleaned the "kitty litter box corner."  It was horrible.  I don't always move the boxes away from the walls when I clean that area, and today, I completely emptied the corner, cleaned the boxes, swept the floor, and rearranged things in a more suitable fashion.  I have not yet mopped.  I was waiting to be done with laundry and cooking before I did the mopping.  Primarily because I cannot cook without dropping SOMETHING on the floor.  Sigh.

Today I made a huge roaster of lasagna (from scratch) and a big pot of chicken noodle casserole.  Both turned out nicely, if I do say so myself. 

I just finished doing up the last of the dishes--I had done a ton of other dishes before and during the cooking spree.  All that were left were the last dregs from packaging the food up to send to Jim and DeAnn's house and to put away in my fridge.  I promised Jonah VanProosdy that I would bring him in a slice of lasagna the next time I made it, so I have already packaged a piece up for him.

Now I am tired and I do not feel like doing anything else. 

I am afraid to NOT do something else, for fear that there will be no snow day--even though it is looking very promising at this point, since the storm is coming through our "sweet spot."  They are now saying possibly over 12".  Yuck.  BUT--I can deal with it if it will give me a couple of days off  to continue working on this house.

The thing about school--even though I love my job and adore my boss and kids--I am DONE when I come home from school in the afternoon.  I have barely enough energy left to warm up something to eat.    Then when the weekend comes, it is like I have to have at least half of Saturday just to sleep in because I am soooo tired.

I think if I had three day weekends, it would be ideal.  You'd be less tired and stressed because you'd only work four days instead of five, and you'd have one day to rest and recover and two to do all the crap that needs to be done at home.  Maybe you could even squeeze in a little bit of fun...once a month or so....

Who am I kidding?  Who has time for fun???

Besides Claire that is.  LOL.
chochiyo_sama: (Default)
I went to Owatonna for groceries this morning--I did not get out of the house as early as I had hoped to, but I was home right around 12:30, so that wasn't too bad.  As soon as I got all my purchases into the house, I started cooking.  I've baked four pieces of chicken which are now chilling in the fridge.  Once they are cool, I will strain  the grease off the top, peel off the skin, and pick the meat off the bones.  I think I will make chicken salad for sandwiches out of it. 

In the oven is a lovely big fat meat loaf.  I got hamburger on sale, 1.5 lbs for $2.48.  Its expiration date was today.  Nothing wrong with it at all, so long as you cook it up quick.  I also have a delcious and fragrant beef and barley stew cooking.  In addition to the barley, I have chopped up celery, carrots, rutabaga, potatoes, and onion, all fresh.  I added another can of broth to it as it seemed too thick. 

Jim, DeAnn, and Swayze stopped by earlier.  I gave them some cookies and half the chili I had made on Friday.  I like to do my part to raise Swayze....lol.  He is my honorary nephew, after all. 

That's about all I have accomplished today.  Before I finish for the night, I have to go down and deal with the last of the laundry and sweep the kitchen floor.  I see no point to sweeping, however, until I am done cooking and doing laundry for the day.  I might have to do a quick touch-up with the vacuum cleaner in the Living and Dining rooms because the cats and I track crumbs and "shit grit" (cat litter) from one room to another.

At Walmart, I wantonly spent $5.00 on a pair of pink slippers. 

They are actually slippers for little girls, but my feet are so short and stubby that they fit me just fine.  They are very warm and snug, and I like that.  Also, they are pink.  With purple butterflies on them.  I also picked up Pan's Labrynth and The Day After Tomorrow for $7.50 each.  Cheap enough.  I was tempted to buy the final X men full cast movie at the same price, but I couldn't remember if I already had it or not.

Other than those extravagences, I bought only kitty treats, ziplock bags, and food. 

Oh, the excitement that makes up my life is boundless.
chochiyo_sama: (Default)

 I stayed in bed for a while this morning--kittens needed cuddling.  When I got up, I ate a piece of Ingrid's German fruit topped short cake for breakfast and took my pills.  (I had brought both pieces of cake upstairs with me and put them in the fridge up here, and my pill caddy was up here because I needed to refill it.  I took the pills that I should have taken on Thursday.  Rah.

I worked on my bedroom today.  I got the area rug vacuumed and all the stuff that sits on and around it dusted.  I did not get the tops of the dressers dusted as I was sitting on  the floor to do my little hand-vac technique. It looks pretty good except for the fact that I emptied out my dvd shelves to dust them.  I want to dust each individual DVD and inventory them, but I didn't get to it.  Maybe early tomorrow morning I will take the time
to do it.

It was lunch time, so I went downstairs and heated up my left overs from Carlos O'Kelly's.  Yummy. 


The kitty litter boxes were full of crap and pee, so I cleaned them.  There was "shit grit" all over the floor near them, so I swept that up.  I figured it was time for me to clean out their water machine too, so I disassembled that and scrubbed it good.  It was nasty and slimey on the inside, so I was right.  It was high time it was cleaned.

The first thing the little shits did when I put it back on the floor for them was to stick their dirty little paws in it. 

I did not really feel like cooking today, but I had chicken in the fridge and I did not want it to go bad.  Tomorrow I will be gone most of the day at school, so there'd be no cooking then.  I baked the chicken with chopped carrots, onions, and celery.  I seasoned it with a little soy sauce.  It tasted very good when it was done baking.

While that was baking, I started the hamburger cooking with ground carrots and onions.    While that was cooking, I boiled up some rotini.  After draining it, I threw it back in the pot, carefully scooped the hamburger out of the frying pan with a slotted spoon to avoid the grease, and added the Bertoli five-cheese sauce and some shredded cheese I had in the refrigerator.

While that was simmering, I cleaned all my grapes and bagged them in individual snack sized bags.  I put 20 grapes in each baggie.  When that was done, I did the same with the cherries I had bought--but they were bigger, so I only put 12 in each baggie. 

I am making a serious effort to eat fruit and eat three healthy meals a day instead of just eating whatever comes to hand or going out to eat junk food every day.

I put the chicken and rice in two good-sized storage bowls and put the roaster in the sink.

The spaghetti like hot dish was done by then, so I put that into two other good sized storage bowls.

Then I rinsed out the big pan and boiled up some more noodles.  I chopped up pickles and cheese and celery and drained black olive slices and mushroom slices.  I used up all the rest of my pickles to make my macoroni salad, and then I used up the rest of my Miracle Whip.  I didn't know I had so little left. 

I had called Jim earlier to tell him I was cooking and he and DeAnn and Swazye got some.  He stopped in to pick it up later in the afternoon.  He came just minutes after I had finished the cooking.  I was sweating like a sailor.  I gave them half of everything I made except the macoroni salad--the got 3/5s of that. 

Jim was then kind enough to bring up my basket of laundry from the basement where it has been languishing for a week or so.  He also put my last two bags of garbage into the garbage can and hauled it out to the street for me. 

Swayze terrorized the kitties in his attempts to play with them.  LOL.  Eventually they will all become friends, I am sure.

I wanted to make some oatmeal bars today, but I was just too exhausted and overheated to consider that. 

I hauled my laundry upstairs and folded and put it way.  I had thought about dusting and putting away my dvds, but decided I can do that tomorrow--maybe early in the morning, since I am hoping to wake up around 5 am.  

 
Time for bed now.  My ass is dragging.

chochiyo_sama: (Default)
I have accomplished a bit more--though not as much as I had hoped to.  The living room and dining room remain unvacuumed and the kitchen remains unswept and unscrubbed.  However, I did make a great big pot of spaghetti, a nice big bowl of cucumber salad, and a nice big bowl of tuna salad sandwich spread.  All of them are delicious.  I also washed all the dishes from cooking, got my breakfast laid out for tomorrow morning, and packed my lunch for school tomorrow.  I'm hoping that when I get up in the morning, I can get my shit together quickly enough to vacuum my living room and dining room before school.  That would be very helpful.  Then maybe I will have enough energy to sweep and scrub the kitchen when I get home in the afternoon. 

Susan is not going to school tomorrow; she must have a meeting.  So, I might take advantage of my solo flight to school to see a movie in the afternoon.  I haven't seen many movies lately, and there are several I would like to see.  I especially want to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino.

When I got upstairs, I filled my pill caddy and took a bath.  Now my cat is snuggling against my side, and we are feeling much love for each other.

That's about it.  I'm missing my friend Frank today--what I am missing is our deep conversations about so many different things.  We had a very good interplay of intellect--I grew so much just by discussing things with him.

I hope that one day we will be able to befriend each other again. 

chochiyo_sama: (Default)
well, I spent $80 some bucks on groceries...ugh.  i was horrified to discovered that my favorite go-to easy meal (hot dogs) has risen in price to like $5 for a package!!  For $2.00 more I could get a roast.  So I did.

WTF???

$5 for something made of "lips and assholes"????

LOL

That's what my Grandma Neitzell used to tell us hot dogs were made of.

Never stopped us from eating them.

Well, if I don't cook on the weekends, I do not eat decently during the week.  So I have just popped a roast with potatoes, onions and carrots into the oven and I have a big batch of homemade chicken barley and vegetable soup on the stove.  It is completely made from scratch and smells soooooo good.  i wish you could all come over and join me in a bit bowl of it.  It has barley and chicken and carrots and onions and potatoes and celery and rutabaga in it as well as a big of tomatoes that my mom froze for me to give it body.  yummmmmmmy.

I decided to take a little break and write a progress report as it was sort of tiring to cut up all those veggies by hand--especially the rutabaga which is almost but not quite as hard as a rock.  it sure adds body and flavor to a soup, though.

I still have half of it left.  I don't know if you can freeze a raw rutabaga or not.  I'll have to call my mom and ask.

I suppose I could just boil it up with some potatoes and make mashed potatoes.  i have heard that it is really tasty when added to mashed potatoes in addition  to adding a lot of nutrients. 

I have a squash I need to bake as well.  i love squash.

Well, Jim and DeAnn are stopping over to get some of this soup--it is way to big a batch for me to eat up on my own.  so i better go and put some in a container for them.

huggles.
chochiyo_sama: (Default)

I woke up feeling okay--no queasiness or anything -- but after I got to school, I started feeling queasy at about 10:30.  I stuck it out until the kids were dismissed at noon, then I skipped out of the meeting and went home.

I was able to do al my correcting up (except for one packet of papers) and get my Wednesday reports written up for all the homeroom teachers before I left.  

When I got home, I just sat around for a long time in my new chair and sewed on some Marley T-shirts.  I dozed a little.  Then when I woke up I felt a little renewed, so I crushed out that feeling by doing three loads of laundry and cooking up the chicken tenders that I had bought on Sunday with rice and cream of mushroom soup.  I also fried up the beef chunks that I had planned to make stew of with onions and dumped a can of cream of mushroom soup in it to make a gravy.  Then I peeled and boiled some potatoes, so I could have the beef chunk gravy over potatoes.  Then I split one of the squashes I had on hand down the middle and baked it--the oven was already heated up from the chicken and rice, so what the hey!? 

That was about all I had the strength to accomplish.  If I have any life in me tomorrow, I am going to try to vaccuum the downstairs.  The kitchen floor also needs to be swept and scrubbed again.

I should have done the dishes but I was just too drained.  Tomorrow they will be all stuck on and nasty and I will have to soak them for a while--but I just didn't have the will do do them.

I did get two loads of laundry upstairs and folded, though.  tomorrow, I will finish what's left.

I guess I had better go to bed.

It's getting late and I have school tomorrow.

bleah

I'm glad it will be thursday tomorrow--that means friday is almost here.

yay!
chochiyo_sama: (Default)
Well, I have survived the school day. Arg.

When I get home tonight, I have to accomplish these goals:

(1) Sack up and haul out the garbage.

(2) Clean the cat box.

(3) Stick a roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions into the oven.

(4) Sort laundry; get it started. (Will finish it tomorrow night)

(5) Balance checkbook; pay bills.

(6) Put the already photographed and downloaded Barbies back on the shelves.

(7) Pick up clutter in bedroom; go through basket of stuff on bed.

That should be enough to keep me busy tonight.

Before I go home from school, I have to get my poop in a pile for tomorrow--especially for the Writing skills class. I'm creating that one as I go along, so it is kind of a pain.

Also, I want to type up a Handout on Thinking Skills, Using Evidence and Logic, and Avoiding Fallacious thinking.

Senior Sem will be reading an article on Islamic laws for Women tomorrow and picking out the most important facts.

Children's Lit class will be continuing to work on their projects. I will need to do a grading criteria sheet for that project soon--but not today. Tomorrow during my prep is soon enough.

Right after school tomorrow, I have a dentist's appointment. i think it will work out okay to still carpool with Susan--either she or I can leave our car in the Legion parking lot. Then either she or I can drop the other one off on the way through Dodge--if I drop her off, she can drive straight home. If she drops me off, I'll drive to Donnay's lot, do my appointment, and be on my way.

I still feel tense--but not as tense as I did. I really need to go see the chiropractor.

Sigh.

Another bill.

Gah.

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