Sewing

I'm "blaming" my friend, Meredith Carney, for a spur-of-the moment purchase at the beginning of the month. In case you don't know, the movie "Despicable Me 3" is now in movie theaters. The minions are back and with them, product tie-ins, of course. She was shopping at Wal*Mart, a place I won't go, and sent me photos of some minion clothing. "Hmmmm," thinks I. "Is there minion fabric?" Well duh.

JoAnn Fabrics might have just a few choices. There are also some prints available online only, but I need to see the fabric to decide what print to get and then, what to make of said print.

Yes, yes. I know what's going through your head. We will not talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet. We will agree to just nod in that general direction. Look! Minions! I did not have to go to JoAnn Fabrics for anything. I went because of minions and Meredith showing me clothing at Wal*Mart. What's the aphorism? "I can resist anything except temptation"?

I came home with these.

The Disney World trip is less than 100 days away now. I was going to do something crazy and make capes for all the guild members, and family members, attending the event. But, about April, I realized I'd bitten off way more than I could chew so I abandoned that before I spent $$$ on fabric I won't get fashioned into things. But I could get a shirt done before October.

I opted to buy a new pattern. I usually don't buy Vogue patterns because they assume you are more than an intermediate sewer, but I like this one and it's fairly simple. I'm going to make the shirt at the lower right corner. It's two fabrics. I will make a mostly yellow with a white block and then a mostly white with a yellow block. The shirt has a 9 inch zipper in the front to facilitate putting it on. It's stitched in the "invisible zipper" style, something I haven't done in a very long time. We'll see. Since this is a strictly humorous shirt, I don't, necessarily, care if it's visible or invisible. The zipper is not the point of the shirt.

I get these home and feel the desire to sew rising. In order to do that, I had to clear a path to the ironing board and deal with the stuff I had stacked on the ironing board. Then, I've spent the last week clearing off the kitchen table. I'm so bad about just dropping stuff there in the "I'll deal with it later" mode, and there it sits. The urge to just move stuff to another pile was strong, but I resisted and actually cleared off the table, putting things away, dealing with them.

In the process of cleaning, I found the pieces to a lightweight jacket I was going to make last year, to wear to Carole's for my birthday.

(There's the cape pattern I bought. Not sure what I'll do with it now, but you never know when a pattern will come in handy.)

The jacket is not complicated.

I cut out the pattern back in early October of last year.

And then it sat. I got busy and just lost the desire to work on it, even with a self-imposed deadline. When the table was cleared and all the pieces liberated, I felt like I couldn't sew the two shirts without finishing this jacket. I didn't have, handy, thread matching the pink. I have, instead, a dark mauve-ish color which actually works better. One day's worth of sewing and viola.

The next step is to prepare the trim. I'm using a black satin for the trim around the jacket and sleeves. I bought more interfacing for the shirts, which was a good thing because it appears I never cut interfacing for the trim. But I got to thinking. I haven't sewn satin in years and I have concerns about fusing interfacing to satin. Would the iron leave marks as I was fusing? Asking my seamstress friends, they said to use sew-in interfacing because satin will pucker with fusible. Hadn't thought about puckering. The next issue is, do I have enough non-fusible interfacing? I haven't a clue, so I will have to find the box with the interfacing, and, tonight, take a look. At least there is still a sale at JoAnn's so if I need interfacing, it will be on sale. I don't use non-fusible if I can help it, but I know I have a stash, just how much is the question.

So, here we go. Once the interfacing issue is resolved, this will go together very quickly. Then I can work on the minion shirts. Sewing makes me feel good. Finishing projects makes me feel double good. It's win/win. And, my "helper" likes to supervise when I sit in the recliner as I pin seams.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Probably About Time

There's a Highland Festival this weekend. I haven't been to one in 3 years and then, I couldn't stay the full time because I hurt all over. I'm much better now at managing my RA and have progressed to a better place. So, I was gathering the few things I'm bringing to the clan tent.

I see there's a broken fluorescent bulb in the basement which I need to clean up on Sunday. And I think I'm finally ready to cut this box down and recycle it.

The photo dates from 2009. That's probably when I bought this new but I'm really not sure.

Why is it that I've kept it all this time? All it's done is take up space. I need to find a place in Chicagoland which recycles computers and give this away. It sits, taking up space, on the back corner of a desk in the office, along with a pile of cords I no longer use. When I put the things for the festival away in the bins, I have to clean up the bulb, and I will recycle this. I promise.

Are you Windows users this attached to your computer boxes or is it just me?

Beverage:  Klarbrunn Black Cherry Seltzer

Deb

Have You Really Looked

When you think about the dirtiest places in your house, what comes to mind? Bathroom? Kitchen? Kids' room? Have you considered this?

My computer is four years old. This means the keyboard is four years old. The grime from my fingers took years to accumulate. By September of last year, it was driving me nuts.

So, I got out the rubbing alcohol and the Q-tips and spent a Saturday afternoon cleaning the keyboard. Rubbing alcohol evaporates quickly, meaning no liquid gets under the keys. Q-tips clean the sides of the keys and between the keys with ease.

It took me two hours to give the keyboard what I thought was a thorough cleaning, getting in between and along the sides of the keys.

What a difference. I went through a lot of Q-tips to get to this point, but it was worth it. About every two months, I've gone around the keys with Q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol just to keep the keyboard clean. I did all that work. It would be awful to have the keyboard get as dirty as it was before. Besides, I kind of like cleaning the keyboard. It feels like I've made a bit of difference in my life, as strange as that sounds.

Beverage:  hot cocoa

Deb

What to Do

The cleaning and tidying goes in very small bursts. I set out, for one of the veterans groups who takes donations, two grocery bags and a small box of stuff on Monday. I have not done any further purging beyond some box and paper recycling. I battled a rather large RA flare at the end of February and feel a need to clean the house; dust, sweep and wash floors. I was going to start on that task at the end of February but spent the weekend in bed. This happens about every 3-4 months so I'm "used" to it. But it sets me backwards in getting things done which frustrates me and that adds mental stress which triggers a flare which makes me tired so I take a nap which means; well, you get it.

But I was moving things around to make room for other things and stumbled upon this.

This is the veil from my wedding outfit. It was handmade by the woman who owned the store from which I bought my dress. Finding this reminded me the dress itself is in a plastic container in the basement. I don't know what to do with either of these. They date from 1978. Do I put them on eBay? Would they actually sell? I don't think donating them anywhere would work. Who would want them? I don't want them. Both have been cleaned and are in excellent condition, but I'm at a loss here.

Forbes.com had an excellent article about the lack of interest in collectibles and general accumulations of life. "Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents' Stuff" made me look around my house and do a more critical evaluation of what I have. While I should not surround myself exclusively with things my daughter will find value in, I need to be happy in my space, if I no longer want it, there's little chance she's going to want it, either. This is a clear example of something which may have zero value. How does one get rid of something like this?

So, I'm struggling with this dilemma. There are some things, like blankets, coffee mugs, clothing, which I can get rid of with ease and which a group willing to take "discards" like that would find value. Some things, such as a wedding dress and veil from 1978, I just don't know there's any kind of market for and it feels wrong to dump it on them. Suggestions?

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb

I Have No Idea

Found while cleaning.

The bottom key chain has a key to the Jeep. I found another key to the Jeep in a box in the home office. I remember locking myself out of the Jeep, but I eventually figured out how to get in using a long handled snow brush. I was never asked, when taking off side windows, if it was my Jeep I was getting into. But what are the other keys for?

I'm missing a key to the lock on the storage shed containing the lawnmower. None of these are that key. The lock on the front and back doors were changed with the change in ownership of the house. I'm wondering if these represent the old door locks. I consolidated them all onto one key ring. Aren't there people who collect keys? Maybe I should put these up on eBay?

Beverage:  Orange Juice

Deb

Cooking With Deb

Some years ago, I don't remember how many, my mother sent me a box of recipes.

She'd gotten around to cleaning out her recipe boxes, first of all. Then, she went through her mother's recipes for ones she wanted to save. Finally, she sorted through stacks of recipes from my dad's sisters, given to her over the years and dumped into a drawer. When she was done sorting, she sent what she didn't want to me.

There are hundreds here. I have no idea how old some of these are, but they reflect American Midwestern cooking tastes. The box has sat, unused, in the home office for many years. I was going to integrate these with the recipes I save but it would be such a daunting task, I put it off in favor of doing most anything else.

I like to cook, but the realities of my life are that cooking is not something I do when I get home from work. My stamina is gone so whatever supper is must be something reasonably quick. That doesn't favor good food; let's be honest. Ice cream, crackers, peanut butter sandwiches, dry cereal, tend to be staples of dinner. And a diet like that is not good for me. My efforts to reform my diet fall apart simply because I'm tired.

Then one day, I had an idea. What if I cooked one new recipe a week? I could dive into mom's box and make one new thing. I grabbed a handful and counted recipes, using the date numerator. When I got to #28, I read it to see whether it was something I'd make. It was a fruit cocktail sauce to serve warm with ham. Nope. Counted again and got a recipe for green beans with bacon. You won't find me ever making green beans. I cannot stand them. The next batch of counting yielded this.

Well, this was something I would eat. Plus, I had most of the ingredients. I needed a pastry shell, the sweetened condensed milk and the biscuit mix. Turns out I also needed nuts because all I have, right now, are almonds, but, at the time I made this, I thought I had walnuts.

It's quick to make, but it makes a lot of batter.

The regular pie shell couldn't hold all of it. If I make this again, I should try a deep dish shell. The excess, I put in a greased glass dish and baked with the pie.

The pie bakes for 45 minutes. I had no idea how long to cook this so I checked every 10 minutes. At 20 minutes, I pulled it from the oven. I should have left it bake for another 10 minutes. While set, it wasn't completely baked and I wound up eating these with a spoon, not that there's anything wrong with brownie consumption via spoon. The pie came out, cooked through, at 45 minutes.

The smell in my house of brownies baking was heavenly.

It cut well. The brownie had a nice crust to it. You bake the shell first, add the batter and bake again. I had concerns the shell would be overdone, but it wasn't.

It's very rich. The chocoholic that I am can only eat one piece a day. The batter was scrumptious and I wonder how long it would keep to be used as an ice cream topping. Perhaps that's something for a party. I am not ashamed to confess I licked that bowl clean. The addition of whipped cream was a nice touch, but I wish I had vanilla ice cream. THAT would have been outstanding with a slice of pie.

So, the first recipe in this idea was a success. That got me thinking about the box I have in the home office with all the recipes I've saved over 35+ years. There was a teen magazine when I was growing up, called Ingenue. They gave tips on health and beauty, but also on homemaking and budgeting and living on your own. They were rather ahead of their time back then, not assuming you were going to find a guy and get married and jump into the Ladies Home Journal set. I started collecting recipes back then. I have a couple I still make.

When I moved, the stash went with me. Eventually, the addition of other cooking magazines necessitated a filing system for what I was saving. Enter "the box and folder" system.

It started out okay. Label the manilla envelopes with categories and then drop the recipe into that folder. Once a month, grab a folder and read through the recipes, picking a few to try. Eventually, I took to just ripping out the pages and tossing them in the box. I don't remember the last time I actually sorted recipes into the folders. Some of the folders were 25  years old and disintegrating at the edges. What if I combined the two boxes?

That's what I did. I happened to have a box the right size for the cut ones. My saved ones are on the bottom, with mom's saved ones on the top.

All the single sheets are in a stack, to be gone through, assessed, and the recipe I actually want to try cut out and added to the box. The former box was thoroughly examined but the sides are too high to lie down and rest one's chin on so that box has been deemed "recyclable". The old file folders were sniffed but Pilchard decided she didn't want to lie on those. Her current box is to the right. All the folders have been recycled.

I think this will be a lot of fun. I reduced a mess to at least some containment. I need to buy a cake mix for next week's recipe. I expect there will be quite a few 'what the...' upcoming but that's part of the excitement of doing this. It's going to be great exploring what I, my mother, my grandmother and my aunts thought was so good 20-odd years ago that we saved a recipe. Doing this has already got me cooking supper, too. That alone is a victory.

Beverage:  Assam tea

Deb

The Things I Save

In the ongoing slow process of decluttering, I found these.

These are "bunny suits" or, as they are more properly known, "Clean Room Suits". The blue one I had to wear then I went into the surgical area of a hospital where we had a seismograph, to download said machine way back before we had reliable remotes. The white one I wore when I had to download a machine in an animal testing facility. According to the Internet, the moniker "bunny suit" was applied because, once you have all the accouterments on, you resemble a rabbit.

When I pulled the machines from these locations, I was allowed to keep the suit. The hat, gloves, mask and booties which went with these in order to access the clean room area, had to be chucked but I could keep these since people knew I wasn't coming back. They sat on a shelf in my old office for years; mementos of a couple of very interesting jobs, but jobs I don't want to have to do again. We haven't had a need for instrumentation to be in clean room areas since, thank goodness.

I kept these because I always thought I'd use them for Halloween costumes. In reality, they simply took up space. I brought them home last year, when we moved and stuck them on a shelf. When I cleaned that shelf, looking for something else, naturally, there they were. I added them to a give away bag. There wasn't much angst in parting with these. I knew I wasn't ever going to use them. Sometimes the cleaning kind of does itself.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

New Year's Wish

I'm trucking around the house in my pjs and slippers over Christmas because I have a cold, a nasty cold. I drank gallons of tea and hot cocoa and chicken noodle soup. Blarg. The main sewer line had backed up a bit into the house so there was limited use of water until it could be rodded out on the 26th. I found something to do with myself (See post below.), but I spent some time cleaning the room where the litter boxes are. 

Still, there seemed to be this crunch, crunch when I walked around that I couldn't eradicate, no matter how many times I went over the floor with a broom. It was getting on my nerves. Hamlet is terrible about digging in the litter. It goes flying and winds up outside the box, but there wasn't a lot tracked through the house. What was making this crunch noise and the feeling, underfoot, that the floor wasn't clean. I looked at the bottom of my slippers. 

Oh. 

Well, to be honest, I have had these slippers for, gee, maybe 8+ years. I loved the hard sole. I would wear them to get the mail or take the recycling to the can. They were comfortable; oh were they comfortable. But this would explain the crunch and why things didn't feel right. It was a sad day to toss them in the garbage. 

I have a pair of Hawkeye slippers which I've had now for a couple years. They do not have the sturdy sole shown here, but a slim hard plastic. They are comfortable, but they have stretched to allow the wearing of a sock. When I get out of bed in the morning and want to wear slippers, my bare feet walk right out of them. They are great for during the day; warm and cozy; but they just don't fit anymore. I needed new slippers. 

Thank goodness for after Christmas sales. 

I give these Isotoner slippers from JC Penney 5 stars. They are incredibly comfortable. They are true to size and fit perfectly. I've worn them with and without socks, but they are my 'go to' in the morning. They have a hard sole exactly like the ones which disintegrated. There were leopard print slippers on the web site, but only in small size. I like these. 

It got me thinking about the new year. I haven't been a very good blogger. After posting in October, we got swamped with a huge inspection job and I wound up doing most of the work. After that came the write up of the reports. Add a splash of a vacation in Virginia over Thanksgiving. Stir in a heavy cold and two holidays and posting here was the last of my thoughts. Yet, I did come up with something on my Facebook feed which I'm going to share here. 

Here is my advice for starting 2017. I had to get new slippers because my 10+ year old ones with the hard sole broke. They were very comfortable and slippers are kind of a personal thing. Thanks to after Christmas sales, I got a pair of "memory foam" slippers from JC Penney for $13.00.

Folks, if you are having a really bad day, feeling like life is against you, check your shoes. Are you wearing comfortable shoes? I mean, really comfortable? If not change your shoes. Go find a pair you can live in, really live in; wear 18 hours a day. In the late spring through late fall, I'm not in shoes when I'm at home. I prefer barefoot, but these slippers are amazing. I have other shoes (Clarks) which are just as comfortable. Ya gotta move through life. You can't be standing still. Make sure you have comfortable shoes for your journey. That's my advice. 

So, amongst all the canned words which have filled your email or Facebook, trying to be inspiring while not glib or eye-rolling, this is what I give you. Wear comfortable shoes. 

Beverage:  Assam

Deb

Well, That's Done

I was sick in December, really sick, with a cold that went around the office before it stopped by me. By that time, it had mutated beyond recognizable proportions and I spent Christmas in my pajamas nursing mugs of hot tea and practically snorting Vick's Vapor Rub. You know how it goes. You're tired, so you take a nap and sleep 5 hours. Then, when 10:30 pm rolls around, the last thing you want to do is sleep, but you're tired of surfing the web or playing World of Warcraft. What to do.

Reading was a disaster. I started a new book but the head cold made everything so fuzzy. I had this raking cough which, when it started, took a good 5 minutes to stop. (Quick! Where is the cough syrup AND cough drops?) I tried cross-stitching on my current project, but I couldn't count right and will have to rip out the stuff I did because it's wrong. I paced. I swept floors. I was having a sewer drainage issue which wasn't going to get resolved until the day after Christmas so thoroughly cleaning wasn't possible. (I'm still behind on laundry.)

Then, I spotted the filing. I was way behind in that. It was the end of the year and I would be needing to file income tax forms. Somewhere in the pile are the receipts for donations. I need to find and organize all of that. I like to file early and get it over with, but to do that, I was going to have to dive into the pile.

I did so with a vengeance. I went through all the folders. Anything 10+ years old or things I don't need to keep which had an account number on them were shredded. The shredder jammed several times and got really warm once. I've had the shredder for 15+ years. It's chewed up a lot of paper.

The kitten was given a few slices of paper to play with but he got bored with that. None of the kids liked the sound and ran when it jammed. Eventually, they figured out I was possessed with sorting and cleaning so they left me alone. I had piles on the bed, which Pilchard took to lying on so certain folders didn't get cleaned until she moved.

In the end, my recycling can was three-quarters full of shred.

I filed everything which needed to be filed. There is nothing errant in a pile on the table in the bedroom awaiting the chance to be put in the right folder. It's completely clear of paper. I found ALL my bookmarks. I am so proud of myself.

This gave me a bit of pause. If someone opened the can when it was out at the curb and rifled through it, they would see all this shred. Would it arouse suspicion that, perhaps, someone was shredding their identity? Were they getting rid of a life to start something new?

No, nothing so intriguing, although it would make a good starting sequence for a novel. "She closed the lid on the recycling can. Her life, all of it, was in thin strips of paper, commingled with soup cans, water bottles and cut down boxes. Perhaps someone, with vast amounts of time on their hand, could reassemble the bills and the statements, but she hoped the recycling company would get to this before anyone else."

It felt so very good to do this. It was one of those onerous jobs, way down on the list, I needed to do, to gain more control of my life, to make spaces in the house more enjoyable. After a couple hours, it was actually fun. Electric bills from 2009. SHRED!

When I paid bills at the beginning of this month and gathered up the receipts, I walked into the bedroom and didn't feel the compulsion to just shove them in the pile of paperwork awaiting filing. I felt the need to file them where they belong. It takes but 5 minutes after bill paying. That the spot is clear and the paperwork caught up makes me want to keep it that way.

Beverage:  Assam

Deb

Might Be Enough

Another year of a birthday and Christmas has come and gone. Since it was a milestone year for me, I was asked, a lot, what I'd like for both occurrences. Tastes have changed. There are things which I'd like. Then, I look at them and think of upkeep and whether they need to be dusted and they fall off the list. Three things which don't are tea, chocolate and socks. I got a lot of tea for birthday and Christmas.

I dumped all Christmas and birthday gifts into a box sitting in the recliner and, over New Year's, put it all away. I also emptied and cleaned, the cupboards in the kitchen. No lie. There was an angel food cake mix with a "Best By 4-18-12" date on it. Not going to even attempt to use that.

In cleaning, I found packages of tea which had been shoved to the back of the cupboard when pasta or soup or olive oil had been added in front of them. I always think I don't have enough. I pulled everything off the shelves and was astounded.

This doesn't take into consideration the boxes which are in active use and repose on the window sill behind the stove, two of which can be seen at the upper right of the photo. After taking this, I found another small box of Christmas gifts which included three more boxes of tea. I used the last tea bag in the Huckleberry tea sitting on the corner of the window sill and replaced it with a box of Irish breakfast Carole gave me. This is a lot of tea.

A practical assessment is in order here. I drink a lot of tea. I have a large mug of Assam to my left as I type this. At the office I know I have four different varieties. Even if I use one tea bag a cup or one strainer of loose leaf, it will take me over a year, probably closer to 2 years, to use up all of this. I never do a 'one-off' of a bag. I usually get three mugs out of one before I pitch it. Hence, we are, realistically, looking at over 3 years of tea sitting on the counter.

What's also not shown are the containers of hot cocoa, both the cocoa which can be made with water and the cocoa which needs milk. I drank a lot of cocoa last week, when the temperatures dropped into the single digits during the day and negative numbers at night.

It's probably time to stop asking for tea as a gift.

Beverage:  Assam

Deb

What a Mess

Houses are money sinks. Just when you get something fixed, something else needs your attention. This year, I've been lucky to find people willing to do things I can no longer do. One of those things was cleaning the gutters.

Prior to May, I don't remember when I last had them cleaned. On the north end of the house, in the front, small trees had taken root. Birds loved the gutters because bugs moved in. I would hear them digging around and would see the flying of debris as they emptied a spot and ate the insects. Squirrels had also taken to burying nuts in the gutters. I could always tell when this happened by what I'd find on the deck or front porch.

I kept telling myself that it didn't take much to get up there and clean them out. I have a ladder. I would just need to get some latex gloves to put under a pair of garden gloves I really didn't like very much and I could clean out the gutter myself. But climbing a ladder is difficult. I feel so unstable now and the need to climb to the top of the ladder made me very uneasy. I can wash windows because it's 2-3 rungs, but climbing 4-5 was a problem. Fortuitously, Pam was given a flyer from the son of one of her co-workers. He would clean gutters and do other yard work, including mowing and weeding. I took him up on the gutter cleaning.

What a mess.

It was a rainy afternoon when he showed up. I told him he could postpone the job but he said he was going to get wet anyway so rain didn't matter. This was the debris in the gutter section over the door. It was nasty; black and decaying. The smell was "ripe". He had a power washer and, after removing the debris from the gutters, cleaned the front steps and the deck. It took him a couple passes to clear everything off. In washing down the deck chair, he actually cleaned it. I was impressed.

The next day, I used power scrub for one final pass.

I didn't get the deck sealed, I just had too much to do this summer and I actually wanted to use my deck; sit on it, enjoy myself, and not spend a weekend painting. It needs to be sealed and it needs another thorough power washing.

The best part is that the heavy rains of the summer have actually gone into the gutters and down the downspouts as they are supposed to do, not slide straight off the roof. If the gutters are clear, a heavy rain helps to flush out any debris which might accumulate. The pine trees on the north side of the house sluff needles in May and that can clog gutters if there is anything in them. This year, nope. My gutters are clear at the start of fall. I probably should look them over before winter, once all the leaves have fallen, just to be sure. Clean your gutters, folks. You'll thank yourself even if the squirrels complain they have no easy place to bury food for the winter.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Will They Work?

I still clean a bit here and there, tossing things into a give away pile which is growing more massive as the weeks pass. I really need one of the veterans groups to call me for donations, mainly so I can start all over making a pile.

While going through the closet in my bedroom, I found these items.

I remember when Carole and I were going to use these for Halloween costumes. I hesitate to guess how old they are.

So, I wonder, would they still work? I know it's a "simple" chemical reaction that happens when you apply pressure to the item which makes it glow. I wonder if the potential for that chemical reaction diminishes over time. Can these be stored indefinitely? At BlizzCon, Liz had glow bracelets for us to wear. She got 100 of them for $10 on Amazon. Ashley and I had great fun looking through the colors and deciding which ones went with our outfits. I don't have a reason to wear these so I don't want to "crack" them to make the glow, just to see. If it still works, I've lost one item. Guess I'll just hang onto them and maybe wear them to the opening night of the World of Warcraft movie in June.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Beat it With a Stick!

I spent the weekend cleaning. I clean a bit every day, but this was a weekend to deep clean. It was in the negative temperatures, with wind chill, and, on Sunday, we got 3 inches of snow. I wasn't going anywhere and there has been a lot of "crunchiness" to the floor. The litter box area was thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed, with new litter and a new litter box. One of our usual boxes was taken to the basement to be scrubbed. Pilchard has a tendency to register displeasure with anything by peeing outside of or just on the edge of a box. There has been a lot of that since my California vacation. I've scrubbed the box area, changed the litter and she still seemed to be peeved.

I don't know what triggered the thought but it occurred to me that I hadn't rotated out the actual boxes and scrubbed them. There was an old one in the basement that I'd forgotten about. I used to be really good about this, rotating a completely cleaned box out once a month but had not done this all last year.I couldn't smell anything, but I don't have a cat's sensitive nose. It was time to get back into thorough cleaning. The old box went downstairs to be soaked. I put it in the wash tubs with some Dawn dish soap (Is there anything this soap doesn't do?) and as the washer spins the water out of the laundry, it scrubs the box clean. I just follow up with some minor washing.

Since swapping out one of the boxes, there hasn't been an on-purpose mistake outside the box. I'll need to swap boxes over the next month so all three are clean heading into spring. You should have one box per cat and one spare.

After doing that, I set my sights on other rooms. The weekly sweeping just didn't seem to be getting all the winter grit so I gave the mop a good shake and started with my bedroom, working toward the front of the house. I have to take a break every so often and, when I sit in the office, I can see into the bedroom and partially under the bed. I thought I'd swept under there, but there was a shadow. When I took Mija to the vet, Pilchard had dashed under the bed and into the office closet to avoid what she was sure was her turn to ride in the carrier. She pulled a long string of a dust bunny from under the bed. So, I paid attention to that spot. But this shadow, which was NOT a cat, I checked, seemed to indicate something else was under the bed. Maybe it was a missing sock.

I got down on my knees, a daunting prospect because I never know how easy it will be to get up, and ran the mop under the bed. The first two passes yielded 3 cat toys and one sock. With the third pass, I aimed toward the head of the bed which is up against the wall. I swear I had swept that area but this came out.

It occupies the same amount of space Mija does, although it is not sentient nor does it have her mass. I think what happened is that my previous passes just shoved amounts of dust and fur and hair and whatever else goes into dust bunnies, up against one of the bed's legs. I was scraping off the mop what I had swept from under the bed. The angle I used on Saturday's pass pulled all this out.

I'm not really grossed out by this. Fascinated is more the correct term. There's very little grit in this. When I dusted it up to toss into the garbage, the dirt left was a couple of teaspoons and that was more loose litter, which I kind of expect.

One of my friends, upon seeing the photo, said I should give it a name and suggested "Charlie"; not sure why but there it is. No, I am not naming my dust bunnies. Come spring, when I move furniture for spring cleaning, I wonder how big some of those dust bunnies will be. Will I have a whole family? I read somewhere that birds like to have you toss this kind of dust outside in the spring because they use it for nesting. Um...no. Sorry chickadees. This is going away.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Done Done

The former office keys. Yes, there were two of them. We had the building doors to pass through before getting to the office doors. The locks were changed twice in the 16 years I was in the building; the first time when we moved across the hall and took over the space vacated by some real estate company, and the second time when an employee was fired. This new space has one key. We have a front and a back door, but they are keyed the same. AND, that key is a much lighter weight silver-colored thing. The change in weight of my key ring has been very noticeable.

We hired a cleaning company to clean our new offices twice a month. They also do close-outs so we hired them to clean the old space. It was amazing. The building owners were responsible for the cleaning company and we must have gone through at least 8 different companies in 16 years. You saw the ants on my windowsill. Yeah. They just didn't clean everywhere. This new company cleaned the faceplates on the light switches, dusted and washed all the walls and cleaned blinds. When I met the cleaning company's estimator at the old office she looked at me and asked when the last time was the blinds were cleaned. Darned if I know. We had vertical blinds in the old office and some of them were not working properly. We gave up trying to get them fixed. They were not wiped clean.

I had this corner office on the first floor. It's a southwest corner, but those windows leaked so badly. My office was usually 8-10 degrees colder than the other offices. I would have a space heater under my desk in the summer, too, because the AC seemed to think it was cooling the entire Chicagoland area and blast on high all day. In the winter, the space never heated up. It would be 78 in other offices and 68 in mine. It's tough to type when your office is 65 when you walk into it in the morning.

This is the front door. In the fall, the leaves from the vines growing on the wall would collect in front of the door. It was kind of interesting from a science standpoint because the design would cause air to swirl in front of the door. You'd get this great pile of leaves in that nook, leaves which would then stick to your shoes after a rain and get tracked into the building.

The current landlord has been trying to sell the building for 3 years. We almost never saw anyone from the management company and I often felt that when we would call about replacing lights or fixing broken things, I was being an annoyance to them. It wasn't unusual to come to work and find the building locked up. Maintenance hadn't gotten over to unlock the doors. This building was also last on the route for snow removal. They considered tossing buckets of salt on the walk, "clearing the snow".

I got the "honor", if you will, of doing the final walk-through, since I'd been in the building the longest. The cleaning company had done a wonderful job. There wasn't much of a deposit to get back, but Mike wanted every penny. The air still smelled of lemon cleaning products. Yes, 8 years of wear on the carpet showed and there were a couple of corners which were dinged, but the space looked great for as dirty as we could get it. The gal who walked through the space with me seemed more annoyed at having to do this than really looking at what we'd done. We made small talk about our move and parted. I did one final walk around. I mentioned this back in December when we officially moved north. I didn't feel attached to the space as I thought I would. 16 years is a long time, any more, to be with a company AND to be in one space. Yet, I don't miss it.

I come here every morning now. We have our number on the door, which helps because each one of us had driven by the office trying to find it. I have a nice east view out my window. Squirrels cavort in the pine tree. It just feels more pleasant. I don't mind the drive each way. It's actually quite relaxing.

Running errands over the past weekend, I wondered if my keys would still work. Our lease at the old space ended last Sunday. I was tempted to swing by the building to see if I could still get in. How often do companies change locks, I wondered? The building isn't on any closed circuit security camera so I could let myself in and out with no problem. Would they rekey the outer door, too, if they rent the space? Could I get in over the weekend to use the bathroom, say?

We've all put our old keys in our desk drawers. I think Gene actually tossed his, but the rest of us have a bit of nostalgia for those keys. Eventually, I'll recycle them or give them to someone doing a craft project with keys. For now, they are a reminder of where I spent 16 years of my life.

Beverage:  Raspberry Seltzer

Deb

Evolution-Part 1

Furniture and 90% of the office was moved on Saturday, December 12th. Our computers stayed behind because we didn't have service in the new space. At noon, my new office looked like this.

"Yeah, those bookshelves were in my old office so I guess just put them in my new office."

Originally, we were going to use the extra office we have as a library, of sorts. As you can imagine, we have a lot of reference material for construction, mining and demolition. It's a very narrow slice of the publishing world, but there are books printed about these topics and we get a couple every so often. As our area of work is not taught in universities, much of our knowledge comes from on-the-job experience and the rare tome or paper detailing the effects of ground vibrations on structures. Books tended to be scattered about people's offices and we thought it would be better if we had one spot for them.

But, files this idea under "best laid plans". That "library" is going to be someone's office in the next few months so the shelf units were stuck in my office until further notice, since that's where they had started in the old space. On Wednesday, December 16th, with Internet up and running, we moved completely and my computer was set up.

Things are a mess, as you would expect. I had to empty the desk so I tossed all my files and stuff into bags and boxes. The shelf units were moved away from the hole in the wall where the sliding window was to go so I could see anyone who walked in. At this point, I have sorted through the empty box to find all my files and at least get back to working, sort of.

Since mid-December, things have come along. The corner cabinet was moved into place and my photos and mementos placed on it.

That's a paper recycling cube to the right. Our cleaning service doesn't quite understand that we actually recycle here so all of our carefully sorted recyclables have been dumped into garbage bags. But, they are new and we are new and we'll get this sorted out.

The bottom of this unit now has my rocks from various projects. That might seem weird but I've been on some big jobs and I have rocks or chunks of concrete from Soldier Field and 1930's-era Sheridan Road, terra cotta from a building that once stood where Prentiss Children's Hospital is now and rebar from Michigan Avenue. These pieces were scattered about my old office. Now, they have a place to be. The piece of rebar is going to hang on the wall, but I need to get my posters and other wall things up first.

They finally got the window installed right before Christmas. At one point, I was kind of sad to lose a whole wall of potential display area, but I have to say, being able to see people coming in is huge. We don't get many people here; UPS, the mailman, building maintenance; but seeing them and my co-workers come into the building is very important. The other thing that I've discovered is how expansive it makes the office feel. I have huge windows to my east but being able to look out of the office in what amounts to another window is wonderful. I generally don't have claustrophobia but extra light is a good thing.

Two of the bookshelves, of the four I had, were commandeered by Tara. I still have one plus this corner unit. I really had no use for the other ones. I was kind of amazed at how much stuff I kept because my former boss said "It will be useful sometime." Um...no...not really. Back in October, when we started the packing process, we took 8 construction garbage bags of garbage to the dumpster. Since moving and, as we've all settled in, there have been 8 more bags of garbage out the door. In a typical week, we don't generate much. Our data is 80% digital now. Our cleaning service comes every other week. It works.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Gross

aa//m xl'lewwat5r7uip[[]]]rrr    mk6ca

No, that's not in some code. I sat down, today, to do a whole bunch of blogging. It's -15 outside and, with the windows covered in plastic, 70 degrees in the house is very comfortable. It's a good day to write.

Have you looked at your keyboard. Because computers are ubiquitous in society, we've all become something of a "touch typist", rarely looking at or needing to look at, the keyboard. It's not all that necessary, once you figure out where your fingers go. Over time, any keyboard is going to attract the dirt and oils on our fingers. The keys will get dirty. And with someone like me, I don't notice the dirt until, well, I notice the dirt.

I sat down to blog which involves finding and cropping photos, uploading and downloading and finding links. I have no idea what prompted me to actually look down at the keyboard, but the state of the - key bothered me. My keyboard is silver metal with white keys; a standard issue Mac keyboard. Dirt on the keys is noticeable. I got the Q-tips and the rubbing alcohol and started in.

It was just going to be the - key, but the more I started gently wiping, the more I realized just how dirty the keyboard was. The rows between the keys were cleaned. The columns between the keys were cleaned. The silver edges of the board itself were cleaned. You can't see it, but there was dirt and grime in the spaces next to the up arrow at the bottom right. If I could take the keyboard apart, I'm sure I would find another cat, or the fur from one, stuck inside. All I can do is clean the tops of and around the keys.

I went through a dozen Q-tips. Rubbing alcohol is what you need to use if you're going to do this because it removes the dirt and grime while evaporating. Plus, it evaporates quickly so very little, if any, falls into the keyboard guts. While using a Q-tip takes time, anything larger runs the risk of fluid getting into the keyboard. I tried a small cotton ball, but found the ball left strings of cotton. I have enough issues with cat fur. I don't need cotton threads. Q-tips don't shed.

The keyboard is clean now. The above string of characters was from pushing the keys to clean either the top or around them. I'm also washing dishes in an attempt to have a clean kitchen and I've cleaned the litter boxes. We'll call it "Clean the house Sunday" around here.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Cut Ups

Another small step in the tidying.

In the cleaning of the "Receipts for Major Purchases" folder, I found terms and conditions for credit cards. That's a misfiling but it caused me to pull out the drawer where I have cards and actually look through them. Since the 5th 3rd debacle, I have canceled or let expire a whole bunch of cards that I had but didn't use. I hung onto my 5th 3rd cards until this whole mess was cleaned up, which it was at the end of May. So, I spent some delicious minutes carving those credit cards into shards over the garbage can.

But then there are these. Sears gave me my first card, back in 1977 when I was a college junior. I felt so powerful but had no idea exactly what credit was. Still, I had, and used, that white card until they began issuing standard size cards in the 1990's, I think. Marshall Fields (defunct) and Nieman Marcus also used the small card format. I used to have an NM card. I thought I saved it for nostalgia but it wasn't in the stash.

Sears and Field's issued new cards which I, obviously, never activated. I know they pre-date the banking fiasco or maybe came at the time of the fiasco and I felt, for my good, not having the credit was a good step in righting my financial ship.

Ah Disney. I got this way back in the late 1980's, when Disney stores in malls were exploding like pop rocks. I spent so much money at those stores and through their catalogues. When we took our first vacation to Walt Disney World, we got all sorts of discounts using the Disney card. I think they discontinued it or we canceled it, I don't remember.

And finally, Montgomery Ward. My ex worked for a trucking company affiliated with Wards. We got a 25% discount on goods and services purchased through the store. As mentioned in a previous post, my oven is a Montgomery Ward branded appliance. We got a fantastic deal on it. I have a blue sweater that I got at Wards for $12. I'm pretty sure it's close to the same age as Carole and one of the elbows needs some love, but it has worn like cast iron. I kind of liked Wards and was sad to seem them go bankrupt and close.

But they have arisen from those ashes and are online only now. Scanning through their offerings, they aren't all that unique in what they have for sale. I don't need much but there are a few things which would be fun. They have a compact computer desk. I'd love to replace the behemoth I have in my home office with something more compact. Wards is a distributor for the company that sells the desk. Comparing prices, they aren't cheaper. I think I'd be buying nostalgia more than anything else and I have to be leery about tossing money at something for nostalgia sake. I have a lot of that as it is.

I cut up the big Sears and Fields cards. The rest I put back in the drawer. I'm not ready to take a scissors to them just yet. The act of tidying has always been about being ready to let go, being critical about what I save. There is no use to these. They are saved purely because of warm memories attached to them. At some point the scissors will come out and they will be gone, but that's not now. I did reduce the stack by 3/4ths, however and that is a good feeling.

Beverage:  Coca-Cola

Deb

A Plethora of Plastic

Yet another task was accomplished over the weekend.

I went through all the containers and matched them with lids. This is most of what I have. Now comes the decision on how much I really need to save. The green container I have had for a good 25 years. That's the thing about Tupperware. I'm inclined to keep it simply because it's lasted so long and shows no sign of wearing out.

It seems to me that I might have culled this group about 5 years ago. In that time, new plastic containers have been released. It's easy to be seduced by the shiny goodness of plastic storage. But I have to be ruthless here. I just can't save everything. I need to be realistic in how much I actually store. Why is it so hard to part with this stuff?

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Small Cleans

You know how you can pass by a section of your house for years and really not "see" things? It's often easier to just let the piles be. On Saturday, after years of ignoring it and pushing things around, I cleaned the top of my chest of drawers. The space, not very big, was a catch-all for stuff. It's where my cologne sits. I had hair ties and clips even though my hair is a bob now. There's body lotion at easy arm's reach for the times when my legs and feet are cracked and scaly. But there were also photos, lots of photos and other stuff, just stuff. I reached a point, I don't know why, where that space cried out to be cleaned.

I sorted through all the photos. I have a large number of Carole taken for prom and homecoming and turnabout, the dance where the girls ask the guys to go. It can also be called a "Sadie Hawkins Day dance" in reference to a Lil' Abner comic strip where Sadie asks Lil' Abner to a dance. You have to either really love comics or be a certain age to know that reference. As much as I like the memories associated with the photos, I decided I didn't need all the framed photos. They are going to Carole. I have other photos of the events which I will keep.

The above photo I'm saving. This was sophomore marching band season. Those uniforms were brand new that year. The Wheaton North Marching Band did, and still does, competitive marching band. If you aren't familiar with it, a band develops a show, much longer than a half-time show, with a color guard and on-field marching. Depending upon the length of time you've done this and where you fall in the rankings at shows, you can get an invitation to the regional competition. For us, it was in Indianapolis at the RCA Superdome, which was demolished in 2008. It was breath-taking to walk onto the field behind the kids and then watch them perform. I can't remember for sure, but I think our highest place was 10th overall in our division. The competition is fierce and we saw some amazing marching bands. That's Rob, Marc, Jesse and Colin with Carole. Four of the five of them have stayed in contact with each other. I was a band mom and this photo reminds me of all the stress we went through to get to this point, but, more importantly, all the fun and excitement of watching our kids do something they loved.

I found this in the piles on top of the dresser.

My mother's pen pal sent this to me many years ago. The design is based on Charles Rennie Macintosh, a Scottish artist. It's porcelain.

It hasn't worked for years and was in a box at the back of the top of the dresser. I was pretty sure it was simply a matter of replacing a battery, but it could be something else. It's not very big, maybe 4 inches tall, but it's so pretty. I needed to see if it could be fixed.

There was another button battery in the box. I couldn't see, at first, how to change any kind of battery until I realized that the clock face can be removed.

You can see the face isn't very big. Once removed, I had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to pry the battery out. Then I noticed there is a little clip. When that was pulled, out popped the battery. I put the one I found in the box in the vacated spot and the clock started up. That's all that was the problem. It needed a new battery.

There was a huge amount of dust on top of the dresser. I didn't take a photo of that. Some things are better left not shown. I tossed so many rubber bands and spent hair ties. I gave away pins and ceremonial buttons for events I don't remember attending. I found all my Scottish jewelry and it's in one box now, not scattered about. I need to shine a silver chain however. That was a bit of a downer to see it had tarnished.

But, the area is cleaned and looks so much nicer. I need a container for bills. I always put them on top of the dresser where they are in visual sight so I don't forget to pay something. In rearranging and pitching, I've removed some things the bills would lie against because I am not interested in saving things. I'll find something and I have the perfect spot for it.

It's another step in tidying my space and it feels so good.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

That Is a Lot

My only contribution of late to tidying my life has been getting the basement ready for a new washer. I have removed, through today, 9 bags of garbage, real honest-to-goodness, garbage. It really was a case of boxes of packing peanuts or something else tipping over and me not having the will or desire to sweep it up. Add to that, the occasional episodes of seepage when we get inches of rain in a small window of time, and that just breeds decay. Over the years, boxes of stuff have gotten wet and I just didn't mentally want to deal with it, so the stuff sat and sat and sat. 

That all changed when I knew I needed a washer. I couldn't shove or relocate things to another part of the basement because there wasn't another part of the basement. So, I started cleaning in May and finished a clear path to the old machine the last weekend of June. I have a large pile of things for Carole, a pile which grows and grows each time I attack yet another section of the basement. She's going to need a moving van for all this. 

Then the washer came and I have the warranty information to file away. I wanted to see, for sure, when I bought the replaced washer so I pulled out my "Receipts for Major Purchases" file folder from the filing cabinet. It's fat and heavy with instruction manuals and receipts and proof of warranty. It's also one of those things that needs to be gone through and cleaned out. 

After going through the pile, this is what needs to be chucked. At the risk of jinxing myself, I have the receipt from the stove; purchased from Montgomery Wards in 1984. I also have the receipt for the fridge; again purchased from Montgomery Wards in 1994. I have receipts for two long gone lawn mowers and Apple computers. I have receipts for a dust buster and three, count 'em, three irons. There are two phones, a VHS player, and jewelry I no longer have. I also have the receipt for the clock radio that wakes me up every morning and the record player/cassette player that sits in the living room. The warranty for this "boom box"? That can be pitched. I don't remember when that broke and we pitched it. 

This stack is half of what was in the folder. There were quite a few memories and quite a few, "I have no idea to what this belongs" moments. The only things in the folder now are the warranties and receipts for things I still have. Yes, I kept the warranty information on the 20+ year old clock radio. Do they even make those anymore or are people using their phones? The Art of Tidying talked about how that extends to paper and I have known, for awhile, that my files are filled with stuff I no long need. One folder at a time. It felt very, very satisfying to dump all this paper into the recycling bin.

Beverage:  Coca-Cola

Deb