The Handwriting on the Wall

When we use the expression, "I can see the handwriting on the wall", it usually means something bad. It means that we can foresee the future and it may not be good. My son sent me a picture the other day that puts a positive spin on that expression. It was a photo of my granddaughter with a box of crayons, scribbling on their kitchen wall. The kitchen is gutted out and the cabinets will be replaced this week. On the wall space that the cabinets will cover, she has drawn pictures. They signed her name on them. They will be tucked away, hiding for many years to come. They will be our little secret. In 40 years, when the kitchen is remodeled again, the artwork of a 21 month old little girl will be revealed.

Sauces

I have to clean out my refrigerator by Friday when the new one arrives. I threw out all of the food that was newly expired. I threw out foods that I did not think I would eat in the near future. Then I got to the sauce drawer. This drawer contained hundreds of sauce packets. There were duck sauces, soy sauces, hot sauces, tarter sauces, mustard, ketchup and assorted salad dressings. They have accumulated over years. I have a drawer like this in my office. There are so many in that drawer that we are tempted to return them to the Chinese take out. I kept a few of each sauce and tossed the rest. I then put them into a baggie so I know which are the older ones. I am sure I will have hundreds more in no time.

Birds and Oil

There are two types of people. The Early Birds and the ones that Burn the Midnight Oil. I am the bird and my husband is the oil burner. I accomplish the most when I get up early and start a new day. He accomplishes the most when he starts a project at night. Last night our methods collided. We are running out of time to finish certain projects before my appliances arrive, so after spending a day with the family we began our project at 10pm. I normally would be grumpy since I was tired, but I held myself back as I needed the job done. We worked until 12:30am and finished tiling around the stove area. It came out perfect. I still prefer being an early bird, but burning the midnight oil wasn't such a bad thing.

91 And Still Having Fun

This afternoon my family will be getting together to celebrate my father's 91st birthday. At 91 he is still able to drive and live independently with my mother. It is a beautiful Autumn day and hopefully we can spend some time sitting outside in my sister's yard. My father will be surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He is a lucky man, but I am a luckier daughter.

Who's Counting

We are in the last stages of our kitchen remodel and went to the Home Depot for the tile that will surround the stove area. We picked out a beautiful brushed nickle pattern and then found out that there was only one tile in stock. Trying to save time, we asked the sales person to check if the next closest store had the item in stock. We needed 7 tiles. He entered the SKU into his system and said that they had 18 tiles in stock. We drove to the other store and went to the kitchen area only to find that there were none of that pattern. We asked the salesperson to check his stock and his records also said that he had 18. He looked and looked and they were nowhere to be found. After 45 minutes he called another store and they said they had a lot of the tiles. I asked for that store to physically look and make sure before we drove there. They said they saw them on the floor. Today we will go and get them and hopefully they will still be there.

Social Media

Today I will be teaching one of my interns how to do social media on Twitter. I think that the whole concept of Twitter is a bit ridiculous. You have 144 characters to get your thoughts out. It might have started off as social, but it has turned into business advertising. Everyone has a business purpose. Buy this, try that. My boss thinks that if we tweet, it will bring in business. She has never even looked at Twitter and I keep explaining that your tweet only stays on the screen for about 20 seconds. I will do my best to teach what I now call "social nonsense".

Rude

We closed on my parent's house yesterday and things went well.  They only thing that seemed a bit off was the  buyer's lawyer.  From the time we got into the conference room, until the end of the closing, he was on his cell phone speaking to other clients.  He barely took a moment to look up at us.  The reason why I found this so rude was because for the entire past year whenever my lawyer needed to speak to him, he never returned a call.

Closing and Opening

This afternoon I will be going to a closing for my parent's house. They have lived there for 57 years and have decided to sell the house. There is a small twist to this story. The house is being sold, but they are not moving out. They will remain living there "forever". Their next door neighbor purchased the house with the stipulation that my parents would not move. He has no idea of the blessing he has given my family. When my parents go back to Florida in a few weeks, the new owner will put in new windows, central air and heat, paint and carpet for them. He will also move the washer and dryer upstairs, from the lower level, so my parents will no longer have to climb stairs. He will design a new backyard in paver blocks and plant trees. In May, they will return to a newly decorated home. No one believes this when I tell them. I now refer to the new owner as my "baby brother" as he is treating my parents as his own.

Long Days

There is an expression "Days are long but years are short". The older I get, the truer this statement seems. Today will be a long day for me, as I will be waiting to hear some news from family members. I hope and pray that it will be good news. On the flip side, tomorrow I go to closing on my parent's house. The sale took one year, but the year flew by. Life is funny that way.

Quick Decision

I am a fast decision maker. It is either yes or no. No maybe's. I went shopping for a dinette table and chairs and visited five stores. I can do a brisk walk through and know if there is something I like. I do not have to ponder a decision. The first four stores had nothing I liked. By the time I arrived at the fifth store, it was 6:45pm and the store closed at 7pm. When we walked through the door, I saw the look in the salesman's eye that said, "I hope these people do not make me stay late and waste my time." People should be allowed to leave work when they are supposed to. There was another couple in there when we arrived. I took my walk and saw something I liked. I called a salesman over and said I was ready to buy it. He wrote the sale up, I paid and I walked out of the door at 6:59 pm. The other couple was still in there asking a million questions.

HallThanksChris

I was in my local Dollar Tree store this morning and was bombarded with holidays. There was an array of Halloween candies, table settings for Thanksgiving and decorations for Christmas. Do they know it is only September? This got me thinking. It is my turn to host Thanksgiving dinner and I am expecting over 30 people. I realized that I should buy the paper goods now as by November there will be July 4th items out. I bought tablecloths, napkins and plates. I now have a Thanksgiving corner in my basement and I will add to it until that day.

Sense of Humor

We all have a sense of humor even though we differ on what we think is funny. I was never one for insulting humor or just plain stupid humor. I find subtle humor funny. We are born with a sense of humor and we start showing it as infants. Yesterday, I was watching my grandson and we were playing with a toy firetruck. He put it onto a chair and it rolled off, hitting the floor. He started to laugh. I put it back on the chair and it rolled off again. He laughed even harder. I repeated placed the truck on the chair so it could roll and he began to laugh hysterically. I recorded him laughing as it was so cute. For some reason, the truck falling was amusing to his baby sense of humor.

One Ingredient

I was at the drug store the other day and needed to purchase one item. The brand name cost $11.96 for 48 pills. The store brand cost $4.96 for the same 48 pills. The store brand was out of stock but there was another alternative. A brand named "Quality" cost $3.56 for 48 pills. I picked up the box and read the ingredients. There was only one ingredient and it was the same as the other two brands. I stood there holding both boxes, deciding if I wanted to buy the unknown brand. Then I thought to myself "it is only one ingredient". How could I go wrong with one ingredient? I bought the $3.56 box and realized how powerful advertising and a brand name can be.

Top Shelf

We all collect things over time. The things we need the most are place where we can easily get to them. The others are stored in places that we forget about. Since I am re doing my kitchen, I decided to throw out the things that I no longer use. I have 2 cabinets above my refrigerator that I have not opened in years. If I haven't opened them, there must be nothing important in them. Nothing useful or sentimental. I realized that if I could not think of what was in them, I did not need those items. I got a hefty bag, opened the cabinet doors an just flung the items into the bag. I never even focused on what they were. If I did, I more than likely would have kept most of them. The items are in the bag, on the curb, waiting for the sanitation truck to cart them away. I have no idea what the bag contains, so I cannot miss the items.

Names

Sometimes I wonder how we name our children . Why is one sound more appealing than the next. There are the people that use a letter theme. All J's or all K's. There are the ones that use family names to carry on the tradition. There are the ones that try to be cute and make the name a play on words. Of course these people deny that they did that. They pretend that there was some other reason for the combination of names such as "Sandy Beach". Then there are the people that just double up a name. William Williams. John John. Are they just lazy or do they not realize that they are setting their child up for years of ridicule? When I named my sons, I made sure that they had "regular" names. Otherwise, I would have needed to give them boxing lessons.

R&R

I am getting ready to go to work. I need some R&R. Rest and relaxation. With all that is going on in my life for the last week, work is the place that is the most relaxing. Things at my office are in order and that means an easy week. My director is in Turkey, so with the time difference, she will not call the office for two weeks. Things will flow quietly. It is nice to have a place to unwind.

Robots

Sometimes we all act like robots. We do the same thing and never take a good look at our surroundings. This morning I went to a local mall that has Target and Macy's. Target opens at 7am and Macy's usually opens at 11am. As I was leaving the mall and walking back to my car, I saw people standing outside of Macy's parking lot entrance. They were all congregated around the door waiting for it to open. It was 11:05am. As I passed the door I looked at the signs that were hanging on each glass door. It said "Our new Sunday hours are 12pm to 6pm". As I passed the crowd I  said, "They open at noon. The sign is on the door". Everyone looked a bit flustered and within 1 minute the crowd dispersed.

Floored

I am floored. In 2 senses of the word. The first, because I have a new tile floor in my kitchen. The second, because my son did the job. He is not a contractor, but the quality of his work could pass for one. Every cut was done precisely. Every tile was laid to perfection. As I stood and watched, I was so impressed. First he had to lay a cement board floor and then the tile. The job took 12 hours with breaks for food. He added a decorator's touch at the end of the job by putting a 1" multicolor border. Every time I walk into my kitchen I will smile knowing that the floor was installed with love.

Normalcy

I hate when things are not normal. With my kitchen being torn apart, I feel like a fish out of water. By this evening I hope to have back some resemblance of normalcy. The cabinets are almost done and the floor will be laid today. I will not have a stove for about a week, but that is a good thing. I will not have to cook!

Upside Down

I got up this morning to a mess. My refrigerator is in the middle of the room and there is no light hooked up. The room is neither here nor there and getting ready for work is not going to be easy. Poor Shelby has no idea what is going on. Hopefully by the end of today things will have progressed.

Rebuild

Last week everything in my kitchen was demolished. This week it is being built up again. My son came over yesterday and measured all of the areas that needed tiles and paint. He rented a truck and bought all of the materials and they are now sitting in my house waiting to be constructed. Everything is prepped and today the rebuild will begin.

Going Green

When I decorated my first apartment and then my house, 32 years ago, there was only one request. No green. My husband hated the color green. He would not buy green shirts or have anything in the house that was green. That was fine with me because I was always a color blue person. My sister was pink and I was blue. I guess my mother liked my clothes to match my eyes. Now that we are decorating the kitchen, somehow my husband has become the decorator. He thinks that watching a few hour of HGTV has given him a professional eye. We got a color chart from the paint store and he has been looking over it for days. He finally decided that the kitchen will be painted....green. What a curve ball. It seems that pale green and white wainscoting is the new look. I do not really care, so I will go with the flow. After 32 years, the man has decided to "go green".

Notes

My husband has a terrible handwriting. It is so bad that sometimes he cannot even read it.
When he writes his food shopping list I need to be a decoder. What once looked like "manowar" turned out to be orange juice. I was shopping in a Russian fruit store yesterday and a woman and man were looking at their shopping list and pointing to a word as if they had no idea what was written. I walked up behind then to see what they were looking at and perhaps help then as I can decode the worst handwriting. When I saw the list, it was written in Russian. It actually looked clearer to me than the list my husband had written.

Demo Zone

My house is a demolition zone. On the spur of the moment, my husband decided to remodel the kitchen....by himself. So far in 2 days, he has taken down a ceiling, removed two out of three light fixtures, removed wallpaper, a backsplash, coving and three layers of flooring. We are now down to the original sub floor of the house. The dust was everywhere so he had to add the chore of cleaning to all of the above work. Now we are ready for the rebuild. He will put a cement board floor in, then a tile floor, paint, redo the backsplash, hang the lighting fixture, install new molding and refinish the cabinets in a cherrywood finish. I am exhausted just writing about it. I have no idea where the man gets his energy.

Under Construction

What started off as a small idea has blown up into re-doing my kitchen. Refreshing the cabinets has led to wallpaper removal, ceiling removal, new lighting fixtures, floor removal and new appliances. There is a coating of dust everywhere, including my lungs. Tarps are hanging from doors and sitting on floors. I hate the smell and the disarray. Now I know why I waited 32 years.

Nothing Is Minor

A famous comedienne died yesterday, a week after having a routine medical procedure. I was never a fan of her humor because I thought is was more mean spirited than funny, but I still feel bad. I feel bad for a daughter that has lost her mother and a grandson that has lost his grandmother. The scary part is that she walked into a doctor's office in good health, only to have  a minor procedure and never walk out. According to the news, she was given an anesthetic that she reacted poorly to. That is what led to the cardiac arrest. How many of us have gone for a routine procedure that needed anesthesia? How many of us have asked what type of sedative we would be given and the risks? We just sign our name on the paper work and pray for the best.

No Longer Defensive

Last night was the first of a two part Defensive Driving Course. I am taking it through AARP and they decided to change the name of it to "Smart Driver's Course". I guess that when you are over 55, they no longer expect you to be defensive and the best they can hope for is smart. I saw some of the same people that had attended three years ago. One couple is friends of my family and it was so nice to see how good they looked. Even though there was only a few minutes to chat, it was the most interesting part of the evening. The instructor had aged a bit and he read parts of the book incorrectly. No one corrected him, so I do not know if they were being kind, never noticed or just didn't care. I sat next to my brother in law who likes to be class clown. He made me laugh so much that I choked on my water and stopped breathing. I ran into the hallway to regain my breath, hoping that if I collapsed, a younger person would find me. The people in the class were all older than me and might not have been able to see the numbers on their phone to dial 911. I quickly regained consciousness and went back in. I slowly fell back into the coma when the instructor was explaining that a red light means to stop.

No Work

This morning I got up at the usual time. I did my usual morning routine. When I leave my house at 7am I will do one thing differently.  I will turn left instead of right. Today I will not go to work. I will go to my grandson. My son has to work a day shift so I am the baby sitter. I packed my breakfast, lunch, magazine and computer. I am looking forward to spending the day with the cutest boy. He now lifts his hands to hug me when I arrive and that is priceless.

Day One

Today is the first day of school. There are millions of unhappy children and thousands of unhappy teachers. The only happy people are the ones selling the pens, pencils and looseleaf paper. The classrooms will be hot and the students will be milling around trying to find their classes. Younger children will be crying. I do not mean to sound like scrooge, but today I will have a pleasant day. I did not have a nine week break, so I do not know any better.

Happy Labor Day

Today is Labor Day. Most people do not even realize why we celebrate it. It is a celebration of the American labor movement and the achievements of the American workers. It marks the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country. Unfortunately, it is a patriotic holiday in a country that is not led by patriotic politicians. How can Americans celebrate work, when they are working to pay for people that the President has allowed to illegally cross our borders? In this county alone, he has let 11,000 people take residence. That means the working population now has to carry 11,000 more people on their back. We must educate, feed and house them. Who agreed to this? I did not. It seems that our President said that "I could do whatever I want to do without Congress' approval". Aren't our elected officials supposed to be working for us? It seems that they are standing there silent while the burden is placed onto our shoulders. There is not really anything to celebrate this Labor Day, so I will just try to rest until tomorrow, when I have to go back to work to support my new family of 11,000 people.