Travel With Me Tuesday: Via Project Life

I can't believe a week went by without another blog post. Where was I and what was I doing? Oh yes,  cleaning up the wreckage left after three bedrooms were moved about. He did all the hard work while I was gone but then I had the dusty mess left. Lots of books that "I" would have dusted first to clean and cull. In any case a lot is left but only in my studio. I have hope.

So you do get a batch of Project Life today just to show I did live recently and some of that time was in NC. That's travel!

TBT: My Childhood Home

When I say my childhood, iI mean from age 10 til I was married at 21. It was the first home my parents bought and in the end it was the last home they both lived in. Sadly, those were not happy years for them or me, so I had no regrets upon leaving.



This house was built in the 50s when it was standard to cut all the trees down to build homes and my mother despaired at ever having full grown trees again. Those that existed in our back yard soon succumbed to root damage from the builder's bulldozers. Til the day she sold the house after my father's death, my mother shook her head at the lack of sidewalks. Like me, she was a woman who was happier in a city or real town and not the barren suburbs.

Recently, I have driven by my old home and it's now become a Hispanic neighborhood. I actually saw corn growing along the front walk! I hope the current residents find joy in this structure and make this 1950s house a happy home.

Let's Tidy Up

Back Friday night from our CA trip and right away it was a cup of Tazo Rest tea that my dil gave me over Christmas. It didn't agree with her so I was trying it. I wasn't sure I liked the rose flavor - I think I had more than my share of that taste in the Middle East - but it was warm and soothing. Went to bed close to midnight and I had a good night's sleep for a rainy Saturday. I did a lot of putting away, and throwing away (junk mail) and much puttering. I also did some thinking about what I need to do before I start on the Christmas decorations.

I just didn't have it in me to start that cleanup before we left last month as it was only December 29th!  I was certainly still in the Christmas mood. But now...it's that feeling of "I want it all gone." January is a month that makes me seriously want clean and simple. Orderly, minimal, spare.  Sadly he has no such desire for this kind of surrounding and I am far from the that kind of person myself. But it's a feeling I want. Truly. 2014 seems a good time to get back into a purging routine. We have a periodic cleaner, but one thing I certainly have learned from FlyLady is that 'you can't clean clutter.' Clutter I've got! and without some gentle encouragement I find I putter from clutter to clutter, a habit my husband calls 'shifting the dust'.  I do move my clutter often enough so I don't have much dust but he is the king of dust bunnies - which I do not touch nor do I even look in his office if I can help it.

Last year my One Little Word was less, and it didn't work into my life the way I had hoped. I did lose some weight and gained a lot more fitness, but I swear it all went to hell in a handbasket from Thanksgiving to now. Of course two trips didn't help when it's a balance of restaurant food and the difficulty of cooking in resort accommodations. I know I really miss my home and the routine of home but compromise is part of the marriage game.

These are just some of my random thoughts as I mentally and physically shift from Left Coast to Right Coast. Truthfully, as nice as it can be on the left side, and oh the food is oh so gooood, the right coast really fits me a lot better. It's good to be home!

Wordless Wednesday: He Likes Blue Shirts

denim of all sorts

Sunday Serenade 11 05 15

Who can't find their way back home with these wonderful sounds? There's an earlier version on YT but I chose 'the lads' as they are today. This song has always been a heartbreaker for me but then so has Eric!



In any case, it's good to be home. England was brilliant as ever but home is ..well, it's home, isn't it?

Blowin' My Fuse

Fortunately it wasn't mine per se, but the dryer's. It's one of those operations that when it happens, we both tend to forget half the process. The other part is that I cannot move the stacked machines on my own, and dh has a bit more strength than is needed so I have to be the one to steady the dryer so it doesn't fall off the washer. There are also two fuses to check, one on the back where that red wiring hangs down, and one on the back or side, depending on whether he's describing it or I am. Typical.

Of course it wasn't the fuse on the back in the somewhat easy location. It was on the side/back and dh told me one fuse location there was no good but he didn't remember which! This time I marked the 'bad' fuse location, as well as the 'good' one, and will write out the how-to and tape it to the side of the dryer where we keep the spare fuses. 2nd fuse was the one and now the dryer is functional again, and together we got it back into place. The other fortunate thing is I do pay attention to Flylady and keep the laundry up to date. Only some sheets had to go outside in the cold, and I'll deal with them tomorrow.  Like Gilda Ratner used to say...."It's always somethin'..."

So how was your day today??? Any appliances feeling the need to have a bit of a rest like ours did?

Sunday, Sunday

Not a very productive Sunday chez nous. I am still filled with a bunch of congestion, tho my sinuses don't ache so much.  Resolved the ehd issue, meaning at least it works with the iMac, but I'm dubious about unplugging it again and not having it show up on the Macbook. I can check on that later.

Bless his dear husband heart, he asked if I wanted pizza tonight. Said he was afraid I'd fall into the posole! That's a good man. On such an overcast groggy day, we're neither one of us live wires right now.

Later peeps.

Home again, Home again...jiggitey jig

Hawaii is now a memory... and it's home again after a red-eye to Houston, not too bad with a bit of Ambien. A short sleep, but sleep nonetheless. Then a connection to Baltimore and what a gift...mild weather. Home.

Ok, yes, it's laundry time but it's also-

1. Eating and sleeping on my own schedule.
2. MY whole house rather than a hotel room or even a condo.
3. Our cat, even tho he was seriously hungry at 05:00
4. More than two pairs of shoes
5. 625 photos even without his!
6. Gratitude that I can travel but have a wonderful home to come...HOME to.

Sounds like surgery...

Naw, it wasn't surgery but it was a bit of a shock when I came home Friday to..

finger infected, --> Emergency room

So I called dh on his cell, waited to see if he would call back, debated whether I should go to the hospital, wondering when this finger issue started, how could he have not mentioned it. etc. etc.
Finally I get a call and he is on his way to the grocery store to pick up a prescription for the infection.

The boy arrives home like this.


I hear a saga about it only feeling funny that a.m (when I am out all day) and suddenly being filled with pus. ugh. Whatever caused it, I have my strong feelings that the fact that someone is a cuticle picker has some bearing on the problem. Whatever. But I think what "I" brought home helps the cure.



Crabacakes...part of any great 4th of July weekend - with a chocolate eclair and a cream cheese brownie for dessert...That helps cure all ills.

Home again, Home again...jiggitey jig

Ah home...



and home is where

• I can sleep as long as I like with no bus to catch or sight to see
• there is a hot pot of tea waiting for me when I wake up
• my daily rhythms fall back into place
• I have my dear iMac with its big screen and all my art things about
• I can hang laundry in the breeze
• my meals are on my hunger time frame not when a restaurant is open
• there are clothes for each vagary of weather
• and finally home is where the cat and his barfing still feel comforting for a while

Home is a good place to come back to every time.

Red is now Yellow

Having the ability to get a few projects done in the house has been a good feeling. There was one red wall in the dining room that emphasized the crookedness of our house. I like having character and all but each time I looked at that one wall...it was oh no.

Well, that wall is now yellow, the same color as the wall behind it on the stairs. The rest of the room is still red. It certainly changed the apparent size of the room, actually making it seem smaller I think but it did let that crooked bit fade away. Everything has its price and I was glad to pay for this one.

Now onto clearing out furniture before dh gets back...

I'm Home! I'm Home!

And that means I can:

• Do laundry
• Sweep up cat hair
• Wonder how in the bloody hell can I manage the jungle growth around the house - before it gets unbearably hot?
• Continue to ponder the relationship between the fit of my clothes and the food intake on the cruise.
• Put off going to the store for groceries but at the same time wish I had an endless buffet of food choices to select from - In My Own House.

But mostly be glad to come home - to a home, to a cat that seems to have accepted us back, and hey hey! play on the internet as much as I like with no worry of the clock ticking off the expensive minutes.


Being home is good and I hope to spend a good bit of this upcoming week, which promises rain, sitting happily at my own Mac and surfing away, seeing what net-friends have been up to, and just enjoying home - even if no one is serving me all my meals.

When I Win the Lottery

I'll have a big clean house decorated for me by Darryl Carter.



If he can do it for his parents, he'd be able to do it for me, right? Oh but did I mention I never play the Lottery? I guess I'll just have to look at his designs and think Clean, Clean, Clean especially Post Christmas. Right now I'll be happy with my yellow, red and green.

A woman can ertainly dream tho. Wonder if he'll get a crack at the White House???

Chez Nous...how sweet it is

missing this..original by ebachetti

I love my home all the more when I get back from a series of hotel rooms, and the move, move, move of trips. Maryland was in heavy fog when we arrived back, and the only negative was the 03:15am wake up call in Rome, the Holy Shit! but safe drive to the airport, and then on arrival the 2hr drive all over the county via Super Shuttle from BWI to our own beds . (Lesson learned about that shuttle - too iffy for time if the day has been super long.)

Now with a new day, laundry has been sorted, mail divided up, 3 cups of tea consumed and not too many to do items for today. Well, except that that excludes the 3 zillion photos on our cameras and phones. We also have to get photos off the Thinkpad since that seems to be acting as if it needs some computer penicillin. (maybe next year one of us will have a small Macbook to take with her...)

I'll be back later with overall impressions of this whirlwind trip to Italy. And yes, I'm regretting that I didn't take that very last chance at a pignoli gelatto. Sigh....

Does this look good to YOU

First of all, ignore the paint samples...

*I get dh a new (to us) pine bathroom cabinet.

*We agree on the placement.

*He asks if I mind if he drills a hole in the cabinet for a cord to connect electric shaver and toothbrush. I agree.



This is NOT how I expected it to look...decidedly not dark brown, and he thinks I'm the extreme critical fussbudget. Somehow I am having flashbacks to our renovation days....
Perhaps in the future, the outlet can be moved to be INSIDE the cabinet, something we did in the downstairs bath. The engineer looks for functional; the wife looks for functional AND good looking. Sigh....