1. I invented a new word today: syruptitious, adj. — What you are being when you eat Sunday’s leftover pancakes with the good maple syrup (instead of the cheap corn syrup crap) — and feel a little guilty about it.
2. I discovered there are people in this world who do not love To Kill A Mockingbird (69 1-star ratings on Amazon) and The Poisonwood Bible (92 1-star ratings on Amazon). I am still trying to get over this.
3. Stupid daffodils. All hopeful and positive-like when they shone forth their glory in 50° or 60° temps. Look where it got them.
4. No one wants our couch. On Craig’s List. It’s a nice couch. Slipcovered (it came that way from Levin’s, not a SureFit or anything). Beachy. Comfy part-down cushions. U.S.-made. Heck, we even offered to deliver it locally. And not very expensive (at least I don’t think so). I guess we’ll keep it for a while and maybe donate it one day.
This is why I don’t bother having garage sales and why I quit trying to sell my stuff on eBay. We must have the worst crap in the world.
5. But I like some of our crap. Take this little gen-u-ine painting on canvas in a cute window frame. I bought it years ago at a home store that used to be at the Grove City outlets.
The green frame color (more turquoise-y than it looks here) wasn’t doing anything for us, so I painted it the same color as all the wood trim in our house (well, all the wood trim we’ve gotten around to painting). Now, instead of leaning up against the wall in the attic, it’s hanging in our bathroom.
It makes me want to go to the beach. But then, most things make me want to go to the beach.
6. Back to that crap we have that no one wants. We finally called one local charity last week to schedule a pick-up for our old entertainment center and a bunch of other stuff we wanted to donate. It was all Mike and I could do to get the incredibly heavy entertainment center out of our living room, through the hall and dining room, and out into the sunroom (which is still unfinished by the way, in case you are keeping score), where it’s been for the last 2-1/2 months.
Then the nice lady at the charity asked: “Is it particleboard? We don’t take particleboard.”
I almost cried.
Once again, Mike’s friend Bruce came to our rescue and helped load the thing off the porch, into Mike’s truck, and over to Goodwill, which obviously has much lower standards than the other charity. We did, however, take the other stuff we had over to the highfalutin’ charity ourselves, because, well, they really do deserve it and are much smaller than Goodwill and strictly local. They seemed grateful, anyway. (But maybe they take all the crap they don’t want over to Goodwill, too. If I see my wing chair there, I’ll know for sure. Or those darling ceramic lamps that I bought on eBay but nobody wanted when I tried to sell them back a few years later.)
7. This is our cat. Hiding.
8. This is our other cat. Trying to stow away in Mike’s gym bag.
9. This may be why. Welcome to another one of our fun home projects.
Very ’80s hunter green ceramic tile in our back entry. Laid directly over press & stick vinyl tiles. Laid directly over the sheet vinyl. Came up in like 10 minutes tops. We agreed that even the ancient sheet vinyl looks better than the hunter green ceramic tile did.
This is part of a larger feng shui of the back entry (the first thing we see when we come home and the last thing we see when we leave). It puts the ug in ugly. But someday it’ll be OK.
10. I’ve been on a diet for over a month. I think I gained a pound. So far.
Life is a long process of getting tired.
~ Samuel Butler
Writing by Ear 