A Post Revisited : STUFF

Since I have been dealing with packing up Mom's house and now unpacking some of her things at my house, I thought that this post from January 2006 would be appropriate to revisit (with a few changes)!

Stuff. Yup. Stuff. We all have it. We all want it.

It is both a blessing and a burden.

It starts when we are young. We want cool stuff. We ask our parents to give us that cool stuff. We get the stuff, or at least enough stuff to leave us wanting more stuff. We even get things to carry our stuff around and things to keep our stuff in order.

When we are young adults we want even more stuff. Now we work for our stuff. The more stuff we get the more stuff we want. We start to keep track of our stuff. We never have enough stuff.

As we get older, maybe we get married. Then we really get a lot of stuff. Still this does not satisfy us. Now we know we really need more stuff. We have to get a bigger place to live to keep all of our stuff with us. The place we get has extra room, so we get more stuff to fill the empty space. Then maybe we have children, and we have to get stuff for them, too.

And now we have to do more to keep track of our stuff. We worry about losing our stuff. So we document our stuff and take out insurance on our stuff. Our kids start to demand more stuff of their own. And because we know how important stuff is in everyone's life, we get them more stuff. And we increase our insurance to cover their stuff, too.

Now a new phenomenon starts to creep into our lives...

We start to feel that we need to get away from it all... all our stuff. So now we take vacations from our stuff. We take our children with us. They spend most of the vacation bemoaning the fact they want to get back to the stuff that they have left at home.

Then one day, the kids leave home, and we look around and discover that we have too much stuff. We need to downsize and get rid of stuff that we don't need anymore. We have garage or yard sales and sell our stuff to unsuspecting people who are still in the mode of acquiring more stuff. Then we take the money we make at the sale and decide that now that we have gotten rid of some stuff, we can now buy more stuff. And we do.

And so it goes. We get rid of old stuff, and replace it with newer and better stuff. We do this and do this, until one day we are too old to do it any more. Then our children have to do it for us. Maybe they move us to a retirement home. Our stuff gets redistributed. Now our children buy us things that they think we need or would enjoy. But it is stuff that doesn't take up much room.

Yup. We all have stuff.

Sometimes irreconcilable differences put a kink in this life plan of acquisition and disposition of stuff... for a while...

When getting a divorce, you have to inventory all of your stuff and finances. Then you have to fill out forms that require all of this information. You also have to pay a lot of money for the privilege of doing this.

Then at some point, someone will look at all of this information on the forms that have been filled out and will use some sort of formula to decide how much of the stuff you get to keep and how much money you will get to help you take care of your portion of said stuff. And then you get to pay some more money so that all of this gets recorded and becomes a legal document. You then will get to add this document to your stash of stuff... a smaller stash than you had before.

What happens next? Will you get to acquire more stuff? Will a reduced income greatly impact your acquisition phase? Will your children keep you in new cool stuff as you get older. Will you rejoice in your new freedom from excessive stuff? Will you finally get all of your closets cleaned once and for all?

I suspect that not only does life go on... but stuff goes on as well.

As for me, Mom having to reduce her stuff has been an avalanche of additional stuff for me. Some of this stuff, I will pass on to my children. Some of it will go to charity. Some stuff I am really grateful to receive. However, it looks like my closets may have to wait another year or so to get cleaned...

Oops! I Goofed!

My duct work is done and I have a new vent into the Laundry Room. Yay! The electrician is coming on Monday to put the new panel in and complete the rest of the various electrical things that need attention. "L" is coming on Sunday to help me get the laundry room ready for the work. So today I went out to buy a new refrigerator to replace the one that quit working properly.

I was very careful to measure the width and depth of the refrigerator I now have because it is a tight fit between cabinets. I look up and decided that I did not need to get a height measurement because I could eyeball it by my own height. I looked at the cabinet over the top of the refrigerator and decided that I had plenty of leeway there. I should have used a stool or chair to check the cabinet clearance, however... like I did after I got home to unload the top of the old refrigerator. What I had thought was about eight inches was only about an inch an a half. It has been a while since I got up there to view the clearance. Uh, oh.

So how do I fix this problem? The price of the refrigerator was right. It has everything I wanted... and more. The color, width, depth and design are all good. Hmmm... Well, being the practical and sensible person that I am, I have decided that the cabinet above the refrigerator needs to be taken down! It is too high to be of much use to me anyway. No band-aid solutions for me! That cabinet has got to go... and before Monday when they deliver the new one... I think I have a few things to do... This should be good!

Beware The Idles Of March

Yes, March can be a month where there is a lull in the hurried madness of reports at work. Pension reports, W2s, 1099s, etc. ,etc... are completed. This is generally a time when I can catch up on filing and routine office cleaning. We are in the midst of Lent before the preparations for Easter celebrations begin.

This year is a bit different for me. Not only do I need to reinvent-the-wheel with so many of my Excell files at work, but I am also needing to keep the house as neat as possible for any potential buyers that might possibly decide to look at the house. I also need to get some things finished on the house so when those potential buyers come through, they like what they see. It is like living in a fish bowl... especially since the livingroom sheers are still to be rehung. No more nekkid trekking in the front of the house. The neighbors can look in at night and see whether or not the kitchen table is clear, the dishes are done, and what I am doing at my desk in the family room. Can fish have curtains?

January was absolutely crazy with getting things moved to storage, throwing things out, giving things away, and coughing up both lungs. February was pretty much the same thing. Now here is March.

March things to get done ASAP:

• reinvent office files
  
• finish removing wallpaper and paint main bathroom
• paint livingroom
• paint 3 closets
  
• get Himself's remaining "stuff" out of the utility room
• get Himself's remaining junk out of the back and side yards
• get Himself's "stuff" out of the barn in the back yard
  
• paint utility room
• fix lawn and landscaping near front door of house
• replace mulch in front garden beds
  
• get non-working doorbell replaced
• get rid of extra patio furniture and clean back porch
  
• get remaining boxes out of 4th bedroom
• replace flooring in 4th bedroom
• get paperwork to tax accountant
• get cats to vet for annual checkups and shots
  
• go to bed earlier
• get up earlier
• eat better
  
• exercise more
• lose weight
• fight global warming
• establish world peace
• stop plate tectonics
  
• ok, enough

I have already redone some of my Excell files and am continuing to work on the rest. In a few weeks I will need to be ready to engage the frenzy of finishing up the budget. Himsef is supposed to come by this weekend and remove his remaining "stuff" as well as mow the grass and fix the doorbell. I had lined up a couple of people to finish removing the wallpaper and to paint the livingroom and bathroom for me. They came by to get a look at what needs to be done and were supposed to call and give me an estimate. It has been two weeks and no estimate so I am looking for someone else to do that work. I am going to paint the closets myself. In my spare time. Sigh.

Yup, I had better stay on top of things this year. No time for idleness this March.

One Dilemma Solved, But Uh Oh...

When things were winding down after Thanksgiving and son Jason and I returned to Clearwater, we initially put our suitcases near the front door. Since Jason was returning to Hartford very early Monday morning packing was done quickly. However, when I returned from taking Jason to the airport, I discovered a pair of his jeans (brown cords) on the floor. He had evidently forgotten them. Or so I thought...

I have been searching like a mad demon for my best pair of jeans. I knew they needed to be laundered after Thanksgiving weekend, and I have been putting together things for a dark load of laundry. My jeans have been no where to be found. I thought perhaps Jason had packed them by mistake. But my jeans are blue denim, and his jeans are brown cords. His pant legs are a gazillion miles long. How could he possibly have gotten them confused? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks... Was this his way of breaking the news to me gently?

Could son Jason possibly be starting a life of cross-dressing?

I know he has often been fond of putting on hats...


Should I tell someone?

What about his beautiful girlfriend?
Should I tell her? What will she think?

Perhaps he has developed a jealously of her wardrobe
from her pageant days?

What's a mother to do?

He always seemed like a normal guy.

What will his answer be when asked this question...

?

Rant Coming Soon...

Yup

A Dishwasher Can Be A Place Of Danger

Dishwashers can be very useful. You can wash dishes, glasses and silverware in them. They can heat their own water. They will even sanitize and dry your dishes for you, and if you tend to be lazy you can use them to store your dishes. They can do all sorts of wonderful things these days. However, you might be surprised at some of the things that can be found in a dishwasher on any given day.

I read one post recently where someone was talking about chasing roaches in their dishwasher and being freaked out about it. I live in Florida. Seeing a roach scurrying in the dishwasher is seen as a good reason to shut it up and start it running. No more roach. You can always put it on the sanitizing cycle. Other things that I have discovered in my dishwasher have been lizards, mosquitos, June bugs, and on one occasion a sleeping cat...I told you early on that one of my cats is not very bright. Clothes dryers, dishwashers...Scud just views them as either a place with very good smells to investigate or another convenient place to take a nap. One early morning however, something appeared in my dishwasher that I did not ever expect to find.

It was about 8:00 a.m. on a Friday morning. Maria, the maid had already arrived and with rubber gloves and spray cleaner was attempting to clean the children's bathroom. I was wearing a flannel nightgown that was about 2 sizes too big for me. It had teddy bears all over it. My sister had sent it to me for Christmas, and since I needed to do the laundry I had worn it to bed the night before. It is needless to say that my husband was NOT fond of this nightgown. So here we were.

I walked from the livingroom into the kitchen towards the dishwasher and let out a very loud scream. Now, I am NOT a screamer. Maria knew this, so she came running, rubber gloves and spray cleaner in hand. Leaping at me out of my dishwasher was a snake! He (or she) was not at all happy about being caught out in the open. Maria, also not a screamer, and expecting something worse, only let out a gasp. OK, now to be fair, I am not exactly a morning person. Seeing a snake leaping out of my dishwasher at that hour of the morning was just a little bit beyond me!

Having a cooler head than I, Maria (who IS a morning person) quickly took charge. (I don't know, maybe she had had this experience before) She immediately raised her rubber-gloved hand, aimed her spray cleaner and sprayed the snake in its face. It was not happy about this. It decided to try to return to the depths of the dishwasher. Maria would have none of that! She grabbed the last of the retreating snake by the end of its tail and yelled for me to open the front door. Who was I to argue? Maria with the snake in her rubber gloved hand went running out the front door. One would hope that that would be the end of the story... you know, she would throw that snake out the door and that would be it. No such luck.

Maria sprinted out the front door, snake in hand. Just as she was revving up to toss the snake, her foot came down on the tile on the front porch, still covered with morning dew, and slid forward...as did the other foot. In fact, Maria went flying up into the air and came down on her backside which just missed hitting the sharp corner of the front porch. She did scream this time and I gasped. She started shreeking something about the snake, and I kept asking her if she was okay.

Eventually I realized that she thought that she was sitting ON the snake and had no idea of her close call with the tile porch. I was seeing a trip to the emergency room and dollar signs associated with law suits and she was worried about being bitten on the butt by the snake. Eventually I realized she seemed okay and she spotted the snake making a path for the front door to re-enter the house.

The next few moments are a bit hazy to me now, but somehow I ended up with hoe trying to cut the snake up...which of course didn't work. I then had a very heavy axe-sledge hammer combo which I think my youngest son brought to me (probably after me yelling for him to get me something to kill the snake). I had managed to pin the snake down in the grass with the hoe, so once the axe-thingy arrived, I had Maria hold the hoe, and I started to viciously attack the snake.

OK, now you have got to picture this. Maria, with rubber gloves is holding the hoe so that the blade is pressing the snake down into the grass. I am wearing this adorable oversized flannel nightgown with teddybears and am raising the axe-thingy and pounding it down on top of the snake. At this very moment an old man out for his morning walk came ambling down the street in front of our house. Now he saw us, probably couldn't see the snake which was pushed down into the grass, and didn't know whether to pretend that he was not seeing anything at all, or thought that some lunatics were trying some new method of weed removal. I looked up and smiled and went back to my pounding and he kept walking. He did have a strange look on his face. I am sure that I never saw him again. He probably chose another route for his morning walk after that.

Well, the snake was apparently dead. Maria and I were laughing hysterically at this point, and I think my children were hiding in the house. I became aware that I was still standing in the front yard with my nightgown on and ushered Maria and I into the house. I made sure that she was okay and told her to let me know if she had any side effects from her wild ride. She decided to finish early that day. I took a shower and got dressed.

Later that night when my husband got home I told him about the horrific incident. He went outside to see what the demonic creature looked like that had been lurking in our dishwasher. He came back in laughing. It seems that when not in the heat of the moment, so to speak, the snake was actually not that big. He had imagined something at least 5 feet from my description of what we had to do to kill the thing. WELL, it WAS 8:00 in the morning!

In Honor Of My Daughter "The Felon"

You will have to wait to read Random_Speak (see list of favorite links below)when she does a post about her experiences this week with being pulled over for not having her auto registration up to date. She is quite perturbed about the whole thing. But in the meantime, I want to share some simple poetry with you that I have written as her sympathetic mother.

***

There was a young lady named "L"

Who was very smart, you could tell

But alas she could not

And oh she forgot

To remember those things she knew well

***

Driving her car home one day

Little "L" could be heard just to say

My head's in a fog

My brain's in a bog

But I think nothing's due until May!

***

There once was a girl who forgot

Her auto she registered NOT

The police said she failed

And ought to be jailed

And arrested her right on the spot!

*****

Registration

Hesitation
Procrastination

Consternation

No adjudication

Incarceration!

*****

Well that should keep her spirits up, don't you think? ;o)

*

Earlier tonight I had no idea what I was going to write about tonight. I had some drafts and some other ideas, but nothing was really inspiring me. Then I called "L" on the phone and caught her just on her way out of work. I was so sorry to hear her sad story. I reasured her that if the time came I would bail her out of jail. I had tears in my eyes all the way to the computer to take the opportunity to share with you her sad predicament.

THANK YOU "L" FOR BEING MY INSPIRATION TONIGHT!

YOU ARE SUCH A DEAR!

They Just Don't Make Them Like Him Anymore

The female staff at work today were treated to lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant. If you have been following my blog posts, you know that I work at a church. The pastor took the ten of us as a goodbye luncheon for Lynn who is moving on to work with her son in an educational supply store. The pastor is getting ready to retire in a few months, so we did some reminiscing about some of the past pranks and assorted shenanigans that have taken place over the past few years.

Now if you think working at a church would be dull, you are very mistaken. It helps to have a wonderful Irish pastor with a good sense of humor and a Director of Religious Education who just can't help pulling pranks. I will attempt to give you a couple of examples that you will be able to picture in your minds.

OK, here is the cast of characters...

• Director of Religious Education... we'll call her "Mary." It's a Catholic church, so any female over the age of 30 has a 50-50 chance of being named Mary or some form of Mary... like Mary Ann, Mary Ellen, Mary Jane, Mary Lou, Marianne, Maria, etc. Mary is in her late thirties and attractive.
• Young priest in residence... we will call him "Young Father."
• Youth Minister... we will call him "David."
• Rectory housekeeper... we will call her "Marlene."
• Older Irish Pastor... we will call him "Irish Pastor." He will be retiring in June.
• Older Irish Pastor's good buddy who loves a good joke and is always ready to help with a prank or instigate one himself, and is also Irish... we will call him "Fr. Tommy." He is retired and works part-time in the parish.
• Cantankerous Maintenance Man... (do they come any other way?) ... we will call him "Joe."
• Middle-Aged Polish priest... we will call him "Fr. Ed"

Example 1

Mary, who can't help herself, was in the church helping to decorate for an upcoming event. Young Father and David, the Youth Minister, were up in the sanctuary discussing some of the details of the event. Mary had a brilliant idea.

Deciding to take a break from decorating, Mary started to walk up the center aisle of the church towards the Sanctuary. She carried with her a long garland which she had yet to hang in the church. That is when it happened. It just popped into her head without warning. She had a vision of a Dr. Seuss book. Some of you may be familiar with one of his books about someone who wished they had duck feet. The wishes go on to include other body part exchanges including a monkey tail. Are you getting the picture?...Garland and monkey tail?

As Mary proceeded up the aisle towards Young Father and David, she proceeded to lift up the back of her dress and tuck one end of the garland into her underwear. When the garland, now a monkey tail, was secure, she put her dress back into place and continued up the aisle. Her backside was away from the sanctuary so that her exposed underwear could not have been seen from the Sanctuary. As she approached the steps to go up into the sanctuary, Mary tossed her new tail at Young Father and David. She noticed that David was doing his best to stifle his laughter. A glance at Young Father, however, showed a different look. He was almost stone faced, but Mary could tell that Young Father was not happy.

Mary said a few more words and then turned to go back to decorating since Young Father was certainly not appreciating her antics. As she turned around the look on her face turned to one of horror. Near the back of the church in a pew was an elderly man praying. She turned back to David and Young Father, who now had the glimmer of a smile on his face, and asked in a hushed voice if the man had been there the whole time. Affirmation of the elderly man's presence the entire time was given by David, who was now really, really trying to stifle his laughter, as well as by Young Father, who was now almost grinning. Realizing that the elderly man was probably witness to her stuffing the garland into her underwear, Mary did her best, as discreetly as was possile, to remove her monkey tail from her underwear.

Mary knew what she had to do. She walked back down the aisle of the church, being careful not to look at the elderly man, and went out the door of the church. She then walked over to the administration building. Irish Pastor was in his office there. Mary knew that Irish Pastor might get a complaint from the elderly man regarding her exposing herself in church, and it was her responsibility to warn Irish Pastor of that possibility. It would not do to have him taken off guard.

As meekly as she could, Mary stepped into Irish Pastor's office. She did her best to explain her actions and the presence of the elderly man. Irish Pastor sat quietly and listened to what she had to say. Occasionally, he would nod his head. When Mary was done, Irish Pastor sat quietly for a few more moments. He then said, " Well, Mary, maybe now he will come to church more often."

Example 2

Mary, who can't help herself, had another brilliant idea. She had brought to work a child's broken stick horse to see if Joe, the cantankerous maintenance man, could repair it for her. After a few weeks, Mary realized that Joe had no intention of fixing this horse. So now she had a prop. A prop and time on her hands can be a dangerous thing when Mary is involved!

Young Father had been a bit annoying of late. He was going through a stage where he was a little too filled with his own self-importance. This was not to be. We are a fun-loving staff and no one gets away with things like that for long without paying the consequences. Who else to to take on this important mission of instilling priestly humility and bringing back Young Father's sense of humor, but Mary!

Enter the prop... the broken stick horse. Now if you ever saw the Godfather movies, you might remember that a horse's head has some special significance. Mary now had a useless horse head looking for a use. Along came the other chief prankster in the parish Fr. Tommy. Fr. Tommy is known for his visits to Ireland to recharge the Blarney Stone, so he was the perfect co-conspirator for Mary's caper. It took little convincing to get Fr. Tommy to agree to sneak the horse head into Young Father's room and put it under the covers in his bed that evening while Young Father was not there. He couldn't resist this opportunity to harass Young Father who fiercely protected his privacy.

When Mary arrived home later that evening, the message light on her phone was blinking indicating a message. She picked up the phone and listened to the message from her co-conspirator... in serious and hushed tones came... "The deed has been done." Click. Mary went to bed that night thinking she had just scored a great prank and couldn't wait for all of the laughter the next day.

The next morning when Mary arrived at work, she did not find laughter. What she found was a hysterical housekeeper, Marlene, trying to tell one of the priests, Fr. Ed, that she was not responsible for what had happened. The accents were flying. Fr. Ed, being Polish, was trying to make sense out of what Marlene, being Puerto Rican, was saying. Now both of them speak Spanish, but in her excitement, Marlene was trying to do her best in English. Enter Mary.

Now Mary figured out fairly quickly that her prank had backfired, but her first concern was to get Marlene to lower her voice and pronounce her words correctly. Parishioners stopping through the office were wondering what on earth was going on. It seems that Young Father had been accusing first Fr. Ed, and then Marlene of putting the horse head under the covers in his bed. Young Father was angry. Marlene was loudly exclaiming, "I no put de head of de hore in de bed! I no put de hore in de bed!" Fr. Ed was also being adamant about not being responsible. And Mary was trying to explain to Marlene that the word was pronouced "horsssse" and not "hore."

Once again, Mary knew that she would have to hang her head, apologize to Young Father, and when Irish Pastor returned from his trip, meekly step into his office. She, once again, would have to explain what she had done, and warn him that there may be some parishioners indignantly complaining about a whore being in the rectory while he was gone.

When Irish Pastor returned from his trip, Mary attempted her best meek and humble posture, and walked into Irish Pastor's office to explain herself. Fr. Tommy was also there discussing the latest sports news from Ireland appearing on Irish Pastor's computer screen. Fr. Tommy knew what was up and did not say a word. Once again, Irish Pastor sat quietly and on occasion nodded his head. When she was through, Irish Pastor sat quietly for a few moments. "Now Mary, you know, at times you probably should think before you do these things." After a few more calm words, he dismissed her from his office. Seconds after the door was closed, the dam broke and very loud gufaws could be heard coming from the two old Irish chums inside Irish Pastor's office.

They just don't make them like that any more! We are all hopeful that Irish Pastor's replacement will not be too much of a shock to our systems. Mary, especially, hopes that.

Grout is Evil

Recently I have been thinking how nice it would be to update the look of our house by putting in some of the newer ceramic tile. The last time we put in carpeting, my husband wanted to tile the family room, and I said no. Why did I say no? Besides the fact that I can be an idiot at times, I thought about the amount of time the family has spent sitting or laying around the family room floor to watch TV or a movie. I have since graduated from that point of view to the realization that carpeting holds all kinds of dirt, dust, and bugs... no matter how great your vacuum is or how often you vacuum or shampoo your carpeting.

This all sounds reasonable doesn't it? Don't be fooled so easily! I decided it was time to do a really thorough job of cleaning the grout in the bathroom tile floor. Now for many people this would not be an unusual decision. However, I am not a great housekeeper... not a bad one, just not a great one. I can keep up with the usual stuff, but the deep cleaning stuff often goes by the wayside...usually until I decide it is time to decorate for Christmas. I like clean, I just don't like to do clean!

So... I bought some grout cleaner. While sitting on the toilet one night, I decided to see how well it worked... just sprayed the grout in a few square feet. I let it sit for awhile. About twenty minutes later, toothbrush in hand, I was scrubbing the grout I had sprayed. Wow. It was dirtier than I had thought. I now had some very clean lines of grout that made it perfectly clear how dirty the rest of it was. So I sprayed some more and used the toothbrush some more. Later that evening my husband got out of bed to inquire what on earth I was doing scrubbing the bathroom floor at midnight.

I am still working on the grout in that same bathroom. I am almost done. It has been a struggle. When I clean in one area and happen to overlap an area already cleaned, the area of overlap turns out brighter than the areas on either side. So then, of course, I have to go back over the areas that are not as bright! On and on and on and on... If grout could have any kind of a wicked smile, I am sure that my grout is fiendishly sneering at me. It will not let me go!

There are still a few stubborn areas. The bathroom is not small, but it is not that big either. I am trying to picture a whole house full of this stuff. I am trying not to picture what it would take for me to keep it clean and bright. Maybe I will look into hardwood flooring... or a really great maid.

Birthdays, Meeting Life Backwards, and a Midlife Crisis or Two

This past weekend I decided to celebrate my daughter's birthday by doing exactly what I wanted to do. I made this decision when I remembered that I put at least half of the work into her birth-- if no one else appreciated my efforts, I would do what I could to make my day special...as well as hers. I think that all children should be taught to recognize their mother's efforts on the day they formally joined the world. It should be a joint celebration...it's only fair! So, I slept in a bit.

I went with the family to enjoy a delightful brunch in celebration of her big day. After patiently waiting in line for a bit, I got a bit obstinate and decided to just walk up to the buffet table where there was something I wanted to get. None of this line garbage for me! I even went backwards along the table a bit. When it came time for the dessert table I cut in line, selected the very last raspberry tart and sat back down knowing that "no guilt would be felt today!"

I then went with the family to the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Museum and enjoyed the exhibits backwards. I decided that this was entirely the best way to go. Everyone was viewing the exhibits by politely following the person in front of them usually in a counter-clockwise direction, clockwise in some of the rooms. I don't know who decides these things to start. It just seems to happen. Going backwards against the grain so to speak, I would just pop in closer where there was something of interest that required a better look. Those who were pretending to be knowledgable and discussing the finer points of interest of each piece were a bit disturbed, but not too much. I am sure that I found just the right level of annoyance. I am sure that I did not view the exhibit rooms in any kind of order either. It was quite fun. I highly recommend this method.

There was a delightful Pre-Columbian exhibit that greatly amused me. Pre-Columbian artists had no problem with displaying parts of the human anatomy that distinguished males and females... usually in exaggerated proportions. So I found it humorous that the signage for the statues, etc. would state "male figure" or "female figure" at the beginning of the description of each piece when any idiot could figure that part out for themselves.

Monet was supposed to be the highlight of the museum, but I found that the pieces displayed were not what I expected. Evidently some of his better and more striking works were not included in this selection of his work. I did see some wonderful paintings and other artwork though, and with a trip to the gift shop at the end, it was well worth the trip. I got a cute mouse book for the g'kids and a fabulous pair of earrings for myself to celebrate my big day.

The birthday girl has decided to have her first midlife crisis. Somehow though, she got the mistaken impression that she could only have one! She has some good ideas, but her options are a bit overboard. She seems to think she must "do it all" as this is her only chance. I shall have to correct that misconception. After all, there is a reason that "midlife" is such an inocuous word. It allows for a broad range of interpretation. I simply do not know where I went wrong. Somwhere along the way I missed including this important life lesson. She did start correctly by making the decision, so I will just have to bring her up to speed. One must savor every delightful moment of a good midlife crisis. Also, I do need to inquire how long she plans for this one to last.

I am so proud of this eldest child of mine. She is such a unique individual and has decided to embrace her first midlife crisis with gusto! You go girl! Make it your own, make it unique, make it fun, and make it last! Make your Mum proud! And when you are done, we'll have a good game of Scrabble and a nice cup of tea.