In Favor of a Four Day Work Week
Why can't every weekend be a three-day weekend? With my husband at home three days we can waste a whole day napping and being lazy and still accomplish a large amount. I knit some and spun some (more on that later in the week). I even managed to write half of our thank you cards from the wedding (life has really gotten away from us and we need to get them out as soon as possible before we come up on our one year anniversary.) I also settled on a plan for our anniversary tattoos (sorry Mom, I'm not done yet.) You'll all be relieved to known that sad plans do not involve getting each other's names emblazoned on our buttchecks (or anywhere else for that matter!)
In addition, my husband ran two big loads of dishes in the dishwasher and we hauled out an old, giant coffee table loading it in the wonder-car (because it holds far more than one would expect) and taking it off to Goodwill. We also made two trips to Home Depot during which we procured a variety of items including a "deck brush" and a sidewalk scraper. Let me tell you, that sidewalk scraper is worth its weight in gold. Why, you ask? Because it eliminates a lot of painful scrubbing and saves much time in the eradication of moss.
Moss is one of the downsides of living in the Pacific Northwest. Because whomever designed our apartment building was not thinking, our balcony extends approximately one foot beyond the roof edge. We have the misfortune of living right next to a downspout. Because the rain here frequently comes down in sheets, the gutters quickly back up overflowing gallons of water onto the balcony. This, in combination with the overhanging tree that drops organic matter at an alarming rate make our balcony a prime spot for moss to grow. And grow it does. This weekend we've taken step one in regaining that space, scraping the moss off and sweeping up as much dirt and debris as possible. From there we swabbed a mixture of bleach, water and an eense of dish soap onto the worst of the growth and left it to stand. With luck things will dry out and I can get back out there to sweep again before vacuuming and a final mopping. Ideally soon, as we're hosting a party here next weekend that includes using that space to grill.
To wrap up our weekend, we also spent some time doing our least favorite of chores. The can return. As we have no returned cans or bottles in over a year, there were a lot out there. We took a car load, totaling just over 800 bottles ($40.40 at 5ยข a can), leaving us with filthy, sticky hands. The remaining? Well, we've decided to forgo collecting the deposit and are leaving them in the recycling, in hopes that someone homeless will pull them out and have a good meal. It goes against my nature to "throw away money I've already paid" but I just don't have the patience for feeding another car load of bottles into the reverse vending machines next weekend.
Willamette Valley Music Fest
This post is for the locals. This weekend, May 17-18 is the Willamette Valley Music Fest. In its 38th year, Music Fest features over 30 bands on two stages, an art expo, food vendors and beer and wine concessions. Sponsored by the UO Cultural Forum it is free to everyone! There's a wide variety of music from indie rock to bluegrass, from folk to reggae.
It should be a really warm weekend, and sunny, so folks should wear sunscreen and plan to drink lots and lots of water. TheBoy and I will be there for part of the weekend (I'm not sure which part yet). I'll be running around with my camera, likely getting sunburnt through my SPF 85. If you're local, come out and enjoy some good music. You can find all the pertinent information on the website, and there'll be an insert in this week's Weekly if you want to see it all printed out on paper.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have no financial interest in the WVMF, but I am connected to the Cultural Forum.
Cat!
Ever since our encounter with the stray cat at Nanie's house last October, my husband and I have been talking on and off about getting a cat. We really want a dog, but our current circumstances are not amenable to that. Last Thursday, a small, sad black cat showed up at our door. He cried and pushed his way in as TheBoy left for work in the morning. He stayed there, pressed up against the door until the afternoon, crying intermittently. Not able to stand his suffering, I brought him in and shut him in the bathroom and headed to talk to the apartment manager to see if they might keep a record of who owned what cats in the complex. No such luck.
This left us with a dilemma. Pay the pet deposit and keep the cat, while looking for the rightful owner? Take the cat to the shelter? Shoo the cat away and hope he didn't make it out to our very busy street? We opted for the first option and, I admit, to our chagrin, his owner was found before dinner time. However, we were determined that now was the time to adopt a cat. And so we did.
Friday, TheBoy left work early to go and visit the humane society (Greenhill) and spent some time in the Cattery. What a trip that place was! A large open room full of toys and cat trees and cats everywhere! There are also ancillary rooms that hold more specific types of cats ranging from new arrivals to the elderly and from kittens to special needs cats. We wandered around, petting cats and trying to gauge their interest in us. Not much from most of them. So we set about the ancillary rooms. In the second room we found our new girl. White, medium length hair and with grey tabby spots, she began purring immediately and reached out to touch us. That was all it took, we were sold. We took care of the paperwork and now, she's ours!
Introducing Pica (pee-ka, which is after the unit of measurement in typography. Admittedly, we're pronouncing it wrong, but she responded more to it as pee-ka than the correct pie-ka.)
We took her in for her free wellness check-up on Monday where she got her rabies vaccine. All is well with our little girl and we are spending much time playing with and loving on her.
After the Hiatus; a Meme
Been too busy and caught up in life to post, but here's a meme I swiped from rachel m.
The Rules:
- When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog:
rachel m
- Post the rules on your blog
- Write 7 things about yourself
- Tag 7 of your favorite bloggers.
Hmmm. Seven things...
1. I only like to drink water if it's very cold.
2. I never cease to be amazed how different my sisters and I are from each other.
3. I like to play video games but I am terrible at them.
4. I love crossword puzzles.
5. I hate mayonnaise, unless it is very garlic-y or full of dill and pickles (tartar sauce)
6. It is a rare day when I don't use Adobe Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop. Illustrator and InDesign are two of my best friends.
7. I am teaching myself CSS, very slowly.
I tag:
anyone who wants to be tagged!