Random Tuesday Thoughts

Hello? Hello? Where am I? I think I forgot how to get here, or there, or anywhere.... What?

I am back again. I thought Random Tuesday would be a good place to begin. Go on over to The Unmom and check out everyone else's randomness too.

I, uh, well, I really don't know where to start. I'm sorry seems like a good place. I have abandoned my blog here for the last couple of weeks. And for no good reason. Mostly I have been very easily distracted and unfocused. I am going to start working on that. Let me share a couple of stories to give you my frame of mind these past couple of weeks:

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my tub was not really draining very well. Now, I have had issues with this house's plumbing pretty much since I moved in. Usually not too major, and never with the tub. But it was draining slow. I left it alone for about a week. Then a week ago, I went to Walmart and got a couple of buckets from their bakery. I took them home and washed them out. Those things are great for storing anything and everything. And best of all they were free. Any way I digress, again. Washing the tubs out, yes that's where I was. I washed them out and dumped the water. It did not drain. I left it alone for a bit and it did eventually drain completely. I took a shower and noticed that I don't use nearly the water for a shower as I would have run for a bath even for a small child. Decided to hardly ever take a bath again, only showers. Not that this has anything to do with the tub draining, or not draining as the case may be. I had to soak the free tubs with some baking soda and vinegar to get rid of the icing smell completely. While I was at it I decided to soak the garbage cans too. I went in to dump the cans and nothing drained. I came back a little later, and nothing had drained. I tried plunging and nothing drained. Next day after work, I bought some draino at the dollar store, except it was more than a dollar. Why do they call it a dollar store if everything is more than a dollar? I poured in the drain cleaner when I got home. I waited about 30 minutes and went back to check still no draining. I ran hot water like the directions said to. No draining. I poured more in since the directions said to repeat if necessary. 30 minutes later, still had not drained. This is where I started to ignore the directions. I started plunging even though the directions said not too. At this point I am wondering if my cats stuffed a mouse carcass down the drain to save for later. No draining. So I gather my courage and stick my bare hand down the drain. Now I know that I should have used a glove since there was so much drain cleaner in there, but how was I supposed to feel anything? Yeah, I felt something all right. The drain plug. I had apparently knocked the little lever while cleaning the tub originally and finished knocking it closed while cleaning the buckets. I opened the drain. It drained. No mouse, no clog, not even slow....Whoosh, all the water when right down.....

Wow.

The next episode of pure genius occured this weekend. I was playing tennis with my son at the park. He really is not that great (neither am I) and likes to hit the ball as hard as he can. Right out of the courts, over the fence. And right towards the pond. Fortunately it hit a rock and did not become a floater. Time to go. We load into the new to me minivan (which has been great by the way). I turn the car on, and yes! that air feels great. We were both really hot and sweaty. I put the car in reverse, take my foot off the brake, hit the gas and we start to roll --forward. I slam on the brakes and put it back in park. I try to put it in reverse again. We roll forward. I am getting really scared at this point as it is time to take S back to his dad's. My car has to go. So, I open the door and step out of the car, and realize, are you ready for this? It was not on. Nope, the van was not running. I could not tell because the fan was running on high and I could not tell that it was not on. I turn the key and start the car. What do you know?! It went into gear. Yeah.

So there is the randomness of my life for the past couple of weeks. Want some more? If not then you can stop reading now. I have more though. I'm sorry again. If you are one of those people that has to read until the end and you want to move along, here you go: The End.

I took my cat in to the vet's office for her surgery for her skin cancer. It is the kind that does not spread (I can't remember today what that is called-I swear I am brain dead lately), it just affects the cells it is in. They grow, I get them cut off. She is high for a few days. This time they did blood work first, with my permission of course, and discovered that her red blood cell count was low. They could still do the surgery, just had to twilight sleep her and inject some pain meds. She was great, she was not high, and shortly after I got home she was back to her normal self. I took her in early this morning before work to get the stitches out. Poor baby does not like being in a cage at all. She kept trying to bite the carrier door. At one point I stuck my hand in front of her face hoping to stop her from chewing on the bars and breaking a tooth. Yup, she bit me. It hurt, but that was better than her breaking a tooth.

Our county is preparing for the H1N1 virus. It is kind of scary some of the things they are talking about implementing if the virus spreads too much here. I am really hoping that it avoids our area all together. I doubt it though as the college in the town next to us has already had 5 confirmed cases. No deaths, just students with the flu. Me, I think it's just the flu, some will get it, some will get it and die, some will not get it at all. It happens with the flu virus that hits every year. Why is this one so different? Get over it. We don't freak out when 1/3 of our county has the "regular" flu. I am concerned that it will affect my visits with my son if they "discourage" travelling. The interstate runs right through the middle of our county though. I am not really sure how they would do that any way. Besides, I live about 2 miles from the state line. I will just go out the back road and be on my way. (politics-warning!) Personally I think the "big scare" is to help the awful and dreaded health care reform get movement to be passed.

It has been really cool here for the past few days. I got up yesterday and today and it was only 60 degrees in my house. The warmest it got all day yesterday was about 64 degrees. It is a bit chilly in my house during this season. I would say time of year, but this is the first time it has happened this early. Usually it is still hot outside right now. Homemade potato soup sounds really good for tonight. Good thing I bought potatoes last night and stocked up on evaporated milk when it was on sale! Way to go stocking up!

I finally got rid of the fleas. I can't remember if I posted about my war on fleas, but it has been an ugly battle that I finally won! I sprinkled Sevin Dust all over my entire house. I did NOT put any on the cats, but sprinkled all non living things in my house liberally. This was after treating the cats, spraying the house and bombing/fogging the house. I have not seen any fleas since last Thursday. I will begin cleaning up every scrap and sprinkle of dust tonight. Time for the fall house cleaning anyway. Gotta get everything nice and clean to close the house up for the winter. I don't much care for spring cleaning, but I do love a good fall cleaning to get me in the mood to keep the windows shut and start burning those wonderful, good smelling candles. And now I can start baking without melting from the heat.

Gotta love fall. Crisp leaves. Beautiful colors. I am fall coloring by the way. I love the smell of the leaves burning after raking them up. I love a good campfire, or just a fire in the fire pit or the little fire table thingy I have on my patio. Yup, good times.

So, how have you been? How is life treating? Assuming of course you are still here reading....

Wow, My Weekend and Some Rambling

That is all I can say about my weekend. I was home this weekend. I did not go visit my son for the weekend. I went last weekend for just Sunday. Then I also went to see him on Thursday for a few hours for his birthday. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with presents and brownies. He does not like cake, only the icing. So, we had brownies. It is all a chocolate-y goodness, so makes no difference to me. We had a blast. We pretty much just played all day.

Then I think Thursday was my undoing. I totally enjoyed my time with my son. I saved a couple of cards and one present for his actual birthday. We went to the river and the park to play as well. Of course I had to drop him off after just a couple of hours and it was really sad. Not enough time. He did tell me I was the first to sing him Happy Birthday on his birthday, and he said it with the sweetest little smile. Then as I was dropping him off, he said he liked the big van better than all the different cars I've been driving (two rentals and my moms explorer). When I asked why he had the funniest answer. Because the big van has two side doors that open and he feels like a king when we open both doors to let him out. In all the cars, there is just one door and he's just a regular kid. I laughed a lot at that one. I may have to get another full size van to replace my old one just to make my kid feel like a king again!

I also sold the camper (I hope). I am waiting on the title to arrive to my house. A couple came and looked at it on Sunday and said consider it sold, call them when the title comes in and they will come and get it. I was doing the happy dance for hours. I thought I would never sell it. At least for what I wanted to get out of it. I am actually getting more than I paid for it, but not more than I spent on it. I will recoup everything I have had out of pocket from it. That is super news, and more money to put towards the hearing and the court costs if they are soon or a new car if it is going to be months before we get to court.

Back to the undoing. When I had to leave S this past Thursday, it was all I could do to hold my tears in. I am not usually happy to drop him off, but am pretty good at keeping my emotions in check. I think it was kind of a combination of two short visits in a row followed by his birthday. He just keeps getting older, and he is still not home. This is really hard. I am really tired of waiting. I think that it is part of the bad guy team plan (my ex and his atty). Part of MSBP is that the mom's start to get more emotional and stressed the longer it takes to get their children back. Oh, yes cause all mom's would start to relax and get calmer as the time passes without their kids. (can you see the sarcasm dripping off that comment?) Craziness I tell you. I think they are hoping that I go nuts and start raving like a lunatic if they keep dragging it out and make it so they are not available to get dates and times set up. Nope, I will just calmly rip him a new one the first chance I get. Hopefully right after court....Right after the court (hopefully-keeping my fingers crossed) terminates all his rights.

Anyway, I think I am sad about my son getting older and I am missing it. Yes, I realize I do get to see him. But I am missing the day to day things. The discoveries, the playing, the interacting with the pets and other children. The interacting with me. Even the arguing. So I came home from my visit and decided this weekend was as good as any to start getting the house cleaned up. I actually plug in the tv and put in a movie. Now I do not have any new movies. All my movies are either about 10 years old (or older) or Disney movies. I just put it on in the background and by the end of the movie, I had been crying for at least four different scenes and through the whole ending. Not just the sad stuff, at all the mushy stuff and happy stuff too. So I watched a different movie with the same results. The second movie, BTW, was Harry Potter, the first one-Sorcerer's Stone- and has absolutely no reason to cry. At least it did not used to have any reason to cry for me in the past. I got done cleaning in the front half of my house and moved on to the kitchen. I plugged in the tv/vcr combo. I just needed the noise, and usually I don't need that either. I was just weird all weekend. I watched Homeward Bound. That movie is from ages ago, and I have watched it a billion times, I know all the animals make it home. Instead at the point you think one of the dogs is going to die, I cried for the whole rest of the movie, right through the end where he lives and makes it home. I'm talking sobbing, nose running and all.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really do wish I knew exactly what is going on with me this weekend. I am feeling better today, albeit catty. I am not really sure what is wrong with that though. Sometimes a gal just needs to be catty and let it all out. I just don't know if I had been holding it all in for too long, and it burst out, or if I am just lonely, or if I am just stressed because I don't like my job, I don't like my ex, and I want my kid back. I am just confused. But at least this week I know which day it is! :)

Here is a pic of us on his birthday, when he did not feel like a king, but did feel special that I sang Happy Birthday to him. Me with my shiny face and S playing his new DS game.

Thursday's Edition of What to Cook Wednesday

Apparently, I am really confused. I thought all day yesterday that it was Thursday. Soooo, I posted my Thursday post. So today, I will post my Wednesday post. This whole long weekend and day off thing is really messing with my head, especially after missing some days last week. I just don't know what day it is!



Without further ado: What to Cook Wednesday:



If you are like me, you still have oodles of potatoes left over from the sales a while back. I may never get through them all. So how about some potato salad?

I use whatever potatoes I have. If I am using the red potatoes I often leave the skin on for a pretty color contrast in the salad. I peel the brown ones.

6-8 potatoes
3-4 hard boiled eggs
celery
onion
mayo
mustard

Boil the potatoes until mostly done. You do not want them to be too soft or they won't hold their shape. When they are cool enough to handle cut them up into cubes. Dice up the hard boiled eggs. Take one celery stalk and dice it up or just slice into thin slices. How much onion you use will depend on whether it is a sweet onion or not and how much your family likes onion. I try to use sweet onions, and then will use about half or just a bit more but we like onions. Dice the onion. Throw in a bit of mustard, I use around 1 1/2 teaspoons. Then add the mayo. I just use a big tablespoon (not a measuring spoon though) and dump two in. Mix it up. It should be a creamy texture. If it seems too dry, just add a little bit more mayo. When you are done you should have a bowl of creamy yellowish-white potato salad.
I like to use the red potatoes, red(purple) onions, and the celery because then you have a wonderfully colorful salad.

Now someone enroll me in kindergarten so I can learn which day is which!