Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Potpourri

(1) I am really tired. Well now, that's original. It qualifies as an ingredient in a "potpourri"? Like I know potpourri. I would probably think it was exfolliant and try to scrub my back with it in the bathtub if I ever came in contact with any. Or grind it up and use it to season a loaf of bread. Who knows? I'm tired, and I am not a crafty girl.

(2) There are crafty girls and crafty girls. As in, there are girls with designs on things who use wit and cleverness to achieve their goals. I am not one of these. I do have control issues, but they are ALL (I am not lying) beyond me. As in, I have given up. I used to control things. I got anorexia nervosa when I was 15-16-17, and dropped from 125 to 95 pounds. It was kinda fun. My dad told me I was starving my BRAIN cells, so I started eating again. I controlled my anorexia, for goodness sake. I could controal anything. Until I got married and had kids. Now I can't control anything. I tried to alphabetize my spices. I put the sweet ones (cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, cardamom...) on the upper shelf and the rest on the lower shelf. But the lower shelf only fit up to about P, so the tarragon is next to the cinnamon and the cake sprinkles. Anyway, the oregano and the ground mustard and the cumin are all mixed up on their shelf now anyway. And I can't even blame it on anyone else, becasue I am the only one who uses spices.

If I don't fit the controlling definition of a crafty girl, then I certainly do not fit the literal image--a sweet faced thing who likes to knit and stencil. Oh, I have knitted and I have stenciled. I can do these things. I just don't. Not sure why. I guess I have enough mess without a bunch of craft projects around. My favorite part of a craft project is when you clean it up and throw the extra stuff all away. Which I never do. I still have craft stuff from projects I started eleven years ago. In drawers. This is why I don't craft anymore. There are no more drawers left.

(3) Sorry about the birth certificate stuff concerning Obama in my post a week ago. There really was a lawsuit by a real-live person from, I believe, Pennsylvania (but I am probably wrong about the state). Anyway, it was old news and debunked by the time I wrote about it, but I will leave the post up anyway so I can be properly shamed and punished for writing it in the first place. I was feeling sensitive because we had some crummy birth certificate experiences when we tried to get Laura's driver's permit. Actually, it was more a problem of social security cards than birth certificates, but it's all government document nonsense, and I was ticked to think that Obama might have an easier time of it than we did.

(4) Pet peeve. I hate it when, after dinner, I am at the sink scrubbing the cooking pans and packing away the leftovers in plastic containers, and the rest of the family CLEARS THEIR OWN DISHES from the table and GOES TO WATCH TV, while conspicuously leaving MY dishes at my place as if to say, "Ha ha Mom. You didn't even clear your dishes!" Never mind the fact that I made the food. Never mind the fact that I am washing all the really bad cooking utensils. By. my. self. Never mind that I have been clearing dishes for them ever since 1990, and probably cleared their snack dishes earlier that very day, just so I could set the table for supper. No. There sit my dishes, and the rest of them have the audacity to feel jusitified in judging me for it. I have a problem with this. I wonder if I have PMS or something. My blood pressure is rising right now, and it hasn't even happened yet today.

(5) Argh. I have to vote today. Can I say that I am sick to death of this election? We have a moderate Republican and a radical left-wing extremist Democrat, and somehow the radical extremist is predicted to win. This makes no sense. There isn't even a conservative candidate to choose from. I have a choice of voting for John McCain or voting for someone who will make this country communist, chase the rich out with a broom and tax the middle class into oblivion while bankrupting companies and destroying jobs, advancing abortion rights and redefining marriage to mean any perverse thing a person wants it to mean. He will strip us of our religious liberties, and probably advance pornography in the process (although the feminists used to be against pornography... is there any hope that while he is curtailing freedom of speech, Obama would also go after the the pornographic realm?). Anyhow, I will probably vote for McCain. Because it seems the most responsible thing to do. I toy with writing in a true conservative, but I don't know any that I like. Huckabee? In New York, the vote virtually always goes to the Democrats, no matter what, so it might not hurt anything to write in Huckabee. On the other hand, if I really want to see God act, I ought to take the whole thing more seriously than I want to. I am so sick of it all. Blech. If politics didn't affect my life, I would be very happy to entirely ignore them.

(6) Our stove is supposed to get fixed today. Really, it was supposed to be fixed tomorrow, but they called and said they were coming today, so here I am waiting for them, even though I had errands to do. And they are not here. It is a gas stove and one of the burner controls is out of control. It sparks and sounds like it is trying to light even when you don't touch it, and always if you brush or bump it lightly. Then you can't make it stop snapping. It is rather alarming, and we thought it would be a good thing to fix before the whole thing blows up. I am not upset--at all--that they are coming a day early. I just wish they would come.

(7) Lastly, here is a picture to brighten your day. I was trying to take an action shot of Schubert running through our kitchen. As you can see, I missed him. I have a number of pictures that look just like this, because I miss him every time. He is a fast moving dog.

3 comments:

Hope T. said...

Wow, your kitchen floor is so clean! Four kids and a dog and a clean floor - that must be why you are tired and why you don't feel like doing craft projects.

ruth said...

You just can't see the dust in the corners. Notice how the rug that is supposed to be under the sink is crooked? That is the sign of a dog at play. The floor is smooth, and the dust and crumbs get pushed to the edges and under the crossbar under our table, which would be on the right, if the picture were bigger. I very rarely clean the floor. My oldest daughter washes it about once a month. My husband vacuums it when it bugs him. I sweep when I see something.

Actually, I think dogs help a lot with crumbs. Before dogs, and when my kids were smaller, I swept the floor three times a day, or more. Now I seriously only sweep if the dogs track in a bunch of fallen leaves or something.

Our dogs are a WONDERFUL breed that doesn't shed. However, I swear they work as dustmops when they scurry through a room. Also, they eat any food that falls, which is great.

I do spend a lot of time wiping their feet off when they come in from outside.

Shannon said...

I wash it more than once a month. I wash it much more often than that when I'm not in school.

ALSO I don't watch TV except for House, so usually I clear my dishes and leave to go do homework. Not justified, but at least less of a seven-deadly-sins level offense.