…there’s no chimney.
What a difference five years can make!
2004 – it hurts my eyes to look at that brick porch:
2009 – uh, minus chimney:
More pictures later!
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NP: Lark Rising to Candleford and the fan. Hey! That’s Jackie from Doctor Who!!
Where’s Sophie? Sacked out on the floor…odd.
A very good reason to teach your dog to respond to:
“Drop it!” or
“Treat!”
I was getting a plastic bag out of the cloth bag we keep in the pantry.
The nail that was holding it CAME OUT OF THE WALL!!!
Guess who was on that nail in an INSTANT?!
Off she went to the other end of the room – thinking she had quite a prize and I was thinking I’d have to call the ambulance.
“Sophie! Drop it!”
She did, but went right back to the nail.
“Treat?!”
And of course my highly-motivated-by-food dog came a running to me. I threw the treat one way and went after the nail in the other.
My lunch times are sooo exciting.
******
Then this evening: We let Soph go cracker dog in the living room — she was having such a good time. Then I had the thought that she hadn’t been to the bathroom for a while…
“Hey, Soph! You need to go piddle? Hmmm? Go piddle?”
What a good dog!
She piddled by the front door…not the Proper Piddle Place.
I have heard that Cairns can be taught to piddle on cue.
Never thought I’d have one.
****************************************************************************************************************
NP: Fringe. Walter you are something else!
Where’s Sophie? Back in the dining room. Poor thing.
Latest bemoaning: David Tennant officially announcing he will be stepping down as the good Doctor. Plus I’ve been having Doctor Who separation anxiety.
Have a bit of time whilst Sophie tears into Benny Da Bull — already minus his tail and one horn — so I present to you:
Four jobs I have had:
Four movies I can watch over and over:
Four TV shows I like:
Four Netflix rentals:
(subject to weather conditions and hormonal upheavals and Time Of Day…)
Five snacks I love:
Five things on my to do list:
Five jobs I have had:
Five random facts:
Five road songs to turn on loud:
My head hurts. My budget software is not accepting my corrections to a silly error I made. I should not be trying to balance the checkbook/bank statement/software on a Sunday night.
But on the bright side of things, I just heard one of my favorite quotes from Doctor Who:
The Doctor: The thing is, Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris. You can’t just read the guidebook, you’ve got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers… or is that just me? “The Long Game”, Season 1 New Doctor Who
OH!OH!OH! And this is the episode with Anna Maxwell-Martin who played Esther on the 2005 version of Bleak House.
See what happens when I speculate that dry rot is attacking H’s patio door?
In exchange I get a quick tutorial on “how to post bigger pictures in my blog”! Isn’t this sunflower just the prettiest thing?
Yep, I am still stumbling fitfully with all the techno stuff that creates this blog, but I now know dry rot when I see it.
Oh, never mind … you would’ve had to have been here.
…a smile if you eat all your sprouts. <paraphrasing Polly in the first episode of Fawlty Towers>
Fortunately Basil Fawlty is not typing up my July 4th menu…
And so far it’s just DH, J, H and me, but we could possibly have a couple guests.
I had thought about getting some of this made ahead of time — but only got as far as the dip — hidden valley ranch and sour cream — how hard is that? The rest of it isn’t really hard either, just time consuming. At least if I wait until tomorrow, I’ll only have to do one major clean up of the kitchen.
…and of course, the weatherman has put rain in the forecast at the time one of us will be grilling out. Guess plan B will be the broiler. It won’t matter — if we are inside a lot maybe we’ll do a Doctor Who marathon — or maybe a Fawlty Towers one. Probably would be for the best if the girls decide. J may bring some of her movies along — her collection is huge.
In a Kiefer Sutherlandish voiceover…
Previously on “Women at Work”…
Southern Cousin: Sigh!
Mumsflowers: What’s wrong?
Southern Cousin: I was thinking it was Wednesday… but it’s only Tuesday…
Mumsflowers: Uh huh… long day already, huh?
Southern Cousin: Sigh!
Then later in the afternoon…
Southern Cousin: Now tell me…today is Tuesday right?
Mumsflowers: Tuesday it is.
Southern Cousin: Not Wednesday? Tuesday?
Mumsflowers: (mischievously) Yep…it’s “Tuesday Afternoon” (hums)
Southern Cousin: (with glint in her eye) Ah yes, “Tuesday afternoon”…
Mumsflowers: Yep… and it seems time travel is not all it’s cracked up to be…
Southern Cousin: Hmmmm?
Mumsflowers: Yeah… there is something in nature that disallows it…
Southern Cousin: Disallows?! (walks off) I’ve been disallowed!!!?
As you can see, there might have been a bit too much inside stuff going on in that conversation…but it’s how we get through our day.
Lots of times Southern Cousin and I get our kicks from quoting Moody Blues bits to each other — usually when one of or both of us are in the most trying or silliest of work circumstances — either that, or we resort to Gone with the Wind quotes. (“Oh Miz Scarlett, I don’t know nuthin’ about birthin’ no babies” had quite a ride, if I recall…)
Southern Cousin’s got the memory’s edge on me on both counts, but it sure is fun to see how long we can keep it up.
…and I surely wish it was.
Those of you familiar with BBC’s Doctor Who series know that the good Doctor travels through space and time in his TARDIS. While a TARDIS can assume the appearance of all sorts of objects, it is presently stuck in the shape of a British police box.
One of the features of the TARDIS is that no matter its appearance, it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Just open the door and take a look around — it has several rooms, several floors, at least one swimming pool…
And a lot of storage — I just know it!!
My home is not a TARDIS. It is a 1940s Cape Cod and convenient first floor storage is rather sparse. It doesn’t help that we just have too much stuff.
Over at The Christian Homekeeper, I discovered a post on how to clean a closet. Now maybe you think this task should be a no-brainer, but I sure appreciated Sylvia’s step by step instruction. I was inspired. So this morning — early — I took advantage of having the house to myself and tore into our small and stuffed-full bedroom closet while DH attended a meeting.
Winter clothes, summer clothes — now why are they still in there?! — pillows, boxes, several income tax binders, back massager, shoes, boots, sandals, shoe shelves, Great-grandma’s purse, bags of crochet thread, bookkeeping notes, assorted dufflebags, neck ties, US Cellular sack with recharger cord still in it (!), a large Christmas bag with empty Christmas boxes — all of it — was dragged off to various spots in the bedroom, then hallway, then living room.
Sort those clothes, pitch that junk, sort those clothes again, put shoe shelves next to dresser and fill it with shoes — and above all else, keep the closet for clothes only.
So what do I do with everything else?…hey, while I am at it, let’s see what space will be available in the hall closet if I rearrange it…
More stuff came out of the hallway closet and shuffled its way into the living room — sheets, afghans, blankets, violin, cleaning supplies, storage rack, more Christmas sacks… I also had a box of pictures in that closet, along with a box of the the girls’ baby albums and baby books and a box containing pictures and items that belonged to my grandmothers.
Now I love old pictures and didn’t even try to resist looking through them. That took some time. When I was done I had three totes full — too full to comfortably lift, so I stacked them and slid them into the closet. The totes took up too much room. And I was losing steam. I never should have sat down.
I still had to get the bedroom closet and now the hallway closet organized. I looked at the situation and shook my head. What happened? I read Sylvia’s instructions again, “What doesn’t belong? Get it stored and organized and placed where it truly belongs in the house. This may mean that you have to organize other areas of your home. It may mean that you need a big-time decluttering in your home. (emphasis mine) Take it one area at a time, relax, no one is timing you.”
It appears that the big-time decluttering is all that stands between me and getting more room in the bedroom closet…sigh!
Oh well. I made a dent in my Saturday project, but I’m afraid I had to shove a few non-clothes items back in the closet…and I am still not satisfied with the hallway closet configuration… but the sheets, afghans and blankets made it upstairs into the chest of drawers and the summer clothes were put in another closet that needs cleaned out…oh bother!…but that will be another day.
To his credit, DH stayed out of the way and even as I type, has a pot of his beef barley soup simmering on the stove. Life is good…
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