Whatever Lord!

In a great example of "when it rains it pours" literally, yesterday my car started acting really strange again and we had to take it to the mechanic to be looked at. We think it might be the transmission again, which luckily is under warranty.

Then as if my not having a car wasn't enough of a sacrifice for today, last night as mrangelmeg was changing the air filter on the heat pump something went wrong and it isn't working at all. We called the repair guys but they can't get here until tomorrow to look at it, so I am without air conditioning or a car.

But God is good, all the time. Instead of being impossibly hot today it is going to be stormy all day, so we should be cool in the house so long as we don't bake cookies or use the dryer or produce too much excess heat. And my son has the day off, so I can use his car for my errands.

I pray that both repairs will be easy, inexpensive and quick. Hey, it could happen!

Pax

I Thought It Was So Perfect . . .

Last week I got a new purse. I got it for free actually because I took the angelbaby to get a new outfit for her graduation from elementary school from Kohl's and got Kohl's Cash in exchange which had to be spent at Kohl's, but was like getting the purse for free because I used the Kohl's cash to pay for the purse so it didn't cost me anything extra.

I brought the purse home, a cute little Daisy Fuentes bag with only one pocket and a snap in the front. I am determined to only carry the absolute essentials in this bag so I wanted a very small purse to keep me from carrying anything I didn't absolutely need.

after a week, I still really like my purse, but the essentials just barely fit, and there is no room to spare at all. Every time I take something out or put something back I have to rearrange everything to get it closed, and I have to hang my keys on the outside with a carabiner (which I intended to do anyway for short periods, but meant to be able to put them away for longer stretches of time).

The other obvious flaw I have found is that there is no cell phone pocket. I have to wedge my cell phone into a small space between my little journal I carry and my billfold and when I get a call I have to open my purse and extract the phone to answer a call. That is really too bad.

Oh well, I should know better by now. I have written about this phenomenon before . I just hope I can live with the flaws long enough to justify having this purse even though it didn't cost me anything because I really don't think mrangelmeg will like my going off to buy a new purse in a week or two with the excuse that I didn't pay for this one. He doesn't understand how Kohl's cash works, because to him I had to pay $150 dollars (what I spent on the angelbaby's clothes) to get the "free" purse, but what does he know.

Pax

Uncluttering

So I decided to unclutter my workspace today. I am hoping that if I unclutter my workspace it might unclutter my thinking by default.




Okay, now that the laughing has died down I will continue.


Seriously, my desk is in the bedroom and because of the space crunch there is only a minimal distance between the edge of the desk and the edge of the bed on my side. When I get up in the middle of the night, as I have been known to do because of insomnia, I take my life into my hands just trying to navigate around the bed to the door of the bedroom or the bathroom.

So I started with all the accumulation of pillows and blankets (and assorted other things I have managed to shove into my corner of the bedroom, and then worked toward the desk. Now I am working on the desktop. I am really pleased with how merciless I am being with myself in terms of what I "need to keep" on my desktop and what I can either put away somewhere else or what I can just toss out all together.

Next I am going to work on clearing out the boxes I have stuffed into our closet in the thought that I would get around to them "soon". I have a box of pictures that need to be scanned into the computer that aren't going to get scanned in the next four or five months, so they can go somewhere else. I have a box of stuff from my office which I had stashed away below my clothes but moved when I set up my yarn stash last fall. Then there are three suitcases (we have traveled a bit recently, so maybe we should find a way to store those in the closet. . . nah the laundry room is close enough, just been too lazy to drag them downstairs. After that I will just have to organize my shoes and pick up a little garbage off the floor and the closet will be clean.

If after all that organizing my thoughts aren't less cluttered I will at least have a nice clean bedroom, and fewer bruises on my shins. Better get back to work before I lose my nerve.

Pax

No Power Monday

Ike blew through our town yesterday bringing winds in excess of 60 miles per hour and wreaking havoc on the trees and power lines. There were power outages everywhere. The paper said that 30,000 people were without power for at least part of the day Sunday.

We have been without power since 5:00 p.m. with no restoration in sight, and according to the news in the morning paper it may take days for them to restore power to our rural cooperative area. Days without power. I am just repeating that so that it will sink in. Mrangelmeg was lucky, he went into work yesterday afternoon and he is at work today and will be staying late tonight where he has light and access to the Internet.

I on the other hand had to take my computer to a coffee shop just to access the Internet, check email and complete my paper which is due tomorrow. I did most of the work on it by candle light using my laptop battery power last night until the battery ran out. I just have a few clean up tasks to do before it is done and ready to print.

Then I have to go back to my powerless house and assess the situation. I am praying that it doesn't take DAYS, but if it does I need to figure out how to feed the kids and how to keep them clean without hot water.

I am seriously going to call our insurance agent to find out if we are covered for interim housing in a situation like this. Not to mention the loss of everything in our fridge/freezer if it takes days to restore power.

Oh well, I'm going to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, and copy my paper to my flash drive so that I can have it printed at Office Max so I can turn it in tomorrow, just in case.

UPDATE: As of 1:00 this afternoon we have power. A quick check of the freezers shows that while the kitchen freezer is a total loss, the big one in the garage did a great job of keeping everything frozen and we didn't lose a thing. I guess we will be having whatever I can salvage from the Kitchen freezer for dinner tonight, anyone for potluck soup?


Pax

We've Got Way Too Much Stuff (With A Big Hat Tip to the Late Great George Carlin)

Since we really love our house and at 3900 square feet it should be more than sufficient room for a family of seven people, mrangelmeg and I made the judicious decision last night that it is time to get rid of some of our stuff. Because if we don't the only alternative according to George Carlin anyway is to buy a bigger house to put our stuff in, and we don't want to move.

So, my project for this week is to get rid of some of our stuff.

I did get a head start by going through my closet and deciding to let go of all of those cherished pieces of clothing that I have been hanging onto "just in case" I _________ (fill in the blank with responses like:

a) go back to work and need that polyester pantsuit,

b) lose fifteen pounds and can fit into those pants again,

c) gauzy peasant dresses ever come back in style or

d) forget and try to wear that third pair of black pumps that really pinch my toe but look so cute when I first put them on.

All of those things are bagged up and ready for Son-and-Heir to take to work with him this morning. (I think I mentioned before that he works at Goodwill, but I will add it here just in case you were wondering why he would take a bag of women's clothing to his job. I wouldn't want you to think he was a tranny in training or something.)

Today I will be going through piles of crap from Gradual School (you should see the bookshelves in the office, we have twice as many books as we have shelves in there and the bedroom bookshelves aren't much better) Surely I can let go of some of those books. I can say with perfect certainty that unless I have an aneurysm I will never intentionally open another Philosophy book as long as I live, and if I pick one up it will only be to smash a spider. (That is of course with the exception of the occasional Kierkegaard, so Rufus, you can stop holding your breath.)

And that doesn't even begin to describe the condition of the desks in that room. I haven't bothered trying to get things into the file cabinet for at least a year, so I have been stacking everything on one of the desks. This week I will go through the files and determine what we need to keep and what we can archive and what we can throw away. Then maybe, just maybe someone will actually be able to use that desk in there to do school work instead of being in fear that if they bumped up against it they would cause a clutter-lanche of epic proportions.

The goal is to cut the clutter by 40% with the pitch, donate, organize method, or suffer complete exaustion in the attempt. Wish me luck.

Pax

It Would Just Be Easier . . .

to go right back out of the house on another vacation somewhere than have to deal with all of the hassles of getting resettled at home. After all, I am already packed!

We got home to find our dear son who was taking care of the house neglected to tell us that the heat pump had been leaking water onto the floor of his bedroom (the heat pump is in his closet) for a week! Anyway, after an expensive visit from the HVAC guy we found out that the AC was on so low that the coils and drain hose had frozen and when the ice reached a warmer section of either it began to thaw, hence the carpet in his room is ruined.

We had to tear it out and clean up the concrete under it. Neeedless to say we won't be replacing it will wall to wall anytime soon. I helped him pick out some room-sized area rugs to cover the concrete so that next time (heaven forbid ) something like this happens we can move the rugs before they get tototaled.

Then we also have a fruit fly infestation because they didn't do a very good job of taking out garbage while we were away.

And I still have all of those silly jobs that I usually do over the summer that I never got around to doing this year because I was away (like cleaning out cabinets and stuff like that).

So, I was toying with the idea of chucking my still packed bag into the car and getting out of Dodge, but the angelbaby has to start school in a week, and I haven't seen my mom in nine weeks, and the two older girls have tons of testing and administrative chores to do before they can register for fall classes which start in three weeks, so as much as I would love to run away, I really can't.

But I may just sneak off for a night or two to see a friend when things calm down in a week or so; haven't seen them in even longer.

It is great to be home and sleep in my own bed for a change. I had about the best night of sleep I have had all summer last night, and then because someone needed a sub I got to be Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Mass, how cool is that?

No matter how much I complain, it really is nice to be home.

As soon as I get my computer fixed (taking it in tomorrow) I will post some more pictures of our trip.

Pax

Life is in the details

So we have had a busy weekend. . .

We found a car for son-and-heir to drive and purchased it. It is a nice older model Honda sedan. A much smaller car than anything he has ever driven (to date he has driven an old Chevy truck and our Pontiac Minivan), He is happy to have something that won't eat up so much of his paycheck in gas, and we are happy to have his transportation issues sorted out long before we have to leave.


Our oldest daughter's car was broken into outside her boyfriend's apartment. She had left the money from the paycheck from her second job loose in her purse on the back seat, but had taken her billfold into the house with her. The thief got away with about $120 in hard earned income. She was in tears when she told me about it this morning. She called the police and reported the break in and was informed by the police receptionist that she herself had a car broken into in the same neighborhood. Sadly, another hard lesson about how to handle money learned by our dear daughter. Now she has to work twice as hard this week to make up for the money she lost so that she can pay her bills (like rent on the apartment she isn't living in, but that is another sad tale).


Our beautiful autistic daughter (the one in the middle) has spent and exhausting year since she graduated from High School trying to find a job and unfortunately for her no one in this liberal and progressive college town would give her a job. She must have filled out fifty applications and went on interview after interview, but nothing turned up after almost an entire year of trying. In trying to make lemonade out of this whole mess, we have decided that she should come with us to Florida for the summer, and then we can continue the job search when we return in August. Much to my delight she went to the website and applied for admission to the local community college and was accepted all on her own and will be taking classes there in the fall as well. In many ways this year has been one of a lot of growth for her. The adversity and rejection has made her much stronger and more determined to make it on her own terms.


Graduating daughter decided that she wants a party, so the day before we leave for Florida we are going to have an open house (call me crazy but I think she should get some sort of party no matter how crazy the timing may seem). I am planning on saving myself loads of trouble by catering in all but a few of the food items -- mrangelmeg will man the grill for burgers and dogs, and I will make brownies the day before for dessert -- the rest will be from our local deli.



The angelbaby is going to miss her week long religious education class, which is the bulk of her mandatory hours for the year in the program at our parish and is always scheduled for the first full week after the school year is over. If she doesn't go she is supposed to be held back and not allowed to register for the next grade level in the fall. Although when we read the bulletin this weekend the wording about this exact topic was vaguely ambiguous (I believe the exact phrase was that missing the week would render your child unprepared for the next level of study or a sentiment similar to that, which is much more open to interpretation as to whether or not the child is actually held back or allowed to progress unprepared. I sent a letter to the DRE with a cc to the Pastor suggesting that since I have my Catechist certification and a Masters in Theology I would be willing to present the fifth grade curriculum to my daughter while we are away so that she doesn't fall behind. We plan to make it a part of our schedule, a bit each day exploring the topics that the Archdiocesan Curriculum suggests that fifth graders should know.

I have spent some of the weekend scanning pictures of the kids when they were very small for a surprise for graduating daughter's party. I am going to put together a slide show of pictures of her throughout the years to run on the computer during the party. It has been a lot of fun looking at all these old pictures and remembering when the kids were that small (especially since all but the angelbaby tower over me now).

Mrangelmeg and I are in our twenty-fifth year as man and wife. Our vocation is stronger every day because of the little details we share. Yesterday we went to the YMCA together for a workout (he on his own, me with my trainer) and then home to putter about doing our jobs around the house. After dinner we actually got to spend some time watching television together. We enjoyed the first part of the new The Andromeda Strain and are looking forward to the second part tonight. Although I will say that some off the digs at the present administration were a bit heavy handed, the additions to the story to flesh it out to a four hour mini-series have been at least creative and fun to watch. Or maybe it was just because I got to spend two hours sitting with mrangelmeg. Who cares, I get to spend another two hours tonight sitting next to him while we watch the final two hours. Sounds like a win-win to me.

My week is packed with details leading up to graduation on Friday, Party on Saturday, leaving on Sunday (and making sure that my two adult children who are staying here have all the instructions they need to be safe and secure while we are gone). Hope you all have a blessed week.

Pax

This Just Wasn't My Morning

So I got up Early and got ready to take Daughter to school and go to Mass. First the garage door was frozen to the ground and wouldn't open, then the passenger front tire was low. I stopped at the gas station to put air in the tire but the valve on the pump was broken and all I ended up doing was taking even more air out of the already low tire. I was so scared of driving on it that I drove back to the house and made mrangelmeg take daughter to school.

This just isn't my day.

I went out and fed the puppy her morning meal and found that she had chewed a hole in her (pretty expensive) thermal blanket we just bought to keep her warm this winter. I had velcroed it to the floor of her dog house but she ripped it right out the first day. Now there are little pieces of the foil liner all over out there. I am so glad that she is an out door dog with all of the things she tears up.

Then, I remembered that I don't even have my computer. It has been crashing on average about twice a day so I finally took it to the shop yesterday and the nice man there said it would be at least three and probably five days before I could have it back. Five days without my computer! That will be like five days with my arm tied behind my back. I can't even sync my IPod and get new podcasts for five days! It wasn't until I was driving away from the shop that it ocurred to me that I hadn't done a sync that monring. ARGH!

Thanks to mrangelmeg, who graciously got my tire aired back up, I am not stuck here in the house all day -- and I will get a few loads of laundry done that would not have gotten done had I gone to morning mass. And I do have access to my son's computer when no one else is around (which is for about an hour a day). So I suppose even though things aren't going the way I would have liked them to go, all is not lost.

I just have to see the good in the day.

Pax

What a Disappointment

Mrangelmeg got through his course in Law and Public Affairs. He said he waited all week for the discussion about Monica Lewinski, but dang-it-all it never came up. Boy was he disappointed.

We are getting our first real snowfall here, and we are actually getting ready to decorate the house for Christmas, this being the third weekend of Advent. Rose Sunday is tomorrow and our decoration dispensation is over so we have to actually begin to get in the spirit.

So we are vacuuming and moving furniture and musical instruments and trying to figure out where to put the tree. Somehow the room that a few years ago had absolutely no furniture and could hold the massive artificial tree we purchased is now chock-full of furniture and musical instruments. How on earth did that happen. Oh wait a minute I forgot the first rule of home ownership "your house abhors a vacuum; any empty space will quickly be swallowed up with stuff. (credit George Carlin for that one).

Anyway, the goal is to have enough space cleared out by tomorrow to actually have room for the tree.

Stop laughing, it could happen.

Pax

Philosophical and Literal IPod Silence Sunday

Sorry for no Random Sunday playlist yesterday but I was in Philosophy class all day and the came home to what literally amounted to a complete power outage mine (and the energy company's till after midnight).

I took advantage of daylight savings and read my textbook until after nine o'clock. Still can't get used to that phenomenon. And then the family sat together and watched about four episodes of the first season of How I Met Your Mother before my laptop battery went dead.

then we all went to bed.

So I might get around to a Lazy Monday Random ten, but with eight chapters of Philosophy to read in less than a month and two parties next weekend (daughter # 1 is turning 21 on Saturday and daughter #2 is having an open house for graduation on Sunday, I seriously doubt that today will lean anywhere near lazy in the angelmeg household.

I will post a Housecleaning Monday Random 10, Yeah that's the ticket.

Besides I want to post about the awesome Philosophy class I went to. I won't say that this professor will make me a philosopher, but he does make me understand it and after two days I do see light in a very dark forest, which is nice. I may never be able to think like a philosopher, but with this professor at least I won't feel dense in his presence.

Pax

New Dryers and Old Tunes

So I have good news and more good news today!

The good news is that the new dryer is installed and happily drying clothes as I type. It will be drying many loads of clothes to get caught up after not having a dryer for two weeks, and my only getting to the Laundromat twice to dry 10 loads. That is nothing in this family.

I couldn't convince mrangelmeg that the matching washer was a good idea, so I am still washing smaller loads than I might have been had I gotten the pair, but this will do nicely. I am so very happy to have it installed and working again that I can want what I have and not dream about what I don't.

The more good news is that I am getting an IPod for my birthday. I ordered it yesterday and it should arrive by Monday. In preparation for that happy event I have been loading all of our Cd's into ITunes so that I will be ready to download all of my music (and some of mrangelmeg's) just as soon as it gets out of the box and I can get it up and running.

I am so excited about this. especially because the weather is getting nicer and I plan to start walking outside and maybe even getting my old bike serviced and taking it out on a few of the bike trails (we have some wonderful bike trails that are nicely paved and very safe for the novice biker here in town.)

So, my day has just been packed, to say the least.

Pax

It Could be Worse . . .

So a week ago the dryer stopped putting out any heat and we called a local mechanic to come and fix it. He charged us almost 70 dollars to tell us that we have a burned out heating element and he would have to order a new one, which would take a day or two .

Fast forward a week and we still haven't heard from him so I call him back and he says, "Oh yeah that part must be in I will check when I get back to the office this afternoon." When he never called back yesterday I got out the big guns and had mrangelmeg call him. He promised that he would be out this afternoon to put in the new heating element and get us back up and drying.

So, we waited almost all afternoon. It was after five before he finally showed up. He pulled out the dryer to install the new heater motor and found that the vent on the back of the dryer is totally corroded all the way back into the dryer. He says that he has never seen this kind of thing in 30 years of appliance repair work and this is not something that can be repaired, the dryer is not worth fixing it is a lost cause. So I have to go out and get a new one.

I wish he had found that out last week when he was here, it would have saved us 70 bucks.

I guess I know what I am getting for my birthday next week.