New - My OFFICE is a Mess TOO!

When I came in to work this morning, there was a note on my desk. It seems that the felt green carpet squares, which have been in my office since the building was built (1982) are to be removed and replaced with actual carpet! For this event, I need to clean my office AND remove everything but the furniture (they're bringing in movers for this).

Uh-oh. Major undertaking about to commence. I have a couple of weeks to do it, and I know that I can. It kind of falls into the MY LIFE IS A MESS CHALLENGE, so I will make my office my challenge for next week. Thanks to my boss for the idea... The pantry gets a reprieve!

Tomorrow, I will take the camera with me, and you can see my office and its disarray. This could get interesting!

P.S. Kaytabug has decided to join my challenge this week and tackle her clothes closet! Anyone else???

Fun Monday - I've got a crush on you...

I groaned inwardly when Jo Beaufoix requested that we talk about our first celebrity crushes. I mean, come on! How am I supposed to remember that far back? My mind isn't what it used to be, ya know... And crushes? Definitely a thing of the past. Though I do admit to sending emails to my pal Suze at work with pictures of George Clooney (her second husband-to-be) with something bordering on glee. If Georgie ever knocked on my door, I'd send him down the road though. He's already spoken for.

But, where was I? Oh, yeah. MY celebrity crushes.

Much of my childhood, my father worked at the popular local AM station - Top 40, baby! This was pre-FM (though we were on the forefront of that as well, with the first Top 40 FM station in town). He was forever bringing home duplicate albums or things he didn't think the audience would like. I got first crack at them. So I was introduced to a wide range of artists that I knew before everyone else did (like 10cc, the DeFranco Brothers, Yvonne Elliman and Neil Diamond) or artists that never quite made the big time, but had some rockin' music (The Bay City Rollers).

My favorite one of all though, was Bobby Sherman. Bubble-gum pop, but so yummy! And his album cover was really cool, with a complete-the-sentence wheel built in.

Poor Bobby never really hit the big time and I can't remember a single song he did - but I sure did love him back when.

Neil Diamond, though... I still love him and his music. My favorite music purchase last year? A greatest hits compilation on CD for my car! Cherry Cherry and Forever in Blue Jeans. You're mine, Neil - forever!!!

Of course, that lasted until these people popped up. And that oldest son? Damn. Pitter-pat went my young heart. Aside from the seriously doofy outfits (which were quite hip at the time), that was one fine-looking guy.

I mean, what's not to like? Blue eyes, long hair, and the best smile ever!

Oh, yeah - and puka shell necklaces. Cool!

My cousin Liane and I used to have arguments over who was cuter - my crush David Cassidy or her crush: Donny Osmond.

I still think I won.

She still does that when we talk about David and Donny...

There was one more crush from that era... I had a poster of him on my wall. Not this one, but nice suit, no? 9 gold medals. And this was pre-performance enhancing drugs. (They were all still just psychodelic then). Can you guess who he is?

UPDATE: Everyone of a "certain age" nailed it - this is Mark Spitz - Olympic Gold Medal winner in the 1972 Olympics. And yes, I think the psychodelic drugs so popular at the time may have accounted for his suit...

But I must confess - if I had to pick one to define as my crush - it would have to be David Cassidy!

I told my husband about this Fun Monday... he asked if I felt silly about confessing my young-girl crushes. Well, yeah. I mean come on... it was the early 70s - they were ALL silly. Their clothes, if nothing else.

My Life is a Mess

Yes, it's Spring!!!! We've had a flurry of home improvement on the outside, and some minor projects (cleaning the tub) on the inside, but yesterday when I went to the grocery store, Spring Fever hit in earnest. That's where I saw this:

I absolute adore this magazine. It definitely plays to my anal organization goals and actually gives me ideas about how to accomplish them. After much hemming and hawing, I have decided to spend the moola and actually subscribe to this magazine. I love it that much.

It has also inspired me to start something.

I call it the MY LIFE IS A MESS CHALLENGE. Feel free to join in. Every Saturday morning, I will set forth a challenge (until other people decide they want to contribute challenges) that you may take a up to a week to complete. It will be ONE thing to work on to declutter and organize your life. There will, of course, be BEFORE AND AFTER pictures. By the time summer rolls around, I hope to feel less stressed by the clutter that is threatening to take over my life.

This week? My clothes closet. I swear, I don't wear ANYTHING that lives in there. So why am I letting it stay in my house without paying rent? Off to Goodwill you will go, you lazy fabrics!

I will also include my dresser in this particular challenge because the stuff I actually DO wear winds up living on top of my dresser rather than in it.

See that art? I love it (and bought it from a fellow blogger), but it's definitely not being shown to its best advantage.

I have a feeling that this particular exercise will have positive effects on my whole bedroom, because half the stuff on the floor in my closet? Stuff I bought to fix up my bedroom - still sitting in there nearly a month later.

So - Who's with me? Leave me a comment and I'll add you to the list (if there is a list) of participants.

Joys of Home Ownership

So, today was the last day of Guys with No Shirts. They were finishing up some caulking when this car showed up in my driveway.

Apparently this is what contract satellite guys drive to their jobs these days. He was woefully unprepared - the battery on his drill was dead and he had a little ladder that MIGHT make it to the roof of a one story house. It was folded up in the trunk. He wore droopy pants and shoes that kept coming untied, and was a bit overweight and slow. He climbed out, admired the roof, then asked where the dish was. The roofers had just unbolted it and it was hanging upside down under the eave on the second story. I pointed it out to him and he kind of deflated.

Then he sucked it up and asked the roofers if he could borrow their ladder and did they have a spare battery for his drill that he could use. He slowly climbed the ladder and made his way across the roof.

At the end, he laid down on the roof and reached over - success!!!!!

He sat down, looking like a little kid trying to build something. Meanwhile, the roofers finished up and cleaned up. He killed the battery. They took him another one. That one died. They took him another one. Finally, they were all packed up and ready to go - except for their ladder and the battery packs he had up there.

We stood around in the front yard and watched. Every now and then, he would look at us and flash us a nervous grin. Finally, he finished up and began making his way back towards the ladder. Halfway there, he froze. He couldn't move. One of the roofers went up to try to talk him down.

It took a few minutes. He couldn't bend his knees and he was terrified of sliding off. A very real terror, actually, as the pollen has been falling heavily and the roof was quite slick with it.

RooferGuy finally got him to turn around and put his hands on the ribs and back towards the ladder. When he got close enough, RG put his hands on the backs of his shoes and finally, Satellite Guy got on the ladder and came down.

There was lots of manly back-clapping and hand-shaking and the Guys with No Shirts reloaded the ladder, collected their batteries and drove off in a puff of pollen. Satellite Guy started shaking and sat down in his car to do the paperwork.

After it was all filled out and signed, he had to check in and notify the company that he'd finished the job. Then he handed the phone to me. The rep on the other end asked me if he showed up in the time fram expected. Yes. Was he polite and professional? Yes. Did he complete the job to your satisfaction? Yes.

Never mind that he was slow and slovenly-looking. He had a great attitude and showed A LOT of courage and by golly he did his job even though he was absolutely terrified. When they asked me if I would rate his performance as Outstanding, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, I said Outstanding. How could I not?

He left, probably for a very stiff drink and suddenly I was alone at my house for the first time in nearly a week. The Guys with No Shirts, the Satellite Guy and me - we ALL have a story to tell today!

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This is for Min - who wrote marvelous Zombie Haiku for her post today.

There are things that are worse....

Day Three of Guys with No Shirts

But first, this now seemingly daily picture of NeighborMan wielding his trusty blower on the street. You gotta wonder how much gas he's buying to do all this blowing....

And DrunkNeighbor provided us with some entertainment today as well. He spends most of his time in the garage smoking and drinking, but he also ventures out to talk to us from time to time, as well as going out to do his handyman jobs (people come and pick him up). Today, he ventured out for an entirely different reason.

Remember the lemurs that weren't lemurs? Well one of them is still hanging around - and DrunkNeighbor feeds him Ritz Crackers and ham.

I noticed this when I went outside to inspect my lovely new roof!

They still aren't quite finished. They ran out of metal and have to come back tomorrow to finish up. One more night of equipment in the driveway.

Back to the coon... I called ZBoy and Darling Man to look. He/She eats readily enough from DrunkNeighbor's hand, but spooks when he tries to pet it. Advance. Retreat. Advance. Retreat. Never underestimate the power of a piece of ham...

As I turned to go back into the house (raccoon, apparently sated, climbed up the tree for a doze), I noticed this:

It just looked odd. Perhaps because the Guys with No Shirts had dirty hands and it really kind of stands out with the grub marks. Or maybe it's because there are new nails in there, whereas the old ones had been painted over and it wasn't as obvious. And the cut along the roof line on the garage seems a bit jagged. Am I going to have to do some exterior painting too? Or will it wash off eventually?

I will not judge yet. As my father is fond of saying, "Women and Fools should not see half-finished things." Or as my mother is fond of saying, "Men and Fools should never see half-finished projects - they jump in and try to fix something that's not broken or start putting things away before you're finished with them."

Perhaps when the Guys with No Shirts finally leave for good tomorrow, things will look a bit tidier.

Lunch

The roof is nearly finished. Today is probably the last day. The guys are working feverishly to finish before the afternoon thunderstorms and in hope that they won't have to make that drive again tomorrow...

The owner of the business called this morning to give me my final total. I explained to him that I couldn't find the card that my "financing" was coming from (darn my organizational skills!), but that I had another credit card that would cover it. There was a pause. "Ma'am, we don't take credit cards without a fee - can you write a check?" Steam began curling out my ears. Why, if he didn't take cards, did we go through that rigamarole a month ago for the financing thing? Through lips that didn't move, I said "I'll figure something out."

So ZBoy and I set off for the bank and managed to do a cash advance straight into checking so I could write them a check when it was all over.

Feeling vastly relieved, I invited Z to have lunch out and we wound up at his favorite restaurant of all time. It's just a little place at the end of a strip mall and run by a Hungarian family. But the food is AWESOME, and healthy and the people who work there are truly family.

When ZBoy wasn't eating, I took him there to try to entice him to put food in his belly. He wouldn't do it. Phyllis, Miss Saundra and Cindy were all quite concerned about him and fussed over the weight he'd lost and how he needed to eat! When Z was recovering, we went there and they were so happy to see him, thrilled to feed him and hug him when he'd cleaned his plate.

Today, when we went, he ordered chicken strips and fresh fruit. I had baked chicken, collards, black-eyed peas - and shared the mac & cheese and yellow rice with Z (I can only have very small amounts of those things). While we were waiting for our food, ZBoy saw a beautiful slab of chocolate cake go past on its way to another table. His eyes lit up (as I'm sure mine did) and he turned, grinning to me with eyebrows raised. "IF you finish your lunch, you may have a piece to take home," I decreed.

Cindy must have overheard or saw ZBoy's reaction to that cake because as we were finishing, she came over and said, "I'll slice you a nice big slice of chocolate or snickers cake - or would you rather have two smaller pieces of each?" Z couldn't make up his mind, so he asked for the two smaller pieces (which were still gigantic). "In a to-go box, please!"

He sat back and looked rather contented while we waited.

"So... how does it feel to have the world wrapped around your little finger?" I asked.

"Well, mostly it feels great! But sometimes, it's a little tight."

Good answer.

Sudden Awareness

Zboy is turning nine at the end of this month. With greater age comes greater awareness.

This morning, he was walking around pulling his chest out into mini-boobs. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was "stretching his pecs".

"...but you don't have pecs, Mom."

"Yes, I do. Everyone with arms and a chest has pecs. Even the dog has pecs."

He let go of his chest and looked at me for a moment.

"Oh. Your's are just gigantic and long. Must be hard to hug with those things..."

Dude. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

Springtime, Bathtubs, Guys with No Shirts

It's been a busy few days.

Because the flowers and trees are so gorgeous around here in the spring (thus making life hell for allergy sufferers but heaven for everyone else), we have a big springtime festival and parade. I volunteered to help out at our station's booth Saturday afternoon, explaining to interested passersby all about digital conversion, ways to volunteer, and answering questions about our programming.

I wasn't there alone. One of the folks from radio was there when I arrived, sitting like a king in a folding chair with a gigantic turkey leg in his fist. "Want some of my meat?" he asked, waving the leg around. I laughed. "No, thanks!"

He couldn't resist showing off his turkey legs even so. TC would rise from his chair for short periods of time and accost passersby and ask them to name an NPR radio show of PBS television show that they liked. If they actually came up with an answer, they won a pen (which we were giving away for free anyway). It was really pretty funny and he made the people he stopped laugh. Darling Man called it "very AM", meaning something a top40 disc jockey would do - and applauded him for having the chutzpah to do it.

The face painting was a big hit. We gave them a table next to us and while their children were getting designs painted on, the parents talked to us. It was a nice little set up, I tell you.

Darling Man and ZBoy showed up and wandered around for a while, and returned to the booth with this contraption. The balloon man made ZBoy a Pluto face! It was really, really cool!

Jennifer and I (I told you I looked like Winston Churchill!) manned the booth to the bitter end, then got the fun (?) of loading the van up with everything. We were exhausted when it was over. I went to bed early and got up late on Sunday morning.

I got the call last night. And today at noon, they showed up. I have been descended upon by guys with no shirts. The roofers are HERE!

They set right up and got to work. THey crawled up on the roof and began taking down the edge pieces and inspecting the roof.

When I walked out to take this picture, the foreman was on the truck getting ready to pull stuff off. He stood up and yelled at the guys on the roof, "Who loaded this roll of metal?" in a very accusing tone of voice. The guys loooked at each other and hemmed and hawed before asking what the problem was. "It's loaded on backwards! We're gonna have to take it back and reload ("back" is Albany, GA), God dammit!" The guys looked guiltily at each other and began stammering. Man on truck stood up from bending over the reel and yelled, "April Fool!" Lots of relieved laughter and good-natured swearing ensued.

Neighbor Man, watering his yard by hand, watched all of this with some interest. I laughed with the guys, then walked over to talk to Neighbor Man - he's impressed that we're putting on a new roof. We didn't talk about dogs or cats. About 10 minutes later, I went back inside and moments later, looked out the window to see him blowing Drunk Neighbor's driveway, then proceeded to Sheriff Deputy's driveway, then all the leaves in the street. The street sweeper had been up and down the street earlier today, so there shouldn't have been much...

After blowing off all the pollen and various other bits of debris, they began laying the underlayment. I wonder how far they'll get today. They're already handing up pieces of metal roofing and it's only 2:30 - could the whole of the top roof get done?

While all that was going on, I'm stuck at home with boy and my car blocked in. I decided it was time to get the second bathroom functional, so I started working on those damned sticky things in the bottom of the tub. They've probably been there 40 years, sort of peeling, but stuck fast where they still stuck.

Attractive, no? Yeah - I'm not keen to take a bath in there either. Anyway, somewhere along the line, I read that a good way to remove those things was with this stuff:

The idea is that you lay the foil over the stickers, heat it all up with the hairdryer thereby making the glue soft, then you scrape it up with a stiff card (not metal - don't want to scratch the tub). So I tried it.

Huh. Not quite as effective as I'd hoped. Probably due to the age of the stickers. Still, I could chip off some of it, but it took forever. So I began searching for my Goo-Gone, hoping that it might work a little better. I never found it (and I KNOW I have a big bottle of it!), but I did find a can of WD-40. On the can it says it can clean tar and other adhesives, so I gave it a shot.

It seems to be working. After some trial and error, I discovered that if I spray it and let it sit for a while, I can scrape more up. It's still a slow process, but it seems to be working - and more thoroughly than the foil method. If I ever get it all cleaned up, I'll show you how beautifully it turned out.

More roof updates later!

LATER: The guys arrived at noon and left around 5pm. This is what they accomplished in 5 hours:

The whole front part of the top roof, and half the back part.

Tomorrow, they should finish the top roof and the back porch and perhaps that little bit on the front over the front door. I imagine the garage will be on the last day. Please don't pray for rain here in the next couple of days!

Just so You know...

That picture of me at the bottom of the last post? It's 15 years old - taken during one of the "lost" times. It's a "Glamour Shot" photo and I had to fight with the photographer to get it taken that way. He thought it was a bad way to go with the leather coat, but I think it turned out pretty well.

The current me looks a little more like Winston Churchill - with more hair.