The pace quickens

Summer school started Tuesday. 5 hours a day, teaching government to 15 students. We spent today trying to find ways to memorize the 27 amendments to the constitution. Please do not quiz me.

I've been racing around between Mom and Dad's taking care of Eva and Cat, my house and school. Maybe now that Mom and Dad are back in town, I can get a little ahead on my school stuff. I'm hoping to put a video together of clips from different movies that have to do with gov'ment. Protocol, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Primary Colors etc. If you can think of any, let me know.

The real estate agent with clients in California has emailed me a contract. She is a wackadoodle. I can't decide if she is more pissed that the price is "high" or because I didn't use a traditional rel estate agent. Either way she needs serious help.

Mr Lee, who called after seeing the sign and is buying a house for his mom, came to see the house yesterday with his mom and came back today with his mom and his wife. I think they may actually submit an offer tomorrow. I want them to buy it. Much nicer than the weird agent.

Guess it may be time for me to get serious about looking at houses. Eek. That's all I have at the moment. More tomorrow.

Sunday in Austin

I ended up leaving Dallas with a lawn that still needed to be mowed. I'm so glad Dad recently bought a light weight lawn mower that can be transported, if only he was in town. (Sigh goes here.) Atleast as I hopped in my car to head out of town I left the house looking lovely, and the pool looking oasis like. I even dropped a load of stuff at the storage unit before grabbing the dog and heading out of town.

I stopped at Roseanne's on the way south to pick up my binders for teaching Government. I'll be working on summer school stuff Monday.

Arrived at Fran's at about 5pm. Her backyard is fast becoming an oasis. Pool is great. Pond is cool, foliage is lovely. Jim may have a problem on his hands. Between that and his cooking, he might not be able to shake me this summer.

Sunday . . . went to church in the morning.

Spent the afternoon hanging out.

News: Can you believe it . . . another agent has called to say she is putting in an offer! Let's hope this one isn't toying with me! This is the agent with clients in California. . . so they would be buying the house unseen. . . see I didn't need to mow the lawn! Guess I'll get up in the morning and head home, so that I can sit patiently waiting for a contract. Dad would want it that way : )

In the meantime, I'll go back to hanging out waiting for my next meal to appear like magic from the kitchen de Jim.

Good Heavens, I've fallen behind

Thursday - Real estate agent called early in the day to tell me she was going to be sending an offer to be. She was a nasty little tease. I called at 7pm to find out her client made an offer on another house. However, the house did get shown a couple of times.

Friday - Worked like a mad dog to get poetry notebooks graded, yearbooks passed out etc. etc. I had an eye dr appt at 1pm, went to see Pam and Jim (she looks much healthier, although she said she isn't gaining weight. . . as always I'm willing to give her some of mine. Always thinking of others, I am.) I could have WALKED to the house that I had an appt to see at 3pm. I like it.
That's all I will say, because girls that haven't sold their homes can't afford to love anything yet.

Drove out to Plano to let Eva out. Have I mentioned how hard she sleeps? It is very disturbing. I always wake her with trepidation that she isn't actually going to wake or that my waking her will give her a heartattack and kill her.

Got back to school to work on grading the English exams. I do have all of my grades entered, but I still have to finish the checkout process and get stuff ready for summer school.

I'm teaching first session of government. Actually to give you a taste of life in education, I didn't even know if I was teaching summer school until mid-morning some time (yes, it does start Tuesday). I was offered speech (for which I would have to get an emergency certification, and then take the Excet exam for it), but government made. So a little bit of arm twisting later, I was set.

I went over to Roseanne's so that we could force her teenage son to be our chauffeur to/from Moody Colliseum for graduation. It was lovely. I wore the pink heels they gave me. Then I sat around at Roseanne's with her neighbors Lorraine and Randy until almost midnight.

Oh, and on the I'm a total idiot front. The pool pump wasn't working. Couldn't figure it out. Called to get it serviced. Paid the $50.00 service fee. Got the bill that said power shut off. Turned on. Working now. Excellent.

Saturday am - Waiting for the handyman to show up to fix the kitchen counter. Need to mow the lawn and clean the pool. I'm planning to go down to Austin today, so I'm going to have to once again throw it into high gear to get my stuff done. So, off I go.

9:35am addendum As I cleaned the pool jamming to a little Bruce Springsteen, I contemplated how the pool pump could have been off. I put this postulate before you: it's the damn real estate agents. One of them must have turned the power off at the switch instead of at the timer. I'm assuming the client wanted to see the pool without the water swirling about (looking for problems perhaps?), it was turned off but not turned back on. That's all I've got. I swear if I ever turned the pool off at the switch I would have tried that.

Oh, and the lawn mower string broke in my hand as I was trying to start it. Not sure how I'll be pinch hitting on this one. In the meantime, the handyman is working diligently. More later.

I believe there is a hex on me

Why is it every time I miss school for a non-illness I get ill? Guilt, that's why, or a hex. And the day started out so lovely. Woke up a little later than usual, took my time getting ready, showed up for jury duty right on time . . . suffered through voir dire (for a DWI charge) and finally got let go at about 11:00 or so. Interesting side note, 3 of the guys got DWIs between '88 and '89. Another man has two sons who have had DWIs. 3 or 4 women all knew someone who died in a drunk driving accident.

At any rate, they must have thought I looked shifty, so I escaped my obligation to country and flag. Good enough for me. However, about 1/2 way through the morning I started getting a sinus headache, so by the time I left I was yearning to drill a hole into my brow to relieve the pressure.

A student gave me a gift certificate to Celebrity Bakery, so I thought it was a fine plan to get lunch there. While waiting, a real estate agent called me about the house. She told me that her clients saw my house on the internet and asked her to preview it since they are currently in California. I have no idea if she did end up seeing it, but I can say that she was a little snotty about the price. After all, she just put a custom custom home on the market at $87.00/sq ft. La ti da, what the hell is a custom custom home anyway? Why isn't one custom enough? Quite frankly I think the second custom should demand a higher price. Besides it didn't even have a semi-custom pool, and I think Texas summers put a much higher premium on pools over custom custom. I wish I had written her name down, so I could send her a snotty note when my house sells. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I got lunch, got home, ate, then got dressed to go workout. No, no stomach a little weak. Changed clothes to not waste a workout outfit on a non-workout day and put on the most comfortable clothes I could find. I soon took off to bake my little bod in a tanning salon for about 20 minutes. Sadly, I was unable to cook the headache out. Went home and closed my eyes for about an hour.

I set the alarm on my new phone for 2:45, but the alarm played such a lovely tune that I didn't realize it was even the alarm and moved not an inch until 5 minutes before I was supposed to be at the hair salon. I dashed off for my appointment still not feeling particularly good. For some unknown reason when she asked if I wanted her to wax my brows I said yes. Oh why, Oh why, can't I say no, and why. oh why, doesn't it garner me more dates? At least she gave me a nice little head massage while she was washing my hair 'cause she felt sorry for me. I'll take it any way I can get it! Hair looks great. Brows do too for that matter.

Back home to place cold compresses on my head. The real estate agent from yesterday showed up again today. While I was pottying, thank you very much. Probably has thrown my whole system off now. At any rate, she found out that the reason I wasn't getting calls was because the scheduling service had the wrong number. She said she gave them the number on the sign out front, so they could actually reach me to give a little heads up when people will be showing up on my doorstep. At any rate, the fact she had to come back is probably a good sign, don't you think? Let's remain optimistic and say yes.

Broke down and took a bath (what the hell, maybe the naked girl in the tub could help me get the selling price : ). Shortly after 6:oo the scheduling service called to make sure it was ok if a real estate agent showed my house between 5:30 and 7:00. Hmmm aren't I lucky on that one! So, I sat in the front room watching outside for their arrival at which point I took myself out to the car and parked myself in air-conditioning down the street where I could see as soon as they left. Lo and behold, another real estate agent showed up with clients about 15 minutes after the first one!

I believe they lingered in front of the house before leaving . . . I know that must show interest. I was in and out of the houses I wasn't particularly interested in rather quickly, if I remember correctly.

As soon as I finish this I'm going to take more pharmaceuticals and go to bed. Tomorrow I have 5th and 6th period exams so I should have kids both periods. We've been instructed not to leave early (exams will end at about 1pm) but if I have a headache tomorrow I'm going to the doc in the box instructions be damned.

P.S. For those of you keeping up, I am still unable to control my phone. It is taking photos with regularity when I am not intending to do so. Oh, and I appear to be calling people randomly. Apparently this is the phone that will put my belief that I don't say things I'm not willing to say to someone's face to the test.

No more skinny dippin'

OK, so that isn't actually a concern, but a real estate agent surprised the hell out of me when her head popped into the garage today. Seems she called the central calling people, but they didn't give me a ringy ding to let me know she was coming. Certainly don't want to scare any potential buyers away!

On a different note, some of you may remember during my convertable years living in Plano there was an officer Yaneilli (spelling may be wrong) who seemed to have my car on GPS. Seriously I got at least 4 tickets by that man. ALL IN DIFFERENT PLACES. I couldn't lose him!

So, I am zipping along this afternoon leaving Home Depot heading toward Tom Thumb when behind me I see lights flashing. And lo and behold, look who walks up to my car. At any rate lucky me, it was shift change time and he had things to do. So he let me go with a stern talking to! Good thing I'm moving soon.

Rock n' Roll

OK. Although the photos aren't there yet, my house is now on MLS. The number is 10541297. With any luck the photos should be on sometime in the morning. Dad did a fabulous job installing the quarterround in the kitchen, and I did a fabulous job painting it ; ) Now, on to the rest of the painting I need to do.

Not ready; but oh well

I was moving much more slowly today since I got a headache during the night and had it most of the day. Still managed to steam clean all of the carpets and run to Target, Home Depot and Linens and Things to get various and sundry items.

Although it's possible the house would be shown tomorrow, I am seriously hoping it won't be. Dad is still working on replacing the quarter round on all of the baseboards in the kitchen. Courtesy of Eva they all were warped from wetness. . . I'm not explaining. He also is in charge of the cat door hole in the closet door.

I need to touch up the front door and almost every wall in the house. More stuff needs to go to storage and after that it's just general cleaning, more cleaning and more cleaning.

Pleeeaaassseee let the house sell quickly . . . for high dollar!

I am some kind of tired

Did I mention that I laid the vinyl "tiles" in the closet? Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Still working on left over cat smell, but I shall prevail.

Friday I finally faxed all of the papers into the broker. Took me three tries, but I did it. Heard back from someone who said it would be listed Saturday, but I don't think that actually happened.

Friday I also lost 3 hours of my life I will never get back by going to see the Divinci Code. Mike took Ann and I to dinner afterwards. El Fenix. Yum. Marguarita wasn't half bad either.

Up before 6am, I have worked like a dog all day. With the assistance of Mom, the storage shed was rearranged and lots more stuff was added. Dad was put in charge of fixing the cat door in the closet, hanging the master bathroom door and changing the quarter round in the kitchen. Laundry and ironing are done, gee what will I do tomorrow.

One more day this week . . .

I met with a second real estate agent today. I now feel confident asking for 199,900. I asked her if she saw anything specifically that I should do. She suggested that I remove A LOT of the books of the bookshelves. Mind you, I had already cleared off about 4 or 5 boxes of books. Sheeze.

Still suffering from an ugly learning curve using the phone. I appear to call people randomly and then not be able to hang the phone up almost as often as I hang up on people that call me. Mad Crazy Cleaning has been moved to Saturday so that I can go see the DaVinci Code with Ann.

Good News!

Let's begin with the latest parent complaint. Because there is a photo (small and not particularly good) of 3 boys playing poker with a rebel flag in the background, her son will NEVER BE ABLE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. We have ruined an entire family's life. I feel horrible really.

A yearbook theme continues to evade the staff. I think we might be getting closer, but it is really hard to tell. Things can turn on a dime. 7 days left of school. yippee! (I still haven't heard about summer school, but, heck, no rush I like doing things at the last minute with no preparation. It's becoming my thing.)

I upgraded my phone today. Actually I did it yesterday but decided that I didn't like the phone. So, I dropped into the cingular store (that is a total hell) and that slick salesman got me to get the sony erricsson. The phone was free . . . so far so good . . . but the blue tooth technology . . . required that I get the wireless ear piece, of course. I'd also like to add the learning curve on this phone is killing me. Once I have my cool ring tones it will all be ok.

Alright people. Fran is the only person to comment on the photo of the house having run away bushes! Y'all need to be paying attention. Throwing out suggestions that kind of thing.

At any rate, I spent last night neatening things up. Got what I needed to fix the closet floor. Tiled it tonight. Looks gooood.

I had a realtor come look at the house and give me an idea of what it would sell for . . . yes, they gave me 193,000 to 199,000. Sing the Hallelujah Chorus. (By the way, if you weren't certain, this was the good news.)

Eva that sorry ole dog, pooped and peed at M and Ds. The rat. Had to go over there tonight to do a little clean up. Cat was giving me the cold shoulder. Someone is pouting!

Now, it is officially time to begin the deep cleaning! Those of you within driving distance . . . now is the time to show your support. Starting Friday evening . . . Mad, Crazy Cleaning.

Eating one's young, cheese with that whine, etc.

Well, I for one am amazed that more mother's don't eat their young. I talk to Fran and if child 1 isn't sending her over the cliff into insanity then child 2 is actually trying to trip her over the edge. Seriously, I hardly see them, and I want to bite their heads off and chew.

So, I am in my classroom bright and early. Two of my freshmen English students come to talk to me. After about 10 minutes, one asks, "Why are you always in a bad mood by 8th period? You are really happy right now?" To which I respond, "You wanna know what happens? 1st-7th periods."

We are still working on a theme for next year. I really want them to do something that will be fun. Different. Something we can have a good time with. They are going to end up choosing the same thing with the same types of designs as we always have. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

Well, after several days of silence, I have an angry email from a mother outraged that her child doesn't appear in the yearbook, he had his picture taken, blah, blah, blah. Well, actually he had his student ID picture taken, not his yearbook picture. I haven't found out why he isn't anywhere else. I kind of want to ask why she didn't cough up the money to buy the kid a senior ad and assure that he would appear in the book. I want to bite her head off and chew too.

Got home. Massive headache. Managed to make the flyer for the house. Scheduled an appt for real estate people to give me an appraisal on Wed. Didn't sleep well last night. I know it is sad and pathetic, but I think it is because Eva and Cat are at Mom and Dad's, and I'm lonely. sniffle. sniffle.

I'm now totally behind on the house plan. I haven't bought the door to replace the one with the cat door in it. I haven't done the tile in that closet. I haven't steam cleaned the carpets. That does it. I'm going to bed.

Drugs are Good

Hard to resist reading a post that starts that way isn't it? Read on to discover why that title.

I began the day early (6:45), but hardly in whirling dervish mode. Fran was in w.d. , but I was not. I did finally begin getting my ducks in a row about the time Mom showed up so that we could get manicures and pedicures. Toes are lovely.

Got home did a little packing, but realized I had quite a bit of errand running that needed to be done. So in the car and off to the book store. I told my future editors-in-chief that I would find magazines that had design ideas for them, so I finally took care of that.

Then to Home Depot. (Yes, Dad I know this is a fragment. It's called artistic license . . . and I be driving: ) I got what I needed to tile the floor of the closet. A very nice young man gave me wonderful instructions. I even managed to get a Father's Day gift, oh yeah. I'll be giving the parents day gifts tomorrow since I'm likely to pack his gift and forget about it otherwise.

On to the dry cleaners to drop off a skirt that I've been driving around with in my car for about 3 weeks now.

Next, Hobby Lobby to get Travis' birthday gift. I'm only a couple of weeks behind on that one, so I figure I'm doing pretty well. (Set expectations low early, makes 'em happy to get anything whenever you get around to it.) Sprouts for cases of my Vitamin C water. Yes, it's the water by the company some rapper owns, but I don't care. It's really good, and I'm hoping to start replacing my slurpees with these. We'll see how that goes.

Trouble began when I got home. Dad met me and we took the hoosier cabinet to storage. We were rather blase apparently because we put the top facing the outside so that it didn't face the bottom and get nicked or anything which was a fine plan until we turned a corner and lost the flower sifter when it fell out. Yikes! We didn't realize it until we got to the storage place. I almost had a coronary right there. We hightailed unloading and getting it in the storage unit. That included my nailing my ankle with the corner of the cabinet leaving a delightful bruise and a small comedy of errors as we tried to get everything into the storage unit including the stupid bike that I never ride. We got back in the truck and retraced our steps. Thank heavens Dad is now a total old man driver. Because he drives so carefully and slowly, the sifter tipped out, landed on the sidewalk and sat there damage free until we came back round to get it. That involved my leaping, gazelle like, out of the truck at a light (which conveniently was red) loping across the street, nabbing the sifter and returning to the truck. The course of events was rather like getting brain freeze; all of a sudden I had a headache that caused my head to crinkle.

Once home, I returned to my list. Mowing. rats. I edged, weed wacked, mowed and watered the fleurs before proceeding on to cleaning the pool.

Large quantities of sun and not enough quantities led to a very, very ugly headache. This is the point where the drugs enter the picture. I took two of my headache pills, a lovely hot bath then placed cold compresses on my forehead as I writhed about on the bed, moaning and contemplating hari kari. Several hours later, I'm feeling good from the drugs. Oh yeah.

Some of you may have already picked up on the fact that tomorrow I will have to be a BEAST to get everything done. Wonder Woman on speed.

Check in tomorrow evening to see what our heroine managed to accomplish before visiting her parents in celebration of Mother's Day by bringing gifts and Eva and Cat to stay with them. (insert evil laugh here).

I must add a note. My fabulous niece (Cassy), Fran's 3rd, sent me some self-portraits she took on her new camera. She is an artist you know. Please to see photo number 4. Didn't anyone tell that child her eyes are going to get stuck like that???!!!! I think this might be her "Are you sure you want me to do the dishes? You know I have trouble with depth perception." haha.

What a day

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of what passing out yearbooks day looks like. I thought I had a picture that showed all of the boxes filling the room, but alas, not so much. By this afternoon I think we were down to about 100 name stamped books and 100 or so non stamped books left to pass out. Fairly impressive. We usually have a lot more left.

Second period, Lisa came and got me so that I could attend the 9th grade team meeting. About 3 weeks ago Lisa told me that the 9th grade team was planning on making the final exam a group project/presentation. My jaw dropped. There was no freaking way I was making the final exam in a pre-ap class a project. So, we went ahead and made a test. At any rate, we thought the meeting was going to be about that, as it turns out they all were talking about giving standard tests. The meeting seemed to be mostly pointless. Fine use of time.

I still haven't answered the phone, but would you believe there haven't been any real complaints? Seriously, journalistically a baaadddd book. Photographically, not so great either. Getting everyone in the book? Not our year. But this is the book with no complaints? Life is so weird.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. Two of my awesome students (sisters) gave me a necklace for the end of the year. It is so tiny and delicate. Alright, the incredible up close shot does give you a great look at my freckled covered neck, but try to focus on the necklace. It is so cute. I told Kathleen (one of my editors-in-chief) that I wanted to get a t-shirt with a peace sign too. She did a fine job of making it clear that a t-shirt w/ a peace sign was a faux pas of the highest order. (I may still get one anyway). Thpttttt

The penguin apparently told a bunch of the kids that it is such a great book and better than last year's by a long shot. It's official. She's insane.

Moving on to the weekend agenda. Tonight: I must plan. Tomorrow: as it turns out I will be starting the day by getting a manicure/pedicure with Mom. After that, mad crazy cleaning.

I brought home a ton of yearbook boxes which are an excellent size for packing books and other heavy objects. I'm hoping to get some books etc packed away. Need to make a run to the storage shed.

I'd like to end this with a profound thought. "Never delay the ending of a meeting or the beginning of a cocktail hour. " And with that, I'd like to say Goodnight and Goodbye.

I got zilch, zero

Although it would be funny to not have anything written proving that I got nothin', but perhaps I can bore you with the details while accomplishing the same goal.

Spent most of the day getting everything ready to start passing out yearbooks. Passed them out to seniors from 1:00pm -4:30pm. Actually almost no one showed up after 3:30. Must remember that for next year. We passed them out from the yearbook room for the first time. Not sure of how keen I am for this method, but it's not the worst way we've ever done it either. Didn't leave until well after 5pm because I was trying to get things ready for tomorrow. I'm trying to get to school by 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I left a message for Mr. Cates that we would start passing out at 1:00, so the first call complaining about the book would most likely come at 12:45. Surprisingly, there were no complaints, not answering the phone probably helped.

For those of you who don't believe, last year I was passing yearbooks out to seniors at the senior picnic. Before I got back to school, I had a raging parent complaining about something (I can't even remember at this point.) As it turns out, her child wasn't a senior. And she hadn't even purchased a yearbook. Think about that for a moment.

We'll pass out to the entire student body tomorrow from 7:30am-4:30pm. I have no doubt I'll have all sorts of good times with crazy parents then. A full day followed by a full evening of drinking.

Haven't done much for the house in the last two days, but tomorrow begins operation whirling dervish part II.

11 days left of school. Please, let me survive.

My eyes are burning

I know this is just sad, but it's not even 9pm, my eyes are burning I'm so tired, and I'm going to be lucky to complete this post without any horrifying grammatical/spelling errors.

I realized at about noon today that grades were due at 8pm tonight. Yikes! So I was madly entering grades this afternoon. Luckily Dad was already letting Eva out so that I could attend the yearbook banquet which I had also forgotten about.

So, 5:00 at to get over to the restaurant for the banquet to set up. Well, not so much a banquet as a dinner. We met at Mattito's (Great Mexican food). Ate a lovely dinner, gave my gifts to the seniors (blankets with their names in the corner and the name of the yearbook in the other corner), then passed out the yearbooks.

I write a note to each senior individually. It is really hard to write 25 notes that are all different from each other. Made me tired, mostly cause it made me weepy. I'm going to miss the little punks.

The surprize of the evening . . . the seniors gave me a pair of Christian Dior heels that are totally cute. Ok, I photoshop'd my toes so that they matched the shoes, but are they not adorable? Do these girls know me or what? Yes, I will be wearing them to school tomorrow.

Then about 5 of the seniors gave me a picture of them with notes that each wrote to me. sniff sniff.

On the house side of things, I haven't done anything in two days. I did get the yard sign and lock box in the mail yesterday. I need to fax in the papers to the broker (to whom the flat fee is paid) to get it listed.

I'm sad because the house I went to see appears to be off MLS; most likely because some smart person scooped it up. I'm trying to remember as Fran said that it must mean there is another house meant for me.

I still need to get the front bedroom and the office cleaned up. Goal for Wednesday: Clean office.

Ok, my goose is cooked. Must sleep. Night night

I am da' Bomb

First, I am totally annoyed with the stupid Blog people. It won't let me spellcheck anything. It won't even let me write in another program and transfer it over after spellchecking. Grrrrr. I am trying to attach photos so everyone can see how divine my little home looks, but it is fighting me on that too.

So, in the following photos you should take note of all of the lovely flowers planted in front. The dining room is actually set for a meal, including chargers. Thanks for your help and your stuff, Mom. Doesn't it look warm and inviting? Wouldn't you like to pay a large sum of money to make it your own?

Notice the designer touch in the library of the book and glasses. I would also like to add that the house was clean, and I was in the shower by 4pm. Mimi came over, and we had take-out chinese while watching Mrs. Henderson presents in my ever so clean bedroom. By the way, I highly recommend the movie. Very cute.

The kitchen looks shockingly good. The hoosier cabinet is in the garage waiting to go to storage. (It will require assistance, although it isn't heavy it is a two person job. Hint Hint to anyone reading this.) Now it looks spacious. (There's a nickel real estate word.) Table is set, fake pie on the stove cooling. It is truly a fake little world I am selling.

Most importantly, I believe we can all agree the back does look like an oasis! How inviting, cute pillows and towels on the lounge chairs. How delightful! Well, it is almost 10pm. I am totally tired, and the truck will be arriving with yearbooks (for the second time - let no one forget that.) at about 7am. I'm not sure that I even have clean jeans. Hmmm.

More tomorrow.

The Whirling Dervish

I began my day at Home Depot returning the extra flowers I had purchased, replacing the one I tortured attempting to get it in the ground (started with 8 stems, by the time I had it in the ground it had 3), and buying more stuff.

I went by Mom and Dad's to take Dad a screen that needed to be fixed. Forgot it. Got some toast though.

I finished the bench cushion and one of the pillows for by the pool. The other would be done if the sewing machine needle had not broken. The second pillow will be finished today. (Mom came by and helped me with sewing issues and brought Dad who conveniently picked up the screen I forgot to take to him.)

The master bathroom sparkles. I hate to even use it! I had concerns about the shower pan, but, eight chemicals later, it was clean. The master bedroom is now bare of superfluous knickknacks.

I edged and string trimmed the lawn. Finished planting endeavors too.

Paid for a storage unit which I plan to promptly fill with my excess crapola. I putting the Hoosier cabinet in because I think it makes the kitchen look small. I also have about 5 boxes already filled and ready to go.

The dining room is cleaned up and ready for photos.

In the midst of all of the cleaning other rooms took some hits. I must say rereading this makes me tired. I was BUSY. Do I have the energy for ANOTHER day of dervishness?

But, of course, I am woman hear me roar*.

*For those of you not familiar with the song, invest in Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits album. It's a classic, and you'll know what song to keep singing to yourself.

TGIF

Thursday afternoon I went over to Pam's. She is moving around and getting better every day. Her husband Jim took me to look at a house in their neighborhood. Since it looked empty, we tip-toed, not through the tulips, but across the lawn and peered into windows. Because it is perfect, it will sell immediately. Very small kitchen! It's about time. If I have to give up square footage, I would really like it to be from the kitchen. Picture window at the front of the living room, bedrooms a decent size and the whole thing is at 1700 square feet (just a little smaller than mine).

I got home and ordered the flat fee MLS. Here's the ironic part. At the end they had a survey they requested people to complete, ok, what the heck. It asked questions about other web sites. What? You mean there isn't just one? It even asked what word did you use to find it, MLS, flat fee, for sale by owner or what. I immediately google Flat Fee MLS. Found a different company that for the same price had all of these other benefits. AAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH.

So, I call the company lickety split this morning and say I must cancel this immediately. They very kindly do. I then ordered with the new company. Yea me.

This evening I bought and planted flowers. I'm returning some of them because I got too many. Figured I would. (Damn inability to count really gets in the way at times.)

I also cut out and pinned together the bench cushion I am making.

The list for tomorrow is daunting. However, I am Elizabeth. Completely unaware of my limitations and happily willing to start any project without a second thought. I will be singing, "I am woman hear me roar" all day!

By Sunday, I am hoping to be able to take lots of pictures to possibly use on the MLS listing. It's important to have a goal. Keeps ya' focused.

It's not called hump day for nothin'

First, on a positive note, another fence company took a gander at my fence. When I spoke to Ryan (estimator #2) this afternoon, he said he went by earlier today, but he would come back and look at it again to see what the minimum that needs to be done is. The supports for the pool are in good condition (thank heavens). If they can just fix the gate and reinforce where necessary, I bet I can save myself beaucoup de bucks (sorry Pam, I know that hurt your ears.)

However in the annoying category, Terminex treated for termites today. I now have a lot of holes about a foot apart going all around my house. They filled most with cement, I'm thinking perhaps I can give them a ring-e-ding about finishing that and disconnecting the hose from a pipe that goes to the pool. It's designed to make it easy to fill the pool. I can't imagine why they hooked it up because it wasn't hooked up before they arrived. But, more importantly, I CAN'T GET IT UNDONE. (Yes, you should hear that being practically screeched.) I wouldn't mind so much if now I can't water my plants because of this maneuver.

I went to Joanne's fabrics on my way home and got some thread and a little bit of material to finish making pillows for the bench by the pool. I won't tell you how much I ended up spending. Needless to say the ability to count would really help me when I embark on shopping trips. I am clearly focused on my goal: the backyard is going to be an oasis I tell you, an oasis.

Oh, and did I mention, I am coming out from under all the misery stress? I know this because every time I get on the freakin' scale I've gained a little more weight. Please let me survive the last 17 days of school . . . without becoming homicidal.

Good grief, I really am going to need to exercise because as we all know, exercise makes endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. And, happy teachers don't kill their students.

My plan is to go in tomorrow and finish making copies and getting everything ready for teaching poetry the next two weeks in English. I'm sure someone will show early and screw up my plans. They usually sense when I am trying to get a lot done.

Oh my, it's getting late, 8:20 by my watch.

Ta Ta For Now

Another Day

Yearbooks arrived Monday morning. For the first time as long as I've been doing it, the driver was able to unload the books with the boxes still on the flats. (Usually we have to unload the truck box by box.) Sadly, I discovered none of the books were name stamped, so he had to come back later in the day to pick half the boxes back up and return them to Topeka, Kansas to be stamped. With any luck we will get them back by next Monday. So instead of one miserable day of back-breaking work unloading the truck I shall have two this year. Is anyone surprised that this is the year for it to happen? I haven't even looked at the books yet. I'm not quite ready to face the evidence of the year if you know what I mean.

Although my butt was some kind of tired, I managed to go home, clean part of the garage AND work on the pool. I am goooood. Tonight I am slacker girl.

Pam C. got out of the hospital Sunday. Incredible considering she had pancreatic cancer surgery 10 days earlier. She is doing great. She still feels crappy, but who wouldn't? She called me Monday to let me know Jim (her husband) had found a couple of houses for me. How great is that? So I'm going over to their house Thursday to check on Pam and visit houses.