Isn't it lovely

It's a beautiful day! I love this weather. It's cool but not cold. We slept with the windows open last night as we have done most of this month, but last night is the first time I've felt like I needed a cover. The sheets were balled up at the foot of the bed and I was too asleep to get them, so I just snuggle with Superman and that worked well.

This morning we woke up gradually. I love doing that. It wasn't late, though we went to bed pretty late last night. I painted the shelf (I am painting a shelf that goes in the kitchen) for a bit, then showered. Once I was clean, dressed, and in my right mind, Superman and I went to our favorite pizza and beer restaurant. They serve brunch on Sundays. I had the Milk Stout curry chicken crepes. Oh, my, they were good! Last week we were there and discovered a new beer they have on tap, Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout. As long as they have that on tap I doubt I'll drink anything else. So good!

I am trying to make my kitchen look better. Though the kitchen has a few good characteristics, it is overall a pain in my arse. There is lots of counter space but it's in one long row. It's a long walk from where I do most of my food preparation to the refrigerator. And the walls have been ugly for a long time. Finally we are fixing that. Superman got the old wallpaper off the walls and I have painted them a cheerful yellow. Did I tell you about that? Don't remember if I've mentioned it. There's a narrow shelf along the wall in the narrow part of the kitchen. Superman built it as a pantry shelf, and it's wide enough to hold cans and small boxes. We hadn't finished the wood so it was bare, natural shelving boards. Superman had to take the shelf off the wall to remove the wallpaper, of course, and I painted the wall yellow-ish. But that narrow part of the kitchen doesn't get good light, and the yellow actually made the space seem darker for some reason. I don't know. Anyway, I decided to paint the shelves bright white before hanging them on the wall again. They are in the process of turning white. Right now the paint has to dry thoroughly before I can add the last coat. I hope it's the last coat.

Diva turns 16 the first week of December. Since December weather doesn't make for a very good outside party, she has decided to have a combination early birthday/Halloween party. That happens this Friday. She has done a lot for it already. There's still some cooking to do, as I told her that baking cookies three weeks in advance was not a good idea. The end of the school grading period is this week, and the kids get a day off school on Friday, so Diva has this party planned to take place this coming Friday in the Civic Center park. There is a fairly nice gazebo/pavilion thing there, and a couple of smaller picnic shelters in the park. We could reserve the large pavilion, which is way bigger than we need, for $100. Or we could show up and claim any of the shelters, even the pavilion, for free and for nothing on a first-come basis. Unless of course the large pavilion is already reserved, which I doubt it will be in the middle of Friday afternoon. The party is scheduled for 3:00, but of course we will need to get there early to set up. Diva has decorations she wants to put up; streamers, a banner, etc. No balloons as far as I know, but they might also make an appearance. Who knows what terrors lurk in the mind of that girl. So we'll do the birthday thing this Friday, and be off the hook for a big to-do in December. That suits me fine.

I don't really have anything to say. I've spent all this space, all these words, saying much nothing. Let's see if I can jot down a few other random thoughts.

• Oreo (the dog) has some powerfully smelly farts. 
• The water now runs cold from the cold water faucet. Our cold water has been warm for months now. 
• Autumn seasonal beers are my favorite of the seasonal stuff. 
• I've been drinking too much beer and eating too much not-good-for-me stuff that I've gained five pounds. Oops. Time to cut back.

Let's talk baseball for a few. Both of the league championship series are finished. We watched Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers last night to win the American League championship. It was an excellent game in which a grand slam home run featured prominently. I haven't seen a grand slam in a few years, and the Red Sox managed two of them in this championship series! I love watching good baseball. Late last week the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League series from the L.A. Dodgers. Since the Braves didn't make it far into the post season, and the Pittsburgh Pirates finked out early also, the Cardinals were my next choice for Nat'l League champs. So I'm happy. And I strongly preferred Boston over Detroit, so that's good. No baseball tonight, but the World Series starts Wednesday evening. I am excited about that. Perhaps I'll abstain from beer until then. My waistline would benefit. Beer and baseball go so well together, you see. 

And that's all the rambling I can think to ramble today. It feels a lot like naptime now, anyway, so there we go. 

Duuu-u-u-ude

Warning: this is going to ramble something awful.

So I did something to hurt my back. Strained a muscle or something. My right tenderloin ...

Website for this image

The beef tenderloin runs along both sides of the spine.

cher-homespun.blogspot.com

 is affected. It started hurting last week and I figured it would ease up in a couple of days. It still hurts, though, sometimes pretty bad. At Superman's suggestion I saw the doctor today. I had tried some of his (Superman's, not the doctor's) muscle relaxer, but it didn't do much at all. That's what I told the doc when he asked what I'd tried. So he gave me a prescription for a different muscle relaxer. This one does the trick! Ran by the pharmacy to get the scrip' filled, then took it when I got home. Bye bye see you next Tuesday, dudes! I slept from 11:00-ish until after 4:00. Took another pill about an hour ago and I can't seem to concentrate very well. Had to get spell check to help me spell "muscle" because I couldn't figure it out. 
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I'm supposed to be getting a job or something. Have I mentioned this before? It's so long between posting that I can't remember what I've said. Anyway, I'm looking for a job, but not very hard. The student loan payments have started, and without me making any money things are really tight. I need to make some money. Want to do something useful and meaningful, and want to work part time. I have many skills and talents. Haven't got a good resume, though. Don't know quite how to write one. I should put some effort into that, huh? Hey, maybe working from home would be a good idea. 
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The kitchen is coming along, though of course slowly. Superman has the big hole in the floor all covered up. Got the subfloor and underlayment down. He needs to take up the old vinyl in the undamaged areas of the kitchen so we can have new vinyl installed. Superman and I went to the home improvement store last weekend (I actually don't remember when, but it was within the past couple of weeks) to get plywood or something but discovered that the cabinets we want were on clearance sale. So we got them instead. I think we have all the cabinet we need. He did his measuring and figuring. There will be some spacers or something. I don't know. Anyway, the cabinets are sitting all cockeyed in the kitchen while we paint primer on them. I was going to help with that, because it is something I can do, but damn if my back doesn't hurt like hell. Maybe tomorrow.
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I didn't mention it in my last post, but I had a birthday last month. Am now 50 years old. It seems kind of old and also not so old, depending on how I think about it. Right now I can't think real clearly, so I won't. And I'm still 50. Yep, that's a big number.

And speaking of birthdays, what was formerly today (Feb 14th, when I began this post) is Twitch's 21st birthday. Boo-yah. I talked to him earlier. He has an early class tomorrow, so he didn't do anything special tonight, but he says he plans to tie one on (is that phrase still in use? I'm old, folks) this weekend. I'm pleased and proud for him, attaining the 21st anniversary of his birth. And also, I think mothers should be honored on their children's birthdays. Know what I mean? (Mothers who read this probably will.) I carried that boy for 9.5 months (I was about 2 weeks past my due dates giving birth to both of those babies) and suffered unaccountable miseries in the process. Woe is me. (I wish you could hear me say that. My Grandmama taught me how to make that phrase sound so woeful.)
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More about the kitchen: Superman decided that we want granite counters. We can't afford the solid one piece chunks, but we can swing the 12 inch tiles. Which he ordered. They look great - in the box. Of course we don't have the cabinets installed yet, much less the underlying counter support things (there's probably a name for that) upon which to affix the tiles. But I picked out the granite. There wasn't a whole lot of choice, and I want the kitchen to be fairly light, which narrowed the choice down to two. Eventually there will be pictures. Don't hold your collective breath.
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Earlier today (Tuesday) I contemplated writing this post. In doing so I had a few ideas about what to write. Most of it I cannot now remember.
Reducing the rest to bullet points:

• Still having some trouble sleeping, but it's better. This muscle relaxer will both help and hinder the process, if you know what I mean.
• I feel sort of artistic, but frustrated also. I'm not good at self motivation or self direction. Don't know what or how to do art right now. Possibilities abound, but here I sit. 
• Been struggling with depression a lot recently. That's one reason I haven't posted here much of late. Feeling a bit better this week, so far. 
• This sore back prevents me from driving in two ways. When I drive it aggravates the condition, and when I'm medicated, oh HELL no, I am in no condition to drive. Wooo hooo... I drove to the doctor's office this morning, though. Probably shouldn't have. eh. Not gonna drive tomorrow (Wednesday)
• This changing of the day in the middle of the night is annoying when I stay up this late. Wednesday is my tomorrow because I haven't gone to bed yet, but you are reading this on Wednesday (or much later, since no one checks my blog anymore, since I update so rarely). 
• There seems to be some profound realization lurking under the surface. The surface of this post?? I doubt it. The surface of my current existence? Yeah, I think so. As if I'm looking through a glass darkly. Ephemeral half-visions of something that looks vaguely like Truth. Or maybe it's the drugs. 
• It's getting weirder in here. Time to go to bed.  

As seen on Seismic Twitch:

-1 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Evidently I'm not a good wife. At least from the 1930s perspective. But I put out, so it's all good. Right? 

-6 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Is it good or bad that I'm an even worse 1930s husband?

I couldn't sleep last night, even though I tried. Didn't get to sleep until about 8:30 this morning, then only slept four hours. I'm tired now (10:30 Wednesday night), and when I'm done with this post I'll lie down and try to sleep again. I did well to avoid napping any more this afternoon.

I have nothing to do, nowhere to go these days. I'm supposed to be looking for a job. I am, sort of, but not with much gusto. No surprise, but I've been struggling with depression. Hasn't been too bad today, but late last week was a bitch.

We've had lots of rain recently. The area is officially in a drought, so the rain is a good thing, but damn, my yard is a soggy mess. And there's a leak (of course) through the foundation wall (just above the foundation, actually) bringing water into the crawlspace under the kitchen. It's very obvious now that we don't have a kitchen floor. Superman figured out the whys and wherefores of the leak and has stuff to stem the tide, but hasn't had a chance to get back under the house to plug the leak. Maybe this weekend. Then maybe he can start nailing the subfloor onto the joists. This damn kitchen mess is one contributor to my depression. It's such a disruption of the normal flow of life around here. And expensive, too, what with convenience foods (frozen, prepackaged, etc.) and take-out, and disposable cups, plates, bowls, forks, knives, spoons.

Yesterday was Sproing's birthday. He's 14 now, and will be the same age as Diva for the next 10.5 months. It feels like a disturbance in the force for the month and a half that she's "older" than him. He got a pull up bar for his birthday. The thing rests at the top of the door frame without having to be clamped in or anything. Cool, really, and the kid can pull himself up on it, too. He did two reps for me last night. I don't know many he can do. He also got his own cell phone. Actually bought the thing with his own money. It's a pay as you go plan, and he has 100 or 150 minutes (I forget) a month, but unlimited texts. That's what he mostly wants, the texts. The darling hasn't given me his phone number yet. Oy.

OK, it's 11:00 now and I'm going to try this sleep thing again.

More kitchen drama, update style

It's been a while since I gave you an update on the kitchen. The demolition is complete now, and Superman has begun to do what's necessary to put it back together. Things are progressing slowly once again after a hiatus. 

The hiatus was necessary because Superman is... well, not the most graceful of all creatures. The floor was gone, all the way to the joists in the primary kitchen-y area of the room. 

The room is shaped like a fat L, the upright portion being fattest, and the horizontal bit more like a wide hallway that leads to the laundry room. The fat corner connecting the two lengths is where we have no floor. Therefore, in order to get from one side to the other one must levitate above the hole, or something. Walk on the joists. Jump really far. We have to cross it in order to do laundry (unless we want to use the laundromat, which we don't, since we don't need to, since we now have a working washer, thankyouverymuch). 

 Superman had a couple of space heaters blowing toward the joists to dry them out completely. On the Thursday between Christmas and New Years he went in there to check on things before going to bed. Only he forgot to activate his levitate function, and ended up here:

... after a brief visit to the ground under the joists. He cut a big gash on the top of his head which the ER doc stapled together. It's the first time I've seen staples applied. It was fascinating. Since Superman's scalp was numb, it more or less fascinated him as well. He was not amused before the Lidocaine took effect, though. In addition to the gash in his scalp he got lots of bumps, bruises and scrapes from the adventure. Oh, and also a concussion. And of course it hurt his delicate back. He was on prescription pain meds for a couple of days, but healed fairly quickly, all things considered.

Here is his stapled head before he'd had a chance to wash it. You can still see the Betadine in his hair.

The staples are out now, and the wound looks amazingly good. I can barely see the scar. It was a very clean cut and the doctor did a good job with the staples. Also he's no longer in pain from the fall (though he's currently suffering some shingles pain) and has gotten back to work on the kitchen.

Last week he sanded the damaged wood, scrubbed it with bleach water, then painted an anti-mold concoction on it. This weekend he sistered all the joists. When he fell into the hole he squished part of the air conditioner duct and has to repair that. He will also reroute the drain pipe, hopefully this week. After that he can begin to reconstruct the floor.

One might wonder why the joists were left exposed like that. 'Cause come on, Java, some planks or a piece of plywood would cover that gap and make it safer. Yeah. Wouldn't it. He laid some plywood down after he fell though the floor. When he was working in there this weekend he removed the plywood and put down a couple of planks, but that isn't very safe either. I carried a load of laundry across it this afternoon - kinda dicey. I am not strong enough to put the plywood back down, though he says he'll do it this evening.

In other home improvement news, Superman finished the bathtub area in the hall bathroom. That bathroom has been an ongoing project for a couple of years. He retiled the walls around the tub and replaced the fixtures. It took him a long time to get the tiling done (a year or more) and over the holidays he finished the grout and calk and applied sealer. When Twitch was home for the holidays they put up the shower curtain rod.

 (Twitch needs a haircut.)

 That was exciting!! And he accomplished that with a concussion and staples in his head! Superman, indeed!

He also gave us a bathroom door. There's been an old sheet hanging over the gap for a long time. There's still no cabinet or sink, but the toilet, bathtub, and door all work. It's all very exciting, let me tell you.

And that's all for now. This is only a home improvement update, and there is other stuff (not much, actually, and that's the point) that I'd like to ramble about. The kids are doing fairly well, all things considered. Sproing is actually doing very well, and Diva is not being outrageously bad. I'll post again, hopefully later this week, with more adventures from Java land.

My kitchen, or something like it

 ... or what's left of it. Let's see if I can post these pictures. These are our lovely new curtains! They do a marvelous job keeping the kitchen climate from encroaching on the rest of the house.

To the right (I think)(not sure about the format here) and below are the cabinets before Superman started tearing things out.

 Superman cut a wedge from the squishiest part of the floor, there next to the A/C vent. It's our first look at the underlayment. She don't look good, boss.

My sexy Superman removes that ugly-ass counter. Ain't he cute?

The sink and counter are gone from this cabinet.

 Superman uses the reciprocating saw (that's fun to type: reciprocating saw)

 and something shiny to break up the cabinet.

He has a small pry bar,

  but not a large crowbar. Here's another good (?) use for a large pipe wrench.

 You can see the water damage to the underlayment underneath the cabinet he just removed.

 Twitch holds a board that shows some rot.

 This dark icky stuff looks like tar paper to me, but it's the wet moldy particle board underlayment beneath the sink cabinet. Yes, it smells bad. 

 These next two shots are more of the underlayment, I think, that extends beyond the sink cabinet.

 And it goes all the way under the stove. That's where the stove was. Superman has it off to the left, blocking the narrow path from the kitchen to our tiny laundry room. I haven't washed clothes in weeks because I can't get to the laundry room. Superman can, though, so I have clean clothes. That's why he's Superman!

 See, there's the back of the stove. And he has a box fan in the window blowing icky air toward the back yard. 

 This is what the floor looked like as Superman broke up the damaged particle board. The orange cat (sometimes called Saratoga, sometimes Caramel, sometimes Marmalade) loves to "help."

 And here the subfloor is revealed. Oh look! It's wet, too! And for some reason it's painted white. I don't know why. And only a portion of it is painted. Weird.

Superman let this dry out for a couple of days, but to no avail. It was still pretty damp.

See, only part of it is painted. And this is the subfloor, which gets covered by the underlayment for the vinyl. No one will ever see it unless the floor gets damaged somehow... Oh, right. 

 What a mess.

 Oh look! Superman went to (only big box home improvement store in town) for supplies!

The subfloor must come out. He had hoped to remove and replace it in one day so our house wouldn't be exposed to the crawl space overnight. No such luck. He did this Monday, if I recall, and it's early Thursday morning now and still looks like this.

 You can see sawdust on the insulation. The insulation is wet, too, no surprise.

 No more insulation! But wait, what's that on the ground? We've got a huge swath of plastic covering the dirt in the crawl space. I forget what that's called, but the plumbers said it's a good idea. It adds to the value of the home, too, a little bit. Maybe. It also captures water that drips from the house. Yep, there's a big puddle of water on the ground under where the sink used to be. Does that mean there is still an active leak? Superman disabled the sink the day after Thanksgiving. Nothing has gone down the drain for a month. Are the supply lines leaking?

 Ah, there are the supply lines. Superman called the plumbers back out here to check their work. They came Wednesday. Nope, it isn't the supply lines. When he talked to the plumbers Tuesday they said that water can sit for a long time, and to give it some air flow. He put the box fan across the joists pointing down, and the puddle was nearly gone Wednesday morning.

Can you see the damage to the wall studs and sill behind the supply lines? He's going to have to replace the sill and studs under the window where the sink was.

I need to take pictures of our makeshift kitchen in the living room. I have some shots of the living room in its Christmas glory, such as it was.

This evening Superman and I went out to one of our favorite date locations: the big box home improvement store! We bought two small heaters which are now set up on either side of the hole in the floor, blowing toward each other. The idea is that the dry heat will help dry the joists, which Superman really doesn't want to replace. He's going to sister the joists anyway, so there will be more substance to the joists when he's done. But he doesn't see the need to remove and replace the ones there. The heaters and the fan are working to dry out what's left.

We also bought a new sink. As shown in one of the above photos, the old sink is a big beige cast iron clunker with bits of enamel chipped off the edges. OK, the photo probably doesn't show that much detail, but trust me. So we got a new 20 gauge stainless steel 8" deep double bowl sink. It was on clearance for a decent price, and Superman wanted to buy it now before it wasn't available anymore. There's no place to put it, but whatever. We also looked at cabinets, and tentatively decided on the prefab unfinished suckers. They're cheaper and quicker than building our own, and we can choose a counter top and then finish the cabinets to match. 

Since we're putting the new kitchen on the (big box home improvement store) credit card, we've decided to add a new refrigerator to the deal. We've needed a new fridge for ages. The one we have isn't big enough for the size of our household, and is old and inefficient and falling apart. So we looked at refrigerators, too. I know which one I really want, and it's come down in price since it first came out half a dozen years ago. It is 22.5 cubic feet and now less than $1000. Barely less, but less is less. Used to be only the 18 cu. ft. fridges were that cheap, and most of the smaller ones don't come in the configuration and with the features that I want. Don't know if that's the one we'll end up with, but I hope so.

My land it's late! I'm tired. And this post is way too long now. It's mostly pictures, though, for what that's worth. I'll be back in a day or so with Christmas pictures (maybe) and more updated shots of the kitchen. Heck, I might add photos of the bathroom that Superman has been remodeling for 2, maybe 3 years. This kitchen best go faster than that!

Tales from Boxing Day

If I were in the UK I'd celebrate Boxing Day, but I don't quite know how to do it here. I need British guidance.

Christmas was wonderfully low key. The kids each got two gifts from us, one major purchase and one handmade thingie from me. The two teenagers got handheld games - PSP for Sproing and DSi for Diva. Twitch got a vacuum cleaner. That was fun. It's so practical and not at all elegant, and I enjoyed that much. We also got a vacuum cleaner for Light, but she wasn't with us for The Day. She'll be driving down from PA in a couple of weeks and we'll do Christmas with her then. I knit a scarf for Sproing, made a fleece blanket for Diva with a length of purchased fleece and a couple of packs of blanket binding. I made a balaclava for Twitch, sort of like this...

only not too much. Made it out of fleece, added extra insulation over the ears and face part. I am making a big woolen winter coat for Light, but haven't done much with it. The pattern pieces are cut out, but I haven't begun construction yet.

And for C I bought a mock turtleneck and a pullover sweater, both of which he really likes. He's been wearing the sweater, and he looks sexy in it, imho.

Since my kitchen is out of commission we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner yesterday. That was great! We might continue to do that in years to come. I like cooking, and when Light is here we all have a good time in the kitchen. But man, it's so easy to go out for Chinese!

My big project for today, and consequently my big gripe for today, is buying bras. Penney's has a good sale on bras today (this week?). I bought eight bras for $111.28, which for those of you who don't purchase bras is a pretty good deal. I bought eight bras, came home and threw away all my old bras because... damn. I haven't bought any bras in a couple of years and all of mine were in various stages of nasty. So I'm starting fresh with all new ones. And I HATE shopping for bras! When these wear out I'm going to the plastic surgeon and getting my boobs cut off. OK, not really, but the idea is tempting. I want the FTM sex change boob surgery. Well, probably not really, but having these boobs is a pain in my neck (back, chest, arms, etc.). (I wear a D-cup size, and that's enough boob to weigh things down a lot.) When I got home from the store I asked Superman if he really really really likes my boobs. He assures me he does. He had better show some strong appreciation for them or I'm cutting them off.

There are lots of pictures of this kitchen floor fiasco. I will get a picture post together soon. I find it difficult to get pictures onto this blogspot thing. I have to put them in just the right order, and do the pics first because they don't insert where I want them. And it's hard to move them from one place to another in the post. Perhaps I don't know how to do it right, but that's my life. Anyway, I want to share pictures of our kitchen. And perhaps a photo or two of our understated Christmas decoration.

Until then, I'm going to have another beer. Because bra shopping drives me to drink.

addendum

I took a nap. Woke up feeling more rested. Went to the kitchen to "do" supper. There was a variety of food, from onion soup to chocolate chip cookies. Twitch had made the cookies, S had made the soup. Everyone in the house was in the kitchen once I arrived. It was a happy chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

We began the clean up. S and Superman and I did most of it. I was trying to prepare for some baking tomorrow, and I had trouble finding things I need. Superman was putting away the food, and had trouble finding things he needed. Stuff wasn't put in the right place, things had been left out, dirty. Consumable products had been consumed without our knowledge. Empty boxes were left in the cabinets, giving a false sense of existence.

There is a box of zip-closure bags in the cabinet. But wait, it's just the box! No bags inside. Where did all our bags go? Superman just got a big box of bags very recently. There were a lot in here. Where did they all go? How is he going to put away the (whatever it was he wanted to put away)?

Dammit, why can't I just go into the kitchen and do what I need to do? I can't even walk into the laundry room right now because there are plastic hampers full of clothes all in the way. I'm too old for this sh!t. I try to get out there and participate in the opperation of this household, but everything I try to do ends up costing so much extra effort to do. I get very frustrated. And flustered. And stressed. And I lose focus. And I come back in my room and hide while the chaos out there increases.

And then I blame myself for not keeping a closer handle on things, not effectively managing the household. That is my job, right? To keep order and take care of home and family? I don't do that well. Frankly, I suck at it. Then the voice in my head (not literal. Don't call the straight jacket forces on me) begins to tell me that I'm a failure, which means I'm worthless. I can now recognize the voice, and know he has a distorted concept of truth. This is huge progress, really. I should be very glad of that.

Anyway, I'm very, very tired again. I'm going to get ready for bed now. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Everyone goes back to school tomorrow, including C, so that increases my chances of having a peaceful morning.

Goodnight

Blogging in the dark

A Thanksgiving Message

It may take a while for me to post this message. It is 1:45 on Thanksgiving afternoon and the power is out. My laptop has battery backup so I can at least write this.

I am thankful I didn't have anything in the oven when the power went out.

We have so far had a very productive day. Most of the kitchen is clean. The older kids started on that before I even got out of bed. Light led the charge, bless her.

I am thankful that Light is doing so well the day after her wisdom tooth extraction.

I have prepared pies. I am waiting for power to heat my oven to bake the pies. There are other things on the menu besides pies, but that's what I did first.

I am thankful the power just came back on! I will wait a few minutes to see if it stays on before I go back to the kitchen. That is the excuse I'm using to stay here and write instead of going back into the hot, stuffy kitchen. J

I'll have to give some background info on the kitchen in order for you to appreciate how wonderful it is to get the kitchen clean. I'll do that in another post. Briefly, though, lots of junk from some of the cabinets has been on and under and around the kitchen table, some in boxes, some stacked on the floor, for a while now. Today it is ALL gone! Well, gone from the floor and table. Much of it has been put away, a significant bit was thrown away (yippee!), and some of it is just stored elsewhere (not where it should go) for the time being.

I am thankful my kitchen is as clean as it is.

I finally remembered to get the turkey out of the deep freeze yesterday morning. It is, of course, still frozen. I went out last night and got a nice big beef roast. That is our Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey will be our Saturday-after-Thanksgiving dinner.

S and C have gone to visit S's mother. She is staying in a little wide-spot-in-the-road town with her most recent ex-husband and their young son for the holiday. The boys are planning to be here for our dinner, but when the power went out they decided to go on out there (about 45 minutes away) to see the mom, since dinner here may be a bit later than originally planned. I hope they have a safe trip and an enjoyable visit with S's family. (A pleasant visit is not a particularly likely outcome, though it is possible.)

I am thankful that the boys can go visit S's family.

C is grumpy and out-of-sorts today. It is grating on S's nerves. I asked C about it, and the basic problem is that he misses his mom. She now lives in Virginia, I think- anyway, very far away from here. This Thanksgiving is not going the way he really wants it to. All the cleaning and arranging and busyness here today is accompanied by some fussing and arguing, particularly between the younger two and everyone else. Typical. He's really irritated by all that. I'm glad they've left for now, and I hope C is in a better frame of mind when he gets back. I hope S is still in a good frame of mind when he gets back. When visiting his family, anything can happen.

OK, enough procrastinating. Time to get cooking.

P.S. Vuboq: In the holiday tradition as you posted yesterday, I am drinking towards a Traditional Thanksgiving Stupor™.