Wednesday

Blame the cat for no entry.

If this was your life, would you be getting up off your nice warm chair and disturbing your nice warm kitty? I don't think so.  If you aren't watching LA to Vegas,  you should be.

Tuesday

I had a busy weekend. Friday I came home and discovered that the dog snacked on his futon, that made me super happy - well, he did only snack on it! Thats a big step up from his usual feasting. I did have to get a new sheet for it and restuff it and re-tape it, but I didn't even think about it until Sunday because I wasn't up for it.

Friday night was First Friday so I went shopping and bought things I didn't need. I bought a birthday gift that I hope I don't forget about, and two very fancy, very decadent, very not at all going stale croissants . It was nice to be out on a warm night for once.

Saturday was cold and rainy and windy. A complete bummer. So I found things to do inside, I painted my shelves! Its turns out I bought a lot too much paint, so this summer I'm going to paint inside of the table, its now very pink and doesn't need to stay that way. I already painted the inside of the doors since they are open frequently, so the inside should get done sooner rather than later.

I know they gray looks dark, but it matches the darker gray in the birds and it works in the room really well. I was concerned about the different grays not working together and now I am not. The lighter gay of the walls goes with the lighter gray of the birds, but the lighter gray of the birds isn't exactly in the foreground, and it was disappearing - but now I feel better.

Then, I went to the mall. ON the way to the mall I had to drive down Lower Greenville, well, Raleigh's version of Lower Greenville, and those girls were wearing shorts! It was 43 degrees with a constant rain and a wind. It was miserable! I was wearing winter clothes because it is still winter. Shorts and tee shirts! Like it was spring. Its not, it was, briefly, and then it went a way.

I was a not-very-bright undergrad once upon a time too but when it was cold I respected that it was cold and I dressed accordingly. But it was rarely cold and when it was cold we kind of liked it. We wore sweaters in October because it was October and you are supposed to wear sweaters in October even though in October it was 85 degrees. We got really, really tired of summer. When I wore shorts in February it was because it was 80 degrees.

I got to the mall and got a spot, that wasn't the big deal, the big deal was that later, when I was finished, I was able to find my car again! That was the big deal.

Sunday, it stopped raining but it was cold. I finally took Rocket for a nice walk which was nice for both of us.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

All this working at work has got to stop, two days in a row and I come home and have no desire whatsoever to immediately go for a miles long walk or go for a walk or do much of anything. I do however want to shut my eyes for just a second though...

It ended badly for Team Take the Dog For a Walk, but Team Nap With The Dog pulled out another win. The dog seemed just as happy the time he would have been out walking, napping, so at least he was satisfied. My fitbit is not speaking to me.

Its just so wrong, I need to not be such a good worker and go back to spending the day goofing off and playing with phone. I go for more walks after work and when I goof off more. I did finished another book today, now I have to find another. I want another title by the same author, Martin Cruz Smith, but he is not cheap and even one of his back titles is  pricey. I might just suck it up though because I haven't read Gorky Park is years and it is a good book, but I read a bit of one of the newer books and I liked it too - I can't get both, that's too much of an investment - so maybe I'll draw lots and see which one I end up. MCS writes a lot but I'm only interested in one  of his characters, so its not like Im going to buy his entire oeuvre .

Its also fiction and I think I deserve credit for reading some fiction after so much non-fiction. I think its good for me. I do love a good murder mystery. Ideally, KIllers of the Flower Moon will get cheaper and I can buy that. Its a murder mystery and its non-fiction! Double score. And its about how we got the FBI, so screw you 45.

This weekend I have so much to do, I have to paint, I have to run errands, I should mow the back yard and even more fun? Its supposed to rain! So at least hopefully, I can get the painting done finally. In really, really want to. And the errands, I have errands I should run in the evening but by the time I get home I don't want to leave again and there is only so much I can get done in a lunch hour. The weekend, its like a 48 hour lunch.

Thursday

I didn't actually take the dog for a walk today - work sucked okay! There was a subpoena and this time it wasn't for someone else, which totally sucks because of course I am the one who gets to fill it because why not! And I do have file room subpoena PTSD, but no one cares about that.

But as it turns out this time it only requires me to hit print, over and over and over again, while sitting at my desk. I can do that.

And I still go all my other work done too, I have until Friday to get the rest of the order filled.  Still sucks though.

I came home, thinking it would be a good day to walk the dog. I took the dog out to pee, I came back inside and saw a puddle on the floor. I looked at the cats - hard. They have never had an accident, but there is always a first time. They weren't in the room so I looked hard into the space they would have occupied if they were in the room, then I looked at the dog, who was in the room, I couldn't figure out when he would have had time to do this, then I sniffed it. It wasn't pee. It was way to clear and watery to be anyone's pee.

I then looked to the sink,  I mean, I gave it a really dirty look.

The recently repaired sink.  The recently paid for sink.  The sink with entirely new guts sink. The still cleared out sink that I haven't even put the stuff back underneath it sink because I haven't felt like it sink. It was coming from under the sink.

I made a 911 call to my plumber. Hey. Its leaking under my sink  . Fifteen minutes later he was under my sink. It wasn't the guts, it was the faucet. The faucent had been dripping earlier in the week but it had stopped - that should have been a clue, it stopped up at the top but it started underneath . When you are spitting up blood , you have to wonder whats going on further down the pipe. I needed to have looked further down the pipe. Because it was waiting to flood my kitchen. Kind of, there was a puddle!

Anyway, he tightened everything that could be tightened, stopped the leaking and went home to study up on warranties on the faucet, which he installed.

And then I hung up my new Mom-Made drapes. I think they look very nice and lighten the room considerably.

Discount anything pink, and think dark gray, and you have the idea.

Wednesday

This time the animal keeping me away was Ace. I was woken up by the sound of purring in my ear, apparently, for  hours. I kept waking up and finding him on my pillow but with most of him on my chest, staring at me, purring.

Now, this is great, and he hasn't done this in a long time and I'm glad he has forgiven me for whatever I did wrong, and he does hold a grudge and I really have missed him a lot... but gee whiz.

But I should sleep better tonight because I didn't take a nap! No naps for me! I kept myself awake after work! And I took the dog for a walk! Yay!!!!!! I literally didn't do anything else, but at least I did the big things. I did make dinner and take the dog for a walk!

Its a good thing I don't have a long list of things I need to get done or anything.

Tuesday

First genuinely warm day of the spring and a perfect day to walk the dog after work and I come home and fall asleep on the chair. By the time I finally get up dinner is late and its gotten too far along in the timeline to walk the dog. Not okay. Its days like this that makes my fitbit very disappointed with me, I can feel it sighing mechanically and shaking its little sensors. Tough shit weirdo one of us is a biped one of us has a battery, you don't move unless I do and I didn't move today. Deal with it.

I make my dinner, I fix the dogs and I clean the cat boxes.  Super I got things done!

I did finally change clothes and then I did pretend there was some chance in hell that I might still make it outside.  The self delusion is real, I should have just been completely honest with myself  about my plans and my level of motivation for the evening and  put on pajamas and been warm because while the outside may have finally warmed up the inside is still cold and now so am I- and now I'm going to have to change clothes again for no reason and that feels like a waste of time and effort when I could have just cut out the middle outfit all together.

I did hear it rain a little earlier so I felt all self righteous about not going out after all., but then I never checked to see if it was actually rain and not just stuff from the tree falling , so I decided to go faith alone that I was right and my post-work nap was not ill timed and wrong. I was tired damn it! The dog was restless and kept getting up and moving and normally he's a pretty good sleeper but he would not stay in one place for more than a couple of hours, it was driving me crazy. I don't know how I kept myself from face planting on my desk all day but it sure caught up with me the first time I stopped moving. I sure hope he used his time wisely today and caught up on his sleep.

He kept thinking he wanted to be under the covers and then he would be under the coves and would get, I guess, too warm, so he would  leave and then he would want to get back under the covers which would require waking me up to help him. Over and over and over. So much fun.

It is possible for him to do this without waking me up, I know it is because I know he  does this and he doesn't wake me up to show me how clever he is everytime. I know this because sometimes we go to sleep and he is on top of the blanket in place A and we wake up and he's under the blanket in place D and I have no memory of him getting there. He can do it and he chooses not to.

Dog ownership is not for the faint hearted.

Hoppy Easter!

Its the Easter Doggy!

Thursday

One of my co-workers was so together with the sisterhood yesterday. She poked her head in my door, looked at me and said "You look Tired".

How do you respond to that? I was like "I feel fine". Because I did, its kind of hard to tell how I "look" in my office because I don't use the overhead fluorescent light and instead just use a floor lamp. My office is not well lit.

And so who was she to tell me that I "look tired", it was also 3:45 in the afternoon, who does not "look tired" at a quarter to four? And its not at all being a good member of the sisterhood at all. We're supposed to empower each other, not tell each other we "look tired". SHe could have said "You look like you have been working really hard today" or "Doing a great job today, Diana!", or  "Wow! You are tearing it up Diana! Good work!"

But no, she went with "You look tired".  Whatever. And I was fine, it was last in the afternoon and I did want to go home I was looking down a staff meeting so my day was not over yet. Normally, I go home at 4pm - not so much that day. Sucked being me.

But. That was so excuse to tell me I "looked tired". Because we all know  what that means and it is not a compliment - It does not say "Gee, your skin looks great today! Totally glowing!", "Are you useing a new make up? You look fantastic!", "I love that top on you, the color is great on you!". There are a lot of things you can say to someone that does not tell them they look like death warmed over.  Because that is what we all want to hear, it doesn't matter where in the day we are.

What if I had been totally feeling myself right then? What if I had just just got back from the bathroom where I had just been admiring myself in the mirror? What if I had just finished a whole pile of work and was feeling very professionally  accomplished and good about myself and she comes in a tells me that I "look tired" . That would be crushing.

Its a good thing I had only just finished a pile of work and was feeling professionally accomplished.  Good thing to know I also "looked tired".

Wednesday

Yesterday I drove up to the house after work and I thought "Wow, the yard looks really nice", which is weird because lately when I've driven up to the house I've thought "Wow, I really need to mow the yard, I think I'll do it after I walk the dog". And then I come back from walking the dog and I say "Wow, the yard doesn't look all that bad, I think it can wait until the weekend", and then the weekend rolls around and it rains.

But yesterday the yard magically got mowed without me. How often do the yard work fairies actually come out and actually do the yard work you aren't going to do? I mean, for real? The yard work fairies mowed my yard! I hope and pray for them all summer and lo and behold they appeared in the spring! When I didn't hope of pray or even need them. Those yard work fairies!

In real life, the yard work faires did not mow my yard. The Lawn Mower guy mowed my lawn without asking and then I had to pay him for essentially trespassing on my property and mowing my lawn without permission. What if I didn't want him to? What if I had been planning on doing it myself? What if I had a contract with someone else to do mow the lawn? I mean, there are a lot of what ifs in the play here. The man took a pretty big gamble here. I could have just taken it as a gift, like free address stickers in the mail, I didn't ask for it, yet, he did it anyway. I owe nothing for the service provided.

But I paid him and now my lawn looks very nice. He wanted to mow the back and I told him No. I have the back and besides, it looks okayish for the time being. He can mind his own business for now. I'm half surprised he didn't go back there just for yucks. Or he did, decided it was too yucky and turned around, I wouldn't blame him. I could pick up the dog shit but it feels like I just did that  and its so not that much fun, I prefer to wait for it to turn to fertilizer - sadly, that takes a while and in the mean time it is a hazard. I don't spend much time back there after dark - but why would I spend much time back there after dark? Its dark! I don't think Rocket likes the dark anyway, he's weird that way.

New curtains! Aren't they swell? The only problem is, my fireplace is the wrong white. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture but in real life you can tell. That might have to be the next project after painting out the hot pink with a new gray on the back walls of the built in book cases. And spraying the little picture frames gray. Or black or red. It depends.

March For Our Lives, Raleigh - March 24, 2018

Saturday I went to the March For Our Lives in Raleigh, it was great! The organizers put the tally at 13,000 - which is really awesome!, and considering there was another march in Durham and another in Fayetteville, really impressive that we got those kind of numbers.

I took pictures, not very many because the crowd was really big and the signs were not, um, really interesting and they were for the most part really serious in nature, mostly because of the theme "Please Stop Killing Us" of the march - it really didn't lend itself to the more zany creative expressions that the other marches had. Thus fewer fun signs to get.

Also, it was really crowded and hard to get around and it was cold. But this is what I did get. And, also I noticed other people were much more zealous about going around and getting photos of signs than I was and those photos are everywhere, search  for "March For Our Lives Photos".  My photos are primarily of the march itself.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

I'm so excited!

 In Gun Control orange too! I should have gotten it in M and not L, but sometimes the sizes of stuff you get online can be so wonky, I didn't want to end up with a tiny top I couldn't wear, this way, I can absolutely wear it and I can through it at least once, into the dryer.

I'm hoping that I'm not the only one who shows up.

Hello, Wednesday!

Okay, so todays reason that there is no real post is that I had to pick up the dog at daycare, again, and so I didn't come straight home and then I had to inspect the plumbers handiwork - First Rate! As far as I can tell, I don't know from plumbing work, really, as long as I am not wading in water I think its first rate work. I am not a good judge of such work. Ask me which author write which play and I am your girl. I did very well on a Buzzfeed quiz on that the other day, I only missed one and that was a very contemporary playwright that I doubt anyone outside grad students in feminist theory had ever heard about and I bet they haven't seen her damn plays either. Ask me about Miss Firecracker, I can identify who wrote that damn it, Beth Somebody.

Anyway. Because the dog spent two consecutive days in daycare, he is in a coma, he does not need a walk and would have refused if I had offered. It is also newly re-cold and I didn't really want to go out anyway. So instead we curled up in front of the TV and watched down my DVR. Much better, much warmer end to the day.

Later, I caught up with my plumber and paid him, about a third of what I thought I was going to pay him! A really good end to the day.