FYI

There is new stuff on Camp Grand Nana

I showered-honest!

Last night I had my phone on silent while I was dong a candy demonstration for Relief Society. When I got home afterward, I opened my phone to turn the sound back on and there was a text message. I didn't recognize the phone number and the message was just two words long- "hey stinky". Hmmm. Is someone trying to tell me something? It's true that I don't shower every single day, but I do shower often enough to be socially acceptable. At least I thought I did. Perhaps the sender will someday reveal their identity, but I'm not holding my breath, even though they feel the need to when they are around me.

One step forward, two steps back

We are probably the only ones who can tell, but we were actually making some progress on getting the basement cleaned out. Lots of stuff had gone to DI and the garbage and the room was starting to look a little roomier. When we moved some stuff away from the south wall a couple of months ago, we could see that there was water damage on that wall-probably a leaky drain pipe. We figured we would just fix that up when we did the remodel on the room some day.

Last week when I was working in the fruit room I found some termites feeding on the soggy corner of a box that had a leaky container in it. That is the same wall that has the water damage. Termites love moisture, so they are probably in that wall, too. It has been almost seven years to the day since we had the house treated for termites; lucky us- we get to do it again.

So now, every room in the basement has a three foot clearance around the outside walls with all the furniture, boxes, etc. piled in the middle of each room. What a mess. Tomorrow the termite guy comes to do the entire inside and outside perimeter of the house and garage, plus the gap in the cement under the downstairs bathtub. (which means the Christmas closet has to be emptied out before he comes tomorrow.

Since things are going to be a mess, I had two companies come to do estimates on fixing that wall (again!) and fixing the damaged wall at the bottom of the stairs. If it isn't too expensive to do now, we can just leave everything in the family room pulled out of the way. Now if only I could find someone to come and tear out that fireplace at the same time I could get all the mess and dust done at once.

I had been thinking about how inconvenient this all will be, and of course, we are heading into winter so the house will be closed up and stuffy and smell like construction, and greenhouse sales will probably start before the job is done, etc., etc., etc.

Then I realized that this is probably just the nudge (more like a full-on shove off a cliff) I need to throw out more stuff and repack the things I'm not ready to throw out and really reclaim that room. The only thing I refuse to do is pick out new carpet. Dad will have to do that.

If I can just buckle down and get my Christmas sewing done, I have a pretty good shot at having that room decent again three or four weeks from now.

I am glad for many things-here are ten

For quite some time now, I have thought about things I am thankful for. I don't mean things that I am glad I have (and yes, they are THINGS) but things that I am glad were developed or discovered because I believe they make the world a better place. Some of them will seem pretty lame or trivial to most people but I believe they have each had a profound, positive impact on the world. I have come up with about twenty, but here are ten, in no particular order.

1-Inexpensive mass-produced paper
2-Printing press
3-Pencils with erasers
4-Toilet paper
5-Clean water
6-Soap
7-Antibiotics
8-Pasteurization
9-Indoor plumbing
10-Paved roads


Tell me what you think and share your list of things if you'd like to.

Open letter to a cat

Dear Kitty (you know who you are),

I know you frequently spend the night in the garage where you can do as you please, but sometimes circumstances make it necessary for you to spend the night indoors. Based on last night's behavior, it might be helpful to review basic nighttime etiquette for indoor cats.

1- If you sleep on your person's bed, do not purr at night.
2- If you must purr, do not use your daytime voice.
3- If you must use your daytime voice, do not use it while sitting at the head of the bed between your persons.
4- Kneading the blankets or pillows is never an appropriate nighttime activity.
5- If you do knead the blankets, do not purr with your daytime voice at the same time. And never, never knead the blankets that are pulled up over your person.
6- Asking to go out at 4:30 in the morning and then changing your mind once you get to the open door is a serious breach of etiquette. Changing your mind again 15 minutes later and deciding you really do want to go outside after all may put your personal safety at risk.

I hope this little review will be helpful.

Guess how many

Friday I was doing some cleaning and reorganizing in the fruit room (food storage room). Lots of things were scattered around because people had been just setting stuff on shelves instead of putting items where they belong. Every now and then I would find a package of toothpicks. Over time I guess we had bought a new package each time someone needed to build a bridge or something for school. Once they were all gathered together, guess how many toothpicks I had. 2000! Keep in mind I use a toothpick every oh, two or three months. I'm think I'm set for toothpicks for a while.