Say what?

Last post was over a month ago. How does the time fly like that? I'll tell you...a full life is why. And a mysterious fatigue that plagues my productivity. Not to worry, I'm investigating and am sure to come up with a cause and a cure.

In the meantime, my famously crammed garage got a makeover last week. I rented and filled a 3 yard dumpster twice. I hired professional organizers to make mincemeat of the clutter. By 4 p.m. it was spotless and organized and minus all the piles of useless Stuff. I loved what these women did for my sanity, and, oddly enough, the name of the business is "Habitat for Your Sanity." Aptly named.

My brother, Steve, is also making himself available to do some fix-ups around here. I'm so relieved because at my pace I would've driven myself starkers before I'd be able to feel at home again here. Just too much stuff and there I am, with no abilities for delayed gratification. If I want something done, it has to be NOW. And if I can't do it quickly enough, I have to enlist aid.

I've discovered a new food blog: Coconut and Lime. Something about it is appealing and I want to cook everything she posts. I have quite a collection of food blogs now so maybe will list them here for you.

Before I do that, here are some pictures. The one of Mia and Claudine is from my most recent trip to Brooklyn. Claudine was very skilled and happy with my iPhone; Mia had her head buried in a book most of the time but in this picture was diverted by something interesting Claudine had just done. The abstract what's-it's are my newest iPhone diversion. With hardly any effort I make colorful doodles to my heart's content. Oh, and there's a picture of the born-again garage.

Seattle trip coming up

One of my favorite things about my birthday this year was spending an extended period of time with Lara, alone! No busy schedule etc. So we're doing it again, but for even more days. I'm catching a train at 4:30 or so...getting to Seattle an hour and a half later. I get a senior discount so it's not even $12. That SO beats driving, which I don't like to do anyway. Wow. I can read on the way up, look at scenery...I hope. This is new for me but I have a feeling it's going to be nice.

Yesterday Dan and I continued to sort the stuff in the garage and my long-held dream of finding some specific items came true. A long time ago I'd put some of my favorite clothes in a box. They needed buttons sewed on. I put the box in the living room where it sat for months. The box got moved to another room...sorta got forgotten and one day someone put a bag of old cassettes on top of the clothes. That did it. They were gone forever. The box got swifted off to cassette heaven in the garage and the clothes were never to be found again. I kept thinking, "Someday I'm going to clean the garage and find those things" and sure enough, I did! Hurray for garage-cleaning.

I just found out someone's actually reading this little blog of mine so I have renewed energy to continue. Good thing because I love doing it. And, for good measure, here's a picture of a shadow of my legs. Lara's got me into shadows these days.

Getting Ready for Family Fun

Next week the family energy gets into high gear. Marie is coming on Monday, will be with Ted but I hope to see her right away. Mark and Girlz arrive Wednesday with Jenna's parents as well. We'll have a family dinner or picnic that night at Lara's. Saturday we go en masse to the Mahowald's and they are graciously making room for us so we can all spend the night together. The next day we'll all get up and get ready for the family reunion. I think there's going to be some serious cooking, drinking and partying. yay

Now...somewhere in there I think Mark will be coming to stay here. Maybe at Steve's if they prefer but just in case they stay here I'm already preparing. I know better than to wait to the last minute...finally am learning! Anyway, I've cleared out the office massively and have more to go. What an amazing feeling to have a nice open room. It's been a catchall for TOO LONG. I have tons of framed art that doesn't fit on our walls all at the same time, I kinda rotate them. But there is no place to store all of them. Recently I consolidated them all and they are leaning against every available vertical surface in that office. My only choice now is to back my car out of the garage and leave it in the driveway and put the art in the garage. This has always been like stuffing Cinderella's sisters' feet into the glass slipper. There's just always more foot than there is shoe.

Actually, I'm looking forward to getting the car out of the garage...that'll make room for me to start rustling through all the crap and give sell etc....whatever works to get rid of it. I wonder if it was worth it to save those Legos all these years...will Mark want them? I remember telling him that I would only buy them if he would use them with his own children. Does he remember???