Beware the Hair

Gainesville

Beware the sudden and ferocious Wild Hair. Bill had one this morning: he suddenly wanted to see the ruined cheap lawn chairs gone. He decided the best way to do this was to cut them up so they fit into the trash. This involved unearthing, then charging his various power tools (unused for several years). In the course of this, he (a) emptied all kinds of stuff, mostly plastic bags from the kitchen closet, making a huge mess, and (b) discovered that the cat has been using the Great Room rug as her preferred vomitorium-- I knew about this, and had it on my Do Soon List. He cleaned up the one or two spots he noticed, but I knew there were more. I also knew that if he were rummaging around in there, he was bound to discover the exploded cattail mess, which was also on the Do Soon List (sounds like a new pitcher for the Yankees: "and now, fresh from the Taiwan Mud Larks, Do Soon List takes the mound!").

In the middle of breakfast I lept up up and began attacking both problems at once.

By far the worst was the frakkin' cattails. I hate to think what my lungs must look like tonight after inhaling that stuff. Trying to just throw a plastic bag over it didn't work at all. I could see I would need "Snuffy" (Bill's old canister vacuum cleaner) to suck it out of that corner of the room. Snuffy came through like a champ. But unearthing Snuffy required half an hour of stabbing and collapsing plastic air bags and bagging up huge quantities of various kinds of bubble-wrap. Plus, transferring four huge bags of styrofoam peanuts into Blue's bed. All this just to unearth Snuffy!

Then I got out the big gun: the stand-up Dirt Devil, an absolute bitch to use: deafening, heavy, clumsy, but it does the job. The carpet in there (that which shows) actually looks decent for the first time in several years. Some real progress in there. I will take some pictures tomorrow-- not "after," but interim images.

I ate the rest of my breakfast in bites as I buzzed around. Talk about crisis cleaning. It was quite hot today, so it was a sweaty business for all concerned.

Stuff. Too much stuff. I hate stuff.

Got the sheets changed and laundered. The regular Sunday Blessing, but I always feel a sense of pride getting it done. Love the feel of clean sheets.

For dinner I made Hot Wings from EdC 43. Actually, Martha calls the dish "Buffalo Chicken," and calls for skinless drumsticks. I used skin-on wings, but otherwise followed her recipe. Pretty darned good, for a relatively guilt-free treatment. Bill really liked them. Had left-over broccoli, which was good dipped in the blue cheese sauce, as were the celery sticks. Had the leftover sushi on the side.

Fighting the desire to stay up all night and finish The Stolen Child in one big gulp, but I know it would devastate me physically and mentally.

I hope the Celebrex gives you some pain relief, Mom. I know it is usually prescribed for arthritis. I don't think it has sulfa in it though, which is an antibiotic.

How nice of the Woods to pay you a visit. They sound like really good people. I'm glad Chris and Kay are keeping in touch also.

Sandy, thanks so much for the garden report! What a beautiful panoramic picture of the new garden. I wish you would stand in that exact spot and take a picture once a week-- we could turn it into a fabulous slide show. Hell, if you'd do it every DAY, we'd have a video to die for! Yeah, I know-- easy for me to say. I loved the pictures of your herb pots too-- do you mean to say that this will give you enough basil, rosemary parsley, etc., for a whole season? I never know how much is enough-- I either have a hopeless glut or not enough.

The meatless dogs were "Smart Dogs," -- no claims to goodness. They were okay-- with enough mustard and pickle relish. The bun-things were awful, though. I tossed the rest of them. I'd planned to have real dogs (Hebrew National, from the freezer) this week, but got preempted by these things.

I never have to coerce Bill to go shopping. I hate it so much, I thought I was doing him a favor by just doing it. But it seems he enjoys it, so I have started asking him if he'd like to come along-- and he usually says yes. It takes longer, but as you say, it's much more fun, if a bit distracting. I will need to go out again tomorrow to get a few things that got lost in the shuffle.

There. I blogged. Can I be excused for a few minutes to read? That is, until the next call for the Barmaid arrives?