Office Girl

It's not that bad being back in an office. I was certainly dreading having to come in to the office and be productive every day. It was too easy at home to whine at Hubby, who, rather than instruct me in the ways of stuff, would just do it himself. I was spoiled.

Now I'm a M-F office gal. I know some of the projects I'm getting are the really tedious ones that no one wants to do, but that's OK. Someone has to do it. I have my own little office that's down the hall, around the corner, last door on the right. For the most part, it's pretty quiet. The worst thing I've encountered is a horrible bout of the sleepies about 2 every afternoon! I have two pharmacies that I will do billing for monthly. This month it took me a long time to work through the first one, and one of the other girls did the second one for me. Made me feel a bit like a failure, but next month will be better.

We're moved. Not completely, however. I think it'll take a long time before we get everything squared away at the farm so it can be sold. Mom finally go her mobile home moved off the property after it sat abandoned for more than two years. I never thought my mother would be so cavalier toward one of her children, but since I wasn't one of The Boys, I guess it's understandable. Well, that's another rant.

The house is slowly becoming unpacked. I spent last weekend working on the front rooms. I got the dining room slightly better looking. It's still home to computer equipment that has yet to find it's permanent landing place. The door from the dining room into the back part of the house is blocked by the gun safe and boxes (cat barrier). Everyone needs a gun safe in their dining room, right???Window trimmings are an issue. Several years ago I bought some embroidered sheers for my kitchen window, and I think they'd look just peachy in the front rooms. Sadly, they've been discontinued. I've yet to find anything similar.

I talked to my ex-piano tuner last week who told me how to fix the damper pedal problem. I am now playing my piano again! Not very well. More like pretty awful. Pitiful in some circles. Poor piano has been covered and neglected since cats took over the house. Now it pretty much has its own room where the cats can't go, so we can enjoy it (if my pitiful playing can be enjoyable).

La's upstairs room turned out nicely. She put her papasain chair upstairs and she spends most of her time there reading or writing. She decided to rip up the carpet to see what was underneath. She found some beautiful wood flooring that had been carelessly spattered with paint. Sad! She like the splattered wood better than the pieced-together carpeting, so her intention is to remove the carpeting altogether. Someday we'll restore the floor. Until now, it'll be party-colored.

Now we come to the saga of the laundry appliances. My old washer was leaking badly so I made the executive decision that a new set was in our immediate future. We finally found time on a lovely Saturday afternoon to get over to OKC to visit one of the Home Depot stores (12 months no interest - I love Home Depot) where I found a lovely large capacity front loading washer and dryer. Decided to invest in the pedestals, too, since my blessed arthritic back does not take well to bending and stooping.

For some reason, no one was around in the appliance department to help me with my purchase (this is an upstairs area at this particular store). I leaned over the rail and yelled at an employee below to find me some help. Shortly thereafter came a very, very large man lumbering up the stairs, panting, sweating, wheezing. I wondered if I would be practicing my rusty CPR skills with his every labored gasp. I told him what I wanted, he pulled the price tags off the display, and down the stairs we went.

He set up my order (of course they didn't have them in stock), and then announced that they didn't deliver to my new home town. Pffft. Add to that the joy of listening to his cell phone yell, "Hey! Answer the frickin' phone!" every time someone called.... I should have just canceled the order on the spot and gone to Lowe's. He said we could come back and pick them up on Wednesday of the following week. Hubby was just beside himself with joy that he was going to have to drive back over to pick up the appliances, then go home and wag them into the house himself.

The Hubmeister was just a bear the rest of the afternoon. I really hate it when he gets his nose out of joint and can't get it back in.

We finally got my new toys picked up on Thursday night, and at 9 pm we pulled up in the driveway with the back end of the truck dragging the ground with all the extra weight. The washer was incredibly heavy (but, sadly, not as heavy as I am) so combined with the dryer, two pedestals, and two well nourished adults, the truck earned its keep that night.

Hubby was ready to unload the whole mess and set everything up right then. Uh-huh. I told him no way am I going to be able to help lift that thing out of the truck and onto the ground. He got huffy and wanted to know what my solution was. I told him to park it in the garage and we'd figure something out in the morning. He was exceedingly unhappy that things weren't going his way, and spent the next two hours sitting on the porch in the dark.

Next morning, one of the ladies at work offered the assistance of her hubby when she heard my sad tale of washer woes. They stopped by Friday evening and her hub helped my hub lift the washer down and get it into the house. What a relief! It took another three-plus hours to get everything set up in the laundry room, but early Saturday morning I was washing clothes! Aunt Jo was kind enough to offer the use of her dolly. Without that, the washer and dryer might still be sitting in the den, and Hubby might still be sitting on the front porch.

They look like giant space helmets. If they ever come up missing, I'll know we've been invaded. I can stand upright to do all the laundry, and when the cycle is complete, they sing a little tune. Awwwww!

Cats are happy. They've found more interesting things than the piano to climb on.
And, guess what.... we have a new kitten. Hubby and DD went to the farm last weekend to do some work. Sunday morning there was a poor, pitiful tabby kitten, maybe 8 weeks old, sitting on the front steps. The poor baby would not have been long for this world had she (yes, she) not found her way onto our front step. She is so emaciated that you can see the edges of her bones under her skin. She was so flea and tick infested that she'd almost had the life sucked out of her; her gums are white from anemia. She is absolutely the sweetest thing. She cuddles, snuggles, and purrs, so she's definitely not one of the feral cats' offspring. That means some idiot dumped her. Poor little girl! I took her to the vet yesterday who declared her to be a very lucky kitty. After some good groceries, she will be fine. No pictures yet, but you can bet some are on the way!