Saturday Power Tower's daughter had her Sweet 16 birthday party. We got the call we were needed before the party. Roadies for the band.
Walt Kowalski and I both love music, so being a roadie for a band is something that has crossed our minds once or twice. (In our youth, that is.)
Of course, the party was on the second floor. We now know we are too old to be roadies. Chain Saw Johnny was there to help, too.
The band was very good. Although, I think the adults enjoyed it more than the sixteen-year-old crowd.
The birthday girl got to join in with the band.
Oklahoma Johnny was working for tips.
By the end of the evening, everyone was silly like sixteen-year-olds. Ok, 21-year-olds.
In the winter, the driveway entrance of the Cat Ranch is ... a struggle. The gray water from the neighbor's house runs across our driveway. Water from the washing machine and other yucky water. The state does nothing about the situation. *sigh* That is part of the struggle.
When the water runs out on the road and freezes, the plow will come through and take care of the ice floe. But sometimes the water backs up in our driveway instead of the road.
On our to-do list: repair driveway pavement, fix entrance to driveway, put in LARGE pipe and grate to control water, re-pave driveway.
The ice was 1 inch thick in some places and 6 inches think in other places.
The small ice chipper wasn't enough. Walt Kowalski had to use tools with more power. The ice chips were airborne.
The to-do list gets longer everyday.
Walt Kowalski and I got back to House #1 to finish some ductwork. The furnace is working just fine, but all of the supply lines and returns haven't been finished. In other words, the basement was nice and warm and the registers were open to the first floor so the heat could rise up through but the heat wasn't in a hurry to get there. Completing the ductwork will create pressure and force the air up the register (aka forced air). In other words, that lovely rush of hot air feeling when the heat kicks on.
Ahhhhhhh.
"Don't take my picture!" Walt Kowalski said inside the ductwork. "You are supposed to be closing the tailgate, not taking photos."
{Insert elephant noises echoing from inside the ductwork.}
"I have to take these photos so everybody believes me when I tell them how silly you are!"
The circle cutter for ductwork is one of my favorite tools. It has a drill bit on one side, to fit in any drill, and a center post in the middle. First, a pilot hole is drilled in the ductwork. Then the center post of the tool is inserted in the pilot hole and the drill bit is used to started another hole in the duct. Finally, the center post is held in the pilot hole while the drill bit is used as a cutting device to go around in a circle and cut a hole with the drill.
A little encouragement and guidance is required and a perfect circle hole is produced. Now the circle take off vent can be attached.
This is a completed one we did earlier.
The cats have the right idea, find a register and stay on it. Apologies for the cat fur in the air in the house.
I still don't have the tree down. And now the tree skirt has been pushed halfway across the room so the cats can get to the register. Heck, they are probably using it as a blanket today.
This was yesterday's forecast. They predicted Friday is going to be colder now, 19 and 0 degrees. Sunday will feel like a heat wave.
Fudge's look says it all. "Why must you make it so cold in here? Where is the food?"
This is his spot in the morning when the heat first comes on, between the nightstand and the register.
A woman at the gym yesterday told me a funny story. Of course we were talking about the weather. She said her brother used to live in Louisiana, but was tired of the threat of hurricanes. He didn't want to move back to PA because of the cold and snow. Instead, he selected Virginia. A happy medium.
The year he moved, the town in Virginia had a hurricane AND got more snow and cold than PA.
Poetic justice, she said.
I don't want to take down my Christmas tree. I don't want the season to end. Red was the color this year. Everything I used to decorate was red. I've always liked red, but this year I wanted it everywhere.
Red lights, red ornaments, red ribbon, red flowers. I even decorated my cookies with red sugars.
I wasn't alone in my fondness of red this year.
The flower show was especially red this year.
It was a beautiful, sunny, cold day and nice to enjoy the Christmas decorations one last time this season. AND, I have lots of ideas for decorations for next year.
Now I want a 10' poinsettia tree in my house, too. It would totally fit in the foyer. I'd have nooooo problem keeping kitties out of it. {har, har}
Go Paperless they say! Go Paperless! Even paperless isn't so paperless.
I need to go MORE paperless. Which just means I'll have email and internet clutter instead. This is mostly a pile of old bills. Lots of envelopes.
This is the time of year I *try* to clean out drawers and cupboards and closets. (How do all of these crumbs get in the silverware drawer?!?!? Why do I have three bottles of soap with only a little left in the bottom? Why are there two open bags of sugar in the pantry? )
I know how it happens. Company is coming and the soap pumper needs more soap. But one bottle doesn't have enough to fill the pumper and I don't have time to drain all the soap from one container to the other. So I open a new container, jam the old one under the sink, and say "I'll drain it tomorrow."
The multiple sugars happen because I get Pantry Blindness. Fridge Blindness is just as bad.
You know this affliction. You're looking in the pantry (fridge) for something, sugar, flour, crackers, baking soda (cheese, butter, container of leftovers). You know it's in there, but it's hiding. Masquerading. The more determined you are to find it, the harder it becomes to find. So instead of wasting more time continuing the search, you open a new one. The other one will turn up.
The next day, I open the pantry and right there it is. Right in front of my nose.
*sigh*
I try to return things to their proper spot the moment I'm finished using them, but get this...sometimes it just doesn't happen! I know, I know. I'm terrible.
I'm guilty of not putting everything back the moment I'm done using it. Sometimes that's because it goes in the back of the pantry and I have to take everything off of the shelf to put it away properly and I'm going to use it again tomorrow. Sometimes I'm just too tired. Sometimes things don't have a "proper" place to live and just get shoved in the drawer because I can't stand it on the counter any more!!!!!!
Isn't that what junk drawers are for?
Yeah the junk drawer is on the list, too.
After cleaning out all the annoying papers, I get a good paper: the mammoth crossword puzzle. It was in the paper a few weeks ago. It's huge! The center of a section, two full pages. It's not a difficult puzzle to solve, just time consuming to find the correct spaces. I also can't do it sitting on couch. I have to have the entire kitchen table or in this case, most of the bar.
New Year's Eve is a fooler. Television, radio, and social media do a great job of making you think that everybody is going out having a great time at a big party in fancy clothes with a band, decorations, drinks, and great food! Woo Hoo! Happy New Year!
In actuality, most people are at home. Or at least most people I know. We've done New Year's parties and dinners. They were ok. Walt Kowalski and I have started our own traditions. If we do go somewhere, we do it earlier, at 5pm dinner time instead of 11pm.
We like to get all the errands and visit out of the way so we can get back to the Cat Ranch, make a big fire, put on our jammies, and have crab legs!
Yes, crab legs!
We have them only twice a year. In the summertime, at the beach, and on New Year's Eve. I watch the grocery ads and when they go on sale, I buy a package with a little extra grocery money and hide them in the freezer. In years past, we've had shrimp and crab legs. This year, I got them on extra sale, so instead of the shrimp, we had an extra package of crab legs.
I don't want the year to go too fast, but I can't wait to have them again. Shorts at the beach or jammies on the couch.
