Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Writing Takes Time

Something that I haven't seemed to have enough of lately. I finally posted my review of Enchantment of the Seas to Cruise Critic; this review took me forever to write and, in reading some of the other (lame) reviews out there, I suppose I spent more time than I needed to on it.

Anyway, I'm alive. I'll try and post a ramble/update soon. I also have a few ideas for Blog topics; the one that comes to mind right now is how to dispel the myth the the only people that cruise do so for the midnight buffets.

Later!

Mrs. B

Friday, June 25, 2010

Fried-Day


It doesn't happen as frequently as it did either when I was in full-bore working like a dog never stop to rest mode OR in the more recent Crazy Bitch Woman on the menopausal mood swings ride, but, it still does. Days where I just do not feel right. I can't get my game on. I feel sulky, cranky, tired and full of a where in the hell did this come from despair. I mean, I've never been one to be overly depressed, anxious, sad or angry; not in my entire life have I allowed myself to think of myself as having any serious problem or issue or circumstance that cannot somehow, in some way, be resolved, no matter how terrible it seems. Nothing's changed in that regard but, for some reason, in my opinion and from my perspective, today has totally sucked so far.

I woke up full of plans, none of which have been accomplished. I've certainly had the time and the opportunity to get things done, so, I cannot blame unforeseen events or unexpected company or coming down with a righteous case of Swine Flu or even my favorite fall back whipping boy of an excuse; my allergies. Nope, I just didn't feel like doing anything; couldn't even for the life of me find any motivation to tackle even a recently acquired work project that will actually bring in some welcome income (and I don't typically take money for granted, believe you me!)

Oh, to be fair to myself, I futzed around with the project somewhat. Yet, even as I was doing so, I recognized the signs of not being engaged. After an hour or so, I gave up on this, deciding I needed some resources that are currently in a box on top of the freezer in the garage to jump start me. I can't possibly get that box down myself, oh no; therefore, I must wait for Mr. B to get home. I told myself I'd get to it on Monday; all fresh, a new week.

Ok, so, since I wasn't going to work on the project, I decided I'd best get some house cleaning done. Oh, yeah. This was a great idea; facing tasks that even on a terrific day can bring one down to new lows when one is already feeling punk. But, I tried. I went into our bathroom to start, took one look around, and got depressed at the thought of scrubbing the toilet. My next idea was to forget cleaning (I can do that tomorrow while Mr. B is doing his weekend chores) and instead, go look through recipes to figure out how to use the produce we received this week in our box.

This wasn't such a hot idea, though, as I quickly became overwhelmed with both all of the options we have for recipe ideas (cooking magazines, loose recipes, thousands and thousands of cookbooks (I think they multiple when I am not looking) and now recipes coming with the produce box itself) and also with the knowledge that, as soon as I pick a few recipes out, Mr. B will come home with different ideas and I'll get irritated that I wasted my time. This is not a slight against Mr. B, but, rather, an acknowledgement of his skill at looking at whatever is in the house by the way of food stuffs and being able to create a 5-star meal out of it whilst poor me has to rely on spending hours looking at recipes and creating meal plans.

Bag that.

I turned around and saw, as I too often do but try to ignore, the streaks all over the stainless steel appliances. In my next life, I swear to God, I will NOT get stainless steel appliances. Yeah, they look nice. For about the first day you live in the house. I've yet to find something that really, truly, works well on stainless steel, despite all of the advertising of the products to the contrary.

Yet, after I finished up searching on-line for an effective way to organize loose recipes, cooking magazines and cookbooks (which in essence amounted to throw a lot of them away), I did a search on how to get streaks off stainless steel appliances.

As an aside, one thing I've come to rely on heavily in my life is Google. I've become fairly expert of finding just about anything (or anyone) using Google. I'll type out entire sentences/questions and, poof! Up comes five million ways to get streaks off of stainless steel.

Unfortunately in this case, the few I tried did not work (despite the fact they popped up multiple times with everyone swearing they never saw anything work better). The method I tried because, as I said, a lot of people said it "really, really worked!" was vinegar and olive oil. Yeah, I'm serious.

First I tried the vinegar, which was supposed to clean the surface and cut any oils/residue left from other cleaning solutions (like that worthless Stainless Steel Magic). Well, it still looked pretty smeary to me so I next tried the olive oil, which was supposed to remove any streaks and bring the shine back. Well, I should have just thrown some lettuce and tomatoes at it and had a salad for lunch for all the good it did me.

In the end, I took the crappy Stainless Steel Magic out from under the sink, cleaned off the salad dressing from the refrigerator with it, and ended up right back where I started; with streaks on my stainless steel.

By this point in time, everything I looked at or thought about doing was causing me to sigh in despair. The work project, recipes, all that fresh produce in the refrigerator, my to do list (woefully long with no check off marks), the stainless steel, my toenails in serious need of a pedicure. This is when I realized that nothing was going to seem right today and I'd better just accept it and not sweat it; knowing that, sooner or later, the feeling will pass and all will be ok again soon enough.

So, I took a nap and was comforted by the presence of my furry friends (even though I had some left-over irritation at four of my fur balls who earlier this morning knocked over one of my torch lamps and completely ruined the stained glass shade; that would be: Pete, Ares, Athena and Apollo).

I woke up about 1/2 hour ago not necessarily feeling normal again, but, not feeling any worse except my head is now sort of stuffed up and I'm groggy.

So, maybe it's those damn allergies, after all!

Mrs. B

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Guess Who Is Home!

After four surgeries and basically six weeks at the vet (give or take a few days), Lucy FINALLY come home this afternoon with no restrictions. The bucket is off her head, too. So, other than a few more days of taking antibiotics and making sure she doesn't start chewing on her leg (licking is ok), we're good to go!
I took her for a long walk and then she ran around the kitchen with her duck. I tried to get a picture of us but I couldn't get her to hold still; most of the pictures only showed her tongue.
I finally got one that's half decent; at least her tongue isn't in my face!
Here is hoping she doesn't have to go back to the vet for anything other than routine check ups and boarding visits for many, many, years to come.
Welcome home, Goosie!
Mrs. (Mom) B


Thursday, June 3, 2010

Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: Part One

Click here to view these pictures larger

Updates and Random Stuff


Ah, I'm thinking about how Enchantment of the Seas is departing Norfolk today for the Eastern Caribbean (the same route we took two weeks ago) for the last time. After this, she'll move to Baltimore because, apparently, since Norfolk is not a hub for a major airline, it's been difficult attracting passengers. You could have fooled me, though; the ship was almost full and most folks were from Virginia and surrounding states. Oh well. Anyway, my point is, I sorta wish we were back on that ship!
Yes, life goes on, I know. And, we have to live our normal life with all its ups and downs, hard work, stress, boring times, etc., in order to earn (and appreciate) our nice vacations.
Speaking of which, I WILL get pictures posted sooner or later. Part One is up on Facebook; too bad I cannot link the two but then all y'all who don't know who I really am...would.
I also plan on writing a series on our adventures on the cruise, but, I've been distracted by life here in Durham.
So, my updates.
Lucy the Goose remains at the vet. I was going to go pick her up this past Tuesday but when I talked to the vet, he really thought she'd be better off staying one more week. I did go and visit her, though. Man, was she bouncing off the walls; obviously, she's no longer on sedatives! From what I could tell, the wound site looked better, but, she was still wearing her bucket.
I'll get her next Tuesday and hopefully, she'll be much improved/off the bucket.
In the meantime, the cats are probably thinking they've got the rule of the roost now. They'll be in for a major surprise when she returns. Lily has taken to dragging Lucy's toys upstairs; something we cannot quite figure out WHY she's doing it. Yesterday morning, I found Lucy's baby; this morning, she'd dragged up both bear and kitty. Pete has decided he wants to chew the rubber stripping on the bottom of the shower door, so, we now have to keep it closed all the time. He is working on noodling out how to open the door on his own. Given the fact that he's opened the screen doors a few times, he might just do it.
The Little Kids are now 14 months old. Come tomorrow, it will be a year since they came to us as The Greek Gang. Apollo, although shy of people he does not know (ask Uncle Jon), has taken to being fairly brave around us. The other two, Ares and Athena, are not quite as friendly but they have their moments when they want affection. By far, though, they are the WORST when it comes to giving them Frontline (Athena hissed at me) and getting brushed. All three of them seem relatively small to me, too; but, that could be only because Pete and Lily are so much bigger than they are. It's not for lack of trying to gain weight; they are little pigs.
Believe it or not, The Kid is graduating from high school next Saturday and turns 18 the following Friday. We plan on having a small celebration here June 11th with her Grandma B, my parents, and us. We know this is a busy time for her so we're probably lucky we're getting to do this. Turns out, too, that her mother surprised her with a two week trip to Europe.
The pleasant news is, as just mentioned, Mom B is coming for a visit next week. We'll look forward to seeing her/spending time talking and maybe even doing something fun. And, right before she arrives, we're double-dating with Jon and Shannon for dinner and seeing the musical "Beauty and the Beast" at the DPAC. Sister Kathy is coming for a brief visit (staying with mom and dad) so I'm sure we'll be seeing her, too. Oh, and book club is meeting here this coming Monday; a fun bunch of ladies discussing a wonderful book, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet".
After that, it'll be sorta quiet but I think I'll have some projects to work on via my consulting practice, so, it'll be a good time to do that AND get the house spring cleaned (a bit late) and go through THE BIG PURGE. Seriously, I plan on going room to room, closet to closet, and tossing stuff; either for Goodwill or the trash. And, who knows, maybe a few items for Craig's List.
Guess this is all the ramble for now. I'll be back soon with pictures/cruise adventures!
Mrs. B