House boy, I need more coffee.

What have I done lately? I've worked! That counts, right?

I did find the perfect Christmas gift for Lori! And it's a money making venture as well!

Speaking of Lori, she gave me some Parking Citations to keep in my handbag, y'know, from when you see that Heir to the Massengil empire taking up way too much space? (Okay, so it might be because I tend to rant (a lot) when I see people in parking lots who should be supervised when they walk, let alone drive). Yea, so they look like this:

When I was leaving work yesterday, I noticed one of my co-workers was taking up 2 spaces, so I checked off the appropriate boxes, put it under his wiper, and went home. In typical fashion, I forgot about it until today, so I sent him a message to ask him how he liked it; turns out our boss picked it up and brought it in to him, and everyone thought it was a serious thing. Bwahahahahaaha.

Knowing that made up for me locking my keys and my phone and my groceries in the car when I went for sushi, and THEN after paying $1.50 to get cash out so that I could get change so that I could use the payphone, the payphone told me my phone was disconnected (it's not, but the people at the phone company seem pretty intent that it's someone else's fault that half the incoming calls here get that message). So I had to walk home. In a snowstorm. Hoping all the way that my spare keys were NOT in my handbag. Cause, uh yeah, that was in my car too. But they were not. And no one had to get hurt (although the elderly lady who was ahead of me at the cash machine, seemingly catching up in all her bills since 1958? Yea, it came close to violence).

So, how was your day? 0_o

And in other unrelated news, on my way to work I drive by a really old graveyard (which I can't find any information about, but it takes up a few city blocks, and dates back to the 1700s. Wednesday morning, a woman was just getting to the gate with her wee little Scottie dog, all decked out in a coat and wee little booties, and as it got to the gate.... it braced itself for all it was worth, and I don't know if she finally dragged him into the cemetery, but that little dog was putting up a good fight. I won't lie, I found it pretty creepy.

And speaking of creepy, someone has been coming into my house. And stealing my Tupperware. No, really. Because when I tried to put the leftovers away, I had a lot of lids, and nothing else. I mean, what the hell? It's not like I send people home with open containers of food! I came thisclose to having to put my mashed potatoes in a baggy!! I don't understand and I may have scared the dogs a little on my rampage to find the lids, but everything is okay now! Because amongst the bags of groceries that I locked in my car? There were new take-away containers. Which will be assigned serial numbers, and they will be scanned before leaving the property. Okay, not really, but if anyone knows of their whereabouts, please tell me, it's making me a little crazy(er).

I am ashamed.

When we moved in here, we had no doors. No switch plates. No light fixtures. (I suspect the previous tenant was trying to find the voices). Now, we've come a long way, but y'know how sometimes, something is just a certain way, and you overlook it, and don't pay any attention until one day you see it again, and think, 'my God, that's what people see when they walk in here' and all of a sudden, it's not okay anymore. So this morning I made this

look like this:

I'm sure you can see why I'm ashamed. Please feel free to send me some comments about how some part of your house looks like a junkyard.

I made pasta primavera tonight; I think it must've smelled even better than I realized...

Less viewing, more doing.

Oh. My. God. How many hours have you spent blog surfing? Tell me I'm not the only one who gets sucked in to all the fantastic crafting/renovating/overhauling blogs, and the next thing I know, a significant amount of time has passed, and I'm. Still. Sitting. Here. But I HAVE A PLAN! There will be more doing, less viewing. Since deciding that this year is my year to get organized. Finally. Only took 31 years... Anyroad, I have a plan. First (as in, today. As in, what I should be doing right now) I clean the sewing room. I have a desk in there. She's beautiful. And after today, the sewing room will be the craft room/office. (Pictures to follow for proof).


I saw someone who had the great idea of working on one room a month, to get everything done in a calm and rational manor. This is foreign to me, but seems like a good idea. I'm more of the all-speed and no-control school of thought, but since that doesn't work at all I'm willing to give this a try. No, really. I will.

Now, since a)working construction is not so kind to the pocketbook in the winter, and b) we have a really small place so I don't need a whole year to get things together, I think starting in March is a reasonable plan.

• March: Bathroom


• April: Bedroom


• May: Hallway/ceilings/lights


• June: Craft room/office


• July: Kitchen


• August: Stairwell


• September: Basement/storage/laundry

Entire plan subject to change. Bwahaha. Like that needs to be said.

And now, hoping I haven't bored you entirely, we'll move on to something I call "Lifestyles of the Underemployed and Mostly-Unknown". I had an entire backseat full of (crap? garbage?) stuff to donate to Value Village (it wasn't actually garbage, just things I had no reason to hang onto anymore), so of course, I went in, because...my name is Trudy, and I'm a thriftaholic.

First, I have a new pervy-plate. I can't even tell you how giddy I get when I find these. I snatch them up like someone is just lurking around the corner waiting to grab it. Not likely, methinks.




And these! Who knew Elves had hangups? These guys are destined for greatness. I think. Most likely. Let's see what happens!

They were called "Wise Elf", "Lamplighter Elf", and "Thinking Elf", but I've renamed them "Druncle about to tell you something about You that YOU don't know Elf", "Do these overalls make me look fat Elf" and "Holy God, I shouldn't have had that last glass of nog I'm gonna burst Elf". I think I can relate to them more now.

This muffin tin is so very awesome, even if it does refuse to give up the last of it's muffin remnants. I mean, I scrubbed, I SOS'd, I put water in it and put it in the oven, and then SOS'd again. Suggestions? Anyone?

Then I found Santa. As in, OMG he's supercute and retro and needs to come home with me because who else will love him like I will? Then I accidentally scrubbed his face off...

So I figured, well, why stop now, so I kept scrubbing. And scrubbing. And f&*$ing scrubbing. How is it that 90% of the paint falls off, and the rest just. Refuses. To. Go. Anywhere. So Santa had a bath.

And then I broke out the steel wool and dental picks, and would you look at that? I was right all along.

Also, Adam does this for fun.

He thinks it's hilarious. Rocco humors him (no one tell him this is on the internet. He'd be so ashamed).

As of right now, I'm implementing my new "Get the frig off the internet and do something, Effie!" rule, so... see ya! :D

Where'd I leave that soapbox?

Okay, I know I have ranted this ramble before, but I loathe the people who came up with Slimband. Of course it's a "solution that works", jackass. (Here's how it works. Look at it. Please.) And the people at Alli are no better. Yea, you're skinny now. And how's that anal leakage when you eat a burger? Gross, people. I understand being overweight, I don't understand thinking surgery or drugs are the way to go about losing it. Learn to eat and get off your fat ass. Should I win the lottery, I'm getting my own commercial, and airing it after slimband. Le sigh. Speaking of which, I've cut my junk food intake to almost nothing, I've been running!! With the dogs! (Ask them if you don't believe me!!). I mean, it's slow going, but I'm doing it! Oh, and I've been hanging out at Sparkpeople again (http://www.sparkpeople.com/, I highly recommend it!), and it's a HUGE eye opener to see how much you're actually eating.

Okay. I'm done now. Well, for now.

And also: I'm trying to take pictures everyday. I realized I went home for Christmas (which was awesome, even if I wasn't home for long enough!) and didn't take any pictures! Not one!! So cute. So good. SO lazy.

New Year's ducks.

Rocco's favorite perch, so he can look out the window. I think he's on constant watch for the mailman.

Remember the avocado pit I started to grow? Now I need some dirt! How's everyone else's January?

OH! Blog related, am I the only one having problems with commenting? I can comment on other people's sometimes, but no one seems to be able to comment on mine, and quite frankly, that sucks. It would be appreciated if any advice can be sent to my email. :D

How to get organi.... HEY LOOK! Shiny red ball!!

**This post has been temporarily interupted by high levels of grossness.**

Sometimes I'm slack. For instance, I always clean the stove and the counters when I do the dishes, but I don't clean the burners very often. So... remember way back last *cough* spring when we had that little mouse problem? Well, imagine my surprise when I took the burners off today, and while he'd been eating, and presumedly lounging about, in the drawer in the bottom of the stove, evidently he'd been pooing under the stovetop, way down by the burners. Ew, ew. EW. And the little f***we had apparently been stealing some cookies and cream kisses from me! On the agenda for the new year: keep the GD stove clean!!

Organization. I keep seeing this word pop up on the internet, and it sounds interesting! But seriously, I am so unorganized, and I HATE it. The same way I hate being late, but sometimes no matter how early I leave, it just seems like I can't get where I'm going. Anyway. My problem with GETTING organized is that I never seen to be able to STAY FOCUSED. Is there such a thing as adult-onset ADD? (Like I haven't always been like this!) For example: today I was putting away the boxes of Christmas decorations. Yesterday, I starting purging some things, starting in the bedroom, and I have a growing pile of things to take to the VV Boutique, so after taking the first box to the basement, I noticed a duffle bag of work clothes, and thought, 'Hey! I should go through that now, and then I can put it in the VV pile!" I did stop myself, but it was close! If I can get pay attention to the task at hand, I do alright, but I get distracted. Easily. And by almost everything. Is there a point to this, you say? Well. Yes. I have a plan, and I'll share it with you.

1. Do one thing at a time. This was Adam's suggestion, but I'll take credit for it. I tend to aim high when I make plans, and I need to learn to focus, and start and finish one thing at a time.


2. Take 15 min a day to tackle one thing. Cause really, cleaning out a cupboard or a closet shouldn't take much longer than that.


3. Do you really need it? I've been trying to get rid of a lot of things I don't need or haven't used in a while.

Not much of a plan, is it? Well, it's a start. At least I don't have mouse poop in my stove anymore. EW EW EW EWewewweww.