Thursday, July 31, 2008

The day after...

Yesterday was my birthday. I started it out by messing up the computer system at St. Michael's and All Angels, which I'm pretty sure is a sin. It was a sin of enthusiasm, though.



Tuesday I went to a workshop to learn about the upgraded church accounting software. I kept thinking, that is so great! That's what I want to do! Just imagine the beautiful reports I can prepare! I can hear the Vestry now: "Yes, NOW I understand Fund Accounting." OK, you can see I was suffering from irrational exuberance as well as a severe case of accounting geekdom.



So I went into the church at 6:30 a.m. and backed up the old program on the only available media: floppy disks. I upgraded, and was surprised it worked. Then I tried to add the patch and found out I'd blown my RAM on both the network and the workstation computers. I knew my own computer wouldn't be able to upgrade. My computer had been put together by Jesus and Judas when they were teenagers.



So ellipse the computer tech having to cannibalize his own computer to save us, me feeling really bad about it, going to my other job and coming back to the church after lunch, and I have a nice computer borrowed from the Christian Education Director.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

No Goals...

What is it with me and goals? I am an intelligent, adult woman. I set the goals for myself. But mention goal and BOOM! I don't do it. If I set brushing my teeth as a goal, I'd have green fuzzy teeth in a week. What is it?

I eat veggies ALL THE TIME. I love veggies. I especially love veggies in the summer, when they are so pretty and I can get them from my friends' gardens or from the produce stand down the road. I really love eggplant. It is so PURPLE. But have I had a veggie, other than lettuce & tomato on a fake fish sandwich? NO. I didn't even have the fried okra. I write a simple goal: eat well three days this week. I have an entire week without a vegetable. Can you explain this, beyond general orneriness?

I had lots and lots to say last week, but I didn't sit down and write once. Not one time. I wrote a snippet in my red suede IRL journal, and that's it. I LIKE TO WRITE, but make it a goal and it becomes a chore and I'm out of here.

OK, I did read. I finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong. All really good books. I have started Jane Eyre, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I glanced at the Board book.

I have probably gained 10 lbs, although my lying scale says I haven't. I feel like a beached whale. Someone around me must be on a diet. I always gain weight when people start talking about dieting. Maybe it's that a friend of mine and my daughter-in-law are both being encouraged to gain weight. I'm being a good role model. A good beached whale role model.

This is what I have to say about all of that: No New Goals. For awhile. And I think I'll go eat some pineapple.

Friday, July 11, 2008

More goals... less goals... more or less

One or two of my horoscopes this week have told me to put my long term goals on hold. I was shocked! shocked! I say. No one puts long term goals on hold. Long term goals hold us. How can I continue to exist without long term goals?

Same as always, I guess, considering the state of my long term goals right now. As I mentioned, I'm not sure my long term goals are working for me right now. I am so overwhelmed with short term tasks that I am neglecting the long term.

Of course, the long term will come, with or without my help. But I think I deserve... no, I NEED a break. So these are my short term goals.
  • Write in my blogs at least three times next week.
  • Eat well at least three days next week.
  • Work as hard as I can four days next week.
  • Stand (or sit or swing or walk) outside at least ten minutes each and everyday next week, even if it rains.
  • Forgive myself as I would forgive others.
  • Expect as much from others as I do from myself and respect & trust their ability to perform as expected.
  • Read one light novel. (At least.)
  • Read Boards that Make a Difference by John Carver.
  • Read one novel my high school English teacher would have wanted me to read (I'm thinking Jane Eyre.)
  • Refrain from killing anyone.

I'll let y'all know how this works for me.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Best laid plans

I am still in the process of cleaning my kitchen. This process started last weekend... Friday, June 27. We cleared out all of the cabinets and put everything into the living room and dining room. Yesterday and today, we are scrubbing the cabinets themselves.

I am not thrilled to admit that we have a cockroach problem. Now, most people in SC have bugs in their houses. Ants, spiders, and of course Palmetto Bugs. Most people in SC have a cockroach now and then. But not like us.

And so, I am using every natural and unnatural method I can to get rid of them. My son Joseph has wisely suggested that if you poison them, they grow stronger and we are probably contributing to the destruction of the planet. One day the world will have nothing but cockroaches, Easter grass, Christmas tree tinsel, and Peeps. And so we are exploring natural means to repel and possibly kill (yeah, right) all of the cockroaches.

OK, so killing the cockroaches is only step one. Cockroaches are very sentimental. Every month, they join a Cook's tour of Cockroach cemeteries and toilets. They get their little cameras and take pictures of the place Uncles Albert thru Zebadiah died. Then they stay. If you want to get rid of cockroaches, you have to clean up all of the cockroach poop and pieces in your cupboards, cracks and counters. I am not kidding. One single cockroach leg wedged in the wheel of the drawer pull and BAM!!! Here come the tour buses.

This job is harder and grosser than we had expected. Joseph gets to clean the upper cabinets because he is tall and I am not. Mark cleans the shelves that come out. I clean the lower cabinets, because I can. I sit on the floor when I can, but mostly I am kneeling on a towel wondering why I thought ceramic tile floors were cool and scrubbing deep into the recesses of cabinets. The good part is that my cabinets are all white, so I can see when they are clean. The bad part is that the cabinets are white, so I can see when they are dirty. Oh well.

So we worked for several hours yesterday and will (the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise) be finishing today. Then we get to wash every dish, spoon, and pan; throw away pieces and parts that don't go to anything; marvel at the cool stuff we have (panini anyone?); put the flour, sugar, rice, beans, pasta, more pasta, and more rice into glass containers; and rearrange all of this so that we can cook & eat in our kitchen once again.

I seem to say this a lot, but: Wish me luck.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Half way through the year

Look, it's July 1. Where has this year gone?

I sit here at work with a sinus headache, trying to concentrate. This isn't happening. It will be ok. I am a firm believer in OTC medication, and I've taken Corisidan BP for colds. I don't know if this will help, but I also have chocolate and tea. One way or the other, I'll feel better. Or not.

I am still considering my goals, as I set them last January. It is interesting to me that the least defined goal, the one I was pretty sure wasn't going to happen, is further along than the others. I am organizing my house.

I am usually able to organize one or two areas of my life at a time. My house has always been the lowest priority. That is unwise, since your house is your base, your sanctuary, your home. Its comfort or chaos can affect your whole life.

So now, I am slowly weeding out junk. It isn't being a Junk Junkie, and harder to quit, especially if you have raised your kids to think that some day a broken Star Wars light saber might be fixed and come in handy. If I try to throw out too much (or give it away--- it doesn't matter), I start to hyperventilate. I am convinced I have just handed over something that will show up on Antiques Roadshow. "Yeah, the lady just handed it to me, and it's worth $10,000. All I had to do was clean off the cat poop."

I am not really very far in the junk junkie department, really. But what I have done is organize books on bookshelves and set up a shelf/desk system in my kitchen, which is my work area. What this means is that if I want to pay a bill, I can find the bill, the checkbook, a pen and (and this is a biggy) A STAMP. If I want to pay on-line, I can look in my book and find my user name and password. If I want to write a letter to a friend... oh, wait, what did I do with that address book? Ok, well, I'm working on it.

This weekend, after the July 4th barbecue, after my sinus headache goes away, after I finish this book I'm reading... I will clean my kitchen cabinets, put stuff in these cute glass containers I bought, throw out pieces of blenders I don't have and warranties for telephones with dials I don't think I've ever owned. I will put the three different bottles of chili powder, four bottles of cinnamon, two bottles of something without a label back on a shelf and USE them.

Really.