Home Alone Again

Keith took off yesterday afternoon to go to Fresno for the week where they are having classes each day in test preparation and then taking the rules test on Friday. I think he has finally (hopefully) gotten his head out of his you know where and realizes that this job is kind of his last hope. Yes, he could go back to doing whatever and not getting paid very well for it, but employers are going to look at someone who left one job after a few months to go to another and then left that one because it was just too much for him and then think he's some kind of royal flake and won't hire him. Plus there is the whole age thing, it's really hard to get a job once you are past 50. Well, you might be able to get a door greeter job at Walmart, but that's about it. So, after more soul searching and anxiety, I think he is in the right frame of mind to buckle down and pass the test this week. At least I hope so.

So, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well this week and he will be a certified railroad conductor by next week.

So, the s'mores flavored candy corn was just not very good. SO disappointing. They also gave me a stomach ache so I threw the bag away. I guess my senior citizen stomach just can't handle pure sugar anymore.

Yesterday one of Keith's many pieces of paper (he is so disorganized with all his paperwork) was on the end table by the couch and the fan blew it off onto the floor. Not two seconds later Mimi was seated upon the piece of paper.

I was kind of looking forward to a week of alone time, Keith's issues with anxiety kind of getting on my last nerve, but last night going to bed with no one else in the house did feel rather strange. I do like the idea of not having to plan meals for the week, but really I still have to fix stuff for myself, so...not that much of a vacation after all.

I'm working on gift tags and holiday stuff for the shop, not that sales are going through the roof or anything, it's basically just a hobby now, a hobby that costs more than I actually make, but until I find another hobby or whatever, it gives me something enjoyable to do. There's only so much cat poop scooping I can do in a day, after all!

What's New on Artfire

I got creative and made gift tag sets, available ONLY on Artfire. These were fun to make and I'm anxiously awaiting a collage sheet order to come in the mail. I found a cool site that has retro type images from the fifties, which I LOVE and so I ordered 6 or 7 collage sheets to make Christmas tags with. I'm hoping they come in the mail today.

Anyway, here are some tags that I made.

Paris themed.

and more Paris.

And some Alice in Wonderland.

and more Alice.

I was going to include pictures but I already deleted the batch that had these pictures in, I get too confused with lots of picture batches in my folder so try to delete them after I'm done listing. Oh, well.

What else? I got an order of brass stampings in and have been painting and antiquing them so that I can list them in the supply shop on Etsy. I've come to the conclusion that Etsy is only good for selling supplies to other sellers these days, ha ha. So, I'm going to work that shop for all it's worth! I do like the fact that I can advertise these supplies as being made in the USA, too. That's unusual for anything to be made in the USA these days.

I went and got my blood work done yesterday morning so that I can go back to the doctor's next Friday and make sure that my new cholesterol meds aren't messing up my liver or anything like that. Also so that they can charge me for another office visit. We just got the bill for Keith's visit and do you know that it costs $20.00 for a rectal exam? The indignity of that and then you've got to pay for it, too!

I was cleaning the cat box last night and kind of wondered how much time I spend cleaning cat boxes so I figured about 2 minutes twice a day times 365 days is 1460 minutes a year which is how many hours? 24? If my calculator is working correctly since I have no math skills anymore and can barely remember how to add stuff let alone multiply and divide. So an entire day out of the year is spent cleaning cat boxes and I'm really glad it doesn't have to be done all in one day.

Getting Up a Little Earlier

I figured out that if I set my alarm for 6:30 or so and actually get out of bed before 7 I get a whole lot more done. If I don't do something before 10 am or so, it probably won't get done that day or I'll do a half ass job like putting the clothes in the washer but then forgetting to put them in the dryer.

So, yesterday I was lazy and didn't set the alarm but today it went off at 6:30 and I hit the snooze button about 5 times and then finally got up. I've already actually cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the bedrooms and cleaned the cat box, so there is something to be said for getting my lazy self up earlier. I've also started the laundry and hope I will remember to put it in the dryer.

I had to clean the bathroom because when I went to brush my teeth this morning the sink made me feel a little ill because Harri started hacking up a hairball at about 3:30 am and Keith was holding her over the sink so that said hairball wouldn't be laying in the middle of the rug. So there was remnants of hairball vomit in the sink and it almost made me vomit. I don't usually let any of the cats in the bedroom during the night because they either climb under the covers with us or run around the room or want us to get up and feed them or as in Harri's case, vomit somewhere. But last night I felt sorry for her because she gets picked on by the bully cats so much and I thought it would be nice for her to be in a quiet room all night, and then she goes and leaves us a hairball as a thank you.

Anyway.

Watching the World Series last night was fun and it was nice to see the Giants win since they haven't won since 1954, which is even longer than I've been alive, and I've been alive for a long long time now. It's kind of cute to see grown men jumping around like little kids after a win like that. Watching so much baseball this past week made me want a Dodger Dog and a beer, though, or at least some peanuts. Or Cracker Jack.

And I'm so glad that election day is finally here so that I don't have to see any more election commercials for a while. Of course, the election commercials stop just in time for all the Christmas commercials to start. Ugh.

And, speaking of the dreaded holiday season, I worked on collage gift tags yesterday, which was fun and a little more creative than I've been lately. I've decided to list paper goods on Artfire only, it's just too expensive to list a set of tags or gift bags on Etsy, after the 20c to list and the 3.5% sales fee and the 30c paypal fee plus whatever percentage on top of that at paypal, you're lucky to make $1.00 on that set of gift tags or bags. I sold two sets of gift bags on Artfire yesterday and that sale alone will pay for the next 2 months shop fees.

Anyway. Off to vacuum the living room now.