Swamped

I have a ton of work to do. A TON! And it's not like it's hard work. Nor is it all work that was just heaped on me in one moment. It's stuff I let pile up. And up. And up. Every day I'd tell myself, "I'll get it done tomorrow." But then tomorrow would come, and I'd repeat the same thing, "I'll get it done tomorrow." And the pile just keeps growing.

The thing is, though, that it is very hard right now for me to be motivated. There are serious rumors floating around that the company might go kaput. And since I work in Accounting and am privy to some information, a lot of that information seems to support that rumor. And I know it's good to have a good work ethic regardless. But I can't seem to make myself work. Instead, I stuff a Dove chocolate in my mouth. Or see what new furniture has been posted on Craigslist.

I went to lunch today with the husband and told him about my problem. I have work. It's not that hard, but I can't force myself to do it. I asked him if there was a word for that. His reply? "Lazy."

I tell ya, that man has got me pegged.

Oh-oh, New Hobby Urge Alert

A few years ago when the husband got me the DSLR that I've been wanting for Christmas, I was really into photography. I looked up (and bought) a bunch of lenses, read several books, I even started to take a class (but dropped it because the teacher was just too into herself and I wound up trying to explain to my classmates what ISO, shutter speed and aperture meant and how they were related because the teacher was too busy bragging about all of her jobs. I remember during one class she was explaining a picture she had taken in which she photoshopped a picture of the Virgin Mary onto it. She said the Virgin Mary came to her and told her to put her in the picture. I busted out laughing. Unfortunately I was the only one and the teacher shot me the evil eye.).

Anyway, when we bought our house back in October 2008, we had tile put in the kitchen. However, I had them stop up to a certain point because I wanted to extend the laminate floors in the family room. Basically I wanted a smaller eat-in area in the kitchen and a larger family room. The guy who did our tiles said he'd do the laminate for $500. Unfortunately we were poor after spending all that money on the tile, and doors, and crown molding and I can't even remember what else.

Well, we had been living with a 4'x15' concrete area in between the kitchen and family room for the past 7 months. But no longer! I found the matching laminate at Lowes and just finished putting the transition trim on last night! (All that's left to do is attaching and painting the baseboards and quarter-rounds now.) I was so proud of myself. The husband helped install the laminate, but I did all the rips. (haha, don't I sound so professional? I was reading a tool forum this morning and all the guys were saying "rips" instead of "cuts." Okay, I'm not even sure the two are synonymous. For all I know rips could mean something else entirely.)

But now I've got that itch. We bought a miter saw to cut the boards. It was super scary at first. But now I want more power tools! I want a table saw, a router, some chisels, and I'm sure a hundred other things I haven't researched yet. I was fantasizing this morning about me building a workshop barn that you see at Lowes that my son has been always asking for. Instead of shelling out the 3K it would cost, it would only cost us the cost of the lumber since I'd be able to do everything myself!!! And then I imagined it crooked and collapsing on top of the boy. Okay, baby steps, maybe I'll start with my own sturdy work bench. We actually bought a cheap one, but after putting it together, and putting my saw that didn't fit on it, I realized how tiny it was.

Okay, now how to break the news to the husband that I want a table saw...

I got stung on the eyelid - Now I'm ugly!!!

Argh!!!!! This is what I get for being a good mom!

The kids saw one of their playmates outside. After I put some clothes on them and went outside, their playmate had already gone inside, but the kids wanted to stay out to play anyway. Even though we live in a cul-de-sac, I stayed outside to watch them to make sure they didn't get into trouble.

I sat on the porch step and my daughter started to sit next to me until she said she saw a bee and ran away. I saw a wasp wriggling on the ground, which was odd. It was on it's back and looked like it couldn't get up. Because I'm a wuss I called my mom and asked her to come out and kill it. Well, she stepped on it and that was that.

Anyway, we stayed out for a little bit, but I yelled at the kids that it was time to go in because of my allergies and my eye was itching. Well, I looked in the mirror and the inside of my left eyelid was swollen. An hour later half of my eyelid was swollen. Approximately 3 hours later and the entire lid is swollen. I expect the whole eye to swollen shut by tomorrow morning.

Now I don't even remember seeing the wasp flying around, let alone land on my eyelid and sting me, but what else could it be?

I look like a monster! And I've missed so much time at work the past few weeks that I have to go to work tomorrow. Argh! This sucks majorly!

Jury Duty and Two Haunted Kiddie Chairs

I got called in for jury duty yesterday. I seriously thought about just not going. I means what the worst that would happen? I'd get arrested once I get stopped for something by the cops? But the husband, who avoids unpleasurable things like the plague, suggested that I just suck it up and go. So I went.

Downtown Martinez is the cutest little place. It surprises me every time I go there. It only spans a few blocks, but it just looks so neat. I got there early, about 12:30 and didn't have to be there til 1 so I killed time in this cool little antique-y/flea market type shop. I remember buying my favorite necklace there several years ago. Anyway, I saw a pair of cute little kid chairs and planned on going back after jury duty.

Jury duty was pretty uneventful. I found a chair away from people and just as I was getting comfortable, some sweaty, b.o.'ed infused guy sat behind me. I sat a few minutes wondering what the proper etiquette time was before I could safely move without it seeming rude. But too many whiffs made me not care and I moved to a desk area off to the side. They showed us some video of people super happy to share their *wonderful* jury experience, but it was just so annoying so I put on my earphones and watched Family Guy on my iPod.

At about 2 o'clock I thought I would lose my mind from the waiting and the boredom. At about 2:30, while I was watching a second episode of Family Guy, I faintly heard a man talking. I turned around and it was the judge talking to us. He thanked us for coming and apologized fto those looking forward to serving and telling the rest of us that it was our lucky day and we should go buy a lottery ticket. One of the attorneys had gotten sick and had to be rushed by ambulence to the hospital. So we were all dismissed. I swear I was the only person grinning from ear to ear after this news. I don't know how people did not skip down the halls like I did after being set free.

I went back to the antique shop, which by the way is run by a pair of these incredibly cute old ladies, and bought my chairs. My kids liked them okay and played with them for about 2 minutes when I brought them home. Later at night, I looked at the empty chairs sitting there side by side and it kind of creeped me out, like perhaps they used to belong to some kids a way long time ago, but now they're ghosts. I don't know why my mind works this way.

Oh, yeah, and I did buy 5 quick-pick lottery tickets on my way home.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I was going to go to the gym today during lunch after a long hiatus, but Bossman called me right before I was about to leave. Apparently he missed the only flight from Arizona to the Bay Area, and thus, asked me to FedEx him all the documents that were awaiting him. No problem. I got the package together, weighed it on the bathroom scale (because it was too heavy for our little postage scale), cringed at my weight, and was out the door to drop it off at a place that's about a 5 minute drive away. Well, that place is now a wheelchair shop. So a quick call back to work and the receptionist told me the nearest Kinkos was over by my house. (I cannot even begin to tell you how handy it is to be able to call someone who has access to internet when you need to find a place!)

So after I dropped off the package I just went home for lunch. My neighbor, Bill, was outside working on his boat. Bill is a retired Air Force guy (is there a proper name for this? Air Forcer?) who is now his yacht club's , crap, I can't remember the name, Head Mariner? Grand Poobah? something like that. Anyway, when he told me I was pretty impressed. So I went over to go chat for a minute since he's a pretty friendly guy. I asked him about his boat and he told me that they actually have 3. The one in his driveway he was working on (I think he called it a runner boat), another runner (?) boat, and a 38 foot boat. The guy is pretty amazing. And then he told me that they also have 3 kayaks and a canoe!

When I went inside my house I exclaimed to the husband, "Those old people kayak!!!" I was so impressed. That must take some amazing upper body strength. Hell, I can't even swim.

The husband had just baked a pizza and we saw down to eat it at the dining table when he said, "The window behind you was open when you said, 'Those old people kayak!' And you were pretty loud, too." Any appetite I had immediately left.

Disneyland Review - I lost my keys!!!

We just got back from Southern California yesterday. We went to Disneyland, California Adventure and saw the husband's family. Oh, and a spur of the moment visit to the Getty musuem.

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn. I felt claustrophobic the moment I stepped in our room, but I got used to it eventually. It boosted a "heated" pool. I was expecting it to be bath water temperature and thought they might have been lying about the heated part when the husband told me that this temperature was heated. Oh. At least the kids enjoyed it while I huddled by myself near the edge shivering to death.

I hated Disneyland. Nor was it my son's favorite place. Disneyland is so not the place for an autistic child who cannot bear dark rides and loud music/talking. However, when I asked him what his favorite part was, he said digging. We sat momentarily after a ride, and he played in the dirt. Oh, and that ride? It was those cars that you drive that is on rails. I let my son sit in the driver's seat so he could steer and I'd just control the pedal. Well, the second I stepped on the pedal, it was too loud for him so covered his ears and I had to steer from the passenger's seat. My arm, butt and leg was hurting after that one. Not fun.

On the Dumbo ride. He covered his face with his pink blanket throughout most of the rides. However, this ride frightened me, too, when we went in the air and I started getting thrown to the side.

I also waited in this one stupid line for 2 hours with my daughter to meet and talk with princesses. I thought we'd get to see a whole bunch of them. We saw 3! And not even the good ones like Sleeping Beauty or Cinderalla. We saw Jasmine, Pocahontas and Ariel. And I was so peeved by the time we got inside that I didn't think to change the settings on my camera and wound up with a bunch of stupid blurry pictures.

I was bitching to the husband about the California Adventure tickets because I didn't want to go there. But I actually liked it better than Disneyland. There were more rides to my son's liking, and the lines were much shorter. I complained a lot to my husband during the whole trip there. That man must have some pretty rock solid discipline to not have beat me while we were down there.

Wednesday morning we went to Newport Beach with his mom. And I think that's the last time I saw my keys. The husband threw a silent tantrum because I didn't pack his shorts in with the kids' stuff. So he sulked on the towel for the most part instead of just walking the 3 minutes back to the car to retrieve his shorts.

My kids had the greatest time splashing in the water...until it knocked both of them over and I had to run in and pull both off them up because Mr.-I-have-no-shorts-so-I'm-not-going-near-the-water wasn't down there with us. My daughter still continued to play in the water. But my son would yell, "NO!" every time I tried to bring him back closer. I'm hoping my keys didn't fall out when I went in the water. That would suck.

Right before being eaten by the ocean:

I thought we were headed back home, but as I fell asleep in the car, the husband nudged me awake and asked if I wanted to go to the Getty museum. Hell yeah! I love art! However, it's so not a place to go when you're accompanied by little ones with very little art appreciation.

I packed a change of clothes for the kids when we went to Disneyland. I packed a change of clothes for the kids when we went to California Adventure. I packed a change of clothes for the kids when we went to the beach. I didn't even touch them at those places. So I figured I wouldn't need a change of clothes at the museum. Guess where my son threw up? Sigh. It took about 45 minutes to hop back on the tram, trek back to the car, change him, back on the tram, figure out the map and find the rest of the family.

Most of my time at the museum was spent holding my son's sweaty little hand and fretting over him getting away and knocking over some 200 year old marble bust. The Getty Museum had gorgeous views and I would really like to go back there...sans kids.

Anyway, we're back and I have no idea where my keys are.

Update
Apparently, the troll must have taken my keys. I checked the red backpack when we got home. They weren't in there. I checked the red backpack twice in the morning before I left for work. All I saw was the padlock the husband used at the gym. No keys. I asked the husband to check everything again for me while I was at work. Guess where he found the keys? In the red backpack right next to the padlock.