:o long time, no see

I want to say I've been insanely busy to make excuses about why nothing got done for a few weeks. There is no excuse really though. I could have found time to do things between driving lessons and dog sitting and emailing someone overseas.

For example, I could have made sure things were neat and tidy before taking the dog for a walk and driving lessons. Its not that hard to wash the few dishes I get dirty. Takes even less time to wipe down the sink after washing them.

I could have even made sure the dishes were done before sitting down to email the overseas correspondent.

I could have even vacuumed after I let the dog out the back to do his business of a morning.

But, in all honesty, I just couldn't be stuffed doing it. Gray cloudy days are NOT conducive to me doing things. By the time I got back from dog walking and driving I was 'too tired' to spend 3 or 4 minutes doing the dishes.

Happily though, with the dog gone, the last driving lesson scheduled, plus the clear day and the overseas chap being at work, I whizzed around the house and had it tidy again in a matter of 5..maybe 10 minutes. And that included wiping under the hotplate rings on the stove. Those things are sharp underneath, as I found out the hard way. There is still dog hair everywhere (doesn't vacuum up very easily), and muddy foot prints in the laundry, but I'll get to those, probably sometime today if the weather stays clear.

Suffice to say..after a few weeks of the house being ever so slightly annoying, waking up to it being tidy is a distinct pleasure.

todays mission

Was to tidy up your front entrance. Well, thankfully, I did that the other day while waiting for the quarantine lady. I even moved the car out of the carport and swept down the walls of the car port. Now that was gross! Old cobwebs and dust and even a dehydrated mouse carcass. Ok, the mouse was on the floor. There is still more that needs to/could be done, but it still looks a hell of a lot nicer than it did last Monday.

I do need to prune the plants back though. They are looking a tad seedy.

female cat marking

One of my cats, Snot, is a bitch for spraying. She is desexed, and was before she turned into a teenager.

She had a bladder infection a while back, and thats thought to have been caused by stress.

Cleared all that up, but now she is marking the area near the kettle. First I knew of this was yellow droplets in/on the bowls that live there. Then I saw that the base of the kettle had yellow droplets.

Of course, this just isn't on. She does it at night when I cant see. Ok, I *assume* it is Snot, because I have seen her marking other places. I have the pepper laying on its side next to the bowls so she is avoiding that bit. But the kettle is fair game for her. Sprinkling pepper works, but I have to wipe that up every morning.

I think that she is marking because of the dog thats here. This morning she squirted ME while I was on the loo! That most definitely isn't on.

This link isn't much good. I think I'll have to do the pepper thing, and wait for the dog to go.

Drives me up the wall. But I'm glad its not a boy cat doing it!

~*~
My Flylady stuff isn't in Google calender today. Not sure where that is. Today is dust the nick knacks though.

~*~
I called Quarantine on Saturday. Tasmania is an island state with fairly strict quarantine laws, so when I found that the dog biscuity bones had little brown beetles in them, and they were from Qld, I called. Well, I thought we did. The quarantine officer who called me back was all 'oh, its probably nothing, we have indigenous bugs, they probably got into the biscuits here.' :s he didn't listen when I said there were beetles in a SEALED bag.

A woman called me this morning and will be here to collect the biscuits some time today.

Google tells me they are carpet beetles. But not varied carpet beetles. Mine look like this. Its hard to find out if they are ok HERE, or whether its the varied one we have. This is the Australian carpet beetle. CSIRO link. Still not mine. But hey, if I listened to the guy who called, I could have easily said 'oh, we have brown bugs? ok then.'

Anyway, we will see what the quarantine officer says when she gets here.

oooh arr...

a deep and meaningful mission today.

We are to stand in our loungerooms and look around to see what we love, or what we are used to.

My clocks are still loved (as much as they can be - I cant take them to bed or hug them after all) - but I am still fairly 'used to' them being there. Every now and then I will wind one up.

The videos and dvd's annoy me, but there really isn't anywhere for them to go. So I enjoy having them in alphabetical order.

Aside from those collections, I have no nick knacks or any thing. I do, however, have a dirty great bed for the dog, which is taking up ooh...a quarter of the floor space of the loungeroom. Small lounge room, big dog. I cant do much about that until the dog goes. But I CAN do something about the layers of dog hair.

I've been quite quite slack about tidying up since he got here. He is always under foot, and whines if he is in the back yard. I used to think he was lonely/in need of company, but realised that if he can spend hours out the front alone (and piss off), that wasn't the case. I look forward to him going back home so I can get these beds up and out of the way.

I bought a deep fryer the other week, and have been using it over Easter. I cant wait for it to be put away, coz it takes up space on the stove. The cord is too short to reach the power point if it is on the kitchen bench would you believe. I need to wipe down the fat splatters and get on with eating real food again. The corned beef for example. And Scotch Broth - with goat - before the veges go blech.

Well, time to vacuum and stuff, then back to knitting and watching Alien3.

:s what to do?

Missions this week:

Monday - Get rid of what doesn't belong. There isn't anything.
Tuesday - Clothes pile. There isn't one.
Wednesday - Night stands. Don't have any.
Thursday - Dressers. Already tidy. I could dust them though.
Friday - Strip and make the bed properly. Now this one I might be able to manage!

With just a couple of forks and a microwave bowl last night, I didn't bother doing the dishes before bed. It would have been a waste of water to do them. Ok, I am on town water, but why waste it? Now I can add this mornings coffee mug, breakfast bowl and two spoons to that, because I have a funeral to go to and I will want to come back to a tidy house. I was going to put corned beef on in the crock pot, but given that tomorrow is Good Friday, and we have some vague traditions in our family, I wouldn't have eaten the left overs. So it has to wait.

I'm baby sitting a dog, so I should probably vacuum up the dog hair before I leave as well. And hang out his bedding.

Now is a good time I guess.

Mission impossible

Todays Flylady mission is to take things out of your room that don't belong. Happily, I don't have anything in there that doesn't belong. So, Mission accomplished.

Not sure if living alone is good or bad at this point.

If nothing 'ever changes' then how did the place get to the CHAOS stage?

shameful moment

Well, actually two of them.

The other night I had a visitor. Yep, a visitor at night. But I hadn't done the dishes or shined the sink, and the visitor washed their hands at the kitchen sink! How embarrassing!

Then yesterday, not thinking that the bathroom was that messy, I got the cleaning sponge to wipe up the dripped bits of liquid soap, and found out that while the what you call it? bench/vanity whatever, didn't LOOK dirty, there was significant amounts of dust and hair strands. The floor around the cats water dishes was worse. Why i didn't think that the cats shed hair at the water bowls I'll never know. Sheesh.

Yeah...so..I think I will have to trust that while things look ok at a surface glance, they might not actually be as clean as I think, and need doing anyway.