September 16, 2008

More fun with words

Y’all know I love to play with words. I’ve had ongoing games of Scrabulous since I first found the site a few months ago. JenX and I spend a day or two on each game, depending on the amount of time we each have to devote to it, then start a new game as soon as each game finishes. I compose painfully bad limmericks and puns for the sheer joy of bending words to my will. Don’t ask - I won’t share them. I introduced you to Wordle, where the beauty of words is translated into visual art. I’ve probably mentioned a website that I think is called There Their. I can’t find the link, so if you know what I’m talking about and can hook me up, please do. (Allow me to pause for a moment of silence in memory of all the great bookmarks I lost when my computer succumbed to a virus.) EDIT: Found it! ThereTheir.com

I appreciate the beauty of well-chosen words. Poor grammar and spelling annoy me, but the humor that can emerge for mangled English does not escape me. Today I found a new website that shines a spotlight on crimes against language: Wordsplosion [sic] - Showcasing the best of the worst of the wide world of words. The temptation is to quote some of the misquotes on the site or to do screen caps of a couple of the photos that illustrate them, the better to tempt you into visiting. I just can’t. You need to go there. Smirk. Laugh. Feel superior. You know you are.

For the record: there is no “A” in definitely.

Image created in Wordle using the text of this post.

Technorati Tags: grammar, English, word usage, word misusage, Wordsplosion

September 13, 2008

Virtually me - or you!

Y’all wanna have some fun? I’ve been playing around at My Virtual Model and that’s me over there at the left. Okay, it’s not a perfect replica, but it was created based on my size, shape and coloring. I selected the hairstyle that’s closest to how I actually wear mine, and then each wardrobe item, right down to the slippahs (flip flops) that I wear more than any other shoes. There are no eyeglasses on the site. You’ve never seen me without my glasses (and probably never will,) so just pretend, okay? While no one would mistake my model for the real me, she’s close enough to use for some virtual fitting and shopping. I can dress her in different styles and see how each would look on my body type, a real help when you’re buying clothes online and can’t try them on.

I’ve apparently been to the site before today. I had an identity there that I don’t remember signing up for, so I guess it’s been a while since I visited. I went there today at the prompting of Two Shrinking Sisters, a new blog that just kicked off yesterday. Penny and Tina have decided to unite in sisterhood and weight loss. They’ll chart their progress with weekly weigh-ins and occasional photos. Tina is also using before, progressive and after (goal) virtual models to get her motivation up. Penny will have a noticable weight loss soon - she’s going to be a mom in about a month. She and her sis will share their diet and exercise routines as well as some of what motivates and inspires them. I really admire their determination and their willingness to put themselves out there. They’d appreciate some support and encouragment on their journey, so why don’t you go on over there now and give them each an “Atta girl!”

Technorati Tags: blogs, diet, health, weight loss

August 28, 2008

Office chores

I’m really awful about keeping up with all of the things I should do as a business owner. I seriously hate office chores. If I could just do my inspections and issue my reports I’d love my job. There’s all this other stuff that needs doing though, and I neglect most of it horribly. That’s why I’m rather proud of the productive day I had yesterday. This morning, for the first time in months, there was no filing piled up on my work table, waiting for me to set it in order & put it away. There are also no checks waiting to be entered into the books and prepared for deposit. How far behind was I? The photo above is a clue. A few of them don’t show, but those are the twenty checks that have been waiting patiently for my attention. Most of them are payments from escrow companies for my inspection services. Five of them are tax refunds. Yep - five tax checks. Remember how stressed I was about filing my taxes so late? I’d been paying my taxes quarterly (fed) or semi-annually (state) as a good little business owner is required to do, but I neglected to file my taxes on time. I hadn’t kept good track of things, so I wasn’t sure if I still owed a bunch on taxes until the refunds started coming in. Turns out I payed more than was due for 2006 and 2007 to both the IRS and the State of Hawaii, so both of them sent me separate checks for each year. Uncle Sam was also kind enough to send my econoimic stimulus check, which I was afraid might be witheld as a penalty for filing late.

I hate fooling with money. It doesn’t matter whether it’s coming in or going out, I hate to fool with it. When I first started my business I rushed to the bank with deposits as soon as checks came in. After a while I realized that was inefficient, so I started logging payments as they came in, but going to the bank once a week. Then maybe once every two weeks. Then I started letting them accumulate and didn’t log them in until I was ready to go to the bank - once every three or four weeks. When I started opening mail yesterday I was more than a little chagrinned to realize that some of the checks were postmarked six weeks ago. Obviously not acceptable! I’m adding a new vow to my list of “things I will improve on.” My checks are all tallied up and my deposit slip is filled out. As soon as I’m through with this post I’m going to head to the bank. I’ve made a committment to my business: in the future all office chores will be cleared away a minimum of once a week. I’m getting better at keeping my life and my business organized. This is just one of many areas where I’ve failed in the past. I’m putting it out here in front of all of you to impress upon myself that this needs to be something that I take seriously and address in a business-like manner. I almost asked you to wish me luck, but that would be ridiculous. Keeping my business running smoothly doesn’t need luck, it needs my committment, so let’s just leave it at that. I’m committed to doing better.

Technorati Tags: banking, business, business chores

August 11, 2008

Almost Tuesday Teaser

Okay, okay - it’s not much of a puzzle after you look for a moment, but you did a double take, didn’t you, wondering what that was?

We have a morning routine that does not include Lance staying in bed. He sleeps near my feet and usually bounds out of bed a moment or two after me. He lets himself out through the doggie door-flap, then comes back in a few moments later. Sometimes he parks himself in the kitchen where he can watch me make coffee, just in case I deviate from the norm and make food magically appear early in the day. Most days he goes straight to the couch and gets comfortable in “his” spot. When I’ve poured my first cup and carried to the couch he shifts slightly, just enough to put his head on my lap for his first nap of the day. We sit in quiet companionship until the first cup is empty, the caffeine has kicked in and I’m ready to start my day.

This morning I was halfway through my first cup when I realized Lance hadn’t come back in. I decided there must be some great adventure outside that needed exploring and left him to it. After pouring my second cup I carried it down the hall to the office, put it beside the desk, turned on the computer and went though my room to the bathroom. I face the bed as I come out of the bathroom and this time I noticed the sheet moving. A little tent poked up, then … thump … disappeared. Pause. Thump … thump! Walking around the bed I saw the scene above and only then realized that Lance had abandoned the morning routine completely. The thumping increased to a staccato beat as he wagged his tail in happy delirium, very pleased with himself for having successfully hidden from Mom, but equally ecstatic that I was approaching and it was time for the first tummy rub of the day. Goofy beagle! Or maybe he was just being lazy. He’s getting a little pudgy around the middle. Wonder if they make Leptovox for beagles? Maybe he needs to shed a pound or two so he can get back to being his usual self. Ah, we’ll see what happens tomorrow before doing anything drastic. Lance and me, we’re creatures of habit and neither of us is crazy about change. He’ll probably be on the couch waiting for me tomorrow morning when the coffee is ready.

Technorati Tags: beagle, dogs, photos, routines

July 21, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!

No cake or anything else special planned, unless you choose to leave your gifts at the door, in which case I’ll make a big deal of opening them. Looking forward to phone calls from my son and my sister, both of whom will say that they got me something terrific and will mail it soon (it’s what we do.) I need to pay taxes and spend some time on the phone with HP figuring out why I can’t send faxes. If the sun stays out I need to do the oft-delayed flea treatment in the yard and give Lance a bath. That would make it a pretty special day for both of us, considering that he sleeps with me and I’ve had to use flea spray on him several times in the last few days and the aroma makes my nose tingle when I’m trying to sleep. Need to crop a photo so I’ll have it ready to post tonight for Tuesday Teasers. Hmmmm, that’s pretty much what I plan to do today. Faxes, taxes, fleas and tease. That’ll keep me busy!

You may now pay homage.

Technorati Tags: birthday

June 18, 2008

Oh, the irony!

A couple of weeks ago, in one of my progress reports on de-cluttering my home, I showed you my re-organized hall closet. I included this phrase: “Next time I have a large burn or am bleeding profusely I’ll peek in there and know that I have enough wound dressings to last a week.” As it turns out, I couldn’t peek in there while I was bleeding profusely because I lacked the foresight to do it at home. I was inspecting a vacant house, with no supplies on hand at all. I keep a first aid kit in my car, but wouldn’t you know it - it was gone just when I needed it. I must have left it out of the car the last time I needed a bandaid or an antiseptic wipe, and that was so long ago that I can’t even remember where it was or what I needed the kit for. I scrounged around in the car and came up with a roll of scotch tape and some kleenex and improvised a bandage. The one you see here is the third one - the first two were soaked with blood pretty quickly. The third one stayed on long enough for me to get home, clean the wound properly and put a real bandage on it. I stopped at Walmart on the way home and they had first aid kits on sale, on a special display just inside the front door. Now I’m well equipped again for the next time I give a little too much of myself to the job.

The injury never should have happened. I was opening the hatch to go through the hall ceiling into the attic. I lifted it straight up, then got each hand cupped over an edge. As I moved it a little higher up something gouged a piece of flesh out of my hand. The guy who is selling the house had done some extensive remodeling. He needed to run some cables or wiring in the attic, right beside the entry hatch. He cut a channel for the cable in the framing around the hatch. That would have been fine, but he did a very rough job. It looks like a child hacked out the channel with a screwdriver and hammer. There are rough patches and splinters all along it. In one spot there’s a chunk of wood sticking out right against the hatch cover and that’s what got me. It took a piece of flesh out and there’s a piece that’s “hanging by a thread” and will probably not heal back in place. The guy had to know it was a hazard, but I can imagine his thoughts on that: “The wife and kids will never go up in the attic and I know it’s there and will make sure to avoid the rough spot whenever I need to go up there.” He didn’t think about repair people or termite inspectors or anyone else who might ever have reason to do something in the attic. Mahalo plenty, mister. I left a big old blood stain on your textured ceiling. Nothing I could do to get it out, so I hope it doesn’t screw up the closing for your home sale. And hey - next time? Try think!

I have a picture of my hand without the bandage. Make sure you thank me for not sharing.

Technorati Tags: accidents, bandages, on-the-job injuries, work

May 29, 2008

Aloha friends - remember me?

It’s been a rough week. A situation that I have been involved in for a very long time took an unexpected turn last week. I’ve never blogged about it because it concerns the personal life of someone else, a very private person, and has never been my story to tell. My involvement has ended abruptly and very badly after a very stressful year and several monthls of twenty-four/seven high anxiety. I’ve had a couple of the worst days in my life and I’ve been decompressing from the stress since then. Some good things have come from it, for me and hopefully for the other person as well. I’m clinging to that thought as I reorganize my own life and move on. It’s really hard to blog about anything when there is one thing occupying your thoughts and you can’t share it. I find now, though, that my focus is becoming more diverse again and I’m seeing stories I want to tell and thinking about other things worth sharing. We have no assurance where life will take us, so I’m not sure what I’ll be blogging about in the coming days, but I will be blogging and I invite you along for the ride.

Mahalo to the faithful readers who have continued to visit skeet’s stuff when there was not much reason to do so. I owe you an explanation. This is the best I can do right now, so it will have to suffice. I’m starting to live my own life again instead of being consumed with someone else’s. I hope you’ll stick around and share it with me.

Technorati Tags: blogging, friends, life, personal stuff, stress

May 26, 2008

And still more progress!

As promised in my last post, here’s some more de-cluttering progress. I took the above picture of part of my desk a couple of weeks ago, then lost my nerve and didn’t show it to you. I can show it to you now because I took the next photo today.

There’s still a lot of work to do in my office. It took a couple of years of depression and neglect for things to get into such a mess. The re-organization is coming along nicely, but is far from finished.

And now, a word from my sponsor. Well, not really. No one is sponsoring this post. But the nice folks at Gloves In A Bottle were kind enough to send me a sample of their shielding lotion to try out. Y’all know that dehydration is one of the symptoms of my medical condition. That’s more than just thirst. My hair, skin and nails suffer from the lack of moisture. I’ve been handling great stacks of paper every day while organizing my files and catching up my books. Every gas receipt and phone bill is being filed in the proper place so I can compile my expenses and get my taxes caught up. Every report has already been entered into my work logs and journaled in the books. Old files have been purged and I’ve shredded hundreds of pages of sensitive documents. I’ve handled thousands of pieces of paper just in the last week. Paper sucks the moisture out of my skin, so I’m keeping Gloves In A Bottle on my desk and I apply it every few hours while doing this work. It’s a shielding lotion that goes into your skin and helps protect it from inside out, as opposed to conventional moisturizers which merely coat the outer layer of skin. Using Gloves In A Bottle has kept all of my paper-handling from drying and damaging my skin. It doesn’t leave a sticky residue when applied and has not made any smears on my paperwork because - well, how can it? It’s not sitting on the surface of my skin, it’s inside. It’s probably available in a store near you, so use the store locator and get yourself some. In the unlikey event that there’s not a distributor nearby, you can order it from their website. It’s good stuff. You should try it!

As I said, there’s still a lot to be done in the office. Here’s the part of my desk I didn’t show you in the “after” photo above. It’s a three-tiered tray system that sits to the left of my monitor and should have inspection order forms and a few other things neatly organized and close to hand. Yeah, I know - you can barely even see the trays right now. I’ll probably remedy that tomorrow. Maybe someday soon I’ll show you my whole desk in a single photo.

When I started this whirlwind of activity I wanted to do one house job, one office job and one yard/garden job each day. That’s not terribley practical because some chores move along more effectively when I dedicate big blocks of time to them. It took me most of a day to get all of my inspection files in date order and get them journaled, then put them in alphabetical order for filiing, so I didn’t break up the job to clean closets or pull weeds. I’ve managed to maintain a steady pace in each area of labor, though, except for the three days that rain kept me from working outside. Today I did the hall closet and started cleaning and organizing the shed in the front yard. Yesterday I did the pantry. There’s great variety of items in my pantry, so there are several types of items on each shelf. Generally, it breaks down like this: snacks and convenience foods on the top shelf, canned goods, sauces and syrups on the second shelf, herbs, spices and seasonings on the bottom shelf and gum and candy in the little hanging basket. There are a few frequently-used medications in there, too (the rest are in the hall closet, which you’ve already seen.) I threw away two rubbish bags of stale stuff that had been lost in the back, some herbs and spices that were past their prime and a couple of cans that I thought I gave to the food bank the last time I purged and refilled my evac kit. One can of tomato paste had a swollen top, a sure way to get botulism. Why is it always tomato paste? There was a mysterious sticky puddle on one shelf. Not a clue what it used to be, but it’s gone now.

Tall and bulky items are on the floor of the pantry - oils and vinegars, a couple of bottles of liquor and some unopened wine, cereal, Lance’s kibble and biscuits. Can liquor go bad in the bottle after it’s opened? I don’t really drink, but I have a bottle of B & B and a little rum for cooking. Both were opened several years ago. Maybe I should toss them? I washed Lance’s bins while I was cleaning the pantry and didn’t refill them yet, so the kibble bag is sticking out of it right now. Every time I open the pantry Lance checks to make sure the good stuff is still at beagle-eye level. My fire extinguisher is right there, too, where it will be easy to grab if I ever need it. You do have an extinguisher in your kitchen, don’t you? If you don’t, would you please get one very soon? Do it for yourself and your family, and because it will make me happy, too.

My next kitchen chore will be to sort through my dishes and assign a whole bunch of them to the garage sale/charity truck pile. Needless to say, there is entirely too much stuff in my kitchen!

Technorati Tags: cleaning, clutter, de-cluttering, organizing

May 25, 2008

More progress on de-cluttering

There’s a problem with letting clutter accumulate. Well, actually, it creates a lot of problems. Here’s the one I’m thinking of right now, though. See the stack of washcloths between the two stacks of towels? There are - wait a minute while I count - forty-one washcloths. There are a few more in my bathroom - maybe three or four - plus some in the laundry basket. Let’s say I’ve got about fifty washcloths. Why in the world would a single adult living alone need fifty washcloths? She wouldn’t, of course. But if she frequently shops, sets the booty aside to deal with later and then forgets about it, she might not remember that she bought a cheaper-by-the-dozen package of washcloths. She might forget that several times and buy them again … and again. When she finally starts de-cluttering her home she might find some WalMart bags with stuff she bought. One them might be in a corner of her bedroom and contain a twin-pack of deodorant and some hair gel in addition to a jumbo pack of washcloths. Maybe there was another hiding in the floor of the guest room closet containing some washcloths along with a sympathy card that was never sent and a few other bits and bobs. There might even be a full, unopened pack in the hall closet, hiding behind some towels that are in such disarray that no one has a clue what else might be in there. That’s how it could happen, maybe. Just speculating, mind you, but it could happen that way, couldn’t it?

My decluttering frenzy has continued on a daily basis. I tackled the hall closet today. Sheets, tablecloths, towels and washcloths can now be found when needed. The biggest chore in the closet, though, was two shelves packed with a miscellany of health and beauty products. I found prescription drugs that were years out of date. Lots of stale over-the-counter cold and sinus remedies, too, and crinkly tubes of antibiotic ointment, dusty bottles of eye drops and multiple bottles of hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol with a little product remaining in each. I have lots of first aid supplies. Super-sized sterile bandages from when I burned my foot, ace bandages and self-adhesive wraps and plenty of regular old bandaids, of course. I filled a large rubbish bag with all of that stale, out-dated stuff, plus body lotions in which the oils had gone rancid and shampoos that had turned funny colors. I’m happy with the results. There were several little baskets in there, but not enough to actually organize things, so I improvised with some boxes to handle the overflow. Each is labelled and things are sorted by type so they can be found quickly. Next time I have a large burn or am bleeding profusely I’ll peek in there and know that I have enough wound dressings to last a week. It won’t be a problem if you forget your toothbrush or floss or razor when you come for a visit. These are good things to know.

I couldn’t bring myself to take a photo that showed the whole closet “before.” The picture above was about half-way through. I had emptied out most of the stuff that was in the bottom of the closet originally - dog-bath towels and throw rugs and vacuum cleaner attachements and such. Then I used the floor of the closet as one of my sorting bins. Most of that is sick room supplies left over from when I was taking care of Dad. There are suction syringes and tubing, feeding tubes, catheters, and even a cheap, plastic stethoscope used to make sure the feeding tube hadn’t gone astray into a lung. There are braces and thumb splints for each phase of the tendon problems in my hands. Most of this ended up in the rubbish bin, but the tubing has various hardware uses (and is in the shed now) and the stethocope is with my first aid supplies. The gallon jug of hand soap is still right where it started.

I’ve worked on my office some more, too. I’ll post about that in a little while, after I eat some supper. It’s been a busy day and I need to re-fuel.

Technorati Tags: cleaning, clutter, de-cluttering, organizing

April 11, 2008

Sicko

I’ve started four posts in the last few days and been unable to finish any of them. I think maybe I’m dying from the plague. If I survive I’ll be back when I can actually string more than two sentences together and have them make sense.

Technorati Tags: colds, flu, health