She Lives So Far Out That ...

I am so boring right now. I have nothing to post. Well, maybe.

I got up 15 minutes late and fed the cats. My gal pal and Mr. Determined went to Florida out of the blue and I am still here. Though now, I am doing house sitting duty.

I am moving to a new gal pal's house this Friday. Hopefully, I can gain a new perspective and show you the country life. She lives in another country.

Inside joke. She lives so far out that few people visit, thinking they need to bring their passports to get in and out of the country.

I went to work. I came home from work. Work was OK, I had something to do today. With me leaving, giving so much heads up, the bosses were able to hire my repacement several months ago. I just monitor what she is doing now , so I really don't have too much to do, which drives me crazy. Very short trip.

Short trip, I know, but I really like being busy, to make the day flow quickly.

I Got My Passport Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my Passport today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't go see Spousal Unit yet. But I can when the time comes.

Let's just forget about the YUCKY passport picture. It still works. As long as the Customs people acknowledge that the crazy looking Bozo is really the same person as the long haired curly girl.

I Am Looking Forward To Driving Blacky In Europe

Blacky is fun to drive. Spousal Unit's father gave us this car. He can't drive anymore and the Spousal Unit and Son #2 flew out to get the car. They had an awesome road trip on the way back.

We name all our vehicles. Even the lawn mowers. This vehicle was called Blacky.

I will not drive Blacky in the States. I have a lead foot and the last time I drove Blacky I looked down and saw that I was going 90 in a 50 speed limit zone. No more Blacky for me.

On the Autobahn. That's another story.

I can go ZOOM. As long as it is not in the construction zones.

The German Politzei (Police) have cameras installed in the constructions zones that take really great pictures that are sent with the ticket informing you to pay a "bazillion Euros" for the ticket.

Euros at this point in time are expensive.

I am looking forward to driving Blacky in Europe.

Friday Dribs and Drabs - Lots of Dribble

I spoke to Spousal Unit this morning. Yeah!

The van was finally released from the customs hedoublehockysticks void. Blacky the sportster car is also in-country and Spousal Unit plans to drive up to the port, next week, to pick it up.

Spousal Unit finally got to have a sit down with his boss and do an intake interview. He came away feeling really great about where he is and where the job is going to take him.

I had my first really great day today in a long time. I have the weight of MY world off my shoulders. The house is rented. I had Boys help me clean out the dredges, and I only have a few things that need to be done.

My Girl Pal wants me to give up the ghost, saying that the house is rented and to stop doing STUFF. I say that I am getting a good rent and I want to provide value for that rent.

Son Number One is at the friends cabin this weekend. Pray for him. Last year, he in his infinate 21 year old wisdom, decided to jump the cabin in a 4 wheeler. Permanent scars and a cracked rib later he decided that 4 wheelers are not to his taste. I sent him off with a hope that he has a good and safe time.

Have a great weekend I'll be back online Sunday night, hopefully.

I Started Lusting Again

The past few days I have been driving around in the Big Red Truck with lots of stuff in the truck bed. I feel like a character out of the Beverly Hillbillies. All I need is Granny sitting back there in her rocker.

I cleaned out the other house for the new renters to move in. The yucky old tenents left lots of CRAP in the house and I was at the eleventh hour to get the stuff out, so I threw it in the back of the truck. Didn't know what else to do with it. Much of the CRAP was too big to put into the regular trash.

I just didn't know what to do with the CRAP.

I started Lusting. Lusting for a dumpster. Everywhere I went I looked for businesses with dumpsters. Where the dumpsters were slightly hidden, with no cameras, to do a covert dump in the middle of the night.

Lordy, the last thing I need to do is get arrested for illegal dumping, stealing someone's dumpster space.

My painter guy, Bo said that I could use his dumpster. My god, he is my hero. His wife Pam is my nail fixer upper and put me onto him. I can't thank them enough.

I Will Be A Happy Woman

Things are starting to wind down. Here it is the 4th of July and the only fireworks I am seeing right now are the blinding whiteness of the doors. Did I mention that I have 45 doors???????? All needing at least two coats of paint. Many needing three.

I am getting white blindness from checking the doors to make sure that I didn't miss any spots. The doors are all rehung and and I only have 1 1/2 doors to go and then I am done painting.

If I never see another can of paint in my life, I will be a happy woman. I taste and smell paint. I dream of paint.

If I never see painters tape again, I will be a happy woman.

Son Number One mixed up a couple of doors and put them back in the wrong rooms. My Gal Pal's husband and I were trying to rehang a couple of doors that just weren't fitting in the hinges. I got the bright idea to check some of the other doors and found some that fit the hinges. Yeah!!! One less hassle to deal with.

If I never have to rehang another door, I will be a happy woman.

Never, never ever rehang doors again.

I Still Haven't Figured Out Why I Do This STUFF

My family room/great room. The rugs cleaned up really nice. I didn't have to replace them.

My kitchen with the new counter tops and floor. Why am I leaving?

Oh yeah, to be with the Spousal Unit.

My entryway looking up to the second floor. I had all sorts of Maidens posed on this stairway for Senior Prom one year.
My Breakfast Room. Really this is the room where we ate all our meals for the last eight years. I love the floor and the new plantation blinds and valances.
I still haven't figured out why I do this STUFF for other people and won't do this fix for my own family.

Go figure.

One Hand Washes The Other, Hopefully

I have been busy, busy, busy all weekend.

I focused on cleaning the kitchen cabinets and painting the doors in the house.

The painters painted the walls but I negotiated the price to have me paint the doors. The price would have gone up exponentially for having them do all the taping for painting the doors.

What I forgot is that I have a lot of doors. All needing two coats of paint.

I counted 45 doors in the house. Not including the Front Door which will be painted with other than white paint.

I am so covered with paint that I can only hope that I can scrub it all off.

I am not really confidant that I will be able to show up at the office tomorrow in a professional manner.

The House Flunked

I am starting to slide into the home stretch. I had my occupancy inspection this afternoon.

The house flunked. I knew it would, but I wanted to get a heads up on what I needed to fix sooner rather than later.

The guy was really nice, almost apologetic, about needing to write up some of the stuff. Some of the required remedies I knew about.

Reinstall stove and dishwasher.

DUH. I had them pulled them so the new flooring can be installed.

But, no mention of the live wire sticking out of the kitchen floor where the island was pulled also for the new flooring.

I need to put up some sheet rock on the unfinished walls in the basement to hide exposed wires.

We have a big scary enclosed wire thingee that used to power a hot tub/jacuzzi the former owners installed. The hot tub/jacuzzi was not there when we moved in, but now I need to figure out how to box up the ends.

While having the house painted, I told the painters that the downstairs, the former boy's lair, was being totally re-carpeted and not to worry about drop clothes. They did me one better and cut the carpet about four inches away from the walls. Easier to paint the baseboards.

The inspection mentions replacing carpet. Does that mean re-installing the four inches that was cut away or new carpet?

The biggest issue was to install gates on the deck and at ground level to the pool. I anticipated this requirement and already contracted out to have this work done.

I was worried that I would need to expand the deck all the way around the pool. But, because the pool is so tall the open end is considered a self deterrent.

Last and what I consider least, I need to install 3" numbers on my mail box with the house number. The gal I am staying with is the Postmistress. She says that's her job to tell me if this is a problem.

NOT the county inspectors.

Packing a Van Is a Lost Art

The boxes got piled high.



















Piled high in every room.















Starting to pack the van for storage.



















Getting fuller.
















Packing a van is a lost art. I am so glad that Ryan is an artist.

Storage Move with Boxes

Storage moving van.
Big storage moving van.



Most of our belongings are going into storage









A few of our belongings.















More stuff in boxes.















A couple of boxes going to Germany.














More storage.

For a Married Woman, My Social Calendar Is Really Filling Up. With Guys.

Spousal Unit is leaving next Tuesday. On the way to the airport, we will drop off the car for shipment, and then continue to the gate. I get to kiss him goodbye and then see him in the middle of October.

For a married woman, my social calendar is really filling up. With guys.

The floor guy is coming at 7:30 this evening. His son is in an after school activity and will come after that is over.

The counter top guy came Friday night and retook all the measurements and created the templates. I fed his son. We chatted about recent events while clearing off the counters to make the templates. He will be back to install the counter top in a week or so.

The rug guy is coming in two weeks. He is the son of my cleaning lady and the best around.

The fill-in-the-hole-next-to-the-driveway guy will be here when the ground dries out enough.

I still need to contact the paint-the-house guy. I'm scared about contacting him. We have a lot of walls.

The install-the-new-shutters, install-the-new doors, and seal-the-new-tile-floor guy will come when I call.

I hope Spousal Unit is OK with all this.

Can You See Me Crying??

My house is labeled.

The labels denote Storage, Ship, or N/A. The N/A label means we can't take it with us or can't store it. Lots of our STUFF falls into the N/A category. Premium olive oil, sambol olek, sherry vinegar.

Can you see me crying??

That is also one of the reasons we had a drink our booze night(s).

No booze ships.

We are arranging the house by shipping or storage.

To save time with the packers we have done a scurry, scurry to put the rooms in "order" by the take or store determination.

This room is a storage room.

It was my library, that is going away for awhile.

I am sad.


This is my living room. It is also going away.

The new house has a family room/dining room combo and will not fit everything.

The furniture is not meant to sit on every day, so we aren't taking it.

I decided to put the linens that we aren't taking on the sofa. They are piled high.

I am a linen freak.



These are most of the linens that we are taking.

Two sets of towels, two sets of sheets for each bed. Blankets, feather comforters, and that's about all.

The cedar chest will double as a coffee table in the studio/attic.






Spousal Unit's favorite chair is in the closet.

It is a yucky yellow velvet, from the 70's, but so, so comfy. It is down filled. I also love this chair.

By creating ship or storage rooms we needed to get a little creative.

I only hope the chair comes out of the closet soon.