It's Always Something....

Schecky looked at me earlier in the week and asked:
"Why is everything in this house always broken?
Or breaking?*"

Out of the mouths of babes....

And, sadly, I didn't have an answer for him - although, in a strange way, it made me feel a little bit better... Just to know that I wasn't alone in feeling that way sometimes.

In a 99 year old house - nothing is easy.
Ever.

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I am trying very, very, VERY hard to maintain a "glass is half full" attitude - but my patience is being tried...
Now the computer is having "issues". And Bubba says the prognosis is dire...
(so, it seems that once again, I may be enjoying an "enforced absence" from teh internets....)

Sigh.

It's always something, isn't it???


Ah well - on the bright side - there's a shiny new, non-wobbly ceiling fan in place. And it only took 5 days to get it up and installed and working properly! :)

That was 5 long days though - since I had to shut off that electrical breaker until I got the new one up and running. And that breaker, it turns out, is an important one. It has *all* the ceiling fans in the back of the house on it. So there have been no ceiling fans - and therefore no breeze - in any of the bedrooms. During this week of record-breaking temps here in the ATL. Is my timing awesome, or what???

Also on the bright side - are you sitting down? - I actually picked up my knitting needles this week. Nothing to report at this time - but YAY! I actually started something... (and hadn't completely forgotten how to knit!)

It's not all sucky here in the House That Crazy Built. It's never *all* sucky... but sometimes it's harder to remember that than at other times. We've got what I hope is a lazy weekend planned. That's good. That makes me happy...

And one more thing that makes me happy:



Schecky has built this ginormous LegoCity. And during the day, when Schecky is at school (because Scheck doesn't like it when people mess with LegoCity) ThingTwo likes to come in, settle down among the buildings, and just sits there. Attempting to look regal and menacing. I call him "The Terror of Tiny Town," which he seems to enjoy... It cracks me up...

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*He was looking at the big, gaping hole in the kitchen ceiling. Where there was supposed to be a ceiling fan...

And the winner is...

Once again I'm following in Autum's footsteps and stealing borrowing her idea of using a random number generator to determine who gets the necklace...

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And the winner is:




5 = RohanKnitter!

(and how great is this site's name? Sometimes Random.org sums up my life so perfectly, that I regret that I didn't register that domain first...)

Congrats, sweetpea - send me an email with your address, and I'll get a package in the mail to you by week's end*!

And thank you to everyone for playing! I was excited to see some familiar favorite names, as well as to get introduced to some new people... Once I get things back on a more even keel (see whinging in the footnotes below...) - it looks like I've got some fun new blogs to check out!

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*I do realize that it shouldn't take me a whole week to get to the post office - but I'm still swamped with start-of-school PTA stuff. Note to self for next year: don't believe the PTA President when he/she tells you that your committee assignment will be a piece of cake... Apparently, PTA presidents are notorious liars... :)

Also - spent the weekend in the pursuit of yet more decluttering. Which somehow led to taking down a ceiling fan. Don't ask - I don't quite understand it myself. So now I've got a shiny new ceiling fan - in about 1,000 pieces that I need to figure out how to put together. So - realistically, it's going to be a few days before I get to the PO. Or 'til I get to post some of the pictures I want to share...

I is for...

My dear friend, CreativeLittleDaisy, has been working her way through the alphabet lately.

And as always, I am inspired by her.

And also, as always, I don't have even a fraction of the energy and dedication which she gives to her projects - so, I give to you an abbreviated alphabet.

I think I'll go with "I"…

As in "I is for irony".

Because how ironic is it that I whinged and moaned for three whole weeks about not having internet access – only to get my access restored and then take a break from it all???

I'd say that's fairly ironical.
But that's just because I've got a slightly better grasp on irony than Alanis Morissette.*

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Anyhow – I don't have any big exciting reasons for being AWOL – aside from the fact that I just needed to do it. However, some of the smaller, not-so-exciting reasons are listed below:

• As I've (also) whined, it's been hot, Hot, HOT! around here lately – and I've found it difficult to commit to anything, or even to get anything started.
  Face it, it's hard to accomplish much when you're lying on the floor right next to the A/C vent and muttering "It's hot! I'm hot! Sweet Cracker Sandwich, Georgia is a hellhole…"

• Also – I really wanted to spend the last week or so of summer just hanging with my boy, Schecky. And even though we didn't do anything particular cute, or fun, or "blog-worthy" – I did get to spend some good quality time, just me and a boy, hanging quietly together.
  There was a WHOLE LOT of lying on the floor, in front of the A/C vent, reading time. We've fallen in love with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books…

• And, I'll confess – there was a period of introspective navel-gazing. Sigh. You all know that I just can't help it, right?
  I think a lot of it has to do with the time of year – the "Back to School" season, with all the promises of a whole new year? It gets me every time…
  
  There was a lot of the same old, same old: too much self-examination; too much doubt and questioning… "Am I good wife/mother/friend/person" / "What do I want to be when I grow up" / "Am I living a purposeful life" /blah blah blah
  
  Nothing unusual there. And, I decided exactly nothing on any of those fronts. Except for the fact that I am tired of introspective navel-gazing for a while… And that's all I'm going to say about it because it's boring.
  

• And lastly, the great decluttering project is still ongoing.
  
  Sigh.
  
  I've been working on this, pretty steadily, for the entire year. I just don't talk about it much, because honestly – how freaking boring is that?
  It's a little frustrating that I've been working on this for 8 months now, and I'm around halfway done. I have to keep reminding myself that it took me 15 years of living in this same house to get to this point, I'm not shoveling it all out in a week. (Although, how fab would that be if I could?) Plus, I lived in this house for 15 years with MrPackrat, and now MrPackratJr. And, at some point, much to my chagrin, I adopted a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality.
  
  Ah well, the good fight continues. I'm feeling good about the half that I have gotten done. And I'm feeling good about just how many wagon-loads** of still-good stuff that has gotten donated to Goodwill and the Salvation Army. So, even though the progress is slower than I would like – it's all good…

So – that where I've been.

Schecky started school on Monday – fourth grade! Yikes! – and I thought things would settle down somewhat, but I'm been shockingly busy with a barrage of PTA-stuff. I've got to admit, didn't see that one coming.

Hopefully, things will settle down soon, and I can get back to business. I've got lots of pictures from Tennessee that I still have hopes of sharing!
Y'all don't care that they're a month old, do you???

Kisses!
lla

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Updated to Add: I've always kind of wanted to do a give-away sort of thing. And as I was doing yet-some-more decluttering, I found a really pretty necklace that the mother of one of my old preschool students made for me (she was a wicked talented jewelry designer!) It's a pretty strand of multi-colored beads knotted on grey silk cord. It's lovely - very feminine and light - and I've never worn it. I'm just ungrateful like that, I guess.

But my ingratitude could be your reward: as a reward for wading through this long post – that didn't even have a single picture! – I'm putting the necklace up for grabs. Just leave me a comment of some sort below, and I'll do a drawing this weekend for it (and perhaps a few other little goodies, to make up for the "regifting" nature of the necklace…)

Leave your comment before the end of the day Saturday, and I'll announce the winner on Monday!

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*But don't get me started on that one. Seriously? That stupid song – there are lots of things she sings about which are disappointing, or inconvenient, or even just a humiliating kick in the crotch… but ironic they ain't. That song's a bazillion years old, and it still bugs me...

**Something funny? Apartment Therapy: San Francisco used my "going to the Salvation Army" picture to illustrate an entry on "How Do You Get Rid of Stuff?" Some more irony there – me, the poster child for getting rid of stuff! Delicious, delicious irony!

Too. Damn. Hot.

Too. Damn. Hot., originally uploaded by lla.