11-17-08

So, the low-rise size 8 jeans I got at Target last week? Not so much working out for me. I put them on and they were okay, even comfortable. But the instant I did anything at all (in this case, bending over to scoop out the litter box), they rode halfway down my ass.

The jeans are going back, and one day this week I’ll go on another shopping mission to find jeans that work for me. The mid-rise Lee jeans I bought at Kohl’s were mostly comfortable, but I spent too much time pulling them up, so they’re going back, too.

Maybe I’m just not meant to wear jeans. But the Land’s End cotton pants I’ve been wearing forever are too big for me (I must yank up my pants 400 times a day), and of course when I went to order them in a smaller size, they no longer carry them.

Ain’t it always the way?

Fred snorted “You should just start wearing overalls!”

Don’t think I’m not tempted!

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Saturday morning dawned cold and rainy and just all-around crappy. While Fred went out to do a few things that couldn’t wait (run chicken wire along the outside of the pig yard fence, because the littlest chickens were going from the chicken yard to the pig yard, and from the pig yard into the woods alongside the pig yard, and we were concerned that they’d get lost or eaten by something, so we needed to put a stop to that), I vacuumed the entire house, starting with the upstairs.

The foster kittens have no great love for the vacuum cleaner, so while three of them went and hid under the recliner in my room, Delmar sat atop the cat tree and glared at me while I was vacuuming their room. It always amazes me just how much cat hair accumulates in there in the course of a week – they throw off so much cat hair, I’m surprised there’s any left on their little bodies.

When I was done vacuuming my room, I stood and looked and considered, and decided to move my bed. I had it sitting at an angle, and that worked out okay except that the bedside table was too far away from the bed, so I couldn’t see what time it was in the middle of the night without getting out of bed and squinting at the clock.

This is what my room looked like before I started moving stuff.

This is what it looks like now:

I think the room looks smaller, and I’m not sure how much I like having it off-center, but I wanted the cats to be able to sit on that table and look out the window if they wanted, and the closet door to the left opens all the way with no problem, AND I’ve slept quite well the past two nights, so it’ll be staying that way for the time being.

When Fred was done outside, he went and took a shower, and then we headed out to find the slaughter house. The pigs will be going to be processed the Sunday after Thanksgiving (they were originally scheduled for mid-December, but they’ve gotten a lot bigger a lot faster than we expected), and the place that will be processing them is not the place where we took the last two (the place where we took the last two don’t process anything but deer until February), so Fred wanted to make sure he knew where it was located.

We found it with no problems at all, and we headed for home, then stopped at a furniture store we happened to pass.

By the side door we’ve had this table:

And while it’s a nice-looking table, it’s kind of rickety (the cats like to jump up on it, of course), and there’s only the one door, and most of the time it’s piled high with shit and I can’t stand looking at it. So it’s been my mission lately to find something to replace that table, something with more storage space and that won’t wobble when the cats jump up on top of it.

So since we spotted this big furniture place, we stopped and looked around, and I wasn’t finding anything I liked that would work, and I was getting grouchy, and Fred spotted something on the second floor and pointed to it and said “Would you consider something like that?”

At first I scoffed, because what he was pointing out was a jewelry armoire, but then we went and looked at it, and pulled out the drawers and discussed it, and the more we looked at it, the more it seemed to me that it’d work out for us. It had plenty of drawer space, wasn’t at all rickety, and the price was right, so we decided to get it.

Fred picked it up and we went downstairs to pay.

The women who were working were just delighted that we’d come inside and found something in less than twenty minutes (possibly less than ten, I wasn’t timing us) and wanted to just pay and take it with us.

The saleswoman who wrote up the sales slip introduced herself to Fred and shook his hand, and I amused myself by thinking of saying “Don’t get too attached” because I doubt we’ll ever be back (nothing against the store – it’s just not in an area we generally visit). They rang up the sale and then gave us a couple of insulated coffee mugs with the store name and web site on the side of them, and then we were out of there.

I didn’t realize it until we were loading it into the car, but the absolute best thing about it is that both sides open up and have hooks where, I assume, you’d hang necklaces if you were using it for its intended purpose. We’re using both sides to organize our keys and all the extra house, shed, and coop keys we have. VERY handy.

It’s nothing fancy, and we’re probably going to hell for buying a cheap piece of furniture to replace an antique table, but it works really well for us and it’s nice and solid and I like the way it looks, so there you go.

We spent the rest of the day inside, mostly. It was ugly and cold outside all day and neither of us had any desire to be outside. We talked about going to the movie store, but ultimately decided we could find something we already had recorded or a movie we owned to watch, so we stopped and picked up sandwiches for lunch and went home.

What Happens in Vegas was on pay per view, so we recorded that and watched it, and as we’d both been told, it was no great award-winning movie, but it was a romantic comedy and we are always entertained by Kelso (he’ll always be Kelso from That 70s Show to us), so it was a pretty good choice. If you’ve got nothing better to watch, it’s not bad.

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We finally got some sun on Sunday, and Fred spent most of the day working outside. I spent most of the day pulling everything out of the hall and guest bedroom closets, wiping the dust off the floors, and rearranging everything that went back in. We’ve had a lot of empty boxes sitting in a corner of the computer room and it was bugging me, so I got all the packing and shipping stuff (boxes, packing peanuts, bubble wrap) arranged in the guest bedroom closet, and it looks a lot better. I’ve got a lot more decluttering to do, but it already looks a LOT better in the computer room and dining room, so it’s definitely a start. Hopefully by the time Thanksgiving gets here, the house will look halfway decent.

I also cleared out several of my desk drawers – my GOD, how much tape do I think I need?! – and the checkbook balanced and spent lots of time with the kittens, and ended the day by having ribs (in the crockpot with BBQ sauce), sweet potato crack, and green beans for dinner. Everything was grown here at Crooked Acres, and I think it’s going to be my goal to have a Crooked Acres-grown meal for dinner every Sunday night. It’s a good way to kick off the work week!

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I went upstairs yesterday afternoon and all four of the kittens came into my room and snoozed with me. And let me say this – I know now why cats sleep like 23 hours a day. It’s because when they’re sleeping, they are NEVER still. They’re always twitching or stretching or switching positions. Three of the four were curled up against me and the fourth (Marion) was curled up behind my knees, and I felt like I was on a ship in the middle of the ocean, the bed was practically rocking with all the moving around they were doing.

I’m not complaining, though – when all four of them start purring, it’s a very sweet sound.

Delmar’s the biggest snuggler of the bunch. He always, always lays down so that his face is as close to mine as possible, and sometimes he’s just so overwhelmed with love that he rubs his face against my nose, and often times I feel his lips on my nose and y’know, you don’t really think about cats having lips, but I assure you, Delmar certainly does.

All the kittens are snugglers – though Claudette has her limits and prefers to be petted a little, then back off and be in the general vicinity without actually touching me. She has got an amazingly loud purr for a little girl.

I took down the baby gates at the bottom of the stairs, but except for a few times when I caught sight of Lem checking out the guest bedroom (across from the bottom of the stairs), no one else has been down. They seem pretty happy having the upstairs to themselves (though Kara will occasionally venture upstairs and put the smack down on anyone who gets to close. She makes me despair, our Kara.) and usually when I go up there, at least a couple of them are hanging out in my room. They always react by rushing out of the room and into the foster room, then if I lay down on the bed and call to them, they’ll come back in. I don’t know why they think they need to run out of the room when they see me – they either feel the need to go to their “safe place” or they think they’re not supposed to be in that room, I’m not sure which. I hope they get over it, though!

More pics over at L&H.

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“I’m ready for church. That preacher better not go on and on about patience this week, though. I’m not in the mood for that shit.”

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Previously
2007: Hey! I was decluttering last year at this time, too!
2006: Here’s Doctor Robyn’s list of diagnoses.
2005: Cat hair on the seat of your pants! It’s the Next Big Thing!
2004: Do you suppose that cats realize that when we kiss them, it’s a sign of affection?
2003: NAS-TAY.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: Thanks, y’all, for your emails regarding hamster sex.
1999: So, I didn’t get the kitten.