Toaster Oven Tuesday ... Not

Yes, well it usually is Toaster Oven Tuesday, but I haven't been doing a lot in the kitchen lately so I've nothing to write about on that subject.

December and I seem to not have a very close friendship, and it's a struggle to "do" December every year.  Putting up with a cold that threatened both a bronchial and sinus infections didn't help either. My friend Vertigo reappeared mid-month as well and it seems to be more off-putting than the last bout.   As I told my daughter, I should make it a point to have all things Christmas ready and done before Thanksgiving and that way I can hibernate through most of December. Hah!

Nick & Marty went out...on their own...and picked out a Christmas tree on Saturday, or was it Sunday?, but it has yet to be decorated.  It does sport two decorations, one a bow that was in a tin that Nick handed me yesterday as he was (finally) cleaning his room, and the other is one that's been hanging from a door jamb for at least two years and of which I've forgotten its origin.

beautifully shaped little tree

You have seen on Webs of Thread though, that I have put in some quilt time.  Most of that because I was able to sit in one place, with the box of tissue within arms reach, and a television just feet away.  There have been a lot of naps these past two weeks.  I am much better of course, but finding it hard to get in gear for anything more than the basics of day to day.

But, today I got out and took Nick to get his hair cut, got a late lunch, killed some time at Target without making a purchase, got him to his dentist appointment, stopped at the grocer but they didn't have the main thing I was looking for so picked up only a couple necessities and will head to Costco in the morning, to be there when they open.  My son's dentist is right across the street from Costco, but at 4:30 in the afternoon, there was no way I was going to battle for a parking spot and then battle the crowds and checkout lines when it's three days before Christmas.   After I get Costco out of the way, I'll probably go to Walmart or Target and see if I can't get some things I have in mind.  It might be a year for finding images online, printing, and putting that in a wrapped box.  

Where, oh where has my Christmas excitement gone?  I used to love putting up lots of decorations and getting the tree, and planning and cooking a feast, spending time with friends.  I'd put on Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving was over, ask Marty to pull the decorations from the rafter storage area (and wait, and wait until he did).  I'd write the Christmas letter, and prepare all the cards.  Something's gotten lost over the last few years.  I'm thinking I just got tired of "doing it all myself".

If I can get through this winter's malaise, perhaps next year, it can look more like this again:

and this:

Perhaps by Thursday I'll be able to get to those oatmeal cookies I want to make.  I haven't made cookies in my toaster oven yet, but I'm guessing they'll come out pretty well. 

Merry Christmas

Still Ain't Got It !

Ain't got what? you ask!  The OOMPH to get things done.  I'm thinking the biggest problem is....ME ! and all that's rattling around in my brain.  It's become so very hard to stay focused on any one thing no matter how hard I try.

Though I no longer have the responsibilities on my shoulders for anything pertaining to my dad, the known goings-on still weigh me down and I don't sleep well.  And I'm working hard at keeping my sister's emotions-that-become-regretable-actions under control in all of this.

My home has been so very neglected for so very long, I'm just overwhelmed.  I get side-tracked so easily.  Putting away laundry, oh, this needs to go elsewhere, or putting the dishes away, oh, this drawer needs to be cleaned out.  Perhaps you've had those times too.

And, after a wonderful month and a half without it, the vertigo is back - quite annoying as it decreases both my ability to focus and my physical work efforts.

I am determined to make progress, even if it is only in the same way as you eat an elephant...one bite at a time.  It surely could be a smaller elephant!

I've started creating lists on my new cell phone.  I'm finding I really like having it for some things, even if I haven't received a single call, or made one, in the nearly two weeks since I got it.  I can text now :)  it tracks my steps, I can keep my calendar at hand, I can track so many things via lists, and I used those lists when I went grocery shopping the other day...so not all is a negative, there are positives.  One.step.at.a.time.

Rats, Vertigo and Catching Up

***WARNING*** Gross factor (rat poo) in first picture!

I'll start with the latter...catching up.  Frankly, I don't think I will ever catch up, but I'd like to think I will.  I've been home from the northern state for two weeks already, hoping to stay here until the end of June but am already seeing hearing things from my dad that may change that.  Since I left, my sister hasn't been able to make it down to check on him either, and that concerns me.  I did eight loads of laundry in one day, and that didn't include my new fabric.  There were still a couple loads that could have been done, and now laundry has piled up again - my guys have unlearned their good habits during my frequent absences.  I've only asked that they bring their dirty laundry and set it on the washer daily, and that Nick take his clean clothes from the garage (where the laundry is) to his room.  One of my first tasks was also to review (read 'toss') things still in the refrigerator from mid-January that they ignored. 

While I was still up north, I had a chat message from my son saying we had invaders beginning with "R" and ending with "odent" - cute, huh? - so I asked if mice or rats and where?  He said they thought mice and in the garage and they could hear them in the attic crawl space.  I suggested they get some traps and deal with it.  When I arrived home, I took a flashlight and investigated a bit more closely.  I keep my pantry overflow of canned and boxed goods, and potatoes, onions, apples out in the garage.  The first thing I saw was a tiny little mouse-trap set with a tiny little piece of cheese sitting out in the open on a shelf.  Then I saw the 'droppings'....um, that is NOT from a mouse, that IS from a rat, and the rat will laugh at that mousetrap.  Keep in mind, I'm a country girl (or at least was) and my dear hubby and son are both entirely city boys even if hubs does like to be out in the wilds backpacking.  He knows nothing about these things.

This is a rat trap, not the mouse trap and it has been set for a week, no takers, and I'm not sure it's still set correctly.  Notice the wrapper was chewed into - it was a granola-type bar.

To refresh myself, I researched online - we never really had rats on the ranch, but mice were often in the feed and in the house!  I had hubby go out and get some rat traps, though I think they may be too big - isn't there a medium size? our rats aren't huge.  The research also said to make sure all points of entry have been plugged so Marty took care of that aspect.  He set ONE trap (it was recommended to set a dozen of them in many places).  Still no takers.  I had noticed that they had chewed into the potatoes, and especially had chewed into the packets in a box of instant potatoes!  

The first bottle I noticed.  I actually thought at first that maybe it had fallen onto the concrete floor and had been placed back on the shelf without it be realized it had split open.  But obviously, those are teeth marks!

Days later I discovered, in the other garage (we have technically a 3-car garage - might fit Smart Cars - with one side being 'finished' with a door that stays closed in between), that the shelf where we keep water and soda was wet.  Looking closer, I saw that several of the water bottles had the bottoms chewed out of them!  Can you believe that?  I was stunned.  Can rats smell water in those bottles through the plastic?  Hubs set two more traps there, but still no takers.  We still hear them in the attic area, and in the upstairs 'new' bathroom, the cats keep listening at the tub, so it sounds like they're going from the attic, down the wall and under the tub.  There is an outdoor access panel that hubs says is sealed, but I want him to open it and place a couple traps in there as well as in the attic.  What was Marty's comment?  "I was hoping to starve them out."  Um, if they're now trapped within the house having sealed up any access points, and they starve to death, they are going to STINK!  Such a city boy, lol.

Rats are supposed to really like peanut butter.  Notice the bottom of that water bottle, still in the case wrapping, chewed out and empty.  Several are that way.

The bag of potatoes chewed into, and though it can't really be seen, they had eaten quite a bit of several potatoes.

Research also said to hold off on cleanup until you're sure the rats are eliminated.  So I've been holding off feeling really grossed out, though I bought the bleach, and hubs bought the face masks. I need new rubber gloves yet.

So the vertigo.  Well now, isn't that fun?  I've had brief bouts of this somewhat frequently in recent years, but usually only feel its effects when I lay down so it's never been a problem.  A few days ago, out of the blue sitting in my office chair, the world started spinning if I tilted my head off center.  It persists, but not horribly, though enough to make me feel like my brain is a bowl of Jell-o when I walk or try to drive.  Sometimes its ok, other times not, and when I lie down, at times, the room spins like a pinwheel in the wind for about 30 seconds.  Interestingly, before I came home, my brother Eugene had been at my dad's and he was suffering from it big time and is on about day 19 with very slow progress of getting better.  He's glad he's in between job assignments.  Since I feel a little wonky driving, and because Nick has a minimum day today, I let him take my car all on his own, but as he doesn't have a school parking permit, he'll have to park on the street about a block away.

I'm supposed to be preparing for a meeting with our financial dude tomorrow...I may not be as ready as I'd like, but it will have to suffice.  We then have our tax appointment on the 16th,