Bits, Pieces, Snippets, and Stuff

Hey y'all!

So, how was YOUR weekend? I spent the remainder of mine cleaning out the worlds grungiest kitchen cabinets, complete with leftover mouse poop! Oh yes! Leftover mouse poop! MmmMMM, good!

Nothing like taking a yellow sponge, swiping two strokes over a cabinet shelf, and having it come up brown, with little tan chunky bits thrown in as true mind-bendingly disgusting objects of confusion. The skeeve factor was high, ohyesitwas. I fortified myself against this awfulness with a few fingers of bourbon, which worked wonders for my attitude. Amazing stuff, that ol' brown water.

(ASIDE: I now dare you not to sing "Black Water" in your head. I'll bet you can't do it. I wanna hear some funky Dixieland, pretty mama come and take me by the hand, oh by the hand (HAND!) take me by the hand pretty mama, come and dance with your Daddy all night long! ASIDEASIDE: I love that song. Gave me the shivers as a kid when they'd get to that chorusy syncopated bit (still does, aamof), and when dood was "oh bay-be, oh-ho-oh bayyyyayabee-ing" his falsetoo-y little brains out I KNOW I had visions of being serenaded by him under the dark moonlight of a bayou midnight...being 12 and highly hormonal is heady freakin' stuff, yo.)

Anyhoo, the cleaning. Oy. I purchased the strongest spritzy cleaner I could find yesterday (some thing "oxy" in it, methinks, that also wouldn't cause me to keel over from fumes) and a mop and many sponges and other implements of cleanliness, then set to work at about 8 pm, after spending some quality time earlier in the day staring out windows and pretending to work. It only took an hour to 1) get the kitchen in reasonable enough shape that I could think about putting my stuff into the cabinets and 2) be totally over the cleaning thing.

So I left the cabinets to dry, poured another drink, contemplated starting on a decorating project for the Things' room, and then did the only resonable thing there was to do at 9 p.m.

Yup - I put some Maroon 5 on my crappy little boombox, then went and sat on my front porch and watched the sun go down. Swallows shrieked and wheeled above my head, the neighbor's dogs barked, behind the house some kids were playing basketball in the bluing light, there was a gentle breeze a blowin'. There was also a siginificant measure of peace.

Plus hunger.

I then cooked my first Tiny House meal, and while not a terribly inspired choice (turkey burgers, anyone?), it tasted fabulous. There's NOTHING that some Southwestern spice mix and Ranch dressing won't improve, apparently. Also sauteed onions and scallions. And some raw carrots, and cottage cheese, and lettuce. All in the same bowl. MmmmMMM (and this time I mean it).

OBSERVATION TIME: There are no scary noises in my new house. There are no dark corners. There are no chances for fear to creep in. There are no places I haven't been, objects I haven't touched, places I haven't inspected. There are dreams aplenty to populate this new small space, and once I make them come true there will be other dreams to have, I'm sure of it.

One step at a time.

Thanks for all your good wishes in yesterday's comments. Y'all come on over anytime and I'll fix you a turkey burger and get you a bevereage of your choice and we'll do some diggin' in the garden or singin' along to your favorite tunes or whatever strikes your fancy, because if I have ANYTHING to say about it, it's gonna be THAT kind of house, that kind of life, from now on.