Do dah do dah do, Inspector Gadget

My mission this weekend, should I choose to accept it (and I really have no choice), is to get my apartment ready for the city inspector coming on Tuesday.  *runs away and hides!*

I know they aren’t coming to inspect my housekeeping abilities, but given that I’ve been sick for 7 of the last 9 weeks, my apartment is a little, umm, … disheveled.  I would honestly be embarrassed to have a stranger see it at this point.  And I have a couple of small city code violations, including a cable cord strung across a room (which is a tripping hazard) and cardboard boxes right up against walls in my closet (which I suspect are a violation because of mold risk??).  Mostly, I’m using the inspection as a good reason to get things cleaned up around here and put away summer stuff, etc., etc.  It will be good to have this done before the holidays!

I will carefully select five high energy and cheerful CDs to put in my CD player today, and I’ll clean, clean, clean.  I’m hoping to get the bathroom, bedroom, and walk-in closet done today.  Tomorrow and Monday, I’ll tackle the living space and kitchen.

With any luck, I’ll have a sparkling clean apartment on Monday!  And I’ll be smiling from listening to great music all weekend!   What is it that I always say?  Music is the very best part of cleaning! 

Modern wonders

I’m at the university right now, doing some work on my laptop.  When I got here, I remembered that I didn’t take the West Wing DVD, which I had been watching last night, out of my laptop DVD drive.  And it occurred to me that I could watch West Wing on my computer while I ate lunch!  That seemed like such an entirely novel thing to me!

Think about that in relation to what would have been possible 30 years ago.  No laptop, no way to record things off TV (well, maybe some early VCRs by that point but still…).  And now I can watch a TV show without a TV, years after it was actually on TV, and on a computer that isn’t even hooked up to electricity at this moment.

Maybe I’m just in a mood to be awed today, but I just find that really remarkable what a change has occurred in my lifetime.

11.10.9

Earlier this year, on some random Tuesday (maybe in March?), I was inundated with greetings from people wishing me…umm…Happy Prime Number Day!  Or something like that.  I don’t even remember anymore.  It was apparently announced on both national and local radio that it was a special day for some math related reason.  I just remember thinking that someone just made that up.  Unlike Pi Day (3.14), which is a real holiday.  *giggles*

So, in response to someone else’s made up holiday, I’m declaring today as Countdown Day!  11.10.9.  We’ll celebrate it next year on 12.11.10 too, and then we won’t be able to celebrate it again until 2101.

So there!

A trio of delights

1.  It’s going to be 64 degrees here today!  That’s a perfect temperature.  Sum-sum-summertime!  :-)

2.  Hillary is also participating in NaBloPoMo.  I thought I was going to be the only one, but not so!  Hooray!

3.  Google has made me smile the last several days with their Sesame Street themed logos (in honor of Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary).  Today is Oscar the Grouch, but the best was Thursday’s Cookie Monster (if you missed it, you need to time travel back to Thursday — so worth it!)

Thirty-six

Yesterday, a guy who I tutor found it was my birthday today and said, “39 again?”

I reacted very automatically and with such horror, “THIRTY NINE??????”

He laughed and said he was just kidding, really.

I said, “I haven’t even been 39 once, how could I be 39 again?!?!?!”

He reiterated that he really was just kidding (and now probably starting to question my stability!).

I just sat there shaking my head, no, no, no, I am not 39.  I am NOT 39.

I am, however, 36.  As of 8:28 this morning.

Cop Stop!

I had a long day today, and I was dead tired by the time I was finished with teaching this evening.  I pulled out of the parking lot, drove down the road a ways, and a cop car was behind me with its lights on.  I pulled to the side of the road to let them go by, and they stopped behind me!  Imagine my surprise!

I figured out right away that they were stopping me because of something with my license plate.  With an October birthday, my plates expire soon.  So I pulled my registration and proof of insurance out of the glove compartment, and got my driver’s license out of my wallet.  The policeman came up to my window and said, “When does that plate expire?”  I said Friday.  He looked at my registration and said, “Uh oh, I think we just mis-read the plate… Give me a minute.”

So he went back to the car, ran my plates, and ran my driver’s license.  And he came back to my window and said, “I’m so sorry, it was my fault, we did misread your plate.”  I said, “No problem.”  I thought it was kind of funny, and as tired as I was, I couldn’t muster up much energy to have any other emotion!

And it makes a good blog story. 

Girlie fun

For reasons passing understanding, and mostly influenced by a TV show (but also by the arrival of Jenn’s top secret bridal gown), I was looking at bridal gowns online last night, just for fun.  I looked at them with the thought of, if I had to pick one today and with a semi-practical budget, what would I choose.

My pick is this one.

I like that it’s simple but still quite pretty (love the lace on the top).  And the model in the photo has boney shoulders and arms –  just like me – and she looks good in the dress.  So, there you go. 

A good news week

Some things that made me smile this week (besides my drama class!)…

… It’s October!  My favorite month of the year. 

… My health insurance was reactivated with Cobra this week.  I was so happy to get my prescriptions for $5 yesterday!

… My original apartment manager has returned to us!  That was a total shock, but she had been doing mission work and the mission she was on finished their work.  And we needed an apartment manager again, so it was win-win!  She took one look at me and said, “You didn’t move up to a two-bedroom yet?”  Sadly, no.  Some day though!

… My students did quite well on their first exam.  And they were oddly happy to learn about probability!  They particularly liked when I said, “The probability of me winning the Super Bowl is zero!”

… And the best of all… I am going to a ball in December!  I have wanted so badly to go to a ball for the last few years (and somehow missed the Disney themed ball at school last year – how did that happen?!!).  And now I have a real live Ball on my calendar!  It will be great fun to shop for a dress!

A watched pot boils eventually

In a typical week, I use my stove once or twice to heat up pasta and/or peas for dinner.  I use two of the burners so infrequently that they smell a lot when I turn them on!  A chef, I am not.  I’d rather do math.  *grins*

This week, thanks to this never-ending cold (still going strong on day 12), I’ve used my stove at least twice a day to boil water to make myself a steam tent.  I tried this in desperation on Monday night, when after days without a good night’s sleep, I would have tried anything.  Much to my amazement, it helped tremendously!  My sinuses had been clogged to the point of causing jaw pain (a new thing for me), and the steam chased the clogs away for long enough so that I could get some deep sleep.

So, this has become my morning and night routine.  Boil the water, make a tent for myself with a towel, steam out those clogged sinuses.  If my stove had feelings, perhaps it would feel like it’s finally being put to good use after years of being virtually ignored!  If it could do math, we’d have a better relationship.  *laughs*

Randomus Mondayus

Random, randoma, randomi, randomus!

… Still sick.  The creeping crud has made it’s way into my lungs (sigh), so now the real battle begins.

… My dance class was supposed to start today, but they are four people short of getting the class to run.  So they delayed it a week, sent out an e-mail that our old teacher (who I love!) is back, and are hoping that news gets the enrollment up.  It feels like forever since I had a dance class, and I’m eager to get back into it!

… I’ve had dozens of hilarious conversations with my cousin’s four year old lately.  And some math conversations!  Like me saying, “Two and two and two is six!” and him saying with such indignation, “I thought two and two was FOUR!”  And me saying “Two and two IS four!  But two and two AND TWO is six!”

… Watched the Emmy’s last night.  It’s a little weird when I haven’t even heard of some of the shows, much less seen them.

… One of my friends had a preminition of sorts that I’ll marry a guy who has a beard and two daughters.  Okey dokey!

… I feel a bit unsettled lately.  Perhaps the aftermath of my u-turn with work/school.  No really bad unsettled, but just unsettled.