Some observations while cleaning house

1. Other family members always seem to have something urgent and important they must do on the day I announce the house needs cleaned. Urgent and important does not include helping me clean the house.
2. I hate carpeted stairs on cleaning day.
3. The chance that my 3 dogs will drag crap in from outside through the dog door is much greater if I have just mopped the floor.
4. Newspaper cleans glass better than anything else. For this reason alone I hope on-line media never makes newspapers obsolete.
5. I think my dog door might have been dirtier than my toilet. How is that even possible? Mostly likely because I clean the toilets every week and the dog door gets neglected for months.
6. Emptying the vaccuum cleaner 5 times while cleaning just the living room and hallway tell me that my dogs and cats shed entirely too much. Or maybe I have too many animals. I think they shed too much.
7. I wonder if auto degreaser would be too harsh on my kitchen stove/backsplash. I've used 2 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, 27 paper towels and Dawn dishsoap and very. hot. water. I'm still not perfectly happy but my kitchen is VERY clean!!
8. I want to go out to dinner. Not only because I'm tired from cleaning but because I don't want to mess up my kitchen.
9. I want to go out for breakfast tomorrow. I'm sure I will still be tired. And I don't want to mess up my kitchen.
10. I never want to cook in my kitchen again.

Variation on the 5 second rule

You know the rule: if something falls on the floor you have 5 seconds to pick it up and eat it before it is considered poor taste. Or white trash. Or glutonous. Or something.

Anyway, I'm on a string of night shifts. I got up this "morning" (aka 1:30 p.m.) and made some coffee. I had exactly enough half and half to make ONE. CUP. OF. COFFEE. One cup of delicious, soul-awakening coffee.

After I mixed this blessed cup of goodness I noticed something floating on the top. Hmmm....what is this? A small gnat?

*pause*

Is it wrong that I actually considered removing the bug and still drinking my coffee? It was technically within the 5 second guidelines.

The big hair coloring debate

I don't color my hair.


I used to. Heck, it was just about every color you can buy out of a box over a period of 7 years. I blogged about going gray here.

Almost 2 years later and I still don't regret it.

But recently a co-worker and I had this whole debate about me coloring my hair. He said it aged me and he thought overall I just looked better with my hair colored (refer to my blogger profile picture). I guess it's a good thing I'm married to the Mr. and not him, eh? Anyway, during this debate I was trying to find some examples of women who I think have pulled the gray off beautifully and gracefully.

Up first: Jamie Lee Curtis

 

There is no denying that this woman is gorgeous. She may want to rethink her bra choice when wearing black when she knows she is going to be photographed. But she even rocks THAT. Hmmm...I wonder if those have been lifted? That's an entirely different post.

Next: Emmy Lou Harris. This was the picture I used as an example of gray-haired beauty to my co-worker.

 

Photo from Dick Hall Productions, Inc.

His response? "Yuck." Seriously? Who would NOT want to look like that? Emmy Lou Harris totally rocks the gray. She has embraced her aging process since it began.

I wonder how many teenagers she raised?

The other part of this debate is about men going gray. Why is it that a man is considered distinguished when he goes gray? And why is it fair that a woman's gray is considered...well...aging? I mean that IS what we are all doing. Aging. Why can't we just be okay with that? Men or women. It is just a natural progression of life. Kind of like needing to be closer to a bathroom. Oh, come on. You know it's true.

I have some friends that color because of the way the gray is coming in. Spotty or in chunks around their temples. Well if you are going to color anyway, why not investigate coloring/highlighting to mock more of the gray so it all blends in while it comes in?

Apparently I'm pro-gray. I certainly don't begrudge a woman for coloring. I did for years, afterall. And coloring is kind of fun. I will probably debate this to death with my co-worker. Or not since I don't think either of us has a chance of swaying the other person to their side. We'll just agree to disagree...and I will continue to make tally points of the compliments I get on my gray. (And for you, Rick, since I know you might read this: I've had 3 since our conversation. I'll name names if you would like but I don't really see the point.)

Doggie Trauma (Warning! Graphic pics!)

In the area of responsible pet ownership I will admit that I have missed the mark a few times. Not getting cats spayed in a timely fashion, forgetting to get flea medication, feeding my animals table scraps that later required me to put them on a diet and not exercising them as much as they need to top my list.

But when it comes to serious matters of the heart...and dealing with a pet that's injured or in pain...pretty much everything else in my life comes to an abrupt halt.

My life over the weekend came to an abrupt drive over a cliff.

 

I've blogged about Hamish many times over the course of the three years I've been here. But the "cone of shame" (name that movie) hasn't ever been part of my stories.

We had a little scuffle between pets last Friday. I think food could have been involved. It's just never a good idea to get between Hamish and his food. Or Hamish and your food. Or Hamish and anything that resembles food.

The dog likes to eat. Have I mentioned that?

 

One thing led to another and the next thing I know I am paying the price for a small, (very) used car to repair a dislocated hip. And although he is in some pain I think overall Hamish really, really, REALLY liked all the attention from the cute girls at the vet's office. He ate it up. (Did you catch that? "Ate it up"...because Hamish likes to eat? And that's how this started, remember? Okay, never mind. If I have to work that hard for the joke it's just not funny.)

But the poor little guy really is in some pain.

 

 

I'm pretty sure we are in for a long month. The instructions of "very little activity" shouldn't be a problem since he normally just took bathroom trips outside, ran to the food dish, ran to the other food dishes and then layed back down. He wasn't real active to begin with....unless he was playing with Buddy.

But he's been put on a diet.

Have mercy. How do you put a beagle on a diet with 2 other dogs in the house? HOW?

He looks like he already knows we will be withholding food.

 

And he ain't happy.

This child of mine

 

has turned a corner in her life. She is just a couple months shy of being 19, working, going to college...and has become smitten with a dude. And apparently he is pretty smitten with her. I'll call this dude Nick (because that's his name). Nick has known my daughter for quite some time but couldn't convince her to go out with him until last year. It's pretty much been non-stop since then.

 

On New Year's Day while I was working, Nick approached my husband and asked if he could have a chat. The house was full of people so my husband jokingly said, "What? Do you want to marry my daughter or something?" The reply? "Well, since you brought it up." Troy looked around, looked at Nick and told him they would talk later.

He promptly took two pain pills and went to lay down.

He left that poor kid in limbo ALL. DAY. at the house. I'm sure it was agonizing but Troy was of the opinion that it is a right of passage for a guy when asking the dad permission to take his little girl away. He had to do it with MY dad so I guess he figured this was his moment for paybacks.

He called me when I was on my way home and told me to call when I was in front of the house. I asked why but he wouldn't tell me. This is NEVER a good thing in the history of things at the Pryor house. So of course I immediately threw up. Okay, I didn't really throw up. But I wanted to. It's the same thing. As I approach the house I can see my oldest son piling in a car with 4 other people. I see another car I'm not familiar with which means my other son is there. And my daughter's car is there. I call. Troy comes out and hops in the car. I look at him, waiting. Anticipating what is to come. I wanted to throw up in his lap. "What happened?" is my natural question when he says nothing for approximately 2 seconds. I think I waited long enough. Don't judge me. He looks at me all unconcerned about the state of my stomach and announces we are just going to dinner.

After we have ordered our food, Troy takes a deep breath and says, "Well, I guess Nick and Lindsay want to get married." It's funny how the unknown wanted to make me hurl but actually knowing rendered me speechless. This is a pretty difficult thing to do. Troy explained how the day had unfolded and that Nick was wanting to talk to him. I looked at him, confused. "You mean you still haven't had this talk?" He had not. That poor kid was still at our house waiting for the conversation. Nice. So I asked the next logical question. "Well, what are you going to tell him?"

"I'm going to tell him NO."

I laughed. It was my other natural response. So we had a long talk over dinner about how they could pretty much do whatever they wanted since they were both over 18 but wasn't it nice that he was doing the old-fashioned thing and asking permission.

We finally got home. The conversation took place. My husband lived.

There's no date. No solid plans....other than the fact they are looking 4 years out. Lindsay wants to finish school first. They are talking. Being responsible. Thoughtful.

I would love to lecture them both about how young they are, that life is full of challenges and that they need to prepare emotionally and financially for what they are about to embark on. But who am I to say a word? She's the same age I was when Troy proposed to me....but I didn't have a 4 year plan.

Mine was 6 months.

*sigh*