Unmitigated

RTT: Springtime Edition

I am still snickering over Supreme Leader's new name. If you haven't been to see Captain Dumbass this morning, go there. There's bacon, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and lava lamps.

Then come back here for some more....

Keely is your hostess

Yesterday was a big day here. 20-year-old-daughter and her fiance, Lovely Young Man, put an offer on a house. This house:

Of course there's no snow on it right now. You may recognize this house. I posted about it before. It is the bank-foreclosed house right across the street from us. We hope to hear word later today on whether the offer has been accepted. Real estate is very different now than when we bought our house seventeen years ago. In my day (Oh, Lord, here we go), the real estate agent came to YOU. With the paperwork for you to sign, then drove over to the seller, and made the offer in person. They were your proxy. Uphill. Both ways, and barefoot in the snow.

I am just a little distractable this morning. I have found new hairstyles for Jess Marie, and worked on a button for Gretchen, all the while this post sits waiting to be worked on!

Also, I am having to rearrange ALL my plans, because instead of taking me to Sicily for six months, Jocelyn is now taking me to Prague! For a year!

Did I mention that Bossy is coming here? Bossy is coming here! Ford Motor Company has sponsored her with a vehicle to drive on her amazing thirty-million-mile road trip, so Metro Detroit is one of her stops. She'll be here May tenth. If I have already told you this, please humor me. It's impolite to make fun of the elderly.

If I didn't tell you about Bossy, then I probably didn't mention that one of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster, is coming to a Borders Bookstore near me the very next day! She'll be signing her new book, My Fair Lazy. I only wish Poppy and Bird  and StilettoMom were coming with her.

If you are in Manhattan and you see a handsome man banging his head in frustration, it's HusbandStyro, A.K.A. Bud, doing some work on the network of the NYC branch of the law firm. I don't think it's going well. Get him some chicken soup, will ya? He tends to skip meals when he is tangled up.

Time to end the linkfest, or no one will get to read it!

No Returns Without Receipt

It was easy to get lost in my dad's basement. Lost in time, anyway, There were boxes and cubbyholes, and shelves, a cedar closet that he built, cabinets, and all the junk you would expect a child of the Great Depression to accumulate. There was even a steel safe that, while it didn't contain the kind of valuables you'd expect, it DID have the negatives of some photos of my mother you do NOT want to know about.

In my explorations down there, I found dozens of newspaper clippings, curled Polaroid photos from my dad's time in the Navy (WWII, Pacific Theater), camera parts, and enough tools to equip a high school shop class.

By far, my favorite discovery is this:

This is the patient's copy of the hospital bill from when I was born. Apparently my mom, who was on her fifth full-term pregnancy, gained eighty pounds in nine months. My mom was about 5'3" at her tallest, and before I came along, was about 95 pounds soaking wet, with heavy thoughts, and rocks in her pockets.

In 1963, if you gained 80 pounds during a pregnancy, your doctor, a family practitioner, by the way, could opt to keep you in the hospital on a severe weight loss regime for six days after delivery! I know!

(If you are reading this near an insurance adjuster, take a peek and see if they troubled. Looking around like some just not right just happened.)

Down at the bottom of the bill (Patient's Copy. For Your Records. Not a Bill.) is this:

Look at that outlined box near top, left. Total Charges: 339.31. For seven days in the hospital, including:

Anesthesia: 10.00
Delivery Room: 35.00
Drugs and Dressing: 77.45
Lab Fees: 11.50
Room & Board: 168.00
Nursery: 36.00
Misc. Patient Charge (telephone use): 1.36 (Interesting note: there are numerical codes used for miscellaneous charges. The nursery is number 6. Number 11 is circumcision, so it obviously doesn't show up on this particular bill. Number 12 is actually number 12A, and stands for blood procurement. In order to avoid the number 13, the next code is 12B for telephone use).

Very Important: This is NOT a cost-of-decent-health-care diatribe. It is a trip down Memory Lane. Please do not harsh my mellow in the comments.

Blue Cross covered everything except the phone. My dad had to cough up exactly one dollar and thirty-six cents at discharge. Although to put that in perspective, the milk back then, which was delivered TO YOU in glass bottles (Long Aside Warning!  Kids: ever wonder why some older houses have a small, square, metal door near the back or side door of the house? That's called a milk chute. And Larry, the Twin Pines Milk Truck guy, would come and get your order for the day, and the payment for it, from the milk chute. Then he'd come back with a metal basket with glass bottles in it, which fit neatly inside the milk chute. The metal kept it cool for a little while, but not long. Also, as a bonus, the smallest child of the family could fit through the milk chute to unlock the door if you forgot your key. I imagine twiggy little sister made that trip a few times. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.) cost about twenty cents for a half gallon.

I cost about the same as four-and-a-half gallons of milk. With five kids and two adults, that would be enough milk for a couple days. Maybe they had Kool-Aid with the sloppy joes that week. Times were tough.

I like to think he kept the receipt in case I didn't work out.

Wardrobe Therapy Style Statement and a Start on Week Four

I have been puzzling and puzzling over my Style Statement for Wende's Wardrobe Therapy. Try as I might, nothing comes out coherently, so I am going to try an alphabetical exercise to see what emerges.

My style is:

Adult -as in grown-up, not adult-content, viewer discretion advised.
Blue jeans - they are a real staple for me in everyday life.
Comfortable - very high priority, as in I won't even buy incredible bargains, if they are uncomfortable.
Designer-influenced - this is a new one for me, but I am starting to realize that there are a few I love.
Everyday - as in casual. I am trying to lean away from this more often.
Fitted - I spent years wearing tents. And I must admit, I was hiding. I look so much better with a good fit.
Grounded - as "in reality". I would love to be able to wear all those cute heels, but I have wide feet and a bad back, so, no.
Happy - Never been a goth girl. Love me some colors.
Intellectual - is this applicable to style? Probably bad to overthink, but I love to be known as "the smart girl"!
Jazzy - I am learning to "jazz-up" my plain stuff with sparkly, fun accessories.
Kan I just use the letter "K" to say how irritating I find the term "kicky"?
Lovely - I want to be lovely in the most sophisticated, graceful sense. My friend Laura embodies this. I really need to take her thrifting with me.
Money-conscious - I have learned that it is better to spend an extra $40 on a pair of dress pants if I want great fit and construction. I have also learned that I can find those pieces for pennies on the dollar if I am willing to spend time thrifting for it!
Nancy-boy - I have no idea how the term applies to me, it just cracks.me.up.every.time.
Pretty - another over-used term, but there are days when I struggle to feel pretty, and hair, make-up and clothes are things I have control over.
Quixotic - I don't live in New York, but you might see me wearing a subway map on my arm. I love the occasional weird piece.
Reprehensible - Not really. Just wanted to see if anyone is still reading...
Sexy - not in the revealing sense. Any woman out there knows that when you feel good about yourself and the way you look, it can be a tremendous aphrodisiac.
trendy - notice that I spelled it with a small "t", because really, what I mean is...
Up-To-Date - retro is only okay if it looks like you did it on purpose.
VTF was I thinking doing this with a 26-letter alphabet?
What's wrong with just the vowels?
X-actly what am I supposed to do with THIS letter?
Young -er than I am. (back to the task) Poppy says it's okay to find a style to emulate on someone ten years younger than I am. Except that, presumably, they have done the same thing, right? It's possible I could end up dressing like the Olsen twins...when they were on Full House.

Later this week, I will jump into week four, for which you can see Wende's steps below, C through H. You can blame her for the whole alphabet fiasco.

1. Consider.
   
   
2. Dump.
   
   
3. Evaluate.
   
   
4. Fantasize.
   
   
5. Google (or Go Shopping for fashion magazines).
   
   
6. Hunt and habit-form.

Incoherent is My Middle Name

daisies added at Picnik

First, I need to tell you that the April edition of Room 704 has been published! You can find it here. The theme for the month is Mystery, so stop in and read my article to discover if you are a woman of mystery...

While you are there, please notice that this month's sponsorship was provided gratis to Friends of Maddie. April 7th marks the first anniversary of her untimely passing. We still miss you, Maddie!

The last week of March, Hubs* and I went to dinner and a hockey game with Leslie and Larry. Dinner was in Greektown, so we had...Chicago Style pizza. Logical, right? Across the street from the restaurant was this:

After dinner, we saw the Red Wings in a 6-2 romp over the Minnesota Wild. We had a great time, see?

 The game was partially sponsored by the Detroit Area Dental Association as a fundraiser. Leslie is a dentist, passionate about her work, so we were happy to buy the tickets to support her cause.

* Hubs has pointed out, rather emphatically that he doesn't like the name "Hubs." Owing to the fact that I have intimacy issues, I have not called him by his given name, Jim, in about 28 years. He has been my Bud, or Buddy, all that time. From here on out, then, I will use that name when blogging about Husband Styro.

Windmills of My Mind

There seems to be a ton of garbage swirling around in my head this week. Maybe it's because the new job start date is coming up, it feels like a change is in the wind.

Maybe it's because the trees are starting to burst open their buds, and southern Michigan is becoming green again.

Maybe it's because my dryer is still busted, and I need to call Repair Clinic about the parts for getting it fixed. 

Maybe it's because the basement, which doubles as a family room/audio-visual room, is in such a state of flux. Swapping around a room that's filled with furniture is no big deal. Swapping around a room that's loaded with CDs, DVDs, and LPs, plus all the wiring that goes with it, is a huge, frigging deal. Last time this happened, around ten years ago, Hubs pulled off the amazing feat in one very long day.

Maybe it's because the state of my back problems is such that I am able to do more and more all the time. Yet I am still very cautious about taking care of it, which means that, as much as I would LOVE to go tackle the basement and surprise Hubs, it ain't gonna happen.

Whatever the cause, I find myself, daily, wandering around with a vague jumble of things in my head that I should...

...do

...blog about

...finish (a big one, that)

...decide to ignore.

What I need, is a list. Or a drink.