That Hobbit Lady

Last summer I sold my 2000 Saturn to an old lady with an SUV who said she needed something smaller and more economical for running all over town. At the time it was kind of sad, and even now, as much as I enjoy our new car, I still miss my little Saturn now and then, if I stop to think of it. I have a lot of fond memories of that car.

Well, today I saw it. At lunchtime, I pulled into the bank parking lot just a few blocks from work, and there it was! I parked two spaces away. I knew for certain it was my Saturn, because it still had my community college sticker on the bumper, and the shamrock sticker Mary brought me from Ireland in the back window. Everything else looked pretty much the same. The steering wheel even still had on the same soft gray cover.

There was a lady sitting behind the wheel. It was not the old lady I sold the car to, but it might have been her daughter. Or…perhaps the old lady sold the car to someone else? I don’t know. And it’s really not my business anymore, is it? But still, it was nice to see the old car, and to see my old stickers. Brought back some good memories.

Life is like a Mah Jong game. You are dealt a certain number of tiles. Some of them you can see right away, some of them you can’t. As you play the game, more and more of what’s hidden will be revealed.

If you’re smart, and patient, and take your time and don’t act too impulsively, you can make smart choices that can lead to winning the game. At the same time, though, there are certain tiles you’re just not going to be able to see, unless you take a chance and hope for the best.

So in the end, a lot of skill, a bit of intuition, a little luck. That’s the best you can do.

(Note: If you’re familiar with Mah Jong, you’ll totally understand what I just wrote. And if you’re not, google it! And click the top link. It’s a fun game, way better than Solitaire!)

Sausage biscuit. McDonald’s has one. So does Hardee’s. And now Burger King and Arby’s have even jumped on the bandwagon. I’m not a particular fan of the sausage biscuit (way too greasy and fatty!) but I’ll try one on occasion, because generally they’re the least expensive thing on the breakfast menu.

Also, Russ is a big fan of the sausage biscuit, and swears by Hardee’s. I’ve had some of the others, and he’s right—nothing comes close to Hardee’s. But here’s what I find perplexing:

When you go into Hardee’s and order a sausage biscuit, the girl behind the counter will invariably ask if you want JELLY with that. JELLY?? With sausage?? Bleah! What are these Southerners thinking of?

Now ketchup. Yup. Give me some ketchup with my sausage biscuit. But JELLY???

I repeat…

BLEAH!!!!!

It’s been almost a month now since we signed on our house and started moving in. We are by no means DONE, but things are coming along quite nicely. Here’s a little pictoral update on our new home, thus far.

First, a few days after signing….

And now, almost complete!

As you can see, we are still needing artwork, but we are reluctant to put any holes in the wall unless we are absolutely certain that’s what we want. The “Home Sweet Home” sign over the couch is hanging on a nail left by the former owner. She didn’t leave too many nails. In fact, she didn’t leave much of anything! The house was pretty much spotless when we moved in. Tonight for the first time we opened the cabinet over the refrigerator. I was hoping for riches, fine china, or at the very least a forgotten bottle of booze. But alas…it was empty. Sigh…

And here is the shelf unit in the kitchen “nook.”

It’s proving to be quite functional, as you can tell. The actual kitchen is not small, but neither is it enormous, so this extra space really comes in handy, and we also like the way it looks.

Here’s the library….

Which is actually the dining room. And you must excuse all the boxes! That’s the “not quite done” part I was talking about, tho every day it gets better and better.

The dining room will be doing double-duty as both dining room and library, since we have so many freaking books! Once we get a little more settled, a big purchase will be a dining room table and chairs. But we’re nowhere near ready for that yet.

Our house has three bedrooms. One is being used as an “office” which is primarily going to belong to Russ…

And the other will be our “guest room” which will also serve somewhat as my office (though to tell the truth, I’m sure I’ll spend most of my time hanging out with Russ in his office.) But here is my desk, if I need it….

And here are the cats lounging on the daybed. What bums!

Okay, you know you couldn’t go too long without getting a few pics of the cats. Squee is enjoying all the space in his new house….

And Boogins is enjoying the sink in the guest bathroom.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got to find the manual for the refrigerator, since there is a light on that says we need a new filter. For what? The icemaker? It’s all new to me, I’ve never owned an icemaker before. Lots and lots to learn about homeownership, isn’t there?

So I just got this idea, while I was sitting eating lunch. It was the most delicious sandwich ever! If you want to make a sandwich really great, top it with thin slices of red pepper.

But…No, that is not the great idea I alluded to in the first sentence. Though it is a good idea, and one I would highly recommend to anyone.

But this is the idea I just had: you know how you always hear about how people are in a certain “season” of their life? Like, especially, you might hear of a “May-December” romance. Or you might hear about “The Winter of Our Discontent.” And people who are young and inexperienced are “Spring Chickens.”

Well, what if you actually divided up a life into a calendar year? Where would you be right now? More specifically, I wondered, where would I be right now. I’d always kind of figured that at this stage in my life I’m kind of in “Autumn,” which is just fine with me, because Autumn happens to be my favorite season.

So this is what I came up with: I intend to live to at least 80. Hopefully a bit more. Long life runs on both sides of my family, so if I just take care of myself, eat right, do a little exercise now and then, and take care not to get hit by a bus, I anticipate, by the Grace of God, seeing 80 or beyond.

Somewhere I had once heard that all the cells in a human body are completely replaced every seven years. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I heard it, and it stuck with me, and I always marveled that every seven years, you could be a completely different person. Interesting, no? Kind of gives you hope for the future, that things always have that potential to change and get better.

So, with that information, let’s divide a life into seven year increments. And let’s say each seven years is the equivalent of one “month.” So, at the end of January, you would be seven years old. At the end of February, you would be 14 years old, and 21 at the end of March, 28 at the end of April, etc. And at the end of December in this “Life Year” you would be 84. So it kind of works out just about perfectly, doesn’t it?

Now, I am currently 51 or 52, something like that. When you get to this age you don’t really keep track as diligently as you once did. But I do know that in keeping with this “Life Year” idea I’m proposing, I would have been 49 at the end of “July.” That means now, it’s August.

August is not yet Autumn, but it’s almost Autumn. It’s that late, late summer time that could be very hot and dreadful and boring, and it is also that time when the anticipation of Autumn is heavy in the air.

And we know what Autumn means. Back to school, cooler weather, beautiful leaves, and football! Oh, also lots of really fun holidays! Honestly, I don’t know why Autumn isn’t EVERYBODY’S favorite season.

So here I am. On the brink of Autumn, when all the really good stuff starts.

Yesterday the weather forecast said “Sunday: Chance of snow 80%.” Well, this is one time the weatherman got it right. The ground outside is about 80% covered with snow, even as I write this.

It’s lovely. I love it. The only problem is, it’s slowing down the whole moving process. On Friday, we had torrential downpours and tornado warnings. On Saturday, the ground was so wet that when Russ’ brother came by with his truck to help us move a few things, the back wheels got stuck in the lawn and sprayed mud all over the front of the house (the OLD house, not the new house, thank goodness!). And now today, this morning, we are dealing with snow, preventing us from packing any more stuff into the cars.

Still, all in all, it’s been a good move so far, we’ve gotten quite a bit done, and next Saturday the movers come for the furniture. It’s just a very, very busy time. But also a lot of fun.

Almost every day at work, when I come back from lunch, I find that my computer is taking a sort of “siesta,” slowing down to about the speed of those turtles on the Comcast commercials. The other day, I decided I had three things to do on-line. So I hit the big blue E…and waited…and waited…and waited. And by the time internet service kicked in, I had completely forgotten one of the three things I needed to do!

Now what does that say about the speed of my internet service at work? Or maybe, more importantly, what does it say about my BRAIN? All in all, it was a disturbing experience.

I know it’s been a really long time since I’ve written here. As I explained in my last entry, Russ and I have been rather pre-occupied with the search for a new home. That’s really no excuse, though. Life needs to go on. But writing anything at all has just been on the back burner for some time now. But starting right now, I’d like to change that, I’d like life to feel a little more….shall we say….balanced? And one of the things I’d like to do is to get back to my LJ. So here I am, ready to say….”Hmmm…what’s on my mind?”

Besides my new house, I mean!!! I could go on and on about my new house, but I don’t want to be a bore. It struck me the other day that Russ and I may be in danger of exhibiting the “New Parent Syndrome” — not because we have a new baby, but because of the new house! In many ways, a new house is somewhat like a new baby. There’s this kind of obsessiveness that overtakes when something this big comes into your life, especially after you’ve been waiting for it for so long. But I will try not to be too boring, and move on to some other things that are going on in my life.

Well, what else is going on? Besides the new house, not too much. But I can say this: I have been reading some pretty good books lately. And I’ve been enjoying that sense of escape and relaxation that you get from reading a good book. It’s one of life’s chief joys, I think. Television and movies are good too, but they’re not the same as books. I love that books are so portable, and so “low-tech.” You can take a book with you anywhere. You can read as much or as little as you want (or have time for!) during a single session. Books are at YOUR command. They are always there, always waiting, always the same. Dependable. And they also usually smell really good.

Right now I am reading two books. One is The Cat Who Went Underground, which is several books into the series of “Cat Who” books by Lillian Jackson Braun. It was my Mom who got me started with the Cat Who series. The main character is Jim Qwilleran, a fiftyish newspaper reporter who has a “luxuriant” moustache, and so of course he looks like Tom Selleck (in my mind, anyway.) Anytime I can have Tom Selleck on my mind is an okay time as far as I’m concerned.

The stories are not really that intense or involved. Basically you follow Qwilleran around his little town, meet the people he knows, enjoy the antics of his two Siamese cats, and somewhere along the way, there will be a murder (or two or three), which Qwilleran will eventually solve. The murders are pretty much besides the point, though. The whole point in reading these books is simply to enjoy spending some time in this very specific world, and being amused by the cats, Koko and Yum Yum. I think if you are a “cat person,” like I am, you get a little extra warm fuzzy feeling from these books.

Oh yes! There is another reason for reading these books. To see what Qwill eats. Food always plays a major role in every story. Since he’s a bachelor, and at this point quite wealthy, he’s always going out to eat, so you’re always getting good descriptions of food and restaurants. There are also several women characters who are excellent cooks, and they all always seem to delight in serving him dinner. In fact, someone has put together a Cat Who Cookbook in which they have tried to re-create many of the meals and specialties mentioned in the book. If I was more interested in cooking, I might like to give a few of these recipes a try. Hey! Maybe once I have my new kitchen… 🙂

Now, I do have one complaint about these books. I mentioned that you “meet the people” that Qwill knows. And believe me, there are a LOT of people! A lot of characters! Some of them remain from book to book, but some of them come and go. Sometimes it feels like a cast of thousands! Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. But like I said, it’s not really about these extra characters, or the murders, it’s about Qwill and the cats. As long as you’re not expecting great literature, and all you want is to visit a cozy, comfortable place, these Cat Who books serve quite well.

Now, I am also reading another book. This one was recommended by Mary. No, let me rephrase that, and give the background. Last year, at some point, for some occasion which I don’t remember, though it may have been my birthday, I told Mary that for a gift I would like her to choose some of her favorite books, go to half.com and buy and send me a couple of those books. So that’s what she did.

One books she sent me was So You Want to Be a Wizard. I tried. I honestly tried to read this book, but I just found it a bit juvenile. Mostly, I objected to the fact that since the theme of the book is, in fact, wizardry, the author seemed to think that she could just make stuff up as she went along. All kinds of crazy stupid stuff was happening, and the only explanation was “wizardry.” I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I almost felt like the author was making fun of me, for not thinking this stuff up first. I just didn’t go for that.

So I put down that book and picked up the other book Mary had sent me, Bloody Jack, by L.A. Meyer. And I was entranced from the first sentence. Bloody Jack, (Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy)is a first person account of a London “guttersnipe” who poses as a boy in order to get onto a Royal Navy ship in the 1800’s, simply so she’ll know where her next meal is coming from. She’s a pip, that’s for sure, a very interesting and likeable character. She makes her own trouble, then laments and cries, “Oh why can’t I be good? Why can’t I be good?” She’s high spirited, and a lot of fun, as you watch her growing up in her unusual circumstances, always using her wits and her talents to better her situation. She claims she’s not brave, and yet she does a lot of brave things.

I’ve finished that first book, and am now working on the second installment in the series, The Curse of the Blue Tattoo. A rolling good time! I highly recommend.

It’s such a joy to find that the books I’m reading and enjoying are part of a SERIES, that there are in fact “lots more where that came from.” Nothing worse than coming to the end of a good book. And nothing better than picking up the next book in the series, and once again settling down in that familiar world, with those same familiar characters.

Well, I could go on and on, if I started to talk about P.G. Wodehouse, and I could even mention the Twilight series which I recently finished. But that’s enough for now. It feels good to be writing again, even if it’s only to write about what other people are writing.

Well, we finally did it, we found our dream home!

About ten months ago, on the very first day we started going to Open Houses, we saw a house with a particular floorplan that we really liked. In all the time since, we have seen many many other floorplans, but never one that trumped this first one. We also liked the neighborhood, and in all the time since, we have only seen one other neighborhood we would have preferred. Unfortunately though, the #1 neighborhood did not offer this particular floorplan. It also would have meant changing our cable TV/internet service to another complany that is not as good as what we have now (and will continue to have in the new house). So when push came to shove, it was a no-brainer. We chose our #1 floorplan in our #2 neighborhood, and got just about everything we were looking for.

Ironically, the house we are buying is right down the block, nine houses away, from the house we saw on that first day. Basically, we have looked all over town, and come full circle right back to where we started. One thing for sure: after all our looking, all our comparing and contemplating, our decision has been nothing if not EDUCATED!! We feel quite comfortable that we have made the best possible choice.

And so, without any further ado, here are a few pictures of our new home which we will be moving into on February 27. And no, it does not “come furnished.” We will be bringing in our own stuff shortly, and that’s the next big adventure: Moving!!!

So, it’s one thing after another. It’s been quite an adventure so far, as I’m sure this whole new experience of being new homeowners will continue to be.