violetismycolor

...and the answer is 'salt'

What is the question?

What is your favorite cleaning product?

I was reading an old copy of Martha Stewart (obviously, I was in a doctor's waiting room...) and she suggested the use of salt for some cleaning project.  Salt is a natural abrasive, you see.  So last night I had to clean off one of my stove's burner pans since every time I turned it on, it gave off this horrid smell.  I thought, I will try the salt...   And they just gleamed! 

Then today, I was cleaning my kids' bathroom, in anticipation of an overnight guest showing up tonight.  My kids have been responsible for cleaning this bathroom for years and this has resulted in an enormous amount of soap scum piling up on the wall of the fiberglass shower/bath stall.  I thought of the salt!  I sprayed on the soap scum remover (which has never removed soap scum in the past) and let it soak for 5 minutes.  I applied salt to my sponge and voila!!!!  It actually removed the scum and the shower looks brand new not 20 years old and scummy...

I am so sold!  Buy stock in Morton's, folks, cuz this may revolutionize the cleaning world...

On the duct front, my duct guy showed up this morning.  Yay.  He told me that 'something' was obviously clawing at the insulation around the ductwork (probably to get to the heat and warm itself...selfish bastard!)  and had disattached 4 ducts from their positions.  He thought it was probably a racoon.  Hence, the horrible clawing noises we kept hearing.  He and I went around the house and closed off all the vents to the crawl space.  Amazingly, in 20 years, we have never done this.  Didn't know we were supposed to do this every winter to keep the heat in...and then open them in summer...  How does one find out these things?  We are just SO clueless! 

Anyway, he fixed up all my ducts and heat is flowing to the freezer (I mean, laundry room) again.  I have to get an insulation guy out here to give me a bid on re-insulating after the attack of the raccoon.  More dollars out the window, but that's home ownership!

To sum up:  Multiple problems solved all in one morning.  I know it's not rocket science but I couldn't be happier!

out of touch...

The temperature has dropped to around 35 degrees here and it was raining just a bit ago, prompting my 16-year-old-going-on-6 to dance a jig and pray for snow!  On the other hand, my 91 year-old mum-in-law was complaining that she had no idea that it could get this cold in Oregon in November!  What will the night bring?  Snow?  Ice?  Disappointment?  Outrage?  Too soon to tell...

and a truly thankful girl I am...

This is beautiful Skamania Lodge, in the Columbia Gorge not an hour from our house.  We spent our Thanksgiving here.

As it is our first Thanksgiving without both Adam and Bonnie, we totally changed our routine.  Usually, we go to one of my siblings' homes (remember, I have 9 siblings!).  With trillions of people to serve, the turkey is often, let's say, cold by the time one gets one's plate full and sits down. 

Not so, this Thanksgiving.  We took Ross and my mom-in-law (in her first Oregon Thanksgiving appearance) and went up to Skamania.  We had dinner at the Lyle Hotel in Lyle, Washington.  This is a turn-of-the-19th-century hotel, very charming, further east in the Gorge.  We spent our Skamania Lodge time walking, sitting around the big stone fireplace and reading, eating, sleeping, and museum-ing at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. Fun, fun, fun.

We avoided having any non-fun family-arguing-over-politics by avoiding my own family.   

We called Bonnie at her aunt Holly's and found out she was totally stressed-out-due-to-procrastination.  Same-o, same-o.

I did lose out on the time that I would have had to do Illustration Friday but I was not having much luck with the idea of 'cling' anyway.

On a sad note, my 83-year-old aunt, my Tante Elly in Holland died this morning.  She had Alzheimers and it was a hard thing for her family.  So tragic! We are happy that she has finally gone to her place in heaven that she always spoke about.

Hope all you out there had a happy T-day!

holiday update...

I seem to have managed to upset many of my regular readers with reports of some small mammal possibly living within my walls.  I have brought back long-forgotten bad memories and made folks just plain uncomfortable.

First of all, thanks for caring.

Second, I have the duct guy coming on Tuesday and we are going to look into our crawl space, too, to rule out a raccoon or something having taken up residence there.

On a happier note, my daughter has arrived safely at her ex-aunt Holly's house in Amherst, MA, for the Thanksgiving holidays.  She is happily hanging out with said ex-aunt, gossiping, being fussed over, and getting advice on her upcoming papers (Holly teaches writing at Smith).  Her (not-ex) uncle Alan will see her for coffee on Saturday.

(It's a long story...)

a series of unfortunate events...

Okay, so we have 2 odd things happening at our house.

Number One:  Complete loss of heat has occurred in my laundry room.  To enter, one must be swathed in 8 layers of warm clothing or risk being turned into an ice cube.  When my husband went into the basement (not an interior room but only accessible through the garage or an outside door...filled with lawn mowers, firewood, pesticides, spiderwebs, etc.), he found that the ductwork seemed to be disconnected or 'hanging' inside the tape wrapping that covers it.  He has no skill to fix such problems.

Number Two:  Odd sounds are emanating from what sounds like the walls or floor in my family room. Sounds like something scratching madly, trying to escape from somewhere.  Note:  Family room is next door to laundry room.

Tell me that these two things are not related...I am fearful that some creature has gotten into the ductwork and is scratching around in the bowels of my house.  And what if it dies there and makes a really foul-smelling mess of my house?  Yikes, this has all the earmarks of a disaster brewing...not only said scratching-thing but the amount of heat we are losing through the loose duct, which is probably costing me a few Christmas Presents. 

what kind of a person am I?

That is something I often ask myself.  Just sort of 'checking in' on myself, I guess.  I can tell from the state of my house and the state of my yard that I often over-reach. 

I have thousands of marvelous plants in my yard, that I have collected over the 20 years that I have lived here.  It looks pretty decent on and off during the year, but I often let it go to the point of near disaster because I have been distracted by something else.  I would love to have a Martha Stewart garden.  Will I ever?  Not a chance.  I am too lazy to keep it so perfect, and if I tried, I would have to give up something else. 

My house is the same...too much stuff...too much messyness...too much time watching Oprah and Dr. Phil when I should be cleaning and making it the house of my dreams (which means like my sister, Ann Marie, keeps house.  She has five kids who are involved in millions of activities and yet her house always looks like she just got finished slaving over the woodpolish).  Mine?  Things are thrown, willy-nilly, everywhere.  Occasionally, I get so sick of it that I go on a cleaning frenzy and then it is beautiful again.  But I just can't stay focused.  ARGH...

I have noticed how this scattered tendency of mine is reflected in virtually everything I do.  Reading (always have at least five books, not to mention countless magazines going at any one time), Writing (been trying to write a book for the last 10 years...have chapters from beginning, middle, near the end), Photography (many photos, no emphasis), Art (am trying to learn how to draw better, how to paint, how to use Illustrator, etc), Work (juggling 3 clients, none of them too well), Spiritual development (reading this and that, lots of soul searching, trying to get a fix on what I really believe, etc.)...it just goes on and on.

So, the BIG QUESTION?  Does this MATTER? 

I guess, I think that it does.  It means that I am not high-achieving in anything.  It means that I have a lot of fun doing many things, but much frustration due to the slow nature of actually getting to really know my subject.

Does anyone else out there have the same problem?  And if so, what are you doing about it/feeling about it? 

I really want to know...

illustration friday...regal

This week's illustration is 'regal', (click on the illo for a larger version) which I interpreted as a sort of Ariel the Mermaid thing.  My mermaid is not quite so Disney-esque (read 'perfect'), but she is spunky and hopes, some day, to be regal. 

I just love mermaids.  When I was growing up, I was always hoping to see one when I was at the beach.  When my kids were small, I would tell them that the mother-of-pearl that washed up on the Florida beaches (where we would visit their grandparents) was 'mermaid money'.  They would collect it and feel rich.  So, I thought I would use it as my theme this week. 

For other 'regal' works of art, visit Lopie's Journal.  She is the mastermind behind Illustration Friday.

Bridget Jones...

My fave girlfriends are taking me out for my birthday-do (note: b'day was actually last week but we are NEVER prompt about this) and we are going out for Pizzacato (pizza AND the best and most garlicky Caesar salad ever!) and to see the Bridget Jones sequel. 

Okay, you MAY think that I am only going to this so that I can drool over Colin Firth.  But that is only part of the reason.  I loved the first one and the first BJ book.  I did absolutely HATE the second BJ book...but for God's sake, it has Colin Firth in it!!!  And it could be very funny.  And it has Colin Firth in it.

You get my point...

holy palpatations, batgirl...

Ever had something totally scary happen to you?  Scary because you have no idea if you should really be worried or not?  Well, I did.  Yesterday.

I had a brush with chest pressure...not pain, just a feeling like someone had squeezed down on my chest around my heart.  And it lasted for about 45 minutes, then went away and then came back again for another 30 minutes or so. 

It could have been a panic attack.  It started just as I left my husband's office, after talking about their potential website re-do.  And then it finally went away, and I had to go to drop off my property tax payment (which was friggin' huge!) and then it came back.  Yeah, spending huge wads of cash really freaks me out.  And working with my husband makes me nervous as hell.  I don't want to disappoint him or have any conflict in our relationship over what he thinks I am doing, workwise.  So...very nerve-wracking.

I will make an appointment for a physical with my doctor, anyway.  Don't want to just ignore it and hope it was nothing.  I am a very young 48 years old and I have no plans to bow out of the scene just yet, thank you.

catch the moment...

Here is a luverly picture of my 'office' window. This office is right off my bedroom and has had various other identities. It has been a sitting/tv room and a sewing room and book room...probably other things, too.

My super-de-dooper mom-in-law's birthday and Christmas checks in 2002 were put to use in the remodel of this little room. I was my own designer and did the plans for the window seat and built-in cabinetry. It is quite fabulous.

Anyway, all that is just an aside to this picture. Yesterday morning, the sun was streaming in the window just above the window-seat. It was so beautiful and I knew I had to grab my camera and get that photo right away. Sure enough, just about 5 minutes later, the light changed and the beauty was gone. But I got it!

My daughter is in New York City today. She and the other Alumni Memorial Scholars at Colgate are having their once-every-semester-special-trip, this time to NY to see a show and do other (unspecified) sightseeing. She has promised me a call tomorrow to give me all the particulars. She has wanted to go to NYC for the longest time and I am thrilled that she is getting to do something like this with a group of great (and smart) kids from her school. Yay, Bonnie.

At the same time, Adam had the last week off (the week after midterms) and was heading down to Edinburgh and then to London, with friends. He should be back at St. Andrews by now and I am anxious to hear about it all tomorrow on the IM.

It turns out that my dad has prostrate cancer. We were going to take my parents out for a fancy dinner last night, cuz today is my mom's 80th birthday. We had to put it off till next week since my dad was still just too tired to have a night out. My folks have a very positive attitude about my dad's prognosis. The doctor wants to try a medication and no chemo or radiation. He isn't allowed to drive, at least for the time being, and my mom can't drive at night, due to eye problems. This will limit their mobility and I wonder how this will impact the way they live their life.

On the homefront, I spent the day doing yardwork (aka raking leaves), helping my mother-in-law buy a new TV (the movers broke hers), and reading the papers. Just standard not-going-to-London-or-NYC things.

llustration Friday...vintage...

woof, woof...says Zippy...

I found this cute little doggy toy idea in the pages of a magazine.  I have named him 'Zippy' and can picture him zooming about the room in circles, over and over again.  (Okay, cannot erase mental picture from mind...).

This is just one more attempt at illustration and I am hoping that I will continue to improve...but this is hard stuff, so kudos to all you professional people out there...

how do you handle it?

My office was so pathetically messy that I couldn't even BEGIN to do all the work that I need to do.  I finally got my new PalmPilot working and I actually started off by listing all the work for the week ahead. (Panic attack ensued...)  And I ranked it in order of importance.  And I gave myself due dates.  (Ah, the joys of working for oneself!)

But with all the CRAP everywhere, I just couldn't get myself going.  So, I did what needed to be done.  I cleaned up.  Threw stuff away.  Put things away...by that, I mean that I put them out of sight...so they were no longer just clutter. 

Miraculously, this clearing-my-desk-process cleared my mind, too.  I got right to work on project number one:  updating a client's website, including a forced-upon-me site migration.  After talking to a very uppity tech support guy, I smoothly managed the migration...but my gosh, the guy got on my nerves!

I feel fairly confident that I can proceed through the multiple projects and manage to finish them all.  Yay. 

Now, can I do all that AND manage to get through Illustration Friday, too?  It's anyone's guess...

happy Bonnie...

I find it reassuring that my daughter finds such simple reasons to find happiness.  Here is what she said in her most recent blog posting:

Reasons why I still get deliriously happy at times even though Bush is staying in office:

1) Squirrels. I love them. Every time I see them bounding across the quad I want to giggle.

2) The times the wind makes the leaves dance.

3) How clear the stars are out here.

4) Walking through softly falling snow and all around there is silence and it is so lovely and secure and picturesque that it feels like I'm in a snow globe.

5) Cocoa, especially if it contains marshmallows.

6) Flannel sheets. Now that they're on my bed I wake up and feel completely at peace with the world and totally comfortable even when it's 8am.

7) My friend Brandon gave me mono. Not like what YOU'RE thinking, sicko. This mono does not make me ill. It's soft and purple and has really large eyes and long eyelashes. Brandon went to an anime convention and brought me back mono, a giant stuffed microbe, as a present. And it's really nice and cute, but I mainly added it because I like imagining everybody's face when they read the first line.

8) Procrastinating is a lot easier and more fun when you have a hall full of friends who are also avoiding their work.

doing what?

Holy schmoly...I almost burnt the house down today.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad.  I was reheating (a la the microwave) this dessert from the other night.  It was in one of those leftover boxes, since it was left over from my birthday-restaurant meal.  I didn't look into the box, just started heating it up and then I noticed that the box was CATCHING FIRE and smoke was coming out.  Ross reminded me that the restaurant had packed the leftovers in tinfoil first and then put them in the boxes.  OOPS!  Didn't destroy the microwave, though it was possible to do that.  Didn't burn the house down, though it was possible to do that, too.

Got Grandma's stuff moved into her apt., but only unpacked about 3 boxes before she got totally overwhelmed and demanded a nap!  I am going back tomorrow morning and will try to do better.

Poor Ross, his new braces are gouging holes in his cheeks and he is having a hard time eating most everything.  He might manage to get even skinnier than he is now...  I will try to run him by the Orthodontist tomorrow to see if they can get the killer wires to stop cutting up his cheeks.

Next week, I am going to consult with my husband's company about renovating their website.  I am a little nervous about doing this for them, since he works there and what if I totally screw up?  I haven't actually screwed up a website yet, but there's always a first time, right?

thankful...

I am very happy to say that my dad left the hospital this afternoon.  He is still not sure exactly where his kidney function is, but it is improving.  He has to go on some new medication for his prostrate.  I saw him this morning and he was very pleased to go home, though he acted as though he was on vacation while he was there. 

I had a super birthday.  John gave me a new winter coat (which you will remember that I picked out for myself).  I also got a new palm pilot (a Tungsten E) with a color screen (cool!).  Ross got me a storage card to go with it, so that I can keep all sorts of pictures on it.  It has a really nice screen.  My mom-in-law gave me a lovely check and I am trying to decide what I want to spend it on...suggestions? 

Tomorrow, my mother-in-law's stuff (furniture, clothes, knick-knacks, the works) is arriving from Florida and she will finally be able to settle in.  This will really make it feel like home for her.  She is so excited about it.  I will show up at her place at around 9:30 in the morning to help her start sorting through her boxes.  She will sit, like a princess, and direct traffic.  The movers and I will be her hands and feet, and put her place together.

She grew up in Calgary, Alberta and moved to Rochester, NY with my father-in-law after he graduated from college.  They lived there for 25 years or so, and then they spent the next 30 years in Florida.  My father-in-law died about 5 years ago and she has been there with no family around since then.  I am very glad that she has moved to Oregon, where she can be surrounded by us, who are happy to treat her as the family matriarch.  She is so kind to us, and a great mother-in-law to me.  She deserves all the happiness that she can grab at 91-years-old. 

happy birthday to me...

Obviously, these are not pictures from my current birthday.  These are from when I turned 5.  Since I have a schooltime birthday, I got a special crown made for me in kindergarden (at Carmenita School in Artesia, California!).  My sister, Marita (next to me in the crown picture) was incredibly jealous of that crown...her birthday is in August.  And in the other picture, my sister Joan (July birthday) was holding my present, a 'Kissy Doll'.  Now, I had begged and pleaded for this doll.  She had been advertised heavily on TV and she was so cute.  I just had to have her.  When you squeezed her arms together so that they touched, she would 'kiss' (make a kissing noise and I think her lips pursed or something).  She was fabulous.  Best present I have ever had, I think, since I wanted her so badly and was so surprised that I really got her. 

Today, I am no longer 5 but I turned 48.  I got to spend some time with my dad (in the hospital) this morning.  He was so happy and 'up' that he made my day.  I had coffee with my Coffee Girls (every day we get together and have coffee and support each other).  I got a call from my lovely daughter in college and also one from my super son, in Scotland.  My mom-in-law is taking the whole family out for a nice dinner.  And then there are the presents.  Or at least the anticipation of presents.  Can't wait!!!

So, happy birthday to me.  It is turning out to be a great one!

hospital visit...

I went to visit my dad in the hospital this morning.  He seems to be doing pretty well.  He was in really good spirits.  He was laughing and talking.  He had a good appetite and seemed pretty pleased with how they had been feeding him and treating him. 

They even moved him out of Intensive Care.  He was very pleased about that.  The urologist has seen him 3 times over the weekend and they will start some sort of treatment tomorrow.  He couldn't really tell us exactly what that meant.  He just said, 'He's the doctor and I will just do whatever he says.'

I told him I would come back and visit him again tomorrow.

And tomorrow (November 8) is my birthday...

my dad is not so well...

My dad, who is 80, is in the hospital today and will be at least through Monday.  His blood pressure was above 200, he was retaining water in his legs,and had water around his heart.  This was started by having an enlarged prostrate (which has to be removed).  Which caused the water-retention problems, which caused the high blood pressure, and which made his kidneys stop working.  Now, they have to try to get the kidneys back to functioning.  If they can't, it means dialysis...and that ain't pretty.

He was still in good spirits and actually was feeling pretty well.  I joked with my mom that he was probably giving the nurses tips on buying oil stocks and sure enough, he was.  You would have to know my dad.  He is a TALKER (something I inherited) and he loves to talk about his investments.  Which he is quite successful at.  So, sort of an inside joke, but it is certainly a gauge of how he is doing.  The minute he stops trying to convince people to put their money in this or that oil trust, I know that he will be very, very sick.

Prayers and good vibes would be welcomed...

illustration friday...searching...

This is my illo for the term 'searching'. (Remember to click on it for a bigger version!)

I feel kind of like an alien since the election (though I know that almost half the country voted like I did, I still feel kind of alone), and so I did this alien-looking-life-form as my searcher. 

I love all the other illos out there for illustration friday...thanks, Penelope!!!  Everyone always does such a great job.

Have a great Friday night...I will just be home, hanging out in my jammies and watching The Daily Show...

P.S.  Learning Illustrator seems so much harder than Photoshop.  I feel almost totally useless at it.  I am so impressed with what everyone ELSE does.

just another day...

Okay, so I heard Bush say that he was going to work to gain the trust of every person who voted for his opponent. Did he notice that at virtually the SAME TIME, VP Dick Cheney was saying that now that they had a mandate, they were going to pursue their conservative agenda?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Do they think that we are this stupid...oh yeah, we are this stupid...more than half the country hasn't yet gotten the message that they are a bunch of liars. My definition of that is that they say one thing ("I am a uniter, not a divider") and then they go ahead and do the opposite (go ultra-partisan and totally ignore the other party).

Yes, you are right, I AM angry. I had a nice walk on this very sunny, but cold day. And all I could think about was how pissed off I was.

One of my republican friends actually asked me and another Dem friend, "Just what are you afraid is going to happen now?"

I said, "Are you KIDDING? The environment is going to continue to get screwed, we will continue to be in a war that is being run with total incompetence, the poor will continue to get poorer, people will continue to lose their jobs...must I go on?" She had no answer at all.

Yah, I am angry. And still sad.