Repair, Review and Revive

Our tax appointment went well. Although I started the day out with papers scattered all over the counters at the store, by the time I opened the doors most of them had been organized. By noon I was as ready as I was going to get, all of my bills had been paid for both the shop and my personal bills, and I was actually working the sales floor. Our appointment went very quickly later in the night and we were home in plenty of time to watch "Face Off" and the new show "Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge", which was excellent. Since I stayed up late to watch the Jim Henson show, I'm a bit of a zombie today.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge has ten contestants vying weekly for
a job with the iconic company. Each week one contestant will be eliminated.
It's a "Face-Off"-like format, but with a different focus and materials.
It was a great first episode and I'm looking forward to the rest of them. 

I have my "day off" today and I'll be doing my usual - errands, laundry, shopping and cooking dinner. I have to review a betaed chapter to return it to my friend and continue working on her next chapter, I have one very short drabble half-way complete, and I have a necklace repair sitting here on my desk. It's promised by the end of the month, so I'd better get going on it.

The necklace I'm restringing has multiple strands of pearls and tiny gemstones. The
gemstones keep wearing through the string (not uncommon), so we're switching
the stringing material and hopefully things will last longer this time. 

I really need a nap. I've only had about six hours of quality sleep in the last 48 and I'm questionably functional today. But it's the only day I have to get my errands done, I don't have any salad to eat and I miss my lettuce, and the trash and recycling bins aren't going to push themselves to the curb, so I have no choice. I have to actually motivate.

I'd love to indulge in an afternoon nap. 

I think I'll get some gas in the car and take advantage of a free car wash. My car is filthy from the winter/snow/salt/splash crud, and we're finally into temperatures where I won't be afraid of freezing my power windows so they won't be able to open or close.

I'm tired of winter and want it to go away!!!

The sun is getting stronger and stronger every day and even though we're still cold, the snow pack is starting to melt and I'm starting to feel hopeful that spring may finally be starting to move in. It's like taking the first box into a new dorm room. The room looks really empty and uninviting and putting the box onto the bare mattress seems like a commitment to an uncertain future. But once the box is joined by others, the bed is made and pictures are on the walls, it starts to feel like home and you're ready to take on the world. That's what spring in Minnesota is like. We just need more boxes in our dorm room before we'll really feel like Spring has moved in.

An empty dorm room has endless possibilities ahead of it. But it still needs
the other items to make it look lived in. We need our green leaves, our birds,
and our unfrozen lakes and streams to truly be ready for Spring. 

Have a wonderful and fabulous Wednesday. It's HUMP day!

Random Monday Thoughts

The Olympic closing ceremonies were held last night. I'm happy to have my life back, but I'm going to miss my daily dose of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. They always managed to make me laugh and I loved their spot-on but irreverent commentary. I hope they'll be part of other skating events over the next four years. They're a great team. I saw some of the skating gala on Saturday night, at which they were doing the commentary. Unfortunately most of the gala was broadcast in late night and I had to go to sleep.

The three mascots for the Sochi Olympic Games gathered to put out
the Olympic flame. The next winter Olympics will be held in South Korea in 2018. 

Sunday was taken up with fighting ice dams on my father-by-marriage's house. It was friggin' cold out and DH was up there on a ladder with the paint stripper gun (basically like a heat gun on steroids), a hammer and a hatchet. Three-four hours later, success. But I turned into an icicle. After I arrived back home and was trying to read and watch the Olympics, but kept falling asleep in my chair. I gave up and went to bed for an afternoon nap. I was totally beat down by the cold.

Taking a nap can be a wonderful thing. No more chances for those in
my schedule for at least two weeks. 

I'm on cat duty for the week while Chickie is rediscovering warm weather in Arizona. I have the morning shift Monday-Saturday, Anne has most of the evenings. Chickie lives a block away from the shop, so it's easy for me to stop by and feed Sasha. I feed her, water her, and clean out her litter box. Easy, peasy. But it is one more thing in my crazy and crowded mornings. However, Chickie is a good friend and it's not really anything of great difficulty to do, so I'm happy to help out.

Of course, I'm only feeding one cat, not thirty. But I couldn't
resist this picture. 

The week will be cold, but they're saying no snow (for a nice change of pace). Right now we're on track to be the 11th coldest winter on record. All I know is that I'm really tired of temps in the single digits when we should be above freezing. Of course, this coming summer I reserve the opportunity to complain about extreme heat. Fair is fair - LOL.

I reserve the right to complain about the heat this coming summer.

So while I drive to my chiropractor and then on to kitty care later this morning, I'll be happily listening to classical music, avoiding the icy patches on the road, and thinking about warmer times and warm friends. I hope all of my friends reading this have a truly marvelous Monday.