Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
household stuff

you might be a redneck if…

I work at the office on Wednesdays. I rarely make it in on time (I’m 5-10 minutes late, usually), but I’ve been making a concerted effort the past few weeks to get to work on time because they changed breakfast time at the daycare. So, if Jake is to eat, I need to get his butt there early. OK, so I don’t really care about getting to work on time–Jake just needs to get to daycare in time for breakfast. But, if he’s on time, I’m on time, and we’re all happy.

This morning, time was on my side for a change. I went into the kitchen to pack my lunch and looked out the window to see one of our garbage cans blown halfway across the yard. The other garbage can was nowhere in sight. So, half-dressed and with wet hair, I braved the elements and went on a garbage can/lid scavenger hunt and reclaimed our property. (At least I think the cans I reclaimed were ours. Either way, we win.)

Now for my pet peeve. Normally Tuesday is our garbage day. But, Monday was a special holiday here in western PA otherwise known as “First Day of Buck Season”, so the garbage men had the day off and it pushed back pickup by a day for the rest of the week. Otherwise, we could’ve avoided the situation entirely.

I guess it could’ve been worse. Our neighbors lost about a half dozen shingles on their newly shingled roof. I can always buy a new garbage can, but I’d prefer to not have any roofing projects on my plate in December.

Oh yeah, I was 5-10 minutes late this morning.

tv

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

The 40th Anniversary showing of Rudolph was on this evening. We thought Jake might enjoy it, so we all watched it. Boy, did that bring back the memories. Remember when the month of December used to drag on for an infinity? Now, time seems to go by so fast. All December means to me anymore is that I have a crapload of work to do in order to get ready for Christmas.

I used to watch all of those Christmas specials every year when I was a kid. Jake enjoyed it for the most part, though he yelled “BORING!” during the singing parts. And the stop-motion animation looks so dated–nothing like the CGI used for movies like Shrek, that’s for sure.

health & wellness

winter cold

Jake and I both caught our first colds of the season over the weekend. I can’t believe it held off until almost December this year. It was two years ago that we were both sick from August till May. That year sucked. These are the things they don’t tell you about when you decide to have a kid. But, I guess this daycare thing will pay off next year–by the time Jake starts school, he should be immune to just about every bug out there.

And speaking of cold, the weather hasn’t been too bad. I actually like having some snow for Christmas, but other than that, I can do without it. If we can just get to January without a permanent blanket of snow on the ground, I’ll call it a winner.

do-it-yourself

attic project, part 2 continued

Jake stayed at my parent’s last night, so that gave Brian and me an opportunity to finish up our attic project. Assuming all goes well this winter, we should be done up there. Otherwise, we might need to add some more insulation. Time will tell. I’m almost looking forward to some snow just to see if our project worked or not.

That said, everything was put back in the attic, so the library/office space looks about as good as it’s going to. I still have some cleaning to do in the library, but as we found out with the office, that probably won’t make much of a difference.

auto

sometimes i wonder…

…if it might not be cheaper to just buy a new vehicle. My car went to the garage today for some routine maintenance and an inspection. The garage called to say that it also needs some brake-work and new tires. I can almost see my money flying out the window. Granted, brakes and tires are maintenance items, but they don’t come up all that often (unlike an oil change). Oh yeah, Brian’s truck needs new tires as well. Needless to say, between this and our previous expenses, our vehicle maintenance fund has been depleted. Let’s hope nothing else comes up until it has time to replenish itself.

OK, so it really wouldn’t be cheaper to buy a new vehicle unless we were paying out $300+ per month in maintenance costs, but I can certainly dream, can’t I? Unless my car falls over and dies, I won’t be getting new vehicle until Brian’s truck is paid off and that’s a good two-and-a-half years away, so I guess I should get used to it. In the meantime, I’m glad we live only two blocks from our mechanic.