I will not be posting until i've made visible and significant progress on decluttering and cleaning up. watch this space.

Peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

slog happy was, as always, happy, if a bit warmish. a combination of hot flashes and a warm evening on a west facing deck. a deck with spectacular views of the city and mountains at sunset. sometimes i just love this ol' town. i'm tired after a full day. the movies with janice (julie and julia is half good), stopped at super supplements for some black cohosh to combat the hot flashes, then off to the lookout to mix and mingle with the slog happy crowd. weather promises to be quite lovely the next few days. shan't deter me from the task at hand, which is mucking out. i want to finish the bedroom project by tomorrow. the cat is giving me the fisheye, which means she wants clean litter. i'd best obey her rat NOW.

peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

they are suffering at work without me. muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!

okay, that's enough schadenfreude. mary did say they were busy and she never realized how much i actually do as front desk person. damn skippy there's a lot to do. that will change, however, when i return in oh, say, a few weeks or so.

had a very nice lunch with mary at grand central bakery, and regaled her with tales of working at a french restaurant with crappy food and an explosive french chef whose taste buds had been shot off in the algerian conflict and as a result the food was heavy on the MSG. now it's a sports bar. Ha! the irony! tempus fugits.

tomorrow i shall see to the bedroom again. no more going out and dinking around until it looks better in there. unfortunately, rod s won't be starting work on the new basement storage units until the end of the month. i shall try to encourage him to start after he returns from vacation. i need a place for my stuff.

The kitteh's new nickname is "Winkie Sue". i am watching battlestar galactica from the beginning and it's still a tad confusing. great acting and superb writing. i'm at the beginning the three hour mini series. then i shall work my way through the subsequent seasons.

all for now.


Peace, love and kittehs.


Pushy

had a terrific time out at mom's today. sun came out just in time for me to sit out on the patio and do the sunday new york times' crossword puzzle. which i finished. yay me. but the best thing about mom's is the best food in the world. and today it was homemade plum cobbler. pure heaven, with plums from the tree in the backyard. and of course the company of her two kittehs, Gus and Tillie. who needs TV when you can watch cats?

today i risked it all for love and it paid off. i go to london on the 24th with my sweetheart joyously awaiting my arrival.

tomorrow it's back to the YMCA, meet a friend for lunch, then back home for more improvements. i'd like to get started on these new storage units in the former billard room.

Peace, love and kittehs,

Pushy

ooh. the weather turned good and wet today. perfect for baking french breakfast puffs. i'm proud of the progress in the bedroom, and that i've actually put away all my clothes and washed the dirty ones. for a messy like me, this is progress. all i gotta do now is keep it up. tomorrow i'm out to mom's and let's hope the weather will be agreeable. ah, that breeze feels lovely. which means the hot flashes haven't gone away, dog take it. i thought i got through this years ago! but it's a beautiful windy night.

peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

bedroom clean up 50% done. found the movie tickets, yay! after a good bowl of hot oatmeal, i am ready for bed. winkie seems rather puzzled by it. i tell her it's all for the best.

tomorrow, finish up, throw out recyclables, put don't-want-stuff out on curb if weather is agreeable, and wash clothes/dishes.

peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

goal for today: bedroom half finished.

the time is NOW.

if not now, when?

push aside all distractions and focus on the work at hand.

onward!

Pushy

oops! forgot to post yesterday. i did finally send off the lost bond affidavit to tish and ashley with enclosed self addressed stamped envelopes, so i'm not completely lazy. maybe. now i'm all depressed because i can't get my $600 back i spent on an airline ticket to london to see my sweetheart and if i don't act soon i won't be able to even change the reservation to a later date. wait, i can. if i'm willing to stump up $275 change fee plus any change in fare. screwed both ways.

one nice thing: $5 burger night at the deluxe bar and grill got me a delicious garden burger with cheese and onions and a side of fries.

all for now. i'm sure things will change by tomorrow.

Peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

i've had an upset stomach for the last two days. it's probably stress. great! all i need. perhaps the milk of magnesia will help some. dinner at petra's last night was just the best. i must have more evenings out with good food and conversation. the leftover veggie kebabs tasted even better for breakfast this morning. i shall be taking janice tufte there for lunch sometime soon.

all for now. shall try to get back up to longer posts when this doggone upset stomach goes away. bloody full moon.

peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

full moons really mess with your head. i feel terribly out of balance and a just a moment ago thought i was on the verge of a panic attack. i just did some deep breathing and self-calming, which worked.

dinner at Petra Mediterrenean Bistro was terrific. good food and good company. I recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes middle eastern food. i was the only non-arab at the table, i think. we talked a lot about arab music and culture, and how americans tend to think that all muslims are arabs, and all arabs are muslims. 'tain't so. the country with the largest population of muslims is indonesia. and a goodly number of lebanese-americans are catholic! some people are just so willfully ignorant. not me, of course. Andy asked our party what the most common name in the world is, and i answered 'mohammed', which was correct. then he asked 'what's the most common last name', and me, who always likes to have the right answer and win quizzes, guessed 'chang'? yes! laila wants me for the next trivia challenge. or maybe the next gathering will be arab karaoke, which i'm definitely not missing.

tomorrow is the first of september, so no more futzing around, time to get serious about change and transformation. which means eating breakfast, no going hours and hours without food, and getting out of bed (not just waking up) around 7 or so. wish me luck, folks, 'cause i'm a lazy sod.

Peace, love and kittehs

Pushy

oops. didn't post anything from friday or saturday. lazy lazy me.

the ymca reopens tomorrow after a week off for maintenance, so i'm heading down there to get back into the exercise groove. still haven't found my lock, but i have another that i think will do. it's such a CHORE to get myself down there, although i always end up having a good time and feeling great afterward. also, the recycling is piling up again and must be taken out.

not feeling terribly inspired to write anything memorable tonight. a full moon is due in a few days and i already see signs of this in my strange moods and people being absolutely clueless. or maybe it's just the end of summer thing.

peace, love and kittehs.

Pushy

the food at india bistro is dee-lish. bro jon and i had a great lunch on my gift certificate (won in last september's slog happy trivia contest). of course i did tip handsomely, as the service was as good as the food. we shall return sometime in the future, perhaps when i'm a bit more flush. right now i'm just flash. hot flash. not groovy. or as the kids used to say, this is just so wrong on so many levels! well, enough whinging about that. time to BUCK UP and move forward.

peace, love and kittehs.

pushy

i found one of my missing bras. to me, this is a big deal. that narrows the missing items list down to my ymca lock, discount movie tickets and tamoxifen prescription. tomorrow is lunch with brother jon at the india bistro on roosevelt. one of my favorite things in the whole wide world is enjoying indian food with jon. actually, doing anything with jon is one of my favorite things. and because i have a gift certificate won in a stranger slog happy trivia contest, the meal will be gratis (that's latin for "free"). just checked two websites for restaurant reviews and it was mostly positive. this bodes well.

the cat is lurking, and giving me significant looks. i think it means she wants wet food. she is now doing things to get my attention, like scratching the kitchen cupboard doors. to see is to obey, o great cat. i can refuse her nothing. well, almost nothing. i'm not that much of a crazy cat lady.

pushy

A good day for cooking and baking. Boiled the organic spuds and had a few for lunch. Made a cake mix chocolate cake in the early afternoon, and ratatouille from scratch in the evening. it is simmering slowly on the stove, waiting for me to taste it. of course, it will taste better tomorrow morning. ooh, la la! takes a lot of cutting and peeling and chopping, but it is worth it, mon brave. perhaps next week i'll make vegetarian french onion soup. don't laugh, it's possible.

if the weather is agreeable tomorrow, i'll be out and about. if it's cool and rainy, time to stay in and do more clutter clearing. and so to bed.

Pushy

arf. i forgot to post something last night. i shall do two today to make up for it.

headed to MacPherson's Produce last night for ratatouille ingredients. it was the perfect seattle evening to be out and about. not too hot, not too cold. i also picked up a couple of big ol' washington peaches. but i can't find the moosewood cookbook with the foolproof ratatouille recipe! i may have to wing it. i might bake a cake today, too. we shall see.

the road to enlightenment is long and difficult, so don't forget to bring snacks and magazines.

Pushy

Update: found the moosewood cookbook ratatouille recipe on the interwebs. thank you, syracuse new times.

note to self: eat something every three hours, hungry or not.

made a small dent in the clutter today. cleaned out fridge, ran dishwasher, washed clothes. tomorrow i go to the blood bank and will probably be turned down again due to lack of iron. chewing on rebar doesn't help. also, i still can't find my ymca lock and tamoxifen prescription, not to mention some discount movie tickets. will keep looking.

today's money saving tip: when regular income isn't forthcoming (as in my situation), sit yourself down and write a list of everything you do have (clothes, shoes, toilet paper, books, bed linens, etc.). this will remind you not to buy something you already have and don't need. also, write down each day's expenditure. and pay cash. not a check, not a debit card, but cash money. if you have any ideas, please share them in the comments section.

why is it that KING FM only plays Phillip Glass at 2 or 3 in the morning? i want my Glass prime time.

minimalism-ly,

Pushy

the weather is cooler. so where's my motivation? my ambition to clean up the mess? is it because i have these self-defeating thoughts that i'll never be done? that the clutter will multiply like the brooms in the sorcerer's apprentice? i am such a wimp, really i am. but ya know what? change is hard. getting rid of old ways of doing and thinking takes tremendous effort. putting things back, taking out the recyclables every week instead of every other month, getting out of bed when you first wake up, you know, simple things that everyone save me does.

well, enough of the whinging. i did take several before pictures of my place, and i tell ya, it couldn't get any worse than it is right now. which reminds me, i'm cutting this short to load up the dishwasher RAT NOW and after that fold laundry and listen to Die Walkure, which is much better on radio than in person, and i speak as someone who's done both.

Hiyo toho!

Pushy

today was cooler and cloudier and just plain lovely. maybe tonight i won't have to sleep with two fans going. i saw a trailer for "The Wolf Man" starring Benicio Del Toro (muy caliente) where poor Benicio, as the titular lupine, gets dunked in a pool of ice water, and i tell ya, that looked mighty good to me. especially if Senor Del Toro would be waiting at water's edge with a fluffy towel and come-hither eyes. if you don't know what come-hither eyes are, you're probably under 50 years old. The movie isn't due for release until February of next year, which is a stone tease! i have to wait that long to see one of the best and best-looking actors around in a role he was born to play? Shipoopy.

I saw this trailer before the main attraction, "Inglourious Basterds", and I will write about that tomorrow, as I feel unwelcome warmth creeping up on me. i will say that of the coming attractions, Halloween II, Avatar, and Inception didn't get my attention, but Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" did. but not as much as "El Hombre Lobo". i must hasten to add that it does not take place in spain or mexico, but good ol' fashioned Victorian England, and judging from the preview, Benicio doesn't have much of an accent. maybe his character spent his boyhood in the States.

anyhoo, off to bed, where perhaps dreams of a spanish-speaking, very hirsute man may await.

Pushy

back steps look so much better now that Hennie and i scrubbed off the dirt and grime. it was a little harder to get rid of the moss on the walkway. still, it is an improvement. she also showed me what plants were weeds and what were not and what plants just need controlling as they tend to get out of hand. i cut some rosemary from our bush on the southeast corner and it smells lovely! the cat was hiding where i couldn't find her when i got back to the condo. she gave me quite a fright, as i thought she had wandered out the door when i left it ajar for a minute or so. ha ha. she was under a small side table, sulking. even after i pulled her out and cuddled her, she wasn't having it. about 30 minutes later she jumped on my bed for some attention. this was a big sulk, folks. not even greenies and wet food could placate her. i love her anyway, and she's just caught on that i'm home more than usual nowadays. i hope the weather cools down tomorrow and for several days after, as i have some serious house cleaning to do, and cooler temperatures put me in a better mood for hauling out trash and recyclables. last post of the day, because the front room gets very warm in the evenings.

Peace, love and kittehs!

Pushy

i am sweating profusely. and i'm not even having a hot flash. this is gonna be one of those take a shower every ten minutes night. i did my research on hot flashes, and they increase in hot weather. well, that's just GREAT!!! however, they decrease with exercise. i'm goin' to the YMCA tomorrow and do some cardio in the pool.

first day of leave went well. had indian food for lunch, and bought Winkie some Greenies at Mud Bay Granary. as soon as the weather cools down, as it will, the big clean up will commence. but tomorrow is scrub down the back walkway with my neighbor Hennie. she will also teach me weed identification.

and so to bed, sweatily.

Pushy

tuesday evening

it's either very warm this evening, or i'm having another hot flash. i think it's probably the hot flash. my leave starts tomorrow, and the cat is very pleased about this. if only i could hire her out as a model or something for some extra money.

i came home with a bag full of fresh, organic produce. two large eggplants, which means ratatouille is definitely in my future. that is, when i clean up the kitchen, et al. also included was onions, carrots, opal basil, peaches, nectarines, salad greens, yellow cherry tomatoes, and a cucumber. this is gonna be a good week for food.

all for tonight, folks. sweet dreams.

Pushy

My grandfather Clyde Lockwood was born on this day in 1901, a true turn of the century baby. i believe he was born at home, on the kitchen table. it was often a case of the doctor and the baby arriving at the same time in the bitterroot valley in montana. Happy birthday Pa, the best grandfather anyone could have!

my first post

this blog will start in earnest on wednesday, the first day of my seven week medical leave (well, it's not a medical leave, but we'll call it that to be diplomatic. someone from work might read this and get me shitcanned. can't have that). anyway, matt hickey suggested i write a blog, so i'm taking him up on his idea. we'll see where it goes, and if anyone read it. who knows? i might just get into it.

peace and go naked,

Pushy McShove