7 Quick Takes (Vol 221)

I sing a tale of Crazytown. That is what life is like these days. Just when I think I have a good grip on the to do list it turns around and grabs me by the throat and squeezes. Sigh. You know the Friday punch list. When you are done reading about my absurdly packed crazy life you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of my fast approaching brain overload, over to Conversion Diary to see what’s been happening.

I raise my fist in blathery defiance!

1.
OH blog I am so sorry that I have been so neglectful of you in these past weeks. And the trend may continue which means that soon I will have no readers at all. I will be drifting alone in a vast see of blather.

I think that what is going to have to happen in these weeks until the wedding and the move is that I am going to have to blog shorter but smarter. Is that even possible? I really don’t like it when I look and realize that I blogged exactly once this week. It makes me feel like such an underachieving blog slacker.

But the list of things that must be accomplished in the next 6 weeks is ENORMOUS.

OVERWHELMING

GIGANTIC

Did I tell you that there is really a lot to do around here.

But I will keep blogging on…….

2.
On the house hunting front….

We are still looking.

And looking…….

And time is slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.

I believe that HHBL and I have looked at around 20 properties in the past week. Never finding one that makes our hearts sing. And it may be that we don’t find one that does that. It may be that we will (or have) find one that has the POTENTIAL to make our heart sing. There is a townhome that fits that bill but….

It needs some work. The thing that appeals to us is not necessarily the house itself but where it sits, a mere 5 minute walk from the town center. A mile walk from the library and the HUGELY ENORMOUS AND VASTLY APPEALING community center.

But it needs a kitchen redo. I can handle BLUE formica counter tops and white cabinets for a small amount of time……

And eventually the basement, which is “finished”, needs to be reworked.

And it needs stuff immediately…like ceiling fans.

The list is long.

Now I remember what I hate about looking for a house.

I am sure that there is a longer post in my brain about the whole house hunting and downsizing thing we are going through. But it isn’t quite ripe yet.

3.

I had the most awesomely fabulous time last weekend hanging with these crazy people.

And they even let me take their picture.

When I finally got them all to stop talking. The phrase “herding cats” was muttered more than once.

More pictures to come I am sure, whether you want it or not. Cuz I love these people.

4.
Many years ago I had an Audible account.

Do you know what Audible is? If you listen to a boat load of audiobooks then most likely you do. It is audiobooks. You pay a monthly fee and get credits that make it cheap for you to buy the books and then keep them forever.

Yes, I know you can get audiobooks from the library and free ones from Librivox. Believe me I do use those services A LOT. I use them a lot because I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts. All day I do. I am not a TV watcher and I listen to the radio at times but not all that often. But I do listen to audiobooks. And sometimes I want to own the audiobook that I listen to.

The Lord of the Rings being case in point.

Now, I have all three books in audio form. But I “borrowed” them from the library. That means that I checked out the audiobooks in disc form (we won’t say how long ago), painstakingly put them on my computer and then just kept them. I listen to them once a year or so….but I never officially bought them and that bothers me.

And there are some other audiobooks that I would like to add to my collection.

So back to Audible I have gone for a period of time.

I am really excited. So excited that I am almost too afraid to spend my first credits because I want to be wise about it.

But really, the first thing that I am going to do is replace my library copies of LOTR with legit copies that I have purchased. I will feel better after that.

Oh yes, and there is now an Audible app. And that means that if I want to listen to one of my Audible titles (of which there are many) I can just download it from the cloud, listen and then send it back up to the cloud. AND it will also let me listen to the audiobooks that I have on my iPod that are in iTunes.

Sweetness.

5.
As I write this……

I am still in my jammies.

Such a slug I am. But I am going to try to get a couple of hours of yard work done this morning so I didn’t want to shower before that and I just came downstairs to make my coffee after hopping out of bed all happy and rested…..or semi-rested…..and so……..

Still in jammies.

Such a slug.

What I REALLY wish is that I could stay in my jammies all day and knit and read and listen to audiobooks and watch something on Netflix.

But that is so not happening til, oh I don’t know, 2014 maybe.

6.
Because of the craziness that my life has become I haven’t had a spare minute to work in my yard.

And it shows.

Weeds! Overgrown plants! Wildness!

Yes, I know that in approximately 40 days this will no longer be Chez Knit. Someplace else will be Chez Knit. But I don’t want to hand over the house that I have loved for the last 13 years in a less than nice condition. I wouldn’t want that for myself.

So it is out to weed I go.

Actually, I really need 2-3 hours of uncomplicated weeding to soothe my crazy life.

Knitting would be better but weeding will have to fill the bill.

7.
One more thing about downsizing. And this is a cautionary thing that I would say to every person.

When you are getting married thinkthinkthink first before you sign up for things like silver pitchers. And silver serving things. And all sorts of vases. And STUFF

I have all these things.

I have never used them.

EVER.

And I have been married for 28 years.

And I have moved them from Wheaton to Solon to Chagrin Falls to Solon to Aurora….

And they are NOT being moved again.

Do NOT collect things that you don’t use on a regular basis and that you don’t think you want to move around for all of your life. Otherwise you will have to be dealing with them all your life and you will be kicking yourself in your bahookie about it.

Or is that just me?