Happy Anniversary, Lloyd!
We spent the evening before cleaning for company, since Clean Lauren has really only brought the house levels up to ‘Acceptable for Gross People’.
If you’re in town, Kathryn is going to be in town the next couple of days!
by Lauren 3 Comments
Happy Anniversary, Lloyd!
We spent the evening before cleaning for company, since Clean Lauren has really only brought the house levels up to ‘Acceptable for Gross People’.
If you’re in town, Kathryn is going to be in town the next couple of days!
by Lauren 5 Comments
A few weeks ago, on a very hot day, I noticed that the accelerator on the toaster wouldn’t recover. I’d let up and it would still go. Oh, no! I was going to be in a terrible, low-speed crash!! I figured out how to let up on the ‘gas’, then slip my foot under the pedal and flick it back up. It was delightfully dangerous. Y’know – at three miles and hour.
It really only was an issue when the weather was hot, though. Knowing that today (Tuesday) was going to be awfully hot, we opened ‘er up and looked at the guts.
Hahahahaha. “We.” I just took pictures and made suggestions. It turned out that a spring had fallen off. We (Lloyd) got it hooked back up.
That’s a good picture, ain’t it?
A long time ago, back when the CDC was in the old building, I ponied up fora microfiber mop. I was aghast at how though the floors were mopped nightly, a good scrub with microfiber cloth uncovered the actual floor. As Lloyd says, “Mopping just distributes dirt evenly.”
Well, that mop sat unused at the new building, so I brought it home. It does a bang-up job dusting the floor , and this summer I turned into Clean Lauren. (There’s no telling how long she’ll stick around.) I was dusting that floor every single day, and every single day I couldn’t believe how much cat hair and crud I was pushing around. I’ve taken to leaving the mop in the corner of the kitchen so I remember to swipe the floor every so often. (Not every day. That’s insane.)
I liked the new habit so much that I splurged on a little one for the bathroom.
That room is its own nightmare – a white tile floor. Ugh. It is always dirty. However, I do like swiping that tiny mop over it. I bought lots of extra pads, too, but that was a waste. I just use a whisk broom or a vacuum to get the crud off and wash it every so often.
I leave them out so if someone should come over and the floor is gross, it looks like I was just about to get to it. Clever, eh?
by Lauren 2 Comments
Saturday was a Lincoln day for us. I had an eye doctor appointment and had to run some errands, so I dropped Lloyd off at school to do his wiring stuff and went about my merry way. I brought back some lunch and after we ate, offered to help. We went to the gym, where he was working. There was a scissors lift.
“Do you want to go up?” he asked. “Sure!” Was my enthusiastic response. I’m not super-scared of heights.
We got up about ten feet and I felt the swaying. “Nope. nope nope nope. Get me down.”
He brought me safely down and the went up. This picture will be sideways, but trust me, he is way the heck up there.
I couldn’t watch him because of the little sways. It freaked me right out. I stayed around in case something went wrong, and also helped plug the other ends of the cords into the right stuff. (He’s running cable to some wireless access points.)
He did this for nine hours on Saturday and he’s got three more hours to go. Oy.
by Lauren 6 Comments
This story begins last Wednesday, when I lost my wedding ring. I take it off all the time, usually to move it to another finger so I can remember something, but sometimes I’ve set it down and forgotten where it was. Somehow, it always turns up. On Wednesday, though, I had taken it off to put sunscreen on the children. I knew I put it in my pocket, but it was gone. It had fallen out somewhere. I looked around a bit, but wasn’t worried. It would turn up or it wouldn’t. I was still married and it’s just metal.
It didn’t turn up on the workdays, so it hadn’t rolled away somewhere in the room. I figured one of the little girls found it and now had a pretty piece of dress up jewelry.
Some friends told me I should pray about it, but I’ve lost it so many times I really felt like I should just learn my lesson. I mean, really, I just don’t take care of things.
But this morning, I did pray, “God, if it’s not a bother, would you help me find my ring?”
On the playground in the afternoon, one of the three-year-olds was rolling a tire around and yelled to me, “Mrs. Sommerer, look what I found!” He held up his little arm triumphantly with something pinched in his fingers.
“What is it?” I yelled back.
“A wing!”
I laughed out loud. “Timmy! (not his real name) Do you know who that ring belongs to?!”
“My mom!” he responded.
That ring survived eight days of wind, rain, and two day of being trampled on by little feet, then Timmy found it while rolling a tire. Of course I rewarded him immediately with a popsicle, and put a thank-you card in his cubby with five bucks. That kid is my hero!
by Lauren 4 Comments
So, since The Incident with the bats and the bugs happened, the cats have been banned from the top floor this whole time. (I didn’t want them dragging hitchhiker bugs around the house.) Ralph is most despondent about this.
See, Ralph and Lloyd have a little routine. During the school year, Ralph waits for Lloyd to get out of the shower, then sprawls his big ol’ self on the bathroom counter so Lloyd will skritch his belly. (The first time I realized they had this ritual, my feelings were deeply, deeply hurt. Ralph was supposed to love me, but he doesn’t.) This morning, I was downstairs eating when Ralph heard Lloyd get in the shower. He planted himself by the door to the stairs and yowled and yowled. There was no comforting him. When Lloyd finally came downstairs I said, “Your buddy wants you.”
They went to the downstairs bathroom where skritching commenced. Ralph was so happy, he slid into the ‘good sink’. He fits much better in it’s wider opening.
This photo was taken five minutes after the skritching was over. He was very, very happy.