Uncategorized

Not human, thankfully.

I’ve used the Litter Genie system for the litter box for years, and I’m a total fan. We scoop about every other day, and the bags hold over a week’s worth of yuck, then it gets tied up and goes outside. The cartridges are a little pricey, but the convenience is worth it.

At the store one day, I was in the baby section to get some wipes for school, and lo & behold: the Diaper Genie cartridges, that used to be round, are now square, just like the Litter Genie cartridges. The same length is half the price, so I bought one of each – for science!

I think we can tell by the pictures that the Diaper Genie bags are made of a thinner plastic, so it would be wise on my part to not load them to capacity – or else that is going to be a terrible, terrible mess on the way outside. Note to Future Lauren: Take the whole thing outside and tie up the bag there.

One other nice thing? Finding the end of the Little Genie bag is a gamble every time. The plastic is all crammed in there and you have to pull out several inches of plastic, hoping to find the end.

They were kinder to the parents of babies, most likely replacing their cartridge in the sleep-deprived middle of the night. They put a red tab on the edge.

So, hopefully I won’t update you with a sad story later of cleaning up an enormous mess from the basement. Remember, Future Lauren. Remember.

Way back when we moved into the ‘new’ CDC, I had dreams of how to label the rooms. I wanted some wrought-iron sign brackets that stuck out from the wall so we could hang the classroom name, teacher name and information, etc. Something like these, but much cooler. It’s never going to happen, because I am running out of energy and caring.

However.

We were going to host a science night, and the teachers in charge wanted to put up signs to show what the theme for each classroom would be. I said if they’d print the signs, I’d take care of it.

I had an idea. This cream cheese box has a magnet inside. Did you know that the corner where two pieces of drywall meet has a metal strip inside?

Here’s the other side:

Well, I could use magnets at school for my idea, but I felt comfortable putting a nail in the wall for each. After all, I am the one who knows how to repair a nail hole.

I used ‘coat boxes’ from the wrapping paper section at Wal*Mart and glued on the printed signs. They worked a treat, and all the staff said, “We should have signs like this to label the rooms.”

I know! (Please ignore the little thins that bother me about these, like how they aren’t flush and you can tell from the edge that it’s just a box. They’re prototypes, after all!)

If you want to see a glimpse into Science Night, click HERE.

Well, apparently staying at a KOA campground in mid-October is becoming a tradition for me. Last Friday, the weather was supposed to be nice enough for a real camp, but Lloyd had promised a friend that he would go to a Home Brew event at our local brewery. Introverted Lauren bowed right out of that and booked a night at the new KOA campground just south of the interstate.

I had been curious about it for a while. The owners are parents of some former preschool children, and they are go-getters. They turned a blank piece of land into an entire campground with a pool, hot tub, playground and a lake that they built.

It was fun! I rented an Apod, which is like a tiny A-frame house. There are two that are bare-bones, but because the owner recognized my name when I booked it, she put me in the nice one with a fridge!

The weather was crazy windy, so I didn’t do an evening fire. I took along my fire can for Council Fire, but I could have left that at home. Their fire ring was a Solo stove/gasifier style! (It was probably for the best. Nebraska is still so, so dry.)

So, it’s not my best video. There are verbal typos and an abrupt ending. I also left in the hilarious start when I was trying to take just a photo with my phone and watch, and wound up making a very awkward video.

A couple of weekends ago, Lloyd and I spent a little time tidying up the nook upstairs. It had all kinds of junk jammed into it, so this is an ‘in-progress’ photo:

We made some hard decisions about the toys that were kept up there. There was a small assortment for the children of friends that would come over, but since the youngest of those is a high school senior, it felt ok to let a lot of it go. Someone else would benefit from this stuff.

I did my traditional ‘put it in the back of the pickup and list it on Facebook’ thing. Most of it went by the end of the day.

And the nook? It’s much better.

I have it in my mind to be a great baker. Unfortunately, my skills leave a bit to be desired. I haven’t mastered pie crust, as you know, and now we can add biscuit making to the list of things I’m not great at doing.

My mom always wanted to make some southern lady’s biscuits (I can’t remember the lady’s name right now), but we never got the chance. The lady had a giant bowl of self-risin’ flour and she’d just throw in a knob of Crisco and some buttermilk and mix it until it was right and then put them on a skillet to bake.

Well, I wanted to try layered biscuits, so I halved a recipe and did it all wrong. They were in the oven for a good long time, but they were doughy and gummy and not right.

I know that the only way to get better is to try again, but the problem is – I don’t really like biscuits unless gravy is involved, and I only have that when there are leftovers from school. I guess I’ll try again in a month?

In the meantime, I had torn-up toast and gravy. Mmmmm….

In the past two weeks, we have had four disastrous drink spills. I think this house might be cursed.

The first was when Brad was here. I got a pop from the entry, opened it, then set it on the table to go get a glass of ice. As it turned out, the can had a rounded bottom and tipped over as I was walking away. Ugh. Sticky pop all over the table, floor and chair.

The second was when I was putting a glass down on the side table/crock one evening and missed it. BAM!! Shards of glass and a sticky drink I was angry for that one.

Third was when Deborah was over and Lloyd was getting gin and tonic fixin’s. He dropped a can of tonic and spent the next ten minutes mopping the floor and closet doors.

The fourth was me, trying to juggle too many things to carry to the car on Saturday. I dropped a can of pop that EXPLODED in the living room. After the shock, I laughed and laughed because it was EVERYWHERE – the walls, the t.v., the windows, the carpet and sofa. Lloyd helped me clean and kept saying “Take a picture – it’s a post!” but I was too embarrassed.

Here’s the aftermath, when I realized I should have done this right away. The floor was wet and sticky underneath.

Ugh. I’m getting too old for this nonsense. Get a grip on your drinks, people!