A Charmed Life

Don't Light A Candle For Me...

Hello out there!  I'm posting from the muggy Gulf Coast of Florida, where since late Wednesday night I have managed to:  sell my dad's house, find an assisted living situation for him, arrange his flight home from Italy a month early, find a home for his cat, get the A/C fixed, sell most of the furniture, get the grand piano moved and stored, and set up for a huge garage sale this weekend.  That, and take care of a very jet-laged toddler by myself.  All on my cell phone, with no Internet access save for a couple of trips to my wonderful realtor's office, and with various relatives calling me and screaming at me in two languages.  I rock =) 

But since this all wasn't enough to give me the nervous breakdown of the decade, San Diego is on fire.  It's in Escondido, and blowing in the direction of my house.  Which we just dumped $20K into, and which was supposed to go on the market today.  Some of my friends have already been evacuated.  So, keep them and us in your thoughts and prayers, please.  But for crying out loud, please don't light a candle!

So Long, Sammy*

It's been a while since I posted, and it'll be awhile until I can again, but I never leave without saying goodbye!  I wish I could say that life has been crazy lately.  Crazy is starting to sound good right about now.

In a nutshell:  the contractors working on my house are late finishing up, which means I'm never going to get this house put on the market before I leave for FL to put my Dad's house on the market.  That's Wednesday, btw.  I have to pack up his house while running after a toddler the whole time, all while that house is being shown.  Except that I can't sell it until I find the Power Of Attorney paperwork.  Someone actually had to break into the filing cabinet yesterday for me, and they didn't find those papers.  I need to find them because my Alzheimer's-ridden, almost-deaf, cantankerous aging father wants to COME BACK FROM ITALY.  Why?  No money.  Because I have to sell his house, first.  If he wants to move back to the U.S., I have to put him in assisted living near me.  Where is that, you ask?  I don't know, because I CAN'T SELL MY HOUSE AND MOVE UNTIL THE STUPID CONTRACT WORK IS DONE.

All this is serving to distract me from yesterday's $510 vet bill for my dog Raffles, who had yet another tumor removed.  Now we have to send it for biopsy ($120) to see how close he is to the hemangiosarcoma killing him in his sleep.  At this point, *I* should be so lucky.  But wait, there's more!  My 12 year-old cat Bonnie, who I raised and bottle-fed from a 3 week-old kitten, is dying from some mysterious ailment that the vet hasn't figured out yet.  He was pretty sure that she'd be put down today, but now she's perking up.  Good news for her, but the likelihood is that she's going to die anyway, I'll just have another vet bill to pay, first.  And whether she lives or dies has to be decided by...you guessed it...Wednesday morning!  Because I won't be here to nurse her and I can't let her die by herself while Dave's at work.

Now Seph has a snotty cold and I have a sore throat.  And I feel fat and am having a bad hair day.  The bright side...ummm, anyone reading this is having a great day in comparison, right??

Anyhow, my Internet access will be almost nothing while I"m in Florida, so I guess I will see everyone next month!  Oh, I do get to hit my old stomping grounds for a weekend in NJ while on the way home, so there will be pictures of luscious bagels and Italian pastries when I get back.  Don't have too much fun without me ;)

* Get it?  'Cause I'm going Looney Tunes??

The Piggy Bank Redemption

You know how they say, "blondes have more fun"?  Well, it's been such a harried week in this house, I think blinds are having more fun!  So I took my very hefty box of pennies down to a Coinstar machine for counting. I don't bring regular change there, because it's easy to count and wrap myself, but pennies are too much of a pain (and I truly hate how my hands smell after counting coins), and there's no charge to count coins when you turn them into, say, an iTunes certificate.  My rule is that pennies automatically go toward filling up my Preciousss nano with music.

But, it is "Pay It Forward Friday", so I passed along the redemption code for $8.20 cents.  Not huge for a "good deed for the day", but that's where anyone reading this comes in. Tag, you're It.  Happy Friday!

The Writing Is On The Wall

Whaddaya mean, it's not the weekend yet?!  I really need it to be Friday instead of Monday, because I really have to pee.  And apparently, that's not safe to do with an unrestrained toddler in the house, so I'm just going to have to hold it until Dave gets home.

Sephie (or "Feffie", as she has now learned to call herself) has developed two minor obsessions in the last few weeks: markers, and the letter W ("BUH-boo!").  Unfortunately, her new hobbies coincide with the distinct lack of baby gate leading into our great room and kitchen, since the contractors won't be done until the end of the week. Leaning it against the wall with a chair to prop it up wasn't sufficient deterrent for the daughter of an engineer, and in the time it took me to walk to the back bathroom, use the facilities, and return, she was standing in the cat's water bowl, uncapped marker in hand.  (No, M., I do NOT take all day in the bathroom!  One day you will call me and tell me a variation on this tale, and I will calmly overnight you a box full of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.)  She'd climbed up onto the piano bench (since the furniture was still in the middle of the room) and plucked a permanent marker from the top of the counter. There were black squiggles on the fireplace mantel, the sliding glass doors, a platter, the oak kitchen chairs, three teaspoons, the doorknob to the pantry, and a smudge on her upper lip.

My gasp of horror was met with her patented, nose-wrinkling grin.  I swear she smiles that particular smile only when she sees  the veins in my temples start to bulge.  She definitely got the "Latin" charm from my dad, which is a good thing, since with that new Sharpie fetish, it's kind of like living with Tiny Zorro.  Except W's instead of Z's.  All she's missing is the mask and cape.

Ooh, I think I just figured out her Halloween costume!  Trust me, a Sharpie-wielding toddler is plenty scary. I even have a pink silk sleep mask that she can borrow =)

Happy Mommy Monday...you know what to do ;)