I feel like I’ve been fairly busy lately, but whenever I want to blog I can’t think of much to say.

I got hired for another web gig; I’ll be building a site for Grand Orleans Hotel in Burlington, IA. I’ve already sent ’em my first invoice and am waiting on content – pictures and logo files and such – before I dig in. I was all ready to web my arse off last weekend but they hadn’t sent me enough to work with yet.

Friday I cleaned house like a machine. It was no more or less fun or rewarding than any domestic chore can be. The downside of cleaning house like a machine for me is that my house is vast and there is always something more to do, so no matter how much I do, I always feel like I should or could have done more.

A pet peeve of mine is to bust ass cleaning all day only to sit down after dinner and realize that the living room is dirty. Grr.

Last weekend Brett and I bit the bullet and cleaned the attic. It was basically full of shit – the dogs took to going up there a long time ago, and we didn’t notice it right away. Then the cat started using it. It was so disgusting neither of us could bear to attack it, but with the summer months upon us and the plastic divider half fallen down, we could begin to smell it. So up we went, armed with brooms and garbage cans and a mop bucket full of bleach. It was a nasty job, but we did it in the evening when it wasn’t too horribly hot up there and we just grit our teeth and busted through it.

Now it’s all cleaned and disinfected, and there’s a board over the stairs so no pets can get back up there. It’s really great to get a nasty job of one’s To Do list.

Saturday and much of Sunday I lounged on the couch and watched TV and knitted and took naps. It was wonderfully lazy. Brett didn’t do much either aside from mow the lawn.

Monday was errand day. I went to town and paid bills, did seven loads of laundry, bought household stuff from Walmart, bought groceries. It took me nine trips to unload the Jeep when I got home, and Shiva and Bindu had to be underfoot every single time I turned around. After I got everything in the house, I had to put it all away. Before I could put the food away, I had to throw old food out, but before I could do that I had to take out the garbage. I ruthlessly tossed anything older than strictly necessary out of both of the refrigerators and trundled the garbage out to the pile in the shed.

No matter how much I police, I’m always finding empty condiments and mouldy containers in my fridge! And then there’s always that half tomato in the bottom of the crisper, and the two bread bags with one heel each in them, and the ripped bag of lunch meat that Brett won’t eat and can’t seem to throw away either… and there’s always nasty shit rotting in the beer fridge. I don’t really know how it all gets in there, but I chucked it all into a big garbage bag yesterday.

The other fun problems of country living are humidity and mice. Humidity means that the granola inside an improperly closed tupperware container becomes like chewy, sweaty cardboard and has to be tossed. Humidity means that the salt turns into a brick and has to be sliced out of the container.

Mice mean that when I reached for the instant mashed potatoes the other evening (I use them for soup thickener), there was mouse turds in it. There were also mouse holes in two boxes of pasta.

In short, mice and humidity cause me to throw out a lot of food – it’s a waste of money. Generally I keep most things in glass jars or plastic containers, but some stuff is fine for a long time and I don’t bother. (Like the mashed potatoes. I’ve always kept a box of those, and never had any problems. Especially not in the summer!) So a good fridge and cupboard purge was just the ticket.

After the groceries were away, I had to put away the Walmart stuff, and then the laundry. Then I made dinner. Then Brett called from the shop where he and Joe were geeking on Joe’s bike. He said, “Did you already make dinner?”

I said, “Yep.”

Silence. Then: “Oh, well, then I’ll be home in a few.”

“Do you want me to bring you boys foodies, then? So you can nerd out on bikes some more?”

He thought that was the coolest thing ever, and asked me to bring his welder since I was coming, so I packed up sandwiches and stew and drove back to town to deliver them food.

They added a fender and fender struts to Joe’s bike and I sat in the Jeep and finished knitting a pair of wool slippers for Brett and then went home to do the picnic dishes.

I’d post newer pics of the transformation of Joe’s scooter but the flash died on my digital camera. This pissed me off to no end. I mean, I can still take pictures in broad daylight, but that’s about it. And since it was just a cheapo little $150 digi cam, I doubt it’s even fixable.

Since I’d bought a new shower curtain yesterday, when I got home I couldn’t stand the clean shiny curtain over my nasty dirty shower, so I cleaned it while Brett’s slippers felted in the washing machine. I didn’t really want to clean the bathroom last night, but the new shower curtain is clear and it just looked bad. Snort! I’m sure when I take a shower after work tonight that it will have been well worth it.

Since I spent so much time knitting lately, I accidentally did some knitting surfing this morning. I want a set of Boye Needle Master needles pretty awfully! I charged some yarn online this morning too – shh! Who woulda thunk I’d grow up to be a cheesy knitter?!

I’m sure other things have been going on more interesting than my housekeeping litany, but I can’t think of what they are, really. My life is a small place in my old age, really, populated with a small group of close friends and filled up with the endless toil of keeping house.

I’m reading the Sword of Shannara trilogy on my palmtop. It’s okay. I don’t hate it, but it’s not really rocking my boat too hard. It’s long, at least – that makes it fun! It’s nice to have a relationship with a book that lasts more than three days!

My dad continues his adventures; his house is sold and he’s buying an RV which he intends to drive to Panama. It’ll be really exciting to have someone to visit in South America!

Oh, and last but not least, Brett and I will soon be uncle and aunt: Brett’s sister is pregnant, due in mid-December! I guess I’d better work a bit, then surf for cute layette knitting patterns. Snort!