Welcome to AvantaLand

Spouse took this week off work. And so it's been spring cleaning of a sort around here. Thus far this week we have, either individually or in consort:

( Lists! I have lists! )

( Alli is my new friend. I hope. And musings on the cost of food. )

Yesterday, I submitted my application for the Technical Expert position in Oroville. I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see.

This month's QPB selections sounded promising.

( New books! )

I didn't decline the selection as is my usual practice. My copies arrived in the mail day before yesterday. I can't decide which one to read first.

Yesterday, spouse's plans for us were to go shopping. Shopping! Be amazed!

He needed pants, socks and shoes for work, and I needed more yarn, plus I wanted to stop at the Clinique counter. (It's Bonus Time, you know, although not at Macy's as I had previously thought, but at Nordstrom.) Off we went to Roseville to the Galleria Mall, where we spent many happy hours being good little consumers.

Full employment is a wonderful thing. Our respective paydays are alternating Fridays, and our pay periods end on alternating Sundays, which means we get a paycheck every week -- mine, than his, than mine, and so forth. Our bills are completely caught up and paid early, even; I don't have to watch every single penny when I go grocery shopping; and after nearly four years of scraping, I can even buy a magazine at the checkout counter without feeling guilty, not to mention indulge my Clinique fetish. We can contribute to our respective retirement plans at full capacity. The fact that he even has a retirement plan, finally, is a HUGE relief. So much weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Today is laundry and putter around the house day. I need to throw on some clothes suitable for the public here shortly and go to the store. I might even get a few more pictures taken. There are several still in the camera awaiting upload.

I've swept up all the pet hair and dust bunnies, taken the rugs out to the yard to lie in the sun and bake out pet odor. I'm finally ready to mop the hardwoods, and what do I discover? I'm out of floor cleaner. *sigh* Back to the store again.

A work in progress:

• Mop/sweep all floors
• Scrub bathrooms
• Wash last load
• Fold and put away clothes
• Hem spouse's pants
• Buy cat food

I'm so sore and stiff that I dread scrubbing the bathrooms. I've been putting the housework off all day hoping my muscles would loosen up. Perhaps I should scrub the clawfoot tub, take a hot lavender bath in it, and then tackle the rest of the list. The danger there is being too relaxed after the bath to do anything other than read, or maybe sew.

Sigh. *bites the bullet* Off to scrub toilets and bathtubs.

Done:

• Hair colored (no more gray, hurray!)
• Sheets changed
• Phoebe walked
• Three loads of laundry washed and dried (and piled on the bed)
• Stove scrubbed (how cat hair got inside the broiler I'll never know)
• Dishwasher run
• Counters wiped
• Front of cabinets wiped
• Cat box cleaned
• Garbage taken to the bin
• Grocery shopping done
• Dishwasher emptied
• Dinner started (pot roast, yum)
• Large items handwashed
• Phoebe walked again

Still to do:

• Empty dishwasher
• Start dinner (pot roast, yum)
• Handwash large items
• Mop/sweep all floors
• Scrub bathrooms
• Walk Phoebe again
• Wash last load
• Fold and put away clothes
• Hem spouse's pants

Not going to get done with everything today.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Plenty of time after church to tackle whatever doesn't get finished tonight.

(Edited with strikeouts at 6:40 p.m. That's it. I'm done for the day. Except for folding the clothes. They're on the bed. I have to fold them if I want to sleep tonight.)

I talked to a woman at the Arkansas Literacy Council today about a possible tie-in with the 2007 BookCrossing Convention and the 2007 Arkansas Literary Festival. If Little Rock is chosen as the convention site, it's possible that the ticket to the Convention could include admission to Literary Festival activities. Cool. (madame_urushiol, I've e-mailed you further info on this. Let's discuss soon!)

Laundry breeds. My bedroom floor is proof. Just the other day, I could see the floor. Today it's covered by dirty sheets, shorts, shirts, skirts, sweats and socks. I've yet to figure out how two people who work in offices can produce so many dirty clothes in such a short time.

Heavy interview day today. Paid several people and discovered a new attorney fee regulation and procedure had been implemented at the first of the week. And no one told us. My first clue was the new screens that showed up in the software as I paged through the electronic claim. Oh, wait, we were e-mailed about it last THURSDAY, three days after the official training session was broadcast. I tackled the printouts of the new rules and procedures which, in typical government fashion, were published in half a dozen different places in the online procedure manual. This means I get to read lots of gobbledy-gook to find the meat. Since I'm the person in the office who will use this procedure most often, I will probably have to prepare a desk guide for the other claims reps to use until we can get a videotape of the training from the regional office. I'm not very happy about this. Oh, I don't mind preparing a makeshift training session; I'm not happy that my supervisor is so focused on the new building for our branch office that he dropped the training ball in the first place.

I played hooky from choir tonight. It's cold and rainy. Phoebe sits on my lap, watching me type. The cats snooze on the down comforter. Time to heat leftovers and make a pot of tea.

Will someone please explain to me why my clueless procrastinating beloved husband folds the laundry ever so neatly and then places said ever-so-neatly-folded laundry back in the laundry basket instead of putting it in the dresser where it belongs?

My husband. Who doesn't seem to understand that cleaning the kitchen also includes wiping down the counters and sweeping the floor. Oh well, at least he ran the dishwasher.