Diablo II Widow

The silver lining: I am no longer being attacked with Lysol (see yesterday's entry).

The downside: I have lost my husband--and his soul--to Diablo II.

Honestly, I'm not even sure what Diablo II even is. I'm amassed from the screaming and moans coming from the speakers on our computer that it's some form of violent video game.  Olivia, our youngest cat, typically sits on Blair's lap to be combed and she took an unusual interest in the running, jabbing, fighting, and stabbing on the screen, patting a soft paw against the monitor.

"I don't think we should be exposing the cats to this sort of violence," I said, visions of Olivia leaping out from under the couch and lobbing hand grenades at Lucy filling my head.

"Um-urgh," said Blair, staring at the screen.

Grasping for some semblance of together time, I took my book to the upstairs sitting room, to be near Blair on the computer. More yells and moans came from the screen.

"You sound like you're doing very well," I said, trying to be supportive.

"Yes," said Blair. "I've just killed all the goat people." He paused, then muttered, "That will teach them not to pay homage to me."

Video game addict, Lysol-spraying fool--the guy cracks me up. Happy New Year!

Pshhhhhhhhhhht!

"Pshhhhhhhhhhht!" is the sound I hear in my dreams. It's the constant, unending sound of my beloved following me around the house... spraying Lysol on anything I come in contact with.

With just a nudge, the man could be a germ-o-phobe. I check e-mail and hear "Pshhhhhhhhhhht!" as he sprays down the desk and keyboard. I brush my teeth at the sink. "Pshhhhhhhhhhht!" fills my ears as I walk away. I cuddle a cat. "Pshhhhhhhhhhht!" (Just kidding).

Still, it's a lot. "Enough!" I said. "Put that damn can down."

"I am trying to make sure I don't get sick before New Year's," said Blair. 

Okay. Point conceded. One of us had to be healthy to greet the guests. And I'm doing much better... more weak than anything at this point. I believe the worst has passed which means Blair is in danger. Our routine is that one of us falls sick, heals, then the other one topples.

He's out of the house at the moment, delivering bags of purged household items to Goodwill. So if I hurry and finish typing this entry, there's a chance I won't have to inhale Lysol for the nth time today. Or...the guilt might get to me. After all, I don't want him to be sick. Damn it all...

Pshhhhhhhhhhht! 

Clearing Out & Cutting Back

Blair and I have spent the better part of this week going through every cupboard, closet, pantry, and desk drawer we have, looking for that which may be thrown out, given away, or recycled.  A book about decluttering your home is what prompted this mass cleansing, and I for one am thoroughly enjoying myself. It's amazing the amount of stuff we've amassed that we no longer use. A brief citing of items that we have deemed no longer worthy of being held onto:

  • The hoop skirt I wore under my wedding dress
  • 5 identical glass flower vases
  • An empty Cutco knife holder
  • The tiki lamps, lei's, and other decorations from a Hawaiian Murder-Mystery dinner party we threw 4 years ago
  • 3 suitcases
  • A silver percolating coffee pot I bought at a garage sale and never could get to work
  • 4 Pampered Chef cookbooks that I will never use because their cookbooks annoy me with their bolding of specific Pampered Chef pans and utensils you're supposed to use to make recipes. (Will the strawberry dessert really taste different if I use a non-Pampered Chef can opener to open the condensed cream? Will it??)
  • My master's thesis, college projects, and a ton of childhood papers.

Speaking of childhood papers, no one can claim my mother doesn't love me. Dear God--years ago she gave me masses of papers she'd saved from my childhood. At the time, I stuck them all in a cupboard. But going through them, I found just about every drawing, tracing, math problem, and writing exercise I did from age 5-9, not to mention about 10 holiday turkey's drawn from the tracing of my hand and a seemingly unlimited number of drawings featuring a house, tree, and sun.

I kept about a quarter of the papers, including a drawing on which Mom had written, "First day of  school - Sept. 1975." 

In our digging, Blair found some wonderful black and white photos of his grandfather holding him when he was a boy of about 4, plus some great early pictures of his parents when they were dating. We're going to look into having all of them framed.

The house still hasn't recovered. Piles of stuff--"for Goodwill," "Trash," "To be given to..." are everywhere. I came down yesterday with a hard case of the flu and spent 18 hours in bed with chills, cough, and sneezes. I feel woozy but better today. Still a lot of work to be done to get the house in some semblance of order for the New Year. But I highly recommended the purging exercise. The house just feels lighter. One of the best tips in the book was that if you think you need a new filing cabinet (which I thought I did), stop, and first go through the papers in your old one and see what can be let go. I tossed almost 80% of that which I'd filed and now have plenty of space to grow.

Ack. Getting a biz dizzy sitting at the computer. I think back to bed I shall go.  Happy cleaning. 

Merry Christmas!

Our kitties must have been good this year (where was I?) because Santa appeared during the night and left them stockings full of toys. "Thing In A Bag,"...catnip grass... mice on wheels...new balls... laser light toy... and a great big purple bag with a gaping mouth like a yawning carp that neither cat as of yet has been brave enough to crawl into. We captured most of it on film and I may try to figure out a way to post a splice of it on this blog. After all, what is Christmas without watching cats unwrap gifts? A crappy Christmas, that's what it is...

As for me, I'm eating my way through the holidays.  Downstairs on my kitchen counter I have at my disposal:

  • 1/2 a pound cake
  • pumpkin pie
  • Moravian sugar cookies
  • chocolate peanut-butter balls
  • chocolate/caramel/pretzel graham cracker cookies
  • butterscotch haystacks
  • cheese bread
  • Hershey's kisses
  • orange sweet bread
  • frosted sugar cookies in festive Santa and snowmen shapes

Please. Enough with the food.! Consider yourselves warned...the next person I see approaching my house with a holiday tin or anything wrapped in Reynolds or saran wrap is going to get shot at. I mean it. I'm about to explode.

It's chilly and pouring rain here today which is actually a welcome change from the 70 degree weather we've been experiencing. Yes, I suppose it's nice to have the option of wearing shorts in late December but I find it makes it all the harder to enter into the Christmas Spirit. Singing along to "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" while I apply facial sunscreen just ain't cuttin' it...

Well, it's been almost 18 minutes since I last put sugar in my body and I'm starting to feel faint.  I hope everyone is enjoying a chilly, merry, hairy (think dogs and cats) filled Christmas!

Much Love,

Dena