A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

Hubby took my truck out earlier, and he decided to clean it out. It’s about time. I know I’m not the neatest person in the world, especially when it comes to my vehicle, but he had it junked up pretty badly.

He and his friend worked on it, and they brought in all sorts of stuff that I had no idea was out there. I thought it was mostly trash, but there were several of Pumpkin’s toys in there, and a bunch of advertising pens that we had gotten from the bank and other places. At least my pen problem is solved for now.

I need to wash my truck now that it has quit raining. Maybe I’ll get to do that tomorrow.

I have done as little as possible today. I rolled out of bed this morning, put my clothes on, and brushed my hair. I got talked into fixing breakfast, so I did that, and ate. Shortly after breakfast, I got a really bad headache. I took some meds and lay back down for a while until I felt better. I got up, but I’ve done very little since then.

I have to go to the grocery store and take Pumpkin to get a free order of fries she got as a reward for selling raffle tickets at school. I would just go as I am, but I probably look like I just checked out of a couple of drug treatment centers in as many days. So I suppose I should jump in the shower and put a little makeup on.

My favorite spice is seasoned salt. My brand of choice is Lawry’s, but I’ve tried other kinds that I liked.

I could almost eat seasoned salt by itself, but I try to control myself. I love it on french fries, and I put it on burgers while cooking them. It’s great on a buttery baked potato, too.

Pumpkin has picked up my seasoned salt habit as well. She won’t eat ketchup, or any kind of sauce for that matter. But she loves chicken tenders, and instead of dipping them in sauce like most people, she eats seasoned salt on them.

Hubby claimed he didn’t like it, but I accidentally put some on one of his burgers one time and he said it was great. So even Mr. Picky likes it, on burgers anyway. He likes Bojangles’ seasoned fries, but he won’t eat seasoned salt on his fries at home. Go figure.

It’s getting to be the time of year when all of the people from Florida pack up and go back down there for the winter. There are lots of them around here, especially in the area where I live. They just can’t get enough of the river. Sometimes I think they would build houses right in the middle of it if they could. No offense to anyone from Florida. I have several friends from there.

Real estate is a big part of the economy around here. The trouble is, the jobs around here don’t pay enough for the locals to be able to afford it. So most of them are stuck renting, which isn’t cheap either. There are few condos for sale in these parts, so it’s pretty much a necessity to own land if you’re not renting. And land is the thing that is the most expensive.

It’s great that people from other places are bringing money in to the local economy, but it looks like that should result in better quality of life for those who have lived and worked here for years. But I’m far from an expert on politics.

Sunday. A day of rest. And rest I need, because it’s going to be one of those weeks this week.

Tomorrow Hubby has to go have that dye test run. I suppose I’ll be going with him. He will be fine to drive himself, but he’s terrified of needles. I don’t even know if they’ll let me stay with him, but I really should be there just in case. He’s going to need someone to talk to to take his mind off of what’s going on if at all possible.

Tomorrow is also the day he has to be on a clear liquid diet for the tests he’s having on Tuesday. I’ll have to enforce that. Then I’ll have to go with him on Tuesday, because they’ll be putting him to sleep for the tests and he won’t be able to drive himself home.

Then Wednesday is Halloween. If Hubby isn’t having any ill effects, I may pick Pumpkin up from school so I can take her to the businesses in town to trick or treat before they close. If I don’t do that, we’ll probably just take her to a few places.

I think that’s most of what’s on the plate for the week. I just hope Hubby isn’t too pitiful for too long after all of that testing is over and done with. I can’t stand to see him like that, and I have a boatload of work I need to get done by the end of the month. I probably won’t get it all done, but maybe I can get the most important stuff finished.

My sister will be turning 40 very soon. I don’t have the money to buy her an awesome gag gift, but I want to find the perfect card rub her nose in it with.

Hubby doesn’t understand the whole greeting card thing. His family just doesn’t give them. They send out a few Christmas cards each year, but that’s about it. When Hubby and I go card shopping, he’s likely to pick up the first thing he sees and throw it in the buggy, even if it’s a pack of first communion invitations and we need a birthday card.

If I can get ahold of her email address, I could send her a nice animated ecard. I’ll do some browsing when I have the time. I still have a few weeks left.

It’s quite rare that I am alone on a Saturday. It’s not unusual for Hubby to be out and about without me, but Pumpkin is usually here. But today I’m all by my lonesome.

It’s Heritage Day for the Girl Scouts in the county, and I took her and dropped her off. I have a ton of work to do, and I decided that I was going to come home and work on it while I could have some peace and quiet. But it still seems strange being home alone on a Saturday.

I have to go pick her up at 3:00. So that gives me time to get some work done if I can get over being so lonesome.

With each passing day, something new reminds me of how uncool I am becoming. I guess that happens to all of us when we age to some degree. At least I like to think it does. Makes me feel a little better about it.

Yesterday I got an email from somewhere, with the word Panerai in the subject line. I immediately deleted it, because I’ve been getting some spam in foreign languages and I thought that it was just another one of those.

Today I started thinking that it could have been a brand name of something, and I was curious. I Googled it, and as it turns out Panerai is only one of the hottest watch brands around right now. Go figure.

I can’t keep pens. I have a cup on my desk that I keep pens and pencils in, and right now it is full of pencils. There’s not a single pen in it. They either grow legs and walk off, or somebody gets them to draw with. Somebody named Pumpkin, perhaps?

I do have one pen laying on my desk, and I’m surprised that it’s there. It is one of my favorites: A Coca-Cola retractable pen with a hollow rubbery ball on top. But it’s cracked on the side, and when I try to write with it, it tries to come apart.

I guess I’m going to have to get one of those chain thingies that you use to attach pens to your desk. Then maybe I could keep one where I can find it when I need it.

I love sour candy. Love it, love it, love it! I can’t find them anywhere any more, but my all-time favorite is Sour Dudes. They’re these gummies with that sour sugary stuff on them. Kind of like Sour Patch Kids, only much better.

There was a grocery store in the town I went to high school in that carried them, and that was the only place I ever saw them. I used to buy at least one bag every week, and sometimes two or three. I was happy to share them with my friends, but only a couple of them were brave enough to eat them. One of them loved them as much as I did, and the other ate several of them and claimed that they made her tongue peel. Is that possible?

That store went out of business, and I have been Sour Dudeless every since. Now I have to settle for SweeTarts and things like that. They’re great and all, but I miss my Sour Dudes.

Yesterday we went to the store down the road that sells overstocks and surplus kinds of stuff. Pumpkin decided that she wanted a pack of candy. She picked out a box of SweeTarts, Nerds, and other related stuff. There were 24 items in it, and it was only $3. So I obliged, and you’d better believe I’m getting all of the stuff she doesn’t like.