I was up late last night trying to get some work done. I called it a night at about 2:30 this morning. Hubby knew I came to bed late, so he didn’t pester me this morning when he got up to leave. I woke up and told him goodbye, then turned over and dozed back off, hoping to get a few more hours in.

Pumpkin got up, but she came and lay down with me. I dozed back off again, only to be awoken a half hour later by the dog. She was ready to get out of her dog box (which is her temporary doghouse until we get her a new one). I got up, let her out, and lay back down. I began to lose hope. When the phone rang right as I was about to doze back off, I gave up.

Hubby is off at his regular job today, but is working on a side job cleaning out a hardware store that has been sold. He has been bringing home a lot of stuff that the guy told him to either throw away or keep. He called a couple of hours after I got up, saying he was on his way home with a load of lumber and needed help unloading it. Not thinking clearly since I was still pretty tired, I slid on my wedge sandals and headed out.

I quickly came to the realization that those shoes were not going to work for the job. It would have been okay if we were putting it in the bottom of the garage, but it had to go in the top. That meant going up and down a fairly steep hill, and I nearly fell a couple of times. So I headed back in to put on my sneakers.

On the way in, I walked by his utility trailer. Somehow I managed to stub my little toe on it. Not just barely stub it, but hit it so hard it felt like it was going to be torn off. The toe didn’t get torn off, but the nail came halfway off. Ouch!

I hobbled in, put a band-aid on the toe to keep from tearing the toenail all the way off, and put on my sneakers. Then I hobbled back out and got back to work.

The pain subsided considerably, but going down the hill was murder. It still hurts to move it. I suppose I’ll live, but I’ll probably have to refrain from wearing sandals for a while. And I’m lost without my sandals.

I’ve been getting some really strange spam lately. Almost all of it is coming to a certain email address. My web host’s spam filters used to catch almost all of the spam for it, but all at once it started letting a lot slip through. So I end up skimming what gets through, partly to make sure it isn’t actually legit and partly out of curiosity.

I’ve been getting an increasing amount of spam in German. I did a search on German spam, and all I found was some information about an outbreak from 3 or 4 years ago that was related to Neo-Nazi political agendas. That’s not the case here. I know virtually no German, but there are references to prescription meds such as Viagra and Cialis. Weird.

I also got one today that particularly intrigued me. The subject read “best” and the body said nothing except “your life is crap.” No images, no attachments, no links. I might have been offended if it hadn’t come to an email address that I inherited from the former owner of one of my websites and have never publicized.

I just don’t get the point of a lot of the spam I’ve seen. Even that which seeks to sell stuff perplexes me. Do people actually follow the links in these emails and buy stuff? I never have, and never will. If I do happen to see something in a spam email that I can’t live without, I’ll go search for it elsewhere.

Hubby just filled out an application for a new job. I hope he gets it, because I don’t think it would be as physically demanding as the one he has now. And the pay is better as well.

The whole process brought back memories of my job hunts over the years. They’re certainly not fond memories, because I have always despised job hunting. I hope I never have to do it again. Looking for freelance gigs is much more pleasant.

Shortly before I met Hubby, I was doing some very serious job hunting. The low-paying part-time retail job that I had just wasn’t cutting it, and I was having to travel a long way to work. So I as much as I hated to, I put in application after application after application. For the first time in my life, I started getting a substantial number of interviews. I guess my low-level management position at the store helped with that. But I had no luck finding anything.

Then one day I got a call about a resume I had sent in for an assistant manager job. They asked me to come in for an interview. I did, only to find out that it was a job selling Electrolux vacuums. Now, I know some people who have sold them and made a good amount of money from it. But it was commission-based, and something told me that it would just be a waste of my time and the company’s time, so I passed on it. And given my later track record with direct sales, I think that was a good decision.

I never did find another job, and ended up staying at the store where I worked for a couple of years. But I met future-Hubby and ended up moving to the area, so at least I didn’t have to drive so far.

I’ve hunted for jobs on a few occasions since then, and I had slightly better luck. But only because I set my standards lower. I ended up in a couple of jobs where I could have probably made more selling one Electrolux a week. Maybe I should have given them a call…

I have had my Thunderbird in the paper several times, but had no takers on it. So I still have it. I would love to keep it forever, because that was my dad’s baby. The only reason I considered selling it was because we needed the money. But I’m not letting it go for peanuts, and I guess that’s why nobody’s interested.

It’s in good shape now, but I would love to fix it up nice. That’s one car that I could actually get into hood scoops and car spoilers for. But I’m planning on keeping everything as it was when it came from the factory, because that’s how my dad would have wanted it. And it’s a pretty darn spiffy car without adding any aftermarket stuff to it.

I would like to find a set of the wheels that came on it that were in better shape, and get it a good paint job. And the power windows could use new motors. Other than that, all it needs is a good tune-up. Maybe one day I’ll get around to doing all that and put it back on the road.

I hate junk. I have a fair amount of it, but I can’t stand it. It clutters up the living space and takes up storage space that could be used for more important stuff. I have a minimal amount of Christmas decorations, because I hate the thoughts of something that I only use once a year taking up space that could be used more productively.

Some people, on the other hand, live for junk. My mother-in-law is one of them. Any time I need to get rid of something and can’t think of anyone who could use it, she’s the first one I call. She will take almost anything, even if she has no use for it at the time. Dish drainers, rugs, ancient baby cribs, old hardware, you name it.

When Hubby and I cleaned out the garage, she came over and helped us. We offered a lot of stuff, and she took almost every bit of it. The only thing she didn’t take was an old 8-track stereo. We had actually tried to give it to her before, and she said she wanted it but asked us to hang onto it for her. When we asked again and she said to hang onto it again, we told her we would have to toss it because it was taking up space. To my surprise, she didn’t argue.

I need to go through the stuff that is still packed up and see if there’s anything else we need to get rid of. If so, I know who to call.

I’ve been rather frustrated at Pumpkin’s lack of interest in t-ball. That’s because she acted like she wanted to play so badly. When she first started she loved it, but now she doesn’t even want to go to the games. She was the same way with basketball.

I left it totally up to her whether she wanted to play a sport or not. I think it’s good for kids to play something, but I don’t believe in making them do it. But there are a lot of other parents who don’t share my philosophy.

There are two boys that I can think of right off the bat who are on Pumpkin’s team whose parents are totally pushing it on them. One cries the majority of the time he’s out on the field, and the other just goes out there and sits down instead of participating. I don’t get why some parents are like that. I mean, just because they were hitting home runs and using testosterone boosters to bulk up in their younger days doesn’t mean their kids have to do the same thing.

I guess I’m kind of the opposite of them. I never got to play sports when I was young and interested in them, and I want to make sure Pumpkin has the opportunity. And if she says she wants to play and I scrape up the money for her to do so, I expect her to get out there and try. But it’s obvious that these kids have no interest whatsoever, and they’re only out there because their parents want them to be. I just don’t think that’s right.

I probably won’t even offer to pay for sports next year. Mostly because I don’t want to waste my time and money on something that she’s not going to stay interested in. But also because I don’t want her to feel like I’m pushing her.

There are still quite a few things sitting around here in bags and boxes. That’s especially true for my office. Some of the stuff that’s in here is here for lack of a better place to put it, but most of it is stuff that belongs in the office but I haven’t gotten around to putting where it belongs.

One thing I’m going to have to do very soon is dig out my printers. I told Hubby’s cousin that I would print him some business cards last week, and I still haven’t gotten around to doing it. I went to the store and picked up some cards, and I was going to buy some ink but couldn’t find the kind of cartridge I wanted. But I think there might be enough in there to print a few without changing it.

I do need to get my printers out and hook them up. I don’t do a lot of printing, but when I find something I need to print, I need to do it right away. If I don’t, I’ll forget about it completely.

Our new house has a small concrete patio out back. But right now, you can barely even tell it’s there. It’s covered up with leaves and scraps of roofing materials.

There is a concrete table and two benches out there as well. They are usable, but they’re not in the best shape in the world. Sometime after we get done with the roof and get it all cleaned up out there, I’m thinking about chucking them and getting some nice new patio furniture. I don’t know how soon we’ll have the money though, so I guess I’ll just hang on to the concrete stuff for now. At least it’s somewhere to sit and enjoy the sunshine.

For the past couple of weeks, Pumpkin has been coming home talking about her watermelon plant. They planted fruits and vegetables at school, and being the watermelon lover that she is, she chose to plant watermelons.

I went out on the porch to meet her as she got off of the bus today, and she looked jubilant. She was grinning ear to ear, and practically bounced up to the house. I saw a small brown object in her hand, and I knew what it must be.

Her watermelon plant is just barely poking up out of the soil. But to her, it is as big as Texas. I’m trying to figure out where will be the best place to plant it (after it gets done frosting, of course). We have plenty of options, but I would like to find out where it would have the best chance of doing well. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears. I’m not very good at the whole planting thing, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we get some watermelons from the little bugger. I’m not a huge watermelon fan myself, but as much as it means to her, I hope it sprouts a bunch of them.

I’ve felt pretty rough for the few days. I haven’t had it as bad as poor Hubby and Pumpkin… no vomiting for me. But I’ve made up for it in other ways. I’ll spare you the details, but it hasn’t been pleasant.

I’m still not over it, but I was able to go to Pumpkin’s t-ball game yesterday. They played a little over two innings before it was called for rain. She did great. I’m so proud of her.

We picked up some lunch and headed home, and that was my biggest mistake. Every time I eat I start feeling horrible, and that time was certainly no exception. I ended up in bed for several hours after that. I also had a headache most of the day, so that didn’t help matters. But today I’m feeling somewhat better.

Hubby is also on the mend. He has been able to get out and about more the past couple of days. The alternator on his truck went bad, and he is gone to his friend’s house to take it off and put a new one on. He has to take the old one in to avoid paying a $50 core charge, and it’s still going to be over $100. Funds are getting rather low what with all of the work we’re having to do on the house, so I suggested that he use his credit card (which he hasn’t used since he got it). He doesn’t like the idea. He thinks that if he puts a couple of dollars on it, he will automatically have to start looking into credit card debt relief options. I’m glad he’s being cautious with it and all, but as far as I’m concerned this clearly qualifies as an emergency. We’ll see what he ends up doing.