Random Thoughts 2

Our new housekeeper started yesterday. I got home and the house smelled so clean and fresh. I immediately did a cat count and then surveyed the cleanliness. The floor had been mopped and the carpet vacuumed. The rings in the toilets were no more. The furniture had been dusted. Doors that were left open, I found closed. And doors that were closed were left open. Weird. It’s like a mind trick or something. Not a big deal, really, except that Sadie was locked out of the master bathroom, where her food and litter box are located. All in all, I was very pleased with the results. I carried The Monster around and pointed out all the things that had been cleaned that made Mommy happy. She stared at me blankly. She’ll understand one day. Then I gave her a bath, read to her, and put her to bed. Big D called to say he was on the way home and asked about the house. I said it looked awesome, and that I was very happy. He got home and said, “It looks the same to me.” I was still buzzing from my cleanliness high so he didn’t phase me, despite his best efforts. We had dinner and then watched the Deadliest Catch season finale. When he sees how much those guys make in just a few months, he’s always like, “hey – can I go work on the Bering Sea?” Uh – no. The show’s not called the Safest Catch.

This coming weekend is the last weekend of his first month of residency. He’ll be on call again, so I’m going to pack up The Monster and go to my mom’s house on Saturday for a few hours (it’s my mom’s birthday), and then go to Big D’s grandmother’s house on Sunday afternoon. I hope it will be a calm weekend. Then August brings about further change. He works 12-hour shifts in the ER on days for two weeks, then nights for two weeks. His days off are scattered throughout the month. He has one Saturday off – my birthday. I’m hoping we can have his mom come up and watch The Monster so we can go out to a nice dinner. I mentioned it to him, but he sounded rather absent-minded at the time. Mental note to go ahead and secure his mom for babysitting when I see her this weekend.

Work is going well. Gruff Old Boss has been out of town. I get my usual daily smattering of dictated memos. Sometimes I can’t tell if his memos elicit a response, so to be safe, I respond. I’ve figured out with this guy that you have to keep him informed as to what you’re doing and how long it’s taking you. My old boss wasn’t like that – he’d give me an assignment and then never speak of it again, probably because he knew he would eventually get it back. Gruff Old Boss doesn’t know me well enough yet to know that I’ll do the job.

I’m car seat shopping again. I thought all my baby stuff research was done for a while, but every time I turn around, there’s something else that needs purchasing. The Monster is a tall baby, so she’s about to outgrow her infant carrier, even though she’s no where near the weight limit. So I started doing research on convertible car seats. I decided on the Britax brand and then asked my friends who recently purchased such a seat for advice. So far, all of them have told me that they have Britax seats. (Thanks, ladies, for your quick response, by the way!) So now it’s a matter of model. And then the fun part – the color, or “fashion” as Britax calls it! I think I’ve decided on the Roundabout in the floral Jessica print. It’s purty. Big D will probably pick a slate or khaki color for his car. Here’s a question – why do they make a cowprint cover? Is cowprint really that popular right now? Seems to me that it is not something the majority of parents would be interested in, which then begs the question, why is it the default color choice on the above link? If I was browsing, not knowing really what I was looking for, I’d pass that bad boy right up. But I digress… Since we both have sedans, we can’t get anything too tall or big, because it won’t fit well. However, I’m not 100% decided. Some other models have a few more safety features, and as many of you know, I’m a HUGE safety fan… especially in the car. Annie doesn’t like car accidents.

We’re supposed to get a lot of rain today and tomorrow. That’s an awesome thing, because our grass is gettin’ kinda crispy. Our sprinkler system is still on the fritz despite what’s-his-name’s half-ass job at trying to fix the water hammer. I tried calling Margaret's sprinkler guy, but he won’t come out to my part of town. He recommended someone else, but I’ve been too busy admiring the dust-free baseboards to call him. Gotta get that done ASAP, or we may have a broken pipe indoors or dead grass… or both. Speaking of grass, we hired a lawn service that started last week. The yard looks great. On Friday, I was talking to a neighbor who happens to be on the neighborhood’s HOA. She said that she was going to stop by over the weekend to check on us, because things haven’t looked well over at our house. (Now is the time to tell you that she is a well-intentioned, very sweet lady who knows everything about what’s going on in that neighborhood.) She said that the HOA had us on a list to send a “friendly reminder” letter to about our yard looking shaggy. First they send a letter. Then they mow it themselves and slap you with a 200 dollar fine. That doesn’t bug me, because it keeps the place looking nice. We have high property value retention because of the HOA Nazis. Anyway, she asked them not to send the letter, citing Big D’s new 16-hour a day job, and they withheld the letter. That was nice of her. The next day the lawn was mowed anyway. It cracks me up, though, that we were busted. I wasn’t at all surprised.

Anyway, I’m going to go make a ghetto mocha and then maybe I’ll do some work. Maybe.

And because I don't post enough pictures of The Monster (haha!)...

I swear these pictures were taken 5 seconds apart. The first one is the look she gives me... the second one is the look she gives Big D. Definitely a daddy's girl. She can't help it; he's a pretty good guy.