Please don't take my sunshine away

Forecasters say it's going to be overcast again today. Gloomy. Damp. Dark. I love fall, but I don't like these kind of days, the kind that make you want to stay at home and not even venture into work.

I dug up two spring photos to cheer me and if it's cloudy where you are, maybe this will brighten your day a bit too. I make no promises, but it's worth a try.

Monday night was uneventful. What's a girl to do on a Monday night while here beloved is working? She cleans house and does laundry, right? We are expecting guests this weekend as Needlefingers and Pilot are finally making it down for a weekend stay. It's much anticipated and I am very excited. However, I have had to begin the battle of the cat hair in order to prepare for them. They are cat lovers as well, but I know they won't appreciate taking home cat hair tumbleweeds in their suitcases, so I am making a good faith effort to eradicate the plague.

It's amazing how much you find that needs to be done whenever you get down to business with cleaning your house. It's amazing how many corners you have skipped when doing your standard cleaning. It stuns me the places I have missed while dusting. I am shocked by the mayhem within our kitchen cabinets. How did all of this slip by me? How did the windows become so cloudy and the books so dusty?

Well, apparently the blinders are off and I am attempting to make the place presentable. Hopefully they will see the "diamond in the rough" that is our home.

I did manage to knock several items off my list. (Here I go with the lists again.) For instance, I finally got the "checked out" CDs refiled with the other 1,500. (Yes, we have that many CDs and yes I file them alphabetically. I am the librarian of music at our house.)

I cleared out all of the junk beneath our kitchen sink. With that many cleaning supplies, you would expect the house to be immaculate.

I also ran a few errands, one to Bath and Body Works where the very young clerk called me "Hon" and made me feel very young and cool. Thanks Bath and Body Works girl. You are my pal.

I packed away bubble wrap. Now that might seem strange to you, but to those that know me it makes perfect sense. When I moved in January I packed nearly everything I owned in bubble wrap. (Unlike Cynical who dumped drawers into boxes.) It was a well executed move and all went smoothly, but then I was left with all oodles of bubble wrap in all different sizes. Being the recycler that I am, I neatly folded it up and put it into boxes so that we could use them to send good mail or to use again if we moved. A friend moved recently and I loaned out the collection of bubble wrap. She returned it last week in shall we say, not quite as easily transportable condition. We crammed it into my trunk where it has been taking up space for about a week and I finally drug it in the house and with the help of my buddy, Ike, we folded it all up again and packed it away. I told you I was obsessive compulsive.

So, that's what a girl does while her boyfriend is away bringing home the bacon. I'm vegetarian, so I can't fry it up in a pan.

The photo at top is of a Crepe Myrtle taken at, of all places, a McDonald's. The Hydrangea above was taken in our yard this summer.