Yesterday I was:
Finishing my library book, puttering around the house, napping, stocking up on leftover apples from Portland Nursery’s Apple Festival, (59¢ per pound!) hanging laundry up all over the house, spraying newly bought enzymatic cleaner on my feline-urinated armchair, taking pictures of my son’s last gold sash kung fu class, watching Big Bang Theory with the kids and feeling happy that a educational grant now pays for my son’s Japanese tutoring.
Today I am:
Bringing the armchair back into the house, eating apples, wishing that my sheepskin slippers weren’t falling apart, realizing that I need to scam get ahold of a couple dozen canning jars for applesauce, tidying the house up to get ready to host two 14-year-old Japanese exchange students for the week, airing out our extra bedding, writing up a long to-do list, driving half of a soccer carpool, making dinner using crazy cheap chicken thighs spelunked from the freezer, listening to the audiobook The Perfect Fake, which I pulled from the library shelf, hopefully selling the oak pedestal table that my husband lugged home, despite us not needing yet another table.
Tomorrow I will:
Finish getting the house ready for the Japanese exchange students, plan a nice dinner which will require no last minute prep, as I won’t be home until after 5 P.M., take down the indoor laundry, arrange for older son’s Japanese tutoring, most likely receive many small Japanese gifts, work to keep jet-lagged children awake until evening, enjoy spending time with my family.
How about you?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Won’t you please give a warning? A simple “Put on your Depends before reading this post” would be adequate. You about made me pee my pants when you wrote about the chicken”spelunked from the freezer.”
Laughing at me, laughing with me. Either way, you might want to pack a Poise pad or two.
Katy
Definitely laughing with you. I can totally relate to that. My mom told us we shouldn’t get the smallest chest freezer, but I’m glad we did, because it’s hard enough to find things as it is, without it being even more cavernous.
I have a somewhat unrelated question. I, like you, love the public library. However, my local public library (plus a bunch of other branches in the region) were recently treated for an outbreak of bedbugs. The newspaper reported that pest control was called out after patrons found live and dead bedbugs in books they had checked out.
I am not terribly squeamish as a rule, but I really, really, really don’t want to bring home bedbugs. I have a very expensive bed that I hope to keep for 20 years or more. I don’t want to give up the library, either, as I love having access to free books. Any thoughts?
P.S. Having done some research, entomologists report that freezing at home freezer temperatures doesn’t reliably kill bedbugs – it just makes them dormant. Cooking books in the oven or microwave apparently wrecks the glue that holds them together.
Maybe the bedbugs were planted by the local bookstores.
This is the best argument for a Kindle that I’ve heard yet.
I’ve read that you can put things in a black trash bag out in the sun and it will kill bedbugs. Also, you could just look them over really well before bringing them home.
Getting a book hot enough to kill bedbugs, no matter the method, is going to kill the glue. The black trash bag in the sun is going to be a death chamber for the books.
On a frugal note if you do happen to leave your super expensive cheese cookbook in the back window of the of the car & the glue melts & it no longer stays together in a “bookly” way, they will rebind it at your local Staples for about $4.
Probably not what the library wants you to do to every book you check out! I am now going to freak out about bedbugs and library books.
Kate’s story not universally true, but in areas where it has happened I would personally pass on the physical library.
Library books on Kindle, for those who have it available, is a nice, easy process that doesn’t involve entering the building. Less than $100 for an e reader sure beats any risk in my opinion.
And Project Gutenburg has out of copyright books for free use at any time, but it is a lot nicer to read them on an e reader than a computer screen.
Yesterday I was playing review games with my students, proof reading the midterms one last time, and grading sketchbooks. Eating meals I made last weekend in preparation for midterm week.
Today I was giving out the written section of the midterm, going over the massive changes in the department with the administration, prepping for tomorrow, and taking a long walk with the dogs. Still eating meals from the weekend.
Tomorrow I will be issuing the drawing portion of the midterm. Eating something that didn’t just get reheated by the microwave. Grading while watching a funny movie. Followed by a weekend of getting caught up and one day of doing nothing related to my job at all.
What’s going on here? Your column has been down-sized to about half the page and the ads are taking over! AAAAAACCCKKKKK! If this keeps up, I’ll be reading with a magnifying glass! Of course I’ll keep reading, I need the laughs you so generously provide.
Yesterday- I worked but ended the evening with a great local concert called Babes4Breasts. 5 talented women singing beautiful songs with money going towards a great cause.
Today- I will work again and be as productive as can be with moments of daydreaming about the weekend. About to steep the first cup of tea and that is a good thing.
Tomorrow- I will jump in a car with my mum and drive around to outlying villages/towns for sightseeing and mother-daughter bonding. And if I have extra time, I will write another letter for the 52 letters -52 weeks. I slagged off during the summer but am almost caught up.
Sounds like a great couple of days except the bedbug part.I LOVE time spent in my library. Maybe inquire further and see if they have successfully treated the place/books??? Or, just look very carefully at each book????
Yikes!