The Vexing Box and a Million ?????s

If you've never rented a cottage at the beach in North Carolina, you may not know that it is not like staying in a hotel. You get the cottage, furniture, dishes and appliances, but you do not get any towels, linens or paper products. Even toilet paper. I guess most cottage renters are driving there and can fill up their cars with stuff, but we are flying there and can not. Fortunately, my Mom lives down there so I am going to mail a box of stuff. Part of the deal for this vacation is that we would have most meals "at home" meaning I will be cooking. Yet there is no food or spices or seasoning there. Buying all that stuff would cost as much as eating out, so I have been working on my box for some time. I have some great ideas to make things easy, such as pre-seasoning Bisquick in a large baggie for my "oven fried" drumsticks and a baggie of the shrimp boil seasoning that we love. Then there are extra Ziploc baggies, aluminum foil, towels, beach towels, hand towels, kitchen towels, dish cloths, etc. The thing is, I need to send this box this week. But I know, I just know, that as soon as I seal this box, I will think of something really important to put in it. This box is making me crazy.
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My brain goes like this these days: What other seasonings do I put in the box? What am I going to wear on the plane to Vancouver? How should I price the bedroom set at my parents' house? Oh, wait I can't put the binoculars in the box, because I want to take them to Vancouver! Is $400 too much or too little for Mom's old computer? Will there be hand soap at the beach cottage? Are three pairs of shoes enough for my Vancouver trip? Should I go ahead and put my shampoo in the box? Are there special utensils I should put in the box? Scissors? How does Josie's trash/recycling work and what will we do with all my beer bottles/cans? Will the kid next door (that will be feeding my cats) throw a party in my house while we are at the beach? Why hasn't the realtor e-mailed me with some figures? How should I display the jewelry at the estate sale? Will Josie like my favorite movie? I need to buy some army men to play with on the beach with my nephew.
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My brain is very full. I'm even working on a grocery list for my beach trip. My husband thinks I'm crazy but I keep insisiting that the more I do NOW, the less I have to do THEN. I guess my greatest concern right now is being able to NOT think about The House or the beach trip while I am in Vancouver. That, and leaving something important out of the box.

What Make Us Unique

When most people think about the differences among us, I believe most people immediately think about politics, religion, morals, tastes in music, art, and media, but I think what makes us most unique are our tastes in food. It always fascinates me how everyone has such different tastes and how everyone has their own odd little idiosyncrasies when it comes to food. Russell was talking about apples on his blog and just a simple thing like apples got such varied responses. I didn't leave a comment on that particular post, but I don't like apple pie because I don't like any pie at all. I've never cared for pie of any sort. The closest things to pie that I like are cheescake and quiche. Oh, and Key Lime Pie, which I think is really a form of cheesecake, but I'm not sure. Since bloggers seem to like the wierdnesses of their fellow bloggers, here are some of my food ones:
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I do not like mushrooms. I claim to love Italian food, but if you go to an Italian restaurant, 85% of the dishes on the menu probably have mushrooms in them. So in reality, I should probably say that I love Italian food that does not include mushrooms. I'll eat some things that have mushrooms and just pick around them like beef stroganoff and some schnitzels, but I do not want to have any mushroom in my actual mouth. Ick.
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I'm weird about onions. I cook with onions all the time. I like onion rings, especially the really thin strings and I LOVE carmelized onions, but raw onions? If a tiny, tiny chip of raw onion fell into the lettuce of my sandwich from a sandwich shop, I will totally lose my appetite. I despise raw onions.
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Sushi. Almost everyone I know raves about sushi but I have absolutely no interest in trying it. I don't even like to LOOK AT IT. I find it extremely repulsive. Part of that could be because of the time I inspected the Japanese restaurant when I was selling pest control contracts, but I don't know. I just know I don't want to be around sushi. ick.
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I don't really care for sweets at all. People always seem shocked at the treats I turn down. I can eat a bite or two of cheesecake, but not a whole slice. I don't want a cookie or pie or cake or a candy bar. I do like hard tangy candy like tangerine or lemon sours.
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The most popular American foods like cheeseburgers and pizza? I only like them if I haven't had them for a long time. Like MONTHS. I can't even imagine having a pizza or cheeseburger twice in one week. Ick.
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I've heard of people that eat the same thing every day, like cereal for breakfast, or something like that. I could never eat the same thing every day. Well yeah, sure, if it was that or starve, but having a choice, I could never eat the same thing every day. But I think our food tastes make us more unique than anything. I bet money it would be easier to find someone with my exact political and religious beliefs than it would be to find someone who had my exact tastes in food. What do you think?

Vancouver, Take Cover, Here I Come!

My Vancouver trip is just around the corner (June 1st!) and I am very excited. Although I am meeting the realtor at The House tomorrow (Saturday) I've decided to not think about that too much right now. My brain has been like a big twirly thing for several days. I'm either thinking about the estate sale, simple dinners to cook for my beach trip or what I'm going to wear in Vancouver. I've decided to give the swirly twirly parts of my brain a break and just think about what to pack for Vancouver. We have a pretty loose schedule at this point and I like that. Josie told me about a bar that's just a few blocks away so I can go there and be "weird tourist" and give her a break, as she and I are both quite used to having our alone time. I'm the type that will be a "regular" at that bar after just one visit. They will be both sad and relieved at the end of my visit! We have some Monday night plans that I think will be especially fun. And at some point I'm going to ride on a big boat (a ferry). I bought an outfit just to wear on the boat, because I'm weird like that. I'm also really looking forward to just hanging out in Josie's treehouse listening to music, chatting and watching fun movies.
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My Sweetie is so cute. He not only has Monday off for Memorial Day, but he is taking next Friday off as well to spend an extra day with me before my trip.
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I know most other countries think Americans are loud, rude and obnoxious, but I'm going to make a point of saying I'm from Texas because that's even worse and won't make the rest of America look so bad. And anyway, I prefer the word "exuberant." And I prefer the second definition!

The Good The Bad The Ugly and the Yummy

One of the poorer clients that I have have this sign hanging next to their door. It's an older lady and a lady about my age. I do not know if they are related. Their house is in terrible shape and the younger lady said something to me that I will never forget. I guess it was the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. I think I apologized for being late or being short on rolls or whatever, and she said, "It's okay. Bless you. If it weren't for you we would have had nothing to eat on Thanksgiving." That really touched me and made me sad. The fact that this sign hangs by their front door really says something about the tenacity of the human spirit. Also there are a few flower pots around the front door that have been well tended. I like that.

This mailbox is next door to some new people that I have. This is one of those "of two minds" things. One brain says, "Gross how tacky and dorky!" The other brain says, "Well isn't that sweet?!" (If I had a third brain it would say, "Clean your windshield.")

I saw this horse right by this busy intersection and it seemed really weird. There was a brown one over to the right. Why are these horses in the middle of stuff?

This guy in the construction tractor truck thing? Oh. My. God. He sat there waiting to turn left for two and a half years. I needed to turn left. He was in my way. I was starting to go insane. All I can figure is in his mind he needed no cars to be over there for 700 miles. I was yelling "GO!!" "TURN!!" Like even if he were super slow and a car came up, they're not going to run into him, it's a giant construction vehicle!!

This was sitting out by Myriam's house. I just had to take a picture of that because I knew someone (you know who you are) would get a kick out of it and no, and you know who you are, it's not who you think.Speaking of toilets, this sign made me laugh. This is the restroom of my dive place that I have two beers at every Wednesday. I love the "over Flow."

While I was eating lunch I was watching the Champions League showdown between Manchester United and Chelsea. And I fell madly in love, crazy head-over-heels for Owen Hargreaves of Manchester United. What a cutie!! And he's a CANADIAN! He's 27 and from Calgary. He's so cute!

This and That

American Idol: I'm thinking about writing the producers of "American Idol" and suggesting they buy the rights to "The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing for the last two contestants to end the show every year. They are already buddies with Jennifer Warnes and the words totally fit and everybody loves this feelgood song.

Amy: I had a great talk with Amy the realtor today (she found this house for us) about the sale of my parents' house. We are going to do cross-promotion. I will have her card and flyers at the estate sale and she will mention the estate sale on her website. She's going to meet me at the house on Thursday for a walk through. She was thanking me for calling her and I said, "Hey, those Christmas cards you sent every year finally paid off!"

Andy: Andy is the guy that did my shower. He'll be here tomorrow to fix that spot that Mrs. Brisby chewed out and two other spots in our soffits. I also asked him if he would go to the P's house and give me an estimate on the master bathroom. My step-dad said he wants to sale the house as is, but Amy and I think the buyers will be first time buyers, so I had the idea to hang the estimate for that bathroom re-do and also give the buyer a resource, plus give Andy some money. Andy has been my go-to guy for everything. He's the guy that gave me the name of the lady that hung my mural. He has suggested plumbers and even led me to the remover dude of Mrs. Brisby. Andy rocks!

Neighbors: You all saw that picture of the new stand for the TV in here. Well it wasn't set up for electronics. I wanted to hook up our old X-Box to the TV so I could watch DVDs while I walk on the treadmill. I called Carole and asked if they had a hole saw except I didn't say that because I didn't know it was called a "hole saw" until I talked to her husband. I asked if they had one of those drill bits that make a hole that a plug can go through because I'm technical like that. When he said "hole saw" I was all, "No, no, I don't want to use a saw, I want to use my drill!" I imagine he thinks i'm a little slow, but that's okay because I am. Carole is so sweet, she actually brought it to me. I think I am getting over my "Avoid neighbors at all costs" policy. Yeah, I had some bad experiences in the past. That could be a whole post. Not this neighborhood though, those were my last two houses. Anyway, it's all hooked up and working so THANKS Carole!

White denim shorts: I had posted that I wanted some basic simple white denim shorts and sweet Jeanette left a comment with a link to Newport News. I ordered the shorts (they should be here any minute!) and I could swear, SWEAR! that I unclicked the box that said something like: YES! Please send me e-mails every day about everything! Seriously, I know I unclicked that box. But now I get an e-mail from them every. single. day. Not only that but they called and woke me up at like 10:00 (I didn't answer) and then called the next day to try to sell me some sort of membership for a bunch of discounts for $25 a year. Here's what I said after listening to her 4 minute shpiel (and I was hardly paying attention - I was sitting outside on a nice day drinking a beer), "Yeah, I wouldn't need that. I just bought all the clothes I will need for two years." Obviously this was a new one, because she went dead silent and then told me to have a nice day. I get such a kick out of saying random things to phone solicitors. And no, Jeanette, this is not a dig. I thank you for finding the shorts for me!

Blogging: I know a lot of people have said that they need breaks from blogging and start to think of it as a job, but I've never felt that way. I don't post every day and never felt the need to. I've been kinda stressed the last few days with all the stuff going on, but right now I feel more relaxed than I've felt in several days. I think blogging should be a stress reliever. It is for me, anyway.

And that's all I have to say about this and that.