Tails, Feet and Etageres

My parents are here for a short visit to take care of some business. My daughter had been "house-sitting" for them for about a year and they decided they either wanted to start charging her rent or sell the house. Somehow, I've turned into some sort of middleman or as I like to think, "The Peacekeeper." I guess she is moving out although they don't know that yet, so my step-dad, the packrat is going to have face all his "stuff." Or they will have to leave it up to me to get rid of it. (And I can do that. I'm not a yard sale junkie like some people, but I've done two big estate sales and made out like gangbusters.) They had already asked me to take care of selling some office furniture. I took pictures today and all the measurements. I also went "free-shopping." I almost filled my little truck with stuff. Lots of good stuff. An etagere, vases, candles, special pictures, pots (the flower outdoor type), plant stands and various knick-knacks. That was fun. I'm also going back for a green metal frame bed with hardly touched mattresses. That's going to be great because my mattresses are almost 10 years old and that's too old for me. And I was finally ready for a headboard. (I've never like headboards. I have no idea why.) And it's GREEN! All of the main rooms in my house are green themed. They are also giving us this awesome piece for our garage, which I can't explain and will take a picture of after we set it up. That also means we will have to clean out our garage, which we were doing every year and by "were," I mean were. Oh and there's a matching full-length mirror on a stand type thing, the kind that swivels, to go with the bed. (Now how do I know the word etagere, and not know what those mirrors are called?) As sweet as the new bed will be, the very best thing I got was this:

That's a picture my Dad had made for my Mom back in the 70's. He took a a tiny grainy photo booth type picture (which I have, but my scanner is sucking these days) of my Mom, when she was just a tot, to Olan Mills or whoever and they did this. Pretty impressive for the 70's. I bet it was a lot of work! I've always loved it and when Mom gave it to me, I teared up a bit and we hugged. Oh, did I mention I haven't seen Mom since October? They are going back in a few days, but I get to see her in June, so that's cool.

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Besides seeing Mom, getting that picture, and getting all the other cool stuff, the highlight of my day was seeing Maxie:

As a surprise for my Mom, my daughter got Maxie a "lion cut" haircut. Maxie had only been shorn once and it was done by the vet and they aenesthisized him, so Mom never had it done again. After Naomi posted about her cat's cut, just by coincidence my daughter found someone that does not drug the cat. Which is very good, because with my daughter moving out of Mom's house, I will inherit Maxie, who usually looks like this:

And seriously, that's just too much cat hair to have in my house. And yes, that IS the same cat. I guess there will be a lot going on here for the next several months, but with my two vacations coming up, I will not be able to do much about their house until I get back from the second vacation except put the office furniture on Craig's List. Also there is something wrong with my foot and it is not the foot I've broken twice. I don't understand how I get injuries without actually injuring myself. I was sitting in the chair watching "Wheel of Fortune," and got up to get a beer and said, "Ouch!" That's it. No flipping it, hitting it on something, twisting, nothing. Just ouch. And it is getting worse. I finally decided tonight to wrap it in an ace bandage and that feels better. Sort of. If it doesn't feel better over the weekend, I'll call the doctor, because I am finally starting to learn my lesson about that. And I have two big vacations coming up!

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Since I cut off Maxie's tail in that first picture, here it is. hee hee: