On The Homefront

I am loving the crazy bright colors of that Crape Myrtle in my backyard

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I haven't really been posting much about stuff just happening at home, so I'm going to do a roundup here of as much as I can think of before I forget everything.
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We started noticing sometime in October that our new dryer (we bought it in July) was having a hard time drying jeans and towels. Of course we were too busy in October to do anything about it anyway. A couple of weeks ago I called Best Buy and told them that we were having to run the dryer on the highest setting 3 times to get jeans and towels dry. They hooked me up with the repair people and the first thing the girl said was, "That's usually a clogged vent." For some reasom which I can't begin to fathom, that put me on the defensive and I was all, "Oh no! We have great vents!" Which was really stupid. Because after she made an appointment and the guy came out, he said my vent was clogged. Our dryer vents to the roof. I don't go on the roof. I called José, the guy that had dismantled and hauled away the old spa tub. He came out a day or so later and got up there and cleaned it out and reattached everything the Best Buy guy had taken apart in the laundry room. Now the dryer works like a charm and I've had to learn to use lighter heat settings.
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I've made a conscious decision to stop dreading Thanksgiving at my MIL's house. The truth is, there will most likely not be many more there. My FIL will not be around much longer and when he dies, my MIL will have to sell the house. So I've decided to make the most of the time left and be a good sport about the whole thing. It still amazes me that so many people love a holiday based around feasting and football. I'm just not one of those people.
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Christmas - that's MY favorite holiday. For years I've wanted to try the Razzoo's cajun fried turkey, so this year we ordered a fun cajun meal and we are having the newlyweds for Christmas dinner. It will be the first Christmas with a son-in-law and a married daughter. I'm also going to order an apple spice cake from the grocery store for dessert. That's going all crazy, because I am not a desert person, but it's not always about me. After dinner I plan to force the kids to play Cranium with us. I think it will be fun.
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My mother has a tumor in her bladder and is having it removed on Tuesday. They will send it to a lab to see exactly what it is. I've been tense all month about this. I feel like I will not quite be myself until I know what we're dealing with. If it is something bad and requires chemo or something, I will go to North Carolina to help her out. My brother is driving down on Monday to spend the night and go with her, so he will keep me informed about everything. I just keep praying that it's something benign.
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My new Meals on Wheels route is the gift that keeps giving. And by "new" I mean the local one I started early this year. I will have this Friday off and also the Christmas eve Friday. I rarely had any days off when I delivered on Wednesdays. I think I only had 4th of July and Christmas day if they happened to fall on a Wednesday. Thanksgiving Wednesdays were always extra work because we had to deliver the holiday turkey meal as well as the regular meal. Of course next year I will not have a Christmas holiday but I will always have the Thanksgiving Friday off. It's fun to have a day off.
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The weather here has been unseasonably warm - in the 80's - but that is all supposed to end on Thanksgiving. Of course, because this is Texas and the weather is totally unpredictable, they have changed the forecast all week. Originally they said it would drop to 29° Wednesday night and now that has changed all the way to 49°. That's 20 degrees! Apparently this cold front is slower than they thought. Now they are saying it will drop from 49° during the day on Thursday. This may be the longest we've gone without having to drag out the humidifiers. Also the longest for having to bring the plants into the garage. But I really would like to have a fire in the fireplace.
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I think that's about it on the homefront. My basketball team is kicking ass, the weather is nice, I get Friday off, and my favorite holiday is just around the corner. If Mom is okay, life is just peachy.