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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I saw the most interesting things yesterday on the wall where the roses are.

The first was a baby 'possum cautiously exploring the top of the block wall behind the roses. Adult 'possums are kinda gross looking, but babies are the cutest!

Then I saw a white cabbage butterfly and yellow sulfur butterfly duking it out. They look the same except for color, but they're entirely different species. Despite that, apparently they see each other as competitors or rivals.

Then I saw a butter butt (yellow warbler) flitting thru the shrubs, and a big old fence lizard sunning himself on the wall.



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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Careful with that collapsible stuff, Brenda. Just remember you get what you pay for and sometimes products like that don't stand up well to any abuse. If this is still about the ottoman, just make sure whatever you're getting is going to be able to do what you intend it to do.

It's nice when something you bought that was a mistake ends up working out somewhere else.



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good luck with the re-org....

I kind of never got around to finishing mine yet.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Trying to do the math here on this thing... not perfection with the numbers, but just a guesstimate...

...

At this rate, that final number will probably be around 1,200 I'm guessing, after the add-backs.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Cool is good SIX. My brain I know could never do what you are doing with numbers. My brain and numbers aren't really friends and that doesn't change no matter how hard I try.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Cool is good SIX. My brain I know could never do what you are doing with numbers. My brain and numbers aren't really friends and that doesn't change no matter how hard I try.

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I'm good with all the basics. Enough to do taxes and balance a checkbook and keep a budget. I'm good at statistics and holding numbers in my head. But give me anything beyond basic algebra and it's all a foreign language to me.

This wasn't even really about the math, more than it was about the "feeling" of that number being right. In a way, it's about knowing myself, because so much of myself has been poured into it. I'd been working on this part of this one thing, that had the first bricks put underneath it even before I saw Firefly. But this one thing has been taking up most of my waking hours for the last week, and with no real idea what the final number could be, I was just weighing out the possibilities against the numbers I knew I had and even though I was still at least 8 or 9 hours away from being done I came up with a number that was nearly on the head.


And actually, I'm exactly at 1,200 right now. I had a little surprise in there that cost me about 2 hours to work on, but it got me 8 more add backs I wasn't expecting along the way.

I've got enough leverage on the fringes to play around with that number and make it what I want, but I'm not willing it to happen. It's just cool that with still only around 150 more things to go through I'm exactly at the number I guessed that I might be.

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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yay! for you, SIX!!!
If I had to guess, it sounds like you're creating a database- like structure using searchable filenames to allow retrieval?
That's tough, man. Of course, I could be way off, but sounds like a lot of work, whatever it is!

Hey BRENDA, sounds lije you're in reorg/ declutter mode? Good for you! I just have one ??? ... what's a TV pin?

Been mostly absent here, going balls to the wall on finding a resolution for hubby's back pain, and landscaping. The weather continues acceptable for outdoor work so I'm doing as much as my knee and Dr appt schedule permit. Been spending a heckuva amt of time pruning up the climbing roses while preserving the branches with flowers so family doesn't squawk. It's going very slowly bc four of those climbers are excessively thorny, and I have to go really slowly. I wear an overshirt to protect from the sun, and it's got a couple of good sized tears in the back from when I got tangled up, and several "picks"... and several blood spots ... It's kind of a waste of time bc I hope to replace them with other bushes later, but I've already removed about 2 70-gal bins of material and will probably remove one more before I'm done.

Well, on with the show!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Originally posted by Brenda:
You are a head of me. I learned how to do taxes in high school but no way would I try that now. Tax rules have changed up since then. I can do banking and budgeting.

But you've seen how well I do with computers. So , no. My brain can never go there.

I also have been known to screw up my counting in mah jong.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Go, man, go.

I'm just working on physical stuff around my place. Maybe by the weekend I will get back to some book stuff.

Was trying to remember something else I wanted to do last night and I can't now. It might come back to me later.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Go, man, go.

I'm just working on physical stuff around my place. Maybe by the weekend I will get back to some book stuff.

Was trying to remember something else I wanted to do last night and I can't now. It might come back to me later.

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You ever think of what it was?



I've got my old man coming to visit on Sunday night. This is the first time he's ever come here to stay the night, and he'll be here until Wednesday before he kicks off his round the country Jack Kerouac phase of his life.



I think I mentioned I didn't want to bring my table/chairs back down into the kitchen until I was done patching, sanding and finishing all that trim I recently put up, but I just realized today that both inside and outside I don't have any real place for my dad to sit with his laptop, without him actually having to have it sitting on his lap top.

So I decided to bring the table and one of the chairs down. I've still got to clean it up pretty good. Not that it's filthy or anything, but it's been sitting in my small bedroom for years now without ever getting cleaned off. My dad will probably eat most of his meals there, so it's got to be clean.

It looks nice. It was a nice table that I bought at Target of all places, back when I was living up in Wisconsin with my brother and our apartment didn't have room for any full-sized kitchen table. It's solid wood without any IKEA jenk going on and it's held up really well over the years. I kind of hate that it's not high-gloss white to match all my trim, but I'm not going to paint it. It's a very light wood color finish, and despite several moves and a lot of use over the years, there's not a single blemish anywhere on that finish. It's super-low maintenance right now, and I think if I painted it that wouldn't be the case anymore. I like painting furniture that won't be sat on regularly, eaten on regularly, and need to be wiped down regularly (likely coming into contact with at least a little bit of water or cleaning product from time to time). With all the painting I've done on and inside kitchen cabinets, my pantry, the curio cabinet, the entryway table and other things I've been able to put down white contact paper to protect the finish (so I can take it all off before I sell the house and everything still looks brand new). But I can't really do that with the table. I'm sure because of the regular use it wouldn't be long before that started peeling right off, and when it does that there's still enough sticky on the back to collect all the dust in the air and then it really looks bad... so yeah... It will remain a light wood color.

The only problem with it is that after one of the moves, something happened internally toward the top where the post meets the bottom of the table and it will "swivel" about 1/8th of a turn either way. I always meant to open that up and see what needs to be fixed, (or just take the easy route and shoot some brad nails into it since nobody would ever see them), but I've never gotten around to it. Maybe I'll look at it between now and Sunday night and have it fixed before he gets here. I dunno. It's not dangerous or anything, so really no big deal. It's just annoying.

Got most of my house cleaned and ready for the visit. Still working on the kitchen counter/sink and of course the bathroom will need a cleaning. I'll probably do that on Sunday before he's here.

Tomorrow I think I'll mow the lawn since it really needs it. It's just been so damn cold around here I haven't felt like it. It won't be warm tomorrow either. Not even going to see the 60's again until Sunday.






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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Think I almost got back what I was thinking of. So that's good. I know it was something I wanted to put in with some other stuff to donate.

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I do that more often than I'd like to admit these days too.

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For that amount of time I'm sure you and your dad will have a good visit.

Yeah, I think you did. Having somewhere for you and your dad to eat would be good. Just don't let yourself do what I am still doing. Make an attempt to tidy up the kitchen table then put another pile of stuff on it.

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Yeah. We should have fun.

No worries. My table, at least until he's gone will be clean and clear.


It was actually nice not having to go through a ton of old mail and stuff since I already did that a couple of weeks ago. Only had about a week's worth of junk mail to sort through. House was pretty clean overall too. I really need to clean up better after myself in the kitchen and bathroom though. Bad habits I've cultivated over the decades and I never had a good woman to smack the shit out of me for doing it.



I don't mind living in my own mess, but if I walked into somebody else's house and it looked the way that I've let it get about 3 times over the last 2 years, I'd nope right on out of there. Wasn't nearly as bad as my drinking/hoarding days, but that's really just because I don't have all that crap anymore. And the longer you let it go the bigger project it becomes and the less you want to do it. Just a bad cycle that reinforces itself.

I just have to get this project finished up and make a point to have people over more again. When I had people over often enough, it never got messy to the point where it was a major 2-day project to clean everything up.


Oh... and I cheated on the laundry. Instead of putting it all where it belongs, I just threw it in another room. I think the main reason I don't take care of my laundry is because I barely have any space for it. I've got two massive dressers and a third small one, and that large closet with 3 rods for hanging, and I still don't have enough room for the laundry.

Getting rid of clothes has always been a hard thing for me to do. It's also the reason why I have to stop taking other people's clothes when they get rid of them too.

I have a very particular way of dressing most days, and half the clothes I own now I know that I would never wear under any circumstance, so it all needs to go. I also took like 7 full suits from my friend that belonged to his dad. They're all a perfect fit. I don't even need to see a tailor.

But if you don't count a 30 minute job interview maybe 12 years ago, the last time I ever wore a suit was at my brother's wedding. Was Obama still on his first term back then? I think he may have been.

Heh... I just giggled when I remembered that the last time I washed any of my cars was the last time I wore a suit.




If I was going to get another office job where I dressed real nice every day I think I'd have probably already done it in the last 16 years. Probably time to let a lot of that go. And besides... Even though I've long stopped caring about fashion and I think that anything I wore growing up is still perfectly acceptable to wear, there's probably a good chance a lot of that would either be laughed out of the office for being ancient, or would be complimented for being vintage stuff. If I get another office job, I can buy myself new dress clothes. They're just wasting space here now.

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I think if the table and chairs are a nice wood colouring it would be alright with your white trim.

Painting it and then cleaning it all the time will flake the paint off. Best to leave it.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Think I almost got back what I was thinking of. So that's good. I know it was something I wanted to put in with some other stuff to donate.

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I do that more often than I'd like to admit these days too.

Quote:

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For that amount of time I'm sure you and your dad will have a good visit.

Yeah, I think you did. Having somewhere for you and your dad to eat would be good. Just don't let yourself do what I am still doing. Make an attempt to tidy up the kitchen table then put another pile of stuff on it.

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Yeah. We should have fun.

No worries. My table, at least until he's gone will be clean and clear.


It was actually nice not having to go through a ton of old mail and stuff since I already did that a couple of weeks ago. Only had about a week's worth of junk mail to sort through. House was pretty clean overall too. I really need to clean up better after myself in the kitchen and bathroom though. Bad habits I've cultivated over the decades and I never had a good woman to smack the shit out of me for doing it.



I don't mind living in my own mess, but if I walked into somebody else's house and it looked the way that I've let it get about 3 times over the last 2 years, I'd nope right on out of there. Wasn't nearly as bad as my drinking/hoarding days, but that's really just because I don't have all that crap anymore. And the longer you let it go the bigger project it becomes and the less you want to do it. Just a bad cycle that reinforces itself.

I just have to get this project finished up and make a point to have people over more again. When I had people over often enough, it never got messy to the point where it was a major 2-day project to clean everything up.


Oh... and I cheated on the laundry. Instead of putting it all where it belongs, I just threw it in another room. I think the main reason I don't take care of my laundry is because I barely have any space for it. I've got two massive dressers and a third small one, and that large closet with 3 rods for hanging, and I still don't have enough room for the laundry.

Getting rid of clothes has always been a hard thing for me to do. It's also the reason why I have to stop taking other people's clothes when they get rid of them too.

I have a very particular way of dressing most days, and half the clothes I own now I know that I would never wear under any circumstance, so it all needs to go. I also took like 7 full suits from my friend that belonged to his dad. They're all a perfect fit. I don't even need to see a tailor.

But if you don't count a 30 minute job interview maybe 12 years ago, the last time I ever wore a suit was at my brother's wedding. Was Obama still on his first term back then? I think he may have been.

Heh... I just giggled when I remembered that the last time I washed any of my cars was the last time I wore a suit.




If I was going to get another office job where I dressed real nice every day I think I'd have probably already done it in the last 16 years. Probably time to let a lot of that go. And besides... Even though I've long stopped caring about fashion and I think that anything I wore growing up is still perfectly acceptable to wear, there's probably a good chance a lot of that would either be laughed out of the office for being ancient, or would be complimented for being vintage stuff. If I get another office job, I can buy myself new dress clothes. They're just wasting space here now.

Quote:

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I think if the table and chairs are a nice wood colouring it would be alright with your white trim.

Painting it and then cleaning it all the time will flake the paint off. Best to leave it.

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Yeah... It doesn't look bad at all. I think dark would probably go nicer with it than the light wood, but oh well...

I'm not exactly Mr. Interior Decorator anyhow, and most of my furniture is mismatched stuff I got from other people anyway. I've never actually paid for any furniture in my life outside of that kitchen table my current TV stand and a computer desk that I got rid of in the dehoarding.



I'm not so sure that my paint would flake off the table, TBH... not with the way that I prep everything beforehand. Granted, it would be getting much heavier use than my cabinets do, but those have held up perfectly over the years. Not a single piece of paint has fleked off anywhere, and that's even including the detached cabinet on the other side of the stove with my coffee pot on it, and I've made a mess of that thing. Whenever I clean things up I always notice that some coffee had spilled down the side or the face of it and dried who knows how long ago and it wipes right off with a cleaning wipe without leaving any stains.


I dunno though... I don't want to risk it. I know anything I'd buy new today would be a piece of crap and I'd be lucky if it survived a future move. But this table was nice and still looks great. I don't want to break something that ain't broken. Especially now that I fixed it.



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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