A Very Slippery Slope

I save nothing. Nothing. Did I wear it last year? If not, give it away. Has it been in the fridge more than 3 days? If yes, then put it down the disposal. Do I know right away where to put it? If not, then donate it. If I am not using it now and foresee no need of it in the near future, I get rid of it. It's the only way to maintain order in my home. I'm not one of those freaks with 100 watt bulbs in all the lights so any speck of dust can be identified and attacked, but I'm certainly not a hoarder or a pack rat either. I never have liked antiques. They're just so ..... old.

I love my mom in law. She's in her mid 80s and she was raised in a world that I never experienced. She lived through the depression. She reuses saran wrap and paper towels. Think I'm joking? I only wish I were. She is worried about her children fighting over her huge home full of stuff when she goes. I told her not to worry, I'd just tell the Salvation Army to come and get it all. I swear I was joking, but I'm pretty sure she's working on a restraining order to go into effect at the moment she passes. (Note to self: Leave off-beat sense of humor at home.)

So, for Christmas one of the things we got was a new toaster oven. It's clean and shiny and new. I like it for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it probably won't shoot sparks and smell like burning wires. The old one was biding it's time waiting to kill us all, but that's another story.

Anyway, back to my point. Tonight I was carrying the old toaster oven out to the trash bin when I thought to myself, "Why am I throwing away the baking sheet? We can use that as a back up for the new toaster oven. And the wire rack. We need that. I can use it for all kinds of things. Oh, and the knobs. Let me pull off these knobs. They're in great shape and you never know when you might need a knob." Just so you know, I did stop myself from cutting off the electrical cord to use on some future device in need of a cord. But just barely.

I feel my feet slipping out from under me on a very slippery slope. Check back in one year. I'll be on a reality show with people hauling off all my stuff so the piles don't collapse on top of me.

Staycationing in Missouri

We don't get to take a lot of vacations. We're just not frivolous people, and spending thousands of dollars on a trip seems wrong. When we do vacation, it's usually a camping trip within driving distance of our home.

This year we have a different plan. We're going to visit all the cool places we've never seen in our own home state of Missouri. Toward that end, we procured the Missouri Travel Guide 2010. You can find it for free at Mo State Parks and MO Tourism Offices. You can also order it at this website or view the online version.

We started with the Capitol in Jefferson City. I went with TheBoy's 4th grade class on a field trip. He carried the camera and took the pictures, so here is a random assortment from that trip.

His best friend eating lunch.

A canon. (Of course he had to get this picture!)

A gun that he could touch. (His friend took this one.).

Next we went to the Battle of Lexington. This is the site of a three day Civil War battle that was also called the Battle of the Bales. The mansion belonging to the owner of the hemp factory (where the bales came from) was occupied back and forth by Union and Confederate forces. They still had a canon ball hole in the ceiling and the brick on the outside of the mansion was full of bullet holes. It was actually a very interesting tour with a small museum in the visitors' center.

Cheesy re-enactment scene at Lexington - guaranteed to capture the interest of my 10 year old.

Make-shift operating table at The Anderson House. Did I mention that my son is 10?

Chamber Pot. (How old is he? Yup. 10.)

My Boy is on the left. Our friend is on the right. By complete coincidence, the kids wore blue and gray to the battlefield. Naturally they had to find gun-shaped sticks and replay the battle. Since My Boy is in gray, he won. We had to be historically accurate, you know.

Our next stop will be the Science Center in St. Louis. We've been there before, but The Boy isn't old enough to remember it. We'll post pics when we're back.

Told You I'd Get Bored

See! Didn't I tell you?! No one knows me as well as I know me. Fortunately, I like me anyway. (Refer back to my second blog to see what I'm talking about.)

So, how have you been? Did you miss me? I've been busy. There was so much going on. The recession hit my family pretty hard. My husband was laid off in September of 09 and finally went back to work in March. The good news for you is that when he went back to work, he had to go to second shift. That means I have the evenings completely to myself.... after my son goes to sleep. How to fill the time? Hmmm. I know! I'll blog for you, my loyal reader(s). Right now I'm just popping on here to make sure the account is still active. Later I will try to upload some recent pictures for your enjoyment.

C-Ya!

The Gremlins Are Back

We keep the thermostat at home turned to 68 in the winter. Sometimes we turn it to 70, but never higher. Today my husband found the thermostat set on 74. Seventy-Freaking-Four! That's just like throwing money away. I might as well buy name brand toilet paper or see a movie at the theater. Let's go for broke and throw out the leftovers. What an extravagance. I know it wasn't me who changed the thermostat. He knows it wasn't him who changed it. I doubt my 9 year old knows what a thermostat is. So it was the gremlins again. You realize, of course, that this means war.

Gremlins

There are monstrous little pranksters in my office. Though the building is toasty, my particular space has been freezing cold. It happens to be close to the side door where the smokers enter and exit, so I was blaming the coldness on that. I borrowed a space heater from an uber-prepared coworker and got my office all cozy. Then I realized that someone had closed my vent. I know it wasn't me because until about an hour ago, I was unaware that I HAVE a vent. Seriously. I've been in this same office for several years and it was never this cold, so I know a gremlin fiddled with my heretofore unknown vent. But that's not all. I unplugged the borrowed space heater and took it back to its rightful owner. When I came back in my office, my clock radio was all dark and quiet. Turns out the outlet that was functional five minutes ago is now non-functional. Gremlins. It has to be. I remain electricity-less on my west wall. I hesitate to plug anything more into my east wall because I already have a power strip on there with my computer, printer, monitor, lamp, and Christmas lights. The radio would be a temptation to fate. Perhaps you can come and serenade me so that I don't have to be without music. Also, every ten minutes or so, tell me what time it is.

UPDATE: My most awesome friend, Bruce, showed me where the breaker box is. There's a closet inside the men's restroom with the controls to practically the whole building! Now I have the power! Electricity has been restored to my west wall. Just think, if I had male parts, I would have known this all along.

Santa's Coming

Dear Santa,
I'm glad to report that I have been very good this year, so I'm expecting to be well rewarded with gifts. I've been kind to others, except for the people that I have mercilessly tortured throughout the year. I've been extremely generous, except for hiding treats that I refuse to share. I have been giving of my time, as long as I have nothing better or more fun to do. In short, I have been awesome. And humble. Extremely humble. Bring on the material rewards*!

Sincerely,
MoJo

*Failure to provide the aforementioned rewards shall result in legal action.

People First

I just came from steering committee, so I'm all revved up with the spirit of advocacy right now. Forgive me for that.

In case you haven't read some of my earlier blogs, People First is an organization that is run by people who have developmental disabilities. Their mission is to advocate for themselves and one another in order to promote disability rights. They have chapters all over the world, including one in the tiny little dot on the map where I live and work. I think it's a really cool organization, so I work with them as an advisor.

I love steering committee weekends. For two whole days I get to pretend I have friends! There are people everywhere who actually seem thrilled to see me. It's so nice. Also, the work the self advocates do there is really important and I feel privileged to be on the sidelines of that. Anyway, I'm rambling again. I just stopped in to say that Missouri People First is hosting the National Conference in September of 2010 in Kansas City. That is a really big deal. Let the fundraising begin!