<p>So D’s boyfriend buzzed off the mohawk when it was time to take senior yearbook pictures…but then he did look like the Arian nation, so they are still delaying the picture…planning ahead and 17 year old boys don’t typically go together.</p>
<p>We paid the extra $10 for Sunday delivery…but now it will be delivered at about 7 pm…won’t exaclty be in time to get the laundry caught up before work on Monday morning.</p>
<p>I hate our vacuum cleaner, too. When ours went out, I wanted a lighter weight one…but H bought the kind our cleaning lady recommended…then of course she stops cleaning houses about 6 months later and we are stuck with this heavy thing.</p>
<p>km, i can totally relate to the black paint. this is exactly the sort of thing DH would do if left to own devices. He has used the black-high-heat paint to “refresh” the fireplace, wood stove, outdoor grill and parts of the car. I can totally see him getting carried away in the kitchen.</p>
<p>However, in a similar vein, I am currently redoing our kitchen cabinet hardware by painting it black with an enamel pen. This is a beautiful invention for those with tiny jobs. Unfortunately, we have 42 cabinet doors, so it is taking me some time. But still better than removing everything and putting it all back together.</p>
<p>Oh and the dryer was gone within 15minutes of putting it on the curb.</p>
<p>I have been home alone since yesterday and have accomplished absolutely nothing except read a book, poke around on my computer and watch copious amounts of Bridezilla, My Fair Wedding and a few movies. Seriously, tomorrow I have to set the alarm early and get productive or I fear I could get way too used to doing absolutely nothing for anyone. This would end up not a pretty picture.</p>
<p>Anyone have any suggestions for a good vacuum cleaner? Ours vacuums rugs ok, but not when it comes to bare floors. And with the cleaning lady being me, the situation is pretty desperate. Our former cleaning lady retired from the business two and half years ago, and her replacement has yet to appear (I’m hoping for a Mary Poppins type hire, though without the burned advertisement, actually without any advertisement at all). </p>
<p>NM, I’m sorry to hear that the nurses strike is impacting your family. IMO, the medical profession, including hospitals and their administrators, are undervalued by too many people in today’s world.</p>
Amen to that, especially the part about having a clean house stay that way. Honestly, how hard is it to put things away? Normally I leave D & S to their own mess in their own room, figuring I don’t have to look at it. But, here at the beach things are much more “cozy” and D’s room is more “in my face.” Since she’s working/living here all summer, I’ve set out some ground rules. (S left for his summer camp job last week, so his mess went with him.) I guess I’ve come to accept that H is neat and orderly ONLY with things that are important to him, like boats.</p>
<p>I’ll also be interested in vacuum recommendations. If we ever redo the house here at the beach, I’d put in a central vac, but in the meantime …</p>
<p>There was a separate cc thread just on vacuum cleaners awhile back and the majority seemed to hate their vacuum cleaners. I like the bagless, but in the cheap bagless I bought (which has now been given to S2), the filter collects everything and clogs up. My other bagless does not have a filter problem and gets full of dirt in the cup, which is extremely satisfying, but is too heavy to carry up and down stairs. It is also only so-so on hardwood floors. I find I vacuum almost everything with the hose, which is pretty slow and tedious.</p>
<p>S2 called to check in saying he made it back from the Phish concert. He and his friends (a group of about ten) camped nearby (the concert was in Maryland). A camp ground employee came by to check up on them and he was proud that there was no alcohol–just grilling hot dogs and drinking gatorade. I think most of the kids in that group have been arrested for underage drinking at one time or another, so nice to see them having fun without drinking and to get “caught” doing something right for a change. Nothing like a little positive re-enforcement.</p>
<p>Has anyone had the nerve to see Toy Story III? I know that audience members cry a lot and I know that Andy is going off to college and leaving his toys behind…I’m afraid to go. I need a private showing because I fear I will sob audibly.</p>
<p>(Son saw it last night and said, “I’m glad I played with sticks instead of toys. Otherwise I’d be looking for all my old toys right now!” Gotta love a self-aware autistic boy.)</p>
<p>D and I saw it. Loved it. And the ending is the right one (I’m not going to tell) – it’s satisfying. I’m usually pretty dry-eyed (so is D), but we both teared up, I’m not going to lie. But it’s wonderful.</p>
<p>I’m very happy with my Shark bagless. Huge improvement over the old shark I had, which I also liked. Very satisfying to see a company actually improve a product!</p>
<p>My dear D has completed 3 of 8 weeks of summer school. So far it’s less strain on her brain than I thought it would be, so we’re going to fit in more fun on weekends.</p>
<p>I wasn’t going to see Toy Story III but now that I’ve heard the description and the recommendations, I’m definitely going to! </p>
<p>I am proud to say I have read all three of the “Girl” books now. I loved them. Now if I can just get H to open one of them…</p>
<p>I’m following the vacuum comments with interest. I definitely need a new one. Had a very productive Sunday cleaning the home office and shredding a monster box of documents! Couldn’t believe how much stuff was in there and how old some of it was. </p>
<p>Broke it to son that he was now responsible for packing his own lunch. You would have thought the end of the world was upon us! So I was the recipient of the silent treatment this morning. Not complaining at this point- beats the alternative! :D</p>
<p>Over the weekend I was asking a friend how his elderly mother is. The mom is 90 and lives in a townhome next to her daughter’s townhome. The daughter (who is over 60 years old) has cerebral palsy (that only affects her gait) and has retired from a lengthy professional career. The 90 year old mother recently announced to her daughter that she was no longer going to cook breakfast for her every morning! (LOL, we all need to learn from this!)</p>
<p>Definitely want to see Toy Story! S was absolutely obsessed with the first TS movie – Buzz Lightyear pjs and all. For all the times we watched the video, H & I appreciated the bits of humor that were really directed to adults.</p>
<p>missypie – way too funny about cooking breakfast. The meal I hate cooking is dinner. I’ve always said my life would be so much easier if no one in our family had to eat dinner … (Yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen!)</p>
<p>We just saw How to Tame Your Dragon at our local discount theater and enjoyed it. When Toy Story gets to the $2 theater, we will be on the look out to go. We missed Avatar and will have to rent that at some point. I have written down the Shark bagless and will look into that.</p>
<p>I love the clean house/less work aspect of being empty nesters and we seem to communicate with the kids almost as much as when they lived at home. However, we very much miss going to their sporting events. The football, basketball, soccer, and swim meets were our primary form of weekly entertainment.</p>
<p>Re: The Girl who Played with Fire. I don’t know. I read Tattoo and really enjoyed it. I’m about 50 pages into Fire and I feel like I’m reading a porn novel. Anyone else?? I think he’s gone way over his quota for obligatory sex scenes.</p>
<p>Woody, I do not recall a great deal of sex past the first part of Fire. Frankly, those are the sections of a book that I “skim”. Of the three, I definitely liked the first one the most.</p>
<p>LOL, my husband won’t see a movie until it’s at the discount theater. Friday night (while D and I were driving home from the road trip), H and the other two kids saw How to Tame Your Dragon. I actually refuse to go there…too many of the seats have springs protruding in painful places…if I’ve waited that long, I’ll netflix it a week or so later.</p>