out on the raft

I do summer weekends right, booyah! On Friday I drove to the post office and picked up my mail: Birchbox (which had great hair stuff and face goop and a nice eyeshadow) and Ipsy (eyeliner, face masks, face goop, weird brown/mauve lipquid lipstick) and my new Big Bud Press shirt which was on sale whooo! And I topped off my tank. Back at home I cleaned off the raft and sat out there for many hours soaking up the sun and I finished reading Girl on the Train! Ma and Pa came and went while I was on the raft. Neither of them went for a swim. It was perfect swimming weather too. I came to land a little bit pink but not full on burned, so that was good. Major tan lines though.

The otters were mad I was on their raft. They swam SUPER close. Close enough for me to get a photo of one where you could see all the ottery bits. And one was under the raft for about an hour, huffing and sniffing. I could see the whiskers.

Today I snoozed and then went out to the raft to work on my tan some more. I rubbed some SPF on the bits that already got sun and pointed my back to the sun. The middle bit had a light stripe because my flanks got tan. I wasn't angled right.

A boat came roaring at me from the other side and then apologized for not seeing me on the raft (they put up so much wake). If you can't spy someone on a raft, you have no business going fast on the water. So many loud boats. Argh.

My back is a little more even. But now my front is light. Next time it's hot and I can get out there in the 2-5 window. I've got my kayak + bucket + bag of books system down.

I got a breakfast shift tomorrow so nighty night.

getting it done on the cheaper

 

Good two days at work. Had a full turn of all rooms and we busted through the bathrooms and floors and ended right on time. Ginger decked out all the rooms with our towels and stuff so when we got to the rooms they were ready to finish. Lots of work. Helped with some breakfast bits of the shifts.

On Thursday, after work I went to Port Angeles to take advantage of my Roos coupon at Payless. I grabbed my phone and wallet instead of my purse, and closed the door and went to hit the lock button on my keys and WHOOPS they were still in the car. I normally hand lock the driver's side on the way out. Anyway yeah. Called AAA and reupped my membership, and then asked for them to send me a locksmith. While I waited I got the mint green KangaROOS of my dreams! And they don't have the tricky to clean suede like my other Roos have had. And I got some socks and yoga pants, which were 50% off and that stacked with the 20% off. Hurray! So that was good. And my car was unlocked and I was off to do my thing again.

 Got a lot done today! Mowed the grass, washed my car, got some of the pitch that has unfortunately gotten on my car off the car, patched the boat, washed sheets and made bed, did other laundry, put things away. Still got a bit more to do but I knocked out a huge chunk of the clutter that has built up. And I took a nap midday and now it's 3am! I haven't been up that late in a while.

clean house, clean nose

Spent the last two days hanging around the house. I tidied. I did laundry. I washed all my hankies, new and old. Did dishes upon dishes. Lit a fire because it was actually blustery and cold. Lots of wind. Thunder rolled over yesterday. Played Faster Than Light. Really nice to not go anywhere. I've been moving around a lot the past month and a half. Time to simmer a bit.

And now to have five days out of the house getting about & doing things!

I think I'm going to take another crack at curry tomorrow.

And the hankies were a really good deal for the quality and quantity! I only have two modern bought hankies and they are awful.

best idea ever

Mom and Dad are visiting for two full days and part of a third! Alas on the first day, the weather was too bad for Dad to safely go out shrimping so we had other fun instead. They admired the tree in its new home in the planter box. Inside we...wow I've forgotten what we did. Well we took Bodi for a walk down at the Dosewallips! He pooped and I had to pick it up. I don't wanna pick up Bodi poo, but I will be a good dog pretend owner. The roads were legit crowded today (well Saturday)! Like actually enough traffic to have to wait a notable amount of time before turning. We cleaned up Grandma & Grandpa's gravesite. Pulled weeds and other growth. We had soup and salad. We took naps. I drew and relaxed. In the morning when I went up to see Ma & Pa they were watching Star Wars! Without me!!! No wonder they were taking so long to get down to the house. Bodi was a good cuddly puppy in the morning. We cleared brush, made sure Bodi didn't get eaten by the eagles which were more present overhead than usual. We made teriyaki chicken and fries and THEN THEN

WE MADE S'MOREDORS!! We made our own doughnuts and then made a fire and roasted marshmallows and put those on the doughnuts and put chocolate on that and it was amazing. Best idea ever.

And I cleared the rest of the old books from the bookshelf. Now there's even more space! So I can move some things into there. That'll be great. After s'moredors we watched an episode of Kids in the Hall which was less funny than I remember and omg it had actual BLACKFACE! In the late 80's!! At that point we knew that stuff was not cool. Like dang...

Then it was bed time. I drew my comic and now I work tomorrow so I should tuck in.

a sense of home and space and where we live

Back to work! I finished up with one room and wiped down the counters. Then started cleaning the kitchen shelves. Lots of taking out of dishes, cleaning the blue tacky no skid stuff, wiping out the shelves themselves, putting everything back. I'm only half done. I'll do the other half tomorrow. I have two more solo cleaning shifts. Then we're doing a top down floor cleaning.

After I got out, I left my car at work and walked the couple blocks downtown (only two blocks from the stairs that cut into downtown). I walked down the drag. Looked in at the bookstore. Got some fish tacos and a pint at Sirens. Then saw Hello, My Name is Doris at the Starlight Room. Very delightful movie! Sally Field is so good in it. And also a bit sad. It's a very compassionate movie. I recommend it.

Got out and it was still daylight! Got home and it was still daylight. Amazing.

Drew a comic, did laundry. My dark blue and white track jacket has a few stains (old stains) that i'm trying to get rid of. One of the stain removers lightened the white bit of the jacket so now there's a slightly uneven whiteness. Ha. I need to get some sort of... cleaner for tending to my lights. Things have gotten a bit ruddy.

Thinking about my recent drive to clean and organize, I feel it comes from a partial need to have this space be recognizable as mine. If only a little bit. Someone lives here now, it isn't just a vacation home. I shant go into detail and I am not calling Ma & Pa out! They're awesome and it's so great they trust me with this space. I want to do right by it and everything I want to do is in the hopes of making it better.

I also reorganized the laundry room a little bit to make some things more accessible.

Hello, My Name is Doris stirred it up in me a bit.

keep it clean

On Friday I went off to hang out with Karen and bebbeh and co. I dropped off a few things at the ol' Quilcene USPS. Thea and Roldan were at Karen's. We had a nice sit around and baby talk and regular talk. We five plus Rob went for a walk around the block. Absolutely beautiful view of Mt Rainier and we could even see Seattle from up on high. I drew my comic. Didn't hold Lily this time, but next time I will probably. Made a Trader Joe's run on the way home. Tried out the dill pickle popcorn. Won't buy another bag.

Helped Celia in the evening then went to bed late and slept in late.

I scrubbed the sinks and toilets. Swept the kitchen. I hung my black, red, and white mod bolt of fabric in the library. It covers three of the four existing drapes. I just clipped it up along with those. It's a nice bold flair. And I switched out the table cloth on the circle table, and some of the fabric draped on chairs. Actually. I wonder if I should get more drape clips and put the mod cloth up in the master bedroom as a drape. The ones here don't cover the whole thing, but the red and white isn't opaque and I don't want to cut it just yet. Hmmm.

Bursts of cleaning productivity. I also put away a bunch of clothes and made my bed nice and proper with a few less blankets. Want to be one of those people with a more organized house. I want access to all the drawers in my desk. And I want to pull the rest of the books from the blue shelf, but I need boxes to put them in.

Anyway. Clearing house.

get ready, get set

Loook! Drawing more! I want to do at least one comic a day. They are doing pretty well on Instagram. I'm trying to figure out the way to have them look the best. I went up to the garage apartment and dug through my old boxes and pulled out old barely used sketchbooks. I found some old reems of bristol paper. Basically better paper, because the little sketchbook I've been using doesn't have a heavy paper weight and the pens bleed. Yeah. I'm now motivated to overhaul a tidying of the house. I want to get my art supplies together, I want to get books put away better, I want this space to be less cluttered. I want to know where everything is, as well. Because every now and again I'll be like "where's this thing?" and I have to dig and dig for a while to find it. Right now I'm trying to find the 26th card I printed of Nate & Helen's Christmas present. The blooper card. Still looks nice, I just need to scan it. I really need a portfolio overhaul and to do that I must have new work to shove into it.

People like those cookies. Karen wants a print. I just need to figure out how to make prints? I guess? I'm just worried about the screen to print out transition, because there's been things that look WILDLY different when I look at them on my phone (typically my sketches, the paper looks more yellow).

Anyway, the fire is under me and it feels awesome!

And Anita and Cheyenne are visiting on Sunday! You might remember Anita from Santa Cruz or from Delaware. Nice to host on her roadtrip, like she hosted on mine.

Uhhmm. Yeah. Tidying. Arting. Want to tidy more tomorrow. Might also leave the house and hang with Karen at a First Friday in Bremerton.

My mood right now is doing pretty good. I think I have a little room of mental space of "get stuff cleared out and organized" and basically getting ready. Ready for what? Dunno. Whatever happens next. But I don't want to get there unorganized. I want to be a better me when I step up to the plate.

poop

Waiting for Heather and Daniel to arrive ommggg!

Today I got up and had an egg scramble and then helped Dad out with putting together a trellis for the green beans. Eight sticks in four V formations with a single rebar through the V joint, with string weighted down on each side with two bits of rebar. It looks really nice and I can't wait for my precious green beans to grow up and around it.

I washed the sheets and pillowcases and tidied up the upstairs to make ready for guests. Lots of washing and drying, but I want my guests to be comfy.

The septic guy came later in the evening. He was pretty cute! Dark curly graying hair, probably Italian. Smart. I wonder what art he studied? So that was fun. Too bad he was pumping poop. Awkward first meeting.

Then we four (Celia, Ma, Pa and I) after eating dinner, took a quick swim. Now they'll be here any minute! Ooohhhh!!!

Then it's celebration day!

moss, maurice

Worked from home doing the online errands, whee! Google this, order that, realize I was putting this info where that info should have gone. Called for this and that. I'm never sure if I've done enough or not, but I can always do more later to compensate.

I also helped Celia scrape the moss off her roof. Just a little bit of push broom action getting the growth off the gentle slope. Need to find a stiffer metal thing on a long stick so that we can scrape the steeper roofs from the ground. I'm not getting tied onto a rope and dangled for moss!

I hardboiled some eggs and didn't forget them this time (did I mention I forgot some hard boiled eggs and only remembered once I heard them popping in the dry pan??).

Got a big day tomorrow, full of driving! Time to tuck in to bed.

visitors!

Brynne is downstairs, Andrya is upstairs, and soon I'll be over in the twin bed, reading and retiring to bed earlier than usual. But that is good because I've had a busy day prepping! Brynny is recovering from hip surgery, so I pulled down my mattress and plopped it on the fold out bed, so she wouldn't have to suffer on the thin makeshift mattress. Easy enough to get it down, but I'll need help returning it up to the garage.

I swept, I vacuumed, I dusted with that rotating duster, I organized, I put things away. I brought the road table up, and I brought the narrow brown shelves down and up, as they fit perfectly next to the long dresser. I put books in them, and put board games on the shelves where those books were. The house is really looking tops now!

Auntie and Andrya arrived at 5:30ish and got to making dinner of salmon and toasted olive loaf. Celia brought over a veggie medley and ice cream and bundt cake. Nums were had all around! Celia and Brynne lounged on the deluxe downstairs bed, and we all chatted. I drew my inktober. Now to bed with us all! Tomorrow is a new fun day!

hankies are my friend

Turned in a resume to an inn looking for a front desk person. Then I picked up some hankies at Quimper's. Is that the place that was where Swain's was? Anyway. hankie town!! I caught the matinee of Gone Girl at the Rose Theater. Damn. Rosamund Pike is just amazing in it. She is such a good actress and this movie just absolutely, brutally shows her range and skills. And it is a nice looking movie, well acted, well directed, well adapted all around, but DAMN Pike!

I got out of the theater when there was daylight, and drove into a gorgeous matte mottled sunset, and got home at dark. I washed my hankies (I handwash them in the sink with detergent, give them a little drying nudge in the dryer, and the let them hang on the rack for the rest) and washed the dishes. Tomorrow auntie and her friend are coming, so I'll be cleaning and tidying in the morning/afternoon. There isn't much to do, just general organization and getting some of my clutter out of the way, and doing a vacuum.

I stacked some brick shelves in the dog room, and now it looks super tidy! I didn't stack them that high, for fear of them maybe toppling back into the glass and, you know, shattering it.

A really productive day! Though just under 2 hours of it was spent driving to and from Port Townsend, which would suck to do if I got a full time job in Port Townsend, because there goes a decent chunk of my day. But hey money! I'll take it if it is consistent and it pays.

scrub the bad away

Didn't have to come in to work till noon - 1ish. Hurray! Had a scramble and tea and took my time. I went to Jiffy Lube and got my oil changed and my oil filter changed and my air filter changed (Dad, you said that should be changed, right? Well I got that changed). Whooo! My car seems to be running a bit better? But maybe that is just psychosomatic. Still, nice to check that off the list. I left my cell at home, so I missed the notification that I didn't have to come in to work at all...

...but the boss found stuff for me to do anyway! I reclaimed screens and burned a multi-screen job. Still a short day, but hours are hours!

When I got home, I decided it was nice to scrub the mildew off the bathroom walls. There is no fan, and only a small window, so it was getting spotty. I got the powerful cleaner. I turned on the fan. I put on my respirator. I put on gloves. I got to it. It was tricky because it was concentrated on the ceiling and high bits of the walls, so I had to use a stool for some bits and a chair for others. But I got it scrubbed. Did the walls first. Took a break. Did the ceiling. I didn't get it all entirely off, but it looks MUCH better. The bathroom looks so much less dingey now. Hurray for cleaning!

I had gyoza for dinner and other munchins. Watched Archer and House of Cards. Removed things from my todo list. Go me!

clean sweep

I have 43,000 pageviews on this blog! Amazing! Though most of them are probably the same four people checking 10k times each over the years.

Work was better today. I caught and boxed a massive job. 15 boxes, and we aren't even to the sweat pants! I also reclaimed a bit, mixed some ink, burned and taped screens. A nice full shift.

I did three loads of laundry tonight! THREE! I washed my work shirts and bathroom hand towels (hot whites cycle) and my pants and work sweatshirts (hot darks cycle) and all the rest (cold delicate cycle for colored shirts and unmentionables). I ate some pasta for dinner and swept and vacuumed. So I got that done. Still need to tend to my car stuff and the mildew. But hey, I didn't do nothin'!

Now I wanna sit in bed and read. Really loving my kindle.

blue toilet water

Had a nice lazy start to the day. Tara and I walked to Target, and I got The 10th Kingdom on DVD! It was only five bucks, which is awesome.

It was a lovely day for walking. Nice and warm. Might need to break out the cut offs soon.

I cleaned the bathroom a bit, and washed the shower curtain and changed my sheets.

Just sorta loafed around. Lazy Sunday. Dang, already time to tuck into bed.

Oh, I got a letter telling me that the direct deposit for my refund didn't go through (did I mention this?) so now I'll have to wait on checks, and then send those up north. Boo! I want money NOW!

mopping is for suckas

Had a weird dream where I had a pet dog that was actually a sponge. Had a good sleep in as well.

Our landlord is going to give the house a lookiloo on Saturday, so Janet and I spent some time cleaning. I swept and scrubbed the downstairs floors. They are looking pretty good now. I also gave our bathroom a good scrub. Damn thing is a mildew trap!

I relaxed. Ate some pasta. Ate some candy.

When it got dark, I sat out my window and watched the neighbors light off fireworks. A nice little display in the street. And some of the bigger ones around town were visible as well. I waved to the people on the street if they noticed me. Heheh.

Later on people let off loud BTOOOOMMMM fireworks which set off many car alarms. Annoying.

And now I go to work for one day and then it is the weekend! That went by really fast. It's almost been a year since I moved to Santa Cruz. Should find that specific date.

a really good monday

This week is off to a good start. Our water heater was repaired this morning and now we have piping hot water. Bye bye lukewarm water! At work I burned just one lone screen, and spent most of the day with banners. Though only seven banners, and four of them were smaller in size. After banners I cut stickers and cleaned squeegees and floodbars. We have a lot of jobs coming up that need to be run. Like...three different jobs that I can name. So it'll be a nice busy streak for the next week or two.

I grabbed more eggs and headed out. At home I washed my car, because it was filthy with pollen, and I swept downstairs. Nice to start the week out on a clean note. Tomorrow I shall get down to some serious brainstorming and whatnot.

Odd Owl's Kickstarter is at $3,566!