Berlin Wall

This really isn’t a post about the Berlin Wall or the fall of the wall.  It is more about the fact that its been 20 years. TWENTY years.

When I was in high school, um twenty-seven years ago.  I wrote an essay on the Berlin wall.  While researching and writing the paper my mom and I had some conversations about the wall, about oppression, about fear and how it spawns hate.

When the wall came down I was working at United Graphics, my mom was working down on Eastlake and had only been home a month or so from the fishing season in Haines.  She called me at work and we went out to lunch and had a fantastic grown up conversation (thats how it felt) about the Wall, about Regan about the cold war.

It was only a few month later that she died.  I know 20 years is coming up, right around the corner.  Della and I were talking recently about how long its been.  I mentioned it to a co-worker who is about to hit one year that her mom died.  Maybe its the upcoming holidays, maybe its pms (cause its on-going these days) but yesterday’s mark of twenty years that the Berlin wall came down hit an emotional nerve.  It seemed soooo long ago yet I can so vividly remember that conversation with my mom while sitting at Changs Mongolian grill.  I just wanted to talk to my mom about the anniversary of the fall,  my emotional nerve endings felt so exposed and made yesterday a very long day trying to keep it in check.  It didn’t help that the work load sucked, in early out late and an over perfumed office were all getting to me.

What is hard to believe that most everything else major that happened during my lifetime that will have  a “twenty year anniversary” happened without my mom.  Without me being able to have memories like a conversation over lunch about such a huge and momentous event.  For that matter minor and mundane events either.  A life without being able to seek her advise or guidance.  The things I may have done differently in my life if I had my mom to check in with, to fall back on.

Just In

I just got in from the airport and although I was scheduled to be in the office at 2:45 for a filing I received a voicemail while on the plane from the boss stating that she would be going in to make the 3 and 4am filings (didn’t know there were two but I guess I would have figured that out when I got there), now since I don’t have to be up at 1:30 after 3 and a half hours of sleep I feel like I should do something productive.  Even though it is still 10pm and I need to head to bed.  But I feel like I have lots of time to sleep now, like a whole 6 or 7 hours.

So instead I will post these pictures really quick.  I saw my baby sister this weekend, also my brother in-law, nephew and niece.  Had a lovely visit and meal with them for about 7 hours.  It was so great to see them all and they look fabulous.

On our way to dinner we swung by the house they have a bid on.  Hopefully they will know by Thursday or so if it all went through and they can get out of temporary housing.

It was in the 100’s all weekend so besides resting Chari’s back we also went to the movies and saw Inglorious Bastards which was fantastic, and air conditioned.  Tarantino did his usual cameo and I was pretty sure it was one of the “Nazi’s” getting killed but was so distracted by all the talking and shushing and talking and shushing.  I missed the second cameo altogether and only know of it because I googled it today. During that particular part of the movie the person behind us and two seats over was coughing and coughing and sneezing and snorting and it was so distracting (and coughing and coughing and coughing) besides the fact that I found out Friday my co-workers wife has swine flu and the article I read last week said your more likely to catch this from someone coughing in a theatre then actually touching them and then touching your face.  Did I mention the coughing.  I mean I feel for the guy/girl/large kid, we weren’t even sure but when you can’t stop you should excuse yourself and go get a drink of water or something.

Balancing Act

Its September…..Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Didn’t I just run the marathon the other day, I mean June 27th was barely a week ago, right?  It has been a very sunny and beautiful summer, all my plans to have BBQ’s and people over to swim has been limited.  In fact even though there has been some visitors this summer I think last year with far less sunny weather there was more grilling and swimming.  Go Figure.  I am thinking part of that is because I got to work 2nd this summer, all of my socializing has been relegated to the weekends.  I did get to spend more time in the garden and had a much better veggie crop since I could effectively water at least every other day.  Of course this meant there were more veggies for the raccoon and rat to eat.

However my list of projects is not ANY shorter and in fact there are some weatherizing tasks that need to happen prior to fall and the rainy weather really hitting.  I do have a lead on a handy man.  I just got to make the call and work out some pricing.  Every time I start thinking about that I try and whittle down the list, most everything on there I can do myself its just the getting to it that isn’t happening.

This week is crazy busy.  Admittedly because I’m a perfectionist.  I took Missy in yesterday to the soggy doggy for a bath.  This way she has the rest of the week to lose the coat loosened by the bath and still be clean and shedding less for when I take her to Katherines on Friday morning.

I have a dentist appointment today to fit in a cleaning before my shift changes back to first and it becomes nearly impossible to get in.

I have Chars wedding cake to bake on Thursday in preparation to travel to Ocean Park on Friday to finish assembling, filling, icing and decorating for the wedding on Saturday.

Thursday is also Lola’s birthday and I would love to take her some flowers but I just don’t see it happening until next week.   Maybe if I get far enough ahead with the to-do’s I can go over Wednesday before work.

I have company flying in on Friday and will be staying until Tuesday.   I will not be there for Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday.  I want to make up the guest room, clean the guest bathroom, pick up some fresh flowers and groceries for them, you know make it perfect.

So my to do list looks something like this:
Soggy Doggy
Change bedding in guest room
Dentist appt
Mow
Clean pool
Clean bathroom(s)
Defrost raspberries for cake
Grocery shopping
Cut flowers for guest room
Make Icing (ivory)
Clean House
Bake 8 cake layers, 2 each 14″, 10″, 8″ and 6″
Pack for weekend and figure out what to wear to wedding
Drop off Missy
Vacuum
Pack up truck with Cake and all gear needed to decorate and serve on site
(this involves a separate list altogether)
Drive to Ocean Park, help set up for wedding, decorate wedding cake, hang out on beach, relax already!

Somehow I will shoehorn in my workouts everyday as well.

Just Another Saturday Morning Project

I bought a new coffee maker last year.  After doing some research on consumer reports and weighing the features I wanted most.

What I didn’t count on was the fact that three times in the last year the filter part has clogged during brewing, overflowing hot coffee (nearly a full pot) onto the rosewood kitchen island.

This is a beautiful piece of furniture and the last time I looked up several ways to take out the white spot on the table, I tried several and it worked.  Thing is with my peri-menopausal brain, I can’t remember which worked best.  Google is an amazing tool and I found the same techniques this time as last time but since I tried more then one before I couldn’t remember which work best.

So here are pictures of the white marks.

Sad huh.

First I pulled out the hair dryer to open up the pores of the wood.  It is also supposed to help dry out the water trapped under the finish.  Then I put on the mayonnaise.  I know eewwwwe right.

At least I now know why I keep the hairdryer since I can’t seem to figure out how to work the thing for its actual intent and I end up with a crazy mess of frizzy hair.

I let the mayo sit on there for about 30 minutes.  I think the reason this part worked better last time was because I let it sit there overnight.

No patience for that this morning.  After 30 minutes I wiped off the mayo with paper towels.  It was still quite visible.  So I went and got my iron and a dish towel and I iron over the spots with the iron.  It was amazing how much of the white spot was pulled out with steam.  I am not sure the science behind that but it works.  The only problem is the outer edges of where I ironed had a white cloudy area.  It is so much less noticeable then before.

I used the hair dryer again to heat up the wood, open up the pores and put some orange oil on and rubbed it in.

Now with the appliances back on the table, anyone not knowing about the damage would not notice.  I can still see a little cloudiness but that may evaporate.  It doesn’t help that it rained last night so the air is pretty full of humidity.

So anyone stumbling across this post because they have Googled “how to get white spots out of wood”  I suggest you go with the steam iron on dishtowel or t-shirt first.  Then when most of it is gone, use the hair dryer to open up the wood and buff some oil (furniture or even olive oil) into the wood.

Another note about the mayonnaise.  That is what my mom used to do, so of course that is the one I lean toward first.  But what I didn’t do this time that I recall worked well last time was to mix wood ash in with the mayo.   Just more info for future reference since this blog really is turning into my long term and short term memory.