The Exterminator and His Dog

I’m not even going to apologize about disappearing down the rabbit hole for months at a time again. That’s just life for me right now. Between the “part time” job that really isn’t all that part time, keeping up with my ridiculously energetic munchkins, sleep deprivation from hubby’s newly found interest in learning to play the guitar until 3 am, and keeping up with the demands of the family on the apartment (i.e. picking up, cleaning, dishes, laundry, ect), my creative juices have pretty much been put on the back burner. Ok, so maybe three rows back. Excuses, excuses.

A couple of days ago, I got a notice underneath my door. This may sound unusual, but remember that in New York, that’s one of the primary ways of communication between renters and their tenants. So the note was about a visit from the exterminator tomorrow. Involving a dog. Ehm, what? Like most New York buildings, we have the usual problems with roaches and mice. What I’m wondering, is what in the world is the dog for?? I’ve heard of rat dogs, do we have rats?? Do we have some dogs that are really talented at searching out roaches and maybe we’ll finally be rid of them? You’re right, that might be a bit too much to hope for.

They nicely asked that we don’t leave any food around the house open. I’m rather curious about that too. Do they not want the dog eating things off people’s floors? Or would they become distracted from finding whatever prey it was looking for? I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

Becky

Let's Wash it with Febreeze

Listening to: Olivia
Mood: Blah

So I saw this commercial the other day on tv. A mom walks into her teen son’s room and says, “Whew, it stinks in here, aren’t you having company later? We have to wash this entire room.” The son then says, “Wash the entire room, how?” “We’ll wash it with Febreeze.” Is the mom’s answer.

Um, what? This sounds to me distinctly like something the teenage boy should be saying instead of the mom? Really? “Washing” a stinky teen boy room with Febreeze? Now I LOVE Febreeze. But I’m afraid that Febreeze would have quit a challenge with this. Washing sheets, curtains, and vacuuming a room would be much more appropriate. Are we really getting SO lazy as a society that we spray things with air freshener and call it clean? What next, our clothes? Oy.

Becky

When the Children Cry

Mood: A little Tired
Listening to: Little Bear. Ugh.

Anyone seen the White Lion video for When Children Cry? Oh my god. It’s hilarious.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything else from White Lion, but I’d heard this song before. Can anyone else hear the panties dropping back in the 80’s when these guys started playing this song? Seriously, all the chicks had to go nuts when they started playing this song. When the children sing, a new world begins. Really, is that all it takes? We must have had a bazillion and one new worlds so far.

It’s pretty funny to watch the lead singer too. He knows he’s hot stuff and that the chicks are literally fighting to be with him after this song.

I love 80’s hair bands and their music videos. They’re just so much fun to watch.

Becky

Be a Pack Rat

Listening to: Bolt, for the 20 bazillionth time
Mood: Groggy

We’re having a relaxing day on this wonderfully hot Sunday. I’m finding it challenging to stay awake, so I thought I would blog to restimulate my frontal cortex. I think it’s my frontal cortex anyhow.

I recently saw an ad for a “pod” type storage company called Pack Rat. Pod type storage companies bring a large storage crate, a “pod”, and you fill it with whatever crap you don’t have room for in your home. The storage fairy then comes and whisks it away to storage land until you request that it be returned.

I find the whole concept of putting your stuff in storage for more than a short while to be absolutely ridiculous. If you have too much stuff for what your living space is now, it’s time to get rid of some stuff. Not put it in storage. I guess the thing that gets me about this company in particular is that its not masquerading itself as a short term storage solution. It seems to be marketing itself to people who just have too much stuff. And they don’t want to get rid of any.of. it. Yes! Be a packrat! Accumulate so much stuff that it actually starts costing you money to own it beyond the purchase price! This is fantastic. Don’t want get rid of that piano you never play and those 536 collector McDonald’s toys you swear will be putting your kids through school? No problem. Not only will we store it for you, we’ll just be taking some of that “college education money” and using it to put our own kids through college. Thanks.

I live in a 1100 square foot apartment in NY. We’re actually really blessed because for where we live, 1100 square feet in an apartment is just above a luxury that you usually get charged an arm and leg and first born for. Hubby and I have had many, many a passive aggressive argument about the amount of stuff that we have. We have 2 kids, so much of our stuff is tied to the kids. But we have arguments every year about the amount of books and Christmas decorations we have. I’m ok with the amount of stuff we have, hubby is not so ok. I think 75% of our closet space is taken up with kids clothing. I saved everything from our eldest daughter (5 years old) for the younger daughter (now 1). So while it’s painful for our closets, it’s saved us a lot of money not having to by the youngest her own wardrobe. The clothes slowly get passed along to others (my best friend is having her third baby, a little girl, in July!) as the youngest grows out of them, so our closet space is slowly returning. Sometimes even I wish we had about half the stuff that we do, but we couldn’t be able to have people over and wait quite so long to do laundry, so I’m ok with it.

But seriously Pack Rat Company, encouraging hording is never a good thing. Encourage temporary storage for if a person is moving if you want, but encouraging people to pay for storage instead of getting rid of stuff – not cool.

Becky

Popping my head out of the gopher hole to see the sun

Mood: Sunshine and warmth deprived
Listening to: Collective Soul - Let Your Light Shine Down

Um hi. Are you still here? I believe I used to blog on here. I’ve been trying to get back for quite some time, but you know how it is. Life has been occurring, children have been distracting. Anyhow.

So. You might want to take a seat for this one. I got a job. A real, adult-type-paying-job that has nothing to do with serving food. I do editing for an online education/certification firm, which shall remain nameless in the instance that they don’t want to be named. I work part time from home building and editing courses through online tools. It really wasn’t what I wanted when I interviewed with the company, but I enjoy it a lot now that I’m doing it. It has helped my family adjust slowly to my working. Hubs in particular was concerned that he might be asked to do more work around the house if I was working full time. I know, you poor, poor baby. I do wish I was a little busier with it, but I guess I’d rather be a little under-busy rather than swamped. I also get paid quite a bit more than I was expecting, so I’m definitely counting my blessings.
Aside from that, just caught up in the day to day whirlwind of raising my girls and going through life with the husband. Waiting for a visit from the mother on Memorial day. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep on top of this too. I love writing and have missed it in the time that I’ve been too sucked up with real life to blog.

Becky