mayday

And it's another sunny beautiful day with me in the dirty stinky house! At least today I have hope of getting it cleaned, although I have a little headache already and a newsletter to finish for school, the first since I started my job. To complicate the task, the principal, who has been my primary proofreader and supplier of information for the opening pages, has left the school and I'm missing some key components, including upcoming events (which I can somewhat figure out) and announcements (which I can't). But I hope to post it by Monday. I just have the tedious task of editing and adding clip art.

Meanwhile, Kevin and B have gone fishing! Kevin texted that the ocean is rough but B is having fun. I'm thinking of inviting the Doll over for dinner to make up for not seeing her on Mothers' Day but I always have to be sure the house is presentable so I have a couple of hours before that determination can be made.

M went out to dinner last night and just as I was drifting off to sleep, she texted that they might go to an 11:30 movie. I texted back, "!" and fell asleep.  She came home at 2am and scared us all out of sleep! Kevin hadn't even realized she was going to be out so late, and my usual radar is all cobwebbed from the months of not having to worry about where she was or when she would be home. It was a really odd feeling - because if she hadn't come home, I wouldn't have known till this morning! I don't like that thought - it's going to be a rough summer of this.

On the job front, there is still nothing to report.  Although I can't write here about the secret happenings at work, change is indeed in the air and I don't know how that will affect me in the long term.  Since both of my bosses will be retiring before the end of the year, everything is just a big question mark, and I still find I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing.  Surely it isn't a hard job, although once in a while when I am called on to perform a task, it *is* difficult, and hours of idle waiting make it more difficult for my brain to turn on.

I am also starting to notice strange tensions in the air, and an artificial friendliness that fills the gap in an attempt to cover it up. I am not directly affected by it, but I have to really remain aloof if I don't want to get drawn in.  That's not easy for me to do, and I did come close to losing my cool last week with one particularly condescending staffer.  I just reminded myself to remain above it all, and hoped myself would listen.  But overall, I do still like it although I don't think it's a good sign that the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is peruse the daily job emails on my phone.

And in other news, it's litter box changing day. I'm on a quest to find the best cat litter. We used to use Fresh Step, and I loved the way you could not scoop the boxes for days and the house wouldn't smell like cats. But it would smell like Fresh Step, and so would the cats - all the time! There was a fine powder all over everything in the laundry room, and all over the cats. I'd get it in my nose when I'd scoop and couldn't get the smell out for hours. So, regretting that I'd have to give up the luxury of not scooping as often, I began a search for a replacement.

Now that there are five cats and we've had problems with inappropriate urination, I really had to make a good choice. So I did a little internet research and found Dr. Elsey's CatAttract Litter.  Although I can't say it smells fragrant, it does clump wonderfully and the peeing has subsided quite a bit.  As a test, I had another box with another highly rated litter in it, and it sat unused for two weeks while the cats continued to pile into the CatAttract boxes, no matter how soiled they were.  I also invested in a plug-in Feli-way diffuser for the bedroom, where the new cats hang out, and that seems to have helped with the peeing as well. We've still had a couple of incidents, but not upstairs (except for when M locked one of the new cats in her room for hours).

And on that note - I think I hear the dust bunnies fighting!

settling in

It's going to be a beautiful day! Next week will see my two month anniversary at the job come and go, meaning in one month I will have passed the official 'trial period' of 90 days.  At that point I'll have all sorts of fancy benefits, including finally a retirement savings plan, my first in 17 years! Not that I can put much in, most has to go to college tuition, present and future, but in order to get the match rate of 5%, I have to put 5% in myself. So technically my pay will go down in a few weeks.

Not a whole lot of excitement has gone on in recent weeks.  Kevin has been traveling a lot, M has been hanging around the house most of the time, and B continues to allegedly strive to improve his GPA. The verdict on that will be in in four weeks or so. Meanwhile, I"m trying to get him into a summer program in computers at one of the local colleges for a week in July. I have been back and forth with the guidance office because the college's website wasn't functioning properly and the deadline is Tuesday! But we should have an answer on that by the end of the week.

In the world of M, lifeguard tryouts are today so she is excited to have something to do. They have to run a mile, swim 500 yards, and then complete some re-certification coursework.  They are lucky to have such a nice day for it this year. Other than that, she hasn't been doing much because none of her friends are back from college yet. She has some travel plans in early June, and she'll start work in mid- late-June. She is supposed to be trying to find herself something relevant to her major, as she'll have to interview for placements over the next semester for her co-op in January. So far these efforts have been limited to one unreturned phone call and a bounced-back email to the woman who led the volunteers when she volunteered at a hospital two years ago.

And in other news, we had to get a new floor for our family room!  The day that the dogs had their baths, I don't know what happened to Abby. She must have eaten something bad, or else she was just so distraught that she had terrible gastric upset beginning in the evening. She projectile vomited a couple of times before bed, but then came to bed acting normally. Well, at some point in the night she must have been stricken and went to the back door - but of course nobody was there to open it for her. So - the rug was horrifically soiled. We decided to get the wood laminate because it should be easier to care for than hardwood (and cheaper!) in case of incidents like this one. It's such an improvement over the ugly old rug.  And finally - the pool is open! And so we settle in and wait for summer ... and all the fun that it brings (and - sigh - the long-awaited MRIs...not looking forward to those.)