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!