A Little Of This, A Little Of That

I've been kind of MIA these past few days because NOTHING is going on in my life. The weather has been hot, the humidity has been disgustingly high, K has been home for the last ten days, and my girls are having relatively calm existences, so nothing big to report. But, I will attempt to thrill and chill with the following:

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The cat has decided to go on an all hard food diet--or so it seems. I have been trying to feed her the new stuff (canned) that we bought while out of town and I SWEAR I saw her spit on it before she turned and walked away. So, it looks as if Science Diet canned is NOT going to be on her menu. Also, I had to throw the 'vitamin, glucosamine, older cat' treats away. The look she gave me when I tried feeding those to her! I KNOW she was looking at my throat, trying to decide how best to open my carotid artery! Oh, well, at least I tried.

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The youngest daughter finally got to go home for good on Monday. She had been pet/house sitting for two weeks and she said it was the LONGEST two weeks of her life! She also is making a move with her work: she now will be working full time at one of the clinics she has been at and will no longer work at the other one. It is a good move for her: she will have regular, NON-split shift hours, benefits, and better pay. And her husband's hours of work are changing, so it looks as if they will be a little closer to normal working schedules.

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I had to get a package out to the grandson. It seems as if the newest, greatest toy/s he can think of having are keys, so I had to make up some key rings and get them to him. Why me? Well, my father-in-law saved everything. Listen to me: my father-in-law SAVED EVERYTHING!!! They had a four-car garage and couldn't fit ONE car in it because of everything he had stashed away there. So, after he died, K came home after one of his trips to see his mother with a box full of keys that his father had kept. There were keys of every shape, size, and use that you could think of. Everything from skeleton keys to those little keys that came with those dime store diaries we used to get as little girls--they all were in that box. And, of course, they got stashed away in MY house--as if I need any more junk here! Well, C called the other day and said she remembered the keys and could I send some her way. Thank goodness, I now got rid of a few MORE things from my house. At this rate, the girls WON'T have to sort through too much junk after I'm gone. :)

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One example of my f-i-l and the stuff he saved. While he and my mother-in-law were cleaning out the garage one day, she came across a piano hinge from a piano keyboard cover. They NEVER owned a piano. They knew NO ONE who owned a piano. Why did he save it? Because SOME DAY, someone might need one and he would have it for them.

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Again with the in-laws. The day they cleaned out the garage I thought was going to be the last day they were married. As m-i-l carried 'junk' out of the garage and put it in the back of the pick up, f-i-l would sneak the same thing back INTO the garage and hide it. I still am amazed that she was able to get as much stuff thrown away as she did. And he was completely HEARTBROKEN because she was getting rid of the stuff. After all, as he said, "It's not like any of that stuff is a bother. It doesn't need to be fed, it isn't in anyone's way, it doesn't need to be taken care of." He TRULY couldn't understand why he had to dispose of any of it. (I would have agreed with him, but there wasn't anything worthwhile to be had, so...)

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My childhood friend emailed me the other day asking for the Finnish term for a word she remembers from when she was young. While we both grew up in Finnish households, her mother used different words than mine did, at times. I couldn't remember the word she wanted and haven't had any luck with the English/Finnish dictionaries online. She could be thinking of one of the various 'Finglish' words that we grew up with. I have forgotten almost all of the Finnish I knew when I was younger. When things like this come up, it is one of the very few times I wish I was speaking to The Mother--she would know what I was looking for.