I'm not at all thrilled when programs I have taken out of start up get back in. It over crowds my computer and some of them are things I only use occasionally. On the other hand, the icons for some things I need often, like my sound icon, don't bother to show up at all! Bah!

I didn't get much done today. I slept a couple of hours longer than I intended to. In my defense, I didn't sleep well once I finally got to bed, and I have had a back ache since sometime in the night.

When I started this post, I had a purpose. Beats me what it was, now.

Last week, I spent most of my time going to and from Portland and helping to pack and unpack. It was a beautiful week, for which I am grateful because I hate driving in rain. My car's defogger doesn't work well and until it gets fixed, it's a nuisance to drive in rain. I would have liked to have gotten my garden cleaned up. I need to thin out the iris and I'd like to cut the dead tops of flowers, but it'll get done eventually.

Traveling was beautiful. I took my camera with me a couple of times and took some pictures. This was done as I was driving, so it was just a quick point and shoot (this is on I-205 around Portland), but I did manage to get a shot of each of the big mountains I passed each day.

It's easy to tell Schnookie is here. This was the living room the day after he moved in:
Great view from the front door. It's a little better now, but things still aren't in order, yet.

We are taking loads of "stuff" to the storage place. He has furniture that we simply have no room (or need) for. I'm also taking some of my stuff and will return it bit by bit and either find a proper place for it or get rid of it. I'm also putting the chairs I want to fix (reupholster) there until I can get to them. The fewer things here taunting me to get them done, the better I will be able to get to what is here. I figure that by the time Schnookie moves out again, I will have my things dealt with.


It's not completely adjusted, yet, so it's a little crooked at the top. I have the other end curtain almost done and the front curtains cut. I now have all I need and I don't need to rush out to Jo-Ann's to get something, so, hopefully, I will get them done tomorrow and plain window curtains are easier than this. Then, finally, I can get to my kitchen curtains.

This is a loft bed, but he decided that, while his room in Portland was so small, he needed to use the floor space under it, he really prefers not to hit his head every time he wakes up at night. Right now the mattress is on the floor under the bed. He will use the top for storage and eventually make a platform about 4-6 inches off the floor for the mattress. The curtains will go around the bed to enclose it. This is (or will be) his "bed fort." He's 25, but still a kid at heart. Takes after his Mom.

It was pouring rain when I woke up, but by the time I headed up to Jo-Ann's the sun was out. Although I didn't really want to go out, I needed the black grosgrain ribbon for the curtains, and the sunshine made it totally worth it. I might not have noticed it if I'd stayed in. I also took advantage of a 70% off sale and got a couple of decorations for my door.

Here's my long overdue review of 

The Trial of Robert Mugabe by Chielo Zonz Eze

This is an elegantly simple story. However, don't let its simplicity hide its depth. It's a beautiful tale, but an ugly story. The tale is told in what seems to me to be an oral history tradition. It is a true story told fictionally. It has a rhythm to it and it creates a definite aura. It connects to both literature and history.

Robert Mugabe is a dictator, chosen by his people, but who then followed what he wanted despite what his people wanted. As a result, as often happens in such cases, whole peoples were nearly or completely wiped out. This is history. Mugabe still rules today, though still opposed.

Eze has found a way to try him for his crimes. He has found a voice for the dead and he has made them real, believable personalities. These are people we can care about rather than the unknown, voiceless, faceless victims of Mugabe's power. I cannot say who among the witnesses are actual people given voice by Eze and who are "Everyman," since my knowledge of African life is vague and mainly uninformed. However the writers he refers to, Yvonne Vera and Alexander Kanengoni, and their books, are real.

The Trial of Robert Mugabe is a cautionary tale -- specifically for Mugabe, himself, but I can also see it being read or told when Mugabe is buried so far in the past that people aren't sure if he was real or just a creation of Eze's to warn against blind dictatorship. It also serves to make the current reader aware of and care about what is happening in Zimbabwe.

Yesterday was not a good day! First off, I did not sleep well. Then when I got back to sleep in the morning, I had a dream in which I experienced having a stroke or something. It was disorienting because I was dreaming first person, not watching a dream. I have a lot of strange dreams, but this was one of the strangest. I was so worried that people would find out I was faking, but I wasn't faking. Apparently I drifted in and out of consciousness because things happened that I was unaware of and would have been aware if conscious. Very odd dream. (Even so, without everything else it wouldn't be bad despite being odd.) Then I woke up (way too late!) to a killer headache and my diaphragm hurt like crazy (from doing too many crunches on Monday). The headache eased up, but came back. The diaphragm ache never left. Still hurts a bit today.

Then I talked to Mom and she has not been feeling well off and on for a while now. We think it's a reaction to her medication(s?). Her cardiologist told her she doesn't follow the book about anything. If a medication has a side effect, she'll have it worse, or come up with a new one. She's taken the one we think is the problem for about three months now. Part of the problem is that not taking it makes the original problem worse than it was before she started it. She has an appointment with her PCP on Saturday. Hopefully they'll figure something out. She took her Vicodan last night and, though she's sleepy, she feels much better today. He appetite returned yesterday, too. When my mom doesn't eat, we know something is wrong. Yesterday, however, she ate everything on her plate but the lettuce. It's the first time in a couple of weeks.

Then I got a letter from one of my best friends back in NY (the non computer friend). Normally that's a joyous thing, but she had bad news. Her mom had had a mini stroke (TIA) last month. Fortunately, she's doing OK now. Mom G. does have a wonderfully positive attitude. The other bad news from her is that a mutual best friend has died. She'd just barely turned 57! She had such a hard life. She was one of those people that seemed to attract bad luck. I was trying to get connected with her online and looked forward to it. We'd been out of touch for quite a while because we are both terrible letter writers. We kept up with each other through the friend whose letter I received yesterday. I think I was stunned when I first read it, but last night it made me want to cry. I still feel so sad about it. And I'm angry -- at myself for not having gotten back in direct touch with her sooner and at "Fate" for her dying so young. [And 57 IS young. We have a lot of nonagenarians in our family -- and my friend's mom is 91 too. (the friend who wrote) Positive, upbeat attitude is part of, though. My late friend was not the most negative person when I knew her, but so many bad things happened to her, she did become more negative.]

Because no one felt like cooking, Mom ordered Mexican food. They give us too much, but it tastes so good, I ended up eating my whole meal. Next time I'll ask for a lunch size. Basically it's healthy, just more than I needed. I was over 200 calories over. I didn't add the cookies I had because HoneyBearl hid them (Yes, he needs to do that -- especially when I'm in such a bad mood) and I don't know what they're called. Some Elf cookie. Tasty, but totally what I should not have had.

Between the headache and the diaphragm pain, I didn't get any exercise, today. Friday, when I'm scheduled again, I will do only half and work my way back up to where I was.

Only one thing was really that bad, but having everything in one day made them all worse.

On the good side, I caught up with a couple of my Xanga blog subscriptions. I'm trying to catch up with all those who comment.

I also updated a few things on my website (mainly added a few of my new recipes). I hjave several things on the drawing board for my website, but I haven't gotten much done with them, yet. I hope once winter's here I will be done with some of the IRL projects and can work on the computer projects.

Schnookie is coming to help me move some heavy stuff. He should be here any time, now. Fortunately, I feel better today and am in a better frame of mind. Hmmm... apparently either he didn't leave when he said he was, or he's run into bad traffic. He should be here now. Ah! There he is!

I have nothing about Columbus Day except that it actually fell on Columbus Day this year. While the USPS is off today, e-mail spammers have been busy. I received 89 e-mails that got through the spam filter, 76 of which were spam. There were 165 in the spam filter and they all deserved to be there. That's just two of 9 e-mail accounts.

I switched my e-mail back to TongFengDeMao. We'll see if the digests come through again.

I've been frustrated today. I had expected to get mom's bathroom painted this afternoon, but there were still some holes to plaster and screws and nails to remove. I'm taking a break while the plaster dries in those holes. I decided I will get the first coat done today, even if it's midnight before I'm done. Tomorrow both Schnookie and my nephew will be here, so we will get the large appliances in the laundry room moved out from the wall so that I can finish that plaster job and start to get it painted in there. I really want to have both rooms done by the end of the week. My fabric is on its way and I want to start making the curtains and shades next week. The most complicated thing about them is getting the cords for the roman shades attached and put in place when they are hung. I don't think it's unreasonable to think I can finish by the end of next week, if I get started this weekend, or next Monday, at the latest.

But my main frustration isn't getting a little behind or even how much work there is to do. It's the lack of energy. I'm not sure how I manage to keep moving sometimes. I just want to lie down and take a nap. It may be simply the SAD/hibernation thing. I've had good reports every time I check in with the doctor. I'm losing weight (slowly), but still eating plenty of healthful food. Definitely, if the SAD is it, the projects are a good thing.

Another frustration is a lack of words. That sounds kind of funny, but, although I can yak here and in person, I am finding it very hard to write. I'm not even talking about creative writing. I have been stuck on my book reviews. Well, actually, I've been stuck with the reading, too. Normally the ADD does not affect my ability to read, but lately it has. What works for that, sometimes, is to read something very different before trying to get back to what I was not keeping up with. It has nothing to do with whether I like the book or not, either. I tend lot read a lot of "literary" fiction because I like it. But sometimes, it is slow going. I need to break it up with some mysteries or sometimes just something very different. The true crime books are my husband's books, but often I read Ann Rule's true crime books. I picked up another true crime story, but it was too gruesome. At least Ann Rule tries to make some sense of what happened. This weekend I read a book about tragic boat crash. It was very sad, but about the strength of the human spirit, so uplifting in that respect. So, after finally doing some new reading I went back to finish my review of the Mugabe story, and my mind just went blank. I remember the book. I have notes. I have an idea of what I want to say, but grrrrrr! The right words are escaping me. It'll end up being much simpler than I want it to be. I think I want too much to make my reviews more like lit class term papers. Lacking the dialog of a class, they never end up that way.

Well, I certainly had no lack of words here! Back to my painting, now.



       

Currently Still Reading Everybody is Somebody's Jew by EminemsRevenge

After I finished posting last night I went back to Fabric.com. In all, I ended up selecting 24 different fabrics and then narrowed them down to 4. This morning we all looked at the computer swatches and decided to go with a completely different fabric.
  
As you can see by the ruler(23" wide), this is a large print.

(If you click on this in the Photoblog, it will open to the actual size.)

We chose it because it has all the right colors and it's light and not particularly seasonal. It's also on sale, so I can get a couple of yards of the Autumn Wind leaf to add to a quilt. We were going to get samples of this and the other red one, but by the time I received them, the sale would be over and then the price would be out of my range. It is now ordered. It's a different feel than I was going for, but I will especially appreciate it in spring, when I want things light and airy. Once the roman shades are made, they will help keep the kitchen warmer, whatever color they are. With the light fabric, I could possibly leave the two side shades down and have only the one over the door open (unless it's sunny!).

I love my new printer! It has a poster option. Since my fabric choice is too large for a single sheet of paper I made a poster. It's now hanging in my kitchen.

You can't see it next to the buffet here, but it matches. The tulip's darkest color is the same.
I know I made the right choice! Here is the small printout with the teapot that was my inspiration for the kitchen.


In other decorating news around here, I am working on the laundry room walls - plastering the seams and screw holes, as well as filling in some of the bigger holes in the cement walls. Since our budget is so tight, I'm not dry walling the existing walls. Just painting. The ceiling won't get done 'til next year. I also won't be able to screen the furnace until then. I'll have pictures of that project eventually.

 

I see a world where all people accept each other as friends and neighbors and celebrate each person's uniqueness as a vital part of everyone's life, like threads in a tapestry.

Currently Still Reading Everybody is Somebody's Jew by EminemsRevenge