Writing Wrongs

• One of the worst things about the Swiffer is it piles up a layer of crud against the edges of the floor. Using a real mop and bucket is the only easy way to fix this.
• Two days ago the toilet in the master bathroom backed up and flooded some of the floor. It did not smell good.
• I get a lot of boxes from online orders, they are usually much too big for what was packed in them.
  • There was a 6'x4'x4' area of my livingroom filled with boxes
• I needed a new bedspread. The comforters are too heavy and the sheets are too light.
• I really liked how JC Penney stood behind Ellen DeGeneres

I woke up way late - 10:10.  So much for getting to JCP when they opened. But when I went to shower, Priority 1 had me dig the sponge mop, bucket and Pine cleaner and take care of the bathroom floor and the kitchen floor.

There was some business online I needed to handle, that only took a few minutes.

Then to Valco shopping center and JCP. It took a while to find the quilts and bedspreads. There was a sea of comforters to wade through. Just as I found them a worker bee asked if she could help me find anything. They have three basic kinds of bedspreads. True quilts, which are patchwork sewn together, printed spreads, which look like quilts until you notice the patterns are printed onto the fabric and it is one contiguous piece, and embroidered spreads, which are prints which have some additional patterns (like a string of small flowers or a vine) embroidered on top of the print. I wanted #1. They had a couple, $100 and $210 were the Queen prices. Then I found an odd one for $80 which was pretty close to what I had in my brain. Looked around some more, found a weighted shower curtain liner I could use, $6, and a bright orange sheet set for $30 plus $15 for an extra pair of pillowcases. I keep 4 pillows on the bed. Maybe I'll explain that some time.

While I was looking at shower curtains, another worker bee asked if I needed help finding something and I remembered I needed a new sofa cover. Nope, they only have those online.

Took my stash to the cash register, the total was $98 and some pennies. Huh? Well, that one-off bedspread was half price, on clearance. It wasn't marked on the package or the shelf, so that was a nice surprise.

I told them I was there to support JCP's standing behind Ellen. They did not even blink. They were already smiling before I said that, because they had been trying to sell me on getting a JCP credit card for 20% more off my purchase and I was giving them amusing reasons not to. Anyway, it was no thang to them, which probably just means they have heard it a lot and it's no surprise, what with this being San Francisco Bay and all.

Next to JCP is, allegedly, a Food Court. There are big signs. I decided I would eat lunch there. The choices were few - most of the stalls were unoccupied. Subway was out, as was Burger King. The teriyaki place only had one teriyaki plate, everything else was Udon noodles. There was a noodle place which had rice plates. Okay, let's try the rice plate with pork and an egg roll.  It took 5 minutes. They ran out of forks so they gave me two spoons. I asked for a fork, 5 minutes more for the guy to get them out of the plastic bag (which was open, and right at hand) and into the holder. Looked at the choice of condiments. Sweet and sour sauce and hot sauce. No egg roll sauce. No salad dressing for the iceberg lettuce and shaved carrot salad with cucumber slices.

Took my tray to a table, and saw that I needed a knife too. The pork was large thin slabs of grilled meat. Easy enough to just bite through, it was too far to walk back for a knife. The rice was dry, it was not a tasty meal.

On the way home stopped at Safeway, got celery, apples, bananas, ice cream, milk and whipped cream. The last one is for Domino.

Home, dragged the goodies upstairs. Checked the mail - all that was in the box was a free recipe magazine from Better Homes & Gardens, with an invitation for a subscription. No thanks. Walked in the front door and was surprised to not have to block a small B&W cat from making a dash to freedom. She was fast asleep on the lambskin rug. This is a brand new one, just received a couple of days ago to replace one which was collateral damage from Pumpkin's illness.

Put the food away, put the spread on the bed, it looks a little bland compared to the stars & planets comforter or my sister's patchwork quilt, but it'll work. I had to retire my sister's quilt because after 10 or so years of washing and almost constant use, the colors are mottled and the edges are starting to fray. It's a work of art, I don't want it to deteriorate any further.

Put the orange bedding in the closet because I just changed the sheets yesterday.

Sat down to watch some mindless TV, chose a Kardashian thing or a Real Housewives. After a couple of minutes, a banner comes up at the bottom of the screen from E!, saying Whitney Houston was dead. OMG. Turned to the local stations, nothing. CNN was all over it. With all the file footage of her, why did they keep playing the same 30-second clip of an obscure number from an obscure concert? CNN really sucks that way.

I watched for about the next hour and a half, until there was enough to know we were not going to know anything useful for a couple of days.

Then I hung the shower curtain liner, and it was finally time to attack the pile of boxes. It took almost an hour to break them all down and make a neat stack. Bungee corded them, put them on my dolly and wheeled them out to the dumpster. That's a LONG trip - have to go out the front door, all the way to the driveway, down the drive to the underground parking and all the way to the back of the garage.  The return trip is easier - stairs halfway to the front, one apartment length to mine.

Caught my breath, made dinner and watched some more Tivo.

Dinner was half fail. I made some nice Penang curry dip with soy milk and corn starch. Then I took out the cast iron skillet and tried to make some roti. Burned the first two, but this was my first try on the crappy stove in the new apartment, #3 and 4 came out fine. Ate those, then pulled out some celery stalks and bleu cheese dressing as a post-appetizer. Ice cream for dessert.

Been nibbling on pistachios. They are tres salty, I have to wash my hands and apply lotion after.

It was supposed to rain today, but it didn't We had some wind, and a lot of threatening clouds.

Domino is still yowling at nothing in particular, it doesn't seem to matter where she is when she does it, either. One nice thing about not having a diabetic cat anymore is the bill for litterbox refills will be way lower.

Plans for tomorrow:

I don't think I have any. Maybe coffee with Janice, but she's traveling a lot this month and may want time to meet more men.