Finally!

After living in this house for a year and half, I finally got around to painting the garage door. I am so please with the way it looks. I' had already painted the shutters, doors, and added screen doors. I like this color much better. If you look very closely on the "after" picture, you can see one of the window boxes that finally got hung! My flowers will look so pretty in them!

Here's the before (taken before I closed on the house) ...

And here it is the after painting ...

Happy Valentines Day!

Still Taking a Break

But I'll be back soon.

I've Made a Decision

I'm not going to blog as frequently. Believe it or not, blogging is time consuming, even the very short ones. I need to get back to work writing books, and I need to concentrate my energy on that.

I was making good progress on my third novel when Thing 1 announced she was getting married. I wrote in between planning her wedding, but not as much as I would have liked. After Thing 1 was married, Thing 3 had his accident. Seeing my son on a ventilator and not knowing what the future held for him was gut-wrenching. He ended up just fine, but the stress of that episode sapped my energy for many, many, many months. Then I sold my home and bought a new one. Throw in a crisis or two (or ten), two grandbabies, another wedding coming up and another grandbaby on the way, and it's been a hectic few years.

If I want to continue writing novels ... and I do ... I need to make that a priority. I still plan to blog now and then, perhaps once a week, but it won't be everyday.

Luckily, my life is rather dull, so my posts weren't all that exciting anyway!

Tupperware Lids

When I moved into this house about a year and a half ago, I went through all my plastic bowls and lids and discarded everything that didn't have a mate. Fast forward to this past weekend, when I found all of these lids, but no bowls ...

I'm sure I've lost the occasional bowl or lid, but the magnitude of missing bowls points to one thing ... kids. I can see if you took something to work for lunch and left the bowl and lid there or even if they threw it away on accident, or because they were too lazy to rinse it out, or because it sat for so long it was growing things, but how do you lose the bowl and not the lid???

I saw a meme that seems very appropriate ...

Sadly

... this is not the record for the most updates at one time. My personal record is 538. And, of course, this is just the first round of updates. There are plenty more to follow. It's fair to say that I spend half of my life installing Windows updates.

Justification

Someone (or several someones) who are messy, disorganized, addicted to Netflix and video games, and find it hard to get up in the morning ... and I suspect living in their mother's basements ... have found some "scientists" to hypothesize that these characteristics indicated they are hyper intelligent.

A Messy Environment:
Psychologist Kathleen Vohs explains, "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights."

Or ... they could just be too lazy to clean their room.

Losing Things:
According to "experts", chaotic living spaces actually help highlight priorities, saying. "Losing your passport beneath a pile of clothes indicates you need to do your washing, whilst keys buried beneath mail is a sign you need to open your bills."

Or ... it could mean they are too lazy to put things away.

Addicted to Netflix:
The "experts" offer no reason as to why binge-watching Netflix is a sign of intelligence ... they simply state it as fact.

Or ... it could mean they have no self-control and want the immediate gratification rather without considering how tired they will be the next day. 

Snoozing the Alarm:
Experts say those who hit the snooze button are more intuitive, creative, and clever. I hit snooze on my alarm clock, and I like to think I'm intuitive, creative, and clever ... but it has nothing to do with me hitting snooze and everything to do with the fact that I am not a morning person. And, like watching Netflix, they offer no explanation as to how they came to this understanding ... we're just supposed to take their word for it.

Or ... it could mean, that like me, they're just not a morning person ... or stayed up to late binge-watching Netflix or playing video games.

Video Games:
According to PsychCentral, "People who are addicted to video games have better cognitive skills, social memory, power of reasoning and problem-solving."

Or ... it could mean they are addicted to video games and could benefit from getting a real life!

If these "experts" are to be believed, we owe a lot of slackers an apology!

Today is Work Naked Day

Due to the fact that I have a mortgage and like to eat, I will not be participating!

Fortunately, today is also Carrot Cake Day, and ... given the opportunity ... I will happily celebrate that!

Punxsutawney Phil's Saw His Shadow

Which means six more weeks of winter. So far, we've had a lot of rain, but only had one measurable snowfall, which was less than an inch (and schools had a snow day!). If we have six more weeks of the same kind of winter we've had, I'm okay with that!

Our big snowfall this year.