I shouldn’t be surprised since Kevin began reading when he was 3 yrs old, but it’s still amazing to see this happen. I can’t wait to see Robin next week and see in person all the things he is able to do. He will probably not seem at all like the little boy I last saw in March, having grown up lots since then. I do wish they lived closer…

The tally is: 2 tank tops, a dressy top to match some pants I got last time, 2 bras, 9 pairs of trouser socks, and a new rug for my bathroom. In addition, I got two really cute little outfits for niece Harmony’s twins (who are due any day!) and a great housewarming gift for Vanessa! All of this wound up costing me $60 after my discounts and coupons!!! I am so hooked on Kohl’s, it is ridiculous! I really need to stay away from that store…at least until I get my next 30% off coupon!

After that I went to Lamps Plus to see if I could find some new lamps for my bedroom. The ones I have right now just don’t match the new decor. I found two that will work much better and both were on sale for half price! They are the same style, just different sizes. This is going to work well since I have a nightstand on one side of the bed and a small dresser on the other side. The smaller of the two will go on the dresser and the taller on the nightstand. This way they will both look about the same height since the dresser is taller than the nightstand.

And then it was off to caring for all the kitties! Amanda’s kittens were thrilled to see me and began non-stop meowing and purring. Both were up for lots of cuddling as well. And then I opened the can of food and they went nuts! I could barely get the food into their bowls before they began eating! I used the opportunity of them wolfing down their food to sneak out of the apartment. I was surprised that Christina’s cats were very friendly towards me. Peanut met me at the door and Izzy came out when I called her, allowed me to pick her up and give her the meds.

And then I was off to my own cats at home. Since it cooled off a bit, both were eager to go outside for a bit. When I went out to bring them inside I noticed a wonderful smell–the night-blooming jasmine is in bloom again! Hopefully it will still be blooming when Kevin, Soula and Robin arrive on the 14th.

Now I’m done on here so I can watch the live stream of Burning Man! He’s supposed to burn around 10 pm and I’m hopeful it goes off as planned. Last year it was almost 11 pm before it happened!

I got my new bedroom rug delivered this past week as well as the bedding for my new bed. Unfortunately, the rug had a 2″ piece along one of the edges that was frayed. I sent Kohl’s an email and they arranged for pickup of the damaged rug. Then I had to place an order for another rug for which they will give me credits for the sale price, free shipping and 15% off. The new rug will be delivered sometime next week. Glad I checked the rug right away. I would hate to have waited until I spread it on the floor…which may not be until later this weekend.

The bedding seems to be okay. I’m going to try to put the bedskirt on later today. It all depends on whether I can lift the mattress. We’ll see. I don’t want to do something that will cause problems as a result of my surgery. I can wait until I have some help.

Right now Patrick and almost all his friends are off at Burning Man. I read where they had a large dust storm yesterday but, otherwise, it seems all is going well. They either don’t have cell connections or have elected not to text/tweet/etc while out there. I’ve watched the live feed a few times and will definitely watch The Man burn tomorrow night.

I’m officially the Pasadena cat sitter this weekend! I’ve been watching Amanda’s cats all week and had to go to her place early this morning to lock them in her bedroom for the day. I found a notice on her door yesterday saying that inspectors would be coming into her apartment today to check the fire alarms! Her cats try to get outside the minute the front door opens and I didn’t want them to get out and run off when the inspectors came in. So I left a note on the front door, shut the cats up in the bedroom and left another note on the bedroom door. Hopefully they won’t get out. I’ll go over again around 5 pm to let them out.

Then tomorrow and Sunday I will be going over to Christina’s (my supervisor) apartment to medicate one of her cats while Christina and her husband are out of town. Her cats are senior citizens and I volunteered to help her out since I have lots of experience giving meds to older cats.

So now I’m getting off the computer so I can try to get laboring!

While the heat has been a big part of the misery of the past week, other things decided to rear their ugly heads as well. I came home from work on Wednesday only to find a note from my pool man saying that the motor for the pool pump had died and I needed to get a new one. I called him that night and we’ve set up an appointment for him to replace the motor today. I checked online to get some idea of pricing and it seems these motors run from about $300 all the way up to $1,200! He’ll be doing the entire job for $320. I’m sure he must buy the motors in bulk (or get them from someone other than a pool supply company) and is able to replace the motor for a lot less than what I would pay to do it myself. Plus, Patrick is just not available to do this right now, what with leaving for Burning Man tonight and all the prep he has to do today. So I’m happy to let the pool man do the work.

Yesterday I pulled into the parking lot at work, rolled down my window and used the parking card to enter the lot. As I pulled into my space, I rolled up the window only to hear a loud clunking noise. And then the window slowly rolled back down! I tried to roll it up and…nothing. I called my mechanic and was able to get the car into their shop right away. The motor for the window had failed and needed to be replaced. Additionally, after they checked the car over, they found a wheel axle (?) was shredded due to something hitting it from the road. I trust them since they’ve been working on my cars for over 20 years. So, $650 later, I have my car back and all is running well once again.

As Kevin commented to me last night, it’s a good thing I got my new bed and ordered the new bedding and rug for my bedroom before all this happened. I probably wouldn’t have been so eager to make these big purchases otherwise. Oh well, it’s only money. And now today I’m going to go spend some more.

I’m going to Sears to order a new dishwasher since mine has completely died. Well, not exactly died, but it is making some terrible noises when it runs and I’m afraid to use it any longer. It is probably 20 years old and really needs to be replaced. Sears is having an appliance sale so I’m hoping to get one for a relatively decent price–probably around $400 when all is said and done. And they will install it for me. I’m taking a vacation day this coming Friday, so am hoping I can schedule it for that day.

So now I’m off to get a few things done around the house while it’s still nice and cool. I can actually do some work without having to take a break in front of the fan every half hour! I know this won’t last, so I’d better take advantage of it while I can!

Things are supposed to cool down by Friday which is good. I can take temps in the 80′s and 90′s, but when it gets hotter than that it’s just too much. I picked up lots of salads at Trader Joe’s on the way home from work. I can’t handle eating much more than that when the weather is like this.

At least I’m back at work where I can spend the day in an air-conditioned office. I would certainly get nothing done at home in this kind of weather!

I have no idea what I’ll be buying, but I have to use the coupons no later than 9/5. Possibly I’ll get some sheets for the new bed since I really don’t need any new clothes right now. And then I guess I’ll just have to have fun shopping!

Hayes decided that he really wasn’t ready for bed yet and began to explore. I had earlier moved the nightstand to the opposite side of the bed from where I normally had it before getting the new bed. He decided to check this out and proceeded to knock over a bottle of water that was sitting on it. I turned on the light and realized I had a cleanup to do since water was all over the nightstand and all over the floor underneath it.

I moved out the nightstand and shifted the bed a bit in order to cleanup the spilled water. There is an electrical plug on the other side of the bed where I have the a/c plugged in. While removing the old waterbed, part of the frame hit it and broke the top plug of the socket. However, the bottom plug still seemed to be working ok so I had the a/c plugged in there. Well, in moving the bed I bumped the a/c plug and sparks started coming out of it and I could smell it burning. Great. I yanked it out of the wall immediately. Now I was stuck with no plug for the a/c unit and extremely warm temps.

After pondering different possibilities (including sleeping in the back bedroom), I finally figured out how to stretch the a/c cord to reach another plug on another wall. It’s not pretty, but it works. The cord goes across the bathroom doorway, so I put a bathmat over it so that I wouldn’t trip on it in the middle of the night. Then I had to move my alarm clock since it was previously using that socket…and of course I had to reset it. All this was happening at 1:00 am!

I decided not to take any more chances and locked both cats out of the room. I’ve decided to call in an electrician to replace the plug by my bed as well as another one in the bedroom that doesn’t seem to have any power right now. I have a couple of other electrical things to be done (including putting up a new light in the kitchen) so I’ll probably try to get those completed at the same time. I know that Patrick could probably help me do this, but both of us are wary of electrical projects so I’d rather just hire an electrician. Both of us will feel more comfortable doing it that way.

It was probably a good thing that all this happened since that plug was obviously very damaged and could have started an electrical fire during the night. I shudder to think of the possibilities.

The cats are still not sure about the bed. Hayes has trouble jumping up onto the bed as well as getting down from it since it is so much higher up than the waterbed. I may have to get him some pet stairs since he is catching his claws on the quilt when he tries to jump up. Of course Nate has no problem getting up there, but he has no problem jumping up onto anything! Both cats have discovered they can go underneath the bed, so we’ll see what pranks that leads to. I expect Nate will hide under there and grab my legs when I walk by.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all the stuff that used to reside on or in the bookcase headboard, including my lamps! So I’ll be planning how to redo the room and will leave all the miscellaneous stuff in a few boxes until I make up my mind. Fun decorating lies ahead!

Tonight I made the list of all the stuff I’m getting rid of in the unlimited trash pick up on Monday. It’s great that the city will haul all this away, but I need to call tomorrow and provide a list of all the stuff that I’m putting out at the curb. There’s lots that I have kept over the years thinking that I would someday need it. No more! I’m getting rid of as much as possible. I’ve held onto too many things for too long and I’m doing my best to get rid of it. I still have lots to remove from the garage, however most that remains in there can fit into my regular trash can and can go out in stages. And some of the stuff out there needs to go to the hazardous waste site–old paint, cleaning supplies, oil, etc.

So tonight I’ll be sleeping in the back bedroom since there’s an air conditioner in that room. The cats are very confused. They can’t figure out why there is no longer a bed in my room and don’t understand why the back bedroom door is open allowing them access to that room. No doubt they’ll be even more confused tomorrow when the new bed comes in–and when they see they can go underneath it!

Well I’m off to try to get some sleep in a regular bed.

The cats (Nate especially) are fascinated with the bed being stripped down. They can see the water moving in the mattress whenever they jump on it and run across the bed trying to chase the water! I don’t know how they’ll manage with the new bed since it is much higher off the ground than the waterbed. Nate will be able to jump up just fine, but it will be a challenge for Hayes since he isn’t a jumper at all. Maybe he’ll be content with all the space he’ll now have under the bed!