Domestic Geek

I need a couple of things and was wondering if anybody that reads this thing would know where I could find them.

1. I need a couple of 1½" comb binders. Just two. That's all. I know those only cost $5.43, but then shipping is another $7. They don't sell small lots of this size at Office Depot or Office Max. I've got a couple of books that the glue in the bindings has deteriorated and the pages fell out. I've already punched the pages with the machine at work, I just need something to keep them together.


2. I need some scrap wood, preferably of the deck-building kind. My old dog keeps falling off of our front steps. He's going to die from a broken neck, not old age. We need to enlarge the landing and make a ramp. You know our money situation--we can't afford to buy wood. Especially to fix steps at this crappy mobile home park.

Since I don't have Radar from M*A*S*H* to run this stuff down for me, I was hoping somebody who reads this might know. Thanks!

Dad came over this morning to take Marcus and me to breakfast. Marcus wanted some biscuits and gravy. We were going to go to LePeeps, but since we had to pick up rabbit food at I-70 & Colfax, we decided to go to the Moonlight Diner over at 62nd & Tower Rd. It's one of those places I always forget of its existance, which is a shame. Decent food and reasonable prices. The only bad thing was the server that kept trying to push dessert on us (they were probably having some kind of server contest). Marcus and I had dinner there a few years back and had intended on going back, but never did.

So while Dad was here, I showed him the progress I'm making at decluttering. I showed him the huge box of buttons that Mom had. She had one of those 48-drawer cabinets that you sort screws, nails, etc. in and it was full. I needed someplace to keep some other stuff, so I dumped all the buttons into a box. Man, there were some ugly, weird buttons in there. Dad told me that not only did Mom hoard buttons, but so did my grandmother and my great aunt, as well. That's why there were so many of them. It was a sin to them to throw away a garment without first removing the buttons. I think that explains why there were some really icky zippers I found, too. Must've been taken out of old clothes.

I held onto it thinking that maybe I'd do a project someday that needed buttons or something. Well, the one time I needed a couple of buttons, there was nothing in that huge cache that even remotely matched what I needed. I ended up going out and buying the buttons I was looking for. It seems a shame to throw the whole lot out. Maybe I can get someone to buy the whole box on eBay or at the flea market. If not, anybody have a need for a box of old buttons?

In other news, Marcus found a new job. Yay!!! He starts on May 1st. A couple of his bosses' last day was yesterday and they were having a going-away party at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Westminster. In ususal Marcus anti-socialness, he wasn't going to go, but I asked him to go and take me so that I could meet some of these people that he's talked about for the last few years. I had a good time and he won't admit it publicly, but I think Marcus did, too. I was a little embarrassed when Marcus' now former boss told me that he reads this weblog. It's weird meeting someone that already knows all about you.

I have some things I wish I could say about my job right now. I don't know if anybody from there would think to google my name, but if they did, it would lead right to here. I will say that I had a long talk with the owner yesterday and have decided not to leave at this moment. Only because I hate looking for new work and I don't want a new job interfering with starting my business. Until I have more time & experience under my belt, another job won't pay more than this one does (except freelancing). It makes me a little sad that I have wasted so much time running away & hiding from life instead of embracing and pursuing it.

That being said, enough sitting here. I've got work to do!

Well, I just went to the post office to mail the tax forms. I had to include an application for installments since I can't pay. *sigh* I had to pledge money monthly to pay it off by next tax time. That's would be $50 or so a month. Now I officially have bills higher than my income (without food, gas, clothing, birth control, or anything else). I can't keep this up any longer. I decided I'm not going to work tomorrow and instead work on getting my freelance business running.

Waaaaaah! All of my Flash skills are gone, as well. I opened it up last night and can't remember how to do a danged thing. This so totally sucks monkey ass! *sigh* So much for making a quick flash header for my design website. If I can find some spare time in the next week, I'll cram from one of my books. If not, I'll have to take that off of my resume as a skill. Argh!

I'm learning Filemaker Pro at work. The owner of the company bought server and 10 licenses for work and I volunteered to implement it. I really just wanted to learn to use it on company time and then get it for my own business later.

I've spent the day throwing stuff out. A LOT of stuff. I had things stuffed in my bedroom closet that I haven't seen since we moved into this house. Actually, I found that old Camp Fire Girl Indian gown I was wearing in that photo I posted last week. I don't know why I've been hanging onto it. It holds no meaning except for a huge waste of my time, so out it went. Clothes I've been holding onto hoping that someday I might fit into them--out they went (when would I have an occasion to wear an early '80s pantsuit anyway?). Mom's old wrapping paper box where all of the ribbon is stained with niccotine and the paper still smells like cigarette smoke--out it went. Huge box of VHS tapes--out it went. I also threw out a plywood reindeer woodworking project that I started over 5 years ago. When I have a house with a garage to work on it and a basement to store the finished project, I'll try again. In the meantime, they're in my way and they give me splinters everytime I try to move them.

I'm changing my craft room into an office (where I can close the door to get some freelance work done), moving a bunch of my craft stuff to the bunny room, and hopefully finding room to store some of the storage stuff in the closets here. If we could save some money by having a smaller off-site storage unit, it would help a little.

OK, that's enough of a break. Back to it.