It's not ALL good.

I'm afraid it's been long enough since I've posted that I'm going to have to do one of those random bits and pieces update posts.  So here's the good, and the not so good.

Good: The weather is fantastic.  Admittedly, there is a pretty serious drought going on, but on a day-to-day basis, it's hard to complain about blue skies, breezes, and high temperatures ranging from 75 to 80.

Good: Since I've admitted that yoga is not agreeing with my foot, it's been behaving beautifully.  I am happily bipedal and only very occasionally bothered by a twinge of nerve-ishness.

Bad: My foot is fine, but my husband has taken over the role of Family Gimp.  Two weeks ago, he broke his big toe in a nasty, nasty way.  I'll spare you the details, so just trust me: nasty.  He'll probably lose the nail, too, which will make for a long, hot summer of looking revolting in sandals.

Good... no, ASTOUNDING: The weekend immediately following the breaking of the toe, I realized that if anything was going to get done around the house, it was going to get done by me.  Cleaning - me.  Cooking - me.  Childcare - me.  Shopping - me.  Laundry - me.  But this isn't the greatest change from the way our lives normally run, so it hasn't been oppressive.  Actually, it had the reverse effect of making me feel quite empowered.  So empowered did I feel that I found myself opening the box that had been sitting in my kitchen for the last six or more months, the box containing the kitchen faucet I bought from Amazon shortly after we moved in.  (I paid less than the price in that link.  A lot less.  More than 50% less, because I ROCK THE SHOPPING.)  There was nothing wrong with the existing faucet in our sink, except it was the boring, bottom of the line builder's special, something like this $15 jobbie, except even less stylish.  It worked, although the low spigot combined with the double bowl sink style meant that it was a challenge to fill pots or wash anything particularly large, like a cutting board.  But it worked, and I thought that changing it would be beyond my DIY skills, so the pretty faucet sat in its box, waiting for some handier person to come along and offer to install it for me.

This did not happen.  Plumbers don't just come riding up on white horses, you know.

So on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to just open the box and read the instructions.  And they seemed pretty straightforward, and I had all the tools (thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, who for Christmas gave me -- ME -- a set of basic tools with awesomely girly purple and fuschia handles) so I went for it. My husband thought I was nuts, but I DID IT.  I took out the old faucet and installed the gorgeous new one, and it only took one hour from pulling all the cleaning supplies and trash bags out from under the sink to testing the new faucet.  No leaks.  It looked great.  And did I mention that I did it all myself?  I did.  With pink and purple tools, wearing leopard print pants.

It's amazing how much fancier a kitchen looks when it has a $350 faucet rather than a $15 one.

Good: My husband's temporary incapacitation has also resulted in an increase in the amount of one-on-one quality time I've spent with my son.  We usually spend our weekends going out as a family (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) so it's been fun to go out just with my son.  Very fun to take him to the library to help him pick out a bag full of novels.  (This itself deserves its own Good: After ages of insisting on only science books, my son's finally learned to love novels.  Thank you, Captain Underpants!)  It's delightful to be able to take him out to lunch and confirm that he really is an interesting person to have lunch with... he doesn't talk about Captain Underpants too much at all.

Also Good:  BzzAgent sent me some coupons for free Guiltless Grill meals at Chili's, so our post-library lunch cost me only $10, including a very generous tip.  The cedar-plank-grilled tilapia I tried was definitely tasty, but I gotta say, I'm so not down with the no-carb lo-carb thing.  I'm pro-carb.  To me, a meal isn't a meal unless it has a starch.  A meal can be all starch, sure!  Bring on the spicy noodles and the bagels!  But no starch?  Nooooo.  Not on my watch.  So the tilapia was delicious, and the accompanying broccoli was steamed to an attractive green (as well as free of parmesan cheese, just as I'd requested) but the plate just seemed to be crying out for some Spanish rice.  I snagged quite a few french fries off my son's plate.  Thankfully he is as generous as he is gregarious, so it was all good.

Good, but Also Really Disgusting: BzzAgent also sent me some goodies from Scrubbing Bubbles, an Automatic Shower Cleaner and those stamp-in toilet gels.  The shower cleaner is working fairly well, although I find I have to adjust the batteries after every few uses, but the gels are terrifying.  I'd heard that they give off a fresh scent, so I put one in my son's toilet, which tends to smell... not so fresh.  (He's six.  Sometimes his attention wanders, and when his attention wanders....) The toilet gels definitely masked the little-boy-bathroom smell, but the chemical-clean scent that smothered it was overpowering.  It rolled out of the bathroom and poisoned the air in the hallway.  I kept waiting for the thing to melt away, but it lasted far longer than the promised week.  Eventually, tired of hearing my husband and son complain about the stench, and tired of choking on it myself, I steeled my nerves and scraped the gooey remnants off the toilet bowl.  Flush.  Goodbye.  And ugh.  (The shower cleaner smells fine, by the way, just lightly "clean" and not at all offensive.)

Very Good: I got some good news about my son, which I'll share later.

Good: I've been taking Pilates classes at the Y, as an alternative to yoga while my foot fully recuperates, and I've been loving them.  The instructor definitely veers off the strict Josef Pilates script, but her classes are so fun.  She blasts music and makes comments about our butts and has us do ridiculous things with rubber playground balls.  It hurts so good.

Bad: The Pilates classes, in this beautifully warm weather, make me sweat.  Unfortunately, I seem to be not so much an armpit-sweater or a forehead-sweater but a groin-sweater.  I discovered this, much to my dismay, while wearing a pair of tight beige yoga pants... in the front row of the class.  I don't think it was too noticable, but it was distressing.  It was just sweat, ladies behind me!  Just sweat!  I was sweaty!  Unless I figure out some sort of miracle solution, I'll just have to wear black pants to class until November.

Good: Speaking of miracle solutions, my friend Rosie sent me an eyelash serum to try after she read about me ripping out a chunk of eyelashes back in January.  And it's working!  Last time I ripped out eyelashes, it took six months for the lashes to grow back in to a halfway-decent length.  This time, they're almost entirely grown in after only three months.  Stunning.  The stuff is from Arbonne, and it's called Virtual Illusion Lash Enhancer.   If you want some, go to Rosie.  She'll hook you up.

Good: It's time for "No Reservations."  Catch you all later.

Comments

[Jen]

Hee. I love this sort of post, since it's what I've been having to do lately as well. And I ADORE the story about replacing the faucet. You ROCK THE HIZZOUSE. Or something like that. I can't keep up with what the kids are saying these days.

[Ruthanna]

Whatever happened with Dorian's IQ test?

[JMH]

I laughed when I read about your experience with the toilet gel stamp things. I purchased that product for my kids' bathroom. When my 5 year old saw it, he yelled "MOM! Someone put a pickle in the toilet!" So funny....!!

[Lori]

We miss you ; ) Hope all is well...

[Rosie]

Hey girl thanks for the mention! You rock putting in that faucet! BTW the link for me doesn't work- try www.rosiefuture.myarbonne.com
thanks!!!! XXOO Rosie