IT WAS JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY

For somebody who considers needlework to be her cardio, I have to say that I worked my fool head off yesterday. I do this...go six months without moving so much as an inch or two from the big girl sleigh bed and then suddenly have an eighteen hour day of cleaning, mulching, organizing, and whatnot.

It all started when I glanced at the clock and realized that Mr. KC, my air conditioner repair man was due to arrive at any minute. So I got dressed (properly, and NOT in eighteen year old pajama bottoms and an old man Haines t-shirt thankyouverymuch), and headed out to the garage. All I needed to do was move the swimming pool (*) out of the furnace closet and clear a path to it, but for some strange reason I decided to haul everything that I own out to the driveway, dust it off, and then put it back again.

So now my garage is all clean and shiny, and after a trip to Aunt Chrissy's storage unit, it will also be sans swimming pool (*).

I also managed to finally solve the whole "You have to make sure to water the vegetable garden or it will die a slow death" thing by adding an attachment to a sprinkler head so that it will now water the garden and not the corner of the house by the patio. OK. Well. I didn't do this exactly. But I DID manage to carry on a very pleasant conversation with the sprinkler guy while HE was doing it, so that has to count for something.

Right about the time I was considering moving a shrub in the front flower gardens, I heard somebody say "Excuse me, but what's your dog's name?" coming from the general direction of the street. I turned around to see a lovely couple out for a walk, and when I replied "His name is Stewey", the woman let out a little squeal and said "Oh my God! Are you the Spinster Stitcher?!"

Turns out that this lady lives a block or so away from me and is a quilter. Apparently, she saw this here blog mentioned in one of her magazines a while ago and is now a faithful reader (waving che-low to Miss Nancy!), and as soon as she saw Stewey lounging out there in the yard like he was The King High Exalted of the Universe His Very Self, she immediately recognized him. So we had a lovely chat about this and that while Stewey made a general pest of himself by getting all fierce and unfriendly while making me look like an idiot for not socializing her pet properly. Damn dog.

Throw a few hours of general putzing around the house, followed by an impromptu cookout, and I was in the Happy Chair at 8 and ready for some serious TeeVee watching. I was all set to view a movie or two when Aunt Chrissy called to remind me that The Real Housewives of New Jersey season premier started at 9, so needless to say I was done for.

Just when I thought I was out....they pulled me back in.

I did manage to put a few stitches into Stars during the mayhem, but not enough to warrant taking a crappy photograph. Tomorrow, I promise.

Stewey is a little under the weather today. He upchucked at 5:30 and 7:30 this morning, so I've tucked him into his little perch with some dry toast and a little peppermint tea for company. He's still rather peeved at me over the whole birthday fiasco, but methinks he'll come around quickly when he realizes that I am, in fact dee boss, and he's dee bossee.

Happy Tuesday! I will see you on Thursday, since I am determined to have a Futzingday tomorrow and am trying to make Wednesdays a computer free day.

(*) Despite the fact that I live in a "no, you cannot have a swimming pool no matter what you think you're entitled to" neighborhood, a few years ago I put my shoes on and headed over to the Targets to buy myself a swimming pool. This happened on a particularly hot Sunday afternoon after I saw one advertised in the weekly circular. "Aunt Chrissy, these people look so happy and refreshed", I whined into the phone. "I want to put a swimming pool on the back patio so that I can be happy and refreshed too."

$700 worth of water and pool chemicals later and I found myself floating in cool watery comfort as my neighbors looked on with horrified disgust. I think I went in it a total of four times before it was time to flood the back yard, disassemble the damn thing, and then figure out how the heck to get it back into the box.

But, as God is my witness, I was happy and refreshed for a full nineteen minutes that year and I've never forgotten it.