Sometimes Facebook Isn’t So Bad, Though

I’m a week into my Facebook Fast, and it has mostly been positive. Sometimes, though, Facebook can come in handy when you want to vent something really quickly, but it’s not worth a whole blog post. I’ve needed that a couple times this week.

Today I wanted to vent about a work project, and the fact that someone was trying to get me to do their portion of the project, when all I’m supposed to be doing is gathering everyone’s stuff and then dumping it into a Powerpoint. I’m not supposed to actually begin number-crunching their piece of the presentation so they never have to do it. But sure enough, someone tried to do that today. I quickly shut it down and said no way (I was polite, don’t worry).

In other news, our lone cat, the elderly Mini, has decided she’s not fond of litterboxes. Why use a perfectly good litterbox when the rug on which the litterbox sits is just as good? Although sometimes the dining room rug suffices as well. We swapped out her covered litterbox for two open-to-the-elements boxes, thinking that perhaps the covered box was too dark, but she refuses to pee in them. That is reserved for the rugs. *sigh* Our carpet cleaner has been used almost daily for the past few weeks, as I am constantly having to clean the rug in the laundry room, or in the dining room. A couple nights ago I went to use it and confirmed what I suspected a couple days prior to that when I cleaned the dining room rug. One of the interior tubes had snapped in half and so the water wasn’t traveling through the machine like it was supposed to. I hopped online and also discovered that our carpet cleaner is so old (over 10 years old) that they no longer make that particular part for our particular machine. And so, after some quick research I picked out a new carpet cleaner, which Denis picked up after he went to the gym. He got home around 9:15 p.m. and I immediately began cleaning the laundry room rug, the living room rug (for safe measure). and the dining room rug. The new carpet cleaner is great – a fraction of the weight of the old one, and efficient.

As for Mini, she has no medical condition that is causing the non-use of the litter box. We had her checked at the vet and all tests and bloodwork came back negative. The cat is around 17 years old, so I think it’s just plain old OLD AGE. My parents’ cat began doing the same thing in her later years, to the point where they mostly kept her confined to one section of the house most of the day. Denis and I haven’t decided yet what we’ll do; in the meantime I steam clean the carpets at least every other day, and sometimes every day (it depends on how much water the cat drinks).

The kids are doing well in school – they are two weeks in and are finally getting homework and getting settled into the routine. The Boy has decided to run for Student Council, and is already spreading the seeds among his classmates (this despite the fact that the election cycle hasn’t even been announced yet). Both kids like their teachers thus far – we’ll see if they still feel that way once they are firmly entrenched in their studies.

New topic. Remember the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?" Well, there’s a new title in town for July 2016: "The Cooties Go to NYC." Yep, yesterday we booked our airfare for a family vacation to NYC. Now we’re figuring out where we’ll be staying that is affordable for a family of four. We’re hoping to have that booked in the next day or two. We’re looking at Astoria, Woodside and Carroll Gardens as good options near the city. I found a place in Carroll Gardens that is literally a stone’s throw from the apartment he and I shared for a few months after we got married (his old bachelor pad). So now I need to spread the word to let our friends and family know we’re heading in their direction for a week next summer. It should be a lot of fun – the kids will be old enough to really remember this trip (unlike the last time we went up there – for Christmas 2008 to visit Denis’s family (?) when they were only 4-5 years old. For that trip we stayed in a timeshare in NJ that was in the middle of nowhere. We won’t be doing that again. *lol*

On to other things: music and TV.

New favorite song: "Countdown" by Sleeping at Last. It was featured on the miniseries "Astronaut Wives Club" and is a lovely, lovely song. In fact, a lot of the music by SaL is amazing – the lyrics are fantastic on all his songs. Check out his songs on YouTube – fans have made some lovely, lovely videos for the songs ("Light" is a GREAT one that showcases the beautiful lyrics).

New TV obsession: Mr. Robot, which airs on USA Network. It’s dark and brooding with a anti-hero main character, and sometimes the cinematography is a bit obvious in its attempt to be "quirky," but it’s still an interesting show. The lead actor, Rami Malek, is really good, but in a very understated way because his character has such lack of social cues and is very closed off from people. He plays the character with a complete lack of emotion (99% of the time) and is really fascinating to watch, Plus, the show has Christian Slater, and he loves chewing the scenery, if nothing else. Give it a whirl – it’s is about 10 episodes in and I’m hooked. Be warned though, if you don’t like coarse language and some mature content in your TV shows, don’t watch this one. It may be on USA Network, but it plays almost like it should be on STARZ or HBO (though it’s not as graphic as something like Game of Thrones, for example).

That’s about it for now. Tomorrow I’m taking a vacation day to sit around and do nothing. Although I might do something. The urge to pull out the power washer and leaf blower is strong…