Word of the Day

Tangentalize - To go off on a tangent or bunny trail in a conversation.

Yesterday, Sis (Heretofore to be referred to as BW Babe, as per her own request), and I went to the city to treat ourselves with both manicures and pedicures for our trip. Both are real stress relievers and self-esteem renewal sources. BW Babe has had both manicures and pedicures before but she's never had shellacs done for her manicure nor has she ever had a flowers or jewels added to her pedicure. It was a day of firsts for BW Babe. She didn't know about shellacs. Yes, BW Babe, you don't need to worry about messing up your manicure when you take your wallet out of your purse. DD Daughter introduced me to my first experience with shellacs. What an eye opener!

It's amazing how nice a French manicure makes one's hands look despite the damage that one has done to their hands. I've managed to break every single nail on both my hands down to the nibbies. It's hard to grow nails when you're digging in the garden, cleaning out the garage, cleaning the house, and hauling this and that from here and there. Thank goodness for shellacs because I still have LOTS of the sort of thing that kills nails to do between now and the time we leave for Ireland. I'm praying that they last for the entire three weeks of our trip. The last time I had shellacs, they lasted a month, and that was during a time when I was majorly stressing my hands and nails also...I'm praying and hoping for a repeat.

Afterwards, BW Babe and I picked up those last items that we needed for the trip. BW Babe's hubby (Heretofore to be referred to as JC), thinks we're going a bit nuts about what we've decided that we need for "just in case" scenarios. We told him that it's all part of our zombie apocalypse mentality but I don't think it's all that crazy to pack band-aides, and some basic OTC medicines for cold, flu, tummy upset, or pain.

In the middle of the night/or...actually EARLY in the morning when I couldn't sleep, after seeing BW Babe's carry-on luggage earlier in the day, I decided to switch to a larger carry-on suitcase that both HTP and #1 Son have used when they've traveled via airplane. I'm allowed one carry-on and one personal item, jackets and umbrellas not counted in the mix. So, I decided to take the largest carry-on that I can use per airline regulations. Why not? Why was I stressing over trying to fit everything into one small bag when I could use a larger bag? And then, I decided to pack my "on the plane" needs and my purse into a small REI backpack that easily slipped into this new carry-on. With room to spare, I was able to pack EVERYTHING (previously packed into the smaller bag) into this larger bag (the packed backpack with snacks, purse, and Kindles with chargers, and camera, medicines, change of clothes, AND my jacket and umbrella. Best yet, my decision to use this larger carry-on AND my backpack, is that should it become necessary (due to weight issues) on my return trip, I can pay the additional charge for an extra bag, checking this larger carry-on in with my suitcase and I'll still have the backpack as a somewhat smaller carry-on. NOW...I'm packed. Well...of course, I'll have to re-pack some of these things because I still need to use some of this stuff on a daily basis.

Amazingly enough, I didn't break any of my newly manicured nails while hauling the recycling and garbage up to the road. This week, after cleaning the garage, I had LOTS of garbage. To top it off, recycling at The Lake is picked up only once a month. Again, after cleaning the garage, I had LOTS of recycling...so much recycling that I had filled the entire recycling barrel and had to tuck a huge pile of flattened cardboard under the barrel. I still have lots of recycling out in the garage but it'll have to wait until next month. Both my garbage and my recycling barrels are filled to the max this week. I'll have to make sure that #1 Son and #1 DIL know that garbage pick-up here at The Lake is on Wednesday mornings, so early in the morning that it's best to take it all out on Tuesdays.

I've been adding to my composter but, so far, no actual mulch has been produced. Actually, the leaves look intact and dry so I added some water today after adding my daily coffee grounds and mixing. Hopefully, the fact that our outdoor temperatures are rising with the promise of summer, I'll end up with some nice mulch to spread on my potato garden. Yes! I checked my potato garden and my potatoes are finally coming up! Woohoo!

Random Quote of the Day

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down.

Mitch Hedberg (1968 - 2005)