march 1

March is here. Time to dig out the Irish tunes.

february 28

When we first got married, we had a whole house of carpet. Then we moved to the apartment and I had four floors to mop: two bathrooms, the kitchen, and the entry way. I thought I could have cleaner floors by mopping them down on my hands and knees. I was an insane semi-new newlywed. Then after I woke up and smelled the coffee, I bought a mop and matching bucket on a whim at Target. Nothing fancy, just a normal wringer mop. I fell in love with it and how it made my life so much easier. Then I go to buy a replacement head and find they're being clearanced out. In my anger at the upper management of Target, and because I want to use that mop as long as possible, I bought three. For $2.98 a piece. Which is down from the regular price of $5.99.

february 27

Reason #55 why I love Costco - the never ending supply of toilet paper. We buy one of those mongo big packages of it and it lasts forever. What did we do before we became members under Phil's aunt's no longer existing home business?

february 26

A typical day in the life of our living room. Mail scattered on the floor. One of my many bags of books - this one holds piano music and junior church stuff. Coats hanging off the chair my grandma redid for me. A wooden tray that needs some weeding out. Library books upside down to hold the place. Afghans draped on the couch. This is our life.

february 25

Picked up my latest reserved read at the library today. Paid some of my fine off too. I'm horrible about getting books back in on time. I've probably purchased an entire set of encyclopedias with all the money they've gotten out of me over the years.

february 24

Phil had to get two new tires on his car the other day. He came home with this box of free beef -four New York strip steaks. He grilled us up two for dinner. Surprisingly, two tires can get you some really great steak! Thanks, Les.

february 23

Grading papers. . . it's all in a day's work. It requires a fair amount of variety in pen color choices. And it never ends.

february 22

Got a Sunday paper after church today to check for available rentals. I made up my list for Phil to scope out tomorrow on his day off. The verdict: all the ones I circled were holes in the wall. The lightbulb moment: You can get homes in a wide variety of conditions for $995 a month. (Even so, we're hoping for something really nice for a lot less.)

february 21

My scrapbooking date with Angie was cancelled, so we ended up driving back out to Hood River to pick up our freshly fired mugs and my serving tray. Now we can drink our mochas in style.

february 20

How does this happen? Every single year??? I spend my good hard-earned money on cards. Cards that I spend a good chunk of time picking out. Then I say I'm going to mail out my especially chosen for you Valentines early enough so they arrive on time. Yet every year they're still sitting here a week or two later. Family, I love you. I'm just so not on top of my game at the moment.

february 19

Trying to stay up on things around here because I know the weekend's gonna be busy. Cleaned the bathroom and did a couple loads of laundry tonight. Yeah for Clorox!