I’m supposed to be cleaning the basement

Or clearing out. Organizing stuff, getting the stuff we don’t want all into one area, one pile, so I can call one of the junk haul away services. So I keep going down and looking around and telling myself I’m planning. Ha. 

There’s this white dresser that I think I should sell rather than get hauled away but I can’t get a very good pic of it because there’s too much junk in the way. Like I can’t pull it to the left because there’s a broken drum pedal in the way.

In a plastic box with a vintage fur hat that was my mom’s, there was this pin cushion full of vintage hat pins. I’m keeping these. I remember my grandmother wearing a dress made out of that fabric and I think I still have a quilt with some of that fabric in it. My grandmother, who lived in Cincinnati, had some arrangement where sometimes she did the piecing and then sent the quilt to some women in Kentucky, just across the river, to be quilted, and sometimes she sent them the fabric and they did it all.

On Monday, actual Labor Day, I did get a good bit done in the basement. I’ve sequestered a bunch of stuff for the junk pick up in one area, and identified other piles. And I made the appointment for them to come. I’m going to get rid of an old dresser that Al used to use, that I built, that’s either Crate & Barrel or IKEA. The drawer bottoms are starting to sag so it’s hard to open and close them. I’d been storing bedding and rugs in it, and I transferred the bedding to the first floor linen closet and the rugs to an old dresser of Megan’s that’s in the same room in the basement, that has all my towels for sopping up leaks on top. So the happy offshoot is that only extra rugs are now in the basement – extra bedding is now all upstairs. And speaking of transferring stuff, I think I can get the silverware and platters and etc. that I’ve been storing in this really cruddy dresser that I picked up off the curb into the white dresser. Then I can have the junk pick up take the really cruddy dresser.

 

Jasper came Monday and Wednesday last week, but I didn’t take any pics on Monday. It was really hot so we went to one of library branches and played inside. On Wednesday it was nicer so we biked to Westmorland Park and played there. And got silly right before nap. He is into a heavy dinosaur phase now, so I got him a new plush one at IKEA on Friday, and I retrieved a several hard plastic ones in the basement to add to his collection. Not the little pink one though. It’s got a suction cup on its belly so it’s supposed to stick to the fridge or wall or whatever but it doesn’t work and I think that will only lead to tears. So the pink one went into the junk pile. 

Besides the grandkid and cleaning out the basement, we had a really quiet Labor Day weekend. Mark and I went to IKEA Friday to get some new furniture to go with the sled bed that’s come back to us. We needed new nightstands because the sled bed is high, and Mark wanted to replace his dresser with something grown-up, that is not inherited from my parents.

Then after dinner on Friday, Susan and I tried to go see some bands, our local Rolling Stones tribute band with another sort of pick up band opening, because one of the guys in the band put on Facebook that it was starting at 8:00. So we got there a little after 8:00 and they weren’t charging the cover yet, and it turned out they weren’t going to start till 9:00. We sat and chatted and then left at 8:45 so we wouldn’t have to pay and because we both had early stuff Saturday. My early thing was getting to the Farmers Market in time to shop before reporting to the info booth to volunteer at 8:00 (Susan’s was her volunteer gig at a hospice). Then I processed the peppers I bought along with the tomatoes I picked the Saturday before, roasted & pepperonata. And we had leftovers for dinner. Big excitement.

Sunday morning started with a walk and tomato galette. Then I started this post, malingering on the basement. I have to give my work laptop back, and I bought myself a new one that I picked up Thursday evening and Sunday I really shirked continuing to configure it. I don’t want to import all the crap from my old laptop, but it’s hard to get all my settings back to what I like without doing that.

It’s filled with roasted sungolds and fresh mozzarella. I guess this is practice for the tomatoes class I’m teaching at Orange Tree in about 3 weeks. (Well maybe I’m teaching it, I see it still has 9 out of 10 openings at the moment!)

For our Sunday night dessert, I baked an apple upside down cake that’s kind of soggy but tasted good with ice cream.

Monday we did our usual Sunday walk that includes Colectivo on Monroe. Somehow the crowd there was really raucous, lots of kind of annoyingly loud table next to us and even table across the room conversations, so we didn’t stay too long. And as above I got a lot done in the basement. We had brats and corn and mac & cheese and a tomato and cucumber salad for dinner, Labor Day appropriate, although it was all cooked inside.

The other big thing is Mark’s cat Katie is in a cone. She’s been having trouble with her ears and ear infections, scratching the heck out her right ear and splattering blood all over the place. One of her lumps and bumps turned out to be cancer. At first she seemed like a good candidate for surgery but then it turned out the cancer had spread. So no surgery, but what she needs to keep her comfortable is still a bit in transition. Today we met with a vet student who can take care of her when we go to Door County, and probably also for our longer England walking trip.

Ahhhh. This post sounds as scattered as I feel. Be happy to tell you more about it over coffee. I’m going to head upstairs and see how Mark’s doing building his new dresser.