Screw A Into B Before C

I don't know what everyone's secret is to remaining sane upon arrival at your stick house.  I'm immediately overwhelmed with all the work there is to do.  Try as I might to remove just a few loads a day, there is always SOMETHING that I need, which requires ANOTHER trip outside.

I'm pretty sure the mold index is 5000 because I seem to arrive back in the house sneezing with a runny nose every time.  I'm buying stock in Kleenex.

One of my urgent problems is the huge stack of stuff I received with my embroidery machine can only reside on the sewing room floor.  There isn't room for anything.  Stuff like the four table lamps need to go.

Thinking a quick trip to Home Depot might assuage (oooh a big word ... where did THAT come from?) my inclination to keep unloading and possibly hurt myself, I decided to drive to town.  My faithful old pickup truck started right up and ran like a champ.

Although I had measured my space, all that went right out the window when I saw the shelves.  They only had one white one left, so I not-so-gracefully loaded it up.  These things are HEAVY!!  Once home I began the construction project.  I have to give it up to ClosetMaid.  Every numbered instruction said to make sure the painted side was out.  I didn't make even ONE mistake!!

Although I should have used my drill to install those twelve screws, it came together nicely, whereupon I discovered it's not wide enough.  It looked a LOT bigger on the shelf above my head at the store.  My plan was to get two, but in fact, I need three more for a total of four.  Won't THOSE be fun to put together!!

Jonathan settled right in and began his (her) nesting routine the second the wheels of the motorhome stopped.  Did I ever mention how destructive and messy parrots are?  Once inside, he talked up a storm, making an even bigger mess of the cage in the house.  He kittied kittied so much he had both dogs howling up a storm.  What a zoo THAT was, compounded by my hammering on the shelves.

One thing birds have is amazing eyesight.  I suppose that helps to keep them alive in the jungle.  Around here however, it keeps Jonathan supplied with goodies.  I can walk around with a sandwich and I never hear a peep out of him.  Walk to the couch with a cracker and Hello Jonathannnnn instantly comes out of his beak.  It's even worse if it happens to be a peanut butter cookie.  What a beggar this guy is!!!

Dinner was a disaster.  I never thought I would be tired of grilled cheese sandwiches, but that's about all I've had in the last week.  I found one half dead potato and cooked it with the remaining sausage.  It was so dry I added some frozen peas.  Pretty sad, but it got me by the first night.  

At the bottom of my rig freezer I found a small bag of stew meat.  YAY ... something NEW!!  I filled the bag with everything I could find in the fridge to marinate it to tasty deliciousness, thinking I would serve it over some of the instant rice I found in a box WAY in the back of my cupboard.  

Let me be the first to say stew meat should only be used to make stew.  I figured to brown it in my cast iron skillet, then let it simmer for an hour or so.  It smelled wonderful!  I cooked the slightly stale instant rice and topped it with the beautifully browned meat.  Now for a taste test!!

It might have been edible if it was chewable.  That meat was like trying to chew up the soles of my boots.  Good GRIEF!!!  I cut it into even smaller pieces.  If I didn't have great teeth, I'm sure they would have all fallen out.  Tough as NAILS describes it just right.  It definitely WAS good for my diet since I only ate about three small pieces.  I think a trip to the grocery store today would be a good thing.  Maybe I'll stop by Lowes and see if they have any more shelving while I'm at it.