This day...

It seems self indulgent to talk about where I was and what I was doing. There are no words for that day. It was real and unreal. It was loud and then quiet. On September days like this one, when the sun is warm and the air is cool, I remember being more scared than I had ever been, and feeling more grief than I ever had.

I spent today with Amy, as I often do, and we skirted around the topic a bit, but never settled in. I think we both chose not to rehash it, not relive every moment of the devastation. Instead I spent the day with the best friend a girl could ask for and came home to a family I love. If nothing else, this day can be a reminder to love freely, hugely, and without reservation. There is always room for love.

Some junking with Amy...

I was all set to tell you a thrilling tale of animal fur removal, utilizing my two prong approach of furminator and vacuum cleaner which is better than my previous method of swearing and duct tape. Instead I will tell you a story called, "Amy and Sara Go Junking".

This afternoon I called Amy and said, "Dude! Let's got to Global Thrift! I'll pick you up in ten minutes!" and she said, "Okay!".

This story is riveting already, isn't it?

When we arrived at the junk store and I immediately went to look at the furniture. There I saw something which even at first glance I knew I must possess. A small red desk. It was only 9.99, so I grabbed it and hauled it up to the register where the manager Mark guarded it with his life.  Meanwhile, Amy spotted a great mid-century dining room table and chairs which she had to furiously contemplate purchasing. She was still dithering about it when we were in the fitting rooms and I finally yelled, "Just get it!" because that's what friends are for.

Just look at this cute desk!

Here it is in its new home on the porch.

For now I put the round red table that was next to the chair into the basement. I also added some more fall decorations on the porch.

It was a day of red at the junk store because I also found these totally awesome boots. Know how much these babies run? $130. Know how much I spent? Less than $10!

Finally, I want to give everyone an update on Rebecca's health. The good news is that she has been fever free for about a week. The bad news is that she still has an ugly cough and sore throat. We went to the doctor yesterday and the new diagnosis is walking pneumonia. Rebecca is on antibiotics for it and we are hopeful that she will finally start feeling better soon. Thanks so much for all of the kind words and thoughts the past month.  I know that we have all really appreciated them!

Who's a good dog?

I was all set to write a post called, "I believe the decomp is my future" set to the tune of Whitney Houston's hit "Greatest Love of All", but then events transpired which made that title Null and Void.

It all started when I saw our cat Stanley peering underneath the piano in a very determined way. There are only two things which will get Stan moving: mice and barking dogs. Since the dogs are too big to hide underneath the piano, I strongly suspected a rodent. I pulled the piano away from the wall to reveal a very cute and plump mouse.

"Go get him, Stan!", I yelled. Stan looked at me confusedly. The mouse, clearly a student of Sun Tsu, took advantage of the distraction to scurry along the wall. I tried to grab him with a dish cloth, but he eluded my grasp and I lost him. This was the moment when I assumed that Stanley would later find him, kill him, and then leave him to rot and smell up the basement.

I started planning my blog post, humming the awful Whitney Houston song, and contemplating how many babies that mouse was likely to give birth to before Stan killed her.

Later this evening after performing many tedious adult tasks, I agreed to play Go Fish with Lily. Puglsey took his spot next to me, but Sophie was missing. It is not like her to miss the opportunity to sit on a deck of cards and wreck competitive havoc. I sent Lily downstairs to make sure that she wasn't on the porch eating her own feces.

That's when I heard Lily shout, "Sophie caught the mouse!"

And indeed Sophie did. The mouse looked well gummed, though not actually eaten. Sophie was praised extravagantly for her deed and will be given extra treats as a reward.

On the subject of the tedious adult tasks which I have been faithfully performing every day instead of killing zombies, watching crime shows, and reading detective novels, I must say that on the one hand, it's nice to stay on top of things and not allow the squalor to snowball into mayhem. On the other hand, it's so freaking boring. Scooping cat poop every day, breaking down the recycling, vacuuming, laundry, and so on. My god. I don't know how I can stand it.

If you are really lucky tomorrow I'll tell you all about my new pet hair elimination strategy, "No Hair Left Behind". I know, the thrills, they do not cease.

Blammo!

This weekend sailed by in a blur of end-of-summer fun. We saw my folks on the cape, visited with my pal Julian and his family, and then headed up to Maine to spend a few days with the always lovely Amy and her family. We beached and junked and ate and did our nails. The dogs ran in fields and got fleas, but it did not matter because everyone was on the awesome train and it stopped for nothing.

We returned home yesterday and as soon as we stepped in the door I started a full on unpacking and house cleaning blitz. Know why? Because it's September, people! September is the month which holds open the door to my one true love, October. Today I got our school books organized, worked on containing Rebecca's art supplies, and most importantly I decorated for fall.

I started by plugging in my pumpkin scented outlet thingies. Once I was grooving on that awesome fall smell I started hauling my fake gourds from the basement. It was when I started filling this cool garden box with moss that the crazy fall action really took off.

Look at that squirrel! Isn't he cute? I do not know why he is holding a pinecone.

Now I just need to get some pumpkins for my porch, some dried up leaves for the steps, and a pumpkin spice latte.

Blammo people! It's Fall!

The new chair finds a home...

Remember that awesome chair I trash picked a few days ago? I decided to do something radical with it.

I put it on the porch. I know. Hold yourself.

The funny thing about the porch is that before this summer we rarely used it. In spite of being heated, it tends to be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. This summer however, has been uncharacteristically cool and the porch has been the place to be this summer. We tend to all fight over the one comfy chair in the corner of the windows. Lily in particular will disappear for hours on that chair, reading and playing with the dogs.

The other chairs are wicker, which are very pretty, but not super comfortable for a few hours of reading.

We've been talking about experimenting with putting a space heater on the porch this winter so that we can continue our porch love affair. This got me thinking about seating on the porch and I immediately conjured up an image of cozy reading in the new chair. Since Fall is right around the corner I decided to go ahead and bring the wicker chairs to the basement and bring the new chair front and center.

I decided to stack my newly trash picked vintage cooler, as well as some of my tin baskets for visual interest.

When Fall really begins I'll put out some mums, plaid blankets, and pumpkins. Are you thinking about fall? If you are, you'll love this piece about decorative gourd season.

Death, Electricity, Shopping...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Actually, for me it was the best of times, for Lily it was the most unconcerned of times and for Rebecca it was the saddest of times. What single event could elicit such different reactions? It was the death of our last hermit crab whose name was (I think), Nemo. Nemo was part of a hermit crab dyad which David purchased for the children out of guilt about three years ago. He'd been working and traveling for months and he decided that pleasing the children with hideous pets was better than having me on speaking terms with him.

When he presented the crabs, the children were enthralled. For about ten minutes. I told David that these crabs were not going to be my responsibility because at the time we had four cats and two dogs and I was not to be held responsible for keeping one more animal alive in my house. For the first few years they lived in David's office, but in the last year they made their way into the house, though why this happened is a mystery.

It is benign neglect for which we have to thank for the crabs living as long as they did. We'd feed them, put some water in their tank, but generally they were ignored. Yesterday I realized that it had been a while since I'd heard Nemo plotting his escape so I took a closer look at him. He seemed unresponsive. I tapped him a bit and his claw came off.

My heart lifted! One less animal to maintain! Call me cold hearted, a mammal elitist- I will own these labels. The only thing I won't own are any more hermit crabs.

In other news, our cape trip has been postponed because my folks are still without power on the cape. They are fine otherwise and grateful that they are without power while the weather is warm and the grill is available. Still, I can't help but think that perhaps Santa should leave them a generator under the tree this year at Christmas.

Finally, I caught Lily in that rarest of moods. She wanted to go clothes shopping. Generally she's not much of a shopper, but today after sorting through her fall clothes from last year and realizing that she had outgrown nearly everything she was ready. We had most of our success at The Children's Place where I purchased six shirts and six pairs of pants for $104.00. That's only slightly pricer than the junk store!

Hope everyone is recovering from the hurricane and squeezing some fun out of the last days of August.

Notes from the hurricane...

Today Hurricane Irene arrived, though by the time she got here she was a Tropical Storm. As you know, we were prepared with batteries, ice cream and Doritos and luckily only the ice cream and Doritos were needed. I suffered a minor injury when some cheesy Dorito powder went into my paper cut, but when one considers the dire hurricane predictions, I feel grateful to have come out with only the stinging pan of artificial cheese on bare flesh.

The hurricane gave me the chance to get a few things done which had been nagging at me. One such thing was finalizing and ordering the assorted curricula for the education of my children. I finally decided to go with History Odyssey which I think will be both interesting and a whole lot of fun. I also sent off my Letter of Intent and Educational Plan so that the Education Police will not come and drag my children into school for standardized testing.

Now that those plans are in place we can attempt to enjoy our final week of summer. Poor Rebecca continues to suffer from her Mystery Illness. The only thing that any of the tests showed was low Vitamin D. The theory seems to be that because her Vitamin D is low her body is having a hard time fighting off whatever virus she has. The hope is that by upping her Vitamin D will help her body fight off this stupid virus.

This week the girls and I will visit my folks on the cape. Rebecca can rest with Nana and Aunt Lois while Lily and I go hang with my old pal Julian and his family. Some fried clams, a change of scenery and some sand in our shoes- summer is not ending without a fight!