Ah....the sun!

First note....today the sun is shining and the birds are singing.....not just metaphorically but seriously in real life! Who'da thunk it?!!!!

The last week has been an eventful one, weather-wise.....they are referring to the last bit of unpleasant weather as "The Patriot Day Storm". It was a doozy. A week of ridiculously high winds and rain.....and that was right on the heels of yet another snow storm so the ground was so saturated as the snow melted that the rain had no where to go. We had waterfalls and rivers along the roads and gullies and in our basement. Richie had to buy a sump pump (he heroically grabbed one of the last ones off the hardware store shelf just before other customers had the opportunity to!) to get the water out of our basement. We pumped it for days! It just kept draining back in!

Although our cable was out for a couple of days, we never lost electrical power, much to our astonishment. People all over Maine were without power for a week.....even in the city of Portland. Craziness!

Also, last week, my vacuum bit the big one and we were without means to clean the ground in crackers and other meal-residue off the carpets. And the day AFTER the vacuum died, Mia got a hold of a super-sized tupperware container of Cheerios and emptied them out on the livingroom floor. Then, hours later, she emptied out a container of salt all over the hallway, stairs and living room. On Wednesday, some poor sister in a bind asked to drop off her child and I had to say 'no' because our home was no longer fit for human habitation and I would die of embarrassment if anyone ever saw our place as bad as it was. I felt like such a heel saying no but seriously, it was THAT bad.

So after much begging and pleading with Richie to please just go and buy ANY vacuum while on a break from work, I realized that I was just going to have to drag the girls to the mall and get one myself.

Seriously, it had been a week.

You have no idea just how bad it was.

SERIOUSLY.

So yesterday I got out my handy phillips screwdriver and attached the handle to the vacuum (which was wayyyy more simple than I imagined and was also the only assembly nec. on the new vacuum). And then I proceeded to spend TWO HOURS vacuuming the first floor of our hovel.

(btw, the dictionary definition for 'hovel' is:
1. a small, very humble dwelling house; a wretched hut.
2. any dirty, disorganized dwelling.
3. an open shed, as for sheltering cattle or tools. )

You may be thinking, "wow, two hours is a long time. That must not be a very good vacuum." But alas you would be sadly mistaken! I am in Domestic BLISS with my new 'toy'! I spent those two hours sucking up every last bit of dust and cobwebbing and crushed cheerio in the place! I even sucked up spiders up in the corners of the ceilings (DIE CHARLOTTE!!!! poor wilber will just have to get bacon-fied!) and behind the television. I did the pantry, the mud-room, the stairs....I went nuts.

Unfortunately, I only realized the folly of my ways when I was suddenly so exhausted that I didn't have the strength in my wrists to disconnect the attachements and realized that I had to lie down..... (for the rest of the day and didn't have the strength to take a shower to get ready for the meeting.) Not smart. But at least I could rest with the knowledge that I had a clean half-a-house. I am still not up to tackling the second floor but man, do I love that vacuum!

In case you are wondering....(.and who wouldn't be at this point right??? )

........I got a Bissell Lift-Off. It is a bagless wonder with all sorts of handy little attachments and it converts into a canister and you can carry the canister portion all around the house with this little strap since the cord is part of the canister portion and not the upright portion. GENIUS. I used to spend literally HOURS on my hands and knees vacuuming with the hose attachement down on the floor because of the wide spaces in between the floor boards of our 19h century hardwood floors. I would be so sore and swollen afterward that it would take me a week to recover. I only got down on my hands and knees once yesterday while vacuuming and that was to use a really cool new attachment for throw rugs. It was a dream come true!

I could go on and on about my new found love but for the sake of anyone strange enough to even be reading this blog, I will spare you.

Anyhoo, I found some old packets of seeds behind the dryer (no, I'm not kidding) and decided to plant them in some egg cartons to see if they would sprout. Putting them in the ground when I don't even know if they are viable yet seemed like too much of a commitment and frankly, I have exerted myself to the point of exhaustion enough this week, thank-you-very-much.

My crocus bulbs came up during the midst of all that stormy weather and are still standing and grinning happily at the sun today. I'd take a picture but my digital camera is dead due to the fact that I used up all my AA batteries on the flashlights I was putting together in case the power went out. I'm due for the weekly grocery shopping trip when I will venure out into the big bad world of commercialism with a fistful of coupons and a dream of buying starbucks coffee for below retail. (it happened only once and is now one of my current hopes whenever I set foot into the 'dented can' store) So that has been my week.......squalor, rain, flooding, and now clean carpets and sunlight streaming in the windows.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!