Tales of a Shoebox Princess

The children's paternal grandmother, aka Grammy, has a convertible. She let some of the younger drivers in the world drive it.  Yes, they both drove.

Matt and Katie. Matt looks like he's the same size as Katie Hayley and her baby blanket. Seriously, that's the blanket she had as an infant Other Jim is capable of sleeping with a baseball cap on his head These were sent to me by Jim while he was driving around the middle/west part of the country. All four were asleep at the same time. And Paul was probably asleep at home.

I have nothing to post about today so I'm gonna post pictures that Jim emailed me from the road. Here are Hayley and Matt at the entrance to Yellowstone. The sun was shining brightly. Hayley and Matt were both impressed that Yellowstone is 90 years older than their father to the day. Here is another Yellowstone entrance arch. I thought this was a fairly boring picture when he sent it to me. Until he sent me this: Old Faithful. I SO wish I were with them. Sigh. So far Jim has not sent any pictures of Other Jim. I'm kinda wondering if they actually got him.

Servo here. I'm the cute gray fluffy longer-haired feline at the Shoebox castle. People get me mixed up with my bro Magic all the time. But I'm way more buff than he is. He's a tub. Madge, you know I love you, bro, but face it. You are, um, on the hefty side. My human--I call her "Large Human with Long Fur on Head,"--didn't want to blog today. She's being lazy. The smaller humans that she usually has feed me are gone and she's been slacking on my upkeep. She has, however, held the circle brush for me so I can massage my face on the bristles. I could do that for hours. I loooooovve brush massages. The fur in the bristles tastes good too. Yum. Not much goin' on in my life. I try to get outside once in a while, but I'm kind of a kept cat. I keep telling my human I won't take off, but does she listen? No. I know I could get the neighborhood rabbit if she'd only let me out once in a while. I know I could be a good mouser. I've managed

Jim left this morning to pick up Other Jim, and he took Matt and Hayley with him. He's been looking forward to this trip for months, and has spent a lot of time with maps to plan it out. Jim loves maps. And long drives. It'll be a quiet week without them; such intensity of quietude that this house has never experienced, for it will be just Paul and me in the house, and Paul goes mute the minute he walks through the front door. I'd go with Jim to get the college boy, but I was too scared to ask my boss for time off.

Before I get into what my new office/sewing room/pantry looks like now, I have one more picture of the before end of things to share. Cluttered, innit? And if you can't remember what this room used to look like from another angle (assuming you want to remember or care what is happening in this room), just find the post from July 13. After some cleaning and reorganization and installation of three new bookcases and the slight shift in placement of an already-owned bookshelf, this is what the room looks like: And this is what it looks like if you paste words in it: (click on pic to make it bigger) Here is that corner: That black thing doesn't go there, though. It will eventually go under my desk. It's a troll-food fermenter (aka paper shredder). Here is where the black thing goes. Right over it will eventually be my desk. And speaking of trolls, here is one I found in an empty dresser drawer: But you have not seen my desk yet. Jim has taken the legs off and sanded the top. It

Budgies fly, although this one in particular had to fly via a Piper that looked more like an origami table decoration than an actual flying machine. I've seen dragonflies bigger than this thing. Our scoutmaster arranged this outing as the conclusion to the Aviator merit badge that the boys have been working on. A local airport provides a service where they will take up groups of kids in little airplanes free of charge. It's all volunteer on the parts of the pilots. What a great group of people to do this for us! I didn't attend; Jim did, however, and he is the one who took the pictures. The boys had a long wait for the clouds to clear out and it was hot and humid as well. But it was worth the wait. Matt said the pilot took the plane over each of the three boys' houses. So Matt saw our abode from up above. I should have asked him if there were any frisbees on the roof. Or stray stuffed animals. The boys each got a certificate and their own personal flight log with this

Paul: 17 years old as of today Dinner: Steak, mac 'n cheese (naturally), canned pears, broccoli, and rainbow jello Excitement: Harry Potter 7.2 at midnight (with friends, not family. H, M, and I went at 1:30 today), sleeping until Aunt Jenni called, and a church dance Birthday dinner out with Mom and Dad: lunch tomorrow at Burger Jones and..... .... .... .... Cake: It is a compilation of Paul's most oft-used phrases. (except for the "Happy 17th Birthday Paul") When I finished the cake and showed it to him, he looked at it for a second, then said, "Which way does it go?" Then after handing him the candles to put in the cake, I said, "Here are the matches." And he said, "What?" And I laughed. Kinda stupid, I know, but seriously, he says, "What?" and "huh?" ALL. THE. TIME. He's dressed up to go to the afore-mentioned dance in his new shirt and tie. Senior pictures: next Friday.

I am now going through the third major room remodel in as many years. Holy carp (yes, the fish), it is tiring. I have all my canned food on my kitchen counter at the moment--it looks like I went nuts at Sam's Club. I really should take a picture. Jim got three new bookshelves set up in my new office/sewing/pantry room and I am slowly going through all my craft stuff and....ahem....it pains me to say this....I am throwing some stuff away. I have decided that I can only house as much as two bookshelves can hold (and that includes all my sewing stuff except for the actual machines). The other new bookshelf joins an old bookshelf as my pantry. Oh, you'd like to see a picture? Here is what it looked like BEFORE. You can see my work computer on the table, sharing space with my sewing machine. It really is too crowded. And here is a little knot of cables and boxes on the floor. One box is a firewall, one is a modem and one is a WAP. Guess which one is which? 5 points for each right

In all the hubbub of a new job, I didn't post about Katie's trip to New York and DC. Our little girl ventured into the Big Apple and the nation's capital as a tourist. She's been planning this for a year with a friend. Katie researched tourist spots and she and her friend made an itinerary for their trip. From what I gathered from her texts throughout her trip, she and her friend stuck by their plan and saw all that they had planned to see. They went up the Washington Monument, they took a tour of the White House (for which they had to write a letter to their senator asking for a recommendation to get them in), they went to Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and many other places. So far, I have not seen any pictures except a few of some GIANT candy for sale at FAO Schwarz, BUT... I did see my little girl on the TODAY show! She called us that morning and told us to tape the Today show just in case she was on. When we watched, the network pr

I am still here. Somewhat. I have been learning how to integrate a totally new job into my life and it has been fun/interesting/difficult/strange/nerve-wracking. But since it is bad form to blog about one's job, I'll not say much about it here at the shoebox castle. Because it has been awhile since I posted last, I have kind of gotten out of the blogging mindset. To ease me back into it, I am resorting to a list of ten things. Ten things I have thought about lately that have nothing to do with my new job: 1. Matt is adept at making strange noises. He informed us in the car this morning that kids in school were always asking him to "make that one noise" and so he would perform his repertoire of "mouth music" in the classroom before the teacher came in. I'm so proud. 2. Other Jim comes home in three weeks. Jim is going out to get him and Hayley and Matt want to go with him. I will be home alone. Except Paul will be around but he doesn't count because