Bringing The Plants Indoors

On Saturday G and I hauled all the houseplants (that had summered outdoors and then chilled on the sunporch until it got down to 25 degrees) into the house and found them homes up on top of the cabinets.  I will take a picture of all the citrus trees lined up on top of the Kitchen Altar next time.  The sun is shining this morning, so a good time to take a picture.  It's been dark, wet and cold for the last week or so.  We have Christmas cactus, lavender , bay laurel and rosemary from left to right.  Everything is in a container, saucer or Walmart boot tray to keep water off the cabinets.

See my 26 year old microwave "custom built" into the cabinets?  Can't replace it with a new one.  No one makes a cabinet mount microwave anymore.  When it dies (and it is slowly losing the ability to regulate temperature), I will have a big ugly hole where it once was built in, and no tiles to fill the space.  These cabinets were custom.  I don't have a tall set anywhere else in the kitchen to replace this short set.  Actually, I have a large selection of cabinets in all sizes but none that match any of the others.

Wait until you see a photo of the Kitchen Altar.  Where the stove resides.  Isn't this a waste of space?  Those are the citrus trees up on top.  The back of this altar is a wall in the room we now use as a dining room.  I think it was supposed to be a great room.  It's just a big wall that sits there in the middle of a huge cathedral ceiling room.  The kitchen island is directly in front of the stove across from the wall of cabinets in the top photo.  No stove hood or vent which is why I have a fan up on top and a can of room freshener on the counter.  My Kitchen Aid mixer lives in the bottom right cupboard (next to the knife block) with it's very own outlet.  The cabinets have nothing much in them, up top.  The bottom cabinets are full of pots and pans.  I dream of knocking this whole damned wall down and making the island double it's width and length and adding a sink and dishwasher to the island and putting the stove where the microwave now lives. With a vent hood. And buy lots of drawer cabinets. Only drawers.  Oh, I have lots and lots of expensive plans.  Sigh.  I need a better paying job now that G is retiring.

Just as I was getting used to cold, wet and dark, the weather shifted.  I drove to work Sunday morning on ice slick roads with sleet covering my windshield.  I drove home, in the dark, in a misty fog where visibility was nearly zero.  When I went to bed it was a balmy 50 degrees and raining.  Twenty more days until this year's work is finished and G is retired.

And I picked out a Christmas Tree.  D (at work) thought it was 12 feet tall.  I measured (with yardstick) and came up with 10 feet. G thinks its 12 feet. Men. My ceiling in the living room is 8 feet.  I have no problems removing as much from the top as necessary to have a very fat, full bottom on the tree.  Plenty of "boom, boom".  I had just about given up on having a tree this year.  The pickings in wild trees was slim.  Wild trees are trees that no one has clipped or cut into nice shapes.  They have bare spots and are leggy, fat, weird and totally like trees out in the woods.  They have personality, spunk and a bit of homely charm.  And they are cheap.  Last year's fat bottomed tree was a total delight.  I loved it.

I am living in a state of confusion right now.  My summer pants were very loose.  Then I started wearing the cargo pants from Spring 2008 to work and they fit with no wedgies.  Now I am moving into my winter pants (cords (2008) and jeans (2008)) and nothing fits.  They fit last winter.  Now they are too snug in the waist.  Why?  That's what I am asking myself since I am still fitting into the cargo pants just fine.  Things that usually didn't fit--fit and things that usually DID fit, don't. Crap!

Needless to say.  I am backing away from the very few carbs I was eating and upping the fat in my diet.  I even had eggs for breakfast (yuck) and salads for lunch.  I am combing the websites for support and food ideas.  I think it is easiest to just have two or three things and eat as much of that for the 2 weeks it will take to get the waistband loose again.  It's not like I was eating CRAZY or anything.  Clothing is the devil.  Especially pants.

I never got around to reading my books.  My after work showers put me into a coma.  I nearly fell asleep in the shower yesterday.  Today I have the dining room table to clean and the house to make look presentable.  The medicare supplement  "person" is coming to interview us on Thursday.  G has the paperwork for Medicare Part B ready to mail (our employer's office manager finally got it filled in and signed).  I think a visit to the SS office is in our future plans in 2013.  This retiring is such a mess of paperwork and tension.  My tummy is in knots with worry.  Will we outlive our money? Sigh.