Ohhhh, looky, a springy MMP!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s after midnight where I am, so I figured I’d get a head start and…sproingggggg into the next MMP.

So, did you notice it’s official? Spring arrived last week (well, north of the equator, anyway), Tuesday, at something like 8:07 p.m.

True to my gardeny nature, I started looking for for signs of…hope. And they’re actually there! On Friday, there were daffodils in bud. By yesterday afternoon, they were open. There are a few crocuses out (I think some of them actually bloomed in January when it was abnormally warm) and the beginnings of hostas, and sedum, and celandine poppies, and daylilies and tulips. And there are even a few hyacinths in bloom. (I took pictures, but haven’t had time to upload them anywhere yet.) I can see the beginnings of buds and leaves on the crabapples and there are buds on the viburnum. Yay!

Somehow, though, on the springiest day of the year, I wound up spending the day indoors, cleaning up a storm. (Where does the urge to clean in the spring come from?) I empted the dresser, dusted the drawers and put in new liner. (This was after the Friday/Saturday excitement of going through all the drawers in the closet and other general closet re-organization.)

One of the drawers in the dresser is kind of a junk drawer. It’s where the spare change goes, and spare toothbrushes, and spare contact lenses, and spare lip balm etc.

I always think it’s quite organized because it has dividers in it, but when I emptied it out I found: 8 eyeglass cases, 2 pairs of glasses I’d forgotten I still had (late '80s, early '90s, pictures to come), a lipstick case someone gave me as a present, a red leather pocket Kleenex cover (my godmother made it) and a red leather bookmark (ditto). Oh…and two hairbrushes. Oddly, the glasses weren’t in cases (not sure if they would have fit in any of them).

Also cleaned out the living room junk drawer (coupons, scissors, pens, address book, etc.). Thought I’d cleaned it out recently, but I found coupons that had expired in 2005. Also, two little pairs of scissors that I’d completely forgotten, a letter opener that I was sure I’d lost, and…my personal favorite: a genuine Dinky Dino (little electronic pet on a keychain) that belonged to Local Best Friend back when she was my roommate (she moved out almost 5 years ago). Not sure why it’s still in the drawer (not actually sure why it’s in this house, since I’m pretty sure it died before we moved here 7 ½ years ago and she’s not normally sentimental about stuff like that). I’ve disposed of it now.

So, have you cleaned this spring? What did you find? If not, what’s lurking in your drawers and closets?

Happy Monday!

GT

2

Who knows what’s lurking in the drawers of men? The Shadow knows! Ahahahahaha.

(Nice “sproing” graphic, by the way.)

3

I’m about a dozen spring cleanings behind in my cleaning.

4

Yup, yup and yup. Great OP, gt!

The weather is beautiful here, the birds are out (waking me up too early!), the ducks and geese are doing their dances and flights and yes, I’ve started doing some cleaning. I’ve even been posting to the SDMB Slob Reform thread lately. My happiest find lately was an empty box meaning one less thing to clean.

Happy spring everyone!

5

I dare not even open my closets. Might be vampires, you never know.

Spring may have sprang, but I’ve still got a box of Santa figures sitting here, because I just never got around to moving them. I WANT to spring clean, but I haven’t had a good-sized block of time all at once. Sure, I could do a little bit each day (and had I done that, the place might actually be clean right now) but that’s just Not The Same.

On the plus side, I noticed buds on my magnolia today. It’s a bassackwards kind of tree - first it flowers, then the flowers fall off and the leaves come in. It’ll be pretty in only several days.

Did you know that if you prune a magnolia in the spring, the freshly-cut wood smells just like chai tea? It doesn’t hold the fragrance long, though, nor does it smell particularly special if you burn it.

6

Spring has sprung! I was in Sonoma last week, and took a ton of pictures at Cornerstone: festival of gardens. Festival of pretentiousness is more like it, but the pictures are pretty. No captions, I’ll let you decide which is “The knowledge of man is as the waters” or The Pod or The Garden of Visceral Serenity, amongst others.

I haven’t done much spring cleaning yet, but I might start digging through the boxes labeled “Important Papers 1998 - 2002” in the closet sometime soon.

7

Dunno about Spring, but today is the Beginning of the End for me.

Yes indeed, this is my last week of work before I am free to go off and live on savings and hope I start making enough money fooling about making stuff in my apartment to make a living at it, before said savings run dry. Good? Bad? I guess we shall find out.

But Spring cleaning hmm… goes off to fetch a flame thrower

8

Spring! I love spring. It always feels like coming out of hibernation, and I get to slowly shed the cumbersome coats in favour of lighter apparel and, eventually, just the clothes on my back.

My vacation is officially over. I return to the grind tomorrow – to a 6 day work week in fact, since inventory begins Thursday and goes through 'til we’re done, which is usually sometime Saturday afternoon. But at least the extra-long Easter weekend follows. :slight_smile: The vacation was good while it lasted, though; the weather cooperated for the most part, had some fun, got some few things done, and generally just recuperated from winter. I think I’m ready for another 6-month break from vacation. :slight_smile:

9

Yes, spring sprung . . . apparently overnight. I don’t know how it happened, but this morn, everything outside was green. Funny how that happens.

Anyway, took the dog for a long walk, tidied up a little outside, and then spent the rest of the day proofreading a *((&@%&& book that is driving me nuts. So many cross refs, I got completely confused. Have to go back and hack away at it.

I need to get into the cabinets and pitch stuff in the kitchen. Also the rest of the kitchen, while I’m at it. I’ve given up on the rest of the house for now. Zero motivation to do anything inside when it’s over 70 and the birds are singing.

10

I’m just ready for some warmth and sun. Very good OP gt.

However, I’m kind of dreading the warming up because I have managed to put on way too much weight. My clothes are not comfortable, in fact some don’t fit well at all. Yes, I need to exercise. My food intake is not all that bad. I am bad sometimes and don’t watch what I eat, but this has never been such a problem before. However, when I do splurge and eat something that’s perhaps not “lean” or healthy, I make up for it by limiting myself for the next several days to a week, to just good stuff.

At any rate, I’m sort of dreading tank tops, shorts and lord help me, bathing suits. I have started taking only stairs at work. I should work out on the treadmill and I guess I’ll just have to tell the husband and kids they’re on their own for dinner, or they’ll have to eat later. The only thing that sucks about that is that I’ll have even less ME time. Work, exercise, dinner, laundry, etc, means I won’t be getting to relax or veg until very late.

Back to work tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it. I can retire in 13 more years; should I start counting the days yet? I’ll be 56.

11

What a coincidence - I was just thinking how I missed seeing the yellow flowers that are always the first to bloom back home in Korea. Seeing those always meant that spring was officially here.

Just had a bowl of pasta. I wasn’t even hungry, but I suddenly just wanted to eat pasta. :dubious: I really need to be healthier about my eating habits.

Off to bed for meeeeee… goo’ night all!!

12

If spring has sprung, can somebody tell winter to take its snow back? We had it for only about a couple weeks back during the time when it was officially winter, don’t want it now that some trees have been covered in small pink flowers for almost a month!

The reason I missed on reminding y’all that I was up for today is that I spent the weekend in a half-asleep haze. I could barely drag myself out of bed, I was ridiculously tired. After seeing the simulMMP almost brought me to tears, I’ve decided I’m not prolonging the job. This place is just bad for me. My main reason to stay here would be that my mother is an octopus, but she’s an octopus from 2 countries away too :stuck_out_tongue: I’m getting “come over” pre-offers for about as much money as I’m making, in a country where the medical system doesn’t claim to be superb but, since I know how it works, I actually have access to it!

I think of going back to Spain and think “ugh, Mom”. I think of staying here with a boss who is unable to do what I’m used to expect from a boss (give tools and information to his subordinates; I’m not even allowed to see the company policies I’m supposed to follow) and my stomach tries to go meet our Kiwidopers. So “ugh, Mom,” it is. Since I have nothing to do at work today and I’m not supposed to use the 'net while at work except “for job related purposes,” that’s what I’ll do: I’ll freshen up my resume and send it out.

Spoilered for TMI:

1. I’m having my period twice a month.
2. I’ve had several minor episodes of whatever-it-is with the vertigo, difficulty to focus, difficulty to concentrate and difficulty understanding speech.
3. My sleep cycle’s natural state is “set in stone:” I’ve been able to sleep soundly through situations that had turned every other teammate’s stomachs to balls of barbed wire. When it gets out of whack, it’s bad in size=666 letters. Lately it’s been in a rollercoaster.
4. Food tastes like cardboard. Have I mentioned I like food?

I work to live. This ain’t living, dammit.

13

There’s no way to just walk into a doctor’s office and pay out-of-hand? Switzerland may be hell on Earth, but that’s not a disease. Unless the water you’re drinking is contaminated, your address doesn’t cause dizzyness and other TMI issues.

14

Morning all! If it’s spring cleaning time, I should probably dust the Christmas tree.

gt, I should clean out my junk drawer, too. I tried gardening for two years. Year one they re shingled the apartment, and the falling debris pruned my pepper plants down to the stalk. Year two I spayed bug killer on the plants, but my roommate had secretly replaced the bug killer with Roundup. :eek: :eek: :eek:

{{{Nava}}} I’ve had jobs like that, and I would run, not walk to another one. Especially if it meant being able to go to the doc. Neat pics, by the way.

Mork, I have the reverse of you. Our inventory is Friday, then (hopefully )vacation.

Healthy eating Haze? I had cold pizza and a banana for breakfast today. :dubious:

15

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.*

This has been my favorite Spring poem since Jr. High. I miss forsythia, it will grow here, but due to day length it will never bloom. It’s all moot anyway, it’s 23F with snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. The calendar may say it’s Spring, but we have not reached Breakup yet. No bulbs poking up through the frozen ground yet, and generally I see some in February, at which point I panic and throw some more mulch over them. Not this year though. :frowning:

Today was another beautiful blue and gold day in K-Town. Skiffman arrived home about half an hour ago, bearing (ha!) a cooler full of black bear meat. We are splitting it with his skipper, and returning the cooler to the guy with the sawmill with elk from our freezer and deer from the skipper. I have not eaten bear before, and I need to check into some recipes, I know that it tend to be gamey and rich, lending it to marinades and such. If you are interested I’ll let you know how it is.

Nava I was surprised to see your MMP, and I did look at all the photos, making me long to see European architecture, especially the old places. Your nephew is adorable!

Well, it might be morning to you all, but it is almost 1:00 am here, so I am off to bed. Happy morning/afternoon to everyone, as it will surely be that late by the time I get back!

*Robert Frost

16

Not acceptable. Which is extra funny when you consider that the medical system is based on the patient paying and getting reimbursed; they will still not see you unless you have Swiss insurance.

17

The only thing sproinging into spring over here is time, since the clock suddenly moved forward one hour and I was late for work this morning :smack:

And because I was late, there was no coffee left.

And since the coffe was all consumed, I had to make some instant coffee.

Which prompted me to remember that we are leaving for fieldwork on friday, and that I have riped a hole in my drysuit. Its going to get mighty cold if I don’t fix it.

Aaand nooow mmmy fffingeers arrree alll sttickyy wwithh nneeoppreene gluuuee and I’m going blech each time I take a sip of that cold instant coffee.

So keep sproinging everybody, and a stiicckkyy monday morning post to you all

18

Nice MMP, GT! Spring has indeed sprung here as well. The cherry blossoms are starting to come out, daffodils are poking through as are tulips, and the forsythia is blooming.

I stayed up too late last night, which caused me to oversleep this morning, and now I’m running -way- late getting to work. Ah well, I’ll get there eventually.

19

Nava, look to the bright side. Since you’re experiencing TMI #1, you’re obviously not pregnant…

Monday morning gruff snorts of contempt to the rest of ya.

Prego the foster cat and her 4 hellspawn, Spaghetti, Linguini, Fettucine, and Lasagna, are all doing fine. Damned Prego isn’t happy being confined to VWife’s office, and is doing her best to tunnel her way out through the carpet. :mad:

20

Bobbio, if I was preggers I’d have to call the Vatican.

Or run from them.