Monday, Dec. 08, 2008 12:39 am
Company Coming
Seems like I have had a lot of trouble sleeping this week. If I go to bed at a decent hour I am restless all night. If I stay up too late I wake up tired and have a hard day. I had a long nap one night, maybe Friday? and that helped a lot.
More frustration this week with M&M that I want to remember. She has been out playing with the new beau a lot so I haven't seen much of her. She handed me a stack of bills to pay. One was for business property taxes. It showed she had $10000 worth of business property. I called the county just to see how they come up with this. They were very nice. They said each January the business owner gets a declaration that they can add to or dispute, etc., and BY LAW they have to return this thing. If they don't, the county just ups it by 10%. M&M hasn't returned one in a while, apparently. As for business property, she probably doesn't even have $1000 worth anymore and that would save her at least a couple of hundred in taxes. I think that would be worth returning the letter.
This week we have Bruce at the Paramount. That should be a good show. Mark will be gearing up for his trip, so I bet he bails on me and doesn't go, but we'll see. Maybe I'm feeling anger and projecting or something.
He has been very sweet today. We went out for catfish lunch and then went to a Baby Jane jewelry sale, her last, but it was already pretty picked over so we didn't get anything. We looked for a real or fake Christmas tree, but it didn't seem worth the money so we are still treeless. Tonight he put up the curtains in the guest room after I got them trimmed and hemmed. They were too long. They are plain, but they look okay.
Yesterday we went to Jason's Deli for lunch (two meals in one weekend! that's great!) and went to Penney's. He found a couple of things he wanted/needed, but I didn't find a Christmas sweater/shirt like I wanted. So I didn't have anything new to wear to the doctor's office party last night, but I looked fine in slacks and my red and black velvet jacket thing from years ago. They hadn't seen it.
The party last night was fun. I didn't expect to be there from beginning to end, but I was. It was a dinner and drinks and lots of visiting. I enjoy my friends there. There were a lot of people I didn't know, but it wasn't the kind of party where I felt any obligation to meet them or chat with them. Relief!
Tonight I've been cleaning house for the folks coming tomorrow for a three night visit. I hope I don't go out of my mind while they are here. They are usually easy company, but we are not used to three night company. I will work some so that will be my out if I get overwhelmed.
I have been feeding a sweet stray kitty Mark has named Stubb because he has no tail (and he appears blind in one eye). The poor kitty is very affectionate and loving and purrs a lot. He always seems starved when he comes to eat. I let him up on the porch tonight and he explored it all, but I don't want him mixing with our cats until he has been checked out by a vet. I haven't made that commitment yet. I don't know if we will.
I finished a good book this week that my friend Gianna sent to me: the 19th wife. It was pretty good and interesting for the first 400 pages and then it got a little slower and more tedious. It had a "Brigham Young memoir" section that was non-believable. I could believe some of the other made-up historical documents it fictionalized, but a memoir that includes things like "the candle just dripped, reminding me of the passing of time . . . blah blah blah." No one writes about minutiae like that.
So now I think I'll go shower and go to bed and see what else I can read. I think Mark is just getting started on his housecleaning, but I'll leave him to it. I cleaned the kitchen (some) and my office (some) and the living room (some) and did the laundry and the decorating, etc., so I think some of the rest is up to him.