When did Blogging get to be a Chore?

I'm a bit confused ...

I used to love to blog.



Too much.


All the time.


About anything or nothing at all ...


But now ... something will happen, I will see something or think about something and I will think to myself that I should sit down and and plonk out a post, but I never do. I guess that part of me changing is not going to change back.


Maybe ...



Maybe it will come back ....



Later ...


~~~~~~~ Crazy Company Call ~~~~~~~

UPDATE:

I am nervous even writing this in here ...

Gary told me not to, but ... this just blows my mind.

(If you are confused then you need to read a few posts beneath this or it will not make a lick of sense.)

The phone kept ringing the other day and I kept ignoring it ... it was from the same number and toll free so no one I knew. It would ring till the answering machine kicked in then stop. Not a minute later it would start all over again. I finally picked up the phone and redialed the number to figure out who the heck would do such a thing.


Ring.

Ring.

"Hello, and welcome to xxxxxx"

I hang up. The xxxxx part is the name of the company I trashed talked about in a previous blog and so now I don't dare type their name in for fear they have a 'tap' on my computer (kidding - but seriously guys ... WHERE DID THEY GET MY PHONE NUMBER?).

Hmmmm. I guess they are calling me to apologize that someone was imitating them? Like it's their fault?

The phone rings.

I pick it up. And yes it was an upper level drone from the company telling me that it was not them, to hang up immediately if and when it happens again ... and then oddly enough gave me his e-mail address to e-mail him any information I can get out of them since they have an open, active investigation into my situation.

So ...

Upper Level Dude ... am I supposed to hang up immediately or 'gather intel' for you? You can't have it both ways.

OK, a little weird, but pretty much what I assumed was going to go down.

Until:

Upper Level Drone: "Ms. Hurst we need you to take that post off your blog."

Lori: "Excuse me?"

Upper Level Drone: "The post we are talking about, we need you to delete it. In the near future."

Lori: "Ummm, well I make books out of my blog (NOW a total lie since I don't plan on making my blog into a book any more - the new Lori again I suppose ...) and would like it in there. I will think about it for after.

Upper Level Drone: "We really need you to delete that post."

Lori: "Sir, you do realize that I am very much a NOBODY and no one really reads my blog? It will be fine."

Upper Level Drone: "We would very much like for you to delete it."

Lori: "Now that you have formed your statement into a request rather than a demand ... I will think about it."

Upper Level Drone: "Excuse me?"

Lori: (totally lying) "Consider it done."


So, yeah I'm going to hell for lying and all, but I WON'T have a Special Forces Ops unit from a country we will not mention here dropped by helicopter into my back yard, smashing my back door in and holding me at gunpoint until I delete the post.

It's a win - win for everybody! They think I am going to delete it, and I get to FURTHER TRASH TALK THEM!

What's not to love about this situation?

Seriously - all this is the complete truth - I don't think I could make up something so bizarre ...


~~~~~~~ Reluctant Gardener ~~~~~~~

SO ....

A while back Gary told me in a way that only he can, that he hated my gardens.

He can actually get the message across to me without actually using the words 'hate', 'loathe' or 'despise' but the message is heard loud and clear. It is a gift he has developed as he matured. Had this been the first week of our marriage - he would have said: "Lori I really hate, loathe and despise your gardens."

His gift for keeping his mouth shut rather than being brutally honest has come a long ways ...

So I went about cleaning it up, and wasn't sure what to do - I liked it how it was. When talking to Gary about it he mentioned that he just wanted to be able to see the floor through the plants - that there was just too much.

So I started. It was the day my cleaning lady comes so I asked her if she wanted some and then dumped about a third of everything on her - but still had a mess:
While I was doing my culling, I ran across this:
One of my plants decided to grow through my ginormous bird cage:
It was so sad! There was just too much and the bars were too small to pull the vines back through so I had to do some chopping:
I've never successfully got anything to 'root' by sitting it in a glass of water, so I just let them lie on the floor for a couple of days and watched them slowly die ...

The plant was still in pretty good shape, though:
More mess - since I was not sure what I was doing, it just sat this way for a couple of days while I thought about things.
In the middle of this all, we decided to replace the carpet that had a huge dog barf stain on it. It had really been bugging Gary for a while. Someone had stupidly fed Charlie boneless buffalo wings and she was dumb enough to eat them ...

Unfortunately, some time in the middle of the night, her stomach decided that was not such a great idea and so she barfed RED hot sauce all over my WHITE carpet.

AND IT STAINED!

Who knew buffalo wings were so dangerous?

We had another rug exactly like the one that was there since we had bought two of them at IKEA in Norway since the entire house we were living in had solid wood floors. When we got here, we only needed one so put the other in the attic.

Got it out and it was incredibly filthy. We tried to clean it up and decided that buying another one sounded funner. Rolled up both the crappy ones and decided to put them in the attic until we decided what to do with them.

Don't you just love attics? They are like a big, convenient black hole! I am sure we will never see those rugs again!
Decided to let our fingers do the shopping and booted the computer. Googled "Wool Area Rug" and started looking. We decided to look at IKEA since we knew they sold wool area rugs. Got on and were wandering their website when I mentioned that I would love to buy the same rug if they still sold it and if they sold it in the US but chances were slim - it had been years since we bought them. Gary mentioned that he thought it was a little too small for the area and wished it came in a bigger size.

And all of a sudden ... there it was! And the really cool thing? It came in sizes and there was one bigger than the one we had!

Called the Houston IKEA and asked if they had it in stock, they said yes and within 10 minutes we were in Gary's truck on our way there to purchase one. Easiest rug purchase ever! And it fits beautifully (The weights are no longer holding the corners down. Why, why, why didn't I move them for the photo? It is really bugging me .... but not enough to go take another photo):
I moved everything out of the way and brought the tree from the entry area garden back to live with the other two:
I could not get them to fit, so waited until Gary came home and we decided it was impossible. So we moved two of them onto the back patio. They look lovely, but going from 70 degrees in a sun protected environment to 100 degrees in the sun ... well, lets say we don't give them much time ...
It was around this time that I realized that I really didn't know what I was doing, had liked my old gardens and had no interest what so ever in the new garden. I packed up all the plants to take to the Women's Shelter.
When Gary realized this he felt bad and told me not to do that and went about setting up the garden himself. He did a good job and I was not sure what I should do to finish it - especially so that the floor was still showing. I decided to think about it for a few days.
Gary was having a meeting on that Saturday so I promised that I would have it done by then and on Friday finished up the best I could.

See - you can see tile through there, right?
This side might not have as much floor showing:
And a lovely panorama that looks a wee bit warped but shows the whole lovely 'garden':
I might not like the new garden as well as I liked the old ones, but I don't mind it and I know that it looks better and is more practical - my love for my forests is not a logical one ...

I do like this little corner though:
I do like what we did with the empty garden space - which is weird, I know. We put the kitchen table Gary built in the entry. If someone had asked me if a kitchen table and chairs belonged in an entry I would have said no and that anyone that put one there was nuts and had no style at all.

But, then again - I am nuts and have no style at all ...
Moved the Arts and Craft desk Gary built downstairs. Gary decided he hated it only when it was closed. When it was open it was OK and didn't look organ'ish. So it went into the dining-room-that-we-don't-use-as-a-dining-room room:
All in all, things feel more organized and cleaner. That is a VERY GOOD thing for my mental health ...

And during this big room upheaval, I figured out where to put my angel! I SERIOUSLY fell in love with my giant angel I bought in Arizona and was feeling bad that I was going to have to put her away after Christmas. I could not figure out where she was going to live. It came to me while I was shuffling stuff about that she would look lovely on my desk up high where the iris vase lives. I am at the desk more than anywhere (other than my bed) and I enjoy seeing the iris vase out of the corner of my eye. I decided I would enjoy seeing the angel there more!

Not to mention the very important fact that I just got me a Super Duper Computer Guardian Angel! Based on her mass alone I should be well protected! My troubles are over ...

Maybe I will even start sleeping at nights ...

You never know what exactly a Super Duper Computer Guardian Angel is capable of. Looks promising though ...

I like her there .... just as long as she does not get excited and take a swan dive onto a monitor ...
This is here just because I was bored.
So ... that's pretty much the post I told myself every day for a week that I was going to write. Hopefully this is a phase - not that I want to blog more often. And ESPECIALLY not because y'all want me to blog more often! But because it feels wrong to do it if it feels like a chore. It should be enjoyable or not done at all - blogging, that is!

The 'Crazy Company Call' was thrown in just for fun.


Later ....




But hopefully not that much later ...