2019 November To-Do List Update

Here's how my November To-Do  List turned out............

NOVEMBER

* Pay Bills  DONE  Top of the list, always gets done before anything else.

* Read 1, 2 Books   DONE  I actually read THREE Books this month! (It surprised me when I sat down to go over what I read. lol)

First off was this one.............

"Hanging Mary" by Sarah Higginbotham
A very well done bit of historical fiction, the author takes us into the world of the folks who lived at Mary Surratt's boardinghouse on H St. leading up to the assassination by John Wilkes Booth and how Mary became the first women in US history to be unjustly hanged for treason.
You really get to know the people who had close contact with JWB and how they were affected as the author is quite gifted at making all the folks involved in this drama come alive.

Then I read was this one.............

"A Soldier's Secret" by Marissa Moss
I didn't know going in but it became apparent quickly that this book was written for YAs(young adults/teens).  It was still enjoyable though and a very quick read.  Another historical fiction selection about Sarah Emma Edmonds, a woman who ran away as a teen from a miserable home life in Canada(then a British possession)and lived for many years as a man, including volunteering to serve in the US Union army during the Civil War.  Though the dialogue is fiction, the characters were real people who lived during that time.  Sarah survived the conflict and eventually married and lived as a women.  She is the only women who secretly served as a man during the war to be inducted into the GAR and receive a government pension for her Civil War service.  She wrote a memoir about her life which was published in the 1880's and she toured and gave lectures.  This book was based on her memoirs.
Dialogue was a little stilted and tiresome at parts but worth a read.

And finally I read this one............

"The Liberal Redneck Manifesto-Draggin' Dixie Outta the Dark" by Trae Crowder, Corey Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan   

I really related to this book, being a Southerner and all. 8-)  They dig in and go after every stereotype and shed light on many issues that people from this region of the country are affected by and still dealing with.  They go after both the good and bad of the culture and delve into the real history of why things are the way they are there.  These guys are a comedy trio of self-proclaimed rednecks but they are educated and articulate rednecks who are proud of their region and history.  They have lived real, sometimes painful lives and have seen both the good and bad about the region and have thoughts and ideas that may make you go, "huh".
This book will get you thinking and it's a must read for anyone who isn't from/didn't grow up in the South.
I am the product of a NY Yankee father and a VA Southern mother and was raised in the South.  Most of my Southern relatives come from uneducated redneck stock(at least for 5 or 6 generations)so this book spoke to me.  Living and traveling widely in other parts of the country I've seen the regional prejudice first hand Trae and company talk about.  I'd be delighted to spread some learnin' about true Southern culture(both the good and bad)to other regions.
HIGHLY recommend!

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  Mailed off right away and gladly received.

*  Chester Surgery  DONE  My poor puppy lost his nuts in November.  He healed up rather quickly and didn't need the "cone of shame" but for 2 days.  The good thing is he is less likely to mark in the house now and we don't have to confine him as much.

* Repair DR Ceiling  DONE SORT OF  Hubs got the patch job done but he still has to sand and paint it.  It will get done as soon as I nag enough. lolz

*  Work the Polls  DONE  I did my civic duty.  It was a long day but enjoyable really.

*  Hem Hubs Pants  DONE  The denim was so thick and non-plyable that the machine needle wouldn't go through the multiple layers of fabric at the seams so I had to partially hand hem part of each pants leg. ugh.  But it's done.

*  House Train Puppy  DONE  Dixie is finally house trained...yay!!

*   List Items on eBay  FAIL  I looked back and I didn't list a single item in November(though I did sell stuff that month).  I just got too busy with other things.  I'm not listing anything in December either due to being too close to Christmas now and we have the out of town Wedding in early January so I won't be able to ship stuff out.

*  Go to HS Clinic  DONE  Had my appointment and things are going well....not great but the outbreaks are not as bad as before going on Humira.  Only time will tell how successful this treatment will be and for how long.
In other medical news I also had my sleep doc appointment in November and I am now down to being borderline for needing sleep apnea treatment.  go me. ;-)

* Work on Christmas Gifts  IN PROGRESS  I'm not really "making" anything for gifts, it's just about making up gift baskets, wrapping all of it, and mailing a couple of things.  After we get the tree decorated this week my dining room table becomes wrapping central and the tape and scissors will be flying fast and furiously. lol

* Clean Downstairs for Turkey Day  DONE  Got the place presentable.  'Nuff said.

* Change Curtains in LR  DONE  Got Hubs to finally help hang the Winter curtains up without too much cursing(Guess who did the cursing?!LOL)

* Hang a Picture  DONE  Ditto the item above.  It was a much more difficult chore than the curtains but nobody committed murder in the process(though there were murderous thoughts on both sides).

* Hang Curtains in Hubs' Room  FAIL  I got him the curtain rod out but he just didn't do it.  I need to hem those curtains so they don't cover the baseboard heating unit under the window but he needs to get the rod on the wall so I know how much to cut off the drapes.  And he really needs to do this soon because we'll have folks sleeping in the daybed in that room for the Holidays and that window gets the morning sun so I guess I'll go into nag mode soon.........

* Cook Turkey Day Meal  DONE  It all got done and on time.  Cooking ahead really helped me not to overdo physically.  Even not being as tired and rushed I didn't take a single photo of the day. I was just in the moment for Thanksgiving(when I wasn't running to Rite-Aid that is.)

That's about all I can remember.
I hope everyone tackled everything on their November To-Do List and are satisfied with how things turned out.

Sluggy

Home Improvements.....Progress Report #1

Well we started the long slow slog of the home repairs/improvements by first cleaning and clearing out Daughter's old room.

Before what Daughter left........

After, cleaning(walls/window frame/ceiling fan, molding),vacuuming and shampooing the carpet and moving furniture and exercise equipment out.............

Daughter "supposedly" vacuumed in here thoroughly before she left, filling the vacuum canister SIX TIMES with dog hair/dirt.
I filled said vacuum cleaner another SIX AND ONE HALF TIMES before shampooing the carpeting. ugh.

After the carpet dried Ex-College Boy moved his stuff in.............

We also replaced the broken blinds on the window in there.  Ex-CB hasn't gotten around to putting anything on the walls yet but as far as I am concerned this bedroom is done.
Once he moves out, the room will get some more love(new paint and maybe new carpeting)but I am not spending time, energy and MONEY in here until he's moved out for good because well, Ex-College Boy is a slob when it comes to taking care of his room.  Like most 20 something males he is fastidious about his personal grooming but you'd never know it from looking at his room.  It looks not so bad here because he hadn't had time to pigsty-ify it yet.

Here's my new sewing room aka Ex-College Boy's old bedroom after he moved his furniture and most of his crap into his new room.......

Lots of "droppings".

And here's the closet before he emptied that.........

I swear I hauled three shopping bags of partially emptied water bottles as well as cans of unopened soda and nutrition drinks as well as some full water bottles.

Here are what is left of the partially used water bottle collection from his room.  Ex-College Boy has orders NOT to take another water bottle to drink until they are all used up.

Here's my new room after cleaning/clearing all Ex-CB's stuff out and vacuuming it...........

This was also hanging in Ex-CB's old room.

It's a sword belonging to Eldest son.  He got this for a birthday when he was about 16?  I called him and he doesn't want it and Ex-CB doesn't want it in his new bedroom.
Anyone want a dragon headed Game of Thrones type display sword? lol

I doubt Salvation Army will take this so I guess I'll be offering it up on the local FB selling site.
I can just imagine now the sketchy folks I'll be dealing with when I offer this beauty up on the site.
Fun time people, fun times........

Here is some of what we hauled out of the closet in Daughter's old room(not the things on the coffee table but in front of it)that were either going to Salvation Army or will be sold.

I found my long lost pullover sweaters that I got for free at K-Mart about 4 years ago.  I forgot they got stored in the back of her closet(which I didn't have access to while she was living here)and now they are too big. ugh.  I guess I'll try to sell them locally come Fall since they all still have tags on them and haven't been worn.

The living room has become the staging area around here.  I gained 2 Rubbermaid tubs from Ex-CB as now he can fit all his clothes in the 2 dressers in his new room.  I also uncovered 2 shopping bags full of  plastic clothes hangers.

A mysterious shopping bag of food appeared in the garage shortly after he moved his belongings/furniture into the new room.  It was full of boxed/canned/bottled food!  This was stuff he was given when he moved into the friend's apartment almost 2 years ago at the beginning of his Senior year of college.  He hauled it all home and shoved it under his bed and apparently it stayed their for the last 1.5 years when he moved everything home to do his internship his last semester of school.
When Daughter took his bed frame(her grandmother gave it to her and she took it to Louisiana)Ex-CB no longer had space under his bed/box spring since it now sits on the floor instead of the bed frame, hence the sudden appearance of the bag of food.
Mystery solved! lolz

Here's the first load we took to Salvation Army(everything in front/to the side of the green chair on the floor.(Except that lamp, it will be re-purposed.)

We uncovered two boxes of electronics that belonged to Daughter's fiancé-one in the bowels of her closet and one in Hubs' room's closet.  Some of it got saved and will find it's way to Louisiana in due time, Ex-CB scavenged  some screws and cables for his use and the rest got dumped in the trash or taken in for recycling at Best Buy and Staples.

New blinds were bought and hung in my new room, Ex-CB's new bedroom and the hallway main bathroom.  All these windows sorely needed them.

Then I set to repairing the walls in my new room before painting could commence........

Two walls done.  I couldn't believe the extent of the wall damage in there!
Well, really, I shouldn't have been surprised since two different adolescent to early twenties aged sons had lived in there.

Under the window was torn up good with what looked like stab wounds. lolz
Ex-CB told me that during a phase in high school he and his one friend had played with throwing stars up there.  Yah, now I know where their targets were...........

Hubs went and bought enough paint to do this room and his spare room.  We used another free Lowe's gift card to buy the paint plus we already had 2 cans of ceiling paint leftover from when we had the downstairs painted so no money was spent on that either.

Not being able to find a competent painter who didn't change an obscene among of money to paint this smallish room I contracted with Ex-College Boy to help me paint the room.  He is only working part time right now and can use the money and I can't climb ladders and do some of this sort of work anymore so this was a good arrangement.  I let him do most of the actual painting(I did the cutting in work that I could reach)and I supervised and reloaded the paint tray, moved step ladders for him, etc.
We got the ceiling done and the first coat of paint/primer on the walls on Tuesday...............

It was determined(by me)that the room would need a second coat(plus the dark blue accent wall needed a third coat)and that the carpeting was too far gone with stains to be saved.  So on Wednesday since I was out at a doctor's appointment down the valley I went to Lowe's to arrange for carpet measuring and picked out which carpeting to get.  They are coming next week to measure and I am hopeful I'll have new carpeting in there by the end of June after we get back from our trip.  So for now it's a lot of hurry up and wait going on. I can't move anything in here until the floor is finished. 8-(

Hubs still has to touch-up the crown molding paint as I can't do it(the ladder thing)and Ex-CB is not careful enough to "stay in the lines". lolz  Hubs has been having to rest his shoulder/neck for a few days as he overdid something earlier this week so he is attempting the molding painting later today.

So the only cost associated with getting this room done will be the cost of the carpeting and what I paid Ex-CB for his work.

In other news......
I have taken all my clothes out of the dresser and the walk-in closet and the pile over by the étagère holding a load of fabric yard goods on a coffee table we have stored in our bedroom plus clothes I dug out of Daughter's huge closet.
And I have gone through it all.
Two bags of worn out stuff got tossed, another 3 bags got taken to Salvation Army and some dresses(4 I think?)as well as previously talked about sweaters will be sold on the FB local site or eBay.

Everything is now back where it needs to be in the dresser or closet...........except this pile of pants on my ironing board.

All these are a size too large now but I need to try them all on to double check if they still fit and/or if they need to be kept for wearing around the house/yard for work, trashed or taken to Sallie's.
This trying on of everything will happen today and the pile will be dispensed with.

Progress Report #2 will probably happen the end of June or early July.
It is killing me that I can't get anything finished yet and it's taking waaaaay too long to complete stuff.
Since I've been in a holding pattern for THREE YEARS on most of this stuff I am chomping at the bit to get it all done!!!


Impatient Sluggy

To-Do List.....November Edition

Let's check out how our November To-Do List turned out......


NOVEMBER

* Pay Bills  DONE  Everything paid off this month that was due.  Top of the list, Always!

* Read 1, 2 Books  DONE

First off I read this one..........

Magruder's Cruiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood

This story revolves around an abandoned English girl involved with a disgruntled menage of circus freaks during a plague outbreak in turn-of-the-20th century Coney Island.
How could this not be enjoyable, right?? lolz

It held my attention from the first page to the end. A GREAT light escapist read!  It had everything--action, very interesting characters, suspense, fantasy, drama, pathos, comedy.

I also read.............

"9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America...and four who tried to save her"  by Brion McClanahan

Keep in mind that this author is a conservative as far as "politics" go.  I think every American should pick this book up and give it a read with an open mind.  He's not just some political hack talking through his hat here.  
He challenges the current though of most Americans on what makes a President "Great".  Using the Constitution as a yardstick many(if not all)of the POTUS that folks look up to as the Great Ones are not. 
 They are men who have expanded the role of the POTUS to something it was NOT meant to be and have grown government to the epic proportions it has amassed today.  It all began to go wrong back during George Washington's second term according to Mr. McClanahan--from the rise of political parties to populism to imperialistic Presidents.
The author has a small section on 4 of the Presidents who tried to get our system back on track, though none of these 4 are more current than the 30th POTUS.

This book will challenge most peoples thoughts on the true role of POTUS and how the 9 talked about have taken us from the Founding Fathers and our Republic to the sad state of affairs this country is currently experiencing.

* List items on eBay  FAIL  I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on eBay this month.  Too much going on I guess.  I will try to sell a few things on our local FB site in December.

* Get out/Wash Holiday Dishes  DONE  Washed and used and have been put away again.

* Make Turkey Day menu  DONE  The menu turned out to be turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Lula rolls, cranberry "glop", as well as whole berry sauce, green bean casserole, honey glazed carrots, pumpkin pie w/whipped cream.  Nom Nom Nom

* finish Turkey Day shopping  DONE  Got all the food bought plus some extra cheap items with my Weis Points....a turkey breast, a ham and a huge Stouffer's lasagna(now all residing in the freezer).

* Cook Thanksgiving Meal  DONE  And everyone ate well.

The nephew even brought flowers and wine for dinner! 

* Hold Giveaways  DONE

Giveaway #1

Giveaway #2

* Mail Giveaways  DONE  Both were mailed and received and I thank both Janet and Angie for letting me know their boxes of goodies arrived safely.  8-)))

* Clean the House for Company  DONE  Most of what needed doing got done.  Hubs even scrubbed the kitchen floor for me, on his hands and knees(which is something I can no longer do).

* Put together Food Bank Donation  DONE

* Take Food Bank Donation to FB  DONE   Mid month Hubs helped me take a car load of toiletries, laundry detergent and dog/cat food up to the local food bank at a church in town.

* Buy and Hang Bathroom Blinds  DONE  This is something Hubs got a bee in his bonnet about in November, though we've needed new blinds on the master bath window since we had the room redone 2 years ago.  ;-)  He finally went up to Lowe's and bought blinds and put them up.

* Buy and Hang Kitchen Blinds  DONE  While Hubs was buying blinds I suggested we replace the old blind in the kitchen window too.  We've had the same ratty old bamboo shade on the window since moving here over 18 years ago.  It was beginning to show it's age and get moldy(bleck!)so it had to go!

We got white faux woods blinds and they are much better than what they replaced!

* Arrange Secret Santa Exchange  DONE  While Elder son was home for 2 days we did the drawing of names.  I nagged the 4 of them to get their wish lists to me and send a master list to everyone by email this past Sunday.  Now it's outta my hands!lolz

* Fix Doorbells  DONE  Another long deferred home repair.  Our doorbells haven't worked for 10 years or so.  While Hubs was up at Lowe's he picked up parts to replace both doorbells.
It was a small and quick fix and had I know it was so easy I would have handled that long before now!

* Finish Saving Seeds  DONE sort of......

I got the bulk of the Morning Glory seed pods picked, dried, crumbled so I can blow off the hulls and clean seeds saved.
But with all the rain and then a foot of snow early in mid-November a still have a big clump of vines/pods on the deck table to pick through but with the weather that isn't going to happen until early Spring.
I still got quite a bit of seed saved anyway.

* Purge Inserts  DONE  

You can see I only have about 10 inserts now.  I'll go through them again in December to get ready for the January inserts which are usually copious and thick at the beginning of the new year.

* Clean my Desk (EEK!)  FAIL

What.
A. 
Mess.
It's been a min-mess for months.  So many things going on where I need paperwork handy.  I'll get a few paper issues dealt with and filed away in December so the condition can be upgraded to "Fair" on this patient. lolz

* Host Eldest and GF for 2 Days  DONE

Son's GF had to work on Thanksgiving Day(Thank you Mount Vernon!)so son took off a coule days of work and they came to visit us the weekend before Thanksgiving and then to GF's parent's house in NJ for 2 days and then back to VA.  A quick visit but it was enjoyable.
I have to say that this GF is a much better fit for our son.  ;-)

* Go Through Xmas Gift Box  FAIL
With everything going on here and company before Thanksgiving I really didn't have the room or brain cells to pull out the Xmas gift box yet and contemplate all that entails. I pretty much know what has been bought this year and hiding in that box so this didn't put me behind of Xmas shopping to let that box stay put for a couple extra weeks.
The box is, as of this writing, in the dining room awaiting sorting and wrapping of it's contents.  


The only think I wish I gotten to that I didn't was to launch a few eBay listings. A little extra cash coming from selling items would have been nice but not at the expense of trying to do too much and stress myself out so I have made peace with my list and what got done/didn't get done.

Did you have a To-Do List in November?
Tell us how you did knocking off the items on your list! 8-)
Sluggy