A Clean Desk Is A New Lease On Life!

This was the weekend that I HAD to tackle my overflowing, piles on piles of paperwork, miscellaneous receipts that never match the cheques, dozens of notes to self, etc. etc. etc. that was overflowing my desk and the counter tops surrounding my desk. Two foot tall piles to be exact!!! My exploding paperwork clutter was even annoying my staff! Probably because every time that they asked for something, I would direct them to "the pile" and a half an hour later (or longer) they might find the answer to their question. It was paper "OUT OF CONTROL"! Today was D day and that hill had to be conquered. Bring on the beer!
Income tax, serious amounts of paperwork, forms that need to be filled out - all of these tasks require vast amounts of beer. Income tax requires cigarettes too! I have to admit that I usually only get motivated to deal with things such as these, when threatened with jail time, suspension of my bank account, or the arrival of a sheriff to seize our assets. Paperwork is mind numbing. There is no creativity involved, no satisfaction - just mind numbing torture.
My goal was to be able to see the top of my desk (in entirety) by Sunday noon. Thursday night I did the piles of stuff to the left of my desk, had some bottled beverages, praised myself for surviving even just that much and shuddered when I looked at what was left. Friday, I made sense of what was stored to the right of my desk. Today I had to come face to face with the actual desk itself. I was already down a case of beer and the worst part was yet to come.
I know that this probably sounds exaggerated, but what you have to realize is that not only am I the "keeper" of the paperwork for my company, but I also have farm books, WCB related paperwork that pertains to Mike and his injury, receipts that need to be claimed, CAIS forms, Monday Night Class memos by the dozens, client forms for four hundred people and notes pertaining to them, dozens of kit filling lists and designer notes, tens of dozens of memos regarding stock issues pertaining to certain kits, bills that need to be paid, need to be filed, need to be given to Edna, payroll, designers fee book, shipping lists, orders that have been filled, orders that haven't been filled, lists of card numbers that will not go through, and about forty notes for phone calls that need to be made - it just goes on and on and on... It is a wonder that I have not hung myself from the rafters a long time ago. It would be a full time job to keep it all up AND I DON'T WANT THAT JOB!!!!!
I can just about see the top of the desk and it is only Saturday night - I still have one more day! Then I am going to take a picture and rejoice in the fact that the allies have landed and the battle will be won! (Don't tell Edna that I threw half of it away!)

Water Woes (!*%#!*#*)

Do you see what this is? Black water, in my bath tub!! Two hours ago there was no water, and I'm not sure which is worse - no water versus black water? This whole saga started three days ago, on Tuesday morning when I came to work. I made a pot of coffee, flushed the toilet a couple of times before noon and after lunch I went to get a bucket of water to wash the chairs and tables down in the workshop and guess what? No water!
I wasn't too worried, I thought it was just an electrical problem. We have lots of trouble with the pilot light going off on the boiler and Mike just comes and starts it every time that I call, so I thought it was no big deal. Until Mike came and could not solve the problem. So we called Reed, our plumber. Reed worked on it for two days before he called in back up - our electrician that lives just down the road.
By now, I'm sweating bullets. Two years ago we trenched in a water line and a power line to connect the workshop to the well - some $30,000.00 later, we had flushing toilets for the staff that came to work. The electrical line is 6 feet down with the water line and our electrician told us that there was a fault in the line somewhere and we were losing power, at the well we did not have enough current left to start the pump. There is 2300 feet of electrical line between the well and the taps. WTF???
Gerry changed some wires around, using a ground wire for the hot wire and changing the faulty wire into the ground wire. Or something like that. Today, Reed came back to hook everything up and after a lot of hissing and spitting, water started to come out. At first, it was sort of yuckky looking, so Reed directed all of the water through a hose into the toilet and cleaned the system, or so we thought. Then Reed left. I went to clean up some of the muddy spots on the floor, turned on the tap and guess what came out? BLACK WATER!!! We shut everything off fast and went and got some garden hoses, turned on the outside tap and it has been running for over two hours now, but this is what is coming out.
It is oily and sticky and leaves streaks on everything. The only cleaning product that I have that will take it off and break it down is Comet. (Believe me, I have lots of cleaning products and I have tried them all in the past couple of hours). It is in every sink and toilet and shower and bath tub!
Have you ever had one of those days (or weeks) when it is two steps ahead and three back? That is this week for me!! I am going home to have a stiff drink. I'm going to let the water run wild all night if I have to. I'll worry about cleaning up the mess tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day

I certainly had a great Mother's Day weekend, even if the skies were cloudy and overcast and it was generally yuckky outside. First, Andrew brought me the coolest cast iron towel rack that I have ever seen. I took one look at it and knew that I wanted to use it to hold scrap booking magazines instead. Then I was surprised by some friends with a bouquet of sunflowers for my dining room table. Then I got a phone call to come home from the workshop and when I got there Daniel gave me a new cell phone!!!!!! The slide kind, with individual keys for texting !!! Then Mike gave me two new charms for my Pandora bracelet - and a card that said that while I was NOT his mother, he decided to treat me anyway. Lastly, I got a phone call from Las Vegas, from my daughter, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. (Megan is on vacation, with dyed hair and fake ID because she is not 21) At least she was not calling me from jail!!
The whole thing got me thinking about being a Mother and how hard it is to bite your tongue when you see one of your adult (or supposed to be adult) children doing something that you are dead set against. I guess the way that Mike and I ran things in our household was: if you were living at home, under our roof, you followed our rules. When you moved out, you were able to make your own decisions, but we always stated to our children that we raised them to know right from wrong, hoping that our example would keep them from making too many disastrous mistakes. WRONG!!! What were we thinking?? They're a bunch of idiots!!!!
I wonder then, how many times my own parents have lamented the fact that they raised a bunch of idiots too? I'm pretty sure that my own Mom must have bit her tongue until it was bleeding, when I decided, at different stages of my life, to change religions, start homeschooling my three children, scrapbook for a living, buy a car that cost more that our house, etc. etc. And I am just one of her three idiot children!!!
No wonder why people celebrate Mother's Day. It is one day that you can enjoy your children, before another year of bullshit comes along!!

Tribute To Guy!

Okay, I know what Christy is going to call this - food porn. I am addicted to Food Network TV, particularly to the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hosted by my favorite Food Network Chef - none other than Guy Fieri. This is Guy - a little "out there", very witty and really talented! He makes me laugh.

About a year ago, I saw an episode of Triple D, when Guy went to a cafe called Blue Moon Cafe and the owner was a young, 20 something, entrepreneur who was set up in business by her mom. She demonstrated how to make Captain Crunch French Toast. I played around with her recipe and this is what I came up with:

The Captain's French Toast

sliced strawberries (some for filling, some for topping) approx three cups

1/4 brick cream cheese, softened

slices of French Bread, approx 1/2" thick

Captain Crunch cereal that has been "pulsed" in a food processor until crumbly

four eggs

vanilla extract

splash of milk

In a shallow bowl, whip up eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Pour Captain Crunch crumbs into a pie pan or other shallow container.

Butter insides of two slices of french bread with the soft cream cheese, place strawberries into the cream cheese and put the two slices together with the cream cheese/strawberries together in the middle. Make sure that the sandwich is "stable" and not wanting to slide apart.

Dip both sides in the egg mixture.

Roll the sandwich around in the Captain Crunch, making sure that even the edges get coated with the cereal.

On a grill, or in a fry pan, carefully grill both sides of the French toast, being sure not to burn the cereal. The high sugar content can cause it to burn easily!!

Serve with warmed syrup, sliced strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy!!

Thanks, Guy,for making me want to play around in the kitchen. You are my inspiration!