Happy 5th Birthday!

Happy Birthday America!

Holding Our Breath

My in-laws have been in assisted living for over two years. During much of that time, my brother-in-law and I have been working on their house. (Mostly him, although I did scrape three rooms of wallpaper.) We finally put it on the market several weeks ago, and we were thrilled, especially since the market is so sluggish right now, to have a contract close to the asking price after just three weeks. Once the house was inspected, there was a fairly lengthy list of repairs that needed to be made. James and his brother have been steadily working on the list, and today they met at the house to finish it up. One of the things they had to do was lay a vapor barrier of plastic in the dirt crawl space beneath the house. I heard the basement-garage door open when James got home, but I was a little surprised to see him emerge from the basement into the hall in his underwear. When I got a look at these clothes, I was glad he'd stripped in the basement!

The closing is set for next Friday, and though it looks like everything will proceed according to plan, we're holding our breath until all the signatures are in place. I can tell you that I was also holding my breath as I carried these clothes from the basement to the laundry room!

82% Savings at Publix

I spent only $8.45 for all of this at Publix yesterday. Without sales and coupons, the two large boxes of cereal would have been almost that much.Because I had just met a friend for tea, I went to a Publix that was on my way home instead of my usual store. I didn't have the weekly sales ad yet, so I grabbed this up as I went in.
I was definitely out of my neighborhood! I didn't even know that Publix prints their ad in Spanish as well as English. My personal opinion is that if you want all the benefits this great nation has to offer, you could at least learn the language. But that's a soapbox for another time.

Shopping at 3 a.m.

When I couldn't sleep in the wee hours, I decided to shop for a waterproof mattress pad for the bed in my guest room (for benefit of the grandbabies). I meant to go to Amazon but instead went to Ebay. It was 3 a.m. after all. Since I was there, I typed my request into the search field. Here's the description of the first one I saw (edited somewhat in the interest of good, or at least mediocre, taste):

Application:

1. For infants used to bed-wetting and sicking-up;

2. For women ... to prevent besmirch of bed mattress;

3. For patients and elderly confined in bed, who usually humidify pillow and mattress with their perspiration due to long time stay in bed;

4. For school dormitory and holiday entertainment houses, where gatherings are often held to entertain a large number of people, which might cause spattering of liquid or food on pillow and mattress;

5. For hotel rooms during tour to prevent people from bacteria or other attacks caused by dirty mattress.

OK, then. I think that more than covers it. Pun intended.