Something Smells Funny in Our House.

So far it's been four days of hunting for the source.

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It's not coming from the "Dead Zone"; an area under our headboard difficult to reach for humans, absolutely perfect for cats to take, well, prey. Usually verminous in nature. The smell is also not anything which escaped "The Zone" only to expire elsewhere. Anyone who has ever smelled rotten flesh knows exactly what I mean; it is utterly gagsome and unmistakable, even from the smallest critters.

A common phrase on a warm summer day "There is something dead in here."

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This smell is possibly vegetable in nature, however the turtle tank shouldn't have anything in it too smelly - it's turtle hibernation season, and we feed her lightly. However, just for the sake of elimination I am cleaning it this weekend.

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The garbage is emptied often, and I make sure really odiferous items go straight to the outside garbage. Lessons learned the hard way.

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No, this is a kind of musty, moldering smell that catches in my nose every time I get a whiff. Not quite as stinky as wet cat, but a little worse than dog breath. Not a poop smell (thank goodness) or the acrid stench of cat pee. More similar to wet gym socks left in a bag. Or smelly cheese.

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Since I am de-junking, I am highly suspicious of boxes recently packed for charity, and the garbage bag which should have nothing organic inside to create such a stench.

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Wish me luck on my hunt, and hopefully I will track it down before it gets utterly unbearable.

Just a quick note....I've added my new blogs. Don't hold your breath on when I will be posting to them. Have a lot of work left to do....

Successful Blogs

I've been looking at other people's blogs, determining makes a blog "successful" in my opinion. I think the act of publishing a blog is one success. However, to be truly successful, a blog needs readers. I think the blogs with many hits are those that focus on one subject. One interesting blog I came across was Vegan Lunchbox. It's a featured blog, and also one with really lovely pictures. Even though I am not a vegan, I found it interesting.

Another one I like is If Flat's Come Back in, We're Screwed. Also very funny. Both of them make me think I need more pictures in my blog. Pictures can make a big difference.

There are very successful blogs that are well-known. I'm not going to link to them here, because I don't know them.

I'm contemplating the construction of three additional blogs. That sounds like a lot, I know.

However, I am going to virtually abandon my homepage, perhaps updating every quarter. It's going to contain links to this blog, and two of my three new sites.

My first blog will be book reviews. I wrote them on my homepage for years, and I would like them to be archived. There are 10,000 book review pages online, but I don't care.

The second will be a blog for my fiction. I want to get it out there. This one will be difficult, because it's my most emotionally risky act; putting my own writing out in the world.

The third blog is going to be completely separate from these, and that's about all I'm going to say about it here. Ever.

I will make VGRandomized a little more like my home page, with a weekly report as well as my random ramblings.

I suppose my personal idea of a successful blog is one that gets visits; but also I want to look more interesting. So, stay tuned. Big changes may be in store here.

Winning the Lottery.....

I can spend days contemplating the dispersal and management of the vast fortune I will win with my 1$ lottery ticket.

Right now, February 16, 2006 the Powerball Lottery is up to 365 million dollars. Say it out loud. Three hundred and sixty-five million dollars.

I even do math when I calculate the vastness of my winnings. Even if you take a half-payment, and pay the horrific 30 percent taxes you still end up with 119,000,000.00. Approximately.

What would one really do with THAT much money? Of course, all the usuals. Pay off bills, make home improvements. Quit working, unless one is in a field one doesn't do only for money.

I have this fantasy of sending a letter to all my friends and relatives, stating we will pay all their bills up to some certain amount. All done through lawyers, so we don't know how much they owe. All done with the agreement that they won't ask for more money down the road. But I remember younger, leaner days when it would have been so great just to pay off the bills, and start fresh.

Of course, an amount of money to the close family - parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews.

Yes, there are a few things I would buy for fun. Guitars - my T5, Luna Moth and Martin EC. The four or five tarot decks that are out of my price range. Some kind of fun car. But, including the new car, I bet it wouldn't be over 75,00 dollars. (And the car would be a good chunk of that. I'm a car girl.)

For The Saint, he has stated he would immediately rent a warehouse to begin housing his car and motorcycle collection and restoration projects. Buy a fun car.

Eventually we would build our dream house. Our dream house is actually not so extravagant - enough land so even if the area started to be developed we wouldn't have to see it. Well-made, not cheapo. Enough storage.

My most extravagant purchases might be a condo in New Orleans (yes, even post-Katrina) and a small house on the ocean; probably the Oregon Coast.

More interesting is the experiences that kind of money could give. No longer working 9-5 and spending as much time together as we want. Actually having the time to accomplish what can now only be squeezed in between 50 hour work weeks (including commute) and 15-20 hours of home maintenance. Traveling. Helping interesting new businesses get started. Being able to give enough money to a charity to actually help.

Winning the lottery would be cool. The only people who don't think money matters have never been poor. But - it's true that it isn't EVERYTHING. Figuring out how to accomplish what you want without winning the lottery - now that would be a challenge.

I'm still going to keep my 1$ lottery ticket and my dreams. But, maybe it's time to start thinking about how to slice a little more time out of a busy day to work on other things.

De-junking - not as easy as it sounds.

It's been two weekends now, and so far 14 boxes of mostly clothing have left, or are slated to depart for charity. I am sure there will be at least 8 more.

I didn't realized how many clothes I'd saved over the years. Some of them, I still can't let go. But I'm down to one box of "extra special priceless treasures". Such as a favorite shirt from junior high. My absolutely hottest dress (black spandex, and yes, it looked good at the time. A sweater that was my mom's from the 50's, and a flannel shirt she made that was originally my sister's.

However, I managed to part with such "priceless treasures" as the brown overalls I was wearing when I met The Saint the first time. And a shirt and nightshirt I wore on our honeymoon. My "PIF" shirt - which stood for Physics Is Fun. A highly controversial t-shirt from high school, due to the atomic bomb clutched in the talons of our eagle mascot. It was meant to be sarcastic - some people didn't get it. All those will have another life.

Also going away; all tiny clothes, even if I do get skinny I don't think sizes 5-10 will be in my future. Even if they do my tastes have changed since my 20's. I have pictures of me wearing them, that's enough.

At least a ton of stuff has gone in the garbage or to the dump - yes, it's true. Difficult throws have been the still-working, belt-slipping treadmill that always shocked me as I was working out. Non-working VCR's and CD players. Clothes charities don't want because they are stained, or ripped. I'm not sure if the difficultly comes from sentiment, or wastefulness, or the idea that good money is gone. Perhaps all of those, even though most of the "throws" were well-used.

Easy things to get rid of have been mementos - why did we have any wedding bells with Jordan Almonds inside? I mean, those suckers are 24 years past their shelf life! Also things such as a half bag of cedar chips from when we had small pets. A cabinet removed long ago from above the freezer that was too high to use. Straw sombreros.

I did find a plastic bathroom tote from a long-ago trip. Among such priceless treasures as extra toilet paper, toothpaste and shampoo I found my butane curling iron! It's really gone forever NOW, but I thought it had been discarded long ago. Yes, once I was so concerned with my hair I had a butane curling iron for those away-from-electricity mornings.

The boxes await - it is an adventure to see what "priceless treasure" rests inside, even if most of it is going away. I don't have to keep the item to keep the memories.

It's Time to Get Rid of Junk

We've lived in the same house for 21 years. While we are not complete and utter packrats as some folks are, we certainly have a share of "priceless treasures". You know them. Those items that are too good to throw away, but not anything you every use, or even look at.

My goal is to de-clutter our house. My ultimate goal is to get rid of 1/4 to 1/3 of all of our stuff. All those "priceless treasures", ultimately known as junk.

It will be much easier to find items we want to use, and can't find as they are buried under priceless treasures.

All the methods I have seen boil down to a fairly simple proceedure.

Set aside time.
All the books say you have to do what works for you. Some suggest a week.
I personally am not taking a week off to clean my house.
Some suggest one day per room.
I also don't want to spend an entire day of my precious free time cleaning.
I am planning on spending two hours on my days off - one on the designated room, and one on one of the two extra bedrooms. Trust me, the extra bedrooms are going to take at least 20 hours each to clear.

Now you get boxes, and label them.
Actually, I am bringing our big garbage can too. They suggest a box, but why sugar coat? Much of this stuff will be going into the garbage.

Garbage. Anything broken, dried up, partly used, ripped, torn, unusable. This includes clothing, and stuff that might be usable if it's fixed. If it isn't fixed now, it's not getting fixed. Recycleable stuff like old magazines that don't have anything written by either one of us.

One box for Goodwill. This will be good stuff we don't use anymore.

Another box; Treasures. Treasures are rarely-if ever used items, or those having a slight sentimental value. One treasure box per room only. This box is dated, and if left unopened for 6 months, off it goes to Goodwill, without being opened.

The Saint's box; since I am going to be going through The Saint's stuff too I am putting stuff he has to decide on in this box. He will have a month to look through it, then...off it goes.

Hopefully this will massively reduce the treasure in our house. Yeah, maybe I could sell on
e-bay or have a garage sale and ultimately make a few hundred bucks, but it isn't worth the hassle. I just want it gone. Ebay will be for later - objects I kept but decide next year I don't really use.

The final trick; now you have de-junked, nothing comes into the house without something else going. Buy a new thing - an old one goes in the charity box. This may not always be feasable in all cases. Books. Guitars. Clothes. Wish me luck.

And if you have any tips, let me know.