The Edge of Empty

A E's explorations of college room filler continues. This week, he has found something in a bag and I am betting that whatever it was is now safely hidden away in one of his hiding spots. Silly Eldest--you should have put it in your room! Who me? I'm an Innocent Ferret.

With the boys home from college, there are lots of interesting things for a ferret to explore. Most of the items came out of the boys rooms originally, but now we can't seem to squeeze them back in. As a result, their bins are stacked wherever we can find space around the house. Sigh. However, AE likes this arrangement just fine since it provides a new playground for his inquisitive mind. Anything resembling a tunnel gets AE's stamp of approval, and this carpet roll fit the bill perfectly. I didn't get a picture, but the other end of the tunnel ended at Eldest's pillow and I caught AE happily napping in comfort one day. I guess Eldest did too since space for the pillow has since been found in his room.

A pile of dirty clothes in your boy's room makes a comfy bed if you are a ferret. This picture pretty much sums up how I would like to spend my summer--completely relaxed. That won't happen for me, but A E Ferret is quite happy to pick up the slack in the snoozing department.

As much as home ownership is the American dream, the past few years of underwater mortgages have shown that the dream may be somewhat flawed.  Not only that, once you put a down payment on a house and sign your mortgage agreement, the house begins to be one money sucking adventure after another. This year, for Christmas, our house gave us a broken heater.  Of course, the service plan that I bought last summer when the air conditioner went out really paid off (not!).  Because of the service plan, we would only have to wait 3 days for our "priority appointment". Together with the reduced price of $175 for the first 30 minutes, I just knew that I got a great deal. (Just in case you weren't catching it, that was sarcasm). Once the service person had made the evaluation, they would give us an estimate of the repair costs.  After a day of shivering, the Hubster started making comments about what he thought the problem might be.  Not to be outdone, I put my research sk...

As a person with sensitive skin and a mother of a child with sensitive skin, we don't do a lot of soap and detergent changing.  Once we find a product that doesn't irritate our skin, we stick to it for life--or as long as they manufacture it.  One product that I have been using since I was a child is Ivory soap.  It's gentle, reasonable priced, and it floats .  When Youngest was packing for school, I picked up a multi-pack when I was at a local retailer.  One day in the shower, I noticed a pleasant new scent.  I didn't equate it with the new bar of soap though because everyone knows Ivory is unscented.  After several days of trying to find the source, I finally concluded that Ivory must have added a scent to the soap even when I knew how ridiculous that was. When I finally took a look in the closet, here is what I found: The scent is Simply Aloe (the classic is now called Simply Ivory).  But wait, according to their history timeline , Ivory in...

One of the benefits of having the Hubster's project completed is that hair is no longer taking over our home.  Our bathroom particularly is blessedly becoming a long hair free zone.  In helping those efforts along, I decided to clean out the strainer plate over the shower drain.  I had noticed that there was some hair caught in it and I wanted to get rid of it.  Little did I know what awaited me.  When I pulled up the strainer, a huge mass of hair came snaking out of the drain.  Honestly, it was so gross that I about puked.  What I thought was a few hairs was a mass so thick that it filled up the entire pipe--I can't believe that we didn't have draining problems.  The mass was bigger than A. E. Ferret, and itt looked a bit like it could have been a relative too. My poor mom is probably thinking "where did I go wrong? I taught her how to clean a house."  However, blogging is a bit of an adventure--you never know when a bit of over-sharing wi...

I am determined to buck the trends when it comes to blogging--that shouldn't be too hard with a site that focuses on false alarms and features photos of a ferret.  I just don't think that there are many blogs out there that focus on either of these things--and certainly not any that combine the two. Also, I figure that there are enough posts about current popular topics without me adding my two cents.  Hurricane Irene and the earthquake are recent examples.  However, I can provide a public service announcement for those living in the earthquake affected areas.  We have lived in Japan and California, so have experienced earthquakes several times.  I knew that I should inspect my home for damage, but to be honest, I didn't really feel much  any concern that there might be damage.  That is until last Monday when my husband called to tell me that a neighbor texted him that he had smelled gas near our house when he walked his dog.  Needless to say...

Ferrets are a lot of fun, but there is a lot of work involved in owning a ferret.  However, well trained ferrets can help with household chores as A. E. demonstrates by taking a sweaty bike jersey (from the Philadelphia triathlon ) upstairs to the laundry.

My son graduates from high school this week.  The thought terrifies me.  Not because he is my baby and will be going off to school soon.  I will worry about that next month.  Right now,  I am terrified because my parents are coming to attend the graduation and my house is not ready for company--much less my mother.   Now, you will never walk in my house and wish that you were as good a housekeeper as me.  In fact, I am sure that many people walk in and get an ego boost when they see that they do much better.  I do try to control the chaos that having two teenage boys, a husband, and a ferret brings to a house,  but lets face it, I am not the most dedicated housekeeper in the world.  In fact, I am a FlyLady flunkie.   This weekend as I was desperately trying to knock back the clutter, I fantasized about booking a hotel room for my parents.  Of course, that wouldn't really solve the problem since they would still at some po...