Less Hustle More Coffee

Good morning! Found this in some old Facebook photos from Memories. It was on a daily calendar I had on my desk.

Apparently I am two days behind on blogging and it feels like an eternity. But we’ve had a big weekend.

Before I get into the weekend, I want to say thanks for the support on my Vacation/PTO worries/woes from the last blog post. I went in and deleted my entry. I don’t want to sound negative. I just want to try and get everything done and I want to have and enjoy my vacation too. And I don’t want any of it to be unreasonable. I want to do what a reasonable person would do in this situation. I make things harder on myself by trying to keep everyone happy including myself. George agreed and said to do what any other salaried person would do going on vacation so that is what I’ll do. Work a little over the week before and a little over the week after. It won’t all get done but it’ll the best you can do in a milestone moment and you do the best you can. I was thinking if I’d worked the entire hours and made them up I shouldn’t have to burn my PTO. While that sounds fair it’s not the way it works in an American salary situation. A company always wins as far as that goes. But George said just do what any other salaried person will do within reason and just do that. So that I will do. NO one said I had to work a certain amount of hours – I just know how many hours it takes to get the job done. But we agreed that I would do the best I can like a normal salary person and let that be that. Sounds fair to me – can’t argue with that. Still you know that I will try to get everything done. But reality speaking, it won’t be all done b/c being gone for a week – well you just are off enjoying your new grandchild. You will do the best you can, work over the weeks before and after and get it all done eventually. It might not make everyone’s time frame but you will have done what any other person would reasonably do in a situation. Sometimes I have to be coached back into reality as I will go to the grave trying to please everyone. And of course everyone is going to allow that. But all we want is for everything to be reasonable. That is all one can ask. And if that doesn’t work then the Lord places your Feet. So I’m trying not to worry. It’s just not an ideal situation and I like to be prepared with no surprises for anyone. That said, let’s dive into the weekend.

Friday night we went out to eat at Smiley Thai and the meal was so wonderful. We started out with Sushi. I had the California rolls so mine were done!

I always have to get the yellow curry dish. I’m going to have to branch out but it’s so hard to do. This is the best curry I’ve ever had.

So Saturday we woke up, had coffee and went to Mom’s in Columbia, TN, stopping at McDonald’s on the way for an Egg McMuffin. Our goal for the weekend was a working goal of getting the storage shed cleaned out and to get all of (and most of) the stuff out of the attic. We had one and a half car loads for Good Will. Mom wanted all the Christmas stuff down so she could go through it and put some of it in the storage for what she needs. Then we swept it out.

Mom had a pot of Spaghetti Sauce on. I thought it was for our dinner but it was for lunch. It was so good. And it was a HUGE plate.

Growing up Spaghetti was my favorite food. I guess it is still up there in the top 5 or 10. I have eaten such good food over the course of my life and in my quest for excellent cuisine with George – that somehow it fades to the background. I’m convinced my favorite food is the one that is making me happy at the moment at this point. It’s hard to decide the favorites anymore. But ohhhhh this was heavenly spaghetti. Mom makes a good one.

It was a beautiful and perfect weekend to do what we needed to do at Mom’s. I picked this weekend as I was hoping the temps would not be too harsh. It was perfect weather. And it was nice on Mom’s porch.

When George and I took the items to Good Will, and while Mom took her afternoon nap we went out to play. He wanted to run by Upside Down Teds. The sign is upside down.

This pic with the sign, I took LAST time I was in Columbia but it was open Saturday and we enjoyed looking around. We went in a few shops around there including a baby store.

My favorite store down there is Bleu 32 Vintage Marketplace. I could have gone wild with the photos but I just snapped a few. I didn’t do any serious looking or shopping. Maybe I should have. I wasn’t really in the mood to buy. But it was fun to go through and look at everything. Honestly, it’s like a museum of the past.

It seems like all the women in the family had these pics on the wall. Does anyone know the story behind these?

There were 3 floors to this store going up creaky old stairs to each level and filled with Goodness! The top floor had a cafe! It was like a secret cafe.

I absolutely loved the tables by the window. What an awesome space.

Look! An old Dan Fogelberg album.

I think I might want one of these ladders for the den to put our throws on them. They were $40. I didn’t get it. But liked them. I use a throw or quilt almost every night. I have several collected.

Some Doggie shirts.

A print of the Emerald Coast. How cool is that?

Columbia, TN is “the mule” capital of the World. Fitting since that is where I came from eh?

And of course we had to stop in for a brewski at the Taps on Main. Here is a pic I took from across the street.

I got the C’Zann’s Southern Witt.

And on the way home as the sun was headed downward, we stopped and got Barbecue for dinner – not that any of us was particularly hungry. But we ate again. We stopped a place we saw called JJ’s.

So cute. And the BBQ was good too. We took it home to Mom’s of course but it would have been a lovely place to sit outside and eat.

On our way home we went by my old house where I grew up on Alpine Drive. Before you judge me, just know that it looked a lot different back then. It was a well groomed and nicely kept house and landscaped nicely with blooming bushes and so much has changed. The trees have grown. It looks so different. Just so odd. And disappointing.

That front bedroom was mine – well Mom, Dad and I switched rooms a few times. As a child I was afraid of the tree out front. A neighborhood boy told me it was going to get me. lol. And I had seen the trees in Snow White bending down and swooping around so they moved me to the back room which I remember being there with twin beds and eventually got a desk in 2nd grade and a small little TV. I was so excited and always loved having a desk/office in my room back then.

At some point they moved me back to the front room. I remember being in there in my late teen years. I spent hours at my desk there, as I do now at home. I guess it’s my life’s fate to spend all my time behind a desk either working, writing, planning, or “trying” to be creative in some way. LOL

After all we ate, Mom had fixed a homemade Lemon Icebox pie. Oh my! It was so good.

Yeah, the doggies went. Their Nana gave them a bed in the floor. Roger was crying while we were away. Stood at the door and cried. Happy again once we were back.

Ms. Maisy girl on the couch napping.

Are they not the most spoiled babies ever?

So Sunday was the Attic clean out day. We got down all the Christmas stuff from up there. Mom had fixed an excellent breakfast. Then around 1 or so we ate again! I told ya the eatin’ is always good. She made her BBQ Weini dish.

I took pics of my Grandfather Voss’s Navy uniform.

After lunch we headed back. George wanted to mow and I needed to do some laundry. I washed a couple of loads, fixed popcorn, a glass of wine and caught up on my YouTube shows. George ran to the store and got Fresh Pet and a few items for this week.

I’m very behind not having the weekend but it’s ok. We got Mom’s things settled a bit. She has a lot of boxes to go through and decide to keep or not. She said it would give her something to do.

And I will work each night a little bit to get the house in order, a bit of cleaning, a bit of planning, a bit of ordering, and a grocery run for a few things I need to get. I guess we’ll see what the week brings. It was a short one. It seemed long if you look at what all we did, but it went by fast.

Oh and I should say that Maisy would not let us sleep. She wanted to go out several times. I made George go with me around one in the morning. Of course when I’m awake at that time it takes an hour or two to go back to sleep. And then she woke us up again to go out early morning around 5. I was dazed and half asleep but George got up and I could tell he was angry as he grabbed her from the bed quickly and swiftly in a manner that I usually do not see from him. He is normally very gentle. I was thinking “great, it’s going to be a gggreat day” of attic work with us on not much sleep. I ended up getting up because everyone was up at that point. We had to search for Mom’s coffee, LOL. And once the coffee settled in, we woke up a bit.

So…all that to say that I went to bed at 7 p.m. after changing the sheets and taking the polish off of my nails. I’d not had time to do them this weekend and wasn’t going to polish them only to be ruined during slumber. So off to bed I went at 7:00 p.m.

George came to bed at 10 p.m. and I woke up and indigestion from all we have been eating, I guess. I was up until after midnight playing candy crush and texting with my sister and then went to bed again. I was sleeping good when the alarm went off this morning.

That was a long blog entry for a work day. But there you have it. All caught up now. Today I’ll be getting ready for payroll closure and spending the rest of the time working on quarter end. It’s time for me to being working on my reconciliation spreadsheet. I’m further along in the month than normal.

So I’ll see ya’ll about mid week! Lord Willing.