OK, one day I just posted a link, but other days I posted two entries, so I think it all comes out in the wash (or will, once I’ve fixed my washer’s lid-switch). It’s nice to know that even after 17 years, I can still but serious time into my sweet blog. 🙂 I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I mostly have.

I am feeling amazing that I 1) diagnosed the problem with my dead washing machine, 2) tested and confirmed my diagnosis (I let Monstro be the one to stick the wires in the switch, but I told him where they go, 3) found and confirmed the proper part needed on eBay, and 4) Bought the part with expedited USPS shipping for less than twelve bucks.

Once the part arrives, all that will be left is to install it. Easy-peasy, right? Sure. I can do all things through YouTube that strengthens me.

Me to the boys: “Doesn’t dinner smell good?”

4-year-old BK: “Yeah! It smells like an elephant bouncing on a trampoline made out of Jell-O!”

I just read “Gone Girl.” Well, by “read,” I mean: enjoyed the first 15 pages, suffered through the next 100, and flipped to the end to find out what happened.

What a lousy book. Considering it was so popular that I could only get a copy of it at the library yesterday, I don’t know why people went so nuts for it. None of the characters is interesting or human or worth latching on to. The first 100 pages do very little to set up the ending. It read like an old “Streets of San Francisco,” except without the compelling auto chase or young Michael Douglas’s hair.

Motormouth says: skip it.

At least I get to go to ukulele tonight….

I kept the wrong kid home today. Lex had a cough that sounded bad but not barky, so I gave him a tiny shot of Tussin DM and kept him home. BK went to school. Well, at 11:00, Lex hadn’t coughed for two hours, but we got a phone call saying that BK was tired, hot, and had just thrown up in his classroom. Back from school he came. I set up at TV/DVD in his room to keep him quarantined and he rested for a while while I tried to keep Lex from jumping around downstairs. In the midst of all this, I diagnosed the reason why my washing machine quit working! And, I found what I think is the right part on eBay for $7, including shipping/handling. Much better than paying $45 for it at my local Sears parts store, and a hell of a lot better than paying the $100 deductible to have a home-warranty workman come take care of it. Huah!

Both boys are coughing; Lex enough that he’ll probably have to stay home tomorrow, after five days of being home on vacation. BK is coughing a little bit but that might just be because he wants to do everything his brother does. HE will go to school.

My clothes washer is also sick. It won’t drain, spin, or agitate. Too bad because right now it’s full of water and clothes. I asked Mr. Google and he pointed me toward applianceblog.com, with is chock-full of diagnostics and links to how-to-fix videos. Based on what it says, I think what I need is a new lid switch. I can figure out tomorrow if that’s the problem by taking it apart and using a little piece of insulated wire as a bypass. (Wow, look at me, talking as though I have any idea of what I’m doing.)

We do have a home-warranty plan but there’s a $100 deductible, which I’d rather avoid paying. Particularly as in the last couple of weeks I’ve paid $100 for a clothes-dryer repair, $125 for an extra key for my van, $135 for a parking and speeding ticket (whoops), and $50 for a USB-network connector for Monstro’s computer. Plus way too much money for Thanksgiving food, which should at least mean I don’t have to go food shopping this week, except for milk, OJ, and children’s Ibuprofen.

Fingers crossed that I meet my new-client goal (as in getting new clients) this month. Especially if stuff keeps crapping out around me.

Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips!

I am another year older but feel pretty good about it. The hot mess of the year I’ve had would send pretty much anyone else in this world to Psychotic Break City, and yet I’ve survived in the face of massive trauma. Yay, me.

Yesterday I did a little Black Friday shopping. Most people line up outside of Best Buy; me, I was second in the door at Omaha Steaks. Got a bunch of good frozen food and a $7 pack of steak knives, too. I’d hoped to win free Omaha Steaks for the year, but instead my prize was a free box of Caramel Apple Tartlets — not too shabby, considering I already had those in my cart. 🙂

Goal for this year: more employment. Less crabbing at my kids. Get BK into kindergarten and revel in the quietude. You know, the little things.

My sweet husband made me an anti-gravity spice rack!!!! Now, I’ll always have a nice rack. Ha ha.

Lex is all, “get on with it, already.”

BK picked the most risque card at Rite Aid. I’m so proud.

Because sometimes, Mommy needs bourbon.

Fortunately, the kids didn’t get the joke.