weapons of massdistraction

Smarter, more resourceful homeowners try to stay one step ahead of decay. Especially in older homes like mine. But me? I tend to squeeze my eyes shut and hope for the best. So naturally the dishwasher and the kitchen sink are on the fritz AT THE SAME TIME. The dishwasher is refusing to latch and without latching it cannot run. And no, duct taping it shut didn’t work. Believe me, I tried. Washing the dishes by hand wouldn’t be quite so bad (ok, it sucks - I’ve been spoiled by having a dishwasher) but the kitchen sink is currently leaking into the cupboards rather than into the drain. Yesterday I jiggled and poked at it and managed to get it lining up so that, as long as I don’t turn the water on full force, I can kinda sorta use the sink. It seemed to take hours and hours to wash the dishes that had accumulated. Wheee. I would like to reverse the decrepitude in both kitchen resources but have funds for neither.

But hey, after years and years I did finally get around to hanging all that art that had been waiting to go up. So my house looks pretty and is comfortable, to me. Though with all its underlying problems it’s sort of like slapping a Hello Kitty band-aid on a third degree burn victim. But the little things, sometimes they make me feel like I’ve achieved something. Maybe that’s why I relate so much to this…This Is Why I’ll Never Be An Adult:

I begin to feel like I’ve accomplished my goals. It’s like I think that adulthood is something that can be earned like a trophy in one monumental burst of effort and then admired and coveted for the rest of one’s life.

Five good things for this fine Monday:

• Meat sections for zombies (in this scenario humans are the food, of course).
• It’s the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week! Some of the top ten books most frequently challenged in American libraries were a little surprising to me.
• I’ve woefully neglected my duties as co-admin of the Twin Cities flickr group. In an effort to make amends I am proposing an October photowalk.
• If only I knew how to knit I would whip up one of these lovely skulls for the boyfriend.
• How To Survive When Your Elevator Plunges: lay down. That’s sort of my survival mechanism, in general, sometimes.

Somehow September is already skidding to a halt and October is raring to go. I kick things off Friday with an exciting parent/teacher conference! As we’re at a new school the IEP review process may be a completely different animal. I’m more than a bit apprehensive. But next week I’ll get to blow off some steam with a road trip through Wisconsin and Illinois. Taking the boyfriend to House on the Rock, as he’s never been (and it will be right up his alley) before seeing Swans in Chicago. And October won’t downshift after that. It’s high gear all month! The St. Paul Art Crawl, FallCon, our friends’ Fall harvest party on their farm, so many shows - like A Place to Bury Strangers, Peelander-Z, and Blonde Redhead. Then, of course, the main event - HALLOWEEN! No laying down.