Just thought to pop on while I had a second to dispel the premature rumors of my demise. I am alive and fairly well.

I'm having a couple stupid health issues; mainly that my iron and b-12 levels are practically non-existent. I have two months to bring them to the minimum acceptable standard or I have to start weekly shots. :( It's amazing I can heave my butt out of bed in the morning to go to work... but I do.

Speaking of work, a large project crawled out of the muck and mire and adhered itself to my back. It is sort of monkey shaped now that I look at it more closely. It's taking up all of my time between the hours of 6am and 9pm (factoring in for commute time); off and on weekends as well. When I'm not doing that -- and my normal work responsibilities--I know work smarter not harder (shove it buster!)  I am still trying to bring my house into working order. Lots of money spent; lots of time spent; little to show. :(  All it due time.

So... rather than be a big downer on all y'all, I've been managing on my own. I'm sure when things get back to normal I'll regale you with boring stories of cats and that indescribable thing that is my life.

Cheers and hugs.

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday greetings. I'm sorry I didn't acknowledge sooner my butt is currently on the West Coast (Oregon). I've had sketchy internet connectivity at best.

My birthday consisted of a NorthWest flight, a mad dash through a connecting airport and a piece of carrot cake. Yum!! I am hoping to celebrate with the kitties when I return home tomorrow night.

Thanks again and hugs to all!

Okay boys and girls... I hereby offer up a challenge!  The winner of said challenge will receive… um… my sympathies.

The Challenge: What was the most disgusting thing you ever found in an apartment / house that did not belong to you?

Think back. It could be something you discovered when moving into your college dorm, your first apartment, or your house. It has to be something left behind by the previous occupants.

Here’s what you are competing against.

I needed to turn off a power switch so I went to the fuse box. It resides in the basement in a rough cut out area that has gaps around the perimeter where the wallboard doesn’t quite rest flush with the cement.  I happened to look down and saw something aged-yellow and rubber looking wedged in that gap. What was it?  A bunch of used condoms that had been wadded up and shoved in the gap.

WTF?! Who the hell does that? Were they trying to retain their genetic material for posterity?

I felt like Lucy after Snoopy kissed her. Get me some boiling water!! Ahhhh! Germs!!

So… What’s your story?

Hi. My name is sas and I’m a procrastinator. I didn’t start out being a procrastinator. Mainly my procrastination is a means to manage my time.

Well, the Gods of Finance have punished me for my insolence.

I got up this morning at 5am to drive to be first in line at my dealership. I needed the annual inspection. My sticker was set to run out on Monday. Note that I did not wait until the very last minute. Yay me!

Traffic’s great. I get there and I’m the fourth at opening. I tell the gent that I would like an inspection and an oil change. I wasn’t really due for an oil change based on mileage, but it had been almost three months so I figured I’d get ’er done. He inquired if I needed any service.

I quipped, "Not unless you find something."

To which he jokingly replied, "Do you want me to?"

Um… No.

I left Wilma, my 2002 Ford Taurus, in his trusting hands and skipped off to Dunkin Donuts to gab a Big One and a bagel. I figured by the time I walked back, tummy full, the car would be done and I’d be on my merry way to pick out paint for the guest bathroom. Yay me!

Happy and caffeinated I made my way back to the dealership. The gent came out after I had been seated a few minutes. I thought, "Score! Time to go." But it was not to be so. He informed me that he could not let me drive the car in the condition it is. Apparently the ’ball joints’ were about to fail which would have resulted in me and Wilma crashing into a guard rail. Pain, suffering and insurance would ensue. Not fun.

"So", I said, "basically I have no choice and have to get them fixed".

"Yes"

"How much?" Now I’m nervous. Several things have failed lately in the house which, when compiled with the normal upkeep and rehab, is going to take a bite out of my savings. On the list was a disposal unit ($120) and new dishwasher ($500 with installation and haul away of old unit).

"Approximately $775."

It was like a knife slashing through my bottom line.

"Do it." What was I going to say. "No, don’t do it. You keep the car and I’ll walk the 40+ miles to and from work each day. I need the exercise anyway". Ya right.

Four hours later I left there less enthusiastic, no longer caffeinated and a whole lot poorer.

Boo me!

I keep wondering if this would have happened had I gotten it inspected at the beginning of the month. Or is it possible they would not have noticed the ball joints and blissfully ignorant of the impending doom, I’d end up wrapped around a tree somewhere in a month or two blissfully ignorant of the impending doom.

So much for cash reserves. If happen to be in Boston any time soon and you see a forlorn looking redhead on the street corner selling pencils, please buy one. It’ll probably be me trying to finance another repair. ;)

Or maybe I’m like Lady MacBeth, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"

Hell is murky and so is my basement.

For those following along at home, the former owners either locked their two cats in the basement without a litter box or the two cats had behavioral problems. First I thought they had been confined to "the craft room" (that’s my intent for the room) as along all the walls the carpets were soaked with old urine.

I tried shouting at it and it wouldn’t come out. I tried professional products and all the ’home’ recipes I could find on the web. Eventually it came down to one thing. The carpet had to go.

So Tuesday I pried loose all the baseboards, pried up the carpet and cut it into manageable pieces to roll and discard with the trash. It was horrid! I did the same with the carpet padding which was even worse! Imagine a pad that had sat in the dark corner of an MBTA station (subway / metro for those not in Boston) for the homeless to pee on for years. That’s about as bad as it smelled.  It was so bad that the tack boards around the perimeter of the room were blackened and decayed.

Huzzah! I figured that was it. All I had to do was bleach it, fix and imperfections on the cement floor, seal it and cover it with modular tiles.

Not so fast sas. It’s not going to be that easy.

Today I went down to measure the room and was taken aback by the fact that I could still smell that rancid cat urine smell. No F’n way, I thought. I had bleached that so well even CSI would have difficulty finding a trace. There had to be another culprit.

Out came the handy black light. Off goes the lights. Sas becomes a super-sleuth. Light and nose to the floor sniffing out any traces of yuckiness.  Ya, the image is gross, but that’s what I did. The nose knows, you know. I can imagine anyone peeking into my basement during the exercise would definitely have thought I had either lost my mind or have one hell of a strange habit

"I tell you, Martha, as sure as I’m sitting here; she was on her hands and knees sniffing the carpet. Sniffing the carpet, I say. Who ever heard of such a thing, I do declare. What’s this world coming to?"

I am happy to report that I found nothing in the majority of the basement. Sadness though that I found a HUGE spot near the bulkhead door. The door that abuts the craft room. I pulled back the carpet and found the padding in the same sorry state. In fact, the urine had leaked under the wall and into the craft room (which explains why that wall was so bad).

So, out comes a scraper. I scrapped out the muck. Yes, there was muck! And  I bleached the hell out from under the wall. I pulled back the padding (yuck-o) and bleached the floor in that area.

I don’t want to pull up the carpet there just yet. I figured I’ll give myself at least one chance at a successful exercising of the urine-daemon. I took bucket upon bucket of hot bleach water and soaked the padding and sucked the muck out with my carpet cleaner upholstery hose. In the vein of over sharing, it came out this really noxious orangey-brown color. Gag! I did the same for the carpet itself; same foul sludge emerged. The tack boards don’t appear to be in as bad a state as in the, so that’s good. I just bleached them and left them to dry.

Best case scenario is that this treatment will take care of the grossness. The area was thoroughly soaked and sucked ’dry’. Well, as dry as you can get it with a carpet cleaner thingie. It will probably take a day for both the carpet and padding to fully dry. I have them flapped open and propped so that air circulates around both items.  I will check back in a few days.

Worst case scenario is that I’m going to have to cut the carpet flush with the door that goes into the craft room and wall to the washer/drier area. If I have to do that I’ll buy a remnant carpet pad and carpet just to fit that area. I don’t care if it doesn’t match. Maybe in a year or two I’ll have enough money to re-carpet the basement ’professionally’, but I don’t right now.

All I want is to have a fresh smelling basement / wash room / exercise room / craft room. Is that too much to ask?

Pretty please?

Hey, what’s that over there. *sniff* *sniff* Ooh! Out! I say. Out, you damn…

*sas runs off, mumbling insanely to herself about getting a bucket of bleach water