my caffeine game is strong…

my caffeine game is strong…

Unlike the Seymour house where I spent 10 years before coming here, the barndo doesn’t have miles of countertop space. That means I have to be pretty darned selective about what stays out and what is stored only to be added as needed.

More than 1/2 of the limited counter space has one job – to create caffeine experiences.

my caffeine game is strong

Spending a small fortune on k-cups, we recently added a BUNN machine. That’s all I had for years before the whole K-cup take-over, but I never had one with a thermos type carafe. I always had the ones with a glass container that would set on a burner until you either drank it all or poured it out. That meant that if you didn’t drink it right away, the coffee tasted burnt after an hour or so. Coffee in the new carafe is still hot after about 4 hours.

My grandparents didn’t care, but I do.

I can remember being a kid watching Nanny & Pap-pa having coffee — such a grown-up thing to do. What they didn’t finish drinking would go into a jar. That jar would be brought out and re-heated in a pan on the stove. I can’t even imagine doing that, but they didn’t seem to mind.

This will be gone by evening.

snowy rural view

Now they’re saying we’re likely to have freezing rain this evening — turning to rain afterward. This view is about to be gone. While I love seeing the snow, I’m ready for a warmup even if it does include rain.

Now you know: In 2024, the Coffee market is forecasted to generate a revenue of US $93.2bn worldwide. When compared globally, the United States generates the highest revenue in the coffee market (US $11,440m).


my team is wishing we’d hurry up

my team is wishing we’d hurry up

My A-team, Dharma and Merida, are wanting the office back in the correct room ASAP. It’s simply not “normal” to spend most of your time in the dining room — looking into the kitchen — without food being prepared or eaten.

I’m over it too!

It’s hard enough to work with only one computer in front of me (I only hooked up the essentials). Add to my discomfort the lack of anyplace for my feet, and it’s almost torture. 😉

The photo below was taken UNDER my desk…

Today is my favorite and MUCH OLDER brother’s birthday!

I hope it was happy… even though he ate dinner at St. Elmo’s and didn’t invite me. 🙄

Now you know: An unplugged microwave carries enough residual current to kill you, even if it’s been unplugged for months. So never try to repair a broken microwave unless you know how to discharge the capacitor.


ants are annoying little pests

ants are annoying little pests

Moving here in October I didn’t see a darned ant anywhere. All throughout the fall season we were ant free. Oh, we had our share of stink bugs… but not a single ant. Here it is winter and those little suckers expect me to house them, feed them, and keep them warm.

I thought I was doing all the right things.

I keep my dishes done and don’t leave food out. Heck, with Merida the counter surfer, food left out lasts no longer than it takes me to avert my eyes from her for a millisecond. Still, every 3 or 4 days those annoying little insects show up just to hang out. Their playground is only on one side of the kitchen.

How do I get rid of ants once and for all?

I have no clue. I do know they HATE clove oil — I read that someplace and found it to be accurate. I put a drop on a facial cotton pad and wipe around the sink, dishwasher, and the under lip of the counter tops. I then just drop that pad under the sink. The ants either run or die. Sometimes both. But in 3 or 4 days, their family shows up on behalf of their deceased or missing loved ones. We’ve tried spray with basically the same results only stinky.

I worry how safe essential oils are for the puppies and try to justify that clove oil with the fact they spend little time in the actual kitchen. They spend most of their time where the food is being eaten and where they can sleep and still keep an eye on the humans.

Many of the remedies I’ve found online talk about an “ant trail” but I can’t find where the assholes are coming in.

My Google search produced the results below:

  1. Dawn dishwashing liquid. Some say to mix up water and Dawn in a spray bottle and spray the areas where the ants are — they say ants won’t walk through the residue left. Others say put the dawn in a bowl of water and let them drown.
  2. Mix equal parts of powdered sugar and baking soda and set the mixture out in a bowl. They say the baking soda makes the ants explode. That’s all I need! A bajillion exploding ants! Others say that’s a myth and baking soda doesn’t work.
  3. Sprinkle a line of cinnamon or cayenne pepper where they’re entering. How can I do that when I don’t know where they’re gaining entrance? Besides, Merida eating cayenne pepper doesn’t sound like fun. Other “experts” say a chalk line works well too.
  4. And the remedy I’m going to try next… equal parts vinegar and water sprayed all around the places they’ve been seen.
Stay tuned for the outcome of the trial vinegar remedy.

I’ll let you know how this works when they come back in 3-4 days. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions insofar as getting rid of ants in a pet friendly way, please pass them my way.

TIL (Today I Learned): Cats are more vocal with humans than they are with other cats.


26 screws and 2 gallons of paint later…

26 screws and 2 gallons of paint later…

My body hates me!

When you have a bad back, you shouldn’t move furniture. In addition, you shouldn’t stand on a ladder and remove screws positioned over your head that are sunk tightly in a wall in those little plastic things. The back stretch on that is brutal.

There is simply NO WAY the barndo sellers had something hung on every single one of those darned screws. NO WAY! What the heck were they for?

painting the dining room
Goodbye beige and ugly green!

I’m done painting.

I want to have Mr. Pesky help me with the upstairs trim but other than that – I’m done for a bit. I’m not going to paint another wall until after Christmas. That’s a promise. At least I’m happy with the outcome.

finished painting

The kitchen, the hallway, and one wall in the dining room are painted light — Breezeway. Two walls in the dining room are dark — cracked pepper. No longer so boring… even Ben gave his approval.

I am DONE painting.

Before and After…

before paint
Before
After

And the snow was amazing!

We even had more snow after the photo I shared yesterday. Not sure how much, but enough to make me happy. 🙂 And to think, it’s not winter yet. That comes this year on December 21st.

Wondering if those dates need to be adjusted a bit. It’s still winter until March 20, 2023. I always thought I was born in the spring… who knew winter is still hanging around till almost April?

snow in fall

The puppies love snow! Merida wanted out at least 100 times. Of course, they tracked in a little white stuff and left a lot of wet hound prints on the floor. Thing is… here I don’t care. These floors aren’t birch wood — they are acid stained concrete. Everything wipes right up.

puppies in the snow

TIL (Today I Learned): Contrary to popular belief, sitting “straight” is bad for the back as it puts pressure on the spine, the position with the least pressure was found to be leaning 135 degrees backwards.


1st snow of the season hits the Ville!

1st snow of the season hits the Ville!

Eeek! Lookie, lookie!

1st snow of the season

As of right now (around 9:00 AM ET), it’s still snowing. I’m currently on my first cup of coffee so I haven’t ventured outside yet, but captured the above photo by sticking my phone out the door. Looking out the window, I can barely see the Pesky’s house. It’s a white out! 😉

I’m thrilled to be here… even if I am a little chilly.

We’ve yet to fire up the outside wood burning furnace to enjoy the radiant floor heat. It was 70 degrees yesterday, after all. Still not a fan of the split units, but it’s a comfortable — albeit a tad chilly — 68° in the office this morning.

When living in Seymour, the only snow photos I took included a privacy fence or other neighboring homes. That’s because that’s all I could see. This view might not be any better to some people… but it sure is to me!

snowing in the Ville

It’s certainly warm enough to paint inside.

I started painting yesterday in the kitchen. So much trim! I didn’t make a whole lot of progress but will be back at it today. Ben showed up last night for a few and told me the new color is boring. Thanks so much, asshole.

I love me some dark paint colors but for some reason I don’t like them here. I’m the one that had a purple living room before the move, remember? 😉 This time, I choose a really light green (and typically I hate green) for the kitchen area.

Bye, bye, beige!

I’ll be getting my dark color fix with an accent wall. Let’s see if Ben thinks it’s still boring when I finish. More photos to come tomorrow. I stayed away from the Chip and Joanna castle colors. I liked the show, Fixer Upper, much better when they weren’t doing their own business projects. Their tagline, “Welcome Home,” doesn’t even fit anymore.

TIL (Today I Learned): In the event of a battery fire, Tesla’s electric door latches will not open and there are only manual latch overrides for the front doors, not the rear.