The Mondayest Monday

May I rant? Of course, I can. This is my blog; I can do what I want. Feel free to leave now; you deserve to read better, but I need to vent.

Let me set the scene. This is the Monday before our vacation; there is much to be done this week. The house needs to be ready for company before Saturday because we have lovely friends who have agreed to house-sit and dog-sit for us. 

Before we leave, there are the standard tasks: laundry, shopping, vacuuming, mopping, sanitizing doggy linens and toys, and there is the UNusual stuff: prepping guest rooms and packing the car. I don't need extra work to do, but "life is what happens when you're making plans."

The morning started going downhill at four o'clock when I was in the basement doing laundry, and heard the smoke alarm going off upstairs. I ran up the two flights of stairs and ran into my very disoriented husband, who asked me, "Honey, are you OKAY?" and seeing that I was, indeed okay, and slightly amused, he asked, "Have you been cooking?" My amusement left immediately, and I replied, "It's four in the morning; I haven't been cooking. I've been doing laundry. We probably just need to replace the alarm's battery."

Chuck turned on the house fan, and the infernal beeping stopped, and I went on with my morning while he headed back to bed. I grabbed a cup of coffee, only to discover my half and half had soured. Ugh. I'd have to settle for skim milk in my coffee, and in case you don't know; that is one very poor substitute for the creamy stuff.

Let me speed this up. Discovered mouse droppings. Emptied cupboards, sanitized the cupboards, and started the first dishwasher load of dishes from the cupboards. Let the puppies outside. Hear Chuck yell at Bristol for peeing on the deck. AGAIN. Rinsed off the deck. 

Let puppies back inside. Monday is trash day, so while I gathered trash upstairs, the puppies started frolicking on the bed. That's when I noticed the MUD on the carpet. I grabbed the blankets from the bed to do ANOTHER load of laundry, and shooed the puppies back downstairs to clean their feet. No problem; their feet had been thoroughly cleaned off on the carpet apparently. 

While talking to Chuck before he arrived at work, I discovered the fly swatter had been chewed up, and only a pile of blue plastic bits and a bent wire handle were left on the living room floor. These are the times when Bristol's nickname BLISTER surfaces.

Add to my list of things to do today: buy old-fashioned mouse traps; the new-fangled ones are still set, with most of the bait missing. Throw away all outdated food (this is not a bad thing). Vacuum puppy mud from upstairs. Wash two more loads of dishes from the cupboards. Check the rest of the cupboards for rodent evidence. Empty, clean, and set traps, if necessary. 

It's only 7:00 in the morning, and I'm ready to call it a day. I had hoped to take the puppies for walks, get groceries, and get a couple of loads of laundry done. This may be the Mondayest of Mondays I've had in a while; I may need to set my sights a little lower, and just take the day as it comes, moment by moment.