It Only Hurts When I Blog

Happy Anniversary, Bloggies!

It's been one month since my employment demise, and I'm still here blogging, along with my good buddy the Pillsbury Dough Boy. ;-)

Play sound clip of 'Celebrate!'.

It's also the first day of spring, with a cold rain falling and a temperature of 38 degrees. Brrr.

What's that? You say you think that tomorrow is the first day of spring? Nope!

Here's the deal:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7231497/

Let's review where we stand with this 'unemployment business': (get it?)
Blood pressure? Good.
Stress level? Low.
Training program in place? I believe so.
Unemployment checks? Not yet but soon.
Resume ready? Yes.
Checking the internet job postings? Yes.
Networking with your colleagues? Yes.
Oven cleaned? Stop bugging me! (kidding)

I'll do a preliminary posting here and then keep writing - it's a rainy day, so why not?

Quote(s) of the day in honor of SPRING - I found more than one I like, so here they are:

'Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.' Doug Larson.

'Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants.' Dorothy Parker.

'In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.' Mark Twain.

Since it's a rainy, dreary SPRING day - it MIGHT be a great day to clean the oven. Then again, it might not.

Here's a photo of the forsythia bushes and redbud trees in our yard, in bloom. Obviously this photo wasn't taken today!

It's time for my annual stop at the local landscaping business down the road (8 miles down the road) and set a day and time for them to do our mulching. Nasty job, that.

The owner reminds me every year who originally owned this house - because that is how he remembers where we live. 'Oh, yeah, the old Jackson place' he'll say.

We discovered that another neighbor refers to us as 'Brick House'. We personally don't have an identity, but the house does. ;-) Charlie introduced himself as 'Hi! I'm Brick House', and that worked just fine. There AREN'T many houses right here, so it's pretty easy to distinguish between them.

My coffee is gone. Must be time to stop blogging, make the bed, unload the dishwasher, and start thinking about breakfast. And you think I don't work! (she says with a big, contented smile)

Newsflash - newsflash! We interrupt this program with breaking news! Karen Goldsmith is attempting to clean the oven! I repeat! Karen Goldsmith is attempting to clean the oven!

Good grief - I hope the smoke alarm doesn't go off!

You're supposed to spray the oven and then set it on 475 degrees for at least 30 minutes. The can says 'some steam may escape' - it looks like a steam locomotive over the vent burner! (Don't get nervous, Charlie - I'll go watch it). ;-)

More later! Do we have a fire extinguisher in here??? (she says without panic)

Oh, good. It's been 7 minutes and the steam has stopped escaping. As far as this stuff being 'fume free', however...

I'll post some photos shortly of the transformation IN PROGRESS!!!


Oh, great - I have leakage...

Not from ME, sillies. The drawer underneath the stove is now contaminated with oven leakage goo.

Now I've got to put everything that was under there in the dishwasher. (she says in a resigned tone of voice).

Girl - you have some kinda nerve posting something that looks like THAT on your blog!

The truth shall set me free. Or at least shame me into a clean oven.

Bahba-Wawa: Karen, what are your thoughts at this historic moment?

• I can't believe there was a COBWEB on the cooling rack on the bottom of that drawer. Eeeew.
• This reminds me of the movie 'the Blob'. I hope this stuff doesn't start moving, since I'm still in my robe (now contaminated on the sleeve with goo) and can't escape.
• Now I have to do a load of laundry too so I can wash my robe.
• Would this stuff get rid of the 'impossible to clean residue' in the corners of my kitchen floor? I'm not going there - trust me.
• Good thing I have a lot of paper towels. Eeeew - what's THAT? (Don't look at it, girl, just rinse, wipe and toss - rinse, wipe and toss)

Ok, now that the drawer is clean, I actually have to wait awhile here. After the oven has finished burning off the creeping crud, I have to wait till it cools before I can finish cleaning it. (Thank goodness!)

Hello again! It's about 2:30pm.

I'm about done with that oven cleaning job - and don't you EVEN say that I missed a spot, 'cause I know I missed lots of them! Next stove will have a self-cleaning oven, I promise you that.

I even saw a couple of touchups I HAVE to do for my own peace of mind after seeing the photo. Sigh.

I'm finished with the load of laundry and on the second load of dishes in the dishwasher.

But first - I'm going to go watch 'Lady and the Tramp' on DVD and relax a bit... This has been much harder work than WORK was! ;-)