5 tiny obscure tidbits I know you're dying to know

1.  Usually after returning from a vacation I bring something home with me that I find interesting at the house I'm staying in. Once after visiting relatives in Arizona years ago where they used this electric griddle I returned home and bought one because it was a must have. I use it probably three times a year now.  This summer I returned with half of a batch of colored straws.  My sister-in-law purchases straws for drinking and Darcy just had to have some too and so Susan split the package and I actually carried them home on the airplane, found a container to store them, and then purchased more.  And we are all using them daily!  Darcy and I both have sucking issues and so the straws are right up both our sucking alleys, and now I'm addicted.  I've been told that using a straw increases drink production, especially with water.  Perhaps I should try it with milk which I definitely only drink three times a year.

 

2. When I was sick the summer before last I gave up artificial sweeteners thinking, after pursing the Internet, that it was one of the many issues causing my illness. I was very surprised at how much food and drink carried that stuff in it. I had to really start reading the labels to avoid purchasing items with artificial sweeteners. Because I enjoy a dark carbonated beverage, almost daily, I switched from diet coke to coke. It took about three days to make the switch as I found coke to be so sweet, but jeez it didn't take me long to become addicted. Now I have new rolls around my middle that I'm told, via the Internet, that it is due to sugary soft drinks and I'm having to wean myself off of coke. I thought at first I would go every other day, but that lasted not even one day. I would have a coke and think I'd start that new rule the next day. Now I've decided I'll only have a coke twice a week. I haven't purchased any to have in my home and I've also given up fast food so I'm hoping that will help me stay on track. So far so good, but then again I just started this yesterday....

3. Like my oldest daughter I have some OCD. One of the things that bothers me is when the light switches are not in the correct position; down for off and up for on. We only have two rooms where we have more than one switch controlling the same lights; the Steelers room and our kitchen. The Steelers room has multiple light switches which is nuts in itself, but I'm rarely in that room at night so it isn't a big issue most of the time. The kitchen, however, is a room I'm in all the time. The main light switch is in the entranceway into the rest of the house and it has two switches controlling two different tracks of light. Another light switch is in the entranceway to the garage, but it only has one switch controlling one track of light. So when anyone enters the kitchen from the garage, which is how we get into our home all the time, he always flips the switch right by that door when the house is dark. That means that the main switch has one switch up and one switch down and that is the switch that I see all the time. So I was constantly switching one and then the other to make it all right in my world. Then came our new refrigerator. The refrigerator is to the right of the garage entrance next to the switch in a small space that allowed us enough room to reach our hand between the wall and refrigerator to flip the switch. Unfortunately the new refrigerators are much larger and the one we got butts up so close to the wall and switch that we can no longer get our hand in there to flip anything. Solved my problem just like that. Of course, I made sure all switches were in the correct position before the new refrigerator was put in. Although I do think that might be why the dog is limping...we step on him each time we come home in the dark. Note to self: teach dog to turn on lights when he hears we are home.

4. And speaking of the dog he has his own fetish: he likes to overturn trashcans. He has done this since we got him. He comes into a room and paws at the trashcan until it overturns and then he digs around in whatever is in the can spreading it out over the floor and shredding any tissues that might be in there. When discussing this once with Kelly, my dog expert, she nodded and said wait until he finds the feminine products. The image of this was enough for me to put my bathroom trashcan on the back of the toilet. While it isn't a pretty sight I figured it would work fine since no one but family uses that bathroom. Kelly got the girls a trashcan with a lid for their bathroom so that left the bedroom cans. My can was right beside my bed and without fail every morning I would awake to find my garbage on the floor. Sometimes his pawing at it would awaken me and I'd push him away, but I usually went back to sleep and he would sneak back and quietly take care of business. I eventually gave up using the can and put it on the bottom of my nightstand. He has taken to ignoring it now and every once in awhile I put something in it to test him. He has always passed. In Madison's room the can is on the back of her reclining chair that is pushed against the wall so that it can't recline anyway. The only room left is Darcy's room and no matter how much we put her can on table tops she always takes it down and puts it back (if only she did that with all her stuff!) and Elliot always knocks it over. Her can is always filled with junk. Yesterday when I went in to wake her for school the can was overturned and there was a wide variety of things strewn across her floor. I was fascinated at some of the items she had tossed and I quizzed her on some of the things as I cleaned it up. No wonder Elliot knocks over these trashcans.

5. Every morning after Madison leaves for school I sit on the couch and sip my coffee or water and blog or read or make lists for 45 minutes before getting up Darcy. Every morning it is pitch dark when she leaves and, not liking a lot of light when it is night, I turn on our living room lights on the dimmer switch. And every morning as the sky lightens, without fail I look up from what I'm doing and think it is a rainy day before I realize it is the day beginning and the sun hasn't quite awaken yet. I don't think I'll ever get use to it.