Last Friday at noon (okay, around 11ish, but close enough), I dropped my husband off at the airport and wished him luck for the pool tournament in Las Vegas. Having taken that day off work (plus Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of this week – all the days he’ll be gone), I happily headed for the pet store to start working on my list.

What list, you say? Why, the list of all the things I might not do (or at least might think twice about doing) when my husband is available to share an opinion or “help”, of course. And no, I’m not the only wife who does this. I have it on good authority that those who don’t are few and far between. By which I mean, I’ve never met a woman who doesn’t have an agenda when her husband leaves her alone for a few days. But I digress.

I went to the pet store, and picked out all the fixin’s for a new 10 gallon aquarium (besides fish, of course). Sparing all the boring details, by the end of the night Friday I’d put together two aquarium stands (matching for either side of the entertainment center), written a serial scene for one of my blogs, and gotten the new aquarium set up on one of the stands. I’d also done several loads of laundry, doing my best to ignore how high the water bill is going to be next month.

Saturday morning I got up early, watered the lawns while I wrote my last scene for the week, and ran back to the pet store for fish. Brought home a betta and five cories, got them settled into their new home with “seed media” from the goldie’s tank for a quick cycle and started more laundry. Then I really dug into the *big* plan for the week: The Basement Reclamation Project.

Many months ago, hubby decided he’d reorganize the storage room. Most of our Halloween stuff was already being “staged” in the TV/workout room, but he took the rest of…everything…out of the storage room, resulting in an explosion of…stuff, everywhere. He never got around to finishing that project and I let laundry (blankets and such) and “things to be tossed” pile up in other areas, so the basement’s been largely unusable all year.

So…Saturday, I packed all the Halloween stuff back up and got it back into the storage room. Then I started going through stacks of mail (largely unopened) in the pool room resulting in four piles: trash, filing, recycling, and shredding. I got through three piles, shredded what needed shredding, and stopped for the day.

Saturday night, I had a couple friends over for wine & dessert (cheesecake!) – a nice break.

Sunday I started off by breaking down a bunch of boxes and putting them in the dumpster or recycling, as appropriate. Then I took a ton of stuff to the garbage, including a bunch of stuff my hubby probably won’t notice is gone, but wouldn’t have managed to toss himself. I finished a crochet project, sent a bunch of old printers and other electronic stuff off with my dad for reuse/recycling, fought with the sleeper sofa downstairs to get photos so I could list it on freecycle, and then went through several other boxes, putting things aside either for tossing or storing. Three more stacks of mail/papers completed the afternoon. Had to get a little regular housework in, so I vacuumed upstairs and cleaned the aquariums.

Sunday night, I had another friend over for wine/dessert (flourless chocolate cake!) – another nice break, though the dogs weren’t happy that their last meal of the day was late due to my chatting…

After she left, I started another load of laundry (only 2-3 more to go!), tried yet again not to think about the water bill, and remembered that payday is today (yay!). Got the pill/vitamin boxes restocked for Lucy & I once I remembered it was Sunday, and then sat down to get blog posts done and/or started (this one) for Monday.

This morning was rough. Could have been that I slept too long (or drank slightly more than usual last night – *ahem*), but it’s been tough getting moving. I watered the front lawn (stupid water bill), and I’m behind on nearly all my plans, but I’m not leaving the house, and no one’s coming over, so I should be able to make good headway today. What’s on the list for today? Are you sure you want to know?

(in no particular order – except this post is first)

– Get this post put up.
– Answer a couple of emails
– Email a few roofing companies to get estimates
– Finish the basement laundry (2 more loads, I think)
– Finish dealing with all mail/paper stacks downstairs
– Finish going through all boxes/”stuff” in the pool room and main basement area
– Write one or two of this week’s serial scenes

Then tomorrow:

– Get our insurance checks for the roof signed by both banks
– Buy a few mail-inbox/outbox trays for better mail flow
– Grocery shopping (skipped my normal day, since it’s just me)
– Pay bills (payday!)
– Clean up the basement bathroom so it’s usable again
– Clean out my laundry area and storage cupboards
– Organize the spot under the stairs where we store dog crates and luggage
– Hang up stuff that needs hanging (photos, posters, shadow boxes, etc.)
– Write one or two more serial scenes
– Vacuum & deodorize the basement carpet (I’m not even saying how long it’s been)
– Clean out my mail center upstairs & put new infrastructure in place (hopefully to avoid the insane pile-up of mail in the future)
– Do a manicure

Wednesday morning I’ll take out any extra garbage (Weds is garbage day), and then pick hubby up a the airport around noon. Thursday I’ll be back at work, thankful to be sitting at my desk.

Do I know how to take a vacation, or what? Movin’ right along…