The Sister – KM
Km is two years younger than I. She’s divorced, has three kids, and one grandson. She recently quit her job of 22 years and moved out here to be a District Manager for a major company. I told her she could live with me because we’ve always gotten along very well, I consider her my best friend. Her daughter wants to stay back in ND and finish high school So she’s living with dad.
She and I couldn’t be more opposite. I love to cook and try new foods; she eats M&M’s for dinner. Everything in my house has a place and everything is in its place. I’m never late, I never lose my keys, phone, etc. She’s more ‘casual’ in her housekeeping and organization. I always plan ahead; she doesn’t. I always think of the other person; her not so much.
She’s been here since January and is now looking for her own place. It will be too quite here when she’s gone. We have some great conversations.
Stupid neighbors
I used to like my neighbors, but since they got a dog [large German Shorthaired/very very loud bark] two years ago I hate them. 
I’ve never understood why people get a dog just to abandon it in their backyard??? Sure, cute puppy, but it grows up and needs attention you morons. Not only are they OK with the dog barking for hours on end, as you can see from this picture they’ve even provided him with a deck so he can look over the fence and bark at everyone. Since this picture was taken, they’ve built a party cabana in the spot you see the dog in, but they then put a small trampoline in the corner of the yard. So, when this dog hears someone on the other side of the fence you see dog…no dog…dog…no dog…dog…no dog.
And this dog has stamina, he can bark for 6 or 7 hours straight. And that trampoline show can go on for hours. This is where people usually think I’m exaggerating, but no, I’m not. Since my sister has moved in she now believes that this dog barks all night and all weekend and she also believes me that Poor Scotty plays solitaire on his computer all weekend long. Both seem outlandish, but both are true.
You’d think that since our community is professionally managed we could get some relief from this dog. No, they say to call the animal control. Great, wanna know what they say? “We can send someone over there one time. Then after that at least two neighbors have to call on the same day they both have to be willing to go to court.” WTF?? You want me to call every day in hopes that someone else has called today too?
And why don’t my neighbors have a problem with this? Is it too much to expect that I can sit in my house [across the street and one house down] with the windows closed and the TV on and not hear your fucken dog barking for 4 hours each night? And why doesn’t this bother you? You’re a lot closer than I am. Don’t you hear the dog when you are in your driveway and he’s a mere 10 feet from you barking – and you’re on the phone? Can you tell he’s barking right now? Going on three hours and he’ll continue until dark.
Would it be wrong to shoot an email to 100 people and ask them all to call my neighboors and tell them to “SHUT YOUR FUCKING DOG UP?”
Why does it smell like a giant fart in here?
Oh, don’t worry, that’s just my lunch. At least twice a week I roast cauliflower for myself. It’s tasty, but makes the entire house smell like a fart. It’s not bad if you are in here, but if you come in from outside it slaps you in the face and then punches you in the gut.
I love to drizzle olive oil on it then salt, pepper, and garlic powder and bake it in my toaster oven until its golden brown. Mmmm…has a real nutty flavor. And since cauliflower is a core food, I’ve not had to stop enjoying this smelly-fart delight.
That and a diet pepsi.
The countdown begins
Before I go into my rant, I’ll give you a little background. My sister moved in with me on January 1, she relocated from ND and has a great job. Her 14 year old daughter didn’t want to move here and is now living with her dad back in ND. She has two friends (twins) that she doesn’t want to leave.
I work from home, running two businesses and I babysit for my granddaughter. My husband, Poor Scotty, works in NC all week and is only home on the weekends.
You should also know that I get really pissed if something you do creates more work for me. Remember those hand-wash only glasses? If you use one and don’t wash it…more work for me. Got rid of them at the garage sale. Not sure if they sold or went to goodwill.
So, you can imagine the extra work (not to mention the higher utility bills) for me when my sister is here. Now add her daughter for two months (this is the countdown) and I’m ready to go off the deep end. When I first learned that Kd was coming for two months I was excited. I imagined her playing with Ly (granddaughter) during the day, going for walks around the block, being in the backyard, you know, normal stuff. My thoughts were ‘wow am I going to be able to get a lot done in those two months.’ What a fool I was.
This girl has no social skills that I’m aware of other than following her mom around like a puppy. When her mom isn’t here she is in her room with the door closed. She spends all her time on her laptop. I’ve told her to not be a stranger, bring your stuff out. But no, she’d prefer to be a hermit.
She appears when her mom gets home and acts as though she’s been out and about all day. Oh, and she’s always there when it comes to shopping or eating. When she first got here I asked her if she was hoping to make a friend…NO. She was almost appalled at the idea.
I find out yesterday that before Kd goes home, my sister is planning on flying her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson out here so Kd can fly back with them. Oh joy. Where are you going to put them all? I have a small three bedroom house. My room, Kd’s room (I could use the space), and my office. Sister is currently living in my unfinished basement. It’s probably about 500 square feet and is packed with all the furniture from her house. Ugh… don’t get me started on the mess she has down there. So again, I ask you where are you going to put the extra family.
She thinks nothing of ‘oh they can sleep on your couch.’ Really? What about during the day? Will you take those days off and get them out of here? Or will I have to put up with them on top of babysitting and trying to run my businesses?
The extra work created for me from just two other people living there 1) twice as much garbage I have to take out every day, 2) I swear I run the dishwasher twice a day 3) I’m spending more time trying to explain to Ly ‘where’s Kd?’ 4) they let the dog out then forget, so I’m jumping up from working to let him in when he’s barking at the back door 5) they let the dog upstairs and then forget about it, so I’m putting him back down stairs because he’s in the safe place I’ve created for Ly 6) the baby gate isn’t always closed, so instead of being confident that she’s safe when she goes into the living room, I go make sure its closed 7) and it’s costing me more money to have you here.
I feel that if you are living here for any extended period of time, you are not a guest. You live here, therefore you help clean, you pay attention to what is going on in or around the house. If something needs to be done…DO IT!
What I’d love to say is "Get your selfish ass out of that bedroom and get a life." "Just cleaning your room and your bathroom doesn’t help, you do ‘live’ in the whole house." "The little bit of rent you pay doesn’t cover it." But I keep my mouth shut.
And I’m The Bitch?
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity
OMG…I think I have heat stroke. We decided to participate in our community garage sale today (well, we decided two weeks ago). So I’m outside setting up at 6:30 this morning and it is so hot and humid that you could barely see the house across the street. Family back home thinks it gets humid in North Dakota…yeah right. Visit Virginia in June and you’ll never complain about ND humidity again.
In my quest to change my life, I’ve decided to lighten up the load – get rid of shit. I consider myself a thrower, I’m not big on sentimental value. It’s just crap. But I found that I had a lot of stuff that I could purge. People started showing up right away and we closed down after about 5 hours. We sold a lot more than I had anticipated. Both my girls were her, my sister, niece, and of course the little woman, who gave Poor Scotty a run for his money. By the way, he was sporting a pony tail today.
The heat was unreal, the kind of day that you wouldn’t leave your air conditioned house. But there we were, sitting out side and in the garage selling our crap. You know its hot when you drink a 32 oz coke, 4 large glasses of water and never have to take a pee. So now I know that I sweat coke through the pores on my face. That should be good.
You’re really not helping
Just this morning I told you that my cooktop was clean. No longer true. We are having a garage sale tomorrow so my plan was to cook up some sloppy joes today and just put them in the slow cooker tomorrow.
In her effort ‘help me out’ and to keep her daughter busy, my sister said they would fry up the ground beef. Great, I always welcome a little help.
I have to tell you I cringed when I saw the grease splattering on my freshly cleaned cooktop. And I admit a little noise from me made her question what was wrong. I said ‘oh I worked so hard getting that clean last night.’ She says ‘oh sorry.’
They do a great job cooking, cleaning…not so much. So, here it is again.
I couldn’t get the pictures to capture how really dirty it is.
Yes, we were raised by the same mother.
Update on the dirty stove
As you may recall, I’ve been waiting to see how long it takes my sister to clean up a mess she made. We will really never know. Last night she made dinner. And in my house the person who cooks for the rest of the house (as opposed to just for themselves) does not have to clean up the dinner mess. Well, you know that I’m not going to clean everything and not that stove. So, with my glass top cleaner and my handy dandy Scotch Brite pad (yes this really works), and a razor blade I was able to get it pretty clean. If you look hard you can still see some stains. I swear the worst thing that can happen to these glass tops it boiling water. It’s the biggest mess I’ve ever seen. Geez!!
This is a test – This is only a test
Everyone who know me, knows that I keep a clean house. If you make a mess – clean it up. It’s a pretty simple concept and really easy to do. Just take care of your shit. You are all adults and I’m not your fucking maid.
So why are these glasses still on the counter after a week? The blue cup is courtesy of Poor Scotty who can get to the sink, but somehow can’t reach the dishwasher that is right beside it. The glasses are ‘hand wash’ only and used by Poor Scotty and my sister. I expect both think it is not their responsibility to wash them. So I let them sit there to see how long it will take. 
After a week, my niece arrives for the summer and my sister suddenly kicks into ‘mom-mode’ and cleans up the kitchen (sans the range) after we eat. She washes the glasses. I later find out that she didn’t see them sitting there all week.
If you have a black glass-top range you know how much it sucks to keep clean. This is a mess she made from boiling pasta two weeks ago. The wait continues.
