So... I'm already 3 days into this self-proclaimed artistic spree and do you wanna know what I've done so far?

I've cleaned all the windows! (no small feat). I've weeded the garden (no small feat). I've spent time with my wonderful nephew (easy) and I've gone to work each day, cleaned the stupid house, done the stupid laundry and NOT painted a damn thing.

I have, however, created a cartoon character for the Moles new "upcoming" web site, which went through a few painful re-draws and had a nervous breakdown (AGAIN) trying to explain the creative process to my dense hubby (drawing, sketching are not his world).

TOMORROW...I swear that tomorrow I begin and I will not be deterred. I will not answer the phone. I will not talk to my neighbours. I will not let Baby Mole Hijack me. Tomorrow the paint comes out.

I really admire all you bloggers who stick to it even when all else seems to conspire against. I find it difficult to be humorous or entertaining when I ache, I'm sweaty as hell and I'm working all the time. All I do at times like these is complain and bellyache and even I get tired of listening to ME!!!

I have excuses, as I have mentioned before, but they sound pretty lame. I have worked non-stop (with the exception of Saturday, when I spent 4 hours in lake Huron) and visiting my brother. After today (Sunday - which I spent running around doing things for everyone else), I will be working for 12 straight days. All my staff and stand-by people are enjoying their summer and I have to keep the boat afloat!! Such is the life of a small business person.

BUT....what I will be doing for the next 5 days (after work is over and I have walked the dog) is my Michelangelo impression!!! YEP...back to the ceiling painting that I started in December before Princess MustHaveA came home from the west coast.

You see, the idea was that both kids were gone from their family home, eager to make their way in the world and find happiness and success. It lasted 3 months! Baby Mole had to come home to his room as he had buried himself in financial trouble, and 3 months later Princess MustHaveA came home after her heart was broken and the west held no glimmer of its former self. The room I had begun to paint was to be my studio, a place where all my creative things surrounded me and inspired me to do great things. That room was the one vacated by the Princess, who has since returned TO STAY!!! Boomerang kids!

Anyhow, the Princess is away for an entire week and I have pulled out the ladder, my paint and brushes and bought my wine. The Ghetto blaster is wired up and tomorrow I begin anew! I will keep you posted on the progress I make and until next Tuesday, that room is ALL MINE again!

There is nothing in the world more luring than a blank wall (or ceiling). They just call out for the Snuffy Touch. If I had my was , and there have been times I have, All walls and ceilings would be covered in murals.

Maybe I'll take a pic when I'm done!

The temperature is still somewhere in the high 80's here, but at least the humidity is tolerable. Truth be told, I am one of those unfortuneate types who feel as though they have no bones and their heads are ensconsed inside a nasty bubble, during humid days. I can't do a thing to change it and suffer as quietly as I can, but I am miserable.

The last two weeks have been a trial of mammoth proportion and I have done as much as was needed AND NOT A THING MORE! I have walked the dog, tidied the house, thrown in a couple of loads of laundry, counselled "Princess MustHaveA", coped with the "Baby Mole" and listened endlessly to the Mole about his work related issues. I have gone to work and been pleasant as I am able (offended nobody) and when I have completed all that was required of me, I have taken the dog for his last walk of the day and then....drowned myself in a cold bath and gone to bed.

This is not a overblown story (or underblown), it is exactly what I have had the energy to do. I really hate the humidity and wither in it. I swear more often, lose my cool with people who don't deserve it, drink too much and feel as though I could hop a plane, leave all those people I love and go somewhere cool.

On Saturday, I told the Mole that we were not spending one more hour in the house and were going to take a trip to visit my Big Brother on Lake Huron. I got up early in order to pack all the essential things like towels, sunscreen, water, dog leash and bowl, camera, etc. and, away we went.

It was a very long, hot ride,(with accidents of hideous sights), but when we were finally on the beach and splashing around in the water, I finally found a measure of sanity...and this is after 10 days of suffering. We took our chairs and settled into the surf, legs entwined, and waves rolling over us and for the first time in ages, I felt NORMAL. Puppy was delirious with joy, I was finally relaxed and all was right with the world! My world, at least.

So....how have you been coping? If you are burdened by humidity the way I am, you will know how I have been. I can deal with just about anything and do , almost daily. But when the weather sucks everything good out of me, I don't even like myself.

Give me waves. Give me a beach and I'll give you the best of me in the summer.

So Sayeth the menopausal one!!

This is to say that....for good or evil that...and not because I don't want to but...if I had AC...and didn't have to work so much I would....

HELL, I have been remiss. I haven't posted in over a week and its killing me. I don't have time right now as I HAVE TO GO TO WORK...and then when I get home its an inferno upstairs. But, I am going to be selfles and brave and come up here tonight to update you all on the exciting moments of my ever-so-exciting life.

BE BACK

Have my niece here for the week and for the life of me, I cannot fathom why she likes it here. My sister, her Mum, spoils her rotten and she(the neice) has access to all things any teenage girl would want. Here, she is required to entertain herself, find food whenever she is hungry, is assigned chores like walking the dog and is treated like everybody else in this house, which is to say, "pull your weight".

The fare to get here must have run somewhere around $80 and the payoff is minimal at best. Tonight she said to me, "why do all the floors in your house creak?" I answered, "the house is 120 years old and everything that old creaks. Why does it bother you?"

Her answer floored me. "No, I like it. I like everything about your house".

Whaaa!!! I kinda thought that all teenagers were into BIG, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL. Our home is anything but. It is small, quaint and creaky!

I also thought that teenager were entirely into being the center of attention. Here NOBODY IS CENTER...YET EVERYONE IS CENTER. We are all loud, eccentric, moody, artistic and just plain weird. Why the hell would a kid from the "burbs" want to be here? I still haven't pegged this girl.. I love her, I want to spank her behind, I want to lecture her Mum, but ultimately, she fits in!!

Strange hey? I always think I am running far behind the pack but when push comes to shove, this is where we all want to be. Even Princess MustHaveA's boyfriend wants to be here every minute of every weekend. Good thing we really like him, huh?

When I was a wee girl, living in Saughall, near Chester in England, my siblings and I used to take our pocket money(allowance) and run down the road to the local shop (what I'd now consider a Corner Store) and spend agonizing minutes chosing our sweets. They were always displayed in glass jars at the front of the counter so that no Mum or Dad could escape without buying a least one sweetie for their sniveling offspring.

The process of chosing was a difficult one, made more so by the ever present competitiveness of siblings. I would, being the oldest of the three of us (older brother was far too cool to participate), buy the latest, newest sweets just so I could talk about them with my commrades at school, my younger brother (always the economist) would get the greatest bang for his buck and buy BULK and little sister (having no idea what money meant), would want everything and therefore end up with very little as I would encoureage her to buy ones I wanted.

When we got our loot home, we would sit around and compare, organize our sweets into piles and then ferret them away for private consumption. Mine lasted until the end of the day, baby sisters would last an hour or so or until she got a tummy ache but little brother (the little miser), would flaunt his sweets for days, rationing them out for daily consumption. He made me crazy with his self-control and his superiority and I HAD to find his secret hiding spot.

Many, many hours were dedicated to unearthing the "Sweetie Stash" but woefully, I never discovered where he hid them (although I think big brother knew the whole time). My efforts were met with much lecturing from my Mum and Dad, teary tattle-taleing from dear little brother and frustration.

So see? I did once enjoy a good "Sweetie Surrender". I simply found that I am not inclined to eat sweets unless they belong to someone else!

So, as I have nothing of value to blog about, I thought I'd share a dirty little secret. I love to buy, look at, collect, give away sweets. I just don't eat them. OKAY, sometimes when I am driven by forces beyond myself, I will eat a piece of chocolate, but other than that, I really don't eat sweets.

Here, I am in Tobermoray, trying to decide which colour combinations suit all my different family members (the littler ones) and the Mole was becoming a wee bit frustrated at the obvious time required to make these difficult decisions. He is such a boy and lacks all the nessessary genetic material that is needed for this understanding.

As I was somewhat indecisive myself on that day (I don't work well under pressure), I just bought one of everything, further confounding the Mole.

Aren't they pretty?

Hate me, slander me, call me names if you must. I have been one lazy blogger and I have only one excuse. My space shuttle mission to Mars has created so many scheduling problems, I've not been able to get to the PC. What with every "expert" showing off their own special abilities and grandstanding for the spotlight, I've been required to be at news conference after news conference and I have to tell you, I'm exhausted.

Besides that....I feel terrible. I am so tired of being sick and tired that I'm about to petition the Medical Journals to include Snuffelitis as "a condition that attacks tired, working women(who should be retired and lazing about) with lazy grown children who still live at home and a husband who wouldn't know a laundry hamper if it reared up and bit him" . Treatment: Eviction of grown children, whipping into shape of lazy husband and DIVA attention accompanied with several bottles of red wine to be served whilst patient lies in hammock and reads latest crime novels. Of course, this treatment takes roughly 2 months to have its full therapeutic effect.

So, "why Mars", you ask? I would have said Venus but I'm just too tired to go that far at the moment. Maybe on my next mission.

I was at work today and had another one of those really lightening bolt conversations with a friend and neighbour, who always seems to stir me up. Chris loves jewellery and my shop is one of those places you think you can put it all together and make that piece of art to wear. Chris stops by every so often and we look at a picture that needs replicating and we get to talking.

Don't ask me how we got on the subject of "mates", but we did. It was one of those moments that you know you should have had a long time ago, but only surfaced because it was born of a long, funny, circutious conversation. How did I end up married to the Mole? How did Chris end up married to Sally? How the hell do any of us make that decision and more imporantly...WHY????

No two people could be more different than the Mole and myself. In background, in tastes, in temperment, IN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. We should not have been paired, and we certainly should not have been able to survive 17 years of partnership.

Truth be told, I really didn't think we would make it, there were too many obstacles in our path and we were too different. I was divorced, a single Mum of two very young children, living on government assistance and going to university. I am also 6 years older than the Mole and was much more worldly. When I went overseas to meet "The Family", it was a real eyeopener. I met the the Mole's three sisters, his Mum and Dad and had a few days left over to visit some of my own family in Chester. It turns out, my Mother-In-Law is a gift, a woman who is so lovely and kind and generous with her affections that I could never have hoped for such a wonderful relationship. The Moles' three sister, all of whom are younger than he is, are simply the best! I love each one of them and am so thankful to call them my family. The Mole's Dad was a great deal more of a challenge, but I think he is worth it. A difficult, complicated man with very defined ideas, he has warmed to me over these years and I can say honestly that I also love him for all his foibles.

So, how did you find your match? Did you think you were ideally suited? Did wedding bells ring straight away or did you want to have him/her assasinated?

I think this is truly a fascinating idea. We are all so different and somehow find each other. I really want to know....tell me!