House - Cursing Cats and Other Curiosities

I’m a dumbass

Posted on October 10, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment

I just paid $125 to be exposed as a giant dumbass and have a box gotten down from a tall pantry shelf. And that last bit was just a “while you’re here, you look tall…”

That I’m a dumbass is not some revelatory news. But paying money to find out hurts my soul.

When we redid the floors and they moved the appliances back in, the stove stopped working correctly. It’s a gas stove. Some burners were getting way too much gas and had huge flames, some wouldn’t light. So we finally had someone out to look at it.

Turns out, when they put the stove back, they didn’t put the burner covers on in the right order. They switched the smaller ones around. And to my great surprise, that really makes a difference.

So I showed Mr Appliance what was wrong. He stared at it for a second. Switched the covers around and BAM.

Jesus fucking Christ, that hurt my soul.

Welp. Now I have a personal example to use when I tell smug engineers they’re not as smart as they think they are. We’re fucking worthless outside of our jobs.

Three “Stupid” Purchases That I Absolutely Fucking Love

Posted on August 24, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

With people hopping on trends and “overconsumption,” a new trendy video is “decluttering” or “Things You Don’t Need to Buy.” I watch these. It’s how I found out about the Stanley thing and now the Weck jars. I just watched one and realized, I have some really stupid, insanely frivolous purchases that make me stupid happy.

Bat Straw Cap

Preface: I never wanted to become the basic bitch with the dramatically overpriced cups. But I did. I hate it. There’s a reason basic people love some shit. I’m so goddamn basic. Give me all the pumpkin spice! But the $40 cup thing is a bit shameful. But I also love my fucking Swigs. Fuck my sister in law for gifting me one (then 2 — especially the cheerleader one cause damn, that’s just NOT ME but it hold 40ozs). Then I bought 3 more. I KNOW! They’re so fucking fabulous. But I try to not take them out of the house due to shame.

The thing I love: So with the Stanley crazy came straw toppers. Now that’s some cute shit. I think I saw a buzzfeed or some list of shit you need (I get a lot of gift ideas from those) that had a fucking ADORABLE ghost walking a ghost dog. It was from a 3D printer on Etsy but they only made them for Stanley’s. I even contacted them to ask if they could make me one to glue to my Swig and they wouldn’t. So the ghost was on the cup lid and his little ghost dog was the straw topper! So fucking cute.

Well, I couldn’t have that one, but I could still have a cute topper, I guess. I know, I was just wasting money at this point. So ghosts led me to Halloween. Then I was gonna get this ghost topper and a bat topper. And you could add an initial! So basic! Then, at the last minute I went double bat cause I’m more of a bat person. Why did I get two? Cause I was already committed to the ghost and the bat and had two in my cart. See how I waste money sometimes?

Turns out, excellent purchase. I fucking love these bats. It’s been about a year and I have used them all year round. ESPECIALLY on that cheerleader Swig. Jesus, it needs the bat.

I fucking love them. And since I have two, I toss them in the dishwasher with the Swig and get a new one when I switch swigs (about once a week — I just drink water at home with them). I never even use them to cover my cap, yall. I just fucking love the bat hanging there upside down on my cup. It’s basically a cup decoration on my shameful $40 cups. AND HE’S ADORABLE.

No regret. (No regret on this Swig cup pattern either, as an aside.) I tried to find the Etsy link but it’s no longer there. I paid $18 for two a year ago.

Gregory

Gregory is a yard statue. He wasn’t quite an impulse purchase, but I did feel really guilty spending so much on him. At the beginning of this summer, I was searching everywhere for a birdbath I liked. I had been watching market place all winter — I was going places and looking at them trying to find something I liked. That took me to the stone section of Cat Bird Seat (my favorite plant nursery). I saw Gregory. I wanted Gregory and I said NO. I will not. I’m shopping for bird baths, not statues.

Then when I found a bird bath I loved for half the price of used ones on market place, I was so thrilled with my savings that I went back to grab Gregory. And he wasn’t where he thought he had been! That’s when my heart sank in my stomach and I realized I had really wanted the fucking gargoyle. But I was wrong about where he had been and I found him!

He’s not unique. He’s not mass produced, but pretty easy to find online. He’s a stone cast so he’s like 40 or 60lbs (I forget which). After I bought him and researched him, turns out I got a great deal. A lady at the store told me he was a replica of one on Notre-Dame. He’s not. He’s just an art piece. But he’s twice as much online! AND I FUCKING LOVE HIM.

He was going to go outside. But I wanted to enjoy him a bit more first. So I put him by the fireplace. And fuck it, he lives there now. I spend most of my time in here so I get to see him all the time. I love himb. I think I love that 1) He’s a fucking gargoyle. I need more gargoyles in my life and especially my house. 2) He’s not a mean gargoyle. He just looks bored? Perturbed? 3) He looks that that super cheesy cherub painting that was huge in the 90s but he’s a fucking gargoyle with bat wings.

You will pry Gregory from my fireplace over my cold dead hands.

Sir Bastian

You all know Sir Bastian. No notes. He’s fucking fabulous. One day, I will find his mate that I still regret not buying. He holds a sword.

Oh! And after having the automatic candles in the windows at Christmas the past two years, I had an idea! See, I have 2 extra candles that I put in the basket that Sir Bastian holds (he gets seasonal decorations sometimes. At Christmas, his flail rests in a basket filled with ornaments and candles). So last year I realized — Sir Bastian is hollow. WHY HAVEN’T I PUT A CANDLE IN HIS HEAD FOR HALLOWEEN? How fucking creepy would that be!? So that’s happening this year.

Honorable Mention From 20 Years Ago:

I saw this when I moved it to take the bat straw cap picture. And I realized — it’s one. I’ve had this since my very first apartment. So around 20 years. I remember it came from Kirklands. There was a set of these for a kitchen. I’m pretty sure there was a “coffee” and I forget what else. I had no interest in the set. Just toast. I don’t know what humors me about a framed picture that says “toast” but it still humors me 20 years later. It think it might be partially because without the companions, it’s just kinda funny to me. I like the typeface. It’s really nicely framed. It seems somewhat Irreverent. I wouldn’t say I LOVE it, but I’ve had it in every kitchen for all these years because something about it tickles me.

Conclusion

So yeah, don’t buy shit just because it’s trendy. But maybe spend the extra bucks when you really want something. Was Gregory worth $100? In hindsight — fuck yes, he was. I fucking love him. Same with Sir Bastian. Be you. Buy shit that makes you happy even if you “know” it’s a waste of money. Be weird.

Look at my Plants

Posted on June 28, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

This is a plant update to show off my plants. However, this is Cursing Cats and Curiosities, so we’ll start with Louie. It’s very hot outside. So while we still let Louie outside some mornings (in his vest), he doesn’t wanna stay out there. He walks back to the door. I think he likes the air conditioning.

So here is a photo of him after he requested to go in, but we were still outside. Louie has resting bitch face. Seriously, he has resting bitch face. That’s just Louie. He aint mad. It’s funny cause he’s next to the “Rescue our cat sign” on the door.

On to the plants!

Look at my monstera! That new leaf is 27 inches long. Some areas have triple perforations. (Click here for the last update on her.) Admire her:

The butterfly garden is doing fine. I really need to kill all the weeds around the pool area, I know. I’ve seen lots of pollinators and a few butterflies over here. I really need to scrub my bird bath. It’s got algae! I did not expect that for some reason. (Click here for the post where I planted the butterfly garden.)

The Plumeria finally got to go outside. Since moving her outside, her flowers went from light pink to a beautiful dark pink. Oh yeah, and a storm blew her down the stairs. It’s ok! She has recovered. I took her off the pant stand so she’d be more sturdy. She’s already blooming again. In the evening her blooms smell the strongest. I take so many pictures of her flowers. This is from this morning.

The nook in my bedroom is thriving! Apparently those zig zag cacti really just wanted some grow lights! (Click here for the last check in on those babies. Well, then I did a chop and prop, but that just made the Walmart one l look worse.) That one on the rightmost end of the pole is the free table cutting from that plant fair! It’s finally growing! It grew maybe 4 very long spindly stalks before the grow lights. I chopped them up and planted them all again. It doesn’t have any of the big gorgeous fishbones of the original cutting, but we are making massive progress. Finally!

The immortal sting-of-bananas continues. I keep giving it hair cuts and rooting them back in the pot. (Click here for the last nook update pictures and the Sting-of-Banana journey). It’s so funny because every time I look back at older pictures, I’m like “damn, it was looking thin.” I think it’s just because I always saw where this was going and what it would be. I wonder if husband still hates that closet pole? I won’t ask because he probably does.

The Walmart zig zag cactus is happy as a fucking clam. It has exploded. That’s the left most plant on the pole.

The living room plants are doing great. Once I figured out I was over-watering my rattlesnake plant, it bounced back quickly. My Lemon-Lime prayer plants don’t actually have a lot of day/night movement. This rattlesnake plat does though! She’ll be standing fully tall by night time. As I write this, she’s about halfway up. She’s tucking in.

The money tree has bounced back better than I could have imagined. After fighting the spider mites for so long, I just couldn’t win! New growth was still coming in shitty. And even if she came back thriving, she would have been super spindly. So I made the decision to just cut it all down. I cut it completely back to the bare original sticks and hoped for the best. And WOW. Now she’s thick and luscious and so happy. Each original trunk has at least 2 or more branches coming off. So she’s thicker than she ever was.

Speaking of, I hacked down my red banana plants too. They got a bit shocked after going back outside after winter. OK, a LOT shocked. All the leaves went brown on the edges. So I just hacked them back to the bare trunks too. Looks like they’re sprouting now!

Now to go trim the delphiniums in the butterfly garden. They were so insanely gorgeous but all the blooms dropped off. I thought they would bloom all summer? I just read I need to cut off the seeding branches to get more blooms. So… More cutting. Don’t be afraid to cut your plants! Sometimes they need a reset.

Tis the season to start gardening

Posted on April 25, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment

Tis the season to start gardening. Not sure whether to put an exclamation point there or a sad period. I’m pretty far behind being that I bought seeds to start and haven’t got them started yet. I also need to clean up and repot the sad-looking ferns I overwintered. Was it worth overwintering them? Probably not. We’ll see how they fill out after I divide and repot them.

I did get some life in my sails today on the gardening front. You see, I’ve been looking for a bird bath ever since I cleaned up the pumpkin patch earlier this year. I knew I didn’t want to do the pumpkin patch this year. I mean all those pests! Let that shit lie for at least a year. So when I cleaned up the vines and mesh layer, I drug the pots over to the fence. Seeing this, I thought “hmm, I could just put plants there.”

Watering my plants is usually such a pain. Especially mid summer when it’s upper 90’s every day. However, last year I set up automatic watering for the pumpkins on that side. So I could use that again. I thought some butterfly bushes might be nice. We have butterflies and dragonflies so I’d love to encourage more. Dragonflies eat mosquitos after, all.

Last year I wanted a birdbath but didn’t grab one. The thought of setting up auto-watering made me want one even more! I can run a line to the birdbath and it will stay nice and full. So I preemptively grabbed a solar fountain off Amazon Vine and have been looking for a bird bath on Marketplace ever since. But people want crazy money for their birdbaths. So last weekend, I went to Home Depot, and two fancy plant nurseries in search of a birdbath.

Home Depot had not ONE SINGLE BIRDBATH. WTF? I had looked on line, but they’re all “free delivery to store.” I should have looked harder at that. So we hopped over to the Enchanted Garden: A very overpriced plant store. Disastrous experience. They didn’t know any prices and wanted to get my number to get back with me. The prices they did know were outrageous. Also, some unknown bugs ate my feet up in there. Like I’d think it was poison ivy rash if I didn’t know it was bugs. Cat Bird Seat is on my way home so I stopped in there. Nothing deep enough to have a fountain in. Both places had their butterfly bushes for about $35, though Cat Bird Seat had much larger ones and they guarantee their plants for a year. I fucking love that place anyway.

So yesterday, I went looking online. I saw Ace Hardware had some birdbaths from Athens Stoneworks. I assumed this was Athens Alabama, but it was Athens Georgia. Not important. On the manufacturer site, I saw that I wanted the “tulip” top. It’s deep enough for a fountain. So I messaged about six nurseries asking if they had anything like that plus the Stoneworks asking for who I could locally order through (since they’re wholesale only). Welp, only one person got back to me this morning. Unique Outdoors in Hartselle – A 40 minutes interstate drive.

They didn’t have the larger version, but they had the medium and small and even took pictures with a tape measurer. Good customer service! But 40 minutes one way? How much is it? $100? Fuck me, OK. People on marketplace are selling their old ones for more than that! And the rains not coming ’till 2pm! I’ll go now!

I did go and I chose my bird bath. Then I looked at their butterfly bushes. They varied from $11.99 – $13.99. Why did I only buy two? Because I’m a dumbass. I got the Cranberry and the Bicolor. Yes, the bicolor I saw online when researching them and had to google if it was real or AI bullshit. It’s real and I got one! So then I take my wagon over to grab the bird bath I want. It starts to sprinkle — “Fuck I better hurry.” It’s getting worse and this shit is heavy. Then god opened the heavens and just dumped all the water out. Awesome. While I’m trying to carry very heavy concrete with my weak arms. In flip flops.

That’s cool. At least someone loaded it to my car for me. He was very strong and made it look weightless. I’m sad that place is so far away because their prices were crazy good.

So I paid half of what I expected for a brand new birdbath. Do you know what that means? Gargoyle.

See, in my quest last weekend, I saw the most adorable stone-cast gargoyle. And I said “NO.” I want a birdbath and some bushes. No gargoyle. But all week, I thought about that gargoyle. I had taken photos and found him all over online — for over twice the price! Ugh. So after the bird bath was so cheap — fuck yeah, let’s go get Gregory! (Yes, I had named him already in my head before I decided to buy him). Then when I got there, he wasn’t exactly where I thought I remembered him being. My heart sank. SOMEONE BOUGHT GREGORY! And that’s when I knew I had really wanted that damn Gargoyle. But wait! THERE HE IS!

Isn’t he amazing! He’s 62 pounds and I love him so much I’m not sure I want to even put him outside. It was pouring rain so I had to get him hosed off and it was totally worth it. I love himb. <3

I thought about naming him Grinderwald, but that’s Harry Potter. Then Gareth, but then people would think I was a big Labyrinth and David Bowie fan which I am not. And so Gregory. They put him in my car and asked if I knew my towing capacity cause that’s a lot of weight in there. It’s fine. Give me Gregory.

I’m gonna be honest, I think he was probably at Cat Bird Seat so long that they lowered his price. Everywhere online (even if it’s a garden center you pick up at) he’s well over twice the price. A lady in the store (customer, not employee) said she has one and it was based on a gargoyle at Notre Dame. I looked him up online again and find nothing to back that up. I think someone lied to her to sell it.

So now I’ve started my 2025 planting! After the storms, I set up the bird bath and planted the bushes. I also moved some solar light spheres over to this fence:

I know, it looks crappy right now, but it will look awesome. I’m going to do flowers in the other bags. I have some small red sunflowers, red poppies, purple asters, and big fancy marigolds I got all in seeds. And I’ll spray the weeds. And of course, you won’t see the plastic bags like that. They’re just like that because last weekend I pulled out all the dead lemon grass and prepped the dirt and wanted to cover it so the squirrels didn’t fuck around with it. Those same bags are in the big 20 gallon ones and tucked in.

Now to get my seed trays out and start some seeds!

UPDATE: Five seed trays seeded. I only have 5. Two with purple Asters, one with Red Poppies, one with giant Marigolds, and the last with “Red Fire” Sunflowers. I set them by the front door. It gets first morning sun and is an noticeably extremely warm every morning. Should be good to get them going.

Plant Updates

Posted on March 8, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment

The Great Monstera

The Great Monstera Experiment continues. The last update was in September. It seems to have doubled in height since then. I’ve extended the poles twice now.

The plastic D poles are definitely a winner. I can see they are FULL of roots. And I’ve been able to expand them in height. I’m three tall now (2 feet each) and they are stable as all hell. I figured I’d need a plank of wood or something by now, but they’re solid. I put this down to me using two side by side that are attached together with zip ties. They’re giving each other stability.

Now that there is so much moss, they need to be watered every 3ish days. I do this with some plastic bottles (Powerade Zero to be specific). I drilled insanely tiny holes in the lids. So I fill those up (sometimes with some liquid food) and drop them in the pole and the water is absorbed by the moss super slowly. I did finally think to tie some fishing string to the bottle necks to make them super easy to pull back out. I tied ribbon on the end of the fishing string so it doesn’t get lost. Big brain. No way would i be able to keep up with the water in a traditional pole. I’ve noticed if I let the moss get too dry, it takes way longer to soak up new water. So we’re learning together.

The new leaves on the fastest growing vine are enormous. Also, I have been raising up the Soltec light, but it did burn one of the leaves that got too close. So there’s that. I’ve also added those round grow lights in the pole so that the leaves face out a bit and not all directly facing the ceiling. This has also let them grow out a bit and not be in such a hurry to go UP. The lights are anchored in the moss and then I have a string tied to the light head that then ties back to the pole to hold them up.

String of Bananas

The last String of Bananas update was in January. Holy shit has it been growing. Just now pulling that link and seeing how much it grew in 2 months – damn.

She was getting a little too close to the floor so I just gave her a hair cut tonight. Chop and prop. I took all the cuttings and rooted them back into the pot again. It’s like when your bestie gets a hair cut.

YAS QUEEN. Rock it.

It’s funny how this has gone from a plant I hated to wanting to show off. I can’t believe it used to be in a 2 inch pot.

Lemon Lime Prayer Plant

Welp, now that there’s dirt under my nails — time to pot up the prayer plant propagations. They all took like a champ! And looking back for those links, I see they’ve been rooting for a month. Most of these had more leaves but rooted at multiple nodes. So I cut the rooted nodes apart. Look at those roots!

*3 or 4 hours later* OK! Potted up my prayer plants. So the “mother” plant was three vines I bought a long while ago for maybe $20-$25 at Cat Bird Seat. It really took off. But it grew way too long. So I decided to hack it up. A big part of this was also that over winter, most of the leaves got brown tips. I don’t know what happened, but it did.

I’ve heard of people who chop and prop and ditch the old plant. I’ve always thought that was insane! Now I see why. So I separated out the tiny vine that is just now recovering from giving some props to K. It didn’t have the brown tips because it’s such new growth. I repotted the mother plants two vines and I might just give it away. Not the pot, the plant. It’s good roots. Just had brown tips.

I got 9 propagations plus the baby vine. So here’s momma (in red) and her babies (5 in each pot):

Plants and Glue Organization

Posted on February 8, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

I finally got a Rattlesnake Plant! I’ve been wanting one for a few months. I even priced them around my birthday back around November at the nursery but didn’t get one. I thought it would be a good gift. But now that the holidays are over, I still want one. I babysat K2s over Christmas and then she took it and I was like — OK, I’ll get one. I had priced them at $25 at the nursery for a 4 inch. I found this 6 inch on Home Depot’s website for the same price! It got here and I’m super happy with it! Look how it’s already opening and closing after two days:

Good day, lamp, I touch you. Good night, lamp, no touch.

The packaging was also probably the best I’ve had on a live plant. It was wrapped in a brown pot bag and there was a ziptie around the stem area to keep the dirt in. Nice. Then it was in another brown pot bag to protect the leaves. And the box was special made for plants. It had a lift off top and handles. And it was super clear which side was up. Not that FedEx gave a single fuck because it was on its side on my porch despite the GLARING “This Side Up” all over the box. All you can do it try.

I also trimmed my Prayer Plant (I think it’s a Lemon Lime) in the kitchen. It was looking super leggy. I want it to be more bushy. So I figured I’d try to root some pieces. I’ll report to a bigger pot and make it 4 stems in the pot. Plus there’s a plant swap coming up and I can sell the others if they root. Still rooting my zig zag cactus cuttings too. So in preparation for the plant swap, I split them into two little terrecotta pots to continue their journey.

Part of the inspiration for this was now that Christmas is put away, the side table is back over by the window. And I’m tired of the kitchen counter looking cluttered with the leggy prayer plant and the zig zag rooting. So I moved it all over to the living room where — not only do I not get annoyed by it, I get to ENJOY them!

Look at me using two of the set-of-four serving trays I got off Vine!

Oh, and I moved the money tree back to the window. Dear god, I hope it’s happy. I moved it with a grow lamp for the Christmas tree and well over half of the leaves just fucking bailed. I think it got spider mites too. So I’ve been treating it and now it’s back by the fucking window. It’s so fucking dramatic. There is new growth though. And then its pot started leaking — no!

Almost all of my plants are watered from below. It just works for me. So the money tree lives in a nursery pot that sits on top of a pile of rocks in a planter pot (with cotton string to wick up water). It has been in there for well over a year. And all the sudden one of the holes I had glued shut decides to leak. Mother fucker. Why?

So I had to clean it out and triage.

Does anyone else have a container of various glues and UV resin? Is it normal for people to have to organize their adhesives? There were just random glues all over the place — in both junk drawers, craft stuff, the garage (OK, actually there’s still four in the garage that are not represented here — wood glue and the glue I use for glass mosaics).

It’s kinda funny cause this basket is one of the three I bought to organize all my surgery supplies when I did the plastic surgeries. I had one for meds, one for bandaging, I forget the other… Here, I found it. One was just hygiene stuff cause I had to live in the chair in the living room. I was super-fucking organized for those surgeries. So it was a human triage basket and now it’s a stuff triage basket.

I went with the Gorilla Glue Construction: Clear. The strongest of the gorilla glue line. Like that shit is insane. I just pumped the holes with it and let it dry overnight. Note: There is “Clear Gorilla Glue” and that is not the same as “Gorilla Construction Glue: Clear.” Like you might think — just use the crazy strong one for everything. But no. The crazy strong one is super thick and you don’t have a lot of control. It’s also not gonna wipe off ANYTHING. That’s way above craft grade. FYI

Airing of Grievances & Warranties.

Posted on January 21, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment

Festivus has come (early or late?). We’re having the airing of grievances. I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it.

First, I fucking LOVE my Vornado fan. So much so, that I’ve bought three. When the first one died, I ordered another online. Then it (the ultimate fan in question) began to act hinky so I ordered a third fan to replace it. Well, hinky guy straightened up after that so I just had two. That’s cool. Amazing fan.

Cut to now and hinky is acting up again. Replacement already has another use so I need to order another. That’s cool. I love my Vornado. So I hop over to Amazon (after comparing prices to Walmart because I’m trying to switch over to Walmart+ because FUCK AMAZON). I have ordered this fan twice before. I know. Thank you. But wait — 5 year warranty? How old is this one? Well, hinky is only 4 years old. Thank you order history.

I look them up and they are an American company and seem to be pretty good (I mean it’s a fucking amazing fan, so I’m not surprised). So I contact them about my fan, hinky. They’re like “That’s cool. Just cut the cord and send us picture evidence so we can ship you a new one.”

Wait what? I get a FREE fan? I was just about to pay $50 for one!

Well, I have other warranty things that have been bugging me too. So it’s warranty day, bitches.

Calphalon lifetime warranty? What does that cover? I watch a youtube where they replaced his so yeah — I’m filling a claim on this expensive ass pan. We were gifted two from our registry for our wedding (no idea how two were purchased from the registry). Well, I never opened one. It’s moved with us in its original packaging. It’s been my favorite pan for 12 years. But it’s finally just not at all non-stick anymore. So I broke out the old-newbie. Holy shit. This pan is amazing! I forgot how great this pan used to be. I’m filling a warranty claim! Back up your words, Calphalon!

Mailboss mail box. Lifetime warranty. Why does my $300 white mailbox look like such shit after a year and 2 months outside in a mild climate in near drought? Why you so rusty? Lifetime warranty? But warranty doesn’t cover rust and finishes. Well, I’m arguing this is a fucking defect in yalls paint. So I called and they asked me to send pictures. So I did.

Pictures of all three products were sent in today. I’ll let you know if I get replacements. I’m pretty positive on the Vornado because they already accepted the claim — I just needed to send evidence that I “destroyed” the old one by cutting the cord — literally. We shall see on the others.

God loves me. He loves me not. He loves me…

Posted on January 14, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

Man, what a day! I guess I should say what a morning. But it was a morning, that’s for sure.

Husband and I usually work from home. I go in “as needed” and he’s been pretty much telework since Covid. It’s nice. We have separate offices so it’s really nice. We both hate our jobs — but working from home with good PTO is pretty hard to beat. Anyway, the point is, we’re almost always home. And BOTH of us being gone — hardly happens.

So this morning, husband had a presentation to give at work. Cool. So he’s in the shower and my alarm goes off and I’m ignoring it. I hear my work phone bringing with Teams messages. WTF? So I look at it’s a coworker asking if I can cover some testing today. Well, I really like working from home “as needed” and I didn’t have a legitimate reason to say no so… OK. When does it start? 9:00AM. It’s 8:53. I’m still in bed. (Core hours don’t start ’til 9 and I am not a morning person so don’t judge me). So I tell her I gotta shower and pack a lunch, let’s say 10:30. Ok. So husband gets out of shower and I hop in. He goes to work. Well… tries.

While I’m in the shower I hear the door open and close… and open and close… and open and close… again and again and again. And I want to tell him, dude go — I’ll fix it! But I’m in the shower. So he finally comes up and says the doors broken. Yeah, I heard — go go go. I’ll take care of it. So I hope out of the shower, get ready for work, and then head to the garage. I need to evaluate the problem. If I can fix it — great. It’s probably the laser being out of alignment. If it’s a spring causing resistance making it think its hitting something… well… then I can’t go in because I’ll have to call someone out. So I’m not even gonna pack my lunch yet.

It’s the laser. I see husband has removed all leaves and done everything he could. So I grab my garage door opener and go over to the laser and start tweaking it with my hand and bingo — it works. Problem: when I let go, it’s severely off. So far off that tweaking it won’t work. The problem is that the lowest bracket on this track isn’t attached to the wall. So now the track is twisted too far and the laser can’t line up. It hasn’t been a problem until now, but now we have a problem. It’s cool, I’ll just attach the bracket and adjust the laser. Good to go.

I do not have an self tapping masonry screws. Damn. Oh wait! The wall right next to this has a spigot (yes, inside the garage). I had attached a hose reel there but the hose was heavy and the reel was cheap so it broke. I ended up just ripping it off the wall so I didn’t have to look at it. So those screws were still there! AND my drill is charged! Jesus loves me so much! So I back out one of the screws and start to screw the bracket in.

Welp. The screw head is too small. Goes right through the bracket. Also, the screw isn’t actually grabbing on, it’s just kind drilling out. So even if it was big enough, the screw wouldn’t hold the track straight. Fuck. God hates me. So I send this picture to my coworker as my “doctors note” and ask for another 30 minutes.

It’s cool. I have a masonry anchor kit. I’ll use that. So I drill in for a medium anchor. Screw it in and… the screw head is too small. Goes right through. God hates me. But I have bigger anchors! God loves me. So I get the bigger drill bit out and it takes forever to get through this damn foundation concrete block. And… my drill dies. God, why do you hate me? BUT I HAVE TWO DRILLS! God loves me!

My drill bit is dull. I’m out of shape and my back hurts because there’s not a good angle here and I’m putting all my weight into trying to push the drill in. Finally get it deep enough… Anchor won’t go in all the way. Who cares if it works. Oh look, screw head still too small and goes right through the bracket. God hates me.

Do I have any washers? No. But I can make one. I can get some scrap wood and drill a hole in it and use a longer screw. Like and Amish washer. Yeah. So I start digging around the garage and find a bunch of plastic shims. I don’t know why they have holes, but this would work. They’re a bit small, but if I leave the sheet of 6 together, well that’ll do! I’m so smart. S_M_R_T. God loves me.

So I stick my sheet of shims on the screw and… the screw head is too small for the shim hole and goes right through the bracket and my shims. God hates me.

WHY? Why have you forsaken me? At this point, I’m touching spider webs. I’m on my knees in my good work clothes. (Yes, I’m wearing jeans, but they’re a nice dark wash and I have a nice shirt on — don’t judge me). My back hurts. I’m next to a rat trap. Fuck this goddamn door.

Bigger screw head… I need a bigger screw head… the original concrete self tap screw! It wasn’t grabbing, but now I have the anchor in there! So… It was hard going because the hole wasn’t wide enough. Damn my old out of shape back. I’ve also gotten up and down to fetch various shit all over the garage a ton by now. But… IT WORKS!

Jesus loves me! Though this did take 45 minutes of my day. But look at that crafty ghetto fix! I’m good!

Of course now I was late for the testing I was already going to be super late for. But I fixed it! And once I got to work, testing was super chill. Just witnessing testing which was all scripted so basically chatting all day with notes. But it was a full work day. Then I had to go to the store on my way home. Blarg.

I hope they don’t need me tomorrow. There’s no one on the schedule, but I can’t ask without being asked. If I say “Do you have coverage tomorrow?” I’ll get “can you do it?” If I say “Do you need me tomorrow?” I’ll get “are you available?” So I’m just going to be not doing it or caught off guard again. But at least the door works now.

Just so stupid that this happened on a day when both of us have to be at work — which hasn’t happened in months. Oh and I had been shipped a plant that sat i the 30 degree weather all day because I didn’t get home til 6PM.

WTF?

Oh and husband informed me that the second smaller garage door was open like 2 feet when he got home. Oops. I had retrieved the opener from the car and had it hooked to my belt while I was working on it to test it. Must have hit the wrong button once. My bad. This morning was a lot, OK?

Nook Update: Plants Plus A Craft

Posted on January 3, 2025 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

Nook Update

This is an update on my bedroom nook which just continues to get better and better. Our bedroom is huge so there’s plenty of room for a space like this. So I’m glad we created it. The living room has always kinda been my spot since husband hangs out in his office all the time. So before I had my office, we made the nook when my inlaws were coming for a visit and I was stressed about not having a private space.

We had bought new couches in 2019 so our old mismatched couches were in the garage. This one is actually my first piece of “real” furniture. Not that I’ve bought much real furniture still. It’s an Ashley couch I bought for my old apartment. When I got rid of the monkey couch and finally got something I liked! It’s like 15 years old so not the best shape, but still comfortable. And It sacrificed its back cushions to be pillows for the downstairs couches, but that just means that now it has actual bed pillows. Mom and I picked up the two (now one because the other is in my office) foot stools on clearance from Ollies, I think.

When the floor was being redone downstairs after The Washing Machine incident, I moved the guest room TV in here “temporarily.” I hate TVs in bedrooms and I just can’t sleep with one on. So I’m generally against them. However, this TV is in the nook and you can’t even watch it from the bed. So I have made an exception. This is because I hung the closet rod my husband very much dislikes for hanging plants. And now that those plants are taking off, I really enjoy sitting in my nook. On work nights, I retire to my nook to watch very chill relaxing TV before bed. (Right now it’s The Repair Shop, and I’m going to die when I run out of episodes so they are exclusively for nook watching).

Look how cozy and nice my nook is!

Getting Crafty for a TV Tray

So that brings me to my latest craft project. I like to have a drink AT ALL TIMES. So I take my water up there. I have my legs out on the couch so I would like to use the foot stool to set my drink on. However, the footstool is padded and my drink falls over. So I grabbed the nearest small flat thing and have been using it as a tiny drink tray. My “Stand By Me” frame/word-art/thing. I bought a fuck ton of these musical word-art things from Hobby Lobby on clearance for less than a dollar each ages ago. Before Covid. The before-times. I’ve done stained glass mosaics on five (including the Mario Kart items in the bathroom). I’ve still got a few in the garage. I chose to keep one of the “Stand By Me” ones because I love that some. Specifically, the Ben E King version. Great song.

So it worked great, but looked like shit and I was abusing my Stand By Me art that was in my nook cause I like it. Well, I finally got around to redoing one of the others. Meet my new drink tray:

Isn’t it adorable? I think this one said “Rock and Roll.” I painted it gloss black but the inside and “front” (now bottom) needed covering due to damage to the paper. So I modpodged some contact paper in there. Then, I thought, I could add handles! But the only handles I had were oil rubbed bronze so that didn’t work. However, remember when I did the downstairs hall and added handles and knobs? And then I had extra knobs so I replaced the cheap silver knobs on the bathroom vanity with oil rubbed bronze ones to match everything else? Well, look where those silver knobs are now!

My drink, remote, and snack tray is so cute!

String of Bananas Update

One of my nook plants is my String of Bananas (Curio Radicans). I’ve mentioned it before. It was a little 2-inch guy that I bought for the dining room tables terrarium. It outgrew that so I stuck it in a hanging pot (picture 1). Then it outgrew that pot so I had to put it in a bigger one. I had to untangle it (picture 2) and I trimmed it into 2-foot sections for rooting back into the pot (picture 3). That’s where I left off last.

Well, the plant was healthy as fuck and well over 90% of the cuttings took and started growing like crazy. But these “Sting-Of” plants look so “limp.” I want to say lifeless because they just hang there like they’re dying. Of course they are not. Its thriving. There’s just no volume. I have no desire to plant a second plant in the pot though. So I had been thinking of ways to beef up the top. A Styrofoam ball? A plant frog? I even asked at the plant nursery for suggestions. I looked into metal topiary forms but those are expensive. Then I saw the really ugly ass cheap Chinese plastic topiary balls that are far from expensive. In fact, I could get a mixed set of 4 sizes for under 10 bucks from Walmart. Hello Walmart+ membership. Yes, please.

So I used half a “ball.” I just plopped it right on top of the string of bananas and brought up the “strings” and gave them a few wraps to hide the ugly ass form and draped them back down (picture 4). This pleased me greatly. Today it’s looking like picture 5. I actually like this thing now. I hated it for so long. I fixed it!

When it gets too long, I’ll trim it again and reroot the cutting back at the top. Rinse and repeat. I mean, I don’t want to jinx it, but I don’t think I can kill this thing. It just really wants to live. After all the cutting and rerooting it’s so much thicker than that rat tail in picture 2, Now it’s got a bit of volume thanks to the topiary ball. There’s even new shoots growing out of the ball and it’s curling all around the bottom with new growth.

Look at my Air Plant

I got this air plant at the craft show (Christmas 2024 NEACA) and I have been kicking myself for not buying more since that evening. He had an ungodly amount of air plants. Like that’s this guys specialty. Loose ones mainly but also terrariums and various hanging ones like this. Also some cool art pieces that were on lava rock or drift wood. And they were CHEAP. He had a huge bush one that was like 15 years old for $75 — he pointed out that if he cut off all the pups and sold them at $5 a piece, it would net him a much bigger profit. And he had crazy exotic ones I’ve never seen before.

The hanging ones were all the standard air plant you see everywhere. So I looked through his collection (all with their scientific names and pictures of them in full bloom). I asked if he could put one of these on a hanging loop. He said for an extra $2. So yeah, I got this cool plant for $7! That boutique plant store on Governors charges like $25 for just the big pups! He told me all about caring for it and tips and tricks and sends everyone home with a sheet detailing how to water and fertilize them and get them to bloom.

I can’t believe I only bought one! Dammit. He had at least 20 varieties and some were even in bloom. I chose the crazy wobbly alien one, of course.

The Last Week in Pictures

Posted on December 26, 2024 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

OK, so it’s the last 10 days in pictures, technically. I’m behind in life. But look, I did finally get rid of my pumpkins before Christmas Day! I had been putting it off because I didn’t want to put them in the compost with all their seeds intact and that meant slimy labor. Then I gave up and said fuck it, I’ll just toss them out.

So I grab my garden wagon to start tossing. When I pick this one up, it’s hollowed out! A kind squirrel took care of all the seeds for me! I had noticed a few tiny spots that I thought were mold. Turns out they were holes where our little friend was scraping the surface. How funny! Why would he eat it from the bottom like this? I had a few in the patch where they just ate the outer bits. So this big guy and three small hollowed out ones were saved for the compost. Thank you, animal friends.

Also, this week. I opened a new pan. After over twelve years of storing it. That’s right. I was gifted two of these for my wedding. Was I going to send one back? Fuck no. I knew this day would come. When I would want a NEW pan. And it is GLORIOUS. Aint nothing gonna stick to this. It’s so clean and grey and pretty. I love pan.

It was a super slow week at work with the holiday coming up. Engineers just take December off. So those of us left in office are kinda stuck. One lunch break, I labeled my art supplies! It sounds silly but it is not. My art supplies are organized in my dining room buffet. Things are all stored together in these reused monthly subscription boxes. Like these boxes were too good to trash, so I kept them. Then I started storing art supplies in them. Then they all ended up in the buffet but I always forget which is which.

Well, I did some resin art which means I needed a new box: “Resin.” So I shifted a few boxes around for size efficiency. While I was at it, I used LABELS. I wrote down what was in them. Look how organized I am! Louie totally helped.

Finally, today, I turned my compost. I’m so glad I went with the three bin system. I bought a corkscrew aerator and it works fine — but you can’t really stir with it. And the outer bits get dry and need to be cycled into the center. It’s so much quicker and easier to flip everything into the neighbor bin with a hay fork. Glad I did my research! The last bin currently holds dry leaves since I don’t need three yet.

Theoretically, I would have emptied out all of my pots into that bin for dirt storage already. I’m behind, OK?

I think when I stated my compost I used far too many “browns.” We’ve also had so little rain that it hasn’t stayed wet. And, hay sucks. It was pretty much hydrophobic for weeks. I’m not putting anymore hay in there. It’s the only thing not breaking down. I put a whole bag of cardboard in here and there isn’t a trace of it. Still every bit of hay in there.

At this point, I just used my aerator to mix things around. Then, dig out a hole in the middle. Then I dump my new compost in and cover it up. But I’ve flipped it a few times. This time there was a huge earthworm in there so that’s a great sign.

Oh and that’s Ted. He guards the compost bins.