This 'n that

First, for anyone who has used and loved google reader to check blogs, I have found a good substitute as reader will be ended July 1.  (July something anyway).  The reader is www.netvibes.com and it has a lot more capacity than reader did; you can feed in social media, news, and I really don't know what because I haven't examined this.  In the last few days it has changed formatting so that the blog feeds are presented in a manner very similar to reader but probably with more features and options.  It's a definitely viable and free option.  I know that I had no idea what to use and stumbled on this.  I'm glad.

I've lived at my mom's just over a week now.  So far it's ok.  I'm really fighting with my med adjustment as it's making me nauseous no matter how full I cram my stomach and I'm not falling asleep exactly early.  However I am getting to sleep a little bit earlier and am working hard to not nap for a while to see if that helps.

Fortunately I have plenty to keep me busy with the moving.  I took a few days off, planning to just not go up until the new med dose was in place.  Then I started the increase, we had severe storms with 2 tornado warnings and I was alone with a dog who is afraid of storms and the threat of storms as severe as the ones last year where I huddled in the basement here at my mom's for 2 hours listening to 90 mph winds slam things into the house.  This time we were prepared for storms that bad and instead the "light" storm system had 2 tornado warnings and the monster system I stayed up to monitor and be prepared for further trips to the basement (which I arranged with a comfortable seat and things to do this time as opposed to last year when a little knitting would have been helpful while I sat and prayed and at times fought back screams because I had 4 dogs to keep calm.  So that messed up the change even more. 

Today we went up and I painted the latticework on the front porch and my mom spread mulch.  I know now that I hate painting latticework.  It's not a fast job as I'd assumed.  But it looks really, really good and that's what matters.  My home is starting to actually have curb appeal with the new flower beds, wonderful mulching job, new railings and fixed steps (they warped loose of their nails over the winter).  This week will complete porch painting (dreaded painting of posts and rails, not dreaded floor painting with long handled roller), basement painting (about half needs Kilz for stains), and the day I've dreaded:  the point there are no more logical boxes to fill and so I must walk around and fill a box or two labeled Miscellaneous (and then the things in them so it doesn't totally disturb me).  I remember hating those boxes in prior moves and yet at this point they are unavoidable.  It may only be one box and that would be best for my mental health.  Overall I am so close to done.

The next step is hopefully finding a cheap mover.  We were going to have family help but scheduling is rough and the amount being moved is really small (couch, coffee table, shelves, maybe sewing table, bed (no frame), huge front loader washer and dryer, large upright freezer, exercise bike and a few things need to go to Goodwill.  So it's not really moving as much as it is hauling a small truckload of things.  Every box has been packed by me and everything I own that isn't still at the house or here has been placed in storage, mostly by me and some by my mom.  If you are moving a small distance and have lots of time this is a nice way to move if you are a control freak like I am.  I did want to open a box today and get out DVDs; I packed the ones that would most benefit me at this point but I have about 90% of my boxes are egg boxes and while I know they are in one and it is well labeled and probably what vicinity it's in it is not on the top or easy to find and so I will wait.

After fighting a lot we managed to install a gate across the stairs to my part of "home".  This was really hard because of the design of the stairs and the need for the gate to fasten at an angle.  After a great deal of trial and error, modifying the instructions to accommodate the angle, bruising myself painfully on the hinges when they closed on my underarm, and frustration I finally have a gate.  This gives my cats more than one room to live in and gets the litter pan out of my bedroom.  They are exploring a little more each day and seem happy with the arrangements.

This may be the most boring post ever.  I've gotten so much information from the good drs. that I'm processing it and just don't know what to say yet. More to come.