My office:

Hells yes Enterprise D schematic, courtesy of my friend Vic, who knows the nerd I am.

His video:

Wilson (aka Will Dawg, aka Big Kitteh Style), my most favorite cat, got out the other night and hasn’t been seen since. We’ve notified friends, neighbors, the local shelter, and posted flyers. But there are so many neighborhoods; he could be anywhere.

The bad thing about this is that we’re leaving this Saturday for a week-long vacation.

I’m terribly sad.

UPDATE: Wilson was found!

He pulls out a jug of lime-green margarita mix that’s probably been in the fridge since last summer and asks, “God, how long’s this been in here?” He puts it on the counter. Neither one of us bothers with the jug of yellow margarita mix that’s been in there for at least two years, nor the jug of sour mix that’s a year old. “These beans have been in there a while now, right?” The Partner takes out the bowl of beans/rice/eggs and puts it on the counter. The microwave dings.

We eat and watch S2E4 of the X-Files. Afterwards we get ready to walk the dog, me going upstairs to brush and floss, The Partner doing whatever in the kitchen. A couple minutes later he joins me in the upstairs bathroom to brush his teeth. “It was the beans that stunk,” he informs me while putting toothpaste on his brush, “I threw them away.”

While brushing I garble out, “Did you flush* them?” He garbles, “No, I put them in the garbage.” I shoot him a look, thinking he’s joking. I asked him again. He nods. I rinse my mouth out and say, “Seriously. Did you really put them in the garbage?” I’m sure I asked him a few more times, shoving him once or twice in the “get out of here!” manner.

I stare at him blankly.

“You’re fucking serious? You put rotting beans in the garbage can? It’s going to stink up the house! Plus, I just took out the garbage today! It’s a new bag!”

“I’ll take it out. I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously! Why would you do that? Were you thinking, ‘Shit, I’ll just dump the stinking food into the new bag, the new bag that won’t have to be taken out for two weeks.’ What the fuck?”

“I guess. I don’t know!”

Later while on the walk he admits: “I did think about it when I dumped the beans into the garbage and they plopped on the bottom.”

_________
*Our garbage disposal is finicky and is currently not working.

It is beautiful.

Right now, however, there is a large stack of papers on my desk that needs to be shredded but other than that it has stayed clean. On Monday I started Phase Two of Office Cleaning 2007, which includes very generally, the entire floor: the shit under the second table that has been piling up for months, the shit in front of the bookcases, and the shit that I’ve been stacking in the back corner. Don’t stack stuff in corners, folks; the stacks only seem to grow with time.

As per The David’s suggestions and GTD, I collected everything into one area and then started the task of processing. I had to process all this shit four times because I had so much paper stuff that needed to be filed in multiple places, thrown away, or shredded.

It was not fun.

But I got it done.

Ever wanted to know what four years’ worth of class notes looks like?

Left to be cleaned are the bookcases, the shit on top of the second table, and those very scary closets. Then the rest of the house. Eek!

First up, a shot of The Partner at his desk in the office (not to be confused with his “production studio”/office in the basement):

More images below the fold.

The office is where The Partner comes to get away from computers, so he says. A few months ago he moved his desktop to the basement and limited his at-home use of the computer, focusing instead on artistic pursuits. Notice the circa-1940s Underwood manual typewriter to his right. He’s typing on a more “modern” 1980s/1990s electric typewriter. The Underwood was a steal, bought at an estate auction for $2, along with a full box of Jazz (and some Lawrence Welk shit*) on vinyl for $2, and an Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter for a mere $2 as well. I think this image sums up The Partner’s recently-developed aversion to (computer) technology perfectly. I’m just waiting for his novel and/or gallery opening.

A few weeks ago I purchased a Blue Mammoth Hosta. The leaves won me over; that it’s blooming is an added bonus. Walking through the neighborhoods I’ve seen lots of houses with hostas, but only a few have Blue Mammoths.

Here is George, right before pissing on the pot to mark it as his:

The two smaller flowers are both New Guinea Impatiens, which I’m hoping will survive.

I didn’t expect so many flowers:

More photos at eyeshot.

*movie reference!

EDITED 07-24-08: Link to eyeshot changed to Flickr.

I am very peeved at myself for not taking pictures during the event. Alas, there are no images of me waist-deep in garbage bags or of me swimming through a lake of spiral notebooks.

Instead, here’s a shot of my desk area, practically perfect (minus the papers, book, and binder which are part of my studies, and the hat, scarf, and gloves because it turned cold over night):

I moved my desk out from under the window in a vain attempt to prevent the cats from using it as a jump-off point. You wouldn’t believe the amount of cat hair the vacuum sucked from my keyboard and tower.

As I haven’t yet finished my task, here are some shots of the rest of the office:

This is The Partner’s work table, which he has yet to organize. He’s rarely in the office these days, having set himself up in the dungeon basement.

I’ve set up the other table directly behind my desk so all I have to do is swivel around to type at my laptop (but it still needs to be organized). I put the small bookcases in front of the windows for the cats to have a ledge. In front is The Partner’s chair, which doesn’t quite fit in front of his table yet.

And here’s a whole bunch of shit that I haven’t found a place for yet.

Another shot of all the shit I haven’t found a place for yet. Piles of boxes and binders.

Not pictured, again, are shots of the closets (which I did clean and organize, thank you) and the hallway, which houses more boxes, and the bedroom, which is housing the large and medium containers of yarn and one medium container of bags of assorted color, size, and function.

I am hoping to get around to finishing this task over this weekend, but I have a Spanish exam to study for and a sociology research proposal to prepare so it’s not looking too good.

At least I can work at my desk in comfort. Happy Friday!

The white container holds random surplus supplies such as 50 post-it pads all of all sizes, numerous rolls of tape, boxes upon boxes of staples, binder clips, rubber bands, index cards, dry erase markers, highlighters, file folders, and other random shit, and also acted as a printer table. Off to the right is my old printer (any takers?), a file folder container (personal documents such as my living will), a large stack of newspapers, small wooden shelves/drawers that I took from my grandmother’s house after her death in 2002 that I have yet to find a use for, a basket I received last October as a birthday gift containing three skeins of yarn, and behind the basket was a pile of papers that needed to be filed, a couple CD binders, and several spiral notebooks. The blue blanket belongs to George.

Here’s my desk, with Miss Cleo sitting on my laptop acting aloof. I had maybe 12 inches of working space in between the Wacom pad and the piles of paper (where the yellow paper with the purple post-it is). Wouldn’t this drive you insane, too?

This is the side table by my desk. Originally it was only used to hold current bills and papers, scissors and markers, and blank CD-Rs. As you can tell, it came to also hold more papers, notebooks, binders, empty mouse boxes, and of course, bags and bags of yarn. Notice how “The Sims 2″ is within easy reach. Priorities, people.

This was the floor area below the side table. Underneath the binders, notebooks, folders, books, and magazines was a storage container full of random shit from the last time I cleaned the office. Behind all of that were numerous bags and backpacks of all sizes.

I purchased this blue container a couple months ago specifically for when I got around to cleaning the office. It has since been preventing me from easily accessing the side table and bookcases. It came to serve as an extra table, holding all of my class textbooks and binders. The container itself was empty.

Not pictured are the closets, which held an unbelievable amount of yarn, knitting notions, and, you guessed it, more office supplies. I think I will try to find a place to donate all of the paper products, maybe the local Freecycle — that or just leave them on campus with a FREE — TAKE ME sign.

I read somewhere that an insane amount of shit and clutter such as I have is a symptom of a mental problem of some sort. I’ll deal with that as soon as I find a therapist. For now, I need to figure out what to do with everything that I don’t want in the office… basement maybe. When I’m finished cleaning I’ll post some after pictures.

And Lauren, you’re coming over this weekend to raid my yarn stash.

I’m so glad it’s Friday.

Since The Partner is on vacation from work for a while we are cleaning the entire house, devoting one day to each room. So far we’ve tackled the bedroom and bathroom and (for the most part) the living room as well. We momentarily slacked and one day passed without a finger touching dust or vacuum cleaner, but we made up for it today by cleaing our living room and organising our library — which has yet again surpassed our carrying capacity, requiring us to purchase yet another bookshelf. One more and we’ll have to get rid of the couch. You think I’m kidding.

I no longer fear cleaning out the basement as just thinking about cleaning the office gives me hives. HIVES. ON MY FACE. I wish I could snap my fingers à la Mary Poppins and have the room clean itself, but I’ve tried and it doesn’t work.

2005 seems to be the year we have amassed a great ton of random shit and 2006 looks to be the year we slim the fuck down and curb our consumption (minus a bag and a notebook or two). We have a cross-country move in our future and I don’t want this crap to come with us. We may sell a few things that are packed away in the basement, my cousin will most likely be receiving 7+ boxes of our grandmother’s radioactive Fiestaware, and the rest will be pawned off to friends, family, and the local resale shop. Anybody need any office supplies? How about a Dell Inspiron notebook, for a reasonable price?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a liver to prep for the coming New Year’s drinking escapades and an extremely dishevelled office to fret over.

I picked up this little toy, a “Bissell Perfect Sweep Cordless Sweeper”, for The Partner. When he came home during lunch, his eyes grew wide and he spent five minutes sweeping the kitchen floor. “Man, I’m going to sweep when I get home!” I never thought a person would be so happy to clean.

I, on the other hand, have been procrastinating on my cleaning duties. I’ve been reluctant to make progress on the basement, a place I go and instantly start feeling overwhelmed. There are too many boxes, and I get clammy and sweaty, and start feeling like the boxes are closing in on me. I’ll have to call in reinforcements before I attempt to tackle it again. I also need to clean up the office, particularly my desk, before school starts next Monday. Otherwise, I’ll have to do my homework at the kitchen table.

I’ve received 6 of the 7 texts for the history course, and I have no idea what this semester will be like, load-wise. I’m fearing it already, though. Especially Spanish 201, which I think will kick my ass hard. I’m only looking forward to the Sociological Theory and Feminist Theory courses.