what are you doing?

you should hear it coming from the Punkin.

i don't want to jinx it, but i have almost survived a week (ok, a 5-day work week) of being a part-time single parent. i will not get the mother of the year award, but at this point my expectations are very low and it's all about survival. Punkin was almost at day care 10 hours yesterday. i made quiche for dinner last night (which he didn't eat) and didn't have dinner ready until 8:00 pm (bedtime) and hence missed bath night and suffered meltdown at 8:20 pm. but nobody got hurt.

el Jefe' is settling into the apartment up North. the truck was unloaded on Monday, he has made a trip to Target, and the grocery store ("why bother with a list when you need everything.").

i've been cleaning dog diarrhea stains for days, sometimes twice a day. Abby did not come back from boarding at the vets feeling very well (hell, she's 105), and every day i wonder what i'm coming home to. she ate well one day early this week, and i think it all came out on our newly cleaned carpet. since then, she is outside during the day, and sleeps in a kennel in the garage at night. that has localized my shit stain cleaning to one area. then she stopped eating (but it was still spewing out her butt). i opted for canned dog food yesterday, mixed with her regular dry food, and she "ate a good supper" (as we say in our house; a reference from "Pat the Bunny"). again, not to jinx it, but i only had to wash pee out of her bedding this morning. woo hoo! that's like winning the lottery.

other than cleaning shit stains, i spackled a little around the house (and of course made everything look worse). what the hell was i thinking? well, things look VERY different at 5:00 am than they do in broad daylight. i'm hoping we can fudge by "blending" in the paint ...

speaking of paint, i braved Home Depot this afternoon to get a quart of exterior paint. we got these very lovely french doors about three years ago, and i thought it was finally time to paint over the raw stucco surrounding the doors outside since the our house is on the market and someone might actually care. we'll probably use the same paint on a couple exterior door frames. it will be a miracle if the color match is even close. and yes, we're going to paint stucco with the exact same paint as the door frames. hell, the builder did it. and it's cost-effective. and i don't care.

el Jefe' often reminds me i should say "i don't have any preference." right now, i don't. it's all about survival.