Well... nothing much to say. Still.

Or rather it falls under the 'if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all'
Because sometimes it still feels like there's a black cloud following me around.

For example yesterday...

I had to take our minivan to get "smogged" because we live in CA even though our van is registered in VA. But the base requires it to get our DOD stickers (which are those stickers on our windshield that are our get-on-base-free pass and even get our car saluted). ANYWAY.. we've been in states that required emmisions testing or inspection- that we can get used to, but our mechanic is a first come first serve kind of place. And he charges military 1/2 what other places do to get our Smog certificate. So.. since the kids were up bright and early anyway, we were there at about 9. Apparently there were alot of cars there before us. About 10:45 the kids had exhausted everything we brought to feed and entertain them so we went for a walk.

 And normally going for a walk would have been the first thing we did. HOWEVER.. southern CA must have alot of out of town visitors this week, since it's cold and windy all week. OK.. cold by our standards. I know whining about it being 50 degrees and rainy sounds like paradise to my New England and Wisconsin friends.  And to the Califiornians worried about drought complaining about rain seems dumb, too.. so I'm not complaining. I'm just explaining why walking wasn't exactly fun.

So.. we were in the toursity part of town. And none of the tourist shops were open. Apparently they knew that tourists aren't out before noon on a cold windy day. But there was a store open. A woman's clothing store. And since I'd hear a whole lot of "I'm cold!" we went in there to browse. And came out of there with a bottle of nail polish.

So we wandered further and found only the high end clothing stores and coffee shops open, so we wandered back to the repair shop lounge. Painted Kayla's nails.. Sonia wanted to hold the nail polish.
NOW.. the functioning part of my brain should have said "hello! you're letting a girl with impulse control issue hold NAIL POLISH?!' but at that point my brain had dissolved in the oil and gas smell of the repair lounge and what was remaining had been eaten away by the acid of the whining..

ANYWAY.. the van got done, we got through the line on base and got the stickers, ran several other errands. And at least twice the smell of nail polish permeated the van and I had to remind (in a forceful voice) to leave it shut. Again.. if my brain was on, I would have thought "just take the dang bottle from her" but.. perhaps it was wishful thinking, but I was thinking she'd manage to not get it everywhere.

We got home and Sonia said shes wanted to paint her nails. I told her to do it over a paper towel and place mat. What I didn't mean was to PAINT the paper towel and placemat. But I walk by and see nail polish everywhere.  In a humph I took the nail polish away and put in on a shelf in the hallway and shut the door.

And then the fun really began. It bounced out onto the cabinet and shattered.

I had bring pink nail polish on my coat, pants, cabinet and even the rug. The brand new rug.

So...

Have you ever had to get nail polish out of clothing and a carpet?

I used the entire bottle of nail polish remover and had to scrub the fibers of the rug individually until it went from bright pink to faint pink back to beige. It took forever. Or at least an hour. And the entire bottle of nail polish remover.

So without more nail polish remover I decide to look into the garage for something that might remove it- like paint thinner. Except we never use oil based paint because I'm a klutz and get it everywhere.

BUT... I did find a rusted bottle of Goof off.

Have you ever smelled Goof off?

Our entire neighborhood has now, after our afternoon.

So I spray the parts of the coat with it and scrub and scrub. And it fades but never disappears. So with a surrender I wash it in the sink and hang it to dry in the tub.

However.. the house reeks of the stuff. Especially the coat.

I scrubbed it out of the sink repeatedly til the sink was clean and Larry took the coat and tossed it in the washer with every sort of laundry additive we had- borax, tide, and I don't know what else.

Pull it out of the washer- and the WAHSER now reeks of the goof off.

The coat's in the garage now. I'm thinking of taking it to the car wash and hosing it down wiht the hand nozzle. It's worked for lots of other things.

And realistically I need a rain coat 7 days a year. I don't really need one. I have a coat and an umbrella.
And I'm thinking with time, the smell will fade.

But... except for one seam of cotton thread..

The nail polish is out.

And it will be a cold cold cold day before I ever buy more.

so if you're wondering where your Christmas card is... it's sitting here on the table by the front door. Unaddressed with the pictures to put in them still to be developed at some one hour place I still need to get to and without a letter or anything to put in it.  But my house is now free of nail polish stains. You gotta pick your battles.  I wish I had less options as to the battles I'm picking.