Holiday Cleanup, Studio Changeup

The holidays came and went faster than usual, so fast that a number of key decorations never made it out of the garage or shopping bags.  Oh well.  I've spent a week surrounded by family and, frankly (and with some feelings of guilt) look forward to having the place more to myself starting tomorrow.  Two of three "distractions" will be returning to work.  The third distraction is grounded and will likely avoid me at all costs while sulking in his room.  He is getting dangerously close to having the oft threatened photo of him on his training "throne" sporting the sombrero show up on my blog.

In our excitement to find the most perfect tree this year, we failed to notice that the trunk of the tree we selected was gigantic.  We are such city slickers.  It was so gigantic that my husband had to abandon all efforts to ram it into our existing tree stand and hazard the crowded shops on Thanksgiving weekend to buy a new stand that would accommodate such a beastly trunk.  While he found one that just barely contained this monstrosity, in our haste to get it into water, we failed to trim the bottom off and it appears that the sap sealed the trunk completely and totally.  By day three, we noticed the water level was not diminishing in the stand.  This was a bad sign.  The tree's  branches pointed south by Christmas day, the branches a decidedly drab shade closer to gray then green, the needles drier than the Sahara and quite the fire hazard. 

The holidays are incomplete without a bit of drama and excitement.  While on the phone with a family member exchanging belated Christmas greetings, I noticed an immediate and alarming whiff of ozone and burning rubber.  In a panic, I ran around the room looking for the source.  I spotted the receiver for the wireless remote controlled turner-on-of-Christmas tree lights my tech-loving husband was so excited to have acquired, blackened from an obvious surge of power or just flat out faulty outlet.  Thank goodness we were home!  I yanked it out and life with the Christmas tree lights was over for the year on December 28th.  Alas, we had to go to Plan B when friends came to dinner for a late holiday celebration and gift exchange.  This is our substitute Christmas tree. 

Yesterday while I was in the garage wrapping the last of the holiday gifts for a said belated exchange, I unrolled some gift wrap only to discover a HUGE spider.  That would be huge in the sense that I'm not particularly frightened by spiders (unless it just flat out plops on me from the ceiling when I'm not looking), so you know it was really HUGE.  I flung the roll aside and noticed in dismay that I'd tossed this undersized tarantula right into a pile of poly fiberfill stuffing.  Whoops.  The issue stressing me out remains - how do I move the fairly new and beloved (aka expensive) printer and scanner to the garage and keep out the spiders and other damaging critters and varmints without shrink wrapping them both (the equipment, not the varmints)?  My book shelf is still in my daughter's room/former studio, and when I look at it, all I see is cricket food.  The garage is now nicely finished with a terrific steel back door, but there's still sneaking-in room around the edges of the big front door for those little buggers to get in.  I feel like I need one of those sci-fi clean rooms so I don't feel that I have to shake everything out before I use it.  Suggestions are welcome!!!

This week I really need to get a rug for the studio.  I think I'm doing about 20 mph on the chair when I roll it, the speed quite unintentional.  There are no brakes on it and heaven knows the cement floor isn't exactly level.  The thrill is gone and I need to temper the zooming before I crash and burn.

Now I know I have incomplete bird wings around here somewhere.  Maybe I have time to sneak out there and mess with those sticky bird legs again and try to turn them into an actual bird before 2013 rolls around.  No pun intended.