make messes, clean messes

It was just one of THOSE days for Cap'n.  He had big plans and projects he wanted to accomplish, but his day did not turn out that way.  The most fun he had was going to rummage sales with Kenny, Fran and Mamaw.  I respectfully declined....I've got no more room for random crap on the boat.  I did put in a request for spoons if he found any.  Mine seemed to grow legs and walk off.  I am down to just two.  Unfortunately, Cap'n came home with everything but the spoons, which I do have the space for!  I can't even recall now what he did come home with, suffice it to say the chart table is now piled up again. *sigh*

Let me tell a little on myself....when I was a little girl, my mother called me "Messy Karyn".  I had a penchant for making messes, and then leaving them.  The cleaning up part was not nearly as fun back then.  My brother, Kent, (who is six years older than me) kept his room perfectly clean.  I could never live up to it.  No way.  Not possible.  I remember being in about the third grade when I was sent to my room to clean it (again) and I discovered a way to ten-second tidy my room...SHOVE IT ALL UNDER THE BED, UNDER THE FURNITURE AND IN THE CLOSET.  This went on for months before I was finally discovered.  The crap was so crammed under the bed, that even the bedskirt could no longer hide it, and my closet door could barely shut.  It took an entire weekend to clean out from under my bed alone....the Barbies, Barbie shoes, Barbie clothes, Ken dolls (and my brother's GI Joes :) my clothes (clean or dirty- didn't matter), every pair of shoes or socks I ever owned, board games (with pieces missing) random toys, and the crusts from my sandwiches from the last month or so, because I hated to eat the crusts.  It. Was. Awful.  From that point on, every Saturday I had to clean my room, and my parents always checked under my bed and in my closet. And then I grew up.  And I became obsessive about cleaning.  Who knew?!

So this morning, I decided over my Cheerios to tackle the remaining teak.  I literally spent the entire day (9:30am-4:00pm) sanding, sanding, sanding.  Thankfully my hubby bought me a new mouse at Home Depot a few days ago.  Still, it was a major task.  This picture does not do it justice, but if you look at our companionway, on the left you'll see how nasty it looked before.  The right side was sanded, but not yet oiled.  I gave it three coats of teak oil and buffed it out, and it looks beautiful.  I'll have to take a pic tomorrow, as I forgot to before the sun went down.  I also sanded the cockpit table, bleached and scrubadubbed it with a wire brush and then more sanding, sanding, sanding.  I've done the best I know to do trying to remove the water stains.  I still have to put some polyurethane on it, and you can be sure there will be pics to follow :)

Cap'n put on his auto mechanic hat and his good Samaritan cap today.  Dan and Biddi's beast of a car has serious issues.  The transmission is shot and it doesn't get out of second gear.  Still, it serves it's purpose, it's a grocery getter.  Except yesterday it died in the CVS parking lot.  Biddi has to put a gallon of water in it to go anywhere, and take a gallon with her for the return trip home.  That woman is a saint.  I would have sent it over the Seven Mile Bridge a long time ago.

Donnie worked the entire day, trying to get the radiator hose (which was shot) off to then replace it.  It was a couple of trips to town for supplies, and Biddi was running screwdrivers, wrenches, and cold drinks to him all day.  I sanded, sanded, sanded, and Willis did his occasional supervising, and a lot of sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.  I know it was after 4:00pm when I took this pic as Danny was off work.  He was offering his technical expertise here.  *eh-hem*  He finally had to call in reinforcements (four heads are better than one, don't ya' know) and the car was declared dead- a blown head gasket.  I told you it should have been dumped off the Seven Mile Bridge, but what do I know?

After I cleaned up my mess, and it was a huge mess of teak sawdust EVERYWHERE, I locked myself in the marina restroom for an hour to color my hair.  It was badly needed. I was starting to look like a skunk, and I didn't want to attract any unwanted critters on Marquesa.  I then had to clean up my mess in the bathroom, as I had never attempted to color my hair there before.  Back to the boat, I whipped up some chicken enchiladas for one very tired and hungry and frustrated Cap'n.  I can think of three things to improve his disposition, food being one of them ;)  Then I had to clean up the galley mess- geesh.  This is getting redundant.

What's a girl to do for relaxation, but go shopping!  I came home with $142 of groceries that I then had to squirrel away in the dry storage locker, two cupboards, and the refrigerator. It's an OCPD's dream task.  It took me about an hour to prep and bag everything and then stow it away in it's rightful place.  Cap'n barely dares to get in the fridge to get his coffee creamer for fear of tossing everything around, out of its rightful place, which will then cause the First Mate to grumble and complain- LOUDLY.  It's just not worth it.  (Secretly though, I like putting it all back in order again :)

Tah-dah!  What you cannot appreciate is the fact that I'm working with a space that's 16 x 18 inches and 28 inches deep, which means you stand on your head to get the milk out!  The 'freezer' is 6 x 12 inches by 12 inches deep, but I've got meat stored and extra bread to last me two weeks, and that's with company coming on Thursday.  I can't wait to see my momma and my sweet Emily Tess!!!!

While I was out grocery shopping, I treated myself to a rosemary plant.  I love cooking with rosemary, and I am still in mourning over losing my garden to the stinkin' iguanas.  This little fella is staying on Marquesa- in my galley- where he'll be safe.  I named him Ralph, because I name everything on the boat, naturally. 

After I got all of the groceries stowed, I made another mess in the galley at about 9:00pm.  I was building a chicken casserole to take to church tomorrow. We're going to church in Islamorada to visit our former pastor from Mt. Zion Wesleyan back home- Pastor Bob Pavey and his wife Marcia.  We are super excited to get caught up with them, and wouldn't you know, it's a carry-in dinner after church tomorrow- my favorite!  Did you catch all of that?  Our pastor from New Castle, Indiana, is now serving not 25 miles from us down here in the Keys.  Small world, huh?  God does work in mysterious ways!

And after making all of those messes and cleaning up all of those messes, I am pooped and going to bed....G'nite y'all :)