And Away He Goes, or, Three Sheets to the Wind

So Jim took off again today (literally), on his way to California to see his newest nephew for a brief visit and then he is off to Saudi again. He expects (but cannot guarantee) to be home before Thanksgiving. So, needless to say, I am unhappy. But, always trying to look on the bright side, I can do a lot of things between the time the girls go to bed and I go to bed.... So the real issue is, what should I do first? Here is a list of the things that I considered (after showering, which is ALWAYS the first thing when I get time without the girls):

1. Make cookies or a cake: I don't have to share!
2. Scrapbook: I've been doing that a lot lately, but I always enjoy it
3. Read: just started a new book!!!
4. Clean Master Bathroom: um...
5. Spend time on 3rd floor organizing all of our financial files: well, I am hoping to get that done while Jim is gone
6. Spend time on 3rd floor reshelving books that the girls have pulled down, dust, and put away all things out of place to make it acceptable for company staying there Thanksgiving Weekend: any organizing is FANTASTIC, in my book!
7. Blog: duh
8. Purge bedroom and sitting room of all PILES: see note about organizing, above
9. Work on making Christmas cards
10. Work on making Christmas gifts - more scrapbooking
11. Watch Martha: Behind Bars - this will feed my recent Martha Fascination and Admiration Campaign
12. Watch original The Red Shoes 1948 movie (a favorite story of mine)
13. Surf the net for interesting things

That is pretty much all I thought of for immediate choices. Until now, which is neigh on 10:00, Emma has hampered any time I might have used by being a holy terror and I have to keep going up to their bedroom to see why somebody or other is CRYING or JUMPING OFF OF THINGS or SCREAMING because she has split her head open on something she shouldn't have been near in the first place. Since I took out the changing table, at least she cannot get into Mary's crib. That doesn't keep her from throwing every item in the room into it, but it does help some. So it is 10 now and I have only managed a shower and a cup of tea (for those of you keeping track, that makes a Tea Index of 5 today: that is bad. Very bad.). I will probably either lay in bed and read or sit down here on the computer until is is much later than it should be.

On a side note, I had to go buy new sheets yesterday. Yes, Reader, HAD to. I only keep one good pair of sheets at a time. I hate linen closet clutter, so I just use one set of sheets, wash them and put them back on immediately. This helps keep the linen closet nice and usable. The labeled shelves are another nice thing about my linen closet. So our sheets - our single set of sheets that match our comforter - have been looking a little thread bare. We have had them for a few years now (5? 6?) and they could probably use replacing. I figured it could wait until after Christmas when we didn't have so many financial obligations. Yesterday I was taking them off of the bed to wash them and they ripped, right down the middle. More accurately, the fitted sheet ripped. Huh. No problem - I have an older set of sheets that I usually use for the sofa bed that should work. So I pulled those out (from the shelf appropriately labeled Sheets - Queen, which comes after the alphabetically ordered Sheets - Full) to launder them, when I discovered that they, too, were ripped. This is because the darned sofa bed has those metal parts that catch on the sheets and tear them towards the bottom. This is not an issue when they are on the sofa bed, but certainly would not work for every day wear and every week (or so) washing. So I marched off to Target to investigate the choices. MY GOD sheets are expensive. I suddenly remembered the other reason why I only keep 1 set. And when I told Jim I had found some that would work, he asked what thread count they were. WHAT? I didn't even check that myself. Now, Reader, I have a good friend who will be reading this who will argue for the REALLY high thread counts, based on a bad experience with sheets that chaffed. But I enjoy a *crisp* sheet and do not care for sheets that melt to your form. So 200 or 220 has been fine for me. Well, Jim informed me that he read an article that said a higher thread count would help one sleep better in some stress reducing topic. I really thought he was kidding. I mean, people slept on straw and feathers and even the ground for thousands of years and they achieved some great things, despite a lack of fine thread count sheets. But I am not one to argue just for the sake of arguing, so I bought 400 count sheets. A nice medium between my normal 200 and the skin melding 600 count. I have to say, Reader, those were some mighty nice sheets. And I slept. I slept well. Very well, as a matter of fact. I don't know why I didn't try this earlier. Now I can add Sheet Snob to my list of Attributes of the Spoiled Housewife.