Woke up, got out of bed, stepped out of the bedroom into the bathroom and promptly skinned the back of my heel. Ripped the skin clean off. Three days later, it’s still killing me! The steps in this place will be the death of me. I’ve bruised the hell out of the back of my calf on the front door stairs, too. The step from the living room up to the bathroom is a steep one, too. I wish there was a handhold somewhere like there is for the front door. That’d give us a bit more stability. The interior walls, however, are much thinner than the exterior ones, so even if we installed a handhold, I don’t think it’d support our weight. We’d probably just end up with a big hole ripped in the wall.
Once I managed to limp out of the house, I stashed the dirty laundry in the car and headed out. I had a huge list of stuff needing doing before the party. I hit the dollar store first off to get a few last-minute flamingo-themed party items. I’m sure everything from the dollar store is toxic, but, hey, it’s cheap!
Next stop was Petsmart. Dog needed food and we needed poop bags. I also got the kitty a new scratching pad (she likes the strips of corrugated cardboard that sit on the floor).
Afterwards, I went back to Parkville and stopped by the library to drop off a book up and pick up one I had on reserve. I’ve been into reading RV-related mysteries, memoirs, and novels lately (see previous post with the book list).
I ended up back at the apartment and started the laundry and kept Lex company while she worked. I ordered lunch for us, played Trailer Park Tycoon (my guilty pleasure at the moment), and finished up the laundry. Then I went to Wal Mart to get a support frame for our sewer hose (shame!). Keeping it up off the ground will help keep it from breaking down or getting punctured, and the support (called the Sidewinder) is also graduated so that the hose slopes down a bit to the sewer inlet. This helps gravity out a bit making the flushing of our holding tanks less likely to go tragically wrong. So far I have to say that emptying the tanks hasn’t been a big deal. Lex was the one to hook up the sewer hose and since then, not a leak. knock wood
We have a monitor panel that tells us when the grey and black tanks are full, and when they are, we go out and pull the valves and let them run until empty. Then I come inside and toss a chemical packet in the black water tank to help break down the waste. I also put a little trap deodorizer into the bathroom and galley sinks. We haven’t had an issue with odor as of yet. Well, this morning everything was full and needing dumping AND the dishes needed doing, so the house smelled a bit rank. I chalk that up more to the dirty dishes than anything. Got those done this morning, dumped the holding tanks, and voila! Fresh as a daisy!
I stopped at Target before heading back to the apartment where I loaded up Lex’s truck with the laundry, the grill, the folding camp table, our folding chairs, fishing poles, and hiking sticks. While she drove home from work, I went to the grocery store and got everything we needed for the party on Saturday. The tricky part was figuring out where to store it all. It wasn’t going to fit in the fridge, so I got some ice and crammed what I could into our coolers.
Lex came home with a migraine Friday night, so she laid down for a while and got a nap while I puttered around and tried to get things ready for the party. There was some decorating to be done. I put up crepe paper flamingo garlands all over the house, hung Chinese lanterns around the screen house, and hid the miniature pink flamingos inside and outside the RV for the “find the flamingo” game I had planned for the party. Lex and I had moved the other picnic table into our yard from one of the other RV sites so there’d be seating enough for everyone. I wasn’t sure where we were going to put everybody since we’d had nearly 30 folks RSVP. I hoped a few wouldn’t show up so we’d have food and space enough for them all.
I got Lex up from her nap so she could make spanikopita (“spankies” for short). Everybody raves over them whenever she makes them for a get together. I got to sample one when they came hot out of the oven. YUM! They are truly addictive. It’s all the butter, cheese, and filo dough. It took her hours to get them done. I don’t think she climbed into bed until almost 4 a.m. I didn’t make it that long and crashed around 1:30 a.m. after having prepped what I could for the next day.
