let the drooling begin.

my life is ruled by two lists. the first one is my to-do list. yuck. the second one is my project list. FUN!! occasionally the two overlap, although this is rare. it has become increasingly obvious that the longer my to-do list, the more likely i am to work on my project list. in fact, today i actually added something to my project list AND completed it, prior to finishing my to-do list. oops.

today's fiasco started a little over a week ago when mrs. nipper knapp declared that she was about to sew her first zipper. she is not to blame, it's just that i simply had to tell her the secret trick to sewing zippers, which turned into a zipper tutorial. then i found out that she was in fact making zippered pillows and the next thing i know, i am gazing at our sad and grungy couch pillows, which have seen a little too much life (and drool...ugh). naturally, because i do not have anything else to do, i figured i might as well kill some time making new pillow covers. this is my first foray into making pillows (i used the super-easy tutorial from design*sponge) and i have to say, i am supremely pleased. so mrs. nipper knapp, the mister and i would like to thank you for being the inspiration that provided us with splendid new couch pillows.

our happily mismatched new pillows.

laundry list.

i am a slave to my lists and i create lists for everything. in two hours, the mister and i are departing on a month-long trip to lesotho. in order to prepare for the trip i wrote endless lists of things that needed to be done, purchased, packed, etc. i wrote lists for my lists. at some point in the last week i was trying to accomplish the tasks on no less than five lists. the hardest part is distractions. i never fail to come up with forty-three unlisted activities. some of the distractions are play and some of them are essentials that i somehow neglected to add to the list. yesterday i discovered that laundry was not on the list, so i did three loads of laundry. then comes the important question. do i add "laundry" to the list just so that i can experience the satisfaction of crossing it out, or is that just nonsense? on a normal day i would probably add it to the list, because that's what i do. but yesterday i seem to have gotten distracted from my distraction and never actually accomplished the inane task of writing something on my list just to cross it out.

speaking of laundry..egads. it wouldn't be so bad if you just had to do it sometimes. but if you wait too long, the job becomes exponentially more painful. i dream of the day when the mister and i will have a laundry machine inside our home. that would be swell. but for now i have to save up quarters and trudge down the hallway to the communal laundry rooms. although i did buy some fun new laundry baskets that just happen to be my favorite shade of avocado green. scrumptious. seeing my pretty baskets makes the job a little less yucky. the funny thing is that five years ago, when i was in the peace corps and had to wash all of my laundry by HAND, i swore that i would never ever again whine about washing laundry in a machine. i guess i have to eat my words, because i sure am whining! i am guessing that after this trip and a month of doing laundry by hand, i am gonna be thanking my lucky stars that when i return to the u.s.a. i will get to use a machine and i will not be so picky about that machine's location. perhaps i just need a trip to the village every couple years to remind me how luxurious my life truly is.

on that note, i wish thee well. the mister and i will be spending the next month in his childhood home..a little village in lesotho. we'll be living in a hut with no electricity or running water, and bathing in a bucket. yup, that's right...bathing in a bucket. a month off the grid. no iphone, facebook, blog, internet, computer, television, etc. i will be listening to lesotho radio and having good ol' fashioned face-to-face conversations. happy july to you!!!!!