This day went in no way as planned. All that happened was one malfunction after another.

Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But it felt that way.

First there was the vacuum incident. I have a very old vacuum cleaner, which is a hand-me-down from my parents. This thing is literally held together with duct tape, rubber bands and heavy duty paper holders. And I love it. This cleaner has some major sucking power, which is very important if you have two black cats and also do a lot of paper cutting.

It’s a canister but it has a separate motor in the thing that’s on the end of the hose. This thing is a threat to anything in its path. Apparently with the exception of cat toys.

I somehow managed to get the bell end of a cat toy caught in it and this led to smoke, burning rubber and a broken belt. I was so irritated.

Now I do remember my father replacing the belt at one time, so I figured that if he could do this I could do this. So I slunk off to the store, found what appeared to be the correct belt, and came home to take apart the apparatus.

This was not an easy task. But I somehow managed to do it, and then managed to wrestle this belt onto the correct levers and pulleys. This was the hardest part. At first I thought that I’d managed to buy the wrong belt, but I guess it’s just supposed to be a snug fit.

The good news is that I came away victorious! Covered with grease and dust, perhaps, but victorious.

I was too smug, too quickly I guess.

I was in the bedroom putting some stuff away when I heard a crash. It took a long time to determine where it came from. As it turns out it was a shelf in the linen closet.

The linen closet was one of those places that I had been putting on my "to do" list for months, but it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list.

Guess I should have gotten to it more quickly.

I’m not sure how it happened, but the entire metal piece that held the shelf in place came away from the wall. So I had to empty the shelf then try to find screws and tools to use to put that metal piece back on the wall.

Now, I’ll grant that I probably had too much stuff crammed on that shelf, but I also think that part of the problem was shoddy workmanship. There were ten holes in this metal strip that were meant for screws to help hold this in place. Only three had been used. This is so typical of how apartment complexes are put together.

I eventually located some screws (the wrong kind, though, they were wood screws) and a screwdriver. I guess the fact that they were wood screws didn’t matter as they seemed to do the job.

It then took an hour to try to put the closet into some kind of order. I am quite proud of myself that I did manage to throw out some stuff that was so old I couldn’t remember when I bought it. I even found an unopened bottle of Pepto Bismol with an expiration date of "93!

No surprise, I have often said that I NEVER throw anything away!

My plan for the day was more or less shot.

I did manage to clean up this site a bit, and to fix the 2000 archives (such as they are), but I didn’t manage to finish making my mother’s birthday card or the 32 Valentine cards that I started last night.

I suppose I still have some time left, but I don’t know how far I’ll get. I think the first priority is to finish the card for my mother as her birthday is this Friday.

I know this sounds like it should be something simple to do, but the card is far from simple. It is a layered card, which has levels that give dimension.

Basically what I have to do is make four frames from foam board and place acetate between each layer of foam. Different images go on each layer. This is pretty simple to make if you use images of fist, as they look as if they should be floating. But I decided to do a magical tree and wizards.

The first time I tried this it looked as if the wizards were floating in space. I finally realized that I had to cut out portions of the tree and add them to the layers in the right order to give the correct depth.

once it’s done it looks great. It just takes forever to finish.

I took a trip to my favorite stamp store yesterday. I am so sad to report that it’s closing at the end of the month.

I just don’t know what I’ll do when I need a fix.

When I walked in the owner, Ann, looked up and I said, "Don’t say anything, I think I’m going to cry."

It was quite busy in the store, and one of the other employees came over to chat with me. She said that she’d been crying too. It’s not the closing of the store, it’s the loss of the friendships that have been formed thanks to this store.

Eventually, Ann came over and gave me a hug. She is relieved and is closing to spend more time with her husband, who hasn’t been well. I told her how sad I was and we talked for a long time about the good people we’d met and the things we’d all learned together.

The joke in the store was always that I never wanted a basket. I used to pick up a magazine and then start stacking my stamps on that. Well, yesterday there were no magazines for me to buy, so I ended up getting a basket.

Ann looked at me and said, "This is such a sad day, for the first time in 5 1/2 years you are using a basket." I agreed. It’s probably the last time I’ll be able to shop there and I hated to end that way.

I told Ann that I’d call when it was February vacation to see if she was still open so I could come up for a final goodbye, but the way things were flying out of there (and it was only a 15% discount) I’ll be surprised if she stays open until the end of the month.

It’s a sad thing.

They say that another storm is heading our way. I don’t usually want this, but I’d kill for a snow day tomorrow!