Listmania

I've been inspired by Jordana (and the scattered state of my brain lately) to do another to-do list. Jordana's centers around things to do before the latest little one makes his/her appearance (and note the eleventh item down - if you have recipes that are both kid-friendly and freeze well, drop Jordana a note in her comments. Consider it the on-line version of bringing meals to a family who has just had a child). Mine is the multitude of little things I keep forgetting about:

1. Make a list of things to get at Target Saturday.
2. Make a list of information needed for the retreat brochure.
3. Make list of things to go through for rummage sale.
4. Make a grocery list for next week.
5. Do the menu plan (tentative) for June.
6. Put summer decor on front porch.
7. Bring grill and charcoal up from basement; clean grill if necessary (I think I only used it once or twice last year - it shouldn't be too bad). Maybe it wasn't used at all - it's absolutely spotless.
8. Take fans out of closet; clean/dust blades if needed. Decide if any will need replacing this year. A raging case of clean-everything-in-sight-PMS when I went to put these away last season. Or elves. Those are the only explanations for the pristine condition of the fans. They run every day from late May to late October, and the blades tend to get extremely dusty, if not grimy, in spite of mid-season cleaning. It's not that I don't normally clean them well, it's more that they are unusually, scarily clean.
9. Take down window quilt; put up sheer curtains.
10. Re-duct tape front door screen (don't ask). Add duct tape to Target list.
11. Finalize menu for dinner party for 5/31.
12. Take ipod to geniuses for evaluation.
13. Go through home inventory receipts - throw out those for things long gone.
14. Update computer file - home inventory.
15. Play with excel goodies learned at conference.
16. Clean out and organize hair thingees. It's going to be too hot to have eleven inches of hair hanging down my back.
17. Replace the pink comb in the purse with the blue one. OK - it sounds odd, but the lining of this purse is pink, and I can never find the darn thing when I need it. This truly is an actual organizing tip from a book - make sure your purse contents don't blend in with the lining, as it makes it more difficult to find things.
18. Go through old magazines; pull articles/quilt patterns to keep, toss rest. Preferably accomplished while sitting outside in the sun with a frosty beverage to hand.
19. Plan birthday present for Pam. Is it too late to make something?
20. Decide whether or not to make baby quilt for J & D. Pull fabric if the answer is yes.
21. Evaluate existing quilt projects, figure out what to work on this summer. Joy's quilt, the smaller two of the three quilts waiting to be quilted, plus a couple of smaller, totebag or purse type things...
22. Wash windows?
23. Get car washed. Bird poop is not attractive on a black car. Good things come to those who wait are too lazy to do anything. It poured last night, so the worst of the crud is off the car. I still need to actually have it washed, though now I can pull in to one of the myriad of youth fundraiser car washes without the entire group letting out a collective "Eww".
24. Stop parking under the tree. This would be much easier if there weren't some strange cars constantly parked out front. I have no idea who they belong to, and they've been parking here for weeks. I think it's their turn for bird poop.
25. Check air pressure; fill tires as needed.
26. Take the snow shovel out of the back seat of the car, ditto for scrapers, extra blue stuff, mittens. I suppose the other stuff should come out of the trunk as well - the little Dirt Devil and attachment box. Or - duh - I could keep them out there and run the extension cord out so I can vacuum the car.
27. Vacuum inside of car, armor-all all vinyl (note to self: do not armor-all the gearshift knob).
28. Drop book off at library.
29. Check Barnes & Noble classical music sale. Browsed online a bit - didn't see anything interesting enough to do the buy 2-get one free thing.
30. Make final decision about class - fall or spring? This is looking like spring, rather than fall, mostly due to workload constraints. I'm much busier at work in fall than in spring...it's a pain, though, as taking a spring class means wading through the snow to get to class in January, February and March. And sometimes April. I do need to call the languages department tomorrow, though, to make sure they do offer the first course in spring as well as fall.
31. Go through flowerpots in basement. Decide whether or not to buy flowers to subject to a slow death by dehydration and/or sunstroke put in pot for porch.
32. Speed up draining of all sinks. Add Liquid Plmr to Target list.
33. Finish final two lessons and lesson plans for Bible study I'm leading. One, actually. The final study isn't until June 19th, and I've other things that are more pressing to do for this weekend.
34. Do homework for Bible study I'm in. I can't say this is completely done, as there is a bit for every day, but I am caught up to where I should be for the class schedule.
35. Review available forty-minute studies for fall; make a decision. Narrowed down to three choices - will order two of the books and look them over before making a decision.
36. Er...organize organizing books.
37. Launder and space-bag winter blankets.
38. Call Pam and remind her about Memorial Day parade - get group together to watch?

Gah. You know it's bad when the first four items on your to-do list begin "Make list". Looking at the list makes me want to take that frosty beverage from #18 and sit in the sun and do nothing. Well, what sun we will have. Saturday is supposed to be gorgeous - sunny and 75 inland; Sunday and Monday we have our traditional Memorial Day rain.

Individually, items on the list aren't big deals. I've just been loafing around sick, and haven't finished some things that are normally done by now. And I have no memory lately, which compounds the problem. At least with the list out here, I can't misplace it, right?