The Great Escape

One of the fun things about babysitting is you get these great photos of the kids. I'm still trying to a confirmation from the parents as to which twin this is. Not that they can ID the kids from a butt shot; I do have photos from that day that show their faces.
Don't worry, she didn't get all the way out and in fact, once she hit the second flap of the doggie door, she lost all interest in further exploration.

Ungrateful scrapbooker

That's what I'm calling myself at the moment. I had a few packs of American Crafts Foam Thickers lose their stickiness (they are supposed to be self-adhesive) so I wrote the company. They asked me to send the Thickers back and they would replace them and also reimburse me for the postage with AC product. They replaced the Thickers no problem, but for the reimbursement, they sent me a huge pack of paper. The problem is, it is a cheap version of their regular paper. Their regular paper is a much heavier weight and usually has a cut off strip with their name/pattern listed. This paper is see through. Maybe that's why they didn't print their name on the back of it. It would have shown through. So, while I like the designs, I won't be using much of it. I would have been much happier with an extra set of Thickers. It would have cost the company a whole heck of a lot less in postage. Anyway, that's why I'm saying I'm ungrateful.

P.S. If you are looking for a Christmas present for me, I like any of the AC Foam or Puffy Thickers. Forget about the chipboard, felt, or vinyl versions. The chipboard doesn't stick either and the latter two are gross (adhesive stains and the vinyl stinks).

It's World Card Making Day

I'm off to a crop at my friend Y's. She's always so generous opening her home to us. Hope I get lots done.

For inspiration and lots of contests, head on over to Linnecards.com. There's at least eight prizes up for grabs, maybe more!

That was depressing

I just checked the balance in my 401k. At least it isn't as far down as my other investments.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just need to wait for the market to stabilize. In the meantime, do I continue to contribute to my 401k? Or should I just take that money and bury it in the backyard, as I mentioned previously.

Retirement just doesn't seem possible.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

This is what Mr. Fix-it and I did this weekend. I was a little nervous getting started on the Segway, but after I got used to it, it was great fun. We had to stay below 6 MPH for a bit, then got to speed up to 10 MPH. Here we're going down a slope which was also fun. The machine doesn't let you go over the top speed and in fact it "pushes" against you when you approach it, which is a little disconcerting. All in all, quite fun and I wouldn't mind having one myself, though I'm not sure where I would ride it.

$3.55

It's been months since I paid that "little;" the last time was probably March. I wonder if prices will go up or down in light of the current economic crisis?

Scrap Pink has started

But it's not too late to sign up! If you need help purchasing your spot, select pay by money order and put your paypal e-mail in the notes so you can be invoiced.

I won't be around much (family stuff and all that), but will check in over there when I can. Hope to see you there!

Scrap Pink

I just want to remind everyone about Scrap Pink this weekend. I can tell you that the challenges are fun, the prizes are huge, and I'm doing a little game with a prize too. If you have trouble purchasing your spot, just e-mail Sharon or post here.

Burp!

When it rains, it pours. My friend brought in muffins for her coworker's birthday and I was invited to partake. And someone else brought in dulce de leche croissants so I had to try one of these (yum!!!). And one of my coworkers brought in donuts and another brought in pumpkin oatmeal cookies (those I could pretend were healthy, lol).

Check your toilet paper

Seriously! We just bought some toilet paper and the rolls are 1/4 of an inch narrower than the old ones. Same brand, same style, higher price. Guess this is one way companies can save money.

My new garden enemy

I'm still battling ants, but the aphids seem under control at the moment. Now I'm battling grasshoppers. I'm not sure what's worse, the aphids or the grasshoppers. I think the grasshoppers do more overt damage. They're defoliating the bean plants and are going crazy over the basil. In fact, one of them tried to make it into the pesto tonight (ewwwwww!).

Speaking of pesto, we had it over kelp noodles tonight. A friend gave me some to try and um, I think I'll stick with pasta. The texture was crunchy, like jellyfish or cartilage. I think I would have liked it better in a salad, maybe with an Asian-style dressing. One good thing is it is low in calories, only 6 per serving. My friend is trying out different raw recipes so no pasta for him.

New perspective on garages

When I got home from work last night, a mom was passing by with her little boy. Mr. Fix-it greeted me at the door (how sweet!) and was laughing. I laughed too when he told me what she said. "Yes, some people park their cars in their garages if they have enough room." I guess it was a novelty for her son to see me pull my car into the garage.

The backyard or under the mattress

Those seem like better choices as to where to keep my money. That's what my grandfather did. What's good enough for him is good enough for me, right? Maybe my dollars wouldn't keep up with inflation, but at least I'd still have them.

I'm so angry and frustrated and sad. I feel like I've done all the things you're supposed to do as a responsible citizen. Never invested in get-rich quick schemes. Always purchased health insurance, even when I had to pay for it out of pocket as a poor student. I've always voted, paid my taxes on time, never went into debt except for college and our house and two cars. Since those two cars, we've paid cash for subsequent vehicles. We pay our bills on time, put money away for a rainy day, put money away for retirement, donate to charity. Sacrifice now so no one will have to take care of us later.

Yet, the leaders in finance can't be so careful. And my tax dollars have to prop up a failing system. So what do people learn? You don't have to be responsible. It's okay to risk your money and everyone elses because you've got to get while the getting's good. That irresponsible risk is okay because the government will bail you out.

Okay, maybe this is a simplistic view. I'm not an economist, I'm not a financial guru. I'm just an ordinary citizen who's scared of her economic future.

Scrapping for a cause

Interested in a fun scrapping weekend? How about reserving September 26 through 28 for the Scrap Pink crop over at Linnecards.com? For a mere $10 (all of which goes to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research), you'll have access to a special forum where we'll have fun games, creative challenges, and great prizes! Plus you get a shopping discount! Who wouldn't want all that? Just click on the banner to the right to get started.

I can't tell you what all the challenges are (that would give you an unfair advantage), but let me me just say there's something for everyone!

What, you're not a scrapbooker? You can still partake of the games. Or just come lurk in the forum. It's for a good cause.

Hope to see you there!

Hoping for Oregon Spring, Winter Glasnost, and Siberia

I was lucky to find some tomato seedlings at the nursery. Unfortunately, no one there could tell me anything about them so I bought one of each variety. Let's hope I end up with fresh tomatoes all winter. My current plants are on their last legs.

Clearing stuff out

I've got a bit more room in my closet since loaned out some clothes. And I'm trying desperately to cut down on the paper (do I really need to keep every pay stub I've ever received?).

There's a small pile of stuff to go to Goodwill. Now I just need to get them in the car and over there. In that pile is 210 pieces of scrapbook paper. Yes, I counted them for the tax deduction. I hate to think how much I paid for all that. But, better to get rid of it now, than to store it for another year. I should have brought them to the crop last week, but I didn't know there would be newbies there. Most of the people I regularly scrap with have already seen my givaway box which is why I didn't feel like hauling it over.

We've been selling a few things on ebay. So far so good (knock on wood). I just sold a couple of QuicKutz for more than I paid so I'm happy for that. More money for my scrapbook addiction (or paying the bills). More important, they are out of the house and I don't have to think about them anymore.

I'm debating whether or not to put some books on half.com or just donate them. Or opening an etsy shop. Maybe sell cards or some of my excess SB stuff? Or would that lead to me buying more stuff? The goal is to get stuff out of the house!

Two nights out in a row

I'm just not used to going out on "school" nights, much less two nights in a row. I'm soooo tired. I went to an LSS to meet some friends (and pick up my Stampin Up order, lol) and made the cutest page. Sorry, but I can't post it since it was for a challenge and all the entries will be posted at once.

Then I went to a Pampered Chef party. I like their stuff, but it is rather expensive. So I was cheap and spent only $30 (for two items). I asked Mr. Fix-it about a few other items and when I told him the price, he balked. Good thing we were on the same page.

Boy, I'm feeling old. Out for two nights, and it wasn't even that strenuous and I'm looking forward to the weekend to recover? That's sad!

I remember

and I cried on the way to work this morning whenever I thought about it, when it was mentioned on the radio, and when I saw flags at half mast. Let us remember those who perished and those they left behind. Let us remember those who survived and those who are protecting us now. And let us work together for a world without terrorists, without hate.

Clean or not?

Wow, I'm just full of questions this week, lol. I was in the office breakroom washing out my bowl (I often eat oatmeal in the morning), when someone commented that they wouldn't use the sponge since other people have used it. I've noticed that many people won't use the group sponge and prefer to use a paper towel as their washcloth.

First of all, if you know anything about oatmeal, you know that it is difficult to scrub off if it has had a chance to dry. Although I try to wash my bowl as soon as I'm done eating, sometimes I'm called off to a meeting or get caught in work so there's a delay. Second, I figure that we're all using warm or hot water to clean, along with soap, so there's some sanitation there. Third, we're not dealing with raw food. Fourth, the sponge gets changed out every couple weeks.

So, would using a group sponge gross you out? Am I being too casual about germs?

Am I fat?

One of my coworkers is at that awkward pregnancy stage where her regular clothes are too tight and she's not quite large enough for pregnancy clothes. So since I'm a little larger than she is, I offered to loan her some of my clothes, or at least my "fat" clothes and some of my clothes that are knit or have elastic waists. She's worn a few things to work and commented on others so I'm glad she's getting some use. But I'm a little embarrassed that my regular clothes fit a pregnant woman.

Shallots galore!

This is the first time I've grown shallots. Not bad for a first time effort, eh? I got the bulbs from Uncle B, so these are extra special to me.

Neighbor's house update

We went for a walk tonight and noticed there were for sale flyers available at our neighbor's house, so of course we picked one up (or I did, Mr. Fix-it was too embarrassed to). Be prepared to make a hefty down payment or at least have a good income if you want to buy this house. It is offered at $775,000. Wow! That's a price from a couple years ago. Maybe they aren't serious about selling? Maybe the housing market has turned around in our area? (I don't think so!)

Lest you think I'm rich or something, my house is worth waaaaay less than that.

4 am

Did you know that it is really dark and quiet at 4:00 am? For some reason I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep for the longest time. And then I slept fitfully until I really woke up. Guess we both didn't sleep well since we didn't get up until 7:45 am. That's late for us (well, late for Mr. Fix-it, lol).

Not sure if I've got a lot on my mind or what. Or maybe it is this cold (allergies?) I've been fighting since Tuesday. I even went home early on Tuesday and took a nap. That's soooo not me. Ah well, at least I have the weekend to recover.

Won't you be my neighbor?

It looks like the house next door is for sale. I say "looks like" because there is a realty sign, but no flyers and I can't find the house on the MLS. They've been good neighbors. The bad thing is they smoke and sometimes we can smell it in our house, but overall, they are friendly and quiet. Mr. Fix-it isn't happy about all their cars, but they park most of them in the driveway so it doesn't bother me. Yes, parking can be a bit difficult sometimes, but still, better than our other neighbors who didn't part in their garage or driveway for years. I asked Mr. Fix-it to be nosy and ask about their move, but he hasn't done it yet.

Stringbean update

I just wanted to show you how long the string beans can get. I think the longest string bean I've gotten is about 16 inches long. I'm still harvesting them, just not as many.
This is what I'm getting about every other day. Which less than what I was getting every day. Still, that's enough for us and to share since Mr. Fix-it isn't interested in eating these more than twice a week.

The bargin hunters

A couple weeks ago, we went out to breakfast and the department store next to the restaurant just happened to be having a clearance sale. I convinced Mr. Fix-it to make a stop and woo hoo! Jackpot! I got three skirts, two tops (of course, they don't match so I need to do some more shopping ;) ), and Mr. Fix-it got a pair of slacks and a nice shirt. All for $102. Not as cheap as I would like, but I really wanted to update my work wardrobe.

Then just a week later, I saw that the same store was having another clearance sale. So we went to a different location and I found a few more things. But what really caught my attention was the skirt I just bought was $6 less than the other skirts I had purchased (they were all the same price originally). So I asked the clerk if I could bring back the other items for a price adjustment, even though I bought them on clearance. Now, if it had been a few weeks, I probably wouldn't have thought about it, but it had only been a week (literally 7 days and two hours) since I purchased the original items. Mr. Fix-it wasn't too thrilled with more shopping and the returns so I went back myself and of course, did even more shopping, lol.

It turns out for the price adjustment, I had to return everything I bought and then repurchase them. Whatever works is okay with me. The new total? $53! So I saved $49; Mr. Fix-it was pretty impressed. Between the two shopping trips that day, I got four more things, which were way less than $49 so I'm still ahead. I'm pretty excited about my new purchases, can you tell?

Then today, we were grocery shopping and got a great deal on meat. The store called it a grill special: 4 hamburger patties, 4 Italian sausage, and 8 pieces of chicken for $4.99. We were going to have it for dinner tonight, but then we got invited to a BBQ tomorrow. Since the meat was such a good deal, we offered to bring the main course, lol.

My latest SB purchase

I know, I know. I really don't need any more Quickutz. But I got a great deal on this set; only $30.99, including shipping! Such a deal! (Now, if only I could get Magnolia for the same price.) I was a little nervous since the ebay seller had some negative feedback. But a DT member over at Linnecards had purchased from them several times without any problems so I decided to go for it. Now I need to figure out how to use this in my Cuttlebug since I don't have any money to spend on a QK Revolution.

Feel like SB shopping this weekend?

Head on over to Linnecards. She's having a sale from Saturday through Monday. 15% off everything not already marked down. And her prices are already discounted. Don't forget free shipping at $35.

New readers?

My counter (at the bottom of the page, in case you didn't notice it) has been increasing faster than it used to. And I noticed a few new locations on the traffic feed.

Don't be shy. Come out and say hello! Leave me a comment (I love comments) or drop me an e-mail or a PM. If you're reading this, you know how to get a hold of me. Let me know who you are so I can say hello.

I feel pretty

Not! I got my hair cut a few weeks ago since I knew we were making a visit home. I wanted something a little trendier than what I had so my hairdresser went waaaaay short, especially in the back (actually, I like that part). But I still can't figure out how to style the front.

I got lots of compliments at work, but it took me about a week to get used to it. Then I saw photos from the banquet and yuck, I hated my hair! Now I'm considering going even shorter to "fix" it, I dunno, maybe a boy cut aka a pixie cut?

But then there were a couple photos from this weekend (an anniversary party for the in-laws' in-laws, got that?) and I liked my hair in those. Hmmmm, don't say it, I will...women are so fickle!

What, no photos??? I'm at that "I don't like photos of myself" stage. I don't mind posing for photos, but I don't like looking at them afterwards, so nope, no photos to share.

Zai jian Beijing

Goodbye Beijing. Sob, I loved the Olympics closing ceremony. Shades of Cirque du Soleil. Mr. Fix-it wants those giant circle bikes and jumping shoes. The ceremoney was beautiful, impressive, moving, fun. I really didn't need to hear Jackie Chan sing though, lol.

Although Mr. Fix-it enjoyed watching the Olympics, I'm sure he won't miss me singing along to the NBC Olympic theme music (dah daah da da da da da), correcting the commentators' pronunciation of Beijing (it's a hard j sound, Cris Collinsworth got it right), or the fist pumping every time there was mention of something the Chinese invented. I think I'll be a little quieter during the London games, actually, the Vancouver games, well, except for singing the Olympic theme music. :)

I was just thinking that in 1984, the Olympics were hosted by the United States in Los Angeles and I was in China, Beijing actually, watching what I could of the Olympics. This year, I'm in the US watching the Olympics from Beijing, China. Some sort of full circle thing going on here.

$3.85

Good price for now, but it sounds prices might go up again.

Too bad I can't duplicate this recipe

Sometimes you make something so fantastic and unfortunately, you know you'll never be able to repeat it. I brought some duck and chicken home from the banquet. There wasn't much meat there, you know how all the parts of the bird show up on the plate at Chinese restaurants. So I took that stuff home to make broth, which I did on Tuesday. Then yesterday, I planned to make jook (xi fan, if you're speaking Mandarin) with the broth and add the bean leaves that mom picked for me.

Now, what's this with the bean leaves you ask? That's what I wanted to know. Mom mentioned that Auntie S would make jook with string bean leaves. Huh? How come I never heard of this before? So mom picked some for me to cook at home. But she made a big deal about how I needed to get trim them off the stems/veins and cook the leaves for at least an hour otherwise they would upset my stomach. Hmmm, doesn't sound very appetizing now, lol. (a little vent, she would only tell me how to trim the leaves, she wouldn't show me. like she couldn't spare one lousy leaf? you need to know my mom to understand what the dynamics and why I didn't tear a leaf in front of her.)

Back to cleaning and cooking the leaves. I left work early (as if 5:30 is really early), so I would have time to prep the leaves. After 10 minutes, I was started getting a little sloppy because it was taking longer than I thought. After 30 minutes, I was ready to toss the leaves in as is. After 45 minutes, I told Mr. Fix-it that we were having something else for dinner because I was still cleaning leaves and they still had to cook. So we scrounged up a meal from what we could find in the fridge while the jook (and leaves) simmered.

Finally, tonight, we were able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Yep, it's gone. No picture. Sorry. We're not sure what flavor the leaves added since the duck broth was the predominate flavor. I think the leaves tasted like, darn it, I can't remember what the vegetable is called. I'll have to ask mom and update later. Anyways, Mr. Fix-it thought it was the best jook he ever had. Guess we'll need to buy a roast duck now and then so I can try to repeat this (sans leaves).

Grateful

I had a big long post written out, then decided it was a little too personal and perhaps shared too much about my friends and coworkers.

So I'll just share that I'm grateful for friends. I asked a friend to help me buy some stuff and then she gifted it to me. Totally unexpected and very much appreciated. Thank you K for your generosity and brightening my day!

A taste of home

We just got back from a quick trip home. Up Friday, back Sunday. Yes, it was a bit rushed, but we also had some free time.

One of my favorite things about going home is the food. Mom really doesn't cook for us any more; we usually go out. The flavors are so familiar, Chinese food like I'm used to. Cantonese, not Mandarin flavors. Roast chicken with salt pepper. Gai lan. Bok choy with black mushrooms. Deep fried flounder. Peking spareribs. Okay, maybe some of these started in the north, but all the Cantonese restaurants back home have been fixing some variation of these for the past twenty years. I can't get anything like this here, certainly not at the same price.

I didn't get any Dim Sum, so I'm a little bummed about that. But I did get some goodies to take home. Mom sent home some joon (Chinese dumplings) and they're in the freezer right now. I'll probably eat one a month, just to make them last longer.

On Saturday, we went to T's to pick fruit. No one has been taking care of the backyard so fruit has been rotting on the trees. We picked boxes, literally, of fruit. Mr. Fix-it estimates we picked between 30 and 50 pounds. I'd guess somewhere in the middle of those. We took more than half to the banquet Saturday night (the original reason for us going up) to share with the family. The rest come home to share down here. Does anyone have any good recipes for peaches?

I did stock up on plastic bags at mom's. She's been collecting/reusing them for years so I knew she had some to spare. I took a bunch so everyone could use them to take home fruit at the banquet.

Mr. Fix-it wanted to know if my family ever goes out for anything other than Chinese food. He remembers going out for steak with Uncle T (but I don't remember that), but that's it. Always, always, always we go out for Chinese food. Both sides of the family. I guess he's still not used to it, lol.

I'm running out of plastic bags

Can you believe that? I guess using our reusable grocery bags is finally paying off. But the problem is we're running out of plastic bags. We do use them as trash can liners, when we give stuff to people, and to refill my FIL's stash since he hardly shops and thus doesn't collect bags.

We're running out of paper bags too. We use those to bundle paper and other recyclables, carry stuff, you know, the usual.

Such a dilemma. Do I temporarily stop using my reusable bags? Do I ask for plastic? paper? Do I find some creative way to pass things on to others that doesn't involve bags?

5 minute cards

Okay, these cards took more than five minutes, but you know what I mean. It seems that I've nominated myself to provide birthday cards for the department. I used to go to Hallmark and buy them, but then I had to worry about offending people with my sense of humor and getting reimbursed and all that crap so I thought this would be easier (and a good way to use up some of my stash).

Of course, when the admin asks me to bring in cards for the next birthday celebration, which happens to be the next day, I got a little annoyed. Still I managed to put these together.

I really like how the green card turned out. I finally used my Cuttlebug and it was so easy to make the card. I ran the paper through twice, which is why the bottom numbers are upside down. Then I covered the gap with a scrap of ribbon. The embossing is so impressive and so easy.

I'm not too happy with the transparency card, since the colors don't match exactly and I couldn't find my Stickles to add some bling to the embellishments. But when the birthday girl opened the envelope, she said, "Oh, how neat, I love the colors!" So it doesn't matter what I think, as long as the recipient is happy (and I didn't tell her that I didn't make the card specifically for her since I didn't know whose birthdays it was).

Product review: Page Protectors

I've been scrapping enough that I needed more page protectors (or album sleeves). I usually use K&Company, but none of my usual haunts had them in stock. I wanted to try W R Memorykeepers, but I couldn't find any locally except at the overpriced LSS. Sharon over at Linnecards was kind enough to add them to her store. As it turns out, I should have overpaid for them so I could try them out first.

W R Memorykeepers 12x12 3-ring page protectors

Pros: Clear, good quality plastic (as far as I can tell), good value-$9 or $10 for 25 page protectors, 1/4 inch gap at the top to help protect the top of your page

Cons: I can barely slide a flat page into the sleeve. In fact, I can't get some of my pages into the sleeves.

Overall rating? I have to give these a thumbs down. There is no way I'm going to trim my completed pages to fit the sleeves. So what am I supposed to do with the ones I bought? It isn't worth it to sell them on ebay. Or maybe it would be?

I can't fit it all in!

The Olympics are going to take up all my evenings. There's family stuff this weekend and next. But there's also Scrapfest over at LM, which means I HAVE to scrap in order to earn my 200 points for a chance to win $. And I've got DT stuff over at Linnecards so more scrapping. And I signed up to be a cookbook recipe tester, but I haven't done anything with that yet. And I'm still battling aphids. And I'm behind on laundry. Think I can call in sick the rest of the month?

$3.99

So exciting!!! Less than $4/gallon. Hope this trend continues, though I doubt it will.

Aphid update

We sure are enjoying our beans. In case you don't recognize the beans, they are called Chinese long beans, or asparagus beans, or yard-long beans (though they're not that long). So far, we've enjoyed them three times and I took a small bundle into the office. Even so, I think I need to plant more next year. It won't be too much more work (for me, lol, I'll need Mr. Fix-it to build a larger trellis).

I've been out in the garden every day smashing aphids, spraying them with a soap solution, or washing them off with water. I'm finally making some headway (I think). The first soap solution was too light and didn't make any difference. The second solution was too strong I think. It seems to have slowed the ants and aphids, but I think it also burned the leaves; it's pretty warm here and I guess the soap and sun don't mix.

The ladybugs are still hanging out and I noticed a few ladybug larvae so I hope they stick around to help me in my battle. And that the soap solution doesn't hurt them.

I may have another ally. After I "wash" the beans, some little birds hang out in the beans. They're so small, the bean stalks are sturdy enough to hold them. I can't tell what they're eating, but I sure hope it is the ants or aphids. And not being a birder, I have no idea what kind of bird this is.
It was difficult to get a photo (plus my battery died). There's one bird in the middle of this photo in the shadow. Compare it to the leaf size and you can see how small it is.

Let the games begin!

One of my favorite events started tonight, well, at least the network broadcast started tonight. I'll be glued to the TV until the closing ceremony. Times like this make me wish we had cable and Tivo so I could watch the Olympics live and also see more events. Ah well, maybe we'll dive into the modern age by the next Olympics.

Tonight's opening ceremony was full of symbolism and frankly, a little boring. Impressive technology, impressive coordination of thousands of people, impressive costumes (where did the money for all of this come from???), but overall, it was too slow. Nice fireworks though. What did you think?

Update:
Well, maybe I was just tired and bitchy when I posted the above because I went to bed during the parade of nations. I just finished watching the rest of the opening ceremony and as usual, I cried during the torch lighting. Now that's the sign of a successful opening ceremony! (no, I'm not being sarcastic)

Life Balance advice of the day

Don't read your work e-mail after 6:00 pm or 10 minutes before you plan on leaving, whichever comes first.

Because if you do, you might read a frantic e-mail about a problem with hot project and even though it's not your project and you don't even know if the information is available anywhere, you might still feel compelled to help fix the problem.

Luckily (or maybe not), one of the two people who had the information was available so between the two of us, the problem was solved. Teamwork, yeah! And as soon as the information was sent, we shut down our computers and went home. Any more problems can wait until tomorrow. And do you think anyone will appreciate what we did? I don't think so. Good thing we take pride in our work. Even if it meant getting home at 7:45 pm.

Slow start to the day

I ended up sleeping in today. I didn't mean to, so I guess I needed the sleep. I've been fighting a cold, as is Mr. Fix-it. Work has been stressful. I just finished the antibiotics so maybe I'm still fighting a tooth infection. Who knows.

Anyway, that set the tone for the rest of the day. Since I was already getting a late start, I decided to take a little time to battle the aphids (who are winning at the moment). Then I went to an appointment and of course, my timing was off. I ended up getting there just after a rush of people so waited a half hour, but then everyone after me probably just waited 10 minutes or so. Oh well.

Work was okay. I didn't have to deal with any crisis so that makes it a good day. :)

How was your day?

Attack of the aphids

The aphids are loving my string bean plants. I've out there every day trying to keep them in check. They've completely covered some stems so I basically just smash as many as I can find. Then I take the hose and wash off the remains and any aphids that I missed. Did I mention that I live on an ant hill? At least that's what it feels like. Guess that's why the aphids are doing so well. This is why I don't grow lettuce. Not interested in the "extra protein" in my salad. Got any organic tips for getting rid of aphids or ants?

$4.09

I came home singing that and Mr. Fix-it thought I lost it, lol. It pays to wait sometimes. I was going to fill up before yoga, but didn't have enough time so I filled my tank after class. And the price had gone down two cents, woo hoo! I've been watching prices drop for the past week. It's so exciting!!

I'm all shook up!

Sang in my best Elvis voice! It was a big one today, 5 point something, with coworkers diving under their desks. Me? I just squeaked a bit when a few things fell over in my coworkers cubicles. I just had a beanie baby fall off my monitor, nothing else out of place.

As soon as the earthquake hit, people were calling home on their cell phones. Of course, service was disrupted and spotty. I couldn't get a hold of Mr. Fix-it for about half an hour. My cell kept dropping the calls. Normally, I wouldn't be too worried, but I knew he was doing some wooodworking today so I wanted to check in with him. It was a relief to finally talk to him. So we're fine. Hopefully, it relieved a lot of pressure and put off the really big one for a few more years.

Adventures in grocery shopping

That's what it's starting to feel like with the rising price of food. Last week, we went to Big Lots because everything was 20% off. I originally went to look for scrapbook supplies (they had Basic Grey!) and some tank tops that they carry sometimes. No luck on either of them, but we ended up getting a lot of groceries. I was thrilled to get canned veggies for 26 to 46 cents each. Some pasta that I like to add to soups for 26 cents. We ended up spending around $30, but now our pantry is even more well stocked. Isn't it crazy to go grocery shopping at Big Lots?

Today, I finally went back to the local chain grocery store. Last month they changed their coupon policy and now will only double coupons up to $1.00 in value. For various reasons, I hadn't been back since the new policy. This week they had another special, buy 10 of certain items and get $5 back. I diligently checked the ad and my coupons, made my list, and off we went. Boy, was it a lot of work. They're advertising their lower prices (to offset the coupon change) with yellow signs. And the buy 10 specials with yellow signs. And the buy 3 specials (which I didn't need) with yellow signs. And their sale prices with yellow signs. Is it any wonder I was confused? I ended up buying only 9 of the 10 needed items, even though I thought I bought 11. I must not have been the only person this happened to because the clerk told me to go ahead and get the other items for the special and she'd adjust my total (this was after I had checked out and realized what happened). She even had a special sheet to scan to fix the difference. That sure was a lot of work to save $15.

I'm going to have rethink our grocery shopping. I got a lot more food at Big Lots for same amount of money, but of course, none of it was fresh. The ethnic markets I like to shop at aren't too convenient. The natural food store doesn't have a huge selection of staples, but the produce section and meat sections are good (though the meat selections are limited). So where should I shop? Do I shop where it is convenient? Where it is cheapest? Right now, I've got enough cucumbers and tomatoes to last another couple weeks. Should I grow more of our food? I really hate this, feeling like I can't afford to eat well.

Root canal update 3

I'm on another antibiotic. What fun. Not. The bad news is each antibiotic costs 50% more than the last one. The good news is this last one was still less than $20.

How rude!

My SIL had a "girls night out" dinner party at her place this weekend. I didn't know anyone there except her sister. It seemed that everyone was from her church or MOPS group. Which meant that everyone was a mom...except for me. I can handle that. I'm not as good as handling the rude questions. If you ask someone if they have children and they say no, move on. So when Mrs. Busybody asked me "Was it by choice?" I was going to ask her why she wanted to know. But I was afraid everyone else at the table would think that I was being rude and certainly didn't want people thinking my SIL has rude relatives. And age! That's none of your damn business and my husband's age is also none of your damn business.

And it was pretty obvious to me that some of the ladies were a little put off by how comfortable I was in the house. I guess they couldn't tell if I was the hired help or what, lol. But hey, if C was busy in the other room, shouldn't I try to make people comfortable? Help them put their purses away, get out the drinks?

C made a huge spread, very impressive with two kinds of pork loin, two kinds of lamb chops, risotto, and fish. All in all, it was a very successful evening for C, but not so much for me.

$4.29

Woo hoo! Love this downward trend. This is what I paid on June 2 this year.

I'm being tortured

Mr. Fix-it is eating one of his favorite snacks, sardines. Tonight he's having sardines on Cibatta bread. Usually, he waits till I'm out of town so there isn't any evidence by the time I get home, but I guess he felt the need to eat some tonight since we bought some more tins. I can't describe how gross it smells in here now. So I'll sign off and head to another room.

Root canal update 2

Yesterday, I only took two Tylenol and I ate real food for dinner (instead of pureed soup or jook or yoghurt or cottage cheese). Granted, it was still relatively soft (pasta), but I was thrilled to be actually chewing, lol!

Today, no pain pills in the morning, but by this afternoon, I had a raging headache due to multiple crises so I did end up taking a Motrin. Sigh, I hope tomorrow is better.

Root canal update

I went back to the endodontist this morning, even though the swelling finally went down a tiny bit. Saw someone else since the dentist I saw last week wasn't in. He said I had a classic flare-up which basically means a massive infection occurs a couple days (not immediately) after the root canal. Flare-up, such an appropriate name since I wanted to blow my head off during the height of the pain. I got a perscription for a stronger antibiotic. He said I could have another flare-up so I need to put off the crown for at least another month. I hate waiting. Be assured if the pain increases at all, they will hear from me immediately.

$4.43

I can't believe I'm thrilled to be paying that.

My root canal saga (so far)

A few weeks ago, I lost a bit of tooth; guess the huge old filling had weakened the tooth over the decades. I went to the dentist the next day and it turns out I have an abscess. But, it had to have happened weeks or months earlier because an abscess doesn't develop overnight. I had no idea since there wasn't any pain or swelling. I was a bit nervous about having it done so I went to another dentist for a second opinion and her opinion was don't delay! So I scheduled an appointment with an endodontist. For whatever reason, I was nervous/stressed/uptight/unhappy (pick your favorite negative adjective) about the procedure. Mr. Fix-it kindly offered to drive me, which meant he wouldn't be able work that afternoon. Hmmmm, money vs my emotional state? You know I was uptight since I took him up on his offer.

All in all, it wasn't bad. The staff and dentist were kind, they had good magazines in the waiting room, the procedure took less time than I expected, and it was a couple hundred less than the original estimate. All good things. I was a bit sore that evening (of course!), but the next day (Wednesday), I was fine. I took a couple ibuprofen in the morning and afternoon and that was it. As it turns out, I was overly optimistic.

Thursday, I had to work off site so I filled my little pillbox with ibuprophen, just in case. As it turns out, I was popping them every couple hours and ran out. I called the dental office since I was a little concerned. Since I didn't have any swelling and the pain seemed steady, I was assured this was normal. But later, they called and told me start antibiotics, just in case. Since I wouldn't get home until 8:00 or later that night, I had Mr. Fix-it pick up my perscription. By the time I got home, I was in lots of pain and perscription strength ibuprophen wasn't doing a thing. The pain woke me up every couple hours throughout the night. I was not a happy camper.

Friday morning, I called the office again and was told again that it could take 48 hours for the antibiotics to take effect. But yesterday was just horrible. No matter what pain medicine I took, I'd get relief for about half an hour. Unfortunately, we were at a funeral for Mr. Fix-it's uncle. By the end of the service, I could barely hold it together. At that point, I was taking the max dosage of various pain medicines every two hours. When we got home, I went straight to bed, with the hope that sleep would put me out of my misery.

To my surprise, I slept through the night and woke up with minimum pain. Of course, the new wrinkle is that side of my mouth is terrible swollen. Good thing I started the antibiotics, right? So I decided to start my new "diet" and will be eating only soft foods this weekend. I hope I make it through to Monday. This has not been any fun.

It's a jungle out there

Mr. Fix-it built a trellis thingie for my Chinese string beans because they had no where to go. So far, no beans which is a disappointment. The cucumbers (which you can see at the front of the planter) that I planted at the same time have been producing for a couple of weeks. I called mom to get an estimate of when the beans should start producing. She said when they're about 3-4 feet tall, which mine obviously are. So I'm not sure what the problem is. She plants them closer together than I do so I don't think my plants are overcrowded. Plus I give them a dose of compost every couple weeks. What more could they want?

I know why people keep having babies

There's something so lovable and sweet about babies. Granted, I've never had to get up to feed or comfort a baby all through the night, so my view is biased. But now that the twins are over a year old, eating and drinking by themselves, and walking around, I have to admit they have lost some of their baby cuteness. I miss cuddling them while feeding them their bottles. I miss their simple onesies. I miss their baby smell.

When I was at my scrap getaway, one of the scrappers was still nursing and one day the dad brought the baby in for a feeding. Ohhhhh, was she sweet! She still had that baby smell and the sweetest baby smile. She reminded me again how much I love babies.

Oh the other hand, when the twins are a little older (and potty trained), I can have them over for sleepovers and shopping trips and other fun stuff. Sooo, growing up is a good thing.

Why I can't get rid of any scrapbook supplies

Here's a layout of my SIL meeting my niece for the first time.
I was trying to be all creative with the quote and miscalculated the spacing. Oh well, being that I don't believe in redoing layouts (and I don't have enough of the large rub-on letters to redo it), it stays as is. I still need to add the names/date, but I don't want to do that until I confirm which twin is in the photo. I'm pretty sure it is E, but I want the parents to confirm before I commit pen to paper.

As I was going through my stash trying to choose papers, I was struck by how much I still like a lot of the "old" stuff. These papers are at least three years old, maybe older. All of the embellishments are at least a year old. Actually, the Heidi Swapp rub-ons might be about 10 months old, but still, they're not new. Sometimes, it is a little difficult when I'm doing Design Team stuff since my stash of oldies is so much larger than my stash of new stuff. I don't want to be promoting stuff people can't get from Linnecards. But that's part of the fun: using up my old stuff to make room for more new stuff from Linnecards.

Happy Birthday America!

Happy July 4th to you and yours!

Scrapbook sale!

Linnecards is having an Independence Day Sale! It's Friday July 4 through Sunday July 6. She already discounts everything 10% off MSRP. You get another 15% off of that. Plus free shipping at $35. And you know how easy it is to spend $35.

I've already got my cart loaded up. All of you on the East Coast and Midwest better not buy up what I want before I'm awake!

I'm back!

Did you miss me? I went to my annual scrapping retreat over the weekend and I'm still recovering, lol. More on the retreat later.

Speaking of back, tastespotting is back online. Somehow, it doesn't have quite the same appeal to me. But I'll continue to check it out.

Technology woes

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, right? After being with the company for longer than I care to admit, they finally gave me a new laptop. I was thrilled, though I knew it meant more work for me. Like today.

My carpooler had to leave early so we got in early and were planning on leaving at 4:30. Which means 4:45 to her, lol. I was been waiting all day for files to review and they were sent to me at 4:35. No problem. I'll just check the files at home. Got home and couldn't connect to my home wireless network. I could last week. But this week, IS gave me wireless access at work (which requires a manager's signature) and that obviously messed things up at home. Now I have to lug the laptop back into the office and find out what's wrong. I hooked up a network cable and finally connected to the office and got my files (plus more e-mails than I expected). Now I'm having trouble sending the files back. Could have something to do with their size. Even so, they (finally) arrived okay. Why can't I send them back? Grrrr, life definitely was easier with hard copy. Then all I'd need is my trusty red pen.

$4.55

And I was happy to pay that price.

Cosmo Cricket fun

Cosmo Cricket is having a design team call. I checked the pub boards on a couple of scrapping sites and checked out a few blogs (blogging is one element of the application). There's lots of competition out there. None the less, if you don't try, you can't get selected so here I am.



Let's review the list:
1. People who design really well. I think I do. My style is simple, but I still manage to get a few embellishments on there. ;)
2. People who love posting (this one was starred), maintain blogs (this one was underlined) and are connected with the online scrapping community. Here's the blog and you can read I said over at Linnecards.com and
Lifetimemoments.com.
3. People who love submitting. Yep, gonna send in some stuff this weekend. :)
4. People who are easy to work with, low maintenance and happy. Me again, and I'm totally deadline driven (it's required in my day job).
5. People who love Cosmo Cricket and know how to show it. Here I am again.
6. People who are available to focus on Cosmo Cricket (I don't think she expects exclusivity, but just so you're not spread too thin).Yep, I can prioritize and multitask with the best of them.

Forever 21

This isn't a post about wishful thinking; it's about the clothing store. One of my coworkers, around my age, is a big fan of this store. I guess it is popular with the high school/college crowd (she's got a high schooler), but there's still some stuff suitable for those of us of a more advanced age.

Yesterday, I finally checked out one and everything she said was true. The clothes are colorful, cheap, and trendy. Unfortunately for me, they were a little too trendy (I can't figure out how you're suppose to wear some of the clothes without exposing everything). And most of the things I liked weren't cheap. And if they were cheap (camisoles for under $4, capris for under $5), they were all out of Ls. Now, I'm not a huge person, but I also don't have the figure of a stick. I didn't even bother to try on the Ms because I didn't think they would stretch enough . Maybe super tight clothes don't bother other people because there were girls and women larger than me with armfuls of clothing. Based on their conversations, they were shopping for themselves. Still, I'll have to check it out again. Hopefully, they'll have some Ls in stock.

Commute costs

I just calculated how much my commute costs me at today's gas prices, just the fuel cost, not the wear and tear on my car. It is about $5.70 if I drive in and about half that if I carpool (I drive to a park and ride and meet my carpooler).

If I took public transportation, it would cost $3.40 each way (less if I bought monthly passes), involve three buses, and take up to two hours. Not really how I want to spend my time or money.

I did have one job where I took the bus. It was convenient, though I did have to make arrangements with my manager to work a half hour more every other day so that I could leave a half hour early every other day to catch the bus. At that time, gas was cheap, but I didn't own a car so I didn't have much choice. I didn't mind taking the bus since the stop was only a couple blocks from my house and it stopped right in front of my workplace. Granted, it took twice as long as driving, but I didn't mind since there were no transfers involved. Like I said, convenient.

Right now, I'm looking into carpooling with more people. My current carpooler's schedule only allows us to carpool one or two days a week. My occassional carpooler just gave notice. With gas prices being what they are (and the whole going green thing), I'd like to be carpooling four or five days a week.

Preparing for a crop

I'm going to a crop this weekend and need to prepare some page kits (you know, so I don't bring my entire stash with me). I started printing out photos last night and spent a few minutes at lunch today figuring out what others I wanted. The problem is, the majority of my photos from the past year are of the kids (my BIL's kids) and of those, 90% are of the twins. Granted, the twins are darling (I can hardly wait until they're old enough to come over for sleepovers), but I'm afraid I'm going to be tired of scrapping toddler pics. There's only so much pink and purple and flowers I can take in one sitting (not that little girl pages have to be in those colors, but those are the colors they're usually wearing).

Yeah, yeah, someday I'll scrap my China pics and all my vacation pics. My problem is, "moments" pages are so much faster and easier than "events" pages. That's something I need to work on. Or maybe I should just take fewer photos.

Credit card fun

Yes, fun is the right word. I went to my cc's website and ordered a card with a new design. Yes, it is a bit frivilous, but I think it will save me some headaches. Mr. Fix-it and I have ccs from the same company, but different accounts. He added me to his, but I still have my separate account that I hardly ever use. I guess the company noticed because when they sent me a new card, they also included a bonus. I will get a dollar credit each time I use the card in the next month up to a certain amount. So guess which card I'm using now? But I need to keep it separate from our joint card, hence the new design. So new design and $$, how can you beat that fun?

Frequent flyer miles

I used to belong to just about every plan available. I had accumulated quite a few miles when I flew to Asia. And when DH and I were dating, we lived in different cities so I was always flying to see him (easier for me since I was a student and he was working). I'd choose whoever was cheapest and most convenient so the miles were spread out. After we got married, I'd fly home to see my parents or I'd fly about once a year for work. But for all that flying (which really wasn't that much), I never got enough points for a free ticket. Then with airlines consolidating, my miles would get lost. Sometimes, I'd get free magazines subscriptions, just to get something for my miles.

I used to have enough miles on one airline for a free ticket, but they upped the requirements and I don't anymore (grrrr). I was about to lose my 40,000 miles and these I care about. I'm sooo close! I went shopping on their site to see what I could buy for cheap, but the only thing that remotely appealed to me was a newspaper subscription. But wait! I could donate charity miles. That's a win win. I scrolled through the list of recipients and at first I choose the Red Cross. But then I saw the Shriners Hospital. I know Uncle T donated lots of time and money there and they provide their services for free. While there was no way to formally donate in his honor, I know in my heart I did.

One of my favorite websites is gone

Good-bye Tastespotting.com. You were my favorite food website, my favorite place to check out what other foodies were interested in. Unfortunately, I thought you'd always be around so I didn't save a lot of links from your site. I'll miss you.

(Tastespotting had food porn photos with links to (mostly) food blogs. It was a great resource for recipes. Check out notcot.com, their parent site.)

Miscalcuation on vacation hours

Grrrrr, I received my Earnings Statement aka pay stub and I miscalculated my vacation hours. Remember I took a vacation day earlier this week? I should have taken it last week. I ended up losing around 4 hours. That's half a day I could have used to play. I've redone my spread sheet so hopefully this won't happen again.

How much laundry?

I recently went three weeks without doing any laundry. I'm not sure what is more embarrassing: not doing laundry for so long or that I have enough clothes to last that long. Granted, there wasn't much to choose from towards the end, but it wasn't like I was wearing rags to work. So is it a good or bad thing that I'm trying to thin out my closet? Do I want to be doing laundry more often?

Ahhh, technology

I'm writing this from Mr. Fix-it's laptop while lounging in bed. Ahhhh, bliss! He's in the family room watching a movie and that's where the desktop computer is. But I wasn't interested in the movie so here I am. I figured I deserved a break. I cleaned up the kitchen, did laundry, put away some SB supplies, and now I need some me (and you, lol) time. Off to do some surfing.

Father's Day card

Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Or maybe I'm in denial that Uncle T is gone. I'm used to making him a Father's Day card too. Or maybe I'm feeling guilty that I'm not going home for Father's Day (not that I usually do) so I didn't want to think about when it is.

Hope Dad likes the card. I used Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo. I wanted to use one of their robot die cuts, but they were too large for the card. But I did use one of their journaling cards on the inside. It said, "You are out of this world." I thought Dad might appreciate that.

$4.37

It's getting more painful. But less painful than the station across the street from where I filled it. That station was a dime more a gallon.

The best laid plans (or no more cooking for me)

I had all kinds of plans for today. I took the day off; it's a "forced" vacation day because if I don't take a vacation day, I'll stop accruing and we wouldn't want that to happen. I was going to start with yoga, then cook, then scrap, and in between, do a bit of laundry and cleaning. The latter isn't too exciting, but what the heck, I've got the time.

Well, I slept in late, but still managed to get to yoga. It always worries me a bit when I overslept for no discernible reason. It was a good session; maybe the extra sleep gave me more energy for class.

Got home and started some laundry, ate breakfast, then started on the Pioneer Woman's lasagna. I was going to divide the recipe into four small lasagnas, one to eat, one to freeze, and two to give away (aren't I nice?). I was just about ready to start the assembly, when I realized I need to shred or slice the mozzarella. But instead of slicing the mozarella, I sliced my finger. Now it hurts like heck and won't stop bleeding. I sure hope Mr. Fix-it gets home soon because I'm staying out of the kitchen. And no scrapping today either. I'm staying away from all sharp objects.

My face hurts

Yep, I must have bruised my face when I did the face plant, but thank goodness you can't really see the bruise or swelling. Plus my sinuses are hurting; must have something to do with working out in the garden this morning. I think I need a nap, but then I won't be able to sleep tonight.

He doesn't beat me

Since I bumped my leg on the coffee table last night and I took a face plant with the vacuum cleaner this morning, I'm a colorful sight this morning. I'm hoping my face doesn't swell up or bruise too much. I see a bit of redness and some swelling on my face, but I hope the ice pack did its work and I don't have too much visable damage.

My fashion advice of the day

Black thongs with white/light-colored pants is not acceptable business attire.

If you insist on wearing the above, make sure the pants fabric is heavy enough that your thong won't show through.

If you insist on doing both of the above, don't lean over in public.

If you insist on doing all of the above, tuck in your shirt (but don't tuck it into your thong).

You're welcome.

$4.29

I'm not looking forward to filling up later this week.

Overdoing it

I guess working out in the garden for an hour before yoga was too much because I could hardly get through today's session. I think part of the problem was I was dehydrated, even though I make sure I drank several extra glasses of water before I went outside. I finished all the water I brought to class (which usually doesn't happen) and drank two more glasses as soon as I got home. Or maybe turning 40 gallons of compost was more work than I thought.

Contests

If there's one thing I like, it's winning. I think it is genetic since everyone in my family is always entering contests. To help you out, here's a few contests you might like:

The Pioneer Woman is giving away a Lucky clothes GC. I'm not sure I'm fashionable enough for Lucky clothes, but what the heck. Better hurry though because it ends soon!

If you're a scrapbooker, Luxe Designs is giving away several packages.

Good luck!

Mystery box

Guess! Come on, guess! I picked this up at a seminar last week and put it to use immediately. When I saw the flyer for the seminar, I was thrilled. I signed up immediately, but I couldn't convince Mr. Fix-it to attend. Too bad because I went to the wrong place and had to call him to figure out where I was supposed to go. I felt bad for walking in late, but they hadn't started yet and besides, there were other people that came in later than me (not that that excuses me). I actually learned a little at the seminar, but not as much as I had hoped. I thought it was going to be three hours, but it was less than an hour and then about 45 minutes of Q&A. Not quite what was advertised. But the best was yet to come (the box shown above). Some hints? you want some hints? The contents weigh about a pound, it's moist (you might be able to tell from the photo), ummm, it's very useful, I have some already...enough hints?


Have I kept you in suspense long enough? Did you guess? Okay, here it is:

It's the worms for my new vermicomposting system. I was told it would take 30 to 45 days for the worms to digest the first layer of food. That will be just in time to add a boost to all the veggies in the garden. I've very excited about this, can you tell?

$4.17

This is getting ridiculous, a six cent increase overnight!

$4.11

That's today's gas price. Good thing I filled up over the weekend at $4.03. Anyone want to take any guesses as to when we'll hit $4.50? (I just can't bear to think about $5.)

Garden update

Look! This might not be exciting to you, but it is to me. It is a Chinese long bean seedling. Remember, I got the seeds from my mom and she got the original seeds from my grandmother. I'm soooo excited mine sprouted!

One of my eggplants bit the dust, or more accurately, the snails got to it so I replaced it with a bell pepper. I also planted some more Swiss chard (why do I think I'm going to be tired of it soon?). I posted a recipe for Swiss chard on my other blog, if you're interested. I also planted a six pack of Japanese cucumber (I never found any English cucumber seeds or seedlings). Why did I plant them all? After losing one eggplant and having another not doing so well, I decided to plant all the cucumber seedings instead of sharing them with my neighbor. If you're in the area a couple months from now, feel free to help yourself. I'm sure I'll have enough to share.

More cooking

In keeping with my quest to become a SAHW, I cooked dinner on Sunday and Monday. I can't remember the last time I cooked three days in a row, really cooking, not like pasta with jarred sauce or quesadillas (two of our go-to meals). Sunday, I made Singapore noodles, which are curried rice noodles. I didn't add enough veggies, other than that, it was tasty. It would have been good with some red bell pepper, but I was too cheap to spend $3.99 for one.

Monday, I made Japanese Mum's Chicken, really, that's what it is called. The original plan was to make a couple batches of cashew chicken, one to cook and one to freeze, but I got tired of boning and dicing the chicken thighs (next time I'm going to buy boneless, skinless thighs) and just made one batch to freeze. I used the rest of make Japanese Mum's chicken. This was also inspired by the fact that the previous day, I soaked rice threads instead of bean threads. How embarrassing! After cooking the chicken, I added the bean threads to the sauce and voila! instant side dish. Mr. Fix-it was pretty pleased with my efforts. We'll have the leftover chicken tomorrow, then we're out of leftovers and I'll have to think about cooking again.

Scrapbook sale

If you need anything (or even if you don't), there's a Memorial Day sale at Linnecards.com. 15% off of almost everything in the store. And that's off of the already discounted price. Happy shopping!

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Today I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner...I think this is the first time I cooked three meals in one day. I never make breakfast (that's Mr. Fix-it's job), and often lunch or dinner is leftovers.

Breakfast was French toast and sausages, lunch was soup, and dinner was Mexican casserole and stir-fried spinach. I just realized it was an international meal day, lol.

This was brought on by my wanting to use up what we had in the fridge, you know, that using what you have and saving money and all that. We had some French bread that was a few days old and over a dozen eggs in the fridge. So that's what made up the French toast for breakfast. Last week, Mr. Fix-it made a roast so I chopped up the leftovers, added a can of chopped tomatoes, some beef broth that I had previously frozen, and Swiss chard from the garden and ended up with a yummy soup. We had an excess of tortillas and sour cream so I made a "Mexican" casserole, layering tortillas, enchilada sauce, refried beans, and sour cream. It came out a little too moist, but still tasty. We'll be eating that for a few days since we only ate 1/4 of the casserole.

Speaking of saving money in the kitchen, always use what you have. For today's meals, I didn't have to buy a thing. Normally, I wouldn't think of eating spinach with Mexican food, but since we needed to use it up, that's what we had and it was a tasty addition to dinner. One kitchen tip is to always have tortillas on hand. Now that I think about it, we could have had burritos with the leftover beef instead. Anyway, I hope I gave you some ideas about inexpensive cooking.

It's raining, it's pouring

Boy, is it pouring. I definitely won't need to water the garden this week. I was getting ready to put away some of my winter clothes (which just means moving them to another part of the clost) and now I'm glad I didn't.

Ouch

I just broke a tooth. Eating a piece of chicken. Not like I eating anything too tough or chewy. I hope my dentist has an opening tomorrow (I'm not in pain, that's why I'm not calling tonight). I'm not looking forward to the bill either. I'm sure that will be painful.

E-mails

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to leave work a bit early (4:45 pm) on Friday in order to pick-up Mr. Fix-it and get to our babysitting duties on time. From then until I walked in this morning, I received 49 e-mails, plus a project schedule changed last minute, plus the people to finish this project are coming in late today, plus I won't know the status of this project until these people come in. No wonder I soooo look forward to my weekends!

Babysitting adventures

Last night, we babysat the twins while my BIL/SIL went to see my nephew's school performance. He's in preschool so they sure start young! It was a bit of a rush to get over there. Mr. Fix-it agreed to help babysit, so I had to leave work early to drive home, then drive over there. Thank goodness for the carpool lane.
My SIL seemed reluctant to have me (us) babysit so to encourage her, I gave them this for their anniversary. It is stack of 1 and 2 hour gift certificates for babysitting. The gift was really fun to make. I used a leftover Prima container (finally, I'm getting some use out of their excessive packaging) and backed the gift certificates with Bazzill Bling to give them a little extra oomph. Most of the ribbon came from my giveaway pile, so it felt good to use that up.

The girls kind of ignored me unless they wanted to be picked up; they were really interested in Mr. Fix-it. Maybe because they see him more often? Of course, he was responsible for playing with them and I was responsible for diaper changes. Little Miss C was an unhappy camper. Her mom said to let them cry it out when I put them down, but after 20 minutes of wailing, I figured something was wrong. (I can't believe her sister slept through that.) Turns out, she had a messy, very messy diaper. After a change and a bit more wailing, she went right to sleep, thank goodness.

After the musical, the family went out for ice cream. My BIL said my nephew really enjoyed his "alone" time with Mom and Dad. Poor little guy hasn't been getting as much attention since his sisters were born. I'm glad we were able to help.

Congratulations to me!

Since it was announced on her website, I can now proudly announce that I have been selected for the design team at Linnecards. I'm very excited to become more involved in the scrapping world. If you need any scrapping supplies, check out the shop. Everything is discounted and free shipping has a low minimum.

Teaser

Got some exciting news this morning. But can't spill the beans until there is an official announcement.

Communication

It is so interesting how communication has changed over the years. I remember when we would make a long-distance phone calls and time them because we didn't want to spend too much money. I remember comparing long-distance phone plans to get the best deal. Now, with free long distance on my cell phone, I don't worry about long-distance calls anymore. And when Mom calls me, I ask her to hang up and let me call her back so she doesn't have to spend any money on the call.

I communicate with some people by e-mail, others by snail mail, some by phone, some by IM or PM, but none by texting. Don't know how to, don't care about it either. Mr. Fix-it isn't interested in texting either so we don't have it on our phone plan. One problem with all these communication methods is everyone has their favorite and if you don't use that method, you might not hear back from them. And I think that's rude.

Entering the modern age

It looks like 2008 will be the year we enter the modern age of technology. I'm writing this from our new notebook, and that means we have a wireless network at home too! Woo hoo! It's about time! It amazing how impatient one can get with technology when you get something new. The computer boots soooo much faster than our desktop.

This is really Mr. Fix-it's computer, but I've been testing it out the last few days. The history and bookmarks are all scrapbook and cooking pages. I think he'll be surprised the next time he logs on, lol.

I tried to set up our network myself. Really, it should have been very easy. But I couldn't get the router to connect to the internet. The manual was useless. The router forums were almost useless because most of the solutions assumed you knew how to set up a network so the one line answers just lead to more questions. I set the MAC address, blah, blah, blah. But still no go. One of the techies at work offered to check out the router to make sure it wasn't bad so I took him up on his offer. He called me a couple nights later to get some network settings from me and it turns out there were two settings that should have been the same, but were one digit off. He didn't even ask me about those settings because he assumed they would be the same, but I noticed the difference and told him. Guess I am detail-oriented, ha! ha! So he set up my router, brought it back, and Houston, we have a wireless network! The only slightly annoying this is, he brought back my router, told me he set it up, but wouldn't tell me what he did. Guess techies like to always be one up on their colleagues. I can't complain too much since he didn't charge me anything and I trust him more than I trust geeksquad.

We're also planning on upgrading our cell phones since we want Bluetooth. Actually, I don't really care about Bluetooth, but it will make it easier for me to multitask if I don't have to hold my cellphone in my hand. Gosh, think I'll ever get an iPod someday? (I'm coveting an iPod Touch.)

Thank you

Thank yous...they are sort of an inside joke, well, I guess not anymore since I'm telling you all. I'm not supposed to thank anyone because I usually get into trouble when I do. More on that later.

First, thank you to the guy who blew me a kiss. I didn't think that leaving you space to pull out of the parking lot was that big a deal, but hey, I'll take that kiss! And thank you to the lady who let me go ahead of her in line since I only had a few things to buy compared to her basketful. And should I thank my friend for her lovely thank you card? Yeah, I guess a thank you for a thank you could turn into an endless cycle. None the less, I'm thankful to have her as a friend.

As for why I can't thank anyone? Well, maybe just not at work. Many years ago, I thanked someone for helping me with a project (he did an extra good job). But I didn't thank anyone else so they all got bent out of shape, emails flew back and forth, and I was so upset by it all, I swore never to thank anyone again. But, I like to live dangerously and ended up sending a thank you e-mail again. Worded very carefully so as not to offend, to be all inclusive, and be casual, yet professional. Yep, offended someone else. This time, all the recipients and their managers were happy. But others felt I had raised the bar and now thank you notes would be expected by all. So now, no more sincere thank yous. I still thank people at work, but it really isn't very sincere. More like, "Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I have a question about the second bullet point, blah, blah, blah."

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog!

Jury duty

Yep, that's how I spent my day. Right in the midst of our busy season and I have a project due this week. But, when I got the summons, I didn't have this project and we weren't quite as busy. I was a bit frantic last week trying to make sure I got as much done as possible and yesterday I left extensive notes for everyone in case I was selected as a juror.

This time, I had to go to Superior Court rather than the local court I had been to before. In some ways, it was a nicer experience. The juror room was huge with comfy chairs, several tables, and computer corrals. (I hope someone enjoys the current magazines I finished reading and left behind.) The cafeteria was small, but serviceable. There is much more activity, which made the experience more interesting.

I am so proud of my fellow citizens. There wasn't anyone who gave excuses about it being a hardship. No one who brought their children. Not too many complaints about the time. A few times, we had to self select based on the criteria they read off (not that they didn't have our info) and people lined up to go to the various courtrooms without complaint. So while I'm happy I wasn't selected for a jury, I am also happy to have served my civic duty and happy that we have the 6th and 7th Amendments.